Some ppl are just......

The question is how do you know when people are trying to take advantage of you. Let us create a scenario. Assume thanksgiving and you and your buddies are planning to go to some nearby store to check out the gadgets. All of a sudden a bunch of girls call you and say lets walk to some mall. They convince you its better there coz there are gadget stores there and clothing stores too. The argument is made. More stores more things to look at and since you and most of your buddies in the group are straight and single, the argument looks 200% convincing. Walk with a bunch of girls and shop with them. Who knows who may end up lucky huh?

Now for the twist in the story. The girls call some other friend of theirs and get a drop to the mall and you and your buddies are stranded. You still make it to the mall because you and your buddies wanna show to the world and yourselves that, you guys would have been there anyways. Its for the double advantage not the girls....blah blah blah.

Another story, you are stuck in an economic recession. So, you had to take up this internship with a company for lower pay. You and your boss are out for lunch one day. He discusses animatedly about his previous company and about how some of the employees would not work hard enough and suddenly lets it slip that now thanks to the recession he can ask people to come and work for less. You realize that he's taking advantage of you.

My question is how does one avoid these circumstances?

We cannot become cynics to avoid these situations. Otherwise, we would never reap the benefits of the situation. In the first story, the guys did end up buying some cheap and cool stuff and in the second case, the person(read me) did end up with a full time position finally. So, I think the best way to go about these situations is just to have an open and alert mind and when something's fishy get out of it with best thing you can grab onto.

The Rat

Once upon a time there lived a rat in a jungle. It got chased by a wild cat and it prayed to God and asked Him to make it a cat to escape the chase. God appeared and poof the rat turned into a cat. Then the cat was chased by the lion and the poor thing prayed to become a lion and God granted its wish again. Few days later the lion got caught in a net and now it was left wishing it was just a rat, so that it could have bitten the net and escaped it.

Nice story huh? Well, after the story I was just left with the idea that we are what we are. There is no denial of the fact. A foreign degree, 3 years in a foreign land and a job in a 20 mile stretch where there is no one from anywhere close to where I live does not change who I am. I still think I am very much Indian and I am so happy to talk in Tamil to a friend over the phone or see some crazy ass Tamil movies.

I think the story also explains why some of the older folks in India do not approve of love marriages. Think of their time. Just as much as talking in Tamil and Tamil movies are important to me, customs and religious practices were important to them. They think that ultimately their kids will also love to have the same stuff around them and so do not approve of love marriages between families from different parts of India or in some crazy cases between Iyers and Iyengars.

But, what parents fail to see is that they have this glass on their eyes through which they see the world and this glass is made out of their experience. I believe they should acknowledge this and try to respect their kid's decision too because they are wearing a glass made out of their experience where religion, customs and practices are no longer so important.

However, there is another point to the rat story. Listen to it my American room mates and my American boss. I am who I am. I dont think I can be the American boyyy anytime. This is exactly why I don't wanna date some random American chic. I am tired of smiling all day at ur silly jokes. So quit teasing me and get back to your work.

Finally.....

I am back people. That is if there is anyone left that's waiting to read my blog. I know I should have come here more and posted more. But, I had my reasons. The biggest one being that this past year was a period of huge emotional stress. Its over now and instead of going over the details of the last year in full, I am just going to let the beans spill as and when required. However, to start with I will give you a brief highlight of where I am now.

I graduated in the spring of 2009 from the University of Florida with a master's degree and a thesis. I then worked as an unpaid intern for blue sparq inc and was able to secure a full time there as a embedded software engineer. I got my first paycheck on August 25th. So Yay!