Monday, August 27, 2007

Window

Ah! Not the Microsoft Windows, the actual window. Since the Microsoft OS, whenever someone utters the word windows the first thing that comes to our mind is the OS. That is the kind of influence of technology. Anyway I mean the real window.

In our office in Bangalore we get a number of opportunities to distract ourselves from the work since the day starts. Breakfast in the morning at 9, Tea/Coffee at 11, Meeting at 12, lunch at 1, Tea/Coffee at 4, Snacks at 6, Telecon at 8, dinner at 9. So I am always all the time with my friends, colleagues, people. In US it is kind of different, people are around but they are busy with themselves. So nature and loneliness have become my new friends and this is really abundant in US. In Bangalore whenever I used to feel bored I used to go and bug someone or the other and take them to terrace and have some coffee, juice or anything. Here at one corner of the office, which is deserted with empty cubicles, there a wide glass wall or say a big window all over. So whenever I am bugged, frustrated, bored, sad or happy I come and stand at this place.

I am looking out at this window since start of the February, the day I have arrived here. Out of this window there is nothing great but it is still great to stand and view from here. As I look down there is one big strip of lawn and pine trees and trees with leaves like in Mohabbatein film, then the private road from the parking lot. At the left and at the right there is this huge parking area. In the middle there is a small pond. Then far end again grass and road for walk and end of our campus. After that there is a huge farm, and lot of forest like trees. I can the see the K-7 highway and the vehicles at distance. Then there seems to be end of the horizon after that greenery and start of the territory of sky. The picture at this side is not exactly how it looks, but I would like to put some picture along with words so that why this is at this side.

The setup is very same all the while. There is no change in the position of anything anywhere. Even people here are so standardized that they park their vehicles at the same place since years. Even though nothing moves from its position, this whole setup never looks the same every time I visit here. In February it was totally covered with snow and no leaves at all. All the trees were bald and beautiful. Then in mid of march snow melted away and dry grass everywhere. In May June everything turned green and looked so fresh. It looks so different when it rains, quite different on a sunny day. A different look in the morning and totally different in the evening. The same place looks different in so many ways and what is the reason for this. Well! the same place is influenced by a lot of other factors like sunlight, clouds, wind, weather condition, and time.

Now something flashed in my mind. This is very much analogous to us. I as a person am very much the same, I have the same face, same brain, same heart, same body, since years. Of course there would be mostly some improvement I suppose, in terms of our personality and behaviour and some depreciation in terms of age. But still we don't remain the same person w.r.t something or someone else. We are all the time influenced by so many other factors and these parameters makes us behave differently in varied situations and circumstances. The place where we stay, the friends we have, the atmosphere around us, the people around us, the culture, the time period, and so many other things even the non-living things very much make us in many ways. This is so much hidden that we will ourselves will not be knowing what are we now and what we were like before and what we will be further.

With all this still everyone has an identity and are unique. Everyone have a specific place on this earth. It is like my above analogy, the static ground with a floating sky. So is a personality....

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Toothpaste in US


"Toothpaste in US", yeh kya topic hai... Yo! I have some stuff to tell about this...

Everyday everyone when they get up the first thing they do is brush their teeth. This is the integral part of activities in a day.

On Monday I went to Walmart to buy a toothpaste and a toothbrush (very important items, especially whenever you are going outstation this is the first item to forget). So then in this huge Walmart the first thing is to find at which corner such commodities are available. After walking half a mile I found this big huge rack where these enormous set of toothpastes were placed.
I was dumbstruck and my eyes were circling round and round(Well this is not the first time I am looking at the toothpaste, but..).

Man! There are so many brands of toothpastes. Colgate, Pepsodent, Crest, Aim, Aquafresh, Close-up, Complete, Gleem, Oral-B, Signal, Sensodyne, Mentadent, Fluoride, Euthymol etc. Kya Fluoride, Euthymol direct chemical names derived from periodic table or what, how do they advertise these. The complexity doesn't just stop at the brands. Now each of these brands have so many sub brands or versions that you will literally go mad. For example Just in Colgate there are these versions: Colgate Total, Colgate MaxFresh, Colgate Whitening, Colgate Advanced Fresh, Colgate Advanced Clean, Colgate Lumimous, Colgate Simply White, Colgate 2in1, Colgate Sensitive, Colgate Fresh Confidence, Colgate Sparkling White, Colgate Oxygen Bubbles, Colgate Tartar Control(don't know what hell this means), Colgate Cavity Protection, Colgate Children Toothpaste ... ah ah hmmm What the heck which one to choose. Like this, other brands also have versions Crest, Aquafresh in jazzy glazy covers. You will go mad looking at all this.

Now it does even stop here. There are different flavors in toothpastes. Regular mint, spearmint, peppermint, then anise, apricot, bubblegum (looks like for children), also cinnamon, fennel, neem, ginger, vanilla, lemon, orange, pine. Yeh kya khane ka cheez hai. There are varieties in the form of gel and in the form of paste. So I stood there whether to sort it by brands, or sort it by flavors or sort it by price. One more option simply close your eyes whichever your hand touches take it. Options, options options..... Why do you want to make life complex man! See in India I would simply choose Pepsodent regular. This is not the first time I am buying in toothpaste in Walmart. Actually my previous experiments till now have been sad. In the first month I chose Aquafresh some flavor it was ok types. After looking at an Ad in TV I chose Crest Pro-health. This was costly and worst. The slushy, glutinous like a tar of road and never could stand on the brush. Now I have taken some Colgate Total clean mint. I am not happy with this also. It doesn't give out any foam at all when you brush, well! I am not expecting foam like a shaving cream but something at least. I don't know there are so many brands more when will I get the one with which I can be comfortable with.

There are these thing again. FDA approved toothpaste. American Dental Associated recommended toothpaste. Dentist recommended toothpaste. I wonder how would dentist really maintain these 32 teeth. Will they never have any tooth problem. Do they have more wisdom teeth. Still after using all these dentist recommended products people don't stop showing to them.


Now toothbrush also share the same story. I stood at one place there were so many toothbrush of just electrically operated. Kitna automation hai baap US mein. Brush bhi koyi manual nahi karta. Looking at that I thinking; manual normal brush nahi hai kya. Oh! at the other rack. There are brushes with soft, mild, hard bristles. Now after making a big decision of a selecting a brand of toothpaste, I didn't had any patience left to analyse which brush. Picked up something and came out. At the billing counter realized damn! that simple brush costs $4.5 which will last for 2 months in my hand. Every morning my this ceremony of brushing teeth lasts for 10-15 mins till all my teeth start crying and shouting Bas kar baba bas kar clean hogaya mein. My Mom also tells me "Kya daath saaf kar raha hai, ya bartan dho raha hai".

Finally the conclusion is my search for the right kind of toothpaste hasn't ended yet...