The Drunk Guy

A few weeks back I was in San Francisco with my friends. They took me to a club called Vertigo there. We had to wait half an hour to get in and within 20 minutes of entering in I got bored. Unfortunately i dont enjoy places where the music is too loud. I just wanted to enter club once to experience it and i must say everyone must once go to a club in their lifetime just to understand why people go to clubs. The idea to go there can simply be to understand other people's perspective as to why they go to clubs. Anyways since i was feeling hungry i came out and went to a Subway nearby to grab a sub.

I ordered a sub and since it was pretty late only a part of Subway was open for people to sit. A guy walks in who at first sight seemed Indian to me but then again i thought he could be an American born Indian. I was sitting and having my dinner when he asks me if he can sit at the other end of the table. I said yes and once he sat down we started chit-chatting. We didnt really exchange names. He asked me where i lived. And then he mentioned why he was living in san francisco as it was tough for him to commute to sf just to party here. Topics of our conversation ranged from is education really beneficial to about education loans to cars and what not.

I would only like to mention the interesting tidbits of the conversation. He mentioned that he did his undergraduation from Harvard and he was working in sf in the field of private equity. He told me he was making around 2 million a year. And he asked me whether i liked my job. And even before i could answer the question he said do i like to wake up every morning to go to office. And i said no sometimes i hate the fact that every morning i have to wake up and go to office. He said then i dont like my job. He asked me whether i would like to work for him and i said no since i am really not interested in the area he works in. He asked me how much i make in a year. I politely said that i wouldnt like to answer that. He said that he usually pays around 150 grand to 180 grand annually to the people who work under him. He said that he is not happy with the money he is making and he wants more.

He mentioned that if i make more money than i too can get an expensive car and have a happy life. I asked him why is he not happy since he is making lot of money. He said he wants more money so that even if he has an accident while driving a Maserati he can walk from it right away without giving a damn about the condition of the car and just buy a new one. He asked me which car did i wanted to buy and i mentioned a few brands to which he said bro those cars really wont help you with the girls. He asked me what would i like to spend my money on, something which i enjoy. So i said i am a foodie. I like to try different cuisines thus i do tend to spend extra money on food just to try different delicacies.

He told me that he took his girlfriend to some restaurant(in the bay area) because his girlfriend was nagging about that place for dinner. And just for the two of them they ended up spending around 7000$. He said the food was pretty ordinary. So he asked me if my girlfriend asked me to take her to that place would i take her? I said i would try to reason with her and tell her that i cant afford that place. He said then i will have a pissed off girlfriend. I said if she cant understand this fact that i cant afford to take her to a particular restaurant then i do not see any point of continuing my relationship with her. For him it was difficult to digest the concept that i would not take my girl friend to that restaurant and why i would let her get pissed off. He concluded by saying that i was a hypocrite and he was trying to provide a non-indian perspective to life and he hoped that i did not take any of this discussion personally. We both then left amicably.

During our conversation following song was playing in my mind:Society by Eddie Vedder. I was just reminded of my greed and how there was no end to what i wanted. The other point which i learnt was that earning more money will not make you happy beyond a certain point. I hope someday i am able to overcome my greed and hypocrisy.

Elite Education

Hey Blog how you doing? My post has been long overdue so here i am writing the post.

After receiving my Masters degree i must admit that i do feel happy and in some sense proud that i have a graduate degree. So now i belong to the small section of population of the world who possess a graduate degree. One way of looking at this could be that now i am smarter, sharper and wiser etc. Other way of looking at this might be that now i should consider this as a gift and should share it by maybe adopting the motto "Each one Teach one".

I am more concerned about the first point. I do admit that I am very happy with my masters experience at USC. As i ended up studying under world renowned professors. I studied with some of the brightest students. And last but not the least i made some friends which i hope will last for a long time to come. But inspite of all the big promises which are made by lot of graduate schools as to how this or that degree will open a doors to new and better opportunities they fail to mention that it also closes down doors to certain other opportunities. I cant really say that the opportunities you will end up losing are better than the ones currently open to you but they are still opportunities. For example after spending a lot of money on your graduation you might not be interested in less lucrative options like becoming a teacher etc etc

Secondly you tend to lose touch with common people. I mean that i might not have very much common to talk with the handy man, or the guy working at the grocery store etc. The point which i am trying to make here is that studying in a diverse environment might give you the ability to initiate a conversation with people who are from different countries but you might not be able to do small talk lets say with your barber. The problem i feel is that the higher education boasts of how it will set you on a path for success by ensuring you stay in group of people who are elite but it ends up taking you away from the common man or the average person whom you have to interact with or for whom you make products for so as to make his life easier.

Well there is a lot i have been thinking about this issue and till date i havent come up with conclusive proofs as to how it has affected me or as to how this will affect me. But i feel it is always better to be aware of such scenarios even if you dont experience them. I will keep updating this if i get a better understanding about the downside of an elite education.

The Loser

As usual, hey blog how are you? I am really sorry for not being posting regularly but i guess its time to accept the fact that i will never be regular blogger :-|

I am sure we tend to hear the word "loser" on a daily basis in some form of conversation or other. I am sure some of you will be like there is no loser in life as you lose some battles in life but there is always a war to be won. While some may say loser is the one who loses a battle or who quits. I am sure everyone have their own interpretations of the word "loser". And i am not here to debate over which is a better definition. The reason why i am writing this post is to give you an idea what this so called "loser" has to offer.

I am sure almost all of us take advice or read about people whom we consider "successful". We don't like to take advice or read about people whom we consider losers. But i have a different take on this have you ever for a moment considered the so called loser too might have some advice which can be worthwhile your time. So for example lets says you are an athlete who is going to take part in Olympics where you will run a 100m. I feel, most of us will like to take advice from the person who won the gold medal in 100m last Olympics. I am sure the guy who came first will definitely offer some invaluable advice but what about the guy who came in fourth. Have you ever considered what he might have to offer?

The guy who came in fourth will tell you what all you should NOT do if you want to win. Don't you think this also worthy of being called good advice? Sometimes i feel we don't give enough credit to people who fight till the end but still don't end up on the winning side. Even if they don't end up winning i feel their advice doesn't become any less credible. At the end of the day its all about not giving up. Some of the times these losers, they learn from their mistakes and become winners. Till the time they make the transition do give them a bit more attention and do hear what they have to say who knows what you will learn from their pearls of wisdom.

PS: This post is from a so called "loser" according to some people or from a "nobody" according to some people to a "somebody" according to some people but what is constant is the fact that it is from someone who believes in Thomas Edison's saying "I have not failed. I have just found 10000 ways which won't work".