Infertility treatment - new incentive by software companies

This morning, when I got into my cube, I saw a paper listing the employee benefits being offered by my company. The list contained the usual ones - ESOPs / ESPPs / RSUs, Doctor on call, in house gym, stress management, medical insurance of 7L.

The thing that caught my eye was 'Additional 1L for infertility treatment'. Now this is something new and definitely worth debating. Lunch and post-lunch sessions were spent in debating 'why infertility treatment'.

There could be multiple reasons why this figures in the list -

• The occurrence of stress induced infertility is on the rise among software professionals, so this can be categorized as an occupational hazard.
• Husband and wife are not co-located because of on-site opportunities.
• People do not have enough time - that means - no action and no reaction :-).
• Last but not the least, it might just be a one off thing and the number of people willing to come forward for this might be very few; so the actual payout from the company might be very very less.

It might be worth asking the HR their reasons for including 'infertility treatment' in the list of employee benefits.

Book Review: Men Who Killed Gandhi

Just finished reading "Men Who Killed Gandhi". What I like about the book is that it is pretty neutral in its tone - something very difficult to do on such a sensitive topic. The author, Manohar Malgonkar, has done a good job in describing the circumstances, the plot, the thinking of the "men" behind the plot, and the lacunae in the ensuing investigation.

What I didn't like about the book was the convoluted construction of sentences. At times, the punctuation marks were either missing or wrongly placed, and certain typos such as "gut" instead of "put". In short, lackadaisical editing.

If one reads this book with an open mind, it is definitely an interesting one.

Book Review: In the Line of Fire

Just finished reading "In the Line of Fire". I read it just to see his side of the story. I am not an expert on any of the topics that he has written on, so I will not comment on the specifics mentioned in the book.

One thing that I find strange is that he has ways and means to justify all of his decisions and actions. He only agrees to a few juvenile mistakes, but nothing else. There are interesting insights on social reforms and national reconstruction.

On the whole, I think one should read the book to see his side of the story, but take things with more than a pinch of salt.

Water on Moon

For the last few days, TV channels have been carrying this piece throughout the day. Two things which I find quite ridiculous are -

• It was India's first moon mission and we were able to find water, whereas Americans went there so many times and were not able to find it.
• In future, we will be able to use the water on Moon for drinking, making rocket fuel, making oxygen etc.
• Till few days back, Chandyaan-1 was declared a disaster, and suddenly it has become a huge success.

To the news channels: please put the discovery in some perspective.

There was enough data available to suggest that there is water on Moon. However, the latest findings have given the scientific community conclusive evidence. In a nutshell, this has been an ongoing process and not a Eureka. Secondly, the amount of surface water on Moon is less that what is found on the hottest deserts on Earth. There are no lakes or ponds or glaciers there, not even a puddle. Nothing is known about the quantity of water buried deep inside the Moon, and whether there is any at all. That's what was crystal clear in the NASA press conference last night.

To all the scientists and governments: please manage the water on earth well. Otherwise we will have to really depend on the thin film of water that is present on the Moon.

Beauty of test cricket

Yesterday, I was watching the final test between England and Australia. The uncertainty - whether England will be able to bowl Australia out on day 4 or whether Australia will fight it out - was quite gripping. In the end, England did manage to win but Australia did fight it out, but it was quite gripping.

Hussey played really well, so did Katich & Haddin, but they made one mistake and that was the end of their innings. This is the beauty of test cricket - you make 1 mistake and you are out. As a bowler, you really have to bowl well (unless its your lucky day) otherwise you will get smacked all around the park.

I still remember in 2004, Rahul Dravid smashed a boundary of the bowling of Stuart McGill to win the Adelaide test match. How can we forget that? and India winning the Perth test after losing the Sydney test due to the most horrible umpiring in modern day cricket. How can we forget that? I belong to the school that believes in "test cricket is the real cricket"...

These days, T20 has resulted in an overdose of cricket, to the extent of causing indigestion. Test cricket has a soothing influence. 50-50 is the unfortunate victim of T20 overdose :-)

Finished reading "The Da Vinci Code"

For quite some time, I wanted to read this book. When I saw the movie, I could not understand one bit. I seemed more like a hollywood suspense thriller rather than anything else. Finally, I could lay my hands on it, and amidst a busy schedule, I managed to finish it over a period of 2 weeks. Quite interesting.

Next one will be "India After Gandhi - by Ramchandra Guha". The Jaswant Singh - Jinnah controversy has revived my dormant interest in history.

DDCA Vs Sehwag Saga

Last night, the news channels continued with their coverage of DDCA Vs Sehwag et all controversy. That is when I came across one of the DDCA selectors. The news channel was ranting about how the son of an influential office bearer of DDCA is being selected despite his poor performance and at the cost of other more talented players. Then they showed a piece of a TV interview with one of the selectors on why that particular player was being favored.

(A piece of unsolicited advise to news channels: This is not news, this is common knowledge.)

As far as I am concerned, this selector seemed very sensible. His argument was that the player in question is in the team of 15, but has never been given the opportunity to be in the playing 11. Since he has never played in the 11, how can we gauge his performance?

In pure hindi - "abhi tak to woh player paani pila raha tha. to jab woh bahar hi hai, to use aur bahar kaise kar sakte hain?".

Makes sense :-). Dude ! You have got to be a national selector. I am positive Salil Ankola (a competent bowler in my humble opinion, who very seldom got to play cricket) must be cursing his playing days when selectors did not have the common sense that you have shown.