Relationship Sours : "Ego"

Before I start today’s blog, let me clear that I am no relationship expert, on the contrary I am a failure in relationship maintenance. However I am experienced..... so as they say.... "mistakes increase your experience and experience decrease your mistakes"

Lets start it like :

To be able to truly love yourself and to truly be able to love someone else, you must drop the ego. This is absolutely essential to finding an amazing relationship, but it’s equally critical to maintaining and continually improving a relationship once you’re already in it.

Nothing will kill a relationship (even the best of relationships) more quickly than ego. Lets sample these : 

1.Resist The Temptation To Defend Yourself: Think about the number of times you’ve fought with a significant other, and whenever things get a little heated you start to defend yourself. All you hear is you being attacked, and you immediately go into “defending yourself” mode. Do you know that when you defend yourself in a fight, what’s really happening is your ego is defending itself.

It also means that you’ve stopped listening to the other person.  If someone tells you that they don’t like the way you’ve been acting lately, why not hear them out instead of defending yourself? It will almost always create a MUCH better outcome. 

2.To Love Yourself And Someone Else Completely You Must Separate The Ego: In order to truly love someone, you must separate your ego from yourself. This is also true if you want to be able to totally love yourself. Now, I know that in a perfect world, we would never be ego-driven. This is not a perfect world of course, so let’s get real. We are all ego-driven to some extent or another, so let’s acknowledge it and embrace that we need to separate the ego to cultivate and maintain a truly amazing relationship with someone.  

3.Your Ego Can Ruin Any Conversation: The truth is that no matter how much you prepare, plan and hope for a good conversation with your significant other, your ego is the one thing that will consistently ruin any conversation you’re about to have if you let it. 

Let’s say your significant other is frustrated with you in one way or another and really needs to express something about that to you. How do you respond? If you let your ego get involved and you defend yourself, it means that you’re not listening to them.

In order to really listen to somebody, it’s uncomfortable.  Sometimes your significant other has things that are really bothering them about which they want to talk to you, but which you would rather not hear. To maintain a great relationship, however, you can’t let your ego keep you from really listening.

This is a topic that we will go much deeper into another day.

So the next time you see your ego getting involved in your relationship, get rid of it! If you find yourself defending yourself or not allowing you to really listen, then you need to take a step back. Listen carefully to what’s really being said, and use it to create the most amazing relationship.

**(Inspired from David Wygant and personal attributes)**

Coming up..... another killer.... Anger in my next blog.... so watch out !!!!

Wings of Creativity

This was narrarated to me by one of my friends. This is a simple incident but quite interesting. I would narrate it exactly my Friend from Chennai had narrated it to me.

A year back....one of the proud school in Chennai where all felt admission is impossible!!!

To get LKG admission for my friend's daughter I ( 'I' here refers to my friend from Chennai) too went there. For that admission my friend had studied a lot than his daughter

The child could not understand why they have brought her there. Principal of the school is like "kadalora kavithai Jenifer" (one of the filmy characters). When I smiled at her, she turned & that moment my friend realized there is no benefit by my presence .

When we all were standing, the school principal started to converse with the child....yes in English only. This is one of the most memorable interview I have ever witnessed in my life..

"What's your name?"

"Sarithra"

"Good. Tell me something you know"

"I know many things. Tell me what you want"

Alas, there is no better point for not getting the admission. .Sarithra's mother was trying to make up the situation but Jenifer stopped..

Turning to child,Jenifer said.. "Tell any rhymes or story which you know"

Again,"Which one you want Rhymes or Story?"

Well done, second wicket too gone. Jenifer was little bit angry about the reply

"Ok. .tell me a story"

"You want to hear what I studied or what I wrote"

Taken to surprise, Jenifer asked "Oh you write stories???"

"Why should I not write?"

Now even I was taken aback and whispered to my friend "our whole generation is not going to get admission in this school."

But Jenefier was impressed with the answer. She & including us, would have not heard such a story in our life.

Ok, tell me story which you have written

Sarithra said "Ravanan kidnapped Sita to Srilanka"

Opening scene failed to impress Jenifer but still she encouraged the child to continue

"Rama asked Hanumanâs help to rescue Sita. Hanuman too agreed to help Rama "

"Then?"

"Now, Hanuman called his friend Spider man." No one expected this twist in the story

"Why?"

"Because there are lot of mountains between India and Srilanka..if we have Spiderman we can go easily with his rope."

"But Hanuman can fly isn't it??"

"Yes. But he is having Sanjeevi Mountain on one hand so he cannot fly very fast. "

(I remember Hanuman's picture in ABT parcel service)

Now Jenifer is quiet, after a while Sarithra asked "Should I continue or not?.".

"Ok ok then."

"Hanuman and Spiderman flew to Srilanka and rescued Sita. Sita said Thanks to both"

"Why"

"When you are helped you should say Thanks"

"Ok Ok then."

"Hanuman now called Hulk."

All were surprised.She realized our curiosity and said " Now Sita is there, so to take her safely back to Rama..he called Hulk"

"What logic???" Jenifer asked.

"Hanuman can carry Sita right?"

"Yes. But he has Sanjeevi Mountain in one hand and has to hold spider man on the other"

Jenifier could not control her smiles. " So when they all started to India they met my friend Akshay"

"How come Akshay there now?"

"Because its my story and I can bring any one there"

Now Jenifer didn't get angry but waited for the next twist

Then all started to India and landed at Chennai Velechery bus stop

Now I asked,"Why they have landed In Velechery bus stop? "

"Because they forgot the way..& Hulk got an idea and called Dora"

I came to know about Dora only there.

"Dora came and she took Sita to Velechery Venus Colony...that's all." Finished the story with a smile

Now Jenifer asked "Why venus Colony?"

"Because sita is there & am Sita!!!"

Jenifer was impressed and embraced the child.
Really, kids can really amaze. Sometimes, we clip their wings by expecting them to do things as we see it right.

Realising the Reality

I visited The Dine-In, a posh restaurant , this weekend.

No, this story  is not a restaurant review about the dry biryani or hot lassi.

It is not about the Rajasthani style painting that adorned the deep dark wooden panels or about the silly waiters dressed like nervous fresh MBA grads from an obscure college, with white shirts and uncomfortable ties.

It is about Shamsuddin.
The little boy who poured water into my glass and cleared out my table.
He walked around nervously with a heavy jug of water, wearing the same black trousers and white shirt, no tie. His eyes darted across the room like a scared rabbit, scanning the place for empty tumblers that needed a refill.  He was hardly four and a half feet tall, not a trace of facial hair. He couldn’t have been a day older than 12. He caught me staring at him and looked back, wondering whether to smile, or look away. And then, with those wide innocent eyes filled with confusion, he gave me a slow, hesitant smile.

Something tugged my heart strings and soon enough the dryness of the biryani or the callousness of the waiter who whisked away my rejected hot lassi was not the problem anymore.

There was this child here pouring water and removing used plates from tables when he should have been kicking around a football on that cold Saturday afternoon. He was trying to satisfy strangers in that dark restaurant when should have been out with his friends, laughing and teasing his school teachers. He was trying to keep that white shirt clean lest the senior waiters scold him when he should have been wondering if his mother would have Surf for his school uniform after a romp in the mud.

Dine-In was not one of those dirty roadside eateries that gave a damn about the laws of the land, it was a reputed chain of quality restaurants. And child labor was a criminal offense.

The dormant social activist in me got all fired up, and I summoned the boy and asked him how old he was. He looked at me, bewildered. “Si..sixteen”, he stammered. I am not very knowledgeable about the child labor laws, but I guess above 14 does not qualify as child labor. Well, OK. Then I asked him how long he was working there. Almost a year, he said. A rehearsed lie? Maybe, but again, legally fine.  But morally? Emotionally? I am torn.

One voice inside my head kept telling me to lodge a complaint with the authorities. Let the officials determine whether he was actually 16 and the restaurant was not breaking any laws. Let them penalize the restaurant if they were breaking the law (which I am certain they were) and give back this child, Shamsuddin, his childhood. Send him back to school.

But the other voice inside me kept telling me to let it go. Maybe this child’s income from clearing out tables is what puts two meals on the table in his own house.

And here, I was torn between a child’s childhood and his livelihood.

With the two voices inside my head still waging a never-ending debate, I left the restaurant, with a heavy heart . All I could do was leave a generous tip, and hope that at least a part would reach the child.

Childhood. It happens just once. I just hope hungry diners like me and greedy restauranteurs do not take it away

Dont Mess With Mommy 😊

This is a killer staff narrated to me by a friend of mine who resides in Bangalore....Real Identities not disclosed for obvious reasons... Lets Call the Guy Ram (a stereotype Indian Name) and the girl Radha (No offense to anyone of the same name)...
Ram's Mom came to visit him for dinner...who lives with a girl roommate Radha... During the course of the meal, his mother couldn't help but notice how pretty Ram's roommate was. She had long been suspicious of a relationship between the two, and this had only made her more curious.

Over the course of the evening, while watching the two interact, she started to wonder if there was more between Ram and his roommate than met the eye.....
Reading his mom' s thoughts, Ram volunteered," I know what you must be thinking, but I assure you, Radha and I are just roommates."

About a week later, Radha came to Ram saying, "Ever since your mother came to dinner, I've been unable to find the silver chutney (Spicy Paste) jar. You don't suppose she took it, do you? "
"Well, I doubt it, but I 'll email her, just to be sure " So he sat down and wrote: Dear Mother, I 'm not saying that you did take the chutney jar from my house, I'm not saying that you did not take the chutney jar. But the fact remains that it has been missing ever since you were here for dinner.
Love, Ram.

Several days later, Ram received an email from his Mother which read: Dear Son, I 'm not saying that you do sleep with Radha, and I'm not saying that you do not sleep with Radha. But the fact remains that if she were sleeping in her OWN bed, she would have found the chutney jar by now.
Love, Mum.

Call Centers...The Story So Far....

I was recently asked by a someone for an upcoming project on contact centres, for the date of the first call centre.
This question stumped me.  I knew of some early ones, but what was the first?  I have done some research and the early results are quite surprising.
The creation myth
Like many revolutionary technologies, the call centre has a creation myth.  This states that call centres as we know them today originate from the Automatic Call Distributor developed in 1973 by US firm Rockwell (the Rockwell Galaxy) to allow Continental Airlines to run a telephone booking system.
As it turns out, this was all good marketing baloney.  Rockwell did indeed develop their ACD in 1973 and it was installed that year.  But it certainly was not the first.
Rockwell’s claim to the first ACD installation may be inaccurate, but they were certainly amongst the first and most successful manufacturers.

Early Automatic Call Distributors (ACD)

But the basic features of the modern call centre can be recognised almost ten years before this, in the mid-1960s. Private Automated Business Exchanges (PABX) began to be used to handle large numbers of customer contacts.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines the term ‘call centre’ as follows:
call centre n. an office staffed and equipped to handle large numbers of telephone calls, using computer technology to assist in the management of calls, supply of information, etc.; esp. such an office providing the centralized customer contact and customer service functions of a large organization.
That computer technology is the Automatic Call Distributor, and its development is closely linked to that of the call centre. ACD systems allow calls to be filtered and assigned to the best possible agents available at the time. An algorithm determines which agent receives which call.
The invention of ACD technology made the concept of a call centre possible. Essentially it replaced the human operator with a far more flexible automated system capable of handling much greater numbers of calls.
The first call centres
The first ACD systems would probably have emerged in the 1950s to handle central operator enquiries at the main telephone companies.  To date we have not been to find any concrete evidence of this so far.

Early adopters

By the early 1970s PABX systems were beginning to include ACD technology, allowing the development of large-scale call centres.
In May 1972, the New Scientist magazine reported that Barclaycard had installed a Plessey PABX at its Northampton processing centre. This included an ACD to allow up to 72 enquiries to be dealt in cyclic order. The agents on this system were able to check the credit card records of Barclaycard’s 1.6 million customers via a microfiche reference system.
At the same time, Barclaycard’s competitors Access installed a computerised system allowing very fast access to customer records. It was an indication of the future direction of contact centres.
In 1972 Gas World reported the installation of an ACD system at British Gas in Wales.  The system had the capacity to handle up to 20,000 calls per week.  This may have been the first multilingual system as it handled both Welsh and English calls.  It was reported that Welsh-speaking customers in Aberystwyth at first found it strange to be telling someone in Wrexham of their problems.
Big names enter the market
Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s technological advances consolidated the importance of call centres to business. Many of today’s big names established themselves in the UK during this period.
Datapoint began working with TSB Phonebank (now Lloyds TSB). [Does anyone know the date when TSB Phonebank started ?]

In 1985, Direct Line was founded by Peter Wood, becoming the first company to sell insurance entirely over the telephone.
Call centre technology allowed these companies to base their entire business model on telephone sales. In the USA, Aspect Telecommunications was founded by Jim Carreker.
Aspect’s systems improved upon the early ACDs. They allowed calls made from touch-tone phones to be routed more efficiently, by distinguishing between types of calls and connecting them to specialised teams of agents. This cut down call waiting times, and allowed call centres to deal with an increase in call volumes brought about by the introduction of toll-free phone numbers.
Aspect’s flagship product was the Aspect CallCenter, somewhat fittingly, as the company went on to become one of the world’s largest manufacturer of dedicated ACDs.
Aspect entered the UK market in 1989, with Microsoft as their first customer. The deregulation of the UK telecoms industry led to a drop in service costs, and as a result the UK contact centre industry became larger than in any other country except the USA.
ACDs systems fuelled innovation, such as the launch of First Direct in 1989. First Direct was the UK’s first direct-banking company, and proclaimed itself ‘the future of banking’ with an unusual television advert made to seem as if it was being broadcast from 2010.
When the term ‘call centre’ was created…
The OED lists the earliest published use of the term ‘call centre’ as being as recent as 1983, in Data Communications, in this sentence:
Each of these ‘*call centers’ is staffed with agents who work with Honeywell intelligent terminals, enabling them to quote rates and compute discounts given to large users.
Dot com mania
In the 1990s the call centre industry continued to grow, spurred on by the rise of the internet. From 1995 onwards internet-based ‘dot com’ companies attracted vast amounts of investment from venture capitalists excited by the potential for rapid growth offered by the online economy.
As websites became the central point of contact and sales for an increasing number of companies, call centres were essential in dealing with customer service and technical support. Unfortunately it didn’t last, and by 2001 the ‘dot com crash’ saw many internet-based companies go bust.

Rise of the offshore call centre
The call centre was still on the rise. By 2003 the industry consisted of 5,320 call centre operations employing 800,000 people in the UK. 500,000 of these people were working in agent positions. The industry had grown by 250% since 1995, and was still growing.
The early 2000s saw a trend for large companies to transfer customer service departments overseas. Cheaper labour costs and in some cases better skills in the workforce made offshore call centres attractive to businesses seeking to cut costs.
Locations in India, the Philippines and South Africa aggressively marketed themselves as offshore call centre destinations. India was particularly popular, as a large number of graduates available for call centre work made for cheaper and technically able agents for technical support phone lines.
Late 2000s: a backlash against offshoring
Offshoring slowed the growth of the industry in the UK. But few companies moved their whole customer service operations overseas, and by midway through the decade a backlash had begun. Customers sometimes had trouble understanding the English spoken by overseas agents. Companies with large offshore call centres attracted negative media coverage for taking jobs away from the UK.
Over the last three years some companies have actively advertised the fact that their call centres are in the UK. NatWest launched an advertising campaign in 2007 based around guaranteeing that customers would speak to agents in the UK rather than overseas. Some companies have also moved customer service operations back to the UK.
The call centre has now been an invaluable business facility for three decades. With the recent rise of social media and technology that may allow call centres to become virtual networks of homeworkers linked by cloud computing, it appears customer service is swiftly evolving.
Call centres are a vitally important source of jobs. As Call Centre Helper reported recently, new figures from ContactBabel show that more than one million people are now employed by contact centres in the UK.

Black Magic : a general information

Black magic is the belief of practices of magic that draws on assumed malevolent powers. This type of magic is invoked when wishing to kill, steal, injure, cause misfortune or destruction, or for personal gain without regard to harmful consequences to others. As a term, "black magic" is normally used by those that do not approve of its uses, commonly in a ritualistic setting; the argument of "magic having no colour, and it is merely the application and use by its user," backs the claim that not everything termed as "black magic" has malevolent intentions behind it, and some would consider it to have beneficial and benevolent uses. These uses could include killing diseases or pests.
Practitioners who use magic in this way argue that the effect itself is malevolent by causing death to insects (as in the above example), but as an indirect consequence of black magic, good can be a result, such as in the form of less pests around. In this school of thought, there is no separation between benevolent and malevolent magic as there is no universal morality against which magic can be measured. A rather different view on Black Magic is used in the system of Chaos Magick. In this branch of occult practice, spells sometimes correspond to colours, depending on the supposed effect (i.e, red-magick, which is magic concerned with combat, such as low-level curses). Black Magic, according to Chaos Magick, corresponds to magic that is performed around the themes of death, separation, severance and entropy. This can refer to powerful curses meant to bring the strongest effect, spells to sever emotional ties to objects or people, and so on.
In fiction, black magic will quite frequently be synonymous with evil, such is the case in Rosemary's Baby, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series (referred to as the dark arts in the novels), and Shakespeare's Macbeth, with many other examples existing. In many popular video games, such as Final Fantasy, white and black magic is simply used to distinguish between healing/defensive spells (such as a "cure") and offensive/elemental spells (such as "fire") respectively, and does not carry an inherent good or evil connotation.
The differences between what is considered black magic and white magic are debatable, though generally can fall within the following broad categories:
• The All as One theory states that all forms of magic are evil, irrespective of colour (white or black). This view is generally associated with Satanism. People that maintain this opinion include those belonging to most branches of Christianity[1]
• The Dark Doctrine theory states that black magic is the powers of darkness, usually seen from a Left-Hand Path point of view. This may or may not contrast with white magic, depending on the user's acceptance of dualism.
• The Formal Differences theory states that the forms and components of black magic are not the same due to the different aims or interests of those casting harmful spells than those of white. Harmful spell-casting tends to include symbolism that seems hazardous or harmful to human beings, such as sharp, pointed, prickly, caustic, and hot element(s) combined with very personal objects from the spell's target (their hair, blood, mementos, etc.). This distinction can primarily be observed in folk magic, but pertains to other types of magic also.
• The No Connection theory states that both black and white magic are completely different from the base up and are accomplished uniquely, even if they achieve similar effects. This stance is often presented in fiction, and as a result, the two classes of magic-users are portrayed as being both ideologically and diametrically opposed. In The Lord of the Rings, the Elves find it strange that Humans and Hobbits can even use a single word, "magic", which refers to both forms, as the Elvish tongues regard them also linguistically as completely separate and unrelated.
• The Separate but Equal theory states that black and white magic are exactly the same thing, differentiated only by their end goals and intent. According to this theory, the same spell could be either white or black (see gray magic); its nature is determined by the end result of the spell. The majority of religions follow this belief, as does the remainder of fiction that does not follow the No Connection theory. By this interpretation, even such spells commonly seen as good can be misused, so healing could be used to regenerate the body to the point of cancer, for instance.
Within common mainstream religion, such as Christianity and modern Paganism to an extent, there are certain taboos surrounding forms of magic. Although culture may place certain forms of magic in one side or another of this spectrum, there are in fact some cultural universals about free will,
• True name spells - the theory that knowing a person's true name allows control over that person, making this wrong for the same reason. This can also be used as a connection to the other person, or to free them from another's compulsion, so it is in the grey area,
• Immortality - from a Taoist perspective, life is finite, and wishing to live beyond one's natural span is not with the flow of nature. Beyond this, there is a major issue with immortality. Because of the need to test the results, the subjects must be killed. Even a spell to extend life may not be entirely good, especially if it draws life energy from another to sustain the spell,
• Necromancy - for purposes of usage, this is defined not as general black magic, but as any magic having to do with death itself, either through divination of entrails, or the act of raising the dead bodily, as opposed to resurrection or CPR,
• Curses/Hexes - a curse can be as simple as wishing something bad would happen to another, to a complex ritual.
Many rituals performed by black magic practitioners mentioned on television are mentioned as having aspects similar to Christianity though in a perverted form, and it appears to be universally based upon a religion, but using perverted rituals to suit the needs of the user.[citation needed] For example, black magic users might invert a pentacle just as Satanists invert a cross. Likewise, corrupted rites or sacrifice may substitute blood or faeces for the water or wine. Seen from this perspective, the distinction between black and white magic would be simple,
• White magic would be the original rituals, which embody the tenets of the religion in question. For Buddhism or Hinduism, this might be long and complex prayer sutras. Taoist and Shinto magic would largely be based upon fertility and nature rituals, and
• Black magic would be a corruption or misuse of such above rituals, using them to self-serving or destructive ends without regard for the cultural morals of the religion. This could be something such as making poppets to cause harm.[2]

'Old' Indians in Australia say youngsters invite attacks

'Old' Indians in Australia say youngsters invite attacks 29 Jun 2009, 1953 hrs IST, Roli Srivastava, TNN Print Email Discuss Share Save Comment Text: MELBOURNE\SYDNEY: Conspicuously missing from the entire issue of Indian students being attacked in Australia is the Indian immigrant community that has distanced itself from the young community of Indians, particularly those who are ``well settled'' and consider the whole brouhaha surrounding the attacks on students as ``unnecessary''.. The immigrant Indian community in this continent country is resenting this attention on them ``for all the wrong reasons''. They say they had lived peacefully in this nation for years together but the sharp rise in the student population followed by the problems of attacks on them has made the community suddenly uncomfortable with its Indian identity. For this reason, the Indian immigrant community here has remained invisible even as students spoke against the government rather vociferously demanding that the government should protect them better. This visible divide between the new and old Indians in Australia is much like a generation gap that cannot be bridged with the younger bunch of students saying that the older Indians here were ``subservient'' to the system but since the new generation grew in a free, democratic India, they do not think twice before challenging the system. The older generation of Indians points out that the student community has first world expectations from this country (referring to their statements on police apathy and government inaction to these attacks) but fail to behave in accordance with how citizens of a first world country live. They find them loud and flashy and thus conspicuous and targets for such attacks. Young students say that the attacks cannot be condoned with such explanations and find it intriguing why their Indian elders here are not finding faults with the assailants but with them. In fact, the few locals here who are sympathetic to the cause point out that even bodies such as United India Association, an umbrella organisation of 24 Indian bodies representing various linguistic and regional identities, failed to react. ``Community leaders did not react. The federal and the state government have moved far more swiftly than the Indian community,'' says Immanuel Selvaraj, a student leader about ten years ago and currently member of the Indian consulate general's committee investigating student concerns in Sydney. Laurie Ferguson, parliamentary secretary for multicultural affairs too observed that the old and new Indian community had no connect. The observations are bang on. Indians settled in Melbourne and Sydney largely scoff at the issue saying that the student community and the media were over reacting. However, in Sydney, one saw some sympathetic voices seeking better protection of students studying here and working late hours. Indians here feel that Indians are victims to street crimes and using the word racism has proved counterproductive. Local Indian community members here rue Amitabh Bachchan declining the honorary doctorate being conferred on him by an Australian university, in reaction to ``racist'' attacks. ``I cannot figure out the difference between a Sri Lankan and a South Indian. How can an assailant figure that out,'' questions Aparna Krishna, who moved to Melbourne three years ago and lives here with her two children. But the resentment for this student agitation is most possibly rooted in the ``embarrassment’’ the old Indians feel on account of the students' behaviour. Rakesh, a local businessman in Sydney scoffed, ``Illiterate Indians,'' while another elderly Indian said, ``The way they behave in trains is deplorable. They listen to loud music and talk loudly on the phone.’’ Some also grudge the easy route to Permanent Residency that these students have discovered. ``When we came here to work, it was after we earned our degrees from premier institutes such as IITs and RECs. We worked as bank managers, professors, doctors, IT professionals. So the Indian community was known for being skilled professionals. Now our children are sweeping floors, cleaning utensils and working at petrol bunks,’’ says a manager with a private firm, ruing that how the whole Indian identity is undergoing a rapid change that the community at large is not comfortable with. A 20-year-old university student who was born to Indian parents in Australia says that she could easily integrate into the society. ``We as Indian Australians have had no problems so far. We have never been looked down upon,’’ she says with a thick Australian accent, something she says she acquired naturally since she has been living in this country all her life. Now, after the reports of attacks on Indian students hit headlines, she says that when she walks on the streets or enters the university, she feels a distinct difference in the way people around her react to her presence. ``The attitude is different now. They stay away from you. They are no longer as welcoming. They are first trying to establish your identity,’’ she says. The attacks have also created a fear psychosis which the Indian community is finding difficult to deal with. They say that the series of attacks and the reporting that followed has after a point become counterproductive with copy-cat crimes surfacing and even minor incidents of brawls being branded as racist attacks. An Indian local who has lived here for 15 years, says, that she felt at ease driving around and doing her work. ``Now when I step out of the car, I first look around. I never felt like that before,’’ she says. Curiously, Indian immigrants here admit being denied promotions or jobs which they believe is due to their Indian identity in the past. But they say they always looked at the bigger picture (of getting a good quality of life) and chose to accept things as they were. ``I can't be the front face of the company with my dark skin and thick Indian accent,'' says an Indian settled here for the last 18 years, and holding the same post for the last seven years. But he says he chooses to ignore these facts. That the young Indian students are wearing their `Indianness' on their sleeves could well be a sore point with many and they espouse the ``When in Rome... '' philosophy. However, interactions with local Australians reveal they still believe ``Indians don’t cause trouble’’. A senior cameraperson with a local television station narrates how he got a call from office when he was covering the protest rally of Indian students when 6000 of them had hit the streets. ``They asked me if I needed security. I said if there were 300 Australian students around me I would have needed securitybut with Indian students around, there was no fear. They cause no trouble,’’ he said.