Welcome 2009

Well, I haven’t yet forgotten about having created this page last year, and yes, I know its kind of late to welcome an year at the end of its second quarter, but you see I’ve got many reasons....and then as the saying goes….Better late than never!

So, here are the top ten reasons why I did not blog for the past 5 months.

10. Economy. With the entire world tumbling down around you, it is best that you concentrate and spend minimum time on the internet. Lest your manager catch you red handed and score a point against, in such hard times.

9. Work. Loads of it. Deadlines, deliveries, turnovers, product releases, blah, blah. (By the way, 10 and 9 are closely related).

8. Studies. Yes…you heard me right. Studies. Passing CSQA is no joke. Ask any Certified Software Quality Analyst.

7. Attending friends’ weddings. It all begins with shopping, alterations, bookings, and excitement and reunions and inevitably leaves you with a nostalgia which absolutely incapacitates you of any creativity whatsoever.

6. Reading. Obsession to reach that 100th book mark. Page by one lengthy page you inch closer and closer to that milestone. How can you think of doing anything else then?? Let alone writing. That it was some 3 months ago and that currently I am on my 108th one is another story. (No, I am not paranoid about keeping count of books read, Shelfari does it for me)

5. Movies. It’s an addiction. Writing is so boring compared to it. There’s so much you need to think of our own for writing. Watch movies and criticize them. Much better time pass.

4. Sheer lethargy. Come summer and all you want to do is to relax, lie down, have cold drinks and day dream. Or change channels on the television.

3. Editing your company magazine. Whatever energy for writing still remains (after considering the above reasons) gets directed towards it.

2. Dental pain. Heard of braces? Its self inflicted agony. Trust me, getting rid of Bugs Bunny teeth is no child’s play.

1. There actually is no reason.

Coming to think of it, each of these invalid stupid reasons can themselves be elaborated in separate blog entries. But I don’t feel like writing. Sounds like reason number 4. No, its 2. Gotta go do the dentist today – predentodementophobia. But wait, can it be 5 or 3 or 10??? Surely its 1. Or is it? :-)

Rationality, Religion and India

This is actually a comment written on E=mc^2 as response to the author's "Rejection of Rationality" Series (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5). Since I took such a long time writting the stuff, I thought I might as well include it on my blog.

It is really sad that majority of our population has been blind to rationality from many centuries. But yes, we do have our Vedas that are said to be based on scientific observations (I haven’t read them myself, but many intellectuals have who say they are indeed scientific - and I have taken their word; including Carl Sagan, who in his Cosmos has beautifully summed up the astronomical history of mankind and includes ancient Indian scriptures as evidences along with many other civilization's texts – I mention Carl Sagan’s opinion as worthy not because he is from the "west" but because he was a noted scientist famous for his science books).

I think the issue is, where and how in history was this kind of thinking or the Vedic legacy lost?

One reason could be its inapproachability to common man due to the complicated language (Sanskrit was spoken and read by only some elite few) and complexity of thought. Some of the elite few would have tried to preach and spread the message but knowingly or unknowingly misinterpreted/skewed facts vs. opinions during the process. Some could have deliberately attached religious tags with practices to make masses understand and follow the point. The rulers could have observed that people are generally God-fearing and would do what is told whole heartedly if everything is associated with religion and God – and it got filtered down generations in a completely twisted form – in the form of rites and rituals. Starting of Sati/Johar could have been the act of one fanatic maniac female absolutely in blind love with her man and found suicide a better idea than widowhood; and then was martyrized so much that it became a ritual. This was an unfavorable hypothetical analysis – a favorable one could be about vegetarianism, where some intellectuals found its advantages and coupled it with religion to make it a generally acceptable practice. Just a thought – and I am not at all suggesting that this is what actually happened or the “west” is spiritually imitating or following us. But there is no denying that our ancient culture did have traces of science and rationality.

Today the agenda/manifesto of our political parties also includes religion and related stuff. Our leaders want us to remain blind about facts and glamorize religion. This could have begun centuries ago and since we did not embrace the "Age of Enlightenment", we have remained ignorant on the whole.

My point is - it is not about "west" or "east" or their religion or our religion or their science or our science. Yes, there are cultural differences which are bound to come and have evolved as huge rifts because of different geographies, climates and historical circumstances.

Masses everywhere are the same. Its not that people of the "west" are not superstitious - the number 13 is a prime example – there is no 13th floor in some hotels in the "west" – where is their rationality now? Isn’t the floor numbered 14th actually 13th then? Or is this their shedding of "excess rationality"? Its not that they don’t use phrases like "Fingers crossed" or "Touch wood" or "Thank God" or words like jinx, voodoo, taboo – they do, sometimes more than we do. Superstition in itself is irrational, not that ‘we’ or ‘they’ are ‘more’ or ‘less’ irrational. It has to be got rid of. Everywhere. In our country specially because it’s our country and we want it to improve.

Rulers and the way of they rule is different. It’s a shame that ours are still using religion and "ritualistic Hinduism" is being promoted. I think the "west" learnt this the hard way during holocaust and American civil war (racism should also not be the basis of any rule). And have moved on to other ways of uniting people and making them pay taxes, like promoting and advertising science (NASA and its missions); their role as international policemen, etc. It’s high time we learnt it too.

A Software Engineer’s Worst Nightmare

Forgetting passwords.

One fine sunny day I wake up in the morning at 8 as usual, hurry and scurry to reach office by 10, switch on my computer and it dutifully prompts to enter the bios password. I realize I can't remember it. Thanks to the infinite wisdom of the network department in keeping the bios passwords same for everyone, I ask my neighbor and move on till being stuck at my machine password. Under normal circumstances I keep it pasted on my desk, but today the chit is not there. Looks like the company’s clear desk policy has been extended to cover unnecessary (!) post-it stamps as well. Sigh. All in the game. So I contact the network guy and unlock my pc and try to get settled just like every other day – but today is just not another every other day – I open my lotus notes, and can't remember that password as well. Then I try and remember the name of the text file where I usually store my passwords, but I can’t recall it either. Logic tells me it has to be passwords.txt – so I search for the file and any other possible password file names that my follow-the-sheep-kind-of-mind can make up and think of, but all to no avail. Left with no other option, I again contact the network guy and reset my LN password. Next I can’t login to sametime connect also and again NG comes to my rescue (btw, he is highly frustrated with me by now).

And now I kind of get the picture, my worst fear has come true and I am not going to recall a single password today. Today all passwords have resolved to demonstrate their importance and conspired to vanish off my virtual/physical/temporary/permanent memory. I can even listen to them hissing this is just the beginning baby. Ha. Ha. Ha.

So.....that’s that. My gmail password is gone. I can’t login to gtalk. I can’t write blogs. I can’t view my pay slip. I can’t get my bills reimbursed. I can’t transfer funds. I can’t buy anything online. I can’t trade in shares. I can’t book tickets. I can’t read music reviews from my favorite site. I can't access my company website – means I can't do another universe of things like checking my work hours, leave balances, trainings, filling timesheets, etc etc. No orkut. No facebook. No shelfari. No twitter. No life. My day is as screwed as screwed can get. Lord save me and give me the strength and perseverance to reset all passwords.

This goes to all my passwords, I am sorry if I didn’t give you your much deserved attention and care, but now I have realized how important you all are. I will even count you in the basic necessities of life – air, water, food, shelter, clothes, ipod, laptop, books, television, internet, cellphone, PASSWORDS. I humbly request you not to repeat this tomorrow or day after or next year or ever again. Or least have mercy and go one at a time. Puh-leeeeeee-sss. Deal???

Poem : पर्वत से बातचीत

This is my only attempt in life for poem writing. (Read it to discover why I did not try any further :) ). I wrote it in my 8th standard as part of an assignment for a poem called नदी से बातचीत (yeah....you got it right, nothing original about the idea)

कल सांझ को जब मैंने अटल अचल पर्वत को देखा,
तब यूँ ही मैंने उससे पुछा,
"मित्र, तुम तो बड़े भाग्यवान हो,
यूँ अटल हो रह में खड़े हो,
इस धरा का गौरव हो,
हम मानवों को भी सफलता की कून्ज्जी बता दो,
हमारे जीवन को फूलों से भर दो"
यह सुनकर अपनी दृढ़ वाणी में,वह सरोष कहने लगा,
"हे बंधू! क्यूँ तुम इस तरह के प्रश्न पूछते हो?
यूँ ही मुझसे होड़ बांधते हो
यदि तुम्हे तुम्हारा उत्तर चाहिए,
तो एक कड़वी सच्चाई को तुम्हे निगलना होगा
फ़िर भी सुनो,ज़रा अपने अंतर्मन से पूछो,
क्या तुमने स्वयं को कृत्रिम दीवारों में कैद कर नही रखा?
तुम प्रकृति के आशीष को लेने से कतराते हो,
आंधी तूफानों को झेलने से घबराते हो
यदि आज मुझे देखकर तुम्हारा मन लालायित हुआ है,
तो कृत्रिम दीवारे तोड़ो,
धरती को अपना घर समझो, अम्बर को छत मानो
दृढ़ निश्चय करके मैदान में डटे रहो
जीना है तो स्वयं के लिए नही,दूसरो के लिए जीयो
मित्र! सफलता की रह तो है कांटो की, इसमे फूल तुम न ढूंढो
कांटो को सहो, पत्थरो को झेलो,
कभी न रुको, कभी न झुको, बस चलते चले जाओ
यदि सचमुच तुम्हे महान बनना है,तो दूसरो को क्षुद्र न समझो
यह सब करने पर ही तुम्हे सफलता मिलेगी,
और इस तरह के प्रश्न पूछने की ज़रूरत न पड़ेगी|"

Don Quixote - Book Review

It works! My latest resolution is now fulfilled! Thanks to this blog of mine and my quixotic belief that I have got readers to whom I am answerable. Needless to say, it means I have finally finished reading Don Quixote. The quest had begun somewhere in the beginning of the year, and ends in futility now. Okay, now enough about me; this post is supposed to be a book review.

Very frankly, I am yet to figure out what is so great about this book. Right, it’s been written in the 16th century and is one of its kinds and all. It’s about a dreamer called Don Quixote who reads volumes of books about knighthood and fairy-tale endings and foolishly begins to believe in them. He adorns himself with armor, takes his skinny horse, and an assistant (or squire) and sets out in search of adventures. His first one happens to be a combat with windmills – which he supposes to be cruel giants – he even convinces his squire that those are indeed monsters masquerading as windmills, and ends up getting badly bruised. Obviously. Many such misadventures follow culminating in the breaking of many bones and teeth and subsequently his squire christens him as Knight of the Ill Favored Face.

Like all the heroes he has read about, Quixote feels he should also acquire a lady for whom he would pine (unnecessarily) and (attempt to) write sonnets. He idolizes a village girl as his damsel, names her the Lady Dulcinea and seeks greater adventures – like assuming an inn to be a castle (an ‘enchanted’ castle to top that), lamenting like a madman in the forest for his lost love (which is never acquired at the first place), fighting with bottles of wine in a slumber dreaming of enemies, assuming a herd of sheep to be opposing armies approaching in a battlefield (and is in dilemma on whose side he should be), and so on. His aim is to accomplish as many adventures as he has read of or even more, so that he would then be able to win his lady. Interesting thought.

But we have heard so much about Don Quixote at the windmills and it is so extensively referred to in various art and literary forms that actually reading the book (or rather, its translation – the actual book is written in Spanish by Cervantes) does not enrich you much. It also does not really entertain (unless 16th century Spain interests you) with its lords and ladies and inns and castles. There are many tales within tales about all the people who are gathered in the inn (the enchanted castle) – and many dramas unfold about the supporting characters. If you have read Shakespearean dramas, these again would not interest you. One character actually reads out a totally unrelated story from a book of knighthood in his curiosity to discover what has veered Don Quixote from the reality so very much. Imagine. Another issue is that I read an old translation which was very difficult to read with its wherewithals and thereofs and thous and other artistic (aka artificial) words.

No more old times classics for me please. That is, till I can resist the temptation (to add another feather in my cap) or till sify delivers my order for Treasure Island.

Hard Working or Smart Working

This posting is the result of my presently ongoing utter lack of ideas and phlegmatic lethargy of what to write. Please dont read, its an article for my company magazine and is really boring.

The combination. What’s the point in always toiling hard day and night to rediscover things when you could have spent a little time to look for better available solutions and reused them? And what’s the point in always trying to work smart and evade the real implementation of the fertile resource you have been gifted with - called brains - and getting no self satisfaction at all? What the point actually is - like all things in life, there is a trade off here as well, and one needs to strike the right balance between hard and smart working – because ultimately we are working to live a certain standard of life we have chosen for ourselves, and to derive a sense of achievement and contentment from our work.

Let us consider Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to comprehend this further. According to this theory, human needs can be arranged in a pyramid as shown in the picture below.

The first four layers of the pyramid represent basic human needs and are called "deficiency needs" - an individual does not feel anything if they are met, but feels anxious if they are not. Needs beyond these four are "growth needs" - when fulfilled, they do not go away; rather, they motivate further. As and when a person keeps fulfilling the deficiency needs, starting with the physiological needs like food and shelter, (s)he keeps progressing to the upper tiers, ultimate goal being transcendence, at which people become aware of not only their own fullest potential, but the fullest potential of human beings at large.

The theory when applied to work indicates that smart working can help us achieve the deficiency needs speedily (to satisfy our anxiety). However, if one keeps working smart without putting much sweat and toil, his/her personal-professional growth would remain limited to the lower tiers. As far as the upper tiers of the growth needs are concerned, hard working is the only option (to understand and appreciate our true potential and caliber).

Hence, it is clearly evident that the optimal mix of these two working techniques can surely lead us to achieve success, and also help understand the meaning and significance of life. In media mogul Ted Tuner’s words, "Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise."

My Latest Resolution

Before I write what my latest resolution is, I think there is a need to shed some light on why to make resolutions (and publicize them).

Its just that some things are so so undoable that no matter what amount of motivation you dig up from within, you cannot do them (that must be the case with everybody – or you are just not human). But the point is, you desperately want to improve and do that very thing and you come to loath yourself for avoiding it and for continuously finding excuses to keep away from it – things like not wasting food or oiling your hair or controlling your anger and so on. That’s when resolutions come to your rescue – of course you can forget about them – that’s when your blog can help you out. And again you can conveniently shut your eyes to the blog entry as well and sleep soundly, but this is one thing I am yet to discover. Hope this explains the purpose of this absurd piece of crap I am writing now.

Given my love of books, it seldom happens that I have to force myself into reading something – but when it does happen I normally buy the book – that’s reason enough to make me read it. Not that I am an overly stingy scroogy person – but I do have a value for money – if you are spending your hard-earned-meticulously-saved (!!! – that’s an average software engineer’s expression on the statement) funds somewhere – you gotta make good use of it. But this time nothing’s working. So this is my last refuge. Now one might ask what’s so important in a book that you want to force yourself to read it. Well, it’s a classic, and it’s a must read, and when you have decided it’s a must read, it’s a must read – ANY WHICH WAY – if you can’t, you are a coward, and an escapist.

Enough digress. Here goes the resolution –

I hereby solemnly swear to God and all that is holy, by my life and the love of it, that I shall read DON QUIXOTE and will not touch any other book before it is finished. (er…wait a minute God….before you jot it down in your goodness book, a little clarification here – just in case you consider it a sin – by touch I mean touch literally, online books are exempt from this self imposed conjecture).

And I promise the next book review I am gonna write would be of Don Quixote.