Hectic!!!! and loving it!!!

They say that working in one of the best IB in the world prepares you to handle anything in your career!!
Thought that held true only for traders...!!
But....working for 16 hours every day has made me believe that its true for techies too!!

but, the best part of it is that...........
I am loving it!!!!

AK,
Was Tagged by GWBE and my list is the last post...its not complete, so i might oblige you by putting down what i was able to squeeze in my reading schedule after the last post!!!
:-)

hmm.....

First of all.....our bundle of joy came into this world on Oct 4th!!! :-)



Was Tagged (a loooong while ago!!) by GWBE.
wokey!!

Last 5 books read

English August upamanyu chaterjee
Brave new world aldous huxley
Catcher in the Rye j d salinger
To kill a mockingbird harper lee
We, the living ayn rand

Currently reading..

Sidhartha
Geeta and the art of successful management


Planning to read..

1984
Catch 22
and a whole lot of 'em!!!


All time Favs
Diary of Anne Frank
Fountainhead
Atlas Shrugged
To kill a mockingbird
English August
No Comebacks (A collection of short stories by Frederick Forsyth)

luv these too...
Erich Segal books
John Grisham books
Kane and Abel
The Day of the Jackal


hmm..well...my list of "bloggers i visit" have been subjected to this ritual of tagging.....so me kind of not excercising my option (call or put?!!! lol)

Do you play International Cricket...

Location: Duane Reade Pharmacy Store
I am standing at the pay-counter waiting to get my bill so that i can pay for it and hurry to catch a metro to finish off my shopping. The guy behind the counter is looking at me in a strange manner.
"Say, can i ask you a question" he questions.
"Sure ..yeah" i said.
"Hmm..dya play cricket?"
I was caught by surprise by this question of his because cricket does not happen to be one of the most popular games out here.
"Yeah..i do"..i said.
"Are you from Pakistan?"
"India" i said a little miffed..
"Dya play international Cricket" the next question.

Suddenly i was confused. Was he asking me whether India has an international cricket team? well if he knew about cricket, then he wouldnt be that stupid not to know about Sachin, would he?
"Err...Do i play international cricket" I asked for confirmation, stressing on the "I"
"Yes, yes" came the eager reply.
"No" i said.
"Oh man, O man..you look so much like one guy i say playing in the West Indies. Cant remember his name, but i swear you look like him. When you walked in, i was like..Hey this is that cricket star..."
I was shocked. People have told me that i look like X or Y, but this was the first time that a comparison was made to a cricket player.
Needless to say, on the metro, i was thinking about which cricket player he would have meant, but sadly have not been able to figure that one out!!!!
Well..they say that there are 7 people in this world who looks like you...and one of my look alikes happens to be a cricket star!!!!

Disturbing..

Got this from the postsecret blogspot and it was disturbing...
whoever it was, please realize that the very fact that u have posted it shows your remorse for what u have done...so u can start feeling less guilty..
http://photos1.blogger.com/img/296/2612/1024/sooner.jpg

With Honors..

A beautiful movie which tells the tale of how a "bum" can make a difference to the lives of four Harvard students...
Old one, just came across it and watched it twice already.
http://www.mooviees.com/1190-with-honors/movie

Fire God Angry...

One of the most luxurious hotels in the world..the Ritz Carlton...as seen from my apartment!!

november rain

'Cause nothin' lasts forever
And we both know hearts can change
And it's hard to hold a candle
In the cold November rain


Don't ya think that you need somebody
Don't ya think that you need someone
Everybody needs somebody
You're not the only one
You're not the only one

Why dont we have these kind of good music not created these days???

My first attempt at cooking

"I will teach you cooking". This came from my senior colleague who had travelled with me to the US for a training stint. I looked at him with amusement and told him "My wife has been trying to teach me cooking for the last 2 years and has not succeeded. Now you think that you can do it in 1 month(duration for which we are here in US)!!!!He laughs and takes it up as a challenge.I think about it and work out the economical gains of cooking for myself. A proper dinner in US costs you around 8 Dollars (Big Mac or a tandoor restaurant run by a sardarji - choose for yourself) and if i were to cook, then not only it will save me some real dough, but i could also make the food according to the likings of my palate. Got excited about it and wanted to start cooking immediately (I am like that. If i get excited about something, i immediately want to start it off. Guess its like that with most of the Aquarians!!).So the next day, i go and get chicken, oil, tomatoes, chillies, chilli powder and sauce. And then i start my experiments with cooking. End result - amazingly tasty chicken fry which i very magnanimously shared with my colleague who was shocked to find out that i could cook really nice. "This is really good" were his words and i was left thinking how i could achieve this feat when i hadnt even made an omlette before in my life.Guess the reason has to be that of being tired with the angrezi food and wanting to eat something really spicy.Well whatever the reason is, i have decided that i love cooking and am gonna make fish fry tomorrow!!

Called up my wife and told her that i cooked a real cool chicken dish and that my friend liked it and she responds "Well. Good. Once you come back, you can take over that job!!":-)

I Love.....

My new NIKE Shoes!!!! :-) :-)
Its soooooooooooooooo comfy...

Wow!!!

I am in awe. Found out that the project that i am working onright now used to have a member who went by the name of Anna Hahn who incidentally is the US womens chess champion (http://www.uschess.org/news/bio/hahn.php) and another parallel system used to be headed by none other than Fischer Black(http://www.mayin.org/ajayshah/MEDIA/1995/black.html

Wow.

And there is a sybase guru in my same department who has written books on sybase and who is one of the people who were actually involved in writing sybase!!!!

True Friendship - Myth or Reality?

Is there something called as true friendship? If it exists, then what is the criteria for a person to be your true friend?
If he helps you with money when you are in desperate need, then is he your true friend? If he helps you to finish off your deliverables when you need to rush off to meet your spouse for an emergency, then is he your true friend? If he offers to cover up for you when u need to take a vacation, then is he your true friend? If he offers you free advice when you are down, is he your true friend?
Doesnt true friendship mean that we accept the other person as he is? If i expect him to act in a certain way and if he doesnt and if i say that i no longer want to be a friend of his, then arent i being a bad friend? Shouldnt i go back to him and ask him why he acted in the manner he did?
I can say that, he didnt do this, so he is not my true friend. He can say that, i didnt bother to find out why he acted in the way he did, so i am not his true friend.
Friendship is complicated. Or is it?

From New York.....

My first trip outside my india and i should say that the experience has been rather nice till now, except for the fact that i really miss my better half (particularly during this phase) and my near and dear ones.
I had always maintaned that americans were those egoistic ones, but then, i am slowly in the process of changing that opinion. Hey come one, aren't we indians also a little too much proud of our country? Same applies to all people.
but what stuck me so different over here is the general friendliness of the people. Stangers in lifts greet you with a bright good morning or how-are-u-doing. At least a nod of the head is granted for sure. If you are crossing the road and if there is a taxi speeding down on you, the guy actually stops for you and then puts out his hand and waves to you to cross the road and waits till we do that. I was just thinking if the same sitatuion had happened back in india, the taxi driver would have speeded up and made sure that he went first and then probably would have put out his head and spit out some abuses for trying to get him into trouble.
Well, its only been one week, so its not enought time for me to pass a judgement that americans are more courteous than indians......surely time will tell....

While it's raining hard

Perumazhakkalam (While it's raining hard).
The most striking feature of this beautiful film(mallu) by kamal is that the central character of the story is not a human being , but its the rain. Not the light and soft rain, but fierce and powerful one. Its there when tragedy strikes and its there when the characters in the movie are having a happy time too(althogh this is very less).
It takes guts to make a movie in which the lead hero appears in a song and probably some 20 other shots and the second lead hero has only a song to appear in. We have had lots of heroine oriented movies till date in malayalam, but even in those, hero will definitely feature throughout the movie. Perumazhakkalam differs from these and stands out as a beautiful and sad poem.
Two strong female leads played by the most talented heroines currently present in the malayalam film industry. The film is a full emotions film. The anguish and fear for one lady at one end of a river(kallayi) and the loss and pain for the other at the other end of the same river (kalpathi). Two people on two different banks of the same river, tied to each other by destiny. One of them at the mercy of the other for getting her husband pardoned and the other silently asking god why she had to lose her husband at such a young age and at the same time burdened by god with the responsibilty of making a decision to spare a life. To giver her pardon for the man who killed her husband.
Taking another man's life is not going to get her husband back and so ganga does the god's work for raziya and we end up having that feeling of heaviness in the heart at the end of the movie, that which we get when we see a movie which moves us. Not by gory scenes and wailing heroines, but by the play of emotions from the lead pair. And when i say lead pair, here, unlike other typical mallu movies, its meera jasmine and kavya madhavan (In that order!!!!!!!)

Moving from the first job - painful

Its always a painful process when you move from your first job..well at least for me it is!! 4 years in the same company for my first job had made me helplessly loyal to it. Stuck on even though the pay was atrocious and the work was not cutting edge. Me being sentimental didnt help. After all, this is the company that took me straight from campus and then moulded a raw engineering mind into a tough(?!) software professional. So i should be loyal right?
Threw this one to a friend and pat came the reply "Arre yaar, if u have got something from the company, then they would have made the most use of you too and would have got more that that from you". Probably true. I was not lazy and was dedicated througout and i dont think i have even one supervisor who would tell me that my work used to stink.
But still, moving after 4 years feels like u are cutting something away from yourself and going to a new place feels like walking into a room and knocking on a door, without knowing what is inside there. The friends you have made over the years are not going to be there. The comfort zone is not there. The easy access to HR and Admin is not there. Being known as on of the "old" (as in, around for while) employees is not there. And the most important thing is that you need to prove yourself at the new place!!
Its going to be a whole new process again. Making friends (I am very poor at this cause i take a looooooooooong time to be friends with someone!), getting into the flow of the place, proving your mettle and in the whole process learning a lot of things. Its going to be a change and hopefully for the better.

Impact of Change Of Job!!

Came across this one ....and though as not dramatic as this(!!), i was left wondering what impact, the change of job (which is going to be next week) is going to have on me.....



A taxi passenger tapped the driver on the shoulder to ask him a question.
The driver screamed, lost control of the car, nearly hit a bus, went up on the footpath,and stopped centimeters from a shop window.
For a second everything went quiet in the cab,then the driver said:
"Look
mate, don't ever do that again.
You scared the daylights out of me! "The passenger apologized and said, "I didn't realize that a little tap would scare you so much."
The driver replied, "Sorry, it's not really your fault.
Today is my first day as a cab driver - I've been driving a van carrying dead bodies for the last 25 years."

There is something about sabarimala!!

There is something about sabarimala that makes us want to go back there again and again. Other than the fact that we get to see ayyappaswami only once an year, he seems to have a magnetic influence on the devotees. After the difficult climb and the darshan for a few seconds in the jostling crowd, when you climb down the hill and reach pampa, the feeling in your mind is NOT "Whew, i need to get back home as soon as possible", BUT, "Swamiye, i will come back to see you next year" and THAT is the magnetic appeal of the manikandan.For me, ayyappaswami is the embodiment of all the good things in the world. He is the god that i can relate to and who gives me a sense of being "real". A god, who did not perform miracles which cannot be fathomed by human beings, but again was not a mere mortal.His life had a meaning, to destroy an embodiment of an evil and he had as a friend, a muslim, which was a strong social message during the old times. Thousands and thousands of disciples go to sabarimala every year and on the way they visit the curch of "Vavar" who was ayyapas close muslim friend. The famous playback singer yesudas is an ardent disciple of lord ayyappa and everyday night at the sannidhanam, lord ayyappa is put to sleep by singing "Harivarasanam", which is the recorded song of yesudas. Where else can we see such a strong sense of unity of all the relegions? This is one of the things that make sabarimala a unique experience.http://www.manoramaonline.com/advt/sabarimala2004/index.htm

Dan Brown and Google!!

There is something about Dan Brown books that makes you want to run to google. Facts and figments waiting to be run through that great search engine. DVC and A&D dishes out a lot of things which can drive a believer into frenzy and a book lover like me thrilled. I have visited the google at least 10 times during the read of DVC and right now with A&D, being an online copy, the other page i always have open is the google.
The books are an interesting read, but then once you are through with it, it does not stick to you and grow on you like an ayn rand or even a good grisham or one of those terrific short stories of Forsyth. Its more like a refined version of hardy boys with some history and facts thrown in and a narration akin to a sheldon book.
Well, i am not a critic, but opinions - to each their own!!

Books!!!

Books. What better friend can a person have? You can turn to it when u are happy, when u are sad, when u feel lonely and when u feel tensed. Well, maybe when u have a headache, it wouldn’t be too good an idea!! Lol!!
I love books and they have been an important part of my growing up. When I used to be asked what I wanted as a birthday present, I would immediately come up with the name of the latest hardy boys or three investigators!!!
Like a lot of people, my transition followed this path.
The five find outers, Famous Five
The Three investigators
Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew (This was a craze)
Perry Mason
Agatha Christies (yeah, I know Sherlock Holmes is missing….it didn’t happen to me!! L )
Doctor Whos (this was a craze)
James hardly chases (I wish I could go back and un-read ‘em!!)
Sidney Sheldons
Jeffrey Archers
Frederick Forsyths
John Grishams
Erich Segals
Ayn Rands
Richard bachs
Mario Puzos
Rushdhies
Harry Potters
And the list goes on…..and in between these, the odd ones which would touch your heart like Anne frank….and yet others like god of small things which was so much hyped and well…no comments…I guess I have not yet become an intellectual giant to comment up on this one!! And those satirical ones – Heller….u are great!!

And of course those Archies and Tintins (was not very fond of asterix).
And even before that there was this small magazine called wisdom which was nice…..and then another Russian one called Misha of which I have fond memories!!!
Gimme a book anytime and leave me alone, I will be happy!!!

Chatting with absolute strangers?

I have this feeling of pity for people who logon to chat networks and starts chatting with absolute strangers. What exactly do you get from it? I mean, there might be some common interests for a guy from some rural district of India and some stressed out babe in some Cosmo city of the US, but then how does it make sense to exchange pleasantries for some time, over a thing as vast and "virtual" as the net?(Excuse the really bad cliché).
If chatting is used to communicate with people you know, then it makes sense and is probably the cheapest way to keep in touch.
But hooking on to strangers and bantering?
Well, this sums it up!!



An employee was chatting on the web seriously with a lady called "Amy".
Manager walks into his cube and asks.
Manager : Can you write me a program for sorting the float values.
Employee(Steve) : I am kind of busy with another job. I will be able
to give you the complete program by tomorrow.
.......Back to chat......
Steve : Sorry for late reply!!! My stupid boss was here.
Amy : Bosses are really pain right ?
Steve : Yep!! They are pain in ...
Amy : Can you do me a favor darling.
Steve : I am for you honey.
Amy : Can you write me a program to sort float.
Steve : Oh honey!! It's on my finger tips....Here you go.
Amy : Dude!!! that is what I asked you at your cube

A change in the offering - this was during the triggering days

This was written some 8 months back, at a time when i was not yet initialized into the blog world..
So now its clear as to why i am making a move...



I really really dont know what i am doing here. Do i feel nice to work here?. "No", my inner voice answered. Do i feel happy about the work i am doing here?. Again the same two letter answer. Do i feel happy about my supervisors attitude here?. Again the same two letter answer.Strange. Just one year back, i was the most happiest working in this very same organisation and under the very same supervisor. Has things changed so much in one year?This makes me think that maybe, just maybe, its not really the organisation or the work or the supervisor that is the real problem. Maybe its MY outlook that is blurred. But, is it?I am not a egotistical moron to think that, if something is wrong, then its with those around me, and never with me. This self-introspective character, inculcated in me by my parents have held me in good stead in my life till now."If you are not happy with your current state of affairs, look around you and then look within you. Decide what needs to be changed and then act. Most probably, it will be your outlook which you will need to widen", my parents had taught me.No wonder, they say that wisdom comes mostly from experience.so let me put that into practise.What is that in my behavior, what prompts my supervisor to think that i crib a lot about my work?Two minutes, five minutes gone by. My creative and imaginary mind fails to come up with a reasoning. So does that mean that i am not in fact cribbing and just that my supervisor does not like me?Well, again NO!! Because often, we are not very good assessors of our own behavior. Right. So i go on about talking to my friends about my "crisis" (For lack of a better word). Surpise, surprise!!. This time i found out that my vision window did not need any widening. It was not narrow! So, i was not wrong in feeling "sick"!.Time to make a decision. "What's so difficult about this? Just change job!!". This, from my wife who has simple solutions to all complex problems.I wouldn't be honest with myself if i profess that, that particular thought has never crossed my mind. But, why was it that i was so reluctant to consider switching jobs, when all my friends were so comfortable with contributing to the attrition rate of their companies?Well, this question, i had asked myself several times and found the answer too. Its just that, this was the company, which had taken me fresh from college and made me the person i am today."So what? This is what happens to everybody. Why do you have to be so sentimental", asks my inner voice.(this one is the bad one. Yes, we have two inner voices, the good one and the bad one!.)Well, "why am i so sentimental?", this is one of the questions, which i plan to ask my maker, when i get to meet him. Or is it a her? Hmm, interesting thing to debate, but later!So, whats the next available solution? "Talk with your supervisor about your problems". That was my logical analytical software-engineer's mind speaking.Hey, but thats the problem. Whatever i speak with my supervisor, it is taken as cribbing. If i have any personal problems and speak it out,then i have "too many constraints". If i am not happy with the duration of my project (which i had every reason not to be happy), then i was "not flexible".All these, i agree, are problems which, every software engineer has to face at some point in their careers.So, i come to the conclusion that there are only two ways infront of me. These two ways,albeit difficlut for me to tread, i had, but no choice.First one was to follow my wife's method. I swear to myself that this will be my last option.The second one is so vey easy to say and so much difficult to put in practise. To do my work, without actually enjoying it, to do whatever is expected out of me, without putting even the least effort to find joy in what i am doing. Becasue, if i try to find joy in the work i am doing, then i will start hating myself.So, this is what i have to offer. Lets see how long i last here.

An article from sometime back

March 18th 2003
yesterday was my first train journey in 3 tier ac and it was certainly memorable in more than one ways...i had a motley of companions..first there was this foreign couple(?) students..who were playing chess and minding their own business.then there was this old man who initiated talking to me where as i was rather in a pensive mood..due to personal reasons..this old man introduced himself as Mr nair and on his way to meet his daughter settled in bangalore..he certainly didnt seem to be refined enough to be travelling in an a.c coach,a thought which later changed after he told me something,and my habit of always not trusting strangers made me wary of speaking out..still conversation came in pieces...he complained about the facilities or rather the lack of it being provided even after paying so much money for an a.c coach..he did get senior citizens rebate though..and well the ticket was send to him from his daughter...he generally used to come by a.c sleeper or by flight of 45 minutes..what?? flight from cochin to bangalore..ok....looks could be deceptive....
then came a cocky businessman and his two directors..but he could be justified in being cocky because his two 'directors' were probably younger than me..so he needed to flaunt his knowledge of anything ranging from the pros/cons of reliance versus restofem,to the cities of kerala,to the kerala political situation and an utter disregard for other peoples sensitiveness...his comments like "we give the foreigners undue importance...." " they manage with 2 pants and 2 underwears for 2 months" etc when he very well knew that the foreign couple could speak and understand english,did not go down well with the other people i can be sure of..
well the foreign couple were sure minding their own business...and i am sure someone somewhere will make sure that that cocky businessman eat his words...
but the journey presented me with a beautiful moment in the end..when we got down at bangalore that old mans daughter,son in law and grandchildren came running towards him and the grandchildren were hugging that old man and calling him muthacha..a scene of happy welcoming which u get to see so much in movies but so rarely in real world..hope that showing of love was for ever and not menat for a visitor who comes and stays for 2 weeks and then automatically becomes an unwanted hindrance in their homes...anyways that moment will always be etched in my mind..that smile on that old mans face...

A Second look

Second day into my blog life and looking through my page, i suddenly wonder why i had i written "Decent looking fellow" in my intro. Do we indians have a fixation with our looks? I have been through enough indian blogs to realize that there seems to be at least a slight indication of "looks" given by the blogger. Is is something that is unconsciously inherent in us? The desire to let the unseen world know that we are not bad looking? Strange. Have half a mind to go and edit it.

Happiness...(One of my wanderings into the philosophical realms)

What is happiness?
“Man, it’s such a simple question”, you say.
Oh yeah? Just try figuring out the answer. How much time you want? 5 minutes? 1 hour? 1 day? 1 year?
Let’s not go further. By this time, if you have really whirled and twirled the question in your head, you would have come to realize that happiness is something which cannot be pinpointed.
So, if i give you a million dollars, would you be happy. Probably or probably not. Why so? Well, the million dollars wouldn’t do too much good if u had a terminal illness will it?
Aha..i can hear you saying "that’s not fair".
"Assuming i have a healthy life AND if u give me a million dollars, i would be happy", you say.
Right, so u have a healthy life and a million dollars, BUT have some relationships that are "disturbing"(for lack of a better word). Probably you are one of those self-made people who were blessed (quite deservingly) with the knack of getting ahead in the world, but the maker was not quite generous when it came to the relations that he(or is it a she? good topic for a debate, lets do it later!!) gave you.
So will you be happy?
So, there is no such thing in life that once we get it, we will be happy.
I had a talk with a person once and he told me "When i stopped for a moment and looked back at my life, i realized that i was always postponing the happiness by saying that i will become happy once i have this. Later when i achieved it, i would yet again tell myself "I would be happy when i get this" and then again postpone it". So i decided that this was not taking me anywhere and decided to do something about this" (What he did regarding this is not relevant to the topic).
This was something which every one of us does without really being aware of it.
When i was doing my 10th standard, i thought i would be happy if i scored a good percentage. Later i thought i would be happy if i managed to get into one of the best engineering colleges in the country. Later, i thought i will be happy if i managed to get placed from my college in a good firm. Later, i thought i will be happy if i got married to my girlfriend. Later i thought i will be happy if i managed to move into my dream company.
The fact of the matter is that, all these above things did happen, but the question remains "Am i happy?"
I NOW realize that happiness is a state of mind. Its up to me to decide whether i want to be happy or not. If i choose to be a brooding person, whatever good things comes my way, i am not destined to be happy. But if i tend to look at the positive side of life and make up my mind to be happy RIGHT NOW, then, life becomes so uncomplicated and light.
Trust me. Its a choice really, whether to be happy or not.

I had a friend in my school,
Whom i thought to be the best.
We used to share secrets and
Were not concerned about the rest.

When i became a little older,
I came across a new group.
My old friend faded out,
An occassional mail or a call.

Friends come and friends go,
Some of them stay for a while.
Some of them stay forever and
Fills your life with sunshine.

Yours Truly

Havent we all felt this at least once in our life?

One of my favs!!

The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.