Arghh!!

Is it the changing weather ?
or is it some short circuit in my cranial circuitry?
or a screwed up meal?
or some words from someone that did not digested well?

Why is it that the self is not feeling 100% this week?

Agreed that there are a few days in a year that end up in zero accomplishment but then again we don't have to just survive on this planet like zillions of other organisms are!

To make a difference, you have to do something new each day, learn something new each day, life is only about couple of dozen K days after all. Many of them are already exhausted.

In such a situation, as I am feeling this week, when you are left with only enough mental energy to live a routine day, then it is your that instinct that causes you to surge ahead every moment that feels hurt and ignored.

You yearn to add more hours to your day, more minutes to your hours and more seconds to your minutes but something is just not working out!
Cant say what it is at the moment. Work is great because it is the routine...but it is not about routine at all. What about that instinct that keeps on poking me to add something to my mental and physical frame each day?

"Dear instinct, I will get back to you soon, only allow me to think over it for a while, it may take an hour two of introspection. But, I am not abandoning you without fulfilling your every desire till I have my senses sound enough to understand what you have to say. You have brought me here, I will always honor your call... "

I will find time for this exercise on the way to a function that I have to attend on Wednesday. A marriage party of one of my close cousins. All packed and all set.

Pack,
Set,
Go.....

Good night :)

'Mix-veg-palao' week!

Not my pet dinner this week, its the week itself this time! This is how this one has appeared before me.

Like a palao, That contains various tastes in every morsel, the week has been a mix of various moods and emotions.

Like the palao, not every morsel is a delicacy to relish, but we have to sometimes bear it when a pepper-pea lands between the molars and unleashes the bitter flavor that makes itself home on a part of your tongue for a while. The week also presented some not-very-pleasant insights into my own self that I was not-very-pleased to know about. At least, its good to know that there is something bad about you so that you can correct the same. Ready, Steady...Correct!

Like a sweet young pea from our palao that spreads its juicy sweetness and lasts for a while, some moments with few good people turned out to be as sweet.

Like the age old flavor (of our mix veg palao) that we have been enjoying till we first fell in love with its taste, this week brought in some good memories and feelings related to those back to life. A few heart warming thoughts that I never knew existed inside me and the solace of connecting with some close-to-heart friends at a still deeper level. That just acted like raita (that's a funny metaphor I know :-) )

What else? Like a satisfying meal, the week is surely directed to end in a high note :-)
Good Night

End of the World!

Thursday.

Ended the day with end of the world!

Yes, I am talking of 2012. The sci fantasy based on the speculation that cosmic (not cosmetic you dumbo! ;) ) situation leads to instability of earth crust and ultimately tends to annihilation of planet's life forms except a few lucky ones. And a few rich ones too. The producers are capitalizing upon curiosity of human race to see how it is going to end.

It was a good show indeed. The graphics of the scale that at least I have never seen in a movie. Amazing attention to detail. The only thing it was short was a 3D show. And only distraction was a bunch of guys who came to see the special effects only and did not understood a single dialogue. They preferred gossiping when nothing significant (for them) was happening. :)

Apart from some probability calculations that did not quite fit in for me and one of my seniors who accompanied us to the show, it is worth it. How can a family escape hundreds of falling buildings and meteors of the size of a house falling meters away? Not even a splinter hitting them all the way!

Anyhow it is fiction and that's how it has to be: Not real.

The world does not end that abruptly for all the humanity put together. Geological changes are slow, mountains and seas change shape but over a period of thousands of years, research has shown. Unless it is a meteor strike; or a world war; or an alien attack!

"The world does end that abruptly for all the humanity put together"

For individuals it does. For some, it ends in a flash!

World ends when someone close to you abandons you. World ends for an athlete injured beyond healing. World ends for a businessman in a single misplaced deal. World ends for a top scorer who falls short by quarter of a percent.

World ends when our faith system fails us. And we are utterly helpless, unable to connect the failure it to any possible logical explanation. Helpless we feel and there, we see a dead end. It's the end of our world.

That was a gloomy observation. Don't know where from it popped up in my head. Lets move on. Thats the best remedy for such endings.

Take care.

Bad start

A drowsy head, blocked nose and an upset stomach is not the best way to start a week!! But that is what I discovered myself with when I woke up this Monday. Have traveled from home the last night which has taken its toll on my health along with the changing season to which I am still adjusting. Most of the part of Adjusting meant gathering and buying warm clothes :)

Moreover when you know that you have lots of stuff to do at the office, a partially healthy body is the last thing that you want to carry to the office. Especially when you have a rep to protect ;)

you don't want to look drowsy and lazy all the time. And such a work-day won't be a very productive one. So taking the advantage of facility provided by the company to cater to such Mondays, it seemed the best idea to relax at home and recollect my energy and attentiveness.

However, when you are all alone and there is lot to think about, we usually let unpleasant things crop up more frequently in the Devil's Home. The day went by fighting the devils and engaging in some reading stuff.

The next two days (that includes today) went mathing the pace with missed work and fortunately that it is pretty much on track owing to some solution we figured out at the last moment. Akin to a six in the last ball of the last over :)
Good Night.

Standing waves

Another weekend.

Went home with all my whites so that I can enjoy the luxury of our washing machine. Home is all the same with same routine going on when you are not there and you just fit in. Everything at its own unique place as decided by the homemaker. The sugar jar, the hand towel, the ear buds-nothing leaves their place and you can literally move about blindfolded and know what lies where!

Most of the Saturday went into traveling because the Ropar bridge was closed for repairs (again!) and the bus had to do a 1.5 hr detour to land me at my home town. The first thing (which was by no means first after relaxing and chatting with mom and having some evening snacks) I did was to take care of the greatest pain that I would face it at my room here: the whites!

So off I went with my laundryman hat...

Machine wash tip #1: Rinse them before adding them to the detergent solution to get rid of the dirt that can be just dissolved in water (and sweat too). So that detergent does not have to act on something that can be removed by plain water.

As the rinsed whites were being spin dried for the next step, I noticed a curious wave pattern forming in the wash tub by the vibrations of the spin drum. Still, standing waves, I was able to relate to the ones that read about in my high school-Fundamentals of Physics (David Halliday, Robert Resnick and Jearl Walker).

Now the geeky stuff began.

I stared at the beautiful pattern etched on the water surface for a while, admiring both the moment and the physics behind it. My concentration broke as the pattern started moving and changing its form-started diminishing. I wondered which variable has changed? Spin drum is vibrating at the same frequency (not slowing down), I am not touching the machine, voltage is not fluctuating.

Hell!! The pattern changed due to falling water level in the tub, reducing its surface area as it went down.

I left the wash tub's drain open! Half of my dear detergent solution went down the drain :(

"Enough of physics Mr. Scientist! After wasting detergent enough to wash one load of clothes, start over now", I said to myself.

Indra's Monday

As compared to the weekend, which wound up with me watching the beautiful classic story of two teenagers' unfathomable affection towards each other forcing their egoistic parents to give in - I am talking about the Raj Kapoor classic-"Bobby", The week did not took off on as favorable note with Inradev waking me up to a overcast sky that ended into a rainy Monday morning just when I was about to leave for the office.
Had to drop my parents at the interstate terminus as well and then leave to the office at usual time. But plans seldom realize the way they are conceived. As a consequence of the rain, had to delay the office by one hour. One of the things that I don't really appreciate doing (neither do they).
Rest of the days are work as usual with an exception of changing weather taking a toll on my appetite. So have to go an extra mile to meet my own minimums. It hurts when you are not able to meet your expectations from your own self. Especially when you put the bar pretty high for your self.
Solution is simple, let go some extra effort you are making somewhere and you are recharged for stuff that matter more somewhere else. Some introspection & reorganization and all fits back in.
So here I am. Back in the pilot seat. Taking off for yet another day in 8 hrs hence!
Good Night.

Home improvement weekend

Not exactly home improvement. But this time I decided to put on my mechanic's hat and fix some things that have been bothering me since last few weeks.

First to be fixed was my PC that had no covers on following the hard disk catastrophe that I mentioned earlier. Since then I could not put it all together. So, I started on the mission #1. unplugged the Idiot Box Junior (you know the senior one :-) ) There were no major surprises except one. The screws holding the PCB that houses front USB and headphone jacks were no longer useful! Repetitive strain had dislodged them and the threading was no longer able to hold on.

Time to devise a solution...
I had to use a piece of used leather belt to hold the thing in place and reinforce the threading with a glue so that it holds. But the process was not straight forward and ended with me reading the instruction manual to fix the minute power cables that I had to remove and that powered various LEDs here n there.

Then came the blender!
It is a historic device that would qualify for an antique any moment now! Probably as old as me. Uh oh! Do not take that analogy very seriously...! :)

The thing has been pissing me each time I used it by dripping a stream of content from the Jug, down into the motor and the kitchen shelve. So today was the day to teach it a lesson. But I was careful enough to be gentle with it because it has served my parents for so long and now me. I sometimes wonder how these things last so long. The Germans definitely go an extra mile on designing equipment so that they outlast many other brands of their time. Unlike most Indian manufacturers were it is a bliss if any equipment survives the warranty period safely.

The fault is not in the design, the fault is in the customers. We pay thrice the amount for a foreign product without a slightest hint of hesitation but we never would for a similar product by a local manufacturer. What if the local guy gets the liberty of spending thrice the amount (or twice) on additional quality materials and afford to reject some (slightly) faulty parts that otherwise make into the assembly line, we would be at par with anyone around. We have been. In ancient times.

That was a bit sidetrack. Coming to the weekend mission#2, I carefully unscrewed the most accessible screws while taking care not to screw something up! :)

I was familiar with the kind of stuff that I found inside. Windings, Coils, Limit Switch, Wire Clamping, Bushes, Armature, Stator etc. What I saw in there hinted me that many generations of various kitchen bugs have been taking refuge in my loving blender. I had to destroy those deserted dwellings and clean all the residues from various liquids. The task was difficult but the result was satisfying.

More unscrewing, unfastening and then cleaning, reassembling, looking for any left over, curious looking parts. There were none which was a good sign :)

There we were, a working blender as good looking as new!

Wondering why I posted this activity here?
Many reasons.
First being to tell the world that my dad's experience is not all wasted by me going into IT.
Secondly, Such a task done at home be it fixing a broken, blender, installing a new bedside lamp, greasing your bike's chain, fixing a leaking tap etc etc can be accomplished by using a mini arsenal of tools and to the greatest level of satisfaction. You don't have to run to a plumber, electrician, mechanic, mason for every nitty-gritty that keeps falling off in a house where people live. Also, it is a good stress buster as well, at least for me. (Stop wondering!!)

Thirdly, I hope some pretty lady might stumble on this page and feel envious of an in-house mechanic that my wife will get for free ;-).

But I warn you, if you don't know exactly what you are doing, do it discreetly so that you have a lifeline of running off to the mechanic should anything not go as you planned. Else, you will have a nagging wife, mom, or sister who will never fail to make you realize one 'herogiri' of yours that failed. If you succeeded! then definitely you are the one who just proved it! :-)

Finally, I love tweaking things since I was a kid. That had made me learn to fix them more than have my dad fix them later :-).

Give a try to something sometimes, I can advise ;-)
Good night.

Where did the week went?

Starting the week with Tuesday, I suddenly realized and also thanked god as the ritual goes :) that it was Friday!

The work week was work as usual. New things to think, innovate, implement and then cherish them! .

When you know that the piece of code that you did in one of your company's products is going to be executed in a high end, carefully managed, transaction processing system somewhere down the time line, it becomes something worth cherishing and being proud of.

Like some engineer might be proud of tightening a bolt on Chandrayaan. Or a chef to have garnished the salad to be served to Abdul Kamal (or whichever personality you adore the most). Or a pit-hand to have refueled Schumacher's ride for the third consecutive win. Or someone who packed a parachute for a pilot who escaped much pain (are we talking about error handling here? ;) )

If we try to follow the tracks of a piece of code that I just mentioned, it performs very trivial tasks at the production machines where it is made to execute. One if-then-else statement is eventually going to change the state of one of the millions of flop-flops in a microprocessor on some server thousands of miles away. But it is the nebulous mess of crisscrossing microscopic circuits and a web of wiring connecting all those servers and a web of networks connecting every computer in the world, each one containing these millions of microscopic circuits, that cause this virtually insignificant change to emerge as a meaningful event for one of the users of one of our customers.

Technology is overwhelming. And getting harder to imagine day by day!

Fridays are not easy to end well most of the time, I was preparing for a ride up and down from Ambala to see one of my siblings off while I had to conclude something of importance to the coming week at work.

The ride was okay. Got to visit the railway station maybe after many years!

What I saw was different from what others might who commute daily.

There was a subset of whole of our national diversity en-crowded at one place. All, rich, poor, not so poor, very poor and beggars. North, South, East, West India within 200 meters of you. You can hear three different languages being spoken for every 100 feet walk down the platforms. All hurrying or waiting for something.

My sister remarked, "This is the real India, rich and poor in exactly the same proportion as in statistics, around 10%". And I just realized that how many of us (talking of all Indians) can get to see the kind of life we (talking of middle class and up) live! The one who borrowed my pen to take down a number that he just memorized from some list, might not even know that it was a Parker Special Edition that he was using. Let alone how many of them would know what Levi or John Players are. Or why richer kids are taking about some animal called 'Ninja' these days.

I wonder, if it was possible to make them realize need of the hour and make them understand and follow the decisions and advises that great thinkers are yelling out aloud on the national and international forums. The need for cutting greenhouse gas production, the need for reducing water consumption, the need of disposing off plastic properly, the need to vote, the need of sanitizing hands after every wash!

I could not think of a way to reach their souls because they all were too busy. Looking for something, heading for something, not able to pay attention to anything other than what they had on their mind at the moment. Maybe it was the place, maybe it was their nature. I don't know.

We all probably are a very small subset of privileged population that get public school education, city life, know and discuss brands, watch Dolby DTSes, get the hair rebound, have a credit card and so on. सावन के जन्मे सब के सब!

The ride back was rather chilly.

Weekend is about to begin and a mental list of tasks is already in place. Lets see what it mutates into by the end of...well weekend!

Good Night.

2 and 3 Nov 09

Well, beginning with a lazy Tom's Tuesday, the day was well filled up with lots of activities at the workplace. The next few weeks are going to be technically challenging and the challenges are on our radars already. As they say: work will teach you how to do it.

Dear work, I am at your service!

Due to a rapid expansion this year, our company is recruiting many engineers. My seniors view me as a useful resource for conducting interviews and appreciate my views on the candidates. This is a great appreciation in itself because I am still far less skilled than my senior colleagues are at judging people in a 15-20 minute discussion. In the process getting a lot to learn during those on-and-off tips by my respected seniors slash mentors slash guides slash gurus.

What is particularly interesting is that you are trying to read the mind of a person and infer something about him that he/she does not wants you to know about. And this has to be achieved as much discretely as possible in that short sprint of a discussion. It is here that I, up to some extent, am able to understand why some people have to struggle more to get into a dream job than some others. I am about to tell the reason now.

Because they simply are not fit for it! Seems strange? It is not as much as it seems to be.

The fact is that however hard one tries to hide, pretension of a fallacy can never be concealed. It always comes across. Not as a concrete statement, a gesture, or a number. But as a feeling in the guts of the persons facing you at the moment. Somehow, there seems to be something like a sixth sense that is ambient in the interview room at that moment. Result, I think is favorable to both. A person at a wrong place wont do good to any of the two, himself or the place.

(First) Moral of the story, don't pretend.

That apart, this principle applies in our lives as well. we, sometimes, just cannot get to trust some people no matter what they promise. This is the same gut feeling at work on your side.

So lets be honest to all as this is going to help both, the person, that's us as well as the place where we belong, this world!
Good Night

Last long weekend of 2009 ended

Thanks to a mega-nap this afternoon that I am able to post this at this time of the day (or night!).

End of a weekend is not a sad news for me as new challenges await at work in the forthcoming weeks. Yet another session of planning, few weeks of work and another weekend of celebrating accomplishment. That is Agile methodology!

Sunday was well utilized with a few hours long meeting with a close friend and then reinstalling the system. This project stretched a bit far too long because of the greatest govt that Punjab has ever been gifted. Multiple power cuts had blown away my hard drive which I had to replace at an expense of amount that hurt quite a lot give the fact that I purchased one only 4-5 months ago. On top of that, the same power cuts have been restricting me from bringing the machine back to life again.

Taking example from the way we work at the office, I mean planning and stuff, I wonder if Badal Dynasty has a plan! Unannounced power cuts all the year round, stupid (and funny) power saving plans (we all know our govt employee friends and neighbors leaving for work at 7:00 AM!), No numbers on future up-gradation plans, refusal of nuclear power plant by the center Govt and so on... Where are they leading Punjab? Into the Night Lamp and Sleep-by-Sunset era?

Now the system is up and running (thank god) and after spending the day treating myself. I have to say that I enjoyed laundry to support my previous statement here :). Denying none of these, it is a good feeling having done something yourself to your own satisfaction. (perfection is a curse sometimes)

The weekend-bonus (Monday off) ended with a visit to Nahda Sahib.

I never planned it but was a mixture of enforcement(by my sister), encouragement (by a friend) and long standing emotional blackmail(by mom). So I thought this one visit will be a multipurpose one so why not?

On a serious note, now that I was at that holy place, I took the opportunity for the conversation with the abstract power and shared my requests, thanks and wishes for myself, family and some special friends at the same time strength for accepting all that is granted of it as it is. They call it Bhana.

Later had Langar and a quick return.

Anyways, enjoyed the 20 KM ride up and down as well.

With millions of candles lit up on the Birthday of Sri Gur Nanak Dev Ji across the globe, I hope some of us will be blessed with the divine halo of the Almighty's infinite glow and lead ourselves closer to sanity, wisdom and contentment that the world is missing these days.

One person enlightened spells many a dozen at peace.

May the light prevail. Good Night.