Sandeep Morusupalli

My experiences with Apple

2011-10-09T10:55:00.000-07:00

It was how my English education began– ‘A for Apple’. And I asked my teacher, ‘What is apple?’ The fact I was more curious about Apple than the letter A, pissed him off. And thus, Apple entered my life, way too early.

And a little later, my mom started reading books for me, “An Apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Since I would listen to her when she was teaching, she thought that I believed her. But I hated that fruit. Not until recently did I figure out that some lobby of over-ambitious apple farmers around the world invented that statement. (And if you ask me on how I knew, it was a personal enlightenment, out of the blues)

I never believed that statement, but my personal experience is- the inverse of that statement is true. One of those unfortunate days, when I was lazy and hungry at 11 in the night, I ate an apple. After I woke up in the morning, I had such a severe throat infection that I had to go to doctor and take medication for 7 days. The doc told that it was because I did not drink any water after eating the apple. Again, he thought that I believed him and left apple acquitted. But that is the last time I ever ate an apple. Damn that fruit.

So, Apple as a fruit sucks. But how can I start my education with such insanity. Only after a long wait came the answer. Those were the times when I almost believed that- restarting my computer is the solution for all the problems in the world. When India was loosing the cricket world cup finals to Australia, I would restart my computer in hope of better things.

It was after a few months into my first job, that I saw a Mac book pro. One of my colleagues got a new Mac, and the whole company was going gaga over his achievement, an Apple. And so it began – the new definition for the Apple.

And the rest of it moved very fast. Got my first Mac, apple released iPhone, got an iPod touch. By the time I bought my iPad people started looking at me as an apple fad, and I enjoyed every word of their mockery as a compliment.

And somewhere in between all of that, saw the Steve Jobs’ Stanford commencement speech to become his fan. Starts with “3 stories, no big deal”, and delivers a speech, most of which is now treasured as inspirational quotes. “Stay hungry, stay foolish”, “Connecting dots”, “Even those who want to go to heaven, do not want to die. Yet…”, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today…” - no words to describe the inspiration this man has left behind on this planet (I am not talking about this speech alone, but about all his life). In fact I started blogging (something I wanted to do from a long time), after watching this speech. If you feel like watching it (again), here it is for you.

Then I started following all his public presentations. Each one is a masterpiece. Little do I know about public speaking, to even attempt talking about the elements of his speech that leaves long lines before the Apple stores? “One more thing …” every time he said that, my heart went light, and the stocks soared high! I will be honored if I see another talk like those stevenotes in my life, and a dream come true if I can deliver one of those (dream big, my dad said). Remember the iPod Nano launch – the way he pulls the amazing iPod with from his small pocket. My personal best is the iPhone launch event.

It is already 4 years since I started taking any comments on Apple as pure ignorance. It is not by accident that they create stuff that rest of the world copies, and selling cheap is the only way they would overtake the original.

In one of those mocking session a colleague of mine mentioned about a research that said- when you talk to apple fans about apple, it is the same part of the brain that responds when you talk to people about religion and god. Of-course he has a point, Steve Jobs is the god, if technology is a religion. And apple will remain divine, for all the technology that touches people’s lives – in one way or the other.

What would have happened if Apple did not fall on Newton? A far fewer chapters to read in physics of course; but the world wouldn’t have known gravity!

And the state of affairs is not very different in my case if I haven’t met Apple. I would have saved a lot more money of-course, but my creativity quotient would have stayed far behind. Some of my fond memories wouldn’t have been possible without the apple products.

May be the day will come when I tell my son ‘A for Apple’, he will ask me 'Dad, is Apple the company that makes <the coolest gadget of the time>?' After all I want my children to be more intelligent than I am, but I can still claim that I walked on earth the same time Jobs did.

Yours,

Morus

P.S1: Started this blog on the day Steve Jobs stepped down as CEO, but the day has come too early, where it makes no sense for me to delay its completion.

P.S2: A few more blogs are to follow. I have way too much to say about this guy.

The Heart

2010-11-22T18:32:00.000-08:00

What is the most complicated thing in the world?
The heart probably; but this post merely tries to engross myself into amazement on what the size of this complex thingy should be/would be.

Having spent 4 prime years of my life in BITS, a part of my heart lies there in Pilani, in some corner of VK QT. Am sure that there will be many others who would agree with me that their parts of their hearts are also roaming around rent-less in FDs or some other Reidis of the campus.

But here is the point; Pilani is not the only place that a part of my heart has ever set up a permanent camp. How about Guntur, my domicile? Not sure if bigger or smaller than Pilani version, a part of my heart stays there too.

And the lists of places continue- Bangalore probably holds the greater part of it, with some part shared by Bay Area. And not to forget Vizayanagaram, the place I was born or Jangareddy Gudem – the place that brought me up and took my dad away from me!
So many pieces; aren’t they?

And whatever piece remains in me - its overloaded with a hell lot of stuff. Remember the iPad that is there for a long time now (and never actually came to me). And all those cool looking shirts, SLR cams, laptops, bikes, cars, and (OK, let me stop here). Ufff, should be Very Very Very much stuffed.

And this is after we throw away our hearts on all those good-looking girls of the planet and given it completely to that one special person* after a lot of trail(s) and error.
And how can you downplay all those friends and family that have a special place in there.

'I Love APIs', and if you are like me, your heart should have been by now, full of XML, Java, or all those crappy looking circuit diagrams or flowcharts. Technology and work I mean, an ocean by itself.

And now what should be the size of this heart - should be pretty massive to fit the above requirements description in logical terms.
But if it is, how many liters of water would be required to fill it up with tears or how many kilos of happiness would be required to fill it with joy? Somehow all that it takes is a little praise/compliment.

So what do you think the size be?
Scientists say - the size of a fist!
Can't be… Can it be? It does feel very very heavy sometimes…

eNjoy,
Morus

*PS 1: If you still remember where you saw that *, it was just a generalization.
PS 2: Tried to, but couldn’t avoid the psenti part.

Khaleja - My Review :P

2010-11-03T13:59:00.000-07:00

I am no reviewer of movies, no not at all. But this one time, I felt like reviewing the reviews of this movie that I liked a lot, that is judged to be un-likable by the authentic sources of the universe. And I got a classic case to strengthen my view that these professional movie reviewers are a pile of crap.

Is anybody else as curious as I am on what these reviewers do, after they get up in the morning every other day? Will they look at the calendar and say, “Yeah, today is the day. I can bitch a little more about Sharukh Khan. Where is my dictionary of urbane vulgar adjectives?” Or will they just open the book ‘Reviewing for dummies’ to revise the basics elements and say, “Oh yeah! Almost forgot about the concept – surprise element. Should see if Trivikram pulls the surprise element that I read the other day on surpises-database.com.” And is there a closed group-networking site where they will post, in the last 20 minutes of the movie “I am giving 3, what is the community opinion?”

Anyways, this is a topic for a different post, and I invite the radical movie viewers to pick it up from where I left it. But I had to bring it here, as I was about to tell that I was not at all surprised that there are no good reviews of this movie. And may be, it is meant to be that way. After all, what do you expect of those people to say of this movie, when they are trying hard to compare it with all the good things they ever knew about movies. The comedy was good, music okay; are all that the reviews have to say positive about this one. But I am sure that this is not what the makers of the movie wanted to hear about the movie.

I don’t remember how many times the Telugu moviemakers have really gone out of the box in making a movie like this. I felt the movie inspirational. It may just be my weirdo, but liked to see a movie like this made in the main stream. The core of the movie runs of the prophecy of a village priest that the God will incarnate to save their village. And the paradigm that God is not a distant omnipotent substance builds the solid foundation to the story. The converse would be that- the limit of human ability is infinite, as infinite as the God himself. I personally feel that the director/writer would have been blown off attempting to bring this concept to screen.

The concept was tried in the novel “The Immortals of Meluha”. Though I did not like the quality of writing or plot as much, I am amused by the sheer story line of the novel. Exploring the possibility of anew point of view, contradicting all that the infinite morass has taught us our entire life; isn’t it so amazing a source of optimism?

I was thinking that is just my own intellectual absurdity that I find the movie and book similar, may be because both of them talk about Lord Shiva in mortal terms. But this video is what made me realize that the moviemakers have hit the bull’s eye.

Watch the video, and think about it. And if you have watched the movie just think of what the hero is for those villagers – a god. But is just a cab driver for the rest of the world. And if the concept were legitimate, so can you be a hero for some cause/somebody but still be the same stinking you for the rest of the world? Doesn’t that make things simple and more importantly things possible?

Well, again- there is no rule that movies have to be realistic. Since reality in itself is just a point of view. And if there are more people like me who find these professional reviewers funny, join me in taking a digg at them.

eNjoy,
Morus

PS 2: I am not a fan of Mahesh

PS 1: If you did not like the movie but liked this post, think about me if you have some venture in mind and are looking for print marketing help

PS3: 2 coming before 1 - it was intentional

The Species Called ...

2010-10-11T15:45:00.000-07:00

Note 1: This is THE post that I was giving heads up about, in my previous posts
Note 2: There are always exceptions. If you stay abroad, you are exactly the exception I am talking about. But there is a small quiz at the end, if you like to take.
Note 3: Famous or infamous, any controversy adds popularity. What is the best way to gain overseas popularity than taking a dig against them?
Note 4: All the people living abroad are mature enough to laugh at themselves, and still feel good about it
Note 5: No one throws stones at fruitless trees. Only those full of then get hits.

That’s it guys, I ran out of comments that can pacify ‘The species called NRIs’
Long long ago Darwin classified the life on earth - called them reptiles, mammals etc and gave the gold to humans. And even before that, the men self-divided selves in whatever way possible (race, country, religion etc). But somehow everyone left it to the genius of Morus to classify this most superior species called NRIs

The term is first coined by Indian government and called it "Non Resident Indians". (For some reason, they are called NRIs even if they come back). It's only after the release of Swadesh, the real meaning was brought to light by Ashutosh Gowariker - "Non Returning Indians". Well but they do return to India, at-least briefly. But probably, since they can never return to being Indians, this definition holds true. Dodge this – ‘you will never see a day that they don’t speak about abroad, when they are in India.’ (And if there is, it is most likely that they are alone in the house that day.)
I think this is the funniest reply I’ve seen from a 2 months old, 3rd generation NRI. "Typical California Weather." The question is irrelevant, but 2 months to judge a typical California weather, and certifying that California in-fact has California weather qualifies it to top the charts.

“I am not complaining”, is how these conversations start but the rest of the conversations will be nothing but complaints on why India is not like US or doesn’t have tubes like London etc.

The optimist part of me used to think that it is just their concern for their motherland that they complain. But the water cooler discussions are what enlightened me to the fact that it is just an attention war (Ex: Walk on the Manhattan road, you will realize San Francisco is just another laidback city). And hence this post is to certify that they win the war and they are in-fact the most superior species that ever lived on the sub-continent.

Like any other species, NRIs also affect the ecosystem around them. If you are an Andhraite, you would definitely have heard a comment or two on this NRI hype; from their agents (also called family) left behind on this less privileged place. With all the sophistication they have somehow they are the best selling item in the marriage market. People who crib about the Indian corruption/bribes take the highest dowry (for me, both of them are not very different.)

Who knows, may be this time around I will comeback with a "I heart NY" in Bangalore, cursing the luggage delay and boasting about the difference between (read as greatness of) Hong Kong airport and San Jose airport to my comrade NRI (remember the water cooler discussions?).

But here is a small test if you want to measure the NRIness in you. Will put the answers in comments in a while.

All the questions start with “In India:”

1. iPhone or Android , who do you think the people will support?

2. What is the flight fare from Bangalore to Chennai?

3. What is the max speed you can do on Mumbai - Pune freeway?

4. What is the federal law for audio piracy?

eNjoy,
Morus

PS 1: Nothing... really...

Ruthless Verity

2010-09-23T23:36:00.000-07:00

I really did not want to write this post. But writing is something that has kept me sane, for a few years now. So I thought that I will write this one but will not post it in public. Few call it expression and some call it completion. But the bottom line is- if something has been bothering you a lot, you cannot be your self unless you cast those feelings out. So here it comes this post (probably purely for myself).

Weird the life is - I can write pages about things I've seen in a day. But words veil when I try to put my 25 years on paper - that is what describing this man would be. That is probably why these 2 letters in Kannada remains my favorite and most uttered word till date: Appa (Father in English)

I used to wonder why my success small or big is a bigger celebration for him than me. But thinking about it, all those sleepless nights of his about setting up the finances for my education or those restless thoughts he had in teaching me the right attitude- are the rightful owners of my success than I am. And now I wonder what any of this success or achievement would mean.

And I think, that is also why all the things I do now - as small as opening a key or as big as talking to my boss, take conscious effort from me. I am learning all these things again, all the things that he taught me, and all the things that he made me with. It is definitely a new life for me, as life can never be the same without him in it.
How I wish that all of this is a dream and I wake up to hear his voice at least, but only I do not know how to end this dream or wakeup for good.

I know that no one is here to set up a permanent camp. And life has to move on. But I think it is not my complete self, but a part of me that was he and will always be him- that is still orphaned as it is seeing the world for the first time, and cannot even budge as if 2 calendar months is no time at all to accept this ruthless verity.

Though I miss him badly ever now, since hatred is something he never taught me, ‘Thank god for giving me the worlds best dad. And thank him for me, for he is with you now’.

My dad used to tell me that - from gravest of pains comes the greatest of strengths. Though I wish to forgo any strength that I could get at this cost, I will now wait to see what it is, for that is what I think will define that part of me that is headless as of now.

The Great Bangalore JAM

2010-07-14T21:56:00.000-07:00

Just a few months back I was claiming that I enjoy the commute to office, as my Apache RTR would be waiting every morning to zap me through the 12 KM outer ring road stretch in 20 mins, taking a brief break at the few signals that would let me overtake the fast moving 4 wheelers. But this day, it took me 2 hours to reach the office. When I told my friends about this they said that this 10x* delay is nothing when compared to their best scores. But getting drenched both in sweat and drizzles in the same commute, I have my due rights to crib. And here comes this post: on the great Bangalore Traffic JAM

The traffic was fun as I could manage to drive through the small gaps the SUVs would leave for the bikers like me: to have the excitement of leaving the rich commuters behind with their morning radio, the fun that bikers alone would understand and appreciate. And when the theory of particle moment decided no more movement of liquid particles, I stopped.

A moment latter a vibrating tummy stopped next to me, as the scooty carrying it could move no further. The engine stopped when the burning petrol was no longer a global warming concern, but his monthly budget consideration. As global warming and overloading of poor vehicles were not the interesting of the topics, I decided to move ahead to a trail that will take me to the next signal. Apparently there are many more like me on the road, trying to advance. But amazingly the collective effort by all the individual drivers has an inverse effect of the traffic as a whole – it won’t move an inch.

The only cheerful things were the forward jokes on traffic Jams that I could memorize. I remember one of my bro’s friends telling me that he used to take a newspaper with him on the way to office, and would finish reading every corner of it by the time he reached office. If the traffic remained like that for few more days, I would have to think about some innovative idea – a new company till work (female of-course) or a new company to work for (closer to my home)

Am not sure if it’s the weather that responded to my mood or vise-versa, but both of them turned irksome. The sun should have read some twitter update. He came all his way pushing the clouds aside to check out this JAM and bless us with some free vitamins. After what looked like an era the traffic finally started moving. And then the auto guys who were standing on a perfect 45-degree angle to cross the road from the closed drains managed to do the honors. The traffic stopped again, almost– moving at a speed of 2 kmph (~ 1.25 mph for all you NRIs)

The immediate signal finally came within an hour. It’s not just the lack of basic needs of food and shelter; even the frustrating traffic jam drives the senses off people. The rich - poor, educated - illiterate, student - professional, to - fro commuters everybody started squeezing into the small junction – my social teacher john appeared of thin air saying “unity in diversity” to the classroom- me sitting in the second bench. And the realty stuck me “Holy crap! Hallucination – I needed some shade soon or I will faint”

I sure have some powers, within hours* the gods heard me. The sun vanished – probably some other topic was trending on twitter, and soon the clouds took charge drizzling some tears at our apathy.

“Remember SRK’s ‘I DO’, I AM the traffic jam” I said to myself and started steering my bike into the ruthless signal, leaving other poor souls in the back to think about their social teachers.

What was a boring 2 hours in JAM, turned out to be the exciting 15-minute finale. A truck guy with just beard and teeth (if I am to believe only my eyes) started forcing me toward the pavement of the road with his stupid truck blocking my way on to the road. He should be feeling good about helping me- by showing an alternate route he just discovered.

There lies the real reason for the traffic JAM, the fly over under construction. And I am right in the middle of that fbeepng construction. I wonder how these intelligent people think that the red ribbons that they put can really barricade the people entering the site – especially the mini truck terrorists from cross-border.

I turned back furiously to this truck guy and he was gesturing me to go with one hand while his other was on the horn ready to honk if I disobeyed. His only visible white teeth were assuring me that “I am behind you my boy, go ahead”. And few more vehicles followed this Columbus. “Now I can’t really block the innovation”, I convinced myself and moved on.

The road got narrower and the gap between the pits (dug for the pillars of the flyover) smaller as I went on. I turned back, and to my horror, the truck guy wasn’t there. The squander should have found his way towards the Hosur road leaving me in the middle of the construction.

The only spectator was a guy standing at the construction site- should be one of those TV9 Journalists thinking about the right abusive words to blame govt for my death. But to his dismay I managed to cross the patch, thanks to the servicing the previous week, the tires did not skid on that damp scrap.

A twitter post saying “frustrating traffic jam” would have been good enough. But 140 letters are hardly sufficed to let my frustration out. For true, traffic JAM is one of the instances where you realize that it is a myth that you can be in control of your life (circumstances at-least)

eNjoy,
Morus

* PS 1: Time is measured as per Einstein’s theory of relativity "Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute.”

PS 2: The ending comment is more to keep my mark of giving some gyan with every post of mine.

PS 3: I know traffic jam is not one of the fascinating topics, but wanted to throw a challenge at my writing skills (if I can call it a skill yet). Love to hear your comments

PS 4: The NRI comment is the pitch for my next blog

Did I Win?

2010-07-11T01:15:00.000-07:00

Read an interesting news article recently - the list of top failed countries. Pakistan as one of the top failed counties in the world. The first reaction to the news is a subtle happiness, for some reason that I don’t know.

May be this is the success of all the news hungry media/politicians and the so-called patriotic movies that stole a part of my hard (not really) earned money. For whatever reason, this country is my enemy and the first reaction to the news that it is in the list of failed countries is my victory, even though I have no role to play in its success or failure.

And then when I talked to few of my friends about this news, they too share the same happiness. So I am not the only one who is thinking iniquitous

A little more research on the same topic suggested that few other countries – Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh are also in the top of the list. God all our neighbors failed. Now is this a good sign. May be not.

And then I am confused, not because I have to rule India and talk to all these countries every week and day, but because of the weird correlation that came to my mind – the competitiveness in me. And I think all of us at different levels; share this attitude – fervor to win. And along with it comes this mysterious happiness on others failure, if we consider them as competition.

It’s more like this – all the while you struggle to reach the top. But when you succeed to reach there, then it will become all the more difficult to celebrate it, because you might have lost friends in the journey who would otherwise cheer you. And then you will keep wondering why you are not on cloud 7 at-least if not 9 at your victory.

Well it is not as worse too, but sometimes, a little exaggeration is required for your eyes to see the truth. But seriously, many a times the concept of victory looks dappled – especially if it comes because of other party’s failure. The only thing that can keep your sole at bay is the conviction that you played fair.

eNjoy,
Morus

With the Present - one more time

2010-06-29T22:19:00.000-07:00

“It's already late. The traffic of the outer ring road will be insane. And the 3 signals! I am surely to miss the train.” This used to be part of the travel packages almost all the time. Well, you can read that almost as certainly.

But this time it is a little different. Letting 3 buses go at 1 AM, drinking the tea from the platform vendor is not something that I generally do. Just to be transparent to my usual self I chose these reasons - the first bus was crowded, the seats of the second bus were not good and the conductor of the third bus was not shaved properly.

While these reasons will not satisfy my usual self that has mastered the world of reasoning, today I choose to enjoy my journey.
No advance booking, no enquiries of the routes. But this time, the time is spent on all the important unimportant things like copying all the new songs to iPod, thinking about the book to read on the journey.

Part of the excitement is that I am going into the deeper parts of Karnataka to spend time with my dad - the same place that my dad took me when I was 2 feet tall. Now both my Kannada knowledge and my height grew alike (meaning not enough). Nevertheless I can understand if not talk a little more Kannada now.

It feels great to set your foot in a place that you know nothing about - nothing but the fact that you have been there in some distant past.
Yo man! Life is long. (Or I am old!)

This feeling is close to what I used to have back then - the distant past. The magnetic chessboard was all that I cared about and some company to play and loose the game against me, watching the bright round light of the coramandel express.

I think the similarity is that I am living in the present - in both the cases.

Of course it is true that even if I take bike rides, I will reach the 180 odd kilometers by tomorrow morning. But the point I am trying to make here is that I generally loose the charm in life because I am more concerned about the uncertainty of the future, taking it for granted that the present that has not gone wrong is in fact a stage for celebration. (Err, curse my English for yet another long sentence!)

Let me leave you with this thought -
Did you ever have this urge of forwarding all the songs in your play list expecting the next song to be better; while all of them were in-fact the songs chosen by you and your favourites. I have it often - more so when I’m psyched. But now I've been using iPod only to write this blog, enjoying all the songs in my play list.

eNjoy,
Morus

What managers expect...

2010-04-16T00:07:00.000-07:00

Am a lil busy guys, these days.. Will catch up with you soon.. and will be something big this time...
(not getting married, of all the things)

meanwhile, dont want you guys to miss the best appraisal fwd mail i got....

What managers expect.... (feel free to use it in your self appraisals, short term/long term goals). A picture is worth 1000 words, if not more :P

It is not my story

2010-01-07T11:25:00.000-08:00

Refer to the ‘Wattha Hell Series: The introduction'

It is not my story

If not for that not, the above sentence is heard a lot these days from the India’s best selling author Chetan Bhagat hereinafter called CB. The term of CB means and includes his respective names, nicknames, pen names and extra hyped publicity. (if you want to know more about the controversy, this is your hot stop)
My interest in the topic this time – for a change is not because it managed to reach the top of the crap news that Bangalore Times sells. But because I hold high regards for both the parties involved in the controversy. I am a big fan of direction/plot/screen play of the Munna Bahi series (and 3 idiots just took that regard to the new level), and the other guy for his speeches and columns (I personally feel that his books are crap)

I read this on CB’s blog "I don’t need anything. Even if I have no more movies made on my stories or nobody wants to read my books and columns, I’ll happily join ISKCON and dedicate my life to Krishna. But I will not shy away from the truth – ever." and I felt, what a guy – all the logic in his blog is unquestionable! India needs politicians like him. And then thought about it for a while and felt, what a crap – no surprise if he becomes a politician soon. If this guy talks so much of logic now, what stopped him from using a pitch of it during his involvement in the whole project?

Well, but let’s not take things too seriously. These guys - both CB and 3 idiots team are doing their job – to keep people entertained and give media a bone to bite.
From his blog, looks like CB (along with his fans) has moved on, without getting any of the credits - for what he fought. But what he got is a percentage increase in this fan following, increase in sales of his book and his popularity. I was doing a Google search for some “check” and when I typed “che”, it suggested chetan bhagat (while chess. check, cheap all start with che). Look at his whuffie bank stats for a visual clue of that he achieved – popularity. His books are there for 5 years and he is aleady FAMOUS. But the stats say differently. ( i mean not just this analytics bit, but how often did you hear him in the media pannel discussions before this issue?)

“Read my book, watch the movie – and then you decide” is what he has to say. In the gusto of being a judge, looks like junta are doing both – reading book and watching movie. The sales of his books have been shot up by 30% apparently and 3 idiots movie is crossing breaching all the box office records.
I’ll not be hesitant to believe any rumor saying that this is a self-created melodrama – after all he is an IIM alumni and ex-Investment Banker, who has to now live solely on writings.

By the way, if CB gets his due credit for the movie - will the title be changed to 4 idiots?

eNjoy,
Morus
P.S 1: Since I borrowed most of his dialogues (not sure of the percentage), not to create any controversy, I am giving this post’s credits to CB (that too before any other end rolls)
P.S 2: Did not include 3idiots team, as they don’t take this credits funda seriously

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T10:57:00.000-08:00

Let me start this blog and the year with my status message on IM

History will remember 2009 as the year of slowdown... but lets forget it while we are marching into 2010... Happy New Year

I just closed the 67 open browsers in firefox, safari, and sea monkey and quit all of them before I opened this window to pen down this post.

The 30 minutes rain drive back home locked me at home for the remaining part of the day (not that I had plans otherwise). So decided to take a step back and plan on how I will welcome the New Year now that partying is ruled out.

Not a difficult task at all, looking at my room that was like the Xerox store - full of papers and the white marble floor self decorated with the dust that got accumulated for ages.
Definitely I needed to clear this mess before I plan of my welcome to the New Year.
But before that there are other things that I had to address in the list of my personal mess, like my hair (that falls more than it grows), that needed a haircut for more than a ... (don’t even remember for how long) and by the time I am done with these basic un- screwing up, I realized there is a little time left to plan or execute anything.

But then, when the clock stuck 12 and 2009 mentally departed from my mind I needed no more thinking or planning about this welcome party! I am not partying, not even watching TV exclusive New Year realty shows (that sucks anyways). But I liked this, conscious effort to clear the mess of the past and welcoming the future with a clean board to write upon. Closing these 67 tabs was one such effort.

And that in itself filled me with energy that was long concealed in the pretest of busy life!

For those of you, for whom occasions like New Year are just another day, try this – just try to complete something(s) that is (are) long pending and just wait for it to come. You are sure to make it a special day!

Stay tuned… a lot is to come into this space in 2010

Happy New Year!

eNjoy,

Morus

P.S: Just got myself a pen name – Morus (not sure how long it’ll stay though)

Only they didn’t

2009-09-05T14:00:00.001-07:00

I am up to a lot of things these days, and to be frank all of them are quite urgent to handle and very important for me.
I would have been surprised if I managed all of them… even decently sound. But the present circumstance, I definitely am not surprising myself. Well… partly because I’ve been bought into the fact that I cannot handle all of them effectively.

One of them is my Guitar. This is my second attempt to learn Guitar, and I believe that I am far better this time than my first attempt. But that’s where I stopped. Not able to go any further I’ve stopped going to classes for almost a month. That is the equal amount of time that I have actually gone to the classes. One of my reasons was that I would get time to practice my entire backlog if I had time to practice. I am proving myself wrong till now.

Hmmm, this is not one of those confession stuffs. I am not even complaining, but this is what came to my mind when I read this today:
“The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of sport you might say. But that’s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in mind. Folks seem to have just landed in them. But I expect they had lot of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t. And if they had, we shouldn’t know, because they’d have been forgotten. We hear about those that just went on” Sam Gamgee chatting with his master Frodo in The Lord Of The Rings. If a good sentence can change a life, I don’t need anything more inspiring than this.

How much of wisdom can these old tales give you? But only, if you care to open your ears and listen. Not everything is relevant to what I am. I definitely am not one of those who want to go out and try adventures. But surely all the people/characters in the famous stories are remembered because they didn’t turn back at lot of chances that would have come to them. And here we live as their legacy. And for those who did, they just never mattered… like many others.
Well… I don’t know what I really would do this time, but here I have a chance to turn back (as always).

Allz for good

2009-08-09T06:07:00.000-07:00

A trip to my native was not a very rosy one this time. This post is certainly not to bother you with them, as those grievances are my private treasure. Weird ways to encourage children do dads’ possess- one such was the archaic tales that they tell us. This one particularly looked too simple to be interesting, but made a lot of sense when I think about it later.

Long ago when the world was relaxed, was a king who ruled not so prominent province. He has a minister whom he is very close to, and took his counsel for almost everything he does. Very encouraging he was to the king, and helped him keep his calm in the times of need. One sentence he used to advice too often that it almost became gibberish in that kingdom “allz for good”. Whenever the king was discontented with anything, the minster would tell this to console and encourage his king.

Like any other royal blood of his time, the king liked hunting a lot. He used to go on hunting very frequently. And he used to fancy the rare animals that fell for his arrow. The horns of the antlered deer that hung in his room were his souvenir of pride. In one of those hunting outings, he was upset that he could not fell any wild animal. The very few that he spotted also managed to escape successfully. Thanks to all the professional hunters, the animals in that forest either perished and the survived fittest are now too tactful for king's hunt. Suddenly the king gave a sudden shrill of agony. Blood was all on his chariot by the time he realized that an arrow stuck to his thumb, and removed it. Probably some hunter shot at him, attracted by the sound he made, or it could be one of his foes, no one ever knows.
The king rushed to his palace, where the imperial docs treated the hand and his pain. But the thumb has to be removed. The king was very upset that he can no longer hunt, and that in it qualifies the loss of thumb as the greatest disability. He was very much wretched, when he was telling his minster of the disaster.

The minister felt pity of the king, and advised him all the political stuff like asking the king to ban the professional hunters from entering the forest for a while. And about his hunting, he said, “don’t worry! Allz for good.” The king was expecting some exceptional advice from him, but he is very upset for his advice not just seemed useless, but also looked like ridicule. His frustration reached another highs, and shouted on his minister. He fired him and abandoned him from entering the kingdom for life. Insulting king and proving worthless in the hour of need is the greatest mistake for a minister, told the king to rest of his counsel.

His short province was seeing its king’s gloominess, and the minister's little sentence became a story rather than an advice in the empire. After a few years that looked like a lot more, the king went out wandering into the same forests just to revisit his golden days. The local cult there kidnapped the king and took him to their leader. They were performing some ritual as it appeared to the king. Few people are setting the fire, and he felt that it was made to burn him. May be this is a cannibal tribe thought the king. He being a king would not matter, as the tribe seems to be unaware of any king or kingdom. All his warnings, pleas proved in vain as they didn’t know his language. His death seemed inevitable, and even a king could not help himself. The priests started performing rituals on the king. Suddenly the priest stopped the ritual, took kings hand and spoke in a harsh voice to his men and the leader. And then astoundingly the king is left free.

Shocked at the unknown miracle that saved his life, he retuned to his palace. He summoned the scholars and asked them to enquire about the tribe and what happened to him that night. He then learnt that they were performing one of their sacred rituals and had to give a human sacrifice. But since the king lacked a finger, he was not eligible for the sacrifice, and hence they left him free. He immediately remembered his minister and his “allz for good” advice. Had he not lost his finger, he would have been dead – sacrificed to god. His repentance has no limits, and he could not have peace of mind till he met the minister and apologized.

Well a very short moral from this long story. The good advices can sometimes be boring. & . it doesn’t harm being optimistic. If you felt this post is too simple to be interesting, think about it later, you may find it make some real sense.

TeNseD

2009-06-19T06:11:00.000-07:00

A small vacation should refresh me, as I would not be thinking of the office work for sometime was my excuse to go to my grand parents place last week. In more than one ways, taking a small vacation like that is a good thing- that I would love to write as a separate post (and hopefully, will do that too). BUT back to work after the vacation is in-fact horrible. I had to deal with the two repelling like poles. Coolness (the marketing term for laziness) that I had acquired during the vacation was setting me on back-foot, while the heavy swell in office work which was waiting for me like the tide in the 'Airtel impatience add' that levitated and would fall on me once the buffering is done. I wonder if I feel any better than the rope that is being used for the tug of war between two sumo wrestlers’ groups.

Amid all this, Wednesday was the day when the work dump won over the coolness, and my workstation got me as the prize of its victory. A phone call got me back to my senses and I looked at the top right corner of my Mac where the clock showed 11 PM, feeling the shrill that there is a lot of stuff pending while my energy reserves would be over soon. The dogs that would guard our colony for free; would be waiting to show the new Joinees how to bark at the people (strangers or not is immaterial), if I reach our lane escaping the rash traffic of the outer ring road. But the workbench is grinning at me flashing the 17 bold items on my to-do list and the 10 odd un-replied mails. The dinner that I missed would have been the last of my concerns if my stomach did not complain. But with a slight pain, it is warning me that it can go on a strike if I neglect it.
Replying to the urgent mails in the most important list, and wrapping the other things, I set to home and feeling bad about the unfinished work, and feeling good about breaking the inertia with respect to the office work, while 3 other colleagues of mine are still in The Matrix waiting for their phone call.

The security guy Khan who would always give me a good night smile is looking tensed too. Then I started wondering if I saw one face that wasn’t tensed from the morning. He was tensed that he forgot to do something, he was telling me about that as if the world is goanna end tomorrow. He forgot to get the evening newspaper and put it on table. With just 3 people left in office, those too waiting eagerly to call their day off, no one would even think of the evening paper. The thought of someone getting restless about things that wouldn’t matter brought a smile on my face. As I am sure that I also contribute my part to this pool like panicking when India is loosing a cricket match, or feeling embarrassed that others on road are watching me paying fine for breaking the signal. None of them would make any difference to what I am and what I do. But… that is how I am ☺. The only solace is, I am not the only one, and I have the world of people in my company.

Qualified Blogger ?

2009-03-26T10:38:00.000-07:00

Answer any 3 of the following:

How do you add an image to the blog post?
How do you retweet your friend's tweet?
What is the wikipedia site in france named as?
What steps can you take to prevent spam commenting on your blog?

This can be one of the sections in the 5th Grade Examination paper soon.
Be prepared to teach your children about the social media, and for partime bloggers like me, watchout for a graduated batch of Bloggers who may come out some premium institutions soon.. to compete/subside us.

Okay, this may be a bit of exagitation, but the news has it that online communication and social media to be made a permanent part of the UK’s education system.

Experts from the article:

No, it is not April 1st yet. The British government is proposing that Twitter is to be taught in primary (elementary) schools as part of a wider push to make online communication and social media a permanent part of the UK’s education system. And that’s not all. Kids will be taught blogging, podcasting and how to use Wikipedia alongside Maths, English and Science.

Children will also learn “fluency” in handwriting and keyboard skills, and how to use a spellchecker. Luckily they will still be taught how to spell themselves, rather than rely on Mr Clippy.

Personally, i felt it a little funny.... But you know... the Britan way, everything has to be tought from a book... Who knows, we may soon follow that.. But one thing i wish i had in school was SPELL CHECKER. My teachers used to have a competetion in finding the maximum spelling mistakes in my paper. Every time each one of them would feel that they have definitely won after correcting my paper, as that would be the maximum spell mistakes in the history so far.
When i search google for SoAnadSo and it asks me do yo mean SoAndSo?, I used to wonder "How do u know that.. Are you Mr Brahmaiah (my english teacher in college)",

I wonder how my life would be without a spell checker.... Horibal (i mean.. a misspelt horrible)

Hope the next gen kids will not face any problems with spellings like me, if spell checker is made a part of the education system.

P.S: I am writing this post without a spell chekar, and leave the competetion of finding mistakes to you.

Accelarators: Welcome to Internet Explorer 8

2009-03-12T11:59:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Internet Explorer 8: "Before you begin browsing, take a few seconds to discover two of our new time-saving features.
What's New
Get things done faster with Accelerators

Start searching, mapping, emailing, and translating from the page you're already on without navigating to other websites.
Watch a video to learn how to use Accelerators."

All that it took for me to post this blog, is a right-click on my internet explorer, and use the "Accelerator" to post it on to my blogger.
I am not a big fan of microsoft, but i liked this feature.. A very good use of the web services.

But could have been better, if it could copy the image I selected to the blogger.
Considering it is microsoft, you can't ask for more.

Waah !! even blogger !!! I cant add label to this post from the blogger webservice that IE opens up

Awesome Students

2009-03-05T05:35:00.000-08:00

Refer to the ‘Wattha Hell Series: The introduction’

Long time since i've found something for my wattha hell series..
Not that I am finding the world perfect, its just that I am bored of these "how much is too much?" news... Pols, terrorism etc

My Yahoo mail today has a surprise mail

The mail is from some one who apparently wanted some help on the project that i have presented a paper on, some 3 years back in "Map India" conference.

Considering the fact that he wanted help on some project he has seen on internet, this mail of his definitely qualifies for the wattha hell series..
No more commentary on the mail, read it for yourself..

Now I am definitely not thinking about sending my project report to him, but thinking whether this Manglorean can sue me if I dont reply politely.

Back Then

2009-01-18T10:06:00.000-08:00

On an otherwise boring weekend, setting up mail client for my gmail account on my Mac gave me something to think about. For some time I was irritated that the client is downloading mails from the time the account is born, which was in 2006. Those are the days when gmail was introduced and brought ‘.’ Into the legal mail id characters. I was too excited to see this and hence created an ID with as many of them as possible making m.s.a.sandeep my gmail account.

While the client is downloading the mails of its account’s sunup, I’ve been transported to the 2006 days, digesting with difficulty the fact that its been 3 years since my psenti sem (In BITS Pilani, we call the final semester as psenti sem). Those were days when a forward mail from friend with ‘Sardar Ji jokes’ makes me laugh full out. Not only would I forward that mail to all my wingees, but also go to each one of them to make sure that they get the joke. They surely used to laugh, if not at the joke, at my desperate attempt to make them laugh.

Those were days when the world (rather my world) was a lot younger. The gift that he would buy to his friend for their friendship anniversary was the top concern for one of my friends, not the financial concerns and the family responsibilities that he is now deep into. Meeting professor for project after an era of idle life used to be trouble of the time, not the present project deadlines and the job security, for the other. Those were also the days when a gate-call from or to girls’ hostel used to be an achievement, .01 raise is CGPA used to be a celebration. The biggest disappointment was when India looses the world cup (2003 world cup), not when share market collapses. In short, life was quite simple and lively (or livelier, if that word is not a myth).

And then there was this vast invisible world. When I repeated a course, or shed blood to see my friend as our assoc secretary, there was no reason. I used to like this picture a lot, for some reason that I am unaware of. For me this is the picture of a train that is traveling on high skies whose tracks are invisible. May be this is the picture that is close to my feelings when I was following my instincts, and not the morass. The ‘invisible rails’ in the picture is my invisible world, which I used to believe in.

Now I know too much to believe in all those. The invisible world is now a stroke of luck, or a coincidence. Now I know that I’ve to be concerned about my investment returns, but not calling home when promised. I know that forward mails are funny, not fun… and a lot more.

For sure, “Ignorance Is Bliss”

A Tribute

2008-12-17T01:42:00.000-08:00

Love at first sight was a myth, until it happened to me. These were my initial days in Bangalore, one of the Sundays… was roaming around marathalli with friends. Nothing under the sky has changed. The same traffic jammed roads of Bangalore, the buildings of the shops’ anxiously gazing to encroach any available land before them, the ruthless auto drivers ready to run over anyone on the way (whom I hated the most for their ridiculous fares and the harshness in driving and otherwise). But they all seemed interestingly pleasant.
Definitely … love is in the air...

As there is nothing else to do we went into one of those numerous shops in there. A cool breeze greeted me into the shop. Was not sure if it is the breeze of the AC or the presence of her that made me twirl my head, but I couldn’t take my looks off her for a minute. That minute seemed longer than an era and shorter than an eye blink. Her perfect looks, her smile like a flash… I am not a PhD in BS (Beauty Sciences not Bu** S**t), but I knew that she is the epitome of beauty. I instantly knew that her company would make my life colorful.

Frns said “go for her”… parents said a BIG NO… The fight was big with all the electronic media as the battleground. Email, chat, phone, fax, sms… no means was left untouched in frns and family giving me suggestions in favor or disapproval of my decision. The battle ended when I said “enough” and walked to the shop where I saw her first and… bought her for 25K to make her “My Nokia N73”.

Yeah I am talking about my mobile… the first gadget that I bought for myself after I started earning, that was in my company for the last 2 years. The 3 MP camera made sure that all those happy moments with friends are captured and stored safely, my source of entertainment with a high-quality music player, not to forget the GPRS and the great experience brought by the web browser. The best moment that’s captured… I think was Amir Khan’s visit to our office campus for shooting Gajani.

Given the careless guy I am, there is no wonder that I lost my mobile. But it hurts to part something that has been the very part of my life all these years. Something that’s been with me in my good and bad times, happy and unhappy moments bringing me all those tidings from across the world that I am part of.

This blog is a tribute to my dear one, which is no longer with me. For me she was a part of my life… But for someone who stole it, its a second hand- 2 years used and worn out mobile, without any accessories. I wonder how much he expects to make out of selling such stuff leaving the real owner in a total mess (trust me… apart from all these psenti feeling, loosing all the contacts, number, messages, snaps leaves you in a real mess)

Good that men are not Canibals by default :P

2008-11-28T01:58:00.000-08:00

Population of Singapore Same Weight as Amount of Turkey Consumed for Thanksgiving

According to the National Turkey Foundation, approximately 690 million pounds of turkey were consumed in the United States during Thanksgiving 2007. This equals the weight of 4.48 million individuals of average weight (154 pounds); the population of Singapore as estimated by the last census in 2005.

just a fun fact.. no inferences..

Happy Thanks Giving

$S for Domain Name

2008-11-12T12:12:00.000-08:00

Refer to the ‘Wattha Hell Series: The introduction’

Last week has been a bit busy for me with no time to read my RSS feeds. A list of 999 feeds showed up (The maximum that my Google reader would show).
Was quickly glancing through the reader, making the max use of “Mark all as read” button on the top of the page. But this one caught my attention. Not sure if it the “what recession?” phrase in the title or the $1 Million - which is a lot of money (or the picture in the post :P) that pulled my attention, but ‘wattha-hell’ was the immediate reaction after reading it.

The news is:
“Privately-owned PriveCo, which specializes in retailing embarrassing products online, has paid $1 million for the acquisition of the domain name vibrators.com”

May be I am jealous, that some one could make a Million $s just by selling a domain name, but there are lot many reasons that makes me feel that this one deserves a ‘w-h’. A dedicated site to sell these products, ships 1500+ packages a week. And they claim that they are ahead of the competition (which means that there is competition too). And they could spare 1 million just to buy a domain name. Never thought that in this interesting world, domain name can also be an investment.

Because

2008-10-24T05:20:00.000-07:00

It’s already 11 AM and I am still in the parking lot of my apartment.
These days, I am consistent in one thing- “Going late to office”.

And another thing along with this has come into my routine, in-fact 2 things- rushing on the roads cursing any living/non living thing that comes in my way. And the other thing is- thinking of a reason to fire out, if any some one is even remotely interested my coming late to office. This part of Sandy’s life is called Creativity.

And the interesting thing is: I started getting a lot of reasons from the time I started looking for one. Though no one cares to ask me about them here in office, I don’t want to let go my creativity to ruins, so posting them (I believe that helping those who are in need of reasons is also a form of social service):

The best one is today’s

The street near our house that I come by is blocked by localities for their Diwali celebrations. And even yesterday, the road is semi blocked by procession for the festival. The interesting thing is- they don’t give a chance to the ppl like me to bawl for blocking the traffic, because they do it first on us. They treat the traffic like the shame on Bangalore’s face… the one that is killing their happiness, peace and freedom. (I dunno what freedom is for them, may be build their own drawing room on the public roads). But today there is no stopping, they managed to put a tent on the road and block both sides of it with heavy stones. Not that I have to travel 10 extra kms because of this, but this is a good enuf reason. What say?

Here is the next best for Bangloreans

When I go to office from marathalli to indiranagar, I see some roads wet because of rain and some really dry. I never felt Bangalore that big, but these different weather reports from different places makes me think otherwise. Nevertheless this is one of the best arrows in my quiver – “It was raining when I started”. But I plan to do this only when the roads in/near my house or office are wet.

And here is the most common one:

Traffic jam near any of the signals, and the best is near 3 or more signals. And you should add ‘I hate Bangalore traffic’ and when you are saying this, you should sound really nasty.... buddy.

And if you come by bike/2 wheeler

say something like 'India is going to dogs; no one can save the country. It is totally corrupt.' You need not mean any of these (and I personally feel that people who abuse the country this freely do not really mean all that they say) but this is just to create a solid base for the reason that you are about to fire. The Traffic police caught me. I had to pay 100 bucks even though I have all the papers, and when some one says “why did you pay?” as a natural reaction to your red lines (I meant all that concern for India), you can say- “I did not want to come late to office, fighting with him. So decided to shed the money ”. Now you see- you can as well gather some goodwill if your manager overhears the conversation. And this works out best if it is the end of a month, you will see some one or the other who really went through this, and they can add some more meat to your reason.

P.S. 1: For me reasons are just reasons, they can’t alter some thing that happened, but just something to make you/others happy, so don’t think too much about right/wrong good/bad true/false when you are giving one. Just give something that works.
P.S. 2: I don’t want to over load this post for the sake of retaining interest, shall post other reasons based on the response to this one
P.S. 3: You can add your own reasons as comments; we can work together on productizing your reason ☺

The Bundle

2008-10-18T02:36:00.000-07:00

How many times is a ‘bundle of 100 sticks’ stronger than each of them?

Well the answer is not 100. Where does the additional strength come from? Does it come from the thread that makes the sticks a bundle? In-fact not, and further more, the thread by itself is useless without the sticks. It is the unity that makes the difference. Things like these look obvious in case for stuff like sticks, but not so very obvious in real life.

How many times did you really appreciate someone? And how many times of this appreciation is for a deed instead of an achievement? And again the answer is not any number. At least, I don’t mind accepting that I do not do it very often. Not that I am doing a crime or that I am unethical, but just that my sense of reality is like this:

To do a real difference to the world around me, I have to be successful
To be successful, I should concentrate on self-improvement
Self-improvement for me is to constantly compare myself with others, if not dominating them.

This is something that I’ve adapted from the society that I’ve grownup in. And this I think is the case with many of us, just that the intensity varies from one to another. Symptoms of which I see in our group’s chats where the discussions on new ideas seem to die faster, whereas the conversations on tripping live the longest. I remember that when I missed 1st rank in my 3rd grade, I envied the ones who got 1st and 2nd and when I was 1st in the next exam, the ones who got 2nd and 3rd now envy me ☺. Though this struggle appears just in this case, the same attitude appears detrimental when you are up-to something in life. The reason is simple: a bundle is always stronger and that strength is what drives you to what you are up-to.

So I started thinking what does it take to make us a bundle. May be 2 things:

1) Willingness of the individual sticks to form a bundle
2) The thread that makes the individuals a bundle

So first of all the willingness is important. This post is my confession to our group that I will give up my sense of reality and stop believing that “energy can never be created, and that I have to prove others weak to make myself strong(er)” and start believing that "creation is possible".
Standing in this place I started thinking of the twine that makes the bundle. This should be the possibility that each of us sees for us as a group, the possibility of leadership, joy, happiness and achievement.

It is just one day that I’ve taken up this new belief system, and I can see that creation is possible. Candy started writing his blog, our group have been together for dinner after almost 10 months playing air hockey.

Not bad huh? After all, the journey is what makes it worthwhile than the destination itself.

Cultural Shock

2008-10-01T08:31:00.001-07:00

Refer to the ‘Wattha Hell Series: The introduction'

I seriously wanted my next post in this series non-political, but looks like the theme 'wattha-hell' and politics have cohesion beyond my imagination.

Flirting at its heights - head of a nation while representing his nation……. desperate in his attempts to amaze a woman (who also is representing her nation)…… in public…… in a ‘supposed to be a diplomatic’ meet….... when the whole world is sympathizing him on his wife’s death (former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto). Yeah I am talking about what happened when Pakistan president Zardari met Sarah Palin, US Republican vice-presidential nominee.

''Now I know why the whole of America is crazy about you.'' says Mr Zardari who proves himself crazier than all of them. This one is the masterpiece - when the reporter asked them to shake hands for a pose our Zardari turned it really on to Palin “If he is insisting, I might hug you” lol ☺ Complete link here.

Can any thing be humorous than this? Of-course there is. Only politics can beat politics. The honored president got a fatwa. Now wait, while getting a blame for whatever he has done is fine, this one has a little twist. The crime according to the fatwa is trails to turn on a non-islam woman wearing skirts.
May be Mr Zardari in all his goodwill, wanted to have a good relationship with America(an).

Short-cut

2008-09-23T03:13:00.000-07:00

Refer to the ‘Wattha Hell Series: The introduction’

The best way to get popularity these days is to get involved in a controversy. I really wonder if the people who take controversy as a short cut to the popularity really care about or respect the stand that they take in that particular controversy. The latest is the war between Raj Thakrey and Big B over Jaya Bacchan’s statements hurting the sentiments of the Marathis (while the truth is that she made some statements supporting Hindi or UP).

All the country protested when Shilpa Shetty was hectored at the Big Brother show in a foreign country. When we expect the foreign countries to respect us despite the fact that they are foreign, how can someone expect/entertain statements like Mumbai belong to Marathis. What would this do to the reputation of Marathis living in other states, leave alone those living in other countries. Ain’t this attitude a hindrance to the development of our country?

Of-course ‘wattha-hell is the first thing that came across my mind when I read about this article, but how desperate are the politicians to gather some support from the innocent public.

Wattha Hell Series: The introduction

2008-09-23T02:01:00.000-07:00

Guys, I decided to start ‘wattha hell’ series of posts on my blog. This is not something that I am writing out of frustration, vexed with the lax ways of human lives ;) or to show my compassion for all the atrocities, obscenities of the society around me or with the concern at the plight of the country … or … or whatever.
So what is this? Inspired by my friend’s series of cartoons on his blog, I too wanted to start a series. And considering the fact that my sense of creativity is little too far for cartoons, I decided to stick up with this series.

Many a times we come across some thing or the other, be in when reading news or watching some programs on TV, happenings at work place, or general gossip where the first thing that comes as a dialogue is ‘wattha hell’. This series is all about those incidents that deserve a ‘wattha hell’.

In Short this series is dedicated to pure nonsense.
All the posts in this series will be labeled ‘wattha-hell’. If you come across anything that’s worth a lot of ‘w-h’s (now you should know that w-h means wattha hell) you can post them as comments to this post or any of the post under this label.

Fried Maggi

2008-09-10T04:22:00.000-07:00

‘Dho fried maggi’ I ordered at the counter in ANC(All Night Canteen) before we pulled few chairs to sit in the open air at 11 PM on an august night for a gossip. I had to skip the dinner that day as the apti (aptitude test) for the Juno Online started in the evening and went till late in the night. But I’ve nothing against them for I believed that ‘If you have something in your heart, it will be shown in your eyes' and I didn’t want to take ANY chances during my Campus Interviews. While Bhagawan ji was busy cooking the maggi, we resumed to cooking the strategies to crack the campus interviews. Here I take the opportunity to tell you the importance of having friends who can boost your confidence and make you believe in your strengths - when you need them the most, and thank Manoj for being one such. I was not sure if luck would be with me all the time that I get the questions from the very few I glanced at the last summer but this time it is definitely with me. Then started the weird feeling and prayed to god for 2 things

1. Others didn’t write the apti as well as I did (except my friends of-course)
2. Power to read the interviewer mind so that I can give him the answers he is expecting

A zap on the fast forward button, in filmi style ‘After 3 years’ (with background music of bullets firing) I sit in the ANC as one of those whose minds I wanted to read some time back, explaining my friends in Fiorano the greatness of ANC’s fried maggi.

Thank god that cars have no life/feelings etc etc, otherwise the Honda CRV would have thrown us out waaaay before we reached Pilani because of the awesome (read as awful) roads and the cool driving (I’m sarcastic here) of Delhites. But the feel of being in campus seems to be worth that entire nightmare journey to the land of Birlas’.

Listening intently to the PPT (Pre Placement Talk), (with main focus on the CTC the company has to offer this time), helping the company employees as a placements volunteer, the anxiety to see the Questions when the papers are distributed, waiting impatiently for the extra rough sheet, showing the skills in acting when the interviewer asks some puzzle that I am already aware of etc all looked familiar at the same time interesting to see from a different eye. It is like watching the audience from within the theater screen ;).

Watching the entire episode so closely, I started realizing how silently defining moments of life are made. I was a little aware of what life has for me when I accepted my offer in Fiorano. Congratulations to all those who got placed in Fiorano and for others who couldn’t clear the interview, ‘your destiny is waiting for you. It is just a matter of time you find it'.

This flight back to Bangalore is looking longer than the 30 odd hours of train journey to Delhi during college days (even though trains do not have air hostesses) marking the end of my hectic/brief stay in campus that dug out a lot of memories and added one to the same stack.

Watch-out for the signs

2008-08-17T22:38:00.000-07:00

Few signs to tell you that you're wasting your time

1. When someone says ‘you look sooooo beautiful’ without giving you any flower.

2. 18 months in 10-6 routine. No raise.

3. When she says, “IF you felt bad, I’m sorry.” (There would be no if, simply “I’m sorry”, if she is really sorry)

4. You read any e-mail when the subject line starts with "Fwd: Fwd:”

5. You’re on diet but still saying, “McDonald's, ba da ba ba baa ... I’m lovin` it!”

6. You listen to Hard-Metal for any other reason than to show your so called COOL friends that you are COOL too.

7. When the anchor in a reality TV show starts saying, “And the winner is …” Better get up and start applying Olay Age Defying Anti-Wrinkle Replenishing Night Cream.

8. You mail shows ‘Zero New Mails’ more than 70% of the time you open it.

9. Your Boss says ‘You are almost there’ all the time. (You should have been there by now, if you were almost there last time)

10. You stare at an orange juice container because it says CONCENTRATE (I’m actually talking about being over obedient to your boss)

P.S: You can add more to the list as your comments. ☺

Sparks

2008-07-31T00:53:00.001-07:00

These days, i've become little busy to write blogs, or rather am too much into routine that i am not gettning topics to blog on.

But have been reading quite a few of them, and felt this one exceptional - "Chetan bhagat speech @ Symbiosis pune". Read it fully and leisurely and you will surely appriciate it.

Many a times, when it comes to *selling happiness* things begin with childhood and stop with college. It feels a little odd to me, as all the time i was a child i wanted to grow *big* and when i was in college, I've have had a constant eye on the career after college. When ever i see kids trying to impress that they have grown up , i feel that i was no different from ordinary children. But still why do many a times we keep hearing people yelping about the life that is past, something that you really wanted to be the past?

When i hear a very good review about a movie or a book, i feel very excited about checking that out. And i feel disappointed sometimes even if it is good, claiming that it is not up to the expectations. May be same is the case with everyone of us, may be we fail to live up to the expectations we set for ourselves in our dreams/immaginations etc ? And may be that is the reason we fail to see these sparks in people when they grow older?
But the fact we fail to realize is - No one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending!

Coming back to the post of Chetan Baghat, this is what i liked the most of it and highly relevent to the thoughts running in me. (It sometimes feels that other people know more about me than myself)

" Most of us are from middle class families. To us, having material landmarks is success and rightly so. When you have grown up where money constraints force everyday choices, financial freedom is a big achievement.

But it isn’t the purpose of life. If that was the case, Mr Ambani would not show up for work. Shah Rukh Khan would stay at home and not dance anymore. Steve Jobs won’t be working hard to make a better iPhone, as he sold Pixar for billions of dollars already. Why do they do it? What makes them come to work everyday?

They do it because it makes them happy. They do it because it makes them feel alive. Just getting better from current levels feels good. If you study hard, you can improve your rank. If you make an effort to interact with people, you will do better in interviews. If you practice, your cricket will get better. You may also know that you cannot become Tendulkar, yet. But you can get to the next level. Striving for that next level is important."

Hope that you also enjoy the post as much as i did.

Live Differently

2008-06-29T22:53:00.000-07:00

Are you one of those who want to live differently? Do you take extra care to make sure your presence is felt and respected? Do you dream of, yourself as an emperor in the world of yours? Then this one is just for you. Am not talking about an empire or something here, but a house (an apartment rather) that matches the hype I’ve given. If you are one of those who follow news regularly, you might have heard of this “World's first rotating skyscraper unveiled in Dubai”. The 420-meter (1,378-foot) building features 80 apartments that spin a full 360 degrees around a central column by means of 79 power-generating wind turbines located between each floor.

I am trying my best not to mull over the questions my mediocre physics had raised on the stability of such a huge structure which is free to rotate at its will (or rather at the will of its master). Check this video out to understand how different people think. An expert of the video is the architect David Fisher challenging one of the fundamental techniques in constructions that the structures are to be built to resist wind. And this guy has just taken a U turn to make use of the same wind energy to rotate them.

Read Full Story at Telegraph.co.uk

May be there will be a time in future when we see intelligent buildings that think, move and even fight among themselves. May be a subject for a fiction movie/novel something like “raise of the buildings” or “battle of the edifices”? (Gosh I am getting creative ☺).

Coming back to reality, rotating apartments is all you have as of now. The apartments will take between one and three hours to make a complete rotation, and at 30,000 dollars per square meters, Just about 36 million dollars (Rs150 crores) for a home. And not just it, there is another trade off. You have to move to Dubai if u are interested in this. (Yes, this is being constructed in Dubai). Too much to spend for a house huh? There are things that money can’t buy, but for others my salary is not enuf ☹

Cross Roads?

2008-06-06T06:33:00.000-07:00

These days I rarely get to think of anything other than the happenings and work @ office. And should say that I’ve met an Oasis on my recent visit to my grand father’s place. A get-together of all our cousins and relatives after I entered the software world is not just a dream after all. Many things came across in our discussions and conversations but the most significant one, I think was ‘the cross roads’ (that is what I would like to call the endless series of group discussions and debates on my cousin’s after 10th academic career).
My friends from Andhra would be quite aware of such a drama happening at home, if taking biology stream was your choice, more so if you do not fall under any of the reserved sections. It seriously is amazing to see the knowledge people retain on the career-oriented stuff amid their addiction to the TV serials that take the audience to the new heights of nonsense each day (while, doing a plastic surgery to change the character artists stopped shocking me of late, a recent brain transplant stunt to retain a character’s memory after it is dead, left me bewildered. What is interesting is, they do it at the ease of changing the hard disc of my PC, and the audience still finds it convincing :O).

This poor chap had taken 2 valiant decisions, 1. Wanting to be a doctor while the rest of Andhra is engineers 2. Announcing his decision and staying open for an opinion (This blog of-course is not a poll asking for what would be better for his career). Though in his case it is highly visible (at-least to me) that he is being pressurized to live others’ life, many a times there is a subtle pressure on all of us from the family/friends/society from taking the path we wanted to when we are on cross roads (be it career, hobbies, love and anything that is important to YOU). The irony is that the people who make these brick walls are the people who care for us, who are afraid that we may not succeed or that we are being hasty, immature et al.

Deep down I had an urge to support this chap, tell him that it is okie to follow what your inner voice tells you (this inner voice stuff, I read in one of the self help books recently. Its not my own!! ). But I had no answer to the thousands of questions that hushed me up when I tried to tell him that it is sensible for him to follow his heart. The best one I would say is the example one of ’em quoted about a not very bright distant relative of mine getting settled in a s/w company where as another bright (again) distant relative of mine still struggling to complete his MD/MPhil in medicine. I have no answers to any of these but for sure the concept of ‘proof by example’ is awful in practice.

When I think about all this a little later I started making complete sense of Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch saying in his last lecture that “these brick walls are there for a reason. They're not there to keep us out. They are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something”.
After all a diamond is another piece of coal that did well under pressure. I pray to god that I see another diamond being made of my cousin.

A Billion Dollar

2008-05-08T23:59:00.000-07:00

Have you heard of the open source database MySQL? If yes, have you also heard that it is acquired by Sun Micro Systems? And it is a whooping one billion dollar deal (can some one help me finding out how many zeros does a billion have !!!!).
So here is a company started in 1998, made their first release in 2000 as an open source and now made one Billion dollars with the head count of just above 400 employees(most of them working remotely).

This left me wondering as to what it takes to achieve a feat as good as this. It is this curiosity that tempted me in digging more non-technical details about MySQL. Isn’t it impressive that “More than 100 million copies of MySQL's database software have been downloaded and distributed and an additional 50,000 copies are downloaded daily”? And what is more interesting is that only 1% of the users actually pay MySQL for using the product and their support.

“The world self divides into those who are ready to sped time to save money and those who are ready to spend money to save time ” says Marten Mickos, the former CEO of MySQL who is now a senior vice-president of Sun (sounds so simple and true once you hear it.. right?). It is in-fact true that there are more people who spend time to save money compared to those who spend money to save time. But those are the people who made MySQL famous and powerful, compared to the ones who spend money to save time.

Doesn’t it look simple? Start a company, make it an open source, increase the popularity and sell it for a Billion dollar in 5-10 years. Or may be it looks simple only to see others doing it. May be spending those 5-10 years in wild goose chase isn’t that easy after all. But the fact is ‘you'll seldom experience regret for anything that you've done. It is what you haven't done that will torment you when you look back in life. The message, therefore, is clear. Do it!’

Nostalgia

2008-03-29T20:09:00.000-07:00

“Seasons change, friends move away, and life goes on from day to day. Flowers fade and streams go dry and many times we wonder why. Yet we can always be assured because God tells us in His World, that unlike changes in the weather, friendship goes on and lasts”

All good. But why am I thinking all this when I am supposed to watch the "Enchanted”? Is it all because my team lead is leaving the company today? Or is it because my buddy here in US office has resigned? Or because Anil pined me out of the blues and for some time transported me to the BITSian days, just to make me realize that I miss them the most. Its not the first time that I am sitting here all alone feeling nostalgic, with thoughts flowing, but the only difference is that this time I decided to tap them into my blog.

Many of us at some time or the other would have felt empty about leaving our friends or family, may it be parting or you going to a new place or it may be them, going away from you. When it is you going to a different place, this can in-fact be covered up with you trying to be busy stumbling with the change, and we call it getting settled or say adjusting to the new …(whatever) ☺. But if it is they moving away from you, you have no option but to feel helpless about the fact that you can never be the same person that you were.
The first time this happened to me was when my brother was going to his boarding school for his +2. It is not that I will not get a chance to meet him again, but my route would be completely disturbed with out him in it.
And then, you will start realizing that the life, which you thought, was all yours is not in fact being built by you alone.

And again it is completely personal as to how we react to this fact. But what I choose to pull out of it is that… We may part our friends or family temporarily or permanently, but the friendship and their love will remain, not just as our memories but also as our selves.

Screw the snooze

2008-03-15T10:50:00.000-07:00

Blogging has always been one of my fantasies, yet didn't dare writing one myself. Has always been convincing myself that I am too busy to write one, and will start doing it once I get free time. Some thing that is as impulsive as snoozing the alarm when it starts. May be its true with all the other aspects of life, may be its true with many of us.

For sure, I feel good when i hear Srk saying 'two letters D O ' or captions like 'now or never', 'one life to live' etc etc, none of which will effect the things after that. Dunno if I alone am as hopeless as this, or its the pretty normal to be this way.

This is just an attempt to break the paradigm and start blogging, something I love doing. For all those who share something similar, keep watching.. You may find some way to screw the snooze (a simple belief that "Breaking the inertia will make a difference") or some example that will make you feel good about the fact that you are not doing what you love doing, even if it is watching the sun rise/set or going to jog everyday.