My experiences with Apple

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

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.

Ruthless Verity

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.

With the Present - one more time

“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

Allz for good

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.

Qualified Blogger ?

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.

Back Then

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

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)

Fried Maggi

‘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.

Nostalgia

“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.