Cogito Ergo Sum

Human Design at Evolution Company !

2012-01-18T22:55:00.002+05:30

Context: Long ago, If humans were designed as androids - as genetically coded robots with gene sequencing working just like an underlying source code by aliens.

Scenario: A group of designers brain-storming about human-design in company conference room

Top Manager Says: "This is Evolution Company, this millennium's most innovative company and still our designs are not perfect ! "

Senior Designer interjects: "See, I told you, Adding more brain cells is always a good idea ! Although we still haven't been able to resolve the minor physiological bug occurring as appendix. And nobody is minding losing tail as well, because human test-bots aren't climbing that many trees ! "

Innovative Upcoming Troublemaker (I challenge everything) Designer: "The Human Testing team keeps on raising facial hair as a bug, which we keep on deferring for the next version. And then there's a secret list of bugs as well, which might make humans act insane and irrational at times."

Senior Designer: "Oh, that's a secret feature, Life needs chaos, randomness, change and creativity. So, we have let the idea of independent thought appear which makes humans unique and makes them think in an innovative and imaginative manner."

Senior Tester: "Yeah, The latest batch of human-bots have designed a flying thing out of large leaves and the older set has fashioned a round object out of stone which they are calling wheel."

Top Manager: "And humans somehow want to have a faith, a belief in something supernatural or higher conscience inspite of being programmed as scientifically rational minds- can anybody explain that ?

Does it serve any purpose or do you want to put in a trapdoor to let them know about us ? Are we science or a myth ? Do we exist ?"

New Phone

2011-09-11T07:06:00.001+05:30

Bought samsung galaxy s2, more of a tablet than a phone :)

The SIMS Social are on Facebook !

2011-08-26T22:49:00.000+05:30

SIMS are there on facebook now, and I am playing it as expected from a social gaming enthusiast. I recently read that gamers either zone out and get relaxed while playing repetitive easy games or play them for winning. The winning atttitude people get bored of the game when either it turns too tough or too repetitive for them.

You can be good at a game either if you have many friends playing the same game or you will have to pay through cash for going through stages. That's how the gaming companies make their money as there are people who are so invested in the games, that they would even pay some money to get ahead in the game !

The Upside of Irrationality

2011-07-03T14:20:00.000+05:30

I recently completed the theory of irrationality by dan ariely and it contained many nice sociology theories like:

1) Improve a bad experience by giving yourself consolation prizes: e.g. if you are sick, watch TV :)

2) Motivating people and finding meaning in your work is more important than huge monetary rewards.

3) People attach more value to something which is their own creation e.g. my own created dish, sculpture, painting even if it might not be the best of the creations which you might have seen in this world.

4) You want to contribute, so whatever you do should end up as having an impact, you don't want your work to be scraped.

Festivals should be special !

2011-07-03T14:14:00.000+05:30

My few observations about celebrating festivals:

1) If you ignore a festival, it will ignore you back !

2) When you are a kid, small things matter more to you !

3) Good experiences matter more than good objects !

4) Read something good, get some new experiences, variety enriches your mind and widens your horizons !

5) Create, Innovate and Contribute !

X-Men: First Class

2011-07-03T14:10:00.001+05:30

I am a huge fan of science fiction genre and thus x-men is one of the favorite movies. So as per the generic trend, x-men first class was out as a prequel trying to define the earlier years of charles xavier and magneto. Charles Xavier being played by James MacAvoy as a benevolent positive character aiming at the peace among mutants and humans is well etched out. The transformation of a child named Eric caught in a concentration camp at the time of world-war II to Magento is terrifically tragic and has a shock and awe factor.

There's another theme of accepting yourself for what you are as a proud mutant and has been told through another character Mystic who finds it difficult to accept the rejection from men as she has an indigo blue scaly form. She might have been thought attractive in avatar by Navis ! Anyway mangeto gives her the confidence to accepts her for herself thus gaining her loyalty and alignment in this world where even mutants have various warring factions.

James McAvoy is brilliant in another movie atonement with Keira Knightley. I missed Scot and Jean in x-men first class, and everyone missed wolverine ! Still it's a fabulous way to tie the loose ends in the story !

Learn to Float !

2011-07-03T13:59:00.001+05:30

On our Rishikesh trip, I finally was able to gather up all my courage and learn to do some basic things related to submerging in water. Go away ! The fear of drowning and here comes floating and cliff jumping !

Floating is all about relaxing, letting water enter your ears and spreading your body to balance your body weight and make yourself float like a dead body. It's an amazing experience as your mind goes blank, you can stop thinking and completely relax.

While doing the Cliff Jumping, I was more worried about not hitting the rocks around and atleast I was able to make on attempt at it, though from a lesser height ! :)

And in rafting I sat at the centre of the raft at front and just encouraged my friends to keep rowing by repeating the commands given by the captain ! :)

Google+

2011-07-03T13:47:00.001+05:30

Google + has just been launched and it's main underlying concept is to create groups or rather circles more easily and enable users to share content with a subset of friends rather than the complete friend list. After a basic preview, I have not yet been able to observe any new outstanding innovative feature. Facebook is already allowing creation of groups for selective publishing of content, but facebook's tendency to share more rather than less was pushing persons like me to do a lot of self censorship.

Let's see how well Google+ ends up creating any differentiating critical factor to pull users or not ! Or it might end up as a less used orkut or buzz !

CityVille

2011-01-27T22:54:00.000+05:30

My favorite game these days is "Cityville". I think it's strategic till now, and involves decorative elements and you really feel that you are going ahead and planning a city. The next aim is having a sea port, then the city will also have a beach. I as a mayor will try to ensure happiness of all cityville citizens :) The things which are still missing in my city are a bank, a hospital and a library. I am wondering that the game is not catching up as much as it should in my fb friend list. Ofcourse I need more neighbors and some easy ways to earn more games cash !

I am at level 25 and let's see when will I get bored.. maybe by level 35 I will stop playing this game ! Till then cityville ahoy ! seaward ho ! Of course it's from Treasure Island ! not the game ! But the book by R L Stevenson ! :)

My official blog entry on SaaS applications

2011-01-27T22:42:00.005+05:30

http://blog.newgensoft.com/enterprise-applications-moving-to-cloud

iPad Cover Art

2010-10-31T17:14:00.000+05:30

See here: NYT gadget blog

I really liked this article describing an iPad cover's art from nytimes gadget blogs. So I wanted to conserve it and hope you will like it too :)

Cloud Computing - My first tech scribble !

2010-09-20T21:24:00.001+05:30

Cloud Computing is the latest buzz and hype in the software industry today. The term cloud here refers to the abstraction of computing infrastructure. It means that you are able to use certain hardware infrastructure for your computing needs, but you are not aware of the exact hardware location in terms of the data center as to where this hardware is present.

The cloud revolution gives you the capability of renting hardware infrastructure on a subscription basis, just like you use electricity. It provides you with an ability to rent the infrastructure for your computing needs and use and pay for it till the time you need it. It gives an entrepreneur an ability to test their software on rented hosted hardware. They can also host their entrepreneurial venture on a cloud and thus get an easy start in their endeavor.

There are various vendors who provide Infrastructure as a service e.g. Amazon, Rackspace, Savvis, Terremark etc. Eucylaptus provides a free open source cloud option. Amazon gives you an ability to rent processing power, hard disk space, bandwidth etc. Amazon also provides you with an online calculator which will help you calculate your approximate monthly bill of hardware hosting.

The cloud hosting vendors provide various operating system options from which you can choose e.g. Windows, Linux etc. Thus, just give it a try and host your application on any cloud. Have a Happy Floating Cloud Experience !

Facebook ads

2010-08-18T23:11:00.001+05:30

Surprisingly I click on facebook ads.. :) m still wondering why they look so clickable :)

Planning a trip to Binsar !!

2010-07-15T22:00:00.000+05:30

We leave tommorow for binsar.. let's see how it goes :) .. will focus on photography this time.. thr shud be very nice landscapes and vistas waiting to be captured.. just wondering tht heavy rains should not play havoc !!

thr's supposed to be no electricity in the KMVN resort in the Binsar WildLife sanctuary.. so lanterns and candles will create the magic aura !! then jungle walks should add to the fun !! and trek to the zero point should be interesting too :)

What I know & want to know ?

2010-02-25T22:31:00.000+05:30

I know how to play cafe world well with a constant buzz rating of 105..
I know how to buy aesthetic cool stuff in Yoville !
I know how to drive cars well in Need For Speed !
I know how to code in java,jdbc,jndi,jsp,vc++
I know how to find and read good books !
I know how to be curious !
I know how to be always in a learning mode !
I know how to over analyze situations !
I know how to be critical and judgmental !
I know how to read real fast !
I know how to type fast without looking at the keyboard !
I know a bit about how to write a blog ! A real tiny bit considering the number of few entries !
I know how to try my wit at humor !
I know how to try to be happy !
I know how to try to adjust with people !
I know how to think logically and rationally !

It's very difficult to define even oneself. The above list is a feeble attempt and I wrote what all came to my mind first ! When we don't even know ourselves well, our attempts to try to understand others is a difficult endeavor too ! Still my one of the top wishes to any genie will be how to read a mind and have a sneak peek in what the other person thinks !

I really depend on Facebook !

2009-09-05T22:13:00.000+05:30

The facebook games must have introduced many netizens like me to networked games where you have to depend on the help of your dearest friends to progress further and play well. These games have discovered such a simple way of increasing their memberships. Any player will play better if she has more team members and thus will encourage all possible friends to join the games.

I am such a player and thus first I start urging my known netizens to show some interest in joining facebook which will offer them a chance of playing quizzes, games etc. After that the next suggestion is, please join mafia wars or yoville or if possible farmville. Dont play if you dont like, but do join.

Now I have started getting bored and all the games are seeming like chores. I am tired of harvesting crops, killing people online, and buying stuff for my virtual home. I am now desperately waiting for the day when I will be free from the shackles of this facebook gaming addiction of mine and will be able to move onto something new ! Perhaps brand new facebook games :).

I think that atleast for me the primary reason for playing any online game is to simply win ! To reassure myself that I am a perfect human specimen, intelligent & knowledgable who can go jump levels in all the games real fast, gather trophies & gifts, decorate an online home showing off my asthetic sensibilites, or create a beautiful virtual farm by deciding on better earning crops and buying tractors.

Online quizzes on facebook have a similar "will win" fascination too for so many of us fb people. Yes, I want to know that I know all the movie trivia and can recognize all movie characters, songs, even actors from their childhood or without makeup pics. And these quizzes often generally tell me that I have beaten 100% of my friends who have taken this quiz. The beaten friends might be 1 or 2 in number, but I have beaten both, so I have played better than 100% of quiz takers who belong to my friend set.

Then there are personality quizzes which will show us our real self, which we are not able to see from our literal eyes or as said in hindi "mann ki aankhein" i.e. the inner eye. We answer approximately ten random questions like our favorite color to whether I hate losing family members more than death? Then the quiz application throws up any random quiz result from the answer set, like the one which told me that I am like Luke Skywalker and I have happily published it along with so many other almost accurate quiz results to the world.

But still all facebook activities offer more oppurtunities to comment on other people's activites. We post, publish, comment and discuss. We pick up and do some activity which has just been done by any of our friends posted to our wall or try to generate some new activity through our favorite applications.

If you are unable to think of anything else, goto youtube, find any intersting video and post it on facebook. The link to add it on facebook is conveniently available through share option. This should be counted as a facebook "how to be active" or "what to do" tip rendered by me on my blog which might help any blog reader who is a fbian too :).

We may not interact with so many of our friends directly but we can see how they are going on with their lives by observing them online. One day I tried to track all old college seniors on facebook and see who's doing what. I am indebted to those facebook friends who have given me online gifts required for playing well on my favorite games and will always try to replay the favor in that facebook game. See how all this online gifting of virtual game objects has strengthened our bonds of friendship.

Another prominent feature is twittering, i.e. latest status updates chatter shared by friends. These are really interesting ones and do generate normal, friendly, leg pulling or even controversial discussions. I have shared a quote or too at times, but am unable to twit or chatter much. I think it's helping us Indian prudes to lose our inhibitions to declare to around 200 persons about what we ate in breakfast, what I am currently watching on tv etc. I wonder I might not start declaring too much to people in real life too about everything I do.

Ohh, I think it's enough blogging about facebook. I have to compulsively check my facebook wall for any new posts.

My addictions & quirks !

2009-08-15T00:16:00.000+05:30

I think I live by my addictions ! My addictions are the oxygen which make me live and make life worth living. Now rating these various interests would be really difficult as all of them have some equivalent hold on me. Perhaps these can be discussed in chronological order.

When I was 2, I tried to give up drinking milk and starting on tea despite severe objections by my parents. The war still goes on ! I love almost all coffees especially cafe mocha too. What can be better than having double shots of caffiene and choclate and if possible icecream straight from one glass. The resulting feeling of bliss stays for a long time and the intoxicating head rush makes life look beautiful. Sometimes when I am sleep deprived, I cant even open my eyes and start working unless and until I have savoured a good cup of tea.

Like any child I was provided with many toys and some balloons specifically on sunday mornings. I took great interest in ensuring immortality of all my toys and tried to extend the same immortality concept to saving balloons forever too. This as expected led to my weeping sessions as soon as a balloon dropped dead. Till now I don't like candles because they die so soon, cant pluck a flower and dont like to get flowers as gifts as they die too.

On the other hand, I like killing mosquitoes, flies, cockroaches and any other minor insects. I turn into courageous killer of lizards and rats too as and when the need arises.

The next greatest love would be for noodles starting with hamara apna maggi noodles. I loved its smell and ate it with great fascination since I was in second standard. Then I explored Top Ramen, curry smoodles etc, and survived on it whenever I didnt like the home or hostel food. The food for which I fantasize these days is only italian to be eaten at Flavors or Big Chill. Perhaps as I go rarely, so the novelty hasn't worn off.

Home food does have its own charm and certain dishes have that taste which cant be found anywhere else on earth. My mom, me and my brother specialize in that. Infact we can cook certain dishes in such an exactly same manner that the cook cant be distinguished e.g. rajma chawal. Perhaps learning recipes from same guru leads to this.

I have a propensity to be addicted to online games as well, but thankfully I get bored after a certain time, say 15 days or a month. Still I have spent a good deal of time on all need for speed games, my eternal favorite. The current ones are mafia wars and yoville on facebook. If a friend is currently reading this, kindly join facebook and these games for me, I terribly need some more crew.

I love good movies, watch them and read about them on net as much as possible. Wikipedia articles about matrix movies are great. I can be considered a cult fan of any series for which I become passionate.

The interest where I seek most of the novelty is songs. I get bored soon and can listen only as long as there's certain tone of voice or music which my conscious or subconscious mind hasnt learnt by rote yet. Once the novelty is over, song no longer holds any charm for me. I might still like the song if I hear it after some time or for that matter any other time, but the initial high is over.

I am saving my greatest addiction for the last - books. I owe my poor eysight to them. I started early, learned to read real fast, started reading champak, nandan, parag etc. i.e. many magazines for kids. I still remember so many of the stories and read comic books too like nagraj, super commando dhruv categroy. Then moved onto Enid Blyton and sort of the stuff. Finally today, I am an ardent fan of Harry Potter, twilight, all malcolm gladwell books, Dan Brown, Sidney Sheldon, John Grisham,Ayn Rand, Jeffrey Archer, Erich Segal. Once I start an interesting book, I cant keep it down even if my eyes hurt or it maybe 2 or 3 in the morning. I have completed many books by the light of my cellphone when electricity went missing. The escape from real world to an alternate reality is too much of a wonderful experience. The only serious hobby which I could boast of is reading.

I liked painting and sketching but left it long back. Still colors have a strong asethetic appeal for me.

This was an easy post to write because as expected I know myself quite well. An individual is so complex that she cant be described in a few hundred words. Nothing of the above items make me unique as all are somehow typical human traits. But as its my blog, and this sudden brain wave about the word addiction caught me, here's it.

Trip Ideas !

2009-07-12T12:28:00.000+05:30

Taking trips and going on vacations is one of the greatest enjoyments of life. I distinctly remember my early trips to Himalayas with my parents and how much I enjoyed each one of them. Later on, more trips happened, which can be attributed to office group initiatives. I was always spellbound by the majestic mountains, floating clouds and beautiful weather and novelty of the new places visited.

The opportunities to learn more about flora, fauna, art galleries, religion, history, architecture and culture are as amazing as are the treks taken to reach these wonderful places.

I was wondering what I could write about for a very long time and thought to publish something about the places I have visited and plan to visit. It will also offer me the unique chance of pasting scenic pictures in this blog :) Hence, here is the humble history of my journeys ! Though I intended to cover many places, but I think right now writing about one or two interesting places will suffice.

I visited Naggar nearby Manali with my parents a long time back. We went to some nearby place by roadways bus from Manali and trekked up till Naggar. It turned out to be a quaint wonderful place with a beautiful temple, a wooden castle and boasting of a Nicholas Roerich Art Gallery. I especially loved the art gallery with a collection of beautiful paintings. All the photographs clicked by us are hard copy and someday I will scan and add them over here. Till then, I think I will paste some pics browsed from net overhere :)

A painting made by master himself !
Source for the pic: vansaires.blog124.fc2.com

Naggar Castle
Source for the pic: www.tribuneindia.com/.../spectrum/main5.jpg

Next I think I should write about our interesting office trip to Ranthambore. Our office group of around 20 colleagues went to Ranthambore. We went by train and reached Ranthambore station in the early morning. We were being provided by the transport by the Hamir Resort and hence we greeted our open safari vehicles transport with apprehension in the cold weather of November. Everyone tightly wrapped shawls, jackets and caps and braved through the cold winter morning to reach the resort.

Safari vehicle added to lot of fun!
Pic Source: My boss's camera !

Once we reached the beautiful resort everyone was excited and happy to see the beautiful resort and a quick game of cricket was set in motion.There was a lot of confusion and conflict while playing which added to the fun and I was recruited as the fair umpire to give final decisions. There were many wides and many fours and sixes on loose bowling.

Hamir Resort !
Pic Source: Same as above.

Then after having breakfast in the Hamir mess decorated with tiger pictures we set out for the safari. Ranthabore fort is situated in the midst of a dense jungle. So we had a grand tour of safari looking for tiger, depending on monkey calls and bird calls. The happy chattering noises of our group didnt help us and thus we ended up seeing many types of deers, birds, a few crocodiles and tiger pug marks.

Crocodile enjoying a sunny day !

Cute Deer having fun !

Then we moved onto visiting huge Ranthambore fort which loomed on the horizon from a distance and looked majestic. We had a long trek in the huge fort exploring various temples and platial structures in the fort and looking down from high & strong fort walls. There were various tunnels and domes in the fort adding to the mystical lore and inspiring us to discover and explore the fort. Our huge group got split in various smaller groups and ended up exploring different areas of the fort. Hence we got to see a lot more of what we had missed from the photographs taken by other groups. We were only bound by the time as we had to reach back to the Hamir resort in time and it was getting late in evening.

After reaching back even though we were tired, we arranged for camp fire and music in the resort and ended up having a lot of fun playing antakshri and dancing a lot. Hence, we concluded one of our wonderful trips ! Our office group is currently planning to make a visit to Tungnath which should be a wonderfully scenic and amazing trip :)

Lord of the Flies - Fall of the Human

2009-03-21T19:29:00.000+05:30

I read William Golding's Lord of the Flies recently and was throughly amazed, shocked and felt like I was introduced to a new genre of writing. We all know about how human beings are susceptible to falling prey to the inner evil and savagery which is perhaps inherent in human nature and is kept very well controlled and cordoned by the rules, law and order of the human civilization.

All the wars and prison crimes are the prima facie evidence of this human fallacy. I believe that women are less prone to being violent and being savage. This could be a feminist belief of mine. Still all the characters in the whole story are either boys or men.Golding brings forth the complete fall of human culture to savagery in complete detail with gradual stepping of time.

Kids stranded on an island start with all the civil manners and rules even speaking one at a time and having assemblies and even withholding a conch as the symbol of authority and order. They even select a sensible older kid Ralph as chief who understands and hopes to be rescued and charts out the grand plan of always having a smoke or fire burning to attract attention of passing ships. The kids have a great time surviving on fruits enjoying beaches and sunshine and create shelters.

Few kids like Jack are intent on hunting and form a group of hunters who initially wary of killing something end up becoming adept at hunting. The hunting becomes such a short term but passionate goal that kids end up ignoring long term goal of keeing a fire burning. The fear of an imagined beast gives more power to the hunters group and they end up falling into two groups with the chasm between them growing deeper and deeper.

The power struggle between Ralph and Jack leads them to form two isolated groups with Ralph's group having the power of burning fires and the other group having the power to hunt and have meat.A smart kid called Simon ends up moving alone through the forest and when tries to rejoin the kids is mistaken as the beast and killed by the hunters group in the feast thrown after hunting. The sensible kids like Ralph were also part of the group at the time Simon's murder happens and a deep sense of gulit engulfs the sensible group for being a part of the murdering mob.

The hunters group starts working on more primitive instincts and even cover their faces with paint to complete their drift from civilization and act like barbarians. They attack the Ralph's group for snatching the glasses used for lighting fires. When Ralph's group tries to get the glasses back, the sensible kid Piggy who owned the glasses is killed by hunters. Two other kids who are twins are captured by the hunters and Ralph is forced to run for his life.

The climax of the story is all about Ralph running for his life from the hunters group even without having done anything wrong to any of them. There's a chilling fear in the Ralph's run for his life while the hunters chase him mercilessly. Hunters' group sets fire to the forest to smoke Ralph out of the jungle wilderness and kill him. Ralph manages to save his life by ending up on the beach where he encounters a navy officer. The ship noticed the island after seeing the smoke emerging from the island and came to look for life.

Ship officer is amazed to see the kids encounter and intially understands it to be a game, but soon comes to know about the chilling real life killings being done by the kids. When the officer asks about who's the leader, then Ralph tells the officer that its him, Jack finally doesnt protest and accepts Ralph to be the leader. Then Ralph bursts out crying at the savage situation in which they ended up being instead of behaving as cultured human beings and all the kids follow suit and start crying.

The story was written by the Nobel Prize winning author around in 1950s and gained popularity long after the publishing. Now the book is recognized as a modern classic and is a part of school curriculum in various countries like US & UK. There are two movies based on it and I read the movies reviews as well and I believe the Ist movie does more justice to the book and is more realistic.

I intend to watch the movie as well and will perhaps add to this entry after watching the movie. Do read the book !

Creating Leadership Magic - Disney Way

2008-12-07T10:51:00.000+05:30

I recently read a book - 10 common sense leadership strategies from a life at Disney, By Lee Cockerell.

I found it to be a great book, the leadership strategies being truely common sense. The point which truely appealed to me was - respect and care for your employees as much as you want them to care for the company and customers.

If employees feel truely respected and cared for, they will feel happy, truely aligned, will have a feeling of pride and ownership which will help taking your organization forward a long way.

The ways in which Lee showed the respect was communicating clearly and honestly to develop trust, avoiding micro managing, and appreciating in public and not even criticising but suggesting improvements in private.

And he cared by taking effort to know his team, greeting them sincerely, making himself always available and so on.

He made sure that everyone knew that he or she mattered in the organization, else why were they hired in the job which they are doing, right from lower ranks to the top echleons.

While recruiting he tried to make the people demonstrate their skills there and then wherever possible and didnt go by claims.

He wasnt born perfect with all the leadership skills but learnt them both easy and hard way. Now his teachings are taught in Disney Training Institute to churn out leaders.

A great book, I believe you will find some more learnings if you read it.

Work - A Passion !

2008-10-05T18:38:00.000+05:30

I believe that anyone will agree that Passion for Work is so commonplace and might be beating "working frustration" hands down. There are n number of reasons one can chalk out, like it gives you a sense of purpose, reason for existence, feeling of achievement and so on.

While discussing work, the Ist thing that comes to mind is that a person will be definitely happier or more passionate for her work if the work matches her aptitude or interest.

The other important reason for enjoying your work may stem from the feeling that you are learning something continously. Next contributing factor might be lack of monotonous work offering avenues for change and creativity.

A sense of ownership of the work and some idealistic ideas about the vision of the goals your work is going to accomplish definitely makes one love their work. Atlas Shrugged's Dagny Taggart's obsessive love for her work perhaps stemmed from her owning the heritage of the company she was at the helm of and her struggle to keep it running at any cost is heart rendering.

The critical significance of the work being done by you when emphasised definitely makes one like their work as it gives you some important place in the universe's scheme of things rather than just being a spoke in a wheel or a speck in the universe.

Coming from the generalized view to the specialized view of being an Indian, I would say that many career directions are decided not just by the aptitude, but by the probability of having a secure career path and easy buck. Still human being an entirely adjustable species mostly starts finding the satisfaction and happiness in the above chosen work area.

I for myself being interested in many work directions would have been happier in most of the directions I could have taken. The idea of work regulating your life providing you with goals and something to do is intoxicating to me at least.

I as a general rule dont say no to any work to which I can be assigned and mostly I end up enjoying the assigned work because there's something to learn from doing any kind of work. And you can have a balanced life pursuing your other interests on your own !

My above mentioned work tendencies can be credited to my optimistic never say die attitude or rather being dead patient about circumstances.

Talk about work passion is incomplete unless and until one takes the energetic action oriented attitude and the level of initiative which is taken and acted upon in account. Motivating people for doing the work with true zeal might be what the management is all about !

I think I have jotted down some of my reflections about passion for work which I could think of currently, I might expand on it, if something substantial related to this flits across my mind any time.

Recently read books !

2008-08-24T16:48:00.000+05:30

Once upon a time I wrote my last blog entry. So I decided to come again and write a few hundred/thousand words. The topic is not yet decided, but I think discussion of recently read books should suffice!

I have read 3 mistakes of my life - latest by chetan bhagat, infact read it twice. I liked this latest literary sojourn by chetan bhagat a lot too. As per my rankings it's perhaps better than one night at the call centre, but Chetan Bhagat will perhaps never again beat his own masterpiece - 5 point someone. My taste is realistic one, and whenever anybody starts getting too imaginative I start drowning in the literal liberty taken by the author.

Coming back to 3 mistakes, the underlying theme is of the friendship of 3 friends, with cricket and religion getting weaved in the medley. The story has turned out to be interesting keeping the curious reader pasted to the book till it ends.

Another point which I have noticed about Chetan Bhagat's writing is the way he writes about the boy's angle in a relationship and his views about the girl. The guys always feel sarcastic about the way girls' behave, noticing tiny little details about personality quirks. Still the dear guy would fall hopelessly caught by visual and verbal antics of the girl.

The other one which I bought is Andy Grove's biography, one of the many books written about the persona. It gives an insight in the managment guidelines, observed from the way people and processes are managed in Intel. An interesting and knowledgable read, no doubt about it.

The third one I recently tried to read was Paulo Coelho's Brida which turned out to be simply disappointing. All that spiritual connect, the twists and the realtions to the old mythology lure present in all Paulo Coelho books turned out to be missing. I havent managed to complete it and my best friend reading the same copy condemned it too. Still I think I will try to read this "set of pages cast in a good cover but bad content" once again to get some value of my hard earned money spent on this book.

And the book I am planning to read is "Almost Single" by Advaita Kala. I believe I will enjoy that book having sampled an excerpt. And I plan to read "The Living" by Ayn Rand too, but I think it's a sad book, hence never managed to make myself read it.

I think I am done with the current review, and will continue with the next review some time later, perhaps the next review might be about latest movies.

Harry Potter - My interpretation !!

2008-05-04T12:17:00.000+05:30

I am a huge fan of Harry Potter and I have read and reread all the volumes and even seen all the movies again and again. Hence I have tried to think why Harry Potter is such a charming force !!

If I start thinking,the Ist thing that comes to my mind is that I should analyze the way I feel about it. And that feeling is a feeling of joy, interest, enjoyment and warmth. Its a story you can relate to, feel as if its a story of your own real cool school life !!

Now let's come to the strength of Harry Potter character !! He's courageous and the greatest quality which is amazingly visible through his actions is his modesty, humility and concern for all living beings. Some of the credit for inculcating modesty in Harry Potter will have to be given to Dumbledore for keeping Harry unaware of his famous status in Wizarding world by keeping him away from it in his early childhood. The kindness in his nature has been attributed to his mother Lily too as told by Dumbledore to Snape.

Whatever might be the reason, there's a natural empathy in Harry Potter for all living beings especially if they belong to some disadavantaged place in social hierarchy and thus he shows a polite demeanour to everybody.There might be some influence of Dumbledore too as he famously belived in giving second chances to people and his basic trust in goodness of all.

There might be one exception where Harry failed to understand true nature of a person, i.e. Snape and Snape's own attitude didnt help the situation as well. Actually Snape and Harry both had their prejudices because of an ancient conflict between Harry's father James and Snape.

The next most endearing character is ofcourse Hermione and her intelligence. She's almost perfect with no major flaws that I can think of. She provides a major part of thinking and analysis going on, though Harry pitches in more as he starts understanding Voldemort more than anybody else in later books.

Harry's willingness to believe in fables, old tales and old magic helps too, whereas Hermione is more analytical and rational and hence fails to have faith in things like Hallows and thus is unable to understand them.

The above qualites are in direct contrast to the Voldemort who's cruel, proud, arrogant, selfish, without friends and doesnt care for any form of life like elves. He has no respect for life and has no regrets for killing any human being or breaking his own soul in parts to try to attain immortality. He doesnt care for anybody's emotions and doesnt try to understand them. He has an incomplete knowledge and doesnt find it worthwhile to understand something which doesnt seem as a means to attaining more power. He has a few devout followers like Bellatrix or Crouch's son, rest all seem to follow either for gaining power or for survival or they are just plainly scared.

The last and seventh episode is a very intelligent one as it ties all loose ends and provides backdrop stories to understand the nuances of charactersitics of people. Voldemort's cruelty is attributed to his genes, or rather his ancestory which was full of violence. The other idea might be that he was raised in an orphanage and didnt receive any loving homely environment, but genetic factors have been given more weightage by author, atleast I think so. Even the story of why Harry is good at flying on broom is also explained, Sirius gifted Harry his ist toy broom when he turned 1 year old, thus Harry already had good flight hours behind him when he came to school :)

Dumbledore though the greatest wizard ever is shown to have an inability too i.e. at a certain time of his life he became far too ambitious for his own good. And if he thinks he's in a powerful position he will be inclined to attain more power, and thus because of his slightly selfish aim wont be able to utilize that power effectively or for greater good. Here Dumbledore concedes that Harry is better than him at handling greatness or power.

Thus one of the greatest capabilites of author might be to avoid painting all characters in black and white and providing multidimensional characters. Background stories help in understanding current behavior of characters too.

Moreover the story is such a long one, so you can keep on reading ang being able to understand more and more as you reread something and understand more from subplots.
As if you read sixth part after reading seventh part, then you might notice Marvolo shouting that the family inherited ring had a coat of peverell brothers on it which becomes important in context of Hallows.

The words created specific to the world of magic are wonderful too. Each word has such an interesting ring to it like "Hallows, Horcruxes". If you notice then, the character H has great importance in Harry's life. The main words which you can observe are :- Harry, Hogwartz, Hermione, Hagrid, Hallows, Horcruxes.

The mantras or spells sound fascinating too - "Avada Kedavra", "Alohmora and etc...
My mom has just said that "Avada Kedavra" sounds like "Abra Ka Dabra".
The telepathic connection between Harry and Voldemort's minds is a great way of story telling too and keeps everybody updated about Voldy's thoughts and actions.

The devotion and love of people like Hagrid, Lupin, Sirius, Weasely family, Hermione and Dumbledore for harry feels wonderful too. Love and friendship are something of importance too which Harry has in plenty and Voldemort lacks badly. There are numerous instances about power of love like Harry's mother giving away her life for saving his son's life, Snape saving Harry just because he's Lily's daughter and Hagrid's unconditional love for Harry.

The story is a magical one and thus might be deriving magical creatures from old magical historical fictions like Tolkien's elves, goblins and all, but I am not sure about all the inspirations.

The story of Prophecies and predictions reminds of Bhagwan Krishna's story, where Harry just like Krishna lives without the parents who gave birth to him and is destined to kill almost unbeatable villain.

Moreover the story has its own lot of funny instances. Harry doesnt have a smooth sailing life as such. He's surviving through all the struggles which might be as big as facing Voldemort or as insubstantial as loads of homework. So it becomes the story of everyone of us who are struggling with something or anything and worrying about it in our own lives.

Essentially the story is about goodness winning over evil and upholding all moral values like honesty,courage, kindness, friendship and love.

Its my understanding as of today and I will keep on trying to learn more,actually read more and hone my opinions, ideas, understanding and Interpretation :)

Hail Harry Potter !!

Creative Dent Speak !!

2008-04-13T16:49:00.000+05:30

Though the blog title refers to "I think therefore I am" and its my blog, still I have been stuck in the negation of another concept "A good blog today is better than a great blog never". Thinking of that perfect entry, I wrote nothing till date. So today at last I got inspired not by my creativity, but by the creativity of my cousin brother who has almost become a dentist and thus even writes poems about teeth !! Actually he has sort of written a self speak by a tooth which I thought was quite good. Now my appreciation might be a bit on the higher side as it has been written by my sibling with whom I have shared a major part of my life !! The brat has lived with us since he entered school and has played the part of a sibling/real brother.

I can write a lot abt him. To start with he's a food junkie which ended up making him a looming giant. At least he seems so when we walk together on street. We hv watched a lot of TV together, though he's much more passionate about it. He remembers all the scenes of all that doordarshan or 100 other odd channels have ever displayed to his eyeballs and even enacts well. He once enacted whole Godzilla movie for my benefit !! I talk a lot too, but he's a level up in this field too.

Now he writes well too, draws gud cartoons too !! And he claims to be inspired by me in lot of his talents !!

Now let's not delay the dental speak any more !! here's the poem by him. He is chief editor of the inaugral issue of his college magazine and is calling it DentalSpeak !! Needless to say he has taken lot of initiative for it !!

So at last here we present A poem by a tooth !! Other articles might be posted as well if deemed worthy by me after multiple editions :)

CRY OF THE TOOTH
Everyt ime you speak,I help you,
beautify your smile,yes that’s what I do.
All the sweets and candy,
all the colas and brandy,
all cold and hot,
pleasures you had
and neglect I got.
I was so shiny,I was so strong,
Can’t u think what went wrong.
I thought you loved me,
I thought you will care,
But your apathy my dear;
has been my nightmare.
Today I hurt, I m your pain,
but with all this carelessness,what else could you gain.
Now you curse me ;
but couldn’t you brush me.
You have been so mean,
not to keep me clean.
I m dark and decayed today,
all strength I have lost.
I will fall anyday
hope than you will appreciate my cost
So mind what you eat,
mind your food
don’t be so rude.