The cafeteria of my new office was under going renovation- that simply meant: almost every day you would notice a lil' bit of change in the cafeteria...
....Once, I went to the cafeteria and headed straight to the REGULAR store...I tried to scout for some (best possible) "HEALTHY" drink....Eventually, I bought "BADAM MILK" (flavored milk - BEST possible option in that store) after much analysis....I was quite proud over my smartness, as I had chosen the best possible and economical health drink in that store...I smugly started sipping it until my eyes CHANCED over a NEW STORE (which was inconspicuous to me until I bought the "MILK" from the "KNOWN" store) in the cafeteria with the LABEL - "FRESH FRUIT JUICE"...Guess what - SUDDENLY, the MILK turned sour !!!
Why does a BETTER deal (FLAVOURED MILK) almost always precedes (and hence PREMPTS) a BEST deal (Fresh Fruit juice) ?
Maybe, that's why they say - "BEST THINGS in life are for free"...So true, but you discover them only AFTER you've paid for a BETTER deal....
( :
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Spirituality ain't Marketing !
As I was going through the “Mind Over Matter” page in Sunday Times Of India, my eyes chanced over the “I AM” section. It’s a section in which the writer talks about his/her perception of spirituality. So this time, Music Director Vishal had penned down this section. He talked a good deal about spirituality in the whole article but UNFORTUNATELY summarizes it all up with this ending line:
“I try to SEEK spirituality through my music...Like that of OM SHANTI OM!”
Did he REALLY need to mention THE film’s name in this article or was it a mere coincidence that the article was printed just FEW days before the movie was released?
It’s HIGH TIME that people actually started juxtaposing (with a clear demarcation) SPIRITUALITY and MARKETING STRATAGEM palpably coz not all readers are FOOLS!
( :
“I try to SEEK spirituality through my music...Like that of OM SHANTI OM!”
Did he REALLY need to mention THE film’s name in this article or was it a mere coincidence that the article was printed just FEW days before the movie was released?
It’s HIGH TIME that people actually started juxtaposing (with a clear demarcation) SPIRITUALITY and MARKETING STRATAGEM palpably coz not all readers are FOOLS!
( :
OF " "s !
Recently, a blog was in news for quite a while. The blogger was bemoaning over the fact that these days the Double Quotes are used SO MUCH that their excessive usage has ACTUALLY debilitated the very efficacy of them. Double QUOTES are, ofcourse, used to ACCENTUATE things.….
In my project (at my company) whenever any one from the BUSINESS OWNER would write any email addressed to us, he/she would use BLOCK LETTERS to stress upon some IMPORTANT point (rather than Double quotes).
Like: “TEAM…You need to reboot the WINTEL servers ONLY after 22:00 PM Singapore Time….Thanks!”
TIP: Use CAPITAL LETTERS to emphasize things!
This would TAKE AWAY a lot of unnecessary burden from the DOUBLE QUOTES!
PS=> NOTICE the minimal use of Double Quotes in this article! And I've still EMPHASIZED things!
( :
In my project (at my company) whenever any one from the BUSINESS OWNER would write any email addressed to us, he/she would use BLOCK LETTERS to stress upon some IMPORTANT point (rather than Double quotes).
Like: “TEAM…You need to reboot the WINTEL servers ONLY after 22:00 PM Singapore Time….Thanks!”
TIP: Use CAPITAL LETTERS to emphasize things!
This would TAKE AWAY a lot of unnecessary burden from the DOUBLE QUOTES!
PS=> NOTICE the minimal use of Double Quotes in this article! And I've still EMPHASIZED things!
( :
Monday, October 29, 2007
MOTHER !!! (dedicated to the most gorgeous HUMANE being on Earth - MOTHER !)
As I took the auto-rickshaw to return back to my room after another hectic day at Office, I saw this 12 year old kid sitting right in front of me. He was GAWKING at things in a WEIRD way, was laughing incessantly without any sane reason, BLURTING out GIBBERISH stuff at random intervals...In a way, he looked a bit LUNATIC to me...The rest of the people (in the auto-rickshaw) staring continually at him and suppressing their laughter over his STUPID and silly behavior just bore testimony to MY "SANE" observation (as I guess the child was not that YOUNG to laugh at almost anything, without any sane reason befitting a 12 year old)...In other words, almost agree one inside the auto-rickshaw (including me) had tacitly assumed that the child was inane, dyslexic and abnormal...except HER...
As the people inside tried to suppress their LAUGHTER and eschew making eye-contacts with HER (to avoid any kind of embarrassment), SHE held the BOY close to HER chest..SHE kissed the boy on his cheeks and caressed him - as if trying to protect him....SHE had that strong CONVICTION in her EYES that seemed to defy even those things that had been handed down to HER by MOTHER NATURE which was - HER CHILD'S MENTAL WEAKNESS...Still, she WAS BEHAVING as if HER CHILD was absolutely normal...and was DAMN CONFIDENT that HER CHILD was as good as any of those SMILING (NORMAL) faces in the auto....
In all this chaos, I could hear just one voice inside me:
"MOTHER...Thanks for BELIEVING in me !!!"
( :
As the people inside tried to suppress their LAUGHTER and eschew making eye-contacts with HER (to avoid any kind of embarrassment), SHE held the BOY close to HER chest..SHE kissed the boy on his cheeks and caressed him - as if trying to protect him....SHE had that strong CONVICTION in her EYES that seemed to defy even those things that had been handed down to HER by MOTHER NATURE which was - HER CHILD'S MENTAL WEAKNESS...Still, she WAS BEHAVING as if HER CHILD was absolutely normal...and was DAMN CONFIDENT that HER CHILD was as good as any of those SMILING (NORMAL) faces in the auto....
In all this chaos, I could hear just one voice inside me:
"MOTHER...Thanks for BELIEVING in me !!!"
( :
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
AS YOU LIKE IT !
Few people, representing a social group for fighting global warming, had come a visiting to my company. In keeping with the simple philosophy that a SANE GUY would never leave any POSSIBLE chance of interacting with a gorgeous GIRL, I headed straight to a cute girl from that group to inquire about the group and it's modus operandi...She told me about Global Warming and all that stuff..She said that she was from Korea and had come to India for campaigning...
"BAN THE BULB" was the petition that she wanted me to sign (free of cost), as she said : "Use of BULBS cause great harm to climate...Especially in a POOR country like INDIA..."
Before she could finish I interrupted: "Hold it...INDIA is a DEVELOPING Country rather than a POOR country..We are a TRILLION DOLLAR economy...We are the SECOND fastest growing economy in the world! "
She continued: "Yup..agreed...So will you sign this cause ?"
I obliged and signed it...
Then, she said: "If you like you can become a life time member of this social group..All that you need to do is fill this form !"
Me : "Great..What's the fee ?"
She : "Just 200 Rs.."
Me : WOW...Per ANNUM ..Right ?"
She: "No..per MONTH..!" (WITH SPARKLE IN HER EYES..)
I (in hesitation) said: "Sorry..I can't join.."
She: "Why?"
PAT CAME MY RETORT: "Because India is a POOR COUNTRY !"
I guess if one champions such GLOBAL ISSUES, then one must have a GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE about the WORLD (and things)..I guess, the simplest way to nurture the latter (Global Perspective) is to read daily NEWSPAPER..especially "THE WORLD" section...!!!
( :
"BAN THE BULB" was the petition that she wanted me to sign (free of cost), as she said : "Use of BULBS cause great harm to climate...Especially in a POOR country like INDIA..."
Before she could finish I interrupted: "Hold it...INDIA is a DEVELOPING Country rather than a POOR country..We are a TRILLION DOLLAR economy...We are the SECOND fastest growing economy in the world! "
She continued: "Yup..agreed...So will you sign this cause ?"
I obliged and signed it...
Then, she said: "If you like you can become a life time member of this social group..All that you need to do is fill this form !"
Me : "Great..What's the fee ?"
She : "Just 200 Rs.."
Me : WOW...Per ANNUM ..Right ?"
She: "No..per MONTH..!" (WITH SPARKLE IN HER EYES..)
I (in hesitation) said: "Sorry..I can't join.."
She: "Why?"
PAT CAME MY RETORT: "Because India is a POOR COUNTRY !"
I guess if one champions such GLOBAL ISSUES, then one must have a GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE about the WORLD (and things)..I guess, the simplest way to nurture the latter (Global Perspective) is to read daily NEWSPAPER..especially "THE WORLD" section...!!!
( :
Friday, October 19, 2007
RASH"ME" ? (Pseudo-Reality..Dedicated to Scott Adams..as I try to parody HIS witty writing style...CAVEAT: No offence intended to anyone please!)
I didn't find many smart (more than just looks-wise) girls in my company except one - Rashmi !
On first look, I found her quite stylish and swanky - looking at they way she would wear designer belt and accessories (ala typical 'cool' Delhi-ite girl). I liked the alacrity with which she gave me her MOBILE number when I asked for it the VERY first time. (Girls generally take time to give guys their mobile numbers). Both of us were, eventually, posted on different geographical locations (after our training ended) , that meant - we started communicating via emails/scraps/sms's coz our lil' friendship seed had just been sown...
Our "fledgling" friendship started growing quite exponentially..She started sharing her poems with me (she was quite creative as she was not from UP)...She told me the meaning of her name - "Rashmi" stands for "Ray of Light"...She told me that she had this ability of pepping-up her friends everytime they felt let-down..She said that she possesed the ability of bringing smile on people's faces by her good sense of humour (girls generally have bad sense of humour)..She showed me (via Yahoo chat) the WHACKY pair of PINK SHOES that she had bought on Christmas (so ZANY)..In return she was quite impressed by my WITTY and INTELLIGENT style of thinking (Ripostes)...
Eg : She once asked me (via email) -
"So when will you GET OUT ?" (she meant to say - when will you leave the office, that day ?),
I replied: "Get out of what:
1) WORLD - God knows.
2) MY COMPANY - TIME knows.
3) PROJECT - My Manager knows.
4) OFFICE - I know. "
(No doubt..she was impressed by this riposte....)
Few months later, I was transferred back to the same location where she was posted. I was ELATED with prospect of meeting her personally in the office. But you know what - our FRIENDSHIP EQUATION followed the REVERSE of whatever happened in the beginning....that means, it just deteriorated with time...
Here's a possible explanation:
She had befriended almost all the UP girls in the office...Mind you - I always had this BIASED thinking that UP girls fear UP Boys, that guys from UP (myself being one) can never befriend a girl from UP as the latter is a narrow minded and non-creative specie....This caused the distance between us grow large day by day, as I would STOP making EYE CONTACT with HER whenever I would see HER with "THEM". Couldn't help it coz that's HUMAN EGO at work..The other funny thing that I started doing was that I started IGNORING HER (by not making eye contacts with her) BUT 'WRITING EMAILS/SCRAPS' to her (as if everything was normal between us)...Don't you think that it's SO WEIRD - A guy doesn't make eye contact with a girl or talks to her face to face, but prefers talking via email/scraps...(A possible reason might be the fact that she was always surrounded with detested UP Girls)...One of company mates chided me for this irrational and erratic demeanour, he said - "Dude, a girl would not come to you and say 'Let's go for tea'...It's you who has to take the initiative...Stop this emailing/scrapping shit and start talking to her face to face..."....(POINT TAKEN BUDDY)
Somehow, the craving to be her friend still remained as I stalked her closely on Orkut and came to know that she was very creative (via her blog), intelligent, had good sense of humour (via the TESTIMONIALS from her friends), that she was a FIGHTER (via the TESTIMONIALS from her friends...I always wanted to ask her about the toughest moment in her life and how she fought back)...As I (frequently) saw her enjoying (at office) WITHIN her CLIQUEY little friends' circle (including girls and boys from UP) comprising of BOYS from the lesser known colleges whose sum total of intelligence shall be equal to mine, I couldn't help feeling jealous...But then one of my friends counter-attacked this by saying: "Dude...It's not your problem..Girls, generally, FEAR INTELLIGENCE beyond a certain point. Unfortunately, YOURS lies on the 'REPEL ZONE' !!!"
I've LEARNT many LESSONS:
1) TECHNOLOGY (email/scrap/sms) should SUPPLEMENT your PERSONAL interactions with a girl. PREFER face-to-face interactions over TECHNOLOGY when flirting with a girl...
2) No matter how smart/intelligent you may be, a girl will always find 2-3 boys (as her friends) whose sum total of intelligence shall equal yours (provided your intelligence is high). This ways, she doesn't feel uncomfortable with them as she believes in 'GESTALT THEORY' - "The WHOLE being greater than the SUM of its PARTS !"..She thinks (of very inteligent guys) - "This GUY is SO intelligent, he's so WEIRD"...Coz after all, girls generally have very dumb sense of humour, effectively - that means, if a joke has the least power to even make you smile - it can WREAK havoc on a girl's face (laughter is a better word, I guess)...Following the GIGO PRINCIPLE (Garbage In Garbage Out) : boys with lower IQs shall crack enough stupid jokes to befriend (and impress) girls....This argument implied that I had to chose between two options which were antithesis of each other: Either ACT INTELLIGENTLY or GET INTO HER CLIQUEY GROUP...To follow Darwin's theory of Evolution, I had to opt for the former option (I couldn't opt for being an ape like those 'silly' guys) ! ( :
3) If you start with a BIASED OPINION, it eventually turns out to be correct ! I had this thinking about girls from UP - that they don't befriend guys from UP...And it turned out to be CORRECT (atleast for me)..So be OPEN MINDED....
4) Human Beings have this ability of forming CLIQUEY groups (aka friend circle)...It's very tough to enter into that group as it follows LAW OF INERTIA (I tried very hard to INTRUDE into her group..but failed)
5) JEALOUSY and FRUSTRATION give birth to CREATIVITY ! (Eg - this article)
6) Go SLOW with a relationship (especially with a girl)..Don't just haste, don't be "RASH"...
Last but never the least : I (still) MISS HER friendship !!!
PROBABLY, THE ANSWER IS : "RASH"-THAT'S-"ME" ! (Yes, I'm RESPONSIBLE for messing up with her)
The MOOT point remains : Why can't we free our selves of this stupid thing called EGO? Which causes us (like ME) to do such WEIRD things !!!
Interestingly, the word Rashmi ends with "I"....
( :
On first look, I found her quite stylish and swanky - looking at they way she would wear designer belt and accessories (ala typical 'cool' Delhi-ite girl). I liked the alacrity with which she gave me her MOBILE number when I asked for it the VERY first time. (Girls generally take time to give guys their mobile numbers). Both of us were, eventually, posted on different geographical locations (after our training ended) , that meant - we started communicating via emails/scraps/sms's coz our lil' friendship seed had just been sown...
Our "fledgling" friendship started growing quite exponentially..She started sharing her poems with me (she was quite creative as she was not from UP)...She told me the meaning of her name - "Rashmi" stands for "Ray of Light"...She told me that she had this ability of pepping-up her friends everytime they felt let-down..She said that she possesed the ability of bringing smile on people's faces by her good sense of humour (girls generally have bad sense of humour)..She showed me (via Yahoo chat) the WHACKY pair of PINK SHOES that she had bought on Christmas (so ZANY)..In return she was quite impressed by my WITTY and INTELLIGENT style of thinking (Ripostes)...
Eg : She once asked me (via email) -
"So when will you GET OUT ?" (she meant to say - when will you leave the office, that day ?),
I replied: "Get out of what:
1) WORLD - God knows.
2) MY COMPANY - TIME knows.
3) PROJECT - My Manager knows.
4) OFFICE - I know. "
(No doubt..she was impressed by this riposte....)
Few months later, I was transferred back to the same location where she was posted. I was ELATED with prospect of meeting her personally in the office. But you know what - our FRIENDSHIP EQUATION followed the REVERSE of whatever happened in the beginning....that means, it just deteriorated with time...
Here's a possible explanation:
She had befriended almost all the UP girls in the office...Mind you - I always had this BIASED thinking that UP girls fear UP Boys, that guys from UP (myself being one) can never befriend a girl from UP as the latter is a narrow minded and non-creative specie....This caused the distance between us grow large day by day, as I would STOP making EYE CONTACT with HER whenever I would see HER with "THEM". Couldn't help it coz that's HUMAN EGO at work..The other funny thing that I started doing was that I started IGNORING HER (by not making eye contacts with her) BUT 'WRITING EMAILS/SCRAPS' to her (as if everything was normal between us)...Don't you think that it's SO WEIRD - A guy doesn't make eye contact with a girl or talks to her face to face, but prefers talking via email/scraps...(A possible reason might be the fact that she was always surrounded with detested UP Girls)...One of company mates chided me for this irrational and erratic demeanour, he said - "Dude, a girl would not come to you and say 'Let's go for tea'...It's you who has to take the initiative...Stop this emailing/scrapping shit and start talking to her face to face..."....(POINT TAKEN BUDDY)
Somehow, the craving to be her friend still remained as I stalked her closely on Orkut and came to know that she was very creative (via her blog), intelligent, had good sense of humour (via the TESTIMONIALS from her friends), that she was a FIGHTER (via the TESTIMONIALS from her friends...I always wanted to ask her about the toughest moment in her life and how she fought back)...As I (frequently) saw her enjoying (at office) WITHIN her CLIQUEY little friends' circle (including girls and boys from UP) comprising of BOYS from the lesser known colleges whose sum total of intelligence shall be equal to mine, I couldn't help feeling jealous...But then one of my friends counter-attacked this by saying: "Dude...It's not your problem..Girls, generally, FEAR INTELLIGENCE beyond a certain point. Unfortunately, YOURS lies on the 'REPEL ZONE' !!!"
I've LEARNT many LESSONS:
1) TECHNOLOGY (email/scrap/sms) should SUPPLEMENT your PERSONAL interactions with a girl. PREFER face-to-face interactions over TECHNOLOGY when flirting with a girl...
2) No matter how smart/intelligent you may be, a girl will always find 2-3 boys (as her friends) whose sum total of intelligence shall equal yours (provided your intelligence is high). This ways, she doesn't feel uncomfortable with them as she believes in 'GESTALT THEORY' - "The WHOLE being greater than the SUM of its PARTS !"..She thinks (of very inteligent guys) - "This GUY is SO intelligent, he's so WEIRD"...Coz after all, girls generally have very dumb sense of humour, effectively - that means, if a joke has the least power to even make you smile - it can WREAK havoc on a girl's face (laughter is a better word, I guess)...Following the GIGO PRINCIPLE (Garbage In Garbage Out) : boys with lower IQs shall crack enough stupid jokes to befriend (and impress) girls....This argument implied that I had to chose between two options which were antithesis of each other: Either ACT INTELLIGENTLY or GET INTO HER CLIQUEY GROUP...To follow Darwin's theory of Evolution, I had to opt for the former option (I couldn't opt for being an ape like those 'silly' guys) ! ( :
3) If you start with a BIASED OPINION, it eventually turns out to be correct ! I had this thinking about girls from UP - that they don't befriend guys from UP...And it turned out to be CORRECT (atleast for me)..So be OPEN MINDED....
4) Human Beings have this ability of forming CLIQUEY groups (aka friend circle)...It's very tough to enter into that group as it follows LAW OF INERTIA (I tried very hard to INTRUDE into her group..but failed)
5) JEALOUSY and FRUSTRATION give birth to CREATIVITY ! (Eg - this article)
6) Go SLOW with a relationship (especially with a girl)..Don't just haste, don't be "RASH"...
Last but never the least : I (still) MISS HER friendship !!!
PROBABLY, THE ANSWER IS : "RASH"-THAT'S-"ME" ! (Yes, I'm RESPONSIBLE for messing up with her)
The MOOT point remains : Why can't we free our selves of this stupid thing called EGO? Which causes us (like ME) to do such WEIRD things !!!
Interestingly, the word Rashmi ends with "I"....
( :
ENGINEERING V/S MANAGEMENT
Well, you don't find many NITians craving to be a technocrat in the long run ....almost 90% of them opt for MBA later in their lives (unlike IITians)...For us, NIT simply stands for "Never Interested in Technology" ...Here, I give an example which just exemplifies this EMPIRICAL fact...
In our final semester, myself and my 3 project mates were simply running out of ideas to get some software/code that could be procured and manipulated easily such that at the end of the semester we could claim it as OUR CREATION (majority does like that)...Finally, we chose "8085 MICROPROCESSOR SIMULATOR"..We wanted to do it using 'C' but were never sure about our TECHNICAL ability to do the whole coding in C....When the time came to submit the PAPER (3 months before the final project submission) giving a short INTRO to our project - my project mates had to TRUST me coz they had full belief on my skills in written English...I didn't disappoint them as I kept this line in the PAPER, AS WELL (I always had this HUNCH that we won't be able to do the whole project in 'C') :
"....OFCOURSE, the number of functionalities added in our project shall simply be GOVERNED by our technical/programming EXPERTISE in 'C'...."
In Layman's language, it was our latent and devious way to tell the professor - "We'll do what we CAN do...BUT please don't EXPECT much...coz we are not sure..."
Eventally, the aforesaid LINE came out to be right, as we were not able to do the whole coding in 'C'..Finally, we changed gears and switched to 'Java' and were able to complete the project well on time...
PREMONITION POWER ?? (As per some studies, good managers trust their intuitions !!!)
( :
In our final semester, myself and my 3 project mates were simply running out of ideas to get some software/code that could be procured and manipulated easily such that at the end of the semester we could claim it as OUR CREATION (majority does like that)...Finally, we chose "8085 MICROPROCESSOR SIMULATOR"..We wanted to do it using 'C' but were never sure about our TECHNICAL ability to do the whole coding in C....When the time came to submit the PAPER (3 months before the final project submission) giving a short INTRO to our project - my project mates had to TRUST me coz they had full belief on my skills in written English...I didn't disappoint them as I kept this line in the PAPER, AS WELL (I always had this HUNCH that we won't be able to do the whole project in 'C') :
"....OFCOURSE, the number of functionalities added in our project shall simply be GOVERNED by our technical/programming EXPERTISE in 'C'...."
In Layman's language, it was our latent and devious way to tell the professor - "We'll do what we CAN do...BUT please don't EXPECT much...coz we are not sure..."
Eventally, the aforesaid LINE came out to be right, as we were not able to do the whole coding in 'C'..Finally, we changed gears and switched to 'Java' and were able to complete the project well on time...
PREMONITION POWER ?? (As per some studies, good managers trust their intuitions !!!)
( :
Sunday, September 30, 2007
TIP FOR ORKUT !
I've observed a novel feature of Orkut: if you change any thing on your profile then all of your Orkut friends are intimated about it. But here's the CATCH - the URL section (under profile) is generally used for putting BLOG (or anything..let's say your website) on your profile, so what if I update my BLOG ? Will my 130 or so Orkut friends be notified about it - since I've changed my BLOG and the link is right there in my Orkut profile and hence EFFECTIVELY my profile has changed ??
On the flip side - if this IDEA is implemented then BLOGGERS will find that their EFFORTS in updating BLOGS won't go in vain, provided the URL LINK to their BLOG is present on their Orkut profile. After all, BLOGS are meant to be publicly seen, so BLOGGERS (like me) would appreciate if internet could enable BLOG CREATORS to add MORE VISIBILITY to their respective blogs..
Orkut designers - can you hear me ?
( :
On the flip side - if this IDEA is implemented then BLOGGERS will find that their EFFORTS in updating BLOGS won't go in vain, provided the URL LINK to their BLOG is present on their Orkut profile. After all, BLOGS are meant to be publicly seen, so BLOGGERS (like me) would appreciate if internet could enable BLOG CREATORS to add MORE VISIBILITY to their respective blogs..
Orkut designers - can you hear me ?
( :
THE SIXTH SENSE !
DO THIS : Next time when you are sitting in a bus and are left to thoughts all-alone, feeling very good or bad about a person (either of the EXTREMES) OBSERVE the things you SEE while on road..Let's say you are thinking very bad about some person (say MUKUL) and you are muttering some expletives against him....BANG - you SEE a BUS full of passengers on road with this tag: "MUKUL TRAVELS PVT. LTD."....(I've observed this many-a-times)
Probably that's why they say that ACTIONS imitate THOUGHTS (and vice versa)...
( :
Probably that's why they say that ACTIONS imitate THOUGHTS (and vice versa)...
( :
IF YOU HAVE IT, FLAUNT IT !
Recently I came across an "interesting profile" on Orkut (not sure about the person) : The guy was quite handsome (as per the pics posted) , that he was a guitarist cum software engineer and was quite FLAUNTING about the fact that he had umpteen Girl Friends. I was scouring through his profile when I read this in the 'BOOKS' section of his profile : "I read MANY BOOKS, but I don't FLAUNT"...BANG ! HERE'S THE CATCH MY FRIEND - You don't mind flaunting your "so many" Girls Friends and Guitar on Orkut but then why NOT BOOKS ?
The best analogy that I could make was this THOUGHT PROVOKING wise-crack from Edward De Bono's "How to Have a Beautiful mind":
"We spend so much on external beauty but why not on one thing which can create a beautiful life for us - MIND !!!"
My thought - When will we start getting ADs on TV quite parallel to those semi-erotic AXE (deo) ADs...? Difference being the focus on MIND rather than the BODY...
Probably the ADVERTISERS are smart enough to realise that voracious book lovers hardly fall for TV...
Food for thought ?
( :
The best analogy that I could make was this THOUGHT PROVOKING wise-crack from Edward De Bono's "How to Have a Beautiful mind":
"We spend so much on external beauty but why not on one thing which can create a beautiful life for us - MIND !!!"
My thought - When will we start getting ADs on TV quite parallel to those semi-erotic AXE (deo) ADs...? Difference being the focus on MIND rather than the BODY...
Probably the ADVERTISERS are smart enough to realise that voracious book lovers hardly fall for TV...
Food for thought ?
( :
Thursday, September 20, 2007
NAMESAKE !!!
I will never forget this zany but consistent ATM (of Bank 'X') in the complex that housed my office. No matter at which date/time/day you go, you'll always find either of these 2 EXHAUSTIVE conditions:
1) Either the ATM won't be working.
2) Or, you enter any amount less than 500 and you get this reply from the ATM Terminal:
"Please enter amount in multiples of 100 only !"
Tell me - Isn't 100,200,300 and 400 multiples of 100 ? Funny mathematics ! ( :
I used this ATM for around 1 year until my office location changed, what never changed in that 1 year were the aforesaid 2 conditions...
Co-incidentally, the BANK changed it's name (another of those stupid and futile MANAGEMENT subterfuges of tricking the customer) and came with this punch line:
"Everything is the same, except the name!"
I said (gawking at that ATM) - "HOW TRUE !!!"
( :
1) Either the ATM won't be working.
2) Or, you enter any amount less than 500 and you get this reply from the ATM Terminal:
"Please enter amount in multiples of 100 only !"
Tell me - Isn't 100,200,300 and 400 multiples of 100 ? Funny mathematics ! ( :
I used this ATM for around 1 year until my office location changed, what never changed in that 1 year were the aforesaid 2 conditions...
Co-incidentally, the BANK changed it's name (another of those stupid and futile MANAGEMENT subterfuges of tricking the customer) and came with this punch line:
"Everything is the same, except the name!"
I said (gawking at that ATM) - "HOW TRUE !!!"
( :
Monday, September 10, 2007
You and I - in this beautiful world !
STIMULUS: This SMS from Hutch - "Ab Rs.222, Rs.333 aur Rs.555 recharge par paayein FULL CALLING VALUE (Less of Service Tax). Recharge Today. Limited Period Offer !"
RESPONSE: I scamper away like a spook to the nearest Shopkeeper and ask him to recharge for Rs. 333 (To be on SAFER side...as 333 lies well protected between 222 and 555)...The shopkeeper obliges ME and I get this SMS upon recharge - "Rs.296 have been credited to your account."
Myself: "That's CHEATING man..It was written FULL CALLING VALUE..333 Rs. should have been credited to my account..."
Shopkeeper: "READ it CAREFULLY again..the SERVICE TAX is ZERO....But did it say anything about the PROCESSING FEE ?..BTW : Had you asked me, I would have advised you to go ahead with Rs.375 one as that would have fetched you a neat 375 !!!"
Myself - "But they never sent me an SMS for Rs.375...."
Shopkeeper - "They GENERALLY don't ...!"
Moral of the Parable:
1) Total Fee (of Recharge Coupon) = CALLING VALUE+SERVICE TAX *
2) Always inquire first from your shopkeeper... !
P.S => * - excluding Processing Fee .
(NOTICE THE FONT SIZE OF POST SCRIPT)
( :
RESPONSE: I scamper away like a spook to the nearest Shopkeeper and ask him to recharge for Rs. 333 (To be on SAFER side...as 333 lies well protected between 222 and 555)...The shopkeeper obliges ME and I get this SMS upon recharge - "Rs.296 have been credited to your account."
Myself: "That's CHEATING man..It was written FULL CALLING VALUE..333 Rs. should have been credited to my account..."
Shopkeeper: "READ it CAREFULLY again..the SERVICE TAX is ZERO....But did it say anything about the PROCESSING FEE ?..BTW : Had you asked me, I would have advised you to go ahead with Rs.375 one as that would have fetched you a neat 375 !!!"
Myself - "But they never sent me an SMS for Rs.375...."
Shopkeeper - "They GENERALLY don't ...!"
Moral of the Parable:
1) Total Fee (of Recharge Coupon) = CALLING VALUE+SERVICE TAX *
2) Always inquire first from your shopkeeper... !
P.S => * - excluding Processing Fee .
(NOTICE THE FONT SIZE OF POST SCRIPT)
( :
Saturday, September 8, 2007
BREVITY SAYS IT ALL !
One of my chums advised me (he's a frequent visitor to my blog) to keep as terse articles on my blog as possible..I agree with him (as almost all good things come in small packages - don't know why we keep waiting incessantly for the BIG PACKAGES!) and hence have tried my level best to put as short/compact and pithy articles as possible...After all - almost everyone remembers only the first 15% of whatever is said/written...According to Edward De Bono - our brain tends to do as much LESS THINKING as possible..BRAIN'S FUNDA is to simplify life (and thinking!)....Hence, as a corollary - I guess the "effective grasping percentage" can be enhanced if only the verbose speech/writings could be shortened !
Food for thought for our Politicians ???
( :
Food for thought for our Politicians ???
( :
BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL !
Interesting titbit....
When your screen is white, be it an empty word page, or the Google page, your computer consumes 74 watts, and when its black it consumes only 59 watts. Mark Ontkush wrote an article about the energy saving that would be achieved if Google had a black screen, taking in account the huge number of page views, according to his calculations, 750 mega watts/hour per year would be saved.
In a response to this article Google created a black version of its search engine, called Blackle, check it out.
http://www.blackle.com/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mukul says : Any WONDER why the MAJORITY of the PIXELS (BACKGROUND) on my BLOG are of BLACK colour ?
SAVE ENERGY !
( :
When your screen is white, be it an empty word page, or the Google page, your computer consumes 74 watts, and when its black it consumes only 59 watts. Mark Ontkush wrote an article about the energy saving that would be achieved if Google had a black screen, taking in account the huge number of page views, according to his calculations, 750 mega watts/hour per year would be saved.
In a response to this article Google created a black version of its search engine, called Blackle, check it out.
http://www.blackle.com/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mukul says : Any WONDER why the MAJORITY of the PIXELS (BACKGROUND) on my BLOG are of BLACK colour ?
SAVE ENERGY !
( :
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Who came first - Humans or Systems ?
One of the managers (a witty Singaporean woman) in my IT project, who looks after Database Management, once detected a serious mismatch between Production and UAT environment. This got her furious as the users had done testing on the WRONG environment ! So she quipped : "I guess Systems should react to Humans and not the other way round !!!"
I got bemused by this statement at first instance as I found it quite OBSCURE....
Few days later, the Database experts in my team got elated as the Database processes were working faster and efficiently THAT DAY. Incredibly : The Database team had no idea about this "increased efficiency" - as they had done ZILCH effort for the DESIRED effect ! However, they were just happy with the "good" OUTCOME....Suddenly - Pat comes the aforesaid MANAGER's retort:
"TEAM..You need to find out WHY the Database process is working so efficiently ?"....
One of the Database experts in my team got miffed by this..He grieved : "If the process is slow then it makes sense to find out why? But when it's working fast - do we really need to find out why ? Let it run fast - as long as it's good for us !"
After hearing this, I got the latent meaning behind the MANAGER'S pithy comment :
"Systems should REACT to humans and not the OTHER way round !!!".
I want to add just one more line to this : "Provided the SYSTEMS are ARTIFICIAL !!!"
( :
I got bemused by this statement at first instance as I found it quite OBSCURE....
Few days later, the Database experts in my team got elated as the Database processes were working faster and efficiently THAT DAY. Incredibly : The Database team had no idea about this "increased efficiency" - as they had done ZILCH effort for the DESIRED effect ! However, they were just happy with the "good" OUTCOME....Suddenly - Pat comes the aforesaid MANAGER's retort:
"TEAM..You need to find out WHY the Database process is working so efficiently ?"....
One of the Database experts in my team got miffed by this..He grieved : "If the process is slow then it makes sense to find out why? But when it's working fast - do we really need to find out why ? Let it run fast - as long as it's good for us !"
After hearing this, I got the latent meaning behind the MANAGER'S pithy comment :
"Systems should REACT to humans and not the OTHER way round !!!".
I want to add just one more line to this : "Provided the SYSTEMS are ARTIFICIAL !!!"
( :
Friday, August 31, 2007
CHANGE IS THE ONLY CONSTANT !
You accost any one : from the rustic Pan-wallah to the suave McDonald's personnnel, almost everyone comes out with this banality when the time comes to foot the bill:
"CHANGE PLEASE ?"
This only vindicates the cliched statement by Einstein (if i'm not wrong) : "CHANGE is the ONLY CONSTANT!"..You go to any shop (CHANGE)...you get the same RESPONSE (A CONSTANT)..It's more like a CAUSE=>EFFECT scenario...
I guess it's high time that the Government came out with the innovative concept of PLASTIC MONEY....
For the time being - where on EARTH does this CHANGE (chutte , in Hindi ) go ? Any ideas ? Tough nut to crack...!!!
( :
"CHANGE PLEASE ?"
This only vindicates the cliched statement by Einstein (if i'm not wrong) : "CHANGE is the ONLY CONSTANT!"..You go to any shop (CHANGE)...you get the same RESPONSE (A CONSTANT)..It's more like a CAUSE=>EFFECT scenario...
I guess it's high time that the Government came out with the innovative concept of PLASTIC MONEY....
For the time being - where on EARTH does this CHANGE (chutte , in Hindi ) go ? Any ideas ? Tough nut to crack...!!!
( :
FACE ON THE.... ( :
TRY THIS : Next time when you are in a lift (ofcourse - inside a condominium) :
1) Randomly pick any funny/wierd/sober face.
2) GAWK at the chosen face (from step 1) CONTINUOUSLY...
3) ENJOY THE "UPSHOT" THAT ENSUES !!! ( :
CAVEAT : Avoid Girls !
1) Randomly pick any funny/wierd/sober face.
2) GAWK at the chosen face (from step 1) CONTINUOUSLY...
3) ENJOY THE "UPSHOT" THAT ENSUES !!! ( :
CAVEAT : Avoid Girls !
Shrouded with Dissolution ?
One of the business owner's (in my IT project) email signature goes like this:
"Do you REALLY need to print this ? "
When I first bumped into this weird signature, I got bemused with its naivety. But then (I don't know how) I got ENAMOURED with it (when I got the OBSCURE meaning behind it) and did this : I took a blank paper and wrote this with pen:
"Do I REALLY need to take a PRINT-OUT of this ? - Mukul Pandey" - No marks for guessing : I put this paper on my cubicle in office !
A few days ago, one of my roommate insisted on sleeping on HIS MATTRESS rather than MY MATTRESS (as that day I was sleeping on HIS MATTRESS). I couldn't get him and upon inquiry he QUIPPED : "Your MATTRESS is NOT shrouded with BED SHEET...I can't stand this even for a single day !!!"
Just one question (to all) :
"DO YOU REALLY NEED TO HAVE THAT ?"
( :
"Do you REALLY need to print this ? "
When I first bumped into this weird signature, I got bemused with its naivety. But then (I don't know how) I got ENAMOURED with it (when I got the OBSCURE meaning behind it) and did this : I took a blank paper and wrote this with pen:
"Do I REALLY need to take a PRINT-OUT of this ? - Mukul Pandey" - No marks for guessing : I put this paper on my cubicle in office !
A few days ago, one of my roommate insisted on sleeping on HIS MATTRESS rather than MY MATTRESS (as that day I was sleeping on HIS MATTRESS). I couldn't get him and upon inquiry he QUIPPED : "Your MATTRESS is NOT shrouded with BED SHEET...I can't stand this even for a single day !!!"
Just one question (to all) :
"DO YOU REALLY NEED TO HAVE THAT ?"
( :
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
ORKUT TESTIMONIAL !
After having written a testimonial for one of my friends on Orkut, I found it so fascinating that I couldn't resist the naive temptation to put it here :
Here's MY perception about her :
1) Quite precocious....Ever ready to give righteous yet plausible advices to friends, her matured pate is like a "MS SQL COMMAND INTERPRETER"...Type-in any of your QUERY and press ENTER...BINGO !
2) Indomitable spirit...This, I guess, is the "silver lining" about her personality - she loves to fight adversaries and takes challenges head-on with a veneer of smile on countenance !
3) Quite Humble...I have'nt ever seen her bragging about herself...atleast till now.. ( :
4) Impassioned about MUSIC, WORDS, CHOCOLATES and "PIZZA" - maybe it's high time that "PIZZA-HUT" ppl STOPPED their eternal "HUNT"... ( :
5) Ah yes - all of my aforesaid findings follow the famous "80:20 priciple". Perhaps 80% of my observations came from just 20% of actual results...(no offence intended plz) ( :
Here's MY perception about her :
1) Quite precocious....Ever ready to give righteous yet plausible advices to friends, her matured pate is like a "MS SQL COMMAND INTERPRETER"...Type-in any of your QUERY and press ENTER...BINGO !
2) Indomitable spirit...This, I guess, is the "silver lining" about her personality - she loves to fight adversaries and takes challenges head-on with a veneer of smile on countenance !
3) Quite Humble...I have'nt ever seen her bragging about herself...atleast till now.. ( :
4) Impassioned about MUSIC, WORDS, CHOCOLATES and "PIZZA" - maybe it's high time that "PIZZA-HUT" ppl STOPPED their eternal "HUNT"... ( :
5) Ah yes - all of my aforesaid findings follow the famous "80:20 priciple". Perhaps 80% of my observations came from just 20% of actual results...(no offence intended plz) ( :
RIPLEY'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT !!!
After (SOMEHOW) watching the movie "PARTNER" starring Govinda and Salman Khan, my eyes chanced upon this comment by one of the viewers as a part of movie review in TOI:
"Although the STORY is very GOOD, the MUSIC is not SO GOOD !!!"
I found the comment whacky, until few weeks later : PARTNER was DECLARED A SUPER HIT FLICK !!!
I'm still scouring for that guy to ask him about the essence of the STORY...My quest continues even today... ( :
"Although the STORY is very GOOD, the MUSIC is not SO GOOD !!!"
I found the comment whacky, until few weeks later : PARTNER was DECLARED A SUPER HIT FLICK !!!
I'm still scouring for that guy to ask him about the essence of the STORY...My quest continues even today... ( :
Monday, August 20, 2007
The End of an Infinity !!!
"Mujhe Infinity tak le chalo"(take me to Infinity), I said to the Rikshawpuller as I got down the bus at DLF in Gurgaon. It was 7th of Sept 2006, my first day at GESBI on the 12th floor of Infinity Tower C at DLF Cyber City in Gurgaon. After that day, I have travelled about 45 Kms one way everyday for some 80 days, from Noida in UP through Delhi to Gurgaon in Haryana. Thus I've literally travelled to infinity, and now when I've come back from Infinity, I sit back in retrospection, trying to figure out if it's the beginning or the end of a journey to infinity.
My journey to Infinity started with a major change in my life. I had to start my day quite early in order to catch the GE bus ( a typically red 'CITY LIFE' bus numbered 6438, popularly known as 'Lalpari' (fairy in red)) and hence I started getting up as early as 5:30 AM, first time ever in the past five years. Fortunately for me, the bus had a trend of tuning to some FM station. In fact, my decision to commute from Noida and not to shift to Gurgaon was highly influenced by this. I really loved listening to great Hindi music in the cool mornings, while observing the beginning of morning life in the city. Having understood the fact that life is embellished by the happiness gathered in bits and pieces, I made every efforts to garner as much as I could. And today, I have reasons galore to be happy.
The day at Infinity started with a rush in the lift every morning. And the next step would be to be questioned by the security at the entrance "sir aap ki access card" (Sir, your access card please!).Initially I didn't bother about having an access card. Later, I requested for one but never got issued. Consequently, n number of times have I written my name down at the entrance, and answered uncountable times " mere paas nahi hai" ( i don't have one).
I would be incomplete at Infinity, had there not been Sameer Boxi. After my two months' interaction with him, I found that a character only imagined by great authors in the best of their works, even existed. It might be my sole interpretation, and highly biased because of the visible and invisible affinity I grew towards him through time, but I found in him a similar character personified. I have millions to learn from him, beyond just the SELECT statements, or which table existed in which database, or what the username and password to a certain server is. I understand that life is not just Poblog Tickets. The big truth is, one must try to get what he likes or else he has to like what he gets. We don't always get what we want. But one must learn to live with what he has, and with happiness, patiently waiting for the D-Day to come when judgement is done in one's favor. A belief that the day comes keeps us going. Sameer has been a great Guru of my corporate life. I've learnt how to laugh at all the troubles I have, and realized that they vanish the next moment.
Day began as I logged into the Poblog-a problem tracking tool. After that, its all tickets, and tickets and more tickets. At the end of the day, you are just a SELECT somebody FROM yourself WHERE everything is NULL.
And then there would be a missed call from Ruchi or Mukul or Eddie, or some or all of them. And it would require a few more missed calls before I managed to lock my PC and go for the breakfast (as if a busy person, but still playing with some basic data queries). A cup of lemon tea and a veg-sandwich in the cafe of the 11th floor marked the beginning of yet another weekday. Few minutes of fun, few SMS jokes, few Shayaris, few songs, few stories on NIT engineering life and that's it. The rest of the day is all about confronting the monitor and banging on the keyboard.
Few more missed calls at the time of the lunch, few minutes of standing in the queue, the 25 Rupee coupon, Rice, a Dal, a Subzi and two Chapatis!!! Oh, what a routine, what a corporate life we've opted for. May be life is as scheduled elsewhere as well. May be its me who is supposed to add variation to the routine I follow. May be, well not just may be but in fact, its me who decides how I want my life to go on. I obviously can't change the world, but I can always change myself, or at least the way I look at it.But, beyond the philosophy, at the core of reality, life is still a routine. A cup of milk-tea in the evening (except for the days when tickets keep you tied on your seat), and twelve floors down on foot (as if lifts were 'one way'), and finally a sigh of relief " Aaj to nikal gaya" (Thanks!! a day is over!!). Five such days and a longer sigh "Thank God Its Friday!".
We have been dragging our lives each day, all our life, at the time when we should have been flying by our wings!!
And suddenly I realize that there is no more Ruchi in life. There's no Mukul, no Eddie nor Ranjan. Its said, "to meet and to part is the way of life, to part and to meet is the hope of life". But how unfortunate it is that people finally turn into emails, scraps and messages. They don't exist anymore. And they are missed forever. There's no more discussion on sketches with Ruchi, no more exhibiting each other's sketch books. No more close company. No more outings...!!
There are no more lectures on Patriotism, Lucknow or Lajpat Nagar. Now that there's no Mukul, there's no more asking about Urdu or Hindi jargon.
No more complaints on projects or systems. Eddie, who could never learn Hindi in all these years, will not be there anymore to complain about 'everybody speaking Hindi'. No more struts, no tech-discussions, no going down during lunch break, no waiting for Mukul till he brings his stuff from the room for his weekend trip to Lajpat Nagar or Gaziabad.
And the person who turned up late, with an entry as that of a Hindi Film when everybody says "Aap ki hi kami thi" ( you were the one missing). Now no more Cancerians, Saggitarians, Librans or Pieceans, no more 12th Jan, 8th Nov or 27th March. Stars couldn't help, the planets couldn't manage, the people are no more people, they are just electrons flowing in the wires, waves propagating in the free space. No more discussions over Shef Ali Khan or Tom Hanks, no Bob Dylon, no Mirza Galib.
No more 'you must complete it today, i don't know how' form Srikanth, no more tickets from Richa Arora, no more request from Malarvani that the data is required in priority. Now I understand the perishable nature of life. Everything just vanishes. Life is like that magician who creates rabbit out of an empty hat and hides it into nowhere.. There was no rabbit and there is no rabbit. The moment we shared together, had a good time, was the time when the magician created the rabbit.Life is just an illusion of snake in a rope.
I tried my best to give my 100%, but as an Electronics Engineer, I never could. I have always dreamt of working in chip designing and becoming a research scientist. Contradictorily, I came to work everyday with pending tickets welcoming me. Someday, I finally decided to change the content of my life just like the 'beeper process' page, which when refreshed always has something new to attend to. I just decided to quit, in order to start off yet another journey. I understand that journeys aren't always fun. I can foresee the obstacles. But I choose to face them. What is life, without challenges???
Life would still go on, with or without Ruchi, Mukul, Eddie or Ranjan. Had I never seen Sameer, life would have still been running. But the fact that I had their company for a period of time has changed the person I am, for the rest of my life. At some point of time, I sit back to think and find that these people are missed so much. Oh goodness, the beauty of life!!!!
On my last day at Infinity, Mukul kept on repeating "yeh tera aakhiri din hai"(this is your last day), or "yeh tera aakhiri chai hai" (this is your last cup of tea). Ironically, there's nothing like " Aakhiri" (end) in life. I believe life is either the beginning of something new or the continuation of something old. Its not the end but the beginning of yet another journey to infinity.
I know there is no end to infinity.
PS. I mentioned singing for 100 times (literally) and nobody (Ruchi, Mukul) bothered. Grrrrrrr....!!!
- Bipul Luitel (A friend).
Here's the original source: http://gobipul.com/article_en1.aspx
My journey to Infinity started with a major change in my life. I had to start my day quite early in order to catch the GE bus ( a typically red 'CITY LIFE' bus numbered 6438, popularly known as 'Lalpari' (fairy in red)) and hence I started getting up as early as 5:30 AM, first time ever in the past five years. Fortunately for me, the bus had a trend of tuning to some FM station. In fact, my decision to commute from Noida and not to shift to Gurgaon was highly influenced by this. I really loved listening to great Hindi music in the cool mornings, while observing the beginning of morning life in the city. Having understood the fact that life is embellished by the happiness gathered in bits and pieces, I made every efforts to garner as much as I could. And today, I have reasons galore to be happy.
The day at Infinity started with a rush in the lift every morning. And the next step would be to be questioned by the security at the entrance "sir aap ki access card" (Sir, your access card please!).Initially I didn't bother about having an access card. Later, I requested for one but never got issued. Consequently, n number of times have I written my name down at the entrance, and answered uncountable times " mere paas nahi hai" ( i don't have one).
I would be incomplete at Infinity, had there not been Sameer Boxi. After my two months' interaction with him, I found that a character only imagined by great authors in the best of their works, even existed. It might be my sole interpretation, and highly biased because of the visible and invisible affinity I grew towards him through time, but I found in him a similar character personified. I have millions to learn from him, beyond just the SELECT statements, or which table existed in which database, or what the username and password to a certain server is. I understand that life is not just Poblog Tickets. The big truth is, one must try to get what he likes or else he has to like what he gets. We don't always get what we want. But one must learn to live with what he has, and with happiness, patiently waiting for the D-Day to come when judgement is done in one's favor. A belief that the day comes keeps us going. Sameer has been a great Guru of my corporate life. I've learnt how to laugh at all the troubles I have, and realized that they vanish the next moment.
Day began as I logged into the Poblog-a problem tracking tool. After that, its all tickets, and tickets and more tickets. At the end of the day, you are just a SELECT somebody FROM yourself WHERE everything is NULL.
And then there would be a missed call from Ruchi or Mukul or Eddie, or some or all of them. And it would require a few more missed calls before I managed to lock my PC and go for the breakfast (as if a busy person, but still playing with some basic data queries). A cup of lemon tea and a veg-sandwich in the cafe of the 11th floor marked the beginning of yet another weekday. Few minutes of fun, few SMS jokes, few Shayaris, few songs, few stories on NIT engineering life and that's it. The rest of the day is all about confronting the monitor and banging on the keyboard.
Few more missed calls at the time of the lunch, few minutes of standing in the queue, the 25 Rupee coupon, Rice, a Dal, a Subzi and two Chapatis!!! Oh, what a routine, what a corporate life we've opted for. May be life is as scheduled elsewhere as well. May be its me who is supposed to add variation to the routine I follow. May be, well not just may be but in fact, its me who decides how I want my life to go on. I obviously can't change the world, but I can always change myself, or at least the way I look at it.But, beyond the philosophy, at the core of reality, life is still a routine. A cup of milk-tea in the evening (except for the days when tickets keep you tied on your seat), and twelve floors down on foot (as if lifts were 'one way'), and finally a sigh of relief " Aaj to nikal gaya" (Thanks!! a day is over!!). Five such days and a longer sigh "Thank God Its Friday!".
We have been dragging our lives each day, all our life, at the time when we should have been flying by our wings!!
And suddenly I realize that there is no more Ruchi in life. There's no Mukul, no Eddie nor Ranjan. Its said, "to meet and to part is the way of life, to part and to meet is the hope of life". But how unfortunate it is that people finally turn into emails, scraps and messages. They don't exist anymore. And they are missed forever. There's no more discussion on sketches with Ruchi, no more exhibiting each other's sketch books. No more close company. No more outings...!!
There are no more lectures on Patriotism, Lucknow or Lajpat Nagar. Now that there's no Mukul, there's no more asking about Urdu or Hindi jargon.
No more complaints on projects or systems. Eddie, who could never learn Hindi in all these years, will not be there anymore to complain about 'everybody speaking Hindi'. No more struts, no tech-discussions, no going down during lunch break, no waiting for Mukul till he brings his stuff from the room for his weekend trip to Lajpat Nagar or Gaziabad.
And the person who turned up late, with an entry as that of a Hindi Film when everybody says "Aap ki hi kami thi" ( you were the one missing). Now no more Cancerians, Saggitarians, Librans or Pieceans, no more 12th Jan, 8th Nov or 27th March. Stars couldn't help, the planets couldn't manage, the people are no more people, they are just electrons flowing in the wires, waves propagating in the free space. No more discussions over Shef Ali Khan or Tom Hanks, no Bob Dylon, no Mirza Galib.
No more 'you must complete it today, i don't know how' form Srikanth, no more tickets from Richa Arora, no more request from Malarvani that the data is required in priority. Now I understand the perishable nature of life. Everything just vanishes. Life is like that magician who creates rabbit out of an empty hat and hides it into nowhere.. There was no rabbit and there is no rabbit. The moment we shared together, had a good time, was the time when the magician created the rabbit.Life is just an illusion of snake in a rope.
I tried my best to give my 100%, but as an Electronics Engineer, I never could. I have always dreamt of working in chip designing and becoming a research scientist. Contradictorily, I came to work everyday with pending tickets welcoming me. Someday, I finally decided to change the content of my life just like the 'beeper process' page, which when refreshed always has something new to attend to. I just decided to quit, in order to start off yet another journey. I understand that journeys aren't always fun. I can foresee the obstacles. But I choose to face them. What is life, without challenges???
Life would still go on, with or without Ruchi, Mukul, Eddie or Ranjan. Had I never seen Sameer, life would have still been running. But the fact that I had their company for a period of time has changed the person I am, for the rest of my life. At some point of time, I sit back to think and find that these people are missed so much. Oh goodness, the beauty of life!!!!
On my last day at Infinity, Mukul kept on repeating "yeh tera aakhiri din hai"(this is your last day), or "yeh tera aakhiri chai hai" (this is your last cup of tea). Ironically, there's nothing like " Aakhiri" (end) in life. I believe life is either the beginning of something new or the continuation of something old. Its not the end but the beginning of yet another journey to infinity.
I know there is no end to infinity.
PS. I mentioned singing for 100 times (literally) and nobody (Ruchi, Mukul) bothered. Grrrrrrr....!!!
- Bipul Luitel (A friend).
Here's the original source: http://gobipul.com/article_en1.aspx
LIFE !!!
A human is born to complete a cycle of his own
A young child is born on the earth at noon .
He opens his eyes and cries over his existence ,
or he is so happy to face the suspense ?
A situation waiting for him to grow old ,
to weaken a person even though bold .
Through this stage the parents will be there for the child's support
and make sure that they turn his tears to laughter and also maintain a report
of his needs that can be or cannot be fulfilled .
Now you will see the life change colours gradually ,
Once a small innocent person now will talk diplomatically .
A person who knew that he was born all alone ,
Now tries to find a person to call his own.
A person to give him support during good or bad,
A person to be at their best when you are sad.
A person to give you all his attention or someone to be your friend.
And when a close one is far away from you,
You try to get too close to the person or too far away .
For such people who are close to your soul are hard to forget,
And all you can do is feel empty and regret,
The absence of them in this world full of humans.
These situations arise inspite of us knowing the fact
That we will die alone ,without any support to face the act.
Once you are gone ,everyone tries to retain your memory
For some these are painful to forget for others it is easy
You struggle your life to become the best ones
So that you are cherished in someone's life once
That is what i believe is the life's cycle
In which even I have been stuck and I try to break the chain
But when I try I have nothing but sorrows to gain .
- Manisha Kalia (A friend)
COLOUR INSIDE !!!
Recently, I went with of my friends to Shipra Mall as he wanted to buy a pair of Jockey underwear. After struggling for minutes and scouring through piles of all kind of underwears there he finally got HIS SIZE and the ECONOMY pack of Jockey underwears that he was CRAVING for...But alas he still didn't BUY those...Reason:
"Yaar I don't LIKE the COLOUR of these underwears..Although the PRICE, BRAND and SIZE are fine !!!"
I just said to myself : " Does the COLOUR INSIDE really matters ???"
( :
"Yaar I don't LIKE the COLOUR of these underwears..Although the PRICE, BRAND and SIZE are fine !!!"
I just said to myself : " Does the COLOUR INSIDE really matters ???"
( :
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Days of nullibicity
Days of nullibicity
Reading something everyday
To fulfill my inner quest
Thinking what I lack
When I possess everything
I ever cared about
Confusions soaking my mind
And every inch of me…
Drowning with it
Waking everyday with thoughts
Of what to do next
Shaken my existence
My presence on this poor soil
Regretting on what I could
Have done...
Is my daily deed
Burning within me
As a gleed
Keeping the spirits high
Dunno where to fly
To reach for ‘the’ star
Even if it seems so far….so far.
-Rashmi Kanchan Tete (A Friend)
Here's her blog: http://i-scabbing-me.blogspot.com/
Reading something everyday
To fulfill my inner quest
Thinking what I lack
When I possess everything
I ever cared about
Confusions soaking my mind
And every inch of me…
Drowning with it
Waking everyday with thoughts
Of what to do next
Shaken my existence
My presence on this poor soil
Regretting on what I could
Have done...
Is my daily deed
Burning within me
As a gleed
Keeping the spirits high
Dunno where to fly
To reach for ‘the’ star
Even if it seems so far….so far.
-Rashmi Kanchan Tete (A Friend)
Here's her blog: http://i-scabbing-me.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
What ails thee...Oh my UP-Bhaiyyans...???
Everything was
One of my UP-ian friend tried to ask a suave UP-ian girl (Unfortunately from NOIDA, which in no way resembles rest of the cities in U.P…!) as to what’s keeping them away from the UP-Group…Pat comes her BLUNT retort–
“You see – UP BOYS don’t know the right etiquettes…They just don’t know how to behave with girls…!”
Well when I heard this reply – I WAS LEFT FLABBERGASTED ! That’s because one can EASILY change his GILRFIEND but not provenance (place of origin!)…Does being a UP-ite imply that I really will have to GO FOR THAT EXTRA MILE (called ETIQUETTES ! ) to earn for myself a decent GIRLFRIEND…Yeah, you could say that I was FORCED to suffer from insomnia for the few following days. Till this day, I’m recuperating from the hangover that was in direct consequence to this reply that the aforesaid girl gave, who frankly speaking was anything but SEXY…! (Imagine then “the reply” from sexy UP-ian girls ! )
During summer vacations when I was at Lucknow – I visited a plethora of bookshops to find books that talked about “RIGHT ETIQUETTES” – especially those QUINTESSENTIAL ones that were enough to earn for a RUSTIC UP-Bhaiyyan like me a decent Girlfriend…ofcourse (or say atleast) from UP – I AM VERY HUMBLE, YOU SEE…! Because girls from other states don’t believe in taking risks…They are WIMPS, you see…! Any ways – My hunt lasted for about 2-days. I was especially looking for a book that was preferably written by a UP-ite as that would have enamored me enough to atleast read that book – you see I am a very practical guy….Unfortunately I found NONE - perhaps that was PRACTICAL enough…! (pun intended )
I was watching a News channel which stated that OUTSOURCING was afflicting Yankees (Americans!) quite terribly. That made me realize that more than Americans it was affecting UP-Bhaiyyans …Proof – All of the UP-ian girls in our college had SUAVE and SWANKY boyfriends all of whom were from ANYWHERE but U.P…Now don’t you think that this is OUTSOURCING…! Imagine a COOL-HIP-HOP guy from Bangalore flirting with a girl from Lucknow when whole OF THE INDIA knows that UP is the most populous state AND that sex ratio in U.P is quite skewed – this logically means that there shall be atleast 1 boy in UP who’ll fail to get a SINGLE (AND NOT ENGAGED…! ) UP-ian girl to woo as a Girlfriend…Of course it works in the other way round for Boys from other states – since rest of the states have an all right sex ratio (ADDITIONALLY enhanced by this supply of SURPLUS and Boyfriend-less girls from UP…!), there shall be atleast 1 boy in each state who’ll be having the DREAM OPTION of going for 2 girlfriends, if not 2 jobs ! (THIS FOLLLOWS FROM “PIGEON-HOLE PRINCIPLE”…Mathematics, you see – any girl impressed…? If yes then please do send me your feedback…! )
Well, till this day I am looking for answers to this inscrutable conundrum baffling even the brightest and the crème-de-la-crème (Like NIT-ians – yeah, I am serious…!) minds from U.P –
“What does it take for a UP-ite to have a Girl Friend…?”
“DO YOU HAVE IT IN YOU OH MY UP-BHAIYYANS…?”…
“Will you let her speak and leave her alone for a moment, you BASTARD NON-UP BHAIYYAN…!”
“I am sssorry DDDDear…BBBUUUTTTT…NNNNOOO YYOOUU SSSSEEEE……” (DISH…DISH…!)
(And the futile argument continues…)
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