Its MY phone

I wish people would realise that a mobile is as personal an accessory as a wallet. Its really annoying when someone starts looking through all the pictures and sms. Its more annoying when Im asked questions like who's this in the picture or where was this picture taken. I really feel like killing someone who picks up my mobile and starts playing games. Just because Im not hiding it in my pocket, it doesn't mean its public property. I can put up with that also, but what about guys who come and ask for my mobile, and when I give it to them, they start playing games? If only I could ......I wouldn't mind if it were a close friend of mine who does it but mere acquaintances doing this .... grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Its infinitely more irritating when I introduce a friend of mine to you and you get started with his mobile ..... I feel so terribly embarrassed

Blessed

are those who let others make choices for them and can happily accept the choices made. Blessed are those who make their own choices, stick to them and who dont give a damn what others think/say/do. If you are torn inbetween, you are screwed.

Colors of nature

These photos were reportedly taken at the same place in different seasons. Beautiful ...

Reflective mood

Reading this put me in kind of a reflective and philosophical mood. Only a few days ago, I had a conversation with a friend, wherein he remarked that life was getting too predictable and frustration was setting in. He wanted to do something, not the regular work-home-work routine. Here's how the conversation went.

Me: what is it that you want, name the something.
Him: something different, something of which we can be proud, something that gives us satisfaction that we have achieved something.
Me: as long as you can't name what it is, you can't achieve it. Inorder to achieve something, the first and foremost requirement is that you need to know what you want to achieve. Once you know that, then you can start working towards your goal.
Him: How do I know that
Me: Where do you see yourself, say 10 years from now?
Whatever it may be, it may be that you see yourself as Bill Gates' competitor or a family man with a small house and three or four kids living peacefully and comfortably.
Him: ?????

Me:  You have to be sure of that. Unless you know where to go, you can't know how to get there. First figure that out. Then gather required and relavant information. Then start off. Put in the required effort. It all depends on what you want and how much you want it, I said. You figure out the what and the how much will determine how sooner or later you'll get there.

Him: say I want to set up a company of my own, what do I need to do?
Me: Which company?
Him: Some company, may not be software company, because Im not sure this market will last for another ten years.
Me: Are you sure you will last that long? We are having this conversation now, and you may not be there tomorrow. That uncertainty will always be there. It again comes to what and how much :-).
Him: OK, a mid sized software company with, say around a 1000 employees and earning, say a 100 crore rupees a year. How should I proceed?
Me: Do the ground work. Gather information about how to setup a company and how to run it. Start slowly spending may be an hour a week or even an hour a month. Slowly get to the details. Once you have the information, take the plunge. However, that is my approach. There are people who right away jump into action. Take the approach that suits you. Once you are clear about the specifics, start working harder. It all depends on how much :-).
Him: hmmmmmmm. Its high time I started something. I'll start from today itself.

So on went the conversation for some more time, about my goals and dreams, what I want to do and how far have I reached etc etc. The one secret I didnt tell him that time was that I never had any plans, any ambitions. I have always been divided when it comes to having a goal in life. On the one hand, I feel like there's no point in having a goal in life and striving to achieve that. Live in this moment, I said to myself, enjoy the journey and forget the destination for, all the beauty and fun is in the journey only. On the other hand, a mediocre life doesnt seem worth living. Iam living and a billion other humans are living, whats the big deal? Go ahead, do something, dream big, says my mind. So, one day I go ahead two steps towards my goal, and I lay idle for 2 days, just taking in the sights and sounds and not at all caring about the future. What will happen to my life, only time will tell :-)

Task manager

Wish I had a task manager for my mind. Whenever I felt like Im not able to concentrate, not able to do my best, I would just launch the task manager, kill all the unwanted thoughts/processes and concentrate on the work at hand. And how to launch it? may be close eyes, pull one ear and pinch the nose, all at the same time.

Aha

No more hair loss. No more dust in the eyes. No more smoke in the lungs. No need to hear ear splitting horns any longer. I got myself a helmet :-). A looooooooooooooooooooooooooooong pending task completed successfully.

Courage

I dont care if I fall, just the strength to try.

Too good

Quote

If thought becomes too painful, action is the best remedy - Salman Rushdie

A case study

The Great Indian Horse-shoe Company received an order from Mr. Bugger to make a horse shoe based on the new technology that he dreamt of the night before, one that would revolutionise the future of all horses. The company gladly agrees to study his technology and make the horse shoe. Now, to show that their shoe works, they build a wooden horse from freely available spare parts (thank the free horses for your kids foundation). They dont have the slightest idea how the frigging horse works but sure they made a horse and it was able to run. They show this horse to Mr. Bugger after fitting the new horse shoe and he isn't satisfied. He's concerned about why its tail isn't flying when it is running, and how come all of its legs aren't the same size. He's also asked the company to measure how much pressure is being put on the horse's foot when it wears their shoes and when it wears the existing shoes. This new technology is supposed to reduce this pressure by a whopping 50% you see. And it is supposed to help horses run 3 times faster. So, the company is now supposed to measure how fast a horse wearing existing shoes can run and make sure their horse runs faster than that. 3 times. And make sure that its tail flies when it is running. The company promises Mr. Bugger that everything will be done and asks the manufacturing guys to do the needful. So they build another horse using the same equipment, fit it with existing shoes and show him that the tail not flying has nothing to do with their shoes and even with existing shoes, the wooden tail doesn't fly. They also give all the measurements he had asked for. Then he asks, please investigate why the tail isn't flying, because all the measurements you have given are meaningless unless the tail flies when the horse is running. If the fault lies with the equipment you have used, then please find out what the fault is and fix it. At any cost, we need to prove that our shoes are better than existing ones. . The manufacturing guys are now pissed off, they say its none of their business, all they agreed to make was the f****g shoe and they dont care a damn about the horse's tail. The company is in a quandary now, trying to decide whether to fight with the customer or to fight with their own guys. Who's wrong in this story and what needs to be done now?

My treasure

I have a treasure known only to me

it has lot of things, big and small, beautiful and ugly
i carry it with me all the time, but nobody knows abt it

we collected this together, whereever we've been
oh those beautiful gardens, rivers and moutains we've seen
every little incident makes me think of something in there
and reminds me of a story
stories we wanted to share with each other
when we grew old and lived in a place of our own

then the storm came, and I lost my way,
I let go of you, to save myself
I woke up in a desert, with nothing left but my treasure
i decided to walk alone, carrying my baggage
but I dont know whether to look out for you, or you have moved on
whether you have treasured your collection or threw it away

my mind says its no longer a treasure but a burden
leave it right here or bury it in the sand,
walk this way and you will enter a beautiful land
theres always someone and you can always start afresh
same promises of treasures and stories, dreams and stuff

clinging on to the past makes no sense it says,
dont be a fool and ruin your present and future,
Its time to think of your own life, every one else is doing the same
whatever you say is trash and your excuses are lame

but the fact is the present will be past in a moment and
I dont care for a future without you
with only hope and faith on my side, I have decided to come back,
please wait for me on the other side, Im coming for you
I still have my treasure, and I hope you are carrying yours too

Inspired by this

Congratulations

A wish was granted. An angel was born.
Congratulations and best wishes to a dear couple

Best wishes

to a dear friend and a soon to be father. Expecting to hear from him tomorrow. So here's advance congratulations to them.

Every dog has its day

Sure. Look at Himesh Reshammiya and how popular he has become. Just when I was thanking the Gods that adnan sami is no where to be heard now a days, this guy comes along to torment. And guess what, his success has given a new lease of life to other no hopers. Otherwise how can we explain the sudden reappearance of Mika and Altaf Raja on the music channels? Heard someone say Himesh is outdoing himself with every film. Hope its true. Hope we get to see his very best very soon and he vanishes without a trace after that. I hate his singing, I really do.

A fitting end

to a long month after all our effort and hard work. Been to Suwon, Korea on official purpose. The weeks before that were spent in the preparations. Was pretty annoyed, frustrated, tired, confused all at the same time. The 10 days spent in Suwon were worse, except for the one sunday we kept aside to go out and visit some places. And we visited the Seoul Grand Park. That was a day well spent. Watched the dolphin show. Amazing. Got to see a Gorilla. And some more animals, a snow leopard, several wolves, crocs, and llamas. The best day, however was the one after the demo, which was spent in the way I like the most to unwind - get drunk and dance :-). After so much hard work and so much frustration, that was a wonderful evening. Tasted different varieties of Korean drinks, and a Turkish drink, Ruck, I dont know how to spell it, seems it is made of grapes and ana seed, whatever that is. Tasted like sweet sonf. After dinner, went to dream land or something, seems the biggest night club in Asia (or the world, I dont remember). And had some more beer :P. Cool place. Not sure what music was being played there. Remember some people singing on the stage, cant recall which language/song they were singing :P. And there we were, jumping Bhangra types and doing my favorite dance, what I call the savam dance, Prabhu deva's folk steps :-). And we had to catch a flight the next day at 9 am. Our cab was scheduled to arrive at our dorm at 5. And we didnt even pack. Reached the dorm at around 11. I went straight to my room and fell asleep. Wonder how my colleague would have felt at that time. May be he had planned to throw a bucket full of freezing cold water on me if I didnt wake up on time.
Thankfully, he put all my things in my suitcase. And I woke up at around 4. Hurriedly got ready, made sure all the things were packed and left. What a lovely evening that was.