Shifting to Blogger

Guess its time to complete the circle. WordPress is an awesome blogging tool but somehow, I feel like shifting back to blogger. Here’s the link to my blogger blog:

http://iwantsoma.blogspot.com/

Islamic Terrorism : A Construct or Reality?

Here in India, we appreciate the guts of Israel and how despite being surrounded by hostile neighbors, it is able to dictate its own terms. But this peculiar phenomenon got me thinking, especially the bombings of Palestine by Israel. How is it possible that Israel is able to be so courageous where our leaders just sit like eunuchs even after an attack into the very heart of the country.

This line of questioning got me curious on the origin of Israel and related history. For starters, Israel was founded by a resolution passed in UN in 1948. What strikes me as funny in this is how can a country be formed by snatching away land from people residing there. No doubt Jews have suffered a lot, but that can in no way justify the actions of UN. I mean how farcical is that. Thank god Indians are not getting such ideas, else we’ll have a Sardar nation in the middle of Canada, a Gujarati state in Kenya, a Mallu state in gulf and what not. I am sure Americans would react the same way as Palestinians if Canadians were to claim half the landmass of USA based on some ancient mythology. Nevermind that.

I was then going through the wars since the formation of Israel and to my surprise, found that Israel has played a very strategic role in a lot of wars in the region for the western powers. The biggest one being the war over Suez Canal. Now here again, it is difficult for me to digest the logic given by US, UK for controlling the route.  I mean why don’t the imperialists leave behind the good they did for the natives when they are leaving behind all the mess that they had done during their occupation?

These two points somehow lead me to think that the formation of Israel had much more to it than what we can see. I wonder then, is Islamic terrorism a construct of the Allied forces post WW2 and especially in the new economy to present to the world a challenge, a fear factor around which they can spin out their propaganda?

Things I Want to do Before I Pass out of XLRI

1) Visit Bhutan

2) Learn Salsa

3) Read Old Man and the Sea

4) Play Mafia with some of my old friends

5) Give a presentation as impressive as at Ted

6) Get a job as good as these

7) Do pull ups

8 ) Run 4kms. in 18 mins.

Techie vs. Manager

M: WTF did you do?

T: What???

M: I am not able to receive messages in my mailbox.

T: Didn’t you read the mails during the last two weeks, we have migrated our mailserver so you’ll need to reconfigure your outlook.

M: Hell, so who’ll do it for me?

T: (Wait till USA elects its new president, will ask him to do it for you). Hey, its easy. Just read the instructions at this link I am sending you and follow them.

M: You people have no other job? Don’t you see how important I am to the society? They even pay me money to talk crap. Now what will I do? I’ll miss all those important mails.

(T: I know, all those mails saying “Forward this to 10 people or else…”)

M: It was so much better earlier.

T: It’ll be the same, just a few steps and you’ll be done.

M: What two steps. You think I have all the time in this world for all this crap? I have so many important things on my mind. And now I have to worry about this too. What if I…

T: Ya man, its truly sad.

M: What?

T: The shift and all. I think you are all fucked up. Probably, you could call one of em meetings and decide if, how and when to do the configuration. Maybe we will have to engage a consultant to get the changes to take effect. I feel sorry for you.

M: But…

T: Hey, listen. You have a lot of important things to do. Why waste time here. I myself have a couple of programs to write. Cya.

M: Hey, what did you say was the link…?

This is just a fictional account, inspired by reality, of a few conversations I had with my fellow Xlers when we shifted to Google Apps. The whole irony of the situation was that I was talking to people who say they have engineering degrees and over two years’ work experience in IT firms.

That night I prayed to god to save the souls of all my friends who had joined the famous Indian IT companies.

Cypher

I just re-watched matrix a few days ago and it was a refreshing experience. The movie has some amazing one liners, which, of course, this time round I knew. Nonetheless it was enjoyable. Matrix is one movie that gets a person’s mind rolling about reality and fantasy and how they could be so much more intertwined. I often wondered what would I do if I were given a choice like Neo. I am pretty sure I would not choose the red pill.

In fact, I am of the opinion of Cypher who almost successfully foils the movement of Morpheus and co. Why bother with all that trouble when the matrix is so much more better. Moreover, in real life, there are higher chances of a person like Cypher succeeding. I no longer believe that good wins in the end. In fact, good stands not even a remote chance in front of the mighty evil. Oh, and in real world its not they vs. us, its not machines vs. humans, its humans vs. humans.

So why, as Cypher would argue, mess around with those electrical impulses that are so comforting just to know the horrible reality? Beats me, what about you?

Sad and Eventful Day

I lost my senses, did not know what to do and how to react. This sort of thing had never happened to me and it was frustrating to know that it was me who was, in some sense, responsible to get into the soup myself. Add to this, were the junta’s taunts “If it can happen to systems society secretary, it can happen to anyone”.

Some of the most gruelling hours of my life started when yesterday evening, my computer started working slow. I tried the usual restarting and stuff but it did not work. And then it happened. It was as if Duryodhana himself came to earth with a mood to challenge Krishna. I ran fsck -a. Linux told me that this could be fatal but alas “vinashkaneen vipreet buddhi”. I did not heed the warning and ended up screwing up my grub. What was to follow was a three hour internet search for a solution. There were many but none worked. In the end, I ran another fsck and in the process blew up all my data. Can you believe it, ALL MY DATA?! It was like the end of the world. I knew that the judgement day had come, god would emerge and separate the good from the bad. I waited for some aakashwani. I waited some more.

But nothing happened! No, the world continued to run. I told my story to people around and they seemed not to notice. How could everyone be so indifferent, so stupid? And then slowly, it dawned one me. There is life beyond computers. Do you hear that? THERE IS LIFE BEYOND COMPUTERS! It dawned on me that even if I did not have my computer functional, I and the world could continue living normally.

Now that things are normal, it all feels like a dream. As if it never happened. But, the data loss is for real and the insignificance of it continues to haunt me.

Guitar : For starters

I have been prodding my way through the maze of learning guitar. This time round, however, I am relying exclusively on internet resources to get all the necessary gyaan. I started off by watching a few videos from youtube on how to hold the guitar properly. Then came the theory. This site offers some very good and easily comprehendable steps for starters. Using this, I have been able to identify various notes and hw the progression of the same is on the guitar fretboard. Then comes the task of learning the chords. I am still struggling to strum them neatly but I guess with some practice I should be able to do it. Meanwhile, restless as I am, I have started exploring some easy songs that I could start to play. Here are a few that I found would be interesting. Still searching for some tunes that I could play using only 2 strings.

Jog and Guitar

After finishing my summer internship, I have realized that these are the last few months of my life when I can do some cool things. Hence, I have started two things in the last few days. One is jogging about 2.5 to 3 Kms. around the neighbourhood Jubilee Park. Can’t say it was the result of my efforts. It was Sharmaji who asked me for a jog one evening and ever since I have been accompanying him. The other thing that I just started is learning guitar. Yes, again. And this time I am doing it through tutorials on the net. Will keep this blog posted on interesting things I come across while indulging in my new found interests.

Chinki Ghissus

Seems like Korea also has a Kota and Bansal of its own! Click here to read about how Korea stretches the limits of ghissuism.

The Eccentric Human

There are debates, discussions and rarely are these calm. Things get hot and egos get hurt. What is amazing is the regularity  and consistency of such things. What could be the reason for this? Are there two sides, one on the side of Sauron and the other on the side of Gandalf? Rarely. The Lord of the Rings, gives a message here. Gandalf is initially grey, things are not clear. But as things progress, he is forced to be reborn as “Gandalf the White”, after an epic battle.

I think things in life are also similar. Mostly, to start with, things are grey. There is difference of opinion, but there is no clarity on things. However, over time one is supposed to come to term with the reality and take a call on the “whiteness” or “blackness” of a thing. Now this is where human eccentricity steps in. Rather than coming out of our tower, like Soromon, we keep seeing the world from the same perspective. The result is that more often than not, we end up on the “black” side than the “white” one. For example, most of us still view our actions on the environmental front as “saving the earth”, where the reality is we are just saving ourselves.

There are numerous examples of human eccentricities but I think none exemplifies it more than that of an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs are, essentially, very eccentric humans. But they are eccentric in a different sense. Their eccentricity is based more on their ideas and beliefs than their egos. There is a very thin line between the two and it is very easy for the two to cross the boundaries. And in some sense, I think that it is this thing that differentiates a “good” entrepreneur from a “bad” one. I mean an eccentric person who is able to be madly in love with his ideas and beliefs while also being full of humility, is certainly one to be with. Here, you have a friend like Gandalf. He will appear to disturb your peaceful existence but in real sense he is only trying to bring you out of your closed perspective and warn you about the fatal nature of your current existence. Gandalf’s friendship is hard, for most part but I think its worth it. Because in the end you win, and your victory has a purpose, a spirit and a stubborn belief. Its an eccentric solution to eccentricity!