Simple person in a complex world

Amazing Nainital

2011-10-17T06:33:00.000-07:00

This was my second trip to Nainital, and I was expecting a respite from Delhi's heat for 3 days, and not much more. However, this trip turned out to be much better than my expectations. Naini lake is now better maintained now than it was earlier. Also, I got a chance to do lot of pedal boating, and playing air hockey.

Qwest Actiontec DSL Wireless Modem GT701-WG WiFi ADSL

Our 2010 Travel destinations

2011-01-13T05:13:00.000-08:00

It already is 2011, and I'm posting about 2010 destinations. Seems a bit odd, till I declare that the destinations referred to are the places I visited in 2010 with my wife. It's 2+ years, and we are maintaining the momentum to go to new places with surprising frequency. So here are the destinations:

A) Kotdwar: My mother belongs to this lovely town in Himalayan foothills, and I attended a cousin's wedding in January 2010.

B) Nainital: A beautiful hill town in Uttarakhand. Spent 4 days in April 2010.

C) Ladakh: Week long vacation in beautiful Ladakh in June 2010. Visited highest and second highest motorable roads in world (Khardungla Pass and Changla Pass). Saw the mesmerizing Pangong Lake. Had a tent stay in Nubra valley. visited sand dunes of Hunder. Did biking in vast open roads and rafting in Zanskar and Indus River.

D) Weeklong official trip to USA: Made memorable by numerous walks I took in evenings. This was in September.

E) Hong Kong: Stayed there for a day while returning back to India. Peak Tram, bird park and amazing skyline. Did a lot of shopping. Hong Kong is a shopping paradise.

F) Udaipur: City of lakes and palaces. Liked the Crystal palace. This was in early November.

G) Nepal: Went to celebrate our second anniversary. Visited Kathmandu, Bhaktpur and Nagarkot. Amazing temples and really liked the tastefully decorated Narayanhiti Palace.

H) Munnar and Alleppey (Kerala): Rounded up the year with a weeklong Kerala holiday. Loved both Munnar and alleppey. We were fortunate in choice of hotels in both places. In Munnar, my hotel was on a hillside slope, and had cottages at various heights. In Alleppey, I stayed in a homestay at the intersection of Pamba River and Kollam Canal.

Whew... 2010 was hectic. Goal for 2011 will be to match it in number of places we visit.

Pune in December

2010-01-07T23:00:00.000-08:00

December 2009 destination of travel was Pune, not for tourism, but for PhD thesis defense of my wife at Pune University.

The trip turned out to be fruitful, with my wife earning her PhD degree, and us enjoying memorable time in excellent hotel Bhairavee, and a government guest house. We also watched many episodes of 'Jeeves and Wooster' (with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie as lead actors), an excellent adaptation of PG Wodehouse Novels by BBC. BBC and Granada Television have an excellent track record of producing faithful TV versions popular novels. I recommend 'Pride and Prejudice', 'Sense and Sensibility'and 'Sherlock Holmes' to anyone who likes the respective novels.

Thoughts on learning/improving skills

2009-12-01T21:57:00.001-08:00

When I'm learning a new skill, I need a motivation to keep improving myself. Otherwise, I slip into my comfort zone after some time, and the skill improvement stops. I decided to give a thought to why this happens, and what can be done to remain motivated. More importantly, I thought about what I did to keep myself motivated in the past. Following is the output of the thought process:

Improving skills I'm already quite good at: Find a worthy competitor, whom you would be proud to defeat.

I'm an ardent fan of "Age of Empires" series of games, but had played only against computers for long. I considered myself an expert, and comfortably beat computers against heavy odds. Computer players only had hope against me in first 15 minutes, and not after that.

6 years back, when I started playing against online opponents, I started losing many games. Human players showed much more ingenuity, and many times broke into my defenses in pretty advance stages of game. But playing with better competitors took my game to another level, and within weeks, I was sort of reigning champion again :-). In our group of 10, only 1 was my match, and we always had to be in opposite teams (Usually, we played 3 vs 3 or 4 vs 4 games). The games went one sided whenever one of us wasn't playing. We usually started playing at 9-10 pm, and played till well after midnight, and sometimes even till morning.

This continued for few months and then 4 friends intimated that they won't be playing for 2-3 weeks. We didn't know what they were up to, but heard that they were 'training'. After 3 weeks, they said they wanted to play, and this time with both me, and the other strong player in same team. The game started, and our team knew something was different when all players of the other team chose archer civilizations. Our first attack was repelled too easily, and we were forced to go on defense. Maybe we were too surprised, or they were on a vengeance, but after 2 hours of struggle, we surrendered.

The next game saw us evenly pitted. We started on right side of map, and they on left side. We marched from right to upper left, and then from upper left to lower left, but were unable to halt their attacks from left to lower right corner of map. Within 2 hours, we were completely on left side of map, and they on right side. Finally, after another 2 hours or so, our perseverance paid off and we managed to win, but with our pride shattered. I too went on training, my game reached next higher level, and things were back to usual within weeks.

Moral: You need a benchmark to improve against.

Improving skills I'm bad at: Haarkar jeetna seekho

There's no pride to defend. So you need some other motivator.

When I want to improve a competitive skill, on which I'm bad, setting myself up against small material losses has proved to be big motivator. I was an acknowledged bad player at TT, and nothing could coax me to improve my game. Then one day, someone had the bright idea of making the losing team pay for evening snacks. Needless to say, this caused any good players to refuse to team up with me. So I had to team up with other bad players, and paid for snacks for few days. I'm not really sure how it happened, but suddenly I found the idea to my advantage. Every snack paid for after losing improved my game one little notch, and I was no longer considered a bad player only after 2-3 weeks. I'm only average now, but at least now people don't shy away from being my partners, and things like, "if you reach 10 points, you win", are the things of the past.

Improving non competitive skills:

Set tough, but achievable goals, and measure your success by how much you beat your target. Link the improvement in skill to achievement of some big goal. For example, when wanting to improve my 'Perl' language skills few years back, I decided to do next few small programs in Perl. Some weeks later, I embarked on the task of downloading, extracting and formatting data from a website for use in a project for my wife. After initial frustration of few hours, I found that perl was much more suited for such task than the traditional C++ or Java based programs.

The result: I did the task in less time than I had expected and also learned the Perl programming language.

Shimla in November

2009-11-18T03:10:00.000-08:00

Continuing the momentum of an outstation trip every month, I went to Shimla for the weekend of 14-15 November. The trip turned out to be fabulous to say the least.

This was a group trip, and there were fifteen of us, including two lovely one year old kids. We went by Kalka mail on night of 'Friday the thirteenth' of November. On reaching the platform, we found out about new McDonald's outlet inside the railway station itself, and had a snacks party even before boarding the train.

Everyone was excited, and we started playing cards in two groups. One game followed another with people refusing to give up and go to sleep. Eventually, we found the train at Kalka at 5 am, with most of us still playing cards (for over 6 hours now). Next, we boarded the Kalka-Shimla toy train (Shivalik Express), which started at 5:30 am.

Weather was very nice. Train engine was having problems and had to stop many times during the journey. But no one was in a hurry. Whenever train stopped, most of the travelers got down, and busied themselves photographing the surroundings.

Breakfast was served at about 10 am, and we finally reached Shimla at about 2 pm, 4 hours behind schedule.

We did not book a hotel in advance, and some of us started the hunt for one, while others settled in the Cafe Coffee Day at Mall Road. I took a quick round of mall road, and found the surroundings extremely beautiful. It seemed as if we were in a European city. We found a cozy hotel, and went to respective rooms, with a promise to go out again in two hours. However, everybody was tired and when I tried calling people at 7 pm, everyone was asleep. So we (me and my wife) decided to go out alone. It was cold and misty, with slight drizzle. Fortunately, we were carrying an umbrella. It was perfectly romantic setting with two of us under a single umbrella sauntering on the Mall Road.

We dined at Himachal Tourism's Ashiana restaurant which has excellent ambiance and location. We returned at about 10 pm, told others about Ashiana, and called it a day.

Next morning, we went again to the Mall road and enjoyed bakery cakes/muffins and brownies at Mall road. 'City Point' has excellent variety of all of these.

Later at about noon, we set out for Kufri and Jakhu Temple. We took some memorable photographs all along the day.

We returned at about 4 pm, had lunch at Ashiana again, and did a photography session at Mall road, before heading for the Toy Train for our return journey. Some memorable pics of the Mall road are below.

Helping hands are better than praying lips...

2009-10-27T01:07:00.000-07:00

I read the above quotation today in a forwarded mail, and an incident comes to mind...

Few years back, when online train reservation was still not functional in India, I used to go to New Delhi Railway Station reservation office. Even though the office has about 25 counters, the sheer number of customers ensured that it took over an hour to buy any ticket.

Once, when I was in a queue, I heard some commotion at the ticket window. Normally, I do not interfere in any such commotion, but this sounded different. So I requested the gentlemen behind me to remember me so that I can join the queue back, and went to the reservation counter to know what was happening. Turned out that a poor fellow was trying to buy 2 tickets for long distance travel, for which, he was short of about 20 rupees in the total ticket price of about Rs. 1000. He was at the window, confused about what to do next, since people behind were shouting at him to go away from the counter. I asked him for his story, and turned out that his concern was that he was already losing half day wage by spending hours in coming for reservation, and waiting in line. If he needed to go back, get money and wait in queue again, he'll lose his full day wage. He was proposing that the clerk makes the ticket, but keeps it with him, and gives it only on receipt of Rs. 20 the next day. The clerk was refusing, and the fellow was feeling helpless.

Many people were sympathizing with the fellow, but no-one had any real suggestions even though the solution was staring in the face. The poor chap needed 20 bucks. I immediately added Rs. 50 to his small wad of notes, and asked him to buy the ticket. He proceeded, and afterwards came back to me in the queue, trying to return Rs. 30, even though his home was pretty far from the reservation counter. I asked him to use the money to get back home, and rush for his work. Now he wanted my address to send the money back. I just asked him to help some needy person, and I'd consider my money returned.

I'm not a very benevolent person. But when I see someone in trouble, which can be solved by a very small effort from me, I do not hesitate. I am fortunate to have seen more good done than bad in my life, and intend to keep my overall contribution positive to this world.

Just reiterating:

Helping hands are better than praying lips...

My Goa Trips

2009-10-19T04:36:00.000-07:00

Goa has always attracted me, and during each visit, I plan to relive the experiences of previous trips. However, in each trip, Goa has something new in store for me, and each visit adds new unforgettable experiences. In summary, I've been to Goa 4 times: 1994, 2005, 2007 and 2009, and each trip has been with a different set of people, each having an important place in my life.

December 1994: My first trip to Goa was with parents and siblings. My father loves to travel, and I've toured much of South India and Himalayas with him. He always prepares the itinerary himself, doesn't books hotel rooms in advance, and plans things on run time. I've inherited many of the traits, enabling me to plan long trips with confidence.

December 2005: This was with my brother and cousin, where we tried to relive many old memories, and went to most Goa beaches, especially the ones on extreme north (Querim/Arambol) and extreme South (Palolem/Betul) etc. We rented bikes, scanned the length and breadth of Goa, visiting places disregarding distances. We started a bit early in morning, and were usually back by 10 pm to our staying place, and hence left with a desire to come back and explore Goan night life.

December 2007: Recreated the magic of 2005 trip with friends. Smarting from the experience of riding bikes for 4 days in 2005, we rented a Maruti Zen this time. This also helped us explore Goa in night. Under strict instructions not to smell, touch or consume alcohol (by yours truly's about to be formed SARKAR), I spent hours watching my friends getting high on spirits, and listening to the excellent live music being played in beach side restaurants that spring up in everywhere in Goa. We also enjoyed many water sports being organized on Colva beach.

September-October 2009: This is the latest, and most adventurous trip I undertook with my SARKAR (also goes by the name of अर्धांगिनी or wife). It was not supposed be so adventurous, but the incessant rains made it so. It did not stop raining for the 5 days we were in Goa. Contrary to my earlier trips, these days, I usually book a Hotel for first one or two days now whenever going on lesiure trips, to avoid initial fuss of finding a SST (sasta/sunder/tikaoo or cheap/lovely/reliable) Hotel. We booked Nizmar Resorts near Calangute beach for two days. This turned out to be an excellent choice, with nice room, good breakfast and well maintained swimming pool. A brief summay of how we enjoyed goa in September/October amidst continuous rains.

1st day: We reached Goa late afternoon, and took a taxi to the resort from the airport. My Sarkar was ready for the beach with her new Crocs shoes. Immediately, we rushed to Calangute beach, played at the beach and made sand castles till sunset. Later, we found an excellent Maruti Zen to rent, and it served us very nicely during the whole trip. It was raining intermittently since the flight touched down, but we were anyways ready to play on beach, and it did not bother us much. Later, we had a nice punjabi dinner and then went to the famous Mambo's disco.

2nd day: We visited Arambol and Mandrem beach on 2nd day. Both of these are amazing beaches, though Arambol has now become polluted to some extent. It was raining, and we played on the beach in rain. Very few people were around. Mandrem beach seemed like it was reserved exclusively for us. Had dinner at a restaurant in Calangute itself. I was getting jealous of my Sarkar's crocs shoes, and she got me a pair at Arambol beach.

3rd Day: It was raining heavily, and the resort pool looked inviting. So spent time there. Sea sometimes gets too rough when it's raining. Checked out of resort, put everything in the rented zen, and went straight to Palolem beach, about 100 km from Calangute. We enjoyed a lot there, and while returning, went to Agonda beach, which again seemed like it had been reserved for us. It became too cloudy to remain at beach as the clouds practically came to the ground level hampering visibility and we found a nice cafeteria full of foreigners on a road near the beach. When the visibility improved again, we went to the beach again, and stayed till late afternoon. Then we started our return to Panjim. We drove through beautiful roads (avoiding highway) though were worried for some time since there was almost no-one in sight for quite a distance. We put the car back on highway at madgaon, and had evening snacks at Monjini's. We'd recommend Monjini's to everyone for snacks, and they are present everywhere in Goa. We went to the Old Goa church (at about 9 pm), and had to contend ourselves with a view from outside, since it had closed for the day. then we wne to another church nearby where an all night vigil was being held. There were about 1500 people present for the service which surprised me because it was already more than 9 pm. After some time, we started for Panjim, bought some famous Goan Cashews and asking directions, found Ginger Hotel in Panjim to spend the night. It was still raining, and hence we had dinner at the Hotel itself, which turned out to be quite good.

4th day: Checked out of Ginger, and went to see Augada fort and Jail. Had brunch at a nice hotel on the way. Roaming through the fort in torrential rains is an experience not to be forgotten soon. The fort is amazingly beautiful, and we walked along the perimeter, taking in the breathtaking views. We decided to visit the Chapora fort as well, and though the car stopped and gave us a scare, it restarted soon, and did not give any further trouble. Chapora fort is at some height and again offers excellent views all around. We enjoyed thoroughly, and returned back to Calangute and took a room in 'Popeye's Lodge'. Spent the evening walking at Calangute beach, and had dinner at Domino's.

5th Day: Reluctantly started packing in morning, and gave back our rented car. Then hired taxi to Madgaon, and caught Rajdhani Express back for home. I was surprised to see the number of families boarding the train. During the trip, we saw very few families at beaches, forts or churches. Most of them must have spent the vacation in their hotel rooms.

PS: Went to Bangalore on an urgent trip for Official work on 10th October for a day. Adding it here since it gave me opportunity to see Bangalore's new Airport.

I'm still Around

2009-09-25T00:51:00.000-07:00

I'm writing a new post after really long time. What happened to me?
I fell... in love :-)

In last 3 years, I spent most of my free time with my girlfriend (who now is my wife). She's Bengali, and is presently busy celebrating Durga Puja with her parents. This leaves me with some free time after years. I'll be joining in the celebrations from today evening for next 4 days, but thought about restarting this blog, while I still have some time.

I flattered myself to be a travel loving person, but I realized my potential only during last 1 year or so. This is a direct result of marrying someone who:
a) Understands me better than myself
b) Is a travel freak herself

As a result, we have been to following places in last one year:
A) Munich (She went alone because this was 2 weeks before our marriage, and it was an official trip). I've been to Munich earlier, and she refreshed my memories with her vivid description of the city.
B) Spain - Madrid, Toledo, Cordoba, Sevilla, Granada, Malaga, Torremolinos, Barcelona
This was a two week trip, the most enterprising travel effort from my side, considering that every single detail of trip was planned by me.
C) Kolkata
D) Digha (West Bengal)
E) Rishikesh, Haridwar, Tehri Dam
F) Mussourie, Dhanaulti
G) Dharamshala, Mcleodgunj - Besides the usual charms of Dharamshala, we trekked upto Nadi and Triund, a total of 36 km trek/walk. If I had any doubts about my wife's being a travel freak, they were removed in this trek.
H) Pune, Mumbai
I) Kotdwar, Lansdowne
J) Singapore : I forgot this in my original post!!! How can I forget the Bird Park, the Night Safari, Merlion, Sentosa Island and Orchard Road?
K) Goa

All this happened despite the busy(?) schedules for both of us. Me, someone who did not take any single leave on some years, utilized all of my vacation balance in 1 year.

The hunt is on for the next place to travel to :-)

Loan in 30 seconds...

2007-03-05T14:35:00.000-08:00

One of my weakness is that though I have limited desires, but when I want something, I just want it, as fast as possible. I happened to set my eyes on my present bike in Bangalore just 45 days after joining job there. We had deposited 10 months rent as advance for renting a house (Bangalore is like that), and my share in it was already more than my first month's salary, and though I brought some money from parents, I barely had 15K remaining. I hate taking loan from banks, especially when it can be repaid in months, as the overall paperwork to take the loan, and afterwards, when u have repaid the loan is too much for me to handle. So I deliberated for 2-3 days, and then approached a close friend (who was working for a year there) on a Saturday morning. The conversation below is almost exactly as it took place:

Me: I need a favour....
Him: Yup...
Me: I need to borrow money... from you...
Him: How much?
Me: About 35K
Him: Are you joking?
Me: Nope
Him: Ok, chal bank tak.

And that was it... We went to his bank's branch on M G Road, and I got the money. I went to get bike from there, and paid in full for the bike. Next day, I was the proud owner of my bike, and that evening:

Me: Thanks yaar...
Him: Abe gaali mat diya kar... acchi baat nahi hoti...
Me: Thanks really yaar, I hate to go into troubles of taking loan from bank... EMI ka jhanjhat... Isiliye tumse borrow kiya.
Him: No issues... Wapas karne waala hai na?
Me: Hmm... karna hai kya?
Him: Some unprintable words......
Me: Abe gaali mat diya kar... acchi baat nahi hoti...

It's friendships like these which make me realize that I've achieved something in life.

How to use earned leaves?

2007-03-01T10:40:00.000-08:00

A colleague (let's say A) joined back after taking 2 week long leave. On his first day, at lunch table, we shared general updates, and after making sure that everything was fine, the conversation drifted to movies. There were 4 of us, A, B, Me and our Manager.

It turned out that he had seen 3-4 movies during those 2 weeks on his laptop. We software engineers always have few movies on our laptops, and having seen 4 movies in 2 weeks cannot be taken as a negative thing against any software engineer :).

B : "Okay... So that's why you really took those leaves. To watch movies..."
A (bewildered): "Why would I waste my earned leaves to watch movies?"
Me: "Especially when he can see them more comfortably at office, in comfort of AC environment, without wasting a leave"
Manager: "???"
A: "We can watch movies in evenings and nights even on workdays... Why would we waste earned leaves just to watch movies?"
Me: "And if we want not to cash our earned leaves, then they would be used on much better things... like... hmm... travel... and..."
A: "Persuing girls..."
Manager: "I'm not listening..."

Just a thought...

2007-02-15T22:57:00.000-08:00

People sometimes talk about leaving themselves to God, and accept whatever the God has planned for them. I believe that God does have a plan for everybody, but it is up to every person to realize God's wish, and make that plan successful. This reminds me of an old story:

A person (say 'X') had absolute faith in God. One day, the town he lived in was threatened by flood. As his neighbors were leaving for safe places, some came to him and asked him to join them, but he refused saying that God would take care of him. Later that day, as flood water was rising, a stranger in a boat passed by, and offered to take him away to safety. Again, 'X' refused saying that God would take care of him. Finally, as 'X' was drowning in flood waters, an army rescue in a helicopter tried to rescue him, but again he refused to be rescued saying: 'God would save me'. Predictably, 'X' drowned, went to heaven, and happened to meet God. 'X' complained to God about not saving him, even though he maintained absolute faith in God for whole life. God just replied, "Dear son, who do you think sent your neighbors, that stranger in boat and the army rescue team? Even I can do only so much to help someone. The rest is up to that person. You have to meet me halfway to enable me to help you."

I'm back!!!

2007-02-14T22:35:00.000-08:00

I'm back after a long break. I have been busy with work, travel and miscellaneous other things, and somehow kept postponing writing the next post. To my readers (I fancy that I have some :-) ), all I can say is that it's good to know that someone is waiting for my next post.

Coming to think about waiting, let's decide what is more fun: making someone wait for you, or waiting for someone. Both things have their positive and negative aspects. Some people (read girls :-) ) make it a policy to arrive late for every occasion.

When you are making someone wait, it feels good to know that someone is waiting for you. Maybe you just want to hear : "Do you know how long I've waited?" on finally arriving, which makes you feel loved and cared for. But on the other hand, are you not also wishing to be with that someone as soon as possible? So in effect, this is making 2 people suffer simultaneously, when none should have.

On the other hand, when you are waiting for someone, you keep getting more and more annoyed and restless. But the moment the person you are waiting for appears, the emotional high you get makes the wait worthwhile. Given a choice, you probably will want to wait and get that kick again. At least I will :-)

I went to Darjeeling, Gangtok, Guwahati and Shillong in December for a 9 day trip. Also went to Rishikesh, Haridwar and Mussorie in January for 3 days. Will write about these trips whenever I get some time.

Don't always take words on face value...

2006-12-15T16:35:00.000-08:00

This entry is being written more out of a desire to keep the blog alive, as I'm not finding enough time to write a fully original post, and this state will continue for next 2-3 weeks.

So here's a story, and the lesson which one gets from it:

A girl asked a guy if he thought she was pretty... He said: no.
She asked him if he would want to be with her forever... And he said: no.
She then asked him if she were to leave would he cry, and once again he replied with a no.

She had heard enough. As she walked away, tears streaming down her face, the boy grabbed her arm and said: You're not pretty... You're beautiful. I don't want to be with you forever. I need to be with you forever. And I wouldn't cry if you walked away... I'd die...

We need to have enough faith on our dear ones to interpret their words in right context, and not simply take them at face value.

10 Immutable Laws of Security

2006-11-30T13:20:00.000-08:00

Rediscovered 10 Immutable Laws of Security. When designing secure software/systems, it's important to know where to draw the line. For example, it's useless to try to secure a system against an attack which required physical access in the first place. If the attacker has physical access to your system, he can always use a big enough sledgehammer to break any other security you have applied.

Things to consider before switching job...

2006-11-30T01:05:00.000-08:00

Software engineers in India are hot commodities in job market (at least till now), and keep getting new job offers. I framed the classical dilemma of whether to switch job as a question to a good friend as a question, and the clarity of the answer simply amazed me. I'm putting it as such (with some grammatical remodeling) for the benefit of others :-)

Question:
You generally like your present job and are getting a salary X (which is ok) and generally work Y (which is comfortable) hours a day. At another company, you are being offerered a salary 1.2-1.3 times X, but you will need to work lot more hours a week.

Answer:
1) If money is one of my priorities in life or if I need to raise some money in little time, then I would take up the job.

2) If I'm not staying with my family and whatever extra time I get each day after leaving from office and on weekends, I find it difficult to spend that time, then I would take the new job.

3) But in case money... or rather extra money... doesn't figure anywhere in my priority list... and also the time I get off the office... I've many things 2 do in that time... then I won't take the new job.

4) Finally, if I'm passionate about doing the work I've been offered to do in the new job... If my heart and soul lies in that work... Then even if it would pay me the same amount but allow me to work extra hours... I'll take up the job...!!!

Security cannot be added as an afterthought!!!

2006-11-29T23:45:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week, I attended a training on software security. In university days, security concerns in programs were non existent for me, and reflected in programs I designed. This training brought back memories of a first person shooter multi player game (loosely inspired from quake) I created as assignment for Advanced Graphics course. It had a maze like 2 dimensional world, and though players were represented with nice graphics, they were internally represented as spheres, for purpose of calculating damages when they got hit. So if you would shoot at the head of a player in game, nothing would happen to him, since each player's sphere (hitting which damaged it) was centered roughly at it's chest :-).

As stated earlier, no consideration was given to security aspects at all. The clients broad casted the starting location and direction of each bullet fired by them, each client calculated how much damage they had taken from other's bullets, and transmitted this info to the server. Server's main role was to maintain a point count, and deciding where to re-spawn a player when it got killed. Everything worked amazingly well for a week long project.

But as I learnt later, it was a security nightmare. Even if one client is breached, the whole game will go down. A compromised client shooting bullets all over the game world would result in all other players being killed instantaneously, and the compromised client may choose not to report any hits to itself to the server, and hence become invulnerable. My only excuse is, that it was one of the 3 assignments, for one of the 5 courses, in one of the 2 semesters in that year. Later, while learning about software security in professional life, this example immediately came to mind. And the lesson is, security cannot be applied as an afterthought in a software. It has to be taken into account right from the design phase of any project. The security hole I left in the game was a design mistake which could not have been modified without rewriting essentially the whole game, except possibly the graphics engine. In this particular case, one client having being compromised should not have had such adverse effects on all others. If there was a foolproof client authentication scheme, or critical decisions were left to the server, the attackers would need to breach the fiercely protected server to bring down the game, instead of finding and compromising one of the unsuspecting clients.

An incomplete man?

2006-11-17T17:40:00.000-08:00

Belgium abolished conscription in 1994. How do I know this, and of what use is this information to anyone? As it turns out, the event had side effects, some of which were entirely unexpected. In my last post, I mentioned conversing with a young Belgian man about European life, on my way from Berlin to Paris (in July 2001). I started talking to him as I was getting bored after listening to songs for hours in bus from Berlin to Paris, and asked him about places to see in Paris. Soon, the conversation moved on to songs we were listening. We exchanged Walkmans, and listened to each other's song for some time, and tried to translate the songs for each other. He was listening to German songs, and me to old Hindi songs.

After some time, the topic of conversation moved to friendship, and I asked him whether he had many friends. This simple question triggered something, and he started crying. I was taken aback for a while, but consoled him, and prompted him to tell me about his problems. Turned out that Belgium abolished conscription in 1994, and this guy was amongst the first ones to benefit i.e., to avoid military training. He was amongst the youngest in his college batch, and most of his peers had started their conscription when the orders to abolish conscription came in. So he was amongst the very few who did not have military training among his peers, and this made him the odd person out. Either his peers avoided him, or if not, most of their conversations were centered about cool things which happened during the military training. Some even suggested that he was an incomplete man without military training, and was not macho enough to remain in their group. Then onwards, he became an introvert, and had very few friends.

One thing to wonder is, this stigma was attached only to the minority who escaped conscription in a year where most people could not avoid it, and not to people in later years, where a vast majority chose not to go for military training. If doing military training is symbol of being a complete man, why don't most people voluntarily go for it? One learns new things every day!!!

Fall of a tyrant

2006-11-16T17:10:00.000-08:00

If you are thinking that I'm going to bore you with any political events, please relax. I have no such intentions. I just happen to remember an amusing incident, where it took just one bold girl to end a tyranny, where many others (including yours truly) had failed, and want to pen it down. This happened long back (in July 2001), when I was a summer intern at a software product company in Berlin. Many fellow interns took a week off the work, and planned to go to Italy. As I love to plan my own itinerary, I was reluctant to join them, and started planning a trip of my own.

Few good friends were interning in Paris at the same time, and I decided to go for a 4 day Paris trip instead of 8 day Italy trip. The only catch was that I was to go alone to Paris. Being a student on budget, I booked a return bus ticket from Berlin to Paris. Our story starts when I boarded the bus from Berlin at about 6 pm on a Friday evening in early July. The bus driver was a jolly fellow, but the conductor was an old woman reminding me immediately of Lalita Pawar. She made it very clear that no soft drinks or eatables would be allowed in bus. Some people, including me tried to convince her about letting us carry soft drinks and snacks with us, but she made everyone put all eatables in hand luggage, with stern instructions not to take them out inside the bus.

The bus started towards Paris, but everyone was unusually silent, as the conductor had rebuffed few people about talking what she considered noisily. The ride was very comfortable, and I passed time listening to my Sony Walkman. At dinner break, I started talking to fellow travelers in general, and eventually found a young man from Belgium to converse with, initially about things to see in Paris, and later about European Life. We resumed journey, and eventually I fell asleep. Early next morning, there was some commotion in the front rows of the bus. Turned out that the conductor had caught a young couple kissing, and was rebuffing the young man, who looked terrified, and was trying to apologize.

It was at that point, that the girl accompanying the boy stood up, and took matters into her hands. She argued with conductor for about 5 minutes, mostly in German, but I could make out that both were pretty angry. By then, all eyeballs were glued on those two. Suddenly the girl thundered (first in English, and then repeated in German): "Does anyone have any problem with me"? No one uttered a word, and the girl, emboldened, bellowed to the conductor lady: "Seems like you are the only one having a problem. Why don't you go and relax"? The conductor looked defeated, went to her seat, and the couple resumed kissing after some hesitation from the boy's side. And that's not the end of story!!! Within 5 minutes, I heard people conversing in louder voices. Few pulled out pastries/snacks from their bags, and several opened soft drink/beer cans. It was as if they had been liberated from a tyrant and wanted to celebrate. I won't debate about who was right and who was wrong here, but the point is, it proved that it only takes 1 person to instill courage in others, and to begin the fall of a tyrant.

PS: My decision not to go to Italy in 2001 turned out to be a good one, and I toured Italy for over a week in summer of 2002, with responsibility of handling most of travel and budgeting plans for the group, which I enjoyed a lot. That trip instilled in me an amazing sense of self confidence, and will be dealt with in a separate longish post.

Unstoppable force vs Immovable object

2006-11-15T14:17:00.000-08:00

The following dialogue are from British romantic comedy Imagine Me & You. It's the story of a girl (Rachel) who falls in love on her wedding day (to complicate the matters, with another girl (Luce)). Our hero (Hector) had no idea what hit him till almost the very end.

Scene 1:

Rachel's sister: What happens when an unstoppable force meets a immovable object?
Hector: I haven't got a clue, I'm afraid.
Luce: It never happens.
If there's a thing that can't be stopped...
it's not possible for there to be something else which can't be moved, and vice versa.
They can't both exist. You see, "it's a trick question..." is the answer.

Scene 2: (Rachel: on her wedding day with Hector)

They say fairy tales have happy endings, even though the passage can be rough.
But Heck and I were mates and then lovers. And it's been smooth all the way.
Maybe that's a better kind of fairytale.

Scene 3: (Hector letting Rachel go to pursue her true love)

I want you to be happy, but more than anything, I wanted to be the cause of happiness in you. But if I'm not, then I can't stand in the way. What you're feeling, Rachel, is the unstoppable force, which means that I've got to move.

Scene 4: (Hector to Rachel's sister in a crying tone, after she is gone)

I'm trying to do the right thing...
and now I think I should have not...
'cause...
if she'd stayed with me out of guilt,
that would have been fine, wouldn't it?
I mean, wouldn't it?

The manner in which our hero said "I mean, wouldn't it?", made me feel really sorry for him.

Why write this up? Firstly, I liked the movie. Secondly, though the dialogue are very simple, they inter-relate beautifully to convey the following: Love is an unstoppable force, which can move any object, even those considering themselves immovable.

Jim Corbett Trip : A fun filled weekend

2006-11-13T05:17:00.000-08:00

On the weekend of 4th and 5th November, I went to Jim Corbett National Park with office colleagues, which turned out to be one of the best weekend trips, with unlimited fun and enjoyment. We were a group of 19 people, 5 couples and 9 bachelors. Only 3 of the original 9 members of leech band were present on this trip, and hence it was dormant. We hired a bus for the whole trip and started at about 12:30 am on 4th November from Noida. Everyone was in great spirits and we talked and joked for two hours after which gradually everyone fell asleep. The bus stopped at Gajraula Bharat Petroleum Company owned Petrol Pump at about 3:30 am, and we saw probably the best maintained highway rest area. The place had nicely maintained landscapes and a nice restaurant, and everything was spanking clean. We had tea and snacks there, and then boarded and fell back to sleep. Finally, we reached Wild Crest Resort near RamNagar at about 8 am. The resort is really good, and I would recommend it to everyone going to Jim Corbett Park.

After breakfast, we played cricket for about 2 hours, and then played some team building games like tug of war. It was during this time that few fellows convinced me to fall from a table backwards during one such team building exercise, with a promise to catch me midway. Needless to say, they had no intention of catching me; I fell, and hurt my back most convincingly. I was out of breath for next 1-2 hours, but fortunately did not sustain any lasting injury (did I tell you that my Guardian Angel has a full time job?), and have learnt an important lesson. I've promised myself to be more careful in trusting people in future. We went to Kosi River near resort sometime after noon time. The water there looked amazing and I had almost fully recovered by then. So I convinced a friend to jump in water with me. The current was quite rapid and cool, but it was not deep, and hence not dangerous. Within 10 minutes, 2 more friends joined, and 4 of us frolicked and enjoyed in river for long.

We had a sumptuous lunch after coming back to resort, and then sprawled in the resort lawn for about an hour. Then few of us went to trekking inside forest with a guide from resort, and had an enjoyable trek in the forest for more than 2 hours. Our guide explained that animals don't attack group of people, and hence it was pretty safe. We saw tiger footprints at several places during the trek, and some other animals, but no tiger. We also overlooked a water hole where animals frequent from a ridge. The original plan was to rest for some time after returning from walk, but what actually happened was that 3 of us went to my cottage, and somehow we started a discussion about latest movies. The discussion moved on to sports, world politics, Indian politics and we do not know how time flew and it was time for bonfire. At about 8 pm, we joined the bonfire, but 5 of the most enthusiastic ones (including yours truly) slipped for open jeep ride at about 8:30 pm. It was a cold full moon night, and we enjoyed an hour long ride standing in an open jeep. We returned at about 9:30, danced for about half hour, had a nice dinner, and went to cottage. Again started discussions about everything under the sun, but I fell asleep at about 11:15 pm, after which, the meeting dispersed, and woke up when my friend shook me at quarter to four on the morning of 5th November. We ran about, woke up everyone, and prodded everyone to get ready ASAP.

We started for the safari to Jim Corbett Park at 4:45 am, as early morning is the best time to see animals in the open, and the Jim Corbett entry gate was about at an hour's drive. We were in open jeeps, and the wind was extremely cold. So unlike the previous night's jeep ride, everyone sat from their standing positions within 5 minutes. We reached Jim Corbett park gate at about 5:45 am, and entered the park near 6 am. Had a nice jeep ride with good natural views, and saw deers, elephants, peacocks, wild boars etc. There was a big watch tower in the forest. It provided a great view of forest all around us, and we saw a pack of deers from the tower. Forest safari in open jeep is a nice experience, with beautiful view of forest. Near a resting place in the forest, there were few deers who have almost become domesticated, and everyone fed them leaves and grass. Returned to resort at 9:15 am, and had a nice breakfast.

After breakfast, we spent some time in our cottages, and then gossiped in lawn till noon (basically waiting for people to assemble), and then went to an old suspension bridge on river Kosi. Had a great time with adventure sports like rappelling and river crossing on rope. I was very excited by rappelling, and did it twice. After this, we prepared a raft from tyre tubes and wooden planks, using bamboo sticks as oars. Had a lot of fun crossing Kosi River in that raft, 2 people at a time. Everyone who tried got wet thoroughly, and it’s an experience worth cherishing. We returned to resort at about 4:15 pm, had a late lunch and started back for Noida at 5:30pm. As soon as the bus started, we started Antakshari, where the bachelor group held the couple's juggernaut for 3 hours, after which everyone settled to their seats. Road to Gajraula was blocked due to some festive occasion, and the bus had to stop at many police check posts, but there were few resourceful people on board, and we kept moving ahead, albeit a bit slowly. We reached Gajraula at 11 pm, had a late dinner, and started for Noida at midnight. Finally, we arrived back at 2:30 am on the morning of 6th November.

We did not see any tiger, but Adventure sports, open jeep travel at night, jungle trekking, frolicking in river, rafting with self made rafts from tyre tubes and wooden planks, bonfire and Antakshari more than made up for that. Another positive aspect is since many of my friends (leech band members :-) ) were not able to make it to the trip, I got a chance to interact more with other people in the office team, and forged some new friendships.

Unaddicted...

2006-11-09T05:24:00.000-08:00

I have been addicted to Age of Empires since 1999, and have enjoyed each and every release of this magnificent game, starting from original Age of Empires (AOE), Rome expansion to AOE, AOE2, Age of Kings expansion, Rise of Nations, Age of Mythology, Titans expansion to AOM and finally AOE3. I've spent countless nights playing each of these with friends in multi player mode as this has been my major pastime for many years. Winning a game gave us the ultimate high, and losing a game felt worse than slipping assignment/project deadline.

But suddenly, playing AOE lost it's charm in beginning of this year. Since then, I have been playing lesser and lesser, and now I've not played a single game in last 3 months. Today, I discovered that The WarChiefs Expansion to Age of Empires 3 have been released, few weeks back. The very fact that I did not know of of this release is proof that I'm outgrowing AOE. And even after knowing it, I'm not having any desire to try it out. Finally, I'm unaddicted of AOE. Hurray!!!

Very Touching

2006-11-03T10:22:00.000-08:00

I've copied the following from a friend's blog, and know that he too has copied it from somewhere :-). I am more than willing to acknowledge the author, but I don't know who s/he is.

10th Grade

As I sat there in English class,
I stared at the girl next to me.
She was my so called 'best friend'.
I stared at her long, silky hair,
and wished she was mine.
But she didn't notice me like that,
and I knew it. After class,
she walked up to me and asked me for
the notes she had missed the day before.
I handed them to her.
She said 'thanks' and gave me a kiss on the cheek.
I want to tell her, I want her to know
that I don't want to be just friends,
I love her but I'm just too shy,
and I don't know why.

11th grade

The phone rang. On the other end,
it was her. She was in tears,
mumbling on and on about how her
love had broke her heart.
She asked me to come over because
she didn't want to be alone, So I did.
As I sat next to her on the sofa,
I stared at her soft eyes, wishing she was mine.
After 2 hours, one Drew Barrymore movie,
and three bags of chips, she decided to go home.
She looked at me, said 'thanks' and gave me a kiss
on the cheek..
I want to tell her, I want her to know that
I don't want to be just friends,
I love her but I'm just too shy,
and I don't know why.

Senior year

One fine day she walked to my locker.
"My date is sick" she said, "hes not gonna go" well,
I didn't have a date, and in 7th grade,
we made a promise that if neither of us had dates,
we would go together just as 'best friends'.
So we did. That night, after everything was over,
I was standing at her front door step.
I stared at her as She smiled at me
and stared at me with her crystal eyes.
Then she said- "I had the best time, thanks!"
and gave me a kiss on the cheek.
I want to tell her,
I want her to know
that I don't want to be just friends,
I love her but I'm just too shy,
and I don't know why.

Graduation

A day passed, then a week, then a month.
Before I could blink, it was graduation day.
I watched as her perfect body floated like an angel
up on stage to get her diploma.
I wanted her to be mine-but
she didn't notice me like that, and I knew it.
Before everyone went home,
she came to me in her smock and hat,
and cried as I hugged her.
Then she lifted her head from my shoulder
and said- 'you're my best friend, thanks' and
gave me a kiss on the cheek.
I want to tell her, I want her to know
that I don't want to be just friends,
I love her but I'm just too shy,
and I don't know why.

Marriage

Now I sit in the pews of the church.
That girl is getting married now.
and drive off to her new life,
married to another man.
I wanted her to be mine,
but she didn't see me like that,
and I knew it.
But before she drove away,
she came to me and said 'you came !'.
She said 'thanks' and kissed me on the cheek.
I want her to know that
I don't want to be just friends,
I love her but I'm just too shy,
and I don't know why.

Death

Years passed, I looked down at the coffin
of a girl who used to be my 'best friend'.
At the service, they read a diary entry
she had wrote in her high school years.
This is what it read:
"I stare at him wishing he was mine;
but he doesn't notice me like that,
and I know it. I want to tell him,
I want him to know that
I don't want to be just friends,
I love him but I'm just too shy,
and I don't know why.
I wish he would tell me he loved me !
...'I wish I did too...'
I thought to my self, and I cried.

Dilbert's digs at IITians

2006-11-01T02:42:00.000-08:00

I'm a fan of Dilbert for long, and just wanted to put his digs at IITians in one place.

The formation of Leech Band

2006-10-27T09:58:00.000-07:00

It was last weekend of August 2005, and my company project team was on a weekend trip to Nainital. We reached Kathgodam by Ranikhet Express early in the morning, from where we proceeded to Country Inn, Bhimtal. We had hired a bus and a guide, and hence could have spent time in a way we best liked, without worrying about transport. After breakfast, we went to Bhimtal, and did boating for quite some time.

The group consisted of about 20 people, and pretty much every one was under 30 years. So we decided to go for trekking instead of following the usual tourist routine. We started circling the taal along a treacherous route, moving towards the hilly side of taal. It took longer than anticipated, and at several places, we had to move through 1-2 feet of water. We pushed forward, and eventually found a way going deep into forest. Soon, we were in a place from where, not a single trace of civilization was visible. The view in the forest was mesmerizing. Being rainy season, the forest was absolutely green, and we had trees with sparkling green leaves all around us. Suddenly, it started drizzling, but we were too much inside the forest, and decided to move ahead, but not before securing our digital cameras and phones in few plastic bags. In about an hour, we found a camping site. Our tour guide knew about it, and presented it as a pleasant surprise to us. The place consisted of few tents and a big thatched roof, with nice tables and wooden benches. Everyone was quite exhausted and took seats.

Suddenly, one of us noticed that his leg was bleeding profusely without pain. The camp people explained that we were attacked by leeches, which are abundant in rainy season. Soon, we discovered that more than half of us had leeches attached to our feet, and I too had 3 stuck to my feet. The simplest method to get rid of those was to put some table salt over the affected place, upon which the leech promptly stopped sucking blood, and tried to crawl to safety. In some cases, the bleeding continued for some time even after the leech was removed. The camp people served us with Hot tea and pakoras, and helped us clean up. It took some time to screen everyone for leeches and the bleeding to stop, but eventually, everyone was good enough to start on backward journey. Everyone was quite careful in return trekking, and we made it back to the Hotel by late afternoon.

Late in the evening, we had a campfire, and got a guitarist singing for us. Though his voice and guitar play was nice, he did not know many songs which people wanted to listen. One thing lead to another, and soon there were 5-6 of us at microphone, all singing whatever they wanted. All attempts to coerce them to come back and sit failed, and hence the "Leech Band" originated, a group of people who will capture the microphone, and won't let go till people are absolutely tired or bored, whichever is first. The name was suggested to commemorate the jovial spirit of us Software Engineers, which even a bunch of bloodsucking leeches failed to dampen. We sang and danced till well over midnight, and now, any Office Group trip is incomplete without a Leech Band performance around a campfire.

More wheels for cars?

2006-10-26T23:36:00.000-07:00

Remember those advertisements for 3 blade razors where the first blade left a 1 mm stubble, the 2nd blade trimmed it to about 0.5 mm, and the 3rd one cut the hair completely? Watching such ads, I used to wonder why those fools didn't get rid of 1st and 2nd blade, when the 3rd one alone is enough. The cutting edge and We're Doing Five Blades, confirm what I had suspected all along: More blades per razor are really marketing gimmicks and any tangible benefit to the customer is marginal at best.

Cars started with 4 wheels, and it's a pity that they still run on 4. If car companies were like razor companies, by now we would be driving Super 7 from Audi with 7 wheels or a Nimble 9 from BMW with 9 wheels. Also, Tata Motors would be advertising More Wheels Per Car, instead of pathetic More Car Per Car. These cars could possibly have kept running even if one or two tyres went flat :-) Is any automobile marketer listening?

Best of Raymond Chen's blog

2006-10-23T06:13:00.000-07:00

I'm a regular reader of Raymond Chen's amazing blog. This guy has never ceased to amaze me with his knowledge of windows internals, easy manner of explaining difficult things and sense of humor. A recent article explains the length to which Microsoft goes (or rather has to go) to avoid trouble, and avoid getting sued.

Some personal favorites:

How do I shut down a workstation via Remote Desktop? (It came in handy on 8th November 2006)

What you don't apologize for is as important as what you do

Don't trust the return address, no really

Do not change program semantics in the debug build

Big houses also cost more to cool

The series on DLL imports and exports

Why can't you programmatically reorder the items on the Start menu?

Why did the Add or Remove Programs control panel try to guess all that information?

Solutions that don't actually solve anything

Subtle ways your innocent program can be Internet-facing

Doing the best we can until time travel has been perfected

Solving one problem by creating a bigger problem

Performance consequences of polling

The cost of trying too hard: String searching

When hyperthreading is enabled, all the processors are virtual

You probably don't want to run programs directly off your USB memory drive

On the ambiguity of uniqueness

Raymond's review of Pride and Prejudice (Keira Knightley version)

Take it easy on the automatic retries

New device detected: Boeing 747

Consequences of the scheduling algorithm: Low priority threads can run even when higher priority threads are running

Windows Server 2003 can take you back in time

Precision is not the same as accuracy

How do you convince developers to pay their "taxes"?

When people ask for security holes as features: Silent install of uncertified drivers

The poor man's way of identifying memory leaks

How can a company get access to Windows Error Reporting data?

News flash: Going for a walk on a nice day makes you feel better

What's the difference between My Documents and Application Data?

You can create an infinitely recursive directory tree: This one proved to be quite useful in a real project I was working on.

PS: I originally wanted this list to have ten or at most a dozen links, but then figured that as of now, I'm the only reader of my blog, and I can use this post for bookmarking my personal favorites in Raymond's blog :-)

The Ghost who likes raunchy hindi music

2006-10-23T05:19:00.000-07:00

Sometime in summer of 2004 (Back then, I was in Hyderabad), few friends planned to go out for ice cream on a Friday evening. You must be wondering how can a ghost fit into such a nice and innocent plan? Here's how... The senior most of us (a shy Bengali babu), offered to drive us to a nice ice cream parlor, and the moment his car CD player was turned on, a raunchy Hindi album song played out. Embarrassed, the fellow switched to radio, and uttered: "What disgusting music is being created these days... I wonder who listens to such songs."

There were suppressed smiles all around, but we were too decent to point out to our dear friend that he was a bachelor living alone and the only person having access to that car. What we were left wondering was whether it was a ghost who put that CD in his car music system :-)

Diwali Celebrations!!!

2006-10-23T05:13:00.000-07:00

This year's Diwali celebrations turned out to be the best I have ever had. Probably the best testimony to this is the fact that I did not get time to open my laptop between 20th and 22nd October 2006 :-)

Diwali means cleaning and decorating the house, some religious ceremonies, lots of sweets, some crackers, talking and meeting with friends/relatives and generally having a good time. This year, I did all this, and more!!! I met many friends/cousins, talked to even more friends/cousins, finalized a year end trip to Goa with cousins, and finally, set up music system in the common gallery on our building floor, and started a dance party at around 10pm on Diwali night, which turned out a huge success and went on till about 1 in the morning.

Don't go window shopping with him...

2006-10-18T23:33:00.000-07:00

There's a close friend (Mr. A), whose has a knack for making decisions in a snap. Though having such a gifted friend has numerous advantages, it is not without it's perils. As an example, you cannot go shopping, and more importantly, windows shopping when he is around, one of our favorite pastime when on trips. While window shopping, the protocol is to get as much information about whatever you are planning to buy, and then make an informed decision afterwards. But our Mr. A makes decisions instantaneously, and carries a wad of bank notes with him. So if you are deciding whether the new earphones you are trying out are worth 500 bucks, forget about even asking Mr. A for advice. The last time a friend (Mr. B) tried that (in winters of 2001, during our institute sponsored Bangalore trip. And yes, 500 bucks in college was big money for most of us), instead of replying, our beloved Mr. A handed 500 bucks to shopkeeper, and shocked, Mr. B immediately decided not to buy those earphones, and not do any more window shopping that day.

Discussing courage and bravery

2006-10-18T03:20:00.000-07:00

Here's my first attempt to write about something which happened a long time back, but is still fresh in my mind.

I was in a train with a group (batch mates from college) of 6 people, on a weekend trip, during summer of 2001. Those days, looting of passenger trains was in news frequently, and somehow, the discussion turned to what we will do if robbers attacked our train.

Everyone had an opinion, and lot of joking was going around. People wanted to flee, surrender, fight, use their unknown super powers and so on. This went on for some time, and then someone asked for my 'sincere' answer. I said that it will depend on the exact situation, their vs. our strength, the kind of arms they have and so on, but I don't have a 'ready made', 'fit for all situations' decision.

To raise the stakes, the question was changed to, what if they loot someone in the group. My answer changed to that the odds of my staying and fighting would increase, but again it would depend. Somehow, the conversation took a personal touch, and two of us were involved in a verbal dual:

Him: "Depend on what? How can you even think of leaving someone with robbers, and run away, or surrender?"
Me: "I'm not thinking of any such thing. What I'm saying is that I don't really know what I would do."
Him: "I surely would fight till there's life in me."
Me: "I can say this too, but I'm not sure that I would, so I will not say this. It's very easy to say and equally hard to follow such words."
Him: "You are a coward. How will you fight when you are already thinking about options of running away or surrendering."
Me: "We can only find out what any of us will do when we really face such situation. Till then, anything we say are just words."
Him: "What if your family is there?"
Me: "For them, I'll be prepared to fight till any eventuality."
Him: "So you have double standards. I am sure you will run away even when your family is attacked."
Me: (sarcastically) "But you will still be there to save them :-)."
Me: (continuing) "What my stand is that I know I can die saving my family, but whether I will do so for someone here, I'm not sure. And yes, god forbid if any of us is attacked, we'll see who will stand longer. The only thing is, I cannot promise anything now."
Him: "So you don't care about people here?"
Me: "Lemme put it this way, would you care more for your family, or people who you don't even know properly?"
Him: "For me, anyone in trouble is a personal responsibility."
Me: "Oh yeah!!! So far, I haven't seen you helping a beggar get a job, or admitting an orphan to school."
Him: "That has nothing to do with courage."
Me: "So is courage just about violent fighting? What about fighting the circumstances? What about helping others who are victims, though not of a direct robbery?"
Him: "I'll do all that when when I have more money."
Me: "How much more?"
Him: "Well, hard to say right now."
Me: "Can I assume you don't care for those poor people?"
Him: "No, of course not. Just because I'm not doing anything now doesn't mean I don't care."
...
...

There were some more words exchanged, but eventually, others intervened and we ended our verbal dual midway.

5 years down the line, both of us stick to our arguments as we are fortunate and have not been attacked by robbers to prove any of us right/wrong :-) . Why write about this incident? Because it taught me an important lesson. Too often we quickly come to the belief that our opponents are not only mistaken but scoundrels, something which is not true most of the times. It might be you who is holding mistaken belief, or in fact both may be correct in some way. What I learn from such encounters is that two completely honest people can easily have different viewpoint about a given situation, and it's good to discuss about the differences. You benefit simply by understanding more viewpoints about the issue. As a bonus, it convinces you that even those whom you disagree with usually have heartfelt good intentions.

It will be great if I can get more views on this.

Writing some memoirs!!!

2006-10-18T03:16:00.000-07:00

Many things keep happening in our everyday life, but then there are some which you remember forever. I have lots of such events to share, and will be putting them here, over next few months. Of course there are a lot of embarrassing memoirs, and things which, if shared, will compromise other people's secrets :-). Needless to say, such memories/events won't make it to here.

What I request from readers is their opinion in form of emails or comments. Brickbats are as welcome as garlands!!!

Preparing Mathri at home!!!

2006-10-16T02:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was one of those Sundays when one doesn't really have anything specific to do.
Deepawali is around the corner, and we decided to make Mathri. Homemade mathri has a charm unmatched by any salty snack, especially with evening tea.

We got the ball rolling at about 11 am which in itself a feat on a Sunday morning. My father spent next 45 minutes mixing spices and cooking oil in mixture of gram and wheat flour to create the perfect dough. We, being the naivetes we are, made the dough with more than 3 KG of flour. When dear mother saw the dough, she nearly fainted. We had never made mathri from so much dough in one go. Actually, the mathri we make is very thin, and we realized soon that the task is going to take much more time than was anticipated originally. We set out to work at about noon time and mother took over making small dough balls, me and my brother the task of rolling the dough balls into circular disks, and father, the task of frying them into delicious mathris.

The first few mathris I rolled looked not like circles, but more like maps of various countries. My brother's mathris looked more like circles. When he pointed out this discrepancy, I had to explain to him that according to functional specifications of homemade mathris, the mathris are meant to be eaten, that too at home, and hence it didn't matter which country's map they resemble. Nonetheless, with time, the mathris started to look more like circles and less like maps. By 1 pm, we had filled the original container which was supposed to store the mathris, and hunt began for a big container. We were not even halfway mark yet!!! My brother turned on the computer and started playing music at high volume, and for once, mother did have other things to worry about than to complain about the high volume.

Mother emptied a big steel stock pot, which we managed to fill to brim by 3 pm, and finally had to store the final few mathris in a big aluminium boiling pan. We finally finished by about 4 pm, with proud owners of over 350 mathris, over half of which were my designer creations. The work might have finished a bit earlier, but Cricket match between England and India started at 2:30 pm.

My brother opened the TV at about 2:45 and shouted "Eleven for 2!!!".
Me: "Who's playing?"
Brother: "England and India." (He knew what I wanted to know was which team had lost 2 wickets).
Me: "Oyee..."
Brother: "Arre dono team khel rahi hai. Abhi kisi ne haar nahi maani hai."
Me: (in a threatening tone) "Uthkar aaun kya?"
Brother: (referring to disks rolled by me) "Nahi, banata reh nakshe. England batting kar raha hai."

English players kept interrupting the work by getting out, and making us rush to TV to see replays :-)

Currently, the mathris are being consumed at a fast pace, and I wouldn't wonder if they don't last even for 2 weeks.

Shakira! Shakira! Shakira!

2006-10-13T08:49:00.000-07:00

A supposedly true article about how hard many people work to make a living, and an assertion that they deserve their small luxuries. It's the last 12 lines (starting from line: “Shakira! Shakira!” Eduardo says smiling.) which touched me.

Is it possible to have a 36 hour day?

2006-10-13T08:34:00.000-07:00

Jon explains how it's possible to have a 36 hour day. Though I don't agree with everything, the article has some really nice and practical time saving tips such as optimizing sleeping patterns, optimizing diet and using software to your advantage. A good read.

Favourite love quotes from movies

2006-10-11T06:41:00.000-07:00

A collection of my favourite love quotes from hollywood movies. I've not assigned any ranks as it's impossible for me to declare one better than others. I stopped myself at a dozen quotes, and a sequel to this might appear one day :-)

Love Story
"Love means never having to say you're sorry."

As Good As It Gets
Melvin: You make me want to be a better man.
Carol: ...That's maybe the best compliment of my life.

Phenomenon
George: Hey, would you, uh, love me the rest of my life?
Lace: No. I'm gonna love you for the rest of mine.

Untamed Heart
Caroline: You love with your mind and soul, not you heart.
Adam: [Touching his chest] Then how come I hurt here when you're not with me?

Notting Hill
William: "I live in Notting Hill. You live in Beverly Hills. Everyone in the world knows who you are, my mother has trouble remembering my name."
Anna: "After all... I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her."

Indecent Proposal
"If you ever want something badly, let it go. If it comes back to you, then it's YOURS forever. If it's doesn't, then it was never yours to begin with."

Runaway Bride
"Look, I guarantee there'll be tough times. I guarantee that at some point, one or both of us is gonna want to get out of this thing. But I also guarantee that if I don't ask you to be mine, I'll regret it for the rest of my life, because I know, in my heart, you're the only one for me."

When Harry Met Sally
I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.

Imagine Me & You
"I want you to be happy, but more than anything, I wanted to be the cause of happiness in you. But if I’m not, then I can’t stand in the way. What you’re feeling, is the unstoppable force, which means that I’ve got to move."

Six Days Seven Nights
Robin: "You're here."
Quinn: "I decided my life is too simple, I wanna complicate the hell out of it."

My Best Friend's Wedding
"If you love someone you say it, you say it right then, out loud. Otherwise the moment just... Passes you by..."

Jerry Maguire
Jerry: "I love you. You... complete me."
Dorothy: Shut up. Just shut up. You had me at "hello."

Coach Carter (the movie)

2006-10-11T01:14:00.000-07:00

Spoiler warning: Plot and ending details follow

I'm deeply impressed with the movie. When I set out to see it, I didn't know that it's based on a true story and was just expecting a cliche movie where a new coach comes, and puts new life in a failing basketball team, and helps them win some coveted championship. I did notice that the movie was 135 minutes long, and was wondering why they have to take so long to show a simple concept like this. Now I explain how the movie kept me hooked till the very end.

As movie starts, Ken Carter (Samuel L. Jackson) joins as coach of Richmond High School basketball team, 'The Oilers', who have never won the local basketball championship. Jackson is a school alumni, and wants to do something for the school. True to my belief, Jackson did his magic, and the team won the local level championship for first time in school's history. They do it in a fairy tale manner with an undefeated record, in about 70 minutes only. I don't care, I do love fairy tales.

The movie captures the team spirit with simple dialogue such as "You said we're a team. One person struggles, we all struggle. One person triumphs, we all triumph.". The coach's and team's highest ambitions have been achieved and the lovely fairy tale seems over. Now the question nagging me was, what are they gonna do in next 65 minutes?

What really happens is that not all is fine with our fairy world. In order to concentrate on Basketball, the team members have neglected their studies, and most are failing academically. The coach wants them to concentrate on their studies for a while, but the team members are blown over with their success, and want to prepare for competing at state level. To put a little background, it's an academically low ranking school, and most of the school's students anyways are supposed to fail, and hence no one really cares. In between, we are also shown love life of a player, and the attraction towards criminal way of life of another.

In a stern move, Jackson suspends all basketball practice, and predictably the students/players revolt. Jackson makes his case heard to public in following manner:

Jackson: [to the people in attendance at the board hearing] You really need to consider the message you're sending this boys by ending the lockout. It's the same message that we as a culture send to our professional athletes; and that is that they are above the law. If these boys cannot honor the simple rules of a basketball contract, how long do you think it will be before they're out there breaking the law? I played ball here at Richmond High 30 years ago. It was the same thing then; some of my teammates went to prison, some of them even ended up dead. If you vote to end the lockout, you won't have to terminate me; I'll quit.

The school administration chooses to override Jackson, and he prepares to leave. In the meanwhile, the player with tormented love life takes right decisions (and of course regains his love), and the player moving towards crime checks himself with some help from Jackson. In general, players realize Jackson's good intentions, and rally to his support (Fairy tale stuff again, but I do love it).

So what happens next? I would have bet my money on the Oiler's going on to winning the state championship. But actually, our Oilers are pitted against the state champions in an early round, and are defeated, but not before giving some scary moments to the champions. They lose the match but win the hearts. The final match has some memorable quotes, and the one which tops them all is:
Jackson: "Just because you deserve it, they won't give it to you. Sometimes you have to take what's yours."

And then we come to know that it's a true story, and most players of that team indeed passed out from school, attended college, and are reasonably successful in life. Who says fairy tales cannot be true?

Creative Writing!!!

2006-10-10T06:15:00.000-07:00

Today, we were doing an excercise about communication skills, and my task was to transform following sentence into a complete argument:

"I think we should launch the Cytherea product line on June 15th."

Following is what I came up with in 10 minutes, and amazed myself as well as few others:

I propose that we aim to launch the Cytherea product line on June 15th. I am presuming that Venus Corporation is coming out with a competing product in July end, and I believe that with our solid engineering team, we can deliver before them. Given that the prototype is ready and has received good feedback from test customers, the basic architecture of product is already in good shape. Does anyone think it is not a realistic goal? Please feel free to share any concerns.

Yes, this is self congratulatory, but today I came to know about the creative writing skills hidden in me, and a guy does have the right to pat his own back :-)

A beautiful day

2006-10-09T09:23:00.000-07:00

It's breakfast time, and we are enjoying delicious Aloo Paranthas.

There's a certain sweetness in the potatoes, and my younger brother and sister are having an amusing argument about who bought the sweet potatoes and mother is made the unwilling referee. Myself, and a cousin (staying with us for few days) are laughing clutching our sides.

After some funny exchanges (like that the last time they bought potatoes, they were soiled, and so cannot be from cold storage, and how cold storage potatoes can be soiled before selling), my sister: "I know precisely how you got the sweet potatoes. You must have asked rates of the 2-3 varieties of potatoes the shopkeeper had, and bought the ones with lowest price". My brother is indignant and says that even if it's like that, he can never buy sweet potatoes. Brother: "I always tell the shopkeeper that I want sweet potatoes, and only buy from one who says he does not have any". Needless to say, mother, who so far was refraining from laughing, joined us in the laugh riot.

Start of another beautiful day!!!