Sleeping Beauties...

It is one of those nights.. Neo awakened by the blinking green cursor!! No, i'm not The One, nor do I lead a dual life.. coder at day and hacker by night! However, I do face the same questions, 'Who am I?', 'Why am I?'. Did I take the wrong pill? (Thanks Samee for the last sentence). Or did I take any pill?

No doubt, my work defines me. I'm making my own little 'dent in universe', by the work I do for living. I do wake up daily at around this time for our little princess and quickly go back to sleep afterwards. However, today, Mr. Mind has lots of 'work', technical details :P. Now, I understand, why soldiers suffer from sleeping disorders - awakened by the souls they put to 'rest'(?). Luckily, I don't have such haunting ghosts. But, have my own share of different kinds.. I'm sure each one of us has our own type of ghosts too.

This also makes me appreciate the contribution of my wife in bringing up our kids. Every night is similar for her - and this is true for every mother! That's why mothers are a 'respected breed of professionals'... no no no.. don't get me wrong.. I'm not equating motherhood to some 'livelihood earning' profession! But it is a tough 'job'! And unfortunately, it is not the only role that a woman has to play.. she's also a wife, she could also be a 'real' professional, and many other shoes to fill-in. Same holds true for a man - the focus somehow may be different. The species from Mars are more focused about their works, than let's say, looking after young ones.

So we keep on switching roles, but at the end of the day.. at night.. when we are supposed to strip out of all these roles and get some rest and sleep. Precisely at that moment, another role pops up!! 'Why am I?'-role, which is keeping me up now...

Many things are going around in life.. generally and of course, in a smaller sphere of influence around me and my family and our family. Makes me wonder where we are heading, as a race? Human race.. a race of people, deprived of sleep, by the ghosts of their lives? 

When will I find my 'white-rabbit'?

My Tryst with Pune

         tryst /trist/ n. meeting, esp. a secret one of lovers.
Don't go by the literal meaning of 'tryst'. However, I could not find anything that would be an apt description of how I feel. My apologies. The following passages are just an attempt to describe my personal feelings, views and experiences with this Charming Town... Pune.

Like most of the juinor college students in a small town, I too cherished a dream of getting into an esteemed Pune Engineering college. To cut the story short, I couldn't make it. But throughout my graduation I cam down to Pune every now and then - sometimes to get reference books from Appa Balwant Chowk aka ABC, sometimes to have a wild time with my friends (who were so lucky). It was one of those joy rides to the Land of Fantasy! No 9pm deadlines. Bikes. Guys n' gals. Carefree attitude. Young guns at the threshold of adulthood.

Respect.. Free-will.. Culture..

Few days back I read this interesting post. It was about few blokes who out of respect to elders, don't smoke in their presence.

In another couple of days, saw a similar post on FB. This one had a different flavour. Few young ladies taking a puff - title went 'mulgi shikli, pragati zhali'.. now this particular title is used by Government to promote education of girl child and literally means - If girl child learns (is educated), society will flourish/develop. Obviously, with this picture its plain sarcasm - don't know towards whom.. Government or this young generation of today's progressive India. Below this 'status' were thousands of likes, hundreds of shares and people who had strong opinions also wrote some very fiery comments.. ranging from 'women in India/our culture are treated with respect - daughters, mothers', 'they should not be objects of desire but of respect', and similar sentiments on one side of the spectrum. And in the 'red corner' were champions of free will and equal rights and freedom for smokers. Some were indifferent to the fact that these smokers were females, while others felt strongly that women are being 'singled out'.

Re-inventing the Wheel

http://www.upwardlifestyle.com/2009/04/path-13-reinventing-wheel.html 

Every now and then we are told - you don't have to 'reinvent the wheel', 'reuse what is available and make it work'. And we are relieved that our efforts would be saved!


Just imagine - a top of the line automobile say a Ferrari or a Rolls Royce having stone or wooden wheels! What a sight it would be, wouldn't it?

Touching Videos...

Found these 2 very touching videos from http://www.knucklebusterinc.com/ - here and here

PROFESSIONal from VITA BREVIS FILMS on Vimeo.

A KIND OF PASSION, a tribute to classic motorcycles and the people who love them
from Squadra Sutge on Vimeo.

Migration

Migration is a phenomenon that’s as old as the human existence, perhaps even older. Almost all of the living beings migrate either for sustenance, shelter, better environment to flourish or simply to avoid unfavorable conditions. Human beings are no different. Since prehistoric times we can find many instances wherein people in huge numbers have migrated for atleast one of these reasons, quite often for a combination.

Modern times are no different. The underlying reasons essentially remain same. However we play around with fancy words and label them as brain drain, big American dream, refugee-camps, displacements, etc, etc. We have been witnessing this in many forms and have at times realized that such population redistribution brings along with them many changes, both good and bad.

Dynamics of Success

Success, acknowledgment, appreciation.

These are few words that you’d typically associate or come across reading inspirational stuff. Be it Habits-of-Successful-kind-of book or some forward about leaders or biography of a great person.

Below is an actual lunch-time conversation between two 3D-guys.

“What is success?”

“It’s simply acknowledgment by others of what you’ve achieved.”

“What about self-satisfaction then? Does a genius really care for appreciation of his masterpiece?”

Thoda hai... Thode ki... Zaroorat hai...

It’s a dog’s-life and everyone’s competing in this rat-race to leave others behind to rot and find that cutting edge over them. Avoiding the mouse-traps and fighting the odds till the very end. Look what have we reduced ourselves to?

Whatever happened to the philosophy of “Thoda hai… thode ki… zaroorat hai…”? these days no one seems to be content with little. Everyone wants it big, no matter what! Seems like “big is beautiful” mantra, for whatever reasons applies to everything in life. Right from the obvious ‘thing’ to homes, incomes, TVs, holidays, luxuries, necessities, people, support (mental, physical, financial or otherwise), kid’s report cards, chocolates, and the list goes on… you name it… and we want it to be as big as possible.

Where are we heading with all these biggies? Perhaps to bigger problems? ‘Perhaps’ or ‘For sure’?? You the mature reader decide.

Passion

• This is what I do for living…
• This is what I live for…

2 statements, very distinct, with meanings such deep that one could spend an eternity exploring the various interpretations.

First one is a set of actions that we enact to spend our lifetime, may be in a more comfortable and desired way. We are forced either by circumstances to adapt them or it’s our conscious and willing choice. Either ways we work, we work hard, toil harder and smarter to meet the ends (or is it just an ‘end’ and not ‘ends’ as it may seem to be?). It is a path we happen to travel on this journey of life. We pick up convocation, a profession, a skill or a skill-set (in our very own IT lingo) and devote our time and efforts to acquire a certain level of expertise. This level of expertise determines how good or bad we are at ‘the job’ (implying not the actual job but the domain or area of knowledge/skill).