Programmed feet

Driving back from office yesterday, i had this very very random idea of trying to apply the breaks with my left foot instead of right... Its kinda scary! Try it if you are curious but ONLY WHEN NO OTHER VEHICLE IS AROUND YOU. Seems like the feet are programmed by now, left one to be harsh and right one to be very soft on the controls, and it can be disasterous to try using the middle one with the other foot. I am SO thankful that no one was behind me, or it could have been my life's last drive... crazy me got this random idea on the Akshardham red light!! May be i'm exaggerating and it happens this way only with me(yes, i kinda tried it again, but this time with no other vehicle in sight and much more carefully), but this makes me wonder how people are able to shift from right hand drive vehicles to left hand drive vehicles. May be i'm doing another crazy thing posting this here, so I'd better repeat this, DON'T TRY THIS WITH ANYONE AROUND.

Forced Nationalism?

Yesterday i was watching NDTV and the ongoing debate on We The people was about whether Vande Mataram should be made mandatory. One gentleman put forth the view that nationalism should not be forced, and children should be made to sing it only if the feeling of patriotism comes from within. Very well, but the thought that came to me was what about forced religion?

If we can support the ideology that nationalism should not be forced, what kind of discretion are we given to choose our religion? Why a child is necessarily labeled as a Hindu or Muslim or Sikh or Christian as soon as he or she is born? Why can't we let them be 18 and then decide which religion they wish to follow, if at all? Did Ram or Allah or Christ decree that every child inherit the religion of their parents? May be so, but may we ask, why? I am a Hindu because my parents are Hindu, they are Hindu, because their parents were Hindu, and so it has been for no one knows how many generations. Was everyone in the hierarchy an ardent Hindu? Am i a true Hindu? What do i do in my capacity as a Hindu?

When we have the freedom of thought, of choosing the kind of education and profession we want, the kind of people we wish to meet, why do we have to follow the religion that our forefathers chose? Do we listen to the same music that they listened to? Are our daily routines the same as theirs? Often, when a child asks his parents why a particular thing is being done the way it is being done, he gets the answer, 'shaastron mein aisa likha hai' or 'Humara mazhab ye kehta hai'. Well, were those texts written in today’s context? And have we decided on our own to follow that text? Sure enough, these texts are very rich and have wonderful teachings, lessons, examples and beliefs. And I believe a religion is never about any god, but about the set of beliefs it preaches, the gods merely symbolize and exemplify a set of values, and all these originate in certain texts. But today, majority of the people who are said to belong to a particular religion have not even read these texts. Had it not been for Ramanand Sagar and others who recreated the magic of holy epics vividly on screen, our knowledge about them would have been even more limited. That we still call ourselves belonging to that religion is not just a misnomer, but a blasphemy to the religion itself.

Sure enough one can argue that one has the freedom to convert if they are inclined towards another religion, but few take that path. Doesn't it still mean belittling the religion you were born in? And what if a person wants to be just religion less? Why is it necessary to have a religion at all? The way we are asked, 'do you read newspapers?' before being asked, 'which newspaper do you read?' may be we should ask a person, 'do you follow any religion?' before asking them 'which religion do you belong to?'

My main point remains that if it is a matter of choice to love the land where we were born, whose culture we adopt, whose institutions we study in; a matter of choice to respect the country from which we give and take so much, why is it not a matter of choice to belong to a particular religion, when people are fighting over it day in and day out, and the greatest contribution we have seen it make to our country is communal tension?

Does anyone remember a very old Hindi movie song... 'Na Hindu banega na musalmaan banega, insaan ki aulaad hai insaan banega'... I wish we imbibe this feeling in the young minds of India.

My Birthdate

Your Birthdate: August 14

You work well with others. That is, you're good at getting them to do work for you. It's true that you get by on your charm. But so what? You make people happy! You're dynamic, clever, and funny. And people like to have you around. But you're so restless, they better not expect you to stay around for long. Your strength: Your superstar charisma Your weakness: Commitment means nothing to you Your power color: Fuchsia Your power symbol: Diamond Your power month: May

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Is this true?? I don't like the weakness part here... Rest is fine, does someone agree? Or is this crap?

Where have i been?

I have been off blogging here for quite sometime, but not quite off blogging completely... We thought of a very good use of blogs, and started posting sessions of Norman Lewis, Word Power Made Easy, on a blog. So myself, Manas, Priyank, Gaurav and Mickey took turns to make sessions of our own after reading NL's sessions and posting them here : gyaanis.blogspot.com

Anyone interested in vocab, or dreadful of the voluminous red book, do go through this blog, and give me your comments. We have actually managed to post our own sessions for every chapter of NL, in spite of our daily office routines, lack of net connection at Priyank and Gaurav's place and shortage of electricity at Mickey's place, not to mention the periodic spouts of wonder of the point of doing it all.

Just one of the interesting things we came across while doing this was finding out about NL Read about him here. Besides WPME, he has written numerous books, and though i was doubtful in the beginning that it really is the same person, i concluded that it has to be so, when i found this link that had all his works. Some of you may still disagree and contest that the person who wrote WPME and the one who wikipedia mentions might be different. If so, and if you come across any evidence to back the same, please let me know.

Tanu's b'day

I should have posted this ages ago... Tanu's b'day was on 18th June and we got a nice little treat in Noida. And when we set out to buy her a gift, or may be i should say she set out to make us buy a gift, coz we've become real misers and shameless people when it comes to this part of b'days, this is what we ended up doing...

Tanu and I, posing as mannequins, and Rajat checking out the price of Tanu's stole... Lolz

Now i have to post Kammy's pic too, else he might just be mad at me... No, this is not any earthen hut, and tanu did not cook for us in copper vessels, this was at the earthen restaurant where we had lunch... yeah, its urbane these days to go n dine at restaurants which recreate a rural world for you...

An year since college...

4th June, 2005, The day we last went to college - as students. Its hard to believe its been an year since then, and harder to believe that even our juniors are passing out now. The memories are still fresh, and i could just get up one day, getting ready for college, trying to make it by 9 a.m., but never failing to fail to reach on time. How things change in an year, from classroom to office... from books to files... from jeans to formals... from pocket money to salaries... yes, but the 'memory remains'. It was difficult coming out of that routine of carelessness, fun n friends, not to forget the ever-present around the corner, exam days. I remember once, about 1 month after college, Tanu came to meet me one morning, after a lot of days, and i just couldn't stop the tears from coming... it was nothing else, just that seeing her, i missed it all too much, and everything came back to me in a flash. But i think the important thing in the end is not what you had to leave behind, but what you had, and that you had it at all, that you have days to look back to and smile. Baatein bhool jaati hain, yaadein yaad aati hain... Few pics, remembering the sweet old days...















Each person is extraordinary once we get to know them closely, as *Shantu says 'Every human heartbeat is a universe of possibilities' and it was my pleasure to stay among some really dynamic people, learning from good and bad experiences, gaining and giving. Every one of us made the journey towards our goals a little more beautiful than it would otherwise have been.

**Shantu is what I like to call Gregory David Roberts, author of Shantaram.

Orkut???

What a strange name, and everyone seems to be too excited about it... So, after infinite number of people asking me if i am a member of this WhateverItIsSupposedToBe, and when i had created a gmail account for an alternate purpose, i thought of trying my hands on it, and actually spent the last 30 minutes browsing through people's networks(I wonder why?), and adding them. Now let me explain what just happened... I clicked on peoples' profiles, and clicked on 'add as a friend', and it seemed to me that they would be added somewhere in the profile i had created, but not a single one was added when i came back there... Now whoever wants to 'add' me, my user id is '@.shwet@.@'... Thats all i know. Find me if you can. I had resisted from creating this account because of the kind of obsession that people have developed with it, and my inability to understand what fun is it to let every one know what you were talking about to anyone at all; still wonder why the hell i spent my 30 mins doing this thing... may be i'll understand someday.... Meanwhile... i'll write about something better...

Am i useless or am i USELESS??

I think i'm more or less UsELeSS. Trying to find a solution to something for the past few days... Searching and reading all over the net... what else is this organization and its clients paying me for? But i wonder if i'll ever be able to find decent solutions to such things... 'How to perform a remote and silent installation of an application on all clients in a network... through coding'. I do very well know that they exist, but finding them and executing them, making it work the way its required to, is what i doubt myself for. And it doesn't help that my new PM told one of my colleagues confidently that 'shweta kar legi'. I wonder why she had to give me this little piece of information which should probably please me but rather scares me... How do people rely on such self-doubting individuals such as me?? Just waiting for the day when people like me will be weeded out... or is this industry actually badly dependent on employees such as me? okay, its not about this problem... i have found certain things that i'm going to experiment on today... and it might just work out, or it might not, and i'll look for something else; but i had never thought i'll find myself so useless, on so many occasions. The things i can lay my hands on and learn here are countless... but where will all this take me?? i'll still have to learn more for something else i'm required to do. Now is that good/bad/GOOD or BAD?? I know i'll have a divided opinion on that one by my friends depending on the simple distinction that after one year of college do they like working in IT or they don't. But whats my take? Am i confused or am i CONFUSED??

I'm in love....

Yes, i'm in love... with this boy, and i just can't have enough of him.
However much time i spend with him, seems less. He too loves me, doesn't
even want me to come to office, and only problem is that he cries a lot,
and says nothing... He's staying with us these days, and when i go
home, i sing and we dance hand in hand... Even when i'm working, i find
myself thinking of him sometimes.... what should i do? wo hai hi itna
zyada cute... the cutest kid i've ever seen... my nephew, what to call him?
we havent zeroed in on a name yet... i liked Nikash, meaning horizon...
but noone else supports it. Everyone wants it to start with 'A'. Dids
likes Arnav, which means sea... but Jiju doesn't like it... and Jiju
likes Aabhas... but... So the controversy goes on... and we have lots of
names for him... Here are our Pink Pearl's pics...

His first day in this world.....
That was him on 17th March, 2006
















And this is him now....

What a reassurance...

You Are 16% Abnormal

You are at medium risk for being a psychopath. It is somewhat likely that you have no soul. You are at low risk for having a borderline personality. It is unlikely that you are a chaotic mess. You are at low risk for having a narcissistic personality. It is unlikely that you are in love with your own reflection. You are at low risk for having a social phobia. It is unlikely that you feel most comfortable in your mom's basement. You are at low risk for obsessive compulsive disorder. It is unlikely that you are addicted to hand sanitizer.

So i am not all that abnormal after all...

How Abnormal Are You?

Bidding farewell to my car pool...

For last 4-5 months, the journey to office wasn't a mundane, stressful, WhyDoesOfficeHasToBeSoFar journey, but a relaxing, refreshing journey, packed with nice, on-popular-demand music and long talks... I'm gonna miss all that now that i'll be travelleing by the office cab, a luxury i must admit(now this too is going to be temporary, just like the laptop, which disappeared on day 2!). Udit would rush through the morning traffic, to try and reach till 9.40, just in time to punch their cards, and that meant we would drive the car as if we were part of some car race or fun ride. And DJ Madhurima would change CD's and songs on the... mmm... what is it called? ya, cd player... noone dare call it a tape or ever say 'cassette change kar do'... something thing that boils up udit :) With Mayank around, we could only listen to latest, peppy numbers, and anything sad was quickly skipped. somehow, 'jaane kya hoga rama re' from kaante, fitted his criterea. After he left, we heard all kinds of oldies and sad collections too, which udit said he had gathered in his bad times, about which he dint elaborate. Shobha is the sleeping beauty of the car, sometimes getting up in between and wanting to know everything about anything she managed to hear... lol. And Nupur, the nice, jolly replacement udit found for Mayank... i still wonder if she's an IITian... she's too modest to be one. ANyway, so yesterday we had a little evening 'soup-pizza-ice cream' feast at a dingy restaurant, chosen only because we had some discount coupons for it. The pics...

life's... amazin

Yeah... life's amazin

It never ceases to amaze us.
In good times or bad...

And life's funny too...

When u have work, u don't know u like it or not.
When u don't have work, u still don't know u like it or not.


I've been officially on bench since about mid-feb, and not quite disliking it.
In fact, i've learned quite a bit in this phase, or at least tried to.

Maku created this blog for me ages ago... and i promised him i'll start posting in March,
I really liked this idea of blogging, and highly appreciate the way Maku maintains his webspace (www.makuchaku.info/blog)

But i dint post anything at all... all these sleepy, workless, and maybe mindless days... days with void-workload, int-mails, long-conversations, float-thoughts and arrays of food and celebrations... i dint post anything.

Well for now, i'm starting with this...

Thanks Mayank :)

Hi Mayank!
I know you are the sole privileged visitor of this site,
and will remain so for the next 2 weeks...

I'm gonna start bombing this from March, 2006.
You gotta wait till then...

After that i promise, i won't disappoint you.

And this first blog entry was not just for this, but more for saying, Thanks for creating this... i think i'm liking the idea already :)