The best books are those that tell you what you know already

o The best books are those that tell you what you know already
o No one can look back on his schooldays and say with truth that they were altogether unhappy.
o Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness.
o If a man meets with injustice, it is not required that he shall not be roused to meet it; but if he is angry after he has had time to think upon it, that is sinful. The flame is not wring, but the coals are.
o Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper.
o Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.

George Orwell

pyaar to hona hi tha

shekhar kya tumne kabhi kisi se pyaar kiya hai?
haan hai ek ladki, bilkul tumhare jaisi, bahut sundar.. bahut bholi aur thodi pagal bhi.. lekin mere pyaar ki khabar sirf mere dil ko hai
use bataya kyon nahin
yeh pyaar bhi ajeeb cheez hai sanjana.. jahan ikraar ki poori ummeed ho wahan bhi dil kehne se darta hai.. aur mujhe to inkaar ka poora yakeen hai.. ab tumhi kaho usse kaise bataun.. woh kisi aur ko chahti hai.. bahut chahti hai

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Few books have it in them to change thoughts. Few books carry so much meaning in so few pages. ZMM (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance) is one of those few, lifetime books.

Had seen this book while I was at IIT either with Shashank or with Santosh. But, all I mistook it to be something similar to the monk who sold his ferrari.

May 2005: For years I had been unsuccessfully trying to evade through what I felt was the ultimate truth, the pointlessness or meaninglessness of everything. I had now accepted the fact but didn't know what to do now. At this juncture ZMM happened to me and my affair with book took-off. I was in hyderabad among my best buddies shashank, tushar and shashi when shashank probably felt that I needed the book. And he was right. There couldn't have been a better time in life to go through it.

<Warning: spoilers ahead (just for the sake of it.. go ahead, u won't find much anyway>
Started reading the book right there in hyderabad borrowing shashank's. Then bought one when in bangalore. I breezed through the first few pages. But, as I went on I realized some sort of confusion, some kind of haze surrounding the author. It was quite similar to what I have been feeling for too long and have been trying to run away from it. A bit more of reading and I felt that the author is also trying to escape the same very basic question 'WHY?'. He makes use of classical/romantic understanding fundae to justify it, though indirectly. Probably, they do make sense. Probably, this is the only way for humanity to grow.

I have read the book around one and half times (read once and revised parts of it once), but it has been more than a year since then. I can feel it calling me again. Would go through it again and may be my next review would be a li'l longer and may be will carry a bit more clarity.

PS:

• thank you shashank for recommending the book


• thanks sharaf for providing me the link to 'Pictures from Robert Pirsig's original 1968 trip'

What have I been doing for the last two years?

A group of friends were bragging about all the techi stuff they have been doing after passing out and wished to share their knowledge. Someone then dragged me too in the process. And following was my response.

----

I too have lotsa badges to show-off. And they aren't like the usual boring stuff..

I am in bangalore for the last two years and have been part of quite a few research teams and hopefully will have a few papers published though I haven't really made much progress . The best part is I enjoyed and am still enjoying it all, though in research there are times of setbacks. But, overall it is fun to work on so many interesting topics simultaneously. Status updates on my research interests are as follows.

o boozing: can't say much on the boozing part as i can't remember much .
o niteouts: just had a great one last nite with some frens (including some females too), wud surely be posting pics and haan m still to take a nap since 0900 hrs yesterday.. will be fortunate enuf to get to bed bfore 0600 hrs (though alone yet ).
o biking: since funds are scarce and a good bike isn't really affordable now, so decided to go for a good indian bike (bought a karizma) and since then bangalore roads are fun. m likely to go for some more perf mods in a couple of months.
o accidents: had eight of them in the last 14 months, including two on 100+ kmph of speeds (ankur is fortunate to experience a rare 110 kmph one without a helmet as a pillion). I have developed several techniques on how to survive such accidents. how to go for hard-braking at high speeds and several other how to's..
o <snip>...</snip>: <some masaledaar chatpata stuff here> (proly not the right place to discuss).
o bollywood: in the last 1.5 yrs I have rarely had a weekend without a movie at pvr.. most of the movies were done away with on their first weekend itself. Ankur being one of my most important team-mates and shashi (a friend of mine from iitk) being the other. Both of them have been a great motivator and great team-players.
o sleeping: hmmm.. my fav.. but unfortunately am yet to make any significant improvements on my previous record; 17 hrs. i have been facing several problems when nearing this limit. Though I am yet to consult a pro but enough thought has already been put in. i would like to have a cool support system to fulfill my 36 hrs non-stop dreaming dream. but, since that would cost a bomb, m planning to build one. but that too make take some time.
o stock-market: won't like to report this one as of now (can't actually survive a look at my balance sheet), but yeah m confident to get thru in a couple of months.
o office-office: Though am supposed to be a java-coder but my office desktop rarely gets enough of it. I have enjoyed quake/cs/nfs at oracle, qwest and now at trilogy in the last two yrs. At, the same time I have been successful to get my resume a five-star ranking by the so-called job-consultants and recruiters and moreover i have also been successful in blowing-off some of my interviewers with my 'seemingly' terrific hands-on/practical knowledge of java, ds/algo and other web-related technologies.
o shikaar: The newest of the lot and yet to be a serious research topic, shikaar is the 'in-thing' at our flat. bought a rs 2.6k sexy rifle (airgun) and since then no dogs in our neighborhood at night. yes u got it right, if u find a dogless street in bangalore at night u are sure to be somewhr near to our place. Planning to get a new pistol (again airgun) to carry along while going on night drives. No concrete plans yet to upgrade to real guns.


There are many more topics that I would like to share knowledge on. Please come up and let's have some discussions on topics of general interest.

Cheers!
------

missed some really cool ones like horse-riding etc but this one was more than enuf to shut the discussion off :)

fotos: amit srivastava: Stills from DCH

fotos: amit srivastava: Stills from DCH

"Why just me? Why not Everyone?" : II

Previous related posts

1. another interesting weekend passed by


2. "Why just me? Why not Everyone?" : I

Scene 1

The story starts from the first week of nov'05. There was
<censored>..

..</censored>
"ok thanks bbye"

"bbye"

call ends.

"Why just me? Why not Everyone?" : I

Previous related posts

1. another interesting weekend passed by

Why just me? Why not Everyone?: I"
were the emotions of abhijeet when he accidently landed on a previous article. So, here comes a series just to make him happy (not sure about others).

My First Gang
First lemme introduce you to my first gang. It consists of six core members. Our cute little sis khushboo is the youngest and the only female member of the gang. Currently, chilling out in mumbai, going thru one of the craziest times of one's life. no points for guessing it rite she is in 'post std 10th' and 'pre-univ' period, enjoying std 11, with pcmb (rarely do i take decisions for others but i know this one was mine; am scolded even today for the 'b' thing out there) and haan lotsa guys ;-). We have already had a glimpse of abhijeet. first thing that one notices about him is his cheerfulness and talkativeness. but, behind that talkative guy lives a intelligent, smart and emotional abhijeet. currently, busy in studies preparing for pre-medical entrance exams. last one year had been very challenging and trying for him. then comes bro sumit, doing his engg at chandigarh. this smart and dashing guy is a bit shy but i guess only infront of elders and not when he is in the company of friends (especially girls ;-)). i have very little direct info but tons of indirect ones, ranging from UP to kashmir (i know it sounds mouth-watering but wait a little for all the delicious masala). hey gaurav bhai it's ur number now. out there in pune, he is known to be a ladies' guy. won't say much for now. then it's the turn of abhishek. he is currently 'probably' busy with his preparations for management-entrance-exams. atleast this is only 'publicly known' status of his. then it's me and i don't think that i need a intro at muh place.

Okay, so that was a short intro of my first gang.

that's all for this time. Keep watching out to find out on whom the axe gonna fall ;-)

contd at Why just me? Why not Everyone? II

shashi settles down

last wed'day we got a call from shashi bhai. shashi is in jamshedpur to attend the marriages of two of his friends. atleast this is what the world knew. on the marriage day of mayur, shashi finds yet another girl and falls for her, decides to marry her too, talks to her parents (not sure if he talked about all this with girl also). when asked about the 'saamnewaali girls' promplty comes the reply 'AB MAIN SETTLE HO CHUKA HOON'.

my room: the transition

Before


After

last week was a bit turbulent. i mean, i again started thinking, thinking what to do. it is at such times that my blog comes to my rescue. i ve already decided about what i've to do. a re-thought is out of scope now.

Confusion

Let's face it, it's not just me in the industry, who doesn't really know what he/she is doing? Most of my friends have good, nice, fat-paying jobs. They are quite happy in worldly terms. But, almost all of the know that this is not the way that they want to lead their life. that this is not what they wished to do. this is not what they dreamt of doing in childhood, the most cherished time of our lives. Some accept this fact, while most are still reluctant to accept the truth.

a few days back shashi, sharaf and me thought of starting a website which will give short-tips to small-investors like who can't really go through all the material that is there on the web.

then today morning as i reach office, i find a personal mail from shashank. no points for guessing he too feels that he also isn't very much excited about his work at his company. wants to somehow enter media thing. or may do something of his own. shashank and me developed a portal for our batch's yearbook at iitk. that was one real sexy piece of software that i was involved in. that is probably the only software that i was really excited about till the end, yes! till the end. now shashank wants to sell it off to various others schools throughout india. we still have to think over it, but it would be a great thing.

My Birthday Bash

(left to right) Sumit, Sharaf, Eesh, me, Shashi, Thiyagesh

Those Seven Things ...

here come mine

Seven things I plan to do bfore I die

1. Earn a black belt in Tae-Kwon-Do
2. Tour all of Europe and Oz
3. Fly a F-16
   
4. Have my own large farm away from civilization
   
5. Get my own .50AE Desert Eagle Pistol
6. And also shoot down some on my list
7. Live in some buddhist monastry again away from civilization

Seven Things I can do

1. Watch 'Dil Chahta Hai' again
   
2. Sleep
3. Go Insomniac (yes this too)
4. Cook (atleast I love what i cook; though not sure about others)
5. Live without talking
6. Kill anyone (beware!!)
   
7. code (in Java and not in bill gates technologies)

Seven Things I can't do

1. say the truth about myself
2. listen to this-worldy-music
3. live with
   

another interesting weekend passed by

alot happened on this weekend.

bullu's crisis:

(portions of this article have been snipped temporarily. Please visit again after a few days)

contd at "Why just me? Why not Everyone?" : I

Innocence is bliss !!!

Sometimes i think that what would it have been like if we, the humans weren't social, had not advanced so much or were not so intelligent. Wouldn't we be enjoying our life like a zebra or a rhino is woods. It would have been better for other species as well.

want to be in school again

yesterday shashi, sharaf and me had a long midnight chat. talks mainly revolved around how the things have changed in the last few years and a generation gap has developed between us and our siblings a few years younger.

it's true.. these kids as small as 8-10 yrs talk of girlfriends/boyfriends while in our days, we were just unaware of the concept or too shy to talk about these.. this time when i went home (to my native place) there was a small get-together and we all cousins met except gaurav (who..<snip>..</snip>). there were too many stories to be shared. i was simply amazed and felt to be out of place. there's really some big revolution undergoing in indian children nowadays. i proly missed the fun. i can't accept it. i also wish to have the same fun. i want to be in school again.

Had a cool weekend

had a cool weekend after don'tknowhowlong in bangalore. it all started with a dinner at office on fri. went home and found sharaf having his dinner; his fav chick biryani from tandoori corner. sharaf and thiyagesh are in a job-hunting mood nowadays (did i tell u that the search is strictly not in india job and even states is not a preferred destination). And when it's job-search i automatically get lured into it. In such a scenario the discussion moved on to the lazy countryside life in europe. we dreamt of having a windmill rite outside our house, a rickety automobile, evenings in the local country bar, a pistol and a horse jut like a cowboy...

i also talked about my plans for the next few months.. joining a gym, getting a gal and also joining a tae-kwon-do class. sharaf was more inclined to join a karate class. i gave the responsibility of searching for the tae-kwon-do class. also talked a bit about A. A is a cute boyish-like gal i met sometime back. was(am) interested in her.. even flirted but probably it's all past now.

Next day ie saturday woke-up at around 10 thought of about the day. called rajan mama, got a switched off message. I had recently known that he has shifted to bangalore and is residing in yelahanka. went to sleep again. after unsuccessfully trying to sleep for half-an-hour i again tried calling rajan mama and got thru and in the next moment i decided to be at their place. But it couldn't be that quick as i had just left the bed. i reached their place a bit before 2pm. mama kept on calling me now-and-then just to ensure that i was on the right path. had good time with children there. decided to go there whenever i get time.

when i came back home it was again the same europe/oz thing going on..

Don't Know Why

yesterday i came to office after a loong vacation (real long, left bangalore on 20th oct). But found myself to be project-less. Sounds music to ears but believe me it's more fun to have work and not do it than not to have work. I realized that to chat when u have loads of work is more fun than when u are really, officially free.

I started thinking about how should i utilize this huge amount of time and again found myself to be at the same ole place. NOTHING. I felt that i've really lost all my interests and the only thing that i still love to do is to sleep and mebbe will love making love as well ;-) (if it ever happens to me). I was stuck again at the same place where i've been for atleast a year. I don't know why should i keep living or even why should i die? Neither a reason to live nor one to die. No reason to do anything.

twas getting too pessimistic therefore i thought that i'll try all those things that i've never done true-heartedly. writing one amongst them. therefore this blog. May also flirt with other activities as well or mebbe girls ;-) (but where the hell are they?????)

My first post

My second day in a new company. No team has yet been assigned to me, leave alone the work. After getting bored on the first this second day is too much for me. I surfed the net as purposelessly as I would do in my first year days. Searched the net for the current best-sellers, but didn't like any :-( . then read a bit about judaism/chritianity.

For the last few days I've picked up reading as never before and finished five books in around a month. Reading 'The Great Indian Dream' by Arindam Choudhury. This book is really a big shit. I've finished over hundred pages of the 220 something book and din't find even a single page of positive writing. but I m reading in hope that may be it has got some pages about what needs to be done instead of talking what everyone knows.

Too much for the first blog. :-)