A friend of mine wrote a wonderful post recently, speaking about diaries, writing, and in a very clever way, about loving, losing and finding.
As I read through the post, I kept thinking back over my own diaries; the concept had captured my imagination ages back, but I could never stick with the daily process. Mostly, I found myself staring at the wall. For me, writing as an activity was a sporadic thing. I wrote when I was sad / depressed / pissed off or in a generally bad state of mind. It gave me release. So my diaries (2 volumes over 10 years) are full of jealousy, heartbreak, anger over poor marks, lack of money, failing to meet expectations, so on. (My life isn't that bad, seriously) Was I being 'honest' with myself? I doubt it. Heck, I don't think I'm honest on this blog either.

I was never much of a writer, though this is one of my secret longings/fantasies (along with Tabla maestro, superhero archer, Rafi-Kishore-esq singer, Mitnick-esq geek, drum hero etc). I don't like taking notes; I went through 4 years of engineering with just a single 200 page notebook. But the Idea! Oh, glorious Idea. Someday some stranger going through volumes of my writings, "This person lead a full life!"

Now and then, every once in a while, the urge will take me over.

Wait, what was the point of this post again?

I saw the movie "Dasvidaniya" the other day. It involves a dying man with a list of things to do before he dies. It's a nice movie; living life to the fullest and all that. What I want to talk about, however, is this: Suppose you had a limited amount of time left. What would you do with it? We had this discussion in the office, and the responses were varied, funny, sometimes poignant. But most people were quick to say that they would stop working.

I am slightly disturbed by this notion. Aren't we supposed to do what we love and love what we do? Work isn't only to pay the bills is it? If I were a musician, would I stop playing music during my last days? I don't think so. This, then, is my sure fire test of knowing if I've found my calling. If, knowing that you are dying, you still wish to devote _some_ time to your work, congratulations! You are one of the lucky few.

P.S: Steve Jobs does something similar. He looks into the mirror every morning, and asks himself, "If this were my last day, is this how I would spend it?". If the answer is 'No' too many days in a row, he knows he's doing something wrong.

1) The UI here is much cleaner (referring to a buffet system)

2) Stateful failover (referring to re-birth)

3) Working on one build to rule them all (weekly status report)

4) The angle produced insufficient torque. (on a pool table)

5) I now have unlimited internet access. How? My neighbor's wifi is not secure. (general discussion on wireless routers)

6) I'm a sucker for anything that can be expressed as a wave. (on interests in life)

7) If I were to ask you to go out on a date with me, would your answer to that question be the same as your answer to this question? (fool-proof way of asking out a chick)

*UPDATE* This post is going to be an ongoing thing it seems.

8) Cigar is to cigarette like Application is to applet. (on "What is so great about a Cigar?")

9) I'm talking to someone, when another friend comes up: "Vedang! I bet you don't remember this guy's name!" (pointing to person I was chatting with). "Umm.. umm.."
"Ah! Cache Miss!"

1) Vedang, when you get the urge to buy rock T-shirts, buy 1 not 6. (on dress sense)

2) "No, no, nothing, nothing" is not a valid message on the answering machine (on social etiquette)

3) A yellow belt, Vedang? YELLOW? I weep for your sense of fashion. (on dress sense)

4) A purple kashmiri hat? I weep for your sense of fashion. (on dress sense)

5) Don't point! Don't stare! Dear God! (on social etiquette)

6) Vedang, 9 A.M does not mean 2:30 P.M (on social etiquette)

7) Tension, Vedang. Tension is the great motivator! How the f*** are you not tensed! (on calm demeanour)

8) If you want to drown in the ocean, at least choose a new damn ocean! (on moving on)

9) Don't sing. The dead will wake and find new ways to kill themselves. (on singing)

I don't know what to make of this anymore. I'm numb, and I'm so cynical that when I first heard that the England team were headed back, a thought went off saying "It's just a terror attack!"
The first thing I said when I saw the news was "Let's see. Only the fag end of the alphabetic spectrum is now left. Wonder what they'll do when all cities from A-Z are attacked."
On the one hand, I want a strong leader who will make sure that scum don't get the better of India again. On the other hand, I don't want a dictator or an extremist in power. (Whatever he's done for Gujrat, Modi is _still_ a dictator. Similarly, Raj Thackarey / Bal Thackeray are insane.)
There is only one thing I know. I'm going to punch the shit out of the next person who tells me that Mumbai's "spirit" cannot be broken.

I know I said I'd be away for a while, and I _will_ be! This is just 5 minutes work that has been playing on my mind for a while. I wanted to move to a simpler template that would highlight the text and leave out the rest (poetry comes naturally to me!) So that's done! Reasons on why I did it when I have leisure time.

But fear not, I will return at the end of the month...
Stay Faithful O Readers, be here when I return.

Michael Crichton, genius author and director, passed away day before yesterday. This post is in his memory.

I am a huge fan of Crichton's work. My introduction to Crichton was The Andromeda Strain, a book that was gifted to me sometime in school. I was much too young to enjoy it at the time, and after a few pages, I put it back in the shelf and forgot all about it. During my 11th or 12th grade, I got my hands on Congo. When I was done with it, I went back and dug up The Andromeda Strain. That was it. I was hooked.

In those days, my principal complaint against authors was that each wrote around set plot lines. Robin Cook and John Grisham were so boring after some time! I found Michael Crichton to be refreshingly different! (Now I know better, Crichton writes around the idea of the collapse of a "perfect" system, at least in most cases.) Slowly and steadily I gobbled up his entire works. These were some of the earliest books I bought for myself. In fact, today I own every single fiction novel of his except for Congo (People, this is a hint. Gift it to me and make me happy)

Of all of his books, I have a clear favorite. It is The Great Train Robbery. The story is set in Victorian England and loosely based on the Great Gold Robbery of 1855. This book completely enthralled me, I have read it countless times. I don't have a clear second favorite among Crichton's books, because they are all so good, but a few notable mentions would be Rising Sun (a murder occurs during a business meeting, and Japanese and American culture clashes thereafter, technology: some awesome evidence tampering), Timeline (historians traveling to the Middle ages, technology: Quantum Physics), Sphere (alien craft discovered at the bottom of the ocean, technology: psychology, discussions of interaction with aliens), Prey (a swarm of artificially created nanobots evolves out of control and starts attacking humans, technology: nanotechnology, intelligence in distributed systems, Lamarckian Evolution), Eaters of the Dead (set in the 10th century, about a Muslim who travels with the Vikings on their adventures, technology: eaters_of_the_dead! What else do you want!) and of course Jurassic Park (dinosaurs coming back to life in a supposedly controlled environment, technology: genetics, chaos theory)

Crichton has often been criticized that he wrote with a film adaptation in mind. Indeed, at least 11 of his books have been made into films. Even so, Crichton is a real joy to read (especially if you're geeky or into sci-fi) and I would recommend him to all book lovers.