My Nephew

Just for a quick one. Here's introducing my nephew : "Aditya". He's very smart, cute and talkative (though he makes little sense out of his words). Always in a playful mode, gets me tired first when get into boxing with each other. There's just one thing in which I come out strong against him - making him fall asleep in my arms, on my shoulder. So nice to just be with him. Take a camera in front of him to take his snaps and he will always look at it, never anywhere else whatever you may try to distract him! If he cries, show him his pics on a slideshow; will definitely smile back in moments! Never pees in your lap! What else would you want from a 6 month old!

Here's a pic of me with him, cheek-to-cheek. That is the way he always is in my arms.



Here's another one! Ecstatic!

Casino Royale

Casino Royale has few sequences that were good but overall the movie was lacking a good story. Basically, it did not have a "bond mission". But, I liked Daniel Craig! Of course, you don't expect him to be like say Pierce Brosnan carrying himself around as a bond but I think he was better in that he did not use much gadgets... He did not roll a car on a mouse pad. I think it will take some time before people start accepting him in that role. Seems: few like change.

The action sequences were good. The whole plot was rather pathetic lacking much sense and maturity. The whole playing cards thing doesn't suit! Few will call it just another action movie!

I liked Daniel from "Munich". It was a good movie and everyone played their role quite well. The girl is from the movie "Kingdom of Heaven", Eva Green.

As for me, I expect a little bit brainy stuff in bond movies... And I did not agree to the logic of "M" why Bond was traded for his life by the girl and why the bad guys would let him survive just because the girl made a deal for all the money. It is just an unacceptable theory in my opinion. Bad guys are not that good!

Overall rating : 3/5 [the initial sequence was fantastic with the guys flying around] Watchable entertainment!

Merry Christmas and A very Happy New Year, everyone! Have lots and lots of fun!

Seventeen days

I started with when I'm gone. I came to know of the secrets I help deep within. No one could see 'em, expose 'em. When you are running in the dark, you don't know where you are going. You surely would be off-track 'cause life isn't so straight-forward. You may fall, you may hurt yourself. What do you do? Stay still hoping lights will be there soon and will guide you. But you can't stop, you've got to keep moving. But what if there isn't no way, no guide nothing to lead you to somewhere. You think you are going nowhere. Fear you are gonna be a waste. But is it really true that you are in dark? Is it really true that you don't know your way? Are you really lost? You have become so blind that you cannot see anything. You don't care about anything, you just keep moving. Life has become so, what do you do? Take a moment, take a breathe. Keep the faith.

"3 doors down". Recently, got to listen to their latest album Seventeen days and I must say, Iliked it first hand.

I have a special liking of Brad's voice. Very original. The other two B's, I like, being - Bono, Bryan.

Reflections

Cold mountain had a sequence in which Nicole Kidman looks in the well. She sees something. We saw that too. And immediately that gets percieved as a flock of birds (crows?) flying in with a dark centered image of Jude Law coming.

Mind is truely creative - it can make out meaningful things out of nothing. I mean, what was it actually? Was it anything more than just ripples of water in the well? An obvious mind would say No and that would of course be right.. but there are things different people want to see. It is their imagination that varies. I wonder what a person would see it as had he not seen the movie or the part of it until this sequence came up. Just that clip. What would he percieve out of those ripples? The same? I doubt.

Without context things may look different to many. That is what reflections are all about. When you stand before a mirror, let's say when combing your hair after bath or say washing your face. Do you notice anything else that is part of the reflection? I usually don't.

What is the very next thought that comes into your mind when you see a cat cross your path ahead? If you are aware of the belief that it is going to make your outing unsuccessful or affect it in some way - that will be what you will think. You will think if your task is gonna get successfully complete or if it will be ill-affected. The way it can get ill-affected etc. This will happen irrespective of your belief towards such sayings/superstitions. You will not even notice if the cat's tail is straight up or curled or pointing down.

The events happening in one's life tell a lot. But we only listen to things, we are only open to... things that we want to percieve. The things we learn out of them tells us about the bias-ness we have in our outlook. The more open you are the more you learn. The narrower you are, the lesser you know. The lesser to grow. It is not totally an individual's responsibility. It is how we are brought up and it depends on the environment we are brought up. This bias-ness sometimes is the result of past experiences. But being a rational observer is different, it distinguishes you. It becomes a differentiating factor when in a crowd. Sometimes that can be for the good and sometimes for the bad. But aren't they the people who really matter?

Funny thing you will usually see!

Life is full of amusements.. it's just how closely you look at them and how do you percieve them. Also, your involvement level also determines that. One thing that can be greatly funny for one can be irritating for the other.

Two people are fighting on the road but they would never find it humorous. I can if I am watching them - because fighting to me is stupid. I know I am that stupid sometimes, well most of the times.. but really with peace in my mind - I can never imagine to be one of those two! For someone else, that event can mean anything else.. that could be irritating, humorous, awkward, hurting, intimidating, senseless.. anything.. even motivating (in 2 distinct ways) ! It could be harmful, it could be helpful and to some it won't cause any effect, they will simply ignore it an move on.

I will tell you a small incident that you will almost always see on any Indian road. This is the inspiration behind this blog entry. I was on my bike way to my office.. and there was a huge truck quite ahead of me.. behind it were 2 auto-rickshaws and behind those two autos were 3 or 4 motorbikes with some rickshaws along with them.. (Yeah, India is diverse and I am proud of it! Similarly, Indian traffic is diverse but I am not proud of it! Forgive me for that). So, it is usually office hours that time and the traffic is too much at some places. So, this truck is moving very slow because there are a few DTC (Delhi Trasport Corporation) buses ahead of it on the sideways at a stop to allow people sucked into them.

I was in a hurry to office and I started blowing the horn but seeing the scenario, I thought better keep quiet and let my fingers rest (I work very hard! No kidding! :D). Then on I saw these bike guys blowing horn and then the autos started the same.. now there were about 5-6 horns blowing at the same time.. constantly.. did the truck let them pass? Forget about it.. it couldn't even if it tried.. Then started the brownian motion of those "vehicles" ahead of me... those guys shaking their head.. the bike guy blaming the auto guy for jam and the auto guy blaming the poor rickshaw puller and they all arguing... I was standing behind with my legs on the ground.. and a pretty, cute but dry smile on my face. I was laughing in the inside.

So, you see, like I said - life is full of amusements. I found mine for that day. I don't know how much I helped you visualize it but it was really funny.. atleast to me.. May be not for those guys.. the rickshaw puller - who is blamed almost always in such situations. The strong rules the weak.. isn't it? That is the basic law of nature.. Things may be the same but perceptions vary.. The hitch is on self - do you want to ruin your day? Never!! So, act that way... its tough, I know, I try... I fail but when I succeed - it really means a lot!

Cheers! Have a great time ahead!

Are you a self-taught?

In India, people learning programming via their curriculum are far less than required. They would be Bachelors/Masters in Computer science from various univerities/colleges. There would be MCAs (Master in Computer Applications) from various univs/colleges. But this crowd is not even close to the requirements of this industry.

Now, lets come to engineering stream in general. There are highly competitive entrance exams to just get admission into some of the engineering disciplines of various colleges and univs. Students prepare very hard to get into IITs and various RECs. Considering the effort that they put in, it is likely that they would have had learnt some level of logical thinking and interpretation either by the gift of their brain or by hard work and practice.

It has been found that such engg background people are good in problem solving and logical thinking. They are quite okay in preparing algorithms to reach to a solution to a given problem. Such people are ideal for the programming job.

So, we have 2 lots - computers science grads (BE/ME in Comp Sc or MCAs) and the engineering grads from other streams like Mechanical engineering/Civil/Industrial/Ocean Engineering & Naval Architecture/Mining etc. The first lot finds it easy to get jobs in the system programming side. While the second lot gets into the Application development side. There are overlaps between the two but it is very minor.

Now, the education system in India has built itself so, that people usually get into engineering streams and medical streams (others too but they are irrelevant in this context). Here, degrees are valued and to find a job possessing a good degree, is easier. Why? Because the business that is coming to India requires that. The jobs here are not because of the local IT requirements of India but because of the outsourcing from US and UK (some parts of rest of Europe). They require good people to work for them and this drives the recruitment process.

For example - my clients want to get their job done by IITians with 2+ years of relevant experience or else a higher experience level (compromising in degree) of about 4+ or 5+ years of relevant experience (for the same level).

For a person coming from some other background for a programming job, it is very very tough and un-realistic to achieve. There is some much competition for them from the engineering grads that they are not even eligible to appear. 4 or 5 years earlier from now, it was easy for a Physics grad to get a programming job - now it isn't. Because the IT industry has even influenced the curriculum in the engineering colleges... with increased focus to compete. Suppose, a company hires such a person - it will be tough to get them billable to the clients. This leads to loss for the company - so why hire such people in the first place?

There is one scenario where the degree doesn't matter - that is freelancing. But freelancing is not that visible in India... there are probably great oppurtunities around this in europe and us but not in India. You cannot get business here because there are no local oppurtunities. For US and Europe, the demand is local and hence it is easier. For us, its tough until our local IT business requirements develop.

Of course, experts are respected everywhere but it depends on how that respect materializes. Respect alone cannot give one: bread. I have tried to summarize the facts but some may be out of line or can find unacceptance and neither do I bet on them but to me that seems to be the true story out here. In India, jobs are not a choice that a person can make. It is his upbringing and education that leads him to the market place relevant to him.

I saw the profile of many foriegn authors of programming books saying they worked in restaurants, were astrologers, were Physicists, were in Medical science etc etc prior to getting interested in programming. You will definitely not find such profiles in India. But note that "such profiles" must not be confused with "such people". I stress on profile because there are such dynamic people in India too, there is no scarcity - its just that the ecosystem here doesn't let them grow! May be someday this changes! I am hopeful.

Mental crap

It's been long since I did something to my blogs... lieing alone in the midst of numerous others... I even had problems recognizing it becauses of the bruises that it might have had got when you entered it, found no new pots and spilled some garbage collection of characters to form the non-illusionary abusive strings. Aah! Forget it..I'm just messing with you. But here I am, on the blog again, but not for too long and for a short note. I will mess with you a bit more!

Is there some pattern that we all keep following and are a part of or is everything so random that any predictions are merely things we try to fake to make ourselves feel significant? Now, this is a very cruel question. It may hurt you as it did to me. But that is ultimate reality. I never questioned myself so... but I did it this time and until now haven't found anything rock-solid to justify my existence and the meaning to be.

Doesn't randomness follow some pattern? I am sure it must! It's just that the randomizer for these events, that keep on happening with us, is so highly developed and complex that we are too naive to understand even a part of it. In this whole big universe there must be something that causes something else to happen somewhere else and these somethings somewhere else influence the events at some other co-ordinates and so on (by the way, do we know the origin?). Atleast this what the chaos theory is all about.. isn't it? Finding out the deterministic solutions to the completely random behaviours exhibited by one and all things that we can see with the use of no random factors.

This is what life is all about. If it becomes predictable, if it's not randomized, if the behaviours don't change... everything would look so dull.. colorless. Life is all about exploring things.. and by exploring I certainly don't mean knowing the truth but just keep us convincingly contrived in our own superficial thought system - that yes, we do know something. Even though we may be far far away from finding out even an infinitesimal part of it.