The magician and his magic potion

Once there was a magician, full of scripts and spells
A magic potion he set to create, to all IT troubles dispel. 

He began with SOA and made components
Broke big chunks into very simple elements.
It made life easy, for services as scrabble letters you could lend,
‘This is the best magic potion’ he claimed. ‘It just needs no amend’. 

Then along came a fellow programmer,
Said he, ‘We don’t see our troubles end’
‘Each day – growing demands we meet
And our servers just won’t bend’.

The magician wore his wizard hat – ‘larger’ he knew this had to be
Ah! The potion needed the Cloud he thought, to set the soul of the environment free
It could now grow and shrink at your will,
Claimed he again, ‘This is the best potion ever made – The right blend of mastery and skill!’

The fellow programmer came walking again
Said he, ‘We see you have taken great pain
The Cloud is elastic to be procured at will and does help us gain!
But in front of our workstations – we do all day remain’. 

Set out the magician –yet again, on a quest for something new
For this potion to be the best, a dynamic spell he had to brew.
What could he add, to make magic that connected you, while on the move?
Enable it he did, for the mobile world – added to it that little last groove.

‘Aye dear’ said the fellow programmer,
‘All vastness doth the new channel bring
‘Immense data it produces – gossip, videos and network-ing,
Making sense of it – a mammoth task, more like a scorpion’s sting’.

The magician set out to handle Big Data,
With information that was seen as askew.
He analyzed, processed and visualized it…
Added routines, without much ado.

The programmer leapt in utter joy, but feared that the potion would be heavily priced,
But then, what joy is magic when costed for?

It was declared ‘Open Source’, to the programmer’s great surprise.

This went on to get featured on my Employers website : http://www.thbs.com/blog/the-magician-and-his-magic-potion

Him (and me)

I watched an episode of ‘Satyamev Jayate’ on Sunday. A show which is bringing to the surface, many fundamental problems related to the social system in India. It is hosted by a national celebrity, an actor by profession, Aamir Khan. A pat on the back to this actor who has delivered something new at each go, be it cinema or otherwise. How many celebrities would risk making such a move, putting their stardom at stake should be the topic of another post altogether. Well, this episode was about ‘Domestic violence’, something that married women in India deal with even today, when the whole world is claiming that men and women are treated equally. This is all but in words. The age of education has made no revolutionary changes in the thinking of a man. The inherent quality in any man is possession, the feeling of ownership, as one of the activists in the show rightly mentioned it. Women on the other hand have been culturally brought up with the sense of being owned by a far more superior being called the ‘husband’. Yes, women like being possessed, but by love, not by force. Out of force and violence, nothing genuine or beautiful can come. Woman endures all, toils and finally succumbs to every demand of her husband and what she gets in return is a painful death of her identity. The identity that was loved and cherished by many from the time she was born, as a daughter, a mother or a friend. Alas, it is still a man’s world and she remains a small ‘me’ masked by a massive ‘HIM’.

Him (and me)

============

You laugh when he laughs, you cry when he does,

He cares nothing, for all your endless fears.

He doubts you at your every move, thinks you are headlong,

You explain even when, your intentions weren’t wrong.

You wanted to be his source of joy, a part of his pleasure and pain,

He thought everything you did, was foolish and insane.

You were never behind his money, his power or his wit,

All he did was not to trust you, even just a single bit.

You parted with your joys, your kin’s and old friends,

He thought all the sacrifices you made were poor insignificant things.

He thinks you fail to understand,

His feelings and subtle demands.

But little did he know that you were changing,

Battling within, but to his liking.

You did all for him and he asked for more,

You cried and whined all night till your eyes went sore.

All you needed was love alone, never the luxury of a queen,

A safe refuge in his arms, with no glimpses of life's pain.

You know that things may never change,

But to make it work you strive,

For you have loved him madly and all it takes is a try.

You know that you have faulted too,

Many a times in life.

You may complain for a woman you are,

And know not, the story on his side.

You wish to forget the things that went wrong,

And make it all seem right.

You live in the hope of a day to come,

When the woman he once loved will again come into his sight.

Gymnastyeeks

“Just fruits, Are you crazy?” is what I was asked by most of my colleagues at workplace who were horrified looking at my strange diet plans. Some days were just melons, some cucumber and some were filled with juice. Nuts is what they thought I was….one plan had just nuts too. Together with all of this was the gym, to get me into some shape that did not resemble a sphere - and to add on, a trainer who would plan such vigorous workouts that I could pretty much qualify for the national games in a week! Right into office post the gym, I would feel completely drained out of energy, not having just enough to get up and empty my bladder!

I was tired of it- literally, physically. The world seemed dizzy, I lost a whopping 10 kilos in 2 weeks and was bed ridden for a week thereafter. Towards the end of this torture which went on for a month, a few wise decisions were taken

-         Eat, eat to your heart’s errr no -- belly’s content.

-         Hit the gym, well -- just hard enough.

-         Yes you can eat junk, of course you can, I’m not sure about how much of it you can digest though..

I have been gymming for over 3 years now and frankly, its addictive. If you are trying to get fit and haven’t started enjoying what it takes yet, then you aren’t doing it right.

Transitions

I called an old friend recently, a budding entrepreneur. It is after 5 long years that we connected and very simply put, were excited! We have known each other since the days of our schooling, have been great friends since then and most importantly, have still managed to be a part of each others lives.

Initially, our conversation revolved around work, clients, business deals, stocks and the like. It slowly started drifting towards the journey we have been through, the turns our lives have taken and the experiences we’ve missed to share. We spoke about school, the curriculum that terrorized us, the crushes we had in college, the people we met, our successes and failures. About how back then, there was time for everything, for everyone, how we never feared expressing our thoughts, never feared consequences, never feared life….. In short, we discussed about the transitions that have happened, the ones that make us what we are today.

We have both been successful in our domains and have led the lives we’ve wanted. Time has fleeted past and so deceptively that I would deny admitting any changes that may have indeed happened. But the fact is, my coffee is now black and my tea has turned green. Are all these transitions self willed is what I wonder. I’m glad nonetheless that old friends, never change.

Crazy Mind -|- Crazy Designs

One of the best phases of my life were the days of childhood where there were more meaningful and tangible elements of joy like pencil shavings, crayons, color pens, clay and paint. There was a feeling of ecstasy in every little piece of drawing done or models made and considering them to be the best under the class of creation done by mankind. These ranged from drawing eggs with hands to fishes flying in the air ;) .  I still make a few drawings or paintings (very crude though), keeping that little portion of my childhood alive in me.. All of these have been done using MS-Paint, simply because great creations don't really require great software! 

"De belles fleurs"

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

"D-U-C-K-S"

"Did you say - 3D ??"

Thoughts appear, sometimes in a daze...

Images clear, sometimes in haze...

You are all in wonder, if you are caught in a maze......

"Mirror Mirror on the wall"

Who is the fairest of them all ? 

One of my friends Raghu, has been kind enough to include this image in his post. Thanks for that R! 

Do you call it work?

I work for an IT firm as a programmer and most of you are aware that one needs to continuously document the code that one writes. Documentation is one of the darkest bits that come as part of the bundle when you are a coder. I'm doing documentation now, filling up data into a text editor and the whole world looks dipped in Grey. You ought to do it, whether you like it or not and no points for guessing this one, I am completely not fond of doing documentation!

The likes and dislikes of any individual are mainly based on his thoughts and it is very strange to understand how the human mind differentiates one thought from another. We tend to do those things better which we enjoy or take pleasure in doing. For instance, is the difference between work and play. Work is something that's monotonous and dis-interesting (sorry workaholic folks!) whereas play is fun. More so because, work is what you are forced to do while play is what you choose to do. Well then very obviously, one would choose to be in a state of play since it is exciting and enjoyable even if sometimes, physically more strenuous or harder than work. A classic example is very much what I am doing right now, blogging. I am actually doing something very much similar to what I said I hate to do, just a few lines behind! The only difference is that documentation is work, whereas blogging is passion.

I've always been fascinated by the writings of Mark Twain. This is one beautiful short story from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer- Whitewashing the Fence where he subtly explains the difference between play and work. I remember reading it way long back when I was in school and well just maybe I should get back to work now, lest I get fired by my employer.

Step back and stare!

This is my first blog and well, I am guess-ably excited writing my first post. Here you will mostly find me talking to you as I would to a friend, sharing my thoughts (predominantly weird), discoveries (as my ignorant mind would call it), experiences and experiments with life. To just let you know, this is most of it all—the reason why I am here…

Sometimes I step back and stare

At the lessons life teaches and makes one aware

In awe I see, there’s so much to share

Of all those simple things, so nice and fair

So just relax, step back and stare!