... that if god closes one door he opens another. Well he seems to be shutting all the doors for me slowly taking away all the people I care about, my close friend is now firmly on another continent, my family in another part of the state and me firmly and completely isolated. I am still waiting for that other door to open.
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Saturday, July 7, 2012
27 years
I was thinking of all the landmark changes I have witnessed in my 27 years of life. the kind that marks the end of an era and I realised that 27 years might only be significant to me because its three short of 30! But I have witnessed many land marks in my lifetime -
Cassettes to CD: Wikipedia says that CDs were commercially available by 1982, i was yet to land on earth by then, but i clearly remember using cassettes in my early school days. I remember having a cassette playing Walkman and thinking this is cool. But it was replaced by a three CD player music system, which I also thought was cool. The Ipod was introduced when i was 16years old, I had recently woken up to the concept of fellows :), while the world of music changed for ever.
Nokia Phones to every other kind of phone: In my college days 90% or even more people used nokia, Samsung was still a rarity and only became a novelty after i was in Masters course. The touch screen phones I only became aware of it after I started working. But before that, phones moved from compact key pad to a qwerty key pad. The Iphone was unveiled in 2007, I was still in Delhi doing my masters in economics just trying to pass my exams, when some guy who had started a company named after a fruit, changed the phone business forever. While I was lost in a haze of insecurity in D school, the door was being opened for Samsung to give apple a run for its money.
Internet - dial-up to broadband to wireless: In school my family applied for a dial-up student internet connection. No images only text on a black screen. My sister knew how to search stuff on the net and I use to sit beside her. It was more like Dos prompt. Everything took time to load. Then came the dial-up connection with images. It was slow but there was nothing else to compete with it, so we all adjusted, did other things while it was still loading. I still remember the sound of the dial-up connection, its the kind that they show in the matrix (part I) for those who were not born to see it. Then came broadband, it was still expensive so I use to go to the internet cafe. My 12th class results were seen in an internet cafe. My dad went to see it, while i stayed at home, he called me and said 78%, you passed! I broke down in tears, it was technically the highest score I had scored in my school life. I was the kind that failed in three subjects in first term, then two in second term and then by some miracle passed in third. So while I realised that my options post school were considerably limited, the world was embracing for the information age! Down went the books, up went the uploads.
Computers: from Kb to gb: My first computer was an off-white colour box with a large CPU, which needed a strong desk to keep it. I use to play battle chess and the man game. it was a windows computer with limited colours. Just a CD drive, nothing else. I was just trying to go from class six to class seven, while the computer entered our homes, never to leave. As I started to put on weight the moment I passed out of school, computers started becoming thinner and thinner. They went from three piece to two piece to one single piece - a laptop. My family bought a laptop when I was in d school, it was the second semester, I was trying to survive game theory. I no longer need a whole desk for a desktop, my breakfast table is all that is needed for my Imac and a lap for my laptop. I started working, completed two years of working when i got my Imac, so as I went from zeropati to lakhpati, Steve jobs and his company was already earning billions.
The god particle: CERN or the European Organisation for Nuclear Physics, located on the Franco-Swiss border has discover the Higgs particle last week. While I was in depression over living alone again, physicist proved the existence of the particle that gives matter mass, only after which gravity can operate and the universe was formed. While I sat in office and dug European eco data, scientist recreated conditions which existed one billionth of a second after the big bang!
CERN: The Large Hadron Collider
The big-bang
27 years might just be an embarrassment for me, but its been an incredible period in history. I know I have missed out a lot of other land marks, but these were the ones that came to my mind as I looked back. I cant even imagine what lies ahead as I move towards 50!
Cassettes to CD: Wikipedia says that CDs were commercially available by 1982, i was yet to land on earth by then, but i clearly remember using cassettes in my early school days. I remember having a cassette playing Walkman and thinking this is cool. But it was replaced by a three CD player music system, which I also thought was cool. The Ipod was introduced when i was 16years old, I had recently woken up to the concept of fellows :), while the world of music changed for ever.
Nokia Phones to every other kind of phone: In my college days 90% or even more people used nokia, Samsung was still a rarity and only became a novelty after i was in Masters course. The touch screen phones I only became aware of it after I started working. But before that, phones moved from compact key pad to a qwerty key pad. The Iphone was unveiled in 2007, I was still in Delhi doing my masters in economics just trying to pass my exams, when some guy who had started a company named after a fruit, changed the phone business forever. While I was lost in a haze of insecurity in D school, the door was being opened for Samsung to give apple a run for its money.
Internet - dial-up to broadband to wireless: In school my family applied for a dial-up student internet connection. No images only text on a black screen. My sister knew how to search stuff on the net and I use to sit beside her. It was more like Dos prompt. Everything took time to load. Then came the dial-up connection with images. It was slow but there was nothing else to compete with it, so we all adjusted, did other things while it was still loading. I still remember the sound of the dial-up connection, its the kind that they show in the matrix (part I) for those who were not born to see it. Then came broadband, it was still expensive so I use to go to the internet cafe. My 12th class results were seen in an internet cafe. My dad went to see it, while i stayed at home, he called me and said 78%, you passed! I broke down in tears, it was technically the highest score I had scored in my school life. I was the kind that failed in three subjects in first term, then two in second term and then by some miracle passed in third. So while I realised that my options post school were considerably limited, the world was embracing for the information age! Down went the books, up went the uploads.
Computers: from Kb to gb: My first computer was an off-white colour box with a large CPU, which needed a strong desk to keep it. I use to play battle chess and the man game. it was a windows computer with limited colours. Just a CD drive, nothing else. I was just trying to go from class six to class seven, while the computer entered our homes, never to leave. As I started to put on weight the moment I passed out of school, computers started becoming thinner and thinner. They went from three piece to two piece to one single piece - a laptop. My family bought a laptop when I was in d school, it was the second semester, I was trying to survive game theory. I no longer need a whole desk for a desktop, my breakfast table is all that is needed for my Imac and a lap for my laptop. I started working, completed two years of working when i got my Imac, so as I went from zeropati to lakhpati, Steve jobs and his company was already earning billions.
The god particle: CERN or the European Organisation for Nuclear Physics, located on the Franco-Swiss border has discover the Higgs particle last week. While I was in depression over living alone again, physicist proved the existence of the particle that gives matter mass, only after which gravity can operate and the universe was formed. While I sat in office and dug European eco data, scientist recreated conditions which existed one billionth of a second after the big bang!
CERN: The Large Hadron Collider
The big-bang
27 years might just be an embarrassment for me, but its been an incredible period in history. I know I have missed out a lot of other land marks, but these were the ones that came to my mind as I looked back. I cant even imagine what lies ahead as I move towards 50!
Sunday, June 24, 2012
My childhood
These were the songs I use to hear when I was in school. I use to walk around in the balcony (in delhi balcony you can walk around, shocking if u are in mumbai) late at night and listen to the FM rainbow late night english music show, watching the stars and dreaming :)
This is my childhood, my best memories -
If your answer to the question - when was the last time you saw the stars is - yesterday. You doing something right.
This is my childhood, my best memories -
If your answer to the question - when was the last time you saw the stars is - yesterday. You doing something right.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Belief
My belief in god is at an all time low. My family is the kind that stays veg 3 days a week and goes to temples, we do normal puja at home, whenever someone is going through a bad time astrologically, which seems to be all the time, we play a one hour mantra. Despite all this, we seem to be more or less going through shitty times. I agree we get a break of a year or so but is that enough. What is the point of believing in a higher power, if that power doesn't work. Its kind of like the Indian government, you pay your taxes but when push comes to shove, we don't even have clean roads, majority of Indians are without access to clean water and we don't exactly look at our police with utmost confidence.
There are two instances which come to my mind where I felt I got help -
The first was a gas leak, I was in school and my parents had gone out of town. My sis had gone to work and locked me in the house for safety. I remember I was reading pride and prejudice for the first time ( I have read that book by now more than 20 times and the BBC movie on it, I have seen more than 5 times). I had reached the middle section of the book and it was getting really interesting. Elizabeth was reading the long explanation letter from Darcy and so was I. Suddenly I hear this hizzing sound. Half of me wanted to stay in bed and ignore it and the other half knew that it is a gas leak and I must move. I listen to my first half for a minute and stayed in bed but then the sound got louder and my neighbours below started screaming gas leak gas leak. So I moved my ass and went to the kitchen, it was afternoon time so no lights were on and the kitchen was dark, but I could see that the gas pipe had broken in half and gas was coming out in full force. I automatically panicked, I lost control over my shoulders, they were moving like helicopter blades, atleast it felt like it. I couldnt think, all I wanted to do was call my sister and the gas leak ad on tv which I had seen once, the one issued in public interest kept playing in my head. So I ran (yes back then and in times of peril I do run) opened all the windows and then ran to the corridor which was even darker than the kitchen. my sis had written her boss's number on a sheet of paper and stuck it to the wall, she didn't have a cell then. the paper had ten other numbers also on it. I picked up the receiver of the land-line and looked at the sheet of paper with ten different numbers on it. In the darkness, I could see the boss's number clearly, as there seemed to be a rectangle box of light just on that number. The boss picked it up in one ring and gave it to my sis and the rest is history .... I calmed down and switched the regulator off.
The second was an auto rickshaw, I was in class three and coming back from school in a school bus. My bus-stop had arrived and I had just stepped out and had turned to my right. Before I could even begin walking, an auto came and hit me from the back and i went flying (mind you I was a small thin kid back then!). Two things saved me, the fact i got hit by the auto with my back facing it. The good thing about this was that it hit my school bag. Any other orientation and it would have been trouble. Delhi autos have this metal cutout on the front wheel for decorative purposes and which is as thin as a knife. So thankfully my school bag was between me and the auto. Now comes the really odd part, after the auto hit me I went flying and I swear it felt like I was flying in the air horizontally, with my back facing the ground. As if someone lifted me up. i landed on the ground (eventually) and fell flat on my back, with my school bag again coming between me and the road. I could have fallen face first, but I didn't, I landed on my school bag... not one scratch.
This was written awhile back and my family member who is still unwell, is slightly better now. So I believe a little more.
There are two instances which come to my mind where I felt I got help -
The first was a gas leak, I was in school and my parents had gone out of town. My sis had gone to work and locked me in the house for safety. I remember I was reading pride and prejudice for the first time ( I have read that book by now more than 20 times and the BBC movie on it, I have seen more than 5 times). I had reached the middle section of the book and it was getting really interesting. Elizabeth was reading the long explanation letter from Darcy and so was I. Suddenly I hear this hizzing sound. Half of me wanted to stay in bed and ignore it and the other half knew that it is a gas leak and I must move. I listen to my first half for a minute and stayed in bed but then the sound got louder and my neighbours below started screaming gas leak gas leak. So I moved my ass and went to the kitchen, it was afternoon time so no lights were on and the kitchen was dark, but I could see that the gas pipe had broken in half and gas was coming out in full force. I automatically panicked, I lost control over my shoulders, they were moving like helicopter blades, atleast it felt like it. I couldnt think, all I wanted to do was call my sister and the gas leak ad on tv which I had seen once, the one issued in public interest kept playing in my head. So I ran (yes back then and in times of peril I do run) opened all the windows and then ran to the corridor which was even darker than the kitchen. my sis had written her boss's number on a sheet of paper and stuck it to the wall, she didn't have a cell then. the paper had ten other numbers also on it. I picked up the receiver of the land-line and looked at the sheet of paper with ten different numbers on it. In the darkness, I could see the boss's number clearly, as there seemed to be a rectangle box of light just on that number. The boss picked it up in one ring and gave it to my sis and the rest is history .... I calmed down and switched the regulator off.
The second was an auto rickshaw, I was in class three and coming back from school in a school bus. My bus-stop had arrived and I had just stepped out and had turned to my right. Before I could even begin walking, an auto came and hit me from the back and i went flying (mind you I was a small thin kid back then!). Two things saved me, the fact i got hit by the auto with my back facing it. The good thing about this was that it hit my school bag. Any other orientation and it would have been trouble. Delhi autos have this metal cutout on the front wheel for decorative purposes and which is as thin as a knife. So thankfully my school bag was between me and the auto. Now comes the really odd part, after the auto hit me I went flying and I swear it felt like I was flying in the air horizontally, with my back facing the ground. As if someone lifted me up. i landed on the ground (eventually) and fell flat on my back, with my school bag again coming between me and the road. I could have fallen face first, but I didn't, I landed on my school bag... not one scratch.
This was written awhile back and my family member who is still unwell, is slightly better now. So I believe a little more.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
quote
The greatest love story in life is with yourself
- Sloth
I got inspired by a bloomberg terminal in office, everytime you login there is a new quote every day.
- Sloth
I got inspired by a bloomberg terminal in office, everytime you login there is a new quote every day.
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