Life, Recession and some Nostalgia

Sometime around this last year, I was patting my team members on the back. We had collectively achieved what for me was "the biggest achievement of my career".

Some 10 months earlier, my CEO had felt the need to revamp one of our offerings. It was a web application in the Education vertical of Lead Generation market, and it had gone pretty big contributing to almost a third of company's revenues. But the product was a two tier jsp/servlet/mysql architecture with little reporting features. We wanted to take this to the next level - scalable and flexible architecture, easier maintenance, much higher data gathering and lots of reporting, optimization and mining on top of that. Me and a colleague of mine were entrusted with this project.

This was exactly the kind of technical challenge I was looking for. Working on the product from scratch, right from reqts to design to coding to testing/deployment, everything was in my hands. And as I realizes later on, such challenges are not just "technical"
10 months is a long time. Its the time when confidences get shaken. Its the time when the entire business team gets changed. And its also the time when a team to 2 grows to team of 10. And when a guy moves from Senior Software Engr -> Tech Lead -> Tech Architect.

It was a great Dec. There are night outs everyday. Everyone in the team was highly motivated. Typical schedule was working till 11 and then having dinner together. We were determined to get our baby to replace the old boy by January. And we did it. I was so proud of my team. I still am.

Sadly, not many are in the company to witness the 1st birthday of the child. The success of the product gave me enough confidence to move towards my next dream, my entrepreneur venture. But some of the others were not as lucky. I never really felt that recession would cause laying off in Indian companies, but it did happen last month and quite a few of my colleagues were unfortunate to be part of it.

Life does not always have a happy ending, but that does not reduce the flavour of the proceedings. The time we all worked together was great, and I would always be proud of working with such a great team. And thank you everyone for making my dream a reality.

Back to Bangalore

There is one thing I really like when I go on a drive. Switch off the AC, pull down the windows and feel the cool breeze on my face. Can I get that in Delhi? Only in my dreams. Can I get that in Bangalore? Probably 4 years earlier, but not today.
The weather is still magnificent, but all that one gets today is polluted air and noise. The amount of pollution and noise on the city roads has gone up significantly.

I shifted to Bangalore a week back. It has been 4 years since I left this place. Since then, I see more things worsening rather than improving. Good that my home is my office, and I don't have to drive everyday.

On the brighter side, there are quite a few places around Bangalore to make a 1 day/weekend trip and I really should be planning one soon.

A New Beginning

6 years in software industry. 3 years in a software product company working on a web-based product.
That is the time it took me to realize what I really want.

Last year, I talked about how I have always been fascinated by software products which can solve pains. I also talked about the potential of Indian software market, and that we software professionals in India need to serve our own people.
There is one more thing to talk about. That I am a travel buff. And after traveling to quite a few places over the past few years, I find out that the pains to traveling remain the same. Its always about:

• When to go
• Where to go
• who else is available to go with me
• where would I stay
• what would be the prices like
• what to do while I am there
• My friends are too lazy to send me the pictures.

To solve all traveler's pains, here comes ... let the drums roll ... www.MustSeeIndia.com. It's gonna solve all my pains. It's gonna plan my holiday. It's gonna make my lazy friends upload their photos. It's gonna fetch me the best deals.
Well .... not quite all pains as yet. We are a young startup who aim at connecting travel enthusiasts. We know that its people who solve each other's pain by sharing their experiences.

Communication with our readers is really important for us and hence the first thing I did was to setup a MustSeeIndia Blog. See you there.

The sidekick must die

I sometimes think about the life of the sidekick. You know, the guy besides the hero who never gets the girl and always dies at the end. What does he get for being the good guy all through - pain and death?

Being a good guy is not easy. Neither is being the mentally tough guy who has learned to wipe his tears himself and not get fazed no matter what life throws at him. But why does the audience claps for the hero who cannot control his emotions?

Republic Day Parade

I have seen Republic Day Parade on TV ever since I was a kid. However, this time around, I got an opportunity to see it live.

We got reserved tickets a week earlier. However, I was a bit apprehensive on the traffic situation and the crowd situation that day. Not to mention the fact that I had to wake up at 7 AM in the morning to get ready for it, an alien concept for someone like me who sees mornings only in his dreams.

I did finally wake up early and went for it. It was good to see that the traffic situation was pretty good. There were signs everywhere to suggest the route. Once we reached there, we had to get into a really huge line to get into. This was something that certainly has lots of scope for improvement.

Once we got inside, it was a great experience. Seeing the biggest celebration of Indian Republic is amazing. The part I like the most were the military helicopters and airplanes flying past. This is something that can never be captured on TV.
Recommended atleast once.

Before the year ends

Gullu wrote this post a few days back. Which is somewhat strange considering he was a pretty frequent writer not so long ago.
I have always been an infrequent blogger and as a matter of fact, I have been following this once a month rule ever since I missed the whole month of Nov 2004. Posting at 11:20 PM on 31st Dec, this is as late as it could be.

These have been the busiest days of my life so far. Loads of work at office, personal commitments and just so many events to attend to.
My response to life? Make it busier ;-)
Last year, I was in Kashmir at this time of the year, making that the most memorable week of my life. This year, among the late nights and really late nights in office, I was able to squeeze in a small weekend trip to Mukteshwar.

Mukteshwar is a quiet and peaceful place around 40 kms from Bhimtal. It has a forest area, and there are also activities like rock climbing and rappelling. Though we didn't do any of that, as we went for complete leisure.

Watch this space for pictures once I find time to post them.

Last night in US

Its time to go back to India. The US trip has been great, both in terms of work and otherwise.
I utilized each of the weekends to the fullest and went to a lot of places.
One the first weekend, I went to Mystery Spot and 17 mile drive.
The second one, I met a lot of friends in Mountain View and San Jose.
The third weekend was completely devoted to San Francisco, where I went to Fisherman's Wharf, Golden Gate Bridge and lots of other places.
On the fourth weekend, one of my colleague Mike was kind enough to take us to the Pescadaro Beach.
This is last weekend in US, and I met some friends and went to Berkeley for a show.

And yes, I managed to get a lot of work done as well.

Its been a good trip, but its even better to go back to India. Here I come :-)

In US

After being in software industry for almost 5.5 years, I am on my first official trip to US. I must have created a new record of not visiting US even after being in software industry for such a long time.

Ever since college, my friends have been telling me that if I ever visit US, I would not experience any jet lag as my sleep and work times are more closer to US timezone. Now I see that there is some truth in these claims as I have been able to recover from jet lag in less than a day.

Here's how it went:
1. Friday late night 1 AM - I take the Delhi-Amsterdam flight. Its an 8 hr flight. I sleep around 2-3 AM.
2. Reach Amsterdam at 6 AM local time (9 AM IST). There is a 5 hr stoppage time. I am feeling really sleepy so I sleep at the airport. Wake up at 10 AM (1 PM IST) and then catch the flight at 11.
3. 10.5 hrs flight to San Francisco. Have had slept enough, I pass time watching 3 movies (Mr. Bean Holiday, Harry Potter and the order of Pheonix, Spiderman 3.
4. Reach SFO at 2. Ankit picks me up. Am fine this around 6. Then I start feeling really sleepy. Its 6:30 AM IST, so if I were in India, this would have been a night out.
5. The next few hours are difficult. Getting really sleepy but can't, I am still moving around with my friends. I finally sleep at 11.
6. Wake up in the morning at 9 AM, fully refreshed. The jet lag is over.

Went to 17 mile drive yesterday. Its a drive along the pacific ocean and has some great views. More on that in the next post.

God is my roomie

I left my native home around 8-9 years ago to join college. My study room has been the pooja room of the house ever since.

Now every now and then when I go to my native place, I stay and sleep in that same room. Doesn't that make me and god roomies, me being the senior by virtue of being the first in that room.

So why do I have to obey rules like putting my sandals out of the room?

Aajkal ke bachche

I knew that times have changed. I also knew that today's kids are much more smarter than what we (or maybe I) used to be at that age.
But until yesterday, I only knew that.

My nephew is 7 years old. I was teaching him a song. The conversation went on like this:

Me: Chalo beta aaj tumhe naya gaana sikhate hai.
Nephew: theek hai
Me: tera chehra sanam
Nephew: tera chehra sanam
Me: ek rubai si hai .. rubai .... rubayeee
Nephew: ek rubai si hai
Me: mere dil jism-o-jaan pe tu chahi si hai .. dil jism-o-jaan ...
Nephew: mere dil jism-o-jaan pe tu chahi ... chachu ... kaun?

for once I couldn't stop laughing. At the very least, I could convince him that she is Priyanka Chopra, and she stays closeby, and she's gonna come over for coffee once her movie is complete.
And thank god for that.

Sach mere yaar hai

Just remembered this great song. It used to be my and one of my friend's favorite in college. He used to sing it really well too and was famous in the hostel this song.

The last stanza of this song is in particular brilliant.

सुनते थे हम ये जिंदगी गम और ख़ुशी का मेल है
हमको मगर आया नज़र ये जिंदगी वो खेल है
कोई सब जीते सब कोई हार दे
अपनी तो हार है

My friend always used to sing this last line as apni to jeet hai and I would sing it as apni to haar hai.
And then he would say ki apni to jeet hai mere dost. And I would say, nahi apni haar hai.

Mere dost, apni abhi bhi haar hai.

3 movies in 3 days

Shrek 3 on Friday, Shootout at Lokhandwala on Saturday and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End on Sunday.

With the gujjar violence blocking all paths to Jaipur last weekend, I decided to utilize the weekend by finishing off all possible movies that I was interested in. I had already watched Cheeni Kum a weekend before.

Cheeni Kum invoked mixed reactions. It seemed to be as if it has been made with the sole purpose of showcasing acting skills of amitabh bachchan. I couldn't figure out another reason why I would go and watch this movie.

Shrek 3 was nowhere close to the original Shrek. Why do all these animated intended for children movies must have this "moral of the story" embedded in it. For that matter, why do they always need to be intended for children. Shrek 1 didn't really try to do all this teaching and I guess that is why it was so lovable.

Shootout looked pretty cool. Despite huge violence, Tushaar Kapoor and a so-so Vivek Oberoi (who seemed to have been promoted to Ajay Devgan's role after Company :-D), it has an impact on the audience. One of the good things about the movie is that it doesn't passes any judgements on anyone, just shows plain facts (or true rumors as they say :-D)

Pirates 3 - good but a pretty complex story. And the fact that I didn't remember most of the story of earlier editions added to my misery. Heck, I didn't even remember that Jack Sparrow was killed in the last movie. I think my kind of people should first consult Wikipedia before going for such a movie ;-)

The Himesh law of Inevitability

If you switch on FM radio and keep the same channel up for sufficiently long time, the probability of you receiving some high pitch nasal treatment (as opposed to laser treatment) closes to 1.

A century of posting

The last post was my 100th post. That coming in 3 years of blogging with an average of 2-3 posts a month isn't too much of a record to be proud of.

However, blogging has been a great experience and I am happy that I got inspired, started and went on.

There have been certain good posts, and if I choose a few, Fanaah, Being Vulnerable and more recently, Problem with Emotions have been close to my heart.

I am satisfied for being consistently able to write, no matter how small the frequency might be.
And I hope to continue to do so in future.

Pursuit to Happiness

Watched this movie sometime back. The first thought that came to my mind while watching it was "Oh my god, and I thought I was the only guy out of luck".

I often hear and even say this statement - Why does this always happen to me?
What we forget all the time is that everyone get into trouble. Infact, everyone gets into their own unique bit of trouble. A guy getting his dental dentures treatment dicovers that he has a cyst in his lower jaw that needs to be operated while another guy gets harassed by cell phone company for non-payment of a bill that doesn't belong to him. Or one guy is the only earning guy in a 6 member family while other gets trouble getting his parents accept the girl he wants to marry.

What did they all do to deserve this?

We all have our share of problems. Cribbing about them may not help solving them. Neither would comparing your fate with others. Pursue your dreams. Take steps to resolve your problems. Or watch this movie if you need some motivation.

The problem with Emotions

Lets start this with a small mental exercise.

There is this place where there are 2 parallel railway tracks. One track is old and isn't used anymore while another one is live and in use. There are 10 children playing on the live track. At the same time, a single child is playing all alone on the dead track. At this moment, a train is approaching on the live track putting the lives on the children on the live track in grave danger. Far from this place, you see this happening on your monitoring screen. The only control you have is the ability to switch the track temporarily so that the train goes on the dead track instead of the live one. Which would mean putting life of that single child into danger.
What will you do? Make up your mind before reading any further.

A majority of us would switch the tracks to save those 10 children at the expense of that single child. It seems right from the humanitarian perspective, saving as many lives as you can. If you did the same, read on to see this from a different perspective.

Why was that single child playing all alone on the dead track. Probably because he knew that the live track is dangerous. Who was doing the right thing by playing on the safe track? The single child. Who did the wrong thing? The 10 children by putting their own lives in danger by playing on the live track. And in your judgement, who gets punished? The one who was doing the right thing.
Second point - the 10 boys knew that they are on the dangerous track so they might flee on hearing the train noise etc. However, the single child, knowing that he is on the safe track will almost certainly not move and hence is in a much bigger risk.

So what is the moral of your judgement - Follow the crowd, Don't use your own brains to understand what is right.

Sadly, similar is the state of affairs in India. Decisions are not taken on what is right or what is better for development. Instead, its based on what would make maximum people happy. And while it is most fruitful if the general happiness of the people aligns with development of country , it is not always possible to do that, particularly in a country this huge.
Short term efforts are made just before the elections to make general people happy and gather the votes, while long term planning with no immediate benefits are left out.

In democracy, heads are counted, not brains.

Rang de Basanti

This one is I-Day Special. It all started quite some time ago when I read this post by greatbong. Do read it first to be in coherence. Since I read this post, I have had some thoughts and I even discussed some of it with few friends. I think its time to put my point of view.

What connects “shooting politicians” with “rubbing against Mallika” is that they are both fantasies. While many a director have realized that the way to make a quick buck is to pander to the second fantasy, there have been comparitively few that have realized the potential of playing up to the first.

I agree. I never thought in these terms before, but yes, movies are about selling emotions and fantasies. And contrary to whatever the elderly has to say about aajkal ke bacche, I believe that patriotism is as strong an emotion as ... say ... love. And solving all problems of India would be a fantasy to a lot of us. No wonder when you see something similar on screen, you are bound to get emotional. So where's the fault in that?

Now for the other part. I ask - What is inspiration? Inspiration is an idea that you see which you never saw before. Its something that makes you start thinking in this new direction. Is there anything I can do to make mine and other lives easier? Its a switch from cribbing about problems to thinking about a solution.

I agree that the movie doesn't provide a solution. It can never, as there is no single problem. There are hundreds of problems, starting from an auto rickshaw driver asking for too much money to bomb blasts in Mumbai. But is there anything I can do about it. Maybe I can't. But atleast I'll think over it.

If a common man watches Rang de Basanti and comes out saying that he'll go and kill all the politicians, I don't think he has been inspired at all. Its just an hysteria that in all probability will die down in a few days. Inspiration would be if he finds out that he might have able to get the road of his colony repaired by filing a Right to Information Application.

When blogspot was blocked in India, I myself consulted a lawyer if there was anything I could do about it. I finally didn't do anything as the ban was lifted in a few days. Even if the ban had not been lifted, I might well have not done anything due to "high lawyer fees, too much trouble, external pressures or whatever excuse". But atleast I took the first step. I became Aware.

Are you aware of your rights? When you crib about a problem, did u ever think if anything can be done? It might well be that there is nothing you can do today, but down the line, there might be a time when you CAN do something, and don't hesitate when that time comes. Be Aware, Be Active. No need to remember how many people died in Jaliawala Bagh, no need to know who Bhagat Singh was, just open your eyes, see around and think if there is anything you can do make your own life easier.

And while the security checks this independence day doesn't make me feel that independent (I know I am cribbing but I know there is nothing I can do about it), I wish you all Happy Independence Day :-)

Coincidences

You are on road on a bike with someone. Suddenly you recognize a person crossing the road. Coincidence. Then you realize, hey this guy was supposed to be in Bangalore, how is he in Noida ?? Bigger Coincidence.
Now you meet him, he tells you that he just came in the morning and will be leaving late evening for his place. So just 24 hrs in Noida, no prior information and me and Nagar met Rajneesh on the roads of Noida. Now what are the odds of that.
Bonus, we met (to be) Bhabhi too :-).

Back to the unblocked state

So this hasn't been as bad as earlier. Around 2.5-3 years ago, Indian govt. had asked the ISPs to block a certain yahoo group, and the ISPs ended up blocking the whole yahoo groups website itself (deja vu anyone). That block lasted for more than a month. Thankfully this time around, its been only a few days.
While most people do not even remember the above mentioned event, it was good to see that this time around, people used legal ways (one guy asked for clarification under RTI act, another one filed a PIL) to counter this irresponsible step.
Also check out this satirical post by greatbong.

At the same time, another point that one of my friends raises is the indirect effects of terrorism. How many times has it happened that you go to a mall/theatre and get annoyed by the extra security checks. Or talking a walk late at night and constables start questioning you about your intentions. Or this particular case, when thousands of blogs got blocked in India. Several of those blogs would have been revenue sources for their owners. Lots of those blogs had technical articles that help me in my work. This shows how blasts in mumbai can effect work of a software engineer in delhi or revenues of an american guy in California.
I am yet to see terrorism providing any tangible benefits to anyone.

This blog is blocked !!

So here's the story ... Yesterday, I completed 1 year in my current company. I thought about writing a post, but somehow this blog wouldn't open. Then I tried opening gullu's blog but that wouldn't open either. Neither would Anurag's.

Looked like blogger has been down for maintenance. I checked out Blogger Status, but that doesn't show any planned outages/network down for maintenance. Day ends, I come back home, try opening my blog again but it still doesn't open. How big can be an outage?

Today I get to read about this on newspaper (It rarely happens that I get to know technical news via newspapers). But what!!! blogspot is banned in India. What the !@#$%^&. How could this be true???

So India is now in the proud league of Pakistan and Iran. Check out Pkblogs It asks on top

Is your blog blocked in India, Pakistan, Iran or China?

Yes it is. Well, is there a lawyer out there who can tell me how to sue the govt. for its irresponsible actions?

For the time-being, access this blog via this link(I know it's a catch 22 situation, but there is nothing much I can do). I would soon write a complete post on how to circumvent all such situations.