Tujhe sab hai pata hai na Maa

I have recently developed a liking for this song. Makes me think how internally we are all fallible. No matter how many coats of toughness do we wear, at some point we are all vulnerable, desiring emotional support from our nears and dears.

मैं कभी बतलाता नही, पर अंधेरे से डरता हूँ मैं माँ,
यूं तो मैं दिखलाता नही, तेरी परवाह करता हूँ मैं माँ
तुझे सब है पता है ना माँ
तुझे सब है पता मेरी माँ

Also, makes me wonder why I need to tell our nears and dears on how I feel about them. Why can't they just see how important are they in my life.
तुझे सब है पता है ना माँ.

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?

Losing Friends again

I don't understand. Is my life designed like that?
Why does it happen that all my friends suddenly go away from me. I understand that this fast pace life is cursed for friendship. But why does it never happens that one of my friend goes away. It is always almost everyone around.

I have always been a great fan of God's sense of humor. Now I see that he is pretty good at optimization as well. PreparedStatement.executeBatch() performs better than PreparedStatement.execute() :-D

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.