This has been an interesting weekend... on many fronts..
One realizes ones own idiosyncrasies and how common one really is. Its bizarre that while being fully aware that this is a planet brimming with over 6 billion human souls, one keeps imagining oneself "different" and "special" in one way or another. Most of the time this self glorification and self delusion is at an unconscious level.
As engineers we study design patterns, the whole idea of which is the realization that what you are thinking now is nothing new, many others have most probably already thought of it, the problems that you are facing are nothing magical, and extraordinary,...they have and are happening to millions of others. So you ought not to try reinventing the wheel...
The point is there is nothing special about you... You are so totally ordinary that its not even worth explaining it to you,, or me..or anyone... But we wont believe it,,..we need,,, to not believe it, its a kind of denial system, hard wired in our very core.
Okay now Ive totally strayed, what I was going to write, was about why we write,... and apparently Ive landed on a very different planet... hmm... and it doesn't even have green furry pointy eared folks,, its rather plain ,,sooo barren and totally common...
I'll blast off ,,but first lets first post my flag on this so common place, a symbol of my glory. A tribute to my ignorance.
I've invited a few friends over for dinner and cant feed them on blogs... I am thinking chapli kabab,, perhaps with enough chilli to to keep them from a second serving :) But that is a funny name,, chapli kabab, it means "shoe kabab" haa!! I bet therez a bit of history behind that !!!
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Saturday, February 24, 2007
upgrade
Second and third languages can be very amusing, when you use them in a text book style..
Yesterday I was having a conversation with a co-worker, and she couldnt find a word for something she wanted to say,,,and kept saying...."when my parents were upgrading me..." I thought what !!? and she got that from my look and said.."ahh.. u know when you are young and your parents are.....upgrading you..."
"haun...???" and then it hit me....
"oh.....!!! " ,, you mean when they were "bringing you up" !!??
"yeeeesss ! thats what I mean " she replied...
that was sooo ummm funny...!!! upgrading your child !!!
Oh the perils of working in technology area... Your normal lingo and thoughts even get geeky.... That is if there is anything normal left in you to start with...
Come to think of it, thats what parents do, everytime they teach a child something, they upgrade him. Its like when they potty train you, they upgrade you from pampers to potty... When you are taught to tie your shoes you are upgraded..and so on... till a time when you get in an auto-upgrade mode,...you upgrade yourself on your own....Well most of the time that is,,..
The term does make sense I guess....
Yesterday I was having a conversation with a co-worker, and she couldnt find a word for something she wanted to say,,,and kept saying...."when my parents were upgrading me..." I thought what !!? and she got that from my look and said.."ahh.. u know when you are young and your parents are.....upgrading you..."
"haun...???" and then it hit me....
"oh.....!!! " ,, you mean when they were "bringing you up" !!??
"yeeeesss ! thats what I mean " she replied...
that was sooo ummm funny...!!! upgrading your child !!!
Oh the perils of working in technology area... Your normal lingo and thoughts even get geeky.... That is if there is anything normal left in you to start with...
Come to think of it, thats what parents do, everytime they teach a child something, they upgrade him. Its like when they potty train you, they upgrade you from pampers to potty... When you are taught to tie your shoes you are upgraded..and so on... till a time when you get in an auto-upgrade mode,...you upgrade yourself on your own....Well most of the time that is,,..
The term does make sense I guess....
Thursday, February 22, 2007
na hota main to kia hota...
There is a famous verse by 18th century Urdu poet, Ghalib (1796-1869),
Na tha kuch, to khuda tha, na hota kuch to khuda hota
Daboya mujh ko honay nay na hota main to kia hota?
When there was nothing there was God, if there were nothing there would be God,
My being has sunk me, if I were not what would be.
This translation is rough and breaks up the tense..,,but you cant get the whole essence of a verse in one language translated into another...
The second line is constantly ringing in my head since this morning,, I dont know what triggered it, why did it pop up frm my archives deep in my grey matter... I cant get over it,,what beauty this is,,such depth in such simple words....
But what does it really mean ? if I were not , what would be !??? Dont get it wrong it doesnt mean everything is God....Thats too simple a thought. ,,it means something deeper,, I dont know what it is,,but it is making me drunk....
This is like a rainbow of ifs,, only every one of the 7 colors keeps breaking into 70 more....
na hota main to kia hota....
Why did "I" have to be,,, its ones sense of being that drives one away from everything that could be or can be....
na hota main to kia hota....
oh how I wish "I" was not...!!! then "I" would have no desires for "myself" I would have no needs for "myself" I would not live to be...... oh how I wish I was not.....
na hota main to kia hota...
How I wish I become not,,,,if I were not, none would matter...except what Is
na hota main to kia hota....
If I were not, I wont have drifted so far away....
na hota main to kia hota..
If I could like a whirling dervwish, whirl in negation and acceptance, and with every whirl trasnscend a circle of my self, till I am free of place,time and finally my being.
na hota main to kia hota...
Daboya mujh ko honay nay
na hota main to kia hota..
na hota main to kia hota..
Na tha kuch, to khuda tha, na hota kuch to khuda hota
Daboya mujh ko honay nay na hota main to kia hota?
When there was nothing there was God, if there were nothing there would be God,
My being has sunk me, if I were not what would be.
This translation is rough and breaks up the tense..,,but you cant get the whole essence of a verse in one language translated into another...
The second line is constantly ringing in my head since this morning,, I dont know what triggered it, why did it pop up frm my archives deep in my grey matter... I cant get over it,,what beauty this is,,such depth in such simple words....
But what does it really mean ? if I were not , what would be !??? Dont get it wrong it doesnt mean everything is God....Thats too simple a thought. ,,it means something deeper,, I dont know what it is,,but it is making me drunk....
This is like a rainbow of ifs,, only every one of the 7 colors keeps breaking into 70 more....
na hota main to kia hota....
Why did "I" have to be,,, its ones sense of being that drives one away from everything that could be or can be....
na hota main to kia hota....
oh how I wish "I" was not...!!! then "I" would have no desires for "myself" I would have no needs for "myself" I would not live to be...... oh how I wish I was not.....
na hota main to kia hota...
How I wish I become not,,,,if I were not, none would matter...except what Is
na hota main to kia hota....
If I were not, I wont have drifted so far away....
na hota main to kia hota..
If I could like a whirling dervwish, whirl in negation and acceptance, and with every whirl trasnscend a circle of my self, till I am free of place,time and finally my being.
na hota main to kia hota...
Daboya mujh ko honay nay
na hota main to kia hota..
na hota main to kia hota..
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
The lost cause..
Some people just dont get it,, ...they just DONT get it... Its like you hit them in the face with the whole kitchen sink, and they still wont know wheres the sink...
You talk to them about potatoes and they tell you the height of mount everest.. !! No matter what you say seems to go in a black black reeaaaly black hole and wooooosh disappear for ever , as if it was never there... And then out comes a brilliantly irrelevant piece of nothing that has nothing to do with nothing at all..!!!
Its more mind boggling than the dark matter, worse than string theory for n raised to a gazillion dimensions, and all of them in the totally wrong time and absolutely wrong place.
Its like the improbability drive in the Douglas Adams "The Answer to Life Universe and Everything" .. You can caluclate the improbability of what they say having any sense or relevance in the time and space that they say it..And it will still be wrong...
People like that,, make even the hardest of atheist ,,,submit that there must be a Creator....
I have had a very recent such cyber encounter and my jaws are still a mile apart.. I am in a.....in a.....in a....what dear Bush from the wild wild west says,, "in shock and awe"
You talk to them about potatoes and they tell you the height of mount everest.. !! No matter what you say seems to go in a black black reeaaaly black hole and wooooosh disappear for ever , as if it was never there... And then out comes a brilliantly irrelevant piece of nothing that has nothing to do with nothing at all..!!!
Its more mind boggling than the dark matter, worse than string theory for n raised to a gazillion dimensions, and all of them in the totally wrong time and absolutely wrong place.
Its like the improbability drive in the Douglas Adams "The Answer to Life Universe and Everything" .. You can caluclate the improbability of what they say having any sense or relevance in the time and space that they say it..And it will still be wrong...
People like that,, make even the hardest of atheist ,,,submit that there must be a Creator....
I have had a very recent such cyber encounter and my jaws are still a mile apart.. I am in a.....in a.....in a....what dear Bush from the wild wild west says,, "in shock and awe"
Monday, February 19, 2007
A tail of two cities..
Yes, a tail, thats what I said,....
A tail u know that multi-purpose often hairy thing so far found only around the backend of the most intelligent of creatures on earth.. Yes thats the one, and yes you dont have it, if you did , you would be smart enough not to be wasting your time reading this bullshit..
This really isnt the "tale of two cities" definitly not, specially since it hasnt got anything to do with France other than the fact this tail swings by it on way to one of its two cities..Other than that noap nothing in common, no revolutions, no gallows none of that..
Anyway this particular piece is about a tail that lies between two cities. Unfortunately since the distance between the two cities is rather huge, the tail ends up spending most of its time swinging from one city to the other and not that much time actually being in either of the two cities.
But then again thats its job...Thats what tails do..they swing between..ummm..places :-) A tail can never be at rest. It needs to keep moving, the faster the better, and herein lies the problem. Whenever it reaches one city, it has to start preparing its bags for the trip back to the other city. Its an endless journey that goes on and on...
It is stuck by the curse of newtons law of tails, which states " A tail in motion will remain in motion unless and untill acted upon by an unbalanced external force."
And this tail seriously needs a VERY unbalanced external force....
A tail u know that multi-purpose often hairy thing so far found only around the backend of the most intelligent of creatures on earth.. Yes thats the one, and yes you dont have it, if you did , you would be smart enough not to be wasting your time reading this bullshit..
This really isnt the "tale of two cities" definitly not, specially since it hasnt got anything to do with France other than the fact this tail swings by it on way to one of its two cities..Other than that noap nothing in common, no revolutions, no gallows none of that..
Anyway this particular piece is about a tail that lies between two cities. Unfortunately since the distance between the two cities is rather huge, the tail ends up spending most of its time swinging from one city to the other and not that much time actually being in either of the two cities.
But then again thats its job...Thats what tails do..they swing between..ummm..places :-) A tail can never be at rest. It needs to keep moving, the faster the better, and herein lies the problem. Whenever it reaches one city, it has to start preparing its bags for the trip back to the other city. Its an endless journey that goes on and on...
It is stuck by the curse of newtons law of tails, which states " A tail in motion will remain in motion unless and untill acted upon by an unbalanced external force."
And this tail seriously needs a VERY unbalanced external force....
Monday, February 05, 2007
how self deceptive..
A dear BBC reporter,(..no wait he is not just a plain reporter , he is actually the head of BBC TV news !!!) in his official blog,,or I dont know what you call that, for a person who is actually making the news.. How does a reporter, a media man, the guy sitting on the news make his blog look like non-official ?? Anyway thats besides the point..
The point is , this guy a Peter Horrocks in his blog http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2007/02/not_taking_sides.html
so confidently claims that BBC doesnt take sides,,,oh come on !! I mean COME ON....!!! how dumb u think we really r !!?? That is self delusion on a mamoth scale... its like an elephant imagining he is peacock..
ok, I would give it to them BBC is less partisian than their counterparts across the atlantic ,the CNN the NBC and the rest of the yanky cousins..but then again, BBC is beaming out from europe, thats more diverse in its opinion than the now unfortunately,, sooo sooo pinholed american perspective on everything....
The point is , this guy a Peter Horrocks in his blog http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2007/02/not_taking_sides.html
so confidently claims that BBC doesnt take sides,,,oh come on !! I mean COME ON....!!! how dumb u think we really r !!?? That is self delusion on a mamoth scale... its like an elephant imagining he is peacock..
ok, I would give it to them BBC is less partisian than their counterparts across the atlantic ,the CNN the NBC and the rest of the yanky cousins..but then again, BBC is beaming out from europe, thats more diverse in its opinion than the now unfortunately,, sooo sooo pinholed american perspective on everything....
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