A bus ride to Dehradun

I had to go to Dehradun again this Sunday. We took the afternoon bus at 3pm and were scheduled to reach around 9:30pm. I intended to fully utilise this time; which I had at my disposal; by having a good nap which was long needed. As soon as the bus started, I was fast asleep. There was some stopage at around 4 and I was disturbed from my deep slumber and for some reason I couldn't go back to sleep.

So with nothing to do except gaze at the distant fields, my mind began running all over the place. There have been times where I just couldnt find topics to write on this blog and I have written blog entries just on the fact that I am not able to get ideas. Talk about being lame.

But today was just opposite of those days. With so many ideas running up and down in my mind, this was the first time when I felt the need for a laptop or a palm device so that I could jot down my musings.

It was suprising how short periods of inactivity or some time off from your usual daily routine can activate areas of your brain which normally wont respond.

Maybe there are some yoga or meditation based techniques which can help me tap into the vast reserves of the brain.

One in Six billion

I always say a PJ (Poor Joke) about how unique I am, so I say that I am 1 in six billion. This basically a version of the One in a Million phrase, where you say that, this person is a such a gem, he is a One in a Million kind of a person.

The problem with that is that even if you are a One in a Million kind of a person, there still would be 6000 people (Six billion being the world population count) exactly like you which makes you think that your are not so unique.

So I started saying that I am One in six billion. And as I said before, it is a PJ thats Poor Joke for the uninitiated.

Throughout my growing years I have had classmates, friends and collegues who have shared complete names, Amit being a pretty common name among Indians especially since Mr. Amitabh Bachchan was quite popular in the decade when I was born. Surnames like Jain, Gupta, Sharma etc were also quite popular. So any combination of these would have lots of people named. My surname George, is also quite popular however the Christian community being in minority and also christian names being the preffered choice among us made Amit George quite unique as a name.

I did this name search on the internet on my name a couple of years ago but couldnt find anybody else holding this name.

Then I came across this link. The person who is listed there at the time of this posting isn't me.

This will be a space which I will watch out for. And I hope there will be more Mr. Amit George out there.

PEOPLE OF COLOR

I came across this poem which if you know the context of the racial situation in America makes a lot of sense,

My best friend said that he
Was now a "person of color,"
Whereas I was simply "white."
He used to call himself "black,"
Which to me was perfectly all right.
But my art teacher pointed out to us
That black is the absence of color.
Which shouldn't really get him down,
Since he really isn't black, but rather
A beautiful shade of brown.
Which is a color.
As are those with yellow, red or golden skin.
Whereas white, (my color),
Has all the other colors within.
Which I suppose through and through
Makes me colored too!
So it appears my best friend was simply in error,
We all seem to be "persons of color."

Perils of Positive thinking

I was reading through the new entries in some of my favorite BLOGs and I came across this post:
     http://hodu.com/perils.shtml

A couple of snippets :
A young accountant approached her retired mentor one day and asked very expectantly how she managed such a successful career.

This answer was surprisingly brief: "Good decisions". In anticipation she launched the next question: "But how can I learn to make good decisions?" The wise mentor paused for a moment and replied: "Through experience!"

Again the eager accountant asked: "But how do I gain experience?" Her mentor smiled understandingly: "Through bad decisions!"

And

The second scenario involves the friend or colleague that is a single-minded positive thinker.

The more that you try to verbalize the problem in order to feel better, the more you get interrupted with "positive solutions". The more you crave empathy, the more they inject you with the importance of positive thinking. It leaves you feeling even more dejected and riddled with guilt about your inability to think positively during this trying time.


I have been guilty of this second situation when although my intentions have been sincere, but now in retrospective, it seems that some situations demand understanding and compassion rather than solutions to the problem.

Why GOD Gave Us Friends

GOD knew that everyone needs
Companionship and cheer,
He knew that people need someone
Whose thoughts are always near.

He knew they need someone kind
To lend a helping hand.
Someone to gladly take the time
To care and understand.

GOD knew that we all need someone
To share each happy day,
To be a source of courage
When troubles come our way.

Someone to be true to us,
Whether near or far apart.
Someone whose love we'll always
Hold and treasure in our hearts.

That's Why GOD Gave Us Friends!

Happy Friendship Day !!!

Working on other’s code

No matter how good your code is, how well commented it is, how normalized, how well structured it is. Almost always when a new person comes across your code he will curse the programmer who wrote it and reserve the choicest of unmentionable verbs.

I generally have been able to just look at codes and pretty easily decipher them and haven’t had much of problems in this area. And I attached a lot of pride to this.

Now I have begun to face this problem.

So generally you will find tones of people posting about how this programmer’s code sucks and how it should be done instead and so on.

But I find here that I have not been able to fully understand the process or maybe I am just too much in awe of the entire thing. At times my mind just seems to stop working and there are times when I feel that there is no further option or approach which I could use in the particular issue.

This is not a very good situation for me to be in. But I guess I should give myself more time to settle myself in. I have been on the project for less than 3 weeks now and am making so-so progress.

Just thinking aloud

So funny, I had to link up LOL

http://whyihatemyhusband.com/blog/

Sample this :

It's Tuesday and John has a toothache.

Whaa whaa, f***ing whaa.

Yeah, I know, harsh but I find it hard to have sympathy for his plight when floss hasn't touched his gums in over two decades.

Simply hilarious !!!