Questions omnibus

I have certain questions nagging me, like an itch in the back at a place where our hands can’t reach. I better spill them out here in the open, so that by happenstance anybody who stumbles upon this blog( probability < 0.0009), might know the answers and would kindly post the replies in the comments.

Why did Kathy Sierra of the Creating Passionate Users stop blogging ? I know she was terrified of the whole “killer” comments incident. But come on, this is internet, and Internet according to my personal definition is 70% noise and 30% sensible signal. Why shut yourself up behind close doors, Kathy ?

Does anyone actually read my blog( except me ) ? I’m sure someone does, not that I am a great writer. I’m sure it’s my fault too, I don’t post regularly, my posts are random and don’t have a unifying theme; which brings me to my next question ?

What should be the unifying theme of my blog ? Should it be technical? Humor? Personal? or all of them ? Right now it’s sort of mish mash of all of these. Going forward, I promise to blog on a unifying theme which will, hopefully, improve my readership.

So, there it goes, folks. If you’re reading this and you know me, what’s your take on my questions ?

Facebook Rocks

After orkutting for over a year now, I’m hooked to Facebook. It is way cooler than Orkut can ever be. Infact after having merged the wordpress app with Facebook platform, I’m writing this post directly from Facebook site. Ain’t that hep?
My handle on Facebook is : Anup Jadhav. Do add me as your friend or send me a fish, perhaps?

Anyways, I just wrote this quick post to see if my Facebook – wordpress app works fine or not. Will write a sensible post next time.

The Magic Pill

Gym: A place where the probability of the wallet losing weight is more than the wallet holder. Today, I quit my gym. I’m declaring this unabashedly because I’ve realised that I can’t fool myself with the harsh realities of busy life. I simply  cannot find time for the gym. I’ve tried every trick in the GTD book to snatch some time out of my rampant schedule for the gym. But, in between the day job, evening open source projects, socializing and reading sci-fi books, I couldn’t manage to squeeze in time for the fitness drill. Even the weekends turned out to be engaging for most part, with all the work overflowing from the weekdays bowl into the weekends. In these dark times, trying to gym was like balancing a pebble on the spoon held in my mouth, while running a marathon race.

Suddenly, I feel less guilty about the whole “can’t go to the gym” excuse. At least now, my wallet isn’t the only one losing weight. This makes me wonder why did I join the gym in the first place. I’ve realized that there are 2 kinds of people when it comes to eating food. First kind, who never gain a pound, no matter how much they eat. They can hog and hog and hog and not worry about the weighing machine dominating their nightmarish dreams. Then there are the second kinds, who have to just look at the pastry shop and their body fat expands exponentially. Unfortunately, I fall in the second category. So, quitting the gym isn’t the wisest decision I’ve made. But then, there is no point being a member of an elite gym when you’re never going to pay a visit.

This makes me wonder if there is a “Wonder drug”, a slimming pill which’ll take care of all the extra body fat. All you have to do is take a pill in the morning, then you can eat all you’ve wished for, throughout the day without worrying sick about how many calories you’re accumulating. The pill will somehow burn all the extra calories and magically keep you fit and slim, irrespective of your food intake. Now, that would be *invention of the millenium*, I reckon.

Confused and Intrigued

Confused, bewildered and intrigued – these were my emotional reactions after watching David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive. I didn’t know what the fuss was, when my friend recommended this movie to me. He said that this is one heck of a arcane, complex movie. I’m a self-proclaimed movie buff and I’ve watched a gazillion cryptic films to be daunted by a daring claim such as: Mulholland Drive will definitely frustrate you at first and then it’ll make you think, really think.

The movie did frustrate me, alright. But most importantly it drove me to ponder over all the dangling threads of the sub-plots within the main plot. I realized that, even the main plot is not what it seems, it’s interpretation is layered, and to get to the crux of the plot each layer has to be peeled carefully and thoughtfully. After watching the movie, I googled the term “review of Mulholland drive” and found this beautiful analysis of this brilliant movie by Allen B. Ruch of TheModernWord. Allen has done a thorough job of de constructing the movie’s fine details.

The undesirable consequence of it’s complex story is, that you can’t discuss the movie or it’s labyrinthine plot with anybody who hasn’t watched the movie yet. So, I won’t spoil the surprise for you if you haven’t seen the movie, by revealing any details. But, I’d strongly commend you to buy/rent a DVD of this enigmatic movie, watch it and then analyse the movie by reading the review mentioned above. Trust me, if you consider yourself a serious movie fan, then you’ll love this movie.

My First snowFALL Experience

I woke up to a very chilly morning, today. I was freezing, so I checked my cranky room heater to see if it was working properly. It was. A weird scraping noise, similar to the noise generated when you rub paper on your head, fell on my ears. It seemed to come from outside the window covered by curtains. I moved the window curtain to examine the source of the noise. What I saw next will be etched in my memory forever. I glanced beyond my window to see snow flakes dropping from the sky with delighted harmony, accompanied by gusty, rebellious wind. The entire lane beneath my window and the cars parked nearby were covered with snow. The slanting roof tops, which otherwise do not elicit wonder, looked pristine with all the white colour smeared by millions of snow particles.I dashed through my daily morning activities, dressed up quickly, and stepped outside . I was bursting with excitement to experience my first ever snowfall. On any other day, my routine constitutes of stopping at Reeves for doughnuts, a quick halt at Starbucks to grab my usual dose of caffeine, and then a brisk walk to my office. Today, I was consciously walking slow, relishing the experience of strolling the streets and sidewalks covered with ice; watching the cars muscle their way through the snow; admiring the tiny little birds wrestling the frosty weather to fetch food for their young ones.

I looked around to see if anybody shared my joy, but everybody else looked grumpy and gloomy. They reminded me of the colony of ants who go berserk when someone splashes drops of water on them. Maybe the snow has disrupted their routine, maybe they don’t like the biting weather. I didn’t care. I was joyful in my heart and wanted to express it. I recalled Gene Kelly’s “Dancing in the rain” song, and I mulled over a question, “Why didn’t anybody write a “Dancing in the snow” song ? Hmm..well, I’ll do it. It’ll be history in the making. ” I got carried away by this thought and tried to move my legs to jump like a ballet dancer. Unfortunately, providence had other plans. My left leg slipped awkwardly on the icy surface,I lost my balance on the right leg and began my descent to my right. My reflex action prompted my hands to grab a light pole which was just within my hands reach. I saved myself from falling, but was still holding on to the pole for balance.

A spectator, standing 10 meters away from me, would now see a right angled triangle, wherein I was the hypotenuse, the pole was the perpendicular side and the slippery street was the base. I tried to regain my original balance, before I become the butt of everybody’s geometric humour. I guess, it was too late. I heard a stifled giggle to my left. I turned my head to find 2 school girls smiling at me.

One of them said, “Watch your step, mister, the roads are too slippery”. The tone had a mocking tinge to it.
I could only manage a mumbled, “I know !”.

I went red with embarrassment, though. Now, this claim isn’t entirely true. You see, I cannot possibly go red in the literal sense, considering the fact that my skin colour is wheatish brown. So, let me rephrase that, I went “red+brown” with embarrassment.

As I struggled to break the triangle created by me to save myself from further disgrace, I heard the other girl say to her friend, “Wanna bet…5 bucks, he will fall down !!”

I exclaimed ” Whaa….”, but before I could complete my exclamation, my hands slipped on the wet pole, and my feet went off balance. Needless to say, I fell grandly.Geometrically speaking, the hypotenuse was now parallel to the base.
The two girls bursted out laughing, as if they just saw Charlie Chaplin run with his pants on his head.
I now understood the wisdom of why nobody attempted a “Dancing in the snow” song.

Well, I picked myself up as gracefully as possible and ambled my way to Starbucks, which thankfully was just a few blocks away.

It was indeed my first snowFALL :-> !!!!

What they don’t teach you at Engineering College ? : Part I

image source: Chema Madoz

It’s been almost 3 years since I’ve completed engineering. I hold a graduate degree in Computer Science. To be frank, I didn’t learn half the things at college that I practice today in my professional life. As a matter of fact, I had to un-learn many skills that I picked up during my engineering course. Real life work is so much different, than the petty assignments that we laboured on, at graduate level. I have few things to share to ameliorate the college education and to prepare students for the real world.

No Bulleted Presentations :

Presentations during those care-free engineering days was something we ought do as part of our assignment. We used to create a presentation using powerpoint with lots of bullet points, loads of information on the slides, gaudy pics in the background to grab attention. The final outcome was one painful journey for the listeners, who, most of the times were bored to death by the presentation.
But, in real world, presentation is all about communicating your idea, your views to your audience. And take it from me, presentations are taken very seriously by professionals. The art of presentation involves understanding your target audience, preparing slides with great visuals(which must fit the context) with minimal text, large fonts and most importantly: no bullet points. At college, nobody taught us that when you give a presentation, what matters most is, what you say and how you say it. The slides are required to support your talk, and not to talk for you. So, don’t cram your slides with information that you’d otherwise dispense verbally.

One of the best examples of disciplined presentors is: Steve Jobs. He engages his audience till the end without ever losing tempo. He builds up to the conclusion so effectively that you end up buying his idea, no matter how wild it is. His slides are simple, elegent yet powerful in its message and content.

Correct presentation skills should be infused into students, so that they’re ready to present, when they come out of grad school.

( Requirements) Change is Constant:

Requirements specification document handed to a developer, at the beginning of a project is the biggest illusion ever. In my 3 years of software engineering practice, I’ve come to terms with one bitter truth : Requirements always change. This fact is conveniently hidden from students at college level, which I think is not fair. They study software engineering concepts with blissful ignorance of one fact that can have huge impact on how they should design their systems. They must be taught to design systems which can handle the vicissitudes of spec change. Training them with skills to deftly handles changes in the spec will enable them to deliver a product of very high quality.

Design Matters:

Look around you, the hottest selling product is also the most elegant, most gorgeous looking product. iPod, iMac, Merc, BMW, Ducati, Google apps etc. People are ready to shell out more money, if they think it’s worth it. Great design is the soul of all great products( s/w or otherwise). But, I’ve never seen a single chapter in my college course extolling the virtues of Design. This must change. Concepts of good design, and ideas about how to base one’s work centred around design excellence, should be hammerred into a students psyche. This will empower him to create killer-apps or products, which’ll change the world.

To be continued…..

Don’t wait for the muse

One of my friends was curious to know how could I write posts so frequently on my blog. My reply to him was that I just sit down and start typing and ideas start flowing. He shared with me that he’s interested in writing poetry, but doesn’t feel inspired enough. I know many people like him, who have potential to be writers, poets, painters but they just wait for some motivating phenomenon to bestir them. In other words, they wait for the muse.

But most artists, writers, poets( I know), on the contrary dive into their work instead of waiting for the muse. They believe that when you start working on your topic of interest, muse just glides into your mood. Then, it’s just a matter of completing the task with more enthusiasm and vigour. If you wait for the muse, more often you’d be squandering the precious time, you could’ve otherwise spent wisely. For e.g. another friend of mine loves drawing. I admire her work, she is really good with colors and brush. I enquired about her source of talent. Her response was ” I am not talented, you know. I like drawing, and I don’t think much when I decide to draw or paint something. I just clip my drawing paper on the board, pick up my pencil and start sketching; Shapes, form, structure and inspiration follow suit.” And, I could totally relate to her. I am not good at writing either, I just blurt out my random thoughts on the keypad and they become words; Words become sentences and sentences become a story before I realize it.

So, if you are ( or want to be) good at something, don’t wait for that special “muse” to inspire you, it won’t come to you. You have to go to it. How do you do it ? Just begin your work and the muse will follow.

Happy New Year

Just a quick post to wish all of you a very Happy New Year, before the new year becomes old. I’ve been lazy for the past couple of days and have procrastinated writing a post. But here’s looking fwd into 2007, a new beginning to everything you ever wanted to do.

2006 in Review :

2006 has been one helluva ride for me. I got engaged, travelled to UK, triped through Europe. But still, the high points of last year were the moments I’ve spent with those who are close to my heart: my best friends, my fiancé and my folks. I’ve also made some horrible mistakes last year; I would (probably)laugh at them later. Lost a good friend and found a lost friend. I think I’ve got the bestest friends ever.

Things I’ve learnt last year:

1. When your worst nightmare comes true, when you think you’ve lost everything, just hang on a li’l more, have faith, good things are in store.

2. I have learnt that to really learn something, first unlearn it.

3. If you have really messed up, talk to small children, they look at things in a very simple and unbiased way. You will find a way to get around your mess.

4. And finally, never stare at a couple kissing each other, even if they’re just 2cm away from you. They feel intruded and you may run the risk of getting hit by the guy .

Well, there you go, this is officially the corniest post I’ve ever written. All the best for the new year 2007, may you follow through all your last years resolutions this year(at least).

Ta, Anup

P.S: The above image is taken from Shinybinary.com( the sites got really cool images).

Unique..

Overheard while waiting for a train on Salisbury platform:

“The more I debate with atheists on existence/non-existence of God, the more my faith grows stronger. In my desperate attempt to disapprove their claims, I start giving examples of His existence, I never thought I knew.”

No More Aim-less !!!

 

Today’s blog is dedicated to a very special friend of mine. If you’re a regular visitor of this blog, you would have already seen her blog listed in my “Blogroll”, or probably, you must’ve even visited her blog. If you still haven’t guessed, iiiiiiiitttttttttt’s <<<drum rolls in the background please>>> Arch ( a.k.a Archu a.k.a India’s would be best director).

Flashback time: I met Arch during my engineering days in SAKEC; I can’t claim that I knew her then. We weren’t best friends, but we shared a common passion for english movies( though she was 1000 times more passionate than I was). During those blissful engineering days, my idea of Archana, was a nerd who thinks about studies and movies 24 by 7(Just for the record, she was good at sports too, she was also very much involved in cultural and tech fests in our college). I never really knew her on a personal level then. But, her obsession for movies was infectious, her whole face would brighten up whenever the discussion veered towards movies. Sometimes, it was a pain in the neck to watch a movie with Arch, she wouldn’t allow anybody to speak while she is watching the movie. She demanded pin-drop silence during the entire course of the movie. She would glare at us, even if we sneezed or breathed loudly. The rest of us actually had to learn sign language to discuss the movie( okay okay, I’m really exaggerating now…we didn’t do anything like that).Well, coming back to the point, which is : she has always dreamt of making movies. No, let me put it in a better way. She always always wanted to create world class Indian cinema which would win an Oscar. That’s all I knew about Arch during my graduation days.

Eventually, we graduated; and both of us( along with couple of other friends) got a job in one of the leading IT companies. I was transferred to Bangalore and through a strange series of events, even Arch landed up in B’lore. This is where we became close friends, rather best friends. And this is where I began understanding Arch on a personal level. I realized that she was much more than a geek, she is spontaneous, creative, caring and an amazing friend.

But, she was not happy with her job. She wasn’t enjoying it at all. Her interests lied elsewhere. She still aspired to be a movie-director. And she did try her best to get out of the IT rut. I still remember her attempt at MICA, and her disappointment when she didn’t make it. She didn’t lose hope though. She persevered. She started educating herself on Films, took movie-courses on the internet, bought a cam-corder, started shooting short films, sent her films to local film-festivals. Unfortunately, I never got a chance to see any of her short films(Lucky Me…..note to self: delete this bracketed line later otherwise Arch will kill me ). She even got a call from NYFI( or NYFA, I’m not sure but it’s located in Big Apple) but she couldn’t convert the call due to certain constraints.

Her efforts finally bore results today, she cracked an interview for a course in cinematography from MindFilm Screen Institute( an institute launched by ace cinematographer Rajiv Menon) in Chennai. She finally made a breakthrough and I am soooooo proud of her. She is on her way to fulfill her dream and I am sure she’ll be a kick-ass director.

Hey Arch, if you’re reading this, keep in mind that I am not a great writer. I can’t use words like “cacophony” and “anachronistic” in the same line. But, this post is for you, no matter how crude my writing skills are. Congratulations and Happy Birthday again!!!!

- Anup

P.S. The above pic is from Arch’s collection of Dandyman series.