Adventure, Risk and Optimism

I was in the office till 11.30 pm today. James Bond is probably the only person who can say this and still invoke thoughts about adventure in the listener's mind . Alas, I am not a secret agent, but just a software developer. I know you want to leave already after knowing this, but stick around I don't write that bad.
The word adventure conjures some typical images in our mind. Usually those of adventure sports like rock climbing,skiing,sky diving or car racing. But what exactly is the essence of adventure? It is risk. Anything that involves a risk is an adventure. Why do we like to do adventurous things? To quote the cliche, it makes us feel alive. What does that even mean? Being alive is something we do 24X7. That is biologically true, but we are not really alive all the time. Being alive means being aware of everything around you. Experiencing something, means same as observing each and every detail around you in everything you do. When placed in a high risk environment our brain is always alert and therefore totally aware of what is going on. In such an environment our survival instincts kick in and we feel motivated and absorbed in whatever we are doing. Concentration is at peak. This leads to some hormonal activity causing an adrenalin rush. At the end of the experience if things go as we wanted we feel proud about having survived the situation. So adventure increases our self esteem.
The essence of any adventure is uncertainty or risk. At the start of an adventure we feel overwhelmed by the circumstances. Then we just give this thing all we have, and once we come out on top we feel good about ourselves. Adventure might be the reason why children are so happy. For them everything is new, they are learning all the time. Therefore each small victory gives them immense joy.
Now that we understand adventure we can realize that it does not necessarily have to be outdoors. For a PhD student, his research is an adventure since he devotes all his energy and many years (usually 4 to 7) into it hoping that he will get results leading to a thesis leading to a degree. He puts many years of his life into something hoping for a positive outcome. Similarly an entrepreneur is an adventurer too. He devotes a lot of money and energy into a business that he believes in. He is not sure of success but he tries real hard. Success does not come easy and quick but when it comes you feel that it was worth it. For someone driving in a big city like Delhi for the first time is also an adventure since that is literally a fatal risk. After a while we all get used to it. Let me tell you from my own experience, I have done skydiving twice. And when I did it for the second time I was only doing it for the view and not for the thrill. It is not as dangerous as it looks. This is because you don't do it alone as a beginner, your instructor is strapped to your back and opens the parachute when the time comes. So when I completed my first skydive I did not feel a sense of accomplishment or relief. But once when I made a round trip on my scooter from my house in NOIDA to college in Bawana which are more than 40km apart, it was an adventure. There were moments during the journey where I thought I would die. This is because I was not accustomed to driving the scooter that much but still made that long journey. After that time I never drove such long distance on a scooter again! The point to take home here is that adventure is there in all situations of life and not just in things that are stereotypically labelled as adventurous. Life is an adventure, skydiving and roller coster rides are just entertainment.
One more critical thing about adventure is that it requires a positive attitude. People who take risks have a naturally optimistic view of things. During any phase of adventure deep down in our minds we do harbor a positive attitude despite the possibilities of failure we see around us. Positive attitude is a very important quality in life. It is the same as faith. The reason people believe in the concept of God as an all controlling entity is because that convinces them that everything will be all right in the end and gives them strength to get on with life. You should have a positive attitude in life not because you believe there is a god but because you need to believe in yourself to succeed. If you don't believe that you will succeed in what you are doing then you will not try hard enough and eventually fail. Things worth having in life do not come easy. Failure should be a learning experience, it has to be taken as an opportunity to become aware of the flaws you committed. It should also be a time to study why the person who succeeded was able to make it. The way you can maintain a positive attitude in the face of failure is by telling yourself the things you learnt from it and realizing that you have become a better person since you will not repeat those mistakes again and can work on the areas that need improvement. If you don't want to do something then just dont do it, rather than doing it half heartedly since you will gain nothing out of the experience. But if you really want to do something then give it all you have, you will have a rich experience irrespective of the outcome of your venture. Even the Bhagwat Gita says the same thing about detachment from the outcome. Life is long enough to absorb failures doing things that you love to do but too short to waste it on things that do not inspire you. The worst 4 letter word in the world does have 'u' as the second letter. And that word is 'Quit', never quit. This poem by an anonymous author explains just why that is true.

Don't Quit

Author Unknown

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will, When the road you're trudging seems all uphill, When the funds are low and the debts are high, And you want to smile, but you have to sigh, When care is pressing you down a bit Rest if you must, but don't you quit. Life is queer with its twists and its turns, As everyone of us sometimes learns, And many a failure turns about When they might have won, had they stuck it out. Don't give up though the pace seems slow, You may succeed with another blow. Often the struggler has given up When he might have captured the victor's cup; And he learned too late when the night came down, How close he was to the golden crown. Success is failure turned inside out The silver tint of the clouds of doubt And you never can tell how close you are, It may be near when it seems so far; So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit, It's when things seem worst that you must not quit

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Also remember that the night is darkest before dawn. Which means that the toughest battle happens when you are closest to victory. So if things are getting harder then you are on the right track!

I think I am getting too serious, so let us relax listening to this really nice song. It is available on youtube. It is by Bobby McFerrin.


Here's a little song I wrote
You might want to sing it note for note
Don't worry, be happy.
In every life we have some trouble
But when you worry you make it double
Don't worry, be happy.
Don't worry, be happy now.

Don't worry, be happy. Don't worry, be happy.
Don't worry, be happy. Don't worry, be happy.

Ain't got no place to lay your head
Somebody came and took your bed
Don't worry, be happy.
The landlord say your rent is late
He may have to litigate
Don't worry, be happy.

Look at me -- I'm happy. Don't worry, be happy.
Here I give you my phone number. When you worry, call me,
I make you happy. Don't worry, be happy.

Ain't got no cash, ain't got no style
Ain't got no gal to make you smile
Don't worry, be happy.
'Cause when you worry your face will frown
And that will bring everybody down
Don't worry, be happy.

Don't worry, don't worry, don't do it.
Be happy. Put a smile on your face.
Don't bring everybody down.
Don't worry. It will soon pass, whatever it is.
Don't worry, be happy.
I'm not worried, I'm happy...

Religulous

I have often struggled to define my religious beliefs. I am a Hindu but Hinduism is not really a well defined religion. I have wondered if God does really exist. If he does then why is there suffering in the world. Why does God not destroy all evil? No religious person in this world will have a satisfactory answer to that irrespective of religious affiliation.
The truth is that religion is a man made institution. The major religions of this world were created by men who claimed to be special. And history is proof that they actually were. This does not mean religion is bad. Religion can help people lead a moral and happy life. Something that is being lost on our generation that believes only in one religion - Materialism. Semitic religions like Islam,Christianity and Judaism tell you about heaven and hell. Heaven being a utopia which you can attain by leading a moral mortal life. Hell being a terrible place reserved for those who have lived an immoral life. The veracity of the existence of heaven and hell cannot be verified since nobody is supposed to come back from these places. If anybody ever claimed to have been there and come back to earth, then his statement would negate the premise of the existence of these microcosms since they are supposed to be final destinations without any escape routes.
Indian religions like Hinduism and Buddhism however believe in reincarnation, where you are reborn again and again until you live a perfectly moral life and then you attain Nirvana, and I am not talking about Kurt Cobain's band. Nirvana is freedom from rebirth. Or in other words a ticket to a permanent seat in heaven. People of these faith believe that if you sin in your life then you will be reborn as an animal or under more unfortunate circumstances. But if you lead a moral life you will be born into a good family and have a happier life ahead. Therefore religion uses fear and greed to make people follow it's tenets. Of course there is no evidence of this philosophy too. Some people claim to remember their past lives but there is no solid evidence to support such claims.
Most people think of God as an all powerful being that is sitting in heaven and watching over them. That probably the only thing that the major religions of the world agree on. On all other issues they violently disagree. It is this very definition of God that becomes the foundation of atheism. The atheists argue that if there is such an all powerful god somewhere then why is there suffering in this world. Why can't God create a world in which everybody is happy? Why is there poverty,crime,corruption and terrorism in this world? Why does God not put an end to all this? People ask themselves all these questions and obviously there are no satisfactory answers to these questions, prompting more and more people to call themselves atheists or rationalists(a more elitist term).
People of any religion consider themselves to be superior to people belonging to another religion. Atheists consider themselves superior to people belonging to any religion. This is a basic human tendency to feel good about yourselves. People find satisfaction in comparing themselves to others they consider less accomplished that themselves. Happiness is basically feeling good about yourself. This feeling occurs when one feels that he has accomplished something. That accomplishment may be something meaningful like achieving a major professional goal like completing a project. Or may be a personal goal like wooing the partner of your dreams. Or sometimes it can be something as crass as the satisfaction that I am going to heaven. I am more moral than others and people not subscribing to my faith are inferior to me. Also, one of the most satisfying feelings is to help someone. Religious fanatics think that they are helping people by proselytizing them. And therefore obtain great satisfaction that makes them even more inclined towards being religious. Karl Marx hit the bull's eye when he said that religion is the opium of the masses. That is exactly what it is. Religion is an intoxicant like opium when followed without questioning. They both make you feel good. Plus religion comes free unlike opium. Therefore there are much more religion addicts in this world compared to drug addicts. Incidentally, all religions either prohibit or discourage intoxication by chemicals like alcohol or tobacco. While on this subject let us look at the followers of 2 major religions in India. Muslims are prohibited to drink alcohol but allowed to smoke all they want, Sikhs are prohibited from smoking but can drink without guilt. This is an example of what being religious has got us, it gives us a choice in which way to die, lung cancer of liver failure. Don't get me wrong, I love my Sikh and Muslim friends. All I am trying to say is that both these religions would have discouraged against intoxication of any kind, but man just interpreted them so that he could have some kind of intoxication while renouncing another kind for the sake of piety.
Religion is the personal relationship between man and God. Before going any further let us define what is God? Is he the master of the universe controlling everything that goes on in this world? No, most certainly not. Atheists always ask that if there is a God then why is the world not perfect. In a perfect world everyone would be happy. Everyone would be equal. This means that everyone would be as happy as everyone else. Therefore everyone would lead the same life. Everyone would react the same way as others. Thus, the ideal world for an atheist would be full of robotic, emotionless clones that maintain equanimity in all situations. This would be like if everybody was a robot. So if you are an atheist, is a world full of robot clones what you want? I think most atheists would disagree with that. Actually the Bhagwad Gita which is a sacred book for the Hindus does urge people to become equanimous and consistent in all situations. But then why does God not make us that way in the first place? If such a situation were to happen, we would all cease to be 'human' as we are right now. This just shows how human oriented the concept of religion is.
Religion is a man made institution. All religious texts are a reflection of the thinking of the men and women(if any) who wrote them. I honestly believe that the people who came up with these religions had good intentions to begin with, but somehow every religion got corrupted. Religion is a man's personal relation with God. We must first define what is God. God is the collection of your core beliefs about everything that you consider to be ideal. In other words, God is your conscience. This is a subset of the stereotypical definition of God as an all powerful being. This definition is accurate for the most part, except that God is just as powerful as you want to be. The power of god is just your own will power and hard work. If you follow your heart, your conscience, your values, then you will attain a blissful state which is heaven. But if you get influenced by greed and sensual pleasure then your life would be dedicated to having temporary bouts of sensual pleasure but would be miserable for the most part, and that is hell. Heaven and Hell are just subsets of your own life. So just lead a moral life and be happy.

Mouse Potato

Do you know what the title of this post means? If you are thinking that it is the name of an exotic dish then I must say you are quite an adventurous foodie. Interestingly, I recently read an article about consumption of rat meat in India - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7557107.stm
I became a vegetarian more than a year back but even when I used to eat meat I never ate mouse.The Mouse Potato I am discussing is a phrase similar in meaning to Couch Potato. If you don't know the meaning of either of these terms then congratulations, I believe u r leading a really good life. Or it could also be that u r just ignorant.
Couch potato is a person who spends a lot of time in front of the TV. Someone who can channel surf or watch shows and movies on TV for many hours. Believe me you don't want to be like that. Now a Mouse Potato is similar but he sits in front of the computer for hours.This term was inevitably coined when computers and internet became so pervasive. There are plenty of addictive things on the computer like video games,chatting and internet surfing in general.
Although I can proudly say that I was never really a couch potato or lets say not a big one, but I will definitely consider myself a mouse potato.
I sit in front of my computer for hours. Checking my email, Orkut, Facebook etc. Also watching movies,shows and news. Even chatting at times. Hell, this is much worse than TV. I do have basic cable with 22 channels and hardly watch it. But the first thing I do after waking up in the morning and silencing my alarm is turning on my laptop. Then I switch if off when I leave for work. But in my office I sit in front of the computer for 8 hours again. Then when I come back home I turn my laptop on again and switch it off before sleeping. So the computer has become an extension of my being. I hate the fact that I spend so much of my spare time in front of the computer and solemnly intend to change that.
While the internet saves us a lot of time since we can pay almost all our bills online, get directions to get to places and also shop online, it also has the potential to hog all our time so be careful.
These are some of the thing I hope to do with my time away from a computer on a weekday.
1. Exercise
2. Meditation
3. Reading paper books
4. Talking on the phone
5.Blogging

Fun or Important?

I had read a book called 'The Monk who sold his Ferrari' by Robin S Sharma in January 2006. It had a deep impact on me. I am really inspired by that book. It tells u how to live a fulfilling life. Let me share with u what I learnt from it. The first step is introspection. U need to really know urself well, so that u know what u really want in life. I directly quote from the book 'The purpose of life is a life of purpose'. We need to realize what we really want to do in life. We need to identify our priorities and aspirations and then go all out to achieve them. We need to do everything with passion and enthusiasm. This is not really a short term strategy but a habit that we must inculcate. I know that we need to do a lot of things in life that we do not enjoy. So the question is how to keep oneself constantly motivated?
I have not pondered over this question so intently for the past 2.5 years. There was always something more important or interesting going on in life. But for the past month my life has been very dull. I really need a way to better spend my free time. Today I suddenly remembered that I used to have a blog and have been on it for the past 100 minutes. Its great to feel excited about something again.
There are 2 kinds of things that we do in life, first the things that we love to do like listening to our favorite music and second the things that we consider important like studying for exams. Another word we use for the latter activities is 'responsibilities'. Even though it might appear so, these 2 categories are by no means mutually exclusive. You can probably think of a few things that would be the intersection of fun and important. One such example is playing your favorite sport or exercising. This is important as it is good for your body and health is one of the most important things in life. And of course it is also fun since you enjoy it. There are some of us who hate to exercise. It is probably because of a human tendency to classify everything that is beneficial as something that feels bad. The truth is that exercising releases chemicals in your body that make you feel good/happy. Just exercise for half an hour every day and you will start feeling happier I can guarantee. It is just a question of getting rid of your preconceived notions. Coming back to the main point, at first glance it does seem that fun stuff and important stuff are 2 diametrically opposite categories since there are only a handful of things that we consider both fun and important. The key to happiness is to unify the 2 categories so that you feel deeply motivated towards everything you do.
There are 2 main forces behind any kind of motivation. Love, the positive motivation and fear, the negative motivation. I must say both of these are extremely effective. Love is the motivation when you want to make something happen and fear is the motivation when you want to prevent something from happening. Now love is your motivation for the things that you enjoy doing like your love for nature,music,entertainment etc. Fear is the motivation behind most of the things that we consider important like fear of failing an exam, fear of losing your job. Fear is an extremely potent motivator, people driven by it can achieve a lot in life in terms of money and fame. But happiness cannot be linked with fear, it can only be linked with love. It is important to have a positive attitude in life. You need to play to win and not play to 'not fail'. When you are motivated by love and play to win you tend to give it all you have. That is an excellent thing. When you play to prevent a defeat you tend to put only as much effort that you estimate is enough to prevent a failure. This is the reason that positive attitude is more successful. You may say that sometimes fear can elicit a mammoth effort too. This is true, but only in the case when you think you have a very small chance of winning. That means your confidence is really low, and if it goes any lower then you will abandon all hope and not even try to win. In that case you will not put in sufficient effort and have an even higher chance of losing. Therefore it is a really bad idea to rely on fear as a motivator.
The good news is that every negative motivation can be transformed into a positive motivation. Love can replace fear from all your motivations. All you need to do is ask why. Let's go through this with an example. Imagine it is a Monday morning and you reach your office. Your motivation is not the highest at this point. Your boss comes to you and tells you to make a report for him/her by the end of the day. You look at the papers and you know that this will be a lot of writing,thinking,calculating and researching. Your lunch break just got shorter by 50%. You curse your boss and think why the hell do I need to do this???? And the answer you tell yourself is 'because this is important. If I don't do this I will get fired'. That is a very powerful motivator. So with a heavy heart you work really hard and get the report ready. You think 'my job sucks', there is too much work to do and what not. You might have done a great job on that report and your boss might have complimented you but that makes no difference to the fact that you feel you spent all your time at work in misery. Now let us backtrack a little to illustrate the power of positive thinking. To answer why this task is important you had told yourself that your job depends on this task and doing it well will prevent you from getting fired. Instead of all this you could have asked yourself 'Why do I need this job?', 'Because it pays well','If I save enough money I can go on a vacation to California or buy a better car or move to a better house'. So then the motivation for doing the task would be your love for these things and not a fear of losing your job. It is important to think of something that you really want to motivate you effectively. So this way your love for a better life motivates you rather than your fear of poverty. So you successfully transformed your negative attitude into a positive attitude. Similarly the better way to motivate yourself to exercise is not telling yourself that you will get fat and and ugly if you don't exercise but that you will become thin and attractive if you do.
I guess I have made my point clear about transforming -ve to +ve. Please dont change your attitude the other way from +ve to -ve because that is also as easy.
Positive attitude will make you achieve more and keeps you happier so make a conscious effort to maintain it.
One more thing to remember is that if you find yourself doing something that is neither fun nor important then please don't waste your time doing it because time is your most precious resource. We sometimes think something is fun or important because we see somebody else do it. You have just one life and that too is short, so live it your own way and not the way someone else would want to live it.
Now do this little activity
1. Make a list of all the major activities that you do on a daily basis.
2. Classify these activities into Fun and Important categories.
3. If an activity is not sufficiently fun or important to YOU then do yourself a favor and stop doing it. Devote that time to something more fun or important.
4. Now look at the activities you consider important. Think why they are important. Are they important for the well being of your loved ones? If so then the motivation behind such activities is your love for those people. If an activity is important for money then think of what you can do with that money and make that your motivation. Is the activity important for your health? If so then imagine all the things you will be able to do when you are healthier. Your love for those fun activities is your motivation behind this important activity.

One night at the call center

The above is the title of Chetan Bhagat's new book.He is the guy who wrote '5 point someone'.I and all of my friends loved that book. I guess every engineering student can empathize with the story and it's characters. If u go to his website chetanbhagat.com then u will see that he cites 5 books that inspired him to write 5 point someone. The list is Catcher in the rye,english august,catch 22, moth smoke and the god of small things. I have read the first 3 and all of them are excellent.
Now coming to his new novel. I finished it today. The first half is bit slow but the ending was mindblowing. I really loved it. I am just stating my personal opinion so dont blame me if u read it and dont like it. It is about 6 call center employees and one night that changes thier lives,because they get a phone call from god.

The characters are
1. Shyam - a guy who has lost his self confidence because of a bad boss.He also lost his girlfriend,Priyanka who is his colleague.

2.Vroom(Varun) - the youngest of them all. used to be a journalist but then joined the call center for money.

3.Priyanka- lives with a dominating mother,who she also loves dearly. she had to end her relationship with Shyam as her mother disapproaved of him.

4.Esha-an aspiring model who ran away from her parents house in chandigarh and came to delhi.has to work in call center to make ends meet.

5.Radhika- married for love.but now has problems with mother in law.

6.Military Uncle- A retired army officer who lives alone now because of his differences with his son and daughter in law.

7.Bakshi- the boss of the above people.an evil and stupid guy.loves using management jargon.

This novel has a very good message at the end too. I dont want to reveal too much so thats it for now.

Drinking

Many people think drinking alcohol is a vice. But why is it bad? It is very important to know the reason behind this. I remember in my high school biology textbook, we were told about the harmful effects of alcohol on our health. But later on, in newspapers I read that drinking 1 peg a day is actually a salubrious habit.
So healthwise getting drunk is extremely bad for you but drinking in moderation may be all right depending on how your body takes it. Going by the general rule that everything that tastes good like pizza,pepsi etc. is bad for your health. And everything that tastes bad like karela and anwla is good for health, I can say that since alcoholic beverages taste bad they have to be good for health in some way.Excess of alcohol is bad just like excess of anything else like meat,butter or salt.So drinking alcohol is just a health issue and not a moral one.
But getting drunk is an immoral act. The reason being that after getting drunk u may misbehave with others. Also u may break stuff or dirty stuff by puking on it, causing inconvenience to others. Of course driving after drinking is a big no as u may end up killing someone. Therefore getting drunk must be avoided. Everyone should know thier limit and drink within that.
Why do people drink anyway? It is because alcohol relaxes the mind and lowers ur inhibitions. Of course it would be best if we didnt need alcohol to relieve tension and break ice with people. But since ordinary mortals are not that fortunate, it is OK to drink a little bit socially to have a good time.
Have a gr8 new years eve and an awesome 2006!

Philosophy, luck and god

Today I have spend enough time on work so I think I can finally get down to blogging. By the way it snowed here today. Me and a few friends went out to play in it.It truly was a beautiful sight this pure white snow. It reminds u what purity is in this world rife with pollution of all kinds.
Lets have a look at this shloka written in the Bhagwad Gita -
'Karmanyevadhikaraste mafaleshu kadachana,
Ma karmaphal-heturbhurta te sango astvakarmani'.
This in sanskrit language and means that you have a right only over ur actions and not in thier fruits. So dont be attached to the outome of your actions, but dont practice inaction either.
I find this to be an extremely empowering philosophy. To some people this may appear revulsive, what is the motivation for working if u dont want any results? But this is not the correct interpretation of this philosophy. When it says that u have a right only over ur actions it also implies that it is your responsibility while performing any action to give it your everything. Of course at that time we are driven by an aim. Now this aim should not be the achievement of a goal but to do this job to the very best of your ability. By saying that you should not be attached with the goal it just means that even if the final outcome of your work is not as per ur expectations dont get depressed,just continue performing ur actions with full vigour.
There are many situations in life when the result of ur actions is highly contingent on luck, and this is where u should let go and not blame urself or anyone else for a failure. The 3rd president of USA, Thomas Jefferson once remarked “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” Luck is also one of the qualties Napolean looked for in his generals.
Luck, this simple four letter word which rhymes with an even fouler 4 lettered word, is possibly the only rational explanation for god. I am not a religious person, I dont believe in performing rituals and going to temples. I believe god manifests himself or herself through luck. What the believer calls 'a miracle of god' an athiest calls 'dumb luck'.So i guess both are the same thing.
But this doesn't mean that god gives good luck to the good and bad luck to the bad. The contrary happens often times. Given below is an interesting article I found on the internet about Albert Einstien's famous quote 'God doesn't play Dice'.
In quantum mechanics, many events look like they happen by absolutely random chance. Exactly when a radiactive decay occurs, exactly where a particular blip of light gets absorbed, etc seem not to be determined by anything in the way the universe is ahead of time. Einstein strongly suspected that these events all did have specific causes, but that the causes were somehow hidden away in some hard-to-find form. That's what he meant when he said "God doesn't play dice with the universe." Since that time, mostly over the last thirty years, people have followed up some of Einstein's ideas for experiments intended to show that the consequences of standard quantum mechanics are absurd. The experiments have not only confirmed quantum mechanics, but have convincingly shown that if the universe has "hidden variables" to dictate the outcomes of quantum processes, those variables are simultaneously hidden all over the place, not in any particular location. So it looks like Einstein's hunch was probably wrong. ----end of article
So this means that God does actually play dice, so he( or she) is someone gambling with the universe, gambling with ur life and mine. Be excited or be horrified, choice is urs. To end this blog here is another quote by Albert Einstien :-
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The
other is as though everything is a miracle.
Hold on, I cant end now as this reminds me of a joke
Once a professor was taking a class and wanted to teach the students what a miracle is. So he gave an example, "A man jumps of a 20 storey buildings but recieves no injury , what would u call this?" Someone said "luck". "OK, but suppose he jumps of the building again but sustains no injuries once again". At this point the class topper said " Statistics have shown that in the past, 1 in 500 people have survived such incidents, so it is statistically possible". The professor was getting impatient "Damn your statistics! What if the guy falls down 1000 times and survives on all counts. Now probability of his getting hurt is almost 1 according to your statistics. So now how would u explain this?". "Practice!", shouted the whole class in unison.

laugh

In my earlier blog I had promised to publish about my subsequnt semsters in DCE. But when I got down to writing about the 2nd sem, I realized it was not as interesting as the first, I didint feel to enthusiastic to write about it. But I will do it sometime later.Now i am sitting here in my room and feeling bored, its not that i have nothing to do, i do have a homework due day after tommorrow. Yesterday I went to bed at 6am and then woke up at 12noon. I had to go for job and finally returned home at 11.30pm or so. After that I had to complete another homework so i finally slept at 4.30am. I am actually enjoying staying up this late, its so peaceful. Although 'ullu' is a derogatory word in hindi which means idiot, but its english translation owl is a symbol of knowledge in the west. And as we all know owl is a nocturnal animal, therefore the night as to be the best time to study or think. This reminds me that in DCE I was known for giving similar fudas for justifying stuff. Which often resulted in making me a laughing stock. But I still enjoyed it. Life is incomplete without humor and laughter. Whoever said 'Laughter is the best medicine ' sure knew what he or she was talking about. Staying on the topic of laughter, yesterday I listened to a few songs by Bodhitree , a band of XLRI students. Their music and especially lyrics are particulary good. I suggest u search them on the internet. Two of thier songs have provocative titles as 'G**d mein danda' and 'sabka katega'. The other number I heard was 'XL ki kudiyan' which is quite catchy. I also watched 'No Entry' on monday on my laptop, that was funny too. So its been a nice last couple of days/nights.

The best reason to go to America? To study!

I always wanted to go to USA. This thought probably crept into my mind for the first time when my aunt who lives in Canada got chocolates and clothes for me from there. For a child whose age hasnt reached double digits, these were the symbols of paradise. As I grew older I became aware of a number of amenities which are better in America than in India like cleanliness, no pollution,no power cuts etc. As I became even more mature I started thinking about social evils like corruption,crime,politics,overpopulation which were plagueing India. Like any other selfish and pragmatic person I decided the best thing to shield myself from all this is to go abroad. All my relatives who are in America came here to study so I decided to do the same thing. I decided that I will go to USA to study after graduation.I already knew that life here as a student will be tough and not just pure enjoyment and partying.
So now I am doing MS in computer science from New York University. After coming here I have realized what it means to be a student and what is real education. In my undergaduate college studying meant a very boring thing to be postponed till a few weeks before the final exam. The reason it was so boring was that it was all rote learning. Also none of the faculty inspired in you a love for the subject. They just told u to take notes and read books.
Here the professors keep the lecture notes available online so that the time in class is spent in understanding the concepts and not feverishly jotting down every syllable uttered by the instructor. Also the instructors here are very polite to the students and make a genuine effort to make u understand thier subject. Sitting for a lecture is a pleasure here but it was an ordeal in my old college. This is the reason that there is no rule regarding attendance here. If you miss a lecture it is your loss. Here evaluation is based on regular homeworks , this keeps u motivated to study throughout the semester. Also these homeworks involve thinking on your own to solve a problem, not just finding a text in a book and transcribing it. After coming here I am seriously considering doing a PhD, a thought which seemed prepostrous back then. A chief reason for my becoming suddenly so studious is because I have little else to do. My social life is very flimsy,
my laptop is my best friend here. It has become indispensable as use it for everything -reading online lecture notes,programming, surfing,online news,mailing and listening to music or watching films. In India my entertainment was TV, cinema and reading novels, I had way too much free time on my hands. Here I dont have a TV and believe me I dont miss it. Also I dont feel like watching movies too often. Also I dont have close friends like I had in India, so I dont go out much. Also living on a student budget doesnt let u afford theatre,restaurants etc.
But I am loving my life here, studies are a stimulating,challengeing and an exercise for the brain. They keep u intellectually alive. Education is the best thing I like about America.

wasted day

my luck sucked today! i travelled 90km for 2 signatures. I wanted more but couldnt get them. Why the hell cant these guys be more dutiful by at least coming to thier offices??
I also wasted too much money on food. Now i have to undertake this journey again tomorrow.
At times like this u just cant help feeling depressed.
tonight i am gonna watch the movie 'Jo bole so nihal' on a CD. i hope it helps me unwind.
This is life... yesterday i had just returned from an awesome trip to Dharamsala which is a hill station in Himanchal Pradesh in India( i am writing this as if people from all over the world are gonna view my blog ! ). I hope all 8 of my friends had as great a time as I did.
Now the euphoria of the trip is over and the exasperation of getting a job done in DCE has set in.
But tomorrow i am gonna finish the job by hook or by crook!

"the path is uphill the task is steep
but i have promises to keep
and miles to go before i sleep( 90/1.5=60 miles)
now i wish i had a jeep"

inspired by Robert Frost

not a blog virgin anymore

yeah this is my first post..... earlier i had no time for this blogging nonsense but since now my undergraduate education is over, i have plenty of free time on my hands to bore others by telling them to read what i write. As the saying goes 'an empty mind is a devilz workshop'.
i am fond of reading books and have nurtured an ambition to be an author for quite some time.But since i dont think i am upto it i will be content being a blogger.
special thanks to my friend saurabh ohri for leading the way by bing the first blogger in our friend circle, he is the only blogger i personally know.
well now a little bit about me......well my name is Manan, in Hindi language it means 'thinking'. I guess this name suits me as i like thinking, i am thankful to my parents for naming me that.
Education-i have studied in 4 schools and 1 college till now and about to go for masters in another college.To know more about me check out my profile.
I hope i enjoy writing this blog and u all reading it, till boredom do us part!