Co-workers, Orkut and Facebook!

Did you ever feel ridiculous to let your boss or a colleague browse through your friend lists and messages? Well, you have company in Cory Doctorow.

Quoting a slashdot article...

"Cory Doctorow writes about the downside of social networking on the Information Week site, with a focus on Facebook. While he starts with some minor but insightful quibbles, he quickly moves to a critique of the core of social networking: 'Imagine how creepy it would be to wander into a co-worker's cubicle and discover the wall covered with tiny photos of everyone in the office, ranked by 'friend' and 'foe,' with the top eight friends elevated to a small shrine decorated with Post-It roses and hearts.' Do you really want to add your boss and coworkers to your friends list? (And more to the point, do you really have a choice?)"

The article can be found at
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/29/1745240

Noise

The cost of being sensitive to percepts is the uncanny amount of noise the mind and heart has to bear. It often pushes the soul to the point where everything seems to question the very premise of humanity.

On such occasions, i tend to write. (That is for you who quite often ask me to stop write and start life)

Yellow

Look at the stars,
Look how they shine for you,
And everything you do,
Yeah, they were all yellow.
I came along,
I wrote a song for you,
And all the things you do,
And it was called yellow.
So then I took my turn,
Oh what a thing to have done,
And it was all yellow.
Your skin
Oh yeah, your skin and bones,
Turn into something beautiful,
You know, you know I love you so,
You know I love you so.
I swam across,
I jumped across for you,
Oh what a thing to do.
Cos you were all yellow,
I drew a line,
I drew a line for you,
Oh what a thing to do,
And it was all yellow.
Your skin,
Oh yeah your skin and bones,
Turn into something beautiful,
And you know for you,
Id bleed myself dry for you,
Id bleed myself dry.
Its true, look how they shine for you,
Look how they shine for you,
Look how they shine for,
Look how they shine for you,
Look how they shine for you,
Look how they shine.
Look at the stars,
Look how they shine for you,
And all the things that you do.

-
Lyrics of the song 'yellow' by Coldplay

Choice

There are only three types of men -
Men who die screaming
Men who die in silence
Men who die with a smile on their face

It is not about the death, it is perhaps always about the life.

Doors and Windows

Instant messenger has brought with it such a vast abundance of public affection. I often get mesmerized at the fact that i have so many friends who love me enough to say hi at the most odd times. May be real world distance doesn't really matter anymore. Or, does it?

Thinking of instant messengers, i had this weird but powerful wish. It was so profound that i had tears in my eyes when i spent too much of time thinking about it!

Imagine a scenario where people from all time eras could talk to each other. What a gigantic thought it is to imagine talking to a dude from yester years called Arjun. He would go, "oh! btw, i killed all my cousins last weekend at a family event". My reply would at best be, "ah! come on man. that's not how u hunt!"

A saturday afternoon chat window would say, "hi der". No, it won't be my friend after his latest breakup. It will be a guy called Ram. A noble soul of his time and a rock star. He would go, "I miss my babe man. She is off in lanka somewhere. You know what? (sends the shy icon) I hired monkeys to search for her!". I would say, "Ohh! dat's so cool!! you should buy a sea-cruiser? They are selling it off 4 cheap man. It's da thanksgiving holiday sale! And you should be careful bro. Jayasurya still bats for lanka!"

Off would I go with Ram to fetch his hot babe. Won't i make far better company than the boring lakshman prasad yadav and vibhushan Singh Gaikwad? God, they surely can play golf! Did i say the scenario has only virtual time travel and not the real one? Ahh, forget it. There are no rules today. Why, you ask? Well, i forgot to swipe on my way into the office and there is now no way to know who broke the coffee machine. That's why. Now, stop asking questions, will ya?

I do need talk to a particular man though. I have a very important question for him. I will be a sad man on my deathbed if i don't get to know the answer. The question is this, "You are a rotten potato" and the man is not inzamamul haq. It's Cartman, off the southpark fame.


So, the moral of the story is this, 'Never read a blog with 'Windows' in the title'

(claps at the back and tears)

I, Me and Myself!

Not really. No.

What are you waiting for?
I said NO.

talaash

Maine dil se kaha, dhoond laana khushi
Nasamajh laya gum, to yeh gum hi sahi

Bechaara kahan jaanta hai
Khalish hai yeh kya khala hai
Shehar bhar ki khushi se
Yeh dard mera bhala hai
Jashna yeh raaz na aaye
Mazaa toh bas gam main aaya hai

Maine dil se kaha, dhoond laana khushi
Nasamajh laya gum, to yeh gum hi sahi

Kabhi hai ishq ka ujaala
Kabhi hai maut ka andhera
Bataao kaun bhes hoga
Main jogi banu ya lutera
Kayi chehre hai is dil ke
Najaane kaunsa mera

Maine dil se kaha dhoond laana khushi
Nasamajh laya gum, to yeh gum hi sahi

Hazaaron aaise phaasle the
Jo Tai karne chale the
raahe magar chal padi thi
Aur peeche hum rah gaye the
kadam Do chaar chal paaye
Kiye phere tere mann ke

Maine dil se kaha, dhoond laana khushi
Nasamajh laya gum, to yeh gum hi sahi

Maine dil se kaha, dhoond laana khushi
Nasamajh laya gum, to yeh gum hi sahi

- Lyrics from a hindi song of the movie 'rog'

World ain't not funny

If ever you get to a point where you begin to think there is not enough humor around and people have become such idiotic dumb nuts - think again!

Dan Lyons, is a forbes editor who writes a blog posing as a fake steve jobs. He does a fine job at it. He even predicted some of steve's product announcements and was ranked on a recent list of "The 50 who matter now".
(Read http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/)

Apparently, he is not a great fan of MBA which makes him my friend. This is what he says of it, "Good god, man. Could there be anything less creative, less imaginative, less valuable than going to business school? Is there any surer way to become an absolute conformist....than to spend two years being coddled and pampered and fed worthless pablum by failed businesspeople"

Well, it did bring out some funny and creative reactions from some poor students of a random business school!

Torn Shoes

Far ahead in Iran
The kid loses the shoes of his sister
Little hands can't buy a big pair
So, ran the tiny legs

Not all races need to be won
For some, third place is the only victory

Smile on the face of a little sister -
is the only glory that exists

Far ahead it might be
It's the closest i have ever been
Put the hearts of all men together
A kid's heart still wins

Of all the art that exists
Majid Majidi has the only truth

all i have is a few arbitrary lines
and a heart full of gratitude

if not for words
where is the reprieve?

Forgetful

I have always been forgetful by nature. I forget to remember the names of so many important people that i cannot recollect how many of them did i really forget. Anyway, i realized today morning while i slipped on the stairs that i do not think in my mother tongue anymore. A little litmus test to understand what language does a man think in is this: Throw him off-balance without his notice, the sudden squeal that comes out is the exact sound of the language he belongs to. Well, my sound was this: "geesh!!"
Of all the things i could have said - i said "geesh". I do not even know if it is a word. Probably, am not thinking in a language anymore. Or more realistically, i do not think anymore! After the powerful early morning occurrence, i decided to think in my natural language - telugu, the whole day. It was a tough exercise, believe me. The couple of client calls definitely didn't help the matter. I was trying to think in telugu - translate it to hindi (which became my second tongue after the long years in bombay)and then articulate it in english. It was a journey on the razor edge and i was playing by the ear. Well, it wasn't a pleasant experience and i cursed myself later for having actually done that. However, it revealed to me that am still capable of thinking in all my basic languages. And am glad at the thought.

For tomorrow - i want to think only in symbols.
Godspeed.

JuxTaposition

Empty spaces and hollow forms
Loud noises of high pitches
Sting through the fabric -
and remain

Flow of river across the patches of land
Connects the tomorrow to yesterday

A tall tree bends to give shade
'Somehow', it says,
'nothing connects to today'!

Tip

If you have a free day
Learn to enjoy movies and food alone

A day will come when you will need the art.

Distant

On the surface
Choice exists in the smooth key pad -
and on-demand
it's a world full of free men like you
who live the will

And if you were the surface
you probably laugh all the time
tell me you don't find it funny
all the thought landscape

Stone to stone you move
go round and square; triangles too?
meet Elizabeth and the time machine
Trying to escape

And not.

In the end,
it's only coke-
and some popcorn

If life were an object,
it surely would be a TV remote
Only, you can't switch it back on

Hang on to the red light.

If ever

If ever the song paints
If ever the haze disappears
If ever the prison wall seems too low
If ever the curve straightens
If ever the brick looks a brick
If ever the doors are closed
If ever the mysticism ends
If ever the smile comes back
If ever the guitar gets tuned
If ever..

Then may the light arise!

Magic

Wave after wave
Far from the shore and deep inside
Sounds of balafon -
And some samba

Legs curled up -
Every atom is dancing
There is a twinkle
Lips move apart

Cool breeze
And a sip of hot coffee
Magic!
What else is?

Release

In the midst of woods -
spiral branches and smell of earth
green on the out and brown inside
the colors fade by the minute

Violet oozes out of the stem
Smoothely kissing the wet cheeks
Trembling hands rush to stop
Wind chill is the new lord

Yellow life crawls up the orange oak
Sticks and stings - the wounds remain

Night blanket wraps around the moon
Take my hug and bring me warmth
Heavy sphere, got any ear?

Sometimes, i wakeup on the tenth floor
Strange that the building has only seven in the morning

Emotion needs to learn algebra
Release is but a solution that never exists

In, from out

"Love kicks the ass of space and time!"

- Hafiz, A Persian poet

Steve, Bill and Icecream

If you were born in the 80s like me, you were probably thrown into this world when it was going through a very important series of events. The cold war ended during this period. There was uprise of urban middle-class in the US and Europe. Middle class young adults fresh out of MBA-schools were getting adequately rich to get pretty cars and prettier women. It was a period when movies and music began to get commercialized into the mainstream as we see it today. It was also a time when Microsoft and Apple started doing things which made them so fantastically successful as they are now. I wouldn't mention Infosys here as much of the value creation due to them only began to happen in the 1990s. The point however is that these are really really powerful events if you come to think of it. A lot of things happened so positively well together that it just pushed the eco-system to a higher layer and order of basic elements.

I feel unlucky because of two things. One, i wasn't born in the west, where the action always seems to be more "now" than in the east. Two, read one again. The eco-system is so much more real in the west as compared to the east and it both inspires and scares me. I am inspired because i get hope that if humans can do it at some space and time, humans elsewhere surely have the potential to do it. I am scared because i feel the eco-system is so terribly damaged that it might take a lot of time and space. One reason it is bound to take a a lot of time is that there is a lot and lot of space to cover. What can speed up the process is something only Mustafa Gaus knows. It is very important to find him.

When i was in school, a friend of mine used to tell me repeatedly about this little nugget of wisdom. He told me about this so many times that i now kind of believe in it. I think that is what it takes to convince someone about something. Just persevere and constantly bombard them with your alternative imagery of space-curve. Sooner or later, they will bend in. It is probably always the latter. Well, the nugget of wisdom was this. If you take away the wealth of all the rich people in the world and redistribute it among everybody in the world equally, the wealth will get back to the same or similar set of people very soon. That is just how the whole thing is programmed! You either have it in you or you don't. There are no two ways about it. Well, wisdom or not, it is surely an interesting way to look at things. For me, it always is a favorite thing to ponder about. If you know the essential DNA of what makes people of different walks of life wealthy and those elements which restrict progress, you can become the most powerful consultant, the world has never known. The key word, however, is "If". Nobody seems to know the answer even though people throw this crap around a few common phrases around doing the right thing, making your passion your job, etc. Well, if my passion should be my job, who will pay me for eating ice cream?


It dawned on me today that am close to hit a quarter century of my lifetime on this planet and am supposed to have a perspective of what life form is all about and where is that am supposed to take mine.

I pondered about it a lot and this is what i have concluded-

Eat a lot of ice cream.


The 1980s are also termed as the period of "greed".
I for some reason, think that greed is probably always good. The collective greed of all humans is probably what makes the seemingly complex human and para-human systems tick and move. Amen.

Agony

http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/oct/24india.htm

The latest report by AT Kearney talks about something as trivial as the fact that sky is blue. Yes, 800 million of Indians live on less than two dollars a day. Less than half the people are connected to the power grid. Note more than 5% are connected to the internet and all that jazz.

But, you know what? India still ranks high on happiness surveys. Surely, money or material wealth is not a source of happiness. They discovered and wrote about this in the vedas and upanishads a zillion years ago. We surely know the true path to happiness in the east.

Or, do we?

How about a village with electricity round the clock and clean water to drink?
How about adequate provision of healthcare in every nook n corner?
How about your distant cousin in the village having the chance to go to a good school?

Will that not bring any happiness?

May be we need to re-write our vedas. And give ourselves a little chance.

Cold

Time is staring at the watch
Laughing crazy like never before
Perhaps, never after

Chillness in the veins
Exhaust from the constant rupture
Numb feet and the gibberish
Ah, familiar

How i wish it was a dream.

A bird whispers silence into my mind
Can you a sing a song too? please

Far away in Mexico, the little girl is smiling
Her grandma wants to use the face book