Thinking of the yesteryears of childhood makes one nostalgic. It is said that childhood days are the best part of one’s life. The innocence, the carefree, responsibility free life, gully cricket, Dabba aais-pais, lingorcha..the occasional fights, maybe tense then, bring a smile now :).
Remember your childhood longings, the things you wished would make you the happiest person on earth? Those like me who grew up in the 80s and 90s in middle class families would agree that having a telephone, a colour TV or a refrigerator then would take you financially ahead of most of your collaterals. We had a colour television, but I had a particular fascination towards a “remote control” :) I would be very excited whenever my elder cousin would allow me to operate the remote control of his television. There was a similar attraction towards remote controlled cars, I remember thanking my dad for many days when he bought me a remote controlled car (it was a Porsche :)) when I was about 8 or 9.
Speaking on telephone was another “great” thing to do. We had our first telephone in 1995 (which my dad had booked in 1991 :)) and I would run to receive the call every time the phone rang. Having spoken on telephone was an experience I would share with friends in school.
We lived in a chawl and I dreamt of living in a flat, that too a flat in a building that had an elevator :) When I was in school, everyday I would be the first to get down and run to call my Rickshaw buddy, as I would use an elevator to reach his house on 4th floor.
Having a bicycle was a wish I would do anything for. For me, even a bicycle then was something I would “possess” rather than just “own” ;) The BSA-SLRs and Hero Rangers mattered more to me than what the i10s and Swifts matter now. Car was an elite thing, and the surroundings made me realize that car was not our cup of tea. A childish mind would still long for a ride in a car, and there would be no limits to excitement when we would ride in my maternal uncle’s Maruti 800. The engine power, CC, small car, sedan were jargons, all that mattered was a “CAR”.
I belonged to a family where my parents would not unnecessarily spend money (and even teach their children to do so) on unhealthy manners. That made the smallest wish, when fulfilled, the greatest pleasure of life. Having a “Malai Kulfi” was one such pleasure I would cherish on a rare day when my mom would be kind enough to offer me a rupee to spend it the way I would like to :).
Smoking a cigarette was a MAN thing (thanks to Bollywood) and it had me wait whole of my childhood, even my teenage to try one. I was 23 when I inhaled burning tobacco the first time, reaching my lungs and smoking out… it was my first experience of something I considered masculine all these years :).
One thing worth noting and which we eventually realize is- wishes never end. One fulfilled wish gives birth to another, “longings” become “possible realities” and we start working towards fulfilling them. As the age grows, so do the wishes- in the same proportion, although much more matured than before, they still remain our “longings”.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Kattyavarchya Gappa (Leisure Chit-Chat)
The other day I was having a nice time with a handful of good friends at Bal Gandharv (our regular katta). We had met after a while, and as usual SS was late (I believe she always follows the right time, but misses the right time zone..). HK, OK and I were having the regular boyish talk when BA joined. The regular “Kasa Ahes”, “Kuthe Ahes”, “Persistent kadhi join kelis??” , “Me job sodla, kantalle” etc. followed suit.
It was BA who actually started the topic, unknowingly when she mentioned she had cleared her second paper of “Jyotish Shastra”. Then began the discussion, we now had a fodder to feed us at least for a couple of hours. We had BA, who is into Astrology, and we had HK, who is into Astronomy. OK and I were pretty excited to get our kundalis read by BA; thanks to HK’s mobile astronomy software, we immediately had the positions of stars, planets, zodiac and what not on a small piece of paper.
“Shani chi dasha vakra aahe”, “Mangal varchya gharat aahe”..BA began…”Aga samjel asha bhashet bol…paisa kiti aahe???”- OK said, making his interests clear :-). “Ahe bharpur, pan baki pan aik na..sarkha kay paise..” BA was quick to reply.
While OK was having fun knowing his future, HK was getting the celestial positions during my birth time on a rough chit of paper. “Are tuzi patrika mast aahe…Shani ani Mangal doghehi varchya gharat aahet…Shanichi krupa aahe..” I felt excited :), still wanted our astrologer to comment. It was then that my right hand started itching when she said- “Near future madhe bharpur paise milnaar ahet..” ;). “Aga pan Rashit Mangal aahe...mhantat na changla nasto” I said getting things clearer about these matters which may be of help in near future for obvious reasons :). “Aahe pan varchya gharat, so don’t worry- Kalyankari asto”- BA’s reply.
Meanwhile SS arrived, although my watch said 8 pm, she was at the right time- 6:30 pm (No matter if it was 6:30 in Dubai then..who cares??). SS has something to discuss on everything, and that means- everything. Do you really believe in astrology, how far can it be true, is it reliable, what is the basis? OK had begun “discussing” the matter. HK, as always, was playing safe- “Whatever I say is based on astronomy- I only speak of the celestial positions at the birth time…its interpretation may differ from astrologer to astrologer, and astronomy has a scientific base.”, I agreed. “Whatever normal astrologers say is based on ‘Statistical data’”, and then we had to hear HK say “Statistical data” at least 10 times in the next 30 minutes :-). “But science itself to an extent is based on hypothesis”- aamchya SS was quick in posting a comment that required no moderation.
This discussion was getting juicier with additions from everyone. From regular hear-say to genuine experience, from Nostradamus to Narendra Dabholkar (Andhashradhha Nirmulan Samiti)- we had a comment on everything. OK went on- “There’s nothing called Luck- the harder we work, the luckier we get”..this time it was me to reply “Agreed, but why were you and I not born to some Bachhans or Kapoors, what hard work did Abhishek Bachchan do to be born with a silver spoon?” unlike the trend, we had a question for every answer :).
“Abhishek was born under the influence of certain heavenly bodies who had some silver spoons ready, this is as per ‘Statistical Data’”- SS cha Puneri chimta.
It was sheer fun and some info as well. But on a serious note- do you believe in Astrology? Do you think positions of heavenly bodies can influence our lives? Do you think good deeds of present life act as good investments to reap benefits in the next life?
It was BA who actually started the topic, unknowingly when she mentioned she had cleared her second paper of “Jyotish Shastra”. Then began the discussion, we now had a fodder to feed us at least for a couple of hours. We had BA, who is into Astrology, and we had HK, who is into Astronomy. OK and I were pretty excited to get our kundalis read by BA; thanks to HK’s mobile astronomy software, we immediately had the positions of stars, planets, zodiac and what not on a small piece of paper.
“Shani chi dasha vakra aahe”, “Mangal varchya gharat aahe”..BA began…”Aga samjel asha bhashet bol…paisa kiti aahe???”- OK said, making his interests clear :-). “Ahe bharpur, pan baki pan aik na..sarkha kay paise..” BA was quick to reply.
While OK was having fun knowing his future, HK was getting the celestial positions during my birth time on a rough chit of paper. “Are tuzi patrika mast aahe…Shani ani Mangal doghehi varchya gharat aahet…Shanichi krupa aahe..” I felt excited :), still wanted our astrologer to comment. It was then that my right hand started itching when she said- “Near future madhe bharpur paise milnaar ahet..” ;). “Aga pan Rashit Mangal aahe...mhantat na changla nasto” I said getting things clearer about these matters which may be of help in near future for obvious reasons :). “Aahe pan varchya gharat, so don’t worry- Kalyankari asto”- BA’s reply.
Meanwhile SS arrived, although my watch said 8 pm, she was at the right time- 6:30 pm (No matter if it was 6:30 in Dubai then..who cares??). SS has something to discuss on everything, and that means- everything. Do you really believe in astrology, how far can it be true, is it reliable, what is the basis? OK had begun “discussing” the matter. HK, as always, was playing safe- “Whatever I say is based on astronomy- I only speak of the celestial positions at the birth time…its interpretation may differ from astrologer to astrologer, and astronomy has a scientific base.”, I agreed. “Whatever normal astrologers say is based on ‘Statistical data’”, and then we had to hear HK say “Statistical data” at least 10 times in the next 30 minutes :-). “But science itself to an extent is based on hypothesis”- aamchya SS was quick in posting a comment that required no moderation.
This discussion was getting juicier with additions from everyone. From regular hear-say to genuine experience, from Nostradamus to Narendra Dabholkar (Andhashradhha Nirmulan Samiti)- we had a comment on everything. OK went on- “There’s nothing called Luck- the harder we work, the luckier we get”..this time it was me to reply “Agreed, but why were you and I not born to some Bachhans or Kapoors, what hard work did Abhishek Bachchan do to be born with a silver spoon?” unlike the trend, we had a question for every answer :).
“Abhishek was born under the influence of certain heavenly bodies who had some silver spoons ready, this is as per ‘Statistical Data’”- SS cha Puneri chimta.
It was sheer fun and some info as well. But on a serious note- do you believe in Astrology? Do you think positions of heavenly bodies can influence our lives? Do you think good deeds of present life act as good investments to reap benefits in the next life?
For me personally, it is a thing I do not believe, maybe I never will, but a recent experience was shocking (whatever experience I had was not something one can ignore or deny). More so now- I want to believe on the correct interpretation of these celestial positions (if at all astrology is purely based on it) but I don’t want to make it a base to my future decisions in the farthest way. I do believe in reincarnation, and maybe my good deeds in past life have resulted in a good life for me this time…where I have such great friends ;).
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Patriotism – What is it?
Patriotism is commonly defined as love for / devotion towards one’s country. Being specific makes me think- what exactly is a person supposed to love or be devoted to to be called a patriot? Is it the love for landscapes, rivers, natural beauty found in the country, which may very much be similar to what is found in other nations?
Or should a person love his country for the mere fact that s/he was born here (appreciate a coincidence?). Is it loving the fellow countrymen and supporting administrative / cultural decisions taken by the country governors?
I believe patriotism is a broad term which covers everything a person does (consciously or unconsciously) to preserve his / her nation’s integrity, and carries his / her share of responsibilities towards building a better society. Patriotism doesn’t require futile rhetoric or criticizing other nations, but should be more constructive and reflect through everyday activities.
PATRIOTISM IN INDIA
Patriotism in India is a relative term, and the notion differs with differing social groups, politicial entities and social sectors. While a politician may display a surge in (mostly pseudo) patriotism during an election rally, youngsters tend to get patriotic with every other win in cricket.
We start speaking of patriotism only when there is something to instigate it, a win in a sport, a gold medal at the Olympics, an award at the Oscars, or release of a patriotic movie.
Indian Hypocrisy:
We Indians stand up for our National Anthem, but fail to respect our national heritages that are a witness to great national sacrifices. We feel proud of one of the fastest growing economies, but also contribute to the growing filth in the cities. We represent the oldest and the best civilisation, but fail to remain civilised in public.
India lives in history:
Come 15th August, and emails start pouring in our inboxes. Email from people who feel proud of a prosperous nation India was, a wealth of culture and heritage that our ancestors enjoyed, and off course of the scientific and mathematic contributions Indians made in the past. But how long are we going to live in a properous history when present facts speak loud and clear- More than 30% of Indian populace lives below poverty, India represents one of the worst literacy rates in the world, one of the most corrupt countries on earth.
Lets be proud of yesteryears, but instead of wasting time boasting it, lets work today to build a better tomorrow, so that generations to come shall feel proud of their present, as much as we feel for our past.
Or should a person love his country for the mere fact that s/he was born here (appreciate a coincidence?). Is it loving the fellow countrymen and supporting administrative / cultural decisions taken by the country governors?
I believe patriotism is a broad term which covers everything a person does (consciously or unconsciously) to preserve his / her nation’s integrity, and carries his / her share of responsibilities towards building a better society. Patriotism doesn’t require futile rhetoric or criticizing other nations, but should be more constructive and reflect through everyday activities.
PATRIOTISM IN INDIA
Patriotism in India is a relative term, and the notion differs with differing social groups, politicial entities and social sectors. While a politician may display a surge in (mostly pseudo) patriotism during an election rally, youngsters tend to get patriotic with every other win in cricket.
We start speaking of patriotism only when there is something to instigate it, a win in a sport, a gold medal at the Olympics, an award at the Oscars, or release of a patriotic movie.
Indian Hypocrisy:
We Indians stand up for our National Anthem, but fail to respect our national heritages that are a witness to great national sacrifices. We feel proud of one of the fastest growing economies, but also contribute to the growing filth in the cities. We represent the oldest and the best civilisation, but fail to remain civilised in public.
India lives in history:
Come 15th August, and emails start pouring in our inboxes. Email from people who feel proud of a prosperous nation India was, a wealth of culture and heritage that our ancestors enjoyed, and off course of the scientific and mathematic contributions Indians made in the past. But how long are we going to live in a properous history when present facts speak loud and clear- More than 30% of Indian populace lives below poverty, India represents one of the worst literacy rates in the world, one of the most corrupt countries on earth.
Lets be proud of yesteryears, but instead of wasting time boasting it, lets work today to build a better tomorrow, so that generations to come shall feel proud of their present, as much as we feel for our past.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Object Oriented Life
Being in the software industry for more than 4 years, software professionals like me can’t help applying computer programming principles in everyday life. The otherwise routine activities and stages in life start getting “Object Oriented”. “Object oriented” here won’t mean leading a life for an objective (no spiritual stuff intented), rather a few examples where life follows the computer programming principles.
The social structure of human beings itself seems to follow Object Oriented Programming (OOP) approach; consider various roles that a person plays throughout his life, be it a son, a brother, a husband or a father. These roles are the classes (“Son”, “Brother”, “Friend”, “Husband”, “Father” etc.) which all are derived from a common base class called “Human”. While “Human” class declares the common properties (Name, family name, sex, age, etc.) and implements a few methods, every derived class has its own set of properties and methods which are called at diferent stages of life. We also can consider “Human” class itself being derived from “Life” interface which defines methods that are common in all living beings, like walking, eating, running, breathing, etc. In this way, life does seem to justify “Inheritence” which is an inherrent part of OOP.
Another important aspect of OOP is Polymorphism, or implementing the same method with different arguments. Daily activities like driving, reading, writing, shopping follow polymorphism. Driving a car seems an overloaded method of driving a bike, similarly reading an online article, email seem to be overloaded methods of reading a physical newspaper.
Encapsulation and use of private variables is as important in human life, as in a computer program. ATM Pin(s) are always (and should alwasys be) private.
A typical human working day personifies a well coded computer program, where different services run in the background, different classes are initialised and flushed at different times and different methods are invoked as per need. Day begin when an alarm clock (background windows service or scheduler? :-)) gets us up. Different methods like Bathing(), HaveBreakfast() are invoked, while activities like WashingClothes(), PreparingBreakfast() are managed by other helper classes like washing machine and microwave owen. We use an overloaded method of Travel() which internally invokes and overload of Driving() as per the argument we pass (bike or car :-)). Reach office and we are into a multitasking mode. Office senior wants us to work, while our multi-task ready processor wants us to parallely trade on an online share trading portal, without hampering the office output.
A small share of our time is also spent in debugging, i.e reviewing the code on which our life runs. Reviewing self and financial health, reviewing the health in our relationships seem to happen in the debug mode. After office hours, we again implement the Travel() overload to reach home, flushing all the unwanted objects (office, share trading etc.) and calling other methods as per need. Not to forget, the day has also encountered a few bugs like unwanted personal loan calls :-)
Handling Events is an important part of a computer program, and equally important is safely handling unwanted events, whom in programming terms, we call “Exceptions”. As in computer, so in personal life, these exceptions should safely be handled. Loss of job, loss of life, health emergency are all examples of real life exceptions which normally are (and should be) planned smartly by way of appropriate insurance and investments. After all, a well built code leads to a well run program :-).
Object orientation improves the quality of code, rendering reliable results. Similarly, a life that follows some simple object oriented principles can definitely improve the quality of our life, after all, life personifies a computer program :-).
The social structure of human beings itself seems to follow Object Oriented Programming (OOP) approach; consider various roles that a person plays throughout his life, be it a son, a brother, a husband or a father. These roles are the classes (“Son”, “Brother”, “Friend”, “Husband”, “Father” etc.) which all are derived from a common base class called “Human”. While “Human” class declares the common properties (Name, family name, sex, age, etc.) and implements a few methods, every derived class has its own set of properties and methods which are called at diferent stages of life. We also can consider “Human” class itself being derived from “Life” interface which defines methods that are common in all living beings, like walking, eating, running, breathing, etc. In this way, life does seem to justify “Inheritence” which is an inherrent part of OOP.
Another important aspect of OOP is Polymorphism, or implementing the same method with different arguments. Daily activities like driving, reading, writing, shopping follow polymorphism. Driving a car seems an overloaded method of driving a bike, similarly reading an online article, email seem to be overloaded methods of reading a physical newspaper.
Encapsulation and use of private variables is as important in human life, as in a computer program. ATM Pin(s) are always (and should alwasys be) private.
A typical human working day personifies a well coded computer program, where different services run in the background, different classes are initialised and flushed at different times and different methods are invoked as per need. Day begin when an alarm clock (background windows service or scheduler? :-)) gets us up. Different methods like Bathing(), HaveBreakfast() are invoked, while activities like WashingClothes(), PreparingBreakfast() are managed by other helper classes like washing machine and microwave owen. We use an overloaded method of Travel() which internally invokes and overload of Driving() as per the argument we pass (bike or car :-)). Reach office and we are into a multitasking mode. Office senior wants us to work, while our multi-task ready processor wants us to parallely trade on an online share trading portal, without hampering the office output.
A small share of our time is also spent in debugging, i.e reviewing the code on which our life runs. Reviewing self and financial health, reviewing the health in our relationships seem to happen in the debug mode. After office hours, we again implement the Travel() overload to reach home, flushing all the unwanted objects (office, share trading etc.) and calling other methods as per need. Not to forget, the day has also encountered a few bugs like unwanted personal loan calls :-)
Handling Events is an important part of a computer program, and equally important is safely handling unwanted events, whom in programming terms, we call “Exceptions”. As in computer, so in personal life, these exceptions should safely be handled. Loss of job, loss of life, health emergency are all examples of real life exceptions which normally are (and should be) planned smartly by way of appropriate insurance and investments. After all, a well built code leads to a well run program :-).
Object orientation improves the quality of code, rendering reliable results. Similarly, a life that follows some simple object oriented principles can definitely improve the quality of our life, after all, life personifies a computer program :-).
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