Last week, I watched 3 idiots in theatre alongwith my family. It was after a longtime saw audience (including me) engrossed in watching movie. During the show, I could hear some of them clapping intermittently. In no time, 3 idiots has become talk of the nation. Social network websites are flooded with blogs and scraps on the movie. The movie has hit hard on the lacuna in our education system and society but in a humorous manner. I feel all of us must have experienced these loop holes in some way or the other in our life.

It is sad but one of the many lacunas which still prevails in our society is discrimination between a boy child and a girl child. The reason commonly quoted is “Ladka budhape ki laathi hai. Ladki to parayi amanat hai.” I belong to a well educated family and am blessed with two daughters. On several occasion people (both so called educated and uneducated) have consoled me with their sympathetic words after knowing about my bliss. The conversation starts with their display of shock/surprise “Arre dono betiyaan hain?” Followed by their pity towards me, “Arre ek to ladka hona tha” and then showers consoling words “Arre koi nahin ghar mein do laxmi hain”. Usually I just smile and ignore. But at times it gets on my nerves and force me to say “I am happy with my daughters” Still some well wishers are such who don’t give up “ Arre nahin ek to hona chahiye.” Hearing this I give up and leave the place. I am like.. why? Why are they bothered? It is not just me many others also must have experienced the same. 

Again it is sad but still there are pockets in our society where a birth of a child knowingly/unknowingly is like a start of anyother investment. There are many factors which results into this thought. Most importantly is our social structure which is unlike the west. In our society a child when grown up is supposed to take care of its parents. This is a noble value and I too strongly believe and follow it. But if this value leads to certain expectations in ones mind then it is not healthy. One such expectation is parents do things for child so that it can fulfill their dreams and take care of them in old age. Knowingly/ unknowingly expectations results in treating a child like any other fixed term investment. As per social norms a girl after marriage stays with her husband and a boy with his parents. If expectations are baseline then ROI is anyhow more in case of boy child. May be this is the very reason why a birth of boy child is welcome in our society. I know one educated parent who admitted his boy child in a good school and girl child in a mediocre school quoting education is more important for a boy. If there is an investment then ROI becomes an expectation. Also I have heard so many times parents in fit of anger making statements like “We did so much for you. What you gave us in return?” Should expectations be the bottomline while nurturing a child?

Shouldn’t we welcome the birth of a child irrespective of the gender? Shouldn’t we nurture them so that they can see dreams and go ahead fulfilling their own dreams? Instead of taking command of their life in our hands shouldn’t we guide them to attain wisdom? Let them attain wisdom to judge between right and wrong. Let them become wise enough to take decision and own the responsibility of any eventuality. Shouldn’t they stand on their own feet in true sense?

Will be going to Delhi in this week. Everyone is telling me how cold Delhi is this year. Much more colder than last year. Honestly speaking, because others are saying so, am getting nervous about the upcoming travel to Delhi.

I was never vulnerable to cold. Heat is what I have difficulty bearing but cold never posed any threat in past. I had gone to Vienna with no thermal wear etc. No sweater either. Just a jacket atop the shirt and I survived the snow fall thingy without much fuss. But then it's not worth boasting considering that it was way too shortish trip. Similarly I have had relatively shorter stay in cold places. In other words, I do not have enough data to support my claim :P

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2009 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/428819.html
2007 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/274299.html
2006 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/172507.html

No entries in year 2005 and 2008

2007 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/273940.html
2006 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/171833.html, http://peeyush.livejournal.com/172232.html
2005 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/65611.html, http://peeyush.livejournal.com/65888.html

No entries in year 2008 and 2009

2007 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/273916.html
2006 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/171108.html, http://peeyush.livejournal.com/171474.html
2005 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/65243.html, http://peeyush.livejournal.com/65358.html

No entries in year 2008 and 2009

Its taken me one full year to post an entry on my LJ. What was once unthinkable is now a reality. And its sad.

Anyway its that time of year when i gather my random thoughts and pen down a welcome note (poem) to the new year. So here it goes:

The Long Road

Its a long road, and its lonely
The journey begins, the summit appears,
and i watch myself disappear...
down that road, which is long and lonely.

There's sunshine and hope
Yes, we all need this rope,
just hold on tightly...
'cause the road is long, and its lonely

And there are storms, grasses full of thorns
Don't lose yourself, believe in yourself,
and tread carefully...
'cause the road is long and its lonely.

Its a journey you'll never regret,
an experience you'll never forget.
Its not about the misery,
it is the glory that you get...
when you walk that road which is long and lonely!



So lets take a step forward, and strive to reach the summit! Best wishes for the New Year.


PS: The picture above was taken by me on the way to Hogenakkal Falls.

Video courtesy - Rahul Gupta

And so are my repetitive wishes for all of you - May every eye continue to see dreams and every head find ways and achieve them. May happiness embrace you forever. May your contagious smile be doubly infectious. May your wishy wishes come true. You become the reason for every good thing happening around you. You become the answer to every question your mind throws at you. Seek opportunities and if you can't find one then invent them. Nothing is impossible and you shall always find ways for making them possible. Cherish each moment you live and live it with joy and pride. May this be not just a new year wish for you but for every new day that you wake up in each day of life. (*panting* I hope not to be working this hard every year)

I used to wonder at times why this calendar nonsense. Hated it most when there used to be date specific calculations in mathematics. The most confusing used to be when the days should be inclusive, exclusive. The weekend non-working notion, calculating leap year thingy etc etc. I hated this calendar thing the most when solving confusing problems and loved it the most during festivals. Because if there was no calendar, festivals would not have repeated. In other words, losing out on reasons to celebrate :P. And then people would have said something like - I am 10K old instead of saying I am 27 year old. Yeah, life would have been different if there were no calendar.

So what do you do when you step into a new year, a new number? May be this thing is supposed to be like incrementing one counter but resetting all the remaining ones. May be this thing is supposed to be bring some freshness in time. May be it is for you to start on something new, something different. May be it is time to find out what new year means to you and in which way you want it to be 'new' to you. Whenever you find answer to this, I will be there waiting to hear it from you :)

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2009 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/428677.html
2008 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/375435.html
2007 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/273405.html, http://peeyush.livejournal.com/273544.html
2006 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/170867.html
2005 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/64835.html

2004 - ? Neah, no entry. Because had no LJ account till 9th of Jan :)

When I was a small child I had a strange connection with the story of Dhruva. I used to make my mother tell me Dhruva's story every night for quite some time. When she told me this story first time I had cried a lot. I am very attached to my mother and hence the part of the story where Dhruva has to leave his mother behind because he needs to meet God, used to make me sad. Next time when she started telling the story and the part of his leaving the house was about to be told, she could make out from my face that I am about to cry. So she changed the story itself. She made up the story such that Dhruva's mother, father and all the people accompanied him to the forest.

Whenever the possibility of me going away from my mother used to arise, I used to be always ready with a solution which will allow me to be near her. To the normal questions of elders, "What do you want to be when you grow up?", I used to say "a doctor". Then my mother used to say then you have to go to your clinic and I will say, "No, I will have my clinic in the drawing room itself", just next to the kitchen where she used to be most of the time. If she asks me what I will do when I get married, I used to say that " I will marry next door neighbour's son and I will stay here and he will stay in his house."  However funny it may sound but It was not only my childhood fears which made me want her all the time. Even when I was in a hostel for my engineering, I have made my hostel mate's life miserable for 2 yrs by crying every possible time.

When myself and Pankaj decided to get married, both families were worried about the differences in religion, caste, language, eating preferences and so many other things.  Taking my stubborn nature into consideration and his family's fixed ideas about a daughter-in-law, my mother was sure that I will not be able to sustain there for more than 2-3 months. She still goes in temporary shocked state when she realizes that I am about to complete 15 years of married life. When I think about it even I tend to agree with her that how did this happen? And only thing I can think of is that there must be some iota of her influence on my nature which has led into this transformation. I have seen her going through all phases of her life, bad to worst, dealing with different people, including close ones, but always setting her priorities right. She has the biggest advantage of ability to think from other 's perspectives. That leads to think only positively about others as well as about yourself. And may be I have inherited it to little extent. I have not been through hardships which she had to go through. But whatever share I had to take up became bearable only because of learning I had from her.

This applies not only to my personal life but even to my professional life. Whatever I could achieve in there I can easily relate to her amazing sense of hard work without needing any short cuts, doing the best even for so-called trivial tasks and keeping her interest alive till she fulfills the responsibility taken up by her.

So when I think about this, I realize that she is my 'Dhruva'. She has a position which can never be taken by anybody else. She has led me and directed me to the right paths. If I can do that for my children I would be the happiest soul. 

May be Dhruva should had tried that with his mother instead of leaving her alone and going in search of God. I am sure God would had come searching for him then.

During last year of college education (1999 it was), myself and couple of other used to talk that new millennium belongs to us. Though that statement was partly about getting fame and money thing but now money and fame are no longer on the wanted list. Somehow started finding those things pretty shallow. It must be something else. No, it isn't about knowledge or wisdom either because even that will be lost with time. So here I am, looking for something that won't change with time. When I find it, I will prefer dedicate life to that stuff rather than the remaining moving targets :P

That millennium sentiment hasn't changed. Millennium still belongs to me. Which special way, unfortunately, is not known yet. With the first decade coming to an end, I think, it started off on a very good note. Professionally I got into a place with good people having great heart. Personally I got into a place that's very comfortable and healthy for people who matter to me. I have lived through all the important emotions, have learned lessons my teacher (time) taught me and feel better about self with each passing day. What is better that with each passing moment, that faith, that sentiment keeps growing more and more strong. When and how, only time will tell :)

Lets walk with time and not let it leave us behind.

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2007 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/375235.html
2004 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/64338.html, http://peeyush.livejournal.com/64742.html

No entries in year 2005, 2006 and 2008

Last time we had been on the temple visit tour, it was a hectic and tiring tour. Each of those visited temples had ample of devotees. Today we tried visit a couple of temples within mumbai, wadala to be specific. The number of devotees were handful and it felt really nice to be able to spend some quality time inside the temple without being pushed and rushed. Then went to Siddhivinayak temple from there and thankfully there too the devotee counts were less than usual. Though it still had some push and rush thingy but nevertheless we could retain our spots to be able to attend dhoop aarti.

Thank you buddy for gifting me the best possible life. And yeah, today's event management by you was pretty good too.

BTW, this year is turning out to be good one considering that I have been able to exhaust CLs (Casual Leaves) and RHs (Restricted Holidays). Quite an achievement in itself considering that every year I have been missing out on exhausting at least one them. But then the year turning out to be good one is not just for the leave part. This year has been way too special for couple of other reasons. Which reasons? Forget it. Those are close enough to my heart to be making appearance in public :)

Continuing further on leave thingy, I still have 179 earned leaves (paid leaves?) resting peacefully in my account. I don't think I will be able to exhaust them ever. Reason being that with each passing time, I expect my involvement and busy-ness to grow with work. Taking longish leaves may not be possible unless there are extraordinary circumstances. Also I haven't yet mastered art of sleeping for 6 straight months. Kumbhakaran dude, you may give me coaching on this whenever you wake up next.

May be I should find out if there are possibilities of me going on some deputation sorta thingy for 6 months or so. Try my hands in industry/corporate sorta thing. Only two questions. Is it possible? If yes then where should it be...

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2005 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/170421.html, http://peeyush.livejournal.com/170683.html
2004 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/64226.html

No entries in year 2006, 2007 and 2008

Tolerance is not adjustment happening out of compulsion. I would rather call it cowardice rather than tolerance. Tolerance, to me, is about living discomforting situations with ease, with happiness and satisfaction. You should not be losing peace of mind. Your should feel satisfied throughout so much that the other person wanting to frustrate you, himself/herself feels frustrated at every sight of you. Funnily even though the later part of previous statement is not an intended objective of 'tolerance' thingy but I have witnessed it happening a lot of times. There are few who like to inflicts injuries on others but feel miserable when they are unable to. That's what tolerance, in spiritual sense, is capable of doing to such nut cases.

Yeah, this was partly discussed with Venkat when some moron at gaylord played mood spoiler. Also for those who may not have read about this thing (http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/randomaccess/entry/sorry-indians-not-allowed1 - courtesy http://twitter.com/srrajeev)

Another thing, tolerance works at individual level and for self. If you tolerate wrong stuff for your fellowmen then, again, it's an act of cowardice. So when you see things like the one cited above happening, it is important to speak out.

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2006 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/273075.html
2004 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/63839.html

No entries in year 2005, 2007 and 2008

With no one volunteering to log it down (or they could be logging in other places beyond my knowledge/access), me is taking up my part-time incompetent correspondent role. But it could be incomplete version because I was out of the scene before dinner thingy. Here's the summary before diving deep in the lj-cut:
1) Adventurous bus-n-taxi-ride
2) Chaos theory @ NCPA
3) Walking n driving from marine drive to colaba to backtrack to marine drive

( Teh log )

There was an interesting talk about tolerance that I had with Venkat. That hopefully will be the topic of the next upcoming blog.

[Update #1] Pic uploaded. Camera courtesy - Rahul.

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2008 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/427719.html, http://peeyush.livejournal.com/428015.html, http://peeyush.livejournal.com/428133.html, http://peeyush.livejournal.com/428521.html
2005 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/170169.html
2004 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/63717.html

No entries in year 2006 and 2007

L2R: self, mom, "leela bai", rahul, venkat

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2008 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/427331.html
2005 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/169802.html
2004 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/63460.html

No entries in year 2006 and 2007

In an effort to get our thinking caps on, I wish to post a design quandry to you all.

Recently, I was moving through a dungeon in a certain roleplaying game, when I came across the quandry that my inventory became full halfway through an incredibly long dungeon which made me not want to drop anything OR trudge back to the nearest seller.

Now, this is a common problem in RPGs, FPSs, and many other games these days. The flat limit of "You have a ton of stuff and you can now have no more" alongside the "Our dungeons are epic and expansive".

There have been many possible remedies to this, including:
*Scroll of Town Portal, popping you back, temporarily, to a homestead
*Sending an NPC back to town to sell your items, losing their fighting ability while helping you keep going
*Light/Medium/Heavy Loads, giving increasing detriment as you continue up towards the heavy load, although this still pushes players to trudge back through the dungeon

So I ask you to brainstorm. If you were halfway through a "dungeon" (as in, any lengthy environment away from base camp/stores), what features can you come up with to help alleviate, temporarily or otherwise, the burden of trudging back to base AND dropping items mid-dungeon.

BRUCE AND THE SPIDER

by: Bernard Barton (1784-1849)

For Scotland's and for freedom's right
The Bruce his part has played;--
In five successive fields of fight
Been conquered and dismayed:
Once more against the English host
His band he led, and once more lost
The meed for which he fought;
And now from battle, faint and worn,
The homeless fugitive, forlorn,
A hut's lone shelter sought.

And cheerless was that resting-place
For him who claimed a throne;--
His canopy, devoid of grace,
The rude, rough beams alone;
The heather couch his only bed--
Yet well I ween had slumber fled
From couch of eider down!
Through darksome night till dawn of day,
Absorbed in wakeful thought he lay
Of Scotland and her crown.

The sun rose brightly, and its gleam
Fell on that hapless bed,
And tinged with light each shapeless beam
Which roofed the lowly shed;
When, looking up with wistful eye,
The Bruce beheld a spider try
His filmy thread to fling
From beam to beam of that rude cot--
And well the insect's toilsome lot
Taught Scotland's future king.

Six times the gossamery thread
The wary spider threw;--
In vain the filmy line was sped,
For powerless or untrue
Each aim appeared, and back recoiled
The patient insect, six times foiled,
And yet unconquered still;
And soon the Bruce, with eager eye,
Saw him prepare once more to try
His courage, strength, and skill.

One effort more, his seventh and last!--
The hero hailed the sign!--
And on the wished-for beam hung fast
That slender silken line!
Slight as it was, his spirit caught
The more than omen; for his thought
The lesson well could trace,
Which even "he who runs may read,"
That Perseverance gains its meed,
And Patience wins the race.

(source http://www.poetry-archive.com/b/bruce_and_the_spider.html)

Season's greeting to everyone. Merry Christmas :)

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2008 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/427147.html
2007 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/374907.html
2006 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/272687.html
2005 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/169502.html
2004 - http://peeyush.livejournal.com/62974.html, http://peeyush.livejournal.com/63190.html