There is a war out there
They fight cause its right
They fight cause its wrong
It goes on
Battle for battle, stroke for stroke
The moment one wins, its all a joke.
There is a war in here
Me against myself
For control of the boat
It goes on
Battle for battle, stroke for stroke
Only, whoever wins, I get hurt
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
A peek into a regular morning of a regular Indian family that
a) has recently been centralized after being a regular distributed Indian family for about two years
b) consists of 4 jobless people and
a) has free Internet from 2 a.m. to 8 a.m.
Life begins at 6 a.m. with the mother tiptoeing into the children's room, not daring to switch on the light lest she wakes up the competition. She makes her way to the P.C in the semi-darkness (which in itself is no mean feat, remember, the two occupants of the room have been thoroughly "hostelized" and are yet to get acclimatized to home discipline) and switches on the UPS. That dumb machine, unaware of the sensitivity of the issue, emits a loud beep that causes the father to open both eyes, the son one and the daughter to stir. By the time the mother has finished her online activities (which cover a wide range - from jewelry stores, to cookery sites to MTV VJs that catch her fancy), the father has completed all formalities and is ready to take over. He then begins his journey of all online newspapers, heard and unheard of. Any missing details are efficiently searched using the small search bar in Yahoo Messenger (the existence of which, I am ashamed to say, I discovered only after I saw him use it). In typical Indian tradition, the son takes over. And in typical gen Y tradition, he dispenses with all formalities and jumps directly from the bed into the chair. While he organizes a massive and comprehensive hunt for unheard of songs and obscure comics, the daughter awakens. Having always belonged to the "Oh Shit! Its morning" community, she takes her time going about it. The Internet, her only gateway to the external world, proves a strong enough motivator. She wakes up, kicks the son out and settles to her few minutes of bliss, which consists of alternating between Orkut and Gmail. Yes, free Internet is pretty much wasted on her. She is lost to the world until someone shouts - "5 minutes to go!". She immediately wraps up her activities and very generously offers the remaining minute or two to anyone with an emergency.
8 a.m. Life goes back to normal.
You would think that with
a) the two children occupied in jobs that provide free Internet and ample free time to (ab)use it and
b) an upgraded Internet connection that is "free" the entire day,
the contention would have reduced. Ha! Remember that law we were taught in school that gases expand to fill the space available? They forgot to mention that it applies to free Internet too!
a) has recently been centralized after being a regular distributed Indian family for about two years
b) consists of 4 jobless people and
a) has free Internet from 2 a.m. to 8 a.m.
Life begins at 6 a.m. with the mother tiptoeing into the children's room, not daring to switch on the light lest she wakes up the competition. She makes her way to the P.C in the semi-darkness (which in itself is no mean feat, remember, the two occupants of the room have been thoroughly "hostelized" and are yet to get acclimatized to home discipline) and switches on the UPS. That dumb machine, unaware of the sensitivity of the issue, emits a loud beep that causes the father to open both eyes, the son one and the daughter to stir. By the time the mother has finished her online activities (which cover a wide range - from jewelry stores, to cookery sites to MTV VJs that catch her fancy), the father has completed all formalities and is ready to take over. He then begins his journey of all online newspapers, heard and unheard of. Any missing details are efficiently searched using the small search bar in Yahoo Messenger (the existence of which, I am ashamed to say, I discovered only after I saw him use it). In typical Indian tradition, the son takes over. And in typical gen Y tradition, he dispenses with all formalities and jumps directly from the bed into the chair. While he organizes a massive and comprehensive hunt for unheard of songs and obscure comics, the daughter awakens. Having always belonged to the "Oh Shit! Its morning" community, she takes her time going about it. The Internet, her only gateway to the external world, proves a strong enough motivator. She wakes up, kicks the son out and settles to her few minutes of bliss, which consists of alternating between Orkut and Gmail. Yes, free Internet is pretty much wasted on her. She is lost to the world until someone shouts - "5 minutes to go!". She immediately wraps up her activities and very generously offers the remaining minute or two to anyone with an emergency.
8 a.m. Life goes back to normal.
You would think that with
a) the two children occupied in jobs that provide free Internet and ample free time to (ab)use it and
b) an upgraded Internet connection that is "free" the entire day,
the contention would have reduced. Ha! Remember that law we were taught in school that gases expand to fill the space available? They forgot to mention that it applies to free Internet too!
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Back to work. A new place, a new beginning. Somehow not quite along the lines of my past beginnings. Allow me to explain.
Flashback: my first job. Though I had got in the hard way [a test, a couple of interviews one of which gave rise to serious doubts about my ever having done engineering], I knew that I still had to prove myself. I had to start from zero and build up from there. People knew nothing about me, assumed nothing and expected nothing out of the ordinary [ordinary of course being completely subjective]. I could take my time, make my mistakes and learn.
Cut to IIT. Another beginning. Another start from zero. Lot more time, lot more freedom to make mistakes [because they hurt no one but you] and a lot more to learn.
Back to work. A new place, a new beginning. But no start from zero. The bar has been raised. My past has caught up with me! People know where I am from and hence assume something, expect something. Nothing out of the ordinary, to be fair, just that ordinary has become a little extra-ordinary.
Flashback: my first job. Though I had got in the hard way [a test, a couple of interviews one of which gave rise to serious doubts about my ever having done engineering], I knew that I still had to prove myself. I had to start from zero and build up from there. People knew nothing about me, assumed nothing and expected nothing out of the ordinary [ordinary of course being completely subjective]. I could take my time, make my mistakes and learn.
Cut to IIT. Another beginning. Another start from zero. Lot more time, lot more freedom to make mistakes [because they hurt no one but you] and a lot more to learn.
Back to work. A new place, a new beginning. But no start from zero. The bar has been raised. My past has caught up with me! People know where I am from and hence assume something, expect something. Nothing out of the ordinary, to be fair, just that ordinary has become a little extra-ordinary.
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