Just a thought

The return of the prodigal

2010-03-31T08:10:00.001+05:30

Most of you would have read this popular parable on which this post’s title is based.

Its been a long time since I updated my blog and I thought it was time to return. It had been even longer since I stopped frequenting the gym and on that front also it was time to return. Why did I think it was time ? well ….. A few things happened, a few thoughts kept running through my head, I saw a ‘sign’, my daughter also chipped in and then it happened.

Three weeks back I went through my annual medical checkup … I went through it with dread – for wot eva reason. I was told by the guy conducting the stress test “So you don’t" exercise regularly”. I looked back and said “is it so obvious” ?. He paused and said “Yeah, its pretty obvious, but everything is normal” When the report came it labeled me as having a sedentary lifestyle. (Come on guys you shouldn't be labeling people like that ).

Currently the season of lent is in progress and my church’s signboard read “Repent today – you may not have a tomorrow” - now that is a SIGN. Speaking of repenting another season that is in progress is ‘appraisal’ season :) [dont ask me why I mentioned this here].

Some time back I was sitting with my daughter at home and suddenly she turns to me and says “Dada, sit straight … straighter.. straighter… keep your back straight”. I was puzzled for a moment and then obeyed her instructions till I was sitting straight enough for her. She then looks at me triumphantly and smiles “See… if you sit like that your paunch cant be seen”. That was it.. the final blow.. I needed to do something.

So I’m back… well almost back actually…I just started frequenting the gym… getting there is more like it.

Through all of this I realize that it is never too late start. Better late than never is something that sinks in ..better late then never. And this true for a lot of things not only getting back to the gym :)

A couple of questions ….

2009-12-11T08:00:00.001+05:30

I have thinking recently about the questions people ask. People go through life asking all kinds of questions. For a child it is but natural that the typical questions of How, What, Why, keep flooding all the people around that child. My 10 year old is no different … she is full of questions most of the time.

Sometimes though some questions my little one asks stick in my mind.. let me give you a couple of examples.

Place: Mac’s counter / Time: Last weekend after a movie / The question : Dada, Should I take a ‘Shake Shake Fries’ ? / What happened next: I looked at her, tried to hide my confusion.. then she says ‘It’s only 10 Rs’… this increases my confusion. What the heck is a Shake Shake Fries ? and how can something at Mac’s cost 10 bucks ? I mumble something under my breath…then I tell her ‘uh-huh.. yeah take na’… I wait with bated breath. My little one then promptly pulls out a tenner and hands it over to the lady at the counter. The lady knowingly asks ‘Shake Shake Fries’? My little one nods her head eagerly. I am still waiting not having the faintest idea what is to follow. The lady turns back to the counter and hands over a paper bag and a small sachet of ‘masala’. I look on in awe as my daughter collects and then proceeds to walk away. It took me all the way across the seating area to realise what you do with a Shake Shake Fries.

Place: Home / Time: I had just got back from a tiring day at office / The question: Dada Can you teach me how to send an email ? / What happened next: I look at her in disbelief and ask ‘huh,.. whom do you want to email ‘ ? she replies ‘I asked my friend for her mail id so that I can mail her’. I say sure and then wait anxiously till she gets through her dinner so that she can get onto the laptop. Once she is ready, I give her instructions from across the room . My better half gets involved and takes her through the steps to send / forward an email. Multiple thoughts keep running through my mind. My better half and I are in complete awe of the fact that our little one is growing up. Yes she is growing up and is learning new things every day.

Thinking back on these two incidents and a post regarding questions I read recently reminded me of these questions.

Place: Everywhere / Time: All the time / The questions: Could I be more lucky than to spend the time that I do with my little one ? Can I ever be thankful enough for the people in my life, especially my better half and my little one ? I am sure that all parents everywhere rejoice in their children as much and ask these same questions.

The first few waves ….

2009-11-04T09:45:00.025+05:30

A lot of exciting things have happened in the last one month or so - Karmic Koala got released, Snow Leopard got released, Redhat released 5.4 with KVM got released, ICANN gives IDNs the thumbs up, Firefox releases a beta mobile browser (Fennec) and off course Windows 7 got released, ( and the verdict was surprisingly good ;-) ). Google also released a preview version of Google Wave. The Google Wave preview is clearly my favourite among the above list.

For those who came in late .. please check out the looooong video and the wikipedia page

Ever since we got past that initial Google Wave date of 30th September, the eagerness to try out Google Wave just kept on increasing. Nobody seemed to have got an invite and everyone was just asking around for Wave invites. Kind of reminded me of the early days of Gmail, when everyone wanted an 'invite' to GMAIL.

Imagine my surprise when I got a mail from "Google Wave Invites " asking me to fill in a form. This was no less than a developer preview in Google Wave sandbox (wavesandbox.com) invite. Shortly after that I got a Google Wave invite from a friend. So after one month of agonising about getting an invite I got not one but two invites :-)

Using Google Wave takes a little getting used to... what with letter by letter update, operational transformation et al. Everything seems to be a wave - even settings, extension settings and invite options. The gadgets are an interesting part of google Wave - The most famous gadget is I think the Yes/No/Maybe, but I am also looking forward to see more of Gravity. The Sandbox off course has a lot more options - mainly a debug link which gives an option to do a lot of stuff.

The google Wave preview is obviously a preview and one does get frequent messages regarding 'unsynched waves' etc.

As I said the ‘preview’ kind of reminds me of the beta that Gmail went through and I have a sneaking suspicion that the preview is gonna last a fair bit. All in all Google wave is something worth keeping a watch on to see how things develop especially how the open Wave Federation Protocol evolves and is adopted.

I intend to try out some more stuff on the sandbox as and when I get the time. Will try to put a post or two on my findings.

See you later ... Alligator..

2009-10-07T14:44:00.000+05:30

This thought starts somewhere in the middle of last year, but before I start, I need to provide some background facts.

My daughter is currently in the 5th standard and has school from 7 in the morning to 1 in the afternoon. Till last year she had the relatively comfortable timing of 1 pm to 6 pm. and then my better half used to drop my daughter to school. I would be the first to admit that my better half is the one that fulfils most of my daughter's schooling requirements - be it in terms of helping her with daily work, preparing for her exams to almost everything. My better half is responsible and is to be thanked for a lot of things, but I will reserve that for another post.

Having stated the above facts, I come back to the start of my story - As I said it was somewhere in the middle of last year, that I realised that from the academic year 2009-10. (thats next year when I was thinking of it last year :-)) I would be dropping my daughter to school daily. Obviously I was excited in spite of the fact that the day would start a little earlier than before. I was not the only one who was excited, my daughter even displayed some enthu ... she used to say 'Dada next year you'll be taking me to school !!!' and give a broad smile.

A recent post I read about office farewells got me thinking about goodbyes in general. I have been in IT for the last 9 years or so and have seen my fair share of farewells. I always used to be - and still am probably - a tad (nay much more than a tad) uncomfortable about the plethora of positives that people would see in the person who was about to leave the organisation. A person is leaving and suddenly people discover what a good person he or she is. Tell them now for heaven's sake.

I got to comparing these office farewells (not that there have been too many recently ;-)) with how I wished my daughter to 'fare' well at school everyday. Saying bye to my daughter when I drop her off at school is a complicated business. For one it is always a competition to see who is the last person standing and 'waving off' the other person out of sight (much like 'you hang up first on the phone'). Secondly and most importantly I realised that the last few minutes I spend with my daughter are important in setting the tone or mood right for her day at school and this is a big responsibility for me. It also defines how I start my day.

Here is a pic of my daughter as she makes her way into the school compound. The pic is probably a little fuzzy because of the early hour :-)

All said and done, today after half the year is almost over I must confess that dropping my daughter to school in the mornings is without doubt one of the more enjoyable activities that I do. In fact I would rate it as one of my daily miracles.

...I will enjoy this as long as I can ... soon she'll be old enough to make her way to school by herself...

Returning to the mount... Memories

2009-09-22T08:18:00.001+05:30

Every year the week following the 8th of September changes things for Bandra. The week long 'Bandra-fair' draws thousands and thousands of devotees to Mount Mary's church in Bandra. The 8th of September is celebrated as 'Mother Mary's' birthday and normally the 'fair' is the following week ... Sunday to Sunday.

Check out a pic of the inside of the church. Legend has it that the statue was found floating in the sea by a Koli fisherman 300 years ago. The fair itself also claims a similar age.

I have been going to the Mount ever since I was a little boy (not that I'm grown up now). My reasons for returning to the mount have been different over the years.

My earliest memories are of going to 'Bandra fair' as a small child with my parents. The main draw in those days was obviously the fair .... I remember the impatience I used to feel as we visited the church. Always wanting to get the church bit over with and get to the fair .... the toy stalls, the sweets, the rides on the 'giant wheel' .... I still remember trying to catch a glimpse of the sea from the top of the stairs.

As I grew up and got into college, the attraction for the fair continued ... not so much for the toys and sweets but for the outing with friends. Those were the times when meeting and making friends was the main attraction. The 'September Gardens' used to be a place where all of us used to meet.

After my college days, there was a gap for a long time. I started going to the fair again after I met my better half ... We have been going together to Mount Mary's church every year since '93. Those trips to Mount Mary with my better half are among my better memories. In 1999 against my better judgement we took my daugther to the mount for the first time ... she was all of three months old at the time and it rained heavily that day. We even walked down the fair carrying her in our arms.

Looking back I am glad that we did take her that year and all the years after that.

Here is a pic of her now checking out her attractions in the fair. A trinket shop selling bangles, clips, bags etc etc. (Hmmm ... Why did I never stop at these shops when I was a kid. )

She also seems to get a kick out of the fact that we need to pass 'Mannat' on the walk up to the church.

Another memory that keeps coming back is of the movie "Amar Akbar Anthony" and the church sequences in that movie. That was a strange church - the inside was Don Bosco's, Matunga and the outside Mount Mary. :-)

Over the years we have collected many memories and blessings during our trips to Mount Mary's church. I realise there are many people out there who would feel the same and make the trip again and again - year after year.

.... Stretch Yourself ......

2009-09-05T14:40:00.000+05:30

Its been a little over two months now that I have started going to a gym. The first couple of weeks I remember the enthusiastic instructor kept harping on the need to do some stretching exercises. "DO SOME STRETCHING" is what he would shout out.

During my walk (yup, I havent graduated to running yet) on the treadmill he would normally shout out "PUSH YOURSELF" .... "STRETCH YOURSELF". Yes Tejas more often than not would give instructions by shouting ... this kind of worked with most people. You see, if you were thinking of stopping short of completing your routine, a shout of encouragement saying "PUSH YOURSELF" or "COME ON YOU CAN DO IT" from Tejas would get you back on track.

Around the middle of August I attended a talk by Harsha Bhogle, the cricket commentator, at the SAP World Tour event in Mumbai. He spoke of the need to 'stretch' yourselves. He narrated a story about how a cricketer had to miss a Test match because of a 'yawn' .. Apparently the yawn made him pull an obscure muscle and made the player unfit. Harsha Bhogle also spoke of the need to stretch ones self especially in these changing times. Why changing times ... we should be pushing ourselves and stretching yourselves all the time. How else can one realize one's potential.

The above two people in two different ways saying stretch yourself have made me realize how often we tend to relax and settle down into our respective comfort zones. We tend to do just the things that are needed to get the job done and not push ourselves to the limit and explore our true potential. Be it in the gym, in the workplace or in life.

This just one of the things that I have been thinking about over the last week or so and thought I would share this .... Just a thought....