My first Post on WordPress

Yes, you read it right. This is my first blog post on WordPress, and not my first blog post!

I have been maintaining (and shall continue) a blog under the same title “Thoughtful Timepass” in Blogger, since 2005, that’s almost a decade now, and almost after 2.5 years of Microblogging – Twitter.

Have read many impressive articles about wordpress, and finally decided to take the plunge, and experience myself by posting at both places – Blogger and WordPress in future. However the hidden secret is to achieve a sort of backup or redundancy of my posts!

By, any chance, if you landed on this page, expecting a few tips for writing your first blog post, check my first blog post here.

The Year 2013 – for me

I would like to maintain my style of posting about a recap of events that happened in the last year, as my first post of the year – a sort of autobiography.  So, here it is:

• It’s difficult to start learning something new, especially as basic as a skill like driving, and that too when people less than half your age, already have mastered it. Nevertheless, with a firm mind, I started with a two-wheeler, and within a month, mastered it (simply means, you keep driving in chaotic traffic, and try to find way, even within a very narrow space!). Then came the bigger one – Learning to drive a manual transmission car (with gears!), in real traffic and that too in curvy and slope roads, (ofcourse after getting trained from a professional driving school) 
• Had the experience of being pulled into a project and being pushed out of a project purely for non-technical reasons! – Though I had to admit that, I was wishing for it to happen.  
• Met reasonable success in a project that involved overcoming huge administrative challenges, and happy as it brought a sense of satisfaction after a lot frustration and will be a very important milestone in the history of the organization that I am working with. 
• Yet another project of mine, relating to academic networking saw some reasonable success; However all the above projects require continuous follow up to sustain the success!
• Started to do some serious study on DNS, that I had kept in my wish list for a long time. 
• My mentor and boss, for almost a decade, moved to another location of the organization. This lead to series of changes, but at the end, you learn to accept the changes.
• Had a busy time authoring proposals in areas related to Information Security, the domain that I had been involved with for the past few years  
• Got a feel of Hybrid PC or Convertibles – (Laptop with detachable screen, and screen can act as a tab), but soon realized that these products are immature and not going to suit someone who spends considerable time in front of the PC. 
• Had the experience of learning and working with good number of interns this year
• Had the experience of running around the government offices to apply and collect few essential documents!
• Travel: As usual made trips to New Delhi, Tirumala, Madurai, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Chennai

My two cents worth of view on Hinduism

Fortunately I had umpteen opportunities to discuss about Hinduism with many diverse people; people who were orthodox, who were moderate and liberal, who were atheists, and also people who were either orthodox or liberal followers of other religions.

Well, first the disclaimers. I am neither a Pundit, nor a orthodox follower (hence the title – two cents).  My views given below are my own, and that I had realized or evolved over long periods of time.

To start with, Hinduism is a label attributed (probably by the Britishers) to the people who followed a certain culture and were living around the current Indian geographical regions. Over the years,  it became branded as a religion, though it is not an organized religion unlike   many others. Also, as mentioned in my earlier posts, a religion is only a path to spirituality, and many texts, like Ramayan or Gita, that are attributed to Hinduism, reinforce the same – in other words, an orthodox following of Hinduism (or any religion for that matter) may not necessarily make a person spiritual! 

If I had to share one most important facet or fundamental trait of the religion of Hinduism, then this would be the one.

Every thing you do or believe will have an effect.

Though this may be sound too simplistic, this forms the basis for many other concepts or philosophies in this religion. The point to be noted is that even an intangible thing or even as abstract thought or belief will have a resultant effect. Also, even if you claim to do nothing, or even think of nothing (Meditation!), it will have its own result / effect.  Belief (a strong thought with conviction, as I would like to put it) is emphasized very much in numerous ways through out Hinduism.  If you have a strong and unshakable belief or faith, you will get the results of your belief.

The implications of this simple concept are phenomenal and in-numerous. Add to this, the resultant effects get carried forward to your next re-birth, and that’s Karma in the most simplistic sense. In Hinduism, this concept of Karma, leads to the cycle of birth and death and therefore reincarnation of our soul.  This leads to the concept of destiny or fate, which is determined by your actions not only in this current birth, but also from the actions of your previous births or incarnations! 

The concepts of karma, destiny or fate has the potential to answer any question that one may encounter or realize for oneself, generally during the toughest times or during their peaks in life. To give an example, How two children born at same date and same time, and probably even the same place and the same environment get their lives shaped up differently ?

The Secret Success Sutra and Mantra

First the Disclaimer: This is an abstract model that I believe, defines success. Success can mean many things to many people, but I go with the view that Success is something that creates a positive impact on the humanity and meant for the long-term. It is not momentary and definitely not a short-cut. This formula must work 95% of the time, and the remaining 5% have to be resigned to fate, or ill luck or there may be something better waiting to happen.  Here the Sutra means Formula and Mantra refers to the activity done repetitively (as pronouncing a sound during meditation). 

With enough preludes, let me start it.

Passion, is the base or the pivot point or the binding force that stitches many things and gives a new meaning to what you do. Passion is the most critical element and I had already dealt with it in several of my previous posts – starting with similiarities among great achievers and then bringing out differences between Emotions and Passion and about the minute differences between Passion Vs Feelings.

To explain with a different perspective, people who may have in-born talent or a skill that they can master like a fish to water, will generally have difficult time in managing themselves, and without a passion that binds their talents and skills, they will not be able to shine and generally lose their focus. In the same vein Passion has the power to equalize even a novice or a person without any of the required skills or in-born talent and a person who has those skills.

Now let’s get into the the Success formula, which has been depicted through the below figure. Passion is the seed for Success. With passion, you practice, persist and then perfect a skill or a job to be a master. A key ingredient or a catalyst in all these activities is Patience. Patience is critical to understand and learn; and requires a lot of self-motivation. Practice and Patience are required for Persistence, and to attain Perfection, you need Practice, Persistence and the key binding element of Patience.  

If you have Patience and Persistence it is easy to develop a passion and if you practice it to perfection, success will be in your way.  Other parameters like your attitude will help you a lot, but only Practice and Persistence can take you to the path of success.  If you are already possessed by passion, then you will automatically have Patience, and with enough of practice and persistence, you can master it to Perfection! – indicated as the convergence point at top of the image.  

You may be wondering that I had missed out on Planning and Preparation. But they can only serve as tools to push oneself and help in sharpening the focus. However, without passion, planning and preparation will simply be monotonous activities, and unfortunately they are overemphasized and drilled into our minds. The most common example is that of the competitive examinations, where everyone is urged to plan and prepare, but largely without a passion for the subject, or we find the passion being misplaced – to emerge as the topper.  This may lead to success in the exams, but that will be a success without a soul in it.  

Now, you may be wondering why the outer circle or eclipse? It’s to indicate we keep running around or moving around circles, or in elliptical orbits doing things routinely. To go to the next level, either we need to revolve around at very high speed, or we need an external force that will displace us to a new orbit. Generally, we find ourselves comfortable and settled in a orbit, over a time period, which will lead to complacency, but we need to keep pushing ourselves till we go near Perfection. 

India’s Telephone Service in 1970’s and 80’s

India’s 162 year old telegram service (1851-2013) had come to an end on July 14, 2013.  At this juncture, I wondered how many of us know how the telephone system worked, especially in the 1970’s or 1980’s, where telephones were not available in our residences. 

If you need need to make a long distance call, to your relative residing in a farther location, all you need to do was to walk up to your nearest Postal and Telegraph office, and the following process ensues. 

• At your nearest postal and telegraph office, you book a ‘trunk call’ by giving your relative’s name and full residential address (and your details too) to the operator or clerk there. You may also have to typically pay an advance amount of Rs.10/- (Remember this was during 1980’s).
• The operator then calls your relative’s corresponding postal and telegraph office and informs about your and your relative’s details to the operator and asks them to inform your relative. 
• A person from your relative’s postal and telegraph office then goes to the residence of your relative and informs him about your call, and requests the relative to come to the office to speak with you. 
• After your relative goes to his local postal and telegraph office, the operator informs your operator and then the call is initiated, generally by you (as the caller) and you communicate.  Billing is based on “caller pays”, though I am not sure of the rates, and had felt it was generally low – even in 80’s – and have felt that it in many occasions the operator will refund you the money you paid.  

In three decades, the voice communications have evolved drastically from the above scenario to landline telephones becoming affordable, telephone booths at every corner, and the arrival of mobile phones that have wiped out both of the above and converted it from a family device to a personal device and future looks bright for mobiles with 4G and LTE knocking at our doors .. oops … mobiles. 

The Fine Art of Delicate Balancing

Warning: This post might sound like a philosophical rambling, though it’s not. 

 

Balancing is a critical aspect, and required in all aspects of our life, especially for us – the so called evolved and intelligent species on earth!

Balancing, especially Delicate Balancing is required in all situations, and if everyone of us could master it,  there won’t be conflicts or war, despite difference of opinions and perceptions.   

Though this may sound odd, we try to perform this art (or exercise) many a times in our daily lives. Starting with learning to balance a bicycle, or driving a car, we do the act of balancing every day, and almost every moment. We require this quality to achieve any objective, and also to keep the wheels of our lives moving.  

Delicate Balancing is present abundantly in nature, as in case of Water – the most basic and essential element of life – we can find a delicately balanced perfect liquid – composed of water molecules that mingle in a perfect way that are neither tightly bonded (solid/ice) nor completely independent of each other (gas/vapor).   Few more examples derived from Nature, Mythology, Philosophy and from real life are given below:

• Planetary System and their orbits that make earth conducive for life 
• Even ‘Amruth’ – a drink that is supposed to give eternal life, as in Hindu Mythology, is advised only to be taken in the right quantum; excessive dosage will function as a poison – as per a Tamil proverb – (அளவுக்கு மீறினால் அமிர்தமும் நஞ்சு) . 
• The concept of Yin and Yang emphasizes the concept of delicate balancing – as balancing between two opposing forces; balancing between positive and negatives and so on …  
• Equilibrium between Supply and Demand in a (free) market, wherein both the producers and consumers will benefit (Consumers pay the minimum possible cost or the minimum sustainable profit in the producer’s perspective)
• If you are a typical Indian married male, you know that balancing the intellectual (!) arguments between your wife and mother, requires delicate balancing, and you know the results of failure 🙂 

 

Yin and Yang is all about Balancing

To put this in a general perspective, let us consider The Internet – a revolutionary tool created by the mankind – that could eventually allows us to connect with anybody in this world, breaking all borders and barriers (Wish this continues and grows for ever) and where all kinds of information can be found, and sometimes one might find information that is provocative or information that is false. 

The Father of Internet, Dr. Vinton Cerf advises on the issue of dealing with such emotional and sensitive information on Internet by applying the Critical Thinking Capability – to know and understand all aspects of an issue or an event or an argument, and this, essentially requires us to develop  a trait – the art of delicate balancing to enable us to move forward.  

We all know that everyone of us are unique and will serve a purpose in this big Universe. Hence there will be frictions and arguments due to difference of opinions and perceptions, but there will be some valid point in all sides of an argument. To gear up ourselves and to move forward, we need to equip ourselves with abilities to achieve the delicate balancing without which we shall remain stagnant and vanish. 

Delicate Balancing is like balancing a coin without taking sides – of the head or tail, but understanding them – and only such a delicately balanced coin will be able to move easily .

Though we are capable of practicing this art of delicate balancing, we tend to ignore it when we are under emotional stress or when we want to willingly disconnect from this quality of ours to achieve a emotional high. We often tend to loose this quality when we deal with situations that provoke us. 

It’s difficult, but not impossible, for us to practice this art at every small step that we take in our day-to-day lives, and like every art, this too requires persistence, patience, and practice.

P.S: Well, I understand preaching is easy, while practicing is difficult. I hope and wish I will master it one day and will be able to figure it out in every situation. 

The Year 2012 – for me

It’s becoming difficult to blog these days! With Work pressure,  Social Networking (Facebook, Twitter), Professional Networking (LinkedIn) eating up your time,  its difficult to blog unless you have a compelling reason to write.  Let me stop here, otherwise this subject matter would be a blog post by itself. 

So, I start this year, as usual by reflecting about myself in the past year – 2012.  It had it own share of satisfactions and disappointments

• The Academic Networking Portal that we were building picked up a good number of users without any promotions and despite our deliberate underplayed stance. We started the year with less than 100 users and by the end of the year, we had more than 1700+ registered users. 

• Faced lot of heat and pressure (and sleepless nights) on the project related to a DR setup. As this was the first of the kind project being executed by me, and the first of its kind to the entire organization, it was really challenging as there were too lengthy processes and execution of it took its own sweet time.   Spent my full time only on this effort in the last few months of the year, pushing myself hard and taking the extra long steps to see things are getting done. 

• Attended a conference on Disaster Management and was impressed by the speakers from all over the world. Had a paper presentation in the same conference and got the ‘Best Paper Award’ but felt bad as the organizers never handed over the promised cash prize!

• Disappointed by the way private schools collect money and wondered what great ideals could be imparted to the children by them!

• Got selected for a Training Program (One among the only 2 participants from India) on Information Security Management System – ISO 27000 organized by Asian Productivity Organization and conducted by Korea Productivity Centre at Seoul, Republic of Korea.  Had a very nice, interesting and useful experience. 

• Got Selected for the Internet Society’s Next Generation Leadership Program – an E-Learning Course on History and Future of Internet and Governance. Very happy and cherished the learning’s and experience I gained through this. Successfully completed the course. 

• Got involved in a project proposal that was very innovative, and will change the digital landscape of   e-governance services – a project related to authentication. However due to prolonging delays and certain other issues, I exited out of it. 

• An Organizational change happened, at an unexpected time, and in a very rapid way, which no one expected it to happen in such  a way. It created lots of doubts, fears etc… though such a change was logical and was bound to happen one day. It shook us. 

• Received my PhD Degree in Convocation

• Internship Guidance: Guided a good number of students/interns. Learnt a lesson that not all students come with open minds and interests in doing Internship – some of them have their own self-interests and will waste your time and energy – So lesson is to be careful and choose only the right students. 

• Some Moments: Wireless Internet Connection,  Conduction of Internal ISO Audit; 

• Travel: Nagercoil, Tirupathi,  Andaman, Seoul and  Hong Kong. So travel in 2012 was exciting!

Seoul and Hong Kong

I visited Seoul for a short training program this year in May, and while on the way back had an opportunity to spend few hours in Hong Kong (Thanks to the long transit hours).  Well this was two months before the Korean hit ‘Gangnam Style’ was released. I came to know of Olympics and watched the first Olympic  games in Television, when it happened in Seoul and at that time (1980’s) never thought or even dreamt that I would visit it later in my life.

Namsan Seoul Tower

Seoul is a neat, clean and big city. I had the opportunity to visit few places like the Namsan Seoul Tower and the Gyeongbokgung palace. In Seoul’s love tower there is an interesting practice of lovers tying locks – called love padlocks to fences and then throwing the keys away.  The Gyeongbokgung palace has a long history dating back to 14th Century. It is a beautiful and picturesque place to watch.

King Sejong

While roaming around I found a number of shops that sell women’s beauty products and I should say such shops were almost everywhere, and I realized the magnitude of this business only here.  BB (Blemish Balm) Cream and perfumes are something to look out for in these shops. I also observed a good number of Coffee Shops like Starbucks and assumed that Koreans are fond of Coffee and Chocolate (Lotte is famous and has huge presence here, as the founder is from Korea), till I discovered Ginseng Tea.

I found that people are generally helpful. Myself and my friends lost our way and a passer-by took us to the local traffic cop who dropped us at our Hotel.  I also observed that people were widely using smart phones and relying on apps for many services.

Two things that are of concern to me was food and Language. For a vegetarian (different from vegan, as Milk and its byproducts are fine with me), its really tough to find vegetarian food / dishes. Also communicating with the people to ensure that a food item does not contain meat or fish was difficult. Communicating in English was a problem, many a times.

On the way back, I managed to spend few hours in Hong Kong. I roamed around the streets, saw a good number of Indian restaurants, spent some time in Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Museum, knowing about his life and traveled to the  Kowloon Island through the Star ferry service – saw the Star-Cruise luxury ships on the way. In Kowloon, took a local bus to go and see Sky Towers, which was quite disappointing,(probably it would have been better in day times) and then took the Airport Express – Metro train connecting three islands – Hongkong, Kowloon, and  Chep Lak Kok (An artificial island) to reach Airport.

Hong Kong Skyline

Both HongKong and Seoul are nice places to visit for an Holiday

2011 – The year that was for me!

I had been pushing myself to write this post, as it had become a kind of ‘ritual’ for me to start an year’s blogging with reflections of my past year. Also, I should admit that, after I started ‘tweeting’, it has become extremely difficult to Blog!  So here, I go…

• My Current project had been driving me – as, I got more passionate about it, as days passed by in 2011, and I believe it will surely be of help to students and the academic community
• My successful completion of PhD in Computer Science – The long awaited final defense examination (viva-voce) happened on a day that’s simply unforgetful! – on 11/11/2011, and ofcourse, had a sigh of relief! after the declaration of PhD award
• Attended WWW2011 Conference for the first time, and was very happy to listen to few great people, including Tim Berners-Lee and even managed to have a small discussion with him on Semantic Web, and ofcourse a photograph with him.  
• A lot of learning happened in a very different project, relating to setup of a DR. Though had to encounter and learn too many things that are far from my profession, I was happily taking on the challenges!, and did not have much regrets even when the bosses fired us on our slow pace of work!
• Continued to lead the ISO activities in the office; and managed to organize a Project Management Training for the staff members.
• Managed to coordinate and organize two National-level Symposiums on PKI and Digital Signatures along with my friend and colleague Mr. Misbahuddin.  Though I was only a team member here, I was happy that this effort came to a good end. 
• Started Tweeting! and found to be really interesting and useful (This is ironic, because when twitter started, and when I saw the way people were using it initially, I thought it may not be of much use for me!) – This gave me a lesson – Any tool can be used effectively, and it all depends on the user and their context!
• Travel: Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh (and also visited Dalai Lama’s residence), Indore, Kashmir (Beautiful Valley; Visited Srinagar, Gulmarg and Pahalgam), Kanyakumari & ; Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu; and my usual trips to Delhi. A very interesting thing happened was I had to travel from Kanyakumari to Kashmir within a span of a day or two.   

Overall, many things were falling in place, and really got a sense of accomplishment, despite some odd firings from few bosses! 

The Decade of 2001-2011 for me

I recently completed a decade at my current job at C-DAC.

A lot of things have changed around me, (ofcourse I too have undergone both physical as well as inner changes!). To illustrate it, I could give a sample – though I have not changed my job, the name of the organization has changed! In fact, I joined NCST, which got merged with C-DAC. I would like to look at the changes from three angles – myself, my work area/industry, and my environment.

About me: I was a bachelor at the start of decade, but now I am a family man! with wife and kids, and hence my responsibilities have increased manifold times. I had visited many cities/towns of India, (even traveled outside of India, once) and had developed taste for many Indian Vegetarian Dishes. Ten years ago, if some body would have said to me, that I would get to taste so many Indian Dishes, I would have had a bet with them! (though even now, I am not a great foodie!). I had a great opportunity to learn, discover, and stretch my limits, which I feel, I did reasonably well.

About my Workarea/Industry: I work as a researcher in the domain of Information Technology! Really it’s been this work and the people around me that had have kept me here for so long! I was able to discover, think, create, and learn a lot, which I am sure would not have been possible, without this job!

About my Environment: I live in Bangalore, India. The city has changed a lot from a pensioners paradise to a bustling city. I got to know and experience, the pain of a growing or developing city and I wish, it becomes a ‘developed city’ comparable with any of the world’s top cities by 2021.