The Evolving Cast...

"Congratulate me guys… I have completed two years in the Software Industry!!!"
"Cool dude…"
"Congrats man"
"Sahe hai"….

What do you see here? I saw a very interesting thing in this conversation. I wasn’t pessimistic when there were umpteen chances of it. Luckily I didn’t say “I have survived two years in the software industry”.
Ironically it is true, but the funny English and its puns. People attribute different meaning depending on the context.
But fortunately I didn’t send any bad puns. Maybe it is with the fact that I have started thinking not in my native but in English. Involuntarily I was aware and hence didn’t send any bad vibes because it is really a time to congratulate myself about completing 2 years in the software industry. Man, by way of his interaction with the society sets up some goals that he has to achieve to be called successful. That is very true. You need to achieve the goals that you have set. But then there comes a time when you look back and introspect what all diverse things have happened to you while you are still moving towards what you have set to achieve. Many of these incidents or feats may or may not be inline with your goal.
After hibernating for almost 2-3 months, I joined my first company in Banglore on 20th Sep 2005. It was a beautiful experience. First time I was away from home not under anyone’s “guidance”. All I had were friends and I didn’t have them in plenty at that time. The training time was the best I have had in my professional life till now. Personally also it was an enriching experience. The best part is the friends I made. I had never met such a diverse population in my life before and I made full use of that. I made friends, friends out of which some are studying in IIM, or are in US, or studying for IAS or fashion freaks just to touch the iceberg of the diversity. They molded me into a cast that I never had imagined or even dreamt about. It was beautiful. My hindi speaking improved my ten folds. I started understanding many other languages in bits. I started appreciating the colors that I used to wear. These are just some surfaces of the cast I was put into. But like all beautiful things, my training ended & all that remained was the strong bonds that were created between me and my friends which have continued till date. Also what remained were the ever narrative experiences I had, pranks, shopping expeditions, jokes, funny names and what not!!!!
Then I was sent to a silent place named Mysore, where I was to professionally kick off my career. I started with a bang!!! It was fun for the initial few months. My activities ranged from understanding the manufacturing domain, to conducting quizzes, to gymming with the team. In the meanwhile, I bought a bike, my sweetie a RX 135. I only learnt to ride a bike in Mysore!!! That was yet another great feat. Then there was the Godfather craze, the sticker on my bike to the blog till date on Godfather. It was a crazy experience.
In mysore, I made some really interesting friends, the kinda people I had never had the privilege of interacting. Some were fitness freaks, some Software freaks and great teachers, and some crazy hindi song lovers. My cast also did take many surfaces from these guys. My hindi speaking improved by another 20 folds. I added a bit of Punjabi and Bengali to my vocabulary. It was in Mysore that I joined the blogger club, the Orkut and truly became a Global person!!! Haan haan… It is too much to say this, but after all I am a narcissist!!!
Now I am back in Banglore, amidst my old college friends and in a different company. Is my cast solid?
I don’t think so…
As the line from Limp Bizkit song an OST from MI2 goes “Life is a lesson… You learn it when you are through”, my cast is still growing, groomed by so many things around me. Just as the Iron casting is completed when it gets cold, my casting will be completed only when my blood dissipates all its heat and becomes cold!!!!
But, in the past two years some very very beautiful surfaces have been added to my cast and I love to see it everyday in the mirror!!!!

Complex Simplicities....

September 15, 1999.
Wearing a grey trouser and a white old T-shirt he is sitting in his favorite chair. A bamboo chair, colored in red, green and cream color; cream being the most prominent. The chair is placed facing the east to challenge the rising sun. He looks into the big book in front of him and smiles. There is an exercise on “Complex” numbers or imaginary numbers. He sees it; in just three steps solves it.
“
Solve:ix2 + (1-5i)x -1+8i=0 1) . . . .2) . . . .
3) Roots: 2-i and 3+2i
”
September 15, 2006.
He is sitting in a cushion chair, jet black. In front of him is a beautiful computer system with 4GB ram. He has to solve a small problem. In one page there is no hyperlink. He has used hyperlinks umpteen times. He stares at the document which explains the steps. He can’t believe it. How can such a simple thing, be made so complicated. He; as everyone else around just follows the steps unaware of the consequences. Volla, it worked!!! So he sends the changes to the requested person. The person comes back with his eyebrows all twisted, “It is not working.”
“It’s working in my system man”
“I don’t know. But it isn’t here”
He wonders, was there a leak in the wire carrying the data. It must have gone there.
There is a dark cloud now around him. His work is not done!!! He freaks out wondering why something so simple is made so complex.

In 1999, he was solving a problem without knowing what the consequences of the solution are, but he very well knew it was a complex problem!!! In 2006, he knew that the solution is very simple, but he couldn’t solve it. The situation was similar like ’99 where he didn’t know the consequences but now the problem was easy to solve. Then why was it made so complicated.
We grow up learning that more complex things you solve the more intelligent and matured you’ll be. Teachers and Parents test us daily with more and more complex problems and we start solving them with great ease. Solving simple problem is treated as a petty thing. Anyone can do it. I am better, so I need to solve more complex things. Our hunger for complexities can even be seen in our conversations full of periphrases. One looks around and sees that all the simple things have complex solutions and hear people saying, Life is not easy man; it is a struggle. A never ending struggle to achieve something called happiness. Happiness; an interesting word. One can sit and wonder, are happiness and satisfaction one and the same? Do you need to be satisfied to be happy or compromises can give you happiness? After all it all about the frequency of the electric pulses flowing in our brain or heart…
Look at the above statements, how complicated a simple word can be made. Is it really necessary? One can’t say, after all people live in their own perspective worlds.

“Was the bug solved?”
“No I am working on it”
Why doesn’t it work, it has to. He has done everything that was told.

“Why is it so complicated?”
“Bhai, nothing is easy. Life is difficult man!”

He is a fast learner. He has learnt one thing in particular, don’t ask WHY!!!! Just do it. It will work.

Human civilization is an interesting cult. The superior beings among the mortals are the ones who can complicate the things as much as possible. Be it in mathematics or physics or any crappy science. There is a race to make things as complicated as possible.
It may have to do with the way we learn things. We never learn the simplicities; we always try to make it complicated. Now let’s ask the most feared question “Why?”…
Well… This is a complicated question.
Maybe, to achieve simplicity is more difficult than making it complicated. Or is it?
“Simplicity is the ultimate Sophistication.” That’s why; it must be so complex to achieve simplicity.

September 15, 1999.
“Excuse me Sir.”
“Yes son”
“Sir, I have solved it. Where will these equations be used?”
“Such questions are sure to appear in your exam. They will at least carry 20 marks. So practice them a lot”
“Ok sir. As you say”

September 15, 2006.
“I want it solved by tomorrow. He had the same problem. Just check out and do what he has done.”
“How did you do it?”
“You do a)…. b)… c)….”
“Why c)…?”
“Just do it man! It works. I asked that person. He has also implemented like that.”
“Okay… I have to close the buy by ‘morrow”

Have we really grown up?
You tell me…..

Grazie… Molto Grazie….

September 2005, Mysore…
On one mundane day, life was going on as usual without any jitters.
“Shit yaar… What a concept?” said Sid…
“Haan yaar… You can write on anything you want” Bharath - The Knowledgeable commented.
“What’s that? What’s happening?” I couldn’t conceal the dent in my grey cells. I didn’t know what they were talking about!!! I must be hanged!!!
“Abe… Awesome funda man. You can write articles online. It will be like your own website” said the mitochondria named Sid.
“You mean I am hosting a website of some kind?”
“Naye yaar… plisth (an expression J)… Bharath aap hi samjhaoo yaar”
“Arey… It’s simple… You know about logs right?”
“Ya.. I know..”
“This is also like a log that you maintain online of your views and day to day activities etc etc… which all can read”
“Interesting… But what’s the use”
“Arey tereto… You can write articles and post them man… You don’t need a magazine to publish!!!”
“hmmm ???”
“Amrut… It is like a log.. and Internet Log, popularly known as BLOG!!! Follow this link and you will see my blogs”…
Well the rest is history….. Suddenly my alter ego was born… The Blogger Amrut… ( A name given to me by one of my beloved readers!!!)
With the help of Sid and Bharath I also started my blogging with blogger.com exactly a year ago. My first blog… I chuckle when I think about it, was about NOS… A copy paste of paragraphs from internet!!! I hadn’t got the hang of the BLOG thing yet….
My second blog was a passionate one about my sweetie… I will always cherish this one… It is the one I re read the most… I had finally ventured into the blogging world. I was a blogger from then on and till date I enjoy this part of my life… I posted my first blog on 15th Sep 2005 exactly an year ago….
Before this Anniversary post, I have 25 ( Ya a quarter century!!!) posts in my name including a poem!!! Never one would have imagined that I could write a poem…
Blogs have helped me in stress busting and also helped me share my happiness with my friends. From NOS to Right Reasons to A.Q. to My Obsession to Inconsequential Existence, it has been a long long journey… My blogger alter ego has laughed at me, laughed with me and cried with me… It has helped me in many ways to reconnect with myself making me a better me. It’s a sense of joy to realize that I have completed a year in blogging and still my blogger engine is up and kicking…
As William Arthur Ward puts it, “Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”; on this beautiful day, I would like to thank all my beloved readers/critics for encouraging me by giving their beautiful and timely comments/critiques many a times extending, manifesting or correcting the idea put across in the post. My blog belongs to you. It also belongs to all my great friends who have directly or indirectly helped me in putting forward my thoughts boldly on the blog!!!
I thank one and all!!!
Keep blogging… Keep smiling and keep reading my blogs!!!!!!