Of all things familiar.

Hi Samiksha,

I just realised that its been more than a month since I wrote to you...I can't even excuse myself for having not written...Yeah, I did have my end semester examinations, but the amount of time I wasted while doing/not doing the exam prep, I have lost the moral right to use exams as valid excuses...Now that I am not going to get either a 5 pointer or a 10 pointer, I guess I will have to settle for something in between...Let's kill the discussion on grades right here!
I can go on no end about looking back at how this semester went and blah blah blah...

But, the only thing that comes to my mind is that I am only around 36 hours away from a place, which feels almost as long as the 136 days I have actually totally been away from there..

Familiarity, they say, is blinding...and I can bet I am sure that I knew myself too well before coming here...If nothing else, the MBA , apart from being a nice timepass (4 months just flew past!), is a self-discovery tool. Well, it has been one for me at least...
We'll leave the discoveries for another day since the recovery from the discovery is itself still on ;-)

Unfortunately, the only things I can think of right now, are seeing Mom, Dad and Little Sister after 136 days, and going back to the familiarity of my room, home, the weather and the food...
A strange feeling of simply not wanting to think of anything else has conquered my mind I am in complete surrender and submission...So, before I start blabbering what I would otherwise normally do, let me just end this ostentatious "milestone" post here...
See you in Bangalore! You were born there (in my mind really, but your birth certificate will still need to have a location as required in this country..); so..may be coming back to your birthplace (and mine!) gives me more to write about! 36 hours...
For now, I don't have anything to write home about....I mean...write about ;-)

Love,
Vishwas

The nostalgia virus bites...yet again!

Hi Samiksha,
Recently, a virus attacked my Lenovo (her name is Shrimati if I havent told you earlier! Shri is Wealth and Mathi is Intellect in Samskrit, and my lappy better help me acquire/increase both!)
Yeah...so, this virus attack had happened and as a result, the "Run" menu had disappeared from my Start Menu. And then, the Folder Options submenu under Tools had also disappeared.

I was aware of this, but I just let it be....unattended...Yes...I ignored my Shrimati! Until...Until I tried installing Java and needed the Folder options thing to be set right if I had to save program files with the .java extension.

Now, this was a three way handshake (anybody remembers Data Communications, Andrew Tanenbaum???)..I mean a three way nostalgia...coz it reminded me of three things at the same time.
1. My consulting days, when I used to help this French client with Microsoft support on their development server.
2. My Java programming days at this global Fortune 100 tech company that was conceived in a Palo Alto garage (the brainchild of) by two Stanford grads...
3. This techie scribble that went under the name of '"a poem"... Here (below) is the poem, flicked from my old blog....
Yeah....when I scribbled this down last November, I was in a bit of a complaining mood...and rather confused....Not that I am any better this November!
But this time around, I am complaining about the confusion in my own mind...
(More on this confusion and the corresponding complaining later please!)

Now for the poem!!!

NOTHING CAN EVER BE A FAR CRY!!!

I was crying when I was born I guess.
But why do I really want to cry again now?
To begin my life with the beginning of my life...well I was crying!

Will I ever get a chance to restart my life?
If I hit "Ctrl-Alt-Del", I can use the Task Manager -
But you see, the agnostic I am, I cant fully believe in "Him".
I dont think "He" can help me end any of these "Processes".

I reach the Shutdown button, but I am not a coward;
And logging off is not an enabled option on the "Life"(Live) Server.

Restart is the most glamorous option I can dream of.
I dont want to be born again; it is simply unromantic.
I am not sure I will grow up to concieve these ideas again.
I am not sure if losing both dreams and nightmares is a good bargain.

Yes, I certainly want to Restart.
For, this has been known to often solve problems.
Restarting, they say creates a new environment.
Because of this, they say, Restart quite often does the trick.

But, the Restart I am looking for is slightly different.
I want to Restart into a different and new environment.
I want "Custom settings"..or atleast a different set of "Defaults"
I need software that is both forgiving and with which I cant find faults.

I am sure I aint asking for too much.
Asking for a Restart is not too much as such....

The world I dream of has no place for false prestige.
Mankind is really kind and knows no religion.
There is no farce of social status and all society is "High" society.
Men, women or substances are not abused and there are no artificial highs.

The Objective and the Subjective are objectively distinguished.
This world is made up of atoms and molecules and all else is mere opinion.
All opinions are different and the differences are respected.
Of people, places or objects, nothing is unfairly expected.

Opinions, like people, are respected for intrinsic values.
They are still liked or disliked owing to Subjective tendencies.
Subjection to dissective analysis is certainly permissible.
But inflicting pain on people has been made impossible.

I have had very vivid dreams.
I have survived nightmares that came true.
My mind has concieved romantic glamourous and charming ideas.
At other times, it has been the battleground of conflicting ideas.

Waking moments have been spent with confusing thoughts...
And incomprehensible dreams have fused with the confusion...

But I shall dream tonight.
I shall sleep hard.

And hope I wake up into a new "Session"....

If I wake up into an old and stale world, there is still respite.
I shall upgrade hardware and migrate to a new software environment.
I am used to living in carefully suppressed, yet strong disagreement.
But, I shall remember to dream really really hard this singular night.

Vishwas