Every time I watch this movie

This is my favorite hindi movie of all time Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0411469/) (still waiting for the dvd Mr Pandya)


Every time I see this movie I try and imagine what a transformation India has gone through and where it will end up. We started as socialists democracy , there was no choice ! no other approach would have seen a country (which had never existed as a whole but for a few glitches in history ) make it through in one piece. Then we decided to kill entrepreneur ship in any way we could . License Raj defined bureaucracy at its finest and to till this day its like a cancer that will take a lot of chemo to fix. Then as I was growing up India began to open up and for all we feared from the “outsiders” what people didn’t count on was what lied within.
From being a third world country with a lot of history all off a sudden India transformed into a place with unparalleled opportunities. I remember my mother returning from a trip from the US and telling me how hard people worked here and that Indian’s just didn’t have it in them. Today when I find myself working 70 hours a week I know there is someone in a Infi or Wipo who putting in more hours than me and I know that as a people we can work till we drop all we needed was a reason, an opportunity and a dream that all the effort will pay off.

I’ve heard a lot of non techies back home talk about how we are the smartest people around. Its simply not true . From what I’ve seen we are mediocre at best , the cream here is better but here’s the deal we know how to adapt. The biggest thing I learned from our education system is how to survive no matter what and when you work with a few MIT’ians you realize that knowledge can be acquired and no one , I mean no one is better than you its all about who wants it more. I think when 1/3 of the worlds population below 25 wants something it will happen. Believe me, one day in our lifetimes we will reminisce how India transformed into something that evokes national pride. The thing with something like India is that the mass is so great that momentum is hard to build but when inertia kicks in there is very little that can go wrong.

I’m going to stop now … blame it on the movie.

my new gaddi!

Its new and its blue


I am the proud new owner of a honda civic si. just got it today. I'll post pictures of it soon.

‘A’ for a job well done.

The grades are out and I got straight A’s. I’m really kicked about the fact that I managed to get my best grades when I was working full time.

Darkness turns to light, it ends tonight, it ends tonight.

D day is here and yes I have a smile on my face. Its been a while coming. My Masters ends today, not bad for a lazy fat boy. I want to blog this down so that I can look at it in a few years from now when I don't remember the experience. I came to NEU happy that I had got into a fairly good college but really uncertain what this school and this place had in store for me. What I was most uncertain about was whether I'll match up to the people I meet here. I remember my fist semester and that fact that all my roommates spent hours in the library and I slept. That's what I did on-campus work and sleep and barely enough work to do well in my assignments. I knew that the education(or the lack of it) I got at B.V.C.O.E was going to hurt me and I needed to really knuckle down but habits that had built up over years are really hard to break. Then the first semester results came out and I was happy but people around me weren't . I really felt bad for them, to be so far away from home , to give it all you have and then to get bad grades, just doesn't seem fair. I’ve had this feeling before when my first semester undergrad results were put up and I was the only one in the group who got away without a kt , I spent hours with my friends on Belapur sea shore talking about “the meaning of life” even had a chat with a couple of their parents and told that I had flunked just as everyone else just to make it look like the exams were not fair.
In the second semester I found my self in two pretty difficult courses and all of a sudden people paid attention to the fact that maybe I had a brain and wasn’t a lazy butthead I appeared to be. That semester was hard and I did develop a little of a work ethic going through it. No matter how much shit I gave Prabhu (my project partner) both of us deserved a B and at the end of the day I was happy to get it. I’m sure if I had a crack at it now I’d do better (famous last words). I wasn’t really happy about walking away from the other course with an A-. Relative to the rest of the class I aced it but only the kid who the professor knew by name got an A (more factors may have been at play but lets just say I’ll give the professor the benefit of the doubt).
Then when the second semester ended I found myself without a co op, nightmare coming true. I remember thinking what I had to offer and why no one would want me. I think “A------“ this was the third interview I had I was just happy that they though I was worth hiring.

My first couple of weeks were a nightmare I had no help or supervision and lets just say the guy I was reporting to didn’t like me and told me that I was wasn’t to ask any questions or bother any of the software guys in the company . I was thrown at a 50,000 like of code monstrosity without the any idea what it did and told to make it scriptable. The only saving grace was this way may 05 and my project was due by December. Then on in it got better I finally started interacting with the engineers and found out that it was a nice place to work after all. By August I was done with my project I had time till December for and by October I had a full time offer that I couldn’t accept because there were no H1’s available.
My third semester back in school was just about all right. I was still working (full time for all practical purposes except I wasn’t allowed to do so getting paid only for part time work). I wish I had done a couple of things differently, I'd actually worked to get decent project partners because the ones I had were just piggy backing to make sure I did the work and got them through the semester. I also wish I had more time I really like network security and maybe if I had I could’ve gone down that career path.

Then there was summer 06 were Mr S--- made sure I couldn’t work, he had a point to prove and I was going to be the example. So with no courses and no opportunity to work I headed home to my surprise my manager (by now I had a real manager and they guy who gave me all the shit to being with was taking orders from me) asked me to work form India. So stay in Mumbai and earn dollars, it was fairy tale time. It didn’t really turn out like that , I din’t enjoy working from home all alone staring at a laptop all day but being back home had its benefit. Living with Pishkun was brilliant . We had our arguments but I am convinced this is the chick for me I cant wait for her to get here. Hanging out with Pandya was great , even tough I get the feeling Pishkun and Pandya were competing in some silly game and I was the umpire I think they are my closest friends and always will be . I just need to figure out how to make them get along. Metting pipi and bhau-bhau was nice as well I hope those guys all the luck in the world. I finally met sid , rohan and cheena after so long. I think I’ll always have a special place for sid, he is my definition of a younger brother. Rohans coming along great and I’m sure he’ll do all of us proud and Cheena’s getting married. Then there was Oscar , I had him to all to myself again. I miss oscar I think he’s the best pooch in the world. I hope he’s still around by the time I get to go abck again.


Enough with the flash back, current semester Fall 07. Two challenging courses and full time work (I got my H1 so no more obstacles from college). I can honestly say I’ve worked my ass off this time and even tough grades come out next week I think I’ll be fine. I think this transition in me ,even tough I maintain to everyone that asks that I’m still the lazy fat boy I was is a good thing. Just in case you think that I’m all grown up I'm getting myself a car soon with my savings , guess something’s don’t change.

I find myself at another turning point in my life... School comes to an end this week. I'm done with my masters. Over a year of working full time and studying full time and everything is as it should be, my grades a good and works coming along just fine and all I can think of is what's missing. I think it most people call it having a life, thanks to my constraints I've not had one for a while and I've forgotten how its done. That's not the complete truth I've had fun all along the way what I don't have is a plan... Yes that's what it is, I don't have a PLAN. I've always had a PLAN whether it was to get into a good university or work at a a nice place. Now I don't have one , I need my next big challenge that I can either be happy about moving towards or miserable about failing at.

Let me try and explain why I don't have a plan

1) I think I'm growing up and I don't like that - I've wanted a car for quite a while and I know material things don't buy me happiness but they do give me something to think about. Think of them as mini plans , something to look forward to . Suddenly I find myself think in terms of monthly payments and how I could save that money instead and that pisses me off. If I don't get the car I'll be miserable because my mini plan didn't work out if I do get the car (which I know I will ) I'll reminisce from time to time that money could have looked so much better as in my savings account or my portfolio.

2) I wanna do more than just make money. I look at my mom and I hope that some day I'll get to work in some field where I'm actually doing some good. I know I like my toys but I don't want to wake up one day and realize I'm just another materalistic drone. I think this one is going to be a doosie considering it will impact more than just my life but one thing is for certain I will spend some portion of my life working for the poor.

I hope I find one soon..