Virtual Experience IV

After a long gap, I have a dream which is worth blogging again. This time it is about most happening topic around. Though I am neither worried nor anxious about it, maybe because it is in news all around since past few days which made it appear in my dream. It is about the ‘Doomsday’. The famous day Dec 21^st 2012 is approaching with lightning speed and gaining momentum in being part of everyday news. Ya it is time to make me have some thought about that so better sum all the thoughts I had about that dream up.

Well that was weird what happened in dream (maybe that’s why you call it a dream ;)). The way the world would come to an end was - Alien Infestation!!! As I remember there were aliens all around, terrifying public and I was watching it spell bounded trying to understand what was happening. After a moment I realized one thing, the aliens looked familiar... Heyy!! Those aliens are not from a different planet but belonged to planet Earth!!! It was animals, birds, plants and trees of this planet that had evolved into a superior species with intelligence better than that of a human.

Talking animals and birds, their sophisticated weapons, their confidence that no other creature can match them – which once human possessed, were all clear indication that this planet was no more ruled by homo sapiens.  Man was attempting to flee from planet earth but in vain (you cannot abandon a planet so easily though). The non-human creatures would laugh at man’s desperate attempts to launch-fly-fail-and-fall sequence of man-made rockets.

Then I got up and before I forget things that I had just seen, I started to think what that dream would mean. Though dreams are expected to be absolutely ridiculous with no meaning embedded in it, I thought this one particularly was worth giving a second thought. To summarize, what had happened was that every non-human living thing had stood against us and had stopped us from exploiting them for our selfish needs. In fact, it looked Mother Nature was upset with humans and it could no more tolerate us. Yes, no wonder that would happen if man continues to do what he is doing to the nature. He is destroying not only himself but also the whole ecosystem that had carefully woven by supreme power of Mother Nature. Global warming… Nuclear Radiations… Pollution… Exhaustion of natural resources… the list never ends… Oh man what have you done!!! If man won’t stops himself from self-destruction, no doubt that the nature would interrupt to save its children by sacrificing few (humans) to save the rest… Yes it may be a ‘Doomsday’ - End of the world… But the question is if its ‘End of the whole world’??? or ‘End of the human world’??? Its sad to say that, whatever happens, humans are responsible for that…

If you did not follow what I was trying to convey, this song says it all…

Power of Uncertainty

                Uncertain is something which is undecided or not yet determined. This word ‘uncertain’ usually has the power to induce a negative thought in anyone’s mind. As I would think, if something is not clear on time, then I have all rights to be in a dilemma in near future. When anyone asks me about my future and if I say its not yet decided, they give me a ‘you-are-not-suppose-to-be-uncertain’ look. Everyone in this world is running behind and working hard to make their future certain. But keep in mind that desires change in no time and so does life ;)

                Coming back to truth behind uncertainty, one should recognize how important uncertainty is in anyone’s life. Uncertainty is a very thrilling tool, which you will enjoy once you know about it. Consider a cricket match, what would happen if you knew the result even before match started? How would it be if you knew how each ball will be and how every player performs the match? Though you might wish to watch such a match, you would definitely miss the thrill and excitement which you would get otherwise. Consider watching a movie. If you can predict ‘what-happens-next’ in every scene and you are successful, then the movie has a sleek chance to be top in box office. Why? People need change/twists and turns which they cannot predict, to like that movie. In short they need unpredicted and unexpected things to enjoy.

                We usually want things to be certain but should not underestimate the power of uncertain things. Just think about any situation, you usually prepare yourself to stand strong to face the worse. You might feel, in this case, it would be lot easier if things were certain. Yes it would be, however, best case and worst case would then be a myth and there would be left with just a normal/average case. How good can that be where you knew how things went and you would do nothing more than waiting for time and things to come to you. Life would be so static, weary, lethargic, boring and CERTAIN... 

                Randomness is more a boon than a bane. To know its capacity, just try to make things random by yourself. Try arranging stuff in random (though words ‘arrange’ and ‘random’ should not go together ;) )  It takes real effort to do so. Only things which take effort to recreate are the ones which have a high value, so does randomness. Though it is very important to appreciate uncertainty and its implications, I feel one should at least not curse life for its hidden nature of uncertainty. Hope for the best and leave the rest :) Enjoy life… and its hidden stuff as well ;)

A Story of my *

               It all started when I was… Well I don’t even remember how long back that was… As I remember we use to play together in streets in front of our house, yes we use to stay along the same street, never knowing how closely we would be moving together in future. He was a year older than me, pretty studious guy who would regularly deny to join me with my friends to play every evening, however we use to bond well with him. 

                At one point of time, may be when I was 10, I still remember I use to go to his house even before he comes from school and wait for him. And as soon as he came, we use to go to terrace of his house, climbing a ladder through a narrow opening. He use to tell me stories from his school text (which I would come across when I read the same in school the next year ;)) Then as he approached 7^th Std he became more serious about public exam and he became busy with that. Only after I finished my 7^th Std public exam I met him. But this time it was not for playing but to get advice for which school to join next. He managed to get a seat in Sadvidya High School, the most prestigious institution in Mysore. So my target was set… a seat in Sadvidya… My dad worked really hard to get one seat there. I was happy we both were in same school, use to meet him every now and then, and strongly thought I would never trouble my dad for any seat again in college.

                Next after my 10^th Public exam, I was again in need of an expert advice about which college and branch should I consider for PUC. Who else should I go to :) He had got a seat in Sadvidya PU college, a really good one again and there set my next target. However, this time I did not trouble my dad and managed to get a seat from my scores. But it was because of him I got to know in what future I was interested in, so I chose Electronics to be my major.  Then we came together again and he became official guide for me ;) He was the first to write II PUC public exam, attend CET, get a seat in good Engineering college. He was doing exactly what I wanted to do.

                He had chosen a seat in National Institute of Engineering (NIE), Electricals and Electronics branch through CET. With his advice, I changed my seat selection from VVCE CS to NIE IS in second round of counseling. I thought even if we are in different branches will be in same college at least. But when I went to him to tell him about this, he gave me a surprise. He moved to IS branch from EE after his first year (That is possible if you top in first year). We are back on track :) Then what… same as before, meeting him for every piece of advice ;) He inspired and influenced even for placements which was most valuable. He got placed in ITC Infotech(amidst of the big recession) and the next year I got into IBM. It was time for me to join IBM and time for one more surprise… He also got into IBM :) Mannn we were just rocking ;)

                After some time I moved on to NDS from IBM, he stays in IBM though. Its been some time since he changed his house which was near mine… Even today his house stands still along the same street and whenever I go in front of that, all my memories with him flashes in front of my eyes for a split second, from how we spent our childhood to how we are now, bringing a small smile on my face :) So is this post named “A story of my * ” and ‘*’ can be replaced by any of ‘Friend/senior/tutor/guide/godfather/…’ Though I could not give anything for him, this post is a small gift, dedicated for him :) 

To,

Pratheek N

Friend/senior/tutor/guide/godfather/… ,

Wherever you are,

Small little world,

My life - 570001

Virtual Experience III

                 I am back… :) with another dream ;) After a long time, I finally made time to document one of the most confusing dream I ever had. I cant wait for anymore to document it because its been  long time I documented one ;) So here it is…

                In my dream, I was travelling in a bus to Bangalore on early Monday morning (as I do every Monday). The scene was so clear that I could hardly believe that is unreal. As it approached Bangalore, I heard the conductor saying it will take a different route which would go to my office. I was surprised and happy at the same time because it would save my time travelling to my office in a different bus, and slept again. When I opened my eyes, I was all alone in the bus, with all windows open, could hardly see anything outside and the bus was going like a jet plane with air gushing in... To my astonishment, I found the driver seat too was empty … :o The scene remembers me a similar one in that of Jurrasic Park 3...

   Before I could react, with a sudden jerk, I woke up… Then got to know that I was dreaming (in my dream). Yes you can think about Inception ;) After some time I noticed the bus had changed the route and I felt that was not Bangalore anymore… But I remained silent because I knew only a part of Bangalore and this would be some shortcut. But after long time I finally approached the conductor asking where the bus was going. To my surprise, he answered a place which I had never heard before and it did not take much time to realize that I had mistaken his words when he had told the bus would go to my office… Crap…

                I just asked him to stop the bus and got down, in middle of no where… I dint knew where I was and started moving in some direction… Time for one more surprise… I met my friend there… Thank god!!! But before I spoke, he asked me “Where the hell are we…” And got to know that he had exactly same experience as I had… That was very strange… We thought about this for a long time but were not able to conclude anything (May be thats why it is called as dream  :) ) Then got to know it was a different part of Bangalore, took another bus and reached office :) Hence the dream comes to an end :)

                But the funniest part is yet to come… I got this dream when I was asleep Travelling To BANGALORE On A MONDAY Morning!!! LOL :) When I finally woke up near Bangalore bus stand, it took me several minutes to understand what was happening…  Then got to know it was a dream and came a thought of using such a kickass dream in my blog ;)

My God (!!! Or ???)

                Its been more than 6 months since I wrote my last post in this blog. Feels great to be back :) This time I have something different to say about in my blog. You would have guessed the topic seeing the title, yes its about GOD. Well I am not a philosopher or  not that spiritual to talk about it, but this is just one of my experiences which I would like to share.

                It was about a week ago, I had been to a trip to Maharashtra with my family. One of the places was Shiridi, famous for miracles(don’t expect one…) There, we had planned for an early morning darshan so left early without breakfast. Since it was a weekend there was a mad crowd. Well I was just enjoying the atmosphere, the crowd initially, but later realized I had more than enough time to enjoy those since it would take at least 2 hours to come out of temple. I was initially enjoying, and then normal, then tired, and was finally fed up. At one moment I started cursing myself why I was there. May be I said or did something which I was not supposed to… Because, after sometime the situation went worse... I started to feel hungry and soon started sweating and dehydrating, in middle of huge crowd where I could not come back. It did not stop there, I felt I was losing energy and in minutes, almost blackout. I was not able to see anything properly even though my eyes were completely normal.

                I had only one thing to do but pray. I started praying asking to give me energy (yes it sounds very hypothetical ;)). But after few struggling minutes, a guard standing in a corner came and opened a gate right  next to me and asked to take that route as well. I was first to jump off before the rest did and we all went in that new path without any disturbance till the main shrine. Within minutes we had Lord Baba’s darshan and were outside temple. Everything happened so fast that I was thinking if it was not a dream.

                Then I started to recollect everything which happened there. Was that something which I should account for out of so many incidents I will be witnessing? It is obvious that I get tired and go blackout if I did not have my breakfast for that long time… It may be a coincidence that the guard opened the new gate when I was right in front of that…

I could say it has nothing to do with god and can find scientific reasons to everything that happened there(and you would definitely find one…). But at some point, I feel there is something in between all these thinking… Something which is beyond thinking… something which is watching you… listening to your unspoken words… judging it… and returning back to you ;) People say it’s the specialty of that place... May be… but I think my experience was… worth blogging :) ;)

VTU Hangover

As the name says this post describes the after effects of VTU life. From my past experiences I just wanted to share how VTU has influenced my life (may be even yours) even after I am no more a VTU student. For people who don’t know what VTU is, Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), was the university from which I was graduated (really?? unbelievable!!!) from. But VTU was never expanded so, but instead we use to call it V Torture U (VTU), V Trouble U…. and trust me if you are a VTU student, you will be knowing those expansions made sense.

It all began a few days ago when I had been to a temple. As soon I stood in front of god, I started praying “Oh god please let me get good marks in the exam…” But wait a minute!!!! What exam??? What marks??? I am no more a student!!!! That’s what VTU has influenced on me. Whenever you go to god, the first thing I do is to pray for marks (I don’t think god has listened to that anyway!!!), the default prayer. We use to be in such a mental tension (atleast during exam times ;)) where you never get what you expect so let the ‘marks’ thing be included in all the prayers was the concept behind this and it is being followed till today!!!

Do you remember this… http://results.vtu.ac.in/... How can one forget that!!! It use to be nightmare in everyone’s dream… I bet atleast 95% of VTU students hate this. We learnt a very important lesson from this website, ”Expect the unexpected”. We rarely use to get marks which they were supposed to give. And then would be the revaluation time. The revaluation is the main thing due to which VTU is that rich now!!! I had applied for revaluation just once and that was sufficient for me to lose trust in VTU.

Anyway its all over now. Feeling bad that my college life is over... However, definitely happy that I should no more lead a VTU life. If possible, I would like to go back to my college life but if its VTU life… I better stay where I am.

Finally, I would like to tell one thing…

Virtual experience II

Well this is my second post in past one month and second one in my Virtual Experience series as well. This is regarding a strange dream, one which is not easy to be fulfilled, atleast in near future. The dream was about… well you read it out yourself…

It was few days ago when I was strained in office as usual, so had a deep sleep and that gave rise to this post. We usually go for a family trip atleast once in a year and my house will be a planning place for that. In that dream, all my cousins gathered in my house to make such a plan and we had a long discussion to decide on the place to be visited next with a lot of suggestions pouring in. After long time we finally decided a place, scheduled it to be visited after 3 months and were forced to start acting as per plan since we had no much time. Well this time the place was something different, really different. It was called “A trip to the Moon” (lol).

In all trips, we will usually be 30 people but this time only 20-25 people were interested (as I remember). We immediately booked seats with NASA (you heard it right) and were actually in need of one entire space shuttle. They agreed for that with a timeline of 3 months; however we were asked to take rigorous training for a period of month before boarding the shuttle. So came the training period.. We were given trainings both theoretically and practically which would be helpful for us to survive in the moon. Well as I remember, we were asked to sit in sophisticated machines, something that resembled a roller coaster and had a rough ride. All kids were enjoying and the old ones struggled to manage to pass those tests.

Unfortunately, I was waked up by the alarm which I cursed as usual and got up cursing the alarm and with a lot of questions still in my mind. I really wanted to experience (atleast in dream) the life in outer space, that of an astronaut. I wanted to know for how long the trip would last and most importantly, how much would be the total expenditure for the whole trip and many more. Let me try to get answers for such questions when I get similar dream next time. However, the thought of going to moon was just superb by itself. Looking forward for more dreams… Good Night 

Virtual Experience I

Well I am a person who gets a lot, lot of dreams every night. I thought of documenting it and the best way to do it was blogging it. Yes I know it is a crazy idea but I like doing crazy stuff ;) So I am now thinking to give you a ‘Virtual Experience’ series, one dream per series and this is the first one. Even though it is impossible to remember everything of a dream I am trying to put out maximum of it.

It was a few days ago when I was real tired and expected to sleep atleast for 8 hours. And that is enough time to watch atleast 2 movies, dreaming (I actually get to watch movies in my dreams, my own one with some story and unknown actors). This dream which I am talking now is not any such movie but just a series of instances like……. Well you read it out….

It was an evening when I meet one of my good old friend, a technical geek, in Mysore after many days. We spoke about how our lives changed after college and what he was currently doing. He then asks me if I know where the circus was put up in Mysore. I was surprised with that question since he was a guy who hated child stuff and now asking for circus? Well I knew where it was and he asked me to take him there. Then we left late evening for the circus in our individual bikes and I still remember the rash driving. We rode the bike in dense busy roads as if we were racing in an empty ground (best part of my dream).

After a while we reached the circus whose name I don’t remember. Then guess what we were escorted there by Kannada superstars (lol). One pair took us to VIP seats; the other followed us and served Juice and snacks. I had no clue what was going on and what those stars were doing there and why were they doing that to us (may be that’s why you call it a dream). Then we watched the most different circus I had ever seen which was something like a magic show with aerobics and stunts. I don’t remember the rest.

People say you get dreams about what you like and what you think more about. But in this case it was nothing like that. I met a friend whom I never thought of, HE asking me for circus, rode a bike in a manner which I can never do, went to circus (disgusting!!!), saw KANNADA actors (not even my last option) and so on. However, it was a nice ‘virtual’ experience and hope will come up with a different type of dream soon :)

Life in 180° Out of Phase

Well this is what I got to know about my life when I looked back. I just wanted to tell you people that the professio0nal life is completely different (opposite in my case) from the student life. There are some of the changes I wanted to share with you which make you think how different professional life is.

It took me atleast a month to realize that I was a professional. Now I just came up with an idea to compare those two lives which I led/leading.

Here is the comparison of those two.



(STUDENT LIFE)Class starts at 10.00 but you leave home by 10.00
(PROFESSIONAL LIFE)Work starts at 10.00 however you will be in office by 9.45

(STUDENT LIFE)At night, wonder if anyone sleeps before 12.00
(PROFESSIONAL LIFE)Its 10.00 and the bed is calling you

(STUDENT LIFE)Be it class or outside, always think of having fun
(PROFESSIONAL LIFE)Work is the only fun, your wish to consider it or not but have no other option.

(STUDENT LIFE)Bunking class is which you do before thinking twice
(PROFESSIONAL LIFE)Bunking??? Don’t you dare to think about that in office

(STUDENT LIFE)Talking in English means He/she is showing off
(PROFESSIONAL LIFE)No use of knowing languages other than English

(STUDENT LIFE)Always depend on parents or friends to do anything
(PROFESSIONAL LIFE)Depend??? U’ll find no one to depend on. You are on your own to do everything

(STUDENT LIFE)Never miss to roam here and there after college time
(PROFESSIONAL LIFE)Hardly have energy after work to roam

(STUDENT LIFE)Never care about tests or exams. Anyway we will be having a night before those tests or exams
(PROFESSIONAL LIFE)Complete plan of what you will be doing to meet the deadline

(STUDENT LIFE)Nearly 90% of softwares in the PC are pirated including operating system
(PROFESSIONAL LIFE)It takes atleast a week to get a licensed version of MS Office because using pirated versions are illegal

(STUDENT LIFE)Enough time to cultivate different hobbies and try out new things
(PROFESSIONAL LIFE)Free time??? Are you kidding???

(STUDENT LIFE)Always updated about new movies and tech stuff
(PROFESSIONAL LIFE)Movie..? I’ve heard that somewhere…

(STUDENT LIFE)Cricket, football, tennis, F1, WWE……
(PROFESSIONAL LIFE)Oh I’m tired man who cares my favorite wins or not…

(STUDENT LIFE)Hangouts, long drives, parties, trips…
(PROFESSIONAL LIFE)Waiting for just one such chance since months

(STUDENT LIFE)Weekends was as good as any other day except on other days we ‘visited’ college
(PROFESSIONAL LIFE)Friday will be the most awaited day of the week since we have a weekend coming up next

These are some of the differences that are identified so far and still continuing to explore them... So looking all these I think I can justify my statement “Life in 180° out of Phase”. It means life it is going completely opposite to what it was. Hope I get used to this life as soon as possible but I still miss my student life and I know I can never get that back.

Good day or Bad day???

It was Aug 5th 2010, the first week after I was deployed to a project in IBM. Some of the instances I witnessed were really funny. Today I was excited, scared, embarrassed, happy, sad, all in one day.

The day was just as any other day till noon but all the drama started it after lunch. It was 1 hour post lunch and I’ll hardly sit for more than an hour at one place so I needed a break. At the same time my colleague also asked me if I can join him to go to cafeteria outside the building. Seizing the opportunity, I went as soon as he asked. We came out of the office and scanned my ID card watching my mobile just to bang the door because the door did not open after I scanned my card. Only when I saw my card case I realized that only the card case was there and my id card was missing.

WHAT THE HELLLLL!!!. It was the most disgusting thing, a nightmare to lose one and for that moment I went totally blank. My colleague understood the seriousness of the situation and started searching for it. I tried to tail pass with him but the security came running saying I have to scan my card to enter the office which I did not have. Then I went out to access center for a temporary id and got one. I went searching for it all the way, dispatch section, lift lobby, inside lift, way to my cubicle, workroom and so on. Finally I found it out with my colleague who got it in my workplace. I just felt awesome at that moment, thanked him. I felt like getting my life back.

After the day was over, I left the office and boarded a city bus which was crowded like hell, so I was made to stand at the door itself. Within minutes I heard some mobile ringing and was irritated because no one was picking the call. The person standing next to me yelled “hey where is the sound coming from???”. I didn’t understood why was he asking so but within a second I realized it was his phone that was ringing and it was stolen in that bus. Everyone understood that and started searching it. That thief, pretty intelligent one, dropped it inside the bus as soon as he heard the mobile ringing, so the owner got the mobile on the bus floor. But one of the passenger started saying “there is some *********** in this bus and we shouldn’t let him go today” in local language, he asked the owner to spot everyone who was standing around him.

And don’t know if it was my bad luck because even I was one of the people standing around him :@. For one moment everyone were staring at me. I thought “dude today you are gone…” and to divert them I joined them saying “yes today we should not let that thief go without some punches” so everyone turned to some other guy and started interrogating him. I thanked god and stepped out of bus in my stop and went home thinking what would have happened if I’d have caught in that act even though I’m innocent.

So what do you call it, a bad day for getting so many tensions or a good day because nothing became so serious it would otherwise be. I say whatever it is, a good day or a bad day, I enjoyed it.