आयुष्य

आयुष्य जगण्यात मजा आहे, 

रोज नवीन आव्हाने झेलण्यात पण वेगळीच मजा आहे.

आज येथे तर उद्या कोठे,

या प्रश्नाचे उत्तर शोधत फिरण्यात पण वेगळीच मजा आहे.

आव्हानांचा सामना करताना नवीन आव्हाने उभी राहतात,

पण आयुष्याची वाट नागमोडी चालण्यातच खरी मजा आहे.

या वाटेवर कुणी साथ देतात, 

कुणी मध्येच सोडून जातात, 

तरी ही वाट चालण्यातच, आयुष्याची खरी मजा आहे. 

ना तुझ्या पुढे, ना तुझ्या मागे,

सखे तुझ्या सोबतीने चालण्यातच, या आयुष्य जगण्याची खरी मजा आहे!!!

मनोदीप ...

To my love

नव क्षितिजाची नवी आव्हाने,

पार कराया, हवी साथ तुझी !!

या क्षितिजा वरून त्या क्षितिजावर

राज्य कराया, हवी साथ तुझी !!

तुझ्या प्रीतीची, तुझ्या सोबतीची,

जग जिंकाया, हवी साथ तुझी !!

तुझ्यावीन सखे नको साम्राज्य,

आयुष्य जगाया, हवी साथ तुझी !!!

- Manodeep

Happy Valentine Day Dearo!!! 

I was recollecting the memories of our first valentine day together and the onging transitions in life.... These words came in mind and couldn't resist to write them down. I could never imagine how my life would be without you. You have made it lovely. The words of these small poem are dedicated to you my dear.

Boiling Frog

My brother introduced me to the world of blogging. Initially I was keen on writing down my experiences but lately due to work load and personal commitments I stopped doing so.

Recent events @ my company shook my little world completely. These events and decisions of top management turned out as Shocking Wake up Call not only for me but to colleagues as well.  This has prompted me to look into my commitments to work life and personal life. It’s important to work smart and hard enough to fulfill management’s expectations but at the same time one should give equal importance to his or her personal happiness and hobbies. I was on path of becoming Boiling Frog, but recent events saved me from being one.

But there are thousands of Boiling Frog out there in Indian IT industry who are blindly following the glamour of IT world. I wish they will also realise sooner in their life that there is life behind IT.

Negligence

After coming back to india, this is the first time I accessed my own blog. Changes are happening too fast and I have started neglecting my own hobbies/interests. No new book in past 2 months, there were so many things which I was planning to scribe here but at the end of the day, result is NONE. All because of Negligence... I have to change it, priorities needs to be redefine

Moving Ahead

I have received a job offer (which I will say a good offer) and I am going to take it. In this economy the priority should be to start working. It's important to move ahead and start building upon what is in hand than to wait for something better.

The most interesting part is, now Priya and I can start living together as a family. We both are excited and looking forward to setup our home which will be from scratch. There is small edge of financial woos, but together We Will Tackle it. I will share the pics and more news about our home in coming weeks.

Upcoming months have some fun-fill events lined up, hopefully we will get to enjoy all of them. To name a few,

1. Diwali

2. (probably) A Lavish wedding in Gujarat at inlaw's place

3. 1st Wedding Anniversary

4. Nilesh will be in India around end of the year. And we are planning for a tour either to Rajasthan or to Andamaan.

Stay tune...

It's difficult but it's possible

I know there is a strong need for improvisation in certain aspects of my behavior. The panic button needs to be hidden down somewhere deeper. I know I am not perfect, but like everyone else it is difficult for me to accept hard facts about myself. The worst part is when it comes to accepting suggestions from love ones, I become more adamant. May be its due the FACT that I always want to be perfect for them. And failure is not an option, definitely not with loved ones. I have to improve upon my temper, learn to control the anguish. It's difficult but it's possible.

A Lesson Learned in Time

Over last one year (if to be precise from August 2008 - August 2009), I learned the most important lesson for lifetime - "Never plan and execute things without your own financial backup. And never ever borrow money, not even on temporary basis. No matter what, who is lending you...."

The first target is to clear all the dues (thanks god all of it was for educational purpose) and then save for future plans. Interestingly I am good at saving and investing money while earning. And days of earning money are not too far. Some of the things which I wanted for personal hobbies can take a back seat. After all you are never too old for taking pictures with DSLR or to play video games using Xbox/Playstation.

My days are coming back...

Dreams...

We all dream for better future, we all plan things to achieve those dreams. On the personal front, sometimes I cross the line and enter the zone of day-dreams. Over last one year, some of my plans/expectations never succeeded due to the reasons beyond my control. And now as I am close enough to complete my masters, there are little hopes of getting a good job in this economy.

Me and my fellow classmates discussed a lot and tried to find out whether there is something wrong in our planning, or with our capabilities. I thought, may be I over-dream or expected more than what I can achieve (may be first time in my life). I got the answer for this question during a bus trip to my apartment from college.

At Marketplace mall, a young African American lady in her late 20's enter in the bus and sat next to my classmate. She started talking with him in loud pitch, laughing and passing comments about things. I was sitting on the front sit reading a novel and was equally got annoyed like rest others in the bus as she was the only person talking in the bus. My classmate is an introvert guy, so he was responding to all of her questions with either yes or no. She told about herself, about her work, about "how the Mexican food in Texas is far tastier than in upstate NY" and all such things. I was trying to ignore her and her conversation with him. Suddenly out of nowhere she asked him, have you ever visited Paris? My classmate responded with simple No and she started telling about her dream of visiting Paris and all. When he asked her, how many other countries she has visited in past. Her answer was, she has not been to any other states than Texas and NY in her entire lifetime. In fact she told him that, she has not even reached to Niagara fall which is barely 60miles from Rochester. But still she plans to visit Paris one day and that before going there she will learn French which will help her roaming in Paris.

And our bus stop arrived. With a simple "have a good day" words, we got down. At that moment I realized, I got the answer. There is nothing wrong in Dreaming.... May be I am expecting things to turn my way too early than they should be. A person who was not visited a place 60 miles from her current location, dreams to visit a city located more than 3600 miles away in her life time. She believes in herself, taking efforts to make that dream true. That 10 minutes bus trip inspired me. Consistent efforts to achieve my goals will surely turn things around me for sure.... I owe a word of thanks to that lady. I truly wish to god, let her dream come true, She deserves it!!!

Mummy-Papa

The only thing which I want to do before going back to India is to bring my parents to US once. It's now almost a year since I came to US. They are alone in India. This is the time to give importance to them than my career. Infact, I can manage both very well.

Next 3 months are really crucial for everything............

Kana

Our Deepest Fear

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some; it is in everyone.

And, as we let our own light shine, we consciously give
other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

Lips of an Angel

Awesome

Honey why are you calling me so late?

It's kinda hard to talk right now

Honey why are you crying, is everything okay?

I gotta whisper 'cause I can't be too loud

Well, my girl's in the next room

Sometimes I wish she was you

I guess we never really moved on

It's really good to hear your voice saying my name

It sounds so sweet

Coming from the lips of an angel

Hearing those words it makes me weak

And I never wanna say goodbye

But girl you make it hard to be faithful

With the lips of an angel

It's funny that you're calling me tonight

And yes I've dreamt of you too

And does he know you're talking to me?

Will it start a fight?

No I don't think she has a clue

Well my girl's in the next room

Sometimes I wish she was you

I guess we never really moved on

It's really good to hear your voice saying my name

It sounds so sweet

Coming from the lips of an angel

Hearing those words it makes me weak

And I never wanna say goodbye

But girl you make it hard to be faithful

With the lips of an angel

It's really good to hear your voice saying my name

It sounds so sweet

Coming from the lips of an angel

Hearing those words it makes me weak

And I never wanna say goodbye

But girl you make it hard to be faithful

With the lips of an angel

And I never wanna say goodbye

But girl you make it hard to be faithful

With the lips of an angel

Honey why are you calling me so late?

Gran Torino

Gran Torino

A Way to Live,

A Way to Die,

O' My

It's A Way to Stand Tall!!!

Just 4 weeks to go

The winter quarter will over within 4 weeks. So far things are going smoothly in college and overall i should be able to get A's in at least 3 subjects out of 4. The remaining weeks will be busy with projects completion and doing some documentation.

In the coming quarter I have registered for 4 courses which will me with only one course and experience report in summer. If everything goes fine, I will be enjoying my last 3 months @ Rochester (Yeah, I don't want to stay after August 2009). Job scene is still not clear and I am confuse with the track to choose for next 2 years. Going back to the QA profession is something I will always enjoy. But its time to try out something different in career, something which will give me a chance to listen to people, their problems and then trying to solve those problem and streamlining their processes. System or Business Analyst seems lucarative option, only thing is to gain entry in it. There are companies who are hiring students who don't have any prior work experience as analyst. In upcoming career fair will target such companies first.

Before that planning to complete the CSQA certification. Prof. Jack agreeded to provide material and guidance for the same. It's time to get more serious about this certification as it will add some more value to my resume. So now its time start studying :-)

Can't resist from posting these links

Today there came following news related to big giant companies and I couldn't resist my self to post them here.

1) Microsoft posted 11% drop in profits. Planned to lay-off 5000 people (1400 already gone). They have decline to project the earnings estimate for rest of the fiscal year. (Those who know about finance, not sharing the earnings estimate is not a good sign for business)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/technology/companies/23soft.html?_r=1

2) Intel to cut at least 5000 jobs. Intel has decided to shut down several of its plants and cut down 5000 jobs. They have already laid off 20000 people in last three years.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/technology/companies/22chip.html?ref=business

3) Strong Profit, but Erricsson plans to cut down 5000 jobs
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/technology/companies/22ericcson.html?ref=business

And then comes Steve Job's Apple Inc.

Apple reported strong first quarter profit amid a deepening recession and low demand for technology products. There quarterly profit jumped to $1.61 billion dollar (yeah, you read it correctly).
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/technology/companies/22apple.html?ref=business

Now it will be an interesting case study to see, what kind of product portfolio Software or for that matter Technological companies should maintain? Should they concentrate on Hardware (Intel, Erricsson) or Software (Microsoft) or combination of both (Apple)?

Most of us will now say, A combination of both. But then what went wrong with SUN Microsystems? They had the similar plan, it never worked out. The higher management plays the important role in how you shape your business, organization, product portfolio. If you decide to live in your own world, you can't succeed.

Apple is becoming stronger and profitable for its investor. This is all due to the foundation laid by the Steve job's vision and policy implementation. People made of fun of him when he said, lets own everything which we can design, build & sell. Rather than following the herds, he believed in himself and created a new path.

As my graduation day is coming closer, these things might affect my near term future from the employment perspective. But I am really not too worried cause now these news are not unexpected. When I enrolled to my undergraduate course in 2001, IT industry was experiencing the core technological issues and people thought IT industry was just a Spurt on overall economy and has got no future. The industry raised from that level.

And it will rise again. Sooner the time will come to ride on new Wave, I just have to make sure that my timing will be right.