a common man ಸಂಜಯ

Among all my family and friends… it seems that a lot of them in recent years seem to be more and more busy, hardly having time to keep in touch with each other (its not just with me 😉 ) And I’ve not made enough attempts either.

We seem to hardly be having time to even simply acknowledge, let alone respond to any email.

Twitter is a recent stunningly SIMPLE technology that helps people keep in touch.

• One simple question What are you doing?
• And a short and sweet 140 characters to say it.
  

That’s how simple twitter has made for people to keep in touch with each other.

One can follow one’s friends. Many ways of doing this as per one’s convenience – apart from the web, it also includes among others mobile text messaging or email integration 😎

I’d heard about it quite a while ago probably from Leonid‘s site, and that time though it was merely a curiosity. But recently when I installed a firefox plugin TwitterFox that allows me to send updates from my browser, I felt convinced that it can really be one possible way of keeping in touch.

There’s no substitute of course for meeting in person, but when that doesn’t happen for a while. What can happen is good friends can unknowingly, despite the best intentions, very unknowingly start drifting apart. As they start aging, they start becoming strangers to each other. That pure beautiful friendship, the very elixer of life, gradually starts becoming more of a mere memory. Probably that’s why its said that older we get, more lonely we may start feeling.

We can choose to not allow this to happen or atleast reduce it, simply by becoming aware of this and of ourselves.

Then, keeping in touch if not through emails, atleast through twitter, is one of the many practical actions that helps to stay in touch.

Again I reiterate, I’m sure we all agree that technology is merely a tool that facilitates, and cannot be a substitute 🙂

1. You can follow someone who is twittering. Hope you stay in touch with me at http://twitter.com/msanjay75!
2. You can twitter yourself, by creating an account, and if you do, please do send it across to me!

(type “d twitterid message” to send a private message to an individual instead of broadcasting)

——-

Hmm after writing this, I felt compelled to “reach out and touch someone” and took up my phone and caught up with some friends and family members (over skype and it was really nice 🙂 )

In software engineering, “refactoring” a source code module often means modifying without changing its external behavior, and is sometimes informally referred to as “cleaning it up”.
…
In particular, adding new behavior to a program might be difficult with the program’s given structure, so a developer might refactor it first to make it easier, and then add the new behavior. Refactoring is also a tool for removing bad code smells that exist in code.

~ Refactoring

what is refactoring?

Refactoring is a disciplined technique for restructuring an existing body of code, altering its internal structure without changing its external behavior. Its heart is a series of small behavior preserving transformations. Each transformation (called a ‘refactoring’) does little, but a sequence of transformations can produce a significant restructuring. Since each refactoring is small, it’s less likely to go wrong. The system is also kept fully working after each small refactoring, reducing the chances that a system can get seriously broken during the restructuring.

~ Martin Fowler’s site on Refactoring

Sometimes code gets messy over time, and investing some time not developing something new, but simply refactoring what already is there, really reduces a lot of time in maintenance results in a significant boost to productivity.

But the most common obstacle for refactoring is “I’m too busy to do it!”

And so, given a programming task on some old complicated source code, there are two options. One is to straightaway start with the task – wrangling with timelines, struggling to debug and decrypt the code in order to complete a given task. An other is to spend time in refactoring and sorting things out first (with test cases) and then actually start with the given task. Of course there’s no ‘best’ solution but it depends on the situation.

The first one seems to be the easiest. The second option may require some courage – because there seems to be the somewhat overwhelming risk that it might affect the entire system, introduce new bugs, end up as a dead investment if the refactoring cannot be completed succesfully… all kinds of difficulties!

Socrates had said…

An unexamined life is not worth living.

Not sure exactly what he might’ve meant, but one guess is that he could be talking about refactoring one’s life.

I’ve actually done that gradually over the past year or so, and have found that it has tremendously improved the quality of my life.

For example, a lot of time was being occupied in driving around in traffic. I took up a new job (not the only reason of course) and moved to a new house to live in. Now my new workplace is just 15 minutes drive from home. This is not a single drastic event but happened gradually over time.

One more thing is I gave up ambitions of climbing the corporate ladder gaining a better and better position, to lead other people and so on (and earn higher and higher salary of course!). Instead, I decided my priority was simply to become a “good developer”. Btw this is below the dignity of a lot of software engineers, because compared to a construction industry, programming is like the basic cementing job which freshers from college do. At first this seemed to be a total lack of ambition. But this makes me happy, and I have any interest in impressing anyone with a sophisticated designation 😉 And my new job respects this attitude.

Another idea is that 4 to 7 PM is the most beautiful time in the evening, best spent roaming around in a park or on the terrace watching the sunset with my son, instead of sitting in front of a computer. Since I have an option to work from home (depending on the project team situation), I often leave for home around 4 PM and really have a nice outdoor evening either on the terrace. continue working from home when it gets dark. This balances working with the rest of the team in the office, and has an added advantage that it also gives me some extra overlap time with my American colleagues.

The above ideas worked well for me. There are some other things I tried which didn’t work out. But I’m glad I did give them a try, and experimented with life.

Maybe you may not have the same opportunity (to work from home, for example) but you may have other even better possibilities, if only you would examine with a fresh perspective. I would love to hear your experience if you’ve want to try/have tried out anything new.

One thing that this speaker he himself is a world traveller travelling all over the place meeting so many people all over the world… had said “I pity you, you meet the same people – same family members – same colleagues – day after day” But I disagree (and also possibly disagreement was a reaction the speaker hoped to provoke). As long as one manages to avoid getting caught in a mechanical daily routine, one can see the newness in every day and in every person around them! 😎

It made a lot more sense to begin with whatever I have, instead of wishing for something else. I started becoming more sincere about whatever I was doing, including my job. So rather than begin by changing external circumstances, I looked at how I could change the way I was handling them. The external changes happened as a natural consequence, without too much effort.

Abhinav! saaku nilsu!! nimmamma karithairabeku nODogu…

ABHINAAAAVVVV….

oooouch

BIFF!!

BANG!!

PAATHAAAAAAAAR!!!

DISHKUMMM

DHAMAAAAAAR!!!

Owowowowowow…

beDa beDAAAA nooo nooooo CRASH!!

—-

After a fierce battle, Sanjay finally manages to regain control of his website from his son again.

As a welcome relief for all your poor readers (in case there are still any left) subject to my Dad’s ignorant perceptions, this is Abhinav managing to get a word in.

You might be wondering what an easy life it is for a baby. But here you will see the how hard I have to work… I’m probably the youngest case of child labour in the world.

Here I am washing some clothes…

…and sweeping the floor…

But its not too bad a deal, apart from free accomodation, oota (food) and lala, I’ve also something my Dad doesn’t even want to consider owning even at his age… a bathtub + jacuzzi (manually operated by him)…

Here I am… setting it up for use… this transparent liquid thing is so slippery…

[Tip: You can skip the rambling and just see the photos by clicking on the first photo 💡 ]

After quite a while, went out with a group of friends to be amidst nature in Himavad Gopal Swamy Betta. Had also been on a brief visit to Bandipur (where we saw the above deer walking by a lake). (More info on the place – Payaniga: Sprint to Gopalaswamy Betta )

—— Read the rest of this entry »

[As I have mentioned earlier, when I speak about my dying I don’t believe in any superstition that it may cause me to die earlier than my actual ticket is dated. For all I know, I may actually happen to die day after tomorrow or next week, but for sure it wont be because of this post! 😉

And it doesn’t imply even in the least that I have any pessimistic tendencies, I am and have more or less consistently been for a lot of time an incredibly lucky, happy and peaceful fellow]

—————-

Recently recalled an incident which I don’t think I’ve ever shared with anyone except to a small group of friends. Here are my notes from August 2005 (slightly edited)… ]

The other day I was driving the car alone on the highway. It was a beautiful stretch of the road – I could see it going straight ahead for a long distance. Except for some distant car, the entire road was practically empty, and I was driving at a fairly good speed at around 60 kmph.

There was some uncomfortable sensation in my stomach. I had never felt it before. I felt something was odd. I slowed down slightly.

The next instant, maybe 100m in the distance, a lorry on the other side of the road so far concealed by the trees along the divider, suddenly came to this side of the road making a U-Turn. But after the driver executed the U-turn, he found that he had miscalculated and the road wasn’t wide enough for him to do it at a single shot, so he had to stop at the last moment in a sort of perpendicular position and slowly maneuver the rest of the turn.

For me, it was effectively a complete road block out of the blue! Had I not slowed down earlier, I speculate there were fairly good chances that I might’ve had a head on collision as I wouldn’t have had any place to avoid. But now I was in a position to comfortably slow down completely and that gave him time to clear the road.

————

I’m just a common man and not some psychic, and its not very common that I have such an experience. Nevertheless, it sure made me grateful to be alive. It reminded me how actually there is not even a single moment where we can afford not to listen. It also made me wonder how little of myself I really know about and there is so much more to learn… (and how much that I think I know, that I need to unlearn!) 🙂

———

Tentacles of Time
—–

Oh Sadhu This is the Village of the Dead
The Saints Have Died, The God-Messengers Die
The Life-Filled Yogis Die Too |
The Kings Die, The Subjects Die
The Healers and the Sick Die Too ||

The Moon Dies, The Sun Dies
The Earth and Sky Die Too |
Even the Caretakers of the Fourteen Worlds Die
Why Hope For Any of These ||

The Nine Die, The Ten Die
The Eighty Eight Die Easily Too |
The Thirty Three Crore Devatas Die
It’s a Big Game of Time ||

The Un-Named Naam Lives Without Any End
There is No Other Truth ||
Says Kabir Listen Oh Sadhu
Don’t Get Lost and Die ||

~ Kabir

——–

have no idea if I’ll be lucky enough to get a new life as a human again. One can get catapulted into any realm (its an incredibly perfect science simple, yet of unfathomable depth).

[Eg for law of action & reaction… if one buys a lottery ticket and then wins a few lakh rupees, one way the law might be interpreted as… action = buying ticket, reaction = winning money. This is true no doubt about it, only a partial truth, not the complete truth, merely a superficial interpretation. Really it is unfathomable because this income would actually be the result of some good deed ages ago! I believe it is so even in everyday life with our monthly salary. In our ignorance we feel that “I have earned this money because of so and so reason” and so we do not share it much with others].

What is the point behind this post?

The main point is to help remind me…

=> to value my current human life as dearly as possible
=> make best use of every possible moment, without procrastinating any thoughts of good deeds
=> discarding any grieviances, prejudices or hurt – understanding their meaninglessness in the river of time that washes everything away

A post 10 Benefits of Rising Early, and How to Do It says…

I’m inspired by the Dalai Lama, who said, ” Everyday, think as you wake up, ‘today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others, I am going to benefit others as much as I can.’“

This is a very common scene… when a small baby falls down and starts crying, one way to console him (or her) is to exclaim “BAD floor!!” or “BAD table!” or whatever he bumped against, in a very angry tone. This kind of brings a pause in the crying… Then distract the child further by getting him to hit the object saying “atthaaa!” (baby talk for take that!). The kid soon starts enjoying this, saying “atthaaa! atthaaa!” knocking the object to glory and starts smiling again.

This seems to be a pretty tried and tested most convenient approach to comfort a child. But somehow it may well be a way for him to learn to live a lie – the assumption that something else other than himself is responsible for what happens to him. And of course one possible consequence for this absence of truth is revenge 😈 In any case, he’s going to be seeing ‘role models’ for this immature lack of any sense of responsibility in plenty of movies and media over time.

[But then of course there are exceptions which I believe is extremely important to not miss simply taking for granted – but cherish and highlight, for example the amazing case of Rajiv Gandhi’s daughter]

While bringing up my infant son, who keeps bumping into something every now and then, we do need some practical solution. (Earlier I used to feel a bit guilty that we should take better care of him and avoid him getting hurt at all, but I’ve finally learnt that this is impossible, and it seems that he would never learn without falling 🙄 (hmm remembering the movie Finding Nemo 😉 ) )

So… as a parent my wife or me need to console him somehow in that situation. Without the most convenient solution “take that!!!” solution, what are alternative approaches…?

One possible action – not very easy one, is to leave him alone and let him console himself. It was quite hard to stop myself from running and picking him up immediately, but it did work well in case of minor bumps – after a bit of crying, he’d look around and see that everybody’s minding their own business, and then get back to his playing. But a bit harder then this was impossible (for us to restrain ourselves 😉 so we’ll never want to try that out too much )

Another possible action, after of course immediately giving him a hug and showing that we really empathise with him, is to ask him “yelli yETaitu?” (“where did you get hurt?”)

This seems to work pretty well – over time as he’s starting to communicate better, he stops his crying and says “DUM!” to indicate that he had a bump, nowadays points to where he got hurt, and kind of rationalises the whole thing in a pretty cool way 😎

Any other ideas or experiences welcome.

Posting a forwarded email below about Myanmar: Cyclone death toll soars above 22,000

India is greatly indebted to Burma for an invaluable service and hopefully Indians and all people of the world may discover it by themselves over time. Let us pray for the strength and well beings of all our brethren affected in the terrible disaster. .

——-

Dear friends,

In the wake of a massive cyclone, at least
22,000 Burmese are dead. More than 40,000 are missing. A million are
homeless.

But what’s happening in Burma is not just a natural
disaster – it’s also a catastrophe of bad leadership.

Burma’s
brutal and corrupt military junta failed to warn the people, failed to
evacuate any areas, and suppressed freedom of communication so that
Burmese people didn’t know the storm was coming when the rest of the
world did. Now the government is failing to respond to the disaster
and obstructing international aid organizations.

Humanitarian
relief is urgently needed, but Burma’s government could easily delay,
divert or misuse any aid. Today the International Burmese Monks
Organization, including many leaders of the democracy protests last fall,
launched a new effort to provide relief through Burma’s powerful
grassroots network of monasteries–the most trusted institutions in
the country and currently the only source of housing and support in many
devastated communities. Click below to help the Burmese people with a
donation to the monks’ effort:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/burma_cyclone/3.php?cl=86168938

Giving
to the monks is the smartest way to get aid directly to Burma’s people.
Governments and international aid organizations may not be allowed into
Burma, or they may be forced to provide aid according to the junta’s
rules. And they will spend huge amounts of money just setting up
operations in the country. The monks are already on the front lines of
the aid effort – housing, feeding, and supporting the victims of the
cyclone since the day it struck. The International Burmese Monks
Organization will send money directly to each monastery through their own
networks, bypassing regime controls.

Last year, more than 800,000
of us around the world stood with the Burmese people as they rose up
against the military dictatorship. The government lost no time then in
dispatching its armies to ruthlessly crush the nonviolent democracy
movement–but now, as tens of thousands die, the junta’s response is slow
and threatens to divert precious aid into the corrupt regime’s
pockets.

The monks are unlikely to receive aid from governments
or large humanitarian organizations, but they have a stronger presence and
trust among the Burmese people than both. If we all chip in a little
bit, we can help them to make a big difference.

Click here
to donate:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/burma_cyclone/3.php?cl=86168938

With
hope,

Ricken, Ben, Graziela, Paul, Iain, Veronique, Pascal, Galit
and the whole Avaaz team

PS: Here are some links to more
information:

For more information about Avaaz’s work to support the
Burmese people, click here:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/burma_report_back/

For more information
about the cyclone, the humanitarian crisis, and the political dimension,
see these articles:

New York Times: “A
Challenge Getting Relief to Myanmar’s Remote Areas.” 7 May
2008.

BBC: “Will Burma’s
leaders let aid in?” 6 May 2008.

India’s Economic Times:
Indian
meteorological department advised junta 48 hours in advance, 6 May
2008.

BBC: “Disaster tests
Burma’s junta.” 5 May 2008

Times Online: “Aid
workers fear Burma cyclone deaths will top 50,000.”

6 May 2008.
_________

ABOUT AVAAZ
Avaaz.org is an independent,
not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that
the views and values of the world’s people inform global decision-making.
(Avaaz means “voice” in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from
governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in
London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Paris, Washington DC, and
Geneva.

Don’t forget to check out our Facebook and Myspace and Bebo
pages!

You are getting this message because you signed “Stand with the Burmese
Protesters”

——-

Also see…

BANGKOK — As hungry, shivering survivors waited among the dead for help after a huge cyclone in Myanmar, aid agencies and diplomats said Wednesday that the delivery of relief supplies was being slowed by the reluctance of the country’s secretive military leaders to allow an influx of outsiders.

Myanmar Faces Pressure to Allow Major Aid Effort

As a new parent, I really would appreciate your ideas, experiences and tips on what one might try to avoid spoiling kids?

Especially the key aspect fundamental to an individual’s growth – the ability to forgive. One may live to be a hundred years but without this – one is still a spoilt brat! 😈 So who does one teach this ability?

I acknowledge that there is nothing much we can or need to really teach anybody esp children, I use the word merely as a convenience, make your appropriate pick – encourage, empower, facilitate…

Got a timely mail recently as a follow-up of an Arbinger seminar I’d attended recently thanks to my employer. Some of the institute’s material is available for public download, including this excellent article on the the parenting pyramid.

Though my own son is pretty young, in general I’ve always enjoyed interacting with children, and so could relate to the article which deals with a very difficult and sensitive topic. It answered to a reasonable extent quite a few unasked but tough questions.

The author shows that correcting a kid is merely a minor aspect, and highlights the layers of other factors that are far more important and necessary. Giving more importance to these often too easily taken for granted pre-requisites, would probably help in making any correction maybe unnecessary completely, or with minimal conflicts like anyone would much rather want it to be! 🙂