What I Should Learn from GOD alias the Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar

The master is going to finally retire from all forms of cricket and in a few days he is going to play his last international cricket match. Like millions of other fans, I have always admired and prayed for him since I started watching cricket. Recently, I have lost interest in cricket, though whenever there is a match going on I will surely ask, "Tendulkar hai kya??"

Sachin going for training
Image courtesy: Cricinfo (http://www.espncricinfo.com/champions-league-twenty20-2013/content/image/671617.html?object=35320;page=1)

Here are a few things I am going to follow, as I learn from him.

Do one thing well and everything else will follow.
Sachin played cricket and he did it with world class. Not the ferrari he owned, not his hairstyle, and not anything else about him makes him the man he is. Sure, we talk about how Kardashians dress and how Khans fight, but not for Sachin Tendulkar. 

Do that one thing, EVERYDAY.
Sachin plays cricket, practices cricket everyday. There was a coca-cola advertisement featuring the line, "Eat cricket, sleep cricket, drink only coc-cola." That was something that can signify master's way of life.

Be so humble, so humble that people feels bad to fight with you.
He was humble. Many a time, he was given out in a wrong decision, and he never protested. He never bragged about him. Even th way he speaks in the advertisements, we can feel his humility that is written all over him.

Don't ever reply to criticism by words, do the work better instead.
Ultracrepidarian critics (#$$%7)|$) has been asking him to retire, predicting his downfall, commenting wittily about the master. He never replied,  instead played the next game better. He surpassed his own records again and again.

We will probably never see him in a field again, donning that blue uniform, rubbing the ball on the pants or destroying the opposing bowler with his bat. But he will remain in our life as a hero, who never disappointed us. Sure, we wanted more.

On an emotional note,

You knew it was coming, it was inevitable, then why sachin do you still produce this numbness?
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) in twitter. October 10, 2013

Screw passion, first become good.. And so good that... - A book review

So Good They Can't Ignore You
Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love

by Cal Newport. Business Plus. Pages 273 Rating: 10/10

I absolutely loved this book. In fact I have been waiting to read this book from the day Cal published about the book in his website. Cal already writes an awesome blog, which totally changed my views on how to make a remarkable life and now he has written this book.

So, lets get started...

This book debunks the myth of passion, as Cal always been doing and now in a better, stronger and ferociously structured manner. Not only that, he has moved to another step and provide the basic guidelines to make the best of anything (??), and build a remarkable life. 

There are four rules that are featured.

Rule1# Don't follow your passion.

Rule2# Be so good they can't ignore you.

Rule3# Turn down a promotion.

Rule4# Think small, act big.

You should better read the synopsis of these rules in Cal's writing. The point I want to mention is the way how he has presented the case. Its scientific, it feels like you are reading a super interesting journal paper (hard to find, I guess). And when you finally finish the book, it feels like Cal has just whispered into your ears, "Here, I rest my case."

He has a complete accessible organized list of references along with a brief summary of how he has applied these rules to his own life and work. 

It is not sexy, neither romantic and not at all charismatic - the way you can make your life remarkable. it is hard, but it is structured, it is doable and not a vague description how you suddenly become a millionaire or something. That is what this book is all about.

It destroys passion, another good thing that will relieve your mind of the useless task of finding your passion. I mean, not long after this, perhaps finding your passion will be another joke. 

Dude, I am screwed up, I don't know what to do, I am not happy.

Follow your passion, pal. (and they both almost fall down with laughter)

A final word of praise to Cal Newport, "You are so good that nobody can ignore you"

You can buy the book here.

The Now Habit, unschedule and a relief

I got a relief from the constant overwhelming urge that I should work hard all the time, have no fun and this is the way life is going to be. i tend to put off living with the solace that someday I will be happy. I no longer believe that.

I am reading the book "The Now Habit" by Neil Fiore, and summarizing that with a snapshot of a page here.

This is taken from the sixth chapter of the book. I am human, and not superman.

Note: Since we should work only for 30 minutes a day, here is link on how to learn faster and better. Trust me, if Cal Newport endorses it, it works.

Why it is hard to do deliberate practice ?

After trying my hands on deliberate practice, deliberately for the first time in the context of learning a software I have found out the following things.

1. You should clearly, and I mean crystal, know what you want.
2. You have to take it one inch at a time (I couldn't help stealing the Al Pacino line here.)
3. It must be designed, or better, planned what you are going to do.
4. It is mentally demanding and therefore you should make yourself free from distractions.

It was not that fun, but I learned something anyway.

Water, water evreywhere...Not a drop to drink

How to find motivation, and the truth behind it in a world full of bookshelves..full of motivational books and a hoard of motivational speakers.

I used to like motivational books, once upon a time. I bought, downloaded and read a lot of them. I tried to follow them, and tried to find my passion so that I can align my career and studies with my passion, and be happy forever. Also, I wanted to be radical, such as leaving a menial job and then following my passion.

This process has been going on from class 11th, that's from 2004 and eight years has passed. I am not saying those books did not help me, but as a matter of fact most of the things were useless. After browsing hundreds of blogs, websites, videos and e-books... I found out a website called Study Hacks.

It changed my perspective and I really started to connect to it. it introduced to me the concept of deliberate practice, related to the 10000 hour rule popularized by Malcolm Gladwell.  It takes deliberate practice to achieve a truly wonderful life. 

I started reading books related to this... Talent is Overrated, The Talent code, Drive and Flow: The Psychology of Happiness. I felt like I have finally found the Holy Grail. 

Meanwhile, I am still working on improving my life. I am not yet successful. But, now I know what it takes to build a truly remarkable life and career. Applying these principles to our lives is not easy, and I have not yet learned, let alone mastered, the art of delibearate practice.

Someday I will. Or, let me put a deadline 'coz a goal without a deadline is still a dream. I will master the art of deliberate practice within the next 365 days. 

What I gained, however, is that I came out from the rut of stupid motivational books. I am not reading any motivational books or watching any videos which talks about passion as something you find out one day just out of nowhere. I am buying the theory of creating passion, the craftsman's manifesto and deliberate practice.

Lets put this into action. 365 Days to a better life. In the meantime, you can google "Study Hacks," "deliberate practice," and "Craftsman's Manifesto."

Life is tough, but I know about deliberate practice.

Why we will never have immortal songs ?

There are old hindi movie songs that can still blow our mind. Kishore Kumar, Mehmood, Muhammad Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar have always been everyone's favourite. Some songs have been marked as immortal and rightly so, as they still have the capacity to blow our minds after decades of their release. 

Now, the new genre of songs.. I mean from the 90's are hardly recognized as immortal ones. I don't have enough data nor I am qualified enough to comment on the quality of songs to segregate which ones should be immortal or not.

But I have an observation, or may be a gut feeling to explain this. With the rise of internet and youtube, we can see the songs of contemporary movies along with the video from the time they start advertising. What happens is that all the songs are registered on our minds, not only by its melody and words but also as the picturization of it. It happens to me that when I listen to a song without looking at its video, I discover fragments of lyrics or music that is awesome which I have never cared for when watching it with the video.

A a large and mass effect, this phenomenon results in the fact that the popularization of songs are not limited only to the melody and words but also the picturization. Along with that, we have too many songs and too fast access to almost everything.

Therefore, may be we will never have immortal songs or if it is immortal, nay be it is released before the 90s.

Best self help advice

Yes, just do it.

http://www.socialanxietycures.org/best-self-help-self-improvement-myths-blown-to-bits/

Some rules to live by

This post doesn't come with the guarantee that I follow them all. But, if I did it would have been awesome.

I am trying. Well, as my professor Dr. Dibakar Sen says... lets start with that.

1. Triers try, doers do.
2. Wake up early morning and look at the sky.
3. Never, at any point of time, stop your relentless quest to find happiness.
4. If you want to be happy, nobody can stop you.
5. Be oblique, be eccentric, look everything with skepticism. Be creative. (Even look at this post with skepticism).
6. When going gets tough, love can get you going.
7. Never underestimate yourself.
8. Practice deliberately.
9. Have a notebook to write anything interesting you come across.
10. Read books, if you can't, read blogs.
11. Grow interests, work on them, and learn skills relevant to them.
12. Money is no evil, it is the way you use them.
13. Forget the past, don't forget the lesson.

Whoa, it finished with the magic, cult and interesting number 13. Well, read about that. So you are following rule no 10 already if you have clicked in that link.

Links

1. Here is a link demonstrating Weierstrass functions.

http://www.math.washington.edu/~conroy/general/weierstrass/weier.htm


I didn't quite understand the concept myself, but somehow it is hilarious. Zooming into a function !!! Well, I have never heard about that. 

Just I did !!



2. 203 fun facts on mathematics

http://www.math.hmc.edu/funfacts/allfacts.shtml


3. Overcome fear

Via: The April Center for Anxiety Attack Management

Car wheel alignment, Eigen value problem and excellence

Today morning I was attending a class on dynamics taught by Prof. Rudra Pratap. He explained today in detail the process of mass balancing using simple linear and angular momentum balance theorem. It was basically a disk rotating on a rod with an angle. Refer to the picture below.

It was an enjoyable class and then, he started writing a symmetric matrix (After attending Prof Jog's class, I like to call it as second order tensor. It feels good.) of the moment of inertia of the . The moment of inertia about the three principal axes are the diagonal terms of the matrix. Obviously, the other terms of the matrix are zero. 

Now, from the result of the mass balance problem, it was deduced that if we keep the plate in certain orientations then there is no requirement of torque at the  support points. Subsequently, the orientations were those of the eigen vectors of the moment of inertia matrix.

So, car or bike wheel alignment is essentially a eigen value problem and subsequently any balancing problem involving two masses placed on a rotating rod.

Now, when we go for aligning car or bike wheels, the mechanic does it. He knows by practice that if the wheels are properly balanced and are aligned the support don't feel any reaction force. Even if he knows how to fix the problem better than you and me, he does not have the insight of the problem like we do.

So, what are we going to do with the insight ?

We deduce a lot from the knowledge. As an engineer, we can look at a similar problem and know the solution using this insight and that is where the difference and significance comes. As I mentioned in a previous post about my own hypocrisy, I don't feel that bad about it now.

Now, why the word "excellence" is there on this post title?

It comes from the fact that creativity has a lot to do with knowing something and associating that knowledge correctly to other problems. And that we can learn from this car wheel alignment problem. This skill of associating knowledge requires practice and thinking from the side of the person having that knowledge. To attain excellence we have to practice associating our knowledge to appropriate problems to find solutions.

And I took the less travelled road.

Ultimately, there is death and all roads lead to the same destination. However, there are only two kinds of roads.

First one is kind of a four lane highway. You drive smoothly, enjoy the view and think you are happy. But you are not, because ultimately that road becomes boring, it is the same view over and over again, and the monotony eats us like a bug.

The second one is more or less like a hilly road. There are bumps, and ferocious animals on the way and no street lights sometimes. But also the view, the enjoyable moments of sheer natural beauty and the adrenaline pump of near-escaping some mishap. And perhaps a tribal waving you ta-ta-bye-bye, a hitchhiker's breathtaking story... no food, so you survive on water and suddenly an inn out of nowhere and this and that. You don't even feel you are going somewhere. And without even knowing it you are happy from the core of your heart and that is what matters most.

I am in awe of (read utter jealousy to) people who takes the hilly road. Today he is a family man, and may be 10 days after in the sea, doing a somersault and then teaching some kids how to fly a kite, and then solving problems as a business analyst using one hell of technical jargon or whatever...

You can see them in the streets, in the bus, in the bookstore, and in malls and dusty village roads. They have something in their faces, a brightness that can not be seen by most of us because we are busy doing some s***. But, I sincerely hope, one day I will have enough courage, knowledge and the most importantly a large heart to become happy like them.

Aakax'r fale salu aru kolu - Muk dia ai bixalota'r ata tukura
Ai oximor ata tukura... Aru moiu tumar dore bixal hoi jau

[I looked at the sky and asked - Give me a part of this amazon
A part of this infinity.. And I will grow big and big like you]

Book Review - Talent is Overrated

Talent is Overrated - What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else

by Geoff Colvin, Published by the Penguin Group, 228 pages

Well, it was hard to read this book. It took nearly three days to go through 200 pages, even after I almost skipped a chapter. And rightly so, because the concept on which the book is based is deliberate practice...not just practice. You don't just slog through it, and get to enjoy phenomenal success...

How can truly excellent people, like Stephen Hawkins and Michael Jordan, do what everybody else can't do ? There are only a few people who are truly amazing, excellent and awesome at what they do. All of us, we work hard. We put in long hours in what we do - engineering, teaching, music, sports whatever. Even then, It is a matter of shame if we calculate the total number of hours we have put in the work we do, and the level what we have achieved. Of course, we have explanation for the same - we are not talented, we don't work as hard as them and the most easy explanation - we ain't lucky enough or we are not god gifted.

There are eleven chapters in this book. The author explains the mystery of talent, and why everyone uses it as a convenient excuse to slog through life in the first chapter. Then comes the proof, why talent is overrated. A close examination of the lives of great performers take out the inconvenient truth.. that talent is overrated. May be god-gifted talent for a specific task like music, sports or academics does not exist, but what if general intelligence (smartness ??) or IQ has an effect.

Is that really so ? Well, the answer is NO. And this book explains.... why ?

It ain't so much the things we don't know that get us into trouble. Its the things we know that just ain't so - Josh Billings

So, what is it ? The author examines all of talent, overall smartness or aptitude as a turning point for truly exceptional performers. But the actual result says something different. These things don't matter at all. With the example of Tiger Woods, and Benjamin Franklin it is obvious that rather than god-gifted talent or smartness, they had something different; or to say properly, they did something different.

Then what is a better idea that can explain this puzzle ? Practice. And its not the practice what we do. Its the practice with deliberate effort. And it takes a long time, as explained in the 10 year rule or 10000 hours rule.

Deliberate practice must accomplish something, its not just practicing in our comfort zone. If it doesn't require any special effort, its not deliberate practice. And then the author explains what is deliberate practice. And how does it work ? Though it may not be a good idea for me to explain it, because I am not Geoff Colvin. The reader needs to read it themselves, and I don't want to take out the element of suspense - the element that makes you a great performer, someone line Tiger Woods or Sachin Tendulkar.

So, how can we apply those abstract principles in our lives; we are all different - as persons, as professionals and as performers.

There are explanations to how we apply those principles to our lives, to to our organizations. And there is another interesting chapter on motivation too... Well, as expected, there are unanswered questions. But, a book is always better if it leaves foods for thought.. and this one does that exactly.

We got to take charge of our life, deliberately.

A poster I made for deliberate practice in http://diy.despair.com/ . The image is taken from the cover of the same book.










The book can be bought here.

Kill the Television - Am I doing it Right?

Kill the television - I am referring to the single piece of advice that Randy Pausch gave in his time management presentation at the CMU. This is really an advice that sounds important. And really.........

Now, I don't have any weakness about the TV. When I was a small child, we didn't have a TV in our home. My father was probably aware about the problems with the idiot box and he never allowed a TV till I passed out 12th. Now, even if I have a TV at home I don't feel any urge to watch TV.

And I am pretty happy because of that. Particularly, when I went through the presentation of Randy Pausch I thought that I already killed the television. But, actually, I DID NOT.

How ?

Well, I bought a laptop in the starting of the second year of my engineering and also availed a free internet connection from my college. And torrents, megaupload and most importantly the LAN helped me to download a lot o movies, series, videos etc.. and then came the HD prints. So, it was practically impossible to take my eyes of the laptop. Anyway, I also learned many stuff with the laptop right with me all the time. I also found out that we can download a lot of books, most of them are outrageously costly, from the internet for free. But that is not the point.

I started getting kinda addicted to movies and series. Naruto, Big Bang Theory, Prison Break, How I Met your Mother and FRIENDS (read awesome !!) took over my life. In the fifth semester I finished four seasons of How I Met your Mother in the break I got in the mid sem. And now, its Everybody Loves Raymond that is killing my time.

So, in retrospect, I did not kill the television. Just that, it came to my life in another form, the computer.

Think about it. Most of our life has already been taken over by the computer; in the form of internet and videos. And we thought we killed the television.

Invitation from me to join Zurker
http://www.zurker.in/i-117032-lwjlbnldzn

A book review - Freakonomics

Freakonomics - A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

by Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner.

This is not a book about economics, or it may be everything that should be economics. Abstract comparisons between schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers, ku klux klan and real estate agents are made. Parenting advice (not in a proper sense) is analyzed; the drop of criminals and behaviour of drug dealers are investigated with tools and knowledge of economics. These questions are seemingly not at all concerned with economics as we know it and that is what is different about this book.

It seems as if challenging conventional wisdom is all that the authors trying to do. But, there are facts and numbers cited from credible sources and they cannot be ignored as just another "Lies, damned lies, and statistics." The information is unfolded and made simpler for anyone to understand, and there is nothing like statistics at all.

Some of the most basic assumptions of our society are challenged, seemingly unrealistic comparisons are made and hence proved; and it is not at all economics and rightly freak-o-nomics. The authors provide interesting hypotheses in each chapter and they are realized, dissected and proved henceforth. The journey through the book is as interesting as the attention it commands with those witty chapter names such as "Why do drug dealers still live with their moms?"

The power of logic and reason, the foundation on which science is built, is used to challenge the conventional wisdom. Economics is always regarded as a science with excellent tools to get answers to everyday questions related to money, and the authors took up the daunting task of extending the logic, the math and the science of economics to search and research the answers to questions which are never asked. Because, the wall of conventional wisdom always stands as a barrier in front of society to even thinking of asking those questions. This may not be economics in the conventional sense at all, but Levitt and Dubner shows the reader the door to an exceptional journey of getting closer to the most primal question in economics - explaining how people get what they want.

Its all about asking the right questions, and also disregarding the conventional wisdom to intrigue ourselves in starting a journey full of undeniable facts, numbers and may be proving something that was completely out of our domain of thinking. Its about peeling out the layer of everyday nuances and going beyond what we see, the hidden side of everything.

May be science was doing it till now, from atoms to quarks and more. But with the same logical and rigorous approach, can we explore the societal phenomena? This book is an answer to this question. It may be a frustrating thing to do, and may be conventional wisdom will turn out to be true. However, chances are that as it can be seen from the book, conventional wisdom is not true most of the time.

All these analyses may look like not important at all. I mean who cares what klu klux klan and real estate agents have in common. But as explained again and again before,this book is a series of exercise in logic and reason. Thinking differently can make all the difference, and this books can give a valuable insight into how to think or how not to.

Its more than interesting, its intriguing and thought provoking.

The book can be bought here.

Ability, Skills and success

There is a feeling that used to constantly bother me. Its about the acquisition of skills. Most of the times I felt that I did not have the resource or skills required to present my thinking or work in front of a class, teacher or whoever may be.

It was always with me - I don't know programming, so I can't do this. I don't know AutoCAD, so I can't do that.. And I have lost a major share of my time brooding over this weakness. Sometimes I start to learn these kind of skills, and I eventually master them. But still, my purpose of a better presentation did not get fulfilled.

This situation led me to read many blogs, to watch many videos and books. And I seem to have found an answer to this.

There are two things - Resource and Resourcefulness. From the TED talk given by Tony Robbins, I have borrowed this term. In short, it is about the superiority of resourcefulness over having resources. Having resources may not be enough, if you don't use it to maximum level.

So, here is an example.
I have a friend who is very good at modelling with CAD packages and he used to do awesome presentations. All of us, if not all atleast me, used to feel that its because he is so skillful he can make them easily... and we can't only because we don't know it, rather than not having awesome ideas. One semester passes by, we are as good as him in modelling. Still, he is the best in presentations...

Why ???
The answer is simple. I don't give our 100% to the presentations. I have constant regret during the presentations that I could have done better.


What all of this boils down into?

Its resourcefulness, not resources.
Its not the skill, its the ability to give 100%.

And more importantly, the ability to start working when you need to work and stick with it.. is the most important skill we need to acquire. The rest is pretty easy. You start, you do and you finish.

The ability to stay put through these three steps without getting distracted is what we need to master by practice.

Signature

Design Anecdotes from IISc - I (Who will Bell the Cat)

Design anecdotes from IISc will be a series of comments, stories and suggestions from my seniors at IISc or my experience. I hope to write something on this time and again.

Here goes my first post (Shared by Sunny Bairisal, 3rd sem MDes student at CPDM, IISc Bangalore)

We all know about the funny story "Who will bell the cat?" A group of rats wants to get rid of the problems they face because of the cat who kills and eats them coming out of nowhere. So, as a gist of their discussion they want to put a bell on the cat's neck which will warn them of him approaching. And, when all of them are very happy of the solution achieved, one guy came out with the question "Who will bell the cat ?" 

Well, the story ends there. But, how the hell that can be related to design or more specifically to product design? Design is defined as '"the general arrangement of the different parts of something that is made, such as a building, book, machine, etc." in the oxford dictionary. In the real world, however, design is related with problems in most of the cases. Necessity is the mother of invention and when we have a need, we design a solution for that. It is not so easy, because problems are subjective or that they don't express in a way that we need this specifically. People from a long time wanted a faster, cheap and convenient way of communication. But, nobody asked for a mobile. It is the task of the designer to identify an objective in the need and for that he will have to identify problems first and design the problem in such a way that it leads to an objective,a definite goal. 

If you can identify the problems and you can associate the problems with an objective solution, half of the design work is done. Conceptual part of product design is often associated with construction of an objective problem where you express the solution of a need with a physical shape. Or, if you know who is the CAT !!

So, if you can perceive the CAT, you can design a bell or more appropriately you can design a way to BELL THE CAT. Identifying problems is the first and foremost step of design and if one can master it, he/she is a step ahead in the path of becoming a good designer.

Why do I love my mom and dad, or as I call 'em "Maa and Deta"

My parents are teachers in government primary schools and their educational qualification is 10th passed with third division, which means a percentage less than 45%. I am their third and youngest child. However, they are a lot better than other parents I have seen, who are educated but still thinks their children have to do whatever they want and are pretty bad in parenting because their children didn't love them as much as they should (Yes, offense !!)

I was a geeky geeky child. But the credit goes to them, not me. I was the first boy in my school days, always from class I to X. But when I used to come home with a big smile on my face and the marksheet in my hand, dad said, "Its not the position but the percentage and the knowledge that matters, what if all your friends didn't study hard enough?" And when I went to Cotton College to pursue science and everybody had almost the same percentage as me, I remembered his words. I may be the first boy in my little school, but not everywhere. What I remember, everywhere in my home all I saw was books, not toys but books. I started reading from an early age, and that is the most precious gift anyone can ever present to his/her children. 

My dad reads books and whenever he finds something special or interesting, he reads it aloud me. He can utter sanskrit verses without the slightest tint of hesitation and has memorized the Gita in Assamese from top to bottom. My mom is the most lovable teacher in the little village primary school, and I am a proud alumnus of the same.

I was never beaten up, my dad never had to beat me because he had such a great personality it is difficult to do bad things in front of him. I am no saint and I have done pretty bad things to in my life, but knowing that was a bad thing and not repeating most of them was a sense of conscience that instilled to me by my parents. Whenever my hands were dirty, or I am not dressed properly... my mom used to wash my face and put fair-and-lovely all over my face. And what an interesting approach to teach a child, I used to promptly go an get cleaned. I was not told to, but somehow she managed me to get it done by myself. I still feel pity for the women running after and scolding their children when they don't behave properly.. "Take a chill pill and get a lesson from my mom."

I completed my engineering and came to IISc leaving four jobs, and my dad supported me till now. When I published a paper in Japan and wanted to go and present there, he told me that he will borrow money if I can't get financial assistance from my college. And he is the dad who didn't give me new clothes in every festivals like my friend's dads used to. That was a great lesson.

Whenever I got frustrated and thought things aint gonna work out, its my parents whom I call first, and courage used to build up within me. It was not the life of struggling with exams to get a seat for MTech my dad wanted, like every typical Indian parent he wanted me to secure a government job, and lead  my life. But there was a thing in between. From early days I saw my dad going to social meetings, cultural gatherings and all that. And like every other lower middle class family,we had money problem. Nevertheless my parents are always happy. And they gave me an important lesson, that I need to help other people to be happy. Even if I would have become a SBI PO after my BSc in Mathematics (that is what my dad wanted), he would have asked, "Are you happy ?" And till now, everyday when I talk with him for more than 5/10 minutes, he asks me the question, "Are you happy with what you are doing, if you are, then there can't be any problem."

When I couldn't clear GATE in the first attempt,  they said may be God has something better in store for me. When I got four jobs, and was proud of myself a little bit too much he told me that it was not a very great thing. When I got admitted to IISc, they congratulated me but also said, "Its not what you have, but what you can do with what you have !!"

Perfect balance, as it is said in Gita,

Dukh paile uddigna nohoi jijon

Xukhot jaharo naahi aanondito mon

Prio opriyo teje, are krodho bhoi

Hehi vir budhimonto janiba nishhoy.

(Who doesn't worry in bad times and don't fly in good times, who can leave near and dear ones and fear and anger, he is an intelligent man)

which is often told to me by my dad, now.

My mom likes to smile and it is simply difficult to remember her in a grumpy face. For the first time in life, at the age of 16,  I came to Guwahati to pursue 10+2, I lived away from home. Then I understood, Maa is like the curtain in doors, you never feel their absence till they are in the right place and you can hardly stop thinking about her when she's not around. So, sometimes when I  call her up, and its time to disconnect the phone, I tell her, "I love you, darling" to which she promptly replies, "Don't you have a girl around, tell her not me" with a big laughter.

No wonder, when some days ago when I updated my status in facebook writing about my elder bro getting his PhD, he promptly commented, "Proud to be the son of Chandra Kanta Nath and Satya Bala Devi" -  Hell yeah !! Me too, bro... and grateful too.

A Worthless Bunch of Hypocrites

Scene 1: I am riding an almost two decade old bajaj super with two guys sitting behind me. Its an enjoyable ride, because when everybody in our generation is riding an apache, or another branded stylish bike, we were really looked at (and laughed at too) by people. Anyway, who gives a sh**. Suddenly, hamara bajaj makes a kinda different sound and stops in the middle of the road. I checked the tank, it is half filled with oil, so that is not a problem. I tried and then both my friends tried and tried, but it did not give us any response. I tried to start in reserve mode, and that was the limit of my engineering funda... Eventually, we pushed the scooter almost half a mile in the scorching heat of July to a workshop. The boy there, who was younger than me, tweaked a thing or two and it was okay all over again. I paid 20 bucks, and one of my friends completely wet with the sweat remarked, "what did you learn in engineering, that also in mechanical?"

Scene 2: Its really hot all through the daytime and I wanted to take a bath again in the evening. So I was pumping out water from the handpump we had at home. Suddenly, a washer or something got loose and the whole lever hand came out of the pipe like section. I took a wrench, opened it in the hope that since I know Turbomchinery, repairing a pump would be easy. After trying for half an hour, I called a plumber specialized in handpump (or as we call it Damkal) and got it repaired.

So, what the hell is my point ? You might all be wondering about that..

Well, I am a graduate in mechanical engineering from an NIT (an institution of national importance) and presently doing my masters in the best university in India. But one hamara bajaj and a handpump had it on me. My arrogance was shattered into pieces, I am no longer proud to say I'm from an NIT and now from IISc. May be, I am demeaning the status of the institutions I'm referring and really, I feel ashamed.

So, ain't people like me a worthless bunch of hypocrites?