Love Letter On A PostCard

While reading the The Innovators - How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution , Chapter 3 deals with the History of Programming. Most of the programmers find the word "bug" dreadful - as it means the software needs to be reprogrammed as it is not meeting the requirements. Here's the story of how the term "bug" made its way into Programming. A Little Background: One of the initial programmers in the history of Computer Programming was Grace Hopper. Hopper worked on Mark - I (A Computing Machine) at Harvard University, and later on Mark - II. She was writing programs for the computing machines and also perfected the practice of subroutines, which is norm now in computer programming. Those were the days when new instructions were submitted via punched paper tape. The Story of Bug: Walter Isaacson writes: In addition, her [Hopper's] crew helped to popularize the terms bug and debugging . The Mark II version o

A new book arrived at the small library we have at my workplace. The Innovators - How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution   by Walter Isaacson . Isaacson is the same guy who wrote Steve Jobs . I issued the book from the library and have started reading. In the first chapter, the writer introduces us that how the Digital world changed over time and how initial innovators of the age brought the changes that we have adapted to.  I've been a teacher (Assistant Professor) in a few Engineering Colleges of Gujarat in my previous jobs, teaching subjects related to Computers and Information Technology. And I found that as teachers we had very little time to teach the history of Computers and Internet. As a result, the students never went into the amazing history of this Digital Revolution. All they're concerned with cramming the Digital Circuits and a few Programs in different computer languages to be asked in the exams. Students neve

I was reading Robin Sharma's - "Who Will Cry When You Die?" . Love reading the book because I can start reading from any page. And each small lesson of these little book provides food for thought. I read this book whenever I'm short of time, but want to read. It is great. A small excerpt from the very first lesson of the book: We can fire a missile across the world with pinpoint accuracy, but we have trouble keeping a date with our children to go to the library. We have e-mail, fax machines and digital phones so that we can stay connected and yet we live in a time where human beings have never been less connected. We have lost touch with our humanity. We have lost touch with our purpose. We have lost sight of the things that matter the most. Isn't it worth pondering? We're busy checking our phones and emails every 5 minutes but we forget to check our purpose, our goals and our family members. We continuously try to refresh our news feed on Facebook

Last Friday I'd a small surgery (which turned out to be a little lengthy one.) Lasted for almost 3 hours. I took a few days off after the surgery. Will be going to office from tomorrow. I've been away from my mobile phone as much as possible these few days. And I feel that mobile phones have really robbed the simple pleasures of our lives. And also rob our precious time. I've almost started hating mobile phones/tablets/laptops - anything that distracts my mind with utter nonsense stuff (FB, Whatsapp, Messages, etc.) While being away from my mobile phone I was thinking that we've missed so much just after phones and Internet came in our life. First it was the TV that invaded our personal lives and thoughts, and now its the phone and Internet. I somewhat cried and missed my old school days. Days when I had ample of time to play, read, study and still attend mandatory time-consuming things like school and coaching. I had so much of time to do all the thing

I'd been for a doctor's consultation in Ahmedabad today. While I was going to Ahmedabad, it wasn't raining. While returning back to Gandhinagar, it started raining. It was pitch dark and the visibility was less due to the heavy downpour. And then a bad idea came to my mind. What if my vehicle breaks down at this moment ? So I got my topic for 10 ideas . Here are 10 things to do when your vehicle breaks down: Enjoy the rain and forget about going home. Park your vehicle at some safe place and ask for a lift/free ride. Call a taxi. Call a friend. Walk up to your home. Stay at the same place the whole night and observe the nature and the surroundings. A bad idea but it would definitely be an adventure. ;-) Try to repair the vehicle.  Call a mechanic. Stop a truck and carry it to your place. Leave your vehicle and buy a new one. Very bad idea ;-)

Here's another list of 10 ideas . Things I'd love to do to improve my physical stamina and in turn, be in good shape. Running - with a target of up to 5 kilometers. Pranayam - start with Anulom-Vilom and then Bhastrika. This would also help me in clearing my nose. Start with 10 complete cycles of Anulom-Vilom and increase it to 20. Yog - start with a few basic that I'd learned during a Yog-Shibir long time back. Stretching exercies - I learned when I was playing Badminton. Surya Namaskar - In case, I've less time for any other exercise, I'd love to do this at least. Cycling - Luckily Gandhinagar is having cycle stores at regular intervals. Swimming - During summers. I loved during my school days. However, I could not continue it later on. Badminton - A game I love to play Table Tennis Brisk Walking

Here's a list of 10 blog posts that I would like to write: About James Altucher and his 10 Ideas a Day Practice . (After all, this blog post itself is generated from his 10 Ideas thing) People whom I admire and from whom I've learned.  Why I've started to hate my cellphone and the social network apps. Changes I would like to bring in my life. About my fears. 10 books I've loved till date. Books I would like to write. Different career aspirations I'd since my childhood. My affinity towards Pens and list of Pens I've used. Why I dislike weight-lifting and why I like Yog and Pranayam. 

I like to read blogs on productivity and minimalism. These two words have caught my fancy since many months. I came across a piece written by Charles Assisi . I've been reading him ever since he was the editor at Chip (India). We all strive to achieve many things in life and still we always feel short of it. We create To Do Lists, create time table and yet we fail. Fail to do what we really want to do. Our lives are so jam-packed that we fail to recognize how time flies. We fail to make use of all the time we have at our disposal in an optimum way. Charles finds the answers to the above questions from an online course on productivity by Farnam Street Blog . Shane Parish, who conducts the course asks a few questions: "Why do you want to be more productive? What is your intent? What do you want to do with more time?" And the answer to above questions as per Parish is: We fail because we don't know what to do with the extra time. Also there's the Pa

With just a span of few months and with just 3 answers, I'm one of the Most Viewed Writer on Quora for Internet Addiction. Here's a snapshot: Link of my quora answers for Internet Addiction.

Ever since I've finished my college education, I've missed writing. Writing with hand. Sometimes it seems ages that I'd written a page or two. I'm very much fond of writing on paper. Most of my work is done by writing on the keyboard. And as a result, I miss the feel of using a pen and writing in cursive on a plain sheet of paper. Recently I'd to write a lot while we were being imparted with in-house training in the company . I found that I've lost the speed and the ease with which I used to write. Even my hand started paining after writing a few lines. We had an exam after the completion of the training and I was the last one to finish. I scribbled until the examiner came to my desk. I'd many thoughts in my mind, but my hand could not cope up with the thoughts. I used to write my thoughts on paper sometimes and then would again type it out and publish on the blog. But that practice gradually disappeared. Now, most of my blog posts (including this)

It's Guru Purnima today - a day when we express our gratitude to our academic as well as spiritual teachers (guru's). But we all forget that there's also one guru within us which is always ready to help us and guide us. He knows all our faults and weaknesses which even our academic or spiritual guru's might not be knowing. The word Guru is derived from two Sanskrit words: gu means darkness or ignorance and ru means the remover of darkness. Hence a guru is one who enlightens us. The guru I'm pointing to is our inner voice - the one which resides within us. We are so busy in the outer world that we have forgotten to listen his voice. And, in turn, we are misguided, or feel shallowness in our lives. As per our Indian tradition we always bow down to, pay respect and obey to our guru's preaching, we also need to pay attention to the preaching of our own guru - the guru within us. Listening to our own guru promotes self-development and maintains our

I'd a training session at my office for 5 days. One thing I noticed that the trainer everyday emphasized on one thing: Learning. He'd make us learn different topics by exercises and workshops and after each training he'd make us learn a few things by describing on what we did right and what we did wrong. I liked his approach of making us learn valuable topics. The thing that caught my mind was his emphasis on learning - learning everyday. He used this term frequently and was quite positive on the results. I'd like to quote Leonardo da Vinci: Learning never exhausts the mind. Sometime back I was afraid of learning as I need to change gears for learning. But now I'm charged and open to learning.

My alarm buzzed on my iPhone. And I made it snooze immediately. It rang again after a few minutes. After shutting off the alarm, while still lying on the bed with eyes closed, I realized that each time the alarm rings it gives a panic thought like “I’d be late for office”, “I won’t have time for breakfast”, etc. On further introspection, I found that such panic thoughts are not good for a beautiful morning. It creates a negative mindset right from the time we get up. And it has a spiraling effect for the whole day. Instead, our mornings should be pleasant and without any kind of fear, stress, or negative vibes. Now the question is – How to make the morning pleasant? So to make my mornings pleasant, I need to do something that elates me, something that calms my mind or excites my mind instead of sending it into the panic or stress mode. One thing that I really like is listening to music or reading. Reading something positive - maybe some self-help books and not t

Off lately I’ve been constantly thinking and reading about self-development. A topic that I’d read for years while in school and college, but then I totally forgot about it. A few blogs that I read, my own life, and the random thoughts that strike my mind enforced me to think about my own development. I observed that I was so engrossed in the outer world. I had forgotten to talk to myself. To think about me. These days we all are so busy with our mobile phones and the “notification world”, be it email, blogs, twitter, facebook, Instagram, etc., that we’ve totally forgotten our own world. A world where we can be alone and at peace. Mobile phones have distracted human beings a lot. I can’t comment on all of them, to what extent they are distracted, and whether everyone feels the same or not. We are constantly distracted by notifications. This constant supply of information in the form of Social Media, News, Blogs or Whatsapp is continuously depleting our concen

With the recent advances in mobile technology and the availability of cheaper smart phone have resulted in diminishing the charm of buying a new phone. Today, Android smartphones are available in price range of INR 5k-50k. The only variant in these phones, for a layman, is just the hardware part. The software remains the same, except for a few updates in the version. So the charm of exploring new features that we had in older days is slowly vanishing. These days phones are just like plug-and-play devices. You remove the Sim Card from the old device and insert it into the new. Rest everything is backed-up online. There is no doubt that new innovations are constantly incorporated in the software as well as the hardware, but for the layman, the phone have become just a device for their daily needs, minus the romance of buying a new phone. P.S.: This thought came to my mind after buying Xiomi Redmi Note 3 for Kiran. She just started using it without any kind of delay or reading th

The tragedy of life is not death, but what we let die inside of us while we live. - Norman Cousins. Read this quote on the first page of Robin Sharma's book - " Who Will Cry When You Die. " I've read this book earlier - may be from some library or from a friend's collection and since then I had planned to purchase the book. Ordered it from Amazon India, as it was available for a huge discount and received it today. It's a book that can be read by anyone, anywhere and anytime and one can always find something good to read. For example, the first chapter of the book asks us to "Discover Our Calling". With the constant advances in the field of science and technology, we can easily call a friend overseas but we forget to talk with ourselves. We forget what is the purpose of our life and wander ourselves the way life makes us act. A quote from the book: ".... if you don't act on life, life has a habit of acting on you." In shor

The weather this year has been terribly hot. Reached 49 degrees C here in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. Luckily the office is having AC so I get solace during the peak hours, but during night it gets too hot to sleep. To get some relief, I purchased a water cooler from Ahmedabad yesterday. I hope the rain Gods arrive early.

Thrilling Air Show at Sabarmati Riverfront - between Nehru Bridge and Gandhi Bridge. The last Air Show I had seen was in GNFC Township in 2007-2008. Reached Ahmedabad too early - around 2 pm. And atmosphere was scorching hot. First we went to National Handloom at Ranip. And then as we had read in newspaper that the time for Air Show is 4 pm, we reached there around 3:45 pm. But then we found that the timing for Air Show is 5:30 pm. Distressed and tired of the heat, we went to McDonald's on Ashram Road. But once the show started, it was worth all the waiting. From there we went to Ahmedabad National Book Fair 2016. This time it is behind NID, Paldi - on Sabarmati Riverfront. Although tired, we felt relief from heat as the book fair is air-conditioned/air-cooled. Too much rush as it was Sunday. We just glanced through the many stalls and decided to visit once again (it is till 7th May, 2016) for purchasing any books. I bought a DVD of lecture of Jay Vasavada on the topic &qu

Completed 30 years yesterday. The day was uneventful till evening. As usual I went to office and returned home in the evening. Received many wishes on Facebook, via calls and whatsapp messages. Then I and Kiran decided to go out. Went to Agora Mall, purchased a few household things from Big Bazaar and then returned home. After reaching home I got busy checking out whatsapp and facebook. Meanwhile Kiran called me in the dining room which was lit with candles. She had prepared a candle-light dinner. And then after dinner she gifted me a book "You're the password to my life" by Sudeep Nagarkar. I don't know about the novel (neither did she knows), but liked the title of the book. She purchased it just by looking at the title. And then after sometime, Mahesh and Chetan came home with a cake. Another surprise. All arrangements were made by them as per Kiran's directions. We all had cake. Thank you Kiran and all friends. Noopur too surprised me today by sending

My workplace is on 14 th floor of a huge 28 floor tower. And it overlooks a small village. We sit for lunch near the large glass windows which overlooks the village. And looking at the quiet and slow paced village life, I think that the life of a villager is far happier and less complicated as compared to that of an urban dweller. The villager is contented in his own small world. The city guy never feels contended. He is always rushing.

So again there's a change. And such changes have been with me throughout the financial year i.e. from March 2015 to March 2016. Left SVMIT and joined (n)Code Solutions - A Division of GNFC Limited. Left academics and joined the corporate world. I am yet to figure out whether I liked the academic field or this new corporate world. Both have their own pros and cons. But one thing that I'll surely miss from the academics is - My dear students. Let's see what life has stored in for me. PS: Back to Gandhinagar.

Finally I emptied my old Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop and started using the all new Lenovo laptop which was gifted to me by Vijaybhai on my last birthday. I had used the previous laptop for the past 7 years. It had loads of data and scattered files which needed to be backed up. The new laptop is quite light in weight as compared to the previous one. Moreover, it came with pre-installed Windows 8.1 which I later on upgraded to Windows 10. Also I created a partition for Ubuntu.