Thats-so-Raja !

( This is a sequel to A Date - Part 1 ) “How are you?” “I don’t know!” I had given that reply a few times recently. People gaped at me as if I was a green monkey. But seriously, that was a very honest reply. ‘I don’t know’ . A beautiful ‘I don’t know’ . I always had this question in my mind. When people smugly beam that they are doing fantastic, what is their point of reference? Queen of England ? Paris Hilton? Thomas Alva Edison? Jesus Christ? Florence Nightingale? Adolf Hitler? And when people sulk, “It’s been hard”, what are they comparing against? Well, I can declare that, “Oh, compared to what I was before, I am better / worse. Actually, I am my own reference ”. Sure! That’s a logically acceptable argument. But let us take it a bit deeper. If I have to declare that, then am I really a worthy reference to measure myself against? How much do I matter? I was born, fed, loved, abused, pampered, spoiled, praised, shattered, filtered, I was feeling, caring, sharing, hea...

“Good Morning. How is everything? Did you manage to have an early breakfast date with yourself?” I was on the bed in a hotel room in Jakarta when that SMS woke me up. I only managed to get a very few hours of sleep that night. Even in that, my mind went churning non-stop on some meaningless, unconnected things. I was literally aware of all that turmoil in the half sleep, twisting and tossing through it. Back to the SMS. All the SMS I get usually are with a single consistent purpose - my colleagues trying to find my whereabouts. Note - none of them is a hot babe. (This is altogether a different topic - how come no hot chick in this whole damn world manages to become an IT architect!!) Oh, for a change, I do occasionally get some irritating marketing campaigns. So, it is not a wonder that this message sprang me awake like a Maasai Warrior. (Maasai are an African tribe famous for their ability to rise from the deepest sleep to a state of total combat readiness in a matter of seconds)...

As I walked into the home yesterday evening, I sensed that something was freezing cold. Quickly I realized that it was my wife. Of her many faces, she wore her confrontational face and came in front of me. Trisha, my little one, was next to her with almost a similar face too! She : Where is Kim Seng Road? Me : What is that? Is that where Trisha’s school is? Oh that is Koon Seng Road, isn’t it? She : You sure you don’t know? What is this IRAS letter about then? I took it from her to read. She quickly snatched it from me even before I got the full impact of it. It seems IRAS wants to tax me for a new Condominium I bought this June in 60, Kim Seng Road, Singapore, #15-02. She : Explain! Me : I don’t know. What in the world is that? I never bought any condo anywhere. Trisha : Daddy, tell me in my ears. Do you really own a condo? She : Trisha! You idiot. That means there is someone else in his life. I will have to step out of him. Trisha : Yehhh! Then I will live with daddy in the new cond...

Gentle Ladies, Men and my loved ones, I am glad to introduce to you, “The Napkin Architect” . Sure, he is nerdy. Its not just IT, He does have his variety. He is bold, frivolous and stupid. His topics, very intrepid. All he needs is his pen And a nice big napkin. He tries to push his boundary Any risk is secondary Read him to keep you brisk And to follow him is your own risk. Ok, I wont use the napkin and pen to illustrate my ideas. It’s a big pain to maintain that until I scan and post. So I will instead use my bamboo tablet and pen. (Eeeps, I still owe 50 bucks to Ajay for that). So here he is : The Napkin Architect's Blog

“On my challenge, by the ancient laws of combat, we have met at this chosen ground, to settle for good and all, who holds the sway over the Five Points!” Its the Dead Rabbits gang against the natives. As Bill roars, wielding his butcher’s heavy knife, I would already be there next to him in his gang of natives. With McGloin and Hellcat Maggie to my right. This is Martin Scorsese’s movie – “Gangs of New York" New York in the 1800s, was not a city but rather a furnace where a city someday might be forged. It was absolute mayhem and chaos everywhere. Everyone is fighting against every one else - immigrants with the natives, corrupt politicians with themselves, people against a pervasive poverty, 2 opposing police departments, hordes of looting fire brigades, cholera and a catastrophic civil war. “The Five Points” – a slum at the cross junction of 5 streets (Mulberry, worth, cross, orange and little water) is the axis of all the evil. The root of all the rival gangs - Dead R...

When it comes to creating tools, some people just don’t get it. Consider this continuum. At the left end, man does everything. And at the right end, the tool does everything. The fundamental decision a tool designer needs to make is – Where to draw the red line! How much should the tool do? Its an evident fact that the more the tool does, the successful it becomes. "Human shall sweat less" is the design mantra. Google is one good example. The engine keeps watching your activities and understands your preferences. The inferred profile is then used to make the search results personalized for you. You are not expected to describe about yourself anytime anywhere. Now, I am ok if you make the tool do a very minimum initially. The bottom line is - it has to be a decent amount of function, well defined, well delivered and well composable. Like a motor. It makes a decent part of many big systems, composed of many such parts. And the intelligent of creators further take effort to mak...

It started here Little Trisha has 2 things that I like in her. One - she loves reading. Just that her books have rats as the heroes. Duh!! I have been asking her to grow up. Second - she is random. Radiantly random. This was the recent random thing we did together. That day, she influenced me to a soya milk from the Jolly-Bean’s. Now, soya milk can be boring as sewage. So to give it a bang, they add these ‘chewy pearls’ to it. For the uninitiated, chewy pearls are tiny sweet balls, made using tapioca and dropped lovingly into your drink. If you ever crave to nibble and bite into a soft human body part, you shall try the chewy pearls. So we walked out, bought our cups and started drinking. Baby : Jokes time, Daddy! Daddy : Okay…. Where would a bored cow go? Baby : Where? Daddy : Moooooovie, of course! Ouch!! She giggled at that and got chocked with a chewy pearl. And in a short struggle, she managed to shoot it out of her throat onto the floor. First we thought of cleaning it up. But t...