Predicaments...

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

At no point in my life did this poem sound more apt than it does now. Giving up a life of certainty, monetary stability (well I am not $RICH$ but still my employers kept me well provided for ;) ) and of course the proximity of loving friends and family seems to be getting to me. But I guess this too shall pass. Will it make all the difference? I do not know...

Updates

This one is for you Meenakshi :-)

I am jobless.

my PowerBook died and since I am jobless I don't have money to get it repaired.

Since I don't have my PowerBook I can't get a job.

Hence the cycle continues....

Hehehe so now my days are spent fighting with the guys at Apple, sleeping endless hours and catching up on some reading. I guess this the most interesting one's life could get :-)

Anyways now that I am on the verge of going back to college, I am getting cold feet. I am handling the situation by not thinking about it at all. I have developed partial amnesia to the fact that I shall be leaving Bangalore soon. I trust people around me to shove me on the the train when the date is due.

AND I have a writer's block...

From a zoom lense...

...everything seems interesting. I have been noticing this for sometime, when ever I change over from a wide angle to a zoom lens things take on a different hue. The crowd changes to a face narrating the story of an individual. seems to get accentuated, the shining eyes, the wisp of hair, the sagging lines on the face. Small insignificant things get a life of their own and appear spectacular. Patterns emerge out of chaos. The other day I was shooting at a temple and I chanced up to an elderly man. Round spectacles, gandhi topi, all dressed in white. His face dark in complexion was packed with dots, wrinkled with age. He seemed to be an anachronism. But I somehow connected to him through the viewfinder of my camera even though he was more than 200 feet away.

Anything and everything is interesting. If we look close enough.

Just what the doc ordered...

The Plan

• Each team consists of two members
• Each person is allowed Rs. 1000 and a back pack.
• Participants are allowed to carry extra money, but are not encouraged to use it unless they are in some deep trouble.
• Remotest village in a state is a must visit.
• Farther the distance of travel from starting point more the fun.

3,166,414 sq. km
500,000 villages approximately
1000 bucks per person
28 states
15 days
10 destinations
2 per team
1 race

Are You Game?

I am thinking I'll take part in this competition, not for the sake of winning but just for the travel. I guess I'll be able to collect lot of material for the book during the race. If you want to pitch in with me drop me comment with your email id/phone no and I shall get back. See you there.

Lonesome Chairs

Locust Walk, Philadelphia

Rapid Fire

YAY I got tagged !! By Anki...

1. Pick out a scar you have, and explain how you got it.
A slit on my abdomen. Keep guessing how I got it.

2. What is on the walls in your room?
1100 piece jigsaw puzzles and a couple of framed photographs... No more are my walls adorned with scantily clad women.

3. What does your phone look like?
A Remington Typewriter.

4. What music do you listen to?
Rabindra Sangeet.

5. What is your current desktop picture?
Dewdrops...

6. What do you want more than anything right now?
A trip to the Bahamas. Scantily clad women would be the icing on the cake ;-)

7. Do you believe in gay marriage?
As long as I am not involved anything is fine. BTW how about group marriages ?

8. What time were you born?
9:30 PM on a Friday. Now you know why I am so chilled out :D

9. Are your parents still together?
No and Yes.

10. What are you listening to?
iTunes Radio.

11. Do you get scared of the dark?
I am scared of light, I think my body will disintegrate when sunlight hits me. So I am dormant during daytime.

12. The last person to make you cry?
Boys dont cry.

13. What is your favorite perfume/cologne?
Deep Blue ;)

14. What kind of hair/eye colour do you like on the opposite sex?
Black/Blue.

15. Do you like pain killers?
Why would I like something that kills me ?

16. Are you too shy to ask someone out?
Actually I am, and I act pricey to hide the fact.

17. Favorite pizza topping?
Lots of veggies and less cheese.

18. If you could eat anything right now, what would it be?
Ingera and Misr Allecha (Ethopian dishes)

19. Who was the last person you made mad?
I have attained Nirvana. Nothing can make me mad.

20. Is anyone in love with you?
I would LOVE to believe that girls all over the world are drooling over me. Does that answer the question?

Now the important part [wicked grin], I would like to tag Meenakshi, Vyom and Cuckoo. I dont know why someone would like to inflict oneself with the pain willingly, but hey anyone else is welcome if you want to :D

Show me the Money, Honey

Why is money such a bad word in India? If someone were to say "I like money" he is always looked down upon in our society. It has been seen as a vice almost synonymous with sex and all the things considered bad in the Indian value system. Too much money corrupts, we have been taught. Everyone wants money, but no one is ready to accept the fact. Why such hypocracy?

You would have heard lot of managers say you should not be working for money. Now this is one thing I fail to understand. I can always do better work in an academic institution or on my own. I work for a company whose ONLY responsibility is to create wealth for its stakeholder. The only REASON I might be interested in working for a corporate entity is the fact that I WANT MONEY. What is so difficult to comprehend? The whole charade that the HR puts up during recruitment and the managers henceforth is so sickening. I say India, because I am familiar with the recruitment practices elsewhere and almost all employers worldwide are ready to talk about and negotiate the compensation except India.

Lots of people have told me that they want to start companies. They have this great technical idea that would change the lives of millions, they are sick of working for someone else, they want some excitement in their otherwise mundane life. These might be valid reasons for thinking of a startup but if you are not interested in making money you can't be an entrepreneur. Period. I think this conscious aversion about money or talking about it needs to change if a new wave of entrepreneurship has to sweep through India and give rise to the silicon valley. People need to start thinking of money before they get the itch to create great companies.

Lots of money.

Post India

For those of you wondering what is this about, a friend of mine and I am writing a book. You can find more about it here. Put up this poster on your blog, on your office bulletin board, you college gazette and where ever it might catch people's fancy. You can get a high res version of the poster by clicking on the image or here. Any help shall be really appreciated :-)

Virginia Tech Shootout

My heart goes out to the students and faculty members who lost their lives in the massacre. Virginia Tech is supposed to be of the most peaceful college communities and no one would have expected something like this to happen there. The sheer suddenness of the event is shocking and disturbing. Is there a SAFE place left in this world?

Memories

"The Storm". Painting by Francesco Guardi.

A painting very similar to the one about used to hang in my grandfather's studay when I was a kid. There was something so melancholic about the painting that used to indimidate me so much that I woke up at nights in a pool of sweat. The paints was pretty simple, a huge mast ship in the midst of a raging storm. It was not the subject that ailed me but the colors, they seemed to suck out the all the energy from the spectator, putting him in the same despair that people aboard the ship might have been feeling. Thats one of the strongest evidences I have seen of colors being used to convey emotions. Sadly this picture dosen't dosent potray the helpless I felt after seeing the painting that hung on the wall. I have changed a lot since I saw that painting first. I am no longer afraid of water, I can swim pretty well. But even now when I think of the painting on the wall, a shudder passes through me. Just thinking about it transforms me to a state of helplessness and saps aways all my energy and mirth.

Have you ever felt something similar?

Impressive

वाह क्या बात है। अब हिंदी में ब्लॉगर !!

मैं खुश हुआ।

A Potrait of an Young Man as the Photographer

I have always had this fascination for photography, but not until recently since I started some serious photography did I realize it would change me. For Good.

Patience: As a photographer I have developed lot of patience, precariously perched on my haunces, with sweat tricking down my face, waiting for the opportune moment to click the scene. Not to forget the insanely heavy camera and the lense.

Carpe Diem: In photography you need seize the moment. Nothing lasts for more than a second, if you have captured it, its for you to keep or it might have gone forever.

Resilience: You learn to live with your mistakes and evolve with them. At times I have spent the entire day clicking photographs only to realize I didnt choose the correct ISO or I had a greasy lense.

Photography has taught me a lot more than any class or college I ever went to. Long live photography and long live the photographer in me.

Yet another change of address...

My friends (- MissT) keep complaining about my frequent change in coordinates, and finally when I thought I am done for good its time to move again.

This time I shall be moving to Philadelphia, spending the next 4 years (hopefully not more) at Wharton working towards a PhD. That was the only place I had sent in an aplication and I was fortunate enough to get selected. A hurried trip to Philly convinced me that its a great department, very vibrant. The profs seemed like really nice people and the students are extremely smart. People who have been admitted with me have calls from all the top schools like Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, and Chicago. I hope all of them join, it would be a great group. I am in esteemed company :D

Its time to do some serious work now. After graduating in 2003, I have been mostly whiling away time. Work has been interesting but only in patches. I have worked with some really cool technology, contributed my bit but learning has been mostly off work rather than on it. The last few years have been good in eroding the naivety that was almost synonymous with my thinking while I left college. Now I understand the people and the world in a better light. I think I am a lot more mature and focused now and this is an appropriate time to go back to grad school and make the world a better place...

Wish me luck :D

Man's Best Friend

B&W III

Children at play. City Market, Bangalore

B&W - II

Kids posing at City Market, Bangalore

B&W - I

Barber @ Brigade Road, Bangalore

Holi

Why do we read books?

I was with one of my oldest school friend Anand yesterday and we were discussing how a book is a reflection of an authors experiences and desires, both met and unmet. The discussion somehow came around to Fountainhead and then Ayan Rand. I started narrating the story of We the Living to him. After listening to me patiently for a while he asked what was it about the book that made me like it so much. At that point I told him I really liked the character of Kira Argunova, one of the strongest female characters I have ever encountered.

This question persisted with me on my way to Bangalore. On some contemplation I reached the following conclusion. As we live our lives we undergo several experiences, some pleasant some not so. Each of them make our lives richer if we are willing to understand and assimilate them. I think its the same thing when we read a book, a book transports us to a place set in the writers imagination. Personally I get so engrossed in a book that I feel a part of the scene that the author describes. Watching sunsets with the lovers holding hands or fighting the battle with the wounded soldier, breathing in the same air that they exhale. For me the experience of reading a book is as real as experiencing it in real life, images flashing by in quick succession. I mostly see a book than read it.

Coming back to the question poised by Anand, I liked the book because I loved the fact that I knew someone like Kira, so passionate, so full of life and love. Someone who fought to rebuild the future and did not give up hope till the very end. I loved the fact that I existend in the same space with her. Even though it was fictional and transient. But isn't everything around us? Mere spacedust ?

Visual DNA

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