My transformation into a Digital Nomad

Not long ago, I used to have a corporate job with timings, commute and a seat in a office. It was fun and exciting. It was everything one could ask for. There was money, there was good work, good and smart colleagues and yes there was fun. I was so attached to it. It was all in my comfort zone and I was getting comfortable. I had a good manager to work with and a overall good environment to work in. But that was not enough, I wanted more. I wanted a lot of discomfort, getting into something I have never delved in before, getting stuck and to find the way out on my own. The startup eco-system had been in my radar for long. I loved following it and kept track of each and everything happening out there. This is when I had the opportunity to get in touch with an old friend from college and things changed. This was the end of comfort and beginning of a new interesting journey. I had transitioned from EDA to CPU to GPU and I loved all of it. But this I love more, I can build and see an end product which a customer uses. I get in touch with people's lives and love every part of it. This marked the beginning of my transformation into a digital nomad. I call myself a digital nomad because what I need to survive is Roti, Kapda, Makan and a working WiFi. That's it.  Of course, I love my Mac. And these are the bare essentials I live on. Rest all happens!! It is the rise and rise of the age of the digital nomads and I am very happy to be a part of it. More on this later. 

What I learnt from Manjhi - The Mountain Main - Entrepreneurship

I recently went with family to watch Manjhi - The Mountain Man. Here are the subtle things that I learnt from the movie, which I can somehow relate to. I would call them the "Dasrath Manjhi's Laws of Action". My humble tribute to this man of grit and determination. Every entrepreneur has to learn a lot from his story.

• Age is just a Number
• This man showed us that age is just a number. Age is no bar to achieve something that you set your sight on.
• Love to your fullest
• One can move mountains in love, and if you cannot move them, cut through them.This is what this man did.
• Commitment
• Ek baar jo maine commitment kar di to phir mein apni bhi nahin sunta. This is a dialogue from the movie Wanted. This is the perfect fit here.
• Evil - To contain or to Part
• He was bitten by a poisonous snake in between his endeavor. He tried to contain it for some time but when he failed he took no time to cut his toe off his leg. There is a very important lesson here. 
• Goal Setting and Peer Engagement
• Set your goals and people may not be convinced. Do not get influenced by that they say or when they try to discourage you - Just keep rolling with your eyes on the supreme goal. The rest will follow.
• Fault Finding
• Even in his direst of consequences he would introspect and try to see what he is lacking to overcome the issues that he sees on his path towards the goal.
• Never Ever Give Up 
• This is by far the most important one.

These laws or commandments which I see being depicted in this movie can be case studies in Behavior Analysis, Psychology, Army, Big MBA or Grad schools. This is a learning for people particularly in research who get stuck in the trough at times for longer and tend to give up. He may not have been educated in the Bhagwat Geeta - but I strongly feel that his actions are exemplary of the verses of the Geeta. He was living the Geeta!!

You will always an inspiration for me!! Thank you for being there!!

Faith Reinstated

There are certain incidents that happen in your life which reinstates your faith in goodness every now and then. It comes from so uncertain and unexpected corners in your life and leave an indelible impression on your mental existence. It signifies the win of good over evil. One such unexpected incident happened yesterday which I would like to share with my readers here. I and my wife - had gone to watch the movie "Ek Villain" to Soul Space Arena, Total Mall on Outer Ring Road. We were running a bit late so we rushed in for the movie, it had rained in the evening so the roads were jammed as well. Anyway, we kind of moved in haste for the movie being just in time for the show, may be losing around 2-3 minutes or so. We safely landed in our seats and we continued till the very end exchanging notes in between, the occasional ones. It was a good movie for me but not so critically acclaimed by my wife. The movie ended and I could see that two wrongs do not make it right (Obviously Maths do not work out here in multiplicative way -ve * -ve = +ve in maths weirdly.)  So we moved out of the movie hall, after checking our pockets. I took the decision of using the stairs as the lift was supposed to get full. We reached the Lower basement when the worst surprise hit me. My wife said, "I do not have my wallet". Immediately we climbed up the stairs looking up twice, going into the movie hall as well and asking help from the co-operative cleaning staff. They all helped us but it was of no avail. Finally, we came back the stairs way to our car,all the way trying to console ourselves - accepting whatever has happened. It was not easy. All the what-ifs were coming in to our minds. The only thought that I had was- "Ek Villain" has entered our life. We registered a complaint with security staff and came back home. We were not at all hopeful of getting it back. I cursed myself to have even proposed to have come to the movie. At night 1:30 AM we blocked all her credit/debit cards. She was about to apply for a duplicate PAN card but we waited thinking let us see for a day. We slept pretty late that day around 2:30 AM. She woke up in the morning as she got a call from her mom, she had been calling her frantically since morning. I was in deep sleep at that time. It was when I woke up my wife said, she has got back her purse. It was unbelievable. This is what had happened. Someone had found out that wallet in the stair case after it had fallen from the loose pocket in her jacket. He thought he would return the rightful owner himself, a good Samaritan I would say. He had tried to call up a few numbers which were there in the purse written in a crumbled piece of paper. Apart from that, he found my wife's institute ID card which had her dad's phone number. And that is how he got back to us. After that my wife talked to this guy and we fixed up a meeting in the evening as he stayed a bit far. We met in the Gopalan Mall, in the evening, I cancelled all my other plans and wanted to meet this guy. We finally met him and he handed over the wallet to my wife. It was good to meet him. He was very simple and straight forward and on the face. He told he felt it was his responsibility to return the wallet and he did. Although he was not very willing, we had a snack in McDs and then we parted ways. Apparently, he had lost his wallet once and he had a very hard time after that. He searched for my wife's name on the internet and he could also locate her on Facebook and Linkedin. He was good at it for sure. His energy and simplicity was very natural to him. Me and my wife have got a good friend now. Today on the holy occasion of Ratha Yatra - Chariot Festival of Lord Jagannath, I could feel that there is inherent goodness in people and it is good people with their sense of goodness who make this world a much better to place to live in. It was great to meet such a person face to face!! Be good, Do good, Help Others!! Jay Jagannath.

WAM- Work And Music

There is a rhythm in everything I do. Thats the reason I find music really exciting and energizing. Every key stroke that I make for this blog, it seems to be going on in some rhythm. I can hear the music of silence at times. That's all for the philosophical part, what I would like to write about is music and the important role it plays while I work. Music makes work Rhythmic and enjoyable. For now that's all I have - I will write a bit more in detail some other time.

World is a small place

World is large is an illusion and we have been disillusioned by the internet. The other day I was driving my car late in the night and suddenly I felt like giving lift to a guy who was eagerly waiting for a taxi. Well, after I offered him lift, I do not know why, I got to know he is a Odia with the first few accented words he spoke. It then came to light that he was my younger brother's junior in college. This all happened in a 15 minute short drive. I do believe the world is a small place!! Indeed.

Music is for the Soul

No matter what language you speak or understand, it is imminent that you would enjoy good music being played at any point in this universe. May be we will enjoy even Martian music for that matter. Music is one aspect that connects the various distributed components in this universe. It may be the alternative solution to "String Theory" which scientists around the world are vehemently researching on. I feel so connected to myself and the outer world, suddenly all feels so good. I am just so ecstatic after listening to beautiful sound pieces - the moment good music bounces off my ear drums - the feeling of awesomeness dawns on me and I for a split second loose consciousness and get calmness. I feel my soul gets nourished when my ears listen to good music. Music in my view is for the soul.

Resurrection OR Divine Grace ?

I have been wondering a lot about this lately. Is Resurrection some form of Divine Grace ? or if I quote from "Da Vinci Code" - Divine Intervention. This is based on experiences in life, which in retrospect I think - I have worried a bit too much about things - which I should not have. Anyway - everytime if I compare myself - I have emerged stronger, wiser and with increased FAITH. Let me try to define FAITH here - FAITH is a somewhat stronger sense of belief. Belief can be fuzzy - there can be a degree associated with belief - where as FAITH is digital. It is either there or not there, just like a binary digit. I am not very sure, how else I can state this. But well - FAITH - is a state of complete dependence, a state of complete absorption, a state of complete oneness. So - FAITH cannot be a continuous or analog entity, it has to be a digital or level entity. I am not very sure - how else I can put this - it is a feeling which I have had - everytime in my life I faced a difficulty - in really difficult circumstances - I have felt the invisible hand - pulling me out of it - but with such subtle moves - so that the purpose of getting into that trouble is well justified and served for. I come up with renewed energy, renewed wisdom and most importantly renewed faith. In moments of difficulty, you can really learn and make yourself strong. In one of his books, Oghareswar Bhagwan Ram writes - "Suffering more often than not, breaks a person than make him". (It makes also) Suffering he tries to emphasize is a blessing in disguise. If you hold onto your inner FAITH - you resurrect yourself - You find yourself in the realms of Divine Grace. In my life - if I look back - I can see there have been difficult situations more often than not - and I have come out of them clean - with the aid of my pillars of strength. There have been many pillars - who have been the guiding stars of my life - who have shown me the way to maneuver through the difficult oddities in life. In many a case, these are the people who are GOD sent for me - to handhold me through the difficult phases in my life. They are the people who help me Resurrect, help me get my renewed life. It is a CONNECT-THE-DOTS feeling for me - if I look back - and try to find out the exact reason for the presence of these people in my life. All my life - and my souls knows it for sure - I will be ever indebted to the guardian angels who have helped me in resurrection - Divine Intervention indeed!!!

Happiness - A Myth ?

So what is happiness ? I have found that there is no absolute definition of happiness. It is very subjective. What makes me happy, may not make you happy. For example, a good quality work will be a priority for me which gives me happiness but good money would be priority for someone else. What gives me happiness now will not give me happiness say after an year or so. I may be craving for a car now but after an year the same car wont make me happy. There is a relativistic sense to happiness. It is a function of time and circumstances and the individual subject under consideration. For a person who is going to be hanged, a lottery prize of a million dollars wont bring any happiness. One important observation that we should take care of is that happiness is tied to objects, or at least that is what we have observed in the last few lines. So, there is an additional parameter in the function for happiness - which is the object one is craving for. In fact, if we carefully sample the function - we can see that the object of happiness, which is again temporal in nature, is the necessary and sufficient condition for happiness. It is therefore important for us to understand the nature of this craving for this object of happiness.

The craving for the object of happiness is called DESIRE. Essentially, it is also said in the Holy Bhagwad Geeta that - "Desire is the root cause of all action." Everything that we do is driven by desire. The only consistent desire (root - desire , desire can have a transitive nature) that we find in human beings is the desire to be happy. What ever we do is to make us happy. So, we essentially keep looking for happiness in those objects that we desire for. The next question that arises in me is - Is happiness meant to be shortlived ? Or am I looking for at the wrong place ? Either one of them has to be true, because typically I cannot remain happy forever with the objects that I crave for. My desires change every other day or rather every other moment. How can I then be sure that my happiness is not meant to be short lived. Because, it is not necessary that I get the object that I crave for and that will deprive me of happiness.

Happiness cannot be short lived. I will try to explain why. If it was meant to be short lived, we would not be looking for it every now and then even though we loose it. It is in our inherent nature (prakriti) to be happy and thats why we crave for it despite all the problems and issues we face. If it was meant to be short lived, we would not be looking for it every now and then, we would have come to terms with it and would not be looking for it again. Loosing happiness would be acceptable to all of us. But that is not the case, I guess we are looking at the wrong place. More later, till then be happy.

The Beginning of an End

I am blogg-ing after a long long time. I was so-called busy writing my PhD thesis, trying to get a job in a situation where the market is at its lower best because of recession. There were a couple of other things which kept me busy but primarily its the thesis. Completing the thesis is not a big task according to me, if one has done his part of technical work and documentation properly. The only effort being that one has to do a survey which in more scientific terms is called literature survey, which by no means is interesting and eats up a lot of time and energy. I do not know what to say about the time I took to complete my PhD. It is because of many other constructively distractive works that led to the delay. I have been involved with two startup activities in which I had to put considerable amount of effort and time. And I liked taking up challenging projects ranging from automated Analog placement and routing, behavioral modeling of AMS to Mobile applications, data mining and data security. These were by no means correlated to my thesis which was on "Simulation Based Verification of Pipelined Processors". It was a wonderful experience walking down the road of research with so much of breadth in terms of experience. I liked it a lot. Anyway, now that I am out of the wonderful years of academic researcher life, I have to face the world. I need to work hard and stay focussed now. I can feel, its an even arena. Its the beginning of a new phase and the end of of a much loved phase in my life. This is the synopsis of how I completed PhD, gave my synopsis seminar and joined Synopsys India at Bangalore. Looking forward to the late but extremely new beginning in my life. Will keep you guys posted.