Searching Old friends- III --- Happy :)

Yes, I am happy today as I finally found one of my old lost friends.... that too when her name changed from "abc xyz" to "klm pqr"....  Even first name changed !! As per Hindu marriage tradition, name of bride has to start from some new alphabet depending upon astrology, so my friend had to change her name from "J A" to "K K", so how could I find her after more than 10 years of "no contact". But luckily, somehow found her and happy !! Yet to find four more friends....

Knowing

Sometime back, I watched a movie, "Knowing". On 5th October of last year, to be precise. I generally don't remember for other movies that which particular date I watch which movie. No body remembers unless he/she has gone for a particular movie on some memorable "date" :). But I don't remember this movie date because I watched it on any important day of my life. But because there was something special about this movie which I will explain later**. This is Just another movie to say. But it elicited a never ending chain of thoughts.

The theme is whether the events taking place in world are deterministic or stochastic. Deterministic means which are governed by some specific physical laws whereas stochastic is just probabilistic/ random. Movie says that the fate of this world is deterministic. Each and every event happening/to be happened is defined already. Many people in this world are believers of deterministic theory. But on the other side, there are countless events possible in this large world and we can't guess what will happen next. So much randomness. But there is a determinism hidden behind these so called stochastic processes. All this chaoticness happening is heading for a particular direction. But we are seeing only a small portion of that. If we try to see the big picture, we will definitely believe that fate of everything is fixed.  We need to broaden our vision exactly the same way as we see earth as a part of milky way which in turn is a part of enormous number of galaxies. Or the same way as we see maximum entropy theorem in Physics.

In movie, the deterministic thing was the end of world which happened the same way as it was written some 50 years back by a school child Lucinda. Though the actor even after "Knowing" couldn't avert the fate of world. And in some cases it seems that what he was doing was also written and in a way supported the deterministic theory.

**So many movies make us to think, then why I remembered only this date. Because the end of world happened in movie on 19th October. If it would have happened in real I had precisely 14 days of my life left!! This thought trembled me within. Though I didn't feel the same after watching 2012, which was actually predicted by Nostradamus and appears to be more realistic. Still, can't blame myself for becoming thoughtful and afraid really. Human nature is also so stochastic!! 

Searching old friends - II

In last post (Searching old friends - I), I raised a question regarding the probability of finding your childhood friends after growing up. Some friends told me offline that they couldn't get the main idea about what the post is? Whom I am searching? What made me write this post? Why I am searching them through social networking only? Why I don't go simply to their place and find out? And have I found my lost friends now or not? In this post I am gonna answer all these questions. And its my own experience.

One question I should answer here itself that why internet only? Actually, some friends changed their place, some in fact city itself so we didn't have each others' contacts. So at present, apart from internet, I don't have any other way to find their whereabouts :(

Well, To begin with, Lets start the process of searching an old lost friend. And pick any social networking site which you use most often (say Facebook). Now, type the name of your friend, only name won't do, you will have to type "surname" also, because, as I mentioned earlier that unless the name of your friend is extremely unique, you will definitely find so many people of same name. Now, if you are lucky enough, you will find your friend by seeing his/her profile photo provided, (1) he/she has put a profile photo, (2) you are able to recognize your friend after "growing up". But if you fail to do so, half of your chances of finding your friend are already gone. But don't give up. Still, its not impossible. You can contact each one of them (people of same name) and ask if they are the same "abc xyz", who you are looking for. Who knows, you may be talking to your friend also while asking. Happy? Mission over? No.

It may also happen that your friend is still not active on social networking. Don't worry, don't lose hope. Wait for some more time, days, months or may be even years. Hopefully, you will be able to see your friend soon. Or, may be they will find you themselves. Now Happy? Again No?

Why? What can be the reason that you are not able to find them?

Now, here comes the point which I wanted to raise. What if person has changed the name? But why the person will change the name? Person (your friend) has a beautiful name, there was no need to change the name. Then why?

Hmm, most of my friends must have changed their names, that's why I am not able to find them :(  They had to change their names. Because most of them would have been married by now. Some got married at the age of 20 only!! Yes, now you got the point. I am talking about the girls here who must have had to change their surnames. So the name of my friend which was "abc xyz" is something else now!!!!!!!!!!!!

Though some girls who don't want to lose their identity but still accept their changed name "gracefully", making it to "abc xyz pqr". I wish my friends would have done the same, so that I won't have to ask people with name "abc pqr" ---   "Are you the same "abc pqr" who was "abc xyz" earlier?" 

And I am doing this for last five years in search of my friends, failing every time. :( :(

Searching old friends - I

We have grown up now, so are our childhood friends from whom we got away while running in the race of life. While growing up, we went through a plethora of changes in our environment. Most of the times these changes were only due to the need of "something better", sometimes it was the need of a better house which caused the change, and sometimes it was need of better city itself. Better school, better ambience, better society, better business, better....... We were bound to face the changes due to the needs of "grown ups" at that time.

Time passed. Memories got diminished. We ourselves are grown ups now, we have our own needs and in run of life we are also imposing this change upon others. Can't help it. And its a trend of life. So better be happy going along the path. Nature also helps us in doing so by giving us "power" to forget, so, we find it difficult to recollect the feeble memories of our childhood.

But still, there were some things or some people along the journey of life who had made their places in our hearts. You miss your old childhood friends. You don't have any idea of their whereabouts. After growing up you try to search for them. Thanks to technology, social networking is available to us, so most of the time we are lucky enough to  find our childhood friends. 

But unfortunately, we (people of age > 10-12 years as these days children of 10-12 years are on facebook) are late enough in getting the technology. We still are not lucky enough to find some of our friends. Now, you can argue, why late?? We have so many ways still to find out about our friends. I agree. Unless your friend has extremely complex name like Rajrajeshwari Katyayanilakshmi Venkataramana Vankamamidi (no pun intended :P), we get so many copies of one name if we search in say facebook.

So what, go through all the profiles of that name na if you are so desperate to find your friend. 

Ok, fine. Good idea.

Lets say, we have gone through all the profiles. Any guess what are the chances that you will find your friend..??

Gold vs Thread ??

 

There is a well known quote: "Heated gold becomes ornament."

Now imply the above quote on a relationship, that can be any relationship- between husband and wife, between friends, between siblings, between lovers, between boss and employee, between student and guide, anyone. If any fight, misunderstanding or grudges happen between them, over a period of time, then either it may lead to breaking of relationship or may be continuing it further after the fight. Acceptable. But the point here is not the cause of breaking or continuing, or whether or not it should have been taken forward, but what will be the nature of "re-bonding"? Will it be stronger, weaker or unaffected? 

If we start taking a poll on the above, most of the votes will go to first or second option leaving a few for the third option. We all understand the impact of a friction. It will never leave the persons same and will end up in leaving a mark. Hey, I am talking about really strong fight!! Well, lets come back to the quote mentioned above which means more the difficulties through which a relationship will come out, stronger it will be after passing.

Now, I am sure most of you may be thinking of the another very common quote while reading this, which you must have read sometime somewhere. Which one? 

"Relationship is like a thread, once broken, it can only be joined through a knot."

So now it is between gold and thread!!!!!! Who wins when talked in terms of relationships? Does relationship shines like an ornament after heating up or it remains with a lifetime knot in it?

 Please feel free to comment and provide your opinion, and I will give my opinion in next post...

Everything's gonna be okay!!

Read title - "Everything's gonna be okay"?

Read it ever before??
Yes, Hundreds of times..
Right?
So what? What's the big deal?
Such a simple and stupid phrase.. everyone knows it.
yes, but soo effective !! No? Think and notice yourself.. 

Ever happened that you are feeling extremely tensed with things going wrong everywhere. You don't know where you are heading, what the hell you are doing and why you are doing all this? Nothing is turning out the way you expected. Every step you are taking seems to be heading a wrong road. Every second thing seems negative. All people seem bad. Their advices seem like preaching to you and you don't wanna listen anymore to them. Consequently, you are irritated with everyone. Almost everyone. You talk bad (at least not good) to them, though unintentionally, but you do. They feel bad and it also adds to situation, making it even worse. So much chaos in mind.. What the hell??
You need peace. You want to come out of the of situation as soon as possible. You need a switch to shut down mind and heart; some medicine to cure all mental woes. Unfortunately, none of the above is invented yet!! There are other ways too like meditation and all, but you won't feel like meditating when you most need it.
You feel like venting out your feelings, though you know very very well that no one, absolutely no one except you has the solution of your situation and that too will take some time. So, You share your tensions to some buddy or loved one say your mother or father. What they will do, when they know very well that you already have tried all the exhaustive solutions. They will just say, "Don't worry beta, everything's gonna be okay" or "sab theek ho jayega". And believe me you will feel like really everything's gonna be okay. It has to be okay, no other go and you are somewhat relaxed now. Its not that they have said anything extraordinary, or anything which you didn't know earlier. Yes, you are mature and intelligent enough to know all this already. You yourself must have said the same to your near and dear ones. But at the time of your need you can't recall this.
But imagine otherwise, same you, same tensions, everything same, but the person who is listening patiently to you, says "What I can say?" or "I don't know what to say", how will you feel? Its not that the person (parents or the loved one with whom you shared) don't love you anymore, or don't care for you anymore. They still understand you as before, but if they fail at the moment to say "Everything's gonna be okay", you will feel as if there was no point of sharing your feelings.
Both situations are same except for this one line, but it will impact your mood drastically, one making you feel better and other making you feel even worse. What's the difference- just this phrase!!


(** I honestly wish you will never ever have to feel so tensed to understand the above post)

Timepass in Office

Its 4 o'clock in evening. I am in office, getting bored, having nothing to do (Read: Not feeling like doing :P). Bored of making people bore on long phone calls. Bored of texting. Bored of playing same 2-3 games on mobile. Bored of reading news. Bored of tea/coffee breaks. Bored of seeing same bunch of people online on office chat as well as gtalk. Though all the people in bunch are good friends of mine but everybody is not vella (free/idle) like me. Still I am in much better position that I have got internet in office (m privileged one!!).
Conclusion is- Bored of all the possible means of time pass in office. So what to do? Simply Google - "How to pass time in office?". So many hits !! Glad to know about so many like minded people ;)
But many people give idealistic ideas of passing time like reading vocabulary, enhancing skill set, reading about latest technologies, latest gadgets and blah blah.. :(  Someone please ask those people how can you read vocabulary when you are getting bored !! Not my cup of tea atleast :(

Luckily, some of those like minded people are true "gems". Got so many ideas. Here are some of the chosen tips to pass time in office- read, implement and enjoy :)

1.      Form a detective agency to find out who is quitting next.

2.      Make blank calls to your Boss.

3.      Send mails from lotus notes (outlook) to your internet mail (and immediately get to the internet and see who reaches first, you or your mail?) and read them there, and note down the time they take to reach there. Then do vice versa.

4.      Rearrange the furniture, i.e. flick someone else's chair just to irritate him/her.

5.      Count your fingers (and toes if you still get bored).

6.      Watch other people changing their facial expressions while working and try changing your expressions also.

7.      Try to stretch status meetings as longer as possible, just by asking silly doubts.

8.      Make faces at strangers in office.

9.      Have a two hour lunch; it's a big social occasion.

10.  Learn to whistle.

11.  Revise last week's newspaper.

12.  Hold "How fast my computer boots" competitions.

13.  Practice aiming the coffee cup into the dustbin.

14.  Enhance your Literature skills. You can author "1001 innovative ways to waste your day" to help your colleagues.

15.  Pick up phone and dial non-existing nos.

16.  Have work breaks in between tea.

17.  Count maximum no of applications your computer can open at time.

18.  For Windows users, Move things to Recycle bin and restore them. Then repeat this process.

19.  Look at someone & try to imagine how (s)he might have looked when (s)he was 5 years old.

20.  Make full use of the comfortable chair and table provided and take a nap and dream about your boyfriend/girlfriend.

21.  Learn how to be sarcastic in Office.

22.  Learn how to be irritating during meetings.

23.  Learn to make different chewing sounds while eating in group in office canteen.

24.  Learn to sip tea / juice as loudly as possible.

25.  Drink lots of water and take frequent trips to rest room. Benefit- Glowing skin :P

26.  Shuffle all your files and their papers and spend the day rearranging them.

27.  Take Panga with your colleagues on any issue and spoil their day.

Note: 1. Try these at your own risk. This blog won't be held responsible for you being caught by your boss :P
2. This post of not for perfectionists and those who haven't yet felt the height of boredom in office.

Break the lock

No one will manufacture a lock without a key, Similarly, God won't give you problems without solutions.. !!

Is it right??

If we start following this all the time, all tensions and troubles will go away...

But sometimes we may not find the key... and when we get tired of finding, we break the lock..

But, how to break problems of life.. !!

Just Do it !!!!

Ever thought in your life that now you are too late to do something because appropriate time to do that work has already gone?? Retrospect... and you will find some or another affirmative answer. Also at the same time we hear the phrases like "You are never late to do something" or "Better late than never". Ok. May be true. But think of it, that if you would have done that thing in proper time then today you would be able to start something new instead of filling backlogs !! Big issue :(

So now when you have awaken, find some solution. But what is the solution? Give up .... or accept the situation and go by above phrases...... or find some other way.

One way which can be possible, is to increase you pace to reach on time. Like, a train, who has got delayed by 7 hrs, speed up after getting hurdles clear to reduce the delay to 3 or 4 hrs. Isn't the effort appreciable? The extra effort spent in covering up backlog can be taken as your punishment of not taking action on time or may be a fight against your destiny. Whatever.

But don't stop, just do it !!

If any other solution is coming to your mind, then please feel free to share.

Live College

Isn't it true that college life is the most memorable time of life. We learn, enjoy, make friends and at the end, we "become something". A totally new personality from what we were when we entered college life. Read the following words from a student who has just passed college... 

"College Life starts with a fear of strangers and seniors, the making new friends whom we select to be a part of our life forever, Comments on teachers, small fights, laughing together on silly jokes in serious class, Getting impositions and never completing it, Running around the last day to submit assignments, not knowing even the time table of exams, looking around to count the number of failures for satisfaction that you are not that bad. Planning out each and every holiday but ending up going to same friend's home, posing funny and smiling in group photos, carrying out all these in your heart, Inside collge gate we play with life and outside college, life plays with us.."

Can you correlate yourself with at least some of the above mentioned things !!! Also there come the times in our life when we retrospect our own college life and based on that experience, we give free advice to new collegians to enjoy their college life, not to miss the fun and not to do those mistakes which we did. But the best collection of advice which I have ever come across is given in following link. Its worth admiring post by Ben Jones on "50 things" to do or not to do in college. Do read and enjoy.. :)

http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/life/workplay_balance_at_mit/50_things.shtml