It's that time of the year again!!!

Hi...

I know that I have been away like anything... well blame it on the Facebook and stuff like that.. just joking. But yes, that thing has been consuming good amount of time and now I have decided to spend less time on that thing. I mean, it is not that I spend time like the young kids these days. At the same time, it is also quite surprising that even much older people are spending almost equal amount (if not any more) of time on Facebook. Even my wife, who used to hate my computers like anything, has also almost got addicted to it lately and thanks to another gadget called iPad. 

Now having said that, I have been trying to write something or other here but then I always end up at the thinking part.. 

By the way, what I am talking about is that once again everyone is concerned about in their professional life. I am talking about the season for transfers. All my batch mates are quite anxious about it and whenever couple of us get together, the topic that invariably comes up is that only. I guess, we all are a bit worried about it. I hope that this year will also end up like all the other years. Interesting thing is that I have been in the present place of posting for last three years now and I guess, I have some more time to spend here. But then this topic really gets interesting whenever it is discussed. Anyway, hopefully, everybody will be happy at the end of the day. I will discuss about it whenever the "result" is out. And to be honest, this is no less than the excitement of the young kid who waits for the results of the HSC examination. The only difference is that, we pass through that every year... well, almost!!!

See you all soon.... bye.

Old memories

Recently, I had been to one of the border check gates operated under our department for some official work. At the check gates, I was really amazed to see these double decker buses and could not resist myself from snapping a coupe of photos. These ones reminded me of Kolkata, where we used to see these buses in those old days. These buses are meant for Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation, as you can see from the letters "BRTC" pained on the sides. It was really good feeling to see these...

Been a long time ....

Once again it is after a long absence that I am writing here. It's quite funny that every time, I take a decision that I would rather be regular here even if I have so little to write about... But again I become irregular... Probably that is simply because I have been careless.... I hope I would not be any more.... (fingers crossed!!!!!)... See you around....

Why being a Teacher is always easier??!!!

Hi All,


It's been quite long that I am posting something....
I am at NISG, Hyderabad for almost three weeks now and am undergoing a training program for "CIOs - Chief Information Officers"(not to be confused with the RTI thing) which is intended to create a nuclei for NeGP in the country.
While I am honored to be a part of this training program, I have been discovering something in these last couple of weeks. Well before that I must say that this one in particular is a five week program.
I just realized that how difficult it is to attend 6 hour classes at my age...particularly when I have been neglecting to my own virtue of listening to people. Suddenly I am confronted with the real thing and I am so disturbed and so much more complaining about it....
To my utter surprise, I just found myself to be the same old kid who keeps on complaining about how difficult it is to be a student and hoe easy or convenient it is to be the teacher....... 
We are supposed to listen to the Speakers (some are extremely good) for hours together sand I am really finding it difficult to keep my concentration after a while.
The assignments given by the Trainers are good and real eye-openers. They reminded me that sometimes, simple things can be so difficult and can have such long term impacts. I am now compelled to re-visit my projects specifically after going through a very innovative Project Management Session (Three Days from ESI International).
Having said that, I also must say that I am not alone who is going through the same painful process....hopefully.....


But then, I had the opportunity to getting to know some extra-ordinary friends in this process.
I also found the good old me to a certain extent and I am thankful to God for that.


Will keep you all posted!!!

Thanks....

Steve Jobs...The way he thought of the world.

It was indeed a shock that the legend is no more with us.

I do not know what to say about it and I am pretty lousy with words. However, I am just giving the prepared address which Steve Jobs delivered in Stanford University in 2005, for all those who really admire him.

--- begin ---

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

--- End of speech ---

R.I.P.

Visit of a Friend...dear one..

One of my friends visited us yesterday and I dropped him at the Bhubaneswar Airport today evening. We met after a very long time and well, there was a lot of catching up to do. I am suddenly a bit sad afterwards as I felt that again there is a vacant place somewhere I am not able to pin point but I do feel that emptiness.


I guess, it happen with all of us once in a while.


So, friends, till next time... I will wait for my friend and hope to have this emptiness gone even if for a little while...


Dipankar

Local Holiday in Cuttack!!!

Hi,


Today is a local holiday in Cuttack because of the the last day of one of the celebrated oriya festival i.e. "Raja" festival.


This festival celebrates womanhood and also marks the beginning of farming season in Orissa.


It is raining continuously since last three days and the temperature is awesome. However, the rain is little bit slowing down the festive mood.


However, it is nice to enjoy rain after the long and really hot summer, specifically in Orissa.


Enjoy!!!

Its Monsoon Time in Orissa

Hi,


After the long summer (read pain!!!) it started raining cats and dogs since yesterday....The weather is just lovely. Temperature is about 26 and is on its way to even lower level....


Well....just a few days and everyone will start complaining about the rain and the excesses of it...but it is really a relief.


Just one thing still kind of keeps pinching me..is it "Monsoon" as the weather guys are saying and taking credit for being able to forecast it right this time (well let them enjoy it for a while!!) or is it again some low pressure in our good old Bay of Bengal (we all are more used to it..)


Time will say. But for now..lets get into the rain.


Enjoy!!!

A New Home!!!

Hi!!


I have shifted to a new place at Cuttack. Its nice and functional and most importantly is pretty close to my office. I guess, I will have more time for other activities like blogging more frequently than ever.


I also do hope to start afresh with my life and with my work now. Need more time to get myself away from my work (of course no intention of neglecting my work in any manner whatsoever). It is just that I need to cultivate these extra curricular (!!??!!) activites more than ever.


So see you all soon and more...


Thanks...

Busy for Nothing!!...

Hello All,


I have been neglecting this part of my life lately. Well, almost a year back, I came to my present place of work and I was given a task to complete in about two years time. And I am feeling happy that we managed to complete it in much less time. It is about re-vamping the whole IT system in the Commercial Tax Department, Orissa. Of course, I did not do it myself though. There were some new friends, some old ones etc. and the experience was really enlightening for me. The good part of the story is that after a lot of fighting, shouting, frustrations etc etc, the task is completed.


Completed, is it??? not really...it certainly marked the beginning of a new era in tax administration in the State. The credit goes to our Boss, who was always there with a stick, though, and very rarely I have had the privilege to be working under such people.


I would like to thank all members of the team who worked on this task.


With the new Financial year, I do certainly hope to do something new....


God help us all.....


Thanks.

30 second Speech by Bryan Dyson (CEO of Coca Cola, 1986)

"Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air.

You name them - Work, Family, Health, Friends and Spirit and you're keeping all of these in the Air.

 

You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back.

 

But the other four Balls - Family, Health, Friends and Spirit - are made of glass.

If you drop one of these; they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered.

They will never be the same.

You must understand that and strive for it."

 

WORK EFFICIENTLY DURING OFFICE HOURS AND LEAVE ON TIME.

GIVE THE REQUIRED TIME TO YOUR FAMILY, FRIENDS & HAVE PROPER REST.

 

"VALUE HAS A VALUE ONLY IF ITS VALUE IS VALUED"

--

Thanks to my dear friend, Nihar

Dipankar Sahu

Are we loosing something!!! something like the most valuable things in Life!!!!

A woman came home from work late, tired and irritated, to find her 5-year old son waiting for her at the door.   

SON: 'Mummy, may I ask you a question?'   
MUM: 'Yeah sure, what it is?' replied the woman.   
SON: 'Mummy, how much do you make an hour?'   
MUM: 'That's none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?' the woman said angrily.   
SON: 'I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?'   
MUM: 'If you must know, I make     Rs. 50 an hour.'   
SON: 'Oh,' the little boy replied, with his head down.   
SON: 'Mummy, may I please borrow Rs.25?'   

The mother was furious, 'If the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you are being so selfish. I don't work hard everyday for such childish frivolities. The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door. The woman sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy's questions. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money? After about an hour or so, the woman had calmed down , and started to think:Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that Rs.25.00 and she really didn't ask for money very often.The woman went to the door of the little boy's room and opened the door. 'Are you asleep, son?' She asked.   

'No Mummy, I'm awake,' replied the boy.   
'I've been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier' said the woman. 'It's been a long day and I took out my aggravation on you. Here's the Rs.25 you asked for.

   
The little boy sat straight up, smiling. 'Oh, thank you Mummy!' he yelled. Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled up bills. The woman saw that the boy already had money, started to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his money, and then looked up at his mother. 'Why do you want more money if you already have some?' the mother grumbled. Because I didn't have enough, but now I do,' the little boy replied.   

'Mummy, I have Rs.50 now. Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you.'

----

Well, I happened to get this in my mail one day...but I was really shaken. At the end of the day, I could see myself being asked the same question by my Daughter, who is 7 years old and I have been neglecting her like anything.

I would like all of you to sit back and think about it for a while.

Dipankar Sahu

A very definite joke about Consultants!!!

There was a shepherd watching over his herd of sheep in a very ordinary afternoon. Then came a bright red ferrari out of nowhere and stopped on its way probably to nowhere. A very happening kind of guy came out of that ferrari and asked the Shepherd, "Would you give me one if I could tell you the number of sheep that you have here?"

The shepherd was a bit confused and reluctantly agreed. Immediately the Guy took out his state of the art gear and connected to some satellite, did some stuff and after a while, he returned back to the shepherd and said, "You got 1065 ones there!!".

The shepherd nodded in agreement and the Guy took one sheep and walked towards his ferrari. As he was about to start, he was stopped by the Shepherd who said, "Would you give me back that one, if I could tell you your profession?"

The Guy was really astonished and agreed. The shepherd said without any hesitation, 'You are a Consultant!!".

The guy was really impressed and asked the shepherd how did he know that.

The shepherd explained, "Three reasons...1) I did not Call you; 2) You did not tell me anything new as I always knew the number and 3) You do not know what you are doing, because you are taking my dog instead. So please give me back my Dog!!!"

This was told in a meeting back in New Delhi by a Senior Official as he was trying to explain why the Consultants are not always as helpful as they pose. In fact, this ons is probably the most appropriate definition of a Consultant...at least the best I have come across!!!

Dipankar Sahu

Amazing way to blog!!

I happen to come across this feature to publish to my blog. Well, it is not new one, but for me it is certainly a new one. Now I am even more comfortable to publish to my Blog. One should try these.

Well, just for information, I learnt how to do that from mobile as well.

Will try that some other time, certainly.

Dipankar

Talking to an Old friend!!

I reached office this morning and found an old friend on-line. I was really happy to see him around. Talked a bit and we agreed that sometime in April, he would plan a visit to Orissa. That was really good news to start a day. 

Now I have to start planning for this. I never realised that these things could be so serious and painful at times...planning for such things. I also never believed in these kind of plannings either. But every time I try to ignore these issues like these are no issues at all, I have to work harder to set things right and make it work. I still miss those good old college days when one had no issues except one - "I have nothing to do!!". But I guess, it is too late. I also never thought of planning for this kind of issues in my life and here I am - I have to plan for these now.

I am beginning to understand that life is really a circle. One may jump one issue at one point of time only to ensure that he is getting closer to the same issue for one more time...one more out of those infinite issues....

But what the hell.......Life is like that and as they say, it can be a b***h always...

Dipankar

Let's be a part of the Chaos

I thought about it and well, I ended up in chaos. I could never make up my mind as to what to write and about what. There are so many things to write about, as they keep on saying to me. So I thought that lets start writing. Just about anything.

So, that's it then. It would be just about anything. But then, it has to be something everyday at least.

Anybody willing to share my ideas!!!

New Place of Work

It is that time again and I have been transferred to a new place of work. Last one and half years (almost) were just another world and now I am back to Cuttack. Joined at the new place on last Friday and I sincerely hope that it would be as good as my last all places. A lot of expectations here and a lot of fear, as a consequence. I again hope that I would try to be regular this time at least.

Horrific accident of Coromandel Express in Orissa

There was this horrible accident of one of the most sought after express train - Coromandel Express. In fact, i had two opportunities of traveling in that train from Bhubaneswar to Chennai and it would no exaggeration to say that this train is one of the very few ones to arrive on time.

Well, this is one of the most shocking accidents in recent times in Orissa. But I am not exactly concerned about that at this moment. There is very little that I can do about it. But I have been reading some of the interesting aftermaths of the very unfortunate incident in the news and I was shocked to read one - "This incident puts the dream of Bullet Trains at stake!!! or something like that"

What a ridiculous connection between the two things...... This way, the bullet trains would never have even been there in the world. But one question certainly remains unresolved here.... who do we blame for such incidents????

What makes us tick??

Well, it's been almost two months since I wrote something. I used to think that I would have so many things to write, once I have a blog site. But suddenly, I was out of issues / topics etc. This is certainly not that I am complaining, but it is just that I seem to have lost the very idea of having a blog site.

So I thought...... and I decided to start scribbling down just about anything that comes to my mind. I was really wondering last night as to what makes me tick. In fact what it is that makes all of us tick. As far as I am concerned, there are so many things. But when it comes to put them down in words like this, I find it to be extremely difficult. Things like the crave for new and unknown keeps me moving all the while. I guess, we all have some stuff like that inside us.... sitting down somewhere in a little corner of our heart.

So put down some words to start this.... what makes you tick???

A nice place to eat out!!

Hello Everyone!!!

I am so sorry for absconding from the scene for such a long period. But the good news is I am back (hopefully)!!!

Well, the otherday I went to this nice place called "Zaika" (probably a urdu word meaning flavour / taste), a very nice restaurant inside the newly opened "Pal Heights" mal. Of course, it is a bit expensive in usual Bhubaneswar standards. But believe me, you would love to disagree after you have one dinner there with family. Also they allowed me to take some snaps as well.

Very nice place, cozy and pretty well designed as well. The food quality is also good and they would like to serve you a drink candidly of course.

If possible just go there and enjoy one evening with family!!!