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Showing posts with the label Inspiration

When Destiny Sends Its Helpers

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Keep running. The right people find you on the way. At different stages of life, you’re confronted with different challenges. And each time you cross a hurdle, you feel that familiar sense of accomplishment. It’s tempting to attribute that success to your own skill, tenacity, and willpower — to pat yourself on the back and feel proud of how you handled it. But when you zoom out and look at the moments where you somehow managed to trump the odds, a quieter realization sets in: It’s never just you. There is always an unseen army that shows up at the right time. It was 2005. I had decided to pursue my Master’s in the US. I picked a few schools in the Midwest where the expenses were manageable, and that’s how the University of Missouri–Rolla entered the picture. But funding was still a massive question mark. I hadn’t secured any assistantship, and we didn’t have the means to pay out of pocket. We went from bank to bank, hoping for an education loan. Each manager aske...
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Two of an era - Jobs and Ritchie

The last couple of weeks have been particularly bad for technology related stalwarts.  If the death of Steve Jobs hadn't even sunk in, it was even more painful to read up that Dennis Ritchie, the father of C programming and co-developer of Unix was no more.  Dennis Ritchie may not be as famous as Steve Jobs is to the layman, but there is no denying that without C, one cannot fathom the existence of these super powered smart phones and almost every other embedded device today. It was in my Engineering that I was first exposed to C.  Already, the message was spreading quick and fast. If you miss even a single semi-colon, you are in trouble.  It is so difficult to debug.  And, maybe for the fun of  it, somebody added a comma as well.  Given a choice, my fellow batch mates would have added every punctuation mark to exaggerate the whole thing.  There were also suggestions that it was mandatory to add two slashes after a semi-colon as a part of the p...
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The Open era

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My tryst with the game of tennis began way back in the late eighties, when the solitary source of information and entertainment, the Doordarshan , telecast the two of the four Grand Slams, Wimbledon and the French . It was not feasible for the US and Australian open to be shown due to the daunting time difference, and it was a fascination to know that there were other games apart from cricket. Boris Becker had become an household name, what with his unbelievable dives and ripping tennis, that evoked those lovely oohs and aahs from the audience, leaving everyone speechless and spellbound. There was always a mini battle at home, with my mother siding up with Lendl and Edberg , while my dad let his loyalty rip towards Becker. They had their fair share of happiness, as Becker beat Edberg in the '89 Wimbledon finals, while Edberg gave it back in the subsequent year in an incredible five setter. Pic: Steffi Graf, with one of her numerous trophies It was a start of the open er...
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Quote me right

As I have always reiterated, meaningful quotes have had a huge impact in my life. When you read a sentence, something strikes you so much in it that you go back to ascertain the hidden nuances in the words. Many a time, you are left wondering at the simplicity of the sentence. The profundity in the meaning is taken to new heights and all this with very simple usage of words. Reading books sure does lend a lot of much needed wisdom and gets you to the point of striking the perfect balance in life. Some of the movies have come up with unbelievable quotes that they just remain embedded in you for life. I was watching The Shawshank Redemption for the nth time and it just keeps getting better with every viewing. Strange are the ways of life that you still anticipate for certain things when you know what to expect(Looks like I just created a quote! Wow). Remember Red, Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things and no good thing ever dies! is certainly one of my all time favourit...
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The Road Not Taken

Poems and quotes have always had a big impact in my life. Some of them have moved me so much that they have remained embedded in my mind for a long time. I am sure they are unforgettable. Robert Frost highlights the indecisiveness shared by so many of us at different points in life. Even today, there are so many interpretations one can guage from this poem. I have read it innumerable times and each time I have learnt something from it. A masterpiece from Frost reads thus: 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 ...
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If

My all time favourite poem and certainly, Kipling's most famous poem! A poem to get me out of the dumps! This poem was written by him with his only son in mind who he lost to war. He has carved a masterpiece that will be there for generations to come! If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you But make allowance for their doubting too, If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream--and not make dreams your master, If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build 'em up with worn-o...
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Move on.. Life moves on in the same pace, When you have nothing to face, Once the tough times start, It is then you must learn to move on!! Not in every Maths exam It is that you can score a centum, Back your instincts and hard work, To score well and move on!! It is not every time, That you take the right decisions, Many a times, they backfire, But stand by them and move on!! You place your trust in all, No time to reflect until, One of them betrays your trust, Now, time to find real trust and move on!! There is a trace of over-confidence, Without a hint of caution, You realise it is too late, But then, you know life has to move on!! There is a glint of self talk, And soon it turns to pride, Things take the worse turn, Learn to take the fall and move on!! You know you can keep in check, Whatever may be the prick, But it soon gives way to anger, Learn to check the tempest and move on!! Many a new things you learn, From mistakes committed often, Learn to learn fast, Before you are well ...
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