Vanity Stall

I thought I will write a small post on good things that happen in my life. Trust me, though for the most part of it my blog sounds cynical, I have what most people would call a very successful life. However, remeber that most people are wrong most of the times about things that matter the most to you.

I had this interview for a summer internship today. It was telephonic, within two hours of the interview, I was made an offer. I think by now I am damn good at these interviews. It is one of those moments when that old raka with his love for coding and analytical stuff momentarily comes out with his friend the business savvy and confident raka to win things that give the present 'sick-of-it-all' raka a confusing time!

It feels a bit good to know that you are being wanted. For a second there, I felt like Mishti Srivatsava. It is this girl from college who used to have a long following, who used to win them all without doing a thing except being herself (I guess, was not one of those guys in college so no authority on that). But atleast I be myself, its a lot easier that way.
Now, Did someone say vanity is a sin?

Passion River

If there is one thing that needs to be mentioned in a blog titled 'anything passion anything', it is the olympics. The winter olympics just got over and I feeling like a kid who is weeping when the prosession is over. I am not sure if it is the NBC coverage or just the love for the sport, but I miss the olympics a lot.

Passion is a word that is used very loosely. Ambitious marketers just throw it around and the word tends to get too hackneyed. I hope my attitude towards life does justice to my using it in my blog a lot.

Anyway, the Olympics had their tag-line as 'Passion lives here'. For once, for a change it was not a trite usage. Infact it is no exaggeration to say that it was one of those rare occassions when passion as a word falls short to decribe; to describe the spirit of the olympics. The sage like existence the atheletes lead, the life they dedicate to the games. It is just so great, there is a glamour to it, a completeness, a perfection, a symmetry to it (to quote 'Gone with the wind').
You can feel the love of the atheletes for their games. I would say Passion flows around there. I know I am just rambling about a personal love.

My favourite events in the olympics were. All of them! But the most favourite was, you guessed it - the figure skating. Especially the couples. The event was the greatest display of the olympic spirit. The winners were Tatyana Totmiyanina and Maxim Marinin. They had an amazing tale of recovery to tell. In one of their earlier perfromances they had a terrible accident where he had dropped her on the ice, where she fell unconscious. Now they were back in the olympics after six months to claim the gold. The way he was handling her was so careful, like how you treat a bird. They performance was very catuious, thus rendering it very graceful when most skaters tend to make it very animated at the cost of grace. The chemistry, which I would attribute to being trough rough times together, was so good. I do not think the joy of winning the gold medal was much more than just participating in the olympics and doing it flawlessly.

Speaking of flaws, are we not entitled to our own share of them! The pair that came second were Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang. Mid way through their performance, the Dan had to suffer a nasty fall while attempting a a throw quad salchow. I thought they were out, the lady seemed really hurt, but when asked by her coach, she said that she would continue. Participating in the olympics is a great honour, its a dream and its about living that dream, more than anything else. Inspite of deducting a point for the fall, they come second. The spirit of that lady is so admirable.

Other fascinating stories include Cindy Klassen. This beautiful lady resorted to speed skating after she could not make it to the national hockey team, to become the most decorated olympian in a single winter games. The sad story of Michelle Kwan who could not make it to the olympics but has won all the major titles in figure skating. Sasha Cohen who won the silver in womens' figure skating inspite of falling twice. And the lone medal winner for Japan Shizuka Arakawa. God! is she so beautiful. What are the women made up of? Gold? The Germans who are always at the top. The scandinavians who have the highest medals per capita. The list just goes on and on.

Well I think thats all for now. I am planning to go to the Vancouver olympics in 2010, before I go back to settle in India, let's see if the united states can hold me here for so long. When will India ever win a medal in the winter olympics. I want to live to see the day, what the heck I want to make these few things happen. i) India winning a medal in the winter olympics ii) Participating in the football workd cup iii) Hosting the summer olympics. Hmmm... ambitious? Thats me!

Soul Sellers Inc.

Regulars at this blog know that the lines they read are from the finger tips of this very talented software engineer who hates technology and hence computers and hence software. A lot of people say that I am very difficult to understand. A 'successful' person who is dissatisfied. A tech-hater at one of the world's best tech schools.

Neway, software giant Microsoft thought I am in computer science and sent me an interview offer, and as a preparation, I was asked to go trough one of those 'we-are-such-a-cool-place-to-work-at' web pages. A strong believer of preparation is the key to success(how ever dis-interested in that succsss you might be), I was going trough those 'oh-so-cool' job profiles. I was depressed, now who wants to develop software systems, how ever kewl the HR people may make it sound? Acknowledging life's great capability to suck, I went on to the other pages.

Now there was this page on the locations of Microsoft. They have one in the Silicon Valley like any software company worhty of its code does. They have this stuff about how close it is to SF, Palo Alto, LA, LV, Lake Tahoe etc. To quote them verbatim 'Did someone say road trip?' Suddenly the dream of SW descends on me. How cool it would be to go to Stanford at Palo Alto for the dance classes and parties. To SF for some football and fun. To LA on road trips, to Lake Tahoe for skiing. To Vegas for some sin. In that BMW that you bought within a month of joining work?

Being a rich bachelor (thanks to your lousy job) sure does help. Though that still leaves us with our having to the 'lousy' aspect! Is life like this? You work those 50 hours a week just waiting for it to be over to earn some money to spend the 25 hours of weekend? Is it impossible to make your passion your profession.

PS : Please do not wish me all the best for the interview. It does not matter, if or not I get the internship offer. It will only be a painful reminder of the pros. life.