Living the dream. One day at a time.

I am back after a gap of two whole weeks, will brief you about some Special updates over the past weeks:

• Had a great birthday!! Lots of wishes and gifts from friends and parents followed by a scrumptious dinner at Island Hopper, famous for it’s Southeast Asian cuisine.The Roti island hopper (asian roti with south indian flavored chicken) is a die for dish !!
• Had a great chat with 2 extra special friends Manasi and Mallika back in India after almost a year. Some relations are so comfortable that I can just continue eaxctly from where I had left them. One year is a pretty long time, now Malli is a proud doc practising with a dentist, Manasi got engaged and coming to Phily in Feb.
• Tripped from stairs on the way to work and had a bad bodyache for 3 days plus had to sit on pillow all this while ;). I also had a severe tooth-ache last week, lots of reasons to see a doc, especially a smart one like my doc friend Aditi, female to my right in the following snap!

• I have been put on a new Instrumentation project with the same Navisphere group, involving Java coding , feels home to be back with Java after C++. But how I miss school and the freedom I get to choose the language and architecture for my project!!
• Steve jobs introduced new series of iPods in his special keynotes, all new iPods with a better battery life, better earphones, better looks and reduced price.. Great job Mr. Jobs!! and those of you who are still wondering what to gift for my birthday… hey it’s never too late to give me something which I really want !!
  

• Last but not the least as usual I am having a strong craving for a quick coffee break so see you till next blog. Have a neat week!!

Finally shifted to a new house, spacious and warm, thanks to my little angels who helped me with shifting….Shreyas, Tarang, Aniket, Nikira, Kavita, Vishal, Jiten, Neha and many more….(yes snaps will be uploaded soon!!) Feels great to be surrounded by caring friends in an alien land.

Something within made me write today’s post, call it a eureka moment or just a thought always at the back of my mind and today finding an outlet. Tomorrow is the date which even after five years down the line still gives us goose bumps; the black day of the year 9/11. Apparantely this is the day when my family was rejoicing 23 years back as they had just experienced a bundle of joy in their hands, no points for guessing!!! I was born on the day. People ask me to remove my birthdate even from orkut, they warned me to not to tell visa officer my birthdate, cause US visa would have got rejected. Now isn’t that the stupidest thing you have ever heard.

I think of it as this way: the day now symbolizes terror was also the day Satyagraha was born. Truth(satya) implies love, and firmness (agraha) engenders and therefore serves as a synonym for a force. 100 years back on 11th September 1906, Gandhiji introduced Satyagraha to people which made few people to relate the date with nonviolence.

Here comes the logical question : Would Gandhian methods work today against Bin Laden’s terrorism or George Bush’s influence. Al-Qaida operates from a distant, isolationist position making it impossible to counter it through satyagraha whereas Gandhiji worked from the centre of political action. Though Osama is followed by his fellowmates, he neither had the skill nor the moral potential to mobilise people as a political force to fight a non-violent struggle against US imperialism.

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Last weekend just to kill some time I went for this new released movie, Lage raho munnabhai, thinking it would be just an entertaining story of a goon-with a golden heart. But as the movie started progressing all these vigorating thoughts kept coming in my mind and near the end I was totally mesmerized by the whole impact of the movie and the only thought loomed in mind was, satyagraha still has the power to move people!!

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