A few good men

Finally Netflix started offering good movies for instant watch (no offense :)).  You can watch multiple movies in a day. In fact thats what I have been doing past few weeks. Spring is already here and we are waiting for summer. Its time to revitalize ourself with whatever we enjoy - spring rain, green trees, beautiful flowers blooming around or movies ;) 

I just finished watching a movie 'A few good men'. This is one of the very few movies where you hold your breath. You know probably its going to end it well but you still are unsure. I would say good plot, good story line, very good acting. Tom cruise was really good but Jack Nicholson was superb. If the villain is played by the right actor, it becomes hell lot easier for the hero to play the role. He just have to be 'right'.  I had not really read any reviews but then found that there were very good quotes in the movie. 

Do the quotes in the movie really make an impact that you can actually relate to it? Oh yeah. I found one very good quote. Not the famous one 'You want truth, you cannot handle the truth' ;) I liked this quote 'We live by honor, code and loyalty.' Its a very simple quote but common man does not identify with it. Why should they? Its not their duty. Come on, its difficult to follow values, because we look at next person and see him/her not playing a fair game. Why should we trouble ourself with question like fair/unfair?

But seriously, what really happened to small values that made us human being. Just being born as a man, does it really make you a man or a woman for that matter? Where is the meaning of friendship, care, respect for elders,  empathy for suffering? We have lost all that. 

Thank god I grew up reading stories of King Shivaji, probably one the greatest king of all time. He founded an empire and organized a great government. He gave people freedom to practice the religion they want, implemented a great system where citizens payed taxes but when mansoon was bad, they were given food from government. Does this sound like a good governor will do?

We as kids learned about that great man and that offered our life a foundation. I have some of close friends who grew up in same environment reading the same stories. Now even though we live thousands miles apart, we still can relate to each other, because of our core common values. Everyone of us believes in small good things like love, care, respect, honor, code, devotion, hard work. Just a small incidence, I saw my friend in October 2008 at Diwali time. She was buying presents for her family. I asked her what is she buying for herself or her husband. She had money but she had not really thought about herself. She had just thought about happiness of the family. Thats something 'putting somebody else's happiness before us'!!

Yeah, these kinds people still exist. Thats how this world balances itself ... 

Work addiction

Have we noticed  'can' is a very disturbing word? It challenges you to do the impossible and as a constructive person one like to achieve impossible. So what really triggered this question? I was asked whether I can push some code to some level in one week? 'Can'? Oh yes. 5-6 cups of coffee, almost no food (not getting any fatter ;)) and non-complaining macbook helps you achieve the impossible. I could continue working till 2:00 AM. What had really gotten into me? 

I am just trying to understand my own progress in last few years. The girl who used to sleep at 10:00 PM no matter what, what has happened to her? I just want to thank god. I love what I do. I love the people I work with. They inspire me to do more and more. Just a few years ago, I could not understand how somebody can email at midnight. Now I do!! It all comes from the extreme dedication, passion towards your work. The dedication to document you work, write the best piece of code, test it well. Make sure that somebody with least bit of background can understand all of it.

Many a times you feel like an artist, first drawing an initial sketch and then to fill colors in the picture. There have been times I worked continuously for 10 hours in office, came home and started working in 20 minutes for another 4 hours. When I completed the work at 1:30 in the night, started listening song 'Zara zara' from Hindi movie 'Rehna hain tere dil main'. I was so fresh and alive, in fact I could not sleep before 3:00 :)

Software business is very volatile. Just the mere fact that technology, software, hardware changes so much, you just have to keep up. Once you get hold of these things, you want to experiment, set ways. Experimenting, researching is a very frustrating experience but at the same time most rewarding too. Software also means a lot of learning, reading. One cannot survive here without constantly reading about one thing or other. It is almost impossible to be the best in everything but of course that makes you humble and appreciative of people around carrying different skills and knowledge.

It is nice to find something that we like to this extent, enjoy it thoroughly. Dedication in something constructive activity helps so much in reducing stress because you feel lucky every moment! 

Nonetheless, it is also important to strike a balance between a passion and life. Sometimes that line becomes blurry but just the red line under the word 'addiction' helps you bring back ....