I love Cambridge!

I think that I shall never see
A graph more lovely than a tree.

A tree whose crucial property
Is loop-free connectivity.

A tree which must be sure to span
So packets can reach every LAN.

First the Root must be selected.
By ID it is elected.

Least cost paths from Root are traced.
In the tree these paths are placed.

A mesh is made by folks like me.
Then bridges find a spanning tree.

-Radia Perlman

How Green is My Valley

Do you bury me when I'm gone
Do you teach me while I'm here
Just as soon as I belong
Then it's time I disappear
--- Metallica in "I Disappear".

Its time for me to say adieu to California in general, but the valley in particular. I am moving to the New England area for a new gig out there in corporate :)

However, the last one week, a constant question has been "Why?". Honestly, I dont know. I usually dont know why I do some things but what I know is that some things feel neccesary to be done and that necessity doesnt follow logic. Probably a better apology for an answer can be on the lines of this post. As the author says there, it is necessary to move in order keep the central nervous system on its toes

I shall miss many a people here,who were my support system (my new place has none), and its been a great fun ride coming here and doing my thing.The valley is sprucing up green again, with more venture money pouring into local companies, people are very hard to find for staffing needs and other indicators showing a healthy return to those heady days of the boom. If so, I shall miss it when that wave rises..Till then Ciao!

Past Time

I always imagined Golf to be a "leisure class" sport.Now, I realize its got more to offer in terms of challenge that most other sports. I am an addict to the game as I play 9 holes on wednesday morning and a full blown 18 hole on saturday evenings. The more you practice it, the better you are but still far from being consistently good. Keyword in golf is consistency.

Thanks to playing the game, now I understand some of the subtelities the master has incorporated in his works like "The Heart of a Goof". Switching gears here, please go watch Cheeni Kum as its one of the most mature romances filmed in Bollywood. Totally loved it and in particular the interaction between Amitabh and Tabu.(Has some non-sequiturs cleverly intertwined with fallacious logic just to make a point).

[begin random rambling]

In India, we are used to the concept of power-cut or better a scheduled power cut like every day between 7pm-8pm in a given geography. Now, this was a time of cable televisions were on the ascendant and people sorely missed television. But, there is an upshot to all of this: No other event built communities the way these power-cuts did. Mom, used to schedule cutting the veggies while chatting with neighboring aunty who was making the atta/rolling them chappatis..
I used to simply go out an dplay with the rest of the beighboring kids. Our pressure of the power-cut was to be creative in our games (since batteries can last only so long) like those depending on your voice. Young teenagers goofed away to do whatever they did at that time. Middle aged fellows listened to their favorite radio stations and occasionally we sung at the top of our lungs to compete with those songs. Older women simply started reciting verses and stories..Sometimes, I wish for a power-cut to better know the community I am living in..

[end random rambling]

Now, instead of TV, my latest time is spent playing the challenge at WorldGolfTour

Quote of the Day!

The disillusionment is always proportional in strength to the original illusion;it is the most faithful who are always the most upset -Michael Lewis in The Money Culture

(No Offence Rob, we all know this too well)

A New Wave

Back in the day, with enough randomization in their process, I was interviewing for an admission to a major B-school admission located in Bangalore.After the GD and before the interview they asked us to answer a few questions (perhaps used for a psychograph of candidates). It went like this:

(a) Six adjectives to describe yourself
.
.

.
.
(g) Who is your role model?

For this I was kind of stumped. Never had to think of one till then but then my thoughts raced to determine two closely contested people. One personal and One whom I really admired. Then I was wondering should I tell them what they wanna hear (more like they cannot contest his other facets because he would be my cousin) or should I stick to my guns and tell them of this famous (atleast to certain demographic) fellow and expose myself to varied dissections of his personality (or worse, maybe I would project something I didnt have...)

Anyhow finally I answered Marc Andreessen. A few folks can claim to have written software that changed people's lives. Now, he is started a spanking new blog and I am excited to read his dispatches.(his article on personal productivity is great and the one on hiring is brilliant). Hope some of you might relate to this.