Finished off degree, made new friends, met with old ones, went to the west coast twice in one month for a week, submitted thesis, got engaged, thought about schools for a PHD, moved again, experienced one of the most frightful things that I have in my life to come out OK.

I fell sick with this bug that has been going around here and it is taking a while to get used to the change in weather and temperature. It is milder compared to the crazy cold that I was in but a bit more windy. The transition has been mostly smooth and I am not going to talk about it a lot.

I have decided to apply for a PHD starting in the next year. Lets see, the more I think about it, it seems like it is something I really want to do. I have started some of the initial search for the schools and am finalizing the general area of study in my head. The thesis and the subsequent conversations have really got me motivated and seems like the next logical thing. I am planning to work on the side and do the study so it will be a big challenge but I have done it before

I updated the back end here and it now runs on Movable Type Motion. I am still very far behind being able to take on all the capabilities and the fun stuff. Apparently, with all the money I shell out for this hosting, they still don't have the proper PERL modules for what I want to do. I am trying to see what else I can do with PHP or just move to another host, both of them are a pain. Ugh!

I wanted to change a few things here: the format, shorter entries but don't want to go to Twitter and the likes, instead of long entries, I am trying to include a bunch of things like my delicious bookmakrs, lastfm music notes, Facebook status and other small entries into this to experiment with the format. I reluctantly chose Tumblr, and it is still not off the table.

I have a bunch of working vacation planned for the next month and I am very excited to be in the Sun again. This time I am going to really take it easy and relax and enjoy the time there since the last time was a bit hectic and this time I am a bit more familiar. But I am very excited about hitting the beach again!

In the mean time I discovered Makezine and Buzzfeed is the new coffee replacing The Superficial in the morning.

I promise a few changes here and they should be coming soon!

Have so much to say. Will update this by Thanksgiving.

I volunteer here with an organization that I am very passionate about. As a project on the side, I wanted to do a project that goes beyond the day-to-day work that I do there. So at the beginning of the year, I had decided to upgrade their entire IT software infrastructure by rebuilding all the PCs from scratch. It was long overdue since some of those PCs were not upgraded for about three or four years with multiple users using them. My plan was to do this before September and over the last three or four months, we made some progress and while the update is not complete but I am happy enough with work done. It is painful sometimes because of the different configurations and all the stuff that is in there and working with the people, scheduling the time and making sure that it does get screwed up but I have tremendous fun doing it and as I was talking to a friend the other day and it does really does not seem like work when you are having fun.

I am going to travel soon, right now for "work" but hopefully soon enough for pleasure. After I finish up my degree, i plan to take a month or so off and just chill. A very close friend is in Indonesia and next year for sure I plan to visit and travel in that part of the world. Right now though, I want to focus on my trip. The other "big" trip I am planning for next year is Brazil since it is one of those places that I just have to visit and lately I have been getting signs from friends and just occasions in general that kinda point me towards it.. Should be interesting either way.

The Summer semester is on now. I am taking one Accounting course and it is not that bad I am actually enjoying the topic but it is a bit of a shame that I cannot dedicate more time to it. I can actually read financial statements now, I think is one of the most "practical" courses I have taken for a long time. You come across annual reports from companies all the time in the news and otherwise but I could never figure out how to read those statements and how the markets work, not that I understand it completely now but I think I have general understanding and at least know which questions to ask and where to look up information.

The other day I was backing up my Music collection and I realized that it is almost 6 GB. I am still not convinced that CDs are the way to go so I was looking around for applications that will back up automatically to Amazon S3. One of my problems is that I have my data over Linux, OS X and Windows so it is a bit pain to organize and make it seamless. Anyway, I am quite happy with S3 but right now my HSDPA connection is not quick enough to push that kind of data.

Over time, I can see that I am progressing with my meditation but I have been reading a lot of books and I can see that I am reaching a small plateau but we will see. I think I just have to keep on doing it. I can see the benefits though and all the work and things that I have been doing.

I finally found a sublet for my apartment and it is a bit of a effort to pack up and finish up here. I like the place so did not want to give it up so in the coming weeks I am will be in the process of moving stuff and doing some cleaning in the house.

The new Facebook is quite cool. I actually like the new layout but think that they need to figure out how to do Apps on the layout. To me it is too confusing and still don’t understand how the "Info" and "Bookmarks" work. Either way, love the new comment on status thingie.

I saw "The Batman" and absolutely loved it. On top of it someone presented me with a batman action figure. I think that it took the relationship with them to a new level. :) . I also managed to catch "Mongol" and thought it was quite good the photography. It is in Mongolian and really not that dreary foreign language film that I expected in the beginning. At the end, you are left wanting a bit more and see more.

Loved the opening ceremony of the Olympics and remembered my time in China before about six years ago. I was very impressed with it then and can only imagine how it must be now. I still am ambivalent about Tibet and other things but a strong China is good for the world. If we look at a bigger picture, China not being strong is a very recent phenomenon since most of its history it has been the other way.

Still confused between iPhone 2 or the Blackjack. Love the HSDPA access though so I think it is going to be the iPhone although not that keen on taking in more Apple products in my life.

So many other things: Stuff that is probably more important in the long run. I am still processing and writing some of it. I will update this soon enough.

Fin.

During my previous degrees, I used to undertake research in modeling human behavior on complex systems and had tremendous fun doing it. I find myself doing the same thing again with a important project. All the fun that was had is coming back to me: I would highly recommend reading Complex Adaptive Systems to get a sense of the techniques I use this other book too and is a good read also. It has a whole Matrix like theme where agents (not necessarily intelligent) interact with one another and these interactions are modeled and the system learns from them.

The other day I almost ordered some very funky fiber optic lighting for the house from these guys but decided to postpone it till after I am back from the sabbatical. Ever since I moved to this new house, I had this thing in my head around Fiber Optic lighting for it because I have a fancy staircase inside and a wall that is just begging to be lit up and the other day came across this fantastic work done by some of the students at the University: The Cloud and right after that I was one click away from placing a order for the lights. I then decided to hold it back.

I have been very fascinated with architecture and came across the dynamic tower skyscraper and I so want to buy a house there. If only I had the money.

The summer has been fantastic. I have seen more parks here in the last two months than I had in the past two and a half years. There are days when the weather is a bit variable but there were some days when it was just fantastic around 20C and sometimes even more. A measure of a good summer for me is the use of flip flops. I was very used to wearing them before but here there is no chance mostly and this time I was able to wear it to work a couple of times and I suppose it is a good measure of the weather.

I did buy MarioKart more than a couple of weeks ago love the tiny wheel that comes with it although still not impressed with the graphics. I don’t know what I was expecting on the Wii anyway. But it is good fun none the less.

Lately I have been binge buying on Amazon. I have bought a number of books and have been reading a lot for work and otherwise. I suppose it is one of the phases but because my work does not accept postal deliveries, I have them delivered in the house and inevitably every week, I have to take a walk to the collection center. The post office guy knows me by now. The thing is that the way zip codes work here is quite arbitrary: I moved a 100 meters from my old house and I am in a new Zip code that is not even close to the old one and the collection center is now almost two miles away so every week in the morning, I have to make the walk to the collection center.

Firefox 3 is quite good both for Mac and the PC. I use it with delicious, Flashblock and Adblock Plus and the browser experience is pretty good now.

I have to think about the Fall semester and plan for a whole number of logistical issues around that and I do it with mixed emotions: one hand excited about the experience and apprehensive about what I am going to leave behind.

Personally, it has been a very interesting time for me. I have been meeting many new people and I realize over time I have developed some very close friendships here which I suppose is not that unnatural. I am not going to write about my meditation and some of the progress I have been making but one quote by Bob Thurman quoting the Dalai Lama is quite apt for the moment: “When your mind gives birth to idea of compassion you finally realize that your feelings: if you are happy or sad, if you feel like this or like that and generally the ego-centric perception is too small a theater for your intellect. It is quite boring really.”

There are a lot of other things happening but this is not the space and time to verbalize. But my last.fm profile will do the talking.

I bought MarioKart with mixed reactions. Maybe it is just that my screen is tiny but I was not completely impressed by the graphics. It is good fun none the less. The sound quality I thought was a bit disappointing.

I am completely blown away by the Lexus IS-F. If only there was a project that made it a bit more eco-friendly, I would so totally buy it. I know it costs a fortune but there is something about the car and the time for me that just feels right. I am still debating but I am very impressed by the quality to the point that I motivated my dad to buy a new car for himself. I actually signed me up for a test drive. I am not looking to buy a car this year but I think next year is probably a bit better time for a number of reasons but if only there was something that made it a bit eco-friendly I would absolutely buy it in a heartbeat.

Finally I am completely hooked on Ted.com and actually have a series of videos that I have to go through but I find myself visiting the site whenever I have some spare time and is enough daily dose of inspiration.

I finished another semester and right now on a bit of a break and over the summer I am taking it a bit easy with the courses. So there is this semi-pretentious bar near my house. I kinda like it (surprise?) mostly because the music is quite good. I was there after work one day to meet up with a friend but they cancelled last minute so I there alone and I opened my laptop and since I am in a very unique position right now with my career and personally I started writing down a few things to help me wade through and help with the thought process. I am not going to post all of it (it is personal and it helped immensely!) but just the bit that I thought are relevant here:

Traits I cherish
- Humility
- Optimism
- Patience
- Dedication
- Creativity
- Technical Excellence

Future
- Visual Design
- Music
- IDEO
- Design by numbers.
- System Interaction design.
- Compassionate leadership and Operational Excellence.
- Build something that has a lasting impact especially that is self-organizing.
- Distributed Systems.

Lessons learnt:
- Humility.
- Work hard. Discipline counts.
- Always see the best in people.
- Everyone deserves a second chance.
- PDCA.
- Impossible is nothing.
- Embrace change.
- Importance of being Earnest.
- What goes around comes around.
- Be kind. Be open. Be honest.
- No Fear. Truly.
- Fail quick fail often, learn quick learn often.
- Learning never ends.
- Let go. Let go of your mind and follow your heart.
- Love. Keep the innocence.
- Dream like you will live forever.

This will be updated soon enough with more details.

In this time I am getting introduced to a number of people, ideas and stuff in general personally and professionally through friends, conferences and just serendipity that excited me and in process are helping me get guidance around things I want to pursue in the short term atleast professionally:

Experimentation Platform: I had known about this for a while but I was at a conference and had a chance to see what these guys are up to. The idea of experimentation on live systems to drive change as opposed to decision made based on intuition or position is very compelling. I did have a chance to talk to a the presenter and maybe in the future, I will meet up with him to see some of the internal workings. I did not manage to swipe a Hippo though, maybe next time. Either way, while the idea of experimentation is not new but I thought because this is to be used for exisitig systems to drive improvements is novel especially because of the reluctance that we see to change something if it is not broken: I think this leads to a rut in companies.

Server Virtualization: Since my team manages a bunch of servers we are looking to improve performance and the overhead by looking at Virtualization and in the process I was looking the Hyper-V technology and the work done by VMWare and while I am not a computer science / hardware person, the whole idea of something running just above the hardware and then allowing multiple OSes running on top of the same hardware is very cool. In the demo, they were able to create clusters and entire data centers with failovers in less than 15 minutes As the hardware gets more and more powerful, I think that this is the future of the datacenter: the ability to virtualize all hardware to save on costs and energy. I think it was one of the things that I never thought i would be interested, it is partly the technology but mostly what can be done with it in order to enable cool things in operations that caught my fancy. I got into thinking how VMWare does it and how Hyper-V is trying to do it.

I also had a chance to listen to Debra Chrapaty and it was at around the same time that I was tinkering with Amazon's Web services and in particular their S3 Strorage service as a means to back up all my data and store it securely. The work around data-centers in a box, edge computing especially by Sun in the container and now other companies is very exciting because the price of hardware is plumetting and this is definitely the future. I will not be surprised if the next truck that passes by me on the road is there to help a company load balance because of a event in the area or enable communications for a emergency.

As I proceed in my course at MIT and my work in particular, I have begun to realize that my interests and career is going to be in building large scale infrastructure systems, processes to enable execution projects in the short term. I think that I am very good around getting a v0 in place, set up operations and foundations of a system and then handing it off to someone else to run it and move on to other projects. If you have ideas or thoughts or projects around any of this, I would love to have a conversation with you.

Enough about work. A friend who follows this journal said that my writing reminds her of Douglas Coupland and on her recommendation, I am currently reading Microserfs and it is fantastic and so funny and I cannot believe that I had missed it all this time. Now that I am reading it, I can see some of the similarities with this journal: and the abruptness and sketchy writing, the references to idealism in and trying to reason it to work that I do etc. While this is the best that I can do, I think that Coupland was just feigning a style to suit the atmosphere.

I do think that what he talks about in the novel: the quest to find ones identity especially in the software world is a very unique experience because software is all "fake" as in not a real thing that can be touched but the money it generates and the lifestyle and habits that come out of it are real and one has to be in the software world to understand that. I came in to this world from a non-software job and the pressures and environment that I was experiencing were very different. I think software in particular and IT industry in general have changed the process of "learning" and adulthood profoundly. I think that it sheilds the people from "real" problems that people face and perpetuate the adolesent experience. That is why I think that our offices are called campuses and P1 bug is something that does not cause any physical damage where as in automobile manufacturing a p1 problem would be something that affects the safety of the user. These are two entirely different paradigms but have the same connotations as far as the job is concerned. Software and Internet is particular is about ideas that are relatively easy to implement but when put in a large organization context, these ideas all of a sudden have to deal with "real" human problems: policitcs, emotions, timing etc. and therefore it is very easy to get cynical about the world. I struggle with this a lot but I have my own to let my steam out. In the same vien I would recommend the other book I am reading: How I left.. and the story is really fascinating. Definitely check out the site and the videos. This is much in contrast to Microserfs, I am seeing the power of global corporations and trying see how they can be leveraged for the greater good. Ambitious much?

While I dont think that I am going to change the world (yet :-) ), at the beginning of this year, before heading off to Mauritius, I had read a very interesting article in NY Times around how to plan a year. I did the exercise as mentioned in the article and one of the goals for this year was to upgrade the IT infrastructure of a non-profit that I volunteer in. Over the last few months, I worked with them and MS as part of Microsoft's Unlimited Potential program. We got into a program that enables them to get upgraded to the latest and came up with a plan that was just almost approved and it is so exciting. This work will be carried out over the summer by myself and a few other people and I am so happy to have achieved this personal goal.

This semester I am taking a class called Product Design and Development. This class is geared more towards Mechanical Products and there are times taht I wish that I was workig with a real prouct in the class instead of a service architecture that we are trying to develop. It is quite fun none the less and I am learning a lot. This is a class that I am struggling rigth now especially because of our product and some deadlines that I miseed.

I travelled a bit in the last month and it was fantastic. I am planning my a few other trips over the summer (time permitting) but lets see.

I am also trying to redesign my site to a new design. I upgraded my Movable Type installation to MT 4.0 and I am very happy with the performance on my server. Still haven't figured out how to do it on my new Mac and the right tools for it. One of these days..

So many more things. I am getting tired because this seems too self absorbed but that is the point right? Other notables include: Laptop RAM Upgrade, St. Paddys Day, DeepZoom, new cellphone, HSDPA hacking, mini-marathons, interviews for the first employee to our startup, violin lessons, friends leaving for other countries and much much more. As I told a friend the other day if I was run over by a truck tomorrow, I would have no regrets because I would have lived like there is no tomorrow and dreamt like I will live forever.

I will update this soon enough.

And finally I end with XKCD because I thought that this was apt for the this time:

I am taking a very interesting Product Design and Development class this term and it sucks that I cannot meet my team in person this term, I think that it would have really helped to get this thing jumpstarted. We are planning to enter the MIT 100k Competition this year because the idea is quite exciting.

I also came back from my stay in Mauritius and looking back I cannot see spending the month of January in any other way. I am in the process of following up on my trip and planning the next things. There are a number of things that I need to do in order to continue this. It is quite interesting since this is a long term project on my part and I need a few other things to be in place in order to sustain it.

As a part of this process, I am going to attend a conference on Recycling here and I am quite excited about it. It is kind of out of a fluke that I saw that there was a conference on here. I am hoping to make some connecitons and build a network to start a partnership to solve some of the problems I am working on.

I have been hooked on to emusic.com and am very happy with their service. I tend to avoid buying music on iTunes and it is annoying that the Amazon MP3 service is so limited outside the US.

Oh yes and I finally bought a Mac: Mac Mini and I know that it is underpowered but it is exactly what I was looking for. I use Linux and Windows on my laptop for work, play and school but needed a machine for the music, movies and since it is hooked on to my sound system, it is great. I don’t have to turn on my laptop for everything. So far I am very impressed by the experience and the general fit and finish of the product. I like the iLife products and they have done a really good job with the way it is presented.

In the same vein I got rid of my land based internet and am on a HSDPA mobile network for my internet. It is great since it is quite cheap and works pretty much everywhere. It is quite interesting to have broadband internet pretty much everywhere and not be tied to WiFi. I had tried WiMax before but was quite disappointed with its performance especially for "traditional" broadband applications. While HSDPA is not the greatest, I think that it is good enough. WiMax is annoying becuase of the stupid rabbit shaped modem. I have a tiny card for HSDPA and a USB controller also so it works well and is discreet also.

Since I moved to a new apartment, I am in the process of redecorating the new one with a help from a friend of mine. I am so excited to do this because it has been a while and I am using real tools to create new furniture. Ever since I moved into the software world, I miss my hands on using tools job that I used to have before.

This week has been quite hectic but I plan to go to the Gym again. I was a part of the company Gym last year but I kind of dropped of because of my other commitments but this time I have decided to pick it up again.

I am planning to travel a bit during the summer here. It is very handy to do it over the weekends and I have really not taken any advantage of the whole thing just because I have been so caught up with the university and all the other things that I have on my plate. I decided to take one less course this semester and therefore am taking it a bit easy. I realized that I was not enjoying the time and just struggling to move from one thing to the other. But ever since last semester when I started taking Violin lessons, I realized that I need to take a break from the constant work and all the projects. I do think that this time has helped me build up my resume and skills.

A very close friend bought the Honda Civic Type R the new one and the other day i was looking at it and saw some of the parts that I was involved in. It was kind of a blast from the past, because I was involved in the design and testing for these parts. I am very impressed by the new Civic especially the new iVTEC engine. That way Honda is a great company that has preserved its racing identity.

I have a bunch of things to update professionally and personally especially on my work in Mauritius and the future plans. I will be back here soon enough after a few things fall in place which I think should be there in next week or so.

So over the summer last year, a very close friend and I started a company and created a website and we did not really do a lot after we released it because we got busy with other things, I was checking the site the other day and was quite surprised to see that the site had about 20 odd users. Now I know that it is nothing but still was a bit of a surprise to me because we have not done anything at all. So now I am trying to work with my friend to see if we can do something there since the difficult part of building the service is done. If anyone who is reading this wants help with marketing a website as a side project please drop me a email, I would love to talk to you. This could look good on the resume and we can have some fun with the project. We are obviously very excited and passionate about our site but dont really have a lot of marketing skills. So any help will be greatly appreciated.

More later with some photos and the rest.

To understand what I am trying to do, you will need to have a crash course in Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Management (I had to do the same :) ). Anyway all over the world, it is the municipalities, city and county councils who collect household and commercial waste from the streets. After the waste is collected, to save on costs, it is carried to what is called as a transfer station. Usually outside city limits or in poorer areas in developing countries, this transfer station is sort of a collection point for all the waste. Usually a transfer station depending on its design handles waste of a county or two counties. Transfer stations serve an economic purpose: The biggest cost getting waste to a landfill is in transport. In transfer stations, waste from different parts is collected, compacted in a bigger unit and then dumped in the landfill. This saves in freight costs apart from being able to build a better supply chain and logistics infrastructure. Apart from landfills, sometimes they have incineration capabilities so that the volume that goes in to the landfill is reduced.

In developing countries or poorer countries where there are no formal recycling programs in place, there is a fledgling recycling industry composed of recyclers (small or medium size enterprises) and people at the bottom of the social ladder. These people usually rummage through the garbage and collect things that can be recycled: metals, plastic cardboard etc. The recyclers then pay money (which is way below market price) for these goods. It is a very difficult life for these people who live endemic poverty, lack of opportunities and education not mentioning the obviously unhealthy lifestyle being exposed to waste without any protection.

They work in very difficult and unhygienic conditions. My project involves transforming one of the transfer stations in to a sorting and ewaste collection station. Currently the sorting work is carried out under the sun, we plan to put in place a mechanical sorting line with sorting stations and equip the sorters with protective equipment and a covered facility. As a part of this, I am working with the Ministry of Local Government (Environmental Division) here to design a small sorting center using my experience at factory layouts and installing machinery at Honda (where I used to work). We intend to open tenders for this project soon once the basic design specifications are in place. The plan is to have a mechanized conveyor system to with work stations on the side to help in sorting process.

The other side to this is once the sorting station is built by the middle of this year, we plan to put in place the first island wide ewaste collection center where people can drop in their ewaste or local municipalities can undertake collection campaigns and store the material in the center. We have built relationships with recyclers with the aim of getting them to come in to the center and take the electronic and electrical goods away for disposal, reuse, rework. We are conducting waste profiling surveys right to see what kind of waste people have in their homes. This way we transform (ir)regular and unstructured waste sorting in to something that is a bit more hygienic and build a sustainable framework around ewaste for the country which can then be replicated to other transfer stations here and in the neighborhood.

We as humans generate tremendous amounts of waste due to our economic activity. It is truly unsustainable. We are all made aware of this on TV and through commercials but experiencing it firsthand came as a shock to me. To put things in perspective: This tiny island which is a developing country and generates close to 1400 tons of waste per day and close to 98% of it goes to landfills. Think of it this way: an island of 1.1 million people generates waste to fill up 300 standard size tractor-trailers every day!!! This is not even a close to being the worst offender. Granted much of it is green waste which can be turned into compost but without proper facilities to handle these things, inevitably it ends in landfills with other not so green (pun intended) things. This is touted as being a paradise with a semi-mature ecotourism industry. My focus is on ewaste which is admittedly more toxic and has a compelling business proposition for both Government and Industry. In any case, I am amazed to see the impact of our lifestyle first hand.

Climate change and tackling it by being greener are here to stay. That said there is an unbelievable potential in Green technologies and plenty of money and economic opportunity around it. I think the potential to change parallels the IT revolution and we are at the very early stages.

Oil and Natural Gas futures markets are one of the biggest scams of the late twentieth century. Obviously the demand is much higher but so is the supply. People make money speculating the price of these commodities for the next month just take a look at the revenue and income figures for the sector. Our addiction to oil is hard to comprehend. I have seen the money it generates and the destruction it causes.

I do sincerely beg all of you who are reading this to do something to reduce your impact on the planet. I am not kidding. Please make it a resolve to do something this year to help in changing the situation in whatever little or big way you can. We used to have giant tortoises, Dodos and many many other species that have been completely wiped off. When you visit the natural history museum here you see the wildlife that was here all stuffed in sort of a eerie silence. You are shocked that it is not there anymore. After my visits I was quite stunned because it is the first time I saw something so beautiful that is no longer there just because of our activity. It is real over here. Maybe because it is so close and in front of your eyes or because being a small place you can imagine seeing a tortoise by the sea I don't know what it is but being here has made the problem real for me.

As far as this project is concerned, the next step is for me to go to Madagascar. I am really looking forward to that experience: there they run a computer refurbishment shop there and I am invited to visit them to see how used computers are being given to schools. I am looking forward to the trip not just for the "work" aspect but to visit Madagascar is very exciting. More on that some other time.

In all of this, I have to say I am completely grateful for my company. I usually don't mention my work here but I work at Microsoft (yes that one!). We get a lot of flak for a lot of things from a number of people. I used to contribute to Open Source and joined this company to see the other side and as I get older I can see appreciate both sides.

However, none of this is possible without the commitment of my manager and senior management of the company in particular. They have been extremely supportive and demonstrated a lot of flexibility towards my schedule and commitments. I have had several meetings with Microsoft Indian Ocean Island's Citizenship team and some of the work they do is truly awesome for a for-profit company. It is truly fantastic and humbling. I do think that it is one of the things that the company does so well starting from right at the top with Bill Gates and it deserves way more credit than it gets.

This has been exciting and very tiring at the same time. Exciting because this is something that is completely new but tiring because there are times when I wonder about the work and if it is worth it and if it will work out. Overall although it has been physically tiring it is a very enriching experience and has expanded my horizons both internally and externally. I suppose there is not a lot really that I can ask for. I am at the tail end of the first phase of the project and hopefully this will work out, I say hopefully because things like these need a bit of luck and some support.

The people are here can be best described in one word: gentle. Mauritius is very multi-cultural with significant Creole, Indian, Chinese and French populations and I have had a chance to meet and make friends with a lot of people. While there is a strong sense of identity and cultural backgrounds, the hospitality, humility and attitude towards life and what is important is striking.

Apart from the above, the beauty of this place is quite unbelievable. I have been a complete fish here: swimming in the ocean, doing a lot of wind surfing and just lying around by the beach. I had a few opportunities to relax and take it easy and just laze around in the sand. This is very very close to paradise. Please drop me a email if you want to see some of the pictures.

Because of this, one of my to-do things in life is to buy a speedboat. I absolutely loved the speed and the power. I suppose it touched a raw nerve being a guy, the way some cars do to some other people.

So much more to write here about life, personal things and some things that I realized while over here. Mostly because of the new people and friends that I made. It has been a thoroughly enjoyable experience and it is not over yet. The point of an education in my mind is to give you the right thinking tools to be a better person. You don’t need to go to college to be a better person but it works for me. I would never be able to do this if I was not at my university and for that and many many other things I am very thankful.

I started my second Masters degree in January. It was a difficult decision since I really did not have to do this and it is very expensive and initially it was very hard but it is quite amazing how we can adapt to a change in the schedules and environments. It is almost unbelievable that I am done with half the course now. It has been a very rewarding experience till now and as I go into the next semester, I am thinking about my thesis, graduation and maybe the next steps in the course. The course has stretched me in ways that are hard to put in words: the last two semesters were particularly hard and my grades were not that great either but it is OK, I dont think that I can try any harder. I go to the gym to be fit so that I have the stamina to take the course. This is the first time I am being forced to be fit for an academic exercise.

I was involved in co-starting a company with a very close friend and while I have mostly scaled back my work and don’t really do much other than routine maintenance because of the way my friend and I decided to run the business. Starting up something along with school and work was very challenging. I am happy though with the effort and the way it turned out. I am now ready to start a new one and hope to start one pretty soon.

This year was very challenging professionally also. I was very busy coordinating worldwide release of a major piece of software for the company. It has been a big success as far as the technical expectations of the platform are concerned. Personally, I think I have had to learn a lot of things around teams, operations and customers. I have always been in operations but running a service for internal and external customers was something new along with designing parts of a mission critical platform. It has been a learning experience and I am quite happy with the results.

Some of the things I learnt in the process led me to take on a professional certification and I am quite happy that I got it since it has been on my mind to do this for a while. In fairness though, I did fail the first time by a whisker (maybe one or at the most two questions).

In 2007 though, most importantly I discovered my spirituality. It is very personal and a very few people know about it for obvious reasons. In the process though one of the things I have had a lot of problem with was humility, forgiveness and compassion. This was because of a number of things but mostly my past and making peace with it. I realize as I get older and have more experiences, these are things that I have to constantly work on and struggle with. I am not very happy about that but if only it were that easy. It is past though now and I look forward to bigger and better things in the future. The transition in the mind set was quite challenging.

I have had this site in various forms for more than 11 years now (and counting) and it is bit of a tradition here to post absolute unique visits at the end of a year. I did not do it last year because I was not sure if I wanted to shut this down. So here are the stats for this year averaged to around 90 visits every day. Thank you for visiting my site and being a part of my experience here on this planet. I really appreciate it. Do drop me a line to say hi!

If 2007 was about inside, the next year is about outside. 2008 already promises to be very adventurous in terms of work, education and travel among other things. I shed the old and truly get out of my shell and out of the past. I am starting off by moving my apartment and then I am off to new places and new experiences. Ones which I am excited but also a bit scared about. I wrote about my grant last month and everything is in place with tickets etc. I am also going to Zanzibar as a part of this adventure. I am really looking forward to being in a part of the world that I am completely unfamiliar with. It is funny after living in a place with very little sun for a while, I am yearning this. I was never a beach person especially because my skin cannot handle the sun. I am looking forward to this though. I hope to update this with photos soon enough. It has been two years since I jumped in to the unknown moved to a new place and this is one more such move. As I mentioned in the earlier post, hopefully this will lead to something long term and that sticks.

Finally, this year, because of my meditation, I discovered my music and that along with design has come to define my spirituality. You can see my playlist online. This was the main reason to re-enforce my fascination of the violin and especially because it is so hard to play. I started taking lessons this year and am continuing to practice. Playing it has been one of the most rewarding personal experiences. And here is me wishing you a very merry Christmas and Seasons greetings: you can barely hear me play because my mic is acting up but I am not complaining.

This is my first Christmas here in this country because I was travelling last year and I am very fortunate to spend it with friends since my family visited me already and the schedules dont match. As I count my blessings, I wish you Happy Holidays and hope that you have a fantastic 2008.

My university has a Public Service Center offering fellowships for students wishing to use skills and knowledge to build grassroots community capacity and engineering solutions to real world problems. This all a part of the University's mission to use science and technology to bring about change in the world. The Center encourages people and organizations from all over the world to submit pressing problems "to address the needs of underserved communities". Essentially students have to initiate contact with local sponsors for projects that interest them or projects that match the students skills. Project proposals are then developed and students have to submit them to get the fellowships. It is quite competitive and a very tight schedule and requires recommendations, documentation etc.

I have always believed in the power of technology and engineering to bring about positive change and was immediately fascinated by the program. So over the last couple of weeks (months?), as a part of this program I spent a lot of time working with Dr. Bokhoree (Sanjeev as I know him) of the University of Technology, Mauritius. Sanjeev is Senior Lecturer in the University and is trying to design a sustainable living framework for Mauritius. Part of this work involves investigations in eco-friendly housing, environmental awareness and waste management strategy. As a part of this effort and subsequent conversations with him, we decided that my skills would be best utilized if I helped him design and implement part of the overall a e-waste collection program. This was mostly because of my Mechanical Engineering background and working with Honda. So after spending a couple of sleepless nights we developed a proposal that he was happy with and I submitted it to the PSC.

Today as a part of this program, I was offered a fellowship to work with Sanjeev and The University of Mauritius to design and implement e-waste storage centers in Port Lewis, Mauritius in particular and hopefully all over the island in the long term. Part of this work is to construct build a robust scalable system that enables rapid deployment of cheap, low footprint e-waste storage facilities. This private-public partnership fits in well with my work and interests and will be carried out in Mauritius. My experience with UNESCO here proved invaluable here and during the interviews. The results of this work will also be used for the development of eco-friendly housing there. Needless to say I am very excited about this.

While I still am looking at the agreements, my schedule and most importantly my personal commitments, this is a tremendous opportunity. This is a massive logistical nightmare also and it may not work out afterall because of my circumstance but I am happy to give it a shot. There were a few people that came to my mind immidiately after the email.. the people sending good vibes, prayers and luck, reviewing my proposal and giving feedback, wishing me good dreams. Obviously, none of this would be possible without Sanjeev and his commitment, exictement with the work and belief in me. I am truly humbled by it. My appeal with education, universities in general is because they enable me to be better a human being. You don’t need to be in a university to be a better person but for me it acts as a way to channel my mental energies. I am realizing that I can use it to build lasting relationships also. Watch this space for more.

If this works out, I am hoping that it will be just the beginning of my long term involvement with the University and Mauritius. I am already taking to my employer about this so it can go on after MIT and explore opportunities. Most importantly, I am hoping to build lasting relationships with the people and just have some fun with this. As I get older, I realize I get more pleasure not so much out of achieving my own dreams but enabling other people to achieve theirs.

In other news, work is in over drive. Planning, designing, influencing and having a bit of a laugh in the process. The bits I don’t enjoy, the school work compensates for it. Also, I desperately need a new lunch table, like Oscar Wilde said: "True friends stab you in the front" .. but keeping it real takes a whole new meaning on our table and I am at the receiving end of it.

I did manage to have some truly fantastic Serbian food and watch Death Proof.. there are a few signature Tarantino shots but it is quite a good movie. It has been a while since I saw a Tarantino movie and they are always good fun to watch with friends.

The last couple of weeks we had two fascinating lectures as a part of a course. We were introduced to the work of Prof. Joel Schindall who used to be the CTO of GlobalStar and it was awesome experience to listen to his talk about problems with GlobalStar and what they were trying to do as a business. We also had Dan Braha on talking about the structure of dynamics and visualizing networks. It is a art. Some of these classes are like therapy, they make you think, feel inspired and get a view of what other people are doing which is quite refreshing for someone as self absorbed as I am.

I need to clean my place.

I need to finish Freakonomics and return it back :P to the person who lent it to me.

I need to brush up on music theory.

I need to catch up on my emails. There is no way I can answer all the emails I get.

IronPython rocks my socks.

I need to finish up some of the unfilled application forms.

I have so many other things to put down here but "The most important things in life aren't things" and those are the bits that brought a smile to my face.

In all of this, I am trying to figure out my thesis. Thesis in general is a pain and I have mixed reactions to it because of the scope and my other time commitments involved but I am talking to a few people regarding topics. I hope to finalize it by the end of this year.

I did manage to catch Ryoji Ikeda couple of weeks ago and he was quite phenomenal. I did not expect it to be so loud but there is a reason why they had ear plugs outside the hall. It was really good and well worth it. It is quite incredible how some of his work is so similar to some of the photos I took when I was younger. Either way the highlight was actually talking to him in person. He just seemed so innocuous and nonchalant about it.

Work has been quite interesting lately, I have been working with a number of teams internally on innovation and research oriented work. So it is quite exciting especially when the product is so widely used and there is a real chance to make an impact on how literally millions of people do their work. Either way it is a challenge for me because coming from an operations background with extremely tight schedules to organizing and creating something with a team requires a completely new set of tools and thinking.

I have been trying to cut down my drinking drastically for a while now and I am quite happy that it has reduced to a trickle. :) It is quite unbelievable how quickly it can get out of hand especially with the culture and my friends here. But it is great because when I do drink now, I seem to enjoy it a lot more.

I actually received a call from a UNICEF’s tele-marketing department (gasp!) the other day. I donate regularly to UN related organizations but the other day a telemarketer called me trying to tell me about the great deals that UNICEF stores have for Christmas shopping. It was the definitely the moral dilemma of the day: Whether you should be angry that they called or should be glad that they are being more aggressive in trying to solicit help. I am still making my mind. But I want to talk to them and ask about how they figured this will work. I think people who want to give time or energy will give regardless and don’t really need any push or a personal pep talk or convincing. The lady was really nice so I think she was a volunteer also :). It will be a very interesting conversation though trying to figure out what they are trying to achieve.

Speaking of charities, A friend of mine is raising money for his charity by climbing Everest. He emailed first requesting donations by pointing to the site. The next day, he emailed asking if any of us had arctic-standard sleeping bags.

I am also quite busy designing a website for a very close friend of mine. Last time I did it with Joomla, this time it is going to be Drupal. I have to say I like Drupal’s performance and look much better. Only if they had the Wordpress themes so I won’t have to stay up all night trying to tinker CSS. I did hit a roadblock regarding the theme in general just cannot get a different design in my head.

Lately I am averaging about four to five hours of sleep every day. The funny thing is that I over sleep on the Weekend but weekdays I find myself awake around six in the morning no matter how late I slept the night before. And funnily enough I am not that tired. Quite the contrary. I suppose it has to do with doing things that you truly enjoy.

Also it is very difficult to believe that Halloween is just round the corner. All of a sudden yesterday I noticed that it was 7 in the morning and still dark and at around 6.00 we have dusk. I cannot even believe that time has flown by so quickly. I am still planning my Christmas and the break but there are a bunch of things happening as usual it will be last minute. I am currently trying to sync up with my family and their travel plans but it may be that I will have to go about it independently.

More stuff here soon. It has been so crazy over the last month or two that I have not had a chance to look back and ponder which is what this journal was supposed to help me do but it is not working.

It has been a while since I updated this. A bunch of things have happened. The last semester was a killer. I screwed up one course but really it was a waste of time. I can actually differentiate between that now and am seriously thinking about my thesis. I suppose over time, you get very choosy and it is especially important for my (any) thesis since I am going to be working on it for a extended period of time. This is my first time doing a thesis: the last course, I chose the "coursework only" option so was good and the undergrad thesis does not count I guess.

I had to make a important decision regarding a couple of very important things (including moving from my current place) in the last month but I am very happy with the way it has turned out. I think I handled it very well. Again something to do with not compromising and following your heart.

They are playing a Ryoji Ikeda work here next month and I am so excited to see him. It is funny that I just came across his act because of a random flyer.

I have been reading Freakonomics and it is quite a good read. I think it is more about lateral thinking or radiant thinking and can actually be used in those books. Quite interesting none the less.

It has been very hectic otherwise. The summer is already over and in the mean time, I celebrated my birthday. Looking back, the last year has been incredibly productive both professionally and personally; full of change and growth. It is amazing how quickly time flies. I think this time has focused my mind and enegeries on my strenghts and more specifically tried to hone my creativity.

I am completely hooked on to Facebook. It can be very addictive.

I did catch up on a few movies: specifically The Simpsons and the Bourne Ultimatum. I enjoyed the Bourne movie much more than the Simpsons. Also saw Good Will Hunting the other day for the first time and it was fantastic: could realte to the Irish-Boston connection; the accent et. al.

More later.

About eight months ago, one of my closest friends was going through a very rough time and wanted to start over again on his own.. After countless hours spent discussing and meeting up and working on his idea, we have a working prototype of our little project up and it is currently open for business..

Shigoto.eu is aimed at the Japanese community in the Ireland and UK, we are specifically aiming to be THE community site for Japanese people or people with Japanese language skills in the above area.

This is a not-for-profit website, mostly aimed at community building. We have no payroll and CTO is a honorary title because Senior Principal smelt too much of The Suits. We do aim to evolve in to a subscription based service to continue to pursue improvements and sustain the cost of operations.

To others, it is just another partially implemented idea on the Internet but I am incredibly satisfied with the effort. It is no where near perfect and most of it is off the shelf GPLed software but for me it is a great challenge to even do this because it meant that I had to lead and manage three lives simultaneously: working a full time job, being a student and building a non-profit. Of course that is besides maintaining some kind of a social life and keeping my sanity.

Starting up something is all about inspiration, risk, passion, leadership, optimism, hard-work, failure, team, networks.. how do you deal with uncertainty.. most importantly as far I am concerned: how you compromise. Till very recently, most of these would not be the adjectives that would describe me. I was not even close.

For me, this is all about making the most out of change. A lot has changed for me and this to me was about learning to channel my energies to something productive, learning to reflect, identifying and then playing my strengths, managing schedules, understanding what is important and learning to focus. I learnt a lot about perseverance and never giving up on a idea and also about being a bit less self absorbed. It is almost unbelievable that I can write about this now.

There are a number of things in the pipeline with the site. We have had some great initial feedback and are busy implementing it. It is not even close to being complete but it is open for public and we will continue to improve it. The experience has been unbelievable.

Right now I am just taking a few moments to enjoy what we have been able to do. In the long run, it may not work out after all but it's OK. I gave it my best shot. We had fun. I learnt a lot. And honestly, is there anything more that I can ask for out of anything?

More later.

P.S. 24 hours are definitely not adequate for my schedule.