Childhood

I was born in the Capital city of India - New Delhi and my B'day happens to fall on 10th of July. This also makes me a Cancerian. I am the third and the youngest child of my parents. I have an elder brother and an elder sister.  My father works as a Civil Engineer with the Govt. of India and my mother is an Artist ( though she seldomly paints now ). Thus I had inherited from my parents a good mix of both Arts and Science.

My initial six years of childhood were spent in Delhi after which my father moved to Chandigarh, one of the most beautiful and lively city of India situated on the foothills of Great Himalayan ranges. My earliest memory of childhood had been playing with my elder brother and sister, often been fooled by them due to my innocence.  Other than my mother, they had been the prime teachers in my life, always trying to protect their little brother from other naughty kids.

I finished my sixth grade in Chandigarh after which we moved back to our house in New Delhi.  Moving from a small city to one of the biggest metropolitian cities of India was a big shock for me. Delhi happened to be an overcrowded,overpolluted and a place where life was too busy. However as I made new friends, I got adjusted to the big city's trends. New Delhi taught me many things, the most important being Patience.

I studied in Delhi till my 12th grade and till then I got matured enough to understand the hardships of life. On one hand had an ambition of being an engineer and on the other hand was the reality that only one out of  a thousand science students will make it to an engineering college.  Like most other students, both 11th and 12th grade got over in burning the midnight oil and all other dreams were preserved for the future.

Education

Fortunately, I got admitted to bachelors of engineering in computer science (India). All the inital happiness dispeared as soon as I reached the hostel,the seniors were already waiting for their prey. Ragging was very common in colleges in those days and there was no escape, situation was worst than a capitive soldier. But that one month was enough to transform a high school boy into an independent adult. Secretly I still feel that that was the best thing that could have happened in my life. But seniors weren't all bad, infact they turned out to be the parents away from home. The culture of seniors taking care of juniors gave a sense of security, they gave all types of help, even if they had to spend time helping us with our assignments.

I finished my graduation in 1994 and took to post graduation in Software Systems.

Work

My first job after completing my post graduation was at Texas Instruments (India) Ltd, a subsidary of TI-Dallas which started it's design center in India in 1984-1985. I worked there in the ASIC division (software) and was primarily responsible for design entry CAD systems which included development of various netlist font-ends and databases.  I worked for nearly 2 yrs and 5 months in TI before moving here.(Qualcomm)

Hobbies

Games: Only game I had ever played is Batminton, but frankly never won any game!!
Sculptures : Learnt it when I was in school and used to make sculptures with granite and plasters. ( by default,clay modelling was the starting point)
Music : A Hard Rock Freek!! but the best is still Pink Floyd. Others include Iron Maiden, Metallica,Cranberies,Black Sabbath,Dio,White Snakes .........
Reading: Philosophy , world religions,history (including ancient civilizations).
Astrology: Started as an experiment which is still in continuation. But mainly ancient hindu astrology.
Internet surfing: I believe it is the only turning point of human civilization that had happened in 20th century.

 Philosophy

I believe in the philosophy of Karma - the union of mind and work.  Every living organism is bound to some Actions due to it's nature , however one should not be attached to the fruits of his action.  It is a practise of freeing oneself from desires and ego,a renunciation while continuing the work that best fits an individual.

Philosophy of karma is followed by the philosophy of self sacrifice ( doesn't mean commiting suicide ). The nature can be viewed as a closed system based on inherent sacrifices. Instead of viewing the prey-predator relation as a voilent and harmful interaction of living beings , one can view the prey involved in self sacrifice for the benefit of it's predator.  Although the predator has to perform karma according to it's natural abilities.

How can one relate this to human beings?

Social interactions exists and flourish due to self sacrifices of all individual, no matter whether they are caused by laws,rules & regulations or by choice.
A mother takes care of her infant, goes through all the pains of keeping awake all through the nights. It is a selfless sacrifice since she is not hoping for anything in return. And every mother enjoys all those troubles and that's the power of sacrifice. Can anyone imagine a good relation between the two without such sacrifice?  Can a relationship between a man and a women sustain without both sacrificing some of their ego and desires?

Human beings are the most gifted  due their ability to think and make decisions. But mind again is like nuclear energy which can be both productive or destructive, depending upon it's use. Similarly man can use his logic and reasoning for either destroying the nature by it's maximum consumption or can help in it's preservation by taking only the necessary amount.  Many countries have a culture of observing fast on certain days in the year. Think that the whole nation doesn't eat for a day, it might be a stupid idea to most of the people but it is not. Try once and in the end of the day you'll experience happiness which even words cannot explain.

Religion 

I am a hindu by religion. Unfortunately hindusim had been viewed in west as a primitive religion, may be due to the fact that it's the oldest religion in the world ( 5000-4000 B.C). Or maybe because it is one of the most complex religion. Unlike other religions, hindusim is not guided by prophets , It is a religion which evolved as the civilization evolved. The ancient hindu scriptures (like vedas) began with the quest of seeking the truth about the origin of life, something which scientists today are still wondering about. This search for truth over the ages diverged into the philosophy of hindusim. The other aspect of the religion is the culture and traditions which vary within hindus too, and more often it is the culture which has often been confused as religion.

 Opinions

Some of my opinions on various matters. click here.
Disclaimer: I don't intend to hurt anyone with them, these are my personal views, if you don't agree with anything ;just defer reading it.