Kapil's Take

I do not want to say much about this as I think I am very much affected by whatever that went on in Mumbai. Being of Indian origin and a former Indian citizen my heart goes out to those who have lost loved ones and to all those brave soldiers and policeman who risked their lives and died to protect their citizens.

Terrorist attacks keep happening in various parts of India, but no one really gives it much attention. Even I seemed to care less about them, but this recent one in Mumbai has really left me shaken. I don’t know whether it was the wide media coverage or the sheer manner in which these terrorists carried out their massacre that really affected me. I do have extended family in India, and I feel it could have been anyone of them. I was in India in 2006 for summer holidays when there were multiple bomb blasts in Mumbai trains just few days before I was supposed to board a plane from Mumbai airport coming back to Canada Рeven that did not affect me as much as this recent attacks have.

Let’s just assume for argument sake that sometimes wars may be needed so that a few lives are taken to save the lives of many, or let’s say that it is justifiable that we have soldiers on borders protecting their respected countries and that they be ready to kill to protect their land, but can this or any other thing justify what happened in Mumbai? How can killing innocent people who have nothing to do with anything be justified? In fact not just in Mumbai, but anywhere in the world where innocent lives are taken; how can any of that be justified?

I was not able to sleep well for a few days following the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. This may well be called the ‘911’ of India.

Doesn’t it make you think what we really are doing to us? It really does not matter whether the ones who are killing and the ones who are killed are Hindus or Muslims or Christians or Jewish or white or black or brown, or American or Afghani or India – the bottom line is that a human is killing another human.

There is no alibi for what we’ve done to us!

Waow. It has been such a long time since I last updated my blog, its almost a year. I guess I didn’t quite follow up with my new years resolution…lol. There have been many times when I wanted to update my blog but just could not (couldn’t get myself to that is). Today I actually made it mandatory for myself to update my blog.

Quite a few things I will talk about in the next few blogs to come. Open source and why I’m loving it, Google’s browser, chrome, US election, the global economy…etc etc.. Oh Man! So many things are going on in this world.

Another major thing to note is that it has been a while since I started work on Kesario.com, in fact it has take much longer than it should have, but nonetheless the beta version is almost complete and the target launch date is roughly set to some time in December 08 or early Jan 09. Not many people know about Kesario.com – only a few close family members and friends. Hopefully people will get to know about it once the beta version is out and hopefully people like it. It will be very, very simple (but that is just for now), lots of cool ideas and other subprojects spawning from it in 2009 Р2010.

Things don’t always go the way you plan them to go. For me, I think they have never gone the way I have planned them to go. I don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. Does it not make you wander if you are really in control of your life when things do not go the way you plan them. I don’t know if I should say that one day my plans would really flourish and become into a true reality. hehe

Well I hadn’t planned on going for skiing, but I did and it was awesome. Turns out learning how to ski is not all that difficult. I think I can say now that I can ski; but am I good? (haha) Oh, I don’t think so. But yah, for a first timer I think I did well. There was an extreme cold alert, wind warnings and heavy snowfall – and it was awesome! Next time I want to try on snowboarding. And then bungee jumping, and then sky diving. I think we all should try things in life at least once no matter how crazy they sound and that is what I will do. Take up a challenge and conquer it! Because let’s face it even if reincarnation was possible, do you really want to take your chances into getting the same opportunities you have in this life?

I have also started learning a new language – Mandarin. No, that was not part of my plan; it just happened. I am learning it from few of my co-workers. It has been only almost a week and I have learnt quite a few things. But then a friend of mine suggested learning a language that I might get some real use of (not to say that learning Mandarin would be of no use) like French since it is also one of the official languages of Canada. Actually, I have always wanted to learn French.

So,… Take a challenge and conquer it! Because as I always say there is no such thing as “I can’t do something”, because what you can and cannot do is only within the bounds of nature!

Every year I think about how fast time flies. Every year it feels like it was just yesterday when I was looking forward to the year 2000 – you know, with the whole Y2K thing. I remember in 1994 I was in Sydney, Australia and there were t-shirts and caps and sweaters and a lot more with the Olympics symbol on it and Sydney 2000 written on them. That was a whole 6 years before the actually Olympic games. I remember buying a sweater back then and how I waited in excitement for the year 2000 to come.

When it finally came I was just released from hospital after a nose surgery. I had fractured my nose. I still remember it – it was December 31, 1999 and I was lying in bed at home, all alone while everyone was out partying. Oh don’t feel sorry for me, it’s actually pretty funny when you think of it – I laugh at that moment too.

Months and years have went by since that day and now we are into the year 2008. The way time flies; it makes everything surreal. The first thing that I said on January 1, 2008 was “Soon it’s going to be 2009”. So what should my New Year’s Resolution be? Let me guess,… to live my life to the fullest, right? Wrong, that is just too abstract. I needed something concrete, so I decided that I am going to work on getting in shape, specifically, 6 packs (lol yah I know).

Amongst other things, I will be working on becoming more organized and stop being a procrastinator.

I have a lot more on my mind, but I will end it right here for now.

It has been a very long time since I last added anything to my blog – I know! One reason is that I stay in front of a computer all day, and the last thing I want to do at the end of the day is do more work on a computer. So, as you may have guessed already – Yah, after graduating I started working. In fact I started working even before I had officially graduated :D. I think the consistent job hunting and going to job fairs, workshops etc etc… actually paid off. But I also think it requires a bit of luck too.

I will be posting my graduation pictures (don’t know when, but will do). I’d like to thank all those who showed some interest and sent me emails about my site. Please send me more emails. Anything goes – suggestions, comments (both good and bad are welcomed).