aditya kumar's weblog

Friday, September 26, 2003

Over the years I have tolerated you and you have done the same.

But overall, seru, u r a great pal.

If you are an Indian, you must be knowing about what I am going to say about. Everyone you seem to know, asks for a treat on your birthday. I had been following the same “custom” all my 22 years of existence. But recently when I thought about it, I found it funny. Should’nt it be the other way round?

According to the current trend, the message goes like this- ” Its your birthday! You were born on this day. You are, most probably, happy about your existence in this world. So, you must be the happiest today! Treat us/me!”

And what I believe, it should be is- “Its your birthday, you were born on this day. You are happy of your existence, but I am happy about it more than you. Let me treat you! ”

Most people would not agree with me, I guess. But thats how I think. My closest friend is about to celebrate her birthday in a couple of days. I will try to apply this thought and take her out- if she allows me to! Because, I know, she is like most people- giving a treat to people on her birthday!

I do not know if this is true for you, but have you ever wondered and noticed that there are some people (in the media) whom you have seen all your life? From your earliest memories to this day- these “stars” have ACTUALLY been there, entertaining you? Can you imgaine how would it be when they go away, fade out? Will you miss them, in one way or the other?

Having difficulty in understanding what I am saying? Ok, I will give you some examples. For any 20-something year old person, I feel these are some of the people who have always been a part of the media:

1> Sachin Tendulkar: Since I have been watching cricket, he is playing.
2>Juhi Chawla: She is gorgeous! and the best part is, she never seems to age !! yesterday I watched 3 deewarein. and what a movie it is. I saw juhi perform after soo many years and at the moment she doesnt even look a wee bit different !!!
3>Bryan Adams: his music, his face, his voice- just the same as it was when I first heard him.

There are many people like that. Somehow somewhere, they are a part of our life. Because they have been there, we dont notice them. We will only notice this fact once they retire from their profession. Hats off, to these entertainers!

I despise it when people call computer programmers “nerds” or “computer-worms” or any similar thing for that matter. Staring at the computer screen all days and speaking a jargon which is understood by less does not make anyone a nerd. Anf furthermore, I really dont like it when these same people close themselves so much that a simple thing related to computer technology, which is easy to explain in plain english- is not listened to by them just because they think its too “techie” and hence it would go over their heads.

We are computer programmers. If we do not “stare” at the computer all day we wont be working. Programming and computing is our bread and butter. We have studied and struggled to be where we are, just like all of you economists, artists, scientists and jouralists. Our profession is no different in terms of struggles and the fight we put up – its just like all of you.

Computing and Programming is a science, just like chemistry and physics. The only difference I can think of is that it is much more diverse and complexities are at the core. ( I am not saying that chemistry and physics are less-complex per se) Its just that the term “nerd” and “geek” attributes more easily to computing, which I think is wrong.

Recently Mr Gavaskar was invited to deliver the Colin Cowdrey lecture. Surprising as it was, it came into account that he was very much irritated and disappointed by the sledging going on in the game. Surprising because, Mr Gavaskar himself admits, it was only once or maybe twice that he had actually experienced this bitter truth of modern day cricket. But a topic like this, I feel, could only be put up by someone as bold as Mr Gavaskar. South Africans, Australians, Kiwis or the Eglishmen would never raise the issue. The reason is simple. Because they do it themselves.

Though the little master originally blamed Australia as the only side using it, I think sledging certainly goes beyond the aussies. Later, rightly so, Mr Gavaskar agreed that it was even the Indian team that had been sledging and putting up verbal abuse. But I think the Indians (read Asians, or better, blacks i.e, India, Pakistan and Srilanka) do not have any further options to counter it. Pleading against the worlds greatest cricket authority, ICC has never been fruitful, however good and justified the reason may be. If the asians do it, they get fined but if the whites do it, its in the rule. Descrimination goes on, till this day. And the irony is, that most of the revenue generated by cricket is from the three big cricketing giants of Asia. No, not Australia and not even England. Sledging will go on, with or without Steven Waugh telling his players to try and stop it. Steve is one of the very few cricketers I have huge respect for. I know, if it were all in Steve’s hands this would not have been going on. But now that the australians have made sledging a part of the game, I think the asians have no other option than to start listening to Eminem songs and jot down the insults to keep themselves updated on this core issue. And in Saurav Ganguly, it seems, we have a perfectly capable leader to do so. (remember the shirt-off-look-at-my-chest-and-the-so-many-gold-chains scene in the Natwest final? )

All the best boys. And well done Mr Gavaskar. I had never seen you bat on the ground. But yes, off the ground you are a gem.

To start with, I think I ought to tell everyone about myself. I am Aditya Kumar. My ID on rediff is truman. I had made this ID in the starting days of rediff.com. It was inspired by the main character “truman burbank” of the movie “The Truman Show”. It may sound suprising, but before the movie was released, all through my childhood I had always felt that I was being watched and it was “telecasted” somewhere “outside” one way or the other. So when Truman Show came, I thought, “Hey, thats exactly my idea!” and add to it, I had lived that idea all my life. I still do. Who knows, while I am typing this, you people are watching me somewhere. (!!!) But seriously, I do not think so strongly about this idea as I did 5 years ago.

I am a computer programmer and I am 22 years old. I completed my 12th in 1998 from New Delhi. My father is in the Indian Navy so we always moved around India. Till now, we have been posted to Vizag, Goa, Karanja (off Bombay), New Delhi, and Goa again. My school days at Karanja were good in terms of academics. But as soon as I left the place for Delhi I found it extremely difficult to adjust myself there. My academics went down and I struggled badly, for the rest of my 4 years in school. During that time, I came to terms with myself- that I was not as good in studies as I was in my childhood.

I have always been a loner. I never had friends in school. One of the reasons was my fathers frequent postings but the major reason was me, myself. I was (and am) a quiet person. And when I have tried to come over it, I have falled hard. Being free (read normal) with speech is something I have tried many times and given up. Due to this, I did not have a normal childhood. My social life has always been very very limited. Anyway, due to the bad times and experiences with people in my childhood itself, I became more quiet and “scared”. I spent most of my time reading books and drawing. Later when I grew up, poetry and writing were added to the list.

Besides my family, the only good thing about my childhood was the Navy. I grew up between Ships and submarines. For me, there was no other career option other than the Indian Navy. By 13, I had memorized most of the ship classes and the ship numbers of the Bombay Naval Base fleet.
But I never tried for the navy. When it mattered the most, Navy was not an option for me. I think, one of the reasons for this was that by the time I was in a position to decide my career, we were in New Delhi and it had been 4 years leaving Bombay. I had lost my touch and lost the ingredients needed to drive a passion.

I had decided to persue Computer Science after my school and it was a decision taken totally based on the passion I had developed for the computer field. In a way, Navy’s loss was Computer’s gain. I never took up Computer Science because it was the “in-thing” then. I should say, most people at that time I knew took up the subject because it was the “in-thing”. Because it had money. If I would have been interested being an railway engine driver or for that matter anybody-in-any-field at that time, I would have gladly persued my dream, though my mother would have had different ideas about my career. And surely some strong comments about me being an engine driver.

So here I am. I took up BCA from Indore and MCM from Pune. I have been staying away from my family now for more than 5 years. I have so much to say about my years out that I can write a book on that subject. Surely, it would be a bestseller because it would be well received by the readers, since I would be the only reader. Anyway, I am working in a company which specialises in Computer Security. My basic interest lies in Cryptography and soon I am about to persue a pHD in the same subject. So much for some who was never good in studies in his last 4 years in school and had let his parents down during the final 12th results. Am I lucky to get to a point where I REALLY want to persue my Phd? Is it my determination and I do not know it? I dont know the answers.

There will be more about Myself. I need to write about myself before I can take on the topic for which it is meant for. But first, some time for myself ! I think I deserve some space !!

Okay, so I start this on a day before my birthday. Now people who receive that “long-and-a-essay-like” email from me once in a while wont have to. When they feel like they can come over here.