A trip down memory lane: the year was 1998, and it was my first ever exciting फ़ौरन trip! The destinations were right out of a romantic Bollywood movie: France, Switzerland and Italy. It was an official trip, and I was without Nidhi. Vanya wasn’t even born yet! I had a blast visiting various french towns near the quaint town of Saint Genis Pouilly, my company’s office. Paris’s siren song called to me, and on a weekend, all alone, I decided to visit the romantic city....
Beaches in winter have a charm that is hidden away by crowds that throng them in the Summer. You get to experience the vastness of natures bounty, and feel as if everything is on display exclusively for you. There are forensic remnants of a jostling summer with lots of cramped footprints, lonely beach facilities with scary warnings of riptides, secured lifeguard cabins, nearly empty beach cafes and cheerful shops hunting for patrons....
Vacations are a change from routine, and are a great time for reflection. With current medical progress and innovation, we have access to effective medicines for fatal and debilitating diseases. Our health span is also largely under our control based on our lifestyle. An exception to this control is genetic influence and unfortunate accidents. I realized that on average: \( yearsWithoutParents = ourLifespan - ageOfParentsWhenWeAreBorn \) \( ourLifespan \thickapprox 100 \)...
There is an advantage when you vacation where you’ve already visited: a marked absence of hurry. The goal of our second day in LA: spend a long sunny day hiking along gorgeous Malibu beaches. For brunch, we decided on a plant only Cafe Gratitude. Their cleverly named menu of dishes like “I am Motivated”, puts one in a good mood! I chose I am enthusiastic sandwich, a concoction made with oyster mushroom, tomato, pickles, romaine, buffalo sauce, ranch dressing on a vegan brioche bun....
How to Meditate by Pema Chodron is slightly verbose. The author reminds me of a caring grandma doling out life advice. Why meditate? First, the purpose of meditation is not to feel good and comfortable. With regular meditation all we can hope for is a slow transformation: Develop loyalty and steadfastness to yourself. When we meditate, we can have a hard time. Our minds going over a hundred miles an hour, and constantly feeling distracted....
Sipping a hot cup of espresso in the morning is a heavenly delight few other things in life compare to. Previous to the pandemic, I used to enjoy occasional espresso’s in my office. Being suddenly locked at home for 2-3 years, I had to find an alternative. I balked at installing a large coffee machine. They look unsightly, take up valuable counter space, and require constant upkeep. One day I ran into Aeropress, and marveled at the small form factor and simplicity of the design....
Silicon Valley is a hotbed of technology innovation, scrappy startups, and has seen the rise of a few lucky startups to be worldwide industry titans. Most innovations try to solve problems cheaper, faster and better. I immigrated to the US, and Silicon Valley at the end of the dotcom boom cycle (just before 2000). And shortly after that, America as a super power went through a generational transformation with the shocking terrorism attacks of 9/11....
It is surprising to learn just how much of the world’s philosophical & spiritual advances happened at roughly around the same time period of 600 BCE. Some of the greatest spiritual leaders of this time period are Buddha in India, Confucious in China, Thales, Anaximander in Greece, and Pythagoras in Italy. Deep in the pandemic (Sept 2021), I started my own spiritual journey with the reading of A guide to good life: the ancient art of stoic joy by William B Irvine....
After being through two startups (story for another time), I got an opportunity (way back in 2012) to work in a more traditional American company, one with a different business model than software development. UL (Underwriters Laboratories) is a trusted product safety certification corporation. It is wildly profitable (around $4 billion in revenues in 2012) and completely private. The business pitch was to create an online marketplace of UL certified products....
I have set up engineering teams many times in my career. Each time is unique, and it is fascinating to observe a new team building its own micro culture and character. Cloud Application Management (CAM) is a brand new platform engineering team that provides services to manage platform extension applications. A customer or the application author decides: which configurations need to be changed for their solution what data sources are required what processing is required for the new data whether to list the application in application registry or keep it private An administrator installs, upgrades or removes an application on their cloud solution....