Punch the keys

Two months of notice period have passed, and I arrive at the last day in office. Like most people, I too am bad with goodbyes. I want to leave with words that would leave behind some portion of my experiences, but know that whatever I say would not do justice to it. There would always be the few people, who made my stay great, that I would not be able to say bye to properly. But then it is my hope that I would definitely be keeping in touch with them in the future. So in that sense, it is not goodbye but until the next time! For a long time I was wondering what I would say. Goodbye in itself is sufficient, but feels bland to me. I mean, in this age of digital and social media, we could always keep in touch. Most of you would either be already on my Facebook or Google+ or LinkedIn list right? So it is utmost ease to keep in touch in the future. But I still have the nags to put in more words, possibly because I am getting older. I hear that folks talk more as they age. And given the

Looking back at my blog feels surreal these days. I make intentions of being regular at blogging and then when I get some time to re-look at my blog, what do I see? It has already been seven months since I last posted! Seven months? By ca:user:amadalvarez, via Wikimedia Commons Whoooah! Where did the time in between go? What happened to all that days? Was I really so busy that I didn't even get time? Then what have I been busy with. OK come to think of it the time since August 2013 has been pretty busy. Let me try to list off all those activities that happened since then. The company that I work for got acquired by another one. So other than the longer water cooler discussions, there have been a lot of stress in finding out and actually integrating ourselves with the new way of working. And in some ways this is not complete yet.  The number of projects increased. Yep I found myself heavily involved in three full fledged projects with me as the solution architect of

The kids almost jumped up as soon as we called them in the morning. What contrast from the going-to-school mornings! Just a mere whisper and they were up. Finally, it was the day they were counting down to. The day I would start my vacation and our family would start the journey to Kerala to meet their grandparents.  They had started the countdown at least ten days back with the ritual question "How many days more to go?". So I remember distinctly the 10,9,8... The question would be repeated both in the morning and in the evening although not necessarily restricted to two times a day. My eldest even prepared an elaborate check-list, complete with all the items that were needed to reach the destination. The check-list started with a "wake up" and went on for two pages. She had even illustrated it! (I was allowed to put it on the blog with a little blur effects.)  So today as soon as they woke up, they grabbed the check-list and ticked of the first item.

You got to be joking right? The trend of having "offers" for any event is being taken to new heights here. Today I received a mailer which is trying to market on the end of the world! Right, not father's day or mother's day but they are asking customers to buy stuff before the world ends. Don't worry like any good offer they are giving a fabulous discount on items you purchase. Oh look, what a wonderful way to come up with the discount number! Dude, so why don't you give it for free?!!

I found the following points very interesting. Drink a glass of water when you wake up.  Define your top 3.  The 50/10 Rule.   Move and sweat daily.  Express gratitude.  Reflect daily.  The points are from the article at  http://www.fastcompany.com/3003586/6-simple-rituals-reach-your-potential-every-day Very simple, yet may not be so easy to keep up. So I think I will take a year end resolution to try and follow these steps properly. I guess the tricky part would be to disciplined in following it. December resolution, here I come! 

How is it possible to mess up coffee? I can understand, messing up tea. But how can someone mess up making coffee. I did not think this was possible. But, of late, I have been advicing collegues visiting my end of the work floor to avoid coffee from our pantry. The reason? It sucks! Absolutely sucks! The first time I tried it, and found it bad, I only attributed it to the possibility that the milk was to blame for it. Nay! Not just a possibility. I declared that the milk was the culprit. Definitely the milk. The next day, I was not so sure! But then I reasoned that it has to be. How can someone mess up coffee? It was not possible I say! Even though I noticed that it was a new guy at the pantry making the coffee I just could not reason that it could be the person messing up. Yes, we are pampered a bit. There is a guy, who is stationed at the pantry at our section of the company floor, whose sole duty seems to be to make sure that there is a steady flow of tea, coffee, badam milk