At the pearly gate

There I was,standing in front of a gate which seemed so different,yet seemed so familiar. Then,from the corner of my eye, I could see God walking right towards me.

Me: "God!!Is that you?"

God:"Yes, it's me.Here is my ID."

He showed me his ID. It read "God,CEO,Heaven Inc."

Me:"Oh My God!!!!!"

God:"Yes??"

Me:"Never mind,it was just an expression."

God:"Dude,completely missed you,good to see you here.How are you?"

Me:"I think dead that I am standing in front of you :"

God:"Happy realization."

Me:"Good thing,I was a bit tired of life anyways. By the way where is the nearest 24/7 located?Need to buy some beer before its 2 am."

God:"Its just round the corner,take first left after the entrance."

Me:"Cool, just the way it was in good old Rochester.Take a left and just round the corner..nice. Is NY state license a valid ID in heaven?"

God:"You left it on earth dude.But don't worry the guy in there knows you are above the legal age to drink."

Me:"Hey,is that 24/7 wala Sri Lankan guy dead too? He never checked my ID on earth too...nice. Will be fun to make fun of him here as well when Sri Lanka lose their next game against India."

God gives me a blank look.

God:"btw i have a few questions for you, care to answer? "

Me:"Shoot.Be quick please. Need to reach before 2"

And that is when the conversation got a little serious.

God:"Don't you get angry at me for all the pain you suffered?"

Me:"I was, at some point,terribly pissed off. But in that pain you taught me the meaning of life and gave me some valuable lessons. At some point of time, I wanted to give up. But you gave me the courage and the desire along with the pain to keep me going."

God:"Do you really think I am so bad to be hated by so many people?People blame me for all the bad in the world,but rarely thank me for whatever good happens."

Me:"No father.Its just that you were too kind that you allowed them the freedom to think that way. And people tend to think of you only when they are in the dust, and not when they are soaring in the skies. I have a question though. Why don't you meet people face-to-face? This will help them realize your existence every day of their life."

God:"I am present everywhere. You just need to see me. You can find me in a beautiful sunset, or when I go walking in the woods and see beautiful birds and hear them chirping. I also can be seen in innocent children's eyes, or someone doing something genuinely nice. I answer all your prayers. You just need to find the answer yourself. It is right there. All you need is the vision."

Me:"Ah!!So you ask me questions and then hand over the cheat sheet. All I need to do is find where the answer lies. You give an assignment but you give a sample code. I just need to modify it.Ah, why didn't I realize this when I was alive.You are smart!"

God gives me a disgusted look. I realized RIT had taken its toll on me. Maybe,it was the cause of my death.

God:"Have you sinned in your life young man?"

Me:"Uhh..yes. More times than I can count. But,I regret all the sins I have done. I tried to compensate for them as much I could. God, I am sorry. Sorry for hurting people with my senseless and unthoughtful acts."

God:"I appreciate your honesty son.Proceed.Hope you have a good time in here. You need to ring the bell there to get into heaven."

Me:"Thank you."

I took a few steps,paused and looked back at God.

Me:"You knew I answered all those in hurry.I was really thirsty.Don't you?"

God:"Ofcourse boy!"

I started ringing the bell. It kept ringing and ringing and kept growing irritatingly loud. I rubbed my eyes to see my cell phone ringing. Without my chasma,all I could see is "G....".G??God?What is happening?Am I alive or dead? Where am I? I picked up the cell hesitantly. The voice on the other side said,"Hi Amogh, this is Diana from Gracies. You had a 10:30 shift,you have not shown up yet. Are you coming or no?"

Me:"Yes, I am on my way. I had kinda an important meeting going on just before this :)"

Murphy's Laws

Most of us are familiar with Murphy's Law."If anything can go wrong,it will".In our daily lives,the above statement holds true without us realizing it.Here are some of the Murphy's Laws I have observed:
1. Sugar gets over only when you are making tea(and not when you are making kheer).
2. Toilet paper roll always gets over when you take a dump in the morning(not any other time of the day).
3. Your cell phone battery always drains out when you are in middle of a call.
4. People ping you only when you are busy.
5. Your boss will give you work when you are about to leave the office.
6. Your boss is already in the office when you are late,and never there when you are on time.
7. If you are following a friend's car for directions,you will stop at the red light while he zooms away on yellow.
8. Bugs will appear in one part of a working program when another unrelated part is modified.
9. Your installation/download will encounter some error/loss of internet connectivity when it is about 90% complete.
10. Your internet connection is always crappy when you are submitting an assignment/online exam.
11. You wake up earlier than usual during vacations(I don't think it holds true for me though :P)
12. Cop cars are always present where you least expect them to be.
13. All urinals are taken when you need to take a piss real bad.
14. If you are running late,the bus is too.
15. If you arrive early at the bus stop, the bus is never on time.
16. Someone puls out his car from the nearest parking lot after you have parked your car in the farthest parking lot.
17. If you are having a bad day in the field,the ball will follow you(Yes,cricket here too).
18. The elevator is always going up when you want to go down.And converse.
19. Severity of the itch is proportional to the difficulty of reaching it. More the difficulty,more the itch.
20. If you are looking for something,you will never find it inspite of searching for over half an hour.But someone else will come in and find the same within a minute.

ME

The rules of the world,
Are but so strange,
I love myself and what I am,
Yet I am forced to change,
Yes, I am a new person now,
For the world to see,
But deep down inside,
I will always be "me"!!!

Graduate

I had my graduation walk and convocation last week. Officially, I am now Masters in Computer Science from Rochester Institute of Technology. In reality, I still have my masters project left. Although I want to get over with it and get the heck out of this hell called Rochester, I intend to prolong my project till the job situation improves. Lets see how it goes...

Speaking of hell, RIT has been one hell of a ride. It has been a journey which has seen some good days, some bad days and some worse days. Nevertheless, it has been one amazing experience. From the day when I left Mumbai and landed in the US, till the day I heard my name called and going to the stage in front of thousands, it has been a fruitful journey. The sense of satisfaction and pride I felt at that moment is something I cannot describe in words. But this has not been a piece of cake.

I was sitting on the couch in the lobby of the CS department after giving the last final exam of my MS curriculum. Reflecting back, I still remember the day when I was sitting at the exact same place in the first quarter and thinking if I can even pass the C++ exam. And here I am now. I think all of this happened too fast. Blame the notorious quarter system at RIT for that. None of this would have been possible without the great friends at the CS department-Bhaiyya, Nana, Gabba Gabba, Manan, 1su, Issu beta....sorry to all others whom I have not mentioned in here. I still remember those nights when people used to get up in the middle of the night and start coding. And those all nighters before an exam or a submission. Or those "Ae code bhej na" wala phone calls and "ok,but change karke submit kar" replies. Or those 11:58 pm submissions for 11:59 deadlines. Or those meals together. And late night drives to nowhere with music blasting and people dancing in the back seat(Ban than chali bolo..... :D). And those visits to Tim ki tapri aka Tim Hortons after the submissions. Those booze and hookah sessions at home or those visits to Macgregors. And those visits to Seneca/Turning Stone (NANA FORCED ME INTO DRIVING HIM THERE!).And much much more. More than all these, I remember the people who have made a difference to my life in many ways than they could have imagined. Thanks for the memories guys.

Congratulations to the Class of 2009. We finally did it. :)

India Rising-The New Empire