Musings

Let me admit the impression I have of my mother is still the the person who struggles with handling the mobile phone, no interest in knowing how the computer works, happy with handling things her way than how "modern" Mom's do. I secretly still wonder if Mom understands what a "gay" means! Yet she is someone who wants to be abreast with the latest happenings more in the people around her rather than the world at large! However, she does pleasantly surprise me often times when she uses fancy words like "download", "sent sms" or questions to someone like "which state in the US does your child stay in?" leaving me in a state of wonderment on how did she ever get to know the states of USA! Somewhere I can see that even our parents grow even after we have outgrown from their lives. There is a sense of pride in every recent thing my parents know and I am beaming with the feeling "Not bad!" I feel the same towards my dear Mother ...

It was yet another not-so-good decision I took the other day ( I am getting better at taking bad decisions with age!) by deciding to drop my niece at a peak hour. Considering the fact that we stay just 15 minutes apart, I never envisaged it would take more than an hour to get there. No sooner we hit the road I knew it was the worst time to get out. I looked at the road going back home longingly and even that was packed, bumper to bumper. No choice but to just continue on the road ahead that did not look inviting at all. One bad decision and I paid for it by spoiling the rest of the evening. The only good thing that happened was probably this thought the same principle applies to decisions made in life too. It is really a one way. Once a start has been made in a particular way you have no choice but to continue on the course, there are no 'U' turns on the roads of life. One may take detours, change the roads but never can we get back what is lost in terms of time, relationships...

As a onslaught of the construction industry the green cover opposite our flat has been fully razed to the ground. A once upon a time "cynosure of all eyes" is another construction site now with the regular mud & grime taking the toll on us. No more lazy times sitting by the window sipping tea, watching the brilliant tree cover with a blank mind. Soon there would be houses, people who may peep in to our house or worse still, start predicting the time table of our lives! In all this transition the worst hit creatures seem to be the birds that used to frequent the trees making their homes in the sylvan surroundings. It used to be a matter of pride to be sitting near the window and see a variety of rare birds from home. Now all I can see is a desperate search by some birds trying to find their once comfortable nest; all gone by a single stroke powered by the quest of money. As some of my close pals come on their annual visit "to India" (it never stops amazing me ho...

The world of software is interesting, for every software need of yours there are fundamentally 2 questions. Do you need open source or licensed? For the uninitiated in this world let me spell it out. Open source means free for use by the whole world and licensed means of course paying for what you need. For every licensed software there is at least an equivalent if not better flavor of free software available. Which makes me wonder who buys licensed software at all? When all & sundry is available for free who will pay for it? The truth is unnerving. There is a huge market for licensed software! Wonder of wonders a whole world out there which is not even aware of on the house freebees available. I am tempted to apply this logic of open source versus licensed to the world today. I believe when the universe was created the development of it was free for all. One made rules just for themselves and stuck to it. Responsibility is one of the key things in open source software. If it is ...