American Freedom

Last weekend I had been to New York with my wife and her parents. By now we are all used to the amount of security check that happens in the airport but still everytime I experience it, I cant help but wonder, "What kind of freedom does America have?" The politicians gave America a war in the name of securing their safety, but in the process have made the world a much smaller place for Americans. Americans are targeted when they go on vacations around the world. They have to constantly worry about their safety in a foreign land. Is this the type of freedom that America wants? Well a reporter once asked a baseball coach, "Why the World Series is named so, even though no other country participates in it", the coach replied "Is there a world outside America?" Perhaps the politicians heard this ...

Do I really need a MIT degree and a PhD?

Today I met an interesting gentleman in the bus on my way to the Microsoft company meeting. What should have been a 25 minute ride, took 2 nearly 2 hours. This person was sitting next to me and he had a notebook and there were a few numbers and alphabets written on it and he was thinking deeply. I had a sneaking suspicion that it might be a puzzle he was trying to solve and it was confirmed once we started talking. He then asked me if I like puzzles and I pretended like I did and he explained it to me. It was one of the classical interview puzzles about 4 people needing to cross a bridge, having only one torch light, while only two can go across at any given time and we had to figure out the shortest time in which the 4 can cross the bridge give the time that each person would take.
He said he found the obvious way to do it and it was 19 minutes, but he was very sure that that was not the right answer. He asked me if I can solve it. I vaguely remembered it from the time I was preparing for Microsoft interviews and then figured out the method and told him the shortest time was 17 minutes. He was thrilled and said that he can now enjoy the ride peacefully.
Oh well, I forgot to mention that during our conversation, he mentioned that he is currently working as an Architect on the CLR team and he had an undergraduate degree from MIT and a PhD from Carnegie Melon. I guess I made a great decision by not applying to MIT or pursuing a PhD :)

Dog Fighting, If it is Inhuman...

Something struck me while following the dog fighting charges against Michael Vick. If dog fighting is inhuman, what about boxing? It is another blood sport, two humans fighting it out in a ring where a knock out is the most celebrated type of victory and most people who watch a boxing match are expecting the same. But it is a legal sport, followed by millions, million dollar pay days for the boxers, with a govering body. So if there is so much hue and cry about dog fighting, then why not against boxing? One argument that some might use is, in dog fighting, the dogs did not accept to fight, where as the boxers do it willingly. Well what animal gives its consent before being slaughtered and served as meat?

Why am I not a Millionaire yet?

The following blog entry was written way back in 2005 when I had created my blog on blogspot. I failed to write much after that. Hoping to get it back on track

Today morning as I was driving to work( in Dallas) I was thinking about various things and this topic struck me. My drive to work is around 40 mins and
I spend this time reflecting on life and thinking about topics for my blog and various other things. As I was thinking about different things, I asked myself “What if God gives me a Million Dollars today. What would I do with it? How will that affect my life?” and here is what I think I will do
1) Resign my Job.
2) Before I resign my Job I will put the money in a bank.
3) Go back to India and buy a nice car.
4) Then go around the world visiting different countries and chill out till I get bored.
5) Go back and find something to do which will not be too demanding and help some people and take vacations whenever I think I need one and go on and on…
6) Play more video games.After thinking about what I would do, then I thought about

What if Bill Gates gets 30 billion dollars , i.e. pretty much an amount that is equivalent to what he has now?He will continue to be the Chief Architect of Microsoft and continue to do what he does everyday.What if Narayan Murthy gets a Billion dollars?He will continue to do be the CEO of Infosys and grow his company more and work hard everyday.

What if Sachin Tendulkar gets 100 Crores?He will continue to play as good as he can and score more centuries.

What if A.R.Rehman gets 100 Crores?He will continue to compose good music and help put Indian music on the Global map.

So when I look at the above guys, they all seem to have something in common. They will continue to do what they are doing now and strive to get better at it. But when I look at what I will do, there is a big difference. I will stop doing what I am doing right now and try to live life as though it is one big vacation. Is this why God decided that I do not deserve to get a Million Dollars because then I would just spend my time doing nothing worthwhile and shy away from the challenges that life has to offer and stay in my comfort zone. And is this why there are only a select few Millionaires in this world while there maybe so many people like me who just want to lead a comfortable life without wanting to face the various challenges that life has to offer and resigning to the fact that they have to work 9 to 6 their rest of their lives?