Aman's Blog….ANYTHING goes here!

Pain Depicted In The Bestest Manner By S. M. Sadiq…. March 28, 2010

I always say that its the easiest to tell and express that how happy you are but its the most toughest thing to do in this world to tell how much sad you are! Pain has no limitations, pain can’t be confined in few words and few lines! Tears don’t change color when you are in less pain or are in so much of it! Still, there are always attempts by many many authors in this world to express this most common emotion of us humans in their own ways. In every corner of this world, in every language, attempts have been done to express emotion of pain by many! Some attempts are really good, some are not so good but still there are always and there would always be attempts to do so in the future as well! So there are a lot of people who are trying to do the same thing yet in this mad race, there are some distinct poets, who are miles ahead from their counterparts and are doing some incomparable work which goes way beyond from the limits to get a ranking! S M Sadiq is one such poet!

I guess I no another poet who can write 100 songs in a day or can write a song in 3-4 minutes other than Sadiq! He has written about 30000 songs so far and is still going as good as he was in his starting! A poet whose poetry is sung by every major singer where names include Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Shaukat Ali, Sardool Sikandar and many many more, he is a poetry machine with an unnatural, god gifted talent which can’t be learnt, can’t be taught in any ways! Its enough to show his talent that when he was just about 15-16, he went to late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan with his song which he was asked to modify and within two days, he got back with a modified version of it which was given voice by Sir Nusrat! He is not one of the best but he is the bestest among the bests!

I just heard one of his poetries from himself in a recorded interview video. I can’t say enough that how much did I like it except this that all I wanted to do was to put that poetry over here! It took my heart away the moment I heard it. Its in Punjabi and I shall do the translation in English in a while as well. First, the Punjabi version,

Dil deyan dukhaan di dawa kithon labhiye,

Vichhereyan sajjna di raah kithon labhiye!

Hun ohna veleyan de rukh v na rahe ne,

Laggian de vele de gawah kithon labhiye!

Jinhan dakki rakhian c saadian musibatan,

Ohna sohne hathan di dua kithon labhiye!

Maut saade sir te te yaar saada aa gaya,

Sadqa udhaare asin saah kithon labhiye!

And here is its translation in English,

Where I should go and find the cure of the wounds of my heart,

From where I should track where my departed love has gone!

Now, even the trees of those times are not there anymore,

From where I would go witnesses of my love!

Those hands who did save me from all the pains, problems,

From where I would go and find those hand’s prayers anymore!

Death has given a knock on my door and my love has also come,

From where “Sadiq” I would go and get few breaths’s credit!

If you ever had a sour heart, ever had wounds over your soul given by none other than your own loved one, you would surely understand what these lines are depicting and also, you would be able to see the depth of the thought of Sadiq! If you have not faced anything like this so far, I would still urge to give it a try to see beyond the lines and wordings! God bless Sadiq!

Actual Reply…. March 28, 2010

When I was in Sri Lanka, one of my colleague and mentor read some of my status updates where I was mentioning about the yuck candies, “hot” lunch and things like these. She was worried and since I was not available on the phone, she wrote me a mail asking me where I am and what’s going on? When I sent her the reply back and told her that I am traveling overseas, she became really happy and gave me her blessings. She also did ask me that am I getting any chances to travel to two other countries any time soon in the near future? At that time, sine I was so busy in my session, I just wrote a quick reply to her that I am not getting any schedules for those two countries at the moment and sent to her. I was just browsing my inbox when I saw that mail again and than I re-read my reply. While I was re-reading my reply, it did occur to me that there is more than that one liner reply for this question and that’s certainly not linked to get a chance by luck to go to those places. The reply that I could send is way different from the reply that I actually did!

Out of two, the very first country I have traveled already couple of times. In fact, that was the first ever country, going to which I stepped out of my home for the first time in my life! That was the very first experience of mine of sitting in a plane, living and traveling alone too! Only me and very selective few other people know about this that how much efforts I had put in to go to that country! Those who had seen me working at that time, they only know what I used to say and think about that travel(s) and how much did it mean to me about going there! But it doesn’t matter what others did say about this act of mine( which got repeated couple of times after the first time as well) but what that person would say for whom you are doing all this! If that person says.’this is the most embarrassing thing that you could do” , it just crushes the heart into millions of pieces without even making a sound! When you go so far away to see someone on a special occasion of her only  and yet all you had to do was to sit in the room and than come back, only that would understand how can it feel who have “been there, done that”! So that’s about the first country which I was told to go.

The second country which I had in my to-do list was there in that from a long time. After the first one, I thought and planned that I would go there some time for sure. In fact, I planned that I would go there and stay for a long time, getting into either work or study or both. Just not so long back in the time( which means just a few months back), I was very, VERY eager to go there but I was not getting any program which was scheduled for that place. I nearly fought for one program which did come on my way, even when the program was a completely different one from those which I do otherwise, was very tough and I had to convince all the people in the management that I shall be able to make it! Just days before that program, someone did something and I cancelled everything out of sheer anger and opted out of that program myself! By doing so, I just invited millions of issues anyways as well as heat over my head since it was just me only who gave an arm and leg to be into that program and finally when I got it, I opted out saying a stupid sorry sorry! One can imagine what would have happened since because of this “sorry” of mine, a lot got disturbed and there were some really major losses that did hit the company! Sigh! Well, after few months of it, I again went back to my travel people and told them that I need a travel plan for the very same country and they must ensure me that all would get arranged perfectly! Silly me, I made it such a big thing that all knew about it days before of my actual travel! But then, again someone did something and I had to go and tell those guys that I am not sure about my travel yet so I would not be going for the moment. You can’t even imagine how big time I was proved as an idiot! Even now, I hear comments/taunts either on my face as well as when I turn my back from many in the travel desk. So that’s the second country which people think is  a great place to go but for me, it just brought many many insults, comments and taunts only!

So that’s about the two countries which for others, seem like a dream destination to go for! But I am not sure its the same case for me also! I am not sure that I shall go to the two anytime in the future or not but its certain that unlike many others, I am not craving for both since I have “been there,done that”! Okay, may be not for the second I can say the same, but I don’t think even that is such a big problem! Well so that’s about the actual reply which should had been given for the actual question asked but its a little long right? Yep, that’s why I didn’t put it 😀 . Some times, some answers don’t hit your mind right away but after some time so this is just one of those replies I guess! Since we are speaking about travels, its the “travel day” for me today and I am going to get started with my packing now. Airport, here I come! 🙂 .

A Day’s Off…. March 27, 2010

I have come back last night from Hyderabad after finishing another session. I am having back to back sessions going on so this was just in continuation of the stream. I had to go to Hyderabad straight from my trip to Sri Lanka and now, tomorrow I shall be leaving for another (and rather longer) tour which is happening at Mumbai. Every sessions leaves me some memories and this was no different in this regard. I am always fortunate that I get really great delegates all the time, discussing with them the nitty-gritty details of oracle db was a really memorable experience. There were so many fine points that we discussed to great lengths and I hope, those discussions did help the delegates to understand some of the toughest concepts in oracle db in a better manner. Besides talking about oracle db’s technical stuff,I also did share the benefits of being more social and sharing your knowledge about oracle with others with the delegates. Honoring my words, one of the delegates, who herself is a very senior professional took a step forward and setup her oracle blog.  I believe that’s the best compliment I can get that someone did follow my words and actually went ahead to do something in real! Besides this, almost all the delegates gave very kind comments to me including wording like “this was the best training that I have received in some recent years” ! Thanks a bunch guys for such kind words though I am really not worthy of such kind words! Thanks so much! I had  a real great time and hope I shall see you all again soon!

I am having a day’s off. Tomorrow I would start for the Bombay’s program. This would be a long and rather a very tough program. But that’s from Monday and its after 2 days so I shall be doing some rest today and that does include some outing with buddies, S, A and P.  I need to do some shopping as well so I believe, today should be a fun day! Let’s see how it turns up 🙂 ?

Late Night Post, Just To Say Nites…. March 24, 2010

I just finished reading a part of my oracle book. Also, I did send two very important mails just now for something very important, which I just hope would happen this time since I am waiting for it from a long time! Its so late at the moment and even though I thought to write another blog post about a mail which I got some time back from a colleague of mine about two countries which she asked me whether I am traveling to or not, I am going to defer it for some time( tomorrow may be). I am feeling so tired and restless since there is just too much to do and I am occupied uptill my nose at the moment with the work. Even work is not  a problem but because of my travels and some other things which are happening at home, I am not able to concentrate at all! Hope some things get settle down as soon as possible and I shall be able to finish some tasks from my to-do list! Anyways, that’s a distant thing. For the moment, I am calling it a day( does that saying really fits at this moment, at 1:00am in the midnight) and going to bed! Nites !

Living In A Suitcase & On The Airports…. March 21, 2010

I can’t think of anything better to fit as a title given the situation where I am in at the moment. I have just landed back to India after a grueling session that I delivered at Sri Lanka. Normally I get a day or two’s rest once I finish any program but this time, due to the schedule that I had got, I have a session starting from tomorrow. So I had to take a flight from Colombo to New Delhi, had to wait there for some time and than had to take another flight from there to Hyderabad where I am at the moment. If you travel too much, you would see those places too which you may not have even imagined even that are there and this time, I did see one such place like this and that was the inter-terminal transit that I took. I never saw those places which are there in between of the international and domestic terminals. It was a small but still exciting bus travel. So after a total of 4 hours of flying in flight 1+ 2 hours of stop+ 2 hours of flying for flight 2 + 1 hour( how many hours in total? ) , I am now in my guest house writing this post. If this doesn’t qualify to be called living in a suitcase and over the airports, I don’t know what would!

The tour itself went okay. This was my 2nd official trip to SL and like last time, this time too, I was called for a program which was happening there for the very first time and I got the honor to be the first instructor to teach that advanced module there. Fortunately, two delegates, which were there in my last program, did also attend this one. It was good to meet them and also to meet some new delegates. The tour didn’t start off very well starting with my bus travel from my home to Delhi because my bus driver drove the bus like a jet plane and made all the passengers “kiss the roof” not sure how many times. Anyways, still both the bus and the passengers(including me) were in one piece so I took a cab and got to the international airport. There is a lot of renovation going on at the international terminal and the way things are shaping up, I am sure this terminal would come out as one of the best ones in entire India. Anyways, that’s a future vision but the there were some present issues which I had to deal with! I am not sure but I had a gut feeling that something would happen in this tour and it just appeared to be true when at check-in, airline staff told me that I am in a “RR” category. As per them, this stands for the Random Check category(  I don’t know how Check fits in R in the RR). Well, essentially this means that before my luggage would get a green signal, it would go to the customs and after they would clear me and my luggage, I would be allowed to board the flight. Hmm, now what can be the reason for it, that I am not aware of but the same happened with me long time back when I was traveling to Singapore and I had rescheduled my flight. According to airlines, if you do reschedule your flight, you have to clear custom. What kind of crappy rule it is isn’t it! Anyways, a rule is a rule and if you want to fly, you have to follow it and pass through the checking as well. So here I was, sitting on the stairs , waiting for someone to come and tell me that when, where I have to tell what’s in there my luggage? After waiting for about 20 minutes, one guy asked me that I am waiting for the custom clearance. When I said yes, he filled a form and asked me to follow him to the custom officials. There were three of them sitting. One official grabbed my passport and started asking that where I am going and why? I told them what I do and I got a session at Colombo so I am invited there. There was one another official sitting. He looked at me and said, there are very good beaches there too, did you get a chance to go there? I wanted to say that the only ocean I have seen in Sri Lanka is of Oracle and I have sailed in that only with my delegates but then I thought, it would be a too smart answer for a dumb custom official who probably would think that oracle is some club or something so I should better keep my mouth shut! I replied, yes I do know that the beaches are great and so is the crowd over the beaches and I shall try my best that I would get to spend some time over there for sure! He said, yeah young guy like you should have some fun! Sigh! Come with me Mr. Custom official and you would learn the new definitions of fun :). Anyways, I got the clearing and the next thing that I had to do was to get the security clearance. Well that’s a routine and important too so no issues with it. Cleared and than I was waiting for my flight to come and pick me up! Did I mention that in all of this, I had spent almost the entire time and had only about 40 minutes or so to eat something? Fun , yeah right!

I took this time a direct flight to Colombo via Sri Lankar airlines. This was the 3nd time I was traveling with them. When I first ever stepped my feet out of my home to travel outside India (and also anywhere outside my city) in 2004, I took Sri Lankan airline. While coming back,me and one another couple had a huge argument with the crew because of the poor service that they offered to us and unfortunately, things haven’t improved much since then with this airline! The only good thing which I got was that I got a direct flight of 4 hours rather than taking an intermediate flight from Delhi to Chennai and from Chennai to Colombo which takes around 7 hours in total including both the flying and waiting time. About the service of the airline, well I have nothing to say except this that the domestic, no-frill airlines that operate in India, even they are better than this one in the service, food and appearance. But some times, time is the most important thing to save so in that prospective, this did fit into the bill perfectly. After a boring, not-so-good 4 hours of flight, I was finally at the Colombo airport where my cab was waiting for me to pick me up and take me to Cinnamon Lake Side 5-star hotel where I was supposed to stay this time. Last time, I did stay at Taj Samudra which is from Taj group of India and is a part of the famous Taj hotel group of India. I thought it would be a good idea to compare both the hotels and I must say, Taj wins hands down in everything compared to Cinnamon. Be it food, be it appearance, be it service, be it anything, its the best place to stay in Colombo and if you like to have Indian dishes in your meals, you won’t get them anywhere better than Taj. The Cinnamon ,otherwise is a nice hotel, should be since its a 5-star hotel and has a very good name at Sri Lanka. I normally don’t get to enjoy any of the facilities of any hotel too much since my use of the hotel is only in the night when I have to come back and sleep so for me, all the hotels are almost same! And this time, even I didn’t get my sleep also too much since a couple probably was a little too much enjoying their stay at the hotel and they were creating lots of “noise” in the night which didn’t let me sleep at all for 2 nights. Other than that, its a good and nice hotel and if you do like Thai food,Sushi, sea food, there are tons of dishes that you can taste from these categories.

About the session, as I said, it did start off okay. The only issue which was reported to me that I speak a little fast and that appeared to be a problem for the delegates. I know that I speak a little too fast and the reason normally for that is that I want to say so much and if I would speak in a slow pace, I probably wouldn’t even able to say half of that what’s in my mind! But still, I need to work on it and I would do that as well. Other than that, I guess things were okay.

I didn’t follow what was told to me by that custom official because of lack of time. So all what I did that I used to stay in my room and did watch couple of movies, like XXX( no that “XXX” but the movie XXX ) , Exorcism of Emily Rose, Primal Fear, Mad City over HBO . I also did see two episodes of CSI, the famous crime series over AXN. Needless to mention that besides all this, I did read my Oracle book as well! That’s all was the fun that I had there 🙂 .

As I said, I had to start a session here at Hyderabad tomorrow so after the hectic travel which I mentioned above, I am now at Hyderabad, the pearl city of India! Hopefully, things would go fine and session would start off well. I am too tired so I won’t upload those 2-3 pictures which I took from my hand phone at the moment. But tomorrow some time, I shall do that. At the moment, I am looking for bed to crash over it 🙂 . I have got two blog posts in my draft folder which are not complete but for sure, I shall complete them and post here. But that would be later, at the moment, its sleeping time! Where are you my bed?

Feeling Lost, Completely Lost…. March 19, 2010

As I mentioned in my last post, I shall be traveling and would be on a long tour, I am writing this post from very far! I have just done with my session and waiting for my cab to come and pick me up. I know I should have written about the travel, session , post some pictures of the place where I am at the moment, yes I know all this and  hopefully, I shall do it as well as soon as possible but not today! I am just feeling totally lost at this moment. I was completely fine in the entire day and now, all I want is someone to hold me, let me have rest over his shoulder. I didn’t feel alone at all in all the last 4 days since I have come here even when I am not able to talk to anyone since my phone is not working but just now, I am feeling so lonely! I won’t mention anything here but this only that I am feeling completely lost and gloomy! Sigh!

Hope my cab comes soon and drops me at my hotel so that I can do something (anything) which can just distract me from myself! Not sure its funny or not but everyday, when I don’t need cab to come, it comes right on time and today, when I really want it, its no where to be found!

A Long Tour Starts From Tomorrow…. March 15, 2010

Its been some really busy 3 days at my home and I shall be honest, I have no mood to leave for the session tomorrow after seeing that how much enormous work is going on at my home! Yes, we are in the process of revamping our complete house. There are so many things attached to it and also to this moment when we are finally doing this thing. I am not sure that whether I shall put that entire thing over here, on my blog, or not but still nonetheless, I must say, for me and for my entire family, this means so much! This may sound to many completely insane and completely normal thing but its not for us! So with that small note, I guess it should sound reasonable that why I am not willing to travel tomorrow seeing that my family needs me here with them! There is tons of work going on and to do that, the only person over here is my dad. My mom won’t be able to do anything and so would be the state of my sister as well. And my dad can’t be everywhere too! I can’t say it enough that how much my presence is needed at this moment of time but on the other hand, there are some other things which are equally important as well! And to make things possible, those are needed the most! So even though that I am most unwilling to go, I still have to, sigh! Some times, there are very tough choices which one has to make and this is just that kind of moment for me if you ask me!

Its going to be a long travel this time. I am going overseas and after that, I have another session starting back to back! Fortunately, both the modules are those which I have taught by this time, some around 300 times and I am hoping that I shall be able to do justice to them this time too. Hope all goes well. Please pray for me guys and wish me luck as well! Since there is so much of work going on at home, its too difficult to find stuff. I would pack my luggage now and also my travel documents.After that, there would be an “attempt” to sleep because I have to wake up early tomorrow. Come my bag, let’s pack you up 🙂 .

Pain Depicted So Beautifully In Just Two Lines…. March 14, 2010

I always mention here that it may be possible to depict every emotion through words, through phrases but its almost impossible to express pain, sadness! When one is happy, the smile becomes bigger, turns into laughter, eyes start shining and face starts glowing but does the same happens when there is pain in someone’s heart? Color of tears don’t change, eyes fail to express the pain and at times, face shows nothing compared to what’s hidden in the heart! Yes, its almost very much not possible to express pain via anything. Yet, at times one encounters some words, few lines which come very close to express that pain as much realistically as possible! Its a tough, very tough task to do if you ask me but still, at times, some things make you pause for a moment and force you to think. I heard such two lines just now which made me feel to do the same. The lines are put in a song even though when the original lyrics don’t have it. I shall put the original song and its translation also over here some time soon since even the song is very good but at the moment, its just the two lines that I liked so much, am putting here! The lines are supposedly said by a gal who is trying to express how much pain she is into after being in love. The lines are in Hindi and I shall translate the meaning in English as well. Have a read of them in Hindi first,

Jo main aisa jaanti, preet kare dukh hove!

Nagar dhindhora peetati, mo se preet na keejo koi!

And here is the English translation,

Only if I knew that in love, there is so much of pain!

I would have gone out and shouted my lungs out, please don’t love me!

I don’t know what to say else to express these two lines any further since I just said, its not possible to express pain by mere words and I have no words which can express the pain hidden beneath these two lines truly!

Back Home With Extended Break Of Two Days…. March 14, 2010

Yep, I got back home after finishing a very nice session. I actually got home yesterday morning and started writing this post last night. But thanks to the tiredness, I had my eyes getting closed in the night so I just stopped writing it! There is some work going on in my home and because of it, the entire house is messed up, including my bed too where I would sleep. So there was no sleep for me after the whole day even when I wanted it so much otherwise I could had got a little nap in the day time. About the session, it just went very well I guess! I always find it really interesting and equally challenging when I have to explain the complexities of oracle database to those, who don’t understand it or know about it at all! The questions which come up from this category of delegates, at times, are very deep and the discussions which happen over them, makes the whole experience a memorable one! And this is what I like to do all the time, being more and more interactive and that’s what I expect from the delegates as well! Fortunately, this session was also filled up with similar category of delegates who were really sharp, intelligent and nice. The group was also had very senior delegates as well! We picked up couple of topics to discuss in the session and also, at times. There is nothing better than seeing that “light bulb” getting on over someone’s head. There is nothing more satisfactory to see that people come up with a problem and finally are able to get the answer of it. The whole session was filled with discussions of that sort only. There were some funny moments as well. For example, there was one time where one of the delegates mentioned that I a don’t look like a Punjabi guy 🙂 . Well, I have heard it before as well that I don’t look like a typical punjabi guy. I am not sure that from where I do look like then 🙂 ?  Anyways, just for the record, I am a complete , full-fledge Punjabi guy 😀 . But the entire conversation was so good to give all a smile :). About the delegates, as I said, all were really good and were smiling on the last day! I have been fortunate enough to get a chance to meet so many great minds, thanks to my work and this session was another addition in my good memories. Few delegates said very kind words for me as well. Thanks a bunch guys  and also for this much support! Hope we shall be able to connect again soon!

My travel is going on. As per my original plan , I was supposed to start today only. But thank god, my program is delayed now for two days which means I shall get a little more time to be with my family. There is so much house work going on in my home since we are trying to revamp our house. So there is a lot of work and its very difficult for my dad to do it alone. I know that I have to be here to assist him, in fact not to let him do anything but do it all myself but I have to leave all the time because of the nature of my work. So I shall try to use this time as much as possible to give him some rest and finish as much as work I can while am at home. There is nothing more relaxing for me being at home with my family. So this would take away all the tiredness and fatigue that took over me from the last few travels. Also, I need to finish work of my book which is pending for this month’s end. So in total, a lot is going on and I guess, is enough to keep me quite busy while am at home! But above all, its time to play some real good music over my new IBall Tarang 4.1 speakers. Let’s play some Punjabi music more loudly  now 🙂 .

And It Just Made My Day…. March 10, 2010

At times, certain things, even being so small, bring smile on your face and makes a normal looking day a little special for you! The same goes for the people as well who with few words of their can either make or completely ruin your mood as well as day! Fortunately, this small post is not about a ruined day and/or mood but about a bunch of few words spoken by a delegate which just made me feel really special and made my day completely! Technically, this is an event of the yesterday now since its already 1.50am but its not my fault. The internet in my hotel is behaving odd and since it wasn’t working and I was so tired, I slept quite early. Just now when I woke up for no apparent reason, I checked the internet and it was working so I thought to write this post.

One of my delegate of the session asked me a question, to the answer of which, I asked him to check an thread on OTN forums where I replied to someone else about the similar doubt. When I was done for the day and was about to leave, I found him reading that thread and mentioned to him that there are couple of more threads over the same topic which also he should read. I also asked that did the current thread give him some useful info or not? To which he replied, yes it did and he also added, ‘you are a very kind person and its a pleasure of mine to know you through this class.’! Needless to mention, for me these kind words spoken by him meant so much since I am not really that great! But still, hearing those words made me truly feel very special. I just replied that its just my pleasure to be with such bright delegates. I thanked him again and left for my hotel with a smile over my face! For someone, who is really not that great, hearing such kind words means a lot and they just made my day from a normal, just-another-day to a special one 🙂 !