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Book Review: Revolution 2020

Revolution 2020: This is another fabulous book authored by the contemporary story writer Chetan  Bhagat. The story has both humor and satire, while also incorporating a love story, which is typical of Chetan's novels. The story revolves around Gopal, a farmer's son, in Benaras, who is poverty stricken after their land becomes stuck in a family property dispute. Gopal's father does not want to reconcile and sell the land, which he looks upon as an indispensible asset, being a farmer. He has a dream of  educating Gopal so that he gets admission in one of the IITs, and has a lucrative career after that. The book portrays a realistic representation of the lives of students aspiring for IIT JEE exam, who enrol themselves in Coaching centres in Kota. It reveals the frustration of the students, who, in trying to fulfil their parent's expectation, make their lives miserable, and put up with the agony of reading the course material, only to face disappointment, again. It al...

Of sorrow and happiness

As human beings, we all want to be happy. We search for happiness through various means. It would not be wrong to say that searching for happiness is our innate nature. Being happy is a state of the mind and a fundamental aspect of life. If we contemplate, we would realize that all our actions are aimed at achieving something in life so ourselves or others around us can be happy. We want to avoid anything unpleasant or a situation that might bring up unhappiness. Well, much has been written on dealing with sorrows, pain, and grief, but do we know how we should confront happiness!!! You did very well in the exams and you are happy...! Then what! Do you know how long will that happiness be retained. We are all overjoyed at achieving any personal ambition or desire. But are we able to retain that happiness forever!!! If happiness had been a secret potion, everyone would have tried to treasure it, store it somewhere, so that it did not get empty or we could use it some other...

My journey towards Technical Writing

Today, I feel a sense of fulfillment to have setup and booted a hardware board. It means a lot to me, though several other people are involved in various stages of developing embedded systems. The company for which I work designs embedded system solutions that can be used for various purposes such as for industrial, networking or for the automotive domain. As a technical writing professional, my job is to describe how to use a product (which might be a device, software, or a set of hardware blocks) in a simple and non-technical manner. It also involves using the steps described in the manual to check whether we can accomplish the documented task. Most of the documents we create are meant to be used by technical people who might be using our device in their product. Semiconductors are part of every electronic appliance, industrial sensors, automotive electronics, and their scope of applications is increasing everyday. A reference design board, in the context used here, is a gener...

Life: a mystery

O Life, you are a stage, a suspense God creates for everyone You leave every human mystified, At every step, you pose a new challenge, You give a good feeling as one's dreams come true  and the very next moment you fill his eyes with tears O mysterious one! Each day, I hope to fill myselves with love, cheer, and joy but every other day, I do not know myselves: I am angry, humiliated, tired, somewhat frustrated..and  feel myself a lonely soul. Each day I need courage to stand by you, to stand upright for my cause, to uphold my beliefs and values, to fulfill my dreams, to achieve my ambitions, and to live by your versatility O colorful one! Each day is an ordeal not only to meet up the mark, but to compete, to leave my mark on this world to live you to the fullest, I find myselves a contender ! O mighty one! As I now embrace you, cherish you, I know, a day will come When I am old and cannot withstand thy challenges! I know ...

My experiences with saving water

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Saving Water Sad to hear about the plight of farmers committing suicide in India's southern states and inspired by the widely publicized Save Water  campaign, I decided to act and implement a few tips to save water in my house. After all, there is a popular saying, "charity begins from home", I thought. At a personal level, I made it a habit to  close open taps, use water minimally while doing basic cleaning tasks and chores, and report water leakages. But this was not enough. It was easy to identify our first goal: of reusing the RO water. It is a known fact that the RO system throws about 5-10 litres of waste water everyday, which can be used for other purposes besides drinking. So, we worked upon an idea to divert the waste RO water to a large tub placed outside the kitchen window. We used an an extra waste pipe for this purpose, which the RO service person provided at no extra cost. There was an initial resistance to this activity, as we had to keep open the k...

An interesting summer holiday activity

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This summer vacation, my kids had an interesting task to do as a holiday home work. They had to sow some seeds in a pot and observe them grow. So,  we started off with sowing black gram seeds in an earthen pot. The seeds had grown fairly well, but to our disappointment, they were eaten up by rats the very first night they popped up from the soil. My younger boy wailed and cried seeing that all his effort was in vain! After all, he was quite disappointed. We tried to give it a second try.  This time, we soaked the gram seeds in water for 2 days in a small pot. We waited till the sprouts were visible and then laid them in an earthen pot then. Within 2-3 days, we could see the little saplings growing up on the pot. This time, we were careful to keep the pots inside our home, after sunset. Within 5- 10 days the black gram plants had sprouted and lush green plants were visible in our pot. It was such a pleasure to see these plants coming out in the soil. After the...

Life @ Adobe

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Life@Adobe A welcome break from a routine never ending, Each day filled with new learning A dash of color on a wall so grey A place of work where you can even play An entry into the world of creativity with lots of fun events to break monotony A merge of technology and skill A place where you can work and then, chill As I venture into realms somewhat unknown. With a mix of fear and hope. There are memories which I will hold on tight. I must thank all for being part of days so nice. I say Adieu to all people here To all things which make it great and dear. Though I would have loved to stay a bit longer, I appease myself by saying Moments beautiful are always short and sweet There are promises I have to keep.