Chronicles of Nikhil Baliga

Swami Gulagulaananda said: " A chain will always break at the weakest link " Let us assume that you are a military commander who is creating a small team of elite warriors. You have decided to create a team of eight people. You have chosen a really elite set of people who clearly stood out from the ordinary, and you are all set to go into enemy territory with a mission to infiltrate, steal some top secret files, and blow up the facility. And then all of a sudden, your boss gives you a call and suggests and insists (read orders) that you have to take his nephew into the team because he wants to give his nephew an opportunity to get a piece of the action, first hand experience and become a hero. You know his nephew, he's useless. He couldn't even get the basics right, leave alone being one who can match up to the rest of the elite. Taking a guy like him into the team is as good as surrendering to the enemy. You are sure he'll bungle along the way. You are worr...

Swami Gulagulaananda said: " No pains, no gains " Before you read this post, read this post =  http://pricelessjunk.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/protest-at-pesit-an-account/ There are a few things that can be noticed of late. Suicides are becoming commonplace. It so happened that today's paper showed a school girl setting herself ablaze because she wanted to become a dancer, and her parents insisted on her continuing as a student - and she was made to stand outside class for not completing homework = Petty reason. Then I saw this article... And a couple of days back, my mother told me that a guy who wanted to become a singer committed suicide because his father asked him to continue studying, but then he wanted to become a singer. So, what's common? Students and suicide. Now, before you get all 3 Idiots on me, let's get a couple of things straight. India is a country with a population of a billion. And India is a country where, like that joke I remember, even ...

Swami Gulagulaananda said: " An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind . - Gandhi " There are a bunch of strange posts circulating lately. What happens in these posts is - An icon is picked, and then a whole lot of mudslinging follows. What kind of mudslinging? It essentially revolves around an icon being put down because someone else was not acknowledged Here is an example - Steve Jobs . So, when Steve Jobs died, there were a lot of people who really felt the loss of the icon. Jobs is always considered as one of the icons who revolutionised the IT field. He was and continues to be one of the role models to all tech enthusiasts and programmers worldwide. Imagine how the world would have been if GUI wasn't there. It is not that nobody else could have come up with that, but then again, possibly anyone can come up with anything at any point of time. The fact that Jobs revolutionised the industry is not something you can discard. The era of personal computers b...

Swami Nikhilaananda asked:  " What would you base trust on, when you trust a stranger? "  I have a very interesting experience to share. This happened perhaps a year back. I was riding on the outer ring road, in Marathahalli, where the roads are really broad. I had to go a little beyond my office and then take a U turn to go on the service road and come back a little to reach the office. Since I was on the main road and had to come to the service road, I had slowed down considerably and was on the extreme left, ready to make the turn. The road is really broad and hardly had vehicles. And then suddenly, someone rammed into me from the rear, and I jumped off my bike. I didn't fall, and landed on the pavement, on my feet like a cat. I turned back and saw my bike on the road, and behind it an Activa lying on its side, and a man sprawled, face down, doing the saashtaanga namaskaara . Within a few seconds a small crowd gathered, asking if we were alright. They picked...

Swami Gulagulaananda said: " Life is a race - There are no winners or losers; Just the same starting and ending points " First of all, this is not a philosophical post. Rather, it is an observation - I still remember my school days like they were yesterday. After I was done with my seventh standard, when we had to come to the eighth standard, there was a shuffle - Some of my close friends who were my classmates for nine years were moved to a different class, and some others came to my class. A shuffle is important in the sense that, just like genes also shuffle, a newer environment results in a wider exposure, etc. Yeah, I agree with all that. But then, those who move away from you, make newer friends and aren't as much in contact with you as they were before. And you also make newer friends. I was watching an anime series in which the protagonist, Kenshin, a great swordsman is asked how one can defeat a large number of people attacking at once. So he says, you run ...