It's a BOY :-)

Phew! The last few days have been absolutely unbelievable. Life has changed. I have changed. Have experienced something so unique, so special that no other feeling will ever come in the same vicinity as that.

I've become a father!!! My wife delivered a healthy baby boy on 20th Jan 09. After 9 months of anticipation, patience, hope, wait and excitement, it happened. And I am still to come to terms with it.

Every day is a new experience. Every expression of my baby boy is a new story. It's been out-of-this-world. The first time I held him on my arms - oh boy, if only I could describe that feeling in words! His first yawn, first burp, first time his tiny fingers wrapped around my little finger, his first potty, his first smile, his first expression, his first cry - just mind-blowing experience. No other feeling can ever be this pleasant and memorable.

I've been blessed infinitely by the Almighty. Today all I wish for is a lifetime of happiness, contentment, spiritual peace and fulfillment for my baby boy. May Allah always be with him and shower his blessings on my Ibrahim. Ameen.

Life and Death

I’m sitting in the Jet airways waiting lounge at Mumbai domestic airport. Still have another 20 minutes before my boarding starts. It’s been a tough day coz I saw something for the first time in my life. And it was not pleasant. Scared the living daylights out of me. I saw a man dying today!

Just as I got through immigration at Dubai airport, there was some commotion a few yards from where I was standing. I walked to see what was happening. A man was on the floor, hand on his chest, legs and body shaking, desperately gasping for breath. Someone took off his shirt and made him lie flat on his back. Paramedics arrived immediately. He was given an oxygen mask which he kept taking off trying to breathe. And then they stuck some wires on his chest near the heart. I don’t know what they did next as I could not stand and look any more. I’d had enough. The man had suffered a massive heart attack. He was minutes away from death. Not sure if he made it through. Not sure if his family were ever going to see him alive again.

Death is the harshest reality of life. We take life so much for granted that we may not be prepared for the dreaded D looming round the corner. I’ve lost a few friends in my life. I lost one to cancer at the age of 17, and two to separate road accidents during college. These experiences have thought me to appreciate life like never before. Any day could be our last. Live life like there is no tomorrow but always have plans ready for the day after!

So here’s to our good health, love from family & friends, and fulfillment in life. Amen.

Peace.

(I wrote this on 10th Jan but could not post it. Finally got an internet connection today. And FYI - I am in India for three weeks)

Oracle licensing explained (by my bro)

I work for a company that sells software. Our flagship product is the Database. Licensing a database is a little complicated (as perceived by our customers!). This is how it's done.

We take the hardware specs of the server on which is database is to be installed i.e. number of processors, number of cores & the brand of CPU. The calculation is done as follows:

(number of processors) x (number of cores) x (licensing factors)

where,
1. factors depend on the brand of CPU i.e. Intel, AMD, UltraSPARC etc.
2. user minimums & number of sockets to be taken into consideration depending on the database edition.

Last week, my brother (who heads the Infrastructure and DCO Division at Panasonic) wanted some Oracle database licensing options for a new project he is undertaking. I explained the licensing model to him and how the calculation is done.

Yesterday on our way to work, we had the following conversation:

Me: Hey, what about those database licenses you inquired about?
Bro: Oh yes, do you know how Oracle is licensed on virtual servers?
Me: Hmm...I'll have to look that up. Haven't come across any such requirements yet.
Bro: Yeah. Let me know. Probably, we'll need to take the square root of the inverse of the processors, then take factors and integrate it and take the third derivative of the limit of the function at infinity, differentiate it and do a Fourier transform of that!!!!!

LOL

Edited to add: If anyone has any questions on Oracle licensing, please leave a comment on my other blog: http://logicalobscurity.wordpress.com. Thanks.

Main Kab Saas Banungi

Misleading title, isn't it? Don't worry. I am not that desperate. Definitely not to be a 'saas' (mother-in-law). So am I then going through a mid-life identity crisis? Nope. Well...

Main Kab Saas Banungi (MKSB) is a show currently televised on Sab TV. Now, why would I even bother to know the existence of said serial, specially with the word 'saas' in it? As if the 'K's were already not enough! Well, last evening, after I got back home, I turned on the TV and was onto my usual channel surfing, when my mom walked in the living room and asked me to switch to Sab TV. That's my cue to hand her the remote and get my ass out of there! But I decided to stay on. I wanted to find out why millions are hooked onto these endless, useless, senseless saas-bahu sagas. (For the record, my mom is not one of them!)

And I was in for a pleasant shock! MKSB was nothing like the dreaded Ks. This is one hell of a funny comedy series on the relationship between three generations of saas and bahus. No backbiting, no vamps, no scheming, no revenge, no extra marital affairs, no coming-back-from-the-dead stunts, no rebirths, no dramatics, no crap, no no.

On the contrary, this show encourages family values. The bonding between saas and bahus is represented in loving yet mischievous & comic ways. Brings to fact that all saas-bahu relationships are not strained. There are happy families out there who are living amicably together. This series shows the positive side of the relationship. And is funny.

Much needed refreshing change from the utterly disgusting shows that run on national television at prime time. Hats off to Deepti Bhatnagar for coming out with this concept. We need more of this than the K trash by that Ekta whatever.

I don't promise to follow MKSB regularly. More of a HBO-ESPN kinda guy. But wouldn't mind switching to Sab TV every now and then.

What a start

A 'new' year, as the word new implies, is supposed to be...err..new! A new beginning full of new hopes, new dreams and promises of something better.....or worse?

My new year started like any other day or month or year. But it was on the 2nd day of this year that had some excitement in store.

It was 6.40 am and I was obviously sound asleep. I woke up at some voices. There was someone in my room. It was my brother. So deep in slumber was I that instead of asking him if he needed something, I ended up asking, "What are you doing here?". Rude. That moment my sis from the living room yelled out, ' Check out. Someone finally woke up!". Are these guys crazy? It's a weekend for Christ's sake. I could hear my dad and mom as well. I live in a zoo. Period.

Someone then asked me to touch the floor. Zoo for sure!!! They ask again. What the hell. I give up. And reach down for the floor. My hand gets submerged in water. Entirely! Oops. Did I start sleepwalking? What was I doing in my bathroom?

I look around. This is my room. Quickly, I sit up and look around the room and there was water everywhere. Our entire house was completely filled up with water. Not an inch of dry space. Apparently, a pipe burst in the bathroom and it flooded the house. All hands were on 'deck' clearing the water. I pulled up my pajamas and joined the war cry.

"Zor lagage ke, haisha,
Jeetenge hum, haisha"

Took us close to 6 hrs just to get rid of the flowing water. It's gonna take days to dry up completely. My room was the worst affected. Our flat apparently, and thanks to the masons, is sloped backwards towards the right, where my room is located. It's a disaster. We had to dismantle the entire bedroom set and take it out. Thoughts of discarding the (so called new) carpet came to mind but then we thought of giving it a shampoo first and checking it out. Had the shampoo guys over yesterday. They actually had to give the final shampoo with dettol to get rid of the water smell. Assured us 90% dryness. We are waiting for it to completely dry before moving back the furniture. Our new Persian rug is lying outside the flat. Not sure what the hell are we supposed to do with it. All electric connections & electronic appliances are dead (except the wi-fi which we managed to keep running! :P). All in all, right now, our house is in tatters and stinking. And I don't have a room!

What a start to the year!