October 2003
9 posts
First Ramzaan in the US
The first Roza was successfully completed (Shukur Alhamdulillah, Shukran Jazeelah) today. There were no problems at all. The weather was nice and warm and there were no feelings of thirst/hunger. Work was very minimal with most of my leads off to attend a training program. Insha Allah I would be able to fast for all the days in Ramzaan and Allah would be kind enough to accept all my Rozas. Ameen.
Sound mind in a sound body
I have wondered many times that why a prayer needs to be composed of physical movements? Should’nt it just be mental, just thinking about God and meditating, sitting in a place? When praying Namaaz, you need to stand, kneel, bow and prostrate. But why does God want you to do all this? Now read the title of this post. Yes, that’s why. God not only wants to you remember him but wants you...
Offshoring
I do not understand the hue and cry raised over software projects being sent to countries outside the US (read India). Is this not a practice that exists in other industries too? For instance, most of the electronic goods are made in China, cars are from Japan and I can see some food products coming in from Canada! So why is so much fuss being made about Software? It is not a question about the...
Paper on Canonical messaging
I was writing a paper on the role of Canonical messaging in the Enterprise Integration space. This paper was in the works for a prolonged period of time and I decided last week that it needed to be completed soon. So I sat down and put some time and effort and finished it. It is under review now and when that is completed, hopefully some website would be kind enough to publish it. When that...
Pocket full of Palms
I know that the previous post was a very heavy one so I thought I’ll follow it up with a lighter one. I am an avid follower of the PDA market and own two Palm based PDAs - a Palm m105 and a Handspring Visor Edge (which I now use). I am waiting for an opportune moment to make the move to the Pocket PC side. I do not have any major complaints against Palm based PDAs but it is just that I need...
Of Feudal lords and plebeians
I got another bout of depression yesterday and an angry one at that. It was a general case of irritation over the hierarchical system that exists in the organization I work for and the emphasis that is laid upon it. People refuse to respond to e-mails, ignore phone calls by looking at the caller ID and do similar things to show their imperial status. The colonialism that was present over 50 years...
A day of mixed fortune
I had planned quite a few tasks for Saturday and as expected the day was pretty hectic. I can’t re-iterate enough the need for a car here in the US. Its extremely difficult to live here without one. I am still surviving without a car and only God knows how. I have not mustered enough courage to drive a car and consequently do not possess a driver’s license. After buying a couple of...
Its Friday...
The weekend is finally here and the whole world is happy. One thing that I miss on Friday is the afternoon Jummah congregational prayer. I never used to miss this prayer when I was back in India. It used to give me immense peace and satisfaction after I finished the prayer. The nearest mosque here is about 16 miles away, even if I had a car, it’d be quite a task to get to the mosque. This...
Psychical liberation
Well, here is a place to let my thoughts loose. Rants, random thoughts and practically anything that crosses my mind will find themselves a home here. At the moment, it is difficult to blurt out the entire gamut of thoughts that have stagnated in my mind for quite sometime. I guess it would be over a period of time that things would find their way out.
After a few searches on Google and visits...