2007 has been a year of great learning and introspection. Helped me discover who and what I want to be in years to come. Also, I was able to realize my dream of visiting new places, exploring previously unknown horizons within myself and making new friends. Finally, after a hiatus in blogging mid-year, I returned back to the Blogging scene with a new perspective and a resolution for the next year to actively blog throughout the year.

As engineers we are always taught to reason our way through problems and investigate theories on why and how something works. That’s one of the most important and interesting facets of engineering for me - getting down to the why’s and how’s. As kids, at some point I believed in that bearded, overweight, old chap who would deliver presents to good kids all over the world. I even remember keeping a red sock for Santa when I was 8.

Times have changed then and theories about Santa’s existence are all but well known - even to some kids of age 10! Kids are really smart nowadays and to my surprise I recently had a little kid tell me in Crabtree mall recently:

There is no Santa Claus. Santa is really your dad.

And of course your mom is the tooth-fairy…I’ve heard that one before. To hear that from a kid of that age is another thing all together. Today many parents in America contemplate telling their kids early on that there is no real Santa, before some smart-alec kid in school points out a few inconsistencies about Santa. Either way, you’re gonna break the kid’s heart and all on the basis of a few rumours.

Santa’s wonder journey on Christmas eve may not be inexplicable after all. If you don’t believe me, read this explanation by Prof. Silverberg at NC State, which clearly explains how Santa uses advanced technology to know what a kid wants and how good he/she has been and then deliver the presents on time. As the professor says:

Children shouldn’t put too much credence in the opinions of those who say it’s not possible to deliver presents all over the world in one night. It is possible, and it’s based on plausible science.

So the next time you tell a kid Santa does not exist, remember that you many not have considered that technology can make impossible things happen!

A couple of months from now I will be moving to DC, when I start work in my new job. Change always comes with its share of apprehensions and trepidation. The Germantown/DC/College Park area is almost like a second home to me after Raleigh - been there so many times and know the place well. I always tell my friends back at State that Raleigh will be just a stone’s throw away from me when I move there.

In the midst of these thoughts and while bowling, Remya asked me Friday night if I would like to go to DC for the weekend. It was as though she had been reading my mind, for I said yes immediately. My happiness rubbed on my bowling as well, for the next two frames were strikes.

Later that night I pondered over my apparent inner joy - why was I so happy to go to DC? Why there of all places? Why not Baltimore or Richmond, say? Something in me hit me that night - I want to move on in life and therein lies my urge to see the place I am moving on to.

Life in Raleigh and NCSU was good, and it will always be. I have friends here, places I am used to and I know I will always be at home here, but let’s face it - I am getting ‘comfortable’ here. Comfortable because almost everything has gone right for me so far. Comfortable because I can live tommorrow indulging in today’s nostalgia. Perhaps I have become to satisfied with what I have that I don’t realise that I can do much more. Highly philosophical, but true and also practical. Joel Osteen talks about this at length in his book Become a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Everyday, which makes a decent read when you are bored.

Dreams abound in our minds - they always do - but to achieve them we must wake up and go to work. I am guessing the characters in the bootless summer flick The Invasion will agree on the last part :P, but on a more serious note that adage makes more sense to me now than ever before.

Getting pensive also puts me to sleep, and I sleep I did. The next morning was a rush, for we had to go the airport at 5 AM in the morning, rent a car and then drive the 5 hours to DC. The whole day was spent in roaming around downtown and finally a visit to the temple. At the end of the day I met up with Neha, which was my other reason for coming to DC. The devil in me even had time to make an impromptu plan to surprise Neil - again! The attempt worked well and this time it was captured on video too….

Next day morning, after breakfast and a bit of shopping at IKEA (man I love that place!), we returned home - each of us satisfied with the gains in life we had made that day.

Ridiculous movie dialogue of the day: You can easily go a week without sleep - Daniel Craig in ‘The Invasion’

When the first few drops of liquid touch your tongue, the fatigue disappears instantly. Suave molecules of Mocha stir up your blood, without causing excess heat; the organ of thought receives from it a feeling of sympathy; work becomes easier and you will sit down without distress to your principal repast which will restore your body and afford you an unusual serenity.

Coffee falls into your stomach, and straightway there is a general commotion. Ideas begin to move like the battalions of an army, and the battle takes place. Things remembered arrive at full gallop, ensuing to the wind. The light cavalry of comparisons deliver a magnificent deploying charge, the artillery of logic hurry up with their train and ammunition, the shafts of with start up like sharpshooters. Similes arise, the paper is covered with ink; for the struggle commences and is concluded with torrents of black water, just as a battle with powder.

This is something I read a year back at a local coffee shop. Such is the power of coffee, and this blog is my attempt to put to paper (in this case the keyboard) some of the thoughts and ideas that come to me as I mull over that cup of coffee - sometimes with friends and sometimes in solitude. My previous blog was akin to me learning to speak. I hope this one evolves to a stage where I can tell a story - a story about you and me, about my country and the world…in short everything under the sun!

Thanks TF for inspiring me to start blogging again after an absence of over 6 months.

Currently Sipping: Cup a Joe’s amazing Caffe Voltaire