Writing down the obvious.

I have some five drafts in my wordpress dashboard, every time I embark upon writing something, the words seem to loose my hand. I feel this unusual guilt that I am probably writing down the obvious, writing down what does not matter and creates utterly no effect.

Pen is mightier than sword is what I learnt as a kid but my pen – or keyboard in this case – seem to be saying things which do not matter. The insignificance and powerlessness against the system’s inertia they encompass seem to have bogged me down.

Have your ever thought that you are just writing the obvious? Has any word you wrote made any difference? If so, share the recipe!

What’s been keeping me busy…

Now I shall be really candid about this, there are selectively few people who come across to read these pages written on Paths. I know, a bunch of my friends who visit, people running into curiousity with the ‘weird’ URL, i.e. gopchandani etc etc. So my absence here is really not a world-changing/affecting issue to say the least.

Alright, I’ll drive the point home, I have been travelling settling down at UIUC. I recently joined the ECE department here as a Graduate Student on a Fulbright Fellowship from Pakistan. Since I arrived two weeks late and academic system here in United States can be terribly fast, I really haven’t had the time to catch up on things like looking into and updating my blog. So I am just marking my presence here today and snaps of the place would follow – you could see some on university’s official website though, right here.

Oh and yes, I have been reading The Fountainhead and it is fantastic. I am still not able to converge onto the ideas presented in the novel but I am amazed that fiction can actually be good at times.

Tagged.

So Lubna tagged me with following questions at her Tehreer:

1. Last movie you saw in a theater?
Shrek 3, It was quite a dull sequel to its predecessors but still had some sequences good enough for chuckles.

2. What book are you reading?
China Inc. (Ted C. Fishman) and C++, Complete Reference.

3. Favorite board game?
Chess.

4. Favorite magazine?
Time, IEEE Spectrum

5. Favorite smells?
The prevalent fragrance in the environment after it has rained in my hometown, Ghotki.

6. Favorite sounds?

Lately, the sounds used in the track “Different Sound…” from the movie Music and Lyrics.

7. Worst feeling in the world?
Having done something unfair to somebody, of course on my standards.

8. What is the first thing you think of when you wake up?
Snooze that alaram!

9. Favorite fast food place?
That’s a tie between KFC and Pizza One.

10. Future child’s name?
Heh. This one is funny, have never thought on these lines.

11. Finish this statement. “If I had lot of money I’d….?
Would try to multiply that :P (Family wisdom: after all I am a grandson of two businessmen)

12. Do you sleep with a stuffed animal?
Lol

13. Storms – cool or scary?
Interesting

14. Favorite drink?
Fresh Lime

15. Finish this statement, “If I had the time I would….”?
Would fix my head and flush the junk out

16. Do you eat the stems on broccoli?
What the heck is that?

17. If you could dye your hair any color, what would be your choice?
Green!

18. Name all the different cities/towns you’ve lived in?
Ghotki, Karachi and a few months in Nagpur, India.

19. Favorite sports to watch?
Cricket is interesting.

20. One nice thing about the person who sent this to you?
Lubna is one hell of a friend who would either drive you crazy or would become crazy herself. I doubt if this is something nice to say, though. :P

21. What’s under your bed?
DAWN Newspaper.

22. Would you like to be born as yourself again?
Yes. As some Einstein maybe.

23. Morning person, or night owl?
Big time, Night Owl!

24. Over easy, or sunny side up?
Sunny Side Up.

25. Favorite place to relax?

My mom’s kitchen.

26. Favorite pie?
Po-pye! It rhymes, no?

27. Favorite ice cream flavor?
Vanilla+Strawberry. I just have not been able to find a cult for Chocolate.

28. Of all the people you tagged this to, who’s most likely to respond first?
This is the leaf node of this recursive call. Return.

My Job.

It is quite strange that I almost never write about what I do for 8-9 hours per day. Well one can certainly argue that I almost never write about nothing but this is about my job here.

I am and will be the Project Engineer at Platform Engineering Department of Wavetec Pvt. Ltd for one more day. No, I am not going to die after that, it is just that I am switching jobs.

Now don’t get any wrong ideas that I am too greedy for money. It is just that I did not LOVE the work I did here and I have always had this so-called amateurish and idiotic notion about how one must love his/her job. There are very well, dozens of other reasons behind the decision as well but at the end of the day that is what it is and thus the choice.

About the new job: I shall be a Software Engineer with this reputed software house here in Karachi, called TPS. I am hoping to expand my skill-set and add value to the organization by practicing what I have always liked doing: Programming.