Who am I?

What do I dream for future?

This is a common question which we all stumble upon at some point or the other. I guess this is what drives people to do big things in life. I have been asking myself this question ever since I could remember to remember. For now I am following things in my mind:-

1. I have interest in writing and plan to write a book and maybe turn to full time writer (making sure that I have enough savings to live on while I am out of job :D).
2. I wish to become a Software Architect.
3. I wish to start a software business because I love computers and how wicked smart they are.
4. I wish to win Ironman. Google it if you are hearing it for first time.
5. I wish to support at least one under privileged girl child through her entire education.
6. I want to make sure my family has a decent comfortable life and I am with them when they need me. I guess sometimes I think how much my parents have sacrificed their own life for my well being and how they are usually under recognized.
7. I want to grow spiritually and know myself better.
8. I want to help as many people as I could with what I have to give.
9. I want to read more, think more and interact with diverse set of minds.
10. Make a small difference in society. I don't mind if no one notices it as long as I am convinced about it.

Note : I am really good with making things happen if I truly believe in it.

Let's wait and watch.

Your love never dies.

“because we never stop silently loving those who we once loved out loud”

Check this link for more
http://zengarage.com.au/2013/03/marina-abramovic-and-ulay/

Fight Back

I love thee Computer Science.

I was asking myself this question in the morning while I was sitting in the lab preparing for the upcoming test in OPL (Organization of Programming Language or SICP as popularly known). I looked around my lab and I saw large number of students glued to the systems and some even smiling while staring at it. Not sure if it is some crazy code bug they resolved or Harlem Shake. :)

Anyways, the feeling keeps coming back to me again and again that I do enjoy studying Computer Science and the variety of topics we talk in this field. It is not limited with one field of Software Development but it practically goes to any nook and corner where you could see a computer being employed for use. I just read how NLP (Natural Language Processing) techniques are used in law firm. Crazy, isn't it. Also, considering this is one of the youngest field of science, there are many young minds who are working in this field and there is still lot to be achieved before we call it a day.

Computer Science is one field which welcomes with open arms people from different background ranging from farmers to investment bankers and if you know/ learn little bit of programming  (python could be a great place to start) you are holding a key to the door to this massive opportunities. It just enables you look at things more deeper.

These days I am trying to get my nephews who are in 8th and 5th grade to learn some basic programming skills. You could say that I am trying to guide their interest towards my side but not really. I am just exposing them to ideas and I will leave it to them whether they want to pursue it as a career or not. At the end they will have enough information to at least make a decision. Since they are in India and I am in US, it is difficult for me to teach them so I will try to make some basic programming videos for them to learn Python programming language. Let's see where does this idea goes.

Not sure if I told you guys but this is my last semester as Masters student at UMass Lowell (I wish I could extend it by another year) and I am quite ready to look for jobs. If you know any good job in States, do let me know. You can message me at achoudha@cs.uml.edu . I want to make sure that the next place I land as job is a great match of employer and myself. So hope for the best :).

Wish you all a wonderful life and I hope you too find something in your life you truly enjoy.

Take Care.

Snow my dream

It was snowing when I went to bed
With a secret wish I slept
Only to wake up in the morning
To see my childhood dream fulfilled

To play in the world of snow
Like those in cartoons and movies
Where kids will be happily playing
Throwing snowballs at each other.

I peeped out of window
My eyes woke up as if it never slept
My joy knew no bound
I smiled all along

The next urge was
To share this moment
To go out and play
To howl and to run around.

I did it all
Like a dog to greet his owner
As if nothing matters more than the sight of it
I went out, in slippers and played.

How does my last semester of MS looks like?

Yupp, this is indeed my last semester of my MS studies. I must say, its been a great learning experience and a memorable moment for life. Though this semester is equally hectic like others more so because I have job hunting to do together with my studies.

Here's how my schedule looks like

1. Organization of Programming Languages - MWF
2. Database - II - T
3. Advance Visualization - TR
4. Part time job - 20 hr/week
5. Committed for half-marathon happening on 12th May'13 at RI. Need to train myself for that.
6. Job Interviews Preparation - 2 hrs everyday.
7. Rest of the time to Eat, Sleep & Pray :).
8. Also, a secret project which I will talk about once its done. It has to do with writing.

The TED Video which inspired me to write Poems

The TED video which inspired me to write poems. Billy Collins Talk about his project of mixing poems with animations. I remember, the first time I watched it, I could clearly understand his poems in the first go(some that rarely happened before) and I was able to appreciate how poems can be a wonderful medium to share thoughts. I guess, after that I started writing my own and look forward to many more.

Enjoy
Amit

Eric Clapton - Wonderful Tonight

Integrity

I was reading through this article (Student returns check for a half-billion dollars) and in the comments section I found something worth sharing with my readers.

No one Cares says:
I recently took the train to the local football game. You buy the ticket on the honor system. My son asked “DAD other people are just walking on not paying. My response, son certain people have integrity. You can be one or not. You have to live with your choices in life.

Take Care.

On similar note. Al Pacino's speech in Scent of a Woman.

 

Music & Poetry Jamming

Here's another experiment with my poetry passion. Curran on Guitar & Seth on Soprano.

Never before my I felt so supported for my amateurish poems. The company and the music made all the difference and I look forward to doing some more writing now since I have these great musicians to join me :).

Let me know how you feel about this.

Enjoy

Amit

What defines our Success?

Many a times we do many things but seldom get success in good ratio. Ever thought, what could be the root cause? Well, I am able to see things more clear after watching this short video of Swami Chinmayananda, the founder of Chinmaya Mission. He explains in crisp and logical sense, what decides our success in any activity and what is it that we need to tune.

Also, just for a note, for a time being, even if you are an atheist, I am sure you don't plug your ears to rational and logical discussions and hence, don't worry too much about this man's title and orange robe. Just listen with no prejudice but with open mind and let me know what you think. Its fine if you disagree, there is still some thought processing :).

What should I mourn for?

Here's a picture of a poor family( a baby girl and a father), trying to make both ends meet.

If your sorrow is not bigger than this one, don't shed tears. Don't feel bad if your favorite toy is broken, if your friends just bypassed you, if you didn't make a great grade in school or if you lost someone who was not sure if he/she loved you as deeply as you. Its not worth it. 

There are many more important causes for which we should hold on to our tears for. There are some really nice people who are fighting for people rights, animal rights, right to education, fighting against corruption etc. They are the people whom we should sincerely show our love to and for whom we should stand as a strong pillar of support. That's where we can find a better meaning to our life. Life always gives a second chance and only if you hold on to this faith, you will be surprised to see, how beautiful life is.

Sometimes we fail to see he bigger picture because we are so involved in one problem of our life. We think our whole life is dependent upon one thing and let me tell you guys, its a matter of pity that my life is just about one small thing. Rather I think it should be about a big vision. A vision as humble as providing a free eduction to one poor child, vision of fighting against corruption, vision of being an honest politician who is going to change the life of its people,  vision of making a great scientific discovery which will relief the pain of this world and make it more bearable for people to go through their life.

I am just amazed by the idea that how much time we are spending worrying about a person whom we thought as the perfect partner, but didn't think the same. I know some of my friends who take a beating in their professional career, on their health, on their family to keep thinking about this one person who may/maynot be the best one. And let me be honest, "the best one", "the perfect match", "made for each other" etc are commercial words of hollywood and it creates a skewed image of life partner in our head. What I feel is, a partner for life is someone for whom you have unwavering commitment, a 110% trust and faith that everything will turn out fine even if thing look challenging at present because you are not alone in the fight.

Sometime back, if you would have asked me "What is Love?", my answer would have been "I don't know what is love, but I consider it synonymous to, I Respect You" for its own reasons. But today after going through a short trip to this unknown island, I know how to define Love.

A love doesn't care who you are. It doesn't care if you have done many mistakes in past as long as you know it was unintentional and you share a bond of trust. A love is not about giving lots of gifts to keep your relationship alive, it is not about who pays the bill on your date, its not about what outfit your wear, how you talk. It goes beyond all this. It surpass these.

So, let's vow to mourn for right reason, to fight for right reason and to love for right reason. We as some privileged humans, also have responsibility towards uplifting the life of those who were unlucky to born in their families who cannot fulfill the basic needs. Only if the vision of life is big, it gives us inspiration to live and enjoy our achievement with many more people around. Our life will be more lived more worthwhile if we look beyond our needs and try to make some positive change to the world around us.

Peace!.

Note : Picture Courtesy Rohit Choudhary's facebook album and internet for dog and cat one.

There's music in the air

There's music in the air
The occasion is Lowell festival
Infront of the stage you have
Crowds,  you have us

Sitting on ground with no fear of dirty clothes
We both enjoy the music
I see you keenly
You dont notice me at all

You are absorbed in music
You're tapping feet
You're swaying head
You're happy

I am glad I have your company
I am happy we came for this
There's no better way to know each other
There's no better way to bond

I see we gonna last long
We gonna remember this day
With joy, with warmth
We will cherish our togetherness

How to choose school for MS in US

A friend of mine sent a mail asking me to shortlist the university from the big list he sent me for MIS Program and this was my response.

Now that's a tough question because I am not in that program but MIS is more of management studies in IT and people end up becoming Business Analyst.

There are few factors on which the college should be decided. The order is in priority.

1. Availibility of courses of interest.
2. Availability of Prof. in area of interest.
3. Proximity to Companies of Interest as this will help to get internships and thereafter job.
4. Ranking of University : A higher rank will make you look lucrative and get you more intellectual campus crowd.

Look into these and then decide any college. Its an important decision.

Sorry I am not of much help in this. Hope you understand.

Cheers

Hope it helps few.

Take Care

Amit

My Friend

My Friend
-------------

When I am sad, I think of you
When I am happy, I think of you
The longing for you is ever
The sight of you is joy forever

We started as journeymen in school bus
Sharing few minutes of joy
From home to school and back
Waiting each day holding your seat

One day you said, "I like him"
I confronted, "No you cannot, because I like him more"
You grimly suggested. "Ok..Morning yours, Night mine"
and I said.."No. Night is mine"

In many occasions we fought
In each of them we reconciled
Compromising on few, Laughing on rest
Never we separated

One day, You moved on,
You changed school, 
You changed home
Leaving me alone

At times, I wait outside my house
Looking far left, Hoping for your return
Thereby we could be together
We could be friends forever

How money motivation can actually be harmful in some profession.

Some recent pictures

Here's some pictures from Spring Carnival'12 at UMASS Lowell. I was all by myself and had fun.

New Entry.

Summer
Her White Nails
Her White Nails with red paint
Her White Toes
Her White Toes with Colorful Sandals

You could say summer has started
Or could say summer is anticipated
Either way, she is excited
Excited she is

Prepared to go for a long walk
Prepared to let her hair play with air
She is waiting for semester to end and summer to begin
for she could lie on ground, with toes shining red and hair brown


Memory
There is sadness in her eyes, for she could see through windows
Kids playing on the ground
Reminding to her
How joyful was she then.

The imagination took her to one moment
With father in a nearby park
She swinging on a rope
While him pushing from the back

Tears come to her eyes
For he is no more near
To push her higher
To hold her tight

The future of formal education is exciting.

If you have been on the disadvantage side of receiving quality education and great teachers, you will not regret living in this century.

With the onset of many quality online course providers like https://www.coursera.org/  or http://www.udacity.com/ , you can learn close to what student at elite schools learn. This is just the beginning and I anticipate further revolution where the entire education will happen sitting at home via internet.

I want to share my experience with the very first course that was announced last year. It was Artificial Intelligence by two Stanford Professors Peter Norvig & Sebastian Thurn (the autonomous car DARPA challenge man). It was a great experience to learn from the leaders and I specially enjoyed the applicability of the teachings I had. They did fine job in explaining each topic in detail and supporting each idea with a real life example and not just some hypothesis.

I look forward to taking many more courses online as I know they are worth the time and they are best and free(how can I forget that). I am thrilled to be born in this generation where education is getting democratized and I can compete with the best in the world which otherwise I couldn't.

I would encourage you  have a look at both the links and start this wonderful journey of learning from masters with one course of your interest. Its gonna be fun and maybe we could have a google hangout where you could share your excitement with me and motivate me to take classes with you. I would say that would be a perfect date :D.

Take Care.