unwarranted

It is because I keep coming across stories like this, that I don’t think I will ever be able to embrace Apple. I just don’t understand – here you have a nice email app (or so I’ve heard) and email is one of the few things that has been standardized to death on the Internet due to the simple fact that people like to read their email anywhere, everywhere, all the time.
So why, oh why does Apple have to go around inventing proprietary formats for storing local mail? Why can’t they use the excellent Maildir format, when almost every other email client in the world does it? The excuse that this format is optimised for Spotlight is bullshit. They brag so much about their API for enabling Spotlight support in applications, then why couldn’t they just write a backend for Maildir files (the way Beagle does!)
Also, apparently this change is new to Tiger, and so old Mac OSX users are affected too. Even if they decided to change the format, is it too much to ask that the software confirms with the user before doing the upgrade, or atleast informs the user that something drastic is happening to his/her files? So much for desiging good user interfaces. chhahh! Why don’t these people ever learn?

Life is Beautiful

When we are sad - we frown, when very sad – we cry, when happy – we smile, when very happy - we laugh, when very very happy – we Cry. Yes, we do cry when happiness becomes limitless. And believe me, such moments are the rarest and the very best. That is what I experienced the last Sunday. Two bikes, carrying four nostalgic souls, headed for the heaven, at eight O’clock in the morning. Sunday morning is usually the laziest, but I got up pretty early, even before the raucous alarm clock could pierce the virgin silence of the early morning. The weather was also perfect and we were speeding through the Kanakpura Road. Soon we were in heaven – The Valley School, Bangalore – one of the branches of the J.Krishnamurti Schools spread throughout the world. Though I am an alumni of a different branch (Rajghat Besant School, Varanasi), all the K-Schools act as a unit. We had gone to meet two of our teachers (Jairam sir and his wife Nalini didi – we used to refer lady teachers as didi), who happened to be our house-parents for two years at Rajghat. Sir has become the director of the school. To add up to the excitement, 17th of July was the Parents’ Day at the School. Looking at us, sir immediately recognized us, and then we had one of the warmest hugs ever in life. Jairam sir is about 6 feet tall and has a charismatic personality. After that we touched his feet. It was such a touching moment. Being the director of the institute, he was surrounded by the parents, but still took out time to distribute the prasad (the function commenced with a vriksha-ropan samaroh and worship) to each one of us. Then we were interacting with some of the current students. It was a pleasant surprise to know that Nandan Nilekani’s (the CEO of Infosys) daughter was also studying at the school in class 12. I just thought that since its Parents’ Day, we might just get to meet Mr Nilekani. But sadly his daughter told that his father was in the US (for an important company work) and mother was in London and hence they could not make it to the function. One special thing about the occasion was that every lady (including the senior students) was in a saree. We could find some kids of foreigners in the school. Their mothers were also in sarees!! Most of these lady foreigners were about 6 feet or so, all looking very attractive in Sarees (unfortunately saree is gradually becoming extinct these days among the Indian women). Among the crowd, my eyes were anxiously searching for Nalini di – I was going to meet her after ten long years!! She was just like our mother when we were in class six. I spotted her in the crowd, and then we all touched her feet and then hugged. I could not believe when she reminded me of the anecdotes of the hostel, which even I had forgotten. I had a very special relationship with Nalini di. Looking at the excitement and the love in her eyes – I could not control my emotions – tears rolled down my cheek, yes the tears of joy when that joy becomes limitless. Nalini di is a saint, very spiritual, very humble, very polished, very loving and very simple. She loves hanging around with kids. And when I was myself a kid, she loved me more than the others :). I have learnt a lot from her – how to be a good human being first. There was a football match between the ex-students and the current students. Then we had lunch – Nalini di serving the food herself and sitting beside me all through while. All four of us were feeling like VIPs when everyone around saw the director and his wife spending so much of time with us. Some bonds are just so strong. Valley School is located amidst natural surroundings – greeneries all around, many lakes, and those rare species of birds; monkeys hanging around the trees. If there is something like heaven it would be no different. All four of us promised ourselves to visit the place and the wonderful people there every weekend – instead of wasting away our time in the ‘mundane’ and meaningless surroundings of forum. I really feel now that – life is beautiful. And I just wish that when I grow old (and remain alive) – I spend my life at Valley School being around with kids.

Some of my favourite quotations

• A diamond is just another piece of coal that did well under pressure.
• "A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits." - Richard Nixon
• "When the pupil is ready, the master will appear"
• God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers!!!............Anonymous!!
• "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then youwin."- Mahatma Gandhi
• "Experience is what you get when you do not get what you wanted"-- Mark Twain
• In the race for perfection there is no finish line.
• If a bad time comes, what of that? The pendulum has to swing back to the other end. But that is no better. The thing to do is to stop it.-Swami Vivekananda
• The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbingknowledge.- Albert Einstein
• It's better to keep quiet and have people think you stupid, than to talk and confirm it - Mark Twain
• He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.
  George Bernard Shaw
• First win, then go to War.
  - Sun Tzu, Chinese warrior and philosopher, 500 BC
• Failure is forgivable. Not having a dream is a crime.
• "A ship is safe in a harbour but that's not what ships are built for,"
• "Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe," was how Abraham Lincoln once famously described the purpose of education.
• "Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first and the lesson afterwards." -- Vernon Sanders Law.
• "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
  - Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
• Question to God:"What surprises you most about mankind?"God answered : "That they lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health. That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live neither for the present nor the future. That they live as if they will never die, and they die as if they had never lived..."
• Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response – Michael Bartel
• Communication is to a relationship what breathing is to living – Virginia Satir
• There is nothing more practical than a good theory.
• "Live your life not to be a hero but to remain alive. With time, heroes seem a little foolish"
  Death is more universal than life; everyone dies but not everyone lives. - A. Sachs
• You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?" -George Bernard Shaw
• "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations writers. " - Daniel J. Boorstin (really mast :)
• "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get"
• Life is too short for those people who never waged a great battle for a worthy cause and too long to be bogged down by a single failure…..