Now Listening to ‘Attaboy’ from The Goat Rodeo Sessions.

Music by Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile.

[embed]www.youtube.com/watch

Thought for the day:

Wish I could stay forever this young
Not afraid to close my eyes

#hashtagcity

#lolololololol

A marker, breaking the silence since my last post.
Normalcy resumes, but the effects remain.
Every day I try to do a little better.
Each day, a little bit better.

Your voice has played in my head non stop over the last two weeks. When I would call, invariably disturbing your studying, I’d ask if I was interrupting. Your response was always “No, no. I was just about to take a break anyway.” You didn’t fool me Rubeen, my timing can’t have been that spectacular every time.

That time in January, when we all ate the chocolatiest chocolate cake while you played the guitar for us.

Or my birthday last October. (pictured above)

Or yours this year, as we watched our friend obliterate a baked potato.

Or Adopt-a-Camp, when we were exhausted from waiting and packing, you wouldn’t leave and continued to help.

Or the first day of Ramadan last year, when you got lost (as usual) and demanded I sit in the passenger seat and just show you how to get to the parking near Hard Rock. That morning and the next, I shared something significant in my life with you.

On the first day of Ramadan this year, how things changed.

There was a sincerity in your conversations that made it very easy to talk to you. Your struggles through your research, visits up and down Abu Dhabi, your canceling of plans to go out so that you could attend to the health of a stray cat and crazy entrepreneurial ideas. Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve learnt that your stories are exponentially larger in volume.

I hope you didn’t suffer too much, because you didn’t deserve to. You’ve left your mom and dad in your brother’s capable hands, and we’re all here for them. I know you fought hard, and you are now at peace.

They used to tell us, when we were younger, as kids, when we asked about all this … that when God loved someone a lot, He would take them away young. I don’t think I ever fully believed that. But it does seem to be the case here. You are remembered a lot down here, but it is clear He loved you just a little more up there.

The jokes about my 3-women limit will never be the same again. But you’ll always be one of the original and only Hard rock team.

…

Ameen.

Take a minute and remember, life is fragile.

I received the call June 27. A close friend had suffered a brain hemorrhage the previous day.

The shock has still not left me. Her voice still rings in my ears from our last call, making plans to meet. Her family stands around her, praying for the miracle. Her brother, also a close friend, has not left her side as she fights.

It took three days before I would break under the weight of the situation, and will take many more before I will come to terms with the shock.

I think the fragility of life is something we all deal with. Whether it comes because of our own experiences or others, we are often jolted into reality by instances like these.

What if.

I remember a poem called Leisure from my childhood rather distinctly; its words still stuck in my head all these years:

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

I think we are mostly aware that we take life for granted from time to time. Things are set, there is a routine, and we forget that it takes one thing to change it all.

I suddenly feel very conscious of everything around me, the activities, the people. This all still feels a little surreal, like I’m going to wake up in the morning and everything will be as it was June 26.

Realizing life can be fragile is not fun. Millions wonder what happens to us after we pass; but I think what has stood out for me over the last few weeks is watching the impact we have on people around us while we’re here. The pain caused cannot be described in words ofcourse, but it is remarkable to hear the stories, the smiles shared among friends and family, the sorrow of maybe an unpleasant conversation, the longing for that one last meeting to happen, the impact of a lovely person.

I learnt.

I learnt to stop and stare.

I learnt, even more, to tell people I care.

At D8, one of the last major appearances of Steve Jobs, he was asked if he would add anything to his famous Standford Commencement Speech of 2005. He responded:

…probably I would just turn up the volume on it, because the last few years have reminded me that life is fragile.

To RN, we are all right by your side. You’ve had a profound impact on the lives of people who met you, and on a lot of people who didn’t. Over the last couple of weeks, we have admired and shared stories of things you did, day in and day out, admiring and valuing life — people and animals alike.

I pray for you every day.

Life is fragile.

Hang in there RN. We’re rooting for you.

Jobs, the movie

The trailer for Jobs just debuted ahead of its August 16 release. I’m intrigued, it looks decent, and I don’t mind Ashton Kutcher at all but I don’t think he generates the screen presence you’d expect of someone playing Steve Jobs.

His dialogue delivery — particularly Apple announcements and the iconic Think Different ad — just don’t sound strong enough. I’ll watch it, but my expectations are low.

Update: I couldn’t get through more than half of it.

Ellen DeGeneres commen-cement speech

2009. Hilariously well done.

It goes something like this*:

W: ‘I’m not one of those people’.
M: ‘One of what people?’

You know, the kind of people who wouldn’t drink coffee at a petrol station at all, let alone on a first date. Ok, so there are principles involved.

M: ‘But it’s not just any coffee, it’s…’ coffee of a very specific brand.
W: Hmmm, but is it organic?
M: Yes, my princess, they have organic options
W: Oooh, you’re a classy guy.

Not that I was dying to try it or anything, but now I’m totally off this brand of coffee. I mean, what. Just, what. How. WHY?!

Folks, please chime in. Is petrol station coffee a turn on for a first date as long as it has an organic option?

The Coco Nails ad is starting to sound pretty good.

*Quoted from memory, not transcribed.

It hasn’t been all that long since Posterous was acquired (well, acuihired) by Twitter and I dealt with the closing of one of my favorite publishing platforms.* So my surprise — and subsequent introspection at my choices — at Yahoo’s acquisition of Tumblr was not surprising.

Acquisitions are tricky little things. Yahoo themselves, have a huge list of them, and the track record isn’t something to write home about just yet. But over the last few months, I do feel that Marissa Meyer’s moves have been largely positive towards Yahoo’s own spirit. The Tumblr announcement itself came in parallel with the long, long, long awaited major redesign to emancipated child Flickr.

And I will admit the initial signs are good. Unlike Posterous’ announcement which carried the rather dangerous ‘We’ll give you a way to export all your sites’, Yahoo’s announcement contained a very encouraging:

We promise not to screw it up.

Also worth reading is employee #2 Marco Arment’s thoughts on the acquisition and Tumblr as a product.

I realize the title of this post is a little condescending of the term Yahoo, and probably is not the Yahoo under Meyer. But I also really hope they don’t Yahoo Tumblr.

Funny take on the marriage question. My favorite bit:

You are putting so much drama and telling, ‘Father is getting old and his health problems are also there. What if “something happens to him” without seeing your marriage?’. Like this and all you will say means what to do?

This is like saying ‘If you don’t kill yourself now, I will die. Now you choose what you want to do’

Thanks @bhuminasta for the share!

You should get married soon. Or else..

Cricinfo reports:

“Three Rajasthan Royals players — Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila, who were arrested for their alleged involvement in corruption in the IPL, have been suspended by the BCCI.”

Apparently it doesn’t matter if you’re already earning bucket loads of money.

BlackBerry plans to make BBM, our wildly popular mobile messaging service, available for the first time to iOS® and Android™ users this summer…

Well, well. This was rumored years ago incidentally, but since then, WhatsApp has pretty much eaten up the multi-platform market and Apple launched iMessage.

I must confess I don’t think it will amount to much. Tons will download (I will), a few users will switch away from RIM, and that will be that.

BBM coming to iOS, Android

Why, why do people have signatures that are 3 times the size of their emails. Imagine receiving an email with an ‘Ok’, and how if I’m not the intended recipient of that wonderful OK, I should instantly close the email lest I spontaneously combust into flames where I sit.

I think an email signature containing your name, a valid contact number suffices beautifully. Sure, your position and company with a link work, as does a Skype. Beyond that…

What does having the world’s longest disclaimer and a bunch of images/gifs achieve in an email signature? Particularly a corporate one.

I get the massive disclaimers of how messages are meant only for the recipient back in the days of snail mail and faxes but for email? The only reason why an email would be opened by someone else is if you sent it to the wrong bob, or they were hacked. But good thing you put in a disclaimer, so the hacker knows he shouldn’t read any further.

Gotta love Obama’s sense of humor

Say what you want about Obama, this is one cool video.

If I were him, I’d be mad all the time. But I’m not him, I’m Daniel Day-Lewis.

Hilariously done.

Thanks to Marc Blumberg for the share.

An interview with the man behind one of my favorite sauces of all time (and something you can’t find in Dubai..yet). Love this quote:

David Tran, founder of Huy Fong Foods Inc.:

Hot sauce must be hot. If you don’t like it hot, use less. We don’t make mayonnaise here.

Also:

Revenue grows about 20% a year even with all the competition. Huy Fong Foods has never spent a dollar on advertising.

(via parislemon)

Music share: Animals by The Cast of Cheers

But with you by my side, entwined with me,
It’s like I’m the lock and you’re the key.

Holy…Arrested Development is back!

Now how will the the non-US Netflix crowd get their hands on it?

Video: Somersby ad using the Apple playbook

Cleverly done.

Happy Holi everyone!

Rang Lo!

I still have my very first work ID for when I interned at AstraZeneca in 2004. When my mom first saw that ID (I used to put it up as part of a wall collage of things I had done at my apartment in Philadelphia), her first reaction was ‘You look exactly like Nanaji did when he was in college.’

I remember being supremely impressed by Nanaji when I stayed with my grandparents over the summer by myself in the 9th grade. As a routine, every morning at 7 a.m. you would see him fly out the door; he was a man who could not sit still. Laziness was so unknown to him that I am sure my lazy genes have all come from my paternal side. It was clockwork. Out the door at 7, back at 11.45 for lunch at noon sharp. Mind you, he needed his food piping hot, to the point where I had to sit for a bit before I could even consider eating. Back out again in the afternoon, back again for dinner punctually at 7, a habit you did not stop until last week. Nanima may have spoilt me with food and sweets throughout my stay, but Nanaji impressed me with pure action and few words.

Over the last couple years, I was sad every time I visited you, watching you go from being house-ridden to bed-ridden, unable to move around on your own, your eyes still showing the fight and energy, but your body unable to keep up with the pace. You suffered for someone so active, so determined to be out of the house whenever you could. You made random, silly excuses to leave the house; you’d tell Nanima you needed to get the mail (downstairs) and disappear for a half hour because everyone told you you shouldn’t be out as much.

You loved technology and new things. You were one of the few people who sat on a computer everyday, sending out emails and newsletters of things you read. You may not have been able to in the last couple of years, but I still remember and have the links you sent me to read.

I remember last year when you were in a little better health, and I sat with you, you asked me what I did. The answer I gave you — as I give most people alien to IT — did not satisfy you and you asked for more. The curiosity didn’t leave your face until I explained in detail how we look after servers, how we deal with customers, what I did specifically in my role and how we handled issues if they arose with customers.

You were the most active man I have ever met, in yours, my parents’ and my own generation; an example of a human being.

I miss you already. I’m glad you had your children and some of their children around you these last few weeks. And I am glad you are no longer in pain.

All I did was hold your hand. You did all the walking.

Music: I’m caught in the rain … with you

‘And I wish I could stay…with you.’