Ramblings about myself...

Time for some Introspection...

A 101 things I figured about myself. (The list has grown beyond 101, but I still call it so!)

One fine day I was blog-strolling and read this post: 55 things about me. And was instantly charged to make my own. After rambling on for few weeks I came up with this short list. It is far from complete, but a good start nonetheless. If nothing else, you should write down yours in your own little private book. It's an excellent introspective exercise.

0. I love to start numbering from zero instead of one
1. I love to take photographs wherever I go
2. I love harmony
3. I love martial arts
4. I can eat same food, day-in-day-out and not get bored
5. I can listen to same song non-stop in loop for days and still enjoy it. This freaks out all my buddies :)
6. I can't live without access to my linux box. If you want to torture me then give me a system without a command-line-shell. If you understand what I'm talking about then you are one of us ;-)
7. If you strike the right chord with me, I can ramble on and on for hours
8. When I'm tensed, I like to watch movies or meditate
9. I rate higher on nerd and geek scale than on social scale (not that I'm anti-social by any standards)
10. I can't cheat others
11. I love Linux
12. I hate to suffocate my feet inside shoes, so you will often see me roaming around bare-footed
13. I prefer to tour a place that is sparsely crowded
14. If GOD asked me do you believe in Angels? I would say 'Yes, my Mommy'
15. I believe that surviving in this world requires you to be extremely mean and exceedingly cunning, yet I refuse to adopt to that kind of life style
16. I would rather sit alone on my a$$ with a book than booze and party
17. I would rather play exhausting sport than sit on my a$$ and read a book
18. I love the fragrance of wet mud
19. I like to dream
20. I am a teetotaler, and this bugs a lot of my buddies
21. If God gave me power to remove any 3 vices from world, I would remove:
    • Politicians/Politics
    • Greed and
    • Jealousy
22. In my view breathing techniques are the most advanced form of exercises. I have been trained in a few of these techniques, and some day I'll learn and master the advanced forms of them.
23. I am amongst the category of 'Early to Sleep And Early to Rise'. And quite a few of my buddies hate me for this
24. I don't like to celebrate my birthdays.
    I think I'm too afraid of celebrations, that is why you will rarely see me carousing at parties, etc.
    As to WHY... I don't know yet. One fine morning I was introspecting as why can't I be normal like everyone else and enjoy birthdays, parties, dancing, etc. After much deliberation a voice came from the deep sub-conscious.. 'You are scared of celebrations, Atul!' I gasped in utter disbelief. I sat there for few minutes, only to realize to my horror that it was every bit TRUE! OK, don't psycho-analyze me too much!
25. I love to write on paper with my 0.5mm mechanical pencil
26. I am exceedingly choosy about my writing instruments, there is only one brand of mechanical-pencils I trust "Faber Castle" and lately Rotring
27. I love oil pastel crayons
28. I am very economical in using most of the resources at my disposal
29. Cutting me off from my email is another way to torture me :)
30. I am religious, but not orthodox
31. Usually, I don't tend to worry about what you think of me, unless you are someone very important in my life
32. I have few close friends
33. I love chocolates, in anything and everything (Note: You can bribe me chocolates into doing almost anything)
34. Steaming hot cup of ginger-cardamom-pepper milk-tea is my favourite beverage.
    And my Mommy's love transforms it into ambrosia.
35. Lately I have developed a taste and passion for green/white teas
36. Cold coffee (decaf and light) with ice-cream comes next (but unlike the other 2, I don't place this in the category of healthy beverages)
37. Amongst flowers, I love the fragrance of Jasmine and Lavender
38. My bedroom will always smell good
39. I like neat-n-tidy bed with a crease-less sheet on it (just like you see in your hotel rooms)
    Yet I prefer sleeping on hard-surface, with just a quilt between me and the floor :)
40. I love my books and take great care of them. In fact I'm too emotional about my books.
41. You can easily win my wrath by mis-handling my books
42. I detest using pencils as bookmarks, dog-earing pages, or even carelessly marking lines without a ruler
43. You will always hear soft soothing ambient music playing in my room
44. I am practitioner of subtlety (I don't even know what that means! But hey, what's life without a curve ball!)
45. I am very optimistic about my pessimism
46. My Belief:
If faith in ourselves had been more extensively taught and practiced, I am sure a very large portion of the evils and miseries that we have would have vanished
47. I'm a student of practice (just as one of my profs is Professor of the Practice)
48. I think good algorithms should be like bikinis... saving people a lot of guesswork
49. I hate deadlines to the CORE! Because it's not the end result that I'm interested in, it's the journey that's more exciting to me! That's where the learning happens.
50. As a kid, I had a fetish for fancy cigarette boxes
51. For me, there's no such thing as watching too much movie, nor drinking too much tea and playing too much football or volleyball!
52. To me, there's a HUGE difference between coding & programming
53. I trust most of the real programmers code in vim (link)
54. To me, there's no such thing as a Stupid Question (only unless, the intention of question is to show your participation)
55. I believe You only see what you want to see
56. I am big proponent of believing in instincts, I think it's far superior than a conditioned intellect! But it is extremely difficult to live by it.
57. I have come to believe that no good deed goes unpunished (link)
58. I love Huffman encoding
59. Smiles can work wonders (link)
60. I'm extremely intolerant of songs and music not suiting my taste, including loud music
61. After vibrant red, deep bottle green color is my favorite. Followed by beige, maroon, violet and fuchsia.
62. I love camo design
63. I either forgive you in an instant, or never for the rest of my life. But either way you won't figure it out easily.
64. I'm not a loner, but from time to time I need some time alone to re-contemplate the meaning of life
65. Body odor is a BIG turn-off to me
66. I think a lot about money, but I'm NOT money minded
67. I live thriftily, for most part
68. Lack of personal hygiene is another BIG turn off
69. Girl's beautiful long hair turn me on :) And if the hair smell good, I can go head-over-heels :-P
70. Girls look cute when they wear over-sized pull-overs and carry themselves gracefully
71. Too much arrogance is a deterrent
72. I prefer to wear unfashionable comfortable clothes over smart looking unwieldy ones
73. I preach respect for all living beings around us, not just humans, which kind of tells you I'm a hardcore vegetarian.
74. The text I read, if not grammatically perfect, should at the least not have any misspellings. Be it emails, article, newspaper, or even IM chat.
75. I might look exceptionally unruffled in most pensive of situations, but that does not necessarily always reflect my inner state
76. I have a BAD temper, and I'm thankful that only a handful few have ever seen it
77. Sometimes I believe I think more than I should, more thoughtful than I should be
78. From time to time, I can become too centered, giving an impression that I'm oblivious of the existence of rest of the world. This is kind of unnerving to people around me
79. I have a fetish for Japanese machines, esp. Japanese cars
80. I love everything my Mommy cooks for me
81. I don't mind doing stupid reckless things with my close friends around
82. I don't believe in astrology too much. It is an approximate science, though. Nonetheless, many a times I'm tempted to believe I'm a true Libran.
83. If I don't talk to you in a while, that doesn't mean I'm pissed off at you, and neither that I don't care for you.
84. I view cricket as a Pregnant Men's Game! I can't come to terms that it is a religion in my country.
    To me, it is the MOST wasteful of sports, after Golf.
85. People who don't know me think I'm shy. And people who do know me wish I were!
86. I usually tend to infer more about a person from the way [s]he talks of others than he talks of himself
87. At times I can be the most boring living creature on the planet. But thank GOD I can't stay that way too long :)
88. I myself sometimes believe that my laptop is my better half!
89. I can go on for the day with just a breakfast and apple juice a smoothie!
90. When tired, a splash of ice-cold water on face works miracles on me
91. I can't go to bed without brushing my teeth and reading a book
92. I love to collect coffee/tea mugs, one day I'll have a nice collection
93. Love the ancient Japanese art of paper folding, aka Origami
94. I love arcane regular expressions
95. I hate using a mouse, so I configure my system to let me use keyboard for almost everything
96. I love ThinkPad's trackpoint
97. I hate Alcohol, mostly for alcohol-induced frivolity
98. I can laugh alone (of course, not without a reason!)
99. I have learned and believe that we are totally responsible-n-accountable for and often have to pay above and beyond for our actions and what we do; unless if we are celebrities or politicians or big-a$$ industrialists
100. I have come to believe with my heart-and-soul in something that can been aptly summarized by Jonas Salk's incredibly profound and well-thought quote...
     If all the insects on earth disappeared, within 50 years all life on earth would disappear.
     But on other hand, if all humans disappeared, within 50 years all species would flourish as never before!
     This is an excellent summary of the state of mankind (I hate to use the suffix 'kind' in this context!) as I see it today and for a foreseeable future.
101. I don't mind wearing lightly soiled clothes through the day (frankly, I don't care at all), but I need the cleanest of clothes when I activate the snooze button at my slumber.
102. I spend more time digging and fixing what is not right within me, than I spend enjoying what is good in me. I believe it helps me make a better me as days pass by, but at the same time I miss out on enjoying the good things in me. While it helps me make me "the me" I am, I don't necessarily see this as a good thing. Neither am I actively working at fixing it :-S
103. Under the mature, unruffled and composed demeanour of mine, is a soul in eternal search for peace and harmony and an overly inquisitive and curious child trained and unwilling to settle for anything mediocre
104. I mistrust all expert opinions
105. I'm a man of simple and little pleasures

      ... the list is growing ...