Monday, June 22, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Just a crazy may be thought!
DISCLAIMER: This post is not a post related to PhD struggles or education in general. If you want to steer away, please avoid reading this post.
Every Sunday I have a little ritual that I follow. For the people who care to know, I am a staunch believer in the existence of the Lord. A free thinker and a non religion conformist, I guess I would say to myself. On this note, I don't have any particular religion that I conform to, but I do follow teachings of most of the prominent religions of the world.
New York is home to religions and religious places. This Sunday I went to a Sikh temple and there I had a moment. Well, I could not find any other decent or fancy name/word to describe what I experienced.
Here is the Pre-cursor
Sikhism is a religion originated in Punjab, India. First spiritual leader (aka Guru), Guru Nanak Dev ji when was searching for his successor, He met Guru Angad Dev ji in his preaching journey across Indian Sub-continent.
It is something like this -
When passing by through a village with his followers, since his spiritual enormity always exceeded his physical presence, Guru Nanak Dev Ji was offered a lot of materialistic stuff as money, jewels, land, food etc as offerings and part of remembrance. As they moved from one village to another village, his followers would gather all the stuff and move ahead. This "stuff" would generally have a lot of money and materialistic materials.
As soon as Guru Nanak Dev ji would reach the next village, he would donate all of it to the poor and needy people. Seeing this donation and non-attachment to materialistic life, some of the followers started to think that why would Guru Nanak dev ji do this all the time? Why can not keep what he gets, he can earn and get all rich and worthy! Sensing this sense of thought, Guru ji (as they said) asked his followers to pick up some of the offerings. After the followers took their portions of offerings and started to move, they started to feel heavy with the stuff they were carrying. Villages after villages, his followers bag became heavy and heavier. And soon it became very heavy, even to move.
When Guru ji reached the last village on his entourage, only one person was behind him. It was Guru Angad Dev ji.
Surprised he looked and asked Guru Angad Dev ji why are you still following me when no one is?? Why did you not take any of those offerings?? Don't you feel attacted to these jewels and this money of all the heavens?? To this, Guru Angad Dev ji said, " Sir, I don't want any of those materialistic offerings, whatever I have ever wanted, I got all of them just by following your foot steps. Everything I have ever wanted for my life and my soul, I got it just by following you and your teachings. Whatever you say goes for me, like a line drawn in the stone. ". Listening to this, Guru Nanak Dev ji said, God bless thee :)
So, I guess what hit me hard and deep was the fact that "Even though he himself was a spiritual leader and he could had everything that he needed, but in his righteous mind following his Master's advice was worth more than everything in his life; The path to success, spiritual glory and all the riches of life, originate from the lotus feet of his Master"
I hope you can share some of your stories and experiences Or at least inspire others with your stories and experiences.
Every Sunday I have a little ritual that I follow. For the people who care to know, I am a staunch believer in the existence of the Lord. A free thinker and a non religion conformist, I guess I would say to myself. On this note, I don't have any particular religion that I conform to, but I do follow teachings of most of the prominent religions of the world.
New York is home to religions and religious places. This Sunday I went to a Sikh temple and there I had a moment. Well, I could not find any other decent or fancy name/word to describe what I experienced.
Here is the Pre-cursor
Sikhism is a religion originated in Punjab, India. First spiritual leader (aka Guru), Guru Nanak Dev ji when was searching for his successor, He met Guru Angad Dev ji in his preaching journey across Indian Sub-continent.
It is something like this -
When passing by through a village with his followers, since his spiritual enormity always exceeded his physical presence, Guru Nanak Dev Ji was offered a lot of materialistic stuff as money, jewels, land, food etc as offerings and part of remembrance. As they moved from one village to another village, his followers would gather all the stuff and move ahead. This "stuff" would generally have a lot of money and materialistic materials.
As soon as Guru Nanak Dev ji would reach the next village, he would donate all of it to the poor and needy people. Seeing this donation and non-attachment to materialistic life, some of the followers started to think that why would Guru Nanak dev ji do this all the time? Why can not keep what he gets, he can earn and get all rich and worthy! Sensing this sense of thought, Guru ji (as they said) asked his followers to pick up some of the offerings. After the followers took their portions of offerings and started to move, they started to feel heavy with the stuff they were carrying. Villages after villages, his followers bag became heavy and heavier. And soon it became very heavy, even to move.
When Guru ji reached the last village on his entourage, only one person was behind him. It was Guru Angad Dev ji.
Surprised he looked and asked Guru Angad Dev ji why are you still following me when no one is?? Why did you not take any of those offerings?? Don't you feel attacted to these jewels and this money of all the heavens?? To this, Guru Angad Dev ji said, " Sir, I don't want any of those materialistic offerings, whatever I have ever wanted, I got all of them just by following your foot steps. Everything I have ever wanted for my life and my soul, I got it just by following you and your teachings. Whatever you say goes for me, like a line drawn in the stone. ". Listening to this, Guru Nanak Dev ji said, God bless thee :)
So, I guess what hit me hard and deep was the fact that "Even though he himself was a spiritual leader and he could had everything that he needed, but in his righteous mind following his Master's advice was worth more than everything in his life; The path to success, spiritual glory and all the riches of life, originate from the lotus feet of his Master"
I hope you can share some of your stories and experiences Or at least inspire others with your stories and experiences.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
A random old post - Career Interests - Reflects my views in 2005
Albert Einstein once said
" I never think of the future - it comes soon enough. "
My prejudiced opinion about future has been considerably influenced by this quote. I religiously follow this thought as my guideline for today's Karma. In short, I live in today.
My career interests are varied. As the years have passed, more and more varied interests got added to my "favorites" list. I always wanted to become an engineer, which I did when I graduated in Aug '06.
Telecommunications was and is, one of my hot craves. Deep inside this area has further more complex areas of interests, which are CDMA, GSM and VoIP. In the similar group, telecommunication industry offers Broadband Over Power Line(BPL).
This was my old love which seems to have taken a back seat since last year.
Ability to maintain data and manipulate information in the form of tables and SQL queries is what developed my penchant for databases. My specific goals are to work towards Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and develop existing compatibility tools between databases and front-ends.
E-Commerce is the youngest member of my old times love. The fact that the actual business can be run, fully automated on the internet is what inclined me to this subject. My first encounter with this subject was rather superficial and was limited to a brief introduction about this topic. But the subject interest brought a point where I changed my focus of research towards SOA and Business E-Commerce.
Υποδοχή to my new craze of Management of Information Systems (MIS). In case, you could not understand the first word of this line, it is greek translation for welcome :)
The world of business is very much dependent on technology and so is technology on business. Greater developments in technology has enabled nearly complete automation of business processes. The extent of automations has touched every silos of almost all organizations. Reaching out to the business people and understanding what they do and making sure that technology is doing exactly what it is required to do by the overall process of automation.
The process of discovering this new member of my knowledge castle is exciting and is keeping my involved. My career target positions at the beginning level are ERP Analyst or Junior Analyst, Website Designer & developer, Database Administrator, Database Application Designer !!
" I never think of the future - it comes soon enough. "
My prejudiced opinion about future has been considerably influenced by this quote. I religiously follow this thought as my guideline for today's Karma. In short, I live in today.
My career interests are varied. As the years have passed, more and more varied interests got added to my "favorites" list. I always wanted to become an engineer, which I did when I graduated in Aug '06.
Telecommunications was and is, one of my hot craves. Deep inside this area has further more complex areas of interests, which are CDMA, GSM and VoIP. In the similar group, telecommunication industry offers Broadband Over Power Line(BPL).
This was my old love which seems to have taken a back seat since last year.
Ability to maintain data and manipulate information in the form of tables and SQL queries is what developed my penchant for databases. My specific goals are to work towards Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and develop existing compatibility tools between databases and front-ends.
E-Commerce is the youngest member of my old times love. The fact that the actual business can be run, fully automated on the internet is what inclined me to this subject. My first encounter with this subject was rather superficial and was limited to a brief introduction about this topic. But the subject interest brought a point where I changed my focus of research towards SOA and Business E-Commerce.
Υποδοχή to my new craze of Management of Information Systems (MIS). In case, you could not understand the first word of this line, it is greek translation for welcome :)
The world of business is very much dependent on technology and so is technology on business. Greater developments in technology has enabled nearly complete automation of business processes. The extent of automations has touched every silos of almost all organizations. Reaching out to the business people and understanding what they do and making sure that technology is doing exactly what it is required to do by the overall process of automation.
The process of discovering this new member of my knowledge castle is exciting and is keeping my involved. My career target positions at the beginning level are ERP Analyst or Junior Analyst, Website Designer & developer, Database Administrator, Database Application Designer !!
Academic Support document
There can be no more arguments about how much important it is to embellish your profile and your achievements and fine tune with the school(s) you are planning to apply. No matter what degree you are going for, be it B.S. or Graduate or Doctorate! And to fulfill this desire to highlight your resume and accomplishments, you will find yourself in this position wanting to create something called as Portfolio for yourself.
A little bing search on the student portfolio(s) gives a good idea on what it looks like and what are it's components. Note how I wrote Student portfolio and not just portfolio. This is because you can either create a student or teacher portfolio ! Gag humor :)For some of us, who have either Teaching assistant or graduate assistant experience, we can create both of these- Yay! This is definitely a good sign. You ask me Why? For two simple reasons - You get a separate chance to highlight your achievements as Teaching assistant and/or graduate assistant(s). Second, most of the applicants wouldn't have material to prepare this. So you have an upper hand in your application from now onwards! Right on <-->
A little bing search on the student portfolio(s) gives a good idea on what it looks like and what are it's components. Note how I wrote Student portfolio and not just portfolio. This is because you can either create a student or teacher portfolio ! Gag humor :)For some of us, who have either Teaching assistant or graduate assistant experience, we can create both of these- Yay! This is definitely a good sign. You ask me Why? For two simple reasons - You get a separate chance to highlight your achievements as Teaching assistant and/or graduate assistant(s). Second, most of the applicants wouldn't have material to prepare this. So you have an upper hand in your application from now onwards! Right on <-->
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Countries Shortlisting
After earning a master's degree in multidisciplinary studies from Rochester Institute of Technology, I am hoping to get through another school for PhD :)
In this process, I have short listed the following countries with some of the schools that I am sure at the moment that I am applying to/ or in the process of applying to for my Phd entourage.
1. United States
My imperative to apply here is that I am in the country and I already know how education system is, it would be beneficial for me to apply and get through here rather than any other country.
I haven't had a chance to make a possible school list for myself till now, but I have short listed University of Rochester and RIT as two schools where I want to apply for sure.
I can sure make use of some help here :))
2. Canada
From an international student perspective, Canada remains a focal point. Education is competitive. Standards are equally high as United States. What else can I ask for ?
McGill and University of Toronto are for now on the list. As I move ahead in my search and application, I am sure I can see a couple of schools added to this list.
3. New Zealand
There is no specific reason for me to apply to NZ, and I would have not thought about applying to NZ in the light of recent racist attack(s) on a student community in Australia. Not to forget & mention both, Auckland or New Zealand is in close cultural and geographical influence of Australia.
Straying away from the main point :), University of Auckland is the only university in New Zealand that offers me competitive PHD learning in my desired field of Information systems and BPR. ( sorry not in the Comp departments :) )
4. Singapore
Lately Singapore has become the financial hub of the world and some of the univerisities in the country are really top notch. For instance, NUS and NTU ( where I am applying for sure ( both)) are in top 40 schools of the world. WOW! Isnt that great? Plus if I was a not a person who is attracted to ranks and numbers, NUS has a substantially cooler PHD program than many of the univerisities web pages I have visited over the web throughout the world.
Any and all suggestions are more than welcome. :) Dig it or just like it. We love to hear back from you! Just hit comment and that’s it !
Monday, June 8, 2009
Purpose of this internet-o-place
As far as I can think of, I have always wanted to become an engineer. Even when I didn't know what Engineering meant or what engineers were, I wanted to become one. I can attribute partially to my parents who said loosely those big words such as competition, hard life and money matters, etc. out loud in our house in front us even when I went to sixth grade.
You can actually say that I was just infatuated with the word "Engineer" and decided to move on this path even when I didnt actually know what it was.
Here I am after I earned my Master's in MIS and IT and a Bachelors in Information Technology and two years of experience, and I still want to learn more.
When I was in eight grade, I actually took time to teach the children of my mother's helper. Even though I was in eight grade, I assisted the kids who were in tenth grade with simple English structure and Grammar associated. So, as far as I can remember, I have liked teaching and imparting knowledge to people. For this to happen now after all of this professional profile, I would have to just follow the course of action and apply for a Phd program in my area of interest - Information Systems and Operations.
My intention is to have for myself a collection of activities what I have been doing for this endeavor.
You can actually say that I was just infatuated with the word "Engineer" and decided to move on this path even when I didnt actually know what it was.
Here I am after I earned my Master's in MIS and IT and a Bachelors in Information Technology and two years of experience, and I still want to learn more.
When I was in eight grade, I actually took time to teach the children of my mother's helper. Even though I was in eight grade, I assisted the kids who were in tenth grade with simple English structure and Grammar associated. So, as far as I can remember, I have liked teaching and imparting knowledge to people. For this to happen now after all of this professional profile, I would have to just follow the course of action and apply for a Phd program in my area of interest - Information Systems and Operations.
My intention is to have for myself a collection of activities what I have been doing for this endeavor.
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