What would I have been 500 years ago

Do you believe in rebirths? I guess I do. This is a good concept to believe when you die, as you will have something to look forward to. But this blog is not about rebirth. It's about believeing that if rebirths have occured and will occur, can I find out what profession suits me.
There are a number of movies in Hindi cinema which show that there's someone, and it has to be only ONE, who will make your most compatible partner, love interest, or wife/husband. Similarly, it's also a view which I hear often that there's a job or profession which is the ONE for you. The only issue if the above premise is true, is to JUST FIND what that profession IS. Simple. I dare say so. I have been in this inquiry of finding the best job according to my nature for a decade now. I have rejected a number of jobs till date and still haven't found THE job. Now I was contemplating that if rebirth funda also were true, maybe I could combine both and get my puzzle solved. How? Let's see.
I must have had many rebirths till now. I am sure I must not have been as confused about selection of a job in this birth in at least some of my previous births. In those births, I must have found out MY profession and developed quite an expertise in it. So it means somewhere in my soul I carry those skills. If only I could find that profession and use those skills in my present birth, I would be highly successful and greatly contented with my life. With this in mind, let me think what could I have been.
Let's go back 500 years. Let's restrict our search to India, although it's probably that 500 years back I could have been living in any country of the world. At that time, mughlas were ruling India. So who could I be - a soldier in the army, a shopkeeper(bania selling oils, or groceries), watchguard, a general, farmer, servant doing all the washing, some saint in the jungle, some artist(a painter or sculptor perhaps), or something else. I am still iterating through these choices and seeing where I could have fit in:). Maybe I should look back 1000 years, or maybe 1500 years. The search is still continuing, I am still thinking. Meanwhile, if you know me and can see me in any of the roles above or any else, do let me know. It's possible you find my perfect job(outsourcing man!).

Dilemma

I am stuck between illogical tester, deaf project manager and nontechnical client making irrelevant code changes.

Losing cool in office

Is my job important enough for me to lose my cool if something happens - the manager going nuts, the collegues backbiting, or me having to stay late to cater to whims and fancies of the manager.

Panna-lal, gaadi roko!

I have a mother-in-law. She is quite shy person who speaks slowly and softly and gives the impresion of someone whose's life is in slow motion. Her school is almost on my way to the office. So, I have been leaving her to her school in the mornings for a few weeks now. This is what happened one fine Saturday. My mother-in-law was to attend some school function, which would have occured at some other place than the school. Theplan was that the teachers would arrive at the school at normal time, and from there teh school bus would take them to the venue.
On the morning of the incident, just as I was to reach school, we saw the school bus leave the school premises. We were late. My mother-in-law asked me to follow the bus. And that's how it all began.
This is bollywood in reality. The school bis was ahead, and we were behind. The bus cut a corner, we followed 2 minutes after. The bus cut another corner; we were still behind. The bus climbed the flyover, and we followed 100 meters behind. The bus climbed down from the flyover and we were almost catching up. The bus crossed a public bus stop, and we were almost there. My mother-in-law asked me to take the car near the driver's window, so that she could ask the driver to stop and take her with the teachers. So I moved my car as close to the driver's window. And then came the call which astounded me: "Panna-lal, gaadi roko!". I was shocked by the loud commanding voice, coming as it was from someone whom I had never seen talk in normal voice in more than 2 years. Well, the driver, Pannalal heard and stopped the bus and all went well after that.
The incident was shocking but it was not ithat important too. A few weeks later, I was talking to my wife and I happened to tell her the commandeering of the Panna-lal. She was verifying the incident with her mom after a couple of minutes. She came back and said: "The incident has more substance that you know". When I expressed suprise by twiching my facial mucscles in surprise mode, she said "Panna-lal was not on that bus, the driver was not Panna-lal. Panna-lal is the most popular peon in school. Since my mom did not know the name of the driver, she called out the peon's name. Panna-lal's popularity ensured that the driver recognised familiar voice and gave attention during driving". Now, is that smnart thinking, or what?

Err on which side

We are normally faced with situations in which we have to make a choice. The choice is between doing something on the negative side, or doing something on the positive side. I am not saying moral sides, I am not saying legal side. I am just saying positive and negative side. The example could be as simple as jumping that red light when noone is looking and hence there's no chance of you getting caught. And you have to choose. Now what do you do. Well, since you can't get caught and it won't make a difference in the big scheme of things, you jump. You just erred on one side- a little on the negative side. My question is why not on the positive side. Why not err towards the positive side. What harm will befall you if you just did that. Just be a little more positive today. Err on the good side.
Or the other option is to carry the coin Two-face carries(remember Spiderman).

Where are you wasting your day today?

Where are you wasting your day today? On what kind of work? The work which prevents you from looking at flowers, being amused at squirrels scrambling around, taking in the blue sky, spending time with your kid- watching him grow, or just thinking nothing. I understand. The delivery is next weekend. And the next one will be 2 weekends after that. And your boss is some cousin of Hitler. Or maybe he's some machine in a human form. I know. This is reality. The reality of making ends meet, having a comfortable house and car, and building your career. This is the hard phase, right? And you will start enjoying sooner than later. Ya. What's your age? If working all these years has not done anything, how can you be sure working any harder now will help. Oh! this is the culmination of all those years. Hummm. So what you are earning right now is the effort of all those years. Well, maybe.
But let me get back to where we started. Where are you wasting your day today. Period.

Machines more reliable than engineers?

In a big IT project, most team members have shadow people. ie. these are the people who work in the project and are a replacement for the main engineers in emergency case. The emergency could be when someone falls ill, or gives a nasty surprise like leaving a job without enough notice period.
But I have not sen many people work on two computers simultaneously. ie One of the computer acting as a backup in case the main machine goes down, has irreversible memory damage, or just bursts in flames by chance. The issue is why not have backups machines for all machines in a company.
Does the IT management think Machines are more reliable than humans? Has the age of machines finally dawned on us? Or it is the well known apathy of managers towards engineers?

Need an attorney

This is the last straw. It's high summers now. And it rained for maybe a minute - out of nowhere. And my car got all dirty from the water dripping down dirty trees. This is crazy climate. I'm gonna sue God. Need a good lawyer for this. Do you know anyone good? This one could be tough.

don't take s*** from nobody

u get angry when someone criticises you, because somehow u accept what the other person is saying...if u don't accept other person's criticism..then u don't get affected..then the other person is as good as a madman who is just babbling sth....

Why I want to be a Software Engineer and not QA

Software engineer gets paid to write smart code, in which there are least bugs and errors.

QA enginener gets paid to act as dumb, or maybe even dumber than a client.

Development vs Maintenance project

Development vs Maintenance project
I am in a maintenence project. And I am tired of killing bugs. And they are so resistant, just like cockroaches. Now I know why they are called bugs.
And that gets me thinking. I don't want to kill them. Poor creatures.
If only I was in a development project. Then I wouldn't have to kill them. And that would have been easy on my soul.
And moreover I could create them!
Look at it it this way- I am creating something which is alive, and would live probably as long as the software lives, probably even after I am gone. That's a legacy I would have left.
And I would be doing the same thing which God did with creatures, and nowadays scientists are trying to do with cloning. Creation! I would be playing God in my small way. Create Bugs, and feel like a God; kill bugs and feel like a sinner.
The choice is yours. The boundaries are drawn.
Where do you want to be - in development or maintenence?