More - Manas Singh

IT Manager introduces performance rating at home, faces backlash.

Harish, a manager at one of the largest IT companies in India, decided to introduce performance rating system at his home. “My expenses know only one way, up” Harish “I had my annual performance review sheet open along with my personal expenses sheet. It appeared odd that my appraisal depends on not just personal performance. […]

Hisaab

हिसाब चलो फिर हिसाब हो ही जाये मुनासिब तारिख ढूँढ ली जाये जो कहर हमपे बरपा है, वापस देदो ज़ुल्म जो धाएं हैं, उनका सौदा होगा तारीफें अपनी, चुन चुन के लौटादो जो कोई छूटी, उसपे ब्याज लगेगा निकाल के फ़ोन से, तस्वीरें दे देंगे, पर जो लम्हे भूले जाते नही उनके बदले क्या लीजियेगा? […]

Meet

Eleven years had passed since I saw her last. So much had changed since. In fact, everything should have changed but didn’t. Isn’t that how time is supposed to work? I still wanted to know her. I would appear a different person to those who knew me in school. Now, I talk more, fighting hesitations […]

Caesar

Last week, I was sitting with a bunch of old friends. One friend asked about Caesar, my golden Labrador. They always do. It has been several years since it died, yet friends ask. In school, all my friends knew about Caesar. Of late, I find it easy to capture nostalgia mother tongue, Hindi. मैं जब […]

Wise Men

Imagine there is a village. It has people who work hard to earn a living. Among them, are men who do not relate well to the constant hustle. They realize that one does not need a lot to live. They do not need large vasts of land or hordes of cattle. The moment one owns […]

Shayar (poet)

कल एक शाएर के कमरे के बहार से गुज़रा खिड़की से देखा वो कागज़ पे कलम रगड़ रहा था उसमे से खुश्बो की तरह नज़्म उठ रही थी मौका पा कर मैं एक पन्ना चुरा लाया कोरे पन्ने ने घूरा तो लगा लिखना कठिन होगा, कुछ पन्नों के कोने बटोर लिए हैं मैंने जिनको जेब […]

Minimal Desktop

I code on an Ubuntu VM running on Windows. The Ubuntu VM is just for coding, I prefer to keep it small, which makes cloning and snapshots faster. Too many snapshots have caused problems for me. I delete the older ones, which again, is faster for smaller VM. So, I started creating a minimal Python dev […]

Lattu

लट्टू खुद ही फीते बाँधनेे में जुट गया इतना नाराज़ हो गया माँ से फिर लट्टू लेकर घूमता रहा कमरे से निकला हवा से दरवाज़ा बंद हो गया लट्टू अन्दर, बाहर डोर हाँथ में थी बेवकूफी ने जोर लगाया तो टूट गयी दिन ही खराब था, शायद सुबह से डोरों से झूझ रहा था फीते […]

The Abilene Paradox

Can fear be squashed like a bug? Jatin Here’s a short story I wrote. In an Abilene paradox a group of people collectively decide on a course of action that is counter to the preferences of many (or all) of the individuals in the group. Sometimes, the phrase “Road to Abilene” is also used to […]

Fear and Learning

Learning and teaching are difficult. When someone tries to teach, they expect results. To ensure results are acceptable, exams are taken. To force desired results, fear is alarmingly popular. Driving I get anxious in crowded places. For me it is a nightmare to drive on a road with bumper to bumper traffic with people looking […]

Sweater

स्वेटर तुम्हारे हाँथ का बुना स्वेटर तो नही याद दिलाती हुई सर्द हवाएं हैं यहाँ ठण्ड लगती है हाँथ पाव में हथेली मल लेता हूँ, पाँव को मनाना पड़ता है

The Dinner

Garett frowned as he tasted the food. He looked at others for reactions. Moira looked at him and knew what he wanted to say. Ferris kept eating. “This is terrible!” Garrett said. “I didn’t expect the food to be so bad, perhaps they should fire the cook. How can anyone eat this shit?” The manager, […]

The Ganges

The Ganges starts ferociously. Plunging and rushing through the narrow valleys and gorges, it lets nothing come in its way. It slowly and steadily erodes the rocks. Oblivious to what lies ahead, it moves unfazed about the destination. The vigor is fascinating to watch but intimidating to handle. It doesn’t fear obstacles. This is youth. […]

Test Automation with Selenium

When learning Selenium, we start with tutorials which use a Login page example. It demonstrates the capabilities and show how to use them. When working on a project, it takes a while to figure out the structure so as to keep it manageable. Complexity increases as timelines get strict. To catch up with changes, teams […]

Inquiry and Religion

It will cease to be an inquiry if answers are accepted without a challenge. Learning is to see “what is” against perception. We build analogies to compare the unknown. We get restless upon seeing something new. With haste we put a name to it. A tag that helps us bring it within our realm of […]