Stranger to a Friend

Life and friends; both are incomplete without each other. I have written about friends earlier, here and here, and I'm sure that will be the topic of discussion in many more posts to come. I owe a lot to my friends and I really can't imagine a life without them. But at the same time, I'm intrigued by the realisation that each one of them was once just another stranger to me and now, life without them, is unimaginable

The beginning of a friendship is something that always amazes me. It could be something as inconspicuous as ending up as room-mates or as neighbours; ending up as lab-partners; studying in the same class. It could begin at a discussion about common interests, common problems, "GIRLS" (yes,both boys and girls talk about 'girls' in different perspective though ;-) ) or even 'parents' . The possibilities are limitless.

And before you know it, the person you had just met, is now an integral part of your life. The same people whom you were shy/scared to talk to are now the people who know most about you; the same people whom you'd call by name, are now referred to by a variety of nick-names ( and the real name is even forgotten ); the same people you won't cry in front of, have already helped you through your worst times; the same people you called 'silent' are the one's that talk to you the most; the same people you cribbed about to your 'parents' or old-friends, are the one's you choose over parents to discuss a problem at hand.

All these words come out of mere retrospection of how I met my great friends, but I am sure there are many things about this 'unique' relation that I have missed out here. Feel free to share them with me ( in other words .. leave a comment .. ;-) )

Technology makes me lazy

My last post was about laziness and it was after posting it that I started realising how laziness affects each and every aspect of my life. It makes me who I am and makes the way I am. Some may like it, some may not. In fact, it explains my infatuation for computers and programs. I had once read an interesting quote

World's best programmers are lazy

And programming being a skill I'd like to excel at, the lazier I get, the happier I feel. (Recently, a similar lazy attitude led me to write an elegant script that has been documented here ).

Technology and laziness go hand in hand, in fact as explained in the last post, its a cycle. Laziness inspires some technological breakthrough and the use of such things leads to a further lazy life. My friend, in his blog, explores how we are so depended on technology. He goes on to question the future of such a dependence, bring into light the biggest fears of mankind with respect to the technological boom, control by machines.

Many before us have pondered over this reaching a variety of conclusions. Some deduce that such a scenario would never arise, some make references to science-fiction movies like Matrix to show how it might not be just a possibility.

But are we not 'already' controlled by machines? Be it the alarm clock, the i-pod, the laptop, the air-conditioner, the motor-vehicles or the cell-phone. Right from the moment we get up to the moment we get back to sleep, we constantly interact with different forms of technology. Now the real question; can we live without them?

Imagine your life without any 'one' of the things that you own and value. Do you think it would be the same? So, aren't we already under the control of the 'army of gadgets'? If one thing breaks down, our life comes to a halt. Now, if we were to assume that the gadgets were little more intelligent, can't we conclude that they do it on purpose ? This reminds me of the Murphy's law

If anything can go wrong, it will

Coming back to the real scenario, it would be worth considering our dependence on technology around us.Imagine a day without your favourite tools and gadgets around you, and share with us how it would be?