One of the most popular games of my generation, Pacman, has indeed made the cut above everything else that came after it. Today is the day when the game Pacman celebrates its 30th birthday, and this is perhaps the only game that has survived all odds.

Google commemorated this event in history by replacing their logo with a flash based Pacman game. The game worked as fine as it would with the real arcade game. I scored a decent 26k.

It all started on 22nd of May 1980, one month after I was born, in a game studio owned by Bandai Namco Games in Japan. It was called as Puck Man then, and this simple game addicted several children and adults alike. It came to the Western nations in October of the same year and sold over 100,000 units the same year.

To build on the success, in the US markets, variants of Pacman like the Ms.Pac-Man (female version), Super Pacman, Pac and Pal amongst several others were launched and some raked up larger revenues than the original one.

The game  is still alive, although mostly as a free arcade which you can download off the internet. Or, play directly on the web like the way I did on Google homepage.

I am strict believer that whatever profession one may be in, if if does not involve travel, the job eventually gets monotonous and stagnant. At the end of the day, it does not matter how exciting your work is, if it does not have the travel effect built into it.

I fly often on business trips and particularly enjoy them even though it means cutting down my sleep time, stress if you’re flying during the peak hours and the associated snarls. But, the fun of going to a new place, other than home means something special.

I am writing this post while waiting in a Kingfisher Lounge, after having a sumptuous breakfast. This is the first time I have been given privileges of a priority customer, and I am thoroughly enjoying it. Even if it means getting my pockets emptied, getting priority over others means a lot to my soul than my body. It gives me an air of confidence, which brings me to my point. Buy privileges, albeit it sucks your quids out of your pockets, it has its good omen.

By the way, Kingfisher ladies are the prettiest I have seen. There you go, one more angle of charge-dom.

I am not big on the number of days I spend on this planet nor superstitious about the numbers in the age column. But, I feel it today, having completed three decades makes me feel older than I am. It feels like I wasn’t ready yet to turn uncle.

Yes, I turned thirty today and definitely not the proudest day of my life. I was born in the afternoon at 1622 hours, and I am glad the doc waited two minutes more than she should have.

Reflecting on my twenties, I know it from the bottom of my chest that I have failed more than I could succeed. I wish I could have been at a better place. I want to change things around now, can I? As Hiro Nakamura says, I don’t want to mess with what was destined to happen, and I am speaking as though the capability has always been around.

The last ten years have been significant greatly, and is perhaps the most important decade of my life. I realized it after I moved into the next one, sadly. I graduated, started my career, and I am well on my way to achieving my professional goals. Yet, I am unhappy, why? I am selfish and probably am affected with dissatisfaction syndrome.

Looking back at the past does not do much good, I have a whole new decade staring at me. I should probably make plans, and continue the action plan I made last year successfully. I don’t want to start reflecting on my thirties when I reach forty with a sorry face. I want to achieve, I want to reach my goals, however difficult they may be.

One major goal that I have been aspiring for the past year and a half is to finish writing a book. I have two that have started and are far away as possible from completion. The first is a fictional novel that is in the conceptual stages. I have fondly named it Million Dreams, and it is perhaps a reflection of my life, the past twenty years at least. The second one is closer to my heart. I have been studying success since 2006, and I don’t find a single book covering all, and many ideas are obtuse, and perhaps unrealistic. Many of the stuff I read, I follow, but as my own version, and it’s working fine. The target is to write a book that encompasses all angles of success and the book is named – Success Mantras. I have officially started on it, and I hope to have it written by the year end.

I hope to share more on professional practices and everything I deem important on this blog. Thanks for following me and appreciate the messages you leave me from time to time.

What could be more shocking than a bomb going off in a crowded market? For me, it is the news that IT professionals are surfing jihadi websites, and sending out emails to Pakistan in the same regard.

Security audits conducted in several IT hubs in Bangalore has revealed that some IT personnel are indulged in jihadi activities based out of India’s parasitic neighbor, Pakistan. As one would expect, the communication is via the internet and staffers are caught surfing and posting messages on radical Islamic sites and blogs during their work hours as well.

“Some of the IT employees found indulging in suspicious internet activity are well-to-do professionals who devote a very small part of their day at work to carry out their jihadi agenda,” an intelligence official pointed out adding that this gave them the perfect cover while executing their jihadi plans.

Earlier this year, five IT companies in Bangalore received emails from terrorists threatening to blow up their offices across the city. One of the companies was indeed Infosys.

Based on the threat, Government of India has provided security cover for Infosys, and anybody new to this update would be surprised to see a war like situation in the company’s campus.

IT professionals getting swayed is a heart breaking situation. One would expect IT staffers to be intellects, who can think logically and rationally, and the inverse radical thinking is somewhat of a surprise.

In India, when you get caught for a driving offense, it is rather customary to state a person’s name who is powerful in the civil society like a high ranking police officer, a politician or a goon in some cases. If you say their names, cops will let you go invariably due to fear of repercussions.

Earlier this year, my cousin and his just US returned friend had gone out for a late night drink. While they were driving back, a police officer waylaid them and did a breath analyzer test on them. It was apparent that both of them had consumed alcohol over the permissible limits.

These two are buddies from school and this is not the first time they are getting caught for this offense. The friend has a distant relative who is a high ranking police officer and he uses his name every time to get away from the clutches.

This time around when they were pulled up, the friend went over to the police officer and confronted him with the name. The police officer seemed rather cool and questioned the friend – “Tell me one important thing that happened with your uncle last week. If you happen to know what happened, I will let you go”. The friend was puzzled, and after much thought told the police officer that he had no clue. The police officer shot back - “Your uncle died last week”.

PMI Bangalore chapter have given opportunities to a new set of faces to head the executive committee. This was earlier announced during the annual body meeting last year, and has been made formal this year.

P S Ravindranath takes over from Amar V. Bhaskar as the president, while Sai Naga will continue to hold the post of secretary and treasurer.

During the annual body meeting, I, along with a couple others volunteered to help build a new website for the chapter. Discussions around this are yet to materialize at the time of writing.

I paid 16k for the camera and I got a Reebok watch and Reebok sunglasses free with it, along with 2GB memory card. And, I bargained for a carry case as well.

When I started browsing different Canon models, this one particularly caught my eye for its bulkiness more than anything. I strongly believe that cameras should be bulky to give you stability to capture images, rather than the Canon IXUS models which are feather light and sometimes I am paranoid that I might discard things that don’t weigh as much.

Anyways, I did some reading about the camera after I bought it, which is probably not a very good practice. And, I found that the ratings for the camera hover consistently around 70%-80% which is not bad at all for an inexpensive digital camera.

In brief, the camera offers a best resolution of 10MP, which is perhaps the flavor of the town and has 10X zoom. And, a number of macro features.

If you are planning on buying the Canon PowerShot SX120 IS, make sure you read reviews and this is the best of the lot.

The next gadget on my wish-list is a 40+” LCD and a home theater. I think I will have both these around June next year.

Years pass by, whether we do something, nothing or a whole lot of things. We come up with new resolutions every year without fail and with the same probability of setting goals, we end up ignoring it sometime around November.

So what do we need to do to ensure that we do what we always wanted to achieve?

This is a prelude to my new book that I am about to write. It will provide plenty of processes and tips to make sure that you become the man/woman you always wanted to be. Honestly, I haven’t named the book yet. And, I hope to have that sorted sometime before February.

Ah! I started to digress the moment I started writing this post. I wanted to wish all my well wishers, followers, friends and relatives a wonderful new year which will set them free from mere thoughts.

I start with my new job on Monday. I am looking forward to it; except for the miles that I need to put on my car.

Starting a new job is always tricky. Employers would have hired you after having a morsel of your true capabilities and would like to devour the full course meal over a period of a few weeks. As a new employee, you would want to put the best of what you can offer in your employer’s mouth. In the process, one could overcook it or over-marinate the to-be delicacies.

If you ask me, new employees should treat employers with a tinge of taste every time they crave for it. Do not provide everything you could offer, instead put it in piece-meals and let the gourmand get the true drive of every ingredient that overtures.