The 27th of January witnessed a couple of high profile IT events – Apple launching the iPad and Oracle outlining its strategy for Sun. Though the events addressed completely different markets (Apple bringing technology to the common man, whereas Oracle is building technology focused on enterprises), there was a common thread across the two.

Software – Hardware Integration.

Executives of both companies touted their unique prowess to engineer hardware – software integration for their customer’s benefit. Though this is not a new concept (another example is IBM’s concept of Appliances), we are getting to hear more of this in the market place.

The views expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle.

The Republic day holiday gave me an opportunity to spend a lot of time with the kids. Naturally it was a roller coaster ride – the tantrums, their life discoveries, the fights, their demand for attention & their evolving personalities! By evening I was at my wits end counting the number of years left for them to leave home (which by the way is a long time away).

In between putting the kids to bed & hitting the sack, I spent a while mulling over what kind of individuals I want my kids to grow up.

Thanks to Khalil Gibrans’ famous poem, I remembered the quote about “..our children are not ours, they belong to the world ..”. We, the parents, need to launch them to the world with a best chance of their success – with or without us. Accordingly the kids need to grow up to be independent.

Considering the ever changing world we live in today, it’s become difficult to predict what skills will help them tomorrow. In this uncertainity, the only certainity is that individuals need to be strong minded to take on any challenge they come across – mind over matter.

Just before calling it a day, I proudly announced to the missus that I wanted my kids to grow up to be independent & strong minded.

“I want them to be happy” – came the response even before I started explaining how I had arrived at the choice of my attributes. And the matter was closed.

Apart from being awed by the brilliance of her thought’s simplicity, I was left acknowledging that Men are from Mars, and Women are from Venus! And to know that I am the one with Tal Ben-Shahar’s book Happier by my bed side …. tsch tsch.

PS: While I pen these thoughts & blog it via a cool iPhone app, the missus is snoring away the day’s travails.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

It was the first day of the year & decade. Having spent the day with the extended family, we had just finished a sumptuous Rajasthani dinner & started heading home. Just as we started, we came across a bunch of villas that got us all wishing, drooling & “hmmmmm“ing. The plush serene looking bougainvillea adorned villas were inspirational & good enough to be my “strive for” goal of the year (or maybe the decade). I was charged up & was eager to get to the next stage of the game.