I read this wonderful article on naming conventions around the world from the perspective of a software designer who designs forms that have to be internationalized, and am already feeling really happy for having read it. Read it, and become a little more sensitive to the different folks you’d be working with.

A similar article can be written about how folks are named in different parts of India. Also about how imposing local customs by force of law can make things all the weirder. The state of Maharashtra required people to have three parts to their name – “Family name” “Father’s name” and “Given Name”, if I remember correctly. That is just so insensitive to those from outside Maharashtra who have to get a birth certificate for their kids, or register their kids in a school there. Bombay, or Mumbai is in Maharashtra.

I find it very strange to have two “given name”s in my name – “Carthik” and “Anand” – neither of which are my father’s name, or my family name. I also find it strange that in our family, we use two family names, or “surnames” – Iyer and Sharma. Most of the cousins on my father’s side are “Iyers”, while I am a “Sharma”. My sister was an “Iyer” before she got married. None of my relatives know me as Carthik. They all know me as Anand, or call me Nandu. I sometimes wonder if, “Carthik”, “Anand” and “Nandu” have different personalities – whether when someone who only knows one of these meets someone only who knows another, they’d be totally surprised to learn about the other side of me.

Happiness is as simple as keeping the front half of your brain all pepped up! The trick is meditation, and mind control.

I have tried meditation so many times – it is always the pain the legs that gets me. Keep in mind that when I was young, I used to have to sit cross legged at the temple, during the veda class, and at home, while eating etc. It used to hurt then, and it hurts now. I used to think that with practice, and over time, the pain and discomfort will disappear, but it hasn’t really. My legs are weird, I tell you. I have read that you can meditate in any comfortable posture, but my mind seems to reject the idea of sitting in a chair and meditating – it just doesn’t feel right. So for me, it is a little bit of both, body- and mind-control. I tried meditating today, to get my mind back on track. I quit after 10 minutes of discomfort. Then there is the thing about doing it right – I have this stuck-up notion that I need someone to teach me and do it with me, and help me through the process. Doing it all alone somehow doesn’t seem right.

I know, these are all excuses, and what I really need to do is just sit down, and do nothing.

The Calendar followed in Kerala starts a new year on a different day, ever since Raja Udaya Marthanda Varma “declared” a new era, and a new new year’s day circa 825 A.D. The new year’s day celebration occurs on the traditional new year’s day. Confused? So am I, a little, when it comes to all things traditional. The “Hindu” calendar is totally different from this Malayalam calendar, too. Read that article carefully and you will find a month that shares it’s name with me. Thousands of years are too long to conveniently call history, so some of it becomes tradition, some myth, and some religion.

Today I was supposed to wake up and see some flowers/fruits first thing in the morning. I made-do with my face, which is not too bad, really.

Yesterday, a program I was writing gave in to my will. It’s working in the background as I write this. I have some other writing to do, too, but have to wait for some results. Today’s gonna be a good, busy day. I hope the rest of the year is as good as well.