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I used to pray to God, that I wanna be somebody who will make a significant contribution to science and I want to work in a big Lab in some corner of the world. Although I haven't been awarded Nobel Prize or anything, I kind of made it. It is not as awesome as I dreamt, but the important bits are there. I wanted be a big scientist that people would remember my name. I could not get my name on children text books, but I did manage to get a picture of me on the newspapers. I rent a beautiful studio apartment overlooking Mountains in a peaceful neighbourhood. Since I'm already here, I realize I forgot to make some other wishes.

About Recent "Terrorist" attack in Bangladesh

More or less, we are all aware of the recent "Terrorist" attack in Dhaka, Bangladesh. 9 Italian, 7 Japanese and 3 Bangladeshi citizen were brutally murdered. Murdered for no reason at all.

I'm keeping the word Terrorist within quotation for a reason. These five gunmen had no other agenda then to kill people and be killed. They had no purpose, no demand and came without any warning to the surprize of entire Nation. They say they represent ISIS. But for my tiny little mind it is not possible to guess what ISIS gains by murdering in a muslim country, during muslim month of prayer (Ramadan), while it is time for Muslim Prayer, including 3 muslim Bangladeshi who were held hostage.

From my small little room, I cannot say who initiated this heinous act or who benefits from it. But I can say for sure, those five "Terrorist" do not represent my country. They are not Bangladesh.

Dear World. Please forgive us for we couldn't prevent this for happening. Please don't hate us for 5 "Terrorist" who chose to blow themselves up with innocent people. Please remember us a country of Tradition, Language, festival and peace among brothers and sisters regardless of race or religion.

Sincerely,

Maisun Ibn Monowar.

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What we've become?

1. Eid is one of the few days you have better chance for forgiveness from The Almighty. It offers you a chance of cleansing. Right now, I can think of only other event that provides similar opportunity, Hajj. Mere thought of punishment of hell should make you tremble in fear. For some reason I could never connect to those emotions. Is it because my heart made of stones? I think not. I like to think my heart is made of Plastic. Recycled Industrial Plastic. It works. Durable. Easy to repair. Artificial.
2. Speaking of artificial, there is one more thing I was able to fake flawlessly. Smile. Want to land that next business deal? Present yourself with a smile. Want that job? Present yourself with a smile. I got so good at faking, that it actually ended up looking original.
3. I used to have fun on Eid. Then life happened. Me and my friends got scattered across country. Across entire globe. Only few remains within my immediate reach. I could go and hangout with them. This would mean Hiring a cab only to pay him at least double fare for driving me 5 minutes in this empty city. Then go for a snack in some coffee shop with the whole group. As a freelancer, I make decent amount of money now and then. But I never managed enough courage to get inside one of these coffee shop to get myself cup of coffee. The problem doesn’t stop there. As a student, DIYer, curious mind; I want to share my ideas with people. Have a fruitful discussion. Only way I can do that is by spending a fortune on coffee shops. It’s all about money now a days. If only there was a concept of a place where you could relax on a summer afternoon, chit chat with your friends, spend a good time with your family. Oh wait! There is something like that. It’s called public park. We HAD some of those here in Dhaka. Not sure what it has become now.
4. There will be good and evil sides of all entities. It is not unusual for people to have 2 faces. I can handle people with 2 faces. In face we all have few faces. I’m not the same person when I’m with my little sister, in comparison to when I’m with my professor, my friends, my boss. Now we have few more faces to put up. One for Facebook. One for Twitter. One for instagram. Yes, the image I have of myself on Facebook, doesn’t match with my real life image. The image of myself on my BlogSpot site, doesn’t match with my main web site. I understand that. When I interact with a person I remember these facts. What I’m afraid of, when I’ll look myself in the mirror after 40 years; who will I be?

Connecting ... with People !!! [part 1]

I never really had friends. From the very beginning. I can't remember why, but I always preferred staying at home and reading a book rather than going out and breaking a leg. I did find cycling interesting, but that too was short lived.

I remember Pokemon (Yes! Pokemon. Yellow mouse with electricity) gave me a common ground to talk to other people around me. That was the first time I actually made friends. Then again Pokemon caused a lot of controversies among us. To elders, it was simply childish. To me, it was nonsense. It was way too much effort for me to set the records straight.

I military school, not many had interest on emerging technology. Therefore, my friend circle was actually few dots. 

Same goes to college. I could never actually caught up.

In University, I never really bothered to expand my friend circle. Or even, make it a circle. 

This has left me with a peculiar problem. I have absolutely no clue how to interact with my fellow earthlings. I could hide this fact easily before, but now things have changed. I mean, when you are that guy who stands in the corner with an empty glass on a conference dinner, you are kind of hard not to notice. Same applies to other social gatherings.

To this day, I could connect with very few peoples around me. They give me a great source of comfort. I have my gratitude to express to the following people.

1. Ocean >> For letting me join with him to form a BiCycle gang.
2. Towkir >> For compensating me for my broken scale
3. Azim >> Joining me on a quest for computer from within the closed campus
4. Turkey >> For simply being him
5. Imran >> The first Sonnetier
6. Arranya >> The second Sonnetier
7. Tanzir >> The third Sonnetier 
8. Asif >> Fellow EEE
9. Shakil >> Kind of my arch enemy, the guy with an Apple
10. Essa >> Adults, but still watching cartoons
11. Sadaf >> The CSEEE
12. Zafor >> Dude, come to the good side. Come to Ubuntu.
13. Kafi (vai) >> For being technical badass with people skills.

So forgive me people. If you ever find me staring at you, saying nothing, I'm probably trying to figure out what communication protocol to use.

[Disclaimer: I have more names to express my gratitude to. Stay tuned and enjoy music by James Blunt.]

Let's be the Secret Agents of Innovation

“The name is Bond, James Bond”

Tell me the truth, how many times did you practice this line in front of the mirror with your own name. Spies are cool. Speaking virtually every language in the world, instantly making friends, mixing with crowd, foreseeing the outcome, not to mention being good with the ladies!

You know what I think? We can still be one. Cool like a spy.

We can be, “The Secret Agent of Innovation”

Think about it. The scientific communities are full with people eagerly waiting to share their ideas with the rest of the world. Because anyone in the scientific community knows that only way we can grow better is by sharing and through teamwork. That’s why they organize conference and publish their works on Journals. But I found it hard to instantly connect with them. I didn’t know how to approach them or how to begin a conversation with them. I couldn’t be the “James Bond” of the scientific community gathering.

It’s been almost a month I’m in Japan for my study purpose. I’m studying in KyuTech. Their lab has more tools than what I’m used to. I now have access to site like amazon and ebay. Technically, I can order any component from online and build my idea. But I still couldn’t do it. Because, most of the sites in Japan are written in Japanese. People here don’t use English because they don’t need to. They are sufficient on their own.

There have been time, when I needed some certain computer script to run to accomplish my goal. I found out about openCV and I was mesmerized by the collection of algorithms. Open source and free of cost. But I couldn’t use it. I didn’t know enough about programming language.

So here’s the thing, I couldn’t connect with people, I can’t talk with people around me and I can’t use the resources that I already have. Why so?

May be because, from the childhood I was too focused on being a student instead of being a good learner. May be I was too concerned about raising my grades, when I should have gone out and made more friends. Learn to mix with the society.

Train to be a “Secret Agent of Innovation”.

Panic attack and Facebook

One thing no one put it on their experience list, how it feels right before leaving for you higher studies. I’m expecting my visa within this week and when I get that, i’ll fly at the earliest convenience. I know my shopping isn’t complete, but I have roughly a week to finish it. But I get this feeling I never experienced before, the constant feeling of running out of time. The clock gives you a constant reminder. Once you are out of your country, you are out of your comfort zone. You’ll no longer be in a place you are familiar with. No one will speak your language. No one will eat the same food as you would. You are expected to speak their language, eat their kind of food and obey their rules. You don’t have anyone to pick you up on your feet in case you fall. This is not an easy thing to deal with.

I’ve been trying to calm my mind through diverting attention to something else. Gossiping, writing, watching TV; things I now consider a waste of time. I’ve been watching “Person of Interest”. I have to say, it did manage to divert my mind from the reality for the day. For those of you who have never seen an episode of it, the show involves an ex-military guy protecting random people based on a super AI machine built by a computer genius who is dead by papers! Of course, being an engineer, I can tell majority of the plot is crap and based of science fiction which is not possible to implement. However, behind the Hollywood stunts and CGI there is an alarming truth.

Did you notice how easy it is for Finch to acquire personal data. At one point there is a dialog, “It was very hard for governments to gain personal information and their association. So I created social media.” A laughable line for those who know the history behind social media but nevertheless, it does make a strong point. I realized, I spent years posting my best pictures on Facebook, mapping the places I went to, food I love, people I be with, movies I like. I consciously created a virtual copy of myself. Open for public to view and comment. Now that I think of it, it wouldn’t be so difficult for someone to impersonate me. I posted everything about me online, because I thought it will create more job opportunities for me, I’ll get to know more people, but now I think it was a stupid idea. I should be more careful when it comes to posting on social media. Think about it; In the past decade, you’d find hopeless Romeos standing on the street waiting to catch a glimpse of his darling. Now, in the present, he just needs to be a “Friend” on Facebook and keep staring at those selfies she posts every hour, be at the events she says she’ll be there!

Technology is merely a tool. It is upto us to use it. I would prefer the users to be good people. So be a good people and stop posting crap on Facebook.