The good, the bad and the ugly

Here’s an old fable that I came across in a video.

A wolf saw a new born lamb, and said “Hey, you were the one who dirtied my water last year!”  The lamb defended, “No sir, it wasn’t me”.  “No, I know it was you!!” the wolf insisted. The lamb tried to explain, “But sir, I was only born this year. How could have I possibly dirtied your water last year?” “So it must have been your mother then for which you must pay”, and thus the wolf started feasting on the lamb.

The mother sheep came by, and what could the poor mother do when she saw her son between the jaws of the wolf torn into pieces? In passion of her motherhood, she head butted the wolf. Of course, the wolf was not affected by the mother sheep, but shouted out to other animals, “Look at this terrorist, head butting me”. The parrots heard the loud wolf, repeated in numbers what the wolf was shouting, and joined in voice “Yes, we condemn the ewe butting the wolf.” Where were the parrots when the wolf ate the lamb? 

The above fable was used by Osama Bin Laden when developing an analogy for the 9/11 attacks back in 2011, the wolf being USA, the water being Israel, the lamb being Palestine, the mother sheep being Iraq, and the parrots being the western media.

Of course, we now know through conspiracy theories, Osama’s logic was fairly scripted, as the attacks were portrayed as an act of defence. My personal modification of the story would be:

The wolf assembles a loud group of smaller wolves in sheep clothing, instructs them to bite and scratch it and then yell out to the parrots that the mother sheep and her clan did so.

Actual YouTube from Al Jazeera

Career Starting Tips - Questions to Ask Yourself

My professor at uni asked me to present for the new graduates, so I thought I get clever and discuss two fundamental questions I think many employers these days ask fresh graduates and so I thought I could put some structure to this. If you're at an early stage in your career, just out of uni, thinking where and how to start applying, maybe you can start getting your roadmap right by asking yourself the following questions:

1. Do you want to utilize and enrich a certain skill set or do you want to grow experience in a particular industry ?
2. Do you want to start at entry level at a large firm and work your way up, or do you want to join a small firm at a pivotal role?

The diagram above shows the four possible responses to the questions and I'll describe below their descriptions and impacts as far as my brief experience in the market has been.

Skill set specific job in a small firm - 

Skill set specific job in a large firm - 

Industry specific job in a small firm - 

Industry specific job in a large firm - 

Father and Son - Cat Stevens

It's not time to make a change
Just relax, take it easy
You're still young, that's your fault
There's so much you have to know

Find a girl, settle down
If you want, you can marry
Look at me, I am old
But I'm happy

I was once like you are now,
And I know that its not easy
To be calm , when you found
Something going on

But take your time
Think a lot
Think of everything you got
For you will still be here tomorrow
But your dreams may not

How can I try to explain
When I do he turns away again
Its always been the same
Same old story

From the moment I could talk
I was ordered to listen now

There's a way , and I know
I have to go away
I know, I have to go

And all the times, that I've cried
Keeping all the things I knew inside

And it's hard, but harder to ignore it
If they were right, I'd agree
But it's them they know, Not me now

There's a way , and I know

That I have to go away 

I know, I have to go 

SQL Snippet - How to count the number of characters in a string

I've come across a number of methods to count the number of characters in a string in SQL Server, but this is by far the most clever:


SELECT LEN('How to count no. of o') - LEN( REPLACE('How to count no. of o','o','') )

The replace function replaces all 'o's with '', therefore removing them.

The difference in lengths is therefore the number of 'o's.

Lyrics - Yeh jo Halka Halka Suroor Hai (Ustaad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan)

Saki ki har nigaha pe balkha ke pee gaya
Lehro se khelta hua lehra ke pee gaya

Aye rehmate tamam meri har khata muaaf
Mein inteha e shauk mein ghabra ke pee gaya

Pee ta bagair izn, yeh kab thi meri majaal
Dar parda jashne yaar ki sheh paake pee gaya

Zahid yeh meri shokhiye zinda na dekhna,
Rehmat ko baaton baaton mein behla ke pee gaya

Udi udi ghataye aati hai,
Mutribo ki navayen aati hai
Kiski yeh soo khuli hai saawan mein
Mehki mehki hawaein aati hai

Aao sehne chaman mein raks kare
Saaz lekar ghataye aati hai,
Dekh kar unki akhniyo ko adam,
mehkado ko hayae aati hai

Paas rehta hai , duur rehta hai
koi dil mein zaroor rehta hai

jab se dekha unki aakhon ko,
halka halka suroor rehta hai

aise rehte hai woh mere dil mein
jaise zulmat mein noor rehta hai

ab adam ka yeh hal har dam
mast rehta hai, choor rehta hai

The same nation that sighed a relief at the loss is now rejoicing its reclamation

I’ve been flicking through the Bangladeshi channels over the past week sitting here in London and it’s the same celebration everywhere – triumph of the execution of the assassins of our father of the nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. It’s great news, a great achievement – but how much role did the people celebrating the event play in this victory?

I’m not a historian, and never sat down to go through Bangladesh’s history – but I do have conscience. Father of nation or any common man for that instant, the assassination of an entire family in such a brutal manner deserved just trial and punishment, and this deserved in any era, and any country. Why did it take this long then?

I was born years after the liberation. Like me, youth of today did not experience the cloud of chaos that covered the country after its liberation, nor did we face the rise in nepotism and corruption in Bangladesh during the regime of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. However, we have been fortunate enough not to experience the same over the last ten years. I say fortunate for a reason – this is so our fathers can live to compare what happened in the past with what is happening in the present. Unlike the event that took place in 1975, such has not repeated today.

Then why does the title sound so provocative? Today, the assassins have faced just punishment and we are all rejoicing and celebrating this as reclamation of our pride, honour and national interest. Where was this when the assassination took place? History leaves it’s footprints in places other than our hearts and memories. After the military coup took over on August 15th, almost every leading nation including Russia, America & China recognized Bangladesh as a new country where they could invest in. The country’s people breathed a sigh of relief after the political family regime was thrown over. I remember phrases such as ‘Only one segment amassed wealth while others were suffering, in an impoverished new nation’. Isn’t this the same nation that is now celebrating the execution of the assassins?

People will get me wrong and misunderstand me – what happened on 15th August 1975 was brutal, and what happened on the 28th January 2010 was justice. My question is, how shameless are we? And do we have any conscience at all? On one side, the nation thanked God when the dictatorship was overthrown. On the other side, the same nation thanks the same God for punishing the people who made the overthrow possible. I don’t blame the nation anymore – how can we expect our people to remember what happened 35 years ago, when our memory is refreshed every five years during the elections.

To be perfectly honest, over the last 10 or more years, only families closely attached to the Sheikh family have pursued this day – or families who directly benefit when the Awami League party is in power. On the other side, only families directly linked with the army personnel who were involved in the crime were keen to avoid this day. The common man and common population of the country is just like a swing – it rejoices and revolts only when it comes with benefits.

Shame on the nation for its weak conscience and memory. Shame on the nation for lack of its own judgement. Bangladesh is said to be one of the happiest countries in the world – I am not surprised.

Pseudo Independence

Another concept I came up with while trying to explain trends that annoy me –
"pseudoindependence"

I see the media today, in fact how it's been for the last decade, and I get the vibe that woman empowerment themes has gone a long distance and elevated our society but has created a somewhat false sense of independence in women.

This is either the chauvinist in me that's saying this or the cynical orthodox, but I get the impression that women these days feel they could live without a partner of their opposite sex. I'm probably wrong but that's my impression of movies and tv shows that portray women living happy lives without being in a committed relationship sponsor a false sense of assurance to every day women.

So lets be scientific here : the effects i observe are more casually changing partners. Divorce cases. Agree with me , we hear about more divorces these days. And the cause I consider : listen to some of the lyrics these days , where the lead girl is saying she's 'sorry' she's seeing some other and doesn't want to lie to her man. Jeez - and given these women are role models what they preach can never be wrong.

Now I'm not just speaking so we guys have the upperhand. I've heard women confess they're unhappy because they felt they were confident they could live the rest of their lives in the company of friends and frequent flings. Sadly it doesn't work that way - I've probably provoked any one reading to a lot of arguments but maybe I'm inviting them because I need logical defence from protagonists in this area.