Picture this.
A lonely lab at least 20km away from any kind of civilisation known to mankind. About 3 in the night with the only sounds one could hear coming from the ocean which is laughing at you in a loud thunderous voice and the gentle, calming but really irritating hum of zillions of instruments in the lab. All of a sudden you hear a loud shriek... and it was not an animal which has been stupid enough to wander into the lab (or was it?). It was Anoop Mahajan, pulling his hair off since a software which had been working perfectly for the last few eons decides that it needs a change from the routine of capturing vital information. At times like these, your sense of humour is tested!
The next night I was there again, toiling away trying to figure out a way to make things work, trying to reason with the computer, a machine which is based solely on the idea of logic. I spoke to it, petted it, even tempted it by offering more ram if it did work. I was desperate! Then about 12 in the night, when I was convinced that I was going crazy since I was talking to a computer in a lab far away, starting to doubt my very existence, the computer listened. It took the first measurements in a few days, and I wanted to shout, to jump with joy and even run around naked (not much of a difference since there was no living thing for miles). I had definitely gone crazy, but this time round I was delirious with joy and not hopelessness. The end product was pretty much the same, a mad Anoop. But an hour before, when things weren't working, and I was listening to the most appropriate music I could find, which in this case was the sound track from 'full metal jacket', the meaning of irony seemed crystal clear to me.
Next day when I went to the beach in the evening and sat there with the warm sun on the warm sand before going into the warm water only to come out and drink a really cool beer, life seemed fair again.
Oh I love my work, wouldn't trade it for anything in the world!
