Rituals

Today is Ayudha Puja.

My father, sometime after he past 70 years, gave up driving. He then employed a driver. My father continued to regularly check the battery water, the radiator water, tyre pressure. He would ensure that the car went for its regular monthly servicing. On Ayudha puja he did not apply sandalwood paste to the car, nor bedeck it with flowers. The drivers would do that.

I like to think my father performed the puja that was required.  Rituals must be appropriate.

Software processes too are rituals. They are rituals which provide the assuarnce that your software does what it is meant to do. They are rituals that have to be performed continuously, and concurrently with writing the code. Applying sandalwood paste, turmeric, and burning incense will do nothing for the code (nor for your keyboard, nor your display).

Greetings for Dussehra: May you never let the demons get into your code. If they do, then may you always slay them at the earliest.