Now, am 1+

Yesterday, I completed one year in my company. Now, I am no longer rookie! :-)

My journey to rural India

Real India is in its rural side. This I found remarkably true. Recently, I went to one of the holy places in Andhra Pradesh called golgamudi. There isn't much hype about this place. It is one of the unkown place where locales and few others visit the celebrated saint venkaiah swami shrine. The road that leads to the ashram like temple, is in very pathetic condition. You will never get that kind of bumpy ride anywhere else. If you are not in good old ambassador car, your car is doomed. Luckily I was traveling in that oldie.

Forget roads, the people who flock there, are in their own state of existence. They simply strewn themselves across the places wherever space available. Some people did bhajan, some did business with balloons, fruits, bangles and things like that, some standing in a big queue to get a glimpse of the swami's shrine, few monetarily betters, by-passing everything and getting into shrine, one loud speaker kept emanating songs that attracted no listeners and so on.... There was utter confusion. Inspite of this kind of chaos, people were able to accept things as they were for the reasons unknown and continued in their own state of existence.

The land of contrasts was clearly visible in this place. Some came in sonatas and some on their bare foot. Some took prasadam as God's part take but for some they were food for the day!! As a normal person, I could see oppression written on their faces. They don't ask you why's and how's, rather they simply accept things as they come. Acceptance without any inspection. Who said Ignorance is bliss?

I had an interesting incident there. I met one of my father's old friend. He was in his late sixties. First time when I saw him, his charming face attracted my attention. He was very dynamic and was jumping with joy like a child. I was wondering what could be the secret behind this. Even my 34 year relative could not sit on the ground without help, but this 66 year young man was jumping on the ground and the enthusiasm was palpable.

Later, I found his secret from my father. The secret is: No spice, no salt & no sweet added to his daily food for the past 15 years!!!

Dada in Politics!!!

Kolkata will be in quite jubilation while its most worshipped idol is back to business. Not completely though. Few months back, when Sourav Ganguly had his worst times, being dropped from Indian team and eventually thrown out of it, Kiran More told that Ganguly would never return to the team until he is in the selection panel. That shocked me. I was wondering what could be the rationale behind this saying. Now, we have enough clues.

He wasn't considered for the team when he scored decent 40s in his last Test match innings he played. But, he is now included in the 30 member list, for the performance of total of 24 runs in four matches in county cricket series.

Recently, Bengal cricket board election took place. Ganguly told that someone is playing with careers of players. That someone in attempt to retaliate called our Dada as bacchha. This much quantity of verbal exchange was enough to encourage one of our selection panelists to consider Sourav for the Championship Trophy.

Ganguly might haven't got timing right in the cricket field all these days, but surely he got one now in the political field.

Delhi 2008!

I am afraid that Delhi may not host Common Wealth Games in 2010, raising the bar set in Melbourne 2006. The kind of infrastructure needed, we can only dream of, unless some serious actions are implemented. The kind of bureaucracy we have, in our country, is perhaps the worst hurdle to leap over. A country which is planning to bid for Olympics in a decade, has to showcase its event staging capabilities at this scale. This is our best chance. What we need is inspiring leadership which take us across all the hurdles and stage a truly global event and showcase India and its potential in these unentered waters. Shouldn't we challenge like, Delhi will be ready by 2008 for Common Wealth Games ???

The Orkut mania

It sent shock waves to all those fresh grads from college in my company. For some, it felt like some one snapped their very life thread. For many, the justification of existence made nullified. "Oh my God !, if that is not available, then what I am going do here... dig dung cakes or what? !!" said one fellow (that guy is in free pool!). My friend is about make a friendship (may be something else) with a girl through Orkut. He was so surprised and overwhelmed that a girl is scrapping him ("replying" him in orkut lingo) for the first time in his life. When he is about to make finishing touches to mark their friendship/"some"-ship, the page came crashing informing him that the www.orkut.com is blocked by my company's proxy servers. He was in a deep shock. A shrill of current passed through his whole body. He was like "What the heck? Why only me? Every time. Time and again it is happening. A friend. Just a friend I asked. Why God?? Why??? What wrong did I do. One lady friend..... and then it may develop to.......". Cursed himself. The whole day he looked like a person whose soul has been looted. Poor fellow. Never mind, he did his finishing touches somewhere else. There were series of outcries to find external proxies and by pass through company's proxies. Few people found them. In hours they are also blocked.

Into serious thoughts, I think there can be different opinions about how good Orkut can be best used for. There can be unending arguments how best the Orkut can be used as a social networking tool. I am not extensive user of it. But I still feel, if it were introduced as social networking tool, it should remain so. But, in my opinion, it is becoming more like just another place where people hang around and discuss silly things, join insane communities. Of Course there are good things you can do with it. But there are things you cant or not advicable to do in public space. For example, recently I came to know there were writings (scraps) on love proposals between two fellas. Committing personal relationship in full glare of public! Is this mean of exhibitionism? or you call something else? Personal things gone to winds in this social networking place.

Who is John Galt?

This is the question I try to answer. Those of you read "Atlas Shrugged"” by Ayn Rand, might have got idea what I am talking about. For those who didn'’t, do have guts to ask me, for which you will get an awkward reply cos I am still thumbing through the pages. I don'’t say that I have little or no time to update this blog, but it is kinda become, spending lesser and lesser time towards my creative side. It is being eaten upon by so-called important things. More I work on my dreams, more revealing is harsher reality. Self-doubt consumes like anything. At these times, self-confidence raises the morals to great heights. It instills courage, when you are in utter pain, stress, despair and anguish. But still one corner of my heart says go through these pains for the better tomorrow. I think this hope is running everyone lives. Going through this phase and hopefully I will wade through successfully.

When something is extracted from you and end up losing energy to liven up your dreams, you look for something that motivates you, inspires you, energizes you.... I am looking for that inspiration. I am searching it. I am in hunt for its source. In short I am trying to get answer for: "“Who is John Galt?".

Life is a journey

Ya I mean it. Life is a long journey. Everyday I travel. Day in day out, I travel. Traveling is not my passion, or my boon or not even my curse, it became my duty. When I was doing higher secondary schooling, I had to travel 10 km by bus (thru MTC ) to reach school everyday. For those two years, I nearly traveled, 12,000 kms. Wow ! Then came my college studies. That's even worse. I expected to be better but this time the journey became longer. Blame on my college for not providing any transport facility near my place. So I was forced to use two modes of transport, both by MTC bus and EMU train to reach my college everyday. I used to start at home when many start to dive into deep slumber. arghh!! So how much did I travel ? Another 33,210 kms added to my traveling kit. Wow!! another milestone touched.

Ok, now out of college, into the work. Things should be better this time. But, the traveling God (if exists) never satisfied with my journey. He put me into another quota of seeing the Chennai's traffic, suffer from the pollution and see endless number of road side shops cramped with each other. Yes, this time too. Again another journey. Journey to work ! Another 30 kms daily to reach my office. Already 5000 kms covered, still continues.

My traveling mileage reached 50,000 kms so far. So this post I made to mention its significance. Man, its 50 k ! Is it time to rejoice or still believe in "Life is journey" ?? Dunno, may be "Life is long journey", or is it "Journey is Life" ????

DVD Mantra

I bought a LG DVD player recently. I have so far seen movies in DVD format only at my friends home. So I never bought any dvds. No idea how much does it cost n all. People in Chennai would invariably know where Burma bazaar is and what for it is popular. For uninitiated , it is the place where a series of shops lined up in very crampy space selling latest electronic goods at cheaper prices than its counterparts in the city. One can even get latest import goods.God knows how they get it so cheap with good quality. Anyways, Burma bazaar(any one knows how it got its name do tell me !) is also popular for its Dvds & Vcds. Once I went there to buy few popular english movies, I was surprised to see a sea of dvds and vcds piled up (or dumped!) in front of elevator size shops. I came to know there are two varieties of dvds available. Locally named(or real., dunno.) Blue dvd and Gold dvd. Blue dvds are cheaper.You get it for as low as Rs.30. One can get three-in-one movies and some times four-in-movies in one single dvd. Imagine four movies in one single dvd and that too for Rs.30, human psychology tells you gotta have best deal. I thought the same bought few movies. But human psychology some time doesnt tell you the other part of the story until you realise it. Me too realised only I played those cheap dvds. Poor sound, poor video clarity, scenes cut and many more. Arghh.... Damn those shop owners who said their dvds are better than what are available in next shop and gave me his business card,with a warm smile, saying "please refer your friends this shop " !

'Brain' Virus

First PC virus - Brain, has just celebrated its 20th birthday. It infected the boot sector and spreaded through floppy disks of the age. It is considered to be no way in comparison with its modern counterparts. Interestingly the first virus(Brain) also called by the names such as Pakistani, Lahore, Pakistani flu !!!! . Two brothers from Pakistan wrote this virus to protect their software from infringers. They wrote their address with their phone numbers in the virus and notified the affected that they can contact them for vaccination !!! Here is what they included in their virus code : - source

Welcome to the Dungeon (c) 1986 Basit * Amjad (pvt) Ltd. BRAIN COMPUTER SERVICES 730 NIZAM BLOCK ALLAMA IQBAL TOWN LAHORE-PAKISTAN PHONE: 430791,443248,280530. Beware of this VIRUS.... Contact us for vaccination...

They are the true virus writers !!! Ha ha.. :)

Agely observation

Its been long time to post here. Time and again I try to keep up with you folks but, damn work time I couldn't but look for a escape.

I am now reading a book called " The World Is Flat : A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century " by Thomas L.Friedman . May be I couldn't give review of the book or for that matter my opinion as I am marking on initial pages. This morning while I was reading, I remembered of a small note in one of Swami Vivekananda's biography. I will reproduce, in my own words, about one of his thoughts.

The thing goes like this, the world was influenced by many sections of people all over the ages. Initially the world was lead by people who are philosophers in nature like Aristotle. People followed their wisdom and their speech. In Hinduism caste division terms, world was lead by Brahmins. Then came Kings who ruled all over the world. In Hindu terms, Kshatriyas. In the late twentieth century world was more influenced by business people. Things like globalization had profound impact on people's lives. In Hinduism, the influencers were Vaisyas. The next in the row of Hindu's lexicon is Shudras who roughly equivalent to the people who do services.

Thomas Friedman in this book started with the factors that influenced globalisation in recent years. Though I haven't finished reading this book, I got hints from his initial pages that the influencer of next wave of globalization going to be Service Industries. He predicts that a person can book a table in a restaurant through a call which traverses across the boundaries. That is, the booking actually happens in a remote call center that may be located way across the globe, and things like that.

The period influenced by businesses(at present) might be followed by the age of Services. People will serve other people. That might definitely influence the way we lead our lives. If that happens, it will reaffirm Vivekananda's thoughts .

Pirate of Bloglines !

Today as I opened bloglines to check my feeds, I saw this amusing pic. Thought of sharing with you folks. The picture tells you how a plumber turned to pirate ! click on pic to view clearly.

Plans changed

My friend told me that my every next post is about google or Linux or open source related and wants me to try out something else, if I really want to make my blog interesting to folks out there. Well, its true that, people out there really understand if you speak your heart rather than your head. So, plans are changed. Thinking what to post in these pages in future, meanwhile here is the link that might interest you. answers.

The Strategy

This is snapshot of an article in eweek . It is about GPL 3.0 (general Public Licence) & Open source. If it sounds greek & latin, pls bear with me. The point is, the advertisement (played in flash) is about Windows Server system - Microsoft product. The advertisement given in an page where an article written about its rival -- open source community . The link (flash link) tracks to a page where first few lines goes like this :

"As you weigh the costs and risks of Windows and Linux, consider this: More and more independent analysts and leading companies find that Windows Server System outperforms Linux on TCO, reliability, security, and indemnification. Get the facts, and make the decision that's right for your business."

This is what we call Strategy !

Tossy Cricket

"You win the toss, you win the match". This is how the currently concluded India - South Africa one day series went. You win toss, put the opponents to bat and ask your best bowler to bowl and thats it. Rest assured you win the match.

Experts say One day matches are more depended on conditions rather anything else. But, what we have seen is more than the scope of the statement. The match result was always decided by the toss. The initial dew on the pitch always helped bowlers to get initial breakthrough. Thats how Pollock rattled Indian top order throughout the series. Then again. Blame it on day-night play, the dew set on the outfield will always make life pathetic for the fielding side.

About Indian pitches : come on every one knows about it.

These kind of pitches, conditions killing the spirit of Cricket. Though one can argue like winning team should win in all pitches and conditions. Well, if the pitch conditions are same in all matches and if you can guess which team will win easily based on toss, then whats the point in playing ?? and making millions of people watch the game whose outcome is known?? We like to have matches dictated by team performance not decided by conditions. Why cant BCCI conduct Test matches in winter season and one days during summers ???, if at all they cant bring really good cricketing pitches and thus help in bringing quality of cricket.

New Internet Age

This is one of my favourite area of study while I was studying in college. Broadband over PowerLines. Though many technical details involved here, I like to put it as simple as possible. What does Broadband over powerline mean ? - it means that you access internet - broadband access, through existing PowerLines not via telephone lines.


Lot of reasearch going on and many big companies like Intel, Google are showing interests in this field. Our government making policies to implement this technology ! read here. That must be a gr8 joke (with existing conditions). The highly disorderliness of our power sector make sure this super technology never reach masses effectively.

I am no pundit but thats how I put my opinion. But I appreciate the motive behind it - to bridge digital-divide. To bring rural masses into mainstream this technology will surely aid. Forget the side-effects of it, as it is no way in comparison with the amount of knowledge-ignorance (relatively) in the country side. Before trying to implement this technology, our Government should remove the blockheads, hindrances and anything that infuses inefficiency. I hope that this dream technology won't remain as a mere dream, to help our people living in unfortunate rural India.

Google's new Avatar

God of Web - Goolge has come up with new service - Google Analytics. Really mind boggling for any ordinary neitizen. The features offered in this service are truly amazing. The small piece of code which you need to embed in your site can do magic. The features ranges from hi-fi marketing optimization to content performance to the place where a person is seeing your site to the browser setting he/she using to the operating system being used.....

There are many features which I just keep wondering what for they are used ? How effectively it can be use ? and that too free ! Never mind. They got their own way of doing business. A small question cropped in my mind. With the help of this small code in user's page they could track, describe and build on so many things and offer you wide range of features, I think , it is still possible, for them to get the details of commercial value from the users' activities without the laters' awareness. That could roughly mean " someone watching you ". Hopefully God of Web shouldn't be trending in these waters.

Thanx to keerthi I came to know about this service.

Mascot of 2008

The official mascots for 2008 Beijing Olympics are unveiled exactly 1000 days before the event. They are called as " Five Friendlies". Guess what each ' Five Friendly ' mean ???

The mascots were presented as Bei Bei, Jing Jing, Huan Huan, Ying Ying and Ni Ni - which, put together reads in Chinese "Beijing welcomes you!" read more

The No : 3 slot

The great Indian Cricket team . Four wins. Against a team which seemingly surprised by the embellishing form of its opponent. After the messy encounter of Sourav v/s chappell, the Indian team not only return to the top form but with the perfect winning formula.

Rahul Dravid, my favorite, has shown his style,smartness,quality and all those that required for a captain in all these games. In terms of batting skill set he certainly outshines former captain Saurav Ganguly. It seems from these four matches that he is going to outshine his predecessor in captaincy role too. Rahul's execution of his new role with adroit leadership has invited all praise from cricket fraternity. Perhaps he is reserved in this role at least till next World cup.

One of the effective and innovative strategy Dravid infused in last four games is No: 3 slot. He gambled with this slot very diligently. Perhaps gambling is wrong word in this context.He played it very smart. Very very smart.The promotion of young players having different skills to first down spot in these matches shown how well the strategy paid off. It also installed certain kind of uncertainty in approach in Srilankan camp. It also played spoilsports in opponents strategy. Upsetted their plans. Upset of Apple cart.

Well done Rahul. Well done Indian Team.

Re-returned...

Again I am back...long time gap...hmmm...The reader might have thought I would have been busy all these time...Perhaps not. Perhaps yes. I am in different phase of my life. From college to work. Lots of changes. Lots of friends lost. Lots of friends gained. When I try to rewind the past(College life) it seems it went past like a flash in front of my own eyes. The moments I enjoyed in college would never return. I understand the trueness of this statement only after coming out of college. Pity late. Four years in four seconds. Came. Went.

This is how my lonely moments are spent.Digging the memoirs of College life which brings big curve on my face.Sometimes laugher.Often inviting raised eyebrows on others.. :) Come on dude... this is how life moves. Shakes. Rocks!

Recently I read a book called "The Monk who sold his Ferrari" by Robin Sharma. No review.The book is perhaps best self-help book I have read ! The reading went like dusting my 22 year old memory and brought my good old habits.The book didn't enlightened me with highest knowledge but explained how simple actions,positive thoughts could bring joy in our life. Positive. Contentment. Happiness.

Atlast I configured my system with perfect dual boot in my not very old machine.It took nearly 10 times formatting the hard disk in a period of 6 months. Hours of patience. Hours of pain in sitting.Hours of learning. Satisfied. Still learning.

Now planning to put my muses here often. Think. Plan. Execute.

Finally returned !

It took me exactly 912 hours or 54720 minutes to post this write-up. Quite a long time indeed. What on earth (or outside of it) had changed due to no-posts in my blog. Actually it didn’t make any changes --- Our nearest star– Sun continues its nuclear fusion reaction process and which is responsible for binding of our blue-cum-blackened (as well as ozoned) Earth in its belt and helps the later to keep rotating to create day and night, the anti-matter in CERN reactors is still being tried upon to create ultra - super clean energy that will purify your soul and show how big bang happened and also answer the most intriguing question “is God exists?” (ideas inherited from : Dan Brown's ‘Angels & Demons’), environmentalists never came to agreement ( at least no MoUs ) about our world climate, Katrina’s merciless attack didn’t show any trace of mercy on the people whom its government neglected them and showed interest elsewhere in a country which is half way round the earth only to jeopardize the already existing system, no freezing of Sania mirza’s non-stop run from 300 odd rank to 34 th ranked women player in world of tennis which gave her enough guts to wear a t-shirt saying " You can either agree with me or be wrong " at a press conference and she is from a country where certain section of people with their old attitudes and beliefs dictate dress codes to women, no stopage of bloggers’ postings and comments on unfathomable memory space maintained by thousands of computers running on Linux across the world, it never changed the speed with which Windows Xp work on my moderately outdated computer system or the troubles it brings almost everyday, no breaks to my unceasing thoughts on myriad things around me or to my 'always on silence mode ' which makes my friends think how controlled I am and instill ephemeral envies in them ……….

One thing it (non-posting time gap) certainly helped me to do. Thinking about how I spent (wasted) my precious time to write this write-up which effectively speaks nothing but just make one of my fellow blogger to read the post which I have made after 3196800 seconds or 37 days.