JB's Journey of Life

A rollercoaster 2020

2020-12-31T17:25:00.002+05:30

While 2020 has been an eventful year for almost every person on this globe, and I am thankful for me and my family to be alive, unscarred by Covid at the end of the year, this year has been a roller coaster ride.

😔 In Jan, travelled to parents' place at hometown unplanned a day before my daughter's eighth birthday, the first she would celebrate there after her first one. In the evening, my 90+ grandfather had a head injury and I spent the night at hospital.

😔 In Feb, on the day of Sivarathri (Shivratri), I woke up with the phone call bringing the news of expiry of my grandmother - attended her funeral at hometown.

😐 In the March weekend of Janata Curfew and the lockdown, I was supposed to travel to my hometown for my grandma's rituals, only held up due to WFH preparations and chaos on Friday night at my office. Thanks to that, I was not locked down at hometown, now in a different state thanks to bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, away from my family in Hyderabad. Three of my father's brothers didn't have that luck - stuck for 3 months at my hometown.

😀 In the middle of Covid chaos, thanks to the unexpected time and rest gifted, I decided to make a career move and attended a series of interviews over a month for a small company - my first trail to shift organization after 16 years of honeymoon with my first company!

😐 Not sure how many would have braved to shift from a 250,000 big ship to a 700 boat in the current pandemic situation!

😀 Only time will tell whether choosing the new company is a wise decision, at least, leaving the previous employer is a non-regrettable one on seeing my first full month salary credited to my bank account today.

😔 Woke up on my birthday this December with the call from my wife about the demise of my mother-in-law, took the car to highway only to realize it's the day of National Strike of farmers, evaded rallies at three junctions by requesting, only to be stuck at the fourth road-blockade on a bridge for 1.5 hours - Stuck alone in car in a roadblock (Rasta roko) on a National Highway without breakfast and lunch - the most unforgettable birthday. The worst part was not able to catch the funeral at right time.

😔 In September, for the first time in Covid, ventured with family out of town to visit a close family member's home. A person there caught the virus few days after we returned, causing tension for few days about his well-being, but finally relieved when he recovered safely.

😐 In total, attended 3 weddings and 1 funeral, visited beach, a famous temple, with young kids post-Covid. Missed another wedding and a funeral of a close one during peak Covid times.

😐Considering I would enter into 40s this December, I aimed at a weight loss of 6 kilos at the start of this year. Covid break again helped me in trying out yoga, all kinds of diets (tried GM, intermittent fasting, even Mantena's all raw vegetables diet) - reached the target of -6 at one point, but as of today, the delta is -1.5kg. I would take this, as not gaining weight while staying at home for 9 months itself is an achievement. Check the graph.

😀 Thanks to WFH for 9 months (~180-200 working days), no need of driving ~140KM per day to/fro office means I saved a minimum 1600L of fuel and related emissions to the Earth; 27,000KM mileage and depreciation for my car - also conserving my time and my body as well.

😀 Started writing extensively in Telugu on a social media forum - posted 100+ answers for 100+ K views.

Thanks for reading till the end. Wish you all a happy new year 2021.

Are you satisfied with your job role and salary in the Indian IT industry?

2019-09-06T16:10:00.001+05:30

I am currently working as an Architect (equivalent to managerial job level) in an Indian IT company. I am satisfied with my current role, job responsibilities, project, and the nature of day-to-day tasks I am performing.

I would say I am neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with my salary. My salary has not increased exponentially, being in the same service provider company for the last 15 years - still it is on par with industry standards and sufficient for my needs. I am not a person running after money, otherwise would’ve settled in US (for which I got multiple opportunities during my career) or switched jobs long ago. However, I feel my work, loyalty, talent and experience deserve more for which only my disinterest/laziness would be the only culprit.

Weirdest thing someone has said to me because I am a lefty

2018-11-09T11:48:00.001+05:30

I am named after a popular Communist leader in India (Jyoti Basu), but my name is uncommon in my region/state (like having a name as Hitler/Gandhi in a Western country). This always helped me as an ice-breaker in interviews.

So, in an interview, once I signed some form with left-hand and returned to the interview panel with my left-hand, one of the interviewers joked, “So you are a leftist as well as a lefty?!” - and that broke the ice quickly!

Fatherhood

2013-02-07T22:57:00.000+05:30

This January, I have entered into fatherhood with a baby girl joining my journey of life, whom I should guide to take her own path over the coming years. So, I have 2 girls coming into my life in less than a year, keeping me busy and happy :-) Over the last few days, many close relatives and friends around me are curious about how I would want the baby to grow up as. Half of the reason is my attitude and character whereas the main reason is the eccentric and special nature of my father - he is an atheist; he rarely attends functions; he is honest; he is knowledgeable. Every cousin’s parent in our extended family wants the kid to be brought up like Bhaskara Rao’s sons (me and my bro). We are the role models in education, marks, behavior and every other aspect. That does not mean we have never done any mischievous act. We enjoyed our childhood, we played all games, we once disappeared from home for a day. But, we were the “GOOD BOYS” in the household, family and colony. We turned out as good men. Now, when I look back, I find how my father carefully shaped our careers, made us reach success (read good education and job) in life and impacted our personalities, even without imposing or forcing anything. I had always thought to write about, but was lazy. Now, with me becoming a father I feel like writing this within the little time I have. The first thing I remember is not only he never raised his hand on us, but also never cursed, said a bad word or talked low of us. Never had we seen/heard him doing that to anyone. I never saw him lying to anyone. He stick to honesty in both his profession and personal life. Many old people visited our home to thank him for helping them get their pensions as part of his bank job. He always refused gifts from them. I know many incidents, where he refused to bribe the government employees, but still got the job done for our own house by fighting at various levels of authority, including CM office. I thought of writing that as a series during the hot times of Anna movement, but was lazy. Whatever moral values I try to follow, I got imbibed from him. As kids, we were unanimous choice for umpiring; that’s the amount of trust others had on us :-) He is an avid reader. He visited local libraries weekly and regularly went to Sunday book markets and book fairs. We tagged along. We used to lend books from the libraries. Along with the story books, he used to bring journals like THE SCIENCE REPORTER and Mathematics for you. That improved our language as well as reading speeds. We finished the complete children book section (hundreds of books) within 2 years. His thirst for knowledge is unmatching, which I posted in 2009. Right now, he is coding in PHP and Javascript - parsing online medical books and create a synopsis so that we, common men, can know various terminologies related to a disease and understand what a doctor says. He subscribed to Competitive Success Review in my Sixth; he was giving coaching to bank exams at that time. I used to compete with them in doing numerical ability and verbal problems –which enhanced my puzzle-solving and analytical ability. Sigh, those were the times, I was a Civils aspirant. He subscribed to THE OUTLOOK in my 9th, saying it was for the watch as the subscription gift to me. But, I knew that the gift was reading a good English magazine to improve my language as well as get know about national and international affairs. He never missed a chance to let us know the science and technical advancements. In 1988, when I was in 2nd, he took us to the bank to introduce computer and dot matrix printer. He took us to Medical College, while we were in school. In 1994, he showed me PaintBrush on a 4MB RAM PC. Around 2000-01, he showed me the operation of an ATM and how money is put into the machine. He bought a branded computer for INR 50K (his 4 month salary at the time) in 1999, when I had just written my plus-2 exams – only 2 of my Computer Science Engineering classmates in our town college had computers at home. He taught us chess when I was 7. He used to engage us in games like word-building and quiz, and the mathematics games. He used to take us along to super-markets while bringing groceries – to make us understand the finance and average middle class life. He took us to museums in various cities. I got my interest in THE HINDU crossword puzzle from him. There was not a single day, where he told us to study or do homework. He left it to us to choose our career paths. He gave us the options telling the pros and cons and let us make our decision. He always treated us as friends. He is an atheist, but he never forced it on us. Though, he made us try to understand rationality behind a faith/custom and to not blindly follow it. So, I emerged as that person who is neither theist nor atheist nor agnostic, but who is a “I believe God does not exist. But, I will neither make fun of somebody’s customs/beliefs or acts; talk against them; but I will not follow myself.” He lives simple, though ensures to groom himself well – wearing clean clothes (but not extravagant) and shaving every day. He enjoyed our academic success, complimented us, but ensured that we don’t become complacent. Once, I announced proudly to him that I came first in the class and the quick response was “Dog bites a man is not news, but a Man bites dog is.” He was not the average father who would think his job was only to earn thousands and lakhs, join the kid in a reputed school/college, pamper it with whatever it wants, and get the kid to become a successful (read as rich) person. He made us develop as good human beings with distinct personality.

Password security questions in Social Networking Age

2012-11-04T22:41:00.000+05:30

Whenever I call the bank customer care, they ask my date of birth, last 4 digits of a/c number or debit card or mother's maiden name. These days I wonder how strong these authorization controls are, as some of them can be easily taken from one's online profile.

To confirm, I took a list of common password security questions from online to check how many of those can be answered by having access to one's social networking profiles - FB/G+/LinkedIn - and not surprised - A lot of them can be answered. If the person is a contact/friend, then almost all.

My dear young cousins and elder uncles - please keep an eye on what you share on facebook/orkut/G+.

I removed some poor and obvious ones. Here goes the list:-

What was your childhood nickname?
What is the name of your favorite childhood friend?
What is your oldest sibling’s birthday month and year? (e.g., January 1900)
What school did you attend for sixth grade?
What is your oldest cousin's first and last name?
In what city does your nearest sibling live?
In what city or town was your first job?
What is the name of the place your wedding reception was held?
What was the name of your elementary / primary school?
What is the name of the company of your first job?
To what city did you go on your honeymoon?
What is your current car registration number?
What month and day is your anniversary? (e.g., January 2)
What is your grandmother's first name?
What is your mother's middle name?
What is the last name of your favorite high school teacher?
What was the make and model of your first car?
Where did you vacation last year?
What is the name, breed, and color of current pet?
What is your preferred musical genre?
What is the name of the first undergraduate college you attended?
What was your high school mascot?
What year did you graduate from High School?
What is the name of the first school you attended?
What was your favorite sport in high school?
What is the name of the High School you graduated from?
What is your pet's name?
In what year was your father born?
In what year was your mother born?
What is your mother’s (father's) first name?
What is your mother's maiden name?
What was the color of your first car?
What is your father's middle name?

Games - innovations

2012-09-28T04:29:00.000+05:30

A friend's post on "Nostalgic Games" post made me nostalgic and you know what happens when I become nostalgic – a blog post comes up. Of course, how I can resist, that too after Deepak asking me what all games I played. But, I do not have enough time to explain/translate the numerous games I played. So, I will just list down the small innovations/derivations we (me, my bro and my friends) made to keep us alive and going whenever we felt boring.

1. Loans and pawn broking (hypothecation) in Trade/Monopoly: We started playing Trade/Business/Monopoly as early as at 8. Slowly, we were bored. Then we introduced loan concept. A player can hypothecate his city (or bungalow/godown) with the bank – should pay an interest of 50/100 for every round until he can pay back. And, the loaned amount is used to buy new sites. See, we were good real investors at that time. Of course, genes of a banker father helped. But, I am not a good investor now :-(

2. Share Business: We were bored of Trade by 12. Then, we conceptualized the share business. Instead of cities, the monopoly board would have Company names. Players can own a company or buy a share of the ownership. You get dividend similar to the rents for the sites. Having a type-writer at home meant we printed our own currency and Share certificates. Now, I am trying hard to balance my demat account portfolio.

3. Shooting range: Inspired by watching 1988 Olympics in Doordarsan, at the age of 8, we set up our own shooting competition with plastic bulleted guns bought in local carnival (exhibition).

4. Archery: Most of the kids might have made bow-arrows stealing sticks from broom and then having a war (inspired from DD Ramayan). We did that too, got bored and went a step ahead and conducted archery competition similar to shooting (again inspired by Olympics).

5. Thermocol bats and squash/TT: What would you do with those left-over thermocol (polystyrene) sheets after you were finished with your school projects? We carved small TT-size bats (rackets) out of thermocol and conducted squash tournaments in the drawing room and table-tennis on the dining table.

6. Tennis with exam-pads: Exam-pads are the ubiquitous ready-to-use bats/rackets to play cricket or any ball-game, especially in school. We even played shuttle-badminton with the pads. But, the tennis game with exam-pad and rubber ball tops the list – yeah, we followed proper tennis scoring of games and sets.

7. Golf: Having new cable TV connection and StarSports for the first time meant we watched almost all sports on it, including the boring golf. Inspired by it, we played golf (mainly putting and clubbing) at home - digging holes in the backyard and using sticks as the drives.

8. Basketball with mug as basket: Once, we wanted to play basket-ball inside home. Hang two mugs to opposite-facing windows, use a plastic ball – we were ready to play basket-ball :-)

9. Cricket with duster(wiper)-chacks : In Engineering, none would carry exam-pad. We tried with books, but they were heavy. So, we played cricket with chalks and duster. That too, while classes were going on in the adjacent rooms.

10. Timeless test: Bored of regular 10 or 15-over matches, we started playing 2-innings unlimited over cricket matches with all rules including innings lead and follow-on.

If these innovations were needed after we got bored with the below games, one can understand how much we enjoyed our childhood. Thanks to never pressurising parents (for education), I (and my bro) had a wondeful childhood Even getting cable TV in my seventh standard did not stop us.

Repeating the games I mentioned as comment on Deepak’s post:- Nela-banda, Udum (Hide&Seek), Veeri-veeri gummadipandu veeri peremi, Help, Current-Shock, Ice-boy, Ice-Press, Color-color, Enimidi-rallu aata, Tokkudu Billa (3-4 varieties), Kundullu, 2 variations of London, Steps game, Mukku-gilludu aata, Show (Played with chits), Ramudu-Seetha, Accham-gillalu, Chinta pikkalata, Edu penkulata, Uru-peru-cinima-vastuvu, Karrata, Bechalu, Goleelu (marbles), Trade/Monopoly, Vaikhuntapali & Snakes&Ladder, Ludo, Ashta Chemma (2-3 varieties), Gudu-gudu gunjam, Cat-ball, Card games like WWF, cricket stats, Archery, Shooting, paper-fans, Donga-police with self-manufactured paper guns, Dadi, Puli-meka, the number games, all kinds of Sand games, playing Kings&Wars.

The above were in addition to the usual Cricket (one-step, two-step, tennis, tape-ball, cork-ball, double wicket, test matches- unlimited overs, ), Chess, Carroms (game,rupees-paise, business, puli-meka), Kabaddi, Shuttle Badminton, kho-kho, flying kites, video games (Mario, tetris) and computer games.

Games played (conducted) at school - like lemon&spoon, three-leg race, gunny-bag race, Ram-Ravan, memory game, etc

Millennium Transformation

2012-09-22T07:46:00.000+05:30

Mobile phones, internet, email, LCD TVs, iPods, shopping malls, ATM – Things that generally come to one’s mind if asked about the changes in lifestyle or the development India has made in 21st century or the new millennium. “That’s it!” is what I have been thinking for the last few days. “No, it is not!” has come the reply. The list has grown in size while I wonder how my life has changed (positively) due to those advancements. Note that I am thinking from an average Indian and not as an IT guy or a rich guy (not that I am) or a gadget freak (not that I am).
Cash transfer: ATMs and swipe cards can be rated as the biggest change in our lives. This generation students who simply take their dad’s ATM card or add-on cards while moving into hostels (or boarding schools) do not know the troubles students or children staying away faced in 20th century. You have to wait for your Money Order (by post) to receive your money (the PostMan was always in demand) only to see it vanish in seconds after payments to fees, laundry-man, canteen and other friends only to have a faint smile at one or two currency notes (if left) remaining in your hand. Once I had made 800KM to-fro 24-hour journey to my brother’s University to hand him money he needed to go for a college tour (as Western Union too could not promise to deliver in 10 hours).
Online application filling: When I had to apply for my engineering entrances or later IITs for M.Tech, I had to visit multiple banks on different dates (sometimes traveling to Vijayawada or Hyderabad) with various denominations of DDs (Demand Drafts) to buy the applications; then visit the post-offices, do speed post or registered post as required, pray Gods and wait for the acknowledgement letter to confirm that my application was received; then again wait anxiously for the hall-ticket/interview letter. Now, you simply apply online, sometimes do payments online, download the hall-ticket and appear for the exam. Similarly, businessmen had to carry around big suitcases of cash and check-books to do the transactions. Now, you can roam with a laptop and a swipe card.
Road rollers and laying roads: Laying roads was a multi-day (sometimes multi-week) exercise then. Dig the road, lay stones as the base layer, roll with the big road-rollers, lay sand-stones, roll again, lay mud, roll again, burn tar (in drums), pour tar, roll again and wait for the tar to dry and harden. Now, the modern machines take the tar-mixture and lays the road in less than an hour and you can drive almost immediately on the road. Building CC (cement concrete) roads is also an easier task these days.
Plumbing: My dad bought a house and got it renovated. So, I know in detail each and every step in house-building and the effort needed. Most of those steps have been made easier and quicker due to technical advancements. Then, pipes were made of iron or PVC and the plumbers used to carry big toolkit to create threads to the pipe-ends and use big to join them. Now, the new vinyl pipes can be easily joined with an adhesive paste. Even my dad does it easily now.
Carpentry:Wood-work these days, either making doors or tables or show-cases has been automated a lot. Electric saws and blades are used to cut logs into blocks, designs are made with machinery, screws and nails are fitted with machines and polishing is applied with machines.
Flooring: Tiles were manually cut, sized and polished. Now, you can cut them using a machine.
RCC Slabs: Laying a slab for the roof would need you to use big hammers to cut iron-rods, hire an ox-pulled or tractor-driven concrete machine, fixing wooden molds with bamboo-sticks as support with hundreds of nails, water it and wait for weeks before raising the next floor. Now, you have machine-cutters for iron, ready-mix supplied by truck, fill in the metal sheets supported by pipes and you can start the next floor within days.
Threshers and Excavators:
Tractors replacing ploughs and other tractor add-ons had become a not-rare scenes. I have been to rural areas regularly, and I am surprised with the use of technology in recent years. Threshers are used to thrash grain and excavators (or JCB/proclainer as popular) are used to dug/plough the fields. A lot of middle-sized farmers too prefer this owing to non-availability of laborers because of migration and high-cost.
Milking machines:
Dairy industry too had gone a change with the use of milking machines and grass-cutters getting increased as well as the use of artificial serum. I went to AP Dairy exhibition held by the state goverment recently at Hyderabad and was overwhelmed by the huge response from the farmer community.
SMS tickets: One can travel in bus or train by just showing an SMS on their phone. I never imagined this 5 years ago, leave 15 years ago. It is not only trains, both RTC (public) and private buses in AP allow you to travel by an SMS. IN RTC, it is not even mandatory to show your ID, unless another passenger claims for the same seat. Even the ticket-cases are being replaced by TIMs (Ticket Issuing Machines). Gone were our days when we preserved all our bus-tickets, used rubber-bands to tie them, used punch-holes to play ‘buss-aata’ (driver-conducter-bus) game.
Many of these things have been taken for granted now-a-days.
Please add if you see any such innovations that have transformed our lives in the recent years - only from ‘90s onwards. The specified innovations should be available to a larger community. No references to electronic/computer appliances like MP3 players, DVDs, washing machines, please.

Feast fiesta

2012-09-11T20:20:00.006+05:30

When I flip the calendar page to next month, the first thing I look for is the festival dates. While I do that for holidays like others, another important reason is the feast.

Fe(a)stival is all about the feast for me. As a kid, the mind was always on the food than the god. Inquires about the menu would start on the previous night; whilst the body stayed in puja room, nose would be sent onsite to the kitchen to gather prior details on the delicacies, and the eyes switching between the god and the stove. After joining the job and being old enough to proclaim a non-believer, there was no need to sit in puja room. Just wait for Amma (mom) to prepare the lunch and finish the puja, before I (we – dad, me and bro) launch your lunch feast. So, officially the festival is about feasts now. There were instances where I travelled unreserved in buses and trains for 7-9 hours to native, just to relish the festive specials.

Though every festival (and thanks to Hindu gods, we have so many) menu includes a hot item (usually Pulihora – tamarind rice/puliyogare), a sweet item (generally paramannam (rice kheer)/semiya payasam (kheer) and optionally (for major festivals) second hot item (bajjis) and sweet items (gulab jamoon/bobbattu), some festivals have their trademark food items. The recipe will signify the festival. Based on the recipes, I rank those ‘feast’ivities.

1. Varalaxmi vratam (or Gowri puja) :- That falls on Sravan (Shravan) Fridays and Tuesdays with primary festival on second Friday. Though the festival is for women, I (and my Dad) wait for the vayinams, the polythene bags with Bengal gram, sprouts, nut-powder, pan-leaves. On a rainy monsoon evening in August, return from school and eat roasted nuts/sprouts that are delicious and nutritious – beat that! And on the main day, Amma prepares poornalu (poornam burelu) – I ~~can~~ (could) eat 10-20 of them on a day with 3-4 in lunch :-)

2. Vinayaka Chaviti/Ganesha Chaturdhi: Ganesha is a big food lover and we could pray him well only by offering good food (and later consume it). Undrallu (Modak), Kudumulu (fried modak), Burelu (fried jaggery-rice cakes), Garelu (like wada), Bobbatlu (Obbattu/Puran poli), the list goes on. No wonder, he is praised “O bojja ganapayya” – he fills my bojja (belly).

3. Dasara (Dussehera/Navratri) – A festival of 9 nights and 10 days with a variety of prasadam everyday (and every temple) culminating in feasts on last 3 days coupled with Dasara holidays to school after first trimester exams. What else can I ask? No, we don’t do Navratri fasting. In AP, on each Navratri day, the goddess is in decorated in one avatar (E.g.: Kali, Saraswati, Rajarajeswari, Balatripurasundari, etc.) and a variety of prasadam is distributed – pulihora, daddhojanam (curd-rice type), kesari, sprouts, etc. We kids, used to tag along with the moms’ batch to temples to savor different prasadams.

4. Sankranthi (Pongal) coming in January starts with preparation of Ariselu (rice-jaggery cake) with new rice (rice from that year’s harvest). Sankranthi holidays (after second trimester exams) are enjoyed with a tin full of Ariselu and another tin full of Karappusa(chakralu/murukulu/jantikalu – baap of Kurkure). The final two days - Paramannam and chakra pongali (sweet pongal) with new rice on Bhogi is followed with katte-pongali (pongal) and kalagapulagam curry (curry made with vegetables with condition that knife should not be used – so, generally beans and cucumber are used) on Sankranthi.

5. Ugadi (Telugu new year) falls in March/April makes me look for Ugadi Pachadi (chutney/pickle) – which is a mixture of 6 tastes – salt, sour (tamarind), bitter (neem buds), hot (new red chillies), sweet (jaggery) and vagaru, something between bitter-sour (raw mango). Some fear this pickle, but I am a big fan. Everyone at home takes one or two spoons and the rest is left for me to relish throughout the day. I visit temples and friends’ homes to have different kinds of this pickle. Amma used to scare me about possible dysentery but I never faced it.

6. Sri Ram Navami (the day Rama returned from Ayodhya) falls in April – he is offered Panakam (Jaggary-pepper juice) as prasadam in AP. While everyone limits to one glassful, the rest is for me and my Dad. The rest are warned to be aware of dysentery for excess consumption of this.

7. Deepavali (Diwali) is not a big festival food-wise, but for sweets. Special sweets like gulab-jamoon, kajjikayalu are dedicate for Diwali – fire a bomb, come inside, have a sweet and go out – A cycle to be followed for 2-3 days.

8. Kartika vanabhojanalu, the Kartika lunar month starting next day on Diwali involves group outings (colony/college/school/office, etc.) to a nearby garden/beach with everyone bring some food special – enjoy the trip and share the special recipes in the afternoon group lunch. Kartika Pournami (full moon) and Kartika Somavaram (Monday) bring a fasting for the whole day and a feast in the late evening.

Living in a secular country and having friends from other regions and religions brings chances – like semiya through Ramzan, cakes through Christmas and New Year, Onam, Pongal, etc. But, being a vegetarian cuts down the options like haleem, bakreed, etc. Ok, these are the major festivals, though occasions like marriages and funerals bring in extra opportunities along with usual pujas and vratams by moms and wives.

However, I should not forget to salute my Amma – who, all these years never found it hard to wake up early on the mornings of the festival and go extra mile to bring all these items to the table while doing pujas and visiting, when I (and my bro) treat it as a holiday and look for an extra hour of sleep. Thank God (no I don’t believe, it’s just a usage), I got a wife who knows cooking :-)

'Journey' - My Tryst with Accidents

2012-01-04T23:20:00.000+05:30

I have recently watched a Telugu movie named, Journey (dubbed from Tamil: Engeyum Eppodum). The movie is about love stories of two couples and the impact of a major bus-bus accident on their lives. Excellence (subjective and of course as per Indian/Tamil standards) in various departments like story, screenplay, photography, music and direction has made the movie worth watching and the accident scenes needing a special mention. But, this post is not about the movie, but about what it wants to convey – road accidents.

The accident scene in the movie is shot in such a realistic and horrifying manner that it has started playing on my mind, which has never been the case.

***************

While I was in teens, whenever I read/watch an accident news, specially a major one – I used to think why not me; why I was not in that bus/train; I too travel often (every vacation – Dasara/Pongal/Summer); I used to dream that I was travelling in such a bus/train, but miraculously escape from the accident. But, sadly it never happened after I grew up. *Please, don’t assume me as a sadist/psycho/wicked.

While I was 7, a lorry (truck) hit our scooter on which Dad, Anna (brother), Mom and I were riding at Benz Circle, Vijayawada - everyone was jumped off the scooter – I rolled on the road for quite a distance and stopped dangerously close to the rear tyres of the truck. Though I escaped with minor injuries (scar disappeared in a few years), I don’t have a vivid memory of the complete scene.

Then, when I was around 11, I sat alone beside a right-side window at the back of the bus leaving mom and Anna sitting at the front. On a busy road, when the bus was stationary, the rear end of a truck coming from opposite side touched the bus and its rear-door chains stuck into the window exactly where I was sitting. Everyone including mom were scared, but I was watching it as a fun. I was sad too as it was not that thrilling with not even window getting smashed.

The itch (to come alive out of an accident) grew exponentially during my engineering, when I had to travel to a college on NH5 40kms away. I used to see damaged or over-turned vehicles on the road side almost every day. Why not one of them happens while I watch? Why not that happens to the bus I was going? During those journeys, I had seen some major accident scenes. Some happened few moments before we passed and some could have happened to our bus, but the chance went to the preceding. One of such accidents had one side of a private bus completely ripped off and some 30 bodies were moved into autos.

But, the wait was over one day. During third year, I and four other classmates got into an Express bus at college leaving another close friend MK who had a student pass. After 10 minutes, the driver tried an ambitious overtake around an overloaded (chili bags) tractor – the tractor fell half-way into a side-by ditch and a truck from opposite hit the bus on the right. Nobody was injured. We were put into another bus. This time, I was standing beside the driver. Twenty minutes into the journey, while trying to overtake an 18-wheeler truck-trailer the left-front side of the bus hit the trailer. That was a wow moment for me, to watch a live accident and had two incidents in a single journey; though, not fully satisfied as it was a minor hit. Again, none was injured.

I was looking for more. A few months later, I and a friend LM (can compete with Kumbhakarna for his sleep in buses) got into a bus on return journey leaving MK on that instance too – I took the last seat and he was one row ahead. LM started sleeping; I tried to sleep on the last row lying horizontally, but could not. So, I got up and started gazing through the left window; Suddenly a BANG! And another BANG! A truck in the front applied sudden brake; our bus driver tried his best, but couldn’t avoid hitting; the front windows got smashed. At the same time, another truck hit our bus from rear; it was an old truck that had engine coming out (like cars). The engine protruded into the bus damaging the right side of the last row. And, there I was, on the left side on the same last row seeing this collision.

No, I was not shocked. I was not injured. Many in the bus got injured, mainly with foreheads hitting the front seats due to sudden brake. I woke up LM (yeah, still sleeping) and he asked rubbing his eyes, “What! Guntur came up so quickly?” I need not tell how much I pulled his leg in the college later. I can write a full post on his sleeping in the buses. Yeah! We had never left MK behind while taking bus.

Then, we were put into a different bus and there it was – my moment – my dream – everyone in that bus asking for the details and me telling the story – a live accident that I had live through.

***************

Now, for the last 7 years (excepting the US stints), I have been travelling regularly (once or twice a month) from Hyderabad to my home-town Guntur – most often by bus (private/APSRTC) - start on Friday night and return on Monday morning . The journey includes NH9, one of the most accident-prone highways in the country, taking away hundreds of lives every year.

On every such journey, I see at least one accident and many ‘just-miss’ incidents. Two minor accidents happened to the bus I was in. Many times, I would be sitting in the left side window of the last rows, running parallel to a truck driver, only for the truck driver to put brake at the last moment to allow our bus to slide in. Still, I never had a ‘heart in the mouth’ kind of feeling because I have seen many before during college. However, since the day I watched this Journey movie, I have become philosophical about life as well as little worried about journeys. Wish, I come back to myself quickly as now I dream of driving car to Guntur one day in near future.

Hope at least 1% of these horrendous drivers that watch this movie think twice when they come on the road.

Vegetarianism - Vegetables - Nutrition

2011-11-09T22:52:00.001+05:30

**** Read after your lunch/dinner *****
BeetRoot Poriyal and Pakoda Koorma - read the South Indian menu in my office canteen. I bet half of those interested in taking SI meals would have backed off on seeing beetroot. I was equally depressed by seeing Pakoda Koorma, though was delighted to see Beetroot and Dosakai Dal (Cucumber) after weeks of Bhindi (Bendakaya/Okra/Ladies Finger) complimenting permutation and combination of Aloo (Potato), Patta Gobi (Cabbage), Gobi (Cauliflower) and Carrot (Gaazar) with a change in name - Mix Veg Curry, Veg Kurma, Veg Kadai, Veg Jalfrezi, Cabbage-Carrot poriyal.
For reasons like not having hygienic Andhra mess in the vicinity, well wishers’ concerns about the expansion of my pot-belly and the heaviness of the Andhra food at nights means that I generally visit a North Indian food joint for dinner. And the menu usually has a curry made up of one or more of Aloo (Potato), Mutter (Green peas), Rajma (Red Kidney Beans), Paneer (Cottage Cheese), Tomato and Gobi (Cauliflower) and occasionally with Palak (Spinach), Lauki (Sorakaya/Aanapakaya/Bottlegourd) or Methi (menti/Fenugreek) .

When I went to native for a week long Diwali vacation, I told my Mom to not include Okra (Bhindi), Potato, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Carrot and Tomato in any menu. And, what I had the following for a week – The menu commonly included one curry and dal supplemented with a freshly grounded chutney (noorudu pacchadi) with a vegetable or a leaf (Gongura, Pudina/Mint, Kottimeera/Corrainder), one or two pickles (preserved chutney/ooragaya) like Avakaya (Mango), Chintakaya(Imli/Tamarind), Usirikaya(Amla/Gooseberry) Nimmakaya (Nimboo/Lime) and a grounded powder like Gunpowder, Kandi podi (Toordal powder) or Palli podi (Groudnut/peanut powder).

Curry was from one of the vegetables of Dondakaya (Tindora/ Ivy Gourd), Vankaya (Baingan/Brinjal/Eggplant), Kakara Kaya (Karela/Bittergourd), Sorakaya (Lauki/Bottlegourd), Chikkudukaya (Large Beans with seed), Goruchikkudu (Beernis/Long thin beans used in Fried rice), Beerakaya (Turai/Ridgegourd)

Dal was either Toor Dal (Red lentils) or Moong Dal (Yellow gram) cooked with a vegetable from Tomato, Dosakaya (Cucumber), Mango, Sorakaya or a leafy vegetable from Palak (Spinach), Chukkakura (Sorrel spinach), Thotakura (Amaranthus), Bacchalikura (Malabar Spinach), Menthikura (Methi/Fenugreek).

I haven’t even got a chance to relish my favorite and Mom's special Chemadumpa (Arvi/Taro root) Vepudu (Fry). I haven’t yet talked about other root vegetables like Beetroot, Kanda (Yam), Potlakaya (Snake gourd), Aratikaya (Plantain), Gummadikaya (Pumpkin), Panasa pottu koora (Jackfruit).

There was no need/time for regular Sambar, Pulusu (similar to sambar), Majjiga Pulusu (sambar type of preparation with sour buttermilk), Menthi Majjiga (rasam type preparation with Methi), Rasam/Charu and Pachi Pulusu (Dry Soup).

Ok, enough of foodies, what I wanted to tell is vegetarianism is not always about Dal, Aloo, Gobi, Paneer and some pulses like Rajma, Chole and Chana. It is primarily about all vegetables, though not a daily dose of salads with raw vegetables and cheese as Americans think. Also, eating raw vegetables in India is not advisable sometimes due to high pesticide use.

Many people (irrespective of generation) like to eat only a few varieties of vegetables and face problems while eating anywhere outside their home. I pity them. The world is full of vegetables and I like to eat all of them, though I enjoy some of them at one or two levels up. Though recently, starting to hate Bhindi and Cabbage courtesy the FC caterers. Curries are not that boring if the vegetables are rotated and the preparation is tweaked.

My Mom (sometimes I too) can prepare a curry out of a vegetable in at least 3 different methods. Add to that you get excellent combinations when you mix two three vegetables (No, not talking about cabbage-carrot poriyal or Mix Veg Curry served in canteen).

Whatever I get at home is a proper Vegetarian Meal that provides nutrition as below:
Rice/Roti – Carbohydrates
Dal – Protein
Vegetables – Vitamins, antioxidants, Iron and other minerals
Curd/yogurt and Majjiga/Buttermilk/Chaaz – To cool down the stomach and improve digestion.

A Pakoda Koorma, a Malai methi chamn, some Kofta or Kadai (Besan/Bengal Gram Fluor + Buttermilk) and even Rajma/Chola/Chana would not give me same nutrition.

Note: It is not only about Andhra or South Indian. Most of the Indian menus have given due importance to all vegetables, though I would say the Andhra menu includes a higher number of vegetables.
P.S.: I am a vegetarian (lacto-vegetarian to be specific) with not eating egg (exception to birthday cakes).
P.S.2.: A caterer produced a new dish called 'Chola-Soya Ka Dostana' today!

The Characteristic Indian Head Shaking

2011-09-30T23:09:00.002+05:30

"Oh boy! What does that mean? A Yes or a No!? For God's sake just speak it out!' the client asked me when I nodded my head as a response to his query. I understood his fury as that was not the first time I had done that in front of him.

I have seen this characteristic in Telugus (Andhrites), especially from my native district, not to generalize though. We simply nod our head in response to a lot of questions. And that would neither be a perfect vertical swing in agreement nor a horizontal in denial – but a unique way of shaking that only natives could understand (correctly) and would make outsiders pull their hair to guess. So, for an American who expects mainly a word of ‘Yeah/No’, there is no surprise that my nods irritate him.

While the silent nods are a distinctive feature for my natives, the head-shakes among many Indians are such vigorous that I sometimes visualize cows watching them. Almost every Indian – we move our heads a lot while talking and even while listening too. While moving hands in the right way when talking is considered as a good non-verbal gesture, I do not remember something similar being said about heads. In fact, it is suggested to keep head still and make proper eye-eye contact while speaking or listening.

Whether during my stay in US or in Hollywood movies, I have rarely seen an American moving his/her head as much as Indians do while talking. While listening too, they just nod their head vertically once/twice as acknowledgement – nothing more than that.

Some of you may think I have generalized it too far, but these have been my observations over the last 4 years :->>

Though I annoy people with my silent nods (shakes), I think I hardly move my head while listening. This used to annoy my lecturers in college, who felt I was not acknowledging and not paying attention in the class room, in fact, with my blank stares were defying them!

Bhuvanagiri adventure

2011-09-04T00:04:00.002+05:30

Those were the boring routine weekends in 2009. One day, roomie Venkat and I decided to go on bike trip to nearby. While searching for any such place not more than 100km far from Hyderabad, Bhuvanagiri (Bhongir) fort came into my mind. I see this fort whenever I go by train to native from Hyderabad (Can be seen on the left after crossing Bibinagar junction on Hyderabad-Guntur line).

Bhuvanagiri is on Hyderabad-Warangal NH202 highway and Secunderabad-Kazipet railway line. It is around 35km from Uppal and 65km from Gachibowli.

We started from Gachibowli on a Saturday morning, 6.30 AM. I have the route map print-out from maps.google.com and so crossed Mehdipatnam, Liberty and Narayanaguda without any problem. Then, we lost the way after Barkatpura. Somehow, we found the directions from localites and reached Uppal ring road around 8. We had our breakfast there and started again.

Since, those were the days before Infosys phase-II and extension works (the highway is being extended to 4 lanes), the traffic was less and we rallied smoothly. The weather was pleasant, with rain on the previous day, cool breeze, no show from sun and so it was the perfect day for a bike ride.

After reaching Bhuvanagiri by 8.45 AM, nobody could give the right direction to the hill base, though it was a small town. Somehow, we reached the hill-base and were surprised to see a locked gate at the base. We checked with a shop-keeper there and he informed that the gate should be opened at 9. Luckily, the watchman had come by 9. There was no trace of other tourists. He gave us a wry smile and issued us tickets. That added more doubts about the place.

After crossing the gate, we came across a statue named Sardar Sarvai Papanna at the base of a slope. We could see something like a small fort at the top of slope. We were disappointed to know that we came all the way to see such a small hillock and fort. It was a surprise too as the fort appeared to be on the top of a big hill while viewing from the train.

***Click on the picture to see full size***

Walking on the steep slop reminded me an old Telugu movie.

After hiking that steep, we could not find a way. Hiking was easy, but found it hard to come down.

Then, we found some steps on the left. After climbing the steps, we realized that what we had seen from the base was just a tower (guard point) and need to climb up to reach the fort.

Bhuvanagiri bus-station from the tower base -

There were no steps from this point onwards, it was just a hilly path.

Trekked this rocky path and seen some cannons there. Then, we were looking for a way to reach the fort at the top. It was like a huge rock without any proper stairs. There were some carvings like steps with railings to support here and there. We were in a dilemma whether to proceed or not.

What if we fall from there? Who would be there to inform about us?

Suddenly, we saw a person going up with an ease. That gave us some courage. Also, two tourists joined us - we exchanged pleasantries and came to know that they too were like us, biking from Hyderabad. They followed us on this adventurous part of the trekking.

That trekking was the best part of the trip and the thrill made us forget the effort we put in. However, the scene on the top was disappointing. There were just broken walls representing the fort. Actually it was so small that I would not call it a fort. Though, we could not refrain from appreciating the efforts of the coolies who brought up so many stones atop that steep hill.

There was a BSNL telephone tower too on the hill-top and the person who trekked before us was an employee, who looks after that. He told us that he would trek everyday to attend his office duties. And, I grumble about my software job in AC room and had to drag myself to the office everyday.

Though, the fort was a disappointment, the nature scenes from the top were breathtaking.

Slowly, the place got filled up with tourists. We could see around 20 of them. So, it was not such a neglected place. We started to trek down and reached the base by 11.30.

I heard that there is a trekking path from the back of the hill, which is frequently visited by trekking and adventure clubs from Hyderabad.

Though it was an unplanned trip, the whole experience of bike trip, trekking and scenes were awesome. We vouched to do such trips regularly, though soon broken by sudden break journey to onsite.

Andhra Pesarattu + Bru Coffee

2010-11-21T00:28:00.000+05:30

What a way to start a Saturday morning from Boston - Pesarattu (Moongphal Dosa) with allam-ulli-pacchimirchi (ginger-onion-green chilli) topping + Allam pacchadi (Ginger pickle) + Bru Coffee

The best Enginnering Wonder - Howrah Bridge

2010-11-01T09:25:00.000+05:30

*** Re-post from Archive ***

It was third month of my first year engineering. English Professor came to the class with the corrected answer sheets for the 2nd Internal.

Everyone would be anxious, but one guy was more than anyone.

A small flashback in this flashback -
The 1st internal was an exercise of 40 'Correction of sentences' (The university hadn't had released the textbooks by then.) and he was the topper with 19.5/20. Only 3 others passed, but managed only 13 or 14. Unfortunately he was off on the day the results were announced. A guy who was unknown to 90% of the class even after 1st internal, suddenly became popular in all branches – Only ten persons passed in the whole college and his answer sheet was displayed in all classrooms advising them to follow him.

Coming back to this day –
The Professor started giving marks and papers. Like many other language professors, he was also quoting some great write ups, some wild imaginations and some unthinkable blunders only Engineering students could do (Of course, each branch has its style). Everyone was laughing and this guy too.

After waiting for a long time, only his paper was left. He was tense. Not only he, but many others since he was the topper in that subject last time.

A part of the exam was to write an essay on ‘The best Engineering Wonder you have seen’. Everyone was eager to know what he had written.

The Professor picked it up and started-

"This guy topped in the first cycle. I was happy that there was at least one capable guy in this college. Now look, what this guy wrote.

He chose ‘The Howrah Bridge’ and wrote 6 pages on it! Can you people imagine it?
Turning to that guy, 'You had written very well. You explained everything in detail. The article was good and well-organized. But, as a Computer Science Engineering student, I expected people to write about Computers and not Howrah Bridges or Ganapavaram bridge(Our college was beside a riverlet on NH5 with a bridge starting almost from the gate). At least, you can write on robots or some How in the world that you got this idea? Actually, you proved that you were an Engineering student.'"

The guy stood up like that. He couldn’t understand initially whether the Professor was praising him or making fun of him. The last sentence got him the answer.

You can understand the situation in the class and the teasing he got for the next few days.

p.s.: The guy was no other than JB, that is, I.

Creative Zen X-Fi2 Review

2010-08-03T05:13:00.001+05:30

Review of Creative Zen X-Fi2 music player

Summary: Sounds excellent, navigation needs improvement

Pros: Sound quality, X-Fi feature, EP-630 earphones, plug 'n' play, S-video out
Cons: Navigation menus, Rigid touch screen, no video playlists, no volume control button

Overall Rating: 4/5
Quality of sound: 4.5/5
Quality of video: 4/5
Touch screen: 3/5
Menu navigation: 3/5

Detailed review:

I have been using Creative Zen X-Fi2 for more than 2 months now. I listen at least 1-2 hours daily while commuting and whenever I get bored.

Sound quality:
I bought this after months of research on various personal media players (PMP) in the market and was not disappointed with the sound quality. I have used Sansa Fuze, Apple iPod Nano and Creative Zen for considerable period. In addition to these players, I listened to songs a few times on Apple iPhone, iTouch Classic, Sony S-series player, Microsoft Zune and Nokia N-series. I would rate Creative Zen on par with my Nokia Ngage 3300 series phone. The high-quality EP-630 earphones too make a difference. And the X-Fi feature rocks!

Video quality:
Although the player is supposed to support MP4, I could play only WMV. The default supplied software is useless not only for video conversion, but for everything, including song/video management. I use RealPlayer's free media converter in Windows Vista. This is the best I found in my online research. I wish they release a version soon for Ubuntu.

Touch screen:
The touch screen was initially rigid, but the calibration had improved considerably since two firmware updates by the Creative. I do not face any issue, though I would not compare with iphone. I think most of the disgruntled users were using their thumbs as the general practice for most of the handheld devices. Try using index finger - it's a lot better.

Menu navigation:
Creative team should immediately pay attention to the menus. For performing a simple task of turn up/down volume, one has to first press home/power button, unlock the screen by dragging the bubble lock out of the screen, either wait for the song to appear afer few seconds or navigate to Music -> Now Playing, touch volume icon, then slide the bar up/down. The player surely does miss the special volume button that a normal Zen has.

Other features:

Video out: Though I got the audio-out working without issues, I failed to get the video-out to an LCD TV with an AV cable.
RSS feeds: Forget about this. This was one of the driving forces to buy this product - I dreamt of synchronizing my player every morning and read the feeds on the train to work. Phew! It takes at least an hour to sync 10 feeds and it strips the whole format so that it would be like reading a raw text file on Notepad.

Random play: The random algorithm needs some tweaking - For me it always repeats the 20 each from the top and bottom and a few from middle, though I have more than 800 songs on my playlist and I choose "Shuffle without repeat".

Applications: This is one of the exciting things about this player - they provide a development kit using which interested developers can create applications. The language used is Lua, which is also used by Adobe's Photoshop Lightroom and World of Warcraft. By default, Creative supplies Sudoku and Pushbox games.

I recommend Creative Zen X-Fi2 for pristine music listening experience, not thinking about the touch-screen, applications and RSS packages. Without this extra baggage and forgetting X-Fi crystallizer, Creative Zen is a cheaper alternative. People looking for a gadget as multi-purpose can go for Apple products or other options.

Creative Zen X-Fi2

2010-05-31T10:09:00.002+05:30

Creative Zen X-Fi2 - I finally owned one after researching and waiting for 6 months.

This is the 4th media player I have got - previously owning Sansa Fuze, Apple iPod Nano and Creative Zen. In addition to these players, I listened to songs a few times on Apple iPhone, iTouch Classic, Sony S-series player, Microsoft Zune and Nokia N-series, etc. With all this experience, I would rate Creative Zen X-Fi2, the second on the list of music players I have listened. I said the second because the first is my Nokia 3300 Ngage series phone.

To begin, the first time I listened to the music was in late 80's and early 90's when my mom used to play old Telugu and Hindi songs on the Philips radio. Those were the golden days, which used to start with Vandemataram song @5.55 AM on Akashvani (AIR) followed by P.Suseela's golden voice on Aaraadhana & Bhaktiranjani and then, Janaranjani from 8.15 AM. I got introduced to Ghantasala, Janaki, SPB, Chitra and Ilayaraja on these programs.

Once dad brought Weston audio tape recorder from grandpa's house to get it repaired - on which, brother and I would play some random songs for some period. Later, we bought a Philips 2-in-1 and dad maintained a good collection of B&W songs from 50's to 70's and classical carnatic music. At that time, dad was learning flute and I came to identify some carnatic ragas.

Occasionally, we used to listen to songs on 2-in-1 stereo at relative places during vacation. My cousin and uncle used to have large collection of Ilayaraja and Rahman songs, where I came to know about 80's and 90's music.

An AIWA walkman bought by bro and Videocon Bazooka (woofer) TV brought a new dimension to my music listening on entering the youth. The walkman was the first entity that introduced me to the pleasure of listening on ear-phones and the Bazooka told me about the bass and how to play aloud the beat in the songs. I started listening and viewing private Hindi pop albums from the likes of Strings, Aryan brothers, Colonial cousins on MTV, ATN, V and SS Music(Southern Spice) channels.

Music listening had become a serious hobby and a habit when dad bought me a PC during engineering. I bought a Frontec headphone at that time and collected lot of albums, especially those composed by Ilayaraja and Rahman. I used to play around the presets in Winamp and the playlists being repeated till late night.

The first mobile I bought on joining job, Nokia 2300, was the best in low-budget (< 5K INR) phones to play FM in stereo.
When it was stolen, I decided to buy an MP3-enabled phone - I checked various models on Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and LG, out of which, I chose an INR 8K priced Nokia 3300, that was an early model of Ngage series. That was one of my best decisions in purchasing. It was a "Made in Finland" piece, supposed to be the best and the original unlike the widely available Chinese-made Nokia phones.

I would rate this phone as the best, over the ipods and zens. I still have this phone with me.

When I came to US on office project work, I did some research on music players and finally bought Creative Zen 4 GB player. I have also bought Apple iPod Nano curious to know about the iPods. Out of these two, I rate the Zen higher, not only on the basis of ease of use without the headache of iTunes, but also for the sound quality. I feel ipods are somewhat overrated and hyped comparing to other players. I also bought Sansa Fuze player to gift and it also sounded good.

I also bought a Plantronic Gamecom 777 headphone with $90, that plays 5.1 Dolby sound. My roommates were shocked with the price, but I decided to buy thinking it was a once-in-a-lifetime decision and I was not wrong, when I started listening to songs and watching movies with that.

After coming to US again, I decided to buy a media player again and started my research again. The news that Creative Zen introduced the new touch-screen X-Fi2 player, but I was taken aback by the high price, 130$ for 8-GB, when it was a simple player without any apps, unlike iTouch. In the mean time, I searched for other players, waiting for the right deal. I ordered V-Touch player for 50$ twice, but luckily/unluckily those were missed in post. In the mean time, Creative release apps and sdk for Zen X-Fi2 and the price came down by 20$ inspiring me to order Zen X-Fi2.

I am still not fully using the player - but will soon put a detailed review.

S.Janaki for Rahmaan tunes

2010-05-14T08:19:00.000+05:30

Last week, on Ms.S.Janaki's 73rd birthday, a lot of Telugu TV channels telecasted special programs. Though, I was happy that the channels remembered the event, the heartening thing was that almost all programs defined her highlights of career as from MLA(1975) movie to Kshatriya Putrudu(Devar Magan, 1992). How could they forget the exhilerating combination of S.Janaki - A.R.Rahman. Anyway, it is too much to expect from TV channels.

So, I thought to introduce/remind those golden songs in this post. Rahman is my second favorite music director after Ilayaraja. Though she had sung very few songs for Rahman, each one of them is a gem, equivalent to her old hits. Although I listened to versions by other singers like Lata Mangeshkar and Chitra in Hindi/Tamil for some of these songs, they couldn't mesmerize me like Janaki's voice (though my intention is not to compare the legends).

Given below are the Janaki's hits for Rahman's compositions -

1. Sakhi (Alai Paayuthe/Saathiyaa) : September maasam -

Asha Bhonsle sang the Tamil version.

(Links are for Telugu versions unless specified otherwise)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLW8fBB3Sik

2. Oke okkadu (Mudalvaan/Naayak) : magadheera magadheeraa-

Sankar Mahadeavan couldn't match her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RruzmTerWyU

3. Jodi (Prasanth-Simran Tamil movie): Kadile kaalame jeevitam

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKevfau8PIM

4.Uyire (Tamil) (DilSe - Hindi): nenjanile

Hindi version, Jiya jale (DilSe) was by Lata and Telugu version, "Innallilaa" (Prematho) was by Chitra. But, I like the Tamil version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sImEWzTkJ3U

5. Premikudu (Kaadalan- Humse hein muqabla): Erraani kurradanni gopaalaa -

She sang Tamil and Hindi versions too

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xxsj9DxXtU

6. Gentleman (Gentleman- THE GENTLEMAN) : Kontedanni kattuko

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OyjVWF2uLU

7. Palnati pourusham - Bandenaka bandi katti

Vandemataram Srinivas lent the male voice

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvT9vE-th80

8.Super Police - Pakka gentlemanni

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irw6X94O4ow

9. Rangeelaa (Tamil) taniyea taniyea -

Tanhaa tanhaa by Asha Bhonsle in Hindi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIlvqRwsEAw

10.Sangamam (Tamil): Maargazhi tingal allava -

This is my pick of this list

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt4DS0U0Ldo

11. Alli arjunaa(Tamil): Endan nenjil -

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4961339622680971991#

12. Udaya (Tamil): Anjanam -

I heard three languages (Telugu/Kannada/Tamil) in this song

http://www.raaga.com/channels/tamil/moviedetail.asp?mid=t0000473

Thirst for knowledge

2010-03-04T05:33:00.006+05:30

I had written the below post in 2008 on my organization internal blogs, which I had been resisting to post on internet. Finally, I decided to post this, after getting ready to face any reaction from my father.

A majority section of mid twenties Indian IT junta feel this. They are under graduates who jump into a job almost directly from college campus. Then, they start feeling they should have studied more – prepare for CAT, GMAT and others.

Reason can be anything – money/career/growth – for some, it is knowledge.

But, most of them fail to make any progress – again due to many reasons/factors – The most common reply is lack of time.

I'm one of these.
I always liked to do a PG through correspondence even though my well-wishers advise me to take an MBA for better career. But, I haven’t taken a step – largely due to lack of time (Standard reply – but for me it’s valid to an extent – Why should I always be in projects where I have to slog at least 14 hours a day) and importantly due to the confusion regarding my onsite trip - I don’t want to stop in middle.

But, as a son of my father – I should not say this.

Why? You should read my father’s visiting card or name plate

Y.B.R, M.A(History), M.A.(English Lit.), L.L.B, B.Com, D.B.M, D.P.M.,D.I.M, A.D.I.M, C.A.I.I.B

Believe it or not! He is currently writing betterment examinations for his M.A.(English Lit.), unsatisfied with his results!

In addition to the above, he has a PGDCA, certificate in COBOL (got in 1987).
He is an expert in Foxpro programming and BankMaster (application still used in SBI and I believe in many nationalized banks).

He laid his hands on VB, HTML, javascript as well.

He didn’t leave Blogspace as well. He maintains around 20 blogs on Blogspot covering varied subjects like Ramayana, Mahabharata, Vivekananda, Indian Economics, India current affairs, US current affairs, Ayurveda etc. He has blogs on some other sites like writers.com, etc., but I don’t remember their names.

He has learnt flute (there are around 20 in my home now), sitar (still present), tabala, harmonium and to some extent violin (still present).

I am ashamed to tell this but, on more than one occasion – one can find me glued to TV watching some junk and my father studying in the first floor.

Then, how can I say I don’t have time! Yes, I don’t have. I have to go back and get ready for a client meeting.

But, I still have this dream – my kids should admire me more for a person I am than due to the natural liking for a relationship – just like I do at my father.

Ah! I forgot - For people wondering what some of the initials are -
L.L.B - Law
D.B.M - Diploma in Business Management
D.P.M.- Diploma in Personnel Management
D.I.M.- Diploma in Management
A.D.I.M. - Advanced Diploma in Management
C.A.I.I.B. - Certificate in Accounting and I(don't know) Instituional Banking.

p.s.: My father's blog profile

p.s. 2: He was not a graduate when he started his first job.

IPL in the North-East

2010-02-23T09:47:00.000+05:30

Team for the North East in IPL-4 - what a novel idea Mr. Anil Athale has suggested. Yes, why not a team, for example, Guwahati Gladiators?

True that there are some logistic constraints, but I do not think it is difficult.

Oh no! Just after I wrote this, I came across the news that Mr. Modi wants to limit the number of teams to 10 – He should get away with one of Ahmedabad or other tier-II cities and go to Guwahati.

In case, rediff site is blocked in your company, here are some points from http://cricket.rediff.com/report/2010/feb/22/colonel-anil-athale-include-north-east-indian-premier-league-ipl.htm -

Dear Mr Lalit Modi ,
I am a great admirer of you and the way you have put the Indian Premier League on the top rung of world sporting events. The carping critics, and there are many, are shocked that cricketers are being offered huge monetary incentives or are 'bought' and 'sold'. We Indians are hypocrites when it comes to money matters. Laxmi is the most favoured deity in all households and yet we claim to not want her.
…
I spent good month in the north-eastern states last year, meeting a cross section of people. The dominant impression was that the people of the north-east are yearning to join the national mainstream. Any one who has travelled to those parts of our country will testify to the fact that the people of north-east are some of the friendliest.
Insurgency is long over there and in many respects, Kohima or Aizwal are far more peaceful and safer than Delhi , Hyderabad or Pune. To illustrate the sea change in the area, one instance sticks in mind. Captain Neikezhakuo Kenguriise, who hailed from Kohima in Nagaland, was awarded Mahavir Chakra during the Kargil border conflict. Captain Neikezhakuo led his platoon to Tololing ridgeline overlooking an important army formation, ejected Pakistani regulars and re-captured the ridgeline in a five-day-long battle. But he lost his life in mortar shelling on June 18, 1999. When his last rites took place in Kohima, virtually the entire town turned up. Many newspapers commented that more people turned up for his funeral than even for the last journey of the legendary Naga leader Z A Phizo.
Unfortunately such is the ignorance of mainstream media and rest of the country that these landmark events are seldom noted or reported. You, Mr Modi have the chance to correct this. Why can't the north-east have a team in IPL-4? Why can't we have some IPL matches played at Kohima, Imphal, Aizwal, Dibrugarh and Tezpur besides Guwahati. All these places are connected by air and I am sure the state governments will be more than willing to build stadia. The media exposure that the IPL will give to these beautiful places and people will boost tourism, economy and promote national integration.
Currently many businessmen pay hefty sums to insurgents in the noth-east. Surely they can spare some of it to sponsor a cricket team! Also some time ago the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the International Cricket Council talked of spreading cricket to China.
Then why not to our own north-east? Given the sterling sportspersons that these areas have produced I am sure the next Sachin Tendulkar could well be from Manipur!
As to the so called insurgency in the north-east, a ruling party politician had once confided to me that the north-east states themselves make sure that there is some insurgency is kept on otherwise as he said, "Delhi will forget that the north-east ever exits!" Sad but true.
Mr Modi, here is your chance to make a lasting contribution to nation building that would be remembered by posterity.
…
I know it is a daunting task to plan for this at short notice, but if you could do the miracle of shifting the IPL -2 to South Africa last year at short notice, surely you can do this!
Yours sincerely
Anil Athale
Colonel Anil Athale (retired) is Chhatrapati Shivaji Fellow studying internal security.

Save Telugu

2010-02-22T05:15:00.005+05:30

This topic has been long pending in my mind, but the specialty of today, Feb 21, reminded me that it would be the right time. Today is International Mother Language Day

The other day, while I was in a call, my mother asked me, “Disappoint ayyava?” - though I was a bit disappointed, I was rather surprised with the question. Definitely, my mother and father are the last ones from whom I hear Telgish - bring back the question,how much Telugu the current conversational Telugu contains.

On the other hand, every Telugu bloggeri is trying to invent Telugu alternative words or make exact Telugu translation to replace some latest terms to revive their mother tongue – bloggari (blogger), antherjalamu (internet), jalamu(net), salegudu (web), nesarlu (thanks), tapaa (blog post) – to name a few. Even, there are many online forums where these mother language lovers fight over what should be the perfect Telugu term for an internet generation word.

But, I think the safeguard/revival of the language should be taken priority over trying to add new words to the dictionary. I have no reservations using the terms blogger and internet, just like train and calculator than their respective innovations, Dhumasakatam and Ganana yantram. New words from not only English, but also any language can be invited into Telugu in the same way as some Telugu words have made to English, Hindi, Tamil and others.

The terms Marchaavaa? vs Change chesava?, Rasaavaa? vs Write chesava?, Pilichava vs Call chesava, Pampinchava vs Send chesava, Veltunnava vs Goingaa, Vastunnava vs Comingaa, Raava? vs Not comingaaa - it is disappointing to say this, but the second terms are widely used compared to the former ones. And, the worst thing is, people make a mockery of someone who says Adi marchaava? instead of You changed thattaah?.

Sadly, this situation (not the mockery part) is not only in Telugu, but for every Indian language. As far as I know the Tamizh are exceptions to some extent, however the effect is slowly reaching their lands – I have been hearing Try panninga, Change panninga often these days(not sure panninga is exact word).

So, I request everyone – when you speak in your mother language, try to speak completely in your language. No I late ho gaya and nenu today send chesta, please!

Please try to do your part to ensure Telugu (or your language) does not join Boro and Boa sooner or later.

Excerpt from the above THE HINDU link (http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article100977.ece):

Two unique languages disappear with death of last speakers -
When Boro died on Strait Island last November, Boa lost a friend. The world lost a language.
Last week, Boa also died. Another language died with her.
The death of these last surviving speakers of two Great Andamanese languages, Khora and Bo, has resulted in the extermination of their unique tribes on the islands.

Guntur Bomb

2010-02-12T09:24:00.001+05:30

I come from Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India. Apart from education and rowdies, this place is very famous for hot cuisine - Guntur chilli, Guntur gongura, Guntur avakai – those names are enough to ooze saliva in mouth.

Guntur mirchi bajji with green chilli chutney – it will top the world's hottest food menu. And, the hottest mirchi bajjis in the Guntur city are made at our street – Donka Road.

On casual browsing, when I stumbled across a post on Guntur Mirchi in a national magazine, The Outlook, it brought back some memories.

When I was 6 or 7, my uncle (father's younger brother) took us to the Bajji bandi for the first time to return the favors my brother and I did to him at our shop.

From that day, mirchi bajji has become part of my life – it is our favorite pastime. Bajji party is the standard treats for every occasion. I have friends who take the bajjis daily.

The important fact is that I have never heard of stomach ulcers and gastric complaints from any localite I know.

I miss the Guntur Donka Road mirchi bajji badly :-(

Some excerpts from the Outlook article (source:http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?233612) -

You wonder what Guntur would be like without its chillies.

Guntur's chilli trade is second only to Mexico's in the world; a bad season shakes the city to its very hub.

This, though, is but a momentary lapse, as Srinivas Rao will tell you. This Gunturian has been wheeling his cart to Donka Road Crossing punctually at 7 every evening for the last 22 years, dishing out over 5,000 plump, green chillies a day dipped in besan and deep-fried in a kadai the size of a small lotus pond to his enthusiastic clientele. His business, Rao informs us in between skimming the chillies out of the blubbering oil, is booming as never before. No, Guntur can't do without its mirch masala.

Are you still wondering about the title, Guntur Bomb – it is the common name for our own Guntur mirchi bajji. Brahmanandam makes a reference to Guntur Bomb in Chiranjeevi's Chudalani Vundi movie.

Web Marketing

2010-01-25T10:20:00.000+05:30

These are my thoughts after reading a blog-friend, Veera’s post on his external site about adsense .

Google Adsense and other similar intelligent internet advertising programs process and analyze the content of the webpage being displayed and generate the ads to be displayed. But, as Veera pointed out, readers who know about Adsense do not click on these ads. We do everything to avoid ads - keeping pop-up blockers.

I feel that the web marketing still has a large potential to expand. The companies can tie up with major web-sites and blog sites of popular personalities from films and sportspersons. At present, as far as I know, the films deal only with internet media partnerships and brand tie-ups. The internet media partnership only looks into the tie-up between producer and an internet portal like sify.com or bigadda.com for the film’s promotion. Similarly, the brand tie-ups involve interleaving promotion of a market brand within the script of a movie – for example, Aamir Khan drinking Coca Cola throughout a movie.

But, how does it look if there is a full-size image of Aamir Khan drinking a Coca Cola as a permanent left side banner on his web-site (www.aamirkhan.com). Likewise, a thumbnail picture of Coke bottle could be put at the start of each paragraph on the article, like a bullet. The person reading the blog may feel to drink the coke after visiting the site. This is not as obtrusive as pop-ups and user need not click on anything. The company can pay the site owner based on the number of web-site hits and not on ad-clicks.

If the soft drink companies could reach out marriage invitational flexi-boards in remote villages, why they are ignoring such popular spaces on the internet for ads.

Now another question that may arise is how does such strategy help normal bloggers like me, who are not stars but starters who have to build up viewership. The companies can tie-up with blog sites like blogger and wordpress to insert their advertisements in blog templates and let the blogger choose one or more of the companies to display on his/her blog. The blogger can paid based on the count of web-site hits or trackbacks and the blog site can charge the company either based on the number of bloggers or a fixed contract value.

Any blogger will be happy to put the company logos and product ads of his/her liking than to depend on some randomly-generated ad, which on most of occasions is totally unrelated to the blog content or to the readers.

I am not sure if such marketing strategy is already in place, at least I do not see it. Perhaps, it may not be popular or I might not have observed carefully. If such idea is not in place, I believe this idea is worth to be evaluated by the companies.

Jyoti Basu and Jyothi Basu

2010-01-20T07:22:00.000+05:30

One of my favorite leaders, Jyoti Basu passed away. The news were more disappointing to me because I was his namesake, though I spell it with an "h" - I was named after him.

How can I forget those moments and barrage of questions whenever my name pops up - in schools, colleges and interviews - an easy and dependable ice-breaker. "Interesting name", "How did you get this name?", "Are you from Bengal?", "Are you communists?", etc.

With such short public memory, rarely I would get this chance going forward.

However Jyoti Basu was my favorite for better reasons than name - Ruling a state 24 years continuously in democratic setup was a great achievement, and that being done by a Communist added more to that (though there we`re some different views about the goondaism).

That 'historical blunder', anyone remember it - what would have happened if he became PM instead of Deve Gowda. Certainly better [if not for Jyoti Basu, for communist rule :-) ]

Henin's back

2010-01-10T06:59:00.001+05:30

Look who's creating latest waves in Women Tennis - Justin Henin has almost made a dream comeback. I think I should think twice before I put my philosophies :-)

She retired in May 2008 - and participated in 2 reality shows since then.

I think true champions cannot sit idle - not an iota of difference for this blogger who has not stepped out of the apartment for 24+ hours now, just eating and browsing.

Gridview and extra Div

2009-09-15T22:26:00.003+05:30

Disclaimer: This post is to share info for people working on ASP.Net. There is no intention to defame or pass comments/remarks or criticize any person or organization.

MicroSoft did it again!

I have code working witin ASP-HTML-Javascript that dynamically shows a vertical scrollbar when the no. of rows exceed a configurable value.

<body onload=fnSetTableHeigh() >
<div>
<table id=tblDetails >
<--- Table rows >
</table>
</div>
</body>

This has been working without any issues in my ASP. Recently, I have added a new ASPX web page to the ASP.Net section of our application.

So, a GridView control is defined to display the data and I have used the same concept. GridView control should render a HTML table and so I enclosed it in a DIV expecting it to work –

<div id=divDetails>
<asp:GridView id=gvDetails & gt;
…
</asp:GridView>
</div>

But, it was not working. I thought it was an issue with my JS and tried to fix that function. No progress. Then, I tried to adjust various attributes of the gridview and div controls – but in vain.

After struggling for 2 hours, somehow I thought I should see what was getting rendered actually. To my horror, gridview is rendering extra div; The rendered code was –

<div id=divDetails>
<div>
<table id=tblDetails >
<--- Table rows >
</table>
</div>
</div>

This was OK until I saw the response on the site when this bug had been reported in 2006! They did not bother to fix this even in VS 2008, ASP.Net 3.5.

http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=104139

For umpteenth time, I thought of banging my head for choosing MS technologies as my stream.