Kaldesac Philosophy

Train

2009-10-24T00:57:00.001-05:00

Train
Originally uploaded by S.Murugesh

The Egmore train. I miss Madras!

times in chennai are.. err.. rather slimy

2008-04-07T11:29:00.001-05:00

Its official. I am late with this entry of mine. But its official. The Times of India will start the most royal of wars for the newspapers turf. It will war The Hindu in its home turf. Expect battle royale. Expect the last Tamil New Year's day of April 14 (whatever thats supposed to mean) to be eventful.

This means that the Times.. err.. variously and more popularly called the slimes and other not so pleasant names has reached its final frontiers so far as India is concerned. Remember that ToI had planned to take on The Hindu long back. But with the HT hitting hard on the ToI's home turf, it had to rethink strategies. So sensing a welcoming opportunity, in came Deccan Chronicle into the ring. DC even had the then ToI Chennai marketing strategist or-so to put in his papers and join DC for its launch. It was successful nevertheless. But, Chronicle for all its youthfulness didnt really wake up the Old Lady of Mount Road. So much that The Hindu did not even consider a price cut.

But with ToI expect the battle to be serious and head-on. ToI has deep pockets and will definitely try using the same to put down the oh-not-so-well-to-do dailies, like it has always done in the past. This happened in Bangalore sometime back. But in Chennai expect things in reverse. Do remember that The Hindu is a conservative paper with a conservative management. What does that mean? While there are no questions as to the ToI having deep pockets, there are no questions about this Old Lady of Chennai either. The paper is rooted to Chennai!!! Apart from their values, and editorials and other stuff, the management is also rooted in Chennai. It is privately held with a huge circulation in Chennai. Almost all of its success is from the South, with Chennai accounting to a very sizable amount. That means that the paper has been enjoying undisputed revenues and profits apart from the good repute. So battle royale guaranteed!!

DC has had increased subscriptions. But, most of the friends/relatives I know of have DC as their second, yes second daily after you-know-who! So while DC successfully damaged the circulations of the Express, expect ToI return favor to the DC and the Express. But what really has happened over the past after DC's Chennai launch is that, the Old Lady has raised eyebrows. Not too late too. If you have been reading the Hindu, you would've noticed the oh-not-so in your face changes. The additions to the daily have been more focussed on areas historically uncovered by The Hindu. Trying to get the younger generation back to reading their paper has been a priority no doubt. It is still continuing, subtle changes happening every other week. It all started with the wide broad sheet to more acceptable international broad sheet standards. Then came the changes to its style, the extras started sporting a new look and now the tabloids added to the daily. Prices haven't dropped as yet though.

There has also been the new Ergo which has for now been promoted as a sister concern from the Kasturi stable. Not sure whats in store there.

But what apart from all this does the ToI bring in? One for sure is some good fight. The Hindu will need to be extra light on its feet henceforth. Expect the Hindu launching more editions in the ToI heartland. It does bring in a fight much required. There is some more... but thats should I guess be a whole new post :D

Aussie Hypocrisy - Live at a Cricket Match Near You

2008-01-06T11:37:00.000-06:00

A good start to the new year! Happy New Year Folks :). First things first. I don't support racism. period.

We are all hypocrites! But none can beat this!

The Aussies can taunt all teams around the world with their straight, sexual, abusive, well thought, planned, hard mouthed cricket!! When they do it, its a mind game. Hah thats the politically correct term I suppose?

But "a monkey" is all that takes for Andrew Symonds to goto MAMA (read ICC). Yes, Bhajji has apologised to Symonds for the same word earlier! So nothing wrong there. If he did it again, the ban serves him right.

Now there seems to be a one Hogg calling our folks names.. like b**tard. We in India probably call it taunt, verbal abuse. Perhaps, if he had used those same words off the field to any one of our players, he would be RIP. Well, apparently the Aussies are fine with b**tard but not monkeys. Symonds apparently is annoyed / irritated / disturbed by the monkey comments! And, it turned racist. Wow!

Look at this article from Waugh... eloquent, waxing eloquent!!! I quote from his article in Herald Sun, Australia

"At the centre of most incidents between cricketing nations is the clash or lack of understanding of each other's cultures.

Teams playing against Australia fail to understand that the banter, gamesmanship and sledging it uses is the way Australian kids joust and play in the schoolyard and backyard.

On the other hand Aussie teams can't stomach time-wasting tactics and perceived manipulation of the rules, including calling for runners, over-appealing and the alleged altering of the ball's condition."

Beautiful, he went on to pooh pooh the monkey incident in India as well. But, in the end, .. err... he ends up contradicting himself. So, he actually wants every other team to accept all that comes from the Aussie cricketers for high quality banter, chatter, sportsmanship! Excellent! Claps all around!

So if the ICC wants to stop all this nonsense from happening, it cannot let just tighten strings where the Aussies want it tightened! Why should Gilchrist object to a speaker near the stumps being sensitive and the same being broadcasted?? Whats to hide if its friendly banter mate? If not whats the need for it in the first place? If there is cricket then let it be just cricket! Don't let Kumble the Silent talk the bodyline talk!

And thats another news item that has catapulted the already high flying news channels into the limelight. NDTV-IBN and Times Now increasing in levels as they come! Making news, whoever coined that term!!??

Checkout Links ---
Harbhajan 'broke a deal' on abuse

Ugliness of racism will not go away quietly

Eagles - Long Road Out of Eden

2007-11-12T01:21:00.000-06:00

Eagles has released their self claimed last album. So that's news enough to check it out :)

"This is the final statement. We got back together and went around the world twice on tour but then there was nothing left to do without new music. Now we have this album that fits in with our body of work. There won't be another Eagles album after this" - Don Henley

checkout
Long Road Out of Eden - Wiki
Eagles - Wiki
Eagles - Official Website

kalyansury.com - i just bought it!!

2007-10-28T12:30:00.000-05:00

i just bought my own domain after much thought! i even had a thought of changing my name to kalyan sury :D. but since that didnt really god down well with a few people thought that i might as well get myself a domain with that... did anybody ask me about my plans for the future!

and something very important to note, didnt really know that one could buy a google apps account with a domain for 10 green bucks! translates to about 395 indian bucks.. whoo!! a normal domain registration alone costs 500 here! thats called cheap.

update: now that ive bought it, am planning to move out blogging to a different host!

Time Management Lecture by Randy Pausch

2007-10-28T11:08:00.000-05:00

Dying 47-Year-Old Professor Gives Exuberant ‘Last Lecture’

2007-10-28T10:41:00.000-05:00

Software - How Software Companies Die

2007-10-21T12:46:00.001-05:00

Found this excellent article. Could not agree more!!

Software - How Software Companies Die

By Orson Scott Card

The environment that nutures creative programmers kills management and marketing types - and vice versa. Programming is the Great Game. It consumes you, body and soul. When you're caught up in it, nothing else matters. When you emerge into daylight, you might well discover that you're a hundred pounds overweight, your underwear is older than the average first grader, and judging from the number of pizza boxes lying around, it must be spring already. But you don't care, because your program runs, and the code is fast and clever and tight. You won. You're aware that some people think you're a nerd. So what? They're not players. They've never jousted with Windows or gone hand to hand with DOS. To them C++ is a decent grade, almost a B - not a language. They barely exist. Like soldiers or artists, you don't care about the opinions of civilians. You're building something intricate and fine. They'll never understand it.

BEEKEEPING

Here's the secret that every successful software company is based on: You can domesticate programmers the way beekeepers tame bees. You can't exactly communicate with them, but you can get them to swarm in one place and when they're not looking, you can carry off the honey. You keep these bees from stinging by paying them money. More money than they know what to do with. But that's less than you might think. You see, all these programmers keep hearing their parents' voices in their heads saying "When are you going to join the real world?" All you have to pay them is enough money that they can answer (also in their heads) "Geez, Dad, I'm making more than you." On average, this is cheap. And you get them to stay in the hive by giving them other coders to swarm with. The only person whose praise matters is another programmer. Less-talented programmers will idolize them; evenly matched ones will challenge and goad one another; and if you want to get a good swarm, you make sure that you have at least one certified genius coder that they can all look up to, even if he glances at other people's code only long enough to sneer at it. He's a Player, thinks the junior programmer. He looked at my code. That is enough. If a software company provides such a hive, the coders will give up sleep, love, health, and clean laundry, while the company keeps the bulk of the money.

OUT OF CONTROL

Here's the problem that ends up killing company after company. All successful software companies had, as their dominant personality, a leader who nurtured programmers. But no company can keep such a leader forever. Either he cashes out, or he brings in management types who end up driving him out, or he changes and becomes a management type himself. One way or another, marketers get control. But...control of what? Instead of finding assembly lines of productive workers, they quickly discover that their product is produced by utterly unpredictable, uncooperative, disobedient, and worst of all, unattractive people who resist all attempts at management. Put them on a time clock, dress them in suits, and they become sullen and start sabotaging the product. Worst of all, you can sense that they are making fun of you with every word they say.

SMOKED OUT

The shock is greater for the coder, though. He suddenly finds that alien creatures control his life. Meetings, Schedules, Reports. And now someone demands that he PLAN all his programming and then stick to the plan, never improving, never tweaking, and never, never touching some other team's code. The lousy young programmer who once worshiped him is now his tyrannical boss, a position he got because he played golf with some sphincter in a suit. The hive has been ruined. The best coders leave. And the marketers, comfortable now because they're surrounded by power neckties and they have things under control, are baffled that each new iteration of their software loses market share as the code bloats and the bugs proliferate. Got to get some better packaging. Yeah, that's it.

This essay was composed by Orson Scott Card. I found it floating around the Internet.

transformers

2007-08-14T13:46:00.000-05:00

this movie needs to be watched..!!!! this reminds me of a particular childhood craze that i used to have for a coloring book with lotsa robots...

check out the imdb site

Eclipse Europa

2007-07-03T12:42:00.000-05:00

Well well... as a C, C++ programmer I was really in no mood to look into anything called Java. But the development happening in Java is unmatched. And to say that Eclipse is at the forefront is no mistake!! Eclipse is one of the most well maintained and co-ordinated not for profit initiatives I have come across. This time around, the Europa release also goes a step further to simultaneously release the IDE for both C++ and Java languages. Well couldn't stop myself from posting this! So here goes the official release from their website
--

--
http://www.eclipse.org/org/press-release/20070627_europarelease.php
--

Eclipse Ships Largest-Ever Release of Leading Open Source Software Development Platform
Europa Release Consists of 21 Projects
Press Release

OTTAWA – June 27, 2007 - The Eclipse Foundation today announced the availability of its annual coordinated project release, this year code named Europa. Europa features 21 Eclipse projects for software developers and is more than double the size of last year’s record-setting release.

The release consists of more than 17 million lines of code and the contributions of over 310 open source developers located in 19 different countries. The 2006 release, code named Callisto, involved 10 project teams, 7 million lines of code, and 260 open-source developers in 12 countries. This is the fourth year in a row the Eclipse community has shipped a major release on schedule.

Innovations in the Europa release include new runtime technology for creating server applications, developer tools for service-oriented architecture (SOA), tools for improving team collaboration and support for users of the popular Ruby programming language.

“Eclipse is a very successful open development platform for the software industry", said Mike Milinkovich, Executive Director of the Eclipse Foundation. “The Eclipse Europa release is an important milestone for fulfilling our community’s strategy of providing a common development platform for embedded, rich client, rich internet and server applications. The tremendous advantage Eclipse provides is that it spans these different types of applications with a common component model, frameworks and tools.”

Some highlights of the projects being released:

* Eclipse Equinox has added new services and capabilities to ease the development and deployment of server applications running on the Equinox runtime.
* Eclipse Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools (BIRT) has added support for dynamic crosstabs, output to Microsoft Word and Excel formats and now allows for web services to act as a data source. These new features allow for more sophisticated reporting functionality to be integrated into Java applications.
* The Eclipse SOA Tools Project (STP) has made available their first release. The release provides SOA developers tool support for SCA and JAX-WS standards, as well as a BPMN Modeler tool.
* The Eclipse Modeling project has updated the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) to support Java 5 generics, allowing for creation and management of more complex and flexible data models.
* Eclipse Mylyn (formerly named Mylar) has added new collaboration features to enable task-centric collaboration for development teams. For developers working on large applications Mylyn’s task Task-Focused UI reduces information overload and simplifies multi-tasking.
* Eclipse Dynamic Language Toolkit (DLTK) has introduced IDE support for Ruby and provides a framework to reduce complexity of developing IDEs for other dynamic languages, such as TCL and Python.
* Eclipse CDT release has made significant improvements for easier tool chain integration, specifically tighter integration with the MinGW gnu tool chain thus making it easier to develop C/C++ applications on the Windows platform.
* The Java development tools (JDT) project has introduced a number of features to increase the productivity of Java developers using Eclipse, including an enhanced debugger via hyperlinking and a new Quick Access feature to provide easier IDE navigation.
* Eclipse Web Tools Project (WTP) has introduced a number of features to increase the productivity of Web developers including a new visual editor for HTML, JSP and JSF, as well as support for new standards, such as Axis2 and basic JEE 5 support.

The Europa release will be available from eclipse.org on June 29, 2007. New download options have been created to provide complete download packages for users requiring a Java IDE, JEE IDE, C/C++ IDE and an SDK for RCP and Plugin developer.

The complete list of Eclipse projects available in the Europa release includes:

* AJDT 1.5
* BIRT 2.2
* Buckminster 0.1.0
* CDT 4.0
* DLTK 1.0
* DSDP DD 0.9
* DSDP TM 2.0
* DTP 1.5
* ECF 1.0
* Eclipse Platform 3.3
* Dash 1.0
* EMF 2.3
* EMF-QTV 1.1
* M2T (JET) 0.8
* GEF 3.3
* GMF 2.0
* MDT 1.0
* Mylyn 2.0
* STP 0.6
* TPTP 4.4
* WTP 2.0

About the Eclipse Foundation
Eclipse is an open source community, whose projects are focused on building an open development platform comprised of extensible frameworks, tools and runtimes for building, deploying and managing software across the lifecycle. A large, vibrant ecosystem of major technology vendors, innovative start-ups, universities and research institutions and individuals extend, complement and support the Eclipse Platform.

The Eclipse Foundation is a not-for-profit, member supported corporation that hosts the Eclipse projects. Full details of Eclipse and the Eclipse Foundation are available at www.eclipse.org.

First after a long time

2007-06-30T12:52:00.000-05:00

Yes... it certainly has a been a real long time since I blogged. Just started out with reading a new book that I bought sometime back... Thomas Harris' Read Dragon and Silence of the Lambs... a sale edition. Its been sometime since it was taken of the bookstore, but its been no better of it either! Just made a small start and found arts of this poem by William Blake - The Songs of Innocence. Excellent read, the poem I mean. Hope the book is too ...

here goes the two versions of the poem:
--
William Blake

The Divine Image
- A Song of Innocence

To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
All pray in their distress;
And to these virtues of of delight
Return their thankfulness.

For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
Is God, our father dear,
And Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
Is Man, his child and care.

For Mercy has a human heart,
Pity a human face,
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress.

Then every man, of every clime,
That prays in his distress,
Prays to the human form divine,
Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace.

And all must love the human form,
In heathen, turk, or jew;
Where Mercy, Love, & Pity dwell
There God is dwelling too.

--
A Divine Image
- A Song of Experience
Cruelty has a Human Heart,
And Jealousy a Human Face;
Terror the Human Form Divine,
And Secrecy the Human Dress.

The Human Dress is Forged Iron,
The Human Form a fiery Forge,
The Human Face a Furnace seal'd,
The Human Heart its hungry Gorge.

--

WOW! Nice start to the book.

culture...

2005-12-25T04:56:00.000-06:00

I have a bad headache. But sometimes, its when I have such bad
headaches that I do really start to think about other things. By
'other things' I mean the ones that I do see everyday and affect my
life in more than just simple ways, but I dont really do or care to do
something about it. On a more lighter side, since I am just doodling
around doing nothing on this pretty Sunday in Bangalore (shucks!), the
brilliant idea to update the blog just popped out.

So, we were talking about culture. Its a commodity today more than
anything else. Everywhere you go, you find that its being sold for a
song. Where does culture materialise? Well the things I think are most
essential to culture are Language, Religion, Beliefs and well of
course the people. Most cultures have just vanished or have been
assimilated by the English culture, or so to say, if you dont accept,
well have that as being assimilated :), in the process

Language again, is a very simple thing. A medium to communicate. Thats
all that it is to it. Or is it? In the angle of culture, language is
the podium for culture. If thats gone, the culture has in itself
changed.

Lets take the great Indian example. We have a hella lot of languages
and dialects in India. English has until today been the only proper
and accepted communication bridge. Well, you might want to argue that
Hindi is too... but I'll come back about that. When the learned men
who framed the constitution, they found English as the only acceptable
and readable common language amongst them. Dont argue about that..
thats already history. Its also a fact that the Supreme Court of India
accepts only English as its official language. Now, thats good
practicality, isnt it? I agree wholeheartedly.

Some might want to argue here that Hindi is the only National Language
in India. NONONO :) Thats because, by definition National Language in
India means a language thats in the scheduled list thats defined by
the constitution. That Hindi and English are the two recognized
languages for communication by the Union Government is something
totally different. Practically, weve got only one national language
which is English :). Hindi is a forsake... although it is slowly
gaining importance. But, unfortunately English seems to be running
faster.

Its not in anybody's interest to learn Hindi or any of the other
Indian languages. English is different, cause the whole context
changes when one talks about English. All the other alnguages are for
ones own passion. Yes! Purely out of personal interest or lets says
community interest. The Indian government stipulates that anybody
seeking Indian citizenship should master an Indian language in five
years of settling down in India or something to that effect. So, were
I given the choice to not learn Tamil for instance, if it sounded
perfectly rational to me, I would have jumped on to it. No probs. But,
I like that language now. Infact, I like a lot of other languages. I
would like to learn those.. if somebody gives me a good hike and
provides me with all the other things that I might need :P

Quit kidding, lets look at this from a different perspective. When it
was decided to choose a language for communicative purposes some just
wanted Hindi, but with strong and violent opposition from the southern
and eastern states, it was modified to also have English, until
further in the future that everybody finds Hindi fine enuf. That I
guess will never happen. If thats pressed with further, it would
create different nations altogether, no doubts there.

So, that much for language. I never intended this to be so huge as it
is now.. so maybe I will continue this sometime in the future... have
a nice day. I actually started this post yesterday night... but was
not really able to complete it..

Back in biz

2005-12-24T12:04:00.000-06:00

Dumped live journal this time... :) i cudnt help it. just found a better way to blog .. using performagic for firefox.. this is an amazing tool. simply amazing... so back to blogging in kaldesac.. lets hope that there are more happy days in store in the future

Why am I an Agnost?

2005-12-10T08:02:00.000-06:00

The title sounds real funny. I am not asking anybody for help... but I am instead trying to ask myself. The answer seems to be real simple. I just have no reasons to believe in anything particular... As easy as that. That makes me think too... have I missed something? Whatever the reason be, I have none... to believe. Nothing proposed by by friends, relatives and my own reading has actually been sufficient enough to help me believe in a particular faith.

It would sound funny, but the more I seem to read about religion, spirituality and faith, the more I seem to be distanced from practising it. That in no way puts down my fascination for the mystic, spiritual or religion in general. I am fascinated by it. I love it.

Many a times however, my fascination and my love is mistook for faith and devotion. I love to listen to certain sanskrit slokas. I would love to learn their meanings too. I have in the past fought with people about the meaninglessness of reciting something just for the heck of it. The most common misunderstanding has been taking the word 'meaninglessness' out of the context of my argument. More so when they do it with total conciousness for the sake of an argument.

My argument has always been simple. Who is God? I havent seen him. I dont realise him. I dont feel him. I dont look towards him. I dont know him. Everything you hear about god has been through people around you. What have I felt???

Sooner or later, we find answers to most of the questions. This one question is going to take a long time to find. I am an engineer by profession. My calling is consultancy. I would love to learn latin, sanskrit, tamizh and urdu for a start. I seem to love the languages.
Tamizh, yes for a hell lot of reasons!!! Languages have in them history, culture and whole civilisations. Will have to find out how I am going to learn em all... :) I have always been short for words. This post has been pretty long, slipping out of the context of the topic too... better end it here, right here.

You decide

2005-09-15T21:27:00.000-05:00

This was a very distressing forward. I am being forced to put it on my blog. I am not taking the decision here. Shortly the picture was described in the forward as "Black people loot. White people find. Whats wrong with USA?" Is this just plainly two different views or plain bias straight on your face? I go with the former. Unfortunately, am not able to fully get to the bottom. Maybe I'll have the time to in the coming days.

Muddle in the Ocean

2005-06-18T22:11:00.000-05:00

Thats our educational system. Well Tamil Nadu in particular. Look at what the Current State of Educational Affairs in TN is..., one wouldnt need any more explanations.

Let us try getting a more generalised opinion. The TN state board system is one of the most easy going and lenient educational systems in India. Marks flow to all parts of the state without any strictness. The basis of throwing of marks here is absolutely valid, unquestionable. But, the only anomaly is the way question papers for these exams are set. Compare the papers that have been set over the past few years and possibly you would be ready to predict with high accuracy, the type of / kind of questions that you can expect for the current year or the next year.

So what exactly is wrong? The way the question paper is set. When you find a question right out of the prescribed textbook, where even the error made in the book is just replicated without any mistake, you can understand for yourself where the mistake is and the level of the exam concerned.

In Chennai and the other cities in TN, where there are CBSE schools, parents prefer that their children study in these schools until atleast the tenth standard. Right after tenth, the number of students in CBSE schools will fall drastically. Reason: "I want my child to get into a good college". The reason might appear trivial....but it is all the more glaring for one to hear a reason like that. That it gives a few state board students an inferiority complex is entirely a different topic worth research. The only guys who cling to CBSE schools are those who try for BITS, IIT or some other national institutes also. Some others like me just cling on because I have been in a CBSE school for long and didnt subscribe to the reason that most others were willing to.

Given the short background, there are more than one reasons to note here:
* The CBSE, ICSE and other state board students had a good chance only because of the entrance exams. It is more than understood that the significant percentage of state board students thrive only on their board marks and fare comparatively poorer in the entrance exams than their CBSE counterparts.
* When there is more than one board that needs to be evaluated, considering only the XII standard marks for the selection to professional courses is wholly faulty. Even when the marks are weighted, the equation does not seem acceptable. Recently, BITS which had a system of accepting students based only on the XII standard marks was ordered to conduct an entrance exam... though there were other reasons also to come to this conclusion.
* The basic social condition that one needs to understand here is that, because of the backwardness and non-availability of facilities and human resources, villages in general lag behind the urban andsemi-urban centres. This is an accepted fact. Brilliance and technical knowledge need no setting, true, but how much true? There is a certain accepted level of facilities that one will need to compete. And such facilities are certainly not available in rural areas.

So, lets understand here that by infact removing the entrance exams, we are giving way to the much less advantaged and in my honest opinion pushing behind merit, which is already in a demoted position. The irony in TN now basically is that while CBSE students here will beat state board students left, right and straight because of the tougher board exams; which helps them perform better in similar exams, they are the ones who now want the quota to be introduced!

In addition to all this, there are many state board students who feel that the entrance exam is the real place where their actual studies get a value, because a mere anybody can score a 200/200 in all three important subjects in the state board exam. So the real differentiator in the admission process has been the entrance exam. With this off.. only god knows what next... expect a lot of cases in the process... maybe the admissions this year will be according to the entrace exams, but next year.. god save the poor fellas....

I have in the past felt that there has been a particular wave of Tamils who have migrated out of Chennai and TN to other neighboring states, Bangalore and Karnataka in particular. This is certainly a reason to add...

To intimidate.... a cop

2005-06-12T07:12:00.000-05:00

Thats something very hard, isnt it? Yes, to intimidate a cop and get
him behind you is very hard. Especially when you are trying it for the
first time. Well, let me narrate one of the best possible ways that
one can do that... without any possible planning... do remember to pay
me for my sharing thoughts.

ALL you have to do is WALK; I guess this can be the most intimidating
thing to a cop, well atleast at 1.00 AM in the morning especially in a
place like Trivandrum. The first thing he would probably do is let you
walk past his jeep. Then hold your breadth... he wouldnt let you
notice that you are being noticed. Then when you are walking in the
dead of the night with friends... innocent you and your friends are
back from the night show of 'Sachein'. Dont blame yourself for the
nigth show or the walk.. both are enjoyable... especially if thats the
only time that you can find to let yourself out from the work of a
software engineer!

Enjoying the quiet night, you just find enough light to place your
foot properly on the sidelines of the road and then suddenly... you
hear sound.... of toads creeking in the dirty stream, of the eerie
sound of the electric corona discharge from the sub-station that you
walk past... amidst the noise of voices talking. You look around...
rather turning your head to, when suddenly there is a jeep just
screeching to halt before the person a few steps before you, the
leader of the pack you could say - another guy as unassuming as anybody
else in the group and therefore perfectly fit to lead the group.

A man, men rather; jump out out of the jeep and before you could think
anything else, you realise that 'thank god... its only the police';
they are not here to trouble. Like I said, there were two men who got
out, one was out of the jeep in full, the other just peeked out...
rather I was able to see his head alone. The head belonged to the man
on charge, undoubtable I guess. He wouldnt let his feet touch the
ground. He blurted out... and the conversation went out something like
this....

Cop: beautiful weather to be out, should i ask what you guys are
upto... (well not exactly what he said, but it almost was as
sarcastic, asking six guys sweating out a walk to their houses!)
Friend: We are back from the night show, Sachein Sir!
C: Where from?
F: The city sir...
C: city?.. where?
F: Trivandrum, sir, trivandrum city...
Another F: Sir, we are just going back home sir.
C: (you think I am a fool??) what... get into the jeep...
F: sir we work in the Technopark sir... (I was surprised that he was
able to say something... coz the hand; that of the HEAD; wouldve
reached the apple of my friend's face, but all that it did was get
entagled in the cord of the ID card my friend was trying to show to
the guy!)

Well dont care much about whatever happened as part of our
conversations. We quietly got into the jeep and were left at the
station. And the jeep with the guys in it just left. The station had
two constables on duty. One lady. She just stood at the entrance. The
guy took turns in sitting in the chair, taking a few fags. The lady
just stood there, where she stood first.

One of my friends said... as soon as the Head gets back, well be
beaten to pulp. All that I could grasp then was that I was hungry.
Real hungry. Maybe hungrier with ... well lets not forget that were
not experienced gangsters.. so a little bit of fear. Within no time
almost all the cell phones, five in all, were trying numbers,
unsucessful but still trying. Fate... like some would love to call
it... but we got the numbers which we wanted to get. A good friend of
ours had her dad call up the station and the Head I guess; to let us
out. I in the meantime got to the company's reception and informed
them of the predicament that we were in. Help was immediate, luckily!
Officials representing the company pulled us out and dropped us back
home.

In dropping us back home, I learnt the trick of how the bikers manage
20 people on a bike. Although not as technically challenging, in a
Tata Indica with six people in the back seat, it was worse coz I was
one of the six in the back seat, it was funny.

It was funny the least looking at it from a professional angle. But it
is funny all the way. It is something thatRamanand would call The Jade
Project. There was and is no
reason to ahve called us to the police station on that moment.

Only the Head should be able to explain!!!

Blogging? Whats that??

2005-06-04T09:49:00.000-05:00

That was pretty long a break from blogging. A good three months and
more to be precise. I had varied thoughts about this. Even had some
serious thoughts of shuffling it out altogether from my routine. But
everybody needs a systematic out-showing of one's feelings... in one
kind or the other. I guess blogging is one the best ways to bring out
ones feelings about something... however unimportant or insensitive
that something is, was or will turn out to be.

So lets get back to two months back... Its really been long that I had
to read a few of my own past posts to really get back to the touch of
having some continuation. I think I have already lost the little
readership that this blog had. Neways, I think getting that readership
after this short sabbatical will not be all that difficult,
considering that there was hardly anybody who actually read my blog!

So, in the true sense of the word, to blog is to have a log of
something... instead of having it in the 'Dear Diary' format, it was
put in the HTML format and made available to the entire world. The
internet and some big players like Blogspot (Google) playing host to
the idea, I guess that it just has turned out to be more than what it
was initially designed - read imagined would turn out to be!

Lets, look at my case: Here is this guy, who doesnt really blog in
schedules, just turns out say one in a quarteer of a year and claims
like he created blogging!!! Yes, thats me! How stupid of me!

But let me give you the example of a professional guy, blogger to be
precise, who is running a blog with support staff (I just have my ten
fingures and an uneasy, restless brain!), and making a cool 2000 USD
in the process everyday. Thats Right! Every, every single day!

Guess that this is good enuf for today.... dont really remember the
website... that made 2k USD from adsense with just blogging... will
get that to you later

Check this blog by Kiruba.com

Lets talk 'God' and 'Bertrand Russell'

2005-03-19T13:48:00.000-06:00

Talking about God, a very unaccepted uncertainty, or rather an accepted certainty would be best to start with this article. Going further, I would like to state that any specific mention about a religion(s) is only in an intellectual context. If it offends the sentiments of the reader, please don’t forgive me; sue me instead. (jus kiddin )

I’ve got a lot of friends. Most of them are believers. No specific religion, but they prefer in believing that there is a supreme power that holds above us. Unfortunately, most of them readily accept that it is not something they would really like to probe into or rather discuss about. It may be discomforting, but in reality, it is something they know that cannot be held to, defended. Logically unsound, but could not be pushed off either.

I have in some of my previous articles (scribbles if you would like to), might have stated a lot about Bertrand Russell. Introducing Russell as somebody, an author who has some articles on religion and philosophy to his credit would be grave sin. So, if you already know about him, its great; if you don’t just search for his essays and biography on the WWW and you’ll certainly the point I’m trying to drive-in. So fashionably put, he was one of the best philosophical and logical minds of the twentieth century. Without doubt, he was one of the best thinkers of his times. Now, to replace his position, you can put in your doubts to me J

Russell, born into an English aristocratic family, was not unlike most English rich men. He was involved with something Elizabeth I described as a quality that’s very English; something that we would also call “common-sense”. Now, followers of religion - be it any, cannot ascribe this quality to themselves. Because, when it comes to religion they just do it with belief or with just a sense of duty or fear. Yes FEAR! This is one of the most ironical things, because God is supposed to relieve you of fear. I can however, give you a list of technically and logically and religiously excellent movies which show how God triumphs over evil; but what exactly is the end result? Fear, if you haven’t guessed yet.

How strange? Any comments??

New feature on the BLOG!

2004-12-26T11:49:00.000-06:00

Yeah! Thats right, whats been new on this blog? Apart from the fact that almost useless, absolutely stupid comments from the author reach with a few originally copied news stories and forwards, which are the most new things that OLD might claim as its patented technology.

But what I write today will start from tomorrow. Thats from tomorrow, it might well have started from today, but for more practical reasons, my dear friends reading this blog will be served up the choiciest of dishes in English and HTML in CSS, from tomorrow. Lap it up, for you may never read such crap anyplace else on the net.

Thats right, from tomorrow I will try make up a diary and write about a story or thought that passes my mind. Pardon me if I am too serious, for although I have tried to be very funnny, even I dont get to laugh at my own jokes! I think that God forgot my funny bone while putting things into me. So, I shall make an extra effort to make it humourous to read, but believe me dont expect it to be in the maindish :). At present as I write this useless piece of blog, I know that not many people read it. So the question of many ppl is very, very and one more very forward thinking.

To make up for the seriously staid and sober content I write in this blog, I have decided to spruce it up with a few spicy lines in the end. Possibly, as starters too. Lets hope that this new urge for writing continues and not just end today. For after making such a lenghty blog article, I dont want to put it on sleep. I really dont want to.

---
I didnt know that I could'nt write, until I started writing this blog!

Washed up and out!

2004-12-26T11:45:00.000-06:00

The Marina in Chennai was left all dirty and needed a clean up drive. The humans didnt do it. So here we go, the nature taking some responsibility. Only that it washed out the dirt, all kinds of em. Humans that made the dirt too. It didnt just understand things the way we do. In the end, we see that a lot of work is left out.

Looking at it in a larger perspective, how safe is Chennai. Although categorised in the level 3 as far as the Treble regions are concerned, it looks more threatened by the nature than by Pakistan. Hmm... any comments???

Another Quiz and a few other things

2004-12-25T14:16:00.000-06:00

Yes, this time however, we were not all that good. We came in second. Its been really, really long since I wrote something on the blog page. I am thinking of putting up my own page, at Infy and on the web. There is one up already, but it has just one link that will end up at the Phoenix Website :). So have been thinking about changing things a little bit and ABRACADABRA, it would become new!

Hehe. Recently got two results. Two very academic ones. Both were very heartening. One meant that I will immediately have to start studying harder, the other meant that I just fooled a lot around. Both literally meant that I was floating on air, ready to hit the ground anytime things dont turn out so well. One result was the CAT 2004. Miserable is one word very apt for my scorecard. I was miserly with the marks; and it was showing just too bright. Dont anybody dare ask me for my score! It is BAD! The other one was my Infy training results for the Generic section, which was equally well better than the CAT, but still bad. I didnt get a A Grade. And just scraped through. Good enough to get a B. Failing which I would have had to take it again. Dont really know if I will take the exam again, just to improve my grades :). So, that much for studies and seriousness at work! Lets get something going.....

I was FRAMED!

2004-12-25T14:10:00.000-06:00

Yes this is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

How terrible! For no fault of mine, I was dumped into this, I was framed. It still is a mystery. My involvement in the case was made up and I, a lay no man with no locus standi in the whole issue was pulled into it and framed. The pity is that even the Court is in a mood to accept it!

How terrible! When I wanted to be Open and frank about the system, they tell you that they allow all whistleblowers to be open and free, but I was targeted and Framed. But why me of all the greats and geeks? Why Me?

How Terrible! Now that I am framed I need to console myself, maybe try negotiating a settlement with 'em. While they out-right reject any kind of such â un-professional â behaviour, I will still try my luck. My comrade in this nasty operation is a guy who was to be framed, but got it right, and was let open into the system, for freeâ¦..

CLIMAX REVEALED:
If you are still not familiar with the event, I was put into Mainframes for training. That's two months of coding in COBOL and its like *#&@%&(#^*.

Quiz at Mysore DC

2004-11-24T07:09:00.000-06:00

We had a General Quiz for the trainees at Mysore DC and we had a blast. It felt like college after a long time. Good, for after a long time, I really got to form a good team. I don't remember taking any of those big time quizzes with a complete team; forget a good team!

It was always Arun & I, just the two for we didn't usually have anybody to accompany us to the colleges or other places. We did however have a good time at college, primarily because we never stayed in the college. We were in a college, not the college. And that was usually the joke about the two who always attended colleges without fail! We had a great time doing just that. I don't think many ppl have the same options nowadays.

So, getting back to the MyDC quiz; MyDC stands for Mysore Development Centre. It was a good quiz. But the quizmasters didn't have the questions on PowerPoint, something that should've been done. Neways, it was a great quiz after a long time. And as I did mention earlier, with a good team. My team-mates were Ashwin and Aravind. Ashwin, my old schoolmate from Chinmaya and Aravind from Velammal, another engineering college near Chennai. We finished on top in the prelims and were close to being second in the Finals. Had a tie-breaker for the Finals, and we beat our opponents by answering two of the three tie-breakers. Most of the questions were kinda repeats, although not very easy to remember. Back to winning ways??... Only time should tell...

A Journey from Mysore - Part I

2004-11-16T06:53:00.000-06:00

Lets start with the bus driver, so as they say, to make the starting more pleasant. His day must have been the most perfect, coz he would have made the most out of it. Mysore is a very cool place, but I was sweating for the first time, ever since I pt down my foot there. Reasons were more than just obvious. Here I was in the Infy campus, 20 kms from the nearest Bus or Train place and with a very good idea of what it actually meant.

Minutes before, I was jumping around the room, cleaning it of clothes and other stuff, dumping some into my bag and the rest into the almirah. The place looked pretty clean, especially when you have nothing to spot around. It looked like a mess when I started. Wow! Was I efficient! Actually, the almirah a clean thing minutes before, is now populated with all rubbish. So much for cleanliness! ;)

Never mind that, for the real journey starts now. Dragging the box all the way o the corridor, you find that the one cycle you brought has been taken. Reminding yourself that it is not your cycle, u walk …all the way. Almost half way and you get a cycle from the parking lot. You put the heavy bag on the holder and get going. Huffing and puffing is not something entirely enjoyable when youre doing the job. So somehow you get to the Main Gate and then, do what everybody else is doing….wait for the bus to arrive. After the initial confusion about the booking for the bus, set right by a few calls to a friend, you sit down and …wait. The bus is there after a few minutes and the bus journey starts...

I have a short sleep on the bus. Something that comes in naturally after all the practice during train journeys everyday to college! Much before I went into the dreamworld, the bus took a rectangular route returning exaclty to the Main Gate of our beautiful campus after about 30 minutes of driving, much to the delight of all the passengers! Whew, does HE know his MYSORE? I could have done better! Anyway, I progressed into dreamworld…

The company has grown from its humble begginings, to becoming an MNC. WOW. Now, it was not challenging anymore. The right time to put it on sale. Yes. I inform the Board of Directors of my intention and they offer to find institutional buyers. Not that I didn’t know of many whod readily buy it. But, I agree and they are surprised for this was the only time that I did accept a suggestion without any comments. I knew that they were surprised. But I had my own reasons. I was already preoccupied with my search for that small company which I was going to buy. A calculated move, I say to myself. Taking leave immediately… oops… I am being pushed down from the chair… Oh my God!

I wake up frommy short sleep... am surprised coz I remember it. So we get down at Maddur Bus Terminus. Eat the famous “Maddur Vada”, drink some coffee and get back into the bus.

This is getting longer than I expected… so will be continued in the next post….