Phani's Rambles

America Viseshalu - Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Phanindra K) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 08:36:00 +0000

మా అమ్మమ్మనో ఎవరో అడిగినరు ఒక సారి..

"అమెరికా లో బిచ్చపు వాండ్లు కూడా ఇంగ్లీషు లో మాట్లాడుతరట కదా?!!"

అని. అవును మరి.. వాండ్లకు "అమ్మా.. తల్లే..ఇంత బువ్వుంటే ఎయ్యమ్మో" అనడం నేర్పించాలె మనమే. లేకపోతే ఆ ఫీలింగ్ రాదు. రాకపోవడమే మంచిదేమో.. మనం బిచ్చం ఎయ్యల్సిన అవసరం లేదు. ఫీలింగ్ తెప్పించేందుకు వేరే పద్ధతులు తెలుసు లే వాండ్లకు కూడ. అడగడం ఒక పధ్ధతి. తీసుకోవడం ఇంకో పధ్ధతి. అంటే దాంట్లో కూడ అడిగి తీసుకోవడం, అడగకుండ తీసుకోవడం అని రెండు పద్ధతులు ఉంటయేమో. ఏమో. నాకు తెల్వదు. Suppose.

నాకు ఇవాళ్ళనే ఆఫీసుకు పోయే దారిలో, "ఇక్కడ మనమే ధనికులం లెక్క.. మిగితా వాళ్ళు చూడు, కనీసం కారులో ఏసీ కూడ వేయకుండనే తిరుగుతారు ఈ ఎండలో కూడ" అని చెప్పినరు. చూస్తుంటే అట్లనే అనిపిస్తున్నది. నాకు కూడ ఇంకా సరిగ్గా తెల్వదనుకో.. వచ్చి మూడు రోజులు కూడ కాలేదు, అప్పుడే అభిప్రాయాలు ఏమి ఉంటయి? (ఉండే ఉంటయి లే). అయినా, మన వాండ్లు కూడ కొంత మంది అట్ల ఏసీ లు, తిండ్లు మానేసి, పని చేసి చేసి అలిసి, వచ్చి పండుకోని, మళ్ళ ఆఫీసుకు పోయే వాండ్లు ఉంటరట. నాకైతే ఇప్పటి వరకు అట్లాంటి వండ్లెవ్వరు కనిపించలేదు లే. అట్ల ఉంటే ఇక్కడ ఉండి లాభం ఏమి? బాగ తినాలె, బాగా పని చేయాలె. అంతేగనీ, తిండి మానేస్తే నీరసం తప్ప ఏమొస్తుంది చెప్పు? ఏమో మరి, వాండ్లకే తెల్వాలె.

మా ఊరిలో ఇంకా ఎండకాలం. ఎండలు తగ్గేందుకు ఇంకో నెలనో ఇంకా ఎక్కువనో పడుతుండట. అప్పటి వరకు పగలైతే కారు వరకు తప్ప ఇంకెక్కడికి నడిచి పోలేము. చచ్చేంత వేడి. నేల నించి సెగలు వస్తుంటయి. ఎండ భగభగ మండడమే కాదు, కండ్లకు కూడ బాగ కొడ్తుంటుంది. అందరు నల్ల కండ్లద్దాలు ఎందుకు పెడ్తారో నాకు ఇప్పుడు అర్థమైంది. అవి లేకపోతే కండ్లు పోతయి. నావింకా పోలేదనుకో. కారు లేని వాండ్లు అట్ల షికారుకు పొయ్యే ప్రయత్నం చేస్తే జస్ట్ మాడిపోయి వస్తరట. ఏమో మరి. నేనెప్పుడు ప్రయత్నించలే. ప్రయత్నించే ఉద్దేశం కూడ లేదు. నేను కారు కొనే వరకు ఇంకెవరన్న దింపుతరేమో చూస్త. లేకపోతే ఒక సైకిల్ కొని నడిపిస్త. (ముందైతే నీ జీతం రనీ రా.. అప్పుడు చూతం కానీ సైకిల్ సంగతి..)

ప్రస్తుతం ఇక్కడి విశేషాలు ఇవే. మళ్ళ ఏమన్నుంటే చెప్త. టాటా.

Good boy, here's your cookie!

noreply@blogger.com (Phanindra K) — Sun, 02 May 2010 11:05:00 +0000

What a year!
Work, work and work.. and no time to blog properly. Maybe that's what happens when you get too involved in what you're doing. The result, you ask? Have a good look below!

Yes sir, that's right! You're looking at the blog of the Associate of the Year for the year 2009!
As always, the last two quarters in the year 2009 were the most hectic and tiring months of the year. It was during this time that our latest major project was under construction, under the careful scrutiny of our efficient team. Timings were odd, sleep was scarce and nightmares of problems unknown haunted our sleep. Fortunately, none of these nightmares found their way into the realm of the living.

After all that has been said and done, it was time to look back and see what we had achieved. So we did. And so did our management. And here's the result. An award, which my whole team deserves, but I got in everyone's place. Thanks everyone!

Edit: And yeah, thanks for reminding.. I got a promotion too! :)

Naruto and Japanese Mythology

noreply@blogger.com (Phanindra K) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 14:30:00 +0000

I was reading an old book that has been in our house for a very long time.. and came upon a story titled "The Story of Susa, the Impetuous". As you can perhaps deduce from the title of the story, it is from a book of Japanese Fairy tales. What intrigued me were the names of the characters in the story, who were introduced right in the first two paragraphs.

"When Izanagi, the Lord who Invites, turned his back upon the unclean place, and bade farewell to Yomi, the World of the Dead, whither he had journeyed upon a quest, he beheld once more the Land of Fresh Rice Ears, and was glad. And he rested by the side of a clear river that he might perform purification.
And Izanagi-no-Mikoto bathed in the upper reach. But he said, "The water of the upper reach is too rapid." Then he bathed in the lower reach; but he said, "The water of the lower reach is too sluggish." So he went down for the third time and bathed in the middle reach of the river. And as the water dropped from his beautiful countenance there were created three sublime deities - Ama Terassu, the Glory of High Heaven; Tsuki-Yomi-no-Kami, the Moon-Night-Possessor; and Susa, the Impetuous, the Lord of the Sea."
From: http://chestofbooks.com/fairy-tale/Japanese/XI-The-Story-Of-Susa-The-Impetuous.html

If you are a follower of the Naruto manga, and are current with the latest chapters, you will no doubt find that the names are very similar to the names of the techniques born out of the Uchiha clan's Sharingan.

Ama Terassu - Amaterasu (Itachi and Sasuke)
Tsuki-Yomi - Tsukiyomi (Itachi and Sasuke)
Susa (Susano) - Susano'o (Itachi and Sasuke)
Izanagi - Izanagi (Danzo)
*Select the space between the brackets to read the names - and be warned... they might be spoilers! :)

Tsukiyomi from the anime

Amaterasu from the manga

In fact, the story of Izanagi and the birth of Amaterasu and the other two gods is part of a very old legend in Japanese Shinto culture. It is believed that the Emperor of Japan is a descendent of the goddess Tsuki-Yomi, who sends her grandson down to earth to pacify the land of Japan.
Naruto draws more than the names of these techniques from Japanese mythology. In the legend, it is said that Amaterasu is born from the left eye of Izanagi, and Tsuki-Yomi from his right. Compare this with the story of the Mangekyou Sharingan, where the user creates the black flames of Amaterasu from his left eye, and manipulated space and time using Tsukiyomi, with his right.

One of the more prominent features that manifests itself is the "Sword of Kusanagi", a legendary sword, and one of the three Imperial Regalia of Japan. It is shown to be weilded by both Orochimaru and Sasuke. According to the legend, Susano finds the sword in one of the tails of the eight-headed demon-serpent called the Yamata no Orochi, which he kills to save his bride. The eight-headed serpent that comes out during the Sasuke-Itachi fight, and Itachi using his Susano'o to defeat it makes the scene almost a portrayal of historical drama.

The eight-headed serpent of legend, slain by Susano.

Orochimaru's Hydra Technique, slain by Itachi's Susano'o technique.

References of this sort abound, and it only needs knowledge of Japan's culture to recognize them and understand their significance.

Think from the user's perspective...

noreply@blogger.com (Phanindra K) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:51:00 +0000

I am a regular follower of Hugh McLeod and his unique picture blog at GapingVoid. This particular cartoon by Hugh caught my attention a few days ago and I was constantly thinking about how true it is with regard to the work we (I) do.

We write a lot of code for a lot of projects.. we build lots of pages that hundreds and thousands of people will look at and interact with every day.

Most of the time we are engrossed in thinking about stuff like what the code looks like, if the data is coming from the database, are we able to navigate the pages, etc.

However, a project is not all about what the software can do.. it’s about what the user can do with the software!

How many times do we actually think about how the user would feel, think and react, looking at our page for the first (and maybe even after the first) time?

We execute all our test cases perfectly, click what needs to be clicked, enter just the right data that needs to be entered.. because we know what to do.
We know what data the code accepts, and what needs to be done after what, because we designed and coded the application.

How about the user then?

Have we given him enough information to know what to do?
Is our page easy to understand, and the flow of elements in the right order?
Have we allowed him to enter only the right kind of data, in the right place, at the right time?
Have we prevented him from doing something he should not?

In other words, did we put ourselves in the user’s shoes while testing it?

These are some of the things we need to ask ourselves when writing any software that is meant to be exposed to a large audience.

It takes a little effort to think about and understand something we know so well from a layman’s perspective. But that little effort will lead to great improvement in the quality and usability of the software we develop.

I already made the choice - Now I am trying to understand it

noreply@blogger.com (Phanindra K) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:42:00 +0000

Chin-kun [12:51 PM]:

The choice is already made

now I need to understand why I made that choice

Toyoyo [12:51 PM]:

What if you understand that your choice was wrong? Can you change your choice?

Chin-kun [12:51 PM]:

The choice can never be wrong or right

its just a path

how we understand it can be right or wrong

Toyoyo [12:51 PM]:

Hahaha

Thats the most preposterous thing I've heard today. :)

Chin-kun [12:52 PM]:

preposterous?

why?

Toyoyo [12:52 PM]:

Because if you already made your choice, then why do you need to understand it if you can't change it anyway?

Chin-kun [12:53 PM]:

hmm.. well you need to understand why you made that choice. dont you

thats when u will execute it

Toyoyo [12:53 PM]:

What if I don't try to understand?

Chin-kun [12:53 PM]:

You will have to eventually

even if you dont try to

Toyoyo [12:54 PM]:

What if I am absolutely adamant?

Chin-kun [12:54 PM]:

You cant be.. you have already made a choice that you want to understand it

Toyoyo [12:54 PM]:

Edchinav

Chin-kun [12:54 PM]:

nee moham

its as clear as u want it be

again the choice is made.. you have to understand why you made it

here also.. you made a choice not to try to understand the concept

now why you have made it.. because you dont want to believe it

Toyoyo [12:55 PM]:

So life is all about trying to understand why we are living, rather than living itself?

Chin-kun [12:55 PM]:

as if sans the so called rational path which you are accustomed to

thats what you have been doing since pat 24 yrs right?

past*

trying to reason out and understand why things happen the way they happen

Toyoyo [12:56 PM]:

Then what about Neo's statement about fate? That he likes to make his own future?

Does that mean you have no say in what happens to you?

You cannot influence your life in any way?

Chin-kun [12:57 PM]:

nope

it dosnt

nope

its the choice you make

no one else makes it

only that you make it before you actually think you do

Toyoyo [12:57 PM]:

Then you're just a puppet dancing on a stage.. with no idea what you are doing and why you are doing it..

Chin-kun [12:58 PM]:

every action leads to another action

every choice leads to another choice

Toyoyo [12:58 PM]:

A choice which you have no idea you made, but you apparently made it anyway.

Which can mean that you didn't make the choice, you were made to make that choice.

Chin-kun [12:59 PM]:

Nope..

you make choices..

and u only make them

Toyoyo [12:59 PM]:

If I did have that power, why can't I change my choice?

Chin-kun [12:59 PM]:

how can u undo past?

u have already made a choice.. its over

how can u undo it?

Toyoyo [1:00 PM]:

What use is there in making a choice without understanding it before making it?

Chin-kun [1:00 PM]:

thats the beauty of life!

thats where uncertainity and godliness is thrown in

if u knew all ur future..

whats the whole purpose

you have already made your choices..

when time comes u just try to understand them

Toyoyo [1:01 PM]:

I dont say I want to know my future. I only say I want to be able to make the path that leads to it.

Chin-kun [1:01 PM]:

Today coming to office or not

is not something which u decided today

Toyoyo [1:01 PM]:

And to make that choice in all consciousness

Chin-kun [1:02 PM]:

its already decided earlier

looks at it this way

your coming today to office has n number of external reasons..

+ internal reasons

same goes for not coming

have all the reasons come now?

nope

they started probably a day ago, a week ago, a decade ago or a century ago

so the choice of u going to office or not has been made earlier..

by u

but now u understand them.. thats all

Toyoyo [1:05 PM]:

Simply putting, life is a sequence of choices we don't understand until after we make them, which influence what choices we will have to make in the future, which we don't understand either. In other words, you are living in a world where nothing happens as you want it to happen, at least not because you want it. If something does happen as you wanted it, its because you chose unknowingly a path which lead to that outcome, which is pure chance.

Chin-kun [1:11 PM]:

Right

Sivagna lenidhe chima aina kadaladhu ani

uttiga anale

but twist in the story happen

if u make a right choice now.. that is follow the path of righteousness.. you will end up with the correct path

Toyoyo [1:13 PM]:

Ok, now, make the choice.. are we having lunch or not?

Chin-kun [1:13 PM]:

We already made that choice..

we now have to understand why we made it

Windows 7 Beta - First Impressions

noreply@blogger.com (Phanindra K) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 18:31:00 +0000

Its finally here!

Struggling with my low bandwidth and frequent power cuts, I finally managed to download and install one of the most talked about releases of Microsoft’s operating system: Windows 7 Beta!

In one sentence: I like it!

Its cooler than Vista in many regards. Be it the new and improved Aero effects, the desktop peek feature, the new and improved taskbar or the new “jumplists”, it simply makes Vista seem old already. Believe me, even though I haven’t used Vista for long, I still feel this is the Vista that Microsoft should have released in the first place!

The installation didn’t take too long.. just around 25 minutes to finish a fresh install on my dad’s HP Pavilion dv6000 series laptop. I made it a dual boot along with Windows Vista Home Premium, which came preinstalled with the laptop. After that, installing drivers and software was a breeze.. all the drivers that came with the Vista installation worked without a hitch here too.

As soon as that was over, the new “Action Center” kicked in, warning me that my PC was not protected against viruses and attacks. When I clicked on it, it gave me the option to install Norton 360, Kaspersky’s new tech preview or AVG. I chose Norton 360, and it was installed within minutes. The trial period will end in 15 days (after which I will go back to my favourite Avast antivirus :P ).

Two of the most noticeable features are the new Libraries in place of the traditional My Documents subfolders, and the new taskbar. Libraries provide a consolidated view of the files on your computer, rather than showing them as simple files and folders. For example, the Pictures library shows you all the pictures from your configured locations in a single view. You can search within the libraries, move things around and play with them. The Music library in this view is shared with Windows Media Player, so what you see here is what you get there!

The new taskbar warrants a whole blog post for itself. Its just simple and easier to use than what we have been seeing this far. Multiple windows of the same application show up as a single icon on the taskbar. When you hover on that icon, you see previews of all the windows for that application. Even tabs in Internet Explorer show up this way. You can pin application icons to the taskbar to use as quick shortcuts, something like the QuickLaunch bar of older versions.

Windows Media player is also a part of this toolbar, and you can control playback right from the preview window that pops up when you hover over the icon.

And here below we have the before and after pictures of the Desktop Peek feature. It allows you to get a glimpse of the desktop and the gadgets (oh, I didn’t talk about those!) there without actually minimizing all the windows. Simple.. it just makes all of the windows transparent!

Well, I could go on, but there are other experts who have done a more serious and in-depth review of this OS. This is just my personal experience of using it for one day. (And I already got used to it :) )

If you want to try it out too, you can get your hands dirty at the Windows 7 Beta Download page.
I’m looking forward to 6 months of experimentation!

“What are you doing?”

noreply@blogger.com (Phanindra K) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 16:53:00 +0000

“What are you doing?”

Many people ask me this question. In fact I have to answer it almost every day. I go home and sitting there is some relative or family friend whom I don’t have any recollection of, and the conversation is something like this:

“Hello. How are you, son?”
“I’m doing good. How are you?” (The real question in my mind : “Who are you??”)
“What are you doing?” (Walking into my own house, obviously)
“I’m working for Cognizant.”
“Oh, is that a software company? Where is it?” (What else can it be?)
“Yes. Our office is at Hitec City.”
“Oh, so far! Isn’t it tiring to travel so far every day?”
“It is, but I got used to it.” (But not to this. I don’t exactly like interviews in the middle of the night)
“That’s nice. So what is it that you do? Write software?”

This is the question I had been dreading all along. I feel like shouting, but for what? What exactly do I do anyway? Am I simply someone who writes code? Or am I something more? I try to get into my mind the definition of “software” from my college text book. It goes something like “a collection of computer programs, along with associated documentation…”.

So is that what i’m writing? A collection of programs? And what part of it exactly? And what happened to all the things we had learnt in our four years of engineering education? Gone… evaporated without a trace?
Then I realize that the real question is not what I’m doing, but what I want to do. Am I doing what I wanted to do? The answer still eludes me. Again I realize that there is planning to do. Priorities to be sorted out.

My dad is passionate about my higher studies. I was too. Until I started working. Until I was too busy even to go home, leave aside study and prepare for the exams. I read a few articles about how to strike a balance between work and life. I am still clueless about how to implement the ideas they convey. Maybe i’m not paying enough attention. Maybe I’m plain stupid, thats all.

One of these days, I will have to wake up from the long reverie that life has become. I will have to wake up and take action. To chase my dreams. To achieve my ambitions.

I have a feeling that day is coming soon.

Happy new year.

Something Fishy?

noreply@blogger.com (Phanindra K) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:00:00 +0000

I don't know why I am downloading stuff without the need for it. Maybe its because I have unlimited Internet. And why do I have unlimited internet? Not that I need it. I would do just fine with a limited connection. Its just because I can have unlimited.

Why do humans have this tendency, this craving for things beyond their reach? We have a thing which will satisfy our needs. Why then do we go buy something that we would have been better off without? As I said, its because we can. We have the means to buy things. We have the mobility and the spending power.

When was the last time we went to a grocer and asked just for the things we need and came back home satisfied? We have super (and hyper) markets where there are tons of things on display, which we look at and feel, “maybe I should buy this”. Its good in a way, we might see something we never knew existed before, which might be helpful to us. But that is a one in ten cases scenario.

Dad and I walked into a new shop selling vegetables near our house. I say “walked into” because the place is as big as a supermarket, and sells as much stuff. Its owned and run by one of the biggest business conglomerates of the country and lives up to the name, unlike some other similar establishments. Looking at the quality of the vegetables and fruits there, we thought it wouldn't hurt to spend a little more on these, because they were of a much better quality than what you get out in the market. And why not? The store is air conditioned, the goods are fresh and of good quality, and most of all, its a stone's throw away from home. Well, you would need an exceedingly good arm to throw something that far, but I think you get the point.

Anything for a better life, eh?

By the way, if you're wondering what that picture is, thats the lake behind our office. Its called Durgam Cheruvu or Secret Lake. See a small hut like structure there in the corner? It used to be a restaurant. Now its submerged in water, thanks to the heavy rainfall this year. Now the restaurant lives up to its name: Something Fishy!

Ramble #101

noreply@blogger.com (Phanindra K) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 07:07:00 +0000

It's old news now, but I did top the batch in that test.

Its old news that Upen bhai left the team too, but not without making us promise not to lose the spirit we've had all along. Reinforcing that with a spicy lunch buffet the day before leaving was even more effective! Namaste anna!

Father writes something everyday. I don't know where he gets the patience or the ideas. Ask me to write something once a month and I scratch my head thinking of things I have done, things I could have done, things to do... and none of it makes through in the end. All I come up with is meaningless chatter.

People are in a state of gloom all over the place. The market keeps falling. Spirits keep falling. Bugs keep coming in, and fixes keep going out. Well, maybe they aren't so gloomy after all, they don't have the time for it. The team beside me, for example, keep working even when I am getting bored with nothing to do. Take a break, Chennai!

I wait for Jassi paaji to get off the phone so we can talk a bit about things that matter and things that don't. It just feels good to talk. If only there was a purpose to it. But is it better if there wasn't?

Meeting the SLA these days proves a tough task. Even if the other party tries their best to spare time for support, they simply don't have enough. Well, Chin-kun.. I don't blame you. You're an important person.

People come back home, but not from the place I would like them to come back home from. Why should they? Should I return what is not mine? Should I wait for the right ship (plane) to land here?

A lot of unusual talk, rambling, as the title suggests. Just to vent the steam. Explanations may follow. Don't count on it.

Time check!

noreply@blogger.com (Phanindra K) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 17:28:00 +0000

Did I just miss something? How long has it been since my last post here? 11 months? Wow.

Remember that something I was talking about? The something big that might be coming my way? It came and went. Unlike anything I've ever seen in my life. The biggest challenge I have ever faced till now. And now its live. People logging into our client's website will be seeing and experiencing the results of all the hard work we put in these last eight months. I hadn't realized this last year. It was actually my first live project for such a well known and prestigious client. Back then, I was so busy trying to complete my project that I didn't understand how and why we were doing it.

It all began with a "small" set of requirements for enhancements in an existing application, sometime in late November. Bala was asked to travel, and he refused. And later he agreed. So did Surya. Two of the best people in our team vanished for the next eight months. Of course, we could talk to them for a couple of minutes (hours?) everyday, but was that the same as their being in our midst and sharing our jokes like they used to? They were only voices from the VOId. It became a habit for us to encroach upon their sleeping hours to pester them about project work. Well, things became routine after that.

Lets not talk about projects here any more. They go on and on. It will just suffice to say that this project, like no doubt any others that I may work on in the future, had its unique points. Every project always has something we can learn from. This one showered us with such situations. There were times I wished I could run away from it all, and there were times when I wished I could have that feeling of achievement forever. We made some friends and some not-so-friendly acquaintances on the way. Just when you think its all done and try to take a breath of fresh air, a gust of wind blows your way, bringing with it new problems. Well, thats how it always is, I guess. I still have a lot to learn, and a lot of places to go. For now, the project is done with.

Meanwhile, something amazing happened. Let me first tell you that these events are in no way sequentially ordered in time. I write them as they come to my mind. And that mind of mine has a mind of its own. As I said, something amazing happened. I was asked to learn Japanese. Well, not exactly, but I nominated myself for the course in response for an invitation. Anyone who knows me for the last couple of years will very well know that Japanese is my latest "thing". The language had fascinated me ever since I started watching anime. (Shravan-kun.. you know what i'm talking about, don't you? :) ) .

Anyway, for the last three months, I have been trying to understand what things are, ranging from hon to hatsuon, from bento to nihontou. I have been traveling to office on my bike (yes, I bought one last year, if you don't already know), and have recently made it a habit to listen to Japanese podcasts on the way to office. Thanks to Sensei, the podcasts and anime, I can speak a little Japanese, understand quite a bit (although I would attribute this ability to my continued anime watching habit) and read and write just a wee bit of Japanese. The only thing I feel shortage of, is that of people to practice my new found skills with. Someone to ask me new things and help me whenever I feel like it. Dare ka, benkyou ni tetsudatte kudasai! (Somebody please help me with my studies!) :)

This week is the last week of our course. Tomorrow we have the final test. Time to prove my absolute dominance in the class. Time to overstep all barriers and enter a new world. Time to.. er.. sleep. You see, I need to get up early to leave in time for the class. So, I leave this story half finished, this chronicle half told. I will come back and tell the rest!

Life, blocked.

noreply@blogger.com (Phanindra K) — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 10:39:00 +0000

I spend most of the day at work. I'm too tired to do anything when I go home. Whatever is to be done is done in a hurry, or pushed to the weekend. So basically I'm living life in the weekend. Or am I? Whatever.

I have no time to read a novel. No time to listen to music. (I try to do it after going home, but my sis is, ahem, studying so its a no-go.) What is this? The only thing left is for me to be bound and gagged! Wow... I wonder if that's going to happen. I know I'm complaining. But to whom? Who is it that reads my blog and understands what I'm going through? A lot of people I guess. I doubt if I know any of them. And if any of them even cares. Heck, forget it, I'm just being silly.

I actually enjoy working here. Its only the times when I get stuck with some really stupid work that I think of leaving this job and joining some college as a lecturer. When the work is challenging, and not just a stupid log capture, I feel great to be working on the problem. Work was like that for the last couple of months. We had a new project and we worked our a$ off for three months. I wasn't really happy with the work I was doing. The usual problems of miscommunication between the time zones. And I was not experienced either. There are a lot of things I learnt during the course of this project. I should thank my team mates for that. Especially Bala bhai.

At the end of the whole thing, someone asked me about my level of job satisfaction. I didn't say immediately. They didn't let me complete my answer. You know how it is with the management. They ask you something, and if they get a hint that your answer might be embarrassing for them, they cut you short. I just told them that it was a good learning experience for me. Diplomatic, you might say.

And now for the paradox. Its a known fact that the traffic in this city is going to the dogs. You would expect anyone coming to office on his bike to be delayed by the traffic. Compared to coming by train that is. And yes, it was the case for most of the time. I traveled with RC for a few days on his bike. The pollution and the time taken for the drive almost killed me. No Harsh, I did not get any strokes of asthma. I switched back to the train. The result? RC starts from office around the time I reach Hitec City station, and reaches office before me. WTH? Makes me want to pick up my bike from tomorrow and come directly to office instead of hanging in that overcrowded train. I can't believe I used to find a seat on the train almost everyday. I read so many books on the way to office and back. Now its just impossible.

That reminds me... it's been an year since I began working here. One whole year. And what did I achieve? Won a Harry Potter quiz. Maybe thats the only noteworthy thing I did. I should start listening to Harsh. Hey... start with the advise already!

Aah... these are a few of the days I take the weight off my head and relax. This state won't last long though. I'd get bored if I didn't do anything either. Looks like we have something relatively big coming our way soon. Looking forward to that. Ciao.

Disclaimer: All views expressed in this post are my own and do not reflect the opinion of my company and all such crap. :P

Back on track

noreply@blogger.com (Phanindra K) — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 17:08:00 +0000

Just so you know, I'm still alive.

I must be bored of saying this over and over to many people, who are too busy to even care. But I say it anyway. I just like saying it, I guess. Just to maintain that connection with my past. My heart harbours the faint hope that the past will become part of the future too. Its difficult to entirely let go of your friends. No, not difficult... almost impossible. And it should stay that way.

Its good to be back on track. Finally, work has started to become interesting. I just hope the pressure doesn't build up till I pop. I hate pressure. I like working at my own sweet pace. You must know that already, if you know me.

Well, enough rambling for today. I don't actually feel like writing much nowadays. I don't know... have I lost my blogging instincts? Be that as it may, I just wanted to share with you something that has been keeping me company all these days. Something that I could always rely on to make me relax and enjoy even the dullest moments in life. What is that, you ask? Music!

Yeah, I have some good music stashed away on a share, so I can access it from anywhere. Unfortunately (or otherwise) , most of it is Anime soundtracks. I just love listening to the instrumental tracks while reading, working or even walking home from the rail station. Just like the missing background music from my own life, I might say.

So here you have it... you can download it from here. If you want that is. If you do, post me a comment. If you don't, just do it anyway. A piece of anyone's mind is better than nothing.

http://www.box.net/shared/y29vosdit7

Purpose

noreply@blogger.com (Phanindra K) — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 12:47:00 +0000

"There's no escaping reason, no denying purpose -
because as we both know, without purpose, we would not exist.

It is purpose that created us,
Purpose that connects us,
Purpose that pulls us,
That guides us,
That drives us,
It is purpose that defines,
Purpose that binds us.

We're here because of you, Mister Anderson, we're here to take
from you what you tried to take from us. Purpose."

Whether they managed to take back from him what he took from them, is a question of perspective. If you believe that by destroying the only man who stood in their way, they stole his purpose, I should disagree with you. Because his purpose was to destroy them, and he did so by his own destruction. What a climax.

Few movies make us think about life the way the Matrix does. It shows us the possibilities of a future in which humans have lost their purpose, and live (live?) only to be fed upon by machines.Is this our true purpose?

I always maintain that the Terminator and the Matrix are two parts of the same story. First comes the Rise of the Machines, and then comes the domination of humankind. Then come the Revolutions, and then finally, victory.

Well then, what was the purpose of these movies? Was it to make us think? Or was it just to make bucks at the box office? This again, is a matter of perspective.

This is my perspective. If you have yours to share, you're welcome!
(Another of the posts from my now extinct third blog. Imported here to keep the content from disappearing. )

My first New Year not as a student!

noreply@blogger.com (Phanindra K) — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 09:20:00 +0000

After a long time, we meet again.
I just realized this is my first post in the brand new year of 2007. Yay!

The new year was quite eventful, considering we hadn't planned anything. Just on the morning of Dec 31st, the ladies in our building decide we need to have a party. So we had one. Nothing special. Home cooked food, and a cake. Ah, yes! Leftover crackers from Diwali.

All these days I was there, you were there. But we never met. What a shame.
Sars accuses me of not meeting the guys regularly. As if he does. Now that he is also *free* like I am, he should have more time on hand. Never mind. I accept. I didn't come to meet the guys every weekend. Poor Harsh calls me up every week. Every week, it is either too late or i'm not at home.

So yesterday, when Kunal bhai, Bhave, Sars, Kishen and I met at Kishen's place it was after a long time that we all met. Me included. The only one missing was W.

Speaking of W, he gave me quite a shock recently. Of all the people in the world, he bought an Apache! Looks like I have to go back to the drawing board. I haven't been able to decide on which bike to buy. That is just one of the reasons I didn't buy one yet.

Anyway, getting back to the topic of us meeting yesterday, Kunal wanted the college videos so I made him a copy on Kishen's system. Harsh wanted to test his new DVD drive on his new laptop... and he flicked my original DVD. God knows when i'll be getting that back.

By the way, we called up Shravan yesterday from a nearby Net2Phone center. He seems quite well. Seems Maanas paid him a visit for New Year. He wasn't awake yet when we tried to call him though.

Pavan is coming to Hyderabad this weekend. There is simply no way he would miss Sankranthi and kites! He might even go to the length of using up his remaining leave to come and fly kites. The "pichi patang" from last year has us all looking forward to it too... it was a tremendously hilarious and entertaining exercise!

Okay then, lets get back to reality. I have a session to attend now and I can't let my attention wander around for long. Heres to a fun-filled and brilliant Sankranthi.

And to all whom I haven't wished yet, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Kunal bhai: Kya hai yaro tum!
Harsh: Itteech re hamari dosti!

What we do in life echoes in eternity

noreply@blogger.com (Phanindra K) — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 08:24:00 +0000

This is what Maximus Decimus Meridius once (supposedly) said. If he had ever existed. If there was ever a war waged by the Romans on the barbarians .If there was ever a time when he was the Commander of the Armies of the North, and the General of the Felix legions.

If.

Even though he may just be another fictional character brewed in the minds of money-making Hollywood bigwigs, there is something to be admired in him. There is some charm which makes watching the story of his struggles painfully enjoyable.

If there is somene who is thinking "What the heck is this guy babbling about?", I believe you have missed something in life by not watching the movie "Gladiator".

Well, there you have it. Some content for the new blog which I just created for the purpose of testing the new Blogger Beta. Speaking of "purpose"...
(Well, that was a purposeless blog, so I deleted it. Imported both the posts into this one.)

Bye bye!!

noreply@blogger.com (Phanindra K) — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 11:45:00 +0000

Hey, dont get the wrong idea! I'm not going anywhere. I am definitely not going to stop blogging either.

Its just that today is the last day of apparant freedom. Starting next week, we will be subject to "intensive classroom training", or thats what they say. Well, whatever! I am going to be a Java professional in a few months' time. Big deal. I'm going to be the same. I realize whatever paint you coat me with, I will be the same person I was. I may change in ways, for the better.. Not for the worse.

In the last few months, especially in the holidays, I have isolated myself with all humanity. Well, at least the humanity consisting of our friends. Most of them are too busy to spare time for the things we used to do. Maybe I was just being a snob and forgetting them all. For that, I ask for forgiveness from all of you guys (Hey, I'm talking to you!!). I have been a snob. I did not sort my priorities right. (Accept my apology. Comment?)

I just realized thatI have been missing a great thing for a long time. Staying in Hyderabad, I had never once used the MMTS service before I joined at Cognizant. Well, maybe just once... just before joining. That's what gave me the idea of coming here by MMTS everyday. Its a great way to travel, and I mean it. Much better than travelling in crammed busses sweating profusely even in the middle of winter. If you haven't tried it, I suggest you do. Not that you may find it very useful if you don't travel in those routes. But just try it. There I go with the sales talk again.

Forget it. Now just dont forget to comment. COMMENT!! I've been living in silence. I didnt talk, nobody else talked. Please let me hear voices again!!!

Will I be the same?

noreply@blogger.com (Phanindra K) — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 06:35:00 +0000

That is the question that has been haunting me for the past few days. Will I be the same? The same old bungling fool who used to amble around the college campus aimlessly with a bunch of guys? The "bunch" is long dispersed... seperated by geographical boundaries and time zones. But we still remain a bunch. One can no longer see the same old faces around, except on very rare occasions. Even then the number is quite diminished. Most of us are now surrounded by new faces, new challenges, new responsibilities. It seems I am the last one to join the race, but even my time is not far off. Lets hope for the best... and see what happens!

The Burly Brawl!!

noreply@blogger.com (Phanindra K) — Mon, 29 May 2006 09:06:00 +0000

Photograph by yours truly, effects by Kishen.
Reminds you of the Matrix, huh? Who is Neo here, then?

Visual (Hallucination) Programming?

noreply@blogger.com (Phanindra K) — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 19:20:00 +0000

This must be the first time when I was thouroughly unprepared for the Lab internal exam. It seems that baldy jabroni sent W out because *ahem* HE was late to the lab. What a lunatic.

Let me tell you what happened today.
I got up late. Yes, 7:30 am is late for me. I usually catch a bus at 8:00. Don't even ask about Kishen though. Around the time I catch a bus, he will be brushing his teeth. Truly the real life counterpart of Shikamaru.
Then I rushed through my routine and rushed to Kishen's house, where I was expecting him to be ready to leave. It was late, OK, and there is a lab exam to attend. The biggest reason was Jabroni. A real Jabroni. I was afraid he would kick us out of the lab today, just like he did Vamshi yesterday. But no one at Kishen's house was in a hurry. They were coolly playing with the computer (I should say, one of the most disorganized ones I have ever seen, outside of CBIT)! Slowly we started and got photocopies of the record which Maanas printed out. Ide pedda jokamma. He wanted records to be completed by everyone individually, and we were submitting Xerox copies. We have some nerve, don't you think??

And then we got to college in that *Crimson Cruiser* of ours. No prizes for guessing what we found when we got into the lab. Jabroni was absconding again!! Man, he made my blood boil. After breaking my head over a program I had never seen before, I ultimately succeeded in running it. Arun, Maanas and Vamshi were getting some weird errors, though. Then, at the last moment, trumpets sound in the distance... hes appeared at last!! Maanas, clueless, asked him how to rectify his problem, for which he gave such a jabroni of a solution, leave aside Maanas, even he was confused. Poor chap. Doesn't have control over his mouth.

And just as we were about to write our programs down on paper, the jabroni does something to the power supply. I dont know if he did anything on purpose, but it looked like the power went off every time he said something a little too jabronical.

What tickles me the most is that even though six of us submitted exactly the same record... copies of it that is, he had no clue! How can anyone be such a jabroni, I don't know. And the viva was literally a joke. Two questions even a baby could have answerd. The end. Lab exam finished. The one I was so worried about.

What W said is right. The Jabroni will get his due someday, with interest. Rest assured. We'll see to it.

5 Things You May Not Know...

noreply@blogger.com (Phanindra K) — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 17:26:00 +0000

A rolling blog gathers a lot of junk. I was tagged by tHeSiD, and the result is this list of some stupid things you may not know, and are better off not knowing, probably. If you still want to stuff some junk in your head, then I can't help it. Read on.

5 things you may not know about where I live:

I live in a building which I don't remember seeing when I first visited the house on the other side of the road three years ago. (That's because this building was built only an year ago :P).
When I moved here I got closer to a lot of of school friends and got farther away from a few of my college friends.
Yeah, I got closer to my school too! But it's been a long time since I visited it.
This colony is very calm and peaceful compared to where I used to live earlier. Hope it stays that way.
The elevator in our building is sooo slow, Harsh almost fell asleep trying to come to the fifth floor!

5 things you may not know about my personality:

I used be an introvert. Oops! Did I say that? Looks like I'm not so much of one any more!
I used to sleep during the night and stay awake during the day. I guess sleep decided to change shifts :P.
I'm not as innocent as you think I am. (Do you seriously think I am innocent?)
I love walking long distances. Only when I'm a good mood. If I'm in a bad mood, I might get lost walking!
I love driving at night. My mom hates it when I do that.

5 things you may not know I would really like to have:

A state-of-the-art digital camera. I love photography, but my camera is broken!
A 5.1 surround home theatre system. My dad has been postponing it for more than three years now!
An iPod. No Naruto, not a Nano... a video iPod with a minimum of 40 GB storage space.
An internet connection that costs nothing. I know... it's impossible.
A computer with a dual core processor and the latest and best hardware. I'm a geek.

5 things you may not know that I really hate:

All TV serials! Except cartoons ;)
Vendors shouting their heads off in front of my house.
Waiting for my system to boot.
Dip-Dip's rear tyre.
Britney Spears. Ugh!

5 embarrassing fannish admissions:

Japanese anime series Naruto and Kenshin!
Sherlock Holmes. I've read all of the books.
Rajnikanth movies
Dexter's Laboratory
Harry Potter. The books, not the movies. The movies suck.

I hereby declare that I wasted an hour of my time thinking of what to write in this post.
I hope you all can do better, Vamshi, Harsh, and Maanas. I'll tag you three.

A Long Expected Party

noreply@blogger.com (Phanindra K) — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 18:46:00 +0000

What the hell?? It's my birthday party and everyone gets to post before me! Well, it's my fault, really. I was waiting for Kishen to send me the photos so that I can put them up here.

Can there be an evening (and a night) filled with more fun than what we had yesterday? Sounds rather philosophical, but I'd say "No Chance"!! Yeah, it was quite unorganized... I should have booked a table earlier at the restaurant, but we had fun waiting anyway!

Poor Arun wanted to be back home by 10 pm. Too bad dinner wasn't served until half-past ten. That's one more reason for his dad to be angry at me (the first one being undisclosed ;) ). I hope you did not have to face his wrath when you got back Arun!

Just when I thought the night had come to an end, I found out the story had just begun. Unfortunately, I am the friend of probably the only Microsoft employee who can't (or doesn't like to) use Microsoft Powerpoint. That meant more sleepless hours for me. Thank God my seminar wasn't today, or else I would have missed it.

This wasn't exactly what I wanted to write, but since the topic was already dealt with in much detail here and here and also here, I might as well wrap it up showing the photos of the evening. Night. Whatever.

Colourful personalities

noreply@blogger.com (Phanindra K) — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 17:04:00 +0000

It was the day of colours... and I was feeling blue. I was just sitting down to see if I could spot anyone logged on to the Matrix (Y! Msgr that is), when I heard the intercom buzz. I was surprised to hear Bhave's voice on the intercom... how was it that he came unannounced like that? So unlike Bhave, I thought. It was when I stepped into the balcony that I realized the full implications of the unusual call. There were five very oddly coloured people staring at me. It took me half a minute to recognize them as Bhave, Pavan, Harsh, Kunal and Santosh (alright... Sars, if you cant recognize the name :P)! Thus began a day filled with colour and fun.

Phew... I should try writing short stories in that style! In short, we went from my house to Kishen's house. He took 10 minutes to desend the stairs, and had to be persuaded to join in the revelry. When he was all colourful like us, we decided to pay Shravan a visit. It seems the guys already tried his house, but he was hiding from them!! We just caught him trying to give us the slip and then the real fun began. Buckets of coloured water flying in every direction... it was wonderful! However... for further details... just see these photographs. They more or less sum up what I was trying to describe in words.

Last days of our college life

noreply@blogger.com (Phanindra K) — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 12:33:00 +0000

We seem to be enjoying the last days of our college life... I don't remember even one day in this semester any of us really studied like we did till the last one. Just like my father said, all we seem to be doing is watch movies, watch cartoons, play cricket, go to Microsoft (Oh no, there I go again!)... and snap an awful lot of photographs!

Seriously... in the past I used to wonder how to get a photograph of us on the computer. Now I have hundreds of them, and they keep coming in! Hurray to Kishen's and Shravan's Digital Cameras!! It felt kinda strange today when I went to a photo studio to get my picture taken. And there too... the guy says no negatives, only digital prints! What is this world coming to?

Yeah, on the topic of Microsoft, the guys went there again yesterday... but I couldn't. I even burnt a whole litre of petrol to get Kunal bhai's bike from Lab Quarters, in the hope of going... but I couldn't (*swearing and hitting the desk angrily*)!! Seems the guys played all night long, and came back home today in the morning. Too bad I wasn't there. Obviously, I can't go into the details. That's for someone else to do... maybe Vamshi.

You guys'll like this, I think. When was the last time you turned on the internet and didn't know what to see? When was the last time you found a site you never knew existed? For me, maybe it was last week. That was until Mr Arun the Genius suggested the StumbleUpon toolbar. One click and you never know where you'll end up. Try it... it's free (I think this last para sounds more like an ad of some sort than a blog entry :P).

Microsoft Fever!!

noreply@blogger.com (Phanindra K) — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 06:15:00 +0000

Looks like whenever I post I have something to say about Microsoft. I seem to have the Microsoft Fever!!

Maybe that's because I've been going there often... three times to be exact. That's many times considering I don't work there, and don't even have anything to do there. It has become some sort of a playground for us! Imagine... one employee (shh! dont tell anyone, but even he's only an intern) bringing 6 visitors at once! And to do what? Play games!! It was fun, actually... people were beating each other silly in the old city, and we were sleeping in the lawn after having had our fill of games and cool drinks.

Vamshi's birthday started off as he arrived at the crossroads of his life (actually crossroads at Gachibowli). We could have celebrated... but there was no food at MS (they seem to think everyone fasts on a Saturday... did my Mom tell them or something??).

Yeah, and Headstart was the most boring event this time. It was so boring, even the organizers (me and Kishen) did not go there on the second day! We took some cool photos on the first day, though. Wanna see?? Here, see them.

Microsoft or not??

noreply@blogger.com (Phanindra K) — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 07:07:00 +0000

That was the second time I visited the Microsoft campus at Gachibowli yesterday. Its a lovely place... especially when there is no one around to question who the hell I am and what the hell I'm doing inside their private working quarters!
Hey, dont get the wrong idea, I did not go there for burglary or anything... I was just a visitor who went along with his friend who works there. Pavan has really hard work there... I was tired just watching him do it!

I just returned from the Microsoft campus, and Kunal Bhai sends me a satellite image saying it is the same building I visited yesterday. Of course, I immediately knew he was wrong... You can see and tell me for yourself, if you want.

Hey... I forgot! We completed the website I was talking about. You know, the one for our department Tech-fest. It's not much, but you can see it here (provided our *trustworthy* college server has not yet crashed!!).

Phani's Rambles

America Viseshalu - Part 1

Good boy, here's your cookie!

Naruto and Japanese Mythology

Think from the user's perspective...

I already made the choice - Now I am trying to understand it

Windows 7 Beta - First Impressions

“What are you doing?”

Something Fishy?

Ramble #101

Time check!

Life, blocked.

Back on track

Purpose

My first New Year *not* as a student!

What we do in life echoes in eternity

Bye bye!!

Will I be the same?

The Burly Brawl!!

Visual (Hallucination) Programming?

5 Things You May Not Know...

A Long Expected Party

Colourful personalities

Last days of our college life

Microsoft Fever!!

Microsoft or not??

My first New Year not as a student!