TIME: 6:00 PM on a Friday

SCENE: Around 50 commuters, with varied levels of urgency, expectantly looking at the electronic train schedule display board.

What they did not realize for quite some time was that staring at that display board was not going to help. This was what it showed:

The electronic train schedule display board at Bangalore City Railway Station

I am not sure whether the technicians at the railway station chose the rush hour for some live testing (some geeks call it UAT or QA testing…). Or did the 2012 railway budget include some provisions for test trains ??!

To compensate for the non-functional display board, there were computer monitors placed all around – there were too many of them. They were running Windows XP and the system admin did not know how to launch the schedule display software. Finally, he gave up and switched the display to this:

Lord to the rescue

Looked like Lord Venkateshwara, the second richest God, had been summoned to revive the cash-strapped railways. But He could not help our angered passengers either. The saviour of the day was a lady sitting behind the ‘General Enquiry’ desk whose job of the day was to blurt out an integral number (platform number) at every train name that was thrown at her.

Just as I expected, the coach position displays on the platform were not functioning either. With much difficulty, I got into my compartment. As the train slowly chugged out of the station, I noticed the monitors on the platform showing the train schedules momentarily, only to be replaced by a tractor advertisement. How useful !!

விழைந்தேன் நீயெனை அறிவாயென
விழைந்தேன் நீயெனை அறிவாயென
விழைந்தபடி நீயெனை அறிந்தபின்னும்
விழைந்தேன் நீயெனை அறிவாயென

அறிவேன் உனைநான் எக்கணமும்
அறிவாய் நீயதை இக்கணமே
மன்னிப்பாய் ஏதும் தவறிழைத்தால்
மறவேன் எந்தன் தவறுகளை

எனக்கென சிலநொடி நான்கேட்டேன்
எனக்கென முழுவாழ்வு நீதந்தாய்
நான்கேட்ட சிலநொடி கிடைக்காமல்
எனக்கென சிலநொடி நான்கேட்டேன்

பலநொடி தந்ததை உணராமல்
உனக்கென சிலநொடி நீகேட்டாய்
என்னிடம் இல்லா உன்நொடியை
எங்கிருந்து தருவேன் உனக்கென

அறியாமல் நானும் வருந்தினேன்
அறியவே உனைநான் வருத்தினேன்
அறிந்தேன் நானதை இன்றே
அறிவாயே நீயதை நன்றே

நீ வருந்த நான் விழையேன்
நீ வாழ நான் விழைந்தேன்
உணர்வாய் நீயென் வாழ்வென
இதற்குமேல் உன்னிடம் சொல்ல என்ன ??

Sometimes, conversations do turn poetic !!!

P.S. This is my 100th blog post, with an equal contribution from Bliss

சிந்தை மயக்கும் மழைச்சாரல்
கார்முகில் எனக்கின்று தந்ததே

சிந்தியது நீர்த்துளியோ இல்லை
கார்க்கோடல் மலரின் தேனோ

சிந்திய தேனும் நாவில்
கார்ப்பும் கலந்தினித்தது ஏனோ

சிந்தனையில் இதையெண்ணி மூழ்கிட
கார்வையும் தனியாகப் பாடவைத்தாய்

சிந்தூரம் அணிந்த நெற்றியும்
கார்வட்டம் சுழன்றாடும் கண்களும்

சிந்தாத மணிமாலைப் புன்னகையும்
கார்த்திகை தீபமெனப் பொலிவும்

சிந்தித்து சிந்தித்து என்இதயம்
காராக்கிருகம் எனக்கே இட்டதே…

என்னைப் பார்க்கும் தருணம் முழுதும்
உன்னை நினைக்கிறேன்.
கண்ணாடியில்…

துளிகள் மண்ணில் விழுவதைப் பார்த்து
உன்னை நினைக்கிறேன்.
மழையின்…

நிலவைப் பார்த்த சாமத்தில் நானும்
உன்னை நினைக்கிறேன்.
வானில்…

பிம்பங்கள் நீரில் தெரிவதைக் கண்டு
உன்னை நினைக்கிறேன்.
நிலவின்…

இன்னிசை செவியில் கேட்கும் வேளையில்
உன்னை நினைக்கிறேன்.
குயிலின்…

வாசம் சுவாசம் துளைக்கின்ற நிமிடம்
உன்னை நினைக்கிறேன்.
மலரின்…

உயிரும் மெய்யும் ஒன்றாய்ச் சேர்ந்திட
உன்னை நினைக்கிறேன்.
தமிழின்…

என்னை நினைக்கும் நொடிகள் எல்லாம்
என்னை மறக்கிறேன்.
உன் இதயம்…

Part 2 – Argument Matchers and Stubbing Void Methods

• Using Argument Matchers
• A simple use of any() matcher
• Writing Custom Argument Matchers
• Stubbing void methods

Full Series

Using Argument Matchers

Mockito argument matchers can be used to specify the method arguments for stubbing. If the method has arguments but you really don’t care what gets passed or cannot predict it, argument matchers can be used.

Argument Matchers provide us a lot of flexibility in stubbing.

Argument Matchers use the equals() method for comparisons.

A simple use of any() matcher

Let us assume we have an EmailService that is trying to save an email ID using an EmailManager. This means that the save() method of the EmailService calls the save() method of the EmailManager, which in turn saves the email to the database. A simple unit test for the save() method of the EmailService can test whether the save() on the Manager was called.

import org.junit.Test;
import org.mockito.Mockito;

public class EmailServiceTest {
	@Test
	public void testSaveEmail() {
		EmailManager manager = Mockito.mock(EmailManager.class);
		EmailService service = new EmailService(manager);

		service.save("abc@xyz.com");

		Mockito.verify(manager).save(Mockito.anyString());
	}
}

Note the use of the argument matcher in line 12:

Mockito.verify(manager).save(Mockito.anyString());

We used the matcher because, we really do not care what parameter was passed on the save().

The generic any() matcher:

Mockito provides a matcher that matches any Object. Some valid variants of the above are:

Mockito.verify(manager).save(Mockito.any());
Mockito.verify(manager).save(Mockito.any(String.class));

The cast from Object to String is required in the first line, the lack of which will cause compilation error.

The second line shown above is most useful when we need to match custom classes we create in our application.
Assuming save() method saves a Person object, we would write:

Mockito.verify(manager).save(Mockito.any(Person.class));

While using argument matchers in stubbing, all arguments of a method must be matchers.

If our save method also takes in an integer, this line would throw error:

Mockito.verify(manager).save(12, Mockito.any(Person.class));

To fix the above scenario, we can write:

Mockito.verify(manager).save(Mockito.eq(12), Mockito.any(Person.class));

Some common Argument Matchers

Writing Custom Argument Matchers

Consider this scenario. We have the following classes:

• Person – A class with two variables – name, email id
• PersonService – A service class that creates a Person object and calls savePerson() method on the manager
• PersonManager – The manager class that needs to be mocked

We need to write test case for personLogic() method in PersonService

PersonService.java:

public class PersonService {
	private final PersonManager manager;

	public PersonService(PersonManager manager) {
		this.manager = manager;
	}

	public void personLogic() {
		Person person = new Person("Karthik", "abc@xyz.com");
		manager.savePerson(person);
	}
}

The below test will fail:

import org.junit.Test;
import org.mockito.Mockito;

public class PersonServiceTest {
	@Test
	public void testPersonLogic() {
		PersonManager manager = Mockito.mock(PersonManager.class);
		PersonService service = new PersonService(manager);

		service.personLogic();

		Person verifyPerson = new Person("Karthik", "abc@xyz.com");
		Mockito.verify(manager).savePerson(verifyPerson);
	}
}

Reason: The expected object, with reference verifyPerson is entirely different from the actual object, and the default equals() comparison which argument matchers use, fails.

Use Custom Argument Matcher

In this scenario, using custom argument matchers come in handy.

Lines 12 and 13 above can be replaced with this:

Mockito.verify(manager).savePerson(
				Mockito.argThat(new ArgumentMatcher() {

					@Override
					public boolean matches(Object argument) {
						Person person = (Person) argument;
						return person.getName().equals("Karthik")
								&& person.getEmail().equals("abc@xyz.com") ? true
								: false;
					}
				}));

Alternate Solution – 1

Use the refEq matcher to compare the fields of the objects in hand:

Person verifyPerson = new Person("Karthik", "abc@xyz.com");
Mockito.verify(manager).savePerson(Mockito.refEq(verifyPerson));

Alternate Solution – 2

Override the equals() method in Person class to compare objects.

Stubbing void methods

We face a lot of scenarios in our applications where we need to stub void methods. With void methods, stubbing is slightly different. We cannot use void methods in the when() call.

The alternative syntax is:

Mockito.doReturn(result).when(mock).method();

We can also test exception handling. How would my code handle if an exception is thrown by void methods

Mockito.doThrow(new RuntimeException()).when(mock).setAttribute(Mockito.anyString());

We can also set the behaviour of a void method to do nothing when called. This is not possible for non-void methods:

Mockito.doNothing().when(mock).method();

Why when() does not work for void methods:

Take a look at the syntax of when():

when(mock.method())

Notice that the method is called inside brackets. Compiler does not like void method inside brackets!!

The two ‘when()’ are different syntax.

Notice that the when() for a non-void method stubbing takes in a methodCall as parameter, whereas the when() in void method stubbing takes in a mock object.

Future articles in the series:

• Part 3 – Partial Mocks using Mockito and Limitations of Mockito

Part 1 – Getting Started with Mockito

• Mocking Frameworks – Mockito
• A simple use of Mockito
• Verifying Interactions with the mock
• Stubbing methods using when()

Full Series

Mocking Frameworks

Mocking Frameworks allow us to test the code you want, without its dependencies. In a unit test, mock objects can simulate the behaviour of complex objects that are impractical or impossible to incorporate into a unit test.

Mock objects isolate the unit of code you are testing.

Mockito

This is a framework used for test stubbing and interaction testing.

Let us assume that we have a simple servlet, and a method testCheckFormat() that checks the format of the email id submitted in the HTML form. It is impractical to create an actual HttpServletRequest object for unit test. So we mock this object, in order to test the code we are interested in.

A simple use of Mockito

import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import org.junit.Assert;
import org.junit.Test;
import org.mockito.Mockito;

public class ServletFacadeTest {

	@Test
	public void testCheckFormat() {
		HttpServletRequest requestMock = Mockito.mock(HttpServletRequest.class);
		Mockito.when(requestMock.getAttribute("email")).thenReturn("xyz@abc.com");

		ServletFacade servletFacade = new ServletFacade();
		boolean result = servletFacade.checkFormat(requestMock);

		Assert.assertEquals(true, result);
	}
}

There are three fundamental steps in writing JUnit test cases with Mockito:

1. Create a mock of the object on which the method under test is dependent [line 10]
2. Specify behaviors on the mock object (stub) [line 11]
3. Assert/verify test scenario [lines 14-16]

Verifying Interactions with the mock

One of the most important capabilities of Mockito is to verify whether the mock had any interactions. A mock object will remember all its invocations.

The following test would have passed in the above case:

Mockito.verify(requestMock).getAttribute("email");

It is also easy to ensure that there were no more interactions with our mock apart from getting the email:

Mockito.verify(requestMock).getAttribute("email");
Mockito.verifyNoMoreInteractions(requestMock);

Let’s assume that our logic now tries retrieving two details from the request, namely email and name. To test two invocations, we now can use:

Mockito.verify(requestMock).getAttribute("email");
Mockito.verify(requestMock).getAttribute("name");

We can write this slightly differently, using argument matchers provided by Mockito:

Mockito.verify(requestMock, Mockito.times(2)).getAttribute(Mockito.anyString());

Verifying a stubbed invocation is unnecessary and often leads to just redundant tests!

Stubbing methods using when()

Stubbing is used to specify method behaviors on mock objects.
We have already seen an example of stubbing:

Mockito.when(requestMock.getAttribute("email")).thenReturn("xyz@abc.com");

Argument matchers can be used in stubs to match the invocation with any specified argument:
In the below example, any invocation of getAttribute() with a String parameter will return the string “xyz@abc.com”.

Mockito.when(requestMock.getAttribute(Mockito.anyString()))
                  .thenReturn("xyz@abc.com");

Sometimes, we might have to test exception handling. How would my code handle if an exception is thrown by getAttribute()

Mockito.when(requestMock.getAttribute(Mockito.anyString())).thenThrow(new RuntimeException());

when() would work only for non-void methods!

This should get you started with some basic unit tests with Mockito. Have fun !!

Future articles in the series:

• Part 2 – Argument Matchers and stubbing void methods
• Part 3 – Partial Mocks using Mockito and Limitations of Mockito

The world is in our hands, and we are burning it down

Look around. Read newspapers. Corruption. Wars. Terrorism. Epidemics. Poverty. Disasters. Think. If you had previously thought that the world is a beautiful place to live in, do your calculations again. And if you still think the same, you are probably one among millions of people living in a virtual world. The real world is pathetic, and is going down into its own abyss at a speed that is beyond human comprehension.

It is perfectly human to feel a need for power. But it is the greed for power that is turning deadly in terms of scope and consequences. Corruption has become omnipresent. The rich magnets are sucking prosperity out of the needy. If corruption becomes widespread, I fear that it will no longer be illegal. It will no longer be immoral. In the end, if that remains the only means of survival, what else can we do?

Terrorism is turning out to be an unending war. The causes for terrorism are varied: Religious, Political, Economic, and other causes. We are not walking down the right path – religion is increasingly becoming defocused, politics need long-term vision but politicians have short term goals and the economic situation is strained. If we proceed in this path, we must eliminate progress from the equation.

Let’s shift from humans to nature. We are living under the presumption that our resources are infinite, nature is always generous and bountiful. Nature has selflessly given us almost all that she had had within her. Resources are depleting. Crude oil is depleting. We now find one barrel for every four we consume. Similar is the case with coal, metals and everything else we have been plundering from earth. We are facing a terminal decline.

Add to these the earthquakes, tsunami, floods, draughts and other natural calamities that are destroying lives in millions every year. Or are these nature’s own little way of implementing corrective measures?

We are presented with hundreds of circumstances on life’s adventure that we complacently take for granted. We have conveniently adapted ourselves to the present, accepting it as a part of our lives. It is the degree to which we have become accustomed to this convenience pod that thwarts imagining its obsolescence, along with that of the infrastructure based upon it.

It is high time we wake up from our virtual dreams. The reality is disheartening. The game is rapidly slipping out of our hands. When disaster strikes, it will strike us so hard that it will erase mankind from the map of the universe. Are we ready for the disillusionment? Are we ready to change our lives towards the better? Or are we getting ready to brace ourselves for the end? But please, let’s not stay oblivious to all these.

“If you don’t deal with reality, reality will deal with you”

கல்லில் செதுக்கியாற்போல் நிலையாய் நின்றாய்
என்றும் மறையாமல் என்னொடு இருந்தாய்
என்நிலை குலைந்து நான்விழும் தருணம்
எனைநின் கரங்களால் தாங்கி நின்றாய்.

இருதயம் இரண்டெனினும் துடிப்போ ஒன்று
பாதை இரண்டெனினும் பயணம் ஒன்று
உள்ளம் இரண்டெனினும் உணர்வோ ஒன்று
மெய்யோ இரண்டெனினும் உயிரோ ஒன்று

உனை நான் தேடினேன் ஞாலமெங்கும்
எனை நான் வருத்தினேன் என்றென்றும்
உனை நான் கண்டேன் என்னுள்ளே
எனை நான் தொலைத்தேன் உன்னுள்ளே

அன்பெனும் சிறையில் அடைத்து வைத்தாய்
பாசமெனும் கயிற்றால் கட்டி வைத்தாய்
சிறையிலிருந்து விடுதலை நான் வேண்டேன்
கயிறுதனை விலக்கிட நான் விழையேன்

நீயும் இருப்பாய் எனைபற் றிடவே
நானும் இருப்பேன் உனையணைத் திடவே
உனைநான் தாங்கிட எனைநீ தாங்கிட
தொடர்வோம் நாம்நம் பயணம் தனையே

[My scribblings, from eons ago...]

Here’s what I thought about while I was walking from CMH Road to Cambridge Layout:

NOPQRSTUV - This is the longest sequence of consecutive letters of English alphabet, which when pronounced individually, can also sound like a separate word by themselves, with only a tinge of difference:

N – Yen (Japanese monetary unit)

O – Ohh !!

P – Pea

Q – Queue

R – Are

S – Yes

T – Tea

U – You

V – We

I think it was truly worth the time I spent thinking about this !!!!

Thank you, folks, for giving me a fantastic journey of 2010

A mixed bag it was. 2010. Loads of happy moments, and a good share of trying moments too. Every single day has taught me something new, and every one of you have been a special part of my life.

I want to take the time to thank all of you for being so wonderful and for being in my life. You have made me what I am today. I hope our paths cross again, near Barista or Starbucks, so that we can talk over a cup of coffee on all the important trivia and smile together

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

Love,
Karthik

Reserve Bank of India - India's Central Bank

Banks create money out of thin air. It is a by-product of their quest for profit. The entire economy thrives (and occasionally, falls too) on this ability of ‘credit creation‘ by ‘money factories‘. How do banks create more money than actually exists? How does this enable an increase in total volume of money in the economy? What are the risks?

First, let’s get on the same page with some basics:

• Banks get money from what we deposit in them.
• Deposits are banks’ liabilities, since banks must return it to us when we ask for the money.
• Banks lend loans by using this deposit money of ours.
• Loans are bank’s assets.

The CRR:

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is the central note issuing authority in India. Commercial Banks in India are required to hold a certain proportion of their deposits in the form of  cash. This minimum ratio (that is the part of the total deposits  to be held as cash) is stipulated by the RBI and is known as the CRR or Cash Reserve Ratio. It is a tool used by RBI to control liquidity in the banking system.

The Process:

Let’s assume there are various Banks in the Banking System. Bank_1, Bank_2, Bank_3, etc. Let’s assume the CRR to be 10%.

1. Anand deposits Rs. 100 in Bank_1. Keeping Rs. 10 in reserve (CRR is 10%), Bank_1 lends Rs. 90 to Bala.
2. Bala deposits his Rs. 90 in Bank_2. Keeping Rs. 9 in reserve, Bank_2 lends Rs. 81 to Clara.
3. Clara deposits her Rs. 81 in Bank_3.

This process continues.

The Math Behind This:

Time for some calculations. In the first cycle, the bank could loan out 90% of Rs. 100. In the second cycle, the bank could loan out 90% of 90% of Rs. 100. Thus the amount of money the bank can loan out in some period n of the cycle is given by:

Rs. 100 * (90%)ⁿ

• Let A be the amount of money infused into the system (in our case, Rs. 100)
• Let R be the required reserve ratio (in our case 10%).
• Let T be the total amount the bank loans out
• Let n represent the period we are in.

From the equation above, the amount of money the bank can loan out in any period is:

A * (1 – R)ⁿ

Thus, the total loan amount is:

T  =  A*(1 – R)¹ + A*(1 – R)² + A*(1 – R)³ + …

T  = A * [ (1 - R)¹ + (1 - R )² + (1 - R)³ + ... ]

Mathematics says,

x¹ + x² + x³ + x⁴ + … = x / (1-x)

Thus,

T  = A * (1 – R) / R

How much money have our banks loaned out using the Rs. 100 deposited initially? Using the above equation, this would total up to 100 * (1 – 0.1)/0.1 = Rs. 900.

In this entire process, to find the total amount deposited (D), we need to take into account the initial Rs. 100 too.

D  = A + T

D  = A +  [ A * (1 - R) / R ]

D  = A * (1/R)

which, for our example, will total to Rs. 1000.

The cash in reserve for any period is:

R * A * (1 – R)^n-1

Total reserve is:

( R * A ) [1 + (1 - R)¹ + (1 - R)² + (1 - R)³ ... ]

which simplifies to A = Rs. 100

The Balance Sheet:

This is how the combined balance sheet of the Banks will look like:

Such is the power of this simple process that banks have created an asset of Rs. 1000 using an initial money of Rs. 100. In other words, Banks have created money. This type of banking is called “Fractional Reserve Banking”

Why does this process succeed?

This process succeeds because most money transfers today do not involve cash or currency. It involves just cheques, DD, etc. or electronic transfer – mere numbers on a computer screen.

When would it fail?

This system fails in two main cases:

1. Cascade of withdrawals
   When all depositors come asking for their money back at the same time. The banking system will not have enough currency to meet the demands. In fact, one main purpose of the CRR is that the banks must be able to repay deposits when there are significantly large number of withdrawals.
2. Loan defaults
   What would happen when the debtors default or fail to repay the loans? This would also result in banks having insufficient money to pay back depositors.

The financial system is much more complicated than what we have discussed. But the above two are one of the basic reasons for the recent recession – just that it involved a cascade of selling stocks on the market, and defaults of subprime mortgage loans.

The key thought here is:

Cash or Currency refers to the physical notes in our purses. Money, on the other hand, is a symbol of promise or trust (I promise to pay the bearer the sum of …). While cash is limited in an economy, money is unlimited.

• Making computers understand and deal with natural (human) languages like English, Tamil, Spanish, etc.
• Exploiting human cleverness, and not computer cleverness

Natural Language Processing is a field of Computer Science and Linguistics concerned with the interactions between computers and natural (human) languages.

Categories

Phonology

• Modeling the pronunciation of a word as a string of symbols – PHONES
• Involves study of syllables, how they sound and how they group together to produce the word sound.
• Notice the difference in sound of “C” in the following words:
  • Coach
  • Chair
  • Can

Morphology

• Identification, analysis and description of the structure of words.
• Study of structural variations of words
• INFLECTIONS in a word are structural changes, usually through affixes, to express Number, Tense, Case, Gender, Person, etc.
  • dog – dogs
  • goose – geese
  • hunt – hunted
  • his – hers
• WORD FORMATIONS includes a group of words that have a specific meaning when they appear together.
  • mother in law
  • hot dog

Syntax

• Study of grammars
• Syntactic correctness in sentence formation
• Part of Speech tagging
  • Noun
  • Verb
  • Adjective, etc
• I can write : Is “can” AUX VERB or VERB or NOUN?

Semantics

• Understanding and representing the meaning

 



A simple semantic network

• Predicate Calculus can be used to represent semantics: Has(Ram, book)

Browse through the below presentation for more information on

• NLP
• Ambiguity resolution
• Perceptions
• Applications of NLP
• Machine Learning

I answered a questionnaire, probably ..

I knew numbers till 100 !!! And I knew cursive writing. And no spelling errors, either ….

I knew Hindi !!

And … I knew more Hindi then, than I actually know now …

I probably was in UKG, or Class I. (Don’t remember, obviously!)

Wah !!! Why am I so proud of myself now ??? !!!

Thanks to my uncle and aunt for preserving this little piece of paper for almost two decades !!!

இறைவன் இன்றி எதுவும் இல்லை என்பது மகத்தான உண்மை. எங்கும் இசை, எதிலும் இசை. கடலின் காற்றோ, மழையின் சப்தமோ, மரங்களின் அசைவுகளோ, நடப்பன, பறப்பன, ஊர்வன, மிதப்பன என அணைத்து ஜீவராசிகளிலும் ஜீவனாக இருப்பது இசைதான்.

கர்நாடக இசை மிகப் பழமையான இசை. தெற்கு இந்தியாவில் தோன்றி இன்று உலகெங்கும் வழங்கப்படும் இசை. ஏழு ஸ்வரங்கள் கொண்ட அற்புத இசை. ஸ்ருதியினையும் லயத்தினையும் தனது இரண்டு கண்களாகக் கொண்டது. ராகத்தையும் தாளத்தையும் அடிப்படையாகக் கொண்டது கர்நாடக இசை.

கர்நாடக இசையில் ஒவ்வொரு ராகத்திற்கும் லட்சணமும் லட்சியமும் உண்டு. இவை இரண்டும் ராகத்தின் உடலும் உயிருமாக ஒன்றி வருவன. ஒவ்வொரு ராகத்திற்கும் தனி விதிகள் உண்டு. ஒவ்வொரு ராகத்திற்கும் தனி சக்தி உண்டு. ராகத்தை வழங்கும்போது அதன் லட்சணம் பிழறாமல் லட்சியத்தை நிறைவேற்றும் விதத்தில் வழங்கினால் தான் இசை முழுமைபெறும். இசைப்பவரும் ரசிப்பவரும் இறைவனை சென்றடைய முடியும்.

» Read more on this topic at my Music Blog site …

In western terminologies, some common articulation techniques include:

• Col legno
• Collé
• Pizzicato
• Spiccato
• Sul ponticello
• Sul tasto
• Tremolo
• Glissando

» Read more on this topic at my Music Blog site …

lakSaNam (VE”nkaTamakhi):
tODiH SaDjagrahaH pUrNaH
sAyaMkAlE pragIyatE |

MELam hanumatODi / janatODi is the second mELam  belonging to the second cakram (nEtra cakram), hence it is referred to as “nEtra —  shrI”, with the mnemonic phrase    ri ga ma dha ni  or  R1 G2 M1 D1 N2.

ArOhaNam
s r g m p d n .s

AvarOhaNam
.s n d p m g r s

The notes taken are: SaDjam, shuddha riSabham, sadhAraNa gAndhAram, suddha madhymam, pa~ncamam, shuddha dhaivatam and kaishiki nishAdam.

» Read more on this topic at my Music Blog site …

We, the family ...

A few lines about my trip to US…

Memories come rushing back,
From the abyss of my soul and heart -
Fighting back my tears, at the end of a short journey.
Thank you all, for making it special – worthy of reminiscence,
and an yearning for living those eternal moments, again…

Those first images we captured on our cameras
The first view outside our windows…

The days we ran the length of Wall street,
The classrooms, seminars, cornflakes and coffee breaks.
Project meetings, design docs and (others’) codes
The Independence Day we celebrated at office,
And the days we had lunch together -
Stone Street pizza, Combo at Bombay’s and Pasta at Pax…

Hours we spent at Boston, DC, Phily and the caves,
The enchanting moments at Niagara Falls
Hiking at Woodstock and gambling (and winning) at AC
The rides at 6Flags and Universal Studios
Museums, Central Park and temples
And the *dramatic* rescue at Miami beach…

An always active room, you made mine into,
Collaborative cooking, shopping at Patel’s and the Deli’s
Movies we watched in cinemas, 20-D and 2146.
The tears of missing our family back home
With video chats and calling cards to minimalistic rescue…

Metro, PATH, ferries, buses and flights
Subway, Burger King and Chipotle,
Gatorade and Powerade and Snapple
NY Times and Wall Street Journal,
BJ’s, J&R, JCPenney, Strawberry and Macy’s
Dell, HP, iPod, Kindle and clothes…

The Morning mist
The evening chill,
The clear blue sky
The drops of rain
And the Hudson river…

Now it’s time for a few lines of specifics…

Sweta,
The days you told me your stories with zest,
Those incessant kicks, hits, punches and blows you gave,
And the times we walked, talked, shopped and lunched together…

Sowmya,
The moments I read my poems to you,
The times you sang when I played the violin,
And the motherly affection and dinner table PJ’s…

Devi,
The times you cried your heart to me,
The rice, sambar, rasam and omelette you made for me
And the times I shared my personal stories with you…

Kichu,
The dearest thatha with a trademark stare and smile,
The second you pulled me down into the sea water,
Thou shall sleep, lest the croc might awaken!…

Shafeeq,
The pair programming in Brad’s class,
The mud castles on the beach sands
And the passion for books that we both did share…

Varsha,
Those seconds you regretted for having heard my PJ’s
Those moments you hit thatha with all your might
And those times when you got a few from me…

My emotions now transcend nostalgia -
Countless memories are flooding my heart,
Not much space and time to pen them down.
Bidding adieu brings me tears
My only solace is the hope
that we shall relive these moments together…

An interesting spoof about the never-ending battle between Proprietary software and (F)OSS …

I am glad to be a Java Programmer !!!

Are you ready to ride the extreme ???

Do not miss out !!! Festember X, 24th – 26th September, 2010