Sree weds Neelima

Our Wedding Invitation.



Time : 11:42 pm
Date : December 10th, 2010
Venue: Sri Veera Venkata Satyanarayana Swamy Sannidhi, Annavaram.
East Godavari(dst), Andhra Pradesh.

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Housewarming

It was almost evening before I realized that this was the first December evening of the year. Last I thought about December was yesterday, on December's eve. All through the day I was forgetful of this fact and went about like a machine cracking those humorless jokes in office. Of course what else can one do to make a dull day interesting. You can not obviously scuba dive off the office floor. As it were not enough I realized that I misplaced my favorite headphones and also the laptop bag. I was thoroughly annoyed when I could not find ID card early in the evening only to be returned, later, by my colleague. I cursed the day. It was not the usual spirited start of my favorite month.
In the evening I realized that I was supposed to house-warm my new flat at 9:00 pm. This realization brought the proceedings into a better light. I drove from Koramangala to Marathalli in usual weekday Bangalore traffic which needless to say was horrible and the fact that it was raining did not help the cause. En route, doing some school-going-kid bicycle stunt on my bike I damaged the mudguard. I tried to pull the half torn mudguard off with my hands but it would not come off so easily. I tugged at it again and again till I soiled my hands in the mud of mudguard. I cursed and cussed at it for being muddy. Poor thing it did not know how to keep itself clean in rain. In the end I had to throw some nasty kicks at it to get rid off the mudguard. I have to thank my girl friend here for giving me the strength to do the needful. If you ever thought she encouraged me standing right beside, you committed a gross error. She did not answer my repeated calls as she was busy. This made me mad enough to break off the half broken mudguard.
Horrible things ended with mud on the mudguard. After this adventure on wheels I went window shopping and as usual window shopping was windowless this time as well. I closed the windows and opened my pockets to payout for a sweater. I do not regret the sweater nor the money I spent, but I regret my temptation towards clothing.
Okay, I will not crib. At 9:00 in the evening we warmed our house by instilling some photos of God Ganesha and Balaji and lighted a couple of diyas before the photos.We could not do this in a traditional way as the gas connection and other essentials were not ready.
After a long time, today I have jotted the proceedings of a day, only to fill my blog on the first day of December

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Appendix. CLANDESTINE( 1n 2)

Not to leave my readers in a maze, I have come up with an appendix for my CLANDESTINE series posts:
Vanilla Victimization. Clandestine Begins - Part 1
Information Parasitism. Clandestine GoLive - Part 2

APPENDIX
CLANDESTINE(pet project): It is my love story.
Team Members: My girl friend and I (Grammar rule: Put the donkey last. So its 'I' who ought to be at the last.)
Stakeholders: Our parents and other family members.
Vanilla Model: Arranged Marriages.
Vanilla Victims(VV): People who had their marriages arranged.
Vanilla Maniacs(VM): People who want all the marriages in the world to be arranged.
Integration Model: Love Marriage.
Cross-Platform Integration Model: Now you get what it is, isn't it?
UAT: Struggle for parents' Acceptance.
SIT: Our preparation up to UAT.
Indian Clientele: People of India.
Carriers: Middlemen who carry information given by the IPs to the destined people.
Information Parasites(IP): It is important that you identify them. For the benefit of the reader I describe them as below
1. They cannot keep their mouth shut.
2. They do not mind their business.
3. These people are well-informed about state-of-affairs of the country and are clueless about happenings in their own household.
Though it is apt and called for, I refrain from using expletives and swear words in describing IPs because they are not worth it for spoiling my beloved blog.

CLANDESTINE is no more clandestine, first in spirit and now in letter. Mission Accomplished.

Hip! Hip!! Hurray!!!

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Information Parasitism. Clandestine GoLive - Part 2

...Continued

Unfazed by the fact that first round of UAT(Acceptance Testing) in Vishakapatnam was a fiasco, the project entered SIT phase in Bhubhaneswar. SIT was a tense period as the early UAT phase with limited number of stakeholders bombed at the box office. There was no convincing them that the application would work, so used they were to the Vanilla apps. The system was tested against the test cases that were never part of the design plan. Proven unit test cases were struck down with a comment of irrelevance attached to them.Every functionality was viewed as an issue and bugs were raised at an alarming rate. In fact the number of bugs raised were more than the sum total of unit test cases and functionalities which was ridiculous.If this was a case with few users in UAT then a full blown UAT blowing up the app was as guaranteed as a 3% return on post office deposit.
Tweaking the functionality and presenting the app again was never a solution as the users were never keen on functionality. They were against the application design itself. What at the maximum could be done was to present the application in a different light and highlight the advantages like low overhead and maintenance costs. But the stakeholders, who had seen the app already, never gave a second look at it. As deliberations among team members were on to do this at least with the second set of stakeholders, something unexpected happened.
Here entered an INFORMATION PARASITE. These are the people who thrive on information and religiously bundle it up just like dung beetle rolls up excrement. The comparison ends there. Dung beetles are a benefit to the society as they clean up mess whereas these Information Parasites(IPs) pick up mess and make it messier till it rots and stinks the whole locality. This depraved social condition is called INFORMATION PARASITISM. Information Parasite gathers information that is irrelevant to him/her from anywhere and everywhere. Once they have pieces of information they roll it up as messy balls and attach it to a carrier. Carriers unaware of the parasite's intentions carry this concocted information to the destination and victimize the destined person with it.I pity the carriers as much as I pity the Vanilla Maniacs for their innocence in the whole affair. But I detest the Information Parasites who do not have a business of their own to mind and a spine of their own to stand upright and speak up. Since the reader has a clear vision of Information Parasitism, I would track back into the story from this necessary diversion.
One such information parasite sitting hundreds of miles away, covertly, victimized the second set of stakeholders through an innocent carrier.Once again the project was in UAT before it was in UAT. We were intelligent enough this time to avoid a sudden dash into UAT. Denials of the project's existence calmed down the users for a few months. The inevitable was delayed and SIT was completed with bought time in Bhubhaneswar. As we thought it was the end of SIT, the project ran into Human Resource issues with one of the team members sent to Chennai and the other to Kolkota. This problem was short lived as I got a transfer to Chennai from Kolkota. This was the most satisfying thing apart from the project going live because this location issue was perceived to be a bigger trouble than the project itself. The project entered UAT in Chennai during early 2009. The second set of stakeholders put this project through rigorous testing as they were keen on the functionality rather than the design. The testing revealed some cascading effects on th future apps but we pursued it relentlessly with resolute silence and an occasional argument that a built application cannot be done away with because of imprecations on the future apps. After two years of UAT the second set of stakeholders gave a conditional sign off and this condition was dependent on the first set of stakeholders who were against the integration model all through these years. With this, the fate of the application was back to square one. It was then that I decided to push the application over into production without any sign off and host the Datacenter in Bangalore. This city offered better financing than Chennai and I moved over well in advance to set up the facility. Though this was the case I missed Chennai and visited my girl friend every weekend.
As we were inching close to a sign-off-less go-live something dramatic happened. The second set of stakeholders waved a green in place of the previous yellow. This came as a big relief to the project. Nevertheless the sign-off, these users wanted at least a yellow from the users who tested the application right in college and they wanted me to get this. I was skeptical about my attempt to get a sign-off because all my earlier attempts were incrementally disastrous. Nth attempt failure was worse than the N-1th attempt.
It was Sept 18th, a D-day that could break or make many things irrespective of the fact that the app go-live was sure to happen. I did not have any decks or slides to present because I exhausted all the material in my earlier attempts.This one was going to be an extempore and impromptu. I just had one last thing to do, that was to take my girl friend home. I did that risking the fact that we would be thrown out. My heart beat went abnormally high as I took her into my house. I did not know what I said to my parents after that. I believe I must have said something pleasant because we got a thumbs-up for our marriage. And, only one whom I could credit here is, God who turned around the seemingly impossible. After that day, things changed for better and my girl friend moved to Bangalore. Our parents fixed the date and are more anxious than ourselves for it to happen. We are getting married in December late in the Evening,i.e at 11:40 P.M on December 10th, 2010. And for me this is pleasantest of reasons to love "December Evenings" even more. The CLANDESTINE project is no longer clandestine. It would be deployed as "Lived Happily Ever After" which was its real and only use case. Now, wait is mine for DECEMBER and I long and yearn for you my DECEMBER EVENING.

PS: Vanilla Models are not all that bad and it differs on a case to case basis. However, what I can say is one solution does not fit all, and imitations could cause chaos.
Have a look at the APPENDIX if there is a word that you do not understand.

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Vanilla Victimization. Clandestine Begins - Part 1

Whatever happened to me, I became an infrequent visitor to my own blog. Before today, September 19th was the only time I attempted to key in something here though in vain. I failed that day, rather miserably, to articulate my emotions and thoughts and as a consequence this space ran barren for a two month period. So what was it that challenged my expression. Was it a Shakespeare's drama or Wordsworth's verse that denied my blog what was due to it. I would say neither, but it is inferior compared to either.
My pet project, CLANDESTINE, that started during my graduation got sign-off from all the stakeholders and it is all set to 'Go Live' in December. This was a small, zero budget, two member team project to begin with. Project was small but stakes involved were huge right from the very first day. Though the dimensions of the project like budget( mostly self-financing at later stages), deadlines and sizing changed over time what remained constant throughout was its core team members and the stakes. None of the stakeholders were informed about the project inception. If they had known, the project would have been forcefully scrapped in the requirement phase due to lots of negative vibes. The decision to keep the stakeholders unaware till the system was stable and ready for UAT( User Acceptance Testing or simply Acceptance Testing) stemmed from the fact that stakeholders always wanted the project to be done in a risk free Vanilla J2EE fashion.
The problem with the Vanilla applications is they are dull, boring, uninteresting and utterly dysfunctional from inside but screamingly good from outside.I call this VANILLA VICTIMIZATION.Sometimes the condition of Vanilla victims degenerates into an acute and chronic state where in a victim becomes a maniac and this condition is called VANILLA SYNDROME. These Vanilla maniacs have a singular, fatalistic goal of victimizing the world with Vanilla affect. And in this state the maniacs are as much a disservice to themselves as to people around which they never realize.Well-informed of this age old, dreadful phenomenon- VANILLA VICTIMIZATION and its after affects - our team wanted to implement an advanced cross-platform integration solution. Cross-platform solutions never fit the bill, smoothly, for most of the Indian clientele, and in particular our clients spend sleepless nights at the very thought of a simple integration solution.God save CLANDESTINE and its team. To the readers: If a term called m-a-r-k-e-t-i-n-g tries to show up even remotely in your head, let me tell you these clients of mine buy no gold if they perceive it as crap. Since you got the context right let us move ahead.
As the SIT(System Integration Testing) dates neared, we were excited,restless and tensed. More often than not, the thought of few more months to UAT and then the glow sign board "lived happily ever after", made us ecstatic. Every project has its share of people who wish its failure and ours being a college project had a bunch of them. I would call them the Vanilla Maniacs or the VM team. I pity them. Their only problem was they were VVs and they wanted the world to be full of VVs.I troubled these VVs enough on all possible occasions and never gave them a chance to retort except for this. They pounced to clutch this opportunity in two hands and needless to say the Vanilla maniacs blew the whistle as hard as a PT teacher who runs after a troublesome student to peal his skin off. The whistle sound set my parents ears agog and the project CLANDESTINE remained no longer clandestine. Everything was wide in open. The project stakeholders themselves being advocates of Vanilla Victimization gave in readily to the VMs word and tug-of war began. With Stakeholders trying to convince the team members to drop the project and in turn team members pleading the stakeholders to accept the already half completed CLANDESTINE, the project entered UAT even before it entered SIT.
Continued in ..
Information Parasitism. Clandestine GoLive - Part2
Have a look at the APPENDIX if there is a word that you do not understand.

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Post from my nokia x6.

It is been quite sometime since my last post. This time it was not the usual dearth of material that kept me off my blog. It was lack of time in fact. When I was travelling to Chennai last week I found the 21:31 hrs bus drivers punctuality worthy of a post. Earlier, the same day I saw a girl who could very well have been content of my post. But hectic schedule drained me and occupied my time till today. I would say better late than never and write about the girl - punctual bus drivers though rare they are can wait for a place in my blog because I cannot wait to write about the earlier event on the same day.
The lady lightly stepped down the half foot high median that separates the kormangala-domlur roadway. She tightly clung on to her umbrella against breeze and drizzle, and was waiting for the last of the vehicles to pass by to cross the road. I don't know when it was last since I read so much in a single glance. Bangalore has so many fashionable, good looking girls that beauty becomes banal and a thing next door. So you really don't pay attention to who is who in here. But She resembled somebody.At least for a fleeting moment she reminded me of somebody - that is the whole point of the post. This girl was wearing a blue pair of jeans and a black top. In one hand she held an umbrella, probably in her right hand, and in her left she gingerly held a microphone. At that very moment, in my hurry to get back home, I walked past her even before the vehicles stopped at the signal and so I did not see her long enough to notice features of her face and the setting sun did not help me either. When I saw her talking so expressly over phone while crossing the road in rain, I almost instantly knew it was her boy friend holding the other end of the line. Now don't ask me why and how I jumped to such a conclusion. Every beautiful girl has a boyfriend to affirm the fact. I do not, of course, say that only beautiful girls have boy friends. And also do not ask me how in the world I go on to conclude that the lady under discussion is beautiful. If I did not feel or assume so, I would not have wasted time in putting down this post all with my thumbs from mobile phone's qwerty keyboard. Okay, back to the topic. As soon as I concluded it was her boyfriend she was talking to, I started wondering what on the earth he was doing, leaving such a girl to drench in rain and dust on roads. The after thought was some one, some where is all alone by herself, crossing roads all by herself, clutching to an umbrella in her right and a microphone ... No, no microphone in her hands because it is long time since I spoke for 10 continuous minutes with her. Thanks to my new job, I do not have time to talk to her these days. At least it keeps her away from the trouble of carrying a microphone along with an umbrella. Am I trying to find bright side even after knowing there are none? What do you call this? Optimism, nah. Helplessly foolish, hmm that sounds perfect english and a chosen adverb-adjective combination for my situation. Shrugging my shoulders thus, I hasten home to catch a bus and join my beloved under the raining roof of chennai sky.

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Test of character

Tomorrow it is test of a 20 year veteran's character. India need 205 to win and 7 wickets lose, against Sri Lanka, with God of cricket batting and battling on their side. God he might be but mortal he is, let us see how he fares tomorrow. It is either a 1-1 or 2-0 for India.
I remember Chepauk when India lost its way after Tendulkar got out on personal score of 136, 15 runs short of victory. This is definitely a better cricketing side than that of those days when our wicket keeper could not bat and our specialist batsmen got out because of extraneous reasons.However, we will have to wait till tomorrow when the little master walks out into the middle with a wand in hand. All depends on him who,when he is in mood, can send a reckless upper cut for six. That him,when he thinks otherwise can cut off a heavily scoring shot from his entire innings and still score a double hundred.
I hope he tames the turning track and romps India home triumphant. If you still wonder whom I am talking about without taking his name it is Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.

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My Scribble Pad

Brazen, untamed and uncut edges of a howling hound.
A sentence and send away.
When leaves whither and fall elsewhere my eyes see only green everywhere.
Every life has a purpose and every moment its meaning.

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Exuberance of youth!!!

I picked this title, though cliched and overused, when one of my room mate used it in some context. I hate plagiarism but English is every ones so is this cliche, isn't it? I use this header with all credit debited at the reemergence point of the title, that is in the account of my colleague and room mate. While I muse over the appropriate content for this title, the UNDER CONSTRUCTION tag would do its duty. Now do your duty while I am on my own in mind's space.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

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On the Occasion of friendship day !

Love is a very important part of me. As I say these words I recollect the opening lines of Bertrand Russell's autobiography.More or less he says the same, of course with a slight variation. If not why would he be "himself" and why would I be "myself". That's the end of similarities, I am not delving into details any further.
Right from the days when I knew a little about myself I sought love, dearly. From the advent of my teens I was either having a crush or was having a feeling that somebody likes me. I am putting in some honest thoughts of mine here because 20 years from now when I am not what I am today I still will have a way to know what exactly I was in my teens and early twenties. I no longer have the razor sharp edges which as a teenager I had but I still carry the memories. Some events are afresh in mind as they happened yesterday and some have vaporized as if they never occurred in the first place. Let me account them here.
I remember the days when on a friendship day I bought a rose and a greeting card with few tens of rupees. I remember the act being repeated the next year. I did not know what it was then. After all these years when I must be dismissing them away as ramblings of a teenager, at least after being in a serious relation that is going to materialize in nuptial knots soon, I still value and relish those appetite dropping experiences with an impish grin . I see that most teenagers go through this phase but many are not brazen enough to pursue the madness earnestly. I did chase the the butterflies quite early, though I never had the intentions or guts to catch one, pun intended.Adventures seem extravagant in print and ink, but the amount of trouble I would have got into if something had gone wrong was unimaginably huge and it is evident only now as I type these lines. Once I nearly toppled over the cliff and just hung on in time. Thanks to the good times. Ones who know me might ask what favor I did to myself by clinging on and delaying the inevitable.I can tell you, it would have been too early and a whole lot different. Okay, I will not allude any longer, I will put it plain.
Since the time I have come of age I always craved for company and I scouted for a special companion. A companion who can dare to maintain, with me, the highest degree of transparency possible between two humans; who leaves me alone to rest in the lap of solitude when I please; who never forces her thoughts on me; who loves me as if I were a kite soaring high in the skies.This was possible either with an alter ego or with a person from opposite gender.And, I was never in mood to find an alter ego. That is how even before I knew myself, I realised how my better half should be.It was a writing on the wall that a person like me would fall head over heels in love sooner than later.I say this because my cravings for company conceived from the fact that I spend my time in solitude. In my childhood and early teens isolation was imposed upon me so that I could do good in my academics - this wasn't the only intention though, sometimes I was condemned to isolation. To an extent this had a positive effect on my academics but it had a serious side effect. I started liking solitude and turned an introvert( which still I am). People who know me, a majority at least, would differ with me on this and claim that I socialize well.On the contrary a select few know that I take refuge in solitude and have intense introspective intervals when I burn out. The periods of introspection are so intense that every such time strip gives birth to a fledgling in me.In these ebbs I need somebody who really understands me, right by my side. After much effort I have found one, a remarkable one indeed.
What I am trying to say is, several years earlier right on this day called the Friendship Day I began as an apprentice only to be a veteran now. I started chasing butterflies out of intrigue.I learnt my fundamentals, fundamentals of the complex thing called a girl's mind and what best suited me, at school - very early isn't it ? It was a prelude rather, I would say. And, this early start did pay me off in tonnes.I found what I sought after the most - my love.
This is a honest tribute to her splendid self on the eve of this decade's first friendship day.I do this even after knowing that she doesn't care reading what I write here.

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How to kill time?

In the afternoon today, I was thinking about putting up a post to express my indignation and desperation of how horrible weekends in Bangalore are.
Some how as the hours passed by I found a means of killing time. A stab of a movie killed it for 2:30 hours. At the end of it time was up again, this time in arms, to take its revenge on me - that is to bore to death. Here I express my gratitude to water problem that accompanies me, where ever I might go whether it is Bangalore or Chennai. I sought refuge in it to negotiate time. Yes, I meant the water problem by "it". To tidy myself I badly needed a bucket of water and in whole of my house I didn't have a drop of it. I spent nearly an hour to get a bucket of water and another half an hour waiting for the water to get warm. I am not conventional enough to put the water on the gas stove nor am I modern enough to use a geyser for the purpose.However, I am clumsy enough to use a 1KWH immersion rod to heat the water up. I have to own it up now that I entirely miscalculated the time duration. Bad equation: 15 minutes for half a bucket of water so 30 minutes for a full to heat up.Immersion rods are really quick than I anticipated and as I realised later, half an hour is too long for a bucket full of water to get warm.The water was boiling hot before this enlightenment dawned on me and I did not have another drop to cool it down. So, waiting was mine. Clock ticked away 15 minutes, I let another 900 seconds pass by and telephone call helped me with another half an hour.A Bangalore's hour was good enough for a bucket full to cool down. If this were Chennai the water would be cool enough to bath only the next day. This is one upside of the downside. Downside because, first of all, I should never have had the need to warm up water in Chennai.
That's how it was, run out of water, spend an hour to get bucket full as it were a desert, heat it up carelessly past the admissible Celsius then wait for the water to cool down. Perhaps, Louis Pasteur arrived at the procedure of pasteurization - the process of boiling milk and then rapidly cooling it down to kill bacteria- in a similar fashion. Whoever said Genius is a product of naivety should add a clause to the definition - Genius is a clumsy consequence of lethargy and carelessness. Wasn't penicillin an accident? Wasn't rubber being flung into sulphur another? How would you describe Newton lazing under a tree when an apple blew his wits out? And what do you have to say about devising a way of killing time with a bucket full of water?

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Moron and Oxymoron

"An enterprise often contains a variety of applications that operate independently but must work together in a unified manner".This is the oxymoron under discussion.
"Applications that operate independently" but " must work together in a unified manner". Doesn't it sound like searching for shadows on a moonless night? Doesn't it seem like chasing mirages in an endless desert? Then what am I trying to prove here? Trying to prove nothing - that's another oxymoron.Huh! One is enough to spoil a life time. I can not accommodate a second.
The opening sentence is what EAI means. For the benefit of my blessed readers - blessed, if you do not know about EAI - I take the infinite pain of expanding the acronym EAI- ENTERPRISE APPLICATION INTEGRATION. That is in brief about my job. As a fresher, who knew nothing about IT industry I took the oath of integrating applications for a lifetime - possibly - you never know.

In short, according to me, here are the seven simple and defining principles of the oxymoron, EAI.
1. Build your enterprise anyway you like, in as many applications as you wish.
2. Your enterprise becomes huge and untenable. If it does not, make sure you make it.
3. Find innocent "somebody" outside your organization.
4. Repeat step 3 till you find "somebody" because you do not find intelligent goats easily.
5. Once you find that somebody, sit on his head and force him to wire the applications together.
6. Scream TTM(Time To Maket) and ROI( Return on Investment).
7. Repeat step 6 for ever, at regular intervals.

In the meantime major IT players, in the name of solving integration problems, form consortiums and arrive at industry standards. In the name of no-vendor-lock-in products, these companies release proprietary tools. The business houses to meet the ever rising bar of customer satisfaction ( that is our satisfaction, don't we ask why is this bank's website so slow or why is loan approval a week long manual process?)buy different off-the-shelf products from various vendors to reduce Time To Market. The disparate products from various, obviously and not surprisingly, do not agree with each other. And, the integration problems go to next level where the then( future dated ) big players, again, sit together to arrive at latest agreeable standards and go on to build different products on it. Thats how IT evolves.

Evolution IT has gone through in the past 40 years:
1. First, data and operations were put together. (procedure oriented languages - C)
2. Then data was separated from operations for the sake of data security . ( OOPS- JAVA, C++)
3. Next adapters were built for operations to access the data residing elsewhere. (EAI - whole lot of middlewares)
4. Then operations were combined to form services so that similar data operations could be done at a time( SOA).
5. Next the services(combination of operations) and data are colocated so that only way of accessing the data is through those services. ( Master Data Management - Websphere WCC/MDM )

Don't you see a full circle in this evolution, from operations and data together to services and data together? I do. I say all this irrespective of the fact there are huge monies involved in such projects, and I am very much an IT consultant who makes a living out of solving integration problems. Money wasn't the topic under discussion, at least it was not today.
Okay, do you find a moron(meaning: idiot,mental retard - otherwise no vulgarity intended) in the entire story? I promise there is more than one. I found out the Oxymoron you find out a Moron, at least one.

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I hate luv storys - something I never said before

If I successfully draft and save this post it would be third this week. I am on a roll :) :) :).
Yeah, I am talking about the Karan Johar flick "I hate luv storys". Loving somebody and breaking off to latch on to somebody else is in vogue these days. At least it is in the bollywood. I do not understand the logic of loving somebody and then finding love in somebody else. You might argue it happened with "the" Romeo( I used the definite article because there are so many these days), one who killed himself for the sake of love, then why not with others. However, I beg to differ change becomes a habit and life ends before you stop changing people.
Why all this pep talk about love when I am talking about a movie? Then read the next lines carefully and figure out how meaningful it is. " A girl loves a guy, breaks off from him to love a guy who does not believe in love". The story is as meaningful as the above sentence. However, the lackluster story line does not dissuade one from enjoying the comedy that evolves from the backdrop the movie is set against.
Veer Kapoor( Karan Johar look alike) is famous for his romantic blockbusters with a superstar( Aamir Ali - a SRK look alike).J( played by Imran) works on the sets of Veer's latest venture. He struggles to get along as he does not believe in love which is, of course, the mainstay of Veer's film. Simran(played by Sonam) joins Veer's crew as an art director and the movie takes off.
The whole movie is an enjoyable satire on bland romantic movies and Karan Johar's style of movie making. Karan Johar must be appreciated for allowing his director do a satire on him through Veer's character. Other than this brave satire by the director Punit Malhotra, another entertaining element is Kavin Dave( guy from sprite ad).He plays a good supporting role as J's colleague and companion.In fact Bollywood could have just discovered a good sidekick in him.
The chemistry between Imran and Sonam, though not very romantic - of course the movie did not need it, is quite good. Punit succeeded in making a movie that is light, humorous, and devoid of loud comedy and drama. The good thing about the movie is you do not have a single punch being thrown or a heart wrenching sequence in whole of it. The movie, for sure, will not bore you unless you are expecting car crashes, bleeding noses and/or wet cheeks on the screen. All in all a simple, light movie to watch it after five days of whipping and slogging at office.

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FIFA. Fever - Over

That was a horrible doggerel to begin with, alright, but that was the simplest thing I could say.My language might not be the most flamboyant - okay I will tone down a bit- my language might not be flamboyant enough- hmmm, I understand, you don't deserve any of this, now I will come to terms with the ground realities - my language is not good enough to describe and summarize a fabulous, marvellous, magnificent and meticulously organized mega event called FIFA.However, I would say the attempt is mine and the result is yours( that is the reader's).
Neither did I follow every match of this world cup nor am I a big fan of foot ball to do a effective sum up. I am a big fan of cricket. But now I am looking for a replacement, as cricket is no longer what it was. I feel so, do you? Well, of course keep Sachin Tendulkar out of this, he is what he is even if the game should lose its sheen.In fact this football world cup is the first major tournament I followed and it was only from the middle of the tournament that I picked up. The dramatic exit of defending champions Italy triggered interest in me and the disgraceful exit of France did me into FIFA 2010 completely.
Critics and spectators voiced their indignation about the lack of grace in Brazil's game, which was far from bad, but it appears everybody turned a blind eye on how Spaniards played throughout the tournament.This FIFA world cup witnessed the exit of two of the best teams, Brazil and Germany, because of the sloppy but effective strategy devised and executed by Netherlands and Spain.
I feel Germany should have been the rightful finalists for the way they played and not Spain. Though I supported and cheered Spain throughout - even against Germany( I support a team which I know for sure is going to win. Bad Habit) - I say this. And, according to me the final was the fight for the 3rd position which was entertaining and enthralling unlike the actual final between Spain and the Dutch. Netherlands replied Spain in their own language only to come second in the 113 minute of the play.Then what the deuce were they doing themselves through the first 90 minutes?On an average every fifth minute of the final, the referee was forced to use his whistle and yellow-card one or the other. It was no better than a school football match with players faking and falling like nine pins.It was like two students of same school of thought pitted against one another but a day can only bear a single winner and Spain took home the cup this time. The only capturing element in the whole of final was anybody could be the winner because both the teams employed the same strategy and each was waiting for the other to flounder. If you watched the final,definitely you would have been bored enough to empathize with me.
To wrap it up, I feel sorry for each of Brazil and Germany. Brazil vs Germany would have been a match worth of World Cup final. If it were the final, then the opening and closing ceremonies would have remained just ceremonies instead of overshadowing the whole World Cup as they did now.However, one thing that would get catalogued in my memory, forever, is "the hip twister" Shakira's "WAKA WAKA" which became a chant to many and I, the other would be Paul the octopus which proved a German nemesis. Now it is time to return home from Africa!!!

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The topic is "My Blog"

I spent many sleepless nights to bring My Blog to current shape it is in. Why in all days did I chose to write about My Blog in My Blog today? Today definitely is not an anniversary of My Blog.December is no where around and it is too early to even long for it.However, Everything falls under the "cause" and "consequence" umbrella and so does this.
During the initial days of starting My Blog I tried to make it popular among my friends and acquaintances. Every time I published a piece here I went around and updated a select few who evinced interest on hearing that I started a blog. Few of the initial readers still remain on My Blog and many others do not. Those were the days when I knew nothing other than 9 hours of work at office and 4 or 5 hours of time on My Blog. I tried many templates and browsed the net for some good sunset pictures before settling with the current template and self-shot picture. The interesting fact is, "December Evenings" sits on a Sunday Morning snap. I shot that at 5:30 a.m in the morning having spent a sleepless night( sleepless here means staying awake forcefully and not struggling to catch sleep). Needless, to say I took a lot of pain in My Blog, which I no longer do and derived pride and pleasure from it, which I still do.
As the days passed by I stopped troubling people. I put up updates on orkut and left it for the interested readers. This was till the last days in TCS. Back then I did not have a laptop of my own.Whenever I got hold of my friends laptop first thing I did was to fair and post the content which was either a quick scribble on a piece of paper or was a carefully typed, edited and mailed thought from my office desk.
The day I joined SAG, I got a laptop and my first thought then was "Unlimited blogging". Alas! little did I know about the side effects of a uncontended laptop. Along with laptop comes unlimited Internet and along with Internet come other avocations. Otherwise very useful, these avocations have proven counterproductive to my blogging - the number of posts plummeted, yeah I meant the word because if you were to draw a line graph you would see Mt. Everest and Eiffel tower juxtaposed.
Every evening of the past one month, after returning from work I have been thinking about My Blog and sometimes sign on to post something( They are so many things which could be interesting pieces), but I am either busy - with research( not rocket science), defeated - at work ,enervated - after a long discussion or elated- that I am going to Chennai. Ha! Chennai comes again into My Blog which has been the case in my recent posts. When I travel across Chennai many things come to my mind which are worth posting, but the moment I enter Bangalore they vaporize.Okay! enough is enough-please stay tuned - I swear I will not mention Chennai again in this post.
I come back to the topic of this post that is My Blog. Two weeks ago I met one of my college friends by accident in a shopping mall near to my workplace. After we went about the usual how-are-yous and what-are-you-uptos he made a mention of My Blog. This took to me by surprise and I was ecstatic when he said he read my posts. I felt very happy about that and I thanked him for his readership. I got some readers, in fact voluntary readers. I do not mind even if they are my critics, it is good to have someone listening to you rather than crying all by yourself to a wall. This put additional onus on me to keep wrting and keep writing good. However I tried I could not pen down a single post owing to the work schedule. Even as I type the previous sentence I look at my system clock to check how many hours of undisturbed sleep I could catch before the alarm shatters my dreams at 8:30 a.m tomorrow morning. That was a necessary short break from the monotonous topic of My Blog. Again today one of my school friends and said that he reads My Blog. This was the trigger to write this topic My Blog.
Did you count how many "My Blog" I put in this post? Count them an let me know for the topic is My Blog. Ain't this a different kind of blogging? Opinions and comments are highly solicited. Signing off from my blog. Happy counting if ever you count.

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I write after 3 weeks.

After working 12 hours a day starting 31st of May, I was dog tired at the end of 3 weeks. Eight hours of a day for deliverables , four hours for training and another two or three hours, after coming home, for the tit-bits pushed me to the verge of burn out. Needless to say these 3 weeks were never interspersed by visits to Chennai. I wasted my already curtailed weekends in shopping malls, windowing and never shopping - an unforgivable form of atrophy - taking to the fact that I went to my workplace on weekend mornings to finish off the spill overs from the weekdays.
I could have done a little better by watching a movie or two but they charge a bomb for a movie in Bangalore and after watching "Kites", I have pledged I will not watch a movie again in Bangalore- why to buy headache when it is damn expensive? Only work and no entertainment for 3 weeks. You wouldn't believe me I did not find time or a right topic to blog on, all these days. That is how it was.
To sum it up all, I had an endless list of complaints to make and a million more reasons to visit Chennai.
Finally, I come to the point - I boarded a bus to chennai on 25th Friday at 9:45 in the night. My colleague gave me company enroute, though with a purpose of his own to address. I do not like bus journey and my dislike for buses doubles when I have to travel long distances on them and it turns into loathe if I have to spend a night travelling in them. Whether it be a deluxe bus or a Volvo, the class does not matter, I detest them all. One of the primary reasons I hate bus journey is I cannot catch sleep in bus and its immediate successor is legroom - I never get enough of it and I end up butting and struggling with the seat before me.
After struggling to fall asleep for the entire 6 hours of my journey to Chennai, I wake up to the call of my colleague. He woke me up and asked if the bus had entered Chennai - he supposedly wanted to get down somewhere on the Poonamlee bypass road. It was 5:30 a.m and the first thing I saw that morning, to my right, was a silent streak of orange light across the sky. This orange, at places, spread into the azure blues that sorrounded it. It was such a pleasure to sight this. That very moment I longed to be at the beach, to see the sun rise and breath all I can - the fresh air. But I was a good 60 minutes away from the beach and before I can get a feel of cool sea breeze, I knew all would be over for that morning. So what did I do? I let the thoughts pass and boarded a bus to Velachery. Velachery, as far as I am concerned, the next best place to beach in Chennai and when "all is well" even better than the shore itself...
Each time I go to Chennai I bring back material that would last for four or five posts. So, that is it in this post or it would be strenuously long read.

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For my friends

I will remember those sunsets,
I will preserve them, the moments,
I will retain you all, oh! my friends,
and, I will take you along and long.
I have you all under my eye lids.
At a wink of an eye I glance at you.
In sleep and dream I see that it is you.
And, when these lids of mine fall forever,
I still, will have you before my eyes.

This verse is tribute to you all my favourites: pink sunsets, chilly evenings, memorable days, travelled places - for the immense pleasure I derived from you. It is also for my friends and loved ones - bestowers of unconditional love upon me - where ever you are. What survives of us is love and you all, whether animate or inanimate, have given me loads of it. I dearly love you all.

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My affair with IDs and ID cards - Catharsis and Tears

21st April 2010 : After 2 1\2 years of last time I had tears in my eyes, I wept like a child again. It was my last day at TCS. All through the day, I was a little emotional to leave my friends at TCS and my girl friend, who recently moved into my project. That could be explained, after all "Yeh Dil Hein Yaar Pathar Tho Nahin". But that's not entirely the reason.

After getting all the necessary clearances from library and finance teams, I was asked to submit my ID card to the admin. That is the last step in separation process and after that one had to leave the campus immediately. I went to the admin to do this. When I went to his desk, I saw a pile of empty card holders. I knew my card that stuck to me would meet the same fate. I did not want that to happen. While I was bringing myself together to do this I got a call from my team. They wanted me to join a farewell treat they have planned. I sighed in relief as the ID would be there for some more time with me. I asked the Admin how long he would be available, he said he would be there till 6 PM. The time was 5:15 PM and unless until for an elaborate celebration 45 minutes are good enough. I did not enjoy the treat as adrenaline rushed at the thought of surrendering ID card. I spent the good 45 minutes in the pantry and another 30 minutes meeting my friends for the last time in office. I extended those 45 minutes to 75 minutes only to avoid surrendering the ID card that day and to do it the next even it meant that I had to drive 22 avoidable kilometres to office again. At the end of it, confident that admin person must have left office by then, I went in to confirm if I was right( you know I did not want to take the blame of not finishing things on the same day). I was wrong, he sat there like Lord Yama( for the benefit those who do not know who he is - he is the bestower of death on mortals) ready to take my ID card from me. Left with no choice I gave away my ID card to him and he said " it will be taken care". I felt empty, my mind went blank and a soar lump popped in my throat. On my way down, the security at the lift asked me where my ID card was, I felt my throat choking and words hard to come by, I meekly muttered "I resigned". And, tears swirled in my eyes. I got down from the lift and called my girl friend to come out of the module as I no longer reserve the right to enter it. I found it hard to stop myself and tears rolled down. I remember what she exactly said, " what is this, like a small child".If you know telugu even better then you can translate it as she said this in our mother tongue. In chennai sunsets really late in summer as late as 6:45 PM and it is often bright for a while after that. It was 6:45 PM and you get to see some of the best sunsets from the verandas of Siruseri tech park. I relished them dearly for I love evenings and the orange-pinkish sunsets. Sun was setting over the horizon for the day and Sun was also setting on my days at TCS. That was my last sunset at the IT park and I had every right and reason to be upset. It also entitled me with the pejorative to cry if I liked.

I went to the basement to pick my bike and on my way, to my utter discomfort, was asked about my ID card, again. I fetched my bike, kissed TCS and TCS Siruseri a good bye and started to my home. Once I lost sight of the tech park I worked at, till-then-tears became silent sobs, which I could only smother, though only for a while, and not stop them entirely. I cried for 10 kilometers on my way back home. Initially I tried to fight my tears but realised it was of no use and let myself in to the temptation of catharsis - cleansing, a cleansing that is necessary for any separation that is painful.

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My affair with IDs and ID cards - Begins

I came to Chennai crying, I left Chennai crying - what a crying shame !!!

IDs and ID cards - These are,perhaps, the most trivial things in an employee's life. However, every silly thing becomes significant in my life and every serious thing becomes a thing of levity.
September 12th 2007: I began my life as an employee at TCS, Bhubaneswar. This affair dates back to that particular day. I was given a temporary ID card to get into the campus. A month passed by and I was given an employee number and the story begins. Unfortunately, two of us got the same employee number. When it said Welcome Sree Panchajanyam I felt proud. The next time I logged into the portal it welcomed me with a different name and this annoyed me. When I went to the HR and complained about this she reset the back end with my name. When the other guy raised the same concern the next day, the HR replaced my name with the guy's name. It went on and on and finally the other guy won this "battle of resets" and had retained the employee ID. What is to become of me? It took another 15 days for my Emp ID to be activated. This day delay wreaked havoc in my life for close to a month, perhaps worst ever.
So, what happened? On the D-day when we had to key in our choices to select the location of work from the list below
1. Mumbai 2. Kolkota 3. Chennai 4. Delhi 5. Ahmedabad 6. Bangalore,
I realised that this functionality was not enabled for my ID. My girlfriend and I desperately wanted Chennai. She was able to submit her location preferences and I was not able to that day. I was able to do that only after a week. This made all the difference. She was posted to Chennai and I was posted to Kolkota, because by the time I could give my preferences, the limited openings in Chennai were filled in.
Nov 14th,2007: last day of my ILP, and 30 hours of distance started creeping slowly in between us. That was the day I cried my heart out, because of the trouble and pain my Employee ID put me through. I do not feel ashamed to say that I wept like a child, helpless, on that children's day and the celebrations lasted a week starting that day. I lost 4 kilograms in a week( last 4 days at Bhubaneswar and 3 days in Kolkota). At the end of the 3 days I managed to get a transfer to Chennai. I will tell you how, but that is not the topic today. This is one of the reason Chennai is my heaven and bliss.

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"Kites" - a disaster

In the interval I felt sleepy and at the end of the movie I was cursing myself why did I come to watch this movie without heeding to the reviews which forbade watching the movie.
This is the first time I am watching a movie within the first week of its release and perhaps I have to let it be the only time. "Appalling" is the word that would aptly describe my experience at the theatre; "disgusting" is the right word for the plot; "out of place" is the word for background score and debacle would sum it all up for the movie. What took me in to watching this movie was the fact that Hrithik Roshan spent three long years for this script and Barbara Mori was roped in to play the lead actress in the movie, unlike the previous times when all that a foreign actress got was an item number. I believed, before watching the movie, that there must be a sound reason or two, why a foreign actress is chosen for the role. But as it turned out there was none.
Okay, I know I have to give you my reasons to show that it was an absolute no-ball and a wavered of movie. I will elaborate the elements of this so called Romantic-action-thriller.

Action - There is none at all, except for a few rounds of bullets flying here and there towards the climax, and a couple of cars crashing and burning - very typical of an Indian movie, isn't it?

Romance - If you want to watch this movie for this reason, the movie would fail you miserably. You get nothing out of it.

Songs - You will not know when they come by because you will be sticking out of seats and counting seconds to run away home. At least I did that because movie was expensive. 180 Rs is too much for a movie ticket and I am not a kind of man who runs away from enemy because he is a daunting giant. I sat in the movie theatre, undaunted for all the two and half hours and watched every bit of it. That is brave me for you. And to add I did not leave my seat in the interval fearing dissipation of the gathered courage.

Plot - Plot is lost with in the first 30 minutes of the movie and I did not know how the director managed convince the producer to sponsor for such crap. And,I wonder how in the world, Hrithik who is choosy with the scripts boarded this rattling train heading only one way.

Technical values - Pointless. Forget it. Why talk of values when movie fails to deliver what it is supposed.

COST OF THE MOVIE
The movie costed me, 3 hours of time ( half an hour for buying the tickets )+ 180 Rs (ticket fare) + 20 Rs( Zandu balm - I swear I bought a new one, it was long due and the movie precipitated the need for it) + 4 Rs ( 2 crocin tablets for headache - if one does not work tonight another for tomorrow morning).

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No Time to blog

For the past 4 days it is clocking 10 PM before I leave home from office and 10 AM before I wake up. I am writing this piece at my office desk, so I think readers must have understood that I am in short of hours. Oh! yeah 24 hours are not sufficient, with my new found love for webmethods designer and eclipse IDE.
I take time of in between deploying a web app to the server which is unusually slow late into the evening. I am as hurried as a housewife who puts vegetables on the stove and goes of to collect papads that are drying in the sun. I have to go back to check if my project is deployed before soemthing uneventful happens on the server...

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First drops of rain at SAG

Bangalore welcomed with an evening drizzle, it is not about that. It isn't the literal rain. It is the nectar of satisfaction that you derive when you solve a problem, however small it might be. I got that today. All I managed to do was to write page numbers onto a PDF through Java. That was yesterday. Today I set the outer borders for the PDF table with the iText jar. It is an amazing feeling to work on long yearned thing. I was rearing to work on a Java IDE other than the developer IDE, I have been working on for the past couple of years now. An year and half back I did get a chance, but I dismissed with a condescending hand. Later I realised my folly in acting so, but hmm... opportunities pass by before you know it is an opportunity and you will be left in want of it. If I can draw a comparison it is like a shooting star, you never know when it comes and when it passes by. It is not just about Eclipse IDE it applies for everything in life. You should know what you want and what you might want to smell an opportunity.
Okay philosophy apart,I set up the external jars, set up a java project and ran it with ouput the day before- all on Eclipse - it is all so easy isn't it for core java developers out there?. But when I did this all by myself for the first time, it was as exciting and as gleeful as saying "amma","appa" of a language for the first time. Later followed studying the open source which was all the more fun and "O-O-P-S" is oops as the name itself suggests, and needless to say -"Mazaaa aa gaya" - ha ha. Apart from Java, Eclipse and external jars what is exciting today is I am going to Chennai tomorrow - HIP HIP HURRAY. I need not explain, if you are reading this it means you know the reason why I am ripping and hipping away to Chennai - Anbe En Anbe

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I start to learn French

Hey!! that was from yesterday. I love literature and I like learning about various cultures world over and across the nation. I missed on an opportunity to learn Tamil while I was in Chennai, and now I wonder how I have missed this chance.
So why French all of a sudden now. It isn't a bolt from the blue. In the initial learning program of TCS in Bhubaneswar, I missed by a whisker to sit in the French class. All the students whose batch number was even went on to learn french and all the odds sat in the Japanese class. I wanted to learn French and in all my Japanese classes brooded over the lost opportunity. Needless to say, my Japanese did not go beyond the word "kenchikuka" - which I believe means thief or is it a policeman? You never know and I will not go and google for it anyway. So that's how it began. Then in Chennai, sometime during mid last year, I saw a board " learn french" in nungambakkam and alighted the train. I went over and inquired various details. Though the course content was interesting, I dropped the plans as it was to far to travel from place of my work.
Over to Bangalore, I register at BBC online classes and start to say Monsiuer and madame. Thanks to my organization I have got a laptop to do that. It has just began, let us see if I can post in French one day.

Au Revoir amies !!!

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How it feels to be lonely?

Away from home and away from friends how it feels to be? You would expect a soothing song to lull you to sleep. After the best part of the song plays by, you spring back awake wondering how you could catch sleep. You chose the next song and the next and every song meets with the same fate, the mobile suffers in your hand. As if to convey it cannot take more, the mobile hangs and you are forced to turn it off and on again. You take a look at the time and it is too late to call anybody. You call your girl friend. She picks up the call after 10 rings, half asleep, says "hello" and slips back into sleep.Then what do you do? I don't know what you would do but I resolve to take revenge on my mobile for I own it and it does not have any constitutional rights.But again my pocket does not give the liberty of a phone a day. Now, I will tell you how I caught sleep yesterday, the day before and every day for the past 1 1/2 weeks. I get tired of thinking, I get tired of trying to get used to the present and at last nostalgia swells in my tired eyes to burden them even more. My eye lids fight this weight but give in finally to cover my eyes. The next morning I try to force these lids open they ask for an excuse to stay shut and I am late to office.

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Anbe en Anbe - Chennai

I leave Chennai, I arrive at Bangalore.Chennai - my second home; A city I loved to be in; A city which I never stayed out for more than a week, continuously, in the past 2 1/2 years- wrenched my heart when I left it. The pain I underwent when leaving this place cannot be described in words.
Chennai is humid, hell to stay in the months starting from April to September, because Lord Sun dries this place and people all he can, and of course returns this back the water he has sucked, during the following months in the form of incessant rains. In short Chennai is untenable, both in summer and rainy seasons. But that does not deny the fact that I made this place my home. And also me stating the shortcomings of Chennai climate does not negate the truth that I love this place. Tamil and only tamil runs all over except in corporate spaces, even some times these are filled to brim with hums of Tamil.
I am not confusing you, neither am I contradicting myself by putting only the shortcomings of the place and still saying I like it. All I have to say is Chennai as city has a character of its own, it thrives at its own frequency. People come here learn new things, perhaps a new language and evevn in some cases, like me, new culture. Another place I have seen that retains it character and vibrates at its own frequency is Kolkota. People view these cities as retard metropolitans, but for me these are cultural crucibles.
I have a question for all of you who resent being in place that resists change - when you go to a new place, say the united states do you try and adopt to the new culture there or do you demand them to adopt your culture?Again, agreed it is true that I am talking about a nation and you are expecting to be welcome in your own nation, but in a different state. But thats how culture survives. Go to the Indian villages which are respected and revered as true India, what do you expect? Then why can not a city be so?
But onething I can tell the readers, ask for help in a language these people her understand you will not be turned down. I made some of my best frens here at work. I learnt the lessons of life from people here.And never encountered regional discrminication at work or any other civilized quarter of the city.Leave out the auto wallahs, you can not demand an auto driver to be civilized( if you find one, you are blessed) irrespective of the city he drives auto in and also leave out the scum - it is a part and parcel of every city.
Classical music tradition - the oldest in the world- is a glorious gem in the crown of this princess. Every week you have concerts, art exhibitions, literary evvents and many more fine art related expos going on around the city. What else can an art enthusiast ask for?
Chennai has got one of the best intra city road transport facility and it comes second to none in terms of traffic regulation and control. I say this comparing this place with Hyderabad( my own state capital), Kolkota, Bangalore,Bhubaneswar(it hasn't get traffic at all), Visakhapatnam - some of the major cities in Eastern and Southern India. Wait, why am I trying to convince people that Chennai is a great city to stay in ? I don't care what you think about it. For that matter my girl friend hates this place. She was the happiest person when I got an offer in Bangalore, because to take the offer I have to move out of the place and she can follow me out of Chennai. But one thing is true those who love this place cannot stop loving for all the shortcomings and I am one of those. Chennai I will be back one day, this time to settle in your heart forever.This time I will come better prepared learning your tongue and earning a little more to counter " not-so-favourable" climate with an A/C and also to put up at a place which does not have water problem. Do not bother what others say my dear Chennai, you have fans and you will always have them no matter what. Rest assured that along with me you have another vote whether or not she likes you!!!

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Joining letter from SAG

Though I am posting this today, this post should be considered latest as on 18th of March 2010.
I received an offer last week from SAG. Most do not know that, there exists in this world an organization with this name.However, few know it and value it. The offer I received was decent, compelling and impounding, all at once. SAG is the vendor and parent organization of the product which I have been working on for the past couple of years. It is a dream for many to be a part of this organization. With all the "many" I shared the dream. For most of them, it remains a dream due to various reasons. But I had an offer in hand with a decent compensation. An year back it would have been easy to pick this offer and walk away from my current employer, TCS. During the last year I have revised my own benchmarks and redefined them at TCS. And, as a consequence my supervisors and managers were pleased. In my quest to learn integration and SOA, I have treaded into areas entirely unwelcome to a 1 year old in the IT industry. In the process I struggled hard, did a lot of homework, dug into te unexplored nooks of the application and at times reverse engineered it. I was recognized, and was given challenges that dragged me further into the technical realms which I though I would never get into in this lifetime owing to my aspirations of being an MBA grad from a deemed B-school. I never resented the deviation from my path for at my heart I am a computer science graduate. Of course I operate very much with 1s and 0s.
With all the work I have been doing, I was rewarded, appreciated by the immediate superiors and also by managers and heads up in the hierarchy. I was viewed at as a reliable resource and I never disappointed anyone. At times there were glitches with immediate colleagues but it wasn't to be worried about "much", as I believe attitude is a personal thing and should not intervene in profession. And, I was careful with those who did not realize this fact.To be honest, though it did not matter much it caused ripples in my otherwise pleasant work environment.
Irrespective of the tide I am riding at TCS I decided to switch lanes and move on to quench my thirst to learn and to reach there where I wanted to be, faster. Simply put I want to be the best in the business and want to occupy the space which a technocrat alone or a management graduate alone cannot occupy. I want to be the best of both. A manager who can soil his hands in technology. A techie who can handle sales and clients with ease and panache. Weird dream isn't it ? But I cannot help. Neither is it seemingly possible from where I am.
I put forth my plan to quit before my manager. He was taken aback as nobody expects you to quit when all the good things are happening around you and especially when you are in middle of so many proactive measures. In the following weeks I was asked by senior management reasons for quitting. After listening to my career aspirations, they told me what they were willing to do for me and they promised to move me into a different work environment and showed me a path to be a technocrat which was non-existent till now in TCS. They had some plans to provide technology verticals for associates who like to be full fledged technocrats. The promises of travel abroad, change of role or no other promise succeeded in influencing my decision. I really appreciate all the pain my managers have taken to convince an associate whom they consider is worthy. But I knew what I have before me. A chance to be one among the few. With this playing at the back of my mind I boarded this train to Bangalore to confirm my intention to join SAG and thereby collect my offer letter. TCS ends and SAG begins both, alphabetically and in the context of my life. I know, I am leaving a secure job and all the recognition I have here behind to negotiate a blind curve. But ha! life is like that -take caluculated chances. And I believe I have caluculated odds pretty well. Anyways how much interest does a savings account yield though it is secure? 8%? And, how about a well managed stock ? Again I am not specculating, I am investing in my future.

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I begin afresh again

I have spent last two months planning, packing, putting papers to move to my new work place. Excitement, anxiety, fear, optimism, pessimism and every other known feeling took over me. I failed to record these emotions as net back home was dead. Once the connection was in place I was down, indisposed due to common cold and viral fever - usual combination. Last time I managed to write something down was during the train journey to Bangalore - that is almost a month back. However, I could not post it here due to the reasons stated above.
Now, I have a laptop, a working net connection and most important of all - time to capture the bygone emotions; moments from the past two months. This is beginning that comes after not any ending.

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Salvation for ALL!

Why should the carbons combine?
Why should the wretches breathe and live?
Why should these choose to give birth again?
Why should they make life and hell?

Why should there be fit and unfit?
Why should there be rich and poor?
Why should there be oppressor and oppressed?
Why should there be class and creed?

Life would say,
Should you seek to live, be fit.
Should you seek to feed, earn
Should you seek to earn, subvert.
Should you seek to subvert, group.

Life is what that conceives need.
Life is what that makes one stew in greed.
Life is what that causes struggle.
Life is what that denies death and peace.

When this world is a transient pause,
and when life is nothing but a nascent blink,
why should life struggle for a losing cause?
Why should alive yearn for dead without a wink?

When life ends in a certain death,
when life is aging, growing pain,
when death is real and eventual bliss,
why should the alive yearn at all?

Why should there be man at all?
Why should there be life at all?
Why should there be birth first of all?
Why can't there be nothing at all?

I wish there is not birth at all.
I wish there is no life at all.
I wish there is no struggle at all.
I wish there is no world first of all.

Let this world slip into a oblivion.
Let every soul pass beyond the horizon.
Let there be none to struggle and suffer.
Let there be none to care and cry.
Let this be salvation for all!!!

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Should I return

Dangling from the lap of success,
I see you shiver and sweat.
sliding down the abyss of failure,
I see your eyes, red and wet.

With every moment I lose,
I see a twinkling drop trickling down.
With every breathe I lose,
I see a silent sob running down.

This life is not worth your tear,
for never did I see you smile in a year.
These are not for me Oh! dear,
I envy these for they are to you so near.

I ravaged the forests to bring you treasure.
I looted hell and heaven for wealth beyond measure.
I did this with not a moment of leisure,
and knew not this was not to your pleasure.

I took to the treacherous peaks.
I scaled the slippery paths.
I scuttled the dreaded lanes.
I did all, only to leave you forever.

Return may not, I, from the heart of abyss.
Return may not, I, to bask in your bliss.
But should I return, I would return to live.
But should I return, I would return not to leave.

Should I return my dear,
I would return as a rain drop,
a drop to feel and smear your skin,
a drop to kiss the hump of your chin.

Should I return my love,
I would return as a loving smile,
a smile to bring you delight and grace,
a smile to erase the past and my trace.

Should I return my girl,
I would return to sleep in your lap,
not to run and bring you tears,
not to horde and leave you fears.

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Save Tiger -Why should we and How can we?

Why should we save a wild animal? Why should we save a predator like tiger that hunts game and man alike inside its territory? Should we protect tiger because it is our national animal? Is it just a matter of pride of our country and nothing else? These were the questions running at the back of my mind when I came across the Aircel initiative to save our tigers. Thanks to the information hosted on their website, I learned a lot about tigers and refreshed my lessons from primary classes about ecological balance.
Tiger, being a predator sits at the top of ecological pyramid.It acts a regulator and protector of natural resources which man values the most. Tigers hunt and eat the herbivorous animals and keep their population in check. Without predators like tigers the population of deers, wild buffaloes and other grass eating species would explode. These herbivores would strip the forests bare of vegetation and turn grasslands into barren grounds. The forests are fast depleting owing to the excesses of man and if these herbivores multiply in numbers, the inevitable would precipitate. In places where there is no forest cover, grass hold the loose soil together and retain the fertility of the soil. Without grass the topmost layer of soil gets washed away with rain into rivers and what would remain is arid silt.
The population explosion of plant eating animals would in fact directly affect man. These animals would walk into the cultivated lands and eat away the crops. Depleting forest cover has made rains rare, and unseasonal if ever they come down. This has already affected the crops and made it difficult to feed the ever increasing number of human mouths. This would greatly impact the demand supply curve. In India, it is not global crude oil prices that is causing inflation, it is whole sale cereal index. Thanks to bureaucratic blunders, India is short of food grains and prices of pulses have touched skies.With all the self inflicted destruction if other herbivores join the party, man would be left competing with other species for food and space. He would be no different than a early man with all his energies dedicated in attaining the basic necessities of food and shelter.
I am not exaggerating. We have only few predators lions, tigers and wild cats which hunt for need and not greed. They are nature's protectors and they alone can maintain the ecological balance. As a matter of fact a tiger covers 100sq km of forest area around it and protects various species in this area for the benefit of man. The presence of tiger dissuades tribal from going into the interior forests - the true nature reserves. These parts of the forests are inaccessible to the forest officials and could be easily exploited by money hungry humans with the help of uneducated and ignorant tribal who are well acquainted with the forest contours.
India has close to 50 % of world wild tiger population. On our planet, there are only 3200 wild tigers and out of it 1411 are in India( 2007-08 statistics). The tigers are hunted world over as a mark of virility and in most cases for the sake of money. A tiger is worth 20,000$ in the international market. Chinese use tiger bones in traditional Chinese medicine. Tiger bone champagne is highly valued in high societies of west. Owing to the price a tiger gets, there are tiger farms in China and USA. China has only 50 wild tigers but 4000 of them are in private tiger farms. Tigers are bred here to be sold as pieces. In USA many states allow individuals to own tigers. These tigers are not accounted for. And there are 5000 such tigers all over USA. Out of six species of tiger 3 species and many other sub-species have become extinct. The royal bengal Indian tiger is endangered.In India we have 37 reserves. Many of them now have poor tiger density. There are several reasons for their disappearance and most of them are man caused.
Some of the reasons are:
1. Poaching
2. Dacoit infestation
3. Man hunting down predators food like deer, buffaloes.
4. Depleting forest cover.
5. Building dams and other infrastructure in and around tiger habitats.
6. Infighting and territory clashes.
Tigers are not man eaters unless they are forced to. Yes there have been a few incidents where tigers killed human beings but the occurrences of man hunting down the tigers out number them. After all this I donated a 1000 INR to save tigers to save myself and my progeny from the multi-pronged adverse affects that I have stated above.
Will you join me ? Please donate to the WWF-India tiger fund at the below link. Minimum amount they accept is 500 INR. WWF INDIA TIGER FUND

JOIN THE ROAR: BLOG, SHARE AND DONATE FOR THE CAUSE OF STRIPEY ( beg your pardon I am not shouting ).

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A day that has two noons - Sachin

This is the cricketing career of Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. Twenty years long career that will forever remain a bible not only to the cricketing fraternity but also to every individual who seeks excellence and strives to stay at the scaled heights with all his heart. His life is a source of inspiration for the youth. He is God for all those who respect their profession, love every moment on their job and try and dedicate their lives to work. His approach to cricket is worth emulating in every profession. The was he handles commendation and criticism is a lesson that has to be taught in every college.
The ageless wonder, the little master has been doing the impossible all these 20 years. Thirty thousand runs in the international cricket, 90+ centuries in both the forms of game and a 200 in the shorter form of the game at an age of 37. At an age when most of the cricketers struggle to keep fit, this maestro has batted for full fifty overs and scampered like a hare in his 190s. Sachin's career graph has two plateaus and two peaks.Forget about the peaks, the plateau lines itself pass through the peak points of some of the best all time cricketers in the world. The first plateau began in 1989 and ascended a peak after 9 years in 1998. Sachin has scored 9 ODI centuries in this year alone and recorded 3 test centuries during this season. If you look closely most of the one day openers spent all their careers to score 9 centuries. That is the peak I am talking about. This was the first noon of Tendulkar. He tore the opposition down, scored back to back centuries at Sharjah against the deemed and feared Australian attack. In 1998 every time Sachin went out to bat it was a rain of runs, fours and sixes. He sent the ball rolling and flying all over the park. If he got out, he got out scoring.
In the following years he descended the peak and returned to his usual best to remain there till the year end of 2003. In the 2003 world cup he scored the highest number in runs. From 2003 to 2005 it could be described as shadow period by Tendulkar's standard but this shadow was bright enough to make a cricketing career for some batsman. Then comes begins 2009 and the tiger has matured to kill the prey with a single blow. He walked out to score hundreds. He hit them at will and wish. He started scaling yet another peak. The second noon of this son of India. In the past 12 months he has scored 3 out of his 4 highest scores. In the last 4 tests he has scored 4 centuries and more is just to come. I do not know what is running in Sachin's mind. But, I would wish and hope India wins the 2011 world cup, before this sunsets on the cricket ground.

What Alan Donald said about Sachin

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At Chilka - Part 2 ( last )

... I knew this will probably be my only trip to Chilka. I wanted to see what it mattered the most. I wanted to see how this lake merges into the sea and changes its tender,delicate watery dance into a lively,aggressive jump and dive of tidal rhythm. I decided to walk the shores of the island. It would be a long, heavy walk on this beach sand but it did not daunt me. I wanted to reach the tip of the island "The Sangam" before it was sunset but I could not hurry with my pace as I had company.
We started our walk to see the lake-sea confluence. I walked close to the waters to see how the character of the lake changed. The tender ripples in the green waters, which,earlier, settled for kiss of the banks, now, asked for more. Half way down, the once gentle ripples metamorphosed into puissant currents and started the touch and go game. Each time these currents touched the shores, they teased the shores to follow their trail into the apple green waters. But the shores wouldn't. Close to the tip, having failed with the taunts and entreats, the currents assumed the form of of waves and came ashore. They flattened the sands and etched their memories on those defiant shores, only to be dried to permanence by the sea breeze.
At last, I reached the tip of the island before the sun sank and left those sands.
Here, the sea swallowed the green lake into its azure vastness. The dying twilight bathed the no-longer-green waters in orange hues. The waves basked and roared in this golden glow.And, these waves are what the waves are meant to be. They jumped high into air and dug into the shores with a thunder clap and formed huge dunes facing the sea. I had to descend a meter high dune to get my ankles wet in the Bay of Bengal. Never mind I did it. It was close to sunset and I had the whole sea before my eyes. This was not the first time I had seen sea, or Bay of Bengal as a matter of fact. But I felt something for the first time - I felt my heart to be empty. I had nothing before me. The tip where I stood was the present, the sand I walked was my lovely past. The future laid unknown and enigmatic as that blue sea. The azure on earth before my eyes was empty without a visible speck of life on it. Not a ship, not even a bird was there. Could be that aquatic life laid camouflaged in its blue belly. But to a naked eye it was a blank unending eternity with blurred horizon in fading light.
For an hour and half I was riding the crest of my life and was waiting to see the Bay gulp the lake. When I reached the tip, my intended destination, life seemed empty in the aftermath of success. I did not know what I wanted to do after reaching the sea-lake confluence. But I knew one thing, I wanted to be there again in all the hovering improbability, because I wanted to feel empty again.I wanted to hit the ebbs and lows of emptiness. I wanted to feel my emotions drain into those blues just as the green waters did. I wanted the sunset to silence my pounding heart for a brief moment. A moment in which I could spend a lifetime.
When you strike a guitar chord, it vibrates, it moves left and right. In its moves the chord breaks off all the dust that settled on it and finally returns to where it belongs and waits for another of such movements. My soul is like that. It bears the millstone weight of emotions and when struck by a musical note or a nostalgic whiff, it rides the crest, hits the ebb, dumps the load and returns to where it belongs refreshingly empty, of course only to wait unconsciously for the chords to be struck once again.

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A ride on Chilka lake - Part1

Most might consider this post and the next as ravings of a nostalgia maniac. However, I will still try and evoke emotions from the past.
Now I am all set to talk about the ride of my life – the most memorable 3 hours of my life. These 3 hours, even in the autumn of my life and twilight of my day will remain fresh in my memory. Every then, when I hear pleasant notes played on a musical instrument; every then, when I smell the sun baked summer earth sizzling at the caressing first monsoon drops; every then, when my hand feels the dew wet petals of a tender rose on a quiet foggy winter morning, every then those three hours flash and play back, vividly -though for a split second, in my mind. This was the ride on the lake Chilka. At this point if you jump to a conclusion that it was a romantic ride with my girlfriend then you have grossly mistaken, though she was with me. It was not her nor was it any of my friends on the boat. Though I journeyed on the same boat as they did and visited the same place as they did, my thoughts transcended the human planes. I transcended the three dimensions of human life and entered the fourth dimension of time - a dimension of constant flux if you are outside it and a thought arresting dimension if you enter it. I entered this dimension to preserve my thoughts and emotions that were engendered in this ride, forever and ever.
It was afternoon of Diwali in 2007. I was in Bhubhaneswar for my initial training with TCS. Now, when I close my eyes for a brief moment, I see a motor boat anchored to the embankment on the lake Chilka. The motor kicked to life as soon as the last of us left the ground for the boat. I occupied one of the benches parallel to the sides of boat.A quarter of an hour into the boat ride, I changed my seating location to the gunwale of the boat to let my legs feel the lake waters. I could also feel the bright sun warm on my back. It was water in every direction as far as I could see. I hear people gossip, play a silly game and entertain themselves in whatever manner they could, on this boat. I felt a sudden surge in my heart. I know it is all blood and adrenaline that has got on to me. And, I also know that blood in my heart has hit a frequency to etch something permanently in my heart. That is how bonds are formed with me.
The blue seas that do not have a trace of green on them, the wild seas that jump up and down to swallow anything at the slightest of hints are one thing and these placid lakes with interspersed greenery in and around them are another. My eyes see the sun bathed golden lake waters and floating sparse green vegetation. These serene lake waters are there to carry my weight without a wince or retort. These waters are there to rejoice in my joy and to titillate my soul with unknown emotions.
The lake ripples like a delicate creeper in cool evening breeze. It is a dancing maiden’s waist whose movements go uncaught at the blink of an eye. Now I understand why poets compare sea to a man and lake with a lady. Sea is a savage. It is aggressive and querulous. It is open and warns you of its true character. But lake is slow, serene and surreptitious. The placid superficial veneer of a lake hides the powerful undercurrents. I watch this watery dance and wonder its magnificence till I reach the island, the place where Chilka flows into the sea. On reaching the island most of my fellow troopers settled for coconuts and prawns. But I knew what I wanted. I knew this was my …. To continued in the next post

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A race with the dawn

On Saturday evening, Feb 20th I have decided to capture the daybreak at the bay with my new Canon A1100 IS camera. I noted the Sunday sunrise time to be at 6:29 a.m IST and set my alarm to 5:00 a.m. It is usually unusual that I plan to get up so early. Even if I plan, I fail 90% of the times unless and until my parents are around.And, today the chances of me not waking up doubled as I went to bed as late as 1:00 a.m yesterday.
The alarm cuckooed at 5:00 a.m. Half asleep and with contracted pupils I took a look at my cell phone - the source of the sound. Involuntarily my hands responded to silence the sound and I fell asleep again. But, you know when you are really determined about a thing, it haunts your subconscious - asleep or awake, alive or dead. This thing( to reach the beach before daybreak) in me took 45 minutes to fight my sleep and at about 5:45 a.m forced my eyes to open. I got up at 5:48 precisely, went through the required ablutions and got on to my bike with camera tightly tucked in a turkey napkin, which was tightly packed into a camera bag and which in turn went into a backpack- safety purpose, my cam is hardly a month old baby.
It was 6:05 before I hit the road and all I had was 15 minutes. The coast I planned to reach is along Thiruvanmiyur which is 22 km away from my place. 22km in 15 minutes is a improbable equation, while I was musing thus a realization dawned upon me that made me feel stupid. I could go to beach on ECR which is some 10 km nearer and is as pristine as I wanted a beach to be. To reach ECR, I had to go straight from Sholingnallur junction instead of taking a left turn here.
With this realization I headed for ECR at my top speed.
The connecting road from Sholingnallur to ECR a 4 KM drive is a real pleasant drive. A six lane wide road which goes up a small mount and smoothly descends towards the beach. The road would have been even better if it offered a direct sea view, but phew not so lucky. Nevertheless I liked the road and crows did share the same view. Why I say crows and exclude all other avian species is I see only crows squatting in the middle of the road. It could be pollution or it could be any other factor that made other species stay away.However, I get to disturb the tranquility of crows alone. At the sight of my bike approaching them, the murder of crows flew away. The instance reminds me of pigeons leaving their green ground at the sight of an approaching cricket ball in Lords cricket stadium. After a 2 minute drive along this 4 KM stretch, I reached the the ECR road. It was only once I had been to this beach and had to stop over, briefly, to inquire the directions to the shore. I got the directions from early customers of a tea shop in the ECR junction and sped away to the shore. It was 6:20 when I reached the beach. I hurriedly got down the bike, loaded the camera with batteries and off I went to capture the dawn.
Find those pictures in the below post. Happy daybreak !!

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Sunday Sunrise @ Chennai ECR

Click on image for full view

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On Valentine; For Valentine

Three Cheers on this Valentine
Which cheer is for the day,
and which is for my girl.
Which cheer is for my girl,
and which is for the day.

Read on, you will know...

I saw a damsel with a radiant face,
and gazed at her if just in case.
She went ahead at a gentle pace
leaving in my heart an empty space.

The crescent moon hides away,
to see the beauty amidst the way.
The sun tries to bar the way ,
her brilliance clears it all away.

The moon over there craves for a glance at her.
The sun is here for a glimpse of her.
There they starve for her gracious presence
Here I am for the eternal essence.

Her lips resemble petals of rose
that shattered me from head to toes
Her un-knotted hair flows so wild,
just as petals in breeze so mild.

Her face is cheese and creamy white,
her smothered smile makes it a delight.
Her dreamy looks took me beguile
And lo! before I realize she is ahead a mile.

She made her presence felt,
so I searched for the place she dwelt.
Startled was I for what I smelt
for I whiffed the dreams that melt.

Oh! Rippled the dream,
Morning was the stone in this stream
Since, morning had been a ghastly nightmare.
and my life was a wait for the sweet nightly air.

I woke up from dream, every morning of the year,
in wake of loss, in shiver of pain and fear.
But the day I told you, I love you
this was no dream but very much real and very much you.

Now, I see you my valentine, every day, every night.
Now, I have you my valentine, every day, every night.
I adore you and this day Oh! Saint Valentine,
for, on this day I made this girl my life time valentine

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Peace is for sale...

Today, when I went to our regular dining haunt, I happened to see this pamphlet which said:
Fish Available
1 Peace - 30.00
As soon as my eyes rolled across the laser jet ink words, a crazy notion entered my head and the following is the result of it.

If peace is for sale,
who are the buyers.
Even, if peace is for free,
who are the takers.

Peace would not cost nothing,
it would cost the strong,
to let live the weak.
It would cost the rich,
to let alone the poor.

Peace would not cost nothing,
it would cost the man,
to let live the dumb,
it would cost today,
to leave something for tomorrow.

Peace would not cost nothing,
it would cost the loath,
its very own soul.
It would cost the revenge,
it very own pride.

Peace would not need nothing,
it would need the man,
to curb his greed.
It would need the man,
to end war for peace.

Peace is for sale,
trade it for wars.
And, peace is for free,
if you welcome these costs.

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Love and Hatred

Most know not what it is to love,
for never they tasted bitter of loath.
A few in the past did taste it,
and penned their vengeance for it.

Hatred stands strong and tall,
between man and man, and heaven and man.
Love is a cleft in the wall,
a hope to heaven for all and man.

From the human world till this wall and cove,
the path is the least walked upon ,
for not it is route of roses ,
but a bed of thorns till infinity on.

Those lured by the heavenly grove,
did walk and bear thorn and woe.
Reach did them the grove of love and dove.
And, stay still them, where we would not go.

I read those, who made it there,
into the heaven of peace and gay.
They say, “Allegories of peace everywhere,
truant were the signs of disgust and dismay”.

It was joy to read what they said,
And would be splendid to do what they did…,
But deprived and declined we are of this dream,
as coy are we to leave this human realm.

Need is for those who care not the fate.
Need is for those who can make the cleft a passing gate.
Need is for those who can fight the hatred vice.
And, need is for those who can unveil the paradise.

For man and beast and every mole,
for those who dream the lovely garden,
but cannot stand the foe and woe with their soul,
let them clear this path, the one scarcely trodden.

Let them break the hatred bind,
Let them form the human bond
Let their pluck light coward and blind,
Let them help all see the paradise beyond.

Honey is found in flowers alone,
love is present every around.
Tender hearts and noble souls can alone
dream and dare world to be bound

Love not anything except beloved.
Hate not anything except hatred.
Beloved is everyone to someone or the other.
Condemned is everyone by the one or the other.

Hatred makes hell of life,
Love carves heaven of it.

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Arise awake when you know

When life reaches crossroads,
when deeds of the past become old and plain,
when life takes dull shades and sluggish modes
then you know it is time to prove again.

When life presents with no qualms,
when the spirits are low and damp,
and, when there is not enough to fill your palms,
then you know its time to pick your lamp.

When achieved heights melt away with time,
when accolades become things of the past
when gained merits wash away with time
then you know it is time, again, to relive the past.

When your life is not a trouble for your foes
when your life is now a thing of mock and fun,
when your life is now of success throes
then you know life has to move and run.

When hard to come are words of praise,
then you know, you cannot let life slip beyond,
when, with your every word eyebrows raise,
then you know you cannot live, letting it slip beyond.

When you know life could be different,
then you know to tread different mosses.
When you wish things be different,
then you know to choose thorns not roses.

When your stay is unwelcome and long,
then you know it is time to fight another of fights.
When, not are these heights you still have to throng,
then you know it is time to scale another of heights.

Now you know where the commons flood.
Now you know this is not your path.
Now you know to spill sweat and blood.
Now you know to change your path.

And, when you know...
Arise awake and change your path.

Change your path and,
fear not the wailing fate,
fear not the warning gong,
fear not the flood and spate,
And fear not a thing but right and wrong.

Arise, awake and stand up tall,
and the skies would kiss your hand.
Arise, awake and run this land,
and the earth would brace your fall.

Arise, awake and baffle the foes.
Arise, awake and befriend the seas.
Arise, awake and bemuse the woes.
Arise, awake and belittle the peaks.

Arise, awake and rest not till the wall is breached.
Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached.


This is my tribute to Swami Vivekananda , who caught the sleeping lion of a nation by its mane and goaded it towards dawn of enlightenment.

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