Friday, June 30, 2006

Irony?

AWESOME
AWFUL

You would rather be awesome than awful?

Isn't an irony that (aw)‘some’ is great but (aw)‘ful’ is bad
Funny language ;-)

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Jobs Speech

This is a Graduation Ceremony speech from Steve Jobs.
Don't miss it.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Instance 1:
Where: X standard class room - History class in session
When: Sep 1995
Scene: The topic of discussion is reservation policy. The teacher is lecturing about why and how reservation policy was started in India. He is talking about why it is still in existence today – about the game of politics around it, about the reality of how well the policy is used or abused.
Now:
She can not seem to agree on how only a certain section of people could get critical benefits just by virtue of being born in a particular community. She does not find any reasoning pertinent to the present situation. She is not bothered about how it was ‘useful’ 50 years earlier when it was put in place, but certainly she feels it was a joke that had no benevolent relevance today. She feels cheated. At 14, in her animosity towards the Government, towards the people that make rules she hurls away her spite in words. She feels so powerless just to be taking on her teacher. After the class, she realizes her actions were futile and that her behavior was at best childish. At the end of the class, her teachers talk to her about her thought process, the truth in her reasoning, and the wasted energy in class. She is ashamed for her actions but she is convinced her logic and rationale was right. She certainly feels let down – a let down of an entire community.


Instance 2:
Where: Railway ticket counter, Mambalam, Madras
When: 1998 February
Scene:
She is standing in a queue that’s at least 10 people long before her and at least a 10 more behind her. There are almost 10 such lines. She has some work outside of that railway station. All of them are definitely busy or at least none of them are particularly enjoy the sweltering heat and the long lines.
Now:
Our hero, a well dressed 20-something man tries to push through the queue, get ahead of others in the line to get tickets. She gets extremely furious. Agreed, that he is not doing a heinous crime, but she feels cheated. A very daily misdemeanor that someone does everyday. But that’s no explanation. She cannot take it. She gets violent with words at him. At first, she says – “Hello Sir, It’s a queue. Please enter the line (showing the end)”. It does not seem like he is paying any attention. With a louder voice she repeats – “Hello Sir, Can you hear me? I said we are not fools here waiting in the line. Show some manners.” He turns around, makes some eye contact and proceeds with pushing the people again. She cannot take it any longer. She pats him on the back – grabs his attention and says – “Now will you please get away from here or shall I call the Superintendent of the station?” Now he is almost mocking at her. There are people buzzing in a hushed tone, some talking about her audacity and some trying to appease her and some trying to get him away. She reiterates “Move away, I am not going to let you get away with this”. Now there are more people talking. More and more physically making sure he is moved away from the line; many speaking ill of the man and many more trying to pacify the girl. Though he was gone, she feels unsure and jittery of herself. She could feel her blood boil, her tension mounting and suddenly she feels very conscious of herself. She talks no more until she cycles back home and recounts the episode. Everyone at home reprimands her; no one really approves her behavior. They teach her to be patient, to behave like a ‘girl’. She is just not convinced. She was sure that she would have felt worse had she let him cheat on her.

That is the real ‘She’, today her outward reaction may be different because of the certain cultural/civility influences, but inside she is still the same person. Patience has muted her, time has mellowed her; powerless sometimes, weak and incapable, she cannot take cheating in her stride. She believes, cheaters showcase scant respect for the cheated. There are people who cheat at all levels – right from the grassroots like the ones trying to jump the queue to the ones like self-proclaimed avatars that take an entire generation for a ride. It’s hard to witness the ones getting cheated, harder to get cheated and worst staying voiceless in times of such controversy. Conmen exist only as long as people are weak and fragile. Please wake up, recognize the cheaters and whip your share.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Does this happen to you?

Sometimes.. you acknowledge.. and surrender..

What you are doing is not what you want to do
And what you want to do should not be done
What should be done is what you are doing
Hoping what you are not doing will get done….

'Bombay' remains

Blood flows in a stream
From a body split in spleen
Until rain washes it away
Piles of flesh left to decay
Little children cry and wail
No one come to their avail
Wife loses her husband
Children miss their parents
Families go distraught …..
Morning rises in gloom
Smell of gunpowder
Sound of bombshell
Silence of weak groan
Clothing in tatters
Shelter doesn’t matter
Streets deserted
Houses ransacked
Dawn seems distant
Someone is pleased and content
Big money changes hands

Am meek and mute
And it continues….

Friday, June 09, 2006

I am almost sure that you ‘Googled’, for something in the last 24 hours. Man! Time to teach your kid ‘searched’ is the synonym to ‘googled’! Amazed how certain words make their way into our vocabularies. Wonder if Larry Page and Sergey Brin, then knew that they were instituting a new word in to the dictionary.

Used to have this term – ‘Infra-dig’ on the top of my vocab stack sometime in my early teens. I don’t know how it got in, but it was the in-thing (?) then.

Most of the people (if any) reading this blog will know curry, bungalow and veranda are words got transported into Cambridge from India. Did you know ‘Shampoo’ is one of them too? It is startling how only certain words cross civilizations make its way through pirated ships or royalty means into another one. ‘Shampoo’ comes from a Hindi word ‘campo’ meaning ‘to press’ and was originally used to refer a full-body massage, hair inclusive. It was a verb. As civilization grew and spread, ‘shampoo’ came to be referred to hair wash as both noun and verb.

I came across this term - Pious Fraud. I wonder how relevant it has become today. There are numerous men and women out there proclaiming to have mystical powers that have descended on this earth as a savior.
Hey holy men! Long live you, as long as weak minded escapists walk this earth.
Conmen will exist as long as people let themselves to be conned.

Last but not least, blog, its still not entered the MSWord Thesaurus. Coming from web log, weblog, and becoming blog! And then.. blogging .. then blogger.. now there is blogworthy, and then there is blogworthindex !!!!!

It’s only when a language is adaptive and lets itself to be abused, does it grow!
No, you got to maintain your language in its pristine state!

I give up!

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Words of Lord Krishna



paritranaya sadhunam |
vinasaya ca duskrtam ||
dharma-samsthapanarthaya |
sambhavami yuge yuge ||

Meanings

paritranaya--for the deliverance;
sadhunam--of the devotees;
vinasaya--for the annihilation;
ca--also;
duskrtam--of the miscreants;
samsthapana-arthaya--to reestablish;
sambhavami--I do appear;
yuge--millennium


TRANSLATION
For the relief of (My) devotees,
To annihilate the vice (and wicked),
To reinstate Dharma
Shall I appear, every Yuga.


Meanings Courtesy: Bhagavad Gita, As it is.
The Sanskrit Sloka Courtesy: http://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/

Friday, June 02, 2006

Irony

Life is funny,
but you cant always smile at it

Friday, May 26, 2006

Sometimes you feel so low
The tide of your own approval ebbs away
Confidence is in its furrow
All decisions taken so far turn gray

Wish you had the power to change everything around you
Can’t excuse you for what’s gone the other way
Against you are held a blame array
Refuse to sympathize with you

Off beam is your smile
Lost is your energy
Motivation is unreal
Love is illusory

You turn down the smallest support
Race against time
Wait for today to wane
Don’t want tomorrow to start

Crave for longer nights
Pine for dawn less days
Yearn for peaceful dreams
Hope to rewind time

And then …..
Think about the person who cares the most about you
It will draw the most beautiful smile on your face

Its not the person you love ..
But it’s for the person who loves you the most
It’s for the one..

who thinks you are wonderful
who has the undying confidence in you
who has unrelenting faith in you
who needs you to smile for sustenance

Get up ….
Turn around….
Leave behind the past….
Look forward to a fresh tomorrow….
I promise it will be greener and serener….

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Remember those days when everyday - getting to school was an ordeal of the highest order with sweltering heat, overcrowded buses that plied at 75 degrees from the road, the road side Romeos that waited to shove you around, and a big load behind your back in the form of books. Then it was cycling times. It was a good 4 mile ride each way. By the time I reached school, I would be dripping wet with sweat, the shirt and the pinafore sticking to my body, the 15 minute assembly through the humid morning – the kneel down or the sit-ups that ensued whenever I forgot something in my uniform attire.. it was still memorable days..

A gang of activity-challenged students (like me) would huddle together and plan how we could escape from the PT period. We liked to sit and gossip about everything under the sun but refused to move the bums around. We were early teenagers and there was so many curious questions that were best answered by the peer group and PT period were precious time to catch up on it. Now I wonder what all those chit-chat no-nonsense tales were all about. – class 7 through 10.

There was a girl in my class who received a love letter that looked like it was written in blood. Rumors filled the room. There were unanswered questions about if the Ghost really existed; and someone would spring a spicy story of how she witnessed one last night in the bathroom, about life after death and once again you will find someone with a tale of her long-gone grand pa appearing every Diwali to the village that no one ever heard of. For some strange reason, whatever your friends say would be believed and whatever your parents said would be mocked at!!!! May be, it was just the hormones.. – class 9

One of our classmates left home when she was 10 disappointed with her scores in quarterly exam. Luckily, she had only gone to her grand ma’s place in some remote location in Madras. And already there were tales about how ghost must have picked her and how she would be in Heaven enjoying in utopian comforts. It was the time when we had Fools Paradise in English Non-Detail. – class 5

You would be showered with praise and honor on your birthday. I am not sure if its because your friends want to share some of the limelight or is it because she wanted an extra piece of candy! I can’t recollect any instance when anyone was ever involved in any conflict on her birthday. I still wonder if this was just the girls’ school or was it with the boys too. – class 4 through 9

There was this practice of minding-people. Do you recollect the term? One of you is selected to ‘mind’ the class. Now this guy was like a super power. He could go around bullying you and get away with it. If the class-leader (who often ‘minds’) was a nicer guy, the class would collapse into many factions each party pretending to extend support to the class-leader and be in his good books - typical politics that’s today played on the bigger arena. The class was always in gangs. You have to belong to one or the other, else you belong nowhere and no one might help you with notes if you go on leave!!!! - class 4 through 8

Exams and tests were more important than they were in your engineering/medical College. An extra mark here and there was more valuable than anything else. Beg, borrow or steal your extra one mark so that you are one up than your buddy. Class 6 through 9

What you bring for lunch determines how sought after you are! Finishing the lunch during the break and munching on ‘chaat’ for lunch was fashionable.– class 4 through 6

Who brings your lunch makes a statement about character. If you bring it yourself, you are not as lucky as your blessed friends. If your father brings it, your mom does not care about you and if your mom brought, you are the luckiest soul! – class 1 through 3


In spite of all those ill-attitudes, weird behavior, hormonal imbalance, childish pranks we were all innocent children at heart and we were friends. Each one of us has gone in search of different aspirations and desires in different directions and we are probably spread all over the globe and I have lost touch with almost every one of them. But someday I hope we would just run into each other, vaguely recognize and beam a smile at that instant reliving those childhood times.

Monday, May 22, 2006



Thanks to Google, recording May 22 as the birthday of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Friday, May 19, 2006

Boyzone- Words - Originally Eagles

There was time in my life when this song will ring in my ears all day long. I loved it the first time I heard it. I have always been very fond of lyrics in general and the one line –

it's only words
and words are all I have
to take your heart away


It really did take my heart away. I am not a big fan of English songs, but those few ones that I am exposed to will remain my favorites all my life.

Here goes, the lovely lyrics


smile an ever lasting smile
a smile can bring you near to me
don't ever let me find you gone
'cause that would bring a tear to me
this world has lost its glory
let's start a brand new story
now my love
you think that I don't even mean
a single word I say

it's only words
and words are all I have
to take your heart away

talk in ever lasting words
and dedicate them all to me
and I will give you all my life
i'm here if you should call to me
you think that I don't even mean
a single word I say

it's only words
and words are all I have
to take your heart away

it's only words
and words are all I have
to take your heart away

da da da da da da da
da da da da da da da da da da
da da da da da da da
da da da da da da da da da da

this world has lost its glory
let's start a brand new story
now my love
you think that I don't even mean
a single word I say

it's only words
and words are all I have
to take your heart away

it's only words
and words are all I have
to take your heart away

it's only words
and words are all I have
to take your heart away


Once I hear the song, there is a familiar peace settling in my soul, a memorable serenity articulating to me psyche. I don’t know if it’s the tune that it is set to or is it the appealing lyrics that catches my mood by its sleeve and lifts it up from fathomless bottoms. One of the very few songs that I can count on to make me feel better.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Campaigns for the recently concluded assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, was in short an expose of frail people and their unfortunate dilemma in exercising their electoral power.

Sun TV with its amazing reach into the tiniest part of the state had rule and reason to program the minds of people via so-called electoral promotion. It was disheartening to see the election manifest marked with freebies and giveaways. Well, its just not Sun TV, I am sure Jaya TV had its own share – just that Jaya TV is not telecasted in the US. Both the parties that have been ruling Tamil Nadu alternately for ages were competing in the name of election campaign to exhaust the resources of the state. Both the parties contest for giving rice at less than Rs.2 per Kg. Come’ on guys, grow up! How long can you sustain at that rate? Worse is yet to come.. Color TV for every household.. uhmm.. I can’t take it. Are we in a communist nation? From tax payers’ hard earned money, politicians leverage their position for votes! Very saddening.. Worst is yet to come.. Two acres of land for every voter….. Guess the parties are planning on annexing a bit of Sri Lanka and a bit more of Andhra Pradesh to keep up their promise! :) What’s more disappointing is the fact that there are masses of people out there that are actually waiting for the color TV and the acres of land to knock at their doorstep. :(

However the only consoling factor of this election is that neither of these two parties conquered a sweeping victory. For the first time in the history of Tamil Nadu, there is a coalition Government formed.

Kudos to the Lok Patrikan party that actually made it into the political arena unlike stopping with belaboring like you and me! (Well, me definitely)

Dayanidhi Maran rightly said at the end of the election results, “Hero of this election was the manifesto .. and people actually believed it!!!!”

May be the pun wasn’t intended, but it makes better sense!!



These are times....

Your breath has a certain whimper
Your own arms feel powerless
Your wrist writhes in pain
Your feet fail to hold you up
You are aware of your bones thro the flesh
You feel weak on your knees
When your muscles give away
When your fingers turn feeble
When your palms plain weigh more
When the shank slip slow

Then you know it is Sunday evening blues:-)

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Smile at anyone who passes by
You might hit on a date ;-)

Laugh with your loved one
Make your (both or more) day

Sob with an alien in town
She might comfort but she would not care

Cry on your own
So that there is no one to discern

Monday, May 08, 2006

I have..
I need to..
I can..
I will ..

Walk past obstacles
Smile back at them

Lead the life of my choice
Climb the ladder of my will

Steal the courage of Helen Keller
Armed with prowess and character

It’s only me who has to mould my years
For its all I have my end

My God will help me in my endeavor
If all my wants were a wee bit just and fair

Friday, May 05, 2006

As always, I love to rewind my mind to years gone by and relive those times, especially during the post lunch session at work. Soon, with revivalist memories, I will jump back into life with renewed enthusiasm :-) This time around, my wandering mind went back to the days of DD-Metro ....

When DD-Metro was introduced, I think it was the first second channel available for the residents of 1990's Madras. It was a major sensation that between 8 and 9 in the evenings, everyone sat glued to the TV that featured a serial or some kind of 30 minute shows. This was the advent of Mega Serials - Remember Junoon? I remember this character (I forgot the name though) that was pregnant for 15 months in the serial!!!! Mega serial was a novelty, a new pick and an opportunity being explored. The next door neighbors had something beyond the third door daughter-in-law to discuss and gossip now. Their common ground of discussion was raised - another platform of familiar sharing and argument.

We in class VI-A were a bunch of Junoon followers who would avidly discuss the happenings over Geography teacher’s boring lecture. More than the serial, it was the language that caught and kept the attention. “Kudukaren Ungalukku Naa” – this form of misplaced verbs & nouns in the dubbed Hindi Junoons made it all the more enjoyable. This almost became a genre of Tamil that was followed with commitment :-)

And then the style of Metro Priya - She was the one who started compeering a Tamil TV show with more sport and added informality. The way she would make actions with her clubbed hands that looked like a handgun and shooting her youth and verve amongst the audience, she had the college going crowd fan following her. She was the first one to do this kind of compeering. Kudos!

The public either loved her or hated her, No in betweens. There was a section of the public that was scandalized by the audacity of the 16 year old girl. And then there were the rest who thought it was the next generation youth and its cheek. The last I heard, she had to stop the show because of road side romeos troubling her near her residence. No one is exempt from eve teasing and the ensuing destiny to discontinue career and interests.

Those times were followed with 6:30 pm to 10:30 pm SUN TV.. Remember? There was so much ado about it.. And then there was full time satellite channels and now there is more and more of them more than your TV could hold – and then you bought the TV with the S Band :)
Evolution? hmm!

Monday, May 01, 2006

Love-Hate




A form of Ambigram designed by a French man, Rachel Plefger

Impressive!

definitely blogworthy ;-)

Recently, in one of those post-lunch nap friendly sessions I was overwhelmed with the number of 'foo's and 'bar's in the Java book I was reading. Interestingly, I am sure you recall that 'foo's and 'bar's are omnipresent in every Comp Sci Programming book, right from BASIC days of class XI.

Dusting the pages of history, I was engaged in finding out the reason.. See that is the productive me ....

Pronounced as FUBAR, it stands for 'Fucked Up Beyond All Repair' or 'Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition' .. Whatever it may be, this acronym dates back to WorldWarII or earlier times. I am amazed how the F word framed itself in the American 'History' so long ago;-)

Wow, what a wonderful word for learning from CompSci books. No wonder kids of today learn CompSci in class-I

Some more jargon fun here.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Is this blogworthy ?;-)

Issue 1
Should we continue to write Stored Procedures or should we switch to Java?
Recently there has been quite a discussion and disagreement on this topic.
Should data management (or mismanagement ;-) ) must be as close to the data
Or
How much data processing should be done in the database and how much should be performed in the Java App logic code ?
Will you rely on a particular product or go the platform independence way of the world?
But what is your code need not be portable.
Doesn’t putting a lot of business logic into stored procedures break OO design?

Issue 2
Read clause 8 from the Microsoft Exchange Server doc

Copied here for convenience.

8. NOTE ON JAVA SUPPORT. THE SOFTWARE PRODUCT MAY CONTAIN SUPPORT FOR PROGRAMS WRITTEN IN JAVA. JAVA TECHNOLOGY IS NOT FAULT TOLERANT AND IS NOT DESIGNED, MANUFACTURED, OR INTENDED FOR USE OR RESALE AS ON-LINE CONTROL EQUIPMENT IN HAZARDOUS ENVIRONMENTS REQUIRING FAIL-SAFE PERFORMANCE, SUCH AS IN THE OPERATION OF NUCLEAR FACILITIES, AIRCRAFT NAVIGATION OR COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL, DIRECT LIFE SUPPORT MACHINES, OR WEAPONS SYSTEMS, IN WHICH THE FAILURE OF JAVA TECHNOLOGY COULD LEAD DIRECTLY TO DEATH, PERSONAL INJURY, OR SEVERE PHYSICAL OR ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE.

Is that a marketing gimmick or does Microsoft mean that SUN killed a bit of Microsoft or are you going to stop using Java!?

Issue 3
With Sun and Google supporting each other on every front including Gosling talking about extending support for Ajax, will Yahoo and Microsoft join hands?

Issue 4
Are you impressed with a Geek trying to develop an Ajax framework using the concept of event queue, just to go gaga seeing separation of event handling from the actual page? Are you thinking he is a fool or are you considering the scalability, cost and efficiency of this queue pattern model?


Now why did I have to do this? Anyways, thanks to www.google.com
Disclaimer:
None of these opinions are my own!