The song from the Kannada movie "Duniya" drives me mad...The lyrics are pathetic. But the key notes are not bad

Kariya I love you
Karunaada mele aaNe
Belli I love you
Bili moDada aaNe

Ningondu premada patra,
bariyakke nanagaase
naane iruve hatra
bidu aase oh koose

The first paragraph is racist in a weird way.

The second paragraph is surely written after a tune has been composed and the lyrics have been just added to "finish off" the song. Koose ? who would address a girl as "Koose" (baby) ? I know it sounds ok in English songs when a guy/girl address each other as baby...But in Kannada songs it sounds awkward (or am I just resisting a change in the lyrical sense ? )

Adyen lyrics barithaaro....Uninspiring and stupid.
But it is my bhel puri wallah's favorite song and he has put that as his mobile ringtone....

But, I have to see Duniya...It's got rave reviews

Bad move

MK guy should not have ousted Dayanidhi Maran out of the cabinet. He was the polished and sophisticated guy in the party and could also function as a party spokesperson.

The Maran family actually operates the entire Sun TV network and as far as I know they are also related to Karunidhi's family.

Azhagiri is the first son of MK and there was sibling rivalry between Azhagiri and Stalin, the second son of MK. As far as I know , Stalin is more capable and is given more importance (something like our JD(S) scenario, itself ).

And when Sun Network, which runs Dinakaran daily, that M K Azhagiri was behind the attack on its offices in Madurai, Karunidhi just expelled Maran out of the party. I think it was a bad move and MK could have handled the situation better.

It's one of those days

when I am a li'l cribby and philosophical. The work seems too monotonous and the environment is a little eerily relaxed with little work.

I just wonder,
Is this what we are going to do for the rest of our life ?

Sometimes, I just wonder, Where to Go after a five year stint in IT?

Hmm...lemme stop cribbing. I hope some truck load of work comes up to keep me occupied like hell.

0x1C

Happy Birthday Zeedy boy .... Eega gnaapka banthu ....
Have a nice evening dear ....

The impact of Web 2.0

A lot has been said and written about Web2.0. But, a question always arised to my mind :-
Is web2.0 all about YouTube, profile websites like myspace and orkut and Blog websites .

What are the implications on the hardware and what are the implications of the software ? With the advent of interactive Television sites like joost.com , the traffic on the internet is always going to be jammed like hell ? Consider the bandwidth required by emerging economies like BRIC countries apart from the US/UK/GER/FRA/JPN etc....

Companies have already started aggressively investing into products to meet the demans of the applications involving improvements to Web2.0. Definitely there will be new improved packet based networks and as I expected, Cisco is already working on one of the hardware versions of Web2.0

One of the interesting things which Cisco is working on is a router which does "deep packet inspection of multi-gigabit stateful and stateless application traffic flows." Such "packet inspection " might probably deal with "error correction" software too I guess. But Web2.0 has a LOT of streaming applications and a retransmission is something NOBODY desires. I am too quizzical to comment on this. Honestly, I am not sure where the bottleneck for the IP traffic is ? Is it in the transmission media (like optical fibres or coaxial cables) or is it in the intermediate routers and other gateways ?

The other software application which is making a lot of news is a Microsoft Product called Silverlight. It is very similar to Adobe Flash, the de-facto application (currently) for Youtube. MS strategy looks simple. Take this player and port it to various Platforms like Windows and Mac OS (note : The application is conspicuously missing for Linux - But, why ? ) Also it is available for many browsers like Firefox, IE , Safari, Opera etc. etc.

But what edge does it have over Adobe Flash ? is the question which naturally comes to my mind. According to reports Microsoft claims that content created with Silverlight would be more searchable and indexable than that created with Flash as it is not compiled, but represented as text!!!!!. Sakkath hot maga !!! And on top of that, it is planning to open source some parts of Silverlight.


The future looks good for Web2.0

The AOL site for India is a decent job. But somehow, Indian Websites are a shade boring than their US counterparts.

Check out the latest website :-
http://www.aol.in/

Sudden torrents in the waters of mind are abating...But their windy impact is unsteady , irrational mind.

Mano Murthy

The music director of the movie, "Mungaru Male", Mano Murthy was a part-time composer who came on breaks to India to compose music to movies.

His songs are catchy but I see a pattern. His hit films include America, America , Nanna Preethiya Hudugi, Mungaru Male , Amrutha Dhaare and so on.

Mano Murthy says, "During my college days in UVCE Bangalore, we had a pop band. I have composed some Kannada pop songs and many tunes. America America was the first film in 1995-96 to have my music. I used to work for one movie every two years and from last year I am working on one movie per year. Music is something that keeps me busy and brings freshness every moment. High tech world is routine for me but music is something that I can work on all the time."

Oh by the way, he was a graduate from Stanford and he is the founder of 3 Network Companies and 2 of them went public and one of them was bought over by Cisco.

Check out this poem by a person on Bangalore :-

I love this city and love to hate this city

Mungaru male review (not by me)

Mungaaru Male (First Rain)

- Swarupananda Bissoyi

It takes 110 days in theatre for a kannada movie to be watched by a
non-kannadiga guy like me. Its not that all my kannada friends vouched
for the movie ( for the first time in four years of my staying in Bangalore),
its the soul-stirring songs that took me to watch Mungaaru Male.

Well, watching such a nice movie in a saturday evening with a Rs. 30/-
balcony ticket in a non-AC-but-DTS theatre was altogether a different
kind of experience. Of course a magical one.

Not everytime you watch a good movie! This movie, I would say a great
movie.

A gently crafted piece of work, with sheer brilliant execution by actors, director, cinematographer and above all the music director. Sonu Nigam should think himself lucky enough to sing such an ecstatic song. Mungaru Male was all about defying boundaries. Boundaries that exist within ourselves, boundaries that created kannadigas and non-kannadigas, boundaries that defines how to distinguish between good and bad films. It crossed all boundaries but it didn't dare to touch the boundaries created by the family that separates the protagonists of the movies Preetam and Nandini. A very usual love story - boy sees girl, love at first sight, a hooligan pursuing the heroine and our karate master hero doing everything for the
sake of love blah blah blah..

Expressionism at its best, the movie tries to depict the true character of our a Indian looking, tough but yet soft at heart young man. You don't need a deadening shahrukh to cry in a sheep-ish voice to limn pain ! Our local hard drinking guy delivers far better. You need not understand kannada to understand this kannada movie. A little rabbit Devdasa who symbolizes the immortal concept of love in the movie tells you the story. Not many times you find symbolism finding its way to filmdom.

For the two and half hours, the movie was extra ordinary and rhapsodic. But last two and half minutes of the movie will stir your soul, will make you somber. Suddenly you'll cry for you'll find yourself hard trying substituting in place of Preetam, when he was burying Devdasa wrapped with jasmine petals at one high point on earth where it all started. Love.

Land of sorrows, Ocean of tears, Valley of truth, End of life. Did our Preetam knew it before falling (he falls into a gutter at the first sight) ? Why on earth Nandinis do not understand Preetams ? (Or do female understand male beyond male understanding female ?) Everybody loves a love story, but why nobody loves lovers ? Why they couldn't meet at the end ? Is sacrifice - the highest form of love ? If yes, what love tries to achieve? If no, then what love will achieve ? Elton John puts it; and its no sacrifice/Just a simple word/Its two hearts living/In two separate
worlds/But its no sacrifice/No sacrifice/Its no sacrifice at all/Mutual misunderstanding/After the fact/Sensitivity builds a prison/In the final
act.

But why love never reach its end ? Why great lovers on earth have never meet? Famous oriya poet Ramakant Rath answers this phenomenon in his book Sreeradha - "once you achieve success, that becomes the end of your desire, after that nothing remains like love, you will feel empty within, coz the cause that drives you to this point no more exists and you will fail to imagine your success minus that cause". Hence, true love is all about the passion unadulterated by the desire of success. The moment you realize that, you opt for sacrifice. Mungaru Male tells at the end - Preeti Madhura, Tyaga Amara. ie Love is sweet, but sacrifice - immortal. But not everybody love to
sacrifice for love.

Heart strings playing on the wind....In the first rain of Madikeri

Haage summane ......

---Swarup

Hmm...Australia and SL.

I personally prefer Lanka to win. I have had enough of Aussies winning mercilessly. Oh god, somebody stop the Aussies or atleast let them give a strong competition.

This World Cup has been a real boring damp squib. :-|

But yesterday's 27/5 in 10 overs was the limit for showing the prowess of the Aussie team. Only one interesting match was the WI v/s ENG.

What is yahoo doing?advertising thru google ads!!??

movie endings ..

I think I am biased to happy ending movies .. :D ..
or to movies which leave the ending open-ended..
I appreciate movies which have a morose ending .. but I usually would not watch it again .. :) .. the ending should be quite inspirational .. or happy .. period ..

Same with life :)

Of Jokers and Jugglers

In the morning in the 7.a.m. it is abt the Jugglers. After 9.a.m. it is abt the Jokers.

Talking abt Jugglers, I always thought juggling was about rhythm. But if you see this video, you will leave yourself slack-jawed. The juggling suits the background music like a charm.

Have a look at this video.
It is worth your bandwidth and your time. Phew! Awesome.

One stupid mistake. I don't know why the Linkers don't give clever messages unlike the compilers. A linking error eats away one whole afternoon of valuable time. And morning I discover it is a silly mistake.

For sun compilers, If I try to define extern and initialize (like a bum) in two or more files, the compiler doesnt give any warnings, but it does strange things and the linker cribs about multiple definitions

extern unsigned char gStackCount = 0

This is a stupid Copy and Paste mistake. Never try to intialize an extern global variable (atleast in sun compilers). I tried to initialize it as an extern in two files, just for safety purposes and I was trying the whole day yesterday fighting a linker error regarding multiple defintions . Be careful for such stupid mistakes !!!!! Time is precious when your ass is on fire....

I want to write a piece on how Copy and Paste (although a very precious keystroke) can really screw up the code with untraceable and weird mistakes. I will do that someday. For now cheers on a friday morning!

Just Lather that's all

Adapted from a short story having the same name.


FADE IN:

EXT. CITY OF BOGOTA - 1940s

A faded white JEEP vehicle parks in front of a Barber's shop named NATALIA's. The front doors of the vehicle open and an ARMED DRIVER and an UNARMED MAN get out of the Jeep. The two men exchange inaudible talks in Spanish and the Unarmed Man laughs loudly. The Driver salutes the unarmed man and then, the driver gets into the Jeep and starts it.The Jeep EXITS.

The Unarmed Man, is a giant of a man , coarse and bearded and forty-ish. He runs his fingers over his hair and wears an army dress and heads into Natalia's. He has a bullet-studded belt but he does not have any weapons.

INT. NATALIA's BARBER SHOP

The UNARMED MAN enters the Barber's shop. The barber is NATALIA, a 25-ish Doe eyed girl who notices the unarmed man walking in, as she shaves another man, MAN#1. The MAN#1 who has lather on his face, sees the UNARMED MAN and he looks terrified. Natalia looks startled too. MAN#1 stands up in fear/respect and offers the seat to the UNARMED MAN.

MAN#1
(stuttering)
Ppp-please take the seat, Gustavo.

The UNARMED MAN, who is known as "Gustavo" smiles.

GUSTAVO
Oh thanks a lot.
(wicked Grin)
Don't you need the shave, young man.

MAN#1
I will take it sometime later. I got to go.

MAN#1 wipes the lather and with his half shaved beard, he makes a quick EXIT.

Gustavo sits on the barber's chair as the stone faced Natalia watches him.

GUSTAVO
It's hot as hell. Give me a shave. I think it is a six day beard.

Natalia tension seems to ease. She maintains her cool and she doesn't want to show her fear to Gustavo.

NATALIA
Your face looks red. Burnt by the sun, eh ?

GUSTAVO
I guess so.

Carefully, Natalia begins to prepare the soap. She cuts off a few slices, drops them into the cup, mixed in a bit of warm water, and began to stir with the brush. Immediately the foam began to rise. Natalia has the cup full of foam in her hands. Meanwhile, Gustavo keeps looking at his beard, scratching his massive face and combing his hair.

GUSTAVO
By the way, me and my boys....We did some good stuff this week. We killed a few of your town's generals, you know.

NATALIA
With curious, sharp eyes
And what did you do ?

GUSTAVO
We did all right, you know. We got the main generals. We brought back some dead, and we've got some others still alive. But pretty soon they'll all be dead.

NATALIA
(narrating)
No doubt about it, I was upset....He leaned back on the chair when he saw me with the lather-covered brush in my hand.

GUSTAVO
The town must have learned a lesson from what we did the other day.

Natalia starts shaving his beard.

NATALIA
(narrating)
I wanted to kill him, when he talked like that.
(aloud)
Yes.

NATALIA
(narrating)
His name was Captain Gustavo Torres. Right under the roof of my shop. A man of imagination. An enemy of the state. A fearless rebel who was on his way to become a dictator. A man whom man of us loved to hate. A cold and hearless enemy. Who else would have thought of hanging the naked generals and then holding target practice on certain parts of their bodies?

GUSTAVO
Without any effort I could go straight to sleep, but there's plenty to do this afternoon.

NATALIA
(curiously)
A firing squad?

Gustavo looks at Natalia in the eye. There is a desire in his eyes.

GUSTAVO
Disinterested
Nah.Something lesser than that.
(Changing the topic, Looking at Natalia in the eye)
Ohh look at those eyes. Hmmm...I feel like falling in love with the first woman I meet. I feel like taking her in a wheelbarrow and wheel her down the street.

NATALIA
(with a small fit of assertive anger)
Thanks. That comment was not invited.

The radio whizzes some incomprehendable Spanish song. GUSTAVO is about to fall asleep. Natalia is into deep into her job.

NATALIA
(narrating)
The beard was now almost completely gone. He seemed younger, less burdened by years than when he had arrived. I suppose this always happens with men who visit barber shops. Under the stroke of my razor Gustavo Torres was being rejuvenated-rejuvenated because I am a good barber, the best in the town, if I may say so.

GUSTAVO begins to snore. Natalia is shaving with her sharp eyes fixed on his chin and throat.

NATALIA
(narrating, contd)
I could cut this throat just so, zip! zip! I wouldn't give him time to complain and since he has his eyes closed he wouldn't see the glistening knife blade or my glistening eyes.

Natalia starts off a second shaving by mising some more lather.

NATALIA
(narrating, contd)
If I could kill him, I would be the Captain Torres' murderer. The rebels would say "She slit his throat while she was shaving him - a coward." And then on the other side, "She was the town barber. No one knew she was defending our cause."

And what of all this? Murderer or hero? My destiny depends on the edge of this blade. I can turn my hand a bit more, press a little harder on the razor, and sink it in. The skin would give way like silk. There is nothing more tender than human skin and the blood is always there, ready to pour forth. A blade like this doesn't fail. It is my best. But I don't want to be a murderer, no sir. You came to me for a shave. And I perform my work honorably.

I don't want blood on my hands. Just lather, that's all. You are an executioner and I am only a barber. Each person has his own place in the scheme of things. That's right. His own place.

By now, Natalia has finished shaving. She applies the after-shave lotion and wakes him up.

NATALIA
You are ready.

GUSTAVO
(Laughs)
Wow! you are a good barber. Excellent job.

He grabs a few notes out of his pocket and hands it over to Natasha. Gustavo goes to the hanger for his belt, pistol and cap. Natalia looks very pale but confident; her shirt is soaked. Gustavo finishes adjusting the buckle, and after automatically smoothens down his hair and he puts on the cap.

GUSTAVO
Oh, by the way, they told me that you'd kill me. They told me that you hated me a lot. I came to find out. But killing isn't easy. You can take my word for it. And you are a beautiful woman.

Gustavo walks out of the shop.

FADE OUT

Back to the square one.

Today morning

as I was having my cup of coffee, I had switched on "U2", a channel in Udaya TV. I guess it is Udaya-2. There was a birthday wishes program, where people dedicate happy birthday wishes on TV.Sometimes they feature old kannada songs of Vishnuvardhan and Dwarakeesh which go very well with a Sat morning coffee.

Hmm perfectly normal, I thought. However, as I observed the VJ, she was wearing a Lynyrd Skynrd T-shirt. That's something weird. I know there are a lot of Shakira and Justin Timberlake fans...But a Ronnie Van Zant fan on Udaya TV doing birthday dedications is a little out of place...It's something like having a fan wearing a T-shirt with Pandari Bai's photo in VX1/AXN.

Whatever. Mixing of cultures in different channels, I guess.

Side notes for youtubers :-

1. By the way, this video features a death metal vocals for a Britney Spears video!!!! So all you metal fans, Britney Spears rocks!!! hahahah...

2. What happens if Kurt Cobain sings Britney Spears's Toxic. It sounds like this. I liked the grunge version of Toxic very much.

Chappel versus the Senior Players

Tendulkar is never the kind of person who has a loud mouth or louder actions like Saurav Ganguly. He is always docile and silent. Dravid too is of the silent non-controversial type.

Admittedly, Tendulkar's performance has been really hopeless in the world cup. But this time, in an interview to Times Of India, when the BCCI Management is busy passing the blame on the senior players , the normally silent Tendulkar gives his side of the story :-

"Tell me, the world has gone on talking about all this (our defeat and exit) but has anybody spared a thought for us? Did they try to find out what we have been going through?" a shaken Sachin Tendulkar asked TOI .

"Again, it's not that we are defending ourselves. We do realise that we played badly and, as a team, we take full responsibility for that. But what hurt us most is if the coach has questioned our attitude.

"I've given my heart and my soul for 17 years. No coach had mentioned even in passing that my attitude was not correct. Cricket has been my life for all these years and will always be," Tendulkar said.

Some of the seniors are, in fact, so upset with the personal attacks that they are hoping to meet BCCI president Sharad Pawar on April 5 to present their side of the story.

Another Senior Player (gawd knows who is this) gives his take on the episode :-
“Chappell did not speak to us for 3-4 days during this World Cup. He just doesn’t listen to anybody. How can a coach behave like this? It’s a disgrace”

The point which I'd like to observe here is, Greg Chappel is insane. From the moment he has been the coach, there is always some mudslinging going on between Selectors v/s players or some cr@p like this. If somebody with the responsibilities of a coach wants to be an autocrat, the whole team loses. And I want the Indian team to win in a bowler's pitch liek the West Indies pitches or the English pitches. There is no point in winning only in India.

Current Music - Metallica : Master of Puppets

Kalam for 2nd term

Yes, I would definitely want Abdul Kalam for a second term. He places a high value for education and the importance of man-power as Milan has rightly pointed out in his post. I think education is something which uplifts the Indian Society the most and especially after reading Outlook's article about "The Other India"[1], I realise the importance of Education. And Kalam is a symbol of HOPE for our nation .

The way he presented his vision for Karnataka to the sleepy legislators of the Vidhana Soudha was magnificient and speaks of volumes about Abdul Kalamji. We need a right mixture of idealists, shrewd statesmen, diplomats and distinguished scholars in our political system.

[1] Please grab a copy of Outlook and have a look at one of the poorest districts in Orissa. It is touching that they feel that the government is doing a fairly decent job to improve their living.

Got hair ironed ...

and now it is back to how it was earlier. Of course, there was a lot of criticism and even I could not accept my own look....It became really long!!!!

So now it is back to wavy format after one shampoo treatment.

heheh

The UP political landscape is far bigger , meaner, and more of a slug fest.

It seems that she has given tickets to Brahmins for the forthcoming UP elections!!!!

An interesting scenario is opening in the coming UP election. Mayawati needs the undivided votes of Brahmins to make a significant impact in UP while her arch rival, Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav is counting on Muslims voting en masse in his favour to add to his loyal constituency of Yadavs.M

Although the situation is similar to a secular JD supporting the "communal force" BJP, the scenario I guess is much more intense in UP.

Meanwhile Rahul Gandhi is also hitting the UP streets with his campaign. Let's see what kind of slugfest unfolds.

Current Music : Shilpa Shetty - UP Bihar lootne

If you really search something you can get it. Not quite, but you get the clues. Good searching and persistence helps.... But somehow, someone above is playing a nasty trick on me. Of course, there is no use trying to out-do him, but well as Linkin Park guys say "I tried so hard and got so far....In the End it doesnt Really matter". Nothing happens. Period.

As I listen to, "I can get (No) Satisfaction" song by the Rolling Stones, a lot of randomly generated thoughts just go by. The "question marks(??) and the exclamation marks (!!)" were quite visible above my head and the guy sitting next to me in the car today.

Hmmm...Meanwhile I am in _NO_ mood to see the IRELAND v/s ENGLAND match.

Then as I rewind to my coffee-filter conversations I am reminded of Moby's song "People they come together....People they fall apart". Oh yeah DA is a snail. That too, a moody snail crawling over a 7'o'clock blade.

Sometimes, the Yahoo! messenger smiley can be very irritating when it is bright yellow and laughing...

All our lives we search for an answer ... a purpose....But the Question is WHY ?

Software keeps getting written and keeps getting obsoleted. This seems to be the new mantra.

Well, just imagine the kind of software required to keep a telecom service provider like Hutch or an Airtel to carry on its operations. The software may include all the front end software like activating and deactivating various services, maintaining the profiles of subscribers and keeping a record of the bills paid and even intraweb of a Hutch or an Airtel , maintaining the employee database and all that.

To think about it, it is an enormous piece of software and would cost a company like Hutch or Airtel quite a bit.

So what do they do ?
Simple! They outsource the whole thing!

This is the truth for all the telecom operators worldwide.
Initially, the trend was "New features" or "more bandwidth" and all that.
Now it is "Cost Efficiency". They have invested quite a bit on installation of networks and pay big amounts of money for maintaining the networks and they want to minimise the costs WHEREVER it is possible.

And it seems, after the recent acquisition of Hutch by Vodafone, Vodafone has outsourced its IT operations to the Software Giant IBM. .

IBM will consolidate and manage IT infrastructure and applications for Hutch, India’s fourth largest telco. The contract is likely be on a revenue-sharing basis. “The scope of the deal will depend on the growth of Hutch’s operations in terms of circles and subscribers. As operations ramp up, the deal size and scope is also likely to increase,” sources said.

I guess, this is the kind of business which is going to become mainstream as far as outsourcing is concerned. Indian companies outsource to their Indian counterparts!

I dunno how this works,

but it is a fact that General Entertainment Channels have decided to withdraw the special 30-40% World Cup discounts on ad rates. Details here

Really interested to know how they calculate the GRPs or the TRPs.

A GRP is the sum of ratings achieved by a specific media vehicle and is a critical metric to determine the marketing effectiveness of an ad campaign.

If you live near Kathriguppa

you should check out the TEA SHOP there called "UNITEA in DIVERSITEA".

It is not such a great place as such, but the idea is damn cooL. There are so many varieties of tea. I loved the jasmine fragrance filled "Chinese tea". Awesome! It seems Chinese Tea has a lot of medicinal value and it is good for health. To me, it tasted like the "theertha" they give in the temple with all the karpoora taste, a beautiful jasmine fragrance and tea leaves fragrances. I think I acquired the taste for that tea.

And ofcourse, there are several Assamese tea flavors there, for the conventional Indian tea.

But it may not be a great idea to drink at night (esp. when you are stressed)....You may end up being an owl with your eyes wide open the whole night!!!

IND v/s SL and other tales

It seems Bob Woolmer's death is being treated as "murder" by Jamaican police.

A post-mortem examination established that the former England player had died as a result of "manual strangulation", police Commissioner Lucius Thomas said.

I generally hate to write these kind of things on my blog, but this news is a bit too much as not to be affected or un-noticed. It is a sour world cup with investigation of the Pakistani Cricket Squad and Jamaican Police being brought into reasons other than security of players. Poor West Indies organizers - I guess they are having a nightmare of a World Cup at their very first hosting. In a statement, Malcolm Speed, the ICC chairman clarified that the World Cup will go on.

"There has been speculation as a result of this (Woolmer's murder) the Cricket World Cup would be discontinued but this will not be the case," Speed said.

Meanwhile, getting to the core of World Cup, today is going to be a crucial match for India. I think it is a good match. But time to appreciate cricket as a game , rather than some mindless, irrational emotions like demolishing a player's house - this is pure crap.

Some cribs abt wc2007

Sehwag got a phone on his reliance mobile from Sehwag-ki-maa, and he played well.
Everyone was a delight to watch. Ganguly struggled initially but later it was cool. And Yuvaraj Singh too.

But, there is still story to be unfolded on the World Cup.

I PRAY that next time they don't show CRICKET on Sony MAX. Why don't they show it on some godammn SPORTS channel ? It loses the whole seriousness when they show it on Entertainment Channels, with Mandira Bedi speaking nonsense.

RIP : For Bob Woolmer.I hope such incidents don't occur again. And hope the mindset of Pakistani cricketers change. For the likes of Shoaib Akhtar : There is no point in sitting at home and blame each other for failures.

I am delighted that I am not the first bum around!
Stupidity rules.....

I had a great weekend. The highlight of the weekend was of course, the iron maiden concert!
Akshay, Teju and I had a rocking time of our lives on the 17th of March 2007. It is a pit I cannot upload photos, coz' my phone's photos are of pretty low quality :-(

Man! Bruce Dickinson has so much energy on stage for his age. Besides there was literally a SEA of black T-shirts and we looked kinda out of place. Also managed to catch Punk Floyd and Pramod.

Before that, we also had lunch at a place called "Fresco" which served really good continental food. And then there was the concert!

First were the cover bands.The first band on the stage "FTN", with two chinkis as guitarists kinda STRICTLY OKAY . They were REALLY good for an audience of maybe 1000+. But with a sea of 30000 people, it is REALLY difficult to control the audience. The audience were merciless and showed them the finger, in true metal headstyle( tee hee). And then there was Parikrama, playing REALLY good songs like "Rhythm and Blues", "But It Rained" , "Whisky" and so on. The violinist did a really good job and kinda kept the crowd controlled for a period of an hour. But later, another budding rock star of London, Lauren Harris took the stage and the crowd were not so kind to her either! Maybe she'll learn it after a few gigs, after seeing her dad.

Later, the old tigers unleashed their art designs on the stage. The crowd went berseck after seeing Iron Maiden LIVE! on stage!!! The screams were deafening loud.

The stage looked AWESOME. And they started off with some numbers of their new album called "A matter of life or death". Hardcore Maiden fans could recognize this album. But later, they proceeded on play their old favorites like "The number of the beast" , "Trooper" , "Fear of the Dark", "Iron Maiden" (from their first album), "12 minutes to midnight", "Hallowed be thy name", "Run to the Hills" (my favorite) etc. Bruce Dickinson also dedicated one of the songs "Wrathed Child" to some Indian guy, I don't remember his name.

There were people pouring into Bangalore from all over India and some people had come all the way from Kathmandu!

YESTERDAY , Kummi entrance togonda. Had some Dosas in Vidyarti Bhavan and later some AWFUL COFFEE prepared by me.

And today, wishing you all a HAPPY UGADI and I use the following C expression :-
age++;

Okay post done.

D- I - S - C - O

I am making a compilation of Disco songs in Hindi / Kannada.
Anybody have any inputs ? Thanks in adv!

Disco Songs in Hindi

Note :- My Hindi is a little poor, I don't understand a lot of lyrics :-)

1. Nazia Hassan and the Biddu combination.
This combination came up with GREAT songs like:-
a) Aap Jaise Koi Main
b) Dil Bole Boom Boom
c) Lekin Mera Dil

2. Amitabh Bachan songs
a) Jaha teri yeh Nazar hai
b) Oh Saathi Ree

3. Bappi Lahiri (Mithunda and others)
a) Yaar bina chain kaha re
b) Disco Station
c) I am a Disco Dancer
d) Dance Dance
e) Jawani Janeman, Haseena Dilruba
f) Raath baaki, Baath baaki.

Some more from Hindi ?

Disco Songs from Kannada

"Disco Kannada songs", is a terminology which I have used for a few songs which came out in the late 70s and early 80s after getting heavily influenzed by Hindi film industry (which was NOT called as "Bollywood" at that point of time).

Ths songs were characterised by a very good use of Bass and long haired dudes with bell bottoms and large check shirts.

The heroes which typically come to my mind who epitomise the mood , the style of the Disco era were :-

1. Kokila Mohan
2. Shankar Nag / Anant Nag.
3. Rajkumar during his Shankar-Guru days. Before that he had real curly hair. At these times, he started sporting a wig.
4. Ashok
5. Vishnuvardhan and Dwarakeesh duo (During their super successful days of Kalla-Kulla, Singapore nalli Raja Kulla)

OKay here are the songs which came in those days which typified Disco songs.
This is a very small list. I will put them in no particular order.

1. Halli Daariyalli Tampu beediyalli
2. Kaveri yeke Oduve ?
3. Teri kere yeri mele
4. Eko Moha , Yeno Daaha (a cover version of Nazia Hassan's Lekin mera Dil)
5. Nanna neenu gella laare, tilidu, tilidu
6. Santoshakke, Haadu Santoshakke
7. Namma Santeli mussanje hotthalli

Okay lets try to collect some more , from this point !!!!

Current Music: Unknown Artist - D.I.S.C.O

Today no big match

Kenya v/s Canada ( I didnt know Canada had a WC team!!)
Australia v/s Scotland .

The next good match (as far as I know will be on 15th March, ENGLAND v/s New Zealand)

Windies Win

MoM - All-rounder Dwayne Smith, 32 runs in 15 balls and 3 wickets


Sarvan was dropped very early! Gayle was a nasty surprise....
But, R Sarwan, was definitely good and he played good strokes on the offside.
Umar Gul bowled well. Pakistan's fielding was not up to the mark at all. Overthrows, catch drops.

In Michael Holding's accent Ith waaas guuuud to hear Michael Holding's accent after a loong time.

Chanderpaul played an anchor role. But more was expected of him!
And Lara and a new guy Marlon Samuels built the innings.249 on a pitch like that is pretty good.

If more pitches are fast bowler friendly, the Indian team, has to realise that very fast. Like Pak, our team is used to slow pitches.

Couldnt see the Pak Innings.
But, it is for certain that the Pakistan team is very new and also a little raw.They might have a tough chance to win the cup.

Key players for today : WI vs PAK

One good match today. WI vs Pak

West Indies
Brian Lara
Dwayne Bravo
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
Chris Gayle
Jerome Taylor.

Pakistan
Inzy
Shahid Afridi
Azhar Mahmood
Mohammad Sami (sometimes)

As far as I can remember Lara, has always had a very good batting average while playing with Pakistan. Let's see what happens.

God knows

As the inflation and the growth rate continues to steadily increase in India and China, and the other Eastern European countries, Financial Times reports that the pay gap between professional staff and managers employed in emerging Asian and eastern European economies and those working in more mature markets is narrowing rapidly after taking inflation into account.

What does this imply for India ?

If you take only the IT Industry into account, we have a huge pool of skilled man-power. I personally long for an Indian Product based Software Company make it BIG (like the Tatas and the Birlas)in Software.

The future is BRIGHT! (Ofcourse the immediate future, MAY have be characterised by some slump!)

Current Music : Mando Diao - God Knows

If you think about it,

There are no favorites for the 2007 world cup.
I fully agree with this article.

But the question is :-
Will India enter the semis ?

It is almost a 12 hour difference :-(
So seeing live is a little difficult for me (atleast)

And...

I thought traffic was always lesser in other parts of word.

After Infosys Bus, Wipro Bus, we have the GOOGLE bus!!
THose faces are soooooo familar like those you see on Infy bus etc....

In Silicon Valley, a region known for some of the worst traffic in the nation, Google, the Internet search engine giant and online advertising behemoth, has turned itself into Google, the mass transit operator. Its aim is to make commuting painless for its pampered workers — and keep attracting new recruits in a notoriously competitive market for top engineering talent.

Hmmm....So, allu kooda traffic naayi paadu antha gothaagatte :-D

Maybe they borrowed a thing or two from the Indian IT Companies !!!!!
Read the whole article here

Happy birthday

Happy birthday to Kummi.
Have a great day :-)

So, who is the winner ?

Offshore is one movie which I would LOVE to see. Somebody had to do this sort of a movie. Good. I had seen this coming!

Here is the synopsys :-

OFFSHORE is the corporate war between the cowboys and the Indians.

Fairfax Furniture’s call center is about to come under attack. CEO Derek Abernathy must cut costs or lose his job, so he does what any modern businessman would do: he sacrifices others. He declares Voxx of India their new call center, putting the jobs of lifers like Carol Silvers and Gen-Xers like Bridgette Mars on the block.

But first they must train their replacements.

In India, businessman Devendra Tiwari and his earnest halfwit son Ajay have their work cut out for them: Voxx doesn’t actually exist. Yet. From the masses desperate for work, they pick three candidates to go to America to be turned into trainers. Nikhil, Anjali and Reva are thrilled to land these prestigious jobs, but when they arrive in Detroit they find they are not at all welcome. In fact, Carol and her furious co-workers have declared war.

The job thieves are tormented at every turn. Carol gives them the wrong training information, makes sure they are socially ostracized, and even rallies the local television muckraker to her cause.

Meanwhile, in India, Voxx’s call center is cobbled together with mismatched phones, malfunctioning computers, employees straining to adjust to the night shift and the prayers of a swami.

More details on the official website

Summer has started. Power cuts, mosquitoes, thirst are the flip side. But there is World Cup approaching :-)

Also, today I just travelled down the memory lane to my schoold days. March was a month of birthdays and loads of tension in high school and Pre-University. Lots of exams. Things used to look better ALWAYS in April.

But as I travel in my car today, instead of noticing the road and people, I looked half way between the earth and blue cloudless sky.

The trees were FULL of flowers. Blue, Red, Bright Yellow, Pink. The Sun is definitely a god.

Could you double check the envelope ?

After losing out five times, director Martin Scorsese was awarded his first Oscar on Sunday for his mob informer movie "The Departed."

The story here

Coffee Festival - Kopi Luwak anyone ?

Yesterday there was a program on 101.3 FM
So there is gonna be an international coffee fest for us to enjoy coffee.

The three-day fest from Feb 23 will feature a wide-ranging exposition, conferences and workshops on coffee by renowned speakers and flavour of India-Fine cup competition to promote the best Indian coffees in the domestic and international markets.

After a stagnant growth for over a decade, domestic consumption began increasing during the last two-three years to touch 80,000 tonnes annually from about 55,000 tonnes till 2002-03, thanks to the mushrooming of Cafe Days, Baristas, retail outlets, vending machines and wider acceptance among the youth.

One of the leading coffee producers, India exports about 70 percent of its annual production of coffee (about 290,000 tonnes), with Karnataka accounting for about 80 percent of the production as well as exports.

Okay , didnt know Karnataka was a major coffee producer.
I heard that it will be held in the Hotel Grand Ashok.

But apart from all the coffee news, there is something REALLY peculiar about the MOST expensive coffee in the world called "Kopi Luwak"

The most expensive coffee in the world is made from beans which have been procured from the faeces of an animal!!!!!!!

Kopi Luwak or Civet coffee is coffee made from coffee cherries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus). The animals gorge on the ripe berries, and excrete partially-digested beans in their feces, which are then harvested for sale. This process takes place on the islands of Sumatra, Java and in the the coffee estates of south India.

Details on Kopi Luwak here

Nenapirali

While watching a Kannada Sa Re Ga Ma program, I stumbled across songs from a movie called "Nenapirali". The songs are simply fantastic. It is a 2005 movie.

It is a typical Hamsalekha composition. He still retains his charm of penning clever lyrics.

One song, which is about Mysore where the whole story of Nenapirali happens, is really worth listening once, if you have been to Mysore at least once in your life.

Listen to The mysore song here. It reminds me of the Hamsalekha of the Premaloka and the Ranadheera days.

Iron Maiden in town !!

Yes, the heavy metal band Iron Maiden is going to be in town.
Woohoo!!

Boy..I am excited!!

Bruce Dickinson will be a treat to watch on the stage...Hope there is going to be a lot of energy and josh. As I get ready for my favorite Iron Maiden songs , I realise they take up situations and pen the lyrics.

One thing which is very distinct about Iron Maiden is that, the lead guitar is really fast.
Hmmm..It was my favorite band in my college days.

As I hear the songs after a long time I am reliving those days of playing Half-Life , TombRaider, Snooker 1/4/7 on my computer which was oddly placed!!

Some of the songs of Iron Maiden which I love

a) Run to the Hills
b) Bring your Daughter to the Slaughter
c) Hallowed be thy name
d) Blood Brothers , Wicker Man
e) Can I play with Madness ?
f) 2 minutes to Midnight
g) Fear of the Dark
h) The Aftermath
i) Futureal.

Hmmm..Waiting for march 17

Apple and its naming blues.

Apple has a penchant for landing into trouble for using names. Firstly there was the Apple v/s Apple lawsuit. .

Now it has landed in soup for the use of the word iPhone.
Cisco is suing Apple for the use of the word "iPhone".

Cisco obtained the iPhone trademark in 2000 when it acquired Infogear, a small Redwood City, California, start-up that developed consumer devices that allowed people to easily access the internet without a PC. Infogear had actually registered the iPhone trademark in March 1996. Cisco's home-networking division, Linksys, has been using the iPhone trademark on a new family of VoIP phones since early last year, Cisco said. And last month, Linksys expanded the iPhone family with additional products.

In general, when companies try to make products, they tend to keep it as simple and meaningful as possible and thats when you discover that all the simple and meaningful words are taken!!!

The art of investigation

Programming is definitely fun and can be trained (at least to some extent) , but investigation is not trained as a formal course in Engineering.


The need of being Sherlock Holmes is of utmost importance especially while maintaining software , because you have to sense and search where the error is. Very similar to the job of a mechanic. When you say the car doesn't start, he first has to figure out whether it is a battery problem or a starter problem or a stupid mistake of petrol tank being empty or a fuel injection problem. This investigation skill , I feel is crucial for Software Maintenance. It has its own charm and degree of kicks. You should have this "leave this to me mate! I'll take care of this" attitude.

Yesterday I read this mail about how some of the guys at Paris investigated and located a bug. The fix was so trivial, but the investigation process of how they found the fix was so complicated! Man that was pure adrenaline!!

Sometime ago, this was demonstrated by one member of our team, for which he was granted a "Spot Award". There was one electronic chip board, to which we were unable to telnet. The code was perfectly alright. Our team members were searching everywhere in the code to locate a fix.

The fix was literally out-of-the-box.One of the experienced members told to wash the board with alcohol as the board arrived as a shipment from France. One the board was washed with alcohol, the telnet command worked like a charm!

Especially if you are in the field of Software Maintenance, you have to highlight this skill and your ability of searching an issue in a huge system. After all, developing new software every six months means that no-one is buying your stuff. There is always a need for support.

[Fwd] Ravana and Seetha

RAVANA
Bhavathi bikshaam dehi.


SEETHA
Thogolli Swami.


RAVANA
Border line daati Baaramma Seetha.


(she came out for giving the biksha)


RAVANA
Ha Ha Ha..Naanu ninna Swami alla, naanu Ravana..


SEETHA
Ha Ha Ha...Nanu Seetha alla...avara mane kelsadavalu...Muniyamma

There's too much confusion in this world.

Haloor ge ulidavane Gowda

The teacher:student ratio cannot get worse — 1:800. The prestigious University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering has just one teacher for 800 students! .... The lone faculty in the nearly 100-year-old institution is K R Venugopal, chairman, department of computer science and engineering, who sits in the college premises from 9 am to 9 pm!

This is the same Venugopal, from who wrote the book on Pascal Programming Language.

Okay, I'll stop fretting and you read the full article here

Arctic Monkeys

Yesterday, on the Radio I heard this song by Arctic Monkeys. The song was called Love Machine. The Arctic Monkeys are kinda unique band, because they are band who have depended on the Internet, for making their mark and showcasing their talent. 100% marketed through internet. Well, this is not something new. They are HUGELY successful in doing that. I am convinced that the web is moving towards interactive and personalised entertainment . I will take it up in a separate post and what may be ints implications....

Well okay....Try The Artic Monkeys version of the "Love Machine". Interestingly the first version of Love Machine is written channel [v] popstars kinda band called Girls Aloud. I somehow preferred the Artic Monkeys version.

If you like it, I recommended "I bet that you look on the dance floor", "when the sun goes down".

Download Love Machine from here.

Guru - Strictly okay.

I watched Guru this weekend. It is not really a good movie.

Abhishek Bachchan is strictly okay. The climax is disappointing. There is absolutely no logic. He shouts and shouts and expects the audience to show sympathy to the character. The first scene where he smiles is really artificial and he's trying hard to act and it shows.

But Mithun Chakraborty was good as the press owner and Madhavan and Vidya Balan have played support roles.

As for Mani Ratnam:The overall dialog rendering was weak. It is a product from an old school of film-direction.I think he makes Tamil movies MUCH better than his Hindi ones.

Aishwarya Rai was good in a few scenes, as an actress.

However, it seems there are interesting parallels in real/reel life.

Abhishek Bachchan -> Dhirubhai Ambani
Aishwarya Rai -> Dhirubhai Ambani's wife
Mithun Chakraborty -> Ramnath Goenka
The Contractor Businessmen -> Nusli Wadia
Madhavan -> Arun Shourie

R.I.P. O.P.Nayyar

I learned from rediff that O.P.Nayyar, the veteran musician of the yesteryears passed away.

The man made waves by publicly issuing a statement, that he will never feature Lata Mangeshkar in any of his songs. He was the person who really brought Asha Bhonsle into limelight.

He is best remembered for his peppy numbers from movies like Kashmir-ki-Kali and those carriage-trotting background music from Naya Daur which was his trademark.

Introduced to his music by my mom, my personal favorite O.P.Nayyar songs include ALL songs from AarPaar and Mr & Mrs. 55.

Kannada Rap

I have been introduced to two Kannada rap artists. Do check one of them out. The first one called "Auto Soori" is hilarious. Kudos to Shreyas Hoskere who has penned the funny lyrics. This is what he has to say about Auto Soori.

Kiran and I decided on the title – “Auto Soori” and bring out the everyday life events of an auto driver. I wrote the lyrics and sang it (it’s entirely my voice) and mixed it using the software called Audacity.

Download Auto Soori here.

Get the lyrics of the song "Auto Soori" here

The second one is called "Mental Manja". Although I have the song in my email, I will try to upload it on any file hosting server.

Kaun Banega Crorepathi

Shahrukh Khan was really good in KBC!Yes, I know, that it is too early to judge, but Shahrukh Khan yesterday was more personal, dry witted, sarcastic and peppy.But seriously, there is a lot of difference between the way Amitabh conducted it and Shahrukh conducts it.

Infact there were two instances when I actually felt like laughing.But sometimes, he overdoes what he is supposed to do. But I guess he'll soon learn it.

But the reality check of SRK as an anchor, on KBC. Shahrukh Khan speaks VERY fast. There is a lot of English , when he talks , but thats okay, unlike Amitabh who preferred to use Hindi with a lot of Sanskrit in it (eg. avashya, parantu, kintu ).

Here is an article describing SRK's tactics.

Blood Diamond

This weekend I managed to catch the movie "Blood Diamond" recommended by Zeeds..T.I.A Zeeds ;-). Good recommendation



Plot
~~~~~~~
Blood Diamond is a very gripping tale set in a third world African country called "Sierra Leone". It deals with the seedier side of Diamond mining in Africa.A civil war is raging in the country of Sierra Leone between the government and a group which calls itself as "R.U.F". The RUF controls quite a few diamond mines and after trading these diamonds, it uses the money to finance its activities like buying ammo, training new recruits etc.

The R.U.F captures one such man, Solomon Vandy as a slave to mine diamonds.As he struggles in the marshy diamond mines, Solomon discovers a large pink diamond. He buries it in a place before getting captured by the government who thinks he is a RUF rebel.

As he is jailed, he is noticed by Leo DiCaprio who is also jailed because he was involved in illegal trade of "Conflict Diamonds" (the diamonds mined in war zones and sold illegally).The two's lives are entangled and they need each other to meet their own personal goals. Thats the plot of the movie.

Apart from the basic plot, Leo DiCaprio dazzles with his acting abilities, effortlessly putting an african accent. Jennifer Connelly plays a reporter convincingly. And thankfully, it is not a hug-kiss relationship. "Djimon Hounsou" plays the part of Solomon Vandy and he steals the show. His love towards his son and family is really hard-hitting.

The script is tight, but the part which lingered in my mind, is the depiction of a third world country like Sierra Leone, the role of the United Nations in such countries, the refugee camps, the uneducated bruteness, the african woman's head dress, the music, the families,the child soldiers with AK47s amidst the untrammelled beauty of the dense equatorial forests, the mountains.

It is a must watch, expecially if you think India is a very poor country.

Is America Ready??

or more aptly, are the Americans ready for a Woman president???
Hilary Clinton has bid for the Democratic president candidate position.
This time the democratic party has a diverese set of candidature .. a black, a hispaniac, a woman .. are the fore-runners.. and probably Al Gore..

whoever is selected, it would be great ..

I really want to c, if the American society is totally liberal .. are they void of sex/color/race biases.. My bet is NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...

Well, time will decide ..

Di Caprio ..

misses the Gloden Globe awards..
Two nominations .. and no award ..
Two brilliant performances - -- Departed was too good and Blood diamond very good, and still no award

I know he does not have enough history.. but from 'Catch me if you can', he has been producing brilliant performances..

hope he wins an oscar this time ...

Good Luck leonardo !!! You rock dude ..

Tranquility in the center of chaos

The laying of tiles in the basement, (which started when all the guys were in town), is complete.

The Result : My car has started skating around in the basement, after the tile flooring.I have to be a little more careful while taking a reverse.

Meanwhile, my PC has gone for repair after I tried to unsucessfully install the Service Pack-2 of Microsoft windows.Be VERY careful while updating your PC. Sometimes clicking next, next , next will cost you a hard disk.Read the godammn thing.ANd pray that the current doesnt go while you are installing an OS.

From now on, I think I will also start reading "End User License Agreement" FULLY before checking the "I Agree" option.

Things are never easy.

Blood Diamond ..

Just Brilliant ..

Highly recommended ..... Dont miss this one ..

Apple is bloody different.

Apple introduces the iPhone. Everyone, i know, wants to have it.
Just check this site out and check its features....A phone WITHOUT a keypad....

Steve Jobs, you rock , dude...When the whole world was wondering, why after a product like iPod, there is no phone, you come up with this marvel.

This is my next phone. No doubt about it.Interestingly it covers GSM/EDGE and WiFi technology only. So, CDMA and UMTS is rested. It has several meanings in the Wireless Business.

Types of drivers in Bangalore

(From an email forward!!)

Truck Drivers: You usually don't get to see them directly because they sit
somewhere at an altitude. You can however identify the cabin crew by a
frantically waving hand on the non-driver side. This hand belongs to a
crew-member called 'cleaner' and all scholastic efforts till date have
failed to decipher the symbolic meaning of these waving. It is however Safe
to assume that these waving mean 'stay away'. Fortunately the trucks are
prohibited from the arterial roads. But you can see them racing each other
at 30 kmph and 31 kmph on the ring road. They successfully block the whole
width of the road. It is advised that you take them over from left (yes, the
wrong side) for, they wont let you pass from the right side anyway. The
other advice is to keep away from them.

BMTC Drivers: You can see them from a mile away from the distinguishing
color and driving. It can be very dangerous and frustrating to follow a BMTC
bus. The bus follows Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and at any instance
you can not predict the speed AND the position correctly. One observation
that might help the reader is that they always keep right between bus stops
and move to left (well, almost) at bus stops. This is the apt opportunity
for you to take the bus over and go stuck behind the next one. The drivers
can be seen although mostly through the bus's rear view mirror. If you
happen to see them directly through their window, be prepared to listen to
advice (varies from motherly, fatherly to ultra indecent) for having taken
them over in a dangerous fashion. While a normal bus can easily create a
road block on any given road, there are special capacity joint-buses (called
janti vaahana) which have an uncanny power of blocking up to 3 roads at a
time at a junction.

Cab Drivers: Characterized by red eyes, irritable nature, unkempt facial
hair, constant honking even at stationary object! They always try to go at
80 kmph, assume the urgency of an ambulance and expect everyone else has
less important job. Most of them do not sleep for days together and some of
them are trying to compete with David Blain for stretching human limits. The
author personally knows few cab drivers who do not have a habitat. They just
keep a pair of spare uniform in the cab, eat sleep in the cab and use public
bathrooms. Driving style of these indicates that many of them were auto
rickshaw driver earlier. However, they still seem to carry the self image of
an auto rickshaw and try to squeeze a MUV into the 1 meter gap between any
two objects.

Car Drivers: Characterized by creased foreheads. Having paid through
their noses and fighting to pay the EMI, they are obsessive about their cars
and want to make sure nobody bumps/scratches their car body. This sits on
the mind perpetually and causes those creases on foreheads. Most pitiable
class of drivers having the most to lose from the mistakes of other classes
of drivers.

Auto Rickshaw Drivers: Having stood over years as undisputed symbol for
rash driving, they are unfortunately losing grounds to cab drivers.
(Unfortunate because a rashly driven MUV is more dangerous than a rashly
driven auto rickshaw). Auto rickshaws are the vehicles with most diverse
speed ranges. They travel at speeds approaching zero when they have no
passengers aboard and travel at speed of unto 3x108 m/s when a passenger is
aboard. Analogous to the belief that "a cat can pass through any hole that
is bigger than its skull" auto rickshaws can "pass through any gap that is
wider than the headlight". They defy all laws of Physics. A typical auto
drive sits with a calm and indifferent attitude of a formula-1 driver just
before the race. Based on his age, he is a Rajkumar/Shankarnag/Darshan fan.
He feels strongly towards these actors and towards Karnataka and Kannada. In
a surprising observation, many auto drivers refuse 1.5 times the meter
reading after 10 PM if you are exiting from Ranga Shankara. This is their
humble way of commemorating their favorite star who made films like
Auto-Raja.

Two Wheeler Drives: The class in the most advantageous position. They
consist of a variety of sub-populations like office goers, salesmen, mothers
dropping children to school, college students, neighborhood store owner
transporting about 1 ton weight on a moped, whole families of 4-5 children
going on an outing etc. They usually mind their own business and do not
cause inconvenience to other types of vehicles. They use all possible space
on and around the road, including footpaths, medians, drainages, staircases
etc and thus enhance infrastructure utilization

Ten days

just flew by and I am back to where I started. Well last week was VERY interesting meeting up with many PESIT friends with Satya getting engaged. Two night-outs in Teju's place, the dinner at the MTR and later meeting up after Kumar takes an entrance into Bangalore, All in all....Last week was like a time machine.....

change of topic

Now, Ive been thinking and also discussed with one of my uncles abt one thing :-

Whom would a company actually need? A Homegrown manager(who knows all the practises of the organization) versus a manager, usually, from some other field.

I asked this question to one of my uncles, as I drove in the morning crowded madness of Bangalore city.

He seems to favor the latter.

Because, with their experience they tend to bring a change which might work out real good, for the company itself.A homegrown manager would have been totally tailored to think in one direction. He gave me some proofs abt how changing the work related responsibilities helped a un-motivated organization to suddenly perform real good.So now, even I am of the belief that having ONLY homegrown managers is not the right thing to do.

Well, even , Nortel had hired a soldier??!!! as the CEO.This was sometime 2 years ago.

Why? This is what they had to say :-

No, aside from convenience, why pick Owens? His public appearances since taking over Nortel in April 2004 may not have wowed the Street, but in military and Pentagon circles--where he has spent most of his life--he is recognized as a superior strategist with a keen intellect, high social IQ and a deep interest in communications technology. He has spent roughly 2,000 days in a submarine, many of them beneath the polar ice cap patrolling for Soviet subs. He commanded one of the U.S. navy's largest fighting fleets and has advised secretaries of defence. He has challenged the military establishment and positioned himself as one of the U.S. military's leading thinkers on the future of war.

But this Bill Owens guy didnt do well as a CEO. Whatever!

So my advice is if you have a Computer Background, you can become the CEO of Lijjat Paapad. You will use your bloody computer brain there, and do a great job there.

Happy new year guys !

Wishing you all a prosperous and happy new year.

And btw, tags are really convienient.You can apply them to older posts.
I have tagged all the older new year (Happy new year on Jan 1st 2005 and all that) posts.

Check this out.
Check this one on the birthday posts.

The Big Brother speaks ....
George Bush declared "Another milestone" has been achieved.I am not sure whether it will have a good effect on Iraq. I am opposed to hanging. A lethal injection is a more dignified way if a society wants to get rid of a criminal...Fighting for breath for 10 minutes....Just think abt it.I keep remembering Iron Maiden's Hallowed be thy name if I think abt hanging.

There is a blog right from Iraq, which says this :

..... Bush has effectively created more terrorists in Iraq these last 4 years than Osama could have created in 10 different terrorist camps in the distant hills of Afghanistan.....

Basically, with this execution, what the Americans are saying is "Look—Sunni Arabs—this is your man, we all know this. We're hanging him—he symbolizes you." And make no mistake about it, this trial and verdict and execution are 100% American. Some of the actors were Iraqi enough, but the production, direction and montage was pure Hollywood (though low-budget, if you ask me).

You can view the blog right here.

And an american blogger who says :

Well good 'ole Bush said that Saddams death would not stop terrorism in Iraq ...
Then what the fuck did we kill him for.?

I agree that Saddam Hussein was a fucked up individual and had no place leading any country and the crimes against his own citizens should not have gone without punishment...........

Ok so does this mean that the US should remove every unsuitable , vicious leader from power and then execute him for crimes agains his people and other peoples. Well then we have lots to do .. . and that being said who is our judge? How many in the world feel that Bush is as big if not bigger terrorist that Saddam ever was? What if they were to invade our country , dipose our government and hold trial and execute our leader for crimes against the Iraqi people?

And cnn says ::


Meanwhile somewhere else far nearer to where I stay
I see this news.This is extremely disturbing...Man...This looks more like a silence of the lambs case.

Time's person of the year.

Mirror mirror on the wall
Who is Time's person of the year, tell all.

This year's time's person of the year, is YOU!
Because, it seems the Time magazine has a mirror (inside a computer).
By You Time means "the citizens of the new digital democracy."

Time says 'You control the Information Age.' By 'control' Time means only that everyone is created equal -- equally entitled to create content for the World Wide Web, which is controlled by neither law nor taste.

There is so much user-generated content on the web.Even though web was moving towards personalization rather than a "repository of uninteractive information" : Youtube, Blogging + Photo have empowered amateurs with some powerful tools.
Infact, I think Youtube is a great concept. People have started auditioning on Youtube to get noticed by Agents, and there is Youtube underground to encourage music. There are blogs where people like me can write whatever you want to.

An article excerpt to summarize this :-

'Who actually sits down after a long day at work and says, I'm not going to watch 'Lost' tonight. I'm going to turn on my computer and make a movie starring my pet iguana? I'm going to mash up 50 Cent's vocals with Queen's instrumentals? I'm going to blog about my state of mind or the state of the union or the steak-frites at the new bistro down the street? Who has that time and that energy and that passion?

''The answer is, you do. And for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, Time's Person of the Year for 2006 is you.''

In the future, we may have three amateur band members; A singer in Bangalore, drummer in Chennai and one in Somalia trying to jam a session synchronously and creating world music. We will definitely have IP TV and making movies and songs maybe cheaper.

And yes, social networking is here to stay with improvements a lot of checks of security and behaviour and all that.

With so many things happening, I remember Andy Warhol's famous one-liner :-

"In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." may become quite true.`

Article here

And now, Wharton and Harvard !!

Probably this is Lalu's best time as a politician. He is now the best performer of the PM's cabinet.But check this out :-

After giving management tips at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and Bangalore, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad will share the reasons behind the turnaround of the Indian Railways with a group of students from Harvard and Wharton.

And more importantly (from my POV), there are strong rumors that the Indian Railways will purchase the GSMR wireless technology. I had written a very few lines of code and one small feature for the GSMR software and it was a very complex piece of code IU have ever seen/understood in my life. The whole code was developed in 1999-2002 and NOW it is coming to market!

Currently GSMR is used in Germany and other European countries.

Comments

Okay I have been accused that I am not evolved* on the blank noise project
by one such blogger.Okay, I am feeling like Prem Chopra now :-)))

I realise that the intentions of the project are noble.
But when it comes to "staring" I differ.

Let me clarify folks, by "eve teasing" I exclusively referred to "staring" of people NOT any other physical contact or some kind of harassment.

Staring can be caused because of many cases.These are the following :-

a) "Staree Z" wants a "Starer X" to notice.
============================================
And some other "Starer Y" else notices and passes a remark to Z causing mental torture to Z.

Whose mistake is it ?

b) "Staree Z" doesnt want "Starer Y" to notice
============================================
There are two cases here :-

Case 1 : If Y is a daydreamer who is in the perpetual habit of staring things while getting lost in thought, and his intention was not to cause discomfort, it is not his mistake

Case 2: If Y purposefully wanted to stare, which may be some kind of offense (yes I completely agree with it).However, here everything depends on the way a Staree handles her/him in this situation. I like analogies. To give an analogy here :-

You have a diamond necklace you want to wear to a party which catches immediate attention.There are 10 robbers on the road who will snatch it if they see it. It is your responsibility to either wear a sweatshirt and walk across to the party or take a gamble with the robbers.What will you do ? Will you make a propoganda to the robbers about your rights of wearing a diamond necklace? .

I may sound caustic, but it is the truth.

*Note 1 : On a lighter side, Speaking of evolution, We call apes as "apes".But just stop and think who evolved from whom and who is aping whom ?

*Note 2 : On a lighter side, Pink Floyd's lyrics like this will be meaningless :-

Strangers passing in the street
By chance two separate glances meet
And I am you and what I see is me.
And do I take you by the hand
And lead you through the land
And help me understand
The best I can.

Lambodara Lakumikara |
Ambaa suta Amara Vinutha ||

This was a song composed by Purandara Dasa which is taught in Carnatic music.
This was the first song which was sung by Richie (from Bayview, CA) just a few hours ago !

People, welcome the new and improved and musically inclined Richie back in Bengalooru :-) for a few days only

heheh....2 more boyz will be coming this weekend. It promises to be an exciting week!

Sreesanth's reaction to Nel.

Andre Nel Gives Sreesanth some trash talk and the next ball Sreesanth smashes it for a six! followed by some wicked dance as a reaction to andre nel's provocation

Watch Sreesanth's revenge on youtube.

blank noise project

In a new world of equality, in a new www of equality, I found feminists!!!!!!!

Man! These e-Feminists take eve-teasing to a new level.
I stumbled upon a site dedicated to anti-eve-teasing.

Is eve-teasing really so serious ? I think it should be taken sportively and women should know how to handle it.I have never eve-teased, but if a girl is really good looking 100% of the guys cant help staring and sometimes, even , making a remark. It is pretty natural (even the girls know it) , right ?

This is the URL BLANK NOISE PROJECT for the anti-eve teasing squad.

I wrote a comment for them. I am an anti-feminist and I believe in equality.

My comment was written in the spur of a moment.It ran something like this :-


Hmm.I stumbled upon this website by chance.
All I can say is , I differ on many view points here.

This is a classic case of sensationalizing a whole issue as common as "eve teasing". It is ubiquitous and it is going to be there as long as humans exist.

"Eve teasing" and looking is more of a biological behaviour rather than a societal one.

Picture this:-

If ANY OF YOU "harassed girls" were a GUY ,you wouldnt start such a project, because you would be one of the guys teasing a girl. It is natural.

The very nature of eve-teasing is analogous to a like a "clap" which requires two hands. If you contribute and act as a superior species, you tend to get teased more.

By promoting such ideas, by saying powerful words like "trauma" and upsetting the "mental health of women", you are just taking a small thing to ridiculous proportions....

But I am sure there are many guys around there, who have different views.
Whatever! Women are pampered.Thats all I can say.

What I want to do ..

When I am in Bangalore ..

Lovely food at home .. Mom's ofcourse (desperately waiting)..and this time I will have my Sis-in-law too.. ofcos my aunt and ajji
catch all my friends (no exceptions of missing out anyone)
Go travelling, (atleast a day), by car.. I need to drive my SWIFT ... :)
Eat out at all the fav hangouts - SLV, BCB, Ashoka Pillar, Pavitra, bhel puri etc etc etc.
visit some dhabas .. :)..
India rocks in food .. such good food for so less :)

Samarthanam .. and I want to go with the DSF guys once to a school
Watch some movies .. and buy some dvds.. rang de basanti ..

nightout at Teju's / papanna's place .... and talk the whole night ..

3 more exams stand between me and all these.. just 3 more .. inconsequential exams :) ..

Killing the fun..

The whole concept behind devising exams, is to kill the fun of learning .. :D ..

The mood is quite gloomy around the campus.. The weather is awful too.
Everyone is locked in room cramming every bit to give their best in the next 4 days. Suddenly, the competitive atmosphere has brought the coldness in people and atomosphere.
No one smiles or talks .. everyone is running around.. even in the bathrooms .. 2 min baths ..

Heard that the library is overflowing .. u c reading people everywhere.. quite sadddddddd... 4 more days .. end to the drama for me atleast .. some people will have one more exam .. :D ..

A friend of mine who was to be on campus today, gave a miss .. uhhhhhhhh...

The sun isnt shining anymore on the UST campus.. exam time u c ..

Kiran should give us a treat !!

After seeing this . 90 million dollars maga!!!!!

Beta blogger

The alpha-q blogger switched to the new "beta" blogger and the result is stupid. They have made the login very cumbersome. For me, I have to first login in the blogger account and later in the gmail account.

Grr.

I have this bad habit of trying something new without thinking abt the consequences. Or sometimes I am just too woolheaded. This was for the dialogues on the Yamaha yesterday

Been to Casino Royale and boy! I liked the movie. Especially the "chemistry" between James Bond and his love Vesper Lynd. The new James Bond is good with a short hair cut and the stunts are pretty good (especially the one that happens in Madagascar). And the suits are perfect to the T.

Hmm. Eva Green is a good choice. I was surprised to know that she was a French actress. Her accent and even her lip movement sounded/looked prudently british.

Well,I suggest you have a look at BV's review over here

Looking forward ..

The outlook for december is both bright and dull.. dull cos I have 4 exams continously.. sun - wednesday.. this is the first time after primary school I will be having such a schedule .. 4 exams with no break .. GRRRRRRRRRRRRR...

but after that .. I shall be in Bangalore .. my home sweet town..:).. I am excited to travel back for a break .. the excitement is about CHANGE.. someone said change is the essence of life .. people need variations, high variety means high quality of life.. one place where 6 sigma crap doesnt apply - oh yeah I am sitting in an OM class right now .. I am listening this great things about GE, Motorola, toyota.. and crap my company had a six sigma initiative too.. and our project was one of the coveted Ginny pigs for that initiative ..

back to blore, mane, friends,slv, BCB, Vidyarthi bhavan, MTR, bhel puri, paani puri .. ohhhh I am excited ..

Richie, lets play some poker too.. teju mane alli adda, Nair will u b there ?

I really really hope I get my tickets today...:)

Colorful Language?

"For years flying has been the preserve of rich fuckers. Now everyone can afford to fly."

This was a quote from a CEO of an airline.This wouldnt have been termed as "colorful" if a layman said it. It would have been called vulgar. Nonetheless, with so many ass-lickers in the planet, they would term it as "coloful".

O'Leary makes colourful and extravagant use of the English language

When a layman speaks something like this, I am sure it will not be called as "Colorful" language!!

Have a look at some of these quotes by Michael O'Leary, the CEO of RyanAir.

n the slightly wider Airbus A320 fuselage: Ive heard a lot of horseshit about a wider fuselage. I've yet in 15 years in this industry to meet one passenger who booked his ticket based on that. The seats have been wide enough and the aisles have been wide enough for passengers

On rivalry with British Airways: "There's too much 'we really admire our competitors'. All bollocks. Everyone wants to kick the shit out of everyone else. We want to beat the crap out of BA. They mean to kick the crap out of us."

My favorite was this :-

"It feels like Laurel and bloody Hardy are working at the Department of Transport coming up with these security measures."

More on Wikipedia

Weekend

As another weekend passes by, I notice a pattern in my thought. I keep "getting the big picture" EXCLUSIVELY during the weekends ONLY."Getting the big picture" is a synonym for stirring up under-currents for your inner peace.This symptom doesnt happen on a weekday.I guess I am too busy to notice it.So, is it better to get "lost in the details" and forget "the big picture".

One part of my mind says Why not ?
Another part says immediately Why, "why not?" ?

Okay, now moving on, I saw two movies. One was Dhoom2 and the other was "The Shining".I liked them both.I want to write a serious review on both of these, but I guess I am too lazy to start thinking about. I am still thinking about a necklace problem which I saw morning in the topcoder website. I wonder how the "coders" get answers in 1 minute 15 seconds. Phew.I have to pep myself up for tomorrow.Some josh is lost..

Monday morning blues have started at Sunday evening itself. Irli....

Some people are good !!!!

There was a message which ran something like this in our bulletin board.


If you should ever be forced by a robber to withdraw money from an ATM machine, you can notify the police by entering your Pin # in reverse. For example if your pin number is 1234 then you would put in 4321. The ATM recognizes that your pin number is backwards from the ATM card you placed in the machine.

The machine will still give you the money you requested, but unknown to The robber, the police will be immediately dispatched to help you. This information was recently broadcasted on TV and it states that it is seldom used because people don't know it exists.


I thought it was a brilliant idea. Until I saw this awesome reply :-


I dont think so....
what if the PIN string is a palindrome
for ex: 1221


Hmm whatever...

Software Lab ?

I really dont get or cannot fathom the thought that software is written in a "lab".

Atleast that term maybe hesitantly applicable for companies for Google, IRL etc. where they are not much worrried abt "outcome of a work with strict deadlines"
Otherwise the word "lab" SHOULD have a strong association with an academic institution.

But typically services industires like Infy/Accenture write software for dail and commercial use.Such a software is not a software written in a " R&D lab".It is written in an office. It is a pity that the business-men still sell the idea like we have worldclass software labs in our facility.

Look, what I mean is, if you are writing a software for a PARAM super-computer, or a CRAY machine or maybe some hardware "device" that is not exactly as "household" commodity as a computer, then the word "software lab" is fine, because, the device itself is not common-place. But a services company like Accenture opening a "Lab" (to create Desktop/Server/Web applications)....ha! it doesnt make sense.

Do people who work in offices / banks call the place they work as a "lab" ?

They are making the word "lab" very hackneyed and rather abusing that word.....software is no longer some hifi thing.

So articles like Accenture to open a lab in Bangalore sounds like a joke.

The Monk : Im gonna get out of the monastery.

Sailor : Why, Yes! Just sense the breeze, I can give you the sail.
But what happened ?

The Monk : The merchants and the businessmen. They ate my fruits.I have to wait for the next harvest.

Sailor : Hahaha....So what next ?

The Monk : The joker/vagabond, the belle with an aquarium with a goldfish and the goldsmith with the gifted hammer look unhappy. The intruder keeps irritating the shit out of me.

Sailor : The seas are afresh and you are not sea-sick for the moment.So do you want my ship ?

The Monk : Well.....hmmmmm.....


PS : all the characters are real-life inspired

Things

have started to lessen and I am back to a day where I have to do something new. Meanwhile things have been pretty good on weekends. Met Tejaswi on the weekend , took the tickets for Casion Royale , however we could not go for the movie....It was damn too late and the Castle Lager at Ruby TUesday was awesome....

My music concert took place....We did pretty well...(we got a good applause!!), but there were some initial problems of tempo .

And, I saw a fly sitting on my desk today and I started to wonder how a fly flies.

I had seen a program on TV yesterday on National Geographic regarding flight of birds....Superb.

But, the flight of an insect is very different from the flight of a bird.They can stop mid air, fly backwards, very fast and very quickly change directions..... Modelling an aircraft which will flap its wings like a fly and fly like a fly might look impossible. So fast and so manoeuverable.The most obvious application of this research is the engineering of extremely small micro air vehicles.Check this wikipedia article on Insect flight

MBA ...common sense ??

There are a lot of accusations about business admin being an art and not science... And also that it is an application of common sense .. HMMMMMMM...yeah... for genius even nuclear physcis, computational theroy will be common sense ..(Good Will Hunting)..

What I have seen in the past 3 months is a lot of technical stuff.. not realated to comp sci, but business. There is a lot of content in MBA, and the most amazing thing is it can be seen daily newspapers. It is a different fact that not many of us understand all the jargons in it .. sometimes if we do, we do not know the mechnaism behind the jargon...

MBAs are not the best enterprenuers .. Yeah agreed.. cos after this course you know so many risks of running a business, you dare not venture out into anything .. heheh... if Gates/Dell had done an MBA course ... I think they would have joined IBM/HP.. instead of creating Microsoft and DELL respectively... MBA gives a scary picture about business.. you learn a lot... and lot of common snense ?? naaaa.... it depends if you want to learn common sense or technical stuff..

ps:-accnt exams at 2.. havent reviewed the content of this blog

Jammin'

I am jamming for a song...I play bass on the keyboard (heheh) ...Last minute addition...Since the guys at our office could not find a basssist, I was asked....I said I will try....My first impression is playing with speakers music and a fast tempo is quite difficult....But the rapper and the drummer are really good...I somehow manage to survive the tempo....I need a formal training antha obvious aagi gothhagathaa ide...

We are playing a Malayasian Tamil Remix song..The original was by Illayaraja..It is pretty cool....You can check it (remix version) out (with speakers) here

:O

(via my slice of pizza)
This is the wikipedia entry for associate prof.Erik Demaine. So whats so special abt that?anybody can create a wiki for anyone, that is not the point. Just look at his age and look at what he is doing. Look for the age at which he completed his bachelor's. He joined as faculty at MIT at the age of 20!!!I mean its 20..and we are talking of being faculty at MIT..

I guess when he started teaching, he must have been younger than most people in his class..hehe..

some people are unbelievably good at what they are doing..

His homepage here.

do U get what U want ??

I want all the latest bollywood flicks .. and some tamil and kannada .. but I will not get it ...

A pattern with me is that I become a movie maniac when I am outside my home city .. otherwise I am a movie buff ..
in this week I have seen the following .. ( remember I am doing my MBA and have an accounting exam on Sunday)
Don,
Devil wears prada
casino royale
gods must be crazy
6 episodes of friends
garam masala ..

hmmm. I dont look like a student ...
I dont want good grades, I want interviews for internships and internships and jobs .. but they seem to be elusive too. Dont know if I will get good grades ... (never cared during my undergrad and the tradition continues in my mba too )...

anyone has anyone contacts for internships ..please please drop me a hello .. :)
I will be looking forward to discuss about this further with you ( aaaahaaa.. cover letter taraha idhe .. ) ..

I just woke up from a 10 hour sleep after a thanks giving dinner(very warm one), accnt studies(sucks) and devil wears prada(go for this one ..) ..
so excuse me please ..

cheers
GD

Prof Muhammad Yunus

Thanks to Nobel foundation, this man is famous today. But in my MBA, people do not talk about him fervently ( neither would people in any MBA ) as they talk about Goldman Sachks, UBS, Merryl Lynch, McKinsey, BAH .......... baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Its all about money in here ..
is that is because most of us are in debt and we need to recover it asap .. ?? no is because we chose it .. its because our mentality is to make more money ..
We have been bred and buttered to be that way .. and its hard to change ..

but I think I am proud of most of my classmates (pesit) .. most of them realize the value of giving back to the society .. I found more people like that in Infy .. all of these ppl are contributing in some way or the other ..

I wish to see a Nobel peace prize winner.. :) .. I hope ..someone succeeds ..

Someone wants to do a Phd in Macro and micro economics ?? instead of accnts and finance or computer science/electronics ?