Something Bizarre

Hanging clouds

2009-11-25T14:41:00.001+05:30

Taken at Sri Kalahasti

Tirumala hills

2009-11-24T14:24:00.001+05:30

Misty morning

IIPM brouhaha

2005-11-03T12:31:00.000+05:30

If anyone is still unaware of the IIPM saga - here are a few pointers on what has happened and happening?

http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/051026glaser/
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/globalvoices/2005/10/10/india-defending-freedom-of-speech
http://www.jammag.com/careers/articles/mbacorner/iipm/index.htm
http://gauravsabnis.blogspot.com/2005/08/fraud-that-is-iipm.html

Bloggers all around India are fighting against Arindam Chaudhury and IIPM. Legal censures are going on against the people who write facts about IIPM.
And it has even led to one guy quitting his plum job with IBM to defend his freedom of speech!

It just questions the tenets of democracy in our country which we are making much ado in the world!!

And also makes us aware how deep the rot of making money and doing business has oozed into the field of education in India. I myself, am a victim of the commercialization of education and have faced the worst adversities during my graduation days. The great money spinner called UIT(University Institute of Technology) set up by Kerala University still runs in a primary school in TVM and still has tatched roof on top and no basic facility or labs or faculty. During those days we the students tried to do a agitation against this atrocity by bunking classes, but alas! the mgmt played politics and made us the culprits and we were put in a bad light. And after this like school days we had to bring our parents to enter back to the classrooms. In front of parents the staff rebuked and made allegations claiming that we were indiscplined and arrogant and what not.
And still the rot stinks in the same place. Nothing has happened and nothing is going to happen unless some one comes front and is ready to sacrifice his career and do something drastic to change this.
And not surprisingly, it was the worst campus expereince I had in my life, but amidst this clutter only beacon of comfort was the good friend circle which was developed and all the fun we had. And even today after 7yrs of passing out most of us are in touch!

Happy Diwali

2005-11-01T15:37:00.000+05:30

Nov 1st - Karnataka Rajyostava, Kerala Piravi, Diwali!
Auspicious occasion to update this blog which has been in somnolence for quite sometime now.
Thanks to the kick start of protoiyer's musings here I'm trying to awake from this slumber.

Its expected that the world-wide fan club of Proto is going to visit here through his musings page :)
Atleast that is what he has forewarned. Let's see what is gonna happen!

Diwali as always is the auspicious occasion for Tamzhs around the globe. And probably a good day to add a couple of inches to the waist line, thanks to plethora of sweets and irrestability of limiting them for a sweet tooth person like me. This time also it was no better, flow of sweets started from morning from all the neighbours....gulab jamuns, laddus, kalkandas, burfi, milk koa, cashew halwa.....a jist of things which I had plattered today :) But still I'm sure I will give no competition to Proto and his Dairy Milks.

Ordeals of a war

2005-05-10T11:19:00.000+05:30

By chance ran across this blog :- http://iraqwardiary.blogspot.com/
Seemed to be genuine, was moved by the tales depicted and it debilitated my spirits.
Wars are gruesome and shouldn't happen. All bcoz of the arrogance of an empire aspiring to foster its imperialistic clutches.
Let peace prevail!!
Let better sense prevail!!

Travelogue - Srisailam

2005-04-26T11:18:00.000+05:30

After a long 1.5yrs stint at Hyd, at last got a chance to go to Srisailam this weekend, thanks to my family. Srisailam is a holy hillock in Kurnool Dist, round about 230KM from Hyd. Srisailam is conspicuous for its Shiva Temple where Lord Shiva is named as Mallika Arjun. This is one of the rare shrines in India with Jyothirlingam of Lord Shiva. Its about 2830ft above MSL. The precincts of the temple are jostled with Forest conserved under Project Tiger. Yes Srisailam-Nagarjuna Sagar is a Tiger Reserve in India.
We were all set to start by 7AM from home by cab booked at Safari Cabs.
7AM all packed and ready and waiting!
7:15AM Still waiting
7:30AM Restless
7:45AM Pissed off
8:00AM Enter a gaunt man with an freakish smile!
It was a bad start for the day when the driver rode in late by one hour, so the wheels started rolling only by 8AM. To add to the delayed start was a slouch driver. At the onset itself we smelled trouble and we felt that driver had boozed and come. But ironically he was swearing he hadn't and we took a chance and rode forward.
15km up! - Enter Highway. The true colors started coming out from the man behind the wheels. Car was hovering intermittently between 90km/hr and 10km/hr. Apparently we sensed he had no control of the wheels. Car was moving more like a Snake from one to other end of road, on and off the road. The worst nightmare was showing its face in front of us.
Another 5km we had opined a further delay in jumping out of that would be fatal. In the mean time his temerarious drive lead him to near kisses with a speeding lorry from opposite side, a near knock down of couple of bikes driving in front. The man seemed to be out of clue and was proving to be a pillage for the well planned trip.
30km up! - Out of chaos of city, arid lands on both sides with no traces of any settlement. A sense of claustrophobia was settling in my mind after being cooped up for .5 hrs in the death ride and I had made up my mind, its time to give safety a thought. There was no sense is carrying on this spooky adventure. We jumped out of the car and bid adieu to the bogey of this 30KM ride between life and death!
Ok there comes our good old APSRTC. The bus seemed to be like a jalopy but was still rolling on thanks to the coruscating abilities of the russet man behind the wheels.
It took us to a near by village called Amangal about 50KM from Hyd. Amangal had a couple of shops and a dilapidated bus station. There were no taxis or other conveyance means available. The only go was to wait for another APSRTC to arrive from Hyd to Srisailam.
Meanwhile I just took a walk through the dusty road of Amangal and spotted a private Ambassador parked in one corner of the road. Just took a chance and set on with a deal with driver. Finally the owner agreed to take us to Srisailam and drop us back to Hyd for a wholesome 2000/- bucks. And the journey began leaving behind us the ordeals of first 30KMs.
The new chap behind the wheels was sensible and drove with a panache. And atlast SriSailam by around 1.40pm. Luckily temple was open and had a heartful glimpse of the Jyothirlingam as the crowd was mean at that point of time. After the nice darshan and sumptuous lunch we set towards the Shikaram which is the highest point in the Srisailam hills. Got some good view of scenaries around. Folklore says that Lord Rama had come to this point and seen the Temple down below, so who ever comes to this place and prays is liberated from the chores of life and death. So me too got that moksha ;-)!!
Moved on to Srisailam dam built on Krishna river. The dam site had some awesome views of the river Krishna in her whole might and picturesques mountains adoring Krishna. Clicked the camera around envisaging for capturing those wonderful moods of nature on a 4'x6' piece of paper.
And finally by 4.30PM the wheels moved down to Hyd. Reached Hyd by 9PM. What started as a nightmare ended up as a memorable trip and thorough fun!!
Till now haven't heard from the Safari Cab guys asking for payments for 30KM I drove with drunkard. Hyderabadis - you need to grow notches above in stature for defining what Customer Service is? Time is ripe now for all these Service Providers to relegate their unprofessionalism and elate their customers, when Hyd is vying for HiTech status along with Bang and Chennai.
As an end note - I am smitten by the thought that two of the major Tiger Reserves in India have places of worship in the heart of their core zones taking a toll on the conservation efforts. One is this and the other one is Sabarimala Ayappa temple which fall in the percincts of Periyar Tiger Reserve. May be the gods weren't prescient about the plight of tigers and forest in the 21st Century propelled by man's gluttonous blight. Sometimes "Gods are Crazy"!!

Reminiscence - Vishu

2005-04-14T17:09:00.000+05:30

Vishu - the time of the year, where Yellow Blossoms, Trees plush with Yellow Flowers and the onset of Yellow Mango Season......the day begins with sight of the abode of Lord in our Home.
Its a festival celebrated with verve by both Tams and Mallus. By being a Tam in Mallu Land we have as always taken good from both the world and celebrated Vishu with pomp!
Its new year for Tam, Mallus start the day with Kani in the morning and the most exciting part of this day is Kainettam, where money is given in handful. A great occasion for encashing big bucks!!
Its on this day where anew notes and coins make way from RBI coffers straight to our pockets, thanks to Kainettam from elders.Those glittering coins and whiff of newly printed notes all crackling in our pockets, as youngsters we had a field day.
A mini smorgasbord waits for the lunch......end of the day happy-happy - pocket full and stomach full.
Thinking of this day - one thought that comes to my mind is early start of the day. Yes! the dawn from bed is at 0230AM! No cribs here, for once in a year I can do that. The day starts with Nirmalya Darshan at Sri Padmanabha Temple at 0315AM.
Probably the only day in a year where I used to sit and study in morning.
Time has passed....leaving behind me a trail of good memories of the yesteryears......today in the midst Java & OLAP little can be done to enliven those effervescent times. But memories die hard....with those deluge of thoughts of those good old days, we celebrate Vishu today in our own small space within four walls and confined within ourselves, with no one to give and take Kainettams and lots of thoughts and memories given and taken.
Happy Vishu!

IT Guys Dilemma

2005-04-11T12:44:00.000+05:30

Gagged at Work - "I" way

2005-04-06T10:19:00.000+05:30

The ludicrous ways adopted by the Software Service Companies in India has by no means an end. Agreed they have banged on International IT market with panache and their imperious marketing and positioning has given sleepless nights for MNCs. But inherently its very skeptical as to how long the honey moon is going to last?

Ultimately I believe that company can survive in long haul if you have the right people at the right place. But nothing seems to right now as they are groping in dark as to how to manage the burgeoning resource strength.

A case in point is an experience of a dear friend G(name changed) during last one month at "I". G is an mainframe connoiseur managing a team for last 2yrs or so. Presently G is managing a project in .Net which is gonna serve internally as there seem to be slump of mainframe projects. Ok well and good "An Idle man's mind is a devils workshop". So let not devil creep in and let G peep into the wobbly .Net and come out of the yesteryear mainframe thoughts.

Now these guys have a feeling that they have to move up the ladder from Service Oriented to Consulting Oriented company. The buzzword in Consulting is "Domain Knowledge". A word so enticing within the confines of the company that any body who can spit anything relating to that is going to revered as a celebrity, without validating what is that being uttered. And "Techies" are being ebbed out for the "Domain Experts". But man how are you going to build the system with Domain knowledge alone?!

The epitomization of this scurry behind "Domain Knowledge" reached when someone felt that all resources in realm of Banking or Capital Markets should go and pass the NSE Brokers test. Somehow there was a feeling that client will be impressed if u say your coterie has NSE Brokers!! who can speak, eat, drink stocks and debentures. But alas the poor resources including G had a bad run last one month trying to figure out "How to launch an IPO in India", "What % of Shares can be given in market", "What time market closes", "What is Greenshoe"?
And ofcourse there are hell lot of formulas for calculating many nuances in the market.

G took it as guillotine hanging over the head, just have to do it for somebody's sake. And ultimately managed to fail in the test. And some smart people around who could cram up the whole things Yes! including problems could pass the test. Ironically the test comes with always same set of numbers in problems and answers are going to be same always!!

But I would like to ask the gentlemen at top - Is this the level of proficiency you would like to achieve? Its too apparent to guess the level of expertise of these blokes.

Its time to ponder for us! Its time to foster peoples interest allow them to chose an expertise rather than forceful sublimation.

Disclaimer:- The views expressed here are my own and doesn't intent to hurt anyones feeling. All characters and examples above are ficticious, but the processes explained are real happenings.

Java: Object Array Casting

2005-03-31T10:05:00.000+05:30

Here is one interesting problem which I confronted in Java yesterday.
Well I was thinking I knew Java Language reasonably, but yesterday I ran into this issue which has left me pondering what is my level of proficiency in Java?!
Here goes the problem

String[] s={"Hello","There"};
Object[] o=(String[]) s;
for(int i=0; i System.out.println(o[i]);

Looks simple enough! but was shocked to find out that the above simple code resulted in an Exception - ClassCastException!!
Aren't those simple casts allowed? After all casting is a method which comes Handy many a times esp. in RTTI. I was wondering "How Come?"
At the end googled and found that array casting from object to another is not possible in Java. Means to say that all Strings are Objects, so go ahead and cast String to an Object. But all String arrays are not Object arrays. You can individually cast all member but not as a whole!
Interesting learning for me this one, even though I think this just one the primitive things which I have conveniently ignored.

Spineless India

2005-03-28T17:01:00.000+05:30

As expected India has lost the crucial test match with Pakistan at Banglore. Its shame on India to have lost without even putting a semblance of fight back.
India team is said to shredded with bounties of innate talent, but when it comes to pressure situations and winning matches they lack the instincts. They are just spineless cowards playing for preserving their places in their team.
Look at the way they have fared today - once Sehwag was lost the vice captain came in and created the pressure from nowhere by being over defensive. Does the so called talented player doesn't have the gumption to take a single of every 4 balls and atleast keep score board ticking. And even more ridiculous is the Master Blaster - every time when people expect him to bail out he cracks under pressure. Look at the score 16(95). By not playing naturally they just invited the Pakis to go on full steam and they were too happy to attack and go for the kill.
Its really outrageous to see VVS and Gangs batting in the whole series, I guess its time to give them a break a groom young bloods.
Win/Loss there should be a grace in it. If you are not even trying for it and caving in the shell meekly, its shame on you the over paid, over hyped Indian XI. You are an embarrassment for the country and let down for thousands of die hard fans.
This bunch of pakis have been pictured as weakest team to visit India and current coterie of India is projected as the best being produced. Just an ample truth exposed today of the quality and standards.
Its time to take a few attitude lessons from Viru.
Rubbing salt to the injury is the Indian media, which has given prominence to Tendulkars INDIVIDUAL record of surpassing Gavaskars' run tally rather than the ignominious defeat.
Spineless Indian Team take a break and drink Mothers Milk.
Interesting comment on cricbuzz - Indian time looks like a walnut, looks tough to crack but once broken just crumble into pieces.

F16s to Pak

2005-03-28T10:15:00.000+05:30

The imperalistic Bush Regime has again weeded out its evil design. This time through sale of Multi Combat state-of-the-art aircrafts to Pakistan. At this point of time when we (India and Pak) are in road map to peace, by way of cease fire, by way of cricket matches, by way of road links, by way of gas pipe-lines, the US the so called harbinger of democracy is at its autocratic best by being fetish in creating anarchy in the region.
The US never want peace in rest of the world. An unstable Asia means they can flex their muscles and exploit the resources here for their comforts.
The blatant lies which Ms. Rice had said when she was in India are nakedly exposed. What she had mentioned was that there was no plan for F-16 deals with Pak now, but hardly a couple of weeks ahead US is going ahead with a couple of dozen F-16 consignments to Pak as a part of reward for its fight against terrorism. No body is clear as to what role Pak has played in war againg terror when Pak itself is the greatest haven for terrorists and Jehadi's. But US doesn't care they want their interests to be in fore-front putting in peril the lives and interests of rest of the world.
Soon India will also go in for a shopping of MCAs. But India shouldn't buy US technology, as they won't hesitate to hold us is in ransom during servicing of these aircrafts or transferring some technology during later years for fostering their interests. It would be best served for India, if we can buy MIG-21s from Russia, with whome we have good relation or even Mirage from France or Gripen from Sweden. Say NO to F-16s or F-18s.
Its a irony for the whole world that 6% of people (US) are trying to exploit 94% of people in this planet through imperialism and military power.
Lets hope for the day when imperalists will meet with their nemesis as a prey to their own evilness ........for its not impossible!

New to Blog World

2005-03-25T16:31:00.000+05:30

Well this is my first experience with blogs.....
I have seen it being used extensively by blokes around me...I used to think it was only for geeks!!
I am not sure what I am going to post here and how frequently I am going to use it.
Any way its a new begining