Yaadein

"bas ek bar wapas lautne ka man karta hai

Aaj har wo din jeene ko man karta hai.

kuch buri batein jo ab acchi lagti hain

kuch batein jo kal ki hi batein lagti hain.

abki baar class attend karne ka man karta hai

Dopahar ki class mein aakhein band karne ko man karta hai.

Doston ke room ki wo baatein yaad aati hai

exam ke time pe wo hasi mazak yaad aati hai,

college ke paas razakiya ki yaad aati hai

tab ki bekar lagne wali photos chehre pe hasi laati hai.

Ek aisi subah uthne ka mann karta hai

bas ek bar wapas lautne ka man karta hai.

bas ek bar aur

wapas lautne ka man karta hai."

-Came over office mail

Scribbling

A sudden gust of wind caught me unawares,
and the flame went out.

The flame that I had kindled
and carried with much care,
gone in a fraction of a second,
leaving me in the pitch dark.

My heart sank,but I decided to move on.
But those efforts were in vain,
as I fumbled and stumbled in the dark.

For a moment, with my body numb with cold
and limbs bruised by the stumble,
I stood perplexed in the dark,
knowing not what to do.

I don't know for how long I stood still,
but soon an eerie sense engulfed me,
and I felt myself smiling.

I had begun to love the new found darkness,
and soon fell in love with it.
Now I prefer it over any of those
unfaithful flames of light.

Moral of the story:
"Velicham dukham aanu unni, Thamasallo Sukhapradam"

Some interesting sites

Earth Album is an interesting mashup obtained by combining flickr and google maps. It allows you to click on any place in the map, and load photos from flickr based on that place. It doesn't allow selecting very detailed places,but allows keyword and category based photo search on a location as well. It is worth enjoying for sometime.

Breathing Earth, is an awesome flash site that shows in real time a lot of statistics about CO2 emissions and population in various parts of the world. It is an innovative idea and the site has been designed well.

Uber Super, is an awesome photography site. Its pictures are really breathtaking and creative. Never knew so much can be caught on camera in such ways..

Musicovery. This is from my StumbleUpon "Music" category. This site allows you to select a mood you want and they will play music of that category online. There are various options to play in a sequence. The only downside is that the songs are from Amazon,itunes etc that are paid and many of the features of this site are for premium members only(sensibly so as music needs to be paid for). But I really liked the idea.

Thats all for now.Please leave comments. I would love to hear from you readers

Early Morning Blog

Now this for a change. Waking up at six in the morning,shivering all over, I felt that today I will do something different for a change.
So, while bringing in my dry clothes, this idea to blog early in the morning came to me. So here I am..


So, what am I upto early morning on a weekday?? :)

Well, the matter is that I finally bought a new phone for myself. A 6303 classic Nokia phone is quite refreshing and was for a long time in the pipeline. It replaces my old 6060 phone,which would have been KIA if I had not decommissioned it soon enough.

With my new phone satisfying my needs to a good extend(3MP camera and music+gr8 battery), I have been busy fiddling with it.
The point of waking up early is to simply download a few videos,convert a few, and transfer them alongwith some more songs into my phone,to make it my entertainment hub. Huh,makes sense? It should.

The funny thing is,as I keep moving more and more media into the phone, more and more songs/videos appear in my mind and persuade me to find 'em and move 'em. (I am sure this is gonna happen only till the memory gets exhausted..which is just a few mbs away).
Anyway, it feels different to up early in the morning, and shivering a bit now and then while typing this. :D
Sayanora,have a gr8 day ahead for those who read this in morning, and good night to those who r basically nocturnal :D

Bibliophilia flowing over?

Hi friends, yet another post on books. For those wondering whether I have turned into a bibliophile,the answer is NO.

Its just that once I got separated from my incessant addiction to my own pc and got into work as well,I find reading books a good hobby. In the few boring hours I get for my leisure activities I just prefer to read some novels instead of browsing the net for nothing special. Earlier I would decide to sit down and watch any movie and some of my collected audio/video/docs. But now ,as my hard disk at home was accidentally formatted ,I have become a pauper with respect to digital content that I own.

Now I had been reading quite a few books these days. Last month when I went home,I managed to get hold of half a dozen books from Manu.One of them being "The Google Story",the attempted book review of which I had posted previously.
The other books I had finished reading(or simply read),in the chronological order are:
1) Paths of Glory by Jeffrey Archer-an awesome story of George Mallory who is believed by many to be true conqueror of Mt.Everest
2) Sherlock Holmes Collection of Stories by Arthur Conan Doyle-A dumb and boring read which I abandoned by the sixth or seventh story.Very repetitive.
3) The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason-A partially cooked book that tried to resemble one of Dan Brown,but the story just seems to emphasize the greatness of their university i.e Princeton,rather than the main plot.But found it entertaining till 3/4th of the pages.
4) Kane & Abel by Jeffrey Archer-Archer is climbing my list as my favourite author with this one. I still have a about 60 pages to go in this one,and I am excited. At many parts the story tends to resemble "Sons of Fortune",but certainly is different.

Today I also made a purchase of two books with a gift coupon I had received from office. I had made a long list of books to look out for,based on internet reviews.But I couldn't find any of those there. So finally got a book "The Prodigal Daughter" by Jeffrey Archer and another book by Alistair McLean. That means I got a lot of reading ahead :)

Trying to write a book review

Now seriously, I have no idea on writing a book review. But I have been thinking of starting this new thing also. And the best place to write to is my blog,which I doubt hardly any sensible person reads nowadays(making it safe for my experiments [;)] )

So here goes..
The book is "The GOOGLE Story" (OK, majority of the people out there would have read this already) by David.A.Vise. I had taken it from Manu the last time I went home.
I had always wanted to read this book,but couldn't get my hands on it before.

I had started reading this book in the bus(just as it left EKM bus stand on 4th Oct), and finished it just half an hour ago.

The initial parts of the book talk about Larry and Sergey,their families and how they met. Those chapters lay down the firm foundation of who the people are. It was very enjoyable to read,and think about.

Then later on the author brings to light how the idea of Google came up ,who all helped in its early stages(like Late Rajeev Motwani) and the problems they faced and solved(both technical and financial).

Later on when the company faces serious financial needs and the Google guys have to make a decision to get funds from the two venture capitalist firms,the nerdy view of the duo is taken off. They come out as excellent businessmen with a great idea and a never ending passion to implement it.

From that point onwards,the books tells how Google slowly grew up into a respectable company after the dot com bust. The way they managed to maintain growth and innovation,while not losing focus on their core area, made them what they are today. I really was inspired by their technical and business acumen.

Then onwards the author narrates how Eric Schmidt came into the picture,as well as many other new employees.A lot of small narratives have been provided to show how some key developments took place in the market. Everywhere the trio(Larry,Sergey and Eric) were highly active and involved.

Quite a lot of pages have been dedicated to throw some light on the famous Google lifestyle and atmosphere of the Googleplex,including the culinary facilities.
Also,Google's foray into the ad market was covered pretty well, and the various issues they faced while getting into the hot market are given as a good narrative.

Overall its a good read for a range of people irrespective of whether they already know much about the great corporate of our times. The author has taken care to keep technical content to minimum and make it narrative and easy to perceive for all kinds of readers. I must also admit that at some places,the author seems to praise the company too much,but overall he narrates from a neutral point of view. You will definitely like it if you are an ardent Googler...or a Googlomaniac.. so if you haven't read this book yet.. go get it and enjoy maadi...

Infy gates

The maisooru traffic police seem to have made the infy gate their favourite spot. This has been my observation since I started walking home from office(thats about 2 days back).

They find it profitable and easy to prey upon the hoards of young engineers of Infosys and L&T,as well as other companies in Hebbal area(who happen to pass through).
Well,I shouldn't call it 'preying',but my disposition w.r.t being fined for riding without helmets grants me the rights ;)

Though our company has a policy to stop riders who are not wearing helmets,many of them remove them once they cross our gates,only to be caught by the dozen or so traffic policemen stationed in front of the infy gate. It is usual to see a pair of policemen or maximum half a dozen to be deployed for such activities. But here I see all of the personnel busy with around 3-4 riders around each,either negotiating,begging or silently paying up.

Even some locals get caught(they are the ones who wud negotiate).They are the ones who take the liberty to assume that such an outskirts area would be safe for them. Poor fellows.

Many such funny things happen in front of the gates of the Indian IT giant. Being their neighbours,we get to see and laugh upon many. Though their presence has made life a bit costly and difficult for us as well,we take it lightly and instead amuse ourselves on the many idiosyncrasies of Infy lifestyle.There are a group of people in our place who smoke,drink or eat only Infy brand stuff,pointing to things available at the few shops opposite the Infy gate.

During our initial days of training, I was amused by the way many of my batchmates worshipped Infy or Narayan Murthy. Some used to say,oh how magnificent are their buidlings,how big is that,how this is available,blah blah.... I used to dismiss them pointing to the skill density advantage we have..and now that we are into our works,even the most desperate of those souls have no other feeling for the normal IT companies(this is not targetted at infy alone,so infoscions ..chill) other than pity, and sympathy. :D :D
As usual, its not who laughs,but who has the last laugh.

Diwali times...

This Diwali we had total of 3 days holiday,which included a monday. I am always happy when a monday is a holiday :)
So, I decided to pay my relatives@Bangalore a visit. Plus I had missed the Yahoo! and Subex boys the last time I visited Bangalore.Also, I was determined not to sit idly 3 days at Mysore,when majority of the people would either go home or be busy at their own homes.

So,I added the Bengaluru plan to my list by around Tuesday last week.I got time to search for many tourist spots,hiking and trekking areas of Karnataka. I was also involved in the community googling event of our team. We covered quite a lot of ground, and I was able to produce comprehensively relevant and detailed data on majority of the topics I got to handle. It was good to scrounge the web after quite some time.

Anyway, refreshed as well as rejuvenated by the extensive googling, I was eagerly waiting for the weekend to close in. On Saturday morning,I got into a volvo bus from the Maisooru Bus Stand at 8 am,and watched some kannada movie copied from Nadodikaatu series of Malayalam and dozed off,waking up somewhere near the outskirts of Bengaluru. Rest of the area, I observed ;)

At Bengaluru, I visited by cousin's place at Madivala.Also roamed around the smoky and war-torn city at night. The smoke was so tight by around 8 pm that we couldn't see the traffic signals clearly. Also, it was suffocating and stung my eyes. At that point,I swore to myself to encourage more and more people to stop bursting crackers for festivals. The sights and sounds of the metro during Diwali simply strengthened my cause.

Anyway,on account of the festival, we found many of the shops closed by around 7 pm and the famed Forum mall was almost vacant,and so were the numerous other malls and streets. That day, the crackers for me were provided by the Royal Challengers Bangalore,in the sizzling display of fireworks which didn't involve smoke.(Though the stadium wallahs were bursting many whenever a six was hit [:(] )

The next day, I had some 4-5 hours free, before I could visit my uncle's place at Kenkeri. So I decided to visit the Yahoo guys place a.k.a "Pulimada". Met them and went to Total Mall (erstwhile Kemp Fort),and saw the Shiva temple(cannot call it temple though). It resembled an amusement park made for 5 yr olds(or foolish adults),with all mechanical models of shivalingas.I felt ashamed seeing the kind of things they put up there in the name of God. It was fit for a good laugh,but as many people might be taking it seriously,I opted not to.After all religion is such an inflammable and sensitive issue ,wherever in India you are.

Then I went to Kenkeri satellite town, enjoying the outlying areas of Bengaluru on the way. That place is beautiful and serene compared to the nearby Metro. I enjoyed strolling out watching the crackers and celebrations in the area at night,until the smoke became too stifling.I got chance to explore the area further the next morning also.
Then was my first train journey in Karnataka(with start and end points within the state). I travelled from Kenkeri to Maisooru,a journey that took the precise 2 and half hours it was supposed to take. I always consider a train journey to be more rewarding than a bus or private vehicle,if you are interested in mingling with the local culture. And that is what I experienced also. I observed the differences and similarities when compared to a journey in Kerala.

By that my journey of the weekend almost came to an end. Its last part is just some funny incidents at my place,owing to the persistent efforts of the people in our area to fill up every dark corner of every house with the sound,smoke and light from their crackers. Woah,that was quite an effort, surviving the night without going deaf or blind...
Now back to the routine life of learning and earning,till the next weekend,when yet another adventure awaits me...

Night Journey

"I am sitting at Seat num 38 of the Rajahamsa express bus,travelling from Mysore to EKM. Finally getting to go home after more than a month.Though at the much feared back seats of Rajahamsa,its not been much of a trouble yet.Its cold outside and hence I am sitting with my face stuck to the window,gazing at the dark outlines of trees and mountains,up and down the curvy roads of the Ghats.
I realise that we are passing by beautiful landscapes,alas hidden by the cloak of darkness.
Still I find the forest so enchanting and calm. I wish I were out there,roaming inside the forests and exploring the terrain. I guess this is what they call,"The Call of the Wild" :D

As the tall trees pass by as gray shadows,a sort of gloom descends on me, as I feel separated from my destiny(or something) by just a thin sheet of glass.Now I recall my friend Jyothish's ideas,who is the enthusiastic torch bearer of the nature club and green movements in my college.The idea of regrouping here,at our workplaces in Karnataka and explore the forests of the Ghats...hm..now I should get some sleep!"

--Saved onto phone as text message at 1.05 am 2nd Oct 2009


Now that was something I have been keeping in my mind to post asap.
I am back home from Mysore after about 1 month. I find Cochin to have changed quite a bit here and there. New hoardings and buildings throng the place. Getting to see malayalam words after some time of Kannada/English/Hindi is also a joy in itself,however small it might be.

The climate of Mysore is quite similar to that of Kerala(minus the humidity and heat). It is raining there also now,so the difference is pretty subtle. But the colour of Kerala terrain is light green set against light or shady blue background,whereas that of Karnataka is sort of dry/brownish green against a dark or shady blue background. That is one thing I really found a contrast while staring at the surroundings from my seat.

This is not the case with all places in K'nataka though.I must admit that there are simply awesome landscapes in K'nataka(and believe me I have seen NOTHING yet). Enroute to B'lore once,near the town of Channapatna, I got to catch a glimpse of a magnificent view. I was in a local bus so couldn't stop to admire and neither did I have a camera(still don't have :)) to capture it. I can try to explain what it looked like. There were two rainbows formed across the light blue sky,both of them touching the lush green fields..resulting in an awesome display of colour and contrast.Also the sun was just out of the clouds,partially illuminating the top of green trees,leaving the lower branches to be in contrast with the lighter upper ones. I felt I was in heaven or something...there was no break in the scene for about 2 mins,after which the bus moved onwards to mortal lands. Thinking of it still gives me the Goosebumps.. :D

Now..returning to Earth..
After coming back I have been moving around a bit(when not downloading something or surfing),absorbing in maximum before I return to my workplace and settle into the lifestyle there. I am still in the planning phase of purchasing myself a good camera phone,and now the need for a laptop/pc is also added to the list,as my parents have expressed their opinion that I should buy my own system rather than transport whatever is there at home. Trust my parents to make me more responsible :)

Anyway its a learning period in terms of multiple facets of life.. :D
I will try to add some pics later on... and some from my Dasara views of Mysore. I forgot to copy them into my pen drive :)

Today is a day

Hi to all..
It is a bright and sunny day here at Mysore. A pretty calm climate for me..(not so for my roomie who is used to lower temps)
So after finishing the weekend chores of cleaning and planning,we decided to hit the cafe` for sometime and then proceed with our lunch. We have some internal assessments this week ...the last one I assume. After that we would be into real work...ooh

Things seem surrealistic about the exact nature of work as of now..but would be pretty real soon. I am itching to get started..

It feels good to walk along Kalidasa Road(near to which we reside)..which is a commercial hot spot of Mysore.To the left side of our building..K.D Road becomes a bustling metro shopping area..brimming with people of various kinds going about with their business. It has many branded shops and large supermarkets and lots of things to check out. On the right side..is the calm and quiet neighbourhood of Vijayanagara..which is almost ignorant of its rich and prosperous neighbourhood. The cafe` we found to be good enough is to the right side.. The ironies don't end there. I had once noticed that when its powercut time..one side of the road is brightly lit while the other is plunged in darkness...Also,if you just received your salary ,you tend to head off to the left ..but for the rest of the month you tend to go the opposite way .. :D

Anyway what is more interesting is the immintent mix of cultural attributes, which might occur as the result of a clash of the Titans. Now the process is slow..but would take deadly acceleration in the days to come..I have started to listen to old Kannada songs and even comment on how many of their hits are copies of Mallu ones or sung by Malayali artistes.. hurray to our music gods..

I think I have penned down many things by now..enough na? So let me take leave of you for now.. signing off with

First salaried post..

Hi I had been thinking of writing a post for some time now..

I couldn't find one particular topic on which to write much...but now I am simply writing :)

Just made my first spending with my first salary...that too on household items...:P

Things look pretty ripe for a drastic change...but being unaware of exact magnitude or even type...I am pretty discrete about it.

Life generally looks good and fresh for challenge over here..lots of new things to explore and try..with respect to my career and personal life as well...
I might have changed a lot with respect to my attitude towards many things in life..but I am not a judge of that...time is supposed to carry out that job..

I have found many good friends, and great seniors who carry something in their hearts that burn through even the toughest piece of steel or concrete...and that is nothing but the passion to live life the way they want,the passion to surpass obstacles,and to find success in all walks of life. Even while achieving all these, the biggest achievement is that they haven't lost their humility even a bit.

I feel that I must tell this to all those people who feel they haven't gained anything so far, or are unlucky in life etc etc... when the going gets tough,the tough get going. But even then the passionate ones always have an option to carve a path that distinctly smells of them..in the sense that it would be tailor made for such people, carved with their own sweat and sometimes even blood.
May the good God bless all believers and let lady luck guide the ones who believe in her...and maybe the stars and stones help those helpless fellows .. :P

Hi...

I am writing this post from our Browsing centre at C-TEA (our training centre).

Today I plan to go home ,after 4 weeks at Mysore. Now we have a great session on OS internals which would be followed by an even more interesting one for RTOS. All in practical senses.

Hoping to learn a lot and tune into the company's frequency asap...

The weather and food at Mysore is something I really liked.. Especially the short bursts of rains and bisibele bath :)


We are getting integrated with the life here..and my Kannada learning process is in progress...

Have to start thinking about my next blog and devote some time to actually post some good articles here.. till then its good bye from me..

Life@Mysore

Hi all readers...long time since i had posted something in my blog.

I am informing those who are not aware of my current whereabouts. I have joined Larsen & Toubro Embedded Systems and Software(L&T EmSyS) as a Graduate Engineer Trainee at Mysore.
This is my third weekend at Mysore,and finally got a good cafe` in our locality. Lot of things I have seen,experienced and learnt in these fruitful days of my life.Not much would I be able to put in here...but maybe some of them might appear in later posts..

I will just put up a list of things I miss here..
1) My computer and LINUX
2) Internet!!!
3) My friends
4) My songs and videos collections
5) The monsoon of cochin

This list is not in the order of preference..just the way I wanted to type it out...

Here, its M$ Windows everywhere...but no one can deny Linux its credits,so it still shows its purpose in our technical labs.That is the time when I get to share my bag'o'tricks with the rest of the batch...chatting over 'write' instead of dozing off in the C++ class.. :D

And about the internet..I realize the approx dependency I have on it...not as high as I thought it to be..but not too low either... :P
I do miss my hacking and networking stuff here...its a whole new learning experience here though...

And about friends..nothing can be said about it..as it is expected.and the missing will add sweetness to each reunion :D

I don't feel like blah blahing about the rest... :P guess I have grown lazy about typing ..

Waiting for many things to happen here... :D :D
Hope all my friends are doing well..and all readers too...thanks for taking the time to read through all these .. :D I hope to be back with good stories of my experiences and experiments with life...sayonara...

Thumba danyavada gallu...

Vinlandsaga

I am pretty gaaga-googoo on my mind these days and hence this craving for norse adventures sprouted up in my mind..

Of the gallant sagas of the northmen, is my mind obsessed with these days. So colourful and vibrant are some of the songs that are sung about them, that they ignite a wish to be along with them or at least see the world as they saw it. Brave were the worshipers of Odin and the likes to travel to far away lands in extremely precarious climatic conditions, seeking fame,money and adventure.

These rustic Norsemen were the first to cross the Atlantic and land at what is now called the Newfoundland( my memory is source,didn't bother to double check by googling). And praise for them only increases further, when you think of the plain longboats used by them without any navigational equipments like the compass. They had what is called the mariner's instinct and knew the seas like the back of their hands.

These men lived a merry life on and off the boats, drinking and eating to the full before and after an adventure. Though very limited records exist depicting lives of these seafarers, most of the tales are in the form of songs or sagas. Most of the written records are from the point of view of other nationals who came in contact with the Viking raiders( at a later part of history ). They depict the northmen as barbaric, though a major part of English history has been affected by the presence of these ferocious fighters and seamen of the North Sea. One such would be the support that Harald Hardraade the Viking gave to William the Conqueror to capture the English throne( from AOE memories ).

Here is an article from Wiki about Vinland

What i am and what I do

This is a post that I decided to finally put into writing after I read Neel's post on time being used efficiently.

Just see the heading. I have to admit that there is significant distance between the two now,i.e what I am and what I do. There are two other significant players in this situation, which are "what I want to do" and "what I want to be".

It seems that they are in the increasing order of difficulty in explaining and satisfying. Its pretty easy to be what I am ,and little more difficult to do something fruitful,but even more difficult to know what exactly I want to do with my time. And it is really tough and confusing to try to get an answer to what I want to be.

This irritating situation may partly be due to my own views on what I wanted to do with myself and my time on various previous occasions. It is also due to many of my impulsive decisions and frankly, many "well thought" ones which went awry.

Having done the task of thinking what I am doing with my time, and weaving plans to utilize them to suit my ambitions, once before; during the break after sixth semester,I know well now that it is a task that simply involves brooding over almost every thing that seems attractive. I tend to think over and over , whether this really is THE best solution. Its a condition that leads to insomnia and hair loss (possibly) :D . Armed with this experience, this time around I have decided to utilize my time to the maximum extent( again ), for a selected few alternatives in life.

So I decided to play more games, both on the computer and more seriously outdoors. Compared to the sixth semester, I have no real work to look ahead to ,that I can work on. But having said that , the present situation is pretty tricky. I have offers from companies , the call from whom maybe come after a minimum of three months (that too hopefully). Though I have managed to shelve quite a lot of my apprehensions and worries about whether the jobs in hand are the best and about various other options, by striking off alternatives, there remains many which need to be sorted out. Still, I feel I should simply concentrate on enjoying whatever time that is left, while not actually wasting it. Some wise guy's status message comes to my mind , which abstractly says that the beauty of life lies in the fact that you cannot get something without losing something else, and its not possible to get everything you want in life. There are better quotes out there, if only you bother to google around.

So, these days its all about keeping in contact with friends and family, playing enough games, running errands at home, learning some things new for myself and teaching younger ones or friends a few things I know and rest of the time, picking up good habits and discarding some of my bad and incompatible ones. Afterall at the age of 20 that I am now, and facing a new kind of life, it never hurts to be prepared at more fronts by fixing up those small holes,waiting for the whistle to go out and we would be charging into the open battlefield against god-know-what-all.

For now...Cheers to life!!

Addiction?

The old question is back..about video games and whether one is addicted to them..
I do play many variety of games..off late even many small ones(BigFish or Popcap) to just pass hours and hours of idle time..
I don't mind clicking away doing silly tasks in those mania or frenzy type games..until it gives me a pain in the neck and back accompanied with maybe a headache :)

But now they are so mundane that I am feeling to switch to those shoot 'em gory games...and not to other genres like strategy. I credit this affection to my wish to move things fast..rather than sit along playing slowly..maybe because my mind is tending to drift away..

I wonder how much I am 'addicted'. As per comments of non gamers..I do belong to the slightly addicted class..but according to established gamers..I am sure I am just a guy passing off his spare time .. gladly ! :D

Anyway I have other tools at hand other than the computer and its games to keep me busy..so hopefully I would prove myself to be not as addicted as I think I am :P

Note: I had wondered why I blog all these things not even 2 out of 1000 people wud want to know abt..and the answer I see is the paragraph just above this one ;)

This summer

I gotto admit that this is the worst Summer holidays I ever had..out of college..out of job and out of contact from my closest friends...

Almost all of my friends are either at their native place or can't find time for some fruitful meetings. A visit to my native place albeit short, was interesting. I was able to link up with an old pal from school.

The heat is excruciating, but the boredom is even more painful. I wish I could get a handful of people of my age together, so that we can play some sports or go somewhere. Sadly, none of those plans are materializing, thanks to our university for ending all exams much earlier than others.

Nowadays its just some good IPL matches, a few trips of medium range for various errands and a few books that keep the boredom in check.

What could I wish for now...what could I.. hm...just that something interesting and exciting or rather adventurous comes up..so that it keeps me occupied and on my toes.

Nothing much comes to my mind..so signing off..

Daredevilry all the way...

Its already started..and I am late to post..

The second edition of the Indian Premier League(or the indian 'paisa' league) has been moved to South Africa and have so far been quite a different show from last year's.
Though facing criticisms for the moving of location, which brought in bad weather and the introduction of the Strategy Break...Modi's boys seem to have pulled it off superbly.

The games are of higher quality this time, with all teams being better informed compared to last year about the format. All teams are looking good and there is lot for the poor Indians watching it over television to celebrate...

Speaking of the teams..my favourite is .. Delhi Daredevils lead by none other than the flamboyant Daredevil 'Viru'...accompanied by a pack of power hitters and sharp bowlers. Its a well balanced side with some serious daredevilry in the players which makes them more dangerous than the other balanced power teams..like the Chennai Super Kings(my second favourite)

Just now was a clash of the titans DD v/s CSK ...a truly enjoyable T20 game ...packed with all batting action of De Villiers and Hayden accompanied by the masterful bowling and fielding by both teams ( PS: Vettori is THE master.. :D )..and with such a gripping ending that saw the DD pulling it off...hats off to both teams..

The competition is just beginning to tighten..with more action and drama to follow...whoa..what a carnival this is turning out to be.lets hope the weather doesn't spoil all the fun... and may the best team take the honours (again)...

Pehla Vote

And so finally after all these years, I finally performed one of my duties to my nation and its people. I cast my vote for the Lok Sabha elections.

It is a fine(but hot) morning with all the people flocking to nearby booths, to cast their votes to choose who will lead our nation for the next five years. All those who turned out irrespective of what they do or who they are, surely give a lot of damn to the nation( atleast compared to those who don't care to vote).Hats off!

It feels good to be part of the democracy that we all praise( and criticize ) a lot. :D

And certainly I found it interesting to walk into the school where I did my KGs, after all these years..even if the visit lasted only for a few minutes.

Hope all of you citizens perform your part...

The manifestos are unappealing. The rhetoric is worse. The candidates are not to your liking. Don’t let this hold you back from going out there and voting.

Voting is a necessary step to change things. So go out and vote.

--picked from a site

I thought I would stop it here..but I want to appreciate the work of many NGOs and also governmental agencies to appeal to the people to cast their votes. This time around, a lot of push is being given. There are many sites, events and campaigns to catch the interest of the youth in the democratic process..one of them being Jaagore,with the tea ad and all. Hats off to all these efforts!

Choppy seas

Choppy..that's what I would call myself and the life around me..

Choppy seas need a rough oarsman and a tough captain...thats what I am churning out now...ye old seafarer..and no landlubbers ...

Am seeing many other skiffs and sampans floating around and some being guided by lucky winds..no point in waiting for the lucky wind to guide the ketch out to safe waters...

Enter Papillon aka Henri Charrière, the inspired and motivated protagonist of the half-fiction 'Papillon', who tried umpteen times to escape from the deadly sentence awarded to him by the French authorities(by being sent to the French Guyana) and finally succeeded in pulling it off...
He didn't just wait for things to get lucky..but tried his best whenever there was a chance, such was his belief in his right to freedom. Though his foiled attempts bought him hellish punishments..he simply KEPT trying...and he was a tough navigator and captain of the boat...

I feel no fear, but only increased sense of things to come...feeling that my hands would be full and it should be so, if I am to survive in the ravaging storms that lie ahead ..in this voyage. I carry the supplies provided by my good friends and my trusty Support&Survival gear that I have polished with my various encounters with life and danger .. (muhahah..sounding sinister ..and winking ;) )
I think this would be enough for today as I post another sticky one on the wall and simply walk away...not giving a damn.. (yo yo)

Life of hakuna matatas

Weird heading.. just came to mind..
I want to make up a write up about yesterday and today..I had promised myself on my way back home that I would.. so I am..

It all started with my usual lethargy to learn and stick to something for long time...ah..ok..I had CS-803 Industrial Organization and Management Examination today..so was trying hard to push in and keep stuff in my mind..finally leading me to doze off many times and caught a bad cold by evening..
All this made me sleep for two more hours,while I can continously telling myself that I have to learn this portion, restudy that etc..and when I woke up to study, the heavens opened up and it rained like cats and dogs, cutting off the power... :) plunging me into darkness...this somehow gave me the heart to sit and study in candle light for an hour or so(amazingly)..ending up in me sweating like a horse and finally couldn't sleep for 2-3 hours due to heat...

Next thing I remember is myself waking up at 7 am and somehow got ready and came to college and studied somethings here and there...went to exam hall..found a fairly simple paper..with some pitfalls here and there..in which I did dutifully fall ;)..but fairly I was glad and happy that it got over..and was excited about the group photo and all..and got chance to talk to pals of my class after some days..it all culminated in some photos.. and we decided to go for the second part of our childhood favourite movie "In Harihar Nagar" ...mallus need no more explanations...others can Google..so we went as a 'paltan' (platoon in english for u angrezis...)..with girls to stand in queue and take tickets..

Woah plans were many and complex..but all of that took hits one after the other when we came to know that the show was advanced by 1 hour and even after waiting for tickets a Little Shenoys(theatre), the tickets were sold out just as our friends reached the counter..bad luck and timing..we all sighed and some of the guys suggested to go for "Fast and Furious 4" ,the famed movie about machines and babes...(frankly thats what it is about). I half heartedly agreed coz I didn't want to kill the fun we were having.. and seriously all that turned out to be bad idea( I deeply trust my instincts now.. :))
We got advance tickets for the paltan of 9 and had lunch and stuff..and got ourselves in for some good starting action scenes...and then onwards...boring..sluggish dialogues and what not..only gaining life when a race happens..and the actions come in small amounts..entertaining only for short periods of time...the story being sketchy..I didn't understand much..and finally it got over..and we exited quickly..

On the way back it rained cats and dogs and I was caught unaware with no umbrella.."what a day"..tiredness of a sleepless night and boring film..thats when I decided to write this down..however long and boring it might become (:D..see..i can read ur minds..)
Then I got info on TCS offer letter in mail and all..and had a coffee with a pal(equally grieving on the movie) and on the way back to home..I saw it..the realization...the skies after the rains...it was clean...the road was clear..my mind showed a clear path in front of me..surprisingly soothing and calming..I found myself looking up at the sky and smiling..and good memories of my days at school and overall the days when my soul mixed with that of nature(rain in particular) came to me...and I turned quite poetic..words and tunes forming so clearly on my mind and asking me to look up at the sky..and find my source of happiness.. and as a way of pointing it..rain droplets fell on my head,face and heart...I felt pure bliss.no expressible in words or any blog..its my own feeling..let it rest in peace...
Finally I reached home,and now fixed some issues with Brothers In Arms: Earned In Blood Map files and am going to finish my campaigns...sayanora...btw I created 5 new quotes and thoughtful phrases..which I am seriously considering to document atleast for my sake..if you seriously read this far..and enjoyed it..I would like to receive your comments.. :D and tell me if the heading makes sense to u now..it does a lil bit to me..(Below is a quote I made yesterday...check it out)

"Don't just SURVIVE:LIVE LIFE.... KING SIZE !!!"

Painting Joy

This is about Joy Rafael, the friendly neighborhood painter.
I remember meeting this jolly old chap probably 16 years back..when we first moved to our new house..
With the work in progress, me and my brother used to visit the house along with our parents occasionally. During those visits, Joy always amused and entertained us by showing little magic tricks and talked things about buildings and how painting is the most interesting job in the world ;)

Even after we moved to the new house, some final works were left on the upper floor and hence Joy and his 'merrymen' painters used to hang around.Now, as both my parents are working, me and my brother used to be alone after returning from school in the evening. There was no cable tv at our home back then, and we used to play around the building with the various interesting stuff lying around (thanks to all the construction)...and Joy used to hang around us..keeping an eye on us( his version of it). Anyway we used to play with him as well as fight. This went on for about a couple of years.

In a couple of years,we had grown up and didn't find him interesting enough and we suspected that he was shirking work in our name..but still maintained friendly relation with him. He was a funny character. Due to our lack of time, he had the added responsibility of purchasing materials for painting( ie. occasional maintenance works). Over the years, we saw less of him, as he grew older and we got busier.

On 30th of March,I was woken up from deep slumber by my mother, with a shocking news.Joy had taken a fall from the terrace that morning and passed away immediately. I couldn't believe that the funny crooked guy simply ceased to exist, one fine morning. It took some time for me to come to senses and grip the reality. Later, on receiving an invitation for his funeral,containing his photo, I realised that he really won't be coming next time asking whether its time for a new coat of paint.
Joy, the painter of joy thus passed away, leaving a family consisting of two children, about whom he used to talk a lot. May God bless all...

Few good things

I was planning to post some of the quotes that have been playing in my mind for a while...

but now actually I am posting those quotes posted by my friends from Cochin Open Coffee Club(feel free to visit and register,its a great place)

The best :

"If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven't done anything today"

And abt ma curiosity(thanks to Nidhun for timely post):

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.
-Albert Einstein

I had been on the trail of truth for sometime now as it is study holidays are you are seriously supposed to study(and not mug up things ;)). These are testing times when we (especially as engg) have to be ready for any kind of actions and keep ourselves in the best form,mentally,physically,emotionally,spiritually and intellectually(k..tats exaggeration).

If I go on writing what comes to my mind, you might seriously think I am outta my mind, but seriously I am pretty sane (as of now).I just need some motivation and aa..what comes to my mind is a good status msg of one of my contacts..

Essentials of Happiness: something to do, something to love, something to hope for

There would and should always be something you can do. Lucky are those who have enough to keep their minds from being turned in the devil's workshop. I think that would do..adios got a SICk job to finish...

Closer to the truth

Two careful placed explosions brought things down to standstill for me in these days...one i got over with shrapnel still left. One I am trying to..and confidently will today itself.
Explosions do not always cause harm alone, don't we use controlled explosions to open up mines to dig up precious stones..well this is something of that sort. The explosion's effect leaves, lessons remain to be learnt and wounds left to be healed.

All this brings me closer to the truth to my doubts and questions..and would probably give me fresh insight into stuff around me. Readers please don't be bothered too much.. this sort of stuff is in the best of interests for me and the people around me, thats assured.

Btw the last days at college are going on now. Project work is over and internals stuff also over..just waiting for the university exams ahead with little preparation proceeding. Nostalgia strikes me now and then like some kinda disease and it takes quite an effort to break off it...

As a matter of fact, now that many events and memories of these past 3 and half years have been appearing in my mind, I get a clearer picture of many things that I had missed or even ignored...gone are those days anyway...but I sure have lot to put ahead of me to cover ...to good effect hopefully..signing off..

Silence that needs to be broken now and then

Oh great wheels of time, this time I am NOT allowing you to cheat me out of my desires...for I am no longer the same person who stared while you snatched away my dreams,my love, my hope...and left me lifeless and hopeless...


You thought I would wither away with time,so did many fools..but I stuck on,found my own path...made mistakes and had wrong turns..but found many gems on the path..gr8 friends who filled me with hope and soothed my wounds..

Today I can stand up straight and challenge you...try as much as u can to break me..oh evil winds...but u shall fail miserably,coz i am strengthened by faith and hope in myself...

Its true that what I have gained so far is nothing compared to what lies ahead,but if i can do this much in such a short period of time..let me make it loud and clear for the deaf and blind world...
"You might never be able to understand my ways,but I will once create such a noise that would open your deaf ears and light so flashing that your blindness would be cured and the veils you have on your hearts will disappear by themselves.."

Fear not my friends, coz I am neither mad nor angry..and not senti too..and this is not related to any one incident or event in my life..but an overall outcry of my emotions...coz i have been through hell and heaven..alone as well as with gr8 friends...there are things that you don't have to talk about,but there are things that you need to...whether it makes any difference or not for others...it does make for me :D

PS: didnt find any pic matching the mood..i am already out of hell..i am a new person...flowing new blood..with adventure in my heart

today's crawl

I present a few sites I just rounded up in this edition of my usual crawling process('parakke thappal')...of varying interests..

Sounds to help relax-concentrate-wakeup: This is a nice article from makeuseof.com that talks about different sounds that can be used to relax,concentrate or wake you from sleep. It is just a view of the author who is a Mac user and lists applications in Mac and a few in windows for that purpose. It sounded interesting and in fact most of us have a special tone or type of sound that simulates various parts of the brain,but many are not aware..so just try out!


Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs: This is a pretty interesting book from MIT that speaks of some good concepts. Its for the passionate programmer..

Ideas worth Spreading: Now this is a site with a novel concept.They talk about ideas about almost anything..even about creating ideas...sounds crazy,but I feel its pretty innovative. There is a similar site, with a more social aspect to it ideas4all. Its the concept that sparked my interest, I haven't checked the quality of type of contents yet...

Trace people online: Another interesting article that speaks about how insecure private data is on the web and gives methods to track someone over there..could come in handy ..and as a precaution for the needy..

100 vim commands: This is for the programmers who wanna master the use of vim editor in Linux. If you don't know vim properly, this site could help you.It has an exhaustive listing of useful commands, so you learn if that is you preferred way of learning( mine would be to combine manpages with web tutorials and books) ...

Economy of Giving it Away: Now this is a really good article . People interested and involved in the concepts of free/open source software or are plainly interested in web commerce would love the way points have been handled, without taking any sides...makes sense..

btw all these sites were obtained using Delicious bookmarks. I simply love it...check My bookmarks.

Happy surfing...

FOSSmeet@MEC

Hi all!!
This is the banner for FOSSMeet@MEC being conducted at Model Engineering College on 25th of January 2009. I am one of the organizers of the event. Its being planned and conducted by a group of dedicated free software enthusiasts which includes Sarath Lakshman, the creator of Slynux and a contributor to Google Summer of Code 2008.

Its a one day event and there would be sessions by eminent speakers of FOSS,like Atul Chitnis of FOSS.in, Shreyas Srinivasan of Gnome foundation and Santhosh Thottingal,the project admin of Swanthanthra Malayalam Computing. Its gonna be great fun and a good learning experience.

The event is being conducted alongwith our annual South India level techno-managerial symposium Excel 2k9 from the 23rd of Jan to 25th. MEC has been using Linux and Free Software in its labs for over a decade and is very active in promoting the same among the student community. As a part of its various community service packages, the computer students of MEC have been conducting introductory workshops for school students,polytechnic students and for unemployed youth on topics like Linux, Web Designing, Animation, Image editing,advanced Linux programming,embedded systems, Internet usage etc for the last one year. The staff too are actively involved in reducing the digital divide.

Even though that is the case, this is the first time we are conducting an event of such a scale and format. The response from various eminent personalities in the world of Linux/Free software has been encouraging.Hoping to see all of you FOSS enthusiasts and hackers at MEC on the 25th..make haste and register online as seats are limited.