Monday, January 14, 2008

My 2008 Pongal

This Pongal becomes an unforgettable one like last year. God wishes me to taste the Pongal prepared by somebody every year. I celebrated the last Pongal at my friend Satish’s home. I have been invited by him the day before. I was there at his house at 8.30 A.M sharply. I felt proud of myself for being very prompt. By the time I reached everything was ready after completing all the formalities and Poojas. I could see the Banana Leafs were lied down on the ground for Pongal to be serviced as like my Stomach. The entire family along with me started having very delicious Sakkarai Pongal.Ven Pongal was serviced immediately after Sweet Pongal along with Kootu prepared by mixing around Ten vegetables. Both were very delicious. I felt like being in my Hometown.

This Year Pongal is celebrated with the same Spirit .though I have been not invited by anybody this year. I was very much worried this year I may miss tasting the Pongal. Let me Thank my friend Selvaraj first.

I become very close to Selvaraj after I shifted my room to his house. We both have been working for the same Company Tavant for the past 3 years. During the initial time at Tavant we got to know each other very little because both were working for a different project. My school friend Nasar who also graduated from the same college where Selva studied. Nasar and Selva were roommates. Selva got to know about me more about from Nazar and this makes me and Selva bit closer.

An Year before we got a chance to work together for the same Team. Thanks a Ton to Tavant. Let me tell you the story which made as closer. Tavant decided to outsource some of the people sitting in bench. A team of 10 people have been asked to attend the interview at a company located in ITPL. But Selva was not there in the team. We went through all the interview process. Luckily I was through with the interview. A team of 7 including me were deputed to that company. Day by Day the team got shrink to 3 as people quit Tavant. So The client asked for few more people from Tavant. Selva has been asked to undergone a same process as like me before. After a month I have joined, Selva joined in my team. The time Selva joined most of the project groundwork were done by me. He came and pointed out few things which helped me later. We started moving very close.

An Unforgettable event at Client side I like to point out here. We both were working under a Team Lead never seen before we use to tell a Vadivel dialog many times after a meeting “Why Blood Same Blood”. One such an event, since I was in hurry catching the bus to my home town in one Friday evening, I decided to leave little earlier after informing my lead. So I decided to send out a status mail with the pending tasks and Every meeting ended up in quarrel. This misunderstanding between me and the Team Lead pushed me out of this company. Thank God. I had learned few things there “How a team lead should not be”. Then Tavant threw me to Fidelity. I and Selva separated. Selva was pushing Tavant side to get out from there.


Let’s move to Pongal celebration of this year.

Selva decided to celebrate this year Pongal at Bangalore itself since there is no holiday for us here. Selva sketched out a plan for Pongal celebration a week before. I assured him I will get him sugarcane. He has taken the responsibility of making Pongal.

The day of Pongal came. I woke up around 7 A.M and went to Selva to know the status of Pongal preparations. I couldn’t believe that he was just relaxing after finishing all the preparations. He woke up at 4.30 A.M and started the preparation it seems . It is unimaginable in Bachelors life. I will recommend Baradh Rathna for Selvaraj. Just to confirm I checked all the items prepared. Sakkara Pongal was kept in the Pooja room and Ven Pongal was also ready with Sambar. I asked him to have a Tea outside since he was looking very tired.

He was very strict to the time 8.30 to start the Pooja which changed my daily schedule. I use to go for a bath around 9A.M only. Luckily this time also I was very prompt. Pooja was done by Selvaraj. You don’t believe the Pongal was in the same taste as I tasted last year. Hats off to Selva.

Thanks. Selva wished me with a real Happy Pongal. I can wish him only with the words. Selva I wish you a Happy Pongal and the same Happiness and Prosperity throughout your life.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Last WeekEnd of mine

This weekend has become a Movie Weekend. Though I haven’t done anything special, I feel like done something very special. Watched two movies. The first movie is Anbe Sivam a bit old movie but worth watching again

A movie starts with a Two characters Sivam(Kamal) and Anbarasu(Madhavan).

The KamalHasan once was an union leader who struggles for the labourers by conducting street dramas to increase the salary from 910 on which the owner of the factory ParamaSivam(Nasar) sticks strictly not more than a single paise than 910.

The daughter of Nasar Balasarawathi(Kiran) fall in love with Kamal and they decided to get married at kerala secerelty with the support of the union friends. As planned Kamal travels to Kerala in a Bus which met with an accident by a Dog which comes along the way of Bus as driver try to turn the Bus without hurting the Dog. Though Kamal escapes with minor injuries, he fell from the rock while helping his friend to take out from the Bus. Public who runs to kill the Dog which was the reason for the terrific accident find kamalHasan bleeding and struggling for a life. They admit him in a Hospital and later he recovered but with an Ugly look and not able to walk without the supporting shoes.

As far as Madhvan is concerned, he is a Adfilm maker who leads a very costly life not met any much struggles in his life and wish to continue the same. He is in hurry to reach Chennai as soon as possible for his wedding. The fiancée is none other than the lover of Kamal BalaSarawathi.

These two completely different in person meets accidently at Airpost,Bhubaneswar

Sivam looks very ugly with scars on his face by which Madhavan misjudge him as a Terrorist and report to the police and realize the fact later. The dialog comes from Kamal in this Scene “Now a Days Terrorist are roaming as not like you think, they look very handsome and smart like you”. Simply superb.

The heavy rain and floods at Bhubeneswar makes them to stay together till they reach chennai. The sequence of incidents between KamalHasan and Madhvan during the journey moulds Madhvan well and makes him feel Love everyone. Who care for other unknowns become God by themselves” Simply said Love is God. God is Love.

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The second movie is the very latest Buzz Word Taare Zameen Par.

The Movie is about a kid Ishaan who suffers of dyslexia of Alphabets and Numbers.

The first half of the movie depicts how the kid suffers of this problem. The second half tells how the kid recover from this problem by his Art teacher Aamir Khan effort.

Once the movie started I just got mingled with the storyline and not moved a bit.

The Kid scores very badly in his subjects because of the dyslexia and started hating his school and bunk his classes. But He starts scoring 100% in acting from the beginning of the movie.

Every scene is simply amazing. Particularly a Scene in a class to which he wasn’t paying attention and watching out on a Path hole with rain water which reflects the sunlight. There are such many scenes which tells that he is very much crazy of water. As soon as he sees water , He started playing with it very creatively. This is found by his teacher and asks him to read the chapter currently she teaches. He started telling few unrelated words in Hindi the whole class laughs. Teacher asks him to tell it in English Loud and Proper. He just shouts ba ba ba ba and makes the class laughing and got punished.

The next class is mathematics to which all the students are asked to Submit their test papers signed from their parents. He remembers last day he threw the papers to the Dogs. He decided to bunk the later classes and roams around the city. Later he manages by getting absent note from his brother. Later it is found by his father and he shouted at him and beat him severely.

The school teacher and management gathers a meeting and inform Ishaan parents that he has some problem better take him out of this school.

Ishaan father decided to put him in a Boarding school. But Ishaan cries to his parents not to send him. I literally started crying in this scene. With out my and Ishaan’s wish he put up in a boarding school. This is the first Half.


The next half starts with Aamers great introduction as a temporary art teacher. He just introduced himself to the students by wearing a Mask He sings ,dances and get along with them. But Ishaan doesn’t pay attention to him and Aamir also doesn’t notice him initially. Then he asks students to draw something on the sheet what ever they want. In this scene one kid asks Amir “There is nothing on the table to Draw Sir”. He replies “your imagination shouldn’t be restricted only to this table. Just draw whatever you imagine in your mind” just this scene sizzled me.

But Ishaan without starting simply sits. Amir notices him and assumes he is thinking of what to draw. Even later he simply sits without drawing anything. But Amir just leave him since its beginning and tells him that’s ok.

Later, He got to know about Ishaan from his friend he has a Dyslexia and couldn’t understand alphabets and numbers. He meets his parents in person and tell them about the Ishaan’s problem. The way Aamir explains the problem is simply superb. He gets chance to get a look at his paintings at his home and picks some of those. His father doesn’t take Amir Words seriously.

Amir returns to school and explains Principal about Ishaan. After hearing, the Principal asks Amir to move Ishaan to the mental school. But Amir becomes very emotional and compromise him he has a talent with little effort of all of us we can make him better.

The rest of the story goes how he teaches Ishaan and heels all his sufferings and make him read and write.

The Climax scene is stunning. Amir conducts a painting competition to brought out his talent. But Ishaan who left Hostel early morning and arrives to the competition very later. As soon as Amir sees him entering, he rushes Ishaan and give him a sheet to draw. The whole school including teachers participating in the event. Lastly, The painting of Amir and Ishann has got selected. Amir drew a painintg of Ishaan. The expression Ishann gives after looking at Amir painting just superb. I just cleared my tears in this scene. But Ishann picture defeats Amirs paining. The front and back side of the school year book is occupied with this two paintings and the story ends.

The direction clearly shows there is lot of effort put by Aamir for this movie. Amir takes India cinema to very far level with this movie.

I wish this movie to be dubbed and released in all the regional languages of India.

Hope it reaches all the school kids across the world and empowers them

Thursday, January 10, 2008

OLPC - One Laptop Per Child Initative in India

OLPC - One Laptop Per Child Initative in India

OLPC is a brain child of MIT Tech Univerisity of US which is a Non Profitable initiative and supported by big IT giants like Intel,Google,AMD etc. which is aiming at giving the laptops forthe children aged between 6 and 12 mostly primary school going children in developing countries

The LOGO which matches perfectly the Slogan One Laptop per Child.Really Nice


The specially developed laptop "XO" has some unique features aiming children

The laptops has ability of developing local wireless mesh among themselves and
the child can chat with fellow class mates or his/her teacher with the chat client installed with in a KM distance

Since these laptops are aimed at Remote villages where in most of the places no power,They are designed and devoloped to consume very less power
The different ways of charging the battery are in discussion.

One interesting way i had come across was a Dynamo developed by a Volunteer
for charging which is driven be set of cows in circle for 2 hrs which charges 20 laptops and some of the Laptops comes with a Solar charged Battery

Still R&D is underway to prepare a courseware for "XO" which will give better idea for the students

This is first introduced in India at a remote village Khairat Primary School in MUmbai-Pune highway.This school has only one room and one Teacher for all the classes from Standard 1 to 6.This project in India is supported by Reliance Thirubai Ambani Trust.

Reliance Logistics company takes care of finding the right schools and distributing the laptops with the support of other interested NGOs and Volunteers

Anyways Salute the Good initiative..Lets hope this will soon break the IT barrier built across URBAN and RURAL students

Friday, January 4, 2008

DQ Life Time Achivement Award of 2007

Read an article in DataQuest thought of sharing the information come across to you all.

Nagawara RamaRao NarayanaMurthy has added recently an another feather to his cap as DQ awarded him the Life Time Acheivement Award 2007. The first person to get all the awards by DQ, The IT person of the Year 1996, The Path Breaker Award 1999. and this.

NRN shared his all experiences from Infy at two bedromm apartment to Todays a NASDAQ listed 24Bn company.

NRN was born in Mysore in August 1946 and has completed his engineering in National Institute of Eng,Mysoreand got his master from IIT khanpur.

The vision of NRN was to erase the poverty of our nation and he knew that could be posiible only by creating new jobs. So he wanted to be an entrepreneur. Since he is from the middle class background where nobody before was an entrepreneur. So He chose to join private sector initially to get an experience . In 1981, along with 6 of his friends started Infosys at 2 bedroom apartment in Pune with RS.10,000 got from the support of his spouse Sudha Murthy. She told NRN, You just chase your dream,I will support You. The ignited fire NRN still continues without cease.

Establishing a company with the capital of Rs.10,000 and that too in the non favouring environment of India during 80,s was unimaginable. So NRN and his team decided to get 20% of their first project as an advance from their customer.

The hurdles came along the way of NRN to establish a company in 80's were huge. The problem in importing a Computer and to get the license The list goes on.

The mantra behind his success behind all this hurdles,He beleives in

Employees should be given incentives for their performance which lead him to make a policy which was never happened in the world ESOP(Employee Stock Option Plan). He very much beleives in sharing the wealth in terms of either money or knowledge has to be shared with less fortunate.

He tells the Value System of his company is like British Constitution which is unwritten but it is well practiced.

During 1990, Somebody proposed to buy a Infosys for a Millioin Dollar it seems. They were suppose to sell it out since it was a huge money. But NRN kept patience. Today Infosys has grown to 24Billin$ company.

He speaks what he things right at his heart.

Wants end this chapter with his Quote

"Ships are good at Harbour But they are not meant to be there. They have to sail all along the way of hard Sea and waves to reach the comfort destination"

Sunday, December 30, 2007

The Other Side of IT Boom

IT industry of India gives large FDI flow.Every State government announces setting up of SEZ,Tech Park, Malls, Resturants. Youngsters gets job very easily as soon as they finishes college and lead very modern life. Is this the only real face behind the IT boom in India. Lets all realize the truth. In name of IT boom what we have contributed to our country or Soceity in terms of development so far. What we exactly do at office everyday.

Students from other majors like Mechanical,Electrical jump to the IT only for the sake of salary. Whats is the reason behind this? Its Salary.

Why didnt india come up with such tools like Wiki,YouTube. Where all our talents are sucked?

Big companies recruits lot of young talents and keep them in bench for a month. Isnt true? But the salary we have been paid is huge when compared to the people working at our public sectors. I know many of my friends are getting their salary with out going to office? Do we really have the job satisfaction for the money we have been paid? Most of the out sourced work comes in terms of Product maintenance which was developed in very old technology or some of the develpoement for internal supporting web sites. The real R&D wotk are done mostly in their mother company.

Do India loose all the young talents in name of IT boom?

We all have to realize this and use our talent in a very constructive way and contribute atleast a bit to the society

Please visit this link which triggered me to post this

http://www.hindu.com/op/2007/12/30/stories/2007123054901600.htm

Friday, December 28, 2007

My 2007 New Year Day Eve

My Last eve of 2007 new year day
It was an empty office where all left
to get ready to welcome new year except Me and my colleague Sasmita
sitting and hitting the keyboard
The only sound we could hear was the sound of typing.

we had been assigned a task to be completed in the same day by our Lead Lokesh(at Onsite) who i found good at technically and in person
I can just proudly say the period i was working under him is the era of my learning.

The task assigned to us was implementing a Recoverable Quartz scheduler Jobs which keeps pinging the third party vendor and gets the response till it comes

Myself involved in creating a Quartz scheduler Job.
Somehow we buried all our enthusiasm to welcome 2007
we totally involved in the task assigned to us

Lucikly with the support of Sasmita i managed to finish it.
we looked at each other and smiled. There was a reason behind the smiling
we have to test it before sending the status
OOps unfortunately the offshore team doesnt have acces the third party vendor to which the job was suppose to ping it and get the response

We started debating.At last we have arrived a conclusion.Thank God.
lets write a servlet which simulates third party vendor.
Sasmita came forward to take it boldly and completed in a time of Eyeblink
Hats off to her.She was not recognized for the same in the appraisal..that was the rest of the story.I havent worked before with such a female collegue who sounds very good at Technical.

Oh Great.Quartz job and the servlet simulator both are ready in our plate.
Just i started to run my scheduler job which pings the Servlet runs at Sasmitha's machine.so many exception..Looked at each other..remembered the words of Lokesh dont get scared of ExceptionDig in to it..Solve it..

We both were running to my machine and Samitha's machine before and after
At One point of time we found everything works perfectly..No Exception..Felt like winning a war..Send the Status...Check in the files..Hurry up...Wind up. Time was 10.30 P.M.

I remember i commited to my friends that
i will bring a cake to celebrate the New year.I realized the reason of many missed call in my mobile to which i havent given attention so far.
The first thing i did was called them up and assured them the cake and celebrations
Then literally was running at koramangala to find a Backery. Oh god..Thanks to SweetChariot..was opened late night especially for the NewYear celebrations.
Bought a Cake..Take an Auto..Fogot the double charge..Reaching home on time only was in my mind

Everybody was waiting at the Door to kick me.
As they saw the Cake in my hand they forgot and ran to the terrace..
Started the preperation at the terrace..Time ticking 11.58..59...60......2007....The rest all are usual...applying Cake in every others face...
Felt like my hard work to get a cake went in vein...Danced...Shouted..Oh very tired..
Slept nicely..That was Non alcoholic celebration...believe it or not

2008 கண்ணீர் வடிக்கிறது

இதோ 2007 மெல்ல மெல்ல இறந்துகொண்டு இருக்கிறது
அதன் மேல் இன்னொரு பெரிய மாறா விழுப்புண்
பெனாஜிர் சுட்டுக்கொலை
இதோ 2008 கண்ணீர் வடிக்கிறது கருவில்
முயல்வோம் கண்ணீரை துடைப்பதற்கு