If you are bored, you can try this
via @asishgt on Twitter
Ciao
Random Talk
- Finished reading Eclipse – Stephanie Meyer (For the uninitiated it’s a series of novels- Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn.) Jumped from Twilight to Eclipse, as I couldn’t get hold of New Moon (the sequel to twilight. Eclipse comes after that). Found it good, tho it was irritating in between with all the confusions as to who to love - a werewolf or a vampire. It somehow reminded me of KKHH or any other B-town movie, oh not the werewolf and vampire part, but the confused-about-love part :P In this book the werewolf is considered as the sun and vampire the eclipse, now I thought this book was following a logical order from twilight to Breaking Dawn (that’s the 4th book in the series) then instead of sun, moon should have been the rightful choice rt?
PS: Werewolf is considered as a Sun around which the heroine’s life revolves and so its justified to consider the werewolf the sun. But then again the girl could have been considered as the moon, and the werewolf the earth… (if you had to get the revolving part right scientifically!)…even then we can consider the vampire guy to be the eclipse separating the moon and the earth. Sounds good enough rt? :D
PPS: I do like the book, and I would have called the characters by names itself, but for the fact that everyone might not know the characters.
- The Left seems to be getting nothing Right these days. First it was the election campaigning when they grouped in with a not so desirable element, then they do pathetically in Kerala and the worst in Bengal. Now when I thought it was all over, they still had more in the waiting in Kerala – the Smart City chapter where the Teacon Co head came here, gave a press conference, blamed it all on the Govt and left (must have been really hurt by the Govt’s attitude…sigh). In reply to the same incident we have the CM saying something, and other ministers saying something, but none really making any progress. And then there is the verbal combat between Azhikode and the CM. Damn it, its irritating to open up the newspaper and read about it! Then there is the Lavlin case, where I guess nothing has gone right. And then I almost heard they got something right! They decided not to have a Hartal, but to observe a ‘Black Day’ instead. I was relieved to hear that, but well, it turned out to be almost the same as a Hartal in many places coz of the violent incidents that ensued.
Damn, Left is definitely not going the Right way!
- What’s happening to Aus? They got spanked out of the T20 world cup! And back home, the place is revolting with anti-racism campaigns after the harassment on Indian students? They are trying to get a fair investigation in place, but isn’t acting FAIR racist? :P Jokes apart, hope everything turns out well there. I sincerely hope this was just an isolated incident. Lots of my friends are planning to go to Aus this fall to attend the University there and I hope they won’t have to face any of it.
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Now playing: Plain White T's - Hey There Delilah
via FoxyTunes
PS: Werewolf is considered as a Sun around which the heroine’s life revolves and so its justified to consider the werewolf the sun. But then again the girl could have been considered as the moon, and the werewolf the earth… (if you had to get the revolving part right scientifically!)…even then we can consider the vampire guy to be the eclipse separating the moon and the earth. Sounds good enough rt? :D
PPS: I do like the book, and I would have called the characters by names itself, but for the fact that everyone might not know the characters.
- The Left seems to be getting nothing Right these days. First it was the election campaigning when they grouped in with a not so desirable element, then they do pathetically in Kerala and the worst in Bengal. Now when I thought it was all over, they still had more in the waiting in Kerala – the Smart City chapter where the Teacon Co head came here, gave a press conference, blamed it all on the Govt and left (must have been really hurt by the Govt’s attitude…sigh). In reply to the same incident we have the CM saying something, and other ministers saying something, but none really making any progress. And then there is the verbal combat between Azhikode and the CM. Damn it, its irritating to open up the newspaper and read about it! Then there is the Lavlin case, where I guess nothing has gone right. And then I almost heard they got something right! They decided not to have a Hartal, but to observe a ‘Black Day’ instead. I was relieved to hear that, but well, it turned out to be almost the same as a Hartal in many places coz of the violent incidents that ensued.
Damn, Left is definitely not going the Right way!
- What’s happening to Aus? They got spanked out of the T20 world cup! And back home, the place is revolting with anti-racism campaigns after the harassment on Indian students? They are trying to get a fair investigation in place, but isn’t acting FAIR racist? :P Jokes apart, hope everything turns out well there. I sincerely hope this was just an isolated incident. Lots of my friends are planning to go to Aus this fall to attend the University there and I hope they won’t have to face any of it.
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Now playing: Plain White T's - Hey There Delilah
via FoxyTunes
Reels that touch a chord
Hey folks
Am back home after finishing college. Wanted to blog about a lot of things actually, but can't bring myself to all of it...Hehe...Still the lazy bump :D
Been watching a few videos on youtube...Sharing a few pretty good ones here...Watch through
First one is a Greek short film made in 1997. Let it do the talking...
This one is an ad, not sure of what... Am not sure of the ad's intentions, but is sure touching
This is definitely touching! One of THE best. According to the youtube title it won the first place at Cannes.
Leave you guys for now with a funny ad :) This one is an ad for Max New York Life insurance
Am back home after finishing college. Wanted to blog about a lot of things actually, but can't bring myself to all of it...Hehe...Still the lazy bump :D
Been watching a few videos on youtube...Sharing a few pretty good ones here...Watch through
First one is a Greek short film made in 1997. Let it do the talking...
This one is an ad, not sure of what... Am not sure of the ad's intentions, but is sure touching
This is definitely touching! One of THE best. According to the youtube title it won the first place at Cannes.
Leave you guys for now with a funny ad :) This one is an ad for Max New York Life insurance
Missed it :'(
ARR Coming to Calicut.... Never imagined that would happen. But it did and I missed it :( Still can't believe I missed it. I would have never missed it for the world if it were only my choice. Things going wrong initially and then when I could almost make it, getting a really bad fever... :'( Felt like am destined for some better concert, but I sure will attend one. Hope so and Hope God wills... :)
Thanks to my friends, I was able to listen to a few songs via mobile :) Khwaja Mere Khwaja, Arziyaan sounded real good and the final song - Jai Ho moving onto Vande Maataram - Jus wow! Could very well imagine it :)
If I were to name my favorites of ARR - the list would never end. Have a reasonably well populated collection of ARR - around 5 GB including few of the background scores. Thanks to the NITC Lan collection and free internet :)
One of my all time favorites would be this song (But this all time favorite list is really huge, mind you :P )
Love Sujata's voice. Love almost all her songs. (Un)Fortunately she wasnt here for the show nor was SPB or Kavita Krishnamurthy - few of ARR's fav and mine too. Chitra did sing this song I believe, but that would never beat Sujata's rendition of the same.
Another song coming to my mind En Swasa Katrae. Though I don't like the picturisation, I like the song.
I can really go on and on about ARR and his songs, but I shall stop here for the time being.
Ciao
Thanks to my friends, I was able to listen to a few songs via mobile :) Khwaja Mere Khwaja, Arziyaan sounded real good and the final song - Jai Ho moving onto Vande Maataram - Jus wow! Could very well imagine it :)
If I were to name my favorites of ARR - the list would never end. Have a reasonably well populated collection of ARR - around 5 GB including few of the background scores. Thanks to the NITC Lan collection and free internet :)
One of my all time favorites would be this song (But this all time favorite list is really huge, mind you :P )
Love Sujata's voice. Love almost all her songs. (Un)Fortunately she wasnt here for the show nor was SPB or Kavita Krishnamurthy - few of ARR's fav and mine too. Chitra did sing this song I believe, but that would never beat Sujata's rendition of the same.
Another song coming to my mind En Swasa Katrae. Though I don't like the picturisation, I like the song.
I can really go on and on about ARR and his songs, but I shall stop here for the time being.
Ciao
Posting a few random songs that has been playing on my mind the past week. Hope you enjoy.
Abhi Na Jaoo Chodke
An old hindi song that I have been humming for the past two days. Just the tune, had no clue except for one word -Chodke! But now successfully digged it up :)
Damn the streaming speed, shall post a few more sometime :)
Ciao
Till then all d video makers
KERALA TOURISM AND YOUTUBE PROMOTED. Should be great!
Abhi Na Jaoo Chodke
An old hindi song that I have been humming for the past two days. Just the tune, had no clue except for one word -Chodke! But now successfully digged it up :)
Damn the streaming speed, shall post a few more sometime :)
Ciao
Till then all d video makers
KERALA TOURISM AND YOUTUBE PROMOTED. Should be great!
I am in love
Well, yes I am back :)
Had been on a hibernation for long, lots of reasons and some non reasonable reasons.
To name one of them,
I fell in love, n that too Madly in love …
And luckily the love was reciprocated … What more to say, I was carried away… like never before…
Yea I was talking of my journey in Flickr. One of the very many things that got me into the thick of photography. Man, this place is simply awesome… You will just stand in awe at the myriad of perspectives the world has to offer. Absolutely amazing. Nothing can ever beat it. Just go through the Flickr photostreams and you will realize it for sure. The magnitude of creativity flowing through these pages is just too good. Its all about capturing a moment - an emotion, a cloud or a sky, a pathway with shadows and so on. But the chord it strikes is … you gotta feel it. :) Here you get to know that perspective is what matters, the way you look at it decides what you get. Sounds similar to philosophy of life? Well, you get to experience it here :)
Flickr a Yahoo! Initiative is not simply a photo sharing site. One of their awesome works is the Explore page wherein the flickr guys work hard to show us some of the most awesome content on Flickr. (Man, I would love to do that job anytime :D ) Do check it out if you visit flickr anytime.
One of the very many things that social networking has presented us with – Flickr for photos, Youtube for videos, Last.fm for music, Stumble upon for websites and so on - guess this is the ultimate, where you interact with people and get to share your favorites and your creative works and discover loadsa new stuff.Hats off to the pioneers of these ...
Check out my favorites in Flickr… You will appreciate them for sure…
And this is my photostream out in the Flickr world.
Hey
Long time no see??? Was a lil busy...Just dropping in to say am alive...
Here check out this blog ... (No...Even I couldn't read it...Might try some translator later on)
She should be the right inspiration for bloggers worldwide ,apart from the wide population of old aged people who think life is done with and also to all the sons and daughters around the world... A lot of lessons to be learnt from her. Life is not over at any point of time...with an attitude to face life with a smile, nothing , absolutely nothing can go wrong. Attitude matters...
Signing off for now....
Paro
Long time no see??? Was a lil busy...Just dropping in to say am alive...
Here check out this blog ... (No...Even I couldn't read it...Might try some translator later on)
She should be the right inspiration for bloggers worldwide ,apart from the wide population of old aged people who think life is done with and also to all the sons and daughters around the world... A lot of lessons to be learnt from her. Life is not over at any point of time...with an attitude to face life with a smile, nothing , absolutely nothing can go wrong. Attitude matters...
Signing off for now....
Paro
Misc- Life as of now
Got back to college after those long hols. Felt good to get back to the hostel and coll. As we stepped onto our third year,the feeling of the difference started drowning in. Almost all branches have good teachers for a change. Amidst the arrival of first years and the frequent reminders from teachers about the supreme court order banning ragging, the hostel life has been pretty much the same. People around frequently comment upon how you have lost or gained weight in the three months. But college sprang up a few surprises, with teachers reminding us that we have to work hard. Tronix had this reputation of teachers talking subject alone, but suddenly they are worried about our show and advise us as to how we have to better ourselvess. Reason for all this is the bad feedback that our dept received after a pretty rough patch of placements for our senior batch. Seems the number of core companies that came to our coll this time was low plus the feedback they gave to our training and placement cell reinstated the truth that we have just superficial knowledge in the subject. I should say that’s true…never am I proud about that. Majority of us do lack fundamentals. Guess we should start working on it atleast now. Lots of talks go around about future options – cat or gate. And all around I can see determined faces. I am not sure whether its just the third year effect spanning the first week. Let’s wait and watch.
The TAG - its all about 8
Ha so here goes me venturing into the tag world. I had been tagged once before, but then couldn’t take it up as I was under hibernation then. So now to my tagpost. 
So here was the tag by Ajith.
Rules :
1) Put down 8 random / weird / habitual facts about yourself..
2) Tag eight ppl
3) Ask, bug, coax , bully them into taking up this tag :)
Okie, now according to the concept mentioned above am to put in some eight habitual facts about myself. Before starting off, I guess , I will have to take cues from the previous tagposts, for blogger’s block is still at large.Then again the rules don’t mention how long the posts should be, so I might go on and on…
1.After days of contemplation, I have realized that, one fact about me that will interest others is regarding one of my superstitions. Now, now it isn’t that weird or is it?
I believe that something bad is sure to happen if a black cat crosses your path. I actually don’t mind it crossing behind my back!!! I mean homo sapiens do a lot of stuff behind your back, why can’t cats? So that’s what I do if I see a probable black candidate up in front of me, I turn my back to it. :-)
Sounds really weird eh?
As ‘kaaranavars’ say its all a ‘nimitham’.(Can’t translate it into English, now, is there any need? I have no international readers up my sleeve till now) To date, excepting once or something, a bad incident has happened after a black cat crossed our path. Once it was a car accident( the cat crossed the road,in front of the car!!!), then once my mom got transferred and that too a pretty unprecedented situation at that time and so on. Now circumstances turn us into believers. I am a person who believes that many of the traditions being followed have some evident reason, that our ancestors knew too well and even now people who are learned might know about it. Not that I am in a position to totally justify my position with regard to this ‘superstition’ of mine. But maybe there’s a reason to it too – too far fetched??? Hmmm…
2. Taking cue from Ajith’s post about jackfruits, I can’t stand the smell of kaachaling coconut oil- I couldn’t get hold of an English word for that, if anyone knows do temme… nor can I eat the food that gives you the distinctive taste of coconut oil( I don’t mind small quantity of it, if that had not been the case, how would have I survived in this place). Am a keralite- from the very land of coconuts, where, as somebody put it, we go about using coconut for every possible purpose in our day to day life. Malayalees can’t live without coconuts playing a part in the recipes and that makes my case all the more significant. I dunno why so… but somehow I manage to survive.
3. What next? Those 2 points were weird I suppose. Now to some normal habitual facts – I give more importance to the music of the song I listen to, than the lyrics. My subconscious is trained so. I might not even get the beginning of the song I had been enjoying listening sometime back… I have to make a conscious effort to get the lyrics into my head, unlike some of my friends. Now I hope that’s nothing weird. It’s just another habitual aspect of mine.
4. When I was in school, I guess during my period - 6th – 7th I somehow managed to get some sort of disease just before my math monthly tests. May it be fever or stomach ache or head ache or vomiting; I somehow managed to get something wrong with me just before math exam. Were I too tensed up then? Can’t be, atleast not consciously coz I was good at math back then!!! And now in nitc too, I sometimes end up getting illness just before the exams, my friends say its coz am getting tensed up. (no, not that frequently or something, just once or twice) But getting an illness just before exams is a good prospect here in college, (God forbid…Writing here for the sake of readers) where bunking exams and writing make-up exams later on have become a fashion especially in our year. And can’t blame them, coz its always good to write exams after preparing for ‘em. :-) Yeh hain nit ki baat!!! We are too busy with other stuff!!!
5. Hmmm…am experiencing a non-relenting-blog-mind now. Am wringing my brains to get something out of it… And I guess this is the best I could come up with. During this three months hols (non nitcians please don’t raise your eyebrows – for years NITC has been trying to raise their standards to match IIT standards in terms of exam papers, faculty and so on. But to this day I feel the only thing that they have been absolutely successful is the 3 months holidays thing ; ) ), so as I was telling, during these three months of hols I can say that I was not bored, nor was I during any other hols, but when I said this, one of my classmates pointed out that I must be the only NITCian who told so. Maybe the secret of all this is I adapt to situations better ;) or maybe the fact that I am happy given a TV, net or a good book plus the fact that some of my friends are in the city itself or coz I love sleeping. Maybe am just luckier than others about this.
6. When I was a lil kid we used to go to my dad’s native place by car. It used to take almost the whole day to reach there. The place is Changanacherry near Kottayam. I used to love those journeys. From morning to evening on the drive with music on…aaah. That’s something I love : ) . Though we now have resorted to economical and time-saving way of traveling – no, not air deccan ;) – but night trains :( , I miss those kuttanad views and all the KTDC Yatri Nivases on the way (Why KTDC?- They have clean toilets :) )
I guess I will keep the next two short, for I went bloghopping looking into the roots of this tag and I found that majority of ‘em had a max of two lines for each point and look what I have done!!!
7. I simply love prawns pickles which my grandmom makes….its so yummmmmyyy….:)
8. I was a terrifying class leader back in 2nd std as one of my friends recalled the other day. Real strict about writing the names of talkatives on the board and reporting them to our classteacher. Can you imagine??? Sheesh…if it was now, I wouldn’t have liked her (me) at all. :-D
After writing all this I feel am a bit weird!!! Gosh!!!
Now I want all these people to go through what I have been through…I mean am gonna tag the people below.
- Deepak – Not blogging that frequently these days, I want him back on the block.
- Neethi and 3.Neethu – 2 by 2s (that’s something between them) and both 2 gooooooooood at writing, their blogs a testimony to that…
- Anna – I suppose she is on hibernation from the blogging world, get back Anna.
- Angad – one blog with a huge following in terms of hits. Guess through him I can also get some readers ;) (that was supposed to be a secret…sssshhh….just kidding)
- Jd – again another guy who had started off blogging, but got caught up in the wind of placements.
Malayalee :)
Vineeth Sreenivasan, son of cine actor Sreenivasan, is slowly coming into the limelight. With a different and soulful voice, he is now gaining way to the hearts of Malayalees. With such songs as Karale karalinte karale, Muthumazha(BIG-B),Ente Khalbile (Classmates),Hridayavum(Note Book) etc, he is soon becoming the most sought young singer. Now he is back on the hit charts with a great album – MALAYALEE. The album brought out as a collective effort of his team of Shaan Rahman, Jakes Bejoy and Arjun Sasi has already hit the youngsters as one of the best albums to date. The album also features Afsal and Madhu Balakrishnan. The Mallu youth channels are playing these songs over and over again. The video is directed by Vineeth Sreenivasan and Jakes Bejoy has given music to the lyrics penned down by Vineeth.
Here are two of their pieces (Minnalazhake and Friends-4-ever are the top listed songs)
If you loved the songs, you can download the mp3s from this site.
WHO AM I?
Who am I?
PS: This one has been in my drafts folder for long and somehow I plucked up courage today to publish it. :) And I assure you, this happens just once in a while!!! :D...Do comment...:)
A philosophical question - A question that has led even the wise sages to undertake quests for the ultimate and eternal truth…
And here I was, thinking about this highly volatile question during the very little time I had before my end sem exams. Who am I now?
Who will I be after these exams?
Then it struck me - I will be a Ginger Gal after the exams.
Yea….GINGER GAL!!!
NO, I didn’t attain any powers like the spiderman, by which I could throw gingers at my enemies. :-P
NO,I didn’t become any sort similar to a ginger in terms of looks.
NO,I didn’t repel people like ginger does to some people
Then what???
Its just that I will be a ‘half an engineer’ gal!!!
Now what’s gingery in it? 8-D
Here goes the explanation –
I will be a half an engineer gal after the exams get over.
Now lets see how to cut an engineer into half.
ENGINEER=ENGI+NEER
Take the first half-ENGI
Right?
Now the explanation will be easier if you are a mallu. Try pronouncing ENGI, it can be converted to INJI which is the Malayalam word for Ginger.
Now that means am a GINGER GAL now…
To all those people out there unaccustomed to the kind of jokes(???) I crack, yea that was a PJ aka POOR JOKE aka as one of my classmates put it PARVATHY JOKE ;)
Sorry for the occasional outburst of my ingenious and innocuous ‘sense of humour’. Afterall these are the jokes that teach you the value of real humour. ;)
PS: This one has been in my drafts folder for long and somehow I plucked up courage today to publish it. :) And I assure you, this happens just once in a while!!! :D...Do comment...:)
B-SOCIETY
Hey everyone,
I know it has been a long time since I posted something. So I thought I will share with you some stuff that I term very interesting and progressive. Its about the B-society of B-type persons. No, its not a B blood group society. Its all about LATE RISERS.
Go through this piece of news
Thats a report from a German broadcaster. But this rising is not limited to Europe, for people from round the globe have started noticing this phenomenon. Check the BBC news report.The Hindu also ran a report on this.
Sounds interesting, right?
I would categorize myself as a late riser, though I am not sure about the time I am more productive.(I feel I am more productive during early mornings, but the only problem is that somehow I can't make myself get up that early!!! : ( ) But then if this B-society starts strengthening its hold and if this concept spreads far and wide and gain acceptance, then I am sure most of my buddies will be really happy about it.
For us in the hostels, night time is the peak time of activities. And getting up in the morning for the 8'o'clock class is the last thing that we want to do.(Though I somehow manage to get there on time) If the officials recognize this sect of the society with a-bit-different biological clock, thats glad news for most of my collegemates. I remember one of my friends saying,' the college should start sometime in the afternoon, and I wouldn't mind it extending till 10 in the night, but this whole idea of sitting in class at 8'o' clock is a really sad thing.' Its better to have people coming in for the classes on time, perfectly prepared, without drooping eyes and alert than the zombies who walk into the classes through the backdoor, take the nearest seat and let the desk act as the best pillows.
Hopefully our society will start recognizing this fact and I hope a similar rising of late risers happens in our part of the world too.
PS: I have been tagged by Ajith(THANKS AJITH...). So will be back with the tag post soon.
I know it has been a long time since I posted something. So I thought I will share with you some stuff that I term very interesting and progressive. Its about the B-society of B-type persons. No, its not a B blood group society. Its all about LATE RISERS.
Go through this piece of news
Thats a report from a German broadcaster. But this rising is not limited to Europe, for people from round the globe have started noticing this phenomenon. Check the BBC news report.The Hindu also ran a report on this.
Sounds interesting, right?
I would categorize myself as a late riser, though I am not sure about the time I am more productive.(I feel I am more productive during early mornings, but the only problem is that somehow I can't make myself get up that early!!! : ( ) But then if this B-society starts strengthening its hold and if this concept spreads far and wide and gain acceptance, then I am sure most of my buddies will be really happy about it.
For us in the hostels, night time is the peak time of activities. And getting up in the morning for the 8'o'clock class is the last thing that we want to do.(Though I somehow manage to get there on time) If the officials recognize this sect of the society with a-bit-different biological clock, thats glad news for most of my collegemates. I remember one of my friends saying,' the college should start sometime in the afternoon, and I wouldn't mind it extending till 10 in the night, but this whole idea of sitting in class at 8'o' clock is a really sad thing.' Its better to have people coming in for the classes on time, perfectly prepared, without drooping eyes and alert than the zombies who walk into the classes through the backdoor, take the nearest seat and let the desk act as the best pillows.
Hopefully our society will start recognizing this fact and I hope a similar rising of late risers happens in our part of the world too.
PS: I have been tagged by Ajith(THANKS AJITH...). So will be back with the tag post soon.
THE BRIGHTER SIDE
Kerala, the God’s Own country normally gets into the news for the wrong reasons- the left n right allegations, punyahams,illegal pattayams and so on.
But here are some of the stuff that normally doesn’t ‘catch’ the media’s attention or are not blown out of proportions for they are not essentially worthy of controversies atleast not all of ‘em.
MONSOON TOURISM:
FM Channel 96.7 of the Arabian Radio Network along with the State Tourism Dept is organizing Silverstorm Hit Jet (Silver storm is a water theme park in Kerala). Through this a selected set of 100 people including FM listeners from different parts of Gulf, industrialists, media persons etc from DXB will reach
They are escaping the dreaded heat of the Gulf and are planning to enjoy the scenic beauty and the rapidy waterfalls of Athirappally. Monsoon Tourism – a thing we need to work hard on.
The Industry Minister unravelled a few plans to start a new
Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Kinfra) — which has undertaken the implementation of 15 theme-based industrial parks in sectors like textile, animation, food processing, infotainment, biotechnology and export processing — submitted a concept report for developing such a park in Kozhikode.This park is gonna come up with private participation. A brainstorming session on this was held sometime back, which was attended by some of the leading technocrats of the country, which included the CEO of ICICI Knowledge Park , Infosys Chairman and CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan, etc. Seems like an ambitious project, which if realized is sure to make its presence felt in a big manner.
BITS-CLT
Ha, I can see eyebrows raising. Hmmm…this piece of news cannot be classified as a totally authoritative and authentic news, because it appeared only once or twice and that too in very few papers. Well, I guess every Keralite would be aware of the Mavoor Gwalior Rayons that was shut down some years back. This was an undertaking by G D Birla on the land given on lease (or by some similar agreement) by the Late EMS. Now after the factory closed down, the minister in charge, asked for the return of the land when the Birla group replied saying that they would like to build a branch of Birla Institute Of Science(BITS) at
Antony Prince, is a Malayali settled in
This is what Mr. Prince had to say: “The officers and workers in the
Me too hope this message will spread :)
WHAT WE HAVE AND OTHERS DON’T
This piece along with the above one was taken from Mr.Shashi Tharoor’s column in The Hindu Sunday Magazine:
As Mr,Shashi Tharoor said:’One Technopark firm, US Technologies, told me of having bid for a contract with a Houston-based company which had drawn up a short-list of Indian service providers and placed the Thiruvananthapuram-based company last. The American executives making the final decision flew down to
Guess the trump card has always been with us, but never used it too well!!!
All of it makes me feel prouder of being a Keralite. We too are on our way UP!!! Share those snippets of ‘Kerala Shining’ with me. Lets savour the brighter side…
My Online Goodies
Hi people 
This has been a long post. Hope I didn't bore you.:)
Been thinking of a topic to blog on, well nothing great stumbled into my mind. So I thought of blogging about some stuff, which I came across in the net – My Online Goodies.
They are the goodies which I came across when I was in a net surfing spree facilitated by my long hols. The last time I wrote about something of this sort, it got some attention and the S/W gained wide popularity(guess my blogpost helped ;))
So here am gonna name a few of the goodies.Hope they will be of use to you as well.
Google stuff have always caught my attention. I am an ardent google worshipper, for the sole reason of functionality and ease of use in all their utilities. Am naming here, two of the Google lab products which am pretty hooked to.
Some time back I used to wonder, how I will keep track of the stuff which I read online from college. There wasn’t any place where I could store all the links and my assorted set of articles, which I used to go through. I even used to store some stuff in my gmail drafts for further reading.
It was then I stumbled upon Google Notebook. A goodie which was jus what I needed. As the name suggests this utility allows you to create notebooks, name it according to the stuff you put in, and even collaborate with other users on a particular notebook. Say you are working on a team project and you have a notebook on the project topic, where you put in the stuff which you researched upon. You can invite other team members through the option collaborate. Now wow! They can also add to your notebook. By the end you will have a full fledged notebook in your hands. The notebook is divided into many sections and you can name each section accordingly.
The major glitch I faced while working on it was when it was in its original state. Somehow it seemed to work only in IE and not in Firefox. Me being an avid Firefox fan couldn’t tolerate this, but later on this glitch seems to have been rectified and now it looks like its trouble free in firefox as well. There are addons of the Google notebook available for the browsers, which let you add stuff to your notebook just by one click.
This is one of my favorites. The one thing I depend a lot on, for this is my reader for all blogs which I care to read. Some sort of a feed reader. I noticed a problem with it, when I subscribed to a blog on Sulekha. Though it updates on the posts, i.e we get to know when a post is added and its title, but the post part doesn’t get fed. Either its their way of routing one to their site. Sulekha is one blog host which does a lot of ranking and all that. Maybe that’s the reason for this problem, though I have not taken pains to find out in detail.Or maybe they work on different kind of feeds. I am not sure of that as well.
But can guarantee you one thing it is a good reader with a lot of features, say you want to share your reader with others, that’s possible. You want to mail your friend a blogpost which you found interesting, this one makes it easier by integrating your gmail address book.Moreover you can share your reader in your blog, so that others can see what you are reading.Other google features such as starring,tagging etc and some other options like trends etc have also been integrated into this amazing all-in-one reader.
So many other google features have turned integral to my online avatar- like Gtalk, Orkut (Of course),Picasa Web Albums and now most of the sites I use have integrated google account into theirs. Say for eg: Blogger, it now uses google account for accessing and if you haven’t noticed yet, now the photos you upload in your blog automatically gets uploaded to an album by the name of your blog title into your Picasa Web Album.
The spreadsheets and .doc files offered by Google are two of the very few stuff from Google which I haven’t extensively utilized.
PS: Google gears is out, which allows you offline access. I haven’t ventured much into trying out the gears as of now. Maybe I’ll write about it once I get the feel of it. Its still in the primary stage.
One of the other goodies which I normally use is the clipmarks addon for firefox.
This has got a function similar to Google notebook,but not exactly of that magnitude. You can clip stuff,store it in separate folders, tag ‘em, go public with your clips and get pops(something similar to a rating or voting by other users) and even directly upload ‘em to your blog. There is word limitation on the public clips though. You can also surf through some of the public clips which turn out to throw some interesting stuff.
Another of the addons which am pretty much addicted to is Foxy Tunes
(Thanks to JD for recommending it to me)It’s our music player (a list of supported players are available which is sure to contain our usual players) in the mini mode on the bar of the firefox browser.(IE guys – its time to shift, foxy is the trend, but now they have come up with a version for IE as well) It lets you control your player while browsing. It cashes on the fact that most of us listen to music while browsing the net and chatting. Controlling isn’t the only thing in the list, it can also search for the currently playing artist and get you videos, the lyrics and the radio status on its site page– result of a combined youtube,last.fm,flickr widgets. Itunes shop also has been integrated into this page.You can decide upon a set of widgets, which you want to integrate into the site's page. You can do some specific searches on the songs as well. So I would recommend it to be the best addon out there for music enthusiasts.Do check it out.
This has been a long post. Hope I didn't bore you.:)
Favorite Ad
Hey everyone,
No great topic striking me now. So off to another miscellaneous post.
Almost all of us hate those ads springing up on our TV screens, interrupting our favorite TV soaps or movies or even the really important matches.
But then again there are some ads we love to see again and again. One of my all time favorites in that regard is the HUTCH ad- "You and I in this beautiful world,Green earth, blue sky, in this beautiful world". I believe this must be the only Cellular Network ad which doesn't show a single mobile anywhere around. The HUTCH team must have had great guts to do that and the revenues,I believe kind of show that they actually succeeded.
The kid and the dog are just too cute and my sources say that this particular breed of dog costs almost a lakh :0
After HUTCH turned pink, they have come up with a new ad for their 'Live Search'. I loved this one too. The first set of scenes wouldn't give you much clue about what the ad is all about. But later on when you realize what this is all about you are left with a big smile on your face.
So that was a sneak peak into two of my favorites in the ad world. :)
No great topic striking me now. So off to another miscellaneous post.
Almost all of us hate those ads springing up on our TV screens, interrupting our favorite TV soaps or movies or even the really important matches.
But then again there are some ads we love to see again and again. One of my all time favorites in that regard is the HUTCH ad- "You and I in this beautiful world,Green earth, blue sky, in this beautiful world". I believe this must be the only Cellular Network ad which doesn't show a single mobile anywhere around. The HUTCH team must have had great guts to do that and the revenues,I believe kind of show that they actually succeeded.
The kid and the dog are just too cute and my sources say that this particular breed of dog costs almost a lakh :0
After HUTCH turned pink, they have come up with a new ad for their 'Live Search'. I loved this one too. The first set of scenes wouldn't give you much clue about what the ad is all about. But later on when you realize what this is all about you are left with a big smile on your face.
So that was a sneak peak into two of my favorites in the ad world. :)
CROWNING MOMENTS
Well, to all those of you who at the very sight of the title, came to the conclusion that I have been crowned heir to some aristocratic family through some unknown-till-yesterday ancestor, (I wish it were true : ) ), well, sadly this post is not about that.
Calicutites probably wouldn’t need any introduction about the one and only CROWN theatre located in the heart of the city,just near the
Now to the post…this week a special fest was being held at the crown theatre. A children’s film week conducted by Impresario-an event management group and Balabhumi (the children’s digest of Matrubhumi-A Malayalam daily). The ads had that they were showing some of the coolest animation movies like The Incredibles,Happy Feet,Ice age 2 and so on. Having a lil bro at home,surely makes one notice that there are too many children’s stuff happening around : )
On Wed morning, he tells amma, ‘I want to go for the week.’ Now when parents are working, the onus is on big sister to care for and satisfy the younger one’s wishes, especially when the vacation is just about to end . And naturally it fell on me to take care of the task. There were only two more movies to go-Eight below on Wed and Ice Age-2 on Thu.
So my bro asks me ‘Which one chech?’
I give it a thought and says ‘Hmmm…looks like I’ll have to take you for Eight Below (I had never heard of the movie tho) coz am having my license test on thu and I have no clue how long its gonna take, so ice age 2 is out of cards.’
Bro: Okie with me. So all set for the 12 ‘o’ clock show.
Now to be on the safer side I called up crown and asked for reservation. The guy said ‘Hey,no need for that. You can come around 11.45 and get the tickets’
Then we wikied the movie and saw that the movie was really worth a shot, especially coz my bro is an animal lover and the movie had eight dogs in the lead and the handsome Paul Walker as the hero, who was very much attached to his dogs.
And then we set out for the movie and reached there on time. Didn’t see many out on the corridor, felt like we were too early. After getting the tickets we went in and took our seats. We were talking for some five minutes, when I noticed that nobody was actually coming in. ‘Ha, someone will come, obviously…Well, as long as there are kids like my bro, more people will come’, I mused. We continued talking and the ads started on the big screen, the guy from the counter came in and switched off the lights and asked
‘Pediyillallo alle?’(Not scared,right?) I was like ‘huh?’
‘Alla vere aarum vannittilla ithuvare’(Nobody else has come till now)
‘Oh…ey pediyonnum illa’(Oh…No,not scared)
My bro looked at me, ‘Nobody else is coming for the movie?’ :-O
‘Ahem…Looks like we are gonna be alone’
And then it dawned on me, the magnitude of the moment, the reels were rolling on the big screen just for us. Just two of us, comfortably seated, free to move around and talk and crack jokes, without any need to give heed to anybody. Just the big screen and us. Those were our ‘crown’ing moments…:-) I had always wished for such an opportunity and here it was….:-) We thoroughly enjoyed the movie, relishing the space and freedom and now am left wishing for more of such opportunities :-)
Epilogue:
We went for Ice age 2 as well,as my license test didn’t take too much time. Naturally expected more people and well, around more than 10 people turned up. :-(
Both the movies were just too good-Ice age 2 for all the funny sequences and eight below for its touching story.
I cleared my license test in flying colors, no more driving thru city until I can convince my dad of my expertise. It’s a tough task to convince one’s dad about one's driving prowess. Records say that he told ‘Baakkiyullavarkku Jeevichuponde ;)’ to my friend when she asked about me driving to college…sigh…that’s what I call confidence!!! And I totally agree with him ;)
SAT,RATIOS AND FINGERS
Hey everyone
Go through this excerpt from a site. Looks pretty interesting.
A quick look at the lengths of children's index and ring fingers can be used to predict how well students will perform on SATs, new research claims.
Go through this excerpt from a site. Looks pretty interesting.
A quick look at the lengths of children's index and ring fingers can be used to predict how well students will perform on SATs, new research claims.
Kids with longer ring fingers compared to index fingers are likely to have higher math scores than literacy or verbal scores on the college entrance exam, while children with the reverse finger-length ratio are likely to have higher reading and writing, or verbal, scores versus math scores.
Scientists have known that different levels of the hormones testosterone and estrogen in the womb account for the different finger lengths, which are a reflection of areas of the brain that are more highly developed than others, said psychologist Mark Brosnan of the University of Bath, who led the study.
Exposure to testosterone in the womb is said to promote development of areas of the brain often associated with spatial and mathematical skills, he said. That hormone makes the ring finger longer. Estrogen exposure does the same for areas of the brain associated with verbal ability and tends to lengthen the index finger relative to the ring finger.
To test the link to children's scores on the College Board's Scholastic Assessment Test (for which the name has changed a number of times in the past 100 years), Brosnan and his colleagues made photocopies of children's palms and measured the length of their index and ring fingers using calipers accurate to 0.01 millimeters. They used the finger-length ratios as a proxy for the levels of testosterone and estrogen exposure.
The researchers then looked at boys' and girls' test performances separately and compared them to finger-length ratio measurements. They found a clear link between high prenatal testosterone exposure, indicated by the shorter index finger compared to the ring finger, and higher scores on the math SAT.
Similarly, they found higher literacy SAT scores for the girls among those who had lower prenatal testosterone exposure, as indicated by a shorter ring finger compared with the index finger.
The researchers also compared the finger-lengths ratios to all the children's SAT scores and found that a relatively longer ring finger—indicating greater prenatal exposure to testosterone—meant a wider gap in scores for math versus literacy (writing and critical reading).
"Finger ratio provides us with an interesting insight into our innate abilities in key cognitive areas," Brosnan said, in a prepared statement. The results will be detailed in an upcoming issue of the British Journal of Psychology.
In the future, his team will see if finger-length ratios are related to other cognitive and behavioral issues, such as technophobia, career paths and possibly dyslexia.
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Now I am an exception to this or so I guess from my past experiences.
My finger ratio shows that I have a higher index to ring ratio which according to the studies is an indication to the fact am better at verbal than math, but my real life experiences indicate that am definitely better at math than verbal...
What to say about that?Guess the conclusion can only be-I am a unique specimen...hehe
Jus another exception...
Signing off for now...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now I am an exception to this or so I guess from my past experiences.
My finger ratio shows that I have a higher index to ring ratio which according to the studies is an indication to the fact am better at verbal than math, but my real life experiences indicate that am definitely better at math than verbal...
What to say about that?Guess the conclusion can only be-I am a unique specimen...hehe
Jus another exception...
Signing off for now...
'Good' in the world
A couple of days back, I was discussing orkut with my cousin. About how popular it was now and all that. Then the question of profile photos arose. I said ‘ Its not that safe to put our snaps online. There have been instances of people misusing the snaps.’
Then almost at the same moment, I got a mail from a friend saying about the possibilities of clone profiles and another one about how they got into trouble after putting the profile pics. My cousin gave it a thought for sometime and said, see ,even if you put photos or not,even if you really have a profile in orkut or not, immaterial of all these factors anything can happen. Anybody can make a profile of someone and act as if it’s the real person and abuse. That’s true I said. You really can’t eliminate the dark world from looming into our lives. Like some superhero says the dark side of the world is at large all the time. There is no escaping from it.( I guess I made it up now and no superhero ever said that…jus for the sake of writing ; ) )
But then what? Should we always look at people as if they always mean harm? Should we worry more about the bad world? Can anything in this world be so totally good? Is the only way to live life,is to live a scared life, scared of the things that might happen when the bad outweighs the good…can anyone totally trust in the ‘good’ of the people and survive? Is it possible to see the good alone and sustain? Is it possible that the world will even try to work the normal way when the material rewards to their karma are reduced and the purpose-doing good-alone remains?
Definitely yes. Atleast to an extent. The way of looking at things half determines how they work out at the end. Seeing good, the positives of it all , anyone or any mission can sustain. All those self help books picturise ‘seeing the positives’ as one of the ways to lead a better life. But the world is seemingly proceeding to a juncture where at times reward to one’s work remains as the higher objective.
Can any mission hold on to the good of the people alone and carry on???
They can, to an extent atleast.
Not that a blind faith will help, but quite a percent of belief in the good of the fellow beings and the rest to the precautions can work out well.
Need examples???
The place where we all jump to search for facts-the one and only WIKIPEDIA. Gave any thought as to how the wikipedia works?
Try reading this piece on 'Who runs Wikipedia?'
Similar are those wikis and forums. All of ‘em outline that there is always an inherent ‘good’ in all of us which will work ‘good’ and the reward is just to see that something they love helps someone around. Our open source softwares are to a limit working in a similar fashion.
To quote steve levitt,author of freakonomics-‘Morality represents the way we would like the world to work and economics represents how it actually does work.’
His book has in it some instances where morality and economics intersect.
Read on…
That 87% in the above passage comes from a study on the bagel business which is studied in this book.( I haven’t finished reading the book yet.) I too believe that there is an inherent good in everyone. A bit of the urge to see that somebody gains something with a lil help from you lies in you and me. (And also in all those so called ‘bad’. )
Believing in good alone surely won’t help, but believing in good sure helps…
Explain it to me...
S: M mama sings very well
Me: Arey, M is not your mama. He is your cousin. Call him ‘chetta’.
S: Then how come K calls him mama. K is our cousin.
Me: M is your mama as well as chetta, but predominantly your cousin
S:*whats this???? : 0 *
How can that be???
Me: See, R is not just your aunt,but also your second cousin
S: What???How can that be?
Me: Okie here goes. She is your grand dad’s sister’s grand daughter…or we can say she is your mom’s cousin’s daughter. Isn’t that our second cousin?
S:Hmmm..Guess so..
Me: And this second cousin got married to your uncle and thus became our aunty
S:*Now an enlightened soul* Oh….Okay *Little dazed even now*
Me: So M is our cousin.
S: But that would mean that K is our cousin as well as nephew.
Me:*Oh…complications* Yea…you can say that
S:So that means they are supposed to call us aunt and uncle and all instead of being sis and bro?
Me:*Me swapping positions with S,looks like I am the one dazed now*.Guess so…
S:Hmmmm
Me:Let’s go take a nap now. : )
S:Hmmmm *Still thinking about it.*
Me:*Sigh…I got it all correct or did something go wrong in that explanation...mom’s cousin’s daughter got married..ahem…hmmm…hope I got it correct*
Now I would call this-explaining the complications of life in terms of relationships in the family to my lil cousin sis. : )
A photoblog post on a trip to Kappad
Kappad, beach near Calicut, famous in the reels of history as the place where Vasco Da Gama landed for the first time in India. Just 45 minutes or so from the city, a beach where we spend an evening,full of fun, with my close relatives. Just posted some photos from the trip : )
The beauty of Kappad captured on a K750i
My cousin's creation on the beach : )
Tsunami striked???Unsure about how this happened. But looked like erosion has taken its tolls here. There were lot many trees already uprooted, and some more waiting to get uprooted.
A giant wave actually gave us a big surprise by running into the shore and trying to pull in our slippers. We had a tough time trying to scramble ‘em back. : )
The beauty of Kappad captured on a K750i
My cousin's creation on the beach : )
well...i dont have anything worth writing about.
me njoying my hols...its bliss to be sleeping for 10-15 hrs a day...:)...thats what i call njoying...:)
and because of this enjoyment i haven't been able to think of anything worth writing.
so what to write about?
The latest indian idol package-indian idol-season 3-bharath ki shaan...seriously hats off to the american idol and the freemantle people for having conceived this very idea.
it's really a boost to all those young talents out here in this country.its no more a difficult thing to become a star...just scan the channels and there springs up so many reality shows
in search of good singers,dancers,comedians,actors,'tough' celebrities and what not!!!...this is the media revolution...everyone is gaining...the people who come into this prog,the channels,the ad people,the hosts,
the judges all get a popularity boost,the sms and phone companies...and the audience who enjoy every moment of it,feeling like they are one among those on tv,smiling when they smile on tv,
crying when the contestants give way to tears...
losing people
-the audience again who waste their time and money for somebody else's benefits.(not forgetting the moral feeling-that guy is a star today and i too played a part in it)
*we waste money on the smses
*we don't do much of a justice to our time and our mind.we spend time thinking about whether javed akthar and anu malik will fight again tomorrow and why the hell did they do that to so and so person.rt?;)
nevertheless i aint a person who would miss the episodes and again a person who will readily proudly say that i played a part in creating the indian idol or superstar or wateva...
coz at the end somebody from some town in india has risen up to he glitz world...
why am i writing all this crap...coz i am sleepless at 1'o'clock in the morning,utterly bored...please bear with me...
:)
me njoying my hols...its bliss to be sleeping for 10-15 hrs a day...:)...thats what i call njoying...:)
and because of this enjoyment i haven't been able to think of anything worth writing.
so what to write about?
The latest indian idol package-indian idol-season 3-bharath ki shaan...seriously hats off to the american idol and the freemantle people for having conceived this very idea.
it's really a boost to all those young talents out here in this country.its no more a difficult thing to become a star...just scan the channels and there springs up so many reality shows
in search of good singers,dancers,comedians,actors,'tough' celebrities and what not!!!...this is the media revolution...everyone is gaining...the people who come into this prog,the channels,the ad people,the hosts,
the judges all get a popularity boost,the sms and phone companies...and the audience who enjoy every moment of it,feeling like they are one among those on tv,smiling when they smile on tv,
crying when the contestants give way to tears...
losing people
-the audience again who waste their time and money for somebody else's benefits.(not forgetting the moral feeling-that guy is a star today and i too played a part in it)
*we waste money on the smses
*we don't do much of a justice to our time and our mind.we spend time thinking about whether javed akthar and anu malik will fight again tomorrow and why the hell did they do that to so and so person.rt?;)
nevertheless i aint a person who would miss the episodes and again a person who will readily proudly say that i played a part in creating the indian idol or superstar or wateva...
coz at the end somebody from some town in india has risen up to he glitz world...
why am i writing all this crap...coz i am sleepless at 1'o'clock in the morning,utterly bored...please bear with me...
:)
GIFT SHOPPING...WHAT SAY?
Among all the shopping sprees the one that has been the toughest for me is shopping for gifts. Guess everyone out there will agree with me - Its one helluva job. If you had been shopping for yourself, atleast you would know what you want. But gift shopping is one of the most difficult tasks you have to deal with.
Case 1: If the person is someone who you closely know and whose interests are somewhat similar (somewhere near your weirdo likings!!!) to your interests, then maybe…maybe…you’ll have an apprehension less, smooth, tension free and a rather happy shopping experience.
Case 2: Buying something for someone who really isn’t that very close to your heart. Buying it just because he/she had presented you something on a similar occasion. Then you wouldn’t really mind what the gift is… its after all just a gift… another of the so called society routines…
Case 3: Buying something for someone, with genuine interest. The person is quite close to you, but then you simply can’t come to the conclusion as to what to buy.Will she/he like this stuff? Or has she/he got a similar one? Is this something useful to her? Or will this one end up in the garbage like many others? Will she/he be able to take it back home ;) … your mind can simply go rambling about so many of those things that it can go rambling about… into the mind’s unlimited vista…
Next one is a special case of the above case: Here you are given the esteemed position of selecting a (or even many) gift, representing the likes of a group of people. Now here comes another criteria to be added to your otherwise nagging list of ‘things to think of before buying gifts’. This one is more powerful and a potential destructor( will explain why…) than any of those trivial criteria. Wondering why? The reason: Simple enough guys…they are supposed to be paying. Now the moment they say, ‘hey dude, count me in. just show me the bill, will get you the money soon… make sure u get a good gift,k?’,you increase the budget, you swap the usual gift shop for a famous archies gala, go for the elite gifts…the kind of gifts you wished someone had given to you. And then when you come back, show the gift and if…if…the other ‘contributors’ say ‘ neva knew you had such horrible tastes. If this is the taste, I wud get a better one myself’…know what that means? You are broke…( luckily my gift shopping experience hasn’t ever reached that point :-) )( if you are more of the non-bulliable type, then you will probably take care of this part in a better way ) The more understanding lot would sulkily put in their part of money and might talk a lil rude to you, but at the end everything will end up fine and maybe you can pay them back when you get them to buy some gifts for ya.:-)
So many boundary conditions and constraints to comply with. A Sturm lioville problem!!!(an engg math trivia…tho’ to this day am not very sure what that’s all about :-) just know there are a couple of boundary conditions and that’s when the problem starts…)
Seriously guys, shopping for gifts is the worst possible form of shopping…
But then again, if the person who is getting the gift finds the gift great or even reasonably good… then I should say that’s one of the most rewarding experiences... :-) ...so I wouldn’t mind going on another gift shopping.:-)
[I wrote this post after a
chal cya
signing off for now…
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS
Hey guys
Me back to lil bit of blogging. I am here back home for hols… almost three months of vacation.I stopped planning about it long time back, coz nothing usually works out as planned.
Today am gonna write about a movie which I watched. It was a hit in the hostel. The movie is THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS. When I started to watch it, I didn’t know it was based on a true story, though at the beginning they show ‘inspired by a true story’ ,didn’t know it was almost totally true.
Then I went on to watch the movie. It portrays the struggle, ambition, fatherly love among all other things of the protagonist of the name chris gardner. In short it is his PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS. Seems these words are written in the constitution of the USA.(with the correct spelling,of course)
The misspelt happiness comes from the fact that the word happiness was written in front of the day care of the son of chris.
It was definitely an inspirational watch. So guys out there who have missed this movie, go ahead and watch it for sure.
And yes a word about the toddler who plays chris jr.He’s such a cutie pie. And btw he’s Will Smith’s real life son.
Here’s a link to the wikipedia article on the real CHRISTOPHER GARDNER.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_gardner
Get inspired
Till the next post… Good bye
BLOGGING!!!
hi guys
no... i aint back in the blogging front...just thot i wud drop in...:)
well so wats news?hmm...had a foss meet @ nitc last weekend..it was great i believe,for most of the stuff went above ma head :)
but i guess on the overall it was a great success.its not everytime that u get to see something techie happening in nitc(rather Not Interested in Technology:) )
so wat happened at foss?well many cool geeks came over and enlightened us with quite a few tricks and hacking and all that.one of the few stuff which didn't go above my head and which grabbed the audience was blogging.there was an unconferencing on blogging by one of the top ranked bloggers-KIRUBA SHANKAR.well i am still not sure what exactly unconferencing is.(maybe because the number of audience was quite a lot.)i should say that it was one of the two events that had the whole hall packed :)
he talked about his experiences in blogging.its pros and cons,how he ended up in deep trouble coz of blogging and all that.basically a sharing of experiences.he was a good speaker who knew to take the audience in his hands.one main thing he said was 'guys...blog consistently!!!' :)
nyways u guys can chek out his blog...
www.kiruba.com
okie then...signing off for now
INconsistent blogger ... :)
no... i aint back in the blogging front...just thot i wud drop in...:)
well so wats news?hmm...had a foss meet @ nitc last weekend..it was great i believe,for most of the stuff went above ma head :)
but i guess on the overall it was a great success.its not everytime that u get to see something techie happening in nitc(rather Not Interested in Technology:) )
so wat happened at foss?well many cool geeks came over and enlightened us with quite a few tricks and hacking and all that.one of the few stuff which didn't go above my head and which grabbed the audience was blogging.there was an unconferencing on blogging by one of the top ranked bloggers-KIRUBA SHANKAR.well i am still not sure what exactly unconferencing is.(maybe because the number of audience was quite a lot.)i should say that it was one of the two events that had the whole hall packed :)
he talked about his experiences in blogging.its pros and cons,how he ended up in deep trouble coz of blogging and all that.basically a sharing of experiences.he was a good speaker who knew to take the audience in his hands.one main thing he said was 'guys...blog consistently!!!' :)
nyways u guys can chek out his blog...
www.kiruba.com
okie then...signing off for now
INconsistent blogger ... :)
An awesome speech...by Steve Jobs
Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky – I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me – I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much.
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky – I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me – I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much.
Musings of a rain soaked soul
Well rainy season has set in earlier than usual. It feels so good to watch the rains,relishing the comfort of indoors. Its an awesome sight. One can sit for hours on end,simply looking at the rains especially if its green all around. Lucky me... I'm in such a position. If you have a discman and nothing else to do and sit listening to the music while watching the rain,it starts to feel as if nothing, absolutely nothing can go wrong in life and that life is definitely beautiful.Am I not right?Do post your comments about what you think about the rain when you stay
indoors...
P.S: Its a different story when u leave indoors for some job,I gotta admit that.
indoors...
P.S: Its a different story when u leave indoors for some job,I gotta admit that.
PENSIEVE-1
(Well I'm here to pen some of my experiences. All the characters described here are real and not at all fictional,but some stuff have been added to make it interesting and if at the end of you reading this ,you didn't feel it was interesting forget this disclaimer. I just put this up in the front as everybody around is particular about discalimers these days...)
I will never forget that gloomy tuition class room where our brains were fed with morsels of differentiation,integration and all those math stuff.Gloomy room though it was,it was the place which saw us having lots and lots of fun, of course behind the back of the sir.
Me as usual was sitting in the second row of the class(that was a safe place.Sir always seemed to concentrate on the back benchers,so the second row was one of the safest spots.).It was raining heavily on that day and that meant more fun for us,for we wouldn't have to keep our voices low as usual.My favorite hobby apart from passing chits,sweets and poking my friends in the front row(not always,but only when they requested me to help them stay awake...) , was singing and sing I did on that day too...humming the tunes of old Rahman flicks and other mallu ones. Dev was sitting near me on that day.Dev too seemed like she was not enjoying that day's, class and so lent her ears(;-)hehe..i was grabbing an audience!!!)to my humble tunes. I jumped from one tune to another. Dev was enjoying it too. I continued my quest to find amusement in the middle of my friends drifting away to unknown vistas in their dreamworlds.
At some point Dev stopped me and said 'Hey repeat that one...I didn't get the song you were humming just now.
Me: 'Nope...you should be knowing it, I will repeat it.Guess the song if you are good enough,buddy..' I said that with an air of superiority(sheesh..I shouldn't have done that)
Me:Humming....
Suddenly I saw heads turning from the boys' side with mysterious looks on their faces,heads started turning back from the front row as well...focussing on what they thought was some 'wild auditory sensation interrupting their quite slumber'.Oh my God...I called up almost all the possible Gods within those nanosecs and prayed that the head that I feared the most shouldn't be turning.
But alas...it turned...and there he was looking at me as if he could see right through me. He glared at me...for a moment. 'Dont kick me out...please',my eyes imploringly conveyed this message to him.Thankfully after that glare he turned back and continued his demonstration of some principle on the blackboard. (definitely because he had stuff to finish and no time for some distracted silly gal..(thank God)...)
I let out a sigh and started listening to the class for a change.But that class will be remembered by me forever as it marked the end of my glorious career in singing!!!
I will never forget that gloomy tuition class room where our brains were fed with morsels of differentiation,integration and all those math stuff.Gloomy room though it was,it was the place which saw us having lots and lots of fun, of course behind the back of the sir.
Me as usual was sitting in the second row of the class(that was a safe place.Sir always seemed to concentrate on the back benchers,so the second row was one of the safest spots.).It was raining heavily on that day and that meant more fun for us,for we wouldn't have to keep our voices low as usual.My favorite hobby apart from passing chits,sweets and poking my friends in the front row(not always,but only when they requested me to help them stay awake...) , was singing and sing I did on that day too...humming the tunes of old Rahman flicks and other mallu ones. Dev was sitting near me on that day.Dev too seemed like she was not enjoying that day's, class and so lent her ears(;-)hehe..i was grabbing an audience!!!)to my humble tunes. I jumped from one tune to another. Dev was enjoying it too. I continued my quest to find amusement in the middle of my friends drifting away to unknown vistas in their dreamworlds.
At some point Dev stopped me and said 'Hey repeat that one...I didn't get the song you were humming just now.
Me: 'Nope...you should be knowing it, I will repeat it.Guess the song if you are good enough,buddy..' I said that with an air of superiority(sheesh..I shouldn't have done that)
Me:Humming....
Suddenly I saw heads turning from the boys' side with mysterious looks on their faces,heads started turning back from the front row as well...focussing on what they thought was some 'wild auditory sensation interrupting their quite slumber'.Oh my God...I called up almost all the possible Gods within those nanosecs and prayed that the head that I feared the most shouldn't be turning.
But alas...it turned...and there he was looking at me as if he could see right through me. He glared at me...for a moment. 'Dont kick me out...please',my eyes imploringly conveyed this message to him.Thankfully after that glare he turned back and continued his demonstration of some principle on the blackboard. (definitely because he had stuff to finish and no time for some distracted silly gal..(thank God)...)
I let out a sigh and started listening to the class for a change.But that class will be remembered by me forever as it marked the end of my glorious career in singing!!!
RESERVE Vs DESERVE
With the anti-reservation protests roaring through day and night , I believe that every Indian would have taken some time out for cerebration. Its high time that the young generation made up their mind on this gargantuan issue which affects the life of every single Indian citizen in some way or the other.
I come from a state where reservation already exists for OBC's along with SC/ST. Though my college is one of the few exceptions, as it comes under the Central Government.(Might soon change if things are going this way.)
I'm against reservation of this kind. I have noticed that the fruits of reservation are mainly savoured by people who are many times better off than most of the people of 'non-reservation' category.That is the so called creamy layer...so many of them faking their income certificates to enjoy the fruits of reservation. They are economically affluent and bask various highly dignified positions in the society-most of them owe their thanks to reservation. Yes, in most of the cases,its the same old families who have once relished the perks of reservation again enjoying the 'glory'. Majority of them have had more options for sending their kids to the best coaching institutes than majority of the 'non-reserved' category. Even after this,there are many who are forced to rely on reservation to get admissions. I do agree with the fact that all are not like this and there are some who actually need reservation. But why reserve seats for the moneyed bunch of citizens? Reports say that lots and lots of people enter Central Government jobs using fake caste certificates.(thanks to CNN IBN reports).They showed how easy it is to get those fakes if you are ready to shower a few bucks and God alone knows how many of them entered college with the help of those.
The caste system is going to take a high turn with these events. Its going to become more and more evident in the society and this is definitely not the right thing for the modern world. This is definitely not what our ancestors envisaged and dreamed about. It was the society where everybody lived in harmony and where caste and creed took the back seat that they dreamed of creating.
Institutes like IIM,IIT and AIIMS are centers of excellence. Aren't we compromising with merit, the very basis of excellence in these institues by implementing reservation. For Godsake why do we have to take chances(that are definitely gonna deteriorate excellence) with the standards of institutes which we have always held high as the top brands of Indian education or infact held India at the top of nations with thier above par excellent standards. Why? Merit should be the only factor that should be counted ,atleast , in these places. How many of those students-who really didn't deserve, but ended up in these institutes - will be able to survive the pressure and reach the top? Never the majority...and those who are successful among them would have made it even otherwise.
If its reservation that you need, make it economy based rather than caste or go for an alternative system as highlighted by socio-political guru Mr.Yogendra Yadav and his colleague, at the PRIMARY-SECONDARY level. Why go for it at the higher education level???Get people to make sure that it is people who deserve on the basis of both merit and economy that get to enjoy the perks of reservation. Help them gain perfect footing at the primary and secondary level and enable them to face the competitions. Leave the rest to them. If they deserve and God wishes, they will definitely make it.
There are ever so many people in the so called 'forward castes' who struggle to make it to an institute even with merit, for caste seems to be their only handicap.
If even after more than 50 years, reservation has been unable to do what was expected of it and if politicians are still talking about more reservation, then isn't there something wrong with the system of reservation?What was made intially to last 10 years still continues.Why?The answer is crystal clear- JUST FOR THE SAKE OF VOTE BANKS...
Well I dunno how many of you heard about the decision to bring about reservation in private sector. No people, I'm not joking. The Govt. has given the private sector 2 years deadline to ensure reservation. In the near future, I guess the majority will think along the lines of draining their brains to greener pastures where merit reigns to be the sole criterion. And the implications might not at all be a good one for my home country. The big shots of Indian IT sector- Narayanmurthy and Azim Premji - are among the greats who have come out against reservation.
Here I have voiced out my opinion about reservation.This is not meant to hurt anybody's feelings but just plain opinion about an issue which is rocking the country.I leave you with the opinion of Jawaherlal Nehru about reservation at that point of time...which seems to have not lost out on its significance even after almost half a century...
I come from a state where reservation already exists for OBC's along with SC/ST. Though my college is one of the few exceptions, as it comes under the Central Government.(Might soon change if things are going this way.)
I'm against reservation of this kind. I have noticed that the fruits of reservation are mainly savoured by people who are many times better off than most of the people of 'non-reservation' category.That is the so called creamy layer...so many of them faking their income certificates to enjoy the fruits of reservation. They are economically affluent and bask various highly dignified positions in the society-most of them owe their thanks to reservation. Yes, in most of the cases,its the same old families who have once relished the perks of reservation again enjoying the 'glory'. Majority of them have had more options for sending their kids to the best coaching institutes than majority of the 'non-reserved' category. Even after this,there are many who are forced to rely on reservation to get admissions. I do agree with the fact that all are not like this and there are some who actually need reservation. But why reserve seats for the moneyed bunch of citizens? Reports say that lots and lots of people enter Central Government jobs using fake caste certificates.(thanks to CNN IBN reports).They showed how easy it is to get those fakes if you are ready to shower a few bucks and God alone knows how many of them entered college with the help of those.
The caste system is going to take a high turn with these events. Its going to become more and more evident in the society and this is definitely not the right thing for the modern world. This is definitely not what our ancestors envisaged and dreamed about. It was the society where everybody lived in harmony and where caste and creed took the back seat that they dreamed of creating.
Institutes like IIM,IIT and AIIMS are centers of excellence. Aren't we compromising with merit, the very basis of excellence in these institues by implementing reservation. For Godsake why do we have to take chances(that are definitely gonna deteriorate excellence) with the standards of institutes which we have always held high as the top brands of Indian education or infact held India at the top of nations with thier above par excellent standards. Why? Merit should be the only factor that should be counted ,atleast , in these places. How many of those students-who really didn't deserve, but ended up in these institutes - will be able to survive the pressure and reach the top? Never the majority...and those who are successful among them would have made it even otherwise.
If its reservation that you need, make it economy based rather than caste or go for an alternative system as highlighted by socio-political guru Mr.Yogendra Yadav and his colleague, at the PRIMARY-SECONDARY level. Why go for it at the higher education level???Get people to make sure that it is people who deserve on the basis of both merit and economy that get to enjoy the perks of reservation. Help them gain perfect footing at the primary and secondary level and enable them to face the competitions. Leave the rest to them. If they deserve and God wishes, they will definitely make it.
There are ever so many people in the so called 'forward castes' who struggle to make it to an institute even with merit, for caste seems to be their only handicap.
If even after more than 50 years, reservation has been unable to do what was expected of it and if politicians are still talking about more reservation, then isn't there something wrong with the system of reservation?What was made intially to last 10 years still continues.Why?The answer is crystal clear- JUST FOR THE SAKE OF VOTE BANKS...
Well I dunno how many of you heard about the decision to bring about reservation in private sector. No people, I'm not joking. The Govt. has given the private sector 2 years deadline to ensure reservation. In the near future, I guess the majority will think along the lines of draining their brains to greener pastures where merit reigns to be the sole criterion. And the implications might not at all be a good one for my home country. The big shots of Indian IT sector- Narayanmurthy and Azim Premji - are among the greats who have come out against reservation.
Here I have voiced out my opinion about reservation.This is not meant to hurt anybody's feelings but just plain opinion about an issue which is rocking the country.I leave you with the opinion of Jawaherlal Nehru about reservation at that point of time...which seems to have not lost out on its significance even after almost half a century...
tHE eNGINEERING pREAMBLE
Hey guys,
I came across this interesting sms...Thought i would share it with u....njoy
THE ENGINEERING PREAMBLE
We the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much for so long, with so little, we will one day qualify to do anything with knowing nothing. Be proud to be an ENGINEER!!!
I came across this interesting sms...Thought i would share it with u....njoy
THE ENGINEERING PREAMBLE
We the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much for so long, with so little, we will one day qualify to do anything with knowing nothing. Be proud to be an ENGINEER!!!
How I became an NITCian?
Hey guys
I'm back tho i know that there aren't many who would be interested in this blog...but will keep trying :-)
I'm not what people call 'Really Creative' when it comes to playing with words or putting anything on paper (electronic means included!) though I love people who are lucky to be gifted in that respect and love the world they create with words...in short I love reading and I'm just back from the world of Oliver and Jenny....u got it..just finished one of the best books i've ever read- Love Story.
So people don't expect a wonderful masterpiece from me...I'm penning down some of my thoughts over here.
I'm an Electronics and Communication Engineering student in NITC and I'm basically from Calicut itself. I joined NITC last July. Why did I opt for this place? Lots of reasons...I had wanted to come here pretty badly. Well what was the reason for that?Okay...here goes one of the reasons.
I spent the bulk of my life(yuk...I sound like a good ol grandma...well i'm not that old.. ;-) in Presentation Higher Secondary School,Calicut...thats the place where i've enjoyed the most-helluva life....with pals to rock, teachers to...hmm...press alt+f4 whenever things got out of hand(they are one of the sweetest teachers one can get,i love 'em.v are really close with them) and absolute fun!(u have no idea) I will give you a peep into ma school life soon.lemme get back to what i was talking about.
12th std-when we are supposed to slog over text books,eat math,sleep phy, drink chem and not to forget -enjoy bio- well none of us,atleast the majority of my friends including me were anywhere near this manthra.Maybe Sr.Roselit-our Principal (one person who was the most interested in how much her pupils ate.She would come to our class and enquire the number of dosas or idlis we managed to eat before running for tuitions early in the morning and would make it a point to comment on our health especially about mine,coz i was (and am) damn healthy those days!!!lol)saw that things were getting out of hand and as any teacher should do, decided to take charge of the situation , chalked out a plan to get us inspired...decided to arrange a trip to the one n only NITC-the NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY,CALICUT- for their annual tech fest - Tathva. Well i guess her primary objective was to make us get the feel of a professional college , if her objective was to get acquainted with machines and hi fi gadgets, sorry we were busy checking out the place.
When the news that we were going out for a 'chota' trip reached us we were overjoyed - Mukthi from boredom of kingdoms in zoology and sleepy english classes. It was a half an hour trip to NITC and soon we were in front of the portals of one of the greatest institutes in Kerala - nitc.
We were escorted to the NLC(New Lecture Complex-wonder wether its name will still be the same after few years too).We were seated in the Bhaskara hall where one of the chettas gave us an intro speech. Well if u ask me what exactly he told- I dunno. But whatever he told inspired,instilled and instigated something in me - can't really explain. He talked about being an NITIAN- that it was a dream before and a passion now and so on...
It was a helluva speech (not coz of its oration)but coz of something else, the power,the impact it had on me. It made me love this place from that day onwards, it kicked up the sense of duty from somewhere inside (that sense of duty stayed only for 2 days though...as every impressive stuff does in my life...may it be a guy or just a thought!!!) I should thank that chetta for that pep talk. It didn't well...exhort...me to the extent that i worked day and night with great dedication or something...but created a sense of love for this place since that day and thus played an important part in me ending up here...
I really can't say whether it is a passion for me now...I'm not really enjoying engineering,but am definitely having fun here, the campus, friends and lots of other stuff...they are great...so in one way thanks to you chetta...and yes NITIAN feeling is something really great!!!
Signing off for now
Paro
I'm back tho i know that there aren't many who would be interested in this blog...but will keep trying :-)
I'm not what people call 'Really Creative' when it comes to playing with words or putting anything on paper (electronic means included!) though I love people who are lucky to be gifted in that respect and love the world they create with words...in short I love reading and I'm just back from the world of Oliver and Jenny....u got it..just finished one of the best books i've ever read- Love Story.
So people don't expect a wonderful masterpiece from me...I'm penning down some of my thoughts over here.
I'm an Electronics and Communication Engineering student in NITC and I'm basically from Calicut itself. I joined NITC last July. Why did I opt for this place? Lots of reasons...I had wanted to come here pretty badly. Well what was the reason for that?Okay...here goes one of the reasons.
I spent the bulk of my life(yuk...I sound like a good ol grandma...well i'm not that old.. ;-) in Presentation Higher Secondary School,Calicut...thats the place where i've enjoyed the most-helluva life....with pals to rock, teachers to...hmm...press alt+f4 whenever things got out of hand(they are one of the sweetest teachers one can get,i love 'em.v are really close with them) and absolute fun!(u have no idea) I will give you a peep into ma school life soon.lemme get back to what i was talking about.
12th std-when we are supposed to slog over text books,eat math,sleep phy, drink chem and not to forget -enjoy bio- well none of us,atleast the majority of my friends including me were anywhere near this manthra.Maybe Sr.Roselit-our Principal (one person who was the most interested in how much her pupils ate.She would come to our class and enquire the number of dosas or idlis we managed to eat before running for tuitions early in the morning and would make it a point to comment on our health especially about mine,coz i was (and am) damn healthy those days!!!lol)saw that things were getting out of hand and as any teacher should do, decided to take charge of the situation , chalked out a plan to get us inspired...decided to arrange a trip to the one n only NITC-the NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY,CALICUT- for their annual tech fest - Tathva. Well i guess her primary objective was to make us get the feel of a professional college , if her objective was to get acquainted with machines and hi fi gadgets, sorry we were busy checking out the place.
When the news that we were going out for a 'chota' trip reached us we were overjoyed - Mukthi from boredom of kingdoms in zoology and sleepy english classes. It was a half an hour trip to NITC and soon we were in front of the portals of one of the greatest institutes in Kerala - nitc.
We were escorted to the NLC(New Lecture Complex-wonder wether its name will still be the same after few years too).We were seated in the Bhaskara hall where one of the chettas gave us an intro speech. Well if u ask me what exactly he told- I dunno. But whatever he told inspired,instilled and instigated something in me - can't really explain. He talked about being an NITIAN- that it was a dream before and a passion now and so on...
It was a helluva speech (not coz of its oration)but coz of something else, the power,the impact it had on me. It made me love this place from that day onwards, it kicked up the sense of duty from somewhere inside (that sense of duty stayed only for 2 days though...as every impressive stuff does in my life...may it be a guy or just a thought!!!) I should thank that chetta for that pep talk. It didn't well...exhort...me to the extent that i worked day and night with great dedication or something...but created a sense of love for this place since that day and thus played an important part in me ending up here...
I really can't say whether it is a passion for me now...I'm not really enjoying engineering,but am definitely having fun here, the campus, friends and lots of other stuff...they are great...so in one way thanks to you chetta...and yes NITIAN feeling is something really great!!!
Signing off for now
Paro
Picasa
Hey guys...It has been a long time since I did something over here.Well no new ideas are creeping into my head.My end sem exams seems to have done something to my creativity or was I like this before.No idea.
Well as I'm short of creative stuff I thought of putting up a post on 'my' new found cool software- GOOGLE PICASA or better call it the latest addiciton in my list.
When i first browsed through the features of Picasa I felt that there couldn't be anything better ,anything as compact, anything as user friendly as this. A TRUE GOOGLE PRODUCT.
Well this is no substitute for Photoshop,but when it comes to a non-tech savvy guy this is the product for them. The layout is absolutely cool. Picasa constantly searches the disk for new pics and add them to the list. We have the option of disabling this too.
The Google specialities - like starring a pic , search options etc are added features.
Options like print,mailing,exporting and making a collage are available. The last option- making collages has suddenly grabbed my love. I loved it,though i would be looking forward for more options in collage.
Another awesome feature is that you can select the pics you want to upload to your blog and its just a click away. Blog This! button does this on the fly.
All the basic fixes like crop,straighten,red eye correction,auto contrast, auto color, fill light,shadows, color temperature, other effects re available on the left panel. And well when it comes to google there's always the I'm Feeling Lucky button.
There is a 'Gift CD' button which allows you to burn cds with your pics in it and also has a built in slideshow....WOW!The Import button allows you to import stuff from cameras,scanners etc. The usual slideshow button is also present. Another cool option is the timeline,where all the folders are arranged according to the dates on which they were formed and it presents to you in a great layout. And in your nostalgic moods you can browse through these snaps and gulp down all the memories of your past. There is an option which lets you create a movie with all the pics in the folder.
Well,I have just gone through the features I found quite interesting. I would bet that this is one cool software which you should definitely get your hands on.
Signing Off
Paro
Aircrafts breaking sound barrier
These are actual photos Of Aircraft Breaking the Sound Barrier
This phenomena only happens at the instant an aircraft breaks the sound barrier.. and it literally appears like the aircraft goes through a wall.
hey guys....
go thru the above article.....its very inspiring.....i hope u all will also find it interesting n inspiring....
three cheers to this awesome guy!!!!
signing off...
FRIENDSHIP...
My Ambigram
Hey everybody...at last i got my name converted into an ambigram...thanx to balaji who did this 4 me.blogging is cool for i never thought i wud get an ambigram for myself.
check out his blog
http://balaambigrams.blogspot.com/
Signing Off
DAN BROWN ROX!!!
Hey guys...
I'm a great fan of Dan Brown works.Angels and Demons & Da Vinci Code were superb pieces. I never realised that Robert Langdon was inspired by a real life person John Langdon. Go through this excerpt...
Before that try click and drag in the above flash movie. This is an ambigram for his famous book 'ANGELS AND DEMONS'....After you rotate it you will realise that it is nothing short of 'awesome' ,nah??? I should say that this guy John Langdon is a genius...
The following is excerpted from Dan Brown's Witness Statement to the British High Court - in which the American author speaks about his inspiration and research for his bestselling novels, including the DaVinci Code and Angels & Demons.
Robert Langdon is amalgam of many people I admire. In the early 1990's, I first saw the art work of John Langdon. John is an artist and philosopher, a close friend of my father and, I think, one of our true geniuses. He is most famous for his ability to create "ambigrams" - words that read the same both right side up and up side down (see, for example, his book Wordplay. John's art changed the way I think about symmetry, symbols, and art - he looks at [everything] from different perspectives. I was so impressed by the artwork of John Langdon that I commissioned him to create an album cover for my new CD of music (called Angels & Demons), which dealt with many of the religious themes that already interested me. John did the artwork, and the CD was released in 1999 with John's ambigram on the cover. Later, when I. published a novel of the same name, Simon & Schuster used the same ambigram on the hardcover edition.
John and his name were part of the inspiration for the protagonist of Angels & Demons (Robert Langdon) who also appears in The Da Vinci Code and in my next, as yet unpublished, book. John also created the ambigrams used in Angels & Demons. I commissioned him to create ambigrams for the word "illuminati", as well as the Illuminati diamond -- the fusion of the elements, earth, air, fire and water, which represents the fusion of science and religion historically, and features in Angels & Demons.
*********************************************************************************
hmm.... I should get my name transformed into this kind of an ambigram somehow. so people who can help me...please do...
POTTER RULES...
I'm a big fan of Harry Potter and the magical writing of J K Rowling. Today I want to share my favorite sentimental part of Harry Potter... This part deals with Sirius' death...Like most of my friends,I'm still praying for Sirius' comeback...lets keep the lamp of hope alive
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF PHOENIX - Pg 710
Only one pair was still battling, apparently unaware of the new arrival. Harry saw Sirius duck Bellatrix's jet of red light;he was laughing at her. 'Come on, you can do better than that!' he yelled,his voice echoing around the cavernous room. The second jet of light hit him squarely on the chest. The laughter had not quite died from his face, but his eyes widened in shock. Harry released Neville, though he was unaware of doing so. He was jumping down the steps again, pulling out his wand, as Dumbledore too, turned toward the dias. It seemed to take Sirius an age to fal; his body curved in a graceful arc as he sank backwards through the ragged veil hanging from the arch. Harry saw the look of mingled fear and surprise on his godfather's wasted,once handsome face as he fell through the ancient doorway and disappeared behind the veilwhich fluttered for a moment as though in a high wind, then fell back into place. Harry heard Bellatrix Lestrange's triumphant scream, but knew it meant nothing - Sirius had just fallen through the archway, he would reappear from the other side any second . . .
But Sirius did not reappear. 'SIRIUS' Harry yelled 'SIRIUS!'
He had reached the floor,his breath coming in searing gasps.
Sirius must be just behind the curtain, he, Harry would pull him back out... But as he reached the ground and sprinted towards the dais, Lupin grabbed Harry around the chest, holding him back.. ...............................................................................................................................................
There's nothing you can do Harry....nothing he is gone....Lupin said He hasn't gone,Harry yelled He did not beleive it,he would not beleive it,still he ought Lupin with every bit of strength he had. lupin did not understand, people hid behind the curtain. Harry hadheard him whispring the first time he had entered the room. Sirius was hiding, simply lurking out of sight 'sirius' he bellowed 'sirius' He can't come back,Harry,said Lupin,his voice breaking as he struggled to contain Harry .'he can't come back, because he's d---'
'HE-IS-NOT-DEAD' roared Harry SIRIUS!' .
.......................................................................................................
Lupin dragged Harry away from the dais. Harry still staring at the archway, was angry at Sirius now for keeping him waiting-
BUT SOME PART OF HIM REALISED,EVEN AS HE FOUGHT TO BREAK FREE FROM LUPIN, THAT SIRIUS HAD NEVER KEPT HIM WAITING BEFORE...SIRIUS HAD RISKED EVERYTHING,ALWAYS,TO SEE HARRY,TO HELP HIM...IF SIRIUS WAS NOT REAPPEARING OUT OF THE ARCHWAY, WHEN HARRY WAS YELLING AS THOUGH HIS LIFE DEPENDED ON IT,THE ONLY POSSIBLE EXPLANATION WAS THAT HE COULD NOT COME BACK....THAT HE REALLY WAS.......... ********************************************************************************
It was tough for me to type this out not coz it was long but coz it was tough to fight back the sad feelings that this part brings...J.K.Rowling is an amazing genius to me...She is simply superb....Don't you guys agree??Post in your comments about her...
WTC - Fostering relationships!!!
Favorite blog
Hey guys...
Here is a link to one of my favorite blogs. This blog is by an ex-nitcian. Check out the NITC memories that he has posted...
www.deepakiyer.blogspot.com
Signing Off
Here is a link to one of my favorite blogs. This blog is by an ex-nitcian. Check out the NITC memories that he has posted...
www.deepakiyer.blogspot.com
Signing Off
MY IDOL
hey people..here is a very good article about my idol...Sudha Murthy.Go ahead and get inspired by this great lady
A very good article on Narayanamurthy couple, Infosys.
Narayanan Murthy saying 'bout his dear wife...
***********************************************
My wife is a happy person with the ability to see the positive in a situation. Her cheerful disposition helps her make friends easily. She is one of the finest managers I have seen, meticulous about completing every task on time with quality and within budget.
Sudha was the only female student in her Engineering class at Hubli, a conservative town in North Karnataka. She was a first ranker in all ten semesters in her Engineering degree, winning gold medals in every examination. Besides being a fine engineer, she is a great writer too.
She has sacrificed so much for me and the children giving up her job as manager in Bombay in 1981 to move to Pune.Without that sacrifice, I am not sure if I would have been able to found Infosys along with my six colleagues.
Her positive way of looking at things, being happy in every situation and her ability to relate to the poor are the things that I admire most in her. When you meet an interesting person like her it is very easy to fall in love. That is what happened to me.
Sudha has always been there for Infosys in the time of success, failure or a crisis. Currently, she is one of the trustees of the Infosys Foundation putting in at least six hours a day of work and often several days of outstation travel to poor areas of India. Unlike Sudha who has been a great partner and supporter to me, I have been unable to assist her in any way in her activities. Her achievements are purely her own. Being the better of the two of us, she probably will not even need any support. She is a wonderful partner, always willing to encourage and support me. Her children think she is a great friend and an understanding mother. She is a fun woman to be with.
When I returned from France in the mid-'70s, convinced that the only way you can remove poverty is by creating more and more wealth legally and ethically, I discussed with her how I wanted to conduct an experiment increasing wealth. By nature she is the more sacrificing of the two. Thus, my desire to conduct this experiment and her active encouragement were why I let her sacrifice so much for me. She is a great influence on me in being a better manager and a better human being. She is modern yet retains the Indian values. She combines the best of right and left lobes. She has shown how you can relate to the rich and the poor. She is an invaluable partner to me.
Aryan Murty
(CEO OF INFOSYS, BANGALORE)
--------------------------------------------------------
Mrs.Murthy saying 'bout Mr.Murthy...
========================================================
The first step which one makes in the world as achild,is the one on which depends the rest of our days... Mysteps were piloted by my family on values like truth, simplicity, love and respect for all. I was born in 1950in a middle class family. My father Sri R H Kulkarni was a doctor in a government hospital, my mother VimalaKulkarni was a housewife. I am the second child in afamily of three daughters and one son. I spent a great part of my early years with my maternal grandparents. My grandfather, Sri H R Kadim Diwan, was a true Gandhianwho opted out of law school because his teacher said that sometimes, he might have to manipulate the truth to win lawsuits. He was 63 years older than me but we were best friends. He was a scholar who inculcated in me a love forbooks, history, mathematics and India. Without realizing, he also instilled a free and adventurous spirit within me.
I taught my 62-year- old grandmother to read and write...My grandmother, though illiterate was an ardent fan ofTriveni, a renowned writer in Kannada. Every Wednesday grandma used to finish her household chores and would bewailing for me to read her Triveni's serial called 'KashiYatre'. One Wednesday I was unable to keep our afternoon reading-appointment. Grandma felt helpless and frustrated. There was the magazine, she touched the words but couldn't read them. I asked her, Awwa, do you want toread and write? She replied, I am 62. Will I be able toread now? I was 12 when I became my grandmother's teacher. A year later, grandma began reading 'Kashi Yatre' on her own. IT IS VERY TRUE THAT THE INK OF THE SCHOLAR IS MORE SACRED THAN THE BLOOD OF THE MARTYR.* It
can change people's lives. A young man married a girl with leucoderma after reading
my novel "Mahaswete"... I love writing. For me, writings like breathing. I have been writing from a young age and I have written 10 books so far novels, technical and educational books. A boy who had broken off his engagement with his fiancée after learning she had leucoderma decided to marry her after reading my novel"Mahaswete" which was about a girl with leucoderma. To realize that my novel had made a difference in somebody's life was the ultimate reward I could get as a writer.
My parents never bought us jewellery or expensive clothes but we had an extensive library at home... My family was academically oriented and education was a priority in the Kulkarni household. My father had never bought a fridge which he ultimately did much later in life) but he would buy us books. I never had any silk saris or jewellery but what I had were books and more books. My older sister Sunanda is a distinguished doctor. Mother sister Jayshree Deshpande is an IIT graduate from Chennai and is married to Gururaj Deshpande whose name appeared in the Forbes list. My brother Srinivas Kulkarniis a world renowned astrophysicist.
There was no toilet for girls in my college because girls never went to engineering colleges... I was the first girl to study engineering which was considered a male domain in Hubli. Friends and neighbors tried to discourage my parents saying nobody would marry an engineering graduate. Since getting me married was not on top of the list at that time, but education was, my parents relented.
I joined BE Electrical in 1968 at the BVB College of Engineering in Hubli. In the beginning it was awkward. The college had no ladies room or toilet for girls because there were no girls in college. I had to wait, uncomfortably till I got home. After a year-and-a-half the authorities built a ladies toilet in the college premises. There were 250 boys in the class and I used to be ragged mercilessly. I wanted a degree in engineering and no amount of teasing was going to stop me from reaching my goal. I never missed one day of class in five years of my degree. Because I knew if I was absent even for a day there would be no one to share that day's notes with me.
After a year-and-a-half the boys came around. They realized I was no floozy and we went on to become great friends. I stood first in the University. Now, my father was keen that I do M.Tech. So, I went to Bangalore to study MTech at the Tata Institute of Engineering. Telco, Pine didn't want women engineering students to apply for the job... I had decided to study abroad for a PhD degree or study at MIT when fate intervened. One day, during my last semester of MTech in Bangalore, I came across a notice in college which read: Telco Pune wants young, bright, hard working engineers. There will be campus interview.... Lady students need not apply. The last line jolted me. Why this discrimination? I bought a post card which I addressed to JRD Tata and wrote:
Benevolent Tatas who have done so much philanthropic
work... innovative Tatas who started the first iron and
steel industry, textile industries .... I am surprised
and ashamed at your attitude toward women students. If
you can do this, then anybody can do it.
A week later I received a letter asking me to attend an interview at Telco at their expense. I decided to attend the interview if not for anything else then at least for the free ride and to buy Pune saris for friends and relatives.
At Telco I realized that I was the only candidate called for the interview. I also heard someone whispering, That's the girl who wrote to the big boss. I thought I will not get the job. When you have no expectations you have no fear. So, I boldly told the panel not to waste time if they were not serious about the interview and saw it as a form of vindication. The creditable panel interviewed me for 2 1/2 hours asking purely technical questions which I answered. At the end one of the panel members, Satyapalli Sarvamurthy, who later became my boss, explained why they did not want ladies at Telco. People here have to work in shifts, he said, And that might pose a problem for a lady on the shop floor full of men. Secondly, you will have to drive a jeep. Lastly, we spend considerable time and energy training people. This is wasted when a girl trainee gets married as she quits and goes to live with her husband.
I assured them that I was willing to work in shifts and that I will never play my gender card. If my grandmother could learn to read and write at 62, I could learn to drive a jeep at 23. And yes, I will go to live with my husband when I get married. I asked the panel how many of them were married and how many of them have gone to live with their wives. None. When they have followed a 1000- year-old male-favouring tradition why should they expect anything different from me? Yes, I will leave to live with my husband when I get married but unlike a boy who might leave them if he gets an additional 100 rupees at a rival company, I will not quit Telco even if I am offered huge sums of money. I assured them my loyalty. The panel was flabbergasted and said they will let me know the results of the interview in a week's time. This was a sure sign of getting dumped. And I had no burning desire to work at Telco. When there is no desire there is no fear. I boldly took the panel to task. I demanded an immediate reply since they had technically spent 10 man hours interviewing me. If they couldn't decide on the same day what made them think they could arrive at a conclusion after seven days? To my surprise I was offered a job at Telco, Pune with a salary of Rs 1500 per month which was to be later increased to Rs 5000 per month. They were not willing to provide me with hostel facilities during my two-year training period on the shop floor.
I became morally obligated to take up the job at Telco though I wanted to study further at MIT... I wasn't too keen on the job because I had already decided to go to MIT. But it was my father who made me realize my responsibilities chiding me for writing to JRD on a postcard. You should have done it with some etiquette, he said. He told me that I couldn't and shouldn't back down now. Your action might make it difficult for other girls to get a job at Telco in the future. They might hold you as a yardstick and you will be setting a bad example. You are morally responsible to take up that job, he bellowed. I joined Telco Pune in 1974. This incident taught me the importance of having insight in life and never act on impulse. The men on the Telco shop floor were hostile...
In 1974, I became the first woman to work on the shop floor of Telco, a male bastion till then. To say the environment was hostile is an understatement. The men were rude and refused to take orders from me a woman. They even prevented me from doing my work since it was always done by their manager, a man. The attitude hurt me but did not affect me. My goal was nothing but to excel at my work. So I was duty bound to overcome all obstacles. I wasn't going to let a few trouser clad homo sapiens dissuade me. I believe in saving energy for the big fights and refrained from asserting myself. Initially, I would do my work with no interaction with the men. Then I learnt their language as half the battle is won when you can speak the adversary's language. They began letting me step into their space. My stint at the shop floor has been a boon because today I have a greater cross reference of mechanical industry than Murty. I worked in Jamshedpur and in Bihar too. WHEN ARYAN MURTY PROPOSED TO ME HE SAID, SUDHA I WILL NEVER BE RICH IN MY LIFE. I CAN NEVER GIVE YOU THE RICHES THAT MONEY CAN BUY. WILL YOU MARRY ME? .. It was in Pine that I met Aryan Murty through my friend Prasanna who is now the Wipro chief, who was also training in Telco. Most of the books that Prasanna lent me had Murty's name on them which meant that I had a preconceived image of the man. Contrary to expectation, Murty was shy, bespectacled and an introvert. When he invited us for dinner. I was a bit taken aback as I thought the young man was making a very fast move. I refused since I was the only girl in the group. But Murty was relentless and we all decided to meet for dinner the next day at 7.30 p.m at Green Fields hotel on the Main Road, Pune. The next day I went there at 7 o clock since I had to go to the tailor near the hotel. And what do I see? Mr Murty waiting in front of the hotel and it was only seven. Till today, Murty maintains that I had mentioned (consciously!) that I would be going to the tailor at 7 so that I could meet him. And I maintain that I did not say any such thing consciously or unconsciously because I did not think of Murty as anything other than a friend at that stage. We have agreed to disagree on this matter. Soon, we became friends. Our conversations were filled with Murty's experiences abroad and the books that he has read. My friends insisted that Murty was trying to impress me because he was interested in me. I kept denying it till one fine day, after dinner Murty said, I want to tell you something. I knew this was it. It was coming. He said, I am 5'4" tall. I come from a lower middle class family. I can never become rich in my life and I can never give you any riches. You are beautiful, bright, intelligent and you can get anyone you want. But will you marry me? I asked Murty to give me some time for an answer.
My father didn't want me to marry a wannabe politician, (a communist at that) who didn't have a steady job and wanted to buildan orphanage... When I went to Hubli I told my parents about Murty and his proposal. My mother was positive since Murty was also from Karnataka, seemed intelligent and comes from a good family. But my father asked: What's his job, his salary, his qualifications etc? Murty was working as a research assistant and was earning less than me. He was willing to go dutch with me on our outings. My parents agreed to meet Murty in Pine on a particular day at 10 a. m sharp. Murty did not turn up. How can I trust a man to take care of my daughter if he cannot keep an appointment, asked my father. At 12 noon Murty turned up in a bright red shirt! He had gone on work to Bombay, was stuck in a traffic jam on the ghats, so he hired a taxi (though it was very expensive for him) to meet his would-be father-in-law. My father was unimpressed. My father asked him what he wanted to become in life. Murty said he wanted to become a politician in the communist party and wanted to open an orphanage.
My father gave his verdict. No. I don't want my daughter to marry somebody who wants to become a communist and then open an orphanage when he himself didn't have money to support his family. Ironically, today, I have opened many orphanages something which Murty wanted to do 25 years ago.
By this time I realized I had developed a liking towards Murty which could only be termed as love. I wanted to marry Murty because he is an honest man. He proposed to me highlighting the negatives in his life. I promised my father that I will not marry Murty without his blessings though at the same time, I cannot marry anybody else. My father said he would agree if Murty promised to take up a steady job. But Murty refused saying he will not do things in life because somebody wanted him to. So, I was caught between the two most important people in my life.
The stalemate continued for three years during which our courtship took us to every restaurant and cinema hall in Pune.
In those days, Murty was always broke. Moreover, he didn't earn much to manage. Ironically today, he manages Infosys Technologies Ltd one of the world's most reputed companies. He always owed me money. We used to go for dinner and he would say, I don't have money with me, you pay my share, I will return it to you later. For three years I maintained a book on Murty's debt to me. No, he never returned the money and I finally tore it up after my wedding. The amount was a little over Rs 4000. During this interim period Murty quit his job as research assistant and started his own software business. Now, I had to pay his salary too! Towards the late 70s computers were entering India in a big way. During the fag end of 1977 Murty decided to take up a job as General Manager at Patni Computers in Bombay. But before he joined the company he wanted to marry me since he was to go on training to the US after joining. My father gave in as he was happy Murty had a decent job, now. WE WERE MARRIED IN MURTY'S HOUSE IN BANGALORE ON FEBRUARY10, 1978 WITH ONLY OUR TWO FAMILIES PRESENT. I GOT MY FIRST SILK SARI. THE WEDDING EXPENSES CAME TO ONLY RS 800 (US $ 17) WITH MURTY AND I POOLING IN RS 400 EACH. I went to the US with Murty after marriage. Murty encouraged me to see America on my own because I loved traveling. I toured America for three months on backpack and had interesting experiences which will remain fresh in my mind forever. Like the time when I was taken into custody by the New York police because they thought I was an Italian trafficking drugs in Harlem. Or the time when I spent the night at the bottom of the Grand Canyon with an old couple. Murty panicked because he couldn't get a response from my hotel room even at midnight. He thought I was either killed or kidnapped.
IN 1981 MURTY WANTED TO START INFOSYS. HE HAD A VISION AND ZERO CAPITAL... initially I was very apprehensive about Murty getting into business. We did not have any business background. Moreover we were living a comfortable life in Bombay with a regular pay check and I didn't want to rock the boat. But Murty was passionate about creating good quality software. I decided to support him. Typical of Murty, he just had a dream and no money. So I gave him Rs 10,000 which I had saved for a rainy day, without his knowledge and told him, This is all I have. Take it. I give you three years sabbatical leave. I will take care of the financial needs of our house. You go and chase your dreams without any worry. But you have only three years!.
Murty and his six colleagues started Infosys in 1981,with enormous interest and hard work. In 1982 I left Telco and moved to Pune with Murty. We bought a small house on loan which also became the Infosys office. I was a clerk-cum-cook-cum-programmer. I also took up a job as Senior Systems Analyst with Walchand group of Industries to support the house. In 1983 Infosys got their first client, MICO, in Bangalore. Murty moved to Bangalore and stayed with his mother while I went to Hubli to deliver my second child, Rohan. Ten days after my son was born, Murty left for the US on project work. I saw him only after a year as I was unable to join Murty in the US because my son had infantile eczema, an allergy to vaccinations. So for more than a year I did not step outside our home for fear of my son contracting an infection. It was only after Rohan got all his vaccinations that I came to Bangalore where we rented a small house in Jayanagar and rented another house as Infosys headquarters. My father presented Murty a scooter to commute. I once again became a cook, programmer, clerk, secretary, office assistant et al. Nandan Nilekani (MD of Infosys) and his wife Rohini stayed with us. While Rohini baby sat my son, I wrote programmes for Infosys.
There was no car, no phone, just two kids and a bunch of us working hard, juggling our lives and having fun while Infosys was taking shape. It was not only me but the wives of other partners too who gave their unstinted support. We all knew that our men were trying to build something good. It was like a big joint family, taking care and looking out for one another. I still remember Sudha Gopalakrishna looking after my daughter Akshata with all care and love while Kumari Shibulal cooked for all of us.
Murty made it very clear that it would either be me or him working at Infosys. Never the two of us together... I was involved with Infosys initially. Nandan Nilekani suggested I should be on the Board but Murty said he did not want a husband and wife team at Infosys. I was shocked since I had the relevant experience and technical qualifications. He said, Sudha if you want to work with Infosys, I will withdraw, happily. I was pained to know that I will not be involved in the company my husband was building and that I would have to give up a job that I am qualified to do and love doing. It took me a couple of days to grasp the reason behind Murty's request. I realized that to make Infosys a success one had to give one's 100 percent. One had to be focussed on it alone with no other distractions. If the two of us had to give 100 percent to Infosys then what would happen to our home and our children? One of us had to take care of our home while the other took care of Infosys. I opted to be a homemaker, after all Infosys was Murty's dream. It was a big sacrifice but it was one that had to be made. Even today, Murty says, Sudha, I stepped on your career to make mine. You are responsible for my success. I might have given up my career for my husband's sake. But that does not make me a doormat... Many think that I have been made the sacrificial lamb at Aryan Murty's altar of success. A few women journalists have even accused me of setting a wrong example by giving up my dreams to make my husbands a reality. Isn't freedom about living your life the way you want it? What is right for one person might be wrong for another. It is up to the individual to make a choice that is effective in her life. I feel that when a woman gives up her right to choose for herself is when she crosses over from being an individual to a doormat. Murty's dreams encompassed not only himself but a generation of people. It was about founding something worthy, exemplary and honorable. It was about creation and distribution of wealth. His dreams were grander than my career plans, in all aspects. So, when I had to choose between Murty's career and mine, I opted for what I thought was a right choice. We had a home and two little children. Measles, mumps, fractures, PTA meetings, wants and needs of growing children do not care much for grandiose dreams. They just needed to be attended to. Somebody had to take care of it all. Somebody had to stay back to create a home base that would be fertile for healthy growth, happiness, and more dreams to dream. I became that somebody willingly. I can confidently say that if I had had a dream like Infosys, Murty would have given me his unstinted support. The roles would have been reversed. We are not bound by the archaic rules of marriage. I cook for him but I don't wait up to serve dinner like a traditional wife. So, he has no hassles about heating up the food and having his dinner. He does not intrude into my time especially when I am writing my novels. He does not interfere in my work at the Infosys Foundation and I don't interfere with the running of Infosys. I teach Computer Science to MBA and MCA students at Christ college for a few hours every week and I earn around Rs 50,000 a year. I value this financial independence greatly though there is no need for me to pursue a teaching career. Murty respects that. I travel all over the world without Murty because he hates traveling. We trust each other implicitly. We have another understanding too. While he earns the money, I spend it, mostly through the charity. Philanthropy is a profession and an art... The Infosys Foundation was born in 1997 with the sole objective of uplifting the less-privileged sections of society.
IN THE PAST THREE YEARS WE HAVE BUILT HOSPITALS, ORPHANAGE.
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