a lil' busy

shall be back to form from April-1.


Found the following gyaan from one of my friend's signatures:

"Labels seem to give satisfaction. We accept the category to which we are supposed to belong as a satisfying explanation of life. We are worshippers of words and labels; we never seem to go beyond the symbol, to comprehend the worth of the symbol. By calling ourselves this or that, we ensure ourselves against further disturbance, and settle back. One of the curses of ideologies and organized beliefs is the comfort, the deadly gratification they offer." -- Jiddu Krishnamurti

Note : gyaan =knowledge

What more do i say?

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1449688.cms

Progressive Searches

After I coined the phrase "Isolated Frog Syndrome", probably this is the next nomenclature introduced by me, though the former is more concerned with the Interpersonal relationships in an organization and the correponding observations at some mangerial levels, the latter is more concerened with the technical aspects of searches.

In Google SearchBox, when you type in a search phrase, a count of the availble results that might be fetched is displayed in the drop down list. Numerous search enthusiasts have concluded that the number of duplicates is large in the count that is specified.

When one visits Clusty and does a search , the searches are categorized into various heading(termed 'Categories' or 'Dimensions'), and a count is specified next to the Categories; when the user clicks on a Category only that many number of hits are displayed. I find this to be a serious flaw, in the sense that we are not making use of the available search facility , and this prompted me to coin Progressive searches.

Probably, when the user clicks on the Dimensions/Categories, a subsequent search should be initiated which can fetch more results than the count that is originally specified.One may argue that this can confuse the user, as he/she is going to see more results than the count that is originally specified in the previous page, but technically speaking, if the user knows that the Search Engine supports a functionality of Progressive Searches , then he doesnt have to worry about the counts not matching. The Subsequent search while peroforming a progressive search will not fetch results less than the count that is specified.

Mental Borborygmi - Is it the Air that I breathe?

It was one of those mornings again.....i woke up to see myself sleeping again.

The usual Qs kept hovering in my mind, trying to titillate me and sometimes make me go deep into the uncharted waters of human emotions and associated reactions.

What am I doing? Am I doing something that I shouldnt be doing? Am i doing justice to myself and to what I have learnt? Am I following the herd? WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING?? more Qs...and still more Qs...

I was speaking about these to my pal Shravan about a couple of days back; whether are we really following our dreams or are we succumbing to external pressures and constraints.Is it necessary that people who have left their mark in History necessary be outlaws - out of the heard - revolutionaries? cant a common-man do something really simple and get accolades? Is the world too busy with appreciating wierd and idiosyncratic behaviours that it fails to admire and appreciate the nitty-gritties of life?"

He replied back saying that "this is the Matrix dud- enter it". But is this really the Matrix and is it really getting me in? Am i ready to enter the Real World? Am I presently in the Real World? Where is the Matrix?

I do want to make the keys; to open the locked and dusty rooms - to make myself free.

[
When i am blogging this , my pal shravan pings me this Q:
Shravan : what does an dyslexic agnostic and insomniac always do?
Shravan : he stays up all night, worrying about whether there really is a dog :-)
]

10 ways in which Earth can meet its END

some more Blurps...

(1) A giant meteor strikes Earth and causes a Giant Ripple -- and phusssssh...Earth is gone..
(2) Cluster of Meteorites strike Earth
(3) An alien ship [ CDS 666 - Complete Destruction Ship] enters our atmosphere and strikes a Death ray..r something like Independance Day.
(4) .....
(5) ........
(6) ...............
(7) Aish marries Bappi Lahiri
(8) Commies of the World get united
(9) Someone farts real badly and atmosphere is filled with deadly gas and someone then switches ON the gas-stove-- and boooooooooooooooooomb - Earth is reduced to ashes!
(10) TR, Ramarajan, Captain act in a movie and it gets an Oscar (along with Satyaraj, Sarath Kumar, Namita et al).

"Asatho ma sad gamaya - tamaso ma jyotirgamaya" [simply put --> Enter light..Exit Night]

Amen!

Blurp!

I could see the blood oozing from his eyes...slowly trickling along his cheeks and dripping on the marble floor. [ I could see the red-blood flowing as if , it was trying to give moksha to all the beings along its course - as if this was the great Ganges invoked by the King Bhagirat, flowing down from Gangotri...all the way through and bisecting India and finally merging with the bay-of-Bengal becoming Padma! ] There was the the .3mm pistol and the kalashnikov lying to the right of him, on the bench. An unopened-sealed TIME magazine dating back to the Feb-1980s was to his left , on the floor. There was general Pinochet's potrait hanging on the wall to the right of him - the potrait was beautifully studded with Indian Gems and diamonds.

I Dream

These days i hardly sleep for 5-6 hours. In fact, in the last 5-6 years I can hardly recollect of instances where wherein I had slept for more than 10 hours. Things keep happening at my end. First it was the board exams during 10th standard, then it was the IIT prep during 11th and again Boards during 12th. College days were filled with Symposiums ; was for most of the time either preparing for my exams/assignments or was researching on my UG projects and International Conferences. I was thrown into the IT Industry and have been quite busy with my coding endeavours here too. The last 5-6 months were again a roller-coster ride- with prep for CAT and again for GD/PI. I have to know each and every significant event happening around the world.

But, have all these years sucked out my juice??? Have i lost anything? Am i repenting on what i have done or what i want to do??

As I lookback(which i dont do generally), I see that i have judiciously used each and every moment in my life. All my decisions have been correct. I AM NOT REPENTING ON WHAT I HAVE DONE OR WHAT I SHOULD HAVE DONE. When i see my palz telling me that they should have done something else, I am really confused. The human mind does have the power to make conscious decisions, then why is that some people keep cribbing about things that happened/or are about to happen?

We do have a control as to what we do and what we want to do.The present does not have a meaning if we are unaware of the aura surrounding us. [ Defn Aura :A distinctive but intangible quality surrounding a person or thing; An indication of radiant light drawn around the head of a saint. ] Every person has a aura surrounding him/her.It is for us to dig the qualities within us and make it appear to the world.

I hear people saying "machii...the grass is always green on the other side da".

Explanations:
#1 Arent we watering our grass?
#2 Is the grass really green on the other side or is it illusion?
#3 Are we failing to see the greener-grass on our side?

My Rendezvous with Bangalore Roads

Yesterday was the first time that i hit the B'lore roads in a bike(Honda Activa).Due credits should be given to one of my colleagues who happened to leave for vacation and wanted me to 'take' of the bike. Hence, I was thrust upon the responsibility of taking 'care' of the bike.As always with great powers, comes great responsibilities - and i did take care of the bike by taking it out on a 23+km ride.

I had to attend the ET Brand Equity Quiz at 6pm and had to go from Dairy Circle to Chowdaiah Hall(near Sankey Road). I got a flavour of how 'bad'the roads are.My pillion rider(Punit) was my navigator , as I was totally illiterate about the maze-of-roads in Bangalore. I must say the roads are 'decorated' with pothholes and bumps. You hit upon unexpected speed-breakers and hitler's trenches(yet to fing the bunkers).There was a particular speed-breaker that had a 'trench' in it.Punit got a big-shot in his ass :-).But, not all roads are bad - a particular stretch near MG road is good; but i feel due to the prescence of the army cantonment near by and the other offices, the Govt cant afford to ignore its state.(I miss chennai roads[esp ECR] and the beasant nagar beach like hell)

I was totally flabbergasted on my return 'journey'. The roads were completely different and i could hardly understand the topography of the region.The funda behind 'One-ways' amuses me a lot.

I do not have a digi-cam or a cam in my phone, or else i would have photo-blogged this experience.

I am quite optimistic about the new Govt's policies and am looking forward to a better looking Bangalore with much better roads.


Aptly, Bangalore : Beware - "Dangerous Curves Ahead" (no pun intended)!

Budget 2006-07

Our FM presented the Budget for the fiscal year 2006-07.

In this effort I have tried to expatiate on certain factors in the Budget that I found interesting and understandable(from my perspective). I am not sure how valid/invalid my opinions are , but this is an honest attempt at understanding / crticizing / appreciating the various nuances and subleties associated with this activity.

As I am writing this, SENSEX is at 10370.24 with a raise of 88.15 pts over the previous day close.

With the SENSEX becoming TENSEX ,the economic boom ( in China & India), the continuous uproar by the commies towards the reforms and scams all around the country, FM had a very delicate task of presenting the Budget for this fiscal(as always -- cliched).Any drastic step suggested would see negative reactions from various industry segments [ associated with TENSEX becoming ONESEX - poor PJ!!].

Health :
The Govt has already done significant improvements w.r.t Polio eradication and its pledge to eradicate it by Dec'07 is commendable. The allocation for NHM(National Health Mission) has also been increased. I was expecting some sort of a Health Insurance scheme to be announced for workers in 'special' sectors and small scale industries.Along with Polio eradication, I was expeting some policy/allocation for diseases like chickenpox,smallpox, and the new Avian-flu.Setting up of a Cental Monitoring Committee to address any pandemic was also expected. Animal husbandary should also have had a mention.

Education:
I have a strong inclination towards the betterment of education in this great country of ours and was expecting something substantial w.r.t IITs/IIMs/ITIs and some allocations for children from BPL(Below Poverty Line) families.

Eventhough, FM has increased the allocation for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Mid-Day Meal Scheme , I am not sure how much of this will be reflected at the grass-roots level; as the Govt is already sitting on a huge pile of unspent cash w.r.t Education.

The constuction of Five lakh additional class rooms and appointment of 150,000 additional teachers is worthy of praise - but I really doubt the quality w.r.t the same.Along the same lines, the mentioning of setting up of 1000 schools for SCs, STs, OBCs and minorities sends a clear signal to Congresse's commitment towards the 'so-called' minority segment.

Industry and Market:
The FM's commitment towards Power sector was visible with the announcement of Five mega power projects at the cost of Rs 4000 crore. Similary, setting up of a deep draft port in West Bengal , reconstitution of NHAI and raising of FII investment limit in stock markets have sent positive signals.I am not able to understand what the FM is referring to when he announced
"New towns to be established on specific themes" -- is this in anyway related to tourism or special status to some states.

Miscellaneous:
"Rs 10 crore (Rs 100 million) allocated for preparatory work for celebrating the 150th anniversary of the First War of Independence of 1857 in a befitting manner." - Let us see how we celebrate it!!

"Old age pension to be increased to Rs 200 per month for above 75 years of age." -- Cant understand the funda behind this.

"A girl child will get Rs 3,000 deposited in a bank account after she enrolls for eighth class examination and the amount would be given when she becomes a major." -- does 3000INR really matter in this world. I mean, what can you get in 3k bucks??

Contentions:
Doubling the corpus for Maulana Azad Educational Foundation and increasing the allocation of national Urdu education programme would raise comments from Hindu organizations. At the same time, this reflects the Govt's initiative to cache in on the Muslim-Vote-Bank.

To appease the Hindus , FM has announced the declaration of Vedic chanting and Ram Lila under UNESCO heritage and has granted 5Crore INR for the same. This again is going to make the Communists and some factors in the UPA to turn hysterical.

Being Red

The concept/color of Red is mostly associated with passion and anger; something that symbolizes a revolution -- a burning desire to bring a change to an existing system. This desire is to be brought about at any cost.

In India , Red is mostly associated with Communists...think of the color red and you will find the faces of Sitaram Yetchuri...Namboodripad....Somnath chatterjee etc flashing across you; the red flags flying in the auto/bus stands, labour unions, marches etc. Whereever there is a march/procession happening, you will either find Arundhati Roy or the Red Communist flag. Arent we saturated with the un-inhibted protests that keep happening against any Govt's initiative/policy? Be it on the Iran's vote w.r.t IAEA or any casein the remotest part of the country.

What does the average Indian think about Communism? How does being Marxist-Lenitist affect him? What do protests mean? Why do communists need to create ballyhoos for any govt Policy involving a reform? more Qs..and still more Qs...

I happened to visit Shiv's post on the Indian Commies. Intriguing post that talks and makes you think.

Javelin

Photo Credits : Lockheed Martin

Most of you might be wondering what those guys are doing in the wild. On seeing the pic for the first time, i thought this must be the next generation of US/Israel's Binoculars or Communication gadgets used in warfare. But later on after visiting LM's site and reading about the Javelin system, I came to know that Javelin is "a single man-portable fire-and-forget medium-range antitank weapon system designed to defeat all known and projected threat armor from Lockheed Martin" .

Rocket Launchers have always fascinated me from time immemorial. I have always loved the sight of the rockets gushing out of the launchers placed on the shoulders of heroes(Arnold/Stallone) shown in Hollywood movies. It is the sheer fire-power that these things have. I feel rocket launchers are far better when compared to grenades ,pistols or rifles as the 'destructive' power of the former is far greater than the latter.

Also, with the advancement in technology and the concept of 'fire-and-forget' creeping into warfare system, it becomes mandatory that the soldiers have reliable 'things' in their repository which they can resort to.

I happened to see the indegenously built Pinaka Multiple Rocket Launcher System (MRLS) in this year's(2006) Republic day Parade. I dont why, but for some reason this impressed me a lot.
I am not sure how the Pinaka MRLS can stand against Javelin or any other equivalent system designed by the Israelis, but presume Pinaka comes under a different genre of its own in the Missile defense System.

I point worthy of mention over here is the fact that the Pinaka System was commpletely built in India :-). Though this(Pinaka) has taken almost a decade to design and crores spent on R&D and be sent for production, but the still we are proud of it.

summa...samm...sammm....samm...sammaram pannuven

What more can I say....This fellow simply rocks.My rendezvous with Simbu -- in the form of 'Saravana'. I had seen his previous movie 'Manmadhan' and was quite impressed by this young lad.His 'over'-acting provides wholesome entertainment and can pep you up from an otherwise sober mood.His dialogue-delivery and the way he carries himself on screen has no equivalent.He continues to abide by his father's (TR's) footsteps and continues to refer to his famous dialogues and style.

Jyotika's role in the movie is next to zero , but still she manages to captivate the lad and has a decent role in the movie.I did not find the songs sequences to be that attractive and enthralling.The way he iterates "summa...samm...sammm....samm...sammaram pannuven" (around 4-5 times) is pretty stylish and is also different(as it carries Simbu's distinctive copyright).

This movie has all the ingredients of a good 'masala'-movie ; and I am sure that you will not leave the hall with a heavy heart(and brain) after watching it.

Though Rajni and Kamal still rule, but Simbu has a carved his own niche in Tollywood and I am sure he will continue to provide some 'simbacular' movies ;-) The way he has graduated from being a child star(in his dad's otherwise flop movies) to a budding super-star is worth a praise.

PS : am i becoming Simbu's fan.....nah!!

IIM Lucknow GD/PI Experience

Today, I had my GD/PI for Admissions to the PGP in Managaement at IIM Lucknow. The GD/PI session was scheduled for 10:00 am at IIM Bangalore campus.Had reached the venue by around 8:30 am and waiting for the 'phenomenon' to start. Things were at a dismal low the previous night as I was not so much passionate about the actual ROI w.r.t this programme.But still, managed to get up early in the morning and 'power-groomed' myself.

GD Topic: "I have hardly met a mathematician who was good at reasoning." We were asked to write a 150 word essay on the topic before the Gd started - the time allotted for this was 10 mins. Then the GD lasted approx 15mins.

The GD went on fine and there was no 'fish-market' kind of a scenario.The group consisted of 10 enthusiastic memebers out of which 2 did not bother to speak much. Hoever, others were equally assertive and there were some great points on the table.Someone spoke about the actual 'Reasoning' consisting of Induction and Deduction, there were also thoughts on Adam Smith's and Nash's theories and how relevant they were to real world applications and whether these along with other mathematicians really lack the 'reasoning power'.I spoke for around 5-6 times.

Then it was the turn for the PI and MYSELF (THEE) ;-) was the first to enter . PI was equally great and had fun with a great panel. Things lasted for almost 15-20 mins and was damn satisfied with my performance at EOD.

The Actual Conversation/Interview:
P1, P2 and Me.

P1 : Marksheets plz.
Me : yes Sir...(hand over my 3 files: one containing Marksheets , 1 containing Ceritifcates extra currics and the other containing a bplan)
P2 : Bplan..wats that abt....tell me more abt it..[went on for 8 mins]
Me : Expalined!
P1: Give me 3 reasons y we should select you
Me : gave 3 reasons -Crapped royally ;-) [went on for 2mins]
[Panel smiles]
P1: What is a turing Machine?[went on for 2 mins]
Me :[ I speak abt Turing Test and Turing Medal]
P1: I am asing abt turing Machine and not turing Test...u r getting confused
Me: [accept it and then explain Turing Model]
[Some more Qs w.r.t Turing's M/c etc etc..]
P1 and P2 : [ some Qs on my work-ex related stuff] [went on for 6mins]
P2 :[ some Qs w.r.t Resource Mgmt tech - my Sixth sem paper.Wants a real world ex of Simplex prog]
Me: [gives the ex and explains][went on for 2mins]
[P1 pokes p2 and tells him that timesup and wants to stop Qing...but P2 continues...for arnd 2 mins..and I keep answering]
P1 and P2 : thanks..you may leave now
Me : Thanks.


Hi IIML , I should be there this June If I dont convert IIMB ;-)

MS and Identity Management

Happen to see this link which speaks of MS's entry into Identity management across sites.MS plans to implement this using a so called 'wallet' named 'InfoCard'; however, it sounds like a gimmick to me, as i feel MS will be exposing the entire login info to potential hackers. I envisage MS to implement the wallet in a so called 'secure region' which will be simply unaccessible.I guess this will be similar to Password Manager in Firefox.

Oracle already has a technology called 'SSO-Single Sign On' wherein a user needs to just have a single UID/pwd for logging in across Oracle Applications/Products.

My Tryst with "Literature"

I started writing a Sci-fi thriller some months back , but later on scrapped off the idea as i am too busy these days with too many commitments. Though i did not pen down much in the past few months, but feel it is worth the effort and publish it in my blog so that my readers get a feel of my literary ponderings ;-)

"George a.k.a TMR-1(Temporary Mobile Robot) was sitting on a small bench in the shallow waters of the Tokuhama beach. Tokuhama was one of the few beaches left untouched in the island of Treomb. He could see the sun setting against a crimson backdrop, it was as if Mother Nature was putting an end to this act - this act of rising and closing the curtains....He could hear the chriping of the sea-birds....returning to their nests.Somewhere he could see a crab trying to dig a small trench for himself , to guard him against the dark night and against the nocturnal creatures.A lone albatross was flying against this backdrop of 'curtains', on the hunt.George had come out for his diurnal recharge - he used to come out into the sun at 1200 hours daily to recharge his NickelCadmium Batteries and used to go back again into his routine again at 1800 hours.He needed this 6 hours of recharge to keep him going.His sister Navomy a.k.a FSR3U did not need this recharge as she was ....................................."

to be completed...but am not gonna complete :-|

i am planning to write something serious and related in someway to the present corporate scenario worlwide and relate a common person(layman) to these events - it should be a literary roller-coster.

I shall return

OK..first the good news...I got shortlisted in IIMB and IIML for GD/PI.


I have the rendezvous with the panel in late Feb and late March.

LOGIC & DATA INTERPRETATION = 98.39%
QUANTITATIVE = 97.15
VERBAL = 90.96
TOTAL =98.73

Hence am a bit busy these days - have to prepare the SOP and get the Recos from my peers and profs. Also have to read tonnes and tonnes of gyaan. These days actually i am reading watever i stumble upon..hence have little or no time to blog.

I shall return and blog on watever i consider interesting and make you ponder with my interpretations of "the other side of the coin".

Nirvana(int Geometry, Char Calvin_Hobbes)

I embarked on a long journey today.I could not see my goal; for i guess it was this inability to see/obeserve my destination that led me to believe that i had ventured into a long journey (strange emotions!).I have always dreamt about the other side of this life - not the philosophy of it but rather what it really means to an otherwise lone being like me who has been thrushed into to experience the harsh realities of life.

I believe there are only 2 things on this Planet Earth that can lead me to attain the unattainable Nirvana...those are :
(1) Geometry and
(2) Calvin & Hobbes

I know that these parameters of me attaining Nirvana are in no way related , but I have a strong inclination towards em and a have an unassialable belief in these being my by my side till my last moment.

I always used to love Geometry and Inorganic Chemistry right from my school days. Mathematics was a subject that i have always been comfortable with. It was the tormentuous moment during my 2nd standard (when i got 2/50 in mathematics) that led me understand the funda behind this phenomennon(called Maths).And after that it has been a cruise.The mysetry behind complex shapes and figurine(!!!) configurations fascinated me.

Calvin has been a phenomennon that was introduced into my life during my first year in college. I was introduced to this character by our National Newspaper - The Hindu..

CAT05 - it came and went ; but I survived (Veni-Vidi-Vici)

Its been almost a week since the phenomenon called CAT occurred. A lot was hyped and fancied w.r.t this examination, which had a notorious history of posing tonnes of mystical surprises and flabbergasting the fellow student. I was one of those "fellows" who took the examination.Though almost all of the coaching instis in their post-CAT analysis claimed CAT-05 to be exceptionally tough and almost unsolvable for an otherwise mediocre canditate, a careful analysis of the paper will "claim" that this paper was indeed solvable and a poised caditate will easily score 12+ in each of the sections.What mattered was the composure/temperamant that the canditate carries before & during the examination.

I entered the examinatio hall after having around 1.5 sticks of 5-Star choc --i beleived it to be my 'amrit' and had a strong inclination that it was the lone eatable on this planet earth that could stimulate my grey cells and help the adrenaline gush thru my body.

I did get a bit nervous during the initial 2-3 mins(i dunno y!!), but later vanished(jaise aaya tha...vaise hi gaya).I went on...cracking all the probs that came in my way...but ensuring the accuracy.

came back home ...ate..slept...TV...saw the preliminary analysis of the Paper in TIME's website...knew that my performance in QA and DI was good and above average, btu VA was troubling me. watever..my final scores look as follows:
QA =14.33 , DI =16, VA =16-18 ; Total=46-48

Hope things go on fine.4 weeks more for the IIMs to announce the %les and give the calls.

CAT-2005

the clock ticks...so what ? that is its birth right to tick.Well..the Magical Date of Nov-20,2005 is fast approaching...only 5 days more. things have been quite ok with me. Though i could get a 90+%le in just 2 of the TIME mocks ,out of the 10 that I had taken...still i am confident.I know my weaknesses and my strengths..lets c what happens on teh D-Day....

My VA/RC skills used to be really GOD-level during the initial days of prep..but offlate the accuracy in VA has dropped like the BSE Sensex..am managing to keep a satisfactory accuracy level in RC. Geometry as always is rocking...thats the only area where i can achieve Nirvana..the last 2-3 mocks have seen a see-saw ride between QA and DI...

hope everything turns out fine...i know that the magic mantra is --''Keep your Cool -- just go and Rock" -- afterall CAT is not the end-of-the-world..its rather the WORLD!! ;-)

Ek Bunglaw bane naara!!!

Ek Bunglaw bane naara!!!

Greenery all around, with a streamling just next ...adjacent to my cottage...trinkling down the pebbles scattered around ..the water lillies and the lotuses floating on the small pond (not artificial..but pristine creation by Mother Nature)..occassional sights of a kingfisher lurking on one of the tree-brnches, ready to prey on the beautiful fishes in 'my' pond...a classic wind-mill in my farm...etcetra...etcetra; wish all this was real !!!

I have always marvelled creations-- whethere these were man-made or natural.Designs have always fascinated me; designing buildings/structures and interior decoration always has a charm.

All these hidden feelings sprouted in the Go-Plus program that was conducted by my Oraganization a couple of months back.. (Go-Plus is like an induction program where newbies in Oracle are taught the 10 Oracle Values..nwayz shall expatiate more on this in teh succeeding blogs).....well we were given a single piece of flimsy paper and were asked to construct a structure-- a typical "home"...my architectural genes were active enough and i did manage to build a small structure...the structured was awesome...and i was awarded the Mr.Architect title for my 'creation'... [ award = cadbury's Perk ...sob ..sob ] B-)

And this was the group structure that were asked to raise.On this occassion, we were given a couple of accessories like toothpicks (no glue/ tapes) and were asked to do the same--thats raise a structure.I aksed my team members to go and collect twigs so that we could 'attach' the individual structures.[ Other teams managed to get the glue and the tapes from the Hotel reception)...nwayz the structure looked like a ____ ...better u can name it for urselves...hehehhe