Laugh Out Loud

Really enjoyed this....

A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales. The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because even though it was a very large mammal its throat was very small. The little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale.
Irritated, the teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human, it was physically impossible.
The little girl said, "When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah.."
The teacher asked, "What if Jonah went to hell?"
The little girl replied, "Then you ask him."


The children had all been photographed, and the teacher was trying to persuade them each to buy a copy of the group picture.
The teacher said, "Just think how nice it will be to look at it when you are all grown up and say, 'There's Jennifer, she's a lawyer,' or 'That's Michael, He's a doctor.'
A small voice at the back of the room rang out, "And there's the teacher,she's dead."

A teacher was giving a lesson on the circulation of the blood. Trying to make the matter clearer, she said, "Now, class, if I stood on my head, the blood,as you know, would run into it, and I would turn red in the face."“Yes," the class said.
"Then why is it that while I am standing upright in the ordinary positionthe blood doesn't run into my feet?"
A little fellow shouted, "Cause your feet ain't empty."


The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic elementary school for lunch. At the head of the table was a large pile of apples. The nun made a note, and posted on the apple tray: "Take only ONE. God is watching."
Moving further along the lunch line, at the other end of the table was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies.
A child had written a note, "Take all you want. God is watching the apples". J




One day a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at the kitchen sink. She suddenly noticed that her mother had several strands of white hair sticking out in contrast on her brunette head.
She looked at her mother and inquisitively asked, "Why are some of your hairs white, Mom?"
Her mother replied, "Well, every time that you do something wrong and makeme cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white."
The little girl thought about this revelation for a while and then said,"Momma, how come ALL of grandma's hairs are white?"

Welcome Back APJ

Anna University is all set to receive Dr. Kalam back on campus. The first citizen of India is more interested to go back and mould the young brains of India that to be a supreme commander of the defence forces!!

I remember meeting this great personality on campus in my first year of college. APJ s first visit after he bacame the President of India was planned to my campus in my second semester. And my faculty advisor told me that all the student representatives will get to meet him then. I volunteered to become the Class Representative just to meet him.Would you people believe?
One of my friends from the US had sent me his autobiography, "Wings of fire" all the way from the US of the A as a gift for my Bday and I obviously was too inspired when I read it!!

And I am very proud of the fact that I educated from the same Institution as he did!!

All the very best for your "Vision 2020" Dr.Kalam and we are so proud to have you back on campus!!!

Dr. Shilpa Shetty!!!

Leeds Univ has confered Ms.Shetty with an honourable doctorate.

This is wat the press reports say:

A leading UK University today conferred an Honorary Doctorate on Indian actress Shilpa Shetty for her outstanding contribution to cultural diversity. Describing it as a "huge honour" and promising to live up to "expectations," 32-year-old Mangalore-born Shetty received the honour from Leeds Metropolitan University at a special ceremony in Leeds this morning. "It came as a huge surprise to me and I am really humbled by the gesture," the Bollywood actress said.

Shilpa Shetty was earlier presented with a Special IIFA award for the global impact of her "Big Brother" victory at the India International Film Academy Awards in Yorkshire. Shilpa Shetty is the youngest actor from the Indian film fraternity to join the ranks of Amitabh Bachchan, Shabana Azmi and Yash Chopra who have so far been conferred with the honour. "Sharing the platform with great stalwarts like Amitji (Amitabh Bachchan), Yashji (Yash Chopra), and Shabanaji (Shabana Azmi) is a huge honour," she said. Thanking the University for selecting her for the Doctorate, she said: "You have bestowed this great honour on me and I promise to act responsibly. I have tried my best to do my best in whatever I have done in my life and I am going to continue to do so." A spokeswoman of the University told PTI that selecting Shilpa for the Doctorate was part of its efforts to honour prominent Indian movie personalities who have contributed to the country's emergence as a fast developing cinema-proud nation.

Well, well, well. I have my own comments. Is it because of the controversy that arouse in the Big Brother show? Or something which she received from Richard Gere fetched her the honour? the answer could be "No" But then, I definitely can comment that these two episodes had definitely paid some dividends that brought her this laurel!!!

Point to Ponder

Everything in this world can be seen as you wish to.

Good or Bad;

Simple or Complicated;

Easy or Difficult.
Its not how things are; its about how you look upto them. ..

and how you look up to them is all upto you.

But the misfortunate part for most of us is that, we look only at the worst, most complicated and most difficult things as the integral part of life.

Am I guilty??

Yesterday I was on my bike rushing to the Infy Guest House to catch my Bus. It was already 7:05 AM and the bus was supposed to start from the Guest house at 7:15 AM. I was on full speed on my Scooty.

As I was heading to the main road from the side street of my house, a white little kitten ran into the wheels suddenly from some side cut.Neither did it notice the vehicle. I applied brakes. But it was too late. It had already been hit. I was too scared to stop. But gathering some guts, I turned back to see what is its state. It was lying there. I was beginning to feel guilty. after another 2 seconds, I turned for the second time. It was still lying there. My eyes started to water. But I had to catch the bus. So accelerated and speeded straight to the Guest House.

After parking, I was beginning to contemplate if I should go back, pick up the poor little kitten and take it to the Blue Cross. I called up a friend and narrated the whole incident. He said that the Kitten should be fine and not to worry much. The very same moment, the bus came and I got in. My college mate was sitting besides me nad was generally beginning to chit-chat with me. I was in no mood. Put on the radio on my phone and closed my eyes. The sight of the lying on the road was unwinding and rewinding in my mind.

Though I came ot office and was looking into other things, the whole episode was running in my mind. It was not my mistake. Neither was it my carelessness. Should I have gone back and took it to hospital? Am I guilty?

Someone rightly told me, "Somethings in life are not very sweet and we can do nothing about it."

Kadalai Kumaran to Kalyana Kumaran!!!

This time its Kumaran... I met him for a long time, after a long time I should say. The thing is that I happened to bump into this guy every now and then at office but everytime, I was preoccupied with with something or the other. Today when he called me, I made it a point that I will meet him. Had I not met today, he would have definitely murdered me. This guy Kumaran is one of the good friends I had in college. Thanks to Ash for introducing this great personality to me!

This guy is pretty famous in the LH for whatsoever reasons and known for his acquiantances with gals. Th entire college knows him by the name 'Kadalai Kumaran'. (I am sorry kums I had to say it here lest people will not recognise u ;) )He was the most frivolous guy as I observed him in college. Fun loving and absolutely not ambitious. One fine day he calls me in the middle of the night and says, "Write me a testi on orkut" and when i asked why, he says "Just write it." (And BTW, Mr.Kums, u r supposed to write me one in return for the favour. Mind it!!)

Our man has his own complaints that I am of no use to him.
Reasons being,
1. I am a good friend of his and hence he cant flirt with me.
2. I hardly have gal friends and hence he does not get any introductions through me.
3. When I want something to be done I play around with my contacts and get things done.

and his complaint list goes on and on. His net remark is that "Athia is of no use."

Fine. Jokes apart, Kums, as we call him with a lot of affection, is entirely a different person today. There is some kind of seriousness instilled in his head from somewhere. He says he s a good boy and does not drink much. He does not go to parties and prefers to stay at home. Home baby!!!

And I figured out the reason to be "Someone" and not something. Yes folks, Kums is serious about someone and she happens to be from his community and native. This might c0me as a shock to us that Kums is planning to get married next year. Maximum he would postpone is another year!!!!! At the tender age of 23!!! And the best thing is that he s preparing for it!!

Wish you great luck Mr. Kumaran!!!!

This is a good one!!

Topsy Turvy turns!!

Life is taking a lot of topsy turvy turns!!! Lots of new things happening in the familial, personal and professional end. Streamlining it all seems to be a difficult job!!

Conditioned Reflex Action of IT Junta!!

If we actually start looking at the IT folks, like the Pavlov and the dog experiment and its findings on conditioned reflexes, there could be many more interesting ones. Here are a few, I could think about.

* Somebody asks - This weekend I am looking for a get away of about 200-300 KM car drive. Any idea, what are the places I can visit around Hyderabad? Also, please do provide me with the path. Side effects of being in the IT field. ‘route’ becomes path!

* The other day I was hearing one guy talking of a “Standalone” house, when he was actually intending a independent house. Poor broker shud have tuff time trying to find a " Alone house standing in a huge empty area"

*Some days back my bike stopped as the petrol came to reserve. I told my friend I need to restart my bike!

*Few of my friends and myself decided to go out for dinner. The place wasn’t fixed yet. I said we shall decide it “run time”

*Once at home I opened the tap to find that water is not coming, I call my Roomie and tell her that there is some error in the pipeline and water is not coming!

*I always wondered why mobile phones do not having Cntrl+C/Cntrl+V facilities?

*How many times i ended up bulbing by cntrl+alt+Del ing my home PC!!

*Dial '0' on the home phone and wait for the dial-tone!!

*Someone goes to a theatre from office directly, He ends up showing his ID card to the guy at the entrance and walked in and that guy had to call him back asking for the ticket.

*I go to some place to wash my hands. I just show my hands up and wait for the water to wash it, forgetting I need to turn something on.

*How many times I thought why don’t we have Ctrl+Z in real life…!

Our Hero!!

Today s schedule for the class said, MC2. As usual, Nerd and I go to the class and then analyse what this MC2 could be. And then it strikes me - Mock CAT2. And here, we happened to go without any preparation(Is it even expected??) and most importantly, without HB pencils. I called up Mr B and he just started from home, managed to catch him on time luckily and made him bring pencils for all three of us. Just when I hung up it struck me that I should have asked to bring erasers too. Never mind like the JIT compiler, he started Just In Time to reach. Already, he will be late. Calling him up once again will only make him later. Anyway he did have presence of mind and bought us erasers. And Sharpener too. I am impressed!! But then I later discovered it was a Super Mock - Mock CAT for a duration of 1.5 hours vs the actual 2.5 hrs. I did much better than last time and was able to attend more number of questions and was able to manage time better than before.

We had actually reached the class early. As we where waiting, some gal jumps from the middle of nowhere and says a very cheerful "Hiiiiiiiii" to Nerd. He also got excited on seeing some junior of his from college. Both of them stood at the front of the class much to their envy and go on and on talking, providing entertainement to the class. The very look of the way this guy drooling was definitely worth watching!! Some words like LIC, PVR, Seetharaman etc were uttered which made me guess that the gal was from the same dept as he was.

After the entire scene was over, I ask him, "What were you discussing?" He says she was generally asking about career and companies and that he was promptly guiding her. But then, I have a doubt. Will a "Personal Career Guidance" session always be accompanied by all smiles and exchanging of romantic looks? Hmmmmmmmm. No more further comments at the Career Counsellor. ;)

My next question to him was, "What is her name?" and he replies with an oily grin "I dont know. I thought it will be too rude to ask her now." Good God Gracious!! This guy spoke to a girl in front of the whole class for 30 mins without even knowing what her name was. Exceptional talent!!

The highlight of the entire episode was that, the lady actually decided to stay behind and take the mock test in our classroom rather than going back to her classroom and attend her class. And she did!!! Sooooooooooo much of fan falling!!! So Macho-man, what magic did you cast on her????

Story of Corporate Lives!!

So big and so small yet they serve the same purpose!!!

Men??? Incorrigible!!!

An old woman had 3 daughters. One day she decided to test herSons-in-law.One day she was walking along a lakeshore with the first son-in-law.

Purposefully, she fell down in the lake and started yelling for help.The first son-in-law jumped into the water and dragged her out into theshore.

The next day he found a brand new Mercedes in his door steps with thewordings "Thank you!!!-Your Mother-in-law who loves you very much!!!"

Another day she was walking along a lakeshore with the secondson-in-law. Purposefully, she fell down in the lake and started yelling for help.The second son-in-law jumped into the water and dragged her out into the shore.

The next day he found a brand new Mercedes in his door steps with thewordings "Thank you!!!-Your Mother-in-law who loves you very much!!!"

The third time she was walking with the third son-in-law and sherepeated the same. But that guy didn't respond to her cries for helpanddidnt move a single step to save her.

The poor old lady who wanted to test her sons-in-law drowned and died.......

The next day he found a Rolls-Royce in his doorsteps with the followingwordings ...... .

"Thank you very much! Your Father-in-law!!!"

The Weekend and The Namesake

After a nice nap on the saturday afternoon post a good lunch, I dragged myself out of bed and got ready forcefully bringing the study mood. Nerd and I ended up getting the biggest bulb on Saturday where We went all the way to the TIME class. No classes! We call up another friend of ours with the good intention to inform him that there are no classes and he need not come all the way and bulb like we did. But then, he already knew that there were no classes. He could have informed us. Heights of being mean!

Ok, no class, so what? Time to party!! Went to beach, had some chat, met a couple of college mates. Both of them are Nerd's classmates. One of them got into IIFT and another had cals from XLRI but unfortunately dint convert. "That guy is a pro in vocabs" Nerd told me secretly. We were generally discussing about blogs and blogging etc.

Sunday! plans of studying -- Procrastination of studying till afternoon failed miserably all completely. There was no class and hence, make the best use of it this time. Post lunch was a movie. "The Namesake and if we dont get it we are watching Provoked" it was me this time. There was a comment after hearing this, "I dont find you contemplating for anything of late, you seem to be pretty clear in what you want to do and what you dont want to do. Transition, for the Good!" from Nerd's side. Not bad!!

So, it was "The Namesake". The review made the movie sound very nice. The story which revolves around two worlds, two generations and two life styles, was keep simple and to the point. The contrasts between the 2 parts of the world are brought out beautifully without much of hype. No dragging and no beating around the bush. Besides, portraying a typical American life, there was picturization portraying a lot of social "Activity". The person I dragged along with to the movie said, "So you said its a very nice movie"with a smirk on his face.

More than the much of "social activity" in the movie, there was a higher degree of it happening to my right and left ;) Hmm school kids.. Too too much. Not going into the details. Finger on my lips!!!

Anyway it was a good weekend.

If it is to be, it is upto me!!!

Read this somewhere:

He was short. He was sharp. He was the brightest boy in his class. His seniors would ask him to solve their difficulties in Science. He could havegone unnoticed in the crowd, but once you asked him a question related toPhysics or Maths, there was a spark in his eyes. He could grasp theories of Science faster than the speed of light.

He came from a poor but educated family. His father was a high-schoolteacher and an avid reader of English literature. He, like all the boys in the class was trying to get admission into some engineering college. The brighter ones wanted to study in Indian Institutes of Technology. There was an entrance test for IIT. This boy, along with his friends applied to appear for the test. They did not have any special books or coaching. All these IIT aspirants would sit below the shade of a stone mantap close toChamundi hills in the sleepy town of Mysore. He was a guide for others.While the others struggled to solve problems in the question paper, he would smile shyly and solve them in no time. He sat below a tree and dreamt of studying at IIT. He was then only sixteen years old.

D-Day came. He came to Bangalore, stayed with some relatives and appearedfor the entrance test. He did very well but would only say "OK" when asked.It was the opposite when it came to food...."OK" implied bad, "good"implied ok, and "very good" implied good!! His principle was never to hurt anyone....The IIT entrance results came. He had passed with flying colors and the highest rank. He was thrilled! He went to his father who was reading a newspaper.

"ANNA, I have passed the exam"
"Well done, My Boy"
"I want to join IIT."
His father stopped reading the paper. He lifted his head, looked at the boy and said with a heavy voice, "You know our financial position, and I cannot afford your expenses at IIT. You can stay in Mysore and learn as much as you want. "

His father was sad that he had to tell the bitter truth, but it could not be helped.The teenager was disappointed. He was so near to fulfilling his fondest dream, yet so far. His heart sank in sorrow. He did not reply. He never shared his unhappiness with anyone. He was an introvert by nature. His heart was bleeding but he did not get angry with anyone.

The day came his classmates were leaving for Madras (today called Chennai).They were leaving from Mysore to Chennai. They had shared goodyears at school and he went to wish them good luck for their future. At the station his friends were already there. They were excited and discussing their new hostels, new courses etc. So he stood there silently. One of his friends noticed and said "You should have made it" He did not reply .Hejust wished them. He stood there even after he could no longer see the train or the waving hands. It was June 1962 in Mysore. Yet he stood theremotionless.

He said to himself, without anger or jealously," All studentsfrom IITs study well and do big things in life. But it is not the institution; ultimately it is you and you alone who can change your life byHard work".

This son of a school teacher became a pioneer of India's Software industry. He is Infosys founder and Chief Mentor, Narayana Murthy.

His motto being,” Powered by intellect, Driven by Values"

Could this also be reality??

Got this as a forward  -

The woods were lovely dark and deep. Walking slowly beside her, in the damp mud road, was her husband whom she barely knew. He was very relaxed, happily watching a group of kids playing at a distance.

Her "mehandi" was still dark and smelling fresh, reminding of the excitements and tension 2 days back. "It cant work this way mom...please stop this", she kept telling her mother till the last moment, who wouldnt listen but carry on with beautifying her. She had been crying all night and her make-up had to be patched up twice or thrice to hide her awkwardly swollen face.It was too late now. She had to get married "NOW" to the guy...The guy whom she had seen once and talked thrice, the guy about whom she knew nothing at all but for his name and work.

Everything happened in a hurry and everything was over before she could breathe again... here was she with this guy, all alone in this hill station... how can anybody send their daughter such a long distance with a stranger???"Hey look at that!!!" he shouted in excitement... she shrugged and looked where his finger pointed... Bright colored balloons dotted the sky. Children were jumping in joy and he seemed to be completely absorbed into it...colors are always exciting...but not now. She was not with her friends, not with her teammates, not even with her parents. This was not a 3 day tour or team building trip. This was her life and she has been forced to start off with this person.

Loneliness and discomfort with this stranger was sickening...She looked at him in wonder... does he even realize that he has married me? Does he understand that he has to love me, protect me, and care for me, a new girl, a stranger, all his life?

The marriage morning started like a daylight nightmare for her. The first time in life she felt she should have fallen in love and then married somebody. Some man who she would have felt more comfortable with, someone whom she could call by name and introduce to friends, someone whom she could trust. But marriage morning was obviously not the time to think all these.

Her parents would never have said "no" if she had declared that she was in love. But she was not emotionally attached to anybody she met, especially guys. She was very friendly, playing, teasing, but never had second thought for any man around her. That brought the entire responsibility of looking for a groom on her parents' shoulders.

Her parents had had a very bad time with this entire process. They started their groom search with unending "&" operation. The concatenation of "Horoscope matching" & "Decent family" & "Good looking" & "Good pay" & "same cast" & so on... that always gave 0 output. Now after all that 8 months of hunt, they were not ready to hear her "ifs" and "buts" for this 'good guy'.

She had explained to her father. She does not feel anything for this person. He is nothing more to me than any other software professional. Like list of names she sees in the chat rooms. Distant and usual...Her father asked her to talk to him, meet him and discuss their likes and dislikes. That meeting started like the induction programme self introduction and ended like a 3 hour seminar. She was waiting to get away from that place.

"So did you talk with him?"
"Yes".
"Was he polite and decent?”
"Yes"
"Oh he got that special flavoured tri-color ice cream...!!!"
OK.
All her family and relatives discussed...She was given the chance to "understand her life partner" and that they have understood each other "well" and she is ready for the marriage now. All arrangements geared up and it was 24 days after her first meeting that she was getting married to her man... perfect match as everybody else described.

Marriage hall was full with excited people, kids got the chance to play, and ladies got the chance to wear the silk saree. Thesmell of rose and jasmine filled the hall. Different poses for the photographer and artificial smiles for the videos. The moment he had tied the sacred thread was unexplainable vacuum in the head. It was over. She was his wife, accepted by the society and law. Her proud parents were relaxed. This was their duty they had been planning to fulfill since she was born. This entire crowd will fade away; leaving her to explore her new world...

He pulled her hand gently to sit on the stone bench. The bench was wet and the chillness was indeed enjoyable. "So what are you thinking about?"... That was an unexpected ball. Should she reply? Should she be silent? She remembered the two hour presentation she had taken last month. Bold and confident, she kept answering all the queries with a broad smile. Now she remained silent.

"Do you know honey I was not for this marriage too?" Oh my God... what did I hear??? Did HE tell that or did I think aloud? What does he mean? Didn’t he like me? Was he forced into this? He must have noticed the quizzical look on my face...with a gentle smile he continued..."I wanted to look for a girl myself, buy her everything, care for her, argue with her, laugh and cry with her, then get married to her... Anything otherwise would be a drama. Traditional drama and I was not for it anytime. But my love for my work and also my stress would not give me time and mind to search that girl...

When your parents talked to me 2 weeks before our marriage, about your fear of getting married to a stranger, I could completely understand your mind. I could see myself in you and that was the moment I decided I will marry you. There was no time to prove myself to you, make you trust me, everything happened in a hurry. But there was the entire life before me, to please you, to love you, to make you trust me. This is no less than what I had dreamt, the girl I was waiting for, is you. Now tell me... will you love me???" Tears came down her cheek. Her parents had done more than their duty. They had found her the perfect guy. Thank you Mom!!! Thank you Dad!!!

His question remained unanswered yet both knew the answer....

Am not Humpty Dumpty but had a great fall!!

Today morning, half-sleepy I was, as though I am sleep walking I get off the office bus. The moment I stepped on the second step on the foot board, I triped-off and fell. Thankfully, there were not many people around and I quickly ran to my cube. It dint hurt much initially. Later on, I discovered that I actually did get hurt and my cargoes were torn. Boo Hoo :(

Actually a team-mate of my college senior, with whom I generally have breakfast had seen me falling down. And now as obvious as it can get, the topic of discussion in the breakfast table was not cricket, was not politics, was not any manager-bitching but my great fall. And there people went on building up the story of how I fell off the bus. They made it sound like some dupe performing a stunt for a star in a movie. But then, this sweet senior of mine defends me saying "Now noone is going to tease my junior". That was sweet!!!

It even continued in the lunch saying that I have the habit somnambulating. But that actually is fine as long as I dont trip and fall!!

Something to know

oxymoron - Conjoining contradictory terms

Many a times we use two contradictory terms together. say for example: deafening silence, busy doing nothing etc.

euphemism - An inoffensive expression that is substituted for one that is considered offensive

Say for example, Physically challenged or Differently abled instead of physically handicapped, mentally challenged instead of mentally retarded, senior citizen instead of oldster etc.

neologism - A newly invented word or phrase

many new words get added up into the english dictionary day by day due to their increasing usage ans not because of any kind of etymological originof being derived from their roots. Typical examples are: bug in a computer program, Googling has become a verb of late, plastic being popularly used instead of the word credit card.

I like Christian Weddings!!

Today, had lots of fun at lunch. Raj, a friend of mine describes how Christian weddings take place at the Church.

Here is how it goes:

On the day of the wedding service at church, only the Groom arrives half an hour early with a companion or two, when there will not even be a soul in the church. He has to go near the altar and be seated alone. As time passes by, the people start gathering in the church. In a Church, it is forbidden to turn behind sitting next to the altar. Poor thing he has to sit all alone waiting for his Bride. Bechara Groom!!!

If the Wedding service is at 5.30, the bride arrives at 5.25 with her father and brother on her either sides, holding hands. the moments she steps into the church, there is a standing ovation with a bridal march music on. With 10 people ahead of her and Bridesmaids behind her she walks in with an air of great importance!!

The entire Church, including the groom stands up giving due respect to the bride walking in. Now, can u imagine how the insignificant groom would feel on his own wedding.

As he was explaining, I come up with a most important doubt - Does the Priest say, "You may now kiss the bride?" He looks at me with irritation and says "This is India and also, we are not Anglo-Indians. It happens only in their weddings in India."

Several things like this will happen until the service is over giving a lot of importance to the Bride. After it is over, the Reception takes place where the Bride gets to have a costume change whereas our man, the groom still hangs around with the same old suit. Discrimination there too!!

Also, the bride gets to have the wedding cake first.

Wow. Christian weddings are the best!!

Wat is compiler ?

Written by a student in a introductory Computer Science course. I found this interesting. This is called real talent, with one single world, elaborate it to the maximum.


"A compiler's primary function is to compile, organize the compilation, and go right back to compiling. It compiles basically only those things that require to be compiled, ignoring things that should not be compiled. The main way a compiler compiles, is to compile the things to be compiled until the compilation is complete."

The Cricket World Cup!!

There s this thing happening.. "The cricket world cup" the result of which is sleepless nights for many people infected by the world cup fever.
As that of a jet lag, there s also a cric lag due to keeping yourself awake to watch the matches. Some people i know even bunk the second half at office to watch the match on one of the greatest invension of this century, the television.Perhaps for many people, their life is infact goverened by the process of world cup cricket playing.
There was so much preparation for this world cup not only from the players side but also from all the crazy fans. I heard many people saying that they bought set top boxes, new couch etc especially for the purpose of watching world cup cricket matches comfortably in their sweet homes. Few people went few steps ahead and even offered special prayers for our cricket team to bring home the cup of glory. There was also some news that in a temple, there were 11 Ganesh idols being placed offered special prayers, one for each player. There used to be a excited atmosphere even at office especially if India is playing. Even Project Managers do not schedule any important call or meeting in the later part of the day.
Though, people in India did a lot of nice things for the cricketers building in all kinds of faith in them, the moment they find out their hopes are being shattered, they turn out to be so agitated and aggressive. After the first league match, when India lost to Bangladesh, the house of MS Dhoni which is under construction was attacked and destroyed by some frenzied cricket fans. A couple of earlier world cups witnessed a few people blowing down thier TV just because the team did not play well. At this point, I am not trying to be a cynic but then I find these things way too wierd.
There was a lot of expectation on our very own Indian cricket team that they would reach the pinnacle of glory and lift the World Cup. The reason behind which is that they really had a good team. If they played without the kind of complacency they showed, they could really have made it big. Again, I am not saying that this is what it is. Many people have many angles of looking at it and hence have many different opinions too!!!
Now that it is almost evident that India is out of the World cup series, everyone is frustated and dejected. No more excitment on the faces of the cricket lovers here. But then, the die-hard optimists, the feeling is India can still make it to the Super-Eight if the Bangladesh loses to Bermuda which is near to impossible. To the pessimists, it is just that there are no more sleepless nights and no more changes in schedules at work.

Dormancy for a while!!!

Just remained dormant fro a while. No special reasons or anything of that sort. But then life moved on last entire week. and, most importantly, as to everyone s dislike, tomoro is a working day :-( anyway, catch up with more action next week!!!

Sheer Insensitivity

Yesterday, there outrageous protests in West Bengal following the SEZ aquisition of land at Nandigram. The way the police forces were acting to control the mob, it was so horrble to watch it on the television.
There was a lathi-charge, burst of tear gas, round of firing of rubber bullets and finally open-fire. The scene which was captured and telecasted on CNN-IBN showed someone being hit by a bullet. Two women rushed to lift him and move him away from the area. They, in turn were hit mercilessly by the policemen with lathi fro rescueing the protestors. This was too much and very very insane!!!
11 were killed says The Hindu and Indian Express says 12 were killed. There was even a death due to someone carrying a suicide bomb. Some 30 odd injured. People had trenched the roads with the objective of cutting off the roads and to stop the operations at SEZ aquired land.
The police trying to control this kind of mishaps, were supposed to suppress violence, not provoke. What in turn happened was even more violent out-burts.
Sheer insensitivity!!

Pool!!

Guess what for the first time in life, I played pool. Though, I dint do that great, I really loved it!!

Only S/W engineers can do it!

This happened last night. My roomie's mobile had some problem with the speaker suddenly. She was unable to hear anything at all from the other end.

One other room-mate and I suggested a few things to change in the settings and services. It was a brand new mobile and we were all wondering as to what could go wrong in the mobile settings. After a few tries, we gave up and the carried on.

After a while she comes back and says, "the mobile is working fine". We asked here wat went wrong and how did she manage to get it right. She said almost instantaneously, "Its simple. I just switched it off and switched it on."

It reminded me of an old joke.

A Mechanical Engineer, Chemical Engineer and a Software Engineer happened to travel together in a car. Suddenly, the car stops.

The mechanical engineer almost an expert in trouble-shooting automobiles tries his hand on. He looks at every part in the engine and verifies if it was functioning properly. He finishes whatever trouble-shooting he could do and tried to start the car. Notheing happened. The car didnt start.

The Chemical engineer, an expert in fluid dynamics tried his expertise. His checked the fuel consistency and fuel injection and lubrication and many such things. Still nothing happened. The car didnt start.

Now, its the software engineer's turn. He maintains a cool temperament and gets of the car. He asks his fellowmen to also get off the car. He locks the car, and again unlocks it, opens the doors and gets in. He starts the engine, and now, the car starts!!

Even my roomie was applying the same concept.

Many a times in life, even the same logic could work out the best. When you find yourself landed up in a problem, all you have to do is to come out of it. Shut down the problem. and then re-start it, you will definitely be able to solve it!!!

International Women's Day - how did it come into existence

International Women's Day (8 March) is an occasion marked by women's groups around the world. This date is also commemorated at the United Nations and is designated in many countries as a national holiday. When women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day, they can look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development.
International Women's Day is the story of ordinary women as makers of history; it is rooted in the centuries-old struggle of women to participate in society on an equal footing with men. In ancient Greece, Lysistrata initiated a sexual strike against men in order to end war; during the French Revolution, Parisian women calling for "liberty, equality, fraternity" marched on Versailles to demand women's suffrage.
The idea of an International Women's Day first arose at the turn of the century, which in the industrialized world was a period of expansion and turbulence, booming population growth and radical ideologies. Following is a brief chronology of the most important events:
1909
In accordance with a declaration by the Socialist Party of America, the first National Woman's Day was observed across the United States on 28 February. Women continued to celebrate it on the last Sunday of that month through 1913.
1910
The Socialist International, meeting in Copenhagen, established a Women's Day, international in character, to honour the movement for women's rights and to assist in achieving universal suffrage for women. The proposal was greeted with unanimous approval by the conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, which included the first three women elected to the Finnish parliament. No fixed date was selected for the observance.
1911
As a result of the decision taken at Copenhagen the previous year, International Women's Day was marked for the first time (19 March) in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, where more than one million women and men attended rallies. In addition to the right to vote and to hold public office, they demanded the right to work, to vocational training and to an end to discrimination on the job.
Less than a week later, on 25 March, the tragic Triangle Fire in New York City took the lives of more than 140 working girls, most of them Italian and Jewish immigrants. This event had a significant impact on labour legislation in the United States, and the working conditions leading up to the disaster were invoked during subsequent observances of International Women's Day.
1913-1914
As part of the peace movement brewing on the eve of World War I, Russian women observed their first International Women's Day on the last Sunday in February 1913. Elsewhere in Europe, on or around 8 March of the following year, women held rallies either to protest the war or to express solidarity with their sisters.
1917
With 2 million Russian soldiers dead in the war, Russian women again chose the last Sunday in February to strike for "bread and peace". Political leaders opposed the timing of the strike, but the women went on anyway. The rest is history: Four days later the Czar was forced to abdicate and the provisional Government granted women the right to vote. That historic Sunday fell on 23 February on the Julian calendar then in use in Russia, but on 8 March on the Gregorian calendar in use elsewhere.
Since those early years, International Women's Day has assumed a new global dimension for women in developed and developing countries alike. The growing international women's movement, which has been strengthened by four global United Nations women's conferences, has helped make the commemoration a rallying point for coordinated efforts to demand women's rights and participation in the political and economic process. Increasingly, International Women's Day is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of women's rights.
The Role of the United NationsFew causes promoted by the United Nations have generated more intense and widespread support than the campaign to promote and protect the equal rights of women. The Charter of the United Nations, signed in San Francisco in 1945, was the first international agreement to proclaim gender equality as a fundamental human right. Since then, the Organization has helped create a historic legacy of internationally agreed strategies, standards, programmes and goals to advance the status of women worldwide.
Over the years, United Nations action for the advancement of women has taken four clear directions: promotion of legal measures; mobilization of public opinion and international action; training and research, including the compilation of gender desegregated statistics; and direct assistance to disadvantaged groups. Today a central organizing principle of the work of the United Nations is that no enduring solution to society's most threatening social, economic and political problems can be found without the full participation, and the full empowerment, of the world's women.
For more information, contact:
Development Section Department of Public Information Room S-1040,
United Nations,
New York, NY 10017
Email: mediainfo@un.org

This is something interesting!

I read a couple of days ago in the paper, Naomi Campbell, the super model, will wear gloves and hold broom and mop instead of posing for pictures. she wud be cleaning some public place for a week.

This was done as a punishment for throwing her mobile and assaulting her maid. This act of hers is taken as an insult on a sanitation worker and she has to play her role.

It indeed is an interesting punishment. It treats everyone equal under the eyes of law!!

Is an independent Woman a threat to a Man?

Today is Internatioanl women's Day!!

Right from the beginning of this week I have been hearing about it. Mnay people were actually making preparations. HR folks sending out mails about the dress code for this day, arranging for Panel Discussions on Women s day and so on at office, BlankNoise planing out initiatives etc all dedicated for women's day. Women Empowerment in place!

Wel in todays world, where women s empowerment is so much spoken about, we find women really empowered in every walk of life. We find women from the bottom up, right from autorickshaw drivers to CEOs of corporates sweeping the limelight. The question is, "Is an independent Woman a threat to a Man?"

The answer undeniably is, Yes. Many a times we find men saying, I want to get married to a gal who will stay home, cook for me and take good care of my kids, professionally successful and they are well-informed, broad-minded men though!

Though we all agree that men have come through the concept of Women liberation, women empowerment and all such things, are they, at this juncture, ready to treat women equally? Or, they still look at women as kitchen machines and child rearing machines?

So proud of my Alma Mater!!!!!!

The day of Holi, festival of colours - all are drenched in many different colours. But then, we were all coloured yellow. Yes, The Day much awaited for which we had spent four solid years in this remarkably huge, Prestigious Anna University. The four years of hard work (or hardly work for people like me!) fetched that single sheet of document to each of us there!!

It was a massive crowd of 2100 Undergraduates and Post Graduates from the Four Constituent Autonomous Colleges of Anna unniversity - College of Engineering Guindy, A C College of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Madras Institute of Technology, who were declared to have completed their respective degree programmes by the Syndicate of Anna University.

The day was marked by the presence of M.K.Stalin as the Cheif Guest and Prof. Namas Chandra, Associate Dean for Research at Univ of Nebraska, U.S as the Guest of Honour. Also the Academic Council consisted of Deans of the constituent colleges and all the Chairpersons of Faculty under various heads. In addition to the Grads and the academic council, there were parents, the press and the media to witness the historic swearing in of Two Thousand and one Hundred Engineers and Technologists produced by this very historic Anna Univ.

The Convocation began with the arrival of the academic council with the 25 th battalion band with bagpipes.



After the Welcome Address and reading out of the Annual Report, The VC declared the Graduation day open. Each of the Chairpersons read out the list of Graduates of the respective faculties. Gold medals were presented to the University Toppers. (Now dont ask me why dint I get one. Its just that I dint want to get it everytime, I believe in letting others have the opportunity once in a while!!)


After the big list of speeches being made, the function came to an end with the National Anthem. At this juncture I would want to share a few things I feel like.
I understood how strong is the genetic inheritance in each person. While Mu Ka Stalin was delivering his Graduation Day address, I could find the very same voice of his father, the CM of Tamil Nadu. It was the same voice, same pitch, same modulation, same choice of words. All through his address, had you not looked at him on the dias, you wil end up thinking that CM himself was speaking. Genetic endowment!!
Dr. Namas Chandra. Wait a minute, there is an interesting reason as to why he is called so. Dr. Namshivayam Chandrasekhar, when moved to Us 25 years ago, the people of U S of the A, chopped his name as Nama, Chan, Shek etc. So Prof. himself decided to rename. So Namashivayam became Namas, Chandrashekar bacame Chandra. Interesting!!
Prof, Namas Chandra has travelled to 30 Developed and developing countries. But then with confidence he says, India has one of the brightest sets of students. Also, there is no country where there is not even one student of Anna University. Yes, he also is a student of Anna University. So proud of his alma mater!!
One more thought provoking point he shared is this. America has been one of the top scientific and economic superpower. 85% to 90% of their economy has come from research and innovation. Most of that comes from scientists and engineers. The entire USA produces only 70,000 engineers every year. Here, India alone produces 3,60,000 engineers. China produces 6,00,000 engineers. Invariably, for every one engineer in USA, there are 14 in engineers in China and India. The difference is not in quantity but in quality. Yes, it indeed is!!
Anyway, we were more excited to see all the old friends, Here are a couple of pictures below with our convocation robe.
With the class gang

Proud to be Engineers and Technologists!! Proud to be a part of Anna University!! Proud of my Alma Mater!!

P.S:
lunch time fun
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2986121048587766179&hl=en
the fun car ride - u must watch praveen! lol
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1463329305741724269&hl=en
The Dhaba
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-21902223834281464&hl=en

After a long time!!

Just as I came back from office, my phone buzzed. Uthaman, one of my college Classmates has come down from China. So meet up!

The plan was to go to Ascendas initially. He came over to pickk me up. The moment I entered the car, the A/C was so refreshing that I jumped out saying we ll go for a long ride!!! And there we headed to ECR, Chennai's most sought road for rides. More than the ride, what was more enjoyable and interesting was the things he told me - about China, about people, culture etc.

And also not to forget, his future plans regarding his business. He hails from karaikudi, where we find lot of Spinning and Textile mills situated. And, as obvious it is, he owns a spinning mill. Now he works in China so that he can learn textile market and some nuances of the same. He loves the place, he says. Shangai is an awesome place to be. But for the food, you will love the place!! The people there are very dexterous, very artistic. Textiles have awesome potential there and many such things he told me.

Hearing enough good about China, I asked him what youd dont like there. Poor thing, they changed his name from 'Uthaman' to 'Hu Tha' for the simple reason that the Chinese script does not include this kind of phonetics. You can have a look all by yourself below. Pera nalla kolai pannitaanga!!

Moreover our Karaikudi Chettiar has some more secrets which if I reveal, I am sure to be murdered for. So shhhhhhhhhh!! Finger on my lips. Yenna Mr Hu Tha, sandhoshama?

We had our grub at Kebab Court and then came back to Ascendas to have dessert. We also discussed some strategic plans for the Convocation Day where we ll get to have the rarest opportunities to torture the ones who bet the hell out of us when we were in college.

So eagerly waiting for "The Day"!!!!!!!!

Hell and Heaven!

Read this somewhere:

A holy man was having a conversation with the Lord one day and said,"Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like." The Lord led the holy man to two doors. He opened one of the doors and the holy man lookedin. In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew which smelled delicious and made the holy man'smouth water.

The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appearedto be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles that werestrapped to their arms and each of them found it possible to reach into the pot of stew, and take a spoonful, but because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoon back into their mouths.The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering. TheLord said, "You have seen Hell."They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same asthe first one. There was the large round table with the large pot of stew,which made the holy man's mouth water. The people were equipped with thesame long-handled spoons, but here the people were well-nourished and laughingand talking.The holy man said, "I don't understand." "It is simple" said the Lord, "it requires but one skill." "You see, they have learned to feed each other,while the greedy only think of themselves."

Good one na?

Of life and life-saving..

Many of the Bollywood movies would potray a scene wherein a patient will be taken to the hospital only to hear the doctors say, "Had you brought him/her 30 mins early we could have saved him/her". Even in real this may be pretty much possible and could happen to any of us, anytime.

In todays busy world everyone seems to be busy.The haste with which we expect things to happen, the sheer insensitivity, and the absence of civic responsibilty is the root cause for such miseries to happen. Almost everyday, on the way back home, I find atleast one ambulance getting struck in the Guindy traffic. Adding futher to the tragedy is the mismanagement in traffic control that happens despite the traffic police on duty. No one seems to show even a least bit of concern for the poor soul at distress.

Every evening I hear the sirens go on and on at the junction only to fall on deaf ears. For atleast 15 mins, there is an inescapable wait for the ambulance.The traffic seems to be an unanswerable problem. The presence of the traffic constable doesnt even make a difference. When there is not enough clearance for the ambulance to pass by, there are no efforts to make way for the ambulance carrying a soul fighting for life.

Even if slightest of common sense is given a chance, this problem could be resolved. The traffic cops can easily stop the timed functioning of the traffic signals and open the traffic so that the vehicles preceding the ambulance can clear out and pave way for the amulance to pass by. Then the normal routines can be continued.

A couple of days ago, there was a report on NDTV about the number of deaths that happen on the way to the Hospital, in the ambulance, getting struck in the traffic. Every week atleast 2 or 3 cases are reported in Mumbai alone. And the figures for the whole of India??? You fill in the blanks!!!

Also yesterday, when we reached office and was about to alight the bus, there were a bunch of people block the bus to enter the Infy gate. They had come down to protest against what had happened the previous night. The reason being that there was someone in the adjoining vilagecritically ill and had to be taken to the hospital. They had come to ask for the infy ambulance. The security guard had dismissed their request stating that he does not have permission to do so. The patient finally died in the midst of the wait for medical help.

I would say, the Security Guard could have spoken to the authorities and could have given teh ambulance to the villagers. Or even at the worst case, could have taken a decision on his own to give it. Saving a life was much more important than the hierarchical order of doing things and not by passing the order.

Even if an ambulance was not supposed to be taken for saving a life, then wat kind of a Social conciousness are we speaking about in corporates? Is it all worth the say? Will there be some change in our moral responsibilites atleast in the days to come? Only time will answer this question.

Eventful Day today!!

Before i could eloborate anything, let me tell u, i had a gr8 day today!!

i am now released from my project. so thought i head to MCity to see wats happenoing there. It felt so nice to be there after being in Sholz for soemtime. here I go away from the hustle and bustle of shols!!! MCity is a lot calmer, Greener and welcoming than sholz.

It felt so nice to meet old friends again. The same breakfast fun, hopping into everybody s cube and paying courtesy visits. Wow!! ya ya i do agree all this is signs of joblesness but being jobless once in a way is actually nice!!!

Today i accomplishedone important job. Well, will let out the secret if it materialises!!

Evening to beach with babe and D1. overall, it was a funfilled and eventful day!! :) :)

Brooks' law

This is something interesting i read:

Brooks' law was stated by Fred Brooks in his 1975 book The Mythical Man-Month as "Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later." Likewise, Brooks memorably stated "The bearing of a child takes nine months, no matter how many women are assigned." While Brooks' law is often quoted, the line before it in The Mythical Man-Month is almost never quoted: "Oversimplifying outrageously, we state Brooks' Law."

The reason for the seeming contradiction is that software projects are complex engineering endeavors, and new workers on the project must first become educated in the work that has preceded them; this education requires diverting the resources already working on the project, temporarily diminishing their productivity while the new workers are not yet contributing meaningfully. Each new worker typically must "ramp up" in this way with not only one, but multiple engineers who must educate the new worker in their area of expertise in the code base, day by day.

A commonly understood implication of Brooks' law is that it will be more productive to employ a smaller number of very talented (and highly paid) programmers on a project than to employ a larger number of less talented programmers, since individual programmer productivity can vary greatly between highly talented and efficient programmers and less talented programmers. However, Brooks' law does not mean that starving a project of resources by employing fewer programmers beyond a certain point will get it done faster.

Possible solution

The common way around the constraints of Brooks' law is to segment the problem into smaller sub-problems, each of which can then be solved by a smaller team, and to have a top-level team that is responsible for systems integration. However, this method relies on the segmentation of the problem being correct in the first place; if done incorrectly, this can make the problem worse, not better, by impeding communication between programmers working on parts of the problem which are actually closely coupled, even when the project plan has decreed that they are not.
Architecture provides another component of a solution to Brooks' law. When the software application is designed around a stable design pattern, then the rest of the programming team(s) can work within the framework of that pattern. The design pattern defines the rules that the programmers follow and provides consistency and scale-ability. Brooks' law, however, still applies when building out the components of the design pattern or the development framework.
Some authors (see Creating a Software Engineering Culture by Karl E. Weigers, for example) have stressed the importance of the social and political aspects of the work climate as determiners of the effectiveness of individual programmers and the project team as a whole. Rather than depending on "heroes" to carry the day with extraordinary efforts, Weigers argues that a team of ordinarily-skilled individuals can repeatedly deliver timely results in the right work environment. Efforts to improve the effectiveness of teams can ameliorate, if not eliminate, the consequences of Brooks' law.

Open source software development

Some would claim the programming practices associated with open source software development allow open source projects to defy the predictions of Brooks' law, but this is not true. A late Open-source software project will become even later if additional developers are added for the reasons addressed above.

Application to other disciplines

Brooks' law's applicability to other disciplines varies depending upon the nature of the work. In any area where the work products are commodities, the law does not apply. For example, on a late construction project, one can employ additional dump trucks to haul refuse faster, without suffering the time penalty. The function of hauling refuse can be performed by anyone who possesses a minimal level of skill and a truck. Nothing differentiates one truck from the next, and no additional communication or training is required to commence the additional hauling. The requirement to get the new truck drivers up to speed is minimized and the resultant additional communications channels do not exist; truck drivers do not need to talk to other truck drivers in order to haul the refuse.

This is in sharp contrast to the typical work of software engineers, whose work is impacted both by the need to train and educate new workers, and by occasional mistakes that new workers are expected to make before they are fully familiar with the software project.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks%27_law

It Happens Only in India!!!

Had been to College a couple of days ago to submit my application for the Convocation.
Yes people, even I am going through that jing-bang even to grab hold of my diploma in hand!

I hopped into my Guide s room paying him a courtesy visit. He was talking to Congo, my favorite research scholar (calling him my favorite, I am obviously being sarcastic here). Then broke into my department head's office. He was more than happy to see me. After all, I am one of the best students the University has produced and I successfully conned to make it feel so, at least!

The Head's son works in Trilogy and obviously, he was well informed about how software firms function, the work-culture, the attitude of the people working there etc.. he was talking to me about it. Just then Dr.Rabbit hopped in with a pile of papers for some attestation. They were placing orders for books for the Department library and just then, The Head cited an interesting situation to me. It seems that UGC has sanctioned 1 crore for the department fund. But then, more interestingly, they have to spend all the fund within 20 days or else, this fund will be carried over as opening balance for the next cycle and apparently, less fund will be allocated next year. So they all are bent upon spending the entire crore within 20 days. This gives me a deja vu feeling of some Rajinikanth movie where his father gives some huge sum of money and asked to spend it in stipulated time in order to actually inherit his wealth.

Adding up to the tricky situation is that, for any kind of purchase or any kind of infrastructure development process, there is a long process which cant be by-passed. It appears to be another variant of Murphy's law. When you have money to spend, you cannot spend it but it has to be spent!

Well, it always happens at Indian Government organisations. The speed with which things happen is obviously like that of a snail. For everything, there s a well defined absolutely a complicated way which nobody knows how to simplify. We all would have experienced it in some form or the other in Government offices may it be electricity Board, a voters ID, or some kind of NOC or an approval and many more to add on.

Question is does it happen only in India?

Nature - let us conserve share and care!!

I happened read an article from The Hindu few days ago. It was speaking about how Chennai’s garbage disposal has become ineffective in every which way. It spoke about how Garbage disposal has become the most difficult job practically. There was a simile brought out in the article. It is something like this: If you have a garbage bin in the kitchen and you can only dump garbage and cannot empty it. You keep on dumping waste over and over on it. You can’t empty it but only got the choice of filling it!!! How disgusting could it turn your living at home?

The scenario in Chennai is also pretty much the same. There are 3 dumping grounds and all of them fully loaded. They can’t be emptied. All the garbage is being stacked from the bottom up. There s no way out. Though there was some initiative to collect garbage separately as wet waste and dry waste, the enthu to do so, lasted only a few days amidst our people.

Actually, the effective way to organized waste disposal will be something like this. The wastes are to be segregated as wet, dry and toxic wastes.

Typical examples of wet waste would be the kitchen and the garden wastes. They are to be composted or vermin-composted.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compost

The recyclable things like paper, glass, metal scrap etc would fall under dry wastes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recycle

The toxic wastes, say for example battery cells, bandages and expired medicines are to be landfilled.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landfill

Perhaps most important of all is to reduce the amount of garbage we dump everyday. Carrying our own shopping bag rather than getting a plastic bag every time we shop, carrying our own water bottle rather than buying a PET bottle every time, or carrying your own sandwich box than wrapping in aluminum foil - al these are small small things which will make a big big difference to our environment. If we have not thought about it before its high time we start thinking about it.

This is the golden mantra we should remember if we don’t want our beautiful earth to turn from bad to worst - Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.

DV and VC!!

This morning I was sitting in FC having my grub. There were a bunch of people sitting in my table. Freshers just joined, looks like. The reason why I say this is because they had this book, ‘Five Point Someone’ by Chetan Bhagat with them and they seem to be excited about it.

And then, to my suprize, they started speaking about DV, our very own VC. Looks like they just had their convocation. Swearing him throughout the discussion. It reminded me the days in Anna University. Hmm.. adventures!!!

My 3 rd semester, we had to take a subject, Basic Mechanical Engineering. And guess what, DV was my faculty. The first entire week we never had any classes. We would not have a class as usual, we thought. That ‘we’ stands for me and Mitts of course!! And that particular BasicMech Class followed the break. We hopped into the canteen and happily walked backed to class some 20 mins after it was supposed to actually start. As we were walking on the corrider, approaching the classroom, a bunch of my class guys were frantically waving their hands, gesturing us not to enter the class. We were puzzled but we walked ahead. The moment we stepped in, adding to even more suspense, we found half the class standing on the teacher's platform near the writing board. We were totally lost. Absolutely no clue of what  was happening!

“Welcome!” sounded a voice from the middle of crowd. He walked out and proudly introduced himself, “I am your Mechanical Engineering Professor”. “Have you people come here for a fancy dress contest? Don’t you know the university dress code?” he continued. We were wondering:What fancy dress? What university dress code?  Finally, I understood that we were all wearing Jeans and Tees. Oh ho. Are there some written rules about the dress culture at all in Main Campus was the first question.

The first day was more a Moral Science lecture than a Mechanical engineering class. In addition to which was his non-stop self praise that he assisted APJ in the making of the Agni missile. And then, he was the founder of the AVRC, the Department of Media Sciences in the main campus.
We all were puzzled than anything else looking helplessly at each other’s faces.

The next day, it was even worse. Someone sitting in the first row was biting his nails. He started his most imaginative and powerful thought oriented lecture. If you bite your nails, you end up swallowing them. They will rupture the walls of the intestine. You will get ulcer. It might result in cancer. Inference was ‘Biting nails may lead to cancer’!!! Folks, did you ever knew it?? Heights of it!!!!!

This went on for a week. The same kind of lectures continued for a week. He was teaching us “Thermo-dynamics”. Every class, he will write
thermo = heat
dynamics = motion

on the board. This was the only thing I learnt in the entire tenure of his process of teaching us Mechanical engineering. And then he went on with his usual non-stop non sense. For all the big talk he does, some thing is rotten and moth-eaten about him. I may sound like as thought I am being brutal cynic. But you end up commenting this way when you are ‘frustrated to the core’.

Many such incidents followed for a week and then he was replaced by another Lecturer due to some reason. What an escape!!!

Now, this guy who was incapable of delivering a single lecture in Mechnaical engineering is the Vice-Chancellor of the most reputed Anna Universtity, one of the biggest universities which encompass 256 engineering colleges and over 2 lac students. No comments!

I don’t have to say anything about his new policies in the college governance - the Dress Code, the cell phone ban, the ban on movie club in college, ban on the culturals and many more to add on. Well the essential part of enhancing the management of a university should be towards its educational policy or towards developing the infrastructure or towards faculty enablement. This kind of measures which have been taken are not going to lead one step ahead towards the betterment or upliftment.

A message from blank noise

For those of you who dont know wat BlankNoise is, its an organisation formed to voice out against the day to day issues women undergo, the sensitive ones, in particular. This is the mail i received from blanknoise reg their latest project. and a humble request to those who are reading this blog. Please do not stop here, Go on...

Hello,

Last year just before March 8, International Women's Day, Blank Noise set up a blog-a-thon , linking all of you and many other readers not on our mailing list, to each other through a particularly sensitive and private subject - the re-telling of experiences of street sexual harassment. We thought the solidarity in numbers, the anonymity the Internet offers and the significance of the day itself might allow some people to tell stories they had never told before. We expected some thoughtful stories, some provocative ones, some that would disturb and stay with us, perhaps forever.

But we did not expect over 240 deeply personal testimonials to come rushing out. We did not expect 131 comments on a single post. We did not expect the media to pick it up the way they did, with coverage ranging from regional to international.
This March 8, we're hoping to take the journey begun last year one step forward. We've heard each other's testimonials, now let's share each other's actions. On March 8, 2007, Blank Noise launches an Action Heroes website, which collects no 'victim' testimonials, no stories of bit-back hurt, no stories of indifferent onlookers.

This archives and builds your testimonials of a situation where you emerged as the hero! This space will launch with the stories of action plans. Give us your strategies. Your interventions. The time when you subverted a situation, flipped it on its head and gave the 'perpetrator' no chance but to stop what he was doing. Give us your success story. Tell us which action hero you are. We will post strategies and interventions from eight countries up on our brand new space on International Women's Day.

We're also looking for volunteers to help on this project:
1) Technical support to construct the website
2)Volunteers to collect strategies from those who cannot access the Internet or cannot write: either writing down what they say, translating and/or recording audio (if anyone has a problem accessing recording equipment, we can help)
3)Media outreach

Please email us if you can think you can help out: this is a two-month project only and we could do with all hands on board! Especially with reaching out to people who might not be on the Internet or able to write....

We will have lots more details for you when you email blurtblanknoise@gmail.com , the words "march 8 volunteer" in the subject line.And of course, start writing straight away! A sample piece along with guidelines is attached as a PDF file to this email.Hope to hear back soon!

The Blank Noise team

Here is the content of the PDF they had sent:

Here are some brief guidelines for what we're looking for, from Action Heroes:
The action heroes blog is separate from the kind of testimonial space we created on March 8
last year - it is about coping and strategising when you've been harassed. Have you ever
turned the tables and established a completely different relationship with the perpetrator thus
ending the harassment?
Like Jasmeen, who started the Blank Noise Project in 2003, often photographs men who
stare at her or act lewd, thus quickly flipping power relations and actions.
Like Atreyee Day, who described an effective way she’d coped in Kolkata, with this incident:
http://blanknoiseactionheroes.blogspot.com/2006/11/from-atreyee-day.html
The blog isn't launched yet. It will be when you send in your strategies and those that you've
been able to collect.
But essentially, we're asking for:
How different women have coped with street sexual harassment/ or dealt with it by turning the
tables around.
In Atreyee's case the man in question shifted from being a lewd perpetrator to someone a bit
more vulnerable, who shared his childhood instead - and it happened because
1. She looked beyond the harassment
2. She developed her own strategy
Tell us about the situation that didn't cow you down. Which action hero are you? Send us a
post marked 'action hero' to blurtblanknoise@gmail.com and include a brief description of
which Action Hero you see yourself as.
We're asking for the description of any circumstance you’ve encountered that you haven’t
felt cowed down or overwhelmed by; one in which you perhaps spontaneously ‘strategised’ to
overcome harassment. We're asking for which Action Hero you relate to; it could be one
specific to your culture... it could be G-Girl. We're asking for a photograph of you – we won't
put up your name. Send us an audio clip if you can – that'd be perfect.
Why this name? Blank Noise?
Blank: no form, no meaning.
Noise: heightens, builds, breaks form.

Blank Noise put together are two words that contradict themselves.
We experience eve teasing daily. It is a sexual violation but we ignore it. At the same time, we
structure our lives to avoid the occurrence of it - by 'dressing decently', 'coming back home on
time', etc, thereby making unwanted rules for ourselves and not recognizing ourselves as
citizens.

When? Where? How? Why?

Blank Noise was initiated in August 2003 by Jasmeen Patheja from Bangalore and a small
group of 9 participants, all girls. Over the years it has expanded to four metro cities and over
100 volunteers.

We don't believe that one policy change or one street intervention, or one media report can
change the world. We have to address the issue from multiple avenues over a period of time.
Eve teasing is a societal issue, has its roots in patriarchy, reflects in films and in our popular
culture.

We are proposing to initiate a transformation, start the dialogue, through recurring public
events, public participation and collaborations. We are looking at communicating, through
participation, with policy-makers, as well.

Blank Noise is interventionist, and critically reflective of the issue. It seeks to confront, and
create communities through public art. Blank Noise works with people through performance,
blogging, and street interventions.

This is a public art project seeking to address eve teasing. There are several ways to address
an issue and we choose the language of public and community art.
See:
www.blanknoiseproject.blogspot.com

Mitts the great!!!

I receive a call at 10 which seemed to be my wake up call for today. And the call was from none other than Ms.Mitts the great. you all must be know Mitts and I are best of pals from college. She was one of the very few people who shared my frequency in college. The first 2 years in my engineering degree was too good. and Mitts is one of those few people who made life good at college!!!!

The most fun time we had in fact was our  preparation towards our second term Physics exam. I am sure Mitts, u ll agree.  We haunted in Ann's room pretending to study. Had we stayed in our we ll get disturbed and wont study. All vetti scene. And Ann used to beg us in her shrill voice "People please study"In fact, any of you who wants to know any of the time wasting tactics, you can ask us. We ll perfectly show you how not to do anything to perfection.

Highlight of our joblessness is the  times we spent in the coffee shop on that Garden Restaurant road at college. If it was Ananadham's maths class then it means we had to be at the coffee shop. That was the order of the day!!!!

Let me tell what happened today. Mitts landed up today morning at 2. Now catching up a little bit of sleep, I know the next thing she did was to call me. Disturbed my lovely sleep!!
That's ok. Once in a way. So maaf kar diya!!

I drag myself out of bed, and lethargically get ready and drived my most popular Scooty to her place. The moment I step into her home, I found a big meal being served to a huge number of people at her hall. Oh god! only now I realize. Today was her Parents wedding anniversary!!! Oh god, as usual me bulbing :(

Well thanks to my presence of mind. At least then I realized. With one quick round of wishing 25 happy years of wedded life, I land straight into Mitts' room to strangle her neck for not telling me. And thank God, I went there decently attired. What if i had hopped in with a shabby Capri and damaged Tee like I always do! Mitts babe.. I would have blamed you for that if I handed landed up in such a situation and people would have given me weird looks up and down twice.

Her mama, happy at seeing me after a long time showered all the love she could. I am always special to her and she loved feeding me! In a little while, we get invitations to eat. It was a traditional South Indian lunch. Too Good. Numerous varieties of curries and veggies, sweet and savories, we were struggling to eat. The lunch was awesome!! And we hogged like hell!! I will be posting the hogging pictures very soon :)

The effect of over eating, the drowsiness. I look at Mitts, she looks at her little sis, and she looks at us both. With the guests still in the Hall, we lock ourselves inside her room and slept for 3 full hours!!! And again as usual, woken up by a call. This time its Mr.Nerd reminding me that I should get ready for class. I get up and freshen up and ride back home to go to class, with Mitts still sleeping there. I ll take care of you tomorrow baby!!!!

Story of a Great Man!!

This weekend, I am not going anywhere.. gonna sit down and study. This was my resolution.
But then, I receive a call from my cousin and then she says, come over and I cudnt resist going.
My grandpa s home, such a lively place. Amongst many a reasons to visit there, my special reasons to hop in there every week are my cousin and grandpa.. they are so special to me.

This time, I was there only for half a day.. due to my classes of late, I am not able to spend time with them :( But then, Something is better than nothing.

Grandpa called us frantically in the afternoon. We ran in to see what happend. He had become numb, his hands had become chill. Both of us look at each other, with trepidation. We rubbed his palm for a while warming him up. He was fine after a while. His eyes were watering, looking at us saying only two little words, "My Children". We understood, to him what those two words meant, how much they weigh. We were also equally emotional. Grandpa, man of such accomplishments.

He has got many a feathers to his cap. He was the Cheif executive engineer in the Highways department. He specialised in the construction of bridges. He was instrumental in the constructing the first ever two tier bridge in TamilNadu. He was also a part of the Pamban Bridge project for a few months. And many many projects add to his accomplishments. He always executed the most critical project with careless ease. He dint stop with that. Even after his retirement, he helped out in executing many of the building developments in Chennai. Designing very popular hospitals, colleges and complexes were all his interests after retirement.

A man always on wheels, who, will not sit back and rest, even on his glory. Today, he needs a support even to move around. We are all proud of the man you were and the man you are, Grandpa!!

India is my country!!!

Today is the day.. Exactly 57 years India became republic.. To be honest, what does this mean to any of us?? Does it really mean anything?? Million dollar Question to ask..

All of us say, W r proud to be Indians.. well to sit back and ask.. what pride do we take??


Perhaps we have the largest Democracy in the world, the longest ever written constitution.. But what do we know about it?? all that we do is to watch the indepenence day and republic day parade on the TV and tat too many of us dont have time for..

Sovereign, Democratic, republic country.. government of the people, by the people, for the people.. all that i remember meant to me only until i saw them in the Civics text book..

In today's, world, what does it mean.. if it really meant something we would not have witness heaps and heaps of bodies being unearthed in Noida, gal being mercilessly assaulted in front of our most historic India Gate, Perhaps a scam on every other noun you can find.. Food scam, Fodder scam, Relief fund scam.. etc etc etc.. and the list is never ending..

What will it take to change it??? How long will it take to change?? a mystery to solve.. still remains a mystery..