ah Westmalle!

a couple from bangalore had gone travelling in europe and visited Brugge, where they stayed at a B&B. The owner is Kris, Erik's friend, who had come down to Bangalore early this year, and I had met up with him and girlfriend. Kris sent a bottle of Westmalle Tripel, as he knew its one of my favorite beers. The couple gave me a call upon arrival in bangalore, and I went and picked it up from their place. Now I am sitting in my house and sipping one of the most amazing beers in the world :)
Thanks Kris.

wishlist: places to see

Angel Falls (sigh!)
Hangzhou Bay Bridge
California Academy of Sciences (maybe after 5 years or later)
Leh (sigh!)
Shimizu Mega City Pyramid (4/5 years)

(to be contd .. )

Death Valley, Mojave Desert, USA.

Anil Kumble retires :(

Anil Kumble announced his retirement from International Cricket today! Suddenly, on the very last day of 3rd test match at Firozshah Kotla, against the aussies. I knew it would come soon, for his nagging injuries were slowly chipping off his greet, but had hoped that he would retire after England Series, with back-to-back series wins.
I have been a staunch supporter of Kumble. To me, he is the epitome of dedication, hardwork and integrity, the last-drop-of-blood fighter. The greatest bowler India has ever produced. Yeah! and despite all that, he is such a humble person.
And talking about Integrity, he never moved away from the face of his opponent, never gave an inch away, but never ever crossed the line or questioned of his dignity. The only time he was ever called by the match referee, was as captain of the team, in the sydney test match!
What a competitor! Even in this very test match, with broken finger he ran backwards to take a high catch, while everyone else was dropping dollies!
That he was no great fielder was beyond doubt, but none could ever question his commitment every time he dived hopelessly to stop a run! (He broke his finger in this match, setting the same example of competitiveness)

Take a bow for arguably the greatest cricketer India has ever produced.

All the best Anil, never will I have the peace of mind that you will come onto the attack and change the course of a game when India needs breakthroughs.

Youtube discovery: Sungha Jung

I was looking for Joshua Redman's version of "Hit the road jack" on youtube, when I came across this.. by a kid called Sungha Jung



I stood cold for some time ..
also check him playing "canon in D" ..

3 day greenhorn!

Well, within 24 hours of putting my last blog entry, I got msgs from a few colleagues. Are they connected/informed or what! So, right at this moment someone from office may be reading my blog! I hate you "Google"!! (not really) ..

anyway, in the past 3 days, I have tried to soak in as much as I can .. acclimatization!

Its a crazy, intriguing, religionistic/neologistic, sometimes non realistic, brilliant, friendly, chaotic, sincere organization!! Its a great balance that must be maintained. why! the two heads of the office have least hair on their heads! Although no such effect on the BD team!

Oh! I gotta update my vocab. SME is "Subject Matter Expert" not "Small and Medium Enterprises". Things like that. Even technological terms, on many occasions, went by me. I am going for a object bootcamp :) from monday .. it should be interesting .. also to get a feel of the dev community.

my new organization

I have joined ThoughtWorks as yet another developer. Now, many of you might be wondering ...
1) I have never worked for professional services as such. Even while working for Agni and later Adea, I was into Product development. So this is a new experience for me.
2) I got little sick of doing R&D(s) year after year. Wanted to experience different things. Lets see how it goes. :)

Now why TW?
Well, I have never worked for big corporates. Although there are many things, which I fundamentally disagree with TW, I believe it still gives me an option to voice my opinions and at least listening to it. This was a fundamental reason .. freedom (of speech as well).
I hope it gives me scope for consulting and for more customer facing roles, as I would like to experience that, and think I have a flair for customer handling. All my old clients will vouch for my best intensions to bring in value onto work they are paying for, and thought I would make a good client advocat. :))
TW has a product division but of course they would want to make money through me by keeping me in Professional services. But I hope I have the scope of working with their product division in whatever capacity because I can bring value there, surely. If not, TW's loss! However TW's products are into dev community space, so its unlike any commercial product I have been involved with. I look forward to learn about building/selling products in that space as well.
I have more or less decided that the next product I want to take responsibility of building (concept to roll out), would have to be something I believe in totally and preferably mine! I had quite a few product development and management options in some of the big giants but I didnt believe in any of the ideas! Although I am sure I would have learnt a whole lot about product management and sales in completely different scale but ....

So amigos, here I am, in ThoughtWorks! And I hope, I am not branded as geek/techie/whatever .. because I am not! More laters ...

IPL 2008

ongoing IPL reminded me of ..

"Money, its a gas.
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.
New car, caviar, four star daydream,
Think Ill buy me a football team "
-- Pink Floyd, Dark side of the moon.

Rats!

Uncle Sam is brooding, Mushi welting, Bharat Mata mahan.
Corporates wincing, KRV wreaking, Aishwariya mata zindabad!

What percentage of Indian population, do you think knows about the ongoing famine in Mizoram? Yes! in this era of prosperity and communication!
Mizoram and parts of Manipur, Tripura and Assam are going through “Mautam”. Mautam means bamboo death. Its an ecological phenomenon that occurs every 48/49 years in the wide and wild bamboo forests in North Eastern states and the neighbouring Myanmar Chin State. Melocanna baccifera, the species of bamboo, (cover 30% of Mizoram) flowers at one time, followed by seeding which artracts hordes of bandicoot rats, which multiply so fast, that they eventually turn to crops and stored grains! 1959’s famine saw creation of MNFF(Mizo National Famine Front) and subsequently an armed movement led by Laldenga.
And that this outbreak and disaster was eminent was well known in advance and as early as 2003/4 Mizoram Govt formed a special team for preparation. The problem is now wide spread. Even parts of Tripur and Manipur effected. 90 percent of crops and areas in Mizoram are already gone! Oh, in 2007 they burnt 230,000 rats and rupee 1 granted for each tail! Don't produce grains, buy would have been the logical question but the state is so poor and badly connected but still there's no excuse! (And Govt did nothing about informing people not to harvest Paddy in Nov/Dec!) Myanmar Chin state neighbouring Mizoram is also badly effected and resulting huge infiltration as well. This only adds to the trouble of already effected Mizoram and partly Manipur's economy whatever existent.

If not controlled and acted strongly and immediately, the situation is going to get really really worse. Manipur, Mizoram are going through enough trouble already and Tripura, which for the first time in so many years is really looking forward, can take a really bad hit! Prices are rising every single day!

I am also surprised that there has been very little action taken in this age of connectivity. The rest of India, even other parts of North East is hardly concerned about it. Why can't the Mizo youth come forward and spread the information, on TV, radio, newspapers and get the Govts, not just Mizo, but Assam, and at Centre take serious notice of this? Why not take to televised media, petition to whoever counts and reach out also through internet. The relief and rehabilitation and recovery work must be intensified aggresively like never before NOW! Monsoon will start in another two months, making it virtually impossible to reach out to distant areas! Hello, is there anybody listening? I don't want to hear about Deepika Padukone!


http://video.aol.com/video-detail/mautam-march-2008-update/301459503

What can you do? Get information (more ground level the better), Validate, aggregate and publish. spread the news. But avoid confusion and be sensible; in hard times, emotions often override the brain! Validation - you do not want to spread any sort of misinformation or cause more confusion.
People need food, and the kind of nutritious food that can be easily stored cooked and eaten, without aiding to the rat population! If you work for a corporate or industrial house or university, you can talk to your HR department and see if they do something. Lots of organizations do .. or you can even try to convince them that it will look good on paper and publicity .. Whatever works!

http://www.idsa.in/publications/stratcomments/NamrataGoswami010408.htm

blackandblue!

Ever been manhandled, beaten up? No, I am not talking about spanking from parents, brawl with a friend or foe, or a fight in a football match. I mean, on the street on broad daylight for no fault or reason whatsoever?

Today is 12th Match 2008.
I had to go Whitefield for a meeting starting at 8:00 am. Around 7:45/7:50 I was near Kundanhalli (near Marathalli, Bangalore) where I would take a left turn ahead to go towards Transworks/iFlex office and I kept to the left side of the road waiting for the signal. A car (old maruthi 800) coming out of a garage off the road and trying to squeeze in to the main flow, hit a motorbike stationary on my left side which caused the bike to get jammed against my car’s left . When I got out of the car, I checked a few bad scratches and small dents. The bike rider and the driver of the car were already arguing. Nothing happened to the bike because of its front protruding bar. The old car seemed badly beaten already to notice any difference. The driver of the car, a kid in his teens must be, with a slight beard spoke in Kannada and said the brake of the car is not working properly. I assumed the kid must be a helper in garage, and knew that would no way have any money for damage.

When the bike rider moved on, I asked the kid (first in my broken Kannada, and then turning to Hindi) how why he would even try to squeeze in traffic with bad brakes. The kid replied arrogantly in pretty decent Hindi, and part English that the damage would cost me nothing and tried to move away. I asked him to stop. The kid retorted in Kannada showering me handsome praising; and I said I will take note of the car number and give to the cop standing at the signal some 20 meters away or so. The kid threatened to throw a punch at me and I was taken aback, surprised at impudence of the kid; I caught his arm and asked him to come to the police when he was turning away and giving me gaalis all the while.

The moment I caught his arm, he punched at my face, caught my collar, dragged me below and in the process tore my shirt. I was too shocked to react, when I angrily got up, few others from behind suddenly joined in kicking, punching, stamping. I remember that I was trying to get up repeatedly and these guys kept on pushing me down and hitting me. I don’t know how long it was for, a min or more. I don’t even remember the other 2 faces, and I tried to block and retaliate in some blind daze and somehow managed to shout for police. The beating stopped and I stood up and tried to make some sense, and furiously trying to find a cop; one of the guys, a big fat one, returned and kicked me again from the back. My nose was bleeding, my shirt torn, my face, jaws, head, shoulders and back, legs and knees hurting badly, full of dust all over, cut inside my mouth now tasting of blood, it was bizarre; I was in a daze; Good-office-going people around, would not want to interfere of course; other than look with pity probably.

I got inside the car and drove to the cop, and told him the incident. I told him the car number; He asked to go and report to the police. Hmmm .. like Upamanyu Chatterjee, the only reason, I attempted civil services (I flunked), was on the thought that only becoming an IAS officer will shield the civilian from police harassments. I thought I would reach my destination and will probably have time to think and decide. Later on, I gave up on the futility of registering any case; also the fat guy seemed pro, in my bid to protect and lift myself from the ground, I remember this guy particularly trying to aim and hit my face and head, back and knees. This is not wrestle, a brawl .. this is done calmly and intension to maximize injury. Sooo.. whats the story, morning glory? Y! I took the beating and moved on!


I remember, probably early 2000/2001; once returning home late, I found the auto driver cheating;and when I enquired and arguments started, other auto drivers came forth and caught hold of the driver, mediated and made him apologize. Prosperity brings money that brings crime that brings down morality and mortality and somehow in the process, savages keep growing in number, getting bolder and ruthless and above the law.
“No one is free, even the birds are chained to the sky.” – Bob Dylan

How Indian am I?

I speak Inglish. Getting by ok. No problems ..

and about Indian cultural heritage and inheritance of it? The way I look at it ... Culture is not something stagnant or impermeable. It soaks and merges and moves. (Maybe it mutates too!) India, I thought, defined that philosophy. Although these days, culture seems like "water sprinklers" in a garden. Its all good .. I am an ok Indian :) .. indivisible (1 ÷ 0) yet fractal.

Carnivorous cow eating trees????

You gotta read this: Carnivorous trees grabbing humans and cattle and gobbling them up [... ].
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEK20071023040252

It happens only in India! :)

Stroke of luck?

Airtel used to ran a campaign of guessing the score of innings. If you predict correctly then you would supposedly get a sum of [score] x 300 INR. On August 24, 2007, Ind Vs Eng, 2nd ODI, when India started batting, just for the heck of it, I predict that we would score 329 and send the msg to 8888. I soon got a reply from 8888, "this service is temporarily unavailable". I didnt bother till the end of 1st innings, when India scored exactly 329. Now, 329 x 300 = 98,700!!! But ofcourse I can never hold Airtel accountable because of the unavailable service disclaimer!! Someone up there, didn't want me to get the money! tch!

Mind is restless, O Krishna!

It is turbulent, obstinate, hard to restrain!

"That's the difference between me and the rest of the world! Happiness isn't good enough for me! I demand euphoria!"

Indian Ocean Live 16 Feb: SJCC Dhwani

By 6:30 pm, I was in front of St. Joseph's College of Commerce, eagerly waiting infront to get the tickets for Indian Ocean playing at college's festival. Akshat and Sharan joined me and we were settled at center front of the stage. I paid Rs 50 for the ticket, must have been one of the cheapest IO concerts, no! Actually I have gatecrashed and jugad'ed a few!

In college festivals generally the sound ain’t ever great but IO always makes it somehow great. The set list included pretty much like the IBM show on 3rd Feb, (not in order)

Khajuraho
Boll Weevil
Jhini
From The Ruins: Was a the best song of the night for me. It was after a long time, I heard IO playing this at concert.
Hille Le
Bandeh – With the promo of the “Black Friday” hitting the music channels, crowd knew the song by heart and has turned to be big favourite amongst crowd.
Bharam Bhap Ke
Bulara – IO’s new song. Has a smooth lucid beginning on guitars by shusmit. It feels more of a “on the move” kind of feeling song. Like “cycling-through-the-aisles-of-paddy-fields” or like “climbing-up-a trek-with-a-spring-in-your-steps” kinda feelings. J
Asheem leads the song with others joining in soon. “Bula raha hain koi mujkho, bu-la raha hain koi .. “
The chorus is played over a really beautiful and interesting chord progression played down the entire fret length (sort of chromatic?) - “Per jameen pe, asmaan pe najar/per jameen pe, asmaan pe najar/PER JAMEEN PE, ASMAAN PE NAJAR/……….. “. It builds up like that. Very nice and fluid. I have heard the song twice so far, and the tune is swirling in my brains somewhere already. So it catches on quickly..
Kya Maloom
Ma Rewa
Kandisa
Kaun (Encore)

Parts of the crowd were well versed with IO songs. Fans like us who will go anywhere for IO concert. The environment wasn’t like the recent IIM concert, where they actually sang the opening verse of Kandisa in such unison and so beautifully in tune that Rahul just gave the cue. Wasn’t anything like that here but it was pretty good to see people instantly relating to Indian Ocean. For example, bunch of “rockin” crowd just behind me, were soon grooving to the tune, clapping, cheering. That’s the magic of IO, which you can instantly relate to it being an Indian. (People at Edinburgh will agree for more reasons! J )

Time passes by in a jiffy always in an IO concert. I can’t really have enough and it’s a short concert for me! We hung around for a bit after the concert to chat with Rahul. IO were going to play at my college, NIT Karnataka, (erstwhile KREC), next day. I was initially thinking about driving down to catch them play there. But urgency of work over the weekend restrained me!! Imagine what a pleasure and proud moment it would have been to watch IO play at the open air auditorium, SAC of the college!

Some info:
IO is going to be releasing new live DVD in 2 months or so. I am eagerly waiting for that also to see if my face somewhere figures J
IO has composed music and background score for a movie called, “Shoonya”. It has one song intermittently used in the movie in the background. The promo for the movie however will be the continuous song.
Shusmit is supposedly composing music for another movie called “road to ladakh”. (Unconfirmed!! Will verify)

Dikka chikka dikka chikka dikka chikka dik!

In my 15/16 years of watching south Indian movies, I have never seen such brilliant solo performance. Forget all the gult, tam, mallu or kannada movies, never ever I have seen such spontaneous, enjoyable dance ever! And believe me, I have seen many. Vijay, Prabhu Deva, Chiranjeevi, or even the great Thalaivar .. forget all, Sreeshanth's performance outshined them all. Wow!! I could not stop laughing for the next 30 mins. Man, the whole build up was just too much. Nel, who always has a thing to say to the batsman and never short of words, was in his elements! Sreeshanth ducked the previous short ball and Nel went right up to him, pounding his heart and shouted, "show me some heart". Sree told him to just go and bowl the next ball. Next ball, Sreeshanth charged down the wicket, hit Nel straight over sidescreen for six and did the most hilarious and brilliant jig you will ever see. This is a treasure. VRV Singh, the non striker, came to calm him down but Sree was charged. I loved the passion Sree wore. As if saying, "Take this, nai ...tengakola" :) ...Brilliant.

Its a mad mad mad world!

Girls like to be mad! Numbers of girls with their nicknames suffixed/prefixed with “mad” in all online communities are astonishing! Even better are the self proclamations or confessions, "I am mad"!

Is it because they want to project themselves as crazy? Do they relate "mad" to being fun! I think they just like to behave mad! They want to be called “mad”. Crazy? Genius? Beautiful? Weird? Happy? Sad? Hmmm ..

Actually, the liking for the human race for madness is age-old. Madness is also close to Godliness. The witch-doctors always portrayed themselves as mad, some "raged sadhu baba/maa" supposedly see god when they go into fits of madness (especially in West Bengal!).

I remember seeing one Satyajit Ray movie, where in the end, it was meant that only the mad is the sane person!

Coming back to my initial thought. No wonder girls are so difficult to understand! And I love them mad! :)

cows have beautiful eyes

No doubt! Absolutely. Between those pretty eyes they also have a brain, which I can't say for sure regarding the commuters, drivers (bikes, cars, buses, trucks ..) of bangalore (sorry bengaluru).

Consider this; 9:30 am, the chaos at madiwala junction. Up in the median, stands a cow, waiting patiently for the road to clear so that it can cross over to the other side and to gorge itself with goodies at the vegetable market! But it knows that crossing the road at the wrong time is harmful for itself, to the traffic, and to cops!! So it waits patiently for the road to clear up. Do you expect the same from any human in Bangalore? Nah!

Adugodi road; I am driving bonnet-to-bonnet to line of cars; from the other side comes a cop’s ambassador car (& a significant one as visible from the baton stuck in front), it comes out of the police station, which is across the other side and legally not permissible for cross-cutting, and tries to fit it between my car and the one immediately behind and accelerates so quickly in its endeavor that it hits my bumper. I pull over and stop, and the cop argues to indicate its my fault. The traffic cop on the road urges us to move on! A crow does not a crow’s meat! Nah!

Less said about the rest of the dog-eat-dog drivers the better!
coming back to my initial pretext; my college (erstwhile KREC) main building area was walled and the entrances had cow-traps. You know, the small crossings made of pipes over the pits, so that cows get their foot stuck if they try? The main building area was beautiful, with gardens, pretty flowers, creepers, orchids, shady trees which obviously cows loved so much. But we would always find cows inside. How? Once I came across one, who came right to the edge, got all its four legs together and leaped across just managing to evade the cow-traps! That would have been a clear 6 feet jump! Smart huh?

Iftar Party

We had a gala Iftar party yesterday. Took off from office lil early to do the necessary shopping. Even better, Barnaba had brought some Zubrowka. The tradition continues. :)

dhikh-chakh

As soon as someone tells you that a song is a "dhikh-chakh" one, you can immediately relate to a special genre! dhikh-chakh, dhikh-chak! Is there any other way to explain that? I don't think so. This word ought to be in oxford dictionary.

Who are the pioneers to really bestow us with this music? Hmmm .. the furthest I can remember, Gulshan kumar of is T-Series! Jhankar beats! Must be his greatest contribution to music, apart from Kumar Panu! heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey-hey, ahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa .. dhikh-chakh, dhikh-chakh, dhikh-chakh! Oh! Truly astonishing. Mr. Himesh Reshmaiya, who turns me cold with his "himel" voice, and Mr Pritam, with his plagiarism are just carriers of the "bukhar", flag-bearers of "dhikh-chakh".

Imagine, Water scooter kumar (Akshay kumar) and Miss 38s, dancing to "dhikh-chakh, dhikh-chakh!" heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey-hey .. ahahaaaaa .. dhikh-chakh, dhikh-chakh!"

Jai-ho ...

Internet Information!!!!!

Internet search engines ... and internet has long arrived! I use FireFox browser specifically because I can configure different search engines with it - Google, Lonely Planet Guide, Yahoo, Wikipedia, MSN, Amazon, BBC News, Creative Commons, Dictionary, EBay, Linked In, Market Watch, Webster, Technocrati, Infoseek etc. Just use a specific search engine for specific information, otherwise just use any generic one.

Since ages, whoever had the best(?) information, ruled. He was able to establish himself as someone knowing all, someone armed and powerful with knowhow! The psyche works this way– “if you do not know something, you do not understand something”. Has it happened to you where you have sat through, just listened, kept quiet, nodded your head because you haven’t had any clue what was being told and you just had to accept whatever was told? Otherwise you may appear as clueless!!! You doubt that the person is talking no sense but you do not have information enough to say anything convincing otherwise; you may still overpower a person with your personality, but he might have had the right info and you would be wrong completely, which you as a nice person would not want to!! In both the cases, as you see, info is vital!

Information can also be misleading and extremely erroneous and hence dangerous. People still have to understand that information available over the internet is subjected to scrutiny of being authentic and truthful. In online forums, it has become a common practice these days to give facts, information from Wikipedia –but people fail to read the very first page and the disclaimer of Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About
“Because Wikipedia is an ongoing work to which in principle anybody can contribute, it differs from a paper-based reference source in some very important ways. In particular, older articles tend to be more comprehensive and balanced, while newer articles may still contain significant misinformation, unencyclopedic content, or vandalism. Users need to be aware of this in order to obtain valid information and avoid misinformation …”

Whats it for intelligence .. link between Information and Knowledge? Can Intelligence be there without knowledge? Aren’t they always evolving, and is it same for Information as well? Carl Sagan in Broca's wrote: “Most organisms on Earth depend on their genetic information, which is 'prewired' into their nervous systems, to a much greater extent than they do on their extragenetic information, which is acquired during their lifetimes. For human beings, and indeed for all mammals, it is the other way around. While our behavior is still significantly controlled by our genetic inheritance, we have, trough our brains, a much richer opportunity to blaze new behavioral and cultural pathways on short time scales. We have made a kind of bargain with nature: our children will be difficult to rise, but their capacity for new learning will greatly enhance the capacity for survival of the human species. In addition, human beings have, in the most recent few tenths of a percent of our existence, invented not only extragenetic but also extrasomatic knowledge; information stored outside our bodies, of which writing is the most notable example.”


Internet has given us the near endless source of this extra ‘Extrasomatic knowledge’.


I think human inquisition, investigation, rationalization, helps decide whether the info is true or can hold true; and that’s when it is passed onto his brain as knowledge.

That’s what we need to understand, Internet is a great source for information but we still must validate the correctness of the information. Hmmm ... sure! Has it not encouraged plagiarism? Reminded me of one comic incident in my old organization….

While working for a client, we were working on Capacity planning for a particular software solution implementation. For that we needed to tell the client how much hard disk space, memory and CPU usage, network bandwidth etc will be required. I prepared the document as part of our mandatory review process sent it to my superior and also reminded him to fill in some of his parts. Next day I get a mail which would give Gilbert’s classics a run. I of course could not make head or tale about it; but I was pretty sure that he could not have written that bullshit, so took the first sentence and did a google search. Bingo! The first link was for a whitepaper on Capacity planning (a PDF File). I read the first page, and it was ditto copied from there. I breathed easy because I was feeling sort of guilty of ever doubting his English!!! I of course didn’t say a single word knowing that I will never hear of it again, I finished the document myself and sent to the client.

Oh! Wonder if there is a “Internet for dummies” book! Must be sent to whoever responsible for recent blog blocking in India – to authorities, ISPs, media.