It ain't that easy, but itz not impossible

Life ain't that easy. As a kid of 5 years old when I said "Papa! I don' wanna go to school", the answer came in a warm affectionate voice "Nah baba, u shudnt say this, for this day and evening we shall play". And this ritual continued till I was mature enough to say "Papa! Do I have to write these exams all the time?". Again the answer came in a friendly voice "Tenth class is very important in life, once done wid this u'll be a free bird". I was done with my SSC exams, and yeah I was a free bird. But then life is difficult, the free bird was caged in a hostel and this time my elder bro in an encouraging voice said "Intermediate (11th & 12th) is turning point in anyone's life, a success story in it assures u of successful future". Many things assure us but thtz just assurance, we gotta work hard to get them. Despite the customizable definition of success, I can say my 12th ended successfully and this time its my lecturer to remind me of life said "Buddy this aint end of it, the real game starts now n u gotta work hard there too tho ppl don' say that". Does that mean lifez gonna become easy after engineering? Had to wait for four years for the answer. Time passed by to place me into the real corporate world, and this time lifez difficult wid my superior sitting next to me screwing me for all petty things, making me do all menial tasks and what not. Life aint easy, itz difficult.

But there was a revolution in my thought process, yeah I call it revolution coz itz so important, after I came across two blind people in a city bus quite recently. People felt sorry for them as they were asking many others in the bus to let them know when their stop comes. But I felt, from the confidence in them, that they never wanted anyone to feel sorry for them. They talked to fellow commuters, had fun, never hesitated to ask others for help, and more importantly, I felt and thats true, its their attempt to see the world around them from the eyes of others. Now, all that they require is our support but not sympathy. Life ain't that easy for people like them, but they challenge it and face it. And they made me realize 'life aint easy, itz difficult but isn't impossible'.

It ain't that easy, but itz not impossible. You gotta make it if u want to see ur name in the annals of history. Its 10% luck, 20% skill, 15% concentration and power of will, 5% pleaure, 50% pain and 100% reason to remember the name. See this video:

Rapid Tech Change

Hari: "Hi ra! You understood the science lesson today?"

Ramu: "Rajeswari teacher's class? Did u see the posters of new movie? It’s stuck all over"

Pramod: "I saw, the hero is cool in the posters."

Hari: "The lesson…"

Pramod: "hope there are good fights"

Ramu: "and songs too."

Hari: "But the lesson.., what is the name of the movie?"

On seeing the tutor, all the thirty odd students waiting for their tuition to begin, wished him in unison "Good Evening sir".

Sir: "Good evening, today we will learn Pythagoras theorem"

The chalk made a screeching sound on the black board as the tutor wrote "Pythagoras Theorem" and underlined it.

Sir: "In any right angled triangle, the square of hypotenuse is equal to sum of squares of other two sides."

The screeching sound paused temporarily.

"Listen to me when I teach you, later I will give u time to make a note of it."

And the most irritating sound resumed again.

"Let ABC is a right angled triangle with sides AB and BC at right angles to each other."

Ramu: "And you know who the heroine is?"

Ramu was quietly whispering into Hari's ears while the tutor was deeply engrossed in filling his black board.

Hari: "Shhh dont talk, Sir will punish us."

Sir: "...........AB square + BC square = AC square"

"Hence Proved."

"Now, try to understand this while copying it into your note book. I will be back in 10 mins."

The tutor left the room, to take care of students of other classes. Tutors make a good fortune in that town, as almost all the students take tuitions. This is because most parents (rather mothers) are not educated to the extent of helping kids with their courses. And this reason always makes sense, as mothers feel relaxed without kids at home when its time for their favorite unending tele-serials.

Pramod: "You know what, my daddy saw a cell phone when he went to Hyderabad. He says it is very costly."

Ramu: "Arey, is it true that if we have a cell phone, we have to pay money for receiving calls also?"

Hari: "But why should we pay money if we receive a call, in normal phones we pay money only when we make calls na?"

Pramod: "Yes ra, my daddy also told this. He also told that more money is charged if we receive calls than to making calls from cell phone."Hari: "Then I won’t attend calls on my cell phone. I will only call."

Ramu: "Hari is verry intelligent."

The innocent Hari blushed at Ramu's statement taking it in true sense.

"Can we make calls to normal phones from cell phones?"

Pramod: "We can make but it will be costly itseems."

"My daddy also said in the coming years, cell phone costs will reduce. Then we will buy one."Hari: "I will ask my daddy also to buy one."

Ramu: "Me too."

And the tutor entered the room just when Ramya was giggling in response to the comments made by Srilatha on Supriya's dress. This made all stop their brain storming sessions on various issues.

That was me with my friends ten years ago. We werent, then, aware that Roaming feature is what we were discussing. Time has changed and technology has improved so well that each of us now owns a personal mobile phone.

But now, this is the way two college going students talk to each other.

Rahul: "Hey buddy, how ya doin?"

Rohan: "I'm doin great dude. Luk what my dad has got for me. Sony Ericcson W550"

Rahul: "Woww, walkman phone! Thaz kool."

Rohan: "I envy u dude, I still have the old Nokia 6600 with me"

My "Dream" Project

How would it be to capture dreams in a storage device? A wierd thought isnt it, but its very important for someone like me who dreams almost everyday. Most of us do, but the best part is I remember my dreams without much content loss (including characters, locations, background, colors n all) for a day or two after I dream about something!! Some dreams occupy a permanent place in my brain, though I really can't give a qualitative analysis of the nature of such dreams.

At the age of 6, I used to dream, recurringly, of a seven hooded big snake following me when I was going to school in rickshaw. Science says Recurring dreams are common and they are the result of certain situation or problem in life that keeps coming again and again. But do you think, that large seven hooded snake was a problem which I repetitively came across in my 6 yrs of life then? Or may be the snake wanted Lord Krishna of this Kalyug to dance on it again on its hoods. Thats entirely a different story, lets come back to our discussion. The N repetitions of this dream made me remember it so well that even now I can, frame by frame with proper cinematography shoot a short movie with every minute content of the dream in it. I mention all this to stress upon the culprits causing crunch in dreamspace (my memory space where in all the dreams gets saved temporarily or permanently), and eventually leading me to think of a mechanism to capture my dreams.

How should I give it a start? What all will I need in getting started? Definitely subjects. They will be the people on whom I experiment by plugging some machines to their heads when they are asleep. I have two excellent subjects with me, my friends with whom I share the rented house. Now, whats next? Assuming that my project is a success, I should decide upon the video format into which captured dreams are to be encoded. So I need a video encoder and its player. Great going aint it? Guess, I'm half way through with my requirements gathering.

There is one more fix in this, all the dreams I get are not so continuous and I think its the same with everyone; some have breaks in between and some dreams start or end abruptly. Lets think of the dreams with breaks, they are just information loss rather some frames are lost. Quite recently I have dreamt of something, of which I am not sure whether I shud call it funny or upsetting. In my dream, I was called by the co where I did my internship for a party. I was having great time with the sumptuous food and cool cocktails. And there was a tree in the company which people climb n practise mountaineering. There was a break in my dream and all of a sudden I was flying high in a parachute which never wanted to come down. I was flying up n up till it became totally dark and thats it, EOD (end of dream). What to do with these kinda dreams? I remember listening to a lecture sometime back, where in if some frames of a video are lost they can be simulated back by some advanced extrapolation techniques. This is fantabulous, an interesting idea leading to application of many more. Knowledge in this can help me in the construction of lost bits of dreams.

Apart from all this, I definitely need gigs of memory to save all these dreams. But this is not at all an issue. Also I might have to design my own hardware to get the functions done. I can imagine lotsa wires and other hardware stuff running around the heads of my subjects. For all this to be done, I need knowledge of hardware stuff too. Whoa, where is all this going. But no way, this is my dream project and I am not gonna put an end to the very thought of doing it. Now that most things are ready, lemme give this project a start.
Good night! :)

Is something fundamentally wrong with us?!

Is pelting stones and destroying public property a sensible way to express anger for delayed response from the police to the bombing in Hyderabad's Holy Mecca Masjid? Aren't there many other important things, like volunteering in helping the wounded, to be taken care of?

I strongly feel that something is fundamentally wrong with us; the way we think, respond & act has to change. Ours is not a developed country to afford these unexpected losses, despite the all the problems we have.

The public destroying public property seems atleast reasonable. But this should not have happened. One year ago, as an aftermath to the natural & peaceful death of the great Kannada actor Dr. Raj Kumar the agitated mob in an attempt to express their gratitude and love smashed buildings, burned various automobiles (not only public transport) and what not. IT companies were the most affected in this. Ruining their buildings is something IT companies wont tolerate and I mention this specifically, as they are in one way helping our country to become developed.

Very recently, Leader of Dera Sachcha Sauda, Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh hurted the religious sentiments of Sikh community by posing as Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Nanak. As a response, there were and still are violent protests going on in many places. Does violence serve the purpose?

Why do we resort for violence everytime, when there are many other important things to be done and many more ways in which the issues can be solved? The mentality has to change, and that change has to come from us, within us. Not everytime a Saviour comes to free us of our sins or a Mahatma comes to free us of our slavery!

Me & My Mini Marathon

My friends started calling me crazy n insane as I got food poisoned after participating in the Cross Over's 5.5 Kms IT Run, though there is no obvious relation between me running in a marathon and getting food poisoned. Its not one's insanity that makes him/her participate in a run, its the satisfaction one gets out of it and the pride of completing it.

I am somehow interested in walks and treks, but becoz of my grt fitness levels it always was a distant dream to participate in a marathon (running half marathon - 21.1 kms or full marathon - 42.2 kms is not so easy; it needs fitness, stamina and practise). But its nomore an unfulfilled dream, thanks to Cross Over for conducting this IT Run which is just 5.5 kms. Next time lemme try half marathon.

People of various age grps, right from 12 yr old kid to 60 yr old man, participated in the marathon. Ofcourse, gals too. :D And its a great feeling to see the energy of the people, to be a part of the huge crowd running for a cause and to see the people cheering around you. The drums and all to cheer up the runners made us dance amidst our run :) The photographers, cameramen and the news reporters around you make u feel like a hero. Arent these enuf to answer ur Question "Why shud I participate in a marathon?"

Paid Service, First of its kind~

Gone are those days where u need to feign illness if u wish to bunk office and play a game of ur interest. All u need to do is come to our office, an MNC named after the US government's nickname and a great Chinese dynasty, and have lunch.

We have a paid service, the first of its kind being offered by our GMR caterers.
Pay to get food poisoned. You can also customize ur order by quoting for howmany days u want to be ill.

Interesting isnt it? These caterers should invest more into their business, start an R&D center, as it offers them a good scope and market!!

Ivaru namma henDati

Knowing Kannada in Bangalore is a great advantage. Though one can manage without it, to deal with autorickshaw people mainly we better know the language. To help us in learning the language, the HR in our company took an initiative by starting "Learn Spoken Kannada" sessions.

In the first session, we had many doubts which is quite natural.

One of us asked the instructor "How do we ask some one whether he/she is married?".

The instructor understood his problem and with a grin on his face said "Ninnage madhuve aagidhiya?". In continuation to this, he also told "ganDa means husband and henDati means wife".

On teaching these two words he said "Now frame the sentence 'This is my wife'."

In reply one of the prospective kannada students told "Ivaru namma henDati".

The instructed laughed out of his lungs and said "Only pandavas can use that sentence as it means 'This is OUR wife'." :-)