Well, for want of a better title I chose this !
Gajabhuja in Sanskrit means the trunk of an elephant !
So, in short, the title means big/huge fundas !! :-)
28 June 2005
Heights of selflessness
What would you do if you are the only child of your parents ? What would happen if you are say a lady who is wedded to a person and gets transfered to a place which is totally alien to you ? You might get accustomed/adjusted to the sourroundings right ? On the other hand when you see that you are sitting totally idle at home twiddling your thumbs and have nothing to do what will happen ? Oh ok the questions are many but there is one such lady the daughter of industrialist TTK Srinivasan { who ? } called usha srinivasan. So why is this lady in prominence now ? She started an NGO to help the women folk of bihar stand on their own feet, made a hell lot of difference to their lives that she was voted the "woman of the year" in 2004. Oh and she lived in the hindi heartland all these years and she did not know a word of that language.Still she lived with the locals and gelled so well with the locals that the language was never a problem ! She passed away a few days ago ! In death too she was revolutionary, in a sense that she willed that he only child, her daughter should perfom the last rites instead of her husband. These kind of quite and silent women who create a change in the lives of ordinary people, is the need of the hour.Not those who make bold and brash statements and still who end up doing nothing ! K.Shyam
A few decades ago we had the cola wars and now we have the OS wars. Which is good.M$ windows or Linux ? Well well my take has always been that, no doubt M$ is headed by a genius who knows what it takes to sell things.That is all.Secondly just by flaming there is no purpose! Nothing can be achieved by just flaming. In this context this is a good interview of Linus !. As he says i think it is more apt if instead of flaming that M$ is this M$ is that, it is better to sit and try to improve the standard of linux ! Let the OS speak for itself ! K.Shyam
Folks; Forgive me for a blatant rip-off from the nirvana classic "The Man who Sold the World" for my title. Ok consider this.You are reading this post.Now what goes into making this post ? A website called blogger.com right ? Dig further and you reach that the genesis of all is the computer.And what is a computer made of ? Millions of transistors right ? The pentium-4 has about 77 million transistors.And what is the magnitude of this industry ? billions of dollars. The man who started it all Jack Kilby is no more.Rest in peace Jack. What you have done is to change the face of this planet.Those who have computers and those who dont ! In fact if computers have made such a penetration into so many homes you and only you can take sole credit for it ! Read this on what motivated him to make the transistor ! Man many a time i keep thinking, revolutionary ideas are made while the intention is to actually solve some other problem.The famous example is perhaps, the X-Ray itself ! So what is my problem now ? How do i finish my thesis ;-) Do i expect any revolutionary ideas out of it ? Dunno ! I wont be surprised if nothing comes out :-) :-) K.Shyam
Im talking about the Great Illayaraja. Some of the master's compositions i have been listening to of late : 1. Ennathan Sugamo From Mapillai. Check out for SPB's gamakhams towards the end of the song ! The beauty of this song lies in the fact that is starts in a different note and slowly wafts into a splending and easy melody ! 2. Kaadhal Kavidhaigal From Gopura Vasalile. This is one of those stunning songs where SPB effortlessly wafts across the song ! 3. Padum Vaanambadi From Naan Paadum Paadal. Another of SPB's classics ! Some stunning voice bends and twists. Man he *is* something ! 4. Paddu Thalaivan From Idhayakoil. Incidentally this is a Maniratham movie ! 5. Koottathile Koyil From Idhayakoil.
Happy listening folks ! { I can't help it if you dont appreciate these songs.Just that i like them i wanted to share them :-) } K.Shyam
As This article shows no developement must be done at the cost of the local inhabitants.As history shows, the british were so very sucessful in conquering any land because they made the locals of the land a part of it. What is happening here in bangalore is that a peaceful and content local population is being shaken from its roots to make way for the hype and hoopla called IT&BT. I sincerely hope that the farmers win this case.I would not mind helping them out spreading the awareness of their plight. It is so very strange that when you get thousands of forwarded hoax mails a day saying that blood group, small cell lung disease etc etc no one has even tried to highlight this plight. I think its time, i tried to help them out May the force be with the farmers.Fight people Fight.India is still an agrarian economy and we need you people ! K.Shyam
In what appeared to be a major setback to the investors, the Ambani brothers fought over the family empire, built by a one time petrol station atendant, their father. { Well someday you might be reading that a one time blogger called shyam struck it rich like that :)) }.However sanity seems to be restored with a proper settlement being reached. I somehow think Anil ambani is more of a showman who still guides the company.Mukesh is more a silent but still a daring move maker. I think the indian investor stands to gain the maximum K.Shyam
Oh well that is the first thing i thought after coming out of the movie hall.Shankar has gained a reputation { albeit falsely } of doing things in a grand manner.Would we not accept a story which he does in a tight manner and does it well ? His latest offering, probably on the most expensive movies made falls flat ! Comparisons are inevitable and this is where he has faltered. People will tend to compare every aspect of his move with what he made in the past.Is that why this movie is nothing but a rehash of all his previous movies ? Gentleman, mudhalvan, Indian ? The same issue of the hero rising up to the ocassion albeit in a different manner ? Mulitple personality disorder is a disease that is going to be beaten to death by our film makers shortyl. Ok now on to the story.Our hero has multiple personality disorders and kills people who are wrong doers ! One line story.Shankar has tried his best to fit his original grandeur into it.The songs are lavishly shot.But where is the Rahman magic ? Harris jeyaraj falls completely flat here.None of the songs make u listen to it again.Oh ok Iyengaaruu... sung by hariharan might be an exception { But im a fan of hariharan so i guess it ok!}. The camera work is pretty good ! And you have Yana Gupta shaking a leg for a dance number. Shakar could have paid more attention to the screenplay and direction aspects is the feeling you get. There is a more blatant rip off.The entire stick stunt sequence from Matrix-2 ! Adding fuel to the fire ! Overall the movie does have its moments.Like when prakash raj and vikram confront each other in the climax fight, vikram's change of tone and body language with the doctor.But they are few and far ! In short i think it is time for shankar to de-hype himself and give a honest movie that just tells a simple story. Anniyan-Kadyian K.Shyam
Well, after being tagged by her, for reasons known i cannot stop from responding right ? :)) :)) :))
So here we go:
1. Total volume of music on my computer : Around 700 MB.The rest is spread over in 500 mp3 songs in 5 cd's and about 100 or so cd's in CD audio format !
2. The last CD I brought : Best of SteppenWolfe.A trivia here is that the name Steppenwolfe comes from a novel of the same name by Herman Hesse and this band along with the great Jimi Hendrix are responsible for the word "Heavy Metal". { All you heavy metal punks and runts out there thinking about metallica, megadeth, iron maiden, juda priest etc etc know ur facts first !! }
3. Song playing right now : Vizhiyum Vizhiyum from the movie Chaturangam
4. Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me { Oh boy ! No Particular Order } 1. "Summer Song" Satriani 2. "Nagumomu" Carnatic classic rendered by "God" Prasanna on the Guitar 3. "Purple Haze" Jimi Hendrix 4. "Jack in the Green" Jethrotull 5. "Chandralekha" From the movie Thiruda Thiruda
I invite all readers go ahead and take up posting their choices K.Shyam
Folks; The past few weeks of happening within BJP has only turned into a joke party ! Advani goes to pakistan at the invitation of that president and then makes an observation that jinnah was secular.Firstly let us try to examine the intent and motive behind such a statement.
The indian media in particular is obsessed with the word secular.I fail to understand what this word necessarily means.Does it mean that embracing all religions ? The why does the same indian media highlight the plight of the so called minorities ? why not highlight the atrocities perpetrated against hindus ? Ok that is a topic of a different post.
Coming back one can see that the BJP as a party was trying hard to make sure it remains in the limelight, not forgotten by the people.In fact the recent by-elections, if to be taken as any sort of indication, only serve to remind the party of its rapidly eroding base.It was a party the came up to power on a firm idealogy, namely the Hindutva.However the party, to its consternation, is finding out that not many people in the present days are willing to acccept the hindutva line. The chief reason among this is the increasing awareness among people, and strangely the emergence of private players in the job market, which reduced the dependance of the people on the government for jobs! This being the case, the Indo-pak relations, always a sensitive issue comes into the picture.I for one think that advani assumed a few things that would be supportive of him, in his efforts to push the party to gain a broader public acceptance.In particular the second rung leaders of the party would be throwing their weight behind him when he is facing this sort of crisis.Alas, that was not to be.He stood completely isolated.In fact no leader of the party was willing to accept what he said was right or wrong ! It is to his credit that he is trying to move the party away from the RSS, which is not a bad move at all ! It is in this attempt that in my opinion, he has acted in haste.The timing of his comments could not have been more wrong. All this has culminated into leaving the party now in a total controversy ! K.Shyam
In a country which has had persidents who could barely walk or talk without help, we now have a president who talks to children and motivates lots of people to do more ! I think by far he is the best president that we have had. In a backlash to the existing government, and the policy of the governers toppling and changing governments, this assumes significance. K.Shyam
folks; In continuation of my previous post- when you are poised to celebrate life with Smitha for whom life is a celebration you do feel you are up on cloud number nine ! K.Shyam
Similarities between (Girls and Windows) and (Boys and Linux) Girls and Windows * Both have a great UI. * Both consume large resources and do less work. * Both crash unexpectedly. * Both are not easily portable on different architectures (environment). * Both can’t work on low resource architectures (environment). * Both are costly to maintain. * Both give mostly unexpected outputs. * Both’s working often contradicts with their documentation. * Both are easily prone to viruses (rumors and doubts) (and they (viruses) do spread very fast in windows based networks). * In spite of all above disadvantages, both are liked.
Boys and Linux + Both have an average UI. + Both are robust. + Both are highly secure. + Both can be easily modified to support new concepts/features. + Both are efficient. + Both are easily portable to any architecture (environment) no matter how low are resources. + You can easily guess the output for your input (in Linux just open its code, for boys they are mostly transparent by natureJ). + Both provide large support for development (work environment). + Both are poorly documented.
Folks; im there in This article in hindu ! It does feel nice to have your pic up in the newspaper, sometimes diff from the "wanted" sections of the local police station :)) { uh oh i was jus kidding } In case you are unable to recognize me well im there second from left trying a thumbs up sign ! The other guy trying the thumbs up sign is the ferrari mentioned in the article ! K.Shyam
"Amma" Jayalalithaa has done the students a bit of good by abolishing the entrance examinations.So say the wise men. But is it really good ? Tamilnadu is perhaps one of the few states in india which has a comparable technical education quality.Now what needs to be looked at here is the students of the CBSE stream.The CBSE stream as it is known lays emphasis more on application of concepts learnt and not the by rote system.In fact as a CBSE student entering the state controlled universities, i was shocked to learn that for the exams the questions will not deviate from solved examples of the prescribed text books ! This being the case the quality of students entering the universities to do engineering and medicine will mostly be those who are schooled in this kind of thought, ie the by-rote system.Won't that lead to a rot of the quality of technical students coming out ? At a time when our country is being plauded for the technical quality of its students is this a right step ? I think "Amma" has faltered a bit here.The so called entrance examination needs to be abolished.No doubt in that.But i think an entrance examination along the lines of the JEE of the IIT's and another one for mediccal studies would do good. The idea of admitting students to professional courses based on their performance in the school leaving examinations, which was being practised in BITS-pilani all these years, has been abolished, the authorites having realised their follies. Isn't it time we learnt from someone else's mistakes ? In as much as i admire "Amma" for her policies, i think this is one step in haste, which has far reaching consequences ! K.Shyam
Folks sorry for that title rip off from star wars ! Ok but then as This article points out the nerds are coming back with a bang ! Now isn't that a good reason to gloat over my high nerd score :-) K.Shyam
Regular readers of my blog and ppl who know me know of my abject dislike of the way things are functioning here in bangalore, particularly on the infrastructure front. A flyover that even after 3yrs if just 10% done, electric poles and trees that come craching down on people even at the slightest hint of rains, what not ! Anyway This is a pretty good article ! K.Shyam
Folks im facing that writer's block ! so for a few more days my postings might be less or in fact none at all ! dunno why this keeps striking me at the slightest instance ! K.Shyam
It was a cold January morning as he stepped out of the bus in koramangala Bangalore. Just the day before yesterday he had given a boisterous welcome to the new year and the new millenium in his college hostel.Those were now going to be things of past.The songs he used to hear at midnight in his hostel, the late night jaunts to the canteen, the umpteen sessions of general talk extending all night.. he was missing quite many a thing.It was time to move on, time to take a job, time to make his parents and himself feel proud that yes this irresponsible kid had grown up! He already had a job in his hometown and a few other offers which he was planning to consider.But then someone drilled into his raw and uncut mind that this was the company he had to join.The company was no mean one too.It was the envy of so many in the campuses."You joining there ? Lucky dog" was the kind of comments he had heard. He was kind of gloating at it. After all when you beat some of the best programmers around you in a programming marathon lasting 40+ continous hours you have every reason to ! He kept reminding himself.
The first few days he holed up at the house of his seniors from college, they were only too willing to let him stay. His office a few kilometers away from his place of stay.Bangalore at that time was a nice place to stay, pretty cool and not so crowded. Deep down he was missing his city bred life ! The first day at job, he was made to feel good.You are the first person to join us in the new millenium.You will go far in this company and this company will grow along with you told the HR.He was hardly impressed.Where is my machine ? I want to check my mails said he as a matter of fact to his manager.His manager was surprised.Thinking that he would have the last laugh if he pushes him into the Sun Solaris environment, the manager takes him to that machine and says this is yours.Do you know what it is ? He replies quite calmly : I have worked with this.Why doesn't it have the proper environments ? The manager was shocked.He did not for sure expect such a reply.He was just a trainee.The manager thought like other trainees he will come at 9am and leave at 5am.The manager was again surprised to see him coming pretty early to work and leaving pretty late !
Slowly the manager and he developed a good rapport.He being surprised at how the manager could possibly know so many things and the manager surprised at his ability to deliver things even before asked for.The time came for making the crucial decision. Can we give this mission critical work to him they thought.The risk had to be taken.It was inevitable.And he deliverd when and where it matterd most.His manager was happy.He was also happy.
He merged well into the team.He liked it that the team had the spirit of work hard, play hard much like what he was doing back in college.It reminded him of his college and hostel days and he loved it ! The time came when the trainee was to be made permanent.The problem was that the trainee was yet to finish his degree.He was just in his last semester.The HR would not allow.Ok said the higher up boss.Let him be a trainee but his pay will be that of every other engineer.What a company thinks he ! Such equality of thought and such flexibility.The company entrenched itself firmly in that raw mind more so because of its policies.And the work was an added bonus ! Leading technologies ! Challenging assignments name it he had it all.Travelling to vaious places, rubbing shoulders with some of the CEO's he has seen it all.
Yesterday was the fifth year he had completed.Oh well not exactly.The fifth year as a proper employee of the company.He did take a year break and went off to college to do his masters.The same atmosphere was not there but it was worth the break.That generosity is also a hallmark of his company !
Folks the he is none other than yours truly ! For reasons obvious i will not name the organization but yes it has been a wonderful five years here ! Time flew and it flew like mad ! Needless to say in an industry where change is the only constant there is no guarantee as to where im going to be tomorrow but the past five years have been pretty good ! K.Shyam
By and large i have not posted anything personal but i think its ok if i do it once a while ! They say that a picture speaks a thousand words.But this one speaks a google words to me ! for the uninitiated a google is a number that has quite a large number of zeros in it! i dont know how many though ! Oh well it was given to me by someone special and was hand painted by her for a special ocassion. The ocassion will reveal itself shortly but to know the special someone, well the name is there all over this page ! K.Shyam
