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 !! :-)
31 August 2005
Katrina
No this post is not about that stunning Katrina kaif. ;-) Nature is always a great leveller.For those moronic indians who keep claiming that countries abroad have better mechanisims etc etc the so called heaven on earth { uncle sam land what else ? } is reeling under a hurricane.My heartfelt sympathies go out to those who lost their families in this natural calamity. But for those idiotic indians { especially indians who have this crap self defeating attitude } who at the slightest instance, start a stream of abuse at government, this is again a worth read. The bottomline is simply this.There is no escaping nature.How much ever a country may be developed or whatsoever, before nature there is little that we can do. Notice how the common man out there is going about his everyday activities, trying to do what best he can, instead of sitting on the rooftop and blaming the government for not doing this and not doing that !
Isn't it always strange ? You meet a srilankan and inspite of the terrorism that wrecks his country, never will he say that his country is a bad place.He always says i have a beautiful country with lots of beaches and you must visit it sometime.Contrast it with a vast majority of indians who live in us of a.The first instance they start of by saying india has bad roads, polluted air.I agree all those things exist.But should'nt they be good brand ambassdor's first ? Why not see the positives and highlight them too ? Fie on such people and may they rot in hell. Oh on a more tangential note i dunno what prompted this fury in me against those people today !
And finally i once knew the funda behind why hurricane's are being given female names.Something to do with where they are being formed.If anyone knows it do post a comment. K.Shyam
Titan watches is giving a 25% off on exchange funda.Means you give any brand watch any condition and get 25% off on a new watch.I got a titan edge about year back and this year i got for myself a fasttrack.I was speaking to the titan guys when i got my edge watch, and he was telling me that the aim is to attract the non-titan users to titan.Oh now i posses two titan models !
Our finance minister chidambaram is caught up in a real mess folks. Seems his wife appeared as a lawyer for a case concerning the IT department, and surprise surprise the client is a firm in which her son holds a stake.Things can't get any murkier that this.Adding to that chidambaram claims that he was unaware of his wife's involvement it seems.well well he is in real deep shit !
I have started my practise for the hyderabad marathon with a 8km today morning. Though there is no official notification as such, i think it would be a better idea atleast to get myself back into some kind of shape. K.Shyam
It's been ten years this day since windoze 95 was released.This is the article that washington post carried at that time. The article makes for intresting read though.Notice how IBM maintains that OS/2 will still be used ! OS/2 is no more there now.And windows 95 for all it's bugs and crashes, found huge acceptance throught the world. Must say that for all the crap that comes out of redmond, it sure is sugar coated with the marketing pill ! K.Shyam
Scene 1 : A fisherman in kerala goes out to catch fish for his daily bread. He rakes in a catch but by the time he comes to the shore his boat is empty, he has sold all the day's catch to the local hotel, who come in with their air-conditioned van.He goes home a contended man.
Scene 2 : A local trader in assam who trades in all kinds of commodities goes from shop to shop muttering something in his breath and taking inventory of what the shop needs.In the next hour or so, the shops have their goods filled up
Scene 3 : An anxious parent who used to wait for the arrival of his/her child a few years ago now relaxes back and says the child will be home at that precise time.
Ok notice a commonality between these scenes ? It is the ubiquitous mobile phone ! Ten years ago this day the mobile phone came into india.What was seen as a luxury item, has now exploded into a must have item.It is no more a luxury, but a necessity. Along with it, came the spam marketers etc etc, but the basic need of a mobile phone still remains ! In a sense 1995 was a watershed year for india.The introduction of internet, mobile phones, and so many other crucial and important things. Agreed the mobile penetration is not as much as what you may expect in other countries, but the fact remains that indian market is no pushover ! K.Shyam
Folks; I have been to many parts/cities in india.All the metros, the village that desparately wants to grow up called bangalore, so many places.No where have i felt comfortable as i felt when i was in Madras.If there is one place i can call home it is that.I do remember scoffing at an article that appeared way back in 1995 saying that madrasis have the maximum homing instinct meaning they want to come back to madras at the end of the day whereever they are ! So true, so very true. If there is one place on earth that i can call as home, it can be only madras and nothing else ! So on the ocassion of the birthday of my motherland, here are some pics which i took.
Some shots of the marina beach at sunrise
The lighthouse
A view of the mount road.This road IMHO kicks some serious ass and is probably the most disciplined road down south.Neatly moving traffic arranged in lanes, well synchronized signals and what not !
This is an intresting article by the historian of madras S.Muthiah.
Vatsan has a cool write up with some intresting facts about my motherland ! Sorry madame, i've been away from you for 8 years now. But then again i know you would accord a glorious welcome to your son when he comes back for good in a short while from now ! K.Shyam
Much water has flowed over the cooum since the supreme court's decision on abolishing reservation in private colleges. It is indeed a mixed verdict.Let us look at the pros and cons of such a verdict Firstly the pros.When you are done away with reservation, the colleges can make sure that they provide education only to the meritorious students.The colleges are free from government interference and in effect they could mould themselves on the IIT model where they attract the best of the students and groom them.In effect the court has decreed the way for privatization of education.This is really utopian thought. Here are the reasons why the decision by the courts might not work. Firstly the politicians.India chiefly is unfortunately in the socialistic mould, which envisages that everyone should have everything funda.Look at it, for years there was only fixed steel output, there were no cars on the roads except for the ambassador and what not.That being the case, our politicians simply cannot and will not accept this judgement of the court.Secondly the concept of the so-called social justice and vote bank.What is the social justice that our politicians crow about from the roof tops ? Total crap.While they send their children into elitist schools and other high up places, they make sure their vote bank people are mired in the wretched slums, there by making sure they always remain in power. And now when such a judgement comes along they make sure they can do anything and everything to safeguard their own intrests.How is that ? By showing a rarecase of unity ! My goodness ! Now if you look at the self-financing college scenario, the dominators are the four southern states, and a few up north.Now most college do not have even the basic infrastructure required.I mean many of them just rode on the "I want my son to be an engineer" sentiment and became rich overnight.Most colleges are higly sub standard and such a decision by the court would only foster the collection of high management quota fees, which ironically most fathers are willing to pay. In effect the supreme court's decision has opened a pandora's box.On a personal note i do support the court's decision, notwithstanding the spectre of fleecing of students by the private colleges. K.Shyam
Folks; In a news that is bound to send many into depression, no i have not been kidnapped by any aliens or whatsoever :-) im alive and kicking Just that i have been kidnapped for work by my bosses. So will be back with a bang with my opinions on the supreme court decision regarding admissions to self financing colleges, and other stuff shortly. K.Shyam
Of all the things that happened over the past few weeks, the buyout of citibank stake in iflex by oracle is perhaps the most significant one. Larry Ellison faced a lot of flak for his takeover of peoplesoft, but this one is bound to help oracle in a major way.Oracle now stands to gain a foothold into south africa and other niche markets where iflex, with its flexcube product has been having a major market share.It remains to be seen as to how much oracle can gain through this takeover !
Perhaps the second most important thing that happened to gladden the hearts of linux enthu's like me is the opening up of SUSE.Novell quite expectedly opened up SUSE for free download.It was quite expected as once novell tookover SUSE the market share of SUSE actually declined.Suse let's face it folks, is a kick-ass distro.I for one like it so very much.There are quite a lot of reasons for that.For one it gives all that one needs along with the distribution itself.For example, if you need to do proper web browsing java plugins are a must.java comes bundled along with the distribution. Though mp3 playback capabilities are not present due to various licensing issues, overall Suse is indeed a neat distribution.Go over here to get your copy of the distribution that rocks !
And finally "Amma" Jayalalithaa seems to have tried her best to make sure that my motherland gets enough water, which in many cases has been cited as the drawback for not making investments.In the next 15 months a sea water desaliantion plant is going to be up folks ! Check this for more info ! So my choice of moving back to my motherland as quickly as possible, im sure will help me reap lotsa benefits !
It is hard to say whether this article is staged ! but one thing is for sure.Most of what is mentioned in that article are scientifically true.Ask Dr.Google in case you are not convinced :-) K.Shyam
For some strange reason i find this song running in repeat mode all day in my player ! rocks. rahman kicks some serious butt i say ! im particularly touched by the line "adiyen tamizhan naan ungal nanban !" welcome back thalai.
This is a real intresting and funny article ! Of course if you are in a particular state this article becomes even more hilarious.Needless to say im of course, not going to say in which state you have to be in for the article to seem more hilarious ! K.Shyam
Folks; I'm back after a pretty long hiatus and quite a lot of happenings over the past week.Well i shall chronicle that in detail in some other post but This is definitely a must read ! K.Shyam
Circa August 1st 2003.He entered the portals of this college. He was in the dog-eat-dog and one-upmanship s/w industry for the past three years.That included a jaunt to US of A for a few months to see the world around and to have fun.It was a long delayed entry for his graduate studies.Ok delayed by one year to be precise.
The first few days were quite fun.Totally out of tune from attending classes for the past three years, struggling to stay awake in afternoon classes ! It was tough but he was sure it would work out ! The assignments were even worse.He still hung on grimly determined to make it work.The only consolation was that surprisingly the mess food was pretty good.
Circa August 1st 2005.He is now halfway through his thesis fighting to finish the remaining half.Not sure whether this degree would be a real professional level add on though, but one thing for sure.He would have a degree from an internationally reputed institute to boot ;-) Yes folks the he here is actually yours truly ! K.Shyam
