More or Less

It had been quite sometime since I had an amazing weekend. This one is going to be cherished for some good long time to come. The reason , not being that I did something great or something great happened , rather so simple , for I did keep myself away from all the things that I would normally be using viz. laptop , mobile , pen drives , hard disk , watch etc. 

       I dont intend to say that I am a techie or something but the point here is that the these things though very much essential, always keep reminding us how fast is the life that we are living and these things make us feel that  life is so complicated though it is not , I would call them "pseudo-complicators" ( I know such a word doesn't exist but just that is what I feel these things are !). 

      I must admit that I really did get nostalgic , felt the same freedom that I used to have a couple of years ago and yes I did not call up friends and decide to meet , I just knocked their doors and Voila ! they were avaliabe :) Just the same as I would do a couple of years ago (Rather a decade to be precise). I was thinking how beautiful it was when our lives were not surrounded by these "pseuco-complicators". 

We have all things we need,

Don't have things that we want.

Crazy thoughts grow like weed,

Things still continue to haunt.

We were happy when, things We had 'ere less,

We thought We'd be more happy when We have things more.

In this process , We have run into a mess,

Can't stich the things that We have tore.

We didnt have a phone ,yet we used to meet,

The friends with whom We would play.

Now though We own a phone so neat,

Not even a Hi , to them We would say.

We used to walk down the lane,

Where we used to play day long.

To go out now, is a bane,

Don't wanna walk even a furlong.

It doesn't matter what you have,

What matters is what you do.

The only way out to salve

Is to start the things all anew.

Insomniac !!

I am here, I am alive,

By the shore so unclear, I go on a drive.

I feel am lying afloat on that shore

Like an unread book in the shelf, just get bored more and more.

I wake up from the bed, realizing am awake

With lotta time to spare, but of that time what to I make?

Shall I stop the thoughts and try to sleep?

Or shall I get up and over my thoughts take a leap?

I feel by the night so Insomniac

But by the day so hypersomniac,

Though I feel am asleep,

My sleep is only skin deep.

I don’t know what more to pen,

Why do I feel so every now and then?

Common Man. Really ?

       Woah !! Well I was watching the news of Mr. kejariwal , starting his own political party. Neither I am against it nor for it. The point is not what he is doing or has done is right, for I don't want to waste time in judging him. However the point is excessive use of the word "aam aadmi" , "comman man" that has really tested my patience.

This word, over a period of time is being used as the achilles heel of the public. While I was watching the news of Mr. Kejariwal's new party , I remember this word being used umpteen number of times. There was a point in time when I just got irritated with that word. 

I then started thinking what makes the media and the bloody unethical corrupt politicians use the word "aam aadmi" or "common man" in their pseudo propaganda. I started thinking " Am I a common man ?" , " Really Am I ?". However there are few bureaucrats / politicians who dare to call the public as cattle herd.I just want to tell such politicians one thing :- "Boss , it's me who is working hard ,it's me who is earning and you are getting paid from the tax that I pay. In a way it's me who is paying you the salary and then how dare you call me aam aadmi ?"

The root cause of the problem is we the citizens who vote for such people. Of late we have become so lazy that we prefer to be ruled by others and in the process create lot of demagogues and charlatans.

The public has been so hypnotized that they start wearing the caps with " I am Anna Hazare" , " I am Kejariwal" , "I am comman man" ..."I am blah blah...". I am not trying to say that the support extended to Anna Hazare and co is wrong but the point to be considered here is how quickly we do put ourselves in others shoes. 

India doesn't need 1.2 billion Anna Hazare or Arvind Kejariwal. What India needs is 1.2bn persons who understand and identify themselves not in the name of some politician or politician-to-be , but in their own conscience , own -self. Me and you , everyone of us , is not common. Each one of us have the capability to bring in the change for good. If you and me , everyone of us realize this , we are no longer common. 

Disclaimer: The content of this article just expresses the view of the author. The intention of this article is neither to disrespect Mr. Anna Hazare nor Mr. Kejariwal or to hurt the sentiments of the general public.

Money doesn't grow on trees !

It doesnt need an economist to say that money doesnt grow on trees. And any Tom Dick and Harry who will be able to prove that need not rule us. We all know that money doesnt grow on trees so do our salaries , which the netas think is their pocket money (Ofcourse we pay tax for the salaries we get and thats how government makes money). Ofcourse everyone needs money for survival and the standard of living is directly proportional to the amount one earns.If the netas dont resort to deficit financing in their own personal lives, how dare they think they can do it with the national economy ? I do understand the difference between managing personal economy and national economy but this is the heights of misusing the public money.

Does any of the neta babus know how our nation has reached the peak of fiscal imprudence? I sometimes feel that the strategy adopted by the so called highly qualified economists who wish to bring in reforms is like "Penny Wise Pound Foolish !". I do not intend to teach them economics or disrespect them. If one thinks he is intelligent by saying that money doesn't grow on trees, he should also know that a penny saved is a penny earned. Instead of wondering where the money grows , why dont you keep a check on where the money goes ? Is it the fact that our netas are ashamed to accept that the money goes into scams (upmteen of them).Or if thats not the case then whose money goes into scams ? Can any neta answer that? Does these netas even understand what it feels to get taxed at the end of a hard woirking day ?

The netas and so called greatest economists perhaps dont know how hard it is to earn. And thats the reason they set Rs 66 and 35 (in cities and villages respectively) as the standard to determine the BPL. Can any economist dare to try to survive an entire day with 66 Rs in hand? If not for such economists I would like to quote "Minus Humane Feelings , Education is of no Value" (it applies only to those netas who are educated). What's the use of your Gold medal , your degrees , your experience being the chair person of a great national financial organization ? Is it what you have brought out of your decades of experience?

It is not that the nation has forgotten the great reforms brought in a couple of decades ago by then Finance Minister Mr. Singh. The quesiton is not is Mr. Singh capable of bringing in reforms again? The question is also not has our P.M become corrupt or puppet of some people? The question is also not why government is not doing anything about the much hyped lokpal or the fraudsters ? The question is also not why havent you hanged Kasab yet or when will you stop corruption ? The quesiton is "when will you understand the problems of a common man on whose earnings you are getting your salary"?

It's an appeal to the netas doesnt matter to which party they belong to , its time to stop being so self obsessed and start thinking about the common people.

FDI - "Fund (that) Develops India " OR "Foreign Destructive Investment in India"

Hmmm ... You really gotta be patient enough to read this.

Once upon a time , there was a house named 'Bharat Sadan' and there lived a very happy family of an Old but cheerful couple , the couples 3 sons. This family had set an example of being the almost perfect family , yea I know , what am saying , it's almost perfect and not the perfect. All the members of the family , including the wives of the 2 elder sons lived in harmony!

One fine day , one man from another near by town , came to visit this family with an intention to propose an alliance to the youngest of the three sons. At the outset the prospective bride looked very beautiful and was very rich as a matter of fact and upon the agreement of both the prospective groom and bride and their respective parents , the alliance was fixed and they fixed a date for the marriage as well.

While discussing about the marriage , the brides father proposed to give a hefty dowry , which however , was rejected decently by the groom and his father. Nevertheless the brides father did send a lot of jewellery with his daughter (as love) which however was not opposed.

With the passage of time , the old couple for some reason unknown , started discriminating between the youngest daughter-in-law and the rest. The old couple went to an extent where tehy started ill-treating the elder daughter-in-laws , stating their finanicial background as the reason for their ill-treatment.Also , the youngest daughter-in-laws' father started exercising his control over the family and started influencing the family's decision. Somewhere , the fact that the elder daughter-in-laws' parents didnt give much jewellery to them did pinch this old couple.

!! Stop Stop Stop !! I am not campaining against the dowry act or something. The story ends here. Infact , its more than just a story , if you can analyse and see through its the present conditon of our nation.

Now lets see the story this way : The family is our nation , the old couple is like our nets babus , and the daughter-in-laws are our small and medium retail business owners. The jewellery given by the bride's father is the FDI which the whole nation in opposing. I don't say I am an anti-FDI or something, FDI is indeed good but to what extent ? with a lot of FDI , the foreign corporates have started influencing the nations decisions directly / indirectly .

Consider this example , one lady was in the board of directors of the largest retail store chain in the world and her husband was the president of most influential and powerful country. For a lady of that stature , how difficult it is to push that retail store chain in India and how difficult it is for her husband to influence our netas to go for FDI ? 

We need FDI in infrastructure , education , power and in retail too. But doesnt the governing bodies think there is already enough FDI in retail ? Instead , help the SME retail business owners grow , give them facilities , loans etc whatsoever it may be. Let our money be in our nation. Only because some Tom Dick and Harry Inc. sells the goods as a little cheaper than our own people we buy from them like we are crazy and say you know Tom Dick and Harry Inc. offers you free home delivery and now going to store and purchasing becomes downmarket !

Howerver there are different schools of thought. One of them says , if Tom Dick and harry Inc. expands his business in India , there will be more employment oppourtunities but what they fail to see is that while this Tom Dick and Harry Inc. employs 15-20 sales people in its store , the remaining 40-50 SME retails business owners have to shut down their stores.

On the other hand , one school of thought says , "If you allow FDI , there will be multi-brand availability and market will expand as the Indian Population is becoming more consumeristic." . Yes certainly Indian Population is becoming more consumeristic but why doesnt the government provide facilities for SME retail business owners so that even they can make the multi-brand one stop shop available ? Do you need to go to Tom Dick and Harry Inc. to buy A1 jeans / shirt ? If you are getting the same consumable at our local businessman's shop at almost the same price why don't just buy from him?

All I can say is upto a level FDI is "Fund (that) Develops India " , otherwise "Foreign Destructive Investment in India"

Disclaimer : The content of this article expresses the views of the author. The author doesn't intend to be biased and influence the opinion of the readers. Neither the author intends to criticize the governing bodies of the nation.

What is your Address ?

I was reading something about the pointers and suddenly the mobile vibrated indicating the receipt of a message :

Friend – where are you macha ?

Me – I am at home maga.

Friend – Which home ? Where ?

….

I continued reading. But the daemon processes in my mind were still clinging onto that conversation and I hardly was able to recognize that both the conversation and Pointers stuff I had been reading for a while had turned cocktail !

Here is how it goes:

          Address in it’s most general meaning is a collection of information used to uniquely describe the location of an entity. Pointers are those variables which hold the address of another variable.

          Where am I ? Is this the place where I belong ? If this (Earth i.e. mortal world ) is not my place , then what is my place?

Then my eyes read the following lines –“ Dangling pointers arise when an object is deleted or deallocated, without modifying the value of the pointer, so that the pointer still points to the memory location of the deallocated memory”

          Kabir says 'Kasturi kundal basey, mrig dhoondhe van mahi' ( The kasturi  (a fragnance ) is in naval of a particular specie of deer, but the deer having its fragrance runs in search of that in whole of forest) . 

         It is said that a part (though a small one) of the supreme power (God) resides within us and we are searching him everywhere. 

        Due to all the sins committed by us we have detached from our original place and hence have become dangling pointers. How to solve this? 

I still haven’t figured out a solution yet and may never find one. Nevertheless one question will always haunt me "What is your Address?"

Disclaimer: This blog represents some random thoughts that crept in and do not necessarily mean to criticize the preachings of any Religion. Also the author is not responsible for any incompleteness of any technical information regarding the pointers.

Mobile Developer Summit 2012

        Well Here it Comes! The MDS (Mobile Developer Summit) 2012. I am eagerly waiting for it to start off in its Style! Personally speaking, the previous MDS had been an experience of its own kind. I am not sure if some of you find it exaggerating but perhaps as it was my first experience, it might have made me say so.

For all the mobile devs out there, it’s one of its kind of opportunity to learn and know what’s happening in the mobile world. One would certainly ask – “We have hundreds of forums for each of the platforms then why pay and attend?”  Seems to be a valid question. But all I can say is they are gonna miss out on a lot of things.So better be there if one is so interested.

Welcome to mobile world with no limit,

The 2012 Mobile Developer Summit, 

Hoping to be more adventurous,

And time and again salubrious.

Come to taste the Ice-cream sandwich and Jellybean,

And some delicious Berries and Apple in between,

Over a million great projects

For over a million great Tablets.

There is Android and Microsoft,

Let’s see what who has got?

There’s also Samsung and Apple,

Hard to judge, who’s more able?

Want the interactivity more Hi-fi?

Oh here comes the HTML 5,

With number of tools, cross-platform,

It’s gonna take everyone by storm.

Disclaimer: Product names, logos, brands, and other trademarks featured or referred to within this blog are the property of their respective trademark holders. These trademark holders are not affiliated with my blog. Any comparative term used in this blog does not necessarily indicate my inclination towards any brand or product.

Ondu Maduve Kathe (Story of a Marriage)

   

      “Hare Srinivasa ! Heng idi Gopi ? “ (Salute to Lord Srinivasa. How are you Gopi ?) is the routine dialogue every Sunday Evening at Mr . Srinivasachar’s place. Mr. Srinivasachar ,a typical North Karnataka Brahmin (Vaishnavas Especially) as usual in his typical Lungi and Shirt sitting on a chair and watching some regional channel mutes the TV volume ( hoping God would have given him some button to controls his wife’s volume) smiles gently nodding his head awaiting his wife to finish the conversation and prepare some Tea for him. 

       Though Mr. Srinivasachar had been deaf towards the conversation “Idu yen maadiyo Halkata ? Ayyo Srinivasa ! Gopi yen maadbitta ! “(What did you do you  morn ? Oh Lord Srinivasa why did Gopi do this !) , the words pierced his eardrums and gave him a jolt initially. 

        Rushing towards her husband , Mrs. Padmaja Srinivasachar , Look what our son has done ! With lot of hopes we had sent him to study in U.K and he is roaming around with some girl Amby. What shall we answer the society , what about the tradition and culture that has been upheld by our family ?

   

      Mr. Srinivasachar , leaving his wife at the chair and quietly nodding his head , went to his room and smiled gently locking his door with a little tearful eyes. Carefully inspecting the stack of old Panchanga (Hindu Almanac), he pulls out one and smiles a photograph of a beautiful  young AngloIndian girl in her prime youth.

        Mr. Srinivasachar , in his college days loved that girl very much but never expressed it to her as he knew he can never marry her since he was from a very conservative and orthodox family. Nevertheless , Mr. Srinivasachar was happy since he could sense that he can realize his dream in his son getting married to Amby. Mr. Srinivasachar always fancied being in the circle of people with modern thoughts. Seeing his wife approaching towards the room he swiftly put the photograph in the Panchanga and rearranges the stack and says "Well Padmaja , lets get him married to the girl of his choice , we have to change with the time and ofcourse society will say what it wants but we want his happiness . Isn’t it ?" and Padmaja somehow gets convinced.

       Padmaja as instructed by her husband now calls her son to inform about the couple’s decision. “ Hare Srinivasa. Gopi ?? “… A couple of moments later “ Houdu ? Khare na ? Ayyo Madala yak hellila ne ?” (Salute to Lord Srinivasa. Gopi?? … Is it so ? Really ? Then why didn’t you tell me earlier ? ). There was a huge smile on Padma’s face and Mr. Srinivasachar looked confused !  

       In a stunning revelation , Padmaja informs Mr. Achar that the girl’s name is Ambujakshi and she belongs to the same cast as theirs. This was absolutely an anti-climax to his anticipation. All the old-gold feelings which had blossomed in his heart were crushed in a moment! Padmaja was so relieved , unaware of what lies ahead. Since Mr. Achar had agreed to get them married , there was no chance for him to revert the decision

.

      Now it’s time for both the families to meet as per tradition and check if the horrormones ( the stars , rashi etc ) mentioned in the horrorscope (oops ! Horoscope ) match. Here the lady luck kisses Mr. Achar who has secretly wished that this marriage doesn’t happen. It’s revealed that both the love birds belong to the same Gotra (Clan) ! Gosh ! According to the tradition people belonging to same clan cannot marry , as they are treated like brothers and sisters.  

      But Mr. Gopi was hell bent on marrying her , the community had come to know about their affair since Mrs. Padmaja had agreed for marriage and they used to roam around in the city ( they had come here to convince Amby’s parents) and were seen by lot of eyes ! At this juncture ; Mr. Achar says , 

Ayyo onde aaitu Gotra,   ( Oh , now the clan is same )

Avalu aaguvalu , tangi maatra, (she can only be his sister )

Bantalla Gandaantara , (Now that’s a big problem)

E preetine one thara ! ( Love is just blind ) 

       Now everyone starts thinking on solving this problem. One suggests lets hide the fact and some says lets make a pact. And now the time comes for Gopi to act !

Change maadi Gotra, ( Change the clan) 

                         Aaga badalaaguvudu paatra, ( now her role will be changed )

                Aaguval avalu tangiaala , hendati maatra, ( she ain’t my sister anymore but a wife )

                               Dayavittu munduvarisi , e shastra ! ( you all please continue the discussion and finish the family discussion ritual )

      “How is this possible?” asks someone. The priest who had earlier made a pact with Mr. Gopi (This guy seems to have done a lot of background work huh !)  to solve this clan issue informs that if the girls maternal uncle adopts her then the clan will change and the marriage is then possible.

     Well time to end the tale, and now everything is set and they got married and … ( I won’t say they lived happily ever after )

                                             And …. Life is going on .. 

Note: All characters appearing in this story are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Also I am not against any language, religion , cast , creed or clan. The word AngloIndian is used in lighthearted manner , and hence I cannot be accused to be a racist. The kannada word 'halkata' is also used in lighthearted way and is not to be taken seriously. In my view all religions are one and same and I respect all religions and Languages. The use of the name of the geographical region U.K is to represent a foreign geographical region and I don't have any disregard to this group of nations that U.K comprises. I do not disregard any language.

Colour Colour which colour do you see ?

     Alright.. If you are expecting that I am racist , you are wrong ! If you think you have read this book and still skeptical about reading this , then better read at your own risk ! This is not about any philosophy professed by Socrates or if you think am trying to be another then please do not , Yes I said do not read it ! 

     I was having a good read after quite a long time - "The Immortals of Meluha" by debutant Amish. Great piece of work indeed. As I was cruising through the book , I was really stunned at the point where a priest asks Shiva "What is the colour of the leaf?" 

 And the conversation continues ...

'The colour?It's green"

'Is it?'

'Isn't it?'

'Why do you think it appears green to you?'

'Because,' said Shiva,amused.'its is green.'

'No.That wasn't what I was trying to ask. You had a conversation with one of the Brahaspati's scientists about how your eyes, you see the object.'

'Oh that. right' said Shiva slapping his forehead.Light falls on an object.And when it reflects back from that object to your eyes, you see that object.'

'Correct! Now put these two theories together and answer my question. Why does that leaf appear green to you?'

Shiva frowned as his mind worked the problem out. 'white sunlight falls on the leaf. the leaf's physical properties are such that it absorbs the colours violet, indigo, blue, yellow, orange and red.It doesn't absorb the green colour which is then reflected back. hence I see the leaf as green.'

'Exactly!', beamed the Pandit. 'So think about the colour of that leaf from the perspective of the leaf. What colour it absorbs and what colour it rejects. Is its colour green? Or is it every single colour in the world , except green?'

Shiva was stunned into silence by the simplicity of the argument being presented to him.'There are many realities. There are many versions of what may appear obvious,' continued the Pandit. 'Whatever appears as the unshakable truth, the exact oppostie may also be true in another context.It is the context or perspective that you're looking from that moulds which particular reality you see'.

     I was just relating this concept to few other aspects in life. Generally we have a tendency to relate to people from what is obviously visible of them viz. their anger , or some peculiar behavior and we say -" That guy is short tempered / he is so and so". Applying the same concept we can say that , the anger is manifested as the rejection to some particular entity. 

     We never make an attempt to see what the person absorbs or has absorbed i.e. the good things in that person. We differentiate people  based on the colour of their skin , we never see their hearts / mind , sad enough ! The differences between the people arise  because of the differences in the context to which people relate to one another. 

     Here is how I sum it up : 

     It's only what you see ,

     That makes you think of me;

     You never see what I really  am ,

     And don't know through what I swam.

     You never made any effort,

     To Build with my other side , a  rapport,

     The day you see the inside of  me ,

     My face would glow with glee.

     

     Do not just see the outside,

     Without knowing what's inside,

      And then decide am so and so ,

      And create a huge row.     

     Who I am is not what I show,

     I am the feelings inside me that flow,

     

    

     

Language

First things first ; I respect all languages 'cause every language is great in its own sense ! I am just trying to narrate an incident which made me think seriously about the language which we use and the circumstances that makes us speak that language. 

       It was a long and tiresome day which had sucked my energy and was  feeling as if I did barely exist ; clinging on to the rod in the overcrowded bus. I was lazy enough even to move forward all by myself  and alight at my destination. "Three rupees Change do bhaiya"  is what I heard in a local dialect by conductor who ofcourse  was a kannadiga. Generally the typical reply would be a stern "change illa re" or "nahi hain bhaiya" and my ear canals were too lazy to receive the reply that day except for one  this unusual reply "yako kannada baralva ? Modlu kannada matadu . Nimantavarinda ne kannada yaaru balasalla." by a fair, tall , young man about 24 years of age , which made me think about the diachrony. The conductor just kept his mouth shut since he didn't want to get into a fight , which one could sense from his calm and composed stature. By then I realized that I have to alight and rushed through the crowd and got down. 

      Somehow for some reason unknown , I started thinking about the incident that happened. "What made the conductor speak in Hindi? What made the passenger to give such a stern reply?"  Then I realized that , the passenger did ask for a ticket to a place which was very close to an Engineering college which is quite well known not only for being a landmark since ages but also for the huge Hindi speaking population which the surrounding environment that it has , which is because of the huge number of North Indian Students pursuing their studies in that college.

      Then it struck me "Did by any chance the conductor assumed the young passenger to be a north Indian ? Did he speak in Hindi to make that passenger's transaction more comfortable? What is that made the young man react like that ? Was it the conductor speaking in Hindi " . For a moment , a brief one though , I put myself in the conductors shoes and thought " What would have I done if  I were in the same position? ".

     There are three things : One , If the conductor's intention was to make the young man's transaction more comfortable ; is it justified ? Is the conductor is right in doing so ? . Given the condition that the conductor assumed the young man to be a North Indian just by his sheer experience , he is right on his part. Second , Was the conductor supposed to speak in Kannada (Local Language) first and then in case did the young man not understand the language then the conductor had spoken in Hindi ?  Was the young man's behaviour  justified ? If so ; then why ?

       For a moment I thought that the young man's behaviour was justified . His behaviour made me understand his love for the mother tongue , and the very next moment I felt it was unnecessary for the guy to behave the way he did.

      Nevertheless , it left me confused on deciding who was right as I made my way to my place through the busy street. Bangalore is a huge cosmopolitan city and not to mention about the lifestyle of the people , especially the young ones. I believe that everyone must respect every language , for it has paved the way the people live in that particular society. I also believe that the love and respect for the mother tongue starts right at home ! 

     However , there have been instances where I have seen the parents especially the fathers (Software Engineers , though I myself am one , a software engineer (Not a father yet ;))  communicating to their children in English instead of their mother tongue. I am not against communicating in English or a pro-mother tongue activist , but just think if the love towards the mother tongue is not cultivated and nurtured at this level will any number of protests and any number of kannada sanghas can change the state of affairs?

     I am yet to figure out who is right and who is wrong. But what I feel is that the Love and respect and the feeling of continuing the legacy of the mother tongue starts at home not in any language's sangha / Group.  Above all , there is a language which requires no words to communicate , it lets to reach the person whom you are communicating to , "The Human Language" , which has humane touch to it , which is missing in the languages which we speak for our mere existence. All we do is just interact with the man or woman and never see the being side of the person 'being' !The day we put that humane side in our communication there wont be any boundaries , colour  , race , creed . It will be just the Holy Place for the Human Beings. We will feel the feel of "being" !!

Disclaimer: I am not against any sangha / groups of any language or nor do I hate any language or profess to speak in any particular language. Its just the thoughts that crossed my mind that I feel should be shared. If anyone feels that I have a disregard to any language  it is purely unintentional.