A Walk to Remember

orkut Blog: Beauty Perception

2007-11-25T16:20:00.000+05:30

orkut Trends: Beauty or conceit?
Read about this interesting piece on orkut blogs. It is based on statistical analysis of how people rate themselves on "beauty" on orkut. Since people are usually biased about their own beauty, it is better to think of it as a conceit rating index.;-)

Spin these pipes...

2006-10-31T14:04:00.000+05:30

Recently, a dry spell at work waiting for the customer to deliver the requirements faced me. Nothing to do but chatting, surfing, and catching up with old friends through e-mail. It was fun for the first couple of days, then the feeling of doing nothing productive started to settle on me.

Then I struck upon Wei-Hwa Huang's gadget page on Google. By the rate at which Wei comes up with new puzzles, he seems to be a very innovative soul. Best of all most of his puzzles are simple and involve almost no learning curve. At the same time the puzzles are not trivial, though some are easy to solve.

Of all the puzzles, I fell in love with "Pipe Spin". It has a typical arcade feel and is sufficiently stimulating, without really taxing your mind. Ideal for those rainy days at work, when the feeling of useless waste comes creeping.

A sample Puzzle from his site has been reproduced here. Enjoy...

Statutory warning: Can be highly addictive.

More of Wei-Hwa's puzzles can be enjoyed here.

Alice in the Forest...

2006-09-20T07:13:00.000+05:30

Heaps, Random Number, Hashing algorithms,Self-Balancing Trees have always had me kind of confused a bit around the edges. Add AVL and Red-Black Trees into the equation and the plot thickens. Recently I had to get my ankles wet with self-balancing Binary Trees to avoid the degenerate worst case, and found myself sinking to the depths instead. I recalled some of the things I had studied, but there was the fuzz arounbd the edges, that you usually see on old sepia toned photographs.

I called out to Google for help and Eternally Confuzzled was among the first few pages it threw back at me. Written by Julienne Walker[happyfrosty@hotmail.com], it deals with Trees, hashes, Rand Numbers, etc. If you are also one of those who think a "Hit" is something that the mob orders, and that you should avoid being the target of one, this site is just the place to get you started. An excellent resource for those who are interested in doing more than just CCPT and getting the job done.

Granted that you don't have to know physics to be a pitcher, but having a sound understanding of the underlying ideas always helps, espeacially when those nasty bugs rear their head. Starting with Binary trees, I found myself hooked to the effortless way in which complicated sounding ideas were presented.

<BRAG>While I was at it, I even happened to find a minor but significant bug in the code, and wrote to the author, who promptly responded wiht the promise of a correction.</BRAG>

Overall an execllent resource especially for all the Comp. science and Engg. students who feel a bit flustered by Knuth, Djikstra and the gang.

P.S. Absolutely no offence meant to the GODS of Algorithms.

Animate any webpage

2006-09-07T16:04:00.000+05:30

This works especially well with IE, works partially in Firefox too. Open any website that contains images. Copy paste the javascript given below in the address bar and press enter.

javascript:R=0; x1=.1; y1=.05; x2=.25; y2=.24; x3=1.6; y3=.24; x4=300; y4=200; x5=300; y5=200; DI=document.images; DIL=DI.length; function A(){for(i=0; i < DIL; i++){DIS=DI[ i ].style; DIS.position='absolute'; DIS.left=Math.sin(R*x1+i*x2+x3)*x4+x5; DIS.top=Math.cos(R*y1+i*y2+y3)*y4+y5}R++}setInterval('A()', 35); void(0)

Sit back and enjoy the fireworks.

Huamn Paetrtn rengcoition...

2006-06-20T12:39:00.000+05:30

You may feel that the title of this post has too mayny typos, but believe me it is intentional and you'll still be able to make out every word.

cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.

The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at
Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny
iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit
pclae.

The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a
porbelm.

Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef,
but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot
slpeling was ipmorantt!

Peg After Peg...

2006-06-14T13:58:00.000+05:30

This is one really Hilarious one. I had come across this one a few years ago, among the deluge of forwards. And it got lost in the same deluge. Today a friend sent this one again and I thought I should preserve it.After all "Laughter is the Best medicine" and anything that helps you laugh in today's world should be treasured.So Here Goes...

Peg After Peg

I never take risk while drinking

When I come from office in the evening, wife is cooking
I can hear the noise of utensils in the kitchen
I stealthily enter the house
Take out the bottle from my black cupboard
Shivaji Maharaj is looking at me from the photo frame
But still no one is aware of it
Becoz I never take a risk

I take out the glass from the rack above the old sink
Quickly enjoy one peg
Wash the glass and again keep it on the rack
Of course I also keep the bottle inside my cupboard
Shivaji Maharaj is giving a smile

I peep into the kitchen
Wife is cutting potatoes
No one is aware of what I did
Becoz I never take a risk

I: Any news on chopra's daughter's marriage
Wife: Nope, she doesn't seem to be that lucky. Still they are looking
out for her

I again come out; there is a small noise of the black cupboard
But I don't make any sound while taking out the bottle
I take out the glass from the old rack above sink
Quickly enjoy one peg

Wash the bottle and keep it in the sink
Also keep the Black Glass in the cupboard
But still no one is aware of what I did
Becoz I never take a risk

I: But still I think chopra's daughter's age is not that much
Wife: What are you saying? She is 28 yrs old... like an aged horse
I: (I forgot her age is 28) Oh Oh...

I again take out potatoes out from my black cupboard
But the cupboard's place has automatically changed
I take out the bottle from the rack and quickly enjoy one peg in the sink

Shivaji Maharaj laughs loudly
I keep the rack in the potatoes & wash Shivaji Maharaj's photo & keep
it in the black cupboard

Wife is keeping the sink on the stove
But still no one is aware of what I did
Becoz I never take a risk

I: (getting angry) you call Mr. chopra a horse? If you say that again, I
will cut your tongue...!
Wife: Don't just blabber something, go out and sit quietly...

I take out the bottle from the potatoes
Go in the black cupboard and enjoy a peg
Wash the sink and keep it over the rack
Wife is giving a smile

Shivaji Maharaj is still cooking
But still no one is aware of what I did
Becoz I never take a risk

I: (laughing) So chopra is marrying a horse!!
Wife: Hey go and sprinkle some water on your face...

I again go to the kitchen, and quietly sit on the rack
Stove is also on the rack
There is a small noise of bottles from the room outside

I peep and see that wife is enjoying a peg in the sink
But none of the horses are aware of what I did
Becoz Shivaji Maharaj never takes a risk

chopra is still cooking
And I am looking at my wife from the photo and laughing
Becoz I never take what???

Falling markets: Top tips for you

2006-05-19T19:39:00.000+05:30

A very Good article from moneycontrol. Good one to soothe the frayed nerves of all the "Long-Term" investors.
So here Goes...

Till May 10 everything was fine. The stock market was our darling. We couldn't have enough of shares, mutual funds, systematic investment plans, IPOs and New Fund Offers. And why not? Yes, there was that bit of extra risk but hasn't equity been known to outperform all other asset classes over time? So, we weren't worried, because you see, we were the Long Term Investors.

The Sensex at that time was 12612…but that really doesn't matter to the Long Term Investor. Cut to 7 days later. May 18, 2006. Sensex at 11391.

It's as if all hell's broken loose. The phone won't stop ringing. However, each time it's answered, the voice on the other side shouts the same word: SELL!

Seven days. That's all it took to break down the Long Term Investor. Putting it in other words, it just required a fall of 10 per cent to completely wipe out the tribe of the Long Term Investor. Over night we have been overcome with self-doubt. Is the market too expensive? Are the valuations stretched? Should we book profits and stay in cash? Will this correction be more severe? How do we play this situation?

That in itself is the mistake…

Well, I suggest, lets try and keep our eyes on the ball and not the situation. First of all, we all agree that these questions if at all, can only be answered, by someone who can look into the future. Now, since we don't have the ability, the next best thing I propose we can do is use two tools that will help us tackle each delivery to the best of our ability. And what are these?

The power of compounding, and

Long-term investing

Albert Einstein called compounding the eighth wonder of the world. And just how smart Albert really was can be gauged by the following story.

This is a story in which a simpleton of a king lost a well-fought game of chess to an ordinary farmer. The king asked the farmer to choose his reward and all that the farmer asked for was 1 grain of wheat for the first square of the chess board, 2 grains for the second square, 4 grains for the third, 8 for the fourth and so on and so forth for all the 64 squares. The king was very happy for being let off rather lightly and readily granted the wish. The real snag came when he tried to settle the claim.

He required 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 grains of wheat!

Now isn't that mind-boggling? Let me try to be more concrete. There are about 25,000 grains in 1 kg of wheat. The king required about 7,37,870 million tonnes of wheat to fulfill his obligation. Now, here are some statistics for comparison. Our total national agricultural produce (wheat, rice, sugarcane, cotton, etc.) in the year 2004 was around 200 million tonnes. The required quantity of wheat is about 3,690 times this amount. Even all the wheat produced by man from all over the world, ever since he learnt the art of cultivation will be far less than this quantity. If the king had decided to settle this liability in cash, say at a super wholesale rate of Rs 3.50 per kg, he would be required to pay Rs 25,82,54,417 crore. This is over 2000 times the Indian Gross National Product, which is the total value of all, industrial as well as agricultural, goods and services produced by India.

What happened there was that the smart farmer used the power of compounding to his advantage. And such is the power that the king didn't know what hit him. Realise that things were fine till the first few squares. It was only by the 10^th square or so that it went out of hand. In other words, compounding, though the eighth wonder, only works if used over the long-term. In fact, long-term investing and compounding are two sides of the same coin - one cannot exist without the other.

Have a look at the following scheme returns:

	Returns % per annum
Scheme Name	1- year	2- year	3- year	5-year
Reliance Growth	100.6	75.4	101.1	65.9
Franklin India Blue Chip	96.8	47.4	72.5	41.4
HDFC Equity	99.8	54.7	76.6	50.3
HDFC Top 200	97.3	53.1	78.1	47.6
Franklin India Prima	72.3	61	88.1	62.4

(Annualised returns as on 30th April 2006)

In all there are over 200 equity-oriented schemes operating in the market and the above selection is just an example of some well performing equity schemes. Of course there are other schemes whose performance has been good, the only point here is to showcase how compounding actually works.

Will such returns be repeated in the future? I don't know. Will such returns be NOT repeated in the future? Again I don't know!

What I do know however is what the world went through in the past five years: the dot com bust, September 11, Afghanistan, Iraq, Greenspan swinging rates up, then down and then up again, oil shocks, domestically too, Parekh came and left, the Left came but is yet to leave, Brothers Ambani split. And all this while, quietly in the background, King Compounding was at work. Those who had the faith are raking it in today.

Which brings me to wonder how many of us really invest for the long-term? Warren Buffet himself says that a total of twenty trades is more than enough in the lifetime of any investor. Though that may be stretching things a bit, I cannot help but wonder whether our parents and their parents had always got it right when they bought their shares, put them into the family trunk and forgot about it.

A kind of 'Fill it-Shut it-Forget it' investment strategy that indeed paid handsome dividends over time. In the absence of social security, our senior citizens largely depend upon these blue chips accumulated over a lifetime to tide them through. And the way things are currently, social security is not coming anytime soon, but will we have the 'blue chips' to fall back upon?

Investing is hard work indeed. No wonder the word 'work' is always prefixed with the adjective 'hard'. Having to earn a living is no walk in the park, what with trying to keep the nose to the grindstone, shoulders to the wheel, eye on the ball and ears to the ground. One rarely has the time, energy and inclination to worry about when, where and how to invest.

So let me share with you the secret of successful investors. This is a magic mantra and has worked for many and I hope you too use it in your life. The mantra is: Persistence. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not, nothing is more common that unsuccessful people with talent.

Genius will not, unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not, the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and conviction alone are the key. In other words, time in the market and not timing the market is what makes the difference between a successful investor and an also-ran.

Therefore, I think I'll just let King Compounding do the job for me. Efficiently and silently as it has been doing throughout history.

I hope the Long-Term Investor is listening.

Quota Raj...

2006-04-21T18:55:00.001+05:30

The PM finally gave in to the pressure and issued a thinly veiled threat that the IT industry better fall in line or face a new law.

Big Brother is alive and kicking in India. Just because the govt. has the right to introduce ANY law does not mean that it is right to do so.

If you look at the economic growth of India over the past decade or so, it has largely been fuelled by the dollars, yens, and other foreign exchange flowing into India as a result of the huge out-sourcing potential that businesses all over the world saw in India. The key requirement was the availability of skilled and intelligent knowledge workers at a fraction of the cost. India fit the bill perfectly mainly due to the comparitively lesser living expenses here.

As the years have progressed Indians have begun to move up the outsourcing Value chain and metamorphosed from lowly coders to design experts to consultants whose judgements the client trusts implicitly. The competition in the industry has gone from hectic to cut-throat. The Turn-around-time from problem surfacing to solution release hase been shrinking exponentially. At the same time the salaries and the expenses to the client have been increasing (We are still significantly below US and European levels). The client's expectations from Indian companies have never been higher. The added threat of China, Malaysia, and other smaller economies have also started looming on the horizon. China especailly have had a concentrated program to enhance their "knowledge and skill" levels. The Chinese a tleast have their heart (and their brain) in the right place.

At this juncture, What seems logical for the Indian Government is :-

1. The govt. announces specialized courses in higher education to increase the avaialability of suitable candidates for the industry.

2. The Govt. provides facilities to encourage setting up of IT and realted industries throughout the country.

3. It provide subsidises to bigger companies to set up shop across the length and breadth of India therby encouraging all-round development of the whole country.

This would lead to the modernization of the whole of India. The benefits would not be limited to the "knowledge" workers alone as the secondary industries needed to sustain the growth of IT would provide employment and a chance for a better life to skilled as well as unskilled people.

Result: India actually starts "Shining". "Bharat Uday" is a well publicised Govt. campaign.

OK. Let's stop dreaming and come back to earth, because we "unfortunately" live in a country called India. I'm usually very proud of the fact that I was born in India, the land of myriad cultures, where peace and brotherhood reign supreme. I take pride in the giant strides that the economy is taking. But Indian politics is something that always manages to get my blood boiling. Forget all the ideal things that it should do, but the govt. manages to bring in minorities and reservations and such non-issues into the IT cauldron.

Introducing caste-based reservation into this industry is absolutely unimaginable, impractical and infeasible. The industry thrives on impossible deadlines and better than average skill. I don't mean to imply that lower-caste people are not (less) intelligent, but the kids that come up on the basis of reservation tend to take things easy. Thay tend to depend on that fact that the reservations will bail them through. How can you expect a person who has been brought-up with this mindset to be able to respond to the IT industry which works solely on commitment and responsibilty. There may be a few exceptions, but the majority will end up burned-out and with a very low progress rate.

The politicians who cry out all the time about Dalit and other caste based reservations continuosly try to remind us about the persecution that the "so-called" weaker castes have faced at the hands of Brahmins and other higher castes for centuries. They selfishly raise the slogan of repatriation and revenge, with the sole aim of cheaply garnering political support and votes while turning a blind eye to the real issue.

Yes, there is no way that the brahmins were justified in what they did long ago. Even today, in parts of UP and Bihar upper-caste people continue to subjugate and ill-treat the lower castes. But reservation is not the answer to this problem. At best it can be considered a workaround or a patch release. It is meant to hide the problem rather than solve it. Last week there was this highly emotional article in the TOI (I forgot the author's name) which talked about how the higher castes should be made to suffer for 10s of years to make them atone for the sins of their fore-fathers.

What we all should realise (Here I mean both the lower and the upper castes) is that reservation will just result in amplifying the caste-divide further. The solution lies in trying to phase out the reservation system in the shortest time possible. Here I do not mean abolishment of the existing reservations and benefits immediately. What I mean to say is that the plan should be to bring the lower classes into the mainstream by focusing on the next generation. The only stable and long-lasting solution possible is to educate the children of all classes in the language of love and equality, and this is not possible as long as normal fun-loving average kids, who don't care about the castes of their schoolmates, start cursing the "special" status given to "lower caste" students. They study in the same class, have a similar financial background, and live pretty much similar lives. Then comes the 10th/12th standard results and they see their "lower-caste" classmates get admission into dream colleges, even though those kids have secured much lower marks in the qualifying exams. How can you expect that child to grow up into a tolerant human-being who does not believe in the caste system and treats everyone as equal?

Throughtout their career, the "lower-caste" person also has to bear the stigma of his caste, the hate of his once-friends, and whispers behind his back. How can he lead a happy and better life? Isn't the reservation system "mis-guidedly" promoting the worst aspects of the old caste system (subjecting the lower castes to demarcation and segregation) rather than trying to abolish caste differences and promote equality?

Later when this person's children grow up and seek admission into college he/she still applies for the "lower-caste" benefits for the kid. Isn't the person abusing his "lower-caste" status? Is he any better than the "upper-castes" who abused their power long ago?

The reservation system is an archaic and ill-conceived attempt at solving the caste issue. What is needed instead is sensitization of the masses to the real problem. Subsidized education and special attention to "lower-caste" children would go a long way to giving them a strong foundation. They should be made to realize the importance of standing on their own feet. The necessity of being independent should be drilled into them at an early age. They should be guided to build a flawless character, not taught to take advantage of the system. A system similar to the US system in which a social-worker is assigned to any family that is backward could be tried. Only then will India turn into a true democracy.

Politicians just use "lower-caste" politics as a stepping stone to launch their political carrers and fortunes. The British ruled over us for 200 years based on divide and Rule. They used Caste Politics to their advantage to pit Indians against one another and made merry while we ruined ourselves. Is there any point in going back to those medeival times of the Quota Raj...

Jaaaaast (Just) Said...

2006-02-13T10:51:00.000+05:30

1. When I was born, I was so surprised I didn't talk for a year and a half

2. Join the army, see the world, meet interesting people, and kill them.

3. When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

4. Until I was 13, I thought my name was 'Shut Up.'

5. Always and never are two words you should always remember never to use.

6. The road to success is always under construction.

7. I say no to drugs -- they just don't listen!

8. Marriage is one of the chief causes of divorce.

9. Everyone has a photographic memory; some people just don't have film.

10. Life is unsure; always eat your dessert first.

11. Smile -- it makes people wonder what you're up to.

12. I love being a writer... what I can't stand is the paperwork .

13. The hardest part of skating is the ice.

14. The guy who invented the first wheel was an idiot; the guy who invented the other three, he was the genius.

15. The trouble with being punctual is that there's no one there to appreciate it.

16. If our constitution allows us free speech, why are there phone bills?

17. If you tell a man there are 300 billion stars in the universe, he'll believe you. But if you tell him a park bench has just been painted, he has to touch it to be sure.

18. Hot glass looks same as cold glass. (Cunino's Law of Burnt Fingers)

19. If you can't convince them, confuse them

What/Who is Maithili? German? Aryan? Jew???

2006-01-19T14:02:00.000+05:30

This is a mail chain that has been doing the rounds since a couple of years.
It is a hilarious example of what happens when you e-mail into the hands of a few software engineers who are idle and have nothing better to do. An empty mind is the devil's workshop, and an idle software engineer is the devil advocate.

Please read from bottom to Top as this is a mail chain.

======================================================================

-----Original Message-----
From: Aniljoshi
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 1999 11:39 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: German's ,Jews, Aryans

We sit before the monitor staring into the pixels, making faces the
whole day like monkeys. And you claim that you are not in this monkey
business? Beats me!!

ANIL JOSHI

-----Original Message-----
From: AnandV
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 1999 11:13 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: monkeys and dravidians

My theory is first step to identify software engrs.I'm more interested
in showing that software engrs are not monkeys (bcas they are not
aryans) which my house owner believes!!!

-----Original Message-----
From: DHRUVAV
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 1999 11:09 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: teachers and dravidian

Your theory only proves that Software engineers are not aryans.Therefore they can be any thing other than aryans and not only dravidians.

-----Original Message-----
From: AnandV
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 1999 11:04 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: teachers and dravidian

B'cas only teachers (arya's) are aryans. So all software engr's are
dravidians.

-----Original Message-----
From: raghavendrak
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 1999 11:00 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: Aryans- H aryana

Let me get it clear.Are u suggesting that all people in haryana are
monkeys?????

-----Original Message-----
From: ashokkm
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 199910:59 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: Aryans- H aryana

No, Only the native of Haryana are are aryans b'coz U just remove the
'H' in Haryana so it becomes aryana.Agreed or not????

-----Original Message-----
From: raghavendrak
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 1999 10:54 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: German's ,Jews, Aryans are Indians

Then even monkeys are aryans!!!!!!(I think they too have 10 fingers).
That's what ramayan says. So all vanars were also aryans!!!

-----Original Message-----
From: Aniljoshi
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 1999 10:50 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: German's ,Jews, Aryans are Indians

How logical!! Now I could easily prove that even Africans are Aryans.
They have 10 fingers- so they are aryans. They have 10 toes on their
feet - so they are aryans. Thanks for proving that all are aryans.

ANIL JOSHI

-----Original Message-----
From: Kedardesai
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 1999 10:40 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: Proof:German's ,Jews, Aryans are Indians

Indians invented the decimal system. Ravan(Jew) had ten heads, Ram's
father(aryan + German)had ten chariots (Dash-rath) etc.Thus , the base
is 10. There fore they are all Indians

-----Original Message-----
From: Aniljoshi
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 1999 9:58 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: MAJOR FALLACY- Aryans/Germans

Germans ! don't play cricket. So cricketers can't be germans. QED

ANIL JOSHI

-----Original Message-----
From: Dinni Lingaraj
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 1999 9:56 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: MAJOR FALLACY- Aryans/ Germans

It just occured that a better subject would have been "CRICKET"
but this &nbs nbsp; one stopped ...."Are our cricketers
Aryans/Germans ?" So we got to solve this one!

-----Original Message-----
From: Aniljoshi
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 1999 9:55 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: Major fallacy/Aryans & Germans

Let the 'intellectuals' decide... you will know who you are soon enough.

ANIL JOSHI

-----Original Message-----
From: Yeshwant Dattatreya
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 19999:39 AM Pos! ted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: MAJOR FALLACY- Aryans/Germans

OH BOY!! WHO ARE WE?

-----Original Message-----
From: ashokkm
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 19999:37 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: Major fallacy/Aryans & Germans

According to maxmuller, Aryans came from Middle East.
According to Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Antarctica was the home place of
Aryans. And Swami Dayanand Saraswati says Aryans were originally from
India b'coz the place "saptsandhav" that is described many times in
their book is nothing but Doab region between Ganga & Jamuna.
And One theory according Bhagwandas is that Aryans were originally from
India then they went to middle east and after some time they returned
back to India.So there are different theories about the origin of Aryans
but recent belief is th! at only India was their native-land.

-----Original Message-----
From: Aniljoshi
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 19999:37 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: MAJOR FALLACY- Aryans/Germans

So, at present we are at a point where MK's son is a Russian, implying
MK is a Russian. MK is a ardent follower of Ravan who is a German Jew.
Looks like the german govt running Karnataka(see our previous
discussions for a proof of it) is conniving with the Russian govt at
Tamilnadu (who support German) to fight the Italian Govts reps at 10
Janpath road. Some heavy international politics we have going on here.
Wat's d'ya say man!!

ANIL JOSHI

-----Original Message-----
From: amajumder
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 1999 9:21 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: MAJOR FALLACY- Aryans/Germans
Importance: High

Might be Russians too.. that explains why MK's son is called STALIN.

-----Original Message-----
From: raghavendrak
Posted At: Friday, September 03, 1999 9:13 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: MAJOR FALLACY- Aryans/Germans

Say this to the DMK and they're gonna kick u!! according to them ravan
was a dravidian and was attacked by ram as ram was an aryan.
So if ram was a german, and assuming he was a 'hitlerite 'aryan, then
ravan must have been a jew!!!

-----Original Message-----
From: Aniljoshi
Posted At: Thursday, September 02, 1999 6:57 PM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: MAJOR FALLACY- Aryans/Germans

No, on the contrary it proves that Ravan was a German since it was he
who owned the Pushpak Viman. The passengers could belong to any country.

ANIL JOSHI

-----Original Message-----
From: vishnoor
Posted At: Thursday, September 02, 1999 5:44 PM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: major fallacy...

After defeating ravana .... Sri Rama flew back in Ravana's pushpak
vimana & This is what the Mordern Lufthansa is . It is the modern
version of the older pushpaka vimana.
The pushpak vimana was "driven" by hansa or swans....
The insignia of Lufthansa is also a swan...
This further proves Sri Rama was a German Hail Rama ....

----------
From: khandelwalh
Posted At: Thursday, September 02, 199912:54 PM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: major fallacy...

the argument is wrong.
the conclusion is fallacious

-----Original Message-----
From: vishnoor
Posted At: Thursday, September! 02, 1999 4:44 PM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: Mithla

Rama was an aryan ;
Germans claim to be aryans so Rama was a German &nbs nbsp; Hail Rama....

----------
From: ashokkm
Posted At: Thursday, September 02, 199911:53 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: Mithla

And what about Home minister Advani & Noble Prize winner Economics Dr.
Amartya Sen???

-----Original Message-----
From: Sudha Vedula
Posted At: Thursday, September 02, 19994:02 PM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: Mithla & Maithili

God Shiva is also a foreigner because
Mt.Kailash is in China. Buddha was also a foreigner because
Lumbini(?) is in Nepal. So was Guru Nanak, because Talwandi is in
Pakistan. So was Porus. So was Gandhari.....:)

-----Original Message-----
From: Vikas Sharma
Posted At: Thursday, September 02, 1999 10:14 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: Mithla & Maithili

Recently one Congress leader, in defense of Sonia, quoted that Sita was
also a foreigner because Janakpuri is in Nepal.

-----Original Message-----
From: Pranav Chandra
Posted At: Wednesday, September 01,1999 1:10 PM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: Mithla & Maithili

Maithili is a language which derives it's name from the region in Bihar
where it is spoken, the old kingdom of Mithla. There is a reference to
the area even in Ramayana- Janak( Father of Sita) was king of Mithla and
has been referred to as MithlaNaresh at many places in RamCharitraManas
- therefore Sita was also called Maithili.

----------
From: Subhashis Roy
Posted At: 1999"N9OE?1"=FA 13:03
Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: what is Maithili ?
Importance: High

Maithili brahmins are known for their gastronome qualities !!!

-----Original Message-----
From: yogesh=5Fpm
Posted At: Wednesday, September 01,1999 12:12 PM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Subject: re: what is maithili

Maithili is a language spoken in central bihar. It has its own
literature.It has its root in the old kingdom of that area.It is similar
to Hindi.

-----Original Message-----
From: himanshudas
Posted At: Wednesday, September 01, 1999 9:06 AM Posted To: General
Conversation: What is Maithili?
Sub! ject: What is Maithili?
Hi!
Who or what is Maithili, in context of Indian literature?

How Big is Your Rope???

2006-01-17T15:48:00.000+05:30

As I was passing the elephants, I suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not.

I saw a trainer nearby and asked why these beautiful, magnificent animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away.

"Well," he said, "when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it's enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away.

They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free." I was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn't, they were stuck right where they were.

Like the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging onto a belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before?

Domain Maximus: Phyrds Uykl 33

2006-01-13T11:06:00.000+05:30

Domain Maximus: Phyrds Uykl 33 One of the funniest pieces I have ever read.

Two Sides to every story...

2006-01-12T14:31:00.000+05:30

This is part of a campaign by award winning photographer Sharad Haksar, done for 'Stori', a menswear brand. It won a Bronze Medal at the New York Festival for Design and Advertising. The campaign showed two books with a sketch of Bush on one cover, and Saddam Hussein on the other. Written under the sketches were 'God' and 'Dog', with a line saying: 'Every story has two sides. For the Arabic version, read from right to left.'

The Random Story generator...

2006-01-09T14:11:00.000+05:30

I came across this one while googling. Creates a lot of non-sensical but syntactically correct stories. Are fun to read, quite addictive too... ;-)

The Random Story Generator Please enter your name and select your sex to have a random story about you generated. There are over 1 billion different possible stories so have fun!
Name
Sex:

A Friend InDeed???

2006-01-02T15:03:00.000+05:30

Sholay, Ramesh Sippy's Cult classic, a movie which a entire generation grew up watching and re-watching. The movie is a case study in how to make a highly entertaining potbolier with plenty of action, masala, a wafer-thin plot, a khatarnaak villain and still manage to turn it into a cult classic.
90% of the scenes in this movie are outstanding. But my favourite scene is the one in which Jay goes to Basanti's mausi on Veeru's behalf to ask for Basanti's hand. The following dialog is easily among the funniest scenes in Hindi cinema.
Characters: Jay (Big B), and Mausi(Dina Pathak). Enjoy.

Mausi : Arre beta, bas itna samaz lo ke ghar me jawaan beti seene par pathhar ke sil ki tarah hoti hai. Basanti ka byaah ho jaaye to chain ki saans loo.
Jay : haa sach kaha mausi aapne. bada bojh hai aap par.
Mausi : Lekin beta, is bojh ko koi kunwe me to phaik nahi deta.Bura nahi maananaa , itanaa to poochhanaa hi padataa hai ke ladke kaa khaandaan kyaa hai uske lachhchhan kaise hai, kamaataa kitnaa hai?
Jay : Kamaane ka to ye hai mausi,..,ke ek baar biwi bachhon ki jimmedaari sar pe aa gayi to .. kamaane bhi lagegaa.
Mausi : To kya abhi kuchh bhi nahi kamaataa?
Jay : Nahi nahi ye maine kab kahaa mausi, kamaataa hai lekin,... ab roj roj to aadmi jeet nahi sakataa na. .. kabhi haar bhi jaataa hai bechaaraa?
Mausi : haar jaata hai?
Jay : haan mausi ab ye kambakht juwaa cheej hi aisi hai ab mai kyaa kahoon?
Mausi : heynnnn. to kya juwaari hai?
Jay : chhi chhi chhi chhi mausi, woh aur juwaari na na. woh to bahot hi achchha aur nek ladka hai.Lekin mausi, ek baar sharaab pi li na phir, achchhe bure ka kahaa hosh rahataa hai. Haath pakad ke bitha liyaa kisi ne juwaa khelane. ab isme bechare Veeru ka kya dosh?
Mausi : Thik kahate ho beta. juwaari woh sharaabi woh lekin, uska koi dosh nahi.
Jay : Mausi aap to mere dost ko galat samaz rahi hai. woh to itanaa seedha aur bhola hai. aare basanti se uski shaadi karke to dekhiye, ye juwe aur sharaab ki aadat to do din me chhoot jaayegi.
Mausi : Arre beta, mujh budhiyaa ko samaza rahe ho. ye sharaab aur juwe ki aadat kisi ki chhooti hai aaj tak.
Jay : Mausi aap Veeru ko nahi jaanati , wishwaas kijiye wo is tarah kaa insaan nahi hai. Ek baar shaadi ho gayi to woh us gaane-waali ke ghar jaanaa band kar degaa. bas, sharaab apne aap chhoot jaayegi.
Mausi : Hi hi, bas yehi ek kami raha gayi thi. to kya kisi gaane-waali ke ghar bhi aanaa jaanaa hai?
Jay : To isme kaunsi buri baat hai mausi. arre , gaana soonane to raajaa-mahaaraajaa unche unche khaandaan ke log jaate hai, haan.
Mausi : Achchha ! to beta ye bhi bataate jaao ki tumhare yeh gunwaan dost kis khaandaan ke hai?
Jay : Bas mausi, khaandaan ka pataa chalate hi ham aap ko khabar de denge.
Mausi : Ek baat ki daad doongi beta. bhale sau buraaEyaa hai tumhare dost me ,phir bhi tumhare munh se us ke liye taareefe hi nikalti hai.
Jay : ab Kya karoo mausi.. mera to dil hi kuchh aisa hai.(pause)... To.. mai ye rishtaa pakkaa samazoo?
Mausi : Pakkaa? . bhale saari jindagi ladaki kuwaari baithi rahe. lekin mai aise aadami se Basanti ko nahi byaahanewaali. Sagi mausi hoon. koi sautelee maa nahi.
Jay : Ajeeb baat hai. mere itane samazaane par bhi aap ne inkaar kar diyaa.. Bechaaraa Veeru... naa jaane kya karega?

This scene is followed by Veeru climbing atop the water tank and threatening suicide. But that's another story and another hilarious scene.
Poor Guy, When you have friends like these, who needs enemies???

Happy New Year 2006!!!

2005-12-30T19:15:00.000+05:30

Best Wishes for the New Year to you World......

Thought I'd persoanlly wish my near and dear Friends.

Santa Snehal :-DipTea Jassi Jassu Banta Adi

GannuJi Cheeta Tandon Charu Bhalla PraveenMenon

Carthee Kapil Shaani Avi Sat KC&Jai

PC Buzz Shitanshu Binua PraveenModi

Ani Somu Ninu Kammo Subu Mitali

Trushna Seema Jimmy Shaju Soumya Nancy

Rahul Chaitu Manu Cow-Do. ;-) Aneesh Nomita(OmniTa)

Janaki Rudresh Jafeel Syed Shilpa Minu

Amarnath Gireesh Prince Nimesh Suresh
and to the whole of VC2K1...

If someone was left out of my New year honours list, be nicer to me. maybe I'll include you next year... ;-)

Mumbai...

2005-12-30T11:57:00.000+05:30

My favourite place in the whole world. Mumbai on Google maps...

Google Search Appliance.

2005-12-30T11:47:00.000+05:30

This one is nothing new. Google has had it for ages. But I thought more people should know about it. And I seriously doubt if any other company has anything that come close.

When we think of searching we normally associate it with webservers and software. But trust the guys at Google to change your point of view. They come up with a search "appliance". And it is exactly that. It requires just a power connection and a ethernet port to start working. Configuration is of course web-based. So the admin can do it over the internet. It caches search results locally, but you can schedule crawls at specfic intervals to update the indices.

There are two flavours of the product. One is the Cute-looking Google Mini and the Other is the industry strength Google Search Appliance(GSA). The mini costs around $2000 and can search upto 100,000 documents. The GSA has multiple models ranging from the GB-1001 which can search up to 1.5 million documents at a rate of 300 queries per minute, to the GB-8008 that can search up to 15 million documents.

For pics and more information got to @http://www.google.com/enterprise/

Automated Love Letter....

2005-12-28T14:47:00.000+05:30

Found it somewhere on the net.

:-)

---------------------------------------------------------------

include "properties"

int main (void)
{
    properties my;
    properties your;
    if (my.sex - your.sex)
    {
        if (!( my.choices - your.choices ))
        {
            if (your.boyOfChoice(&my))
            {
                mystring response[];
                cout <<"I L U";
                cin >> response;
                if(reponse=="fu")

user.Message("y love... she is ready 2 get laid directly");

else if(response=="m married")

user.Message("Upgrade ur letter which can cause a divorce");

else if(responce=="ok")

user.Message("Done! Enjoy! please dont delete me!");

else

user.Message("Use ur mind ... ytf u need a program 2 write ur love letter?");

}

}
else

user.Message("Upgrade ur letter which can handle homosexuals");

    }
    my.delete;
    your.delete;
}

Indian engineers good only at theory: Microsoft

2005-12-02T11:36:00.000+05:30

India does not produce enough computer engineers and those it does are good at theory but not very well equipped to handle the practical aspects, according to Microsoft Corporation's Chief Technical Officer Craig Mundie, who is on a visit to India.

"India produces a lot of engineers. But the production of computer science engineers is low, pro rata.

"Computer engineers are more into theory and less in managing businesses, building businesses or writing source codes, the key to software development," Mundie told Business Standard.

Microsoft has a large number of Indian software engineers on its rolls in India as well as abroad. Out of the 2,000 people working for Microsoft in India, a sizeable proportion comprises software engineers. India produced 401,791 engineers in 2003-04, of which 35 per cent were computer engineers. The number increased to 464,743 in 2004-05, of which 31 per cent were computer engineers.

According to Mundie, the problem with the engineers can be attributed to policy issues. Universities in India, he said, did not get proper funding for research and were not directed towards software development. "The lack of trained staff is addressed by firms through internal arrangements for proper training," he said.

Besides, he said, India did not have enough software companies nor were enough companies developing India-specific applications.

"There are so few Indian software companies developing local software. That is a negative reinforcement, because there is no local software and no new applications," he said.

Taken from rediff.com

Suveen K Sinha & Gaurie Mishra in New Delhi | October 07, 2005 04:01 IST

Firefox 1.5 has been released.

2005-12-01T11:11:00.000+05:30

One year after the debut of Firefox 1.0, and more than 100 million downloads later, Mozilla has released Firefox 1.5, the latest version of its acclaimed open source Web browser, available here as a free download.

Firefox 1.5 builds upon the success of its predecessor to deliver an improved browser with significant performance and usability upgrades, security and privacy enhancements, 'best-in-class' support for Web standards, and better customization options.

Firefox 1.5 has been enhanced in several key areas and includes new "drag and drop" feature for tabbed browsing to help better organize page viewing, improved "pop-up blocker" that screens users from more unwanted pop-up ads, new "reference search engine" Answers.com included in the integrated Search box, improved "live bookmarks" feature to enable easier discovery of and subscribe to RSS feeds and improved "options" interface to make it easier to adjust browser settings.

Mozilla Firefox is a redesign of Mozilla's browser component, written using the XUL user interface language and designed to be cross-platform. It includes a popup blocker, tabbed browsing, a smarter search, hassle free downloading, and improved privacy and security.

You can download the new browser here.

Scold the Boss!!! :-)

2005-11-16T16:21:00.000+05:30

This is one of the best Dilbert comic strips I have seen. Hats off to the great scott adams.

Have you been Potholed???

2005-11-16T12:44:00.000+05:30

What are roads in bangalore, but potholes? Maybe the govternment has MISUNDERSTOOD the reason why Bangalore is known as the garden city. It was because of the gardens that dotted the city. We do not need all the roads to resemble ploughed-up fields to justify the name.

I recently came across this fundoo site www.bangalorepothole.com. It looks like the perfect techie way of getting back at the indifference of the state government. Start a website and use technology to garner mass support for the cause. That's where bangalorepothole.com comes in. It has a whole lot of information related to roads and potholes.

There are links to govt. organizations like the BMP and BWSSB. Then there are pictures of potholes located at prime locations all over bangalore. You can also click pictures of your friendly neighborhood potholes and submit them here. They even urge you to go ahead and adopt a pothole. For the historically inclined thera is a even a section on the history and geography of potholes. And don't worry Bangalore is not alone, potholes are international creatures. Refer to the "Potholes around the world" section.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The raison d etre for the site's existence is:-
Through BangalorePotHole.com, citizens of Bangalore are allowed to share their experiences on the roads, especially with the pot holes. It also provides a valuable insight into inconveniences, accidents and other risks factors attached as result of poor maintenance of roads.

In an effort to facilitate this dialogue, we have put together together information on engineering facts of local street maintenance. We hope that based on this information you and other citizens in your community can become a positive and effective force in working with your local officials for better streets.

We will continue to add more information to this site relating to the roads and its maintenance in the due course of time.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Overall a cute and well-done site. It shouldn't get labelled as a prank/funny site. Hope it works the wonder it is trying to work. My best wishes to them and I sincereley hope we actually see a solution to this horrendous problem.

The Y2K38 Bug... Y2K revisited???

2005-11-11T12:29:00.000+05:30

I still remember the hysteria, tensions and doomsday predictions that accompanied the Y2K bug. I was in my penultimate year of engineering.

The two things I still remember about that time are:

The doomsday conspiracies about how the world as we know it may cease to exist at the stroke of midnight on Dec 31, 1999.
The sudden spurt in the demand for COBOL (an archaic programming language) still widely prevalent in all financial and banking software. The local entrepreneurs(??) looked upon this as a great opporunity, and overnight hundreds of COBOL training institues ("we specialise in the Y2K bug") sprang up all over town. The Y2K bug actually launched the careers of a lot of engineers who had either not yet found jobs or were in jobs that did not pay much.

Finally Jan 1, 2000 dawned and the world was pretty much the same, except for the massive hangovers that a lot of people had due to the hard partying. :-)

A lot of people started the "I had told you that nothing is going to happen" routine. But the problem was minimised due to hectic efforts all over the world rectifying a lot of COBOL code to take in the century digits of the year. Y2K was caused because many older machines did not store the century digits of dates, hence the year 2000 and the year 1900 would appear the same.

Of course we now know that the prevalence of computers that would fail because of this error was greatly exaggerated by the media. Computer scientists were generally aware that most machines would continue operating as usual through the century turnover, with the worst result being an incorrect date. This prediction withstood through to the new millennium. Affected systems were tested and corrected in time, although the correction and verification of those systems was monumentally expensive.

The year-2038 bug is similar to the Y2K bug in that it involves a time wrap not handled by programmers.

There are however several other problems with date handling on machines in the world today. Some are less prevalent than others, but it is true that almost all computers suffer from one critical limitation. Most programs use Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) to work out their dates. Simply, UTC is the number of seconds elapsed since Jan 1 1970. A recent milestone was Sep 9 2001, where this value wrapped from 999'999'999 seconds to 1'000'000'000 seconds. Very few programs anywhere store time as a 9 digit number, and therefore this was not a problem.

Modern computers use a structure named time_t which internally uses a standard 4 byte integer for this second count. This is 31 bits, storing a value of 2³¹. The remaining bit (bit no. 32) is the sign.

A few examples would help in explaining this:-

Date & time                              time_t
1-Jan-1970, 12:00:00 AM GMT     0
1-Jan-1970, 12:01:00 AM GMT     60
1-Jan-1970 , 01:00:00 AM GMT    3600
2-Jan-1970, 12:00:00 AM GMT     86400
1-Jan-1971, 12:00:00 AM GMT     31536000
1-Jan-1972, 12:00:00 AM GMT     63072000
1-Jan-2038, 12:00:00 AM GMT     2145916800
19-Jan-2038 , 03:14:07 AM GMT  2147483647

This means that when the second count reaches 2147483647, it will wrap to -2147483648, when one more second elapses.

The precise date of this occurrence is Tue Jan 19 03:14:07 2038. At this time, a machine prone to this bug will show the time Fri Dec 13 20:45:52 1901, hence it is possible that the media will call this The Friday 13th Bug.

This problem may not be as easy to fix as the Y2K bug. Almost all the software that we see around us, and a lot that we do not see (embedded systems) are coded excusively in C. Unlike the Y2K problem, the Y2K38 probelm is more deeply rooted in the system and can rear up in more than one way. All personal computers are likely to be 64-bit by the year 2038. So the problem should disappear (for the time being) due the increase in the storage capacity of time_t from 4 bytes to 8 bytes. But most embedded systems will mostly still be 32-bit or less. Note that the large majority of embedded systems today are still 8 or 16-bit. These could include microwave ovens, wrist-watches, elevators, gas-station pumps, car fuel injection computers, radios etc. There are orders of magnitudes more small embedded systems in the world than there are desktop computers.

To get into finer points, application software running on 64-bit systems may not use the POSIX time_t type correctly. For instance, a C programmer may inadvertently cast time_t to 32-bits during a time calculation; or implicitly knock off the top 32 bits of a 64-bit time while storing or retrieving the time.

For more details on this (hopefully will be solved by 2038) problem, go to http://www.2038bug.com/ or simply type 2038 in google.

What is OOP? In Layman terms...

2005-10-27T13:57:00.000+05:30

What is OOP?

OOP stands for Object Oriented Programming.

It is not just a programming language, but a paradigm (An example or model used to explain a concept or theory). OOP does not tell you how to program, rather it tells you how to go about designing your software. There are many languages that implement/help you in implementing OOP. C++ is one of them. When you are developing Object-oriented programs/software the emphasis is more on how you think about and design the software rather that on actually implementing(coding) it.

Why ‘Object-Oriented’?

What should you do to make sure your program is object oriented? Simple, you stop thinking in terms of Bits, Bytes, Pointers, unions, structures, et al. Instead you think in terms of objects and the interactions between them. It is actually more natural for humans to think Object-oriented than to think in terms of memory and variables, etc.

Simply put, OO is nothing but defining the behavior of software as a collection of objects and the interactions between them.

What are Objects?

In the real world, an object is anything that is well-defined; say a car, a bat, a ball, a door, etc. An object has well-defined characteristics. These characteristics make one object (class of objects) easily differentiable from others. There is not much scope for confusion between, say, a bat and player.

Let’s take an example. Say, you want to get your bike serviced. The steps you normally take are:-

Go to the service station/garage.
Fill out any request forms.
Tell the mechanic about any specific problems, say horn not working.

Can you identify the objects in this scenario? Try before reading further.

The objects involved are you, the garage, the forms, the bike and the mechanic.

If you think about it, you’ll notice that you do not need to know the internal workings of the bike or the horn to get the problem rectified. We also don’t know what exactly the mechanic does to rectify the problem. We talk to the mechanic and the problem gets solved. As you surely see, each object has its functions, and objects can interact with each other.

Let’s try to relate this to computers and programming. How would thinking in objects help in software development?

OOP asks us to think about how a program can be reduced to objects and interactions between them. In OOP, an object is a collection of data and functions that operate on that data, which together represent a logical entity in the system.

The Procedural Programming model

C encourages what is called the procedural/modular programming model.

Some of the characteristics of this model are:-

System is organized around procedures.
Procedures send data to each other.
Procedures and data are clearly separated.
Focus on data structures, algorithms and sequencing of steps.
Procedures are often hard to reuse.
Lack of expressive and powerful visual modeling techniques.
This programming paradigm is essentially an abstraction of machine / assembly language.
Design models are a long step from implementation.

The main motivation in the procedural model is to develop code easily and quickly, with focus on code re-use through the use of modules/procedures.

The OO Programming model

OO programming places high importance on modeling problems. A program is successful if it solves the real life problems it models. Thus OO programs correspond closely to the real world problems they solve. They model the problem domain and users’ activities. This enables better communication and visualization for all stakeholders. Successful OO designs almost always begin with a visual “object model” of the problem domain, involving both the domain experts and software designers.

The problem with procedural programming is that while the domain experts talk about the problem domain in terms of the lingo, the software designers talk about structures and bytes. Many a time they are not able to convey meaning to each other. On the other hand OO enables both the domain experts and software designers to talk in terms of objects in the problem domain. Modeling improves the understanding of the designers. Would you let a contractor build your new house without blueprints?

The essence of modeling is to show all pertinent detail.

Some of the characteristics of this model are:-

System is organized around objects (not code).
Objects send messages (procedure calls) to each other.
Data and associated behavior are tied together in objects.
Modeling of the domain as objects so that the implementation naturally reflects the problem at hand.
Visual models are expressive and relatively easy to comprehend.
Focus on responsibilities & interfaces before implementation.
Visual models of the problem evolve into models of the solution.
Design models are only a small step from implementation.

This modeling makes it easier to build systems that solve the right problem, work properly, are maintainable, are extensible and are reusable.

OO programming concepts
OO programming introduces a number of powerful concepts that make it very different from the pure modular approach. It is very important to understand and internalize these concepts before starting the software design and implementation.

The major OO concepts are:-

Objects
Classes
Encapsulation
Abstraction and Generalization.
Inheritance
Polymorphism

Objects

Objects represent real or abstract things, with a name. They are usually the actors/players in the problem. Going back to the original Bike example, each well-defined entity in that example is an object and may need to be modeled to implement a proper software solution.

Objects:-

Have well-defined responsibilities.
Exhibit well-defined behavior.
Have a well-defined interface, which is as simple as possible.
Are self-consistent, coherent, and complete.
Are (usually) not very complex or large.
Have knowledge of themselves and the interfaces of a small number of other objects.
Are as loosely coupled with other objects as possible.

By loosely coupled we mean that one object does not need to know the internal details of another object for the interaction between them to be successful. The interface that the object exposes to the outside world is very important. Since the internals of the object are private to itself, the interface should be well documented, so that others may (re)use them.

Drawing from C, objects can be thought of as being similar to variables of one type. Say we declare int a,b,c; Here a, b, and c are all variables(objects) of type int. They share the same characteristics, only their actual values are different.

Classes

Objects are instances of classes. A class is the template that defines the characteristics of a certain class of object. A class defines both the interface(s) and the implementation for a set of objects, which determines their behavior. This is very similar to structures in C; the major difference being that a class has both data members and functions related to them clubbed together. An object, once instantiated, cannot change its class.

E.g. once created, an int variable has the same amount of memory associated with it. The only thing that can change is its contents/value.

Class ClassName

{

public:

// members

protected:

// members

private:

// members

};

Encapsulation

The term Encapsulation basically means that only the necessary interface is exposed to the outside world. The client of an object does not need to know the internal details of the object that it is interacting with.

Thus encapsulation deals with:-

Hiding the “gears and levers”.
Exposing only the client’s view of the object’s responsibilities.
Protecting the object from outside interference.
Protects other objects from relying on details that are likely to change.
Information hiding promotes loose coupling between objects and modularity, which promotes flexible design, which promotes reusability.
Reduces interdependencies in the code.

E.g. To drive a car successfully, you do not need to know how an Internal Combustion engine works.

class Person

{

private:

int age;

public:

int getAge() { return age; }

};

Here you can see that the internals are hidden/private and the interface is public.

Abstraction and Generalization

The term abstraction means that we try to generalize problems and their solutions. Generalization is a very powerful tool. The first step is to ignore complex details and simplify the problem.

Humans tend to use generalizations naturally. Whether we see a German shepherd or a Pomeranian, we think of both as “dogs”.

This is generalization. By thinking abstract or generalized, we make the problem easier to solve. We concentrate on the bigger picture, before getting into the details and nitty-gritty. Once we have a broad understanding, we dig deeper and try to get more and more details.

Inheritance

Inheritance is a way of describing a class by saying how it differs from another class.

E.g. “Class Y is like Class X except for the following differences… ”

The Base class is the general (abstract) class and defines generic characteristics of a class of objects.

The child (derived) classes are more specific instances of the base class and add specific characteristics.

As an example :-

Referring to the examples above, we can get the following things:-

The Derived class inherits from the Base class; the Derived class extends the Base class; the Derived class is a specialization of the Base class.
The Derived class may provide additional state (member data), or additional behavior (member functions/methods), or it may override the implementation of inherited methods.
The Base class is a generalization of all its Derived classes; one could say: in general, all Pets have names.
Base class = parent class = superclass.
Derived class = child class = subclass.

C++ allows multiple inheritance, Java does not allow that.

Polymorphism

Polymorphism (many-forms) comes due to inheritance. This is possible because all child classes essentially have an IS-A relationship with the pase class. I.e. We can say, a Dog is a Pet. So a Dog can do all the things that a Pet can do. Polymorphism is also known as dynamic binding. Since a child class “IS-A” base class, a pointer of the base class type can hold an object of the type child class. E.g. A Pet* can point to a Dog Object.

I.e. Pet* ptr = new Dog(); is valid.

In the case of C, static binding occurs. The complier will decide the bindings of function calls to the actual functions at compile time itself. In the case of C++, we have this concept called dynamic binding. As a Pointer of type Base Class can hold an object of type Child class, the compiler cannot decide the bindings at compile time. The decision is deferred, and at runtime C++ detects the type of object that is referred to by the pointer and the call is made.

E.g.

class Shape

{

// members

virtual void Draw()=0; // Shape is abstract, so it cannot be actually drawn.

};

class Circle: public Shape

{

// members

void Draw()

{

// Code to Draw a circle.

}

};

class Square: public Shape

{

// members

void Draw()

{

// Code to Draw a square.

}

};

Shape* ptr = new Circle(); // is valid.

ptr->Draw(); // Will use Circle::Draw() to draw a circle.

ptr = new Square(); // is valid.

ptr->Draw(); // Will use Square::Draw() to draw a square.

At compile time ptr->Draw() cannot be resolved, so the compiler defers the resolution to run-time.

This is simple words in dynamic binding, and is the way polymorphism is implemented in C++.

That's it for now. The first installment of What is OOP???

I may actually add details if time permits ;-)

Google Print

2005-10-26T19:52:00.000+05:30

Google never ceases to amaze. Just when people were thinking that google had already indexed everything searchable, Google throws another Googly - Google Print.

Imagine sitting at your computer and, in less than a second, searching the full text of every book ever written. Imagine an historian being able to instantly find every book that mentions the Battle of Algiers. Imagine a high school student in Bangladesh discovering an out-of-print author held only in a library in Ann Arbor. Imagine one giant electronic card catalog that makes all the world's books discoverable with just a few keystrokes by anyone, anywhere, anytime.

That's the vision behind Google Print, a program introduced last fall to help users search through the oceans of information contained in the world's books. Recently, some members of the publishing industry who believe this program violates copyright law have been fighting to stop it.

......

Why the stock market is volatile?

2005-10-17T13:06:00.000+05:30

A very good article about the way various economic factors  affect the stock market.Taken from  rediff.com

Last week was bad for the stock  market. After reaching a new high of 8821.84 early on Wednesday, the  Sensex  pulled back dramatically, ending the week at 8491.56.

The immediate  reason for the sell-off is pretty simple - Foreign Institutional Investors have been  net sellers. And since it is FII money which has been driving the market up, any  selling by them is bad news.

But why are FIIs selling?
It's not just India

The first  thing to understand is that it's not just the Indian stock market that was affected last week.

Consider this: The S&P 500, a broad-based index  of US stocks, lost 2.7% during the week, its biggest weekly drop since April.

The Nasdaq Composite Index, a US market index for  technology stocks, lost 2.9%, again its biggest weekly loss since April.

Stocks dropped in Europe as well---market indices for  UK, Germany and France ended the week in the red.

Japan's Nikkei index lost 2.25%, while Australia's  benchmark index lost as much as 4.3% - its biggest weekly drop in four years.

Other emerging markets in Asia too fell.

What spooked stock markets across the world?

It began with comments by US Federal Reserve (the US  central bank) officials that inflation is on the rise in the US. That led  analysts to infer that the US Fed will raise interest rates further in its next  two meetings this year.

The Fed has already raised its benchmark Fed Funds  rate (the rate at which it lends to other banks) to 3.75%, in a series of rate  hikes.

That raised several concerns:
1. With  interest rates going up, growth in the US would slow.
2. With  borrowing becoming more expensive, hedge funds would be hit. These are  funds which borrow money in the US at low interest rates to invest in  emerging markets at higher returns.
3.  Mortgage rates in the US would rise, and that could burst the current bubble in  the US housing market.

Now let us look at these factors in detail.

How does this affect us?

To understand why higher interest rates in the US are such a  problem for emerging markets like India, consider how the global economy works  at present.

Essentially, low interest rates in the US have  led to a boom in housing.

Many individuals could take loans at low rates to buy  homes.

Those with homes felt richer with the rise in house  prices.

Since the property prices rose, many were able to  raise money on their house property (loans against property).

People were able to refinance their mortgages at  lower rates (take a fresh loan at a lower rate of interest).

Low interest rates also led to increased borrowing of  all kinds, including more credit card debt and other loans.

With this money, the US consumer bought all kinds of  goods and services, and much of these goods and services are produced in  countries like China and India. So the US consumer has been the main engine for  the world economy.

Now consider the other side of the equation.

What did countries like China do with the money  earned from exporting to the US? They invested it back into US bonds. That extra  demand for US bonds meant that the prices of bonds rose. As a result, their  yields fell.

Yields on bonds move inversely to their price. For  instance, suppose a bond of Rs 100 has an interest rate of 10%. Let's say demand  for that bond increases. When demand increases, prices increase. If the price of  the bond (trading in the debt segment of the stock exchange) goes up to Rs 110,  the yield becomes 10/110 or 9.09%. Conversely, if the price of the bond falls to  Rs 90, the yield goes up to 10/90 or 11.11%.

It is because countries like  China have been ploughing back their money into the US that the yield of the US  10-year bond has not increased in spite of the series of rate hikes by the US  Federal Reserve.

In other words, while the Fed has raised short-term  interest rates, the long-term yields have not followed suit. This has enabled a  virtuous circle of low interest rates, high consumption and strong emerging  market exports to continue.

Another consequence of the low interest rates in the  US has been that many speculators have borrowed cheaply and used the money to  invest in other assets, such as emerging market stocks and bonds. This has driven up the price of these assets (as explained  above).

Also, since yields and interest rates in the US are  low, investors will move their money to be invested in places where returns are  higher.

Why higher US interest rates are a problem?

The worry is that if interest rates now increase too much,  this circle will become a vicious one-----higher interest rates will lead to  money flowing back to the US from emerging markets, consumption in the US will  decline, world growth will slow, and stock markets across the world will  decline, with emerging markets being particularly hard hit.

In 1994, a  series of rate hikes by the Fed had led to money flowing out of emerging  markets, and many bearish analysts have been warning of a repeat of that  scenario ever since the Fed started to raise rates again from last year.

In fact, the plunge in the Indian market in May last  year, attributed to the election results in which the NDA lost, was actually  part of a meltdown in emerging market stocks due to fears of a Fed rate  hike.

So far, these worries have been unfounded.

Will it be different this time?

One comfort is that the price of oil has also gone  down, and commodity prices too have declined. This will remove some of the  worries about higher inflation.

The second source of comfort is that the US long-term  bond yield has still not reached the 4.5% level, which is seen by some analysts  as a signal of danger.

Third, although housing prices have declined a bit in  the US, there are no signs of any collapse.

India and the world

As the above analysis shows, what will happen to the  Indian market is largely dependent on what happens to the global markets.

It also doesn't help that Indian stock prices are now  very high, which means that international money could flow to other stock  markets around the world where the stocks are priced more  reasonably.

However, while FIIs may sell,  local mutual funds have raised a lot of money, and that would be invested back  to the market. Recall that in May, while FII flows were tepid, local mutual  funds continued to buy, providing support to the market.

Nevertheless,  last week's steep drop is a timely reminder to investors about the risks of  investing at these high levels in the market, and the need for a great degree of  caution.

TV Shows Hit The iPod - Dark Horizons

2005-10-14T17:47:00.000+05:30

Interactive TV failed the last time round.

But Given Apple's track record, this could be the re-birth of iTV.

Apple's USP is not just a portable video player, but the ready

availablilty of Video resources through it iTunes online Music store.

Anyone who has used iTunes will know how easy it is to download music

on to your local PC/Mac as well as to your iPOD. It is as simple and Drag-and-Drop.

This could be the next revolution in the Online Media business.

Could beat P2P hands down.

TV Shows Hit The iPod - Dark Horizons

Portsmouth Herald News

TV Shows Hit The iPod
Dark Horizons - 12 hours ago
Walt Disney Co. and Apple Computer said yesterday that they've reached an agreement under which ABC and Disney Channel television shows will be made available for download from iTunes for US$1.99 per episode for display on a new video-enabled iPod. ...
The Video iPod: It Rocks Fortune
One More Thing - An Amazing Play starring Steve Jobs 24x7updates
Miami Herald - The Mac Observer - Daily Telegraph - Newsday - all 1,475 related

Source: http://www.darkhorizons.com/news05/051013b.php

My Google....Try It

2005-07-27T15:24:00.000+05:30

Web Images Groups News more »

Harry Potter for Muggles

2005-07-22T17:16:00.000+05:30

A Muggle's guide to Harry Potter

Harry Potter, the latest phemonenon to hit the literary world, is a force to reckon with. Created by an unknown author named J.K. Rowling, it has become such a runaway success that you can love it, or hate it, there is no way you can ignore it. Although meant to be a children's book, the latest news reports suggest that a large number of adults are buying and reading the latest adventures of the bespectacled, orphan Boy Wizard with a lightning-shaped scar down his forehead.

The Books have been so successful that J.K. Rowling has managed to carve a niche for herself in the same echelons as literary giants like Enid Blyton and J.R.R. Tolkein. At last count, Rowling has surpassed the New Testament by about 70,000 words. Therunaway success of the series has propelled Rowling from a struggling-to-make-ends-meet single mother to the world's richest author and the richest woman in the UK.

With Harry Potter facts and Trivia cropping up in discussions in all circles it would be very helpful if you could bluff your way around the magical world of Wizards, Witches and Dragons, instead of pretending to be dumb on such occassions. This piece is for those who don't want to read the books, even though personally I'd strongly recomend reading them all.

Given the title of this piece, I think I should begin by defining the the word Muggle.

Who/What's a Muggle?

A non-magical person.
or as J.K Rowling writes in the Harry Potter Series - Someone “without a drop of magical blood in them”, a non-magical human being.
By extension, a specialised term used by members of a group to refer to someone outside that group.

Harry's Relatives.

Harry Potter is a little orphan who has to live with his horrible aunt and uncle, the Dursleys, since his parents were killed when he was barely one year old. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia have a very strong dislike for poor Harry and make him live in a cupboard under the stairs. As if this was not enough, Harry's has a cousin Dudley, a fat, spoilt, overgrown bully whose sole aim in life seems to be getting Harry into trouble. Thus Harry spends all his childhood in this deprieved state, while Dudley grows fatter and more spoilt.

Why do Harry's uncle and aunt treat him so shabbily? Is it because they consider him to be an unnecssary burden forced on them? The actual fact is that Harry's dead parents were wizards. James Potter came from a family of sorcerers(pure-bloods) but Lily was descended from mere mortals(Muggles). The Dursleys, who are Muggles, consider anything to do with magic as "abnormal". Thay are mortally scared that their neighbours on Privet Drive will find out the truth and consider them freaks. To prevent this from ever happening, they keep Harry within the house, never allowing him to be even seen by any of the neighbours.

It is forbidden to use the M-word (Rowling has a liberal sprinkling of similar witticisms and puns throughout the text) in the Dursley Household. Uncle Vernon turns purple if anyone mentions about Harry's ABNORMALITY. Harry is told that his parents were killed in a car accident.

Life was going on in this fashion at 4, Privet Drive, when at the age of 11, Harry starts to discover the truth. Hagrid, a half Giant arrives with a special message and soon becomes one of Harry's best friends. Harry learns that his parents were wizards, and that too among the best wizards ever. He comes to know that he has special wizard skills(You are either born with it, or you are a Muggle). He learns that his parents were not killed in any car accident, but were brutally murdered by the evil dark lord, Lord Voldemort. (Voldemort seems to be insipred by Sauron, the evil lord in the LOTR series). The magical people are so scared of the reign of terror that Voldermort had unleashed, that they don't even take his name anymore. Voldemort is referred to by everyone as "You-Know Who".

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Harry soon learns about the existense of a whole parallel magical world. We are introduced to Hogwarts, the ultimate in magical education. After the initial shock and confusion has abated, Harry decides that he wants to become a wizrd afetr all. But, before he can set off for Hogwarts he has to go shopping for all the required stuff at Diagon Alley (Diagonally, anyone?), the magical market-place situated in the heart of London, accessible through a run-down pub named "The Leaky Cauldron". Here he acquires all his school stuff(text-books, cauldrons, cloaks, and his snow-white pet owl, Hedwig)

To reach Hogwarts, Harry and others students have to take the Hogwarts Express, from from platform nine and three-quarters at King's Cross station in London. The Hogwarts Express is a magical crimson coloured steam-driven train that has quaint lanterns, a witch selling magical food stuff and plenty more of detail to keep you engrossed all the way to Hogwarts.

Hogwarts is a co-ed institution with students coming from all corneres of the world. There are ever a couple of students from India. Students start their schooling at 11 years and have six years of education to complete. It is located in a big castle next to a lake and forest and is run by Albus Dumbledore (The only person that You-Know-Who is afraid of) and his deputy Minerva McGonagall, (She's Harry House Leader and Transfiguration Teacher).

Harry finds out that Hagrid, his gentle-giant friend is the gamekeeper at Hogwarts. hagrid is a really endearing character who goes on to become a lecturer in the letr books. Hagrid is charterised by hids liking for man-eating creatures like dragons and Giant Spiders.

The amount of detail that Rowling has put into building Hogwarts, shows the imagination that this lady possesses. She ensures just the right mixture of intrigue, danger and fun to make us long to be accepted into Hogwarts. The school uniform consists of robes, cloaks and pointed hats. Hogwarts is divided into houses, rather like a public school. They are Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor - each with its own ghost. The houses are named after the founding wizards. "You know Who" belonged to Slytherin.

Students are "sorted" between the houses, depending on their character, by the talking Sorting Hat, a character with a real character.
Pleasant, easy-going types are usually placed in Hufflepuff. Those with a studious bent go to Ravenclaw. Slytherin house mostly includes the most ambitious students. Slytherin is famous for haveing produced the most number of Dark Wizards, when Voldemort was in power. Bright, pleasant and brave ones, like Harry, go to Gryffindor.

Harry's Pals

Harry makes some really good friends at Hogwarts. But his closest pals are easily Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, who are at his side in all the perilous situations that Harry goes through.

Hermione is not a pure-blood. Like Harry's mother, Hermione(pronounced Her-My-Knee) was born to muggle parents,(Her parents are Dentist). She is righteous, hardworking, angst-ridden and fussy but also kind and courageous. She has bushy brown hair, large front teeth and has finished memorising the course books by heart, even before the school term starts. She is the one who puts up her hand whenever any professor asks a question in class.

Ron is a bumbling, happy-go-lucky guy who is not too good at magic but is loyal, brave and great company. He and Harry bond too well with each other and become absolutely inseparable friends. He comes from a poor but loving family and has six siblings(Everbody has flaming red hair). His father Aurthur Weasley, works for the Ministry of Magic and barely manages to make ends meet. Ron pities himself because most of the stuff he uses is second-hand, and handed down by one of hids elder brothers. Harry really appreciates the love and affection that Ron's mom showers on him and envies Ron his large, loving family.

If you are thinking of getting enrolled at Hogwarts, be warned that the schedule is quite hectic. Thge Students of Hogwarts are tutored in subjects like Herbology, Charms, Potions, Transfiguration, Care of Magical Creatures and most importantly Defence Against the Dark Arts. There are also highly theoretical subjects like History of Magic, Astronomy, and Ancient Runes. Then there is Divination taht involves the study of Fortune telling, Crystal gazing,Auras, etc.

Hermoine, of course, is the best student and is constantly after Harry and Ron to finish their studies. Harry and Ron always feel that there are better things to do than go about studying.So, while hermione exceles with straight A's in everything, Harry and Ron get by OK.

What Harry really excels at is Quidditch, a game played by wizards which is not very unlike Soccer, except that it is played while flying around on Broomsticks, and with three different types of balls. The Quidditch season starts in November and sees teams of seven competing on broomsticks, divided up into Chasers, Beaters, Keepers, Seekers and Bludgers. The Quaffle is the ball and a Golden Snitch earns a team extra points, and is mostly the deciding factor in any game. Harry proves himself as a ratural with the broom, an gets selected as the Seeker for his team.

How can you Forget...

While I've already introduced most of the major characters of the series, the Harry Potter books are replete with myriads of characters, both good and Evil.

A special place is held by Draco Malfoy, Harry arch-rival at Hogwarts. He is slick but mean. He hates Muggles and his father was a well-known Death-Eater(Follower of Voldemort). He and Harry have been at loggerheads since the day they bumped into each other on the Hogwarts Express.

Then there is Fred and George, the lovable Weasley twins, who are always playing pranks. They love pulling others' legs but unlike Malfoy are not mean. They are always on the lookout for fun, and they are so good at pranks and practical jokes, that they end up with a Joke Shop of their own, named "Weasley's Wizard Wheezes", and invent brilliant charms and spells. They even have a charm called "U-No-Poo" -- Guaranteed Instant Constipation, anyone?

How can anyone, forget the Dementors(Dementia:The loss of intellectual functions (such as thinking, remembering, and reasoning) of sufficient severity to interfere with a person’s daily functioning). They are among the foulest creatures known to mankind. They are guards at the magical prison Azkaban, located on a rock in the middle of the ocean (Alcatraz???). The dementors feed on people's emotions, especially Joy and Happiness. They disable their victims by sucking out all positive thoughts and are capable of administering something called the "Dementors' Kiss", basically sucking out the soul of a person through his mouth, leaving him/her alive but as good as dead. Harry has a hard time fighting the Dementors as he has a lot of Sorrow in his life and the Dementors always manage to bring out all his sorrow.

Then there is...

Sprinkled throughout the books are a myriad of fantastic characters like the three headed Dog in "The Philosopher's Stone", the Flying Ford, the man-eating Giant spider Aragog and the Huge Basilisk in "The Chamber of Secrets". Then there is BuckBeak, the HippoGriff in "Prisoner of Azkaban".
Other than that, there is the very-excitingly portrayed Quidditch World Cup in the beginning of the fourth Book, "The Goblet of Fire".

The Harry Potter saga.

Six Books involving the advrentures of Harry Potter and his friends have been published. Each book has been bigger and more detailed than the previous one. Each book charts a year's progress through Hogwarts School for Harry and his friends. Each Book has seen an exponential growth in the number of pages, the cost of the book, and the fan following.

The First step in the Journey was "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" (Sorcerer's Stone in the US) released in 1997.
The next year saw the release of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" and charted Harry, Hermione and Ron's second year at Hogwarts. This time around, though, the mood is darker as evil voices and bloody messages point Harry towards an unsolved mystery. Ron's little sister, Ginny almost loses her life at the hands of Voldemort and Harry has to risk his own life to save her.
"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" came out in 1999. It tells the story of Sirius Black, who escapes from the high security wizard prison of Azkaban and then "tries" to kill 13-year-old Harry. This book has the most twists in the tale, to date, and a lot of new information surfaces about Harry's past and his parents. Wormtail, is introduced in this book. Also there is this absolutley fantastic object called the Marauder's Map, which is like a magic version of GPS and 3G blended together.
Sirius Black, turns out to be asheep in Wolf's clothing and he becomes Harry Godfather.
"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", the fourth installment in the series saw the readers facing the death of one of Harry's schoolmates at the hands of Voldemort. Also Lord Voldemort managed to regenerate himself towards the end of this book. This book ran in 640 pages.
2003 saw the eagerly-awaited publication of Rowling's fifth book, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", which clocked in at a whopping 740 pages. Here Lord Voldemort is back in action and the Order is formed to try and defeat him. The grand climax sees Sirius Black getting killed, and the propehcy concerning the realtion between harry and Voldemort.
The latest installment in the Harry Potter saga was released last week to great enthusiasm and fervour. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" clocks in at aound 830 pages. It is widely rumoured to depict the death of a very important character. Speculation is rife about whether Dumbledore, or even Hary himself may be getting killed.

No release date has been set for the seventh book, the "supossedly" last instalment in JK Rowling's epic saga. Most people have their own favorite book, but my favourite is easily the Third Book "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban". This Book easily beats all the others in terms of plot and imagination.

Go, ahead, Plunge in and stop being such a MUGGLE...

Police Story - Part IVThe Villains of Koramangala...

2005-07-15T11:46:00.000+05:30

This is the second part of the Robbery series. For those who came in late...Thieves struck at about 5:30 am on a Sunday morning, while I was fast asleep and stole my mobile phone... This piece is about my interaction with the friendly(Pun, intended) neighbourhood police. Forget expecting them to trace his mobile, it was a herculean task to just get the police to lodge an FIR...

Was rudely woken up from a deep sleep, commotion all around. I somehow manage to shake the sleep off. Realise that it has been years since I have woken up so early. The unthinkable has happened. There has been a robbery at my place. It has actually happened to me. It is no longer something on the crime page of the newspaper, that we usually read with a sense of detachment. Am quite shocked and dizzy (Partly because of the early hour, partly due to the actual event). Gradually it starts to sink in. After some harried searching of the belongings, discover that my dear mobile phone had been stolen. Am feeling hurt that a dear friend and constant companion has been so cruelly snatched away.

Gradually acceptance and resignation (to the loss) starts to creep in. Start feeling grateful that at least no one was hurt. Send up some thanks. Also as the mobile phone was insured, thought it would be a simple matter to approach the friendly, neighborhood police and get an FIR. I soon found out, this wasn't so...

Called up the landlord to inform him and plead with him to come with me to the police station, as I cannot speak one word of Kannada. The guy laughs at me and tells me, "Remember, You are in Bangalore, not Madikere". I still insist on him coming over, as I distinctly remember reading an article, a couple of weeks ago in the "Times of India" stating how the Bangalore police were searching high and low for police force members capable of handling English. After much cajoling and wheedling, the landlord agrees to make a guest appearance.
As sleep is out of the question, I decide to go and grab a quick bite before heading out on the course of law enforcement. After all breakfast is the most important meal in the day (Maybe I should stop skipping Breakfast on weekdays) ...

Finally the landlord appears after about an hour. He goes off on his bike and tells me to meet him at the police station. I stay behind to collect the mobile phone documents before going to the police station. The landlord is nowhere to be seen. So, I decide to test the Times' report and approach a middle aged constable on the front-desk. (Wow, This place has a proper front desk and a kind looking constable seated there. It can't really be as bad as the grapevine suggest). Start to explain why I'm there. He gives me a wide eyed expression and says something in Kannada. I try Hindi. Same response again. I draw on all my pantomime experience (zilch, actually) and start to explain about the robbery speaking only in proper nouns and miming the rest. Revelation dawns, on the guy's face. After a lot of efforts I have made him understand that a robbery has happened. He hands me a register and a pen. I look at the other entries, and write down my address.

A fat, pot-bellied, and bald fellow in plainclothes approaches and the kind-faced one rattles off a long story to him in Kannada. Fat guy speaks broken Hindi and is quite proud of it. (Come on man, it is the national language. You are supposed to be good at it). I finally start using words to apprise him of the nitty-gritty of the situation. Between the three of us we manage to paint a gory picture of thievery, robbery, etc. The landlord finally drops in(useless fellow), and the story is retold in graphic detail once again. Fat-Guy says he has to visit the "scene of the crime". The landlord offers to give him a lift, and we set out for my place.

We soon reach the crime-scene (formerly my Home) and Fat-Guy goes all over the house without even taking off his dirty boots and shows me how the thieves must have done it. (I get the urge of pointing out that I already told him the same story, but let it pass). Fat-Guy and the landlord start discussing the whole thing as if they were discussing the weather. Fat-Guy finds the whole situation a bit amusing and condescendingly points out that if windows are built close to doors then there are bound to be robberies. (Probability??? Murphy's Law, or what???)

Fat-Guy starts looking around outside the house too, and the landlord chooses this occasion to ask me for an increase in the rent. I can't believe this guy. (Now that thieves are also eager to get into the house, the demand is of course higher???) Fat-Guy gets bored soon and decides that he should be back at the police station. We set off on my bike and after dropping him at the station he tells me to come back after an hour as all the officers are out investigation some "dacoity". I promptly pop-in at the appointed time. This time round there is a new person on the front-desk. This guy also speaks no Hindi, or English. I manage to make him understand the words FIR and that I'm here to meet Fat-Guy. He asks me to have a seat and after having the seat all to myself for half an hour, I lose interest and ask him to help me get something done. Fat-Guy pops in some time later and takes me to a shed-like room behind the main building where the SI(Sub-Inspector) and others are seated. there is no electricity and as a result the room has approximately the right temperature for rice to be cooked.

I am again assigned to a free seat, and sit there sweating (Maybe, this is what they mean by being in the HOT Seat?). After sitting there and twiddling my thumbs for another 1/2 hour I again try to get somebody interested in my predicament. This time another guy (the Writer of the Police-Station) finally condescends and asks me to come to his table. He speaks better Hindi than all the others put together and I'm finally able to pour my heart out to him. He hands me a blank sheet and I write down a formal complaint under his guidance. He makes me edit (censor) the complaint twice and rewrite it. I'm really beginning to hate those thieves from the bottom of my heart for putting me through all this.

He finally accepts the third draft of the complaint as satisfactory and I see visions of going out of the police station soon with the FIR in my hands. But there happens to be another twist in the tale. The Writer-Guy leaves the office with my complaint and returns a loooong time later and looks at me quizzically. I remind him that I'm waiting for a copy of the FIR. He looks at me as if I'm some alien ans tells me there is no electricity, so we can't operate the computers, so you can't have the FIR till the electricity comes back. I can't believe it. The situation is becoming murkier by the minute. If only I could lay my hands on those @#$$%^$#@# thieves...

Call up my Mobile service provider's helpline and find out that all their offices are closed on Sunday. But they have one main office open. I rush off on my bike and the service provider's cancels my SIM card, without much trouble. Bless them!!! Come back to the police station in the evening, and after running all over the place looking for the Writer-Guy finally manage to locate him. He informs me that the electricity is not yet back. I can't belive this is the situation in one of the poshest areas in the heart of Bangalore, India's IT capital. God help me!!! I am asked to come back "Tomorrow".

"Tomorrow", Monday dawns bright and cheerful and I reach the police station around 9 on the way to office. The Writer-Guy sees me and gives me a big smile. Start feeling cheerful. Maybe the thieves were really in need, Poor Guys...He tells me the FIR is ready and he has to take a photocopy and then I can have it. He collects a few files, asks me to follow him to the photocopy store across the road. I tag along feeling fairly happy. On the way he starts talking about how much paper-work the poor police have to do, and how the crime-rate is rising so much. (Buster, If the police did their job properly maybe there would be less criminals floating around...)

The guy gives me a oily smile and laughingly talks about how he should be getting a service charge for the things he's is doing for me. (The only "service" he has rendered till now is to take down my complaint). Get this little suspicion that I'm about to be asked for a bribe. I prefer to ignore the statement.
He suddenly exclaims that he has forgotten my file at his office. I just can't believe this anymore. Says we'll have to go back and get it. We set off back to the police station. As we reach the front gate the guy tells me you have to pay me Rs. 150/-. Feel totally disgusted with the fellow. Consider kicking his ass, (as I've seen Sunny Paaji do so often on TV), but decide against it. I pay up and the guy is all smiles once again. Tells me to not worry, 'I can come and collect the FIR in the evening'.

I get out of that place and fee disgusted with the guys behavior. Forget maintaining law and order, or tracing down the criminals, these guys are so pathetic that they demand money to just lodge a complaint.
Then again, maybe the police are doing their job. They make it a point to harass and disgust anyone coming to them, to such an extent that they will be mortally scared of ever having to lodge a compliant at the police station. Thus they will take extra care of their property and belongings thus preventing thieves from stealing anything. After all "Prevention is always Better than Cure..."

I finally got the FIR the next day (two days after the actual crime).

Darkest Before the Dawn !!!!

2005-07-11T17:10:00.000+05:30

This one is based on a real experience. It was the first time I ever experienced a robbery....
-Manoj

It's like a bizarre dream. I suddenly hear shouting. I almost wake up then sink back into sleep thinking it is just some dream. Then I hear Dinesh, my roommate shout and open my eyes to see him running out of the room. This is too wierd to be a dream. I jump out of bed and run after him. He yanks the door open and runs out. Outside the girls on the first floor are screaming "Chor, Chor" (Thief, Thief).

The time is about 5:30 in the morning. It is the time when most people are in the deepest part of their sleep cycle. As I come out of my front door and look around groggily, the setting looks quite surreal. It is almost dawn but still quite dark. The sky looks bright, but my surroundings are still in shadow. I almost decide that the setting is too wierd to be anything but a dream, when suddenly I see Dinesh and one of the girls running after the thief, and I follow suit. By the time we reach the ground floor the fellow has already hit the street. He suddenly stumbles and one mobile falls down from his hands.

He takes off into a side street and Dinesh follows him. I'm about to run after them and help Dinesh when it suddenly hits me that I saw my roommate yanking open the door and running out, but I just don't remember seeing him pull the latch open. It suddenly dawns on me as I stand there in the pre-dawn twilight that we also have been robbed. Then I suddenly remember that I had a larger than usual amount of cash lying in my cupboard. I decide to run up and and check on the money as the thief is anyway out of sight, and given the supreme state of fitness that I maintain (Tch..Tch.. ;-)), I'm absolutely sure that there is no way I'm going to catch any thief on foot, especially when the guy is running for his life.

I rush into the house and find that my mobile is gone, but to my relief I find that the cash is still exactly where I had left it. I lock the house, rush out, get on my bike and go around looking for any kind of movement on all the roads around the house. There is not one soul in sight and I'm afraid the thief may have decided to confront Dinesh and may have hurt him. I rush back to the house to see Dinesh returning barefooted and empty-handed from the opposite direction. He tells me that the thief just disappeared into some shanties quite a distance away. I'm quite angry at the thieves and feel like slapping them.

We return home with a heavy heart and after checking through our belongings, decide that the thieves have not managed to lay their hands on anything other than my mobile, and some cash in Dinesh's purse. We are puzzled by the open door, as I clearly remember shutting and bolting the door after Rohit left, late yesterday night. Rohit is one of my friends who lives quite close to my place and we were having fun watching movies on TV and talking till late the previous night. We then notice that the mosquito net on the window near the door has been slashed with some blade and the thief must have put in his hand and pulled the latch open.

We go down to check on the girls and realise that the same modus operandi has been used at their place too. Their window also was open and the thieves managed to get the door open. The thieves had taken both their mobile phones and some cash from one of the girls' purses. The purse was just near her head when she was sleeping. The thieves were so audacious that they got the mobiles, came out into the drawing room, opened the phones, took the SIM cards out of the phones and left them behind. They were careful to take the chargers though as the phones have less resale value without chargers.

To be continued...My saga with the police just trying to get them to lodge a complaint and get a copy of the FIR....

One for the Road - Driving and Surviving in Bangalore

2005-06-07T14:32:00.000+05:30

This was mailed to me by one of my colleagues. The writer has summed up all the problems of Bangalore so aptly, that I felt it should find a place on my blog too...
-Manoj.

Driving in Bangalore is like working on a Six Sigma process. There are a million opportunities for a defect; in this case a process defect being defined as “getting a dent in your car”. A day with less than 3.4 scratches, dents or bent bumpers means that your driving for the day is Six Sigma qualified.

Every time you brake; you brace for impact from behind, invariably there is a car, auto or a bike just a few millimeters behind the rear bumper ready to crash into you. I pity those cars with “body color bumpers” ; they will have to be repainted after every hit. Mine has a “Scratch” color bumper so that it absorbs as many scratches as it likes. I tried to get a Scratch Color car but they don’t sell them here. So I had to do with a scratch color bumper.

Every car owner blames any dent on the ubiquitious “Other Driver”. The “Other driver” is one who brakes too early or never brake on time. He either makes a turn without an indicator or tries zipping past cheekily on a bike through your left when you have your left indicator on and slowly turning left- just begging to be knocked down.

According to “been-here-for-a-long-time” Bangaloreans everything can be blamed on the Software engineers. Nothing was the same again afterwards..…After the Software Revolution almost overnight the population doubled; quadrupled and had the city bursting at the seams. All Software Engineers went on onsite trips and bought cars & flats with the money they saved. They had survived on just Puliyogre rice in US/UK/Canada for an year to save money for the entire duration of their onsite trip.

However the government was not in a mood to let them drive happily ever after in their new flashy cars. They called emergency meetings and made the decision to dig up all the roads…Also they decided to build “Semi-fly-overs” thru out the city. These were specially designed to narrow down the existing roads and make them so congested that not even a “fly can go over” to the other side. People initially thought these are like fly-overs in other cities ;but later on came to know these are meant to be “Semi-fly-overs” which is supposed to be like a speed breaker (speeding is if you go above 20 kmph) and never will be like those on which vehicles actually ply on..

Talking about flies; how can you forget mosquitoes; another remarkable phenomenon hereabouts…. Around the time Infosys was thinking of ESOPs; Mosquitoes learned that Bangalore was a good place for a “byte”. And the rest is history. According to stats, currently there are around 2767 mosquitoes per software engineer in Bangalore. Mosquitoes have a gala time with these “soft” targets

Meanwhile holes in ozone layer induced global warming and the air conditioned city now had air conditioning only in the offices of software co: s. The honchos of the software companies had met and hatched a conspiracy. They wrote a program to increase the atmospheric temperatures in the city so that the offices became pleasant havens for software engineers who now preferred working 15 hrs instead of 9. And dreading their hot n sweaty mosquito infested homes and the rush hours to get there….

Btw let me tell you; as such we Bangaloreans are not different species from anyone else. But well there is one distinguishing factor.

For eg: Mumbaiites work hard during the week; and in the weekend; go around town sporting T-shirts of brands such as Adidas, Nike, Reebok etc. ….

Bangaloreans too work hard during the week, but go out on weekends sporting t-shirts, jackets, caps, socks, bags & underwear (mebbe) of brands such as Infosys, Wipro or whichever software company we work for................

Back to the topic of driving… Well not so long ago I was one of the “overtake-only-thru-the left” bikers I mentioned earlier but then I managed to become a car owner. In my own foreign trips, though I did not survive on Puliyodiri rice I saved a lot of money by having just one Beer a day and in the end of my sojourn I had saved enough to own just one li’l not-so-new Santro. Still I look at my car and I wistfully remember all those drinks I did not have.

Back in Bangalore I did a Cost-Benefit analysis of using the car vis-à-vis the bike. Well btw my KB 125 bike is unique. Unlike other bikes where the mileage is calculated in Km per liter; this gr8 breakthrough’ of motorcycling; the mileage is calculated in liters to go one Km!!! This can probably be attributed to the fact that my knowledge of Zen and that of Motorcycle Maintenance are quite comparable. Anyway in the final tally, mileage-wise the car won hands-down. So due to economical reasons I chose the car

Another important reason I choose the car for my daily commute is the Bangalore Bus Drivers..

Well, their mundane existence of just driving passengers back n forth bored these guys to no extent. Then one of them saw Tiger Woods on TV and devised a game called BMTC-Golf . The rules are similar to ordinary Golf . However in this case each Bus Driver uses his bus instead of a Golf Club. All he has to do is to aim right, swing (the steering) and whack !!Knock a two-wheeler driver to a convenient pot-hole of a suitable size. Jumping a red light and knocking down a 2 wheeler carries extra points and brings down your handicap.As playing BMTC-Golf with a car is as difficult as a “hole in one” i feel a wee bit more comfortable in a car.

Btw the golf courses for this extremely popular sport are designated by the very creative names they have been given. For eg: There’s an 80-feet road; where 80 feet is the average radius of a pothole & similarly there are some 100 feet roads. Each driver compares his tally for the day with the others and the winner buys booze for everyone before everyone starts work the next day...

BPO Qualis drivers have seen the immense entertainment potential for this sport and are fast catching up. They have their own mini versions of the same game which they’re perfecting. They even flaunt their talent on the back of their vehicles like Golf players “How is my driving, call 988XXXXX”. I reckon not too many are talented in other Golf shots like “Putting”, “Teeing” or “Chipping” because I’ve never seen any BPO Qualis driver ask “How is my Putting?” on their back windows

With such varied species around; Bangalore roads are a reflection of life itself. Like in life there are no road signs when u require it and you have to guess by the number of vehicles going into a particular road or open your inner eye and see whether it will lead you to MG road. And in this One-way city if miss a turn, you have to orbit the city like a dogged satellite to get near the same point.

None has to keep reminding you “ There are no Second Chances in Life”.

Superstitions: Myth or Reality...

2005-05-13T11:55:00.000+05:30

"Today is Friday the 13th, widely known to be the most unlucky day of the year", the RJ on Radio City reminded me as I started for office. I thought about it and I seemed to not believe in the myth I continued on my way. I reached office without incoident and was about to start work, when the RJ again reminded me about the dangers of Friday the 13th. We Indians are a bit superstitious by nature. We believe in luck, fate, and the supernatural. We may say that we are educated and are above pettey superstitions, but the fact remains that deep in our psyches we have this penchant for myths and lore. Our religions and scriptures abound with the supernatural and the mystic. Our sense of morality is forged on the basis of super-being(s) who are ominscient and who'll punish any wrongs that we do.

Anyway by this time, I was so intrigued by this whole "Friday the 13th" business that I decided to turn to the Net to help me throw some light on the while thing.

I already talked about the Indian belief in the supernatural. But, even our belief in mythical creatures are surpassed by the sheer range and diversity in European beliefs. The Europeans have creatures like Zombies, basilisks, ghouls, vampires, banshees, boggarts, centaurs, chimeras, elves, fairies, dwarves, ghosts, gnomes, goblins, leprechauns, minotaurs, ogres, djinns, pixies, sirens to name but a few. Greek mythology which is somewhat similar to Indian mythology, especially has a lot of stories and myths.

I found a lot of material about myths, and urban legends. Friday the 13th seemed to be a hit with a lot of people, going by the number of sites I found talking about it. So I read a lot and wrote a little...

Is Friday the 13^th Unlucky?

Paraskevidekatriaphobia: Fear of Friday the 13th

"Is Friday the 13th Bad for Your Health?" is the title of a study published in the British Medical Journal in 1993. With the aim of mapping "the relation between health, behaviour, and superstition surrounding Friday 13th in the United Kingdom," its authors compared the ratio of traffic volume to vehicular accidents on two different days, Friday the 6th and Friday the 13th, over a period of years.

Surprisingly, they found that in the region sampled, while consistently fewer people chose to drive on Friday the 13th, the number of hospital admissions due to accidents was significantly higher than on "normal" Fridays.

Their conclusion:
"Friday 13th is unlucky for some. The risk of hospital admission as a result of a transport accident may be increased by as much as 52 percent. Staying at home is recommended."

Paraskevidekatriaphobics — people afflicted with a morbid, irrational fear of Friday the 13th — are no doubt pricking up their ears just now, buoyed by evidence that their fears may not be so irrational after all. But it's unwise to take solace in a single scientific study (the only one of its kind, so far as I know), especially one so peculiar. I suspect it has more to teach us about human psychology than it does about any particular date on the calendar.

The Most Widespread Superstition

The sixth day of the week and the number 13 both have foreboding reputations said to date from ancient times; their inevitable conjunction from one to three times a year portends more misfortune than some credulous minds can bear. Folklorists say it's probably the most widespread superstition in the UK (and no doubt in other parts of the world, as well) — some people won't go to work on Friday the 13th; some won't eat in restaurants; many wouldn't think of setting a wedding on the date.

How many people at the turn of the millennium still suffer from this condition? According to Dr. Donald Dossey, a psychotherapist specializing in the treatment of phobias and credited with coining the term "paraskevidekatriaphobia," as many as 21 million do in the United States alone. If that figure is correct, something like eight percent of Americans are still in the grips of an old superstition.

Exactly how old is difficult to say, because tracing the origins of superstitions is an imprecise science, at best. In fact, it's mostly guesswork.

The Devil's Dozen

It is said: If 13 people sit down to dinner together, all will die within the year. The Turks so disliked the number 13 that it was practically expunged from their vocabulary (Brewer, 1894). Many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue.

Many buildings don't have a 13th floor. If you have 13 letters in your name, you will have the devil's luck (Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert De Salvo all have 13 letters in their names). There are 13 witches in a coven.(http://crypt.eldritchs.com/wicca/glossary.html)

Though no one can say for sure when and why human beings first associated the number 13 with misfortune, the belief is assumed to be quite old and there are any number of theories purporting to trace its origins to antiquity and beyond.

It has been proposed, for example, that fears surrounding the number 13 are as ancient as the act of counting. Primitive man had only his 10 fingers and two feet to represent units, so he could not count higher than 12. What lay beyond that — 13 — was an impenetrable mystery, hence an object of superstition.

Which has a lovely, didactic ring to it, but one is left wondering: did primitive man not have toes?

Despite whatever terrors the numerical unknown held for their prehistoric forebears, ancient civilizations weren't unanimous in their dread of 13. The Chinese regarded the number as lucky, historians say, as did the Egyptians in the time of the pharaohs.

To the ancient Egyptians, life was a quest for spiritual ascension which unfolded in stages — 12 in this life and a 13th beyond, thought to be the eternal afterlife. The number 13 therefore symbolized death — not in terms of dust and decay, but as a glorious and desirable transformation. Though Egyptian civilization perished, the death-symbolism they conferred on the number 13 survived, only to be corrupted by later cultures who associated it with a fear of death instead of a reverence for the afterlife.

Anathema

Other sources suggest the number 13 was purposely vilified by the founders of patriarchal religions in the early days of western civilization because it represented femininity. Thirteen had been revered in prehistoric goddess-worshiping cultures, allegedly, because it corresponded to the number of lunar (menstrual) cycles in a year (13 x 28 = 364 days). The "Earth Mother of Laussel," for example, a 27,000-year-old carving found near the Lascaux caves in France often cited as an icon of matriarchal spirituality, depicts a female figure holding a cresent-shaped horn bearing 13 notches. According to this explanation, as the solar calendar triumphed over the lunar with the rise of male-dominated civilization, so did the number 12 over the number 13, thereafter considered anathema.

On the other hand, one of the earliest concrete taboos associated with the number 13 — a taboo still observed by some superstitious folks today, apparently — has been attributed to the ancient Vikings, though I have also been told that this and the accompanying mythological explanation are apocryphal.

In any case, the story has been handed down as follows:
Twelve gods were invited to a banquet at Valhalla. Loki, the Evil One, god of mischief, had been excluded from the guest list but crashed the party anyway, bringing the total number of attendees to 13. True to character, Loki raised hell by inciting Hod, the blind god of winter, to attack Balder the Good, who was a favorite of the gods. Hod took a spear of mistletoe offered by Loki and obediently hurled it at Balder, killing him instantly. All Valhalla grieved. And although one might take the moral of this story to be "Beware of uninvited guests bearing mistletoe," the Norse themselves apparently concluded that 13 people at a dinner party is just plain bad luck.

As if to prove the point, the Bible tells us there were exactly 13 present at the Last Supper. One of the dinner guests — er, disciples — betrayed Jesus Christ, setting the stage for the Crucifixion.

Did I mention the Crucifixion took place on a Friday?

Surprisingly, Hindu mythology seems to be completely free of the Fear of 13(Friday or not). The Fear of 13(Friday or not) seems to be a typical European belief. Hinduism, which is a religion that is usually full of myths and steepled in superstiton does not seem to have anything to do with the 13 myths.

Bad Friday

It is said: Never change your bed on Friday; it will bring bad dreams. Don't start a trip on Friday or you will have misfortune. If you cut your nails on Friday, you cut them for sorrow. Ships that set sail on a Friday will have bad luck.

For example, H.M.S. Friday ... One hundred years ago, the British government sought to quell once and for all the widespread superstition among seamen that setting sail on Fridays was unlucky. A special ship was commissioned, named "H.M.S. Friday." They laid her keel on a Friday, launched her on a Friday, selected her crew on a Friday and hired a man named Jim Friday to be her captain. To top it off, H.M.S. Friday embarked on her maiden voyage on a Friday, and was never seen or heard from again.

Some say Friday's bad reputation goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. It was on a Friday, supposedly, that Eve tempted Adam with the forbidden fruit. Adam bit, as we all learned in Sunday School, and they were both ejected from Paradise. Tradition also holds that the Great Flood began on a Friday; God tongue-tied the builders of the Tower of Babel on a Friday; the Temple of Solomon was destroyed on a Friday; and, of course, Friday was the day of the week on which Christ was crucified. It is therefore a day of penance for Christians.

In pagan Rome, Friday was execution day (later Hangman's Day in Britain), but in other pre-Christian cultures it was the sabbath, a day of worship, so those who indulged in secular or self-interested activities on that day could not expect to receive blessings from the gods — which may explain the lingering taboo on embarking on journeys or starting important projects on Fridays.

To complicate matters, these pagan associations were not lost on the early Church, which went to great lengths to suppress them. If Friday was a holy day for heathens, it must not be so for Christians — thus it became known in the Middle Ages as the "Witches' Sabbath," and thereby hangs another tale.

The Witch-Goddess.

The name "Friday" came from a Norse deity worshipped on the sixth day, known either as Frigg (goddess of marriage and fertility), or Freya (goddess of sex and fertility), or both, the two figures having become intertwined in the handing-down of myths over time (the etymology of "Friday" has been given both ways). Frigg/Freya corresponded to Venus, the goddess of love of the Romans, who named the sixth day of the week in her honor "dies Veneris."

Friday was actually considered quite lucky by pre-Christian Teutonic peoples, we are told — especially as a day to get married — because of its traditional association with love and fertility. All that changed when Christianity came along. The goddess of the sixth day — most likely Freya in this context, given that the cat was her sacred animal — was recast in post-pagan folklore as a witch, and her day became associated with evil doings.

Various legends developed in that vein, but one is of particular interest: As the story goes, the witches of the north used to observe their sabbath by gathering in a cemetery in the dark of the moon. On one such occasion the Friday goddess, Freya herself, came down from her sanctuary in the mountaintops and appeared before the group, who numbered only 12 at the time, and gave them one of her cats, after which the witches' coven — and, by tradition, every properly-formed coven since — comprised exactly 13.

Hollywood and Friday the 13th

Trust Hollywood to take a well-established myth and turn it into an urban legend. Ask any self respecting movie buff about Friday the 13th and he is sure to start talikng about the exploits of Jason Voorhees. The movies are so successful that very few Americans know why Friday the 13th is supposed to be inauspicious. They are simply scared of Jason. The concept worked so well that, as of today, the "Friday the 13th" series has about 10 highly grossing installments.

It all started with the first movie "Friday the 13th" released on May 9, 1980. This was directed by Sean Cunningham, and grossed $39,754,601 on the US Box Office. The americans fell hook, line and sinker for Jason. "Friday the 13th" was one of the main films directly responsible for the horror explosion of the early 80's. During the 80s Jason continued to appear at regular intervals. His exploits are:-

Friday the 13th Part 2(1981)
Friday the 13th Part 3(1982)
Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter(1984)
Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning(1985)
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives(1986)
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood(1988)
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan(1989)
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday(1993)
Jason X(2002), and finally
Freddy vs. Jason(2003) in which Freddy Krueger of "Nightmare on Elm Street" meets Jason.

The "Friday the 13th" movies grossed lots at the box office and have become part of Hollywood. They are mentioned in the same breath as Evil dead, and Exorcist.

Tongue Twisters...

2005-04-26T14:10:00.000+05:30

Recently while googling, I happened to come across a few toungue twisters. We humans are a wierd race. We seem to enjoy finding new ways to confound ourselves. We seem to be unsure of our strengths and hence we keep trying to challenge ourselves. This is very similar to the stress testing and boundary-case analysis that we developers expose our code to. Hence Tongue twisters are a hit with the young and the old.
So here are a few of my favourite tongue twisters.

A flea and a fly dropped into a flue,
Said the fly to the flea, "Oh what should we do"
Said the flea " Let us fly "
Said the fly "Let us flee"
So the flea fled and the fly flew...
And out they flew through a flaw in the flue.

Mr. See owned a saw.
And Mr. Soar owned a seesaw.
Now, See's saw sawed Soar's seesaw
Before Soar saw See, Which made Soar sore.
Had Soar seen See's saw
Before See sawed Soar's seesaw,
See's saw would not have sawed
Soar's seesaw.
So See's saw sawed Soar's seesaw.
But it was sad to see Soar so sore
just because See's saw sawed
Soar's seesaw.

And the classic one called Betty Botter and her Butter...
Betty Botter had some butter,
"But," she said, "this butter's bitter.
If I bake this bitter butter,
It would make my batter bitter.
But a bit of better butter,
That would make my batter better.
" So she bought a bit of butter -
Better than her bitter butter -
And she baked it in her batter;
And the batter was not bitter.
So 'twas better Betty Botter
Bought a bit of better butter.

Cartoons: I Still Love them!!!

2005-02-14T20:15:00.000+05:30

Many People are of the opinion that an adult person watching(or rather, enjoying) Cartoons implies Childisness and Retarded Reasoning Faculties. I on the other hand Beg to Differ.

People when they hear from me about my favourite cartoon characters often push up their noses and behave as if to say, "Come on, Grow UP!!!" Given the fact that I'm 25 and in a serious profession like engineering, people expect me to indulge in all kinds of BORING pastimes like playing chess, or gossiping. People even consider watching Soap Operas as a higher mental task that watching (enjoying) cartoons. But to be frank, understanding the complex world of Cartoons is no trivial task. They are as much of a challenge to the mind as any self-respecting movie.

After a hard days work, there is nothing more soothing, and Stress-Relieving than relaxing on my favourite chair watching the Destruction wrought about by Tom and Jerry. The way they are able to rejuvenate themselves after being flattened and beaten up into all kinds of shapes is simply amazing. I see this as a source of great inspiration, and think it is better than reading a hundred self-help books.

Other than watching animated Cartoons I also enjoy Cartoons and comics of the static variety published on Paper. Every morning I pick up the newspaper and before even glancing at the Headlines, which talk of all kinds of Mishaps and Misfortunes, I tend to turn to the Comics page and end up chuckling, and sometimes roaring with Laughter at the Sarcasm of Garfield, the Desperation of Charlie Brown, the Stupidity in Bull$ n Bear$, and the Kameenapan of Dennis.

I have this Roommate who is absolutely mad about "Calvin and Hobbes". He has spent (invested, as he prefers to call it) a lot of time and money, finding and collecting all the published works of Bill Waterson. He was responsible for initiating me into the multi-hued world of C&H. Initially I used to read it just for the wry Humour, but as I continued I found lots of common sense and Philosophy woven into the strips. I really began appreciating the creative genius of Waterson, in incorporating messages about serious topics like the environment into the colourful world of little Calvin.

When I look at the whole thing, I see myself enjoying (or, rather loving) cartoons and comics as long as I'm able to understand them. ;-)

The Sunny world of Cartoons has been very nicely summed up by Aqua in the song "Cartoon Heroes".
We are what we're supposed to be
Illusions of your fantasy
All dots and lines that speak and say
What we do is what you wish to do

We are the color symphony
We do the things you wanna see
Frame by frame, to the extreme

Our friends are so unreasonable
They do the unpredictable
All dots lines that speak and say
What we do is what you wish to do

It's all an orchestra of strings
Doin' unbelievable things
Frame by frame, to the extreme
One by one, we're makin' it fun

We are the Cartoon Heroes - oh-oh-oh
We are the ones who're gonna last forever
We came out of a crazy mind - oh-oh-oh
And walked out on a piece of paper

Here comes Spiderman, arachnophobian
Welcome to the toon town party
Here comes Superman, from never-neverland
Welcome to the toon town party

We learned to run at speed of light
And to fall down from any height
It's true, but just remember that
What we do is what you just can't do

And all the worlds of craziness
A bunch of stars that's chasing us
Frame by frame, to the extreme
One by one, we're makin' it fun

We are the Cartoon Heroes - oh-oh-oh
We are the ones who're gonna last forever
We came out of a crazy mind - oh-oh-oh
And walked out on a piece of paper

Here comes Spiderman, arachnophobian
Welcome to the toon town party
Here comes Superman, from never-neverland
Welcome to the toon town party

You think we're so mysterious
Don't take us all too serious
Be original, and remember that
What we do is what you just can't do

What we do is what you just can't do
What we do is what you just can't do
What we do is what you just can't do
What we do is what you just can't do

We are the Cartoon Heroes - oh-oh-oh
We are the ones who're gonna last forever
We came out of a crazy mind - oh-oh-oh
And walked out on a piece of paper

There's still more to come
And everyone will be
Welcomed at the
Toon - Toon
Town - Town
Party.

Hats off to all the UnNamed Cartoonists. They are next only to GOD in their ability to create new worlds and Give LIFE...

BLACK...Hindi Cinema's Coming of Age Movie....

2005-02-14T13:31:00.000+05:30

Went to See BLACK this Saturday with my Friends.... It was a really unforgettable Experience...BLACK is Unlike any HIndi Movie ever-made. It is Stark, Thought Provoking, Rough, Beautiful, Poetic, Gossamer, and Tough at the same time. Very Few Movie-Makers are able to attain this level of Movie Making. Hats off to Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

Black stars Amitabh Bachchan and Rani Mukerji. Bacchan, in one of his best roles, plays the TEACHER and Portrays both Unsurmountable Weakness and Indomitable Strength with equal Ease. Rani(the Girl Next Door) portrays the role of a Deaf and Blind Girl with such conviction, that the viewer cannot help but get affected with her plight.

Ayesha Kapur plays the young Rani -- a blind, deaf and hence mute girl -- to perfection. One can just wonder at the performance by a 10 year old little girl. Frustrated by her inability to comprehend the world around her, little Michelle McNally is an untamed 'animal'. Her Father keeps a distance, her mother is too full of pity to try to discipline her. Michelle inhabits her own Dark and Silent World, bumping into walls all around her. Our Hearts go out to her as she gobbles food directly from the table, or when her father beats her up for (almost) hurting her liitle sibling.

Debraj Sahai (Amitabh Bachchan), a recovering alcoholic and a 'Magician' with Differentially-abled kids, wrangles himself into the responsibility of turning the blind, deaf and mute girl into a 'fine young lady' (as Michelle's mother Catherine, played with grace by Shernaz Patel, says).

Our Hearts soar as she manages to blurt out her first word : W...A...T...E...R.

In the End Black come Full Circle with the Student teaching the "Teacher". The Last Scene Leaves an Unforgettable imprint on the Viewer's mind, with the whole screen bathed in brilliant WHITE light.

First Blog...

2005-02-14T10:56:00.000+05:30

Testing 1...2...3.
My First Blog...
I started this on a monday for a couple of Reasons.
* I thought Beginning on the first day of the week would help as I would continue
at least for the next 5 days.
* A friend of mine, the Great Carthee inspired me by starting his own blog.

That's it for now.