Gmail news

Just read on my friend’s blog that 1GB of gmail space can become 1GB on your hard disk. Interesting!!

Bribe and Tips

About 2.5 yrs ago my mom was admitted to a hospital. One day when my mom was in the hospital, my dad's vehicle which was parked in front of the hospital fell off (because of uneven ground). The guard came and lifted the vehicle up and helped my dad put it in a side. My dad gave him Rs10 as TIPS for his helping nature. My dad and mom used to visit the hospital for the regular check ups. Recently, my sister's kid was admitted to the same hospital. Though it is a small hospital, they have some standard rules like visiting hours etc. During non visiting hours only 2 people can stay with the patient (because the patient is a 1yr kid). But because the guard knew my father, he allowed my father and mother to go the ward even during non visiting hours. I know that this is a mistake committed by my father and mother. When I shared this with one of my friends he said casually that my dad's bribe worked. On that moment I laughed it away. But now I realize that it was TIPS and not BRIBE. But the TIP has converted into BRIBE.
BRIBE is defined as "Something, such as money or a favor, offered or given to a person in a position of trust to influence that person's views or conduct."
TIP is defined as "A small sum of money given to someone for performing a service; a gratuity."
My dad paid him for performing a service (so by definition it’s a tip), but that has influenced the guard's behavior (so by definition it’s a bribe).
May be its just gratitude or just acquaintance.
I am Lost in Thoughts.

Development errors

Entire yesterday went in debugging some crap. Finally at the end of the day, I got to know that my collegue had not checked in the correct version into version control. So stupid! MS errors are also so cryptic, that the message wont say anything to the developer. Just imagine - You get a error message "Invalid number of parameters to the function". Guess the solution - Restart the computer. It really works.
The tussle between developement and testing seems to build up. Interesting things expected in the coming days. Its difficult to see friends getting screwed because of bad management of projects. But thats how things work in software.
This tussle has been there since the day SDLC was invented. It could take the shape of Ind Pak matches.
Waiting anxiously.

Who let the dogs out?

Yesterday was a busy day and I had to stay late at office. I left office by 9pm in the taxi. As I was nearing my house, I could see a bike at some distance ahead of us in the lonely road. A group of stray dogs, barking loudly were literally chasing him. The biker had both his legs in air and was speeding away.
Flash back – It was the night my uncle died. It was 10:30 in the night and I went to his house at Kumaraswamy layout. After 12 in the night, I and my cousin decided to get some coffee for the people there, as they were not supposed to light a fire in the house. I took my BMW (Bajaj motor works) scooter and started the drive towards my house. A group of stray dogs really attacked us. My cousins legs were up in air which made be loose balance. Frantic shouts from my cousin and the steep uphill road made me nervous. I was trying to speed away but was not able to. Shit scared we somehow (God knows how) escaped unhurt.
Dogs in groups at night are really dangerous. They scare the hell of you. On the way back we avoided the road. In Bangalore this stray dog menace is increasing. They get food from bakery spoils and meat shops, and of course from the house hold remains. I think the only way to avoid it is just don’t enter the road if you see dogs there in the night. May be this is not possible all times. Then use your driving skills and Pray God.

Back to office

It’s really boring to come to office after 4 days of holidays. But life goes on.
The weekend went very well. I experienced some amazing stuff.
Thursday
I finished Dan Brown's Deception point. Not so good book. The ending is not that exciting. But as always, Brown has compiled are lots of truths together. One of the interesting facts I got to know was that White house occupies 18 acres of land only. My office is much bigger (21 acres)!! As my friend puts it “If you want to enhance your GK, read Dan Brown books.”
I bought 2 new books. Sidney Sheldon’s “are you afraid of the dark?” and “Men are from Mars….” The rest of the time I spent in the home watching TV etc.
Friday
Cleaned the vehicles for the Ayudha pooja. Decorated with flowers and dad did the pooja.
Right from morning, I started getting calls from friends for a days trek to some near by spot. Finally at 11:30am we decided to go to Muthyalamaduvu. This nice place is worth half a day only. We went in a car and all the way, had discussions about marriages, office life etc. The place is a cool valley. We walked down one hill and became a bit adventures and climbed another hill. It was tiring and steep. On the top we were welcomed by some nice drizzles. On the way back a couple of ox gave us some scary movements as they chased us for some time. When we reached down, we realized that we had not seen the actual water falls. We dint know that there was a water falls in that area. The falls is not from a river or so. It’s just ground water. My friend described it as “Gorilla piss”! But the specialty of this falls is that we can climb the falls. That’s a nice experience. The place has a KSTDC restaurant which serves drinks and north Indian menu.
Saturday
The highlight was the musical concert from Kunnakudi. This fellow is too good. He is a proper artist. I stood and listened to him for 1.5 hrs. It was really worth the effort in the rain. He is an artist in the sense; he not only plays the violin, but makes facial expressions which are rhythmic to the nodes. That makes him not just listenable but watch-able too. Listen to some of his tunes here.
Sunday
Cousins had come home and so the morning just flew away. In the evening, went to a Kannada movie “Apthamitra”. I heard that it will be remade in Tamil with Rajni as the hero! Movie has no vulgar dialogues and the ladies wear sarees only through out the movie. It’s Soundarya’s last Kannada movie. Scary at times but the songs are really very good. Vishnu in his Nike bandana is very smart. This movie is worth watching.

Ramayana and Rajayana

I had written this when Rajkumar was kidnapped and released by Veerappan. I found this when cleaning my papers. Still relevant and so thot of putting in permanently in the blog ;-)
I am very sorry Lord Ram and Co. for comparing you with Raj and Co.
Modern Rajayana (The story of Raj)
Let us start off with Aranya kanda...

Ramayana: Ram went to forest because of his father
Rajayana: Raj went to forest because of his son
Ramayana: Sita was kidnapped by Ravana
Rajayana: Parvati was not beautiful enuf for Veerappan, so Raj was kidnapped
Ramayana: Lakshman went with Ram
Rajayana: Nagesh, Nagappa went with Raj
Ramayana: Sita was kidnapped because of Shoorpanaka's nose
Rajayana: Raj was kidnapped because of Puneet's granite quary
Ramayana: Sita was taken outside the country in a plane..:-)
Rajayana: Raj was not so lucky..he dint have the visa\passport
Ramayana: Sita dis not give a 2nd look at Ravana
Rajayana: Raj treated Veerappan as his brother(Anna)
Ramayana: Sita was sure that Ravana will be killed in a battle
Rajayana: Raj ensured that there was no blood shed..!!
Ramayana: Sita's rescue mission was headed by Ram aided by Hanuman and Co.
Rajayana: Raj's resuce mission was headed by Gopal aided by Karunanidthi
Ramayana: Hanuman visited Sita and gave Ram's ring
Rajayana: Gopal visited Raj and gave him Parvati's love cassettes
Ramayana: Sita sent back a token of love to Ram
Rajayana: Raj sent back video cassettes
Ramayana: Hanuman burnt Lanka and put any negotiations off track
Rajayana: Kareem went to SC and supposedly put negotiations off track
Ramayana: Hanuman and Co. built a bridge to goto Lanka
Rajayana: There was no necessity because the route was already there and was know by all!!
Ramayana: Hanuman was successful in his mission along with Ram
Rajayana: Gopal failed and so entered Hanuman II...Bhanu(Raj's so called "DEVATHE") and Nedumaran
Ramayana: Hanuman is God
Rajayana: Naedumaran and Bhanu are treated as Gods
Ramayana: Lakshmana ended with a wound and was treated by Sanjeevini
Rajayana: Who cares for what happened to the people who went with Raj
Ramayana: Ram was fit after the battle
Rajayana: Raj has ended with insect bites and tanned skin..:-(
Ramayana: Ram was welcomed to Ayodya with great festivities
Rajayana: Raj was welcomed to Bangalore with great festivities
Ramayana: Ravana and his associates were mercilessly killed
Rajayana: Veerappan and his associates were gifted for their deed
Ramayana: Ravana was the villain and died
Rajayana: GOD knows who the villain is...Raj or Puneet or Gopal or Kareem or SC or...the list never ends
Ramayana: Everything ended happily
Rajayana: Everything ended happily...even Veerappan and associates were happy

After all, we the people of India, are from the land of Gandhiji...non violence, ahimsa and what not..
After all....Gandhi is a human and Ram is GOD...Humans can never be GODs