Ok, Firefox 3.5 came and as a self-pretending geek I jumped into the 3.5 bandwagon by upgrading my good old firefox instantly. But things went haywire, 3.5 crashes when some one sneezes in the next bay that was the experience. Frustrated I migrated to Chrome. The problem mostly occurs for all our intranet sites.

I have been using Chrome now for past 1 week or so, I must say I am not that much enthused by Chrome. I think the biggest advertisement for chrome was that each tab is a separate process so one tab crashes, I can still continue with other tabs. But I never experienced that sweet spot using Chrome.

I listen to lot of talks/songs in Youtube and Chrome’s Shockwave Plugin is not that astounding. It does crash may be once or twice per day. So in between my work suddenly I see that chrome has frozen. When I do Alt-Tab it doesn’t enter Chrome. Now I just want to kill that conking tab which is freezing my brower. So I hit CTRL-ALT-DEL. I see 25 chrome’s in that processes tab. Which one should I kill? I think best way to guess is using a Random Number Generator. I make some random guess and start killing processes and it neatly kills the tabs of the half read articles and blog which I wanted to finish and one of those processes is the Master, killing which chrome closes completely.

Help me- Which Chrome to kill?

So WTF is the hype and harping about each process for a tab. It sucks! I will move back to Firefox 3.5 once it stabilizes.

I also didn’t like Ctrl+F text box coming in Right hand corner where my eye never reaches first and I think they kept their thinking user just stare at the keyboard while typing text. And ofcourse not to mention those cool plugins of Firefox, which I miss like Feedly, Last Tab & Dictionary.

Rather an obnoxious title for a post. Well its not about reclaiming life from the nadir of disruption and maelstrom, it’s just a reflection on certain things in life which did not go well in the past year compounded my laziness and procrastinating nature.

Professional Life – It was a least satisfying year 2008 in my professional life. Year in which learnability eroded and a sense of complacency set in. The project was rocked by many storms and tsunamis and it was floating like a rudderless ship. Work really dried up and days were spent in office like being spent in browsing center. Hopping from one site to other without any direction and nor adding any value to self, it was just wasted time altogether which cannot be reclaimed. Mired by politics at top level, hampered by technological limitations and lack of good customer feedback and acceptance is a sure recipe for disaster and project failed to take off. It was a bitter experience and it was sort of repeating for the 3rd time in succession – failure, thrashing and finally scrapping of project. Five years of energy, ideas and code getting scrapped repeatedly sapped the enthusiasm, verve and energy. The inquisitiveness to learn new stuff was lost; it was like going to job daily in the morning and a it was like a mirage of being busy and engaged

Learning and Adding Value – Last year (2008) also adversely affected this aspect, virtually stopped reading technical books and were just scratching the surface of tech blogs. Lost the complete energy to learn, experiment and broaden the portfolio. This is really synchronous to the work you do, when work dries up and you have no sense of direction, it’s same with learning new stuff. It was always about what to learn? Why to learn?

Finance - It was getting contagious, lethargy crept in here as well. A good portfolio of equity thoughtfully constructed during the previous years (when Sensex was at 6k-7k levels) was just left idle in the bank and demat accounts. In stock markets it’s all about timing and planning your entry and exit. Now if you just don’t track it regularly it’s just going to be winded away. Yes I left a lot of money in the table and never booked profits/minimal losses in a timely fashion. The net result is blood bath in these bearish times.

Health – Further bad news, eating out, eating in, eating at, all sorts of prepositions you can add with eating, and factor in sedentary life result is bloating up horizontally on all sides. And naturally had to pay the price in the form of intriguing back aches which were diagnosed to be slip disk later. It’s sort of a permanent handicap which I have to carry along whole life.

Enough of bad news, is it not time to take control of life and steer it in the right path rather than leaving it adrift? I started 2009 with the right earnest, hope and energy.

Professional Life – Things had to change, change for good and that trigger happened in November, after I read “The Bonsai Manager”. That lingering feeling and inkling in me to break the comfort zone finally materialized and I finally put the papers in current team and looked for opportunities within the company. Opportunity to face new challenges, don new roles and prove everything from the scratch. So 2009 started with a fresh note, a new team, new role, new challenges, facing customer, feeling the heat of customer issues and a whole new domain. It feels a lot better now, coming home in the evening with a satisfaction of adding value to myself and doing something worth the salt.

Learning and Adding Value – When you have enough work to do, to keep you busy then naturally you get energy to read and explore new stuff. It’s like learning with a sense of purpose to assimilate ideas that you can implement in the current work, innovations which you can envisage in the current way of doing things and technologies and latest fad to be brought up in meetings and be incorporated in work. So its lot more fun now, inspite of being engaged I am able to extract a couple of hour or two to read blogs or e-books and add value to myself.

Finance – I owe this to “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”. Frankly it changed the perspective with which I viewed money this far. I realized money is all about building assets and making it work for you rather than being left idle in nonchalant savings account. I have shed my lethargy now I track my stocks daily once, re-jigged the portfolio. I read a lot about stock markets, learnt how to read charts, how to trade options and futures (though never got the guts to try it out) and now I am actively shopping for stocks with strong fundamentals each day when the market crashes. It’s all getting tracked in a neat google spreadsheet doc and I plan to invest every month a significant chunk in equity markets.

Health – This I owe it to my Doctor, Dr. Raghav Dutt. He has inspired to me do regular exercise, to bring down the calories. So at least for past 6 odd months I am walking daily in the morning for 1-1.5hrs. And I have lost 9kg in the process and come down to a manageable 89kg now. The aim is to reduce further 3-4kg. But it’s going to be tough because I feel this is the maximum achievable for now, the last 3-4kg is going to difficult unless I can do severe diet modifications and resort to little bit starving. But for now I am going to pamper my stomach with regular food. So things are looking really good now, this year I also joined in Twitter and found it be an amazing source of gathering good stuff from the Net. Let me hope to continue this in the coming years!

PS:- I really love the Title, its used as the tagline by Tata Safari and I love their ads as well. And if ever I change my car I will seriously consider Tata Safari and Reclaim Life!

 Thanks to a geographically diversified coterie at workplace, I get to visit different parts of India in the pretext of attending marriages. Being a wildlife and nature aficionado, I prefer the marriage itinerary to be packed with a visit to wildlife sanctuary near the venue. Earlier it was gir, then sunderbans and now is the time for Melghat, pre-cursor attending a marriage in Nanded.

Melghat Tiger Reserve located in Amaravathi District of Maharashtra is relatively less-known tourist resort. Thanks to which, much of the forest is unperturbed with crazy tourists and pepsi cans and bisleri bottles. A 13 hour bus drive from Hyderabad took us to Amaravathi, the heart of Vidharbha. From Vidharbha another 1hr drive takes us to the shanty town of Parathwada. Much of the journey from Amaravathi to Parathwada criss-crosses killer cotton fields skirting on both sides of the road. As a first time visitor to this part of India, I was having a mixed feeling passing through Vidharbha heart lands – where every tick of two-and-a-half hour culminates in a farmer suicide. My mind was perplexed and I was curiously gazing out of the window on the villagers and their homes, trying to read the misery on their face. An amalgam of shame, sadness and discontent was brewing on my mind, the overwhelming thought – how venal and insensitive we have disintegrated to?

Parathwada was a picture of typical India, with a dilapidated bus station, shabby roads and flith all around. From Parathwada, began the journey to Melghat which almost 900m above sea level. This was the best part of journey passing through bucolic settings and innumerable hair pin curves and breath-taking views. Our stay was booked in Forest Guest House at a place called Kolkas. A two hour topsy-turvy ride through forests and mountains left us in Kolkas. The only proof that we had indeed landed in Kolkas was a sign board which read Kolkas Guest House, Turn Right. Rest apart it was dense forest all around, the conductor while getting down pointed his hand and said walk down 3km you will find a guesthouse and with that bus chugged away. No sign of human civilization, no concrete structures, no electric poles….. just trees, trees and more trees with a road in the midst winding away. The first thing I did was to check if there was a mobile signal, the Nokia was blank. No GSM, No CDMA – welcome to Jungle Land. Then started our trudge on the 3km path in search of the guest house. On the way was the first sighting of the trip – a beautiful golden red spider, resting on a labyrinthine network of web between two trees. Out popped three digi-cams to capture this fascinating handiwork of the spider and the spider itself. I was struggling for 1minute, to get a shot, the spider just couldn’t be figured out through the lens. Thankfully the photography connoisseur in the midst helped with the hint of Manual Focus. So with the mode set I harried my lens in search of the spider and finally caught it through the eyes of the camera. Click! Click! Click! The camera had kick-started for the first time in this trip and on its way to capture the magic of mesmerizing Melghat.

A 20mts walk took us to Guest House, resting on the banks of River Sipna, it was an idyllic setting to unwind one-self and recharge. The guest house is manned by a two-man army and the rooms were pretty shabby and bathrooms were awful to say the least. But outside the room was the lap of nature, pristine, atoned with green, rustling with the sounds of birds and winds gracing the trees. So for once we forgot what’s inside and our souls were kept wandering outside while physically our body was cozying in the warmth of two layer blankets from chilling cold outside. But let me accept here for just 200/= for a suite for 3 persons together per night, what we got was supreme luxury.

The first rude jolt of the trip occurred here, when the two-man army welcomed us and told you are stuck here if you don’t have a vehicle. As I mentioned earlier, since it’s not much hyped destination, there are no private resorts and those who wish to do safari had to have their own vehicles. A pall of gloom descended on us, then started a series of debates, interrogation and quizzing the guys, finally we worked out a plan to sent one of us along with a guy to the nearest village and find if we can get a vehicle. My dear friend Alosh, took up the charge and thankfully the guest house had a bike. They set out in dark, yes darkness at 5.30pm to Semadoh which is 14km from Kolkas. Semadoh is a small village which has a couple of tea stalls and a phone booth. Dropping a new one rupee coin can make you talk for 20sec to outside world. I sent my SOS message to home through my messenger Alosh. While me and Kunal had a hot water bath and comforted ourselves in the confines of the bed, Alosh battered the cold and brought back good news. He got a Commander jeep for the whole day next day for 1500/= and our adventures were to begin next day at 5am.

Inside Guest House was resident a family, and the only source of food here was their home. They prepared us a simple yet sumptuous dinner and we were having the first proper food of the day at 8pm after the long arduous bus journey. 9pm, with nothing much better to do in a forest, we crashed to bed dreaming about tigers and bears and an eventful day awaited us in the horizon.

(End of Part-I)

After an ordeal of a trip in the summer of 2005 smothered with some fine memories it was time for another Srisailam trip. This time it was a packaged tour from APTDC. The deal worked out to be 660/- per head inclusive of conveyance and stay in an uber cool resort in Srisailam for one night, altogether I felt it was a dandy of a deal.  

 Off we set on Friday, Aug 17^th an early morning start with overcast sky and benign weather promised it to make it a picture-perfect trip. So I loaded my camera with fully charged batteries and a neatly formatted 2GB card to capture every bling of nature. The travel itself is very pleasurable as the destiny. Srisailam route criss-crosses rustic villages and Nallamala forests which houses Nagarjuna Sagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve. Nallamala forest is the hotbed of Naxal movement and the forest covers are profuse hide outs of naxalites. An avid watcher can easily spot monkeys, deer’s and wild boars enroute to Srisailam.

Srisailam is on a hill top about 2800mts above sea level. Going from Hyderabad one has to hop from one mountain to the second one through a gorge which houses the Srisailam dam between the two mountains.  The beautiful spectre of nature unravels when one descends the first mountain pass through a narrow bridge to start the ascend of the second mountain. The bridge runs parallel to the dam at least a couple of kilometers away. Standing on the bridge embers of tranquility engulfed me; all around lustrous tinge of green from the skirting mountains lent a mystic charm to the place. The river – which is a sangam of Krishna, Tungabadra and Bhima rivers – underneath was in full spate thanks to the copious rains and shutters of the dam were open aiding the cataclysmic flow. The sight of water gushing-seething-scuttling out from the dam was mesmerizing and it really pulled everyone into a thrall.

 Our first stoppage was at the dam view point. Enthralled by the spectacle everyone was out with their cameras and truly a photographer hidden in everyone was blooming out. Sheets of water were cascading down the dam walls and once it cascaded down, from the sheer pressure the sheets of water ricocheted and transformed to a shape of parabola made from droplets of water. The water gushing looked like infinite lustrous white beads of pearl roiling down in a chain. Because of the sheer force of tumbling water the whole milieu was draped with tiny droplets of water as if an artist has stippled the canvas of nature with tiny white pearls. The atmosphere was engulfed with these sprinkling droplets and from a distance it was as if writhing vines of steam emanating from a hot water stream. It really made my day I was gasping and swooned by these splattered water droplets and splashing river traversing amidst the silent mountains.   

 The next stop was Panchganga which is a small waterfall amidst thickets of forest cover. A very tranquil and serene place and its believed Sankaracharya scripted Soundarya Lahiri and Sivanand Lahiri sitting here. Our next stop was Padal Ganga which also is the backside of the dam or the reservoir. A rope-way takes one to the bank of the reservoir and a boat ride through the water was a riveting experience to behold forever. 

Coming back to Srisailam the destiny – the abode of Lord Mallika Arjuna Swamy, Srisailam holds a high pedestal as is one among the 12 Jyothir Lingas in India. The idol itself is half concealed underneath the earth. One of the most amazing traits of this temple is devotees are allowed inside the sanctum sanctorum and are allowed to touch the main idol itself and one can ever perform pooja on the main idol in their own, which is not allowed in any other South Indian Temple.

Next day morning after a nice darshan and sumptuous breakfast we embarked on the return journey another joy ride through the natures lap bequeathed with charm and greenery. Most of my pictures which I shot in this trip were taken sitting in the moving bus on the return journey and to my surprise they have come out very well, truly capturing the natures best with tactility and are here to stay refurbishing my memory – a poignant travel memoir.

The commies dikat is out for the upcoming Presidential polls “….a secular candidate with political background….”. The word secular in the vernacular of commies is obviously to be interpreted as someone who has proven traits of being anti-Hindu (esp. middle class Hindus), minority appeasement gets bonus and political background means he/she should have slithered around with politicking in his/her past?

Under such a concoction  of politics and secularism the top 4 candidates coming to my mind are

1. Arundati Roy – A hardcore hypocrite,  funded by NGOs to globe trotting, stay in five stars and known for giving acerbic speeches on India and Indian civic to elite European, American diaspora. So whenever there is development/industrial/infrastructural projects involving land acquisition Arundati and coterie are there upright with a Socialist Commie ideology to put hurdles in the project and grab media attention worldwide. Her secular credentials are impeccable, after her fight for a Afzal Guru (Muslim) convicted by Indian Law for terrorism. And also have many such vibrant ideas like troop pull out from Kashmir, ways to malign and demoralize armed forces for human right violation etc. Overall a fitting bill for a political, secular candidature matching wavelength with Commie ideologies.

2 .  Arjun Singh – The messiah of  Muslims and downtrodden sections of Indian society, fighting hard  and raging a battle today against social  injustice,  apartheid,  untouchability and what not? An entirely palatable candidate for Commies for doling out sops to (creamy layer) for the so called backwards he is definitely one of the strong contenders. It would be even sacrilegious to question his secular credentials. Having strong political background for amassing wealth and building bungalows worth 20 crores in 1980’s its time for all to give serious thoughts on this contender. And above all he is a good player of yes-man, sycophantic roles all through his life for the Family.

3. Shahabuddin Bihar RJD MP with strong political credo with 52 criminal cases on him. Vast experience of Constitutional loop holes to escape each time after being convicted. Being a Muslim no one can question his secular colors. And probably the only candidate who can match the Left mandate of “person with thorough knowledge of the working of the Constitution”.

Here are some cool gadgets coming with the new Google Desktop.

I liked the Analog Clock and Music Player. Well Yahoo! had something call Konfabulator Konfabulator had a history of 3yrs now. But obviously what Google does will be a hep!

Long time since I have updated here….

Work front:- Things going smooth read reasonably busy and still have enough lines of code to type daily   Will be going for a campus selection to REC Warangal next week. First time going for a campus recruitment. I guess it would be a good experience. On the other side feeling tensed about the questions to ask. Had it been 2/3 yrs exp. guys could have escaped with Java/SQL or PL/SQL. Now I think I need to dwelve into the bare-bones C, Data Structure, OS, gosh! I have forgot many things. Have to start preparing the questions. The biggest challenge is to prepare more variety as in campus questions leak out as and when each person steps out of the interview room

Personal front:- Time is nearing for the arrival of new member Don’t know how drastic the changes will be in daily life

General Stuff:- Moronic Bimbo (read Sagarika) is back at her best here. Bash bash bash Hinduism, Hindu Gods, Hindu Beliefs, Hindu culture, and Hindus in general is her motto. And ironically she is given a upper hand in IBN and her blog is advertised up there at the top. And interestingly Rajesh Kumar (mallu ofcourse) has written a subtle message in IBN blogs – In Love with Lord Ayyappa . And not surprisingly this blog never came at top nor front pages of IBN. I suggest all to read the second one and do not read the first one! If woman’s right is the question here then we have far more evils in our society burkha, fatwa, talaq. Obviously the moronic bimbo doesn’t have any guts to talk about that.

Another blast; 200 killed and life moves on…..sad plight to be in India. And the worst part IBN has made a marketing blitz out of it! Well done Rajdeep! Show dead bodies, mutilated bodies, wailing relatives and advertise it to gain TRPs!! It happens only in India – marketing tragedy for commercial gains! This country sucks!! and very very badly sucking!! And there is going to be no end to it and another favor from Cong coming soon. 

Long live Jehadi! Long Live Sonia!  Long Live IBN!

Germans have won! I don’t believe Argentina Team Lost; they played well and matched the Germans. But Jose Packerman lost to Klinsman. I can’t believe it Cambiasso coming to take the crunch Penalty. Where was Tevez? Packerman I feel somehow thought he could hold Germany 1-0. But Ballack/Klose had some other plans.

Was sad to see Saviola, Riquelme, Messi, Crespo in the Bench when the game was going critical. And the golly made it worse for Argentina!

Germany deserved this victory! Argentina pays the price of being negative and defensive when they had the potential to go for the kill. Fortunately the game was free of blunders of refreeing as was seen through out this WC!

And at this point of time else where in Sabina Park the great Indian Captain is displaying his great calibre and skills of Cricket by scoring at 0.5 runs per over for 40 odd overs. I guess he needs to take a lesson from Argentina now India is going to lose this test and the only reason I see is the rot and negativism at the helm!!

Viewers of CNN-IBN might have definitely come across the News Reporter/Anchor Sagarika Ghosh.

In India two gang of people are becoming monsters bulldozing everything on their way with out even worrying about law of land – politicians and media. Sagarika's are the witches which make up the Media Monster.

Was watching the Face the Nation the other day. QOTD was "Is India a Soft Target?"; presenter Ms. Sagarika. The first question posed by her – "In democracy is it acceptable for the police to kill terrorists at 4am and claim they have been killed when they were trying to carry out an attack?" 

I thought what a stupid and out of context question. What does she expect – to garland the terrorist and present them to media for trail? Sitting in a/c glass boxes these monsters can spew out any stupidity without any hinderance or shame in the name of freedom. 

Next one was questioning the existence of RSS (a fundamentalist org) which according to her was abetting Islamic Terrorism. I pity you Sagarika for your shallow and mean thoughts. In this country IUML and PDP are considered secular where as RSS and VHP are branded fundametalist by you. And Sagairka; Terrorism is not a by-product of Hindu fundamentalism.  Terrorism is a fact of life in India and they will attack wherever it hurts the most be it IIS, busy market and who know tomorrow it can be CNN-IBN office too. It was peevish of you drive the debate on the lines of RSS and terrorist ramifications when the whole world acknowledges Islamic Terrorism as a menace. And the most dubious part was there was not even a single pat for the policemen in the line of fire protecting the Sagarikas and aam adhimi of this country.

And if any of you have missed the classic blog from Sagarika here it is "Secession of the successful". Probably this is the most acrimonious article I have read till date supporting reservations. To counter some of the points by Sagarika.

"The Purusasukta from the Rig Veda remains a fundamental reminder of just how unequal and discriminatory Hindu society has been. Gods are supposed to be loving, gods suffer for their devotees, gods are ideals of compassion. Which other god in any world religion, except a Hindu God, cruelly declares that Brahmins are from the head, Kshatriyas from the arm, Vaishyas from the thigh, Sudras from the foot and Dalits are outcasts, not even part of the cosmic body? Where else does a religion sanction that Dalits are the perpetual filthy outsider, shoring up the Brahmin's cleanliness with his own perennial dirt? Institutionalised inequality is a shocking fact of our existence as modern Indians"

A half baked reserach and twisted concocted conclusion squarely demeaning the greatest scriptures of the world. Shame on you Sagarika to write like this on a reputed website. I guess the whole thing has been cut/pasted misrepresenting the facts. The greatest teaching of the Vedas Sagarika is "Aham Brahmasmi". It means God is within you the living being and its upto you to recognize it. Temples and Idols are just abstraction of these god for you go and worship. If you can realize the simple truth of "Aham Brhmasmi" you can see the God within you – for that you needn't be a Brahmin or Dalit. And Sagarika heard of Lord Krishna? Lord Krishna was an Yadav. Yadavs are Dalits in this country. What an irony a Brahmin purohit is doing service to a Yadava? And I fail to understand the relevance of the above lines by her in the 21st Century. All these Shudras, Vaishyas, Brahmins now are a folklore and I believe no one in the country truly practice any such discrimination now. Sagarika if you have dared to pass such an edict against Quran; the messaihs of Minorities UPA might have lambasted you and the whole nation would have fireballed by Islamic agitation. Fortunately the Hindus haven't lost their senses and tolerating this whims and fancies from monsters like you. 

"How many top industrial houses have tried to find out how many OBCs they actually employ? Has industry contributed to creating an equal society? Isn't it true that most companies employ a very small fraction of Muslims? Sure, the reason for this could be that levels of education within the Muslim community are low and there are few qualified enough to make it past the recruitment threshold. But rather than scream about the loss of merit and the fall in global competitiveness, should industry not plunge into the idealism of prosperity, where the aim of wealth creation is in the long run to create a just society?"

Sagarika do you have census about these facts which you articulating so decisively. Infact is there has been no caste based census taken after 1939 in this country. So no one knows what is the % of so called minorities are in this country let alone private sector. And don't you believe Sagarika that Industry should be competitive to survive in this globalized world? And if your morality is so high why aren't we seeing any Muslim Anchor is face the nation program? Instead of screaming about plight of muslims why don't you uplift one Muslim alone through your channel?

"Indian athletics will gain gold medals only when it is vigorously "Dalitised". If a Brahmin cannot even make himself a cup of tea, how on earth will he throw a javelin? "

A malicious attack; catapulting the morality and credibility of this devil named Sagarika. Well I don't deem it fit to respond that line from a person ("Well educated") who can stoop to this level. But I would throw up some names to her Viswanathan Anand, Javagal Srinath, Kris Srikanth, Ramesh Krishnan who have etched their place in annals of Indian sports and ironically they were Brahmins. 

"The reason why every position on reservations is now characterised by screaming from opposing unassailable fortress in which both sides shoot down dissent with the arrows of unthinking hysteria. There is simply no attempt to seek a genuine middle ground."

After reading your blogs I don't find any middle ground either Sagarika. Infact you have tried best to aggravate the situation by hurling chavunistic comments on the very basic tenets on Hindu religion and tolerance of the middle class Indian. And infact people like you will never allow this nation to come to a middle ground because your survival hinges on creating and embroiling controversies; dividing the nation.

Perhaps you have secessed your morality Sagarika or perhaps in your next performance appraisal you need to show to Rajdeep what you have contributed extra – an acrimonious blog which has generated over 250 comments from the disillusioned readers most of them questioning your temerity and morale!

God Save India from these monsters and devils of Sagrika ilk!! 

Not surprisingly (atleast for me) AP has banned screening of Da Vinci Code; close on the heels of Brahmin basher's (DMK) decision. After all this is what you can expect from Samuel Reddy (YSR-CM); who is working relentlessly to convert Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam to a Tirumala Tirupathi Missionary.

Irony is film is being screened in Italy and Vatican and Pope has no objections. This is the glorified, much touted  Indian Democracy. Ashamed to live in this sham democracy aka hypocrisy aka minority appeasement.