Tuesday Morning Blues

Its 1:30 AM on Tuesday and I don't have time to sleep. I have 2 assignments due this week and 1 quiz tommorow. For the uninitated, student life in America is not similar to student life in India. That coming from a guy who doesn't even have an on-campus / part-time job yet. When you study in India, you basically allocate that time of your life towards studies. If you're working, you quit and join college. You put your 100% time into attending college and/or college related actvities. I can't say you put your 100% into studying because of the kind of life I lived during my bachelors. 

Out here, any kind of study is pretty complicated. Lots of people work and study at the same time. I know three 50 yr old engineers who've come to do their Masters during the economic crisi. Generally, everyone has to refer 2 books, know how to use google effectively and put your mind into studying even if you are going to do so only for half hour. The course scheduling is pretty minimal for the week and almost all the subjects are your choice of what you want to study about. I am not yet in a position to say if this system is better than what we have in India, but its much more effective or effectively run than back at home.

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What is it with accents? I'm trying hard not to develop an accent but its really hard to control not speaking without an accent especially after having seen so many hollywood movies all my life, listening to rap/rock music for about 15 years, watching every stand-up comic on bootlegged videos. When I talk with friends and other folks from India, I speak normally. But that urge to speak much slower and with a slight American accent is getting the better of me when I speak to my American compatriots. Hopefully, I shall make sure my desi accent stays.

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During these recession times, I still see many people buying new things. I don't know how they calculate the bad economy but I don't see many homeless people on the roads. I see people living less lavishly than what they were used to. I see people buying one packet of Frito Lay instead four. 

Demand has come down and people are finding it hard to afford spending. However, things are faaaaaar more, let me get the right word, systematic than what you see in a developing country. I don't find much difference in many things actually. I've seen dogs poop on the road. I've seen people asking me for a 'quarter' (25c) or 'money for beer'. I've seen drivers honking. I've seen cars emitting too much smoke. I've seen bikes and motorcycles. I've seen nepotism. I've seen partiality.

I've seen too much I guess. Gotta hit the books again. Formal languages and automata theory mixed with Standard ML along with a dose of Software Metrics and hot black colombian coffee await me. O' insane world, you continue to puzzle me.

What's in a name?

Finally. Realistically Real has undergone the name change after making its debut 4 years back. Technically 6 years back, when I first debuted this blog and deleted it in 2005 only to make a big comeback again.  It was during my Infosys stint that I reached my "Blogging Peak" or scaled heights or some other cliche adjective you would use to describe it. I figured a small part of me is fixed with the place I love. My mind & spirit still lives in good ol' Madras. The tagline Bessie's Big Boy has stuck with me. It is one of those things I should learn to live with. As for Realistically Real, it will find its place in my memoirs as one of the most interesting writing experiences I had.

Madras Tales was the blog I had in InfyBlogs and it gives me immense pride to rename my external blog to Madras Tales too. Keep this one bookmarked, as I would increase the frequency of my posts from now on. 

I have many Sacramento Tales to tell the world about. The great procrastinator that I am, I shall save them for later. Oh Bessie, I really miss your beach!

Trash talkin'

I gotta let you guys in on a dirty little secret. I'm sitting on a couch taken from the trash. A week back, the guys (meaning me, my roommates and the guys in the nearby room) picked up a huge haul of furniture from the trash.

Now before you pop your eyes out, let me explain. In America, the cost to transport a piece of furniture is about 70% of the cost of buying a brand new one. Especially if it is defective, people don't care about fixing broken things. So, they leave it outside the smelly trash bin. Right outside it actually. It is generally very clean.

Here's where the student community, the heroes of the apartment complex, come in. The paupers that we are, we go and do a "1,2,3.. lift.. hai-saaa". I don't know if I spelt "hai-saa" correctly. Maybe it is "hail-a-saa" or "ai-la-saa". I meant to say what Prabhu Deva says in that 'Sooriyan' movie (Lalakku dol dappi maa song). You get the picture. So, we scavenge on great things like tables, lamps, chairs, couches, door mats etc. Most of these scavenged items are in pretty good condition except a scratch or two.

Our main competition is homeless people. These guys (and gals I must add, for I don't want to be painted a sexist) are amazing. They have bicycles which have a small trailer box attached to them. They come to our apartment complex in the night with a small bulb on their cap, look through the trash and collect all plastics and other things that can be pulled with the help of a cycle. In America, any job is a job. People do it religiously without grudges. That's a small thing I've learned in my short stint here.

The house is now full with good furniture, obtained for free thanks to people trashing repairable things. Long live Trash! Long live scavengers!

P.S : We once got a TV and vaccum cleaner from the trash. The TV didn't work, it was broken into half. The vaccum cleaner was blowing air out, the opposite of what a vaccum cleaner must do. Well, not all things you pick up from the trash work. Its a science. I must publish a paper on the theory of picking good stuff from the trash with an optimal rate of success. I shall save it for future generation of scavengers to admire this art, naay, science of "Trash Scavenging"

Amreeka tales

Ahh, finally I get the time to make a post. I have been itching to get online and update my blog, but have failed to do so everytime. Some of the following updates were what I scribbled down on my notepad to post on my blog, being the procrastinator that I am, didn't post it at all.

Hopefully, I'll keep this updated from now on.

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Waiting at the Chennai airport, I had great fun watching what was going on around me. It was pretty noisy. Some college girl was happily calling all her friends in Chennai using the free Airtel phone & I had to stand right behind her for 15 mins trying to make a call home. I gave up. What is it with free phones? Are we so addicted to freebies that we don't have consideration for others waiting behind us? Hmmm, before my comrades go "See, he went to America & is now whining. He doesn't understand the Indian way of doing things". Uh, really I didn't understand it when I was back there too.

I glanced at the free water dispenser but not much of a crowd was there. Upon inspection, I found that these were placed right next to the restroom. Wah re wah, a masterpiece of architechtural design. I took a walk and saw the new CISF hulk like guards manning the airports. One of the things 26/11 did was to improve airport security a couple of notches.

I boarded the flight to Singapore and my journey to the land of Obama started.
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3 hours and 45 mins later, I reached Singapore. I spoke in Tamil to a couple of Sri Lankan Tamils & had a great time just exploring Changi International Airport. The airport is a mini tourist destination in itself.

I loved walking on those walk-alators or walking escalators. Singapore was just waking up that morning & I got to see 50% of airport employees as well as Singapore Airlines staff were Indians. Jai ho!
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South Korea (Seoul) is one place I hated. The airport is half shut down and really filthy to move around. I donno why, but I kinda hated going around the place with a lot of loud conversations going on. I thought we Indians were loud but whoa, South Koreans can match us in decibel levels.
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Reaching SFO, I got through the whole Homeland Security / Immigration formalities and walked out into the US as a student visa holder. Heh. I met my brother & spent a couple of days with him. Jan 10th, the time had come to head to Sac State.
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Initially, the cold weather here took a lot of time to get adjusted to. For a guy who'se used to beaches and Chennai's sun, cold weather is almost tabboo.

Ok. Gotta run now. Shall keep this blog updated from now on. Going to get my HP laptop soon. From Monday, HURRAY for student life. It kicks some A.

Funny Facebook

Sometimes, Facebook can really play pranks on you. And this has nothing to do with the activities of my friends being totally visible to me.

This was a notification on my profile

 

"Last week you were viewed for dating 2 times and no people expressed interest in you. Check your Social Profile

12:54am "

Hahaha. Man, do those guys know how to poke fun. I don't know how I signed up for that app. Must be some mysterious thing I just clicked "Next" on. Anyways, dating isn't my cup of tea. I'll let it slide.

Kamasutra - Yogi B & Natchatra ft Mogethen lyrics

DISCLAIMER:
First off, credit for the song & lyrics solely to Yogi B & Natchatra (and /or other folks they've mentioned in their album). I'm reserving the right to this version of the lyrics online. Apologies to the original authors if I've not deciphered the lyrics correctly. No other website's is allowed to copy paste this stuff without mentioning my name or a link to this site. Those not following the norms gonna get sued in Cyber Court! Serious.

Coming to the song, this song is a brilliant mix of the old "Manmada leelaiyai vendraar, undooo" and keeps the theme of song through out. The whole crew has done some amazing work with their word placing & flow during the song. Dr.Burn & MC Jezz amaze me in a couple of their verses with the rhyming. On the whole, a great song to blast on your speakers and chill out.

So here's the lyrics you've been waiting for.

Kamasutra - Yogi B & Natchatra Ft Mogethen

[Yogi B - Talking]
Ahhhaaa.. my ladies.. you know what time it is
So close the door and light them candles up
Yo homie.. sing it with them now

[Chorus]

Ummmm...
Nee vandha vaaa (aaahhhh) (uhahah..yeah)
Nee vaaa... if you wanna get freaky with me
(Yeah.. You know what I mean)
Nee vandha vaaa (aaahhhh)
(Yogi B, Y'know me.. Nakshatra.. My man Moge)
Nee vaaa... if you wanna get freaky with me
(Vallavans the name of the label)

[Verse 1 - Yogi B]
Konjam nee vilagu vilagu ippo yaar poondhadhadaa
Sooriyannai sutta Vallaven naan thaanadaa
Minikku dhinanum idikka inikkum, Yenakku pudikkum
Nee konjam thirumbu nerambu thudikkum
Ummm.. Now we gonna take it mella mella
Coz I know you be like the yamma pullae
Peru - malaruu, ava vittu - thavare
Methuva sonna -karruppu thaan enakku pudicha colourae
Uhh.. HBA you wanna play
Kalaigal 6 to 4 plus another 5 today
Uhh.. muttham thandaa urasum uthadu
Wow! Ennul oru mirugam ezhunthadaaa
Pathini vesham podum mohini
They wanna go down on Natchathra & Yogi B
Thulli vilayadum yen ila maane
Thaagam theera theduthu ennai thaana

(Scratch.. Manamada..manmada x2) (Thro chorus)
[Chorus x2]

[Verse 2 - MC Jesz ]
Adhi kaalai mani irandu kanmani yen madi thedi
Naanum inge konjam nee kelu enthan mangala vaaku
Vaadi kadaichu if you wanna freak it with me
Show me your mad flava, anbu thollai kaatadi
Padhavi vendam yen ethirpil nerungu
Thalavai mothamma mothamma thalavai
Thalavai venume vidha vidhamai kalavi (Woooot)
Yen thuppaki vili un maarbai thaan sothithadho, Chill
Konjan poru, MC Jezz gonna rock the show
Kovam kolluthe kaama-chaami unna romba aatathil
Mothathil thondanginaal oru mutham
Balavanthamaga veru kattam
Appolhuthu pesum padal naan udhavaal
Un ninaivil padhivaagum kannae pala naal
Nee then sindha alli naan kudikka, un sumaigal-naan sumakka
Panam thara yerangga nee thavikka
Amutha-avaigala varisayil irrukkudhu
Nee vandha vaadi, varatti podi
Nashtam illai yennakku

[Chorus x2]
(Scratch.. Manamada..manmada.. manmada leelaiyai vendraar.. undoo x2)

(Beat slows down & stops)

[Verse 3 - Dr.Burn]
Don't botha.. Chaaka Chaaka - Me gonna step insiduuu
Don't botha.. Makka Makka - Me gonna make it tightuu
Me and my makkals our typical Indian
Kepalar melanam vendam jaanachinum and
Arikhil madhu kinnam enathu tharpa veppanilai maarum manasu
Maedu pallum alla kinnam-oda unnum yendhan mun minnum kannam
Udhadugal vellum Payir thaneeril illamal mulaikkumma
Nenjode mottu karuvadai theendamal vedikummuma
Kattil kavithai padikkava kavangal kodukkae
Qutub imaigal thirakkava kavi-arangu olikkae
Athurkku munnal un naanathukku ooyivu kodu
Mer-padi naan sollumbadi manthira kolai kayyil yedu
Uh-oh, Uh-oh, yenna varumayin niram
Uh-oh, Uh-oh, pootapatadhu nirukaram
Aduppil eeram irundhal viragu serumma
Samyal aagumma, solladi kanmani

[Mogethen]
Whatever you want, what ever you need, I'll do you right
Tonight....
Unn aasai yenna, unn thevai sollu, Niraverum mella
Indru irave....

(Scratch.. Manamada..manmada..) [Thro Chorus]
[Chorus x2]

(Scratch.. Manamada..manmada manmada leelaiyai vendraar.. undoo x2)

I will post more lyrics of various Tamil rap numbers from now on (when I do get some time off that is). Until then, keep tuning in for regular posts.

From Live Writer

This is a test post of mine.

Have started using Live Writer beta version. So far, so good. Hopefully, will post more often now that I have this little thing sitting on my desktop.

Shocking IBNLive.com

I went to IBNLive.com as usual to check if there was any interesting news. To my horror, the website uses an intelligent advertisement display on its homepage. A pop-up ad that configures itself according to top news stories. Somewhat like Google ads.

Perched at the top left hand of the home page is the graphic news article about CCTV footage capturing the Delhi bomb blast. Once the website loads, a pop-up advert for Club Mahindra barges in with the words "The Kids have a blast...so did we" - Happy Member.

This kind of pattern matching for displaying ads on a news website is so shocking. Where has common sense gone? Are the techies so dumb at IBNLive that they'll allow this logical error (humane to be more precise) creep into a popular website? And who are the birdbrains who did the ad for Club Mahindra?

Please don't consider this an over-reaction. I thought it was a one-off incident. But it happens over and over when you hit the homepage. I grabbed me some screen shots

IBNLive Home page:

Pop-up ad for Club Mahindra:

You judge this yourself!

Placements & Email-ids and other college humour

The most interesting thing to happen during my college time was the Placement tests. Little known companies (um..I remember i-Soft from my college days), dream companies (many consider Infy their dream company to work in) & 'Get-outta-here!' type of companies (Google falls here) were the subject of many a discussion among aspirants. The serious types used to ponder over sample papers & "study" for placement exams.

And then, there was us. By 'us', I mean, the ones who believed acing an exam involved being prepared for it & using 'studying' as one of the tools rather than poring through 100 pages of puzzles over and over again. I used to belong to a niche group of people who used to hop placement tests just to enjoy the canteen food, while taking the test in a happy go-lucky sort of way. "We will surely get a job once we finish college" was a motto we swore by. "We're intelligent enough to get a job 'somewhere'!!" was another tagline. Tests, group discussions & personal interviews were 'fun'. I actually remember sitting through a technical interview for a company who wanted me to "list out all the Computer Science subjects you have studied in the last 2 years". The focus was on my memory "of" the subject rather than "about" the subject. I should have taken my syllabi, I wondered.

One of the other incidents I remember was the group discussions. One of them was so dastardly organized where the 'discussion' was nothing but a showcase of your extempore skills in 2 minutes. There was no room for discussing anything, just a speech for 2 mins, and you're judged on that. What made things worse were topics like "India 2020" or "Culture in the 21st century". While the topics maybe good for discussion, what exactly is an IT company gaining when they actually spend time recruiting socially aware aspirants? Now, don't get me wrong. I understand communication skills & people skills are very important. The process doesn't guarentee results, the person who judges these discussions determines who is fit enough. When such a process is so people dependent on producing results, why have it as a process in the first place?

Now that the serious stuff is out of the way, I wanted to recount a funny thing that happened. One of the guys filled up an application form for appearing in a placement test of an MNC. The placement co-ordinator called him & said "What is this email id? Can't you get a professional one?". The email id in question was "im2sxy4u". Another gem was "beachboy2000". Even wackier was "name_inrehab". I remember a girl who had an id like "handsoffme_name". I'm sure many applicant email-ids will reflect this trend. One of the side-effects of the "ME!" generation I guess.

My First PC

I have faint memories of my first PC. The year was 1994. I was 9 years old. PC's were something new in India. It was considered a "rich man's" calculator. So, I remember strolling along with my brother & dad into a company called "Minicomp". These guys were one of the first PC dealers in Chennai.

As a little boy wearing knickers & not knowing what PC or Computer really meant, I was told "You will not be allowed to play games". I was furious. How can this new thing we are buying into the family be off-limits to the cutest, chubbiest, second son in the family? After all, I used to get all the attention at home being the second kid. Hey, all second kids do. Ask anyone who was born first & they will recount stories of favoritism of parents to their younger siblings.

In the Minicomp office, there was this fat businessman. In his 40s. He did not have much knowledge of Computers other than the price list each configuration went for. And to every line, he used to add "Our service is great. Other guys will give you the product & vanish. We are there for support" Being the youngest one in the room, I was more interested in the free chai that was given. Also, the air conditioning was something that was new to me, so I basked in the A/C that was being blasted from a 1.5tonne window unit.

My brother had some configurations he wanted to buy in a computer. My dad had only one. The price had to be less than 20k. Anything that comes to 20k was fine. After a lot of bargaining and hardselling, we settled for one which was going to cost 32k. This was to be purchased in installments in the form of Post dated cheques. PDCs were very common in the 90s till Reliance Mobile came & ruined it.

So, there we stood. One of the few people in our colony to own a PC. Bought at an overhead to my dad's already meager salary. Thankfully, mom was teaching & her school was taken over by the central government. So, we could afford the big buy. As 3 guys came over to our house with the mammoth like PC, me & bro stood amazed. The sheer size of the Monitor (monochrome) and the CPU left us baffled. This machine is what costed 32k we pondered.

Once the PC was installed, there were rules to using it. I was not allowed to touch it without my brother's permission (oh, how I hated him for having all the power to access the PC). And so began my journey into Electornics & IT. We had a TCP/IP dialup connection. Modem with 14.4kbps as maximum dialling speed. VSNL account that had to be accessed using Hyperterminal with a username/password. No graphics, only unix style internet access.

It was fun using that PC. I used to play games like "Doom", "Dave" and "Duel". We upgraded it in a couple of years time to accomodate Windows 95 & a sound card (Creative Sound Blaster AC'95). The original configuration read something like Intel 386, 8MB RAM, 540MB Hard Disk, 3'44'' Floppy diskette drive, MS-DOS operating system (5.1 i think Update: It was Windows 3.1 on top of DOS 5.1), Comptech Monochrome monitor, Microtek Dialup external modem with maximum speed 14.4kbps.. Man, it was a super cool PC.

I had friends over & used to play Fifa (the first one) and Duel. Thinking about those days, brings a lot of nostalgia. The moulding of a half-geek (no, I won't admit I'm a tech geek ) who ended up taking to discrete mathematics & computer algorithms like he does to sambar vadai & mini idlis. To this day, I cherish the memories of touching my first PC, being lucky enough to adapt to a new world order. 3 Cheers to Monochrome PC users. We are an ancient species.

P.S: Minicomp didn't survive after 1996. They shut shop!

Just Another Monday

So, with all that behind, I bid goodbye to the cruel world of MS.NET and welcomed Java with both hands. Now, since my Intranet is based on MOSS, I've been forced to visit .NET again to develop a test webapp. Grrrr
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Speaking of MS, Jerry Seinfeld & Bill Gates are acting in a new Microsoft Ad campaign to "start conversations" about MS. Its been panned among the techie crowd as a cheap imitation of the Apple ad campaign. Not seen any ad yet, but will youtube it soon.
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I watched two movies over the weekend. First up was Dark Knight on Friday. I liked the movie only for Heath Ledger. I just could not follow Batman's dialogues because his voice was all muffled. But the joker, man..what a performace. The second one I saw was Rock On, last night. I have to say, the final track is a cheap rip off School of Rock's final Battle of the Bands song. And just like another Hindi movie, the over senti & stereotype emotions are a big letdown. The only difference was the theme of Rock Music. Replace that with Hindustani or some other form, and you can still sell the same story. So in effect, the movie was nothing about Rock Music or the sub-culture of music enthusiasts in India. I've been in the music industry & trust me, nobody signs contracts the way the guys do it in the movie. The saving grace was probably Arjun Rampal & Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy's music.
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There is a church festival happening in the Annai Velankanni church right behind my house. Its a major boost to the local economy around, but for residents like me its a nightmare. I had to wait in a traffic jam for 30 mins just to get out of my house & cross the main road into the nearby colony. As usual, the Chennai City Traffic Police were sleeping on the job & the whole area went beserk.

I visited the beach & trust me. The worst thing that can happen is when a festival & a Sunday co-incide, to produce a mammoth outpouring of citizenry which bloated the whole beach's air. The aroma of peanuts & fried corn filled the air while hundreds of street hawkers had landed upon the beach to sell their stuff. As it rained last night & this morning, many people from far off were stranded on foot paths & on the verrandah's of shops like Food World & Nilgiris.

Its a sad sight to see every big event in this country mis-managed when we pride ourselves as the best managers in the world. What's more sickening to see is how your tax money is spent in the form of free TVs to the Below Poverty Line folks, wasted fly-overs where they are not needed & basically pork barelled into the constituencies of MPs/MLAs. Sigh, somethings will never change.
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Have a great week ahead!