Jayachandra's Blog

Update1: Let me regain my fitness!

2011-05-17T06:14:00.000-07:00

It's been exactly a week and all I have to report out here is that there have been no cautious efforts thus far by me on regaining my fitness. But something I did of late, a visit to my hometown, may have did some magic. This past weekend when i visited my home town Siripuram, two of the three days there wasn't electricity in the morning and I flexed my muscles and fetched water for household use from the well. It used to be my favorite pastime back in the good old days where I maniacally fetched water from well, pitcher after pitcher to water a whole 1000sq.yard garden untill I dropped - exhausted. That madness sure did turn me tough, made my limbs strong and made me enjoy my stay at home during holidays besides giving me a sense of accomplishment every day.
Ok, nostalgia apart. Fact remains that's the only exercise i did cautiously in the past week and to reach my set goal, there is much to be done and that too on a regular basis. Let's see how the journey progresses!!!

Let me regain my fitness!

2011-05-10T08:45:00.000-07:00

It’s the same me who wrote the post on Tame Your Ego! . When I wrote it sounded so true, and every other time I go read it also it continues to appear so much true. The missing aspect being - am I really making use of my life discoveries well to my advantage? Inspired by that thought, I decided to tame my ego towards achieving one goal which, of late is eternally evading me – “regaining my fitness”. I’ve grown overweight and much more sedentary and inert over the past several months, blame it on company (people around me most of the time and environment), lack of assertiveness in what my routine ought to be, waking up late, diminishing will power, slow swamp into the quicksand of ‘well-earned’ comfort (as amateurs around phrased it and preached) or anything else. Whatever be the reason none other than me to blame for the fate I entered into – because in the end it’s me who am suffering with fatigue for even a small amount of physical stretch, it’s me who is becoming wasted-out, it’s my capacity to conquer that is dwindling.

I decided that I will now set a goal for myself and then make it public too. I will get back to form in the coming 4-5 months. Measures of success being to get down by 10kgs in weight by shedding out fat yet building muscle. Becoming Mr. Body Builder definitely is not the goal measure, am making that too clear now itself J

Can anyone post into my blog from any email address?

2011-05-10T07:57:00.001-07:00

Here I am trying to send a post to a blogger given email ID from a unrelated email address and if this succeeds to appear as a post on my blog, then I'd be not awed but SHOCKED. Because it's a damn privacy/security concern indeed. Now anyone can come and post anything if they just knew my blogger given email ID (which ofcourse it allowed me to change, but that definitely is not adequate protection by any means).

Test Post published by email

2011-05-10T07:33:00.000-07:00

Hi there

Am trying for the first time publishing a blog post by compiling it in outlook and sending it to my blogger given email ID. I set my most-oft used email address from where I wish to send my posts by email in the BlogSendAddress field on the Blogger dashboard settings page. And from that address I composed this mail (or Post) and hit send.

And it…

Test Post published by email

2011-05-10T07:28:00.000-07:00

Hi there

Am trying for the first time by publishing a blog post by compiling it in outlook and sending it to my blogger given email ID. And it…

My first U.S. trip – Stay at Minneapolis and return

2010-11-30T21:12:00.000-08:00

Travel season throws surprises at all places, U.S is no different. I’d like to cite this example, to prove that point. I opted to travel to Minneapolis from Seattle which, on a direct route is about 3hours of flight journey. Instead the itinerary I got took me to Dallas which is in a totally different direction all together and in itself was a 3.5hrs journey and after a wait of about 1.5hours at Dallas I was routed to Minneapolis, again a 2.5hrs journey. So if you try to make a mind map, I flew the sides AB and BC of a near equilateral triangle ABC, when I should be flying just the side AC directly. A chat with Deepu sometime before revealed that during holiday season this is quite common to happen. I seemed to be lucky enough only to go down the sides of an equilateral triangle, some are known to have flown the redundant sides of quite an acute angled triangle for 6hrs when the shortest side could have taken them to their destination in 1hr. Pity them. No more math, as I am getting closer to describe my stay at Divya-Vamsi’s place and Divya hated that subject ever since she learnt how it was spelt and continues to do so. Given the acute lack of sleep the night before, I really hated the journey that day, particularly the Seattle-Dallas portion of it, as my body nauseated owing to fatigue and sleeplessness.

Divya was a constant over-the-air advisory for me throughout this trip, where she was the one to welcome me (over phone of course) even before the airport staff announcements at all destinations including Mumbai, London, Seattle, Dallas and Minneapolis of course. As I landed in Minneapolis and collected my bags (which contained more than half the items for Divya and all those items remained majorly in-tact), Vamsi and Divya approached the curb side pick-up point right in front of where I was to exit out. Vamsi was quick to dump the bags into the boot and off we exited, headed to their apartment. It’s a 20min drive and Vamsi was good at the wheel, but I must admit I was always jittery as he drove past the yellow lights while I anticipated that he’d slow down and halt. However, his timing was perfect and never were we moving on red for sure.

The apartment was cute and tidy, just about the thing needed for a young couple. It had all that is needed (except for a few items like TV/TV stand that are debatable) and nothing that is not needed. After I freshened up, we all sat down for dinner and Divya was more than proud to show-off her culinary skills with shrimp fry, methi-chicken and sambar and all of them were delicious. With a plan decided for the next day, we hit bed. The next two days were filled with some relaxed shopping/window shopping at the local malls, premium outlets zone as well at Mall of America, checking out food outlets (loved the Lucé Pizza store) and enjoying some good situational comedy shared by Vamsi all throughout. My customary visits to Walmart, Macy’s and McDonalds too happened here. The evening before my departure to India all three sat together to stuff the return bags with all the shopped stuff. Quite contrary to my expectations we are overweight by an order, thanks to the extra set of dinner plates and dishes Deepthi insisted. Most chocolates were the ones to get the first omission, followed by dove soap stack, followed by nuts tins. The rest was allegedly ‘indispensible’ if I were to see the light of the day once I return home. So that meant stuffing the carry-on as tightly as I could as well as my laptop bag (this really reminded me of journey to and fro Germany while as a student, though I’d admit that this wasn’t as bad as that was where I was wearing literally six shirts. Everyone has their share of fun, experimentation and of course innovation as a student, won’t they?).

After having a sumptuous breakfast, boxed lunch for consumption at airport, baggage zipped and stove in the car boot, we set out to Minneapolis Airport. The plan was that Vamsi and Divya would be circling outside the airport and if in case any items were to be removed because of excess weight, upon a call they’d return and collect the same back to their home. Luckily at the check-in there wasn’t any problem and the baggage was checked-in for collection at Hyderabad. The flights to Chicago and from there to London were uneventful and normal. Just that I went overboard and strained my eyes with two movies back to back in the flight to London from Chicago which fatigued me certainly. At London I bought my permissible quota of liquor to treat the tongue buds of those yearning for an imported malt tinge on them and set out to depart to Hyderabad. After I landed in Hyderabad, true to my hopes, customs was no hassle and I’m out of the Hyderabad airport fairly quickly. As I arrive towing my luggage out of the arrival gate at around 4.50AM, I saw Noori Travels driver waiting from me with a name placard (I think it’s the first time I ever had a placard welcome out of airport – good or bad?). I took a cab drop to my home and controlling the temptation to take sleep, I decided to get ready for office just so I may synchronize my body rhythm with the rhythm of the life back here in Hyderabad.

Just when I began to feel what a smooth return home this was, I realized that I left my beloved watch behind at Minneapolis and soon after from inside the bedroom I heard my wife cry – ‘Oh God! The Correlle dish bowl in the baggage broke into pieces’! Only time will disclose what more got messed up.

My first U.S. trip – 24 carat friendship

2010-11-30T21:09:00.001-08:00

Talk of my friends in U.S, I knew before I landed here that there would be some, but I witnessed more than I anticipated, many already married just like me, thereby increasing the community size even further. In the short time that i was here I got a chance to meet Bindu-Siva Krishna, TKPR-Alekhya, Swamy-Prathibha, Pratapa-Bindu, Santosh, DP and most importantly my dear friend Deepu (for G. Pradeep and not Deepthi), most of them multiple times. I'm not joking when I say, of all the dinners I had, I hardly dined without the company of one or more of these friends. And in each get-together a sense of genuine interest is seen in their eyes for participation. I felt privileged, I felt special. Those B.Tech and intermediate education college days of 24-carat pure friendship worked miracles even after a decade, situational comedy all along and thanks to mother tongue Telugu that allowed for a great timing. Thanks to the choice of hotel quite close by to the office and home locations of most of these folks, commute was not a problem even if it meant they picked me and dropped me in their cars all throughout. Deepu was the first guy to get in touch with me, second day after I landed and till he left for his vacation he was always eager to take me around places. The one Saturday I was there, he drove me to all the major site seeing places, practically possible on a wintry day - Snoqualmie Falls, Space Needle, Casino, Alki artificial beach, Seattle downtown, good Indian lunch buffet and Chinese restaurant for dinner. And to top it all the wonderful time spent simply idling through the Redmond campus buildings in the night and an ever memorable game of snooker that inculcated my interest in the game, i must admit. Thanks dude, if you do drop by at this post.

My first U.S. trip - Life at Redmond!

2010-11-29T23:12:00.000-08:00

I took a cab (I knew transportation is on Company's expense) from Seattle-Tacoma airport directly to my hotel in Redmond and reached there by late evening on 15th November and checked into my room. After finishing the much postponed ablutions all throughout the entire journey I visited a colleague of mine staying in the same hotel, Kundan, who was here for the same purpose as me but a day in advance. We went out, had dinner together and returned to hotel. After a few mails to office folks back home in India, I forced myself to bed early so i may not be plagued with jet lag the next day. It all worked as planned, and starting early morning the next day I'm all set to work in U.S time zone… normally! Series of meetings, knowledge sharing sessions with regular updates to folks back in India office followed for the first half of the week. In all those sessions that I interacted with folks in U.S, my respect for Redmond work culture just doubled. There is frankness, no information held-up (as I perceive to happen with many people back home in India) is sensed. People know and show that others inputs are valuable and that their success is interdependent with success of their associates. Little did I see anyone of the sick mind-set that 'information is wealth and with-holding it allows to exercise power', which when i reel through is unfortunately pampered heavily by some of the Indian counterparts I ran into. People feel the importance and even demand for knowing how things are changing in the environment and at the same time show a commitment to the work overall as a team they have to accomplish, without looking for excuses. That's what I'd say is a better approach towards a successful team work than anything otherwise.
Last few days of that week and the subsequent week went in to prepare for and run a series of reviews for my one pager specs and for my colleagues’ specs as well.

It's thanksgiving time in U.S and add to that Seattle snowed in November after many years, the temperatures went so low (sub-zero) on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (22nd through 24th November) that people stopped coming to work. We took a cab drop on Monday, the 22nd to office, but had to come on foot in the evening and that's when we learnt the lesson why people here dread snow so much. Roads were skidding with precipitated ice; vehicles are swaggering when the tyres run onto icy portions on the road. The next day even cab service folks threw up their hands and didn't come to pick us up, which made us 'work from hotel' (status message still remains WFH) and make the scheduled appointments into online meetings. Thanks to Lync, business got accomplished. Tuesday the promised 1 page spec review with feature team back in India finished and on Wednesday after the sun showed up in the sky close to noon I visited office in one last attempt to catch hold of anyone who could impart some more 'gyan'. Not surprisingly, building was so lonely. Weather coupled with holiday season beginning Thursday onwards was reason enough for the regular ones to remain at home on Wednesday. In the evening after waiting for 1hour we were lucky to get a cab back to hotel. I returned to hotel and packed my bags ready for an early morning check-out, as I had a flight to catch the next day morning. As a closing ceremony fete Bindu-Sivakrishna hosted a dinner (second one in a span of 7 days) which was duly followed with a game of least count where the subtle cues of Santosh tricked me fall flat. I successfully attended a conference call with India office while at their house, thanks again to Lync. End of call, end of dinner I headed back to hotel, weighed my bags and hit bed at around 00.30AM only to wake up at 4AM to get ready and head to airport. Given the snowy weather outside as well as possible delays likely owing to full body scan protests, I did not want to take chance so started early to airport and was there before 6AM for a 8.15AM flight.

Enough of work, the actual reason that prompted me to pen down a blog for my U.S trip is the affection and hospitality shown by my friends and family relatives back here in Redmond. More on those to follow in my subsequent posts!

My first U.S trip – Reaching there!

2010-11-29T23:09:00.000-08:00

14th November - There was great amount of excitement flowing through me. Not because the kid inside me picked the hint that it was Children's day, but because it's my marriage anniversary and more importantly that I'm about to make my first U.S trip. It's a short trip, focussed (or may be not) business agenda for 8 working days and 2 days holiday and then return back to India, that's the major blue print for the visit. The excitement at home was even more palpable in house mates, much earlier than it occurred to me and at a much greater magnitude as well. It's an occasion to prepare the list of 'sends' up-stream and a separate list of 'asks' down-stream. Everyone is set in their preparations, all I had to do is choose an airline that allowed maximum free baggage allowance and prepare myself for few weight (read heavy suitcases) pull exercises. I did those two and rest is all taken care by the seasoned 'experts' back home. When the day (more correctly evening) arrived on 14th November, all items to stuff in are ready. After a quick yet tiresome exercise of arranging things between bags I'm all set to head to airport in the company sent cab.

Journey began with a 1.30hr leg to Mumbai from Hyderabad on Kingfisher. I checked the bags in Hyderabad for direct receipt at Seattle. Journey was peaceful with KF's in-flight customisable entertainment. I landed in Mumbai airport domestic terminal. I was 'advised' that I check if my bags actually came, personally collect 'em and deposit (thankfully not re-checkin though) at KF booth for further loading onto the connecting BA flight to London. After a long wait for a domestic terminal to international terminal shuttle followed by a re-scan of baggage (I totally did not understand utility of this scan at all) and a subsequent ride of 20mins I reached the international terminal. Though a short ride, i got to know from my neighbour in the shuttle bus, how it sucks to enter India with Mumbai as port of entry. How 'squeezy' the corrupt customs officials are who would litigate even the underwear you wore to be brought for 'commercial use' and not personal use. Such a senseless cost of living place that it turned into, the expectations of the corrupticians (the word came naturally to me, probably inspired by the word politician) are so high, at least 10 folds than what other ports of entry counterparts expect. For once i thanked god that it is not the port of entry for me.

Departing from Mumbai it was a 10hour long journey to London. With a strict mandate that I set to myself, i restrained myself from watching any in-flight entertainment but gained as much sleep as possible (which in the hind-sight seems to be reason why I didn't tire out much through the journey). Much I may wish so, i couldn't tame the way I get/end sleep so only for about 5 hours of the journey time I had good sleep rest of the time I was either watching some entertainment channel or struggling to find a comfort posture that induces sleep. The flight landed on time in London Heathrow early morning at around 7AM and my connecting flight was only at 2.30PM. In the beginning I felt happy that I had enough time to move at a relaxed pace between terminals if needed and be on time to my next flight, but I later realized that the time gap is rather too long and it began to make me feel the forgotten fatigue. The real threat that the extremist terror groups have turned out to be can be witnessed to some extent at the Heathrow airport, i left my bag outside the

washroom to freshen-up and then I see an airport official barging in and crying out whose bag would that be outside, when i answered in affirmative he asked me to carry it along with me all times, no matter ‘where’ I go else it would just be lifted off and destroyed without any liability. When I heard him repeat the word 'destroyed' for the third time, my early morning dormant senses sprung to life - holy cow, I definitely don't want that to happen.

All ablutions done, I set out to security check-in. Seeing the way passengers were asked to take off everything and place in those plastic boxes - shoes, belts, ornaments, for once I felt if officials conned to exercise a mass strip-tease sort around in the airport. Breakfast completed, all sign-boards verified thoroughly at frequent intervals until my connecting flight information popped up on those, terminal width ad-measured with my snail walk around the entire terminal 5, all my emails in the computer including junk were read twice I still see that it is not yet time for boarding. Boy, beyond 4hours you don't need a flight connection transit time in how much ever busy airport.

Finally the much awaited boarding began and I eagerly entered into the flight. The journey was yet another 9.30hours of air time during which I had yet another 4-5 hours of sleep before I landed at Seattle. I had advices all through from the beginning of the journey from Divya, my wife’s sister and an ‘expert’ in U.S travel, on what forms to expect and how to fill those Dept. of homeland security related immigration forms. After confidently filling them, I'm in the queue at the immigration stamping. There were two brief questions on my purpose of visit which I answered with confidence and I'm allowed 'IN' to United States of America. It was certainly a feeling of accomplishment; don't know why exactly I felt so though. After I collected my baggage and passed through one other desk of airport officials I was asked to place my bags on a conveyor belt and collect it upstairs, raising questions in me if any of those infamous sad anecdotes I heard from previous visitors that their so and so items were thrown off as precautionary measures by airport officials, is going to repeat with me as well. Thankfully none of my items were perceived as suspicious and i've all my baggage received in-tact.

Seattle-Tacomo airport had $4 charge to rent out a baggage cart to help your luggage out (possible to dissuade carts being thrown all over the place and the subsequent manual labour involved to collect them all back), that's when I first witnessed the touted expensiveness around any manual labour action involved in U.S. After making a 'hi, i reached Seattle' calls to few people i inquired with a man of my dad's age which way to get to Taxi location, he was more than happy to help me out and even helped me with my luggage to the destination floor probably because in me he identified another 'desi' that he too is/was. All through my journey be it at London airport or in the flights or here in Seattle I could feel the Indian presence. Where there is opportunity, it’s tough to stop the talented secure their place, isn't it?

Tame your Ego!

2010-10-09T23:28:00.000-07:00

Ego can be best described as hyper active intertia. Inert because when you let it dictate terms it cajoles your vitalities until they degenerate and in the process you in the external world (real world beyond your own self) would be almost stamped to be a worthless yet always self-defending piece of crap. On the otherhand the same ego can churn up your vitalities to suh levels that are abnormal and makes you stretch yourself so much more to prove a point. It is this dogged spirit and power that ego has which made me qualify it as 'hyper active', because it makes one act and raise upto a challenge, however tough may that be.

When you are withholding a public discolosure of a tough goal your ego is masking more onto its inert side. Excuses like - "It's not that the goal is tough to accomplish, just that I didn't have it as my goal" become the fate of the day eventually. But the same goal if made public can trigger a chain reaction where now that you set a benchmark for your capbilities, you can't slip behind. The afore-mentioned active side begins to unfold therefore. The category of successful and truly virtuous individuals are those who tamed their ego the later way (either wantedly or as a consequence of situation) and thus ended up in enhanced performance.

The saddest category of all is they who announce their goals publicly in the hope to trigger active side of ego, but ssuccumb soon after to the inert ego and hence fail to "strive for in earnest". Not only do they fail in accomplishing their goal but also come across as non-virtuous personalities jeopardizing their credibility. The only rescure in such situation is your conscience for, your conscience alone is the divine element that can stand against the satanic inert ego. Ever since you set out on a goal (which begins the moment a goal is conceived) at frequent intervals (could be monthly, daily or even hourly depending upon the goal efforts gestation period) list down your efforts towards the goal's accomplishment. Read them to yourself and let your conscience pose some simple yet real tough questions uptill a point where your inert ego
surrenders. That way by being tough to the inert ego you can evoke more vitality from within and achieve phenomenal performance in all walks of life and be successful and happy (to your conscience) always. As I say, being happy to your conscience is the purest form of happiness.

God bless you!

A significant factor behind my success this past one year!

2010-03-14T10:15:00.000-07:00

A reel through what all I accomplished post marriage tell me that it was in-fact sizeable, like any other 1 year period in my life earlier. However there was a noticeable difference, the magnitude here was truly a notch more than what it otherwise would be. The differenc element being marriage. I got married in between my studies, so only from past one year could i call myself really a married man. Even after that I was continuously on a trot, be it at a strenuous trot job at T.I.M.E. or on an never ending 'loaded ramp-up' phase that put me through most of my late night hours at office. The jobs were tough but I was fulfilling them at a pace that I couldn't possible reach even at my greatest stretch fete. That missing lapse is when I relook back coming from the stretch of my love of life. She is a vital force to keep me focussed on things, give constructive feedback on what befits me and what doesn't it. I think that she is complementing me in my growth and I hope that I was true. But a reel back on how much time I spent at home leading quality personal life reveals that may be somewhere the balance is lacking justice, blame pointing towards me. It's really into a soup of things that I dragged myself into not knowing that deeper I dive, deeper would I be asked to dive again and again. But the change should start for the my good, oops good of us both. And I wish starting tomorrow a new definition of panache at work drapes off on me where more balance in personal and professional life would be aimed at. Dear, let me tell once again, if you drop by at this post, that this coming spec review success would be dedicated to you, because you made me accomplish that.

One FunDay this Friday, the 27th of Novemeber 2009!

2009-11-27T07:05:00.000-08:00

Before the habit of blogging degenerates in me I better re-kindle it. Let me pen down atleast a chronology of events that I did today as a starting bet.

Today I got to participate in the first group outing at Microsoft after I joined the organization. It was a great day out there at Runway 9. Moved to campus in my car, to find an email that said that buses are ready. So hurriedly rushed from my desk to the bus bay to realize that we follow Indian timings in Hyderabad. Well, no disrespect to the organizers, I fully understand how such morale events begin in a lazy fashion. With about 40mins delay than the scheduled time we set off to the venue, in the mid-way picking up folks who were waiting on the bus route. Reached the place, had a welcome juice and went on an indoor gaming spree for a while until its lunch time. It was a decent lunch with two N-V dishes (just that no fry item :( ) and an ice-cream+jamun dessert. Post lunch it's the all-hands time, with Nagesh creatively engaging the crowd in a useful-to-leadership-yet-activity-filled event. It was 3.15p.m by then and the long wait to go do a ride on the motor karts ended. Karting was on and me with the additional coupon that Dhana lended me was ready to do double the sanctioned lapses (12 in place of 6). After a bit of painful wait in the red hot sun, my turn came and I thoroughly participated in the race, punching up my andrenaline all through out the 12 lapses. Then briefly spent playing air hockey before go grabbing few bajjis and juices as snacks. Post snacks it's one half hour of quality fun in a game of Laser Combat before it was time to hit back to campus. All in all, quality funday this Friday has been. Thank God I attended and recharged myself and poor all who had the opportunity to attend but decided to stay back and laze at homes!

Vehicle Registration Process under Kondapur RTO region

2009-10-27T02:52:00.000-07:00

Of late, despite having free time, I've been away from blogging. What was I really doing in all that free time I had between jobs? Answer is... I adventured to get our car registered myself without paying a penny to any broker (YESSSS I did it!). In the process I gained a lot of IP that I would like to share to help fellow enthusiasts looking for such information.

(Assuming that you bought a new vehicle from an authorized dealer and made all payments to him and are in good terms with him, blah blah blah...)
1. Ask the showroom/dealer to give you a docket of documents that include Road Tax payment receipt, Invoice original, Insurance paid receipt, Form 21, if you got it financed then a couple of documents financer shares with the dealer etc.
2. If you plan to get a special number, then

a. Go to Attapur RTA office (RTO activities are computerized in Hyderabad, and Attapur is the regional hub in this part of the city to make any special entries into the system like blocking a number against an applicant etc) – address is to the left side of road at Pillar number 143 of PV Narasimha Rao Expressway flyover when going towards Shamshabad from Mehdipatnam side
b. Collect the application (costs Re.1) for special number reservation just at the office entrance.
c. Go into the office and spot the charts that are nailed to the pillars which tell what is the price of each special number. If you had a number in mind, see what it’s price is, any unlisted number can be reserved by paying a DD for Rs.5000/- (for car) and 2000/- (for bike) I guess.
d. If you want to chose a number from available numbers. Find out in another notice board where on that particular day what all numbers are available for reserving (it will be a list of 1000 numbers with some of them being already reserved and marked as unavailable). In that list itself the series prefix (viz. AP 28DC or AP 28 DD )that is applicable to those number will be mentioned on the top.
e. Take a DD on the name “Secretary RTA, Rangareddy” for the amount applicable to the number you chose.
f. Fill the application form with the temporary registration and the desired permanent registration (running series number followed by the chosen number), the DD amount and DD particulars.
g. Submit the application before 1p.m at Counter 1
h. Wait until 3p.m if anybody else on that same day requested for the same amount, in which case an auction sorts will happen at 3p.m and if you desperately want the number then you bid more than the other contestant and secure the number.
i. If there is no clash to the number you requested and or you secured the number by bidding more than the others you would be given a letter confirming that the permanent number is reserved on your name.

3. If you have a Form-20 prepared by your dealer annex to it the docket of documents given by dealer (if you don’t have Form-20, collect a new vehicle registration application form and fill it and annex the documents) and submit at the RTO Kondapur office counter, along with Address Proof (telephone bill) and ID proof documents (PAN card/Voter ID card) of the vehicle owner and a self addressed envelope in which you would be receiving your RC card. The clerk will verify and ask for any missing documents. He will ask the vehicle owner to sign on an electronic pad which will appear on RC card.
4. If you have secured your number by reserving it earlier (refer Step 2) attach to the set of documents (as the top most document) the Attapur RTA given order letter.
5. Applications are received at Kondapur RTO office only till 1p.m for new vehicle registrations
6. All the applications received on a particular day are arranged serially in alphabetical order and given registration numbers as per the rolling series. In case you’ve reserved the number (refer Step 2) that number is allotted to you.
7. Your RC card is prepared and couriered to you using the self addressed envelope you annexed along with the application documents
8. Show the RC and get two number plates (one for vehicle front and one rear) from “Veerigaadu & Co. Art Works and signboards” and put them on your vehicle and ... dummu repuko po!

A page from a successful lover's diary!

2009-02-25T12:06:00.000-08:00

I always dreamt of whom I can choose as a life time partner. I came to know of a girl some 9 years ago and in the first five years I remained a silent observer of her conduct and increasingly began to feel that probably she is the one with that right mix of modesty, intelligence and traditional values that I was searching for. End of five years of silent observation I decided that if there is one person I’d put a tough fight for in my life then this must be her. This is the goal I set for myself – I must marry her!
But given my own complex criterion of choice, I made my own life miserable in trying to impress her as a suitable match. The journey was long, tough but in the end all so satisfying. I knew, given how traditional she is at her conduct, she won’t do a thing that her parents will not approve of. So I made all efforts to get into the good books of her parents while ensuring that I don’t appear desperate all at the same time (even if I hear a ‘NO’, there should be life beyond for me, isn’t it?). Having a more or less similar cultural background enabled me to assess what would be apt and what would not be apt to do when interacting with her or her parents in social settings. However, during several of the interactions I had with her parents I came to know the importance they are levying on the nature of qualification of a potential groom. With just an under graduate degree identical to the one she has I seemed not to be at any worth mention advantage in being considered seriously by her parents. This expedited the need to take a quantum jump into a reputed college’s MBA program. Nothing more convincing than an entry into IIM to convey my capabilities in her parent’s minds! In all earnest I mustered my abilities, attempted CAT and made it to IIMB (small clarification: An MBA from IIM also had several other personal reasons, this being one of the key catalyst reasons). Only post that achievement I dared to propose her.
While so much I endeavored to impress her parents, I had to equally keep her engaged till I came out with flying colors in my higher studies preparation. Since the path I chose was a long one, if she lost her patience any earlier and said a ‘Yes’ to any other marriage proposal at hand I’d have failed in my mission. At the same time I have to also put in tremendous efforts in gaining that individuality at my home to be allowed to choose my life partner as against the prevalent norm of parents deciding the match in the region I hail from. All in all after two and half years of diligent efforts I put together my act to propose and get an acceptance. But that is only half the efforts, a successful marriage of both of us meant bringing two heterogeneous families together. Mindsets are different, regional backdrops too are different while I hail from a village she is born and brought up in a metropolitan. I spent time to drill down the commonalities in values and beliefs that both the families hinged against and connect the customary traditional differences in a way both the families could comprehend. Add to all this, I had to do much of those things while continuing my hectic schedule at IIMB. It was a marathon effort of one and half more years for many of us involved, and as recently as this November all aspects were set in place and we both married each other. Not to mention that I had to fly in from my exchange university in Germany to marry and return back. As mentioned it was a tough trek all through, but the accomplishment in the end was worth every single calorie of effort.

A sweet thought for fast pacing pairs!

2009-01-26T03:40:00.000-08:00

Imagine a situation where everyday evening you rush to open up your inbox to find that short but sure communication from your beloved. Nothing different from what you read 24hrs ago, same kind of message with just a few different words and sentence constructs used. But the message is that of sharing love and concern, an evergreen special, from that special friend, beloved and spouse.
In a fast paced world of pairs (married or in a relationship) both working at different geographic places each... wouldn't such a communication help them curse their fates less and continue to feel bonded and together. I believe it definitely does. What do you think?

sick and tired of material well being and caste system

2008-12-08T10:03:00.000-08:00

All around me I get the feeling that there is a pressure situation thickening about material well being. I just finished watching a touching movie and later an intimate chat with my best friend and then reflected back on how things are going in my life and in the life of my friend. Everyone you seek advice to keep advising only one thing... earn money. Their wisdom boils down to money can fetch you any happiness, so earn loads of money. This is the typical left brained thought. But sorry, now am no mood to think left minded. I for once felt like giving my heart a chance and see what the whole thing appears to it. As expected, it is complaining. It is posing some tough questions that are eluding my rationality. When did I feel most happy, is it when I relaxed in the most luxurious cars an ibanker can or is it when I played holy happily with the kids in the orphanage home. Certainly while doing the later.Till when should I earn, can someone please tell me. I'll start with at least a 12hr a day job. I spend in that job for some 2years to find that I'm promoted (read materially more well'd off) to work in more responsible roles for another 5 more years, another uplift in my material well being and another 5 more years. By then I'd be nearing my 40s. And can I retire then? I'd be told - 'No way, kids are coming along how could you renounce your responsibilities at such a crucial time'. So another at least 10 more years. By then I'd be in my 50s and all those cherishable moments I could collect will all be long lost by then.A peek into my friends plight tells me more worry is due even later. Hoping you slough all till your 50s and build a stock of 'material wealth' you would then not want your kids to go marry someone they like but rather try to find a match into an equally 'materially well off' or even more well off families. Anything they would do to find a match for themselves on the contrary (read love a creative mate but not so well off) would be treated as a sin. To make things more worse society norms of caste creep in. Is it not more important to lead a life of love and happiness with a person who can understand you and stand by you in the thick and thin, rather than ignorantly select someone of your caste and of equal material wealthiness and sob for the rest of the life. Why do inter-caste marriages get treated so meanly and parents of kids who committed them behave so defensively as if they are ashamed of themselves? Purely irrational in the end, isn't it?

సలహాలు కావలెను...

2008-09-24T09:46:00.000-07:00

మొదటిసారి పెళ్లి చేసుకొంటున్న వరుడుకి లగ్నాలకు మరియు పెళ్ళికి సమకూర్చుకోవాల్సిన వస్త్ర సముదాయం గురించి మంచి సలహాలు సూచనలను ఈ క్రింది చిరునామాకు పంపగలరు

కేర్ అఫ్ - మర్లీనీ హోమ్బుర్గేర్ , ౩ లోరెంజ్వేగ్ , క్లుఫ్తెర్న్-లిప్బాక్, ఫ్రీద్రిక్సఫెన్ , జర్మనీ.

update

చక్కటి సెలెక్షన్స్ చేసిపెట్టినందుకు దీప్తి కందిమళ్ళ కు Special Thanks!!!

German Student Visa - A big pain! (part 1)

2008-09-09T06:20:00.000-07:00

Watch out folks if you plan to visit Germany as a student. Getting Visa can be a pain all over the body. To ease the pain what you can do is start your visa process good 4 months before ur travel date. I started mine 3 months before and I got the visa stamped just on the day of my flight to Frankfurt. I’m penning down here the whole episode just in case it might help any of you looking for the same. To cut the story short, I’d write what happened after the receipt of invitation letter from German university.

Some time in mid June, I guess, I received an e-mail attachment of my invitation letter to spend one fall term (Sep-Dec) at Zeppelin University, Germany. The letter mentioned that while the university would like to help in whichever way they can, Visa procedures are solely the responsibility of the candidate. What that means is, it’s upto me to figure out all the modalities starting from what all documents I should procure and submit to till collecting the stamped visa.
A little web browsing gave the info that VFS is also the facilitator for Germany embassy, much like US case. In Bangalore the VFS-Germany centre is located in St.Mark’s Road, in a commercial complex named Sophia’s Choice, right opposite to Hotel Nandini. Good thing is that the complex has a free bike park area. [It is always full, but if you look hard you would find just enough space to move existing bikes and shove in yours in between.]
Many friends say many things about what documents to furnish, but what VFS center folks tell would be the most reliable info (they in fact give you a check-list with appropriate things tick-marked as per your visa requirement, if you visit their office and explain what your need is). At the risk of undermining my earlier statement I still am listing down the essential documents I could think of for a German student visa. Ah! I forgot to mention one thing, which appears now trivial to me but wasn’t that trivial when I began my visa formalities.
“Any person who wants to stay in any Schengen country (browse internet for what all countries of European Union form the Schengen region, Germany is certainly part of Schengen area) for a period of less than or equal to 90days can avail a Schengen Visa from any of the Schengen country consulate. If the stay is going to be for more than 90 days, one has to apply for the long-term/residence permit type of Visa.”

List of essential documents for German Student Visa:
Passport
Invitation Letter from University (English must, nice to have in German also)
Bank Statement for past 1 year
Letter from Bank mentioning the balance in your bank account both in rupees and equivalent euro amount (as per that day’s exchange rate)
German translation of above letter
Cover letter by candidate to Consulate seeking Visa
German translation of above mentioned cover letter
Filled long-term stay application form (application form can be downloaded from chennai german consulate website, or picked up free of cost from VFS-Germany center)
Bio-metric photo (have at least four in number)

With these in hand, I went to VFS-Germany center in St.Mark’s Road to book the mandatory appointment with consulate. Some one said the visa fee is 4100, but did not mention the 776 rupees of service fee. First time I tried to book my visa appointment I was short of 60 rupees and had to go the next day and book the appointment.

After the first personal visa interview in Chennai, I was told to collect my passport end of that week. I felt glad. Alas, the received passport doesn’t have any visa stamping on it. In the meantime I found out that the Visa stamping is not any near, and it’s a long way later to happen. From July 21st when my first visa interview was over, the executives whoever they may be, Germans or Indians, took their sweet long time to approve me a student visa after verifying with my german university and bank statements. While for my friend who was interviewed on the same day, who is from my college going on exchange to the same university the approval came before July end itself, my approval letter was generated only in the second week of August (15 days of delay for no conceivable valid reason). More comedy is yet to begin… for the executives in German consulate, Chennai it took 6 days to courier a piece of paper that I was repeatedly mentioning that I badly need to schedule my second personal interview (yes, it’s two rounds of personal interviewing for Germany, though one would argue it is not worth the salt when even for U.S it’s just one personal interview only).
Back home I mentally made up my mind that I would have to reschedule my flight dates (which would mean not just monetary loss but also a lot of personal disadvantage) as I waited eternally for the visa approval letter. Days passed by and my end-terms began. In he midst of my exams, on 23rd August when I had two exams 9a.m to 11.15a.m and 2.30p.m-6.30p.m, after the first exam was over I got a call from VFS-Germany center informing me that my visa approval letter arrived and that I should collect the same. When inquired what was the earliest date I could get if I have to book a second personal appointment, I was informed that it was 3rd September, which is the day I’ve my flight scheduled. I requested if a slot on that date can be blocked for me, but I was told that it’s not possible. And on top, I was fortunately or unfortunately, informed that the interview slots can be grabbed away by anyone from any of the other VFS centers as they speak. What this meant was – “JC! You better rush and book the appointment in person NOW, or else you risk rescheduling your flight”. I looked at my watch and it showed exactly 2hr 10minutes for my second exam to begin. I took a very risky call and started from my room towards VFS centre. Did I get my interview scheduled on 3rd? Did I miss my exam? (… know in my next post)

You gotta do it!

2008-08-23T09:08:00.000-07:00

You gotta dream, you gotta protect it. People can't do something themselves, they tell you - you can't do it. You want something, you go get it. Period. - The Pursuit of Happyness

IIM interviews help

2008-03-20T12:51:00.000-07:00

Hi there,
Though these days I'm not having time to pen down content to post on blog, what I thought I could do is scout for useful content existing on my hard-drive already and post it verbatim (no time to do the editing job either. sounds like a bit too much, but that's the fact). In the process I found a recent chat that involved advice on IIM interview preparation. Given the time of the year when many interviews are happening, I thought I should host the same here as it might someone out there seeking advice. So here you go... [standard disclaimers on typos, grammar etc. hold :)]
**** Begin of chat ****
11:20 AM Amar: hi..
me: hello
Amar: do uremeber me .. i was a st yr when u graduated in IIIT just had a small clarification
1st r u busy ?
11:21 AM me: go ahead, if u think it doesn't take much time
Amar: i got shortlisted for this yr for iim b could tell me about ur interview
me: ok... congratulations, that's a great news
11:22 AM Amar: thanks.. but gp p iis still htere there
me: gimme 1min
Amar: no prob.. i could ping later.. if u want
me: I'd sure respond
11:23 AM hi amar, I had B, I and L shortlists
11:24 AM I and L intvs preceeded B
Amar: oh same for me..
me: so in once sense i got some warm up how has the prep for GD and PI been for you so far. Did you take help of any coaching insti in this regard. It does help
11:25 AM at least for me it did
Amar: yea.. i took time classes
me: good GD and PI
Amar: all my interviews have been very short.. infact k lasted for less than 10 mins
yea
11:26 AM me: are you a fresher? don't worry about the timing
Amar: no 2007 passout
me: ok
11:27 AM i feel the appropriate advice for you would be... list down 3 significant learnings at your work place, that you'd have in your kitty to talk confidently about
11:28 AM Amar: k..
me: if you managed any crisis, accomplished significant success against odds etc. for a 1yr or less person technical details will be thorough quizzed also
11:29 AM Amar: oh..
me: choose some 3 topics/subjects of your graduation are you the ECE grad or CSE grad from IIITH?
Amar: ce ece
11:30 AM me: in which case, I feel in the light of ongoing telecom players spectrum allocation row, u might be quizzed on fundamentals of what spectrum means what CDMA is , what GSM is
Amar: oh..
me: the person who asks you this question, mind you, need not be a guy with any technical knowledge on it in depth.
11:31 AM but take it for granted he has loooooooot of behavioral knowledge on the same
11:32 AM Amar: wow.. the interviews are really that thorough ?>
me: He might not know what CDMA full form is and what GSM full form is, but would know that CDMA is the best technology to use in a region thta has lot of particular disturbances like dust, pollution etc.
11:33 AM but don't panic
what you can cleverly do is
Amar: my fyp was on cdma :(
me: I did this. It helped me. Take each topic area and be the interviewer for yourself
11:34 AM start darting questions one after the other one question based on the previous answer. make a list of 30-40 questions with google at handsreach, finding answers is not at all tough
11:35 AM Amar: yea..
me: when you are finding out an answer mind you, you shouldn't spend hours on one question. Enough content that makes you appear knowledgeable, typically 3-5 sentences is all that you need
11:36 AM Amar: i had the list of questions too.. for ece k
me: within these 3-5 sentences summary answer see if a leading question can be asked
11:37 AM List of standard questions that people compile based on some test-papers and guides frequently asked questions section. That is a good read, but the approach I'm suggesting is that of making you appeal to the interviewer
Amar: yes i got that part
me: having analyzed few topics from those many angles, you'd invariably begin to feel confident on the topic
11:39 AM Proving theorems level kind of quizzing, you know would not be there, all you need to come out is having general grasp till atleast two levels deep on topics
Amar: so concepts first and details later ?
me: it is very unlikely that you run into the hands of a electrical engineer who comes to quiz you on finer details of complex theorems
Exactly you hit the nail right on the head
11:40 AM concepts general grasp (not too shallow either, at least two questions deep) you should have
11:41 AM now in the interview room what you do is the earliest you can, try to drag the interview towards these concepts that you have famialarized yourself with
11:42 AM Veer the discussion to your comfortable areas by annexing phrases or highlighting technical words that pique the interviewer interest to ask you a related question
Amar: they will see through that right..
11:43 AM me: if you bring in extraneous phrases quite not gelling then they might see through it
11:44 AM but in the very intro about yourself you highlight that while doing your FYP you had the best exposure of all the four years of graduation that might with great chance pique the interest of interviwer to ask sth about your fyp
Amar: hmm were u asked on al lthis in urs ?
11:45 AM me: i was asked about cdma and gsm some examples for countries using the both technologies that time hutch was being acquired by vodafone
Amar: oh..
11:46 AM me: try to show you have an opinion of yours on the contemporary issues that are happenign in the newspapers thta days newspaper is a must read, to be on safer side. if not at least the previous day's
Amar: doing that ..
me: in TIME you might have already been told about how important it is to have an opinion of your own, than merely stating facts
Amar: i mean not deep and all but..
11:47 AM yes...
me: i was asked do you think it's wise for vodafone to buy hutch
11:48 AM Amar: wooa
me: i didn't have that great an insight about the benefits entitled for vodafone in the deal, but in general i told given the growth story of indian telecom sector it makes sense to enter india
Amar: yea.. its biggest market the11:49 AM
me: and hutch is a sizeable player to make a headway in, rather than trying the route of acquiring stake in Airtel in bits and pieces
11:52 AM I think for answers like these which you get to improvise then and there, as in they are not what you planned and prepared for before hand, you can add in a humbleness element like "... while actual extent of the synergies is not fully known to me, but I think from a very aggregate view it makes sense to acquire hutch because...blah blah blah" they appreciate that you can admit that you have to learn more on things
11:53 AM Amar: oh..
me: but avoid obsequious phrases like "I don't know, but if you say it could be true, I'm willing to accept it"
11:54 AM Amar: agreable?
me: they want you to base your decisions on the reasoning YOU make for yourself good or bad try to come out as a person who has sufficient individuality
11:55 AM that's all the general fundae I can talk of
To summarize, the key points
Develop concepts at at least 2-3 levels deep
11:56 AM too much details is secondary
Phrase your answers so that whenever you see a chance to veer the discussion to your comfort zone, you would do that
11:57 AM Amar: k..
me: prepare template answers about your work and extracurricular and cocurricular achievements you did in college, that you can on the cassette and keep the flow for minutes at stretch
11:58 AM Amar: extra-currics are also asked uon i guess ?
me: If you got a question in the prepared domain, nothing like that. but even for improvizing sort questions, take time out to include some sort of logic of YOUR own before uttering the answer
11:59 AM yeah, extra currics was one of my strength point and part of my strategy was to veer them towards that area
Amar: k.. i have trekking as a hobby too..
me: excellent
12:00 PM Amar: i was on two of tem during college
me: these kind of things matter a loooot they'd love to pick people who have done something different in life than routine 'mugging'
all the best for your interviews
12:01 PM how many over, how many more?
ok, u seem to busy.
I gotta go too. bye
***** End of chat*****

All the best to all aspirants!

Who won finally is Arjuna!

2008-03-03T13:38:00.000-08:00

At a place where it all appears as rat race... equations all seem to be framed faultily... a non-rewarding-yet-highly-taxing place... 'fairness' logic is propogated to be working but you just are not able to see it in action and especially in your case all appears unfair. What do you do, when winning is all that matters? You win and you can only win by being Arjuna and not Karna. Deep subtle logic holds all the above sentences together. I don't care if a passer-by fails to understand this. I'm writing this for one specific person who is desperately seeking a solution. Good luck dude!

The pain and gain that my Summer Placement has been...

2007-11-11T08:13:00.000-08:00

It's nearing 9p.m now. And as I recline and relax, the entire episode of the way the past 3 to 4 days have gone reels before me.Early November, shortlist for BCG opened the summer placements dayZero shortlists account. Knowing well, that my resume could have been improved far better than the way i submitted it to companies to stand chance for shortlists I still wished to see if I'm shortlisted or not. Answer is NO. Next day, more shortlists. End of day result - no shortlist for my name. Next to next day, even more companies' shortlists appear sans my name. Next to next ... to next day - hard luck! Just about the time when I thought 'one shortlist during this time, I would offer great thanks to God'... Macquarie shortlist came WITH my name in it. Voila, now I too have a dayZ shortlist. Very soon some strong feelings got imprinted...'many companies didn't like me or more precisely didn't recognize my efforts, so why should I bother craving for someone who is not interested in me. Here is Macquarie who respected whatever I did in my previous years and hence would focus all my energies towards MY Macquarie'. Putting aside all the immediate works pending for the next day's class, what I did immediately that night was to open up and read through the business model and locational activities of Macquarie from its website. The love for Macquarie only multiplied as and like more companies released their shortlists without my name. Three days before the D-day, I began preparing only for summers and no acads (done with my mids, just the previous day, so no worries!) and that too squarely focussed on IBD of Macquarie. Learnt from seniors what could be the areas to focus on, took gyaan from whoever in eye-sight distance is dispersing it (special thanks to Geet Bhanawat! :D and also to Kiran) and built up a strong sense of optimism and confidence that I'm thoroughly prepared for the Macquarie IBD interview. Researched into real estate and telecom sector from an interview point of view and rehearsed a lot of my answers to personality based questions, revisting into my past life and accomplishments and drawbacks. Then just the evening before the D-day fixed an appointment with seniors Naresh and Mohit (thanks a ton guys!) and got a mock interview done (in proper formal setting). Recorded the answers and heard them back to see how fluent I was and how confident I was. The whole process wiped out any grave subconscious fears I might have had and set me ready to await my turn on the D-day.

*** The D-day ***
Woke up to wingmate's bang on door, 10 minutes past 6. Finished all my ablutions and head-bath (gelled hair look in the previous evening mock interview, didn't appeal to me), dressed up and went to the venue MDC just in time at 7a.m. But it took another one and half hour for the companies to arrive and begin the process. Starting 8.30a.m onwards people were getting calls from trackers and are finding their way to interview rooms. I was hoping that my tracker knew who I am and would call me. Even two hours into the process I didn't hear a call... that was strange and disappointing given that macquarie was quite high in my priority ordering. But everyone has his number... and quarter to 11a.m I heard that I can show myself near the interview lobby. After another twenty minutes wait my first round of interview began. Every question being posed to me appeared as if the exact question I prepared for, most of them personals (talk of personals I have so much to share about for that is my strong point, I always believe) and I began to realise that I'm involving the interviewers and steering the discussion the way I wanted it. I had researched thoroughly to make them convince why I'd fit in macquarie and why macquarie fits into my scheme of things. Even the technical issues posed to me were very much under the researched set of things. Bingo! without any further delay was asked to move into the second round. Yet again personals and this time around quizzing on my general understanding about business. Fortunate that all the major headlines and their implications on India flashed in my mind just in time. Bingo again! But the HR comes and says... 'while we very much want to give out an offer to you, we seem to have touched our recruitment limits for your preferred choice i.e. Hongkong. Can you take up either singapore or mumbai locations?'. I said that I want international exposure so to that extent I'd compromise to take up Singapore. This decision needed me to face yet another friendly round of interview with the singapore office people. More personals and one guesstimate. I did most of the talking too here and the panel was impressed. Feedback was given to HR and there I go with an offer to Singapore's IBD desk. The whole process took about 2 hours, but in the end it's so very rewarding and relaxing to know that I'm PLACED in dayZero and that too in the firm of MY CHOICE. All the more relieving it is, when I think of 'what if I couldn't make it to Macquarie?'... Oh God! I hate to go through the process even for an extra single day. And I hate to see people coming up and solacing me even when I don't want them to do so. Oh what a pain it would have been. Chuck it, now I'm IN and that's all what matters at the end of the day.

Though my own preparation was key, I know that without the good wishes of many of my well wishers I couldn't have done this feat. Each one by their name, I thank them all including God!

Two is a company!

2007-08-21T04:58:00.000-07:00

Whoever said the subject line, he/she is in fact 200% correct. I am beginning to see how working together 2 of us can accomplish more than twice that as individuals each one of us can do. That too, more effectively and also more joyfully :). Now I'm even more convinced that I'm in the right team.
Though it's on something as trivial as placing an online order... what all did we achieve?
(i) we made sure by inquiring a couple of vendors that we aren't charged more
(ii) we made the best choice of colors than individually what we might choose.
(iii) improvised a cost effective combination of placing the order.
and most importantly all this in about an hour and half time and that too doing it all so playfully.

Finding a right team is tough, but once you realize you are in the right team there is no limit to what you can achieve.

CAT gyaan - only for the solicited!

2007-08-14T03:54:00.000-07:00

Quite some inquiries are pouring into my inbox from TIME students, old friends, relatives etc who are aspiring for CAT. So I thought instead of answering the same kind of question "What's your general guidance to crack CAT?" n number of times individually for each person. I thought I'd pen it once here and keep circulating this link. Enough intro. Now let's get down to some business.

[to help put things in perspective I'm repeating that this is posted on August 14th, 2007]
If it's CAT 2007 that you are aiming dude then time is precious to you, every minute of it. Ideally, if you are working too, you should have joined the weekend batch of some coaching institute. I joined in TIME-Hyderabad and if you are in Hyderabad, I'd recommend the same.

CAT is ALL ABOUT PRACTICE! Questions per se are not challenging, given time 10th student would crack the paper, you might have known this. What makes it particularly tough is the time pressure. On an average getting less than a minute for a question is troubling. Add to that the questions generally would have a small twist somewhere. Noting that down while you glance through question is important (I'm talking abt Quant and DI type questions)
My major list of advices
For Quant
(i) practice a whole lot of problems, whenever you could make time. Preferably a mix of all varieties, make sure which are your comfortable areas.
(ii) Brush your basic math very well, starting from reciprocals, two by two multiplications, and squares upto 25 ( you never know when they would come handy)

For DI,
(i) Initially questions will be far far tough to finish in the given time, but by practicing lot of solved models and refining your way of solving them continuously you will slowly begin to master them. Make mistakes first few times, but look at the solutions and refine your THOUGHT PROCESS that led to that mistake.
(ii) Develop intuition rather than insisting on calculating till last decimal point (some questions are nasty that u have to calculate till last decimal, but it wud be wise to skip them) in tackling the graphs based problems

For English
(i) Read everything and anything that you think could be obtained. Become familiar with all sorts of topics dry, sarcastic, hinting, sobre, hilarious, ironical passages etc. Target 250-300words per minute reading speed. If you aim stars, you can reach moon at least!
(ii) Vocabulary must be jacked up like anything. To say the least, all GRE words.
(iii) Concentrate especially on phrasal verbs. Either they make or break your chances. Beware!

GOLDEN MANTRAS
(i) Never miss a MOCK-CAT. [MOCK-CAT means the timed test taken along with other students at a proper venue, followed by verification with answer key, followed by analyzing the wrong answers and developing insights on the mistaken and unattempted ones]
(ii) CAT is not challenging any one particular question. It's about maximizing your score at the end of the day. So SKIPPING the uneasy ones and CASHING on the easy ones is the key.

Realizing the vision...

2007-08-03T13:38:00.000-07:00

Many people find out what interests them for a career, but only some do it early in their careers. And of those some, only a handful would have the nerve to pursue their interests amidst scanty resources and adverse conditions. But then, for their efforts, those handful few surely would begin to scale heights as this young entrepreneur you see here has just started doing it
http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/45790/bluetooth-enabled-phone-can-act-as-wireless-web-cam.html
Early batches of IIIT Hyderabad only had one discpline ( Computer Science Engineering) being taught. Emphasis on Electronics subjects was limited, but still there was one guy who spent time reading between lines of Boylstead (if I remember the name correct) book. For us, his juniors, all EC-I doubts have a familiar destination - Thiyagarajan. Little could I comprehend then, why was Rajan so passionate about electronics stream which had minimal guidance and resources available while CS has best faculty in country. But now I am able to relate it all... relate it much better to his choice of leaving a decent paying job and co-found a company of his own... relate it to the success he envisioned early in life and that he is achieving equally early in his career.

Bangalore experience!

2007-05-14T01:47:00.000-07:00

I visited B'lore for my IIM interviews. I was piqued to blog about the city, but hadn't had net access, so I scribbled it on a notepad. The tour ended, and as usual I'm bad in post operative care meaning I forgot to host the post. Now after long, I got reminded of hosting this post. So here it goes...
*****
How much ever prejudiced one may be with Hyderabad, as is the case with me, you can't keep away from appreciating the city that Bangalore is. Keeping aside one aspect TRAFFIC congestion (which I'd not write about here), the city is awesome. Greenary all around... huge trunks abetting almost every road. Having forgotten what it means to feel the shade of a tree, living in Hyderabad, amidst increasing concrete blocks built as if with an intention to take revenge on trees in the city; the unending canopies of Bangalore brought a sense of unexplicable happiness. Almost every road i saw had a pavement, and in every kilometer radius I saw a nice park or two. Parks not in the sense of show case parks of Hyderabad Jubilee Hills, parks that are meant for their true purpose. Starting from less than a year old toddler to octagenarian couples you see all groups of people enjoying the ambience, some making rounds on the walk-way, some playing tennicoit or shuttle, some others helping their kids walk, some more just simply sitting in groups and chatting. I wonder what %ge of parks in Hyderabad ever lived up to such purpose. Also I observed that B'lore is a city for the people, unlike Hyderabad where people are for the city. I observed extensive sign boards, explaining the streets and cross roads all around the city making it possible for a newcomer to come and stop by right at the door step of the destination he is looking for. Here in Hyderabad, I doubt if even a single colony has such route map guidance.

Admiration commands reciprocation

2007-02-19T20:24:00.000-08:00

When one person admires another person, there clearly come into picture two parties. Both of
them similarly made of flesh and blood, and with independent rational minds. For whatever
reason when one person admires the other and does so continuously he/she begins to
anticipate reciprocation from the other person. And if such reciprocation doesn't happen in
a reasonable duration, with very high probability the admirer begins to feel sick of what he
is doing. Long learnt philosophies like admiration is all-giving and never seeking anything
in return do come to some rescue, but only for a short span of time. If the reciprocation
doesn't come even then, such philosophical bindings too would wither apart. Critical and to
some extent cynical thoughts like questions of being ignored, being treated as inferior come
to occupy the mind naturally. After all, none in this present day world fancies being
subdued by others, how much ever near and dear they may be. As a consequence levels of
admiration drop, the specialness associated dwindles and emotions subside to the normal
levels when admirer knew the admired only as yet another fellow human being. If the admiration itself is quite obvious and trivial, then of course its foolish to reciprocate; Aish can't reply back all her fans' letters. But if it appears special and worthy, watch out all you people being admired, before your admirer begins to put his/her grey cells to work.

Debut flight journey

2007-02-19T06:02:00.000-08:00

Feb 12, 2007 marked my flight debut journey. It took me two bitter experiences to inculcate the needed time-sense to catch a flight. My earlier attempts to board a flight once to Vijayawada, and the other to Tirupati failed for I couldn't reach the airport before the no-show threshold time. Such a tough skin that I am, may be I then thought I could board a flight just as if I could board a moving bus or moving train. Anyway, past is past, no regrets. Let me get down to narrate my first flight experience.
* * *
Flight slowly positioned itself at one end of the run-way. As the turbines rotated at an increasing speed, the flight began to speed at a few hundred kilometers per hour velocity on the run-way. For me sitting inside with the seat belt fastened, I could feel the thrust of the seat on my back very similar to the way one would feel when a roller coaster ride begins. As I savoured that speeding experience, in a moment the flight left the ground contact and I began to see things going below my eye level, similar to the experience when I travelled in a glass walled elevator. Very soon, buildings seem to dwindle to tiny boxes, roads to lines, residential layouts and fields become visible only as tiny patches on a vast canvas. While I made a futile effort to site any known building from such an altitude some white hazy substance blurred the view. I wondered what it was, to only find that the flight is cutting past a cloud. wooow! the very thought that I'm flying amidst clouds thrilled me. The cloud drifted by and once again I had a chance to spot objects on earth surface. But this time objects became even too small to make out anything of them. Cloud after cloud drifted past, as the plane ascended to greater heights. By the time the crew announced that take-off phase is over, I could only view from my window a vast sea of clouds, white milky ones stretched till horizon in all directions. It was a fabulous experience, an experience I would cherish for a long time to come.

Am back after a long hiatus!

2007-01-31T10:29:00.000-08:00

Finally after a long fight with the TataIndicom ppl I had internet connection to my
PC. Ever since I resigned my job, I dreamt of having internet connection to my home PC. I
had plans, as I always do, to do LOT many things - registering a domain, hosting my own
website, working from home, contributing to the open source organizations, regularly
updating my blog, being in constant touch with my network contacts not to mention the
trivial things of checking mail at will and browsing net for some feed on what's happening
around in the world. But given the seriousness I attributed (read, 'seriousness I was
supposed to attribute') to my CAT preparation, I couldn't get my PC fixed let alone getting
it hooked to net. Somehow my dad felt that I can make a better use of my PC than letting it
lie dead in that corner. And thanks to the way he constantly keeps me reminding of what I
should be doing, and one good quality I have in me that I don't want to disobey him, I
finally got the PC repaired. And later slowly applied for a phone connection with an
internet use plan, and even more slowly succeeded in getting the all things to fall in place
and start functioning. Now that the environment is set, it's time to keep executing the
plans, at least those that are feasible enough. Mail check happened as the first thing to check if internet is working and since
then it is happening every couple of hours subconsciously. However as part of conscious
efforts I've started reading from internet things useful for my GD/PI exercise of IIM
selections. And I felt that I still have some more time at my disposal and hence I took up
this blog revival activity now. If the motivation levels don't deteriorate drastically, i
think I'd be updating my blog enough frequently.

J.S.Gaari Birthday Celebration on June 10th

2006-06-12T02:52:00.000-07:00

Just on the lines of, 'wheel should not be reinvented', 'code should be reused' and related philosophies I believe that blog content wherever possible should be minimized by tagging and hence reducing the redundancy. Also it sometimes is good to let other's speak about your efforts than you yourself harp about them, which most likely might sound like SD (self dabba). Enough of Greek and Latin, here is what I wanted to tag
The treat we gave to our beloved J.S.Garu - Maths teacher in intermediate two years who amidst English, Sanskrit, Chemistry also taught Physics some times :)

Congress men! Look back once...

2006-05-23T00:47:00.000-07:00

Jayachandra's Blog
Dear Congress partymen, it's just not enough to harp and reckon on the great leader of freedom struggle, architect of modern India - Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru. If you have any sense of true respect for him, know and respect the idealogies he had for bringing up the nation into a first-rate quality nation. Have a good look at the below article and rethink to what an abject disaster you are taking the nation to.

Credits: I'm thankful to whosoever has originally scanned this piece of information and made it available on the cyber space.

Mr. Argjun 'Sin'gh, become sane!

2006-05-08T03:09:00.000-07:00

Reservations to the extent of 50% even at the level of last leg of career education, at the level as elite as IITs, IIMs, Medical degrees - shame shame. The face who advocates for it should view itself in a mirror and if it is that of any sane person, at the least it would feel that the conscience is spitting back at it for such a stupid proposal. I'm sick and tired of the politics in this nation. Is that what you call respecting constitution... when you failed to alleviate the backward classes in the original time limit set by the great practical visionaries of the constitution? Is that what you call respecting constitution... when you use the reservations concept as a tool to increase the divide between rich and poor, rich becoming more rich and poor being trodened down even poor. Is that what you call respecting constitution... when you use it shamelessly as a vote bank tool and thereby making the disparity conspicuous and ever lasting, which is totally against the spirit with which the concept was introduced in the constitution.

Oh God! let some shame adorn on the man behind this idea that he stops ordering water cannons and lathi charges on the future doctors protesting the idea. Oh God! let some shame adorn on the man behind this idea that he comes out of his insane world and looks at his face in the mirror in a real world.

A blog to tag

2006-04-28T07:30:00.000-07:00

Jayachandra's Blog

Ran into this blog
without anyone, of it saying
All alone out of
my daily dose of weblogging

Every post a master piece
Having its own grace
Speaks of a creative mind
Busy at work behind

Latest Upate on the configuration - A saga:

2006-04-25T03:46:00.000-07:00

Jayachandra's Blog
I hate telling things as a simple synopsis, so bear with my long narration...
Of late I was helping my house owner and his kid to buy a PC. Help as in suggesting a configuration taking into view their budget, guiding them to parklane and giving them a good deal at a known shop. Last Sunday they requested me to accompany them to some shop in Ameerpet. It has been quite a long time that I was abreast with the hardware market trends and all the hardware models out there and supposedly the buzz of the moment are all appearing very new to me, except for the company names (Intel, AMD etc) everything else especially the model numbers are all unheard before. I informed them earlier that parklane is a better place to take a PC than Ameerpet, but still out of over excitement they wanted to go and give it a try at the earliest, and since it was Sunday parklane shops won't be open so they asked me to come to Ameerpet shops.
There we roamed around and got some three quotations and found one vendor to be giving the best price. The vendors suggested 101gcc intel motherboard against a P42.66G saying its the latest from Intel and all other models including 915 and 945 chipset boards are outdated and not in market. I too believed it blindly without looking into the technology side of it and began to work out the bargaining aspect. The deal came so very close and at the choice of cabinet, the vendor wasn't agreeing to give a better cabinet which it seems was worth Rs.150/- more than what he thought we would take. May be it's all for our good that even upon repeated request he wasn't agreeing for the requested cabinet model (he was fully under the mindset that these ppl will definitely take the PC, so better not compromise). Some spike of frustration zoomed up in uncle's mind and he cancelled the deal and came out. That was what I exactly suggested him about half an hour earlier. Good we came out, or else we would have made a very foolish choice.
The next day i.e. yesterday (yeah its a Monday, and a workign day!) uncle requested me to spend a few hours of my time to visit Parklane and buy the PC. So as per my convenience I asked them to call me at 3p.m. They did and we went to park lane starting here outside my office arnd 3:30p.m. I straight away took them to my known shop, Bhumika Computer peripherals as I know out of my experience that there we'd get the best prices than anybody else would give (it happened everytime I went to buy anything at parklane, so ek "faith ka bandhan" ho gaya). I wrote down on the quotation book 101gcc and P4 2.66G processor. The rates were given, initial quote itself was competent than the Ameerpet guy's bargained price. Uncle felt happy. When still some amount of bargaining led to even reduced price quote, he is determined to pay the money afront. After that, Shailesh the shop owner just had a look at the quotation and began to *suggest* that there can be better configuration. This was when I got the hardware update. P4 2.66 we had in our budget is the normal processor, without HT and Dual core. The 101gcc intel MB was designed to support dual core. Their combination is like marrying a french to an arab. Not that they can't live together, but wouldn't succeed in understanding each others feelings properly and effectively. In this case the same translates to deprived performance of the system as a whole. Shailesh being an old friend of mine, showed there itself the intel site and the video clipping that illustrated the clear difference b/w normal, HT and dual core technologies. I'm glad I had an important update. Then shailesh laid in front of us, the rates of several other avlbl motherboards and processors. And to fit into uncle's budget I selected 2.66G Dual core Pentium 4 processor. There was an extra 1850 difference though, but uncle and his kid were really satisfied and went to make the deal.

Crux: 101gcc is the board for dual core technology processors, and worst for normal processors and HT processors. For normal P4 processors Intel 915 or 945 mother boards are suggested. That too if you choose hyper threaded processor 915 is advised as 945 doesn't have HT support. If you are looking at a cost effective solution then Intel's 865 chipset board but assembled by Mercury is the suggested one for a normal processor. If I could include the update I had last time I bought a PC for my sister. From 2.6 P4 processor onwards Winodws 98 and lower will NOT be supported. P4 2.4 is the best that one can wish if he mandatorily wants on his PC Windows 98.
If my suggestion matters an iota... Future is gonna be dual core era, as I see it. So better take a dual core configuration if you are looking for a new PC.

The subtle tease

2006-04-03T05:29:00.001-07:00

Jayachandra's Blog
I was hearing to various languages songs - English, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil etc.
Of the songs I heard English ones had lot of guitar and drum bombardings, lot of noisy music, Hindi too had a mix of "fast" beat and melody. But the south indian lang songs I felt good, didn't have much of the noisy beat but still the lady singers teased a lot and made the song more and more favourite. They have this subtle talent of mixing laugh with the words and that drags you mercilessly down to madness (for the song :)).

vyavasayam zindabad!

2006-03-23T04:03:00.000-08:00

Jayachandra's BlogNenu ikkada koorchoni emi peekutunnaana ani anipistundi nizamga!
iee roju computer mundu koorchoni koorchoni bore kotti, burra panicheyaka potuntey chakkaga kaburlu cheptundi ani cheppesi maa mummy darling ki phone chesaanu. Manchi time pass ayyindi.
maatala madhyalo maa voorilo iee samvatsaram pantalu baaga pandaayani, manchi rate kooda vundani cheppi, sontamga chesukonna vaariki sumaaruga yekaraaniki 1 lakh varaku migilaayani cheptundi. Chala manchi maata adi. Kaani oka saari tirigi choosukonte, lakshalu kharchu petti chaduvukoni goppa goppa vudyogaalu chestunnaam ani pose kottatam tappinchi iee sada seeda vudyogaalu valla prayojanam peddaga ledanipistundi. Rojulo 12 gantalu office loney gaduputunnaanu. Inta lo sagam time ayina polam lo pedithey ippudu sampadinchey daanikantey ayidu nundi aaru retlu ekkuva sampadinchochu emo anipistundi. Vyavasayam lo emundi le anukontey tappulo kaalesinattey ani iee year maro saari niroopinchindi!

VFS online system irks

2006-03-01T04:22:00.000-08:00

Jayachandra's Blog
For the past week and half I've been using (appears to me as if I'm QA testing) the VFS online system using which applicants should be applying for their visa appointment. The system's quality is pitiable. One can clearly see that it fails to scale to larger hit rates. Yesterday I'd witnessed the worst of its performance for every next screen I get a server error, or a unhandled sql exception error. I wish to see the developer who coded the system and the one who tested it and the fool who okay'd the system to go public. Some highlights of its nonsense performance...
(i) You fill the whole of DS-156 form for an applicant and click submit button, the server simply gives some sql exception error and you just even can't retry the request. Do you feel like giving the idea of use browser back and resubmit. Boy, you just can't do it. Because anytime during the application filling and date booking process you use the browser back, in the end the server would complain and not allow you to book a date. You have to start all over again.
(ii) You can see dates available (abt 10 of them) in May, but when you try to choose a reschedule date for a existing application and or new date for a fresh application, you simply wouldn't get those dates to pick from. All you get is a date in mid-June at the best. Honest, you still can see that those dates in May are available when you parallelly try using the 'check available dates link'.

Consolidation - A great relief!

2006-02-20T05:45:00.001-08:00

Jayachandra's Blog
Whenever there is news about "Consolidation to happen" in whatever domain, many related to that domain panic about what worst can happen to them. For example if a software firm in NA releases such a press note, many employees of that firm fear about their jobs. Yeah its true, some might loose their jobs, some might receive demotion, some might get unseasonal promotions too, expenditures on various activities dwindle or increase. It's really a painful transition BUT in the end, if properly done, it would be a worthy transition. A transition for the betterment of the firm. Those who retain their ties with the firm, find themselves in better responsibilities with added weight to their word. The firm would have more clarity towards its behaviour with its business associates and employees. And more than all, all the nonsense that might have happened before would be put behind and work kick-starts with fresh enthusiasm, fresh hopes, refined aspirations. Isn't that a good thing, that surely is at least as I see it. Having said that, why can't a person undergo such a consolidation for his/her ownself? I'd say it's only going to help him/her for the better. Being behind the drapes of knowing and not knowing, maturity and immaturity one might have superseded ones acceptable reach or intervention into specific actions. Similarly into some other actions one might not have shown needed reaction deeming yet again inappropriate to the expected behaviour. As a result things might have turned uneasy, less or barely comfortable and might even haunt you (in worst scenario). Consolidation is the mantra in such a trap. It involves cool mind thinking of whats acceptable and what's not. And putting in efforts or restricting efforts, as is the case, towards gaining that equilibrium. An equilibrium that your abilities and social conditions can manage. And manage without any tensions, just as if a tatched dinghy floats past a calm river at ease. In the process of such a consolidation, God will have His own miracles for your own benifit, believe me. You only need to start the process and patiently pursue it till its logical end. Consolidation gives that golden chance to build upon past experiences yet begin things afresh, be pragmatic in word and deed and more than all put the uneasy past behind ya and move forward more focussed and more successful.

What am I doing these days!

2006-02-13T06:49:00.000-08:00

Jayachandra's Blog
Days haven't been so easy for me. My dear sis Neelu is pregnant and wishes that this time my dad and mom to be present by her side in U.S at the time of delivery and during the following convalescence period. My parents so far don't have their passports. It might sound strange, but they never faced a need for that so didn't bother 'bout them. Now the need arised and arised on such an urgent basis that we all are simple awaiting for the passports to fall in hand as much magically early as possible. The reason for the anxiety is that the visa appointment date booking needs a valid passport and the dates available have run into scarcity that at least a wait time of 130days is being observed at Chennai U.S consulate, darn laggard consulate services, darn population of India, darn me, darn everything.
Every possible date available is being picked away right in front of our eyes, but this f)*^ing RPO office studs wouldn't stick to their ETA of 45days to one month since the date of applying i.e Nov 11 2005. Said ETA margin elapsed long back, about a good one and half month but still my dad's passport is not delivered. DISGUSTING services by these lazy laggards in all the related offices.
That's enough of vengence spill out on the world, but honestly we are the ones to be blamed for not having got those books for the past 56 and or 50 years.
Now this urgency slowly was transfered to me and I was given the task to get the passports out. Since then I've been calling and running around every Tom dick and harry who has some connections with the passport office directly or remotely, begging and requesting them. My mom's got delivered on Feb 10th and still my dad's passport is awaiting in the pipeline.
Getting the passports out isn't just the story... following that is the giant task of booking an early appointment date. Here the wait times as predicted, are mockering like orks in the face. Today I roamed around the VFS-India local hyderabad office and got some doubts clarified. Those clarifications essentially meant that there is no other option than to try your luck with the wait time at Chennai Consulate office and Chennai Consulate office alone for this tourist visa of my parents. Looks like my parents can only attend the Baby Shower ceremony than the actual delivery. Huh, God only knows!
Tomorrow is going to be another hectic day in trying to get at least a first page xerox copy of my dad's passport amidst managing the work I was given at office. Let me hope sincerely that God is on my side throughout.

Gmail begins to stink too

2006-02-09T22:55:00.000-08:00

Hi long back when I blogged about Yahoo mail irks, I had someone replying me that don't go after google's gmail blindly, it would too begin to irk you. For which I said, no matter what's the name/brand unless their advertised service doesn't give me the expected result I'd criticize the product in open. And looks like gmail claimed its chance pretty quick. Today I've experienced the worst performance by gmail. Once in a while I earlier used to get "oops, the system couldn't fulfill your request. Retry again" kind of message. And even though I get it after a couple of seconds the system in back in form to serve the request, but today more than half a minute (30sec) I was just kept at bay by the gmail system. That's when I lost my last inch of patience and decided to blog this.

Attending cousin's engagement...

2006-02-02T23:33:00.000-08:00

Jayachandra's Blog
Its Murali's (my cousin) engagement with Kalyani early in the Valentines Month. The function went well, except for the annoying delay by ladies in getting to the venue with the fruits and sweets. Early in the morning, I was asked to help with decorating the backdrop curtain and adjoining walls. And I did a decent job at it, if not great. The bride's father took care of everything the night before itself, so most of the program went smooth. Food was catered out. Btw, came to know many of my relatives are in interesting domains here in Hyderabad. I shared a light chat with many of them during the function. I was busy most of the time, but was enjoying it all fully.
There was something bizarre I noticed in relationships. A relative whom I call 'pedananna' is a 'tatayya' to another person who is at least 5 years elder to me. This might be b'coz I'm too young to be in the generation I am. Nevertheless, being young has a lot of advantage too :-). Everybody welcomed me into their discussion group without feeling reserved.
My mom came with a packed schedule. Following this engagement function she went to attend a marriage in Kukatpally and boarded bus back to Guntur dt. right from that marriage venue. Situation didn't permit her to come to my room this time.
The marriage was decided to be on 15th Feb at Guntur. Satyanarayana Vratham is on 17th at Siripuram. I was asked to be there a couple of days in advance. But currently here at work, our remote stake holder Michael Stricklen came to sit and work with the team. And manager requested everybody to be present at work during his stay, i.e. till 18th. Don't know how it is going to turn out... if I would get leave or not, and if I had to bear the wrath of my manager. If at least on 15th and 17th I get leave I would be content, even if that means coming back to work on 16th.

Easy game tha...

2006-01-23T23:08:00.000-08:00

Jayachandra's Blog
That was IPS manager Soumitra Das with whom I was competing yesterday in the knock-out OOCTO_IPS TT championship. The preliminary warm-up toss clearly revealed that Mr.Das is far far naive at TT than me. It was his first game, while I was playing my third game at the TT table (amn't I better?!?). The first set too made the fact clear and I won it with ease. In the second set too I was making reels when I got this thought - "because this is a tournament match, people are allowing us to play however new we are to the game, otherwise we surely wouldn't have chance here. Why not extend this chance and play for full three sets". I implemented the same and played a reluctant game to draw the score at 1-1. The third match dawned and I did gain a five point margin to be on the safer side. But then from a point where I was leading at 15-10 score, I began to make serious flaws and my mistakes seemed to boost the opponents score. At 19-19 I once again did a series of flaws and lost the match. That's when I felt... "Arey yaar! easy game ''tha''..." :-)

Nevertheless, here is what I gained though I lost the game - "Never let loose the chance at hand how much ever confident you are that you can catch the other thats awaiting"

cheers
Jaya

Stay away... stay secure from traps

2006-01-16T22:36:00.000-08:00

Jayachandra's Blog
Its high time I realize where I'm heading to. My mom's concern though put in soft words made much impact on me. I'm enjoying freedom being alone for myself here in Hyderabad, but that's slowly turning out to be a vicious snake that can engulf me and my career. Too many people trying to lure me without my knowing it, targetting on my sentiments and weaknesses. I've fallen prey so far but I'll not continue that anymore. I've done enough, and I need more discipline (if I can call that). I need some monitoring, some real monitoring. In phones I'm likely to fake my presence. I can still say to my parents that I'm at home, though I'm eating lunch at a friends' place. Doing that would only mean I'm ruining my image becoming a liar. My conscience would haunt me to hell. I can't afford all that. So I don't even want to let such situation arise. And the best way to do that is avoid my presence in city on weekends. Here onwards unless there is some real need for me to be in Hyderabad, I'd not be in this place on weekends. All my weekends I'll go to Siripuram. I don't mind the cost and physical strain involved in it, but that can save me from my conscience and enable me to lead a PURE life. Also that can help me realize my true and only goal for this year - CAT.

Why do I prefer mail(s) over phonecall(s)?

2006-01-09T07:16:00.000-08:00

Jayachandra's Blog
Phone enables us to have more *direct* communication and thats a very good thing. But for
those whom we regularly call (i'm talking of personal calls only here that too which have 1 per day frequency) I prefer emails because...

-> Since the frequency is too high (almost daily) there won't be fresh content everyday to talk about. And 'coz of that all that is to be communicated gets communicated in less than a minute, and there arises an impasse situation where hanging up the phone immediately makes it look like more a business call sort of it than a personal call and holding up the phone looks ridiculous without having anything to talk about.

-> By any communication in the end one tries to express his intentions. Over a phone, there is less scope to choose the jargon, less scope to be more creative in expressing the content. Whereas in email one can take the time one needs and best describe the matter at hand, however trivial it could be.

-> An email remains in inbox for revisiting, but a phonecall is not that persistent.

-> An email will never disturb as the phone does, in case the intended recipient is busy with work or in a meeting.

Guilty Feeling...

2006-01-06T09:38:00.000-08:00

Jayachandra's Blog
Its 10:10pm now and I sit here in a state of deep mental agony. A feeling of guilty. The week before last I borrowed camcorder from my best buddy Bindu, hoping I'd do miraculous documentary movies. (I should have looked my face in a mirror when I got that idea, damn me!). Without a second word she got the camcorder and very carefully handed it over to me. I've kept it with me, but didn't do anything productive with it (to do anything God damn sucker that I am, should know how to operate it in the first place). I left home last friday for New year and didn't return the camcorder to Bindu. She sure would have put it to use on the New Year Eve had I deposited it back with her before I left home. New Year eve passed by, and its 6th of January today. Blame it on my shamelessness that I didn't return it back to her till she called me today evening to ask if she could get her camcorder back for an event thats due tomorrow. I said I'd be at her office in 10mins when the time in my machine showed 8:30p.m but I after the said 10mins I just started from my office. She did call me to say her cab arrived and as if its my car that I sent to pick her up, I told her to keep the cab on hold for 2mins so that I can come and return her camcorder. I reached mindspace later after some 5-6mins but why would the cab would give a darn to a senseless shitty piece of earthily matter whose name is Jayachandra. By the time I reached her office, the cab probably left. Cursing myself that I might have missed her, I vainly tried her office number (she doesn't have a mobile number these days). Tried it so many times that the last iota of charge with which my stupid mobile handset is surviving also ran out. After waiting outside the gate watching every cab that passed past me to find Bindu in it, I headed back to my office at around 9:30pm. If for just that 15-20mins I waited to locate Bindu in front of her office I became so uneasy then I began to think how much might I have irritated her for about half an hour before 9pm after promising that I'd be present there and not being there in time.

2006 - A Humble Start!

2006-01-03T07:36:00.000-08:00

Jayachandra's Blog

This New Year's midnight moment passed plainly amidst a few dear ones telephonic wishes and a comedy movie in DVD player at elder sister's place. The January 1st 2006 evening was spent equally simple despite the Tirunala hadavudi at Siripuram. Met relatives, shared a few words, heard agonies of some, relaxed that God spared us from some of them (not all). Tried to bring as much cheer as I could into some faces these two days. But in the end if I should summarize my visit - it was more sobre in the sense it did inform me of my responsibilities yet again, but this time the responsibility is not of taking up serious duties but that of a simple job of bringing more cheer into dear ones faces. I should thank 2005 profusely because before it passed by, it instilled in me so much self-confidence that I could get into any domain, needn't just be software. And that I needn't fear of an oppurtunity loss. That apart, for the fresh year I thought I should have some resolution and after cerebrating for a while I decided that - 'I would direct my energies into specific focussed objectives than putting too many things on the agenda'. This resolution implicitly says that 2006 in my life sees less inclination to out of focus programs. The post can't be complete unless I unravel what is that 'THE FOCUS', it is... getting admitted into IIMA. Everything else is next to it.

IIIT's first alumni meet a great success!

2005-12-25T22:52:00.000-08:00

That was 24th December, Chirstamas eve and sure some 60 odd IIIT-Hyderabad alumni members would have something to blog about the day, though not about Santa's await but about the eventful Alumni Meet. And here is my effort. Well perceptions might differ as is the case here too that some felt the event could have been organized in the institute itself so as to have a 'focussed' get-together. Well, this is the first ever alum meet and couldn't be imagined anything to be so heavy. Those who thought it to be just another freak out day without any use and decided to stay away, they were surely mistaken. Inspite of all the fun filled ambience at the venue, the main purpose of alumni meeting still was given due importance and the truly interested got a chance to know how the alum initiatives are directed, what is the scope that as an alumnus he/she can do and more than all, the sense of alumni as a united body is seeded. And it is needless to say that everyone present enjoyed either the Karting(4laps in such a short track is sth to complain, but at Rs.75 I think thats at least OK) or the 'Living Dead' and 'Rain Forest' ambiences (if you didn't go alone then you don't have a reason to complain). Dinner was simple but amidst discussions with long seen friends it sure felt great, just that there should have been less bones and more meat in chicken (hehe!). I should commend Chaitanya Kamisetty for the wonderful job she did all throughout. All in all, the meet was a great success. And to those who lived the day 100%, without even missing morning sports (volleyball and basketball) the day should have been awesome. I, for one, re-lived those good old days at IIIT-Hyderabad playing volleyball and basketball not to mention that I wasn't able to walk owing to my muscle aches all over the body for the hell lot of exercise I had after 18months break ;p.

Yet another surprize!!!

2005-12-20T22:16:00.000-08:00

I gave Deepthi a surprize yesterday. When I was first invited for a dinner on December 8th to her home I went with an archies photo frame gift. In the due conversation that day I found out, the family is missing very much that kodak-moment snap of Sangal Sir presenting to Deepthi her B.Tech(CSE) degree. I quickly recollected that I asked Sashikumar, my senior and good friend, to take snaps of myself and all my friends when we were receiving our degree at our convocation ceremony. He did a good job for my friends but unfortunately missed taking the snap when I was on stage :-(. Well, thats a different story all together. After dinner I returned to my room and the next day in my room I searched for those graduation time photos and there IS this much desired photo where Deepthi is receiving her degree. I retained it as my personal copy but then I felt it is more apt to be in her home than with me (anyway I've its negative copy). I did decide to give away the photo but wanted to give it in my style of surprize. I became busy in my work, the issue got diluted and for about ten days I completely forgot about it. Yesterday before starting to my office I somehow got reminded of this photo thingy. And I quickly cooked up a plan. Its past 9:30a.m and there isn't any remote possibility that Deepthi is going to be still at home, unlike me she is always punctual to office. So I went right away to home, telephoned Deepthi's home number from outside the apartments gate, to be sure at least there is someone at home. Aunty lifted the phone and asked me to come over. Took the lift, reached home, opened the almirah where my photo frame is present. Thank God! no other photo was put into it. The default scenary which came with the frame is still adorning the frame. I quickly unscrewed it, slid this invaluable snap behind the default sceenary so that it remains hidden untill Deepthi comes and finds it. Then had a light chat with aunty, had a cup of milk and moved back to my office. At office I framed a simple riddle and mailed it to Deepthi before she left her office for the day. For the shrewd mind that she has, the puzzle was just a peanut to crack. But, though the puzzle was easy, I'm sure the surprize with which it brought her the most craved photo of her life will make her remember the whole episode. The puzzle goes like this...

DEEPS PUZZLE
************
The second thursday this December sure added more glass to ur home
Go get that transparent yet opaque piece into ur hands
For it holds something dear that you very much desire
Worry not that 'once in a life time' moments aren't captured
Though my kodak-lens missed mine it sure caught yours
Remember! things are not always blatant, but you have to 'explore'
Or else you may still not possess what's already in your hand.

Clue:
I made the riddle as easy as it can be, for I don't want you to resort to your mom
to hint you on this as well.

Axis TCPMON tool usage

2005-12-15T05:48:00.000-08:00

Axis1.x has all the reason for its acceptance by the industry as a soap-stack competent to other commercial soap-stacks. Its open source and free in the first place, has tremendous functionality bundled and shipped with just those three jars (axis.jar, jaxrpc.jar and saaj.jar). But more than all these what strikes me fond of this product is that it has this nice debugging tool "TCPMON" (org.apache.axis.utils.tcpmon) that comes bundled in axis.jar which actually allows the developer to debug 80% of his problems. I'd rate this tool as one among the high utility tools, for its useful not just for axis developers but for anybody wishing to listen on to what goes/comes on wire from/to his client code. There are 'n' number of wire sniffing toolkits but this is my favourite for its jiffy time setting up. In this post I felt like writing a few lines about the tool usage so that it might help someone out there in need of it.

Using axis's tcpmon tool is simple...
Basically you bring up the tcpmon tool to listen on some port in local machine and then redirect the listened packet as is to the actual destination server.
(i) Have axis.jar in classpath and fire the command

C:\...\> java org.apache.axis.utils.tcpmon <localport> <remoteHost> <port on which remote server is up>

where <localport> is the port number where you want tcpmon to listen.

(ii) Make sure now the TargetEndpointAddress of your client program should have in its url string the server name as localhost:
(iii) Fire your client application. You should be able to see in the tcpmon what request is being sent out to the server and what response is being returned from the server.

While debugging, one could just check from the outgoing packet whats wrong with his/her soap request and rectify it.

Surprize to Naani

2005-12-01T06:41:00.000-08:00

It was real great fun that we had last night. Started from office at around 8p.m with the idea of buying a flower bouquet to Naani and get it delivered by a door delivery guy who resides close by near Stanza building (previously I took that guy's details, in case I'd need it). As I drove the bike, several thoughts flashed by and I began to refine my choice of flower bouquet to something that can adorn the home for a longer time and I thought I'd buy a concrete gift than flowers. And when I decided that I'm gonna buy a 'gift' obviously InTouch came to my mind. I did stop (or slowed my bike at least) infront of GiftPlanet at B'Hills, but my uncanny 6th sense told InTouch is more a reliable choice than GiftPlanet. So moved ahead and reached InTouch and there I've seen the sun sign gifts and I liked a couple of them but none of those liked models has something on Sagittarius (the guys checked and rechecked whole of their stock that too infront of my eyes and declared there is no sagittarius sun-sign gift from the suggested models). Then having not getting any fresh thoughts about gift choice I moved to browse by the greeting cards section, initially I've seen a few tens of them, I didn't like any of them for the inappropriate content they had for the relationship that we share or for the weirdness they had in their design. In the end I came across some good ones and finally chose the most expensive card of the lot which had just the apt content written inside it. Its a real BIG card, but I didn't mind b'coz its worthy.
After browsing and selecting the card I was moving my way towards cash counter, where I saw a nice frame with hand made artistic work saying 'Wish you a Happy Birthday', I loved it and in the first look, picked it up and decided to buy it. Done! bill made, packed, paid and started off on my bike to ... HimayathNagar. I stopped in front of Stanza building and I did locate the door delivery guy but then I thought I was giving unnecessary extra access to some third person which might not be all that safe considering the contemporary troubled times. So decided to myself do the surprize door delivery. Surroundings were just so co-operative and the door remained closed. I slowly neared the flat door and dropped the gift + card + puzzle (key to know the sender) outside it and came out of the premises and telephoned aunty and said that some door delivery guy just delivered a gift packet on my behalf at your door step. That its safe to open it and that it should be kept as a tight secret to Naani. Aunty opened the door, took the packet inside and might have just itereated that its an anonymous courier. Naani along with her friends breaked open the puzzle containing envelope not able to resist the surprize with which it came. And since the riddle was easy enough, she (her classmates might have helped her crack that) cracked and called me, while I was just near Tankbund flyover. I pretended that I was at office and I don't know what the courier is all about. After she said that she solved the puzzle and is calling I agreed that it was me and I even agreed that I personally delivered it in front of their house. For which she immediately invited me for dinner, if I was still nearby. I went to their home, shared a light moment with aunty and her classmates and had a sumptous dinner with 'endu chepalu', chikkudu kaaya, beerakaaya curries and just as it neared 12 o'clock her friends took her to Necklace Road to have the cake cutting done. I follwed them. The magic candle on the cake was really amazing. Aunty and Naani, requested that I spend the night there for it is too cold outside to return home. But I decided that its good I go back home and as I'm the master of my deeds returned home.
Thats the whole anecdote, and of course there was a nice lunch at orphanage home the following afternoon. I took a break from office and attended the lunch. The food was good, esp chicken fry and prawn curry.

Jayachandra's Blog

Looks like I know good number of Sagittarians.

2005-11-30T03:28:00.000-08:00

The title says it all, immediately following Pranathi's birthday tomorrow i.e. December 1st is our Naani's birthday. I've just planned some surprize for her. Am sending across a bouquet of white and yellow flowers to her door with a simple riddle inside, that I hope she will crack, if not alone at least with all the help from aunty and uncle. Hey naani, I'm just kidding I know you are good at riddles. Now this gorgeous lady must be turning 19 or 20, pretty fast than she even could imagine. Life's short get the best out of it. Wishing you all the very best for your future.

Jaya

Btw for the inquisitive ones the riddle goes like this...
"You know me by your Mom
Cracking my name needs little charm
Put all the letters 1,1,1,1,3,4,8,10,14,18 and 25 in the correct form
And you would know who I am."

Jayachandra's Blog

Happy Birthday Pran!

2005-11-29T06:40:00.000-08:00

Time goes on. Children today are adolescents tomorrow. Adolescents today are senior citizens tomorrow. That innocent kinder-garten 'budingu' some two years ago is turning 23 yrs old today (30th November). And she already had her share of abroad work experience. She attended a 2 week critical training in Finland and just returned. I wish my best buddy Pranathi all the best in ALL her future endeavours, whatever may they be. Enjoy the D-day to the max extent babe! I wish I was with you on your birthday. Situations just didn't permit me. Sorry about that buddy.

A lost battle.

2005-11-21T02:13:00.000-08:00

I fought a one sided battle, as in there is no second side to fight the battle. It sure should sound queer. But this is how it goes. I took certain resolutions to myself that I'd prove myself before I make a major decision pertaining to my life. As a metric of proof I chose CAT exam. I created a illusory complex that whoever wins in this battle would be the one dictating the important terms pertaining to that major life decision. There is nobody out there who are trying to impose their will if I loose. The ball is always kept in my court only. I knew its just me in the battle. But still I saw it as a test to my own capabilities. To see if I was worth making that choice. Blame it on my abilities, level of maturity and/or God's will, I somehow couldn't make it in CAT-05. And obliging my conscience I should accept that I lost in this single side battle too. Having accepted the defeat, its good that I 'close the shop, stay away and remain silent'

Is that a collapse?

2005-11-21T02:11:00.000-08:00

Now, its all over. CAT-2005 was given. The first impression out of the exam hall is that I WILL clear all the cut-offs and should be only ready to start appearing for GDs and PIs. I was happy.Thanked God for the miracle that it appeared so to me then. Had a sumptous lunch at my fav restaurant. Returned home and relaxed for a while, attended a marriage party in exultation. The calendar day changed, its 21st November now. Got dressed up pretty nice, came to office in elated mood. Discussed with a colleague how he did his CAT, having heard the rumoured cut-offs I felt even more confident that I'm IN. But later when I opened the IMS explanatory answers key and matched with my answers I did realize I fared decent in DI and English, but went for an unfortunate run in PS. I was toooo low than the sectional cut-off mark. "Damn it", was the spike response in that immediate moment. It seemed like a collapse. Collapse of several hopes I had for my professional life and more so for the hopes I had for my personal life. But was it really so???
When I sit back and try to analyse unbiasedly what is it that is awaiting as my Destiny, I noticed some interesting findings. First of all, I'm not 'enough' mature. I'm not mature enough to set my foot in an IIM. On the more subtle side I'm not mature enough to assume what my personal life in future should be. One other thing about the way I pursued this CAT prep is... though it ought to be a goal in itself I always viewed it as a sub-goal to achieve a different goal. And my experience now revealed that, unless you pursue any goal in its sovereign sense, you just can't achieve it. If you do work **to IMPRESS your boss with your excellent work** as the primary goal, you would never be as successful at work as when you do it with the true intention **to make your work 'excellent'** as the primary goal. This is the subtle understanding of life dynamics that I couldn't seep into my mind until today.
Clearly I learnt a lesson in fact more than one.
. "Focus on what is the more important at the hour".
. As you continue to follow above lesson, what waits your reach is what you get and understand that rest is all something you couldn't wish to have.

Shirdi Sai Baba

2005-11-10T22:16:00.000-08:00

I was of late going through a book by E. Bharadwaja about the life of baba. Based on what I could understand out of the experiences mentioned in that book, I want to share with you something. Shirdi Sai Baba is a soul with immense power. Having heard of mythological Gods (Vishnu, Siva, Krishna etc.) powers, generally a lay person needn’t understand or may even underestimate the power of Sai, but believe me in the contest of present day world he has so much control on the way things happen in this world. But he doesn’t shower grace just like that, he makes a judicious pick. Enter Shirdi with extreme faith. Faith need not be attending into the temple without shoes, taking prasadam, drinking teertham. They all are religious rituals, but faith is far above than just these. If you have faith, all the rituals happen as if automatically. Sai doesn’t happen to care much for the rituals, but tests people in their faith. Treat all religions and regions people alike. It’s a great chance that one gets in life to enter Shirdi. The ashes from the sacred dhuni is an extremely precious ‘prasadam’, forget not to get some of it when you visit Dwarakamai. Once again I repeat ‘Have immense faith in Sai when you go to Shirdi’ and you would get to experience His miracles.

Heights of amateurism...

2005-11-08T01:43:00.000-08:00

I wanted to resort to the good old grevocab page of sidie, best buddy, Santhosh Narayana. I sometime back checked his current ufl site and by a redirection from there, or may be directly from there I downloaded the zip package of his grevocab site. Now I desperately want to get back to those grevocab tools, and so I decided to set up the whole thing on my local tomcat. After dumping the exploded contents in ROOT folder and accessing the index.shtml I realised that the links/buttons aren't actually functioning because I don't have PHP on my webserver. Then a whole half day I explored to set PHP up and that too on Tomcat. But I wasn't fully successfully, rather I wasn't even partially successfully. And just before I was about to shun the idea that there is no way I can have the gre vocab tools site for my use, I visited santhosh's web site on good old 200 website to see how it looks and good God, it still has the grevocab tools page up and running. Now I feel what I did the whole of yesterday afternoon is sheer futile bull-shit. This basic research I should have done a lot earlier, isn't it? Anyways R&D can never be waste, I came to know a few facts of PHP set up on Windows. I guess it would only help me sometime in future positively.

God saves our family twice in less than 10 days (contd...)

2005-10-30T23:59:00.000-08:00

(contd.) I knew I’m not so good at swimming, so I took all the caution to swim and play only in the 4ft zone. I played and swam there almost for all the time I was in the pool, but only when we are about to wrap up and come out of the pool I wanted to just experience board diving. Two diving boards are there, one very high one and the other of a low height. I chose the small one to be on the safer side. However the water depth beneath both the dive boards is 12ft. Not many were there at the diving zone, apart from me just three more one of them being my PM, Venkat. Venkat is a good swimmer and he is relaxing on the pool pavement, I just informed him that I’ve come to experience the diving. He said ‘Ok, go ahead’. I closed my nose and dived into the 12ft zone from the board. And having swam like for quite some time in the 4ft zone, whichever energy I had, got consumed and phoof I couldn’t swim even 3ft to reach the bank. If the depth is less I could have at least walked to the bank, but its 12ft and I saw myself drowning. I wriggled a lot and tried to come above water surface two times, first time I could wave to two other persons on the pavement before I sunk again into the water, but they didn’t get the message that I’m drowning and began to discuss among themselves some hot topic. The next time I used all my energies and came up to the surface and this time could just barely say ‘Venkaaa…’ and wave to him to rescue me before I sank into the water again. I’m not sure if Venkat understood my situation and here I was drowning deeper and deeper. The water around didn’t seem like a pleasurable item anymore, I envisioned in it a hidden ghost trying to choke me to death. I am out of my breath and even gulped a few water gulps. All this happened in a few seconds. Just at the moment when I began to repent for my foolish decision of testing troubled waters, thinking of all the sorry I’m going to leave behind in the hearts of my kith, kin and beloved ones two hands thrust me up by my shoulder. Hope sprang, it could only be Venkat my subconscious hinted. And it was exactly he. As alert as he usually is, he grasped the vague signs I threw while I surfaced up the second time and dived into the pool and swam to the location I was and towed me to the bank. Thanks Venkat! Thanks God. These incidents only reveal more how insecure life in this world is. If anything should come for our rescue, I feel it should be because of our goodness. The more smile we try to get into hapless faces, the more would God love to bring smile into ours. I’d definitely bring a smile in the orphans faces the coming Diwali day, if not for anything, at least as a token of revere to what God did for our family.

God saves our family twice in less than 10 days

2005-10-30T23:48:00.000-08:00

Is water a pleasurable thing to play with? May be yes, if its a manageable quantity. And definitely not if its in large volume and unmanageable. I sincerely feel sorry for the hapless lives that drowned away in the Delta Fast Passenger mishap that happened in the wee hours of last Saturday. My feelings are with those of the kith and kin of the people who lost lives or remain stranded. Our family has been showered His divine grace or else my dad is almost set to board the Delta Fast Passenger last Friday night. Had my mom not stopped the attendar to get the train ticket, surely a major set back should have occured in my family. Thank God. This is only the second in the series of "close slips" from waters wrath for our family members. The first being the way I almost made my way past this world on 21st October, the Friday of week before last. 21st October is the d-day for which I toiled a lot. Its the day of OOCTO picnic for which I was the key organizer. Every single preparation was taken care of, the pre-event preparations were a hit and in the same enthu we landed in the venue (I did take care of arrangements at the venue too). First place to visit there was the swimming pool. Very few got into the pool, and I'm one of those enthusiastic few...(continued)

Karan Story

2005-10-18T06:45:00.000-07:00

The sun slowly set behind the distant hills, the ambient lighting began to fade off. The children didn't realize they were playing ballgame ('pitchi banti') since 2hrs. Only when their eye pupils complained about ball not being visible did they realize that its time to hurry or else house warden may have a good lecture prepared to boom into their ears. They still had their baths pending and its not a quick dip into some bath tub kind of thing for Karan. Though the stream, on the banks of which they are so long playing, has a constant flow of fresh water he would not accept a dip in the stream as his bath. He took out his plastic mug and quickly dug out a small pit ('chelan') into which fresh water oozed slowly. Not-so-patient friends of Karan had a quick dip in the stream and called it a bath and set out to the hostel which is a good 2KM from the stream bank. By the time a bucket full of water oozed from the pit all of Karan's friends including Sreek left the place. The creaking crickets sound became prominent. Its just Karan alone on the stream bank.
For a 11 year old lad the situation is certainly not a desired one. Karan hastened up his chores, dressed up and set out hurriedly towards the hostel. Only after going about a quarter mile did he realize that he forgot his locker keys at the bank...
(to be contd...)

PICNIC organizing

2005-09-29T23:50:00.000-07:00

Long back when I was a child at school, I was amazed at the way our school annual day functions etc were conducted. Ever since I had this interest to poke my nose wherever there is some scope for organizing some event. But call it high entry barriers for organizing significant events at the school level, or tight schedule that I was put into, in my intermediate education by my rank savvy residential college... I couldn't organize significant event during those days. Slowly after I found myself in IIIT-Hyderabad, amidst several like minded, enthusiastic and talented *organizers* the repressed organizing interest popped out and just as a sophomore itself I was on sponsorship hunt for our first college culutural festival FELICITY. The interest sustained all the days I was at IIIT-H, but after being out of college into the industry I began to sense some lack of scope for organizing events. All these past 15 months it has been just surprize b'day celebrations or movie meet organizing only. Anything but not beyond the scale of 10 inidividuals. I should say the oppurtunity to conduct the OOCTO team picnic was just the kind of thing my coordinating skills are looking forward. The good part is, I had a nice co-operative team to work with, and more importantly a hassle free budget approval to go ahead with our planning. To talk of team, Abhilash needs special mention for
this decent piece of work he put up. I thought we were just capturing a video, but didn't expect it with such nice background music and all the editing. So far so good, and I'm just hoping that we make this event successful too.

My Letter to God

2005-09-22T07:37:00.000-07:00

I was just reading a forwarded mail which has several kids' letters to God. Now the kid in me, pondered out as to what I can write to God and the single question I now have is...
'Why does all the good things, if at all come to a pause, come so all at the same time?"
Its so sick for me today. I feel I have none around to share a lighter moment.

Doing things differently

2005-09-20T11:25:00.000-07:00

Poor Durga Prasad, my friend and office colleague and who resides just in the flat beneath mine has lost his ID card. Its actually misplaced, and a team mate sneaked to play a prank on him. While going home, he deposited the card with me asking me to give it to DP when I go home. I hinted DP that his card is not lost and is safe at one of the team member and he needn't panic. However, I didn't leak the name with whom it is, instead I asked another fellow team mate to mail him the following 3 hinting puzzles, whose answer words when arranged in a fashion would give him an idea as to who holds the card presently. It was fun designing the puzzle. Here I'd like to copy paste the mail sent a few hours back to his mail box

*****
Solve the puzzle(s) to get hints for your id card.

Hint1: I as you call?
Hint2: arrange the letters to form a meaningful English word - S I E R D E
Hint3: if two freely falling bodies having masses m1=10.227kg and m2=4.773kg start in air simultaneously at 900m above the ground but with different initial velocities u1=2.36m/s and u2=2.18m/s. After t=6.684 seconds, m1 is ______ m2.

Arrange answers for the three hints to get a master hint, solving which you would get to know which person has your id card.

Thanks
Your well wisher
*****
Master hint should be
YOU RESIDE BELOW? which would hint that I have his ID card

There is a purpose for this blog, beyond sharing the experiment and that is... in case he couldn't solve the 3 puzzles I'll design another vague hinting to this blog (rather easy one this time).

Jaya

Awaiting for ...

2005-09-20T09:38:00.000-07:00

Time now: 10:00P.M
Waiting since: 8:00P.M
For what? : rain to subside so that I can go home.
prognosis: I might have to spend the night at office itself. Sounds cool to hear, but sucks to experience!

Old complaint, fresh frustration

2005-08-23T07:16:00.000-07:00

Yet another complaint that I tried to put up on a government website for a good six months. The content inside got expired but the site wasn't up in the time span. .gov domain sites in AP at least are existing just for their namesake existence and are not really functional. Okay then the linked list of complaints wouldn't end, but read on my original initial complaint.
******

Respected Authorities concerned,
The following complaint might be penned down by one individual but carries in it the voices of thousands of vigorous upcoming bright youthful minds. Nor should this be understood to be something emerging out of adrenaline rush. It's a properly thought after appeal that I (we) are putting forward.
This is in the light of tribunal's report of late, which annulled the eligibility of 2004 graduates for APPSC Group 1 service cadre main examination.
Terms and conditions (or Rules and Regulations) for any application process or any venture for that matter always are debatable, because natural languages by themselves are context sensitive. But they are mentioned so, wherever they are mentioned, only to be followed in the true spirit of what they mean. Just because a few people who are capable of 'manipulating' things file a petition and try to maneuver their way out to their personal advantage government/judiciary should not yield to their intents. In light of the latest 3 member tribunal expressing its consent to annul the eligibility of over 3 thousand 2004 graduates who have proved their capabilities in Preliminary exam, shows that such kind of yielding is happening. When for over 50 years of APPSC Group 1 exam conduction fresh graduates have been made eligible, why, that this time, should there be an 'emergency' situation sensed? Is it becuase IQs of these freshers are far better than the 'mug-up n forget' marathons who have been there in the race for AGES? Some lawyer raises the point of 'lack of enough experience about society'. Well! what less does such an elite examination test if not awareness about society in the first place.
And more specially making the eligibility of fresh graduates once they have successfully cleared the Preliminary exam and not at the time of filing applications makes it blatant even to a lay man that the decision makers involved are either against the true spirit of the examination process, which is to make available most meritorious officers to the State or that they have been lured and captured to delivering such an irrational verdict. Its high time that the authorities concerned look into what would be the loss because of such incomplete judgements both to the state and to the individuals involved and set out to rectify things immediately.

Anticiapating fruitful action to take place in this regard

Thank you,
Jayachandra Sekhara Rao

Shall I call it a closed chapter?

2005-08-17T02:59:00.000-07:00

Jayachandra's Blog
Certain things in life are not reciprocative. And as a matured individual one should accept it and accordingly move ahead without giving a damn for the turned down expectations. For a guy like JC, that is even more an easy approach to implement than lament on why was I rejected. "If not this, then its grandfather!" << That's the spirit. You have got far many botherations to worry about. Life is already on a high tide in your case, don't let useless extra commitments jeopardize it any more. If you don't get back even a quarter why give out a gallon?

Hi all, IIIT alumni

2005-08-16T06:16:00.000-07:00

Jayachandra's Blog
Last wednesday, Padmaja m'am wanted a few alumni members to be present at the instiute and talk and share with the media any experiences they might be having. I've contacted a few but the notice being a short one, no one turned up. Finally I was the only alumnus around in the campus that day. So the SS channel guys jacked in a microphone at my collar and asked me to speak something or the other about the institute life and also share experiences about the industry life. That was an impromptu for me, for I was expecting to answer the specific questions they might be having and also hoped I would be given time to frame the answers. Nevertheless, I spoke (need not be verbatim) - "To express in one word, this institute is an amazing institute. It has in it serious guys who don't let you sleep without delivering their projects, and at the same time have in them that 'fatherly/brotherly touch' with which they boost your confidence and let you drive your way to the accomplishment. As long as I was in the institute I never knew I was acquiring umpteen skills that any corporate firm would even typically expect to be present in a fresher. Facilities wise the institute stands at an elite stature. Faculty is the best you could ever get. Students even get ample industry exposure. With all the infrastructure in place and the cream of the students who get admission here, this institute remains to be a vibrant one."
Then the co-ordinator of the event, expressed his wish to hear about my pay package. For that I spoke (again not a verbatim) - "Pay package is a little tricky thing. As students we never knew where our skill sets are ranked in the industry and have our expectations very low during the placements season. I was no different in getting absorbed for a modest 3Lakhs/annum with my employer. However after 13 months of IT industry experience and having seen the contributions IIIT folks are doing in whichever domain they are placed the average pay package for IIITians as it stands today is really an undermined package. With all due respect to my employer, I'd say that IIITians can be placed at a rather better pay scale than what they put me in. Considering the changes that happened over the past two years, be it b'coz of performances of alumni or b'coz of better software firms lining up for campus placements I hope the incumbent 3lakh/annum average package is destined to go up. However, quite a good number of students and faculty members are thinking in a different angle. A job isn't enticing any more to IIIT students, many are aspiring to make it big in their respective streams that they choose to specialize in and are opting to do MS, MS by research and other such courses. This I think is definitely a welcome phenomena in the history of IIIT."
Thats all I spoke. Excuse me guys, I didn't have time to deliver a more perfect speech about IIIT and also that being an impromptu session I stammered a bit while delivering the note.

A Friend Forever!

2005-08-16T05:03:00.000-07:00

Jayachandra's Blog
Today I sit here in my office, cursing my fate all the past week long. Vinod my next-to-ownself buddy is leaving to U.S of America today evening. He has been making his preparations (many at a reluctant pace than an enthusiastic one) all the past week. Call it job, or call it nagging granny with all her over concerned medical state, or call it Dad's visit, or call it the swamp of philanthropy that I dug myself deep into, or call it the CAT prep I've undertaken I couldn't even spend a few hours of lighter moment with my buddy whole of last week. I was there with him, just for the party he arranged for all the college friends. How mean of me! Sorry Vinod, I just couldn't make it. As you can see from the past so many years of our interaction, loosing a chance to spend time with you would be the last thing I'd ever do. I was doomed to run out of free time.
Even if there was any remote chance, the subconcious worry I had might have not even let me see it as a chance to meet Vinod. The worry was... since the past 4 months I wanted to keep myself isolated from Vinni. So that neither would I go shock at his departure to U.S, nor would he. As the apothegm says it, to lessen the impact of nostalgia in either of our minds, being 'out of sight' is the best choice. But... good old days have so damn footprints that I couldn't still (after 1 month of isolation) accept the fact that I will not have Vinod by my side to watch a comedy movie. The day I want to freek out I wouldn't have him at a bike ride reach. The first mobile number I memorized and still remember almost as clearly as my own mobile number is 9848173538. It's a six year long relationship I had with that number. Last time I browsed through my phonebook trying to organize the content inside it, the idea that Vinod<->9848173538 mapping will have to be deleted, almost brought tears to me. But life should move on, it's worth living the night to welcome the sunrise. Same is the case here. I'm eagerly looking forward for our reunion whenever that is to happen.

Yahoo mail irks me

2005-08-12T07:44:00.000-07:00

Jayachandra's Blog

Time taken for Login verification: 45 seconds
Session span: Not even for 5 minutes, that too while I was active composing a mail all those 5 minutes.
Relogging : Doesn't succeed even for 8 tries.

What do you call that performance, irk is rather euphemism. I should say 'SUCKS'.

Gmail is way many times better than this, honest. I rather should have made mary fernandes choose gmail.

My initial thoughts on Alumni initiative at IIIT-H

2005-08-05T01:54:00.000-07:00

This ought to be blogged on February-March timeframe. But the I had no singly standard blog then. Better late, than never...
*****
A few days back, Diwakar and myself discussed a few things regarding the direction of alumni activities. Here is the jist of what we felt was a useful discussion.

The moot point 'Alumni Intiative'
---------------------------------
Yeah! it's expected that we contribute whichever way we can to our almamatar.

Before we even can talk something about 'Alumni Initiative' we have to be clear on what constitutes an Alumni. Certainly this is not going to be named 'GDIT2K initiative'
Most fundamentally a well-informed alumni group is needed. Not just a GDIT2k group.
Things should be gradual in the sense start with smaller things to test the waters than dream about materializing something substantial.

Currently three BTech batches are out and one is on its way. A centralized *active* group of all or majority alumni members is lacking. Creating one and pooling people into it is far far from feasibility. However, individually each batch has some kind of group/mailinglist which is quite active and has most of the batchmates as members.
As a first step towards building this sense of cross-batch interaction, we can leverage the activity that goes in individual batch wsie mailing lists. The idea is simple, at the end of every fort-night interested members inside each individual mailing list, would consolidate and make a brief overview report of useful discussions, happened in that 15 days span, that are generic enough to be broadcasted to the whole alumni. And this digest report will be sent across to other mailing-lists with appropriate subject. Slowly people of other batches get to know what a particular batch is thinking and if interested they too will provide their inputs.

Next issue is start from the first step.
Foundations of Alumni presence should be strong in the institute. This can happen if alumni activities evolve maintaining continuity rather than being poured down once in a while.
I see any initiative that has something to do with money as a major alumni initiative and as one which is deemed to get procrastinated indefinitely. No one is to be blamed for that. Anyone who would want to disagree pose a question to your ownself giving the state of alumni at present, can such an initiative be a success. If so, detail it. Nevertheless I don't discourage efforts in that direction, it's just that one should allow all the time such an initiative takes to materialize without worrying too much about it. Discussion and thoughts are always helpful.
So I see financial intiative certainly as something that is not step 1. Then what can be called as first step? My answer to that question is, any activity on which whole sovereignity lies with a single individual and which would not cost him more than the time he/she can spare for it. Example, a guest lecture on what you learnt in your workplace/life. I would like to hear more thoughts from you guys n gals as to what can constitute immediately deployable alumni initiatives.

Self composed Mantraalu!!!

2005-08-02T07:42:00.000-07:00

Jayachandra's Blog
What good can 'mantraalu' do?

I just discovered 'Mantraalu' have lot to offer. Especially the ones you coin as per your mood. For instance, they can satiate that urge of going into a valley and yelling out at the peak of your voice. I don't know about others, but I sometimes feel like doing so. Btw, for no good reason other than mostly when I feel elated at work or at home. The contortions you make when you utter them, either aloud or within your own self seem to do something satisfying.

Just see this magnificent mantra I composed today.

Abudidham Thooom Phattttripchikal Kaal Kaal Ayoginascha!
Alabai alamanamilam... ... AMEN!!

I uttered it within myself some two to three times. Boom! the magic happened. I am back to a work mood from an elated mood where I wanted to dance for one of the rahman song's drum beat and the office ambience really hindered me to do so.

Rain God's wrath on Mumbai!

2005-07-27T07:27:00.000-07:00

Above what you see is the sion railway station in Mumbai and not some river. This year Mumbai has recorded an all time Indian record of rainfall reported as 94.4cms in 1 day in some parts of Mumbai. My goodness!!! Just one thought strikes my mind, Gods must have used high power, fire extinguishing kinda hose pipes to drench (rather flood) Mumbai. The earlier record was at Chirapunji, the ever raining place in Meghalaya standing at around 84cms in 1 day.

The mysterious 'it'

2005-07-25T08:51:00.000-07:00

Jayachandra's Blog
I want to say it and clear any air of confusion, but I feel,
    air of confusion is the only thing that can save my skin if I fail.
I am selfish to have it all for myself, but I feel,
    then I'd be restricting other's freedom to choose
I dream of a cordial return for it, but I feel,
    before anything I should prove myself
I want to express it aloud, but I feel,
    *that* being tacit makes it more enjoyable

So what then is 'it'? but as I said, 'it' is mysterious for the above reasons

;-)
Jaya

Ethical confrontation...

2005-07-25T08:34:00.000-07:00

Jayachandra's Blog
I've the burning desire to pursue a full time MBA from any IIM. The rigorous curriculum it has, the sheer value of its brand in the market and all that are extremely enticing. But I'm here to blog about something totally different. The lifestyle that I'd have to encounter there. From whatever contacts I have of my batchmates or seniors at IIIT-H and from the info they shared directly or in an insinuating fashion I mapped lifestyle at IIMs to one with extended levels of freedom amongst its students, lavish parties that too very frequent all throughout the year. Till here it's fine. But parties where boozing is the commonest thing! This sounds uncomfortable for the reason that I've promised someone dear that I'd not touch it and now if the colleagues around force me or butt me to take it what can I answer my conscience? I believe I have the art of diverting the attention when the issue targetted against me doesn't quite make me comfortable. But I doubt if that can help me beguile some of the best (cunniest?) of the minds of the nation. Even if it does one or two times, it can't come for rescue everytime there is a party. I heard that every weekend or once in 2 weekends there would be parties during some parts of the year. Staying away from parties is a foolish idea, especially social interaction being the first a manager is expected to acquire. Not just it's something I should acquire merely by my nature itself I can't confine myself to my room when everybody else share a lighter moment. I knew I'd have to confront this moral issue long back even before I promised her. I even said honestly take my word that willfully or unless there is no utmost compulsion I would not even touch it. But she didn't feel convinced. And having understood that if I don't promise then I'd imprint a dark scar on my own character in her view I reluctantly gave the word. Though it was reluctant it was an honest promise and my conscience simply doesn't entertain any breach of it whatsoever. Well! as I write about it, I begin to feel a sense of confidence that things can be worked out just the way I want them to be. Afterall, every individual out there has his own professional attitude and so would I assume mine when someone tries to push hard on that aspect beyond my tolerance levels.

Thanks to Film Industry!

2005-07-21T07:55:00.000-07:00

Early in the beginning when veterans like NTR, ANR, Saavithri reigned the film industry (henceforth F I) it used to have a revere amongst audience. The characters on screen are thorough tested masters having the skill of acting and expressing feelings naturally soaked into their personality. And people had all the reason to become fans for those silver screen stars. Thanks to Film Industry!

The gifted bunch had their life time full in the industry till they either retired out of it for physical limitations or couldn't endure anymore their own performance on the screen with their swamped organs, drooped eye-lids, cheeks etc. there by making a voluntary get out. The later generation too was respectable, with hard working and or sensible personalities like Chiru, Nagarjuna, Venkatesh, Soundarya making their mark in the audience. The entry barriers still remained high, choosing only the worthy lot who could truly entertain audience, to feature on the screen. Thanks to the Film Industry!

With the F I getting wide publicity and increasing returns, slowly "mass" elements began to be the center of attraction towards the later phase of second generations reign. And also the quality of concepts presented, art work involved, all dwindled proving a death blow to the industry in some significant way. And 'movie' stature has degraded from 'a memorable item for at least a year long' to 'even unbearable for 3 short hours'. But the lucrative things with minimal or zero efforts that movies have turned out to be... every tom, dick and harry began to feature on the screen. Now predominantly movie actors are no big celebrities to awe at their performance or anything near to that. Neither do they prove to be anywhere close to being handsome or beautiful. But still, Thanks to Film Industry for the subtle reason that it had made the world looks all the more beautiful. It is helping people to admire their better halves in a better manner. If a stout, footling with a drunken face can feature as a heroine on the silver screen, males can rever their otherwise not so charming wives/loves as 'angles'. Similarly if an uncouth bumpkin with half-bald head can claim to have a huge fan following, females can admire their otherwise not so handsome husbands/loves as living 'Aphrodites'. Isn't that a favour bigger than what F I could do to society in its first generation. It certainly is!
So join me in thanking the F I once again. Thanks to Film Industry!!!

Back to good looks!

2005-07-21T06:37:00.000-07:00

Jayachandra's Blog
Finally I feel I'm free. Free from haunting by my own self. That gentle yet picking apart discussion on Monday with Venkat was reeling every moment all these past three days infront of my eyes. A thought that would not make me relax till I get a skeletol integration of service APIs with Axis2 working. Today, only when I saw my test client doing a descent job I feel relieved from the pressure. I have all the potential but for reasons so petty and insignificant I've put my productivity at stake. Thank God, I was able to redeem my expectations once again, that too amidst several tiring works in this week - granma's medical check-up, visiting sister's place and dad's visit. I always knew, you would be on my side.

Let me talk to myself!

2005-07-18T08:21:00.000-07:00

Its time I accept Venkat's assessment of my performance at office with due seriousness.

I am falling short of my expectations. Just about a month ago, I've boomed to a better off position with my self-driven reforms in the way I work. This was, of course, aftermath of the bitter appraisal I got last April (compared to what I expected). It would have been lovable if I continued in the same tempo. What satanic evil came over upon me, I only don't know (may be I'm lieing here) but the productivity levels across last week days have gone alarmingly low. Especially after taking the ServiceAPI functionality onto the shoulders. Thanks to my PM for politely pointing to that, lest I would have continued to lax and doom myself into a laggard. I just can't afford to be so, one more time. I've assumed that role enough times and savoured myself with its bitter consequences 'n' number of times and I just don't want to undergo all that nasty phase one more time.
Another serious issue is my office timings. Just for the sake to be on time, I've moved from Miyapur to Madhapur at the cost of increased cost of living. Forgetting of that fact, I've recklessly disturbed my schedule by a clear 2hour margin. What am I achieving here? Just to be solaced by everyone that I am being in office past 9P.M and eventually I begin to think I'm working a lot, even though I don't move an inch in my work for 4 days in a row. Absolutely absurd! Okay, now I take this in a serious tone, unless there is some inevitable cause I would not be late to office even by 5 minutes. Sharp 9P.M I MUST be here. And unless my self longs me to continue my work, I'd not work beyond 7 or 7:30P.M in office.
On the efficiency levels at office. I believe I've made a lot of progress in being awake and working with vigor in the post lunch sessions also. I've to make it a point that I'd continue the same everyday and would not loose the tempo even a single day hence forth. Also it's enough social service that you are doing already, cut short your reasonless affection towards the orphanage home, at least in the things that you are doing at the cost of office prime time. This is the golden oppurtunity that you have in your hand to mould yourself into a person of extreme technical calibre. Use it to the fullest extent, giving a due attention to build your career on the management front as well.

Thanks

A great Scholar!

2005-07-15T07:30:00.000-07:00

Long back I came across the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda from the homepage of a dear friend of mine. I then book marked it as one of my favourite. Now again the second time I've come to see this old friends homepage I remembered that I bookmarked a page when I browsed his site earlier and opened the "Complete Works of Swami Vivekanada". I should thank ____ (should I fill it with the word 'God' or with 'environment around me' or with 'my internal metabolism'...I only don't know << immediate effect of reading the works of Vivekananda) whatever is appropriate, for giving me the concentration with which I have gone through appreciating the man and some of his works I've quickly read. I'm not here to blog about greatness of Hinduism or anything like that, but I wanted to rever the personality that Vivekananda is. One word that I could rightly think of is SCHOLAR. That would yet be an incomplete description of the great personality that he is. I've gone through the Volume 1 of his works. Most of them are elocutions rendered at 'The Parliament of Religions', Chicago 1893 around September timeframe. My mind tried to read the works as if narrated by the owner himself addressing a gathering of other several vivid scholars. The confidence in his speech shows that he has mastered the science of the religion inside out and he himself is free of any doubt in what he is practicing - only a very serious study could get anyone to that level. The spontaniety that you see in his speech speaks of the 'beautiful mind' that he is. The vocabulary he displays shows the grip he has on English. What does it take to gain that grip on a foreign language at that time of the world where there are no superb technologies like 'internet' around. The more I envision each scene of the articles I read, I could not help appreciating the learnedness, spontaineity, focus on the topic, outstanding presentation skills of this man. The exercise had a multitude effect on me across several orthogonal directions, but just that the limitations of my mind's articulative powers and of course the time and work place constraints (these are certainly insignificant factors, though) restrict me in unfurling all the experiences I had in my mind while going through those articles. I'd say these works of Swami Vivekananda are a must read for anyone and everyone.

Usability issue with Blogspot

2005-07-14T08:07:00.000-07:00

The number of posts that appear on the blog page are some 'n' (default 10) number that we configure in one of the settings. But that shouldn't mean we just have 'n' posts on this blog. Generally, non blogspot readers would scroll through post after post till the end and think that it's all of it in the blog. There is no next or more link in the end that can hint readers that there are more posts. The only work around I see, as of now, for one to read all the posts in the blog, is to click on the last post link provided under 'PREVIOUS POSTS' heading in the right column and from the page that comes step into the next set of 'n' number of posts posted earlier to that.

Fellow blogspot bloggers & readers of this blog, help me if you can!
Is there some configuration setting somewhere, that I can turn on so that I can hint my blog readers that there are more posts than that are displayed in this page full?

Queer phrasing!

2005-07-14T06:24:00.000-07:00

I happened to read a mail sent to all the employees of a company by its HR/management team asking them to apply for an internal vacancy position. I read the first line which goes...
"We are pleased to announce the following vacancy..."
The more I looked into it, the more queer it turned out to me. Especially the use of *pleased* made it interesting. Was the earlier guy in that position such a whack that he threw the management into a tizzy and they are now *pleased* that he has been successfully sacked?

Imagining episodes of fun!

2005-07-13T07:03:00.000-07:00

Someone said what can one plan about a birthday. That looked strange to me. Its once in an year that you get your birthday and the day when you can be all smiles whole day. How can one not think about it. Long back I've imagined how the scene would be on my birthday and I loved my imagination so much so that I penned down the whole episode that reeled through my mind. I did do that then, but not knowing exactly when it would come to use. But looks like this imagination I penned down can be used to answer someone now.
This is just a self imagination, though it never happened that way. But nevertheless, makes a good read.
Read on...

[START]
Its 23rd october and I was kind of excited about the day after, because its my birthday.
"Should I start my flat decoration now?", a question flashed in my mind. "Na Na let me keep it aside for tommorrow. Becuase doing it with all my friends would be more fun", thats the immediate answer to myself. Cake delivery is due only at 3P.M tommorrow. So all morning one can have fun at least in the name of flat decoration. How funny would it be to imagine Phanikumar holding the ladder on which Deepu is counting seconds as he efforts to stick a piece of ribbon to the ceiling, whose concentration is being constantly disturbed by Bindu pointing repeatedly at non existant locations on the ceiling to stick the paper at. Such prime locations (as she claims), which she only doesn't know, let alone Deepu locating them in such a critical position, are being suggested just for the fun of seeing Deepu's and Phanikumar's agony. Meanwhile as if to assist Deepu to identify the non-existant spot Phanikumar lifts his head and elongates his neck and when is about to take his right hand off the ladder to point at his interpretation of Bindu's description Deepu yells 'Orrreyyyy! nichena paduddi bey'. And everyone around burst in laughter. Having realized he was fooled Deepu climbs down without sticking the ribbon and asks Bindu to do the job as he watches the fun. For which Bindu adorns her standard template 'pleading, innocent' face and resorts to sentimental dialogues that appear convincing to Deepu, but put Jaya (me) in the trouble to stick that ribbon at the ceiling. Cleverly and secretly after coming to an understanding that Phani would hold the ladder with all due caution, JC climbs it up and sticks the already glued ribbon just for the sake of it and gets down in a giffy. As I congratulate my ownself at the nice way I stuck the ribbon others scorn their faces saying it was stuck a few miles left to where it should have been. Keeping self love aside, when I analyse the contour I too see the point. But then when I claim that it is all Phani's fault for not holding the ladder properly, he goes agape with that piece of apple that he greedily bit, almost dropping to floor, if only not caught by Vinod, relaxing on the floor with legs up in the air. Thrilled at the timing of the catch, Bindu says 'too much, Vinod!'. As she was expecting a cordial return to her compliments, on the contrary, Vinod reads out a detailed analysis of the situation and points out Bindu as the root cause for the mishap. This gets, except for Bindu, unanimous approval from all the members. And cashing her confusion, Deepu forcefully places the unclean plate in which fruit peels are lying astray and asks her to go and get it cleaned. Having none coming to her rescue, Bindu slowly walks towards the wash basin.... wah kya episode hai
[END]

Doesn't that sound as a good day of healthy fun. If yes, and if you don't have the habit of imagining, its time you start cultivating it.

Friends! The treasure I possess

2005-07-13T05:22:00.000-07:00

***********
I had huge plans to celebrate my b'day this year (October 24th). But not even one of my 6 good friends turned up to be with me on that day. There were some other friends around on that day, I did cut a cake, I did wear my new suit. But nothing could delight me. All my heart felt was that I was celebrating before zero audience. At least had one in those six been by my side I'd have cheered up a lot. So dry, passed my birthday. There is no fault from anybody. Everyone had their reason. And reasons are so strong that I (who is so adamant in attitude) myself couldn't ask them to stop their works and be present for my b'day. Three days (Oct 22nd,23rd and 24th) holidays in a row at this time of the year when its over 3 months since everyone is into their first job and haven't since been home all long, everyone would like to go home. Phani and Deepu long back planned their trips to home towns. Even I wanted to go home, if not for my birthday at that time of the year. So I didn't feel like stopping them. Vinod's grandma's first death anniversary amazingly coincided with my birthday and his father wanted him to be in Tanuka on that day. So he couldn't come. And the girls too had their own reasons. All in all no one could come, and at the same time no one including me could help that situation. So b'day went dry. I cursed my fate at the end of the day, and then soothed myself saying everyone's reason is a strong one. And after all, its no big deal than just one other b'day in a 100. I went to bed.
*************
The day after (October 25th), I woke up in a pretty usual way. Had yesterday been anything memorable or different I would have reminded about it to myself. But since it didn't go any special I didn't have any traces in my mind that its the next day after my birthday. I was in the same mindset when Deepu called me in the afternoon and said, he was coming to TCS building to take a file from Naresh. I was in the same mindset when he again called me in the evening and said Phanikumar and himself want to meet me now that they are close to my office at Durgam Cheruvu. I agreed and I had no clue that they are going to surprise me. I even said, "Bindu stays nearby she would also meet you ppl. Shall I get her along from her office when I come down". He said "okay!" in a very casual style that I could no way get a hint that I'm going to pick up the actual master mind behind the surprise that I'm about to experience.
I went to Raheja IT Park and picked Bindu and went to Durgam Lake, where I found a whole bunch of them already awaiting our arrival. There's Vinod, Deepu, Visu, Naresh, Phanindra and later Phanikumar joined (actually this guy was sent earlier to pick Bindu to the venue, it turned out that I intervened in between to do his job). Only after seeing the gathering and the gift packs at a distance I understood they gathered to celebrate my birthday. It was a total surprise to me. I cut the cake they brought. This time my dressing isn't any great, neither is the day October 24th but I really felt that I'm *truly* celebrating my birthday. On my ride back to my flat that evening I critically thought and realized how lucky I am for having such a nice friends circle for me.
*************
I feel so great in the company of friends. They might not shower dollars on me, but if they are away I feel like I lost something valuable and precious. They might not solve my problems, but worries remain at a distance when I'm in their company. None of them is a bully in personality, but I feel very strong when I'm with anyone of them. They are no energy syrup, but I overpound in tremendous enthusiasm and vigor when they (and only they) are around. I'm not a cheff, but I feel like experimenting cuisines when we all meet in some den (flats where we individually live). Its no great thing if Vinod resides in Madhapur, still I feel to quit the regular work and be there with him in the evenings. Its more than a pain to drive 30kms to KundanBagh on a saturday (weekend) morning, still to meet Deepu and Phanikumar I don't mind risking it. I know very well that I'd late by an hour post lunch to attend office, but still I'd try to snatch a quick lunch with Deepthi at Minerva whenever I go towards Somajiguda in the afternoon.Every time Bindu and I eat at Chilli Peppers ambience is all the same, but still I'm enthrilled to go out for a dinner with her. Mails are quite a common thing, but even an casual "Hi" from Pranathi makes me defer my bug fixing and reply to it.
That's me, that's the way I'll be.

Signing off
Jaya

How to Change the World!

2005-07-12T02:30:00.000-07:00

How to change the world

I've a few more miles to go before I read and implement the concepts of the book in my custom style. But I still would like to host the link on my blog, so may be some of my blog readers who are enough fit can take a stab at it.

How to change the world

Diet's impact on alertness

2005-07-11T10:32:00.000-07:00

I'm back! Today morning I've seen in one of the add-on edition pages of 'The Hindu' newspaper an article by Yandamoori Verenernath (is he the same guy famous for his masterpiece telugu novels???). He has unfurled some basic facts about the diet one takes and its impact on ones alertness at study. I liked the way it's written, because it gave substantial evidence to drive the point that's being stated. And the article certainly would appear to be a useful for a guy like me who never till now used to properly understand why he can't conquer sleep when it comes to studying, even after great amount of self meditation to concentrate on work/study. The notable points that I wish to share with all the fellow souls who happen to detest their ownselves on the same grounds are...
(1)refrain from eating sugar(sweet) items before/during study or work.
(2)Take as much water while at study/work as you can

The reason behing (2) is that water keeps one fresh. I've tested the same today and I am convinced. The small gulps of water I took at intervals of time boosted my freshness at least by a noticeable amount, promise!

Explanation for (1) needs some background. Sugars and milk contain very simple carbohydrates that are easily broken into amino acids releasing energy into blood instantly. Whilst food items like nuts, grains etc. contain complex carbohydrates, breaking whom into amino acids and realeasing energy is not instantaneous and would be a gradual process inside the stomach. When you eat sugars/milk etc. they are instantly broken down and a gush of energy is released into the blood cells. And once the food is exhausted there is a shortage in supply of energy to cells compared to the previous levels. These fluctuations in the energy flow into the blood and brain cells results in a dormancy state and we tend to get sleep. So its advisable to have more of nuts, grains and other complex carbohydrates that continue to provide energy in a gradual and all through out the day uniformly. And make it a point not to have sugars/milk before and during study/work.

There was another convincing reason given to a related but different issue - why after a heavy meal do I get sleep. The reason is that, heavy the meal more is the oxygen required to digest it. This oxygen requirement is partly fulfilled by taking it from brain. This leads to a sedative state called SLEEP.
The author reiterated a proven fact to distribute the required 2500 calories of energy from food intakes in the ratio 40:25:10:25 amongst b'fast, lunch, snacks and dinner respectively.

So my mantra from now on is going to be
'Eat b'fast like a King and lunch like a pauper'. Post dinner if I need to work then that would be a pauper meal or else it can be the normal dose.
With these facts known, I hope I'd be able to add more determinism into the quality of hours that I'm spending at work.

Thanks Yandamoori, for all your advice!!!

Heights of wild guessing

2005-07-04T03:07:00.000-07:00

Question:
---------
What's the purpose of breakout rooms?

Answer:
-------
No idea!

But that would sound silly, isn't it? So let me guess something and answer. (Naturally I saw the dictionary meaning of 'breakout' and the first meaning is 'to escape from jail'). Dart! evoked the natural 'I know all stud' to guess a beautiful guess. (In his naturally detective style...) Since breakout is 'to escape from jail', 'breakout rooms' must surely be rooms into which prisoners who try to escape are falsely lead and trapped. Woooow! that appeared a mindful!

Correct Answer:
---------------
They are small rooms typically with less than 8 seating capacity intended to provide space for holding small-group meetings, team discussions, case presentations and other team or small group work.

Conclusion:
-----------
Never over act/think, you could fall flat on your nose.

Lunch at Shikaar

2005-07-01T04:19:00.000-07:00

Celebrated my professional anniversary along with Vinod over a Lunch in a Mexican restaurant! hmm... not bad.

Tom Yum Soup - tops the list of all my favourite soups here onwards. Lemon flavoured, clear soup with chopped chillies and prawns. It tickled my palate very much
Mutton Hussaini Kebab - ummmmm delicious, the nuts in between made it even more tasty.
Tawa Biryani - not so great compared to the above delicacies but not bad either.
Peach Melba - The vanilla was enticing, the peach was ripe. All in all, its good.

Those who didn't have time to give me company should now repent what they missed, for it was a party from my side.

P.S:: 'Shikaar' restaurant falls definetely into the expensive sector. Rs.550/- for two members is definitely expensive, isn't it?

Not going to be a dumb day

2005-07-01T00:42:00.000-07:00

Its not going to be a dumb day. I have my best buddy Vinod. And also he has agreed to wake up and get ready to come for lunch with me. I'm going on a lunch with him. I know, God will be on my side. I knew it won't be as dumb as I feared. Thanks Vinni!

Completion of One Year in Software Industry

2005-06-30T23:55:00.000-07:00

Yesss!
Today is a memorable day in my life. It marks my successful accomplishment of 1 year at software industry. Just, as it happens with me for every other important day (birthday's of my family members, exam dates etc.) for this day also till a week before I had huge plans to await for this day, but by the time the day arrived as usual I forgot about it. Only after a best pal wished me over phone did I realize that its a D day for me. I really want to celebrate this day, but I don't see my friends around :( . Everyone including me are busy at their respective works. It makes sense if I take time out of work, b'coz my PM understands that its my work anniversary at CA. But I can't expect my friends PMs to be so considerate to let them off for an hour or two for their friends D day. So then, is it going to be just another dumb day? Ohh...NOOOOO.

Nature's mockery

2005-06-30T06:02:00.000-07:00

Time: 5P.M
Hey! Its raining out. Argh... but this one looks like a furious one. Heavy downpour with huge wind blows. Even cars seem to take a side and halt. Thanks to the air-tight work place or else I would be shivering till I lost a tooth or two.

Time: 6P.M
Just slided the venition blinds open to see how the weather is out, if the rain is still daunting. Amazing! not a clue about the fact that it rained so furiously an hour ago. Everything is so dry outside. Well all I could see out of the window is the tar road and cement flooring only. Had there been some clay court somewhere in the view it could have given me the intensity of the rain. In any case, Nature is mocking us with its ability to create unpredictable weather patterns.

Least number of bags - CAT kinda question

2005-06-29T08:18:00.000-07:00

This one is a most common one.

Question:
----------
Jaya has 110 one rupee coins with him. He wants to distribute them into bags of various amounts such that he would be able to hand over a whole number of bags for any requested amount of money, which is going to be a whole number from 1 to 110, without adjusting the number of coins in any of the bags. What is the least number of bags required to do so.

Solution:
---------
An amount of 1 rupee to be given away there needs to be a 1 Re bag. So lets have it. So far #of bags is 1. With the existing bags can we give away an amount of Rs.2? No. Either we need to have one more bag of Re.1 or a bag of Re.2. For least number of bags, second choice should be followed. So we will have as the second bag a Re.2 bag. With these existing lets see what all amounts we can give. We can give upto Rs.3 . Now we will make a bag of Re.4 so that we can cater to all amounts till Rs.7. Then again a bag at Re.8, Re.16, Re.32. So far we have bagged (1+2+4+8+16+32 = 63) rupees into bags. And we are in a position to cater to any requested amount upto Rs.63. Since this is greater than half of the total amount (i.e.110/2 = 55). We can stop continuing the above process and bag the remaining amount (i.e. Re.47) into one bag. This process will yield us the least number of required bags. In this case, it is 7.

As a short cut one can remember that for a total amount of 2^n to [2^(n+1)]-1, we will need at least n+1 bags

TajMahal - Symbol of Love

2005-06-29T04:15:00.000-07:00

Love!
Just one word, but it has more than an Encyclopedia Britannica inside it.
It is vague yet very concrete. Its mild but has the power to bring down a mountain.

It can mould the tough into unimaginably soft. Similarly soft ones to unconceivably tough. It can put a lazy laggard into best of his form. It can control the otherwise uncontrolled. A serious promise to even father or mother sometimes might skip the mind unnoticed, but one to a true love would remain. I feel there isn't any unique definition of love and its a varied answer as perceived by everyone who has experienced it. And that answer would be the way their beloved receives them, treats them and moulds them to the core. To the conventional thinker who thinks that marriage is the climax of love, and not realizing it that way is equivalent to not being loved, I have serious objections.
This reminds me to answer here one of the most controversial questions 'Can love happen more than once?' Yes! it can. Its the process of receiving, treating and moulding that had the impact on you than the person who does it. In the case of lucky ones, its always one person who does that for a life time. But for those not so lucky ppl, as destined by God in their fate, more than one seem to carry the torch across their lifetime. But I'd say, heart being not so easily erasible plate the threshold barriers simply multiply many fold to convince it that the torch bearer changed.

Wooooph! better not tickle me on this aspect, I become all the more hazy and complex.

Moms are crazy

2005-06-27T23:00:00.000-07:00

Moms can be crazy! When my sisters hinted that when I was a kid, I didn't first believe. But slowly I too began to have my share of experiences. Well, this isn't anything hostile about my Mummy, she is so very sweet. Its just that she is innocently sentimental, and the very same time foolishly stubborn on her decisions. Just depicts a perfect example for grown-up's childish mentality. Yesterday I had a fresh new experience. Everytime I say I'm gonna shop a new pair of clothes she would, just for the sake without any reason, reflexively say 'hold on, you can have it on your b'day (or some other fairly distant occassion in future)'. So I partly got accustomed to it i.e. a mix of procrastinating my shopping sometimes or slyly doing the shopping without informing my mother about it. Given that background, would it not be a surprize to me if my mom calls on 27th June to inform that I better go purchase, not one but two pairs of clothes and that too before 30th of June and also wear them on consecutive days.

Another interesting CAT question and solution

2005-06-27T03:08:00.000-07:00

Question:
A number when divided by 5, 6, 8, 9, 12 leaves a remainder 1 in every case. But, when divided by 13 doesn't leave any remainder. Find the least such possible number.

Solution:
Looking at first line, straight away we should find L.C.M(5,6,8,9,12). And that is 360. Now any mulitple of 360 increased by 1 would satisfy the first line. Now the second line is the tricky one. 361 as such is not divisible by 13. 361 % 13 = 10 and not 0. So some other mulitple of 360 increased by 1 should be tested. Rather than brute forcing on every multiple. Assume that 'alpha'*360 when increased by 1 is perfectly divisible by 13. Then that means...
('alpha'*360) % 13 = 12 (Note this carefully)
=> [('alpha')%13] * [360%13] = 12
=> [('alpha' * 9)%13] = 12 (since 360%13 = 9)

So this looks more manageable, [('alpha') *9] should be one less than mulitple of 13 i.e. 12 or 25 or 38 or 51 or 64 or 77 or 90 <<< there you got a mulitple of 9. So least 'alpha' value is 90/9 = 10.
Hence the required answer is [(10 * 360) + 1] = 3601.

However, if in the options there is no 'none' and the other options look weird enough (as it happened in the answer choices I got), i.e. doesn't even satisfy the first requirement. Elimination of the answers and quickly arriving at the correct answer should be the preferred way of tackling a CAT question like this. CAT setters are interestingly nice, they set tough questions but keep some steppign stones in the path to arrive at solution without actually formally solving the question. Rewarded is the one, who identifies these stepping stones.

Regards
Jayachandra

Some introduction on Webservices

2005-06-23T22:56:00.000-07:00

Web Services are what I'm delving in since more than an year. WS idea is all about how a client on one platform can leverage the functionality of a piece of code written on a differnt platform. Say a java client talking with a .NET server. Earlier there are technologies like CORBA, Java RMI etc, which were very tightly coupled between client and server. They often relied on seperate port connections to communicate between client and server. But enterprises were skeptical about adopting such tightly coupled technologies fearing by enabling extra ports, malicious programs can cause harm etc. So the idea of web services sprout out in this context. There wont be need to enable any extra ports, there won't be transfer of data in any other format than plain text XML.

There are majorly two types of Webservice technologies SOAP based Webservices and REST Webservices. The later I've no idea. Former one is the popular one. Let me elaborate on SOAP based Webservices.
Here the whole idea is whatever client wants to ask, it will ask passing a piece of plain text XML. Whatever the server wants to respond, it will respond by sending another piece of plain text XML.

Request workflow:
Client -> BlackBox1 -> ====XML Request==== -> BlackBox2 -> Server side webservice

Fig:1

Response workflow:
Client <- BlackBox1 <- ====XML Response==== <- BlackBox2 <- Server side webservice Fig: 2 Now there above two black boxes are mentioned, if you observe. These are the web service engines like our open source Axis or gSOAP, or proprietary .NET etc. These actually create the XML request for a call made by client in its program that looks like String answer = localStub.addNumbers(5, 10); But then you would get the natural question of what should the XML request look like and how is it that the server is going to understand whatever piece of XML client sends. There pitches in the WSDL - Web Service Description Language. If you take the black box on the server side, henceforth BB2, it has the ability to look into the webservice (its nothing but a java program for me, or a C# program from somebody else) and come up with a description document (WSDL) saying if anybody wants to request the addNumber method of this webservice their XML request should be sent to me in the following format <>
<>
<>
<>value1 < /param1 >
<>value2 < /param2 >
< /addnumber >
< /BODY >
< /soapenv >
Fig: 3
and I'd respond the answer in the following format
<>
<>
<>
< type="integer">answer< /addnumberreturn >
< /response >
< /body >
< /soapenv >
Fig: 4

Note: The above xmls are just meant to be directive to help understanding and are not actual

BB2 receives the client sent XML requests, parses and processes them and finally calls the webservice method code. It takes the answer returned by the webservice and again wraps it as per the template shown in Fig: 4 and sends it to client.

The client side black box, hence forth BB1, has the ability to read the WSDL and understand that I need to send the request as per Fig:1 template and parse the answer wrapped and sent as in Fig: 4 template.

If you see the XMLs above they are slightly strange in the sense have extra and tags which might seem redundant as per the knowledge given so far, but they are actually place holders for some information as to type of charset-encoding used to send the content etc. This special format XML is generally called SOAP. Essentially on the wire a SOAP request and a SOAP response are transferred.

The WSDL also has in it embedded information in which it can say I'm expecting the XML to be sent to me over http protocol (in which case BB2 will be listening at port 80) or ftp protocol or SMTP mail protocol etc.

This is the way Webservices, XML, SOAP are related.

Strange dreams!

2005-06-23T08:15:00.000-07:00

Everyone of us get dreams in sleep (gifted is the one who doesn't dream, he/she is supposedly giving the perfect relaxation to his grey cells), and I'm not any different. And just as my friends do, I too don't remember them in the morning after I awake unless it's such a nightmare that forces me out of sleep. Today I've had two such nightmares (if I can call them so, because they disturbed my sleep). First one was I dreamt of united andhra pradesh getting split into two states - Telanga and 'X' (my dream didn't name it :( ). Guntur was declared to be the capital of 'X' it seems. Guntur being the city near to my native, I always wished to own a good plot in it. But the land prices grew exhorbitantly high overnight that I couldn't own any small plot in Guntur. And that worried me I guess and result - sleep disturbed. But it didn't take much time to drown back into sleep again (for it's been my birth right :D). This time I dreamt of taking CAT exam, all was well till the end of the exam but just before the examiner came to collect my answer sheet I realized I didn't attempt comprehension questions in English section at all. There was a steep anxiety spike in my mind I guess, that it choked me out of sleep. Come to think about it, am I subconciously fearing CAT? Its high time I follow these hints and make the CAT journey as safe and smooth as I can. That means, put in some *quality* time after office and in weekends into CAT prep before I really get tensed up. Exam tension is the last thing one could entertain.

Good luck to me!

Signing off
Jayachandra

Nostalgia about college days

2005-06-23T05:17:00.000-07:00

I was trying to organize the frivolously scattered away content on my PC when I found a folder named 'GDIT2kYearBook'. Double clicking the folder is the reason why I'm blogging around now here. A reel of scenes passed right infront of my eyes as I began to see several documents present in there. They are mostly just individual profiles of my classmates and the comments that others had then to say to each one of them. But since the batch is a 140 strong one, that itself is quite a lot. Those early days when we were intially alloted rooms as per our roll numbers wished me 'Hi buddy! do you remember how nice we were to you'. The term roll numbers made me involutarily recall what are the roll numbers of my dear ones. I had tough time recollecting them, for I barely used to proxy for anyone. Even if I did, I never used to do it to any particular set on a daily basis as some of my other peers used to :). So that makes it difficult now to recollect roll numbers. Having failed to recollect the roll numbers in a manner that I myself am convinced at, I thought can I find them somewhere at the college site? Strange! Those ids without which nothing used to move even an inch, be it academic work or mess registration or gate pass ... when we spent our time there, doesn't even seem to have a record anywhere on the college site once we are out. Of course, at least I was able to find a graduation program wise sorted listed of all old students. As I scrolled through the list of names of my classmates ( 140 is a long list, isn't it?) tears whirlled, unknowingly, into my eyes. Oh well! I can't say that the reason is unknown. If I take time and analyse why that happened, I end up in 'that's what might be what they call Nostalgia'. Without my intention a series of incidents such as day to day fun/pun we friends used to have amongst overselves, the basketball court, the TV room, the mess (yuck! but sometimes its nice also), the classroom (I'm comfortable calling it Seminar Hall), the canteen, the roads every inch of my alma mater babbled with my mind. The hostel though, took the largest share of time my mind wavered across the whole campus life. Only after I poured out my feelings I'm feeling relaxed, lest I would have got too depressed with my own nostalgia. Should I say leading such a nice campus life is a boon? or bane? Huh! I am too confused to think on it anymore.

CAT question and interesting solution

2005-06-23T05:08:00.000-07:00

In a certain system product of 44 X 11 is represented as 2124 find how 1453 can be represented in decimal system ?
1)248 2) 346 3) 393 4) 410

Try to solve the above question.
A typical way people set out to try this one after giving it a thought is to come up with an equation as follows
2*(x^3) + 1*(x^1) + 2*(x^2) + 4*(x^0) = 44 * 11 = 484

But this being a quadratic there won't be easy methods of indentifying the roots and hence takes significant time to solve and get x=6 as the answer.

The intelligent way of tackling such a question would be, we are given that 484 of decimal system maps to 2124 of a system to the base x. Since in decimal system 2124 is more than 484, certainly base value should be less than 10 for the new system. So we have zero'd down the sample space to 9,8,...,3,2,1. We are asked to find what does 1453 of unknown base system correspond to in decimal system, as simple rule is that digits of a number in certain system with base=n will all be less than 'n'. So in our case the base value must be at least greater than 5. So the search space got reduced to 6,7,8 and 9. Now try substituting in the above equation x=6 and you see it satisfies, so you can quickly calculate the required answer i.e. 1*(6^3) + 4*(6^2) + 5*(6^1) + 3*(6^0) = 393.

This is the way to tackle a CAT question, there always will be a simpler way to unfold things than they appear infront of our eyes in the first glance, the one who identifies it wins the race.

Hope that helps at least some fellow aspirant out there.

cheers,
Jayachandra

You think you know a girl...

2005-06-21T07:59:00.000-07:00

But you really dont.
That's the whole point, which might seem obvious to guys who have had an experience and ridiculous to those who didn't. But my case is that after having had a couple of experiences, still I couldn't get this thing into my mind. May be writing it somewhere would benifit me in avoiding a fall flat on nose the next time.
In short if I had a little younger brother, what I'd suggest him is... 'girls, particularly those who you think match your taste, will turn out to be extremely complex in their mind. So better close the shop, stay away and remain silent (best thing of all times). Eating lunch in your own cafeteria is far better than attending a lunch invitation given by girl(s). Don't even think about you trying to convince them for a lunch outside. It's only next to possible.'

Hurray

2005-06-21T04:45:00.000-07:00

Finally! I've got something I've longed for. Hello all my friends out there, here I'm about to send you all my new blog "http://readmymusings.blogspot.com/". To memorize it better, split the words as 'read' 'my' 'musings' and you wouldn't forget.

Yet again a test blog

2005-06-21T04:30:00.000-07:00

Hi there!
I don't know if its the lack of homework on my end or a complex ui for a new blogger like me that I've repeatedly failed to have a blog with a decent name for myself. The first time I tried, all that I could do was to just have a username registered. Next time, out to put some serious content, in the wake of fellow colleagues publishing pretty nice blogs, I wrote something but got it hosted with an unusual blog name which would make sense to have just that post in all under it (I've mistook 'blog' for a specific 'post'). And now this is the third time I'm here trying to create a meaningful blog that I can give out to others saying 'Hey! watch out, the following is my blog url' and still expect no one to grin at its name.