India in 1835 ...

LORD MACAULAY'S ADDRESS TO THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT :2ND FEBRUARY, 1835

"I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such high caliber, that I dont think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage! Therefore I propose we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will loose their self-esteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation!"


And Alas ! we fell pray to their strategies :-(

Why?

Repeat the same routine everyday...get up early morning, make breakfast, prepare for dinner and then rush to office. It feels great at times to realise that I've been able to do all this and still reach office on time. But at other times I feel, is making breakfast and dinner really such a big deal?

Once at work, spend all day staring at the 'really dumb terminal', doing installations, coding, testing, sending status reports...ad nauseum. There just is no fixed time when this would get over. Its only when you decide that its enough for the day that you can leave. At times, after an entire day's work, there is a sense of satisfaction. Alas, such days are but few and far between. If you are willing to slog the entire night after the long day's work, you are most welcome to do so and of course, there's no one to stop you. There is no appreciation as well. Talk of thankless jobs!

Jaaneman tum kamal karti ho ...

This melodious number, with playback by Kishore 'da & Lata ji is from the 1978 blockbuster 'Trishul'. Its a lovely song and I tend to listen to it every time I feel I need that zest and enthu and relieve myself of some stress and let go of all pressures for a while ...
Kishore'da and Lata'ji surely play magic on people's minds through this and many other wonderful numbers !!

ramblings ..

Yes, its been more than a year now since I moved out of that divine place...called Pune. The place where I went to school, college and also did my first job! Yes, thats more than two decades at Pune! I miss those years when my little brother and I were taken care of by my Patty, as my parents were working. During school days when we used to get back home at noon, there was always sumptuous food made by paati, waiting to be devoured. And I can't remember a single occasion when we missed the customary and necessary thairu chadam, thanks to Patty. K and I used to fight a lot back then and Patty was always there to mediate and help us patch up! Till my time in school, I was in this protective cocoon...it was cosy and comfy no doubt, but every now and then, there was this urge to break out, venture out on my own, explore the big-bad-beautiful world.
It was during the halcyon days of my junior college and engineering that I did all the freaking out and man..was it awesome! I discovered the Sinhagads , the Vaishalis, the CCDs, the Baristas and ..the list goes on...
Once I joined work things things were really cool. The days when I managed to get back home on time, amma and I used to go shopping. Shopping for nothing in particular, but virtually everything in general. Of course, in most of these excursions, I'd end up splurging on goodies for myself:) The newfound financial independence gave me a giddy high - it's difficult to put it in words, but the world looked a lot prettier (and the wallet a lot lighter). Of course, it felt great to shower my folks with small gifts every now and then :)
oh...how I miss those days now....

"magar mujhko lautaa do bachapan kaa saavan
vo kaagaz kii kashtii, vo baarish kaa paanii"

Going techie ..

For the last three days i've been so much into some complex installations that I literally got these install screens in my dreams! So what are these so-called complex things that i've been trying to install? A CRS (Cluster Ready Services, which is Oracle's full stack of clusterware) and an ASM (Automatic Storage Management, a simple storage management interface) and RAC (Ral Application Clusters , which is a cluster database) on top of the CRS installation. And these installations are all on a cluster, i.e a group of two nodes or two individual physical devices, which makes it complex as compared to any other standalone installations. The other thing that is different here is that incase your installation fails for some reason, there is another complicated set of clean-up or de-installation steps which if you fail to do correctly, you can be assured that your installation will never go through! The three installations are interrelated in such an intricate manner that even a little careless mistake could have you repeating the entire set of steps over and over again. True, its the first time that am working with clusters and people who've done these already have gone through similar issues.

Dear blog, after writing my heart out here, I feel more enthusiastic and energetic to return back to the installations and am determined to complete them all successfully :-)

Some more ..

Kolams I drew for various occasions

Jute so Cute :-)

These days there is more ecology consciousness. "Save your planet" , "Stop pollution" , "Regulate your surroundings" , "Protect your environment" are the kind of messages that are flashed across various media.


Going jute would be one such eco friendly practice. Jute is also becoming a fashion and style statement.
Jute bags, wallets, folders, apparel, handicrafts, furnishings, carpets, textiles, yarn, jacket, cushion covers, shopping bags, table mats, upholstery, carpets & rugs, wall hangings and ohh..the list is endless.
My love for jute never ceases to grow ..

Should I start now????

um....
am at office now and its gonna be lunch time!!
Ive got lotsa pending work too.
This is not a good time to start blogging ...
I recollect what my thatha used to ask me very often, "Konjam sastrigal ta muhurtham ketukalama? :D "