All right, I need to get off from the phone because I am going to Ibbizza...sorry to Goa. This was the first snap of the trip Ved and I took to Goa. We went on Volvo - paid like Rs 1000/- which is more than $20 in all to get to Goa. We started at 5 pm from Hyderabad and ended up in Goa at 11 am. It also resulted us in deciding something. i.e. no more bus trips to Goa. So we ended up flying back..but more on that later...

Traveling to Goa

Finally, the Goa trip I have been planning for almost 2 years now. The last time I went was from Bangalore to Goa and I merely paid like 2-3k for the entire flight. Now, I cant even get a set of tickets below 10k.

This is one place I wish traveling was cheaper...so I could go at the drop of the hat...This time I am going with my buddy Ved...he is a good friend from work..

Telgi and the Public

Everyone knows who Telgi is. Let us just say, he drained $10 Billion in revenue of some state governments. States like Karnataka has ZERO revenues for almost 4-5 years because Telgi fraudlently sold fake "stamp duty papers" and pocketed the entire money and of course spread it around to his friends, family and politicans.

Somehow, we still afford to go on living a life like nothing happened. Helpless, tired, frustrated and struggling to cope up with our own realities of flood, drought, bad roads, poor infrastructure, corruption at all levels. hmmmph!!!

Malegoan - a case study

The series of blasts in Mumbai which _Failed_ to create the animosity between the Hindus and the Muslims was the partial victory India as a society has been wanting to see for almost 5 decades. Reactive politics doesnt create friends.

Seeing this, the terror ogranizations have decided not just to ravage the indian economy or the hindus by attacing the businesses or the temples, they decided to evoke agony, frustration and pain out of the poor muslims and wanted to turn it against the Hindus by attacking the Gaveyard in Malegaon. Thirty odd people were killed yesterday.

Clearly, this act was meant to disrupt the existing truce between the Hindus and the Muslims in this town of 800,000 people, luckily the muslims did not react to this. Instead, the hindus lined up to help the injured, they queued up in front of hospitals to give blood, offered transportation....and did exactly the kind of things that our religion expects us to do when our friends, our neighbours or even strangers are in distress.

Today, Peace won over Violence. Its time we saw through the designs of the politicans and distrusted them. It is time we saw through the designs of the terrorists and distrusted them. Its time we created a set of values that separated our lives miseries and from what we believe in, instead of beliveing in values that supported why and how things are the way they are! For example: Remove the following line of thinking : "Blame muslims for terrorism", or "Blame the Brahmins for the poverty of the rest" and instead focus on "We have to stive to make a difference" and "I am in control and wont let these external factors push me to do things I dont want to!!!"

Question the "Red Tape"!

We owned a Nokia phone and our service provider is BSNL. Last Thursday, I ended up loosing it at the railway station. I discovered the loss within a few minutes, but it was just gone. Someone had taken it, removed the SIM and the mobile was unreachable. My dad managed to borrow someone's cell and we called home to inform mom about this incident. She promptly called our service provider (BSNL) and got the SIM deactivated. The SIM was issued by BSNL and we really liked their service. They are honest, and upfront with all their costs and don't try to rip off their customers.

After we returned from our journey, we decided to call up BSNL, once more, to figure out how to get a replacement SIM card. I called up their customer service and talked to him and he asked me to bring proof of address, id, and of course an "FIR". What is an FIR? FIR stands for "First information Report". The customer service representative explained to us that,we had to go to the Police Station, bother a few cops to write an "FIR", pay them a little moolah (he did not say we had to pay a bribe - but I figured this is the standard operating procedure here) and then go to BSNL to get a new SIM card.

So, naturally I asked the cust. service rep: what the purpose of an FIR was? He gladly replied that it was a "proof" that I had lost the cell phone!

Oh Boy! How is it a proof? I retorted! He says filing an FIR proved that I had lost the cell phone.

Oh Really? How so?

FIR doesn't prove anything. FIR does nothing when it comes to lost cellphones, lost slippers, lost pens & pencils or even lost DL, lost Credit Cards, lost Debit Cards etc. For example: If I make a statement that there is no life on Mars, the only way to prove it is to send someone up there and investigate it thoroughly and let him file a report on his findings. Issuing an FIR doesn't do much in the way of "proving" anything. There is no value the police station is adding. In fact its a dreaded waste of public resources, your tax rupees, because I would rather have the cop chase down a rapist, a thug or a murderer. Even arming myself with an FIR doesn't do much in favor of getting my mobile back either.

There are reasons when an FIR is necessary. One is,when someone wants to file a serious complaint or an allegation against another person or another organization. Or to build a history of violations by an auto rickshaw driver who charges more. Surprisingly, no one files FIRs in these issues. For ex: FIRs could be helpful in cases of drunken driving, auto drivers charging higher fares where the issue or a person could be tracked and a pattern recorded to eventually prove irrefutable evidence that a person has in fact been reported several times by several people! That is the real purpose of an organized system that can track these FIRs down based on a PAN card number or Social Security Number etc.

A lost mobile phone is not worthy of a trip to the police station.

The Problem with “K”

The Problem with “K”

I recently purchased a new PC for my parents. It came with MS Windows XP preinstalled. I had purchased the PC from a local vendor and I assume that it is a pirated copy that was on there from the beginning. Also, the OS was missing all critical pieces of software such as security patches, service packs, MS’s spy removal tool etc.

One thing I knew from the beginning was the XP was hard to maintain. My sister has a laptop, my parents have a desktop (this new one) and I have a laptop. So I decided that I must try to switch to something more stable and secure. FreeBSD/KDE was my choice.

I like KDE. It is terrific to see how open source has evolved and produced so much of value to so many people. I don’t know the status of GNOME but I believe they must be doing well in their efforts too.

But there are some critical elements missing for it to be successful. One is that of usability. KDE is fantastically non intuitive even though it is almost similar to MS.

You see, everything in MS Windows is self explanatory. For example: Internet Explorer helps one explore the internet. What does Konqueror mean? What’s with KXSLDbg? What is KImageMapEditor? How about Kommander Editor? Kate? KDVI? KPDF? KPovModeler? KolourPaint? Whose bright idea was this? How am I to explain the history of “K” in everything to my mom and dad? Never mind explain it, I don’t know what the hell these mean myself! All I use my laptop is for writing a few emails, updating my resume, chatting with my friends, reading the news and once in a while writing.

Linux today is where it was with respect to windows 5 or 10 years ago! It can’t seem to think of ordinary users or ordinary people that wish to use it. Agreed it is free. So is a pirated copy of Windows XP/MS office. It is hard to get away from the “crack” M$ provides because there are no real alternatives.

When is KDE going to come up with a clean, easy user interface that is a little different from the “Krack” it is peddling? Why is there such a strong anti-ordinary user branding when it comes to open source? Can I expect to see a user interface as simple as the one iPod has? Can I expect a home PC with minimal features such as Chat, Emails, Browse, VoIP, Wireless, MP3 player, DVD player and a simple file system that I can explain to my parents?

The answer is, KDE/Open Source movement doesnt care much. And probably rightly so. They are building what they need and not what my parents or I need. If you want something, go ahead build it yourself, "the source is available", is what they say. On the other hand M$ probably cares, but they just cant get it right either!

So we have a new market here, that could be explored. Is it another untapped blue ocean opportunity?

Does one need a role model?

If one should have a role model is the question for the ages. The answer differs from person to person. However, if you should have one is something that can be examined more easily than in general. What one can definitively say is this. If you are not satisfied how things are going, or if you cant tell why things are not going the way you intend to go, then you must be doing something wrong. In fact if you are doing everything right, that by itself maybe a wrong thing to do. But how to find out if what you are doing is wrong or not? One is comparing your life with someone you admire and wish well. A friend? A Businessman? An Actor? A Comic? Superman? It is important to pick who you want to be like. Most people do that when they are really young. Some do it a bit later in life. Some may never do it. Because they themselves are role models to others.

Everyone craves to be unique. However, not everyone realizes, we are unique by name and SSNs, but mostly we have very ordinary lives. There are things about us that make us unique, but as a whole, our uniqueness is fairly limited, one can say, quite average. So why hold on to this delusion and be unhappy?

Instead consider having a role model. Someone who you admire. Someone worthy. Someone who is intelligent, has the smarts and has respect for people and situation around him. Start to emulate. WWJD? Is a very important question one could ask himself. But who you wish to be the 'J' in WWJD is up to you.

Life as Tetris

Life can mean a lot of different things to different people. But the most interesting analogy is to that of a game called Tetris. Some of you might have played it or know of it. The striking resemblance of Tetris with life is that in neither can one win the game no matter how long one plays it. However, just like in Tetris, in life one can maximize his or her score. To a lot of people maximizing the score would mean getting a decent education, finding a job, playing music, finding love or just satisfying other basic needs. However, a few dedicate their lives to causes of others, travel, write and explore. Fewer of those that choose to explore focus their energy on satisfying their intellectual curiosity, there by asking questions, challenging assumptions and end up exploring our universe around us thereby helping improve everyones understanding of it.

And like in tetris, one can play it for a short time or a very long time. It can be fun, tedious or just plainly stupid. Some break in between - its just bad luck. Some can actually look ahead at the next piece that is going to drop and quickly create opportunities to score higher others just cant figure it out. While, we can have many tries at tetris, with life you have only one chance.

That is a very big difference.

But that is not the only one. What are your odds of a decent score? Can it be improved? While in tetris one can play it over and over again, in life one can draw parallels between peoples lives and learn from it. There is a way of sharing our experiences collectively and utilizing it to prepare strategies for short and the long term. Life is a game of chance just like tetris. One cant really predict whats comming next, but one can prepare for it. Your brother or mother or friend cant do much to help you score more when you are in the game of tetris, but in real life it is possible. Its not just possible, it is essential. Building bridges with family, friends, pals and others are essential to not only live long or be successful but to be satisfied. While, a big score in the game of Tetris can make you happy, it says nothing about the quality of the score. Life is different in this aspect. A bigger score can mean just that and no satisfaction. In tetris love makes no difference, but in life, it can make all the difference.


What is your score today? Are you planning to maximize it? What is your strategy? Whatis your passion? What is your focus? Does your focus meets with what is your passion today? Are they different? Are you postponing focussing on what your interests? Ask today, by tomorrow, the battery might be dead!

Travelogs

Travel is a time tested way of exploring the world around oneself. However, the most interesting exploration one can experience with travel and stay abroad is the discovery of oneself. There is a remarkable difference between the view from within and from without the world we live in. One can see a different perspectives if one can remove himself from the very surroundings he wishes to examine. This helps the person understand why people see him or her as they do. That is, he or she gets a better understanding of himself or herself when viewed from an outsiders perspective. This experience is analogous to posing for a group photograph at a college reunion or a party or a family gathering and then eventually examining a few weeks later after it has been developed and printed by the lab. The emotions are present and captured in the photograph when you are posing in the photo. There are the surroundings that affected your mood, there is the wine that cheered you up or there is the cousin you are envious of, yet when one sees this several weeks, months or years later, the perspective of the picture is different. One cant help but notice, that his view of the same situation as portrayed in the picture has matured over a period of time.

Another aspect of this photo experience is that of sharing. When one travels abroad, people tend to interact with the locals and the expats tend to be the subject of interest. Everything figures in the conversation, the culture, the economy, the politics, religion. One makes a choice of whether to comment on each of these topics or eschew it while choosing to broach upon others. It is hard to miss that we also like to indulge others in our most positive experiences from home. The same holds good with the photograph analogy. We like to show off with some photographs because we look good in it, and there are other photographs that we hide, for no one to see, and then there are some that have a story to it. We show different photographs to different people. Each time while we reveal ourselves to others, we reveal ourselves to ourselves. At this point, we are also very aware of the pictures we are hiding from others, that are not for public display, and yet this very aspect of hiding is revealing to our self. This dichotomy of revealing while hiding cannot be experienced, if sharing does not occur. This sort of examination of ones life, land and culture is not possible if one does not leave ones home country to be an expatriate for sometime. And its not for everyone to experience this either. For some, the pictures of the past has nothing positive to show for. It is filled with agony and examination of these snapshots do nothing more than open old wounds. For others, it is a path to self discovery and understanding of oneself and his past.