Self Made man

Bobbie Carlyle's 'Self-made man', a statue I greatly admire and a principle I strongly believe in.



Bobbie Carlyle's 'Self-made man'


If you look at the above picture, you will see a man carving himself from a stone. As I said in real life too, I believe the same. What we are is what we carve for ourselves with our body, mind and soul. At the end of the day, we are 'only' responsible for our actions and we are answerable to ones own self.

And when we are able to answer all the questions truly for ones self, I think that's is the first step to success and success for mankind.

To brief:

"...left to his own devices, man will use his God-given talents to be creative, productive, and prosperous. Using free will, he will better his own situation and that of those around him, thereby influencing in a positive way his own destiny..." *


* I picked this paragraph from some where on the web

Chemistry.....Scores....Judges....Please vote

As the weekend is soon approaching, by chance if you turn on the idiot box(TV) to watch any of the National or regional channels* the most popular words that you will hear on them are Chemistry, Scores, Judges, Please vote. Before your imaginations get wild let me tell that these are the terms used by anchors, participants, judges in the reality dance shows.

These dance shows are of various types, I mean the limit is the wildest imagination of the conceptual designer. One common thing in all the dance shows is that they are performed by pairs and as each show should be different than another one show has popular TV stars who are couples in real life, one show has a choreographer and a famous personality(not an actor), one show has a choreographer and a TV star and the combinations go on....

For me, these so called 'Reality Shows' do not seem not at all real. The reason, in fact they are a couple:

To start from, the selection of judges. In all the shows, there will be three judges, where one will be rough, straight forward and bold in his/her comments, one will be very soft and appreciate everyone and the other is some were in between these two, neither too praising or criticizing. All this to cater all types of audiences and to take the audience into emotional trauma with their comments.

There will be differences at least among two teams which are participating, most commonly it comes by one team commenting something personal on the other and they create a big drama in front of the audience(Not to forget that these all the in fact actors by profession).

There will be elimination of the teams depending on the scores they get from the judges and audience votes. By any chance if any team gets eliminated, the audience can vote for them and get their liked team back in the race. What Crap!!!!

There are some other things but at this moment they are not striking in my mind now.

Now, coming to the words:

Chemistry: why Chemistry god why? for every couple, after they finish their dance the judges talk about their Chemistry either good or bad. What the hell has Chemistry to do with it??

Scores: As I talked about the behaviour of the judges above, their scores also reflect the same. I mean, one scores low, once high and one in between. Yeah, I agree that some times all of them give full scores when the performance is good but what skeptical to me is, when the performance is not good why all the judges 'not' give low scores?

Judges: Come on guys, we are the audience, judges are not audience. We are the guys who sit through those silly advertisements which pop up every 8 minutes and waste out time. But the participants behave in such a way that they are dancing for he judges, and to impress them. I agree that in every competition the judges should be impressed but this seems to be too flamboyant to me.

Please Vote: Now, its the turn of the audience. The teams, plead the audience to pleeease pleeease vote for them. And its something that is not free. We have to vote for the team we like through SMS's or calling a special number and choosing the option for the team we like. But the catch is, the costs for these SMS's and calls are much higher than the normal charges.

So, my final judgement on these dance shows: Teams which dance and Judges get paid for what the are doing, the programme producers earn hefty amounts through advertisements between the programme, the TV channels TRP ratings get high and its ranking increases.

But he only people who get screwed here are us the audience, who watch and waste one hour of our precious time over the weekend and I pity the people who in fact vote!!!

*In India

'Bug'ged up weeks!

Past two weeks were really busy. So busy, that I did not get time,even to update my blog. WoW, I never imagined that I will be sooo busy that I will not even get 20/30 minutes a day to update my blog!

Being in the 'Software Testing' field, one has to know that 'one' bad build can really screw up an entire week! For us, last couple of builds were very bad and with 'basic functionality' also not working fine, we were on our toes for past two weeks. Finding bugs / crashes /exceptions, creating MR's(Modification requests) and again testing after getting an update from the developer - these were the only things on our 'to do' list.

Usually, even in situations like these, I grab some time to update the blog (during installations / uninstallations) but our IT guys, being the protectors of Band width, blocked the blogger site and indirectly blocked me from updating the blog.

At home, 'my not so friendly' CA personal Firewall was giving me a lot of problems during surfing the web. It made my Internet speed 10 to 15times slower, making it impossible to update my blog. After a lot of thinking and troubleshooting for over a month, I uninstalled CA and moved to Kaspersky which is so far OK.

So... that's what happened to me in past 2 weeks, finding bugs, at work in the day and fighting alien bugs in Halo 2 at home, during the nights. So, my past two weeks were spent with bugs day and night :-).

Now, most of the major bugs have been fixed at work(at least for this build), God know what's going to happen with the next!! But for now,there are lots of alien bugs for me to kick ass in Halo 2. I hope I will continue my blogging spree again from today onwards....

So, good bye for now, gotta kick some alien butt!!!!!

....is calling!! Where are you?

Sometimes, I am in a "situation". Situation which is best described by the below photograph. You may think whats there in the below photograph, but only I know what 'all' is there in it.


Antaru kadandi, vetukuntey laksha bootulu dorukutayi ani. Adi mana aada ladies ki venna to petina vidya and chala easy kooda....* (joku..antey.. please naa meeda chilli and pepper grind cheyakandi)

So, let me put forward the points in the above picture:

• First and the foremost: Wife is calling, where are you?
• Low Battery(completely dead)
• Dropping signal
• Its Friday
• Time: creeping towards 10 in the night

I guess, the above points are more than enough to 'not' believe when I say, Hello..hello....hell... hello, your voice is breaking or when I say, my phones battery is dead honey, I will talk to you when I come home. I know that there is no one to blame here. I guess, even if I am on the other side, may be I will also think the same.

The 'Situation' is like that, damn! This so called 'Situation' - a virtual thing which always comes at a wrong time and does not have responsibility attached!

So, ....Be a man and all the best!!!!

*JuuuuusT Kidding

Breaking 'all' the rules!!

Strange, this mind is!! Don't know how it relates to things which are no way related with each other. Sometimes it brings up things that we never knew that they have happened.

Yesterday when I was driving back home in Hyderabad traffic :-) which, as usuall was moving at snail pace, I got to see this bike rider beside me. What special with this guy? I can say everything...he was breaking all the possible Traffic rules. Myself being a strict follower of traffic rules, I was looking at him agape.

Check out the list of rules he was breaking:

1. They were riding 'tricky'. That means they were three people seated on the two wheeler which is meant for two.
2. No Helmet
3. The person who was riding was talking on his cell phone.
4. The number plate had Chiranjivi's photo and some designs through which the number was barely visible.
5. And with all this he was trying to rush through the heavy traffic into wrong route.

I couldn't help appreciating this guy's audacity of breaking all the rules, that too in peak timings were cops will be on their toes to issue tickets.

So, why did I write about Brain in the first line of this post?..... When I was staring at this guy appreciating his audacity, from no where this song of Michael learns to Rock(MLTR) - 'Breaking the rules' came up to my mind and I started humming it. The song was no way related to the scene I was seeing, but it came from somewhere deep inside my mind.

I was only surprised, as it was more than 5 years that I heard that song. I was a great fan on MLTR back in college and spent hours listening to their songs. But after college never got much time to follow and all those vanished in thin air.

I think my mind had a strong entry for that song as it came from no where, amidst the pressure of driving in that heavy traffic and after work tiredness. That's why I said initially, Strange, this mind is!!

MLTR - Breaking the Rules is a great song and here it is with lyrics for you to savor:



MLTR - Breaking the Rules

On the street you are listening to every beat of your heart
Want to know if it's working and you're still alive
On your feet you are walking around with your clothes torn apart
In a nightmare where the question is how to survive

In this dangerous land
I'm trying the best that I canto be a respectable man
So won't you listen won't you listen to me
Chorus:I'm breaking the law if you don't give me more than public attention
I'm breaking the rules gonna act like a fool

On the street you are looking so hard for a place for the night
All you want is understanding of your basic rights

In this dangerous land
I'm trying the best that I can to be a respectable man
So won't you listen won't you listen to me
Chorus:I'm breaking the law if you don't give me more than public attention
I'm breaking the rules gonna act like a fool
I'm crossing the line if you don't give me time on your television
I've got something to say don't push me away

FB

Yesterday evening, I was in a meeting and when my eyes glanced outside from the drapes into the work area, suddenly from no where this memoir hit me.

This one is not from 'Happy Days' Forever (Graduation Days) but its much earlier than that. I guess it was from 8'Th standard in St.Anthony's High School, Himayat Nagar, Hyderabad. We all were in 8'Th Standard and when I meant we, its Ravi, Sumanth, Ramana, Sundeep, Sunil, PY Kiran, Rameshwar, Deepesh, me and there were few more but these are the guys who are still in touch regularly no matter where we are geographically.

There was a girl in 10'Th class who was supposedly beautiful and don't know who named her but we used to call her "Fair Beauty" in short 'FB'. If I think about it now, I cant stop laughing on our stupidity.

When ever she used to pass through the corridor our heads also used to turn along with her till she was completely out of sight. And if by chance if any one didn't notice, some over enthusiastic guy used to alert every one saying FB...FB...FB.

One day when one of the very strict teachers(I do not recollect the name, I think it was Kamakshi Mam) was teaching the class and every one was busy taking the notes, FB was passing by and everyone were very much involved in the class. But this guy named Jagdish saw FB and in that excitement shouted in the class FB....FB ...FB....... Damn! Until he realised what he has done, the damage was done.

Teacher was asking every one what FB meant and every one in the class were as cold as ice and minds blocked with no answer to tell. So the teacher asked Jagdish to stand up and tell her what FB meant and we all were literally frozen expecting the worst to happen after he answers. He was dumb - frozen, teacher was demanding on the answer and she put her foot down and told that she will not continue the class till she gets the answer.

We all were on the verge of getting a heart attack and I cant imagine what Jaggu was going through. At that point Jaggus lips uttered something which blew our brains out. Teacher said WHAT? Jaggu repeated- Mam, 'FB' means 'Friends and Brothers' (What Crap)

Phew!!!

Teacher was convinced with some crap explanation Jaggu gave on this or at least he pretended to be. But we all were very much relieved that we passed that moment safely.

Now 14 years later, this incident still remains fresh in my mind and I still remember in what classroom we were in when this incident happened. Now it feels very strange when I think about it, not only strange funny and stupid too.........

P.S: My friends who were there at that time with me, if you want to add something to this, please do post it as a comment on this post, I will publish it. :-). I am sure I missed some names here, please add them if you guys can recollect.

Chanakya's Quotes

Chanakya (Sanskrit: चाणक्य Cāṇakya) (c. 350-283 BC) was an adviser and a prime minister to the first Maurya Emperor Chandragupta (c. 340-293 BC), and architect of his rise to power.

Kautilya and Vishnugupta, the names by which the political treatise Arthaśhāstra identifies its author, are traditionally identified with Chanakya. Some scholars consider Chanakya to be "the pioneer economist of the world" and the "the Indian Machiavelli". Chankya was a professor at Taxila University and is widely believed to be responsible for the first Indian empire.

Though I find some of his words goofy, I think when looked at them in political angle they seem right. But I m not politically oriented and cannot be!! I am what I am straight from my mind.

Anyways, below are some of the Chanakya's Quotes:

"A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and Honest people are victimised first."

"Even if a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be venomous."

"The biggest guru-mantra is: Never share your secrets with anybody. ! It will destroy you."

"There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no Friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth."

"Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions - Why am I doing it, What the results might be and Will I be successful. Only when you think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions, go ahead."

"As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it."

"Once you start working on something, don't be afraid of failure and don't abandon it. People who work sincerely are the happiest."

"The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind. But the goodness of a person spreads in all direction."

"A man is great by deeds, not by birth."

"Treat your kid like a darling for the first five years. For the next five years, scold them. By the time they turn sixteen, treat them like a friend. Your grown up children are your best friends."

"Books are as useful to a stupid person as a mirror is useful to a blind person."

"Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected everywhere. Education beats the beauty and the youth."