R.I.P. 2010

When I was standing in the church, savoring the initial few moments of another year, little did i know that, for me, this was going to be the most exciting of all the revolutions that the planet earth did previously. Of all that I have learnt over the last year, the realisation of my quarter life crisis has been the prime.

I am a nostalgia junkie and have a fetish for recording my happenings in one form or the other. Hence I have the obsessive habit of writing memoirs. And hence this post.

2010 was an year which I might probably not easily forget. I am sure all my fellow compscites who had their 3-2 in 2010 will agree. I remember those freezing days of early January when we had one more thing to talk about other than the weather; 3 idiots. “Give me some sunshine” was a phrase which suffered from death-due-to-cliché-isation. It was the coldest winter I ever faced.

Come the end of January and we were all (A7ites) neck deep in the puddle of assignments. The night before the first PLCC(Programming Language and Compiler Construction) assignment submission is highlighted with the brightest color possible in my memory map. An hour before 12PM(submission time), with Prashanth trying hard to make the code closest to a spot from where a miracle might not seem something too much to ask, I was sitting on the floor of his room with my head dug deep between my legs. This was just the start to a semester where after a point of time, I used to feel glad to find myself and my wingies alive when I woke up. In the middle of all this, SRT’s 200 was a breath of fresh air. Watching or rather following a match in a lab was annoyingly unique.

APOGEE 2010 was another thing which has left a strong impact on me. It was probably the fest which I enjoyed the least in my BITSian life. Ironically, it was this fest which taught me things which no B school can teach in a manner so emphatic.  Now when I look back and remember the unmanageable, overflowing crowd for Brainteasers& Wordstock and Bulb, I wonder how popular we ( Informalz (hypothetical long-distance hi-5 guys :P) ) are.

The other highlight of the time on campus was those three days when everyone suited up. There were people who looked beautiful, others who were sheer clumsy, but they were all happy (very happy, sigh). The number of photographs taken in those 3 days must have been a record of some sort (atleast in Pilani :P).

By the time I left campus on 15^th May, I had enough of it. The heat, consys, mess food etc was too much to bear. And off I went, first to home then to a vacation in Kerala followed by my half a year hiatus at Bangalore.

When I arrived in Bangalore in July, I was excited. The few initial days, where one tried to find out every little details of their own PS station and their friends', went on well. Pilani rarely crossed my mind. However with august came the realisation of solitude. It was extremely frustrating to find myself away from the entire hustle bustle on campus. August for me meant department (Informalz) recruitment and nothing more. On the contrary I was trying to come to terms with a life which demanded order and its close sister, boredom. I realised that one feels most lonely in a crowded place. All malls look and smell the same. After sleep, traffic eats up your time the most. The cost of a meal is not directly proportional to its taste. Office people crack the poorest joke. Coffee is bliss. DC++ is awesome. Loose Change is as hard to get as in Pilani. And much more.

The final few days of this year in Udaipur have been the best I could have asked. The time at home and the time with my old friends was really refreshing.

2010 is over. I find myself older. I want to thank God for this year. 

Silent Night!

Christmas carols have always allured me into enjoying them like how kids enjoy a candy. I just can’t get enough of them and they always, always bring a smile on my face. With the Christmas season which is ON!!!! (yeah!!!!), I am in for some musical days.

“Silent Night” is one carol which is sung and known by almost the whole English speaking population of this world. The following is a beautiful video along with the song; an adaption by Sixpence None The Richer.

Silent night, holy night

All is calm, all is bright

Round yon Virgin Mother and Child

Holy Infant so tender and mild

Sleep in heavenly peace

This song celebrates the wonderful night when Christ was born into this world. A celebration of the birth of a tender little child. A celebration of descend of God as human into this world. The birth from a virgin. A miracle!

Silent night, holy night!

Shepherds quake at the sight

Glories stream from heaven afar

Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia!

Christ, the Saviour is born

Christ, the Saviour is born

When the world recieved its saviour, the nature rejoiced. From the angels to the poor shepherds, there were a selected few who knew that this night was the awesomest night the mankind would ever see.It must have been really exciting for those shepherds, those wise men and for Mary and Joseph.

Silent night, holy night

Son of God, love's pure light

Radiant beams from Thy holy face

With the dawn of redeeming grace

Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth

Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth

The second line of the stanza which hails Jesus as "the Son of God" and "Love's pure light", is the foundation of christian faith. The first phrase gives us hope and the second gives us a peace that passes all understanding.

Fun Facts:

The song was originally written in German(Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht) by an Austrian priest named Joseph Mohr(check this for the german version). For two years this poem was not yet a piece of music. On the eve of christmas in 1818, Father Mohr approached Franz Xaver Gruber to give music to the song he had written. And in one evening, the most sung carol ever, was composed.It was sung for the first time in the christmas mass of 1818 in Nikolaus-Kirche (Church of St. Nicholas) in Oberndorf, Austria.

Video courtesy: youtube.com

Lyrics courtesy: The lyrics are in open domain now, however thanks carols.org.uk for making it available for copy pasting.
Fun Facts courtesy: Wikipedia.com and carols.org.uk

Will Facebook Die?

Sean Parker: You know what's cooler than a million dollars?

Eduardo Saverin: You?

Sean Parker: A billion dollars.

I recently watched the movie The Social Network and thoroughly enjoyed it. It also forced me to think about the social networking sites once again (previous post). I also recently came across this video on facebook which cribbed about the numerous facebook cliché.

The awesome run of facebook has inspired many a budding entrepreneurs and nerdy programmers. However, is facebook merely enjoying its honeymoon period, is something which I ponder upon often. We Indians are very familiar with orkut. Orkut was the facebook of yesteryears. However, it is approaching its termination at a fast pace. There are multiple reasons suggested by people about the orkut debacle. Some point out the flaws in its security and privacy settings. Some other argue that it was facebook which killed orkut. For me I believe it was the latter which forced me into shifting from one to the other.

But over the past few months I have started getting ‘bored’ of facebook. After having used facebook for some time, I have started identifying a pattern in the way people post stuff and react to it. There would be the usual videos running around. Then there would be these status messages about life, love, exams, music, friends, picnic, something being awesome, something being sucky, beatles, tendulkar, girls, rajnikanth, alcohol, college, football, placements, birthdays, miss you, love you, sitcoms, congratulations, cricket, etc. There would be these fortune cookies, horoscopes, ask a psychic, which bitsian insect are you and hell lot of other quizzes and apps which become really annoying.  Every person makes it a point to meddle around with his relationship status. Well I think you can see the video which I mentioned before to get an idea of what I am saying.

The point is that Facebook has become predictable. The number of things which can be seen on your wall are a subset of a very small universal set. My wall looks more and more like a notice board nowadays. The reason behind this sudden decline in interest is simple. The universal set was always small. If at all, it has just grown and not shrunk (facebook is trying really hard). Initially, it was the “sense of wonder” which had gripped us when we first came across social networking. The idea of having the power to create one’s own image in a virtual world was the driving force. However, once the image has been formed now, the whole idea looks lame.

So where are things heading to? Facebook is coming up with a new unified messaging product (more). @facebook.com is going to be the newest entrant in the email industry. This clearly shows that facebook is now tilting towards a tried and tested internet product, Email. It has to leverage the 500 million user base, before they get really bored with it, and has to make itself an inevitable part of its user’s life ( which its current product doesn’t seem to do; at least not for me).

Taking another view to the whole discussion, let us assume a scenario where Zuckerburg would have remained less ambitious and would have settled for the millions (instead of billions). This would have meant that Facebook would have still run on a university based networking model. Although the revenue would have been way lower than what it is currently, it would have been assured of a loyal user base (college kids are passionate about anything related to their college; try me) and a sustained growth. Eventually, Facebook and other social networking sites would primarily cater to the demographic age group of 15 – 25 year old people. Taking this into consideration, the previous facebook model doesn’t look that bad after all.

My suggestion to Zuckerburg would be to take the “God wants you to know” quiz. I heard it is awesome.

Image courtesy: http://www.kk.org

Quote courtesy: http://imdb.com

Misfit Ministers, Vision less Ministries and a Stunted Growth

A. Raja is either a big crook or has some misplaced nerves in his cranium. There have been reports which have claimed that he has cost a damage to the exchequer worth Rs 1,60,000 crores. To give you a contrast, the official figure of CWG budget is Rs 15,000 crores, i.e. 9.375 % of the damage which Raja cost. So, if Raja had not done this, we could have hosted CWG 10 more times in 10 different cities or could have fed millions, or could have reduced our fiscal deficit  by a considerable margin.

It is so disheartening to see that even after such serious allegations; A Raja still thrives as a minister in the centre. This can be directly attributed to the multi – party coalition government evil.

A look at A Raja’s profile would tell you that he studied law and is an advocate by profession. Now this is where I lose track; He was apparently made a minister because of the ‘dalit’ tag which he carries with him. I fail to understand that why a ministry like the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology was allotted to a person who is an advocate. India is a world leader in information and technology and has the second largest mobile phone subscriber base. This field is undergoing immense changes which could be calculated on a per minute basis and the financial matters associated with these industries are unique and has no precedence in any other industry.  It would have done a world of good if we had an engineer or an economist or at least a person who knew what spectrum meant, to have been running the ministry.

So the question remains; what criteria decide the person for a portfolio. I understand that portfolios are distributed among allies. But, can’t a party decide whether there is someone from their party who is ‘capable’ to handle a particular ministry. Why does the Indian democracy see the allotment of portfolios as a reward to one’s political achievements? I’m sure DMK could have found an able candidate from its party(or at least from their supporters) who would have met the criteria I mentioned before. But Mr. Karunanidhi was more interested in gratifying his own family and his immediate political crutches. This is a trend which could be seen across all parties irrespective of their ideologies.

Another thing worth noticing is the preferential treatment given to different ministries. India would not have seen many law ministers who had an engineering background, or a Hindu Minister heading the ministry of minority affairs or an urban technocrat running the rural development ministry. However when it comes to ministries like IT & communication or health etc people seem to relax the allotment sensibilities.

The way A Raja has handled his ministry; it has reiterated the fact that we need specialist ministers. We need ministers who have the ability to conceive visions for their respective ministry.

If we could somehow get the first cabinet of our country, which had people like Nehru, Sardar Patel, Ambedkar etc. who were people with conviction and a master of their own fields, back into the present India, we could achieve more… much more. 

What if Obama led India and Manmohan Singh led USA

The Indian media is going gaga over the Obama visit. And over a few dances and town hall meeting with students, Obama sure has won some hearts. I happen to see the arrival of Air force one on Delhi airport live on TV. It was really heartwarming to see the way Barack Obama and Dr. Manmohan Singh greeted each other with a hug.

It is really surprising to see the various similarities which Obama and Dr. Singh share. Obama was raised by a single mother, most part of his life whereas Dr. Singh lost his mother and was raised by his grandmother. Obama had to move to Indonesia when he was quiet young. Similarly, Dr. Singh moved to India after the partition. Both studied in one of the best universities in the world, Dr. Singh in Oxford and Cambridge and Obama studied in Columbia and Harvard. Both had no political involvement till quiet later in their life. They both have served as professors some point in their career.

However this is where the similarities end; Obama being one of the best orators of all time and Singh being one of the best economists. This made me realize the irony in the history. The United States of America is going through probably the worst economic crisis since its independence. However, when Obama was running for President, recession was yet to haunt his country and he mesmerized his country and the rest of the world with “Yes We Can”. His ideas promised to take US to another level. But lady luck was against him and his country and from the day he was sworn in, he has been on a damage control of biggest magnitude.

On the other hand, India is on the verge of something exciting. “Change” is the buzz word here; where all the ingredients of a financial, social and Cultural Revolution are on the platter. Dr. Singh can in a sense be called the architect of modern India ( I might be biased). However, given his age and his serene mildness at dealing with things, it might be better if we have a younger extrovert leader at place. BTW Prime Minister in Waiting( conditions apply), Rahul Gandhi is just 9 years younger to Obama.

This takes me to a hypothetical world. A world where Obama leads India and Dr. Singh leads the United States. It was Dr. Singh who got India out of bankruptcy (ya, the whole country) two decades ago (more in one of my previous post). His wisdom with financial matters has a proven track record. USA currently needs a leader like him who could orchestrate a comeback for them. On the other hand, it would be so great to hear someone tell the rich and the poor, the farmers and the IT professional, the slum dwellers and Mukesh Ambani, and the whole country, “Yes we can”. A leader like Obama could work wonders to our country.

Irony, my friend. 


(Photo Courtsey: AFP and AP)

Asian Games 2010, Guangzhou

The Asian Games 2010 is almost a week away and we are yet to hear much about it. One might say that this is the Chinese way of doing things. Is it just me or is that Guangzhou doesn’t ring a bell other than the recent references to the Asian Games. Somehow, I thought Bangalore is a global city and would have felt surprised if someone from outside India would have shown unfamiliarity with its name. However on a closer look (googling), I found that Guangzhou is double the size of Bangalore and its economy ten times .

This Asian Games is slated to be the biggest ever. ‘Ever’ ,both in past and future because of some restructuring initiated by Olympic Council of Asia.

Given below is a head to head comparison with our own Delhi Commonwealth Games.

	Commonwealth Games 2010	Asian Games 2010
Venue	Delhi, India Quick Facts: Capital of India Second largest city of the country. Population – 12.25 million ( excluding NCR) GDP of city - US$24.5 billion	Guangzhou, China Quick Facts: One of the Five National Central Cities. Third largest city of the country. Population – 10.33 million GDP of city - US $133.5 billion
Budget	Official Estimate – US$ 2.6 billion Unofficial Speculation – US$ 6.8 billion	Official Estimate – US$ 17 billion
Events	272 events in 21 categories	476 events in 42 categories ( Higher than Beijing Olympics which had 302 events in 28 categories)
No. of Countries	71	45
No. of Athletes	6,081	10,156
Venues	Main Stadium – Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium. In total 12 competition venues.	53 Competition Venues
Baton/Torch Relay	Travelled 70 nations of the commonwealth and the whole of India.	Expected to travel 21 cities in Guangdong province and 2 cities off Guangdong province.
Major Controversies	Expenditure Explosion Child Labor and other issues. Collapse of hanging bridge. Game’s village Hygiene prior to the event Ticketing irregularities	Air Quality (Government control over the local media prevents many exposures)

Credits: Wikipedia