Thursday, August 20, 2009

"Joy of Programming"

Dear Programmers
Check out my other blog http://zingprogramming.blogspot.com and try the Level 1 Programming Excercise

Submit Code and Time Taken to my email address if interested

Monday, August 10, 2009

Think First Google Later

Google is a wonderful
.........But use it as a tool
................Its not AI for fools
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If you download every code
Coding will be a heavy load
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If you search for every error
Debugging will be terror
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When will you think
Else Brain Drains Thru the Sink !!
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"File Not Found", "Suspicious Pointer Assignment""Bubble Sort"
please please please
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Research is not same as search
Discovery is not searching thru results
Innovations is not googling "Ideas for meeting"
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Think First Google Later
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(Please Note: AI:Artificial Intelligence)
(Please Note: I love google but I suggest use it as search tool, it is not meant to be AI for fools)

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Bhaiya Me Not

Re Released: Rakhsa Bandhan 2009 (originally published in Hindustan Times Jul 5th 1995)

Context: This article was written by me when I was doing graduation in St Stephens. Read the article keeping in mind that I am quiet young when I wrote it. The emoluments (Rs 700) from this went on to serve my one year’s tea and bhelpuri expense

The normal English language may have one hundred and one flaws, but it is one up on most Indian Languages, i.e in its lack of use of the words “brother” and “sister” during normal conversation.

In this land of Rakhi and Bhaiya Duj children grow up with firm realization and conviction that any one older to them (even by a matter of seconds) has to be branded under the label of Bhaiya and didi.

It is the former label that I have an aversion to. This aversion though not recent reached its peak about a week ago. If you say you haven’t had a crush during your college days you are either a fluent liar with a misplaced sense of secrecy or a person with a lack of certain hormones.

The damage these two words, bhaiya and didi do to your lovelorn self is worth narrating. One day I spotted God’s wonderful creation at my college gate. Time came to a stand still, the world moved in slow motion with the constant ringing of bells and fluttering of my heart. Such a situation instead of getting the best in you invariably numbs your thinking process. So when she looked at me, I was sure she had also had heard the bells and felt the flutter. I walked straight up to her as smartly as I could under the circumstances (I must have resembled a lumbering and bungling bear with a minimum of seven litres of the best wine inside him).

But I was run down by a bullet train. Hit by a six ton battering ram and brought down to earth by a small push when she said “Bhaiya, time kya hua hai ?”

All the bhenjis who without any bias believe firmly in the concept of brotherly love and affection to all men kindly do not misunderstand that the apoplexy, anguish and tribulation I underwent was not due to the trivial question hurled at me, but the implications that went along with it. It meant, I was not going to be ever considered by her.

The blatant use of this terminology is curtailed only in the first year of college. Thanks to initial courtesy you have to call you seniors, sir or maam, for a month or so. In this duration the non brotherly relationship is well established. Which I am sure has cut short a dozen rachis enroute.

Unlike the word bhaiya, bhenji is not the said thing. A student calling a lady on the wrong side of 30 as bhenji may not raise much of an eyebrow. But repercussions in calling a young attractive lady in campus the same is not hard to imagine.

But challenges and bets are so much in vogue that you can actually consider it as part of the college curriculum. I challenged my friend to call the lady across the street bhenji. My friend a true college dada went across the road and asked “Bhenji time kya hua hai ?”

In this sweltering heat one would welcome a cold wave anytime. But the ice cold glare which he got back in return for the question from the woman was another matter.

That he had a grin and she had a glare, that she didn’t have a watch and he had one, did not add much warmth to the tete-a-tete, so coldly they parted.

The message I wanted to get across is

Bother me yes
Brother me not
Curse me yes
Bhaiya me not

Monday, August 3, 2009

Why Teach

Context:

Senior Lecturer, Christ University
Teacher and Guide, Sneh Sadan Orphange
Ex Competency& Culture Manager, MindTree
I love converting ideas into action and teaching lets you do that day in and day out.
I always wanted to share the
· Joy I get from reading books,
· Joy from doing things,
· Joy from touching lives,
· Joy from living dreams
· Joy of seeing someone else see ”wonder” in things around him
Mentors and Guides

I was way too lucky to get good teachers, mentors and guides all along the way. My parents and siblings to begin with, teachers in Columba’s, people like Fr Ajay and PG Uncle, Lecturers in Stephens and Birkbeck.
I was not much attached to my father in my growing days but what I am and what I stand for a lot comes from my dad and I would always be thankful. The stories he used to tell me as a child always inspires me to be a writer. The travelling and the trekking bug comes from our trips on shoe string budgets and our annual 6 km walk across the field in Kerala to the location of the church on top of a hill. Adi and my love for trains also come from my dad.


I used to go with my grandfather to “chanda” (shopping place) in Kerala from the time I was 5 years old. I have learnt more from him than anybody I recollect. Apart from learning how to buy fish and tapioca. I have sat on a tractor and bullock cart with him. Climbed trees, picked wood, eggs and fruits. I have taken the calf to the river for giving it a bath, my grandfather was taking the cow alongside me. Whenever I think about it tears well up in my eyes even today. How many of you have actually helped in getting honey from a hive !!! (Do keep in mind I did not get to put my hand in, I just held the ladder)


These guides taught me the reason why knowledge has to be applied to truly appreciate it
BooksBefore I learnt the alphabets I learned from my siblings that reading was fun. When there are six siblings elder to me who deep dive into books every afternoon without any mandate from the top it makes complete sense to get a hand on a book ASAP.
I enjoyed reading both fiction and non fiction and when I took control of my senses (in class III) I realized not all felt “wow” when they read History, Geography, Maths and Science and I used to think boy what a waste
Today I read a lot of subjects including Science Fiction, Fiction, Physics, Maths, Psychology, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Religion, Management, English, Computer Science, etc the only difference is that now I exclaim “man what a waste” when others fail to see the joy in the books.
It is possible that my screws need a little tightening and this wonder I see is misplaced ….. but till this conviction exist in my mind I always would want to share this feeling.
When did I start teaching

  • In school I used to request my friends to read Alistair Maclean and Resnick Halliday
  • In College I was crazy about Physics so I used to explain relativity to those who would lend an ear.
  • In the Youth Movement while leading / directing plays or while taking workshops
  • As a PM in the last 6 years, I have always tried to be mentor those who work under me by leading with example, Inspiring with words and in worst case pulling my seniority
  • Giving PMP Training
  • Teaching in the Campus Batch
So I do not feel I have become a teacher today
In Conclusion
My friends I believe that there is teacher in each and every one of us, we would all have memories of some people who guided us in the past. There would also have been numerous occasion where you would have guided somebody else. It so happens that my job title matches with what I do today.
My Recent Sessions Include:
  • Advanced Data Structures in C
  • Including Heaps using PPT Animation
  • Linked List using code walkthrougho Sorting using Excel
  • BTREE using Self Discovery
  • Leadership Workshop mixed with games
  • Readiness Workshop (include session on Recession, Self Learning , Happiness)
  • BI Labs : Self Learning
  • Campus Training (SQL , Doc and Collaborate)
  • Path to Excellence (MS Excel)
  • Project Management (PMP)
  • Readiness Workshop (include session on Recession, Self Learning , Happiness)
  • Think First Google Later
  • Physics : Optics, Magnetism, Electricity
  • Chemistry : Atoms
  • Maths: Bodmas and simple multiplications!!!
  • History : Alexander, Shivaji, Babar
  • Geography : Asia, Europe
  • Story Telling