Blog closed for vacation, originally uploaded by nidrajiva.

Have a great time!

This blog is about Koose Munuswamy Veerappan. And his secret friends. The man was shot yesterday. R.I.P. People rejoiced, policemen heaved a sigh of relief, politicians (Amma, to be specific) were quick to cash in, elephants danced in joy…There were also people who cried. Some villagers saw Veerappan as a modern day Robin Hood (not sure if they knew of the real Robin Hood), and they wept when they heard that he was shot in an encounter.

I couldn’t care less if Veerappan is dead or alive. I seriously didn’t give a damn when Rajkumar was kidnapped. I really don’t see a point in joining the ranks of people who think Veerappan was a bad man. I’d rather have my questions about him answered. Yes, he killed many people. He tortured, mutiliated and spat on dead men. He was merciless. He ought to have been punished for this…and probably has. Yet, we need to go beyond the shock tactics that the media is constantly using, to see if the legend of Veerappan actually sounds consistent. We need to question what the media/STF have been offering us. We need to fit bits and pieces together to see if the final story is believable. I don’t think it does. His life and death sound equally fishy. Which actually pisses me off more than Veerappan himself. Coz many people out there think we have a bad sense of history. They fill us with contradictory crap. But what the heck, they probably have a good reason for doing that. Fill page 1 of the newspaper with gory bloodstained photographs and you have numbed most of your audience to a point where they don’t care for the truth.

Veerappan may be dead. But don’t, for once, think that a bad man is. Greater evil is still on the lose. Don’t fall for the ‘how-glorious-are-his-punishers’ crap. As the Indian Express rightly points out “It will be difficult to congratulate the brave men of the Special Task Force who finally caught up with the famous outlaw without wondering what took them so long.”

Its amazing how refreshing change can be. Until I few years ago, I wouldn’t have believed myself if I said I could build a website, all by myself. I was an Engineer in the making….and feeling quite worthless of it. I mean, 4 years of college and they don’t even tell you what makes a Volvo B7R (those ultra luxury buses) so special. Oh well, may be we were to look it up ourselves, but I didnt pay all that money just to have a bunch of under-informed ‘lecturers’ decide what kind of B.E degree I get. And I didnt want the worth of that degree decide what kind of job I am eligble for. All while I was never really learning/knowing what mattered. I ought to have had a better understanding of the where’s and the wherefores of things, but I didnt! Well, all that is in the past…..and in the present, I am extremely happy to get back in touch with my self-learning skills. I learnt yet another amazing aspect of Photoshop (ImageReady actually) over the weekend, and consequently began to harness the power of Dreamweaver to create my own website. All through Saturday I was staring at my monitor through calculative, creative eyes. On Sunday, I was using my rusted neurons of fecundity to mix code and design in the most favorable way. By this morning, my computer had seen enough of me - but the end product has turned out to be quite exciting!!

Never the one to be satisfied with what spontaneously spurts from that special creative fountain in my head (although spontaneous ideas are generally the ones worth pursuing), I’ve been dwelling on my design long enough, and I now know what’s keeping it from being something I won’t snicker about 10 years down the line. A perfectionist who’d rather mail himself to a Nazi camp than compromise (and secretly wishing for others to be sent there), I can’t rest my soul without being completely satisfied with my work. So after many hours of philisophical and not so philosophical thinking, realization has finally dawned unto me. I now know exactly what corrections need to be made to the design. Of course, all these corrections would require me to go thro the whole drill of switching between Photsohop, ImageReady and Dreamweaver on my weak little ‘pooter all over again…… but like I said - no life ’till leather! (If you were the types who didn’t get into Metallica just bcoz it was the coolest thing to discuss when girls were around, you’d know what I am talking about).

So now its back to the drawing board, so to speak. But hell, there is still a long way to go, before I can host the site. The content has to be entered and proof read, the ’snaps’ page tweaked for generation of thumbnails (photo album funda ), ……. For a start, does any one around here know of a good webhosting site? It’s gotta be free, mind you. Ok, I am ready to pay a few hundreds p.a….but I want my own domain. What? I gotta pay for domain registration too? ^$%#%!

Die dead enough!!

A day off, midweek, does wonderful things to my gumption. I am not aversive to work….but I get bogged down by routine easily. Which is why I have cherished memories of a not-so-cherished college life. All forms of routine were systematically demanufactured over a period of 4 years. By the time I left college, my attention span was ready for competition from a crow, to say the least. And was that good or bad? Well, it depends on why you ask. From a point of view of being active, pro-active and reactive, it was (is) a very bad thing. But the lazy child within will tell you otherwise.

Anyways, now I have carefully brought back some sort of routine in my life. I am still coming to terms with the fact that I can’t bunk work as easily as I used to bunk class, but then, there is no ‘L-stone’ or ‘Ground’ where I can hang around while not doing what I am supposed to be doing. You don’t miss it till it’s gone away they say. I would say that I only miss that kinda life when living this present life. It’s relative. Each phase has (had) its own excess. I am learning to bring balance.

I leave for work early - 7.30. This has numerous advantages, some of them being - 1) I can avoid traffic jams both in the mornings and in the evenings 2) My attention span is better coz I know at the back of my head that I’ll be home by 6.00 max - the time when most people probably take their fourth break for the day and discuss project deadlines. I minimize on breaks too!

Once I get back home, I wash up and fool around till its time for Yoga class. Now, that is an experience which is best felt, than explained. One hr of Yoga and I am ready for anything! But I usually just prepare to hit the bed. Before which I of course have my dinner and fool around on my comp or read a book/mag.

The combination of early waking and Yoga keeps me grounded all through the week. I haven’t been feeling as tired as before , and my attention span is now better Of course, time is as short as ever, coz I have to cover around 30 Kms up and down to work.

Inspite of all this, a lot is missing from my life. I terribly miss the oppurtunity to travel frequently. I miss not seeing new sights, hearing new sounds and smellling new….well…smells….I am interested in photography but I don’t have much to click around here. But the trick is to make the most of what I have. I believe that there is a time and place for everything. Ever optimistic? Also missing are the Divyas, Seemas, Sandhyas…..well…you get the idea

Peace

It is post lunch now. Yesterday was an off for us, and the day went by rather quickly. I re-catalogued all my CDs, and came up with a fine PDF document. FrameMaker from Adobe was my preferred tool for creating this CD database. Of course, none of this would have been possible without the help of two great proggys - Print Folder Pro and SuperCat. The last time I created this CD database, I used MS Word. I decided to use FrameMaker this time because I am quite at ease with it - I use it at work every day. At work, I also use a lot of my communication skills and common sense. It strikes me funny when people appreciate my work (I ain’t blowing no trumpet), coz I don’t actually put in any extra effort. Which actually has been making me sad these days. It is the nature of my work to deal with lot of things at the same time, and sometimes its frustrating to do the mandatory waiting that arises from working with people across different time zones. There are a lot of dependencies and unless one regularly keeps track of the final goal, its very easy to lose track and get frustrated. Worse, get distracted. Distracted by the high speed internet connection that we all have access to. Which I see happening to some of the people working with me. But can’t blame them - maybe I have been setting a bad example. But then, I can get the same work done faster, w/o putting in any extra effort, (and hence I end up spending more time than needed on other things), but I know its not the same for them. And not having a PM who is involved in this project only increases my responsibility in making sure we meet the deadline….

Don’t want to discuss work in my blog. Instead, I’ll make a mention of Nitte Jungle Twinkling Stars. Did I hear you ask “wha?”. Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, presenting before you, the brainchild of an enthusiastic boy’s attempt to help old students from my college “keep in touch about the improvements in our life’s and help each other to come up for a better world.” Wish I could shed a tear of joy…but can’t help smirking. I dunno half the people who signed up, and I quite didnt like the idea of my inbox being filled with messages like “vishnu jee whats up , ehy ia have a class in 5 mins i will mail later bye” Ok, maybe it is all the initial enthusiasm….or the fact that they didnt teach us good letter writing in college….but pleeeeeeze…..when you post to a group, common sense should tell you better. Or maybe I am being too much of a Technical Writer. Anyways, I am in this funny state of mind. I could opt out of the group and never have to worry about self-subscribed spam, but something in me wants to hang on watch the fun. Polls like “Arranged Mariage Is Better Or Love Marriage.” give me small laughs. I have to admit that I never related to 90% of the guys in college, so its not surprising that I fail to feel the pulse of the group.

Back to what’s eating up bandwidth in my head - how to bring gumption back into my work and make sure my project mates start working with enthusiasm ……………

[Listening to: By The Pain I See In Others - Opeth ]

The good news:

Came up with a coupla more website designs. Chilled out at home.

The SAD news.:

Visited PC Expo this weekend. In one word, it was PATHETIC. India surely needs to buck up in the hardware segment. But that’s old news, so no use repeating it here. A case in point:

Intel, the main sponsers, had a HUGE screen on which some silly games (not GAMING games) were being played. Some dude with a fake accent was organizing this shit. I asked one of the pretty faces for a ‘technically sound’ person to speak to, and after taking a moment to comprehend my question, she pointed to a guy in a blue tee.

So I walk to Mr Blue Tee and ask him which Operating Systems are recommened for Hyperthreading. I intended to ask him next, about the effects not using Windoze XP (which I expected to be the answer to my question.). He doesnt blink and eyelid and sez “Any OS will do”. I am like, hello?? I ask him again. I add, “Is Windoze 2000 (my fav OS) ok to be used with HT processors?” He says “yes”. What a dumbfuck. I decide its not a good idea to get my other doubts clarified.

IT.com, the next big thing is in November. And many big companies are already planning to boycott the event, unless the Gov does something about the city’s pathetic infrastructure. Is the end nigh?

I’m gonna take you
To a place far from here
No one will see us
Watch the pain as it disappears

………I’m so alone
My head’s my home
I’ll return to serenity

thought i’d post another pic…while I am at it…

Place: Kemmanu Gundi
Camera: Samsung auto focus

friendly mutt