sreejithsblog

How did I fail in the CCNA exam

2012-02-14T18:00:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I took Cisco's CCNA examination and failed. The apt title for this blog would have been how to pass CCNA. Since I failed, I think I should wait for two more weeks to change the title of the blog. But I doubt if I was successful I would have even taken the pain to write this blog.

What is CCNA - My trainer asked this question to us in the first class. According to my trainer, CCNA is an examination that tests your ability to setup, troubleshoot and maintain a small network. It covers the basics of routing, switching and other fundamentals of networking. What ever be the ideal definition, it is simply like another examination where it tests how better prepared you are for the examination and how do you manage time to answer questions than how much you know or your capability to set up and maintain a network. CCNA is an online exam of 2 hours consists of around 50 questions. The questions are a mix of theory and practical simulations.I got 48 questions out of which four were simulations. To pass the exam you need to get a strange 825 out of 1000. May be the people who first designed this exam got 825 when they tried it out :-)

Even though I attended a one month training, I appeared for the exam after several months. It would be ideal to go immediately after the training if you want to pass.
That was the first mistake I did. There are two reasons for this. One reason is you may forget what you have learned, but you can make up for it by learning again. The other reason is you need to do the simulation part really faster if you want to pass the exam and it would be ideal if you appear the exam after regular practice for some time.

If you want to pass the exam, set aside all your preferences. Even if you don't like switching part a lot like the boring how to find a route bridge, designated port etc etc remember for some reason Cisco loves switches a lot. May be because it gave them billions of dollars what they have now in the bank. Expect a lot of questions from switching and be prepared for that. Also I got many questions from Wireless that I never expected. Ideally you need one month's preparation to pass the exam if you want to go for the straight forward way. Even if you work on Cisco routers set aside some time and study all the portions including concepts in switching.

One of the important part of the exam are simulations. How do you handle the simulations decide if you pass or not. Usually there are 4 questions and I got 4 questions. Every one whom I asked about the CCNA exam told me to study the dumps available, but I ignored the advice. My logic was that's the way every one do at school and college I don't want to do it again the way we did it in school when I have a job at hand. I came to know that what they told were absolutely right when I checked online all the 4 simulations I got were from dumps available in the internet.
This was the part I did worse. I got simulations after first 38 questions and I spent too much time on one simulation. That made me nervous and I didn't get much time to do the remaining simulations and questions properly. If you want to pass, finish the theory part as fast as possible and go to simulations. If you want to study dumps or not is your choice, but in the CCNA exam it is almost impossible to troubleshoot the scenarios with in the given time frame if you don't have rigorous practice or if the questions are unfamiliar to you. But even if you know nothing about networking you can pass the exam if you just study whatever dumps available. But I don't recommend just studying dumps only unless you want to get certification at any cost.

At the end of the day I lost a significant amount of money, but I know it is worth appearing. You will never know what is there in the exam until you attempt it.
. May be some day I can train people by using this knowledge and I want to change the title of the blog after a couple of weeks :-).

Lessons learned

1. Do rigorous practice for simulations and one month dedicated study.
2. Go through dumps even if you do not want to memorize questions and answers.
3. Finish the theory part as fast as possible and attempt simulations.
4. CCNA is like just another examination where how well prepared you are for the exam is more important than how much you know.
5. It is just another exam that you can pass if you know what to expect and aware about the examination pattern.
6. Time management is very important.

7 years after Bangalored ...

2012-01-23T21:29:00.000-08:00

I came to Bangalore 7 years back searching for a job. It was a completely unknown city to me and it was the first big city I was exposed to. Being a village lad it scared me first with its enormousness and crowded streets. Complete ignorance about the culture of the city, a language that sounded geek to me that time and homesickness made me uncomfortable for the first few years. Only thing that I found attractive was the parks that you can see in most places and the big trees.

Now looking back after 7 years I feel at home in Bangalore even though the greenery and the trees are not there any more. I love it's cultural spaces be it Ranga Shankara, Ravindra Kalakshethra,Chowdiah Memorial Hall, Alliance Francaise or Max Muller Bhavan. Being a movie buff film screenings happening through out the year in different places in the city gave me opportunities to watch many movies from different places.

Being a science enthusiast an occasional visit to Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, Visweswarayya museum or IISC make me more enthusiastic. Unfortunately I couldn't make it to the Bangalore Astronomical Society's whole night star party yet and it is pending for the long time.

Bangalore gave me opportunities to meet any great personalities and listen to their speeches. People from free software community like Richard Stallman, Eben Moglan, Jonas Smedguard, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Whales, journalist P Sainath, activists like Sitaram Yechury, Aruna Roy, Aravind Khejriwal, Anna Hazare film makers like Gireesh Kasaravally, Anand Padwardhan, and so many people.

For the book lover in me there is landmark, crossword, blossom and a lot of other small book shops around Brigade road where I can spend hours. I love a walk around Cubbon park or the BTM park on a Sunday evening.

I met many talented, enthusiastic friends through various activities I was part of. The last 3-4 years were full of activism in one way or other. When I look back Bangalore has played a role in developing me as a better person and individual.

In the meanwhile I learned to understand Kannada a bit. Terms like Utta maadi, ayathu, chennagide doesn't sound geek to me any more and now I am able to read bus boards in Kannada. My latest experiment is watching Kannada dramas and trying to make out content. I need to see how it goes after one year ...

Retrospective from Raichur

2011-11-26T05:45:00.000-08:00

Two days of service for children from rural Karnataka, a lot of fun with a fantastic team bursting with enthusiasm , a trip to the historic Thungabadra river that witnessed the rise and fall of Vijayanagara empire , satisfaction that you were part of making a small difference in the life of a few children - all this made my trip as part of Project Samudaya to Raichur a unique experience.

Raichur, part of North Karnataka, is a small town that is 409 km away from Bangalore. Our plan is to conduct a health check up camp for about 1200 children from villages around Raichur. Raichur was worsly affected by the floods occurred in 2009 and the villages were almost destroyed. Cisco as part of project Samudaya adopted these schools around the area and also built houses for people whose houses were destroyed. This was the last program organized by Cisco in Raichur as part of project Samudaya. We started in Nanded express from Bangalore with a team of around 60 people. After a few minutes in the train I realized that I am in the company of a lot of energetic exciting people and all of a sudden the initial hesitation due to unfamiliarity went away.

We had a few briefings in the train with our team members and lead and yes you can't help attending meetings even in a trip :-). The whole trip was very well planned from the beginning and the facilities provided and co-ordination was excellent. As the train was late we reached Raichur by 10.00 AM and had to rush to the place after breakfast at hotel Kubera.

Day1

Our group of about 15 volunteers went to Thalmari a village about 40 kilometers far from Raichur. The destination was Kannada primary school Thalmari to conduct an eye check up camp. A team of refractionists accompanied us in the cab. The cab was going through the fields of cotton and paddy fields through the dry village road. After a while the Sun flower fields compensated for the journey through the bad road. We reached the school by 11.45 and rushed to set up the room and chairs for refractionists. We first screened children from 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Gireesha Shankar , Divya and Chitra were with me in the team and Satish joined later. Some children started crying after seeing us thinking we were there for vaccination :-). My job was most of the time to manage kids and noting down their names and issues after the initial screening. I was polishing my broken Kannada and most of the time it worked :-).
After the screening a list of children having issues with eye sight were identified and we handed over the list to the refractionists.

We had lunch followed by a meeting in the school where teachers and children expressed their thanks for conducting the check up.
In the evening while coming back we visited the Panchamuki Anjaneya temple. Reached back in Raichur by 7PM and roamed around Raichur town for some time with my friend Gireesh. While coming back we also met our friends roaming around the city.

Day2

The second day started very early. We started around 8.15 AM from Raichur. Our destination was the same school at Thalmari.
On the way we couldn't keep going seeing the beautiful Sun flower fields and there was a photo session by woman too :-). The second day our plan was to conduct a dental check up. Again we were separated into different groups and I joined a team of dentists with Anitha. Our job was noting down the names of children and the issues and we conducted check up for about 80 children. One disturbing thing was seeing a girl who came to school with her young sibling because mother was working away to support the family and nobody is there at home to look after the small child.

A meeting was followed and we left the school by around 1 PM. After lunch we went to see the Thungabadra river. The water level at Thungabadra was very less and villagers were crossing the river by foot, on tractors or on bikes. Watching it was a unique experience. We joined them for a while and crossed the river. Some one was telling that during the time of Vijayangara empire crossing the Thungabadra river was considered as a heroic act and they were rewarded by the king. Water is their or not we also joined those heros by crossing it by foot :-). We reached the hotel by 4.30 and had a small walk around Raichur town. Our train was late and we had a good time till reaching bangalore whether playing cards or singing songs while playing Antakshari.

My Take from Raichur

I had made a few trips to rural Karnataka in the last few years. Rural India is far behind whether it is education or health care facilities or living standards is my experience. Kerala may be an exception. Experience in Raichur was also the same.The government schools lack even the basic necessities. The disparity between the enrollment register and attendance shows that a lot of children are also dropping out in the middle. Most of the issues we face in urban life is not significant if we compare it with the rural life in India.

These are disturbing factors but I had the satisfaction that I was part of a group who was making a difference however small it is. The trip was very well organized and every one in the team showed dedication and enthusiasm for the jobs they were assigned. We had a lot of fun during the trip and every moment of the trip we enjoyed.

Kudos to Cisco Samudaya for this opportunity and a big thank you to every one who were part of it.

Things you should know before getting a home loan

2011-11-10T01:21:00.001-08:00

At some point most of us try to go for a home loan to buy a home. I was going through the process for the last one and half months and I didn't know anything about it till I started. I learned a lot of things on the way and learned that it is not a smooth process as shown in the advertisements or claimed by banks. I thought about documenting the same so that it will be useful for people like me who never bothered about similar things through out their life.

In my case I bought an already constructed house at my home town, so the process may be slightly different for getting a loan for constructing a house.

The process starts once you finalize the property and make a sale agreement with the seller regarding the price of the property. Then you need to find a financial institution or bank who is willing to finance the loan. Check with 3-4 banks and then proceed. Check with your friends or relatives regarding their experiences with different banks and choose one convenient for you.

Some points to consider at this stage:

* You need a margin money of at least 20 percent of the property value . Bank
will finance only the rest. Some banks will give you a loan of up to 90 percent, but it is bank's discretion.

* Note that what ever be the agreement between you and the seller, bank will finance only the value you are going to mention in the title deed. Some banks will give you an option to give a portion of the loan as home improvement, but again it is bank's discretion.

* Check the different interest rates for the loan. There are two kinds of interests rates fixed and floating. You can't say one is better than the other as it depends on the current interest rates and variation that may happen in the future.

* Check the pre-payment penalty you have to pay if you pre-pay the loan. Some banks doesn't have pre-payment penalty if you repay after the initial 6 months.

* Ensure that you have a good credit history and provide correct information in the loan application form so that your loan won't get rejected.

Initially you may have to provide the following documents.

1. Completed application form with passport size photo
2. Copy of identity and address Proof
3. Salary slip for the last 3 months
4. Bank statement for the past 6 months
5. Copy of the latest Form 16
6. Copy of PAN card

Once you fill up and submit the application form the bank may ask for a processing fee depending on the loan amount.

You have to submit the following property documents or copies:

1. Copy of the title deed
2. Copies of prior title deeds .
3. Location sketch
5. Possession certificate
6. Encumbrance certificate for last 13 yrs
7. Latest land tax receipt
8. Agreement for sale
10.Building tax receipt
11.Approved plan

At this stage when you have submitted a few or all the documents, bank officials will visit the location to verify the property and do an assessment. The sanctioning of the loan amount also depends on this assessment.

Your will get a sanction letter from the bank after this process. Once they get a report regarding the assessment, bank will send the documents to a lawyer for verification. Depending on that bank may also ask for additional documents.

Once the verification process is complete, the bank will issue a cheque in the sellers name. You need to fix a date for the registration and let the bank know. Then the cheque will be handed over to the seller on the day of the registration. The new title deed will be prepared by the bank's lawyer and a lawyer or his representative will accompany you during the registration process. You have to pay for the stamp paper charges to the bank's lawyer in advance or you need to buy it directly and give it to the bank one or two days prior to the registration date.

You need to bear the following charges.

* Stamp paper charges.
* Lawyer's fees for document preparation
* Registration charges

Once you complete the registration bank will keep the documents but will give you a copy attested by a notary.

Lessons learned:

There is not much difference between time required to process a loan between a public sector bank and private bank other than you will get a warm welcome in a private bank and you will get a cold response from a public sector bank official. Initially you will feel that getting a loan from a private bank will be more easy, but finally they will also take the same time and require the same documents asked by the public sector bank. They may ask more documents than they mention the first time.

If you want to get it processed fast it is better to go through the loan agent in the bank than going directly. In my case, I realized that most of the time I ended up doing most things myself because I didn't go through an agent and many times I didn't get proper guidance.

Note: I don't claim to be an expert in details regarding a home loan. This post is based on my experiences while taking home loan. There may be variations in the process from bank to bank . Also the process may vary depending on the type of home you are buying.

Freedom , Debian Pure Blends and Jonaas Smedagaard

2011-11-05T19:09:00.000-07:00

Freedom box uh !!! - what kind of box it is one wonders. Free as in free speech or free as in free box. How can you package freedom in a box? All set of questions arise in our mind.. But I had my answer after listening to an inspiring talk yesterday. Freedom box, Debian, philosophy about life, rocket science, correlation between mathematics and music full of divergent ideas ... what a great Saturday it was. All thanks to Jonas Smedagaard - Debian developer from Denmark. It was fun, It was entertaining and it was informative.

Waking up early in the morning and traveling two and half hours on a weekend is a crazy thing to do for a late night fellow like me. I thought twice before going to the talk if it is worth missing the relaxing extra two hours sleep I enjoy on a Saturday morning. Somehow I made up my mind in the morning and the the talk was just started when we reached there.

A man who matches all the features of a geek was speaking and an audience of about 100 students were there to listen to him. Jonas introduced himself in a funny way and slowly moved in to the technical stuff. I was surprised to hear that he has only 12 years of schooling and not much formal education. May be due to the quality of education system in Scandinavian countries like Denmark I haven't met any one from the universities in India who can deliver a passionate talk like Jonas. See this Video about the education system in Finland.

I was fortunate to hear Eben Moglan one of the best inspirational speakers in the world. I had written about that in one of my previous blog posts. Both of them are at different levels and Eben Moglan is much more publicly accepted person the free software community through out the world. But out of the tech talks I have heard Jonas may be only secondary to Eben Moglan in making an impact in the audience. Jonas's talk was full of fun with funny real life examples. He captured the attention of his audience with his effective body language, voice modulation and instilling passion into every word he said.

His passion towards free software and his passion towards life was visible in every word he delivered. He started with how the concept of Freedom box evolved from a tech talk delivered by Eben Moglan one and half years back. You can listen to Eben Moglan's talk here.

Freedom box is a small box that can be considered as a personal server running a free software operating system and free applications. It is designed to create and preserve personal privacy by providing a secure platform upon which social networks can be constructed. You can find the details about the Freedom box project at Debian Wiki. One of the point Jonas emphasized was simplifying technologies so that they can be used by an ordinary user so that projects like Freedom box gets more acceptance among ordinary users.

The talk also touched upon Debian community and the work the community is doing for the past several years. Visit the Debian Wiki here for more information about Debian project. Debian pure blends - the project to improve Debian for specific purposes and blend it back with the Debian project was also briefly explained. Jonas emphasized the need of simplifying technology to reach a wide audience.

The talk was followed by an interactive discussion where he not only answered queries but also tried to explain his vision of life. He spoke about we can make this world a better place if every one tries to convert his passion into his job. We can do the things much better if we are passionate about it. The discussions touched up on a wide range of topic from signal processing, designing, software development, rocket science, space ships to connection between music and mathematics. When one of the students asked a question how much practical freedom box is in a country like India where lack of infrastructure like less bandwidth exists. Jonas answered it in a philosophical way. He said problems can be approached only once we start. People like us also should study how things work and sort out ways to improve it rather than and not starting it. He quoted the example when they had to deal with less bandwidth in the university a few years back. The way he interacted with the students something that we all should try to emulate. He was able to instill his passion and energy into students and inspire them.

Finally we parted after a photo session A day full of intellectual stimulation, entertainment and fun - It was one of the best days I will cherish in my life.

Six Money Management Skills that Every Young Man or Woman Should Develop

2011-02-15T23:19:00.001-08:00

In the ancient times money was just a concept that was a human invention to make human life better. Today whether we like it or not it dominates human life to a large extent.I was born in a village and money was never a priority for us and our icons were never the rich but people who lived a simple life of sacrifices.Making money was not considered as a great virtue and even though we may lack money some times, the neighbors or well wishers helped us and we returned the favor when there is a need for them. Decent education and health care were available from the government institutions at affordable prices and our needs were limited. But things changed up to a large extent even in villages in the last decade.

After completing my education when I started my work life in a big city, I realized how big the role of money in the life of an urban Indian. The system is corrupt to the core and from good education to health care, huge money is essential for a better life in any urban city and the government doesn't play much role in providing basic amenities to the urban population. Even though I don't want to compromise my principles for money or any materialistic thing,I realized I
should know the rules about money and learn to handle it well for a better life in the current urban India. After observing things for a few years, I found out that there are a few skills that we need to learn.

The way money works is not fair, same for life in general. We all may have seen it, nice guys most of the time finish last. Most of the time success with money or love is not achieved by people who deserve it, but by whom who know the rules and take actions accordingly.

I have identified the following skills that one need to develop if you want to handle money well:

1. Learn to negotiate - In the world of money you need to learn to negotiate.If you are from a family with strong values you were taught in the childhood that bargaining is bad and never put a price tag on you. It works only in the ideal world. In the real world, it is the other way. If you don't negotiate for your interests, you will end up as a loser be it in your career or your investments. Learn to negotiate with out compromising our principles and beliefs.

2. Conduct thorough research before you make an investment decision - Some of us do sufficient research before even making small purchase decisions, but we never do the same for investment decisions that affect us significantly and may require long term commitments. Never go by the words of financial advisers who sell financial products for their own benefits. I made the mistake 3-4 years back and paid heavily for it and to reduce my loss I still have to keep investing.
As a starting point read the book "What Your Financial Agent Will Tell You And Why You Shouldn't Listen" from Deepa Ragahavan

Learn and understand very well about each investment option and take your decisions wisely. Don't hesitate to ask questions about things you don't know and read the product brochures carefully before signing them. In the era of internet if you don't do research it is your laziness. Very few financial advisers really cares about your money other than worrying about his commission. Read sites like Jago investor, Yahoo columnist Deepak Shenoys blog , Moneycontrol or other informative sites regularly.

3.Learn as much as you can about finance and market - Keep an eye for detail and learn as much as possible about the terms we associate with money. For example learn about compound interest, systematic investment plan, various types of mutual funds, dividends, equities, ULIPs and so on. The simple rule that I have seen that work most of time is "buy assets when every one else is selling and sell when every one else is buying".

4. Learn about tax laws - I used to strongly believe that I need to pay all the taxes as a law abiding citizen of the country with out seeking much exceptions. But later I realized in the real world, it is the not the case. The best paid people in India pay taxes much less than many of us think. The reasons is Indian tax system has many loop holes and exceptions that either they or their well paid tax consultants know to use and we don't. When I first came to know about that I used to get angry, but if it is not against the law and not a breach of ethics there is nothing wrong in using it till the government take action and close those loop holes.

5.Learn to shop well - Quality is most of the time(at least in India) not related to price. Paying a lot for something doesn't mean you get the best. Always try to find out the best offers available in the market, speak to different vendors and compare the prices from 2-3 places before purchasing something.

6. Learn to keep your debts to none or minimum - Use your credit card wisely and understand the terms and conditions carefully. Don't take loans unnecessarily to purchase assets that depreciates in value in the long run, even though some loans like home loans are good in India to reduce tax burden.

These rules may be simple that many from urban families know well, but there may be a lot of people like me who doesn't know even this when I started working. I made all the 6 mistakes in the real life. Even though I said all these, I believe one should never equate money with happiness. Never compromise on your principles, your family and loved ones for the sake of money. In the long term, money cant buy you love or happiness in life.

Note: I don't claim to be an expert in financial matters and these are just observations based on my own experiences. It is up to you to take it or not.

Trip Notes from Southern Tip of India

2011-02-03T22:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was attending toastmasters session in my company. One of the topic during the table topic session was how did you spend your annual holidays during the December shut down period. Suddenly I was thinking about how I spent my holidays. I was thinking about writing a travelogue about my trip for long time, but I was lazy and postponed it, all of a sudden I began with ease.

This time I was eagerly waiting for the annual holidays because I planned for a trip to Goa with a friend. I never plan for any trip in advance, all of a sudden I may decide and go. But this time everything was planned and we booked ticket in advance and a friend in Goa promised to arrange accommodation. But at the last minute everything turned down. My friends father had an accident and we had to cancel our trip.So, I decided to go to my village near Cochin and spent time with family. 3-4 days passed quickly as I was playing with my nephew and visiting friends and family
members.The sixth day all of a sudden I was feeling very bored. Day time most of the friends wont be there as they don't have holidays. I thought about a couple of options and then finally decided to go to Kanyakumari a place I had never visited. On the way I wanted to cover Trivandrum too.

Trivandrum

After a five hour journey from my home, I reached Trivandrum. Trivandrum is the capital of Kerala and it had many tourist places around. My classmate was eagerly waiting for me as we have nt seen each other for a couple of years. After a warm get together he took me to the Kerala legislative complex where he works. The assemby session was going on and I took a visitors pass and watched the proceedings of the assembly for an hour from the visitors gallery. I stayed with him for that day and we had a nice time recalling several events from our college life.

The next morning I started from Trivandrum to Kanyakumari. Kanyakumari, the southern tip of India is about 80km far from Trivandrum. Before independece the Kanyaumari district was part of Kerala, but after the states were restructured on the lingustic basis Kanyakumari became part of Tamilnadu. My plan was to visit Padmanabhapuram_Palace on the way.

Padamanabhapuram Palace

After getting down from the bus I had my lunch. I asked the way to the palace to a passerby. He turned out to be a native and he suddenly realized that I am from Kerala from my Tamil accent.Instead of telling me the route, he send me with a man on a motorcycle whom he was acquainted with and going that way. From my experiences during my trips around various places in south India I know that villagers rarely cheat. So, I decided to take chances and go with him. He dropped me in front of the palace. The Padmanabhapuram palace is a palace built in traditional
Kerala style and unique one of its kind in South India. It is one of the biggest wooden palaces in India. Some of the interesting structures in the palace include include the poomukham, the mysterious corridors, mantrasala, natakasala and southern palace. I met a north Indian family visiting Kerala and we visited the palace together. Walking through the mysterious corridors was a walk through the history.It took around one hour to see the palace around.

Back in the bus stand I struggled a bit because the bus boards were in Tamil. With some effort I learned to read boards in Kannada, but never bothered to learn to read Tamil. The buses were all crowded and coming and going. Due to the rush nobody was bothered to answer my queries on bus to Kanyakumari. Finally, I found a bus, but it was heavily crowded.

Kanyakumari
I reached Kanyakumari by evening after a long journey that got worse by heavy traffic.After a walk around the beach, I searched for a lodge there to settle down. It seemed easy, but then there was the second problem. Whereever I went they said there is no room available after finding that I am alone. Finally after talking to a guy who knows malayalam, he told me that first he wants to speak to my parents and check if I came because there are any issues at home and if everything is fine he will give a room. He explained that Keralites rarely travel alone and they are suspicious seeing me alone. I gave my home number and he called and my mom picked up the call. He directly asked if I came alone because of any love failure or some thing. I can imagine the shock my mom had. After getting a satisfactory response he agreed to give a room to me. I explored Kanyakumari beach and stayed till late on the beach enjoying the sea sight and the calmness at night. In the morning I went again to see the Sun rise at 6.00 AM. It was cloudy in the beginning, but finally Sun came out with full glow and that was one of the best sights I ever had.

The next thing was a boating to the Vivekanandha rock and one had to wait for a long queue for almost an hour. It was the place where Swami Vivekanandha meditated before his departure to the world religion conference at Chicago in 1891. I met a Bengali family in the queue and we enjoyed the company of each other exchanging information on various tourist places in India.The boat journey took only a few minutes as the sea was calm. There was a small memorial built for Vivekanandha and the sea was worth watching from the rocks. On the return journey we also had a stop at the Thiruvalluvar statue.

Return journey to Trivandrum

Around 2PM I started my return journey. I got a seat and it almost seemed comfortable when I started, but there were a lot of events waiting for us. In the middle of the journey our bus had a break down at a remote place. The conductor couldn't arrange a replacement bus and he told us that he will make arrangements in the other buses to Trivandrum. Many buses passed, but all of them were crowded and none of the buses stopped. The bus had many tourists from north India and foreign countries and they had a tough time understanding what the bus conductor was saying in Tamil and they were scolding him in their own languages that he didn't understand any way. I helped them as an interpreter in English and Hindi. Almost an hour went and no buses were coming our way except local buses. A french man was scolding the conductor left and right , but the bus conductor couldn't make out any thing.

The French man needs to go to Trivandrum and he asked for my help seeing that I can speak English. we asked a few local people and they said the next town is only a few kilometers away if we go by a local bus. we took a local bus to the next small town and from there we got a bus to Trivandrum. The Frenchman turned out to be a great companion. He is one of the leading architects in France and he is a member of the several architectural organization in the world. His trip to India was to visit some of the architects who were members of his organization in various parts of India. He was coming back from Calcutta and visited many places in India on the way. He shared his experiences in India and out of all the places he visited his favorite place turned out to be Calcutta. After a tiring journey with a lot of events, we reached Trivandrum by late evening and we parted saying will be in touch. Later he wrote to me after reaching France and kept his word to my surprise. My friend was waiting for me and after a few hours I took a bus to Cochin to go back to my home. The next day I had to come back to Bangalore and thus thus ended my Christmas holidays for the year 2010.

Three Mistakes in My Life

2010-12-17T02:31:00.001-08:00

With all due credit to Chethan Bhagat for this catchy title, this is not a post about his book. I had completed three decades as a human in this planet a few weeks back. One interesting thought that came to my mind is to think about the three mistakes that I have done in my life so far. Anyway it is better to realize it now than never.

If I have to write about the three mistakes in my life the best three will be:

1. Afraid of making mistakes- I was a perfectionist who was afraid of making mistakes. Many times expectations from society and our wrong perceptions discourage us from making mistakes. I left out many things thinking I wont be able to do it perfectly. Even if I felt I may be a little uncomfortable doing it or be an average in something I left out those things.If I look at the things that I missed out, I lost opportunities to learn so many things. If we want to learn something worthwhile in life, we would be willing to make mistakes. It is quite natural in the learning curve to make mistakes. Instead of thinking too much if we just start doing things we learn on the way.

2. Said yes instead of telling no - I struggled always to say no to people. One key thing in life is to stand for yourself and tell no when it is required. You can't please every one in the world and it is not required. Many times saying no will save you out of troubles that you will regret later. In my work life I had said yes instead of telling no to unrealistic demands from managers and that put me into a lot of trouble.

3. Analyzed people logically

" One of the biggest lessons in life is there are going to be people who may not like you, like what you say or what you write" - Salman Rushdi

Most people are not logical and it is not going to change. People are controlled by their emotions and prejudices most of the time. You don't have to get approval from people for everything and even if you are the best person in the world there are going to be people who may not like you. For example, I was really shocked by the number of people who hate such a great person like Gandhi who stood for truth and non-violence. He hasn't done anything to deserve so much hatred. Instead of trying to convince people that they are wrong, we just have to leave it and let it go will be a good strategy some times.

Notes from Northern Karnataka Trip

2010-11-22T04:40:00.000-08:00

A three day weekend ... Two guys, who share many passions- travel, cinema, literature, history - the list of our common interest is endless. We thought of a couple of options. It was one of my long time wish to see Golgumbaz in Bijapur. A couple of years back, during a chat session with an elder person from Kerala, he told me that Golgumbaz is something that every engineer should visit and Karnataka is a place with a glorious past. A visit to Hampi a few weeks back aroused a curiosity to see more ancient architectures. The lonely planet guide was giving a magnificent picture about Badami and we decided to explore Badami and the surrounding places.

On last friday we started our trip from Bangalore in Golgumbaz express from Yeshwanthpur to Badami. The train started from Yeswanthpur station at 8.15 PM.

The first day went with out much interesting events. We slept early and When we woke up in the morning our train was going through the vast and wide fields of Jowar and sugar cane. There were no houses to see and except a few farmers working in their fields there were nobody around.

Our train reached Badami around 9.00 AM. Badami is a small less crowded station about 5 KM far from the town. A group of monkeys were running around like they were receiving visitors. A couple of rickshaws were waiting us and it was an interesting sight to see foreigners going in rickshaws with 10-12 people. We also got into a sharing rickshaw with another 8-10 people most of them were villagers who were going to Badami town.

Badami is part of Bhagalkot district in Northern Karnataka and it is a small town resembling more of a village than town. There are a couple of lodges around the bus stand the rate for a non a/c average double room was about 500-700 per day. We started exploring Badami around 10.00 AM after settling down in a lodge. Our first destination was the famous cave temples in Badami and it required about 10-20 minutes walk from the Badami town.

Badami earler known as Vatapi was the capital of the Chalukya dynasty and the cave temples were built by the Chalukyas around 500 to 800 AD.
The temples were carved out of stone and the first temple was devoted to Shiva, the second and third was devoted to Vishnu and the fourth one for Jain Thirthankaras. There were only a few tourists and the atmospere was very calm and serene. The temple were made in red sand stone and were full of magnificent sculptures. While walking among the sculptures, we were feeling like we were walking through history and took a few snaps.
There is a large pond surrounding the cave temples and on the other side of the pond is the Boothnath temple. An archeological museums and a structure similar to the ruins of a fort is also there.

Pattadakal-

After lunch, we boarded a bus to Pattadakal. Pattadakkal is about 20 km far from Badami and there are frequent buses available from Badami.
The road trip was a nice one through the Jowar and sun flower fields and we enjoyed the sceneries in the villages around. Pattadakal is a UNESCO hertiage site with temples bulit by the Chalukyas. The major temples were Virupaksha and Mallikarjuna temples. We also explored a few temples around and took a few snaps.

Aihole

Aihole is located about 7-8 km from Pattadakal. We went to Aihole in a rickshaw and was riding comfortably. Suddenly more and more people started boarding the rickshaw and we realized we are riding with about 12 people. Some other rickshaws were running with people and animals together and we felt we were more fortunate compared to them. Aihole has several temples, but most of them were ruined and not in very good shape. The major attraction at Aihole is the Durga temple complex and it was well preserved. we explored a bit and took snaps around the few temples. After roaming around for an hour, we took a bus back to Badami.

Back at Badami - At Badami it was drizzling. We found that the bakery near the bus stand is owned by Keralites. They were surprised to see two Keralites and we got a warm welcome.

Second day - We started our trip to Bijapur. Bijapur is about three and half hours journey from Badami. We took a bus to Bhagalkote from Badami as there were no direct buses available. From Bhagalkot we got a bus to Bijapur. From Bijapur bus station we hired an auto to go to Golgumbaz. During our journey we made a deal with the auto driver and he agreed to take us to the important places in the town. Bijapur is a small town, but bigger compared to Badami. The roads in the town are in bad shape and drive in an auto is not a very pleasant experience. The auto driver took us to about 10 historic places that includes the ruins of the fort, citadel, Ibrahim Rouza, Golgumbaz and the Juma masjid.

Ibrahim Rouza is a beautiful monument built by the Bijapur sulthan in memory of his wife. Golgumbaz the most famous monument in Bijapur is a mammoth building and also an architectural marvel. Its huge tomb is the second largest in the world next only to Rome. You need to climb a few steps to reach the top. It has a whispering gallery where if you say something on one side of the wall it can be heard on the other side of the monument very clearly.But too many people and noise prevented us from testing it.

After the Golgumbaz visit, we had our lunch and we decided to board the train back to Bangalore. It was drizzling while we were going to the station.

Return jouney - Bijapur railway station was too crowded and there are not much facilities available for the passengers. The train started from Bijapur around 5.45 PM. We were getting bored till an old man boarded our compartment from Bhagalkot. He was going to Bangalore with a few family members.
After the initial hesitation we were at ease with each other he turned out to be an interesting companion. He is a pan shop owner in a small village, but he had gone to college and studied up to graduation. He told about his college days and said for the last 30-40 years all his batch mates in college are meeting a day in every year. Sudden thought that came to my mind was the possibility of organizing my batch mates every year similar to that.

He also said about the days when he used to act in Marathi dramas and won prizes. Me and Gireesh became very interested after listening to this and we had a very interesting conversations about drama as both of us had some background related to drama. It was a practise in his younger days to have a drama troupe in each village and there was a competition for drama. His father and grand father also acted in some of the dramas and they also trained him to continue that practice.The old man was telling that drama is very well advanced these days and Marathi drama has gone a long way from his days. The recent drama he has seen was thank you Mr Glad. I shared my experience of watching a Marathi film Harishchandrachi Factory recently that was directed by a well known theater person Paresh Mokashi.

The train reached back at around 10 AM in Yeswanthpur. We said good bye to our fellow passengers and started our journey towards our own homes.

Looking back it was a very special one. The people we met, the places we visited, the new experiences that we had were distinctive. While the glory of the past made us proud the depressing present left us sad (the villages and small towns were very dirty and unclean)

Diary of a Lonely Traveler

2010-09-28T02:38:00.000-07:00

I traveled to Hampi last week. For the last few weeks, I was traveling continuously to various places in south India all in my own. I wanted to travel around from childhood onwards, even though I haven’t taken it very far. I was inspired from the stories told by my grandfather who traveled to many places in India without knowing any language other than Malayalam. Some of my favorite authors from SK Pottekkatt to Rudyard Kipling instilled me the inclination towards travel.

My introversion kept me away from traveling all these days, but the sudden inspiration was the book Screw it lets do it lessons in life by Richard Branson that I just finished reading. It is one book that will change your perceptions about life. Most self help books are not worth reading and many are not relevant in the Indian context. But Richard Branson is very different and he has a very well balanced view about life and he lives life to the full. He is not a corporate head who sits only at his air conditioned office and manages his company. He always chose the road less traveled and he crossed the Atlantic and Pacific in a hot air balloon risking almost his life to satisfy his quest for adventure. He believes life should be fun and you should chase your dreams whatever it is.

I thought this is the time for me to explore as much as I can and started my little adventures.I had some wonderful experiences during every trip. In Pondichery, two German students returning from Kerala shared their experiences of traveling in India and said India is a land of infinite variety and now they had a lot of stories to take back to share it with their friends and family. They talked about some of the interesting people they met including an auto driver in Kerala. The auto driver dropped them free of charge once and later they found that he had made a deal with a handicrafts shop owner to drop foreigners in front of his shop. We had an interesting conversation about Germany after the collapse of the Berlin wall and also about the education system. As they were philosophy students, we also had a small discussion about German philosophers including Hegel and Marx. Another interesting character was an uneducated drum seller who can speak English and French fluently. When I entered the Aurobindo Ashram I felt like I was entering a different word of spirituality. The calmness and silence at that place was unique.

My second trip was to Shravan Belagola, Belur and Halebed. Shravan Belagola has a gigantic monolithic statue of Bahubali that may be the only of that kind in the world on the top of a hill. I had read about Bahubali long back and I recalled the history. This time my companions were two Thailand students. They want someone to take their pictures together and I happily agreed. They were bit surprised to see that I did not pray at any of the places and questioned me on that. When I told about my beliefs they said they thought Indians are strongly religious. The Chennakeshava temple at Belur was built by King Vishnu Vardhana of the Hoysala dynasty and it took more than 50 years to complete.The temple is full of marvelous architecture. Halebed temple is better preserved and it is another great example of splendid architecture.

My third trip was to Hampi. The trip was started with a lot of uncertainty. The heavy rain disrupted traffic and a trip to bus stand took 2-3 hours instead of the usual 45 minutes and I was almost sure that I will miss the bus. My bus to Hampi was almost started after waiting for some time and I boarded the bus running in the last minute. Hampi is about 7 hour’s journey from Bangalore and I reached there by 7.00 AM in the morning. Hampi is part of the Bellary district in Karnataka and the nearest city is Hospet. I decided to tour the place walking instead of taking auto hiring a bicycle the recommended option. Hampi recognized as a world heritage center was the capital of the glorious Vijaynagara empire. The Vijayangara Kingdom reached its peak during the regime of Krishnadevaraya and Hampi was developed into a full-fledged city. Hampi is divided in to several zones and main zones are the sacred center and the royal center. Ruins of the temples are located at the sacred center and the ruins of the royal mansions are at royal center. I started from the Virupaksha temple at the center and then walked along the banks of the Thungabadra river and visited several temples on the way. In most of the temples, idols were destroyed and now department of archeology is maintaining those temples. The weather was too hot and I felt like my decision to walk all alone was too much. The place was looking too lonely and except a few security guards I was not seeing anyone else.

I felt like I almost lost my way, but somehow I reached the Vittala temple another great place with marvelous architecture. By the time I almost lost patience to look at the map and found my next destination and I decided to walk through the first road I came across. It turned out to be a stupid decision as the road leads to Kamalapura and there was nothing in the middle to see. I was all alone in the road walking in the hot Sun. The road was on the middle of Jower fields (not sure it is Jower) and stopped at a few places in the shade. A farmer offered me a lift to Kamalapura and I was more than happy to accept it. He turned out to be a good guy, the only thing was his nonstop conversation in Kannada. With great difficulty, I replied with my broken Kannada and he was more and more eager to speak that put me in a difficult condition. He dropped me at Kamalapura and I decided to explore further after lunch.

I visited the archeology museum and Pattabhirama temple. At Pattabhirama temple, I was the only visitor in a huge temple and the police man was suspicious seeing a lonely traveler taking rest in the temple. After inspecting my bag and seeing the books and map he was convinced and he turned friendlier. My broken Kannada helped initially, but I had to shift to Hindi and English to catch up with him. When I said I am working in a software company he told me that he has no idea about software even though he heard the term many times. I used my experience of teaching kids to explain about software and I felt like he got some idea.

Then I started walking towards Hampi through the main road and there were always people around. I stopped at different places and walked towards the royal center. The royal center truly reflects the elegance of the Vijayanagara empire and had a lot of ruins like the Queens bath, Zenana enclosure (the private enclosure for the royal woman) and a few temples. I took rest under a shade and met Kevin an American from Texas. We had a very interesting conversation that started with the weather and then lead to works of Rudyard Kipling and his experiences about India. The royal enclosure is spread out on a large area and it took a lot of time to cover the places. Some of the temples on the way included Ugra Narsimha, Ganesha and Krishna temples.

I reached the Hampi bazar around 6 o clock and decided to take some rest near the Thungabadra river. I took the 7.30 bus to Hospet and reached there by 8 PM. The journey to Hampi is a real journey to India's rich heritage and vibrant history.I was totally amazed and stunned by the wonderful monuments spread around Hampi.During my return journey I was recalling the first sentence of Jawahar Lal Nehru's essay that I studied in school "India had a glorious past" and realizing how true it was.

Good Bye Sun

2010-01-23T10:25:00.000-08:00

A friend sent me a link to James Gosling's blog (http://blogs.sun.com/jag/entry/so_long_old_friend). I was emotional when I went through the blog. Thanks to Amit Saha a former colleague for sharing it. I left Sun about two months back and I was there for only for a short duration of about two years.

Yes, it was just a company there shouldn't be any emotional attachment to it. Still, many people who worked at Sun including me had emotional attachment to Sun. A company where people really kicked butt and had fun. I am thankful to all the amazing people I met at Sun, some of them were lifetime influencers. Sun was highly ethical and it trusted the employees and gave them its best.

It is at Sun I really got exposure to the world of open source
and decided to involve in promoting FOSS that I will continue for the rest of my life. It is the Sun contacts that inspired me to involve in many social service initiatives.

Thanks to Sun for all the learning, my first trip abroad, all the fun, opportunities to become a better person and a human being. It was my dream company and the Sun experience I will cherish for my life time.

Good bye Sun, we will miss you....

My Reflections as a Toastmaster

2009-08-06T11:08:00.000-07:00

I delivered my second level toastmasters speech in SunTalk toastmasters club last week with some amount of satisfaction. It was a repeat of my second level speech. For the first time, I was able to use my body language and voice modulation. The feedback about the speech was inspiring.

Working in Sun was a turning point in my life in many ways. Yes in these turbulent times every month and every quarter we were getting unexpected news about layoffs, but fun was a part of life and there was space for work life balance.

What makes Sun different is it's people. It is really great to see people who author articles in magazines you read, lead the opensource community initiatives, organise the social service efforts you go and most of them do it silently. Some of the people I met at Sun influenced me in many ways.I unexpectedly met a person who shared many of my passions and a real life example of what you can do if you are passionate about your dreams. In the midst of a lot of personal problems that followed one by one in the past one year , involving in some of the activities was a big relief.

Now after an year, Sun is almost set. As per the old saying, good times won't last for ever. Now it is time to do an introspection about life as a toastmaster. As a vernacular medium student who had struggled with English, I was able to develop my writing skills with a lot of effort. But, my English speaking skills were pathetic. That was why I joined toastmasters.

Toastmasters club taught me that a good speech is all about preparation through prepared speech sessions. As some one who think and speak that requires a lot of mental preparation the table topics sessions challenged me to respond instantly. Each speech from my ice breaker to my last speech taught me something new. I was fortunate to hear some great speeches from my colleagues and got inspired to prepare my speeches better. Some of the educational sessions I attended really inspired me and provided new insights.

From a shy and introvert guy who was extremely nervous to speak in front of an audience to an average presenter was a significant achievement for me. I was able to utilise my toast master experience in many activities like taking technical sessions on FOSS, teaching kids and volunteering for IT workshop for school teachers.

There is a long way to go to become a good presenter, I still struggle to make eye contact with the audience and overcome my nervousness. During improptu sessions I still struggle to search for words. But joining Toastmasters club was one step that I did right.

Is Statistics a boring subject? If you think yes then continue reading ...

2009-03-10T23:41:00.000-07:00

90 out of 100 will answer this question as yes.During my college days, I also felt that it is a boring subject. Teachers always taught in a very dry manner and they failed to generate any enthusiasm in me or my fellow students. The classes were very boring and after the first year we bumped many classes. In fact we learned the subject by rote learning and were able to do problems with ease and got good marks. We never thought about any practical applications and studied it only for exams.

After six years when I have to touch that subject again to teach a student, I was wondering how can I teach it if I myself don't have any enthusiasm for it. I was forced to do it as part of community service. But now, when I started teaching the subject after working for sometime I started getting many new insights. Statistics is not a dry subject at all. If you look around you can get hundreds of real world examples where you can apply statistics. My inability to communicate in the local language forced me to think very well and prepare before starting each class. If you work for sometime and then study a subject you can approach it from different angles. For example, you can easily understand how standard deviation(a measure of deviation of values from the average) of salary of employees in a company helps in data analysis.

Another interesting thing is if you break all barriers of hierarchy and allow students to question you they will ask all type of questions a layman will ask. That not only help the students but also you to think from a layman's perspective.It will give you new insights you never thought about before and you will be looking forward to the next class. For example the children from the poor background are so open that they will ask the very basic questions about the practical aspects that we won't ask thinking that others may consider us as dump.In college our problem was we never asked questions or they didn't encourage when ever we ask.

If you understand the concepts and apply it to real life examples the study of the subject is very exciting. Good thing about statistics that makes it different from other branches of mathematics is you can easily find examples and relate it easily with your day to day life.

Lesson learned: Learning and teaching methodology is the important factor that makes a subject interesting or boring.

I am what I am because of who we all are- Use Ubuntu

2009-01-27T02:08:00.000-08:00

There are many websites where you can find information on Ubuntu and also a lot of documentation is available. In this post my aim is not to provide in depth information on Ubuntu or share anything new, but to spread awareness among friends and ordinary users about Ubuntu.

Ubuntu means humanity to others is a community based Linux distribution suitable for desktops and personal computer users. Ubuntu is free of charge and you can share Ubuntu with friends, modify or redistribute it.Ubuntu has its origins in Africa and now grown to a popular choice as a Linux distribution all over the world.

I am using the Ubuntu Linux distribution for the past few months and it meets all the requirements of a normal user. You really don't have to be a geek to start using Ubuntu.If you want to migrate from Windows to Linux, it is an ideal choice. The latest version of Ubuntu is 8.10 and you can download it free from the internet or request for shipping a CD.

You can use the following link to get Ubuntu:
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu

If you want to see how it looks like you can use a live CD that allows you to load Ubuntu on a Windows machine with out installing Ubuntu.

Ubuntu also has the advantage that it supports many regional languages.I already tried enabling the support for Kannada and Malayalam. Before you login to your system, you can choose the language for that session.

Ubuntu philosophy is based on the following ideals:

1. Every computer user should have the freedom to download, run, copy, distribute, study, share, change and improve their software for any purpose, without paying licensing fees.
2. Every computer user should be able to use their software in the language of their choice.
3. Every computer user should be given every opportunity to use software, even if they work under a disability.

Another interesting thing is it helps you to easily manage installing and updating the software applications.
It comes with the synaptic package manager that helps you to easily install, remove and update software applications using a GUI.

Installing Ubuntu is very simple, but you need 4-8GB free disk space on your harddisk and 1GB RAM. In most modern laptops you can easily install Ubuntu. You can install Ubuntu as dual boot on a machine that has Windows pre-installed so that you can choose which operating system you want to use. Dual boot installation on Windows XP pre-installed seems to be non problematic compared to a dual boot installation on Windows Vista. Once I tried to install Ubuntu as dual boot on a Windows Vista machine the installation was failed. The problem was not with Ubuntu, but because the dealers installed Windows Vista on a single partition and no space is left free to install another operating system. The only option left for you is to shrink the current partition. It is sometimes problematic. So when you first install Windows you need to leave some free space or create two or three partitions that can be used later for Linux installation.

If I summarize following are the main advantages of using Ubuntu:

1. Usability for normal users
2. Ease of installation
3. Regional language support
4. Strong community support
5. Release cycle of an updated version every six months

Start using Ubuntu and enjoy the fun ...

Links:
Official Website: http://www.ubuntu.com/
Ubuntu documentation:https://help.ubuntu.com/

A Weekend with Eben Moglan

2008-12-21T08:42:00.000-08:00

On the last weekend, I got a chance to interact with two eminent personalities who compete with each other in leaving their legacy in the minds of people whom they meet. While RMS is admired by thousands of people around the world including me for creating the GNU movement and for his uncompromising stand, Eben Moglan leaves his mark for his oratory skills, humbleness and humility. As I have already written about RMS in my previous blog, I believe I won't be doing justice to Eben and the few precious moments I spent with him if I didn't write about him.

There may not be many people who know Eben Moglen. Professor Eben Moglen is the professor of law and legal history at Columbia University and is the founder, Director-Counsel and Chairman of Software Freedom Law Center.He is a programmer turned lawyer.

I and a few friends got a chance to meet and interact with Eben Moglen. Eben Moglen's speech is a spontaneous overflow of words where each sentence is elaborated by real time examples that delights a listener. He listen to each and every word from a listener and involves in direct communication with the listener.He uses the dialectic approach while answering questions. Eben uses the content from the audience, elaborate it and finally contradict it to convince the audience. While doing so Eben never directly contradicts the statement of the listener, but raise his arguments one by one to make his point.

When I was a listening to one of his speeches one person in the audience asked a question that making profit is a natural human tendency and then why should someone gives their software as free. Eben answered this question by going back to the human history and how human beings emerged as a society by collaboration and co-operation. He emphasized that humanbeings also has the natural tendency to help each other. In everyday life we help each other in someway or the other and it is also a natural tendency. The answer not only convinced the audience but also carried their minds to the historical context of the emergence of human society.

I also got a chance to had my dinner with Eben and once someone remarked that human life is short and why we should live a life of sacrifices and try to improve our society. Eben said that efforts of the great visionaries in the past and our forefathers was not only for themselves, but also for the future generations. Our efforts to improve and better the human society may not yield results in our life time, but may be our future generations after 100 or 200 years may get the results. That will be the only thing that help us human beings to move forward.

Finally in the slum computing center we all sit and discussed together about the future plans and his suggestions to improve the center. Everyone was amazed by his simplicity, his vision and knowledge. A two hour long discussion was a session of open communication and we got many suggestions to improve the center. He inspired each one of us to carry forward what we were doing for the rest of our life.

Even after leaving the center and almost a week was passed, he lives in our hearts through his words and it is something that all of us will cherish in our lifetime. Of course I have disagreements with him, but that doesn't stop me from admiring Eben Moglen one of the great personalities I have ever met.

Stallman visits slum computing center

2008-12-14T08:54:00.000-08:00

Ambedkar Community Computer center is situated in a slum area in the New Gurupanplaya in Bannerghata road Bangalore. In the IT city of multinationals, it is only one of the slums in interiors of Banaglore that is not well known outside. Yesterday (13th December 2008), the slum had a unique visitor who is not only famous but also considered to be well known in every part of the world as the founder of the free software foundation. Richard M Stallman's visit turned the attention of IT professionals and media persons to the otherwise not well known slum.

Ambedkar Community Computing Center (AC3) is a centre set up in the slum area of Gurupan Palya by members of Stree Jagruthi Samithi, volunteers from AID (Association of India's Development) and by some Free Software Volunteers working in IT industry.

The idea of setting up the centre was to equip the poor children in the nearby area with the basic computer skills using quality software which is available free of cost and shareable. The center uses free software tools on GNU/Linux to teach and impart computer knowledge to children. The effort is now showing results and the children have shown enormous improvement. One of the children, Mani, a 9th standard student, has created beautiful pictures using the Free Software tool "GIMP". His pictures got a huge response from the exhibition conducted during the Free Software National Conference held in Cochin, this November. Amazed by Mani's picture art, Stallman agreed to visit AC3 and interact with the children for a few minutes.

During his visit, Richard Stallman inaugurated Mani's painting exhibition and released a book written by children on the basis of their experience in the slum computing center.
Sarasu, who is from the slum area, teaching kids in the slum computing center presented about the center and the work it is doing for the poor. There were also cultural events from the inhabitants of the slum. After the events, Stallman interacted with the audience and addressed their questions.

Here is an extract from his speech:

I am honoured to be here in the community computer center that is in the name of Dr BR Ambedkar. I have read about Ambedkar and I was inspired by the work he has done for the dalit people in India. There are many issues among the poor and marginalized in India that are more important than using free software. But, free software is one of the tool that helps the poor and dalit to resolve some of the issues they are facing. Poor can't afford proprietary softwares and free software helps them to accees computers. While proprietary software companies are like the colonial rulers who exploited the masses, free software is freedom and liberation. Ambedkar Community Computer center is a model for the other parts of the india in such a way that it gives access to computers for the poor without compromising the freedom. The Ambedkar Community Center is doing a great job by empowering the poor with knowledge of free software.

It was a memorable experience for the people in slum area, the people who are part of the Ambedkar Community Computer Center and the children who are the students of the center. They were all inspired by the visit of the Richard M Stallman to spread the free software message and also taking the center to next level.

An Unforgettable Lesson from a Kid

2008-10-13T00:19:00.000-07:00

I was attending a FOSS training camp by free software movement activists in Bangalore last weekend. The sessions were followed by a demonstration from a 9th standard kid Mani from a slum area in Bannarghatta road, Bangalore. When he demonstrated the usage of GIMP by drawing pictures, I and every one among the audience were amazed. In fact he is a physically disabled kid who seems to have a natural talent for drawing.

I myself had tried out GIMP a few years back, but I lost interest when I felt that it is too complex and I have no inclination for drawing. When some of the volunteers were teaching computers to students in a slum area Mani expressed his eagerness to learn GIMP an image manipulation tool in GNU/Linux. One of the volunteer Hareesh provided a video on GIMP and he taught GIMP by himself using that video with the help of Balaji(A volunteer of free software movement and an employee of Sun). He became so proficient in the tool that he was able to draw a beautiful picture in a short span of time. GIMP is an equivalent tool for Photoshop, but considered less user friendly and not that much popular compared to other image manipulation tools.

We are living in a knowledge era and access to knowledge is more easier through collaboration and social networking tools. But a huge population of India is outside the reach of this vast knowledge. India has a huge talent pool with rich human resources that is unexploited. It is our duty as socially responsible citizens to reach this knowledge to masses who are poor or ignorant. This incident was an example of the use of free software as a tool to empower the masses through knowledge. Kudos to the team who are successfully running the computer center for underprivileged in the slum area. Contrary to popular assumption, people has the ability to come out successful irrespective of their background if they are provided help and access to knowledge. We need to be patient and give them the right tools to bring out their talent.

Read a report about the slum computer center in:http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/articles/view/276-computer-centre

A day after bomb blasts in Bangalore

2008-07-28T07:25:00.002-07:00

After Mumbai and Hyderabad, Bangalore also witnessed a series of bomb blasts last Saturday. It was around 2.20 PM that a friend called me on my cell phone to tell the news. To confirm it, I quickly glanced through the web. It was confirmed by web editions of the Indian Express and the Times of India.

Later we got the news that a series of blasts happened in nine places in Bangalore between 1.30 and 3.00 PM

One of the bomb blasts happened at Madiwala, very close to where I stay in Bangalore. Another blast happened near my office. I work in Sun Microsystems and it is very close to Langford town where one of the blasts happened. Suddenly the news spread very fast and the whole office started discussing it. Every one was panic as it was the first time that such an incident happening in Bangalore considered as a safe city compared to other metros. Every one was getting calls from friends and relatives enquiring their status.
All phone lines are jammed and we were not able to reach some of our friends.

After a few hours of panic, I went home around 5.30.
When I reached Madiwala, the whole place was crowded with media persons and police men. The first blast started at the bus stop where I used to board the bus some times.
It was drizzling and the CNN IBN reporter, Deepa Balakrishnan, who was a very familiar face, was trying to cover the news in the middle of the rain. The spot was marked by police and they created a boundary around the spot using ropes.

When I reached my home, a friend called from Kerala to check whether I am safe.
We switched on the TV and browsed through the channels to get any latest updates. The city was slowly returning to normal routine when we went out for dinner.

The next day one more bomb was found in forum mall, Kormangala. I sat home idly in the morning and decided to go out around 4 PM. I witnessed some interesting things on the way. The security check was very strict and police were stopping every vehicle and checking driving licenses. The street children who sell
Newspapers had a good time as they are entering into the bus at every traffic junction and selling the evening daily like hot bread. Almost every one in the bus had a copy of the evening Kannada daily an unusual thing to see. I came back around 6. By that time, Madiwala is slowly returning to normal. The regular street vendor offered me two tender coconuts for the price of one as her business was affected by the two days unusual events.

When I returned home, I heard the news of another series of blasts in Ahmadabad.Bangalore was returning to normal, even though, it won’t be the same safe city again.

How I became an atheist and my view on religion

2008-06-23T10:56:00.000-07:00

Everyone who came to know about my view on religion asked this question to me. They can't believe that a light hearted man like me is an atheist. Most people believe that all atheists are very bad people, though it is not true, as they haven't seen many atheists or atheists are very rare.

In fact, I was a staunch believer in god in my childhood. I was a regular visitor to temples and nobody ever tried to instill atheism to me or tried to influence me. My parents used to encourage me to involve in religious prayers and as a kid I need to recite the Bhagavath Geetha which I can still remember. It is my own exploration of religion that made me an atheist. I also know the Hindu puranas very well and as a voracious reader I had read almost everything from page to page in childhood.
In my opinion, nobody will become atheist by anyone's influence. Becoming an atheist is a long journey that has several phases including a theist, an agnostic, and finally an atheist. If you are a keen observer of the things happening in the world and if you analyze things using logical reasoning there is a fair chance for you to become an atheist. I was an introvert kid and used to read and think a lot. I was keen observer of the society around me and that used to pop up a lot of questions in my mind. Later in school, I learned science seriously and Darwin influenced me a lot.

That was a stage of some kind of an agnostic. I reached the conclusion that even though if there is a god, he has no role in day to day life of living things. That time I read a malayalam novel in which there is a discussion on the exsistance of god. I came to know that there are many people who faced the same dilema as me. There were many books that I read including a philosophical book that introduced me to the views of Hegel and Marx but didn't make much impact. Later what shaped me a clear view on atheism was an essay, "Why I am an atheist" written by legendary Bhagatsingh. It is a classic work that raise almost all the questions that every atheist or any man who thought seriously about the exsistance of god had gone through. It was the first step and then I read many views on god including Vivekanandha an acceptable theist to strong atheist like Richard Dawkins. Finally, my view became very clear and I became an atheist.

Though I am an atheist, I believe that everyone has the right to keep their own beliefs about religion. In India,there is a huge divide between different sections of the society and if belief in god is a solace for their day to day miseries they have every right to do so. Also in a society that treat woman the worst, it helps many of them to carry hope in their life in most Indian villages. Many poor people are also so much busy struggling with their day to day life that they do not have the time to think about or go through the long journey you need to go through to become an atheist.My opposition is only to established religions that try to persuade its believers to hate their fellow human beings for the establishment of their supremacy. The social discrimination created by established religion, their treatment of the socially weakest sections of the society like woman, their intolerance towards other religions, the supremacy of the clerics who are using it to exploit believers, unscientific and unrealistic customs were the reasons for my contempt of established religions.
Link to Bhaghat Singh's essay:
http://keepbhagatalive.blogspot.com/2007/07/why-i-am-atheist.html

Tare Sameen Par and my School Life

2008-02-05T04:07:00.000-08:00

I saw the film Tare Sameen Par and liked it very much. The story is different and it exposes many short comings in our schooling system. Indian education system is based on rote learning and it doesn't teach children to be innovative and think in their own. It does n't have any space for people with any deficiency like Ishant. There may be many talented people who are get unnoticed due to this mechanical system of rote learning. Indian educational system needs phenominal changes and the future of our country depends on it's revival.

I was very much influenced from a book called Totochan and the school it describes. I tried to apply some of these methods while trying to teach my uncle's kid. Due to my lack of knowledge in applying the methods or some other reasons the kid was now called a failure by every one. I was successful in making him an inventor as he is well known for his knowledge on computers, mobile phones and for all the equipments he make. But he was a complete failure in conventional schooling and now every one is blaming me for that. Result is still not predictable as he is just doing his pre university course.

As I am from a rural school, I think schooling was not as painful as Ishant. Most teachers (there were a few exceptions also) were reluctant to teach lessons promptly and most of the time students used to get enough time for play and roaming around. Only thing was we have to learn most of things ourself and now I am paying the price for neglecting English grammar that I never tried to learn myself.

I still remember my journies to school with friends during rainy seasons. The road was in the middle of a small lake and paddy fields and sometimes the water will overflow. Some of my friends who were very brave used to catch fish and the schooling even with all deficiencies was a great one. But questions were not appreciated much and you are considered a good boy if you keep quiet most of the time.

The time has come to change and if Tare Sameen Par can make that awareness in alteast a few it can be called successful.

2007-11-21T03:54:00.000-08:00

My passion for football started when I was a kid at a small village school in Kerala .Whenever we get a break we will
rush to the football ground with a small rubber ball or a ball which is made up of plastic covers and rubber bands.I first watched my first world cup at the age of 10.
In that tournament I did not get an opportunity to watch Brazil.I like italian team for the way they play.

It was in 1994 that I got a glimpse of Brazil playing.It was love at first sight.
The trio of Romario and Bobato and Mazincho in that marvellous yellow color playing
made me a Brazil fan for ever.It was like writting poetry in football ground.
They showed that not only winning is important the way also.

After that many word cups came and went but I had only
one team .... One and only Brazil.....

2007-11-21T03:50:00.002-08:00

Religion the cause of conflicts

In our recent times religion is turning to be the greatest threat to the existence of human kind in this world. From Kashmir to Iraq and London to Mumbai you can see that religion is the root of all conflicts and it is making human life more miserable.

In this context I want to raise the question which was raised by several others- whether established religions in its current form is necessary for a better living?. I am not against
the personal beliefs of people and they have the right to believe in god or not.
"Religion is an opium for the poor masses" as Marx said.
But I am against established religions. In my opinion our ancestors turned to gods when they were living in the forests often relying on the kindness of nature. In the course of time religions became established and it became a way for some people to oppress the less privileged human beings. But even after the society progressed through scientific inventions the fact that religion
is increasing its influence on people is some thing which is bizarre. These established religions and their clerics are spreading hatred among people and creating more and more violence.

If we can't control this tendency I am pretty sure that this will lead to the end of humanity as a whole. So if you are interested in the welfare of the human community just think about it and
take a decision not to support established religions whether Hindu, Muslim, Christian or Jew.
Together we can save this world.

2007-11-21T03:50:00.001-08:00