Sunday, December 31, 2006

New Year Resolutions - 2007

2006, for me, has been a particularly indisciplined year. So, I've framed a bunch of resolutions that I'm aiming to follow resolutely. Here I'm, presenting my 12 point resolution.

1. Wake up before 7.30 am everyday, including weekends. I get a quota of 10 days in the entire year, when I can get up later than half-past-seven.
2. Cut down my waist size to my previous best of 28 inches. I shall weigh exactly 60 kilograms on 31-Dec-2007.
3. Give my bike for servicing.
4. Start investing. Target: 1 lakh in shares and MFs by Dec-2007.
5. Aim for less than 1 accident per quarter in my car.
6. Work only 40 hrs/week. No more, no less. This includes time spent on meetings and conferences.
7. Deliver my deliverables ahead of schedule.
8. Update my blog at least once every 10 days.
9. Become PMP certified.
10. Move to a new house that has a kitchen and then cook at least 1 meal a day.
11. Start working at office before 9.30am everyday and wind-up before 6:30pm.
12. Play some sport - volley ball or cricket (Pool and foosball don't count) - everyday.

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Hyderabad 10k run report

I'm blogging nearly after a month. Blame my busy schedule. I hope I'll be regular in the coming weeks.

It was 4.30am on the d-day. I wished I'll just sleep thru, get up late, and realize I was late for the run. But nay, I got up. I drove to Microsoft where the company bus was waiting to pick us up. I was the only one in the entire bus and only 5 people joined me enroute to the necklace road, where the run was scheduled.

There should have been 3000-5000 people at the venue ready to run. Few tugged along an iPod on their waist or arms. Looked funny as this isn't supposed to be jogging. I was so confident that I'll finish in the top 5 and at the awards ceremony when they ask me how I feel, I wanted to say, "Ticking at 68 kilos, if I can finish in the top 5, it only shows the level of fitness of people in Hyderabad." I was to later realize what kind of a ridiculous thought it was!

Just after 2 kilometres, I was panting heavily. Running on the road is really tougher than on the treadmill. Repeat after me, running the treadmill is at least 10 times easier than really moving your body on the road. So, I started walking. A little later I developed cramps in the right-calf. So, even walking became difficult. Thankfully, there were medical aids made available at strategic places. I found two ladies with an Apollo hospitals banner waiting to help people like me. But, were they waiting? Hell, no. I think they were in a deep conversation when I interrupted them. After a little while, they digged out a spray and sprayed it on my calf. It didn't work. But still I covered the distance in 1 hr and 5 mins. Very bad. I should've been like 300th or 400th overall! Or maybe, even worse! But I was ecstatic when 2nd prize was announced for a person who covered the distance in 1 hr 5 min and 22 seconds. What? I finished 22 seconds before that fellow. Why not me? Isn't that injustice?

As it later turned out, that fellow had completed the half-marathon (21 kms) in that time. What a shame! Well, not quite. This is my first attempt at anything like a marathon. So, I should hope to better in the next run the best time put by another Microsoftian - 40 mins. Anxiously awaiting the last saturday of November 2007...

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Hyderabad 10K Run

Real Marathon run is 42 odd kilometres and if I ever wanted to do that, it'd be on a car or, may be, a motorcycle! I can't believe what kind of freaks are those who run all the distance. And less said about the triathlon athletes the better.

I don't know why I'm taking this risk. I've signed up for the 10 kilometre run on the tank bund road (around the Hussain Sagar lake - http://www.hyderabad10k.com/route_map.htm). I signed up like 2 weeks ago. So, I wanted to check if I can ever run all the 10 kilometres despite this being a quarter-Marathon. On the first day of my test, I surprised myself by running 3 kilometres. And then took 2 or 3 days of rest. On the second day of my test, I did about 4.2 kms in half-an-hour. That's about an average speed of 8.4 kmph. I thought it was amazing until someone told me that marathon runners (freaks who run 42 kms) average an incredible 18 kmph. Yesterday was my last day of trial. I thought I'll run the 10K run only if I could do post a decent distance at a respectable speed. I made 2 mistakes. I played volley ball for about a couple of hours before this trial and ended up gulping down a Maaza, a Thums Up (inspired by the new Thums Up commercial), and about 3/4 litres of water. Just the right things to have before you run! I started my trial at around 10:30pm. I was posting decent speed until 25th minute when I felt a slight twist in my right abdomen followed by some sort of pain in my lower rib just below the sternum bone. My gym instructor asked me to stop running. The recent news of an Oracle employee losing his life at the treadmill flashed in my mind. Am I going to die?

But there was some supernatural force (too much for a simple jog, ain't it?) urged me to get going. I slowed down to 5.5 kmph and walked for about 2.5 minutes. Started to feel my abdomen and rib cage getting normal. Good news. Now, I tuned the mill to a more realistic 8.5 kmph to 9.5 kmph. Went on until 45 minutes and ended up doing 6.51 kms. This translates to around 8.7 kmph. I cooled down for 5 minutes and after 50 minutes and burning 590 Calories, my distance read 6.93 kms. The best thing was I still had energy to run more distance. But didn't want to overdo it and in the process hurt my knees. I want to leave the sweet shock for tomorrow. Let me see what my times I post during tomorrow's 10k run, that is, if I complete the race by foot! Keeping my fingers crossed and waiting anxiously...

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Ms Dewey

Circa 1999. A friend of mine asked me what search engine I use. I answered, "Mostly yahoo, sometimes altavista, and rarely hotbot." He responded, "Crazy? You're a waste. You don't know Google?" What the heck was that? I had to check it out if I should sound like a geek during our ensuing conversations. I visited google.com for the first time in the Nungambakkam Apex Plaza dishnet internet cafe. Wow... what a minimalistic UI... 'Cool interface', I thought. However, what bowled me over was when google.com responded with the no. of milliseconds it took to find results. And, to confirm what it said, the results page loaded in less than a second. This was unheard of for me. I fell for the search engine.

Come back to 2006. Google has become a household name in every house that boasted an internet connection. Searching has become 'Googling'. But, what's the future of search? Trying to understand the user's intention? For example, suppose a user, say Joe, searches for ' live cricket scores'. He clicks various links and then comes back to the search site. He then, say, searches for 'Australia cricket'. Wouldn't it be nice if the search engine shows ICC results page as the first result because the user probably wanted to know about australian cricket and its showing in the champions trophy? It would definitely be! Today, few search engines remember a history of all your searches to try and understand what kind of a person you are so search results can be tailored to the individual. But this is not incorporated yet due to lack of solid modelling techniques. This in itself will be a thesis paper for a Ph.D degree so let me stop at this.

While things like what I said above could come in the future, Microsoft has already released a new type of some sort of a futuristic, interactive search engine - http://www.msdewey.com/. This search mashup is based on the Live search engine developed by Microsoft. This reminds me of 'The Time Machine' movie's interactive librarian. But, this search has to go a long way to go to become something similar to the one shown in the movie. Yet, this is a creditable good first effort. I want to see MsDewey evolve into some sort of an answering engine rather than remain a talkative commentator who just rolls out search results. On a tangential note, try searching for few words and after some time, try some filthy words twice or thrice! :-) See the results for yourself! Nice one!!

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Ultimate Cho

I'm a big fan of Cho's Q&A in his weekly magazine, Thuglak. He's an incredible satirist. His answers generally are short and crisp. There's a slang word in Tamil that best describes his answers: "nach". Here's one Q&A I recently found and loved every bit of it:

Q: 'அரசு அளிக்கும் இலவச நிலம் இரண்டு ஏக்கர்தானா என்று அளந்து பார்க்கக்கூடாது; ஒரு ஏக்கராகவும் இருக்கலாம்' - என்று கருணாநிதி கூறியுள்ளாரே?
A: வாக்குறுதி அளிக்கிற வாய்தான் எவ்வளவு வேண்டுமானாலும் நீளலாம்; நிலமெல்லாம் அப்படி நீள முடியாது; ஆகையால் அளந்து பார்க்கக் கூடாது; கலைஞர் சொல்வது சரிதான்.

Don't you love it?

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

MBA Admissions

About this time last year, I was frantically preparing my MBA Applications. Now, this year, at brahma muhurtham - 4AM (yet to hit the sack!) am peacefully writing this blog. No, I'm not doing MBA now. My applications got rejected at 4 out of the 5 universities I applied.

Everything that could go wrong went wrong. Wait... not quite. A successful career with considerable experience (5 years) and solid growth, a masters degree with a very good CGPA, a 7xx GMAT score, and neat recommendations were all the things that went right, infact quite right! Everything else went horribly wrong.

First, I shouldn't have been afraid that I was from a common applicant pool, namely Indian IT guy. It's nothing to be worried about. But I did. So, I cooked up an imaginary story that all I wanted to do was get into automotive manufacturing and hence I'm looking for an MBA to fill that void. WTF? Why automotive manufacturing when all I had previously done related to that field of study was religiously read Overdrive and Autocar magazines? For the record, I cooked up a really well-made story but the question followed by "WTF" above should have hit the admissions team as well. Then, I didn't have the maturity that I have now.

Second, I shouldn't have chosen my colleges based on feel good factor but should have ruthlessly employed my neurons to give me the answer. I applied to the following universities based on the following factors (the 'following factors' follows first!)
1. Ease of essays
2. Breathing space between applications to different universities
3. Reputation as I perceived it
4. Probability of landing a job once I graduate
5. Worst of the worst... the application fee (which varied from $75 to $250)

In the end, I applied to the following universities (which have absolutely no connect to each other if you ignore the 5 factors above).
1. Massachusetts Instt of Technology-Sloan School - LFM Programme
2. Northwestern University - Kellogg School - MMM Programme
3. University of Virginia - Darden
4. Univ of North Carolina - Kenan Flagler School
5. Purdue University - Krannert School

Except for the 5th one everyone sent a regret letter. UNC went one step ahead and said something like, "Our not admitting you doesn't mean that you won't be successful in life. But we measured your success in life based on your application blah blah blah.". I don't care. You didn't admit me. Don't give me any such crappy reasoning. Get lost. That doesn't sum up my attitude then. I lost the battle and life has given nothing to me while I gave more than 200% of what I could do. Am I not good enough? Is the end of the tunnel a dead end?

Life was struggle. I needed some time to recuperate from this. And I got plenty of them fortunately. A couple of months after the schools ditched me, I had an uncontrollable urge to vent out my feelings! So, I ditched my ex-employer and joined Microsoft. This is a welcome break and am actually doing the work that I've always wanted to do. Life is smooth. But my MBA journey might resume when in future if I could really see that I need an MBA to springboard me into the next level. Right now, it's see you later, alligator for MBAs and B-Schools.

Friday, October 06, 2006

The most popular Indian actor in Brazil

I was wasting my time in Orkut to see if there’s someone who I can argue with. I was visiting a Tamil forum and found someone from Brazil interested in knowing about an Indian song that’s fast becoming a super-hit in Brazil, courtesy YouTube. The song is ‘kallUri vaanil kaayndha nilaave…’ from the movie ‘pennin manadhai thottu’. That movie was a super-flop in Tamil and the song is probably unknown to , maybe, even the producer of the movie. But Brazilians seem to have a super-liking for that song. This particular video is one of the all time most viewed video in you tube with more than 1.7 million hits as of today. Looks like they’re fascinated by the colours of Indian dresses and fast steps of prabhu deva, the lead starrer in the movie. People seem to have a liking especially for prabhu deva’s bright yellow shirts and white pants which make a terrific cocktail with a red-hat! Few Brazilians even want someone in India to request Prabhu Deva to give a performance in Brazil. Probably he can try that and get some market back home.

So, the Brazilian made a request in the Tamil forum to understand the meaning of the song. Duly obliging, someone posted a reply with the meaning of the song and I translated another song – ‘take it easy urvasi’ from the movie ‘kaadhalan’ (Music Director: A.R. Rahman) after someone requested a translation for this song. It was real fun translating the song, let me assure you. This particular song is replete with Tamil slangs and stuff only Indians or Tamils can understand. Here’s the translation I gave. Text inside brackets are transliterations while the ones outside are simple translations.

[some humming.... similar to an Islamic prayer]

urvasi urvasi, take it easy urvasi
if you're skinny you don't need a pharmacy (Usi pOla udambirundhaa thEvaiyilla pharmacy)
urvasi urvasi take it easy urvasi
if you're skinny you don't need a pharmacy (Usi pOla udambirundhaa thEvaiyilla pharmacy)

to win in life have a "take it easy" policy (vaazhkkaiyil vellavE take it easy policy)
in your rainbow like life, youth is a fantasy (vaanavil vaazhkkaiyil vaalibam oru fantasy)
urvasi urvasi, take it easy urvasi iiiiiiiiiiiiii....

speak speak rathiye* rathiye*, there are 300,000 words in tamil (pEsadi radhiye
radhiye thamizhil vaarththaigal moonru latcham)
i'm here for you, can you speak at least two? (neeyadi gadhiye gadhiye rendu solladi kuraindha patcham)
to win in life, have a "take it easy" policy (vaazhkkaiyil vellavE take it easy policy)
in your rainbow like life {it’s not used as a simile but as a metaphor}, youth is a fantasy (vaanavil vaazhkkaiyil vaalibam oru fantasy)

if current gets cut when you're watching 'oliyum oliyum'(1), take it easy policy (oliyum oLiyum current pOnaa take it easy policy)
if you fail your exams even after proper study, take it easy policy (ozhungaa padichum fail aa pOnaa, take it easy policy)
if your dad calls you 'dhandach choru'(2), take it easy policy (dhaNdach chOrunnu appan sonnaa, take it easy policy)
if a bald headed goes to tirupati (3), take it easy policy (vazhukkaiththalaiyan thiruppathi pOnaa, take it easy policy)
urvasi urvasi, take it easy urvasi iiiiiiiiiiiiii....

listen to me rathi rathi, human body has 600,000 nerves (kELadi rathiye rathiye udambil narambugal aaru latcham)
do you know my dear lady, where's the love nerve? (theriyumaa sakhiye sakhiye(4), kaadhal narambu endha pakkam)
to win in life have a "take it easy" policy (vaazhkkaiyil vellavE take it easy policy)
in your rainbow like life, youth is a fantasy (vaanavil vaazhkkaiyil vaalibam oru fantasy)


[some humming by a lady...]

there's no love at first sight (kandadhum kaadhal vazhiyaadhu)
and your virginity isn't lost because someone looks at you (kaNgaLaal kaRpum vazhiyaadhu)
there's no cat that's a vegetarian (poonaiyil saivam kidaiyaadhu)
there's no man who's a raaman(5) (aangaLil raaman kidaiyaadhu)
without a revolution no good happens for a woman (puratchigal Edhum seyyaamal pennukku nanmai vilaiyaadhu)
we worship kannagi(6) with a statue(kannagi silai dhaan inguNdu)
but where do you find even a stone statue for seethai(7)?(seethaikku kallil silaiyEdhu?)

even after showing off, if the girl doesn't look at you, take it easy policy (filmu kaatiyum ponnu paakkalennaa, take it easy policy)
if an old lady sits next to you (in a bus), take it easy policy(pakkaththu seattula paatti ukkaandhaa, take it easy policy)
if a festival falls on a Sunday, take it easy policy (pandigaith thEdhi sundayil vandhaa, take it easy policy) - {coz you don't get an extra holiday!}
if your lady love claims you as her brother {after dating is over, that is!}, take it easy policy (azhudha kaadhali annaannu sonnaa, take it easy policy)
urvasi urvasi, take it easy urvasi
if you're skinny you don't need a pharmacy (Usi pOla udambirundhaa thEvaiyilla pharmacy)
to win in life have a "take it easy" policy (vaazhkkaiyil vellavE take it easy policy)
in your rainbow like life, youth is a fantasy (vaanavil vaazhkkaiyil vaalibam oru fantasy)

[Pure Tamil slang, ignore this line!](pagalile colourgal paaraamal, iruttile kannadiththenna payan?)

what's paradise if you don't have the freedom to enjoy? (sudhandhiram mattum illaamal, sorkkame irundhum enna payan?)
what's the use of attending classes if there are no figures(8) (figarugal yaarum illaamal vaguppugal irundhum enna payan?)
what's the use of dancing at 60 when you didn't dance at 20? (irupadhu vayadhil aadaamal aruvadhil aadi enna payan?)

(1)oliyum oLiyum = sound and light, a popular TV programme in the 90s
(2)pardon me, I can't translate dhandach choru, it's a tamil slang which elders in the house use to scold young people when they don't work after college! It actually means that the person is eating food without earning any penny
(3)tirupati is a popular pilgrimage in India where people shave their hair in the head as a token of devotion/love for the God
(4)sakhi = girl friend in pure tamil (not used colloquially)
(5)raman = another mythological character who was well known for his monogamy
(6)kannagi is a popular character in a tamil epic. she's known for single handedly challenging a king
(7)seethai is the wife of 'raaman' we say in point 5 above. she was calm and composed!
(8)figure = a good looking girl - college slang in Tamil Nadu!

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Sh*t! I did it again...

The dream of any software engineer would be to spend the weekdays working less than 8 hours a day and have a blast during the weekends.

Alas! This weekend is a complete sh*t (as if all other weekends are great). This is how I typically spend my weekend and am sure is the case with many bachelor software engineers.

Sat:
11am: Wake up
11:30am: Thinking of brushing my teeth but there's a nice movie is Star Movies
11:50am: Advertisement. Dammit! Okay, will brush.
12pm: Munch on something while watching that movie. Wait, ftv is showing 'photographers', interesting programme! To learn photography, that is!
1pm: Lie on the bed, doze off reading a novel/magazine while also watching TV. The programme 'Megastructures' is awesome! It even beats 'photographers'. What happened to the movie? God knows.
4pm: Wake up realizing that I'm yet to take bath. Watch some Sun TV or some other regional crap
6pm: Get ready to take bath. Switch on the geyser.
6:15pm: Promptly switch off the geyser
7pm: Gosh, I haven't had anything since morning. Let me take bath. Water is cold now.
7:30pm: Not knowing where to have food just gaze around the town in my car (or motorbike).
9:30pm: Back home heavily filled
10pm: Do some soul searching by watching some more AXN (Poorman's!), SS Music, and some Animal planet/Nat Geo stuff.
2am: Worry why I don't get to bed early.
3am: Doze off after forcefully switching off darn the tubelight.

Sun: (It's already sunday in my previous post!)
Worse than Saturday. Get up even late. Call up my friend to see if he wishes to go out. A much lazier bum than me, he wants to sleep. I curse myself and decide to "freak out". Not knowing where to hang out, my car automatically cruises towards office. Play some pool, argue with people in Orkut, haggle with the credit card company over late payment charges, and update this blog at such an unearthly hour! Sh*t, I did it again. I'm sick of it.

Friday, September 22, 2006

Craters

After a long day’s work, I was leaving for home yesterday night at around 12am. The drive is on a 4-lane highway, which merges onto a 6-lane highway. Driving to my home is a breeze and takes less than 5 minutes to reach my home, which is at a distance of about 4.5 kms from my office.

Enter the nuisance.

En route, there’s a big township (Hill Ridge Springs) and as I was leaving for home, I saw someone, with the bandobast of a police, erecting a crater of a speed breaker just before the entrance of this township. Goddamn. Why in the world will one build a speed-breaker in a highway? Speed breakers are the biggest nuisance in India; not even pot-holes. Even the slowest of the slowest driver is harmed by these speed breakers. The need of the hour is *active enforcement* not passive enforcement like these. Given that human labour is far cheaper in India, I can’t just believe why we can’t do ‘active enforcement’.

Here’s a link from Chandigarh traffic police (regarded as the best & stringent in managing city traffic) if you’re interested in reading further.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

IND vs WI

I was in tenterhooks watching India coast to an unbelievable and much awaited victory against West Indies yesterday. Can’t believe India managed to win with a minuscule total. Razor tight fielding, precision bowling, Dravid-Dhoni combo catching, and what not!

But this also got me into thinking why India can’t be as clinical as yesterday in all the matches, especially when the score is 300+. Contrast this with the first match against WI, who won the same. India’s performance can be characterized by wayward bowling, ordinary fielding, etc. What’s wrong? Why the complacency when the score is comfortable to defend?

The best way to tackle this is by making sure the Indian team, while defending, assume that the score is 20% less than the actual score and bowl accordingly. Make the opposition team to struggle to get past 80% of the score and even if the opposition does it, India could still win due to the 20% buffer. On the other hand, if India wins, it’ll be a HUGE victory! I know this is easier said than done but my wild guess is that Australians are already doing something of this sort. Are Greg & Rahul listening?

So, what’s up with me?

So many things happen around me/with me. Have lots of things to talk about other than India! Thought I’ll make this blog my personal public online diary!!

Ciao,

Shiva