Planet Linuxchix.org.in - Linuxchix India Chapter

pursuit-of-happiness-7

2008-08-07T15:52:14+00:00

So what does tat mean?

PoY >> Pursuit of Happyness

And What does that mean? watching it isn’t a big deal.. but..

I only watch it when I am very happy or upset to the core.. I watched this movie yesterday! or ??

Uncertainty!

2008-08-07T10:05:35+00:00

I hate being in uncertain circumstances. Life's hell when everything around you is uncertain...your future, personal life and even the house you are staying in! And in order to avoid this, I spent quite a lot of time last year and good part of this year to figure out exactly what it is that I want from life, so that I do not have to face with uncertainty...I had all the details figured out, of every aspect of my life ! But, alas, life never turns out the way you want it to (Ok nothing new...everyone knows it). As Randy Pausche mentioned, you will always be faced with obstacles- "WALLS". There is a saying, "If you want something very badly, the entire universe will conspire to give it to you". If this is true, and you are not getting what you think you want badly, it implies that in reality you do not want it badly! Now, the thing I do not understand is that "very badly" is quite an objective phrase. You could say that very badly here could mean that "something you will die without" ? Well, need not necessarily be true in all cases, for example, I will not die if I don't get a chance to pursue my higher studies...but I know I want to do it badly!!!

While, I have always believed in "whatever happens, happens for the good", but there are times, when you think - "why didnt that happen..am so unlucky! what happens next? I am in a mess". And thats when you start thinking about why is it happening only to you...why YOU alone ? At that very moment, you are unable to see what is good in all that is going on..and lose the steam to wait for the real good thing to happen.

I wonder if there is one can do to avoid living in uncertainty. Maybe yes, not to just have one plan ,but also plan for alternatives, have buffers, etc etc..all the management fundaes. However, am not quite sure how much of it you can really apply. This requires a bit more thought...

And the most irritating thing about uncertainty is that if it has been brought upon you becuase of the way society functions or your being of a particular gender..ie, due to things that are not under your control! Ofcourse there are things one can do even in those circumstances, face it and fight it..they are the real heores. While those who don't, live a not_so_good life. And to decide where you want to be, while logically easy, tough to pursue.

Ok the above are all jumbled up thoughts in my head. And come to think of it, it all sounds like the words/thoughts of a loser! But maybe its just a passing phase..hope its the later ;-)

|| chix IN Linux ||

2008-08-07T09:11:00+00:00

Controversial ...absolutely!! The name LinuxChix evokes mixed feelings amongst women on our m.lists and one can be sure to be asked (usually by men) "Isnt it derogatory". Not really. In India, English is not the lingua-franca used to harass women...rather the local languages are more colorful, if you must. I have heard atleast a hundred such "indian language words" commonly used to de-humanise women in daily life, which can turn anyone beet red in embarassment. Its something any woman would encounter on Indian streets across any Indian city and its hard to escape it and here context matters a lot, but I digress.

IIRC, the "chix" terminology is all about taking a term with negative connotations and giving it a spin, psychological empowering if you must. It is also a p(h)un twist on UnIX. But most of all, I love the attitude, the zing and pizzaz that the women (and men) bring to the LinuxChix lists, beyond the work they do locally. I just like the aspect of LinuxChix being for women who use, support Gnu/Linux and men who want to support women in computing. Its that simple.

For the most part, we as women get and give respect in the technology space via the work we do. That power is within us, via our actions. It definitely does not come from having the appropriate cultural name or a perfect name. The latter does not exist and IMHO "culture" is a vague and arbitrary term (mis)used in India to control people in the absence of rationality and logical argument.

Having seen Christian "bubulle" Perrier wearing a Debian Women tee, I was curious. He said that was his way of showing support and I thought 'hah, most men would wear a man's tee even if it had the logo of a women's group'. To my surprise NO, Debian-Women had NOT printed men's tee's, so Christian was wearing a women's Tee, albeit one his size. That stuck in my head for a long time and he even posed for snaps with the DW tee. C00L :-). I had given him some IndiChix tee's last year and he wanted to know if we printed men's T's and when I replied in the negative he nodded happily and promised to wear them as is.

At mukt.in, not a single female student questioned the name, the only questions were from men. That says a lot to me. So I had a precondition for giving away tee's to the men - Wear it right now. Nope, its not a present for your girlfriend/wife/friend. If you support women, show it off!! Proudly presenting an IndiChix0r (guy in the grey tee : Ajay Kumar).

Talking of Indichix, the situation is peculiar, we have volunteers for the Indichix Labs in cities where we need sponsors (Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai, Mangalore, etc.. and no volunteers where we have sponsors (Mumbai and Pune). Strange...I always thought space would be a premium in Mumbai. My talk/presentation slides on "women in Libre software communities" is available here.

|| masti @ mukt.in ||

2008-08-07T07:16:00+00:00

I started this entry last thursday, before leaving for HYD to attend mukt.in from Aug1-3 but as is wont, had things to update the draft with. Last week at this time, I was travelling with Hemanth to talk about "women in Libre software communities" at mukt.in, an (un)conference which had talks, demos and sessions on Libre software.

Pavi picked us up and I met another main organiser of mukt.in, Srikrishna Das ; then it was off to OU for the event where I met all the Chennai LUG members. For some reason a lot of people thought i was coming from Chennai. I wonder if it has anything to do with the whois <evil grin>. Attended a talk on Sahana by Ajay a gsoc student, met sudharshan - gsoc for openmoko (yeah I still owe you a chocolate), Shakthi, Narendra and so many folks. In the evening we visited Hussain Sagar lake, got caught in a heavy rain shower. I was more worried about the laptop getting soaked than myself. Instead of T-shirts a nice laptop raincoat would be more useful in India. Ofcourse, getting drenched in the rain was the perfect aggravator for my sinus and i was sniffling through out. Walking on Hyderabad streets at midnight felt safe because I had 10 guys to protect me and we returned with difficulty. I still had to ~~prepare~~ change the slides for my talk on Saturday....doh!!

Not having slept all night didnt make me drowsy and my presentation went well. After seeing Randy's Last lecture I was inspired to follow that style. However speaking to some girls on friday made me realise why it would not work... most people expect slides with information, resource, links, etc... and may not feel like googling for every thing you spoke about. After my talk, we had a BOF on entrepreneurship and post lunch I took off for the museum with Cyberorg (Jigish Gohil). I had hardly finished seeing a few artifacts when they kicked us all out at 5pm sharp. Gee, I wish we Indians followed punctuality elsewhere too. For me a whole day in the museum would not have been enough. The ivory carvings, belgian cut glass, silks, swords and 11th century artifacts were soooo beautiful, with a lots more that I missed when I could not stand and stare, admire and dream about. Next time maybe!! Later Ajay, Hemanth, Warren and me had some chow and returned to base with my nemesis "rain" to keep us company and aggravate my sinus.

On Aug03, the last day, I awoke with a splitting headache with the sinus problem aggravating it. Eating the Chole Krish's mom made (with due credit to A :)), which was just YUMMY and tasted exactly like D makes it, alleviated the headache somewhat. I managed to walk in (albeit late) to a talk on "how to lead an open source project" by Sebastiaan Deckers and also heard Antano Solar talking about getting involved in the libre software community. He had interesting snippets on how to start contributing, following the learning methods with curiosity, isolating concepts and keeping it simple. I love the example of the child he used to illustrate his point and the best part about his presentation was he allowed people from the audience to come on stage and share the limelight with him. That is something few speakers do and definitely worth emulating imho.

A special word of thanks to all the OU volunteers and the mukt.in team. They did a fantastic job of pulling it together. Minus the rains, things would have been perfect. I had tons of masti with people who were absolute strangers till then, just loved the rapport and spirit each person brought, not to mention all the laughs we shared. FUNtastic, will-do-it-again !!

For those who like visuals, here are some pictures :

http://www.shakthimaan.com/Mambo/gallery/album49

http://picasaweb.google.com/sudhasiva2006/MuktIn2008?authkey=4IrfOLkuDMs

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/hhemanth/MuktIn02

archu

2008-08-06T15:44:11+00:00

I have always wondered how history helps.. anyway its ‘over and out’ but I was dumb.. history is better than any high profile novel ever existed.. its actually the truth in most of the cases, that makes it more interesting..

I am not gud at history in school days which involved jus remembering years and eras of some unknown kings or empires.. But lately .. much engrossed to Russian/European dictators.. and tried to read everything about them.. Knowing how things “were” was/is always exciting to me in the first place. Be it Karl Marx or Hitler, everyone impressed me by being the way they are, no wonder I watch history channel lot more than SS music!

So, wats new? Now the latest addiction looks like Einstein’s Relativity.. trying to relate it to myself and the world around me, will that work? or did he find something which is not useful (oops he s a nobel prizeee!) atleast for non metric person like me! So was checking out what he got to say about relativity, found many books in all ranges both pages and price too.. ! Poor me, can just read the pdfs I get online.. one book looks gud, costs 800 bucks though.. will see if the pdfs are real interesting, I might get the original one too, looks like its better than the Davinci code

Was wondering why the Physics teachers never tell students about things like this, which brings interest in the subject not merely some planck’s constant problems & solutions which fetches marks in High school!

wanted1

2008-08-05T20:48:51+00:00

|| an idea grows ||

2008-08-05T03:06:00+00:00

Besides the pleasant weather another way to recognise I am in Bangalore is when there is a powercut. And what timing, precisely when i am working on the machine or need to fix dinner. Nice try BESCOM. </end infrastructure rant>

So far the responses to yesterday's request have been good, got some mails and an interesting comment. There was a request for Indichix labs in Mangalore and Bangalore BUT I never knew it would be so tough to get space in Bangalore. That is a surprise for sure.

I also got an office space for Pune and found a mentor in Chennai, Sudarsan Santiappan, who's comment had pertinent questions which may help us evaluate things. My reply to his comment was so long that I think its best converted into another blog post as I was repeating most of the following in each individual mails. Am I lazy or wot ^_^ ?

So here goes...

SSudarsan: If I understand correctly, this is typically equivalent to setting up a company which would target to deliver OSS. In the process of delivery, the team gets matured as OSS contributors.

Yes, in a sense its comparable, but the differentiator is none would earn a salary as we are not-for-profit :-) Jokes apart, for example, the goal is NOT to learn/create an "Indian" or a "pink" distro. Instead mentors can teach about the dependency cycle, package management, packaging across platform, and help to improve/develop/maintain the existing distro's, bug squashing/patching, and so on... Since LinuxChix is distro-agnostic, any experienced volunteer from the Debian, Ubuntu, Kde, Gnome, Python, Suse, etc ... communities can conduct talks, demos, take live sessions to encourage IndiChix. Most importantly sharing and learning in a group is fun and we develop new skills besides the knowledge gained during the learning process, plus the peer recognition and meeting nice people. So coolness factor is high !!

SSudarsan: The best places to start such an endeavor are the following;
1. Houses that can accommodate few computers and people with Internet support.
2. Computer centers of Schools and Colleges, which can hired at subsidized cost.
3. Tie-ups with Software Learning centers.

Cafe Coffee Day is not exactly the best venue for meetings nor conducive to learning packaging. So if we can provide an environment where they can come during weekends to learn for a few hours it would be a worthwhile experiment. In a nutshell the challenges and pressures are different and yet similar across different Indian cities; Also we are not-for-profit and have no inflow of revenue so hiring is a long shot at the moment, unless we find a generous sponsor

SSudarsan: One needs to have the following but not limited to; to sustain such an endeavor are the following:
0. Understanding the Vision

Contribute upstream. To add and expand, the moot idea is to reduce the challenges, as the knowledge divide for women is higher. With this experiment we can try to bridge this with help from like-minded people. Unlike other developed nations, in India, we have a number of women working in the proprietary software industry, which may be equivalent to men, but yet we have few (maybe around 100+) giving back to the Libre community. I met many newbies who are confused about:

+ where to start contributing, how to start, etc...

+ self-doubts about being good enough,

+ lack of knowledge about existing projects, or

+ Even wonder what to do at projectA, does my skill set match, do i have enough experience, etc...

SSudarsan: 0a. Are you going to do service ?

Service ---> "upstream" projects.

SSudarsan: 0b. Are you going to develop free s/w for the community ?

Absolutely, YES. Creating islands of excellence seems counter-productive.

SSudarsan: 0c. Are you going to commercialize the s/w developed ?

Not sure I understand what you mean but ...; I am no lawyer but I suppose; the existing license of the upstream project will prevail. This may change depending on the project too. :-8

SSudarsan: 0d. Are you having enough money flow to sustain this operation ?

As mentioned earlier, we are not-for-profit and generating revenue is not exactly on the top of the list right now. Besides the legal implications there are enough challenges, as is, to solve

SSudarsan: 0e. Who are the beneficiaries ?

Any (wo)man interested in helping and contributing to IndiChix, upstream projects, sponsors (you get to evaluate potential dedicated, hardworking technically adept women).

SSudarsan: 1. A Business model to sustain software development. Preferably a revenue model for sustained operation covering inflow and outflow.
2. A team of mentors/managers to train contributors and execute projects.
3. A detailed plan for people, projects, revenue in terms of growth and prospects.

and more...

If such a system is setup in Chennai, I would be willing offer mentorship.

The revenue model is too early imho, as
We (are a not-for-profit org and it has legal implications. Currently we will have to find a way to survive on sponsors aka charity. Thanks for offering to mentor in Chennai.

To subscribe to IndiChix list, visit the list http://mailman.linuxchix.org/mailman/listinfo/indichix

Birthday Boys!

2008-08-04T17:22:35+00:00

Wishing three good friends many happy returns of the day....

All Photos by ramkrsna

|| libre labs for indichix ||

2008-08-04T11:43:00+00:00

A few weeks ago I had asked if there was any IT firm in India willing to host Free Software Labs just for women ? Many people wrote and asked what it would entail and I had suggested:

#1. Requirements :
1.1 Libre computer labs equipped with machines and an Internet connection.
1.2 Centrally located within city limits.

#2. Goals :
2.1 These labs ensure a static space so women dont have to travel far or to lonely places for local meets.
2.2 It would enable local FSF/GNU volunteers to introduce and teach them packaging, translation, bug-squashing, etc...
2.3 Increase contribution to upstream projects like Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Gentoo, Suse, KDE, Gnome, etc...

#3. Do's and Dont's :
3.1 Not meant to be used for personal use (downloading movies/songs, chatting, etc...)
3.2 Currently restricted to women participants.

#4. Managing and growing the Idea :

Managing and decision making (how many days a week, who will talk, what talks, etc....) is left entirely to the women volunteers in the city.

4.1 Mumbai : Although I had started out looking for space in Bangalore, I have an interesting proposal from an MNC in Mumbai who are willing to lend space, infrastructure etc). BUT at this point, I would like to know if chix in Mumbai are willing to take this further.I would not be able to do that from another city and neither am I interested in micro-managing things. I would prefer if local chix took initiative in this regard. So is anyone up to the challenge ?

4.2 Bangalore : Currently, machines are available but space is a challenge. At Mukt.in a few alternatives were suggested so let me see how things pan out.

4.3 Delhi : Not much except I found a committed volunteer (again at mukt.in) who is willing to help out with this. Any Delhi-chix interested ?

4.4 Other cities: Please reply to the list if you want a similar lab in your city.

The whole idea is centered around sharing and learning together. With a systematic effort we may reduce and hopefully eliminate the "how do I start" which is the common question every newcomer has. That said,this needs your co-operation and depends entirely on your interest levels.

So I hope we pull this off as a team !! Do add your thoughts /suggestions to improve it.

Thanks.

/end mail......................

That was the mail I had sent a little earlier to the Indichix mailing list. I just came back from Hyderabad today morning, where I was attending mukt.in from Friday. To my utter surprise things fell into place at and I have a lot to blog about, the event and the fun I had :-P

Happy Friendship Day!

2008-08-03T02:54:44+00:00

Its great to walk with a friend

Fantastic to do silly things together!

I have been very lucky when it comes to friends. Been blessed with some really really fantastic bunch of friends...each of whom has been there for me when I most needed them. A very Happy Friendship Day to the smaller MOFFIA and ofcourse the bigger JANTA :-) You guys have been wonderful !!!

I got the above pics as a forward from a close friend. Rather cute...

archu

2008-08-02T21:22:30+00:00

Woke up an hr back.. was thinking wat to do.. jus checked time.. not bad.. i had slept almost 6 hrs..

So something was not right.. oops.. I din have my dinner and looks like everyone are sleeping.. hmm.. ok jus washed up and chked dining table.. there was this new bread pack.. kool.. went inside toasted and had it with some onions.. Paati woke up.. took her to washroom… read a review abt Kuselan frm news paper and ate my dinner…

Might eat something.. sorry will read something now

Planning to go to office tomoro..

My new cell

2008-08-01T06:08:56+00:00

My friends find me a weird character...not only coz I dont go to movie theaters, but also because I don't use cell phones...Ok I know you are probably surprised at reading this (not if you know me). I used a cell phone for two months when at college and found it to be a nuisance. Somehow, started using it again a couple of months back. But note, I still had not given my cell number to a majority of my friends. I would always leave it in my bag, and carry it around only sometimes..ppl would call me and I would not answer! However, I still had it. Then, on a not_so_fine_day, I managed to lose it. Thankfully it was a 6 yr old piece :-)

Now I was without my cell. And that is when I realized that no matter I was not using it as much as people around me do, I had actually got used to it. In the back of my mind I knew that if I needed, I could get in touch with anybody anytime ! And now without it, I felt quite disconnected. I felt the need to have it back. And lo...I actually went out to pick up a new one for myself! (I really can't believe that I did that). I set the budget low...I got a Nokia 6805 (I guess once a Nokia, always a Nokia..ok am not really serious about that one!).

Its a nice one..though a little bulky..but a good feature set for the money I paid for it! Found the reception to be pretty good..besides that, has a basic camera, speaker phone, fm radio, mp3 player, bluetooth support, front panel display, wide screen. The keys are also nice and easy to work with. The UI is pretty decent as well. But what I didn't like is that if I have to disconnect a call, I can't do that very easily. The moment I flip the phone open, the call is answered !! I am not quite sure about it yet as I have not done much finding out...but if it is true, its rather weird.

On moving to KDE4

2008-07-31T23:56:51+00:00

I am a Gnome suer. Have religiously stuck to it for all these years. It is not that I did not venture out into the KDE domain..I did. And the first time I had, I had found it quite uncomfortable to work with. But, with so much talk about KDE4.0 and now KDE4.1, I was kinda tempted to give it a try (I know am late in doing this !!).

So I finally installed KDE4.1 on my Ubuntu Gutsy installation. I am no good at analyzing or commenting on piece of software, however, here goes my first impression...look and feel-wise...

Too large Icons: The icons on the desktop are too huge by default (Or is it only my particular setting I do not know) !! The desktop looked all cluttered and not a least bit appealing...and visual appeal is the first thing you would look for.. I was rather disappointed !

O2: In this default theme, the icons besides being larger, also have a shadow of sorts which makes the desktop look really ugly. You right click on the file, the terminology of the menu list options is quite different. Normally, you would have options pertaining to the file, ie, file related operations. However, the list here is : Icon settings, desktop configuration, alignment, add or remove widget, etc. Not sure if it is the same in earlier KDE versions.

Not that the above are not configurable..like with all other things, these also are! This was just my first impression :-) Frankly, I somehow do not feel encouraged to spend the time and configure the entire desktop.

So what did I like thus far ? Hmm...can't think of anything...maybe I am missing something ?!?!

Nevertheless, there is no denying that some of the best apps are available on KDE! Just that I use them on gnome desktop..like soooo many others!

Post publish edits: I must admit that I have not read all the facts on KDE4. varun just informed me that one of the idea is to have no icons on the desktop! But since I already had lots of stuff lying on my desktop, I probably saw the undesirable result. So, I think the right thing to do here is to read the facts first and go back and do the settings...

“Open Dream” come true

2008-07-31T17:06:54+00:00

Remember my post about Yahoo! ? Its title was “Life at its best”.. Today it was a dream come true for me since I got a job offer from Yahoo! Research and Development. Well, I have been dreaming about this company ever since I wanted to work, concentrating on the skills that Y! looks for, took a lot of risk waiting for Y! to arrive on campus and now.. its worth all those efforts. With God’s grace and good guidance, i got through.

The selection process consisted of a written test, 2 technical interviews, a programming round and a HR interview. The best thing about the overall process is the emphasis on thinking BIG. Y! seldom asks memory based questions. All they need is the right approach to the right problem at the right time. It was a great learning experience. Looking forward to working at Yahoo!

This is how i feel now - “YAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOO”!!!!!

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

2008-07-31T10:21:01+00:00

cheezo pointed me to this lecture by Prof Randy Pausch at CMU. This lecture was called the "The Last Lecture", as professor was suffering from an pancreatic cancer. Inspite of all the treatment given, he was told he had only 3 to 6 more months. He died on July 25, 2008.

Its an insiprational lecture, where professor presents insights into how he anaged to achieve all his childhood dreams, how one can enable others to achieve their dreams and some of the lessons he learnt in life. He comes across as a wonderful character, cheerful and full of energy. Couldn't believe when he actually did some push-ups in front of the audience!

My take backs from the lecture (there would be no point if I had not learnt anything from it ;-))

"Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted"..how true !!
Prof. on obstacles (ref to as brick walls) that tend to discourage you from following your dreams: "Brick Walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things". So if the drive to achieve something is too strong, the better the chances of someone breaking the wall. He goes on to add that, the obstacles are there to keep the "others" away and to just let you in...so dont lose focus and keep pursuing !!
If you don't like someone, then you probably do not know him/her enough (or long enough). Everyone has a good side..you just have to wait to see it show.

Hope I have not missed out on anything...On the whole, an amazing lecture ! A must watch...

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

|| RIP ||

2008-07-28T07:14:00+00:00

Today morning I was told "check out the 'the last lecture' by Randy, its inspiring." and I asked "do you mean randy pausch? hey ..................". So I dug out the mail he wrote to me some years ago :

Yes, the Alice system is completely free, and you can download it from www.alice.org . The version using the characters from "the Sims" will also be completely free, as a public service from Carnegie Mellon University.

Rest In Peace Randy !!

|| terror trail ||

2008-07-27T16:43:00+00:00

Starting with Bangalore, terrorism moved to Ahmedabad yesterday with 17 blasts leaving 45 people dead and hundreds injured. Now it has moved to Surat where two cars laden with explosives were found. Explosives were found in Tripura too and violence continues in Jammu.

A witness claims to have seen the suspect and the police managed to track the IP address which the terrorists had used to send emails before the blasts, mainly to take credit for the blasts and warning the media, the government, etc...

The police raided the Mumbai flat but frankly have we learnt anything from similar attacks in the past and why have there been no conclusive breakthroughs? We dont have properly trained forensic experts, much less proper intelligence collection. According to experts terrorism in India is homegrown and not just via insurgents across the border. Reports that Indian terrorist activities are funded by UK charities adds a whole new dimension to it.

The moot point remains - Justice and Prevention, which unfortunately we sorely lack, if reader comments are anything to go by. The terrorists get the publicity they crave whilst nobody cares about the families who lose their loved ones. When the ink dries they are forgotten and remain unsung in the sands of time. Meanwhile our political leaders indulge in mud-slinging rhetorics 'n grab those media bytes.

SCHOOL DAYS

2008-07-26T17:07:30+00:00

Today I had a grand meeting with my school friends (of Carmel) @ City Centre at 11 a.m. This time it was something special as I got to see some of my friends after four years and friends from Bangalore and Kolkata were also present to fully enjoy the time. We first went to Suhatta ,had a round throughout the building. A competition was going on there where people had to simply make fun of themselves (rather fool of themselves ). We simply laughed (actually everyone was laughing) at the participants who had to tell the word “TATA” in one breath in their own style. Then we went to FOOD MART and had our lunch there. One funny thing was that we discovered a new item there ” chicken ghandari” but our luck was not good to taste it. We were total nine (many missed due to previously planned schedules) and the whole time was spent on laughing and cracking jokes one after the other. Its always nice to share some old memories of our school days and specially the pranks we made there and the punishments we got. I don’t know when we will meet again and how but I will always cherish those days and wish if we could study together in the near future.

Life is ssoo STRANGE

2008-07-26T05:07:18+00:00

I was completely unaware of the blasts in Bangalore when we started planning for a beautiful Friday evening. The perfect weather and good mood had an amazing effect on planning. Its only after stepping out, I realized that LIFE has its own plans for each of us..

I was shell shocked when i came to know about the bomb blasts, more so because of the multiple blasts on Mysore Road. It is very painful to see innocent people living in namma Bengaluru suffering this way. The jammed network added to my “all-time-high” tension. Calling up my family and friends and ensuring that they r safe cheered me up to some extent. In the mean while, the count of blasts kept shooting up and my concern for my loved ones raised exponentially.

Amidst such confusion and fear, LIFE indeed gave me a great evening.. A drive in city’s heart when the entire city was gripped by fear was very daring!!! Long beautiful discussions, playing pool and good snacks.. everything seemed to be too good to believe in such a situation.

We never know what can happen next moment.. All we can do is hope for the best and keep giving our best to LIFE

|| composer - uthukadu venkatasubbaiyer ||

2008-07-26T03:33:00+00:00

Uthukadu Venkatasubbaiyer was born in 1700 in the village "uthukadu" in Kerala, which was prefixed to his name "venkatasubbaiyer". His compositions were mainly on SriKrishna, his ishta devata but he did not incorporate any mudra or signature in his songs.

He did compose kritis on Ganesha (sri vignarajam bhaje | todi | sanskrit) and also a set of navavarna krithis. Composed in raga Kanada - 22 kharaharapriya janya, the sublime "Alaipayuthe" is set to Adi Talam in Tamil.

|| butterflies are free ||

2008-07-25T17:32:00+00:00

The look of surprise on Goldie's face as she discovers Edward is blind (*) has remained etched in my memory since I saw the movie at the age of 10 years. The the impact Edwards character had on me was so much larger that as soon as the movie ended I rushed to my shelf, tidied it up, rearranged my books, prompting my Mom to wonder why the sudden need for tidiness at midnight.

Closing my eyes I tried to find books/stuff with poor success. Training my reflexes took time and slowly with practice I could distinguish between sizes, shapes, textures, and lernt to listen to the sixth sense so to speak. I was amazed how the blind even lived their life knowing hard it was for me to take a step without crashing into stuff. As a sighted person i could never gain the sixth sense the visually impaired have but it has helped me in many ways at the very least it has taught me to be observant. I have still not succeeded in counting steps, remembering distances between objects and if blind-folded would still struggle to make my way around the house without bumping into objects. That is not the point.

Moot point of writing this is to highlight how we ignore a part of society that is differently abled from us. They are mostly kept away from mainstream society. I dont remember seeing a single blind kid studying with me in school, forget the higher levels or even at the workplace. Its almost like they dont exist, but they do, and last year a friend had told me about Rakum.org and i decided to check it out. It being the middle of an academic year, I waited for the next year and planned to teach computers, libre software precisely.

(*) Gross as the word "blind" is, people dont intend meanness or nastiness when they use the word 'blind'. Reality is few folks in that school (or even across India) would understand the term "visually impaired". I doubt if the kids themselves are taught the difference, probably because such subtlity and awareness has yet to reach the roots.

|| bomb blasts in bangalore ||

2008-07-25T09:30:00+00:00

I was wondering why I was getting so many "are you ok?" sms [Yeah, I am OK], since my phone was jammed and I could not make any calls nor internet access. That is when I came to know that there were 7 bomb blasts in Bangalore in the afternoon today and the police opine that the terror outfits SIMI and LeT are behind it.

Terrorist killings continue in Srinagar (capital of J&K) and in Jammu despite the J&K govt having been arm-twisted into withdrawing the order (40 ha land granted to the Amarnath board) amidst the strikes and attacks, or was this just coalition political gimmicks.

The fact is the Shrine board took years to get permission for the land as is wont when a country calls itself secular because it has for decades used the taxpayers money (RS.280 crores annually) to fund Hajj (pilgrims are flown for free to Mecca from Mumbai and Delhi by both national carriers, Air-India and Indian Airlines). Now some local Christian churches want the same concessions that the Indian government gives Hajj pilgrims [from DhimmiWatch (Indians use the word kafir so the word dhimmi to denote non-muslims is new)].

Its tragic when innocent citizens lose their lives in bomb blasts across Indian cities but there continues to be political apathy in taking firm action against terrorism. This like many other crimes is going to be yet another statistic since the Indian governments has always lacked the political will power to bring criminals to justice and highlights our non-existent justice system.

|| raga - gambhira nattai ||

2008-07-25T08:35:00+00:00

The last I blogged about music was two months ago about the time I had stopped attending class. Having resumed class few days ago, let me start out with the raga we had performed on stage.

Raga GambhiraNattai is a classic belonging to the 36 mela janyam with Arohan : S G M P N S and Avarohan : S N P M G S

SRI_VIGNARAJAM_BHAJE in KhandaChapu by SriUthukadu Venkatasubbaiyer in Sanskrit was the song but minus the jatis, which is partly due to lack of time and largely due to lack of listener interest. Our teacher keeps urging us to practice jatis on our own but half the time all we indulge in masti. Music is one unspoken language and does not need words, a glance, a half smile, raised eyebrow, change in pitch with the right nuance can convey a lot resulting in a burst of laughter. I missed it so badly that we had a blast early this month if broken glass bulbs are anything to go by.

|| indian silicon valley ||

2008-07-24T21:18:00+00:00

I've had problems adjusting to life in the Indian (version of the American) silicon valley before although things like infrastructure have improved considerably, in the negative that is.

I find the load shedding is much more regular than power supply. Boycotting summer school holidays to Chennai seems tame when compared to the current situation where a weekday gets an average of 8 hrs load shedding (9am to 5pm) very regularly and weekends its 7am to 8pm ; but now they want to increase load-shedding till August. Nice well-planned move.

I am no apologist for capitalism but do remind me to invite Medha Patkar and Arundhati Roy to live and endure the after-effects, rather than indulging in grabbing media bytes by protesting against dams and every infrastructure development project that happens. Which is less than what I can say about the Indian elected representatives wasting time and burning tax-payers money in mindless political one-upmanship games. This when there is acute shortage of essential goods and a breakdown of communication services but our ministers are unaware of ground reality. What happens in everyday life is reflected in a larger canvas for the world to see. Not surprising that.

Looking at the situation in gest, I could assume and imagine scenarios about being in an empty bungalow (now i wish it was, but well...) and jump out of my skin each time the cell rings. Maybe improve my skills in the art of making shadows in the candle light with sound-effects, or scream in fear when a door opens/closes accompanied with a c-r-e-a-k-y sound for the ultimate realistic effect. Now all I need is to get meself a white sari and walk around the house aimlessly holding the lit candle. Gotta give that yester-year actress some competition. If only I could remember her name now.

If you thought power is the only problematic quibble point next to the favorite whipping horse called inflation, then think again. The 4 days water cut last week, including a dead phone connection for 10 days, no internet (if i am lucky its an hour in the morning), was enough fuel for a verbal/blog diarrhea about the major metro which was gonna rival an American west coast ...gah !

Books of the month...

2008-07-21T11:04:59+00:00

(i) Perry Mason and the Case of the Horrified Heirs - Erle Stanley Gardner
(ii) Perry Mason and the Case of the Half-Awakened Wife- Erle Stanley Gardner
(iii) Sushi For Beginners - Marian Keyes
(iv) Perry Mason and the Case of the Duplicate Daughter - Erle Stanley Gardner
(v) Perry Mason and the Case of the Moth-Eaten Mink - Erle Stanley Gardner
(vi) Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married - Marian Keyes
(vii) Red Planet - Robert A. Heinlein
(viii) The Best of Gerald Durrell - Compiled by Lee Durrell

I've been a major Perry Mason fan ever since I was introduced to him as a bedridden, twelve-year old, bothered by um, Jaundice! I thought I'd read all the PM's I could lay my hands on and I've no clue whether I've already read them before. I enjoyed them despite the mystery behind my amnesia :)
As for Marian Keyes, I'd recommend her to anyone feeling down in the dumps or enjoying quirky romcoms. Cute and funny.
Heinlein's g** - there's really nothing more I can add to that. Except maybe that I love Lazarus Long more :P
I always enjoy British humor and anything involving wildlife - Gerry combines the two and is a laugh riot.

archu

2008-07-20T17:12:31+00:00

It can be a different experience , if you are not afraid of so cald dark nite creatures.. vampires, ghosts etc..

I just listen to the latest fav song, just thinking what I have gone through these days.. one single word stands out.. friends!

So wat it is like to miss your friends when they are so near, yet away.. last few years hav gone very fast and just now I got some vetti time to think it.. For everyone college life would rather end up as fun, romance, or even with simple sadness ( am not talking about the arrear papers LOL) but I am just left with some memories of many ppl, but still I am not able to figure out those are happy ones or sad ones.. but it always feels good to remember ppl in later part of life.. no no am not in my sixties..

I joined a college and was put up in college hostel… Hmm… it was a great life.. and the one I laughed lots than ever in my life. It was a place of everything ( i mean insects too) but I loved it.. be it scaring the gal sleeping next to me or sleeping in hostel when classes are in progress without anyones knowledge or making the place dirty with all my assignment papers.. or acting innocent for something I did which screwed up seniors who are searching my roomies for it everything just looks like dream. Now all my room mates in the hostel are not in touch with me, but I still keep track of them through some source or the other.. Not that I don want to break the ice.. but there is no ice .. but lot of mist which makes people think something is there, even if it is not there ..

Why all this flashback suddenly… out of the blue one of my frend (x roomie) cald up and told another roomie s carrying and they (some bunch of new found frens) paying visit to her. And told me to be in touch.. No idea why ppl are calling up now, though I have an accessible phone number for the past 3 years, that too same number.. may be she also sat alone in dark sometime recently.. ! ??

And one more frend of mine was having bday in jan 20th, so just sent a bday wish.. but got a response which meant surprise + advice. May be people forget that everyone grow up sometime and can also have some stuff within skull to think abt.. Then I finally understood one point that whenever someone wishes for gud, then we should accept rather than contemplating with past and it hurts the otherside badly when wishes are thrashed or questioned.

Was watching dasavatharam with appa today.. and there was this once scene in which one char n the movie tells.. “Watever happens..! Life must go on!”.. I was suddenly getting the point about everything.. watever happy/sad .. whether love/hate.. life must go on.. since we might be of some help to someone.. someday..! and it might be anyday.. which could turn out to be a gud day

archu

2008-07-20T15:12:28+00:00

Jus chked a forward and looks like its gud to b born in oct .. atleast for me 80% stuff holds true.. interesting..

OCTOBER

Loves to chat
Loves those who loves him/her
Loves to takes things at the centre
Attractive and suave
Inner and physical beauty
Does not lie or pretend
Sympathetic
Treats friends importantly
Always making friends
Easily hurt but recovers easily
Bad tempered
Selfish
Seldom helps unless asked
Daydreamer
Very opinionated
Does not care of what others think
Emotional
Decisive
Strong clairvoyance
Loves to travel, the arts and literature
Soft-spoken, loving and caring Romantic
Touchy and easily jealous
Spendthrift and easily influenced
Easily lose confidence

The TOEFL score...

2008-07-19T12:34:13+00:00

I took the TOEFL last month and got the scores yesterday.
Reading section - 30/30
Listening Section - 29/30
Speaking Section - 26/30
Writing Section - 30/30
---
Total - 115/120

I messed up the Speaking section and was actually expecting worse scores - I never finished the last task leave alone conclude it. I was in the middle of a word in the middle of a sentence ("...gener...") when time ran out. Am happy about the results though, especially since I had no time for preparation with the summer internship, the IMSc lectures and the physics exams.
I gave myself a treat with a trip to Pizza Hut and a movie ("Kismat Konnection") - the former was great while the latter sucked :)

archu

2008-07-18T15:56:55+00:00

Totally Original.

Sometimes people can’t understand you at all… You have your own way to live your life, so your main talent probably would be something arty and creative, like writing, painting or playing music. Some advice? Don’t EVER try to follow the others, you are yourself and if you stop being yourself, all your magic will be gone.

Wondering wats this ?? Some quiz I took online.. boring so posting it over here to bore others

|| launchpad re-launched ||

2008-07-16T16:33:00+00:00

Rinchen just announced the new theme that LP has got. They have the nice new logo from the contest winner too :) As i write this, I logged in once using an openid page and not the regular launchpad.net page.

The new theme is visible only to the beta testers so i cant blog much about what i like and dislike since that will keep changing too over time. But I noticed the favicon for the news page (see the url) has the old logo but the help page ~~has the shiny new colored hexacon on the left, next to the url. So I~~ filed a bug and its fixed (update). Now its time for some shuteye before the morning run.

|| mysql event ||

2008-07-16T12:59:00+00:00

Sun Microsystems is organizing a half-day event to popularize MySQL in Bangalore on 2008jul29. Details of the event are here.

Eatouts in Madras...

2008-07-16T10:48:17+00:00

Over the summer (my so-called vacation of about a month and half), I checked out a number of eatouts, some for the first time, some offering me an, um, seat for the n-th time... Here's the list:
(i) Funk Jazz - Besant Nagar
They serve the best donuts in Madras-absolutely divine! I'll make sure I pay them a visit everytime I'm home. I'm not a hotdog fan, so I'd rather not say anything, but it was quite relished by my sister and kai_dranzer.
(ii) Uncle Jones - Besant nagar
It's a unit of PUPIL (pun unintended). I didn't quite like their soggy Mexican(?) burger but the Spaghetti with cheese balls was pretty decent. I probably won't return unless am really desperate or something!
(iii) Tangerine - Poes Garden (I think!)
I've been wanting to check this place out for years and had a great time with kai_dranzer again. They specialize in sizzlers - which I'd recommend if one is a meat guzzler, which I'm not (and end up ordering cottage cheese steak everywhere)! Filling for one person - served with jacket potatoes and veggies. I was in heaven after their Death by Chocolate. Ah, THAT is bliss...
(iv) Kabul - TTK Salai
Apparently they specialize in food from the "frontier provinces". I didn't notice anything unusual on the menu that your usual "Tandoori" takeaway or dhaba doesn't mention and service was pathetically slow. But what they served, they served well... In all, decent food at indecent prices.
(v) Cream Centre - R.A.Puram
Apparently, it's one of those dozen restaurants that are being imported from Bombay and other metros. I read some really contradicting reviews on this one - but I really loved the food. Well, they couldn't pronounce what the menu read but I'm ok with that.Really. I'd really recommend this place to anyone who loves cheesy food. And their Sizzling Chocolate Fudge Brownie was a show by itself. Lipsmacking!
(vi) Gallopin' Gooseberries - Besant Nagar
I've been here a coupla times and the only reason I keep returning is because I like the grub. Uncomplicated but slightly expensive fare- but the portions sorta compensate.
(vii) Kafeoke - Valmiki Nagar
This was some theme cafe - you could record your music (um, karoake) and grab a bite doing so. The only problem being , it's quite literal - they happen to offer only a bite and that's bad in itself for the price one pays, it so happens that the bite didn't taste all that nice! Nice place, by the beach, neatly done with comfortable sofas on the terrace (I'd have become claustrophobic eating on the sofas in the studio) but it's not my fault I went only for the food!
(viii) Anjappar - Nungambakkam , (ix) Amma - T.Nagar
Eatouts serving Chettinad cuisine. Simple fare at decent rates. Tastes delicious - especially if meat's what you desire. The grub for vegetarians at Anjappar's is decent (such a thing doesn't exist at Amma's) but you'd be nuts to walk into these chettinad restaurants if you don't eat meat.
(x) The Dhaba - Nungambakkam (part of the Karaikudi chain)
Average fare. Much better than Dhabba Express. I hate it when I have to eat my food in the dark. This place could definitely do with a few lights. It's not like people come here for candlelight dinners or something, is it?
(xi) Subway - Besant Nagar, Abirami Mall
I love their Paneer Tikka Sub. There's nothing more I'm gonna say about it. I don't like burgers or hotdogs, but I'm always (ALWAYS) game for a sub (only at Subway, though:)
(xii)Barista - besant Nagar, (xiii) Java Green - Indira Nagar
Hassle free coffee pub. I prefer this to Barista and most definitely to Coffee Day (I outright detest the latter)! Actually, rather than exorbitantly priced coffees full of froth, I generally go for the short eats that these have. And if thirsty, PLEASE don't opt for the iced teas at CCD - you'll probably have to wait for the ice to melt, which takes eternity even in scorching Madras in summer (I gave up midway and just traipsed to my aunt's house for water, on my first and last occasion)
(xiv) Eden - Besant Nagar
Their Corn-on-Toast and Mushroom-on-Toast were better than ever. Their fried babycorn was scrumptious too - battered crispily (um, pun unintended) on the outside, munchy on the inside with just the right condiments. I'm a cheese freak and I'll gobble down anything even vaguely creamy. So the rest were typical Eden fare :)
(xv) Ratna Cafe - Velachery
My idea of perfect bliss - jumping into a pool after a game of tennis. That hardly ever happens but nothing can beat satisfying the grumbling tummy after a swim. I tend to be rather ravenous and this was a night time swim on a balmy summer night and our hosts took us marching to the nearest eatout. It's utter blasphemy if you enter RC and don't try their sambhar-idly! Or their masala dosa... Simply divine. Oozing with ghee.
On a side note - my favorite for a masala dosa is actually Annapoorna in Coimbatore. Their Tomato Masala Dosa is simply unbeatable!
(xvi) Saravana Bhavan - Mylapore
I WON'T say anything about this. Here's a review I wrote about eatouts in Madras aeons ago and SB is featured there too.

So, thereby rests a stomach!

archu

2008-07-15T19:49:38+00:00

After reading abt the complete hype created by this album, becas of ARR.. I downloaded the songs 2 days back.. and I havent stopped hearing the songs yet… not to say am his great fan.. but also try to look from other end how can a person create music in different ways, and make a “know nothing” person like me also to get into intricacies and follow.. Great..

Coming back to the Album..

I like only 2 songs in the album..

Chinnama > Benny Dayal, Chinmayi

Naan Eppodhu > Reena Bharadwaj

Both the above songs are penned by Pa.Vijay , second one is frm a Hindi movie… forgot the movie name.. song comes like “Yeh Rishta kya kehna” or something like tat.. No idea why he took tat song.. but I luv the music in both the above songs.., and thats wat it matters at the end

|| new look ||

2008-07-15T14:28:00+00:00

Nah...not me, its my blog that has got a new theme. If you've been subscribing to my blog then a change in the blog feed is in order. The new feed is : http://www.svaksha.com/feed/rss2

Update : The "no comment" means no comments have been posted. Comments are open, i have not blocked it, atleast not yet

|| mukt.in ||

2008-07-15T10:17:00+00:00

Some days ago the indichix list got a mail on mukt.in. Here is the excerpt....

Mukt.in, a Libre Software event is being held at Osmania University, Hyderabad on 1-3rd August 2008. The 'Call For Participation' for 2008 is now online and speakers can register here. Attendees are requested to register on the site.

The feature list for 2008 includes :
* Student talks
* Student project Exhibitions
* Birds Of Feather Discussions
* Stalls exhibiting different open source technologies
* Prizes for local Open source contributors

You can volunteer for the event by adding your contact details and skillsets at http://mukt.in/wiki/index.php?title=Volunteers or chat over #mukt.in at irc.freenode.net

They are looking for generous support/contributions from companies/organisations to make mukt.in 2008 a roaring success. Please do pass on this information to any companies / organisations that might be interested in sponsoring the event.

|| linuxchix-india in the news ||

2008-07-14T10:30:00+00:00

Tweeting and denting helped this last month and now its back to blogging ?? .... dunno, but I have definitely been slow in blogging about LCIN being in the news. A few weeks ago Fred had written to the mailing list (along with a long questionnaire :-)) wanting to write an article on IndiChix (the Indian chapter of LC). His article on Indichix has now been syndicated in the Economic times and Siliconindia,and many other publications ...someone even dugg it. Nice, thanks Fred !!

Besides the other challenges that women face its no surprise that you will find access to infrastructure a real issue. This may be a common problem for a lot of women all across the world but in India its worse. Without getting into the reasons as I dont think they can be analysed, quantified and solved easily. Rather than dwell on the "why" I had suggested this idea on the list :

Ask IT MNC's in India as part of their CSR (corporate social activities) to sponsor small 'libre-learning-for-women-labs' in their office premises which should be open to any woman to use and learn about Gnu/Linux. These Libre computer labs should be equipped with machines and an Internet connection which would enable local FSF volunteers to introduce and teach them packaging, translation, bug-squashing, etc...

Is there any IT firm in India willing to host Free Software Labs just for women ??

archu

2008-07-13T10:38:31+00:00

There was time when, I was a kid thought about having atleast few friends who are there for my me for who I am and not for the money/some stupid selfish stuff.. I should say that I am not 100% successful in that thought… I still have frends who like to listen the gud and bad frm me… but as we know priorities change in life as we move on.. and we have to move on with the changing priorities.. this happens especially with my frens who are gals… and planning starts when they get engaged and implements when this marriage thing comes to place. OK, here ppl will tend to say this is not the same with current gen gals.. but I don see any difference, sudden isolation, sudden privacy.. it all happens.. may be am not sure why this happens since I am still not into any traps but no idea why this happens.

——————————-

Situation 1:

me: hey hi wats up? hows married life?

she: yup, life is great…

me: so wat plans next..?

she: jus thinking over.. hey looks like am getting a cal frm husband we wil talk later.

me: bye (she already left!)

——————————-

Situation 2:

me: hey hi wats up? hows married life?

he: life is great ya.. she is one great gal I would die to hav in my life..

me: thats kool man.. so u fellas having a great time..

he: yup maam, why dont u come home this sunday or we will meetup in some restaurant.. I was telling to her abt u and she was interested in meeting u..

me: sure boss.. we wil plan for it.. catch ya later.. bye bye

he: hey bye so soon.. ok, be in touch.. cal up to update the plans ok..? bye!

———————————

I have known both he and she in the same perspective and they used to call up every now and then for vetti chat and gossips and ofcourse computer reboot issues But finally looks like “he” is having some time for friends and “shes” though seem to be free is always busy. May be “shes” are more interested in meeting their husband’s friends than their own pals.. no idea why there is a sudden shift.. I don blame she or he.. but I don get the point behind it..

The"Women in FOSS" article...

2008-07-10T10:48:42+00:00

Fred Noronha (his blog) had an interview of sorts on the LinuxChix-India (aka LCIN/IndiChix) mailing list somtime ago, for an article he wanted to write. And it's finally in print: "LinuxChix-India aims at free software access for women". Last time I was part of some interview for a newspaper, the journalist (a guy from The Hindu, incidentally and the article was on "student bloggers in engineering colleges" or something along those lines) totally misinterpreted EVERY-DARN-THING anyone said and the article was embarassingly bad. This one's loads better and crisp :)
Update -choose from the search for a better link of the article. It's published in The Deccan Herald and The Economic Times too...

Planet Linuxchix.org.in - Linuxchix India Chapter

pursuit-of-happiness-7

Uncertainty!

|| chix IN Linux ||

|| masti @ mukt.in ||

archu

wanted1

|| an idea grows ||

Birthday Boys!

|| libre labs for indichix ||

Happy Friendship Day!

archu

My new cell

On moving to KDE4

“Open Dream” come true

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

|| RIP ||

|| terror trail ||

SCHOOL DAYS

***Life is ssoo STRANGE***

|| composer - uthukadu venkatasubbaiyer ||

|| butterflies are free ||

|| bomb blasts in bangalore ||

|| raga - gambhira nattai ||

|| indian silicon valley ||

Books of the month...

archu

archu

The TOEFL score...

archu

Totally Original.

|| launchpad re-launched ||

|| mysql event ||

Eatouts in Madras...

archu

|| new look ||

|| mukt.in ||

|| linuxchix-india in the news ||

archu

The"Women in FOSS" article...

Life is ssoo STRANGE