Jayavasanthan's Kirukkalgal

Are there Miracles happening in this World ?

noreply@blogger.com ((Jay) Jayavasanthan J) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:27:00 +0000

Most of us have a simple rule to believe what we see, not a bad idea at all! But some of us have a notion that there is a bigger force in the world which controls everything. For those of us who believe in such a superior being, it is not very difficult to perceive things in the spiritual manner and see miracles. But for those of us who don't believe in superior power, the miracles are damn co-incidences.

For some of us atleast there is always a moral dilemma to belong to both the sects. They are non-believers but don't want to accept that everything happens for a damn reason as well. They want to believe man as well as God so they just follow what their perception tells them to believe.

Now, I would like to just narrate an incident which happened in my life and want those of you who read just make your own conclusions about a superior being or God.

One fine day, just like any other day, I started on bike (by bike I mean a 2 wheeled automobile) to go to the office. From when I started to ride on the bike I have always had the helmet along. I also had a bad habit, once I leave door, I don't return to get something I forgot in the first attempt. That day I had forgot the helmet, and didn't return to get it.

For those of you who know Velachery main road, Chennai, India - you would know that it has a by-pass road from Guru Nanak College to the Vijaya Nagar Bus Stand. This was the period when the by-pass road was not fully complete and didn't have a median to prevent opposing vehicles coming in your way.
So as I was travelling, I was preoccupied with what I was going to do after reaching office and suddenly I felt like something hit my head, nothing solid actually hit me, but just felt like it. On that fraction of a second, when I came to my senses, I saw a Lorry coming opposite of me and at a very timely cut I made on my bike to survive not being hit by the Lorry.

I just felt "What the Heck?", and just went on to the office as usual, but some thought was lingering through my mind about what just happened in the travel between my home and office. I realized that this was my third in the course of a few weeks, as I similarly survived those events as well. Once I was returning home at the wee hours and once as similar to coming towards office.

I blamed myself for the incident, blaming my careless and reckless driving and started to ride it slow. Being a little bit careful on the road certainly helped, as I didn't have any close calls for about a week.

I considered myself very lucky to survive such close shaves and began again to concentrate on my work. One day I left pretty late from office, hence I was very late when starting to work the next morning, it was around 11:15 to 11:30 AM when I started to work. I had left something hanging the previous night and wanted to close it down the next morning and I also had some fresh ideas during my shower to implement.

Obviously, I prevented taking the by-pass road route after the previous close shave and took the road via Raja Kalyana Mandapam instead. It was around 11:30-11:45 AM so the road was practically empty, with my enthusiasm, I just hit 50-55 or 60 Kph on that road and was rushing towards office.

Suddenly a parked vehicle near a Timber Mart (a small truck), carrying timber decided to do a U-turn on the stretch where the road was real narrow. I saw the vehicle at around 20 feet before, but couldn't move away either side of that vehicle which had almost covered almost all of the road in a few seconds. I started applying the brakes the second I saw the vehicle, but the momentum on my vehicle was not letting my bike stop. I just screamed, which actually made the matters worse as the driver of the truck was frozen seeing my vehicle.

I thought I had only two options, twist the handle and if the bike skids and falls, go and get stuck below the truck or go straight-ahead and hope the brakes stop the bike right on time.

I chose the later, but to my horror the brakes just didn't work, I was carrying a lot of momentum. The next time I remember, is that was down on one side, the bike fell on the other side (glad it didn't fall on me). I just woke up, with help right beside me (people from surroundings had helped), I was trembling, asked someone to call home and inform my parents (giving them my mobile after dialing my father).

Then on second thoughts (I didn't want to startle my parents from someone else talking on my behalf to not let them imagine anything wildly), got the mobile and talked to my father. The people nearby immediately admitted me to the nearby trauma care clinic (Jaya Hospital, I don't believe it is still around). After reaching the clinic, I again called my father to assure him that I am ok and asked him to reach there after being very calm. I called my buddies from work (most of them my college mates as well), to get to me for some help.

It was a head-on collision with the side of the truck, which was carrying timber (only a few, it was not overloaded). But it was a high-speed (45-50Kph) collision nonetheless. How did I survive this and am writing this right-now is the miracle I believe.

When I started for work that day, just like the other day I forgot the helmet inside home. But, against my habit - I stopped returned and got my helmet and then started on the journey. And I survived this accident only because of my helmet. I didn't even have concussion in this accident and I was up on my feet immediately, I had a broken wrist on my left hand and some facial injuries (minor).

If I hadn't worn the helmet, I would have definitely died on the spot, because of various reasons that you can imagine. Till today, and maybe towards eternity I will feel 3 things,

1. Why did I survive the 3 close shaves before?
2. Why did I return to get my helmet that day?
3. How after all those warnings I was still reckless in my driving?

But all those questions actually don't matter big when I see the changes this event has created in me. I will just list a few below,

1. I never drive without helmet anywhere now. Earlier I wasn't very strict on this, I believe? For example, I will travel without helmet to the movies.
2. I have gotten rid of the bad-habit of not stopping for important things even if I had forgotten them from home (or anywhere else)
3. I used to think that life is all about work and how much we produce to reach what we are aiming for. I still do that, but I don't sacrifice the life journey for work and cultivate time to enjoy the life's smaller moments.
4. I used to have a lot of worries, about my work, what I have to do and everything, now I just do what I am supposed to do and submit everything else to God.
5. I never do reckless driving, more so if I have someone riding with me. When I get the urge to speed, just speak to myself to get calm.

Miracles are not when big things happen to you, your family or your friends. Miracles are the small things that keep you ticking and lets you do what you are here for.

Journey or Destination ?

noreply@blogger.com ((Jay) Jayavasanthan J) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:58:00 +0000

I have always believed Journey should be enjoyed rather than waiting for the Destination. In my belief, Journey is the Life and Destination is whatever is in store for us After Life. Lately I have been mulling each and every aspect of our life is a journey & a destination in itself. For example, take Education - for most of us Graduation is kind of the destination of the journey we call schooling. So it becomes inevitable that we have to enjoy schooling rather than just focus on graduation. Thus, we will be able to enjoy one of the most fruitful time in our lifetime, our childhood, adolescence and youth.

The same can be for just an year in school, the destination is to move on to the next grade. And the journey is the whole year in school itself. If you don't enjoy what you do in school everyday, even if we move on to the next grade, it doesn't matter. We will carry a little bit of void.

This also applies to finding Love. While finding an everlasting Love is the destiny of courting, if we don't enjoy courting and practice self-imposed rules while courting - you won't actually find the right Love. For example, if you mask what you think of yours as bad-habits to catch an attractive partner, the partnership might not end in a way that you expect. But if you act the way you are, there is more chance to get the right partner for the partnership you need. Thus the journey might also influence the destination and the fruits of it.

The Journey & the Destination both are important, but it is more important to enjoy the journey to have a great time in your Destiny.

Is Fasting Necessary to Fight Corruption

noreply@blogger.com ((Jay) Jayavasanthan J) — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 12:09:00 +0000

I was having a sick day following all these Fasting Protests by very educated & well-intentioned leaders of this great nation so I started a thread of Twitter posts which stated my anguish in these scenarios. The following is an extended version of that anguish.

Is Fasting truly necessary to fight corruption, won't refusal to pay bribe & discouraging corrupt practices in our day-to-day life be a more relevant revolution. I would certainly recommend those who are fasting to fight corruption to form a "People Vigilance Cell" and monitor all govt. & private organizations for bribing & corrupt practices & publish them in the media. Be a Corruption Watchdog instead of wasting our time being a cultural, moral, lame protest, silly PIL or sometimes watchdogs whose main aim is create publicity.

Fasting is inaction, we need action to reform this corrupt nation. In every nook & corner, we need people who would refuse to bribe, monitor if any sort of bribing is happening & protest such actions. We need to create a people revolution not sit somewhere waiting for someone else to act. We need to act ourselves. Starting with how often we bribe officials ourselves. I have heard of people bribing Traffic Policemen to get out of some small idiotic traffic snarl they committed. Just don't do that. Similarly for getting a Driving License to getting your vehicle registered in the RTO. Acquiring a Passport or changes in your existing Passport from the Passport Offices.

Some interactions with Government Offices such as Birth/Death/Community Certificates, Electricity Boards, Postal Offices, Government Hospitals, Metro Water officials, etc., Most of the people pay in these government establishments from small to larger amount of bribes to hasten any type of work that needs to be accomplished. This causes those with money to move past any small obstacles that may be, but it also makes poor people suffer with unnecessary demands for bribes.

Not only these, I would like to know of gentlemen or ladies paying the full sales & service taxes while purchasing jewels from their favorite jewellery shops. Pay by credit/debit cards, checks & if you pay cash get a proper receipt. If we start emphasizing on getting a proper receipts and perform our duties as Indian citizens across all private institutions as well, we can abolish black money being generated. If the black money generation gets reduced, they way they are laundered to foreign bank accounts will also get reduced. This will overall result in increase in revenue for the government which can result in development of the entire nation. Mainly it can result in lower taxation (both direct & indirect), lower interest rates, higher income.

You will face harassment when you act, that's the fact of life. But if you want to protest, please protest in a place where there will be result. When they harass you @ the RTO when you want a driving license, then protest then & there with your fasting lessons, don't budge until you are through. It is hundred times better than fasting in a piece of land which is not going to get you any type of results which are tangible.

As I already told Fasting is inaction, we need action. Let all of vow today that we would go out there and refuse to bribe and follow the law in aiding reduction and the ultimate ouster of black money. Jai Hind.

Life & Work - Are they Separate ?

noreply@blogger.com ((Jay) Jayavasanthan J) — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 08:44:00 +0000

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do 'great work' is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle"

- Steve Jobs in http://www.ted.com/talks/steve_jobs_how_to_live_before_you_die.html

So True.

Perfectionism & Being Perfect

noreply@blogger.com ((Jay) Jayavasanthan J) — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 08:40:00 +0000

I have been intrigued by perfectionism. I have heard people say that I am wasting a lot of resources on getting perfect. Why do you follow perfectionism.

Read a passage recently which mentioned the obsessive efforts put in by Stanley Kubrick for each of his films. He was obsessed with every frame of his picture that he was forced to take lot of effort from his actors to make the take perfect. This ended up getting a lot of takes out of his cast. Which means a lot of work! I believe in this efforts striving for perfectionism, even if there was a continuity error, the cast would have been forced to do another take with no fault of theirs.

The passage also mentioned how Jack Nicholson (Oscar winning actor of 'As Good as it Gets') remarked Kubrick, "just because you are a perfectionist does not mean you are perfect.". What kind words to hear when someone is obsessively working hard to attain perfectionism, not for the sake of it, but to leave an everlasting mark on an industry already filled with extraordinary talent. When Jack himself is a crazy-ass talent, without creators like Kubrick we would have been left with what?

But Jack is also right in his statement, just because a person is a perfectionist doesn't guarantee him/her to be perfect. In my opinion, a person being not perfect is the main reason for them to achieve perfectionism in the work they do. If somebody is too satisfied about themselves, they cannot/may not strive to be more perfect. Their intent on hard work becomes a lame repetition of what they do in everyday life. It is very difficult to get into all the details needed to be a perfectionist. It is a gargantuan effort.

Really, what Stanley has left us will even be realized centuries from now. The future will still be exhausted in studying the detail he has created his works with. Being a perfectionist gives us that opportunity to be everlasting.

I was said I am trying to over plan everything, and am trying harder to make things work perfectly. I believe I definitely do. I tend to over work those around me too, just to get the thing right the first time around. Sometimes when I am more satisfied with what I am doing, I definitely don't over plan or over work. The same situation also transpires to those who work around me. But most of the time, I am a bit over worried to get everything perfect.

Why do I or Stanley for that matter do that? Its definitely the craving for being perfect. I am not sure whether Stanley had in mind that he wanted the world to appreciate what he was doing for centuries. But I believe he was doing all he did because he thought otherwise the effort would have been futile. He cannot correct himself being not perfect, but he could at least strive/try to produce/create something which is perfect. I will not say all he produced was perfect, down the line or even now there will detractors for his work/effort. But, he cannot think of any other way of doing it. He wanted it to be perfect, so he did whatever he, humanly, was able to do.

While Jack was certainly not very appreciative of all the efforts put in, even he would rather be in a Kubrick movie than any other if he can possibly be so.

I believe same kind of perfectionism, should creep in our everyday life. To be philosophical & scientific, the human animal has always striven to be perfect, that's why Evolution happened. That's why we are experimenting on Large Hadron Collider. That's why we are always working and not just satisfied with what we have. It is not survival which is prime in innovating, its an effort to be a better being - or so to say be perfect. We might not achieve whatever is needed to be that perfect being, but if striving to be perfect is what we will do, we will be happier to do it till eternity.

Tolerant People of India

noreply@blogger.com ((Jay) Jayavasanthan J) — Wed, 11 May 2011 15:37:00 +0000

Indians may be the most tolerant people in the entire world. I am being mentioned there are still villages in Indian country where there is still no electricity while our luxurious few waste it in ravishing excesses. But this post is not about luxury. The luxury of electricity is possible because these people have grown in their efforts and their lifestyle demands such luxury. They totally deserve it. This post is about the governance of such resources who don't plan for these growth in demands, but still play with the electricity needs of the people who are more helpless (or more tolerant) than the elite.

Since election our house and our entire area has been suffering minor blackouts (sometimes longer ones) and low-voltage current supplies throughout. It was not the way before elections. The city of Chennai was immune to those stuff before elections. Now after elections we are thrown into the equality of the state, which has already been suffering the same spite through the last few years. The reason for this shoddy electricity management is not the free electric power awarded for farmers & other deserving people. The reason is the lethargy of the governing officers and politicians to expect the demand for electric power and organizing more power generation capacities. The reason is the opportunism of the opposition parties and environmental organizations which lobby on not creating additional power houses which can generate efficient electric power with Gas/Nuclear etc.,

But the final sufferers always become the people who need basic electricity or luxurious electricity for their usage. We are common people, we are tolerant. Every person has a breaking point and soon the governators of the department may realize that.

All summers the fans run slow, the A/Cs don't run at all and the tube lights just blink their way to oblivion & in some days we just sit out a sweaty afternoon or mid-night swearing at the innocent electricity board technicians not realizing their plight. Another cherry on the top of this exclusive treatment is we pay the maximum electricity bills for enduring these horrid days. Its quiet discomforting, still we are tolerant. We call the electricity board time and again to reach an off the hook phone. Electric cars/vehicles in these conditions are a joke.

Not sure when this plight will end, whether it will be because of the Indo-US Nuclear deal or some wonder particle which provides us with enormous amount of energy only time will tell. But we would really love some action on this, because we cannot endure another summer like this.

Do Opinion Polls Distort Electoral Results

noreply@blogger.com ((Jay) Jayavasanthan J) — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 10:04:00 +0000

Whatever I say over this blog doesn't matter ? Results are Results. We have to live with those results.

Democracy is a myth of choice. And the choice which you make is you want your candidate to win, but there is a certain probability that your choice might not win the Election very much similar to the probability of the candidate winning the election. This makes it a tough choice. I certainly believe there are three types of people who are part of our Electorates.

1. Who Vote for their traditional Party who they have adored and followed all their lives.
2. Who Vote for the one they prefer, mostly these are the people who swing the Elections from one side to the another. Opinion polls have an effect on these voters, thus distorting results.
3. Those who don't Vote, and don't mind/like whoever comes to power. Some don't vote due to various other circumstances (out-of-town, working, etc.,), but those people either belong to the first 2 categories in most Elections, so disregarded.

There is a fourth Electorate, who in current circumstances can be claimed sold out. Whose votes are purchased by Parties involved in corruption. They also fall into the category of they don't mind/like whoever comes to power, but certainly Vote. The number in this regard is quiet negligible and can be better avoided for consideration.

The problem with opinion polls is that they are not reliable, mainly because of the data sampling done on various constituencies. Similarly, Exit polls are also quiet unreliable, as their sample space is quiet limited. When the exit polls don't harm a lot of results or outcomes, as the elections get already over in those constituencies, the opinion polls distort the category 2 voter who is swinging to the favor of the one who wins or loses.

For example, the one who is undecided if he learns that from an opinion poll that one candidate might win the election, he might choose to end-up on the winning side (rather than choosing the right candidate he had in mind) and vote for that candidate. Some of the skeptics can argue that this type of indecisive voters are negligible in number. But, time and again the mandate reached in polls have favored the presence of such electorate who have swung the results positively or negatively against anti-incumbency or great governance.

The courts were right to ban the Opinion Polls and thus restoring some kind of sanity to already complex predicament of the polling structure. Its almost always very difficult to predict poll results. We can never choose to say for example, if the polling percentage goes up, there will be an anti-incumbency wave. People have gotten wiser over the years and have known how to choose who to put on the respective power positions.

Even the fresh virgin voters have strong opinion on who they might choose or prefer getting elected for power. Most of these changes can be attributed to increased literacy, awareness and information flowing through media.

With the dwindling of Category 1 voters from vote banks and Category 3 voters who won't vote, we are in verge of massive renaissance in Electoral Politics in the coming elections, hopefully parties who are tuned to older tricks now just man-up and take accountability as one of their prime focus points to win elections.

Its high-time a few Electoral Reforms are also put in place by the Election Commission to include accountability of an elected representative as well as qualifications for being nominated for specialized posts within the government, etc., are taken care of. And more reforms if people request. The first step might be to create a open discussion forum and prepare a Draft Electoral Bill which abolishes a lot of stone-age practices currently applied, very much similar to the Draft Taxes Code brought in by the Finance Ministry.

Can Bribing be Curbed by Punishing the Bribe Taker Alone ?

noreply@blogger.com ((Jay) Jayavasanthan J) — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 13:16:00 +0000

Consider this option which is being hotly debated by none other than the Chief Economic Adviser for the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Kaushik Basu, http://finmin.nic.in/WorkingPaper/Act_Giving_Bribe_Legal.pdf . Read the above paper to enlighten yourself.

The gist of the paper is this. A few type of bribes such as giving bribe to fulfill a duty of a government official. For example, a government official accepting bribes to issue Driving License or Community Certificate, even though it is his duty to perform that job. These types of Bribes are called as Harassment Bribes, where the public is harassed to get what is rightfully theirs. There are lot of instances of such bribes. The paper suggests to let go the Bribe giver and punish the Bribe taker. Thus, curbing the Bribe request itself. Because if the Bribe giver complains to the proper authorities the Bribe taker will only be punished. And it is in the best interest of the Bribe giver because he/she will get their money back.

Surely this will help curb the bribe policy as a demand from the bribe taker. But as there is no set accountability on such processes of the government officials, such as how many community certificates were issued based on the number of requests filed (A performance metric for any post). There is certainly, no benefit for the bribe giver to not entice the government official to accept bribe. So if we don't put accountability into order the government official may not demand a bribe, but as a result of this action more people will suffer because of the official's clumsy attitude towards his job (if the public is not willing to entice the official into bribe). As a thumb rule, no government official is forced to work with accountability as all supervisors don't punish or report clumsiness with an official memo. Mostly because of the sympathy they carry towards a fellow government employee and some due to practicing such clumsiness themselves.

So it will push the public to not waste time in honesty and bribe the damn hell out of these officials. Even now the scenario is the same. Which sane person would like to continue wasting time in reporting a malpractice of a government official when all he needs is to get a tax refund or a registration certificate in a day. I welcome the move to not punish the bribe giver, which will certainly curb actual bribing, but if performance accountability of a particular official is not audited by a 3rd party firm, then it might not fetch the necessary outcome we all are hoping for.

Politics & Governance

noreply@blogger.com ((Jay) Jayavasanthan J) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 08:44:00 +0000

I have been mulling about this blog post for most of my educated life, at least after I became a voting citizen. I as a citizen am not convinced in the system working to the betterment of the people. There needs to be some tough decisions taken to prevent favoritism, partiality, corruption, & generally accountability of the governance done by people elected to their respective post.

The representatives of people are should be aware of the people's mandate throughout their tenure and they need to know that their whole political career can be ousted with one small mistake. Such should be the process such that we make sure valuable people are elected and even if there is a mistake done by the electoral mandate, the people have the power to oust and re-elect the representatives.

First of all I am sick of the Party-Politics which has grown like a weed throughout the nation. Party politics encourages politicians to involve in favoritist, partial agendas with divisive goals such as religious, casteist, economic & other such nuisances. Governance never is associated with any such agenda and hence, propaganda as well as divisive policies such as minority benefits, casteist benefits, poverty based benefits shall be wiped out. The party-politics also manages to creep out Vote-Bank politics among parties such that they specifically indulge in pleasing a particular sect of people to garner votes. The governance should dictate benefits to all people equally, and shall not provide anything more or anything less based on religion, caste or the ability to earn.

Solution: Remove parties from the politics. The representative members of the people shall be elected in respective Wards, Constituencies (legislative & parliamentary) based on the work done by the representatives in the region and not based on being a member of a party.

The next problem is credibility. Currently the nominees available in the electoral race have never been judged based on a qualification. I propose a qualification for each and every post a candidate can get elected for. My proposal is to turn politics to a career choice one can make on the day they want to be a politician. I would love our politicians to do the hard work a guy has to do to become a normal labour/employee in a company to becoming the CEO of the company. As the current establishment is obsessed that there need not be any qualification based on the literacy of the candidate, that might not be needed. The only needed qualification is,

1. You need to serve your ward as an elected representative at least twice to contest to become a legislative representative.
2. You need to serve as a legislative rep. at least twice to become a parliamentary representative or a minister in the legislative cabinet.
3. You need to serve as a parliamentary rep. at least twice to become a candidate for becoming a union minister of state and so on.

Ministerial posts for the legislative assembly and parliamentary cabinet both will have more advanced qualifications based on the specific port-folio for which you will contest for.

And no a Prime Minister cannot be elected by the parliamentarians. He needs to contest as a Prime Ministerial candidate and should have been a Union Minister twice before being eligible as a Prime Ministerial Candidate. The people will elect their Prime Minister themselves directly. The ability for the people to recall an elected candidate also involves the Prime Minister. A similar qualification also applies for a Chief Ministerial candidate who gets elected to lead the state.

All above representatives can be called back anytime with a special mandate from the people. The Election Commission will be sole authority of the accountability of a candidate along with Supreme Court. Any PIL involving accountability of an elected candidate should be heard of and judged within a month the appeal is made. This will be the responsibility of the Election Commission & Supreme Court. We can also incorporate a People Representative Commission to look into allegations arising from people.

The final revolutionary change is that the armed forces, Police, Investigative Agencies such as CBI, Crime Branch & NIA all will come under a different authority and no people representative will be able to have a say on their actions. These bodies will function independently under their own leadership to achieve the goals common to the country whether Internal Security, External Security, Crime Investigation or Terror Investigation & Strike Forces.

The goal behind removing all special subsidies for specific sects of groups (religious, communal or otherwise) is not to devoid them of the benefits, but to assure that the benefits reach all the people not just a few. The Free Education & PDS which are one of the major contributions of the Government with subsidies shall be available for all people rather than only a few with need for care. This avoids favoritism and partiality which could be exploited.

Free Education is one of the best things which needs to be set always to be Free for everyone. The best asset you can provide for an individual is always education which can help him in times like no other. Education provides the people with opportunities which can assist in development of each and every deprived communities.

All the above suggestions on the current system doesn't mean that you need not vote or elect people in the current system. Voting is your duty, whether you have satisfaction in your choice or not, you should vote or make your vote count. It is not the decision which you will regret later, but the state of indecision will definitely haunt you. Because inaction is never an option. I have voted this time around too, but am always on the hope that the current system changes to be a fair one.

Indian Education System & Professionals

noreply@blogger.com ((Jay) Jayavasanthan J) — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 07:29:00 +0000

Lots have been written about Indian Education System and how it is churning out graduates and post-graduates like a chugging machine with relentless volume. There have been many comments that the education imparted on these institutions are not parallel to what the industry wants.

I would almost second that opinion. But certainly the Education System has put in place all that is necessary to gain talent which are required by the graduate or the post-graduate. As a functioning system, there are places which are ignored which ultimately ends in the students getting just a degree and not been imparted the knowledge to get going in the industry. That's why we can say that most of our students look forward to the campus interview & a job in the industry rather than creating a new firm to produce something new.

It also points to the way the Graduate & Post-Graduate Research Projects are conceived, created and documented. If we watch the exact practice of all these efforts, we might learn that the real essence for which the Research Projects are meant has been systematically destroyed. And has been carried out for namesake. The industry as well is a culprit in this case. Let us check how many in the industry aid the students to do a meaningful Research Project for a company which creates a Win-Win situation for both the company and the graduate. The graduate produces something tangible for the company, as well as learns a lot while doing the project. The bonus for both the company & the graduate is filling a vacant job opening in the company.

Nowadays, recruitment of a fresher is just like asking which degree you have completed and what grades have you scored and then sending him up to a training programme which imparts the necessary knowledge. Is this how a candidate can be nurtured to become a professional. I don't think so!

My assumption the System though theoretically flawless, is practically awful execution. Everybody knows the ideas are for a dime a dozen, but execution is key. We are faltering at this execution.

I would prefer our prestigious institutes to encourage Research Projects, Industry Collaboration and take our students to the next-level. The graduates should take a project which permits their 1 month allocation, not some bizarre research that could take years or Eons to complete. Similarly the post-graduates a pragmatic 6 month project which is relevant to their major in their curriculum. And for real research we do have our M.Phil & PhD candidates.

Industry should also nurture young graduate projects both within and outside the firm. The institute has to value the contribution of the student for the grade. The students have to create, produce value which could be used, this in turn will increase their grades. There are hundreds, thousands & millions of problems to be solved and our students have a right to explore these problems to produce results.

For this to happen, our system has to make sure that it provides the students freedom to pursue their goals. Its always the young which carry the nation & the world, the old are just there to guide the young ones.

The Indian World Cup Triumph!

noreply@blogger.com ((Jay) Jayavasanthan J) — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 13:34:00 +0000

Funny how great things get, I believe the feeling hasn't sunk in yet in me. It was just another day, just another match. I felt goosebumps when India were chasing and Sachin got out. But, still I just hung in there for completion of the match. I didn't move a lot because of the worry that a wicket might fall. It did fall when something changed, Kohli got out. But after that nothing mattered till the winning runs were scored. I made sure nothing changed. It still hasn't sunk in. We have seen 1983 images throughout our life-time, that happened when I would have been 4 years old.

I have been following the world cup all those years, from 1987, when India went out because Gatting swept. I did feel happy when he lost it with a similar sweep in the Final, but the disappointment was still there. In 1992, I cherished our win against Pak, but I had to say to myself -> we had beaten the to be world champions in a cracker, so we are the true champions. In 1996, all went to hell because we chose bowling on a track which was turning square and was unplayable when it was our turn. All I could do was pity Kambli and myself, that we have lost again.

In 1999, we were never there other than the taunt of Ganguly & Dravid @ Taunton. In 2003, it was one blemish which ended our chances. We erred only on the final or may be we peaked to soon and the statistics caught up with us on the final. In 2007, we went to WI only to enjoy the beaches being turned inside out because of a wrong coaching decision we did years ago.

But 2011 was our year, it was 28 years since the calendars lined up like this and it was another April 2, Saturday which has fulfilled our dreams. When most of our detractors dismissed 1983 as a fluke upset, no one can deny 2011. This was India's cup, though I would have liked a more dominant performance. The cup that counts is ours, and may be we should peak at the right time and make sure we cling on to it for another 2, 3, you put the number of times you want us to get to a dominance in world cricket.

I would like Indians win in dominance and treat the others with humility. WI marauded their way to cup greatness. Australians sledged their way. Pak had a blitzkrieg of talent. Lankans had clinical precision on planning. For India, it was always emotions. When I saw each and everyone of our team carry joyful tears after the match, it summed it all. They were not Gods, or Demi-Gods, they were humans just like us and they emote just like us. We cried and they cried that's what makes Cricket tick in India. That's why we will always connect to our cricketers than our Actors or Politicians. That's why we are behind our team for 28 years to make this happen, & I will be behind them for the rest of my life.

Google's Way or The High Way

noreply@blogger.com ((Jay) Jayavasanthan J) — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 10:21:00 +0000

Google is a very powerful organization. Google is working as the initial source of organic as well as marketed entry point for most of the websites. Google was, is and will use this power to its benefit as well as for the benefit for the millions of websites available in the Internet. Boy even I have visited a website only after searching it via Google rather than remembering the website name (Its been cumbersome to sometimes remember the website domain names, since there are so many).

Google still has the power to remove one of the websites from its indexes, throwing all traffic which was generated to this website 'kaput'. That is a very big power to have. Similar power for the social search is getting in the hands of Facebook. Google and Facebook are Enterprises who will definitely have the bottomline pressures on each and every organization. We have seen time and again, when such power is vested in individual interests, people suffer.

The recent events relevant to Yelp seem to point to the same, http://searchengineland.com/yelp-google-told-us-its-our-way-or-the-highway-66417 . Yelp may want to protect its content from being viewable from only its website. A Search Engine's job is always just to point out where the data is available and not to cultivate that data for its own benefit. Google has delved with such efforts previously too, remember Google Book Search, Google Shopping Search, etc., Now, Yelp has to choose between not being indexed altogether or providing all information for Google to make use of. May not be now, but Google will be called on its goof sooner rather than later. The world is already watching the best it can, like the investigation into Google's acquiring of the ITA data.

What I would suggest Yelp is to play the SEO game as it should. Don't expose the User Generated Content directly, but restrict it to intellectual numbers (like number of reviews, hot or not evaluations etc.,) and statistics from the User Generated Content. Facebook does this so nice, like generating a jpg image for the E-Mail information of the Facebook profile - to prevent crawlers and Search Engines not to invade sensitive private information, enabling only a human being to interpret the data.

It is certainly bad business to get all data from others and living by that same data. Google is trying to build its own User Generated Content services and has failed miserably whenever it has put its foot forward. For example, the growing failure of Google's attempts such as Wave, Buzz, Video, etc.,. For video it has acquired YouTube which was the only worthy adversary and has tried to do the same with other Companies (Yelp is an obvious example) as well. What it has actually failed to realize is to focus on Google's initial goal, to be the one-stop-shop for Internet Users to discover content. If Google sticks to it, it will definitely create a legacy far greater than what it has created now.

Their renewed focus on their core goal, will enable a world where Google will be inevitable. When making this statement, I tend to remember the world shown in the post-apocalyptic feature film 'Babylon A.D', where Google is just everywhere. They still have their chance to become one, its theirs to screw it up.

Need not Fear the Cloud

noreply@blogger.com ((Jay) Jayavasanthan J) — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 07:01:00 +0000

There is a lot of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt) being published on cloud. But as truth goes, its as secure as any other Server put on in the Internet. We have been securing data centers for decades now, hence, to doubt or fear with regards to security of another group of Servers on the Cloud is definitely uncalled for.

This doesn't mean if you put a Server on the cloud, there is nothing to worry about it. This does mean that you have to take the exact same precautions as you would do if you put one of your systems inside your internal network to be connected from anywhere across the internet.

What all would you do to secure a system on the Internet or Cloud?

1. First and Foremost in security, you would isolate the system which you are putting on the internet such that if and only if the system gets compromised it doesn't affect the other systems in our local network.

2. You would apply firewall rules to open up particular secure ports such that the Users can communicate with the system for what it is meant to be.

3. In case the applications you use are not using secure communication (SSL or other Encrypted Communication Technologies), you try to close up the firewall and put in a secure SSL based VPN (Virtual Private Network) such that the applications will continue to communicate as they do already, but will do that via a Secure SSL tunnel created by the VPN.

4. Restrict communication of limited IP Addresses across the internet to communicate with the exposed system. This means applying more rules based on specific IP Addresses which will prevent only a few with the specific IP Address (or Range of IP Addresses) from the public internet to be able to communicate with your system.

5. In case, the particular IP Address or the IP Address ranges are unknown, you can restrict it based on User Accounts. For this you would setup User Accounts for specific purposes with roles such as Administrator, Power User, Simple User, Read-Only User etc., You would also be creating very secure passwords (Hint: Highly Secure Passwords start at a minimum of 12 to 14 characters, courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Password_strength) for users. Also recommend to use passwords based on catchy phrases such as "I want to buy 6 Chocolate Candies for my daughter" providing a password like 'Iwtb6CCfmd'.

6. Make sure you monitor User/IP Address accesses and log them such that you can trace out any unusual activity.

7. If you are fed up with passwords, its also better to use SSH Keys to control access to the system, or also use the multi-factor authentication, which requires a random generated password sent to the user using another communication mechanism such as Paging, SMS, etc. which should be entered to gain access to the system.

If you certainly will miss any of the above, while setting up the server, you are still compromising the system. But fortunately, in cloud it is an Opt-In kind of security management, hence, the cloud servers are already closed. You have to open up only the necessary items. It is all secure.

For example, AWS (Amazon Web Services) EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) Servers are by default managed by their own default security group which closes all accesses, even across the systems in their own network. So whatever happens to your cloud system is entirely up to your configuration of the security group. They also provide a secure virtualization implementation where even the guest Operating Systems on the same host cannot and will not know about each other and won't be able to communicate unless specifically configured via the security group.

Cloud has enabled companies which cannot even dream about a Secure Server in a co-lo or a data center to realize their dream without the up-front costs involved and the ability to turn off everything or scale the implementation to dizzying amounts as is needed.

We at Vembu Technologies have used Cloud Servers for Load/Scalability testing as well as to host one of the best world-wide Online Backup Services (Vembu Home & Vembu Pro) for Consumers & Businesses.

Season's Greetings

noreply@blogger.com ((Jay) Jayavasanthan J) — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 12:18:00 +0000

Christmas is one of the joyous occasions, which deliberates every person to spread their cheer across to the other.

With this day, let us share the cheer we all have unto others. As you know happiness grows (multiplies) when shared, and sorrow reduces beyond recognition.

Thank God who has let us worth to enjoy this wonderful day, family, friends and do share the sheer joy of being Alive.

Season's greetings my friends,

Know when to Teach & when to Coach

noreply@blogger.com ((Jay) Jayavasanthan J) — Sat, 08 May 2010 11:24:00 +0000

What's the difference I say ?

This is the difference, http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/458649.html

Teaching is informing the student about a fact and making him learn the fact. Coaching is letting him figure out what could be it !

When you teach, you actually list out what is known. For example, we tell the student that there is one Sun and 9(err, may be less) planets in the Solar system. Coaching is providing a few facts and letting him figure out how such facts were arrived at and what was the reasoning.

Really, only if a student carries out a practical chemical experiment does he now that Iron when exposed to atmosphere rusts because Ferric Oxide deposits are formed. He has to understand how it occurs naturally and also how it could be induced in an artificial environment. Such that he actually understands the process.

No amount of equations, theory, explanation, architecture diagrams can actually provide him the same experience. In sports, it is practically unimaginable to teach any person anything, until he performs it himself - that's why we need coaches. But if the coaches try to put in figures, designs, and try to teach a sportsperson how to move in the field, then, they are erring on the wrong side.

I have felt the same when training engineers and converting them as software professionals. We can provide the rules of the game - how C/C++/PHP/Java/SQL works. Its their duty to invest time and learn to solve problems. Simple ones at the beginning and complex ones as they grow strong as a programmer, hacker, architect or whatever. Thus, a coach has to create an environment for the person to find the path rather than show the path.

I have felt that some of us even walk the path for the team and that to my opinion is ridiculous. The path is even greater when you find it. Ask anyone who has lost his way and found it with self perseverance and dedication. He would have such an experience that he would never be able to forget it in this life. That's what real world experience provides to a person.

Teaching Children is Education for the Parents

noreply@blogger.com ((Jay) Jayavasanthan J) — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 06:56:00 +0000

I have noticed that India is the only country which treats son/daughter as children even after they have grown up, got married and have children of their own. We as parents think it is necessary to support our offspring till the ability of us to do so. This inculcates a sense of dependency on the offspring which is often very difficult when they are unable to take care of themselves. Parents are the ones creating such situation by providing all the support they can give. So in a sense letting go the children to grow up on their own and make their own destiny as done in most other countries is one of the salient aspects of parenting. You need not just let go at some age randomly without equipping them with skills which are needed. But inculcate the values and skills they need to cope up in this hard world.

Talking about skills, money management skill is one of the greatest skills we need to teach our children at a very young age.

How to teach children the real value of Money? It is a tad difficult, isn't it? I haven't really done it, so I don't know how it should be done.

On one of our nicest Easter Sunday afternoons we co-brothers were chatting about the behavior of kids in our large family. This sprung upon a very controversial topic to us. Do our kids value money as we do? Some of our kids don't worry when an A/C room door is left open. Some don't care whatever reason we come up with when something they want is rejected. Some even go to the strengths of comparing their gifts to those we get ourselves to say, "Why can't I have this?"

It is a pretty tricky situation. I for myself have seen my parents toiling for hard earned money and their hesitation in spending it without second thought. I have thus earned the same trait as my parents and put a lot of thought regarding doing any kind of spending. But for my kid this is not the case. She practically doesn't see my way of earning/spending money. It's all virtual for her. For example, how can she know how the Electricity bills are paid for when she doesn't even know about ECS. All she knows is that she needs A/C in the middle of the day, when she arrives from her school. So when she is taken to a shop she just sees her items and picks up the one she likes. And when I pay up on my credit card, she doesn't see the value which has been used. The credit/debit card works just like an unlimited storage of money. How can I ever show her how much what she has chosen is costing her Dad.

Earlier during the days, I used to handle the money for my mother a lot. So, in shops I calculate the amount to be paid, by hand and hand it over to the shop-owner. This enabled a little bit of bonding with the real currency. Which when paid with lower denominations meant much more that when it is paid with higher denominations. As I grew and knew about denominations too, I was able to fathom how much rupees a 1000 rupee note will cost and how it should be handled. Now, on this modern day and times, how can we ever teach our kid such stuff?

There is an old proverb in Tamil saying, 'Even if you drop something in the ocean, do measure and dump it' (ஆத்துல போட்டாலும் அளந்து போடு). So, for the kids to know about the cost they are spending, no matter what we are they are able to earn is one the most important aspects of life as we know it. So, teaching the children the value of their desires is by far the most important thing we can impart as parents in them.

I believe I have got the answer. First of all, the kid needs to have some basic math knowledge. Mainly those of counting, multiplication, division & denominations (such as units, tens, 100s, 1000s etc.,). So if a product costs Rs. 155, then the kid should convert this into 155 one rupee notes immediately, or one 100 Rs note, one 50 Rs note and one 5 Rs note. Thus, if he/she can interpret how much 1 Re will be valued, he/she can easily calculate the amount they are about to spend. Most important of all, we have to let them know to get the price before selecting an item for purchase.

On the matter or electricity, the knowledge needs to be more, but figuratively, we can compare and show how much we would have spent on A/C on any given month based on the consumption made. Like this summer, if the A/C runs day-in and day-out, we can compare the electricity bills to the winter ones and explain how this has affected our cost. This can give a better picture to our kids regarding the usage as well as the cost.

Another habit which can inculcate the value for money is chores. The old proverb not only explains to know what you are expending monetarily but also what effort we put in to bring in the same funds. For example, if a person works very hard to just earn for one meal a day, we definitely know that he has been had. This value of the effort must also be inculcated into our offspring, such that they know how they are valued. We have to give them household chores and based on which make them earn their allowances. The pocket money, allowance or gifts have to be valued by the offspring based on the effort they give either on the school or on the house. Similarly any community work they do have to be nicely rewarded. This will automatically inculcate the value based system. Using this value system they can evolve on to be a better judge of the value of their efforts as well as their qualifications.

It is not just survival of the fittest we are teaching, but the manner in which they can carry themselves among the crowd as well lead the crowd with best practices that we have learned. Parent is not a commander but a mentor in most ways to an offspring. The way we should work with our children from when they are an infant, a child, an adolescent teen, a youth and a grown up varies a lot. It is quite a challenge for a parent to don multiple roles and to sometimes mask your own feelings for the betterment of your own children.

Mostly it is a give and take relationship, the offspring makes you a real man/woman and you help them to grow to their own destiny.

Its Adorable when you see your Little one on stage!

noreply@blogger.com ((Jay) Jayavasanthan J) — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 08:05:00 +0000

Definitely, adorable. Even when you can't hear a single word she spoke, because the amplifier got haywire. The thing in enjoying this moment is just that, enjoying that moment. Finally, I got to enjoy that moment fully, as I had gotten rid of the cameras I used to carry for the first time.

Earlier I simply had to carry a Video Cam, Digi Cam, spare batteries for both and always on the lookout for what will go wrong, who will block my view, will the tape be nice, etc., Sure it is nice to have a copy of the video for a lot of remembrance. But, still this should not be at the cost of enjoying the live moment of what was happening. This was not thrust upon me by anybody, but myself. I had an obligation to show our very close relatives how she did on stage, time and again. But, today my wife gave me a reprieve. She said, "we will buy the video which the school was shooting" (earlier it certainly was not the case).

This was certainly a relief for me. It also was a relief for most of the crowd, who used to come in front of everybody to take that good shot of their kid performing. Kudos to Sacred Heart Matric. Higher Sec. School (Church Park) to make sure there is a video (& still photos) shot by professional camera men. We really had a great time.

Junia was tremendous, but I personally liked the story sung by Maiden & the cunning Soldier. This was sure funny, and the performances were also hilarious. And also was great the story of a Jealous Husband & the equally cunning wife.

It was great to see the kids perform, and it was fun after an abnormal early day (atleast for me).

It's just Inevitable, How to stop Phishing Scams for Internet Banking Sites ?

noreply@blogger.com ((Jay) Jayavasanthan J) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:20:00 +0000

I saw that previously DNS Gurus tried to sell *.porn websites to all porn businesses, which will make it easier for,

Parental Control of Porn sites (using firewall, net nanny or whatever)
Provide Adult Content filtering on the ISP level similar to Adult content filtering in Cable/DTH transmissions,

But the websites were worried about losing business and thus this remained unabashedly public on every system connected with the internet.

Disclaimer: I am not questioning the decision or going to be worried about the content in the public stream. I always want the internet to be open and free to publish whatever wherever you want it to be published.

But the fact remains with the advent of phishing and almost any kind of mode to get the customers to part away with their Internet Banking credentials, why not provide a *.bank domain names for only legit banks to run their Internet Banking Portals. I am not talking about the banking websites, but just targeting the internet banking portals which allow trusted digital transactions of enormous proportions.

DNS Gurus can also sell all the functionality as a package and offer a subscription service to these domains with SSL certificates and so on and so forth. Why is this still not done and not worried about ?

I strongly believe such simple decisions can get rid of lots of trust issues which hover around internet as a whole. Let us start this as a small token petition and let us fix this up at the level which needs to be fixed and not at the level where even seasoned technicians fail (preventing phising).

Update: As in latest news, the *.xxx domain is still in contention, but there is still no debate or any other discussion regarding *.bank domain - ICANN backs off from XXX Domain Vote

Reach the Potential

noreply@blogger.com ((Jay) Jayavasanthan J) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:06:00 +0000

I am a person who believes in destiny, potential, paybacks and freakier things than I am about to discuss. Each and every person has a purpose in life. Whether he/she has a purpose or not is for the individual to decide, but I do believe when they trust it, they just are one more step closer to achieving it.

Why is it necessary to reach your Potential?

I have always felt someone who has potential as we see it, but, don’t use it as a bigger sinner than the one who tries and fails. Maybe the person doesn’t know or understand his/her potential. In that case, if we don’t assist him/her in the pursuit then, we are the ones who have sinned. I am perennially worried about a Sloth, who knows what to do, but doesn’t do it. And make sure that I am not doing the same.

My Potential

Each and every individual is bestowed upon with some gifts, which can push them towards a goal. Some believe in it, others don’t. I believe I am destined to doing what I do, being a software professional. Thinking, visualizing, designing, planning and implementing stuff in software. And also helping others do the same.

This thought got to me when I first started studying about computers, did some random BASIC programming at a very small age (believe I was doing 7th or 8th grade at that time). I dropped off Biological Sciences major for my Higher Secondary (this determines whether I get into Medical Sciences or others) and took upon Computer Sciences as one of my majors. This and several other steps got me into further footing towards Software.

I couldn’t get into Software Engineering directly, but got into a specialization (Electronics & Communication) which is too close to that. I wanted to get into software as soon as I can, so I never had a thought of higher education once I completed graduation. My father had suggested I study as much as I could when he is still working, but I wanted a real job, to learn as I work. Got a job in AdventNet (now called Zoho Corp) on campus recruitment and never turned back ever since.

How have I performed?

Ten year since graduation, do I ever think I have reached my full potential? No, never. It’s similar to a feeling when I rode my first bike; I never used its full potential, as I never used to provide it the Full Throttle. Still feel I sold that bike without realizing its full potential (after a few accidents by yours truly, of course). I still have the same feeling about myself, am I giving myself the FULL THROTTLE, am I reaching my full potential ?

What is preventing me from using my Full Potential?

May be it’s a kind of pacing in my life. I most often feel that I am reaching a barrier or a period where I cross a milestone. This is like when a Jet gets Supersonic, the jet seems to face a big barrier just as it breaks the sound-barrier. I have felt such stages in life many a time. So I know when I reach one nowadays. Sometimes it is not as difficult as it looks, and sometimes it is even more than what I assess. Nevertheless, GOD who has paced my entire life has given me the ability or understanding what needs to be done, just at the right moment. May be it’s His will which lets me learn as I grow. This shows my irrational belief in Destiny. I always feel these barriers actually are preparing me for a bigger task.

When will I know if I am finished?

I probably would never know. This will be the same for most of us. This is why the barriers are good, which let us provide the instant gratification we need for a longer journey we are making. Just as life, it is the journey which makes you happier than the Destiny.

Just a small wish

noreply@blogger.com ((Jay) Jayavasanthan J) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:04:00 +0000

This is like that small wish where I want to get the Aladdin's lamp and that's it, I don't need anything else kinda stuff. So if you are offended by such senti, buzz off. If you do want in, may be what I wish for is not for you (not yet for sure).

Wish, eventhough small, always provides a kinda of feeling inwhich we believe we will get it eventually. Sometimes our wishes are out of the world (like Aladdin's lamp) which are sure not in that list. But sometimes we feel what about if it happens and we are thrown out of gear. It is unusual, against the grain, against our belief, against everything we consider default (in &*#% terms). But I have a fantasy which is right out of the Star Trek world. Where earth as we know it has reached a consistency, equality. Everyone living in earth studies, works, treks and does everything equally without discrimination. There is no inner-fighting among us (humans in StarTrek universe) and all are friends, brothers, sisters, relatives. More concisely 'pal's. The inner demons like jealousy, superiority, inferiority (source: the 7 deadly sins) is gone.

I would love to attain that kind of a world, universe going forward. Let the new year show us some hope of achieving such future, that will be very heartening. Its not easy and we have a long way to go. But we all have to yearn for it to become reality. Its always been like that, everybody has to contribute. To not have jealousy is not one person's job, that has to be in the hearts of everyone.

With that hope, I wish we have a fantabulous look at the future with a great new year 2010.

How distant are you from your loved ones - Lover/Wife, Parents, Children

noreply@blogger.com ((Jay) Jayavasanthan J) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:34:00 +0000

A Story
=====

A saint asked his disciples, ‘Why do we shout in anger? Why do people shout at each other when they are upset?’

Disciples thought for a while, one of them said, ‘Because we lose our calm, we shout for that.’

‘But, why to shout when the other person is just next to you?’ asked the saint.

‘Isn’t it possible to speak to him or her with a soft voice? Why do you shout at a person when you’re angry?’

Disciples gave some other answers but none satisfied the saint.

Finally he explained, ‘When two people are angry at each other, their hearts distance a lot. To cover that distance they must shout to be able to hear each other. The angrier they are, the stronger they will have to shout to hear each other through that great distance.’

Then the saint asked, ‘What happens when two people fall in love? They don’t shout at each other but talk softly, why? Because their hearts are very close. The distance between them is very small…’

The saint continued, ‘When they love each other even more, what happens? They do not speak, only whisper and they get even closer to each other in their love. Finally they even need not whisper, they only look at each other and that’s all. That is how close two people are when they
love each other.’
========================

No copyright on the above text, it's a copy from a random blog, which was already a copy from somewhere else.

But I do feel the fact when I am with my family. Whenever I shout, I feel that much distant and see that they are not close enough to hear my inner feelings. Whether I express the exact thing they need to feel, I don't know ??, but when I shout there is a kind of feeling inside of you which satisfies your inner-self, that you have conveyed yourself.

Sometimes after shouting some really harsh words, if I get back and re-think if I had said something wrong. Most of the time, my heart will say you have done wrong, but my ego will say, you had to yell at that time. Most of the times, the ego wins, sometimes my heart will feel sorry and try to be nicer to the others in a very polite way.

I believe lot of people would have felt the same. That's a fact of life and the more we mature the less capable we become of distancing others from our own personal life.

Timely & Belated - Wishes though for you all

noreply@blogger.com ((Jay) Jayavasanthan J) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 15:11:00 +0000

Sing along guys,

We wanna wish you a merry Christmas,
We wanna wish you a merry Christmas,
We wanna wish you a merry Christmas,

and a Happy New year

Lots have been said, lots have been done, lots are about to happen, lots will be done. In this life of lots, time just goes by and it never stops for anything.

Once a wise man told a story of a boy, who happened to cross a beautiful stream, full of natural beauty, grace and enchantedness. He wanted to stop and spend more time basking on its glory, but he had to go far far away on an important job. He failed to stop and he missed all its eternal joy. So its for you to decide, whether to stop and enjoy this moment or to run like you have run always.

I don't suggest anything, but just say one thing, do whatever your heart tells you to do !!,

Happy New Year 2009 guys,

Love is

noreply@blogger.com ((Jay) Jayavasanthan J) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:30:00 +0000

Love is

Love is this
Love is that
There is nothing which can explain Love
If you need to know the full meaning
Fail in Love you wouldn't ask again!!

------------
Jay.

This is a poem I wrote in www.poetry.com, way back when I was just a trainee in AdventNet. Still when somebody happens to tumble onto this one, they say, "Did your love met with failure ??, What happened ??" kind of questions. Now, if I just say this was just an opinion, they just don't get it.

I know about many guys who have gotten into Love and felt a lot of difficulties. I myself felt that Love doesn't mean anything until you are able to stand on your own legs (support yourself). Now, thinking about supporting another human being will be very tough, when you yourself are not on a firm footing, right !!.

So, to set the record straight, I didn't fall in love until I met my wife (technically not even the wife-to-be at that time) and that too after having a little talk with her on that eventful day(24th) this month (August), around five years ago (2003). And the above poem was an imaginative note I wrote(way before I even thought I would marry), but I believe every single word of it.

I have always believed that Love brings more pain into your lives. When you fall in love, you have got to worry about a lot more things than you are used to be. That's why I put in those words. I also believed that may be during Love, you will be blinded with the more joyous occasions, but only when you face a failure, you will recognize how Love should actually be.

I have a lot more stuff similar to this, in one of my college diaries, which were reflection of what I felt during those days to write. I will post these items one by one, whenever time provides itself to me. And a pure disclaimer, I don't keep a diary to write personal stuff, because I don't like to be a open book. I prefer to keep my secrets, so whatever I write will all be imaginary and with no relevance to any incidents in my life. There is nothing personal about it.

PS: The last line reads 'Fail' in love and you wouldn't ask again, and not 'FALL' in love.

Sometimes Updates are fun to Add

noreply@blogger.com ((Jay) Jayavasanthan J) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:53:00 +0000

Here I am with yet another update, seems to me I am doing a lot of updates lately. Need to cut down on this and start increasing the productivity of our company.

And fun things apart, this was a week, which saw a lot of drama in my life. First as always was with my baby girl. She accidentally pulled a chair which her mother was seated on (just as she got up) and hit herself on the fore-head with the chair. This caused a big cut on her eyebrow and had to be stitched. See the facts of life, I didn't come under the stitching till I was 8 years old. Now, she is not even 4 years old, she underwent a stitch on her fore-head. Life is just like that. It is like all bad luck which had followed me and restricted me from having some serious fun has now started haunting my little kid.

From her birth, each and everyone who had seen her had mentioned how lovely her eyebrow was. Now, part of her eyebrow within the stitched wound won't grow. See how cruel it is for her at such a young age. Life is just like that. I have always felt, if I gain few feet, I always get dragged down a few feet below. But I have always felt, one hand willing to pull me up. God has never let me down. And I always will carry that hope along. I will also give that hope to my kid. Like I gave her, when she told me that God was not with her when she hit the table in the houseboat we were residing last weekend, I told her that God was with her, that's why she didn't get hit in her eye or any other part in the face. I asked her to pray to God to be always with her and make sure the next time she should not fumble, and even if she fumbles a bit, she should not get hit.

God is always with her and me, and I hope he continues to guide us into this dreadful, but interesting journey called Life. Its just funny that when you see persons taking a lot more risk in their life, but always getting away with it. And you, whenever try to get that small risk sneak in, get hit like a thud. Its just that taking such risks (physically) is not up to me or my family. It just haunts us forever. I just pray that let God also be with us and protect us from these risks and guide us to the destiny which he has kept us to fulfill.

That takes me to the next update, about last weekend which we spent with such fun and glory to God. Yes, God made me and my daughter think about him often (and first time together as father & child) during the last weekend. Fun in the sense we spent most of the time travelling, staying in a boathouse, and again travelling to Guruvayoor for my friend's wedding. It was total fun. It was my schoolmate's wedding, who I am friends with since Fourth grade. I went with my family (wife & daughter) along with my other relatively newly wed friends. We had a very great time in the houseboat. Got to know about each other a lot better, mainly the new add-ons to our friends circle. My wife was also new, as she hadn't spent much time with my friends before. Now that they are also married, we would have some more common ground in being total family friends.

About the boathouse, we rented a boathouse with 4 AC/Deluxe rooms, for four families of people for a day. The boat just travelled, roamed over the Alleppey lake and parked for lunch, dinner, night, breakfast etc.,. The on-board chef prepared us the meal as we requested. We even bought some local flavours (fish & prawns) for cooking and enjoyed our stay thoroughly.

Throughout our travel, from Chennai to Alleppey, Alleppey to Guruvayoor (via Thrissur), then back from Guruvayoor to Chennai (via Thrissur), we had a lot of fun, mainly the card games we played cannot be forgotten for a long time to come. Hopefully, everyone of my friends feel the same. And this trip also dawned in a new phase of our relationship with each other. Now a group of friends as boys are turning into family friends. A complex emotional relationship is about to build, and the start was as I would say should be the best in its class.

So more friends are getting married and they would definitely join this big group, one pair is already ready as they got married by this week. Another friend got engaged to his fiance the same day, so he is becoming a pair shortly. After all the marriages, our group of 8 will become a little bit bigger by the end of the year. We might have to get a bigger boathouse by next year if we need to spend a similar happy time.

On that happy note, I end this update, will be back for more, Ciao.....

Some days are pretty nostalgic

noreply@blogger.com ((Jay) Jayavasanthan J) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:01:00 +0000

For most of our college mates, their journey through the special college life began today, 10th of July 1996.

For me, Yogi and few others the batch started on Aug 16 1996, I still soak with memories of all the happiness I felt on that very first day. It was a great feeling to see how an Engineering College will look like, which was not much different from the school we were used to.

The fact remains I didn't understand which class we were attending, when I entered the class and started listening. I asked the fellow nearby(who accompanied me in my bench) for which class this is. He told he didn't know. I thought it was Chemistry and started taking notes. I was asking most curious questions at the same person throughout the period, but he said didn't know or sometimes didn't answer. At times I thought this fellow is being a little cruel and doesn't like me taking place beside him.

At the end of the class (it was the fourth hour), we were breaking for lunch, I asked for notes on the subjects to the same fellow. He told he didn't have notes himself. Then I asked him his name and told him mine. His name is Yogi, my first friend at college and as I informed earlier into this write-up, he also joined the very same day. He and I became one of the best buddies through college and even now.

We joined Help hostel together, then shifted to a small house within reaching distance of the College. Again shifted rooms. Throughout this journey of College, we gathered more new friends to our room and group as we can say and lost a few, but something about this guy, I couldn't lose him enough. Or may be he couldn't lose me.

And finally when we departed away from College, he joined a separate office and I joined AdventNet. Still one of the few friends I kept in touch was Yogi. And then with time he joined AdventNet and worked with me in the same team. We still had great time as we did earlier. Time changed and I left AdventNet, but still I believe we are still in great touch as friends.

One tid-bit came along this weekday which made me write this piece. Yogi turned one more year old this week and his colleagues(few are my buddies too) over at AdventNet were mocking him as 30 years old (Poster pottu prabalapaduthittanga). When I called him to wish as usual, I heard this and immediately burst into laughter. Incidentally I am older than him and I haven't completed 30 yet (neither did he), but that wasn't a deterrent for his colleagues in teasing him.

This was one such moments that I wanted to record in my moments of joy and whole-hearted happiness, and this first day celeberation from our College day (10th July 1996), reminded me of those moments we spent together as friends, students, colleagues, roommates, etc.,

Gone are those days, when we were as happy as we can be, without any trouble, without any issues, without any single thing to worry about. Still we garner a hope to become the children we once were.

PS: Yogi is still single and he is one of the most eligible bachelors of our batch. Catch him before the time runs out.