Jayavasanthan's Kirukkalgal

Know when to Teach & when to Coach

2010-05-08T04:24:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-16T23:56:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-03-27T01:05:00.000-07:00

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).

Just a small wish

2009-12-31T05:04:00.000-08:00

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.

Reach the Potential

2010-02-09T05:06:00.000-08:00

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.

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

2010-03-12T08:20:00.000-08:00

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

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

2009-02-20T07:34:00.001-08:00

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

2008-12-30T07:11:00.001-08:00

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

2008-08-11T09:30:00.000-07:00

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.

My journey through life

2004-06-02T13:22:00.000-07:00

Everybody has their own journey through life.For life to be good, there should always be a destination to reach. Some think the destination to be successful in life, but my view is that it is our eternal sleep itself. Anyhow, as in all journeys, it is not the destination which is very attractive for the traveller, it is the journey itself which fascinates him. Hence everybody should traverse their life as a sizzling journey which has to be enjoyed. And the destination should be ultimately reached, if not you will not complete your ultimate journey.

Everybody has their own journey through life - II

2004-06-02T13:26:00.000-07:00

The education I had in Lakshmi English School was splendour, but for that to be applied, definitely the school should also be a nice place to study. Actually the school was the best place to start your studies. It had the right teacher at the right time for me. We had some limitations as a family and that too helped me in doing good in studies. The correspondent who was a pretty old guy at that moment was very strict on the teachers and that made the difference. He was not running a business rather he was concentrating on providing the very needed educational service to the needy and the elite.

Over that he had a great standard of subjects. Actually we were studying Gulmohar books for English and our Tamil books were one grade above the rest of the schools. Even the other subjects had their own weightage. My knowledge gained over in this school cannot be underrated as most of it got me through the toughest times ahead. Everybody knows studying a language other than the mother tongue is hard enough. In India, it is completely ridiculous to see people learning almost all the subjects (like science, maths, and even history) with English. Hence having a good fundamentals in the language is the foremost to grow in subsequent grades. And Lakshmi English School had the muscle to provide the same.

Talking about miracles, I will term this also one of the miracles I happened to have. I got good solid education from a school which was near, pretty cheap(such that our family can afford) and moreover I got to know and learn from one of the best teachers. This is surely the other miracle I want everybody to realize. My teacher is part of my history, just as my mother and father. In Tamil we have a saying, which goes like, "Mother Father Teacher God". The statement actually arranges the beings who are the most important to you in that order. The Mother who gives you life is the foremost, the Father (who your mother acknowledges) guides you through your life, the Teacher provides you with the knowledge to execute your life and the God is who acknowledges your life and rewards you. I believe I have got all the four with the best and pristine condition and I don't complain about anything.

Everybody has their own journey through life.

2004-06-02T13:24:00.000-07:00

For life to be good, there should always be a destination to reach. Some think the destination to be successful in life, but my view is that it is our eternal sleep itself. Anyhow, as in all journeys, it is not the destination which is very attractive for the traveller, it is the journey itself which fascinates him. Hence everybody should traverse their life as a sizzling journey which has to be enjoyed. And the destination should be ultimately reached, if not you will not complete your ultimate journey.

For me my journey started in a small city Chennai in Tamil Nadu India. I was born in 7th of December in a Government Hospital(GH) nearby. Don't panic, in those days, for maternity cases, the GH is the best bet for good caring of the new mother. I was the son born after 10 years of the elder child in my family. My mother still says, that I was born because of a lot of prayers to God. That was a pleasant Friday morning when I was born at around 8:30 to 8:40 AM. My family was filled with joy with my venture into this world. My sister, who I love the most, was one of the happiest person of all. She was happy because at last she has a smaller brother to play with.

Then I grew up doing all the naughty things the child does until my age of 2.5 or 3 when I had this dreadful illness. I donot remember how I suffered, my parents still remember it and say, you were reborn at that time. I was ill for almost 1 to 1.5 years from then. Mostly because of bad diagnosis from the doctor's side which cured the illness temporarily or something. Then I was shown to one of the best Child Specialists in and around Chennai. He gave me the rebirth. I was diagnosed with Oesnophilia, and I had a bad immune system. Then I recovered to the best joy of my family. And what I think as a miracle had happened in my life.

Talking about miracles, everyone has miracles in their life. Some just ignore them, where some just make it as a reason to believe and to have faith. I am under the second category and I did not get to know it by this one miracle, but through other miracles that happened throughout my life.

Everybody has their own ups and downs through their life, and the main thing is that you should not lose faith. As I said, enjoying life is the most important thing. Don't postpone any of your joys to tomorrow and feel left out when you reach your destiny. Because, as in all travels, the journey through your life should be enjoyable. You don't know what will happen when you reach your destiny. So to sacrifice something dear to you or postponing something to tomorrow is never going to pay.

So what, I got out of the illness, and now I was facing another big challenge. As I was ill I didn't join the school at the expected age. Hence I would lose the crucial one year in everbody's life. But as the good teachers they were, my parents taught me to read, write and interpret the deals that I have to go through in the school. That was only Lower Kinder Garten(L.K.G) they taught me, but it was too much, as they had to compromise my health, their jobs, their other activities towards my sister, etc.

Finally I joined the Upper Kinder Garten(U.K.G) in a school then named Lakshmi English School. The school was pretty cool. I started off becoming the very favourite of the teachers around there. One of the teachers should definitely be mentioned. She (Malar) was the person who shaped up my education to the best possible way. As my parents where working as teachers themselves, I couldnot go home just after completion of school. Hence I used to join the tuition programme with the Malar teacher in the school. She taught me most of the things I know in English and made my fundamentals right. I used to complete all my homework during the tuition and used to play when I reach home. I completed all the work that needs to completed other than the three times, two times copying the answers from the book in the tuition time itself. I gained a lot from those times. And as it started I was the star student in my class.

Then time came when I had to scale higher to higher standards(grades - from II grade to III grade), hence I had to separate from my favourite teacher. I had a severe fallout in the studies. Previously I used to study a lot during the tuition hours, now, the tuition hours are no longer available for study. I continued my usual play in home tactics, but it didn't work. Then I thought, even this should be for my own good. Then I too started studying on my own, on my home, and definitely results were good.

When I was in the fourth grade, I had grown good in studying that I was contending for the star student category again. Then disaster struck, and I had to leave the school. I will tell about the disaster latter, beforehand I would like to summarise my school, its surroundings and everything I remember from the stellar experience of first education.

A Big Turner in my Life

2004-09-07T07:44:00.000-07:00

I thought my marriage was the biggest turner in my life, but the next one which could be more big has come and it is the birth of my first child.

It has changed my life already, just into the fourth day of her birth, I see most of my movements, behaviour and everything is changing for the best. I am not sure How far I am going to move with this. She is a small, cute little child, who just throws her eyes around - still not recognizing most of the guys around. But she definitely recognizes the mother around.

Everybody in my family are saying, she reminds us of my sister - who had passed away - I may also like believing that. But as a tribute I am thinking of naming my child after my sister. I am thinking a lot of stuff. But I am not sure of anything. My mind is simply going crazy to see her. Right when I am about to leave to visit her at my mother-in-law's house, I thought of registering this moment in the history of the web - my blog.

The more I am in love with the beloved little thing, the more I am fascinated with the bonding I have had, am having and am about to have with my wife. Who is the softest and great little person I have to see more often than before now. Our relationship is going to turn into a new coin after all that has happened in the few weeks towards the birth of the child and after that.

This post is entirely what I am feeling right now - and hence can be right out-of-proportions for some. Anyhow, this is my blog and I have the independence to do so, hence sorry for others who haven't found that special moment. May be the best I can do for them is pray for their moment of glory to be acheived soon. God does miracles in very different ways - you will find them soon. It takes time to actually think and realize them. I have done the same a lot of time, hence you will get your time sooner than later - with that thought let me cut short this kirukkal.

Everybody has their own journey through life - III

2004-06-02T13:26:00.001-07:00

The Lakshmi English School taught me the fundamentals, but due to an unavoidable circumstance I was forced to leave the school over there and join another. If the previous school gave me the basics, the next taught me to use them well. Application is one of the most core part of the studies that you should never forget to learn. The school which adopted me for that is named Vallal Sabapathy School (so was it called then). Here I learnt how to apply myself into studies itself, because there was no more spoon feeding. I had to live in a different environment. Funny though still I can feel that environment which threw me out of no where. There I was in Lakshmi school where it was strict, disciplined and more and more academic oriented. Here I got a lot of freedom. Freedom of playfulness, naughtiness, craziness, funkiness, etc.

Freedom from all the academic clutches, our batch moved towards excellent schooling. Enjoyed many aspects of life. Like playing around in school hours, engaging in naughty and sometimes witty activities, social service (we cleaned up a pukka desertful ground to become a playground), mistakes (how can we otherwise call stealing question papers and also breaking one of my hands). Athu oru azhagiya nilakkalam, for somebody who doesn't understand Tamil, they were one of the most golden days in my history.

In school there were lot of activities, but before that the unavoidable incident which made me switch schools. You see I would have mentioned about my sister. My most loved sister. And I would have also mentioned how I was loved by her. As I was born very late after her, I was too small to be her friend, but I was like a first child to her. She would take care of me very well. She would be very possessive, bossing me around for all in the house. I would sacrifice even festive clothings for her to be happily clad. She would take charge of those who hurt me. She will take good care of me in the most beautiful manner I have ever seen. She will boss me around, beat me around, play with me and everything. But will be very much upset if someone hurt me. For instance, I was beaten up at the school for something and she took charge in the school asking the teacher "How could you beat my brother like this ?". She was the most lovable. Eventhough I was a dark boy (I was like my mother), she was the prettiest girl I have known. She would play with me (always against me). And sometimes we four (my parents and us) will pair around and play Carrom (one of our favourite passtimes in evenings) for hours. Always I would pair up with our mother and she with our father. Rarely we will beat them and mostly she will be the winner. Those were days I would like to relive. I am dreaded to say that she left us on a fateful day of June 19th 1987. She lived, lives and will live in our hearts for years to come. I really miss a sister, a second mother and most importantly the company I would have been in if she hadn't died. "I love you sister & I miss you a lot". If God comes before me and grants a wish I would ask God only this, I should be with my sister - either I should die and be with her or she should come back alive.

Being a lonely son is an easy job when compared to being a lonely son after the death of your sister/brother. I believe she is waiting for me in heaven and I am waiting for me to go there. But past is past and as I already said, we should live life, hence I am also living my life. I know I could be any year, any day, any moment, hence I should live to say, my journey through life either complete or incomplete was a good one.

Yeah, I was lonely. I didn't have a sister to cajole me. I didn't have a brother to guide me. I didn't have a yonger sister to be cajoled & guided. I was all alone. I would do stupid things around when I was alone. I would cry for hours thinking about the past/present/future uselessly. I would try to kill myself, but only try and not do anything more. I had wrote suicide notes atleast two times in this matter. Idle mind is always devil's play ground. Then there came a phase when I started believing in God more and everything else passed away. That was the phase when I started enjoying all my life present around me. One of my major companions through this tough period is the Television. Everyone says TV is bad, for then it has done numerous good things for me. Kept me off focus on useless things. Kept me interested in learning more - the UGC Classrooms, kept me interested by entertaining - the DD metro english serials of the earlier days (mainly Derrick - detective stories, and Non-stop Non-sense - a comedy serial). And otherwise when my friends are around, we enjoyed games either in playground or indoors. I remember playing Trade games, Cricket, Football, etc., Even watching movies and that too mainly English action movies. Normally I would see one movie per week, and that would be minimal. Sometimes I have seen three movies in a weekend.

For the list of movies I have seen, I should definitely write a book on how to watch movies. Where to pay attention and where not to pay attention. Which movie to chose from which movie. I would collect the movies from a local video library, bring them home and watch them. I would chose lots of action movies and will be careful not to take any adult-oriented action movies (as I was not an adult by then). Many action movies of those days will definitely contain a kissing scene and nothing more than that. I would spend sometimes around one to two hours to browse a movie from the list of crap the library has in store. I have seen most of the famous movies of our times even before they got released in Madras (Chennai) and some in India itself. Some of them to mention are, Terminator 1 & 2, Jurassic Park, Cliffhanger, Predator, Jackie Chan movies, etc., Other movies of older times include Bond Movies, Bible movies (Ten Commandments, Samson & Delilah, etc). I remember I would have gone to around one or two theatres before College. But I would have been spending more time than any of my friends watching movies. I still know the time when I saw Cliffhanger with my friends after cracking out a few crackers around three months before it officially released and ran like anything.

Everybody has a Journey through life - IV

2005-03-23T02:03:00.000-08:00

Matric - to students in Tamilnadu, passing thro' matric examinations is one of the biggest acheivements. When a student passes from Matric in a great fashion, he goes on to acheive better things from the College. Hence my matric days were filled with more responsibilities like learning non-stop. Having no time for fun, etc., And I also had a dubious distinction of being the School First and everybody had high hopes from me.

This is a sort of pressure nobody should be in. But it was me. The same pressure happened to be a breaker when I was studying 8th standard, but I had broke the pressure barrier myself by telling to myself - no need to be pressurized, there will always be persons who are better than me and who are worse than me. Hence I have to just concentrate and focus on my goal and finish it.

My goal then became, that I had to get good marks to get recruited in to the Maths & Science group and target Engineering. Moreover as I always do I try to enjoy life, I had other work too. Like working as a School Pupil Leader, being the Class Leader, playing cricket/football, dancing, acting, etc., All this was what actually making me feel better about myself completing Matric.

My school days until matriculation (10th standard) was what set the tone for the rest of my life. I have always liked friendly and enjoyable company and that's what has shaped me up as a good leader, good friend, good person as a whole.

Those were good old days and to be called the golden days of my life is not short enough. The persons, friends, comrades I was around those days cannot be compared to any other place. They were the best. To your astonishment, our circle of friends still continue to be friends and we meet up with almost every weekend. Within us we have more than three Engineers (two software), one MBA, one businessman, one AD publisher etc., We all still meet up, chat and relive most of our school days one-by-one.

A man is known by the friends he keeps, but as a variety of guys, keeping the friendship for this long, we are certainly various aspects of a good bunch of guys who you all might see around.

With that note, I end up this episode, the later episode will contain a lot more detail of personal incidents on school.

A Long Night - Yesterday

2004-09-29T02:53:00.000-07:00

Yeah, yesterday was the longest night - something similar to the longest day battle on the european coast during world war II.

So it was our baby chellam was crying like anything, she was feeling difficult about something which we couldn't find out. The problem was never rectified. From the moment I got home she was crying, feeding, doing the usual chores and again start crying. I, my wife and my mother-in-law all were already tired because of our hectic schedules, still we couldn't do anything for a good night sleep. My mother-in-law could sleep on the first half of the night when I and my wife were looking after the baby. And then my turn came for the sleep and my wife and mother-in-law took over at around 4 AM.

It was harrowing, as I was sleeping in the same room as they were in, I can hear all the screams from my child and was practically disturbed the whole night thinking of all the possibilities for her discomfort. But in the morning I had another startling revelation. More babies do better damage to the sleep than this. Now should I be glad about a very small but difficult experience or be sad for it. That's for us to decide.

Anyhow, it has been a long night and again a long day at the office - I am going to my home tonight (baby is with her mother at my mother-in-law's house)and hence can be sure that I will be spared tonight.

Looking forward to more longer nights to come when the baby chellam visits me at my house. Again owning and caring for a baby is not child's play. And to just know that we have a piece of rememberance when we leave this world is itself a total gratification a human could really acheive. So good things don't come easy, you have to toil hard for them. Do it and your kid will be in that total gratification factor.

C'ya.....

Career Update

2005-10-10T06:09:00.000-07:00

Hi then,

I did a most recent turn on my career, when I said bye to Java/J2EE and went on to do C/C++. To be short, I had not touched C coding after the Second Year in College. C++ you can guess what I would have done. Going on for five years on Java and then suddenly changing to C/C++, that was one risk I was taking on my career.

The other major risk was I was joining a startup. So what is that puts everybody off when they begin to work on a startup. Is it the hardworking environment or the salary or both. But for me it has been love for both the options. I was glad I am getting into hardwork again. And I was also glad, I need not worry about my investment plans for some more years. Its a bore to analyze where to put your excess money, when U have it in your hand. I better take rich dividends at the end of the startup era of my current company, rather than trying to spend the money on hand carefully.

So, with the risks involved why did I take the job, well, for the area we are innovating. P2P is always a headliner, and storage a revenue churner. What we have come up with is something which is both P2P and Storage, which is particularly awesome & affordable even for a small home network.

Now its early days, but some of our anonymous reviewers, who we have no connection with except the internet "http://www.livejournal.com/users/sydhart/58825.html" has written quiet a piece.

So future is how we implement it in the best possible way. And I am here just to do it.

My company website - www.vembu.com, Product name - Vembu StoreGrid, Purpose - P2P Backup.

Life's Smoooooooooooooooooooth.

Everybody has their own journey through life - V

2005-04-12T23:11:00.000-07:00

Talking about school I can't just forget all the incidents which I was involved in, mainly embarrassing ones. And also funny ones - we all still talk about these incidents and make fun of each other.

Hide & Seek: Hide & Seek is a popular game in our school, mainly because of the surroundings which made that happen. Our surroundings were a bit spooky when I joined the school, how about two half-built buildings and a full built one with bushes growing all in the empty places where the people have forgotten to keep a foot on for ages. This gets more spookier when the time actually climbs after the sun sets. The half-built buildings guaranteed a lot of nooks and corners to hide, and a very simple place to children like us who are not yet aware of the spooky superstitions of the world.

We climbed the beams, lafts, windows, etc - (sometimes we even had lunches at these places). Hide and Seek was the best game to be played under this environment.

You may already know the rules, but for those who don't

1. The catcher catches hidden persons one by one and name them '1, 2, 3,...'
2. If the cathcher catches them all without getting fouled the person the catcher named '1' will be the next catcher and the previous catcher can join the hiding clan.
3. If somebody whom the catcher has not named fouled him/her (by hitting him in the back), then he agains becomes the catcher and the cycle starts again.

There is a catch - if somebody fouls the catcher before the catcher even names a person '1', then he becomes the catcher and the previous catcher again joins the hiding clan.

I personally had a great method to catch the thieves. What I will do is I will find people, but not name them --> until I have got everyone. Hence even if somebody fouls me --> he will become the catcher. It's a kinda of illegal, but hey, all is fair in love and war - and you have to always play to win. Sometimes my friends won't let me be the catcher itself (how absurd), because I ruin their fun. The fact is I will keep the participants guessing, by sometimes naming the persons I had caught.

Anyhow, we had a lot of fun playing all those time-pass games. Our clan was like some twenty-odd nos: some from a grade previous to mine, and some from a grade above me. We were all pals, buddies, and real friends at heart. We always helped, loved, cared each other, similarly teased, fought, and sometimes hurt each other. But the interesting thing we didn't hate anybody by heart. We all loved the company - girls or boys we were all the same playing and enjoying for what was the best school days everyone would have enjoyed.

I will come back with more interesting incidents, keep tuned in...

Life Journey Update

2007-08-11T01:10:00.000-07:00

Actually there are a lot of things to update,

1. My baby girl has started going to Pre-School.
2. My Company is doing great, and is on path to becoming a 100 million dollar company.
3. My Friends (school friends as well as college friends) are about to get married (finally). Yes they are all boys.
4. I am still the same irresponsible fellow at home.

etc., and etc.,

First about my baby girl. Whoever have met her when she was a baby would have told, she is going to throw a lot of tantrums when she is to go to school. I believed this will not be happening. I was sure, because like myself, she craves for acceptability among her peers. And she will do something pretty absurd, just to show that she can. We all thought she won't spend a single minute without her mother or her grandpa around. But, now she spends around five hours in the pre-school, without them. She also never cries when she enters the school campus. She cries a little when she is in the house starting for school, but I have never seen her cry when she enters the school. Also when we go to pick her up (I went only once), she was on her personal best walking stylishly out towards us.

That's one kind of girl we have raised. But, to make the fun story short, nowadays, she doesn't leave her mother or grandpa when she is at home. Sometimes she doesn't even come nearer to me for days (reason might be also that I spend very much like half-an-hour or so when she is awake at home).

Anyway that was about it. The rest of it is related to the Professional life, boy we are doing good in Vembu Technologies. Lots of new things are springing up all the time. We are pretty much expected about our latest 2.2.1 Release, as well are very much excited to see what we are having in store for the customers at the 2.3 Release. May be we are sitting on a 100 mill $ product after all. At the rate we are growing we can see rocket growth in the next one year.

Added on to that we are also working on some next gen features for the next major version to crack that Enterprise market after which we can say, "It's Raining money, hallelujah, Its Raining money". As far as I am concerned, this is one decision of my life that could be a big turner for my life professionally as well as personally.

I did the same, when I had to choose between AirForce interview to Software Engineering, even though I would have been the same Software Engineer in AirForce, I chose the later. And, then I chose over just a money-making career to a risky entry with a startup. I believe the first one clicked. But I believe the second one is going to be more fun than I could have ever imagined, I will be making money - right, but I will also be enjoying doing that. That is the real fun about it.

Thirdly, my friends, I am not sure if I had mentioned it earlier, me and my friends date back from around 1987/1988. That's almost 20 years. We have criss-crossed and have spent valuable time just to be around when the other needs us. We have seen a lot of fun events, joyous moments. But we haven't celebrated greatly yet. As only one marriage is complete within my school mates (mine, so I was not part of the celebration), I am dying now to see others take that final plunge.

Three of my friends are pending marriage due to their Love life. Others are pending marriage plainly and I believe in the next one to one and a half years all my friends will be married. And I will be relieved of taking the burden of the lone family man in our group. Will update with more things to come (would love to upload the pictures too...).

And finally, as I said, I am still that irresponsible fellow, who doesn't worry about anything or anybody other than work. That's how I am built, I try to run away from all my personal responsibilities, and I am not sure how long I am still going to do that, only time will tell. I believe I am still lacking in my abilities in the professional arena. I want to set the bar so high, as high as it possibly can be, or may be even further. As sometimes it helps to set new standards for yourself, because you have to be the best (good or better just doesn't count).

With that we can end this now, I will update with news when something exciting breaks up.

Latest updates

2007-12-08T04:25:00.000-08:00

After an eventful November and the first week of December, looking forward for more eventful course of the current month.

November - what happened ?

1. Wedding anniversary (Mine & My parents).
2. Shopping for wedding anniversary.
3. First Year in memory of my Grandfather (father of my father)
4. Wedding in family
5. One of my close friend's birthday.
6. A short visit from my friend from B'lore
,etc...

Enjoyzzzzzzzz continued as,

December - what happened till now ?

1. Mother's birthday
2. my friend's engagement.
3. my viral fever, just before my birthday
4. my birthday
5. my Uncle's birthday (mother's brother)

December - what is to happen till ?

1. my in-law's wedding anniversary (wife's parents)
2. More shopping
3. Christmas [& christmas related programs]
4. Love feast [I love the feast right ??? LOL]
5. New year.

Something to worry about, I am inching another year closer to 30. But what the heck, I want to forget age and only calculate when someone else asks.

Other than that life is going fast paced and taking a lots of twists and turns, and we are about to do one more fruitful release of StoreGrid product.

The most important update of them all is I am choosing a school for my girl, most probably she will be joining one among these schools,

1. DAV, Choolaimedu.
2. Fathima, Kodambakkam.
3. CSI Ewarts, -.
4. Vidyodaya, -.
5. Vincents, -.
6. Good Shepherd, -.

As time can tell, I will update where she is about to study in a later date, but the above list shows, that not only I am getting older, but I am also trying to be a more responsible father nowadays.

Its fun that I am choosing a school for my kid. A boy who didn't even care where I was studying. Trying to analyze the education, facilities, fee structure, donation (if any). Really, like these stuff do matter. I know from my experience as a student, it is only upto the student to learn stuff which will be needed for you to deal with life. But now I am turned to look for vibes from all these institutions to identify who will impart that same level of passion for studies, performing stuff which matters to my little kid.

But as time and God decided my progress & future, I will let time and God decide what will be best for my kid. I will try to put in my best efforts, but it is finally God's grace how all ideas pan out.

And its fun to know, all these decisions are taken in a haste, for example to join DAV, I bought the application on thursday, I will be submitting it on Monday, the results [selection results for LKG admissions, hmm] will be available by Wednesday, and most probably the whole year's fees will be paid by this month end. All this while even the academic year doesn't start for another six to seven months. This has become the educational status in India. If you want a good school, you have to book in advance.

On another funny note, Infosys is offering Software Engineer Trainee jobs for guys who are still to finish the sixth semester exams. They are booking the candidates around one and a half years in advance.

This is surely a long post, most probably everybody have already skipped it, but sure I will post a lot bigger one by my next post.

New News, New Updates

2007-10-27T05:09:00.000-07:00

Like always, Chennai is getting drenched with Monsoon rains, and I am getting drenched in work. So for the past one week, I didn't spend a day without riding my bike through the rain. Its kind of fun though, when it is this much repetitive, can become a little bit worrisome. That too riding in the rain with all vehicles coming at you with High Beam on, could make you worry a lot.

Recent updates,

1. Working on a couple of Christmas skit for our Church.
2. Some work on performance optimizations.
3. Conference calls for some custom usage of the product.
4. Overall team building efforts,

and you name any one of other works, I will be at it.

Another update, bought a brand new laptop for my house, very sleek, Acer Aspire 4520 series. I believe I got a good deal, let us wait and see.

All the more I see I am doing a lot of work, I see myself enjoying this almost. I sleep only around 6-8 hours a day. I spend a little time with my baby girl, telling her some bed-time stories. Lot of fun happening. I visited the Abirami Mall with my wife, my baby girl, and few of our relatives and had a great time over there. Last few weeks have been quite a fun and I believe this is here to continue.

To love or hate, the life is here and I am enjoying every moment of it. Now, if I may just show the same kind of enthusiasm in the following activities that would also be more interesting & rewarding.

1. Going on time to Church.
2. Going on time to Office.
3. Brainstorming about a lot.
4. Interactive & Extreme programming.
5. Be a nice guy (when it desperately needs myself to be) - like don't be a heart-breaker.

And lots and lots more, as being a irresponsible fellow has taught me, you cannot always be a selfish fellow, you have to at least try to satisfy what others are expecting from you. Because, they are the ones for whom you are living for. Without them, life would mean nothing.

On that drastic note, I would like to return to my own selfish ways and try to more irresponsible.

Bye for now.

Latest Updates

2008-03-08T03:03:00.001-08:00

After a long gap, some updates. Its been very long after I blogged last. Yes, more than two months. This has been real hectic with lots of stuff going on parallel. I have just listed a few for a quick tid-bit.

I - any post without mentioning my girl first is insane:

Finally, my girl has found a school to start her schooling from the KGs. She got her application approved at a few schools, but she is joining the Sacred Heart Matric. Hr. Sec. School in Church Park for her KGs. The first year's fees have been paid and she has also provided the measurements for her uniform. Most probably, she is going to wear the same colours till the Higher Secondary School completion.

II - This I had to, as my wife is killing me if I don't mention her in the post:

And, yes, she has passed the M.Phil exams. The only subject for which she is waiting for the results is her thesis. That should definitely be a slam-dunk. She was really worried about the exams, that she refused to attend the second one. But I insisted, and informed her that if she couldn't do it, nobody can. This enthused her and she completed studying for that subject in two days and wrote the exam. And she could manage the 50% that she ought to in both the exams, this is real great.

III - Again My Girl:

She did attend her first Annual Day (at her Pre-School). The amazing stuff she did. a. She started the proceedings with the Prayer. b. She was one of the dancers in the Crazy-Frog song. After this bit, I really know that more parents have recognized my wife and my father(who go to drop/pick her up at the school) to be Junia's Mother and GrandFather. It really was a great deal for her and us. I have all covered in a video, hopefully I will embed it soon.

IV - Again:

She also attended the beginner's Examination for Sunday-School in oral. She was supposed to memorize 10 verses from various chapters of the Bible, and she received a perfect score on her exams. All the hardwork and effort were put in by my wife and my daughter. Now, she officially knows more verses than me from the Bible.

V - StoreGrid:

As most as if I am a part of StoreGrid, I also feel that StoreGrid has become a part of my life. Now, my life's progress is based on StoreGrid and I have dedicated all my efforts into it. And this February, we have made a new Release of StoreGrid (2.3), with a new string of features attached. I will be happy that I was able to be a part of the current Release as well, with long-requested features such as the SSL support, socket Reconnection etc., and also one of the key things we improved in this release is the performance of StoreGrid. 2.3 is a hard-fought tough release, which sucked the energy out of most of its developers. I hope this has the great impression on the market and our customers.

VI - LCD TV:

Finally I bought the LCD television (SHARP 32inches), and I am pretty happy with it.

VII - Friends are getting married. First it was Sudhakar, Vadivel, Jagannath, and Prabhu, and tomorrow it will be Jagan. Lot more marriages lined up to.

VIII - To my guilty glee, Indians won the Tri-Series in Australia, but the icing on the cake was U-19 World Cup triumph. Who would have thought we would win after that paltry score. Really I didn't. Kudos to young guns. Its really great to see aggressive cricket. Indians do play pretty aggressively at home, but it was also good to seen the same attitude in an away series.

Well a real long post, hope you enjoyed it. I really cherished all these moments, as I run through my life.

Is this the Next Update ??

2008-06-05T08:55:00.001-07:00

So I am here again with another update. With all things going fine my daughter is about to start going to school again. This time it is the Junior Nursery or the LKG, as everyone prefers to call it. See the predicament, she will be in Senior Nursery next year. Today we went in and got her uniform colors, which she might be wearing for the rest of her school life (only the colors). As usual she was in excited mood, and I and my wife startlingly woke up early in the morning to do this good deed.

From monday onwards, it should be a daily chore to drop her out at school. I am not sure whether I would be involved in this chore, but certainly wouldn't harm to do it once in a while. Certainly looking forward to some exciting times ahead.

At some other news, I, my wife and daughter along with my mother-in-law and other in-laws went to Kerala [Trichur] to attend a marriage. It was one of the memorable trips in the recent past. The one trip in the almost five long years of marriage, I couldn't forget is our honeymoon trip. I enjoyed every moment of the trip and I hope my wife has the same feelings of that trip. We would love to relive that trip one more time, if our finances help it out. Definitely not with my daughter or anybody else with us.

There were some turbulent times in my mind lately, which have by now thankfully subsided because of certain mental calmness brought with the Grace of God. When in trouble I tend to drop everything and submit myself to God and also try to live out what he expects the outcome should be. This has helped me in lot of tight situations and the last one was the worst one as such. I am not sure whether it has entirely subsided, but, now it seems some of it has.

So backup(pun intended) at StoreGrid, we are doing extraordinary stuff right now. I hope to bring all the experience gathered around the years put to use to the extreme right, left and center to offer something more valuable to the customers. Hopefully our efforts can pay off and let us enter into cool regions of software development & usage.

This is one crazy world we live in and the recent inflation rates have justified it. Well, currently it is not affecting everyone [atleast not me]. But we cannot be complacent, because in future is always determined by the past, if today is crazy, tomorrow can be crazier, better schedule a Plan B for everything.

On that crazy note, I will update you later on any more latest updates, and for the answer to the title question, you would have guessed it, 'YES' that's the right answer.

Sometimes Updates are fun to Add

2008-07-17T08:53:00.001-07:00

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

2008-07-10T04:01:00.001-07:00

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.