The CAT Carnival is back...

Surrounded by all the anxieties and bewilderment, amidst all the speculation , the CAT carnival - 2009 has begun . The trumpet has been blown and the gun has been fired . The race has begun ....

In the April , the IIMs announces that CAT will be going online , much to the disappointment of the students as well as coaching classes. Yet, we all had to embrace the change whether we liked it or not. The Profs need some break from the admission procedure to concentrate on research and academic . Truly, I also feel same. With CAT going online, a lot many coaching institutes till now unknown, made to the limelight. Now, with the minimum of the infra , they can sustain themselves... hmm .. IIMs promoting Entrepreneurship !!! Well, the throne of the established brands .. will take some time to destabilize. Yet, they came out with their own online versions and mocks. I really feel sorry for the student who was the mute witness of all the tamasha going around him . Yes, he was the one whose career was at stake. The years of labor and dream of the family ( we all know , in Indian Middle class ,IIM and IIT entrance tests are not an individual's dream but always a family's dream ). He was the one who was standing in the desert and looking towards the sky to find the faintest of shadow of the Pole Star so that he can get to know the direction to move.
After, a long wait , came the CAT notification on 30 Aug, acclaiming that the IIMs are going paper-less , the fact quite evident from the advertisement, which barely gave any important dates other than the date and location for purchase of the voucher. All the ways lead to the address www.catiim.in . A few announcements , one demo video was all one can get at the site.The students were left to imagine on their own .
The day was 09-sep-2009 , the date when the voucher selling was to be start at a few selected locations.My God! There were more than 200 people standing in the line at the gate of the bank , even before the bank has opened. This fits with the "Grand Opening ceremony of the Olympics".Anyway , people get their turn and bought the vouchers. Rushes to the computer ... Yes.. we have to race against others .. first lap, to book test slot . Get your favorite venue and date, soon , they will be evaporating from the choice list. Go Prometric site and register your application. But, the world-leader in Online Tests , experienced of handling GRE and GMAT boasted in their cv , but, none can match the CAT. I assume more than a lakh hits made to their site , their server cannot handle this . No they can't . This is "Annual CAT Festival". Lakhs of devotees , a mere 1200 seats at stake. Its a do or die situation for many. Not just to get a license to a good life, fame and money , but , to prove oneself , to prove that yes, I too stand there , amidst the few , those immortals whose success stories are the dinner-talk at too many houses , the younger generations burdened with the expectation to outperform them .
Anyways , each one got his chance to fill the application ,many in their 20th attempt. No wonder they made the mistake final time -- the time when it mattered the most -- anyone could have got annoyed with the lost server connections. People did what they are always best at -- make mistakes. The software was of throw-away quality looking as if it is a summer project of any graduating student -- No validations for necessary fields , no edit facility , and no summary at the end. It was further complicated with the technical issues . All the time , it was the poor student at the receiving end. Moreover, they were asked to buy the new voucher and re-register themselves. Clearly, it was a mess all around . The entrance test to select the future managers and who's who of corporate India , was left unmanaged .
Well,mails flowed and calls made. Umpteen number of people approached the Mighty IIMs to consider about the plight of the students. Finally, a cordial agreement was reached to allow the applicants to edit their application. Many breathe the fresh air . Their heart started pumping oxygenated blood once again . But , I still wonder , institution like IIM , still it didn't came to their mind to provide every individual applicant with an email account and give him to receive and direct every mails pertaining to CAT. The start of the application manual mentions in bold letter - "You must have a valid e-mail id for whole of the selection process". We trust Google more than ourselves , it has made us independent on itself . It is the one which has destroyed the world , her intellectuals . Each and every student types Google to look for their assignments. Every software looks to that. How did the IIMs came to trust of Google or Gmail more than itself, that it forgot to provide any email account to the applicants , leaving them at the mercy of the public e-mail domains. God forbid, but , may Gmail server goes out of service ,who will be responsible for it . The worst was the lack of attribute for "secondary email Address". No field was there to provide a secondary address , in case one fails , we have a back up with us. Surely, every event management course will stress on the need to keep a back up plan . How come the so-called best institutes forget it ? Quite , unbelievable and shameful for them , for us .
Well , a man learns from mistake and I do appreciate the initiative they taken . I was pipeline for years , and it should have been properly planned, tested and verified before bringing on to production .
God knows , whats in store on the D-day. How will they manage such a big database of questions, how will they ship out the exam each day each session with same difficulty level . The more you think of it , the more baffled you are .We will see it in days to come. I am not against improvement, I am not against modernization. But, Surely, I am against a step taking without prior planning and testing. Nothing is fool proof, but yes , the measure to which one is surely make some better than other.
We will be back with some more once, the athletes of the race assemble in the Olympic Village - the centre . The rules and strategies have changed , but , one thing that hasn't changed is cut-throat competition . It is the best ever-game I have played , the strategies of chess and cards , the stamina of marathon, the defense of cricket , the attack of soccer , the speed of F1 and brutality of war.
May only the BEST mouse survive .

The Lost Symbol

Dan Brown is back with his latest novel - " The Last Symbol" . It is going to be released on 15-Sep-2009 -> 15+09+09= 33 . This book has created a lot of excitement in the reader's circle. Every Dan Brown fan is waiting for another masterpiece immersed in cryptography.

Prior to the release of the book , I paid a visit to the book's official website :- http://www.thelostsymbol.com/ . On entering the website , I found the link of : " Play
Symbol Quest Game ". Wow!! Another puzzle game ... I just can't resist the temptation to play it . And, thus , jumped to it !!

The puzzle was to relate the "Symbols" with the "one-liner" information given below.
You have 3 lives i.e. you can at max make three mistakes.It had 33 rounds attached to it .Each round for matching 1 symbol.

Finally, I successfully matched all the 33 symbols to their respective boxes in my 9th attempt ,a very few answers I was knowing , some calculated guesses and mostly , with the help of Google and wikipedia. Special Thanks to www.symbols.com .

Once,I completed the level 33, a message displayed on my screen - "If you finish all the levels without any mistake , a secret message is waiting for you."

I tried the puzzle thrice more , and in my 11th attempt I was able to score a "Perfect 33". Then , I heard the secret message in the voice off "Dan Brown".

The quiz is quite interesting, and more interesting , is the story I found my way to the answers.

1) Latin "recipe" offered by doctors : very easy , can be easily deciphered

2) Hood ornament for Emil Jellinek's daughter : I googled to find out who was the daughter of Emil Jellinek's daughter.Rest you can follow , with the slightest knowledge of brand logos.

3) Who uses this symbol : Too good . Thanks to Parag, I had seen this type of problem beforehand, my experience came to my rescue. :)

4) The cross of Bogart's Falcon : Frankly speaking I did not get much clue about it from the google that falcon is a bird . Bogart falcon also gave some results and pics , but , were of no use at least to me . Some times , your simple thinking helps you crack . The only figure in the list resembling cross was ... Luckily , my calculated guess took me through.

5) Proofreader's mark from the Latin "Delere" : Made a google image search for delere in latin .Delere means delete and this symbol is used by many printers and proof readers.

6) Opposing, yet unified : I guess its easy one -- a few mistakes allowed. Think of something which are opposite , but are together .

7) One eyed man + two ravens : Googling it gives a link to wiki answers .It talks about The wheel cross, sun cross, Odin's cross or Woden's cross.

Nordic Odin and Teutonic Wuotan or Woden was the supreme god of the Nordic religion before Christianity. Odin was the god of art, culture, warfare, and the dead; He is depicted as an old, one-eyed man with two ravens as his intelligence agents and messengers .

8) Meditative chant : All of us do it !!

9) Kafka, Poe, or Khepri embodied : It refers to some Egyptian symbol.(Dung Beetle).

10) Leo's chaste neighbor: Leo is lion and chaste means " one who is pure (virgin)".
Find out leo's neighbor who is virgin. Use www.symbols.com to get exact symbol.

11) Greek Goddess of Triumph : too easy.

12) Zeus's Games : too easy.

13) Alpha's antithesis : Antithesis means Opposite . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_alphabet

14) The fork of Zeus's younger brother : fork symbol ...

15) Casanova, Mozart and Houdini had this in common : read about Casanova in Wikipedia and then , you will get a reference to him linking with Mozart , who were part of same society called " Freemasonry". Freemasonry's symbol is Mason Compass and Square.

16) Silence for Berlioz, Bizet and Bartok :

17) An age in the hair of Broadway : Not much sure . After , 2 futile attempts, tried a symbol looking like 'Hair'.

18) French Monarch's lily : Related to Priory of Sion -- see wiki

19) Robert Langdon's favourite symbol : Locate the symbol on this page http://www.randomhouse.com/doubleday/davinci/robertlangdon/

20) Octothorpe: You find it on your phone. Phew !! I was not knowing about it before ...

21) Sounds like a resident in the Garden of Eden : Pretty tough to find .. couldn't get any clue . Went for reverse engineering ...

22) Anagram of "Madras Pen" : easy one .. simple , but a master piece

23) Without end : Maths enthusiasts must be knowing this

24) The Golden Ratio : I love it !! My favorite "Maths constant " -- Simply , its God's Beauty. Those who don't known , please read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio

25) Venus's Hand Mirror : Venus : the goddess of beauty. easy one.

26) The "S" in Mozart's D.S : There is a symbol like 'S'. Tried that and it worked.

27) Hieroglyph of seven body parts in one : Read about Eye of Horus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_of_Horus

28) Centaur archer : Search for centaur on www.symbols.com
In Greek mythology , centaurs are the race of creatures made up of half-human and half-horse. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centaur

29) Quicksilver : Mercury ... searched for symbols associated to Mercury on www.symbols.com . There are a lot many symbols attached with mercury and unfortunately , 3-4 were in the list . I tried trial and error method for this . finally , after 4-5 tries ( in 2-3 games) I could locate the correct one .

30) Circle's circumference divided by its diameter : Every body knows it PIE

31) IESOUS CHRISTOS THEOU YIOS SOTER : A simple google and wiki search will lead to Christian Symbols. But , read the interesting article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichthys.

32) Demisemiquaver : Simple wiki search

33) Scribe of Sidereus Nuncius was the first to see rings around it : first , look for what is Sidereus Nincius . It was a short paper published by Galileo . Scribe refers to the telescope used by him. Then , try to find the symbol associated with this planet at www.symbols.com.


Thanks and I wish all of you the best of luck in finding "The Lost Symbol".

Happy Independence Day

आज मै आपके सामने एक कविता पेश कर रहा हूँ , जिसे मैंने अपने स्कूल के दिनों में पढ़ा था और मुझे बहुत ये प्रिया लगा था । आज भी ये कविता मेरे कुछ सबसे अनमोल धरोहरों में से एक है ....


जननी जन्मभूमि स्वर्ग से महान है ,
अनादी है अनंत है , श्रृष्टि का विधान है ।
ग्रीक हून शक यवन टूटते थे भूमि पर ,
हारते थे हौसले पंचनद के तीर पर ।
पता नही कहाँ है वे , अतीत में समां गए ,
कल के प्रवाह में नीज को वे मिटा गए ।
भव्य दिव्य लक्ष्य की प्राप्ति ही विराम है ,
अनादी है अनंत है श्रृष्टि का विधान है ।
जननी जन्मभूमि स्वर्ग से महान है ,
अनादी है अनंत है , श्रृष्टि का विधान है ।
छोड़ के हटे जहाँ शक्ति शौर्य साधना ,
छा गई स्वदेश में स्वार्थ क्षुद्र भावना ।
द्रोही तब पनप उठे , जगी प्रचंड वासना ,
शत्रु फ़िर डटे यहाँ स्वत्व की प्रताड़ना ।
देश भक्ति फ़िर जगे , देश का ये प्राण है ,
अनादी है अनंत है , श्रृष्टि का विधान है ।
जननी जन्मभूमि स्वर्ग से महान है ,
अनादी है अनंत है , श्रृष्टि का विधान है ।
जाति वेश भिन्न भिन्न , पंथ भी अनेक है ,
भावना अभिन्न है , धर्मं मर्म एक है ।
पूर्वजो का रक्त एक , आज सबको जोड़ता ,
कौन है कपूत वहाँ , देश को जो तोड़ता ।
अखंड देश की धरा सुना रहे ये गान है ,
अनादी है अनंत है , श्रृष्टि का विधान है ।
जननी जन्मभूमि स्वर्ग से महान है ,
अनादी है अनंत है , श्रृष्टि का विधान है ।
अधर्म की घिरी घटा , कुचक्र है पनप रहे ,
पुण्य धर्मं भूमि पर अधर्म करमा बढ़ रहे ।
व्यथा विशाल देश की आज हम समझ सके,
विशुद्ध राष्ट्र भाव से देश ये महक उठे ।
राष्ट्र जागरण करो यही समय की मांग है ,
अनादी है अनंत है , श्रृष्टि का विधान है ।
जननी जन्मभूमि स्वर्ग से महान है ,
अनादी है अनंत है , श्रृष्टि का विधान है ।

First year as a Corporate fresher

Day - 23 rd June , 2008 Time : - 8 PM

A boy wakes up to the call of his friend -- " 8 baj gaye , ready nahi hona." He takes his tooth brush and rushes to the balcony to see the rising sun. The day was cloudy , but weather was pleasant. He took his file out of the suitcase -- which had been organised and cross-checked hundred times by himself and his mother to make sure that all his certificates are there . Then , wearing the formals --- got to the auto --and reached the place . The building in fornt was majestic and he felt a sense of pride in entering it . It wasn't for the first time that he was entering such a beautiful campus -- but, definitely the feeling of oneness was there with him.
The campus greeted him with an automatic door - ah good.... he liked it. Then , the reciptionist counter he finds a few more similar but anxious faces waiting for their name to be announced. Finally , his turn came and he gets the security clearance and "NEW EMPLOYEE @ ORACLE" batch . He was shown the way to the conference room . The inside corridors reminded him of the galleries of the big offices . In the conference room , HR were there to greet all the new joinees. He comforatbly positioned himself in the 3 rd chair from the front-- a thing quite unusual for him - looking at the fact that he has hardly promoted himself to sit in the first 4 benches of the class room . He said to himself -- the days of being a backbencher has gone. This is a new beginning . After a long presentation ( and boring also) , he was given uncountable number of sheets to make uncountable number of signatures. While signing on the main sheet - he knew -- that the journey has began . He was novice and lonely in this new world - away from his childish desires and fun . Now, every matter is a damn serious business. He will have to overcome his casual attitude , even if he wants to leave a small mark on the industry.
Soon , he was off to meet his new manager -- who will decide his future at his own will. Everything was new , the only exception being his two teammates who happenned to be his previous classmates. Soon , he was to found two more people sitting in his manager's cabin.After some initial introduction, the task-to-do leaflet was in his hand. Although , he was quite impressed by the fact that a lot many neccessities like seat, working station etc has been taken care of by his manager . He still has to do a lot many by himself --- the only grace were the four other new joiness with him .Lets meet the other four -- two of his classmates hwo had been with him for last 4 years -- Muni and Abhishek and two new faces - Vaibhav from IIT-M and Arunoday from IIT-B . Both seemed to be friendly and more or less had the same frequency of mind. He soon got comfortable with them . Their fun loving , casual and take-life-easy attitude matched with him and that nostalgic feeling of the colleges was back in the cubicle.
After a day or two , all five were sent to the training of -- Oracle Database and PL/SQL. The tutor was a knowledgable person. Still ,somehow he could not find training to be much exciting. The luxury of having a net-connected computer and tutor not complaing for not listening was definitely a new experience. The profs would have screamed at him in the college and must have taken this on their ego. But, yes , it was corporate world. No one would push or pull you , they will just throw you out of the race. But , the same attitude was there with everyone and he felt no reason to be exceptional. The only other thing - this fab 5 - did was to be consistently complain about their tutor who was teacing them non-stop from 9:30 to 7 with a few scattered breaks of 10 min . Other batches were left to explore the new city at 5 , and this hurted them badly. So, the days passed and the course completed on paper . Thank God , he didn't had any test post-training . Oracle trusted her employees so much , no test --- A word of wisdom from me -- Don't trust freshers , too much -- atleast engineering grads -- who had an attitude and aptitude for last hour forced study . No force, no incentive , no study -- thats has been motto for last 4 years of engineering.
Well, God has listened to our prayers and next tutors -- were the ones who himself were ultra cool -- just skimmed through the pages -- reading out the lines. Longer and frequent breaks with early departure were the theme of the next training classes. And , officially the training finished after a month. So, a month salary was drawn doing nothing. Thanks Oracle and hence, came the first salary .
The training ends and he is inducted into a team . Core-HR . All 5 friends divided into 5 different teams . New manager is a technically-inclined guy . Well , thats good for me - he thought. Now, he is at work . Business process was too time-consuming. Yet, he started doing so. The quality of work wasn't much interesting for him . His previous coding experience , was no where coming to use, as language was different, and logic required was too simple to need any coding expertise. However, the boy was left to play and know the system . The functional aspect was more to learn than the technical one. Cubersome business processes were to be faced. He was given enough time to make himself well versed with the system and process. Gradually , he started learning the new things.
On the other side , at the personal front also,there wasn't much to cheer about. He was missing the freedom of college , perhaps more than his home. Soon, he realised the next stop was to be IIM . Perhaps, this is only thing which can restore his pride back. So, the nights were devoted to the CAT study. Sundays went in giving mock-cats. A first few scores were average, but , soon he picked up the momentum -- only in DI and Quant, Verbal as always been was still the obstacle for him.
Days passed and then, the months . Recession was there to haunt everyone. Collapse of Lehmann was a shock to him , but the worst was yet to come. Gradually, a few of his friends lost their jobs. Now, the fear of losing the job started haunting him . Yet, in middle of all these , 16th november arrived . The CAT paper came with a new surprise -- 40 questions in English . He knew -- he has lost the battle . But, still he tried his best . Well , next 1 month passed away - trying to save his job.
Came new year and new responsibilty . He was greeted with the P1. His first P1. Good he managed it . He was noved under new mentor. Now, bugs started flowing into his queue. He fought with them bravely. Quite soon , he was well versed with the data-fixes. By this time , CAT result was announced and it was as expected . Once, again he was second best , not the best. He started concentrating on his assignments at office .Bug came and went , he grew in confidence. Code issues started coming in and slowly, he started understanding them after some initial problems. Although , he was solving the bugs , he couldn't see much value addition to his skill sets.
He was quite settled at his workplace as well as his home - although he cannot deny a few disturbances at his home.The difference of opinion and culture could be seen and felt. A series of incidents has left an unerasable remark on this mind.
By this time , he was knowing that he is not there to fix bugs. He has potential , attitude and abilities to make big. So, once again , he started working for CAT - and decided to stop only -- when he is in the best --- this time I will not settle for second-best , how long it takes.2 years , 3 years , 5 years I am ready for it.
And from then onwards , he has been channelising his efforts in this direction. May God bless him and show him the path of success.
Yes , this one year has made him commit a few mistakes , but , he has also, learnt from them. Hopefully, these will be avoided in future.

The burden of responsibility and the joy of earning .
The enthusiasm of learning and the disappointment of parting.
Meeting the new ones and leaving the old ones.
Wondering in the market and looking for utensils.
The late-night fundaes and sleeping sundays.
Maggi in morning and chachi in the dining.
The days are flying, flying and flying .

FIP upgrades IPL v2.0 from Fried Rice to Biryani

Finally , here , comes the most awaited moment of this year IPL . No friends, I am not at all talking about the semifinalists berths ... but , the FIP face lift. The one that has taken the IPL popularity to the new heights - atleast for software juntas who want all the masala right in front of their screen . As the bollywood directors add item songs to add the much-needed flavour to otherwise dull hindi cinemas , same credit goes to FIP to add the much needed spicey touch to the IPL , after the Indians were shocked to hear the news of IPL moving out of India to South Africa .
Everybody praises Lalit Modi for adding the Kurkere twist to the cricket with the IPL and Sony enterainmemt television to revive the fortunes of Mandira Bedi --- one of the worst anchors I have ever seen - more disgusting than hopeless Arun Lal. There can be some private close intimacy shared by them . But , this fake ipl player has really added another dimension to the cricket . Cricket in India has always tried to carve its apth ahead of Bollywood , the blind followers are more eager to know the off-field life of their stars. We had a few stories like of Sourav-Nagma, Azhar-Sangeeta affairs ,but, all these news came involving the long -term affairs. We were really sorry to miss these ONE-NIGHT stand affairs. Now, we are truely going gloabal .
Even when the IPL started last season , cricketers were unable to gain the off-field limelight from the Bubbly and King Khan . These bollywood veterans were stilling ruling the days top stories charts. We had the full entertainment on the field but the night-stories , party's spill overs and inside-gossips were missing. Although , our news channels and journalists tried to add some pinches of salt , but , the real "Entertainment ka Baap" comes from FIP. He will always be remembered to give the most sought after in-depth details of players differences , their bubbly-dubbly life full of bear and girls .
Hats-off FIP for getting such a wonderful titles for the players . Appam Chutiya has really been a revolution in cricket circle. Even bevdaas, dhakkan and all were quite awesome.I always wondered about the Kishan Kanhaiya -- looking at his dashing personality and over-excellent communication. But, dude , you had made this IPL , one of the driest events for him . I really dont care who are you , as I liked the stories - even , if they have been cooked up. I really feel it takes a good amount of imagiantion and knowlege of cricket inner circles . Your ability to bind the audience is awesome . To make thousand -odd readers wait for your next post is not every body's cup of tea and perhaps , even seasonal bloggers like Amitabh and Shobha De cant do it perhaps. Your writing style was inspiring for young bloggers like me , I cant challenge your point that you missed your IIM interview to see India-Australia match at Kotla. The way you have signed off has been quite good - saving your best for the perhaps the fututer tournaments .
Whatever , be your fate --- but you have set the path ahead for a few of the people to blog the daily cricket diary. Hope for a greater amount of masala and fun in the future tournaments .

Indian Cricket Team in my office - Part 1

One day , I stumbled upon the idea - if the Indian cricket team is brought into my office and each one assigned a role based on their merits -- better to say , attitude . How is the place around you gonna look like ?

I really feel a lot satisfied in curbing the freedom of these freebies and putting them in the fort -- is it digital fortress -- called 'cubicle'.

So , here comes the Little Master --- Just for the sake of his passion, commitment, love, knowledge and perfection of the game , he can be the Chief Architect -- responsible for meeting the 'Number of Patents ' published deadline. He has been quite innovative in the last few years -- taking the cricket book orthodox shots to the ultimate perfection and inovating a few shots - paddle sweep, scoop hockey shot .

The next comes ' Maharaja ' aka Dada ... he will be more than happy to be here -- enjoying the flexi-timings to the fullest . Coming to office - post-lunch and then , going back before 6 -- managing to survive on the older reputation. His laziness in the field will be stretched to the office work. Work from home -- is the first thing he demands from any company he works for.

Here , goes "The Wall" -- or the " Veteran of the team" . Infact , amidst the new stars, he has lost his shine, but, he is one who is to be consulted when any issue goes above others head. Technically flawless and mentally stable -- you can rely on him , even in the worst of the situations.

Yuvraj ' Flamboyant' Singh ..... you will find him more .. with the girls in the cafeteria ... than on his desk . Most of the bachelors -- are quite jealous of him for this . He has been ruling the charts for quite some time.

Mahendra 'Cool' Dhoni --- Patiently scanning his rappo with his team mates and on-going recession --- the higher authorities comprising of Sharad ' Fat' Power and Lalit ' Money ' Modi have decided to make him ' Firing Manager' and part time responsibility of 'Admin'. He has been picked as the one who will deliver the news of firing to the affected person .. Management is quite confident , that , he can give a part of coolness and calmness to those poor fellows . Another , plus point is his physical fitness which can do him a lot of good in controlling guys like Appam -- oops Srisanth - when they go wild.

Zaheer - called Zak --- will take care of cafeteria and food manager -- heared -- he owns a a resturant in Pune called ZK. I hope , he will get some chefs from his place -- so that we can have some eatable food at the office . And , his pace will help to cater to the needs of the people who stand in the queue for so long -- that their hunger ceases to exist.

Rest of the players ... in the next one .... watch out for more masala ...

Just six steps away ----

Last few years have seen a rapid growth for the Social Networking sites. The saga that had started with Orkut , has been carried forward by Facebook and LinkedIn and numerous other sites whose account requests spams keep flooding your email account. Rarely is a day , when I dont see the Birthday calender , join my network sort of messages in my inbox and directly as well as deliberately , click on " Report as spam" button. But, unfortunately, messages from same e-mail address invade my inbox a few days later. I have always failed to understand what happiness people draw in sending their reminders and invitations and above all , why the hell they choose my e-mail id . Anyways , I am too much satisfied with my Orkut and to some extent Facebook as my social network accounts and LinkedIn as my professional network account.
Around 1-2 years earlier, I had heard a theory " Six degrees of seperation " when I was going through the concepts and history of networking sites. ( For the guys who ahve developed the habit of googling and wiki..ing ... I leave it for them to search it on ... for others who are lazy enough to avoid it or have got accustomed to spoon feeding , I make a small mention .. This theory says ... that any two person on this earth are separated by at max 5 persons . That is .. if you pick any random person , you are connected to that person through a chain of 5 common acquaintances. )

At that time , I was digging to find out the behind-screens concepts of Orkut. How Orkut chaining works . Can this theory be verified from there ? What I could find aboutOrkut way of listing the link between you and any random profile you visit was ..it takes a common friend of both of you and link you using your common friend . But , alas, that was the end of the stoy . Orkut supported only 1 degree of separation and any profile you visit , not having any common friend , you were linked directly. Shit !!!! My experiment failed. And , the thirst to check its correctness faded away ... thanks to other activities in which I gained interest.
After almost a year and half, I again stumbled to this "Six Degrees" but , this time on facebook . It was an application present on facebook where you type any arbit name --- profile would rather be technically appropriate -- it would genrate the degree of sepeartion for you and that person . It was quite exciting for me . I played with this application for a number of times , giving craziest names from little - known away places . The results were quite surprising . Degrees of separation results came from 1 to max of 9.
Then , I googled for the latest article on this and .... some awesome references were at my mouse-clicks. There were many articles published with their results and findings. A recent study conducted on Facebook quotes avearge separation of the users in the facebook to 5.73 which is strikingly similar to the theory published.
Although , many have disregarded this theory as just an urban myth , giving the references of the African and South American tribes who lives in isolation. But , even if we just talk of the conencted world, we covering 6 billion + of world population . It again reimposes the faith of brotherhood. Just, 6 relations away , we are going to feel the pinch of the pain we inflict on the others. The lessons of peace, tolerance and universal brotherhood are the one which is going to stay with us in the longest run .

K3 - KISSA KURSI KA !!!

Indian democracy , projected as the largest democracy in the world , is also undoubtedly the most puzzling one. The mood of the voter is tough to predict. It has become more puzzling in the recent years when the National Parties like Congress and BJP having lost its charm towards the regional parties. Regional parties , having become dominant forces in state-level politics have started to flex their muscle at the Delhi throne also.
The era of coalition weak governemnt has badly affected India to adopt strict and clear-cut policies towards the monster issues like foreign policy, terrorism and economic reforms. One would always talk of the large number of options people are getting with more parties, but, this option is presenting a hung parliament and a very weak coalition governement , with every party threatening to pull her leg , for their benefits.
Come the General Election -2009 and we are witnessing the Dance of Democracy. UPA as well as NDA as disintegrated. RJD, LJP have left the UPA allaince , and BJD has left the NDA alliance. Mayawati, AIADMK , TDP and left parties have made the third front. Now, Lalu, Paswan and Mulayam have come together to form the fourth front.
As per the latest exit-poll survey conducted by the India Today , none of these fronts are going to secure a clear majority, which simply means that post-election alliances , where these regional parties can bargain for any thing they wish , right from the high-profile ministeries to Prime - minister or deputy Prime-minister post. Poll survey shows Congress and its allies getting around 190 seats and NDA with 170 seats . Others constitute the rest of the 170 seats .
Although , it is very much clear that in none of the cases , Other can form the government without the support of BJP or Congress. Same holds true for these two major parties also. Now, the party which can do the best political bargaining stands to gain the most. Its this fragmented mandate of the people that local leaders like Mayawati and Sharad Pawar have strated dreaming about their prospects as PM . And , its really unfortunate for us ,we cannot unrule their possiblility of becoming an accidental PM.
Restructuring of the alliances have taken place before the election . Difference in the policies of the parties was the last reason for this as never were they having common policies.The sole reason was difference in seat sharing. What united all of them was their political ambitions. Now, to further place them in the better position to negotiate , these parties have detached themselves from the main alliances just to improve their tally , by contesting on the maximum number of seats. Thats the reason ,Mulayam , Lalu have decided to contest without Congress in Bihar and Jharkhand . Same with BJD-BJP allaince in Orissa where 11 year old alliance was broken . Even, Sharad Pawar's NCP is contesting elections against Congress across the country except Maharastra and Goa.
BJP is looking to improve its prevoius tally in West and Central India but this gain cannot compensate the loss its incurring in states of UP, Orissa and southern states especially Tamil Nadu. BJP -JD(U) hopes for a better performance in Bihar and Jharkhand on the account of the welfare and devlopements programs initiated by Nitish govt and weakening of Sibu Soren's JMM respectively. Gujarat under the leadership of Narendra Modi is as vibrant as ever. The popularity of Modi is Gujarat is even more than BJP's Prime Ministerial Candidate L.K.Advani. Modi is surely going to be the BJP's next poster boy with Varun who has shot him to prime time media coverage putting him at the same level as his cousin Rahul Gandhi.
Uttar Pradesh with 80 odd seats and Bihar with 40-odd seats have always played a vital role in deciding who will be hoisting the tricolor at Red Fort , next 15th August. But, the caste politics have given rise to leaders like Lalu, Paswan, Mulayam and Mayawati. Mayawati is riding high with the new formulae of Dalit-Brahmin combination , unique of its kind. She has even rolled out the carpet to welcome Muslims after slapping NSA charges against Varun.
In West Bengal, direct fight between Trinamool and Left is to be witnessed . Mamta Bannerjee has seriously hampered her cause in the Nano case. If West Bengal still stuck with her , then it is surely going to be the bad luck of the Bengalis. Calcutta once, centre of the trade and capital of British India has continoulsy lost its charm and investor confidence thanks to the frequent Unions strike and conservative policies of Left Government. Thats , the reason the Calcutta or Kolkata is still seems untouched by the waves of globalisation and ITisation. Now, that left has changed its stance , its Mamta who drove out Tata's out of Singur.
The countdown has begun for the biggest show of Democracy on the planet , with less than 24 hours to go... This month -long drama has eclipsed the TRP ratings soap-operas, crowd at Multiplexes and thrown away IPL out of India. Lets hope that who so ever wins , the next government works for the people of India uprooting the problems of poverty, corruption , unemployment , terrorism and other social issues.

The Phoenix Tongue

The journey of English as a language in India is much like a river who finds its way through the terrains and mountains to meet the silent ocean.English has recently been accepted as the language of choice for the Young India thanks to the fast-emerging IT and BPO sector.
The history of this language in India traces back to 18th Century . The language arrived at the sea-ports along with the East India Company ships.It remained the language of the Britishers until Lord Macaulay decided to introduce it in Indian Education system in 1835 although the sole objective was to erect a class of British-loyal English tongued Indian blooded clerks and bureaucrats.The language brought with itself the ideas of democracy,nationalism and liberty.It also opened the gates of the scientific and literature jewels for the Indians. The English language grew in popularity for it was one which united the numerous numbers of kingdoms and Princely states into one united India.
Came the independence after a long battle of 200 years against the colonial imperialism.English being viewed as the foreign language and the relics of the Britishers , met a strong resistance from the Independent India leaders. They were in mood to let it continue as the official language. This move was highly supported by the North-Indian masses who were adamant to get the the official language status to Hindi. However, it was absolutely indigestible for the South-Indian states who had a greater affinity for their own regional language. They started agitating against the Hindi and thus, Hindi and English both were made the official language and the Southern states were given a time frame of 15 years to learn and implement Hindi. But, after 15 years , the Indian government has to again bend towards the agitation especially led by DMK in Tamil Nadu.This agitation of DMK against Hindi won her the support of the Tamilians and set up first Non-Congress government in Tamil Nadu. Although, the Southern States had agitated , but, their fight was more against Hindi, rather than for English. The condition of English in Indian academia reached a new bottom when Gujarat and West Bengal government banned teaching English in primary schools. The three language policy of the Indian government , for teaching English , Hindi and one regional language has an instrumental role in degrading English education in India. But, in spite of all these , it was the Indian middle class which still routed its child to English- medium private schools .
As the darkest time in the night is the hour before the dawn , the same was for the English. The phoenix rose from the ashes . Came the year 1991 , the year of economic reform when India truely achieved its Economic freedom, it opened the gates for the Private sector .And , along with it came the floods of opportunities. The English literate population grabbed this opportunity with both hands and soon, India found herself placed at the top of IT and BPO industry of the world. People who were after English criticizing her as the foreign language embraced it whole-heartedly. The story of rags to riches became a common day-to-day story with a lot of young professionals and entrepreneurs scripting their own -success story. Still, a vast majority of our population is English-illiterate which possess a big challenge as well as an optimism to harness this untapped potential. Now, English has evolved as the language of Media, business class and of-late finding its way into the society with the latest Hinglish culture. The language which came to this land with the traders, has evolved so much and become a part of this country. Eminent writers like Amitav Ghosh and others have chosen to pen down their imagination and views in this language rather than in their own mother tongue. Surely, the success of the modern India was scripted the day English was introduced in our Education system.

Doctors vs Engineers

I am back to the blogging world after a small lull. This time , I bring one of the most-debated topic of a senior-secondary level student. which profession is better - Engineering or Medical.
Both of these have been the two most sought after and prestigious careers for the Great Indian Middle class. Slowly and steadily though, engineering is gaining ground . Four years of engineering at a decent college will fetch you a well-paying job. What the doctors manage after years of academic grilling is even less than what a fresh MBA graduate from C category B-school manages to earn by selling credit cards and insurance policies.
After 4 years of cool life at engineering college with a good job , and a decent probability of financial-aid for those who want to pursue higher studies abroad. The misery of a medical student starts from the PMT entrance, followed by 5 years of medical ...... again .. an entrance with fewer number of seats to do post-graduate specialization of 3 years and .....if you are an ambitious person , then , another 2 years of super specialization. ... This takes a total of around 10-11 years ,only if you manage to clear all the entrance in the very first attempt , which rarest of the cases . And after , such mammoth effort , you set up your clinic or work under some doctor for some experience, which means best years of your life are over.
It is really pathetic for India that with head count of over 1 billion , we have a few quality doctors coming out of colleges every year. The number of seats is medical college needs to increased so , that we have enough doctors to cater the need of the bulging population. The existing hospitals are already over-crowded. Every year , we hear the increased intake news for IITs and IIMs , but, nothing is heard for medical colleges.There is nothing wrong in it if we find the new geneartion going away from medical profession and moving towards eay but, well apying jobs.
The medical professionals are the one who are left with the minmum of the time to spend with families or to take vacations. Mostly , cant go on vacations because of the fear of loosing patients to their rivals .
Nowadays, a lot of medical graduates are seen pursuing MBA in hospitality management . Another avenue , which is fastly becoming popular in India is Clinical research and if India can manage to pursue the west countries to outsource their clinical trials to India , it could be turn out to be next boom , after IT and BPO industry.If this happens , Indian medical industry will surely go global..