This weblog is retiring

I have been blogging here for just about less than a year now. By far, this was my longest stint on any blog service!

Not so surprisingly, this was my most successful blog too. I gained some good readership. It amazes me when I meet someone in the hallway who says - "I keep reading your blog".

Thank You readers!!!

I am now moving my blog to my own domain - http://blog.deobrat.com. The content on this blog will remain here and I have decided not to migrate my posts just to avoid spamming the search engines out there.

Please update your bookmarks and Feed Readers to point to my new blog.

GTalk is driving me nuts

I am very fond of IM systems and love the way they can help me keep connected with my friends and family. I use quite a few IM systems regularly such as

• Windows Live messenger
• Yahoo Messenger for Vista
• Google Talk (or GTalk as we all like to call it)

A few days ago, I installed FireFox to test a piece of JavaScript I had written. While installing it, I made sure I do not select FF as my default browser (it is still IE 7).

To my surprise, GTalk no longer respects my default browser setting, opening any link from GTalk fires up FireFox. This is really really annoying to me. The worst part is that I cannot change it anywhere :(

Folks at 'G' (and Mozilla)- is this some sort of a tactic to outsell IE? I refuse to call it a tactic. It is called annoying the user.

An imperceptive attempt of a reckless loser

I am a Mumbaikar and I am proud to say so. But in the recent past, the so called sons of the soil have tainted Mumbai's image in front of the rest of the world. For the first time ever in my life, I feel like hiding myself in a closet so that nobody can ask me an obvious question - "You said Mumbai is a nice place. What's happening out there?" Even the most concerned questions sound sarcastic to me.

The recent comments passed by Raj Thackeray on North Indians (specially on people from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar) are simply ridiculous. I am a north Indian by origin but I am a Mumbaikar at heart. I love the city and I do not think my love for the city is any less than that of a (so called) Maharashtrian. Hell. I AM a Maharashtrian. I have spent almost my entire life here. My family has been here since last three generations. Who the hell is Raj Thackeray to call me an outsider. I care for the city as much as he does. Or probably even more than him. I can not see blood on the streets nor can I think of fostering an environment that supports violence on the city streets.

He is playing the same dirty politics that his uncle - Balasaheb Thackeray used to play. He is using the emotions of the people and using them against each other to create a space for himself in the political landscape. Thackeray family has been doing this time and again. There was a time when I used to admire the Thackeray family for having a frank and fearless attitude on even the most sensitive issues. But now, I see a desperate attempt to come back to the political scene. And they have gone to an extent of using all dirty measures to ensure they return into the power.

I would like to warn all my fellow Mumbaikars - this is no social issue. This is a purely political game that Thackeray family is playing with our emotions. As I said earlier, this is a desperate attempt by the Thackrey family to come back into the power.

I don't know what more to say. I am aghast with the proceedings so far. I can only hope things get better and Mumbai gets back on track.

My first SilverLight App

It's been quite long that SilverLight was released. It's an exciting new technology that is going to change the way we create web applications.

I wrote a small and simple application using SilverLight. Here is what it looks like-

I can't see anything :(

If the above statement is true, you probably do not have SilverLight 1.0 installed on your machine. You can download it from here.

I see the smiley. So, what about it?

Well, if you can see it, you should notice that the smiley isn't really smiling. It's sad. Click on it to make it smile. Click it again to make it sad. Go on and on and on. Keep playing with it until you are tired of it :)

As you notice, the app does not do something great. Actually, it was never intended to do something really great. I built it while trying my hands on SilverLight. And it took me roughly about 10 minutes to do this stuff.

If you can do this in less than 10 minutes of effort, just imagine how much potential it has got.

BTW, I don't know if you noticed or not, one of my earlier posts used Windows Live SilverLight Streaming server to stream an audio onto the browser.

Looks nice! Can I get the source-code?

Of course yes! You can download it from the downloads section of my web-site.

The countdown has begun

If you are wondering what that timer on top of this page is for, here is your clue - I got engaged on August 26th 2007. Now do you want to take a guess what that timer stands for????

Correct! You got it right! Actually, irrespective of whether you got it right or wrong, I am still going to state it here in this post cause that basically is the intent of posting this entry. That was a lot of crap!!! Lets get straight to the point - today is January 11th and exactly after 100 days, on April 20th, 2008, 3 PM, I would be tying knots with Esha. To know a little more about Esha, you can read my old post about my engagement.

As everyone kept asking me about the date, I thought it would be a nice idea to put up a tiny little timer here on the blog. I had been thinking about it since last few days. One fine day, I sat down and wrote the timer. And now, its up here.

<Offline>

Not surprisingly, some of my friends cursed me for not coming out of my geek hat even now. But I personally think its pretty cool! For one, it tells everyone how much time is left for my marriage so they can plan their travel etc. And secondly, I got to write some JavaScript code which I hadn't in about a year!

</Offline>

UPDATE: The time of wedding has been changed to 11 PM. It was scheduled at 3 PM as mentioned earlier in this post.

Tough times

Many times in life, it so happens that when you just begin to feel that everything is falling in place, something goes wrong. Terribly wrong. It has happened to me couple of times in the past. Last Thursday, it started again.

I was very happy with low bug count on my name and because the year end was approaching. I planned to go to my hometown and welcome 2008 with my family. Everything was so nice until I got that phone call.

It was around 7 PM. I was in the office gym. I had just finished with my workout and was about to go to the shower to cool myself down. That's when I heard my phone ringing. It was Rahul (my room-mate). In a very low voice, he said "Can you please come home as soon as possible". He sounded like he was in great pain. I asked him if he was alright. He said he had hurt his leg and he was bleeding. Given Rahul's history, an accident is a fairly regular thing for him. But I somehow felt this time it was bad.

I packed my stuff quickly and started from office. I wasn't getting any vehicle to reach home so I called my landlord and asked him for help. He being a nice person, acted promptly and took Rahul to Apollo Hospital (it's very close to where we stay in Hyderabad). I managed to get a cab and I too reached there by 7:45. He was in the emergency ward. His wound was dressed. We got an X-ray done to see if there was any fracture. Thankfully there wasn't any. We left for home.

Next day, we again came to the hospital to consult the doctor. The doctor said the wound needs to be stitched. They took him to the operation theater. They said the procedure would take half an hour and then he would need to stay in the recovery room for another half an hour to get out of the anesthesia influence. They started the process and it went on for well beyond half an hour. While Rahul was in the operation theater, I kept asking the officials what was happening. They informed me that it was going to be an operation instead of a simple stitching procedure. They also told me that they had to give him a heavy dose of local anesthesia. The operation lasted for around 50 minutes and he had to be in the recovery room for more than 2 hours.

It was very tiring being in a hospital for more than 6 hours where you hardly see any happy faces. All through that time, it was my local friends, Esha, and the rest of my family members who kept calling me and that was a huge support for me.

Next day afternoon, I got to know that my mom wasn't keeping well and she may have to get hospitalized. By evening, she was admitted in the hospital. By then I was completely shaken. Within just 48 hours, everything around me has turned so bad. Though the doctor had said my mom was alright, I couldn't sleep the whole night worrying about her. Next day morning my father told me that she was absolutely fine and there was nothing to worry about.

With god's grace, everything is fine now. Rahul is at home recovering from his injury. My mom is still in the hospital but she is alright now. And I am back to my desk - composing the blogpost and getting ready to kill some bugs :-)

One call at a call center

This is the funniest conversation I have ever heard.

Note:

1. Requires Microsoft Silverlight
2. You need to know Marathi to understand this

Re-Shuffle

About 6 years back when I was in college, I was a C++ enthusiast and I never thought anything could be better or beyond C++.

It was during those days when I wrote a version of Shuffle (a very popular tile game) using MFC. I don't have the source code now. But as far as I remember, it was very complex for me at that time and it took me almost a week to code it.

Now, my world has evolved and I write code for a better platform - .net

Today evening at about 6 PM, a though crossed my mind - Why not rewrite Shuffle using C#? As I had some time with me, I went ahead and wrote it only this time with a better and extensible design.

As I am writing this post, it is 8:20 PM and I am done with a basic version of Shuffle which is an exact replica of the MFC version that I had written earlier.

Here is a Screen Print of Shuffle:

Presently, it includes simple Numbered tiles based game. But I intend to add Image tiles as well.

Click here to download it.

<Outdated>

NOTE: The source-code isn't available for download as of now. I will make it available once I am done with Image Tiles as well.

</Outdated>

UPDATE:

The source code is now available for download. I haven't implemented Image Tiles yet. And I don't think I will be doing it anytime soon. If you are very keen on Image Tiles, go ahead and modify the source code. I made a couple of fixes to the code and added comments before releasing it for download.

I am an author now :)

Couple of months back, I posted a blog entry about my Bad(???) Luck while traveling back to my hometown (Mumbai). Couple of days back, I posted it on MSN India Contribute (and it has been quite a hit!)

If you did not read the original story, go ahead read the version published on MSN

Listen to the PLAN

 

Recap:

I hope you still remember how I had got annoyed with idiotic phone calls from ABN AMRO call-centers. Well, after I wrote a post dedicated to one such call, I sent a link to ABN AMRO and after a few more calls, things got cleaned up. I don't get any calls from ABN AMRO now and the extent of satisfaction I feel is only known to me :-)

You will soon know the reason for the eternal satisfaction that I feel. Read on...

What do you mean by tarika warika ?

Today, Times Of India reported something that clearly illustrates how miserable the situation is. A judge in a sessions court in U.P. got a call from one such call center. Check out the excerpts of the conversation:

Caller: "I have several plans for you..I have called up to explain the plans.."
Judge: I am a judge... presently busy with the court work.. this is no manner to compel any one to listen to your plans especially if the person is not ready to listen to them. yeh koi tareeka nai hota ...
Caller: What do you mean by tarika warika ? This plan is for your benefit...
Judge: Who is calling?
Caller: That does not matter.. just listen to the plan.
Judge: Will you please shut up?
Caller: You shut up... (and the caller put the phone down).

In case you do not believe me, read the full story here.

It's no secret now

Now you know why I feel so satisfied. Actually, satisfied is probably is not a word that can express what I feel like. Add a lot many words in the superlative category -amazed, overwhelmed, feel out of the world, etc. The reason is simple. I am one of those lucky humans in India who do not get unsolicited calls despite owning a cell-phone :-)

IM Me from my blog

Here is something that I had been waiting for since long.

Since you have visited this page, you might have already noticed the new control that appears on the right-hand side "IM me on Windows Live Messenger" right below the "About Me" section. With the help of this control, now you can have a real-time conversation with me right from this page. If you want to get this control for yourself for hosting on your website/blog, you can get it here.

This is a part of the super-cool stuff Microsoft has been doing around Web 2.0.

XYZ is your Yaar!

I am sure you would have received a lot of emails with subject line similar to the title of this post. I have. And I have received a lot of them. So many social networking sites have come up in the last one year. Practically uncountable number of them. Most of these emails come from social networking web-sites. Usually the junk email filter learns that this is most likely spam. But in this case, these emails come from your friends. And the junk email filter wouldn't bother to put these emails in junk. This is even more annoying. Have all of your friends gone crazy or something?

As a temporary solution, I created an email rule for such subject and asked for marking all of these emails as spam. I run that rule once in a while and I am happy (well.. not so much. But it gives me some relief at least).

After having had so much pain with it, I had to investigate what's wrong with all of my friends. And it turns out that something is wrong with all of us (that includes me as well).

Here is what I did -

I went to one of the social networking sites and registered there. In one of the registration steps, it asked me for my gmail username and password. This drove me curious. I went back and read the "Terms of Service". I am not going to replicate everything here. But in a nutshell, it said "you give us all right to send invitations to everyone on your address book just by registering".

This is really alarming. And it is alarming in two different senses. For one, we do not read any of the licence agreements or terms of service (if we did, we probably wouldn't even care to sign-up. I wouldn't). And secondly, online companies exploiting this weakness of web users and spamming our email inboxes.

From a legal standpoint, none of these online companies can be blamed or held accountable for these viral marketing tactics that they are using. It's something to do with our ignorance. We ignore the EULA, we pay the price. We hear the scolding from our friends. Like it or not, the mistake is ours.

I don't know to what extent it is ethically correct though. Is it ethical on the companies' side to exploit on this weakness? Maybe not. Hopefully someone someday will recognize this and file a PIL :)

Ant & Grasshopper

I was on vacation and had gone to Delhi to meet my fiance - Esha (remember that I got engaged a few weeks back?). It was simply beautiful spending time with her. Once I came back to office today, I had this huge pile of emails that I had to read (and in some cases, respond to them). While digging through the pile, I stumbled upon this email from one of my colleagues. The Subject line was "Ant & Grasshopper". I thought it would be some silly old story. But still, I went ahead and opened it. The first few lines were pretty standard (and boring because I have read it so many times). But as I read on, it became pretty interesting. I thought its worth posting it here.

So here you go... Read it and let me know what you think about it

Ant & Grasshopper

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.
Come winter,the Ant is warm and well fed. The Grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

Modern Version

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The Grasshopper thinks the Ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering Grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.
NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering Grasshopper next to a video of the Ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.
The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the Ant's house.
Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other Grasshoppers demanding that Grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter.
Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticizes the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the Grasshopper.
The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the Grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance).
Opposition MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for "Bharat Bandh" in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.
CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among Ants and Grasshoppers.
Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'.
Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the ' Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act' [POTAGA], with effect from the beginning of the winter.
Arjun Singh makes ' Special Reservation ' for Grasshoppers in Educational Institutions & in Government Services.
The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes,it's home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.
Arundhati Roy calls it 'A Triumph of Justice'.
Lalu calls it ' Socialistic Justice '.
CPM calls it the ' Revolutionary Resurgence of the Downtrodden '
Koffi Annan invites the Grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.
Many years later...
The Ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi-billion dollar company in Silicon Valley .
100s of Grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India...
As a result of loosing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the Grasshoppers, India is still a developing country !!!

Sir I am calling from ABN Amro Bank

I get 2 calls per day from ABN Amro Bank (without fail). It’s been a while that I have been getting these calls. I was sick and tired of getting calls. So… I went to the ABN Amro website, and entered my name in their DO NOT CALL registry and I was told that they will take care of it.

It’s been a month that I did it. But I still get calls from ABN Amro. From the same number, different people calling. Today, I ran out of patience and had an argument with the CSR. Here is the conversation:-

(Smart) Caller: Sir.. this is (someone) calling from ABN Amro Bank.

(Poor) Me: How many times do I have to tell you that I am not interested in your credit card? I get 2 calls every day and I say the same thing every time. Does that not make sense to you?

(Smart) Caller: Sir. I am sorry sir. Bye sir…

(Poor) Me: No… wait… I need to get this cleared out today… I have even registered on your Do Not Call registry. What else do I have to do in order to avoid calls from your bank?

(Smart) Caller: Sir… you cannot do anything sir… you will get calls… just say that you are not interested.

(Poor… and surprised) Me: What? That’s ridiculous. What do you mean? Are you punishing me for having a cell-phone? This does not make any sense to me… From where do you get these numbers?

(Smart) Caller: My manager Sir.

(Poor) Me: I want to talk to your manager. Transfer the call to him.

(Smart) Caller: No Sir… he is not available here right now.

(Now aggressive) Me: Okay. Let me talk to his manager then.

(Smart) Caller: No Sir… even he is not available.

(Puzzled) Me: What the heck is this... Is there anyone who is superior to you that I can talk to?

(Smart) Caller: No Sir… right now no one is available sir.

(Now going insane) Me: Okay, give me your manager’s number. I’ll call him on his mobile.

(Smart) Caller: No Sir.. I don’t have his number Sir.

(Again puzzled) Me: What do you mean you don’t have his number? You have the entire world’s number by not your manager’s. Don’t lie to me.

(Smart) Caller: No Sir. I don’t have his number. How will I have his number Sir.

(Totally aghast) Me: Look…. I don’t know what your process is. This is completely insane. I don’t want to get anymore calls from your bank. Please mark me in your database and tag it with “this guy does not want a credit card”.

(Smart) Caller: Ok Sir

[Hang Up]

30 minutes later… I get another call (only this time from a different number)…

(Another Smart) Caller: Sir.. this is (someone) calling from ABN Amro Bank.

#$%&@*%^

You think I need to file a lawsuit or something?

BTW, you may have noticed that I have put different qualifiers to my expressions. But I have not changed anything for the caller. Do you know why… because… it was just me who had any change in expression (tone I mean). The telesales caller was the same… in every sentence.

Visiting Devnar Foundation

Last Saturday, October 13^th, myself and Sudhakar visited the school being run by Devnar foundation. It was amazing to know the kind of things that the students have achieved even when they have one of their critical sense organ not functioning properly. Not to mention other limitations such as scarcity of resources and non-acceptance from the mainstream society.

Most of the students are on vacation but still we got a chance to meet two of them – “Rajshekhar” and “Deekshit”. Rajshekhar is doing Chartered Accountancy. He is the first blind person to have cleared the entrance exam and now he is preparing for the mains. Deekshit has just cleared his 10^th and is not studying in a reputed college. He is studying science and aspires to be an engineer. The principal of the school later told me that many of the students are preparing for IITs. Some of them have got admission in prestigious engineering colleges across the state and most of them are securing first ranks in their respective colleges.

Rajshekhar and Deekshit took us around to show their school. When we entered the laboratory, I was amazed to see several scientific models made up of clay, wires and other day-to-day household items. Rajshekhar told us that their Egbert sir had made all those models for them to touch and understand (Egbert sir is a 76 year old man committed to the cause). Rajshekhar also explained to us one of the clay models depicting the flow of blood (and the purification system in the heart). And he was just fabulous. Later he proudly told us that he got appreciations from the Govt. of Andhra Pradesh when he had explained the same model to him during a science exhibition. Next up was the printing press. They showed us the Braille printers that could automatically translate English characters to Braille and then print them. They also told us that the foundation prints Braille books and provides them for free to all the schools in the state. Next thing that we saw was the computer room. The school teaches computers to the students after 5^th class onwards. The students use some special software that converts text into speech and they can listen to the messages, text etc. They use the same kind of keyboard that we use (They don’t have special Braille keyboards).

I am in discussion with the school and some of my friends from Microsoft here in Hyderabad and we are trying to find out ways to get engaged with the foundation and help them. Meanwhile, for those who are unable to contribute directly by being present, here are a few things that you could do.

Sponsorships

• Meals - one time:
• Vegetarian: Rs. 3000/-
• Non-Vegetarian: Rs. 4000/-
• Breakfast: Rs. 1800/-
• A sum of Rs. 50,000/- can be deposited as FD. The interest accrued will be utilized for meals on any day of your choice during the academic year
• Snacks: Rs. 1800/-
• Sponsor a child's education - Rs. 6000/- per annum
• A sum of Rs. 1,00,000/- can be deposited as FD. the interest accrued will be utilized on permanent basis
• Sponsor a teacher's salary - approx Rs. 4000/- per month
• Sponsor a student's uniform (two pairs of dress, shoes, socks, tie and belt) - Rs. 1500/-
• Provisions (monthly requirement of the school) - These can be donated in full or part
• Rice -1500 Kgs
• Dal - 150 Kgs
• Oil - 45 ltrs
• Sugar - 45 Kgs
• Wheat Rawa - 100 Kgs
• Idly Rawa - 100 Kgs
• Urad Dal - 50 Kgs

Other ways

• Work as a volunteer teacher to teach the students
• Arrange for computers for the students
• Arrange for Talking dictionaries (these softwares are costly and not easily available in India)
• Arrange for voice enabled scientific calculators (the school has a few... but they need more of these)
• Voice recorders with large memory - the students who go to higher classes need to record their lectures so that they can revise things later.
• Scanners and OCR software with higher accuracy

And most of all, they need our moral support.

NOTE: All donations to Devnar foundation are exempted from Income Tax (in India). Contributions should be made in favor of "DEVNAR FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND"

Let there be light

Today is a very special day for me. As you may have guessed from some of my previous posts, I am a person who is easily moved with emotions. Today, something happened that ripped my heart apart. This would definitely bring a major change in my life. Or at least the way I look at things.

Microsoft as an organization has been committed to give something back to the society so as to empower the weaker sections to come up and help them shape the future of mankind. As a part of this, we have something called as "Giving Campaign" through which employees can contribute money, time towards this noble cause.

Today, we had people from India Literacy Program who had come to the campus. We could buy things from them (adding our contributions to the base price) and that would help empower the mission. I bought a T-Shirt with a small little contribution towards the fund.

This had again brought me into the "social" mood and I kept thinking about various things that we could do to help such initiatives. In the evening, we had kids from "Devnar Foundation for the Blind" visiting the campus. They were here to show us some of their talents. They were singing, dancing (group dances with amazing synchronization), playing musical instruments. It was an eye opener. And after watching them all, I hate myself for having thought of these bright kids as disabled. They are not disabled. We are. We do not see all the amazing capabilities they have.

There were a few very touching moments. One of the kids was asked what would he want to be when he grows up and he said "I want to become the President of India. We don't need your money. We don't need your sympathy. All we want is for you to share your knowledge with us. We can do everything that you can do. Just open your heart towards us". Have you ever imagined of a blind child having so much of confidence? Leave alone a blind kid, do we see this kind of confidence in ourselves? No. We are nowhere close to how courageous these kids are.

In closing speech, one of the kids (his name was Shrikanth) said, "I want to thank you all for spending your valuable time with us and for giving us a chance to perform in front of you. I know you have to work till late in night. Still you spent your time with us. That is very much encouraging for us. Maybe after 5 years, when I will be an employee of Microsoft, it would give me a lot of pleasure organizing such programs. I cannot describe in words how happy I would be to so. Have a nice day... or night". His last words struck me the most. I just don't know what to say for it. It was just very emotional.

I am moved with this and to start with, I have decided to spend 2 days every month with these kids and try to help them achieve what they want to. I will also sponsor a child's education through the foundation. The reason I am stating this here on my blog is that I know there are few people who read my blog. I want to use this as a channel to ask everyone to try and do their best to help these kids realize their potential. Please come forward. The world needs you.

If you wish to know more about Devnar Foundation, you can visit their website - http://www.devnarfoundationfortheblind.org/.

Things to Consider Before Getting Married - Dumb Little Man

Today, I got an invitation for lunch from a colleague of mine. The occasion is - She is getting married in December.

On the same email thread, another colleague of mine forwarded a link to a blogpost which I found particularly interesting. So I thought of sharing it with all the readers. Its something interesting (particularly for those who are going to get married soon)

Things to Consider Before Getting Married - Dumb Little Man

Its s(h)ame again

Yet another one-day match. Yet another triumph. And the result is the same - yet another defeat.

A few days back, I was actually thinking of going to the stadium to watch the match. Thankfully I decided otherwise. Yesterday my manager said he would be on vacation as he is going to watch the match. Jokingly I had said "I can't watch India loose on TV. Watching them loose in front of my eyes would hurt me even more. I am not going." But you know what... I didn't mean it. I really had hope from the team. Alas... nothing came out of it :(

Just like any other cricket fan in India, I am wondering

• What has happened to the top order?
• Why is Gautam Gambhir in the team? Why can't we replace him with Saurav or Dinesh Karthik?
• so many other questions that I am unable to blurt out right now...

I know writing a blog post when you are upset is not a very good idea. But I can't stop it coming out of me.

Yeah... one good thing that I liked today was the way our bowlers performed during the mid-overs. Also it was pretty nice to see some of the middle-order batsmen doing a good job chasing the hefty target.

Mahatma - from my perspective

As a youngster, I always hated Gandhi. For reasons that do not seem too obvious to me now. I just could not understand why someone would not support Subhash Chandra Bose when he was engaged in gun-battle with the British. Why would someone not retaliate when innocents were being jailed, tortured and even killed? These questions were coming from a child who could not understand the greatness of the principle of Non-Violence. At times, I would even go to the extent of endorse Nathuram Godse for killing the Mahatma.

I don’t exactly remember when this happened. I was talking to someone about Gandhiji and was exchanging heated arguments (to be true, it was just me who was arrogant). He then said something that struck my mind really hard. He said, “Take a plain white cloth and sprinkle a little bit of ink in the middle of it. Ask anyone to take a look at it and ask them what they see. They would say – ink spots. Hardly anyone looks at the white cloth but nobody fails to notice the ink spots”. “Gandhiji is a personality far beyond our analysis. We often ignore plethora of things he did for the country and keep our eyes fixed on some of his mistakes”. This thought kind of enlightened me. It was nothing miraculous or anything even close to being miraculous. But it gave me a different way of looking at things. Some people choose to call it as “Dimensional Thinking” or “perspective thinking”.

This incident forced me into reading more about Gandhiji and the history of those times. I read almost everything that was accessible to me at that point in time. Ranging from criticism, third party view, views of some of the British officers, praise etc.

Now I think, to some extent I understand what Gandhiji was and the difference he made to our society, our nation and to the entire world at large. While trying to understand a personality as great as Gandhiji, we must keep one thing in mind – Gandhiji was not GOD. He was a human being. And it is unfair if we expect a human being not to make any mistakes throughout his life. Everyone makes mistakes. We need to be wise enough to look at the larger picture and not confine our vision only the mistakes that he made (if I can take the liberty to say so).

As I write this today, I know and I understand that there are many (not just youngsters) who do not think Gandhian principles are applicable now. Today, on his 138th birthday, I am announcing a series of essays that I am going to write on my blogs about Gandhiji. This is an attempt to make people aware of what Gandhi was and how his principles can still change the way we carry on with our lives and how we can use them to make the world a better, safer place to live in.

Hindi version of this essay is available on my other blog.

Ugaldo - Yet another Micro-Blogging site

In last few months, Micro-Blogging web-sites have become very popular. I see more and more of my friends on Twitter. Sometimes back, there was some discussion on the famous Scobleizer blog (owned by Robert Scoble). I was on twitter before this discussion happened, but that's when I came to know of this term - Micro-Blogging. Its an amazing thing to see people contributing with so much of enthusiasm.

Today, someone forwarded a link to Ugaldo. I believe this is one more web-site that falls under the Micro-Blogging category. Ugaldo (read as उगल दो) is a Hindi phrase that means - "Vomit Out". Ugaldo.com lets you vomit out your emotions, frustrations (or anything and everything).

Lets see how far this phenomenon goes.