JAB

Onasadhya

2006-09-10T02:05:00.000-07:00

Onasadhya is the meal served on the plantain leaf on Onam; sadhya refers to the meal. The sadhya is also served on other occasions like marriage, engagements, birthday. Of late slowly but steadily those get-togethers are avoiding sadhya and opting for something haute like biryani and other stuff.

The food is usually had by sitting on a mat on the floor cross-legged. But now people have it on the table itself. That's more comfortable for me atleast because my legs become numb after the first course is over :).

There is a particular method as to how the food should be served. When laid on the table, the tapering or narrow part of the leaf should always be towards the left.

The first things to be served are a banana, upperi(plain banana chips), sharkara puratty(jaggery coated banana chips and papaddam and some salt. All these are placed in the lower half of the leaf on the extreme left.
The top left of the leaf is served with mango pickle, injipuli(curry of ginger, tamarind,green chillies and jaggery, all of which gives it a sour, sweet and hot taste), thoran(a sauteed dish of vegetables, usually cabbage, with grated coconut), olan(a curry of pumpkin with coconut milk, which makes the curry white), aviyal(a thick curry of many vegetables and yogurt and coconut; has many vegetables), kaallan(made of yam and yogurt; also a thick gravy), koottu curry(gram dal, pumpkin, snake gourd, coconut).

When all these dishes are placed, then boiled rice is served in the centre in the lower half of the leaf and sambhar(a gravy dish of drum stick, ladies finger and dal as the main ingredients) is poured into the rice. Now you can eat your food relishingly.

The ones with a good apetite have the rice again with rasam and then again with butter milk. Otherwise rasam can be had when poured into cupped hands or in a glass. Rasam is a watery dish made of pepper, tamarind, tomatoes and many other spices. Its very fiery and spicy and also aids in digestion. Curd or buttermilk is also taken which also helps in digestion.

The desserts include pradhaman(made of ada(made of rice), coconut and jaggery). Actually there are many types of pradhaman - palada pradhaman(cooked rice, sugar, milk), parippu pradhaman(gram dal, jaggery) and also others. Another dessert is the pal payasam(cooked rice,milk and sugar).

After such a heavy meal, a betel nut is popularly taken.

I am already full just be describing the meal.

Onamaashamsagal

2006-09-09T08:14:00.000-07:00

Pookallam

This year, September 5 was Onam - a festival celebrated by Keralites in India. The festival falls in the malayalam month of Chingam, which is the start of the harvest season.

Onasadhya

Being a Keralite myself, many people ask the story behind Onam. Like all other festivals, Onam too has many legends surrounding it. The most popular one is --

Balichakravarthi or Mahabali, the King of Asuras(demons) was the ruler of Kerala. His people were very happy to have him as King even though he was a demon. In his kingdom, there was no sorrow, poverty, dishonesty, disease or untimely death. Afraid of his rising popularity, the Gods feared that he would take over the whole of Earth and then the Heavens and they would be left with no place to go. Also Mahabali had defeated Lord Indra(the king of Gods) once. So all the Gods approached Lord Vishnu to take stock of the situation.

Mahabali was performing a ritual in which he had declared that he would anything that anyone asked for during the Yagna. Lord Vishnu disguised as Vamanan appeared at the Yagna and he asked for land covered by 3 footsteps of his. Mahabali's advisors sensed that this boy is no ordinary Brahmin at the Yagna, but a Lord in disguise. But Mahabali thought that if the Lord himself has come then its a privilege for Mahabali. So he went ahead with the request of 3 footsteps. Vamanan then came to his cosmic form and covered the first foot with the whole of Earth, the skies with the second and then asked for the third foot of land. Mahabali then offered his head for the same. Vamanan placed his foot on the head of Mahabali and sent him to netherworld.

Honouring his sacrifice and his devotion and his beneficient rule, the Lord granted him permission to visit his Kingdom once a year and that day is regarded as Keralites as Onam.

To appease the King, people of Kerala celebrate the day and be merry so that the King feels that his people are like during his rule - happy, rich and without sorrow. For this purpose, they make the Onam Sadhya(meal on the plantain leaf) which I will discuss in detail in another post. Also is the famous boat race and the pookallam(flower carpet).

Boat Race

The Great Wall

2006-09-09T04:29:00.000-07:00

Of late, I had been to the great wall of china. It was a pretty good experience. Although, it's not that awesome as I had guessed, because it's just a wall and nothing else. The panorama around is good, but actually the grand thing about the great wall is its length which can be experienced probably if there is some chopper ride over the whole length of the wall just to show the grandiose wall. I could'nt get a clean view of the wall because of too many tourists. Probably I should have selected a more secluded section of the wall to get a clear shot.
This gives a lateral view of the wall. In winters, with all the snow around it, it looks really magnificient.
This gives a view with all the mountains surrounding the wall which adds to the magnificient view.

Can You See The Great Wall of China from The Moon?
When leaving the earth's orbit and acquiring an altitude of more than a few thousand miles, no man-made objects are visible at all. NASA says, "The Great Wall can barely be seen from the Shuttle, so it would not be possible to see it from the Moon with the naked eye." Thus, it'd be tough to spot the Great Wall of China or any other object from the moon. Furthermore, from the moon, even the continents are barely visible. So "Great wall is the only object which can be distinguished with the naked eye from the moon" is a myth.

Chinese English

2006-04-26T07:04:00.000-07:00

We had gone to Walmart in China. As you know, Wal-mart is so big sometimes it's a bit difficult to find out things. We were searching for butter.

Almost 99% of chinese population doesn't know english but still we did the stupid thing of explaining the guy there. Our dumb charades skills were coming to the fore. Still he didn't have any clue what we were referring to. Then something struck him, he said something to us in Chinese and went of as if searching for something. Firstly, we thought it was a miracle that we had conveyed a message to a Chinese guy without any use of verbal language. But to our disappointment, he came back with another guy. That guy came to us said that he knew English. So finally we had someone to whom we could talk to and we said that we wanted a pack of butter. But things were not going to be easy for us because this guy had an even blank expression on his face like we were some aliens from Mars and speaking some really alien language. After many trials, he asked us one question "Can you please speak in English?" - after this we had no choice but to find the item ourselves.

Happy Holi

2006-03-15T21:22:00.000-08:00

A very happy Holi to everybody out there. I saw some pictures of Holi so just wanted to put a link to that.
For pictures, click here.

The Fab Four Reunites

2006-01-16T05:20:00.000-08:00

Sun's founders - Scott McNealy, Bill Joy, Andy Bechtolsheim, and Vinod Khosla reunite to re-collect history. It really makes us proud to find an Indian among a really great company.
Check here to check out the details and pics.

Happy to be here.

2005-10-19T07:26:00.000-07:00

I form a part of this ubiquitous task force of the Indian IT industry. I have been in this industry for just one year. But I have fallen victim to mundane job routine which most of the IT professinals have and are experiencing. Most of the jobs are of maintenance nature. Maintenance implies the product has already been in production and the so called geeky professionals have to maintain the product. The main job is fixing the defects that crop up and also some enhancements, if at all the clients require it.

Whenever a defect is raised and is assigned to a particular module, the first thing to be done is to blame it onto some other module. Then follows a series of mails called Mail Ping-Pong in which you send a mail, forcefully putting the burden on someone else. Then he does the same thing and it goes on until it gets a bit personal. Then there is a meeting among the top brass to discuss whom the defect should be put on. It's just survival of the fittest. One who doesn't survive wins the defect as a consolation prize.

I had to do some serious introspection to come out of this rut. Did I make a mistake entering into this arena? Did I have a lucrative equivalent which I should have considered before entering this domain? One of the better options would have been to study medicine. But they aren't in a better position as I am.

They also work on a product which is already into production(the human body). There are existing defects or defects are created by the system itself. They were not involved when the original product was being made; they just have a "maintenance" job. Some defects are critical and have to be solved at the earliest. Some defects are reopened once solved. Some times you need to provide a workaround.

There are striking similarities between what I do and what the Docs do.

But one thing because of which I am sticking to where I am right now is I can take measures for system crashes but what can they do ;-)).

This reminds me of the line from the latest Hindi movie "Salaam Namaste" -- "frustrated yet smiling".

Newton's Cradle

2005-10-18T00:10:00.000-07:00

I am in need of a toy "Newton's Cradle" also known as the "Newton's Pendulum" or "Newton's Balls ;-)". But the trouble is I have not found it in shopping sites in India. Also checked out many stores in Mumbai and Pune. Couldn't find one. If at all, you have bought such a thing or you have seen it one of the stores in your neighbourhood then plzz inform.

Pune Ganeshotsav

2005-10-14T00:42:00.000-07:00

Pune has the most flamboyant Ganesh celebration in India. But one thing that has really irked me is the music played on such occassions. In Maharashtra, during the Ganesh festival season, Ganesh idols would be ubiquitous. But there are ones which are the popular ones. In such places, the music played would be some bhajan or there might be some performers singing which is very apt and apropoh of the situation. But in other places, mostly you have filmi music played and with no censorship attached as to which songs should be played.

The same goes with Dussehra. There is a Durga idol near my house. While leaving home, all I could hear was "bolo Durga ma ki jai...". But while returning, it was "Salaamey namastey....." and also "ey, khatam nahi hua chu****". This was played in the backdrop of the pujaris performing some aarthi. Might be they ran out of devotional CDs ;-).

Hopefully next year, they have a good collection of devotional songs.

Ignorant & Arrogant

2005-09-11T09:46:00.000-07:00

I had heard about passing on the responsibility in the IT industry but have experienced this just recently. Work in the IT industry has been so modularized that it has reached a point where it might adversely affect the company.

Consider a condition where the project is maintained by a bunch of programmers who have not developed it. Such a project is divided into modules and the training is given to those who would be maintaining the project. Such a group will have knowledge of only their modules atleast in the initial stages of maintenance(when the defects are more ;-)). In such cases, this shirking of responsibility comes into picture. It has also so happened that when there is a defect in the system, it is assigned to each module before someone who has an overview of the entire system looks into the issue. This passing on of responsibility turns out into ego clashes when the ones who are doing the same are at the managerial level. There have been reported incidents where one there have been ego clashes between the head of different modules of the system and then they try to subtly put defects into the other system. Now such responsibility passing is the outcome of ignorance and arrogance combined. First, you are ignorant about the system as a whole and you are arrogant enough that you walk away with it.

Initially I tried to convince people that instead of passing on the buck wouldn't solve the problem. It might put the problem in the wrong perspective and into the wrong person's hand. But I found that not so easy. Now I am living on with such problems. Yeah, life is not a bed of roses...

Retreat

2005-09-08T01:20:00.000-07:00

I had recently gone to a nature trek on the banks of River Trail near Roha on the Mumbai-Goa highway. The river is not that great but its big enough considering the fact the water level is controlled by a dam. It was a 2-day retreat from the monotonous life of a software engineer.

There was a snake show(not a madari(snake charmer) kinda show). He is the one who is researching in this field and gives seminars to doctors about toxicology. The snake show helped us clear some of our myths about snakes and the importance of snakes in the ecosystem. But as the saying goes "You can take the horse to the water but cannot make it drink". You can give n number of seminars to people but finally its upto them to totally drag out the fear from them. Actually he made us feel a snake which doesn't bite even when someone steps on it. But still if I see that snake again, I don't think so I will be going ahead and feeling the snake.

Some rappelling activity.

Eunuchs

2005-07-11T03:08:00.000-07:00

A not so uncommon sight on long-distance trains are the Eunuchs literally extorting money from the passengers, their specific target being youngsters. In case of beggars, people just shoo them away but that is not the case with eunuchs. They have to be paid and not just Rs.1-2. They need a minimum of 10 rupees. If you are not willing to spare that then you might well get a kiss from them. To avoid such embarrassment, you better give in to their requests(rather threats).

On my last trip, one of the passengers who was with me in the next seat, started babbling at the very sight of eunuchs.
"The train authorities should be doing something about these eunuchs",
"I think even they are abbeting this extortion",
"These eunuchs are getting money for free"
and above all he started doing some calculation as to how much they might be earning in a day.

If the eunuchs had the same opportunity that others have, their state wouldn't have been that of today. Had there been no discrimination against them in any field they wouldn't have to resort to the things they are doing now. Actually, we are the ones who are responsible for leaving them in such a crippled state and so we have no right to grumble when we have to give them some money. Begging or extorting is not the way they should be going around living their life and that we shoudln't be encouraging that way of life. We shouldnt be gushing about they extorting money; on the other hand, we should be emotive about the perception of eunuchs in the society. We should aim at changing the outlook towards eunuchs and the task would be more difficult than forcing people to accept gay marriages.

On one of my trips to Pune on the Ahimsa Express from Ahmedabad, there were only two people sitting on a three-seater bench and I was one of them. So there was a seat vacant near me. There was a bunch of eunuchs standing next to me. They had completed their rounds and were counting their money. One of them was talking on a cellular phone and they were speaking tamil. I happened to know a bit of tamil which helped me in deciphering what they were talking. One of them wanted to sit on the vacant seat next to me. Just then, another one from them muttered that you will scaring that boy if you sit next to him, so better stand.

That incident painted a picture of the way eunuchs look upon themselves. They themselves have accepted the way people treat them and even though they know they don't want to frighten somebody, it is etched in their minds that they look frightening. That underlines the fact that granting them equal rights and envisioning a society with no distinction towards eunuchs is all the more difficult, if not near impossible.

What should I do the next time a eunuch asks me money? Should I be apathetic and give in to them resigning to the conclusion that one person alone cannot bring any difference to them or try to explain to them seemingly crazy to the outside world. Hmmm...

Dont Click It

2005-07-08T03:41:00.000-07:00

Recently, came across a site where u just have to click once to enter it. That would be the last time u will be clicking it. Check it out.

Luck, what??

2005-07-06T03:50:00.000-07:00

His experiences have left him high and dry. He started off as a fresher in a software company, allocated to one of the R&D projects, a prestigious position to be. Then he had to fly abroad, the reason-gaining more insight into the project, the trip being for three months. But there was an issue, the whole team had to come back after 20 days, extend the visa and then go back again for about 2 months. Unfortunately or foolishly, whichever way you perceive, he(rather his whole team) did not travel to any place in the foreign land. It was just work, work and work. If you think they were too sincere, then wait. They had prepared a whole itinerary, which did not leave out any corner of the country, for their second visit . But plans are made to go wrong. By the time they reached home, the whole project was scrapped, reason-infeasible. The decision was taken when he was flying home. This is what is called as deciding on the fly. So it was a situation of been there, done nothing. This was just the beginning of his series of unfortunate events.

The next project to which he was allotted had a US client. All dream about going to the US, he was no less different. He applied for a visa and even got one. Three days before the travel, he is called for a meeting. Travel briefings are usual before the trip. But this meeting was no where near a travel briefing. The first statement is-'Your trip is cancelled'. He hadnt regained his senses completely than the next shot is fired. Your module is scrapped, the reason- the client can no longer afford the functionality so has decided against it. He hadnt imagined this in his worst nightmares. The cancellation of the trip was disappointing but more disappointing was the futility of the work he had done for the past six months. Now he had start afresh with a new module. His desperation and frustation levels had sky-rockted by now.

Now he is in the same project but a new module. Forunately or unfortunately, he is to go to US, this time for the new module. History repeats; there is a meeting three days before the trip, this time its a high level one, involving the whole team. If the earlier meeting was the worst, this one was way beyond comparison. The client was termed a defaulter and business was terminated and the whole development team dissolved.

If at all the company takes notice of his unusual ability of scrapping projects, he would dispatched immediately to its competitors. Now, he is allotted to a project which has been one of the most profitable clients of the company. But if his black magic works one more time, then he will not only be scrapping the project but will cause the death knell for the company as well. This is a caveat for his colleagues(including me).

Impact of a movie on our psyche

2005-07-01T04:52:00.000-07:00

It was 2 at night and raining very heavily. We(myself and my friend,who was driving his bike) were returning after catching the premiere show of Sarkar, a movie inspired by The Godfather. We had reached his house and from his house it was almost 4km, if not more, to mine. So that would mean a distance of more than 8km if he were to drop me home and return.

Till his house from the cinema, we were reminiscing the moments of the film, some brutal, some dramatic. This was not the first time we were returning at 2 in the night, but because of this movie, I think, the ride back home through dark and deserted alleys did feel eerie.

At his house, we waved to a rickshaw who stopped a good 20 yards ahead with the rickshaw driver waving his hands towards us. When we reached him, he gave us a good look and reasoned that at this time of the night you only find dacoits,gundas or drunkards.

I was half way through in the rickshaw when my cell phone started to vibrate(I had changed the mode to vibration to avoid disturbance while in the cinema and had forgot to revert back). With the vibration sound, I hurriedly started tracing my phone in my pockets. Hearing that, the rickshaw driver shouted at me "What's goin on?" with an expression really frightening. On the phone was my friend. The driver was more interested in what I was talking rather than driving. My friend just wanted to check up on me as to how the driver was. I exercised utmost caution in what I was saying giving the impression to the driver that I was talking on a subject which had no relation to him. I desperately wanted to reach my colony, where I could find some security guards outside the gate.

Finally, we reached the colony gate. Mostly all would take the cab till the apartment. I just wanted to get rid of him in presence of the security guards. While he was leaving, he called me and uttered,"I am returning from the cinema after watching Sarkar. I think its the effect of the movie, I am characterizing every person to be a gunda. So I was behaving like an eccentric". With this, he left.

I immediately called up my friend to tell about the incident where both were frightened by each other, just because the movie had changed the way we perceived situations. Although this effect was short-lived, very short-lived, but surely its presence did not give a very comfortable feeling.

Eating out of toilets!!!

2005-07-01T03:53:00.000-07:00

Some of my friends have been to Taiwan and some others are due to go. One thing which I would advice them to try out is eating out of toilets. Check this out for the full story.

Eating a yummy ice-cream out of a toilet bowl!!!

2005-07-01T03:43:00.000-07:00

Some of my friends have been to Taiwan and some others are planning a visit. This is one warning before you order something. You might be getting the order in a toilet bowl.

Signed Mein Kampf edition sold for $43K

2005-06-29T07:15:00.000-07:00

This is one book which I had got for much much less, but it wasnt signed ;-)

A signed first edition of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf has been sold for £23,800 at an auction in London.

The book, which was sold to an anonymous buyer at Bloomsbury Auctions, was expected to fetch up to £25,000.

The Indian Strip Trick

2005-06-29T05:52:00.000-07:00

Women are proving to be an impenetrable shield for the timber mafia in Jharkhand - whenever forest guards spot illegally felled timber, woman accomplices start stripping and the abashed guards flee the scene! Full story

Future thinking

2005-06-29T03:57:00.000-07:00

If u have some 8-10 mins to spare then check this out.

Hollywood Star Caricatures

2005-05-03T00:05:00.000-07:00

This site has caricatures of some of the famous personalities in Hollywood. Worth a visit to know the unique features of each star.

Scrabble ingenuity

2005-05-02T21:50:00.000-07:00

The following are some anagrams which have almost the same meaning.

DORMITORY: DIRTY ROOM

PRESBYTERIAN: BEST IN PRAYER

ASTRONOMER: MOON STARER

DESPERATION: A ROPE ENDS IT

THE EYES: THEY SEE

GEORGE BUSH: HE BUGS GORE

THE MORSE CODE: HERE COME DOTS

SLOT MACHINES: CASH LOST IN ME

ANIMOSITY: IS NO AMITY

ELECTION RESULTS: LIES - LET'S RECOUNT

MOTHER-IN-LAW: WOMAN HITLER

SNOOZE ALARMS: ALAS! NO MORE Z 'S

A DECIMAL POINT: IM A DOT IN PLACE

THE EARTHQUAKES: THAT QUEER SHAKE

ELEVEN PLUS TWO: TWELVE PLUS ONE

Norwegian Court Convicts First Woman for Rape

2005-04-28T22:25:00.000-07:00

A Norwegian court has sentenced a woman to nine months in jail for raping a man, the first such conviction in the Scandinavian country that prides itself for its egalitarianism.

The 31-year-old man fell asleep on a sofa at a party in January last year and told the court in the western city of Bergen he woke to find the 23-year-old woman was having oral sex with him. Full Story...

Imagination at work

2005-04-24T23:36:00.000-07:00

One of my friends at GE told me about this site. A really cool one where you can brainstorm with upto three people. Chk it out for more details.

Microsoft to support Linux

2005-04-21T21:28:00.000-07:00

Microsoft head Steve Ballmer has promised to add Linux support for the first time in one of its products because, he explained, users need to manage heterogeneous networks. Read the whole thing
here.

Gmail Drive

2005-04-10T21:06:00.000-07:00

If you have a Gmail account and with Gmail giving 2GB and increasing every moment, this is one site where you can take advantage of that and get a Gmail Drive. For more details, click here.

Hello World!!

2005-04-08T01:57:00.000-07:00

A "Hello World" program is one thing which we see in all introductory programming tutorials. Click here if u want to check out how this program is written in more than 100 other languages.

Google India Code Jam 2005

2005-02-09T20:07:00.000-08:00

Google is growing in India and actively seeking top engineering talent to help solvesome mind-bending programming challenges on a global scale. Participating in thiscontest propels you to the front of the line for consideration for openpositions in their engineering group. Visit http://www.topcoder.com/gicj05for full details.
Best of luck to you in the Arena!

Wanna see 360 degree views

2005-02-09T00:45:00.000-08:00

Click here to view 360 degree panoramic views of Mars, Eiffel Tower, Moon and more stunning views.

Facts to make an Indian Proud

2005-02-03T21:59:00.000-08:00

Sabeer Bhatia, Arun Netravalli, Vinod Dham, Vinod Khosla and many others who have made Indians proud. Full facts..

History of Programming languages

2005-02-03T01:37:00.000-08:00

French computer historian Éric Lévénez has compiled a family tree of programming languages.
Here is a pdf on the same lines.

Robots with lust

2005-02-03T01:21:00.000-08:00

Kim Jong-Hwan, the director of the ITRC-Intelligent Robot Research Centre, has developed a series of artificial chromosomes that, he says, will allow robots to feel lusty, and could eventually lead to them reproducing. He says the software, which will be installed in a robot within the next three months, will give the machines the ability to feel, reason and desire. Full Story....

Need somethin to read

2005-02-01T04:47:00.000-08:00

Business Books Of The Long Boom

Title	Author(s)	Publisher	Year	Genre
In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies	Thomas Peters, Robert H. Waterman	Harper & Row	1982	Management
Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies	James C. Collins, Jerry I. Porras	HarperCollins	1994	Management
Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution	Michael Hammer, James A. Champy	HarperCollins	1993	Management
Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco	Bryan Burrough, John Helyar	HarperCollins	1990	Narrative
Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance	Michael E. Porter	Free Press	1998	Management
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference	Malcolm Gladwell	Little Brown	2000	Narrative
Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Technology Products to Mainstream Customers	Geoffrey A. Moore	HarperBusiness	1999	Management
The House of Morgan	Ron Chernow	Atlantic Monthly Press	1990	Biography
The Six Sigma Way	Peter S. Pande et al, Robert P. Neuman, Roland R. Cavanagh	McGraw-Hill	2000	Management
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change	Stephen R. Covey	Simon & Schuster	1990	Management
Liar's Poker	Michael Lewis	W.W. Norton	1989	Narrative
The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail	Clayton M. Christensen	Harvard Business School Press	1997	Management
Japan Inc.	Shotaro Ishinomori	University of California Press	1988	Management
Den of Thieves	James B. Stewart	Simon & Schuster	1991	Narrative
The Essential Drucker	Peter F. Drucker	HarperBusiness	2001	Management
Competing for the Future	Gary Hamel, C. K. Prahalad	Harvard Business School Press	1994	Management
The Buffett Way: Investment Strategies of the World's Greatest Investor	Robert G. Hagstrom	John Wiley & Sons	1991	Investing
Jack: Straight from the Gut	Jack Welch, John A. Byrne	Warner	2001	Biography
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't	James Collins	HarperCollins	2001	Management
The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story	Michael Lewis	W.W. Norton	2000	Narrative

Source: Forbes.com