Last post

Well, This is my last blogpost on blogspot. I have moved out of blogger into my own domain.

Do keep visiting there.

www.suksy.com

Lemme know your comments on the layout, the post quality and in general.

Thanks again.

DREAM, u never know if it will become the truth!

Once there were three trees on a hill in the woods. They were discussing their hopes and dreams when the first tree said, "Someday, I hope to be a treasure chest. I could be filled with gold, silver and precious gems and be decorated with intricate carvings. Everyone would see my beauty."

The second tree said, "Someday, I will be a mighty ship. I will take kings and queens across the waters and sail to the corners of the world. Everyone will feel safe in me because of the strength of my hull."

Finally, the third tree said, "I want to grow to be the tallest and straightest tree in the forest. People will see me on top of the hill and look up to my branches, and think of the heavens and God and how close to them I am reaching. I will be the greatest tree of all time, and people will always remember me."

After a few years of praying that their dreams would come true, a group of woodsmen came upon the trees.

One came to the first tree and said, "This looks like a strong tree, I think I should be able to sell the wood to a carpenter," and he began cutting it down. The tree was happy, because he knew that the carpenter would make him into a treasure chest.

At the second tree, one of the other woodsman said, "This looks like a strong tree. I should be able to sell it to the shipyard." The a second tree was happy, because he knew he was on his way to becoming a mighty ship.

When the woodsmen came upon the third tree, the tree was frightened, because it knew that, if it was cut down, its dreams would not come true. One of the woodsmen said, "I don't need anything special from my tree, so I'll take this one," and he cut it down.

When the first tree arrived at the carpenter's, he was made into a feed box for animals, placed in a barn and filled with hay. This was not at all what he had prayed for.

The second tree was cut and made into a small fishing boat. His dreams of being a mighty ship and carrying kings had come to an end.

The third tree was cut into large pieces and left alone in the dark.

The years went by, and the trees forgot about their dreams. Then a man and woman came to the barn. She gave birth, and they placed the baby in the hay in the feed box that was made from the first tree. The man wished that he could have made a crib for the baby, but this manger would have to do. The tree could feel the importance of this event and knew that it had held the greatest treasure of all time.

Years later, a group of men got in the fishing boat made from the second tree. One of them was tired and went to sleep. While they were out on the water, a great storm arose, and the tree didn't think it was strong enough to keep the men safe. The men woke the sleeping man, and he stood and said "Peace," and the storm stopped. At this time, the tree knew that it had carried the King of Kings in its boat.

Finally, someone came and got the third tree. It was carried through the streets, and the crowd mocked the man who was carrying it. Finally, the man was nailed to the tree and raised in the air to die at the top of a hill. When Sunday came, the tree came to realize that it was strong enough to stand at the top of the hill and be as close to God as was possible, because Jesus Christ had been crucified on it.

The moral of this story is that, when things don't seem to be going your way, always know that God has a plan for you. If you place your trust in Him, He will give you great gifts. Each of the trees got what they wanted, just not in the way they had imagined. We don't always know what God's plans are for us. We just know that His ways are not our ways, but His ways are always best.

So, always have hope in god.

Why I started Blogging?

It was quite some years back, probably in 2004 October when I entered a "software company" to do software testing. And we had work only for some time and the rest of the time, we were idle, having completed the test cycle, the test cases allotted and waiting for the bugs to be fixed and given back to us for another go-ahead for testing. So, we had a lot of time to pass. I tried out playing games, watching online movies etc etc, but was not happy with any of it. 

That was when Arun suggested blogging for timepass and I had not heard of wordpress. I still remember the day when I googled for "how to blog" and blogger came up as a link. I registered myself and have not looked back since. I was checking India Uncut, Youth curry etc and had an idea that I had to blog like that. I never ever realized that their blogs reached that level after starting like my blog only!

When I read my initial posts, I feel like laughing, but I doubt if my blogging has improved. I just feel that It was more of a timepass than some serious blogging. Then, I started posting to my blog through my mail and started forwarding all interesting text mails to the blog. Somedays later, I almost stopped blogging coz people did not comment on the blog. Thanks to Pallavi who renewed my interest in blogging with a comment on almost every post those days. I also started visiting other blogs and leaving comments there with a hope that someone would visit my blog or leave comments there, but there was no change in the sitemeter than my own visits. Was that a bug in sitemeter or had I lost track of the number of people visiting, I have no clue. I almost stopped blogging then, with just a post in 4 months or so, and some occasional forwarded email.

Then, Blanknoise project happened. I came to know abt the project while googling for street harassment and I also attended a meet. I was so impressed with their ideas and ideologies and I also signed in as a volunteer. I was, however, unable to participate in any interventions. Post a couple of Interventions, I started observing people and discovered that some girls actually liked the attention they were getting. Of course, I still do not like people going and brushing against the girls or catcalling, but looking at them is fine. Staring at the parts of a girls anatomy is sick. I also know that even girls do not like those, but if some girls are in a group and you have a guy staring at them, the attention that the girl enjoys amongst the girls in the group will put anyone else to shame. One more thing was that the Blanknoise project was more to do with feminism and they expected a guy to be saintlike, not even look at a girl which is a bit too high to expect out of a guy. Also, as a member of the project, I was having this nagging feeling that every blogpost of mine should be something to do with that project. Hence, I reduced blogging and went back to my good old self of posting forwarded emails and posting a few rants on my blog.

It was then that blogaloreans happened. I don't remember how I came to know about blogaloreans, but I remember I met Sanjukta, Snigdha, Ramjee, Vinu, Dhivya, Hari, Prayank and a couple of more people @ Koshys. It was then that I got to know about ways of blogging, and that even one post a month is fine, and that there is an easier way to blog by using Live Writer - thanks to Ramjee for this one, Blogging could be a way of earning money etc etc. On checking all those people blogging, and checking those blogs too, I started blogging. The blogaloreans were really encouraging, by giving me feedback occasionally about how to improve my blog posts, how to increase visitors of my blog etc etc. That helped really and now, I don't think I am much bothered about the number of visitors or the comments left on my blog. Of course, if a visitor visits and leaves a comment, that helps, but if I expect this, I would also be expected to leave a comment on each blog that I read which makes it a bit tough. I also have found a few great friends through blogging and I earnestly hope that our friendship would continue for a long time.

Then, twitter happened, tweat ups happened with @hnprashanth, @pqrshanth, @9_6, @normaltusker, @the100rabh, @scorpion032  and later, BCB7 happened and there is no looking back et all now!

The Truth - "Kannada Barutha"??? Kannada barbeku!

"Kannada Barutha??", ah! I am sure most of you in Bangalore would have heard this, but what is "kannada barutha?" here it goes. Bangalore the IT capital of India , the silicon city and now a Metro city opened its gates to almost all kinds of people. Very evidently the recent poll census proved that there are only 47% of original inhabitants in Bangalore/bengaluru. The life style of the city has seen a gradual change with Pizza Corners replacing MTR's, classy eat out's replacing "Vidyarthi Bhavans" and flashy pub's replacing all our "Mahalakshmi wine shops".

"Change is inevitable" from the days of BEML, HAL and BHEL to INFOSYS, WIPRO; Bangalore has a new look now on the world map. Gone are the days where a typical Sunday for any bangalorean was a nice romantic walk on the pavements of "LALBAGH...", "rave idli and coffee.." at the nearest yet old looking MTR and a wonderful Annavra film either at Santosh or central 'talkies'. Today's Bangalore is deluged in traffic, stress and pressure, Saturday nights without beer is desolate and a Sunday without a visit to either a nearest spa or health clinic is schlocky!! The gandhibazar's are now AC cooled super markets, majestic is now replaced by ultra modern and diversified Brigade road, sri cauvery coffee joint is now Coffee days.. and "Bhagyalakshmi coffee adda.. is now barista. With globalisation and more retail market the city will definitely see more forceful changes.

Have all these changed our language? Kannada the local language of Bangalore is supposed to be one of the most meaningful language, it also has an unique script as compared to its other counterparts; but how many percentage of people really use Kannada in Bangalore now? The figures are staggering, only 37% of people speak kannada in the state's capital, for rest it is only "Kannada barutha?"

I am not biased in mentioning here that some inhabitants who are living in namma bengaluru from the past 15/20 years still don't speak Kannada. The only terms that they know in Kannada is "kannada barolla" or "yeshtu" or "hogbeku". They will climb an auto and say "market hogbeku" or "rate yeshtu" and if the driver tries to strike up a conversation with them, the next phrase is "kannada barolla". WTF guys? You are here.. don't force us to be like MNS. We have a KaRaVe here but we are still open minded.

Any normal guy starts with this sentence "Kannada barutha?" while talking to other person, people confirm before they speak the language. You want to ask an address in Bangalore ? Or reply to a question then English is the most preferred language other than Hindi. It's a famous fact that two kannidagas in an IT company always talk in a neutral language!! even the vendors and shop keepers are channeled with this new wave, the moment when you step in any shop in Bangalore , you are always asked "Kannada barutha?" or the entire conversation takes place in non kannada languages. People have lost the confidence of speaking in the local language and more over speaking Kannada on the streets of "M.G road "or "kormangala" is substandard.

Shopping malls in the city have been completely banned from using Kannada, not a forced one but definitely an adapted one. One has to confirm that the other person knows the language before he starts using any language. "ondu glass beer" is a insult when it comes to any decorous pub in Bangalore . "Swalpa menu card kodthira..??" has been replaced by "Can I have the menu card pls...?"

Just to hit some facts, marathi is still the largest and common speaking language in mumbai even though mumbai has the highest no of inhabitants. Telgue is a practised ritual in yet another IT HUB Hyderabad . When it comes to tamil nadu, beware you can be alive either if you are a fan of rajnikanth or you know tamil. Malyalam runs in the blood of every mallu be it Kuwait , dubai or any hospital; but when it comes to kannada it is always "kannada barutha?" and next is "namaskara."

I am not a Kannada activist neither I run any Kannada supporting organisation, I am just a plebeian who just love the language. Globalisation is the trend and modernisation is the mantra but at the cost the language? Sounds no logic.. is speaking kannada down market? The answer has to be found within oneself. Next time when you hear "kannada barutha?" you just remember that "kannada runs in your blood.."

This mail is in English, only because it can be read by non Kannadigas and understand how much we love our language.

This post is a forwarded email that I received.. I have made an addition there in the midst of the post.. This is absolutely true, esp. in today's instance.. Kannada / Kannadigas are looked down upon wherever you go.. But if you look at it, it is more of our own mistake than anyone elses..

We see a tamilian speaking on the road and we approach him and speak to him in tamil only, to make him feel comfortable and to show him that we know an additional language. This is just not the case in TN.

We do the same mistake with a "Northi" - we approach him and ask him "bolo bhaiyya, kyaa chaahiye aapko". Where have we spoken our language in front of others? Why are we so careless about our own language? Is it that we do not respect it? And when we do not speak our own language in offices and streets and when conversing / commuting, how can we expect immigrants to speak our language?

Mozilla Products - A users experience

Mozilla was, by far, the first non-microsoft product that I used. I was given a demo of Mozilla products (thunderbird / firefox) by my colleague and good friend, Devidas, and I must admit, I was floored by the same. I dunno whether it was the way they gave me the demo or the actual product specifics. But now, on thinking back, I guess it is both the product specifics and also the way they gave me the demo.

I was in a BPO when Devidas introduced me to Mozilla. I even pestered him to uninstall MS products like Outlook and IE, but then, that was not possible. So, I asked him to install Mozilla for me. He did not, on the contrary, he asked me to figure out a way to install them myself. I installed FF and Thunderbird for my browser and email clients. I configured them myself when I was in the, so called, "swing shift" which was actually a shift in the work timings to cover both USA and Australian time zones and which used to work from 6AM to 3PM. So, I was kinda free to figure out how I had to install what and what should be entered where for the browser to work and to receive the emails. Installing the browser was easy, but I was vexed when it came to installing Thunderbird. I did not let go of my hopes and at the end of it all, it worked out. But I had made an elementary mistake, I had configured my office mails in thunderbird, which meant I had to use only one system forever. And being in a BPO, it was not possible. So, there went all the efforts, not into the drain, but into my brain for an alternate solution.

I was put to the night shift and I started using only one system forever, no matter which shift I work in. I configured outlook with my official mails, and then, configured thunderbird for the various mails of the forums that I was a part of, for the bulletin board junk etc etc. Devidas actually was happy that I had that "killer instinct" and he commended me for being successful in something that was something very new to me.. Being a duffer in technological things, I had opened my eyes up to the amazing wonders of technology.

From then on, I use Mozilla FF and I have never deviated. My current engagements at office prevent me from using Thunderbird or participate in any forums and moreover, I am not into tech stuff @ office too.. So, I dunno how much of a use would any tech forum be for me. So, no more thunderbird for me, but regarding FF, I now have had FF installed on almost all the pcs in my office and I am considered some kind of an authority in FF and related stuff in my team and office! I have presented the FF stickers that I got in BCB7 to my office sysadmin and they are now on many pcs in the office!

I love FF, FF really ROCKS! I tried my hand on Google Chrome and the various versions of IE, but when compared to all this, FF ranked highest of all the browsers! FF still is the highest, and if everything goes as per my expectations, FF would take some tips from Chrome and make it a faster experience for browsing to RULE the BROWSER WAR!

No posts from long time.. why?

It is quite a long time since I blogged.. A blogpost is underway, but yet, if I don't have atleast one post a month, I somehow don't feel alright.

This would be the first post on my domain. I bought this domain, thanks to my tweat up pals who prompted me to do that.

I also thought of hosting my blog on some other server and some other hosting site other than blogger, have ideas of creating pages etc. which blogger does not permit. I thought of wordpress, but the templates available on wordpress.com are pathetic. I also thought of hosting my blog through wordpress, but I guess it is a bit too costly to host without getting any adsense. So, all plans have been postponed for the time being.

My colleague remarked today that I had to be more:

1. Frequent in Posting blogs
2. Determined to achieve what I had in mind
3. Focussed on my needs
4. Capable of planning and working towards achieving the plan.

I guess he was right in some sense. I planned to buy a camera, but now, am thinking twice coz of the finance involved in it. I planned to buy a bullet bike, but since of the raising costs and expenses, with my current salary, i would not be able to afford it. I also thought of cycling to office, courtesy BCB7. But that would be too strenuous as per mom. I also am now interested in going on a south indian bike expedition - coast to coast, but I dunno if I will get so many days leave and also, I dunno if I will get permission from mom to do this trip.

Whatever happens, It does happen, whether I want it or not.. So, why not go with the tide?

Me on Bengaluru Mirror!

I did not know abt it till i got the tweet from santhosh abt it. The photo is here.


In the bottom left picture, From left, clockwise, That is amit a.k.a daaku, sathyabhat a.k.a sathya, arun a.k.a mixdev, santhosh a.k.a 9_6 and yours truly a.k.a suksy.

Kewl haa??? I just hope I got all the names right.. esp. that of daaku. Else, the daaku wud kill me!