The Making of the Barbecue

It was very drowsy n lazy week end when some one came up with the idea of building a Barbecue setup. The idea was great and came at the very right moment, every one wanted some sort of adventure and excitement n this idea made our day.



Soon we were drawing the prototype on a paper. Every one was pouring in their past experiences and were trying to recall how was the setup and design when they last used it. The end prototype was very ambitious I must say :P. But it was not very late when we realized that realizing that design is not easy. After wasting a few sheets of papers we decided that we will stick to a very basic design and we need some metal plates and a few angles to make the basic design.
Now search for the raw material started with every one giving in the wildest idea they could think of : some one said "lets break a few advertisement placards which are installed along the road side and use them as the metal plates. Some one was ready to break the telephone extension box which are also installed on the road side and use them as the top mesh above the barbecue.
There were plenty of ideas on how and from were to collect the required raw materials, but in the end we landed at the local welder's workshop to outsource the job n get it done by paying him some money.
After explaining to him what is to be done he coated his rate which was way too expensive i.e. : 2000 K.
Next we en-quired about the scrapyard and ended up in a scrapyard (the idea was to collect the required material and get it welded), where we could find a lot of old, thrashed, and thrown out waste materials. For us it was not waste, every one of us could imagine some part of the barbecue setup out of every item which was present there :).
That day we learned what is the cost of the iron in India, any guesses ???? It is Rs 15/KG.
In the end we paid Rs 300 /- and purchased the required metal and headed to the welder. We explained the welder about what to be done and he took the job into his hands and completed it neatly. We paid him Rs 150/-.
Every one was happy about it, next we headed to buy chicken and coal, yes every one wanted to enjoy the meal on the same day :).
It was the time for another realization for the day and it was learning about the cost of coal in India, don't trouble yourself to guess it I will make it easy for you :), it is Rs 21/KG :).
In the end we ended up at the home, and there was challenge waiting for was. We had every thing the Barbecue setup, chicken, required spices, coal. But firing coal is a big challenge if you never tried your hand before.
The best way to do this is to burn one small piece of coal using a candle and then add some more coal the put it under the fan and leave it for some time and keep on adding the coal time to time ;).

-Sun

Right or Wrong - 2 (Godhra verdict)

The verdict for the Godhra tragedy which left 52 dead and in turn triggered one of the worst communal roits is out with 31 convicted, the court sentenced 11 to capital punishment and 20 to life imprisonment.

The court gave its verdict explaining the motive behind the cold blooded act by all the convicts was simply "anger".
Were the convicts just so angry that they took a decision to burn a train and kill unknown kar sevaks????
OR
If they were so angry about Hindus that they were trying to wipe out whole of the Hindu community by setting up a compartment of a train on fire????

Almost all the convicts belong to the working labor class i.e. tea vendors, auto drivers, truck cleaners, milk vendors etc etc...
What made these daily wage earners so angry that they (conspired planned ????) and themselves executed a cold blooded murder of unknown "kar sevaks" traveling in a train?
These convicts might have planed how to execute the murder of unknown kar sevaks people for some benefit or reason but for what benefit they could conspire a communal riot.
The actual conspiracy was to trigger the communal riots (successfully happened as the side affect)which was conspired by some one who is/are not even in the picture and these a few angry common daily wage earners would not even know what the conspiracy was all about.

With two independent entities one appointed by the Gujarath government and the other by the railways to probe the massacre contradicting each other, one commission explaining it as the cold blooded conspiracy of a few angry men and other concluded it as a mere accident. Where is the report about the dirty politics played by the actual conspirators.

Definitely the death punishment and the life imprisonment given to the convicts is less for what they did but there should a long list of actual conspirators which is missing in the verdict.

-Sun

Right or Wrong - 1 (Child labor)

Recently when I gave my cloths for ironing I en-quired the ironing vendor for a car cleaning guy's reference, for which his son sitting next to him quickly answered (in a very humble and curious tone) sir I do this job, I turned to see him (was a 14 -15 year old teen). I asked him don't you go to school?
boy : Yes I do.
Me : Which school
boy : Good year (close by)
Me : What is your name?
boy : Sathish
Me : How much?
Sathish: hmmmm Rs 500/- per month I will clean the car daily. I do a very neat n clean job.
Me : Do you clean any other car?
Sathish : Yes sir, I do. I couple of cars.
Me: That is too much. I used to pay Rs 300/- only to the last guy who used to clean the car earlier. I will pay Rs 350/- ?
Sathish: Okay I will come from tomorrow.
Me : Okay

While on the way back I thought I got a good deal, calculating how much it is per day if it costs 350 per month n was happy about it, but somewhere I was feeling guilty n very soon I was thinking is this called child labor?
I reached home n was opening the gate when I heard his voice sir is this your home I turned back in surprise to see who is this, n it was Sathish.
Me : Yes it is, n that is the car.
Sathish : I followed you to see the house so that tomorrow I can come down.
Me : Okay, what time will you be here?
Sathish: morning 6:30.
Me : Thats too early. Come at 8:30
Sathish: I can't I go to school after work n I have a couple of cars to clean.
Me : His answer resonated within me. I was kind of taken back on employing him. I was still wondering, when he asked me
Sathish: If you want I can start from today itself.

(By this time my mom came out in the balcony n asked me who is that. I explained her )
Me : Okay do it, lets see what do you do?

I went inside and by the time I came back from bath, the car is cleaned, when I asked my mom, she said he left after cleaning n told he will come tomorrow morning at 6:30.

For the next one week I did not see him, (am a lazy guy, wakes up at 9:30) but he was coming daily along with his brother (8 -10 years) to clean the car. My mom used to tell about him n his brother's work and appreciated both of them.

It was Saturday night and while having our dinner mom started talking about Sathish and his brother's work. She appreciated both of them for the work they were doing. Then she told about the Sathish's request. He requested her to pay him Rs 500/- instead of Rs 350/-, he said it will suffice to his n his brother's tuition fee at school.
I said : "that is too much", my mom said: I did not commit to him, I told him "I will talk to my son n let you know".

Next day I woke up early to see what Sathish is doing, I went to the balcony to see his work. He n his brother were waiting near the car. On seeing me he greeted me with morning wishes and started to his work. I observed them and their work. I could see his dedication and hardwork which he was putting in such a simple and mundane work. I was surprised and at the same time I decided to give what ever he asked for.
I came inside went to the kitchen where my mom was busy preparing breakfast and told her, "give him what ever he is asking".

I thought many times about this incident, n was trying to resolve my confusion(Am I encouraging child labor?).

Yes I am encouraging child labor, but if I do not employ him how will he pay his tuition fee n meet his daily necessities?

These questions haunts me:

1) Should any one employ a child?
2) If not how will they get their basic necessities?
3) What is the meaning of free education to every child in India?

How any one could solve this egg n chicken problem?

-Sun

Girls in Saree at Cirrus Bangalore

It was very unique to see gals in saree on the disk floor. I must say the gals were the hottest on the floor. All gals were in their best of the best attire as they could be but these gals were the talk of the night. 3 gals at the Cirrus disco on Wednesday night walked-in in sarees and the whole crowd on the floor wants to dance with them. One of my friend tried very hard to mingle with them and dance with them but in the end had to unsuccessfully walk away after he tried his luck very hard. Later towards the end of the night n after having 3 pitchers of beer I got the courage to talk to them and here is what it goes with them:

P.S : There was very loud music which was being played in the walled disk and the conversation goes like this:

Me : Hey (while tapping on the shoulder of one of the gal :P ) you guys made the day for almost all the guys at Cirrus tonight.
Gal : (laughing n dancing )Thank you.
Me : If you can consider I am not drunk and take my complement regardless that I am drunk then I would like to say some thing.
Gal: Yes please, go ahead.
Me: You guys are the hottest on the floor, you guys are rocking the floor.
Gal Thank you, thank you very much.
Me : How you guys got this idea?
Gal : We are making a movie called "_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ of Bangalore" (trust me that is what I understood after I re confirmed many times) and this is the idea from that.
Me : Ohhh great who is the director.
Gal : We are the directors. (all three of us)
Me : Great.
Gal : Thank you
Me : (Just to continue with the conversation with the gal ;) ) U know the guy who was trying very hard to dance with you guys is my friend :) and all my friends were trying to hit on you guys.
Gal: Ohh is it ?
Me: Yeah, Whats your name ?
Gal: Ekta
Me: Okay.
Me: Can we give a drop to you guys if you don't mind. (probably the 3 pictures of beer was speaking but trust me the gals were hot, the disk & the chicks in saaris :))
in the mean while another gal of the 3 was also listening
2nd gal: Will see after the DJ, lets meet after the DJ night.
Me: Okay, BTW what is your name?
2nd gal: Pomila (Thats what I heard in the loud music)
She goes and talk to the other two explaining my offer, Ekta start like - "Noooooooo ways, we are not going with them!!!!!!"
After some time the DJ ends (11:30 PM) yeah I know that is sad about Bangalore closing disks at 11:30 in the night.
(ON the way back out of the Cirrus )
Pomila : Thanks for the drive to home.
Me: Okay, have a great night, good night

I can't believe I could have a conversation with such strangers, I always thought that I am not a social animal, I can't approach any one and make friends with without any reason or motive.
It was quite an invention about a skill which was not known to myself.

- Sun

P.S. : I am still tipsy and just came back home right from Cirrus.

I wanna catch my own fish, cook it n eat it

I think I was pretty late to realize that it was time to take career seriously, it was then, when I was let out from the safe n protected home environment where you never get to face the hardship and the very reality of rat race.

From the time I started thinking about making a living of my own, I remember that I always wanted n talked about entrepreneurship. Along with a friend of mine I dreamed about writing software applications and making it big time.

But very soon I was running in the 100 Mt sprint rat race n I could never even realize that I was sprinting which is taking me far away from our dream, n I successfully completed my sprint.

Now the dreams were different, priorities were different and I wanted to win the race and take on more races, different races but little I knew that all were rat races.

But this thought of entrepreneurship always haunted me, during the hard and lonely time, in the time when you are dissatisfied with n about every thing what ever you are doing, when you sit and think about your achievements, when you think about your past, when you drive pass a nice architectural software building, when you see the compassion of sales guy making a pith to sell his product, when some one asks what is your resolution this year and when I see my uncle (businessman) leaving his office late in the night and before driving away he stops, turns back and takes an eye full of look at whole of the building, ahhh what a feeling........

A lot of time has been spent thinking n thinking n thinking about what fish should I catch, where should I catch and when should I catch. Read quite a lot of books on people who made it big, thought about MBA some times, tried to tie up with a few guys who are into this and tried some things which turned out to be stupid.

I try to talk to people young, old, entrepreneurs, fellow colleagues, college students and share my thoughts and try to find if some one is interested. Most of the people I talk to, follow my words and show interest but only for the sake of enrolling in the conversation at the moment.

Time is running out, but I am still at the same place which makes me sad, but I keep wondering when will I find my fish and what will it take to catch my fish n why can't I find n catch my fish?

- Sun

Sakaleshpur trip

This is one of the very famous trekking spot around Bangalore. Lot of people come here for trekking. Though there is not much of trekking :P as the whole story is about walking on the railway tracks and crossing long tunnels and bridges which seems to be exiting and adventurous only in the beginning. The track is surrounded by the thick forest.
I personally did not like the trek as walking on the track is difficult (probably only in the beginning) and you can't enjoy the valleys, possible sitings of any animals (if you are very lucky), local flora and the nature as a whole, because you have to keep starring at the track (there are no side paths etc etc...) to walk if you don't want injure yourself :P.
Walking on the track sleepers is also painful as the whole foot will not get accommodated on the sleepers and the toe will suffer a lot, walking on the rock (Track ballast technically) is also not a very good idea. So better wear good shoes with good tough and thick soul.


Don't forget:

1. Torch : Very important to carry to cross the tunnel. Tunnels are long and inside, it is jet black dark.
2. Salt: Yes there are leeches on the track :)

-Sun

Savandurga

Savandurga is near about 60 Km from Bangalore is the largest monolith in the world. Famous for trekking, Narasimmah swami temple and the hill itself.

What I noticed were the trees. As this is a very big monolith, trees have adapted to grow on rocks like one in the above picture, there were many like this. This is the natural Bonsai tree, growing on the limited soil and water supply.

We climbed on to the hill in the sun, it was very hot but I enjoyed clickinig these trees.

-Sun

Is an accord enough?

I have taken up an initiative towards spreading the awareness about GLOBAL WARMING, following is the mail which I sent to all the people I know.

Hi,

It's been a very long time we got in touch with each other because of so many reasons in our life. I offer my sincere apologizes for not being in contact with you during this time. Today I also want to acknowledge the fact that by being with you, I learned and experienced a responsible, capable and powerful individual in you and I always counted this unwavering relationship which we share as a reliable asset and a great achievement for the rest of my life.

You have touched, moved and inspired me and many areas of my life for which I am very thankful to you, and because I deeply believe in you and your ability to touch, move and inspire people around you, I want to count on you and thousands of our friends to touch, move and inspire our fellow citizens to make a difference to our environment.

We all know about the meeting held at Copenhagen attended by all the world leaders to cause the noblest gift they could give to the history of man kind. Unfortunately our leaders were not successful enough to go beyond an accord. Given the fact that how disturbing and rapid are the effects of GLOBAL WARMING a mere accord would not help the depreciating health of our Earth.

I am sure we all are concerned and acknowledge that fact that GLOBAL WARMING is no more a myth and whether our leaders cause an accord or an appreciable resolve it is up to the individuals like us who can bring a change by practicing it.

My aim is to spread the awareness about the GLOBAL WARMING which should impact and live with the people to bring this change and I am very confident and have no doubt in achieving this provided you extend your support, leadership and pour in more ideas.

My invitation to you is to join me in this project, enroll others to join us and ideate, implement, lead, and help to touch, move and inspire people and bring a change to our environment.

Following are the project details :

===================================

As human beings we always relate certain patterns of sound to certain things for example companies/organizations listed below which are only a few to count on have their signature tones. (check the attachment for your reference).

1) All India radio All_india_radio.mp3 (attached with the mail)

2) Airtel Airtel.mp3 (attached with the mail)

3) DOCOMO

4) Intel

5) Hero Honda

6) Doordarshan

7) Britannia etc etc (These are only a few to name)

The project is to create a signature tone and a skit which will touch, move and inspire people to think and take actions (for e.g. turn off engines at traffic signals, switch off lights, monitors, CPU's and other appliances when not in use).

The plan is to bring this skit and tone on air through Radio and TV, once this is on air we will do on the field skits at the major traffic signals.

We always believe in doing the best and not to compromise on any aspect thus we decided on following actions to be taken.

1) Tone has to be composed by A.R. Rehman - I know this is very ambitious but we will give it a best shot to enroll him.

2) Brain storm and come up with the skit.

3) Enroll organizations which share the same interest to raise funds.

4) Enroll traffic commissioner and other related officers/ministers to back it up and support our activities.

Please add/edit and pour in more of your ideas and enroll others to cause this.

Please feel free to contact me for more details.

Regards,

Suneel Kumar Mekala

Phone :+91-9008066442

E-mail :sun.1601@gmail.com
Blog :http://suneelmekala.blogspot.com

Arrey tham ja re bande - Dude take a halt

Saw a clip from a movie called "Gods must be crazy" where in a glass bottle thrown from the flight changes the easy going life of the tribes into hell and was wondering why do I need to chase and the irony is am not sure what I am chasing. This is no new feeling it keeps visiting in one or the other form on one or other day and there is no escape. Just talk it, think it, cry it out and then forget it for time being, and then start chasing again, with out even realizing that you are up to some thing till it knocks your door again in some other form. Poor chap.....

-Sun

P.S. : Don't freak out if it didn't make any sense.

50% + 40% SALE

Clieked it on the way to Hyderabad on some railway station.

Touched by CUPA

I with a few colleagues were on a regular walk after the lunch around the office building when we saw a juvenile Koyel(Cuckoo) on the ground struggling and screaming. I approached it to check if the bird is hurt and it tried to escape & ran a little distance and then collapsed up side down. I tried picking it up to examine but it opened its beak wide open with a scary sound as if it was warning me to stay away, I pulled myself back. The bird was in immense pain & I wanted to help that creature rather than leaving it in its plight.

While we were thinking what could be done, I recalled that once I read in an article about an organization which serves birds & that I saved the contact in my phonebook, I searched the contact and called them, they directed me to take the bird to the veterinary hospital in Hebbal, which is near to my work place.

Finally I picked the bird to examine and tried to find if it was wounded but could not find any wound and we decided that we will make the bird to the hospital. A friend of mine joined me and we drove to the hospital.

While I was driving I was thinking about how good and proactive will be a veterinary hospital/doctors in India where people don't even care about the human life and where the focus of the medical institutions is to make money at any cost. I know you may attribute this thought of mine to being prejudice, but this is the truth.

We reached the hospital and before entering it I made a strong prejudice openion about the doctors, staff and the hospital. I went to the front desk and explaind the situation he asked me to register and pay Rs. 10/-. I completed the formalities and he directed me to go to OPD.

I went as he directed me and entered the OPD, a few patients (a german shepherd, a cow and the hutch dog - where ever you go our network follows) were in the queue. I was asked to wait, on my turn the doctor asked where is the patient and I took the bird out of the cover and kept it on the table (by this time I was handling the bird properly). The expression on the doctor's face on seeing the bird gave me the background of his experience with the birds. It was very clear that the doctor never attended a bird before, he was scared more than me of the bird. I don't know what to do, he thought for some time and asked me :

Doc: Is this your bird.

I: Nope, found it on the way.

Doc: You leave it here we will take care.

I: What are you going to do with it?

Doc: See if some one owns a bird they keep it in home, and if it is a stray bird in 90% cases it dies of hunger.

I: No I don't wanna leave it hear, you treat it first.

Doc: I think it is affected by virus and will die (with out even examining it)

I: What can we do?

Doc: (His bulb glue) On the rear side of this building CUPA is there, you give it to them they will take care.

I: CUPA ?

Doc: Yeah CUPA.

I: What is CUPA?

Doc: Asked the compounder what is CUPA?

Compounder: ????????

Doc: They are NGO and help animals.

I: (Ohh help animals, NGO - bullshit) Dejected with a thought that this bird is gonna die took his word and left.

We were walking towards the CUPA building again with the same and even more intense thought and picture in front of me about the NGOs.

Entered the gate and yet again one more front desk executive with a long form to fill. The room was filled with many dogs a few were handicapped but all were friendly, was then asked to go to some room. Inside the room 2 men were discussing (some property matter was audible even outside) went directly to them and took the bird out, before I could say some thing on of the guy said - "oh its a bird take it to Dr. Roopa" (I thought bullshit as if they had experts in all the fields)

Anyways I went to the room as directed by them on they way I saw a horse calf countless dogs most of them lost there limbs.

I entered the room a lady was sitting in sari named Roop.

I : Hi, (taking the bird out of the cover) This bird is hurt and found it on the road.

Dr. Roopa: Ohh, (immediately took the bird in her lap) its a female Cuckoo and started treating the bird as a human being talking to it and consoling its pain. She took it to the next room where already prepared food was available for birds and she started feeding it.

As she was feeding the bird, it was spilling it out of its beak and she was pushing it in.

I : It dont want to eat don't push it.

for that there was no verbal answer to the question from her rather a strong stare at me as if asking me to shut up. I kept quite for some time, and in no time the bird started eating.

And then she stared back again for the acknowledgement and I acknowledged by nodding my head.

Dr. Roopa: First it should eat some thing, don't know from how many days it didn't. BTW was there a nest near by from where you picked it?

I: Nope

Dr. Roopa : Any mother birsd near by ?

I: Nope

she was examining the bird (its legs, feather n all) while it was eating

Dr. Roopa: Okay, the bird is not able to walk, we have to take an X-ray and see.

I: So now what can I do?

Dr. Roopa: You can leave now.

I: Ohh!!!, BTW I am Suneel.

Dr. Roopa: I am Dr. Roopa, I am a volunteer working full time for CUPA.

I: What will you do with the bird now.

Dr. Roopa : We will treat it and send it to Bhennerghata where we have a sister NGO which takes care of birds and after a recovery we will do a test flight and then release it.

I : Ohhh!!! thats great. Well then thank you very much, I shall leave now.

I knew the bird is in safe hands and left with a completely new meaning for the term NGO.

Came back to the desk and googled about CUPA (Compassion unlimited plus action) http://www.cupabangalore.org/, and thought they are living what they say, found that they are very active and successful group in Bangalore. Catch them @ Bloggers Bark where they blog regularly about the available animals for adoption and the activities they are undertaking.

-Sun

The collection

I used to collect unique and different match box wrappers in a journal when I was 5 that habit turned into stamp collection when I turned 6 and collected thousands of it and the journal grew from few pages to a big register(lost somewhere now :-( ), developed a habit of painting when I was 7+ years and continued that till quite some time, during this period I used to wait for holidays and vacation, not for hanging out some where but to paint, initially pained with water colors and sketch pens slowly changed that into pencil sketches, collected them also, still have them but forgot about that habit of mine long back (will start that once again), At some where when I was 8-9 years old I developed a habit of making models of airplanes with soft bamboo like wood, but was not able to collect and maintain them for long, they were very fragile, as I grew that habit turned into making models of houses and other civil constructions like a model of hydro-electric plant which supports irrigation, aquaculture, tourism apart from its main cause i.e. generating electricity, during this time I built a small working model of manual projector also which displays pictures when a film is fed to it. I presented these two models in a science exhibition though didn’t fetched me any place there.  From this I started collecting electronic boards, registers, capacitors, chips etc. from broken toys, old house appliances and watches, used to design premature n amateur circuits like a battery operated gizmo lights, a turning wheel…..

 So did you figure out the head fake in this ?                                                                              From all this it seems like I developed quite a few habits and one after the other I kept moving on leaving them behind as a memory and carried the learning with me, but some thing kept following me and that is - The collection 

And I am still collecting some thing or the other, intentionally or unintentionally. Wanna have a look at my latest collection, check out : 

My Gtalk status messages collection :-) : 

1) Beer: Making women look better since … 

2) You still have moments left with you, when you didn’t get what u wanted… and some times you can live with them      

3) The hurdles are there for a reason. They are not there to keep us out; they are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. They are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough. – Randy Pausch

4) What is the use of the wings; if u couldn’t feel the wind on your face? 

 5) Life means uncertainties; and few things can’t be ensured 

6) I am searching myself… 

7) I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. - Thoreau, Henry David 

8) "I went up to him today and told him how sorry I was, and he said, 'Sir, we are going to beat this. We are going to build this Taj back into what it was'." - Ratan Tata & Karambir Kang(lost his whole family) 

9) Logged out Infy :( 

10) If  you can't change the world, change your world 

11) Hold ur new year bash by 1 extra sec, year 2008 is prolonged by 1 sec- source - http://uk.reuters.com/article/burningIssues/idUKTRE4BR1DC20081229 

12) Mugger hit my house last night... I hit him back... he escaped... went to police station...  New year is quite event full :) 

13) What is not recyclable ? 

14) All materialistic things loose influence, n all non-materialistic continue to… 

15) Cooking for self... 

16) Egg burgi rocked today | Cooking for self 

17) rajesh.ankareddy: Wondering what your next caption would be :   Back from Goa, Alive! 

18) Creative thoughts :  Counter display on the cooker to count the number of whistles  | Cooking for self 

19) wanna be  everywhere, with everyone n in everything  

20) 3 weeks into kitchen and Tips 4 amateur cooks :-) : 1.  No matter wht u cook ; gonna be gr8 so never loose hope ;)  2. Never put ur hand on ur face while in kitchen; gonna hurt u :-)  3. Any thing which is hot will tend to be hot for some time; be patient, u may starve whole night 4.  On a serious note; don’t forget to double check that u turned down the gas knob. Rest in next session, keep looking for updates :-) 

21) 45 mins for changing into a cute killing look, 30 mins ride, 10 mins walk around the pool with champagne, 1 hr under the candle light, 2 hrs dinner.... n a lifelong remembrance. 

-Sun

See u again

Hi All,

This is my last day at Infosys. Though my journey at Infosys is going to end in few more hours, I am confident that my following journey will be led to the next level, just because of what I have attained from my Infosys years.
I'd like to take this opportunity to express my deepest thanks to all who have supported, led, coached, mentored, friends and Infosys as a whole.
I will be delightful and still be part of Infosys family when ever I see all the good news about Infosys and you breaking through this tough season and becoming the best company in the world and for the world.
Some part for me is refraining me from saying good-bye to you, but I will definitely say “See you again” rather that saying “Good bye”.
As I unveil a new chapter in my life, I wish you all the very best, and please do keep in touch with me and write/call me anytime at the below E-mail/Ph. number, more than you I would be happy to listen from you.

sun.1601@gmail.com
+91 9008066442

Regards,
Suneel Kumar Mekala
Please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to. SAVE TREES 

Well that was my bye bye mail on the last day (12th Dec 2008) when few hours were left to quit Infosys, joined a company which is about a half the size of Infy. Immediate post resigning effects were not really great on me till some time back, missed Infy at every tiniest possible situation one could think of. Though I still miss Infy but now I am slowly settling with new n a lot more responsibilities on me and I am taking on each one of them quite confidently which is only possible because of what I attained at Infy. Yes it’s a great company to work with I miss you.  

EMTA 3.0

EMTA - Embedded Multimedia Terminal Adapter.

 This is second product after CMTS (check earlier post on CMTS) which I worked on. I would say this is the project during which my learning curve was the steepest if I plot a graph. Working on this was a pleasure because of many reasons, One the competency of team with which I worked, Two the manager, with excellent managing and technical competencies, Three the deadlines (which the customer himself used to feel very aggressive) to meet were very exciting, short and challenging though never found then exhaustive and unachievable and ofcourse the pleasure of working on a technology which is yet to hit the market for next few years can't be imagined. And yes it yielded me the best CRR cycle(performance measure at Infosys) for me.

 About EMTA :

EMTA is a CPE equipment which is  a slave device controlled/configured by the head end device called CMTS. It is a hardware that interfaces with the IP (Internet Protocol) network and the cable network placed at the subscriber’s premises. In other words it is a Cable Modem with voice capabilities i.e. it enables cable television operators to offer subscribers IP based telephony and high-speed data services.

The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch

At Carnegie Mellon University professors are asked to give lecture on what wisdom they could give when they know that this is going to be their Last Lecture.

Had you been a professor what would you do given this kind of opportunity, well you would try to give your best!!!!!.
However no one would ever be able to deliver the best they could, unless and otherwise they knew that this is really going to be their Last Lecture, and how do any one know that this is going to be their Last Lecture unless they could peep into future and see why they wont be able to do this.

But there are exceptions like Dr.Randy Pausch. Dr. Pausch took the podium just months after receiving a diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer in August 2006, he passed away on July 26, 2008 at his home surrounded by his wife and three children.

When he was requested for the Last Lecture. He hesitated, then went ahead with the lecture, on Sept. 18, 2007, he learned he had months to live. Have a look what he did in his Last Lecture on youtube here... which got record number of hits from all over the globe.

He spoke about:
1) His childhood dreams and how he achieved them
2) Helping other achieve their childhood dreams
3) He spoke of his love for his wife whom he noted would soon be his widow and had a birthday
cake for her wheeled on stage as last day it was her birthday and he could not do any thing as
he was busy preparing for this lecture, so he decided to celebrate her birthday along with the
huge crowd on the next. His wife broke into tears on the state as it was a surprise for her.
4) He spoke of their three young children, saying he had made his decision to speak mostly to
leave them a video memory

Few statements he made:
1) You cannot change the cards you are dealt. Just how you play the hand.
2) Don't complain. Just work harder.
3) Luck is truly where preparation meets opportunity.
4) Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.
5) The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick
walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are
there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough.

His last statement :
"Did you figure out the head fake? It's not about how to achieve your dreams. It's about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way ... the dreams will come to you. Did you figure out the second head fake? The talk's not for you. It's for my kids."

Randy's Diary :
Have a look at Randy's diary here...

-sun

Lost your laptop? Here's help...

The answer is - Adeona!!!!! named after the Roman goddess of safe returns.

Adeona is the first open source laptop tracking system and very easy to use. The user has to install the free software which is available below and save the credential key some where either in a thumb drive or mail it to self. The credential key can be used with the tracking client which is bundled with Adeona to track the laptop. The software uses many methods for laptop tracking for e.g. It can note the IP address where the computer is used, It directs the inbuilt camera (if present) to take pictures every half a minute and send it to a remotely administered repository. Adeona uses Open Source OpenDHT distributed storage service to store location updates sent by a small software client installed on an owner's laptop.

Read more here...

DOWNLOAD ADEONA
Linux :
* click here
Windows :
* click here
Mac :
* disk 1
* disk 2

-sun

CMTS

CMTS (Cable modem termination system check more about it in about CMTS part of the blog down below) this was the project on which I worked almost 2 years, amazing device taught me so many things on technical as well as managerial aspects.

Before getting into development I tested this device on many aspects like - performance, features etc... While I was testing I did not like my job and always cursed to be a part of testing team, but later when I was moved into development team only then I realized the benefit what I gained during testing, yes the domain and the product expertize which was very helpful during development.
I forgot to tell you I work for the II'nd biggest global company in India, I guess you can guess it easily :).

About CMTS :
A cable modem termination system or CMTS is equipment typically found in a cable company's headend, or at cable company hubsite and is used to provide high speed data services, such as cable internet or Voice over IP, to cable subscribers.
In order to provide these high speed data services, a cable company will connect its headend to the Internet via very high capacity data links to a network service provider. On the subscriber side of the headend, the CMTS enables the communication with subscribers' cable modems. Different CMTSs are capable of serving different cable modem population sizes - ranging from 4,000 cable modems to 150,000 or more, depending in part on traffic. A given headend may have between half a dozen to a dozen or more CMTSs to service the cable modem population served by that headend or HFC hub.
One way to think of a CMTS is to imagine a router with Ethernet interfaces (connections) on one side and coax RF interfaces on the other side. The RF/coax interfaces carry RF signals to and from the subscriber's cable modem.
In fact, most CMTSs have both Ethernet interfaces (or other more traditional high-speed data interfaces) as well as RF interfaces. In this way, traffic that is coming from the Internet can be routed (or bridged) through the Ethernet interface, through the CMTS and then onto the RF interfaces that are connected to the cable company's hybrid fiber coax (HFC). The traffic winds its way through the HFC to end up at the cable modem in the subscriber's home. Traffic going from a subscriber's home systems go through the cable modem and out to the Internet in the opposite direction.
CMTSs typically carry only IP traffic. Traffic destined for the cable modem from the Internet, known as downstream traffic, is carried in IP packets encapsulated in MPEG transport stream packets. These MPEG packets are carried on data streams that are typically modulated onto a TV channel using Quadrature Amplitude Modulation.
Upstream data (data from cable modems to the headend or Internet) is carried in Ethernet frames modulated with QPSK, 16-QAM, 32-QAM, 64-QAM, or S-CDMA. This is done at the "subband" portion of the cable TV spectrum (also known as the "T" channels), a much lower part of the frequency spectrum than the downstream signal.
A typical CMTS allows a subscriber's computer to obtain an IP address by forwarding DHCP requests to the relevant servers. This DHCP server returns, for the most part, what looks like a typical response including an assigned IP address for the computer, gateway/router addresses to use, DNS servers, etc.
The CMTS may also implement some basic filtering to protect against unauthorized users and various attacks. Traffic shaping is sometimes performed to prioritize application traffic, perhaps based upon subscribed plan or download usage. However, the function of traffic shaping is more likely done by a Policy Traffic Switch. A CMTS may also act as a bridge or router.
A customer's cable modem cannot communicate directly with other modems on the line. In general, cable modem traffic is routed to other cable modems or to the Internet through a series of CMTSs and traditional routers. A route could conceivably pass through a single CMTS

-sun

java.sql.SQLException: [Microsoft][SQLServer 2000 Dri ver for JDBC]Error establishing socket.

Few days back I was writing a client server Java application using MS SQL server as back end. I built n tested the application and sent it to my client and the application did not started which was very much expected, but I never thought that debugging this will eat my one full F***ing week. Today I debugged it successfully after week longs effort, so I thought let me post it here so that some one else may not waste his/her time on such an issue, even though there are many solutions over internet, none are confident. So here it goes :

There are many reasons behind this error which are as follows :

1) URL string is not correct

2) Port which you specified is not the one at which the server is listening.

3) Your machine is not connected to network (sounds weired, yes SQL server needs the TCP stack to be installed, so either connect the machine to the network or configure a loopback interface if you want your application to run as stand alone)

4) Check your service pack (this was my problem)

5) Firewall is preventing it to connect

Follow this Approach to solve this exception


The first thing one should check when u get this problem is "the URL string" in your server.xml file for the IP address/name of the SQL server is correct and it is reachable - confirm this by pinging the server.

if URL is correct

Check "the port which you specified" in the URL string, default is 1433 check this against the server configuration. Server port configuration can be checked by opening server network utility from - start->All programs->MS SQL server -> server network utility. In this you will find the disabled protocols and the enabled protocols. In enabled protocols list Named pipes and TCP should be listed. Select TCP and click on properties it will show the port number the server is listening on. Repeat this to confirm Client network utility also - start->All programs->MS SQL server -> Client network utility

if port is also matching

Check if the server is listening on that port which is shown in the server network utility. Follow this procedure to check this.
Go to command prompt and give following command :
telnet localhost or IP address (of the server if it is on the network) port number
eg. : telnet localhost 1433
When this command is issued a blank screen should come, if you get a message like "Could not open connection > to the host, on port > 1433" then it is confirmed that the server is not listening on the specified port number.

You can also confirm this from the SQL server logs go to program files->MS sql server-> MSSQL -> LOG -> and open the most recent errorlog file. If it shows a log as follows :
SQL server listening on Shared Memory, Named Pipes
that means it is not listening on TCP, when it is listening on TCP the log will be as follows:
SQL server listening on TCP, Shared Memory, Named Pipes
But this log is not very consistent so don't depend on this the Telnet method is the best.

if server is not listening on port which it shows in server network utility

Check your service pack. If you are running SP2 or SP3 then what ever you do the server will not listen on that because of the some weired security vulnerabilities, So either have SP1 or SP4(recommended)you can find the SP4 at Microsoft site install all the exe's listed at this site.

If you already have SP4 or installed and is still not working

Check your firewall either turn it off or create an exception for this port.

This should solve most of the problems if any one still have issues refer to the Microsoft Site or post a mail to me - sun.1601@gmail.com
Hope this would help a few

-sun

Bug on Flickr

BUG description : When you delete a set (Album), it pops up this
message box saying "Really delete this set?
(Deleting the set will NOT delete any of the
content inside it.)". And if we select "OK" even
then all pictures are deleted from that set (Album).

Dont know what do they mean by deleting set(Album) will not delete content inside it. After all Album is the super set of pictures(content) in it.

Any ways Flickr guys do take care of it if u can.

-sun

Google Chrome highlights

* Streamlined and simple
* Clean and fast
* Runs all complex web applications much better.
* Each tab is an isolated "sandbox" that means (one tab wont crash another unlike IE [:(])
* Improved speed and responsiveness
* Powerful JavaScript engine (to power the next generation of web applications that aren't even possible in today's browsers)


What else is required from a browser, poor Microsoft will never learn.

read more here...

-sun