Poindi, Potche, Its Gone

We had just delivered the code to the clients and now, the system is in the testing phase. Now our Client comes to us with a bug reported by the QA group. She asks us if this was by design meant to be the way it is or was it a pre-existing issue. We tell her that this feature existed in production, but only under one particular condition - for a case where multiple components were used. When used as a single component, the bug isnt evident. Now, that we have enhanced a feature, it doesnt work for any component.. So the client aptly summarized the situation - 'You have made the system consistent by making it not to work for all the features.'

94444 44414 & 28999599

Have you noticed the way people spell out the phone numbers? I was just thinking about how they spell out er.. read these out. Each person has a different way of doing it. Now, isnt that confusing?

You are used to a certain way of reading the telephone number and suddenly, somebody calls you and adds a different punctuation and reads the number to you in a completley new way. Would you understand it? Well for me, I kinda get dis-oriented for a while..I guess my brain is tuned to look at the phone numbers in a certain way and a new way is well, new.....

Okay let us take the example of this cell phone number 94444 44414 ( I do not know whose number this is but it just caught my fancy ) and some of the ways or saying it..

Person 1 : 94(Ninety four) 44(fourty four) 44(fourty four) 44(fourty four) 14(fourteen)
Person 2 : 9(Nine) 444(triple four) 444(triple four) 414(four one four)
Person 3 : 94(Nine four) 444(triple four) 444(triple four) 14(One four)
Person 4 : 9(Nine) 44(double four) 44(double four) 44(double four) (That is three double fours.. this is for extra clarity that people say ) 414(four one four)
Person 5 : 9(Nine) 444(triple four) 4(four) 444(triple four) 14(One four)

When it comes to landlines numbers, it is more fun.. Say you have a number 28999599. The possiblities are little less, I know, but I have heard the weirdest possible ones in these eight digits. Not just the punctuation that differs but also the language.. and if u r someone like me(only the English!)..then man that is surely gonna drive you nuts. Okay so here are some ways of spelling it out

Person 1 : 2(Two) 899(Eight Nine Nine) 95(Nine Five) 99(Nine Nine)
Person 2 : 28(Two Eight) 999(triple Nine) 5(Five) 99 ( double Nine)
Person 3 : 28(iravathi yetu) 99(tonutri onbadhu) 95 (tonutri anju) 99(tonutri onbadhu) (same as Person 2 but in tamil tho!!!)
Person 4: (I term this to be the best I have heard so far..)
rendu kodi, enbathi onbadhu lashathi, tonutri onbadhu aayirathi, ainootri tonutri onbadhu

Oh my God! the number of combination!!!! I am not putting them all down...no no...that would take me ages...

Well, I understand that each person is unique and has a unique way of "looking" at things. But, just one question.. Shouldnt we have one standard way of spelling..er.. reading phone numbers?wouldnt that make lives of people like me easier??

Disclaimer : All the numbers mentioned above are numbers that caught my fancy and any resemblence to an existing landline or cell phone is a mere coincidence.

Raatri Neram

Why do I like the night better than the day .. Well I dont know.. It starts with dusk I guess, the romance, and moves on slowly into the night as well. I remember the days when, as a child, I used to watch the sun dip and go back home to sit down and do my home work. I used to try and finish all my homework quickly so that I could go to the terrace and look at the deep, dark, mysterious sky.

Oh! how many tales I have spun under her. Sometimes watching a shooting star, I would think that there was a fight amonst the stars or look for patterns in the sky and make stories out of them. I loved to spot the constellations and the planets (Jupitor and Mars thats all I could see). All of a sudden a twinkling star like object would appear from the South western part of the sky and I would conjure up an image of aliens invading earth. Whereas it would only be an aeroplane in the night sky. Sometimes I would wave at it and say "Bye Bye" to the people flying ..

I loved the sound of crickets.. I call it the "Sound of Night". The uncountable stars. I have tried to count them but then I lost count so many times that I gave up.. Maybe someday I must try to count them :)( dont laugh... but this is a chinna periya aasai). In the darkness u can be all u want - sing, dance and even act like u r the queen. Sometimes my grandpa used to come with me to the terrace and he would tell me tales from the Epic. I would be transported to that period, to the times where Krishna plays with gopikas, to the times where Rama breaks the bow and marries Sita, to the times when the rakshasas throw arrows from the sky while Rama and Lakshmana stand guard.

I wonder how many kids do all this now. The pressure on Students to perform well and parents wanting them to study all the time, plus the multi various distractions in the form of computer, TV , video games and now the latest distraction the iPOD is taking kids away from the wonders of Nature and the wonderful stimulation that it is to the human brain.

I miss it now.. I dont go to the terrace as often as I would like to but when I go I really do enjoy it. It is Nature and I love every part of her.

PS: There is no focus to this post.. I know.. but I guess u can take quite a few things out of it....

Obit

Sunday was a very very sad day for me. How can people be so heartless and they say they did it because she is causing them a lot of problems.. How? I ask. What did she do?

For those who are wondering what I am freting about - well my complex people cut down a young rain tree. I wrote about her last year. And now, when I was eagarly waiting for her first flower, these blasted people cut her down.. I could not do anything. I was a mere spectator as the wood cutter pluged his axe into her and cut right through her. She fell down with a great thud and that was the end of her. Leaves, until then green and gay were now drooping and dead.

Hmm.. I will miss her. Good Bye, Oh Tree! I will plant another one in your memory.

Bliss

Bhoomi oru veenai Adhai Kaatrin kaigal meetume
Ketkum oli ellam - Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Da Ni Sa Re

(The Earth is like the Venna and the wind is the artist playing it

All the sounds that I hear is Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Da Ni Sa Re

PS: Pathetic translation I know ...n e wayz)

What beautiful lyrics.. I heard this song after a really really long time and I was just looking around to see the trees - Happy and fresh in varied shades of light green and full of new blooms.. A light breeze blowing and the trees swaying in the breeze.. It is magical to watch how the trees too seem mesmerized by the music that the wind creates and were swaying to the music. I tried to listen harder and viola! I could hear it too.. the Sound of Music!!! A moment of absolute bliss and the day begun with a very sweet note!

My fav Rain Tree

We had a hugh rain tree in our school, around which a stage was built. Each morning, we would all assemble in front of that stage for our assembly under the shade of that giant Rain tree. It was, in fact, two trees entwined as one.. I have had so many cherished memories under those twin giants.

The trees were home to a number of birds and animals. As a child I was fascinated by these winged wonders of Nature. It was home to the green parrots, the white owl -which lived in one particular hollow on a very high branch and looked irritated during the asembly as if being woken up from deep slumber. Then there was the Kite - a large one which had a nest on the highest branch on the tree. It also housed a number of squirrels, chamelions and a number of unnamed (er.. whose names I dont know!) reptiles.

Every morning, during the assembly, I used to fold my hands together in a "Namaste" and look up at the tree while others drooned the morning prayers. I particularly loved to watch the old owl(old coz it was white.. maybe I am wrong.. maybe it was an albino.. I believe albinos exist in every species). I loved to watch its expressions, the occasional hoot that I used to hear, the miffed look.. Somethings can never be put in words. It was a very special bird.. cute and sweet.

Parrots can be quite noisy at times. During our prayer we had a couple of minutes of silence after the "Om Shanti, Shanti, Shantihi" phrase of the prayer. These parrots would create such a din. Sometimes there would be parrot fights. I used to stand there wondering what the reason might be. Trying to listen to then harder , to understand their chatter.. Sometimes, I thought, it was a fight between a husband and wife, sometimes between siblings or guy-parrots(what are they called?) fighting for a girl...What the reason was I would never know but it always amused by them.

I used get to school early, drop my bag in class and run to the stage to watch the birds and animals and the tree. She was hugh.. There was even the throwball court under her shade. Oh.. how many matches we have played in the middle of Chennai's summer. I watched her through the seasons.. In summers she had the dark green leaves that were thick and dense to protect us from the heat. In winter(Chennai's winter.. well what can I say), her leaves would droop. By mid february she would shed all her leaves and beginning of March, she would have light green leaves , fresh and green, colour that brings to life that magic of spring. By March mid she would be in full blossem with soft pink flowers. I had one in my book for long time.. Lost it when I shifted...:(

We used to run out to the stage to play lock and key after we finish our exams. Played till it was time for the bus to start. Not only happy moments, even when I was sad I used to sit under that tree and in a matter of minutes I would be back to my normal self.. I remember once that I was crying, dont remember for what reason though, and a fresh pink flower fell on me. It was as if the tree was saying, "Ms V! dont cry.. Here is a flower to u " ...

A few months back, I happend to pass by my school,after almost 8 years, and I saw that the stage no longer exists. Neither does the tree. School will never be the same again..it looks barren now.. Never can children sit under her again, never will they be able to see parrots fight, never will hear of the wise old owl up on the branch, never can they see the giant kite. Now the tree exists only in my memories. I will miss you Oh Gentle Giant(s)..

Impoverished Thinking

On an average day, the average person runs about sixty thousand thoughts through his mind. What really amazes me is that ninety five percent of those thoughts were the same as the ones you thought the day before.This is the tyranny of impoverished thinking.

hmm.. got me thinking....

(An excerpt from 'The Monk who Sold his Ferrari' by Robin S Sharma)

Hairy Fairy Tale - Part II

PS: If you have not read the Part I please do read it first .. I will be refering to some of the characters here.. :)(PS inside PS: I know PS is Post Script.. But I have redefined it as Pre-requisite Script :D)

The next time I went to the beauty parlor was a whole new experience. Until then, I had only witnessed all the things that were done to all those ladies. But this time I went in there to 'Shape my eyebrow' .. You would think that this is the most simple thing.. Just a few strokes and it is done..But no it is one helluva painful process ..

Okay So I went in and told the lady in charge ( ya the red lipstick one) that I wanted my eyebrows done.. I had never done it before so was a little apprehensive about what was in store. As usual I was asked to wait.. They lady sitting next to me looked like a seasoned customer.. So I warily asked her,"Um.. Does threading hurt??". She gave me an amused look and said,' No dear, just a little .. like mosquito bites.. thats all".. Mosquito bites.. yieeekkkks!!(nala naalilliye nambalukkom mosquitoeskum aagaadu..hmm.. )

After waiting in the que for half an hour almost, finally my turn came.. I was happy that the wait
had finally ended but worried that I would have to face the mosquitoes ....er.. whatever.. The seat was like the Dentist's chair with a lot of things jutting out.. I went there and sat gingerly. A sweet looking lady came to me and said,"First time, is it? Dont worry it will be alright." She took a tiny tooth brush ..( er.. I believe it is not called a tooth brush .. But it looks like one so I think I will stick to calling it that.. )and started brushing my brows with it.. Hmm.. only then did i know that you can comb your eyebrows too !!!!

The lady took out a peice of thread, held one end of the thread in her shiny white teeth and twisted the other end repeatedly until it became a coiled rope.. She then bent over my face and with the thread moved it across my eyebrow..As she moved towards my face she came so close that I could see the patterns on her teeth.( If you have not noticed them before .. well get your eyebrows threaded ..he he ). It was like looking at her teeth and face through a magnifying glass.. it appeared gigantic.

The first stroke was really painful.. Is this what u call a mosquito bite?? I wonder what the size of a mosquito would be at her place ???.. Ouch... Ouch... I kept flinching and crying.. But In the end.. it was worth it.. out came Ms.V with a bright face and arched eyebrows.

Well it takes a little getting used to. Once you are used to it.. u still crib .. well I do :) .. But your face does looks bright and nice :) which is perhaps why all we girls do it..

Cricket - A nice explanation

Have you watched 'Mind your Language'? Well it is one of the most hilarious show I have ever seen.. once there was an explanation on how cricket is played. Let me see how much I can reproduce .. But if you can get hold of the serial do watch it ..

Mr.Brown (The English Professor explains the game) “There are two teams with 11 players each. One side is in while the other is out. Well what I meant was one side is on the field while the other is inside. The first two men, the batsmen, walk onto the field to bat while the other side is on the field, fielding. One guy bowls the ball and the other tries to hit it. When they get out they go back to the pavilion and another guy comes in. Did you get what I said?"

Student : "Oh yes Professorry! I get it.. The point here is while they are in, they are not actually in but they are out. But while they are out, they are not actually out but they are in... palayamo what a game!!!"

PS: Hey Guys I am taking a break for a week will be back next week with more useless topics and useless commentry to addle your brains and mine ;-)

Rambling....

People are watching you!!!! Isnt this what makes us so aware of ourselves and our surroundings? The fear of being watched.

Why is it that we humans are interested in what the other person is doing? Why are we always comparing and trying to find out where we are and where the other person is.(okay me got enough explanation for this question) It is really unnerving to know that u r being watched ..atleast for me..

There are people who would do anything to get everybodyz attention. But there are some who'd do anything to stay behind the scenes. Most of the time it is a battle between these two that I fight in my mind.. Sometimes I want to let people know what and how I feel but at other times I try to make myself as inconspicuous as possible. There is a constant battle raging in my mind. What would others say .. Is it okay if I say this or do this?

But end of the day if others are happy with u, u are also happy. This is one assumtion on which most people work.. but I dont believe in it. I believe that we must satisfy our conscience.. When we do this automatically the others will be satisfied..Yes there will always be some who still find fault. But they are not to be considered...

I think all of us go through this but we never talk about it , do we? People have told me.. you must do what the society thinks is right.. Some have also told me that you must do what your heart says.. But most of the time we end up doing what both dont like.. At times I wonder why we do things for the sake of others. But we do it neverthless..

I know I started somewhere and ended somewhere else. But just thought Id put it up.. coz I know there are many of you out there thinking the way I do and my little rambling may give u an idea to write about.....

snoooorrrrrrrrrrr...........

'Its raining, its poring the old man is snoring'

A nursary rhyme that I used to like when I was a kid. Last week I read somewhere that a lady divorced her husband coz he was snoring.. How? I ask ..

Both my Dad and my bro snore so I guess it doesnt seem like a big deal to me.. But yea my mom hates it.. You should see her crib.. By the time I go to bed everybody else in the house is asleep. I hear appa in one room snoring and my bro in the other..

Snoring - Well u shud listen to it carefully.. It may give you an insight into what possible dream a person may have ;).. Appa says he has a dream less sleep.. well so do I but my mind manages to conjure up possible dreams that he might have from the way he snores :) Maybe this will be helpful to all those who want to decipher snores :)

Sometimes I wonder if there is somebody returning home in the middle of the night in an auto.. At othertimes it seems like he is having a fight with this Giant . At other times its a polite whistle which is like a little birdy sitting on a tree outside my kitchen window singing away to glory..

Well its not all that bad.. snoring.. yes it takes a little getting used to .. But I am used to it from when I was in my mommy's tummy so guess would miss it if my hubby didnt snore ;)

SMS Language

"U mst do tis by urself"

My friend was starting at the monitor for a long time. I just peeped into his monitor and saw this written on his screen

"U mst do tis by urself"

He didnt say anything so I didnt bother. But a little while later he calls to me to help him correct this line

'You must do this to urself'

He showed me the green zigzag line that Word draws on your screen when it thinks what you have written is not right :) I thought he was kidding me. Well I should let u in on the background of this Guy. He is an cellphone addict.. He is always hooked onto his cellphone listening to the radio or chatting to somebody or if nothing else sending SMSes :)

Now the language that ppl use in SMS is always encrypted. Half the time I spend trying to decrypt these messeges. I wonder why ppl send messages that are encrypted. Ask them and they'll tell u that it is faster that way and that is the SMS trend.. Only through experience do u learn what each word is. When u think you have mastered this language a new word will pop up.

Okay, so this guy asks for help . He says 'Ms V I dont know whats wrong with this blasted machine' . One look at the screen and I said the spelling of yourself isnt urself but it is yourself.. And he says, 'Ah! yes.. so thats the problem'

SMS has created a lot of problems. One is that people forget the right spelling( not that they know in the first place) and two they start using them even in formal mails/letters. I read a while back that there are a number of cases reported in the hospital of sore thumbs. Thanx to SMSs where thumb is very vital to type messages.. Hmm I think a voice to text s/w would solve this problem .. what do u say? I for one.. take a long time to type so I hardly ever SMS.. But I guess it will be useful to those whose lives are dominated by SMS right from saying Good Morning to Good Night..

beep beep ... Oh there it comes again another one..

So, IMHO SMS s mrdrin d eng. lng

( Seri me shall give u the decrypted version - In my humble opinion SMS is Murdering the English Language)

Is 'It' a 'He' or a 'She'

"Why is it that we refer to a car/ a laptop / any electronic gadget as a she?"

I think we like to humanize anything and everything around us. Be it living or non-living. Initially when cars and motorbikes came into existence, it was the men who learnt to drive it and work with it. With time, they fell in love with these and started looking at them like their women :) Now this was ages ago.. So I guess from then on cars and mobikes have been refered to as "she" .

But if you ask me personally I would refer to my car as a he.. Yes I am trying to humanize my car and you'd say its just a car it is not a he or a she.. But I then I wouldn't like to call it her... Ask a Guy why he calls a car she and he'll probably tell you that the curves make it a female. But to me I think the sheer power makes it male.. Likewise my comp, my cellphone and every thing that i use day to day I would refer to them as "he".

But, the question is - isnt it an "it"??? Somehow I like to look at things like a human. Give it life, emotions, play around with it and have fun at its expense.. It keeps your mind occupied and u get a whole new perspective when u try and put your self in 'something' else's shoes.....

So is 'It' a 'He' or a 'She'?????

My day @ the Bowling Alley

A mechanical arm sweeps the floor below and a crank clutches me, along with my nine brothers, by the neck and places us on the well polished wooden platform. From my postion I have a clear view of a long staight wooden road, so polished that I can see my reflection on it and a bunch of people at the end of this road waiting for me to settle down at this place.

If you have not guessed yet, I am a bottle shaped pin and I work in a bowling alley. This is a story about my typical day at work.

It is hard to like a job where u are hit, thrashed and swept out of the stage like you are nothing.. But I have always liked my job. Especially when a bunch of newbies come to the bowling alley for the first time.. Today was one such day..

A group of six people with three men and three ladies arrived at the bowling alley. I was placed in my customary 10th position. From here I have a very clear view of the young crowd. They were all twenty somethings clad in jeans and colourful T-shirts and waiting to try their hand at bowling. First was a girl who picked up a 8-pound ball. She was wondering how to hold it..I saw her looking curiously at the round devils(brr..they scare me). These devils have three hollow sockets on their face. They look very wicked especially when they are running towards me with that rage in their face and speed of a jet.

Well, she was a pretty thing, the girl, thin though but very pretty. She finally deciphered how to hold the round devil. She gingerly walked toward the threshold and bent down to roll the devil towards us. As she bowled, I heard a thundering noise of the bowling ball rolling towards us.. As it moved closer, the sound grew louder. I held my breathe and shut my eyes tightly in fear that I might be hit. But thank God!!these are a bunch of kids.. trying for the first time.. the round devil rolled into the side gutter and slowly made its way to the collection bin annoyed that he couldnt thrash us. Sadistic devil him..

Anyways, I breathed a sigh of relief. But I could see that her pretty face wore a sad expression. It broke my heart. But the she very sportively picked up another devil and walked towards us and rolled the ball. This time it hit my brother and he fell on my second and third brothers and finally all except me were down. The girl's face lit up. So happy that she'd hit us. She jumped with joy and the others around her cheered her..

One by one all of them tried their hand and every time I was lucky not to fall. And one particularly cherubic girl said 'One thing I dont know why :)' My! Linkin Park Song!! You may wonder if we have time to listen to Linkin Park but yes we do.. They play it afterwork here, a bunch of boys who clean us up. There were some good shots, there were others that were not so good but the one that I liked the most was by a cherubic girl. She came towads me , clutching a big red devil in her hand. She swung the round devil. I shut my eyes tight in fear. I heard a loud thud as I heard the devil hit the floor. I waited, waited and waited the finally opened my eyes. To my surprise everybody was laughing. I squinted to see what was happening. I saw that she had actually thrown the devil reverse .. ha ha.. and was looking at us with anticipation .. he he ..
These few incidents are what make my otherwise thrashed life worth the living.

PS: I went bowling the other day and this just came to my mind when I was watching my friend bowl in between turns...

Mind-Stomach Relationship

I have always believed that the mind and stomach are not connected. But today a friend of mine asked me, 'Do you think there is a relationship between your mind and stomach?" My immediate response was 'No'. However, it got me thinking.

I think it works like this. The stomach signals to the mind that it is empty and the mind processes the data and determines that it is hungry. The output of this process is you knowledge that you are hungry. Now, I have always wondered how ppl can miss a meal when they are engrosed in work or when the mind is thinking about something.. Here is a plausible explanation.. I think when there is something more important on the mind, the mind is oblivious of all other signals from your body and hence when u r sad or engrossed you dont feel hungry..

Okies me shall go have lunch :D

Mr.Yellow and Mr.Orange

Have you heard of a Mr.Yellow or a Mr.Orange..

I was vetti at home on Saturday when I was thinking about the next Sari that I am gonna buy.. When I was thinking about the colour I saw an Ad on TV.. It flashed Mr.White on the screen..

I was just wondering.. Well, I have heard of a Mr.White, a Mr.Blue(Okay tho soap ad nu nineikarein.. freeya vidunga pa), Mr.Brown, Mr.Green but never a Mr.Yellow or Mr.Orange. .. Why are they partial to only the basic colours?

I have heard of girls being named Violet, Purple or pink( read pinky) but no orange.. hmm.. y? Isnt that a nice name? When u can name a person Violet, why not orange.. Maybe magenta would also be good. I wonder if there was a reason behind this..

N e wayz.. just suggesting new names here instead of the traditional Krishna, Rama, Govinda :)

PS: Arbit rambling.....dont ask what I was thinking when I wrote this :)

Lap..er..Desk..Top???

Laptops are convenient to carry and stay connected where ever u are. But people found that confidential company information was being carried out of the company premises. So in a move that shocked the world( at least it shoked me), the top management decided to bolt the laptops onto the employee's desk in order to prevent people from smuggling confidential information ...... hats off to these guys :) ( adichika mudiyala pa ivangala :D)

Dancing ....

I recently went for a Western Dance show. It was great and I loved every minute of it. But being a classical dancer I couldnt help but compare the two forms of dance.

Here is what I thought

Unlike Classical dancing, Western Dance does not have a lot of emotion in it. The focus in western dancing is mainly on the steps and the movements. Facial expressions play a very important part in any dance form. Yes Russian ballet has a lot of emotions in it. But I somehow missed the myriad expressions and movements that you can get to see in the classical dance performance.

The dependence of this dance form on music is another thing that I noticed. The mood of the audio combined with the steps create the emotions.. Like the Salasa is a very sensual dance form not just because of its steps but also thanx to the latino flavour of the music. Yes even in classical dance music plays an important part.. Dance is nothing without music. But with your expressions this can be overcome.

Dance, in itself is a means of self expression in which you use your body to communicate what you think and feel. But I dont seem to find that quality on western dances. I think I am being biased. Must explore on this a little more ..

God's Debris

This is a book by Scott Adams. It is a very different book. The central theme of the book being a novel theory about God and other material and non-material things that exist or dont exist(which ever that is that you believe). The theme was very compelling to read so I picked it up. It is really really good. It has the easy flow of conversation, easy language yet manages to confuse you and then enlightens you. If you are open to interpretations then this is a must read.

U can get the e-book at this link God's Debris

What did one telephone tell another?