The Ranting Neel

Interaction with Upper Management

2007-01-17T23:59:00.000-08:00

In my company, it isn't everyday that you get a chance to interact with upper level managers over a significant period of time. We had that chance this past week; for the past two-three days, our managers had come down to our little city with the express purpose of listening to us talk about stuff, and also to give us the "gyan" on the direction of future releases of our product. It was very illuminating in many aspects, and while it would be impossible to compress the entire period of interactions we had into one blog, I decided I'd start from the end, and detail the last meeting we had.

The topic we picked up today was "what makes a world-class team?". While I feel that there were times when we got a little side-tracked, it was an interesting exercise in thought. I mean, the one thing which I have observed is that the higher you go, the more the propensity to using slogans and catchwords, buzzwords, etc. as opposed to clearly defined statements. Well, while we did start out a little with a lot of buzzwords ("bolvachan" is what I think the typical Puneri would put it :-D) I found to my satisfaction that the more we talked, it became increasingly clear that we had begun to narrow down and focus our thoughts on what exactly makes up a World Class Organisation.

Well, one of the items of discussion that came up were Personal Growth. I personally regretted the term used, to me, it represents a BROAD range of topics. When I talk about "personal growth" I could be referring to anything from, say, increased monetary compensation, to increased responsibilities at work, to being asked to undertake new activities which require a steep learning curve, I mean, it could be how tall I grew in the last three months!!! You see... very general.

Well, the point of the meeting was that once we came up with these "pointers to being a World Class Team" we'd have to spend time grading ourselves on each "pointer". Well, when the time came for "personal growth", I found myself (to the surprise of quite a few colleagues of mine, and myself as well, to be honest) raising my hand and expressing the opinion that we have some way to go.

I find it increasingly clear that I was justified in having reservations about the usage of the term "personal growth". The reason there was surprise expressed by my peers is because (and this is my opinion of what they think) the general consensus is that I have consistently been getting important and challenging stuff to do at the workplace.

You know what the worst part is? They are absolutely right. And what's even worse (if such a term could be applied) is that when I expressed the opinion that "personal growth" was lacking, was that I wasn't disputing the "consensus" at all. Yes, I have had a LOT of really good work to do here. At the risk of sounding petty, I had more... monetary concerns.

If I may belabor the point, while I understand that the level of responsibility you are given, and the opportunity to work with new technologies and increasing your knowledge of your field are, in itself, an indication of your progress within the company, a consistent approach to compensation would definitely go a LONG way towards ensuring an employee's loyalty. To me, money isn't the yardstick by which I judge success, however, money is a very good spur to higher achievements! I mean, wouldn't the expectation of a high salary be just what you need to find the enthusiasm to come to the office every day? I do know that its what keeps ME going. Plus, a guy needs to get beyond starvation wages at some point in his career, doesn't he :-p ?

I'll try my best to share some more experiences of the time spent this week. Watch this space.

The Aussies take on Bollywood :-)

2007-01-08T02:20:00.000-08:00

Want to see a really weird song :-)? Here you go, here's a song jointly sung by Asha Bhonsle and, hold your breath, Brett Lee!

A Good Year :-)

2007-01-02T08:37:00.000-08:00

Got a letter of congratulations from my manager. That's when I finally realized that I'd managed to finish one year in BMC.

Its been a trip, no doubt about it. I've had many ups and downs, but I have to admit, i've never been bored.

I started off in QA testing (Quality Assurance), which is a really vital function, but I really wanted to see if I could put my programming skills to the test.
Well, I'm on my way now, and I'm loving every minute of software development.

I don't know yet if I'm the best at it, but I do know that I love the work, the long hours, all of it! I mean, I finally get the reason Lee Iaccoca (former
president of Ford and Chrysler) decided to switch to marketing/sales from engineering early in his career. For me, software development is where the action is!

When I started out, I was just one more engineering graduate out of the many that litter this city. We're sort of like locusts, there's that many of us :-p.

It wasn't very easy searching for a good job. More than that,you cannot believe how tough it is to know that you were born
to be good at something, to have that really rare gift of really liking what you do. Knowing that, given the chance, you'd give it
your best shot.

Well, BMC Software did that for me. It gave me a shot. And I haven't always scored, but I've always been in the game.

And I don't think that's too bad now, is it?

Have A Little Patience - Take That

2007-01-01T08:38:00.000-08:00

Hadn't heard from this band for years... then I see this song playing on Zee Cafe in "Best of 2006". I'd recommend that people listen to it... its pretty good! Very James Blunt-like :-)!

Wishing Everyone A Happy New Year!

2006-12-31T10:07:00.000-08:00

A nice quote

2006-12-30T08:38:00.000-08:00

"You can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs" - Stalin.

Nuff said.

An implementation of "inheritance" in C

2006-12-26T08:42:00.000-08:00

Warning. Technical post coming up, non-geeks might want to look away :-)
I'll confess. The idea isn't mine, the concept behind it I got from looking over some code by a guy called Arthur Van Hoff. For those unfamiliar with the giants of the Java programming language, Arthur Van Hoff was one of THE original writers of the Java compiler.He's been responsible for cleaning up a lot of the implementation behind Java, in addition to contributing significantly to the Java Applet API. And later, he founded a company called Marimba, which was taken over by BMC Software, and this is the product line that I'm working on right now.

Anyway, the background was given to illustrate a point: Arthur Van Hoff was an eminent kick-ass programmer of his time, and I've had the good fortune of looking at a lot of the code he wrote for a device management solution provided by Marimba.

Anyways, without going too much into (what is potentially) sensitive information, suffice it to say that old Arthur was writing up some implementation in C, and decided that he'd like to introduce a little OOPS into a language which, quite frankly, wasn't very suited for it. And the way he accomplished it really caught my attention.

As mentioned before, what I'm going to post is not gonna be anywhere NEAR production code :-D. Instead, I thought I'd provide some general guidelines, and a specific example.

So how DO we go about this?
I mean, we've got no classes, hence no concept of base class-derived class relationship, so kinda tough to go with something straight forward.

Well, with a little tricks around "structs" and function pointers, you can actually accomplish quite a lot.

Now say, I want to simulate a class containing two virtual functions, one of the functions returning an int, and taking as arguments two int variables. The other one returning a char, and taking as arguments two char variables. Well, we all know there's no "class", and there's certainly no "virtual" in C. Lets try something else:

typedef int (*XCALIBER)(int,int);
typedef char (*YCALIBER)(char,char);
struct s {
XCALIBER xptr;
YCALIBER yptr;
};

What I have here is a struct, containing two function pointers, which would point to the exact same functions I described above.

Now lets say I have this:
>
struct d {
struct s *ptr;
struct s *next;
};

Which is basically another struct, which contains two pointers of the same type as my "psuedo-class" struct s.

Here's where I try to put together an "inheritance" mechanism.
Suppose I decide that THESE are the implementations of the "virtual" functions:
>
int func3(int p,int q) {
printf("%d %d",q,p);
return q;
}

char func4(char z,char l) {
printf("%c %c",l,z);
return l;
}

And I define a function, whose main job is to take my "base class", and stick an instance of a "derived class" to it:

>
void addderivedobject(struct d *baseptr,struct s *derptr) {
while(baseptr->ptr!=NULL) {
baseptr->ptr = baseptr->next;
}
/* add new functionality */
baseptr->ptr = derptr;
baseptr->next = NULL;
}

Now, I do this:
>
struct d *baseptr = new struct d;
baseptr->ptr = NULL;
baseptr->next = NULL;
struct s *der1ptr = new struct s;
der1ptr->xptr = &func3;
der1ptr->yptr = &func4;
addderivedobject(baseptr,der1ptr);

I'll admit it looks weird, after all, in true virtual function demonstrations, you'd only be instantiating an object of a derived class, and you'd just declare a base class pointer to point to it, whereas I'm allocating memory for both "objects". Worse, whoever heard of "new" being used in C to allocate memory :-) (which is what I've done)? But I hope I can get my point across here. What I do is create an "object" of my "derived class" (represented by the pointer "der1ptr"), have the struct members point to the actual functions, and then "add" my derived class to the "base class" represented by the pointer "baseptr".

Now, if I were to make the following function calls:
>
baseptr->ptr->xptr(3,4);
baseptr->ptr->yptr('a','b');

What you would see happening is that I used by "base class" pointer being used to call functions implemented in my "derived class".

Anytime you'd want to use your "base class" pointer to call other functions, you would simply have to create another "derived class", have its members point to different functions, and then "add" the object of the "derived class" to baseptr.

I'll admit: this is still a work in progress. Especially since I told myself I wouldn't take another look at similar code again until I was really stuck :-). But I find it challenging to attempt something in a program

Some "road warrior gadgets". Pretty cool!

2006-12-25T22:14:00.000-08:00

A senior colleague of mine has blogged about some cool gadgets that hapless drivers in Bangalore can use to take care of those typical abusive "call-center drivers", cab drivers , etc. who insist on breaking every traffic rule in the book. See this link for more details.

More on World of Warcraft

2006-12-25T08:51:00.000-08:00

Looking for some cool wallpapers from the game, think I finally got one...

This baby's gonna be on my office PC desktop!

I'm Ok Now

2006-12-25T08:48:00.000-08:00

Just in case anyone was waiting for that to happen :-). More to the point, no more melodramatic posts. As one comment told me , "shit happens". Also, the other comment told me to go "hit a pub". Didn't do that :-), but back to blogging about the serious issues that really matter. Like this amazing new PC game I bought from a U.S store :-D.... more later...

World of Warcraft: My personal countdown begins!

2006-12-17T08:23:00.000-08:00

I know its a little crazy to get excited about a game, but I like to think of it as just another kind of addiction: some guys like their booze, some smoke, some take drugs, and some even hanker after sex (hmm... I wonder how wide-spread does an addiction become before it gets classified as a character trait and not an abnormality :-D!). Me? I play MMORPGs.

MMORPGs, as (I think) I have explained in a previous post, stands for Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games. This is where you have games which are played on very, very high-capacity and high-performance servers, which host around 100,000 players at a time. And the number is not inflated, in fact, its a conservative estimate per server. Yes, I said per server.

There's this thoroughly enjoyable game called World of Warcraft that I've wanted to play from since I was in college (that's when it was first released, bugs and all. Its got only better then, so I guess it was worth the wait!). A serious lack of financing prevented me from indulging in it. They laughed when I told them that I was gonna buy the game and pay a steep amount of money every month to get to play it online, well now, WHO'S LAUGHING NOW?? MWAHAHAHAHA!

Ahem. Sorry, just lost a little sanity over there.

Well, there's this computer shop in Hyderabad who stocks this game, and I just got word from him by email that he's placed an order with Blizzard (that's the name of the company that made the game) to ship a game CDs set to me. And he said it would take around 10-15 days to reach me.

One of the reasons I like the game so much is because there's a HIGHLY detailed and engrossing backstory behind it. I'll be posting tidbits of this story from time to time, you'll probably understand why I said its engrossing, its more like glimpsing pieces of history from some as-yet undiscovered world.

So I've begun the count down the days! Can't wait to get started with the game.

Exploring "collections" in MFC

2006-12-15T08:38:00.000-08:00

Spoiler alert: this here is what I'd call a "technical" article. For all the non-geeks out there: you have been warned.

While I consider myself fairly proficient in the Win32 API (that's the native code SDK for all you .NET people out there :-D) one thing I've definitely been learning on the job is about MFC. Yeah I know, the future's here, but there's still a lot of native code out there which needs to be maintained and improved. And I'm not going to get drawn into a discussion on the merits of managed code vs. native code. I'm sort of a psuedo-evangelist for Microsoft technologies, so I don't need no convincing :-). But anyway, on to the main topic.

Well, I've been learning .NET on the side. Very slowly. The projects I work on at present don't use managed code at all, with one very minor exception, so I definitely don't have too much experience with it. But I am familiar with a lot of the features it provides (and which it has borrowed from previous languages). One of the features that really piqued my interest were "collections". You know, those generic structures in memory that can supposedly hold ANYTHING which can be classified as an object? Excuse me if my definition is too simplistic. Or plain wrong :-). I will defer this to a certain expert programmer I know, she'll probably set me straight on any foobars I make.

Well, anyway, I WAS aware that the concept of collections has existed for quite a while, and it can be found in other languages as well, for example, Java supports it.

I was having trouble finding the equivalent in MFC. And that is where matters stood.

Until... while working on a particular project of my company, I looked through the code, and realized that there seemed to be a certain class that was being used to hold MANY kinds of objects. To clarify, I'd see an object of this "collection" class being used to hold an array of strings, the other time I'd see it hold objects of really specialized classes. And as far as I could tell, I could see the same function names crop up whenever I'd see code manipulating these "collections".

That piqued my interest. I know for a fact that C++ requires some overt programming before you can make your own personal "collection" class (if you want it to act like a truly generic collection, that is). So I thought I'd take a look at the code behind these "collection" classes, and I found a lot of interesting stuff going on behind the scenes.

For those people familiar with design patterns, the concept of "Delegates" should be pretty familiar. Basically, it involves a public class exposing a set of interfaces which are directly called by the client, and what you usually see is this public class containing an object, whose methods are called WITHIN those interface methods. And its the private object that contains the actual implementation which is executed.

In effect, the public show-off (sorry, can't resist personalising these entities :-D) gets the assignment, and dumps it to this poor old, hardworking little private guy, who does the actual work!

If I was really being cruel, I'd say it describes certain kinds of manager-developer interactions I've observed perfectly. Ok, should have warned you a bad joke was coming.

So anyway, what I see is that the wonderkid "collection" class I was so impressed with was delegating its responsibilities to this MFC class called CPtrList.

"CPtrList" is amazing. At the basic level, all it does is serve as a method of storing a list of "void*" pointers!

Think about it! void*! Generic pointers! I make them point at Harry, or Larry, or any other really common name, and it don't care :-p.

So I get into the MSDN documentation for this... CPtrList class... and I see methods for retrieving items from the list, removal, size of list, the whole shebang.

So for all folks who get to work on MFC every now and then, the next time you get a task requiring you to write any sort of "collection", you know where to start looking. CPtrList :-p!

World of Warcraft!!! yeah!!!

2006-12-14T10:16:00.000-08:00

I'm in the process of purchasing this AMAZING game called World of Warcraft. Its this MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) in which you get to fight with dwarves, elves,dragons...

Yes I know. I'm a game geek.

More on this later. Just can't wait to get my hands on it (that's gonna take a while. The shopguy said 10-15 days till delivery).

At last, I shall spend my nights furiously casting spells and killing monsters, as opposed to just sleeping.

Am I hip or what :-)?

Another good reason I wanna learn to play the guitar

2006-12-13T10:35:00.000-08:00

Did you ever think Evanescence would sound good with acoustic guitars? Then you need to see this one. Mind blowing!

It's All Coming Back To Me Now

2006-12-13T10:30:00.000-08:00

I hate mushy love-duets. But damn, do I like how Meatloaf goes about it. Case in point? Watch the video... you might need a Flash player though :-p.

Dhoom 2

2006-12-09T22:29:00.000-08:00

Was getting bored just sitting at home, and I thought it would be good to go out and see a movie. My parents wanted to watch Dhoom 2, and it actually says a lot (about how bored I was) that I tagged along IMMEDIATELY. I mean, I don't usually like most Bollywood movies. I'm something of an anomaly there.

So anyway, I start watching, and the next thing I know, I see Hrithik Roshan skateboarding across the desert sands, being pulled along by a train. Par for the course, but what I found unusual was the fact that I would usually find something like this pretty unbelievable... except that the stunt co-ordinator (or whoever it was who was in charge) did a pretty good job of constructing the scene. I mean, to be fair to the movie, I would've seen a lot more improbable things happening in a typical Hollywood action movie. Matrix, anyone ?

Anyways, after that, it was pretty downhill for a while. I mean, I can only take so much of Uday Chopra hamming away, Bipasha Basu the police officer (I mean, was there like an additional job requirement when she joined the police force, like "no investigative abilities needed at all, just look good enough to distract the rest of the cops"?), and even Abhishek. Was he consciously trying to play the stiff cop. And he really needs to learn how to dance. I mean, he was an eyesore in the dance sequences.

But to be honest, I was probably disappointed with them coz I was comparing them with Hrithik. Now, I'll be honest, I don't think much of most Bollywood stars, but I truly believe THIS is a guy who'd be as comfortable in some big-budget, ensemble cast, authentic Hollywood movie, as he is dancing around trees. He's got it all, and more importantly, he has this (very unique for Bollywood stars) ability to actually DELIVER HIS LINES WELL. Everyone else in Bollywood just sucks at that.

I think if all the big shot directors,etc. in Bollywood had any sense, they'd recognise this. Throw out the rest of those bozos. Then maybe you'll have more people appreciating Bollywood.

On another note, I think Aishwarya Rai has big problems. I mean, I thought she wasnt great shakes as an actress, but I did believe she had common sense and intelligence. I stand corrected :-), I mean who in THEIR RIGHT MIND would insert the word "like" in every sentences? I'm not sure what made her think people today talked like that. I mean, people don't usually talk like that over here, unless they're "phoren" wannabes, who think its cool to imitate Western style without actually knowing much about it.

Enough ranting today. But I'd recommend you watch Dhoom 2, its good timepass! If you haven't already :-)

Dealing in absolutes-I

2006-11-13T19:54:00.000-08:00

Recent experience has served to reopen a debate I had been carrying on with myself for quite some time. Anyways, it was a pretty minor discussion going on (oddly enough, on the comments pages of my friend's blog) but it got me to thinking.

I've been wondering about the human obsession with dealing in absolutes. It seems to me, that we have got used to being sure about things, and more importantly, we attach great significance to being sure about things. Case in point?

How about the fact that we consider it a good thing to be SURE we like what we are doing? Or how we need to know for SURE what a person really is, just so in case we are assured of his integrity? Or that we need to be SURE we get that next promotion, or next salary increase, or next set of congratulatory pats on the back? Or how its important that we leave out NOTHING in a legal agreement, that we spend a LOT of time making sure everything went into it, so that we can be SURE that nothing is left to chance. Leaving nothing to chance. What a concept. Do you begin to see the pattern here?

Its as if, at some level, we need to put everything into black and white! If we see something that doesn't fall into the set of standards we have set, we NEED to classify it as an abnormality! Oh, do NOT get me wrong (here I am using absolutes :-D!), 99% of the time, we NEED the certainty.

After all, certainty, proof, evidence... are the foundations on which science... and technology is built.

But tell me. Haven't you ever wondered, is it possible, I mean just possible, that there is a shade of grey, lurking at the edges, ethereal, translucent, tricksy (to quote a favorite character from LOTR) in that black-and-white picture we have in front of our eyes? Do you ever feel the need to explore it, to get a new viewpoint?

You don't? So you DON'T like movies like Sixth Sense? Or Unbreakable? And you don't take pleasure in watching a David Blaine, or a Criss Angel?

So all you see... is black and white?

This is a topic I want to explore more. So... till my next post then!

Oh yes! Comments are welcome! Brickbats count as comments too... so don't feel shy to snipe away either!

My blog, my experiments :-).

2006-10-27T09:55:00.000-07:00

ev'I syawla derednow tuoba eht tnuoma fo emit ti dluow ekat ot etirw sdrawkcab. osla, eht tnuoma fo emit
ti dluow ekat a yug ot tops skeatsim.

"White and Nerdy"

2006-10-26T08:54:00.000-07:00

I love Weird Al Yankovic's videos. Here's why:

A little bit of Tolkien

2006-10-25T10:23:00.000-07:00

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

I think this one is better...

Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate;
And though I oft have passed them by,
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
West of the Moon, East of the Sun.

Labore Et Virtue

2006-10-20T10:25:00.000-07:00

I was in school once (yes, hard to believe isn't it? God, what a lame-ass putrid excuse for a statement that was. I love it! So unlike me :-D!).

Ahem.

So anyway. The point was that the entire student population was divided into four houses. Mine happened to be called Ashlin, and the title of this blog... was our house motto. As far as I can remember it. Which practically means, not too well.

Anyways , should you take my word for it that the above motto is accurate, I can proceed to tell you what made me think of it. Its basically Latin for "work is worship". I never really got it in school, why would ANY sane individual equate busting his chops to something "holy" like worship. Like doing pushups in a temple. Very incongrous, you see.

By the way, "incongrous" is almost definitely incorrect spelling. But its 11:00pm in the night, I'm too pumped up to consult a dictionary to get the right one, so just mutter the right spelling under your breath and move on.

I'm beginning to get it. The meaning of "Work Is Worship" I mean. I never, EVER thought I'd ever be in a position to say this, but I truly believe that it is my work which seems to be what I am all about these past few years. I get the motto now, and the reason is simple: if you think about it, worship is just an acknowledgement of what we hold to be the best in ourselves. Of course, people think we need to attribute all the magnificence, all the intellect and all the promise of Man to some guy sitting up in the clouds. And those people would be right; we don't have to believe in anything completely, all we need to believe in (in order to get its benefits) is in the necessity of our beliefs.

So if we enjoy our work, or believe that we are good at what we do, we are confirming the gifts that we received, and we acknowledge those gifts, and we thank God for them. At some point of time, at least.

I so get it now.

I think.

How time flies when you're Not Having Fun ...

2006-10-20T09:50:00.000-07:00

Finally! I had a few hiccups with my modem. Ok, I'm not really sure what possible reason I could have for being vague about it; it just died. As in plug it in, flip the switch, and it JUST SITS THERE completely useless.

But I got it fixed. And this ain't a very interesting story either, so let's just skip it.

I've rediscovered a fascination I had with some classical piano pieces composed by some of the great composers. Yes, you think Bach, Mozart, etc. But have you ever heard of Pachelbel?

Now, Johann Pachelbel was one heck of a composer. He's mostly known for his famous "Canon in D", and even to my uncultured, untrained, and quite simply unclean ear (how I know this is my business), its a beautiful piece of work.

I have a variation on his score performed by this talented pianist called Howard Winston. He's put a sort of modern twist on it, and its just such a pleasure to listen to, you can almost feel the music building up from soft beginnings to this really loud and entertaining climax.

I'm just a sucker for good music.

The five'o clock world... and why I don't live there anymore

2006-10-13T03:09:00.000-07:00

One of my favourite songs is called "Five'O Clock world" by a very old group called Vogue. Its all about a typical guy who describes his career as a series of days working from 9 to 5, some of the lyrics go:

"Up every morning just to keep my job,
I gotta fight my way through the hustling mob,
The sounds of the city poundin in my brain,
While another day goes down the drain , yeah yeah YEAH..."

I like to think of his world as a "five o'clock world"; he gets out of bed, puts on some clothes, and dashes off to work (which you can tell he doesn't really like), sweats it out till 5pm, and then its like he's liberated or something. For the day. Until tomorrow. And the day after. Sheesh, what a life.

Well... that hasn't happened to me. Yet. I'll admit, there was a period of time in which I'd like nothing better to tell my bosses to go... er... perform unnatural acts on themselves. I was bored.

I still am a little. But its definitely better. Maybe because I'm finally getting what I asked for. And no, its something a guy could he happy about.

I was recently doing QA, and I found it a little less than stimulating. Now don't get me wrong, its a good job, but I really don't think I'd be happy doing it. Which automatically increases the chances of doing badly at it. Exponentially.

Well, to cut a long story short, I'm being shifted into development now. And lets see how my life has changed...

No more criticism of how the code works. Its me who's writing it.
I get stuck somewhere. Wasn't a problem before, coz a teammate would be ready to pitch in and clarify. Now he isn't. He's in London right now at a customer site, and under some pressure himself. So now I stay till late trying to fix it myself.

And I'm loving it!

This is the life! Its just me against the machine!(well, more like me against the requirements doc... but doesn't have quite the same ring to it, does it?).

I'm having fun... for now. I'm gonna enjoy it while it lasts.

Oh, and responding to the comments to my last blog, let me just assure you... come here often, and you MAY see something new on a regular basis.

But don't hold your breath.

I'm Back Baby!!!!

2006-09-17T09:12:00.000-07:00

I'm back! I'm back, I'm back, I'm back...

er...

while(1)
{
cout << endl << "I'm back baby!";
}

There... that should do it.

So anyways, I've decided to work my claim on the blogosphere all over again. Watch this space.

V the Terrorist

2006-03-26T23:03:00.000-08:00

Finally found a worthy topic to blog about. There’s a movie coming up in pune called “V for Vendetta”. I think we should all watch it. I have been doing some R&D into the graphic novel on which the movie is based, and simply put, I think it is a beautiful story. For those of you who know about the central characters in the plot, please read ahead. For those who don’t, you might want to read a little about the man we know as “V” first.

The following is an excerpt from a site I have found, devoted to “V”, the charismatic anarchist in the movie. Its an eerie passage; it was written JUST before the September 11 bombings. The writer is talking about something that was fairly interesting then… it is even more riveting today.

V is a terrorist. It's easy to gloss over at first. After all, Norsefire is the psedo-Nazi regime oppressing people and forcing them to do what they wanted; the ones torturing and killing people they consider unfit or undesirable. V is the only person who dares take them on, to say that they're wrong, and to free an entire populace that has been enslaved. In the opening chapters of the book, there is an enjoyable irony felt when Norsefire calls V a terrorist. After all, V is the good guy.
But V is a terrorist. He blows up populated buildings, undoubtedly killing dozens if not hundreds of civilians. He refuses to accept anyone else's point of view--he fanatically believes his view is the only way to see things. He murders, not just cold-bloodedly, but also deliberately torturing people to insanity and death. He manipulates people to be his unwitting accomplices, regardless of their feelings. He tortures and brainwashes Evey until she sees his point of view. V is the good guy?
It can be easy to approve of V's actions; V is a fiction. The story, however entertaining or disappointing, is not real, and knowing that can make the action in the novel easier to accept. But his actions, his terrorism, mirrors the terrorism in the real world. If such terrorism is deplored in our world, why are their fictional counterparts acceptable?
Perhaps it's because we identity with V. V's philosophy seems in line with our philosophy. Democratic governments allow their populace the right to choose how they are governed, the freedom to choose. As people living in a democracy, we like having that freedom, and will defend it vigorously. Therefore, V is sympathetic, for he is fighting for a cause we, too, believe in. Furthermore, V's is likeable. His charisma shows through his speech patterns, his philosophy, his dry sense of humor, his flare for dramatics. All these qualities and viewpoints make him seem human and consequently it becomes easy to forget that for all his "just" motivations, he is utterly ruthless in their application.
Another possibility is the fact that, for all V's acts of terrorism, they are applied solely to those who are part of Norsefire; V attacks bad people, not innocents. He blows up Jordan Tower, but not the Kit Kat Keller. Unlike most terrorists that attack to inflict the widest amount of damage on the widest group of people, V methodically chooses his victims. There is not one person (save for Evey, whom I will discuss momentarily) that V directly harms that is not actively assisting, or complicit in furthering, Norsefire's agenda. By contrast, Norsefire has no qualms raiding, imprisoning, and murdering anyone they deem to be against them; who instituted countless concentration camps for the sole purpose of exterminating entire cultures and ethnicities.
But while few people may shed tears for Peter Creedy or Derek Almond, what of the countless clerks and assistants, working for Norsefire out of necessity rather than conviction, died when The Ear and The Mouth exploded? What of all the people wounded and killed during the riots? V accepts chaos as a necessary part of the process. But this process was chosen by V, who holds himself accountable to no one while punishing others who have done the same thing. Why is he afforded a luxury no one else in the novel is given?
What of Rose Almond, whose descent into depression and murder is carefully orchestrated by V? Considering he always proved to be three steps ahead of Norsefire, and only died because he allowed himself to die, surely he could have killed Susan and not get killed in the process. For a man who claimed to wish to bring people freedom from oppression, he purposely let Rose be smothered by it, and did nothing while it drove her over the edge. This that the act of a compassionate man?
Then there is Evey. Here is someone V supposedly loves, yet he tortures her physically and psychologically, bringing her to the breaking point. It's easy to be distracted by the emotional weight of Valerie's story, which is at the emotional core of Evey's incarceration, but it doesn't excuse the fact that the only way V could bring Evey back to his side was through actions that are classic brainwashing techniques. Evey clearly disagrees with V's strategy, it's why she leaves him in the first place. Only when she is tortured and manipulated into seeing V's point of view is she allowed back. If V's cause is just, his views correct, why does he have to resort to such extremes to convince people of this?
How can you reconcile V's terrorism? The only possible reasoning that makes sense is that the ends justify the means. That though V's actions are extreme, they are necessary. V, Finch, and Evey all arrive at their epiphany's after psychological torture. This indicates that such enlightenment cannot come without pain. This idea is repeated with the entire society: before V's better world can come to fruition, Norsefire must be destroyed, and that can only happen after society descends into violence, loss and hardship. If change is necessary, then so is the pain that comes with it.
Of course, this explanation only fits if you believe that the ends really do justify the means. Change may be painful, but V does more than let anarchy loose upon the world; he directs it, channels it, for his specific goal. Fate is literally subverted, which means the change and pain all the characters in Vendetta experience can be traced back to V and the terrorism he uses. Again, this may be justified if you believe V's goals warrant it, but the terrorism V employs is very much a part of our world. The fanaticism V displays is echoed in the fanaticism of terrorist groups around the globe. Does V's beliefs truly justify such terror, or do we believe that only because we agree his beliefs? To put it another way: would you accept V's actions if you removed his mask and found the face of Osama bin Laden underneath?

Something rotten in the state of Denmark?

2006-02-04T09:13:00.000-08:00

Going through the papers (and the news on TV), I realized that I had just the motivation to get my posterior off the couch (or rather, nowadays, my seat in the office) and post again. The issue I'm raising today is going to be discussed ad-nauseum for quite a while, and so I think I'd find it really difficult to come up with a "refreshing" new viewpoint, or a "fantasic revelation". My premise will be fairly simple. But first, the background.

I am an Indian, born and brought up in a city called Abu Dhabi, which is in the United Arab Emirates, or the U.A.E, for the verbally-challenged. The U.A.E is an Islamic country. The state religion is Islam, its native population is composed of Arabs. I've spent 15 years of my life living in this city, and presently visit it, maybe once or twice in a year. My parents work there, my father has been there since 1978. The purpose of this long-winded exposition is to tell you: trust me, I know the country, and I know what I'm talking about.

I've just learned that a brand of butter called Lurpak is now been removed from shelves in all stores across the U.A.E. Which is a pity actually, its a good brand, and indispensable in our home :-). The trouble is, it comes from Denmark.

The reason for this action is patently obvious at present: a Danish newspaper posted some pictures which allegedly portray an important religious figure in Islam in a bad light: Prophet Mohammed. I have seen the pictures. I have NO desire to stir up animosity among muslims, which is why you won't see any link to where you can view these pictures. All you have to do is google, you'll get them. But back to my point.

The pictures are...quite unusual. They depict the Prophet with a knife in his hand, flanked at both sides by women covered in black from head to toe. Another one shows what is allegedly a caricature of the Prophet with his turban shaped like a bomb. There's another one showing a caricature of paradise: a long line of unshaven individuals carrying rifles in their hands who are accosted on a cloud... by a man screaming "turn back, we're out of virgins". Personally, I thought THIS was funny.

Now, we have muslims all over the world rising up, loudly proclaiming their shock and hatred for these pictures. Any pictorial depiction of the Prophet is forbidden in Islam. Yes, its true.

So yes, I would say, there is a definite case for muslims to be aggrieved. What is intriguing is the level of intensity with which this displeasure is manifesting itself.

I'm going to do something I normally try not to do. I'm going to leave this particular topic hanging, till my next blog. This was the background, I'll try to give my opinions in the next one. Look at it this way; if you're the sort of person who likes facts and does not listen to opinions, you know when to stop reading :-).

Give the girl a break... we'll all feel much better!

2005-11-22T19:10:00.000-08:00

I have been reading a lot about the so-called storm that has picked up due to some things Sania said. We've got the moral police up in arms, ready for a good old fashioned lynching. How dare she denigrate her religion by (get this) her short skirts and her (the clincher) smartass comments ?!! Sacrilege! Blasphemy!

(yawn!)

To all the moral police out there, I'll let you in on a little secret: I don't give a flying f**k. So she wears clothes that put the word "short" in shorts (I mean, damn, she should be playing tennis in trousers, aren't they much more comfortable than shorts? No wait.... they aren't. My bad.). So she advocates condoms IF pursuing sex before marriage (you know, even with my limited understanding of the English language, I was able to figure out that she WASN'T ADVOCATING extra-marital sex.) Leave aside the fact that there are people out there who will go out and have sex before marriage anyway, and that safe sex would be the only deterrent against the plethora of diseases ravaging our country. But no, the bigots say that wouldn't make sense at all! As an article I read rightly put it, they seem to think God thinks sex before marriage is a sin, but wilfully proliferating life-threatening diseases IN a marriage is not. And I used to think there were limits to stupidity.

Let her be. She's just a teenager who happens to be doing an extremely good job of saying the right thing (in fact, the decent thing). She's also got tremendous talent, which seems to be something all those raving lunatics out there seem to have forgotten. She lifts her country with her feats, and we just conspire to push her right back down. That's just pathetic. If you've not got anything good to say, then hold your peace, we don't need a lecture in religious dogma.

Expecting a good post? Not this one, I think...

2005-10-24T21:44:00.000-07:00

I'd said every now and then I'd be posting what most people would consider crap, and (perhaps) this would count as one of those times. Ok, enough of the disclaimer, lets get to it...

I was thinking about this vague feeling of disquiet I get when I'm just sitting around doing nothing (I'm asking you politely to resist the temptation to consider this a common occurence in my case :-)). It basically takes the form of this regret I've had for not being more adventurous, so I turned it into a poem. Now this happens to be an allegory, so just grin and bear it:

Once, upon a mindless quest,
I stopped along a path to rest,
Perchance, I spied upon the shadowed glade,
where mysteries beckoned, parts to be played,
And where the darkness did beckon,
To venture forth, with wild eyes, to monsters with, reckon...

Oh insanity! Your greatest prize,
Is to make the afflicted perceive, without eyes...
A hidden past, through sleight of hand,
To march anon with the mighty brand
Of that which cannot be turned to sanity,
Such is, and always has been, the fate of humanity...

Little did I care, for material things,
For the wealth that shines, the pleasures it brings...
Yet did I desire the most,
To seek out, and find the shadow of a ghost,
Who would lead me on to treasures forth
The wondrous magic, which nature is worth.

Such is the fate, that I must bear,
To never chance, to never dare,
And so must I lay to rest,
Perhaps another time, I will pass my test...

(cringe)Comments, anyone?

What happened when Logic died…

2005-10-11T02:56:00.000-07:00

To follow the dictates of logic, to apply your common sense, to observe civilities; is to do what is right. No other dictum is necessary, no other “rules” or “guidelines” to constantly watch for. There is ONLY one way to do things right. And it is my belief that IIPM got it wrong.

This particular line of argument has probably been done to death, but I cannot stop emphasizing this. Let’s play step-into-your-shoes with the top folks at IIPM a moment. You have spent tons of money (at least, you say you did) into developing a business school. You have every intention of projecting it as THE b-school to watch. Consider carefully, I am not talking about actually making it one, that would involve various factors. I am talking about projecting the image of a successful b-school, that is all. All right, so you have your goal.

How do you go about it? You put out huge page-fillers filled with all sorts of information, testimonials, rankings, etc. on widely-read newspapers. What would logic dictate if I were to ask: why you are doing this? It would state that you desire good publicity, to be seen as the golden choice. I have to admit, nothing wrong with that, I mean, not everyone wants to hide their light under a bushel, right? You’ve got the whole shebang: right down to the nattily-dressed elegant dude with the pony-tail, you know, the one with the flop movie and the whatwassanameagain books. All that stuff.

Suddenly, you become aware of rumblings in the (admittedly wet-behind-the-ears) blogosphere. Oh horror of horrors! They’re questioning all those fancy ads you put up. You don’t care that they’ve done it tastefully. You don’t care that the person who wrote the expose went to great lengths to get the accurate information first. You don’t care that the person not only did so, but also endeavoured to present it in a professional manner. You don’t care about anything except that you have been contradicted. The first logical mistake you’ve made.

Then you hear about this young blogger who’s linked to the article. Its his personal space, his company is in NO way associated with his views, OR the forum in which he aired those views. Except of course, its IBM, and you’re a big-shot customer of IBM. So you trample logic. Again.

Its really weird, but you start to do really stupid things. What would have been the normal dictates of logic? You should have gotten onto a public forum, aired your side of the story in a calm, professional manner, befitting your, um, status as a premier b-school. Except you don’t.

You piss on civil rights. You get a couple of guys to barge into the office of the writer of the article, loudly protesting this “denigration”. You decide to “get” the poor blogger whose ONLY crime (a highly debatable word, in this case) was to say what he thought without flinching. You serve the guy a legal notice ,which by the way, somehow, reads like the shark (sorry, lawyer) who wrote it was hopped up on speed, and had spent the whole day memorizing Wren and Martin… without much success.

You get the BRILLIANT idea of getting people to burn laptops of IBM if the blogs aren’t removed. Very “swadeshi”.

You bay for blood, and you get it! The blogger follows the dictates of his conscience, decides that it would be in the interests of his company and his own integrity to resign. On another note, I admire the guy. I’m extremely sorry to admit, I’d just back down then and there. Not much spine in me, see?

But I’ve got enough. I’ve got enough to stand up and say that IIPM has done wrong. I’ve done something I haven’t done for a long time: I’ve actually curbed my natural inclination to explain my views in a , uh.. more profane manner. I do this to show respect for Gaurav and rashmi. They have responded to the destruction of what they hold dear with calm and civility. I must do the same.

What goes round, comes round. There are many consequences to thoughtless action. And none of them are good. Oh well, IIPM will learn soon enough.

The TV MEME (Reloaded)

2005-09-26T19:45:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody.Here’s my MEME.Tagged by the kobra.

// Comedy - Sitcoms - etc
Favorite Comedy (Hindi) : Khichdi
Favorite Comedy (English) (FRIENDS not Allowed ;) ) : Hmm… that’s easy then, its Arrested Developement

// Soaps Reality Action etc etc
Favorite Show (Hindi): I like the Great Indian Laughter challenge too
Favorite Show (English): Lost (guys, this is fantastic, I NEVER miss a show, thinking of downloading episodes (illegally, of course) off the Net.

Favorite Cartoon(s) (no comments on language ... huh)
Simpsons

//Movie time
Favorite Hollywood Movie seen on TV only (Be honest) : The Usual Suspects,Spy Games,The Animatrix

Favorite Bollywood Movie seen on TV only (Be honest) : Hulchul :-)

Favorite DD program (National or regional) (Chitrahaar excluded) : Chandrakanta (the only channel, and the only show I could watch in boarding school, sniff, brings back tears to my eyes L]

Most Enjoyed Sport on TV : Football

Favorite News Anchor : Barkha Dutt
Favorite Talk Show anchor/hostess : Parkinson (he interviews the CREAM only)

//Extra
Your Wishes/ opininons about the following channel groups (At least 2) :

Star Movies, HBO, Zee Studio: I wish I could get Zee Studio. HBO rocks, Star Movies, um.. could be better ( what am I saying? I love Lost!) “

Cartoon Network, POGO, Nickelodeon: POGO? Ugh. Love CN. Enjoy “He-man and the Masters of the Universe” (sniff, reminds me of the old one). Batman (the whole dark knight thing is supercool). “Megas XLR” (the English one comes in dubai, never miss a show, such amazing humour!). Plus this new thing on Disney Channel “Dave the Barbarian” (very much a satire)

Discovery Channel, Travel n Living Animal Planet, History, NGC: Nat Geo forever! Love the “Air Crash Investigations” in particular.

Channel [V], MTV, ETC, ZeeMusic: Cool!

Star World, Zee Cafe, Hallmark: Can’t wait for October, all the old shows come back. I’m waiting for “Smallville”, I LOVE Kristin Kreuk, oh and the Superman dude too. Although I find Eliza Dushku pretty hot in “Tru Calling”. “The Collector” is my favourite right now. (do u see my priorities J)

Sports: ESPN_STAR is the best.

Others:

ICC Subscribers can Curse Krackjack (Razzaq) Here (optional):
Am a Hathway subscriber so no comments.

I

The debate : creationism vs. darwinian evolution

2005-09-25T08:42:00.000-07:00

I'd like to take time out to talk about this, because I believe this to be THE most important issue of our time. While the storm this has created rages in America, I believe the day will soon come when it will reach our shores, and that it will divide us all.

Let me clarify my position first. I believe in God. I believe that he "works in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform". I find it amazing that a certain group of people take offense to the fact that science is attempting to fathom the mysteries of His creation. People, use your brains (you know, that beautifully complicated sculpture of the divine, lovingly crafted) and consider this: of all the things that we take delight in, do we not truly love them when we understand them better? To think that attempting to explain something makes it lose its significance; that to realize the inner workings of something somehow cheapens it; to think that to question, to reason, to argue, is blasphemy; to always blindly follow the dictates of "tradition"; these are the things that I fear the most. These are the true abominations to God. Logic goes hand-in-hand with creativity, it always has.

Now to the debate. For the people who are not aware of it, there is basically a huge battle going behind the scenes in the West. On the one hand, we have me (and women) of science; men who dedicate their lives in the pursuit of knowledge, who have, through the process of critical thinking, managed to create what is almost universally accepted as the theory of how man came into existence on this earth: the theory of evolution. On the other hand, we have what has now come to be known as the"neo-con", the far right wing, a group of Bible-carrying conservatives, who say that the theory of evolution, a thing that has been rigorously tested, and has withstood the test of time, of logic, of truth; is wrong. They believe that all life on earth was created in accordance with what was written in the Bible, especially the first book (Genesis). This theory is Creationism.

These people are going all out in their efforts to make their cause legitimate. They believe in the notion of "Intelligent Design", that what we have believed due to science all these years is wrong, and that a religious book (whose veracity of late has been hotly debated, in part due to books like the Da Vinci Code) has all the answers.

As with all controversies, the ACTUAL issue behind a debate becomes, to a certain extent, quite irrelevant (amazing how often that happens). I find this particular point on the neo-con agenda amusing; it isn't what really scares me. From the beginning of human thought and action, people of opposing views and philosophies have stood on the battlefield of the day and settled their differences. This has happened before, and will always happen again. What concerns me are the undercurrents.

You must realize, at the heart of the matter, this isn't about what is being taught in the classrooms about the theory of evolution. I should amend that, it isn't JUST about that. What we are witnessing is an age when popular sentiment is overthrowing the process of logic. There have been many instances when a crowd at the height of virtuous passion rebelled against reason. I fail to recall a single instance which resulted in a happy ending.

The people campaigning for creationism seem determined to drown out whatever arguments scientists seem to be making in support of evolution. They instead stick to the Bible, somehow assuming that since it is written down in their holy book, it is true and completely beyond reproach. Surely they must admit that there are things written in the Bible that could not possibly be true. For a person to postulate that God created the earth in seven days and seven nights (if he created everything, then he surely created the sun and stars as well, exactly when did he figure out wut was day and night?), to say that a man named Job was swallowed by a giant fish and survived after days of being inside it (the digestive system of the fish must have been shut down for repairs or something), to say that all the people in the world spoke a single language, until God punished them for the tower of babel, and made them speak in different tongues (do I need to point out ANYTHING wrong in this statement); to say these things and steadfastly hold them as true would lead me to believe that the person was insane. And the fact is, there are millions of people like this all over the world.

Now, before I get a christian tear me out a new asshole, I hasten to clarify: I am NOT anti-Bible. For the love of God, the religion I practice has a number of books, which any sane person would be ready to admit as bordering on mythology. The fact is, these holy books that we love and cherish with all our hearts, are powered by faith. A man must have faith in something if he is to exist, he doesn't have to hold it as the gospel truth, in fact, he shouldn't. All of us need some proof of the divine. This is what these books provide: a path to the divine, and not necessarily the only path.

It is my firm belief that we are first and foremost, creatures of reason. It is what separates us from the animals. Your beliefs should be your own, not an agenda to impose upon the world.

And, to quote a character I love, "that's all I got to say about that"...

The REAL News

2005-09-25T08:37:00.000-07:00

I'll keep this short. Check this site out http://www.theonion.com . Pretty good site for news that matters...

Nuts, screws and bolts OR “did-u-really-think-I’d-write-somethin-meaningful-the-first-time-around-u-poor-sods”

2005-09-20T02:25:00.000-07:00

Let's get some things straight. I don't do poetry, I suck at crowd control, I'm fond of long-winded speeches. I like arguing things to the death, food, reading books, playing computer games, food, abusing my guitar, girls, food, and did I mention food? I suck at punchlines (a certain “Pig” will agree), I love friends, but joey kinda makes me sad. I listen to Bob Dylan (my pride), and backstreet boys (when no one is listening, of course). I dig Linkin Park, but I don’t like alternative rock fused with techno (yup, go figure).

Here’s what you can never expect from this blog : meaningful commentaries, tasteful observations, honest self-appraisals (nope , definitely not this one), and dirty jokes (dirty jokes take a lot of time and mind power to make, I possess neither in excess).

You will find: lots of words to improve your vocabulary (the good words, not the ones that make people flinch, or beat the bejeesus out of u, depending on how their day went J).

I’m gonna try to be regular, but again, no promises. Seriously, why did you guys come here?

I’m going to talk about things I like, things I’ve wanted to write about, the things I think, and not much of the things I do (they’re unprintable, most of the time). And I will ramble. Occasionally.

I want to say a big hello to all the guys who have been regular bloggers for sometime.(some names come to mind, the kobra, pig (ok, he’s not dat regular), kunal, and all the rest of you whose names I don’t quite remember (I apologize profusely)).

Any of you regular bloggers come here, know that I am the one and truly …. Newbie. So bear with me.

And I hope you like it…

Damn. Too eager…