North Or South ... Ms Arundati Roy, Shut your Mouth !

1998,It was my student life. My favourite question, in the quiz back then was “Who won the Booker Prize for 1997 ?” for which I knew the answer(It was a fresh question,none knew Arundati Roy then). Her novel “The God of small things” had earned US$ 30,000 and a citation. She was the face of promising Indian literature.

Born with cross religio-cultural background,Ms Roy was struggler. With an architecture degree in hand she worked in various jobs including writing screen plays for movies, performing for them and even running aerobics classes.  Then she landed up in writing novels which confronted social issues,her surroundings. This was the time she penned celebrated novel “The God  of small things “ which was her semi autobiographical having references from her childhood life. Such a great history to start with !

Is she an Indian for real?

Same question is haunting many people,now a days.

The time when major nations worldwide had tested and adapted Nuclear wepons, it was show time for Indian Government. India had successfully tested 5 bombings in Pokhran Rajastan under able leadership of Vajpayee in May 1998.Yes, we needed Nuclear Power just to make our neighbors  realize that we are not to be underestimated. Who else can take risk when countries like China, Pakistan share your borders ? . We Indians have taught lessons to world on Non-Violence, have showed that we can endure any hardships without going violent. We needed to arm ourselves and become a Nuclear Super power. It was red letter day for Indians.

Unfortunately, Arundhati Roy stated “The bomb is India. India is the bomb. Not just India, Hindu India”  in her essay The End of Imagination(1998). She not just questioned India’s sovereignity but also painted the issue with religion. How could one convince her that India did not possess the weapons just to save one particular religion. The test was headed by A P J Abdul Kalam. Ms Arundhati Roy took no efforts to learn about whos who of the project. But commented with sheer negilgence just to be in newspapers.

2001,December Let and JeM had attacked Indian Parliament killing 6 policmen and a civilian. This was yet again failed attempt of cowards to threaten India.Mohammad Afzal was awarded Death Penalty for having masterminded the attack. Arundathi called death sentence for Afzal to be stayed. Why her heart softens for this terrorist who mercilessly killed CRPF Jawans. Is she related to him ?

Everyone in Andhra Pradesh , West Bengal knows how barbaric  Naxalites or Maoists can turn.

Nobody can describe them better. When peace talks failed between Government and these extremists,government had no option other than shedding blood. Troups of jawans were deployed in every corner of exetremists infested area. Naxals and maoists were given dose of their own medicine.
Many of the extremists surrendered and naxalite activities were thus controlled.

We again had statements coming from Ms Roy, criticizing Governments action as “war on poorest people in teh country” and calling Naxals /Maosists as “Gandhians with a gun”. What a heights of insanity ? what a shame. Where were you when the same “Gandhis” killed 70 soldiers, or  butchered another 50 by a bomb rigged civilian bus? Nathuram Godse killed “Mahatma” with a bullet, but you are killing Mahatma’s soul and idealogies merely with comparison. ! shame on you.

Namaste sharada devi Kashmira puravasini

Tvamaham prarthye nityam, vidhyaanam cha dehi me

Meaning :  Salutations to Godess Sharada, resident of Kashmir. I pray you daily to offer me knowledge.

This hymn is composed by saint Adi Shankara of 8^th CE .Staring from Mahabharatha,Kambojas ruled Kasmir. Kashmir was resided early by brahmins who are now called Kashmiri Pundits. In their era, sanskrit was bettered. Panini introduced grammar for sanskrit. It became center for both buddhists and hindus. Later it was ruled by muslim rulers including Moghuls,Durani empire. Raja Ranjith singh too ruled Kashmir till it became part of British India. At the time of Independence, the then ruler of Mulsim dominated Kashmir, Raja Hari singh was given choice of joining either of nations India or Pakistan or to have seaparate nation of his own. Meanwhile Pakistan started sending troups to acquire Kashmir and at the same time Raja Hari singh signed the document to be part of Indian governement, which was entirely legal and as par with British rules too.

Kashmir always has been part of India since the time immemorial.

Architecture degree holder Ms Arundathi Roy, who is also hungry for attention devised a mechanism to appear in front pages, unfortunately by playing with Indian  emotions. Freedom of speech was the right she chose to tarnish Indian image infront of whole world. What a pity!

In a seminar “Azadi – The only way” on October 2010 at New Delhi, along with Huriyat conference party leader S A S Gilani, Arundhati Roy crossed the limits.

She stated “Kashmir should get azadi from bhookhe-nange Hindustan” and continued saying that Kashmir had never been part of India. How dare she say this ? Any school going kid also knows that Kashmir is one of the states of India, has been part of constitution. Just because citizens there are not happy with the way military operations are carried out ,how one can one justify that state has to be liberated ? Unless we send military troups there, how well we can curb militants? Do you think they are “Gandhians with grenades” ? “Bhooke-Nange Hindustan” comment shows how sadistic she is about her own nation.

Why we had to scarifice our soldiers Major Somanath Sharma,Vikram Batra, Sudheer Walia, Capt. Harshan, Vijayanth Thapar  defending  Kashmir against coward Pakistanis ?Why you are acting as agent of separatists parties, Paksitani terrorists ? If you are really worried about India why dont you join some NGOs and work for developments aiming women and children? Why you are unhappy with every policy of India? Why you are sadistic of India and have communal thoughts ?

If you are not happy here, go and settle down somewhere else, or try staying in China and “criticise” their acquistions of Taiwan,Hong Kong or Tibet,why dont you try that out ?

This is India ! Frankly speaking we dont require any Nuclear weapon to destroy us. But one black sheep like this , we end up losing the game.Till now not even a single sedition charge has  been slapped against “The Godess of CHEAP stunts”. 

I serioulsy regret, having taken pride of learning about Arundhati Roy early in 1998. I would better lose the quiz competition  by not mentioning her now.  

Alas !

Enthiran... ! The Robot

Enthiran.. The Robot !!

                 

He is not an immortal, he is not a phenomenon. But he is beyond those boundaries which are cliched off for legends. I witnessed something on screen last saturday which made half a thousand souls around me feel ecstasy !!

There is nothing Rajini “KANT” do !

I am Chitti, The Robot

Speed 1 Tera Hertz
Memory 1 Zeta Byte

Thats how great Robo introduces itself. It can read books/magazines in seconds, can run faster than train, can sing any raagas, can attract magnetically,metallic weapons used by bloody goons of the street. The way Chitti the Robot cooks food, applies henna for all the lasses, dances ,helps Sana the heroine to pass the exam.

Clap clap clap !

Chitti the robo however lacks emotions, feelings and humanly behaviour. He doesnt sport idea of lying, covering a naked girl with a cloth whom he saved or even to avoid stabbing his creator scientist Dr.Vaseegran (Scientist Rajini). All it has is artificial Intelligence which is based on flowcharts and algorithms.

Gradually Robo learns to understand,feel and play emotions. He even gifts a golden necklace for his lady love Sana. You see a chronic love angle in the story where Nickle made robot tweets for his love.

Upgraded Version 2.0

Chitti the Robot !

This is flipped side of Chitti who is mal-programmed. Chitti now aims to win Sana’s heart and get rid of his creator Dr. Vaseegaran . He becomes destructive killing everyone who oppose him . At one point of time he loads his wrist with bullets and shoots them through his fingers. !

How vaseegaran takes control of evil Chitti and gets back his love is all up for you to see in theater. For god’s sake do not spend money to get pirated version and see in your lappy. ( worst idea). All i say would be “Watch in theater dude !”.

Special effects of the movie worth your pocket. There is not even a penny of yours is wasted. Great humor, impressive story line accompanied by melodious tracks by ARR takes you to next dimensions of Indian cinema.

You would generously lend some extra points for Rajini Saar for his devotion for the role despite his age almost touching 61. Aishwarya has done indeed a good job to stick to role opposite the lord of south Indian movies. S Shankar has co-written a nice script, giving it techie masala as well. “Irumbile oru Idhiayam” and “Chitti dance” are my fave tracks.


Few excerpts of the movie I would like to mention here :

[ Back Ground : Scientist Vaseegaran(Rajini) has come for a haircut. Chitti the robo(Rajini) is getting bored while his master is busy getting hair cut . He is given some magazines to beat his boredom]

Chitti reads a magazine just by waving it in front of his eyes ( Speed 1 Tera Hz). He keeps piling these “read” magazines stacked. People around him are taken by surprise. Chitti asks for some more magazines as he is still bored while Vaseegaran’s haircut hasn’t yet started.

He is now given a telephone directory :) . Chitti “scans” it . Done,saved ! ( Memory 1 Zeta Byte )
One of the customer, so as to verify Chitti’s memory power tells his name to be Bhajan Lal and asks Chitti to reveal his telephone number. Chitti just “retrieves” from his memory and asks him his initials as there are ten Bhajan Lal’s.

Surprised with this , Bhajan Lal says his initials to be “K”. Chitti again “retrieves” from his memory and tells that there are three “Bhajan Lal K” s. Now Bhajan Lal ends up saying his address. Chitti the robo will slap him with his stupid telephone number. !

Another customer lets chitti know his telephone number and challenges chitti to discolse his name.
Chitti reveals the customer’s name immediately.

Kanna, Chumma adiridille ? Eppudi ?

[ Back Ground : Sana( Aishwarya) is preparing for her exam with Chitti at her hostel. There is loud music played at a nearby Goddess temple. Chitti now wants to stop the disturbance]

Chitti sees a gang of thugs negligent about disturbance, caused by the loud music. He requests them politely saying that music has gone beyond 300 decibels and students are not able to concentrate.
But thugs will not be warm for his request.

Chitti blows whole music system! Thud. ! Starts walking away from gang , with Sana !

Angry goons now take their weapons out. Machetes, knives, Axes , chains ,daggers they display everything.

Chitti switches Magnetic mode on ! Entire weapon gets attracted to his body. And within next moment he adorns himself like a goddess !!

The chains become necklace and also a belt. He holds entire weapons the way Kaali maa does !

I dont know what happened to me ! I just jumped,stood erect on my seat clapped for this Darshan while entire audience went crazy :P

The Tester’s Perspective

“ Boundary Value Analysis is done when you know the range of Inputs and Outputs; Black box testing is performed when you do not know the internals of a product, load testing is done as to check what extent the product can bear the stress.... ”

There is a developer. There is a product. There are plenty of clients, stakeholders, end users and your product can’t go wrong. And here goes... A tester comes into the picture.

I will tell you, the things running in tester’s gray cells from here on.

 Is the product specification right, do clients and end users get what they require?
 Has the product developed in right way?
 How can I break the product? What might be the loophole(s) of the same?
 Is the documentation for the product and usage guidelines proper?
 How to convince developer(s) about the bug/anomaly I found?
 How to achieve faster testing mechanism to find bugs?
.......
A tester has to know everything, right, left and center. A to Z. As the days went by I came closer to this truth.You are not actually finding mistakes but it’s just the way for the product to get better. So the user of the product gets good night sleep for a better product.

I am going to share some of my findings in this regard. I being a tester (Never wanted to be one, but I was the one as fate had)

 First I was of the opinion that, it’s all about breaking a developer’s ego. He develops the product mammoth size and you find a pinhole. He is hurt.
 Rather than testing, Developing is more interesting. In reality, trust me both are challenging. Developing product from nothing is interesting and learning the same and bettering the product is similarly interesting.
 A tester has no scope for scripting/coding. Wrong.! He has to create scenarios for the products, write the code on product (as the developer did) and then automate the same. Find a way for product to go wrong in quicker way.
 A tester should think like a villain. Yes. A badman can only break the product.


Let me give an analogy, a developer is like a teacher who preaches student what to follow and a tester teaches what NOT to follow. Both are working for betterment of the student by their own methodologies. Their attempts are genuine, unique and equally challenging. And I will tell you li’l secret; it’s always what not to follow things are attractive and interesting. ;)
........
Human being always lives with dvandva (meaning duality).White and black together are contrasting to each other. Importance of each other is known when both are present. You can always develop a habit (meaning a product here) like a developer. But for little while think like a tester.

 Is that habit/state of mind serving your presence, is it representing the real you?
 What makes you uncomfortable with this state of mind under test? What’s your limiting point?
 Is there any other way I can get improved?

And here you are not breaking your developer’s ego but you are happy being realistic to find your mistakes on your own and if you will, that loophole can be miraculously get rid of.

Here is a legend from Mahabharata which I would like to share,

Arjuna was on his chariot with his chauffeur Krishna, warring against Karna who was almost defeated. One arrow shot from Arjuna, propelled Karna’s chariot to a hundred units of distance. And now, Karna in reply, propelled Arjuna’s chariot just one unit of distance.

Even being at the rival side, Krishna couldn’t stop applauding for Karna’s deed. Everyone at battle field including Arjuna were taken by surprise.

The reason: Karna had displaced Arjuna’s chariot by one hundredth of what Arjuna did for Karna’s chariot.

And the Krishna explained that, Arjuna’s chariot (refer here as product) was actually owned by Lord Soorya, created and tested by the great architect of Gods Vishwakarma, boarding currently Arjuna and supergod Krishna ( this was post Vishwaroopa darshana) was thrown by tired Karna’s one stupid arrow. Just imagine how much powerful Karna was when compared with Arjuna who propelled an ordinary chariot containing two normal human beings a Karna and one Shalya the chauffeur for Karna.


Arjuna felt shameful .


Moral :

There was still scope for improvement with Arjuna’s chariot ;)

“A Man without a Religion ”

It was Aug 2, a Saturday. I was reluctant to go to office, but was bound to give the status of one clients’ work. The day was boring as I was alone and working. I finished my assigned job by 7 something in the evening and was heading for a BMTC bus. I thought would fill myself with some omlettes and some juice.

There he was. The man without a religion.

Since couple of weeks , I had observed that there were many South Korean trainees who flocked our campus. Deep white complexion, tiny eyes, shiny hair and were speaking “God-knows-what-words”. They were very happy and full of high spirits who always moved in groups and never cared for rest of the world.

But this guy was alone. Was eating sandwich and drinking lassi. He was lanky, hair was lengthy.He had worn red jacket, a low-waist jeans and a boot. It was fun to watch him drink lassi :)

I was done. And I kept myself busy, Big 10 bus, a window seat. Within few minutes bus was occupied. And this lanky dude entered the bus and sat next to me and threw a smile. I smiled back. Yeah, I can work on Saturdays and still smile :).


Within no time we became friends. He introduced himself to be Lee @#$@#$. Yeah I dint get his surname. He also told that he is from @!?@#$, a place near Seoul, South Korea. And I introduced myself in the same format.

Well, I started off. I asked him about India and whether he liked India and Blore. First thing he told me was that, he liked that people here had a religion and he dint have one. He also gave examples Hindus, Muslims, Catholics and religion with turban (he meant Sikhs). He it seems wasn’t aware about who god was before. When ever he said god, he pointed sky that seemed funny to me. I must appreciate Lee had done his homework about Bangalore very well. He had “Google-earthed” for Bangalore. Not just that he even remembered some of neighboring states of Karnataka. We discussed about politics, Farming, Education, English and our enemies.We had lot of things in common. I had to tell him that Pakistan was once our own part and we had partition followed. The similar thing also existed between South and North Koreans. Lee was surprised to know that Indians and they shared Independence Day on Aug. 15. Bus was moving and people were staring at us.

“Anjeng” was their hello, he said to me. And he liked me for pronouncing it right. He asked me to pronounce some more words/phrases which meant “I am cool”, “ I love you”, and “Bye”. In return I taught some filmy words, “ Maa..! main aaya “, “Hey Bhagwaan” and our own “Namastey”. Lee was impressive with pronunciation.

We changed the bus at Silk board to Marthalli. We were seated in last seats of a BMTC bus. He was all smiling and asked me to join for party at M.G.Road, from which point we started chatting about food. It seems he liked Indian food , Parothas with chicken kebabs , Indian Chicken Biriyani. He also asked me if ever I come to their place I should try “Mee-Chi”. It was his favorite Korean dish. I am sure no Indian would like it coz it’s made of dog’s inner organs… I was about to puke: D

“What you guys do on weekends?” I asked for which Lee answered, that they roamed M.G. and Brigade Roads, went for shopping, boozed and of course watched Indian girls. (No matters to what country they belong to, Boys are boys, Rock stars: P) Yeah he liked our girls for their “dressing sense”. “They have certain charm hidden in their eyes, which is lacking in Korean feminine eyes” he commented. He said he recently broke up with his gal and was pursuing his career instead.

“How it’s in India to get married?”.

“Well it’s a tedious one. First of all the couple should belong to same religion, same caste. Then they should be speaking same language. After that, their horoscope should match. And then, parents of the couple on either side should agree. Then extra caution is taken from bride’s side for bridegroom’s behavior, like the latter doesn’t booze or smoke. And bridegroom’s side demands dowry to which brides owe. You know it’s complicated”.



“I don’t understand one thing here”

“What’s that?”

“If such restrictions are there in India to get married, then how come you are leading country for population?”

I am still thinking about it….!

THE ENGLISH TEACHER....!

Raman and his family had just arrived to Poonuru. He was very much used to being new to places, befriending new classmates and playing in new grounds; for his dad was a village accountant which was a transferable job. Poonuru village was well embellished by mother earth. Pavani River streamed through the village; dense banyan trees covering the outskirts and many plain grounds promised him lots of fun. He was waiting for evening to cast its spell.

Being stranger, Raman always knew tactics to get to know people. He wore his favorite track pant, topping a t shirt and a pair of sports shoes .He set to School maidaan with his attractive cricket bat full of signatures of cricketers. The trick was to gel with schoolmates, allure them with his cricket bat .Most of the time he won their attention. Then he would get to know about each of them, their family, popular hang-outs, about the school, the teachers, to-do’s and not-to-do’s, the pretty girls, movies and almost everything.

Mujju, Salman, Velu thronged Raman when he showed off his bat. Apparently they were playing cricket with a jackfruit stick which they called a bat. Raman seized the chance and introduced himself to one and half dozen crowd. All were admiring Raman for his bat, flashy dress and his geared bicycle. Mujju even dare sitting on the cycle. Raman was quite happy. He promised he would get good-quality ball the next day. He scored charming 37 runs out of 10 balls and took even 4 wickets. He got to know more about the rest of the gang.He also observed that Mani the hefty guy was dominating, quarreled each time with players and was inconvincible. When Raman stroke Mani’s wickets, the latter gave a killer stare, not just that, he left the place uttering non-parliamentary words.

Match was done. Raman quizzed about Poonuru. Velu found swimming in Pavani was a joyful stuff, Slaman said smoking at Kaka’s shop was entertaining and Jannu said stealing jackfruits grown at Stella teacher’s garden was wonderful. All had opinions and Raman was enjoying their attention for him. A cute girl just passed them and Dinga whistled at her. All were laughing and giggling at this gesture. Even Raman couldn’t avoid smiling. Dinga was sort of joker in their group. Now Raman diverted the topic. He wanted to know about the school.

Dinga was on his toes imitating headmaster. They all laughed. Raman sensed that headmaster was manageable. He always feared math. So Mujju told Shijo sir was too sweet to get scared, never scolded anyone. Kids spilled beans about social science teacher and unusual behavior of him eating chalk pieces. Dinga again was showing off his talent, how teachers spoke, their accent, their mistakes and the way they sign notebooks. Then Raman asked about English teacher. Group fell silent. Velu asked him to witness the class next day .And the group disbursed.

Raman narrated entire episode to his mom word by word. His mom Laxmi too was curious about English teacher.

*****
“…..Raman, Our College boasts about scoring good marks in English, we have produced toppers in the subject since years, students are performing better year by year...Rehman Sir has been teaching our students very well” headmaster was speaking. Raman’s parents were just nodding, and Raman was counting number of times headmaster uttered the word “English”. It was close to 43.

First period was of Math sir. Mani was shouting and Mujju was flirting.Shijo sir was explaining about Tangents and Secants. A rocket ruffled Dinga’s head (was shot by Mani) .Dinga woke up to see all students laughing. Shijo sir explained that Dinga’s head was a circle and Rocket was tangent as it touched at one point. Dinga was okay as he was “exemplified”. Raman too was impressed with his new math teacher. Velu shouted saying had that been a sphere thrown at Dinga, it would have pierced Dinga’s head at two points thus it signified a Secant. Students including Shijo sir giggled. Dinga flopped. Class was funny. Salman now turned at Raman asking him to watch next class for the English teacher.

Mujju was briefing Raman about Rehman Sir. He was a mossi (local slang for a Muslim) who taught English very well. They said none ever could speak English as fluently as he could; none even in the district. Students feared him but he never had beaten any of his students. He never believed in punishing too. Students did their homework and assignments. He never spoke personal things, never commented about anyone. Never smiled, not even when he produced seven English toppers for the nation, just meant his business and that he commuted bicycling.

The only time he became angry was when headmaster refused bringing English newspaper magazines at school’s cost. He rose and his eyes were pitching red. He insisted about need for the language and promised to arrange the magazines out of his own pocket and had vacated. Since then school staff including headmaster feared him.

******

Rehman Sir entered. He was tall man, with broad shoulders. Had shaved off his moustache, had sported a thick beard which ran all over his cheeks. Face had many wrinkles. He was dressed with a pant which never touched his shoe, and a shirt. Dark mark on his forehead hinted that he offered Namaz often.

“Students let me teach you about Gerunds and Infinitives”

Mujju, Salman, Velu took their books out. Dinga was fully prepared and Mani too was attentive. Entire class was concentrating. Raman too took his book out. Students were corrected for their spelling mistakes, wrong pronunciations and class was done. Raman observed that everyone wanted to get appreciation from English teacher.

Rest of the periods were insignificant even Raman’s mom felt later in the evening.

******
Laxmi was shopping for groceries one Sunday evening. She was looking out for Spinach, which her son liked most. “Laxmi Didi….!” she couldn’t recognize the person. He came to her and addressed himself to be Gullu; her neighborhood. Laxmi recalled her days before marriage.

They were in Hyderabad .This Gullu was son of Abdul Chacha the taxi driver. Gullu used to come to their house everyday, was pampered by her mom.Evenings he used to attend a local Madrasa He was often helping her mom for errands, played with her brother. Both were very naughty those days. Abdul chacha and her dad always had tough time with people of lane because of this duo. They even had once dismantled a transformer and had blackout. Last what she heard was Abdul chacha had committed suicide and Gullu had ran away.

“Didi, I know, what you want to know from me” Gullu said.

Laxmi was not demanding. She did not know what really had happened. But she did not interrupt him saying.

“There was one foreign traveler who hired my dad. He wanted to go to Tirupati and my dad was driving. Somewhere the traveler stopped for refreshments leaving my dad alone in car. When he returned, he saw my dad unconscious and foreigner’s asset robbed.
Unfortunately, the traveler lodged a complaint against my dad. My dad got handcuffed and was treated very badly by cops. My father returned home, he was very sorry for the crime he never committed. He committed suicide. Till his last breath he was claiming his innocence”

Tears rolled on Laxmi’s cheeks.

“I headed towards the foreigner. I wanted to tell him that I had lost my dad for no mistake of his. I shouted, I cried in the language he never understood. All I saw was him leaving the place with a mocking smile on his face.I was helpless”

There was a long pause.

“I decided, one day I will let this know man what he had done to me and my father, in his own language. Not just that, I made up mind that none should be in a situation, I was in.”

Gullu was emotional. They were walking ,walking and walking.

“What are you doing in Poonuru?” .

“I am the English Teacher here…..”