It laid there in my bed, silently, with its blue eyes twinkling. It was my four year old Nokia 6030 (think i got the name right). One of the most basic models from Nokia, without any special features. But it was a bit special to me, since it came as a present from my sister, when i was doing my final year.
It was fun then, final semester, with Airtel offering 100 free SMS daily, texting was what i did with that phone back then. Sending SMS inside classrooms when class is going on, reading the funny forward messages forwarded from my friends. Never knew where it originates, but they were absolutely funny. Funny one liners, fantastic stories, innovative mokkais, it was fun. Absolute fun. At times had to face the wrath of my parents for having book in one hand and mobile in another hand, and texting all time. They should have felt weird seeing their son smiling seeing the mobile. Few days it used to go past 100 sms but still continued. Inbox had to be cleared daily along with sent items. I had managed to save a few of them, and it amuses me a lot when i read them now, with a bit of nostalgic feeling. To quote a few
"Life is small, live it ! Troubles are momentary, face it ! Memories are sweet, cherish it ! You are good, I agree it ! I am too good, Accept it"
"You are a rose for all trees, you are a smile for all faces, you are a waterfall for all hills, you are a brother for all beautiful girls" - I got this as one of my senior decided to stress this to his friends in the middle of the night.
"Karpanayei Nesi, Kavithai Pidikum,
kavithayei Nesi, Kaathal pidkum,
kaathalai Nesi, Pennai pidikum,
Pennai Nesi, paithiyam pidikum"
"Loving what you get is compromise, Getting what you love is success, Loving even after knowing that you wont get is pure love".
Few of the above quoted have a huge history associated with them. Probably a few of my friends can realize it. I do have a few more, but cannot be shared ;)
Now that was past, coming back to what is happening at present. Lying in my bed, i was looking at my mobile. I had just one SMS in my inbox, a worthless message that i forgot to delete. So that took be back to all these memories. I do receive a lot of SMS now, but they are all just notifications or advertisements. They just irritate and get deleted as and when they arrive.
I used to talk a lot when i initially started working. I was without laptop or TV. My friends were in the same state. As time progressed, it slowly stopped, with few of my friends not even in the same country. My Nokia 6030 is sleeping silently near me, rarely disturbing me, and at times with its blue eyes twinkling when the screen saver gets activated just reminding me of the past.
I have no intention of replacing that until it decides to commit suicide. Get a feeling it just initiated the process. Just remembered that i haven't changed even the theme from the day i got it. Good that it doesn't have many features, i like to stay away from the virtual Net world at times, to lose myself in thought of my past, the thought of few people close to my heart, gals who have disturbed me so far, crazy buggers i see daily, gods, dogs, cats, bats, rats and if not anything else the universe in general.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Saturday, February 05, 2011
Weekend Hosur trip
I joined the elite club of idiotic bachelors in bangalore, who get terribly bored on weekends and decide to go to Hosur to watch a movie, when it is running in nearby theatre in bangalore. The first trip was on Dec 11, 2010, a saturday, with Jeyahari, Arang and Nagarajan. Could not make it for the movie, but watched Circus, first time in my life time. Few things were interesting but the artists were terribly sad, for some reason. The final Bar was breathtaking.
The next trip happened recently on republic day, Jan 26, 2011. Once again holiday in the middle of the week. So once we embarked on our journey in Unicorn and Activa. Day ended beautifully with Aadukalam in the morning and Sirthai in the afternoon. Aadukalam was good, Siruthai was a mass masala. Thanks to the director's attention, the logic was cleanly wiped from start to end. Anyway, movies were enjoyable and it does sound illogical to search for logic in movies when it is purely for entertainment. Both the movies had something in common, a beautiful & fair looking gal falling in love with heroes, who are at the lowest level in the society. Planned for lunch at Janani Garden, but as usual, family crowd led by the homely TN women chased us away. Can understand Bachelors's crowd in hotels, but off late we do get a very stiff competition from family crowd in large numbers on weekends and holidays. Evening, we spent time in the Chandra Soodeshwarar temple, that was on a very small hillock near the bus stand, with the full view of Hosur in sight.
In both the trips, the desire to eat Bhajji with Coconut chutney in the evening, made us roam around Hosur streets. On the second trip, we managed to find one, but still without chutney. Freshly prepared super diluted Tea in glass tumbler, was refreshing and i do miss them in Bangalore. Though a pure waste of time, energy, money, i do like these one day trips to TN, with TN breakfast, lunch, snacks.
The next trip happened recently on republic day, Jan 26, 2011. Once again holiday in the middle of the week. So once we embarked on our journey in Unicorn and Activa. Day ended beautifully with Aadukalam in the morning and Sirthai in the afternoon. Aadukalam was good, Siruthai was a mass masala. Thanks to the director's attention, the logic was cleanly wiped from start to end. Anyway, movies were enjoyable and it does sound illogical to search for logic in movies when it is purely for entertainment. Both the movies had something in common, a beautiful & fair looking gal falling in love with heroes, who are at the lowest level in the society. Planned for lunch at Janani Garden, but as usual, family crowd led by the homely TN women chased us away. Can understand Bachelors's crowd in hotels, but off late we do get a very stiff competition from family crowd in large numbers on weekends and holidays. Evening, we spent time in the Chandra Soodeshwarar temple, that was on a very small hillock near the bus stand, with the full view of Hosur in sight.
In both the trips, the desire to eat Bhajji with Coconut chutney in the evening, made us roam around Hosur streets. On the second trip, we managed to find one, but still without chutney. Freshly prepared super diluted Tea in glass tumbler, was refreshing and i do miss them in Bangalore. Though a pure waste of time, energy, money, i do like these one day trips to TN, with TN breakfast, lunch, snacks.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
A look back at 2010
This happened sometime in final semester in College. I was arguing with my friend about blogging. My take was that i would blog often after i enter the corporate world too. He was firm on the point that i would get bored and wont do it frequently. What he said is turning out to be right :-)
At the end of 2010, i had a feeling that nothing had happened in the entire year, but when i slowly look back, a lot has actually happened.... (Apdi ennada aachu, ethavathu set aayiduchaa nu kaetkatheenga).
January went fast, remember attending Prabhu anna's marriage and Sriram's anna marriage at Chennai.
Feb, the valentine month, only interesting thing was my mid semester exams. March, i cannot recollect anything. April was interesting with a trip to Yercaud and IPL match. Also attended Pramod Anna marriage at Chennai and non-veg food was amazing. May was important to me, as we upgraded from two wheeler to four wheeler, as we purchased a car for our family. Thought it would be easy to drive in Madurai but i was soon proved wrong as it turned out be a lot lot difficult. This would need a separate post so will skip it for now. It was in May i quit from my first company and ventured out. It was a very tough decision, made tougher because of the huge set of friends i had there. Thank god, i was a little selfish, so finally decided to move out.
Went to Bheemeshwari trip during september. Also purchased Bike here to commute to office. Slowly gained experience and confidence and by the end of the year, i was flying at high speeds ignoring the risks. Also attended FStival and visited college for that. October was important as it marked the marriage of a guy from our set. Vanni got married on Oct 24. Nov, once again visited college and had night lab after a long long time. It was fun. Also went to Mekedattu during November. During december for the first time went to Hosur, just to roam around and spend a day of weekend. And then visited Nandi hills for the first time in three years.
Also, 2010 was the year, where i ended up seeing a lot of movies. Probably a lot more than the total number of movies i might have seen in theatre from my childhood. 2010 was wonderful, few significant things had happened.
Lets see what 2011 has in store for me. Few things might changes, few things i know for sure won't. Let me wait and watch as it unfolds.
At the end of 2010, i had a feeling that nothing had happened in the entire year, but when i slowly look back, a lot has actually happened.... (Apdi ennada aachu, ethavathu set aayiduchaa nu kaetkatheenga).
January went fast, remember attending Prabhu anna's marriage and Sriram's anna marriage at Chennai.
Feb, the valentine month, only interesting thing was my mid semester exams. March, i cannot recollect anything. April was interesting with a trip to Yercaud and IPL match. Also attended Pramod Anna marriage at Chennai and non-veg food was amazing. May was important to me, as we upgraded from two wheeler to four wheeler, as we purchased a car for our family. Thought it would be easy to drive in Madurai but i was soon proved wrong as it turned out be a lot lot difficult. This would need a separate post so will skip it for now. It was in May i quit from my first company and ventured out. It was a very tough decision, made tougher because of the huge set of friends i had there. Thank god, i was a little selfish, so finally decided to move out.
Went to Bheemeshwari trip during september. Also purchased Bike here to commute to office. Slowly gained experience and confidence and by the end of the year, i was flying at high speeds ignoring the risks. Also attended FStival and visited college for that. October was important as it marked the marriage of a guy from our set. Vanni got married on Oct 24. Nov, once again visited college and had night lab after a long long time. It was fun. Also went to Mekedattu during November. During december for the first time went to Hosur, just to roam around and spend a day of weekend. And then visited Nandi hills for the first time in three years.
Also, 2010 was the year, where i ended up seeing a lot of movies. Probably a lot more than the total number of movies i might have seen in theatre from my childhood. 2010 was wonderful, few significant things had happened.
Lets see what 2011 has in store for me. Few things might changes, few things i know for sure won't. Let me wait and watch as it unfolds.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Weekend Trip - Mekedatu
I didn't go home past weekend. Not a big deal, but few of my friends get surprised by that. The idea of spending the weekend sitting at home started disturbing me and thought about going somewhere. Checked with Arangs, Jeyahari and Nagarajan, and Mekedatu was decided. Though i had second thoughts, thanks to the enthusiasm of the others, finally the trip was on.
Everything in the trip was an experience. We went in Tata Nano. We were not sure how it would work, moreover being newbies self driving was a challenge, and there was a small ghat section before reaching Mekedatu and we tested Tata Nano for the first time in that, travelled 4KM sitting on top of the bus, took bath in river after a long time.
The route to Mekedatu from Bangalore is through Kanakapura. From Bangalore take the kanakapura road, after reaching Kanakapura there is a small left turn that takes you to Sangama. Get the help of locals to get the Sangama road. We had thoughts of filling petrol after Kanakapura, but later learnt that there are not Petrol bunks after kanakapura, so drove back to kanakapura filled the tank and progressed again.
The drive was pleasant, there was not much traffic in Kanakapura road and the Kanakapura-Sangama road is good after one or two KMS with very less traffic. Tata Nano got too many looks after reaching Kanakapura, i dont know what they meant though.
Reached Sangama around 12.30PM. Sangama is the place where river Akravathi joins Kaveri. We then crossed the river in coracle to take the bus to Mekedatu. That was a special bus, wait for the photos to see how special it is. They charge 40 for the bus and 40 for the coracle trip, and they gave a discount of around 80 Rupees, after some calculation/discounts it came to 240 for 4 people. The coracle drive was ok.
The most thrilling part was the bus journey. The bus top was reserved for guys like us and we seized the opportunity. The route was so bad, and the bus was worse enough for the route. So the journey was wonderful. From Sangama to Mekedatu it takes 15-20 minutes for 4KM through the rough roads. Reached Mekedatu, where river Kaveri flows through narrow gorge, show its wrath on the rocks there by making the rocks, smooth and slippery. You can sit and watch how Kaveri flows furiously through the gorge or the rocks, if you don't have your girlfriend near you. We sat and watched the rocks for a while.
Started back to Sangama and took bath in the river for one full hour. It was wonderful, there was current but holding to the rocks it becomes enjoyable. The next one hour, was spent in the river, enjoying the river and also the comedies of the drunkards around. Finally after a enjoyable bath in Kaveri, started the journey back to home. On the way back drove through Nice road, which was nice.
Mekedatu, is a good place to visit for a day during or after monsoon season. No scenic places except for the narrow gorge, but the drive to Mekedatu, bus ride sitting on the top, the bath in river made it interesting. Anyway, drunkards are leaving behind their broken kingfisher's and signatures and families are adding enough plastic plates, packets and litter to spoil the place.
Yet to get the photos, but you will find them in a day or two at http://picasaweb.google.com/sens2003.
Everything in the trip was an experience. We went in Tata Nano. We were not sure how it would work, moreover being newbies self driving was a challenge, and there was a small ghat section before reaching Mekedatu and we tested Tata Nano for the first time in that, travelled 4KM sitting on top of the bus, took bath in river after a long time.
The route to Mekedatu from Bangalore is through Kanakapura. From Bangalore take the kanakapura road, after reaching Kanakapura there is a small left turn that takes you to Sangama. Get the help of locals to get the Sangama road. We had thoughts of filling petrol after Kanakapura, but later learnt that there are not Petrol bunks after kanakapura, so drove back to kanakapura filled the tank and progressed again.
The drive was pleasant, there was not much traffic in Kanakapura road and the Kanakapura-Sangama road is good after one or two KMS with very less traffic. Tata Nano got too many looks after reaching Kanakapura, i dont know what they meant though.
Reached Sangama around 12.30PM. Sangama is the place where river Akravathi joins Kaveri. We then crossed the river in coracle to take the bus to Mekedatu. That was a special bus, wait for the photos to see how special it is. They charge 40 for the bus and 40 for the coracle trip, and they gave a discount of around 80 Rupees, after some calculation/discounts it came to 240 for 4 people. The coracle drive was ok.
The most thrilling part was the bus journey. The bus top was reserved for guys like us and we seized the opportunity. The route was so bad, and the bus was worse enough for the route. So the journey was wonderful. From Sangama to Mekedatu it takes 15-20 minutes for 4KM through the rough roads. Reached Mekedatu, where river Kaveri flows through narrow gorge, show its wrath on the rocks there by making the rocks, smooth and slippery. You can sit and watch how Kaveri flows furiously through the gorge or the rocks, if you don't have your girlfriend near you. We sat and watched the rocks for a while.
Started back to Sangama and took bath in the river for one full hour. It was wonderful, there was current but holding to the rocks it becomes enjoyable. The next one hour, was spent in the river, enjoying the river and also the comedies of the drunkards around. Finally after a enjoyable bath in Kaveri, started the journey back to home. On the way back drove through Nice road, which was nice.
Mekedatu, is a good place to visit for a day during or after monsoon season. No scenic places except for the narrow gorge, but the drive to Mekedatu, bus ride sitting on the top, the bath in river made it interesting. Anyway, drunkards are leaving behind their broken kingfisher's and signatures and families are adding enough plastic plates, packets and litter to spoil the place.
Yet to get the photos, but you will find them in a day or two at http://picasaweb.google.com/sens2003.
Friday, November 19, 2010
A Vacation Well Spent
It was a near shutdown, thanks to the diwali, rajyotsava day, company leave policy and the kind Manager. 9 days to be spent @ home town, diwali, sweets, sister's visit, it was exciting to even think about. It also gave an opportunity to visit College and upgrade the servers. More than that to meet my Senior and Junior friends.
Day 1 (rather Night 1): Reached home on Saturday, finished off few work (including eating fish curry) managed to reach College by around 4 PM. It was Thevar Jeyanthi that day and journey through Madurai roads was thrilling. The followers of the leader we indulging in all sort of activiites, exactly opposite to what the leader might have wanted them to do. Joe, Balamurugan, LGP, GRK, Varadharajan and Gautam were already working. Met all the staffs from Unix Lab. It took a little time to recollect what we had done during our college days and what has happened after we left. Started with upgrading the TCENet server. It soon extended into Night and after a long long time, it was going to be a night lab in College. Had dinner at Aarthi, and i could see Aarthi has put up a brave struggle against change, with the only change being the cost of items. Worked till 5.00 AM, went home and crashed into bed.
Day 2: Woke up late, had lunch and started to college in Car. First time tried driving alone in Madurai City, where the only traffic rule applicable is to forget all the traffic rules. And it rained heavily once i started, visibility was reduced to less than 10 metres. Still i progressed, tried hitting two gals in TVSScooty. Their good luck they escaped. Rain stopped and i reached college without any further adventures. Was a bit delayed due to issues with AC. Yep the server room still has few issues with AC and UPS :) Started working upgrading the server and trying to configure Samba. Dinner was parotta, kothu parotta and dosai from TPK. Had a chat with Gautam, an enthusiastict second year guy.In the middle of the night, Samba configuration got over but it was not working as expected :( :( Windows machine were not able to login. Problem persisted through out the Night.
Day 3: Could not go home, had a quick rest for a hour in guest house and started the day exploring Samba. First it seemed to suggest issues with versions. Tried changing the configuration, didn't work. BitBala, LGP tried from their end, issue was not resolved. It was sometime in the evening, still the issue persisted. Anyway whatever it is, we have the solution with us. Yes, at last Joe pitched in after completing his work. Few minutes issue was resolved. Problem was with NSCD. Stopped "NSCD" everything worked fine. Bala, LGP, Varatharajan had completed work from their end. So putting an end to all that, started the thrilling night ride to home along with the friends.
Day 3 being Monday, gave opportunity to meet other staffs. Met the staff who had handled System Software, Compiler design etc. Surprised that she still remembered me, my name and friends name too. Was eager to see the staff who handled C/S technologis and was extremely happy that i could meet her, though she could remember the face, she has forgotten the name. I was quite amazed that even after three years, how staffs remember us. Had a quick chat with OOAD Mam, and could only wish Softwre Engg Mam. Anyway the staff who had talked to me during FStival, as though he recognized me, failed to recognize this time after two weeks as expected :) I would consider this as the default behavior but the other staffs were amazing. Also, TCS had visited the campus that day, once again made me nostalgic and took me back by three years.
Anyway All ended well in college, reached home and crashed in bed for a looong sleep.
Rest of Vacation: Next two days were successfully destructed by "Diablo: Lord of Destruction". Then Sister arrived with her family. Diwali followed, and since my little neice was around, it was interesting. Decided to celebrate the Diwali without seeing Actor/Actress interviews and succeeded. Soon it was time to leave, and reached here traveling for the first time in car from Madurai to Bangalore, since i had joined my Brother who was coming car. And it was more thriling with people violating the rules in highway as they wish.
Nine days vacation vanished, and now i am back to my working place. I was happy with the way the vacation went, since i managed to few things apart from staying in front of the computer and TV.
Day 1 (rather Night 1): Reached home on Saturday, finished off few work (including eating fish curry) managed to reach College by around 4 PM. It was Thevar Jeyanthi that day and journey through Madurai roads was thrilling. The followers of the leader we indulging in all sort of activiites, exactly opposite to what the leader might have wanted them to do. Joe, Balamurugan, LGP, GRK, Varadharajan and Gautam were already working. Met all the staffs from Unix Lab. It took a little time to recollect what we had done during our college days and what has happened after we left. Started with upgrading the TCENet server. It soon extended into Night and after a long long time, it was going to be a night lab in College. Had dinner at Aarthi, and i could see Aarthi has put up a brave struggle against change, with the only change being the cost of items. Worked till 5.00 AM, went home and crashed into bed.
Day 2: Woke up late, had lunch and started to college in Car. First time tried driving alone in Madurai City, where the only traffic rule applicable is to forget all the traffic rules. And it rained heavily once i started, visibility was reduced to less than 10 metres. Still i progressed, tried hitting two gals in TVSScooty. Their good luck they escaped. Rain stopped and i reached college without any further adventures. Was a bit delayed due to issues with AC. Yep the server room still has few issues with AC and UPS :) Started working upgrading the server and trying to configure Samba. Dinner was parotta, kothu parotta and dosai from TPK. Had a chat with Gautam, an enthusiastict second year guy.In the middle of the night, Samba configuration got over but it was not working as expected :( :( Windows machine were not able to login. Problem persisted through out the Night.
Day 3: Could not go home, had a quick rest for a hour in guest house and started the day exploring Samba. First it seemed to suggest issues with versions. Tried changing the configuration, didn't work. BitBala, LGP tried from their end, issue was not resolved. It was sometime in the evening, still the issue persisted. Anyway whatever it is, we have the solution with us. Yes, at last Joe pitched in after completing his work. Few minutes issue was resolved. Problem was with NSCD. Stopped "NSCD" everything worked fine. Bala, LGP, Varatharajan had completed work from their end. So putting an end to all that, started the thrilling night ride to home along with the friends.
Day 3 being Monday, gave opportunity to meet other staffs. Met the staff who had handled System Software, Compiler design etc. Surprised that she still remembered me, my name and friends name too. Was eager to see the staff who handled C/S technologis and was extremely happy that i could meet her, though she could remember the face, she has forgotten the name. I was quite amazed that even after three years, how staffs remember us. Had a quick chat with OOAD Mam, and could only wish Softwre Engg Mam. Anyway the staff who had talked to me during FStival, as though he recognized me, failed to recognize this time after two weeks as expected :) I would consider this as the default behavior but the other staffs were amazing. Also, TCS had visited the campus that day, once again made me nostalgic and took me back by three years.
Anyway All ended well in college, reached home and crashed in bed for a looong sleep.
Rest of Vacation: Next two days were successfully destructed by "Diablo: Lord of Destruction". Then Sister arrived with her family. Diwali followed, and since my little neice was around, it was interesting. Decided to celebrate the Diwali without seeing Actor/Actress interviews and succeeded. Soon it was time to leave, and reached here traveling for the first time in car from Madurai to Bangalore, since i had joined my Brother who was coming car. And it was more thriling with people violating the rules in highway as they wish.
Nine days vacation vanished, and now i am back to my working place. I was happy with the way the vacation went, since i managed to few things apart from staying in front of the computer and TV.
Tuesday, November 09, 2010
What happened ????
Thats the question i had been asking myself nowadays. Nowadays, i am running out of time. I have not updated the blog for around a month. What am i doing ? I am not working 24x7. With the experience i gained in three years, i have mastered the art of sleeping over the problem. Managers seem to be satisfied, if i quote the problem to be with some variable in a unknown struct. I am not running behind any gal too. Stopped it even before starting since i know it will be an exhaustive run without a result. I have quit the habit of reading books sometime ago. I am not reading any English or Tamil books. Technical books are my sleeping dozes. If you are wondering, why the blog is not updated, believe even i don't know the reason. Could be bcoz of twitter, where i vent out my feelings now and then. Or could be because of facebook, where it shows a cute gal photo in News feed, which my friend of friend of friend of friend liked. Thanks to the "cute" gals who haven't set who are yet to discover the privacy settings of facebook. With a bit of satisfaction for finding few reasons for not updating my blog, let me quickly recap what i had been doing for the past one month.
* Attended PyCon 2010, met few of my Junior friends. Liked a few talks, slpet in a lot of talks. Most of the talks were not very interesting.
* Completed two exams in my MS course. Have two more exams to be completed to put an end to the theory papers.
* Attended my friend's Vanniaperumal marriage at Sattur. Drove from Madurai to Sattur and went beyond 100 KMPH and reached 120 for the first time. Enjoyed the marriage functions and met a few guys there.
* As usual watching a lot of movies, and for sure this year will be the year during which i have seen the maximum number of movies.
I could have summed it up as "Nothing significant" which would have obviated the need for this post :-) :-) :-)
* Attended PyCon 2010, met few of my Junior friends. Liked a few talks, slpet in a lot of talks. Most of the talks were not very interesting.
* Completed two exams in my MS course. Have two more exams to be completed to put an end to the theory papers.
* Attended my friend's Vanniaperumal marriage at Sattur. Drove from Madurai to Sattur and went beyond 100 KMPH and reached 120 for the first time. Enjoyed the marriage functions and met a few guys there.
* As usual watching a lot of movies, and for sure this year will be the year during which i have seen the maximum number of movies.
I could have summed it up as "Nothing significant" which would have obviated the need for this post :-) :-) :-)
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
FStival 2010
Note: This post contains reference to names and places, which might make sense only to TCE folks. It will be a bit long too. And at few places managed to mention about FStival, the main reason behind the visit :P
After two years break, i was back at FStival, the software freedom day celebration organised by GLUGOT and GLUG-Madurai. Accompanied by Junior Sai went to the function a little late as usual and stayed away from the chief guest address which seemed to be halfway through in K.S. Auditorium. The chief guest was none other than our senior, Mr. Amalan Joe Steeve. When the chief guest was addressing the crowd, myself and Sai, decided to roam around the college and check out the changes. And our junior Karthikeyan, who is presently doing 3rd year gave a good company for more than an hour. In two years, college has changed a lot, but there are still a lot of landmarks left to make you nostalgic.
The CSE classes are being held in the new building in front of IT department. The open air auditorium is functioning. There is a new building in the pump house. There is some new building coming up in front of the Maths Department. There is one more new building coming up near hostel. Very few monkeys in pump house and CSE Aalamaram. Z0 my final year class room has changed. The tables where 10 of us sit in a row has changed and it is now replaced with single chairs, and the room looks clean. I think the lab which was adjacent to Unix lab, previously called as Client/Server lab is now called as IBM lab !!!! Wondering how it got the name though and whether there is a plan to change the names of other labs to HP, M$, Oracle labs :P N/w lab is now called as Multicore lab or something. No changes to Apple and Web Design labs. The ditch in front of the library remains occupied with boys and as usual guys were having fun.
Met all the staffs in Unix lab except for Shalinie mam, since she had a meeting to attend after FStival and went straight there after the chief guess address. Met a staff who managed to talk as though he remembered me, while i doubt whether he did really. And then a mam who was travelling in auto showed signs of recognition. Whatever it is, it was great to be in College after two years and to get a feeling few staffs still can recognize you. This FStival also gave an opportunity to meet few of my juniors. It was fun as usual talking to them.
Coming to FStival, there were so many stalls this time. Congrats to them. Also there were around 300+ audience for FStival, including people from near by colleges and schools which was good. Roaming around the stalls was fun, we had stood behind and had explained the audience few years back :-) One major change was that students were using personal laptops in stalls. Looked like a corporate presentation with around 10 laptops in lab :P Finally left the college at around 5.00PM planning to visit later when i get time...
After two years break, i was back at FStival, the software freedom day celebration organised by GLUGOT and GLUG-Madurai. Accompanied by Junior Sai went to the function a little late as usual and stayed away from the chief guest address which seemed to be halfway through in K.S. Auditorium. The chief guest was none other than our senior, Mr. Amalan Joe Steeve. When the chief guest was addressing the crowd, myself and Sai, decided to roam around the college and check out the changes. And our junior Karthikeyan, who is presently doing 3rd year gave a good company for more than an hour. In two years, college has changed a lot, but there are still a lot of landmarks left to make you nostalgic.
The CSE classes are being held in the new building in front of IT department. The open air auditorium is functioning. There is a new building in the pump house. There is some new building coming up in front of the Maths Department. There is one more new building coming up near hostel. Very few monkeys in pump house and CSE Aalamaram. Z0 my final year class room has changed. The tables where 10 of us sit in a row has changed and it is now replaced with single chairs, and the room looks clean. I think the lab which was adjacent to Unix lab, previously called as Client/Server lab is now called as IBM lab !!!! Wondering how it got the name though and whether there is a plan to change the names of other labs to HP, M$, Oracle labs :P N/w lab is now called as Multicore lab or something. No changes to Apple and Web Design labs. The ditch in front of the library remains occupied with boys and as usual guys were having fun.
Met all the staffs in Unix lab except for Shalinie mam, since she had a meeting to attend after FStival and went straight there after the chief guess address. Met a staff who managed to talk as though he remembered me, while i doubt whether he did really. And then a mam who was travelling in auto showed signs of recognition. Whatever it is, it was great to be in College after two years and to get a feeling few staffs still can recognize you. This FStival also gave an opportunity to meet few of my juniors. It was fun as usual talking to them.
Coming to FStival, there were so many stalls this time. Congrats to them. Also there were around 300+ audience for FStival, including people from near by colleges and schools which was good. Roaming around the stalls was fun, we had stood behind and had explained the audience few years back :-) One major change was that students were using personal laptops in stalls. Looked like a corporate presentation with around 10 laptops in lab :P Finally left the college at around 5.00PM planning to visit later when i get time...
Bheemeswari River Rafting & Shivasamudra
After a few failed attempts at trips and treks, this trip to Bheemeswari became special just for the reason that we are going on a trip. Also probably the first trip with friends and families for the anna's who got married before sometime. As usual, the trip was planned all of a sudden, happened fast and ended well.
We started from Bangalore at around 6.30AM in the Innova which Pramod Anna managed to book. Loaded the car with so much of snacks and food that would suffice around 20 people, but taking into consideration that myself and Mani are going, we didn't take any chance. The plan was to go through Kanakpura and reach Bheemeswari. In few minutes, DP started the snacks grinding job and provoked others too and we all soon obliged. First stop was at some place after kanakapura, for breakfast. Hotel guys gave us the option of poori and spicy tomato rice, both of which were not good.
The journey was fun filled. We crossed a small hillock on the way and the scenery was good. We managed to reach the Kaveri fishing camp by around 10.30AM i guess. Quickly checked whether rafting was available and fortunately it was. The charge was 600 Rs per head. We soon paid the amount and geared up for the task wearing the life jackets and helmets. Soon our guide arrived gave the instructions and we started with our quest, 8KM ride from the camp to Muttati.
Rafting in kaveri is graded +2 rapids and is easy for beginers and non risky. The water was calm and there were few rapids here and there which gave a little ecstasy. Our guide Amit, manoeuvered the boat between the rocks with ease and explained about rafting in general, about the place, about rafting in North India. But all in Hindi :( :( Could make out the overall meaning of what he said, but we had a very patient translator Reena Anni who translated each and every word.
In the middle of the ride, we can get into the water and have a dip, and it was cool. Soon the ride came to an end and we came back to the fishing camp. And then started on the long ride to shivasamudra. I think this is the fourth time i am visiting the falls, so it was not that exciting. Visited Barachukki and gaganachukki and started on the long journey back to Bangalore, with a little sleep and as usual with non stop chatting.
We started from Bangalore at around 6.30AM in the Innova which Pramod Anna managed to book. Loaded the car with so much of snacks and food that would suffice around 20 people, but taking into consideration that myself and Mani are going, we didn't take any chance. The plan was to go through Kanakpura and reach Bheemeswari. In few minutes, DP started the snacks grinding job and provoked others too and we all soon obliged. First stop was at some place after kanakapura, for breakfast. Hotel guys gave us the option of poori and spicy tomato rice, both of which were not good.
The journey was fun filled. We crossed a small hillock on the way and the scenery was good. We managed to reach the Kaveri fishing camp by around 10.30AM i guess. Quickly checked whether rafting was available and fortunately it was. The charge was 600 Rs per head. We soon paid the amount and geared up for the task wearing the life jackets and helmets. Soon our guide arrived gave the instructions and we started with our quest, 8KM ride from the camp to Muttati.
Rafting in kaveri is graded +2 rapids and is easy for beginers and non risky. The water was calm and there were few rapids here and there which gave a little ecstasy. Our guide Amit, manoeuvered the boat between the rocks with ease and explained about rafting in general, about the place, about rafting in North India. But all in Hindi :( :( Could make out the overall meaning of what he said, but we had a very patient translator Reena Anni who translated each and every word.
In the middle of the ride, we can get into the water and have a dip, and it was cool. Soon the ride came to an end and we came back to the fishing camp. And then started on the long ride to shivasamudra. I think this is the fourth time i am visiting the falls, so it was not that exciting. Visited Barachukki and gaganachukki and started on the long journey back to Bangalore, with a little sleep and as usual with non stop chatting.
Thursday, September 02, 2010
Durai'sVirusProtection.vbe
I dont know whether it is a virus in first place, but it was irritating to me. A filenamed "Durai'sAutoProtection.vbe" gets copied to my pen drive everytime i inserted my pendrive into my windows box at office. My GNU/Linux laptop at home is my antivirus for pendrive. I kept removing the file from my pendrive and after a while got totally irritated and decided to fix it once for all.
First job is to track the location of the vbscript file. A bit of googling revealed that it is present in C:\Windows\system32 folder. To see the file, you will have to enable the following in folder options.
* Mark Show hidden files and folders
* Unmark Hide extensions of Known file types
* Unmark Hide protected Operating system files
Now i could see the file "Durai'sVirusProtection.vbe" in C:\WINDOWS\System32 directory. This is actually a VB script file, and i tried looking into the vb script code. Since i dont know even few words of vb script, could not guess much. But it claims to be removing a few viruses, and does few undesirable stuffs too.
1) Changes registry settings to change the Internet Explorer Title bar name to Durai.
2) Sets the default page of IE to some site.
3) Copies itself into pendrives inserted.
Though the file can be located, it is not possible to delete the file. Says the file is being used. The program using it is wscript.exe. Could not get much info about the same. Stop the process and then delete the file. Make sure the read only flag of the file is deselected before trying to delete.
Next to fix the registry settings,
Open regedit, and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\INTERNET EXPLORER\MAIN\ and then delete the Key value Window Title. Also change the starting address back to about:blank or whatever you want.
Also, inside HKEY_ LOCAL_ MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon the following key "Userinit" will be set to execute the vbscript file. Now since the file is removed, it will report an error everytime we logon. It will be set to some value like,
“C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe,C:\WINDOWS\system32\wscript.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\Durai'sVirusProtection.vbe”
Change this to just, “C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe"
With this the virus or unnecessary script will be removed from the machine. At times harmless stuffs like this are interesting to analyze and fix.
First job is to track the location of the vbscript file. A bit of googling revealed that it is present in C:\Windows\system32 folder. To see the file, you will have to enable the following in folder options.
* Mark Show hidden files and folders
* Unmark Hide extensions of Known file types
* Unmark Hide protected Operating system files
Now i could see the file "Durai'sVirusProtection.vbe" in C:\WINDOWS\System32 directory. This is actually a VB script file, and i tried looking into the vb script code. Since i dont know even few words of vb script, could not guess much. But it claims to be removing a few viruses, and does few undesirable stuffs too.
1) Changes registry settings to change the Internet Explorer Title bar name to Durai.
2) Sets the default page of IE to some site.
3) Copies itself into pendrives inserted.
Though the file can be located, it is not possible to delete the file. Says the file is being used. The program using it is wscript.exe. Could not get much info about the same. Stop the process and then delete the file. Make sure the read only flag of the file is deselected before trying to delete.
Next to fix the registry settings,
Open regedit, and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\INTERNET EXPLORER\MAIN\ and then delete the Key value Window Title. Also change the starting address back to about:blank or whatever you want.
Also, inside HKEY_ LOCAL_ MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon the following key "Userinit" will be set to execute the vbscript file. Now since the file is removed, it will report an error everytime we logon. It will be set to some value like,
“C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe,C:\WINDOWS\system32\wscript.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\Durai'sVirusProtection.vbe”
Change this to just, “C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe"
With this the virus or unnecessary script will be removed from the machine. At times harmless stuffs like this are interesting to analyze and fix.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Costly Affair
Was talking with my niece over the phone. Though she utters few words over the phone, this is the first time she was telling me some rhymes, that too completely, with a lot of enthusiasm. The reason behind the change is she has been going to school for few days, her first step towards interaction with a lot of kids around her. Since she had spent most part of her first two years inside the house, with minimal interaction with children, the idea of meeting a lot of children kept her excited i guess.
Good that they had the play school concept, which allows kids to get accustomed to the school environment, with interest. But the cost at which it comes, exceeds the cost that we might have spent during the entire engineering course. 45K for just two hours of class everyday. Looks like it is the same in Bangalore too, could be a little higher also. That is more than the total money i spent in a yyear doing my B.E. From what i heard from few of my seniors, they completed four years of Engineering in half the amount now collected in Play School.
Few Parents seemed a lot worried it seems, about the performance of the child. Worries about performance at two years is very early i guess. Education and Medicine are two things, where people wont take a chance. Which also gives the businessmen a chance to reap rich which they are doing without fail. Cant say whether the parent's views are wrong, but what is clearly wrong is the schools using the opportunity to smuggle in the name of education. The situation is not likely to change, i might end up doing the same mistake in future, but still could not stop thinking at present.
Good that they had the play school concept, which allows kids to get accustomed to the school environment, with interest. But the cost at which it comes, exceeds the cost that we might have spent during the entire engineering course. 45K for just two hours of class everyday. Looks like it is the same in Bangalore too, could be a little higher also. That is more than the total money i spent in a yyear doing my B.E. From what i heard from few of my seniors, they completed four years of Engineering in half the amount now collected in Play School.
Few Parents seemed a lot worried it seems, about the performance of the child. Worries about performance at two years is very early i guess. Education and Medicine are two things, where people wont take a chance. Which also gives the businessmen a chance to reap rich which they are doing without fail. Cant say whether the parent's views are wrong, but what is clearly wrong is the schools using the opportunity to smuggle in the name of education. The situation is not likely to change, i might end up doing the same mistake in future, but still could not stop thinking at present.
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