Wayand trip and the trek on the Chembra

This will be one of the most memorable treks i have ever had in my life as this is my first anyways . 11 Guys mostly college mates from bangalore and chennai decided to visit Wayanad on October 2 – October 4 . As with most other bachelor trips , it started of as a casual email conversation between me saikrishna and vins . Although there was very limited time and all sorts of odds we managed to pull it off .

Six guys from Chennai joined us in bangalore on October 2 morning , we had a tempo traveller arranged for all the travel . Started at 5:30 Am and hit the mysore road ( it was bliss driving there ) . After finishing the breakfast on the way we reached Sulthan bathery through Gundulpet .

We had arranged for a dormitory in ambalavoil near sulthan bathery and reached there around 2pm . Although the hotel was far from what we expected it was very cheap for 11 people and sufficed our needs . We had torrential rains on 2nd and 3rd october . Inspite of that we visited places like Edukkal caves , kolapara dam on the first two days .

Our main intention of the trip was to do some kind of trek , the Menmutty falls had a landslide so it was cut off . Our last resort was trekking on the Chembra peek , and decided that we will visit that on sunday morning hoping that the rain gods will be kind enough .

Heart shaped lake on the chembra

The trek on the chembra peek starts in a estate and takes around 6 hours to complete . We had a great time the journey up was very easy and good . We reached the heartshaped lake on the top of the chembra and decided to return .

the mountain we didnt climb

The journey downwards very slippery and most of the guys managed to fall and slip took tremendous difficulties in reaching the base . We could not have been more lucky , was totally flabbergasted by the change of fortunes . On october 2 / 3 we had so much rain , everyone was skeptical about the whole trip .

good work out

May be i will quote Paulo here “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” .

Software as a Service aka Google vs M$

The dominant enterprise players in Office suite have been Microsoft and IBM for a long time . Although they may not be the greatest software to have been developed but enterprise is just a bunch of risk fearing morons especially the big ones . So they are used to live with crap or to be honest shit most of the times . Microsoft has been using all sorts of bullying techniques concomitant with License sops to blackmail companies to use its Operating system / Office suite . I have heard people complaining of companies not allowing employees to use Firefox or Google Chrome and insisting on using IE .

But to face it big companies didn’t have much leverage they have to toe the line of M$ . Primarily because people are used to its crap and will resist change . GNU/Linux has not been able to make rapid inroads into desktop market especially in companies . This is mainly because of lack of awareness / knowledge among people especially the non – IT / CS workforce . So companies were forced to use a costlier office solutions . Now Google has been a subdued player but off late has been catching up on the big fish . For those who don’t know  Google offers Gmail/Google Calendar /Google docs / sites / GTalk based office solution with 25 GB free space . The servers will be hosted in Google and its said that Google data center with its state of the art technologies ensures reduction in carbon foot print . The major catch here is that the cost for which this is offered 50$/user/year .

This has raised alarm bells in Redmond , Google recently announced that Wave will be available for Google Apps Premier users . People still complain that web mail is not that powerful compared to email client like thunderbird . Many big companies seldom use thunderbird but crap client like Outlook . IMHO , gmail is way better than Outlook in its search and other capabilities .

Google labs has been producing new features that is consistently raising the bar . With the web based office solutions companies can look forward to using operating system such as Ubuntu and others to reduce cost per se .

Anyways still the question of data privacy and other generic concerns of a cloud based system are still valid while using Google Apps . But its way better than the Diktuts of M$ .

Udayar the life of great king Raja Raja

Raja Raja you are a great king

I see a lot of praise on Kalki often on the blogosphere (even i did it once i guess ) but balakumaran gets very scant attention for the Magnum Opus Udayar , a epic book on the Brihadeeswara temple (பெருவுடையார் கோவில்) at tanjore . Raja Raja Cholan the greatest king of the Chola dynasty has a vision to build a temple for Lord Shiva , with the Gopuram alone around 216 feet made entirely of granite . The temple kalasam is a monolithic granite (a single stone ) of weight around 81 ton . So the story starts with the great King envisioning to build this great temple for Lord Shiva. He is shown as astute follower of Hinduism or Santhana Dharma . Raja Raja’s vision is seen by skeptics like his son Rajendra Chola as impractical and virtually impossible . But Raja Raja is absolutely committed to the temple .

The story was absolutely gripping , i can go on with the highlights of the book , but i am too lazy to that . So I just want to share those splendid things which i liked the most in the book :

Raja Raja’s Characterization I dont’ know how much of it is Story and how much is real history . But I love this king , i had dreams of seeing him when i was reading the book . At times i could relate with certain characters in the book , at times i was even thinking “May be I was this guy then in my previous incarnations ” (I still remain a strict rationalist just a too much of the book ). He is a absolute definition of a leader , the way he inspires people to contribute to the temple , or the way he handles complicated matters like the Caste differences in the Chola dynasty . On a personal note he is a very good romantic lover , especially with his wife panchavanmadevi .

Rajendra is shown as a Angry at times even rude and foolish heir apparent, the way RajaRaja matures him and breaks his foolish and egoistic thoughts is astounding . Especially Rajendra abhors the special privileges offered to Bhramins . He is interested only in waging wars , and believes that the Wariors should be given supreme importance in a society . RajaRaja as a king during non-war times is very loving and caring , this makes Rajendra think of his father as weak , and Rajendra’s battalion to be more powerful when compared to his father . In this context RajaRaja will remind him that even the battalion of Rajendra comes under his order as he is the King of this nation .

Karuvoora Thevar : He is the Guru/Saint of RajaRaja , shown as a Sidha Purush who guides RajaRaja in matters of strategy and Spirutal thought . Every human being at some point requires logical (call it spiritual i am bit skeptical about the word ) thinking that does not make him too arrogant for his own good . So RajaRaja is attributing all his success to the Lord himself .

The Story covers very different areas of Chola history , the caste system that was present in the Chola history . The Sirpa Art which was in all its glory during the period of RajaRaja is described in great deal . The Story also discusses how such huge granite blocks were carried to the top . The temple construction required wars to be fought , it involved lot of slaves captured during wars . The temple was built using the properties looted during the wars with the Chalukyas , Pandyas etc .

Let me quote the famous inscription that is still there , which was inscribed while the temple was inaugurated by Raja Raja :

‘Naam kuduthanavum nam akkaan kuduthanavum nam pendugal koduthanavum koduthar koduthanavum…’ (I could not get the tamil one , maybe if i get the one i will update ) . This is basically a reference to all the people who contributed to the temple . When the book was over , i felt a void in myself . I am planning to go to the temple very soon , just a historic mission .

A great King and a great book to cherish for generations to come !

The urge to consume everything

A Life driven and defined by the frenzy of consumption , books , travel looks more and more to me as mere ways of human consumption. The urge to differentiate with others , the urge to be judged different , intelligent modern and what not .

I am seeing a broad taste similarity among people especially in Bangalore . I dont know is it a natural urge , or people have decided together if certain things needs to be done now .

A lot of avengers , people are a, sking me to buy bikes from day one i came to bangalore .

The topics of discussion center Xbox , LED Tvs et al , i tend to believe am i into some kind of exhibition out here .

Taste just is a matter of consumption , i saw “x” films in a day , “y” books in a week and travelled “z” places in a month .

What are we trying to prove?   why are we doing this ? why are we destroying this place ?

Some kind of manufactured reality , guess need to sleep !!

After all not a sporting disaster

Of all the sports i follow , Football , Tennis and F1 much of the teams i supported were looking down the barrel early this year .

Chelsea and Real Madrid were not in a position for any major silverware . Ferrari were outclassed by the relative unknowns the Brawn Gp and Red Bull (they still continue to !) .But the worst nightmare was RF breaking down on his loss to Nadal early this year in Australia .

As times changed , Federer has come back to win in French open and Wimbledon , surpassing the great man Pete Sampras .

I felt like crying when Federer jumped in ecstacy after surpassing Andy Roddick in a epic five setter .

Real Madrid has gone into a buying-spree after bringing Kaka and Ronaldo to the Bernabeau . Looking forward to a good show by the Galacticos in the coming season .

Ban on ENR technologies to Non NPT nations

Much of the last year the Indian political discussions were centered around the Indo-US nuclear deal , over which the Left withdrew support to the UPA Govenment  . The basic argument then was that , even if the US government refuses to provide full civil nuclear cooperation we can fall back on Russia and France to do that .

I seriously doubted this argument as USA  prime concern then was the profitability of the deal to US Nuclear industry . So it will never accept a position that is in disadvantage to the US .

Now the G8 ban has proved the sceptics right on the issue .

The election results and the left dilemma

India has voted and voted for a stable government . With Congress led UPA heading towards a simple majority , the stakes at question are we leading to issue less elections in the future . People have voted in a way so that a stable government can be formed at the center . This 2 to 3 % swing of votes in the states like Tamil nadu , kerela and even West Bengal to some extent would have tilted the base in favour of the Congress and its allies .

The left experiment of forming a non-congress , secular government has hit a serious setback . Its a dream come true for the pro-rich media that the Left are not in any strength to have influence in the government . This will facilitate the so called ’sensible reforms’ to be pushed through the government .

What this election results mean to the future of Indian politics . Is it meaning that the Indian People voted for the nuclear deal or pushing through capital account convertibility in financial markets , as political pundits have analyzed ?

People have rejected the sectarian force like BJP , but the only pan Indian presence today is the Congress . In states like Kerela and West Bengal even if the Left had win as before they were not in position to form the government . This is the real message the elections try to convey . People don’t expect good things to happen from the government but what they don’t want is a hung parliament and the ensuing horse trading that may affect the Sovereignty of this very nation . This is a serious setback to progressive forces and the nature of Indian democracy were real people issues have taken a back seat .

The only way the left can try to gain grounds in the central politics is to build the party in states other than Kerela , West Bengal and Tripura , all said and done thats a very difficult thing to achieve in the short term .

Am i a python addict

Off late i am finding myself reading too much of python all the time . Some of my friends have been cripping that i have become a Pythiam . Honestly speaking i love this language , and gasp with such amount of awe how this language is a piece of art to work with . It is the amount of time it saves me in doing a lot of work . People often dont know the power of the language, my colleagues often ask me is it not just a scripting language ? I just reply back to them that its a programming language which is a credible alternative to Perl or much worse bash scripts .

When i use python language these days, mostly all the time working on some stuff that is pretty much insane for most people around me . I at times become brain dead seeing ugly perl code that are just trivialities in python .

I have started to like the ipython interpreter off late , its very useful  with built in auto-complete functionalities among others .I worked with the pexpect library for automating operations over ssh recently. The itertools , funtools modules are my personal favourites . I love programming when its working with python, the disadvantage of which is that most other languages look very ugly to me .

The legacy of hate and mistrust

How many times in the future i am going to hear all this bullshit . The words make me overwhelmed with nausea . I don’t know how people are wired to hate “others” who don’t worship the same gods or speak the same language, or have the same orientation in bed . Education as i see in India has nothing to do in this nation rather than fetching money and life .We all cannot be the same with the same “Modi” mask,it will so boring  if it is so . Honestly it baffles me when i see well educated people speaking of “Muslims” should be thrown out of the nation , or those who glorify Modi for his masterful orchestra of the Gujarat pogrom .

Hoping that BJP is miserably defeated this time around .

How Ignorant :@

This post was a long overdue.The nirvana happened a long time back only the time to sit down and post it took time . Say i have a PC that has a ip address 192.168.10.1 and i do a ssh to it . From there i ping a machine 10.0.0.7 what will be the source ip address .I was ignorant to the core that i have not given a thought to that .God the machine may have multiple interfaces and linux selects the source IP based on if it knows there is a interface with the same IP .Take for example this particular case if the machine has an IP 10.0.0.5 then the Linux machine selects it as the source IP . Its a hop-by-hop case on which the source IP of a packet.What the hell i read the routing tables and stuff for those years .Why was i not able to correlate this basic fact .Let alone correllate not even a thought to the source IP.May be one excuse is i didnt work in machines having so many interfaces or complicated routing tables with VLAN as i do now .May be i should have used ping -R option .