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November 23, 2024

Category: Fun

June 10, 2011

Sharing: That is what internet is all about

by viggy — Categories: discussion, experience, Misc, software — Tags: , , , — Leave a comment

When was the last time you lent few hundred rupees to your best friend without thinking of getting it back in return? When was the last time you showed your collection of Coins or Stamps or DVDs to your nephew without being tensed of they spoiling it? When was the last time you lent your car to your dearest friend without hoping that he will return it without an extra bump or scratch on it?

Long long time ago, probably when you were kids. I guess not, kids especially are possessive about their toys and stuff.

Now again, when was the last time you shared a hilarious video link with your friends? When was the last time your shared an idea with your friend and other who follow you on Twitter? When was the last time you kept a movie on torrent even after it was fully downloaded so that others could download it from you? When was the last time you wrote a nice poem or a story or an experience on your blog so that others can enjoy it?

I guess, the answer for almost all the second set of questions is “Today or yesterday”.

Why such a difference? Why is sharing much more easier on Internet but not in real world?

Well, no prizes for the right answer. Because the obvious answer is that sharing on internet does not mean that you are loosing something. You will still have the video with you to watch again, you will still have the idea with you and you will still have the poem or the story or the experience with you. Which means, things on internet are growing as you share  them.

A perfect example is “Wikipedia”. While an Indian match goes on, the score of Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar keeps getting updated on his wikipedia page after every run he scores. I can understand why cricinfo guys do it, for the ad money but why is a person sitting in some remote place in front of his T.V. watching the match updating the wiki page simultaneously. Because he just wants to give the most updated information to his set of readers whom he does not even know. He is just contributing to it so that others also do the same for the contents which he reads on the internet.

So the obvious answer for the question was that on internet things grow as you share them and that is why we share them. As long as we do not loose the stuff we have, we are quite happy to share it others.

Then, how about software? Shouldnt they be also shared? I mean, even softwares grow as we share them with others without loss to the source.

Similarly, what about knowledge? Havnt we reached this wonderful world of technology with Iphones and 3D movies and aeroplanes because our predecessors shared the knowledge that they had without restricting it? Zero was discovered in India and it travelled all the way to Persia from where it reached all the corners of the world. Havent we been sharing knowledge from long long time.

So here are some more difficult questions for you.

In the world of sharing of knowledge, where does patents fit in?

In the world of sharing of softwares, where does licenses and proprietary softwares fit in?

And does it makes sense to put any type of restrictions on people sharing over internet?

Please share your views.

P.S. I thought of writing this blog when I read few lines of a junk article in a newspaper by Arindam Chaudhuri where he condemned internet and said that internet was full of articles that were written to spread wrong news and justifies the latest policy of Indian government to put restrictions on internet bloggers/contents.

March 26, 2011

We dont want to be a Nero’s Guest

by viggy — Categories: social — Tags: , , , , — Leave a comment

“We dont want to be a Nero’s guest” is what everyone had to say when around 130 people from various parts of Bangalore gathered to raise voice against Farmer suicides. It included software professionals, research scholars, students, professors and state government employees. All of them could have continued doing what they did on their weekends i.e. party with their friends, visit amazing places near Bangalore or just watch a movie and sleep. But they chose not to because how much ever you ignore it, you can not just feel it right to enjoy a happy life with your neighbours committing suicide. Especially when it is for around the same amount that you spend for your family on a weekend.

Just our saying that “We dont want to be a Nero’s guest” doesnt change anything. It wont bring the 200,000 farmers who have already committed suicide and it wont change the policies to stop more farmer suicides. But what it does is to let the government know that they cannot just get away with this. We cannot any more have the policies in favour of the minority of the people in name of development and let the majority starve to death. It is a perfect recipe to disaster and sooner or later we will trigger it if we dont do anything to change the current scenario.

As planned, we started the protest march at 5 pm from Mysore Bank Circle with around 60 people each holding a banner. We did manage to get the attention of the people who were travelling on the road and distributed the pamphlets too. Hope atleast some would have read them and will contact us back and join us in this cause. We raised slogan against the current reduction in silk import tax from 30.66% to 5% and the anti farmers policies that the both central government and state government having been imposing in every budget. We reached Town Hall at around 5:45 where around 40-50 people were already sitting with banners.

At the town hall, we started with a street play depicting the inequality between an engineer living in an urban area and a farmer. An engineer gets atleast a call per day informing him of the various loans that he can avail to buy luxury items which can be sanctioned to him without any security. Where as the same banks do not have any money to lend to farmers who have been working hard in the fields but do not have security for the banks. The play depicted the current scenario perfectly where in politicians are happy to subsidize electricity to malls in the cities on the cost of cut offs and load sheding for more than half of a day in villages. With banks and politicians giving no heed to the voices of the distressed farmers, they are forced to borrow money from wealthy money lenders in villages at an exorbitant rate of interest of minimum of 36% and which can go as high as 120%. With all doors closed the farmers are left with little choice but committing suicides, hoping they will not be reborn atleast as a farmer in their next life.

After the street play, Senthil gave a brief introduction of how the idea of conducting the vigil had come up and why it was such an important event. He thanked all the participating organizations like AID Bangalore, ITEC, Sugathi, Concern and many more. He represented the people who had all gathered when he said that we were all ashamed to face someone like Shri Boregowda who had lost his son and daughter-in-law due to the policies of the government that favoured us. He also mentioned the pathetic condition of the current media which had not covered the farmers suicides.

After his talk, Senthil asked Shri Bore Gowda to come and speak a few words. He explained to everybody how both his son and his daughter-in-law were already in debt but were planning to clear the debt with the good production they had this season. However the sudden fall of cocoon prices became the trigger for them to take such a drastic step. The sad grand-father who had been left with 3 grand-children had only the future of his grand-children in mind. He requested everybody to come forward and help to give a good life to his grand-children. He also told how many local government authorities had visited them and promised compensation but none of whom had actually dispatched any amount till now.

After this, Mr. Krishna Gowda, a sericulture activist from Mandya, gave us the complete picture of the impact of the import tax reduction. Though the government currently has decreased the silk import tax in pretext of the move to help the silk weavers, he told us that it hardly actually helps the weavers. It actually help the bosses of the rich bosses of the weavers who will now be making huge profits. He told that the price fall happened due to the anticipation of the fall of silk price when the actual policy will be implemented from April 1st. Anticipating the fall of silk price, the dealers in the market emptied their stocks of silk thus causing such a huge crash in silk price. He mentioned that how both central govt and state govt had completely ignored the matter. If only the state government had inject money to support the price of the silk, such a fall in price could have been averted. He also mentioned that the actual repercussion of the reduction in silk import will be seen when  Chinese silk will enter Indian market with the meagre 5% import tax. This, he warned us, will actually lead to many more suicides if not acted upon immediately.

This was soon followed by a talk by B. Suresh, a popular director who is known to make more sensible kannada movies than his counterparts who believe in making movies with just songs and masalas. With twilight dawning, we simultaneously started the candle lighting event with Shri Bore Gowda lighting the first candle. Soon we had more than 100 candles lighting to show the solidarity for all the farmers who have committed suicide and to let all the farmers living that their neighbours in the city for whom they have been tilling the field and feeding with their hard work will do their best to help them lead a happy life.

With atleast, TV 9 and Samaya NEWS channel covering the event and reporters from The Hindu, we hope to see at least this burning issue of Farmer suicides reaching the National pages of the news papers and Breaking News tags of TV NEWS channels. However, one thing is sure, we are not going to stop and this is just the beginning. A group of people will be soon visiting the affected villages and understand the ground reality which will then help us to actually think of some concrete steps that we can take to help these sericulture farmers.

Do contact us if you would like to join us and help us end up eating the very own hands that feed us. We are reachable at,

http://www.itecentre.co.in/node/18

You can keep yourself updated about this issue by following the wiki page that we have created, http://farmer-suicide-and-it.wikispaces.com/

March 21, 2011

It is now or never

by viggy — Categories: experience, social — Tags: , , , — Leave a comment

I always wanted to do something for him. Through out my life I had seen him sacrificing to keep me happy. These were small things but these were the things due to which I am whatever I am. Very often, there would be one apple and two of us. So to make me eat the full apple, he used to say that he did not like apple. Slowly, he started disliking more and more things for me. He also got too comfortable with his old clothes so that I could have new one. We were not poor but as most of the middle class families, we had limited budgets. I always used to think that when I grow up I will make up for it. After all I was a small boy at that time. What could I have done. I studied hard and got good marks and that was all I could do. Slowly I grew up to be a college boy but still I was small. I did not earn anything but I did spend a lot. We had grown from middle class to upper middle class, so I had the luxury. But I didnt observe the cut downs that he was making. He didnt buy a car so that he could sponsor my graduation.  Then the incident happened. He was diagnosed with a terminal illness. But somehow I had hope. After all he had been a good man through out his life, why would God punish him this way. If anyone had to be punished, it had to me for bullying him to agree my terms. But 2 years later, he passed away and I was left all alone with the huge burden of things I wanted to do for him. Now I dont know what to do with all the plans that I had made for him. I have money now but no one to enjoy it with. I make self sacrifice but that does not bring a smile on anybody’s face. I do not know how to reduce this burden. If only amongst so many things he disliked, I knew one thing he liked. But I never asked. It is now I realize that whatever you want to do for others, it is now or never.

Many of you must have heard about the farmer suicides. Almost everybody must have thought to do something for them. Probably as soon as you reach 40, each one of you want to be a politician or a social worker and change the policies in favour of the farmers. Or probably you are waiting to finish one last project that you are presently involved in. But please realize that it is NOW or NEVER. Inequality is the fastest growing sector in India and we need to arrest it as soon as possible. Farmer suicides have become so common that NEWS channels consider it as a information than a NEWS. Come join us to wake the people of India and save our farmer brothers. Please let us not have to carry the burden of things that we wanted to do for the farmers to our graves. Be there on 26th of March at TownHall at 5 pm. For more information, http://farmer-suicide-and-it.wikispaces.com

February 26, 2011

Different faces of money

by viggy — Categories: experience, Fun — 4 Comments

Had gone to Amoeba with 7 of my school friends whom I met after a long long time. There I played a car race which was Rs. 40 per person. The car race was just 2 laps and around for 5 mins and I hardly knew what I was doing. (I dont know how to drive a real car too). After that we went to Purple Haze. The ambience was great and though only 4 of us drank, we enjoyed the flavored hookha. The bill was Rs. 1629 which included 3 shots of tequila and two pitchers of Beer too. As I had just recently got a new job, everyone was expecting a treat from me but somehow I was not in mood. Hence even though I paid Rs. 500, most of my friends were unhappy. I agree,they had all the rights to be sad. Anyways after hearing friendly abuses from them for being a miser, they dropped me at Marthahalli bridge where I waited in bus stop to catch a bus. While waiting I decided to buy groundnuts just for time pass. There is a boy who sells it at the bus stop and he keeps hitting his metal spatula on the metal pan in which he fries the groundnuts. Since there was some time for the bus to come, I decided talking to the boy. He was hardly 10 years old. He told me that he was from U.P. and his parents are still there. He came to Bangalore so that he can earn for his sister to get married. The trolly was owned by someone else and the owner gives him daily a box of groundnuts which this boy has to sell from Rs. 100. In turn, this boy will get Rs. 1000 per month and a place to sleep and food to eat. If the boy does not make Rs. 100, then the remaining amount will be deducted from his salary. It made me wonder that the boy works just for Rs. 35 per day and I had just spent Rs. 500 in matter of few hours by which I couldnt even satisfy my friends and had spent Rs. 40 for just 5 mins for something which I did not even enjoy and this boy was spending his whole day just to earn Rs. 35. That is what made me think how this boy would react if I had given that Rs. 500 to him. The money was same but what it bought would have been so very different. Hopefully through the “Each One Teach One”, I will be able to make some difference in lives of atleast few of millions of such boys.

November 18, 2010

1. Fox and the holes

by viggy — Categories: Fun, Puzzle — Tags: , , , , — Leave a comment

This is another series of blogs I will be writing to archive all the good puzzles that I find. The reason behind this is that by blogging I will make sure that I understand not only the puzzle properly but also the way to find its solution. And the main cream in the puzzle is the simplicity of the technique through which u reach the solution and not the solution itself. So here is the Fox and the holes puzzle.

In a jungle, there are six holes in a line. A fox sleeps in one of these holes every night in such a way that it never sleeps in the same hole in two nights in a row. Also it always selects a hole right or left to the hole in which it slept the previous night. Now as a hunter, you have one chance every midnight to select any one and only one hole and catch the fox while he is sleeping. Device a strategy to find the minimum number of nights you will need to catch the fox.

Points to be noted: 1) If the fox is sleeping in the leftmost hole, then the next night he can sleep only in the hole right to it i.e. the second leftmost.
2) As mentioned, the fox will not sleep consecutively two nights in the same hole.

November 14, 2010

Viggy’s day OUT!!

by viggy — Categories: experience, Fun — Tags: , , , — Leave a comment

Today I went out with Vivek and Sunny. The plan was that Vivek will bring his friend Sunny and I will bring Tushar with me and both will go to celebrate my joining of Intel and Vivek’s bday. However since I informed Tushar about this plan at the last moment, he was not able to make it. Hence only me, vivek and Sunny were left to enjoy the evening and BOY did we enjoy it.
First, I picked Vivek and Sunny from Jayadeva and then we went in Auto to MG Road. The plan was to go to Oxygen Pub. Vivek has heard a lot about it and even I had always wanted to a pub. So we went to MG road and roamed around a bit before entering Oxygen. I gave the Rs. 900 cover charge and when we entered there were two doors. One led to a lighted hall which had seats all around it and a lot of space in between. However old Hindi songs were being played. The next door led to a disc where Rock songs were being played but it was nearly empty. Only one or two table were occupied and they looked completely drunk. We asked a waiter if this was all as we were disappointed. We were expecting a disc full of couples dancing however we didn’t find any room remotely interesting. Waiter told us that one room was a disc and other was a Girls dance bar. Since the disc was completely empty we thought of trying out the girl’s dance bar. It was truly a dance bar and soon after we entered around 5 girls in Saree which was exposing their hip entered the room and they stood in front of us. They didn’t start dancing yet but they were shaking their hip and clearly trying to entice us. We were feeling very awkward and I was scared to death. I knew that a dance bar was banned in India and didn’t trust these guys to be doing it legally. Hence we all decided to grab a beer ( KF Strong was Rs. 300) to cover our cover charges and run from here soon. Soon people started to pour in the bar and some looked regular chatting with waiters on their way in. And music also changed to latest item songs. The girls had not yet started dancing as such but they were making more movements. One person among the audience took a bundle of Rs. 10 and gave it to waiter nearby. He started dropping it over the head of a girl who was dancing nearby. This made me more awkward. One that money was being dropped in such a way and two that the girls were dancing like that for the money. Soon around 3 more girls came and they also started dancing. Though most of the girls were around 25-30 years old, I noticed one who looked very young and was probably around 20-22 years old. She was beautiful and to see her in this way made me sad. We soon finished our beers and left. Since one of my friend wanted to drink more and it was just around 8, we decided to go to some other pub. As we had heard about Le Rock and we didnt want to try some other unknown pub, we decided to go to Le Rock. The cover charge there was Rs. 400. We were thinking that we wouldnt be able to drink enough to cover the cover charge. However we paid the cover charge and entered. The ambiance looked perfect for a pub and with Bose woofers near our seat, it made sure that we feel every beat of the song. We decided to order a Tower of beer but since it was not there, we ordered a Pitcher and 3 tequilas. However I refused to have a Tequila and Vivek drank mine. We completed one in no time and Vivek ordered one more. Meanwhile we went on with our photoshoot posing in different poses. I was not very with the service there as we had ordered a Potato basket along with our first pitcher and it was brought to us only after we refused to accept the second pitcher if the potato basket was not served soon. Potato basket was really good, especially with Potato’s cut in shape of round faces and some with cream inside them. By this time my head had already started spinning and I was feeling dizzy. This was the first time I had drank so much and even though I didnt have the Tequila shot but even beer was too much for me. I was trying to hold me as much as possible but clearly alcohol does impair your reaction time. In all we had three beer pitchers and the total bill was Rs. 2472. :). And I thought we wouldnt even make it to Rs. 1200. Anyways on our way back we had a fight with an AutoRickshaw driver. He was trying to cheat us by taking a longer route. We took another Auto and were safely back home. So that was my day out with Vivek and Sunny. Overall a wonderful evening with a great new experience of the dance bar. Dont know if I will want to go there again though.

P.S. Since this is the first time I am accepting publicly that I drink beer, if you are one of my relatives please keep it to yourselves. Others can wait to find it out. :)

November 9, 2010

3. The Donkey in the well

by viggy — Categories: Panchatantra — Tags: , , , , — Leave a comment

Original Source :: http://www.market4us.com/donkey/index.html

One day a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally he decided the animal was old and the well needed to be covered up anyway, it just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey.
So he invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all took a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realised what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone’s amazement, he quieted down. A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well and was astonished at what he saw.
With every shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up. As the farmer’s neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and trotted off!
Moral: Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a stepping stone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up!

November 9, 2010

2. Importance of small things

by viggy — Categories: Panchatantra — Tags: , , — Leave a comment

Original source:: http://cityblogger.com/archives/2010/11/01/recycling-the-buddha-way

Buddha, one day, was in deep thought about the worldly activities and the ways of instilling goodness in human beings. The following is the text of conversation between him and his disciple.

One of the disciples approached him and said humbly “Oh my teacher! While you are so much concerned about the world and others, why don’t you look into the welfare and needs of your own disciples also?”.

Buddha: OK…Tell me how I can help you?

Disciple: Master, My attire is worn out and is beyond the decency to wear the same. Can I get a new one please?

Buddha found the robe indeed was in a bad condition which needed replacement. He asked the store keeper to give the disciple a new robe to wear on. The disciple thanked Buddha and retired to his room.

Though he met his disciple’s requirement, Buddha was not all that contended on his decision. He realized he missed out some point. A while after, he realized, what he should have asked the disciple? He went to his disciple’s place and asked him “Is your new attire comfortable? Do you need anything more?”

Disciple: Thank you my Master. The attire is indeed very comfortable. I need nothing more.
Buddha: Having got the new one, what did you do with your old attire?
Disciple: I am using it as my bedspread.
Buddha: Then…hope you have disposed off your bed spread.
Disciple: No…no…Master. I am using my old bedspread as my window curtain.
Buddha: What about your old curtain?
Disciple: Being used to handle hot utensils in the kitchen
Buddha: Oh…I see…Can you tell me what they did with the old cloth they
used in Kitchen?
Disciple: They are being used to wash the floor.
Buddha: Then, the old rug being used to wash the floor…????
Disciple: Master, since they were torn off so much, we could not find
any better use, but to use as a twig in the oil lamp, which is right
now lit in your study room….

Buddha smiled in contentment and left for his room.

November 8, 2010

1. The Best Salesman Ever !!

by viggy — Categories: Fun, Panchatantra — Tags: , , — 1 Comment

Original source: http://gpraveenkumar.wordpress.com/2010/11/08/the-best-salesman-ever/

A keen immigrant Indian Marwadi lad applied for a salesman’s job at London ‘s premier downtown department store. In fact, it was the biggest store in the world – you could get anything there.

The boss asked him, “Have you ever been a salesman before?” “Yes sir, I was a salesman in India “, replied the lad. The boss liked the cut of him and said, “You can start tomorrow and I’ll come and see you.”

The day was long and arduous for the young man, but he got through it. And finally 6:00 PM came around. The boss duly fronted up and asked, “How many sales did you make today?” “Sir, Just ONE sale.” said the young salesman. “Only one sale?” blurted the boss. “No! No! You see here, most of my staff make 20 or 30 sales a day. “If you want to keep this job, you’d better be doing better than just one sale. By the way “How much was the sale worth?”

93300534.00 pounds” said the young Marwadi. “What”,” How did you manage that?” asked the flabbergasted boss.

“Well”, said the salesman, “This man came in and I sold him a small fish hook, then a medium hook and finally a really large hook. Then I sell him new fishing rod and some fishing gear. Then I asked him where he was going fishing and he said down the coast. So I told him he’d be needing a boat, so I took him down to the boat department and sold him that twenty-foot schooner with the twin engines. Then he said his Volkswagen probably wouldn’t be able to pull it, so I took him to our automotive department and sold him that new Deluxe 4X4 Blazer.

I then asked him where he’ll be staying, and since he had no accommodation, I took him to camping department and sold him one of those new igloo 6-sleeper camper tents. Then the guy said, while we’re at it, I should throw in about $100 worth of groceries and two cases of beer.

The boss took two steps back and asked in astonishment, “You sold all that to a guy who came in for a fish hook!!”

“No” answered the salesman, “he came in to buy a headache relief tablet and I said to him, “Sir, fishing is best headache removal”

Boss – “You sit in my chair…….

Moral of the story::
According to me, the salesman was able to make that sale not because of his convincing power or ability to sale but due to his ability to understand the complete use case for the customer. A normal salesman would have sold the tablet that he was asked for and be happy but this salesman actually tried to understand the customer’s problem and helped him to solve the problem. Again this can become true only in ideal scenarios where a salesman has time enough to understand the customer problem. But I think it is a good quality for a salesman to have.

November 8, 2010

My own Panchatantra collections

by viggy — Categories: Fun, Panchatantra — Tags: , , — Leave a comment

I have always liked to read small stories which have great meaning and moral behind them. It can be those of Panchatantra or those written by Leo Tolstoy. However many times I find that I forget these stories and hence I will now start documenting them here. It might not necessary be a popular story, even a small incident described by someone in form a story will do for this section. The idea is to keep a record of such instances so that they can be taken as an experience in future to decide something. However as his might clearly lead to some copyright issues, I would like to clearly state here that I am doing this only for the reasons stated above and not for any commercial gains. Also all the content shared by me here will be under CC by SA license if their original sources dont have any problems with that. I would also mention the original sources every time I come to know of it.