My Private Sp@ce

I am finally getting a taste of a seriously cool climate. It's only starting to get cold but for a hard-core Mumbaikar this is Mr Freeze himself. But all the paraphernalia that goes -- woollies, blankets, socks, heaters, brandy, hot tea/coffee/chocolate, snuggling -- with this climate has its own charm.

I finally added some homey touches, as Fiona puts it, to my room --frames, wall hangings & scented candles. Although I still can't make peace with the curtains. I detest those drapes. They are just so...gray.

I am so bloody broke at the moment. This year has been wild for me and and my wallet. While I am sure I'll indifferently smile over all this ruckus in the future, right now I can only manage a well-meaning frown.

I haven't watched any impressive movie in a while. Except for maybe Trick 'R Treat. Somehow my entertainment quotient has dramatically gone down. What's the point of a Bravia in your house if all it's going to air is dumb serials or exaggerated news?

I was 8 mths old when the Bhopal gas tragedy took place. Born and brought up in a city far away from the gas tragedy. So far away that I could grow up not knowing anything about union carbide or Bhopal other than the Raghu Rai image of a small child , with eyes that had turned milky. I probably didn’t understand what had happened , but that image scared me enough to make me look away. Every time Bhopal was discussed that image stood as its sole story , and I kept looking away.

When I was in school, while studying World War II , the bombings of Hiroshima Nagasaki , a teacher in passing mentioned Bhopal , there were no bombs there , so Bhopal didn’t make it to my school text book. I found out about Bhopal Gas tragedy much later , when I was 18 or more , and the stories of Bhopal gas victims made me shudder , it made me think I was lucky to not be in Bhopal . Then a protest against Dow Chemicals happened not too far from Pune while I was studying there, Dow wanted to set up a plant there. The ministers , came in and told the villagers to willingly part with their land for their own good and the future of their nation. 25 years after Bhopal , I think I might not be so lucky after all. It was not a freak accident that happened , but something that allowed a multi national corporation to carry out something resembling the holocaust and the Hiroshima – Nagasaki bombings , call it an accident , a mere leak and come back to rake in profits from other parts of the same nation. It makes me wonder how many more Bhopals before we wake up to the truth . How many more casualties till we start taking the responsibility for what happened.


Pls visit this site and pledge your support or voice your opinions on Bhopal Gas Tragedy Dec 2-3 , 1984
http://rememberbhopal.wordpress.com/

Get ready to for the blitzkrieg of "sponsored" programs on the 1st anniversary of 26/11. Mind numbing images with the corporate logos and jingles to remind us about what happened and glycerinated eyes of news readers harping about how excellent their coverage was which not only bought the terror to our drawing rooms but also helped the handlers in Pakistan to inform the terrorists where and who to kill better.

A star advisor-student combination is very much like a star Quarterback-Wide Receiver combination, like a Tom Brady - Randy Moss. Without one, the other is just not the same.

Interestingly, the analogy can be even extended further:

- A stud advisor with mediocre students still ends up performing well but won't become a superstar - like a Drew Brees, who always performs in every game with typically atleast 4-5 mediocre receivers, but is never talked about in the same league as a Brady or a Peyton Manning.

- A super talented student with a mediocre advisor can still sometimes make his name - like a Larry Fitzgerald or an Andre Johnson or a Calvin Johnson. But not always - like a TO!

One can also think of a nice analogy between college football superstars and their NFL drafting and how well they end up performing in NFL, to PhD graduates and jobs and then how well they perform during their tenure track.

Moral: Nothing really :) Just some idle ramblings on a lazy Sunday afternoon...

• Finally dataone is working! #
• @noelladsa Love the second picture – looks pleased with herself in reply to noelladsa #
• @amoghavarsha must accompany you on one of your workshops – sounds like a lot of fun! in reply to amoghavarsha #
• Great just when I get back the net there is a thunder storm at #nagpur #
• Eating a 5star after a long time – watching Victoria No 203 #movie #
• @noelladsa Beautiful – in blr weather it would be difficult to kill it – just not too much direct sunlight…
  

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  Originally published at http://tariquesani.net/blog/. Please leave any comments there.

The Kentish Plover, Charadrius alexandrinus, is a small wader in the plover bird family. Despite its name, this species no longer breeds in Kent, or even Great Britain. This beautiful specimen in breeding plumage was found in the wading ground of Wena Lake about 15km from Nagpur.

See more pictures and read some details

Originally published at http://tariquesani.net/blog/. Please leave any comments there.

Sometimes emotions can be quite a challenge. To feel things you haven’t thought about, to experience circumstances you didn’t see coming or their turning out differently than what you originally imagined or to not get what you want is what life’s all about.

But understanding its philosophy doesn’t necessarily prepare you for the real thing and the complexities it holds. Being exceptionally sensitive, I am alternately affected and equipped.

At times the struggle to deal with the burden of unwanted change, the newness and fears associated with it, turns on the melancholy switch. Then again I cannot be blind to the positives it entails.

What matters is to observe everything around me, work ‘my way’ around it and never, ever lose perspective. Never give up – your hopes, dreams and self to fit into someone else’s point of view.

For the benefit of my LJ friends who're not following me on twitter or Facebook, I'd like to mention some updates from the Tech front.

I've got 3 F/OSS projects started for the code I wrote at WisdomTap and Lulu India.

Webservice Loader (wsloader)

This is a Python... er... framework (I don't like that word) that's designed specifically to allow exposing native Python libraries as JSON webservices with zero glue code and near-zero configuration. The more important objective is to encapsulate the mechanism, protocol and best practices in webservice API delivery so that a lot more developers could provide their applications over-the-wire for consumption in other languages. I have an open issue that you might be able to help with :-)

thriftbench

This is a performance benchmarking tool a la http_load for Thrift services. It works pretty well but there's quite some scope for enhancement in various aspects:
* ability to handle stats in long-running tests (currently stores response time for each call in memory before reporting stats)
* improved loading of service clients -- possibly re-generating them from scratch given an IDL
* improved handling of client threads

Both the above projects are released under Apache Software License 2.0

WT-Utils

This is a set of 3 tiny utilities developed at WisdomTap. One is py2xml -- a module that allows converting a Python built-in type to XML using its own schema and a user given vocabulary. Another is a wrapper around MySQLdb, which almost everyone writes. I'm not very excited about maintaining these two since the GPL V3 licensing makes it nearly impossible to use them without a headache. vijayr, how about choosing a more liberal license?

The third utility, one which I could work on, is list_cmp -- a script that can compare two ranked lists and show movement of common items up and down the list. It also calculates a deviation score from a reference list, which could be used to find out if you're producing results that are getting closer to the reference or farther from it. Since it's a stand-alone piece, the license doesn't make a big difference.

So, fellow hackers, do wish me luck for the success of these projects. If you can, please do contribute as well :-)

amla sherbet recipe

boil half kg amlas , (pressure cook them if you are lazy, covered in just enough water)
chop them /de seed them when cool.
grind this and sieve it
add roasted and powdered cumin seeds/black pepper/dried ginger (any one or all three) to this

serve with honey and water or sugar syrup with chilled water.

It all started 2 and a half years back. it really makes you wonder how sometimes things work out for you. sometimes (just sometimes though) you're at the right place at the right time and for the right people.

It was my first week in Bangalore. all homesick and confused yet determined to make it big in the big BAD world outside. It was a phase of making new friends, new college, settling in, checking out places in bangalore on weekends, knowing my roomies better, making phone calls to mom every 2 hours, going in groups to get uniforms from majestic, ragging and u get the picture right? I must say, it was one of the bestest phases of my life. things went wrong a lot of times but everything was just so new that it was bound to happen and so i picked up the pieces, learnt from the experience and moved on quickly to get on the next adventure! :)

I wasn't someone who enjoyed 'drinking' as a social activity and hanging out in pubs and lounges was something that wasnt really something which occupied my weekends you know? but slowly, to not dissapoint ur friends and see that priceless smile on their face u go that extra step sometimes. and trust me, that extra step is responsible for my (extra) happiness in my life today! :)

We were lounging around in Bunker's on MG's on a sunday evening with some of our seniors whom we were meeting for the first time in our lives! For starters, I'm someone who would say hi-hello and for sometime it's just that and nothing beyond that but once I know you, it's a different story ofcourse!! anyway coming back to bunker's, i was having my breezer and side by side was busy mesging my roomie who was sitting right opposite to me. lol. It was all dark with a few twinkling lights here and there and there was LOUD music - I remember "Gasolina" was the track which kept repeating every 20 min. There was this guy who was sitting on the couch - let's call him "P". I had noticed only him out of 10 other guys when we first met outside the pub. We exchanged glances for a second i remember. P was busy watching match along with his umpteenth glass of beer and I couldn't help but notice his cuteness even when he looked completely sloshed out. The seniors were laughing, drinking, singing and chitchatting. "boys talk" mostly. He was one of them too. His lose shirt which was half untucked and ofcourse his super lowwaist jeans did catch my eye and yes i wont deny that :P when he went out because someone called. He came back, and put his hand behind my couch. it was purely unintentional I know but I could feel butterflies in my tummy and that Idiot wasn't even aware that a junior who's sitting besides him is majorly hitting on him! ;) I cannot just CANNOT forget that moment. It was just perfect. Strange connection at a strange place with a stranger. I knew at that instance, that we had a long way to go. somewhere, sometime i felt he would play a big part in my life. I know 5 min is too short a time but you know, it happens sometimes. You "feel" something at that particular moment and it has such a strong effect on you that it's difficult to ignore. I was lost in my thoughts and there he was asking me my name. I told him and asked him his. He joked whether it was my first time having a breezer that I look so groggy. I was like -"whatever.. that isnt funny" lol unwanted attitude n obvious indifference. how childishi i know! ;)

While having dinner with my roomies I declared "I think I have a crush on one of our seniors" in a very playful tone and all of us laughed, made fun and slept away to the glory. The next morning everything was forgotten except the strange connection.

Weeks passed by and I got busier with the routine in bangalore. Friends, College, Hanging out, sleeping, other activities, going home on long weekends.. everything was going perfectly normal. But meanwhile, my liking towards Mr. P was on the rise. I was aware that he was upto something with one of his batchmates (it was a she) and so I had decided not to rush into things at all.

But somewhere deep within me I had hope..

What does one say to a person who packs her school bag and says she is going to afrikaa to see animals and stands near the door for you to open!
The joys of having a highly imaginative talkative 2 year old is boundless!

There is a flower, a little flower With silver crest and golden eye, That welcomes every changing hour. And weathers every sky.
--James Montgomery



Happy Birthday, anupma! Happiness always.

We were returning after celebrating Aasim birthday party – as we rounded a corner we saw a Tata Sumo parked in middle of the road and a few people gathered around as Swati cautiously steered around – We saw a glimpse of a snake Swati slowed and I recognized it immediately. It was a Russell’s Viper! I was out of the car even before the car halted.

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Originally published at http://tariquesani.net/blog/. Please leave any comments there.

The rusting wharf...

AR Rahman is brilliant. No two things about it. He created a masterpiece of our Anthem for the love of music but such a work of art can function as a medium to solve many problems.

I went to watch a Ranbir Kapoor movie in Pune and as the rule in Maharashtra goes, we were to stand up for the anthem before the show. I was grooved and moved by the Anthem at that moment. I had witnessed the same before too but never gave it much thought. A couple of days later, i see this article on NE indian girls facing extreme issues in Delhi and boys being outcast virtually. I had a discussion with some of my friends over it. Many of the communities in India, because of segregated/exclusive problems faced by them have slowly drifted apart from the idea of being an Indian. Many do not consider themselves as a part of this nation because of negligence by the caretakers of the country at some point in time.

The prevailing attitude might be justified/reasonable. However, due to the incapability of reaching an amicable solution, we need to look for ideas to instill a sense of one country amongst all. How do we do it? How about using two things which most people relate to (if not all). Music & movies. I want to request the government of every state to play this composition before every show in a theatre.

I am interested in actually writing down an application and sending it out to the concerned authorities. Suggestions on how to go about it such that its implemented Nationally (and not only in states) are welcome.

Life's way to busy these days..Not much time for LJ (or facebook or orkut
for that matter!!). I've even stopped reading my Bloglines feed for a good
while now. Autumn has turned to winter and it has been an awfully bad time
weather-wise here. Nearly every day we have rain (not to mention the wind
which is always howling!). Work is busy (which is not a bad thing these
days!), but looks to be winding down slowly for the Christmas break (looking
forward to that though we'll be just staying in!)

My brother refers to this one specific state of being as "being an emu". He's just making "being emo" sound cute and less emo than it actually is, but it's excellent shorthand to describe days when all either of us can do is sit there listlessly, sighing and counting all our friends on one hand.

Oddly enough, both our cures for this state of existence is to watch silly/fun/AWESOME YouTube videos. Mine are usually either trashy music or nerdy dance things (LIKE FLASH MOBS THAT DANCE FOR EXAMPLE). This is what I've been watching/listening to today.

( For example )

What do you do when you're being an emu?

Since a kid, one of my biggest fears has been to be likened to 'somebody else', to get stuck in a never-ending loop of likeness to another human being. First mom said 'that is so like your father' and then dad said 'that damn temper of yours is so your mother-ish', I strived and struggled (sometimes in vain) to not be like either of them with the mere hope of saving myself the pains, trials, tribulations so on and so forth that they had gone through and in it I have perhaps succeeded to a degree but then how far can you run from your genes? And the pains, ah, I don't even want to mention them. Then came the concern with my colour - dark, actually this din't ever really bother me, but since everyone was bothered so was I, it failed me then to notice that by being bothered 'like' everyone else I was being 'like' them. Anyway, an unhealthy amount of Tinkle reading led me to think that I could just wish till it came true and then my skin would peel and fall off, lol.
While all this happened Ammu didi, our next door neighbour, stayed a constant companion and a friend to me. She was/is about 10 years my senior, yet she hung out with me, or I dont remember if it was the other way around ;-) She was on the heavy side and I came to be a constant witness to all the troubles she had in her regular life, as it was then, such as running, climbing trees, finding a 'thin' enough tree to hide behind so that it was not obvious enough etcetera, so once the weight began piling (how could it not, I am a Bengali after all :-)) I tried not being like her, the unceasing reminders from classmates helped too. And also thanks to her, unlike my classmates, I had the power of knowledge - about sex!
Then I grew into high-school, though Physics was my love at first sight, it became even more apparent after practically everyone I knew began ranting CET and Engineering. At college I met others 'like' me and I guess finally quite pleased with the 'small' pool of people like 'us', I ended my pursuit of being unlike anyone else :-) TING TING ta TING

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• @qtfan Thanks dude – what is your plan for this weekend… in reply to qtfan #
• RT @geetanjalic: RT @PriyaFlorence You were born with wings, why do you prefer to crawl through life ~ Rumi #
• @noelladsa It will be a nightmare #unitedindiapak in reply to noelladsa #
• Bookmark: Google Code Blog: Introducing Closure Tools – very useful tools!!! <a href='http://bit.ly/2SPSYJ
  

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  Originally published at http://tariquesani.net/blog/. Please leave any comments there.

When I was a little girl , I could not write properly. I wrote like a dyslexic . I wrote all the alphabets as though I were seeing them in the mirror. My mother had a tough time teaching me to write. Of course then there were my moods about which hand I would use to write. I instinctively put out my left. She instinctively thrust the pencil in my right.

There was a lot of fighting , screaming , shouting , in language that even a new born understands. We didnt speak much at such instances. I was a difficult child on the study table. I never got my tables right. Never practiced my cursive enough.

In those days there was no concept of handwritings being analysed. Writing being personality. There was only good handwriting and bad handwriting. I struggled , struggled , struggled.

My mother would be tired from office , market , cooking, so she would be even more impatient. She would run out of energy to yell at me , and that was the signal that I was going to get the thrashing of my life. But try as I might I couldnt get my alphabets right , nor memorise my tables. I just sat there rolling big fat hot tears from my big fat eyes. As a kid my eyes bulged out of my face.

Now I take the train everyday , hear the women complain of their kids not listening to them , and wonder which one is my mother. I know how tiring a commute can be , and yet train and bus problem is no excuse , for not going to work or for your child doing badly. In a country full of excuses and stories , there seems to a lack of excuses when it comes to women.

I think of days when my mother's favourite answer to every question I asked would be , how will you travel , who will accompany you. Things women do to conceal the horrible facts of life from children , especially daughters. How could she ask a 10 yr old girl what if you get molested in the streets. I hear people tell me proudly of how their neices , daughters , sons learnt dance , music . How they were taken to a class and picked up when it was over. It reminds me immensely of Bourdieu. It reminds me of streets. Of streets where every time you step out , you must be prepared to fight. I want to ask the proud parents or uncles/aunts , did your dancing /singing child learn to fight. I did.

My handwriting was terrible. It still is, could never quite pick up the convent hand.