உலக நாயகன்

 "The Man from Earth" - This movie will go down in my all time favorites. The whole 87 minutes is just one location where a group of people confess, critic, cross-question and cheer about a central theme. The intellectual discussions gave me multiple highs like very few movies did to me. 

A story is narrated, the listeners throw questions - what? when? where? who? how? etc. Everything gets answered - mind you - not necessarily the answer you wanted / liked to hear. The core question of why? is not convincing for the audience, and that makes their disbelief stronger.  

The philosophies are tied into intricately. Man does not die for 14,000 years - who would want to hear his never-ending story? Of course, "bring us only the high-points" asks the mundane and pre-programmed audience. In a way its good, again, who will listen to a long, never-ending story?

You know only as much as your race would know that point of time. You either learn from your best lot of the species or teach / preach them when you have known the most. But every memory need not stay - perception of time, knowledge of languages, origin of religions, concept of love - every human aspect is explored in conversations. These conversations are rich and thought-provoking.

High degrees in Anthropology, Biology, Art, Archaelogy, History are baffled by the revelation - simply because you know, rather you trust only as much as your text knowledge. When anchor of belief is shaken, one cannot accept it instantly. But the truth of differentiating knowledge and faith is an eye-opener. How can we suddenly trust endless possibilties? 

Oh my God! (quips), endless possibilities? Horizons are infinite for real. Those biblical references and the puns! "Why did you have to cave to Gruber?", the names like Oldman, Young, etc.

Life comes a full circle for eveyone, except this man - which goes in a painstakingly long forward looking line. The film teased the hell out of my curious brain. Being blamed for taking life forces, accused guilty of outliving your loved ones, one time the vampire, another time the messiah, purpose of life and what not? 

That fake flashback attempt was full on satirical - did I not say we want to hear what we like to hear? Every story has to come to an end. Does it really? We just take whatever closure out of it and move on. The protoganist too, moves on and on. The man who has lived the most talks from his experience and all we witness is the core getting lost in Translation & Perception. 

How does one's time come to an end? By physical non-existence or by being forgotten? 

"சாகாவரம் போல் சோகம் உண்டோ? தீரா கதையை கேட்பார் உண்டோ?" 

We never know the person in front of us really well, do we? Their story, history and nature. As long as we are here, for the time that we are, being kind (to others, to beings, to nature, to oneself) can make the earth engine revolve a few more times with life aboard, for more stories to continue and happen....,

மதுரை வீரன் தானே!

Another draft resurrected from April 2021. 

It was a difficult time - Appa had been admitted into hospital. But something made me write about Madurai Muthu. Of all why would I choose to write about this man, one would think. 

He is known to many of us 90s kids and elders, who is a regular viewer of Kalakkapovadhu Yaru in Vijay TV. First of its kind TV show with a determined purpose to make people laugh. The show had an array of men (KPY Nisha et al entered much later in the franchise) performing skit / parody / spoof / mimicry / slapstick / mockery to showcase their talents, each excelling in their own forte. But this man, preferred the long-standing technique of standup comedy. The traditional stand-up where he stands in front of a mic and tells joke after joke after joke.

Dry, you may think. But unlike memorizing some monologue and performing, this is much different. It needs planning - prepare the jokes, rehearse it with good audience, perform in front of people, dynamically change the order based on audience reaction, infuse one or two own tracks and most of all - keep the options open. The branching-off technique can enable you to choose one particular topic and go endless with many plan B's. For eg, you start a train joke, get a good response, suddenly branch off saying - "Ipdithan parunga, innoru naal, vera oru train la,....." and it goes on and on.

This type could be my favourite, and hence I am vouching for Muthu. But the real reason why it became my favourite is my Appa. He has this knack of traditional 'stand-up' comedy. I must say, man has got talent. His timing is impeccable. You give him a stage and time, he's up for the challenge anytime without hesitation. To be honest - the audience can be one or many, He can crack as many jokes as possible, that too flavoured with light Nellai accent. There were instances in my school and family functions where he had to temporarily take up the stage because the original chief guest cancelled last minute. Towards the end of his act, he gives a thought-provoking question or statement which has a feel-good factor. Now you know why Madurai Muthu is my favourite.

Appa is my idol in humor sense and humor science. All my childhood, my interest was getting shaped to enjoy and appreciate good humor, and create good humor. Any tense situation can be made laughable. All I'm saying is some people got it natural, some try to acquire. Whichever the way, as long as you can have a good laugh, medically it is good. Life becomes simpler and even when everything goes wrong, you have the satisfaction of one good laugh.

After a long gap, I was happy to watch Muthu enter as a judge in last KPY season. And that continued when he came in as a contestant / special guest / repeat cameos in the Cook With Comali Season 2. Throughout his journey in CWC 2, amidst all controversies, I was happy to see him fire jokes with whatever limited time and challenging/overpowering newcomers he had. He innovated himself - 'thunukku jokes' Muthu transformed into doing property comedy, body language reactions and what not. It was not his forte, lets be honest. But a creative comedian always has the right spirits. Age difference, experience, sabotaging the comedy, counters and not giving a chance - nothing deterred him. He was unstoppable till the finals. The way Simbu enjoyed the Mambalam joke and the Egmore joke like a kid, is a true testimony.

The way he handled Shivangi's timing counter, and also talked maturely about it in the interviews shows his value. A childhood icon remaining one's true icon even after you grow up, without any controversy, all a fan(boy) could ask for. Amidst all other differences of thoughts with his recent speeches and commentaries, for me - Muthu will continue to be an icon in the comedy business. Appa too!

After all, மதுரை வீரன் தானே!!!

Kingdom of the Sky

Disclaimer: This post was started in 2013 but being the lazy ass that I am, took more than a decade to complete. The gestation period might have spoiled the narrative and things went missing, so kindly excuse if you don't get the practical info that you might be looking for in a travelogue.  

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It all started as one more holiday trip planner. This time we had days at our disposal and bunking classes for 1-2 days in addition will put us in an excellent spot - travel-wise. So, there were easily 5 days in our hands, enabling us to venture for a longer trip. Darjeeling (I guessed), will be the best choice. Some nominated for Gangtok. And atlast came the most weird choice, out of the blue - Bhutan! We realised that it was a serious choice put up by Abhinav and sooner we found ourselves planning for it. After many discussions, budget estimates, unexpected twists and almost cancellation, the trip was on, with only 3 of us onboard.
 
The trio - Abhinav, Ashwin and I, started on Jan 31, 2013. After nearly 16 hours of train and 5 hours of bus, including rooftop journey (remember Ela machi machi song?), we were at the Indo-Bhutan frontier town - Jaigaon. Unfortunately, we were late by an hour, so we had to wait one more night to get into Bhutan legally. We spent the night in a hotel room and through local advice, we got the information that the Bhutan Immigration office will open by 9AM. There we were, standing in our hotel balcony, trying to look beyond the gates of the foreign country, trying hard to decipher what lays yonder through the darkness. But the tiredness of travel took the better of us and sooner we dozed off, trying to release all the strain we picked up from 24+ hours of travel. 

Morning we entered the gates. Crossing the border by foot in this modern world where people fly and sail to foreign lands, this was a different feeling. We reached the office only to find that we had wasted 30 minutes inspite of our watches showing 9AM. Understand that time is a precious investment during unplanned journeys. The maximum you save, it will help you in the future. Later, Ashwin brilliantly solved the enigma - we were in a different country, following a different time zone. Theirs was 30 mins ahead of us. We got time-zoned! 

The immigration procedure ended in just 15 mins and we were legally termed as 'foreign tourists'. There was one peculiar thing I noted in the immigration office and I confirmed it while negotiating with taxi drivers for hiring a taxi to Paro - All of them speak good English and even Hindi. 

We had some random breakfast in a Phuentsholing (bam! I spelled it right after all these years in the first try) joint. Best way to reach Paro was to get hitchhiked with locals who had come down to the plains for some work and are returning with spare seats. We made a good deal, the SUV was so good. Considering it was drive in the hill roads, the driving felt so rash. I force-slept to avoid the sickness and woke up after couple of hours. There we were, passing through random hills, clouds, rivers and everything looked so alien. That untold fear that you are in a new territory where things are not in your control creeped in. The only soothing thing for the mind was the song playing on the stereo - "Udayo Relaile", later I figured it was a Nepali song - still in my playlist. We learnt that India had a major role for laying and maintaing the roads, providing security and necessary goods, fuel to the country.

Paro was so cold when we alighted. The town looked so deserted and not a single soul moved around. We checked-in and Abhinav drilled us to get ready in no time. We went to nearby temples, while returning things did not go well with our taxi driver and he deserted us at a random spot. That creepy fears only got intensified. We walked back and retired in the home-stay.

Next day itinerary was Takstang or the Tiger's nest monastery. No taxis on the road - first Sundays were green and no vehicles inside town limit. We found a taxi guy outside the town limit, convinced him to store our luggages till the time we came down from the cliff. Abhinav was a man of determination, he helped Ashwin climb up too. I had no choice - it was my first ever trekking experience. The ~4 hours enroute the summit included lot of self-pity, unuttered curses on Abhinav, pitstops and loud, unpleasant breathing. But looking back, that IS one of a kind experience for me. Describing that in words is so tough - you go, you experience it!

Takstang made the trip look much better - we proceeded to Thimphu the same evening. Slept like a log. Last day we went straight to bus station - booked our return tickets for the evening. Then we found English - our cheerful taxi driver-cum-tour guide for the day. Trust me if you found a guy like English - all your trips are sorted. He introduced us to Ema Datshi - a tasty local soup. We toured the zoo, radio station, the Dzongs, National Post Office, Buddha Dodernma (Bhuddha Point) and finally saw the palace from a view-point. Thimphu had a lot of decorative, colorful phalluses in their houses and streets. They believe it brings good luck and wards off evil spirits.

We made friends with English on Facebook - Tshering Dorji (the story feels truly old now, do people use Fb still?) and bid good-bye. The bus journey was a decent travel - there was another stereo, another global song, surprisingly - "Why this Kolveri di?" 

We came back safe and sound in one piece, after all the errors and experiments. When I was back in the KGP campus, I read more and was blown about GNH (Gross National Happiness) and Carbon Neutrality. Watch the video where their then PM talks about Carbon Negativity and that will inspire us in many ways.

The saddest part of the trip was we don't have any stamps in our passports. A small, land-locked country nestled in the Himalayas never to be discounted for, as it had all the beauty, pristine nature as strongholds. I always keep thinking - will I be able to make the climb up in Takstang or proceed to Bumthang & Dochu La if I ever get to go again. The breathtaking landscapes will forever linger in my heart.

Business Application - MobiCart eCommerce

Problem Statement:

APT Enterprise Ltd. is a successful mobile phone & accessories selling company based in Pondicherry. It had a retail outlet 'Mobile Shoppe' in the town. With long-standing good name in the field and quality, the company is a recognized name.

Now, due to the advent of large online retail players like eBay, Flipkart et all, the company thinks that its time to change the business model. Only retail won't help. They think that having an online shopping portal, in addition to the outlet, with the name 'MobiCart' will prove advantageous in many ways. This will provide opportunity for the company to expand to nearby towns and suburbs, cut away costs for inventory and office rents. This will facilitate them to sell the merchandise promptly to the local people and at cheaper prices.

So, the company wants to open a simple online shopping cart (E-Commerce website - for both computer and mobile versions) with which it try to grow and expand to other cities (like UniverCELL, Poorvika Mobiles, etc). The portal should contain all features like selecting and placing the orders in a cart/basket and on checking-out prompts the customer for a payment decision, generation of order invoice and search-engine optimized. Account creation for users can be optional so as to maintain the portal very very simple.

Softwares Evaluated:

Some of the softwares evaluated for the development of the E-Commerce portal are:

i) Zen Cart

ii) OsCommerce

iii) Tomato Cart

iv) Open Cart

v) Cube Cart

vi) Zeus Cart

vii) Alegro Cart

viii) Abante Cart

Apart from the evaluated softwares, the one which was selected eventually is QUICK.CART

Why Quick.Cart?

The rationale behind choosing Quick.Cart can be listed as follows:

i) Very simple to configure.

ii) No logins required for users. This may seem to be odd at first, but the business logic is written in suh a way that a user doesn't lose track and his orders are placed in the basket correctly. This also reduces memory space and time required to maintain a separate database.

iii) External templates can be added.

iv) Products can be categorized and arranged.

v) Generation of invoice.

vi) Mobile version of the site is available.

vii) Simple and good-looking with no much cluttering graphics.
viii) Supports multiple payment and shipment options.

Configurations / Customizations:

i) Changed the logo.

ii) Installed new template and improvised it.

iii) Added additional pages and configured them.

iv) Changed the redirect links and hyperlinks.

v) Added relevant product and details and categorised them.

URL Link for the app:
http://goo.gl/xYtQ8

Are you a Safe Ship?

21.5 years of Pondicherry. Right from my birth, this place bore me throughout my schooling and college lives. I neither had the pains of being away from home nor had the privilege to be on my own. At this place, everything was at my will and command; Nothing seemed too difficult to get here. Family, friends, life, breath, blood and flesh - everything was this place for me until suddenly, I had to leave it all at once. Time has come for me to pursue higher studies at Kharagpur. I started to while away my precious time I had for getting ready in roaming with fullest interest and meeting people I know. This is a crucial time during which I was struck strong in the heart. What I had been doing all these years aimlessly, now I was doing them with utmost awareness and consciousness. This phase of my life - I started to love my hometown and home the most. But I was even more aware of the fact that I am gonna miss everything like hell.

Fast forward some time, and now here I am in Kharagpur - a city (rather should I say rural town) that has its own pace in developing and keeping up with the urban cities. Things are going to be difficult than I ever thought. To start with language, (well, I could write another complete post on it) food, climate, everything was new. This place gave me the freedom with the cost of fact that I am responsible for my own actions. Lot of scope to learn infinite amount of things. This part of my life (the next 2 years) will be called learning, or rather learning life. You need to get up early (add a default phrase 'on your own' at the end of each), wash your clothes, take care your health, fill water, shop and what not! The first two weeks were horrible - I was absent-minded, intimidated by the new place. I couldn't keep track of things that I needed and felt stranded in a limbo. 

Past one month, this place has given me some lessons. Suddenly, it leaves me realizing about my mom's love, dad's concern, brother's deeds, granny's care, friends' mere-presence-creating -joy and everything else. Instantly impoverished. But, only thing in my mind is I should not be deterred. Something drives my mind out of these sudden changes and help me go in pursuit of my goals. 

Lessons learnt:

- Get out of your comfort zone

- Learn as much as you can

- Follow the good

- Know the bad

- Do not get stopped by ephemeral challenges

- Be focused

- The grapes are yours!

Do not forget : "A ship in the harbor is safe, but this is not what a ship is built for...."

Performance at Freshers Nite, VGSoM

System Architecture - In Layman's Lingo

2230 hours. My mobile rings and the caller name flashed is 'Java Officer'(ironically!) . He is my friend, Harish, from Pondicherry. I had forgotten him for one complete week, after getting myself entangled into usual hectic schedules of an MBA Course. 'Oh God, now he is gonna kill me for not calling', I thought. Fearing that, I picked up. Much to my astonishment, he forgave me quickly and after some routine questions, took a turn discussing about my course. I answered his questions about how was Kharagpur, the campus and girls in my class(!). Later, he asked about the subjects and he was surprised to know that still I had to study IT-related subjects. To think so was not a mistake on his side, as I was an IT student in my UG too and he was curious to know reason why it was there even now. Then I explained him the significance and he started asking more about it. What, Why, How, etc. Being a only MBA student as of now from my UG batch, I felt proud and started explaining to him. I was sure to make it simple as he was from non-IT branch. Here goes our conversation for next few minutes:

Why do you call it as 'System Architecture' and not 'Computer Architecture'? Then, tell me what is a system?

As for Computer Science is concerned, the term Computer Architecture is fine. But now, the level of concretion is more and called Information Systems Engineering, the term System Architecture is more appropriate. A system is nothing but an interacting or independent components forming an integrated whole. In this way, a computer is also a system.

Ok, why do we need to study its architecture?

Firstly, architecture is simply a represtation - a way of symbolising things. Its more like drawing all individual components and knowing their interactions. It has two major ideas.

What are they?

Arey yaar. I am telling na, Listen to me hai na?

(He really thinks that I have started picking up the language so fast, which is nowhere near the reality :P)

They are Software Architecture and Hardware Architecture. The hardware consists of all tangible parts and connectors represented as boxes.

I am getting the picture now, go on. But, what is an application?

An application is a piece of software that runs on a particular platform performing specific functionality. Example, MS-Word inside MS-Office running on Vista / 7 that can be used to create and edit word documents. But, to employ this application, we can make use of data and in an IS, all the data is clubbed into a database.

Now you are letting out too much jargons.

Hmm, I will explain you. We are going to process something in our hardware, right? The database describes WHAT is to be processed and the application specified HOW it is to be processed.

Why are these things important?

Because, basically every system has these 2 components. Previously, both the data and application were clubbed together in the same machine. This is called single-tier hierarchy. I can even send you the architecture diagrams through mail. A simple example is editing your own word document from your PC/Laptop. Having a look at it, you can get a clear picture. But, when the system is expanding physically and geographically, the number of boxes/machines are going to increase. How well we are going to separate the application and data so that the processing is not conflicted or delayed or lost at any time.

Okay, tell me about other models.

Now the next step was to separate the data and application. There can be a single server that has all the data and many terminals with only the copies of the application connected together in a LAN. All the business logic lie here. A user can log in from any terminal, make use of the data from the server, edit or update it. This is called two-tier architecture.

Now, I have a doubt Prashanth. Will not the network get loaded if many users go on to access the server?

Of course yes. The solution is to partition the application and place them separately. The business logic can be extracted and kept common in a separate box in the server. This helps because only the presentation logic is kept in the terminals and they become dumb now, making the processing easier and faster. This is the three-tier architecture.

Is that all, or do we have anymore?

Wait dude, don't you wanna know about the internet?

Internet, how is it related to the discussion here?

As need increases, the partition can be done all ways and always as desired. The disadvantage in last model was that we need specialist softwares for running specific applications. This was seen as a discomfort and want of generic software was needed. Now, these were later called as the browsers and the request from client browsers were processed by web servers. This led to beginning og multi-tier architectures and the introduction of the Internet.

I got everything what you said. Im glad that i learned new things today. But, please give me some examples for database and applications.

An application can be ERP application like SAP. Prime databases are Oracle, SQL Server, HANA, etc.

Oh fine. Im gonna talk to my sister working in SAP tomorrow and gonna surprsie her. She will be astonished if she hears me talking tech like this. Thanks dude, for throwing me light on this topic.

Welcome yaar. Talking to you, I forgot about my assignments. I need to finish them now, so leaving. Good night, catch you later.

Good night :)