Chinese Valentine's Day

It seems that according the Chinese calendar today is celebrated as Valentine's Day. Surrounding this myth there is a truely beautiful story of two lovers. The amazing thing was that it did actually pour heavily out here in Gurgaon today and I just couldn't let the coincidence slip by. Hope you enjoy the tale!

India as an integral part of China

Now I know how the Chinese feel. India has gone ahead and blocked access to sites such as blogspot, geocities etc where people like myself post their views. This under the excuse of the Mumbai blasts and that such sites were being used by anti-national elements. Well that just shows the amount of stupid morons we have in the IT department in our country.

And whats worse is that the blockage is done in a technology unsavvy manner. For eg. I can still post to my blog by logging into blogger but I just can't access it in my browser. So if any anti-national element needs to spread his/her message he/she still can and ofcourse the use of proxies and other hacks would still allow you access to any of the blocked sites.

And all this in a democracy and that too the largest one in the world. The word "largest" that is harped on so much. Well as long as this lasts let me welcome all my countrymen/women to being an integral part of China.

Technorati Tags: India, Blogs, Ban, China

Air Deccan Sucks

Air Deccan should be renamed Air Dick-an. I just decided that I would like to travel to Mumbai for the weekend and for saving around 500Rs I decided to fly Deccan. Now I got onto the site and selected my flights and when I hit the confirm button (before moving to the payment tab) there is this popup which shows up saying that RF######## is my reference number just in case I don't get the PNR number at the end of this. I should've bailed out just then but naive me went on to make the payment and lo-and-behold the site just went onto a blank page with Done showing up at the statusbar. Now I try the reference number to get my PNR but it says that the number is invalid. Great. Immdieatly checked my bank balance and ofcourse 5573Rs were already dedcuted. I call the customer care number and after giving the jerk wastes 30mins of my time typing my complaint down he says that they have registered a case and it would take 14 working days for me to get my money back. Whats worse is that I don't get the tickets either.

Now this is just ludicrous use of technology. Stupidity at its worse. By giving out a RF number before the payment is made just says that they already know that their system doesn't work and they are not willing to do anything about it other than show a useless popup with an equally useless RF number.

Chuck Air Deccan out of the window from my list of i-wanna-fly-em airlines. Jerks!

Technorati Tags: AirDeccan, CustomerCare, Complaint, BadExperience

Mumbai Blasts 7/11

Everyone has by now heard and read about the merciless act of terror committed by cowards in Mumbai on the 11th of July 2006. The series of 7 high intensity bomb blasts most of which were in the local trains in Mumbai killed nearly 200 people and left more than 700 Mumbaikars injured. As anyone who has visited Mumbai would know that the train network is the heartline of the city and literally millions of middle class people travel to and from work using this mode of transport.

These killings were a rude shock to many of the cosmopolitan Mumbaikars. This shock will leave an indelible mark with many of us. At the same time though these blast give us a stern reminder that India has been in a state of emergency right since 1979. The events of 7/11 in Mumbai are acts that happen on a routine basis in our state of Jammu and Kashmir. People in J&K have been held hostage to these terrorists for the past 2.5 decades while the rest of the country has continued on with its own agenda turning a blind eye to our citizens and soldiers in J&K. This callous attitude has strengthened the network of these terrorists not just within the state but throughout the country. They have probably managed to form an invisible thread within out country with strong support of the governments of Pakistan and Bangladesh which provide economic, moral and territorial support for their neferious training camps and madrassas.

I just read an article in the Hindustan Times by the renowned Barkha Dutt (NDTV). She as a journalist has been a strong supporter of the peace process and these blasts have shown her the grim reality of terror first hand. As it has for many of us. Things that have been only seen in snippets of Israeli telivision footage and gory pictures are now things that we can relate with having experienced it first hand. According to her article the shock was so strong for her that she doubts the success of the peace process and the need for us to waste our valuable resources trying this route while the other party is not ready to move a muscle in return. Well Barkha welcome to the real world. Just to put in in figures J&K has seen the loss of >50,000 Indians over the past 2 decades. That is 250 times the people that died in Mumbai!!! Now imagine the casualties in lives, injuries and their families.

It is time that India strikes back. India has to prove to the world and more importantly to her citizens that she is ready to defend herself and that she values the lives of her citizens. Unlike int the past, where Indian soldiers of the flag where tortured and their mutilated bodies were strung on bamboo sticks like some hunter's game by Bangladeshi troops and yet India did not strike back. That event still gets my blood boiling with anger. The largest democracy in the world needs to value the life of each and every of its citizens and just as the United States had the right and the determination to defend its country by waging wars overseas we too need to weed out these fundamentalists at their roots. If it is by crossing international borders then so be it... all things considered we are at war since 1979 its time we seize the fort and hoist the flag or else generations will keep paying the price for our cowardice.

Technorati Tag: Mumbai, Bombay, Blasts, 7/11, Jammu, Kashmir, BarkhaDutt, India

Carriers in the Indian Skies - A Candid Comparison

Desi Fun(da)

Well over the past few months I have flown in many of the new carriers that have invaded the Indian skies. The list of airlines who have enjoyed my business, and in true desi fashion have not bothered to thank me at all, are as follows and ofcourse it is accompanied by my list of cribbs and kudos.

1. Indian (formerly Indian Airlines)

Kudos

good food
pleasant service
very frequent flights
superb connectivity
experienced engineers and hence safer planes
national domestic carrier
allows decent amount of baggage

Cribbs

the changed name and colors aren't enough
airhostesses are not hot enough
green seat covers and not appealing
online booking portal is not user-friendly
not much legroom

2. Jet Airways

Kudos

hot airhostesses
good connectivity
international flights
experienced crew
allows decent amount of baggage

Cribbs

jet-sahara deal devalued my stock by ~20k
too high fares
not much legroom

3. Kingfisher

Kudos

bought in strong competition to the big boys
superb food
friendly crew and staff
focussing on service
classy uniforms
introduced very easy online booking
slab fares
brand new A320s
allows decent amount of baggage

Cribbs

airhostesses couldve been hotter
slab fares again
not much legroom

4. GoAir

Kudos

classy online booking
choice of seat online while booking itself

Cribbs

seats get expensive as you book closer to the departure date
yucky flourescent uniforms under navy blue vests and pants
leased aircrafts
not much legroom
allows only 15kgs baggage - excess is at Rs70/kg

5. SpiceJet

Kudos

good service
friendly and smiling crew and staff
serving cookies and water onboard instead of whole meals - cost-effective and sensical for Indian flight durations
brand new Boeing 737-800s
good legroom
good looking airhostesses

Cribbs

those Boeings are hideous and make too much noise
allows only 10kgs baggage

6. Air Deccan

Kudos

very economical and made flying possible for a large section of Indians

(30-40% of its flyers are first time flyers)

very creative advertising techniques employed for additional captial generation
online booking is decent

Cribbs

leased aircrafts - most of them look as-if they were picked off a airline scrap yard
no service at all
heavy last-minute cancellations and rescheduling of flights
don't even serve water onflight - everything has to be purchased
sad and depressing airhostesses
not assigning seat numbers ie you can pick any seat as you board the flight
allows only 15kgs baggage - excess is at Rs70/kg

Well there is no guessing which one is my favourite and which ones I'd rather not entrust my life with. All in all I feel safety is of the paramount importance to me while I fly and there is nothing else that matters especially while flying within the subcontinent. The flight durations are around an hour to an hour and a half and food and other things don't matter much. If an airline promises me safety at a reasonable price and throws in some goodies and eye-candy with it I would definitely shell out the extra amount to have a thoughtless journey. On the other hand the various low cost carriers have definitely helped bring air travel to the common man and cost will always remain of paramount importance to many of us Indians. I wish all the carriers well and am sure that there are sufficient customers to feed all their fat bellies in our country.



Technorati Tags:
India,Airlines,Indian,JetAirways,Kingfisher,GoAir,SpiceJet,AirDeccan

GoAir experience

  
Desi Fun(da)
  
The online booking experience at the GoAir website is wonderful. The site is designed in the eye friendly colors of light blue and white and things seem to be arranged spot on. The best part of the ticketing experience is that there is a "Pick Seat" feature which gives you a layout of the airplane and lets you pick your seat. Now that is one thing that I have always wanted to see especially wrt international carriers. When someone is paying around 20k for a one-way international ticket they should at least have the opportunity to request a particular seat. Surprisingly no one of our other carriers have this feature available as yet. I guess they are just scared to show how many seats are actually full. And it helps that I may just get a free air ticket on this route....pretty cool.

And whatsup with those hideous uniforms. It looks like some design school dropout got the task of desinging their uniforms and man are they sad. The long sleaves and flourescent colors do not go along with the navy blue pants and tops that they wear and worse still they are really injurious to the eyes. Even if the attendants are good looking the uniforms would turn me away. The airhostesses were alright but still Jet rules. The served a bottle of water on the flight and there were other refreshments on sale. So it was pretty decent. The planes are definitely leased out and not brand new so it is a bit unnerving but they don't seem to be that old.

Well unfortunately I did not win the free ticket and whats worse is that my baggage turned out to be overweight so had to pay a hefty price of Rs70/kg to load it. I should have just carried it as hand baggage instead of checking it in like a dumb ass. But in general the checkin procedure was alright. There were no unnecessary delays or anything so that was a plus. The only crappy part of the GoAir website is that the booking feature works only on IE :( and doesn't move on Mozilla.

Technorati Tag:GoAir
    

Book: Steve Jobs... by Young and Simon

Desi Fun(da)

Just done reading "Steve Jobs: The greatest second act in the history of business" by Young and Simon last night while watching Brasil thrash Japan. The book is an amazing journey through the life of an equally amazing technologist. The games that he has played and those played on him through his early career days "make great reading". But what stands paramount amongst the qualities of Jobs is his ability to recognize, recruit and retain talent without which Apple would not be the kind of company it is today - always admired by the uber geeks around the world. It is said that Steve has the unique capability to motivate people behind an idea that is generations ahead and would probably seem unrealistic and totally absurd while working on it, more so when combined with his pulled in deadlines. Probably the most important contributor who made Apple what it is, is the co-founder Steve "Woz" Wozniak. There are little details about him in the book and he barely makes the news (other than lately where he publicly showed his disappointment when Apple went from Power to Intel). Woz is widely acknowledged as a guru in electronics especially his PCB creations that were smaller and better than anyone else out there, and with lesser components. As the book mentions Woz's use of minimal components with Steve's drive for detail by keeping all the soldering and connections along straight clean lines and his attention to external packaging gave the Macs a unique beauty outside and inside.

What makes the book even more of a must read is that Steve had actually opposed the release of the book and threatened action against the publishers, though I think he didn't. But after the release of the book all Mac stores stopped carrying any of the books by the same publisher, according to news reports. But all that just gives so much more credibility to the book right:)

KemCho Mukeshbhai

Desi Fun(da)

Am sure Mukeshbhai's answer to that would be "Majjama". The recent announcement by Reliance Industries to setup the largest SEZ in India at Haryana has bought in a great attention to itself. The location of the zone is strategic, being right next to Gurgaon on the NH8 it will be situated close to New Delhi, which would be an ideal gateway for top executives and being close to Gurgaon the working population will have a well planned town which is already in place. Being spread across 25k acres of land and having its own cargo terminal and power plant it is bound to bring in a rich flow of investment in the manufacturing sector.

Recently Chidambaram was heard saying "Make a list of all the things that block you from achieving 12% growth in manufacturing" to captains of Industry. With that kind of a push Mukeshbhai is on the right track to strengthening his empire. Am sure Narendra "Anti-Muslims" Modi must be fuming considering that Gujarat has been trying to hard sell itself as a sound investment destination especially in manufacturing.

There was a subtle statement made by Mukeshbhai during this press announcement "I would rather make headlines by action than by announcement". Ouch that was definitely a shot at the media-savvy younger bro Anil. A recent article showed that after the settlement between the brothers Mukesh's empire has shown solid growth while Anil's mcap has gone down considerably. While Anil's portfolio is definitely next-gen and with ample opportunity of growth it could never beat the black gold that Mukesh will hold in RIL and RPL. Well lets wait and watch as this generation of Ambanis play their cards and see how much investor wealth they can create in comparison to the legendary Dhirubhai.

Transplant for Shiv Sena

Uddav and Bal Thackeray had a massive rally yesterday for his Shiv
Sainiks. Since his foray into secular or minority based politics was a
total disaster in the last elections, the proof of which hangs sadly
on his chin (he had said he would not shave his beard if he lost), the
party has reverted back to its communal agenda. He has gone ahead and
even claimed that he would take Naxal support to go ahead and crush
Islamic fundamentalism in the country.

Even by the farthest stretch of imagination I don't support the Shiv
Sena but there are things that I admire about Mr. Bal Thackeray. And
one of the most important things he has going for him especially
during his glory years, is the ability to motivate and stir the minds
of people listening to him. A fascinating orator he is always ready to
belt out one-liners that could be taken up for slogans or mottos for
the party cadre. His ability to liven up his party meetings attended
by thousands by things like Marathi Manas and Sons of the Soil slogans
is something that few of our politicians can match. Bal Thackeray is a
true tiger in his own right and his bit off many a small politician
who came in his way of reforms for Maharashtrians.

I actually support him this time on the topic of taking Naxal support,
but I would use it in a different manner. What is plaguing us the
corruption at the political levels. By funding the Naxalite movement
to be sharp shooters for gunning down the filth in politics we could
actually channel their movement to a more productive channel. Am sure
that the naxals are not into killing innocent people as a primary
target anyways. It is way more difficult than it sounds but it is a
viable approach. Considering that the Indian army would never stage a
coupe in India there doesn't seem to a strong enough force to go ahead
and weed out this political menace. Unless of course we manage to get
some ex US marines working for us:)

Bal Thackeray is always at his best at his rallies where even today a
large support turns up and clogs the roads in Mumbai. He still has a
massive following but then he needs to give the Sena a heart
transplant, he needs to realise that we need a bit more than communal
hysteria and rhetoric to start voting for him... or is that simply
enough even in today's Maharashtra?

23 months in Bangalore

Desi Fun(da)

Well I finally made it back home to Mumbai. I have spent the past 23 months in Bangalore working for Sun and unfortunately they had to have their sole Indian Engineering Centre in Bangalore. I had travelled to Bangalore when I was a kid and still remember the lush greenery and the vast open spaces and most importantly the calmness and lack of crowds. Things have definitely changed. The intrusion of the IT sector in this small-town-turned-city has shaken a lot of things in comparison with its past. The people out there seem to be more greedy and envious of the success of the vast number of out-of-state engineers coming into the city each day. They leech of us for everything right from rentals, to food joints and even the god-forsaken rickshawallas. It just seems that everyone is just out to get us. Imagine most of us have to deal with unbearable rents that are based purely on the whim of a landlord who is willing to move into his inhabitable basement to rent out the rest of his habitable house. Most of them pack their families into small rooms and rent out the rest, how pathetic is that. Why would someone compromise on his quality of life and worse still that of his immediate family just to earn a few more rupees. If the family needs the money it is understandable but I have seen people whose kids are in the States earning a healthy income and still going down this path. Come on how greedy can you get? Not just that the rents are ballooned up but they keep increasing the same by 5-10% each year based on pure fantasy.

I know we Indians are a bit overzealous at times but hey no one can beat the crap that is happening in Bangalore. Other than the cool weather, which is slowly disappearing with the green cover in the city, is there anything worth mentioning in the positives about Bangalore.

• Don't have good roads and
  
• The prices of fuel is the highest in the country in Karnataka.
  
• The average time spent to reach Electronics city is going up every year leading to misery of thousands of young engineers. And the same is true for any travel. One of my friends takes between 35-60mins to travel around 9kms to work.
  
• The layout of Bangalore is circular in nature which is the worst conceivable way of developing a city.
  
• Land grabbing is at its highest in the place with politicians like "humble farmer" Deve Gowda owning most of the green belt and they slowly getting them into development projects etc.
  
• Then you have these pseudo Kannadigas who just want every person in Karnataka speaking their language come what may and regardless of their economic contribution to their state.
  
• Then there is the messy excuse of an airport that couldn't even stand up to a bus depot in Mumbai.
  
• The new airport is being built in a god forsaken place more than 30kms out of Bangalore's centre and that too away from Mysore. If they had planned it on the Bangalore-Mysore highway both cities could have benefited.
  
• Then due to the burst in population a minor drizzle leads to clogging and streets are just covered with water for days together.
  
• The drainage system is the worst. Go near any hotel and the stink would drive you away before the bad service pisses you off
• No proper supply of drinking water
  
• and well we can go on an on with the crib but lets just stop at these few things
  

For what its worth I too am a Kannadiga by descent, but man thank god I am not from Bangalore. I sure as hell wouldn't want to live my life in a 30x40 or smaller house where I would rent out 2/3rds of it to complete strangers, have nearly three common walls with my neighbors and be stuck in traffic for more time than I could spend with my friends and family.

Unfortunately other places are not getting any better wrt. congestion. I have lived my life in Mumbai and hey things are getting worse with respect to traffic congestion and population out here by the hour. Earlier we used to get up and leave for school/college by around 8am and all the trains would be nearly empty. I went to the station last morning at 7.15am and the trains were overflowing. A rapid transport system is needed asap in Mumbai and it is good to know that the Metro is placed on top priority by the state government, work on it should start by September with the contract out to Reliance - Anil's half of it. My mom actually posed an intriguing question today.. where would I run away from all this if I can't stand it so soon? Any suggestions? Bachao!!!


Personal Note:
In other news I've just had a happening Saturday with special email traffic, which was unfortunately cut short by some visitors. Hopefully the weather and status on the fairer side remains suitable for the conversation to continue. Need to check if Cafe Coffee Day's claim of "a lot can happen over coffee" stands true or is just a farce:). And in my "stupid things Allen did" section I just showed The Passion to my mom. I'll be through purgatory and back during the next few weeks. Pray for me!

World Cup Fever

 

Desi Fun(da)

 

Ok so the World Cup started a week ago and my first blog entry about it is so late. But well the world up ain't started until Brasil has played a game. And so they did it yest early morning by playing Croatia and they beat them ofcourse, but only by a 1-0 goal score. I slept through the first half and missed the goal but for the entire second half I just felt Croatia was a really really good team and if they had capitalised on a couple of attempts on goal they could have stolen the game away. Then again as one of my friends said Brasil would've responsed if the Croats had taken the lead in the game.

 

Anyways the World Cup is on and to all you ppl out there have a blast watching the games while I pack up and move from Bangalore to Mumbai to Gurgaon.

 

Back to School Nostalgia

Kids everywhere in uniforms, Walking their way to school from dorms
Of sleepy faces and tied up laces, Little guys and girls up since early dawn

Some of them being the first time at school, Crying for mommy and daddy to stay
The smiling teachers are all ready, With classrooms ready to wisk them away

Of pretty faces and ponytails, Little girls name shalini and gayle
Boys called rohan and adrian, All walking up to the school atrium

The day will start with the national anthem, A speech by the priest and a nun maybe
There will be some classes and a lot of fun, With all their classmates they will run

The day started with a sleepy face, All powdered up by mommy or granny
By the time they reach their home it won't stay, Coz all of them will play in the muck today

Oh so glorious the days at school, Be it the girls from Joseph's
Or being punished to stand on the stool, Be it the crammed up buses
Or the music classes, The sports days or Be it memorizing those verses
Even the walk to and fro, Oh Jesus I miss them so

So to these kids I'd say make sure you enjoy every day
Because once you get out there is no going back
You will miss your pals and the masti you had
And then like me you would say "Wish I was in school too!" almost everyday.


I could possibly write on and on about my days at St.Xavier's hanging off banyan trees, or levelling the pitches at Don Bosco's and the fun years in junior college at St.Xavier's and then the rocking time at Fr.Agnel's.

Quitting Sun Microsystems

Edit: I keep getting google hits from people searching for some info on Guavus. Well I do work at Guavus Networks, out in Gurgaon. Drop me a line at allen.mathias@gmail.com if you would like to know anything specific other than NDA stuff ofcourse:)


Personal Note:

This weekend I decided to make my move. I put in my resignation at Sun in Bangalore while accepting an offer from a startup in Gurgaon. It has been a wonderful 2 years at Sun. I worked with a dedicated team having a wonderful set of individuals at the Diagnostics Group in Systems, developing SunVTS. The learning curve for any techie at Sun is very sharp, if you want it to be and, as long as you want to exploit the vast pool of senior and talented engineers here, who are always ready to reply to your emails or talk to you on the phone. I was especially thrilled to be a part of Sun's SEED program and I wish I could have stayed on longer to learn more from my mentor Greg and possibly try to get some more email interaction with Eric.

All in all its been a wonderful and vastly learning experience at Sun. I truely believe that Sun is getting back on its feet again and I wish I could be a part of that as it happens. My only regret here has been something personal as you might have seen in some previous posts but well balls wasn't something Sun promised I would gain while I worked here :)

So its time to move on and get some more people hooked onto the Solaris bug. Cheers.