An email from Mainframes regarding Mainframe job !!!!

It was a pleasant surprise to receive an email from Mainframes (wow not just 1 but many of them I suppose) for some mainframe openings. See the pic on the left....

The concept of Moksha

Hinduism calls it Moksha, Buddhism calls it Nirvana. These two concepts, very similar to each other, separates the eastern theology from the western theology. The two major western theologies, namely Christianity and Islam, have the concept of heaven and hell. The idea there is that if you do good in this life you go to heaven and if you do bad you go to hell. Quite a simple concept to understand. More like a commercial transaction. But what they fail to do is explain where Heaven or Hell is located ? Is it on this planet or is in Mars or Jupiter ?

But Hinduism and Buddhism have really tried to explain what life is all about. They both recognize that there's no physical existence of Heaven or Hell. For an individual any living moment could be heaven or hell. You don't have to really die to experience Heaven or Hell. Heaven is happiness and Hell is sadness. When we exclaim that "I feel like being in heaven" it really means we are in heaven. This is more a state of mind. But what is Moksha then ?

Moksha refers to the balance you attain with respect to your environment. Is this attainable only when you die ? Not necessarily. But it is very difficult to attain Moksha when you are alive. For the simple reason that human mind is very difficult to control and satisfy. You could be married to Aishwarya Rai or Milind Soman but you are tempted to think about another man or woman. There's nothing wrong with it for a human. It's the nature in play. Every life form in this planet is tuned to attract and get attracted. Or you could be disturbed by something happening in your neighborhood, a new construction or a new thing bought by your neighbor. Everyday happenings around you make you feel to want something. This want will prevent you from attaining moksha while living.

It is for this reason that the sages and rishis essentially chose forest to go and meditate. In a forest you are one with the environment. Here its not the forest that is important but the environment that is important. Moksha is attained when you are in tune with the environment. The rishis could have and have chosen other places to meditate like Mountains or snowy caps or even desert regions.

When you attain balance with the surrounding environment you don't feel that you deserve anything special. You are happy with what you have. You are not aware of the concept of haves and have-nots. Whatever comes your way you accept it as it is. You do not crave for anything because you are unaware of its existence in the first place. Craving happens only when you know something exists and you are aware that you do not have it in your possession. It is very difficult to suppress the craving when you are aware of it. Therefore the Rishis and sages simply determined that "Ignorance is Bliss".

So is going to the forest the only way to attain Moksha ? This is where Hinduism and Buddhism starts to differ. Buddhism vehemently believes that Nirvana is achievable only by sages. But Hinduism believes that Moksha is attainable by ordinary morsels too. And it says that one can achieve Moksha by following any of the following paths
commonly called Yogas.
1. Raja Yoga
2. Karma Yoga
3. Bhakti Yoga
4. Gyana or Jnana Yoga.

Every Individual in this planet is involved in one of the four activities defined by the ancient varna system. Some of us are rulers, some of us are warriors and businessmen, some of us are artisans and some are involved in the pursuit of knowledge. Hindu philosophy says that depending on your personal level of tolerance you can follow any of the four Margas or Yogas to achieve Moksha.

Raja Yoga involves Physical techniques to attain Moksha. It involves physical practices that teaches you the concept of Sathya, Ahimsa and Concentration. It is highly suited for leaders, kings and rulers. Are you one who is always leading the charge then this is a good method for you to attain Moksha. The philosophy is simple, when you practice Raja Yoga you imbibe the qualities required of a true leader that gives your mind peace of mind. When you achieve this peace of mind you are in balance with environment which is nothing but Moksha.

Karma Yoga involves action or duty. There are set prescriptions for this technique. It's mental jihad that you have to wage within yourself to do the best in the job you have undertaken. Yes I did use the word Jihad and am fully aware of it. Jihad in its pure form is a battle that you wage inside yourself but unfortunately it is being used in the same meaning as a crusade nowadays. The other important highlight is that it is a job that you have undertaken. It's not a job that's handed down to you. Majority of us feel so vexed with our work because it's not our choice. Karma Yoga applies to all sorts of people. It's a very expansive in its definition.

Bhakti Yoga is what was practiced by Saints like Sri Thyagarajar. Some schools further split Bhakti Yoga in to Natya Yoga but to me they are essentially the same. A soulful rendition of the Lord's attribute, love that makes the performer lose himself. One another important aspect of Bhakti Yoga is that it not only affects the performer but also those who are watching the performance. This is the effect one gets when one listens to Shrimati M.S.Subbulakshmi in the morning. Not only has she given herself to that rendition she draws us in to it too.

Jnana Yoga is that is what practiced by sidhdhars, munis, rishis and sages. If you are inclined to doing research this is your path. Sri Ramana Maharishi who dedicated his life in to explaining the philosophies to hundreds of thousands of his disciples is a great example of a person following this path. Now should this be just some kind of metaphysical phenomenon alone. I don't think so. Are you in biomolecular research, then you are involved in the expansion of Jnana and you are practicing Jnana yoga.

The key to achieving Moksha is to essentially understand that it does not require any extra effort on your part. The truth is we put extra effort in weaning ourselves away from Moksha. If we believe that what we are on the path to Moksha by doing what we enjoy doing and doing it the best possible way, we will achieve the balance with our environment. Let us strive towards that and Good luck in your effort.

Hypocrisy of the media

When the Church apologizes for its crusade or its annihilation of native tribes in Latin America through inquisition, the true number of killed is unknown, the media rejoices about the magnanimity of the Church. That is for the media, a mere nod from the Church accepting their mistake is time for some cause celebre. Make no mistake, this is not the first mistake that the Church or its members have committed. Only a few years ago the Church recognized the helio-centric theory of the universe. In other words Church's official belief till a few years ago was that the Earth was the center of the universe. Not to mention the killing of scientists who challenged the Church's so-called scientific belief. With such a track record the Church manages to get an unproportional benefit of doubt from the media.

In contrast when RSS meets with a dalit leader or when Panchjanya calls for Dalit priests it is always accused of wolf in sheep clothing. RSS definitely had elements within its rank who were against Dalits, no doubt. But every action of any other RSS leader shouldn't be seen through the lens of those elements. Every organization will have hawks, moderates and the doves. While for the Church the Doves always get highlighted while for RSS it is always the hawks. Isn't this hypocrisy on the part of the media ?

Donation dacoity at Safeway

Today I was shopping in Safeway and my bill came to $7.19. The cashier while ringing me up asked whether I would like to donate 81c to Breast-Cancer research. What do they expect me to say ? No ? Infront of 20 other customers standing there ? This is a new way of donation dacoity. Already life in US is so full of donations,
1. there's the fire and police department donation that comes to your house
2. there's the UnitedWay campaign in the office
3. there's usually the cookie donation in the local school
not to mention the boy scouts and such like that.

Now this is a new way of making people donate and I don't know why they have to resort to this. In order to avoid this I would rather avoid Safeway and take my business elsewhere instead of saying No to their "Do you want to donate....." question.

Ciao

Dalit Christians !!!!

Now as a Brahmin growing up in TN, I'm just a totally brainwashed chap who thought my forefathers and ancestors inflicted so much pain and agony on the rest of the unsuspecting populace, thanks to DMK, PMK and other MKs (including the sottai thalaiyan). Infact because of this I took it upon myself to exile myself from the sacred India and I have 4 more years to go in the usual 14 years of Vanvaas.

Due to this extreme torture many of the dalits converted to Christianity, Buddhism etc. Now you would think that they escaped casteism right ? Apparently not. It looks like that the religion you practise has nothing to do with how the general populace will treat you, if you are unfortunate enough to be born as Dalit. I'm shocked. I am tempted to call up Ramadoss, M.Karunanidhi and ask them what's going on. I'm pretty sure Christianity doesn't have Brahmins and so why is this happening to the poor folks who were converted to Christianity with fake promises ?

In other matters of casteism and reservation, MK voiced his concern over the reported activeness of the Supreme Court in reviewing the 69% reservation law which is protected by Schedule 9. Any law under Schedule 9 cannot be reviewed by the Supreme Court and so the legislators in India passed all kinds of law under this schedule. This schedule 9 was originally created by Mr.Nehru to protect land reform laws. In his defence of the 69% reservation Dr.MK has said that casteism has been in existence for thousands of years enforced by HINDU religion and so 50 years of reservation is not enough to eradicate it. The interesting point is that it's the Hindu religion that enforces it according to MK. But obviously the previous news item tells me that it really doesn't matter what religion you belong to. Once a dalit you are always a dalit.

Casteism, Mr.MK, is not because of religion. It's a psychological thing. Its a result of people wanting to differentiate themselves from the crowd. It's a result of showing one as above the rest. It is not going to be solved by reservation which in my view will only exacerbate it. A poor upper caste will get more respect in many parts of India than a rich lower caste and that is the truth. The battle against casteism should start targetting people's heart rather than targetting superflous things like Jobs and Education...

Ciao,

Return of the Goondagiri

in TamilNadu is so unnerving that even constituents of the ruling coalition like CPM have asked the sottai thalaiyan party to hold back its goondas. Democracy was once described as rule of the Mob which is the reality as for as India is concerned and TN in particular. PMK is now accusing DMK of breaching the alliance "dharma". Sometimes I seriously think why these protectors of Tamil resort to sanskrit words like dharma... Oh wait they'll then take the help of people like Michael Witzel and prove that dharma is indeed Tamil and will go on to prove that Sanskrit came from Tamil.

So I hear that this is another year of rain and havoc in TN. Pictures of marooned houses come up in The Hindu and other newspapers. If at all the rain does help it will be in identifying the areas you want to avoid when buying a house, if at all you can afford to buy one now. I think the affordability index in Chennai should be much less then the affordability indices of major US cities (the lower the index the less the city is affordable).

I read an interesting news piece about Buddha's remains being interred in Mumbai. Apparently the remains came from a stupa in South India and was excavated in 1920. The breadth of history of India continues to amaze me in ways more than uno. The sheer amount of history while amazing really craps out when compared to the way we fail to market it. This one piece of history itself is enough to invite millions of Buddhist pilgrims from Far East. That same news piece gave an interesting tidbit about Satish Chandra, Zee TV's head honcho. Apparently he is a Buddhist.

The other news that piqued my interest was the nationalization of King Birendra's asset in Nepal. It's a welcome step towards Goondagiri in that country I suppose. Instead of one Goonda now the Nepalese have to put up with thousands of Goondas.

Well so much for my weekend rant. Ciao.

The drama at Mysore, New Delhi and so on so forth

Of late Police in India seem to be catching terrorists with as much ease as Madrasis swat mosquitoes. It's as if the Police has a magical lamp to which these terrorists are drawn to, the reason for this deadly attraction can never be cracked.

How else can I describe the success that the Police force shows when two terrorists are arrested in NewDelhi just after they got off from a train. Not only was this arrest significant but the Police went on to say that these guys came to Delhi to meet some of their co-conspirators. If they knew that then shouldn't they just put these terrorists on survellience and catch those co-conspirators ?

The arrest in Mysore is much more dramatic and raises more questions than it answers. These guys were arrested after an encounter but the photograph that the Police Chief released shows them with no injuries. They were arrested with all kinds of incriminating documents and explosives etc. Make no mistake, if these arrests were genuine and not staged there will not be a happier person but all these arrests in such quick succession raises more questions about our Police force or about our border security. Either way some one is just sleeping in their job.

All about Bubbles

No I'm not talking about the cartoon character but real bubbles. You know those that seperate people from their hard earned money. Yeah I know fools and money should never mingle but bubbles are quite extreme in that even non-greedy folks fall a prey. There are bubbles and then there are bubbles triggered by bubbles. At present there are 3 bubbles in my view

1. Outsourcing bubble: This has certainly assumed the proportion of mega bubbles. Outsourcing to India has assumed a great proportion but the fact is that only a few of those outsourcing deals really benefit the outsourcer. In my own place of work we have outsourced a part of our IT work to India. Well they are cheap around $20/hr or so but they take 10 times as much time to do the work as $100/hr American worker. When I meant American worker I don't mean white caucasian male, that term means anyone who is under direct control of our team and whose activity can be monitored by us. The bane of outsourcing is not their lack of talent but more a lack of control exercised by us. Anyway this bubble has not yet been recognized in the offices of the concerned. For these people it's the $/hr that matters not how many hours it takes to get things done.

2. Housing Bubble in India: Just yesterday I was talking to my friend who tells me that a 6-acre property near Coimbatore went from 32Lakhs to 60Lakhs in 2 weeks. If this is not insane then we need to find a new word for this phenomenon. This housing bubble is definitely driven by the outsourcing bubble. People working in IT have hit pay dirt what with their annual salary being near 15-20L for experiences ranging from 5 to 10 years. Where should they invest this money ? In tangible assets ofcourse. Not to mention the fact that interest on their homes can be tax-deductible. This new found financial flexibility empowers builders to offer the insane money for properties that could be developed like I noted in the first sentence.

3. Housing Bubble in USA: This one has started to fizzle now. The gas has started escaping from underneath. Prices are actually falling in once bubblicious areas like NOVA, SoCal, Miami, LV etc. While I'm not much concerned about the 3rd bubble I'm highly concerned about 1 and 2 as my exposure to those are greater.

The next 2 years will tell us whether 1 and 2 are bubbles are a new plateau. If they do become a new plateau I'm afraid that this tectonic shift will leave a lot of people in the lower plane and result in social upheavals.

Till next post CIAO

300 million

That's the magic number for America today. By official estimates it is believed that USA's official population is now 300M. But judging by media reporting it sounded as if it was 3B. There were radio programs dedicated to bissecting how this nation will feed, shelter and cloth the burgeoning population. As usual the Anti Immigrationists were voicing their opposition to Immigrants of all sorts. If you need some laughter all you have to do is tune to CNN or read through the so-called national newspapers and listen to radio stations. USA now stands behind China and India. I guess this association is kinda dubious to Americans, an axis of evil of sorts in hosting human beings may be. Wonder what the reaction will be when they reach 1B, yeah the real 1B.

So Infoscions really read blogs

Couple of days ago I posted my exasperation with Infy's website, particularly about the contacts page whose email address bounces. Today I see that I have a visitor from Quincy, MA and that too through a corporate network. Incidentally Infosys has an office in Quincy, MA so I am going to make an educated guess that that person was from Infy. Infact he went to the URL directly (not sure who linked it or who sent him the link). Hope he does something about it.

In other matters, I stumbled upon this google analytics. Well I had known about it for quite some time but never really took time to see what it is. I always wondered how people especially bloggers can tell what search criteria leads to their blogs or from where people read their blogs etc. Now I know how they do it. Infact if I remember I had asked a couple of prominent bloggers how they did it and them being very prominent I guess my questions were considered not so important. The google analytics is kinda really cool. I hope that Google monetizes it, if its not doing it already, like their enterprise search appliance. An online analytics for corporate intranets should be a blessing for corporations. I know that my own company struggles with finding out usage statistics on webpages and applications.

Well till my next post, CIAO

Mohamad Yunus, Grameen Bank and Nobel Peace prize

First hats off to him. But shouldn't he get a Nobel prize for Economics or rather Micro-Economics rather than Peace. Not that it really matters. Even being nominated for a Nobel prize is apparently such a great honor in itself. Grameen bank might be new to millions of westerners but the concept has been there in Bangladesh for a long time now. It's based on a simple assumption that common people just want to live a decent life and if you provide them with the required loan at an acceptable rate then they will be more than happy to pay for it.

Day before yesterday when I read the possible nominations Mohamad Yunus did not even figure in the possible nominees. There was the Finnish President or PM who worked on Indonesia's peace deal with Aceh province and then there were others. Now Nobel committee never releases the names of those nominated to any of the prizes either. So it's all a guess work.

Heartfelt congratulations to Mohamad Yunus, his creation and his millions of customers who made this possible.

DJIA, NPR, GWB kadamba kootu

Okay so DOW broke the record 2 weeks back and ever since then even one point gain a day it will break another record. I'm so tired of these TV channels and radio shows crying hoarse everyday about this record breaking. C'mon folks it's not as if it went up by like 300 points and yes such days do happen although very rarely. So yeah let's just settle down to the fact that the DJIA is showing signs of life and is slowly climbing up. What worries me is that the much broader S&P or NASDAQ hasn't reached the same position as that of DJIA.

Talking of radio shows I really look forward to weekend radio shows on NPR. Right from Michael Feldman's "Whad'ya know" to Garrison Keillor's "Prairie home companion" it's an auditory treat. Check out Michael Feldman here and Garisson Keillor here. I'm pretty sure they are available live thru their internet radio as well. So even if you are in India make an attempt to hear them and you won't be disappointed.

While talking about public radio, Oregon Public Broadcasting or OPB, appears to make some half-hearted attempt at covering Oregon soldiers death in Iraq. It's as if it does not want to be seen ignoring it. Now I don't want to learn of each and every death but they do inform the listeners of every soldier hurt or dead and then follows the usual "He was loving and showed extreme leadership skills and was always there for his friends and sisters and brothers" crap. This is what pisses me off. I've been noticing it for the past year or so. Everyone gets the same cliched quote from his/her highschool teacher or friend. If they really want to do a good job they should stop doing this naamke vaaste coverage and do a good job or else just let them be one another statistic. I think the soldiers deserve more than what OPB thinks they deserve. Now this is from a person who is morally opposed to the war.

Since we have touched the Iraq war, it logically leads to the political drama taking place in this country. Who would have thought that the republicans of all would have a homosexual scandal amongst their midst thanks to Mark Foley. Foley's folly might as well land the control of congress and senate to the democrats which is good in a way. They will atleast be proactive and pass the comprehensive immigration reform that might help longtime permanent residency process sufferes like me and hundreds of thousands of others.

Being a person who likes conspiracy theories, I sometimes think the recent drop in gasoline (Petrol) prices and the rise in DJIA are somehow connected to the November elections. But being holed up in "Where the hell is a planetary body called Sun" city called Portland, Or, What do I know. Not much !!!!!

Infosys - Where is thy QA analysts ?

The name Infosys is revered in India and probably by some in USA. It's the leading offshore technology company and no doubt changed the landscape of IT service providers that even IBM couldn't think off. It's stock has been the darling of Wall street and Dalal Street so much so that Infy has replaced Reliance as the most influential stock in Bombay's Sensex.

But under all this glitter, it's a shame that its own website has no quality control. I am planning to move back in March 2008 and so I thought it might be a good move to join companies such as Infy or CTS here and work as an architect or some kind of manager, whatever they see me as a fit for, and then move back to India. So here I'm a naieve 31 year old going to Infy Careers section to see their contacts. They instruct prospective employees to email their resume. Well I did email it to "careersquery@infosys.com" as stated in the webpage and guess what it bounced. I'm really amused. India's premier IT servicing company has its website screwed up. Ain't matter if it's just one page it happens to be the "Contacts" page. The page that's the window to the outside world to have a look at you. I wouldn't cry shame on Infy but I do wonder about their quality now !!!!

Google's new product

I think one of the test to be employed at Google is how many factories of Boost or Horlicks you drank. Otherwise how do these guys get the energy to release product after product, so much so that their operations department has apparently put brakes on new products. Any company will love to have such a problem at hand. The latest doing buzz rounds is the online office document management. While Google buying Writely and coming out with Google spreadsheets was an old news, the current buzz is about how the two are integrated in to a simple looking URL (http://docs.google.com/). We should probably rename simplicity as googlicity. These guys do it simple and elegant. Check it out here.

Irundavan kannukku therinjadhellam Pei

Read more here

Dear Verizon FIOS

Thanks for sending me a nice marketing letter all the way from New Jersey and that too by UPS next day air service. The UPS guys were really nice, they gently placed the letter at my doorstep and rang my bell. I was indeed surprised to see this letter. Infact I thought USCIS took pity on me and sent me my Greencard and was going to buy 108 coconuts to my kitchen-vaazh pillaiyar. But on opening it I saw that it was a nice marketing mail from your marketing department.

Well thanks for remembering this guy who is residing in a nook of place in the when-will-I-ever-see-SUN Pacific Northwest. Thanks for pointing out all the gigantic download speeds that you have. I'm amazed at the 15MBPS download speed that you offer and I'm ecstatic that the latest Fiber Optic technique is available at my neighborhood. The marketing pitch was just too good to pass up.

But you know what I'm just wondering why you are wasting a lot of time on a guy who already has the service for the past 10 months ????

George Bush - An Ironic specimen

So North Korea goes nuclear. At the time I write this post it isn't clear if the test was successful or not but what is clear is that the 2 of the axis of evil states have shown the middle finger to USA and I'm pretty sure the hand that propped that finger is the most trusted ally in USA's war on terror, Pakistan.

I don't think life can be any more ironic for George Bush. I mean on the one hand his foreign policy his undermined by his own chosen allies and on the other hand the republicans and their mouth pieces are caught again and again in crimes of moral turpitude. This is all the while when GoP is known to champion family values and all such moral high horse variety.....

Polickaaran paiyan thirudan, vaathiyar paiyan makku....

Dear Tamil TV Serial Producers,

Can you even think of creating some light hearted comedy serials at all ? All the serials you take some woman either wrecks another woman's life or extracts revenge or whatever. How about some Friends type of sitcom involving say some BPO or IT youth. I mean IT is no longer the fringe industry it used to be 10 years ago. Imagine following the lives of 5 or 6 youth who meet each for the first time in their workplace and rent a place together. Their work place drama, personal life dramas heck even their first visit to US/Europe drama etc would make such a hillarious and down-to-earth sitcom.

Why are we not thinking creatively such but just keeping churning out one woman after another? No no I have nothing against Selvi, Kasthuri or Lakshmi personally but they've just become trite to say the least..... What you say eh !

Sycophancy is alive and kicking in TN

Sun TV had a 2.5 hour program today (and it will continue tomorrow). The program is about the honor given my Tamil Film Industry to the self anointed kaavalar of Tamil, Mr.Karunanidhi. Forget about the chikun-guniya disease that's spreading throughout the state, the politicians wants to be feted, wined and dined. Tamil Film Industry, whose members are rich and powerful were given more at the expense of common man by way of tax incentives if they named their movies in pure tamil which resulted in JoK becoming SoK. What a grand standing. The only way Tamil can be encouraged in TamilNadu is through money.

Well coming back to the program, the same film industry took out a big function honoring Dr.J.Jayalalitha just over an year ago. What is the need for such pomp and show? Even Radhika who is officially in the opposite camp was praising this grand old vazhukkai thalai. Sycophancy at its best. Nothing more to say.

The brouhaha about Afzal Guru

I don't understand the violence and various political maneuvering about this guy. He attacked the Indian Parliament and he was given due judicial process and sentenced to death. While I wish we could be like the Amish people who have already pardoned the killer who killed 5 of their children, I'm afraid that such show of magnanimity will be taken as pusillanimity. He is part of a terror group and there should be no iota of mercy to these mercenaries.

The way people react to Afzal Guru issue will clearly show what their position is regarding the unity of Indian state. I hope Dr.Abdul Kalam will not waver and uphold the death penalty against this traitor.

India the next super power ?

I'll be glad if it doesn't become a super powder... First of all I've been kinda lagging in my blogging because of studies and my new job as BI Technical Lead. Lots of new technology to grasp. Though technology is just technology, moving bytes of data from one database to another it does take time to learn the standards, convention and most of all the bureaucratic meddle that IT organizations find themselves in thanks to SOX.

Anyway I'm saddened by the increasing cases of dengue and chikun-guniya diseases. My own household in chennai have had their customary visit from the guniyans. Newspapers are reporting that Manmohan's Dussehra visitor is Dengue. We can have 10 Infosys, TCS, CTS, WIPRO etc but what matters is the attitude of people and govt. towards cleanliness and civic responsibility.

I don't see any campaign on TVs from the Govt. encouraging people to take actions on cleanliness. I only see the old man karunanidhi and his awards from tamil film industry. what a shame !!!!