Vodafone Egypt Migration.

I was working with a product called uOne with Rajesh Roy. I and Rajesh were working on a migration tool which could migrate user data to LDAP and IMAP. One day he called me to a meeting room where we were joined with our Project Manager Asit Mishra. They explained me about the migration process and that there is a migration going to happen in Egypt for Vodafone. They said it was one prestigious migration for India because this could fetch us lot more migration. I was happy to hear about it, but was also wondering why they are telling me all this and that too to me alone. Then Asit said we are planning to send you along with Rajesh for this migration. I was happy and said ok. Now they both of them started to explain lot of things and asked me about my convenience in travelling and all the regular stuff. Everything went well. At this time, Rajesh asked me if my Passport is in Bangalore or if it is at my home. To this I said “I do not have a passport”. It was not there in the wildest dreams of both of them that they were talking to a person for so long who do not have a passport. I could see the facial expression of both those people who were talking to me for so long about the assignment. To which I continued, “But I could make one”.

I went back to Alappuzha taking leave for a week’s time and applied for passport in Tatkal and brought it in a week’s time. My passport was sent for visa stamping and got it stamped.

This was my first ever travel in a flight. I along with Rajesh got a flight to Bombay. From there we need to catch a flight to Dubai and to Dubai to Cairo, the final destination. We reached Mumbai Domestic Airport. We collected all our baggage and went to the International airport. The airport is an old one, which looked more like a bus stand.

We were standing in the queue and when it reached Rajesh’s turn they said, your “immigration clearance not required” is not crossed in the passport so you need to do that before going. There it was a situation and I thought we of coming out of the queue. All of a sudden, Rajesh Said, “ Alright, I will do this and follow you later, You carry on.” I was surprised, I know only half of the tool the rest of the half is managed by Rajesh, what if he does not come? . But he looked very confident. I got the flight. And reached Dubai and from there to Cairo. Customs checked all my bag and once I came out, there was a person standing with a placard with my name. I reached him, and said that I am Jomon from Logica. This man was in his fifties. He said, “ My neme iss Abedulle, I em uor darivar”. I said, “Alright you take me to the hotel now”. To which he continued, “Uorr Boss want me tu teke you tu offece”. I did not knew who my boss is there, all these information is with Rajesh. I did not wanted to argue, I noded my head and sat inside the car. He took me to Egypt’s Telecom center. It is around 50 acers of land with a building in the center. All the four walls around the compound was 15 feet tall and there were Soldiers with gun near the gate and on the watch towers. I met a person called Khaliq. He was the delivery manager of the project. I found one more person called David. There was nothing much to do that day, But the biggest stone thrown on my head was also on the same day. Rajesh called me over the phone, which was given to me from office and said that he is not coming. And he is going back to Bangalore and help me from Bangalore.

Another challenge was that there was no internet connection. The only way to talk was to make phone call. We kept on calling I Rajesh and Govind Pande from US. For Govind also it was a challenging project because it was he who decided to give the migration to Indian engineers. My phone bill was 40’000 rupees when I came back. Hureen, the admin manager called Rajesh and asked if he really need this phone.

I was there in Egypt for 33 days most of the days Rajesh stayed back in office till 12.00 am. and sometimes 1:00 am to help me. The migration was completed successfully and I came back. It was a great experience in my life. There were times when I stayed awake for 38 hours when the migration was happening. There were many issues in between but nothing bothered us, mean time I also mastered Rajesh’s part of migration, with his help and did that also.

Believe in the company

When I joined Logica, I joined along with other 130 graduates. Since it was a bulk recruitment Logica gave equal salary to everyone in the batch. Soon after the training, I got a job in GTBPC. For a product called uOne. At this time Prabodh Sirur who was with GTBPC was chosen as compensation review head. And this was the time of compensation review. One fine day there was a mail from Sushil Tayal the HR director notifying about the compensation review. In the email it was also mentioned that the people who joined after October 25, are not eligible for the appraisal. This was a sad news for us because. All of us joined on Oct 27th and 29th. Our salary was comparatively very low and if there is no appraisal happened that year we had to work in the company for another one year with the same salary, which was a real challenge for us. We had five batches, UNICORN, ANTS,CYBORGS, LOGIBEANS and NETACERS. One Unix batch, two java batch and two Microsoft technology batch. We were all in dilemma. We representatives from each batch go together to discuss on what to do. I and Pratik Roy from Unicorn, Vinup and Sachin from Ants, Dinesh from netacers and someone from cyborgue. We finally came to a conclusion that we need to talk to Prabodh about our concern.

We send him a mail and requested for an appointment. He immediately agreed and agreed to meet us in a meeting room the same day. We discussed with him about our concern. He told lot of things and at last he said. I cannot commit on anything as the decisions are already taken by the HR director, you believe in the company and the company will take care of you. We were not satisfied with the answers which he has given. But all of us, the representatives of each batch took the word very seriously, at least I took it seriously and convinced my colleagues with what he said “Believe in the company”. After a month it was the appraisal and there was an equal salary hike to everyone in the batch. From then whenever I think about the salary, I remember what he said. “Believe in the company”. Even after years in the company when we batch mates meet and if the topic turns to appraisal, we still say “believe in the company”. And still doing it.

Claire's Prayer

My eighteen months old child is going to a child care center called Juzzkids near electronic city, as both her parents are working. I am sure that she is losing a lot as a child, while my mother was always with me until I went to school after I turned five. Claire is a fast learner and observers everything happening around her. A few days ago we saw her standing keeping her hands clasped under her chin and saying something. We did not care about this initially. But when this happened again. We tried to understand what she was doing. From her school we came to know that they pray before going to sleep. And this is what she was doing at home. While praying they insist every one to stand. Next day at home we were all laying on the bed getting ready to sleep. Just to tease my child I said “Prayers”. She suddenly got up, stood on her feet and clasped her palms and started to chant. Suddenly she noticed that I was still laying on the bed. This was something against the rule for her. She stopped and looked at me embarrassingly. She waved her head sidewise and continually said “Enni, Enni…” (Enikku, Enthiri ) which means get up. I got up and sat on the bed. And acted as if I too was praying. She was not satisfied. She stopped for a while and started saying the same again. I tried to kneel down. She kept on rolling her head and asking me to get up until I got up completely on my feet. Without saying anything she started chanting her prayers. Once she finished, she lay down to sleep.

A simple thing taught in school, if can influence an eighteen month old child, what are the possibility of a school.

Turn off the engine” at the signals

We eight employees from Logica with the permission of Bangalore Police reached MG road on 5th Jun. It was the world Environment Day. We stood at the signal. When the signal turned red, we walked around the vehicles displaying a placard which read “Turn off the engine” . 30 % of the people were already doing it. 5% of them told us, sorry if I switch it off, it might not start. But the rest of the 65% of the people turned off the engine and gave a smile back. Many of them rolled down the window glass and said thanks. Most of them showed thumps up. Some of them took pictures. And a few congratulated and asked the details.

According to the local seller on the signal, normally it was hard to go in-between the vehicles because of the smoke and the sound and Today it is good. He said normally he gets tired and take rest after an hours business. But today even after 2 hours of selling he did not take any break.

There was a local news channel who came across and talked to us on the initiative. I was also called from Radio One and made me the warrior of Environments day.

To my right it is Santhosh, left Vinutha Abdul, Venu, Bhupinder, Sachindra, and Thilak, And Swami took this picture.

Long serving award

It was a Saturday. We got up from the bed a little late as it’s a holiday. I was in the couch with my child and my wife got me a cup of tea. The calling bell rang, and my wife attended the door. We thought that it would be our servant maid. To our surprise. There is a delivery boy holding bouquet of fresh flowers. He asked are you Ahilaa. When she said yes, He said, Madam this is from Wipro, as you have completed five years today in Wipro. He congratulated her and gave the bouquet to her. We felt very happy and she felt very important. It was a pleasant surprise.


Next Monday she send ma a mail which was send to her from HR department, congratulating her for completing five years. The letter also offered her a complimentary holiday package along with the family. In the evening of the same day she returned from office with a gift packet. She said it is given to her at office by her manager for the successful completion of five years. It had a leather pen stand a leather card holder and a leather photo frame. On all of it is embedded “Welcome to Club 5 , Wipro”.

Tuesday she got a mail asking for a new photograph, once she send it to them she got a mail asking her to collect her new ID card from the security. When she went to collect it, she was again greeted by the securities for he 5 year completion. They gave her the new ID card and a red color tag. While joining Wipro everyone gets a blue tag, after 5 years they get red tag and after 10 they get green tag.

It’s a great feeling to be recognized for the loyalty of the person who stays in the company for long. These are not expensive but for the employee and there family it’s a great feeling.

Nandakumar Kirupanandam

It is hard to find good leaders in the corporate word. It is only managers all around. Even if you see leader in the office, he would be leading a team as part of his job. And the real end factor of the Job is to have one nice profit building group. But I have seen a nice leader after long. He is one simple leader who get's involved in all the activities, even the simplest of all the activities in Syntillations. People love him for many reasons. One is the simplicity he has got and then it is the belief that he keeps towards himself, to the nation, to those who work with him.
He've been the president of Syntillations where I am one of the SIG(Special Interest Group Adminis). Any of the activity Syntillations is doing, he is a part of it. He also tries to keep the people together. Without any dispute.

Social Service is it done in the right way?

In my view social service ambassadors /CSR of a company should not be doing social service by going to some school and giving them books or food with by the money of the employees

They should ideally make sure that the employees of the company becomes socially responsible. It is important to bring the awareness to the employees of being a socially responsible person.

When you unnecessarily help a child you are making him feel comfortable and making him a lazy person who expects only from the society and never contributes to the society. You by helping a child by providing him food would be also pampering his father and making him feel comfortable enough to drink alcohol for another 30 rupees for the day.
It is easy to collect some fund from the employees and from the corporate on the reason of CSR and then you could also make sure that many of the schools are given enough food and books. It is also possible to make sure that you give the money and someone plants a tree for you somewhere. But how does it actually impact the employees of the company. They are still socially irresponsible.

It is more important to educate our people to help the society to be a better one.

Dry Triangle in the center of South India.

I am getting a little worried about the dry triangle that I have been noticing in the center of south India. This is called as a rain shadow region.
Earth always attracted me, also the maps and map reading from my child hood. I remember the interest I have shown in map reading as a Scout and as an NCC cadet.

I have been watching Google Earth and Wikimapia from the time it was introduced. I spend time in adding polygons and adding names in Wikimedia. Helping the world to get a clearer picture of the world. A dry triangle formation in the center of the southern part of India is getting highly visible. This is disturbing me on the thought of the future of Bangalore.
This triangle is getting prominent and browner in color. The green in this area is all getting vanished. And it is spreading towards the sides of the triangle. You can also notice that the rain water harvesting initiative which was taken forward by Jayalalitha, CM of Tamil Nadu has increased the green colour in Tamil Nadu. Then best way to see this is to download Google earth and see the history pages. you would be surprised to see the colour from green moving to brown in many of the areas.

Unicorn turning 5 in Oct 2010

Five years befor we were 32 people from different parts of India together formed a group and called ourselfs Unicorns.
Let me try to recollect
1, Sandeep Pondomathi, 2, Madhusuthan Gangadar, 3, Varsha Bhat, 4, Deepa Ravi,  5, Richa Gupta, 6, Riky Roy, 7, Ahejaj Ajemad, 8, Abhishek Verma, 9, Debee Santhosh Prakash, 10, Sapna Jujare, 11, Amith Sharma, 12,Shivani Singh,  13,Sanjay Bojarwal, 14,Raja Tiwari, 15,Golu, 16,Vani Mudivedu, 17,Nidhi Agrawal, 18,Anuj Arya, 19,Neha Singh, 20,Rajput, 21,Prateek Roy , 22,Sujit Banerjee, 23,Me(Jomon Joseph), 24,Vidya Venugopal, 25,Aditya Sandu, 26,Shanthi Nambola, 27,Edara Venkat, 28,Venugopal Palapala, 29,Zaheerulla Khan, 30,Raendra Gurram, 31,Roja Rani, 32,Varsha TR

yes, they are all here.

The True Story of the Taj Mahal

The story of the Taj Mahal that most of us have known about may not be the real truth. Herein Mr. P. N. Oak presents an interesting set of proofs that show a completely different story. Contrary to what visitors are made to believe the Tajmahal is not a Islamic mausoleum but an ancient Shiva Temple known as Tejo Mahalaya which the 5th generation Moghul emperor Shahjahan commandeered from the then Maharaja of Jaipur. The Taj Mahal, should therefore, be viewed as a temple palace and not as a tomb. That makes a vast difference. You miss the details of its size, grandeur, majesty and beauty when you take it to be a mere tomb. When told that you are visiting a temple palace you wont fail to notice its annexes, ruined defensive walls, hillocks, moats, cascades, fountains, majestic garden, hundreds of rooms archaded verendahs, terraces, multi stored towers, secret sealed chambers, guest rooms, stables, the trident (Trishul) pinnacle on the dome and the sacred, esoteric Hindu letter "OM" carved on the exterior of the wall of the sanctum sanctorum now occupied by the cenotaphs. For detailed proof of this breath taking discovery, you may read the well known historian Shri. P. N. Oak's celebrated book titled " Tajmahal : The True Story".

 

Some archaelogistical remains claim that Taj Mahal was an ancient vedic Shiva temple rather than the tomb that Shah Jahan built in memory of his beloved wife who died during childbirth. Is there a way to solve this mystery ???
Follow the links for more articles and photographical evidences:

•  True story of the Taj Mahal
•  BBC version

Meeting with the CEO of Logica.

Syntillations team was invite for a meeting by Proboth Sirur, the Head of staff, with the CEO of the Company, Abhay Gupthe. The objective was to let him know about the activities we do and to get his ideas.
He was impressed with each of us. I utilised the chance to introduce him all the clubs that we have made. Also the administrators of the clubs.
He was impressed about the way it is managed and also on the utilisation of the workspace. He said you are doing lot of things, but it is not reaching people.
I took him through induvidual clubs, wheels, ecoriders, bikers, logiwood, runners, photologic, in which he was impressed. He has given ideas on how to take it to a reach were people have interest in participating in these clubs.

When children work in IT

    To your left it's my father holding a book, And to his left it is Mr. Rajkumar Agrawal, wearing SAP t shirt, a person who has spend all his young days in bringing up the printing technology in Rajeshtan. His dream was to make Rajestan the center of printing technology. He has written his ideas and proposals of bringing his dream through many articles he has written and published. He now lives in the same apartment where I live. My parents came to Bangalore for a visit last month. My father who was in search of some one in the place to talk to found Mr. Agrawal, who in turn was searching for a company for him to speak with. both of them wait for each other in the morning and goes for a walk. Mr. Agrawal who have not ridden his Activa for the last six months took my father for a ride keeping him behind him. They are two people who wanted to spend there time in a very simple life style. Mr. Agrawal, who has already written about the upcoming IT India 20 years before, has recently started taking interest in real IT. He calls me as and when he have some doubt about computers. He now has got his own blogs and also in many of the community sites. Last day it was my fathers birthday. and Mr. Agrawal was the only guest we had for the simple cake cutting function at home. Next day when they were about to go for the walk I noticed there t-shirts. Since it was the branding month in Logica, as they have recently changed the logo. I was amused at the logo's they wear in there t-shirt. Since Mr. Agrawal's son works in SAP, he is wearing a t-shirt with SAP logo. and my father in a Logica t-shit.

When children work in IT, there parents go for mornig walk the branding.

A morning ride.

Today we went for a small ride which was to entertain the new joiners in ecoRiders( the bicycle club in Logica.) on the way I found a wounded snake. This is the first time in my life I have helped a snake. I lifted it by its tail and placed it near a bush in the road side. It was a nice feeling.

Cycling in early moorings’ is fun. I always feel if I were free enough to ride an extra mile. But to a married man there are limitations. You cannot be away for long as your child will miss you and would start crying. So need to reach home before it get wourse.

Wonderful people, Blinds

I was in front of Divakers hospital, Jayanagar, parking my car in the road side. I was taking my child Claire to hospital as there was some pus formation in her ears. I saw some of the students of Samarthanam (blinds) walking by the road holding each others hand.

When they reached me I asked them where they were going. I saw one of them smiling, and she said we are going to Samarthanam office. Then I asked do you know me?
To my and my wife’s surprise, one of them said, Joe uncle !
They played with my child for some time and invited me to there office nearby. I asked for excuse and left.
It’s been a month I met them in Logica. Still they remember me by name, and recognized me by my voice. Sad part is that I could see them but still I do not remember there names.


NB:

Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled is a registered NGO striving to provide visually impaired students’ shelter, education and help them lead normal lives. The trust runs various facilities such as free hostels, computer classes, vocational training, Integrated Education for the Disabled (IED), and an employment placement cell. The IT cell of the Trust is where physically handicapped students are trained in computers. Samarthanam has grown over the past 11 years and aims to achieve self-sufficiency through various activities. www.samarthanam.org

My cycle

You have a better access in roads. and you feel better. This is my bicycle . I love riding it.

Hercules ACT 105

A spider through my camera's eyes.

Next to the appartment I stay there is an area with lots of trees. there are some huge spiders in this area.

Republic day celebration in Logica

Once the new Syntillation team has taken over Syntillation, there are lot's of new things happening. Republic day celebration is one of it. There were only the securities at the time of hoisting the flag in Logica.


This time it was with lots of people and there family in there.

The longest serving employee hoisted the flag. National anthem was sung with a national salute.

A new look experiment

For the last two months I was experimenting on a new look.

Well I changed it back.

An accident of a neighbor I witnessed, but couldn't recognize

This incident happened in 2002. I was coming home from Dindigul. It was the first time I was coming back home after joining RVS Engineering College. I think it was a Friday evening. There were many of my classmates and seniors with me. We were all going home for the Onam vacation. From Palakkad we took a superfast bus which was going to Triruvanandapuram. It would have traveled for around 30 minuets. Suddenly bus stopped. It was near to midnight.

I saw another bus on the other side of the road around 20 feet away from my bus. I was not able to see the road properly, but from the expression of the people standing in front of me made me to pop out of the Bus. I could see a car in the light of both the busses.

It was an accident, by this time many people got out of the bus. I got up and ran out of the bus to the car. It was a KL 02 registration Maruthi Esteem of cherry colour. It was hit by the bus which was coming from the other side, which was a tourist bus. Suddenly light from the other bus was switched off. I turned to that side to see the driver is missing.

No one was approaching the car. I went near the driver. It was a direct hit. The front glass was totally broken. When I looked at the driver, what I saw was horrible. A person little dark completion, with a black rope around his wrist, fallen on the steering wheel. His head was open and brain was visible. I couldn’t take that vision so turned away.

I heard a small sound from the car. It sound to me as a sound made out of pain by some one who could not open mouth. I got back to consciousness hearing the sound. I tried to open the rear door. It was locked. I tried to break the glass by stamping on the glass of the door behind the driver. But it was too strong. I tried three times. Suddenly the rear door on the other side was opened from inside. A person in his fifties got out of the car. I believe the stamps I made on the car would have woken him up to consciousness. I rushed to the other side of the car. By the time I reached, few people who were on that side carried a lady in a greenish blue saree out of the car. She was unconscious. She was a thin lady. I reached inside the car to get the next person out of the car. It was a boy aged around in 24 was also in the rear seat. He too was unconscious. I and Riyas, one of seniors, carried him out of the car. By this time there was an ambulance. It was an Omni van. It had one long table and a long chair. We carried the boy on a structure and placed him on the table. I am not sure if the boy was alive. I rushed to the car. There was one more person next to the driver in the front seat. People were trying to open the door. The door was jammed and was not getting open. I entered the car from behind and adjusted the seat by pulling it behind.

It was a boy around  sixteen years, wearing a shorts and a t-shirt. I and Riyas pulled him out he was very heavy. I shouted at Riyas to hold him strong. We reached the ambulance. The man who came out of the car was standing near the ambulance, He seemd to be the father of the boys and the lady there mother. . He seems to be blank. We carried the boy to ambulance. The lady was by now layed on the long seat of the ambulance. It was a foldable one. We layed the boy on the road. I asked someone there to take her off the seat. Once they took her out, I folded the seat and asked them to place her on the floor, and they did so. I unfolded the seat again so that she was safe in the space under the seat. I along with Riyas and Nidhu tried to lay the sixteen years boy who was not on the road on the seat of the ambulance. But we failed.

We placed her back on the road. I approached the driver. The man sat near the driver of the ambulane. I told the driver to go fast and come back so that you can take the other boy too. Ambulance rushed to some hospital. I turned back to the boy, he was lying there. By this time some one brought a big can of water. I suspect it was from the tourist bus. The seal of the can was not broken. I saw some one opening it. I kept the boys head in my lap. I got some water and poured it in to his mouth. I am not sure if he was alive. I checked his pulse. Out of all the emotions that were controlling me at that time I was not sure if it was my pulse or his I was getting. I asked Nidhu Jorim , my classmate, to check the pulse. He checked and said that there is no pulse.

By that time there were lot of local people. We got back to the bus we came in. I was wearing a pink cotton shit. It was full of blood. I changed my shirt inside the bus itself. We continued the journey and I reached home. I told about the incident and went to sleep. Next day morning I was woken up by my mother. She was holding a news paper. She said that the people in the incident I was talking yesterday was the manager of Jos Studio, a photo studio in Alappuzha, and both the children were dead, and the mother is in hospital.

Next day the burial happened but I did not go for it.

Morality of the new Bangalore.

I'm not talking about the IT crowd. There are thousands of people who make there living only because of the IT crowd in Bangalore. Some are those who work for them, some are indirect dependants, some are parricides.

Now today I came across one more category. these are the people who have no moral values. they would do any thing for money. Once I continue you tell me if I'm wrong about them.

One of my collogue, Subudu ,a wonderful person with a good heart, while coming to office yesterday, saw a lady jumping out of the bus on to the road, as the bus was not stopping for her. Or may be because the bus only stops on the bus stops and as it was not a bus stop, but since the speed was very low because of the traffic, and since the next bus stop would be far for her, she jumped out ot the bus.

Many people passed by but no one helped her. Subudu felt pity on the girl, stopped his bike and told her not to cry. He helped her to get up from the road and took her to her office in his bike. She is a security guard in Central Mall near Jayanagar. Once reaching there her collogues requested him to take her to the nearby hospital.

He though was getting late to office, accepted and took her to manipal hospital. Understanding that the lady is from a poor background, Subudu thought of helping her by paying her hospital charges. A lady doctor in the hospital how treated her told that there is nothing to worry . She asked the girl about what happened, to which she told that she jumped out of a bus and fell down. This man helped me to hospital.

He paid rupees 1500 in the hospital, for the consultation and the X-ray charges. They were about to leave the hospital, around 20 people from the Central security came and started fighting with Subudu. They said that the accident was because of him and he need to pay compensation. Mean time they were also talking to the girl. He then told them to ask the girl.

To the surprise of Subudu and doctor she told that it was this man who came in around 100 km per hour speed and hit him. to which doctor said that but you just told me that he was helping.

All the people then started to shout at the doctor.

They lead him to Central mall basement and started harassing him and told him that he need to take care of the girl and his family for the next one month. and need to pay some huge money too.

Mean time two police men came there and they too joined them and started harassing him.

Some how he managed to come out of it giving his phone number,

This is Bangalore now.

Do you want to help some one in Bangalore now?

Claire and I

My child, Claire is one year old now. She started crying in the nights. Not sure why she is crying. She never cried in nights until she started going to the crush. Is that she is feeling unsecured? Is that she wants to tell us some thing. I bath her every day. Some day while taking bath, she cries. I would console her when she cries and then make her sit inside the bucket. This makes her happy and she would stop crying and start laughing.

I have bought a bicycle and am going to office in it. It is 18 kilometers from my house to office. Yesterday by 5:30 in the evening, I got a call from Ahilaa, my wife,. She said that the lady in the crush called her just now and informed her that, “Claire is suffering from high fever and should be taken home and it scaled 105 degree now”. She continued,” I’m going to pick her up from the crush, would you please start now itself”? I informed my colleague that I am leaving a little early, and started to cycle back home. On the way Ahilaa called me and asked me to get Crosin syrup for the child. I picked up the syrup form one of the medical shop on the way home. Once reached home she was already feeling better.

Next day morning that it today, she got up crying. I tried to console her, in vain. Ahilaa got her from me and convinced her, and she stopped crying. And it was time for me to bath her. I took her to the bathroom, where she started crying again. I was losing my temper. I shouted at her, which actually worsen the cry. I was getting highly disturbed. I beat her with my hands on her buttocks. It was not hard, but this again worsens the situation. Now it was Ahilaa’s turn to get her from me to wipe her, apply cream on her and to dress her up. Now I saw that Ahilaa was not in a good mood. When I asked her, she said that it was not good to beat her as; we are not sure why she is crying. All this time Claire was crying.

Once she dressed her completely I took her from Ahilaa’s hand. I was now in a good mood and was talking to her. To which she stopped crying and started laughing. Now I understood why she was crying and what she wants. She just wanted to be with me and wanted me to talk to her. I felt bad for what I did, but there is no way back.

Every day my child teaches me a new lesson.

Bangalore Walk-A-Thon 2009 - The Green Way- by Samarthanam Trust for Disabled

Bangalore Walk-A-Thon 2009 - The Green Way- by Samarthanam Trust for Disabled

Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled has been working since 1997 to empower the visually impaired, disabled and underprivileged people in India. The Trust is working to support them to keep in pace with the rest of the society by providing quality education, accommodation, nutritious food, vocational training, placement based rehabilitation and achieve personal independence.

There where thousands of people participating. I was also part of it last Saturday December 05, 2009, to 05:00PM starting from Sree Kanteerava Stadium , Bangalore. There were another 18 from my company (Logica). Syntillations a club of employees, which is supported by the Corporate, sponsored 30 employees of Logica to participate in this event. . It was great while walking and helping them walk. At the same time to talk to them and understand them. One of them while walking, holding my hand, mentioned about a band in her wrist as a friend ship band tied by one of her friends. Keeping this in mind While talking to another blind girl, Maya, I asked her about her best friend. She gave me a name, with the previous experience, I then asked her, why she do not have a friendship band from her friend. With out hesitating she said, I have it she has tied it, in my heart. I was taken back, but pretended that I did not get her message. I asked her again. So how did she do it. She pulled your heart out and tied it with a ribbon. To this she said, she has tied it in my heart with love. I was buried. I really felt happy about her and with her answers.

There were some dance shows by the blind and partially blind children. While watching it sitting in the pavilion of the ground, I asked one of my colleague, if the one dancing is blind or not. To this one of the blind girls sitting next to me said, Her name is Ganga. She is completely blind. But I could not believe my eyes, She was dancing with perfection. The next event was a group dance. Once this started the same blind girl who told me about the dancing girl called me; Joe uncle, I was surprised. How do you know my name, I asked? To this she said. Don’t you remember you introduced yourself to me before we started the walkathon.

I was ashamed to ask her, her name once again. She could remember me by my voice, and even though with eyes I could not remember her. While these things were going in my mind, she continued. Do you see the tall girl in the group dance? I said, “Yes”. She continued. She should be doing mistakes in dance right? She is completely blind, and others are partially blind.

I was proud of myself participating in the event.

Difference in the way we think reflects even in machine.

I got a mail about Google India and Google. It was a surprise for me when I crosschecked it.

The test is very simple. Before you perform the test let me tell you a bit about Google. Google.com is used in the united states and could also be accessed by others. But google.co.in is only accessible from India. Go to google.com and type the word removing in the search box. Notice the options it is giving in the drop down. If you can not get google.com, and if it is redirecting to google.co.in, you can use the google search box if you have one in the menu bar. When I typed the below is what I got.

Now go to google.co.in and type removing. And for this what I got is the below. You could test it your own system.

Surprised? Google gives you option from the history of use. Now you understand what people of India are after. And

still we call ourselves culturally rich. And the so called culturally rich people feel bad about the culturally poor western culture.

And there is no better proof than this.

Joe and his Independence Day celebration

This is a thought of one of my independence day celebration while I was in my eighth. On every August fifteenth fluttering tricolor flags fills India. Most homes gatheres before the television, watching the live telecast of the Independence day parade held in Delhi. But for the past few years, everything changed. Since cable TV became common, most Indias preferred to watch some programs, which seemed better than the ID parade. Intentionally or not, many even forget about the ID parade or even Indian flag or even Independence Day.

Alappuzha village is also affected by the TV Channels. But I was thrilled. I was in my eighth standard. My village, Thathampally is in Alappuzha district. Which once was a big business place. As often that year also there is Independence Day celebration in recreation ground in Alappuzha. Even though I am a scout from the past two years, only in that year I got selection in the Parade group. That was my first chance to salute the Indian flag. I came to my school in previous day evening. It was the order that everyone should come to school before six O' clock. I felt uneasy in the silence in his Sanathana Dharma School. I had never seen my school like that. The leader of the scout asked everybody to keep silence and started to give some lecture in which I had no interest. Everybody was asked to sleep in the staff room.

I laid there but I felt impossible to sleep in that room. When I closed my eyes figure of the mathematics teacher of the seventh standard comes to my mind. While comparing with the right leg his left leg is a little fat. May be this is the reason students call him Unnimanthan which may have a literal meaning the filarial man. He carries a big stick that will reach his hip if the other end touches the ground. Even though I was in the eighth I was still afraid of Unnimanthan . I was an expert to hide behind the big pillars keeping my breath till he gets inside the staff room.

I fell asleep with the thoughts of Unnimanthan in my mind. In his sleep I started dreaming. In my dream another teacher came, whom the entire school was afraid of. A six something tall man with red lips out of chewing tobacco. His gray hair shined with coconut oil. Hair on his broad eyebrows had no order. His silk jubba and KasavuMundu brooked no wrinkles. Chicken pox marks on his face made him look more dangerous. A big line made with sandal paste in his forehead and in the center of the line there is a red mark made with Kunkumam, which will twinkle with the red lips. When he speak, it will make us remember about the sound when chiratta(the shell of coconut) is grind against a rock. It felt, as even Headmaster of our school was afraid of him. Maybe because of the knowledge this Malayalam teacher Bhaskaran pillai had in all the subjects is the reason for it.

Bhaskaran Pillai looked at me while standing in the assembly and shouted "JOMONEEEE…". I with sweating forehead and shivering legs opened my eyes

“Joe….” I heard it again but this time the sound is not so hard. I did not understand anything. I looked around.

"Getup and take your bath " It is his friend Raghavan. But still unaware of what is happening I looked around

"Joe are you not coming ". Now I understood about what is happening. I took the soap and ran to the tap. After the bath I wore my scout uniform and looked at myself in the mirror in the staff room. In the big mirror I made himself as a soldier. Everybody got in to the bus. I was going to recreation ground for the first time. The bus started to the Recreation ground, which is near the beach. We all reached the ground. I stopped for a moment seeing a giant building.

"What is that? " I asked.

"It is the Lighthouse, " said one of the senior members of the team. I, who have heard about the Lighthouse, didn’t need any more explanation about the huge white building.

"It looks like the Rook of the chess, isn’t it?" I asked to Raghavan.

"Yes" answered Raghavn who had never heard about the chess game.

"Come on, " said Raghavan.

"Can’t you hear the music of the bugle that means the parade is going to be started," said the leader. The chief gust has come. He hosted the flag. He was horned by the parade salute. But all these time my mind was on the Lighthouse which make us remember about the lost glory of the business town that was Alappuzha. In the parade I and my friends had to satisfy with the second prize. But I didn’t feel unhappy in it.

I was happy on the chance that I got to salute the flag. While they were returning the big Rook seemed to be becoming smaller. I kept on looking at it expecting to see it next time.

My First Love Letter

It is again a rainy season. The holidays are over. Like always, I was happy. I was in fourth standard from where I passed the examination and now is to sit in fifth.

Sanadhana Dharma School is in a big compound two other schools are there as its neighbors. In all the class of Sanadhana Dharma School there are three batches A, B and C. I was in B batch but when the class was reshuffled I came to C batch. I was not so happy to change the batch. I was so sad to lose my old friends and to come to the new batch. With me two other students from B batch were also changed to C and those two where the only friends that I have as of then . Sunil Paniker A fat bunny spacey boy and a lean fair boy Amith Menon. With these two friends I sat on the first bench with Menon on the left and Paniker on the right. A new teacher came to his class a lean young lady with long fingers and sharp nails. She is in a cotton sari, which is her specialty. Her eyes are sharp and the stick seems to be an extension to her left hand, which she always carries. Even though her name was Mary none called her so. The name Parunthu that students call her seems to suite her more.

My mind was still in my old class. In old batch he has a friend Sangeetha Mallan. The fat Konginy girl with wheat colored complexion was my best friend. One day Paniker came with a proposal. Chapter No 1 love. Kochurani a girl with big eyes and dark complexion is the daughter of a teacher of the same school is a good in Barathanathyam too. A simple proposal Paniker just wants to know whether Kochurani, the top ranker of B batch loves him or not. Good three of them liked it vary much.

"But how to know?" asked both of us to Paniker. Three of us start thinking. It longed for two days. Paniker came with a solution.

"A love letter," said Paniker. But the Paniker is not the one who is going to write letter and Kochurani is not the one who is going receive. I should write the letter and that to Mallan. That was the solution Menon liked it. I with little hesitation accepted the proposal. I was happy that he can start loving Mallan who was just a friend to him. Two birds with one bullet.

Now the problems aroused How to give? On what to write? What to write? Where to give?

"You put the letter before her on the way and she will take it" it was a suggestion by Menon to me.

"Good" said Paniker.

"Okay first problem is over. What is about the second? This is not an ordinary letter," I said. For that Paniker took a paper from the bag. It was an advertisement notice of sunflower oil. One side it is full of picture of sunflowers. And on the other side it is blank. The paper is good. Three of us got satisfied.

" Now what to write". Asked Menon

"One thing is fixed. “ I LOVE YOU “. But it is not the solution of the real need. And what is the next thing we should write to know that whether Kochurani loves Paniker or not" I said.

"Dose Kochurani loves Paniker", Menon suggested.

"No that should not be asked like that". Said Paniker.

Then what" I exclaimed."

"You should not mention my name ", answered Paniker.

"Whom does Kochurani love?" Paniker said.

"That is not bad," said Menon. I wrote the letter. It had only two sentences "I love you. Whom does Kochurani love?" I took a red sketch pen and drew a picture of a heart.

"That is enough," said Paniker.

"Now next is the interval you drop the letter before her then she will take it " said Menon to me .

It was the last interval of the day. I took the letter and went to the ground I saw Mallan playing in the ground. The bell rang. Everybody was rushing to the class. I dropped the letter before her. Without understanding any thing she gave a good smile and went in to her class. I looked all around and took the letter and kept it safe in my pocket. I came back to the class and told my friends about what had happened.

"Now what? " Menon was curious to know. They started to think again.

"Got it, " I said. Both Menon and Paniker were looking very curiously in to my eyes.

"You and Mallan are in the same school bus. You jut give this letter to her and say that I have sent this for her," I said to Paniker. Paniker looked troubled.

"That is not a good idea," said Paniker.

"No that is the only idea left and it is a good idea" interrupted Menon. It was the last period the bell rang.

"Where is Sunil?" I asked Menon. We both had no idea on where he had gone. We searched for him all around.

"There he is " shouted Menon pointing towards the school bus.

"Why didn’t you take this letter?" I asked him.

"Oh I forgot about it," said Paniker with a smile in his face. I kept the letter in Panikers pocket.

It was very difficult for me to pass that day. Next day I ran to the school even without doing the homework given by Miss Mary. Menon was also there.

"Why is this Paniker’s bus so late…there it comes". I Said to Menon. Both of us ran to Paniker to know what had happened.

"Success", I inquired with a smile.

"You just say Sorry and that you won't repeat it. Don’t say any thing else." Said Paniker to me .

"What?" exclaimed Menon.

"I kept that letter in my pocket which a boy took who is a friend of Kochurani's brother. And he gave that letter to Kochurani's brother. "Paniker said it in one breath. Even before Paniker could complete I saw a boy coming with his friends towards him. He is a student of the same school of class tenth. I turned back just to find both Menon and Paniker missing. That boy came to me and showed the same paper to him on that he pointed his index finger towards the heart sign in red colour. It looked redder than when he drew it.

"Did you draw it?" the first question from him.

"Yes" I replied in a low voice.

"Did you write it". He showed the two lines in it and asked.

"Yes" my answer was again in the same tone. He tore the paper into pieces and threw it on the ground.

"You are lucky enough that it is his sister if it was to my sister," Threatened a friend.

"What dose it mean" I thought about the sentences in the letter. "I love you, whom does Kochurani love, Is he thinking that I wrote this letter to Kochurani…! Yes that's it" I confirmed.

"But it is not me and not for Kochurani ". Before I could say that they were far enough to hear me. I couldn't move from that place. I stood there looking at the pieces of papers that was flying in the gentle breeze.