My Dream - Hope it comes true!

I am seated in comfortable chair, but waiting with anticipation for a person whom never in my life i thought i would meet."I hope he understood my mail. What do you think he would tell me to do? I hope he doesn't ask me to discard this idea. I have read so many things about him.... Hope he is really like that!! God..."  The door creaks.

"Hi.. Shruthi right!"

"Yes sir..."

"Sorry i got late.. I wanted Sudha to meet you as well.."

"Oh..No problem at all... Hi ma'am.. I have read so much about you both.. I never thought i would get this opportunity to meet both you. I still feel i am dreaming..."

"Oh.. com'on Shruthi... So tell me your plans.... I went though your mail completely... I liked the idea. "

"Actually, i have no much plans. I want to teach English for 6 months and as per my plan they wont be called beggars anymore"

"You have help..? Or all by yourself..?"

"I have few friends and some help from Youth For Seva.."

"Nice.. Interesting.. very strange too.."

"For a clear picture, I have prepared a small presentation ..... "

They both look at each other...

"You can go ahead.."

I was beaming plus nervous. There was some strong gut feeling, I couldnt believe I was doing this.. and had paid no attention to all the This-wont-work-out, You-will-suffer, You-will-become-a-laughing-stock,Come-back-to-senses....

I went on...

Targeting beggars - - - - - - - - age group 10 - 40 are maximum in number - - - - - - - - You see Mr Murthy - - - - - - - - hardworking but ignorant - - - - - - - - Aim - - - - - - - - lets give them confidence to survive - - - - - - - - How - - - - - - - - Teach them English - - - - - - - - Result - - - - - - - - 1)Educated 2)Self Dependent 3) Can search for own jobs 4)Less crime & Corruption - - - - - - - -Expecting Trouble - - - - - - - - May be first two  months they wont like,unhealthy issues might crop up but definitely they will improve later - - - - - - - - Solution - - - - - - - - 1)Attract them by free food (This is where the money you give will be put to use.) 2)Have contacted the area Police Department, they will handle the fights- - - - - - - - Finally... trying it out for the first time with a small number ...... I need all the wishes in the world.....- - - - - - - -

"Here's the cheque Shruthi....."
She says "All the very best, I will visit it surely."

A Bday poem!!

What should I say and what should I do
To make your day as sweet as YOU....!!

Should I help you reflect on the years passin by..
Or tell how wonderful a person you are! Oh my my

Hmm come let's clap for everyone who made you the man you are today,
And a set of special claps for those who taught you life - The hard way.

Now you are as young as a baby for still thers loads to learn...
And as old as an "ele" so go ahead, sing, dance and have fun

Think not much, bear no tension.......
For life itself means a Celebration!!



Happpie Birthday.......!!

Truth behind "Shakuni"

Since a child i was fascinated by mythology, and who else but my grandma {dad's mom} would tell me all the stories from the past. I used to love watching those black n white mythological movies with her.

Taking 20 mins time from my Haskell assignment :) here i go with one of the stories she had told me.

We all know about Shakuni - symbol for wickedness/slyness. He was known to be cunning and had one thing always in his mind - "Downfall of Krishna".A person who is so smart and intelligent must have had some reason to hate Krishna. This story is all about that. Hope its a good read for you guys!

Dhritharashtra was a wise but a blind king and Ghandhari was his loyal wife who had blindfolded her eyes intentionally. She chose not to see a world which her husband could not see. Ghandhari's astrological signs showed that her first husband would be on his death bed soon and so they got her married to a goat and then they killed the goat. This was a secret known to the Ghandhara family{100 sons + 1 daughter}, to which she belonged to before marriage. A few years laters Dhritharashtra got to know about this and he imprisoned the entire Ghandhara family and the king Subala and his 100 sons and treated them very badly.

Every day only one a handful of rice was given to each of them to eat. As days passed one by one started to die of hunger. King Subala realized that this was not how their dynasty was going to end. By now the amount of anger on Dhritharashtra had quadrupled and so he came up with this plan of every one in prison sacrificing their food and handing it over to one person and make that person strong and be responsible for the downfall of Dhritharashtra . The youngest and wittiest son was Shakuni and everyday all would offer their food to him. He could not bear the sight of his father and brothers dying of hunger everyday.

When Subala realized he had no more energy to survive, he called Dhritharashtra and requested him to be considerate on this poor kid and allow him to be free and also promised that he will always be like a guardian to his sons. (Meanwhile Dhritharashtra had 100 sons and a daughter.) He finally pitied his father-in-law and agreed to this. Subala contented with his reply breathed his last. But before dying he told Shakuni to make use of his thigh/back bone and create a powerful magic dice which spins the requested number. He wanted this to be the reason for the downfall of Dhritharashtra and his dynasty.

Shakuni as promised, was the guardian of the 100 Kaurava sons and being with them he gained their confidence and instilled all wicked thoughts into everyone. He was the responsible for the Kurukshetra war, which he did by provoking Dhuryodhana against the Pandavas which led to the victory of latter thus fulfilling his fathers wish.

P.S: More  Mythological stories by me : 3000BC Tales

Crazy piece of C code!!

// Crazy C code i came across.
// I donno whats happening internally though!! If Anyone understood, let me know!!

// Output : skcuS++C¿ð

#include
double m[] = {7709179928849219.0, 771};
int main()
{
          m[1]-- ? m[0]*=2 , main(): printf(m);
}

Spiedie Fest!

 Spiedie Fest - August 6th, 7th & 8th 2010

 "Spiedies" actually are dish made of meat. A group of families started off the Spiedies Cooking Contests & they decided to fly balloons as well! This triggered off the "Spiedie Balloons Fest" where hot air balloons are flown and rallys are conducted!! This fest almost gathers one to two lakh people every year!! This happens in Binghamton every year. Infact a small city like Binghamton is proud of this event they organise.

I had been to this fest on 8th and enjoyed seeing the entire event & so immedietely thought of blogging it! Hope you enjoy reading it as well! BTW there are only pictures!!

Stage 1 - The balloon is spread out n tied to the fan which is tied to the basket which is inturn tied to a huge vehicle.

Stage 2 - The fan is turned on and the air starts fillin the balloon.

The fan used to blow air!!

Stage 3 - The balloon is big enuf and a guy enters and checks if all the joints are tight!

Stage 4 - They continue to blow air till it grows huge!!

Stage 5 - The balloon is big enuf to stand upstraight!

Stage 6 - Fire is blown into it now(Hot air rises and so makes the balloon straight)

A clearer pic of the gas blown and the interiors of the balloon.

Stage 7 - Lo!! Its straight up n hot air is still blown so that the balloon flies. Also people start fillin into the basket now! The price is 200$+, but you gottu book before hand!!

Stage 8 - Its ready to take off!!

Stage 9 - Ye!!! Its flyin high up!!

Up n Up n Up n Up... it flies!!

So damn colorful it was to see! There were people everywhere! I heard almost lakhs of people come to see these hot air balloons fly! Even though it is just 15/20 balloons... it was very colorful to see. Few more color color balloons i saw were:

This was the finale baloon, in the shape of a "light house". The previous day the finale balloon was a "Lady bug" :)

A pic of the light house balloon!

Silent Rantings!!

I am currently living in a dream,
Having one beside me so that i don't scream;
Yes, A beautiful home to live in,
but away from all my kith & kin;
Life's always like this to me,
Tells me to open the door by hiding the key;
Gives me more than one options,
While I die making the right selections;
I rise; i fall; i sleep; i wake,
Thinking about the in numerous blunders I make;
Aall iz well is what i wish,
Why the hell was i born!! Fish!!

My F1 Visa experience

Consulate: Chennai

Atmosphere

Personally i wansn't that much tensed. The atmosphere is very relaxing. At the VFS website, they asked us to be there 15 minutes before. That must be fine. There were people whose interview was at 8 and they turned up at 8.30 and the like and yet they were casually called in. So no worries. Theres a lavish rest room also.The exact scene of you talkin t to the interviewer can be compared to that of a you having a talk with the cashier in bank. It is exactly the same way. A glass window separates you both with Space below to send in documents.

Documents

At the entrance of the consulate you have to show your Interview letter & passport. So keep them a lil' aside.

Before the interview, your "Primary documents" will be taken from you. They will be checked and put in a different file which you  gottu hand t to interviewer during the interview. In my case, apart from these documents, i DIDNT show them any other document. Had carried in a harmonium file, with names of the documents written in the space given for easier access. BTW the primary documents include

a) Interview letter b) Passport c) I20 d) Sevis fee reciept e) Confirmation letter  f) Gre & toefl original score cards g) Degree certificate

People

The gaurds and officials there will take of everything. They will periodically be calling out the slots. Any issues you can report to them. They will keep guiding you to respective counters, just follw them. The ones at the counter will have a mic with them; they will be very clear and audible. When they take your primary documents, they will ask for finger scan. Please see to that there are no cuts or burns.

Interviewers

Damn nice people. So please greet them with a smile. I was observing the entire process for like more than a hour and realised they are so understandin and never want to reject an application. All they need is answers to their questions. There were students/people who would aswer so senselesly and yet the interviewers would ask them upto 3 times to get the exact answer they want. There are interviewers who are laughin and talkin to students/family like good old friends. I did see 3/4 rejections too. The interviewees couldn convince them, so they were rejected.

My interview

My interview was at 8 am. I went there by 7.15 and there was a long queue. I thought it will be very much on time and stuff. It was very organised though but my interview was at 9:15 am. At 8 am they took us to the other building and made us wait there. Even though i had a DD for 9$, they asked me to pay cash. I carried Rs 500 which was very helpful. I was only asked 

1. Why Binghamton?
2. Where did you do your bachelors?
3. What did you do since 2009? {She was completely impressed by my answer.}
4. How much is your parents savings?

At last she said "Your visa is issued madam. Please continue your good work there too. All the very best for your course." I was beaming. :)

P.S: Every one's experience is different. Don't just rely on one.

You can see my other iterviews as well here: F1 Visa interview & H1B Visa interview & H4 Visa interview. 

F1 Visa Questions & Suitable Answers

Trust me other than the following 21 Questions, they cant  ask anything more. But yes they can be Rephrased! Firstly the interviewer will be busy updating your information in her/his records. Secondly its just a max 2 minutes interview {mite increase if & only if you are unable to comprehend what he/she is saying i.e more of "Excuse me" or "Pardon me" or "Come again"} :)

Questions:

1. Why are you going to US?
2. Why US & not India?
3. Why not IIT?
4. Why xxx university only?
5. How many university's did you apply to? How many accepts & How many rejects?
6. Why xxx specialization? Whats its scope in India?
7. What was major in Bachelors?
8. What were your grades in Bachelors?
9. Tell about your project.
10. Schooling?
11. Gre & Toefl Scores.
12. What did you do since you graduated?
13. Would you work on/off campus?
14. Wont recession affect you?
15. Who's sponsering you?
16. What are you parents? Their Income?? Their Savings?
17. I see recent transactions in the bank certificate, how would you explain?
18. If you utilise all their money, how would they run the family?
19. How many siblings? Is there sufficient funds for them?
20. What are your plans after masters?
21. Where would you want to work in future? Where do you see yourself after 5 years? What salary do you expect?

Answers :

1. To pursue masters in xxx in xxx university.
2. a) International Exposure b) Flexibility(can complete a course in 15-18 months) c) Pratical approach d)Advanced Technology
3. IIT is excellent, but its intake is around 100 for 20/30000 students who write. Plus my interest is in xxx University.
4. a) Rank of the university chosen (Courtesy: USNews) b) Seniors gave excellent feedback c) My area of interest is found here  d) Professor MrABC has done amazing research in field i want.
5. You need not tell complete truth. If u have more rejects, put it across as "waitin"/"on hold".  
6. You gottu surf about your interest. Tell its scope in US, India its advancements and one/two applications.
7. Your turn.
8. Here we use a % system i.e its calucated for 100. My % is blah blah.
9. Use technical jargons That will work :)
10. Your turn.
11. Tell truth. If they are less use the standard answer " I made mistake in the first 10 questions which are very crucial and carry high score. Hence i got less. Future i will take care i wont mess up."
12. {This question changed the entire course of my interview}Its ur say. Better to carry certificates as proof for the work/course you have done.
13. A definite NO. I want to study hard and complete my masters soon.
14. I am going to enhance my technical knowledge and skills. It is no where realated to recession.
15. My blah, blah and an education loan are sponsoring me.
16. Your turn.
17. My blah blah had invested money in other accounts and also lent them to needy friends and relatives. Now for the purpose of my education he has pooled them into this account.
18. My course needs x lakhs. My loan covers x-n lakhs. My blah blah hav the savings which is more than n lakhs. Hence its sufficient for them.
19. Your turn. If you have you could say, he/she is interested in working. If he/she changes plans after working for 2/3 years, by then i would hav started repayin the loan so it wont be a problem for him/her.
20. Return to India and work in the company of my choice which has xxx specialization.
21. Your turn. tell a salary which is more than the EMI you gottu return to bank

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TIP:

• "Smile" is the mantra!
• Try explaining in points than long sentences.
• Answer to point. An Extra word will lead to a new thread of questions. 
• While talkin abt money talk in terms of indian money than dollars.
•  Remenber the interviewer is an American, they wont be familiar with Indian terms. "% --> gpa", "puc --> preuniversity", "Btech/BE --> Bachelors" etc.
• Write down the exact answers & read them once o twice. It will definitely help you.
• All the best. ;)

You can see my iterviews as well here: F1 Visa interview & H1B Visa interview & H4 Visa interview. 

F1 Visa Help Forums

Few edulix forums which might help u:

1. Consolidated Information reg Visa application
2. Visa Preparation
3. Visa Questions
4. Mistakes done at a Visa Interview
5. VI Thread - list of Experiences

Personally i got all my answers here! ATB 2 u!

Visa Booking..!

This is how i went through:

Home page where u can find all the below ones mentioned: https://www.vfs-usa.co.in/USIndia/index.html 

Step wise, here below:

Step 1: Pay the SEVIS fee here.

Step 2: Check ur consulate district here.

Step 3: Check the photo requirements here. If you go to GK Vale, they will know all the requirements.

Step 4: DS160 is available here. If doesn't open in one browser then try another browser! It works!

Step 5: Check for the earliest visa dates here!

Step 6: Book visa dates!

Tip: DS160 is set of 8 pages. Keep all the information ready & keep saving your account. It will time out after 20 mins.

My Wedding Invitation!

 Once in a lifetime
Right in the middle of a mundane life,
Declaring a day as special one
To spend with closest friends & family.

It means so much to us
To have YOU with us by our side,
Celebrating the joyous moment
That has set in our lives.

On this very special occasion
A very special invite to YOU,
No excuses, No reasons
Please set this date aside for us!!

For : 

Reception
Tuesday
6th July 2010
7 p.m Onwards

Muhurtham
Wednesday
7th July 2010
11:10 a.m - 11:50 a.m

At:

GNR Kalyana Mantapa

1/1, 18th Main Road,
Jayanagar 4th T-block,
Bangalore - 560041
Karnataka, India.

Yours,
RS Shruthi & Mahesh Murthy

P.S: 

1. If you didn't get it right, its "GNR Kalyana Mantapa".
2. If you are coming, click on "Yes!" {Upper-Right of the page above MM's Photo Gallery!}

Invitation for a treat by a "Programmer" and reply by a "HR" !!

Hi all,
Ha ha.. was jobless for few mins.. so tried writin a code to call u all for the treat given by me!! :) Spare me!!

Class Person
{
     String name = "";
    
    public void call4treat(String name)
    {
           if(name.equals(Nish) || name.equals(Sav) ||
          name.equals(Ani) || name.equals(Lali) || name.equals(prats))
           {                 
                    System.out.println("WELCOME TO MY TREAT!! :) :) ");
                    details();
           }
   
          if(name.equals(Sania)
                    System.out.println(" YOU ARE NOT WELCOME TO MY TREAT!! :P :P");
    }

    public void details()
    {
          System.out.println("\n Date: 25th may 2010           

                                           Day: Tuesday
                                           Venue: Mc D, Central mall! :)
                                           Time: Hmm around 2! Must be fine!  \n");
       
         System.out.println(" Thanku don miss it!!");
    }
};

Class Testperson
{
    Person p = new Person();
   
    p.call4treat("nish");
    p.call4treat("savi");
    p.call4treat("ani");
    p.call4treat("lali");
    p.call4treat("prats");
    p.call4treat("sania");
};


PS:
1) In plain words:  Please don miss it!! Its a small tr8 from my side to u gals.
2) Sania pls do come. don mind the fun! n remind me on monday to get money..! els i will really forget!
3) The code doesn work!! It doesn't have main method :)
4) I know i am mad :P

        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi all except Shruthi, hehehehehe

She is absolutely right …she is jobless…

n trust me she trying to write a code is useless.

Hahaha what a shayari….aadaaab arz hai

She is into coding…so she wrote a code…n me into HR …sending a notice… ;)

Dear ***ian’s,

It is my immense pleasure to thank one and all to make the exit formalities of Ms. Ramadurgamsree Shruthi Sadgurumurthy so special (by making to shed her money hehehehe J ). It was a wonderful experience having her in ***…though it had many ill effects on ***. The first being making *** always laugh at her cranky jokes…making the environment more friendly which disturbs the office work making the precious office time go waste and making the most serious persons in *** atleast smile and many more such things like that……hundreds to mention as an example. Shall leave that to discuss on 25^th. Hats Off to her…Guess next time she should be put into management of *** so that she can do the same magic there…little impossible though.

HR is always present on every occasions so consider my attendance as well…though without an invitation.

Regret the delay in replying to the mail.

By the way….HR takes it own time to reply so dare not complain. Otherwise you are sure to receive another notice !!!!

Kindly do not revert back in case of any further queries / clarifications you may have. (I bet Shruthi is sure to have. :)

Thanks & Regards,

  Sania

Freakishly Freaking Experience!

12 May!

" I descended from the bus stop, still humming the tune of  "Neeve neeve nenatta...". Music was made for people like me i felt. Traveling just strains a person too much. Music can just relieve a person from all the boredom, traffic and work pressure :) Commuting in buses have their own advantage you know, be it rain, traffic jam , an accident i know am safe in the bus.

Like any other day, i got down and headed home in that deserted street. Nothing much apart from a Hanuman temple and a huge apartment was there. My home sweet home was the road parallel to this one. Actually pretty much to walk by foot, but " Naalo unna prema nee tho cheppana...." didn't let me think abt the distance today. Power cut was something that was not uncommon in Bangalore, and today there was no power and so the area was all the more dark. What grabbed the attention of my wandering eyes, was a woman. {this ain't a romantic story guys... continue to read please :P} She was running  into this street, from the perpendicular street. This scene just supported my view of the today's women being so courageous and bold. What intrigued me was the child whom the woman was running with. Further, they were running like maniacs towards the apartment. The woman tripped over and fell on the ground. She herself got up, brushed the sand off  and ran back towards the apartment with that cute little kid. They found a suitable space under the staircase and ducked under it. 

My pace automatically reduced seeing all this. "Who was she?? Who the hell was she running  away from?? Who's that kid?? What are they doing here?? Is it only them or is there a gang behind them??" - popped up in my mind. To answer my questions, a man's shadow began appearing at the end of the street. The shadow grew bigger in size and he was nearing the turn and that meant he was nearing them and in a way me too. A man entered the street. To describe, he was well built and resembled a pehlwan. Meanwhile I turned off the music,dumped the cell into my bag and braced myself up. He stopped for few seconds and seemed like he was searching for someone. "Whats happening here?? Who's he now?? What must i do??" - everything seemed a puzzle to me. He was still searching for them when power came and instantaneously the mother and daughter were revealed. He found them hiding under the stair case, he rushed towards them and i almost rushed towards him. He appeared to touch the hair of the woman when the woman and the kid gave loud shrieks. They were pretty deafening too. The tension built up in me was king-size now. I had to do something about this and was still nearing him, when the small girl hopped on him and they all burst out into laughter. 

They were a small family playing HIDE n SEEK as there was no power! I guess i wont forget this story ever n ever! "   =))

P.S: Its a true story told by a friend.

A Sad Heart!

Am not omnipresent,
But wanted by everyone,
Only when In trouble? Hurt? Low?
"She's there!" is what they say!

Is this why i was born,
To listen to others stories?

But as the day goes on,
if one person,
at least one person,
smiled because of me,
some deep satisfaction,
unexplainable-happiness clouds upon me!

Is this why i was born,
To make others happy?

I know,
Good-for-nothing is my synonym,
But if i was sent on this purpose by Him,
Then let me ask Him only,
Give me more tolerance,
for stories aren't short
Give me more thought,
for suggestions need to be given
Finally give me all the patience/understanding u have,
for not relating it with me and my life!

Few things can alwez be heard from one ear and let out at the other. But  at some minute information jus manages to find its way to the brain. Why is that you remember it only when  you are dull or wen you are upset? Why does comparison even crop up in such innocent minds? Is that you are not satisfied with the present version of life runnin in you? When we lend our ears to many, why is there not one to listen to us? Everyone cant tell stories, but when one is making an effort to express why is no one helping them out to bring the sadness out? Why do u feel everyone around is happy and not you? If someone is tellin "I am happy", then how happy r they really? If someone says "Life's super!", then on which cloud are they?

4 HIM

Wish you were here,

Holding my hands....

Wish you were here,

Giving me a peck.....

Wish you were here,

Making me smile....

Wish you were here,

Hugging me tight....

Wish you were here,

for never would i fear

For then, everything would seem

A picture perfect dream

Bound to you by

Heart-Soul-Mind

Thoughts are back

12 months rewind

I still loathe two thousand nine

Though i met a person who became mine.

Finally,

Wish you were here,

Doing things which we did together in Dec last year.

Post Application Process!

All you need to do is WAIT! You can carry on with your daily activities.... till the month of  March arrives( if you have applied for fall!) Nothing to worry much! A few tips from my side are:

1. Please don't forget to track the documents you have sent.
2. Once you have tracked, save the packet number, i.e. the unique number given to your packet/package/envelope.
3. Note down the email id's of the respective persons in the Graduate Council of the respective university. Mail them any query you have. Am pretty sure they will respond!
4. Please keep checking your spam mails too as there are all possibilities of an important mail being there, which might go unnoticed.
5. If u have got acceptance from more than one university, then make a wise choice. Consult many friends, communities on networking sites and pay the fee once you have made the final choice.

It so happened that in mid March, two universities that i had applied to stated "Transcripts not reached".
The point was, all the documents sent by me were in one envelope and had reached as a single entity, i don't know how only the transcripts could go missing. I couldn't do anything other than providing the tracking ID as proof. Yet, there was no proof for the existence of the transcripts in the envelope that i had sent.

All the best! 

P.S: I got into Suny,Binghamton. Hope the Visa process too goes unhindered! U can expect a post on that soon enough too!

DATE Drama ...!!

Two questions for u:

1.  3/5/2010 = 3rd May 2010 or 5th Mar 2010 ........???
2. 10th Jul 2010 = 10/7/2010 OR 7/10/2010 ..........???

I don't understand why the mm/dd/yyyy format for date came up?? We were happy with dd/mm/yyyy right??
This issue didn't bother me until i started programming. In India, the usual dd/mm/yyyy is followed but these days everything is internationalized and every company will have at least one foreign client! So, this needs to be taken care while programming.

The next observation i made was little weird though. In the javascript (js) you were supposed to follow mm/dd style and in the Java Server pages(jsp) you are to follow the dd/mm way. And the issue i was looking into dealt with one js and one jsp page which were linked.

Upon this to make it look neat and formatted a "0" had to be appended. i.e. 7/4/2010 had to be written as 07/04/2010 :)

Lord.. you had to see the amount of confusion that had stacked up in my brain. I bet, it was clearly visible on my face too! Buut, It was fun!

P.S: Google is God!

Happiee Bday MM!

Date: March 26th 12 am

To the new guy in my life,, 

Who has been a Friend, a Boyfriend and is currently my Fiancee. He will continue to be my Fiancee for another 3 more months and then he will be promoted to the post of a "Husband"! :) :) 

"If fame were based on kindness instead of popularity, on understanding and not on worldwide attention, you would be the biggest celebrity on earth.  And to my heart, you already are."

~Anonymous

"We are all a lil' weird and life's a lil' weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with us, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love"

~Anonymous

Happie Bday To You,

Happie Bday To You,

Happie Bday to dear MM,

Happie Bday To You! 

Hope u have a Gr8 day.. and a Beautiful Year with Me{lolz..}

Yours Lovingly,

~Shru!

P.S: The last Pic has 27 candles! :) Happy Bday once again ra!

Installments Issue!

I realized one thing, writing a piece of code anyone can do, but coming up with an efficient code is what only a good programmer can do! :) N i cant do that. At least now..!

This time I had been given a task to work on this installment portal which will let the customer choose the amount he wishes to pay in how many ever installments (<5) he wants. I did use the minuscule amount of programming knowledge that i have and wrote a 30 line code.  :) BTW my piece of code divides the principal amount as installments equally such that the balance money will be zero. I know its as easy as 

Each Installment = Principal / Num Of Installments ; 

But this was a user friendly one. The customer could make changes to any of the installments out of the 5 but the balance had to be a "0". This took some time, around a week i guess for it to be exactly like how my boss wanted it. 

One more stupid thing which lead to confusion was the dutch format which had a comma instead of the period.

                          Indian           Dutch

Rs 0                     0.00             0,00

Rs 83 30ps          83.30            83,30

Sometimes after the calculations the value generated was 67.98767456597... Waaa...?? So i had to round them off also. But if i round off a dutch number it would turn Indian{The round off method was for Indian format} To make a number Dutch i had to Parse it. At one point of time i had to use:
Parse(roundoff(parse(value));
It was such a khichdi in my mind. But the code seemed fine.

When i was having this talk about my code, boss made me realize the fact that i had used 5 for loops in my code, to take care of all the issues which would come up. He said that's like a whopping 5^5 iterations for  just 5 installments. That actually made me realize what a bad programmer i was.

P.S: More than coding i liked the trial and error part! Learnt so much. Future when i become a good programmer i will definitely read this post and have a laugh. :) ATB to me!

Hillarious Days!

P.S: No offense to anyone in this world!

I realized, walking from home to my company which is located in 4th block wont help me reduce even few kilo's, so i decided to go to work by vehicle and continue brisk-walking in my park after i returned from work i.e. at 7:15! N i don't own the park yet its mine :) These days people are so health conscious, hmm i guess along with me you can find at least a minimum 10 more health freaks in the park, excluding the pairs. Now i could tell my not-so-worried-about-this mother but my frenzied grandma that it was safe walking in the park at this hour!

Day 1:i.e. march 1st or so.

Today being the last day i was walking back from office decided to eat bhel on the way. BTW i cross 4 parks on the way from my work place to home. One being my-park and the other park where i brought bhel and 2 more were spare parks :P, i just walk by their side! 

I happened to see one pair a lil' cozy and this strange thought of "why not count the number of pairs today??" popped up... Aaaand the count that day was 23 pairs in a 20 minute walk! I saw 3 pairs snogging too. Such a sight is  pretty common these days and moreover it was  7 , so it was pretty dark.  I saw one woman in Burkha too. She seemed an invisible woman who could be identified only when the vehicle lights shone on her. Wierd! I donno why but i don't like parks.

Lesson learnt: Burkha becomes an invisibility cloak after 7!

Day 2: i.e. today :P

Work too was good today! I think my pace in finding the required function in that huge project has increased to a certain extent. But my inability to remember what functions i created and where i made the last changes still continues to give me the feeling of an idiot!

I was tired from work but decided not to stop this walking routine. With my ipod, i was walking and in the first round i observed there were many pairs today. The second round i noticed that not even one seat was empty in one half of the park. I don remember exactly how many seats are there in that half-side of the park but it was some what like the one i have "paint"ed! At the start of the third round, my ipod charge got exhausted. When this happens i usually return home, but today felt like walking as i was bored to return home. I didn't remove the earphones, so that meant i could listen to the outside world, but they thought i was listening to music and fidgeting with my mobile simultaneously. I already had thought of blogging about this and was errr hmm was takin down notes.

1. A woman on phone: "....Ahh. Manege bandidira.....?? Dose thandra..??...."
2. A pair, both were in 30's: ".....I donno what made him do that.. Thats why i yelled i guess.." {stong discussion. }
3. A man was on phone: "....Naan avaginda kaytha-idini ningoskara....."
4. Two grandpa's : ".....Jeevana hinge...." :)
5. A couple who were in 20's: They were having this romantic talk i guess, sort of both were blushing kinds and talking softly {sensible!}
6. A pair: They were up to something. I couldn't see much. I guess they were snogging.
7. A elderly looking man and pretty young girl: "...Nahi, mujhe achcha nahi lagtha..."
8. 2 gals were talking: ".......Nan maathu kelu Avnu beda...."
9. Empty seat. i stopped and looked at the metro construction and it was illuminated very well, so thought of taking a pic but one pair came hand in hand and sat right there in front of me, so had to leave immediately.
10. One husband and wife: ....hmmm.....{silence}

Weird day.. yet the best was i saw a grandpa and grandma holding hand and crossing the road! Such a cute sight!

P.S: Yes i was jobless n that's why "paint"ed the pic of my park! :)

Bit - by - Bit!!

He he Bit by Bit...?? Read more and you will know...!

P.S : No offense to anyone!

The first two things an Engineering student can think of wen asked about B.E is Friends and Internals! Nothing can beat these i guess! Okies Buck up...My story begins:

In a class, there are always people who prepare well before hand; there are few who work hard the previous day; also there are few who slog during those 3 hours given and very few who chat / tease / slog / have-lunch / go-to-lecturer-to-get-the-number-of-questions-reduced in those same 3 hours!
The last kind mentioned are very rare because "Multitasking" can't be done/achieved by everyone. Fortunately/Unfortunately my class was blessed with majority of such people , whom i proudly call as my-friends!

Like always, our preparation was bad rather worse! Never had we prepared decently and written our Internals! It was Unix internals. It was in the afternoon. We had solid 3 hours to prepare. We had to eat, discuss about the paper we just wrote, comment on the gals who used to walk and tease, gossip and most importantly read.

M* was one of the rare kind of lecturers in our department. She used to hate me and S*. So we both were always trying to impress her and the other friends always found it funny!  Every time either of us impressed her, we would increase our "points". To be frank S~ managed to impress her with a score of 4 and i couldn't beat her and i always remained at 2{my score has been negative too!}.  This particular UNIX internals we had to prepare for 12 questions. I had learnt only 2 at home that too in my dream. So didn't remember anything! R* and N* knew almost 4. S* and V* didn't know anything and they planned to study in these 3 hrs and if they failed to understand the concept then they would bunk this one.

Hour 1: We went and sat in the same old place i.e. the small corner in 2nd floor. We discussed about the previous paper and opened our tiffin boxes and shared them. 20 minutes gone! V* says she is still hungry but she needs to study so didn't come up with "lets go to canteen???". Instead S* started "I badly need a walk..." n who else but me would respond to this! But then we all went for a walk and came back 10 mins later. We opened our sheets where all the 12 questions were there. 2 guys came and asked us what the questions were + we discussed what the page numbers were + we studied. One hour up!

Hour 2: H* and someone else came up and said come lets ask ma'am to reduce the number of questions! This brought a smile on all our faces. Few of them braced themselves up and went to the staff room! Its obvious me n S* didn't go... if we had then she would have definitely increased the number! They came back saying only 8 questions to study now! We were grateful her in the beginning.. but later we realized she had eliminated all the easy questions. She was too smart! Now we paced up and made sincere attempts to grasp the concept soon! One hour and 15 minutes left!

Hour 3: We didn't give up.. we studied harder, faster and louder! Amongst all the hushes and discussions another 45 minutes passed by! Time for us to pack up, pick books, wear chappals and gather tiffin dabbas and helmets and
V* says : "I can't! I am not writing, I know only two answers and nothing more. All of you carry on!".
After exchanging glances {We were pretty used to this!}
R* says :"I have studies 7 ya, I know what all questions you have studied, so i will enter the classroom and see the paper, if at least 4 questions you know  are there then i will call you in, else don't write. Is that ok?"
V* is still hesitating and now
S* says : "I too quit!"
R* speaks again : "Gals! come on.. get in and copy na,, i will show my answers".
V* shouts : "I am next to R*"
and N* decides : "Me n S* will sit together, I know only 6 answers".
Times was up! We ran to the class!

The exam: R* and V* in one long bench and N* and S* on the other. I was sitting on another bench next to these 4! All i remember is the paper being baad for me {I had learn only 4 and i knew only 2 in this paper} and me wishing "wish i was next to R*" and seeing these gals and the entire class copying Bit-by-Bit! I actually remember one fren sitting next to me and writing my answers.. dunno if it was for this paper!

The Results: The next thing i remember is the scores we got, which were :

V*  = 19

R*  = 18
S*  = 16

N*  = 15

Me  = 14

There were so many reactions to these scores! You are free to imagine :) Also,these scores favored S* . I lost the "Whom she likes more??" ka bet finally!  Whattt days... !!

Search Saga!

An entire web page, rather a pop up with the title "customer history" was done by me! So that means, i created my own action class {Dishoom Dishoom:P}, the java script page :) This page lists all the orders made by that particular customer till date.! Yee..! The best part is: an issue or a clarification or a new functionality to this page.. they ask ME {the creator :P} to do it! :P

Excitement OFF, Actually this feels very good! But you know its such a simple task and blah blah i had to spend almost one entire day for this to function to work exactly like how it was supposed to. So good So far!

The next day i was asked to make this hidden and when done with that, i had add a special search function which which would search according to First name, Last name, Mobile Number, House number, Email Id, Unique id n etc! I had to use drop downs for this!  Its not that i had to do everything from scratch , its just that i had to utilize all the functions and use them here. For this i had to know the flow of the code, which was the most painful part!This understanding session + implementing the understood portion took me 3 solid days! 

Its actually nice to code, there's so much logic in this and there's so much implementation! Wish  we had realized this in college, then at least we would have specialized in one programming language and would not be as ignorant as we are{about programming/coding}.

Result: They put this small chotu functionality in every page of the website :P

An Ode To My Project!

On 15 May '09 i was literally like "did i even finish this project"! But lo...!! We had done it! We had successfully completed our project "Disk Cloning With Badblocks"! Now if i see the work done by us, i feel so proud and at the same time i feel, why the hell did i worry for this project! Things actually seemed ok and manageable in the beginning, but later we realized we are running out of time and we better buck up and start understanding what exactly we needed to do!

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HP isn't the best company in the world but it is the best among those, my college offers for students. The pay was like really good - 4.5 pa! What more do we students need?? Many Computer Science and Information Science students were fascinated by this! Including me! It shattered the hopes of so many aspiring students when it came for recruitment. So when they came in search of project interns we sort of had not much hopes! The stipend of 3k+ was the only motivating factor!

Summarizing the events: {Can't hapazardly explain anything :)}

October 14th: After seeing the "level" of the HP recruitment, i had no hopes about this project! After a ok-ok kinda written round, 14 of us made it to the interview round! 6 of us were selected for THE HP project! Never expected it! God knows how i managed to impress the interviewer! But i remember 2 "good's" from the interviewer :) Plus i was the only girl selected from my class! Few lecturers did praise but few thought "did she really deserve this??"..... Hmm may be i did :)

January 19th: Partners and the respective topics were decided this day! I cried! I can actually write lots about this day.. but i choose not to! But what ever happens, happens for the good! :) In the pic above are the 6 of us who were taken as interns by HP. The teams from IS were "Badblocks", "Resizing" and "Error injection".

February: Literature survey should have been over by now! S~ actually thought meeting up and studying and said that could help us! But i thought reading the necessary stuff and later meeting up and executing is better. Damn i was so wrong! We were reading and searching for more information online and at the same time enhancing our Java knowledge. Initially i thought the pace was good. At this phase my friends had just then found their projects and companies and everyone were questioning us as to how much's done!! We would say Literature Survey was going on.

March: We sort of started the project, i.e. the coding part. But due to inefficient literature survey and absolutely no planning we didn't know how to start this because both were novices in this field! I know this isn't a valid reason but at one point we just didn't know how to proceed further. We used to meet up at my place and all we would end up doing is Google for information on the project. We realized now that we were far behind others and we needed to pace up. March 30th was like the most dreadful day. The Project Manager commented on the our progress in a team meeting! Such a disgrace! Anyways, that showed how well we had done our literature survey. Also, we had just then received our stipend and all the happiness this money gave was washed away by the stares of the managers! We realized the seriousness of this project now!!

April: We started going to the company and that's when we understood how to "think" and "apply" what we thought. As and when we got doubts we would consult our guide and he would either explain or send us material to help us understand it. Things progressed pretty well from now! Every day me and S~ would commute to Mahadevpura stop by bus, usually 500A. Then we would walk for like 15 minutes to reach the campus! Both were not used to work culture and the like, so both would hesitate to call or contact our Project manager Srini Sir or our Project guide Om! I remember, S~ would always sign for me at the entrance, i was so lazy to do that also! The other team, "Resizing XFS" was also with us under the same guide. We all would go have lunch together and sometimes coffee also together. I would have badam milk :) Evenings myself and S~ would return by bus. There are days when we have reached home at 9.30 and 10 and there are days where we missed classes and the fun the others were having at college. So worried we were about the completion of this project!

May: On 5th of may we were done with our 90% of the project,and then the remaining 10%, with Om's help we finished by 15th! What a Relief!! In one month we completed a 4-month project. Instead if we had understood "How to start a project" and "What we need to do" and "What they expect from us" before itself then we ourselves could have added new functionalities to our project. But, This entire project was a wonderful learning process/experience.

Post May: Now it was our turn for documentation. We both did save save few pages and links but those definitely didn't help in creating a 100 page document/record of this project. We again started the literature survey :P but this time for documenting it! Along with this presentation also had to be prepared, which we managed to do and finally we impressed the HOD and our internal guide too {hmm to a certain extent}! Not-to-forget the animations i had given for the slide show :P Infact i made it too colorful and graphical, but later realized and made it normal types! :)

P.S: 1) Big thanks to Satish!
2)Started writing this post on : 7/2/09
Submitting on : 24/2/10 :P

Back Button!!

Learning to swim in this ocean called "Software Industry" is pretty tough in the beginning i guess... later one mite get used to these: work etiquette, conduct, 9 to 6 management of time+work, balance official n personal life, make some time for recreation! I have joined this company for a period of 4 months... and have decided to pen down small small issues troubling me...!

By the way, am in the development team working on Java! This company deals with e-tickets services but not for the theaters in our city. All its customers are in other countries and mostly concentrated in Netherlands!

The first one's being the "back button issue"! On click of a back button the was supposed to the go to the previous page! Simple isn't it?? I checked online for the "buttons" syntax and used it in the code. Basically i had to search for it amongst the java scripts, java servlets and java server pages.. and then used it in the code. And lo!! on click of it it went to the back page!! just like this:

I had to implement the same for like every jsp page. It worked fine.. but wen the page was in dutch language it didn't work at all! Huh.. Some language bundle problem, so had to look into the database and then it was solved! Yee! All thanks to these 2 girlies next to me! Major help they are to me!

P.S: These posts will be from office and they wont be long and formal! Remember am just penning then down :) Chaio!

S.A.M.S - Wish i never grew old.....(2)

Contd....

Std VI 'B' - Padmaja Ma'am
"Bhaiyya Mere rakhi ke bhandan na mithana"
"Bhaiyya Mere choti behan ko na bhulana..."
Ma'am shouted: "Those who are interested for dance make a quick line". Like an idiot instead of running immediately,,, i packed my bag and then went. So i wasn't chosen for the dance. :'( But while playin in the field, "Jungleee" ma'am called me out and suddenly put me with the 'D' sectionites. I was almost in tears because i was a stranger there, but then Vinay, Pooja, Chaithra, Surabhi were all very nice to me. They were teaching me all the old steps and their class guys too were a fun lot like ours. I had a nice time ther! Unfortunately i don't remember who my Bhaiyya was :P

Deepak, Kuttappa and Murtaza coined new terms called "Magnya" and "Pragnya"! Wateverrr they meant!! But unfortunately everyone started referring to me n gopi with these :(! BTW shwetha was also named "Influenza " Virus! :P He He

The trip to Woodrich resort was the most memorable resort/class trip for Class VI 'B' girls. Not because of the beauty of the resort but due to our senseless/careless/reckless act. We girls fell into the water there to have fun and ended up with ultimate blastings like never before which left a devastating impression in the teachers minds! God knows who even provoked us to do jump into the pool! And the surprising thing is, only the girls were victims.. not the guys! Lucky them!

Std VII 'B' - Uma Ma'am
Rare piece of memory: "Mass disappearances of science classwork's"!!
Padmaja ma'am herself was shocked. Not only this, but anagha received a letter, hmm a threatening letter! Finally we all approached Sundarakantha ma'am. She came up with a plan - She made the entire class write a short essay and compared the handwriting's and finally caught the culprit. No wonder i love mysteries!
Pss..t: I was actually scared while writing the essay {tho i was aware of the plan :)} coz i can write in more than 3/4 styles :P

Tug Of War for Aurobindo students was equivalent to Quidditch for Hogwarts students. What all preparations mannn! I remember taking glucose in 2 bottles. Vaishnavi, Lakshmi, Myself,Priyanka, Soujanya were the strong ones in my class:P This perticular year we won the Girls' title, the Boys' title and we won the class Title also. "VII 'B' v/s VII 'D'" was like "Gryffindor /Slytherin". No offense to 'D' section students.. But it was a wonderful match!

This Arjun alias Ajja was my bench-partner! Yup he was a nice guy but with little attitude problem. He used to call me his "Chela"! I used to fume at that! "hey chela come here ya" "Go ther ya"! Aaargh..!

Std VIII 'B' - Sudha Ma'am
Me n Gops won 2nd place in Gopi sir's quiz. Guess what we called ourselves "the Whiz Kids". Murtaza's team was "Concorde"! They came 3rd. It was a wonderful feeling to come 2nd. But we were targeted with questions like "Influence huh??". Gopi sir is one whom Auro students wil never forget! I had once told him, Sir you please participate in "Kaun banega Crorepathi"!! He just laughed! :)

I started the concept of taking everyone's duppata's n tying them together and making a really loong rope during the lunch hour. And we used to play about and trouble everyone with that! Aww.. how innocent {rather dumb} was i..:P

Tom n Jerry chase between Vaishnavi and Murtaza, was like the best episode. The entire corridor and neighboring class rooms weren't spared. I actually don remember the reason behind this chase!

I was the class leader, the class prefect in today's terms. :P. I used to love to moniter the class :). I would count to "three" showing my fingers at the class and they had to maintain pin-drop silence after that. First few days it went very well! Later this guy,Kuttapa realized that my fingers r lil' bent and abnormal-types. Since then everytime i count to three, he too would mimic me and the class would burst out laughing instead of being silent. I myself hav gigled several times.

Party at vishnu's house, almost 20 of us had gathered there including Sudha ma'am! It was more like a farewell party for me n gopi :'( I missed this class so much!

Std IX 'B' - Geetha Rastogi Ma'am
I found a new friend! Shwetha was always there, But Tisha was my "Partner-in-Crime". We have interrupted/disturbed/troubled so many classes. All we would do was "bang" on a door and RUN!! The class which was most victimized was my brother's class. There r occasions where i escaped and tisha would still be seen, But she was soo tactful that she would act as though nothing happened and walk leisurely and say "No ma'am i didn see anyone here." I couldn't and can't fake so much!

This feels dumb/stupid now, but i was happy then. It was some parents teachers meeting and Shubha ma'am, the biology lecturer was talking to my mom. Apart from the usual "She is talkative", "She asks soo many questions" she said something which i never expected and that was "If shruthi has understood the concept, then everyone in the class would have understood!" No wonder every period she would ask "Shruthi understood..???".

Almost in every Kanaka ma'am class i have cried. I don't know why she would target only me, but have cried too much. She even asked gopi, how is she handling such a friend since 8 years. But not to forget, she herself chose me for the prayer group and used to like the "base tone" in my voice and twice, she has keep her hand on my head n told me "baba will do good to you"!

"Rama devi" Ma'am and her jokes! I wudn wanna go detail into these! Hee Haa Haa!

Std X 'B' - Sheela Ma'am
The very first English class "A for Attitude, B for Bravery, C for Courage" by Sheila ma'am cannot be forgotten by any student of our batch! Ravi actually bent on his knees and gave a rose to ma'am on the Teachers day!

Sunderakantha Ma'am loved me and Shwetha. :) She took us to the meditation hall and made us pray for good results! Sweet of her!

Wooo wat days!! I didn't wanna forget all these! And wanted something to cheer me up wen am bored with this Professional; in other words Boring life :P! Am damn sure it will cheer up many more frens of mine! Cheers! Keep Smiling!