Anything for a perfect blog...

A month back, when I thought of taking up writing as a hobby, I expected to do many things. None of them, strangely, involved blogging. But, of late, I have realized that writing is only about blogging and that its so pervasive that these days even the stray dogs in my neighborhood blog - mostly about their travails of chasing down the latest model cars at midnight. Not wishing to miss the train, I have also decided to board “The Blog Express”.

Since that fateful decision, I have been swept up in the vortex of various dreaded technologies, like HTML, CSS, CPM, CPI, etc. With my several years of experience in the IT industry, you would be thinking, why this queasiness. Its just that my experience though in IT industry has been focused mostly in the Telecom domain. Now, what, you may ask, is the difference anyway? Apparently, it is same as the difference between a Brain and a Urology surgeon. Much as the medical degrees accumulated by the Brain surgeon that could fill up a XL sized hoarding on the national highway, couldn’t come to his rescue when asked to perform an elementary stomach operation, I, with the bare minimal and ubiquitous BTech, can be understandably clueless with the web jargons (Ahem!)

Regardless of the daunting task, I had spiritedly envisioned a snazzy website, with gleaming icons and enticing links and a profile to match a celebrity, while the most pertinent ads, after measuring the clicks from visitor, calculatedly keeps scrolling in the background. Very Understandable. Perception of how one’s dream home should look like is at the best, umm.. dreamy. Eventually, one could see this dream home taper down to size of match-box after seeing their home loan sanctioned - due to various pocket wrenching constraints imposed by the banks. With the umpteen serpentine hostile technologies (like widgets, javascript, etc.) that were baring its hood, my dream blog site, similarly, has paled to the skeletal structure. From there, things unraveled, as I found that the owner of the blog site can be eligible for earning one cent for every twenty million (only!!) clicks that the site attracts. Focusing my blog for revenue generation, I have now patched my web page with the numerous ad sites. With these innovative strategies, I can already see the fruit of my labor as my blog tops the chart in customer readership over the most interesting readers’ article - the software license agreements.

At the moment, my blog has set sail in full mast. Hopefully, I can keep upgrading my yacht to a commercial ship while sailing in this rough weather.

Bossing around

Ever heard of “An honest politician”. Hell No! That’s pretty much the kind of response that was swirling in my head when I overheard a naïve soul commenting about an understanding Boss! What is it about these species that can, at best, be termed Dr. Jekyll and Hyde.

Join me as I take you through a quick refresher course about the various types of bosses

007 variety: These spy agent varieties can be seen peering behind cubicles, at entrances or exits, etc. to ascertain the time of arrival and departure of their subordinates, at times even seen perched atop pillars eavesdropping at their subordinates’ conversation. As these geosynchronous satellites orbit the cubicles, any twitch or jerk on part of the employees are not going to go unnoticed from their roving eyes. Their eyes dart all around the building except probably at their own respective systems. An asset to the company, as many of these varieties can add up as the security guards for the company, due to their varied skill sets.

Pandits: Heard nonchalantly mouthing words “Identify the Raleigh model to cater to the RPN and model a mitigation framework with failure mode of a Regression counter to consider the Availability, RCA and Maintainability to trigger an ODC impact of the various testability configuration of process”. These are the Quality and Process Bosses who are the sole guardians of quality rituals and fiercely vow by Process rites. An application and commissioning of Cauvery water in Bangalore via the BWSSB might turn out faster if any work goes via these folks. The beginning of all rituals, for these specimens, is obviously the once harmless ‘meetings’.

Shahenshah: Nose pointing high. Chest all puffed up. Hands tied behind. This variety has the gait of an emperor marching to his throne as he walks down the aisle between cubicles. Only thing that is missing would the announcement from the palace officials, “Ba Mulahiza Hoshiyaar, Shahenshahe Corporate firm X, thashreef laa rahhhee heinnnnn”. As imperial monarchs, and inflated with the ego of a CEO, these bosses can be seen holding rights to any jurisdiction in office– no questions asked. They refuse to come off the high pedestal and interact with lesser mortals. Not surprisingly, these guys can be seen trotting against back drop of the Jodha-Akbar song “Azeem-o-shaan shahenshah…”

Mail man: The Microsoft Outlook Express, for these guys, is the most destructive weapon (WMD) in their arsenal, capable of carpet bombing the uninitiated to submission. There is a smirk of quiet confidence on his face when he clicks the “Send” button of the mail as his subordinates are spammed to compliance. Much like those old western cow boy flicks where Clint Eastwood blows at the end of his pistol after settling duel, these guys can be seen blowing at their index finger after they hit the “Send”. Not to mention, therefore, Rambo IV with a bazooka is safer than this lot.

Major Saab: These dangerous specimens, though less life threatening but quite inconvenient, are the strategists. Picture a military operation where a Major displays his fancy Master Plan amidst a war. While his commandos are wading through the mumbo jumbo thrown at them, the Major is sketching away on his blue print perennially. Mike Tyson atop a 10kV transformer is usually calmer than these guys. Quite composed, these Majors can be seen tearing away their hair and transforming a bug fix or patch test to a game of Maneuver-around-the-landmine contest

Reservationistic politics

Though munificently targeted for uplifting the impoverished, the Reservation system seems to be, in its current form, catering to the privileged few in these reserved categories. Not a stunning revelation though! What should have ironed out the imbalances in the social and economic structure is predominantly reinforcing the divide between the various classes of society. No wonder even the messiah of the poor and down-trodden, Dr. Ambedkar, had refused to be part of any reservationist movement, let alone champion for such discriminatory methods.

The philosophy of fairness, today, does not seem to be having many takers with the arrival of caste politics. With no clear majority to take an audacious decision, the reformist PM also can’t but give in to the demands of these petty identity and caste politics. Even the smallest of the parties seem to be able to hold the House on ransom due to the innate fickleness of the coalition. Given this scenario, it is no surprise that the PM had to exercise elaborate caution in the way he expressed his support for the OBC reservation through affirmative action which he was, probably, trying to shrewdly drag his feet on the issue.

The various government survey agencies have been projecting the OBC figures in the Indian population ranging from 23% to 52%. With such varying figures, the ensuing question is, on which one of these surveys have the government based its decision to mandate an increase in OBC reservation? Even if we were to take the higher percentage, how do we ensure that it is indeed the deserved students who avails the reservation? How does one justify the inheritance of reservation beyond first generation? Why penalize the low income merit students just because they happened to be born to an upper-caste family?

So many queries and concerns both factual and moral, yet the HRD minister has managed to enforce his whims on the helpless public with the rare conviction that only a politician possess.

If these steps are indeed taken for uplifting the unprivileged some reformist steps need to taken to completely dismantle the current system and bring in an approach so that the deserving comes within the purview. With more than 80% of current population languishing near or under the poverty line, this concept would not only serve the deserved lot but might also serve the vote bank politics as well.

This simple policy could be enhanced further with “affirmative action” which could be through scholarships say till, graduation, ensuring thereby the bar for the entrance exams is not lowered.

At anytime, it is wise to teach the starved to fish rather than feed them daily. Undoubtedly more challenging but would definitely work in the long run.

India creates history

Finally, the CB series hammered a verdict that the Aussie skipper, Ricky Ponting, had predicted, “2-0”. Just a minor difference though. It turned out in India’s favor.

Indians created history to be the first Indian team to topple the ODI world champions to clinch the CB series cup with a resounding win. In the process, Dhoni and his young team has stamped its authority over the invincible Aussies and has dismissed all doubts that the Twenty20 World Cup victory was no flash in the pan.

Dhoni’s captaincy throughout the series has been laudable. As if marshalling and motivating his young side was not challenging enough, Dhoni and the team had to tackle the various off-field controversies that had been tenaciously plaguing the team from the start of the series. That Dhoni maneuvered through these embroilments add further sheen to his mantle of captaincy.

What stood out besides the emergence of Dhoni as a natural leader is the way in which his young players responded to his faith that Dhoni had reposed on them. During the finals, when it was Rohit Sharma who accumulated an unflappable 66 in the first final, it was Praveen Kumar who doggedly stuck to a tight line and length to wipe out the Aussie top order when he was tossed the new ball. Earlier, rookie, Ishant Sharma had played a crucial role to metamorphose as the India’s strike bowler the series.

The series win was not just about youth triumphing over experience. Even the batting maestro, Sachin Tendulkar, who was a bit off color for most part of the series boomed with a bang towards the end of the series. The experienced Gautam Gambir not to be left far off from the action constantly improvised to raise the highest runs from the Indian squad. Not to mention, Harbhajan Singh, who despite the flurry of controversies, showed immense grit and pugnacity to bring about a remarkable performance.

Overall, the ICC rankings aside, the series saw the rising of the Team India as the numero uno cricket team in the world.

India thump Aussies in Sydney

The big finals. Initimidating opponents -Australia. And India chasing.

It was a perfect setting for India to silence the critics after having registered no wins at Sydney in their eleven matches that they have played at SCG. That it did, and with panache on the back of a breathtaking century from “the Little Master”, Sachin Tendulkar.

With India chasing a challenging total of 240 in the best of three finals of CB Series, Sachin produced a blistering 117 to overhaul the target in in 45.5 overs. To give him company was Rohit Sharma, who displayed wisdom and composure far beyond his experience, to stitch a match winning 123 run partnership.

Opening the innings, Robin Uthappa and Sachin Tendulkar, played to the plan of taking no risks and denying wickets to the Aussie strike bowlers to build a fifty run partnership. Uthappa after smashing two sizzling boundaries fell to an athletic diving catch by Michael Hussey for 17. Soon, the centurion from last match against Sri Lanka, Gautam Gambhir, was run out in mix up with Sachin. With India slumping to a 56/2, it was upto to Yuvraj Singh to steer the India innings. His dismal form, however, continued as Yuvraj misread a regulation off spin from Brad Hogg and was send packing.

But Rohit Sharma along with Tendulkar, upped the ante to resurrect the Indian innings. Showing immense character and poise to reach his half century, Sharma was finally done in by Hopes, just after Tendulkar raised his hundred. Dhoni, who came in after Sharma’s dismissal, finished off in style by thrashing three boundaries in his 15 runs off 12 balls.

Earlier in the day, Australia, having won the toss, posted a tricky 239 in their allotted 50 overs.

Australia got off to a dreadful start as they collapsed to 24/3 in six over. Dhoni’s ploy of giving the new ball to Praveen Kumar instead of Irfan Pathan yielded the wicket of the dangerous Adam Gilchrist in the third over of the match. Next to return to the pavilion was the skipper Ricky Ponting who managed to inside edge a Praveen delivery to the stumps, which was followed by Ishant Sharma scalping Michel Clarke.

Mathew Hayden and Andrew Symonds, India’s betenoire, now spruced up the Aussie innings in their trademark belligerent fashion and were threatening to snatch the momentum. However, the spinners Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla, had other plans as they bowled to a tight line and length to tie the aggressive pair down. Ironically, both these wickets were bagged by Bajji. After ensnaring Hayden, Bajji along with Yuvraj, took a dig at Hayden’s “the boxing match” comment, by enacting a boxing sequence as part of the jubilation. Hussey, then, shepherded the tail to garner an impressive 239.

Till the next match at Brisbane, lets hope the Men in Blue takes up from where they left.