Jan 25 2010
It has been in the recent news the devastating twin earthquakes that mostly flattened Haiti. While the rest of the world stared with horror and shock many people has lost their home, their family, their near and dear ones in a few minutes of nature’s whims. Help poured in from all quarters and my friends contributed their share, however I was still dumbstruck at what had happened.
Jan 08 2010
My book was published this July and I got my first royalty statement soon after. My contract with Galileo Press was executed in the US and hence this required me to apply for a TIN to get the actual payment as well as claim tax exemption from the Indian Government. The process, it seemed, was simple, fill a couple of forms and mail it with a notarized copy of my passport duly apostilled by the Ministry of External Affairs.
And this is where it all began. A visit to the MEA office in Kolkata got me the response that since my passport was issued in Trichy (It was issued while I was still in college), I would need to visit the passport office there and get it verified (?). Somewhat perplexed, I landed up in Trichy Passport office who told me that I would need to visit the Chennai MEA office to get my passport apostilled. At a loss for what to do I called up the MEA office in Kolkata again seeking for help and the response that I received floored me. It was not under their “jurisdiction” to get my passport, which was issued in Trichy, apostilled. I would need to go to the New Delhi office instead. All attempts to argue over the fact that that my passport was a central government issued document and not a state government issued one and hence should be verifiable from anywhere in the country only yielded curt and irritated replies and this was where I almost gave up.
Nov 07 2009
It is not everyday in the “Aam Aadmi” ‘s life that one gets to meet a Minister of State. And that too not in a setting where we not only get to hear him talk but interact with him. And then definitely not someone as charismatic as Shashi Tharoor.
Well I have been a fan since my college days when I first chanced upon The Great Indian Novel and then on Twitter and there was no way I was going to give up on this chance to meet him in person. So according to the invite I turned up at the Bangalore International Centre on the 6th of November along with @vaid and @faiqrg. Thanks so much to @dhempe, @santhoshp, @tinucherian and @23jacob.
Oct 23 2009
If I leave here tomorrow Would you still remember me? For I must be travelling on, now, ‘Cause there’s too many places I’ve got to see. But, if I stayed here with you, girl, Things just couldn’t be the same. ‘Cause I’m as free as a bird now, And this bird you can not change. Lord knows, I can’t change. Bye, bye, its been a sweet love. Though this feeling I can’t change. But please don’t take it badly, ‘Cause Lord knows I’m to blame. But, if I stayed here with you girl, Things just couldn’t be the same. Cause I’m as free as a bird now, And this bird you’ll never change. And this bird you can not change. Lord knows, I can’t change. Lord help me, I can’t change. – Freebird (Lynyrd Skynyrd).
Sep 10 2009
We’ve been trying to make this happen for a long time and it is finally here 
Fellow SAP Mentor and friend Jon Reed of jonerp.com talks to me in this Podcast about SAP MII and the very first book on it, Implementing and Configuring SAP MII,which I co-authored with Dipankar Saha of IBM, SAP MII developement skills, the experience of being a SAP Mentor, my interests: Rich Internet Applications (RIA), my passion: the SDN and BPX communities and the upcoming SAP TechEd, 2009. Hope you guys have as much fun listening to it as we had recording it
Jul 07 2009
Prawns have always been a favourite with both me and my wife, Haimanti. So here’s how to make Prawn Malai Curry, an east indian cuisine and an all time favourite of mine
Ingredients
)Jun 08 2009
And more…
Robert LongDan sat brooding over the naked body that lay spread eagled on the floor. His brows furrowed as he fixed his gaze on the nether regions of the body. His eyes glazed and he looked up at the glittering sky through the glass ceiling of the Loo’vre.
A poke in his ribs snapped him out of his reverie. He stood up at looked around at the painted urinals of Loo’vre. Considered by many as being a work of art unto themselves, the Loo’vre complex was highly protected with a multi layered security arrangement, the last line of defence being “The O”. Nobody knew where it was and what it was supposed to do but people feared it nonetheless and the thieves avoided the complex at night.
Jun 08 2009
And one more…
Scene – I
“So what is the least distance the fly must travel to reach from one vertex of the cube to the one exactly opposite to it ? Remember that the cube is hollow and the fly cannot fly !” – Bang ! It was like getting shot point-blank with a dum-dum bullet straight in the stomach where one has to endure endless pain without dying !!! What is the use of a fly that cannot fly, was the first question that came to my mind ! Do we still call it a fly ? In the meantime the guy taking my interview was still looking at me expectantly, as if I was the only hope the fly had to go from one vertex of the cube to another….
Pfffffffttt….. the lights went out….. in my head…. Somebody blew out the only candle that had been showing me the way all along….
I looked up at him and muttered something about the fly doing some amazing stunt and landing at the other vertex of the cube…. He wasn’t amused…. And I guess neither would have been the fly….
Jun 08 2009
Another one dug out from the depths of the old blog….
Err… The baton has been passed. The colors of space have faded into the sunset.
From the depths of Core Dumps the Error has risen… The slanting beam of highlight from the sole Breakpoint that was hanging beside a loop cast an eerie shadow on his face beneath the veil of darkness. The face that stared at him held fear, desperation and dejection. Soon the news will spread far and wide. He-Who-Should-Not-Be-Named has risen, at last, out of the infinite loop.
Apr 30 2009
Introduction
I recently shifted my blog from Dreamhost to Mosso. Dreamhost was constantly throwing up out of memory errors for my blog and there was no quick way to detect why other than disabling all my plugins and enabling them one by one. That is one route I did not want to take. I was on the lookout for a VPS and was on the verge of settling on Slicehost when Craig suggested I give Mosso a go as it provided a better value for me with their pay as you go bandwidth and secondly it was owned by the same company that owns Slicehost, Rackspace. I finally settled for a 256MB/10GB CloudServer from Mosso.
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