Long time no see!

So when we last met, I had promised a post about India and stuff. Thanks to the 'teaser post' I left behind, atleast I remember that much. Well for now I am not at all concerned about the whether India is what I think it is or you think it is... because seriously, who cares?

Phew, life has moved so fast lately that I almost forgot about my blog. And you dont realize it ( how fast youre moving ) until you bump somewhere, fall down and end up in bed like me now. This time with Gastric Oesophagus Reflux Disorder as google  calls it. All I know is the severe chest pain and discomfort to even drink water.
I was as usual in a big effort to confirm to the stereotypical good looks that society has set down, and was in a bit of a hurry, so I skipped a few meals as part of work and weight shedding.
Lately, after getting out of college, the feeling of "not being good enough" has gotten into me big time. Not being big enough, not being tall enough, not being fair enough according to the people around you! I have changed quite a bit indeed from the time in college when all I had to do was do well in studies and everything was fine. I wonder why or how some of my friends are getting married, when they still have no clue what they are gonna do with their life. Here I am struggling at an 8 to 6 job, and now Im down with this stupid sickness. Pffft!
Never mind, atleast I got this blog to keep :) Stay strong!

By Sharath with 1 comment

Discovery of a nation!

Through the time of our primary and secondary school education all of us have by ourselves built an idea of what our country represents. This might be the general notion the society in which you grew up has in their mind. A thing that happens when you start to travel outside your native land is, that you see how different things are; in different parts of the world. And in India, things are wayyy more different from one place to the other.

This has always made me ask myself, what are we, or rather what does this nation stand for, only to find myself perplexed. But it didn’t matter that much, even when once my Professor Dr Reuben Wong asked us, discussing the difference between China and India with Europe, is India a group of small nations, or is it one single big nation.  

But recently, after seeing some rather uncomfortable claims  made by some religious propagandists, and politicians who use their support to their advantage, I started to feel the necessity to define at least to myself, what is our nation, and what does it stand for…

It is high time I did this to myself, before I start believing the false histories and stories that float around on the internet, teaching people very wrong ideas of our “history, and culture”.

More on this in the real article, please do share your thoughts!

By Sharath with 3 comments

So, why are we here?

Yes. Long time since I came this way. Has been so busy with my masters study and exams. Now that coursework is over, that abominable bubble of emptiness has started to fill me again, giving me time to actually sit down and think. A weird feeling it is. One that fills you with tension, curiosity and uncertainty. It keeps bugging you all the time. The uncertainty, about what is in store for you. The curiosity that whether what you are doing is the right thing to be done. Most annoying of  all the tension that keeps you reminded, all through day and night about this, that asks you again and again, if everything will work out in the end. It is crushing, its excruciating, like a heavy load upon your chest that is suffocating you every minute. The root of all this is the fact that, a cause, a purpose for life is lacking or is unclear and undecided upon. Sometimes you think of how small you are in front of this vastness, this whole humanity. How much of all this can you understand and assimilate, if at all see in your lifetime that itself is just a speck.  Can all your lifetimes work make any change to the fabric of society?  If not, then why set out on something that is so tiresome and challenging.  But on the other hand, you don't want to end up repeating the same cycle of living up to the expectations of others, society, parents and friends, and then when you have  almost run out of time, start repeating the same old thing that your parents did. Get married, raise children, grow old, and then one cold morning....

So, what is it that keeps life interesting? What is that one thing in life, that will keep you going? What is that thing which is worth giving your everything for? You know this must have been answered a long time back, but you were swept away by the flow, the flood of advises and opinions and sounds that kept drowning your inside voice. You never heard yourself. But one fine day, which happens to be your birth day, you will remember with a shock that you have turned old by one more long year; and yet there you stand somewhere, lost and disoriented, haplessly trying to be good at everything, but not knowing the very thing you are looking for... As of now, this is what is churning my mind; so much  that you lose all taste and desires. I do not know if this is the beginning of something new, is it for good or bad. But I guess it is something I should and will, go through. I shall keep updating, as I feel I am not alone in this ;)

By Sharath with 2 comments

The Lord of the Rings: an allegory of the PhD?

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Characters in this satire are purely fictional. No infringement of copyrights intended.
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The story starts with Frodo: a young hobbit, quite bright, a bit dissatisfied with 

what he's learnt so far and with his mates back home who just want to get jobs 

and settle down and drink beer. He's also very much in awe of his tutor and 

mentor, the very senior professor Gandalf, so when Gandalf suggests he take on 

a short project for him (carrying the Ring to Rivendell), he agrees. Frodo very 

quickly encounters the shadowy forces of fear and despair which will haunt the 

rest of his journey and leave permanent scars on his psyche, but he also makes 

some useful friends. In particular, he spends an evening down at the pub with 

Aragorn, who has been wandering the world for many years as Gandalf's postdoc 

and becomes Frodo's adviser when Gandalf isn't around. 

After Frodo has completed his first project, Gandalf (along with head of 

department Elrond) proposes that the work should be extended. He assembles a 

large research group, including visiting students Gimli and Legolas, the foreign 

postdoc Boromir,and several of Frodo's own friends from his undergraduate days. 

Frodo agrees to tackle this larger project, though he has mixed feelings about it. 

("'I will take the Ring', he said, 'although I do not know why.'") 

Very rapidly, things go wrong. First, Gandalf disappears and has no more 

interaction with Frodo until everything is over. (Frodo assumes his supervisor is 

dead: in fact, he's simply found a more interesting topic and is working on that 

instead.) At his first international conference in Lorien, Frodo is cross-examined 

terrifyingly by Galadriel and betrayed by Boromir, who is anxious to take the credit 

for the work himself. Frodo cuts himself off from the rest of his team: from now on, 

he will only discuss his work with Sam, an old friend who doesn't really understand 

what it's all about, but in any case is prepared to give Frodo credit for being rather 

cleverer than he is. Then he sets out towards Mordor. 

The last and darkest period of Frodo's journey clearly represents the writing-up 

stage, as he struggles towards Mount Doom (submission), finding his burden 

growing heavier and heavier yet more and more a part of himself; more and more 

terrified of failure; plagued by the figure of Gollum, the student who carried the 

Ring before him but never wrote up and still hangs around as a burnt-out, jealous 

shadow; talking less and less even to Sam. When he submits the Ring to the fire, 

it is in desperate confusion rather than with confidence, and for a while the world 

seems empty. 

Eventually it is over: the Ring is gone, everyone congratulates him, and for a few 

days he can convince himself that his troubles are over. But there is one more 

obstacle to overcome: months later, back in the Shire, he must confront the 

external examiner Saruman, an old enemy of Gandalf, who seeks to humiliate and 

destroy his rival's protege. With the help of his friends and colleagues, Frodo 

passes through this ordeal, but discovers at the end that victory has no value left 

for him. While his friends return to settling down and finding jobs and starting 

families, Frodo remains in limbo; finally, along with Gandalf, Elrond and many 

others, he joins the brain drain across the Western ocean to the new land beyond.

+Jomon John +sujith samuel +Aswin R 

Author: Unknown
Source: Danny Yee’s Humour Collection
http://danny.oz.au/danny/humour/index.html

By Sharath with No comments

Knowledge is to be shared; not horded. Tribute to Aaron Swartz.

After reading the following article by late Aaron Swartz, I had this thought. Lot of us doing our higher ed has access to many peer reviewed journals, and after what the world of which we are a part, did to this wonderful person, his ideas shall only gain strength. I believe sharing knowledge is never a crime, rather its everybody's duty. Hence it would be great if everyone of us could help share the access to those who actually need the information for study and creative purposes.

"Guerilla Open Access Manifesto 

Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for
themselves. The world's entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over  centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up bya handful of private corporations. Want to read the papers featuring the most famous results of the sciences? You'll need to send enormous amounts to publishers like Reed Elsevier. 

There are those struggling to change this. The Open Access Movement has fought 
valiantly to ensure that scientists do not sign their copyrights away but instead ensure their work is published on the Internet, under terms that allow anyone to access it. But even under the best scenarios, their work will only apply to things published in the future. Everything up until now will have been lost. 

That is too high a price to pay. Forcing academics to pay money to read the work of their colleagues? Scanning entire libraries but only allowing the folks at Google to read them? Providing scientific articles to those at elite universities in the First World, but not to children in the Global South? It's outrageous and unacceptable. 

"I agree," many say, "but what can we do? The companies hold the copyrights, they
make enormous amounts of money by charging for access, and it's perfectly legal— 
there's nothing we can do to stop them." But there is something we can, something that's already being done: we can fight back. 

Those with access to these resources — students, librarians, scientists — you have been given a privilege. You get to feed at this banquet of knowledge while the rest of the world is locked out. But you need not — indeed, morally, you cannot —keep this privilege for yourselves. You have a duty to share it with the world. And you have: trading passwords with colleagues, filling download requests for friends. 

Meanwhile, those who have been locked out are not standing idly by. You have been
sneaking through holes and climbing over fences, liberating the information locked up by the publishers and sharing them with your friends. 
But all of this action goes on in the dark, hidden underground. It's called stealing or piracy, as if sharing a wealth of knowledge were the moral equivalent of plundering a ship and murdering its crew. But sharing isn't immoral — it's a moral imperative. Only those blinded by greed would refuse to let a friend make a copy. 
Large corporations, of course, are blinded by greed. The laws under which they operate require it — their shareholders would revolt at anything less. And the politicians they have bought off back them, passing laws giving them the exclusive power to decide who can make copies. 

There is no justice in following unjust laws. It's time to come into the light and, in the grand tradition of civil disobedience, declare our opposition to this private theft of public culture. 

We need to take information, wherever it is stored, make our copies and share them with the world. We need to take stuff that's out of copyright and add it to the archive. We need to buy secret databases and put them on the Web. We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file sharing networks. We need to fight for Guerilla Open Access. 

With enough of us, around the world, we'll not just send a strong message opposing the privatization of knowledge — we'll make it a thing of the past. Will you join us? 

Aaron Swartz 

July 2008, Eremo, Italy"
Rest in Peace Aaron

(November 8, 1986 - January 11, 2013)

By Sharath with No comments

My Days at Infosys.

I joined Infosys Technologies Ltd. on November 28th 2011 as Systems Engineer. Like any other fresher, who was just out of his college days, I didn't have a clue about what Infosys was all about, or what corporate atmosphere is. All I had was the impression that all ITES companies like Infosys belonged to a class off companies that made their living out of the shitty brainless and monotonous jobs outsourced by Europe or North america. In fact I looked upon Infosys (and other IT companies) with much contempt and disgust much akin to that shown to his humble servant (who makes a life out of washing under wears from all over the world )by his aristocratic master (who happened to be a fresh Electronics & Communication Engineer). Well, the servant might be damn richer than the master here, but who cares! He made all of it washing under wears!


During my never ending wait for Nov 28th which lasted almost 5 months, I was busy renovating this blog, trying to learn some media-graphics tools like After Effects and Maya, scouring the web for what to do after B.Tech, sometimes applying for some Masters programmes with no expectation of studying at one ever, Facebooking, Sleeping and more Facebooking. Finally it seemed like I was bored with whatever I could think of to spend a day. It was so much that soon I was asking myself questions like "What is the meaning of this life...." and the sorts which probably should be happening after a few more decades.

Infosys Mysore was a turning point... no, this is not the turning point for the sake of my probably stupid article sounding good; it really did change some things in my life forever.

Infosys Mysore allowed me to have a glimpse of what professionalism is. Pretty sad that even after studying a 'professional course' in a 'professional college' I had to come here to actually feel it.


Infosys pampered me with lots of luxury care and friends all around. It is probably the best place in India to make friends, with people coming in from all states for their training.

And finally, the most important thing Infosys taught me was that I am capable of more.


 More than what challenge the I.T sector would probably offer me... maybe not in terms of money, but still I felt that in the end I will be as bored as I was when I sat at home waiting for November 28th. During the initial months of training, I religiously stuck to GECs, reviewing the study materials and routines. But soon I found the whole thing to be too  easy; I was even put in a fast-track batch that required good performance in the Generic Training sessions.

While I still admire the way some young entrepreneurs from India started a small company with almost 100$ and the way it grew into a billion dollar global enterprise, and the way Infosys 'cared' for its employees, there was always this lingering feeling in my mind that kept reminding me that none of this success belongs to me.... At Mysore, I was still doubtful about this queer feeling.
But when I came to Trivandrum (TRINFY) these doubts became proven facts. Infy never cared (and it could not; practically thinking) about the interests of the 'employee'... Many of the straight '5 point CGPA' trainees were assigned to the dreaded testing stream, and people who never wanted to work were put into 'hot technologies'... Pretty soon, the picture became clear before me

Infosys and the many other ITES companies are basically organisations giving engineers for hire... it doesn't matter whether this engineer likes to work in this field or that, or even whether he knows anything at all about the field is of little concern. This fact gains more significance when you add to it the fact that most of the work or the so called 'Projects' done at these companies are basically clerical jobs or requiring similar brain work. You don't do anything, no, you don't even think! As the funny chain-mail says, the whole IT employee community owes their livelihood to who ever invented Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V.

I don't want to think further about what will happen to you sitting in front of a computer, going through code all day long, but it sure will strip you off whatever you gained in Mysore. (You'd gain some weight around the tummy for sure :D )

So when I got an offer from a University which I thought probably wouldn't even take a look at my resume, I just couldn't let it pass. Life is always filled with twists and turns... and for me most of it has been unexpected ones. But without them, I'd become as bored as I was, when I waited for that November 28th. :)
So, its time to bid adieu to Infosys although these memories of Mysore will always be close to my heart.....

By Sharath with No comments

OCCUPY WALL STREET SPILLS OVER THE WORLD!

'INDIA is a rising superpower' says the alternating governments that have ruled the place ever since independence. Now, what really makes India the next big thing is that if India continues its recent growth, average household incomes will triple over the next two decades and it will become the world’s 5th-largest consumer economy by 2025. Over the next two decades, the country’s middle class will grow from about 5 percent of the population to more than 40 percent and create the world’s fifth-largest consumer market. (study by the McKinsey Global Institute )

India has always been like that. Before the internet, practically every 'advancement' in the western world (FYI, 'western world'= the USA for almost all average Indians) took at least 20 years to reach here. Like, even the P.C became a household item it is today, 20 years late. So the growth predicted to happen in the next 20 years, will bring us further growth of Indian Billionaires, Indian financial inequality, social stratification, greed at its pinnacle (they call it a consumer nation); and I tell you what, Indians wont have a clue what is happening!

Creative and progressive thought in India has stagnated with creation of the middle class, who are too afraid to risk anything. They always have this something that they are afraid they will lose if they think out of the box or even simply think, and they are never content with the something either. Hence they are afraid, even to have an ideology of their own.
In this India, pseudo-secularism and far right communalism are the two cards the rotten politicians play the most often (even so called communists!).
And in this India, the politicians and religion has spun a diabolic nexus that has kept Indians divided, and racing among each other, and this moment is when Indians needs a paradigm shift the most.

Hence the concept of a free human being in terms of the resource based economy needs to be propagated among the youth, before it is too late, for they are up for some hardcore indoctrination big-time....
Please visit: The Zeitgeist Movement
Learn How we can build a better world: The Venus Project

By Sharath with No comments