A Letter is a Joy, No doubt!

Well this is going to be weird. For the first time since I started blogging, I felt like sharing something really personal, as a 
testimony to a wonderful friend I have! Chinni Chintu! Yeah, she rocks! :D


For this to make any sense, I ll have to fill you in, May 15th 2011, the last day at BITS Pilani,we were bidding farewell to each other when Chinni said, we should write to each other and stay in touch not only through calls and mails, it will be nice to have something to save, in an unconventional way. After 3 months in Bangalore, when I left to Delhi, I started writing to her! Here goes..

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Dear Chinni, 21st March 2012
Wednesday, 19:48


When I first wrote to you,even when I was to write a simple letter I was scared stiff as if faced with looming seasickness. I am writing this letter in a very very very very.. yeah, keep that going for 2 days and you ll get to.. right about how happy I am, right now. Well, here it is.. Sometime around Nov 15th last year, I was reading the newspaper and underlining away to glory (yeah, thats what I do now! ;) ), when I saw this headline about a boeing crashing down in Haryana,saying one of the cockpit pilots lost his life, that was also the time around which I started writing letters to you.. I got the details of the guild which he belonged to, and wrote down a condolence.. Well, it was not a war, but I just felt like writing. Today, I got a postcard, I think it would be more appropriate to say, a 'Thank you' note saying that the letter meant something to the family. I am very happy seeing the reply!It is beyond me!I just read it with a grin from ear to ear! I did not expect that a 'postcard' would make me so happy! Walking on air, I must say! I owe this to you, Chinni! You made me take interest in writing to you, whatever it might be about.If memory serves me correctly,today, in the 6 months I have been writing to you, for the first time, I feel like I am writing something that is worth the postage. Elated, I am! This feeling is oddly unsettling! Love you Chinni, you are one person who just brings the best out of me! Love does not come to you only through calls, e-mails, msgs and Facebook,I would love to write something that is worth reading, and if not, something atleast worth the postage.. It is good to know that someone is ready to read what you wrote,even if it is not worth reading and that it is always means a lot to them! Love you Chinni, for not letting me give up my old habits for the new..! :) I know, I ll love reading them even 50 years from now because, Its good to know, someone remembers and treasures your handwriting.. Leaving behind, a value legacy!
Love,
Ravali (Snug as a bug in a rug!)


PS: I ran out of inland covers the other day, and when I went to the post office and asked for 20 of them. I got one of the weirdest stares I ever got!Call me old fashioned,but I am learning to write! It feels good!
Out of ink now,till I next write to you then! Take care..


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To send a letter is a good way to go somewhere without moving anything but your heart.

Long time no post!

I forgot how refreshing it was to hibernate once in a while. Well, the enjoyment in being alone once in a while is just awesome. Enjoying that feeling after a long time. Posting all the posts that lay in dormant folders of my laptop.. Good feeling to lie back and kick a lazy Sunday afternoon with a book you have been trying to complete. Oh yeah, I completed it. And now posting. Check. Now the reviews of the books I read since I last posted! Check! Well here goes!

The immortals of Meluha and The secret of the Nagas - Amish

It was a by chance read (I buy Indian authors' books even without a thorough review)and I was pleasantly surprised to have stumbled upon Indian Mythology in the form of fiction. First off, hatsoff to the mind that brilliantly, vibrantly yet carefully moulded the known mythology into a gripping fiction. I actually fell in love with the name 'Shiva' after reading the introduction paragraph over and over again. As claimed there are some mishaps regarding the relation drawn to the Harappan civilization.. It was a gripping read and eagerly waiting for the next one to be on the stands soon..

Non Stop India - Mark Tully

I must confess, I ended up ordering this book only because of so much written in The Hindu and the fact that I loved the cover page! Seriously, I should stop judging the book from the cover. :D Just two words would do: Simple and Awesome. Everything from a village’s malignant problem to a city’s sophistication beautifully penned down by Mark Tully

. India is divided into two distinct classes: the contented and the discontented, the optimists and the pessimists, those who gush about the glorious future and those who anticipate a violent revolt. Tully meets both kinds during his extensive travels and presents objectively the scenarios which are provoking the extreme views. His conclusion at the end of the book is: “I am confident that there won’t be full stops to halt progress over the next twenty years.” I really loved the way the author institutionalised Vote Banks by saying ‘Vote Banking’.The Biblical dictum that "there is no new thing under the sun" in some measure applies to Non-Stop India.

JAYA- An illustrated retelling of Mahabharata – Devdutt Pattanaik

This was one book that really got to me in the recent past. I fell in love with every inch of the book, the cover design and everything that added to it from Lorem Ipsum to the very end of the book. For the love of the book, it demands one whole post. It was nothing less than – “AWESOME”. I might not find enough words to describe the feeling after I read this book in less than two days. ;) If you are, even at the slightest, thinking of buying the book, go to the store, turn to page 300 and read the third paragraph on ‘Kaliyuga’. After that I don’t think anything can stop you from buying it. I consider myself so lucky to have read this book. Rich in Mythology and avid contemporary connectivity to psychology.

Revolution 2020 - Chetan Bhagat

I was intrigued by the title ‘Love Corruption and Ambition’. By the end of the book also I was left to hold on to three discretely different things tied in a poor knot at one character who is, as always in Chetan Bhagath’s books, the narrator. Nicely put in words the frustrations undergone by a student facing IIT JEE and the other competitive exams. The story was too predictive at most of the places and the theme of the book had a late start and demands a better ending throwing more light on other characters a bit more than they got. I still can’t understand why girls need to be portrayed with a total lack of clarity!

I too had a love story - Ravinder singh

In a desperate attempt to find some book that didn’t talk about the society and will be a small detour and a light read into a love story I ended up reading this book and I still regret reading it completely due to my weakness of not being able to stop reading a book half way through. Seriously poor narration and a very boring story till the last 20 pages. It vividly reminded me of a poorly narrated south Indian movie which was a hit in Telugu and Tamil, sans illustrations. However, the efforts were great. Better language would have done a lot of good to the book. I hope that goes into ‘Can love happens twice?’

Siddhartha - Herman Hesse

The one thing I loved about the book was that they profoundly made it clear that what is read and what is preached is completely different from what can be experienced. Picking the right choice from a lot and learning to love it grows from within and it is nothing like someone holding your hand and making your way through the dark. Though not initially interested in reading the book, it really got to me by the time the writer started the beautiful illustrations of relating the life to a coursing river.

The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga

The book was a series of letters written by the protagonist. The novel studies a strong contrast between India's rise as a modern global economy and the lead character, Balram who comes from crushing rural poverties, and the opening lines of the novel establish this fact. It not only makes you laugh out loud but makes you think. ‘Take whatever comes out of a Prime minister’s speech and exactly the opposite is true about India.’ The way he clearly portrays the widening gap, dysfunctions and how least it bothers a poor man of how many international forums India is a part of really got me to think. Heavily thought provoking and darkly humorous and an honest account of the staggering economic inequality book. I just went wow after the book. 


Now, I think I should change the blog template. I don't see it go in tune with my mind right now.. Well you ll see if its done! ;)


PS:I promised myself that ll post more frequently, as complete isolation is not my cup of tea!

The Rushdie Effect :: Enumerating Art is such a misnomer

30th Jan 2012:

Every day for the last one week, all I have seen in the main page of the news paper was the tantrums of Salman Rushdie and the get backs of the Rajasthan Government when a month back. When I read about there being a Literature Festival, I was hoping more of a traditional, knowledge enriching debates and sessions to take place at a full scale. As the inception drew closer more and more controversies started rising up, about a book whose import was banned but downloading and owning is not. How mordacious is that? As the Literature Festival started the issue only engulfed the whole prominence resulting in mediocre outcomes and not many worthwhile writers were recognised appropriately. All the debates only saw the rain shadows of the paper last week. Sad as this may be, many started discussing about the sovereignty and the integrity of the country in justifying the ban ‘The Satanic Verses’ as it all comes to an end, as is always there, more often than not, theories about the whole literary society emerge and classifying art into broadly two categories, both of which not even remotely giving importance to the ‘purpose of passion’ of the writers, at the end of the article from what Justice Katju said, one who would after reading the article would come to a conclusion that the writers have to be categorised into either of the genres and that as ‘romanticism’ is not all the useful for a sociological insight all one has to do is publish, read, cherish and innovate on the books with ‘social’ purpose if there is a scope of narrowing down what the country needs basing on the social and infrastructural conditions prevailing in and around. 

One book that will never stop me from respecting Salman Rushdie

Does it mean that in Ancient India because people were living in flourishing wealth of societies they had the insight and the option of taking up ‘romanticism’ and because now the society faces many problems like poverty, population and pollution we don’t encourage it and of course seriously criticise anything that is fictional as too simplistic and non – serious? In such a poor country art for social purpose alone can be acceptable? We are here forgetting some facts that fiction like ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Lord of the Rings’ succeeded in getting back the internet generation to books and helped in re-inculcating the awesomeness of long-forgotten book reading again. I am one person who tends to read Indian authors, even when the rating is not that good, many authors these days, fiction and semi-fiction, have made it to the stands and impressed the international market. No offence meant to the non- fiction writers, there are great books that are instilling and inspiring in today’s world, and this will not be complete without mentioning ‘Everybody loves a good drought’, ‘Non Stop India’, that hit the stands recently and many other books. So it is that an art cannot and should not be narrowed down to theories where there is an either- or relationship, it would be better appreciated if we can see it as, the penchant of a passionate person shared by many. Awareness is what matters and, just because the art supports a social cause and is a change agent, doesn’t make it accepted or appreciated; acknowledging the élan of impressionism, existentialism and realism is also a form of appreciating and recognition to art. Just because there is art for social sake, art for art’s sake can’t be made the foot note. It will show that we are capable of accepting that art’s purpose is subtler, this will help broaden the perspective with which this generation can appreciate art. Expression and Appreciation should come and go ‘As you like it’, as Art has no bounds.

Vigilance v/s Awareness: What changes v/s what stays

As I was flipping through the news paper the other day I came across a not very flashy ad about the “Vigilance awareness week”, that said, “Never Exchange a penny or dime, Corruption is a crime, Come forward to report incidents of corruption that come to your notice”. The bygone era has seen many experts and amateurs lecturing and chiding of extirpation of the malady. Now, there are large-scale fronts about it. Coming to the latter part of the ad, I couldn’t help but drift off to a regional movie scene, where the overtly genuine and sincere lead actor is guffawed at, by the bystanders, with no hint of ignominy what so ever, as he complains on the shoddy train facilities, though his complaints in the movie go in vain, we realise that this paradigm of not complaining against authority, without being made fun of, starts really early.




Speaking of movies, a complaint against the black ticket market goes unnoticed with a powerful influence. Bribing might not be the only way out always. Inter alia, a puny little girl in her fifth class, writing a test along with her seniors, complains audible to the whole class ‘Teacher that senior is copying!’, the teacher did warn the senior, who, glares at the little girl, who is left with building trepidation only to know that seniority puts on its gloves shortly, ok that was my classmate in the fifth standard, who later had a rich course of instruction from the seniors on respect. Graduation mein, it is just the one guy who quetches about a ‘friendly ragging’ who lands with minimal friends at the end of the 4
years, other naming him ‘the spoil sport’ and ‘sincere samurai’ of the batch. Everyone who bribes to get benefits has a cooler image of getting things done, and the one that remains sincere to the rules is made fun at. You are sincere and you stick to your guns only means you are not being ‘practical’. My brother japed me when I asked him to hold on to the plastic bottle till he finds a bin to throw it, something similar happens if you ask your mom not take a plastic bag. Trust me! Well no one heeds to the little we can do to help the nation, albeit sans crime, everything that can be done is but ignored. Everybody knows, umpteen such incidents arouse the natural human tendency of turning a blind eye to vigilance over others. Thence, slowly lose to ascribe self vigil also.




Almost always when the traffic rules are violated, it is just a matter of two phone calls and the ‘influential’ person is out of the (not very) tough spot, it is the same story everywhere, the railways where not once did I travel without a person ‘managing’ a berth without reservation in lieu of bribe. The same is true with child labour. Apart from these modest next door exemplars, many loud and firm issues lack vigilance by the responsible authorities, who was to ask when Canada was to oppugning to Sri Lanka (in the case of LTTE) but not so vigilant about USA, when it did the same. Coming home to India, who has a vigil on all the schisms? And, the Manipur blockade is a source of sufferance
to the citizens. However, there is no vigil on the black market that flourishes! But then, democracy isn't a state of perfection. It has to be improved, and that means constant vigilance. The end of the week in the news was marked by the 99th day of Manipur blockade. With or without vigilance, awareness helps and stays enlightens on what is and what is not.


Once a year, one week of anamnesis about vigilance awareness might not suffice and address the pressing need of the hour. Scandals might not come to light but then, at the least a couple of bribers who obtrude upon your train berth will be kept at bay. A few traffic outlaws will be ticketed, and
learn to walk the line. As we grow up to be accountable to the society, vigilance always takes the first call to development. I realize, when at school, I did not know what vigilance meant, I was not aware. I was among those who laughed at the girl who complained. Hope the seventh
billion will know to study and learn to be vigilant. They will then be aware, conscious and empowered. Then, the need to have a week for awareness about vigilance will only sound queer, till eternity. After all, Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

Cyber Rebirth

It must be because of my graduation and three months of corporate life after that, for all the problems I am studying about right now, I am tending towards a cyber solution, to be frank we need to agree that there is mounting importance in making the two ropes into a knot, for development.

- With growing concerns about ‘privacy’, everyone wants a secure and flashy site, whatever the need be. 

- User Interface grows in importance as the internet users increase in number

In a day of great advances in the Server Technology and Server Protection tactics in the cyber world, it is but an ignominy that an individual could hack eight Indian government sites, all of which after hacking are not of great difficulty to be defaced, keeping in view the stature of the source code it can have. It is of great importance, that in an age where a school kid relies on the internet to complete his homework, the government sites in India are in such a vulnerable situation.

SERVER SECURITY:

India, an emerging power in the field of information technology, known for the number engineers it produces year after year, does not have a decent way of protecting the sites from getting hacked, let alone portraying the services online? How would a customer, with growing awareness for privacy, trust the online services with the sites being so assailable?  Need is that the sites are developed in security and design to appeal to the customers, like the private sector is attracting customers.

As a country producing 3 million new graduates, of which 1.1 million are software engineers, each year, with adept human resources in the field of IT, it is deplorable that when a mere citizen having a Social networking site, page can control with great efficiency the information available about him on the net, the nation is not able to look into checking the number of sites being hacked every day.

Seems like the Technology Vaporware, 2009 could only get down the numbers from 600s to 117. Though a great number progress has been made, for a country like India, with such a stature in Information Technology, the numbers are still high. Most of the government sites take advantage of frames in presenting a large amount of information in a static web page which is vulnerable to the techniques used to gain access to unauthorized information through advanced search queries. Google hacking employs searching sites using special characters, logical operators and operators such as cache, filetype, link, site, intitle, inurl.

Lack of a prescribed procedure for auditing, hosting, maintenance and upgrading of security measures and new advancements can be taken as he main reasons for this.   

·        Government websites and applications have to be audited from the cyber security perspective prior to their hosting and after, on a regular basis, like really strict vigilance.

·        Hosting the websites which haven’t undergone a strict cyber security audit should not be made possible.

·        Immediate action should be taken in upgrading the security of the hosting structure.

·        Alerts regarding the latest developments in cyber crime and how to dodge them.

·        Damage caused by Cross site shifting should be  taken into consideration.

·        Any form of inputs like page headers, cookies, query string, hidden fields used on forms and forms fields used to gather some sort of input from the users should be validated before an update.

DESIGN AND USER-INTERFACE:

Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works.

Nevertheless, it is true that what looks good is called ‘attractive’ for a reason. More than 66% of the users give importance to the design and user interface, in a site that provides or vouches for services. Serious thought has to be put in the direction of improving the design and support patterns that are incorporated in various Indian websites, especially those that are into services related to communication. Less number of frames can be incorporated in the website to make them more browser compatible, look wise. Also, for those who say that the ‘Lorem Ipsum factor’ of saying that the design matters only a little, in today’s world one has to realise the importance of design and User Interface compatibility to an average customer. When the appearance causes a deep veneration and presentation remains good, also as long as one can place trust in the security systems only then can one want to be a customer.

Though impossible to negate the hacks in total, a dedicated capacity of efforts has to be put into this area not only to protect the government sites from being hacked, but also to improve the reliance of the people on the public sector sites for information and services.