Nag - Nagin (Maithili Folk Tale)

Once upon a time there was a very famous king of Mithila. He was very powerful and just. Everyone in his kingdom was happy and prosperous. But King was sad that he didn't have any child from any of his seven queens. As he was getting older his sadness kept on increasing. He always used to worry about what will happen to the kingdom after him. So he consulted a very famous Rishi (Sage). Rishi told him to conduct a Puja (religious ceremony). Puja will last for a month and this whole month king was not supposed to eat or drink anything. Being a desperate man, King agreed to Puja.
When the queens heard of his decision, they were very upset. It was a very tough Puja and there was a chance that king will lose his life during this ceremony. All the seven queens tried to convince king to abandon this Puja, but without any success. Eventually the eldest queen formulated a plan. She went to King and told him - "My lord. Goddess Durga has blessed us. Last night when i went to sleep, goddess came into my dream. She told me that she is very happy of your good and just ruling in this kingdom. And she is aware of your sadness. So she has decided to grant you a baby son from the youngest queen. She has ordered you to abandon that Puja as it is not necessary now." King couldn't believe this good news. He asked to explain everything in detail. Queen was very convincing and she managed to satisfy any doubt of King.
When other queens heard what the eldest queen has done, they were very terrified. They asked her - "What have you done? King will surely find out about this and he will kill us and feed us to alligators." The eldest queen said - "You all are unnecessarily getting terrified. At least we have avoided the imminent danger to our beloved king's life. I am sure that in due time we will find out a solution to our problem."
In few months King was given the good news that youngest queen is expecting a child. Eldest queen had bribed the royal astrologer and asked him to tell King - "My lord. You are going to have a very brave son. He will raise your good name and fame. But there is a bad news. As per his stars, if you see him before he is sixteen years old and is married, your son will die immediately." King was upset on hearing this, but he consoled himself by saying - "What is sixteen years, when i have waited so long? The most important thing is that i will have a son."
After nine months the news was spread that youngest queen has given birth to a very beautiful baby boy. Queens have bribed the midwifes very heavily and all of them promised to keep their silence on this issue. And thus the lie continued. After few years private tutors were arranged for the young prince. These tutors were again given enough bribes and they all promised to keep the charade and keep King in darkness over this.
Eventually sixteen years had passed. King was getting restless to meet his son. So he arranged a marriage with a very beautiful princess of the neighboring kingdom. Now all the queens were very terrified. When they couldn't find a solution to their predicament, eldest queen again devised a plan. She made a human shape mannequin and adorned it with all royal dresses and ornaments. This mannequin was placed in the royal palaki (a carriage which is carried by two people and the rider sits comfortably in the covered portion).
When the wedding procession reached almost halfway to the destination, they stopped near a large banyan tree to take rest. A pair of ichhhadhari nag-nagin (Cobras who can change shape based on their will) were living in a hole near that banyan tree.
When the nagin (female cobra) heard the noise of wedding procession, she asked her husband nag (male cobra) about what is happening outside. To this nag replied - "I can see a great war on horizon and many men will die.", and then he explained her the whole story of queens and their lie. He said - "When the bride's father gets to know of this treachery, he will be furious and insult this king, which will undoubtedly lead to a war." Nagin had a very kind heart. She requested Nag to do something about it so that the tragedy can be avoided. On her insistent request Nag had to give in. He said -"OK. I will change myself into a very beautiful prince and will marry the princess. By doing so war will be avoided. And once the marriage is over, i will return back."
And thus Nag changed into a very handsome prince. When king saw his son for the first time, he was so happy. His happiness knew no bounds. And thus the marriage ceremony was happily concluded. As the tradition is, after marriage princess and prince along with king and other family members started their journey back to their own kingdom. Again they passed through the old banyan tree. When they reached there, the prince got out on some pretext and changed himself to Nag again and returned to the hole to meet his wife Nagin.
Nag told Nagin about all that had happened and explained her that now he has returned back. On hearing this Nagin being a kind hearted one said - "Oh my dear husband. We should not be so greedy. We should also think about the poor newly wed princes. What will she do when she finds out that her prince is gone. Her life will be a living hell. Oh No. You must return back and go to her till she has a baby." Nag said - "How can i do that. You are my wife. Further i have poison in my breath. She will die if i spend time with her." Nagin said - "Now you are the husband of that princess too. And don't worry about the poison. I know how to take your poison. I will come to your bedroom during the night and take your poison away."
On much convincing Nag had to agree to the demand of Nagin. During midnight Nagin came to their bedroom. She was successful in taking the poison away from Nag. When she was going away, she accidentally touched feet of princess. Nag-Nagin are very cold on touch. To this the princess woke up and when she saw Nagin, she raised an alarm. At this Nag woke up. Being in human form and further little sleepy, he had forgotten that it is his wife Nagin who has come here. Alas ! He hit with a heavy stick on the head of Nagin. Nagin cried out - " Oh my dear husband!" and she died. Nag now realized the grave error committed by him. He was very said and wept uncontrollably. When the young princess asked him about it, he explained the whole story. Based on the advice of several sages, Nagin was cremated with full respect.
People believe that if you see Nag-Nagin in the wedding room or on any auspicious occasion, it is considered very lucky.

(c)2012 Anup Mayank

Mithila Painting

Recently i had visited Madhubani (my native place). During this visit i got a chance to go to meet one of my cousin aunt. Her in-laws place is in Mangrauni village. There i had met her mother in law. She is a very wonderful person. I got a chance to look at her Mithila paintings. The paintings are so colorful and depict a wide variety of colors and traditions of Mithila region. Some samples are shown below.

These paintings are typically put in Kobar (Wedding room) of newly wed brides and grooms. The paintings have several images of birds, animals and insects showing the natural harmony of humans along with other inhabitants of this earth.

While looking at these posts she told me a very wonderful folktale of Nag-Nagin, which i will share in my next post.

राजकुमार वीरवर्धन की शादी

राजकुमार वीरवर्धन  की शादी की उम्र हो गयी थी। राजा और राज्य के सभी लोग चाहते थे की एक सुन्दर और सुशील से राजकुमार की शादी हो जाये। राजा ने अपने गुप्तचरों को बुलवाया और कहा - " तुम लोग चारो दिशाओं में पता लगाओ कि राजकुमार के उपयुक्त कौन सी राजकुमारी है।" गुप्तचरों ने कहा -"जो हुक्म महराज " और वे लोग अपने तेज घोड़ों पर सवार होकर निकल पड़े।
छः महीने के बाद गुप्तचरों की टोली वापस आई। उनके सरदार ने राजा से कहा - " महाराज हम लोग हजारों कोस उत्तर, दक्षिण, पूरब और पश्चिम की ओर गए। हमने सैकरों राज्य की यात्रा की। इस दौरान हमें अनेकों देशों की ख़ूबसूरत और बुद्धिमान राजकुमारियां देखी। सभी एक से बढ़कर एक थीं। लेकिन इन सभी में पहारगढ़ के राजा भानुगुप्त की सबसे छोटी राजकुमारी हेमलता सभी तरह से हमारे राजकुमार वीरवर्धन की रानी बनने लायक हैं। वे देखने में अद्वितीय हैं। आस पास के दस राज्यों में उनकी बुद्धिमता के चर्चे हैं। वह बहुत ही बहादुर भी हैं।"
गुप्तचरों की इस बात को सुनकर राज अत्यन्त प्रसन्न हुए। उन्होंने तुरंत राजकुमार वीरवर्धन को बुलवाया और कहा - " हे राजकुमार। अब आपका विवाह का समय आ गया है। हम चाहते हैं की आपकी शादी राजकुमारी हेमलता के साथ हो जाये।" इसके साथ ही राजा ने गुप्तचरों द्वारा बताई हुई सारी बात राजकुमार को बताई और कहा की - " आप कल ही अपने साथ घुरसवारों की एक टोली लेकर पहारगढ़ की तरफ निकल जायें और अपने साथ राजा भानुगुप्त और उनके दरबार के लिए उपहार भी ले जाएं। वहां जाकर राजा भानुगुप्त से राजकुमारी हेमलता के साथ अपने विवाह का प्रस्ताव रखें।"
राजकुमार ने राजा की बातों को सुनकर कहा - " हे महाराज। आपके आदेश का पालन होगा।"
अगले सुबह राजा के कहे के अनुसार राजकुमार और उनकी घुरसवारों की टोली पहारगढ़ जाने के लिए निकल पड़ी .

(शेष शीघ्र ही )

Flipkart's replacement policy

After being hooked to buying books and electronic items from Amazon in US, i am fascinated by the service provided by Flipkart. An year and half back i had purchased HTC Wildfire phone for myself. The delivery was quick and phone has been running smoothly till now.

So when my wife's old Samsung dual sim phone died, i was on a lookout for a new phone for her. Samsung Y duos fitted the bill and its quality and performance has been vouched by one of my colleagues. So i again decided to buy it from Flipkart. They provided me one additional advantage over local store is their EMI facility (helped me when i am little cash strapped). Again the delivery was quick. But there was a bummer. The back panel didn't fit properly. So i called their customer support and informed them of this problem. The support guy initially tried to convince me that it is nothing and it can be easily fixed.

But the only problem is that i am a customer who has little low patience and has seen several ads on TV where flipkart has claimed that they will replace the faulty piece. So i simply asked him to replace it. Support person told me that tech support will call me in next 48 hours. I was expecting a ticket number and email from flipkart confirming my complain, but didn't get any.

So i called again and was informed that tech guys will reach out to me soon. But it didn't happen. I got busy with work at office and this problem kind of slipped my mind. After few days i saw one feedback email from flipkart regarding my recent purchase. Now i thought, "Wait a minute. They must be having enquiry form in the account page." So i filled out the form explaining the problem and what i want.

Within 2 hours some one from flipkart called me, heard my problem and said that a replacement will be sent soon. And true to their words, the replacement arrived at my door in 2 business days. The delivery guy took the old phone back and gave me new one. This one has no issues. So once more i am a happy flipkart customer. But this experience has taught me to file written complains, because what you tell over phone maynot be that effective.

Movie Review : Carnage (2011)

Few days ago i got a chance to watch movie "Carnage". It is directed by Roman Polanski (of "The Pianist" fame). The actors in this movie are    Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz.

It is based on the theme that two boys started fighting in a local park with the end result of which one boy hits other in mouth with a stick. So the parents (Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz) of the boy (who hit with stick) goes to the parents Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly) of the other kid (who was stuck) to settle this issue in a friendly way.

Now follows a series of conversation which is very fascinating to watch and listen. The couples discuss the issue related to their sons which gets edgy at times. And it also brings out the problems they are facing in their marriage and psychology of all 4 individuals. How the story progresses and how the characters react to different conversation themes are very entertaining.

If you like this kind of movie and had liked movies "Before sunset", "Before sunrise" then this is a movie for you. Enjoy!!!

Girl in the train

As a Train Ticket Conductor, I have been to many places all over the India. I have completed 15 years in this job. I have encountered numerous kinds of people, soft speaking and ruffians alike. All these years i have  been through many kinds of experiences, but nothing beats the experience i had on a cold winter night of December 1999.
I had joined Indian Railways just a few months back. I was eager to prove myself, make a name of mine in this world and be rich and happy etc etc. My posting was in Bihar. I was in charge of the route from Balliya to Mujaffarpur. One day my duty was on Darbhanga express which starts from Pune and last stop is Darbhanga Junction. The total journey of this train is of approximately 40 hours.
On Balliya i boarded this train. By the time it reaches Balliya it is 1 o clock in the night. Being a cold and foggy night, i had put on my sweater and a thick coat on top of it. Even then i was feeling chilly. Since by now it is almost nearing the end of its journey, many passengers have reached their destination and the train was almost half empty. There were very few new passengers who had made a reservation from this station. At about 2 AM, i was done with my ticket checking duties and i had another 3 hours to spend by the time it will reach Mujaffarpur.
So i thought to take some rest in one of the AC coaches, as i had seen many empty seats during my prior visit. I found a nice empty compartment in 2nd AC coach. Got a blanket from one of the porters and sat comfortably on the seat. Blame it on the warm blanket in a cold weather and being late in the night, i soon felt drifted away and was happily sleeping. After some time i woke up with a jolt. The train was standing somewhere away from the station and it was 3 AM. I thought it must be somewhere near Hajipur. I was about to go out and check what was the matter, i suddenly saw a girl sitting on the seat in another compartment adjacent to where i was sitting. She was looking very intently at me. I was not sure if i had seen her when i entered this coach. So i went to her and asked - "What is your name?" She didn't reply. I asked her - "Whom are you traveling with?". She said - "With my Papa". I asked - "Where is he". She simply pointed towards the toilets near the end of coach.  Feeling satisfied with her answer, i decided to make another round in the coach and find out where we were. There was one family who was supposed to get down at Darbhanga and few people were supposed to get down at Samastipur and Mujaffarpur. Otherwise the coach was mostly empty. I asked one of the tea vendor - "Where are we?" He said - "Sahebji. Train has left Hajipur and is waiting for green signal".
Soon the train started moving, and now i decided to return back to my comfortable seat. When i passed by the girl, i saw that she was crying and sobbing. I asked her - " Why are you crying? What is the matter?" She said - "Papa hasn't come yet and the train will leave him." I tried to console her - "Don't worry. Your Papa will come soon. He is just in the toilet". But she started sobbing more loudly. Now i was feeling embarrassed and awkward. So i told her - "Let me go there and find your Papa". I checked both the toilets, but no one was there. I thought maybe he has gone to the one of the toilets on the other side of the coach. So i went there, but again both of them were vacant. Now i was starting to get worried. Where is her father. What kind of irresponsible person are there?
I again went back to my seat. She came to me and asked - "Did you find him?" I said - "No. But i am sure he will be back soon. Tell me what is your name ? where are you .." I wasn't able to complete my sentence. She started crying and shouting hysterically with a shrill - "What have you done to my Papa? Where is my Papa" I tried to calm her by patting my hand on her head, but she stopped my hand in the mid air with both her hands. I swear i can still feel those icy cold hands. She gave me a violent push. It was so surprising that how come such a little girl got so much power. My head banged with one of the iron plate of a seat and i lost my consciousness
When i opened my eyes i saw several people standing near me. One of the gentleman was sprinkling my face with water. Another person was fanning over my head with a newspaper. I sat upright and asked - "Where is the girl?" But it seems no one has seen that girl and no one has heard her cries. They were about to get down at Mujaffarpur when they saw me lying on the floor of coach.
Till this day i am thinking about that girl and who she was. Was she just my imagination or something really paranormal happened to me.

(c) Anup Mayank 2012

Android app for Java J2EE interview materials

A friend of mine has written this app and i find it quite useful. Please check the link below



JAVA/J2EE Interview Android App

A very nice song by Diljan on Surkshetra

A very emotional song, sung by Diljan in Sur Kshetra. I watched it with my father and thus a very memorable moment.

राजकुमार वीरवर्धन और तालाब का राक्षस

बहुत दिन पहले की एक कहानी है। इन ऊँचे पहारों के पीछे एक देश था। उस देश का राजा बहुत ही दयालु था। वहां की प्रजा अपने राजा का बहुत ही मान सम्मान करती थी और अपने राजकुमार वीरवर्धन  पर जान छिरकति थी। आखिर कार राजकुमार भी बहुत ही साहसी और निडर था। उसके वीरता और बुद्धिमता का उसके मित्र और दुश्मन दोनों ही लोहा मानते थे।
फिर उस राज्य के एक गाँव में एक विचित्र राक्षस आ गया। वह राक्षस उस गाँव के एकलौते तालाब के अन्दर छुप कर बैठ गया था। और जब भी उसे भूख लगती थी तो वो वहां पर मौजूद जानवर या मनुष्य को खा लेता था। उस गाँव के सभी लोग उस राक्षस से तंग आ गए थे। तालाब भी एक ही था। इसलिए पानी के लिए तालाब जाना ही पड़ता था। बहुत लोगों ने उस राक्षस से विनती की, लेकिन वह वहां से जाने के लिए तैयार नहीं हुआ। किसी में उससे लड़ने की हिम्मत नहीं थी। और वह पानी के अन्दर छुपा हुआ रहता था। फिर लोगों ने विचार किया की राजकुमार वीरवर्धन से ही विनती की जाए की उस राक्षस को भागाओ और हमारी जान बचाओ।
राजकुमार ने जब यह सुना तो तुरंत अपने घोड़े पर चढ़ कर निकल पड़ा। लेकिन वह चिंता में था की पानी में छिपे राक्षस से कैसे मुकाबला किया जाये। बीच रास्ते में उसे एक छोटी चिरिया दिखाई दी। बेचारी चिरिया सड़क पर गिरी हुई थी और उसके पंख भी टूटे हुए थे। राजकुमार को बहुत दया आइ। उसने अपने पीने का पानी चिरिया को पिला दिया। तभी चमत्कार हो गया। वो चिरिया एक परी बन गयी। परी बोली - "राजकुमार मैं तुम्हारी परीक्षा ले रही थी। तुमने अपने पीने का पानी एक चिरिया को पिला दिया। तुम बहुत ही दयालु हो। मेरी तरफ से एक चमत्कारी तलवार ले लो। इस तलवार से तुम अवश्य ही उस राक्षस से जीत जाओगे।" राजकुमार ने परी का बहुत ही आभार प्रकट किया।
वह अब दूने उत्साह के साथ राक्षस से मुकाबले के लिए निकल परा। जब राक्षस ने देखा की राजकुमार के पास जादुई तलवार है तो वह समझ गया की अब उसकी खैर नहीं है। उसने राजकुमार और गाँव वालों से माफ़ी मांगी और चुप चाप वहां से भाग गया। सभी गाँव वालों ने राजकुमार का जोर से जय जयकार किया।

(c) Anup Mayank
Next 

A Trip to Matheran

It has been over two years since we came back to India. We have been trying to cover the places around Pune and Matheran was something in my mind for past one year.

Details about Matheran can be found from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matheran

It is about 120 KMs from Pune. We took the Mumbai Pune Expressway for this trip. This was the first time i was driving on this highway. The experience was truly amazing. I have been constantly complaining on the driving woes. But here is the road where i was able to reach upto 120 Km/hour (Just for the sake of readers, speed limit is 80 Km/hour). We reached Lonavala in about 45 minutes and from there we had to take NH4 (old mumbai pune highway). The road towards Karjat and Neral is not good. Road patches are very damaged and you cannot go over 25 K/hr. From Neral it is uphill drive. You will have to drive in 1st gear and there are about 6-7 hair pin bends. Although it is not very difficult to drive but one must be careful to avoid any accident.

It took us to the Dasturi gate. Here you have to park your car. Being it a weekend, it was crowded and finding a decent place to park turned out to be little difficult given that we were trying to find parking along mountain side. Beyond Dasturi, vehicles are not allowed. Most of the hotels are located in Market Peth which is about 2 KM from Dasturi. So either you have to walk or take horse or you can catch the toy train from there, but its frequency is not guaranteed. Since we have already made our mind to go for a horse ride, we bargained with a fellow and got 2 horses. I am glad that we did that as  it was almost 12 in the afternoon and was hot.

We had booked a room in Hotel Kumar Plaza. This hotel has 2 kinds of room. AC Deluxe (B) and Super AC Deluxe (A). Since we had booked little late and it was weekend so most of the good hotels (Verandah, Usha Ascot) were already booked. If you have to stay in Kumar Plaza then go for super AC Deluxe. Other room was not of good quality. In my next visit i will try to stay in Verandah or Gujrat Bhavan.

Matheran is all about walking and enjoying the beautiful scenic points. We visited Lake Charlotte, Echo Point, Honeymoon point that evening. It was so relaxing to sit at the canyon edge and watch valley below.

We were very tired after all this walk, had dinner and then explored the market area. Matheran has lots of shops for leather accessories. I had purchased a leather belt. It seemed of good quality and for Rs 450 seems a decent price if it survives more than a year.

Next morning, for some reason i was wide awake at 5 in the morning. I went out of the room. It was dark outside. But there were few people offering horse rides for the points. I too stepped out when it was clear morning. I again reached lake charlotte. In the morning it was so peaceful and different than the evening before. I was one of the only few. Stayed there for about an hour, soaked the fresh morning air.

In the end we decided to take a horse ride to Panorama point. I had read that the view is very beautiful from there. It is closer from Dasturi. But the path towards Panorama point is not very good. For a good portion of the journey i was guiding one horse  while my wife and kid were in other horse with the owner of horse. We had to abandon reaching the point as there were thick bushes on the way and its better to be safe than be sorry and be bitten by snake etc.

Thus overall it was a very memorable trip and can't wait to go there soon again. Here are some pictures from the trip.

Book Reading vs Writing

My son is about 4 years old now. So as a responsible parent we decided to increase his general knowledge by introducing him to famous people around the world and what they did. So we had compiled a ppt of famous people and started explaining their work to him.

WE: He is Mahatma Gandhi. The great freedom fighter of india.
This my son immediately recognizes as he has seen his pic in school so often.

WE: He is Abraham Lincoln. A famous president of USA.
He tries to repeat the name, but doesn't seem so interested.

He was very interested in the picture of Niel Armstrong, as he has recently read a book on moon and astronauts.

Next we went through some of the famous authors. William Shakespeare, Rabindra Nath Tagore, Munshi Premchand, Leo Tolstoy.
WE: They have written great books. You will get to read them when you grow old.
He listens to us for some time then simply corrects us by saying "We read books, we don't write them".

Now this is a very genuine question coming from him, as we have been explaining to him not to write on his books.

Phone, Facebook and a Kid

I have an Android phone. So obviously i have enabled data synch with all the popular applications like Gmail and Facebook. So all my contacts get automatically synched and linked from various sources (phone, google, facebook etc). It is a very great thing when the end user is me.

Now come into picture my 4 year old son. He of course understands that this phone is something interesting that's why dad is avoiding to give it to him. So he will always be in a lookout for a chance to grab my phone. And how many times you can deny a cute kid's plea. And further when he is just exploring his photography skills and occasionally takes few good pics of mine. So now he is getting my phone and spend some unsupervised time with my phone.

Here comes the inconvenient part. He likes the touch screen so will keep on moving from one screen to another. He will explore all the applications. He is adept at changing wallpapers (with all his recent photoshoot). So far its okay. But now he also goes to the phonebook and starts making call. And now of course he doesn't have decency to say hello, so he simply ends the call either some one answers or just after few rings. Well if its his grandma, grandpa, uncle, aunt etc its okay. But sometimes he makes call to some people whom i didn't know i had the phone number (thanks to the synch feature). Worst when they call back, i have to pick up the phone and then explain to them what happened. It can be very discomforting at times, because i haven't talked to that person for so long and suddenly i am talking to him/her, not knowing what to talk about. But at least it gives me an opportunity to talk to that person, whom i should have been in touch.

Well if you are one of those persons who have been troubled by that mysterious call from me, please accept my apologies in advance.

Quotes from Shantaram (Novel)

Author : Gregory David Roberts

These days i am reading the novel "Shantaram". Wonderfully written so far. I have found some interesting conversation pieces from the characters of this novel, which have given me immense pleasure as a reader. I am quoting them here. My commentary is in italics after each quote

1. Being listened to -- really listened to -- is the second best thing in the world. (Interpretations are open about the first best thing.)
2. The only force more ruthless and cynical than the business of big politics is the politics of big business. (Not any personal experience so far but i guess it is true)
3. Civilization, after all, is defined by what we forbid, more than what we permit. (In Egyptian civilization it was norm for brother to marry sister in royal family)
4. Friendship is something that gets harder to understand, every damn year of my life. Friendship is like a kind of algebra test that nobody passes. In my worst moods, I think the best you can say is that a friend is anyone you don't despise. (Ah there goes my friend list)
5. The facts of life are very simple. In the beginning we feared everything -- animals, the weather, the trees, the night sky -- everything except each other. Now we fear each other, and almost nothing else.
6. It's good to know what's wrong with the world. But it's just as important to know that sometimes, no matter how wrong it is, you can't change it. A lot of bad stuff in the world wasn't really that bad until someone tried to change it.
7. I think wisdom is very over-rated. Wisdom is just cleverness, with all the guts kicked out of it. I'd rather be clever than wise, any day.
8. Poverty and pride are devoted blood brothers until one, always and inevitably, kills the other.
9. 
   
10. The people showed thanks, rather than saying it, and I'd come to accept that.
11. I take everything personally -- that's what being a person is all about.
12. I can't stand politicians. A politician is someone who promises you a bridge, even when there is no river.

Bhaja and Karla Caves

Last weekend we went to explore the Bhaja and Karla caves. They are near Lonavala almost 50 Km from Pune. Both are located on top of hills, so you should be ready to do a little bit of climbing up the stairs. You can read more about their history below

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhaja_Caves

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karla_Caves

Both caves were made by Buddhists and are almost similar in architecture. However now Karla is more commercialized and is very crowded in comparison to Bhaja. I am posting few pics of the place.

 Me and Kundan on the way to Karla Caves

 Anshu and Kundan on the way to Bhaja Caves

 Outside Bhaja Cave

Sculpture in Karla Cave

Ganesh Puja

India is a country of million gods and goddesses. Among the many gods and goddesses each state/region has one which is most revered in that region. In Maharashtra that is most definitely Lord Ganesha. Every year during this time, you can hear loud slogans of "Ganpati Bappa Morya" (Lord Ganesha is mine). This festivity is celebrated for 11 days. Many Ganpati idols will be put in homes and public places. And at the end of worship days (some do for 5 whereas others for 7, 9 or 11 day) Ganpati idols are immersed in river/sea with loud requests to Ganesha for coming early next year. Immersion is preceded by a procession in which trained people will play many musical instruments in a very coordinated way. The beats of drums are very splendid to hear. Here is one such procession video which happened near my home

Pandit Vishweshwar Sharma

Today while watching a new show (Waah Waah Kya Baat Hai) on SAB TV i came across some very beautiful lyrics and poems from veteran poet Pandit Vishweshwar Sharma. So here i am sharing one political satire by him which i found on Youtube.

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Book Review : The New Collected Short Stories

Author : Jeffrey Archer

This is a collection of short stories, 41 in total. The book is divided into three parts

1. To cut a long story short
2. Cat O' Nine Tales
3. And there by hangs a tale

All the stories are like flowers in a bouquet. Each flower chosen for its own beauty. And as beauty lies in the eyes of beholder (well there is a story on this topic too) so does the interest level in stories will vary from person to person. However i won't do justice, unless i list out the stories whom i liked most.

1. The expert witness
2. The endgame
3. Too many coincidences
4. The grass is always greener...
5. Maestro
6. The wisdom of Solomon
7.  The Commissioner
8. The Queen's birthday telegram
9. Members only
10. The undiplomatic diplomat

Please share your thoughts on this book.

Circle vs Straight Line

A Circle represents "Completeness". You can start from any point on the circle and if you keep traveling along other points you will reach to same point. So any point on the circle is both the beginning and end.
Whereas a Straight Line is never complete. You can start from one point and if you keep moving with other points on the line you will never reach your origin state. Thus there is no beginning and no end.

Human efforts also fall under these two categories. Circular category will refer to the daily chore done by us, to sustain ourselves. Cooking our food, Going to work etc. You can keep on doing this circular work today, tomorrow or any other day. It is very important but nonetheless it doesn't advance you much in life.
Whereas acquiring new skill, learning how to improve your productivity, learning new ways of doing thing is an effort of Straight line category. It will bring you from point 1 to point 2. You will feel more fulfilled, more energized.

So in my view we should keep moving in circles and on frequent intervals move in straight line.

Movie Review : Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Yesterday i got a chance to watch "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" (starring James Franco directed by Rupert Wyatt), which was premiered on Star Movies as Movie of the Month.

I had seen the 2001 movie "Planet of the Apess" (starring Mark Wahlberg and directed by Tim Burton). Now this is a true entertaining movie. The movie is fast paced and keeps you thoroughly entertained.

In this sequel, i was hoping that they will continue from the point where Mark crashed in the distant future of planet of apes, where apes had become sophisticated and had simply replaced humans in  the modern world.
But in this movie it has no correlation with the previous movie. Rather it starts with current world where a scientist is trying to discover high potential cure for brain diseases (which incidentally his father is also suffering). The drugs get tested on a chimpanzee who was pregnant at that time and gives birth to a very smart chimpanzee whom he had to bring home due to unavoidable circumstances.
Well now rest of the story is not too brilliantly new. You keep such pet at home and trouble will arise. So this smart chimpanzee gets transferred to a government facility where he is mistreated and kept with many other chimpanzees. Now you can imagine what will happen. Of course he will hate the bad behavior of humans and organize his chimpanzee army. So that was the rise of the apes.

The actors have done an OK job, neither too great nor too shabby. The movie lacks in speed. Sometimes it get little boring when they try to push the emotions of the apes to a little extreme.

My overall rating is 3/5

Book Review : The Sins of the Father

Author : Jeffrey Archer

This book is in continuation of "Only Time Will Tell". I am wondering what made author to choose this title. For me an apt title would have been "Love Never Fails". As this is the tale of Emma Barrington who painstakingly searches for her fiance and father of her child.

Story is again well written. However it doesn't keep the suspense and excitement to a level which was found in first book. But i guess that is always with the problem with subsequent parts of a great series. Twists and turns of the events in life of Harry, Giles and Hugo has been described in fascinating details. I couldn't stop reading it and finished it in one go. Author ends this installment at a very exciting end where we are waiting for final verdict on the fate of Harry and Emma.

I am sure that people will have to read this installment when they have read the first one, as one cannot hold himself back from a gripping story.

My rating is 4/5

Other reviews in this series
Only Time Will Tell

Book Review : Rich Dad's guide to investing

Author: Robert T. Kiyosaki

A few years back i had read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad". It has been a very popular book. It talked what is the basic philosophical attitude difference does exist between a rich and successful man vs a common man who is dependent on job.

I got my hands on "Rich Dad's guide to investing" from the same author. So my curiosity picked up. I am now working in an organization and as per the previous book, i stand in the category of not so financially successful person. So i thought, lets learn how can i or some one in similar position like me can benefit from this book.

Although the start of the book seems very promising. Starting with the author who is just about to retire from military and has very little savings. Now the conversation with author and his rich dad begins as was in the previous book.

However the interest soon starts waning out when author keeps on repeating the same thing over and over which is what is the difference between his poor dad and his rich dad. Common man we get it.
Give me the good stuff. How do i take it to next level.

Some useful tips are provided. As one should be aware of tax laws, invest in business, don't gamble. But it is not something earth shattering new.

My rating is 2/5. You can skip it if you have read the first book.



 

Moral Policing by Police

We Indians never lose a chance of talking about high morals and values. We are always clinging to our glorious past and of the achievement that we invented zero. However things are not improving upon that zero.

Recently read a news that Police in Pune raided a so called high class party. There were pictures of man and women drinking and smoking in the newspaper, as if it was crime. Police used sticks and other means of physical force on man. Even women were slapped on being questioned of their crime. What is this. A moral policing. But why is police doing it. Has a law been broken? Has a crime been conducted? Has the police a right to beat innocent people? These are the questions no one either bothers or dares to ask.

I have heard that young couples are always harassed by Police on the beaches and in the park. I am sure that there will be few who are using this opportunity to do what should have been done in the privacy of a room. But most of the couples are not there to cause embarrassment and they are just having a nice time which is most probably being paid by their tax money. So why do Police or other vigilante of moral police torture and harass them.

I will like to change the term "Moral Policing" to another vulgar term "Sexual Policing" which is more apt to what these people are trying to do and should be aptly reported as that. And does our society need "Sexual Policing" to control whom and how we are supposed to live our lives.

Thoughts and feedback are welcome.

Road Rage : Sad Ending

We rushed into the emergency room. A doctor immediately started looking at him. He was unconcious but alive. Maybe a few broken bones. I had a very sinking feeling. My heart was telling me "Its your fault. Only if you had a little less ego." But how could i have known that a perfect day would have ended like this.

Today was very quiet in office. In first half i was working on the prototype application which i have been trying to build for past couple of weeks. Then in afternoon one defect got assigned to me. Grudgingly i had to stop my prototype work and start working at this defect, as we are very close to the release date and thus makes it urgent. By 7:30 PM i have figured out the root cause of the problem, found a solution and sent my code for review. Tomorrow it will be checked in the accurev (place where programmers keep their code).

I packed my bag and started my 20 km drive from office to my house. It typically takes about an hour to reach home during normal traffic. India is a developing nation. Further Pune is a growing city in India. A sleepy pensioner's paradise has suddenly emerged as a major IT hub. Thus Pune has seen lot of growth in last one decade. However development of infrastructure has not kept its pace with growing population. Further people are always in a rush. So driving during peak hours can be very challenging. It gets worse if you are on a car, as 2 wheelers will try to overtake you from left and right. And if you escape them, then you have pedestrians coming from every direction. Sometimes your driving experience will be rewarded with presence of a herd of cows and buffalos.
If it is not raining or too cold i too prefer to commute on my motorcycle, but today it was both rainy and cold. So i was driving back home in my car minding all the usual hurdles along the way. I will say that my driving skills in India have improved a lot in past one year. Truly practice makes a man perfect or near perfect. To make this journey enjoyable i typically listen to songs or play some audio books. Today i was listening to Atlas Shrugged. Right now it has come to a very interesting turn. There is a stretch of two way one lane each side road along the way. So here i was minding my own way and listening to the audio book. Suddenly I heard an irritating sound of horn. I looked ahead. There was a car in front of me. I looked in rearview mirror. There was a person driving a scooter and honking continuously. As nothing i could do i ignored him. Then again "Peep Peep" and again and again. Now it was getting irritating. What did he want from me? Can my car fly? Of course not. He kept on doing this for next 5 minutes. Now i had decided that i must give him a taste of his own medicine.
A narrow space emerged and this guy overtook me. Now i was behind his scooter. And here it comes. A big "Pop Pop" and then another one. He raced his scooter. I speeded my car. And then another honking and another. He looks behind and i press horn hard. And then another horn. Ah it was so pleasing. By now we have reached the Khadki over bridge. And suddenly that happened. A truck was coming from the other side of the road. Probably he couldn't make out the difference between truck's horn and my horn. It hit his scooter. Truck driver tried to stop but not before pushing his scooter for next 100 yards. People came from all sides. I had to stop and see. People said that we need to take him to hospital. I too followed the auto in which he was taken.

I hope he get well soon. This event has certainly taught me a lesson.

(c) 2012 Anup Mayank
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An alternate ending of this story is available at
Road Rage : Happy Ending

Google App Engine and Java Session

In JEE web application, we are used to keeping objects required in session, so that it can be retrieved in some other call flow. But by default GAE doesn't support session management.

To enable it you have to do following.
Open WEB-INF/appengine-web.xml

Enable session by uncommenting

true

But to make it work on hosted app engine, all the objects which you are planning to put in session must implement Serializable interface.

Now app engine will put your session data into storage system (Bigtable). You can see it by viewing your datastore viewer. Search by kind _ah_SESSION

Happy Teacher's Day

Today is teachers day. My son's school had been off today. Today morning when i switched on TV, there were reports of all the famous Gurus of famous pupils. The latest addition in this list is Saina Nehwal and Phulela Gopichand.
All this has brought my memories back to one teacher who holds special place in my heart. He is Binod Sir. I was in Samastipur Bihar in my class 8-10th. He was instrumental in my studies during that period. His patience and faith is remarkable. He has the true ingredients of a good teacher. After 10th we moved to Darbhanga. He visited couple of times in Darbhanga. But when i went to Varanasi for studies, i lost touch with him.

So today i want to say Happy Teacher's day to my Binod Sir. I hope you are doing well sir.

Book Review : Only Time Will Tell

This weekend i got an opportunity to catch up on fiction. This time it is the first book on Clifton Chronicles by Jeffery Archer. The book is titled 'Only Time Will Tell.'
On the art of story telling in english fiction, Jeffery Archer and Frederick Forsyth are my favorites. I was introduced to Jeffery Archer by 'The Fourth Estate' in my engineering college days.
Then i read 'Honour Among Thieves'. Both had been a delight.

Now coming back to this current book 'Only Time Will Tell'. This is a story of a family in England during the backdrop of second world war. Although the story is focused on main character 'Harry Clifton', but it is a story containing many stories as is the style of any great book. Ex. 'Godaan' by Premchand. As we progress through the book, the story is being narrated from the viewpoint of all characters starting with 'Harry Clifton' and ending again with 'Harry Clifton' and all other important characters (for example his mother, uncle etc) introduced and described in between. The plot is so gripping that it will be hard for you to put the book down and do anything else as it was with me.

My recommendation is to go for it. Now i am eagerly waiting for the next book in this series ('The Sins of the Father').

Other reviews in this series
The Sins of the Father 

Flipkart vs Homeshop18

I like to read books and thus occasionally buy books. Now with so many good websites catering to my need, i have almost stopped going to a bookstore. The last bookstore i visited was in Aundh about 6 months ago just to kill some time.

So far i have been using the services of Flipkart . I have been thoroughly impressed with the ease of usage of this website and their prompt delivery. Within 2-3 days of ordering book is in my hand. And they had free shipping on orders above Rs 200. So whenever i needed to buy a book, i just did some comparative analysis and most of the time flipkart was my choice, however sometimes crossword also took the prize. But recently flipkart has changed their policies and they have bumped up the free shipping to orders above Rs 300. Now it hurts me, since most of my book orders are below Rs300.

So i had to research for other useful website, and www.homeshop18.com came very highly recommended by a source. The price on homeshop18 are comparatively cheaper than flipkart and they have free shipping above Rs 200. So now i have used it to order my last 2 purchases. But i am not satisfied. Their delivery system is nowhere comparable to flipkart. It takes 7-8 days. If only they can speed up their delivery process, otherwise i will be forced to club my book purchases and get back to flipkart.

Product Based Software Companies in Pune

Please find the list of product based software companies.

Company	Domain	Office Locations
Fundtech	Banking and Finance	Aundh
ADP	HR, Payroll
Symantec	Security	Aundh, Baner
Sungard	Finance	Aundh, Kharadi
IBM Software Labs		Yerwada
BMC Software	Business Service Management	Senapati Bapat Road
Nvidia	GPU (Graphics processing unit)	Shivajinagar
VMware	Virtualization Software	Shivajinagar
One Network	Supply Chain	Aundh
Amdocs	Billing, Customer Relationship Management	Magarpatta
PTC Software	Product life cycle management	Kalyani Nagar
TIBCO	Enterprise Software	Yerawada
UGS Corp (Siemens)	Product Life Cycle Managment	Hinjewadi
ACI Worldwide	Payment Systems	Kalyani Nagar
IDeaS (SAS company)	Revenue Solutions	Baner
SAS	Business Analytics Software	Magarpatta City
Red Hat		Magarpatta City
FinIQ	Financial products	Kothrud
Triple Point Technology	Financial products	Yerwada
Tieto		Nagar Road
Synygy	Sales Performance	Koregaon Park
Persistent	Cloud Computing, Mobility, Analytics	Senapati Bapat Road
Geometric	Product Life cycle Management	Hinjewadi
Pubmatic	Advertisement Platform	Baner
UNIKEN Inc	Security Software	Baner
Saba	Human Resource	Yerwada
Mediaocean	Advertising	Wakad
Yardi Software	Real Estate Software	Senapati Bapat Road
Propalms	Application Virtualization	Baner

If you are working at one of them please add your comment about the job culture and whether you recommend someone applying there.

Also share the details of other product companies which are not listed here.

Road Rage - Happy Ending

Today was very quiet in office. In first half i was working on the prototype application which i have been trying to build for past couple of weeks. Then in afternoon one defect got assigned to me. Grudgingly i had to stop my prototype work and start working at this defect, as we are very close to the release date and thus makes it urgent. By 7:30 PM i have figured out the root cause of the problem, found a solution and sent my code for review. Tomorrow it will be checked in the accurev (place where programmers keep their code).

I packed my bag and started my 20 km drive from office to my house. It typically takes about an hour to reach home during normal traffic. India is a developing nation. Further Pune is a growing city in India. A sleepy pensioner's paradise has suddenly emerged as a major IT hub. Thus Pune has seen lot of growth in last one decade. However development of infrastructure has not kept its pace with growing population. Further people are always in a rush. So driving during peak hours can be very challenging. It gets worse if you are on a car, as 2 wheelers will try to overtake you from left and right. And if you escape them, then you have pedestrians coming from every direction. Sometimes your driving experience will be rewarded with presence of a herd of cows and buffalos.

If it is not raining or too cold i too prefer to commute on my motorcycle, but today it was both rainy and cold. So i was driving back home in my car minding all the usual hurdles along the way. I will say that my driving skills in India have improved a lot in past one year. Truly practice makes a man perfect or near perfect. To make this journey enjoyable i typically listen to songs or play some audio books. Today i was listening to Atlas Shrugged. Right now it has come to a very interesting turn. There is a stretch of two way one lane each side road along the way. So here i was minding my own way and listening to the audio book. Suddenly I heard an irritating sound of horn. I looked ahead. There was a car in front of me. I looked in rearview mirror. There was a person driving a scooter and honking continuously. As nothing i could do i ignored him. Then again "Peep Peep" and again and again. Now it was getting irritating. What did he want from me? Can my car fly? Of course not. He kept on doing this for next 5 minutes. Now i had decided that i must give him a taste of his own medicine.
A narrow space emerged and this guy overtook me. Now i was behind his scooter. And here it comes. A big "Pop Pop" and then another one. He raced his scooter. I speeded my car. And then another honking and another. He looks behind and i press horn hard. And then another horn. Ah it was so pleasing. By now we have reached the Khadki over bridge. It is a multi-lane road. So i changed lane and brought my car parallel to his scooter. I rolled down my window and ask him - "How did you find the sound system of my car". He slowed down and made a salute to me. I thought he had got my message and again i returned back to my audio book and rest of the journey back home.

(c) 2012 Anup Mayank

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An alternate ending of this story is available at
Road Rage : Sad Ending 

Movie Review : Real Steel

Yesterday movie Real Steel was on TV. I had seen promos of it for last few days and was determined to see it. I liked it very much and thus decided to write a blog entry for it.

Well it is a movie on Robot and set in little distant future (2018), where Robots take the place in boxing ring. So if boxing and robots are not of your interest you can simply skip/ignore whatever i have to say next.

Man characters of this movie are Charlie (Hugh Jackman  remember X-Men series), Max (Dakota Goyo a new kid whom i haven't seen before), the good robot (ATOM), the bad robot or the robot on bad side (ZEUS)

In summary the movie is about father son bonding, realizing what is really important and yeah robots killing other robots. Dakota Goyo has done a superb job. The fight sequences are worth watching. Dialogues are crisp and don't bore you.

So my recommendation is to watch it if you like this genre of movie. My rating 4/5.

For more details goto

Real Steel (2011)

Websites to download free e-books

I have used following websites and found them very useful for my day to day needs of e-books (technical and otherwise)

http://www.4shared.com/
(You will need to create a login account to use this)

http://ebookbrowse.com

Please share other suitable links which you have found useful.

Conversation with a kid

Kids are always fun to talk to. Today i had this conversation with a young girl (she is about 8-9 years old).

Ishita - Maine dekha ki main skating kar rahi thee. Wo jagah bahut achhi aur cement se plastered thee. Yahan ki tarah ubar khabar nahin.
Anup - Fir kya hua
Ishita - Main bahut fast skating kar rahi thee aur bahut maja aa raha tha. Tabhi kya hua ki maine dekha samne ek tree hai aur wahan par meri mamma phone par baat kar rahi thee.
Anup (chintit awaj main) - Oh fir.
Ishita - Main bahut dar gayi. Mujhe laga ki agar aise hi skating karti rahi to mamma se takra jaungi aur fir daant lagegi.
Anup - Fir kya hua
Ishita - Fir kya tha. Maine apni skate ko turn kara diya, lekin thodi hi der baad saamne ek doosra per aa gaya aur main usase takra gayi.
Anup - He bhagwan. Fir kya hua.
Ishita - Meri skate ulat gayi aur mujhe bahut chot lag gayi. Main rone lag gayi.
Anup - Achha.
Ishita - Fir meri aankh khul gayi. Main bahut dar gayi thee aur ro rahi thee.
Anup (Muskurate hue) - Lekin baad main to tum hansi hogi jab tumhain pata chala ki wo sab ek dream tha.
Ishita (Haste hue) - Ha Ha. Fir to main khoob hasi.

Sachin and his 100th hundred

So finally Sachin hit his 100th century today and once again it has proved that whole country is so emotionally attached with this game. In the England and Australia series, Indians were beaten hands down. All kinds of blame were put. Heros were made villains. Dhoni started loosing his charm. Cricket pundits started blaming coach, captain and Sachin. Talks of his retirement were the ice breaker of any conversation. It was very ridiculous to watch Vinod Kambli (one time buddy) putting his judgments on national television. Even advertisements shifted on this mood change. Hero started sponsoring Hockey (more of this need to happen as it is our national game) and Pepsi promoting football (soccer).
And now all has changed. Facebook is filled with all sorts of comments. People have again started comparing him with God. Some comments are as follows

Lets have a partyyyyyyyyyyy.

Finally Most awaited Milestone achieved.. 100th international 100.......

He is a true son of the nation... India Salutes Sachin

He always played for his country with average of 45 and more and still people will say he is nt a match winner, Those people should keep thr mouth shut and try to admire the ever greatest god of cricket Sachin.

And the list goes on and on.

Oh common people. He is just a sportsman, who has some good days and some bad days. No doubt he is great at what he does. But that is no reason to worship him as no doubt there are thousands if not millions among us who do equally well. Be it other sports, business, education, community service, defending nation etc. He is great, but as of my knowledge he has done well for himself. He has made lots of money from cricket match fees, endorsements and advertisements. I don't see him doing lot of philanthropic work (at least not in public knowledge).

So lets just give proper place to this game and its players and lets not get emotionally overjoyed or disturbed by it.

Kundan's first suggestion that helped me

During the pooja ceremony for our new apartment, we have got some goithas (made of cow dung and hays which is dried so that can be used for burning). Goitha was earlier used as one of the main fuel for earthen stoves and it is still being used in many indian villages. Now a days it is mostly a ceremonial thing used in pooja and havans etc.
So we had a bag full of goithas left after the pooja. We were debating on how it can be used. So after waiting for 2 months, i finally decided to throw it away. Our apartment is on the first floor. To throw it away i was planning to take the bag downstairs and throw it in the open area adjacent to our society building. That bag was little heavy so i asked Kundan (now 3.5 years old) to open the gate. He innocently asked where i am going. So i told him that it is garbage and i am going to throw it out. Then he said that leave it outside our gate. He remembered that we keep our daily garbage there, so that the cleaning people can take it out. It immediately struck me that now i don't have to take this heavy bag downstairs and who knows maybe cleaning people will find a use for it. Thus because of Kundan's presence of mind i was saved from unnecessary lifting of that heavy bag. Thank you Kundan.