Whom do you want in your team

I am working as a project leader. Now the weight of success or failure of a project lies on  my shoulder (kudos to my manager that he has been able to make me feel that way). I am interacting with lot of people on daily basis.

So essentially all my work involved is in planning and enabling people to get the job done. With this now i have also started thinking about what is a team and how to make it better (again kudos to my manager).

One thought is that what kind of people i will like to have it in my team.

Essentially there are 4 types of people (at least in software industry)

1. Very bright and smart tech savy people who are very comfortable working with others.
2. Bright but are hard to deal with. They like to be left alone and do their own thing.
3. Not extremely bright but can do the work and are also good team players.
4. They don't know why they are here

If you have people from category 1 in your team then consider yourself lucky and just enjoy the ride. Project will turn out OK.

People of category 4 are easy to figure out. If for some reason they are in your team, its your bad luck and you can discount productivity and make plans accordingly.

The real trouble begins when you have to choose from people of either category 2 or 3.

If i am not building a nuclear reactor, or a medical system on which the fate of humanity rests i will like to avoid type 2 people. With whatever little experience i have they have given me more trouble than happiness.

That is just me. What are your thoughts ?

IPL and Betting Ho Hungama

These days IPL and betting scandal is all over the news. Media is going frenzy over it. TV news channels are inviting experts like "Vinod Kambli" and "Nupur Mehta" to comment over the Cricket Betting and Bollywood nexus. Almost laughable if that is covered in the prime time 9 PM news. I can understand if it is done in latenight past 2 PM reporting.

So what happened.
Some cricket players formed a nexus with betting bookies and were caught. Immediately they were booked and sent to jail. Well that is not fair. In recent days many politicians and their relatives have been caught doing almost similar thing. None of them has gone to jail. That politician is still serving his tenure in Parliament. All he had to suffer was resign from Ministry.

And now coming to betting. Why is betting on IPL wrong? Let me talk about some famous government approved bettings

1. Stock Exchange : People bet there on the expected value of stock every day. Huge amount of money is involved. Some make money and some loose. We also have betting on future values. If betting in stock exchange is legal, then why not legalize betting on games. Let it be legalized and let government make money on it. And punish those who influence the game to increase their chance of winning just like insider trading in stock exchange.
2. Lottery : This is one of the biggest source of income for government. People are betting on government provided piece of paper

So my request to government and media is that let not make this an opportunity to hide the real issues (big corruption) and make it a media lime light in the hope that people will forget them.
 

Traffic jam in Mumbai

Long wait in jams on a Mumbai road is not a new sight. Celebrities complain of it in their tweets, commoner complain about it all the time. However the recent proposed solution to handle this problem caught me by surprise.
The suggestion is that Government shouldn't allow people to buy car if they don't have parking space. Well they won't let them register the car. Argument given is that people who don't have parking space in their house/societies park their car outside and this causes a congestion on road. And thus the solution is that you can't park on the road.
This solution has some merits but i believe it will cause more mental anguish to people. Now to get registration done you will need to show another document to Transport Office. And we all know of the common malpractice happening in government offices. This will give them one more opportunity to exploit people.
Further the road side parking problem can be solved by fining people/towing away car, which they should be already doing if it is parked in a no park zone. Other approach is to make more public parking available as part of city's infrastructure development. People can pay on rental basis. Any business establishment should provide enough parking space for their customer.
The most essential solution is to improve the public commute system. Put more comfortable buses on the road. Introduce more local trains and more local train stops. Implementation of Metro train is essential for any decently populated city. It will need a strong political will to solve the problem and spending on infrastructure projects.

Dukhi Lal and Candy Business

Disclaimer : This is the story of a very cunning man. The story is purely fictional and any resemblance to living and dead is purely coincidental.

And now being done with disclaimer let me tell you a story.

Once upon a time there lived a very cunning man named Dukhi Lal. He had employed a bunch of people (modern day PR personnel), whose job was just to present his fraudulent activities as a service to society. He had formed a company named "Sewa" and was a good spender on advertisements on any channel available.
Dukhi Lal once devised a scheme of robbing candies from poor children. He promised to double the candies given by poor children in 3 years. Since they were poor and the prospect of getting 2 candies for one was very tempting, crores of children gave their candy. Now Dukhi Lal made a lot of money by doing this candy business. To boost his image, "Sewa" company also started sponsoring the very famous sport of the land "Gilli and Danda". Now all the gilli-danda players wore dresses with emblems of "Sewa".

Some government official detected that this is scam since Dukhi Lal didn't had proper permissions to collect candies from poor children. That official filed a complaint in the court of law.

Now Dukhi Lal and his PR personnel started media war with that government official. They put huge advertisements in news papers, saying how this government official is damaging his good name and to a good service to society.

Some one rightly detected that he cannot put such an ad against a government official who is just doing his job and filed another complaint in court of law.

Now Dukhi Lal is getting desperate. Court is mounting pressure on him. So this time he designs a very ingenious plan.

He again puts a big advertisement in all news paper. This time he is asking all the people of land to sing the revered national song with them on a particular day. He is asking everyone to form a big line of millions of people and sing the song. All of them will of course be under his banner. They will get mementos bearing his symbol and a good feeling of what a nice thing they have done for the society and country.

Will you participate in his new scheme?

(c) 2013 Anup Mayank

Honeybee and Monster

Once upon a time there was a dense forest near Ganga river in current Bihar. There was plenty of food to eat and a large clean pond in the center of forest where all the animals used to come to quench their thirst. Everyone was living happily there.

Then one day a very dangerous and powerful monster "Mahatrikal" came to that forest. He liked it some much and decided to live on a banyan tree near the pond. Mahatrikal started killing animals whenever someone came to drink water. Sometimes he ate them after killing. He was so powerful that everyone was afraid of him. But since there was no other source of water all were worried about what to do.

A group of animals decided to meet their lion king "Sher Singh". They told him their dilemma and asked him to help. Lion said not to worry and promised to look after this matter.
Then lion reached at the shore of lake and shouted at the top of his voice - "Where is this evil creature, who is destroying the peace of my forest? Come and fight with me."
Hearing this the monster came out and accepted his challenge. Monster was very powerful. He simply lifted lion up in the air by his tail and threw him away at a great distance. Then he roared - "Listen you all. My name is Mahatrikal. No one should dare to challenge me again, otherwise i will do the same or worse as i have done to this lion."

Now all the animals were afraid. Sher Singh made an announcement - " Who ever gets rid of this monster will become the new king of this forest." No animal was willing to take that risk. Finally a small honey bee named "Chhutku" decided to accept the challenge.
Chhutku came to lake and said - "Come out you dirty monster. I am here to teach you a lesson.". Upon hearing this monster came out and when he saw that a little honey bee was challenging him, he started laughing and said - "Have you lost your mind? Have you not heard what i did to the lion. Do you want to get squashed? Run away, before i do that."

On this Chhutku said - "Why are you talking so high and mighty? Why don't you come here and fight with me?" Now monster was mad with rage. He started running towards little bee. But he didn't see that there were thousands of other honey bees waiting for him in the nearby trees. All of them started biting and attacking him. Monster was in a very pitiable state. He had no where to run and save himself and thousands of honey bees were constantly stinging him. Finally he apologised and said - "Please forgive me. I have made a terribe mistake. If you let me go now, i will never disturb you again."

On hearing this Chhutku forgave him. As promised monster left the forest and never came back again. Chhutku was made the new king of that forest and everyone respected him for his bravery and smartness.

(c) 2013 Anup Mayank

Visit to FTII (Film and Television Institue of India) Pune

Last weekend my wife had asked me (forced me will be a more accurate statement) to go to the French film festival which was being held at FTII (Film and Television Institute of India). I was a little bit hesitant of the idea. The foremost reason being that i was not sure how we will enjoy french movies (at that time i had no idea that movie will have subtitles too) especially with our 4 year old son who will be bored easily. Second being the usual problem of finding a parking space in an unknown crowded place in Pune (FTII had its own parking space in one of the ground). However the fact that it was free and she was very excited about seeing movie in an open space was reason enough to go there.

FTII is situated on the Law College Road in Pune. It is one of the busy and narrow main road. With the help of GPS and general directions on the road we reached there without any problem. At the gate security person showed us the parking space and asked us to collect the movie pass. In the newspaper advertisements it was written that admission will be on first come basis, so i was thinking that this movie pass will be required to watch movie, but nobody asked for it. Since we were little early, we decided to explore the law college road.
After wandering around for around 15 minutes in which we saw the usual sweet shop, grocery shop, maruti showroom, cafe coffee day etc, we found  a local fast food corner near the institute. There we had tea (for adults) and chocolate milk (which proved little too hot for our son).

Then we headed back to FTII, movie was being shown in Shantaram auditorium. To reach there from the entrance you have to walk for about 10 minutes on a slightly sloped pathway.

Then we reached Shantaram Pond. It was a nice view with chairs and red carpet. But the most sought after seats were on the stairs and balcony like platforms. At 7 they started the adjustment of projector ( i wish the organizers had done it sooner, not when everyone is comfortably seated). Further people were coming with their own pillow and blankets which was very comfortable and handy when you are sitting on the floor.
It was a collection of short movies (each being 15-20 minutes in length). The first one was "Piano Tuner". A very suspenseful and thriller movie. Maybe the soundtrack of the movies was too good or maybe the dolby surround sound system was very good, the overall effect was simply amazing.
Several other good movies followed "She can be your grandmother", "Blue Shadow", "Mozart", "Edmund was a donkey".
Finally after 7 such movies my son's patience ran out and we decided to say goodbye to FTII and Shantaram Auditorium. Thank you for providing an entertaining and memorable evening.

Oracle : Finding tables with given column name

One of my colleague today come to me asking where  can i find this column (LANDING_PAGE) in DB of our application. Actually he was not even sure of the column name. It was a field in UI. Our application has more than 200 tables and my tables are heavy (having many columns). So human search was futile. Thankfully there is a query in oracle which came to rescue.

select * from user_tab_columns where column_name like '%PAGE%';

Movie Review: Special 26

This weekend we decided to watch movie "Special 26". The reviews were quite favorable and it had been some time since we had seen movie in theater.
We prefer going on an early morning show because the movie ticket rates are one third of the regular afternoon or evening show (Rs 90 only for Platinum seat at E-Square multiplex at University Road in morning).
The main actors of this movie are Akshay Kumar, Anupam Kher, Manoj Bajpai and Jimmy Shergil.
It is based on the life of con-men who duped several people and business person during the 1980s. They posed as fake CBI agents or Income Tax Officials.
The movie is decently paced and has good elements of comedy to make you laugh. I liked the scene where applicant answers - "Milke ukharenge Sir. Kuchh Hum. Kuchh Aap.".
Even though Akshay Kumar is the lead actor, i will say the movie revolves more around Anupam Kher and Manoj Bajpai. They have done superb acting.
There are some loose ends in the story (the story of Jimmy Shergil is not that convincing and the love interest of lead actor seems unnecessary.) However it is worth watching for a good relaxing time.

Mahavir Mandir Patna

It is for those who have either lived in Patna or had a chance to board train from Patna Junction. Mahavir Mandir is one of the very famous landmark. I was a frequent visitor during 1994-2002. The atmosphere there itself gives you inner calm. Recently i got a chance to revisit and relive peaceful moment. Here are some pics.

View From Ground Floor	View From Second Floor
View From Second Floor
Second Floor	View of Mosque from Second Floor

Movie Review : Nothing But The Truth

"Nothing But The Truth" is a very gritting story about a journalist and her conviction to not name the source no matter how hard is the choice.

Story begins with a conversation in school bus where our main character is sitting with her son. Later she prints a story about how government has ignored the right intelligence (hint of Iraq attack by US). Later the journalist is prosecuted by government and jailed for not obeying the court order of revealing her source. Now slowly her life disintegrates. Her marriage is falling apart and there is no end of her hardships. Despite this she stays true to her conviction.

In the end it is shown that she is going for a 2 year jail term and there she remembers the conversation in school bus and thus viewer are told about who is the first hand source.

It is a very well directed movie. Story moves at a reasonably well pace. End is the icing on cake.

Movie Review : War Horse (2011)

When i was watching this movie, i didn't know that Steven Spielberg has directed this movie. Thus there was no prejudgement.
This movie is the story of a horse and a boy during first world war time. It is a drama movie. Story revolves around the theme that "How horse has touched the lifes of many people around him." Overall a very decent film. I will not put it in the league of "Saving Private Ryan" and "Catch Me If You Can", but definitely worth watching with your family over a relaxed saturday evening.

There is one scene in which horse is scared of the tank and bombs and becomes deeply entangled himself in barbed wires. English army sees it and one soldier is brave enough to go out in no-man's land to free horse. English soldier is met by a German soldier and they together cut the wires and set horse free. The decision of who will take the horse is settled by tossing a coin instead of a gun battle.

This scene is very touching and teaches us that we should have common sense and human decency even in worst of the situations.

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
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