Monday, September 29, 2008

Hanging Modi - Veerappa Moily


Nananavathi Commission gave clean chit to Narendra Modi in riots after Godhra incident. After that, Congress leader Veerappa Moily talked as if, Modi should be hanged for that. For that, BJP leader M.Venkaiah Naidu said, "Do they hang Modi, and give Bharata Ratna to Afzal guru, who already got Capital Punishment? Is this the policy of Congress?"

Congress criticizes Modi and his government every time in a different way. But, it never bothered about hanging Afzal guru who got capital punishment many years back. They don't bother about punishing a person who was the main reason behind bomb blasts in Parliament. But, they say the same thing again and again for any blast anywhere in India at any time.

Let's hope atleast the next government takes care of the security of India.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Andhra and Telangana split - Who will be benefitted?


Andhra has three regions, Coastal, Rayalaseema, and Telangana. For the last few years, we are seeing Telangana issue every day in all the news paper. Those who want to have separate state do not understand the problems in the creation of the new state, and the problems after the formation of the state.

It is easy to maintain and develop smaller states when compared to bigger states. If the state is big, it is difficult to do developments in all the regions equally. This is the reason given by all the people who want to have smaller states.

However there are many disadvantages in this approach. It requires thousands of crores to create a new state. Once the new state is formed, many people would be effected by that. If a person has business in both the states, then they will have to pay tax in both the states. For example, If they have vehicles which travel in both the states, they will have to pay road tax in both the states. If any product is produced in one state, by the time it reaches to the consumer of the other state, the price increases. Sometimes, eventhough the consumer does not see the difference, but, dealers and wholesalers would be effected by this. All the educational institutes would be reserved for their state students. In each and every field, there will be significant change, and many people would be effected by that. Many times, they will not realize that, they are not getting good chance because of the partition.

When Vajpayee was the Prime Minister, he formed a committee to come up with the changes to the constitution and ideas for improvements. Many of those suggestions can be found in My Country My Life by L.K.Advani. Vajpayee had implemented whatever he could do with the help of 25 political parties that were supporting BJP. In that one suggestion was, to form district level governments. There will be a district head directly elected by the people. He/she will take care of the entire district needs, and the people does not depend on the CM for small things. The role of Assembly would be restricted to coming up with the policies and high level decisions. Loksatta promised that, if it comes to power, this would be implemented in the state.

Even without all these, if the government uses the present local governments efficiently at the town/Mandal level, we can improve a lot. But, Andhra government is not giving control to the local government. When N.T.Rama Rao was Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, he changed the local government elections to direct elections. By that, it was possible for the people to elect a good person as the Chairman. But, the present Chief Minister Y.S.RajaSekhara Reddy changed it back to indirect elections, and now the people do not have any control in electing a good candidate as the Chairman. In most of the municipalities, the ruling party members can easily become the Chairman, because, Ruling party will have 3-5 extra votes. The ruling party nominates 3 members as ward members, and MLA and MP also have voting power. Because of that, even if the ruling party does not get majority votes out of 25-50 seats, still one of their members can become chairman.

If we fix all the problems in the local government, and transfer funds directly to the local government, then we don't need to split the states unnecessarily. Thousands of crores of money that is required for partitioning can be used for development of the state.

TRS, NTPP, Talli Telangana and many other parties are saying that, if people vote for them, they will get Telangana. Because, people do not know the rules, they say whatever they want. L.K.Advani says in My Country My Life that, for partitioning a state, the parent state has to approve the resolution in the assembly and has to send it to Parliament for approval. Once it is approved by Parliament also, the state will be partitioned. Unless, the resolution is passed in the assembly, center cannot do anything. TDP and Congress are not supporting Telangana, so the bill cannot be passed in the Assembly. Just by winning in all the constitutions in Telangana does not give majority. If TRS, NTPP, and Talli Telangana really want to form a new state, they should contest in Coastal and Rayalaseema regions also, and get the majority.

Till 1995, Hyderabad was not that much developed. In 1995, Chandrababu became Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, and after that, he developed so much in IT in Hyderabad. He started Hitech City, and invited many big companies to Hyderabad. He single handedly taken Hyderabad to a very good position. By 2001, Hyderabad was about to take-off in IT. At that time, then Deputy Speaker K.Chandra Sekhar Rao (KCR) started Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) for partitioning Andhra Pradesh into Andhra and Telangana. I did not like it at all. Because, KCR started TRS after Chandrababu (from Rayalaseema region) developed Hyderabad (in Telangana region) single handedly from a normal city to must visit place for Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Bill Gates etc. If he had started TRS before developing Hyderabad, I would have appreciated. But, he started immediately after developing the state. So, I never like KCR and TRS. With the experience of KCR, the present Chief Minister Y.S.Raja Sekhar Reddy (YSR) is doing all the development activities in Kadapa (Rayalaseema region). Chandrababu developed Telangana, and if the partition happens, entire Andhra loses so much. YSR does not want to do the same mistake again. So, he is developing rayalaseema region.

KCR is criticizing almost everyone who opposes partitioning. He is unnecessarily conducting Bundhs, and Road blocking activities for each and every small thing. If this continues, then after the partition, Telangana and Andhra become like Karnataka and Tamilnadu which fight for every small thing. That is even more terrible than economic problems described above.

Let's hope that partition does not happen, and at the same time, the state would be developed by utilizing the local government to full extent.

Related Link: Bad Day for Andhra Pradesh

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Quote of the Day

A man is the head of the family and the wife is the neck. The neck turns the head exactly the way it wants.

Courtesy: Sunita Gajula

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

How much time does it take to change an error message?

When I was writing error messages for my company, my Program Manager asked me to change one error message. The original error message was "Forgot your username and password?", and I had to change it to "Forgot your username or password?".

How much time do you think you will take to do this task?

The process for that was,

  1. Create an issue in the bug software for this, and fill many details like Issue Description, Issue Type, Assigned To, Severity, Priority, Release, Reproduction steps, and hundred other fields.
  2. The project was in maintenance mode. So, we don't have any major release, and we have only Quick Fix Releases. For that, we need to get approval from the manager for all the issues. So, request the manager to approve this issue for Quick Fix Release
  3. Resynchronize the code base to the source control, and check out the corresponding file.
  4. Change "Forgot your username and password?" to "Forgot your username or password?"
  5. Send the code to the reviewer and ask them to review.
  6. Since this is change in the text that is visible to the user, it has to be approved by the Program Manager also. So, send the code to the Program Manager, and get it reviewed.
  7. If both are fine with the code, send the code to the tester to test it.
  8. Tester has to resynchronize the entire code, and apply this code, build it, and follow all the steps mentioned in the issue.
  9. If the tester is satisfied with the fix, then he/she approves the code.
  10. If the manager has not yet approved the issue, wait till he/she approves the issue for Quick Fix Release.
  11. Check whether anybody has checked in since last checkout. If there are no conflicts, check in the code. If there are conflicts, resolve all the conflicts and go to step 5.
  12. Update the bug database for this issue, make it resolved, and assign the issue to the tester.
  13. The tester resynchronizes the entire code, builds it, and does all the steps mentioned in the issue. If there is any problem, it would be reassigned to the developer, and he/she will have to debug the issue, and if there is any problem with the code base, then go to step 3. If there is no problem with the code, then the tester will close the issue.

Fortunately, it was internal product, and we supported only English. If it were external product, there would have been atleast 10 other steps like, Security checks, Verifying the error messages in all the languages etc.

Changing an error message is not that much trivial.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Dasavatharam - A great film by Kamal Haasan


Yesterday, I watched Dasavatharam movie, and I liked it very much. Kamal Haasan acted in ten different roles in that movie. I could not recognize Kamal in many roles. Only after carefully watching, I could guess. The guess was not based on the face recognition (I am very bad at that). It was based on film reviews that I read, and dubbing by S.P.Balu. Balu gave his voice to all the ten roles with nine different voices. Because, Voice of balu is well known to me, I could easily guess it eventhough there were nine different voices.

Before releasing the film, few Vaishnava organizations filed a case against the film for hurting the sentiments of Vaishnavas. But, court ruled out the case that, they cannot file the case without watching the movie.

This is the first movie that I have seen, where there is no incorrect representation of Hinduism. This movie dealt with Vaishnava Philosophy, and all the dialogues delivered by Kamal Hasan (Rangarajan Nambi and Old Lady) and Asin were written by an expert in Vaishnava Philosophy. Only a person who has good knowledge of Vaishnava philosophy can understand those dialogues and it's inner meaning. Writing that kind of dialogues is out of question for a normal person or even for a beginner in Vaishnava Philosophy.

I have watched so many movies/serials about hindu religion, Mahabharat, Ramayana, and many other scriptures. But, in all the movies/serials that I watched, there was change of the story or incorrect representation of the scriptures, or something which is not correct. The Directors/Writers say that, it is difficult to show the exact same story, so they change it. Because of that, I lost interest in watching all the movies/serials which are based on Hinduism. But, in this movie, they have shown Vaishnava Philosophy without any incorrect representation, and it is a great thing.

I really appreciate Kamal Haasan and K.S.Ravi Kumar for making this film. Let's hope that, other directors also make films without any incorrect representation of Hindu Philosophy.

Friday, September 12, 2008

KBC was fined Rs.1 crore


A news article in IBN Live says, National Consumer Commission imposed a fine of Rs.1 crore on Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC). Airtel (Sponsor of KBC) earned Rs.13.92 crore by the SMS sent by the viewers for the questions asked in KBC. In that, the prize amount was only Rs.1 crore. National Consumer Commission feels that, it is unfair practice, and fined Rs.1 crore.

I am not sure whether it is fair or not. What the Commission and the petitioners expect Airtel and Starplus to do in this case? Reducing the SMS price or increasing the prize money? If they receive less no.of SMS, then they will make losses, and no company wants to make losses. Even with the existing setup, they have so many expenditures like paying almost Rs.1 crore to Shahrukh Khan per episode, and many other expenditures similar to that. Do they understand those?

If we agree that, KBC is following unfair practices, then what about thousands of other contests in hundred other channels? Almost in all the channels, there are atleast ten programs where they have similar contests. There are many other programs, where one can vote by sending SMS and they will not get anything in return. What about those programs? Does someone have to give complaint for this?

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Joke on Benazir Bhutto From My Country My Life


When Benazir Bhutto came to India in 2001, she met L.K.Advani at his home. L.K.Advani asked his daughter Pratibha to tell a joke on Benazir Bhutto to her. After hearing the joke, Benazir could hardly control her laughter, and she took a copy of the joke.

This is the joke that Pratibha narrated to Benazir.





Nawaz Sharif comes to Delhi for a meeting with Vajpayee. After dinner, Vajpayee says to Sharif: "Well, Nawaz Sahab, I don't know what you think of the members of your Cabinet, but mine are all bright and brilliant."

"How do you know?" asks Sharif.

"Oh well, it's simple', says Vajpayee. "They all have to take special tests before they can be a minister. Wait a second.... He calls Advani over and says to him, "Tell me, Advaniji, who is the child of your father and of your mother, who is not your brother and is not your sister?"

"Ah, that's simple", says Advani, "It is me!".

"Well done, Advaniji", says Vajpayee.

Sharif is very impressed. He returns to Islamabad and wonders about the intelligence of the members of his Cabinet. He calls in his Cabinet Secretary, recounts the dinner table conversation that he had with the Indian Prime Minister, and asks him to test the IQ of a particular minister.

The Cabinet Secretary calls in the minister and says: "The Prime Minister has asked me to ask you to answer the following question: 'Who is the child of your father and of your mother, who is not your brother and is not your sister?'

The minister thinks and thinks and doesn't know the answer. "I'll have to think about it further. Please tell Prime Minister sahab that I'll let him know tomorrow?" "Of Course", says the Cabinet Secretary, "You've got twenty-four hours." The minister goes away, thinks as hard as he can, calls in his chief secretaries and joint secretaries, but no one knows the answer. Twenty hours later, the minister is very worried because he still had no answer and only four hours were left.

Eventually, the minister says to himself: "I'll ask Beanzir. She's clever, she'll know the answer." He calls Beanzir. "Mohtarma", he says, "tell me who is the child of your father and of your mother, who is not your brother and is not your sister?"

"Very simple", says Benazir, "It's me!"

"Of course", exclaims the minister and rings up the Cabinet Secretary.

"I've got the answer: it's Benazir Bhutto."

"No, minister sahab", says the Cabinet Secretary, "you'll lose your job if you give this wrong answer. The right answer is: Advani!"

Monday, September 08, 2008

Establishing peace between enemy countries


In 1989 elections, BJP had spectacular performance with 86 seats from 2 seats in 1984. Soon after, Sir Nicholas Barrington, Britain's High Commissioner in Islamabad met L.K.Advani in New Delhi. The discussion between them in the words of L.K.Advani. (Taken from My Country My Life)




Sir Nicholas Said, "In the British foreign office, I am regarded as an expert on South Asia. For a long time, I have thought about what is needed for establishing peace and good-neighbourly relations between India and Pakistan. And I have come to the conclusion that this is possible only when there is a strong pro-Hindu party in power in New Delhi and a strong military regime in Islamabad.'

Since this argument sounded curious to me, I asked him: 'Why do you say so?" Sir Nicholas Barrington replied: 'Let me draw a parallel between the hostile India-Pakistan relations and similarity hostile relations that earlier obtained between the United States and China. Before 1972, the two countries were sworn enemies of each other. And yet, the Bamboo Wall came crashing down when President Nixon visited China and shook hands with Chairman Mao in that year. This was possible because there was a strong Republican President in Washington DC, and given the Republicans' traditional antipathy towards China, American people did not feel that Nixon was "Selling out". Similarly there was a strong Communist ruler in China, whose strident tirade against American imperialism in the past was well known. If he took the initiative in normalizing China's ties with the US, he would not be suspected by his people of betraying their country's interests.'

'Similarly,' the British Diplomat added, "if a BJP government in India and a well-entrenched military ruler in Pakistan decided to resolve all outstanding issues and make peace between the two countries, they would not be under domestic pressure to look over their shoulders to see if they are being accused of a sell-out.'




When BJP formed the government, it took many initiatives to establish peace between India and Pakistan. In February 1999, Vajpayee undertook his historic bus journey to Lahore. Eventhough Pakistan started war against us in the same year, still Vajpayee invited Musharraf for Agra summit meeting in July 2001. It was not very successful, but, Vajpayee's continued efforts gave happy result in Jan 2004. During SAARC summit in Islamabad in Jan 2004, Vajpayee-Musharraf issued a historic Joint Statement. Through this, Pakistan committed itself, for the first time ever, not to allow any part of its territory, or territory under its control, to be used for terrorist acts aimed against India. Since then, India had good relationship with Pakistan.

Saturday, September 06, 2008

First day at Loksatta

Today, I started working for Loksatta. We went to Vijay Nagar Colony, and did door to door campaign for Loksatta. People in the area we covered were highly educated and of upper middle class. We got a very positive response. We heard dialogues like,

  • I know about Jayaprakash Narayana.
  • I know about Loksatta. You don't need to tell anything.
  • I know Jayaprakash Narayana since he was IAS officer.
  • I work for Gemini TV. I interviewed Jayaprakash Narayana.
  • When Jayaprakash Narayana was Managing Director, I was a General Manager.


We went to a house, and asked the watchman to call some one in the house. He went and called, and one person came down. After seeing him, I felt like seeing him somewhere. I wondered whether he was a cine actor or not. But, could not get clarity. His name is K.Sankar Rao. He started asking questions like what is the position of the party, whether it is going to make alliance with Chiranjeevi party etc. When we were discussing, I heard three words, "BJP, his brother, and Satyanaranapuram". I got it by that. Kota Srinivasa Rao got BJP ticket for Satyanarayanapuram assembly loksabha constituency. K.Sankar Rao is famous actor in TV serials. I stopped watching TV serials a long time back. So, I could not recognize him immediately.

After that campaign, I went to Loksatta Party Office, and attended the Press Meet of Dr.Jayaprakash Narayana. One common problem that I observed about the media is, the journalists do not have that much understanding about politics, and administration. They are expecting the answer for any question in very simple words known to everyone. The problem is there for all the journalists of all the news papers, and TV Channels. They force the politicians to give their stand on some thing which is not a problem. Even if Dr.JP clearly says that, it is a not problem because of X, Y, Z, still they ask him to tell in simple words like Support or Oppose. But, they are not aware of "Does not matter". They don't understand it, and because of that, they cannot write it in the news clearly. That is a big disadvantage of Loksatta.

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Free Market and Socialist economics

In Free Market Economics, Government allows anybody to do business without any restrictions.
In Socialist Economics, Government does not allow everyone to do business. It puts restrictions on who does the business and in what terms etc.

In Free Market Economics, the people decide the fate of the business. Depending upon the demand and supply, the price increases or decreases. If there is more demand, then new people/companies may start the business, and increase the supply.
In Socialist Economics, if there is discrepancy in the demand/supply, Government has to take appropriate actions for that.

I feel, Indian Government should not do business. It should follow Free-Market economics model. If it follows socialistic model, it has to do the following.


  • Whenever there is a change in the demand and supply, Government should take adequate steps to balance. Till it balances those, Either people or Government will suffer.
  • Whenever there is a change in the operation of the business, Someone in the government has to approve it. For example, if the business needs more money, Government has to approve it, and it takes significant time.
  • The Prime Minister or Chief Minister must be good. Either PM/CM should take the direct responsibility of the organization, or entrust the responsibility to a sincere, honest, and talented leader.
  • The leader should make sure that, there is no corruption at any level in the organization.
  • The leader should make sure that, all the employees are working in the best interest of the organization.
  • The leader should be aware of the opportunities to improve in the organization.
  • The leader should do everything to make sure that people do not suffer because of the inefficiencies in the organization.
  • If a new technology, or process makes this entire organization obsolete, still they should adopt the new technology and process, even it means closing the organization. Our Indian government (Present or past, and I don't expect even in future) can never do this kind of thing, because, it feels sympathy towards the employees of the organization. That's why, it did not allow VOIP for a long time, eventhough, many small and poor countries are getting huge benefit by that.


There are many more things like this. If the government does not do even one thing, then people will suffer by that. Only in ideal world, government can do this kind of things without making people to suffer.

Where as in free-market economics, these problems will not arise. All the companies compete with each other, and tries to provide best service at the least price. They know that, any corruption in their company will lead to the collapse of the company. They will not hesitate to adopt new technology to provide services for very less price.

P.V.Narasimha Rao, Vajpayee, Manmohan Singh, and Nara Chandrababu Naidu follow(ed) Free-Market Economics. Rajeev Gandhi was in between these two models, and rest all Prime Ministers followed Socialist Economics.
Present Congress (Except Manmohan Singh), and Communist Parties follow Socialist Economics.
BJP, and TDP follows Free-Market Economics.

Monday, September 01, 2008

Joined Loksatta

Yesterday, I joined Loksatta party as an active member.

For a long time, I have been reading about politics and India, and wanted to do some contribution, however small it is. My uncle is actively involved in one political party for a long time. He spent a lot of money for that. Still, the maximum that he got was, contesting as a ward member in a 2nd grade municipality. He did not contest at that time, because he was not feeling well. So, he can try for the same after 5 years by spending significant amount of money again. After seeing these, I felt like, there is nothing that I can do by joining politics right now.

In the last week of July, Dr.Jayaprakash Narayana announced the manifesto of Loksatta. After reading the manifesto, and watching his speeches in TV, I understood that, we cannot get a better Leader than him. If he becomes CM, then he will take care of the state very well. I thought I should do some thing in reaching his goal (which is also my goal), and I wanted to contribute something to Loksatta.

Yesterday, I went to the party office and joined as an active member. I talked to Sri K.Srinivasa Rao (contestant of Khairatabad in the last by-elections) and few others. They suggested me to come to the party office every saturday, and participate in anything which I like.

This is the first time for me to start a new initiative without any road blocks. Till now, whenever I wanted to start a new thing (however small it is), I faced many road blocks in the beginning. Only after trying few times, I was successful. But for joining in Loksatta, I did not face any problems. Yesterday, I decided to join Loksatta at around 3 AM. I started from my home at around 12 PM, and went to the office at 1 PM. I attended a meeting, joined the party, and talked to few people, and came out of the office at 3 PM. There was no other new activity which I had done this much fast and without any road blocks.