Thursday, December 31, 2009

Interview with Vundavalli Arun Kumar And Jaya Sankar


There was an interview with Vundavalli Arun Kumar and Jaya Sankar in Sakshi about Telangana and United Andhra. Vundavalli Arun Kumar clarified all the points raised by Jaya Sankar about Telangana.

Few points in the interview: The text in italics is my commentary.

Vundavalli: There was Telangana movement in 1969, and In 1972, when we had Jai Andhra movement. During that time, there were four Chief Ministers from Telangana. (P.V.Narasimha Rao, Velagam Jangala Rao, Chenna Reddy and Anjaiah). Why did not they give separate Telangana, when we ourselves asked to separate the state. It was Telangana leaders that made us united.

Jaya Sankar: 68.5% of of Krishna River flows in Mahaboobnagar. 70% of fertile land is in Telangana. If we take the catchment area of the river, Telangana should get 68.5% of water. If we take the fertile land, we should get 70%. Bachavath tribunal gave 811 TMC of water to A.P. But, Telangana is getting only 100 TMC. Similarly, 79% of Godavari river is in Telangana. How much are we getting?

Vundavalli: I live on the banks of Godavari, and had seen many floods. When there are floods, I used to feel like, why Telangana people do not stop some water and take it. Every year, more than 3000 TMCs of water is flowing to the sea. Why don't they take that water? The reason is, in telangana, the height with respect to sea level is very high.

The heights with respect to sea level.

In Telangana
Nizamabad - 1296 ft
Warangal - 991 ft
Kareemnagar - 869 ft
Adilabad - 866 ft
Nalgonda - 1381 ft

In Rayalaseema,
Anathapuram - 1099 ft
Chittoor - 1093 ft
Kurnool - 899 ft
Kadapa - 463 ft

In Coastal
Vijayawada - 39 ft
Visakhapatnam - 16 ft
Rajahmundry - 46 ft


If the height is very high, then water has to be lifted. (It is very expensive to lift the water to the height of Telangana area.) Because of less height, even if coastal areas do not want to get water, still, we get lot of water. That is the reason, why there were no projects in Telangana, and many projects on Krishna and Godavari rivers in Coastal areas.

The irrigation area in 1956 and 2004 are as follows (in Lakh acres).

Telangana - 17.51 (1956) - 45.29 (2004) increased by 27.78
Coastal - 41.8 (1956) - 69.98 (2004) increased by 28.18
Rayalaseema - 9.07 (1956) - 16.23 (2004) increased by 7.16

The increase in the irrigation area is almost equal in Telangana and Coastal. In Rayalaseema, the situation is very bad, because of the height with respect to sea level.

Once the Jala Yagnam is finished, then Telangana would get water for another 57.56 lakh acres, Coastal gets 26.47 lakh acres and Rayalaseema gets 20.18 lakh acres. With that, the total irrigation area in telangana would be 102 lakh acres, Coastal - 96 lakh acres, and Rayalaseema - 36 lakh acres

Jaya Sankar: Telangana gets more than 50% of the revenue from excise, forest, mines etc. From the area or population wise, we should get 42%. But, we are not getting our share.

Vundavalli: If we take GDP Growth Rate, Per capita income, IAMR Reports, Human Index, Literacy rate or anything, Telangana is not backwards. For example, lot of water is required for producing rice. Godavari and Krishna districts have been in the first place for a long time. According calculations of FCI in 2009-10, after godavari districts, Kareemnagar is in third place. Nizamabad and Nalgonda are equivalent to Krishna district. If we take the districts which produce least, they are Visakhapatnam, Chittoor, Kadapa, Ananthapur, Prakasam. In the first 5 places, there are three districts of Telangana. In the last 5 districts, there are no districts of Telangana. Telangana is not backwards, and saying that United Andhra is the reason for its backwards is not at all true.

Jaya Sankar: Just take the G.O. that was released four days back. Nabard released Rs.130 crore to Andhra and Rayalaseema, and Rs.9 crore to Telangana. How many times do we have to beg them to give what we should get?

Vundavalli: Neither Central Government nor State Government have rights to spend money in whatever they want. Wherever the money is spent, there is Public Accounts Committee that manages this money. That is headed by opposition party member. That committee has right to validate all the proposals. Probably, the numbers that he is mentioning may be correct. Sometimes, few areas get more funds in few G.O.s and at other times, other areas get more funds. I can show you 100 G.O.s where Telangana got majority of funds. But, can we say that, only Telangana got entire money? For Nabard funds, we are yet to spend lot of money, and talking about it right now may not be correct.

Jaya Sankar: We are always looted in everything including jobs, funds, water etc.

Vundavalli: Was there any cabinet without ministers from Telangana? Did not we conduct elections in Telangana? Did we stop anyone from Telangana in anything? If something did not happen as expected, who should take the responsibility? Are the elected leaders in Telangana not responsible for that? Now, KCR is talking about Telangana. What did he do when he was in a prominent role in TDP at the time of NTR and Chandrababu? If he had really demanded then, atleast few would have solved by now. Did he talk even once about problems in Telangana before forming the party in 2001?

Jaya Sankar: Movement is not just by KCR. We have been doing it for the last 50 years.

Vundavalli: How many times, have you tried to solve the problems of Telangana in democratic way?

Jaya Sankar: Nobody cares even Supreme Court Orders. No need to speak of normal MLAs. Don't you know about the situation of Telangana? Do we have to ask specifically?

Vundavalli: Corruption, Cheating, Looting etc., are there in all the places. It is not specific to Telangana. There are many things done to reduce those. We are somewhat successful in that. That's why this increase in Human Index Rates. There are poor people everywhere. They can be from Vijayanagaram or Anathapuram or Adilabad. Government never considered the people from Coastal, Rayalaseema and Telangana regions differently. But, this has been colored and started injecting into people of Telangana that, "Coastal area people are looting Telagana people".

KCR is a Member of Parliament. He should raise the issues in Parliament. Instead of raising the issues there, he had chosen to do fasting and made the situation so bad. In my opinion, after 2009 elections, he faced problems everywhere. Whether is in the people's judgement, or from their party members. He wanted to be in limelight, and took up this. He knew that only with Telangana movement, he would be observed, and took up this fasting.

Jaya Sankar: Why did Hyderabad became capital of United Andhra? Since, they did not have a capital, and told us that we would have all the rights. That's why we allowed them. Now, they are saying that, they developed the capital, and are asking for making it as union territory. If we have to do that, then make Mumbai, Kolkatha and Chennai as Union territories first, and then ask for Hyderabad.

Vundavalli: When we say, Hyderabad is the capital, it means, we came to your home. For the last 50 years, we thought it as our capital. Eventhough we had problems in 1969 and 1972, still we are staying peacefully till 2000. Everyone knows that Telangana movement is strong in Telangana. But, you should not say that, you would move andhra people out of Telangana, or you would destroy andhra hotels, or you would stop andhra people from making movies.

There is a big difference between Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad. When Andhra state is formed, Telugu people had asked for a separate state, and that's why Andhra had to give up Chennai. When Gujarathis asked for a separate state, they had to give up Mumbai. Now, Telangana people want separate state, they are asking andhra people to give up the state. This is ridiculous. If we allow this kind of separation, and if the same thing repeats, then the country would be in very bad situation. For example, Telangana takes Hyderabad completely, and Andhra people formes the capital at Kurnool. After few years, if Rayalaseema people asks for separate state, do coastal area people have to give up capital again? If the same thing happens, and if we form capital at Visakhapatnam, and then if north coastal people demands for a separate state, do South coastal people have to give up the capital again? This is not sustainable. If anybody is asking for a separate state, they have to give up the capital. It should not be made even as Union Territory. The capital should exclusively belong to the people who are not asking for separate state.


Jaya Sankar: To develop the film industry, we gave land, water and current. According to government rules, the land should be used only for the given purpose. But, the andhra people are making it as real estate, and artificially increasing the prices. Because of that, now, we cannot buy any land. They did not encourage the artists of Telangana. Even there also, there is dynasty rule. Don't we have handsome people? Are they heroes, and are we fans? That's why these riots.

Vundavalli: That's why do you stop movie shooting, and destroy everything? There is government in India. Government should take action according to the rules. This is not the reason for riots. This is only an explanation for the riots. The only reason is, they are andhra people. It is absolutely wrong for a political party to support these riots. If we have these many problems even before division, what would be the situation after division?

Does Jaya sankar think that, the producers have so much respect for all the people of andhra, and give chance to only andhra people as the main artists? There is nothing stupid than that. If I am making a movie, without any second thought, I would give main roles to the people I like. Not the favorites of Jaya Sankar or KCR. Most of the time, the people I like would be in my relatives or friends. If I am from andhra, most of my relatives also would be from andhra. If I am from Punjab, then most of my relatives also would be from Punjab. Does he think that, when Allu Aravind is making a movie with a budget of Rs.40 crore, he should give chance to a Telangana person instead of his brother-in-law's son?

Jaya Sankar: This movement is going for the last 10 years. Did we do anything before. Now, only they are doing. Why? Because, they cheated us. If anyone normally comes and stays here, then we welcome them. What we are saying? If you come here for living, we will save you. If you try to rule us, we don't allow you.

Vundavalli: Maoists are extremists. They take lives of people. If you also say that, your philosophy is also same, then there is nothing that I can say. You say democracy, and then you do riots, and then you only say that, you would save us. How is it correct? Who are you to save us? In this country, anyone can go and live anywhere. If you are saying that, you would save in Hyderabad, it means you have created an environment, where one cannot live in Hyderabad. The sentence "We will save you" is itself dangerous. For better administration, we can separate. If you ask andhra people to leave, then obviously, there would be a question of Hyderabad. If you see the history, when andhra was separated from Madras state, people in Madras did not feel insecure. Even now, there are many andhra people in Coimbatore. Till some time back, even the MP there also was of Andhra. When Andhra was separated, there was problem with only language. But, there was no insecure feeling. But, the same thing (security) is not there in Hyderabad. That's why this became the main topic. Otherwise, Hyderabad would have been one of many topics. The real democracy is, in front of crores of Telagana supporters, one person should be able to raise and say that, he would support United Andhra. In the same way, in front of many United Andhra supporters, one person should be able to say, Jai Telangana.

Can anyone say Jai Samaikya Andhra infront of any TRS activist?








Courtesy: Sakshi

Monday, December 28, 2009

Oye Teluguvada - Samaikya Andhra Advertisement by Lagadapati Rajagopal


Lagadapati Rajagopal made one very good song on United Amdhra. This is one of the best songs that I have heard in the recent time. I hearty congratulate him for making this song.

This song was composed and sung by Dr.Ghazal Srinivas.




Lyrics in English:

Oye teluguvaada
padha adhe veluguvaada
mana kalala pasidi meda
thakdinti naduma goda

Oye teluguvaada
padha adhe veluguvaada
mana kalala pasidi meda
thakdinti naduma goda

annaa kashtalenno orchi orchi gunde mandi kinukarechi
annaa kashtalenno orchi orchi gunde mandi kinukarechi
Satyagrahanam chesi oka thandrini dharaposi
Dayadula vennu vanchi
sontha gadda samarjinchi
Telugu jaathi paruvu penchi
samaikyathani nirvachinchi
Ippudu rashtra patam chinchi chinchi
emunnadi emunnadi emunnadi emunnadi

Oye teluguvaada
padha adhe veluguvaada
mana kalala pasidi meda
thakdinti naduma goda

Oye teluguvaada
padha adhe veluguvaada
mana kalala pasidi meda
thakdinti naduma goda

Ituraa O sodarudaa O naa chelikada
Ituraa O sodarudaa O naa chelikada
Manadhe Ee pedda chettu Ee challani Needa
Manadhe Ee pedda chettu Ee challani Needa
andhra seema telangana okkokkati ooda
Prathi Ooru Prathi palle Telugu chettu kaada
pattichchamanuko ippudu veru baata cheeda
Inkemunnadi emunnadi emunnadi emunnadi

Oye teluguvaada
padha adhe veluguvaada
mana kalala pasidi meda
thakdinti naduma goda

Oye teluguvaada
padha adhe veluguvaada
mana kalala pasidi meda
thakdinti naduma goda

jathi maha yathra ila saage O mayigani
jathi maha yathra ila saage O mayigani
nadumuna mana adugulu tadabadipothe
nadakalalo vadipothe
manaku manaku chedipothe
Gonthula sruthi vidipothe
kalayika sandadipothe
Oka Snehapu mudipothe thadipothe
emunnadi emunnadi emunnadi emunnadi

Oye teluguvaada

Oye teluguvaada
padha adhe veluguvaada
mana kalala pasidi meda
thakdinti naduma goda

Oye teluguvaada
padha adhe veluguvaada
mana kalala pasidi meda
thakdinti naduma goda

Oye teluguvaada
Oye teluguvaada
Oye teluguvaada

thakdinti naduma goda
thakdinti naduma goda
thakdinti naduma goda


Lyrics in Telugu:

ఓయి తెలుగువాడా
పద అదే వెలుగువాడ
మన కలల పసిడి మేడ
తకదింటి నడుమ గోడ

ఓయి తెలుగువాడా
పద అదే వెలుగువాడ
మన కలల పసిడి మేడ
తకదింటి నడుమ గోడ

అన్నా కష్టలెన్నో ఓర్చి ఓర్చి గుండె మండి కినుకరేచి
అన్నా కష్టలెన్నో ఓర్చి ఓర్చి గుండె మండి కినుకరేచి
సత్యగ్రహణం చేసి ఒక తండ్రిని ధారపోసి
దాయాదుల వెన్ను వంచి
సొంత గడ్డ సమర్జించి
తెలుగు జాతి పరువు పెంచి
సమైక్యతని నిర్వచించి
ఇప్పుడు రాష్ట్ర పటం చించి చించి
ఏమున్నది ఏమున్నది ఏమున్నది ఏమున్నది

ఓయి తెలుగువాడా
పద అదే వెలుగువాడ
మన కలల పసిడి మేడ
తకదింటి నడుమ గోడ

ఓయి తెలుగువాడా
పద అదే వెలుగువాడ
మన కలల పసిడి మేడ
తకదింటి నడుమ గోడ

ఇటురా ఓ సోదరుడా ఓ నా చెలికాడా
ఇటురా ఓ సోదరుడా ఓ నా చెలికాడా
మనదే ఈ పెద్ద చెట్టు ఈ చల్లని నీడ
మనదే ఈ పెద్ద చెట్టు ఈ చల్లని నీడ
ఆంధ్ర సీమ తెలంగాణా ఒక్కొక్కటి ఊడ
ప్రతి ఊరు ప్రతి పల్లె తెలుగు చెట్టు కాడ
పట్టిచ్చామనుకో ఇప్పుడు వేరు బాట చీడ
ఇంకేమున్నది ఏమున్నది ఏమున్నది ఏమున్నది

ఓయి తెలుగువాడా
పద అదే వెలుగువాడ
మన కలల పసిడి మేడ
తకదింటి నడుమ గోడ

ఓయి తెలుగువాడా
పద అదే వెలుగువాడ
మన కలల పసిడి మేడ
తకదింటి నడుమ గోడ

జాతి మహా యాత్ర ఇలా సాగే ఓ మాయిగాని
జాతి మహా యాత్ర ఇలా సాగే ఓ మాయిగాని
నడుమున మన అడుగులు తడబడిపోతే
నడకలలో వడిపోతే
మనకు మనకు చెడిపోతే
గొంతుల శ్రుతి విడిపోతే
కలయిక సందడిపోతే
ఒక స్నేహపు ముదిపోతే తడిపోతే
ఏమున్నది ఏమున్నది ఏమున్నది ఏమున్నది

ఓయి తెలుగువాడా

ఓయి తెలుగువాడా
పద అదే వెలుగువాడ
మన కలల పసిడి మేడ
తకదింటి నడుమ గోడ

ఓయి తెలుగువాడా
పద అదే వెలుగువాడ
మన కలల పసిడి మేడ
తకదింటి నడుమ గోడ

ఓయి తెలుగువాడా
ఓయి తెలుగువాడా
ఓయి తెలుగువాడా

తకదింటి నడుమ గోడ
తకదింటి నడుమ గోడ
తకదింటి నడుమ గోడ

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Is there any Advantage of Compulsory Voting?


In A.P., the statistics say that, maximum voting percentage comes from slum areas and villages, and the least voting percentage comes from rich areas and educated people. The middle class is in between. In cities, the voting percentage is always low, and in villages it is always high. For local elections, the voting percentage at villages cross 90%, and in the last GHMC elections, there were many divisions which got less than 30% voting. Even if we go at the polling booth level details, one can easily observe that, within the city, the slum areas have higher polling percentage and high class areas have lower polling percentage. Many people are getting elected, eventhough less than 10% of the total voters are voting for them. If there are 10% educated people in the division/constituency, then they can even make their candidate win in the election.

Even if the educated people do not have good political knowledge, they atleast know at broad level. They can tell which party is sustainable in long term, and which is doing more development compared to others. If all the educated voters vote for the better party, then the better among the bad would be elected instead of the worst among the bad.

Not all politicians are bad. Most of the good politicians are not winning in the elections. Among the people who won in the elections, they don't get ministries. Even if they get it, they get with the condition that they will not have any control on major decisions. If there is only one good politician in the assembly/parliament, he/she cannot do anything. They need support from other MLAs/MPs to do anything major.

If everyone votes for a party, which is better among the others, then the system would be automatically improved. If all educated voters vote, then automatically better party would be elected, and the system would be improved.

Friday, December 25, 2009

Timeline of Death of Gandhi


The following is taken from The men who killed Gandhi by Manohar Malgonkar. But, Nathuram Gadse did not accept the charges for the incidents on 20th, and few others that were mentioned before 30th. Eventhough the court proceedings may say the following, Nathuram godse gave the actual happenings in his speech in the court. For example, in his explanation at court, he explained how he got revolver, and that is different from what is mentioned below.


12th January 1948

At Birla House, Delhi, Gandhi announces decision to go on fast to press for the payment of Pakistan's share of Rs.55 crores from cash balance in Reserve Bank of India at a time when Pakistan was in war with India over Kashmir.


13th January 1948

Nathuram Gadse and Narayan Apte, editor and manager, Marathi daily, Hindu Rashtra, in Poona, and read the news on teleprinter and decide to kill Gandhi. The 'D-Day' - 20 January - fixed.

Nathuram and Apte meet Digamber Badge, an arms supplier in Poona, to buy grenades and explosives and ask for delivery in Bombay.

14th January 1948

Nathuram and Apte reach Bombay; meet Badge at Hindu Mahasabha Bhawan, Dadar.

Badge meets Madanlal Pahwa, a refugee from Pakistan, at Hindu Mahasabha Bhawan.

15th January 1948

Nathuram and Apte visit Tata Airlines Office, Bombay; book tickets for 17th January for Delhi under false names - D.N.Karmakar and S.Marathe.

Nathuram and Apte meet Vishnu Karkare in Bombay, secretary of Hindu Mahasabha Bhawan, Ahmednagar, tell him about their plan to kill Gandhi. Now Karkare, Madanlal, Badge and his servant Shankar join hands. All decide to reach Delhi by 18th January.

Gandhi's third day of fast; Indian government announces to release Rs55 crores to Pakistan.

16th January 1948

Nathuram manages to buy a .22 bore magazine pistol in Poona; not satisfied, asks Badge to get it exchanged for a big revolver; Badge gets a .32 revolver.

17th January 1948

Madanlal and Karkare reach Delhi; check into Sharif Hotel, Chandini Chowk.

Nathuram and Apte reach Delhi; they check into Hotel Marina (Room No.40), Connaught Price, visit Hindu Mahasabha Bhawan, Mandir Marg, to meet Karkare.

18th January 1948

Gandhi ends fast.

Apte, Nathuram and Karkare visit Birla House to see layout plan of the lawn and Servant's Quarters; attend Gandhi's prayer meeting; finalize plan of action.

19th January 1948

Gopal Godse, brother of Nathuram, arrives in Delhi from Poona with another .38 revolver; yet to decide about the weapon.

Badge and Shankar arrive Delhi with explosives.

20th January 1948

Apte takes Badge and Shankar to Birla House to show Room No.3, Servant's Quarters. Badge to shoot Gandhi from window of this room, Madanlal to light a bomb, Shankar to throw grenades. Deicde to use .38 revolver.

Birla House: 4 p.m., Nathuram, Apte, Madanlal, Karkare, Gopal, Badge and Shankar reach Birla House; Madanlal places the bomb; Badge sees a one-eyed man outside Room No.3, a bad omen, decides to abandon his plan to shoot.

Birla House: 5 p.m., Prayer meeting starts; Madanlal gets the signal from Apte; lights the bomb; Badge doesn't shoot Gandhi; Madanlal arrested by Delhi Police.

Apte and Nathuram check out of Hotel Marina; to not leave behind any trail, board a train for Kanpur.

21st January 1948

Gopal Godse leaves Delhi.

22nd January 1948

Karkare arranges for a lawyer for Madanlal in Delhi, leaves for Bombay.

23rd January 1948

Nathuram and Apte reach Bombay from Kanpur, via Jhansi.

24th January 1948

Nathuram and Apte check into Hotel Elphiston Annexe, Bombay; make a new plan; Nathuram decides to shoot Gandhi without anyone's help.

27th January 1948

Bombay: Nathuram and Apte take a flight to Delhi, under false names - D.Narain Rao and N.Vinayak Rao; Karkare decides to be with Nathuram and Apte in Delhi.

From Delhi, Nathuram and Apte catch the Delhi-Bombay Express for Gwalior and meet Sadashiv Parchure, secretary of the Hindu Mahasabha, for a good dependable weapon.

28th January 1948

Parchure helps them get the weapon, the 9 mm Beretta.

29th January 1948

Nathuram and Apte return to Delhi; book a retiring-room at Old Delhi railway station.

30th January 1948

Nathuram, Apte and karkare go to the woods behind the Birla Temple, Mandir Marg for target practice.

4.15 p.m.: Nathuram leaves for Birla House; Karkare and Apte leave minutes later.

Birla House: At 5.10 p.m. Gandhi leaves room; walking briskly he reaches the prayer ground.

Gandhi greets crowd; Nathuram folds his hands and says 'Namaste'; pushing aside one of the girls walking with Gandhi, he shoots the Mahatma; surrenders to the police; taken to Tughlak Road Police Station.

31st January 1948

Badge arrested in Poona, becomes approver.

2nd February 1948

Apte and Karkare reach Bombay; stay at Sea Green Hotel (North).

5th February 1948

Gopal Godse arrested in Poona.

13th February 1948

Apte and Karkare arrested from Pyrke's Apollo Hotel, Bombay.

22nd June 1948

The trial commences in a Special Court at Red Fort, before Judge Atma Charan.

6th November 1948

Examination of the witnesses and recording of their evidence conclude.

10th February 1949

Court Pronounces its judgement: death sentence for Nathuram and Apte; life imprisonment for Karkare, Madanlal, Gopal, Shankar and Parchure; and pardon for Badge, the approver.

2nd May 1949

The hearing begins in the appeal court of Justice G.D.Khosla, Justice Acchruram, and Justice Bhandari.

21st June 1949

Appeal court confirms the judgement.

15th November 1949

Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte hanged till dead in Ambala prison.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Bad Cartoon of the Year


This is today's cartoon in Eenadu



Narendra Modi is holding "Compulsory voting in Gujarath".

Others are saying,
"Bring Compulsory Food Act".
"Bring Compulsory Education Act".
"Bring Compulsory Water Act".
"Bring Compulsory Health Act".

They are missing the point that, unless they elect a good leader, they are not going to get Food, Education, Water and Health. Even if government brings those acts (it already has most of them), there will not be any change, if there are corrupted leaders. It is very sad to see Eenadu criticizing this act instead of promoting it. I would not have cared if Sakshi or some other news paper does the same.

I would like to thank Narendra Modi for bringing this act.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Some Contradictory Statements


Krishna and Guntur districts have the highest literacy rate, and has the highest pass percentage in the entire Andhra. Mahaboobnagar has the lowest literacy rate, and has the lowest pass percentage in the entire Andhra. That itself tells how backward Telangana is. So, we need separate state for Telangana.

Fine. We will send 1000 quality teachers from Krishna and Guntur districts to Mahaboobnagar. They will improve the education there.

No way. For any job in Mahaboobnagar, we need to recruit from Mahaboobnagar only. We cannot give our employment to Andhra people. These andhra people are already dominating in Telangana. Nobody is interested in implementing 610 G.O. We cannot give any more chance to them. Get lost.

Enjoy.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Finding Whether Somebody is in Invisible in Yahoo or Not


There is a website www.invisible.ir, which tells the status of any yahoo id. The interesting thing is, even if the user logs in as invisible, it tells the status as Invisible. I don't know why yahoo has not fixed this bug till now. If yahoo thinks it as a feature, then they should rename the status message to something else.

Thanks to Niveditha Samudrala for informing this.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Analogy Between My Previous Project and Telangana



My Previous ProjectTelangana
My manager asked me to use a new technology in the project.KCR wanted to have a separate State for Telangana.
I knew that it is not good for the project to use that technology. Chandrababu knew that, it is not good to separate Telangana.
I told the same in nice words to continue with the present way. Chandrababu told the same in nice words to continue with the present way.
The manager did not listen to those, and insisted to use the new technology. KCR did not listen to those, and insisted to have a separate state.
If I have to convince on that, I need to spend a lot of time and effort, and I know I can disprove all the uses that were claimed by the manager. To save myself, I did not argue for this. KCR joined with Congress. Congress is also not interested in Telangana. But, to convince general public, it takes lot of time and effort. To save themselves, Congress did not argue for this.
If I use the new technology, project will have serious problems. So, I just dragged it without doing anything on that front. If Congress gives the separate state, it will have serious problems. So, Congress dragged it without doing anything on that front.
The manager was keep on saying to use new technology, and I was keep on dragging it. KCR was keep on saying to have Telangana, and Congress was keep on dragging it.
The manager scheduled a meeting for this, and talked in such a way that, team members felt, it is better to keep quiet rather than arguing. They thought, when there is a firm decision on this, then they would talk. No need of wasting everyone's time at this point of time. But, the conclusion that manager got was nobody is opposing to that. There were many committees scheduled for this, and everybody kept quiet. They thought, when there is a firm decision on this, then they would talk. No need of wasting everyone's time at this point of time. But, the conclusion that everyone got was nobody is opposing to that.
Another manager said, take some decision soon. Don't drag these things. Dr.Jayaprakash Narayan and CPM said, take some decision soon. Don't drag these things.
I told them that, I would take a decision soon, but did not proceed on this, because I knew that, people are not in a state to understand what am I saying. Congress told them that, they would take a decision soon, but did not proceed on this, because they knew that, people are not in a state to understand what they are saying.
That idea had natural death because of zero co-operation from everybody else.People expected to have natural death because of zero co-operation from everybody else.
Had the manager took decision to go with the new technology, everybody would have opposed to that.Congress took decision to introduce the bill for Telangana, and everybody started opposing to that.
The manager would have asked, why did not we tell the same before when we had conducted meetings, and we would not have answer. Telangana supporters are asking those who are opposing, Why did not they tell this before, when there were committees, and they don't have answer.
In another project, when the management was thinking in wrong direction, I told the director that, if they want to continue in that wrong direction, move me to some other project, eventhough I was the senior most member in the team, and moving me out of the project will have significant impact on the project. Still, I told like that to take the correct decisions for the project. Me Moving out of the project will have less negative impact than the project going in wrong direction. Many members of Assembly, Council and Parliament resigned for this, eventhough it means collapse of the government. They had taken that decision for the state. Members resigning from the government has less negative impact than forming the state without clearing all the problems.

Congress is exactly doing what I did on one of my previous projects long time back. I cannot oppose Congress atleast in Telangana issue, unless they give Telangana without solving the problems.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Bad Day for Andhra Pradesh


Dec 9th is a bad day for Andhra Pradesh. Congress decided to start the process for separate Telangana. As a first step, they are going to put the bill in Andhra Pradesh Assembly.

Eventhough I don't like Congress Party, but when Congress won in the state and Center, I was little happy. Because, Congress is the only party which clearly said, they will not give Telangana. Loksatta said, it does not matter, and all other parties said, they would give. Since, Congress supported United Andhra, and it won both at the center and state, I was happy that, we will not get Telangana. But, in just 7 months, they started the process for Telangana. Of course, just passing bill in A.P.Assembly is not enough for the separate state. It has to be passed in both the houses of Parliament. I don't know what the Congress leaders are going to do for this. If Congress leaders give separate state in the next 4.5 years, I would lose even the minimum respect that I have till now for them.

If they are going to give separate state, they have to tell the solutions for the following problems clearly. If they don't mention clear answers for any of the following, then Andhra and Telangana would be like India and Pakistan. There is no doubt about it.



  1. What would be the capital of Andhra State?

    • Do both share the same capital? If both share the same capital, does it mean Hyderabad becomes Union Territory? Then, In what proportion, the revenue of Hyderabad is distributed to Andhra, Telangana and Hyderabad?


    • If Andhra has to get separate capital, then Andhra has to find a new capital and it would take quite some time. It requires tens of thousands of crores. Who would give that money? Would Telangana state give that money? Till the capital is formed, what would be the interim capital of Andhra? If Hyderabad is the interim capital of Andhra, then how would the revenue share work till Andhra gets a separate capital?


  2. How would the revenue and debts of the state are distributed? While distributing the debts, is the purpose of debts considered or not? i.e, if a loan is taken for the development of a region, would the corresponding state clear that loan, or all the loans are distributed in proportion to the population/area of the state?


  3. This question will not be applicable, if Hyderabad is made as union territory. Two leaders of non-Telangana developed Hyderabad significantly in the last 15 years, and it is a major source of revenue for United Andhra. Now, if Telangana takes Hyderabad, what happens to Andhra? If you develop something for 15 years, and then if you had to give that to somebody else, how would you feel? Won't the people of Andhra feel the same? If everyone is angry for losing their property, would they keep quiet?


  4. Before splitting the state, the water distribution should be decided for Krishna and Godavari. If they don't do it, then there will be fighting for this for the next 3-4 decades for this.


  5. What happens to Government Organizations? How are they going to split? If they are not going to split, then which state will manage those? If it is done by both states, then who would have the control for the selection of Chairman, MD and GM of those organizations? What happens to the employees of those organizations?


  6. What happens to the educational Institutes? Would they split boards for 10th and Intermediate? Would they consider the impact on the students while splitting? If they don't split, how would two governments manage one board?


  7. What would be the effect on Engineering and Medical Colleges due to this? Universities like JNTU have colleges across the state. Now, if there is split, then what happens to those colleges? To which university, would they be affiliated? If there is a change in the university, Won't it impact the students?




I don't have problem with separate state, as long as all the problems are solved, and people of Andhra are not effected due to the split.

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Free Market Capitalism vs. Socialism: A Simple Analogy


An economics professor at Texas Tech said he had never failed a single student before but had, once, failed an entire class. That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said ok, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism.

All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A. After the first test the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. But, as the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too; so they studied little. The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame, and name calling all resulted in hard feelings as no one would study any longer for the benefit of anyone else. All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because under capitalism when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great; but when the government levels the playing field and takes more of reward away; no one will try or want to succeed as much as before.

Source: http://welkerswikinomics.com/blog/2009/04/26/free-market-capitalism-vs-socialism-a-simple-analogy/

Sunday, December 06, 2009

Adding New Search Engines Missing in Firefox 3.5


Till Firefox 3.0, it was very easy to add a new search engine. One just needs to click on Manage Search Engines, and then click on Get More Search Engines. It would display around 30 search engines, and we need to select one and it would be added.

Starting from Firefox 3.5, they made it complicated. If you select that option, you would get hundreds of options, and it becomes very difficult to find the correct one.

I wanted to add dictionary search engine, and I have done the following for this.

Installed Add to Search Bar.

Opened the website, Dictionary.com.

Righ clicked on the search box, and selected Add to Search Bar.

It got added, and I can search in dictionary from firefox search.

We can do the same for any other website/search engine.

Thursday, December 03, 2009

Dr.Daggubati Venkateswara Rao - August 24th, 1995


This is the excerpt from the book The Other Side of Truth by Dr.Daggubati Venkateswara Rao.

The moment I arrived at the airport around 40 MLAs surrounded me. All of them uttered the same thing...that I should go to the Hotel Viceroy. I did not reply them, but reached my house 'en route' to Mr.Rama Rao's. When I reached home, I saw Mr.Chandrababu Naidu already sitting in the hall...I was told that Mr.Harikrishna and Mr.Balakrishna too came to my house an hour ago.

Some more MLAs along with the Principal Secretary, Dr.Jayaprakash Narayan, Mr.Chalameswara Rao [Now the Chief Justice of Assam], Mr.Ramesh [Vijaya Electricals], Mr.Durgaprasad [IG, Intelligence] and the party secretary, Mr.Bhujanga Rao were also there. As soon as I came home, Mr.Chandrababu Naidu and I were closeted in a room in the upstairs without the presence of anybody. Mr.Chandrababu Naidu narrated what all had happened and requested me to come to Hotel Viceroy.

He expressed his desire to enjoy in dual posts...both as the Chief Minister and the party President. He also suggested that I should be the Deputy Chief Minister and Mr.Harikrishna, the General Secretary of the party. After the discussion, we came out of the room. Mr.Chalameswara Rao, Mr.Ramesh and Mr.Harikrishna together wanted to know the salient features of our discussion. I revealed them everything in detail...Immediately Mr.Harikrishna expressed his desire to become a minister for which I replied that he could be the Deputy Chief Minister, as I was not interested in joining the ministry. I also requested them not to reveal anything to Mr.Chandrababu Naidu, who went downstairs then...We too all came down.

At that point of time...Mrs.Purandeswari was at the dining table. Seated along with her were Dr.Jayaprakash Narayan, Mr.Durgaprasad and Mr.Bhujanga Rao besides Mr.Jayasankara Krishna [the last son of Mr.Rama Rao]. All of them were unanimous in requesting me against going to the Hotel Viceroy.

Mrs.Purandeswari having been pained...was very much in tears...! She requested me not to be against her father. Mr.Jayasankara Krishna abused and cursed me...Unmindful of those unfortunate and unpleasant happenings, I left for the Hotel Viceroy...But, now I feel and repent...that was the most unpardonable...the greatest and the biggest sin...I have ever committed so far in my life.

Meanwhile, Mr.Chandrababu Naidu with his expertise art of concoction was busy spreading 'Gobble's propaganda' that my wife had been encouraging me since that day. But as I narrated earlier, the truth was Mrs.Purandeswari requested me over and again not to do injustice to her father...the eyewitnesses to that incident were: Dr.Jayaprakash Narayan, Mr.Durgaprasad and Mr.Jayasankara Krishna, who were present there along with Mr.Bhujanga Rao [no more now]. As soon as I left for the Hotel Viceroy, Mrs.Purandeswari left for Mr.Rama Rao's house, which was near by. The next day also...she spent most of her time with her father...What more evidence was required to prove that she did not take sides and encourage me?

Particularly on that day...Mr.Rama Rao seemed to have narrated Mrs.Purandeswari painfully and with deeply agonised heart: "It's okay...Mr.Chandrababu Naidu and Mr.Venkateswara Rao who have been locking horns against each other, joined together at least to usurp this old man out of power. Your husband is very emotional and innocent...He'll be made to believe now but finally they'll make him a scape-goat...Let the party be entrusted with Mr.Harikrishna...then only, Mr.Chandrababu Naidu's true colours could be seen."

Monday, November 30, 2009

The Other Side Of Truth By Dr.Daggubati Venkateswara Rao


Dr.Daggubati Venkateswara Rao has written a book titled, "The Other Side of Truth". The telugu version of the same book is "Oka Charitra - Konni Nijaalu".



Download Telugu E-Book Oka Charitra - Konni Nijaalu from
http://www.daggubati.in/books/megazine/book2/book-telugu.pdf (14.5 MB)



Download English E-Book The Other Side Of Truth from
http://www.daggubati.in/books/megazine/book1/book-english.pdf (7.5 MB)

If a person is expecting some money out of their work, then it is expected that, they may not release that work for free. If their goal is not to earn money from their work, then I don't understand why do they copyright it? If their intention is to propagate their message, then by releasing the book for free, the message would be reached to many more people. Unfortunately, many people are not releasing their books for free, eventhough publicly they say, money is not the criteria, but, internally, it was a criteria for them.

I hearty congratulate Dr.Daggubati Venkateswara Rao for releasing this book for free in both English and Telugu.

I would like to thank Sarojini Reddy for informing me about release of this book.

Monday, November 09, 2009

Sakshi - Congress


When Sakshi news paper was started, Congress was very happy for getting one news paper exclusively for themselves. They thought they get very good publicity by that news paper. But, now, Congress might have realized the problem. For the last 1 month, there are significant no.of news items in the first page about failures in the government. Almost everyday, it says that, the Government is not doing this thing or that thing. Eventhough the things that government is not doing do not have any significant impact, still, Sakshi is trying to highlight all the negative aspects of the government.

For those, who do not understand why this is happening,

Sakshi is owned by Y.S.Jagan, (S/O, Late C.M. Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy). When, Dr.Y.S.R was C.M., Sakshi used to give good publicity to the government and to Congress. After the death of Dr.Y.S.R, Jagan wanted to become C.M. But, since he has not been made C.M., he is trying the footsteps of his father to defame the government, so that the government falls, and he can try to become Chief Minister. Dr.Y.S.R has done similar things back in 1990-92. He tried his best to become C.M. between 1990-92. But, Party high command did not agree then. Finally, he got hold in 2004.

Friday, November 06, 2009

Vajpayee - Right Man in a Wrong Party


This is the famous quote that I have been hearing about Vajpayee for a long time. I feel, whoever says that, does not have even basic knowledge about real politics. They know only dirty politics.

The reason why these so called famous journalists give this type of comment was because, BJP is a party for hindus, and Vajpayee is a secular. Before deciding whether a party/person is secular or not, they have to see secularism from all aspects. It is unfortunate that, in India, if anybody supports any religion other than Hinduism, they are called as secular people. The supporters of Hinduism are called as Hindu fanatics or something similar. By the way, this article is not about religion and whether BJP is secular or not.

Shyam Prasad Mukherjee was a freedom fighter. He and Nehru were not aligned in many principles and the way of executing. Shyam Prasad Mukherjee supported Free Market Economics, where as Nehru supported Socialist economics. The way Nehru handled the issue of Jammu & Kashmir was not liked by Shyam Prasad Mukherjee. There were many difference between them, and finally Shyam Prasad Mukherjee started Bhartiya Jana Sangh in 1952, Which later on became Bhartiya Janatha Party (BJP). Even after 57 years, BJP still has the same goals and vision set by Shyam Prasad Mukherjee. The party is lead by the idelogies rather than People. BJP and Left parties are the only parties that are lead by the ideologies, where as all the other parties in India are lead by a person or a family (considering only the parties that had taken power atleast once).

Congress followed only Socialist Economics till 1991. After 1991, P.V.Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh changed the policies to Free Market Economics at the center. But, most of the Congress governments at states still follow the socialist economics policy only. On the other hand, BJP has always been following Free Market Economics since the beginning in 1952.

Regarding Jammu & Kashmir issue, Congress and BJP have exactly opposite opinions since the very beginning. There is no change in the opinions of either.

If we take the way the currency was devaluated in both Congress and BJP governments, one can find significant difference. Congress government devaluated rupee, whenever they felt like. But, BJP government devaluated only when there was no other option.

There are significant differences between both the parties in their policies on economics, governance and many others. Religion is just one small thing in their total vision. Unfortunately only that is projected significantly due to may reasons. Vajpayee is completely aligned with the policies of BJP. There is no other party in India which had similar policies. If they take all the policies of all the parties, and match with the policies of Vajpayee, he would be very close match with BJP, and not at all a match for any other party. I cannot understand on what basis, these so called famous people claim that Vajpayee is in wrong party.

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Buying Votes in Elections


Generally, in many elections, parties give money to the voters to vote for their party. Those whoever is giving money do not have any of knowing whether that person voted for their party or not. Still, they give money. Most of the voters who take money (atleast the uneducated voters) are sincere in their voting.

If there is a person, and if he gets money from three parties, then he would vote for one of those three parties with his own discretion. All the three parties know this. Still, all of them give money. The reason is, if they give money, then they may get vote or they may not. But, if they don't give money, then they will surely won't get the vote.

Let's suppose that person has a family, and his family consists of 3 voters including him. If all the three parties give equal money to all of them, each party would get one vote each from his family. If the parties give unequal amounts of money, then they get proportionate votes based on the money received by the entire family. If his family consists of 4 voters and the three parties give equal amount of money, then the three parties get minimum one vote each, and the fourth vote goes to one of them depending on other factors. Most of the uneducated voters are sincere in this case.

Recently I came to know of a different way to buy votes. The candidate announced that, he would be giving Rs.5000 per family. The family has to give their ration card to him, and he would note down the no.of voters in their family and gives Rs.5000 to them. If he gets more no.of votes than the no.of voters to whom he gave money, then he would return the ration cards of all the voters. If he does not, then he would tear all the ration cards. Since, no Middle class family or poor family afford to lose ration card, he won eventhough he contested as an independent from a constituency which is in outskirts of a city.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Uneducated Education Ministers


The simple way to improve education in the state/country is, putting all the education ministers in coma for 5 years, and repeat the same after every elections.

Recently, A.P. state government introduced relative grading system in 10th Class. Till now, in 10th class, if the percentage is more than 70%, it would be first class with distinction, if it is more than 60%, it would be first class, and so on. Now, the plan is to give relative grading for all the students. The top 12.5% of the students would get A1 grade, next 12.5% of the students would get A2 grade, and so on. They give till D2 grade. With this new scheme, if anybody gets 62% of marks (considering 2009 results), he/she would get C2 grade. Government never understood the effect on the students and parents due to these changes. For corporate schools, this may not make a difference, but, in all the small to medium size schools, this makes a lot of difference. Till now, if anyone gets more than 60%, they would be happy that they got first class. If they get more than 70%, they would be even more happy that, they got distinction. Now, if anybody gets 62% of marks, he/she would get C2 grade, which is 6th grade from top.

This does not look good for many. Parents would be unhappy and force their children to get better marks. Pressure increases for both parents as well as children. Not only that, this grading is relative grading. It depends on other students marks as well. If they know that, if they get 80%, they would minimum get this grading, then they try for that. But, if it is relative grading, and if they don't have any way of knowing, and if there is pressure from parents and teachers to score some minimum grade, it would increase the pressure on the student significantly. Government thinks this increases competition. They do not have minimum common sense that, these will not make sense, when million students are attending for the exam. If Million students are writing the exam, and if they start grading like top 12.5% etc., it will only increase the pressure.

Another absolute contradicting thing that government is doing is, it is trying to stop corporate schools from publishing their top marks. If corporate schools publishes the top marks in their school, government feels that, it creates unhealthy environment and increases the pressure on students as well as parents. This is contradictory to the above. But, they claim that they are improving the education where as they are destroying it.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Power of Money, By Adam Khoo (Singapore's youngest millionaire at 26 yrs)


Some of you may already know that I travel around the region pretty frequently, having to visit and conduct seminars at my offices in Malaysia,Indonesia, Thailand and Suzhou (China). I am in the airport almost every other week so I get to bump into many people who have attended my seminars or have read my books.

Recently, someone came up to me on a plane to KL and looked rather shocked. He asked, 'How come a millionaire like you is traveling economy?' My reply was, 'That's why I am a millionaire. ' He still looked pretty confused.

This again confirms that greatest lie ever told about wealth (which I wrote about in my latest book 'Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires'). Many people have been brainwashed to think that millionaires have to wear Gucci, Hugo Boss, Rolex, and sit on first class in air travel. This is why so many people never become rich because the moment that earn more money, they think that it is only natural that they spend more, putting them back to square one.

The truth is that most self-made millionaires are frugal and only spend on what is necessary and of value. That is why they are able to accumulate and multiply their wealth so much faster.

Over the last 7 years, I have saved about 80% of my income while today I save only about 60% (because I have my wife, mother in law, 2 maids, 2 kids, etc. to support). Still, it is way above most people who save 10% of their income (if they are lucky).

I refuse to buy a first class ticket or to buy a $300 shirt because I think that it is a complete waste of money. However, I happily pay $1,300 to send my 2-year old daughter to Julia Gabriel Speech and Drama without thinking twice.

When I joined the YEO (Young Entrepreneur's Orgn)a few years back (YEO) is an exclusive club open to those who are under 40 and make over $1m a year in their own business) I discovered that those who were self-made thought like me. Many of them with net worth well over $5m,travelled economy class and some even drove Toyota's and Nissans,not Audis, Mercs, BMWs.

I noticed that it was only those who never had to work hard to build their own wealth (there were also a few ministers' and tycoons' sons in the club) who spent like there was no tomorrow. Somehow, when you did not have to build everything from scratch, you do not really value money. This is precisely the reason why a family's wealth (no matter how much) rarely lasts past the third generation.

Thank God my rich dad foresaw this terrible possibility and refused to give me a cent to start my business.

Then some people ask me, 'What is the point in making so much money if you don't enjoy it?' The thing is that I don't really find happiness in buying branded clothes, jewellery or sitting first class. Even if buying something makes me happy it is only for a while, it does not last.

Material happiness never lasts, it just give you a quick fix. After a while you feel lousy again and have to buy the next thing which you think will make you happy. I always think that if you need material things to make you happy, then you live a pretty sad and unfulfilled life..

Instead, what makes me happy is when I see my children laughing and playing and learning so fast. What makes me happy is when I see my companies and trainers reaching more and more people every year in so many more countries.

What makes me really happy is when I read all the emails about how my books and seminars have touched and inspired someone's life. What makes me really happy is reading all your wonderful posts about how this blog is inspiring you. This happiness makes me feel really good for a long time, much much more than what a Rolex would do for me.

I think the point I want to put across is that happiness must come from doing your life's work (be it teaching, building homes, designing,trading, winning tournaments etc.) and the money that comes is only a by-product. If you hate what you are doing and rely on the money you earn to make you happy by buying stuff, then I think that you are living a life of meaninglessness.

Courtesy: Funtoosh

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

The Same Color Illusion




The squares A and B are of same color. To prove that they are of same color, few websites show the connection between squares A and B. But, in those images, the color of the squares look differently from the above image. That is also because of illusion. To verify the colors, Open any image editor and check the colors of both the squares.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

The Fast Japanese and the Indian


There was a Japanese who went to India for sightseeing. On the last day, he hired a cab and told the driver to drive to the Airport.

During the journey, a Honda drove past the taxi. Thereupon, the man leaned out of the window excitedly and yelled, "Honda, very fast! Made in Japan!!. After a while, a Toyota sped past the taxi and again the Japanese man leaned out of the window and yelled, "Toyota, very fast! Made in Japan!"

A while later a Mitsubishi sped past the taxi. For the third time, the Japanese leaned out of the window and yelled, "Mitsubishi, very fast! Made in Japan!".

The driver was a little mad, but he kept quiet and this went on for quite a number of cars, finally, the taxi came to the airport. The fare was 900 rupees!!! The Japanese exclaimed, "What?... so expensive!" There upon, the driver yelled back, "Meter Made in India, VERY VERY FAST!"

Source: Funtoosh

Friday, October 09, 2009

Mplayer does not show video

If mplayer does not show video, then try the following command

mplayer -vo x11

But, with this many features like resizing/full screen will not work.

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Developing Libraries - Give Minimum Privileges


A library should be developed in such a way that, irrespective of who is using it, how they are using it, it should have the same behavior. The consistency of the data/contract should be always maintained.

For example, if a library is developed for reading/writing some data in the given format, then it should not allow any user to do anything more than that. If the main API is calling two public classes one for validation, another one for reading/writing data, then this library can be misused. User can directly use the public class that is used for reading/writing data, and can read/write by escaping all the validations. That can lead to many inconsistencies in the data. For that purpose, all other classes/methods should be given minimum privileges, so that other libraries cannot access those classes/methods.

Let's suppose, if the developer of the library changes one internal method from private to public, then potentially, it could be used by many developers. Writing comments, and clearly mentioning in release notes will not stop the developers from using that public method. If that method is not doing certain validations and doing the processing, then it may lead to an inconsistent state of the application/data. If the code is sufficiently complex, then debugging would become very difficult. Most of the time, developers debug in such a way that, there was some problem in their code, and they don't try to debug the underlying libraries. If the inconsistency was caused by the library, then user would spend significant time for debugging.

Few non-technical people say that, developers should read the documentation and implement accordingly. They should understand that, if a developer wastes significant time because of a problem in a library, which can be avoided in the first place, then they will never support that library again.

If you are supposed to expose an API for certain functionality, and if you decided to develop two libraries, where first one is exposed to the user, and second one is used by the first library, then understand that you are doing wrong (or may be a blunder), unless your requirement is one of the rare scenarios which occurs less than 0.01% of the cases.

If you develop two libraries, and the first library uses second one, then most of the time, the following may happen.

Since, there are two different libraries, both would have few public APIs, and any user can call those, unless some convoluted security restriction is applied. But, if we apply that kind of security restriction, the application would become very unclean and unmaintainable.

If you are doing something in the first library, and then calling the second library to finish it, then it is possible that user can call the second library directly and finish the work without doing the work done in the first library. If the first library contains only validations or similar operations, then the user will not see any problem initially, but later on the entire application would be in inconsistent state.

If you are doing the final thing in the first library, and calling the second library for validations before doing the final operation, then it is possible that, they can replace the second library altogether, and may do everything without the validations. That also causes the application to be in inconsistent state.

If you implement few operations completely in the first library, and for other operations, if you are calling the second library, then, you should think why you need to do like that. Instead, you should separate them completely, and say that, if user wants to do first set of operations, then use first library, otherwise, use second library.

In another case, your first library may be just a wrapper, and it just calls the APIs in the second library. Then, there is no use of the first library, and it can be removed very well.

If first library is used just for business logic, and is not aware of database, and second library is used for db operations, and if the operations are complex, then there may be disadvantage in doing that. If there is an API in the first library, and if it is not aware of the DB, then it may have to do all the handling of synchronization, locking, or atomicity in that layer itself. But, if it is moved to DB layer, then the database can handle all those, and developer does not need to them.

If you are using two libraries for essentially a single purpose, then you should think many times before going ahead with that. Of course, this is not applicable, if both the libraries have different security modules. For example, if you are exposing a webservice, and using another library in that, then you don't need to worry about that library, because user cannot call it directly. It would be applied only to the libraries where the security context is same.

Having said that, I can see one very good advantage with having multiple libraries. We can write extra-ordinary design docs with many flowcharts, components and class diagrams. Those who do not write code full time would be overwhelmed with that, and they appreciate it very much, and you may get a promotion immediately.

Saturday, October 03, 2009

Tips for Bloggers

These are few suggestions for those who write blogs. It would help more people to read your blogs.

  • Setup E-Mail subscription by using feedburner. Not everyone uses feed readers like Google reader. Having email notifications is a good option to reach all your readers.

  • Enable Feeds with full content for posts as well as comments, unless you clearly know what you are doing. Eventhough this is the default, still I am explicitly saying because I know few people, who think that giving least permissions is more secure, and they disable it for that reason.


  • Don't post in bulk, because you had not posted for a while. Use the options of schedule post and post it uniformly. If you are planning to post after a month, and you have 4 posts now, then schedule to post one a week. That would be useful for your regular readers. If I see 4 posts from one person, I would be tempted to read them later. But, if it is single post, then I read it immediately. For more than 90% of my posts, I schedule to post in future.


  • Enclose your text in between <p align="justify"> and </p>. By that, your text is aligned. Unfortunately, blogger does not align the text by default. We can add this in the template to apply to all posts. But, if we change the template to use other theme, and afterwards if you do any template changes, then the previous changes may go away.


  • If your post is a generic one and is a solution for a particular problem, then try to use what users search for that problem, as the title of the post. By that, search engines give more preference to your post for that problem.


  • If you are having tables in your post in blogger, then you may find significant extra space before the table. It is because, for every new line in between <table> and </table>, blogger adds one new line <br>. By that, there would be new lines before the table. Remove all the new lines in the entire html between <table> and </table>. If you keep everything in single line, then there will not be any extra space before the table.


Hide the top navigation bar (banner) by doing the following.
1. Log in to blogger
2. On your Dashboard, select Layout -> Edit Html. Under the Edit Template section you will see you blog's HTML.
3. paste the CSS definition in the top of the template code:


...
<b:skin><![CDATA[/*
-----------------------------------------------
Blogger Template Style
Name: Rounders
Designer: Douglas Bowman
URL: www.stopdesign.com
Date: 27 Feb 2004
Updated by: Blogger Team
----------------------------------------------- */

#navbar-iframe {
display: none !important;
}

/* Variable definitions
====================
<Variable name="mainBgColor" description="Main Background Color"
type="color" default="#fff" value="#ffffff">
<Variable name="mainTextColor" description="Text Color" type="color"
default="#333" value="#333333">
...
Remove the code to show it again.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Quote of The Day

There is only one reality. That is Code. Everything else (design, documentation etc.) is an illusion.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Why Small Parties Cannot Conduct Primary Elections?


Primary elections are the elections conducted by political parties to select the candidate for the main election. In US, the main political parties select the presidential candidate by primary elections only. In India, there is only one party which conducts primary elections to select the candidates.

When I came to know about it, I liked the idea, and thought that, all parties should do in big scale. Recently, I came to know that, there are many drawbacks to this for small parties.

To win in an election, generally the candidates do not require more than 15-20% of total votes. Average polling percentage is 60%, and if anyone gets 30% out of the polling votes, most probably they will win. With many parties participating in elections, if there is tough competition, people can easily win with 20% of the polled votes. It means, if 12% of voters vote for that person, they can win. Even otherwise also, if 20% of the voters vote for them, they are going to win.

If there is a party which can influence other parties fate, then other parties also would become active in the primary elections of this party. Let's take there is a party A which wants to conduct primary elections. Party B would lose, if a good candidate from party A contests. So, party B wants the weakest candidate of party A to contest in the main elections. If there are primary elections, then party B would help the weakest candidate in all the possible ways to win in the primary elections. In India, in the main elections itself, most of the people take money and vote. For primary elections, it would be very easy. They can go to slum areas, and if they give Rs.10, they will vote for whichever candidate they want. By this way, parties which have more money can influence the candidates selected by another small parties. If other parties can influence the selection of the candidates, there is nothing more suicidal than that.

However, if all the candidates in the primary election are equally strong in most of the dimensions, then there may not be any disadvantage. But, if atleast one weak candidate contests in the primary elections, then other parties will try to influence the winner and the party which conducts primary elections is at loss.

Monday, September 28, 2009

An Explanation to my post on Performance Review


Many people got different understandings on my post on Mail to My Manager Regarding Performance Review. Few people posted on the blog itself, and others talked to me separately on that.

In many companies, there are many problems with the Performance Review process. I wanted to post an article on that. I mentioned the same problems to my manager, and I posted the same in my post. I did not think that, mentioning about me getting bottom 10%, and posting the verbatim makes the reader to think in different direction.

The main thing is, there are no problems between me and my manager. I am very happy with my manager, and my manager also says, he is happy with me. If I give more details on the background, then the reader would get better understanding. But, I have already given more information than I should have. So, giving any more information is simply out of question.

Whether I continue in any company or not depends on 3 factors from my side.
1. Reasonable Compensation when compared to other companies that can offer to me.
2. Growth in the domain that I am interested.
3. No Negative Impact on Personal Life/Goals.

As long as, I am getting all the three, I don't try to find a new job. I left my first company, because I got offer with really significant increase in the compensation. I left my second company, because, they tried to push me towards management, and I was interested in technical work. Unless, I find a reason to move, I don't leave. Even if they give hints to leave the company, I don't leave. I wait till they officially ask me to leave. Because, changing the job is a significant effort for me. Many people change their jobs for 15% salary hike. But, for me, there are many problems with every job switch. If I change job, then I have to adopt to that new company, culture and many other things. I have to rampup on their projects with a completely different process. It takes significant time before I start learning anything (that is of interest to me) in the new company. If I move to a different city, then there would be many other problems. I cannot compensate all those for 15% salary hike. That's why, I continue as long as my expectations are met and they do not officially ask me to leave.

The company is paying me to put my best efforts for the growth of the company. Irrespective of what all I get in the review, my responsibility is to put my best efforts for the growth of the company. If anybody does not like the compensation or respect, they can always leave the company. My expectations are satisfied in the present company, so I don't have any plans to leave the company.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Cell Phone Caller Tunes by Advertisers


Caller tunes for phones have been for quite some time. What I am wondering is, why cell phone companies are not using that for giving ads?

If we set any caller tune, we have to pay approximately Rs.30 per month. If cell phone companies put ads as the caller tune, and in return if they give some talk time to the person, then more people would put the ads as their caller tune. By that the advertisers get publicity, and the cell phone users get talk time in return, and it would benefit both.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Working as a Team Player Vs Individual


When Kumble retired, he told how he used to play with Srinath. One of them bowls in such a way that, the batsman is forced to play defence. By that, the batsman is forced to play attack for the other bowler. Other bowler bowls in such a way that, they would get excited to attack, and in the process, they lose the wicket.

If we see their bowling scores, one score does not look good, but another score looks good. Still, the selectors are intelligent enough to understand that. So, they did not remove anyone from the team.

Late 2007, Ganguly was struggling to retain his position in ODI cricket. In one match, when India needed to make quick runs in less no.of overs, Dhoni instructed everyone to play quickly. Even 15-20 runs in few balls per wicket was more than enough. But, Ganguly ignored that instruction, and happily made a half century by taking enough balls.

Irrespective of what happened to that match, Ganguly did not play with the team spirit. He did not play to win the match, but played to score more runs for himself. He thought, by scoring more runs, selectors would be happy and select him for the next series also. But, what selectors see is, whether they are playing to win the match or to score runs for himself. And, he was not selected for ODI matches, and slowly he was forced to retire even from tests.

The same thing is applicable for any domain. For cricket team, we have experienced selection team, and they are taking correct decisions. But, in many other domains, management is not recognizing the team spirit, but recognizing individual performance. Because of that all the team members who want recognition are doing things which gives better points in their profile, and are ignoring everything.

If anybody is doing performance review and the process is comparing with others, then they have to be very careful. In the review, if there is comparison with others, then most of the employees would be tempted to show their individual performance. Managers should encourage everyone to work for the project rather than for self. If a manager is directly managing more than 8 team members, then it would not be an easy task to identify whether somebody is working for the team or for self.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Promotion Vs Growth


In my definition, growing in software industry means, solving the customer's problem in less time and cost for the customer in long term as well as short term. Computerization came with the message that, it saves lot of time and money for the customer. So, the measurement for growth also should be saving time and money for the customer.

Some time back, If I can write some code in 10 days, and now if I can write the same or similar in 5 days, that is also growth. But, that is just one minor aspect of the growth that I am expecting. The actual growth that I expect is not a reduction of 10% or 20% or even 50%. If there was a problem that takes 30 days some time back, now, it should be solved in one day. That kind of savings I expect. To get that kind of savings, most of the time, we have to depend on simple design, using right features of right technologies in right way.

In the last one and half years, I have spent some time in solving problems of few people/organizations with my software skills. Those problems can be categorized into two types. For the first type, I have given a very obvious solution which solves their problem. They may say that, it was obvious and anybody can do that. But, they only have to tell, why they waited for me to implement, and they did not implement themselves. For the second category of the problems, I solved more than 90% by using vim. Vim is not a programming language, but it solved most of my problems.

Those who saw my work, gives reasoning that, since I knew VIM, so I could do it, and it is not a big deal. My question is simple, can anybody do the same in less time or not? If there is somebody, then I would be interested in learning from them on how to do it in less time. I don't care anything else.

How can I reduce the cost and time of the customer in long term as well as short term? This is what I want to learn, and in this direction, I want to grow. But, growing in this direction requires very simple thinking, and when the task is accomplished, it looks very obvious and anybody can do it.

In most of the companies, the promotion requires proving the technical excellence by doing complex work. But, the goal of everyone should be reducing the time and cost for the customer, which means most of the time, they have to do by simple design and use the features of existing technologies most of the time. Both are little bit contradictory.

Due to this, it may be difficult for people in technical track to get promotion after a level, unless everything else supports them (like managers and directors understanding them, and company has process to give promotions even if they don't do complex design etc.)

As long as somebody is getting the feedback that, "You have not done any complex work to get promotion", they are in right track for their growth. If they get promotion, then they should think, why they got promotion. What is the other way to implement the same functionality, so that it takes less effort. Most probably, if they do that with simple design and less effort, it would lead to not getting promotion.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Understanding the Monty Hall Problem


Suppose you're on a game show and you're given the choice of three doors. Behind one door is a car; behind the others, goats. The car and the goats were placed randomly behind the doors before the show. The rules of the game show are as follows: After you have chosen a door, the door remains closed for the time being. The game show host, Monty Hall, who knows what is behind the doors, now has to open one of the two remaining doors, and the door he opens must have a goat behind it. If both remaining doors have goats behind them, he chooses one randomly. After Monty Hall opens a door with a goat, he will ask you to decide whether you want to stay with your first choice or to switch to the last remaining door. Imagine that you chose Door 1 and the host opens Door 3, which has a goat. He then asks you "Do you want to switch to Door Number 2?" Is it to your advantage to change your choice?

The answer is, it is always better to switch doors.

Door 1Door 2Door 3ChosenShiftNo Shift
GoatGoatCar1CarGoat
GoatGoatCar2CarGoat
GoatGoatCar3GoatCar
GoatCarGoat1CarGoat
GoatCarGoat2GoatCar
GoatCarGoat3CarGoat
CarGoatGoat1GoatCar
CarGoatGoat2CarGoat
CarGoatGoat3CarGoat


The above table gives all the possible combinations. From the table, it is clear that, if we switch the door, we get car in 6 out of 9 combinations. If we don't switch, we get car only in 3 out of 9 combinations. Detailed description can be found at Wikipedia.

The explanation on BetterExplained is much better. It explains the logic behind that in words.

Let’s see why removing doors makes switching attractive. Instead of the regular game, imagine this variant:

* There are 100 doors to pick from in the beginning
* You pick one door
* Monty looks at the 99 others, finds the goats, and opens all but 1

Do you stick with your original door (1/100), or the other door, which was filtered from 99? (Try this in the simulator game; use 10 doors instead of 100).

It’s a bit clearer: Monty is taking a set of 99 choices and improving them by removing 98 goats. When he’s done, he has the top door out of 99 for you to pick.

Your decision: Do you want a random door out of 100 (initial guess) or the best door out of 99? Said another way, do you want 1 random chance or the best of 99 random chances?

We’re starting to see why Monty’s actions help us. He’s letting us choose between a generic, random choice and a curated, filtered choice. Filtered is better.

Overcoming Our Misconceptions

Assuming that “two choices means 50-50 chances” is our biggest hurdle.

Yes, two choices are equally likely when you know nothing about either choice. If I picked two random Japanese pitchers and asked “Who is ranked higher?” you’d have no guess. You pick the name that sounds cooler, and 50-50 is the best you can do. You know nothing about the situation.

Now, let’s say Pitcher A is a rookie, never been tested, and Pitcher B won the “Most Valuable Player” award the last 10 years in a row. Would this change your guess? Sure thing: you’ll pick Pitcher B (with near-certainty). Your uninformed friend would still call it a 50-50 situation.

Information matters.

Your buddy makes a guess

Suppose your friend walks into the game after you’ve picked a door and Monty has revealed a goat. But he doesn’t know the reasoning that Monty used.

He sees two doors and is told to pick one: he has a 50-50 chance! He doesn’t know why one door or the other should be better (but you do). The main confusion is that we think we’re like our buddy. We forget (or don’t realize) the impact of Monty’s filtering.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Mail to My Manager Regarding Performance Review


In the performance review, I was given bottom 10%. After that I sent a mail to my manager explaining my thoughts on the performance review. These are the few snippets of that mail.

There will not be any change in my work or the way I work irrespective of what I get in the review. That just does not matter to me. My goal is to provide value to the shareholder of the company. I don't do some thing, just because you said, or your manager said, or to get promotion. Since, I am a very small part in the over all company, and my scope is limited to the development of my project, I do things which make development successful, which in turn provide value to the company and to the shareholder of the company. I will not do anything which makes the project unsuccessful even if it means I don't get promotion.

In the last one year, I got the following kind of comments to get promotion or for getting more than Achieved.
1. You should come up with new ideas like how Mr.XYZ is coming up.
2. You should become master of a technology.

I am in development role. I am not good at coming up with new ideas. That's why I did not chose Program Management role in the first place. Now, for getting promotion, they are expecting new ideas which is essentially PM's job.

I already have good experience in few technologies. What the company is getting by those? If I become master of yet another technology, what the company is going to get? Give the project that I have to work on. To do it efficiently, if I have to learn a new technology, I will learn it and do it. The manager can always say that, after few months, we get a project that requires knowledge in this technology, and I will start learning it. Why are they expecting to learn each and everything now? What do I have to do after becoming master of a new technology? Why is it a criteria at the time of promotion?

The criteria to get a promotion should be providing more value to the company. There can be thousands of different ways to provide more value to the company. Till now, everyone is stuck at these two points. Is it possible to get promotion just by working on the project? If it is no, then there are serious problems with the process itself. It implies that, there is no use of working for the project? Do things that are useless to the project, and you will get promotion.

One manager in our group said, I should reject the work that is not complex. Because, if I do non-complex work, then I don't get promotion. So, should I reject all the non-complex work? If everyone rejects non-complex work, who will do that work? Then most of the time, that type of work goes to some one who is very recent to the company or who is reserved. That does not create a good environment. Even if they do non-complex work, but, if they do it efficiently than others, then they should recognize it.

I am ready to work on anything that you assign to me. I will not do anything else. Can I get promotion? If it is no, then company is destructing itself. If it is yes, can you give work in such a way that, I will get promoted in 6 months? If I have not done anything within the agreed time and quality, tell immediately. If I fail in more than 10% (or you can come up with some number) of the tasks, you can reject to give promotion. Is it possible?

In general, In performance review, I expect the following.
* What I did not do well?
* What I should have done to get exceeds expectations?
* How can I provide more value to the company by continuing in that project?

But, I never got these answers. I get answers which do not have any impact to the project in the near term. They give suggestions that I should learn x, y, z technologies. After 6.5 years in the industry, I know my personal goals. What I am expecting from them is, the details on how can I provide more value to the company. While providing more value to the company, I will find out how to align with my personal goals. I don't need somebody to bother about my personal goals. First bother about company's goals. After that, if that person has time, then they can bother about my personal goals. But, nobody is bothering to tell me how can I provide more value to the company, but they are very worried about my personal goals.

One thing that I don't like, and is there in many companies is, Comparing with others and giving rating. (In the performance review in our company, all the employees in a level would be put into three buckets, top 20%, middle 70% and bottom 10%) Due to this 20-70-10 rule, it is clear that, 10% of the people will have to go to bottom. Even if everybody is doing their best, still by this, 10% of the people would be in that bucket. Doing my best is not enough to be move up. Stopping others would give benefit. Of course, while doing that, we have to be very careful. If a person comes to my desk for help, then I should reject that by giving one very valid reason. Then, I have to make sure that, everybody else in the team knows that, he is not capable of doing that, and requires help. Then, I should offer help and do it. By that way, I would be safe. If I don't do that, then everybody gets the impression that, that person can be capable of doing everything, and nobody will get any opinion on me. This creates really bad environment. Many managers say that they look at everything, but in most of the cases, they don't come to know it unless one of them tells. If I escalate all the small things, I can easily prove that I am far better than others. But, I hate to do that.

I mentioned all these to improve the process in the project and to provide more value to the company, and definitely not because I was put in bottom 10%. Irrespective of whether there is any improvement by this or not, my attitude and my way of work will not change. If I get more help to work efficiently, I will do more. Otherwise, I do whatever I can do alone. But, my effort towards the project will not change.

If I am a pilot, and if I know that travelling by my flight/helicopter is going to create problems, then I simply don't allow anybody to travel irrespective of who is asking me. In between the travel, if I come to know that going in one direction creates problems, then I will not go in that direction. Even if others force me to travel in very unsafe conditions, I don't listen to them, and do what is the best for everyone. I have the same attitude for the project that I am working on.

In summary, I am going to work to provide value to the shareholders of the company. If anybody is going to help me in that, I will take their help. If anybody is going to stop me in that, still I will do whatever I can do with the power that I have. Even if I don't get promotion, or get the bottom 10%, I am not going to change my way of thinking. Had I done all the things that others said, I would not have been in bottom 10%. But, that would have resulted in bigger failure of the product, which meant more loss to the company which is a loss to the shareholders. That is against my principles. So, even if we go back in time, I would not have done what others were expecting me to do. Even if you say, I may have to leave the company with that attitude, still I will not change it.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Microsoft Softwares - Non Pirated


My friend called me, and said,

He: I am going to buy Visual Studio. Which version is better?
Me: 2008 is latest. 2005 is also fine. But, why do you want to spend Rs.1,00,000 for Visual Studio.
He: No. I am going to buy Rs.150 Visual Studio.

I use only free and open source software. I don't use any software of M$, because, I don't want to buy their software and at the same time I don't want to pirate their software.

There are many people who advocate me to use M$ software. But, none of them use original softwares. There are handful of people (whom I know) who bought original Windows software. But, they have bought only OS, and they don't use any other software other than IE in that machine. Since, they are using original versions, they get unlimited right to preach me to use M$ software.

I would like to tell only one thing to those people. I need the following.



  • Should be able to work on 2 Computers
  • Doing simple operations with images daily, and complex operations (which are not supported by paint) once in a while.
  • Developing One new software useful for atleast one person in this world for every 6 months.
  • Data Analysis of 1 GB of unstructured data
  • Answering certain set of questions in less than one minute from the above data, and even a normal data entry operator should be able to use within less than one hour training.
  • Helping friends in their projects.
  • Playing simple games like lines, chess, gnibbles.
  • All the above should be done when in offline as well.
  • Bing may give good results for US users. But, it does not give good results for India specific queries. Google is far better than bing for my usage.


Are you ready to do the above with your preferred softwares?

I am doing those with ZERO software cost. I am not consuming more time when compared to the many developers of my experience. If anyone can do it efficiently than me, then I would be definitely interested in doing their way.

I hope those who preach about M$ software know the way to calculate the efficiency.

Let's suppose, their approach takes X days with expenditure E, and I take Y days and my daily salary is S. The expenditure includes costs of all the software and the additional required things like anti-virus, anti-spyware and documentation etc.

Then, with their approach, I save, (Y-X)*S - E.

With the work that I have done in the last one year, even if I make X as zero, still, I would be at loss, if I use all M$ software instead of open source software.

Anybody who is going to advocate me about using M$ software, please show me the profit in using it. Then I will automatically start using it. I am also looking for reducing my cost (due to recession ;) ).