We are the Champions

Here's an hilarious fictional version of the factors by which we became the world champions for T20.

Dhoni "Thanks Ravi, the match was pretty close encounter between two great teams and our guys held the nerve to win the game and cup."

Shastri, "Who was the main reason for this thrilling victory?"

Dhoni, "All us played well but I would say the main reason and man behind this great victory is Ajit Agarkar"

Shocked Shastri..., "Agarkar ? ? .. how come Agarkar... he didn't played in the final"..

Dhoni, "Yeaph.. that's the reason we won this low scoring match.. if he could have bowled in final, Pakistan would have scored the winning runs from his 4 overs...."

Shastri, "ok.. fine, To whom you want to thank for winning this final..."

Dhoni, "The team doctor deserves the credit... he really helped us to prepare for the final..."

Shastri, "Is it? ?.... how the doctor helped to prepare for the final...
he is not the coach or physical trainer...Dhoni.. I am getting confusion"

Dhoni, "Ravi... nothing to confuse... he has failed Sehwag in the fitness test according to our game plan and we managed to pick a good playing team.. thus we weigh the doctor's contribution as very high...
infact its better than our team effort in the field.. our game tactic worked well"

Shastri, "To whom you want to dedicate this World Cup?"

Dhoni, "The entire team including myself wants to dedicate this cup to Sachin, Dravid and Ganguly..."

Shastri, "I really really appreciate you... its good that you have so much respect to the seniors....and you ...." Dhoni interrupts....

"Ravi.. let me complete... India would have exited in the Group matches if they decided to play in the series... thank god they opted out and we managed to play cricket and won the cup.."

Shastri, "The match was thrilling encounter and was concluded by a single mistake of Misbah.. Isn't it? "

Dhoni, "Yes you are right, after lofting the ball Misbah told me that he has sent the ball to where there was no one....but he didn't know that there is a malayali in every corner of the world.... This single mistake has coasted the game and won the cup..."

Shastri faints and Dhoni receives the CUP and thats the end of the great Twenty-20 world cup...

Dhamaal Da Kamaal

I guess it is a little too late to write a review on the movie nor do I want to have just another review out there. I happened to see Dhamaal this weekend and this is certainly a hilarious laugh riot. What I liked about the movie was it was clean fun, simple jokes, a lot of PJ's; No Double meaning or cheesy stuff. Asrani and Javed Jaffrey were at thier best, they seemed too natural for thier roles. Arshad Warsi seemed to be a bit lost and was not his usual self. What I did not realise during the movie but something that struck me when I was driving back home.. was that the movie had no heroines.. which is pretty unique for a hindi movie.. I can't remember any other bollywood movie which did not have any heroine in it.
The movie certainly makes itself in the all time comedy list along with the likes of Andaz Apna Apna, Hera Pheri, Golmaal, Angoor and others...

The Bridge (Ram Setu)

Science is What we know; Faith/Philosophy is what we don't know

Now there is one outstandingly important fact regarding Spaceship Earth, and that is that no instruction book came with it.
- B Fuller

Ram Setu, the controversial Bridge at this time does not seem to be bridging the divide between the Govt. and the peoples opinion. The question might've been out there for ages, but it certainly seems to be gathering pace as it is going to become the biggest election slogan next to BJP, fully supported by their allied services like RSS, VHP and the likes. With the Congress- Left alliance seems to be heading for a divorce this issue could tilt the scale towards the NDA. This could be their biggest campaign slogan since the Ayodhya issue.


Rama Setu, is a chain of limestone shoals, between the islands of Mannar, near northwestern Sri Lanka, and Rameswaram, off the southeastern coast of India.
The bridge is 30 miles (48 km) long and separates the Gulf of Mannar (southwest) from the Palk Strait (northeast). Some of the sandbanks are dry and the sea in the area is very shallow, being only 3 ft to 30 ft (1 m to 10 m) deep in places, which hinders navigation.
Sethusamudram, a project to create alternative shorter route for ships to cross the Gulf of Mannar, is a wonderful idea -- one which is more than 150 years old.

I've been reading a lot of opinions on the Ram Setu and the best report is the report done by the ex ADB exec Dr Kalyanaraman. This report digs into the various historic and scientific facts and lays out things that might've been missed by most researches.

Objective:
The official web site of the project says, 'Ships originating from the west of India and destined for Chennai, Ennore, Vishakapatnam, Paradeep, Haldia and Kolkata have to travel around the Sri Lankan coast resulting in increase of travel distance and time. Apart from this ships belonging to Indian Navy and Coast Guard need also to traverse around Sri Lanka. In order to reduce the steaming distances between the east and west coast of India and to improve the navigation within territorial waters of India, a navigation channel connecting the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay through Adam's Bridge has been envisaged so that the ships moving between the east and west coasts of India need not go around Sri Lanka.' The total cost of the project is Rs 2,427 crores (Rs 24.27 billion).

Here's the list of issues that is affecting this project:

Mythology:
Ramayana, is one of the religious epic which is very dear to every Hindus heart. Ram has been the center of controversy and the Ayodhya issue has certainly shown how the nation feels about it. That is yet another issue. This bridge is an important event in the rescue efforts of Sita and is hence an heritage from a religious perspective.
There are a lot of debates going on whether the Ramayana is a fable or a reality. There are no scientific evidence available that says that Ramayana did happen and is not another epic. The carbon dating has shown this bridge to be about 3,500 yrs old which kind of puts in inline with the age as described in the Ramayana. However, the Valmiki's description that describes the events of Ram's life does hit upon a number of places that do match historically in terms of the places and the events. So althought we do not have any direct scientific evidence, the events portrayed does point to physical heritiages across the nation.
The skanda purana, Brahma purana and the ramcharitamanasa all make references to this bridge. Whether factual or not, this certainly is a religious monument.

Economic:
Although this canal is supposed to help the shipping industry big way in terms of time and money, there are other related industry that could take a hit.
Local fishermen, Hindus, Muslims and Christians alike oppose the present route and are demanding alternative channels, which are available. They say the present channel would destroy marine life and corals. This will kill the trade in shankas (shells) that has a turnover in excess of Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion) per annum.
Invaluable thorium deposits would be affected, which are too important for our nuclear fuel requirements.
Costs of managing this area would have huge cost implication on the Indian Navy.

Environmental:
Tsunami assessment was not done
- Removal of the proven Tsunami protector in Rama Sethu
- Opens up serious potential damage of entire Kerala and Tamilnadu coast when next tsunami hits (per T.Murthy, leading Tsunami expert and advisor to GOI)
- Thorium deposits in Kerala (Aluva, Chavara), Tamilnadu (Manavalakurichi) that support nuclear power source for India will be desiccated
- Tsunami protection measures NOT incorporated in the project
Here's another opinion from Dr T S Murthy, an eminent tsunami expert:
"The Sethusamudram canal has many characteristics similar to the Alberni canal, and this is the reason I am concerned. In the March 28, 1964, Alaska earthquake tsunami, outside of Alaska the largest tsunami amplitude was at the head of the Alberni canal well inland and not at the open coast as everyone expected. Later, I explained this was due to (a phenomenon known as) quarter wave resonance amplification,"



Marine life:
Though there has been a demand from various quarters for the implementation of the project, there is also opposition to it from environmentalists. They point out that the dredging of the Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mannar, by modifying habitats, could affect the ecology of the zone by changing currents. This could:
* cause changes in temperature, salinity, turbidity and flow of nutrients
* cause oil spills from ship and other marine pollution to reach the coastal areas and specifically the sensitive ecosystems of the Gulf of Mannar
* lead to higher tides and to more energetic waves, and hence to coastal erosion.
* affect the local sea temperature and thereby alter the pattern of sea-breezes and hence affect rainfall patterns.

They also point out that dredging the canal would stir up sediment the dust and toxins that lie beneath the sea bed, smothering corals and affecting marine life. The emptying of bilge water from ships travelling through the hitherto impassable areas could diperse invasive species through the ecosystems of the area.

These effects could endanger precious marine species and wealth. The Gulf of Mannar has 3,600 species of plants and animals and is India's biologically richest coastal region. Mammal species which abound in the area are sperm whales, dolphins and dugongs. The Gulf of Mannar is especially known for its corals: the portion in Indian territorial waters has 117 species of corals, belonging to 37 genera.Associated with these ecosystems are many varieties of fish and crustaceans. Marine life on the Sri Lankan side, which is better protected, is even richer. The Bar Reef off the Kalpitiya peninsular alone has 156 species of coral and 283 of fish; there are two other coral reef systems around Mannar and Jaffna. There are extensive banks of oysters, as well as Indian Chank and Sea Cucumbers, especially in the seas adjacent to Mannar. The pearl fisheries south of Mannar, which inspired Georges Bizet's opera Les Pêcheurs de Perles, have not been productive for many years, indicating the fragility of these ecosystems in the face of overfishing and of relatively minor changes in the habitat.

Despite these concerns, official environmental clearance has been given for the project. The contention that the Sethusamudram Canal will cut through coral reefs and disturb the ecology has been dismissed as a mistaken fear.

The Indian government has conducted various environmental studies which has concluded that such issues are overblown and not based on science. However, skeptics have noted that environmentalist objections remain, including:

* the Environmental Impact Assessment carried out by the Indian government was done by a body inexperienced in projects of this nature, was insufficiently detailed and did not consult with all the stakeholders, which included the government and people on the southern side of the proposed project,
* no proper survey has been carried out of the sea bed to be dredged, and
* no proper scientific modeling of the effects of the project has been carried out.

After environmental objections were made in Sri Lanka, the Indian government decided to carry out modelling, but this had not been done before clearance had already been given for the project. A modelling exercise carried out by Sri Lanka's National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA) indicated that the project would increase the water flow from the Bay of Bengal to the Gulf of Mannar, disturbing the inland water balance as well as the ecosystems in the Gulf. There have also been judicial observations against this project.


Political:
The Current UPA Govt. did submit an affidavit to the Indian Supreme court stating that there was no scientific evidence of Ram. This has caused a huge uproar on the govt. They did withdraw the affidavit and amended the controversial lines to make it more amicable.
With the Congress-Left govt, headed for a seperation, an election seems to be in sight and this could be the issue changing the scales (as Congress seems to be having the upper hand at the moment). BJP might use this as thier trump card to victory.
Dr. Badrinarayanan, former director of Geological Survey of India and a member of the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) says the Adam's Bridge was not a natural formation."Such a natural formation is impossible. Unless somebody has transported them and dumped them there, those reefs could not have come there. Some boulders were so light that they could float on water."

Security:
With the new canal, this could become the de facto border between India and Sri Lanka. We need to ensure that the Navy is up to speed as they would have to regulate the traffic here as well as potential conflicts/ Pirate ships/ Terrorist acts from LTTE are deterred. This would add additional load on the Navy as well as BSF to cover these areas.


With all these issues in the discussion, This project certainly has a lot of benefits but I would not expect this project to turn over any time in the next 10 years unless we decide on the alternate route that seems to be amicable to all parties and non controversial.



If you want to sign the online petition, here's the link.
http://www.petitiononline.com/ramsetu/petition.html

SOA: Is it just another buzz word

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
~Charles Darwin

If you don't like something change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think about it. ~Mary Engelbreit

Since, I've been doing only non technical blog.... I thought maybe I'll do a technical blog for a change.. hey, maybe my hit ratio might increase ... after all they don't need to come to my site to read just another stupid review on the latest movie!!!

Service Oriented Architecture popularly known as SOA has been making its buzz around for a while IT and corporate circles. Is it just another buzz word.. that people will forget in a year or two. Maybe yes, Maybe No; but SOA certainly promises to be the direction in which technology is headed.

What is SOA?
SOA is a collection of services that can be attributed back to business processes. These could be mutually exclusive calls having no realtions to each other but might follow the workflow in a particular scenario.
SOA is an architecture that aims at unifying business processes from a business perspective rather than what the techonologists think it should be. It structures large and complex application as ad-hoc chunks of small services.
SOA does not seem to have an exact definition which leads to the assumption that SOA is just another term for web services. Well, to a certain extent purley from a techincal aspect, I guess that's true.

How does it work?
SOA works on the basic integration framework. It advocates to be a loosely coupled integration although it can be a tightly coupled integration. The best of SOA can be leveraged when it is in a publish subscribe mode where we have a Service Provider, a broker and a requestor.
This also helps for the fact that if yet another external service requires the details of the service in question. It can subscribe to this service. This will not involve any changes on the host but only the changes on the requestor.
Although SOA can be implemented using SOAP, DCOM, CORBA etc.. the best in todays world is the web services. The WSDL breaks it down to a format that can be consumed by any language. So it does not matter whether your requestor is going to be on a .Net framework or a J2E framework.

Why SOA?
SOA is not a new invention or a revolution. It's just the evolution of services structured around business needs. The world has changed from choas to structured. It went from HTML to XML to WSDL on Protocols and from COM/DCOM to corba to SOA
This promises to be the cost effective way in this constantly changing and highly demanding market condition. SOA's guides its principles on Re-usability, modularity, encapsulation, efficient use of system resources and EAI.

What are the challenges that it would have?
As this becomes more technology centric, security would be a major concern especially if the broker is on a public domain.
A lot of buzz around reduced TCO maynot show up immediately making it difficult to justify the cost benefits.
As this could end up being a series of disparate systems calling each other, debugging an issue in production maynot be easy.
Infrastructure costs on maintaining system test and development environments would high, if we want to maintain exact replicas.
Performance of one system (especially older systems) could impact the overall performance in the workflow of the application. This could lead to a perception that the perception of the current system is bad although the issue lies with the legacy systems.

To conclude, SOA has been gaining grounds in its power to define business services and operating models and deliver IT against actual business requirements and adapt itself closer to the current business process.

The only thing certain in life is death and Change.
-Anon

Winds of Change

“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way in the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever widening thought and action....
into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.”
- Rabindranath Tagore.

As India gets into it's 60th year of independence, the country seems to be basking in the attention it is getting in the world press. It's no longer a country of snake charmers and the elephants; Where we stand today is on a promising path to glory.

A look at the 60 years shows the success of democracy, the worlds largest democracy has stayed well and prospered; except for the few weeks of emergency, thanks to Indira Gandhi and her ego.

The last 20 years has seen more progress than we have in the first 40 years. But let's look at some of the intiatives that took us to where we stand today.

The Greeen Revolution during the 60's focussed om increasing the productivity of the farm sector. Being an agrarian economy, it is important for us to improve the productivity and the quality of the food grains. The era concentrated at increasing the productivity, there were a lot of subsidies given on the fertilizers and on hybrid grain seeds. These helped us improve our output and took care of our food deficit. A lot of these subsidies have still stayed on over the decades.

The Industrialization era led by Nehru's vision focused on the core industries. The govt invested in steel, iron and coal plants which provided a lot of employment as well as helped us in improving the infrastructure of the country. As part of this, ports were created and shipping saw a huge growth.

Malnutrition was another big problem on the growing nation. The govt health agencies took the help of the media to advertise this. I remember the ad's 'Dudh dudh.. piyo glass full' as well as 'Sunday ho ya Monday.. roz khao ande' so that the children had more protien rich food. Dr Verghese Kurien who started Amul was a pioneer in this revolution where he created a co-operative society and made a organized society out of the predominently small farm owners. Amul since then has grown leap and bounds.

The telecom revolution was another huge bridge that gapped the divide between the Urban and Rural communication. The telephone exhanges where formed on small EPABX systems and they linked it down to the ubiquotous local STD/PCO booths.Sam Pitroda's vision got us connected much faster than the prior di-da-di-da telegrams. The second wave of this was the mobile revolution where the mobile service providers have been expanding thier network and the bandwidth.

While all these efforts earlier were concentrated in improving the domestic industries, the vision that brought us into the competetive world was the opening up of our economy in 91. Dr Manmohan Singh's vision fully supported by the late Narsimha Rao govt. launched us into the global arena. Our economy till then followed the commie pattern of state owned enterprise. The opening up of economy promoted the private enterprise. It promoted and rewarded entrepreneurship; increased our exports and brought us on to level fields of global competition.

The Technology revolution which was envisioned by visionaries like Dr Homi baba, Prof Yash Pal, Dr Abdul kalam and Dr Kasturi Ranganathan was what aided the revolution in all other areas. Dr Baba's conceptualization of atomic energy for peaceful purposes and the satellite designed under Prof Yash pal aided the telecon revolution.

The opening up of the economy brought us into the upcoming technology which was the software revolution. Though we got out there as cheap coders for y2K issue, we have since grown up the value chain and are today providing software solution. TCS, Infosys, Wipro and the likes are competing hand to hand with the global vendors. The whoz who of techonoly companies like IBM, HP, Capgemini, Accenture and the others have opened up shops in India and have been growing thier headcount by the day. This industry has gorwn from $0 to a $30 billion industry today and has provided jobs to the millions of youth.

Gone are those days when we used to gather to watch the news on DD at 8:30 followed by serials like yeh jo hai zindagi and Nukkad. Today, you have the choice of over a 100 channels most of them serving niche areas. This has given a big boost to journalism, film making, acting and other associated industires.


While these things have bought us to where we are today; the future looks very bright for the Gen X. We seem to have the largest youth in the world. The education system has been churning out resources educated in niche areas. We have seen a lot of entrepreunial spirit in upcoming industries where we are competing head on head with the developed countries. This includes IT, Biotech, R&D, etc...

What we need at this is for the govt. to provide the kind of frame work that would facilitate further growth in economy. This includes:
Better policies to help entrepreneurship, promote business and ease the export/import process.
A stable govt. that works for a common cause for the growth of the country than thier own agendas.
Better law & Order that would give a sense of security to the citizens of India.
Better healthcare for the general public. The govt. hospitals that are set-up for the lower middle class and lower does not have good hygiene or basic facilities. This needs to be improvised.
Better insurance or social security for the people of India
Promote new areas that has a lot of potential. THis includes sports, tourism etc... India has good potential for tourism, it needs to be harnessed better. Sports is still treated as hobby than a career choice. For a country with over a billion people, we do not have enough representation in the olympics or the Asian meet. While we have the one off like Rana, Sania and Anand.. there's a lot more potential for these areas.
The infrastructure needs to be improvised that would include road, train, air, ports, telephone infrastructure...
Technocrats and beaurocrats who can take us thr'the next phase of revolutions.
Less of stupid politicians with a dozen criminal cases against them who only care about making money.

You can check out the 2020 vision that Kalam has laid out for India. I have it on my earlier blog on Kalam.

In a nutshell, things have not been better for us to play on a level playing ground. It's out for our generation to get out there and rule the world. India rocks :)

vande mātaram
sujalāṃ suphalāṃ malayajaśītalām
sasya śyāmalāṃ mātaram
śubhra jyotsnā pulakita yāminīm
phulla kusumita drumadalaśobhinīm
suhāsinīṃ sumadhura bhāṣiṇīm
sukhadāṃ varadāṃ mātaram