Half way across the world

Its been years since I last posted here. It has been a busy chaotic uncertain and adventurous time nonetheless. I joined the great Indian IT sector, traveled to Mumbai, Chennai Mysore and a bunch other places... And guess what Brussels.

I couldn't believe how surreal my first flight to a different country was. It took about a week to regain my consciousness and return to world with a first person view.

The Dilemma of reality (AWA Issue Analysis Exercise)

Issue: Reality shows are creating profound behavioral and moral effects on the young audience. There is a strong opinion that this effect is largely negative given the over usage of uncouth language and distasteful gossip. However, there are voices that also rubbish these concerns and attribute the content of these shows to the general sociological and behavioral changes in the society.
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The perception of our surroundings defines our reality. Reality shows are not anything new to the television history. They have been present right from the invention of TV. They were of course a little primal compared to what we have today. This concept of reality however has been altered and tailored to suit the benefits of the hosts even when overriding its benefits to the audience. This is definitely a concern we are supposed to mindful of and keep a check on from in order to prevent any adverse effects on society.

A reality show therefore by definition is what captures this reality and presents us in its natural view. It is sometimes presented as a raw picture and sometimes a more censored of defined program where in there are certain rules that contain the emotions and dangers present in the environment enabling them to viewable by wider audience.

The majority of reality shows however increase the sensationalism in content to engage the audience. In this process they often tend to cut corners or morality of the content and present a more distorted view of whats happening. Many of the individual malpractices like character assassinations, vulgar language, unethical and unmoral behavior find their place in these shows and subsequently we run the risk of accepting these into our society and redefine our thresholds for them.

The participants are of course a part of this or are the victims in this and they most often live up the expectation of the hosts. They are selected in such a manner that they will be able to deliver all the elements necessary for the entertainment rather then their suitability for the theme of the programs.

The environment in some of these shows becomes so dramatic that the very notion of reality ceases to exist. This has a profound impact on the minds of the viewers that they run the danger confusing their reality with these dramatizations.
This can in its worst case cause a large scale adoption and acceptability into the young audience thereby undermining the relative culture and decency of a community.

It is often felt that these programs reflect the cultural changes the society undergoes and we need not bother defining rules for them by some individuals. But this opinion is largely undermined by the fact that there is an increased imitation of the reality shows themes by the young and especially adolescent crowd.

This often makes one doubt the notion that TV shows reflect the society and rather note it as TV shows define the society.

The Punjabi Dhaba.

20110226
Chennai: The first time I ate Punjabi food was in Chennai.
Believe me , I ate a weeks oil in ine meal...
It was ghee actually.. but none the less...
They serve fresh uncut(peeled) onions with food, I ate 5 of them.

I have ordered for Missi roti, Makki roti and fulka with ghee.
Got gobi manchurian masala and palak chana masala as gravy items.

The food was just amazing... And Punjabi food is never complete without lassi....
Drank a full bottle of it...

The dinner at the end of which I was unable to move till the washbasin to wash my hands....

Business Intelligence

So,

I am a Business Intelligence Professional now.

I felt as if all the OOP concepts I've learned are irrelevant now.

As a matter of fact, one can safely assume so. I am working on SQL Server 2008, Oracle10g, and Cognos8.

I felt a little disappointed that my previous efforts have become insignificant, but the train moves on...

Three months into work, I've been given a new Project involving Microsoft BI Suit.

I have always had a moderate dislike for anything Microsoft but this was a little different.

I learned then that MS BI suit is one of the cheaper yet feature rich Data warehousing suit in the market.

Working in SSIS after learning with Cognos8 feels somewhat like training SF guys with Tar-21 and issuing Lee-En-field once they complete training.

I have learned a great deal of UI tweaks in Cognos that are unavailable and out of scope for SSRS.

I felt embarrassed that I've been put in a less sophisticated tool.

But I was wrong.

SSIS thought a lot more then what Cognos did.

Not the UI tweaks but the SQL tweaks I was supposed to do to make things work.

In cognos I never thought I will need to edit any query again in my life.

But SSRS forced me to write every darn Query with hand. The Sub queries I used became more sophisticated and I was actually getting better that.

Three months of scalar efforts came to an end with the beginning of a small sized proj involving in SSRS+IS.

My team strength is 2. Both new to BI and SSRS. I was the lead and what I can lead was an senior resource who also happens to be a girl to add to the puzzle.

My Manager was new to BI as well, so I it adds to the Proj puzzle too.

None the less, work went on smoothly with few weeks of inactivity in between and it was entertaining none the less.

Chennai.....

Chennai....

The most famous, populous and a Metro, Chennai, was never in the cards for me.

Until the 11th Feb, 2010.

One should not criticize the HR policies of their organization. They should simply get the ***K out.

But there are exceptions.

I topped the batch of 90 in OOPS.
I being a communications Engg. by degree found Java and OOPS intriguing.

I was selected for Business Analytics. I was fascinated by the quality of HR. I never before suspected MBA grads can be as logical as govt clerks are.

The decision to was by the far the worst HR practice I've heard of in any IT industry.

Hello Folks....

Its been nearly a year of inactivity here....

I will be actively posting in the blog again....

ciao...

Lonely in my Job.......

I'm sitting on the roof of my newly rented apartment in Chennai. It is a pretty big one with 2BHK. Though it is a bit costly we arranged it for 6 of us.

Now, I'm drinking Pepsi and just listened to the sound of air from the opened bottle. I am alone. Just realized how lonely I am in this big city.

5 other dudes in the house and still here I am alone..........Life has been pretty much the same for me from 15Feb this year(2010). It started off brilliantly with the job offer by L&T Infotech. Then my dream life of one and half months in Mysore.

Then came our HR with a violent decision of sending me to Chennai for Business Analytics. I'll never forget that 15 seconds of rush I felt when mine was the first name to be announced for Chennai.

All the dreams, ambitions, goals, plans, commitments, priorities, likes, preferences, interests, schedules, girls, dudes were destroyed in that very few seconds. I didn't feel so bad..... I know it doesn't make a difference. I being a guy can't even think of swapping with some one............Added since it was Chennai, I hardly had a chance in the first place.....

I went out to Shiva samudram a day after that with my loved ones...for the last time....... at least all of us together.
I knew this. But I was not willing to think much into this......For the first time I realized I wanted to live in denial. Yes I wanted to but reality was fast catching up.
I'll write about the trip later but I shall say "The best day of my life thus far".
A day so good for me that whenever I think of it, it pains. Truth pains. Truth that the day may never be repeated.
I want to write in detail about my gang in Mysore, but whenever I sit down to do that I suspend that activity for a better time when I am at peace..........

And here I am in Chennai, with no one from my gang around, all alone eating alone, going out alone, sleeping alone, seldom calling anyone.........I'm lost.
The days in Mysore were like a dream I never dreamt. The people I never thought could be my friends, places I thought I would visit. It was Heaven.

But again, people die, relations change, good times die, but memories stay. Stay to bring a smile then a tear.

I'm waiting. Waiting bad. Come they may. The souls like mine.