Monday, August 11, 2008

The Bug and the Weekend

How can miss a chance to put a little blade, when I have opened this blog to scrub some crap, like always I do. Well.. Saturday morning I woke up at sharp 7.. trust me I did. I was in office at sharp 8:30 to look into some customer found bug. Started my as usual weekday life on week end too by logging in to gmail and Microsoft outlook. Opened the bug page. Stared the monitor with forcefully widened eyes and found that, the status of the bug was same. Nothing is been updated. I stared my code from different angels, it did not understand neither my feelings nor my emotions.

I was little lazy to check out the files and make changes and compile it and test. Frankly speaking I was not lazy, Instead I was told to think differently and also to fix the issue by thinking "out of the box". I tried a lot but neither my vi editor nor my VxWorks did not understand anything. Blamed linux for not having intelligence to understand the pain of the developer on Saturday. However made up mind to look at the code seriously to fix the issue. Started with entry point and traced the code till the exit, including all the functions. Everything looked fine. Traced again, still felt code should work. Felt that is why i am still a developer. Though of junking the bug, But tester had logs in which output was wrong. Junking option is ruled out.

The immediate thing flashed in my mind was " how about differing this bug" to next release. I felt happy as I got the best idea. I have a bad habit of taking coffee when I get such great ideas.. Went near coffee machine. To my surprise I met release manager and talked about this bug with her. After half an hour of discussion she convinced me that "It is a MUST FIX". All my dreams shattered. I felt like running away from this software. I cursed the tester for rising this bug on Friday evening.

Well it was 12:30, when I was back to my seat. Made a strong decision to trace the code line by line this time. To my surprise again all the lines looked perfectly fine. Felt testing the best job. Though of saying bye to this development job and saying Hi to testing job. But however I had to fix the issue, even if I decide to switch the job also. Went for lunch and on the way back to office after lunch made up my mind to at least put prints and see what is happening. When I came back and tried connecting to server, connection got timed out. Server was down for some migration. I cursed myself for wasting time from the morning. When I called up IT desk, I came to know that, servers will be down for 30 minutes. It was then I decided to do some "orkuting" and "youtubing". I lost myself in the world of little faces on the orkut and soccer videos of youtube. I only realized it was 5, when my friend called me to ask me whether I am joining to play cricket with them. I replied him that I am very very busy today as I have to fix some bug and I cant come. I went out for a coffee and returned at 5:45. Checked my mails again and had to leave for my marriage shopping and left the office.

I decided to come back to office on Sunday and work on it. Felt "Sunday and office" Naa!!!!!!!! Somehow I don't like this combination on Sunday morning. So started my day by skipping the breakfast and went to hotel straight for the lunch. It was a good day, though bug was running as a background process. With all this how can I resist myself "not to hate Monday morning"

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

One Night With Nature

"Feelings change But memories Don't ".

"One night with nature" is my first lazy outing I had so far. Well, even though it was a lazy outing I would say I cant forget this night. I would love to cherish those moments, probably when I sit with the same pals in some pub at my late forties.


Well, it was me, vinay(mamu), pradeep(reddy) and arif sipping a drought beer at Guzzler's Inn planned to go out of Blore on the coming week end. Guess what ! Four guys.. ....and discussion ended up with five destinations. We started with Jammu and ended up in Kanyakumari, still were not sure where to go. Couple of the days passed and guys remained silent as if nothing happened or discussed on the Friday evening. Somehow after forty odd mails got exchanged, we decided to gather to a common place and toss a coin to decide the destination :(. Later reddy's effort was enough to book the Home stay for us right in the middle of the thick forest and this decided our destination.

Alright, On saturday morning Vinay drove his OPTRA(magnum) all over the blore to pick everyone of us. It was 6:45 when we hit NICE road, the thrill started from here. Mamu made 2.0 engine to roar to point the needle on the speedometer to 188. It was an stunning experience for me. After the speed testing, we joined mysore road and were able to race it only up to 140 max on that road. However we managed to reach hotel Dasprakash in mysore for breakfast within two and half hours.

Trust me this is the best scrumptious, yummy breakfast I ever had while traveling. Reddy made sure that everybody had adequate quantity for their first meal of the day.

After everyone repleted, as usual arif started complaining about so called stomuch..... But this time looked like mamu was not much intersted to suggest him anything. It was the time to say bye to city of palaces. We maneuvered our car towards HUNSUR and at the deviation steered towards our left to reach GONIKOPPALU.This drive was awful as it was the gateway to the dense forest. From Gonikoppalu we drove to a village called T.Shettihalli. Even this drive was awesome as we had dense forest on both the side of the roads and AC was off in the car and windows were down. Mamu's car was driving him crazy and the cool breeze was driving all of crazy. When we just neared Rajiv Gandi National Park, the view of the lake between the bamboo trees made us half-baked. It was something like it looked as if it is very easy to reach the lake through the bamboo forest, But it was not that easy. Anyway we didn't get out of the car.

It was almost 1:30 when we finally hit our destination called "Mountain Mist Jungle Stay" located in KKR estate, which is right in the middle of the dense green forest.
One single house near the natural pond which is surrounded by the thick forest and around 35 km away from the place where one get see some people movement. It was a house totally detached from the world. Forget about mobile signal or TV , They did not even had a power connection.

Well all of us had a great lunch and admired nature by looking at the peak of the mountain located at the border of Karnataka and Kerala. Giving break for short period started playing the short pitch cricket. More often Reddy or Arif use to hit ball into the jungle and we spent more time in searching for ball rather in playing. Later we converted that short pitch into full pitch and started playing. This was the remarkable part of our outing. Boys played enough and sat

for round table conference in that small ground, the extended sides of which are encircled by forest. By the time coffee with bajji and sweets was served by aunt all of us were deep into the topic of "Improving Farmers life in India". The discussion ended up with the conclusion that "Retail is going to be biggest boom and hence invest".This is how we improved the life of farmers.

Finally the most awaited part of the outing took its charge as it was 8 o clock. Within no time everybody said "CHEERS" sitting in front of the camp fire arranged.
Though all our watches read the time as 8 o clock, it veritably was looking and feeling as if midnight is been passed already. I felt I am on top of heaven during this time. What else do u need ... Totally detached from the world, You are with the best pals, clear sky on your head, shuddery sounds from the forest, camp-fire, absence of your manager and most important "Chilled Beer" can in your hand. Spoke some nonsense for hours sipping the drought beer. Then realized the fact that its still 10 and we can not afford wait till breakfast. Hence headed for dinner.

After having delicious dinner, came back to the same spot and started arguing on "Software company Modeling and Policies". Poor engineers were not able to reach conclusion this time.
Hashed out about some crap for hours together and surrendered ourselves to sleep.

By the time I woke up in morning, Mamu, Arif and Reddy were enjoying the nature and Pranab was enjoying his sleep. Went for a walk in the jungle. When we went inside the smell of the decayed leaves with wet soils made us crazy. After a long walk boys returned to the nest and had a breakfast and drove back to mysore. We had our lunch in my house and headed to blore.

Overall it was a great experience, as we enjoyed every second of the trip.

The route
Bangalore <-> Mysore<->Hunsur Road <->GoniKoppal <-> T Shettigiri <->KKR Tea Estates
Contact to book the Estate : Ravi/Swathy
08274 317663 / 9449334801 / 9480556670

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Ronaldo: The True Devil


Cristiano Ronaldo "has the world in front of him". The red devil fans are very eager to know "Can Ronaldo beat Denis Law's total of 46 set in 1963-64?? ".
This season being the best for ronaldo already has 34 goals against him. Ronaldo has another 12 games left in the current season, if he plays every match and Manchester United reach the Champions League final. Considering a goal per match this red devil will write his name in golden pages of the old tarfford heroes.

Myself being die hard fan for portugal winger, I feel he can even touch magical 50 this season. He curse himself if he gives rest to his feets on the ground. Runs like a white horse when he is away. Cuts the ball like a true red devil in the home. Even though he has a dream to play to spain before he says bye bye to soccer, he will be MANU's bull for long time.

Look at the way Alex Ferguson glorifies my football hero !! I just love reading it again and again.

When George played as a winger I don't think he ever stayed still. He roamed from side to side - he played on the right, the left and through the middle," The Sun quoted Ferguson, as saying.
"I've looked at Best's goals and a lot of Cristiano's are similar. He starts from wide positions before cutting inside. The boy's in tremendous form right now,"
And Ferguson also feels there are similarities between Ronaldo and another world great footballer - Diego Maradona.
"His form is absolutely fantastic, there is no end to where we think he can go,"

Though Red Devils started the season with most of the goals against them, Now they are on the top of EPL with 76 points. The way they played this season was just awesome. Lets see who will snatch the cup??

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

SUGGI - 2008 Tradition Continues


"Why do you Knock at the heaven's doors.... You are at the right place" ...Wondering what I am talking about OR Thinking this kid has gone mad now ??
No.. Not yet. It would have made sense by this time if u were part of RBDGTC family and would have enjoyed the yearly program called SUGGI.

Well... It was 22nd of March a cloudy Saturday in Bangalore. I was not able to see the blue sky, But on the same day I ended up enjoying with the "Band of Boys in Blue". It was almost 4 o clock when we three(Myself, Borgal and Girya) reached the hostel gate. Parked our bikes in hurry, and walked with curiosity to see how our juniors have arranged the farewell stage to honour their seniors. We all headed towards the "The Bell" function hall. I became standstill and speechless when I saw the suggi banner, Sri Totadappas photo in Rangoli and decoration of the stage. I uttered just Awesome, Excellent !!!

After hearing a moralistic speech from the morning, guys and gals were desperate to drift themselves to the most interesting part of the suggi called "Cultural Events".
I would call it as Talent Showcase Show rather than cultural event. Anyway who cares for the name ... Most of us think about the cognitive content.
Well..! it started with dance from "Taraa Taraa Taraa Nanna Taraa, Illi Yaaru Illa Kane Nanna Taraa", the magnificent dance from our junior. The way he danced for this song was just classic. And as usual you are bound to hear some screams from the crowd. Those screams, those comments and the group dance on the floor without caring what's happening on the stage was just great to watch.

Moving forward, when master of ceremonies announced "Next is group dance from band of girls" .. Our boys started screaming like a hell, Master could not help :)
The group dance was the perfect blend of songs from the movie JOGI.. It was an awesome performance. I liked the way our boys at the doors of the heaven responded to the performance. They cheered all the girls on the stage. I still remember one guy shouting his room number when one of the girl was asking the crowd "Ello Jogappa Ninna Aramane? " .. :) For every question in the song at least one boy had an instant answer ready. I enjoyed those the most. This dance was followed by "Modern Babruvahan" drama in the bar. It was simply fantastic.

After couple of such dances and skits, our guys started making and running the train without the track. The one thing I could not understand was "Train use to turn towards the right all the time, where girls were sitting :) .. I though right side track was probably closed for maintainance. The program was really coming to an end..

Guys and gals with no mood to return struggled a lot to make up their minds to return back. Before they headed to have the dinner, it was TRILOCHAN who asked all the final year students to gather on the stage. Trust me it was scene which filled my eyes with tears of joy.
All the final year students were on the stage .. Some were standing and some were sitting just to make photographer's job easy. When they made comfortable themselves with their positions and said cheese for couple of clicks, I was really in tears cherishing memories of my engineering days. I fall short of words if I try to glorify the moments which caressed my heart.

Finally the bell rang and all maneuvered towards the mess. After a loooooong time I had a chance to taste the best food. I was in hostel for couple more hours after dinner, as we had to practice the skit. All guys with their respective groups were talking about only one thing .. Guess what ??......... Yes you are right. :)

It was Sunday morning, I decided to move to hostel at 2 as alumni's slot was from 2:30 to 4. I could not resist myself, So I was in hostel by 12:30. All boys calmly listened to the moral speech by our hostel trustees till 3 :) ..and the roller coaster ride of fun called "cultural Events" was about to start. All boys were impatient.. and we alumin guys started preaching them importance of communication, interview techniques bla bla.. . The good part part was they listened to it .. Atleast did not shout back at us to stop :)

The second cultural day started with band of girls dancing for "Mauja hi mauja" from the movie 'Jab We Met".. This time guys did not make train as it is little old technique ... They started parade. Unfortunately this time also leader turned towards his left and stood in front of girls and respected them with Namaskara. After that the program was followed by some awesome skits like modern Mahabharat, Cricket demo and some beautiful dances like "Jinke Marinaa Jinke Marinna" etc.I would say it was very funny to see.... Totally I enjoyed my time there.

Thanks to all juniors for executing this year suggi in a wonderful way. Also I owe thanks to you guys for helping me to cherish my memories of "Best days of my Life".

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Few Liners For Fun -1

It's not the one which I felt like writing some crap as usual and sat down and wrote. It's just my attempt to recall my some of the best incidents I have come across and scrub them here absolutely for fun.
Though names have been changed, most of them have happened with me :)

It was Mr.Blinton on brigade road who stunned with amazing technology Indians use to park there cars right in middle of the road, which is both side covered with environment friendly green sheets.
He asked his driver "which company has executed this project"?.
Immediately driver said "Sir it is not company, its Kumarswamy's metro project and that is not parking lot.
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The federal government's Department of Transportation's cheif was on vacation in Bangalore, When he saw green signal started blinking at trinity circle, he got confused.
He asked the auto driver "I have never seen blinking green.. what does it stand for in traffic rules"?
Driver said "Sir Bhat it sayssss iss, if you guts you go" means "Power iddare Hogu anta saar" Aste.

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One day teacher asked in B'lore school "why do rest of the western countries feel Indians are adventurous?"
The boy in the last row uttered.. Because we cross the road from anywhere and everywhere :)
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Genius software engineer was returning to his native on Friday evening without reserving the bus ticket.
In the bus stop he searched his pocket to find something, that can be thrown from the window to confirm a seat for him.
When he got into the bus neither the seat was free nor his valet was there.
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Wednesday, February 27, 2008

A Domain Called GHOST

Mr. Gill Bates dead and due to the bugs he left in Bindows and the Bindows usres all over the world cursed his soul not to find rest. His soul was wondering in the IT world of ghosts, where they have only linux installed on everyones palmtop and notebooks. Not every soul is lucky enogh to get into such a secured domain.However Gill's soul made it.When Mr. Gill's soul got assigned an IPV6 address as a part of the first formality completion to be a a part of GHOST IT domain. As soon as Mr.Gill found IP address for himself, he attended New Souls Orientation(NSO) program. He was given "Senior software Soul" offer letter from the HOD of the Advanced Routing Technology business unit. When NSO started, he was hoping that at least someone will call him on the stage to address, But he ended up only in listening to them. He was the last one to go out the room as other souls left the program and attended the program remotely through telepresence or IPTV. He was stunned to see the development there.

When NSO got over, he asked for his cube, all the souls started laughing at him. IT support head soul explained him that wireless is enabled everywhere, and near lake and golf grounds there will be Wi-Fi connectivity too and also Wi-Max is expected to be in operation by this afternoon, Sonone requires a particular cube here.

Mr. Gill become speechless and started wondering if all these were there for My-Soft-Crew....... It was then he remembered his notebook had only linux installed and his is very dumb in it. Immediately he opened a case with IT support team requesting them install Bindows Pista on his notebook. Within fractions of seconds he got the reply like the following.
Dear Sir,

It is not like Your-Soft-Crew company, which takes minimum 48 hours to address the simple problem and give bullshit resolution to it, That is why you are reading this message so soon. We are proud to say that we do not support dual boot and even if we plan to do it the future defenitely it wont be any of the Bindows flavors like pista, badam, karjur etc in addition with linux.

Please note that you will be trained on linux with some fresher souls from tomorrow morning. If this does not answer your question please be feel to contact us on
3ffe:501:8:0:260:97ff:fe40:efab OR 3ffe:1900:4545:3:200:f8ff:fe21:67cf.

With Love,
IT support Team
GHOST Domain.

Mr.Gill Bates was in deep shit by now. Before he could finish this letter, there was one more message waiting to be read in his inbox. Stressed Gill somehow managed to open the mail and fainted. After knowing his poor knowledge in linux, Ghost domain soul CEO degraded him from Senior Software Soul to Software Soul Trainee.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

ಸರ್ವಿಸ್ ಕಂಪನಿ ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಕೆಲಸಾ ಬಿಟ್ಟು

It was last sunday I listened to the beautiful track "Gubbachhi Goodinalli" from Bindaas ..
I dont know why, I liked it very much and was murmring the same song for two to three days ..
When I use to forget the lyrics, I use to make my own sentences there just to follow the tune,.. Trust me the following remix is the result of my bad memory :)


ಸರ್ವಿಸ್ ಕಂಪನಿ ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಕೆಲಸಾ ಬಿಟ್ಟು
-----------------------------------------
Service company alli kelasa bitti
Iddiddu onsite Gella MooTe Katti
Inta nooru options yaaru tandoru ee IT ge Ye ye ..

Service company alli kelasa bitti Kelasa bitti !!

Bere company calluuu
Offerina Jotegeeee
Nodida aa kshanaa
Shuruvayithu ramayana aa

Bidisittu offer mundeee
Nodida aa galigeee
Yochane madade
Paper na hakideee ...

IT vondu, sambala sindu
Ellarigu Endendigu ye ye

Service company alli kelasa bitti
Iddiddu onsite gella moote katti
Inta nooru options yaaru tandoruu ee IT ge Ye ye ..

Nanna CV mele
Hosa company hesaru
Ellaruu Andaru
Settlu nivibbaru

Noraru problem listu
Nanagagiye kottaru
Madalu aagadu
IT ye antadu ....

IT seri sambala dari
Hideve endidigu .. ye ye

Service company alli kelasa bitti
Iddiddu onsite gella moote katti
Inta nooru aashe yaaru tandoru ee IT ge Ye ye ..

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Home Loan Demystified

The age of desiring to own a house is rapidly coming down now a days. For our previous generation making a house of their dream was their life time compilation.They bough their house when they were close to retirement.The young generation would like to own a house before they cross their thirties. This mentality is the results of high earning capability and bank loan availability. Even though most of us know, bank loan for house is the one way to dream a dream house and save large amount of tax, many are still in confusion with certain things. I have tried my best to clear it. I owe thanks to Times Property.

To make this mystery a little clear, let me divide this into two sections.
i) Home loan fundamentals
ii) Tax Benefits over it.

Home Loan Fundamentals

The first basic we need to know is we own a home, while still repaying the loan. This is the kind of the loan, which is as good as investment, which lets you own an asset that has multiplied manifolds in its value. You end up paying manifolds return in the form of interest for the amount you bough the loan. But at least it's works out as savings at the end, which wouldn’t have been possible if you were tried to accumulate it.

Now coming to the point banks gives the loan for constructing a new home or buying already constructed home/flat or residential plots. Even banks re-finance the existing home loans. The amount that one can avail depends upon their salary, age, educational qualifications, history of any loan availed before from the same bank or other banks. One can club his earning with any of the family member (spouse, father, mother, brother) to avail more loan. Typically bank lends the money for which EMI outflow is 30 to 50 percent of your salary. I feel personally to make EMI's which works out to be 40% of the take home salary to avoid the burden at any point of time.

Now question arises is what this EMI at all ?? Well, EMI stands for Equated Monthly Installment. EMI is sum of the principal and interest amount that borrower pays towards the bank on monthly basis for the amount he has barrowed from the bank. EMI repayments commence when u take a full disbursement of the loan amount. Pending final amount disbursement, barrowers only pay interest on the amount disbursed. This is called pre-EMI. During initial years of the repayment barrower ends up paying huge interest amount and less principal. As the years goes by the case will get reversed.

Now coming to types of interest rates, banks offer three flavors of interest rates floating, fixed and hybrid. In case of floating rates interest rates fluctuates with the pre-vailing market rates. Barrowers who offer the floating rate should make their mind ready to pay more if market goes up and enjoy the low interest rate if its goes down. On the other hand fixed rate remains same for the entire tenure of the loan, But very less banks offers this. Most of the banks offers you the fixed rate only for short tenure. Meaning, let us say bank offers fixed interest rate for 5 years. They reset the interest rate after 5 years. Along with these two the third flavor is more flexible even though less popular. In case of hybrid rates, bank gives you options to lock certain amount for fixed rate and lock the remaining for floating rate. Usually good to opt for this, locking 50% for floating and remaining 50% for fixed. :)

Even though there are many EMI calculators available on the net. I am just letting u know, using what formula it is calculated.

EMI = (L*I) * {(1+I)^N/((1+I)^N-1)}

Where, L = Loan Amount
I = Interest rate (rate per anum divided by 12)
^ = to the power of
N = Loan period in months

You can also use online calculator from here. http://www.hdfc.com/calculator/emical.asp

Tax Benefits over it

This is the most interesting and confusing part of the home loan. To state in a simple sentence barrower can avail tax benefits on both principal and interest components. The repayment made on the principal amount from the barrower can be claimed under section 80C. The maximum amount that can be claimed under this section is Rs 1 lakh. Apart from the principal amount repaid this limit includes provident fund from the employee side, public PF, LIC premium, equity linked saving schemes of MFs investments, infrastructure bonds, pension plans etc. The repayment made on the interest component can avail the tax benefits under section 24. The maximum limit here is 1.5 lacks. There are no other components under this section as there were few for 80C. However this limit of 1.5 lacks is only for self occupied property.

So let us take an example to understand this better. Assume Gundapi total taxable income is 5 lacks. he can claim 1.5 lacks under section 24, which is the interest component of the laon for a year. Thus leaving 3.5 lacks as taxable income now. Assuming his contribution for PF from his salary is 50K, and his LIC premium per year is 25K, concluding both he can claim for 75K under section 80C. Now he can claim only 25K under section 80C as the repayment made for principal amount, even though he has made more than 25K as repayment towards principal.

The first house with tax benefits from under section 80C and under section 24 is viewed as the self occupied property. One can avail tax benefits on both the principal amount as well as interest amount on this. However if you invest in second house, it is not treated as the first one for tax benefits. The second property is treated as it is rented out. So homeowners can not claim the principal amount for tax benefits under section 80C. However there is no upper limit for claiming for the tax benefits under 24C. Meaning for second property one can claim the full amount which is repaid to the bank as the interest component.

For example, If one already owns a home(self occupied) for which he has home loan and availing tax benefits of 25K under section 80C and 1.5lakh under section 24.
If he wish to go for second property with home loan, he can still avail tax benefits over it too. Assuming he pays 2 lacks as principal amount, and 2.5 lacks interest in a year. For that year he can not claim any amount under section 80C. However he can avail tax benefits on complete 2.5laks under section 24.

Probably this information did not increase the confusion :) .. Still there are things to be written about the tax implications over the property, and POA.

Tax implications meaning What if I sell out my property after 2 years or after 5 years ?? etc. I will discuss about it in my next blog.

Anyway Bangalore is growing like anything in all the directions. Currently not many developments are seen on Bangalore west. However Master plan 2015 is been designed to develop IT sector along mysore road. So even though many says real estate prices are going down, this applies to the areas where there are excess. Even though rates have gone down, they are still not yet reachable to common man. However I feel this is the correct time to buy a property in Bangalore.

Happy Tax savings :)