గంగిరెద్దు

ఈ రోజు మా కాలనీలోకి గంగిరెద్దుని ఆడించేవాళ్ళు వచ్చారు; తండ్రి, తల్లి, వాళ్ళ అబ్బాయి (13 ఏళ్ళు వుండచ్చు) వున్నారు ఆ గంగిరెద్దుతో. కాసేపు సన్నాయి వాయించిన తరువాత డబ్బులు అడిగారు. నేను పెద్దాయన చేతిలో 20 రూపాయలు పెట్టాను. ఆయన ఆనందంగా పక్కింటికి బయలుదేరాడు. వాళ్ళు వెళ్ళిన తరువాత కూడ, వాళ్ళబ్బాయి ఇంకా అక్కడే నుంచోని నన్ను డబ్బులడగడం మొదలుపెట్టాడు. నేను తనతో అన్నాను, "మీరందరూ ఒకటే కదా, already ఇచ్చేశాను కదా మీ నాన్నకి" అన్నాను. "కానీ సార్ ఈమధ్య మానాన్న నన్ను నా కాళ్ళమీద నేనే నిడబలాలని సావకొడుతున్నాడు సార్, please నాక్కూడ ఏమైనా ఇవ్వండి" అన్నాడు. నాకు నవ్వాలొ లేక ఏడవాలో అర్ధం కాలేదు!

Rote learning

Rote learning: many people question the way kids are taught in primary schools in India which is mainly thru rote learning. Ability to remember a lot of stuff is given more importance over original thinking and creativity. Given that we can “google” for information any time, what is the need for rote learning, many will ask nowadays. I feel it is still required.

Let me tell you an analogy of a computer.  Imagine a computer that has 1 TB hard disk and 2 GB memory. If you try to play a memory intensive graphics game on this computer it may crash frequently because the graphics program requires the data from the program be available “in-memory or RAM” for it to work properly and It will find that 2 GB is not enough. All the information that is required to play the game is available on the hard disk; yet, the program needs it to be in RAM for effective playing experience.

If you want to increase the performance of the computer in above example, we will need to add more RAM to it. We can simply upgrade the memory by purchasing suitable RAM.

Coming back to humans, you can think of “Google” as the hard drive and “RAM” as the brain/memory that is required to process the information and synthesize it into new ideas! Unless we have large enough memory we will not be able to make sense of what we are reading and also gain new perspectives! We need good memory to be able to do that.

How do we get good memory? We won’t be able to upgrade our memory like we can upgrade a computer! We need to train it from a very young age to hold and retrieve a lot of information on the finger tips; whether you do it thru rote learning, associative learning or active learning it’s all up to you!

So in my opinion, rote learning/having good memory is very important in the formative years to be able to become a free, independent thinker when the child grows up to become an adult. 

Drones

Nowadays we hear about how technology is disrupting everything around us including the way we live, we do business and how we connect with each other. We have been hearing a lot about drones lately and the disruptions it can cause in terms of hyper local delivery, aerial reconnaissance, planning rescue operations during natural disasters, delivery of emergency medication and many such uses. There are huge regulatory obstacles to clear before the drones become part of our everyday life.

I have a surprising story to tell regarding the use of drones in an indian marriage in a remote town near Guntur. My brother's friend from Sattenapalli (May be Tier-3 or 4 city in Guntur district) used the drones as part of the Hindu wedding ceremony of his daughter. 

The ceremony was held in a big ground attended by around 2,000 guests and a huge stage was erected where the groom and bride were seated for the ceremony. One drone was used for aerial photography. One of the key moments of the ceremony was exchange of garlands by the bride and groom. Believe it or not, two drones suddenly appeared from the sky bringing with them the garlands and they made 3 rounds around the stage before delivering the garlands into their waiting hands and disappearing!! I was speechless when my brother told me about this. Here we are arguing, thinking, discussing about the use of drones commercially and someone is already using them in an innovative way for something you would have never thought drones could be used...As part of Hindu wedding ceremony! 

Is this dumb or what?

Screen grab when you go incognito mode in Chorme Browser

Poem for Jetty

ఒరే జెట్టీ

నువ్వు సత్తెనపల్లిలో పుట్టి

అమెరికా లగెట్టి

Oracle ని చేపట్టి

పన్నెండ్లేండ్లు నీ చేత చూపెట్టి,

అవార్డులేన్నో కొట్టి

ఆ తరువాత నువ్వు నీ పంచె ఎగ్గట్టి, Oracle ఎగ్గొట్టి

ఇంకో కంపనీకి లగెట్టి

పోతే, ఇంక Oracle నోట్లో మిగిలేది మట్టి!

Recap of the Reunion

Recap of the Reunion

Hi guys and gals, It was great fun catching up with the good (Gudi's) OLD friends after 20 years! During this long journey we probably ran into some, worked with some, and attended some weddings but for most of us, this is the first time after leaving the college, we are seeing each other!

I am not sure if the passage of time made us wiser or not, it certainly made us older! Some withstood the onslaught of time gamely and some didn’t. There were white tops; grey tops (All the 50 shades of grey!); some have gone bald on the top, some “bolder” in the middle and for some it was both! However, it didn’t take long to recollect the faces, names and put names to faces (Used name tags in some cases, I must confess). One thing common was that each came packed with bags of enthusiasm to relive those magical moments of our college/hostel days of distant past.  We all did end up doing just that, thanks to the hosts who did a wonderful job of organizing the event!  

Having completed the check-in formalities, we headed straight for lunch and mingled with each other in small groups (pre-ice breaker sessions!). Some of us ended up in Desai’s room for a “spirited” discussion before heading for the conference room. (Boy, did I stick out like a sore thumb or what for having dressed formally!).

Jayakumar put together a great presentation that took us on a trip down memory lane. The girl who was compering the re-union did a decent job by conducting dumb charades, and also a college quiz. Jyothi/Rajeev started off the quiz with the right song for this occasion (“Yaadon ki baraat nikli hai aaj dil ke dwaare”). The campus trivia based quiz was what the doctor ordered to go back in time and remember our professors, support staff, wardens, registrars, and also the bus fare from Mangalore to our college! (All chumma stuff!) The compere’s frequent references to her (young) age however prompted someone to whisper that she was only a glint in her father’s eye when we were in college!

We took a break to have a photo-session by the pool (Group photo and also branch-wise). It was twice the fun for group photo as we had to repeat this for having missed Indran Giri in the first picture.

After the photo session, everyone had an opportunity to talk about their journey after college and it was just amazing! We have writers, IPS/IAS officers, CxOs, Entrepreneurs, Professors, and also Doctors! Yes fellas, I am not getting carried away, they are doctors of the PhD kind… (Behind everyone’s success there is a surprised classmate!)

Towards the end of the session, we were in for a pleasant surprise that demonstrated the spirit of being a KRECian! Mallet, who was 2 years senior to us in college, heard about our reunion just the day before, and decided to join us in the fun. We were really touched by his fellowship and it was a joy to welcome him to dinner, drinks and the dance (Yes, life is better in 3D!) that followed.

We had a marathon drinks and dance session and it was a joy to see everyone dance away to the catchy beats of old and the new! (Big hand for the spouses and kids who participated in the reunion despite saying that it could turn out to be “super boring”!). We had a late dinner and headed back to the conference hall with enough food and alcohol in the system to transport us back to our college days! What followed was some real banter, bums for the birthday boys, KREC salute, version 2.0 of NTR dialogue, the Hindi KREC anthem featuring the late Dara Singh, a Rajasthani folk song with sound effects, Skype call with Gowda and some more anecdotes. We retired to our rooms at about 1a.m. (Some folks stayed back till 3 a.m. I am told).

The next morning we didn’t have any “scheduled” program with everyone free to do their thing after breakfast. Nanjunda brought nice watches with our college insignia made by an ex-KRECian and we bought them like hot cakes. Most of the guys didn’t want the party to end so they continued it to Desai’s room followed by Partani’s posh apartment and from there till they boarded their planes! In Desai’s room we heard about tight spots and hardships faced by Anirban and also the adventures of Badri on the motor way in a Ferrari ki Sawari!

One common thread that ran thru out the meet was how the time we spent KREC shaped our life and career so far. It is no denying that our college opened doors set us on the right course. We took a vow to have the silver jubilee reunion in the college itself and also to come up with ways we can somehow repay our alma mater.

I don’t know if SRK and Saif Ali Khan made it large or not; I have made it large in life because of KREC.

Let us all keep in touch and make it in greater numbers to the Silver Jubilee function in 2017 (If we see thru 21^st December, 2012). Who knows, by then, some of our kids could be studying in NITK and they will be doing what we did when we were at KREC (Tell me, how many of us truly wish that really?)

మాయాబజార్ లో చిన్న తప్పు

ఇది నా all time favourite  సినిమా. ఖాళీ దొరికినపుడల్లా చూస్తుంటాను. When I was watching it last time    ఒక చిన్న తప్పు కనిపించింది. రాక్షసులకు నోరుతిరగక, గురువుగారు "భక్షిస్తాం" అనమంటె "బకిసిత్తాం, బకిసిత్తాం" అంటారు. కానీ ఘటోత్కచుడు, మొదట రథం చప్పుడు విన్నపుడు ఒక రాక్షసుడిని పంపిస్తాడు. వాడు అభిమన్యుడి దారికి అడ్డంగా గోడలా మారి నిలుచుంటాడు. ఆ గోడను అభిమన్యుడు బాణంతో ఛేదిస్తాడు. అప్పుడు ఆ రాక్షసుడు పొట్టలో బాణంతో ఘటోత్కచుని ముందుకు వస్తాడు 'హతోస్మి హతోస్మి ' అంటూ..కానీ వాడికి నోరు తిరగదుకదా, వాడు 'హతోస్మి ' అని అంత చక్కగా ఎలా పలకగలిగాడు?  'అతసమీ అతసమీ ' అనాలిగదా?