Race

No I don't mean the 5K run I meant the colour of the skin. I watched the movie "Remember the titans" (pretty good movie too!) and it set me off thinking about what's so different about us all, does the skin color or social status change our species name? Last time I checked we all still belonged to the genus homo and species sapiens. This problem is not specific to one country or region. You have it in the developed countries as well as the most under developed. In the developed countries the irony is that people who indulge in it are highly educated and practice it behind doors while in the under developed countries, it is more in your face.

On hindsight it is suprising that segregation survived in the most powerful nation in the world till the 60s, what's more frightening is that it still survives in some parts of the largest democracy (India). These facts make the genocide going on in Sudan by the Arab government on the tribal rebels and vice versa as a no brainer.

From what I have seen of such people is that they have very low self esteem and try to build up their confidence by putting down the others. Hitler made it famous in the 20th century and it still continues in the deserts and jungles of Sudan. In between there were other genocides like the hutus in Burundi and various other place. For more news on such drastic form of race clashes and ethnic cleansing visit the genocide site

In countries like India the clash has been more between the classes than the races. (India has a special name for the class system its called the caste system). Usually you have the upper class intimidating the lower class who in turn are supported by naxalite groups to attack the upper class. Its a vicious circle that repeats itself over and over again. These conflicts also extend to religious persecution in places like Indonesia and Iran.

In the developed countries racism is practiced in the name of freedom of speech. The following sound file is racially explicit and listeners discretion is advocated. The person who did this was just suspended for a day and is back in the air. Racism is not the prerogative of any particular community or race. It is still followed by a large number of people in different walks of life. These particular offenders were suspended for a week, maybe these were gimmicks to gain some brownie points but they were definitely not in good taste or of proper judgment. I always felt that education was the great equalizer but some people just go through school but never get an education.

I had hoped that the disaster like the tsunami would set aside people's prejudices but I was sadly mistaken. The social and ethnic differences were still seen in the relief camps; It was between the government and the rebels in Indonesia; between the Tamils and Sinhalese in Sri Lanka and between the various castes in India.

To make a difference we just need to start with the person in the mirror and lets hope that there is still hope for this world.

"Once you have glimpsed the world as it might be, it is impossible to live anymore complacent in the world as it is."

The tornadoes 

Long live the Republic!!

India Celebrated her 55th republic day. For the uninformed this was the day when India became a republic in 1950 and adopted a new democratic constitution. It attained Independence on the 15th of August 1947. A relatively new democracy compared to Uncle Sam. Though the common man's favorite refrain is that we have only exchanged the foreign goons for local ones. The pessimistic though apart, it is one of the few post-colonial countries to have a live and vibrant democracy. When I was India I never missed a single one of the Republic Day parades, now I have to just satisfy myself with images on the web .

In other tragic news of this short year, more than 300 hundred people died in a stampede at a religious festival in India; 37 soldiers died in the bloodiest day in Iraq; more than 10 people died in a train in California; The death toll due to the Tsunami has risen to 280,000 ... hopeful you and I realize how blessed we are.

Links for the day:

Brave kids

A good excuse to stop smoking

What can you buy on eBay ? A missile

Now why didn't I think of this ??

Bored ? check this out

"If elections would change anything, they would be forbidden" - Kurt Tucholsky

5 and counting ...

That's the number of consecutive days I have gone to the gym a new personal best for me. I hope I don't break a bone trying to pump it up... The Jibjabbers are back with a new video . Its been one of those slow days today at work ... nearly put me to sleep then again 8 hours in front of the monitor will do that to anybody.

Tsunami update
The latest reports indicate that the death toll has crossed 226,000 almost 160000 of those in Indonesia. Now there is reports of fighting breaking out between the government and rebel forces in the Aceh province which was the worst affected by the tsunami. In Sri Lanka, the Government and the LTTE(Liberation tigers of Tamil elam) rebels are locked in a war of words over the distribution of relief materials. The rebels claim that the government has done nothing for the people living in the rebel dominated areas. I my city of madras the city council has decided to have a fish buffet for the councilors to show the public that the fishes are not contaminated.

"Money can't buy friends, but you can get a better class of enemy." ~ Spike Milligan

25 years and going strong ...

That's the story of my parents, celebrating their 25 year of togetherness. I don't know how two people survive each other that long and more importantly survive kids like me and my sisters (jus kidding). As they wrote their glorious chapter together, a few of my close friends are stepping into the married life. My best friend Swapna got married last month. And today I heard that my good friends Katie and Michael are on the way to the alter. I also have a few other good friends including Nithya(Guru) walking down that aisle pretty soon. All this talk of going down the aisle is making me feel real old. I have often said that marriage is equivalent to hanging oneself. But one of these (mostly later) days I think the inevitable will happen and my head also will go under the chopping block. But congratulation to all the couples who have started on this path, may it be filled with happiness and prosperity.

The foundation to provide long term solution to the tsunami affected kids in India has been finally setup yesterday under the banner of "Falcon Foundation" with 7 members from various walks of life. An complementary one in the US is under the drawing board under the able care of Koshy annan in Tallahassee, FL.

My mission to stuff muscles into my body is going through birth pangs phase. I did return to the gym today (suprisingly).

"It's the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter." --Marlene Dietrich

The silver Jubliee couple!!! Well they survived 25 years with each other. Thats where my genes come from ;) 

Saved

You would have heard that word a million times in different circumstances. The one circumstance I have heard it most often is in a Christian setting like a church or a prayer meeting. And everyone I met has a different opinion on it. For those of you who don't know the word in the Christian setting, it just basically means that you have accepted Jesus as your God. It does go a little deeper than that but that's for another day. You wouldn't hear about it too much in a catholic surrounding (maybe among charismatic Catholics), but among the Pentecostal, you are sure to find this word mentioned more often than not.

The reason for me talking so much about the word saved is that everytime I meet new people at a church or a Christian gathering, the first question they ask me is "Are you saved?" (which can easily be answered as yes for me) followed by "When were you saved?". Its the second question that really stumps me. Moreover there seems to be a big misconception among the Christians in the US that there are no Christians in India or that all of us are newly evangelised ones. And I as the high priest of clearing confusions, do my part by telling them that St. Thomas was martyrd in my city of Madras and that people have been Christians in my part of the world for two thousand years(way more than in the Anglican world). You might be wondering why this topic has found its way to my blog. Well I went to a new church today and the people were mighty nice, but every single one of them asked me these two questions, and I felt it my duty to set the record straight.

In other news from my end, I successfully went to the gym again today so that makes two consecutive days of gym and my attempt has started of pretty good. I'll keep you updated if I do go on the following days.

The foundation for the long term help of the Tsunami victims would be setup this week. The top priority would be to setup an orphanage. There is also a move to setup a 503 c ... (I don't know the correct abbreviation) in the US with the help of some well wishers at FSU.

Hope you all are having a wonderful holiday weekend.

"Salvation is only by Grace"

YMCA

Its hard to understand the way the same companies and other organizations run in different parts of the world. I got to experience the logistical inconsistencies first hand at the Y. I am lifetime member of the Y courtesy of my dad who got me a membership(at a huge premium I must add) 8 years ago, expecting me to go all over the world. I finally decided to use this membership (for the first time) at the neighboring Y, only to find out that the Y in the US does have the concept of a lifetime membership. And for those of you who don't know what it means, a lifetime membership is offered when you pay 15 to 20 times the yearly membership at single time. After explaining to the volunteers for about half an hour about how the Y works in India, I got a temporary guest pass; A temporary solution till they could find out from their HQ on how to handle my request for full access to their facility.

You would guess that such large organizations with a presence in almost all countries would have a standard policy or atleast train their staff in the different policies
that they have. All that they could tell me was that they never thought that somebody from so far away would ever come here to this particular Y in Missouri! Now that I have finished my rant and rave. Lets talk about the good part of it all, I have finally successfully kick started my exercise regime, I know its too early to blow the horn. Maybe if I go tomorrow, it would be a real start. And before I sign off what's this with the nakedness in the showers ... I am not trying to be homophobic but seeing naked men isn't exactly my cup of tea.

"I have learned more from my mistakes
than from my successes"

Run ...  

A tsunami pics I received from my sister. Thats a scary sight 

Slacker!!!

That's what some of you would like to call me! I know I have been making it a photo blog instead of writing something. Well not that my writing interests you too much. I just wanted to break the monotony of my writing using these pics(I am a slacker!). I need to get myself a social life instead of spending more than half the day in front of the computer, either at office or at home. I have been planning to workout at the YMCA and have a weeks free pass but haven't used it a single day yet. As I always say, I am waiting for divine intervention. And for those who don't know(Which is almost all of you) this is probably my 20th attempt at trying to workout. I sometimes feel that I am loaded with muscles without working out :) ...

Signing off slackfully!!!

"Deliberately breaking rules is fine;
ignoring them is not"

I'll exchange the snow of St.Louis for the waters of Wakulla springs ...  

Miss the California Sun ...  

Do u think I should buy the house behind me?? Thats 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. 

One more ... 

The beach in happier times. Guess where I am :) 

Laundromess !!

Procrastinators of the world unite! Today was Laundry day for me. With an unusually large load and a severe headache, it was a real mess. To be frank I hate doing laundry and as a true laundry hater, I have enough essential garments to last me two months ... but like with any other thing there is always a limit and today I was forced to get out of my stupor finally do the laundry. (I had to remind myself that I am no longer a college going free soul but a office going soul under bondage)

It started out real good though. I was happy to not carry the huge load of quarters and instead use my credit card(the American way) to pay for it. The only problem was that the washers started without the lids being closed and no cloths in them. I was under the impression that these washers were supposed to stop if you open the lids but no such luck for me. So I had to make quick time and fill up the 4 washers with cloth after the rotors had started. Next came the dryers part. Learning from my previous experience I decided to put the cloths in first before I use the credit card machine. Only this time when I came to pick up my laundry I found out that the dryers had to be manually started; and since the time lapse was great I had to pay for them again (loss of 4$s). I also accidentally started another machine because of a messed up key board. So over all it was a truly laundromessy place.

Updates on the tsunami

The after-effect killers have started already.

The social evil still remains among some. It only goes to prove that sometimes just sometimes some people don't deserve to be called humans.

Politics still reigns in the ruins

The Falcon foundation is in the process of being officially established. I'll keep you all updated on the happenings.

It's hard to answer what's wrong... when nothing is right

Vulture

n.
1. Any of various large birds of prey of the New World family Cathartidae or of the Old World family Accipitridae, characteristically having dark plumage and a featherless head and neck and generally feeding on carrion.
2. A person of a rapacious, predatory, or profiteering nature.

The vulture has always boded evil and suffering. Of all the species of vultures out there, probably nothing is more dreaded than the human vultures. They seem to take pleasure and make profit in the suffering of their fellow human being. In the 21st century they are also hi-tech and use the last methods of people engineering. I don't know if you have heard the term phishing. It is used to describe the act of duping information out of people. This has been a big problem especially in the US.

Usually phishers, send out emails to unsuspecting people with some outrageous offers asking them for their credit card and personal information. They also mask their emails to make it as though the email was coming from a legitimate source. All they need is to setup their website visually similar to the real ones. I have samples for the yahoo and hotmail login page that could get your email id when you type it in and send the details to me(or whoever has set it up). Now with the American people going all out to help the tsunami victims, these phishers have got into the act. Yesterday Mastercard announced that they found 133 cases of Tsunami related phishing. Now the FBI along with Mastercard and other member banks have setup a task force to catch these phishers. To you my loyal readers please follow these following guidelines that could prevent you from falling into this trap.

· Be wary of phishing e-mail. Banks do not contact customers to ask
them to provide sensitive information such as passwords and PINs online.
Look for indications such as spelling and grammatical errors that expose
the e-mail as being not genuine.
· Do not click hastily on links appearing in incoming e-mails and
provide payment card or other personal information. Make it a practice to
connect to an institution’s Web site only by directly typing the
institution’s valid Web address into the Web browser.
· Notify your bank and local law enforcement authorities promptly by
forwarding suspicious phishing-type e-mails. This action will help shut
down the fake Web site and to take action against the criminals.
· Monitor the transactions appearing on your statements, and quickly
report suspicious transactions to your bank.
· Change passwords and PINs periodically.
· Install anti-spam and firewall software on your personal computer to
stop receiving spam and to prevent unauthorized access.
· Turn off your computer when not in use, to avoid criminals gaining
access and misusing it for fraudulent purposes, which includes launching
phishing attacks.
· If you suspect that you have become a victim of a phishing attack and
already have divulged your sensitive account information to fraudsters,
please contact your bank immediately to discuss the appropriate remedial
action.
· Continue to monitor your statement for unauthorized transactions, if
your account is not closed.
· Regularly obtaining personal credit reports from all three credit
reporting agencies and carefully reviewing the information. Question – and
correct – any inaccuracies. The contact information for the credit
reporting agencies is:
· Equifax, call (800)-525-6285 and write: P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA
30374-0241
· Experian, call (888)-397- 3742 and write: P.O. Box 949,
· Allen TX 75013-0949
· TransUnion (800)-680-7289 and write: Fraud Victim Assistance
Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834

Laters...

here we go again ...

I know I slacked off the last two days. Been a little busy at work. Had a Server SCSI controller crash on me yesterday and had to be at the office for more than 15 hours straight. To top it all off the weather forecast said that it was supposed to be a dry night but it snowed so much that my car was buried three inches deep in the company's parking lot. Well I did get a jalepenos pizza for staying so late at the office. And to those who don't know I love to look at snow, it so pretty et all but I can live without it. I would rather see it on TV than on my car.

Now that I have rambled on about all that could have been done before and after the tsunami. Lets just talk about what has been done so far. The public outpouring from all over the world, has been so unprecedented that it would make the most ardent pessimist an optimist. People in all walks of life around the world have tried to do the best that they could do to help out in whatever way they could. The other day I met an old lady at the Hyundai service center who said that they were collecting money by dressing up (If any one wants to come to office in casuals, the person has to make a contribution). Mastercard doubles any contribution that we make to the tsunami relief fund.

Even in the tsunami affected areas it has brought together people from all walks of life to face this great tragedy. There have been instances where the local church, mosque or temple has buried the people of different religions. It has been rightly said that adversity brings out the best in people.

On a personal note, a foundation called Falcon foundation, to provide long term rehabilitation to the children of the tsunami has been started by me and a group of friends. I am very excited about all that we are planning to do for them.

"We Make a Living by what we Get
but we make a Life by what we give"

The faith of a child ... 

Technology ... whither art thou ...

How many Computer professionals does it take to cut an ice cream cake ??? 14. That's how many it took today at work, that plus 2 knives. Technology has become so all pervasive that its seems hard that any could escape its influence. There are exceptions of course like few protected tribals in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India ... and the US weather agency that does not have the capabilities to find a phone number. It should not be taken for granted that even if they had managed to find the phone number(The lacked funds to find the phone number) the tsunami warnings would have helped. The world has been able to put man on the moon but have not been able to do anything about using these same resources. India has enough money to produce nuclear bombs but does not have enough to set up a tsunami warning system.

But its more the humans than the lack of technology that has to be blamed. If the rich and famous in India had not built all their farm houses and resorts so the ocean the fisherfolk (who were the most affected) would not have been forced to live so close to the ocean. And now most of the bourgeois people are not affected but its just the poor. Wish people would value human life more than their beautiful farm houses next to the beach

You could call this a pessimistic post where I have tried to find scapegoats for nature's fury. Maybe its true .. maybe its not

"If there were nothing wrong in the world, there wouldn't be anything for us to do"
- George Bernard Shaw

Continuing with theme of human endurance in the face of insurmountable tragedy. Here is a picture of a group of children at one of the homes run by the government for the Orphaned kids of the tsunami. 

Just another day ..."

It was my first full day of hard work for 2005. Sometimes I feel I have too much power in my hand :). Being a Database Administrator, I can create so much havoc in the financial world. If you have seen Office Space you have just seen the tip of the ice berg. Today I learnt something important I guess you all geeky folks knew from time immemorial(the age of computers) that if at first you don't succeed, just reboot. A word of caution to those of you who can't wait to get out of your bondage of books and get into the Utopian world of paid employment, Utopia is a real as million dollars on my lap. There goes the days frustrations ...

Today I take a break from the Tsunami reporting with just the following link

This is a nice top 10 list

"It's been a long week today."

Kids help you smile through the darkest hours. Here are some kids having fun with the clothes that they received after the tsunami. 

What can you do ...

I know most of you have been bombarded with the pleas to help the tsunami victims. The pictures have been filling the news in every part of the world, till it almost made me sick to the stomach. But that's the reality of what has happened. I was talking to my sister Eugene who has been helping along with my family and my friend Swapna to distribute some much needed aid to a village that was destroyed by the tsunami. She was telling me how the stench of rotting flesh still permeates the air around these villages.

Now that aid has been pouring in like never seen before, people need to start thinking about the long term rehabilitation of these affected people. I know that the international red cross and the red crescent along with the local NGOs and churches, mosques have been doing a tremendous job of looking after the immediate needs of the affected people. I don't really know if there is a plan in place to about the thousands of orphaned children who have been affect my this disaster. Already there is news reports of unscrupulous relatives using these kids to get to the cash that the government is offering the victims. There is also the threat of anti social elements abusing these kids. If you think you would like to help in the endeavor to make a difference in the life of these children, do contact me at uly_noman@yahoo.com. We can make a real difference in the life of these really needy kids.

"Everybody has their moment of great opportunity in life. If you happen to miss the one you care about, everything else in life becomes eerily easy." ~ Douglas Adams

A view of the beach in my city of Madras  

My Ride ... 

I am Back ...

... as big as ever and twice as ugly ... I always wanted to say that. And a very happy and prosperous New Year to you all. At this time please keep the Tsunami victims in your prayers. For those of you who had wanted to know about my family. They have are doing good and have not been directly affected by the tsunami.

I had wanted to start of with a bang but the tsunami knocked the wind out of any such plans. This hit close to home and made me realize that we need to be thankful for every minute we get to live. The beach that was hit in my city of Madras (new name Chennai) was the one that I frequented very often with my family on Sunday evenings. It was the one free place that we Madrasians(chennaites) had in our vast concrete jungle of a city. And most important of all it didn't need any money in your pockets to enjoy it. Now it has an eeriness about it that cannot be shaken. A friend of mine who lost her aunt to the waves and was herself saved by being late is yet to come out of the shock. I myself who am half way across the world shudder at the though of the place that I used to have so much of fun. I am scared of the water now ...

Many of you who know me or know about India would know about cricket - the greatest game on earth (because I say so!). Sunday mornings on the Maria beach (the second longest in the world) you would see a scene repeated all along the coast of India, kids using sandal's/shoes for bases and using a wooden stick for the bat playing the game with the greatest abandon. Black Sunday proved to be the death knell for thousands of those budding players. Nearly 2/3rds of those killed on Sunday were kids.

If this tsunami had hit on Sunday evening instead of Sunday morning, the death in my city alone would have been in the hundreds of thousands. We must be thankful for that fact. The response to this great disaster has been better than I ever imagined it would be. Whoever said that the world is going to the dogs has got it all wrong. The good people still outnumber the bad by 99 to 1. If any of you would like to be directly involved with the rehabilitation process of the affect people get in touch with me. Please do not forget to keep them all in your prayers.

At the end of the game, the pawn and the king go back in the same box - Anon

P.S: for those of who don't know, I am in St. Louis Now