Open Source

Most of us are of a perception that Open Source means “Free Software”. However, this is not exactly the case.

Open Source means
• Freedom to Use
• Freedom to Redistribute
• Freedom to Manipulate

Not all Open Source Applications are free. The author can charge the user in order to use his application. What is free is the author’s knowledge! You are free to study the code, modify it according to your needs, redistribute it, and even use it for your business needs. I am not giving you the exact picture of Open Source, neither am I giving you the wrong one (I hope).

I did not realize how much powerful Open Source is. May be I still do not know it as well, but I would like to share the little that I know with you all.

“It is easy to get a pirated copy of Microsoft Windows 7/Vista/XP. Try installing an Open-Source Operating System instead. Firstly, you feel happy that you are not stealing. The rest you will come to know when you use it. Do not frown that you do not have IE or MS Office. You will have thousands of options to choose from, and every one of them will be better!” This is what one of my Open-Source fanatic friends had to say.

You find Windows easier to use than any other Operating System. This is what we are told and made to believe. However, this is not exactly true! In fact, it is a plain lie. For Ages, I was under the notion that Linux-Based Operating Systems use command line arguments! Note that I have written “Linux-Based Operating Systems”. Yes, Linux is a Kernel, not an Operating System.

I felt embarrassed, even stupid when I learnt that Linux was as good as Windows, no even better. Read as no viruses and no frequent crashes without any reasons. That is why Linux-Based Operating Systems are used Servers. And yes, it has a user-friendly GUI. (Aren’t all GUIs? Think… Think…)

Of course, every OS has its flaws and one of the major flaws that Linux-Based Operating Systems (Red Hat, Fedora, Ubuntu, etc) have is “They are not marketed as well as Windows”.

It is widely believed that Windows Vista was the first OS to have brought 3D effects to the user. The Professor who enlightened us on Open Source begged to differ. Linux Fedora 7 had 3D Effects long before Windows Vista hit the markets!

Let us get back to our topic before I get carried away. Operating Systems are not the only Open-Source products that are available in the market. Surprised? Don’t be!

The next common Open-Source application that most of us will be aware of is “Mozilla Firefox”. Not only is the Firefox safer than the Internet Explorer, but it comes with loads of customized add-ons as well. Yep, it is fun! From email-clients (Mozilla Thunderbird) to Photo-Editors (Paint.NET) and PDF Readers (SumatraPDF), there is an Open Source Application for anything and everything.
The next time that you are not able to open a file format… Instead of googling for a “free download” of a Microsoft product or an Update for a Microsoft product e.g. Windows Media Player, try downloading the VLC Media Player. You might not get disappointed after all! 

P.S. The irony about this piece of writing is… I am typing it out in Microsoft Word. It is bad that my company does not endorse Open-Source, completely. However, I am happy that I would have to open this document in Star Office writer at my home! 

Alma Mater

27 January 2011,

Yesterday was a significant day in my life. After a long time, I set foot on my alma mater. St. Dominic’s, the place where I learnt charity, honesty, knowledge, responsibility & above all, love.

It all began at 2:45 p.m. I received a call from my friend Rekha reminding me about the alumni-meet that I otherwise would have missed! I reached the campus at around 4 p.m. After parking my scooter, I started walking towards the familiar grounds. I look around to see what is new and what is not. I noticed a basketball hoop in our new building, which was not there before. Of course, our “new” building is not so new anymore. I see the age-old dais, still sustaining the royal look it always had. The Neem plant the stood by the dais, has now become a Neem tree. Our buildings have grilled gates! Even though they do not seem to fit into place, I am sure the school has reasons for it.

I notice Miss. Anita as I pass by the dais. How can I forget her? The first & only time that I was the class pupil leader, was in her class. In my sixth standard, I changed from a mediocre student to a good one and she is responsible for it. If it were not for her tearing my horrible prose notes, I would still possess handwriting like a three-year old. I run up to her, and greet her with zest. I love her, and even though she did not recognize me, I know she loves me just like every single kid she has taught.

Then I see Miss. Antonisha. No, she is just Anto, my classmate; now a teacher. I ask her where the other girls from our batch are, and she points me towards them. I can see Rekha, Farzana, Darshini, Subathra, Preethi & finally Lovely amidst a crowd of almost hundred people. On seeing me, Lovely rushes up to me, and gives me a huge hug. I hug her back, as she says, “Did you bring pens & pencils, so that we can fight over it?” I laugh, and say “No, May be another time.” After all the catching up & pleasantries, we settle down for the occasion.

I watch as the headmistress takes center stage and welcomes us all back. After the bible reading, I bow down in unison with my schoolmates to the prayer. Maria, the secretary gives us her welcome address, which evoked many giggles when she said “Girly!” and “What Child?”, two phrases synonymous with Dominican parlance. She also informs us that there are people here from the batch of 1966 to 2004, for which an eager junior replies, “2005 batch, we are here too”.

Next up – Game time. Miss. Louie took us back to our childhood when she invited us to play a different version of “Sand, Sea, and Stone” A game all of us Dominicans have played on the stairs of the dais. Group by group, people got “out” (I refrain from using the word – eliminated. It does not sound childish), and at the end of it Bindu was crowned winner. To this, she joyfully responds in mock-exasperation, “Six years in school I didn’t win anything. And now I do…”, which evoked a burst of laughter from every corner.

Next on the list – DJ night! Well, not exactly DJ night, but I bet it was much better than any DJ night. What would a DJ night be without a partner? Well, our teachers have thought this out well. Dump your old ones, and we will give you new!

And so, the next game begins. The game is simple. Pick a lot; find your pair. Lovely gets “Romeo”. We all know who Romeo’s pair is! She poses like a Tamil heroine, respecting all clichés including the one-legged stance & calls out “Juliet” in a musical tone; to which our Juliet, well the President of the Alumni, responds “I’ve found my Romeo!” They happily run up to the dais and take first place.

We all pair up, and are ready to rock. The DJ, (Maria) hits the music and prompts us sway to the tune. She starts to dance, and everyone chimes in mimicking her step. After a fun 15 minutes, we are ready for the next item on the agenda.

Again, we pick lots. Our teachers sure do know what we like! (Remember the lucky-dip stall from the Fancy-Fete?) We form small groups based on the lots. We discuss on many a topic starting from, how we feel to be back at school to how do we give something back to the school. Each one chips in with her point, and this is read out to the entire gathering.

At the end of the discussions a few conclusions were made.

1. The Alumni meet would be held on the Republic day every year.

2. Everyone was willing to chip in, in any possible way the school requires.

3. A website would be created for our school

Next up, was the lucky lady competition. Wow! So many years I have seen one of our beloved teachers being crowned “The Lucky Lady” on the teacher’s day. Now it is our turn. The headmistress picks the number 70, and Regina is crowned the winner. Miss. Grace then picks a second lot, which happens to be number 57. Guess what? She picked Mary Ann, her batch-mate from 1966. To this, we hear a voice from the crowd, “This is match-fixing”. Yet another voice says, “No. This is batch-fixing!” We all laugh.

The President of the Alumni, Anita comes forward to deliver the Vote-of-thanks. She puts forth a request to change the office-bearers. The crowd says that they are happy with the current ones, to which Anita says, “Ok. We need a Vice-President! Can somebody volunteer?” We (our batch) coax Lovely into volunteering, and Lovely walks up to the dais to join her “Juliet”. As she walks up Darshini shouts out, “ Thana valandha thanai-thalaivi Lovely vaazhga!”, which evoked laughter among people. (well, to whoever heard it)

A memorable day came to close with our school anthem. I feel goose-bumps as I sing “Alma mater…”, and realize that so do many others. After the school song, we cheer ourselves with a “Hip… Hip… Hurray!”

Then the usual happens – Photos, banter, laughter & then we all leave; each one cherishing the moment; reliving the experience; taking back memories & values; missing friends who were not there; and finally glad that we are a part of St. Dominic’s.

Match-Making

How many times have we - okay, me- wondered whether two people would make a perfect pair just on seeing them?
I've done it many a time :D
Not only do I decide that these would would match each other, but also how they should go about each other. I was lucky to guess some three years back, that two of my best friends would be the perfect pair.

Once I'd joked about this prospect to 'him', and he immediately reprimanded me asking, how could I come up with such baseless and outrageous questions. The angst in his tone and words caught on to me, and I'd felt as though I'd just spoiled a beautiful web of friendship. In a flurry, thoughts started to cloud in my mind. Had I done a serious mistake by jeopardizing so pure a friendship? Would I be happy if someone goes about making assumptions about me and my best friend like this? To what extent would he have been hurt? In a moment I was almost on my knees begging for pardon. "Please *****, I'm very sorry. I shouldn't have said all that. You know, the woman intuition is not always right!"

He always has this sarcastic touch to all his dialogues. Note that I'm using the word dialogue. He likes to exaggerate, and does full justice to it. And as though Jesus Christ is forgiving a sinner he says, "Its OK. I can understand that your still an immature brat. Just don't go opening your big bad mouth about this to her. She might get offended" And myself, with a puppy-dog look and a few tears at the corner of my eye, could only nod. I was relieved to know that he hadn't taken it too bad. And then I decided to keep my mouth eternally shut regarding this!

Every now and then one of our mutual friends comes up to me and says, " Hey, is there anything going on between 'him' and 'her'?" I remember my lesson from the other day. and so with a disgusting look I dutifully say, "Are you mad? They are the best of friends. Don't you dare say things like that" Just as I word all this, something keeps telling me, 'Are you so sure of what you are talking? Do you really believe they are just the best of friends?' My mind is in quandary as I keep arguing with myself. "No, they are not. Yes, they are!"

An eventful two years pass by, with my still wondering what they are! One fine day, this girl, my best friend calls me up and says, "Vithya, I've to tell you something" I assume its one of her routine calls, where in she is having some problem at home, and give the go ahead. I can sense hesitation in her voice, and so I reassure her that I'm her friend and she need not think twice to tell anything to me. I could hear her sigh, and ask for a promise. I become restless and think to myself, "What is all this hype about? " Wearily I give her my word, "I promise dearie. Tell me, what's bothering you?"

Now I could sense the change in her tone. Her voice almost acquires a musical ring to it, as she says, "Its *****. We're in love with each other". And I'm like, "What the hell?" Too many thoughts conjure up in my mind, but the most prominent of them all was IF I EVER GET MY HANDS ON HIM,HE'S DEAD MEAT. I was at a loss for a few moments, and she was going on and on, about how everything happened, little realizing that none of this was registering in my mind. After a while she came to a stop saying, "We have decided to marry!". Now I say, "Ahaa.. so now you're telling me!"

Wild are the ways of life. One can never tell what each turn beholds. It's best to live and leave life to take its own turn. For now, I'm done with match-making. Or at least that's what I'm saying to myself... ;)

It's been a while ...

When I wake up everyday to the sound of the alarm in my phone, I ask myself,"Is this what you want?"

Of late I've been asking this to myself for quite sometime. A year back I used to imagine about the future, and it would be..


Me and my two best friends, fighting in our room. One of them yelling, "Ezhundiri di eruma!". Then I would yell back at them," Konjam thoonga vidureengala? Office poyi enna kizhika porom!"

Then we'd leave our room and rush to office, cursing one another as to because-of-whom we were late? As usual Sush would've been ready 1 hour before time. And the culprit would be either me or Vaenil. Then at office we'd get to meet our college pals! Konja neram arattai..Konja neram kalasifying..Lunch together..And then ofcourse work..duh..

Then while returning home from evening, one of us would suggest(most proabably Sush) that there is this amazing place to eat! Tadaa..and we three are there.. Fighting over ice creams et all.
By the time we return home its too late to eat! So we decide to have some more arattai and when we finaly do decide to sleep its well past 12. Even though we want to, we fall asleep side-by-side without even fighting!

Back to reality!
Now I wake up, and get ready for office. No more fun..No more fighting.. I work not where my friends do. But that is where my heart is!

Yes I do have fun at office. New friends.. Arattai..mokkai..kadalai..everything!
But..its been a while..since I felt complete!

I miss you two very badly!
Love you loads

Wish things would change!

Nick Names - Part II

Yes, coming back to nick names..

One fine day, our maths prof was distributing our math notebooks, which were submitted for corrections. Ok, don't laugh or grin..grrr...we were treated like school kids!

She read out the name of the student as she was giving our books. One by one we got our notebooks, each of us frantically skimming through the pages as if we were expecting something surprizing in it! *straight face*

She was almost finished. She smirked at us, as she was holding a single notebook in her hand.
Out of the blue she asked,"Inge tiger nu yaravadhu irukeengala?" (Is there anyone by the name of tiger here?)

We were dazed, n i thought, "What a nonsensical question to ask!"

She continued," Onnum illa pa, a few semesters back, idhe madiri oru incident nadandhudhu. Naan notes submit panna solli irundhaen, ore oru payyan mattum notebookla paer ezhudhama submit pannan. Yaen nu kaetadhuku, 'mam, notebook coverlaye pottu iruke `sriram notebook` nu, adhan yen paeru!'. Inaiku unga classlayum yaro paer ezhudhama notebook a submit panni irukanga. Andha notebook mela `tiger notebook` nu pottu iruku, adhan oru vela avana paer tiger o nu kaeten!"

(A few sems back, while distributing notebooks, i noticed a notebook without a name. When I asked who's notebook it was, a student answered, 'mam, it's written on the cover of the notebook na-`sriram notebook`. thats my name!'. Today, one of ur classmates also has submitted the notebook without a name. and its written `tiger notebook` on the cover. So i was wondering, is there any tiger lurking in ur class?)

"Yaaru ku innum notebook kedaikala?"(Who didn't get ur notebook?), she laughed out loud.

Hearing this, everyone started to laugh, n so did I. Quickly my eyes began to scan the area for the tiger. A sudden movement! I awkwardly moved to avoid collision. Darn!
I was expecting a tiger, and the monkey(vaenil) next to me, stood up and said, "Adhu ennodadhu dhan!"(It's mine!)

Our prof smiled, "needhana andha puli!"(You were the tiger eh!) She collected the notebook and nudged me as she became seated again. The whole class bursted into laughter. Ducking under our desk i began to laugh uncontrollably. From that day, all of us started calling her "TIGER"


Go TIGER! :D

Secret!

"A blog is like an online diary", a friend who introduced me to blogging said. And till date, I've not written anything I would write in my diary. Yes, there are posts with subtle hints of secrets, but there is nothing interesting like plain confessions!

Jealousy:
I'm not a saint and yes I've been jealous of people. The first instance when I remember feeling jealous was in my 6th standard. The girl sitting next to me, Lovely, just as her name suggests had a lovely handwriting!  Those where the days when my English teacher would tear pages of my English classwork owing to bad handwriting. Imagine the poor me, having to rewrite almost every single prose lesson!*sob sob*

I'd sit next to her and envy her perfect handwriting and curse myself,"Damn it, why couldn't I write like her?". I still remember her brown hero pen. It was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen!( Rafael Nadal wasn't famous at that time :P) She knew I was jealous of her, and she'd purposely write her name again and again on her books with that pen. I made my dad to get me a hero pen of the same color but I wasn't any good. I'd often end up fighting with her. We were silly enough to measure the desk and draw lines to mark our territory.

One thing that made me happy was, I used to get better grades than her. I almost considered her getting lesser marks as my victory over her. I'd smirk as I ask," How much did you get?". I was so hell-bent in getting even that I failed to be friends with her.

Thankfully, I got to know her much better in my 11th and 12th standards. Even though we had our differences we made the best out of our relationship. One question we often hear in school, "What do you want to be in the future?" In my 9th std I told,"Teacher". In my 12th I was told to tell,"Doctor". What am I now? Another Engineer! But when Lovely said, "Pilot", all we could say was, "Too ambitious". And today she's realized her dream and made herself a woman to salute! Kudos to you Lovely!

Women like Lovely, as the lesser known Kalpana Chawlas. Its an honor to have known her and still know her. Yes I do keep in touch with her, and I'm not jealous anymore, just proud that she's my friend! I still admire her handwriting. Thanks to my 6th std English teacher,now, I have a handwriting that I can flaunt! Jealousy had blinded me then, that I failed to realize what a wonderful person she is.

Being jealous isn't wrong, as long as you grow our of it! :)

Nick Names

Imagine a world without nick names, be it for friends, family or..err..teachers!

Nicknaming starts as soon as one arrives in this world, with loads of kisses n hugs..everyone starts calling a newborn child in their own sweet way!

Some names are cute, others sweet.. n others too funny!

some of the names I'd never forget.. right from school days..

I write this..just to relive those memories!

The very first name that comes to my mind is.. "Kichans" (dunno for what reason)

She was a funny lady, with obscure pronunciations of words. I'd almost die laughing when I hear Jennifer imitate her during class hours.

We girls were cricket crazy during school days, and some of our class girls got christened with names of cricket players.

Jenise was called Ajay and Saranya was called Sachin.. (poor Sachin) hehe..

Yevet was called "peter" for obvious reasons *wink*

Those were the days when we(probably only me :|) didn't know what "gay " was.

So a couple of the girls(Abirami and Banu) were called Portia n Bassanio for being such thick friends.

Karthika was called-karo, a variation of crow and the girl didn't seem to bother one bit for being called so. Love ya Karthu :)

and Angelina was called manga(Mango). How these names originated we never knew.

Shiny was called Chiki. The name is still used by all of us :D

We even called a friend of ours "gone with the wind" for being so skinny.

Yes, I understand it wouldn't be fair if I don't disclose my nick.

I was named "Pedigree" by Angel, for I do not know why!!

Then came the college days..

Vaenil was the first one to get a nick.

That too, from our maths prof..

It is a long story..