Gundu Prasanna is back

To use the most cliched punch line in the whole observable universe and beyond, 

"I'm back"

My last post was in August, 2012. That's like 1584 days, 10 hours, 16 minutes and counting, ago. A lot has happened with me, you and the world as we know it, during that time.

But, fortunately my absence here hasn't greatly affected anything/anyone and my presence certainly isn't going to either. You may ask why bother, well, what has not changed is I still have opinions, comments and experiences to share (and learn) and I still need a platform to share it. Facebook is too noisy, negative and becoming dangerous to share thoughts without being dragged into an argument and the conversation eventually turns into a war of words, ruining the camaraderie and bond between friends. We'll have to agree that we haven't matured enough to gracefully agree to disagree, now you may disagree with me on this, but we have to respectfully agree to disagree as this is my opinion and I'm entitled to it as much as you are entitled to yours. 

To those interested in knowing what's up with me, well, I've lost some weight, gained more wisdom (I mean grey hairs), moved to Canada in early 2013 for work, fell in love with the country and decided to settle here (after going through so much internal conflict on that front). Finally, found someone I love (and that loved me) and got married in 2014 and now have a cute 3 month old baby girl. 

Reviving my blog is one of my goals for 2017 and I've atleast started on a bright note by making this post a good week before the dawn of the new year. 

I know the world has moved on with conveying messages in 140 characters and as such there is not much patience for reading long blog posts anymore. I promise to keep my content interesting (well, it can get as interesting as my life experiences as this blog is all about that) and as short (well how can I ramble any lesser?) and as frequent as possible. 

I am also blogging (well just started to) at https://theagilerambler.blogspot.ca/. That blog's purported to be my ramblings on the "Agile" and software development stuff (well, I am a rambler, but still I hope to maintain the separation of duties between the blogs).

So until my next post, thanks for taking time to read this post. Enjoy life and spread happiness. 

Saved because of per second billing

2G scam or whatever, the price at which the spectrum was sold atleast brought one good thing with it, the tariff!! Guess India might be having one of the largest number of telecom operators along with lower tariffs.

So these companies needed a differentiating factor to get customers.If lower tariffs were one the per second billing was another. Though this was introduced by the now estranged BPL, it was popularized by Tata Docomo and it came to my rescue :-)

Having lost my Airtel post paid sim and took a docomo prepaid sim. Everything was going as usual with my bike even though I haven't serviced it for more than 6 months (battery dead, right indicators broken, speedo not running and another major (secret fault :-P) ) until one fine morning, my bike refused to take any more abuse and the chain slipped, leaving me stranded in the middle of nowhere !! Called the mechanic near my home but he didn't pick up so made a call to my colleague to inform him of the situation and after the call ended the balance showed as

Call Duration: 85 seconds             Call Cost: 85p              Balance Remaining: 1.81

I still had enough balance to call the mechanic and inform of my plight and he came to my rescue. A normal 1  rupee per call tariff of the olden days would have left me stranded on the road looking for a recharge shop instead of a mechanic :-)

Principle, Prerogative or Prejudice

Siddharth Varadarajan and his new team took up the editorial of the family owned and Chennai's most respected "The Hindu" some time back and the changes in the style and the content of the newspaper are very evident. Well whether the changes are good or evil, is another matter of discussion.

The most striking change is the introduction of "The Sunday Story". Usually the sunday Hindu has 4 pages dedicated to articles on myriad topics from its readers, which are mostly opinion pieces, life experiences and funny anecdotes. Whilst this is still retained, the sunday Hindu has just been spiced up with the addition of the Sunday Story, a report on each metro by staff reporters on a chosen topic for the week. How much of research goes into selection of the topics, collecting data and presenting them god only knows. But some of the topics have really caught the attention of the general public and stirred strong and dividing opinions. One such was the topic called "Housing Apartheid".

As expected just the topic name raised eyebrows, garnered eyeballs and generated curiosity. This post is not intended to debate the contents or the validity of the claims. But however, raised a question in me, isn't an individual or an institution entitled to have its own principles, preferences and prerogatives? Or all these things amount to having prejudice?

Sample these..

• I prefer to read only "The Hindu" that's my preference and prerogative does that mean I am showing prejudice to other newspapers?
• Vegetarianism is my principle which I don't advocate to others.. however, prefer to eat my own meal in a vegetarian restaurant and if its my home I prefer to rent it out to vegetarians, is that prejudice? Isn't it afterall my house that I built it from my money? I am confused.
• I wish all my muslim friends during their festival, but shifted out of a muslim dominant region in Hyderabad, as I couldn't stand the sight of a goat's head being roasted on the road during bakrid. Is that prejudice?
• The government says that even though 100 opportunities are available I can compete for one in 31 and 69 isn't for me. That's government's principle and it calls that RESERVATION and is that a prejudice? I don't know !!
• There was a furore over an advert in a forum I follow closely, which advertised they are building flats that are sale only for a specific community (that makes 2 to 4% of the entire state's population). All the forumers were calling for the builders head. But think about it, he is investing crores into the project and is ok to forego easy money from majority population by RESERVING it for a minority population. Is that prejudice or his preference?

So many questions!!! That is the beauty of being in a democracy :-) your opinion can be called preference, principle or prejudice based on others opinion :-) But you agree to disagree and coexist if not in harmony atleast tolerant of each other.

_thisblog.wakeup( )

Well, its been quite sometime since I took some time off my very busy schedule (seriously :) ) to write my ramblings here...

If you ask me what I did during this time.. I would say nothing much.. was hypervetti and became hyperlazy :) Hope that sums up why I was busy !!

Seri romba naal aacha let me start with a quote :)

வாழ்கை தத்துவம் பொதுவாக வாழும் தத்துவத்திலிருந்து வேறானது !!

We are the champs of IPL - 3 -- well done CSK !!!

We are the Chennai Super Kings

We don't have media all over us

No bollywood stars for support

We don't have fancy stars as our owners

No change in our jersey for three years

No tweets

No fake bloggers

No publicity and suport from so called national media

But still we did it.. we are the champions.. the most consistent IPL team ever.. 1 Win.. 1 Runner-up and a Semi final in 3 years.. that consistency, performance and being low key kind of epitomises the city of Chennai..

Chennai bashers have your heart content and fill the internet with zillions of hate blogs, posts, tweets (well the options seem to be endless.. so choose the best one for you :P)against this wonderful city.. and go and blow the horns that IPL is fixed bla bla... we are the champs and that is a fact and will remain a fact !!!

Congratulations to the great city of Chennai and its team for lifting this trophy.. Well done Captain Marvel MSD and team.. I definitely want to write a lot on this but for now all I have to say is

CHENNAI ROCKS!!!!