Journey to my first phone

2010-10-04T23:10:00.001-07:00

Not long ago, I used to daydream seeing others, who used to sport swanky Nokia handsets, talk to their near and dear ones or just mere showoff by keeping ringtone alert loud; I used to ask myself when I will pose like those people. That was six years back ! :)

I used to walk a km from my hostel to Avenue Road along with my friends every alternate day after tasteless mess dinner to call my home and apprise them the regular stuffs. After that, we never missed to sip a cup of tea at a small shop with a call-booth owned by one good-looking aunty, whom all my group of girlfriend-starved friends stared and go over top imagining everything they would. Even I fell to their trap, not that I was sadhu before ! Anyways back to where I was, if you are confused whether I used to walk so long to call home or see that aunt. Well, the answer can be YES to both, but my mother’s order to call her every alternate day overshadowed any damn reason. Although the motives were many, I used to go there only to call my parents and siblings located 650 Kms away from Bangalore by dropping never-ending stream of coins in the yellow-box and the reason was I didn’t possess the gadget called Mobile Phone or Cell Phone!

Although we used to find solace being part of a breed called engineering students where a saying goes “Life takes backseat when you join engineering students, in terms of girls “. If you are wondering Baba Ranchodddas didn’t say all this, well author of this post believes so, and my engg brotherhood supports this claim. Sorry, I don’t consider outliers.
I used to visit home once every three months. I never used to insist my parents to buy one cellphone fore me, they could sense my urgency to grab one, especially when some mama buys new phone and along my cousins, we go awe with it and in no time, test every single feature [can’t help, born to be engineers].

It was December winter of 2006 and I happened to visit my family during preparation holidays of my third semester exam. The atmosphere at home, my irritating bro and sis and constant pampering of my mom by serving dishes of my choice made me forget that I had come home to prepare for my third semester exam with loads of books in my bag. After a week stay, I boarded Udhyan Express – Departure Time, 8.10 pm, Wadi, Seat No. 21 AC 3 tier. I always preferred travelling in Sleeper compartment, but my insisted me to book this time in AC. Why not? It was free for me, because I was still a proud dependent of an Indian Railway Servant. Although I reluctantly agreed, I opted AC 3 tier rather than my dad’s initial guideline to book my seat only in 2A. I boarded my train in time with two heavy bags, piercing through people standing at the door to get my seat. Someone had already occupied my seat, and since they were quite elder, I decided to sit at the side berths. I saw a girl occupying that seat and obviously, she had booked. She had wrapped herself in a shawl covering her from neck to toe, wearing spectacles and cursing me from within as I trespassed her seat for which she was owner for next 12 hours, was reading some fat novel. After seeing each other’s face for next half hour, I decided to start the conversation with her. I asked what book she was reading! She said something and I didn’t give a damn about that. I recall the author was Danielle Steele, and that was the first time, I was hearing this name. And later I found out that she was an ardent fan of this romantic novelist. We were lost in continuous chat and stopped until some old uncle reminded us that it was 11.30 pm and asked us to switch off the single light in the aisle. I still prefer an Upper berth in trains and it was same that day too.

Reason: I love sleep and can’t tolerate if someone wakes me up early, especially in train. I believe many people who are fond of sleep and travel/led in trains agree with me. But that night was different. Although we exchanged pleasantries, nothing much had progressed and I didn’t want it to end here. I just wanted to wake up early let whatever happens. I had no gadget to give alarm, but I had up my mind to talk with her again next morning.

Next day, I checked my watch immediately I woke up. Without any alarm or anyone waking me up, I got up my own for first time in train at 6.30 am and I was relieved. I didn’t want her to see myself as a very desperate guy. J So I behaved normally and went to do my daily chorus. We still had good two hours left and it was Hindupur I believe. I bought a cup of tea for both of us and continued our chat. Bangalore Cannt came, and she had to get down. I used to get down usually at Majestic, but this time, responded to the reality. I got some weird sense of feeling that something good was going to happen; and without thinking twice, I just got down and helped her with luggage. For those, who are thinking it’s just out of JAB-WE-MET, in fact, we both were pleasantly surprised and astonished later to see how similar it was to our life. Please note: this happened in Dec ’06, way before JWM released.

To my surprise; she shared her phone no. even without asking. I knew it made no sense asking number from her, when I myself didn’t possess one. But I knew “mera number aayega” but when, I was not sure! She insisted to give a miscall. To avoid getting I told her my cell is switched off and I kept it deep under my luggage. I didn’t had a pen to note down her no. Neither did she have. I promised her I will call back her once I reach hostel and just recited her no. on the way back. The moment I reached hostel, I messaged her using my friend’s mobile. This continued until I consumed those 100 sms of my friend, and it was getting really weird because even he was one big flirt with girls , and he wanted those free sms badly. I decided to buy a sim. May be I am the first person on earth to buy a SIM before buying a handset. But yes, I did ! I used to remove his sim and chat with this girl until we really decided to meet again. It was exam time so I postponed the meeting and stopped chatting for a while. I went for a vacation after exams to home for 3 weeks. To my surprise, my father gifted one nice cool phone to me. And there began the journey! I had my first-ever mobile phone before my first-ever date! Now I proudly say - Ab mera number hai!

Today I 0wn the phone in the image above after changing so many phones en-route, but I can never forget the journey to my first phone ! :)

97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know

2009-06-01T11:36:00.000-07:00

To all the budding software engineers who have wished or will later wish to become "The Software Architect ", I guess I have discovered a real gold-mine for you all . The link which is pasted below contains 97 golden steps which are explained by each contributor in detail , and it's worth is not just reading. Yes, u got it right ! Follow them :) and see, a software arhitect is in making . I have read all the 97 steps and surely , will complete the brief explaination by all . Plan to buy a book as it will be a crown in your collection .

So click the following

97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know

http://97-things.near-time.net/wiki/97-things-every-software-architect-should-know-the-book

The above link contains the original, unedited contributions for the book 97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know, which is available at O'Reilly Media , Amazon.com and your local book stores.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3

Developer Works Stuff : Buffer Defend

2009-03-29T11:51:00.000-07:00

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/s-buffer-defend.html

Well, this one is for all those C - lovers and even other language enthusiasts. This developerworks article explains how a programmer will fall into the trap of functions which are quite intimidating to be used but very vulnerable when security comes in point of view.It is also one of my favourites because even a novice who wishes to be a good developer can understand what's at stake . So let me keep it short, just click the link and you will realise that I was right ! :-)

Happy Secure Coding !

Google trick

2009-03-25T13:14:00.000-07:00

Cool Google search trick :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji7IyuT_Uxo&eurl=http://maja.up-with.com/techie-maja-and-kelasada-avakaashagalu-f38/cool-google-search-trick-t5954.htm

To all those friends who search movies and music using torrents or any peer to peer mechnisms,
this link is a god to the fraternity where google is explored to find what the mortal wants ! ;)

Enjoy!
[ Courtesy : MasterMind Blog - Satish Kulal , my college senior and very good friend of mine ]

TechZone

Journey to my first phone

97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know

Developer Works Stuff : Buffer Defend

Google trick