Variety is the spice of life

"Ars longa, Vita brevis" could soon be replaced by "Project longa, Tech brevis"!! for the rate at which newer techs are identified, they far out speed the life span of existing trends. With the IT industry in itself being autosarcophagic in nature, it forces the issue rather than wait for action to be taken. Due to this fickle nature of the industry, re-skilling resources, becomes a necessary evil which has to be given its due. Necessary - to meet the need of the hour. Evil - will try to explain why. Unlike educational institutions that have the luxury of a specified syllabus, which probably could be the root cause of the issue faced by the industry, learning programs in corporate organizations are more driven by market strategies, need of the hour requirements and at the core of all - Budget. Every year sectoral giants strengthen their employee base by recruiting entire batches of final year college students. The reasoning could be manifold from staffing fo...

I firmly believe that, for a stable, simple and strong process, which can easily reach people and be used by them, mobile or the digital version is the only way. For we have proof of more than half a century of  "manual" governance that has failed to live up to the expectation of empowering the masses. The real empowering people can only happen with knowledge about their rights and simpler processes to safeguard and utilize the same. What better way than making use of the current start-up boom alongside the push for digital drive and smarter cities. With so many start-ups shooting up every single day, one would be tempted to wonder that the above thought process would become a reality pretty soon. But a quick look at the list of start-ups registered till date for this year at least throws a totally different picture. Of about 59 of them listed in  http://trak.in/india-startup-funding-investment-2015/   retail shopping, paying utility bills ...

There has been ground breaking discoveries in the world of DNA and gene mapping with gene editing being talked about widely. With latest editing techniques, some of the genetically unavoidable diseases can be detected and avoided even before a child is formed. As much as the news been received with cheer, its implications and extrapolations doesn't fail to send a chill down the spine. When have we as humans ever stopped with utilizing a particular invention for the meant purpose alone. We invented wheel and wiped off green cover across half the planet. We broke atom to understand particles and ended up with nuclear weapons. Its this curious nature that is both our boon and curse. Pretty soon, people will start tweaking the genes for made to order babies, a super human race will soon be on the making, available for those who can afford. By growing limbs and organs outside of human body and harvesting them at a later point of time, replacing the damaged ones within oneself, ...

It started as a joke. What is the opposite of Sin? I got so many responses and some where pretty detailed enough to be posted. But despite falling on the feet of "Google" aandavar, we couldn't quite figure out an exact antonym for the word sin. But in the course of the search we did got to know that the same question has been raised on numerous forums which basically were philosophical discussions. It led to some really interesting view points on the English language itself. English being predominantly and primarily the language of the Christian community, didn't had the reason to have an opposite for sin, for the concept of getting rewarded for a good deed (punyam in our terms) in synch with punishment for bad deed (paavam, sin) didn't exist as per their religious belief. Science has an equally weird situation which is kind of converse to theology,  where in you can measure the amount of brightness and can even increase or decrease it by a factor. But will ne...

The father becomes the son and son becomes father. This is a running joke that a father is only as old as his son/daughter for he attains that status only after their birth, but girls can become mom irrespective of any such links. With all due respect, the role of a mom is pretty straight forward in the sense that, almost every single one of the women, knows what it feels like to be a mom. They just have to express it and they are well and truly set on the route of motherhood. They need not even give birth to a kid of their to be called mom. Since the very meaning of mom being love, any women showering love un-conditionally are/can be called mom. But the same doesn't apply for "dad". Being dad is one thing, being called dad is a totally different thing altogether. Middle aged people wouldn't have any qualms in admitting to call someone as a fatherly figure, who are always someone elder to them. But how much ever you shower love on a kid, the best you can qualify f...

I know of few of my colleagues, who quit their top paying jobs ,where they had gelled in like hand in glove and yet didnt feel satisfied. They found satisfaction in serving others. From the lines of service as an industry they considered service as an individual practice for fellow humans. When queried them for the reason behind their decision, they want to give back to the society that has given them so much. I came to know about an astonishing personality,  recently, who has a very inspiring yet unbelievable story. He quit his well paying IT job and was in fact well on his way towards establishing his own company when he took up cycling to spread humaneness. He started an unbelievable cycling trip from London to Delhi with just a backup in his carrier containing a tent, a small bag of sprouts and his travel document and some pamphlets. He had strong belief in humanity that when the people get to know the purpose of his travel, he would get all the support needed ...

Saadhu mirandaal kaadu kollaathu. If anyone wants a theatrical proof for the above proverb, one should look not beyond Breaking Bad, the bindaas bad ass of all crime related drama series. I've long put off watching it, never managing to see beyond the first ten minutes in my many attempts, sheerly out of intriguing peer reviews and the record scores it scored on rating sites. The show holds the Guinness record for all time high ratings and is often addressed as the greatest drama series ever. The storyline is pretty simple. A chemistry teacher, suffering from lung cancer, resorts to making drugs to support his family and for securing their future. How he goes about it and what happens in the end is told as a 5 season series. Just like "Soodhu kavvum" which glorified "evil", this series is almost a candid camera approach of a layman towards drug racketing. Every step that he takes are so casual and realistic that, the concept that a common with chemistry k...

Gils verdict - First linelaye verdict sollidren. Marana mokkai. More than Vijay, its the director Chimbudevan who has disappointed the audience enmasse. The man who gave us rib ticklers like 23rd pulikesi, Irumbu koattai murattu singam and interesting screenplays for Arai en 315il kadavul, oru kanniyum moondru kalavanigalum, lets his fans down big time. The story line appears interesting on paper, with the hero set on a quest to recover his lady love from vampire like creatures and how animals and magicians help him to achieve the same. Its right up the alley for the director and makes an interesting leap of faith for the ambulimama chandamama brigade. But its the execution which lets it down big time. Dialogues and screenplay are so juvenile that really makes one wonder if it was written by such an ace like chimbu. With ample budget and a bankable star at his disposal, its safe to say that he has lost a big time opportunity to pole vault into the big league. Songs by DSP were bad ...

Why do people work?  People want to earn for their living and hence they work. As simple as that. When further queried are they satisfied with what they do, the majority of the respondents are either neutral or dissatisfied and very few are actually happy with what they did. There could be various factors for the negativity ranging from their personality traits to their current work environment. But those who posted neutral, the major chunk of the population, were the surprise package. By being neutral they may or may not be aware of how they feel about what they do for their majority of waking hours, which could total to more than half their life span. Yet people turn up for their job day in and day out. Is money the only reason/motivator for doing work? Consider a typical job interview. The questions posted would basically center around the skill set needed and probing around the analytical capability as well. Percentage of hike would definitely...