Acknowledging the proposal

Prompt reply was sent to the proposal for the car:

Dear aspirant of a car,

Your project is well aimed and lists out the motive. However, the proposal lacks certain vital criteria:

• the risk factors
• pros and cons
• budget section is incomplete without sundry costs like registration and there off.
• what about maintenance?

Kindly furnish these details for your proposal to be consider for further actions.

Regards
Balaji

Disclaimer: All the above statements are expressed as per the mood of Balaji at 6.45pm on 6th Feb of 8. These and any of the unsaid statements may change as the time goes on. The receipt and reply of your proposal doesnot gaurentee acceptance of your whims and fancies. Any conflict arising out of this dealing shall be settled at The Court Of Balaji.

A strange proposal

Got an interesting requirement in the mail:

Buying a car for our family

Author: Swarna
Date: 6th Feb 2008

Background:

We have moved to Manipal where we might stay for a few years at least. As it rains continuously in Manipal from the month of June to October, commuting becomes difficult on a two-wheeler in those months. So, hereby I put forward the proposal of buying a car for our family.

Review of literature:
From their time of invention, cars have been a comfortable means of transport compared to two wheelers. Though it is also considered to be a symbol of status and luxury, it is very advantageous to own a car for the following reasons.

1. We can get protection from the fury of the weather, be it the smoldering sun, the chilling winter or a torrential rain. Weather will not be a limiting factor in our moving from place to place. This becomes important in places where the weather conditions are extreme.
2. We can escape the air-pollution in an AC car. It is important from the health point of view, since air-pollution is seemingly becoming one of the important causes for the onset and aggravation of respiratory diseases.(for Bala)
3. The better shock-absorbers in a car are less troublesome for people with spinal problems. Two-wheelers aggravate those problems esp. on bumpy roads (for Swarna)

Choosing the car:
The car we want to buy depends on why we want to buy it. Looking at our current need, i.e, we need a car to get transported during the rains, a basic model would suffice which would have an AC and a power steering.

AC is required because, when it rains, the windows have to be closed and it can get very stuffy without AC. (This comes with an addition of around 30-35000Rs upon the non-AC version)

Power- steering is required for us because it takes lot of effort to steer the car otherwise, and it can be a very tiring experience to drive without that. (This comes with an addition of around 20000Rs)

Now, the next question is, choosing the brand.

Maruti and Hyundai seem to be good in servicing and have a better re-sale value compared to the other brands. Compared to Hyundai, Maruti’s service is better, spares are easily available and cheaper. And also Maruti has some very good , pocket- friendly basic models compared to Hyundai. So, going for Maruti cars is a good choice.

The basic models available in Maruti are

1. Maruti 800
2. Maruti alto

Alto is better than M800 because

• M800 models do not have power steering
• Alto’s body is better built and offers more safety during collisions compared to M800
• Alto’s engine is better and it has 5 gears

All the above advantages and some more features come for a price difference of around 50000. So, weighing the benefits against odds, buying an Alto seems to be more sensible. (power-steering itself would cost around 20000Rs. So the better built and better engine comes for just 30000 Rs extra)

So, now going for a Maruti- Alto with AC and power steering (model LXi) seems to be the best choice.

Used or new?
The next question to be addressed is to buy a new one or used one?
Disadvantages of a new car:

• The moment a new car is driven out of the show room, its value depreciates by 20% and after that whether it is used or not, its value depreciates by 10% every year

Disadvantages of a used car:

• its very difficult to assess the condition of the car properly and correctly value the car
• it is sometimes difficult to get the car of your choice as a second hand in good condition

If there are budget constraints, and the car would be used only sparingly, it is wise to go for a used car with the help of a good mechanic.

If you happen to come across the car of your choice in a good bargain, it is a really good deal (as happens to be case now with us)

So, going for an alto in good condition as second hand is indisputably the best option !

Budget:

Coming to the formidable question of budgeting the project…

A research on buying used cars says that, the car of our choice (alto LXi) in good condition, as a second hand can be bought from 1.7 lakhs to over 2 lakhs depending upon the age of the car.

So, the minimum budget requirement is 1.7 Lakhs. Considering our financial situation, we can keep the maximum to be around 2 Lakhs

Conclusion:

So, I hereby conclude by proposing that we buy a Maruti-alto LXi, preferably a second-hand in good condition, which might require a budget of between 1.7 to 2 Lakhs.

References:

http://www.carwale.com/
http://www.mouthshut.com/
http://www.autocarindia.com/

Under the starry nights

Ever enjoyed sleeping in the terrace? Recently I had the opportunity - to admire at the majestic creation roofed above us. What an wonderful things, just twinkling ignoring the minor specs like us. The weather was pleasant and the atmosphere silent. I was stark naked! Only a thin blanket separated me and the stars. (Thanks to my wife who pulled off my dhoti in order to prevent me from going outside. Who cares about dress code when we enjoy the nature)

Many questions started springing from myself. When there are so many massive stars, planets, (in fact, galaxies and galaxies of stars) laying around, why do we feel space crunch? In fact, we feel scarcity for most of the resources. May be the time and space are separating us from the ready reachability. Other reason could be the way we misuse the resources and suffer. Or the usable resource might be in scarce surrounded by void or waste resources.

Another irrelevant thought occurred while gazing the stars. The way our perspective change as we gain knowledge about certain things. In olden literature, stars are seen as ornamental - from poetic view. They talk about hero pulling out stars to prepare a necklace for the heroine. However, there is a drift in that view. Recent flim songs and the poets view stars as a place. Hero says he will place the girl in so and so star. She responds with concern of melting out due to the over heat from the stars. Science findings does influence the literature.

Well, it became too cold outside. Dropped the ego and went into the house.

Wrong house

When it comes to getting internet connection, I end up being at the wrong house. The ill luck started being in the midst of the city. Airtel couldnt give a broadband connection because the house I was was slightly away from their network of connections. Had to settle with a slow gprs connection.

Then faced a strange issue when moving to a second tier city. The area counseler was not allowing airtel connection into the ward where I moved in. This ended up with struggling with a substandard connection.

Now in a town, airtel is happy to provide connection to right side of the street and not to the left. Guess where my house is .. yeap, in the left side. Apart from the lefties and righties strangeness, they have provided a line to the house just in front of us (which is in left), but still not to our house. Guess they know me whichever part of the world I go.

Atleast I got other form of connections in earlier cases. But in the town, I am not able to get a landline too. The house in front of us has a landline, house to left and right has. The ground floor house has a connection but not us. They said they have exhausted all the connections!! Now I see them dig the street to find a new point to allot us.

an evening time into the woods

My wife said she was hungry and want to have some evening snacks. Instead of going to traditional joints, I thought of exploring the surroundings. There is a steep road going behind our house. I thought it will lead to some village. We went in that road in the bike. I road was too steep that I was worried about climbing up.

Soon it became scenic. There were many small birds, paddy field etc. We spotted a peacock too. It was a nice environment. As we proceeded, it became more and more dense with trees and cooler. The tar road became mud road. Width of the road was also reducing. At one point we thought the road had ended and we were expecting a cliff. After reaching there, we realized a small bridge connecting other side of a running stream. Quite adventurous ride to cross the narrow bridge.

After a while, we found a temple and few shops near by. Had dosa at one of those village restaurants. Very tasty compared to what we get in the town. The soft drinks were also home made and local branded. Different from our pepsi and coke.

No sooner we left the village spot, we figured the familiar malls and lodges greetings us. We were into the thick and den of the city/town. If we had reached that small restaurant through the main road from the city, we wouldn't have felt the same way as we discovered it from the wood.

The evolution

When I was a kid, I had to go often to near by "pala-sarakku kadai", literarily meaning "multi-material shop". This had the provisionary items, veggies, candies, etc. Massive wooden desk would block you from entering into the shop. All you can do is, stand in the street outside the shop (sometimes along with crowded customers) and try to grab the attention of anyone of the four person serving from inside. Once you get the attention, u shd quickly list out the items you want. The guy would vanish into the dark side of the shop. None of the ordered items will be visible to us. After awhile, he will come out carrying paper bundles. If you had exceeded certain limit in purchase, u will get brown colored free gunny bag to put the bundles. The itemized bill will be a hand scribbled list in a piece of paper. (btw, they do buy old notebooks from you, may be for the billing purpose).

Then things changed. Gunny bags were old fashioned. Paper bundles were barbaric. The in-thing is plastic wrappers and covers. Goods were pre-packed and kept in the showcase. Now the shop is called "Stores". We were allowed inside the shop. The massive desk in the previous shops were bent into a big U-shaped desks and ran in parallel to the show cases. Service folks stood in between the desk and the show case. U could point the items you want and they placed those in the desk. Finally billed with a teleprinter, goods were placed inside a shining, attractive plastic bag with their store name written big.

Today I go to shopping malls and super bazaars. I can reach the goods all by myself. Even if I move without a trolley, someone pushes one into my hand. Now I am able to compare prizes, quality and other factors before buying stuff. After collecting the things, I meet the shopping personal at the billing counter (mostly 'she', as I have option to choose the counter). Thou the things are placed inside plastic bags, they make you feel guilty to do so. Seems like it is no more cool, but cruelty against nature. You are supposed to bring your own bag or buy a bag from them - it is our good old gunny bag, this time it is white.

New home

Currently settling down at the new town. Things are bit different. It is a small town, less populated. Quite calm and nice. My home is in the suburb, not far from the town center; just two turns and within 2km reach. Been a while staying at a walkable distance from the city center :-)

There are less choices to make for various services and restaurants - that is a plus and minus. The town is highly female populated as majority of guys had gone abroad for jobs and this town has medium scale industries promising jobs for girls.

Still waiting for my luggage and articles to arrive. A local lorry strike is holding my stuff from delivery. Hope they will arrive soon in good condition.

Joy of the roadside

Other day I was walking along the street. Found a decent road side food stall. It had around 5 tables to accommodate 20 guests. The hotel was run by a north indian family. I love such joints run by families as we can expect homely food. Whatever money we give in a standard star hotels, we never can get this taste. I guess the quality control and over-hygiene consciousness kills the taste. I believe the hygiene, quality, taste, ambience (if possible), cost should be applied in moderation. Compromising something totally for other factors may not be acceptable by many.

Happen to meet some people how are too conscious about such road side hotels. More than the hygiene part, their social status block their way to enter into such places. They imagine the world is at their back and watch whatever they do (as thou the world has no other job to do). Such ego-maniacal, self centered people will realize what they have been missing when their vanity vanishes ... will they?

how do they rate a magazine article

If we have an article in the web, we can easily find the reader volume. We can attach n number of tools to the page to track the readers and know zillion of info about them. Also we have sophisticated comment section, forums and other means to share idea to know about the topic, people.

On the contrary, how do they rate a particular article in a magazine? How many had read, what age group liked it, do they expect any followup or related articles? Do they do this only based on the snail mail, phone calls they receive? I have been reading articles from childhood and never communicated to the publishers. I guess most of the readers are like me. If that is the case, how can they get a reasonable data?

May be they use the minimal data they get and try to extrapolate for the wider audience.

seeing blank jsf page?

My jsf apps was working fine. I had to include few html tags and guess what .. none of the pages are displayed there after. No error, no display. After debugging and net search, I figured out that the outtext after f:view is the culprit. By removing it, order was restored and citizens lived happily ever after (until they hit upon the next bug).

Dataflow through pages

What is the right way of passing info from one web page to another? When it comes to jsf+adf, things get murky. Upon googling, I stumbled into pageFlowScope. As that was what I looked for, I started using the same. However while accessing the pageFlowScope api from the java code, problems started appearing. First I faced invalid property name exception - this exception, error msg was misleading. Upon tweaking the lib, I got 404.

Now I tried downloading more libs and upgrading the ide version. That didn't help. After some more search in the net, I found processScope whose documents were exactly same as pageFlowScope. Looks like oracle took pageFlowScope code and doc, did a global search n replace to processScope. Anyway things are working after I moved to processScope.

I have a feeling that when I try to simulate GET behavior in jsf+adf, I will have one more sleepless night. Let me try that too.

A day at the bank

Yesterday I was at the bank to deposit money into an account. While entering the bank I was wondering what kind of issue I am going to face on that day - the reason is most of the time I had ended up like a fool or with a quarrel. Definitely not comfortable with the bank procedures. I thought I need to do a wire transfer as the account was in a distant city. Not able to find any suitable form, I approached the staff. He was quite friendly in guiding; that was a surprise.

After that I got a token from the vending machine hanging at the entrance. Bank has placed costly leather sofa sets in front of the counters. I was waiting for a seat to get empty and swiftly occupied it. Then came the waiting period. My token number is 150 and the running number was 48 ... oh! I did some simple maths to time the process. Out of the 3 or 4 counters, it took 30 minutes to handle 25 tokens. This includes missed tokens whose owners didn't turn up when they were called.

I had to wait for 2 hours. Since the bank was close to college, the customers were quite interesting and I was able to pass time easily. Once in a while I checked the running counter to verify my calculation. Thou there were times the tokens moved too slow, ultimately I was served in 2 hours.

This time my transaction went through without any issue. What a luck! otherwise I might have to wait another 2 hours. After coming out, I was wondering about the time spent there. Definitely the system is far better than what it used to be - that is standing in separate queues and seeing other queues moving fast. One approach could be that the customers get their tokens through phone or net. They also get to know the approx time +/- 30mins to be at the bank. This might save lots of time of customers and the workload, stress of the bank. Not sure about the technicality, feasibility and practicality.

I bought the Monk's Ferrari

The title of the book was catchy and made me to take a look inside (guess that is what author, Ravi Subramanian, expected to happen when he framed this title)

After flipping few pages and reading a chapter, I bought the book. Quite interesting thoughts. Particularly I liked the "work-life balance" topic - a different line of thinking than what is popular trend now. This ought to be interesting for anyone aspiring to climb up the career or establish a corporate empire.

Apart from that, the book is yash (yet another self-help) book. The word Ferrari is sprinkled artificially all over the book; and that was irritating. The last chapter throws some clarity for doing so.

Usually these kind of books drag us to Newyork or SFO, where we are alienated. The Ferrari story line happens at Hyderabadi roads and Mumbai buildings, and so makes us feel at home. Hope we get more books like this.

There is no connection between "Monk who sold his Ferrari" and this book, except the title and few places where author mentions about the earlier book. That was a disappointment for me. I was hoping a dramatic scene where Ravi meets Julian to negotiate the Ferrari and strikes a deal :-)

After watching the sequel of a movie, most likely we feel that the original was better. Same feeling I got with this book compared to "The monk who sold his Ferrari". (Not sure if I can compare). Said apart, this new Ferrari book is worth reading once.

mood-o-meter

Here is an observation I had while watching my mood. When I am in a bad mood, my productivity goes down. Down to the level of loosing MahJongg ! I start playing the game to distract myself from the bad events. While the titles spread in front of me, my mind distracts and wander off into the abyss. Once I loose the focus, the time ticks off. More than that, I find it difficult to match the titles. Sometimes I end up with frustration out the game. The probability of loosing the game is more in such state of mind.

If an interesting game is spoiled with such mood, think about the boring tasks like office work.

The male attraction

While watching discovery or animal planet, it is quite evident that the male species of different animals take the pain of developing skills and/or equipments to attract the female. They own tusk or facial hair or bright colored feathers etc. They have to fight against similar male counter parts who are competing for the same female.

However, there is a drastic difference in case of human beings. Seems like the roles are reversed. We see the amount of effort placed by female to groom up is considerably more than the male counter part. One reason could have been with the male female ratio. In days when war was frequent and dispute were settled over a fight, male population should have been very low, which would have lead to polygynous. In such a world, it made sense for girls to show up bright and beautiful, - not only for finding a guy but to keep him interested after finding.

The modern world is changing. The gender ratio is skewing towards the other side. In India it is very low that already we are seeing the side effects like 'buying the bride', polyandry. May be in the future, guys will get back their natural instinct of shinning up for meeting the girl.

Temple elephants

Had a thought wave about elephants at temples. Was wondering the association. Here is what I got, not sure if this is the right version. In olden days machinery were absent and only muscle power was used to accomplish most of the work. Ploughing, construction, fighting and in many areas, man used animals. Out of the domesticated animals, elephant served the most powerful role due to its jumbo size.

It also made sense to own such a beast at a common ground through common funding. This arrangement works out good for everyone because maintaining an elephant is a costly affair. The benefits out of the elephant was reaped by many.

In those days, temple took the 'common ground' role. Each town had a temple and utilized for many a tasks. Elephant also ended up in the care of the temple and the temple fund.

Other theory could be that the upper-class people required the elephant and instead of they pulling the money from their pocket, they divided the burden among all. In order to hide the dirty task, they popularized the belief that seeing/touching/hearing/smelling elephants are good omen.

Why should we marry?

Watched any action movie with 4 heros? one guy would be a married guy. Other falls in love with the village naughty girl. Third one is the comedian for the movie. The last guy is a bathelor with vigour but aimless. Now these guys join together and bash the evil empire.

The climax! One of the guy should die. That could add more masala to the already stuffy movie. Who shall be the sheap?

How about the guy with the girlfriend? He is the one brought in romantic songs and charm to the movie. Audience wont like the tragic end to him.

Then the married guy? Oh no! what will happen to the widow? We cannot reply that question in the remaining 5 mins and that would give away an incomplete movie.

The movie that kills the comedian will receive a curse. A comedian is seen as a good for nothing guy, but harming him is considered a serious affair. The blame will be placed on the hero (the guy with a gf) for not saving the comedian (who is timid and cant protect himself).

Ok, that leaves with the bachelor. Any objection? Nope. Nobody is waiting for his arrival back at his home. There is no unanswered questions if he dies.

Therefore, it is better to get married; if not atleast get couple of gfs.

Search for an orm

I had to write a small utility that will fetch data from the file system + environment and process them before depositing into a database. I thought of trying an object relational mapping tool to generate java code. That would reduce most of my work.

Avoided heavy weight tools like hibernate, toplink etc. I feel they are suited for complex, multi-tiered applications. I need a simple one.

Upon googling, I got lots of orm available for free. Had to scrutinize each of them and compare pros n cons. Few of them came close. Downloaded them and started checking them.

One worked fine for the sample they gave but failed to work against my db. Another had inadequate doc that I didnt know the step after downloading. Third expected me to write the java code and that tool will map to the db - this is not what I want.

Finally I got the tool I wanted. sql2java - available in sourceforge. Had to tweak the generated code a bit but finally got something to work. In this two days of usage, so far it is smooth.

Emotional blackmail

Why do some people try to get their whims and fancies satisfied through all sought of crooked ways? The height of them is kith and kin who blackmail their relatives that they will commit suicide. I see genuine suicide as a impulsive one provoked by a spark of a moment or a reaction to an event in the near past. Another type of genuineness I would accept is a person depressed over a period of time and after lot of contemplation decides to end his/her life. In both these categories, most often the thinking process is internal and people around get the news as a surprise.

On the other hand, there are people who manipulate the weakness of relatives. They threaten that they will commit suicide. This suicidal attempt is broadcasted and advertised in a major manner. Right from the district collector to the vegetable vendor, everyone knows the date, time, venue of the attempt. That is how the tv channels try to capture such events. By then, they try to encash their popularity and demand whatever they want. Usually it is a kind of domination at the home front. In order to strength their side, they 'attempt' the suicide - they take low quality tablets or choose a shallow building or mix water to kerosene. In either manner, their goal is get grab attention and control the surrounding.

These people dont have a clue on what others will go thru - during such adventurous drama or in case of successive operation. They are too selfish to think about others.

Well, in my opinion, suicide seekers should be encouraged to do so. We will be freeing up lot of resources hogged by the pessimistic stupids.

Second impressions

Happen to talk to couple of friends who are divorsed and searching for a re-marriage.
Seems like their market is slightly different than the freshers.

Here are some code of conduct in this world.

• If asked about the failure of previous marriage, invariably everyone blames their ex.
• Who initiated the divorce? Seems like you get extra point if you initiated and moved out of the marriage. So, most likely you will hear the answer that they initiated. However, if a girl says that her ex was cheating on her, then the answer would be that the man started the divorce process - this answer will create more sympathy for the girl.
• Why do you want to marry again? Here are few answers:
  • I am not for it. Just for the social pressure.
  • This time I am going to make sure I dont do the same mistakes
• During their first dating, they will check if this person shares the same negative qualities of their ex.