My changing tastes

I am told I had extremely poor taste in clothes. I preferred dull monochromatic shirts. Usually they were beige, gray, dark blue, black and sometimes white. I rarely wore nice polo shirts preferring collar-less T's. My friend Krishna on the other hand would wear bright colors such as Red, Crimson, and Light Blue and for some reason it would make me cringe. I probably felt it drew attention to me.

In fact my taste could have be described as follows; drabber the better

Something changed over the past half a decade. A lot of this was merely mental adjustment on my part that I am wrong most of the time. Along with this understanding came the realization that a lot of the things that were earlier important seemed no longer relevant.

Then I discovered colors. I am not saying this in the same sense that Columbus discovered America. This is one of those cliches on self discovery.

Now I like bright colors in shirts. These dresses were probably always nice; who know why my mind has begun accepting it recently. In fact on a trip to India 2 years ago someone called me a Metro sexual. I chose to take at it as a nicest compliment!!

Earlier I liked no variety in food. During the first 9 months in the US, my lunch consisted of 2 boiled eggs, 3 cheese sandwiches plus salt and pepper. My dinner consisted of 2-3 microwaved potatoes cooked with some spices along with 6-8 slices of toasted white bread and plain yogurt. I never got bored of this menu.

Now I try new food and actually enjoy eating out. That does not mean that if my wife made deep-fried potato curry every day to go with toasted Italian bread I would complain. My waist line may, I definitely would not.

My wife feels very proud about this fact; it took her 15 years to mold me to her taste!! I fortunately cannot make such a claim. She is unchanged from the time I met her.

I Ran A Relay Marathon

Over the past weekend I took part in a marathon in Delaware. A few of us were part of relay. In case you are wondering what a relay marathon is - quite simple. Most of us cannot run 26+ miles so 4 persons run as a relay team for a total of total of 26.2 miles. The lead runner tackles the first 10 miles with the next three running 5.4 miles each for a total of 26.2 m. For this race, there were almost 100 relay teams. Quite a few of us were so unfit we ran when we could and when we were winded we walked.

Our group was named - Chariots of Fire. We were 28 runners in 7 relay teams. Amongst our 4 member team the first runner, Mark, ran his 10 miles at an impressive 8 minute per mile for a total of 1H:20M. The 2nd member Mary, ran her 5.4 mile leg at about 14/15 minute per mile for a total of 1H:15M. The third member, Charlie, took 1H:5M for his 5.4 mile leg. I was told I took 1H:6M for the last leg. Charlie, 3rd leg of my team, was the first person to come back (amongst our seven teams) so you could say I had an advantage. Due to the fact that I was unfit and had to walk for a little while and the 4th runner of another team overtook me and won the race for his team. We came overall 2nd. BTW, the friendly race was only amongst the 7 teams. We could not have competed with the other teams. The fastest relay teams would have averaged 2H:45M and my team finished it in 4H:48M!!

To put it in perspective (how slow we were), I ran at about a 13 minute per mile pace over a 5.4 mile course and the overall marathon winner yesterday ran a 6 minute/mile over 26+ miles and he was a slow marathoner since world class ones run closer to 5 minute a mile pace!!

Wow!!

Down Memory Lanes

I met my future wife, Jan, when we were both at Graduate School in Detroit. This led me to get pretty well acquainted with her colleagues in the Chemistry Lab. They were really fun loving and one in particular was hilarious. Mark had an amazing but different sense of humor and was usually not serious.

One day one of Jan's lab-mates went around very seriously asking what each of would do if they had a million dollars. I cannot remember the reason why this topic came up. It must have been Lotto fever time, you know when the jackpot is very high and everyone speculates what they would do with the winnings. Jan started talking seriously about some charity work she could involved in if she were freed of the need to work for a living. Couple of others answered in a similar vein. When it was Mark's turn, he very seriously answered "I have this crack in my butt, that has bothered me from childhood. As first order of business, I would get it fixed!!".

Mark liked to write sci-fi short stories. One story is as follows - Life on earth is going on normally till one day every human becomes mad. They seek single combat with anyone with the sole desire to kill the other person. After an hour of this bl0ody orgy, they cease fighting and go on with their life as if nothing has happened. At about the same time the next day, they again take up their cudgels or whatever weapon that is available and go again on a killing spree. Ties of friendship or kinship does not prevent bloodshed. Man kills wife, children, father. You get the picture.

This goes on for several days when finally one man, once upon a time a fine specimen of manhood, survives. He pauses and surveys the fact that there are no more humans left to kill when music bursts forth and a space ship lands and out come strange looking creatures. They award him a trophy and congratulate him on his victory. Turns out the madness and desire to kill was a result of the aliens desire to watch bloodsport. After the award ceremony, the winner turns to the aliens and asks what he should do next, now that he is the champion. The aliens tell him to procreate and start humanity again. The man then explains Birds And Bees to the aliens.

You know what the aliens say - Oops. They then depart. Like I said, different sense of humor.

Another lab-mate was Richard B or Rich for short. One day Mark answered the phone and the person on the line asked for Dick B. Mark told him that Rich was away. He then went on to add how Rich did not like being addressed as Dick and also how Rich made it a point to correct anyone who addressed him as Dick. Lastly he asked who the person on the line was. Prompt came the answer.

Dick B Senior!!

What is in a name?

My name is Ramaraghavan pronounced रामराघवन. For those who do not speak Hindi try Raamaraaghavan - Raa rhymes with Baa

During my middle school years kids called me Raami. Why?

In high school my friends called me Raamaa but new teachers glancing at the student list frequently assumed I was a girl. They would look for a Miss Ramaaraaghavan. If you speak an Indian language you know the first five letters can be pronounced with the stress on maa making it a girls name as in रमाराघवन.

During undergrad years in Delhi guys called me Raamu (रामू) which is a typical name of a servant in Hindi films.

When I applied for a passport, I found I needed a last name and typical of people from the south I used my father's first name which is Srinivasan. My long name became longer and it became Ramaraghavan Srinivasan.

I found it was a good ice breaker at parties. Most people asked the same standard questions about the length of the name, what it meant, whether it stood for some village etc. To cap it all I would tell them with ghoulish delight how my friend has one of the longest name ever

Punyamurtula Venkata Hanumantha Seeta Ramachandra Swamy.

No Kidding. We all call him Swamy, but his wife calls him Raamu!! It comes as no surprise since he is her servant anyway.

So I shortened my name Raghavan. Even that proved to be difficult. Since I used to work at one of the big three automakers as a contractor, I tried explaining how one could rhyme it with minivan, caravan and they took to addressing me as Ragvan!!

So I gave up on that name too and now I am just simply Raag राग

About a decade ago I rented a truck and gave my name as R. Srinivasan since it would have been difficult spelling both the names. I then passed my driver's license. When I returned the truck, he could not find my rental record since the genius had entered my name as Art Srinivasan!!

A contractor came to our house to give us a quote for a deck. I introduced myself as follows "Hi I am Raag" and when we got the quote it said IRog Srinivasan.

In graduate school, my wife labmates used to call me the Ragman and even sang a song

Yeah he is the Ragman set to the famous Beatles tune. They even wrote two stanzas. Alas I lost the lyrics. Here is a link to the original Beatles song.

Three years ago when we had our second daughter Maalini, (मालिनि), I called up my wife's boss and left a message "Hi, my name is Raag. Jannavi had a daughter last night. Her name is Maalini. etc. etc.". You know what she sent her team?

Subject: welcome baby Maloni Srinivasan
Hi everyone,
Maloni was born last night. She weighed in at 5 lbs 5 oz and 18 inches long. Congratulations to the proud parents, Jannavi and Bob !!

You can call me Bob!!

The Most Beautiful City in India - A Contest

I am not making any assertions here about which city is the most beautiful city in India. Everyone likes their home town and having lived in both New Delhi and Madras, I am partial to both towns. So this is not a post about why either or both cities are beautiful. In fact I know most people would balk at calling Chennai a beautiful city. All I can say is I like it there.

In general what do people notice about India when they first land there? Dirt, trash, and, lack of hygiene everywhere. This is almost universal. People who have marveled at the Taj have also commented at the squalor elsewhere in Agra. All this is not new. Neither is this a diatribe on Indian cities. Let us see if we can make them better. So towards this I came up with this idea.

How about creating a The most beautiful city in India contest?

Naturally since this is an emotional question for most people and hard to deal with objectively, we need to define some set of objective rules to come up with an answer. With that as a setting let me share my thoughts on this. Please share your ideas too.

1. Which cities should be included in this contest? Cities with a population of 1 million and above. If you choose a smaller number the sheer number of cities that would qualify would inundate the system. Additionally the problems that the larger cities face are an order of magnitude more complex than the smaller towns and so the comparison would tend to favor the smaller ones.
2. How often should this contest be run? I feel once every other year is a justifiable interval since it will give the winning city the glory of the title for a reasonable time without the civic administration getting too complacent to rest on their laurels.
3. What is the award? Rather than awarding a trophy at the end of the two years, I think a rotating shield is better with the list of past winners.
4. Is there a cash prize and if so who gets it? I am not sure about this part.
   
5. What are the criteria? To start with cleanliness should be be given the highest priority with aesthetic values given lower weight. I guess most Indians would be thrilled if the streets are not littered with trash and people do not pee in public. As conditions improve the weights can be adjusted. Other factors that could be added as time goes on are pollution, congestion etc.
   
6. How to prevent regression of winning cities (PART-I)? Once a city wins the award it will keep harping about this award twenty years later. Indians are good at it. My cousin told me that everything in mathematics comes from Vedic Math!! The solution is easy. A winning city can advertise the fact for a total of 4 years. Two years when it holds the shield and two more if they do not repeat as winners. There should be some legal teeth to this. How?
   
7. How to prevent regression of winning cities (PART-II)? Part of this contest is also to list the three worst cities!! Cities may not care to win the award but shaming them is a powerful tool since the residents and the media will excoriate the politicians and civic administration. This is similar to the Ig Noble prize.
   
8. What happens two decades after this contest is started? Assuming that this works and cities do beautify, it is possible that the worst three are really not bad places to live in anymore. Dream on buddy!! We will cross this bridge when we come to it.
9. Weather should be eliminated from the equation. Shimla, Bangalore, Pune will always beat, Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai!! How does one take weather out of the equation?
10. What is an objective panel of judges? Simple - media is best suited for this job since they have the best resources for this. I think one reporter from every major newspaper in every major city that qualifies for this contest plus national newspapers such as The Hindu and TOI. National magazines such as India Today and Outlook. TV channels. This list is not complete. Media must demonstrate size, minimum of (say) 1 million newspapers sold every day. What should the number be for magazine and TV stations? It is critical that a suitable panel is created. To prevent nepotism, all magazines should list their city affiliation (and be certified). They should not be allowed to vote for their city in any category. Oh, by the way, voting is is not via secret ballot.
    

I will add to this when I get more ideas

To SaaS or Not to SaaS, That is the Question

I visit Joel Spolsky site Joel on Software on a regular basis since I came upon this excellent article on The Law of Leaky Abstraction. He is a very good writer. Not only does he write well but other articles and blogs he refers are an excellent source for further reading.

Recently I was looking at Where There's Muck There's Brass. This talks about the myriad challenges that a developer faces getting software run in diverse environment as a consequence of deploying it at customer sites. He is referring to managing the complexity of disparate OSes, database vendors, web servers, and application server amongst other variables that the product would need to handle.

One of the references include a post by Jason Fried from 37signals on why they would not consider installing software at customer premises. To quote him It would be highly unlikely that we’d sell installable software. His reasons, to list a few, are

1. Hosted solution implies controlled development and deployment environment
2. Keeps them small and agile
3. Avoids backward compatibility headaches
   

On the other hand, Joel states that 4 out of 5 of his customers opt for installing it themselves and hence he now has four times the sales opportunity. Interesting perspective. He also makes a telling point with this comment The one thing that so many of today's cute startups have in common is that all they have is a simple little Ruby-on-Rails Ajax site that has no barriers to entry and doesn't solve any gnarly problems. Bottom line, his point is, people normally pay for solving difficult problems not easy ones.

As always there is no one way!!

If you thinking about your strategy for selling web based software, both these articles provide good reasons why Jason and Joel did what they did. You now can make an educated decision rather than follow the herd one way or the other.

For those of you who have been living in a cave for the past 4-5 years and have just now come out of hibernation, here is a good reference for SaaS.

How can one lose ones heart twice in the same night

Quite easy.

Watch the Tamil movie Vanjikottai Valiban that was released in 1958 and I bet so would you lose your heart to the late Padmini and Vyjayanthimala. That is how!! It is hard to chose one over the other. You try

And here I thought my heart was safe with Aishwarya!!

I found a very touching eulogy to Padmini in The Hindu.

The story of Vanjikottai Valiban is a love triangle. Actually it is a little more than that, but the love triangle features predominantly in the end. The two ladies are in love with the hero Gemini Ganesan and their rivalry culminates in a dance duel. This song titled Kannum Kannum is considered to be one of the best dance sequences in Indian Cinema not just in my opinion. View the song in its entirety in Youtube. It helps if one understand the language since as you know the lyrics used to have significant meaning in those days. It is not like a My Ek Disco, Tu Ek Disco, Duniya hai Ek Disco type song!!

This movie came out in 1958 starring Padmini, Vyjayanthimala, and Gemini Ganesan. The story is quite simple. It recounts the adventure of a young man as he seeks retribution for the murder of his sister. The movie has extravagant sets and costumes, really good effects for that time, good dialogues, great song and dance sequences. Naturally it was a super hit. The plot has more than a strong resemblance to The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas in many places.

Here is the complete plot

There is a King with two children; the Princess and Prince. His second wife and her brother plot to assassinate King along with his two children since only they would in time inherit the throne. The king is killed but the loyal minister sacrifices his family in saving the King's children. The three live in hiding biding their time. The minister's wife in the meantime loads her children in a boat which drifts away before she could board and is arrested. The children grow up as orphans and in time come back to the same kingdom where the bad guy is now the general. The bad guy naturally, as all Indian bad guys do, drinks and carouses. He kidnaps the sister who dies in an attempt to escape.

The hero makes a foolish attempt at revenge and is promptly arrested and naturally gets thrown in the same jail as his mother. The forbidding looking prison happen by chance to be the middle of the ocean. Mother and son discover their relationship (she digs a hole in the wall to meet him since she has all the tools necessary. I was surprised she did not have any Power Tools). Mother tells son of their father's heroism, son tells mother the sad story of his sister. They dig hard to escape and as they are about to, the mother dies of a heart attack. She had to die since the hero cannot escape with her. Old women, nay women in general get in the way of the hero. I forgot to mention she told him before her death of the mole that father and son have in the arm to help him identify each other. Very convenient.

Son escapes and becomes a slave to Vyjayanthimala. I mean a real slave, not the metaphorical one as when a guy tells the girl that he loves her and he is her slave. Naturally she falls for his looks and literally throws herself at him in a very beautiful song Raja Magal, Roja Malar, but he is all throbbing for revenge and has no time for romance. He then proceeds to tells her his sob story. So she lets him go after eliciting a promise to come back and quench the fire in her heart or somewhere else (I kid you not, I did not make up those words). She also sends with him a boat load (literally) of precious jewelery to help him attain his goal.

The hero then disguises himself (the clever audience can see through the beard, but not the villain who can scheme and overthrow a king!!) as a merchant selling exotic jewelery and proceeds to the villain's castle and worms his way into the queen's heart with his charm and wit and in case that proved inadequate, with gifts of gold and diamonds.

Meanwhile he meets the princess who is Padmini and rescues her from the villain's henchmen since their hideout is revealed. In the process the father and a few of his people are arrested. The hero now asks the princess to dance for the villain with hopes of getting him drunk. When the villain is incapacitated he then proceed to the prison and helps his father escape. In the meantime Vyjayanthimala also comes to this country and see the hero and Padmini together and jumps to the conclusion that there is an understanding between the two. So she challenges Padmini to the dance duel which leads to the famous song Kannum Kannum.

Anyway the villain finds out the hero is not his friend from Vyjayanthimala and arrests everyone, but there are other loyal people who rouse the citizenry into attacking the castle. There is a general free for all at this point and Vyjayanthimala regrets her decision and dies in saving the hero. The villain dies in the fight and then

as my little one would say everyone lives happily ever after.