tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-152207882024-03-13T12:15:05.327-07:00Life IsHarshal Shahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317666161999659651noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15220788.post-52320656406975787152007-07-08T23:30:00.000-07:002007-07-08T23:33:04.734-07:00Bar Camp at Persistent<p>7-7-7 for me was a day at Bar camp. The camp was hosted at <a href="http://www.persistentsys.com/" mce_href="http://www.persistentsys.com">Persistent systems</a>. Being a part of the organizers, I planned to reach there at around 9. Although early showers in the morning delayed my plans and was there at around 9:30. Things had already started moving. The registrations had begun and the campers (participants) were enjoying early morning "Poha" with "chai". It was good to see people praising your campus and canteen and everything.</p> <p><a href="http://shahharshal.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/harshalatbarcamp.jpg" mce_href="http://shahharshal.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/harshalatbarcamp.jpg" title="harshalatbarcamp.jpg"><img src="http://shahharshal.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/harshalatbarcamp.thumbnail.jpg" mce_src="http://shahharshal.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/harshalatbarcamp.thumbnail.jpg" alt="harshalatbarcamp.jpg" /></a></p> <p>The sessions started at 10:30. It was good to see that all the 3 tracks were almost packed before 10. I went and attended <a href="http://thoughtsworks.com/" mce_href="http://thoughtsworks.com">throughtworks </a>presentation on "Fractuals and Complexity". I really wondered before the session what is this guy suppose to talk about since I did not have any head or tail of the topic. But that was one thing that attracted me to attend the session and I enjoyed it. The theme behind the session that everything that nature designs is not complexity but rather simplicity. The trick is to figure out the applied algorithm which could may be iterative or repetive and they could really create complex structures. It was good to see people and companies exploring such mathematical and different ideas.</p> <p>I also heard that <a href="http://tvguide.in/" mce_href="http://tvguide.in">TVGuide.in </a>session which was running in parallel to this track was also an innovative concept and the teams had fun interacting with the speaker.</p> <p>The next presentation by <a href="http://shahharshal.com/blogs/wp-admin/galaticosfan@gmail.com" mce_href="galaticosfan@gmail.com">Adaitya Thatte</a> about microsoft's silverlight product was also informative. Meanwhile I also had discussions regarding the new co-operative IT concept with Ajay. This was again and interesting thing, which co-incidentently I was also thinking about sometimes before.</p> <p>It was lunch time by then and we had a delicious lunch in <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/1157383" mce_href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/1157383">Vinod </a>and <a href="http://priyankagrover.wordpress.com/" mce_href="http://priyankagrover.wordpress.com">Priyanka</a>'s company.</p> <p>There was yet again an interesting session regarding "How to open start-ups in US, UK and India" by Rohas from Techturis. Rohas talked about some really interesting tricks and points which only a lawyer can think and analyze.</p> <p>We had freeman talking about "<a href="http://curriki.org/" mce_href="http://curriki.org/">Open source education</a>" after that. <a href="http://shahharshal.com/blogs/wp-admin/freeman%20@%20pobox.com" mce_href="http://shahharshal.com/blogs/wp-admin/freeman%20@%20pobox.com">Freeman </a>discussed about the open source communities initiatives in reaching to masses with quality training through. I found this concept also catchy and would definitely like to contribute to the same. I also had a talk with Puja from marketwala.com meanwhile where she talked about how marketwala operates and interesting revenue models.</p> <p><a href="http://semanticvoid.com/" mce_href="http://semanticvoid.com">Anand </a>from persistent also presented his idea of BLogger which was really an application in itself. Seems like he is triggering the semantic web concept and taking it to production :-).</p> <p>Had a good time with the organizers too. All of them <a href="http://kiranthakkar.com/" mce_href="http://kiranthakkar.com">Kiran</a>, <a href="http://rubymerchant.blogspot.com/" mce_href="http://rubymerchant.blogspot.com/">Jatinder</a>, <a href="http://shahharshal.com/blogs/wp-admin/atulskulkarni@gmail.com" mce_href="atulskulkarni@gmail.com">Atul</a>, <a href="http://rohit11.com/" mce_href="http://rohit11.com">Rohit11 </a>(yes this is what his name is and we had a good debate on this :-)) all of us had interesting discussions and information sharing.</p> <p>I would say, Barcamppune3 was a hit.....Enjoyed the day.</p>Harshal Shahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317666161999659651noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15220788.post-10591458734294026882007-06-18T04:26:00.000-07:002007-06-18T04:38:26.467-07:00Life Is - A Bar CampHad my experience of the first <a href="http://barcamp.org/blogcamppune">blog/bar</a> camp on saturday. It was really an unconference. However it would have been real cool without those product promos. Rest all was lovely, unique and fun.<br /><br />My day started there at around 8:45 (one of the few early birds) when the things where just about to start at the venue.....I met<a href="http://sharemarketmadeeasy.blogspot.com/"> sanket</a>, a self-boss. Mechaninal engineer by profession and loved IT guys.. cool...good to know ppl still love them :-).<br /><br />Met <a href="http://www.tarunchandel.blogspot.com/">tarun </a>and then headed towards the audi, where <a href="http://www.rajeshsegu.com/">rajesh </a>was present to greet us..the <a href="http://www.zimbra.com/">zimbra </a>guy,was good to talk to. I offered by helping hand and he asked me to serve the gates :-)... which was fun too... rajesh,sanket,<a href="http://ranjanjha.blogspot.com/">ranjan </a>and myself were standing at the gate and ritika joined us.. She had volunteered for the event. we started with the registration process and distributing the cool blogcamp t-shirts and notepads to the participants.. ranjan was enthu at the beginning to click each one of the them but looking at the crowd later, gave up :-)<br /><br />The event was getting delayed but I had fun meeting and talking to ppl... there were these gupshup guys who were in true sense the gupshup dudes :-)... <a href="http://sms.webaroo.com/channels/thakkarism">Thakkar </a>and the <a href="http://www.webaroo.com/">gang </a>were interesting to talk to and we had some nice talks. crowd started pouring in and it was fun to watch different sizes (since we were also distributing t-shirts :-))... Among the unique ones where <a href="http://thevoiceinmyhead.com/">melody</a>, <a href="http://www.sakshijuneja.com/blog/">sakshi </a>and <a href="http://bloggingtofame.com/">divya uttam</a> who made that presence felt instantly....after about an hour, I started talking with ppl in the audi and met <a href="http://www.watblog.com/">eklavya </a>the <a href="http://www.watblog.com/">watconsult </a>guy... he was also interesting and I had already made up my mind to talk to one/all of these guys. He gave me some interesting information and details.<br /><br />The fun continued with a round of introductions. Everyone was unique and interesting is what I could observe. Some of them blogged for criket, some for their spouses and some for rakhi sawant and salman khan :-)... some were veteran bloggers with 4-5 yrs of blogging and some of them decided to get birth on that day :-)<br /><br />Some of them very in their mid-40es while there were a few who were in their teens (15 years to be precise)....All in all you could find almost everyone there :-)<br /><br />The sessions started with <a href="http://www.sulekha.com/">sulekha.com</a> and <a href="http://www.purplenova.com/">purplenova </a> presentation. The teams started talking abt their stuff. Although it was good, I would have prefered more experiences and intersting things in all arenas of blogging. I also learnt about <a href="http://openid.net/">OpenId</a>, trackbacks and other stuff talking to people which was an added advantage. Met a big gang from persistent (in fact we realized we were in a majority there). I was also not aware of the fact that <a href="http://www.persistentsys.com/">persistent </a>is planning to have a bar camp on 7th July in the campus ... :-(....<br /><br /><a href="http://kiranthakkar.blogspot.com/">Kiran</a>, <a href="http://rubymerchant.blogspot.com/">jatinder </a>and all informed me about the same. We had some exciting discussions about ruby on rails, and previous bar camps over lunch. The pool side lunch was also wonderful. Session after that was smsgupshup's thakkar talking abt the product. even though this was again marketing it was done in an interesting manner and hence fun. I had work following me after that and had to run out of the fun...... so that's <a href="http://harshal-at-work.blogspot.com/">Harshal </a>reporting (apart from all those CNN-IBN and DNA reporters....) for his own channel :-)<br /><br />... NjoiHarshal Shahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317666161999659651noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15220788.post-83386875295571442292007-05-16T01:05:00.000-07:002007-05-16T01:07:53.481-07:00Different DemocraciesRead this quote today.<br /><br />Did you know the difference between the two democracies : USA and India<br /><br />In USA, you can kiss in public but not pee. In India you can pee in public but not kiss :-)Harshal Shahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317666161999659651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15220788.post-38594948481745806852007-04-10T02:06:00.000-07:002007-04-10T02:06:22.241-07:00Google Blogoscoped<a href="http://blog.outer-court.com/">Google Blogoscoped</a>Harshal Shahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317666161999659651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15220788.post-77774169013850287902007-01-09T21:13:00.000-08:002007-01-09T21:15:48.721-08:00Life Is - Making a difference<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Note :- This message came to me as a e-mail forward. However I was touched with the message behind this mail and thought it could be a blog for a wider audience. Hence this blog</span><br /><br /><br />This is sure to make you shed tears.<span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">My question to all of you is:<span style=""> </span>Would you have made the same choice?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves learning disabled<span style=""> </span>children, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that<span style=""> </span>would never be forgotten by all who attended.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">After extolling<span style=""> </span>the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">question:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">"When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does<span style=""> </span>is<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">done with perfection.Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot<span style=""> </span>understand things as other children do.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Where is the natural order of things in my son?"<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">The audience was stilled by the query.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">The father continued. "I believe that when a child like Shay, physically<span style=""> </span>and mentally handicapped comes into the world, an opportunity to realise true human nature presents itself, and it comes, in the way other<span style=""> </span>people<span style=""> </span>treat<span style=""> </span>that<span style=""> </span>child."<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Then he told the following story: Shay and his father had walked past a<span style=""> </span>park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, "Do you think they'll let me play?"<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Shay's father knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but the father also understood that if his son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging<span style=""> </span>and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Shay's father approached one of the boys on the field and asked if Shay could play, not expecting much! The boy looked around for guidance and<span style=""> </span>few boys nodded approval, why not?<span style=""> </span>So he took matters into his own hands and said, "We're losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our<span style=""> </span>team and we'll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning."<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Shay struggled over to the team's bench put on a team shirt with a broad smile and his father had a small tear in his eye and warmth in his heart.<span style=""> </span>The boys saw the father's joy at his son being accepted.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way,<span style=""> </span>he was Obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as his father waved<span style=""> </span>to him from the stands.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was<span style=""> </span>on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat. At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible 'cause Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat<span style=""> </span>properly, much less connect with the ball.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognising the other team putting winning aside for this moment in Shay's life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least be able<span style=""> </span>to make contact.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">As<span style=""> </span>the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball<span style=""> </span>right back to the pitcher. The game would now be over, but the pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><span style=""> </span>Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the head of the first baseman, out of reach of all team mates. Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, "Shay, run to first! Run to first!"<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Never in his life had Shay ever ran that far but made it to first base.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled. Everyone yelled,<span style=""> </span>"Run to second, run to second!" Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran <span style=""> </span>towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to second base.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball, the smallest guy on their team, who had a chance to be the hero for his team for the first time.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher's intentions and he too intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman's head. Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">All were screaming, "Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay"<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Shay reached third base, the opposing shortstop ran to help him and turned him in the direction of third base, and shouted, "Run to third!<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Shay, run to third"<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams and those watching were on their feet were screaming, Shay, run home!"<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the "grand slam" and won the game for his team.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">That day," said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity<span style=""> </span>into this world."<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Shay didn't make it to another summer and died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making his father so happy and coming home and seeing his mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">AND, NOW A LITTLE FOOTNOTE TO THIS STORY:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">We all send thousands of jokes through the eMail without a second thought, but when it comes to sending messages about life choices, people think twice about sharing. The crude, vulgar, and often obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion about decency is<span style=""> </span>too often suppressed in our schools and workplaces.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">If you're thinking about forwarding this message, chances are that you're probably sorting out the people on your address list that aren'for the appropriate ones to receive this type of message.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Well, the person who sent you this believes that we all can make a difference.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">We all have thousands of opportunities every single day to help realise the natural order of things."<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us with a choice: Do we pass along a little spark of love and humanity or do we pass up that opportunity, leaving it andmaking the world a little colder in the process? A wise man once said "every society is judged by how it treats it's least fortunate amongst them".</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Harshal Shahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317666161999659651noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15220788.post-1165219115158948282006-12-03T23:57:00.000-08:002006-12-04T01:56:41.463-08:00Is Information Technology maturing?<p class="MsoNormal">Dec 1, 2 – 2006. I was at a Java Conference No; it was neither in the <st1:country-region st="on">US</st1:country-region> nor at <st1:place st="on">Europe</st1:place>. Guess what, it was in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region> at amacha pune.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">IndicThreads.com did a fantastic job of hosting a Java Conference for the population which today writes real java code for a lot of fortune 500 companies. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I was also impressed by the objective <a href="http://www.harshadoak.com/">Harshad </a>had out of the conference. He talked about the fact that although Indian IT industry is a strong force of lacks of IT professionals, we lag in developing world class products or very strong open source contribution. Its time the Indian IT industry and the developers to start taking this seriously and start innovating.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The two day sessions were fun. It included a lot of information, technology, frameworks and discussions. It was interesting to see people bashing and appraising every other technology very hour. If EJB 3.0 was a hit now, you might see someone really hitting it hard the next hour and pitching in for spring. The hour after that you find EJB 3.0 is back in the game… wow!</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The session on the first day started with <a href="http://www.jroller.com/page/raghukodali">Raghu </a>talking about “Integrating BPEL workflow and business rules”. <span style=""> </span>This also showed Oracle’s SOA capabilities to some extent. <a href="http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0070494835/information_center_view0/">Atul kahate</a> explained Enterprise Java Security thereafter. Atul was really clear and simple in explaining basics of security. There was a surprise show by Janaki Ram from Microsoft following that. I must admit that Janaki did a good job of throwing enough light on the .NET 3.0 architecture and salient features in the 45 mins. allocated to him. The next session was from <a href="http://www.jroller.com/page/rameshl">Ramesh</a>. I admired ramesh’s frank thoughts about SOA and web 2.0. The stage was then taken over by <a href="http://www.debupanda.com/">Debu</a>. Debu is a real fun to listen to and explained EJB 3.0’s power to the community. <a href="http://ptrthomas.wordpress.com/">Peter </a>demystified spring for us the next. He also showed the JTrac open source project he worked on which was among the top 100 downloads on sourgeforge. Following that there was again an interesting talk about “Apache Geronimo” server by <a href="http://www.apress.com/author/authorDisplay.html?aID=816">Kishore</a>. Finally the first day session was closed by <a href="http://www.harshadoak.com/">Harshad</a> showing the fancy power of Groovy and Grails.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The second day started with Hibernate Guru, <a href="http://blog.hibernate.org/cgi-bin/blosxom.cgi">Gavin </a>talking about JBoss Seam framework and its advantages. Janak following the session explained about the Rich Internet Technologies and the methodologies to choose them. Gavin and Debu replied to queries regarding Java Persistent API. The session following that was by <a href="https://glassfish.dev.java.net/public/developers.html">Sanjeeb </a>who talked about the difference between J2EE and Java EE 5. He also showed a demonstration of Glassfish application server and developing and deploying applications over the same. Jitender Singh from persistent made a surprise entry replacing Jitendra to talk about ruby and rails. All in all the conference covered a whole gamut of technology, frameworks and servers. <span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">There were many things that a lot of them talked about in the entire conference. However the one common thing that I could extract out other than all the good technical stuff was that the IT industry is now showing signs of maturity.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">If we look at any traditional engineering stream they have a very strong engineering background. A 2-stroke engine for example is based on all the mechanical engineering fundamentals and the pipelines built do take care of the correct fluid mechanics fundamentals before design. IT applications, although uses some engineering principles were not strongly coupled with the engineering basics. Traditional engineering applications have a lot more process focus. Each and every application has well defined processes and clear flows defined to track the processes. The software applications developed do not guarantee such process focus. Traditional engineering applications are optimized for simplicity in implementation and undergo constant improvements.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">With business process managers, coming in a big way (BPM’s are not new, what’s new is the fact that they are getting popular and expanding horizons) there seems to be an alignment with the traditional process focus. The applications being built with processes are much more in sync with the actual business processes. This also gives the domain users understand the flow of the software application much easier then showing them some HTML prototypes of how the system will look like. The heterogeneous systems are getting more standards based which are again what the traditional engineering systems are. Components are becoming more loosely coupled and have clear interfaces. This allows real and easy plug and play support over various heterogeneous environments. This can further allow some components of a big system to be developed by company x whereas company y can develop other component and a company z integrates x and y. Automobile industry for example functions the same way in case of a traditional industry. <span style=""> </span>There is a lot more focus on simplification of development. This gives the implementers an easy way to produce quicker outputs and better productivity.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">All this makes me believe that Information technology is maturing. It’s getting more aligned to the traditional engineering stream which is a welcome sign. </p>Harshal Shahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317666161999659651noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15220788.post-1160999892021762642006-10-16T04:50:00.000-07:002006-10-18T21:49:59.000-07:00Life Is - Lights<a style="font-family: georgia;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1183/387/1600/4e.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1183/387/320/4e.png" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><o:p style="font-family: georgia;"> </o:p><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;" >On 22</span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;" ><sup>nd</sup></span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;" > of this year, </span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;" ><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region></span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;" > will celebrate yet another festival of lights – Deepawali (Diwali). Deepawali as the name suggests is series of lamps. Entire Indian land seems as if the sky is turn around with stars twinkling in each and every house. The aerial view of the nation on this day is simply phenomenal.</span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:130%;">There are quite a few legends behind Deepawali. One saying is that God Ram started ruling Ayodhya from this very day and every one in the country was happy that good days were back. This also meant the birth of “Satyug”. Also goddess “Laxshmi” came to earth on this day and people lit lamps so that lakshmiji can enter their houses. This is also the day when Lord Krishna saved the innocent “Gokul” gwals and gwalins, from Indra and lifted “Govardhan”.<o:p><br /></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:130%;">People all over the country have a social get together and parties. They will celebrate the evenings with lots of fireworks. There will be all kind of sweets served.<o:p><br /></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:130%;">This land has a unique tradition of enjoying whatever small and beautiful thing that occurs. And there is a science behind everything and every celebration. People clean up their house during diwali. The essence behind this is, after the gloomy monsoon we enter into winter. Its time to clean up the things and we wrapped it up into a festival to do it happily. The same goes for many more Indian festivals. What better way a season of cold (winter) be welcomed than by lighting small lamps to make the whole atmosphere warm! This also marks beginning of a new harvest season and we begin this with distributing and preparing sweets…wow! I am sometimes amazed at the knowledge, creativity and innovation of our great grandfathers. They had everything we crave for today. They were far more knowledgeable far more creative and a lot more innovative than the best of lots today.<o:p><br /></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:130%;">However with globalization taking its toll the zeal and enthusiasm of these festivals is getting weak. I see more cards getting exchanged on Valentine day than on Diwali. Most of them might not know why we celebrate valentine day. The warmth of meeting the loved ones is declining. With distributed families all across the globe the greetings are nothing more than a telephone call.<o:p><br /></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:130%;">All is not lost yet though. The need is to feel the warmth of a relationship. Distance does not matter, what matters is the warmth of the feeling. Also understanding our culture and the reasons behind them will help associate us more with it. <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">India</st1:country-region></st1:place> posses a rich set of heritage and values. It is only when we continue to cherish these traditions and festivals, the heritage will remain intact.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;">Let us celebrate this Diwali a totally Indian way.</span><br /></p><p style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-family:webdings;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:130%;">Happy Deepawali.</span></p> <p style="font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p style="font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p style="font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p style="font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p style="font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p style="font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Harshal Shahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317666161999659651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15220788.post-1145011017935217942006-04-14T03:36:00.000-07:002007-04-21T22:55:32.202-07:00Life Is - Child Philosophy<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="FONT-FAMILY: verdana" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1183/387/1600/Shashank-Pune%20021.jpg"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1183/387/320/Shashank-Pune%20021.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="FONT-FAMILY: verdana"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Life’s:- Child Philosophy</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="FONT-FAMILY: verdana"><?xml:namespace prefix = o /><o:p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="FONT-FAMILY: verdana"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">These days I watch Shashank (my 6 month old kid) grow. I simply love the whole experience. Sometimes it is tiring, sometimes very tiring and sometimes painful. But all this just get washed away by a single gentle, true and pure smile of the little one. The innocent face which smiles when you are on the verge of frustration, in the middle of the night, takes out all the pains and compels you to bow down and serve your little one.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="FONT-FAMILY: verdana"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="FONT-FAMILY: verdana"><o:p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="FONT-FAMILY: verdana"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Another amazing thing to watch is the passion they posses. The remote control of our TV set is shashank’s best toy. He has tons of them. Stuffed ones and lighting ones but he just loves the plain remote. He will do whatever it takes to get hold of that remote. He can be located anywhere; his sharp eyes will catch hold of the item and yahoo…! Its time for action. He will put all the intelligence he posses with whatever little movement he is allowed as a 6 month old kid to get to the device. He might lose out on energy in the process. This will not put him down. He waits for sometimes. Takes rest and valla ….back to work. Only when he gets hold of that device will he stop. Not that he will play with the device too long though … but that is altogether a different story.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="FONT-FAMILY: verdana"><o:p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="FONT-FAMILY: verdana"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Whenever he wants something and could not get that, the only weapon he posses is cry. He will shout and force you to attend you to get his things done. He will be happy once the thing that he wanted gets done. He cannot explain then very correctly but he continues to cry till you understand him and he is satisfied with the service.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="FONT-FAMILY: verdana"><o:p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="FONT-FAMILY: verdana"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">This brings very simple but useful principles. A little kid teaches some of the very fundamental realities of life.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="FONT-FAMILY: verdana"><o:p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="FONT-FAMILY: verdana"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Be focused</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="FONT-FAMILY: verdana"><o:p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="FONT-FAMILY: verdana"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Whatever it takes never let your objective affects that and there is nothing in this world that stops you from achieving the goal.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="FONT-FAMILY: verdana"><o:p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="FONT-FAMILY: verdana"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Keep the end objective in mind</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="FONT-FAMILY: verdana"><o:p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="FONT-FAMILY: verdana"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Before beginning any task, think of the end. Once you are clear of the end, proceed to make the task a success. All possible ethical methods to achieve the task should be tried out before giving it up.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="FONT-FAMILY: verdana"><o:p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="FONT-FAMILY: verdana"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">More to this follows as I learn more ………. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="FONT-FAMILY: verdana"><o:p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="FONT-FAMILY: verdana"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Njoi</span></p>Harshal Shahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317666161999659651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15220788.post-1134203876469652922005-12-10T00:33:00.000-08:002006-10-18T21:52:56.096-07:00Life Is : Classical Music<span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" >Recently I happen to attend pune's "Sawai Gandharva Sangeet Mahostava". This was my first ever classical concert. I am not a classical music buff. It all started when the Art Circle from my organization "Persistent Systems" organized a classical event from "Mrs. Aarti Ankalikar". This was on a sunday. I was looking out for something to spend my sunday evening and a collegue of mine invited me to attend this event. I always had respect for Indian classical music but never had a chance to listen anything. Grabbing this oppurtunity I went to the auditorium to listen to the artist.<br /><br />The experience.....Amazing. There were no words to describe the experience. I do not have any understanding of the ragas and taal's. But what I experienced was that I could still enjoy the music to its best. I could feel an aura around the hall that was created where people were hypnotized by the aura of the singer and the musical instruments accompaning the lyrics.<br /><br />This inspired me to attend the "Sawai Gandharva Sangeet Mahotsav". This fortunately was just starting 5 days from the entralling experience I had on Sunday. I got the tickets and went to the location.<br /><br />The aura... continued. Some of the greatest artists performed at the concert. It was pleasant to listen to all different ragas in different styles. On the very first day of the festival Pt. Jasraj delivered a mind-bogling performance. There was such a strong hold on the sur and taal that he could virtually go to any level and come back in the same breath.<br /><br />The concert is still on and I shall write more about the performances from the artists as I get to enjoy more.<br /><br />While I was listening to this great performers, I cherished one more reason to celebrate "Incredible India". The culture, ethics, vitality, depth,knowledge, devotion that India and the Indian culture holds is uncomparable. The more I happen to learn about India the more I cherish. with all this in mind if I look back in history to imagine the India with all this good things at their peak, I had no doubt about the fascination the world had about this great nation.<br /><br />Another important thing I noticed in these artists is the utter devotion. Most of the artists had more than 9-10 yrs of experience behind them. This however reflects so transperantly in the kind of hold they have over what they perform. They had almost master the basics and the good point is that they just stick to the basics. They just maintain the same "lay" and "sam" and the result is marvellous. Unlike many of the other artists they don't need to reherse. They are spontaneous and sing with their soul. Once they are into themselves one could clearly watch the experessions on the face clearly stating the submergence.<br /><br />I know this would not be the right thing to do, but being from software Industry, I tend to compare everything with that :-). Today we talk of various quality levels like CMM and Six Sigma. I could see the level of precision far more than six sigma in the performances. There were hardly any errors what-so-ever. Also the kind of co-ordination between the singers and the whole range of musical instruments....never needed a CMM-I :-)<br /><br />Strong basics and utter devotion can take you places. Indian culture has shown this may it be music, yoga,literature,knowledge.</span>Harshal Shahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317666161999659651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15220788.post-1123512535440878292005-08-08T07:37:00.000-07:002006-10-18T21:52:34.613-07:00Life Is - Nature's Beauty<span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" >Lohgadh - Nature's Beauty. We explored this beauty of nature in dripping rains this sunday. The experience - Awesome :-).<br />Started at 5 AM in the morning, we(deepali and myself) reached at the train station at around 5:20 only to figure out that venkat who<br />was suppose to join us has reached to pune station instead of shivajinagar which was the official point. prash</span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" >ant and deepali were worried.<br />Prashant, though, didn't reveal that he was worried (he did that later :-)). But venkat was intelligent to call up and we could explain him the scene.<br />He mangaged to board the train. I travelled in the old MEMU train after quite sometime (The last being in my college days when I use to move from Baroda to Anand regularly).<br /><br /></span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;" ><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1183/387/1600/IMG_02991.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1183/387/320/IMG_02991.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><br />The journey in the train its</span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" >elf was simply fab. Nature was at it's </span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" >best. Lush green sahyadri (mountain ranges) were decorated by tons of waterfalls to enrich their beauties.</span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" >We reached Malwali (near Lonavala) in around 40 mins. I wanted my boot-up tea and so did the rest. We had some good snacks and hot tea at the stall. Even before we finished, the rains gods were ready to accompany us on our trek. It started pouring heavily.<br /><br /></span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;" ><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1183/387/1600/IMG_0319.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1183/387/320/IMG_0319.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" >We reached "Bhaje".This is the place from where the real trek starts. We started on our way at around 8:00 AM. Just as we started we saw a real mighty waterfall gushing on the way. We were tempted ..... Lots of water and we wanted to get drained. But somehow we controlled ourselves promising the water to enjoy his company when we return (And we indeed did keep the promise :-)).<br /><br />The fun continued. We continued moving ahead and enjoying the ro</span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" >cks and the greens......<br /><br />We were accompanied by this tiny little dog from "Bhaje". Earlier we thought, he might be finding us newbies and might be following us. Little one was not ready to leave. He was determined to trek with us. This was indeed a different experience. He literally followed us and followed us right from the start till we reached the top... and the story does not end here.. he did followed us back at the foothill when we reached back. One very interesting thing happpened there was that at one place there was a very steep climb. Little doggie could not climb that.. He was not happy about it. He tried his best but could not succeed. There was another path-way to reach to the top though. We just signaled him about the alternative path and bravo.... He did understood and manage to catch up with us once again. Later we figured out that he had his home at the fort upstairs and that some fellow living them takes care of him.... So we thought, he might have appointed him as a marketing manager to attract customers to the top for snacks (Zumka-bhakar etc).<br /></span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;" ><br /></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" >Journey is still on... we have now reached about the half-way mark and started getting exhausted.....And wow.. we had a drive-away there.... A small shop (tapri as we call) and we are all set for a cup of hot tea to feel some warmth from the pouring waters.... And there our hero prashant, got a unknown sms wishing him "Happy Friendship Day".... wow... Nobody did that to me ever :-(.... Prashant used all his memory to recollect and figure out who she was (of-course we take this by default as she ).... We had a good time pulling him while we had a cup of hot tea and continued on our way ......<br /><br />Now we had reached the fort and we had to climb those big steps to reach to the top. We wonder how the kings and the soldiers in those old ages could have climbed the steps which were so big :-)<br /></span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;" ><br /></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" >We reached at the top and now could see the clouds passing by. But due to the cloudy sky misssed the lovely view of pavana river and the dam......<br /></span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;" ><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1183/387/1600/IMG_0307.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1183/387/320/IMG_0307.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" >Lots of greenary all around surrounded us......everywhere we went.....<br /><br />On our way back we played a lots of games and sang some memorable songs....which might be quite a good memory for a few of us for quite some time.........We had good nagging between swapnil and deepali both trying to pull each other down and the result.... fun.......<br /><br />We had some good lunch in a small hut who provided us with the extra facility of fire-place to warm ourselves.... Ajit was worried since he wanted to reach home before 6... Do you know why.... No... then ask Ajit :-))<br /><br />Finally we arrived at the bottom. Of course had some real good fun in the waterfall before that. The whole experience was simply memorable.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span>Harshal Shahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317666161999659651noreply@blogger.com1