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Showing posts from November, 2014

Superstitions and TV

I was reading about Karnataka minster planning to spend the night in grave yard in an effort to eradicate superstitions. And was reminded of what I heard yesterday on TV. The program is in Kannada TV channel. The show is a cookery show. The guest is making groundnut chutneypudi and giving many home remedies for different ailments. So far, so good. Then there is a caller who asks this guruji about her diabetes. And the answer made me surprised and then furious. He was saying he will hypnotize the lady and gradually she will realize her diabetes is caused by some paapa - sin, done in previous birth. And after 2- 3 months of this treatment she will be completely cured.  Diabetes is caused when the body is not making insulin. This should have been his answer and he could have given some recipes meant for diabetic patients.  Now the serious question is why do regional language channels show such programs? The programs which instead of enlightening and educating the people, take them

News version of Indian Newspapers and Magazines published

We all love news. And juicier, the better. So to know the latest news on your android phone, download latest version of my "Indian newspapers and magazines". Well, the new version has many more magazines and many more science sites. It also has more regional language papers. Best feature is you can keep only those papers which you need, on the screen. Do I sound like those bold lettered, capitalized irritating advertisements we all hate? Kya kare, I need to advertise my app. As I am the whole and sole of hegdeapps . Manager, CEO, CFO, coder, team lead, ui designer, HR and sweeper. :) So check my app. And let me know your opinions.
Computer Engineer: I think by another 5 years there will be at least one computer engineer in every home in India. Every parent wants their child to be a techie and children willingly agree. Again was reading about the maker of idols in "Nine sacred lives.." by Dalrymple. Srikanda whose family is making bronze idols of Hindu Gods for 700 years says his son wants to become computer engineer instead of "shilpi" and is sad that the tradition will not continued after him. He also says that making idols is hard work unlike computer science and children do not want to work hard. But the more basic question is what will happen to other trades and professions if this trend of "computerization" continues. Already there is a huge shortage of labor in agriculture. A time may come when we may have to import workers from "fourth world" country. Fourth world because we are third world.

Nine sacred lives of modern India

I am currently reading William Dalrymple's Nine sacred lives from modern India. Let me tell the back ground story here. Me story. People think me reading books and I read only novels, is some how a sin. Some other people think that I read only fiction because some how I am intellectually challenged and can not understand non-fiction. With that in sub-conscious mind I picked this book. I was not sure whether I will read much of the book as it is not a fiction, and not even a self help book. But I was wrong. The author has a beautiful style which some how touches us. The book describes stories of nine different people of modern day India. And each story is different. But similar, as all these people of religious people. Not the religious people like our politicians who ask for good time to take oath as ministers, so that the throne will stick to their bottoms as a "Feviol ka jod. Not even religious as the swami, sadhu who use God to loot and explot the common people.

Ek cup chya

Kashinath is bus conductor from a village in Maharashtra. With his small income some how he is managing his wife and 4 children and old mother. Until one day, when  he receives electricity bill of 70,000 Rupees. He takes the bill to electricity board and tells them this must be a mistake. They will scold him and send him back asking him to get back previous bills. His wife has used previous bills to wrap the medicine for old mother. But she also gives a solution. Why doesn't Kashinath ask for duplicate of bills. He asks but does not get. In this confusion, the last date for paying the bill is lapsed and board disconnects electricity for his house. His son has to appear for 10th exam and should study. His mother falls down in the darkness and hurts her leg badly. Next he hears about RTI and a lady who is fighting for RTI helps him to fight electricity board. A good marathi film by Sumitra Bhave. Only question is, in real life will a poor common man fight government usin
I am really getting sick of people praising  a certain person. As if he is the 11th incarnation of God himself. Everyone including media, politicians, techies and even intellectuals. So when I saw in "Swarajya" about the truth behind "India wants to know "(Arnab's show in times now), I got curious and read it. He says India Arnab is talking about is less that 0.033% of country's population because only those many people view his show. Why did that make me happy? Arnab is one of the most vocal (around 100 db) supporters of you know who and he achieves this by grilling poor other people. Come on people. Grow up and try to collect some courage. Do not be all sycophants

Shata problems of Shataka

After luke warm response I received for my game " MemoryPro " I wanted to develop another app. Due to limited resources and lack of much graphical skills, the game should not involve not of graphics and animation. Then the idea came, why not add the numbers to 100 in a grid? So was born GetHundred the game where each row should add to 100 and each column to 100. What about the data generation? That is which numbers am I providing the user? First set was calculated by me on paper. Then I generated few more sets. And thought I can hard code the solution numbers and store them in the app. Some how that did not seem right. How many sets do I store in the game? What will the game do after all the sets are cleared by user? Won't it be better if the numbers can be generated dynamically? So that each time, the numbers would be different. Hence I started scribbling equations. Some thing like a11+a12+a13 = 100, a11+a21+a31=100 etc. To cut the story short, I did find the

Idol worship

I was reading about how sufi shrines are being attacked by some wahhabi muslims in Sind. Their objection is these praying to dead people is the practice borrowed by Hinduism. That made me wonder. All these prophets preached against idol worship. Budhdha, Jesus etc. But what is the result? Instead of idol of God, Christians worship idol of Mary, Jesus, Cross. The reason could be because when we want to pray, it is difficult to pray to a God without any attributes. But tell us that, God has blue color, a peacock feather in his hair, a flute in his mouth and a chakra in his hand, we happily see such a God and pray to him. We can not imagine "niraakara" brahma. So if some one tells us do not pray to idol of God, we take some other symbol and pray to it. Am I trying to defend idol worship of Hinduism? But Hindus do not think so. Because for them I am the godless atheist!