If you are wondering what happened after March 2005, well, Null Pointer moved to its own home. Please do follow me there.

Tuesday, December 30, 2003

The Badshah of quzzing!

Aaj Tak is going for a public issue and they suddenly realized that the brand has emerged mightier than the TV Today insignia, so their typical "B&W Hindi archaic movie ishtyle" stupid advertisements were back to tell the viewers that Aaj Tak is an offshoot of TV Today and not the other way round. I was really taken aback that for one they actually succeeded in roping in one of my idols Siddartha Basu (frankly I am not aware if the opposite happened because the channel is shown as one of his clients at Siddartha's website).


Siddartha BasuTalking of Suddarth, people of my age-group who were into quizzing have been ardent fans of Basu since his Quiz-time days at Doordarshan (DD). For me it was a magic phenomenon as it flamed my interest in quizzing, I hosted two shows of my own at Schools and won laurels in several. I was really awestruck by the professional packaging of his shows. He was the pioneer to introduce IITian gizmos into quiz scoring.


For those of you who don't know, Siddartha had a background in English theatre. He played the spoilt child of a millionaire in a DD TV serial called "Purvai" (though, must confess, his hindi diction was pathetic). He also produced many TV plays, of note was "Kauwa chala hans ki chaal" in which I first noticed Raghuvir Yadav. But his and his company Synergy Communication's primary focus has been quizzing and they certainly are badshah of the format. Offcourse KBC was the pinnacle of their achievement where they were able to coax-in BigB to play the host and the rest is, as they say, history.


In 1994-95 I was at Delhi to appear for a competitive exam and decided to meet Siddartha personally with my friend Shreekumar who was then teaching at Father Agnel's Polytechnic. We somehow got his telephone number and called him up on an afternoon. Anita, his wife, picked up but alas he had just gone to sleep. Then I was occupied for the day and the idea slipped off my mind. I could only call him up from the Nizammuddin station while I was heading home. To my surprise he came on the phone promptly (now that I think of it I realise that those were the days he was easily accessible). Synergy wasn't born then perhaps and he told about his shows for DD. When I asked about his theatre activities he said that it continues side by side. "Thanks for calling" he said in his typical style as we concluded the conversation. But those who have met or talked with a celebrity they adore can very well guage how I felt at that moment. Unfortunately with Mastermind on I haven't really followed his career, but Siddartha still remains one of my idols.

Monday, December 22, 2003

Sometimes you have to be evil!

Many times the most innocuous aspects of programming create lot of trouble. Take the innocent Properties file. These avatars of Hashtable are collections of key-value pairs, frequently used by applications for their need for external resources and configuration settings. Now pointers such as these tell you that reading the Properties file using java io is evil, owing to the fact that it warrants absolute file names and that in turn poses hinders application portability. So we have the recommended ways to use the ResourceBundle class or classpath resources. Nothing wrong with this!


Or so I thought, till I had to work on a web-interface to create, modify and delete Properties files. I realized that when loading a Properties file using the Classloader and ResourceBundle and after I modify my files and store() the values, the changes won't reflect to the user. The same old properties were displayed despite the fact that some of them had been changed. The reason it seems was the fact that the classloader somehow cached the Properties. While this would be termed most efficient and desirable when reading the properties, this perhaps wouldn't be so in an Property File Editor application like mine.


In a nutshell what I ultimately had to do was to take the evil route and use java.io to load the files, as below:




//Do not load the properties file as Resource stream or ResourceBundle
//if caching is not acceptable
//InputStream in = loader.getResourceAsStream(name);

//Load it using direct I/O, obviously we need the file "path" here, which can be
//retrieved using the ServletContext
in = new FileInputStream(path);

//rest is usual
if (in != null) {
Properties objProps = new Properties();
objProps.load(in);
}


Since this is a web-application I am fetching the relative file-path of the Properties file (situated along with other classes in a package structure) using the ServletContext (getRealPath()), this works well in Tomcat, I am not sure if this approach works for all containers.

Saturday, December 20, 2003

First Steps!

Mitali just rang me up to inform that Tanmay has taken his first bold steps by himself. Pray, there is no looking back for him. May God bless him!

Thursday, December 18, 2003

A dependable friend!

Jivha thanked Bhutan for its military action against the insurgents including the ULFA outfits. As I commented on his blog, diplomatically we can read more than a "friendly" gesture here. Indian stature for SAARC countries resembles very much the American stature in the UN. India is the "local dada" here, reason why Pakistan is acting sheepishly off late to make the next summit, that its is hosting, a success. Nitin however gives another dimension to this news that Bhutan mainly did it in its own self interest rather than the "Indian pressure".


While on the topic, I like many things about Bhutan. Though running under a monarchy the country has a democratic setup. The king has worked very hard to keep its culture intact by taking such measures as blocking access to satellite TV, a medium which even in my opinion is the culprit of culture-erosion. This fact resonates with Nitin's thoughts that "to maintain its own Bhutanese identity the Indian insurgents are considered by the king as a potential threat to Bhutan's way of life". Moreover, the Bhutanese prince recently left his studies mid-way to join the royal army, so they are in high-spirits.


India has had a strategic alliance with armies of Nepal and Bhutan, so if done the right way may be the insurgency can be controlled. A firm initial step is better in such cases to prevent a Kashmir like scenario. Attribute it to the "help factor" or otherwise, Bhutan indeed has been India's "dependable friend". Wish we had such a relation with Pakistan and Bangladesh too!

Wednesday, December 17, 2003

What is Real development?


By 2020 India will be a developed nation. Good for us, if the prophecy comes true. But then, what would be the state of the economy (or "new economy" as the term goes), education and employment then? One never notices murky media raise such issues, actually only a handful of people talk about it publicly. Surendra Mohan, a socialist thinker, in one of his recent columns quoted scientist Dr.Randhawa saying that the incidents of violence erupting out of the unemployment issues will not remain isolated incidents but would be rampant all across if the unemployment situation is not brought under control. Reasons behind this thought are indeed scary: despite of haughty talks of development, Bharat-Udaya and all, the employment opportunities are actually diminishing. The ILO had reported that the unemployment rate in 2002 was 3.4%, a considerable increase in previous 5 years. 7 lacs posts have been cut down even in the organized sector since. Statistics apart, the situation is grave.

Dwindling employment problems have roots in our fascination for automation and technology. Logic put forth is: we would lag behind the rest of the world especially US and European countries, if we do not embrace foreign technology and investments. Bullshit! The concealed rationale behind this thinking is the greed to earn more profits and leverage exports. Why shy away from the fact that we cannot certainly increase our exports in developed nations, because however cheap our labour might be, these nations will keep on creating hitches in the name of quality, child-labour and what not. Instead of this fascination, why not encourage exports to the developing nations? Why not promote the Small Scale Industries (SSI) sector? Why not work towards removing the red tape and poor government policies that plague the growth of SSIs?

The problem is indeed burgeoning. Every year 1 to 1.25 crores of unemployed youth enter the foray. On the contrast only 5-10 lacs jobs are created for them. I am no expert on economics but feel that the disparity can perhaps be leveled only when we create jobs at local level, create more opportunities in farming and SSI. Lest we do this the feuds for jobs would not remain confined to Assam and Bihar.

Tuesday, December 16, 2003

Whither Development!


Renowned sociologist and scientist Prof.Yashpal was in town few days back. He is one of the few people who have the straight-forwardness to oppose the education and examination system in India. "Education is not about cramming, you cannot learn science by mugging equations, you have to touch it to get the feel", said the Professor. An amazing point that emerges out of the views of many Indian sociologists is about the pseudo development notion that we have here and the ironies that it exposes. We have built highways in the name of development having failed connecting the villages. What is in 2020 we really become a developed nation, as projected? Will every village have a school and roads to reach that by then? Will people striving for employment not torch Bihar and Assam then? Such questions have difficult answers. I will be posting some views of another socialist thinker on this in a coming post.

Monday, December 15, 2003

Ulcerative Collitis: Need Information


Fellow bloggers and readers, though I avoid posting very personal posts here this one is an exception. My mother has been suffering from Stomach ulcer (Ulerative Collitis) since almost 1.5 years. Recently she was advised to undergo surgery (ileopouch anastomosis). If you know any body who has undergone such a surgery kindly let me know the pros and cons of this surgery. One who has undergone this operation would be in the best position to explain the post operation problems if any. Would be grateful for your help. Please pass on this information.

Friday, December 12, 2003

indian Googlee


Search engine giant Google is all set to open its first offshore R&D facility at Bangalore in 2004. Keeping aside the hype about more and more offshore opportunities does that actually translate to better perks for the Indian techies. Forget it! Apparently the Google Indian initiative is guided by cost-cutting concerns (thought the company denies this) and the visa-problems that it has been facing to rope-in more Indian talent.

Thursday, December 11, 2003

Blogs dramatized!


Ye duniya ek rangmanch hai Babu-moshai! (the world is a theatre, my dear bong). How can our blogs be less theatrical then! Alok pointed to this ingenious site that adds that quintessential spice of melodrama to your blog. Just type your URL here and your blog is hilariously converted to a Hollywood screenplay, instantly. Samples? Look how Alok's blog and mine fare, in their dramatic avatar.

Tuesday, December 09, 2003

Bharteeya Blog Mela, 39th edition!


Bharteeya Blog Mela, 39th edition!This has been the first ever Blog-Mela hosted by Null Pointer, and though the number of nominations haven't been spectacular, they haven't been discouraging either. Now that I hosted it I can empathise how difficult it is to select a handful of entries from a maze of good posts. My thanks to Melodrama, Ravages, Aadisht, Aashish and someone who would remain nameless, for the nice nominations. So fellow bloggers (or IndiBloggers, as they say now a days), countrymen, Indians lend me your attention. I present to you the Dash-ratnas of the 39th Bharteeya Blog mela. Enjoy!




"I found out about his aversion to other people's nails when we were having machchi baath at my favorite Bengali-Israeli-Japanese eatery. I was just remarking how long my nails had gotten and how they need chopping, and S runs to the bathroom! Of course, he always makes it a point to find out where the bathroom is whenever we go to a new place.", this and more in a hilarious parody on Indian Blogger's nail cutting frenzy, at this post of the one and only, Kingsley.


In his lotus-notes from Nairobi, Ashok Hariharan presents this interesting anecdote on his enounters with Law Enforcement guys. Amazing parallel between the Kenyan "Comatose Cop" and our Pandu hawaldar! Only our thullas are more straight-forward to go for your wallet at the first go.


A new blogger on my radar, Aadisht has a lengthy post that explains why the American Chocolate is "crappy", well..no it actually highlights the "third-world mentality", err.. its a review of Bill Bryson's book, or is it..oh I am so hopelessly (yawn) dumb at reading long posts. If you happen to read it here, in entirety i.e, do mail me a summary, will you? (Hey Aadisht, do forgive the punn, it was all in funn.) Now to some serious stuff, so throw that grin off your face, you may now twitch your eyebrows a little, take a deep breath and tune your mood, ok now your are ready,


A proud Bihari that he is, Ranjan is aggrieved that provincial affiliation insetad of merit is being considered to judge his community. In his post titled "See my shoes? Want to be in them?" Ranjan remarks on the recent spats in Assam and Mumbai and hopes that the contempt in Bihari jokes does not become a stereotype. On the same subject, Prasenjeet thinks that the onus falls on the community as acoording to him, "to this day, the people of Bihar haven't risen against the democratically elected tyrants who have denied them entry into the 21st century".


Aashish performs a psephological postmortem of the recent Assembly elections and opines that despite the technological advances it has seen, the Indian electoral process will remain "complicated" and "infinitely fascinating". On a similar note Chakra presents the good, the bad (and not the ugly) of something that has made his life "so interesting".


Om Malik has an interesting post on his chat with venture capitalist Jacques F. Vallee. Contrary to the growing view that the Blogging will bite the dust, a point I wrote on recently, Jacques beleives that being an extension of the computer conferencing concept, weblogs will save the Internet.


Outsourcing is a sensitive issue for US techies and Arnab is understandably shaken by the use of phrase "does not use overseas labor" by the owners of waypath project. While a company might be based at US and there is nothing wrong in being proud of that, keeping in mind that funding and clients for many such projects do not come from US alone, it makes business sense to mind one's language, seems to be his point.


Lastly, one of my own posts, concludes that even after 19 years, the ground realities fo the Gas victims at Bhopal have not changed at all, as the settlement money, thanks to the burocratic red tape, is being pocketed by the middlemen.




Thanks Madhoo for giving me the opportunity to host the mela. Watch out for the announcement about the next mela on her blog!

Friday, December 05, 2003

Charge the spammers?


A funny yet apt disclaimer for comment spammers I ecnetly noticed on a blog:


Any advertisements or commercial endevours placed in the comments or sent via email addresses on this site (either mine or other commenters) will be charged at a rate of US$250 per time, payable within 30 days. Placing any such advertising or commercial message is an acceptance of this charge. If you don't like it, use the little x in the top right of your browser.

39th Bharteeya Blog Mela


Ladies and Gentlemen! It's my privilege to host the weekly celebration of Bharteeya Blog Mela this week. And here is a formal invitation:



Translated, that means: nominations for the 39th mela are open and may be submitted using the comments area for this post. If you go by rules, they have been quoted by last host Yazad here. You can nominate posts (including your own) made between December 2 and 8, 2003. The mela will be hosted here on Tuesday, December 9, 2003. Looking forward to your nominations!

Thursday, December 04, 2003

Sanyasin is CM, CM is Sanyasi


The magic of Ballot has unfolded in Madhya Pradesh. The sansyasin (or sadhwi, whatever) Uma Bharti is destined to become the next Chief Minister of my home-state Madhya Pradesh and the defeated CM Digvijay Singh (incidently called Diggi "Raja") will take a political Sanyas, if words must be kept. What an irony! The confident-till-yesterday Diggi raja didn't had to say "he failed to read the public pulse".


While the saffron brigade must be evidently happy, let me remind the sadhwi behen a few things. Now that you are here I want the promises to be kept, I want a chaak-chaukas prabandh of all amenities in the state (hope Umaji you haven't already had a bout of amnesia) including Roads and Electricity (I don't care how you do it), and yes I want the stupid Professional Tax to be withdrawn immediatley. That's what I voted you for! Wipe that pasina off your face, when you win an election on issues such as development (and not your favorite issue) there is a lot more burden of work to do. So while you are famous for dashing off to Maihar Devi and Vaishnodevi at one go and go to sleep at 9PM sharp, lady: we are expecting some work here. Less pravachan, more output, please.

Wednesday, December 03, 2003

Rewrite the song Remo!


Remo Fernandes, the famous pop-singer from Goa has once sung this famous satirical song on the state of telephones in Goa:


Graham Bell, Graham Bell,
You're dead and its just as well;
But if you saw the phones in Goa.
You'd jump into the well.

Years later, it seems Remo will have to rewrite his lyrics as the BBC reports that Graham Bell did not invent the Telephone. Scottish-born US scientist Alexander Graham Bell is credited with making the first transmission of speech from one point to another by electrical means in 1876. Based on "evidence "contained in files from the archives of the Science Museum in London" the report says that the "Telephon", developed by German research scientist Philipp Reis, could transmit and receive speech and was perhaps the first telephone. The successful tests on a German device manufactured in 1863 were reportedly covered up to maintain Bell's reputation.


Trip to mela & other things



  • Cool, it is my lucky day today? I think for the first time my post has made it to the mela, don't know whether on merit, or the folly of posting multiple comments at the nomination post that brought me to limelight. The plain vanilla flavour can be savored at Yazad's here. Thanks buddy :)

  • The pre and exit poll surveys have predicted that sadhwi Uma Bharti will be the next CM of Madhya Pradesh state. If that happens, she would unarguably be another Mahila Mastaan to occupy the seat of power after behen Mayawati. Off topic, new blogger Sukanya, who is experimenting with cooking and living in France, has a good Bangla glossary, growing by the day. So if you wondered who a Mahila Mastaan is, click here.


Bhopal: The struggle goes on


It's been 19 years since the Lethal Methyl Isocyanate gas from Union Carbide (now Dow Chemicals) struck disaster at Bhopal, the worst ever industrial havoc in the history of mankind. Images such as the one here had shook the whole world as more than 20 thousand peopel have lost their lives and more than a lakh suffer from the after-effects of the poisen. Picture courtesy: Bhopal.netI remember that most of the area of new Govindpura where we lived then was unaffected but most of the old Bhopal was. It was a panicky morning the following day. The adjoining main road near our BHEL colony house was brimming with people fleeing with whatever little they could gather with them, on trucks, tractors and what not. My father had meanwhile managed to get some bread and butter from the grocery and we were planning to leave too when the radio started reassuring people that the danger has been partially averted. And while the then CM Arjun Singh was said to be on the spot while the containers were neutralized later at Carbide factory, a similar exodus occurred on that day too. I was too young then to decipher the ground situations. 19 years hence the realities have not really changed.


In almost two decades of victim's struggle for the justice people have been left hopeless with hundreds loosing their life every year owing to eye, lung and heart problems. The case of the gas victims has been one of callous delays and wrangling between Indian and US courts over damages and medical care. Media reports say that after 1992 the government had stopped registering death cases owing to the gas-leak. There are a staggering 50 thousand cases pending with Rs.1500 crores of relief money languishing under the greedy eyes of the bankrupt state government. A local newspaper has recently said a very valid thing about our "East India company mentality". The kins of WTC disaster have reportedly been compensated with amounts exceeding Rs.8 crores per casualty within the time span of a year, on the contrary there is the case of Bhopal disaster where the victims have been fighting for meager compensation amounts of Rs.1 lacs or less. In the light of global consumerism and open markets it seems the commercial concerns override those for human feelings. The central government is bothering about investments from big corporations and bowing under the pressures of the centres of money and power at the US for their own selfish motives while the state government wants to pocket the whole settlement amount using the middlemen and burocratic red tape.


I can only hope that such a disaster should never ever happen again. This TOI report, that says that "..with growing public awareness, corporates otherwise indifferent to damage caused to the environment and human lives (are) now taking corrective measures." adds some strength to my belief.


Monday, December 01, 2003

Identity Crisis


The Indian states of Chhatisgarh, Madhya Pradesh (MP), NCT of Delhi and Rajasthan are going for assembly polls tomorrow. Funnily, the MP Election commission has specified 16 ways to identify a voter. The list includes Ration card, Student ID card, The IT PAN card, Passprot, Driving license, Blue card for people below poverty line and so on, apart from the expected Voter Identity card.


This is the typical Indian irony that despite of the Election commission's emphasis on the Voter ID card since T.N.Seshan's time to ensure fair elections, very few states have seriously implemented the idea for its entire population. With 16 means of identity it can be very well judged how the electoral officers are going to ensure the "fairness" in the poll. Why can't we have a single ID number, a single means of identity for an indian citizen akin to the Social Security number in the US and european countries. A number that can be used to track a citizen for every job whether for health services, tax purposes, education or voting.


India boasts of progerss in the IT sector and e-governance. We have reached the age of saying ta-ta to the manual voting system with the entire election being held using voting machines. But when can we really see a single smart-card for every Indian citizen that prevents him and the administration from all hassles, remains to be seen.

World's first Hindi blogzine

I feel elated in presenting Nirantar , World's first Hindi blogzine. It has been the result of untiring efforts of so many Hindi blogger...