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What is Islam? - Family's Favorite Video.

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The music video is about “what is Islam”, the song is touching and reminds us of our duties as well Play

Harry Potter and Star Wars

During the time of Star Wars initial Trilogy, Luke Skywalker was the ultimate hero from “New Hope” to the “return of the Jedi “. Once the trilogy finished many came to the conclusion that the real hero was Darth Vader. It felt the same way with Deathly Hallows, For the record :- finished reading Harry Potter.

How to read better and faster

There was a time when i had this thought in my mind, i wanted to read, read a lot, and also got membership to libraries. With lots of books to read, and having too little time to read all of them it was looking like an impossible aspiration. If only I could read faster, and my speed was not like what I really needed. Then one fine day I stumbled upon a book by the name “How to read better and faster” by Norman Lewis. It lays down some techniques and practices to speed up the reading and it works. I thought I would share it with you all so that you can also skill up on reading.

Xtreme Programming Explained by Kent Buck

Xtreme Programming Explained is an amazing book by Kent Buck read about it here

Farshi Turab with english subtitles

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Music is in every heart, the beat is a rhythm, the end of this life is marked by the end of this rhythm and this is where Farshi Turab begins … Play

SOA Boot camp Story

Invitation for boot camp had been set out, 3 working days to go, no materials available for the sessions, no certified instructors available, limited options for screening of participants. With all the above challenges we had to train a set of people and make them SOA Solution Designer certified (667).Raghu and Rajashree arranged invitations and logistics and Raghu mobilized the team, comprising in alphabetical order Bharath Duggirala, Jatinder Malik, Kasirajan Natarajan, Sobha R Warrier, Sowmya S Grama, Vidyadharan Elambila Veetil and myself. It was decided that first week I should be leading the event with Kasi and second week Bharath and Vidhya. Kasi and I did not have any opportunity to work together till now, we needed to understand each other and complement each other to make it happen. Throughout the session and a period of a week I discovered Kasi, (I don’t know why every person whom I meet always seem better than me). Every individual in our team would jump in at opportunitie

Blog selected for IBM Ad.

It was an honor coming back, my technical blog got selected for IBM ad :) here is the link IBM Add. .........

John's Experiments with truth

Anthony Sir was his name who taught Social Sciences in 8th standard in Hill Valley high school. His class was a form of wisdom packed into capsules; he gained respect for his age as well as for the way he was delivering his class. John who was nicknamed Gandhi, Hari was a good painter with many trophies to his credit. It was an honor for me to have two such friends in school. Like every one we also respected the teacher, during that time we considered him to be of higher stature than the lady who owns and runs the school. The incident which I wish to narrate is of John’s to depict his good character and determinism to do the right thing no matter the odds, and also the same incident which shook very moral fiber of such a good soul. Mr. Anthony was taking his class, making political statements, and view points that made us also think ‘aha …’ during the middle of the class he was invited to the head mistress’s room. Before he left the class he said, “Till I am back no one should speak”.

Inheritance Eldest : By Christopher Paolini

After Eragon, I got Inhertance Eldest By Christopher Paolini, and was putting it off to read it some time when free, suffering from fever and refusing to let go I started reading it. I soon realized that the book would not free me until it was finished. From Friday to Sunday late night I could not keep the book aside but for my prayers and to have food. The Varden’s; the resistance to King Galbatorix; celebration of success was short lived as grave immediate challenges sprang up. The intricacy of politics of finding a new leader for the Varden keeps you on the edge. Eragon was now called as Shade Slayer, but was not fully equipped to meet his destiny. The one who would mentor him to such a state has been introduced beautifully, the mentors efforts to train the apprentice and their interactions has been well narrated. Eragon also struggles to find a right focus in his training as Saphira the dragon states as “I believe, Eragon, that you are full of love and that you are looking for one

The Datapower Boot Camp Story

About IBM’s Datapower is a hardware device that speeds up to wire speed the processing of XML(a widely accepted data format) and is very fast compared to software, how ever much of the capabilities of this hardware is not known well enough for the IT industry to take full advantage of the device. We had recently formed a Datapower competency to enable and to educate the IT industry on Datapower. The team is headed by Manu (the captain), with me, Sateesh Balakrishnan, Vanishree and Sobha being the tech experts. We organized a boot camp which completed on 23rd of this month. Many people were skeptical whether a team from India could successfully pull it of as Datapower was a very new product and our technical capabilities were not yet published. To this our second line manager Jagan Karuturi remarked in one of his conversations “If there are any skeptics out there we will prove you wrong. Proud to be part of this team”. Rajashree always does a wonderful work; she had arranged the bo

This World and the Next

The main feature of this world is inequality of providence but equality of freedom to choose your path, consider the following equation A + B = C + D. Mathematically speaking we can say that sum of C and D is equal in value to the sum of A and B. We humans in order to keep our numbers right devised this mechanism of numbers. So we very well know what is 3 and 4, four is bigger and better than 3, money with four digits can get you more things (more trouble also, he he), but 3 problems are better than 4 similar problems. It is obvious that this world has been created by some one, our creator, I call him Allah. “He who has learned about his body has learned about his lord” We read a book by Harun Yahya, “Fact of creation”; in it is the story of sperm. Sperm is a delivery mechanism with a motor, a shield, and payload which has to deliver the payload to its destination. After continues tests in wind tunnels and test launches a rocket sets of with its payload to the orbit with a satellite. B

Rabindranath Tagore’s Foreword for a book

“One of the most potent sources of Hindu- Muslim conflict in India is our scant knowledge of each other. We live side by side and yet very often our worlds are entirely different. Such mental aloofness has done immense mischief in the past and forebodes an evil future. It is only through sympathetic understanding of each others culture and social customs and conventions that we can create an atmosphere of peace and good will. With this end in view I started a department of Islamic culture in Viswa Bharati a few years ago with the generous support of his highness the Nizam. I am glad to say that the experiment has been successful. But work of this sort must be elaborated a hundred fold. Individual educationalists and scholars must also take it up and I heartily welcome, therefore, the series of articles from my distinguished country man, Moulavi Abdul Kareem on Islam’s contributions to science and civilization. The writer has clothed his erudition in as simple a garb as possible and the

No Conversion

How we would like to spend our life is a personal choice, this choice depends on various factors top most among the list is the environment surrounding us, our priorities, our conscience. Consider three scenarios 1. A person with name X is having enough power to control, instill fear and intimidate, also having enough power to force a person to live a life in a way X would like him to. Consider a person Y who is weak and subdued by X, X forces him against the will of Y to live a life which X prescribes for Y. 2. A person with name A is preaching about some way of life and B who listens to the preaching develops interest and then decides on his own will to lead a life as preached by A 3. A person C who becomes aware of some way of life likes it and then decides to live according to it and person D comes in to help and answer the queries which C has. I cannot find anything wrong with 2 and 3 either from A, B, C or D. My late cousin brother used to attend Sri Sri Ravisankar sessions duri

Wait … Patience … Hope … Prayer … Steadfastness

Wait: When prophet Yusuf (Peace be upon him) was thrown into a well in the remotest of forest by his own brothers and there was 0% probability of some one finding their way to the well to help him. But he waited, sure that some one would come and help him as it was promise of his lord. Then Allah sent a group of people there, making them loose their way and led them to the well from where they rescued the prophet. Patience: When Prophet Ayyub (Peace be upon him) was inflicted with a dreaded disease, he was patient enough to not to ask for a cure as he knew it was from Allah. But then a time came when it became difficult for him to do the remembrance of Allah, then he prayed “Oh my cherisher, I have been inflicted with a calamity and you are the most merciful”, he did not ask for a cure but he explained his situation to his lord. Allah cured him, After he was cured one day the prophet was crying on being asked why he said that when he was inflicted with the dreaded disease Allah used to

Trust

A respected and close friend of mine Sateesh Balakrishnan narrated an incident to me, it was this Friday and around 10 PM we were finishing of the SOA Appliance (Datapower) assignment and still at office. He and his uncle were traveling in a train; there was no mention of where they were traveling to or which train they were in as if it was of not much importance. In the train was a co passenger, an elderly business man traveling along with his goods. Sateesh said “At some particular time he made room, spread out a small carpet and comfortably prayed and it took about 10 minutes”. When the elderly person had finished his prayers and was back in his seat, Sateesh’s uncle asked the person “What if some one takes those goods away while you are praying?” It is a most valid question as this person is traveling only to carry the goods from one place to another so as to sell them and earn a lively hood. So what if some one takes away his means of livelihood and the pains he would have to go t