completing 8 months here

As of today 18 May 2008, i am completing 8 months of my stay in bahrain. I really wonder and don’t know how months are getting passed. One good difference what i feel from my TCS colleagues here is for all of them it is the reverse as they equate the months to years whereas for me it is in the reverse as months are like weeks .

Yes, the first onsite always has some moments to ponder, memories to cherish, values to add . Though i am yet to post the part 2 of the post describing the lifestyle here (previously i have posted “Life in Bahrain“), i just thought i can quickly post this as it may not be possible to finish that post within today!

Soon i would be going back to India..

Cheers..

en per padum paadu

I remember years back there was a famous blog post with the same title and it was blogged by a person named Kalaivani (kalai in short). I still remember in the year 2005, I got it as a forward and not to deny it was helping us to laugh like anything due to its beautiful narration of the situations.

Here i do post this with my siutations. Well, those of you who are not aware of my name in full, it goes as ‘M Raghavan alias Saravanan’, and i do prefer to have it in full in most of the places and wherever possible! May be because of the self-love one can argue!

It so happens many times that i am asked for an explanation of the term ‘alias’ and why i have two names? Not to miss the interview parts i have attended so far. Luckily if it gets missed out during the initial phases of technical interview, it is for sure to mark its presence in the HR interviews. I would ask them with a small question, “there is a small story behind it. would you like to hear?”. Well, most probably the answers were of type ‘Yes’, ‘Sure’, ‘Go ahead’

Very recently, i faced the same with the conversation with a new blogger friend Meenu on her post and so am i here with this post! As per her request, i am mostly writing it in english and wherever appropriate using the translation for the tamil slang!

Story behind my Father’s name

To start off with, the first name or name before the ‘alias’ is my dad’s name as well my grandpa’s.
Well, my dad also has a story for his name. My dad’s name was R. Muthu karuppan since my grandfather’s name being ‘SP Raghavan’. My dad felt a bit shy and/or reluctant for keeping the second part ‘karuppan‘ as it would be a catchy term for the fellow buddies to tease him with the meaning it gives as ‘blacky or black in colour‘ in tamil.

Hence he did remove that ‘karuppan’ out of his name and kept his name as his initial expanded. And his name got transformed from ‘R. Muthu‘ to ‘Raghavan Muthu’. Infact he did this all with the Gazette Notification.

I do remember during my schooling (nursery and i was in Standard V), there was a small argument between our school correspondent and my father for this naming clash and my initial should have been ‘R’ instead of ‘M’. My dad had to send the xerox copy of the gazette for the proof even after explaining those stuff. Obviously that’s the first time I also happened to know all these.

My Naming conventions so far..

Coming to the main track, i was given the so called name ‘Raghavan‘ for the naming to be continued across generations. But again in Tamil culture, women should not call the people by name which happens to match with either of her husband’s or father-in-law’s as it is treated as lack of respect. For that sake, i was given the another name ‘Saravanan’. As my dad felt like keeping those two names in the official records/certificates and they got it registered as such. Just to accommodate both the names, there came a conjunction ‘alias’. That’s when the name has been in existence.

Now coming to the other short/sweet/pet names i do have. Well the list goes like this.

As narrated above, i am called as ‘Saravana‘ by relatives and neighbors. I am specially called as ‘Saro’ by my family members which of course was originated from my beloved mom!

During schooling till class V, i was called as ‘Saravana’ as most of my teachers were my mom’s students and they got used to the same name.

After class 6th, i was called by ‘Raghavan‘. One small incident to share here is, after the initial few days in class 6th of a new school, one of my classmates came to our house on a holiday just for a pastime and when he enquired about me in lathe which is exactly in front my house, he was told that there was no one by the name ‘Raghavan’ and he had to simply return. The next day, i had to explain him as well the neighbors of the other name i do have! lol.

Only one person called me ever as ‘Ravagan‘ [donno where he got that term] and few people just used to call me as ‘Ravanan‘ — just to tease me.

During my engineering, my name has got several forms. Some seniors and friends called me as ‘Raghav‘ which made me feel good at that time till when i came across the term ‘Raghs‘ during my 3rd Year. This term ‘Raghs’ – which of course stays till to date of my preference, has got its own variations. Few people use it as ‘Rags‘ while some others use as ‘Ragz‘.

Very few people use ‘Raghava‘ that sounded like either they are annoyed or over affectionate.

Few friends called me as ‘Raghavs‘ and some continue to do so .

One of my best buddies who used to call me as ‘Raghs’ for long, she used the term ‘Raga‘ — donno what made her spell that way.

I exactly don’t remember the scenario but one or two called me as ‘Raghavendran’

Some of the selected lecturers used to address me as ‘Saravanan‘ – which brings a nostalgia of childhood schooling memories and i just enjoy the feelings within!

A peculiar set of people called me with the unused conjunction ‘alias‘ and that was also welcomed till now

Few of my college mates and friends call me as ‘Raghavachari‘ as i feel they felt good that way to call me!

Once I went to St Johns Hospital, Bangalore for the corn excision on my leg in Feb 2006, i was called as ‘Raghavan Pillai‘ by one of the sisters over there! mmm. yet another! . I really din’t dig my small brain for the sources causing the name. . [Thanks to my beloved colleague,friend,guide Rajasekar M for reminding this one after reading the blog post:p]

What’s a big deal.. a name is given to call you right. The purpose is getting saved!

Out of all these, i somehow prefer nowadays being called with the name ‘Raghs‘ and thats what in use everywhere including this address of this blog!

Some difficulties I face officially

Though having been identified uniquely in all academic environments, i used to face a tough time when filling up the application forms, where in i had to draw few more boxes to write my so called ‘name-in-full’ and it usually attracts a smile from the neighbors and/or the concerned official.

Names in the professional environment

During my employment with Covansys (of course my first employer), the naming convention for the emalil id was the first letter of your initial followed by your first name. And my email id was ‘RMuthu’ (as explained above). Though i had an option to have the email id as ‘MRaghavan‘ by reversing, i dint want to do since i had huge number of email ids on my own name itself, i thought of giving a credit to my dad

But the display name was ‘MUTHU Raghavan alias Saravanan‘. Most of my team members (it was a huge team having 70+ members) started calling me as ‘Muthu‘. Initially i was correcting them by saying its not mine but my father’s name. But no one seemed to agree and they justified saying that it was short compared to Raghavan. What a super analogy and analysis? Just a difference in few characters/letters. Huh! I was practiced to listen to the name ‘Muthu’ thereafter and it continued for 2 years literally. Even now some of my ex-colleagues call me as ‘Muthu’ only! Enna kodumai sir idhu?

Another important aspect was with the US clients. Initially they used to ask me in email as how to spell my name and what name they can make use for the sake of their convenience!. Some of them used to address me as ‘Muttu‘ (sounds like ‘Mute-u‘) in the conference call with which people around me have a good fun !

Now, my name has been registered in my present company as ‘Raghavan alias Saravanan Muthu‘ – just a reverse of place holders. Some of my present colleagues call me as

#1. ‘Raghavan alias Saravana Muthu‘ — [note the absence of 'n' here ]

#2. ‘Raghavan engira Saravana Muthu‘ — of course thats how the term ‘alias’ gets translated in tamil!

#3. ‘Raghavan alias Saravanan alias Muthu‘ — beautiful!

What to do? Getting used to it!

After all, its a part of your name and its like a metadata!

Names in the Onsite (Bahrain)

I guess it was somehow missed though i thought of posting it months back. And now its the time to include that as well.

After coming to Bahrain for an onsite assignment i am given some more new names by some of my colleagues here. They are from TCS. Those names go as below.

#1. Raghavan s/o Raghavan s/o Raghavan — maintaining the full hierarchy from bottom to top! . Software engineers they are, you know!

#2. Veettula Saravanan veliyila Raghavan – meaning ‘in the home Saravanan but outside Raghavan’

#3. Raghwan – that’s how the employees of our client (LMRA) call me. They mainly follow Arabiq here. It can be taken as ‘Raghwan’, ‘Raghghvaan‘ as it varies from time to time and depends on their mood

Name in the Passport

Well! It goes for a task man. I don’t know why it went like that. And no wonder, the ‘government employees’ are prone to do that i suppose. In my passport, my name is entered as ‘Raghavan ALSOKNOWNAS Saravanan’. All what i could do was to yell at my dad and he politely did the same back to me justifying that he got an answer from the officers that its their way of mentioning alias names! ouch..

Was very much concerned of it as was advised by some of my senior colleagues that it might invite some troubles during the visa interview especially for USA. Till now, i have not faced any issues and i hope the same in future as well.

Hope this answers the question in detail with few extra information and somehow it was interesting!

Donno how many other names are there in store for future? .

FBOK – Fellow Buddies only know

How is the new layout? Just thought of changing it and I did it today.

Let me know your thoughts on the same

Cheers!

yet another book in lucky draw

This is the second time i got a chance to know about the persistence of so called ‘luck’ I was selected as lucky draw winner in JavaRanch forum’s Book Promotion offer on 14Dec2007 and the book was ‘Java Programming Cookbook‘ by Herbert Schildt.  The previous one was blogged here

Moreover I felt very happy for getting a chance to interact with the author(s) directly in the forum. I believe people from Computer Science/ Information Technology background might have definitely come across Herbert Schild’s famous books like ‘The Complete Reference C’, C++, Java etc., That was like adding honey to the icecream

I have got the book dispatched today (13Jan2008) to the Bahrain address and happy to share the news with you all here [as usual by the time i blog its 14Jan08 ]

As usual the snapshot of the forum thread which declares the winners here below.

The thread is accessible here for the Java Programming Cookbook Winners!

The other threads where Herbert Schildt is welcomed is here and one of my queries to the author is here.

The snapshot of my welcome message to Herbert Schildt is below..

Cheers!!!

The day i am exhilarated

Feel like penning down as some of my efforts are appreciated from an author of a great book. It is on 13Jan2008 but by the time i blog it somehow becomes the next day .

The contribution is of course subtle which was to explain the concepts of Garbage Collection in a pictorial manner for the program posted by an user asking his doubts.

The appreciation came from Bert Bates who is one of the authors of Sun Certified Java Programmer & Developer for Java 2 (and Java 5), Head First Java, Head First Servlets & JSP. The authors Kathy Seirra and Bert Bates are in short known as “K & B” in the ranch.

Just felt like sharing this As usual, a screenshot is attached

If any one is interested in looking for the images i have drawn, you may please go here for the thread that discusses about how many objects will be eligible for garbage collection?

Soon will update it in my technical blog with complete information

 Way to go Raghs…!

completing 2 months here

Ouch.. as some one else (i think its Ponnarasi) told here, i think its time for a next blog! as its been sometime i posted! though i thought of some good title, but dint get any good one so left this as such!

 As of now, completing 2 months here (Sep18-Oct18-Nov18) . Life as such in a good improvement phase. Only this week i would say i have been doing some little good work in the official front whereas till now have been doing some monotonous routine!

 One good thing to mention is the Amnesty carried out in the office where i work (LMRA – Labour Market Regulatory  Authority)! Being the initiators of it, they do a real good job. Whoever is working under an illegal work permit or who don’t have a proper sponsor, they can just go and report to these people (LMRA) and they themselves help you to get back to your country with a free ticket! Its all for a good cause and to stabilize their statistics and work culture so that they will maintain a good track record of labours!

The website is a portal but still you can direclty get into the statistics here if you are interested! You would get the recently updated information.

 The climate has come to the opposite extreme nowadays. Its not at all hot and it becomes pretty dark by 5 PM itself. I feel as if its around 8 or 9 PM :lol.

To those whom i missed to update, i have started writing a story in this month. Its called ‘Kanaa Kaanum Kaalangal’ and obviously in my mother tongue ‘Tamil’.

The impact on this is the official working hours has been extended till 9 PM for the LMRA staff which was previously till 2 PM only. Though those people work on shifts, we don’t! Moreover doing a production deployment on a weekly basis have to slog till 11 PM Anyways, its a part of life!

As such, these are the information.. Rest in next…

Chalo..  C u all l8r….

diwali in bahrain

Well, for the first time happen to celebrate ‘Diwali’ at abroad (in Bahrain). I would say it was as the way anyone would expect without any real celebrations.

Though many of my friends were asking about the availability of crackers here, was unable to answer them by then. Later came to know that here its kinda banned. Happened to hear from some of my TCS colleagues who are here for a couple of years that you can’t fire the crackers outside (public)!

Then i have got 2 questions..

(1) Then what’s the point of making it avaiable?

(2) If not outside means, should we have it inside the home or what?

But i have not seen any crackers being sold here! Crackers apart, no other symptoms as well. Basically being a Muslim country would be a predominant factor!

From my own end, happened to rush in the last minute (yesterday) evening to a mall here (Jeant) with one of my colleagues and managed to get a shirt and pant from Scullers and one shirt from Indigo Nation which i blindly liked!

As suggested by one of my colleagues (Rajasekar M) to prepare keasari (sweet rava, can i call it in english?) had to buy so many ingredients except the ghee and sugar! As was not in a mood to cook, went outside to a hotel (Kushboo Idli Kadai:)) and finished my dinner! On the way to the nearby grocery mall, saw another shop having good t-shirt collections. Went inside and purchased 4 T-shirts too

Since the t-shirt selection process swallowed ample time, had been running here and there to get the ingredients in the mall as they were about to close!! Except the Kesari Powder (Saffron powder), got everything! My roomies were pulling my legs and asking whether am in a full festival mood or not. Perhaps i had been i guess! Admitted the fact.

Got up early in the morning (not just because of diwali but regular lunch preparation + today’s diwali spl keasari) and managed to do all. Somehow the keasari came well (thank god! it was my maiden effort) except a little more sugar could have helped it to be too tasty! But it was definitely ‘eatable’ not just ‘touchable’ Distributed to all my colleagues also here!

One good thing is that today bcos of diwali, the cell phone service providers gave some extra amount of talk time in the calling cards which was about 4 minutes surplus than that of regular. (today 26 minutes per 1 BD calling card). Though i was wondering in the morning soon after i heard about the increased talktime, dint care to bother much. In the evening, an sms confirmed the same!

One bad thing was that the lines to India were almostttt busy and had beeeeeennnn trying since morning for so long to get the line connected! .

Apart from that, no difference from the regular working day here!

One funny part was in my orkut profile today it was showing, “Today’s fortune: you are going to have some new clothes!”. Lol

Hope all of you had a very good diwali celebrations…

Hawar Resort Trip

    Last friday (26th of October 2007), we had an one day trip to Hawar Island  here in bahrain. Hawar Island is located 20 KM’s to the southeast of mainland of Bahrain. It was an anniversary recreation for all TCS guys here. As i am the odd man out in my office (LMRA), was invited and joined them. All i would say is it was an awesome trip and a great refreshment we had.

As the TCS employees were allowed to take their family people, some of them took. I just missed since i don’t have family here in bahrain lol.. Lack of girlfriends too Gotta improve!!

It was around an hour journey wherein first 20 minutes we travelled in bus from the hotel to a place called ‘Ad Dur Jetty’ where we boarded into the boat and from there on the journey in the boat took around 45 minutes.

We were told that we will be there for some 3-4 hours in the island and resort. I thought what would we gonna do within that time? But that was made false when we returned back. Within the allotted time, we bashed like anything in whatever possible ways and with the available resources.

When going in the boat towards island, we had ‘Anthaakshari’ (tamil, hindi, telugu and some arabic songs (!!) as well) amongst ourselves separated into two teams. It was all fun . [Arabic was just prepared spontaneously by using the name of the malls, places, some junk words etc etc so as to  match theirs as none of us don't know].

Soon after reaching the resort, they had a lucky draw for all the participants and the kids were asked to take. It was for two people who were given 10 BDs (Bahraini Dhinars). I was not in need of money yesterday you know!

(1) Cano Boat – This looked like very simple but thats true once you get its principle. Its like really a full life and its principles. You need to get adjusted yourself to the frequency of water (life) and you can’t rest for so long. After reaching a certain point of time, you may have to again start working yourself for reaching your goals.

(2) Jet Ski – was awesome and a thrilling experience. Felt very enchanting as if getting into the new world. I rehearsed vairamuthu’s ‘Thanneer Desam’ novel and imagined his lines about the sea during the whole journey. wow.. that was an mindblowing experience..

(3) Beach Buggy – Though it looked like an ordinary motor bike riding, it really needed a very good understanding and practice as the front tyre and handle bar were large enough. If you think you are riding a bike and tend to get support with ur legs, you cannot ride the bike at all. Also you need to push urselves back in a comfortable manner especially for the tall people without which handling the steering is pretty difficult. I have done these two mistakes till the time i got acquainted.

 Once nice comedy here. One of my teammates with whom i went for Jet Ski was very much scared of water and he could not ride well in the Jet Ski. Just before we booked the tickets for Beach Buggy, he was telling, “thannila thaan ennala onnum panna mudiyala.. tharaila paarunga annan veeratha” nnu. [I could not do anything in the water, but you see my power in the ground]. I thought he would really excel and do a fabulous job. But i saw one another person who was very much struggling in the beach  buggy and he could not succeed at all. I got to know this after sometime once i was steady. It was  none other than the same guy who was bellowing. Laughed out loudly after coming out and sharing this with other colleagues as well.

(4) Water Sliding – This was a fantabulous experience. I have seen this in movies but have not tried. A  beautiful exercise as well. Moreover when you travel over the path and at times when you cant bend your body to the speed of water, here and there in the walls  you hit, the little pain you get, the moment you expect when the traversal would finish, soon after you come down and jump into the pool.. words can’t just delineate.. it was all open for the wh0le passage. heard that some other places it would be totally covered. Leaving it to you to imagine yourself about the closed passage.

(5) Swimming pool – Same old. Just reminded me of the last year (31 July 2007) get together of our BE classmates which we had in the place called Anekal in Bangalore outskirts. Just were playing with the ball and making fun.

After returning from the swimmig pool, was supposed to face the same old incident which sometimes happens to me. missing something in the tour! ouch.. soon after coming out of the pool and i took all the belongings, forget to take my spex as it was not there. All the other belongings were kept safe in the same place but somehow it was missing. Once changed the dress, remembered and went back and searched and atlast found it missing successfully! Thought, “incident++”;. But somehow it was not as expected! . One of the manager’s wife had seen it and kept it safely by thinking that it would be of any of our guys’s. Got to know that once i went back and enquired the crowd. Thank god!

On the way back, the sunset was so beautiful and almost around 10 cameras were busy and kept engaged in taking the sun, sea combination at various angles. The moment sun disappeared and the moon appeared on the other end was awesome! . As compared to the earlier climate, nowadays its going in a reverse direction and you won’t believe by the time we got down it was around 5.30 PM and it was totally dark everywhere!

Felt very much tired and bcos of which got a great sleep as well. 

Hope you found it interesting to read!

The links to the snaps are shared here.  “HawarResortTripSet1“,  “HawarResortTripSet2” and “HawarResortTripSet3“

5 unknown things abt me

Long long ago so long ago was tagged by Ponnarasi. I am extremely sorry for delaying this long! Apologies.. [Sorry, was triggered to imitate your way. As a token of appreciation, copied your own sentence! he he he]

 Well, this tagged post is all about 5 unknown things about me. Might be not every1 knows everything about us right.

For the people who feel bored of reading lengthy passages, you may please read the lines in bold. that will give you the hint. The rest, can continue as such.

 1. I like the homely faces very much. Obviously seeing in the opposite sex! I believe its only female faces who are blessed with that fascinating nature. In tamil you can say, two words பெண்மை, நளினம் and those words are good when told in tamil itself. I relish, enjoy seeing those faces and somehow would get a very great satisfaction within. No matter where I am, what i do, would cherish those  moments when  i get a chance to sight .

2. I have a very great respect, craze and jealousy towards the singers (though they are waiting to become popular even). somehow i feel this is one of the talents i lack. [i too sing but that is a different aspect. bcos of which how many hearts  you attract is what here counts]. so hats off to all those people who are gifted by god.. keep rocking! a great fan of my friends who sing very well.  [Arun, Sumi (Arun's wife), Santa,  Archana, Santa, Sundaresan]

 3. From childhood, whenever i take a head bath and at times when i feel like pouring water forcibly on forehead, i assume myself getting drowned into the water.. especially into the sea water. Still i could see the effect remains, even though i somehow started taking bath in sea water when i go along with friends without knowing to swim properly.

4. I generally tend to investigate the root cause of any incident/problem. if at all don’t seem to get an answer will accelerate more towards finding the reason unless either of the parties seem to become sick. Because i feel thats the way you can get rid of it in future endeavors.

5. I would definitely let the kid inside me come out and start playing with the *real* kids whom i see. Also still  savoring with the kiddish nature of my friends…Getting back to those ages and lose ourselves intentionally for a while for an unmolested state is  an awesome experience. I swear no grown up children would oppose.

Good. Though the list may continue, i obey the things what i am asked to do as basically being a chuveet boy you know!!

Feeling relaxed now as one long pending homework is over now. lemme do for pria’s tag which is next in the list.

Now, let me invite some people here. I have a very little cognition about them as we got to know through blogs! so friends its your turn please.. u r granted to take ur own time..

1. Pria

2. Vidya

3. Sumathi

 if i think of some1 else would add later..if u urself are interested, pls feel free to ping me!

completing 1 month here

well, had been thinking nowadays to do a real good post as most of my posts made me think that its either a forward or a mokkai or a thambattam of any sort.. if not some poems or lyrics.. am i getting bored of these usual style? Not really! but would like to do it differently.. lemme think.

meanwhile, by today i m completing 1 month here in bahrain as of today. Last month (September 18th) i came here.. somehow days are flying without control.. exact one month! i would say i have got accustomed to this environment nicely and got a good idea about the city eventhough there are many other parts of the city/country to be explored yet!

though thought of having an elobarate post but since it may mimic the previous version, left it.. so a quick short description here..

(i) we had attended one music concert happened on Oct 14th wherein the singers Hariharan and KS Chitra came. The evening program was very good and was nice seeing those people as well as listening to the songs live for the first time. They sang tamil, malayalam, hindi songs! shall share snaps link later. it would be in the same location where i have shared the snaps taken in bahrain.

(ii) got accustomed with these TCS guys here and work wise its really fun.

(iii) we had 5 days off for Ead celebrations here but to be frank, i have not done any good-and-useful thing except attending the musical event!

(iv) one thing is that i was busy preparing Java Slides for the fresh buds in my office as i was mentoring them. somehow my efforts were nice and they came in good flavour. yet to finish the rest-but-one topic.

(v) after ramzan/ead, happened to see the other face of the city which looked like dull,calm during ramzan. now much traffic but still the same rules are followed strictly! This is like ‘citibank’ wherein ‘the citi never sleeps’. Till 1 or 2 AM all the shops are open here and people just casually roam here and there!

what else?

meet you all a little later with some good-but-different post!

take care…

Happy News.. Got a book in lucky draw

Hurray….. :)

Whatever it is, the moment you share it does matter right..? I feel so..

Just got to know that my name was in the list of lucky draw winners of the ‘Professional Apache Tomcat 6′ book in the JavaRanch forum.  [Tomcat is a Web Server  used for hosting J2EE based Web Applications. ]

Here you go…

http://saloon.javaranch.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=56&t=005949

I repeat it, its lucky,lucky draw – purely.

Felt very happy and thought of sharing it with you.  I too have some lucky mole(s) i guess!

 As usual, pasting the screenshot here.. he he he…