When the hope fades

When your last hope disappears, and you wonder about the next day

if the next day will still be the Monday, or you will be a dead body with no regard to the name of the day

when the light dwindles, and you cannot see beyond your mental limit of perception

you just believe what you saw in the past, and that makes you grasp for every last breath

If I can see the world again, I hope that I should have the power to make it better, where hope doesn't ever fade, where I am not powerless and could save the light from dwindling. I hope I will be able to change that world

Regret

So I have got a regret email today from the "prestigious" Arsha Vidya Mandir, AVM, and so do many other parents.

I (or I say "We" for all souls like me) then retrospect all the aspects of that 30-minute talk with Arsha's Selectors. My wife and I have done almost 300 hours research about the school before appearing for it.  She has watched all their videos a 1000 times, like them so much that we zeroed that this is the only school where we want our daughter to spend her 12 years.  My daughter desperately wants to go to that school, and she keeps me reminding every day.

We got through the round one and with that came immense joy, that all just not only just vanished after the Regret mail in round two but also, came with a grave setback.

I kept on thinking at what point in those 30 minutes I have made a mistake.  Did my child (a 3-year-old kid) act weird when they have "tested" her for their parameters?  It is all useless.  

The email which just says - "deeply regret" without any hint of why is the saddest thing I ever had in my life.  And I know I share this with many other parents across the world who love their children more than anything else.  At the moment I felt that it is an end of the world.

The utterly opaque process for these so-called "Tier 1" schools make us feel so little. This, I think, is harassment; of the kids, and of the parents. And I am talking about not just AVM but of so many others too.  The one thing which these people sitting in the high castle failed to understand is the detrimental effect of such process.

People were discussing backdoor entry in many of these school made me feel sadder.  I am a common man, I don't have any backdoors in literally anything. And I don't like making a backdoor as well.  I feel that it is an injustice to so many others such as myself.

Big Names

The Big Names at Current Times

Ashraf ghani
Jinping/kiquang
Thein sein
Sheikh hasina
Nawaz sharif
Shinzo abe
Jacob zuma
Barack obama
Dilma rouseff
Vladimir putin
Narendra modi
Tony Abbot
David cameron
Robert Mugabe
Ms Park Geun Hye
Kim Jon Un
Lee Hsien Loong
Muhammad Buhari
Uhuru Kenyatta
Ranil Wickramsinghe/Mathirapala Sirisena
Abu bakar baghdadi
Bashar assad
Tayyip Erdogen
Francois Hollande
Angela Merkel
Alexis Tsiparas

A review on Bangalore

A week before I got an opportunity to work in a very prestigious core s/w development company.  Location is obviously silicon valley of India i.e. Bangalore.  I had a lot of expectations from the city. I picture lavish homes, nice and kind people, good public commute [I hate driving in India] and economic and good vegetarian food.  My dreams got shattered when I stepped in.

Out of Airport on Sunday, it was a very nice and cozy morning. Cannot compare with any other place, specially where I stay [Chennai].  I was delighted.  My hindi speaking cabbie was very kind and gentle.  So far so good.  I reached to my destination.

I started interacting with local crowd but I hardly found anybody local there.  No Kannadiga in this IT area.  Not all shops were open at 11 AM; people were not out in a dull and lazy morning.  Went out to shop some necessities and I was surprised to see the masses of people on any shop.  Shopkeeper went berserk and pompous looking at them.  It felt like they don't need the customers but it is the customer who needs them.  They were RUDE.

Food - Don't ask about Quality. I had a lot better until a day before.  I think it is a better choice to donate half to solicitors and buy raw veggies and eat them rather than going to a food place and eat there.  A bunch of mediocre people opened eating places just to make some good bucks rather than making customers delight.  Needless to say that you will find nothing but waiting and lots of people.

Ok, now is the part which all people complain about - Traffic Jams and commute time. Well, it is good in a way that I can read 50 pages of my novel or catch 2 hrs nice sleep in an AC volvo bus by just paying 80 bucks.  Good deal!!!

People - Locals are nice, I had nice experience with them but immigrants have no clue what is going on. They don't want to gel in, and just living their forced life.  You will not find any help from people there because accessibility of things is very poor and nobody got time to share for your issues. They are all busy in earning quick bucks.  Religious places are not in vicinity and what you would find are just apartments and People and lots of People.

Cost of living is at higher side of all metros. I was paying 30,000 for a shabby 3bhk on outer ring road 100% appreciation from Chennai.  You have to pay apartment charges for anything you want [no bargaining even if you want a screw hole to drilled].  I felt like Gandhi's face has lost its all value here.

Well folks this is my experience of Bangalore but I hope you must have a better story to share.  Thanks.

XML Publisher Orphan Page issue (all but one blank page at the end)

I had this mind boggling problem left couple of hrs actually.  Last page of my report was printed as blank while I had no specified after end of all for loops.

Resolution: I still don't know the cause of unexplained line feeds which is causing this but seems like putting 0 after para space helps.

Parle is Pure Vegeterian

Respected Customer

All ingredients used in our products are vegetarian we do not use anything which is non vegetarian in nature like egg or animal and thus our products are totally
vegetarian, we are also depicting a green dot for identifying our products to be vegetarian. You can be assured and continue consuming our products.

Thank You.

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Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2014 2:51 AM
To: Consumer Services - Mumbai
Subject: Are all parle biscuits vegeterian?

Hi, I am a strong believer is vegetarian food and from some sources I came to know about animal origin products used in preparation of Parle biscuits.  Could you please confirm that.  This will help a thousands of people like me. 

Thanks in anticipation

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List of Vegetarian and Vegan products

Things which Vegeterian people could eat in India (milk fat is acceptable here).  I will try to specify if it is vegan or not:

1. Bournvita - Emulsifiers are of animal origin, confirmed by Cadbury. Link.
2. Tangles (Vgn) - No animal product.
3. Tang (Vgn) - PETAs website. Link
4. Dabur Real Juice (Vgn) - No added color or flavor
5. Pepsodent Original/Regular Germicheck (Vgn) - both Ci (45430 & 12490) numbers are of chemical origin.
6. Lays - No added preservatives