Lalbagh Garden-Legacy of the Garden City

I was surprised to see that people have very wrong assumption about one of the best legacy of Bangalore. When Bangalore is left with very few Greenery and every day we are feeling more and more scorching heat, I am here to introduce "Lalbagh Garden-Legacy of the Garden City"!

Atleast go through the photos(open the link in IE) and you will definitely be amused:


http://www.flickr.com/search/show/?q=lalbagh+botanical+garden&s=int

Lal Bagh Botanical Garden is a well known botanical garden in Bangalore, India The garden was commissioned by the ruler of Mysore, Hyder Ali. It has a famous glass house which hosts yearly flower show. It also has an aquarium and a lake, and one of the tourist attractions in Bangalore.

Hyder Ali commissioned the building of this garden in 1760 but his son, Tipu Sultan, completed it. Lal Bagh is a 240 acre (971,000 sq.m. - almost 1 km².) garden and is located on the southern part of Bangalore. It holds a number of flower shows, especially on the Republic Day (26th January). The garden has over 1,000 species of flora. The Glass House, modeled on London's Crystal Palace (now re-modelled with a different layout), is the center of attraction. Hyder Ali laid out these famous botanical gardens and his son added horticultural wealth to them by importing trees and plants from several countries. The Lal Bagh Gardens were commissioned by the 18th century and over the years it acquired India's first lawn-clock and the subcontinent's largest collection of rare plants. The garden also has trees that are over 100 years old.

The garden surrounds one of the towers erected by the founder of Bangalore, Kempe Gowda. Hyder Ali decided to create this garden on the lines of the Mughal Gardens that were gaining popularity during his time. The park has some rare species of plants brought from Persia, Afghanistan and France. With an intricate watering system for irrigation, this garden is aesthetically designed, with lawns, flowerbeds, lotus pools and fountains. Most of the centuries old trees are labeled for easy identification. The Lal Bagh Rock, one of the oldest rock formations on earth, dating back to 3000 million years, is another attraction that brings the crowds.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lal_Bagh

Tagore on Today's Google Logo but Did We Remember Our Guruji?

Rabindranath Tagore(7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941): From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

He was a poet, visual artist, playwright, novelist, educationist, social reformer, nationalist, business-manager and composer whose works reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He became Asia's first Nobel laureate[1] when he won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature. A Pirali Brahmin[2][3][4] from Calcutta, Bengal, Tagore first wrote poems at the age of eight. At the age of sixteen, he published his first substantial poetry under the pseudonym Bhanushingho ("Sun Lion") and wrote his first short stories and dramas in 1877. In later life Tagore protested strongly against the British Raj and gave his support to the Indian Independence Movement. Tagore's life work endures, in the form of his poetry and the institution he founded, Visva-Bharati University. Tagore wrote novels, short stories, songs, dance-dramas, and essays on political and personal topics. Gitanjali (Song Offerings), Gora (Fair-Faced), and Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World) are among his best-known works. His verse, short stories, and novels, which often exhibited rhythmic lyricism, colloquial language, meditative naturalism, and philosophical contemplation, received worldwide acclaim. Tagore was also a cultural reformer and polymath who modernised Bengali art by rejecting strictures binding it to classical Indian forms. Two songs from his canon are now the national anthems of Bangladesh and India: the Amar Shonar Bangla and the Jana Gana Mana respectively.

The Poet's Letter to Lord Chelmsford, the Viceroy , repudiating his Knighthood in protest for Jalianwallahbag mass killing. The letter was published in The Statesman, June 3, 1919:

"Your Excellency,The enormity of the measures taken by the Government in the Punjab for quelling some local disturbances has, with a rude shock, revealed to our minds the helplessness of our position as British subjects in India....This callousness has been praised by most of the Anglo-Indian papers, which have in some cases gone to the brutal length of making fun of our sufferings, without receiving the least check from the same authority, relentlessly careful in something every cry of pain of judgment from the organs representing the sufferers. The time has come when badges of honour make our shame glaring in the incongruous context of humiliation, and I for my part, wish to stand, shorn, of all special distinctions, by the side of those of my countrymen who, for their so called insignificance, are liable to suffer degradation not fit for human beings. ..."
Source: http://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=231291&TPN=6

Mind Without Fear

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;

Where knowledge is free;

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;

Where words come out from the depth of truth;

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action

---

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

If dreams were made out of stone, it would be Hampi

Hampi, Word Heritage Site
http://www.karnataka.com/tourism/hampi/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampi

Virupaksha Temple
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virupaksha_Temple

Vijayanagara Empire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijayanagara_empire

SMS Solutions for Third Party Applications

Here we will talk about SMS solution providers or those applications which use SMS in their application. There are mainly 2 ways third party application can use SMS services:

A) Very Preemptive/simple:

Here application connects to the third party aggregator or SMS Gateway(s) and send/receive message. In general this flow can have flowing 2 varieties:

i) Only for Sending Messages:

Third party application sends the message as bulk to SMS Gateway or SMS Aggregator via HTTP/SMPP/CIMD. SMS Gateway/Aggregator will send the message to operator SMSC(s) via SMPP/CIMD/HTTP.SMSC then sends the message to the intended Subscriber.

ii) Both Sending and Receiving Messages:

Third party application sends the message as bulk to SMS Gateway or SMS Aggregator via HTTP/SMPP/CIMD. SMS Gateway/Aggregator will send the message to operator SMSC(s) via SMPP/CIMD/HTTP.SMSC then sends the message to the intended Subscriber.

Now, if the Subscriber wants/needs to reply back to the application with response (say, for Purchasing content/subscribing for Jokes etc.) s/he sends it and it reaches to the Operator SMSC and SMSC then finds the SMS Gateway/Aggregator to deliver the SMS and SMS Gateway then sends the Reply SMS back to the Application.

In this model SMS Gateway/Aggregator can only be able to get response back from the subscriber if it has connectivity with the SMSC of the Subscriber Operator. I mean any SMPP/CIMD/HTTP connectivity.

Note: So, this method is mainly used for sending bulk messages, instead of any Interactive Applications. And if you want to develop any application with only SMS Push, this is the simplest and cost effective method.

B) ESME way:

Here, instead of connecting to the SMS Gateway/Aggregator your SMS application can directly connect to the operator SMSC. So, you need to connect to SMSC to send message and this connection will be on a protocol called SMPP/CIMD/HTTP. You will become an EMSE (External Short Message Entity) for the SMSC. Operator will provision your application as an ESME on its SMSC with System ID/Password and Shortcode.

You need to first connect to SMSC over SMPP (TCP/IP) using an allocated System Id and Password. Then your application can send message(s) to the subscriber via SMSC. Subscriber in terns can send the reply back to your application or can request for Subscription/Content etc. by sending specific Keyword to your Shortcode. This will reach to the SMSC from Subscriber handset and SMSC will deliver the message to your application.

Note: Here, though push SMS can work if the Subscribers do not belong to the same operator to which SMSC your application is connected. But, for Subscriber to send message back to your application, s/he should belong to the same operator.

What is Up Notify Message

UP.Notify is the precursor push technology and is supported by Openwave Mobile Browser Versions 3, 4, and 5

WAP Push is translated to UP.Notify for older Openwave handsets

Up Notify does not allow pushing to all WAP 1.2.1 Handsets(an equivalent Service Indication can be sent to Openwave WAP 1.2.1 handsets)

Prefetch3 and Alerts are the UP.Notify equivalent to WAP Push SL and SI.

Legends:

1 Service Indications are alerts with a click-able link (e.g., "You have a new email, read now?"). For SMS translation, the URL will not be click-able due to limitations of SMS. The other push defined content types do not have presentation text associated them and are thus not readily translated.

2 Service Loads are alerts that also automatically delivers the content to the handset without user interaction. It is similar to Service Indication but removes the need for the user to confirm that s/he wants to load the content. Use of Service Loads depends on the application and the desired user experience.

3 A "prefetch", also known as "pull notification", allows content to be automatically loaded in the handset cache so that the user has immediate access to the push message when viewed.

Mobile Number Portability in August

If you have a Mobile Number with an XYZ operator and want to switch to ABC operator without changing your number, MNP (Mobile Number Portability) is the answer. Now, say my mobile number is from Airtel and I want to take a better offer from Hutch. But when I switch to HUTCH, I need to take a new number from HUTCH and I need to change my old good number which is known to all my friends and relatives! With MNP in place you have the freedom to switch to operators without changing your number.

As Govt. has announced that they will launch MNP in major cities in India by August-09 and slowly to all circles of India by end of this year, we have something to Joy! Now, Operators are bound to be more customer centric as their customer can easily shift their number to other operator.

For example, I am planning to shift my Mobile Number from Airtel to HUTCH to set my caller Tune to "Maa-from Tare Zaamin Paar" as it is not available in Airtel. It sounds funny! But you can try all your options to get better services while MNP knocks your door. Till then Keep Enjoying...

Great Indian Dreams-I

I was thinking for last few days to write an article about the common people around and their test of humor, which is leading us to this humorous society with mess in everyday life. Let’s start with my city of love, which is getting devastated by huge population, continuous tree cutting and rising cost of living. In the wake of IT boom (!!) we have got sudden raise in incoming IT job aspirant from across the country to this sweet city to get that dream job. They just come and get job and start spending unprecedented way to know that at the end of the years, rent is increased by thousands and break fast and lunch is costing just double!! Apart from this, getting a house for rent is tough enough to kill your ever young age! And those having experience, for 5-10 years or more have gone for mad race for buying flats. And seeing this, our great developer community has come up with high raise congested flats here and there with the price tag of min 40-50 lacs. There are banks which have increased the home loan interest rate by approximately double; which means if you have taken a loan for, say 40 lacs, you will end up paying interest of another 40 lacs(@14% pa). So, with a mediocre flat which actually should cost you 20-25 lacs is now costing you 60-70 lacs!! How much are you happy with this deal, buddy? Did you ever sit and think about the tradeoff of the deal? And we the IT society were just so crazy to buy these flats that by going days the developers started reducing the quality and facilities of the flats and continuously increased the price tag like the imported perfumed sold in big shopping malls! So, we can see malls in construction by prestigious builders getting crushed! Oh God! The level of greed has crossed the psyche of Saitan!

Now why is this? Why are we being victimized in this way? Ask to your self concise and you will get the answer. Please don’t curse the developers or banks alone. If there were no unprecedented demands for such flats there should not be so many constructions going on and if there were no madness among us to buy the flats in this double price, then there should not have such price tag for these low quality flats! It is as simple as you can understand my friend! In reality, we like to curse others for the situation we have created by our own bloody hand!! It’s very simple! So, please justify your spending dear IT friends and those of you in the society have more money. Because, most of us lead a middle class life and can not survive such spending culture and creation of unjustified pricing. This can have serious consequences to our economy as a whole, with a bang of “Financial Meltdown”!!

When I talk about illogical spending spree of IT professional I also like to take note of another habit (bad-habit) of regular IT professionals preferring to eating outside. They prefer to eat outside not because they like that food but they are too lazy or disorganised to cook. I found lots of my friends or their friends converted their kitchen into Junk Room!

Another consequence of IT society is not ignorable. Ya, I wanted to mention about the growing number of students are making there mind to come to this industry for job. They just get relaxed and happy with a mediocre IT job in respect to their great potential in respective field of science, commerce or mathematic. Everybody just wants to start a career in IT. Few most critical factors towards this changing phenomenon are: 1) Family pressure to earn competitive salary and lifestyle 2) Social discrimination based on money status rather than knowledge and educational status 3) Illogical and very low salary structure for these fields.

The dangerous consequences of these attitudes surely lead India into “Knowledge Crisis” in near future. It will not be so far when we need to use windows Find tool to search a student doing his higher studies in prestigious and critical field of science, commerce mathematics, medicals, Bio-Firma. Oh God!

Let’s come back to Bangalore again. It’s named as Garden City of India! When I first came to Bangalore back in 2001, I used to get surprised seeing how people made way for a tree to grow in their premises. Some were so surprising, where we could find trees were allowed to grow by making hole even in their buildings or breaking adjacent walls. Really, it used to touch my heart by pride thinking how responsible and caring the people of Bangalore are. But, when the IT boom is bombarding each corner of Bangalore with huge construction madness, we find people (cruel BBMP etc.) never think twice to cut a tree or hundreds and even thousands!! It pains me and I feel shattered each time with shame and pain in my heart and say “Oh God save us!”

And did anybody ever thought about the illogical price rise in BMTC tickets! Minimum fare is increased from 2 to 5 Rs. and price tag of a daily pass is increased by just double! As an IT/ITES/BPO professional you may not be feeling the heat because of high value salary slip or your big MNC provides comfortable pick-up and drop in luxuries vehicle. What about the common man (Common middle class population and lower middle class people who are the main travelers on these buses)? I would like to ask to the BMTC authorities: “Sir, do you think these fares are in any way been increased keeping in mind about the common man?” My wife keep asking me this question! Oh! God…save us!

I am ending this article by telling you a story or you can say a realization. I was in a trip to Malpe, near Mangalore. Malpe is a island and we were figuring out whether we can get certain item out there or not. We came to know that we will get those things there but will be costing just double of the regular price. I felt very happy that we will get the things out there and it will only cost 30-35 Rs. (without thinking once also that it will cost just double!!). One of my friend, Narayana, told me, “Samir, did you ever noticed that you are going to spend just double of the actual price?”

I was ashamed and said to myself: “Oh! God! Help myself!”

My intension for writing this series of articles is not to blame anybody, but ourselves. My intension was to make us understand that as a representative part of Indian society we should be more responsible in our daily terms to realize the great Indian dream! And at last I want to leave you all with an amazing quote of Karl Marx(which I have receive as FWD mail from my friends)written way back in 1867, which will inspire my Great Indian Dreams-II and keep you all busy for few minutes:

"Owners of capital will stimulate the working class to buy more and more of expensive goods, houses and technology, pushing them to take more and more expensive credits, until their debt becomes unbearable. The unpaid debt will lead to bankruptcy of banks, which will have to be nationalized, and the State will have to take the road which will eventually lead to communism"

-- Karl Marx, Das Kapital, 1867