unspoken reflections of my heart
eskay
I’m a connoisseur of art, a concoction of assorted interests, with a creative mind and an observant eye. An explorer by choice, I am a simple guy with rich tastes. I’m ever busy, read a lot, always at my witty best, and adore intelligence. Though I look reticent by chance, I talk a dozen to ten, if we share that bond. If you respect friendship, I will like thee. If you love music, you will love me.
Homepage: http://blog.karthiksankar.com
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Posts by eskay
Peace and Prosperity with Ragas – Part I
Dec 10th
[This series of six posts are excerpts from my Guru, violin maestro (late) Dr. Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan's interview with 'The Hindu'. The therapeutic effect of music has been elucidated. Also in each article is a picture of one famous musician from the Golden era of Carnatic music.]
Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar
BHILAHARI
BHILAHARI is associated with love. ‘Naajeevadara’ of Tyagaraja in this raga has always been popular. The saint, it is said, composed this in order to alleviate the acute stomach pain a man was suffering from. His prayer was answered and the man had relief. ‘Krishnaleela Tarangini’ of Narayana Tirtha has the song `Poorayamamakamam’ in Bhilahari. The saint cries out, “Hey! Gopala, bestow me with all the goodness so that I can continue to sing your praise”. This Bhilahari song ensures one vigour and good health.
In “Konjum Salangai” Ramalinga Adigalar’s bakthi verses ‘Orumayudan Unadhu’ set in Bhilahari and rendered by Sulamangalam Rajalakshmi was a popular hit. Another popular song is ‘Unnai Kandu Naan Ada Ennai Kandu Nee Aada’ from “Kalyanaparisu”. “Thalaiva Thavapudhalva,” the song I composed for the film “Agathiyar” was set in this raga. The Hindi song “Korakagaz” (“Aradhana”) owes its melody to the charm of Bhilahari.
RATHIPATHIPRIYA
Rathipathipriya adds strength and vigour to a happy wedded life. This five-swara raga has the power to eliminate poverty. The very prayoga of the swaras can wipe off the vibrations of bitter feelings emitted by ill wills. ‘Jagajanani Sukavani Kalyani’ composed by M. M. Dhandapani Desikar is a very popular song in this raga. Singing or listening to Rathipathipriya bestows on one happiness and has a stimulating effect.
how safe are we?
Dec 5th
How safe are we? Can we be confident that we will not receive a bullet to our chest? Can we tell with certainty that every time we go to a market, we would come out intact; every time we board a train, we would alight too; every time we check in at the reception desk of a hotel, we would check out too? How sure are we that when we go to bed every night, we would wake up the following morning?
Every one of us lives in fear – A fear that our most precious possession – life – might be lost; a fear that we might be victims of terrorism; a fear that we are incapable of defending ourselves. And this is the same fear that incapacitates the brave in us. We can also say that this is the same fear that is being exploited by the inhuman killers.
We know that no one has the right to kill another human. No one has the right to take away the life of a fellow human being. The world is ours and life is our gift. It is the duty of every human being to ensure that the world is a safe place to live in. We must safeguard ourselves and our fellow humans. We must be brave, face our enemy and win them. Yet we hesitate to come out of the cocoon called fear. We hesitate to stand up against the evil. We hesitate to fight terrorism.
No one was born with the ugly paint called terrorism. No one enters this world as a terrorist. It is the world around him that changes him into one. Every one has a family. Every one has someone to care for. Every one has a human within. But the good is being blinded by the bad. People are brainwashed to believe that terrorism is the only way to solve the problems the world faces. They are made to believe that killing is the only means to teach someone a lesson. They have been pushed to the extent of calling this ‘liberation’. This is a war, a deadly battle.
But this is not a war between countries. This is not a battle between religions. This is an attack on humanity. It is our unity that is being put to test. The integrity and the secularity are being tested for their strength. If we break down or split apart under such stressful situations, then we stand to lose. The purpose of such brutal terror acts will be achieved. Their motive will be fulfilled. We must not present any opportunity for this. We must stand united. We will never be able to make an effective protest until we achieve solidarity.
We will not be safe if we lock ourselves up in our rooms. We will not be safe if we wait for someone else to take action. We will not be safe unless we overcome our fear. There is no use in worrying about the past or waiting for the future. We must learn from our past, act in the present to make the future a safe one. If we are not ready for this battle, then we will be forced to stop every person we meet on the streets and ask, “Sir, I’m concerned. Are you a terrorist?” ..
SENSEX – my understanding
Dec 3rd
SENSEX - What is it ???
What is the buzzword now in India? The SENSEX. All that I knew a few weeks back was that the Sensex was at 21000 points, and now it is at 9000 points. What exactly are these points? How are they calculated? What is Sensex? What is happening in the financial world? A quest for answers to these questions helped me in understanding the market scenario. Now when I watch NDTV Profit, I am able to understand what they are speaking about!!!
A small story…
Suppose I buy a hotel, say for 50 lakh Rupees Then I manage the hotel successfully for one year with high profit, say 10 lakh. The profit continues for the next year also. So the establishment can be considered as an investment which gives profit in interest. Now how much is my hotel worth? If I plan to sell, there might be a buyer who might offer 100 lakh, considering the fact that the hotel is already running successfully yielding a profit of 10 lakh, and the profits might increase. So I plan to sell it at 100 lakhs.
There might be 10 buyers willing to buy. But none has 100 lakh. So, I plan to sell ’shares’ in the hotel. I can sell one share at 10 lakh to each of the ten buyers. Or I can divide the ownership into 1000 shares, at 10000 each. Or I can have 500 shares for myself and sell the others. This will help me retain a majority of shares, and remain in control of the hotel establishment. This is the basics of what shares are.
A different scenario. I need to start a hotel. I don’t have money to invest. So I request the public for money. This is called initial public offering. I can sell 1 lakh shares at 50 Rupees each, to get 50 lakh “Rupees immediately. This money I use to build and establish a hotel. The first year I get a profit of 10 lakh. I can do two things with this. I can share the profit with all shareholders, giving a ‘dividend’ of 10 rupees. Or I can save profits for further development of the company, which in turn will increase the company’s value and the share value. A shareholder can then sell his share and get profit (or loss, if the company’s value goes down)
Shares of public companies are bought and sold in stock exchanges. The BSE is the oldest and the largest stock exchange in India. The index that BSE uses is called the Sensex.
Free float market capitalization
An understanding of the Sensex requires the knowledge about ‘free flow market capitalization’. The word ‘capitalization’ or ‘market capitalization’ of a company refers to the ‘net worth’ of the company. This includes the total assets of a company. This is actually equal to the share price times the number of shares outstanding of a public company.
All shares of a public company will not be available for the public to buy or sell. Some shares might be held by the founders or directors, the government might own some shares, associate companies might own some, and so on. The free float shares refer to the shares that are available for trade in the open market. The free flow market capitalization is the total value of all shares that are available for trade by public.
Specifically, the following categories of holding are generally excluded from the definition of free-float:
• Shares held by founders/directors/ acquirers which has control element
• Shares held by persons/ bodies with “Controlling Interest”
• Shares held by Government as promoter/acquirer
• Holdings through the FDI Route
• Strategic stakes by private corporate bodies/ individuals
• Equity held by associate/group companies (cross-holdings)
• Equity held by Employee Welfare Trusts
• Locked-in shares and shares which would not be sold in the open market in normal course.
The remaining shares come under the free-float category.
Free float factor:
The percentage of free float shares among the total number of shares is calculated for every indexed company, based on the information specified by them regarding their shares. This percentage is rounded off to the higher multiple of 5. The corresponding fraction is the free float factor.
Let 43% of all shares come under the free float category.
43% when rounded off to the nearest multiple of 5 gives 45%
The corresponding factor is 0.45.
The free float factor is 0.45
This free float factor means that only 45% of the total market capitalization of the company will be taken for index calculation.
SENSEX Calculation
Sensex is calculated taking into consideration stock prices of 30 different BSE listed companies. This means that the level of index at any point of time reflects the market value of its 30 component stocks relative to a base period. The year 1978-79 is considered as the base period and the base value has been set to 100 index points.
Sensex value = Current free-float market value of constituents stocks / Index Divisor
The Index Divisor adjusts the original base period of the Sensex to its present level. The Divisor is the only link to the original base period value of the Sensex. This keeps the Sensex comparable over time.
The calculation is ‘claimed’ to be simple, involving basic mathematical concepts of ratios and proportions. If the free-float market capitalisation is Rs 9,00,000 crore and if the Sensex value is 14,500 — then, for a free-float market capitalisation of Rs 9,50,000 crore, the Sensex value will be 15,306.
9,50,000 x 14,500 / 9,00,000 = 15,306 (approx.)
[ Not much is known about the Index Divisor value. The value has not been released publicly, and there are doubts whether the divisor is a true constant or not. As far as I know, the value lies somewhere close to 64. ]
Reliance Data Card in Ubuntu 8.04
Nov 29th
Reliance data card ( Huawei ) works really well in Ubuntu, and getting it to work is very easy.
All that one must do is to plug in the USB modem and edit the /etc/wvdial.conf file:
Step 1: Edit the /etc/wvdial.conf file by typing in the following lines
[Dialer Defaults]
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Modem Type = Analog Modem
ISDN = 0
New PPPD = yes
Phone = #777
Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0
Username = **********
Password = **********
Baud = 460800
stupid mode = 1
The username and password generally would be the Reliance number.
Step 2: Run (as root) the following command from terminal:
wvdial /etc/wvdial.conf
The output will be similar to the following:
--> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.56
--> Warning: section [Dialer /etc/wvdial.conf] does not exist in wvdial.conf.
--> Cannot get information for serial port.
--> Initializing modem.
--> Sending: ATZ
ATZ
OK
--> Sending: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
OK
--> Modem initialized.
--> Sending: ATDT#777
--> Waiting for carrier.
ATDT#777
CONNECT 230400
--> Carrier detected. Starting PPP immediately.
--> Starting pppd at Sun Nov 30 09:34:55 2008
--> Pid of pppd: 11854
--> Using interface ppp0
--> pppd: h?[06][08]p?[06][08]
--> pppd: h?[06][08]p?[06][08]
--> pppd: h?[06][08]p?[06][08]
--> pppd: h?[06][08]p?[06][08]
--> pppd: h?[06][08]p?[06][08]
--> local IP address 220.226.8.49
--> pppd: h?[06][08]p?[06][08]
--> remote IP address 220.224.135.10
--> pppd: h?[06][08]p?[06][08]
--> primary DNS address 202.138.103.100
--> pppd: h?[06][08]p?[06][08]
--> secondary DNS address 202.138.96.2
--> pppd: h?[06][08]p?[06][08]
Now you can browse the internet…
OSUM @ NIT Trichy – What’s happening inside
Nov 28th
Many students have the habit of planning in advance what they must do during the holidays. Some decide they must learn a programming language, some might be planning to sharpen their problem solving skills, and a few others might be planning to bring out their creativity by trying their hand at designing.
But how many succeed in doing what they planned, at least partially? Most of them end up setting for themselves goals that are unreachable and framing timetable, adhering to which is practically impossible. The reason? Lack of proper guide. Without knowing what is in store for them within the pages of the book, goals cannot be set, timetables cannot be framed. Students end up wasting the precious time of theirs, grazing through arbitrary topics, which evaporate from the brain faster than the time they took to settle in. The result? ‘I have studied A to Z, but I don’t know which is the starting and which marks the end’. Confusion prevails.
The Open Source University Meetup (OSUM) at NIT Trichy is functioning as a guide for students of NIT-Trichy, helping them to set realistic targets, and providing them with necessary resources to achieve the targets. Students who have registered are given guidance in their own fields of interest.
Five fields have been chosen:
• Algorithms
• Java ME
• Networking and Distributed Systems
• Web Designing
• 2D Designing
Students have varied levels of understanding and experience in these topics. So, the activities have been planned to help everyone set individual goals and work towards them. Individual guidance is given for students who are enthusiastic.
With respect to Algorithms, the activities have been targeted at three different levels, Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced. Clear demarcation is provided for students to judge themselves. Books and other materials including self-written ones have been shared with the students. Assignments with thought-provoking and challenging questions have been shared with everyone.
Creativity is the main requirement for design. Creativity starts within the mind. The computer is only an aid to convert the virtual image in the mind into a real one on screen. Photoshop and Flash Programming courses have been planned for the winter, along with web designing courses starting from HTML, PHP, CSS, Ajax, JavaScript, etc. Sample designs have been sent to the students so that they get a fair idea about the field of design.
Most students are new to Java ME and Networking. So, guidance is given right from the basics. This involves sharing books and simple programs elucidating the basic concepts required to start a detailed course on these topics. A Java ME workshop has also been planned for the benefit of students, and will be conducted during the third week of January.
Google Docs is being extensively used for student registration and for efficient and secure means of sharing the resources. An SMS group has been created at SMSGupShup for sending instant group messages regarding latest progress.
There has been an overwhelming response with over 45 students registered for the programme. The programme will get bigger and better in the future. The student community will be immensely benefited by such programmes. If activities on similar lines are conducted in every college or university, the entire student community will be able to achieve their goals and excel in life.
To join the vibrant community, “OSUM @ NIT Trichy”, log on to http://osum.sun.com/group/nitt .
Suggestions and ideas are always welcome…
Configuring Cygwin with Netbeans in Windows
Nov 22nd
Netbeans IDE can be used to create C/C++ Applications. Netbeans running on Linux Platforms dont require any additional configuration if the compilers are already available in the Linux distribution. But to get it working in Windows, a Linux-like environment will be required.
Cygwin is a Linux-like environment for Windows.
Here is a step by step guide to configure Cygwin with Netbeans in Windows.
Step 1: Installing Netbeans
- Install JDK. The latest version can be downloaded here
- Download and install Netbeans. The latest version is Netbeans IDE 6.5. The latest version can be downloaded from http://www.netbeans.org. Make sure you download the bundle that has all technologies.
- Select C/C++ option while installing. ( It is better to select all the options )
Step 2: Installing Cygwin
- Cygwin can be downloaded from http://www.cygwin.com
- Run the setup file.
- Install from internet. Specify C:\cygwin as the root directory.
- In the Select Packages dialog box, select the packages required. gcc-core, gcc-g++, gdb, and make packages are most important. These are the C core, C++ core, the GNU Debugger and the GNU version of ‘make’ utility. These packages will be under the ‘Devel’ category.
- Complete the installation.
Step 3: Testing Cygwin
- To test whether Cygwin was installed properly, try the following by opening the bash shell:
cygcheck -c cygwin gcc --version g++ --version make --version gdb --version
Step 4: Setting PATH
- Right click on My Computer and select Properties. Goto Advanced System Settings.
- Click on Environment Variables.
- In system variables’ frame choose “Path” and click “edit” button.
- Now in the variable value textbox give the path of your cygwin/bin directory. (i.e., probably c:\cygwin\bin)
- Click OK
The setup is done.
Now new C/C++ Projects can be started:
- Open Netbeans IDE
- CLick New Project –> C/C++ –> C/C++ Application
- Choose a Project Name and Location. Then select ‘Finish’.
- Right click on Source Files under the current Project in the Projects pane on the left side.
- Select New –> Empty C++ File
- Type in the C++ Program.
- Now go to Run –> Run Main Project or press F6 to run the program.
Cygwin has been successfully configured with Netbeans.
Had there been a rewind button…
Nov 13th
Many a times we might have pondered over why God failed to create a rewind button for our lives. A peep into our own past might bring back the treasured memories from the pages of our lives. If every human is given a chance to go back to his past, make some changes and come back to the present, would life be any better?
Life is a mixture of happiness and sorrow, anger and calmness, friends and foes, good and bad. The challenge is to have the right mix of all these, with the ability to cherish the good and brave the bad. A life without challenges is not worth living. To emerge a winner, we need to adapt and evolve. We need to have a good control of everything that our life provides us. Losing confidence over ourselves just indicates that we have surrendered to our own life.
Some say that there exists a hypothetical parallel universe; a correlation between mind and matter. Is there an option for us to co-exist in a different universe? Can we modify the other life of ours so that the present life is accordingly influenced? Something like an alternate reality? Probably it might give us a different perspective of our own life? The time travel, the alternate history, the bending of space – all these might seem like a fantasy, an imagination of a mind craving for change, longing for a new past. But we are forced to accept the fact that there is only one reality – the present. The past cannot be changed, but the present will change the future. The history books are not going to be changed, neither are our memories. Our past is permanent, the present is temporary and the future is undefined.
We always want everyone around us to be happy, to be cheerful. We always try to make sure our loved ones are happy. We love to see a smile on their faces. But then, things do not always happen the way we expect them to. We might have hurt others. We might have made our loved ones cry. We might have caused pain. But, if we are given a chance to rectify our errors, we would embrace the opportunity, go back to those days and redesign our lives. But God gives us no such option. We are not given an option to forget either. The memories haunt us, remind us about our mistakes. The tears might have dried, the pain might have subsided, but the scars would remain.
God made human a ‘Creator’. We create our own life. We shape ourselves. We have moulded this world into what it is today. Every human shares the responsibility for the past, present and the future. But we were never meant to be ‘Editors’. Words spoken and actions done cannot be changed. The moments that have passed are the moments we have lost. There isn’t a second chance. Life has no trial run.
In the end, it is always chaos. Randomness exists everywhere. But there emerges a pattern – a chain of events revolving around us. We have been directing the events during different phases of our life. We have been bending them to suit our needs. But are we really in control of it? If everyone transforms the world to his own needs, there might have been millions of worlds today – A divide between every single person, a boundary for our minds, a wall around us. What we are bending is our own perception of the world. We have the power of imagination. We have the ability to dream. Our world, our imagination, and our dreams – everything is virtual. They occupy no space or volume, but are powerful enough to change our lives and our destiny.
Every piece on a chess board stands on its own. A glance at the chess board while the game is in progress will give us very little clue about the random arrangement of the pieces. But, every game has a similar start and every move is based on a strategy. Our life is like a chess game. The events happening in our present might seem to be unrelated. But the game of life depends upon every move of ours, every strategy we adopt and every step we advance. Our thoughts decide our actions. Our actions determine our fate. Our fate crafts our destiny. But we must always remember that there is never a step backward…
