Today, some of us went SRMAB. Priyanka and Arun reached early to installed JAWS(its a screen reader for Visually impairded students) on some of the computers. I was also planned to reach early, but on the gate I met one of the students who I remembered ever. His name is Amog, when I met him last year he was in 4th class, so should be in 5th class now. Remembering old days, he had cleared the 1st round of eye-check and doctor said that bring him in hospital for next round of checkup, looked like there is a scope of improvement. Like Amog there were 33 kids on the list. Every time I took them to doctor (generally we had taken them into batch of 10-10), I just hope that at least some of them get little vision. Oh, I forgot to mention SRMAB is a blind school for visually impaired kids. Kind doctors at Shekar Netralaya every time explained me the problem, every time it was painful to hear that. I don't want to share that here because blog space is a place to write good things.
That day, I was talking to Amog. He was telling me about his village and his parent. He further added that his father was very much worried about him, I told him not to worry. He told me that some doctor had screwed up his eyes. Finally he told me that a doctor of my knowledge(this all he explained me in English) told me that your eye can be rectified little with sixty thousand Rupees. I was some how enjoying his home story.
In the meanwhile, doctor called for his checkup. After checkup, doctor was explaining me the problem and Amog shouted from back "Madam can you explain it to me as well". She explained to both of us and it was almost the same story that Amog told me. Finally madam told me that under a severe operation, vision can be improved for 5-10 percent. Amog asked her "how much it will cost" and she told me "you need to consult senior doctor but it will cost around 60-70 thousand" and we both started laughing ...
(Amog in picture, one of the brightest and smartest boy of SRMAB)
(Written by Vaibhav, a volunteer of Pankhudi. Working in Bangalore and fan of some such kids. Regarding Pankhudi, its a bunch of Software Engineers and some more .. better I can some freemen who want to do something good)
For more than 7-8 years, I am cooking myself. In between for 4-5 months we put a cook(it used to be we, but now its I) but soon we discarded him. These days cooks are in high demand in a city like Bangalore which is full of Bachelor. And believe me, family people need cook more than bachelors.
Anyway, there are only 2 kind of people. One who eat tasty food and other school who eat healthy food. Problem of life is both don't come together in most of the cases. If you see a typical health conscious bachelor in market and unethically if you put your eyes in his bag, most probably you will find packet of oat, wheat bread, 2-3 real juice(Tropicana, they prefer), 2-3 packets of eggs, corn flakes....and the other who believe in tasty food, items go like this - 2-3 mixture packet, butter slice, juice(yes, it lives in both category)...
From past 3-4 month, I start eating eggs which is one of the staple diet for bachelors and so for me. By the way, if you have problem in boiling eggs, get a tip from me(as I am 8 yr workX cook). Generally egg burst(I don't know what term to use) at the time of boiling. So, put some salt in boiling water, that reduces the osmotic pressure and not allow egg to burst(You know, physics has its existence everywhere). Tip passed by one of my friends Manish, as I am new to egg boiling field(I used to be a vegetarian).
If you are new into cooking field and need any kind of guidance, do remember me.
Presentation done by one of our students who start learning computer some 4-5 months back. They all belong to orphanage home and has a great passion towards computer.
You will not be always lucky enough to get a waterfall which is multi-directional or different streams are coming. But what you appreciate in these photos are the sharpness and the streaming of water. Now, this is what you will get when you shot waterfall in automatic mode or with normal setting.
Now, change it into low ISO, 100 and shutter speed of 1/10 or 1/8, you will get something like this:
I made it black and white just for fun. But we can easily differentiate the water stream. Now not only this, as it go for low ISO, hand held photo can be tough to take. What can be done for that - there are 2-3 ways to overcome that.
1. Use tripod if you have. 2. Use IS lens, Image stabilizer lens manage small shake. 3. I don't have both and so, I always try to reach near the subject and try using small-lightweight lens rather than heavy lens.
Everyone feel happen when he get appreciation, someone saying "this is awesome man". What to take and what not to take is easy to judge, if your eye can peruse the beauty, camera can be. Today night I was roaming on my roof when I saw moon. This is the first thing I always notice on my roof. It was indeed beautiful like it used to be. But today the white cloudy shades and ring across it was making it more beautiful. I decided to give a try with camera. It is basic SLR camera with minimal lens configuration. I have one lens of 75-300 mm, which is fine for this shot. Now, what mode to set. Auto-mode - no way, it will start flash and flash means moon will look like a ... umm, white sphere, no spot will be visible at all. Manual mode need a great stability in hand or a tripod.
Now, I tried the best shot with changing shutter speed. Both the image have something to make me sad.
At second place I get the correct spots of moon but lost the ring/outside white cloud. In first, I got the outside white cloud but details of moon get lost.
I came from jogging and doing some kitchen stuff. I was worried about my body weight loss and in the mean time my dad called me. He had given me the news of Fire in one of the Buildings in Bangalore. In evening, fire caught in Carlton Towers, and I guess victim counts were 20-30. Figuring out the exact count is tough these days because Data Manipulation and hiding happen at different level.
Just surprised with my thinking, some stupid thinking of weight loss/weight gain and people die in a second or if more painful may be in a minute. Our reactions were going normal day by day on these cases. We just call 1-2 friends who were living in those areas... OK, you are fine. Alright, fine !!
Subrata, one of my office colleague pinged me and asked why we don't use helicopter for such rescue, Bangalore is a city of technology. Does it really make difference ? Slowly and slowly, we have developed a great ignorance power, which is good and bad as well. In TCS training days, one of our profession cum engineer asked us a question, why India is such a big hub for Software ! We spoke some bla bla .. and he finally concluded that Indians are cool, they don't go panic on small things, like some crash happened, some code is not working and that gives them time to think and to solve problem. How true !!
Yes, we don't go panic. I remember the day when fire alarm operation call for training people and his first line as usual was it should take 1 minute for you guys to come out and you have taken 6 minutes. We mummer "chill maar yaar" !! He spoke out some good way to save our life when fire catch the building. I swear, I remember all. Don't know how much people can apply when things really happen. Out of 9-10 death in this case, 5 jumped from eight floor building, surprise , may be not !!
Can't blame system(now). Either its a loss with system or a loss with mind, people die. We used to say.. oh this happened, how to save the next accident. Now, we say, oh this happened, when will next happen !
It was late. Around 11.30, he opened the door and came inside the room. Room was dirty but there was enough space on bed to sleep. To sleep ... he was trying that from 4-5 days. A bed, a blanket and a fan was not enough to get a sleep, something else was required...
Leaving it apart as he was doing it from some days, he thought what to do. Some people live with this "change the world" attitude and soon they released that this is a shit idea. For a good life, change yourself, live a normal life. Normal life... yes, this question hung on his ass from so many days. He was figuring out what is a normal life. Office, movie, food, trip on weekends, TV show, cricket, shopping ??
There is a big risk in becoming leader. The very first bullet target you. If so, It's good to be a follower ? Its good to be a normal person, be a leader of your family, probably a wife, 2-3 kids, who will not shoot you in 99 percent of chance. Why to lead a path were bullets don't ask you even "who are heck you are". But then some such person "change the world". Great, respect them, they deserve ! Be a good follower of them !
A beggar on road ! Please, don't do injustice with your normal life. If you start thinking why the heck he wants money and 1-2 step ahead that these people should not exist in our country then please STOP STOP STOP ! You are going to miss something charming of your normal life. Probably you will be late in reaching home and you miss you TV show. Or probably you will miss that one liner jokes on Radio. Come on, your thinking will not change their life, and how come they are thousand in number and you are alone with the pressure of office, sexy wife, lovely kids. It is simply not possible !
Thinking all this and taking a firm decision to live normal, he thought it was easy to sleep now, but it was not... probably his some questions were still unanswered.
It was tired eyes. Though it was rejecting to sleep. I thought let it go more worst. it is not possible... How different it is to understand the words and understand the feelings ? Everyone has a religion, what matters is who find when.
Soft rain started in Bangalore. From last 3 days it is raining and it is no more soft in feeling. Hmm, Last Friday I met one of my friends and coming back to my home. Near Kanakapura road(Bangalore), a smart old man caught me asking for lift. He asked me to drop near Ragigudda temple which is approximately 200 meter away from my turn. Ok, that's a fair deal. Though from last 2 months people find themselves offended in visiting that road.
New Bangalore Central(mall) came up near Ragigudda temple just opposite to Big-Bazar. So big bazar worthy customer can't leave that road, visiting mall is mandatory by Gen-X people and God believers, special Hanuman bhakat can't stop visiting Ragigudda temple. So, evening time that road is more like a girl watching road because you can't move your bike or car.
Anyway, smart old man got the lift. On back seat, he sat like an Indian traditional woman.. both the legs on one side of bike. This is a scary pose for driver and back-side both. Now he told me his story. Daily he got 10 Rupees from his son to go to temple and he saved it almost everyday. Either he got lift or he walk. He told "I am doing this from 6 years". So, Just did a rough calculation he did 6*365*10 ~ 22K Appox, he told me 20K, not bad. Now, that is good amount and awesome way of saving.
If someone of your friend or kids are learning, MS office tools like Word, Powerpoint. We have created small exercise for them. In few questions you can cover many things of these tools.
If you are looking for Online Syllabus for CBSE, then yes, it is available. Not only for CBSE but for TN board and Karnataka board, it is available. Please use the following links:
Karnataka book only have 10th books now. But soon other class books will come. This will be helpful for kids who avail the book in different format. Like Visually Impaired kids need book in braille and conversion in braille from here is very easy.
She was too young to meet a doctor. Today Bhumika was with me for eye checkup. Sometime I think I should learn Kannada because talking with these kids are too tough. Some grown up, manage English but small kids like Bhumika(7 year age) are too small for English even. Too young to learn anything other than smiling/crying.
It was not different from other day, then Vikram, my office colleague told me, "enjoy weekend". "Oh, weekends about to start" nice to know. I was on leave from last 2 days, many of us actually and its more worth than writing code or playing cricket at office. Today we have taken 13 kids for detailed eye check at Shekar Netralaya. They already visited the school last month and finalized 38 kids who can be operated further. Like previous day, we didn't get a cab/bus to put the kids at Shekar Netralaya. It is around 1.5 Kms from school. We decided to take the kids by walk but if you want to avoid main road it will be more than 2 kms. 7 out of 13 were bare feet...
Asking them, they said that they feel it better that way. Changing an existing system is tougher than adding a new system. It was not good for their health to walk like this but that was not a right time to give lecture. We moved, its regret to know that many people don't use brake of their bike in Bangalore in any case. I decided to do it 1-by-1, rather than telling our bikers to stop.
Hospital was crowded. For doctors also this is NGO work and so they can't disturb the flow of their normal patient. Kids got the chair to sit at least. To one of the excited kids Ravi Kiran, I asked "you want water". He replied "juice sir, it's hospital na". Finally the treatment started. And its hard time to listen new stories. Total of 3 cases, where it was a genetic problem. Marriage in same blood like with Cousin or relative, leads to this problem. What doctor sir explained me was - "getting married in same blood cause this problem at a dominant level. Maybe either his mother or father has this problem but not prominent but the next generation effect is very prominent. Lot of research is going on but we don't have any solid solution yet. "
Finally we got 4 kids, for whom vision can be little improved by glasses of power like +11, +10. Bhumika case was different from all of them. Her eyes are normal but brain connection with eyes never grown up. Can't do much. Research is going on ! One doctor was abusing us, that why you came for checkup now. You know its too late for many of them. "Even for some, it is corneal problem which can be rectified but now their retina are too weak to see anything. If your retina will not work for 10 years, how it should be". Hmmm.... correct ! Some got cataract which can be operated and removed. But again their retina are weak and so vision will not be improved more than 20-25 percent.
I am not writing this blog for any sympathy but just to inform that minor mistakes can lead to a severe problem. Out of 23, there were 4 cases, in which parents screwed up the eyes because kids claimed some irritation in eyes and they put some wrong eye drop/wrong medical treatment. Now, they are crying and why not they left with that option only. 4 cases, where marriage led to this problem. Take care !!
If you have any kid in your surrounding who has vision problem, don't wait even for a day. Immediate checkup is required. Eye power go down with a high pace. If someone die in your surrounding, request their relatives to donate his/her eyes. It's more worthy than what he had done in his whole life. God will definitely bless heaven to him.
Lets give a try before concluding that trying this is not worth. 15 still more to go !
It was more than a year, I traveled somewhere for fun. Our gang decided to have one. Where, was not a big question because we had our tripping expert Srikanth. Srikanth decided to have Chikamagalore(Hunkal Woods is around 40 minutes more) and hit the highest pick of Karnataka. Final calculation let only 9 people ready for trip. Last trip of Wayanard(an year back), was awesome and I was expecting this to be cool as well. Before this trip, I bought a Canon 1000D. I am still busy in doing the correct settings :).
PS: I am writing this blog for fun and feeling, not for providing information about the place.
7.30 AM : We reached the resort, it was completely awesome. After lot of fun like rope climbing, rather rope breaking :), table tennis and a cup of coffee, everyone got ready for trekking. We did the deadly breakfast and made the move. Trekking started with fun and fear. Fear of leeches ! Soon the trek became tough with steep climbing and sooner tougher because the path was through the water fall. Leeches were coming into picture but we had much bigger things to worry about. Soon we hit the pick. From this picture, you can see the trekking path.
Luckly moving down, it was a different path. I was talking with Srikanth about other trekking experience and he was explaining the team work, which was so true. It was all about patience, team effort and caring. Running fast is immaterial when the slowest person of your team decides your win. It's better to help that person to speed up rather than speeding up your run. We covered the whole path(up and down) in 5 hrs.
4.00 PM: Got ready for lunch. Finishing it, we joined for some game like Badminton, Cricket, Football. None of us were tired or may be so much tired that they didn't want a rest. Soon it was a lovely night with lots of star in sky. We put the bonfire. Care taker of that place started with some ghost stories but all were bogus and boring. Soon, we had finished our dinner and got ready for ...
10.30 PM: For another trek :). Wow, a night trek, sounds interesting ! Luckily all of us was ready for this. We took 2-3 massal, 2 torch and made the move again. It was supposed to be a short trek but how short, we didn't have any clue. I keep on moving with Vivek Anna's jokes. After sometime, we encountered the hunters who were looking for animal and told us to get back which was a reasonable suggestion. Back to home at 12.00 night. Some more talk and everyone went to bed.
Day 1 over.
Day 2: Nothing much to write. I wake up at 7.45 AM. Though we had to leave the place at 8.00, no one was in real hurry. Got some more time to play football and badminton. Finally we decided to move for Belur. It was supposed to be my second trip to Belur. But I enjoyed it second time as well. It took more than 100 years to complete it and why not. Art work is silently speaking about everything of that place.
Finally I am back at home with lot of wounds, cuts and fun ! "The biggest risk is to not take any.... ".
Place rating: 4.5/5 Resort rating[http://www.hunkalwoods.com/]: 5/5
Learning at an age of 26 is tough. Because most of the time mind is in semi-learn state and for a semi-matured mind its tough to deny what you know(wrong or right). Let me explain you by an example.
If you are one of the frequent readers of this blog, you got to know that my English is pathetic. I do, on and off common mistakes in writing. WHY ? This is how I developed myself. But now, I am in a state from where unlearning and relearning is almost impossible for me. Not only this, when someone correct me, my first reaction is ... "this piece of junk don't have any work to do, read the content, why he is worrying about my grammar". Nothing wrong because this is how you(here I) developed yourself. After listening so many times, good blog, good blog, your mindset is very obvious. Oh, this guy is reading my blog, okay, he will say it's a good post. And certainly you will listen "your grammar usages are not correct", Ah "Go to Hell", an obvious reaction. Learning is tough and unlearning is toughest....
Ego - is it ego. No idea, but nothing wrong in respecting someone's ego. Ego is nothing - he has done something, may be in past, and he want to say, I know this(may be he don't know). Great, respect his work ! Ego is just a by-product of success, just what we call "superiority complex".
If you are smart, you will reply me "your blog is awesome, just a small correction is required here". Now saying this, you are showing that you take care of others feeling(so called ego) and you are not egoist yourself to be the best English maker of world.
Time is game. Someone replied you and if it hurt your feeling(have wrong feeling for right thing is ego), time play an important factor. If you have given your self no time, and replied it back. Your reply will be something like this "You piece of s**t, don't try to tell me what is wrong and what is right". Since we don't have guts to write like this, we write it in a nice ironical fashion. But if you have given yourself 2 min of time, you will reply "thank you". Now this "thank you" is deadly again. Because you have replied something else and something else is going in your mind. You are holding your anger for a long time. In most of the time it will simply disrupt all your work for a while. Hmm.. what to do.
I really don't have a good solution for it(please give if you have). But most effective way to outcome - 3rd party involvement. We get a 3rd man, who support your feeling and he will explain you "Arre, that guy is idiot, man, why you are listening him". Oh, you suddenly feel, 2 person(you, 3rd party) are thinking that he is an idiot. Good, good ! This is funny, but most effective way, which we all do !
Talk - its such a funny thing. It decide whom you like and whom you hate. Not only that, at a particular instance, you are liking someone or hating someone.
Oh man, I am writing lot of common sense stuff, don't know why. But something need to come out which stuck at my mind. Unlearning is tough than learning and tougher as age grow. So, get you kids learn good things at early age :), so that unlearning will be minimal.
It was a big day for us. We were waiting for some result that can change life(s). I had already put leave mail, thanks to Sun culture where no one bothers about leave. But lot of our friends/volunteers already fought for their leave and made it possible, hats off ! Some committed to work in early morning, some committed to night shift but they made the day worth. It was an eye camp for the kids of SRMAB(Shree Ramana Maharishi Academy for the Blind) and an important day for us.
Doctor had done their setup and we were all ready to control the flow of kids. Only one agenda - was he/she curable or not !! I was not there with any expectation but I could listen some "even if 10 kids can be cured, its a good number". I had done all these pre-maths last night with the conclusion that if things were not in control, wish for the best. Volunteers were all ready for the action. Faculties of SRMAB were ready to help and taken the work to get the kids from different classes. Principal sir has given their own big hall for checkup, so nice ! He is one of the most concerned person when it comes to student's health or treatment.
Dr. Smitha started with her examination. Before that, one doctor did the initial checkup. Like, he examined the eyes with torch light. If eyes motion exist on torch light that means retina is fine. If retina is not fine means eye problem can't be cured. Everyone has to go through the main treatment after primary treatment. For some, there were no eyes. For other some, there retina were completed damaged. Doctor Madam told us that most of them have mechanical injuries or severe infection. For other some, eyes were too small... God "some break is required". In break, God given 38 those kids out of 118 who can be verified/cured(chance) further.
One of the senior members who was Managing Director of Shekar Netralaya was explaining us other things related with this event. He was telling that eye donation is still weak in our country and I am requesting you guys also that whenever you go on any funeral, try to convey the family for eye donation. Eye can be donated in next 6 hrs of death and its best to keep the eye close and put some ice-cube over it. This will keep cornea safe for long time. He further explained that even you can go for Lasik treatment to remove your specs. Lasik operation, now a days can be done in 15 seconds and overall a day treatment. Adding further, he said "these days we do one or more lasik operation per day".
I got the chance to meet my old students, Renuka, Sheela, Kaushik. Renuka said that she was ill from 17 days. Her eyes...hmm it was different from my prediction. Doctor said her eyes could be further checked, that means some hope is still left. They are the most intelligent kids of SRMAB at least in Computers , just because they can't see completely and so they don't bother to know whats going on screen. Mouse and screen are two useless part of computer for them. It was a great day with full of knowledge, good hope, some disappointment and fun with the kids on weekday. Our game plan for next action is all set and we need to put that in zero time. Losing vision in many times is a gradual process which can be checked with proper medication.
Sometime, things not go in a way you want it to be. Yeah, but it was too early to predict and give up. For a change, I took an auto for my weekend work. Near Jayanagar signal(Bangalore), I see one guy coming out from opposite side near red light. By face, he was looking like a software engineer. Like a beggar, he was asking money in bus, in auto, 4 wheeler(beggar don't expect much with 2 wheeler guys, nice !). Little surprising, me and auto guy both starring at him. Not bothered to go into more detail. 100 meter ahead on next red light(yes, Jayanagar, 4th block market has 3 signals all 100 meters apart), there was a girl busy in same business. Decent Girl ...
She was also demanding money. Auto guy told me "that both are in relation and they are very rich, richer than me". He added "they stay near by". Before I asked anything, he added further "weekend per paisa maangta hai(They are begging at weekends)". I had no words to add, I just said "awesome". No one can jusify begging, neither a blind nor a deaf. Its not about losing a part of body, it's about losing only one part - mind. By the way, they were justifying it, weekend part time.. not bad !
We had planned for a test in our seva shishu aasram. It went OK, my expectation was much higher. We are missing something, still the performance of students were not upto mark. Something is missing, something is wrong... I am not able to find out. They are doing ok and its too early to expect...
We were discussing something after the class, outside the campus. A man entered with his wife and a kid. Kid..hmm 2-3 years of age I guess. Ajay(one of us) told that they came to put this kid in this orphange home. I said no. Most of the kids they got from police or from hospital. But he was right. After some talk, that guy was back with his "so called" family. Started speaking something in Kannada and I said Vivek(one of us). Vivek explained us later that his 2 kids are already here and they(Orphange) refused to take 3rd. The man("so called" man) was telling that I drink a lot and I will die in 2-3 months, so I was requesting them to take this kid". I had nothing to say except "awesome". I remembered the new pulsar ad "I am the Man..."
I made it black and white just for fun. But we can easily differentiate the water stream. Now not only this, as it go for low ISO, hand held photo can be tough to take. What can be done for that - there are 2-3 ways to overcome that.
as different from all of them. Her eyes are normal but brain connection with eyes never grown up. Can't do much. Research is going on ! One doctor was abusing us, that why you came for checkup now. You know its too late for many of them. "Even for some, it is corneal problem which can be rectified but now their retina are too weak to see anything. If your retina will not work for 10 years, how it should be". Hmmm.... correct ! Some got cataract which can be operated and removed. But again their retina are weak and so vision will not be improved more than 20-25 percent.
the resort, it was completely awesome. After lot of fun like rope climbing, rather rope breaking :), table tennis and a cup of coffee, everyone got ready for trekking. We did the deadly breakfast and made the move. Trekking started with fun and fear. Fear of leeches ! Soon the trek became tough with steep climbing and sooner tougher because the path was through the water fall. Leeches were coming into picture but we had much bigger things to worry about. Soon we hit the pick. From this picture, you can see the trekking path.
her trek :). Wow, a night trek, sounds interesting ! Luckily all of us was ready for this. We took 2-3 massal, 2 torch and made the move again. It was supposed to be a short trek but how short, we didn't have any clue. I keep on moving with Vivek Anna's jokes. After sometime, we encountered the hunters who were looking for animal and told us to get back which was a reasonable suggestion. Back to home at 12.00 night. Some more talk and everyone went to bed.
much to write. I wake up at 7.45 AM. Though we had to leave the place at 8.00, no one was in real hurry. Got some more time to play football and badminton. Finally we decided to move for Belur. It was supposed to be my second trip to Belur. But I enjoyed it second time as well. It took more than 100 years to complete it and why not. Art work is silently speaking about everything of that place.
