The experience, The Idea and The genesis of a Multiple OS terminal simulator:

It was in my second year-second semester that I had written almost all the programs for DBMS lab. The same were followed by everyone in class. My internal exam went good. I still remember that day which haunted me for at least 6 weeks until my results were out. It was my external lab examination. I was extremely confident that my performance in exam and viva voice would be good. But things didn’t really go as expected. I faced a problem with the Oracle client that we used in our lab. It got stuck oftentimes and I was literally pissed off. I changed my system and started typing again. But still I faced the same problem. I felt like screaming aloud until my vocal cords busted out. It was a strange feeling – Mixture of frustration and desperation I should say. But the faculty members who recognized my work earlier in the semester gave me full marks.


After my results were out I never really gave it a second thought and it was one of those faded memories back in my mind. In our 4-1 we are supposed to do an industry oriented mini project. I always wanted to do a project that would help me learn something new and give me ample amount of work satiation. Without giving a second thought on who should I approach regarding the topic, I rushed to my mentor and one of my all time favorite teachers---- none other than my HOD. He gave me nearly 6 -8 ideas explicating each idea in detail. Out of all these one idea sounded pretty much interesting to me.

When the load on the server increases, then it may lead to server crash. So we can develop a load balancer that distributes the load across a cluster of servers. When I came back home and googled about this topic I realized its significance. Later, I came to know that the reason why my Oracle client got stuck up in my second year lab exam was due to the excessive load on the server. It was kind of weird coincidence. And soon after reading about it I made up my mind to take it as the topic for my mini project.

Initially I was a bit skeptical about my ability to complete the project in time. But I must really thank my guide who gave me loads of freedom and soothed my mind whenever I was worried about a certain aspect in the development. Talks with HOD regarding the project always left me with many more ideas for implementation. Finally after 1 month of intense coding and debugging I could come up with a simulator. My project got a unique advantage from the programming language that I had used for its development. Since java is platform independent, by changing the OS on the server side I can simulate the same OS on the client side. This feature turned out to be an add-on to what was already developed. So I called it a Multiple OS simulator. Adding to this it balances the load across a cluster of servers.

During my course of development I could explore Ubuntu which is a flavor of Linux. I worked with Fedora earlier. Ubuntu is not much different. I even loved the Unix platform. Everything can be done by configuring few files in the file system. Whenever I changed a few files in the file system and observed things working, I felt as if I’m some Albert Einstein or some great scientist/computer professional [it was just because of the pleasure I derive while working….I know it’s weird…but it gives me lots of excitement and happiness]. I learned some aspects of networking and could actually implement them in my workstation.

Coming to the hard times during the course of development, I jabbed my sand bag when ever things dint go as expected. [Oh yeah I was so very influenced by Sylvester Stallone in Rocky].Many of my friends developed web applications and I cursed myself few times for not choosing my current topic for main project [since I would get more time] when I observed the progress in their projects. But then with God’s grace things worked quite well just when the screws were tightening up and I completed my work 2 days before the last date for submission.

All the project reviews went well and people appreciated my effort. I should thank my team for having faith in me that I would complete things in time. They are the prime reason why my reviews went smoothly without any discrepancies. They adapted themselves so well according to the situation and did a great job in the viva-voice. I was harsh sometimes at them but still they gave me good moral support and never mistook my intentions. What else can one ask for when he/she has such a team which supports you morally and delivers at peak times.

On 24th September I completed delivering my presentation and told myself ALL IZZ WELL. And yeah “all went well” without any problems. Other friends of mine developed some very good applications as well. I, without sounding cocky can say that my class is the BEST when it comes to web development. Our class breathed a sigh of relief when we are done with our reviews.

The entire course of mini project development was awesome. It gave me lots of confidence and happiness. I hope I could implement this sooner or later in my department so that my juniors could find this app of mine useful. Some of my faculty suggested putting it up as a paper in some renowned Journals. I should give it a thought again. But for now I’m happy that I completed my work. ALL IZZ WELL 

Honor Killings --- Whose honor is being killed???

The chronicles in the news papers showcase the pathetic state our country is in today. In this article I’m speaking about “honor killings”. After 64 years of Independence still these practices which were followed extensively in the ancient period prevail in our country.


When I first read about honor killings in the news paper I felt like expressing my views on it. But then it took me a while to get back to blogger space as I found myself preoccupied with other works. These barbaric incidents are prevalent in many regions in our country including Bihar and Haryana.

The perceived dishonor is normally the result of the following behaviors, or the suspicion of such behaviors:

(a) Utilizing dress codes unacceptable to the family/community

(b) Wanting to terminate or prevent an arranged marriage or desiring to marry by own choice

I always categorize a person’s life into two phases: Before and after he/she attains his/her “Mental maturity”. After we get the so called “mental maturity” we know what we want. It is at this particular phase in a person’s life where independence in cerebration should be encouraged. They should be allowed to do things according to their choice. Why should one dictate how the other person should lead his/her life when they are capable of doing things on their own? Giving a piece of advice is always acceptable but making rules for others living is not acceptable.

Everyone should have the freedom to choose their life partners. After all it is us who invented this caste/creed/color based differentiation. I keep on saying this example when people speak about differentiation based on caste/creed/color. The human race has its origin from the early man. From then onwards, over the years we became civilized and to show that we are civilized to the people around us, we started discriminating ourselves from the so called “un-civilized people”. So from the broader perspective we shouldn’t be worried too much about such discrimination.

I don’t really criticize people who do not follow their traditional practices. But I hate people who have no respect for their traditions. Everyone should have some value and respect for their tradition. But they shouldn’t be obsessed about their traditional practices. People do change in due course of time as the world around us is changing. So they should learn to exist in such a rapidly evolving world.

At the end of the day taking a life is never an answer to any problem in this world. But people still believe that death is the ultimate penalization. Any problem can be solved by means of “SENSIBLE” communication. I hope people would realize this someday or the other.