Yeh Akashvaani hai!!!

Oh so I miss these words!!

Class XII, TV was almost banned for me. I only had access to radio and that too whenever I was doing Mathematics. 

I did my graduation from a university in Hyderabad. During those days, private radio channels did not exist in Hyderabad. They only had their presence in the metros. I was aghast when I found that there were no radio channels operating in Hyderabad.  The only channel that was broadcast was All India Radio on 102.8, which is still existing, by the way!!

Luckily, one of my seniors in the hostel had a music system. But seniors, that they were, talking to them was also a scary issue. And this senior, in particular was unnerving. She was in her third year and I was in my first year. Slowly, after multiple ragging sessions, I started talking to her. But asking her to lend her radio, was out of question.

When she moved out, after her graduation, I grabbed the music system, which I found out later, belonged to the hostel, and put it in my room. And thus started my affair with "Yeh AkashVaani Hai". 

I had the habit of getting up at 5:00 a.m. during those days (wish I had the same now!!). And the radio service did not start until 6:00, if I am not wrong! I used to wait for the clock to strike 6:00. 

I used to hear to all the programs, did not even spare "Hawa Mahal", I hardly understood the plays, but still let them play!

The radio was a wonderful aide, all through my college. Now the world of radio has grown and so have its listeners. But the aura around these words "yeh akashvaani hai" is magical.

I still get nostalgic whenever I hear these words. 

Thank You my dear friend, my radio!!

Today, February 13, is World Radio Day!

Saketh's mosquito story!!!

Yesterday night, I took Chinmayi and Saketh for a walk downstairs. 
After we reached home, the moment the door opened, there were a scourge of mosquitoes waiting to get inside :).

My mother-in-law complained that couple of them bit her as well. Then Saketh created a story and here it goes:

There were 2 mosquitoes talking to each other. One said to the other: "I am waiting to go inside". The other mosquito then replied: "Don't worry, the moment they open the door, we will go in." So they both were waiting.

Then Amma, chelli and I came back from walk. We opened the door and the mosquitoes saw that the door was opened. So they immediately came inside. One of them bit Bamma (Saketh's grandmother) and the other bit Divya pinni (Saketh's aunt).

Time to say GoodBye...to...

Recently I visited crossword with my husband. I bought Inferno and Adultery, and I found a set of Mills & Boons!! Somehow I could not resist myself and bought the set.

The "older person" that I am, considering that M&B is only for teens, chose Inferno and Adultery over M&B to read first. And I completed them, of course not in my usual reading speed. 

And then I picked up the first M&B, something about the 202 Harley Street. It had the usual, extremely talented and handsome doctor! A new nurse joins and falls in love with the doctor, and so goes the story! I was able to bear this one, thanks to my teenage love for M&B.

I then started reading the second book. "The ultimate revenge". The book is still living up to its expectations and taking the ultimate revenge from me!!!

Oh! I am so over Mills & Boons. 

Just finished....reading Adultery!!!

Coelho is a star!! He can understand a woman and her feelings so nicely. A woman, at any age can amazingly associate herself with the stories that he writes!!

I loved the precis the first time I read it. And I bought the book. Of course, I could relate to her. It did not disappoint me. But at the same time, whatever the protagonist does, I don't know if it is possible in real life! Nevertheless, it is just a story! And a good one! Keep going sir, looking forward to more works from you!

Inferno...my review!!!

I bought Inferno with a lot of expectations. I had not read the reviews of the book before buying it.

Alas, I was disappointed. I found the book highly confusing. Though the mystery starts to unfold towards the ending, but there were too many characters to keep track of. And the author was not ready to reveal the secrets until the very end.

Dante, somehow is not a very popular artist, so establishing a connection with his work took some time. 

I found the main cause very interesting. Population explosion is a very good topic and apt for the current scenario in the world. Writing a story around the same topic and clubbing Dante was a good attempt but failed somewhere!!

I am hoping for better work from Brown next time!!

Oh my LOG!!!!

This is exactly my reaction owing to recent encounters with log4j2. I have had the privilege of facing multiple issues which I would like to share so that others can seek help from my experiences.

Scenario: Our application migrated from log4j2-beta9 jars to log4j2 GA version. Also SLF4J version changed from 1.7.5 to 1.7.7.

Issue#1: Log files not getting created in windows-weblogic environment
Root Cause: Windows does not recognize "\" in the path. It should either be escaped by using \\ (double back slash) or use a single forward slash. 
Solution: So after migration, we created a new JAVA OPTION where we changed the log directory by replacing all the back slashes with a forward slash, something like this:
                                 set LOG4J2_DIR_HOME=%MY_APP_PATH:\=/%

Issue#2: In case of a cluster setup, if the admin server and one of the nodes are pointing to the same installation, log files do not rotate in windows-weblogic environment
Root Cause: Log4J has a policy that if the log file size reaches a specified limit, then it is moved to another location and  the current file is emptied. But in case of a cluster set up, this was not happening. This is because, the admin server, which is one JVM and the node, which is another JVM, both of them point to the same log file. Though the admin server may or may not have anything to write to the log file, but it will still hold a lock on the file.
Solution: In our case, since Admin server did not have anything to write to log file, the file was never created. Only in case of a node, a log file was created.

Issue#3: ERROR StatusLogger Error parsing \config\properties\log4j2.xml javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException: Feature 'http://apache.org/xml/features/xincl

ude' is not recognized.ERROR StatusLogger Error parsing \config\properties\log4j2.xml javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException: Feature 'http://apache.org/xml/features/xincl

ude' is not recognized. error occurs on load.

Root Cause: Jar conflict, 2 jars of the same name, but different versions was present in the classpath

Solution: Removed the duplicate jars from the classpath. Usual conflicting jars would be; xmlApis.jar, xerces.jar, xercesImpl.jar

Humanity, I guess!!!

Recent killings in Hyderabad have created some tension among the people in the city.
Whatever the reason may be, I personally do not approve of it. Nevertheless, the killings happened.

My auto wale bhaiyya lives in the same location and he was giving me updates about the issue.
In fact he told me about the fight before it came in the newspapers. So I got the aakhon-dekha haal. Three people died due to the police firing.

One of the persons dead was a distant relative of my auto wale bhaiyya. He told me about the dead person who was called Farid.

Farid was an orphan. His parents were also dead. He was a very hardworking person. With all his hard work, he managed to buy a 200 sq.yard plot. And it was only 2 months since he got married.

It was a very sad thing to hear. But at the same time, what I realized from the conversation was that there are people from all corners of life, who are working real hard and have been able to gather assets.  I did not get the job that he did. But he had bought properties for himself and his family.

Somehow, because of our society and the people we live with, we can't imagine anyone without the software job to gather assets unless you are into some business or something. But here was a lower middle class boy who had worked hard and bought land for himself. Somewhere in my heart, more than sadness, there was a sense of pride after listening about the boy.

I do not know Farid nor have I ever seen him. But I felt proud of him. I think that is humanity!!!!

p.s. Farid, may your soul rest in peace!!!