Name : Aahir Bhattacharjee
Sex : Male
D.O.B :  14th March 2011, 10:13 AM
Weight : 3.02 Kgs
The Buzz : Looks a lot like his mother.

Welcome to the world, my precious !!!

The post Hello again, World !!! appeared first on Les Aventures de Techiemaque....

So much so that when Haimanti, my wife, who was my fiancee then, came to visit me in Bangalore for the first time, I nearly threw a fit when she let go of my laptop an inch from the ground.

So much so that after 3 years of marriage Haimanti still thinks that I sometimes love gadgets and my laptop more than I love her.

So much so that I sometimes think that she might be just right !!!

Well she’s five years younger to me and has been a darling both to me and my parents. We fought with each other so much so that my parents had to get involved every time, but we loved each other and still do. We still have the occasional tiffs even now, and now my wife get’s involved to sort out the mess

Me : Bonu (sister), I’m seeing someone

Me : Yeah (blushing…)

The post The story of my life or marriage or whatever… appeared first on Les Aventures de Techiemaque....

So when Ellie & Crystal from the International Medical Corps (IMC) contacted me to spread awareness about Haiti, I approached them to share their experiences.  Below is a short interview of Crystal from IMC about their experience in Haiti post the earthquake:

Me: A little about IMC and what you guys do ?

Crystal: International Medical Corps is a global humanitarian organization dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through health care training and relief and development programs.  We work in more than 20 countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and now Haiti to give underserved populations access to medical care and other lifesaving services while helping communities rebuild and become self-reliant through education and training. We were founded in 1984 by volunteer doctors and nurses and have worked in more than 50 countries in our 25-year history.

Me: A little about yourself ?

Crystal: I am the communications officer for International Medical Corps and have worked for International Medical Corps for two years.  I currently live in Chicago, Illinois and am originally from Boulder, Colorado.

Me: How did you find Haiti after the quake ? Ground realities, anecdotes will be appreciated.

Crystal: Our team was on the ground less than 24 hours after the earthquake struck, before much of the relief effort arrived in Haiti.  It was completely devastated.   We started working the first night out of the Villa Creole Hotel, which had been turned into a makeshift medical clinic.  We then moved to the General Hospital near the presidential palace.

We have performed dozens of amputations – we just met a ballerina with the national ballet, for example, that lost her leg, but she promises that she’ll dance again.  Just a couple of days ago, we treated a little boy, Monley, who was trapped for eight days under the rubble.  He was miraculously unscathed, but severely dehydrated and emaciated.  Our teams gave him an IV, some water, and a bit of rice and he was soon discharged.  We are now monitoring him, just to be safe, but this shows that miracles are happening in Haiti, even in the face of tragedy.

Me: A little about your efforts in Haiti post the earthquake ?

Crystal: We have been working at the General Hospital, providing emergency medical care and supporting medical clinics throughout Port-au-Prince.  We recently launched mobile medical units to Leogane, Petit Goave, and other underserved areas in Haiti outside the capital.

Me: How did things change when the second earthquake hit ?

Crystal: At the General Hospital, we had to provide medical care outside because people were once again afraid to go indoors.  We also sent a mobile medical unit to Petite Goave, the epicenter of the aftershock to provide medical care and assess what the damage is.

Me: A little about the support and help that you received from everywhere ?

Crystal: There has been an incredible outpouring of support for Haiti.  Millions of dollars of medications and equipment have been donated, while individuals and corporations have also made cash contributions to support our efforts there.  We have also had many people call wanting to volunteer and help in anyway that they can.

Me: How can we, the netizens, help you ?

Crystal: The best way to help is to give money and even $10 really does make a big difference.  This will help make sure that we can continue to buy medicines and support our team and mission on the ground in Haiti – every little bit counts!  You can donate by visiting our website, imcworldwide.org, or texting HAITI to 85944.

For more Information

IMC Worldwide : http://www.imcworldwide.org

IMC : Help Haiti : http://www.imcworldwide.org/haiti

IMC Flickr Set : http://www.flickr.com/photos/46597025@N07/sets/72157623258502090/

The post Helping Haiti: With Crystal of the International Medical Corps… appeared first on Les Aventures de Techiemaque....

And this is where it all began. A visit to the MEA office in Kolkata got me the response that since my passport was issued in Trichy (It was issued while I was still in college), I would need to visit the passport office there and get it verified (?). Somewhat perplexed, I landed up in Trichy Passport office who told me that I would need to visit the Chennai MEA office to get my passport apostilled. At a loss for what to do I called up the MEA office in Kolkata again seeking for help and the response that I received floored me. It was not under their “jurisdiction” to get my passport, which was issued in Trichy, apostilled. I would need to go to the New Delhi office instead. All attempts to argue over the fact that that my passport was a central government issued document and not a state government issued one and hence should be verifiable from anywhere in the country only yielded curt and irritated replies and this was where I almost gave up.

Not quite. I had been following our Minister for External Affairs, Dr Shashi Tharoor on twitter for quite a long time and have been thoroughly impressed by him. Before that I liked him as an author and his Great Indian Novel has been a favourite sice college. The respect and admiration increased when I had the chance to meet him at a Tweetup in Bangalore.

I decided to reach out to Dr. Tharoor for help. I mailed him and everyone in his office whose email I could gather explaining my apostille woes to him. Not that I expected a reply. I mean, I was one of the many that maybe reach out to him every day with more complicated problems and he is a busy man. On top of that the indian government is not known to be internet and email savvy though it seems things are changing. I waited.

A week went by and I had almost given up when I was pleasantly surprised to receive a mail from Mr Hoti Lal who works for Dr Tharoor’s office and who’s been requested by Mr Sandeep Chakravorty, private secretary to Dr Tharoor to help my cause. Still awestruck, and a couple of mails later i received the following reply :

Dear Mr. Bhattacharjee,

Please refer to your mail for getting your passport apostilled by MEA authorities. In this connection, we had written to the Head of Branch Sectt, Kolkata, Dr. R. Sivakumar (copy of our communication is attached herewith).  After accepting your application, they can verify the particulars from PO Trichy as the passport is issued by them and render the necessary service to you.

You may kindly get in touch with the Branch Secretariat Kolkata at: 2 Ballygunge Park Road, Kolkata (Phone no. 033-2279701 / 22802686)

Regards,
Hoti Lal

PS: Sorry for the delay in reply. I had given the fax to my colleague to scan the fax and send it you by e-mail, however, it got skipped.

Fax from MOSSTO

Elated and over the top, I reached out to Dr Sivakumar in Kolkata, set up an appointment and met him. He turned out to be a very nice gentlemen and eager to help. I was directed to Mr Sagar Maitra, the Administrative officer of the MEA office in Kolkata and I met up with him. A very nice and knowledgeable person who loves to talk about everything, Mr Maitra and I chatted over various topics from literature to religion for over an hour and by the end of it I had an apostille stamp on the notarized copy of my passport.

This incident did change something. It changed the way I perceived how the government works. This led me to believe that maybe all is not lost and things still work as it should in India. Lastly it instilled a firm belief that at least someone from the government is trying to actually walking his talk of “demystifying the governance process”.

Thanks a lot Dr. Tharoor. I would vote for you.

PS: This post has been chosen as BlogAdda’s Spicy Saurday Picks

Posts you may like:

• A Date with an Indian Minister of State…

The post My Apostille Woes and Shashi Tharoor… appeared first on Les Aventures de Techiemaque....

Well I have been a fan since my college days when I first chanced upon The Great Indian Novel and then on Twitter and there was no way I was going to give up on this chance to meet him in person. So according to the invite I turned up at the Bangalore International Centre on the 6th of November along with @vaid and @faiqrg. Thanks so much to @dhempe, @santhoshp, @tinucherian and @23jacob.

We were well in time and were pleasantly surprised when when we got a seat inside the audi without even a cursory security pat, such was the informal atmosphere. Stuck in the famous Bangalore traffic, Shashi Tharoor arrived by 3:30 PM and finally at 3:45 PM the doors were closed and the tweetup began.

Shashi Tharoor taking questions from the audience in the Bangalore Tweetup...

After as short and witty introduction the floor was thrown open and the questions began pouring in. Right from how he got tweeting, defending twitter to the media and other politicians and many many more, ending with a short anecdote of how twitter generated help for a young girl from his constituency in Thiruvananthapuram who lost both her legs in an accident. When asked about why he does not write anymore, he said that he does but in 140 characters and on twitter. He said that he  misses writing and yeah, so do we

Before we knew, it was already 4:30 PM and the minister had to leave for Mysore where he was supposed to speak at the TED India Conference the next day but we had just not had enough. After a group photo and a couple of autographs on books, the white Toyota Corolla with red hooter sped on it’s way to Mysore and I started back on my way home, contented but wanting more…

Other Blogs and Articles

• @manuscrypts : Shashi Tharoor, TGIN and the Bangalore Tweetup
• Today, Tharoor at bangalore tweetup
• Tweeple meet their very own poster boy
• Twittering Tharoor floors city with fan following
• Pics of the Event courtesy @s0h4m : Tweetup with @shashitharoor

Posts you may like:

• My Apostille Woes and Shashi Tharoor…
• Jon Reed Interviews 3 SAP Mentors on their SAP TechED Bangalore, 2008 experience

The post A Date with an Indian Minister of State… appeared first on Les Aventures de Techiemaque....

If I leave here tomorrow Would you still remember me? For I must be travelling on, now, ‘Cause there’s too many places I’ve got to see. But, if I stayed here with you, girl, Things just couldn’t be the same. ‘Cause I’m as free as a bird now, And this bird you can not change. Lord knows, I can’t change. Bye, bye, its been a sweet love. Though this feeling I can’t change. But please don’t take it badly, ‘Cause Lord knows I’m to blame. But, if I stayed here with you girl, Things just couldn’t be the same. Cause I’m as free as a bird now, And this bird you’ll never change. And this bird you can not change. Lord knows, I can’t change. Lord help me, I can’t change. – Freebird (Lynyrd Skynyrd).

October 23th, 2009 marks the last day of my professional engagement with SAP Labs India Ltd. It’s been a little less than 4 years of a very fruitful tenure here at the lush Labs campus in Bangalore. I learnt all that I could have ever have about enterprise software, manufacturing and shop-floor integration and that too from possibly the largest enterprise software vendor in the world : SAP, a company with a heart I got introduced to the SAP Community Network and a lot of awesome friends some of whom even fall into, what my wife Haimanti and I refer to as our extended family. Add on top of that an awesome team and awesome colleagues and my current manager of one year, with whom I wish I could have spent my entire professional career. He’s just that good. Period.

I was a fledgling and mother SAP molded me into what I am now, and now I am ready to spread my wings and soar the blue skies.

October 26th, 2009 I join IBM India as an Advisory Systems Analyst. I look forward towards more responsibility to shoulder, more innovation and a zeal towards solving real life customer pain-points. It’s quite a change from the generally peaceful life one leads at a product based organisation to the daily hustle and bustle of a customer projects driven service industry and I am looking forward to take up that challenge. I would also be joining my very good friend (he’s like an elder brother to me), college senior, ex-SAP colleague and Co-Author Dipankar Saha who is a wonderful person to work with and a great team in Kolkata whom I personally know to be a delightful and enthusiastic bunch. But due to some personal constraints I’ll be operating out of Bangalore.

So thank you everyone, for being a part of my life and my professional journey and for wonderful love and support that I have received from you guys. I hope and I know that you guys will be there for me whenever I reach out to you.

Wish me luck…

Posts you may like:

• Jon Reed Interviews 3 SAP Mentors on their SAP TechED Bangalore, 2008 experience
• SAP MII Developement Skills podcast with Jon Reed
• ESME – A Social Messaging Experiment for the Enterprise…
• Implementing and Configuring SAP MII – The Book
• Scream for me Bangalore….

The post Freebird… appeared first on Les Aventures de Techiemaque....

Link to full post on JonERP.com : Podcast: Abesh Bhattacharjee of SAP Labs on SAP Development Skills and SAP MII

Listen to the Podcast now !

Also check out the cool little contest that Dipankar and I are running on SCN where you stand to win brand new copies of our book : SAP MII Blog/Article Contest – Win Brand New SAP Press Books!

Posts you may like:

• Jon Reed Interviews 3 SAP Mentors on their SAP TechED Bangalore, 2008 experience
• Implementing and Configuring SAP MII – The Book
• ESME – A Social Messaging Experiment for the Enterprise…
• SAP TechEd 2007 : Fond Memories…
• ESME – The Demo

The post SAP MII Developement Skills podcast with Jon Reed appeared first on Les Aventures de Techiemaque....

Ingredients

• 500 gms fresh Large Prawns, de-shelled and de-veined.
• One-Half Coconut
• Coconut Milk, 1/2 of a tea-cup.
• Three small Onions.
• Three Green Chillies
• One Tablespoon Garlic Paste
• One Tablespoon Mustard (The Twist )
• Three Tablespoons of Cooking Oil
• Turmeric Powder, Sugar and Salt (per taste)

Preparation

Scrape the coconut meat with a shredder and put it in a Mixer-Grinder / Food Processor jar with the three Green Chillies and the tablespoon of Mustard. Use a little bit of water and grind it to a thick paste at the highest speed setting. The mustard can be omitted if you want to do without the “Twist” and go about the old fashioned way. When you are done, it should look somewhat like this :

Coconut Mustard Paste

Similarly, grind the three onions in a thick paste using the Food Processor or the Mixie.

The last thing to do would be to fry the Prawns for about a minute in the cooking oil, till they are light red in color.

That’s it, you are ready to go on to the actual cooking.

Recipe

Put the cooking oil in a pre-heated pan. You can re-use the oil that you used  to fry the prawns. Add the Garlic Paste to it and saute it till it turns light brown. Add the Onion Paste, Salt, Sugar and Turmeric Powder and continue sauteing till it turns into a dark brown paste. Now add the Coconut Mustard paste, one cup Water and the half cup Coconut Milk to the paste, stir well and cook on low flame in a covered vessel for about 10 minutes.

Prawn Malai Curry

Serve with steamed rice.

Posts you may like:

• Oh Calcutta !

The post Prawn Malai Curry – With a Twist… appeared first on Les Aventures de Techiemaque....

And more…

Robert LongDan sat brooding over the naked body that lay spread eagled on the floor. His brows furrowed as he fixed his gaze on the nether regions of the body. His eyes glazed and he looked up at the glittering sky through the glass ceiling of the Loo’vre.

A poke in his ribs snapped him out of his reverie. He stood up at looked around at the painted urinals of Loo’vre. Considered by many as being a work of art unto themselves, the Loo’vre complex was highly protected with a multi layered security arrangement, the last line of defence being “The O”. Nobody knew where it was and what it was supposed to do but people feared it nonetheless and the thieves avoided the complex at night.

LongDan looked at the body again. The man lay in what was known in ancient texts as the “Vesuvian” posture. It fascinated him.

Captain Bedu Farce poked him again in the ribs. LongDan turned to face him. Without a word Farce shone a pointed beam of light at an area near the head of the man lying on the floor. The words lit up in an eerie purple glow : “So dark the bone of Man”. Farce looked at him enquiringly.

LongDan kept mum, his mind was still working overtime on the implications of the insignia on Bedu’s coat lapel. Could this be true ? The insignia was that of a shiva-linga turned upside down.

LongDan was confused. He tried hard to recollect the organisation to which it belonged to. Was it the “Machchi Dei !” or “The Priorities of the Loin” ?. He started uttering loudly, much to the surprise of Farce, “Eeny, Meeny, Mynae, Mo…” who gave him a throughly disgusted look.

Footsteps in the darkness behind them caused both men to turn around. A stong smell of Lifebuoy soap wafted in the air and caused both of them to nearly throw up. A female form appeared out of the darkness behind them and went straight to LongDan. LongDan reached for his kerchief.

She stretched her right hand towards him, “Mr. LongDan I presume ?” LongDan shook his head but did not extend his hand to meet hers. He pressed his kercief over his nose more fiercely than ever with both hands.

She continued “I am Soapy NoView, chief wahdahdahdah with the Bureau, they have a message for you on this number…” producing a chit. LongDan glanced at the number she’d scribbled on the chit. It was a number he knew too well but definitely not that of the bureau. It was a number with a $15.36 charge per minute which he put to good use on long lonely nights.

He looked up at her enquiringly. She realised her mistake and held out another chit. LongDan memorised the number, to occupied with both hands to actually reach for it and receeded to a
dark corner of the Loo’vre, well out of reach of both of them.

Soapy turned towards Farce, who winced, and said ” Mr. Farce, show me what you’ve got here ?” With a mild nod Farce led her out towards the control room, careful to maintain his distance from her.

Soapy glanced around, in vain, to locate LongDan. Sighing, she followed Farce.

…………………..

The Man lying naked on the ground rubbed his eyes. Slowly, as if in a trance he got up and tried to figure out where he was. He tried to recollect the incidents of the previous night. Slowly, like an action replay everything came back to him. He, driving into this notorious pub late at night, too much wine, the black dude he picked up on his way back, checking in to his private quarters at the basement of the Loo’vre, then nothing. He hazily recalled stepping out of his room late at night to answer nature call, being too drunk to make it to the loo and scribbling something profound on the floor beside him before passing out.

Jerk SoNear, chief curator of the Loo’vre looked around him and searched for something to cover himself up. Not finding any, he slowly started walking towards his quarters. Oh ! what a night it had been…

The post The Wincy Code appeared first on Les Aventures de Techiemaque....

And one more…

Scene – I

“So what is the least distance the fly must travel to reach from one vertex of the cube to the one exactly opposite to it ? Remember that the cube is hollow and the fly cannot fly !” – Bang ! It was like getting shot point-blank with a dum-dum bullet straight in the stomach where one has to endure endless pain without dying !!! What is the use of a fly that cannot fly, was the first question that came to my mind ! Do we still call it a fly ? In the meantime the guy taking my interview was still looking at me expectantly, as if I was the only hope the fly had to go from one vertex of the cube to another….
Pfffffffttt….. the lights went out….. in my head…. Somebody blew out the only candle that had been showing me the way all along….
I looked up at him and muttered something about the fly doing some amazing stunt and landing at the other vertex of the cube…. He wasn’t amused…. And I guess neither would have been the fly….

Scene – II

“Hello ? Am I talking to Mr. Low Duh ? “
“Errr… hmmmm…. Yes ?” – My voice shaking with anxiety….
“Mr. Low Duh ? We’ll you’ve been selected to join Acme Corp… Your joining date will be the 12th of August…. We request you to collect your Offer Letter from…. Hello?? Hello ???……”
The lights went out again…. But, hey wait, it’s not that dark is it…. I can see stars as well, hey there is the orion… and there is the great bear … and there is the………

Scene – III

A group of anxious faces sat around the table. Everyone seemed as lost as I was or were they ??? A cheerful looking lady came into the room and handed us over a list of forms we had to fill. The sheer weight with what they dropped on my lap caused my knees to buckle…. given that I was comfortably sitting on a chair…. Or at least making believe that I was comfortable…..
After a two hour session, which really reminded me of the Cursive-Writing sessions in my school where we had to write “I will do my homework everyday….” One hundred times as a punishment, I really contemplated the reason of me being given such a punishment after such a long time……

Scene –IV

My spaceship is stuck in an Alien Planet… The guys here call it the training room… The only inhabitants are creatures with red eyes who mumble in some strange incoherent language which have a bleak similarity to English…. But that’s that….
They tell me it’ll take them four weeks to repair my spaceship and till them I’ll have to do as they wished… I had not felt like an alien before…. Never ever…. But all these languages…. They surely must be from a distant planet as they are so unfamiliar to me…..
These guys are trying hard to make me understand their language…. Peculiar names they have…. C++, VB…. Why not be content with only one “+” ??? I’ll go mad ! Really mad !

Scene – V

Today is the first day I asked first question….
“Excuse me ?”
The guy who was talking in the strange language fainted…..

Scene – VI

I have become an alien now…. My codename is LOWD…. And I have started to understand what they call “C++”.

Scene – VII

Today I asked my second question….
“What is the use of a Virtual Function in a Real World ?”
Miraculously, the guy trying his best to make us at home with the strange language they call C++ did not faint… the others did….

Scene –VIII

My eyes are red… I’m trying hard to figure out the stuff that is on my screen…. Seems like matrix code….this was not what they had taught me at the alien planet called Seed……. It’s 2:00 am in the morning….. I quickly down my nth cup of coffee… the light starts to go out in my head but every time some imbecile manages to turn on the emergency lamps….. Shit ! I shake my head…. Got a release in an hour goddammit !!!

Posts you may like:

• Chinpose on your WordPress Blog…
• Implementing and Configuring SAP MII – The Book
• The Art of writing Error Messages at Microsoft…

The post The Alienation… appeared first on Les Aventures de Techiemaque....