The other side of the story !

This would be a bit of a technical post. So please don't bother reading ahead, if you are highly allergic to technology.

All my life I have been a tester, who bugs and drives developers nuts with his bugs. I must admit, although I profess with blatancy that "I always wanted to be a developer but ended up being a QA", I guess over the period of time I kinda became good at testing (atleast I would like to believe so). During my short career of being a tester for 5 plus years, I have had many an instances wherein I have celebrated successful releases and I have also bore the brunt of last minute confusions.
All those years, I never felt or experienced the other side of the story, which is what would the developer feel, when his/her code is being released.

This was all fine until last friday, when things turned topsy-turvy in my professional life as well !

Its been close to 2 plus years since I moved away from testing and started exploring the unchartered territories of automation. Recently close to a year back, I finally landed in a framework development team, wherein I was offered a fabulous buffet of challenging problems, hair pulling logic etc etc., Yes, for the first time, I was beginning to live the life of a developer.

Coming back to the story, this friday was supposed to be our automation framework code release, and I was asked to get my act together and do it as well. Imagine, from being a tester some years back, now I got to the level of being a developer plus a release management guy as well ! Wow, I was flabberghasted with the oppurtunity. Little did I realise what was due my way. So after some initial confusions with all the credentials and access etc., I finally kicked off the release by noon. Things were sailing smooth. Although GIT to me has been like a film heroine (good to look, but very hard to "get"), I still had a few basic things that I knew. For all the rest well, "Google guru" was still at my disposal.. [GIT is an open source free to use, version control system.. See, now you learnt something new]

By around 6 PM, after 4 hours of checking and double checking and nervously biting my nails I had wrapped up the release, and the builds all ran fine on Hudson (Nah, Hudson is neither the name of a river nor the name of some dude who works in the US, its a continuous build integration tool.. gotcha didnt I ?? Its ok dont worry.. the first time I heard this name, I thought it was some guy from San Jose, USA who was working for us.. LOL.. so you are not alone...). 

My trusted friend and colleague Kiddo (His name is Rex, but for some reason everyone calls him Kiddo.. although I must admit, he doesnt portray any characteristics of a kid for sure.. LOL... am sure he's gonna murder me when he reads this.. Sorry Rex.. just leg pulling..), was asked to help us test the release. I know I know, you must be wondering.. dude aren't you a tester yourself ?? Well, what do I say.. I guess my testing skills got a bit rusty now perhaps.. just kidding.. 

So Rex started testing the code post release and in the first 5 minutes he found a Sev 1 and that too was directly tied down to my code... I couldn't believe my eyes... I had missed an obviously straight forward simple bug... and I was a tester who coded.. !! I was shattered... the first time I made a huge delivery and I took a Sev 1.. I panicked.. I tried figuring out what was the issue. The issue was too simple to need any investigation. I found the problem, created a patch and I was in such a hurry to apply the patch before anyone of our users found it... My team mate Deepak warned me... He said.."Hmm... Chrisnun (yup that's how he sounds when he calls me...) I dont think its a good idea.. you should probably leave the patch branch out there and then we should later decide.." but I was determined.. I guess I couldnt still get over the fact that I introduced a bug.. the guilt was killing me... I had failed in my own scale of being a perfectionist and here I was feeling "butt naked" and I had no one else to blame but my own-self...
 

I convinced him that applying the patch right-away is the right thing to do and we should do it before we run out of time.. Eventually Deepak agreed as well.. That was when catastrophe struck.. I tried pushing in a new build and it failed.. Only then I realised that I could only deploy once and not more than that...

I sank in my chair... Here I was, doing my first release, and I had now made two mistakes.. I introduced a bug in the first place and then introduced another issue of a build failure.. I was already imagining myself being called into a conference room and being beaten up left right and center by like 100 people... I had lost it... I still had to let people know I goofed up.. I gathered courage and then sat down patiently to write an e-mail (If you ever read that note I sent, it would remind you of a guy confessing at the confession box in a church !!!) explaining to my onsite manager, what had gone wrong... I was sad, I was depressed and as all sad and depressed people do, I too headed off to a bar.. deciding to drown my sorrows in alcohol.. But I couldnt afford to overdo it, for I still had a conference call later that night and I definitely didnt want to sound drunk...

11 PM, and I log into the call.. I am expecting angry voices, furious shouting at me.. but I heard a calm voice from my manager.. I was pacified.. he said its ok.. he said, you did a great job and these things happen... Eventually I re-ran the release the following Monday and drew the curtains on the release... But running the release on Monday I was under tremendous self pressure.. I had already made mistakes and I was scared to make mistakes again.. I literally was shivering at my desk amidst that release...
Finally when I had completed the release.. I felt like a mother who came out of a labour room after delivering her child.. and that too "Normal delivery" !!!

Today when I think of the entire episode, I cant help but notice one strong feeling.. Would this how every developer would have felt, when a tester caught a serious issue in their code and that too on the day of a live push, and that too on a friday evening at 6 in the evening... just when every other guy around is singing.. "Where's the party tonight"... ??

Or was I over-reacting ?? I didn't know.. I didn't care what it was.. but I certainly learnt how it feels to be "On the Other side of the story" :)

Songs of life

As an average Indian, I have always been fascinated by the importance and relevance of songs and the extent of impact they tend to have in our lives. My very own life is a standing testimony of such an impact. 

Let me take you on a journey wherein I narrate to you one such instance. Those were the most difficult days of my life. I still remember the hard times, when every minute seemed to last a life time, the hands of the clock would literally come to a grinding halt and I would almost go down on my knees pleading it to move ahead. I was admitted in a hospital for a serious health problem and I was bed ridden and had lost the ability to walk. I was lying on my stomach for quite a long time and as such, I had managed to induce severe cramps all along my intestine. End result, I wasn't able to eat any food at all and whatever little I did manage to eat, I would end up spending the rest of the day puking it out to all glory. It went to such an extent that, the nurses managed to get hold of a big steel bucket and have it ready at my bed at all times.. LOL.. talk about being pro-active. Well coming back to the story, the doctors advised me that if I didn't get out of my bed, I would go on experiencing this and had no other alternative. But as all patients, my morale was all time low, and my confidence had literally taken a hike. So I was not going to get out of my bed and thus my woes seemed to just get worser by the day. That was the period when our "Superstar's latest movie viz., Padayappa had hit the theaters". The hospital in which I was admitted also had a movie theatre complex adjoining it and I could literally hear the shrills of whistles that flew from the ever vibrant Rajni fans. As all young teenagers, my heart was wandering out of the window and I seriously wanted to get a sneak peek at the crowd atleast, if not getting a chance to watch the movie. My cousin brother who saw me go through terrible times, had a brilliant idea. He went and after a lot of trouble, managed to get a copy of the audio cassette of the movie Padayappa and gifted me and said, "Kanna listen to this", it might manage to take your mind off your pains. I felt it was so very touchy of him and very weird as well, because I have always seen him to be a casual no sentiments guy. I had a walk-man at my disposal, so I started listening to the songs. I felt it was just the usual typical Rajni songs, and didn't have much to it. That was when I heard the song Vetri Kodi kattu. I till date, don't know what got into me, but that song began pumping blood into my brains and out of no-where I felt I was being put on a high voltage battery charger. The song had a nice rhythmic beat and a fast number as well. By the time I heard the song the third or the fourth time, I was literally dancing in my bed. Bear in mind those were the days when I was an ardent fan of Rajni and even if he just pee'ed on the screen, that too was Rajni style to me.. LOL...(I know that really sounds childish now, even to me...)

The more I heard this song, the more grew my confidence and I announced profoundly to the nurse "Sister, call the ward boys, I wanna get out of the bed".. She was literally in shock, because it was the same me, who whined like a spoilt brat and refused to get out of bed... Within minutes there were two herculian ward boys who took me out of bed and gave me a walker to stand.. I also had a tape recorder in my room (yeah yeah, I know you might be wondering.. what next, you had a Micro wave and a pizza maker even in your room).. LOL.. well what can I say.. I was stuck in that hospital for months together and had managed to amass quite a lot of these things... I vehemently ordered the nurse.. "Play that song again"... So as she stood right next to the tape recorder, rewinding and playing back the same "Vettrikodi kattu" song over and over again, in a matter of minutes, I was literally running around my cot like a mad man with a walker... 

Some songs are like that.. some make us cry even when we are just hearing them on a casual note and some bring out the "freak" in us, and make us sway even without our knowledge..

I still remember the song Bhool ja by Shaan, that I keep repeatedly hearing everytime I have a heart break (Trust me, I have had more heart breaks than you could possibly imagine.. LOL)...

The song Engae Sellum Intha Pathai from the movie Sethu, still moistens my eyes, because it makes me feel as if I am standing in the middle of a winding road which just keeps going and going, not knowing where I am, and wondering where is life gonna take me...

Everytime I hear the song Koi kahey kehta rahey.. it reminds me of the don't care attitude that I should adopt to wage the everyday battle of life...

The song Chalthey Chalthey hallucinates me till date and makes me believe as if I am singing that song to the world, in a desperate attempt to tell people whom I know, not to forget me, after I am gone..

The one other song that promptly comes to my mind, everytime I turn back and look at my life filled with solitude is Lemon tree.. because I keep feeling its me who is singing that song to the world.

Songs come in all colors and in all flavors and at all times, always remind us/encourage us/lighten us/crack us up/let us brood in grief/teaches us to move on/advises us to deal with the tough battles of life.. the list just seems to be endless... and as I am typing this blog, I am still listening to this song  titled Enrique Iglesias "Tonight" (I'm F**kin' You)   for the sheer peppy beats this song has.. !

So as I wind up, here's my two cents for you.. let music rule your life and emotions, good or bad... music is sheer bliss.. !!

Facebook Galore

Yes, that's the latest mantra these days. From mobile phones, to chat applications everyone seems to be singing laurels of "Facebook".. In India, it has gone to such a level, that very soon you would probably see a day when they run "Facebook enabled autos and buses" even !.

Every mobile manufacturer seems to have Facebook as his first priority. No one these days says this phone has this, that etc., but the first thing they say is "Stay connected on FB" buy our mobile. Which makes me wonder, are they selling their products by advertising its own unique capabilities, or just basking under the glory of Facebook...!

That actually makes me think, what is there so much in Facebook that makes all these people go crazy !

Well, its just another social networking site, which managed to conveniently encourage "orkut" another social networking site, to commit suicide ! These days the only memories of my orkut account are due to the fact that once in a while, orkut kicks of e-mails about some happenings in the profiles of my friends.

Facebook sure has managed to take over the fascination of the average Indian, who seems to want a piece of anything and everything. The one big unique thing about Facebook has been this ability to have group conversations, which makes it more interesting.

Oh dont worry, I am not here to talk of the "Pros and Cons" of Facebook nor am I a critic who is doing a product review.

Its a mad rush, today its mobile phones, tomorrow it may even be televisions and the satellite televisions. Dont be surprised if you see a day when the satellite television providers like tata sky or airtel or reliance advertise to you saying, "Ours is the only service wherein you can watch your favorite channels and also stay connected with your friends on Facebook"...

Kudos facebook, you have managed to create a revolution and in the process helped everyone earn their itsy-bitsy profit and make some quick bucks ;-)

A weird journey

I want to share with you (whoever you are) this weird journey that I am now into. Its always been a passion of mine to do this travel and here I am finally living it. Before you unleash the reins of your imagination horses and let them run around all over the place, let me break the suspense. Its the journey of being a developer that I am talking about.

Did I see that weird expression in your face just now ? (or) perhaps that sarcastic grin even.. be it whatever, once I am done with painting the picture of this journey perhaps things might make a bit more relevance. If not, dont be too harsh on yourself, I guess you are losing it off-late :p (Just Kidding)

I have always profoundly confessed to whomever I met. I have always wanted to be a developer, but ended up being a QA. Lets face it, who wants to be a quality guy, who earns his bread and butter by cribbing his heart out, on things, by whining like a spoilt brat and by making a big fuss over things. LOL, incase you have your jaws dropped down in shock, relax, because that was my perception of being a QA.

I have had my own chances of being in the limelight thanks to me being a QA. I have rightly earned the reputation of being called as "A developer's nightmare". But writing code has always been a passion of mine. Its like the first love, which just refuses to die its natural death despite you doing whatever. So sometime back, when I was offered an opportunity to wear the hats of a coder, I thought... finally this castaway coder is being asked to come back to mainstream. 

Ever since its been no looking back. But now is the time to confess a lot of things, which in turn would only mean I am singing laurels at developers.

• A developer's job is not easy as it seems. Trust me I learnt that the hard-way especially when I had to stare at my PC for days together just to try and understand what has been created. Understanding existing systems is always such a herculean task and I too was confronted with it. But strangely my testing instincts took over me, and I started looking at the system as a user, trying to understand bits and pieces. This approach worked for me, and instead of being this mundane developer who scrolls through his code editor up and down a zillion times, I had managed to break open the system.
• The second biggest challenge I faced was, when it came to knowledge on technologies. I felt as if I was in the middle of Russia, on a dark evening, starved to death and not a single person who speaks English except me. I didnt know where to start with (I still am pretty much in a similar situation) and ramping up was a never ending task.
• As a developer, you are expected to have this unique ability to not only write code and fix bugs in your own creation, but to step into someone else's shoes, understand like him/her and tread the extra mile by fixing the short comings in their code as well.

The woes of being a developer only seem to be unraveling in front of me, as I dive more into this journey. But now there's no looking back, for now I have decided that come what may, I shall perish in my vain effort of being a developer.

So as I get beaten up left right and center by the police who are profoundly called as "Code Reviewers" in their futile effort of making me write those "wonderful poems in technologies" flawlessly, and having the so called "Unit Tests" for literally "Even the sneeze" in my code, I cling on desperately and hope that someday, when I am near the destination, I would turn back, take a look at this "Weird journey" of mine, smile at it and say "That was a good one" !!!

But I must admit, I have made some progress... Wanna know what it is ?

Here it goes.

I now have learnt to tell people, "That is not a bug, you were just too dumb not to know how to use it".

I now have learnt to reject bugs, by saying "Not a bug".

I now have learnt to say "It works fine on my machine, wonder why it doesnt work on your machine"...

I fix bugs, by giving countless hours of explanation and not write one line of code :D

Wonder if I am gonna end up in a situation, wherein thanks to my blatant honesty I am a castaway from the development, and thanks to me being a "Two timer" if you can call me so, I am now a castaway from the "Testing" world as well.. ! 

That would make me a look like a "Drum" that gets beaten up from both sides wouldn't it ;-)

Am back !

Am gonna begin by using the typical dialog that all bloggers use... "Its been quite sometime I blogged".. I know it sounds pretty stereo typed but well, its like you can only call a "Rose as a Rose and as nothing else".. :)

Well anyways, the reasons for me not blogging, umm.... well... errr.. ah! I cant find one single reason and yet I still never managed to blog.. Probably I was out of words, burnt out with work, swamped by girl friends, over-burdened with my social responsibilities.. I haven't a clue..

Off-late I guess I did forget as to what I started blogging for. If not anything else, it was supposed to be a time pass. Lot of people blog for a variety of reasons. Some blog to vent out what they have to, some blog to improvise some ability of theirs, some blog to share knowledge.. and then there are a lot of folks out there like me, who blog just for the sake of it.

I have been resorting to boozing as a time-pass, but I realized that it has been creating craters in my pocket and I am not getting anywhere with it, except for being chosen as an "Elite Customer" at the regular bar where I visited and also by my credit card company for swiping their card left right and center!

So, here I am.. back to kill the boredom and save some bucks as well ;-)

I am going to make it more melodramatic by saying, "Once again, the Phoenix arises from the burnt ashes, yet again Optimus Prime, arises from the wreckage, to guard the sentinel right of all human beings, Iron Man, relinquishes his hiding and decides to uphold the right of the down trodden".. LOL.. relax, I told you I was gonna make this come back sound extremely "Filmi" style ;-)

So I am back !

Passion re-ignited

Well, its been a while since I nurtured this secret admiration. I havent actually managed to grow it to be honest, but this is something like the typical "Gas trouble in the tummy".. it hardly managed to die off.. Yes I am talking about my reading fetish! After my school days I havent actually read much.. even then it was just a wild craze after all the fiction novels.. from Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, to the Hardy Boys to Nancy Drew.. just fiction..

This time again it was fiction.. I was supposedly taking a week off from work to hit the roads and chill out in "God's own country.. Kerala" for a week.. This time we had chosen Wayanad..! Just as me any my friend/philosopher/guide/brother/... Arvind decided to hit the roads.. I saw him meticulously pack a couple of books.. Arvind, I must admit is a voracious reader with a big vocabulary base.. so big that I even confuse him with the Oxford dictionary.. hehehehe (I hope he aint reading this.. if so.. sorry sir ji )

When I saw him pack a couple of books, I knew instantly this only meant one thing.. I would be left alone staring at nothing, coz when he dives into books, he normally doesnt pay attention to his surroundings.. So the mitigation plan for this almost sure calamity meant only one thing.. I also had to pick a book.. it was a difficult feeling.. I didnt know if I was even ready to read a book and even if I did, what would I read.. ! I knew zilch about books, authors, story lines, what type of book interests me.. nothing.. Afterall I have been away from books for "light years".. 

With a lot of desperation, I searched through his rack, trying to find out what would I read.. there were so many books in his rack (even though he would say his collection is very small).. I was lost!

Then it happened.. as if by magic..that one book shone like a shining star from the entire lot.. it was Dan Brown's "The lost symbol".. with gleaming eyes I looked at it.. would the lost symbol kindle the lost habit of book reading..? I didnt know.

Atleast I had a consolation with one thing.. I knew Dan brown as a writer through his other book "Da Vince Code".. so it had to be ok types.. I was trying to mentally prepare myself.. The Masons.. Clues.. Robert Langdon.. they were all coming back to me... With a lot of excitement I said.. "That's what I wanna read Arvind.. can I take that book for the trip ?".. Arvind looked at me and with sarcastic smile he said.. "You aint gonna finish that book.. so dont you expect me to let you take that book back home to Chennai.. If you dont finish it, the book stays with me.. because I still havent read it..".. With a big ego on my head I shot back.."Not a problem Sir ji.. I will finish it before the trip itself".. Well I had done my math.. we had 4 days in wayanad and we didnt have too many places to go.. I had no plans to watch TV.. had nothing else to do.. and had tonnes of ciggies to keep me going through out the night, if I wanted.. So what could possibly stop me from finishing off this book I thought..

We reached wayanad and after settling down, I started reading the book.. desperately trying to avoid yawning.. (books have always had that effect on me...) Well, before I even began.. Arvind said.. "hey someone told me the first 40 odd pages, nothing happens.. and oh btw.. dont you dare tell me the story as well".. It was a bit warning for sure...

And so started my journey into the world of "The lost symbol".. over the course of the next two days... it started getting into me.. I was no longer worried about meanings of words (there were a lot of 'em which I didnt know what they meant..).. I was no longer worried about the historic importance or relevance of a lot of things that Dan Brown spoke about.. I had just one agenda.. What is the damn "Lost symbol"... it was a mad rush.. I no longer felt that I wanted to eat.. and I skipped taking the noon siesta's.. ciggies were being burnt like "candles during a power cut night"... The book turned out so interesting that I was not ready to let go of it any more.. Arvind felt pity on me and said.. "You know what.. take the book along with you read it and then return it to me..."...

But that's not what I remembered so much about this book.. more than the ending of the book.. more than the vivid descriptions of each of those monuments in Washington DC.. more than those nail biting action vividly being described.. you know what stuck into my head.. it was in the way in which Robert Langdon kept recollecting events... it got into me so much that.. when I began our return trip in Arvind's Honda City.. I was surprised that I was actually doing the same exact thing like Robert Langdon... 

As the roads of wayanad curled and curved like a big snake slithering in a dense jungle.. I sat in the car..thinking what next was in store for me.. a vacation that was dawning to a close just as the sun was slowly peeping to us, from beyond the clouds.. as if to symbolize an irony.. and mock at me saying.. "Your end marks my beginning"... As we greeted zooming buses, and cars and crawling lorries.. I sat and wondered..

This was some of the lines of text that ran in my head !!

I truely had now revived my fetish for books !

A gal friend which I wish I never had...

Well, I thought I ought to tell people about my girl friend... Incase you are wondering why, well I would let you find the answer on your own.. rather than me substantiate it..

I met her probably around 10 years back... We bumped into each other by accident.. I wasnt charmed on seeing her.. infact now I can profoundly say, no one even likes her... :)
Her name is Anamika.. Till date I am still trying to find out, why is so damn crazy about me...
At first I thought it was just a crush she had on me, and over time, she would get over it as well.. but as days went by I realised, she had made up her mind about me and had decided to cling to me till eternity.

I must tell you, she's not the most prettiest of girls you would find, she doesnt even have that, the "Gal next door" look.. she's neither "hot" nor is she sweet.. Infact many a times I have got this feeling that she is nothing more than just a "pain in the butt".. if you can call it that way..

Till date I have tried everything to find out, as to why is she so damn crazy about me... but she never has told me.. and I guess she never will.. When she became unbearable and untolerable, I tried a lot of tricks in the trade, to get rid of her..

I resorted to smoking and drinking, coz Indian gals basically hate guys who smoke and drink.. But nope, she wont care a "Dime" about it, but still came back to me with a big smile on her face..

I then thought, maybe I should use the "jealousy" factor... so I started talking to other girls.. just to make her jealous.. I even flirted with other girls, and even resorted to this wierd unheard concept of "parallel love".. (Dont ask me, what the hell does parallel love mean.. because just as you, I havent a clue about it either.. I just now cooked up that word... hehehehe).. Well the jealousy factor wasnt working as well.. she just didnt seem to be bothered... I even asked her once.. hey I thought gals get jealous when they find their boyfriends going around doing the "koochi koochi koo" act with other gals dont they.. ? To which she replied... krish.. you like it or not, I am here to stay with you... and gave me a wicked smile...

I resorted to medication as well, trying all the medicines that would give me immunity from her... but nope.. all my desperate attempts were hitting a dead end and no matter what I did, she would always come back to me.. and drive me nuts...

Many a times, when she has been with me.. I have weeped.. I have cribbed.. I have even bled.. but she just sticks with me, and wont go... If not anything else, I must admit.. damn.. I admire her loyalty to our relationship... even though I would do anything to get rid of her...

She has this weird habit of playing with my emotions and choking me and at other times she gets physical with me which hurts me more...

Today I had gone out, and I was hoping I wouldnt bump into her because these days I yearn more of sometime wherein I neednt deal with her... but out of nowhere she sprung an act of surprise on me, and before I even could say  "Abraca dabra" there she was.. right with me... hurting me... giving me that uncomfortable feeling again... Today infact it was a bit too much for me to handle.. I ended up in tears even while I was driving...


Infact she has been the sole reason for a lot of losses in my life.. I gave up enjoying driving because she was always there with me.. I gave up long travels because I couldnt stand her company... I took to boozing partially because I was trying to get rid of her..

Today, when I look back at these 10 years that I have been with her, and ask myself, has she ever done anything to me at all, which I could call as "Good".. I have just two answers...

1. She taught me endurance... Now I can withstand her a lot more than what others can, when she is around..
2. She taught me to smile, at all times, especially when she is around.

Now am sure you must be wondering, why the heck am I still sticking to her.. Why am I not asking her to "Take a hike" and get on with life... Well if I told you some realities about her, you would know why, that is never possible.. Oh that reminds me.. am sure you must have met her as well...

Infact am sure, you must have even had her company at some point or the other...
You would know her by her much more prominent name.... She's called "Pain"..
I just resorted to giving her this much more friendlier name of "Anamika" which means.. one with no name.. anonymous...

Now you know why I cant get rid of her.. dont you :)

Oh btw, I chose to perceive her as my girl friend, not because I am a male chauvenist or anything.. but I just didn't want to sound "Gay" by calling it "my boy friend" :)