A Trip on Dussera: Jamalabad Fort
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Overlooking the Arabian seas and nestled by the garland of the dotted hills of the westen Ghats the Kudremukh range forms an unique outback with deep valleys and steep precipices. Herein lies a Trekker's delight yet 'undiscovered' by the tourists...a secluded hill station , retaining it pristine and profound natural beauty.















The high rock forms a part of the Kudremukh range of hills near Belthangadi. It is surrounded by lush green flora on all frontiers with the top veiled by the mist and the cloud....


















On the top of this single piece of granite the fort of Tipu Sultun was built...the same ..our destination on the day of Dusseera..........here the Biomeds go..on ...and on ...&on...

........Conquering the Gateway .........

After a three hour long journey ......with lots of intro and technical and HR stuff on the way ......and few puri bhajji and masala dosas gulped down ........Baseer bond fasting..huh ..(a big respite for many..no acknowledgemens and inspirations here) ........we did reach to out first halt...the base where we start of wih out expedition towards the unknown ........the Gate is here...whats inside .???...lets walk in ...statistically not much ....a couple of miles of walk ...another couple climbing the slippery ,mossy ,grassy, watery granite stones..........chale chalo .....!!!

The History behind Genesis

The fort was built by Tipu Sultan in 1974 and later renamed after the name of the Sultan's mother Jamalbee. The stories are numerous centred round this mostly unknown fort but as history goes...the fort was once captured by the British but again Tipu snatched it back ...and remained in his possession till 1799 ..till his defeat and demise in Fourth Mysore War and in the following year in 1800 the fort was remanded back under the queen's authority.
As of the present state it lies unattended , totally derelict and in utter relics ...only the Archaeological Survey of India proudly announcing ..something was here and it is being preserved for the future(:) but it never tells...it needs to be present at 'present'..)

The relics still stands tall ...a testimony of a glorious past...


Upholding the fighting spirit...in remission ...for centuries now....

The Journey to the Summit

The valley from the hills ( a mid -range shot)

A journey too tough ...but there are some to whom the road never seems unsurmountable ..no target unachievable ,failure and retreats may be the story of the day but there were some who could carry the FLAMES to the top ..and yup ..they did it ...kudos to those Bravehearts..
Back to the Base ...at the river banks....

In the End...it doesn even matter...

Someone wrote.."men may come and men may go , but i go on forever..." ...life is eternal and endless in its many forms and frequencies.....some people come ..some go ..some empires rise ..and they rise to fall one day ...but some truth remains unfazed by these vicissitudes ...
.........a new life generates from the relics ..and newer life forms ..and fresh youthful energy is drawn to the destination to taste the adventure , the fun , the dogma of uncertainty ..and thats whats unites us ..lets us grow into manhood...and thats what matters at the end of the day ..and nothin else.......!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...........the obligation of endure never dies....

Sakti Rupena Sanksthita

[Story in FLASH]

"Ya devi sarbabhuteshshu,sakti rupena sanksthita
Namasteshwai Namasteshwai Namasteshwai namo namaha."


Storms of the summer have waned off ,the dripping rains of the moonsoons gradually gives place to the crystal clear sky as only fleecy clouds flow by the glassy firmament...the gentle lull of the gastly wind passes by the green fields creating a wave of lively dance....the grass seems greener as ever swiveling in the breeze busking in the golden sunshine...slowly as the days pass by the white 'Kash Phul" starts to blossom in the endless stretches of land- the people know its autumn again...and its the month of 'Ashwin' ,the time of mother's home coming....
The time has arrived for the mother to come ..for the people to meet their beloved ones ..and to worship the Power ..and the glory of "Streesakti"(women power)...as the Devipaksha(the term of the mother) takes over Pitripaksha (pitri=father) for the time onwards...
Durga - Goddess of deliverance - comes to earth on the seventh day after the autumn new moon. Seven days before Her arrival starts the Devipaksha. The day is being observed as ‘Mahalaya’, the day of invocation. In the dark night of amabasya (new moon), people pray to Goddess Durga to arrive in the earth to ward off all evils. On the dawn of ‘Mahalaya’, homes in Bengal resonate with the immortal verses of the ‘Chandipath’ (chanting of the hymns of ‘Chandi’).

'Mahalaya' is not an myth but a concept ..and a tribute..to the primeval source of power..the qualities of all inundated in form of one shaki ..one Nari..the unity of power, energy and enterprise within one soul one body..she is manifestation of the same individual in different forms and different names....She is one and yet known by many names. She is Narayani, Brahmani, Maheshwari, Shivaduti and She is the fierceful ‘Chamunda’, decked with a garland of skulls...the godess of power is eternal ..she has no birth ..no specific physical form ...but is an manifestation of majestic might..an unified strength..preeminently materialised to protect humanity ..and restore normalcy in the process of creation from the evil incernates......

This post is dedicated to someone who has been the unilateral and never exhausting source of my energy ..my power...someone i love more than my self....."amar maa"...!!!

The Technology behind Blogging.......

Blogging...as it is famous as ...an online publication tool to express oneself..make an individual an universal entity .......but the technology behind the blog is often missed out..or rather unappreciated. But as of the technology ...it makes life simlier ..and the most easier is the blog the more difficult is to make it happen on the tech platform...
blog of late has become an high tech affair esp when we peep into the msdn blogs...the channel9 blogs ...and try out this... www.joelonsoftware.com ..this cool dude have a lot to tell you if r a geek who dont wanna miss out the changing global economical scenario also...
as blogging gets into deeper social intricacies as customisable , personalised web interface of your personality ..its importance increases ..and security is curtailed...
but technology is one entity which cannot be curtailed n any form ..it evolves ..and effects revolves round the society....
.........the major technologies operational to make the lives simplier..........

RSS is a family of web feed formats specified in XML (a generic specification for data formats) and used for Web syndication. RSS delivers its information as an XML file called an "RSS feed", "webfeed", "RSS stream", or "RSS channel". These RSS feeds provide a way for users to passively receive newly released content (such as text, web pages, sound files, or other media); this might be the full content itself or just a link to it, possibly with a summary or other metadata (data describing the content).

In the typical use scenario, a content provider publishes a feed link on their site which end-users can add to an aggregator program running on their machine; periodically (typically every 60 minutes or every day, though most aggregators make this user-configurable), the aggregator asks all the servers in its feed list if they have new content; if so, the aggregator either makes a note of the new content or downloads it.

Windows Communication Foundation, sometimes shortened to just WCF, previously codenamed Indigo, is a new communication subsystem to enable applications, in one machine or across multiple machines connected by a network, to communicate. It is a part of .NET Framework 3.0 (formerly called WinFX) - the new .NET Windows API to succeed Win32 with the release of Windows Vista. It will also be available for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. WCF applications can be developed in any language which can target the .NET runtime.

WCF programming model unifies Web Services, .NET Remoting, Distributed Transactions, and Message Queues into a single Service-oriented programming model for distributed computing. It is intended to provide the rapid application development methodology to the development of web services, with a single API for inter-process communication in a local machine, LAN, or over the Internet. WCF runs in a sandbox and provides the enhanced security model all .NET applications provide.

WCF uses SOAP messages for communication between two processes, thereby making WCF based applications interoperable with any other process that communicates via SOAP messages. When a WCF process communicates with a non – WCF process, XML based encoding is used for the SOAP messages but when it communicates with another WCF process, the SOAP messages are encoded in an optimized binary format. Both the encodings conform to the data structure of the SOAP format, called Infoset.

The enhanced bloogging features may one day make it the main founadation of interpersonal relationship in the world ..where every person is an Universal individual with a niche of his/her own in the open cyberspace revolutionizing the press and print...which may well cease to exist by 2015.................

Thanks for inputs....
Mr Vivek Ravindran
Tech Lead , Microsoft Bangalore
http://vivekravindran.blogspot.com/

Reactive Oxygen Specis and implications on Oncology Research

Reactive oxygen species are constantly formed in the human body and removed by antioxidant defenses. An antioxidant is a substance that, when present at low concentrations compared to that of an oxidizable substrate, significantly delays or prevents oxidation of that substrate. Antioxidants can act by scavenging biologically important reactive oxygen species (O2-., H2O2.OH, HOCl, ferryl, peroxyl, and alkyl), by preventing their formation, or by repairing the damage that they do. One problem with scavenging-type antioxidants is that secondary radicals derived from them can often themselves do biologic damage.
Reactive oxygen species are widely generated in biological systems. Consequently humans have evolved antioxidant defence systems that limit their production. Intracellular production of active oxygen species such as *OH, O2- and H2O2 is associated with the arrest of cell proliferation. Similarly, generation of oxidative stress in response to various external stimuli has been implicated in the activation of transcription factors and to the triggering of apoptosis.Free radicals induce DNA sequence changes in the form of mutations. deletions, gene amplification and rearrangements. These alterations may result in the initiation of apoptosis signalling leading to cell death, or to the activation of several proto-oncogenes and or the inactivation of some tumour suppressor genes. The regulation of gene expression by means of oxidants, antioxidants and the redox state remains as a promising therapeutic approach. Several anticarcinogenic agents have been shown to inhibit reactive oxygen species production and oxidative DNA damage, inhibiting tumour promotion. In addition, recombinant vectors expressing radical-scavenging enzymes reduce apoptosis. In conclusion, oxidative stress has been implicated in both apoptosis and the pathogenesis of cancer providing contrived support for two notions: free radical reactions may be increased in malignant cells and oxidant scavenging systems may be useful in cancer therapy.

BD LSR...the Flow Cytometer..running on MaC















Liquid Scintillation Counter ...used to obtain Thymidine Count..

Have a look at the lab at the facility...Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (CSIR)