Chennai Born Confused Softie
Chennai Ambi's Musings...
Monday, July 13, 2009
Engineering-- The Farce that it is
Aug 1999 was the year that i stepped into my alma mater to pursue engineering in electronics and communication. There was this huge buzz abt ECe that you can make it big in telecommunication or computers. I really sucked at computers and was not a major fan of coding, hence ECE seemed to be better. Not that i was great at soldering or circuit design , i felt i was pretty good in math and ECE had relatively more math in it than CSE. Digital design , flip flops really fascinated me. With full zeal , all the fresh(men/women) embarked on their sojourn into the world of engineering. The first two months were really rigorous, I am not kidding, we really studied hard for the first two months. Everyone was awake till 12 AM and people got up at 5 had their bath in the icy cold waters of Siruvani which flowed through our Hostel taps and resumed their hobby of studying. People who slept were those folks who had already given up or the ones who had unique nostradamus skill to predict how things were going to be 2 months down the line.
Come October 2009 , the hostels were filled with slumber prone sloths including yours truly. Unshaved, Dishevelled Life forms roamed around the hostel corridors. Books were strewn to the corner of the room that they were deemed to be opened only during the auspicious month of april when we have our final semester exams. Radios and Casette players were blaring in full
throttle while the TV gasped for its breath on being subjugated to endless state of existence with power turned on for eternity.The zeal that accompanied the freshmen had dissappeared all of a sudden and i was privy to the celebrations too. after all it was the summer of 99 when you had the dotcom boom where anyone with an engineering degree got recruited and all you had to do to get recruited was to tresspass the placement office. There was this popular folklore running during the summer of 99 that companies would load you in their trucks to their offices even if you were not a final year student. Two of my seniors were hired in the fag end of the second year by companies. Such was the rat race for talent...
With such an invincible aura around it, the IT sector had become the poster eyed sector in the placements. Others hardly stood a chance. With the requirement for qualification being decent grades with an ability to speak english( which we have already learnt during the best part of 16 years of school education), the degree became more or less a formality. The zeal with which i studied DSP or digital circuits made no sense as the number of jobs in that sector were already too low and i just did not dig deep into it to possess the mastery to get into those niche sectors.By having 6 subjects a term the education sector really killed students by making them a jack(ass) of all trades and master of none. whatever we possessed was mere bookish knowledge and not too much into the depth. I am not going to fault my professors as i believe we had few of
the best professors in the country by virtue of studying in a government college. But they were the last of the breed as i believe no longer we have people who are passionate about teaching entering thr profession of education. and the education system did not really test us. so we studied the books the way everyone does it now ( read as roting) .
Slowly and steadily i became mired in the quagmire called as engineering which By the third year i was convinced was a farce and i had myself more to blame than others.I never understood certain subjects nor did any of my friends. the exams just did not test our ability of understanding the concepts but the ability to reproduce what was provided in the book. The excitement which i felt while solving inorganic equations in chemistry, the challenges we faced while solving thermodynamic equations or physics problems fom irudov, the constant thirst for solving more and more differential equations during my school years just evaporated during the 3 years and i too became a typical engineer. We survived as engineers for 4 years to have fun,
make friends , pass exams for the heck of getting the degree and yeah becoming eligible to get the coveted IT job. To say that i studied ECE and cannot explain the nuances of cellular technology or how to properly solder a component in a chipboard hurts me. In the end engineering turned out to be a means to the end of getting an IT job. Because we needed to
have a degree to get into IT we did engineering and the degree was not conferred because I had solid understanding of my fundamentals but because i knew what was in the book (literally).
I have often discussed this with one of my close confidante's from engineering days and he also feels the same way. we have seen a hell lot of our friends getting onto roles which were not at all in sync with what they wanted to do. I feel we as a nation lost these immensely talent folks to sectors where they dont really belong. It seemed a criminal waste of talent. Now
i hear things are even worse than during our times. Engineering is supposed to be four years of jolly ride. We are not producing Engineers but producing folks with the degree behind the name. If engineering is defined as being a degree conferred on a person who has a solid grasp of his area of interest , my gut feel says that 95% of us are not engineers.
You may wonder, why the suddent outburst ? You might question, nobody stopped you from pursuing what you wanted to, then why ?
I am not blaming anybody, but myself. Maybe i was not at all an engineer in the first place. The only grudge i have is our method of gauging a person's knowledge. we need to get out of this degree churning mills that we have and make sure that engineering degree has to be earned. have lesser subjects but make sure folks know their subjects well. let us have not more than 3
credits per semester. have more practicals and exams should test application of knowledge. when i am writing my digital circuit exam test the student on how to design counters.
Unfortunately we cannot do this as we have standardized tests and we need to have standard exams to test the so called engineers capability. With the IT sector slowing down I hope we get to see a future breed of engineers who apparently know the subject. I am not faulting the IT sector too, as all of us need to be thankful to IT sector without which the dreams of middle class wouldn't have bore fruit. IT had been an employer of choice, its just sad that we had to take the path of engineering to get to IT. maybe CSE or IT would have only been the relevant fields but other branchess were also swayed to IT as the opportunities seemed so less in their core areas.
Chemical, Civil, Mech, ECE everybody hopped into IT bandwagon. Now the bandwagon has stopped chugging at the frenetic pace, sanity should return sooner than later . Hope the me-too colleges that mushroomed for profiteering close down. We should be producing engineers according to the demand and not due to whims and fancies of every politician who owns these colleges. Can somebody haul up AICTE and ask them what the hell they are doing in terms of according accreditation to every college which has applied for approval.
I would say Our country failed to produce engineers during the late 90s and 2000's. we had degree churning mills in every nook and corner of the country. Commercialization and satisfying the demand of IT sector we have unfairly destroyed the reputation of engineers who had really earned the degree the hard way in the early 90s and prior to it. To all old timers and engineers who have studied engineering the way it should be , my sincere apologies on not being a worthy heir to your legacy. I hope the future generations will study engineering the way it is supposed to.
Come October 2009 , the hostels were filled with slumber prone sloths including yours truly. Unshaved, Dishevelled Life forms roamed around the hostel corridors. Books were strewn to the corner of the room that they were deemed to be opened only during the auspicious month of april when we have our final semester exams. Radios and Casette players were blaring in full
throttle while the TV gasped for its breath on being subjugated to endless state of existence with power turned on for eternity.The zeal that accompanied the freshmen had dissappeared all of a sudden and i was privy to the celebrations too. after all it was the summer of 99 when you had the dotcom boom where anyone with an engineering degree got recruited and all you had to do to get recruited was to tresspass the placement office. There was this popular folklore running during the summer of 99 that companies would load you in their trucks to their offices even if you were not a final year student. Two of my seniors were hired in the fag end of the second year by companies. Such was the rat race for talent...
With such an invincible aura around it, the IT sector had become the poster eyed sector in the placements. Others hardly stood a chance. With the requirement for qualification being decent grades with an ability to speak english( which we have already learnt during the best part of 16 years of school education), the degree became more or less a formality. The zeal with which i studied DSP or digital circuits made no sense as the number of jobs in that sector were already too low and i just did not dig deep into it to possess the mastery to get into those niche sectors.By having 6 subjects a term the education sector really killed students by making them a jack(ass) of all trades and master of none. whatever we possessed was mere bookish knowledge and not too much into the depth. I am not going to fault my professors as i believe we had few of
the best professors in the country by virtue of studying in a government college. But they were the last of the breed as i believe no longer we have people who are passionate about teaching entering thr profession of education. and the education system did not really test us. so we studied the books the way everyone does it now ( read as roting) .
Slowly and steadily i became mired in the quagmire called as engineering which By the third year i was convinced was a farce and i had myself more to blame than others.I never understood certain subjects nor did any of my friends. the exams just did not test our ability of understanding the concepts but the ability to reproduce what was provided in the book. The excitement which i felt while solving inorganic equations in chemistry, the challenges we faced while solving thermodynamic equations or physics problems fom irudov, the constant thirst for solving more and more differential equations during my school years just evaporated during the 3 years and i too became a typical engineer. We survived as engineers for 4 years to have fun,
make friends , pass exams for the heck of getting the degree and yeah becoming eligible to get the coveted IT job. To say that i studied ECE and cannot explain the nuances of cellular technology or how to properly solder a component in a chipboard hurts me. In the end engineering turned out to be a means to the end of getting an IT job. Because we needed to
have a degree to get into IT we did engineering and the degree was not conferred because I had solid understanding of my fundamentals but because i knew what was in the book (literally).
I have often discussed this with one of my close confidante's from engineering days and he also feels the same way. we have seen a hell lot of our friends getting onto roles which were not at all in sync with what they wanted to do. I feel we as a nation lost these immensely talent folks to sectors where they dont really belong. It seemed a criminal waste of talent. Now
i hear things are even worse than during our times. Engineering is supposed to be four years of jolly ride. We are not producing Engineers but producing folks with the degree behind the name. If engineering is defined as being a degree conferred on a person who has a solid grasp of his area of interest , my gut feel says that 95% of us are not engineers.
You may wonder, why the suddent outburst ? You might question, nobody stopped you from pursuing what you wanted to, then why ?
I am not blaming anybody, but myself. Maybe i was not at all an engineer in the first place. The only grudge i have is our method of gauging a person's knowledge. we need to get out of this degree churning mills that we have and make sure that engineering degree has to be earned. have lesser subjects but make sure folks know their subjects well. let us have not more than 3
credits per semester. have more practicals and exams should test application of knowledge. when i am writing my digital circuit exam test the student on how to design counters.
Unfortunately we cannot do this as we have standardized tests and we need to have standard exams to test the so called engineers capability. With the IT sector slowing down I hope we get to see a future breed of engineers who apparently know the subject. I am not faulting the IT sector too, as all of us need to be thankful to IT sector without which the dreams of middle class wouldn't have bore fruit. IT had been an employer of choice, its just sad that we had to take the path of engineering to get to IT. maybe CSE or IT would have only been the relevant fields but other branchess were also swayed to IT as the opportunities seemed so less in their core areas.
Chemical, Civil, Mech, ECE everybody hopped into IT bandwagon. Now the bandwagon has stopped chugging at the frenetic pace, sanity should return sooner than later . Hope the me-too colleges that mushroomed for profiteering close down. We should be producing engineers according to the demand and not due to whims and fancies of every politician who owns these colleges. Can somebody haul up AICTE and ask them what the hell they are doing in terms of according accreditation to every college which has applied for approval.
I would say Our country failed to produce engineers during the late 90s and 2000's. we had degree churning mills in every nook and corner of the country. Commercialization and satisfying the demand of IT sector we have unfairly destroyed the reputation of engineers who had really earned the degree the hard way in the early 90s and prior to it. To all old timers and engineers who have studied engineering the way it should be , my sincere apologies on not being a worthy heir to your legacy. I hope the future generations will study engineering the way it is supposed to.
:: scribbled by Prashanth
at 7/13/2009 10:38:00 PM
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Monday, April 13, 2009
Dei.. How is married Life??
This is the oft repeated question that all my friends, well wishers, fans( hope one of the callers or chatters was my fan.. i know its highly unlikely) ask me.. well, i got married on March 8th,2009 and its been a month.. so the "pudhu mappilai" hangover lasts and yeah lemme bask in that for a while.. Honestly i guess i dont see much of change considering that there is little change and maybe because its just been a month since i got married.
- I still browse the internet as much as i used to do..
- Still call my friends and put mokkai
- TV la padam paakarthu nikkala
- Gym schedulum affect aagala..
- office la no phone calls from either side..
Few notable changes are
- i get my tiffin box from home for lunch everyday instead of the "once a day in a week" routine. so the Guy who used to sell me veggie wrap every day is getting poorer by 5$ every day. So a huge thumbs up to marriage on this front :p
- Mall la open'aa vella kaara figure'a sight adikka mudiyathu
- By getting married i have deprived the likes of asin,bhavna,tamanna the previlige of starring in my dreams. Really feel for them.
- I cant use the ruse of "Brahmana Bhojanam" to go and have food at the place of married friends. senti dialogues like " feel homesick", " unga saapadu mathiri varathu" , " innikku udambu mudiyala..eppadi samaika porennu theriyala" will no longer work...
Maybe i guess the change would not be so apparent in US where you have to be independent and routines are also so monotonous that you really dont perceive the change . i believe for my wife it should be drastically different as she is @ home as she cant work till she gets her EAD. sometimes i do feel guilty . Kya karen , marriage involves some sacrifices and she has made some for the time being. hope she gets a job soon !!
:: scribbled by Prashanth
at 4/13/2009 10:23:00 PM
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Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Slumdog worth the Hype??
Slumdog Hits 8 !!
AR Rahman strikes double Whammy !!
Pookutty Dedicates to Country !!
These were the headlines that were resonating across all the desi channels and papers. I was confused whether to really feel Good about it or to remain oblivious to the sudden attention that we Indians were getting. Though i cheered for rahman , i was not really cheering for Danny. I wouldn't care lesser if Benjamin Button scored over Slumdog.
Its not because that i despise the film or feel like the hazaar folks out there who feel the movie is showing India in a poor light, its just that
its a british film which was shot in India. Its not a Desi movie !! Period !! Why the partiality to slumdog because it was shot in India and had Indian actors. The product was British and let me not rob the britishers of their moment of glory , while I feel really good for Rahman and Pookutty.
well, the story demanded that a underdog from the slum ( hence slumdog) braves all odds and wins against the tide. Its a story of Hope and optimism in these days of gloom and depression. But does that mean this movie is the best of all that world cinema could offer. I would say a BIG NO to it.
i would say that oscars are a medium of recognition to films par excellence which cater to the sensibilities of the oscar nomination team who i believe have not really seen the full expanse of good movies churned out by different countries. How else do we explain that most of the nominations are for movies which are in english. so calling Oscars the pinnacle of excellence in world cinema would be gross injustice to the works of magnificence created by brilliant directors across the globe spanning from Rio DE janeiro till Canberra.
The last one year i have had the pleasure of watching films from Iran, Korea, japan, south Africa and the movies are brilliant and each worthy of couple of oscars or more. Its just that the audience could easily identify with Benjamin Button and Slumdog that the nominations swelled and each bagged a handful of oscars.
Thinking about it i feel for all the glamour and glitz that the oscars have, it is necessary that they have nominations which are more hollywood centric , which would lead to more stars walking down the red carpet and adding more fizz to the glitterati.I feel the nominations are also about aggressive marketing which involves doling out huge sums which implies that we need to have a huge corporate backing like how fox searchlight was there for SDM.
Honestly i believe there are at least 3-5 Desi films which were brilliant and deserve an Oscar if Oscar typified the best in world cinema , which i now strongly believe it doesn't. I don't blame the committee as there are 1000's of movies. At least going forward in future we should have nominations for all categories applicable for all movies. Else why not, have a really glitzy mother of all awards which has 6 -9 months of selection process and have the contest across all world movies. unfortunately the film festivals are less glamorous and even press does not give it adequate coverage.
i had a lot of things in mind and its been a year since i blogged, so the thoughts could have been incoherent. so what is the essence that i really wanted to convey??
a) Congrats Danny for the oscars, but this is a british film !! and british people alone can claim rights to Danny's and SDM's legacy.
b) Congrats Rahman and Pookutty !! Rahman getting an oscar for SDM is an insult to his earlier compositions which were far far superior. anyways better late than never !! Getting an Oscar does not in any means change the desi fans impression of rahman . He has always been the best and we salute you rahman for the joy that you have provided to us over the years with your soul stirring music. The Oscar got its due recognition by being awarded to you.
c) Slumdog is a real good movie. i loved the movie. I dont see it denigrating india as the story's setting is in a slum and we obviously cant show the mansions of anil or mukesh ambani. If there are people who think that the slums are not real india , then even what SRK does in K3G is not real india. if you werenn't complaining then, why create such a big fuss now !! Lets try to eradicate the slums rather than saying how dare you show the slums to the world !!
d) Oscars worth the hype, great sets , gorgeous ladies?? ...Oh Yeah
best of world cinema??...NAh !!!
:: scribbled by Prashanth
at 2/24/2009 01:38:00 AM
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Monday, April 28, 2008
Marriage Blues
This is a light humored post on what marriage can do to you. this was a real life conversation narrated to me by my friend...
Me : machi, eppadi daa irukke...
Married Guy (MG) : sooperaa keeren.. velai semma busyaa irukku
Me: dei intha vaaram sathyam la padam pogalaama, semma local padam machi..
MG : dei, kashtam daa wife thaniya iruppa..kadi aagiduvaa...
Me: ennada un wifekku friens illaiyya, namba padam pogarthe she can also go out with her friends..
MG: machi, intha oor avalukku pudhusu, no new friend and workplace kooda pudhusu..
Me: namba pasanga thaan mukkavaasi married illa.. ella wife'galaiyum friends aagitta prachanai illai illa..
MG: nee Yenna enna loosennu ninaicuttaiyya. ithellam try panniten work out aagala..
Me: why what happened
Here is the conversation which transpired between MG and MG's wife
MG : hey enna veetlaiyya irukka, why dont you go out with RK's wife..
MG W : ayyah, she's not good.. avalodalaam friendaa irukka mudiyathu..
MG : enna eppadi solra you hardly know her, you would have met her for just 20 minutes..athu kulle eppadi..
MG W : appo nee Yenna, enna loosunnu solraiyya.. you dont believe me but believe abt her character...
MG : #%#$^#$^ ... ( aadavaari maatalukku arthale vera..women's words have different meaning..)
:: scribbled by Prashanth
at 4/28/2008 04:42:00 AM
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Friday, April 18, 2008
Acceptable TamBrahm Love marriage
ahaa.. the post has three topics which really intrigue me...
tambrahms,Love and marriage ... both have so many subtleties within them that when i am talking about an intersection of these three topics that alone can constitute a mini thesis...
Now that many of my so called friends became traitors by falling into the Trap called as " Committed Status" namba veetla irukkaravanga summaa irupaangalaa...
Amma-- so, entha jadagam vanthurukku paakalaama..
Prashanth-- Hmm, ( namakku thaan samarthyamae illayae, aanaa takkunnu okay sonna despo mathiri irukkum) enakku appadi ennamaa vayasu aachu??
Amma -- enna innum unna kutti kuzhandainnu ninaichundrukkaiyya.. konjam poruppoda pesu... appa was also telling you are not at all responsible..( naan kettana..) .. ( ennamo en gangla irukkara micha pasanga mattum bayangara poruppu vanthaa madhiri..)
Prashanth -- amma, gimme some time... i am still confused..
Amma -- enna confused?? kala kalthula ethellam pannidanum..thatha paati'kku vera vayasu aagarthu.. engalukkum oru kaaryam mudinjaa mathiri irukkum... ethana naalaikki naan unga appa moonjiyaiyum , vice versa paathundrukkarthu... we want to see a new face...
Prashanth -- ( ithukku mela scene potta , romba asinga padithuduvaanga) seri seri paaru.. ( gethu kaamichuttomlaa)
. amma, btw naan love panna nee othuppaiyya
Amma- poda, unakku antha samarthyam illa.. ( she hit the bulls eye...eppadi thaan theriyudho theriyala..)
Prashanth - illamaa naa panna , othippa illa..
amma - absolutely daa kanna, no issues. your happiness is our happiness..( how chweet)
amma- aana oru condition..
prashanth - ( love marriagela conditionaa?? ) enna condition
amma - Ponnu Iyeraa irukkanum from good family and younger than you..
prashanth --- $#^#$^$%^$#^$#^
This is the meaning of acceptable tambrahm love marriage ...
nambalala ithellam mudiyathu... amma kizhicha kottae thaanda mudiyathu.... freeeee
Disclaimer : ( this is purely a conversation with my mom and may not reflect the generalist opinion )
:: scribbled by Prashanth
at 4/18/2008 06:46:00 PM
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Wednesday, March 19, 2008
You know you are talking to a NRI when...
I am sure many posts have come of this nature , but i hope i can do some justice by adding few unique points.
As soon as he/she lands in India they talk about pollution , heat and sanitation
Normally we say " machi tea adikka pogalaama" . That phrase gets replaced by " machan.. lets go grab a cup of coffee" ( tamizhla translate panna sahikkathu, machan vaada cofeeya amikki pudikalaam...eeks..)
he greets you by saying " whazzupp dude, howz life " and he asks this every day as if life is so dynamic that every day brings in a plethora of unforgettable incidents.
He doesn't understand the meaning of cool. every damn sentence has to be started with the word cool.
Just take this conversation for e.g.
NRI : Hey have you seen shyam
Desi colleague: No daa, he's on leave . his maternal aunt's grandma died.
NRI : Oh is it . COOL !!
grrr...Now whats so cool abt the poor lady's demise!!. somebody please educate these fools to think abt using the word cool.
After every weekend he comes and asks you how was the weekend. i am sure in india as well as in US everybody sleeps in the weekends and catches up with teh current one day series. so how the hell is each week going to be different.
Now comes the best part, he talks to you abt american football and a person called as tom brady. now dont get misled. those are the only two terms he knows abt american football. all you need to do is read wiki abt american football ands ask him some questions. i am sure more than 90 % of those who talk abt them have zero knowledge. chumma vethu scene.
And whenever he listens to you speaking his reaction will be interspersed with interjections like okay and most importantly ahem !!
ahem !! is so sacrosanct that invariably that is the only word he used while listening to conversations.
when he doesnt understand what you are saying he will say " i am sorry" and the poor guy or the other girl will wonder at bewilderment as to why he should be sorry. well, I am sorry is the american equivalent of " Pardon".
and you find that he smiles at everybody and props up teh question howdy doing and does not even care to listen to the answer. I know lotsa desis think that NRIs are wierdos because they seem to smile at everybody and stare at their eyes while our desi custom has taught us to look down if we dont know any person. Girls please dont mistake the NRI's glance for sight adichufying . its just a case of taken the american'ness too much into india. it should get rectified in 3 months.
thats it.. i could recollect just these stuff.
I dont know whether i am going to fall into all these traps when i return back but at least i am self aware . so guess my transition back to desi lifestyle shud be easier and faster :)
p.s: i dont accept the notion of fake accents. coz very few put up the accent. majorly in US people speak more in tam, hindi than in english :)
As soon as he/she lands in India they talk about pollution , heat and sanitation
Normally we say " machi tea adikka pogalaama" . That phrase gets replaced by " machan.. lets go grab a cup of coffee" ( tamizhla translate panna sahikkathu, machan vaada cofeeya amikki pudikalaam...eeks..)
he greets you by saying " whazzupp dude, howz life " and he asks this every day as if life is so dynamic that every day brings in a plethora of unforgettable incidents.
He doesn't understand the meaning of cool. every damn sentence has to be started with the word cool.
Just take this conversation for e.g.
NRI : Hey have you seen shyam
Desi colleague: No daa, he's on leave . his maternal aunt's grandma died.
NRI : Oh is it . COOL !!
grrr...Now whats so cool abt the poor lady's demise!!. somebody please educate these fools to think abt using the word cool.
After every weekend he comes and asks you how was the weekend. i am sure in india as well as in US everybody sleeps in the weekends and catches up with teh current one day series. so how the hell is each week going to be different.
Now comes the best part, he talks to you abt american football and a person called as tom brady. now dont get misled. those are the only two terms he knows abt american football. all you need to do is read wiki abt american football ands ask him some questions. i am sure more than 90 % of those who talk abt them have zero knowledge. chumma vethu scene.
And whenever he listens to you speaking his reaction will be interspersed with interjections like okay and most importantly ahem !!
ahem !! is so sacrosanct that invariably that is the only word he used while listening to conversations.
when he doesnt understand what you are saying he will say " i am sorry" and the poor guy or the other girl will wonder at bewilderment as to why he should be sorry. well, I am sorry is the american equivalent of " Pardon".
and you find that he smiles at everybody and props up teh question howdy doing and does not even care to listen to the answer. I know lotsa desis think that NRIs are wierdos because they seem to smile at everybody and stare at their eyes while our desi custom has taught us to look down if we dont know any person. Girls please dont mistake the NRI's glance for sight adichufying . its just a case of taken the american'ness too much into india. it should get rectified in 3 months.
thats it.. i could recollect just these stuff.
I dont know whether i am going to fall into all these traps when i return back but at least i am self aware . so guess my transition back to desi lifestyle shud be easier and faster :)
p.s: i dont accept the notion of fake accents. coz very few put up the accent. majorly in US people speak more in tam, hindi than in english :)
:: scribbled by Prashanth
at 3/19/2008 08:20:00 PM
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