The Bangalore Paradox: Finding Sanctuary Amidst the Chaos The incessant honking. The snail's pace commute. The perpetual construction. It's a familiar soundtrack to life in Bangalore, a city bursting at the seams with ambition and opportunity. Yet, beneath the surface of this vibrant metropolis lies a quiet yearning – a desire for peace, for connection, and for a life lived on one's own terms. This paradox is perhaps best exemplified by the curious trend of homeowners choosing to rent. Why own a house, laden with the responsibilities of maintenance and property taxes, when you can experience the flexibility and freedom of renting? The answer, it seems, is multifaceted. Many find it liberating to move closer to their workplace, avoiding the soul-crushing commute that eats into precious time for self-reflection and personal pursuits. The rental market offers a wider variety of locations, enabling individuals to chase those coveted walkable neighborhoods or proximity to gree...

This is about an interesting but strenuous exercise I had gone through in life as a software engineer. This happened many years back and some parts are blurry. Disclaimer: The methods followed in this might not the best ways to debug the issue. Scene So the story goes like this. We were developing a gateway product and were in the last stages of doing the performance tests on the gateway.The performance expectations of the gateway was so well documented that we have a completely detailed input and output model which exactly predicts what is the kind of load this gateway can handle (probably one of the best performance models I ever worked with). During the performance tests we observed that the system CPU usage of the Linux kernel is going really beyond what is expected as we were loading the system towards the peak load it can handle. The details of this will be explained once I finish the architecture overview in the next section. Architecture From an architecture point of view, at ...

The Stage, the Script, and the Salary: Navigating the LinkedIn Paradox Let's be honest. LinkedIn, that ever-present professional networking platform, often feels like a meticulously curated performance. It’s a stage where we’re encouraged to project the ideal version of ourselves, showcasing accomplishments, articulating insights, and building a personal brand. But what happens when the script feels…inauthentic? When the pressure to constantly self-promote clashes with our genuine desire to connect meaningfully and build genuine relationships? Many professionals grapple with this tension. We see peers ascending the career ladder, seemingly propelled by a steady stream of carefully crafted posts and presentations, often containing less substance than sparkle. This can lead to feelings of disillusionment, questioning the value of genuine skill and experience versus the art of self-promotion. It's tempting to disengage entirely, retreating to the comfort of our work where we fin...

Level Up Your Code: Why Well-Written Documentation is Your Secret Weapon In the dynamic world of DevOps, cloud computing, and rapid software delivery, we're constantly chasing agility, scalability, and innovation. But amidst all the cutting-edge tech and complex architectures, there's a fundamental aspect often overlooked: documentation . Yes, you heard right. It might not sound as sexy as Kubernetes or AI, but well-written documentation is the unsung hero that can make or break your project. Think of it as the GPS for your code jungle – guiding you and your team to success. In this post, we’ll dive deep into why documentation isn't just a "nice-to-have," but a critical component of modern software development, especially within the demanding environments of enterprises and regulated industries. We'll explore how clear, concise documentation can streamline development, reduce errors, and ultimately, save you time, money, and a whole lot of headaches. Get re...

Level Up Your Ops Game: Unleashing the Power of Unified Observability In the ever-evolving landscape of cloud-native architectures and complex distributed systems, keeping a watchful eye on your infrastructure and applications is no longer a "nice-to-have," but a mission-critical imperative. We're talking about observability – not just monitoring, but true, deep, insightful observability. But let's face it: traditional monitoring approaches are like trying to understand the ocean with only a weather report from the beach. They give you a limited, surface-level view. That's where Unified Observability swoops in to save the day (and your sanity!). Why the Hype? Because Complexity is the New Normal. Modern applications are behemoths. They're spread across multiple microservices, databases, message queues, and cloud providers. Pinpointing the root cause of an issue can feel like finding a needle in a haystack. Traditional monitoring tools often create silos o...

So the story goes like this: You have container workloads running in production (nomad). You are on a bare metal environment. Multiple container networking software solutions are in use in different data-centers - contiv and flannel. The perimeter is secured for the cluster (firewalls, WAF). Service to service communication within the cluster is non-secure (the journey started before service mesh concepts was in place). Customer insists that service to service communication is over https within the cluster when it crosses machine boundaries within the perimeter too. Incremental approach for migration service by service is mandatory. Options Introduce a full-fledged service mesh A complete networking and software stack upgrade is impossible without a downtime. Replace the existing container networking with one that supports encryption Do we have one such solution which is usable in production? Solution “Introduce a light weight sidecar proxy that can do this job” Details Nginx as a side...

Atheism, a term often misunderstood, simply denotes the absence of belief in deities. For me, this concept unfolded gradually, shaped by a unique tapestry of experiences and influences. Growing up Hindu in Kerala, I was immersed in a world where faith was often intertwined with tradition. My father, a seeker of deeper meaning, explored the intricacies of Hinduism beyond ritual. Conversely, my mother, a woman of immense strength, approached life with pragmatic realism, her religious practices more a matter of family custom than fervent belief. Kerala's diverse religious landscape fostered an environment of tolerance and acceptance. My closest friends throughout life have been Muslim, Christian, and even fellow atheists. These bonds, forged across religious lines, deepened my understanding of humanity and challenged any preconceived notions. It wasn't until I returned to Bangalore in 2013 that my spiritual journey took a decisive turn. Living amidst a community deeply rooted in P...