This is Balachandran

Hello,

I am Balachandran Sivakumar, a guy in mid-twenties with a B.E. in Computer Science and Engineering and work as a software engineer to earn a living.. I hail from Srirangam, a temple town next to Trichy, Tamilnadu. Presently I reside at Bangalore.

My hobbies include programming, reading books, listening to carnatic music and of course ranting here(yeah, I know you guessed this). I read books of all genre, but primarily interested in popular science and detective stories(Sherlock Holmes is my all time favourite). Some of my favourite books include Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking, Wings of Fire by Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam,  and The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene.

My primary interests are in promoting and using Free Open Source Software(FOSS), because that’s how software should have always been . I am a (Debian) GNU/Linux user and FOSS enthusiast. In my own domain(well, software and computers) my interests include Compiler Design, Operating Systems, and Network Programming.. I am quite interested in Pure Mathematics( Number Theory is something that I spend considerable time on) which is fundamental to most(all?) engineering disciplines. And when it comes to computers, IMHO, Mathematics is almost inseparable from it.

Now to Programming –  My favourite programming language is Python. And of course, there is C. I am just learning Perl and beginning to like it. I never seriously attempted to learn any other programming language. May be I should learn C++.

Finally – I am quite religious. I am a devout Hindu. I spend considerable amount of time reading the scriptures and trying to understand them. I have been taught (and brought up) to respect people of all faiths and beliefs. And, due to the way the industry I belong to operates, I have worked with, spent time with and understood quite a bit of other culture/religions. Thanks to God for that 🙂