My Garage

Problems with USB supporting DVD players

2011-10-25T13:07:00.003+05:30

After using my Philips DVP3888 for over a year, here are some of the experiences of the same. I feel most other similarly modelled players will also have such issues, but do post if there are changes. Most of these are half-baked laymen experience, so do NOT expect any technical stuff (unless typed in by accident)

1. It supports DivX, Xvid (i havent tried all variants in that though).
2. Any video with resolution higher than 720p (width) does not show video although audio plays
3. MP4 files are considered as mp3 files and no video is displayed
4. Any movie which is bigger than 1.2Gb plays plays only till that time when the file size reaches 1.2Gb... that is, if the movie length is say, 90 minutes, and the file size is 1.3Gb, then the movie stops playsing approximately around the 75 minute mark. I had to split the files into smaller sized chunks (I use FormatFactory for this)

5. If your pen drive becomes too fragmented, then for video files, I have seen two cases
--> 5.1 The audio lags the video (or)
--> 5.2 The audio and video slows down pretty badly that a female voice will sound like a male

The same video worked fine after I defragmented the pen drive.

6. Photo loading is pretty slow
7. To load a photo fast, I had to press the next photo button. In this case, the current photo loads up fast (i dont know how it works, but yes, it works).. but soon the next photo starts to fill in top-down.
8. In my player, if mp3 files are present in the pen drive, then the first folder it encounters start to play the moment the drive is loaded.
9. I think it supports usb HUB based devices also. Cos, I once used a multi-card reader and used a CF card to view photos and videos and it worked.

Revolution 2020: A relaxing read

2011-10-25T10:46:00.000+05:30

Revolution 2020 by Chetan Bhagat

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A nice simple read; Chetan Bhagat style. Nothing special, still offers a decent story trying to prod into the moral and ethics of the society we operate in (India).

View all my reviews

The 90s and tamil movies

2011-10-15T20:53:00.006+05:30

The 90s tamil movies with "certified" heroes came in many categories. I was able to make out three distinct ones. The major league players were (and are) the ever-impressive kamal, and the one man powerhouse, Rajni. Next came the crop of 'new' heroes. The marble-garble dialogue hero Karthik, the budding 'thala' Ajith and the ever extended hands (it would have made no difference if they were precast with PoP) of ilayathalavali, er, ilayathalapathy Vijay.

And then, there was the un-tamilistically tall Sathyaraj talking the same dialogue in different dresses and locations, one-dress one-location one-story only RajKiran, and the ever-lover boy Murali.

The third is the special cases. By cases, I mean, real gone cases.
First is the ever angry, always corrupt-free, "pure" minded, sociopathic, i mean, socialistic Vijaykanth; and last, but NEVER EVER the least, (drum roll please) the only colourful hero, everyone's favorite, ultimate action-sequence star, Mr. Pasunesan, who goes by the name of Ramarajan. His vocal affinity towards the bovine fraternity was so much that during one particular sequence of discussion between him and an Ox, he gave a choice between him singing or the Ox giving milk. He won. To this date, the medical field has been flabbergasted into submission over that incident.

Oh, talking of songs. Every hero group had its own set of "hero" song. The major league players doled out advice, the centre crop had a song that discussed the eternal attraction of youth to drinks, two-piece wielding one-song girls, and words that were understood only by the Omaticaya clan. And the special category... well... you know... they sing... song.... around tree barks, in parks, cycle stands, under corporation pumps... well, basically things that inspired Sam Anderson to become a hero, you get the drift, don't you.

Atleast the 'hero' songs of those years had unadulterated crap that the youth generally were prone for. But, soon the stalwarts of tamil moviedom with their ecclesial mission changed all that. All it took was a 7 digit bank balance, and an association with the then ruling party. After that, you have virtually every right in the world to have your own build-up song. A song where you (no matter how teensy weensy your height and brain are) can go all bernard shaw to the un-assuming family who had come to live out the misery.

Yes, the 90s were fun... I miss them...

Samsung Galaxy S phone codes

2011-10-13T15:44:00.001+05:30

And so, I found these two links to play around with the numeric pad of my Samsung Galaxy S GT I9000.

Samsung Galaxy Codes 1

Samsung Galaxy (cheat) codes 2

How it went

2010-12-26T00:35:00.003+05:30

Sometime back, I attended a seminar in Bangalore on using new tools for embedded development and testing. It all started nicely in a nice hotel and all. But, after sometime, my brian decided to go for a break (and never return till the end of the day). I was taking notes in the beginning and then the below happened... I am typing what I wrote for my own understaing in later years (the original is also loaded for your reference ;-) )

120 Engineers, project leaders and test heads; all trying to understand why in the world should one use JTAG to debug embedded systems and why no the history proven (and cheap) process of using printf and LED indicators. Mr. P. Seshan spoke for most of the 6 hours trying just that. I do not know how it was for others, but for me, it was the whole session just about grazed my hair while going over it.

The morning session started with topics on conventional methods of debugging like ICE, printf, etc. People at that time were pretty enthusiastic and started asking questions. Some who thought they had a good question and some who actually had a proper query both raised the stakes of the seminar. Suddently, there was an onrush of lame questions that a professor (who happened to attend the seminar) told Mr. Seshan how to put a stop to such questions by asking him to tell what the scope of the discussion was. It seemed to have silenced the people for some time.

This gave the speaker much needed time to actually go to the topics he had originally intended. Then started the concept of JTAG and what it is, how it works, etc, etc. That was when my brain started to go into suspend mode. Then all I heard was

... blah blah blah blah JTAG... blah blah blah blah memory blah blah blah blah blah processor blah blah blah blah blah JTAG... and (at this point everything else faded into oblivion)...

Src:

Philips DVP3388 - Delay between audio and video

2010-03-31T18:23:00.003+05:30

After lots of online reviews, I ended up buying the Philips DVP3388. It sure did justice on its part of displaying damn good clarity when a DVD is played. I tried with the Transformers DVD. I ended up watching the movie twice, just for its clarity (as a digress, I already had watched it about 20 times before the HDMI enhancements). Divx playback was also pretty much clean and decent (I used a 16Gb Corsair pendrive). But, over time, I started noticing a change in the USB playback. The audio and video in the divx playback started to go haywaire. The video was the winner with the audio lagging noticeably. I was seriously confused, because the video playback on a PC was immaculate. I tried lots of things like reducing the total data content in the pendrive, tried playing smaller sized divx files, even tried playing older files which previously worked just fine. Suddenly one day, a flash occured, and I ended checking the fragmentation. The pen drive was fragmented (but not very badly though). So, just to try out, I defragged it. Voila, everything played perfectly on the player now. I dont know if this same issue occurs with other players (I remember no one mentioning about this issue anywhere), but this sure is an issue with DVP3388.

The Unofficial Indian (mostly) Traffic Laws

2010-03-29T10:09:00.002+05:30

A fwd which I couldn't ignore.

1. The Other Side Law: If my side of the road has a traffic jam, then I can start driving on the wrong side of the road, and all incoming cars will be rerouted via Meerut.
2. The Queue Nahin Rule:If there is a queue of many people, no one will notice me sneaking into the front as long as I am looking the other way.
3. The Mind Over Matter Law:If a red light is not working, four cars from different directions can easily pass through one another.
4. The Auto Axiom:If I indicate which way I am going to turn my auto rickshaw, it is an information security leak.
5. The In Spit Of Thing:The more I lean out of my car or bus, and the harder I spit, the stronger the roads become.
6. The Cinema Hall Fact:If I get a call on my mobile phone, the film automatically goes into pause mode.
7. The Brotherhood Law:If I want to win an argument, I need only to repeatedly suggest that the other person has illicit relations with his sister or mother... .
8. The Baraat Right:When I'm on the road to marriage, all the roads in the city belong to me.
9. The Heart Of Things:If I open enough buttons on my shirt, the pretty girl at the bus stop can see through my hairy chest into the depths of my soul.
10. The Name Game:It is very important for the driver behind me to memorize the nicknames of my children.
11. Parking Up The Wrong Tree:When I double-park my car, the road automatically widens so that the traffic is not affected..
12. The Chill Bill Move:When I park and block someone else's car I am giving him a chance to pause, relax, chill and take a few moments off from his rushed day.
13. The Brrrrp Break:The louder I burp in a public place; the more it helps other people digest their food.
14. The Bus Karo Law:If I stop my bus at the correct place near the bus stop, the city will explode and blow into 6 million pieces.
15. The VIP Rule:There are only 7 important persons in this city-Me, I, Myself, Main, Naan, Aami and Moi !

Numb3rs - Larry's wedding speech

2010-03-17T18:38:00.009+05:30

I suppose the TV seriese Numb3rs' life is over (its not official as of this post). What with the wedding of Charlie and Amita completed in a 2 episode sequence, all the while solving crimes. I however, liked the speech given by Larry before the exchange of the rings. Just for my memory (and to all those who love the tv series), here it is.

With the request of the bride and groom, i'll keep my remarks short and non-technical.

Whilst you all know that the 4 fundemental forces of physics are electromagnetism, strong nuclear interaction, weak nuclear interaction and gravity.

Colby: So I wonder what the technical version sounds like

I heard that.

we've been talking here about the forces that bind the universe. But, what binds humans?

Love.

Powerful in small spaces, yet with profound effect on distance. Love defies time, outliving both its source and its object. Love is faster than light; for light requires time in order to travel through space, but love reaches its object instantaneously. Love journeys forever; into infinity. And its here binding together two lives. (gets the ring) Symbolic of eternity and rendered in a beautiful element.

Amita Ramanujam, do you take Charles Edward Epps to be your husband.
Amita: Yes, I Do.

Charles Edward Epps, do you take Amita Ramanjuam to be your wife.
Charlie: I Do.

I pronounce you Husband and Wife.

Tamizh Padam, a Review

2010-02-19T13:07:00.004+05:30

Airplane, Top Secret, Hot Shots, Scary Movie,... the list goes on for hollywood. Unfortunately, for tamil movie goers, the list was not even created. Enter C.S Amudhan and Dhyanithi Alagiri. And Tamizh Padam was made. It is the first of its kind movie, a solid hard core spoof movie for the tamil film world. And did they make it well or did they make it well? !!!

Shiva (Chennai 600028, Saroja) was probably the best choice for the role, and he executed perfectly to the T. The spoofs caught everyone and everything that was part of mainstream commercial cinema. Everything from the 80s to the yesterday movie is not spared. From the glamour song (item song) lyrics starting with "i am a homely girl"... to punch dialogues by a just born baby, You name it, its there. And every actor in the field from Rajni, Kamal to Vijay, Surya are poked fun at, or rather their dialogues and movies; in a non-hurting way. And the spoof has been carefully planned and executed to involve a storyline for the actual movie to plough through. But, you don't need a perfect storyline to laugh your heart out. And that, this movie has lots. There are lots of humourous moments, but there are few stomach wrenching laughter scenes. The movie itself is worth watching in a theatre. A highly recommended theatre-watcher.

Getting a replacement BSNL Postpaid SIM card

2010-01-11T13:09:00.003+05:30

As it happens, my father in law lost his Nokia E61 mobile near Elnet. Even though it is supposedly a "decent people" zone, the phone was promptly switched OFF (the best part was the idiot picked up the phone call and then hung up) and it "vanished" into thin air. Since we hadnt noted down the IMEI number, we safely assumed that the phone has technically become the genie of another "self loathing" owner.

It was around 7PM when the mobile went jay walking. Since the SIM had ISD activated, we wanted to disable it as soon as possible, lest the new phone owner may intelligently find out its facility and decide to start his bidding live on the tri-series in Dhaka.

Now, it so happens that BSNL does have an easy and genuine way to disable a lost SIM card.

Call 94440 24365

Take a keen note of the 2nd half of the number. You may miss it (alrite, its obvious). It is supposed to mean "Available 24 hours 365 days". For us, the call connected immediately.

The person wanted the following details
1. Mobile number (obviously).
2. Mobile owner (under whose name it is registered)
3. Address to which it is linked (where the mobile bill goes)
4. The number to which the last outgoing call was made ( you better remember the numbers)
5. Either the second last outgoing call or any number in the last 5 outgoing calls.
6. Then, he asked us to hold on..

7. 5 minutes later,..... still holding on. During this time, an automated female voice angered us incessantly to buy 3G technology.
8. Then, he came back ON (thank all the comets), told us that outgoing is barred, but incoming will be active for another 24 hours after which that too will be barred.
9. And that was when we reached our destination to eat Bhai Kadai special - mutton briyani and bread halwa.

And so, the next day, I went to Perungudi exchange (the nearest to me) to apply for a replacement SIM. They said that all SIM replacement work is handled in Adyar customer care only. Also, the lady in CC told me that I need to have address proof (of where the mobile is linked with) and a Photo ID of me, along with a passport photo. The concept of multiple proofing is one of the biggest drab infecting our system. If only we had a single ID (like the american SSN) which can be used for anything and everything (I do hope our Nandan Nilakeni brings it out sooner).

Coming to the case in point, armed with all the required "proofs" that I am not linked with any red-flagged groups of the world, I approached the CC. After verifying all the documents, the CC officer signed the form (which I had filled there), then he stopped. He said "This SIM was no ordinary SIM. It had magical powers. This cannot be handled here. You need to have Aladdin's magic lamp....". Well, he actually said "This SIM has international roaming facilities enabled. So, this is handled only in R.K. Nagar exchange (mandaveli)". Fortunately, this time I did not have to carry any more documents. Only those that I was already carrying and the form which I had recently filled (and signed by the CC officer in Adyar).. So, off I went. At this point, I remembered a vivek comedy where he was going to an interview, he faced so many "take diversions" on the road that he ended up exactly on the opposite side of the city from where he wanted to go. I felt like an idiot.

Then again, I needed the SIM, and so I went to Mandaveli exchange. There, they checked the form, checked the xerox copies of proofs I gave, took the "special" SIM, and handed it over to me. Thats all. End of Journey. Done. I asked about the charges; for which the CC officer said it will come in the bill itself.

I came out of the CC office feeling a bit lost. After all this, it took about 1 minute to get the SIM back. But, the point is I GOT THE REPLACEMENT SIM.

And so folks, this is how you get your international roaming enabled, GPRS enabled, ISD activated postpaid BSNL SIM card. For other normal SIMs, Adyar exchange itself handles it. Or so, it seems. You won't know until you actually try out.

Puffing the life out of the lungs - stylishly

2009-11-24T15:01:00.002+05:30

"Cigaratte smoking is injurious to health". First it was only words. Then, for the chosen ignorant, the images also came. Yet, the number of "fashion-chuggers" hasnt seem to come down.

For those who dont know me, I work in an IT-Park (Tidel Park to be precise) in Chennai. With around 12K employees working in about 50 companies, even a small percent will comprise a good enough number to create a smoke screen. I digress.

Coming to the case in point, Tidel Park used to have a "smoking zone" at the western side of their compound. After the State government's law that public places are a "no smoking zone", the banner was removed. Period. End of story. The local management had done it job. Yet the smoking part continued, without the poor banner.

Indians generally apply the following guideline to every law available. "If you are not fined, then you are fine". So, since no one cared to stress that smoking in public is a crime, people happily continue smoking right near the place where the previous "smoking zone" board was kept. (atleast, they are faithful to the location).

Every one of the chuggers know that smoking is slow death. So, basically these nut-cases are in reality attempting suicide, although on a long term basis (hey, I heard someone ask since its long term, does it have tax benefits.. you f*#$@) . Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code says that "attempting suicide is a crime with punishment upto 1 year in prison". So, it will be nice if the authorities actually apply this law to arrest these morons and put them in jail so that passive smoking atleast will reduce. In fact, another IPC section of comitting murder (with poisoning) can be applied to these nincompoops and shove the same cigarette butts in their b*@#.

In my home town, to stop the menace of wall "leakers", the corporation put on a notice on the writing "Here, donkeys urinate". From the next day, the leakage stopped. Maybe something that straightforward needs to be driven into their heads.
Some which I was able to think of
1. Suicide Zone
2. GOBI (Group of Ostrich Brains Idiots)

More welcome!

In the name of the father...

2008-11-27T16:22:00.004+05:30

Its been too long since I have written a blog entry although I use the internet almost 10 hours a day daily (excluding weekends, where I have a high probability of getting killed by the wife if I even give an attempt). But, this time, I have a very valid reason (that is, until you talk to the wife) for not being able to blog.

August 31, 2008 was not such a wonderful day in the history of mankind. No earth shattering scientific discovery or a startling discovery was made that would upset the stomachs of The Vaticans or anything of that sort. It was just that it was our 5th wedding anniversary. On any other year, (meaning for last 4 years), we would have gone to a movie, had lunch and dinner at a hotel, upset our stomach, be satisfied we spent a few thousand bucks down the drain and watch TV. It was not to be this year. We were in a hospital. My entire family (my parents, my brothers, their family, my wife's entire family) was waiting in St. Isabel's hospital. And damn this canteen guys, of all the days in the year, they had to choose today for their annual maintenance work. X-( (damn damn damn) I was roaming everywhere like a puppy who just burnt the tip of his tail. My wife was the one admitted. And she was sitting in the labour room. The kiddo was itching to come out and seems to be readying itself to push its way out of his creation and storage haven for the last 9 months. The contractions were coming at a regular intervals, and everytime it comes, my wife will see hell. I was going crazy to see my wife suffer. I had heard of people suffer a lot of pain during labour time, but this was the first time I was actually looking at one and undergoing the "experience" of being near one. Waves of emotion was floating everywhere. I used to say to people NOT to take any decision when they are emotionally charged. But seeing my wife in that condition, I decided "No more kids". I simply couldn't stand and see her suffering like this for months together, and like a movie climax (or is it the other way round) it peaked at the labour ward.

She was taken into the delivery room at around 8:30 PM. After that, it became worse. I have seen my wife shout. But, it was always in anger and I know how the voice will be. But, now, she was giving out a sound I have not heard before. (Later she told me that she herself didn't realize she was capable of creating so much decibels). It was nearing 10:45, but respite was still far. I was starting to wonder whether the baby will be born on our wedding day itself or born right-just-a-few-seconds-past-midnight and slip into the next day. Then the main doctor came out and told that the baby will be arriving in a few minutes (what the ???). And true to her word, the baby BOY was born at exactly 2300 hours IST on the SAME DAY as our wedding day (5 years ago).

Wooohooooo..... HEEEEHAAAAAA. I am father. This fact , after 3 months hasn't fully sunk into me. I am a father. I am a father. I am a father. (nope, still hasn't). I am able to accept everyone else as a father, even my brother, but not me. I don't know why. I don't know if this is how all newly-formed fathers feel and react. But, I did and I still do.

The moment I heard the news that both the kid and the mom are fine, I couldn't control myself from crying. Well, that was the first time, I broke into fits of uncontrollable crying (maybe the second time. the first time being when I was vacating from my mom's internal parking space), partly to the fact that this ordeal (for me) was over and partly to the fact that my wife's suffering was now over. We stayed there for another 2 days before coming home on Vinayaka Chathurthi. (here, I should highlight that our marriage in 2003 fell on the same day as Vinayaka chathurthi that year).

This is our King. Anthony Bastian

and a newer one (taken on Xmas 2008) here...

Call Drivers in Chennai (for ur records) - taken from Ergo

2008-10-14T16:20:00.000+05:30

Sri Murugan Travels
Ph: 98412 84518 / 94445 52257
Charges : Rs.150/- for 4 hours (min)

Top 4 Call Drivers
Ph: 2825 7777 / 2823 5275
Charges: Rs.200/- for 6 hours

Jayashree Travels
Ph: 6529 5959
Charges: Rs.150/- for 4 hours

Chennai Job Service
Ph: 6450 8454 / 6526 7886
Charges: Only monthly hire for Rs.6500/-

Joe

My 6 yr old niece's dance video

2008-08-15T09:02:00.003+05:30

This is my niece anika dancing. we shot this without her knowing. she was dancing for about 1/2 hour for 3 songs. we later edited this to fit into just one song.

Is It Microsoft Office XP or...

2008-08-11T10:29:00.004+05:30

The other day, while re-formatting my office PC and installing the software (yes, i didn't go to my IT guy for support; i realized it a little later in a hard way). I was searching for CDs to install Microsoft Office 2002 (since that was the one previously installed). But I could not find the Office 2002 CD anywhere at all in the whole of the office. I ended having a CD which said "Microsoft Office XP". Now, I did not want to install anything different from what I wanted and so asked my IT manager. He said that both Office XP and Office 2002 are one and the SAME.

What the F*%# ??

It turned out "Office XP" is the marketing name, but the actual name (on display) will be "Office 2002". I was wondering how a discussion between two Microsoft guys would have gone before they came to a similar conclusion

M1: I think we are up with a new version of Office. We need to find a new way to make this more appealing to the Office "Enhancer" series.
M2: I think we can have "The all new Office XP Multi-domain" series.
M1: What is multi-domain?
M2: Just that if a user gets a single CD but with multiple licenses, it is called multi-domain
M1: But don't we already have a "multi-user license" for that
M2: This is different. This is coming with all new features and enhanced stability
M1: What exactly are the new features?
M2: Well, actually they just fixed 2 bugs which was causing Word to crash when HELP was called.
M1: ohhh... (muses to himself. then...) That is a good marketing term. We shall keep it that way.
M2: But, don't forget, we need to make sure that the "About" box gives a different name from what the CD / package mentions.
M1: Why is that?
M2: We can add that as an "added features set" to all the users and mention in the attached overleaf "For exclusive customers only"
M1: Perfect. Then, the About Box will show "The all new Office XP SP4" with Multi-domain in the second of line of display.
M2: Perfect. I will take forward this proposal to the "steering committee" and get their approval before sending out a leaflet to all those guys at CNN and BBC
M1: Yea. We need to create a hype for those guys to buy into this crap

Voila, the next generation of Microsoft Office is born...

@#&*#%@#$&!

What it is not

2008-07-01T23:38:00.004+05:30

Sometimes, (well most of the times) when I see people being so ignorant and half the times just damn adamant in their behaviour and thoughts, it irks me to the core. Some of these below things cross my mind when seeing these king of people, but I just sulk away with an overgrown case of timidity and boneless-ness. I do hope I can come out of this...

* When you want to go down in a lift, you dont CALL IT UP, but you TELL it that you want to go down. My office is in the 5th floor. More often than not, when people want to go down and they see the lift in the ground floor, they immediately press the "UP" button and ASK the lift to come up. I used to get irritated before, but nowadays, I just cant suppress the smile on seeing a live telecast of ignorance. Though, this is not the worst part, their behaviour after "asking" the lift to come and pick them up, they keep fidgeting with their mobiles as if a chauffuer will carry them to their destination.

* In a traffic signal, if the "green" side is free, then we have the RIGHT to move and proceed towards our destination regardless of signal on our side. Our RTOs are among the worst of the lot while examining and giving driving licenses. The "best" thing about getting a license in India, or for that matter, anything in India, all you need is to know the process of using the money-under-the-table technique. Ive heard of this news in madras. A normal procedure while building a house is for the owners to get a "completion certificate" from the CMDA before you can apply for Electricity connection and water connection. But, if you have the skills of using money-under-the-table, all you need is 10K to get an electricity connection regardless of whether a house is there or not. Now, beat that.

* Any place, any side of the earth where a tyre can roll, we can drive. This logic is applicable to every two/three/four/six/eight (and what not) wheelers in india. An array of vehicles will be standing at a signal waiting for it to become green. But, those coming behind cannot wait. Its always "you are blocking my path" attitude. The immediate fix to this situation is to find the next or nearest possible "escapade" on the sidewalks, pavements or if the median is low enough, the median. It doesnt matter whether you need to take a right or not, I can stand on any side of the road, right, center or (the best location) the left to take a right turn when the signal turns green. Oh every time (EVERY SINGLE TIME), I really pray to God that he gives me the magical power to just burst those "shrewd" tadpoles on tyres right at that point. But, so far my wish hasnt been granted.

More to follow (am feeling sleepy...)

How NOT to take a seminar

2008-06-28T01:10:00.004+05:30

I recently attended a seminar/lecture by a colleague on a new concept, that too in the afternoon. I am not a very good day dreamer, but after just a few minutes into the seminar, I was flying into the realms of day dreaming. Half the others were sleeping and almost none were interested. My brain completed its fantasy journey and returned me to ground reality and made me to take some points, those which I SHOULD NOT do if and when I take a seminar.

Do NOT
* Read what is written in the slides.
I feel this is one of the worst way to take a seminar. This gives the feeling to the attendees that you are not fully prepared. Dr. Walter Lewin, an MIT professor, known for his different and histrionic ways of taking a class said about taking a class (and it applies to everything) "It's not what you cover, but what you uncover". He also said "Never show a student a slide or an equation on a slide or on transparencies. Everything they have to digest, YOU should be able to write on the blackboard, (with an exception for pictures)." I agree to this completely.

* Show an equation/diagram and not explain it on the board. Already, I know nothing of it. Showing a technical diagram and not explaining is like adding salt to the wound.

* Dive into the core of the seminar from the word Go. Those sitting there are NOT machines. They are people. They have been working their ass off (atleast half of them) at something different and are already pre-occupied. If the presenter jumps directly into technicalities, he/she does not give an opportunity for the listeners to gain access to the seminar's environment. Once they are blocked, they never enter the seminar (mentally) at all.

* Look at only one or two persons and talk. Either the others get bored or get bugged. Either way, this is not a right etiquette during a seminar.

* Use very irritable and poor hand gestures and postures. Being a technical seminar in itself is tiresome. Nobody wants to look at a person to get themselves irritated more. Any hand or eye gestures ought to be relevant to the topic and should be graceful; At least should go with the personality of the presenter taking the class.

* Use too many textual slides. More the slides, more impatient people become. My policy is have as little slides as possible and talk more. If possible, make it a two way conversation with the audience. It makes for a more "alert" audience.

* Talk to the screen. The audience are looking at you to listen. NEVER avoid them. It will show the presenter in a poor light.

* Use poor language. Phrases like "anyone can understand this", "anyone can read it" are top phrases to irritate the audience. The audience sitting are not idiots to hear these words. They know if its going to be easy or not. Its not for the presenter to decide on the intelligence of the audience.

NEVER
* Underestimate an audience's intelligence on the topic at hand. There are people who will know better than what you are trying to know. Respect that.
* Mismanage time. Any seminar/meeting getting extended is bound to go on the wrong side of people, be it technical stuff or personality development. There is only so much that a crowd can accept. Know the limit, and keep to it.
* Try to interpret a question before the audience completes it. Hear them out fully before answering. Its your seminar. Its your duty to hear their questions and explain to them. That is one of the intentions of having a seminar.

ALWAYS
* Prepare fully for a presentation. Doing a dry run before a presentation always helps. You will get to know where you get stuck and correct it, so your presentation goes smoothly. A well prepared presentation shows itself on the audience's faces and their observance.
* Be confident on what you spell out. If a statement's validity is not clear, do not spell it out. In all probabilities, there will be a person who will catch that exact statement to raise his/her query.

Some of my Short "Spirit" tips for making a seminar/presentation a success.

- Clarity of thought on the subject at hand.
- Demonstrate love for the field/subject. It will shows itself by your presentation flow and energy you exude.
- There are no stupid questions. Chances are that if the person who is asking does not know, then you may also not know.

CellOne International Roaming

2008-06-12T15:00:00.000+05:30

If you have an international roaming enabled BSNL CellOne SIM, to activate the roaming when in a foreign country, the following procedure needs to be followed.

Select the "Cellone" menu in your mobile. Then, select the "Network" sub-menu. In that select "international" to activate your incoming and outgoing calls in international roaming mode.

Main link

An effective saloon

2008-06-12T14:09:00.003+05:30

Last week, I went with my uncle to Baroda to meet some people relating to my uncle's work. While loitering around the office (in the Gujarat Industrial Area), I came across this sight of a saloon. With the cost of living growing faster than AIDS, I cudn't say much but to admire and appreciate the simplicity of the situation. I later found many more such shops scattered throughout the industrial area.

Kuruvi - A first feel of the music

2008-04-18T14:12:00.001+05:30

Happy New Year : Sunidhi Chauhan,Yogi B, Dr Burn

What starts out as an ECR Resort Pub Song, quickly takes a U turn to Triplicane and stays there for most of the time. The "pick up" in the middle of the song might suit the flow of the movie, but does not seem to fit in the flow of the song. Sunidhi Chauhan has given a powerful performance to boost the song in its "urban-koothu" culture.

Dandaana Dama : Sangeeth Althpur

Obviously the introduction song for the hero, with a very good "build-up" piece. Sangeeth's voice fits perfectly with Vijay's personality. The lyrics does not seem to give anything new, or atleast does not give the feel of a newly written "build-up" song. Cudnt expect anything other than expecting Vijay to do some (obviously good) dancing and lots of "hero-image-stints" like the resting stork pose or something similar.

Thaen Thaen: Sung by Udit and Shreya Goshal

A typical Vidyasagar peppy melody. A nice arabic styled beat to go with the flowing voices of Udit and Shreya. Udit's awful pronunciation of the language does not deter the song from its melody and style.

Palaandhu Palaanadhu : Vidhyasagar, S Rajalakshmi

Lots of punjabi thump, with a touch of arabic pop finishes here and a bit too much of voice-slazing (which goes to the point of irritation). This song was pretty irritating the first time, but the pain subsided from the next time.

Theme Music : Praveen Mani,Dr Burn,Renina,Suvi

Part 2 of Ghilli's "Kabbadi" Theme Music. The first half of the song is more of a rock song while the second half quite majestically transforms to madras' local rhythm style

Mozha Mozhannu : KK , Anuradha Sriram

From rumours, I heard that this will be an item song with Malavika. In that case, the starting lyrics fits the bill perfectly. Although the song's theme words gives an "uneasy" feel, the other lyrics does not make you squirm. A gana song, vidyasagar style.

Thaen thaen is for car stereos, Mozha mozhannu is for midnight masalas, and the rest for all FM channels and music channels.

Article on Banyan (or is it?)

2008-04-09T17:30:00.001+05:30

(with no hatred to the author or the paper...)

Writing an article for a newspaper needs real good skills, as it needs to reach to a varied audience. Something should have happened to the author or the folks at Indian Express while approving this article, a "cover story" article with the title "Six months in the shade". It seemed to tell about the author's life/learning when she was at Banyan.

Link to the article

The passage talked about the author buying dresses, taking autos and lots of stuff which were related to the title like Uninterrupted power supply and the Electricity board of India, before actually entering to the subject at hand. At the end of the passage, I was wondering if I was confused or frustrated or drained down of energy. To top it all, the whole gist of positive words about banyan were highlighted in a boxed area and that is about all you can muster about Banyan from that passage. The flow of the paragraphs were getting stuck like peak hour Bangalore traffic. The passage, overall, tasted like drinking a special portion of hot lime milk.

BSNL Broadband modem drivers

2007-12-20T12:18:00.000+05:30

The good part of BSNL Broadband modems is that they work well. The bad part is that the modem drivers are NOT available HUAWEI's website nor anywhere else, except of course with the CD-pack that comes with the modem. If you are one of those who tend to misplace your CDs more often than your keys, then this link is for you

Dataone modem drivers - Calcutta Telephones

They have all the drivers for all the types of modems BSNL has ever released for Broadband modems.

Email blog

2007-11-03T13:32:00.001+05:30

Now that i did a direct mobile blog, am tempted to do an email blog.
And this is that. Sending it now, ...

Blog on the go

2007-11-03T13:10:00.000+05:30

Too bored waiting for my people to complete shopping, just trying to kick off mobile clogging er ... Blogging. (damn this t9, doesnt have the word blog.)

Decency is the virtue of Idiots

2007-10-12T10:33:00.002+05:30

I have seen people advice that good education turns you into a more social, sensible being. India, Chennai to be more specific, is one place where these sayings are put to the toss on a daily basis. The government has a cleanly built MRTS Railway Station right in front of Tidel Park with a nicely built walk-over bridge nearby. Today, many of all those "well educated" people (with a sick attitutude to the road rules and the general laws), both men and women were crossing the road , jumped the high and wide median, crossed the other 3 lanes of road with full oncoming traffic and reached tidel park/elnet so that they can continue their work culture under the pretext of decency.

These people look decent. Push them a teeny weeny bit, out comes the a$*-#*!# eagerly waiting in them. These attitudes are the ones which maketh for most of the traffic snarls and senselessness in our city. The police and the guides are trying their best to make this a nice city to live in. But, these S#*!!y mongrels are making sure that their job is not done that easily giving madras its (I HATE to use this word) trade mark life-style.

Everytime I see one of this beings, I really wish I had to magic power to do something painful to them. Like,when in a traffic signal and this "clever" f***-o## barges through every single vehicle to lick at the edge of the traffic-constable's patience, I'd love to make his tyre burst. After all, he is trying to move his way ahead of all "poor fear-covered beings" to show-off his "bravery" and talent; and what better way than to make sure he sinks into the s#*t hole of shame in front of all the "poor beings". Similarly, when I see a person reaches for the median, I'd love to pass 12KV supply in the median so that he/she is thrown off the road onto his starting point.

Oh, How I wish I had a magic wand now

Direct link to mp3 files through Google

2007-10-04T17:19:00.000+05:30

Paste the following text into google search bar replacing the "artist/song" with either the name of the artist or the song title, but leave the quotes on. Hope this helps.


-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory”
 +description +size +(wma|mp3) “artist/song”

Mokkai Podathey

2007-09-20T17:07:00.000+05:30

The cast read like this.
Movie : Satham Podathey
Director : Vasanth
Hero : Prithviraj
Music : Yuvan Shankar Raja

So, here I was waiting for the show to begin. The theatre is almost full (mainly becos, there is a India-Pakistan Twenty20 Match going on right now). I must iterate here that I am a big fan of Yuvan, and so was expecting a good output in the background score.

The gist goes something like this; Nitin is such a seasoned drinker that he has become a "senior citizen" in his 20s. So, he shouldnt be getting married. But, driven by the "manly" powers, he cheats Navya's family into marrying him. And later, the family finds out. Divorce happens. By this time, major part of first half is over. Now, comes Prithviraj and they love and marry. But, the villain is not to be left alone. So, what happens forms the second part.

The moment the movie started with Nitin Sathya approaching the heroine's family and getting married to Padma Priya. The first 5 minutes were engrossing, but after that I wished I was home watching the match. I was not able to judge the winner of the "most painful feature" in the movie. The contestants were the cinematography, screenplay and choreography.

I couldnt decipher the idea of projecting prithviraj as the hero of the movie. The director could have as well put him in the "guest performance" role and put Nitin as the hero/anti-hero. I heard Padma Priya got dehydrated most of the days during shooting becos of the amount of crying and shouting she had to do. Anyways, the one point I wanted to enjoy was the background score. It was awful. The score was ok. But, coupled with the horrific screenplay, it rarely matched the on-screen proceedings. I think yuvan must have had simliar pains when he saw the movie for background score.

The only hightlight of the movie was the audience. We had a good percentage of young guys in the cinema hall. Their comments and feedback over the course of the movie was what pulled us through till the end. I however started having a headache as soon as the second half started, and my wife and I had to rush out at the fag end of the movie to save our lives. Choreography was done in such a way that even prabhu deva would have looked like a bad dancer.

This movie taught me a lesson NOT to go to a movie just based on technicians' skillset. And for giving such a good lesson, I give it ONE star.

Pitch Perfect

2007-06-15T10:58:00.000+05:30

Just enjoy it. I have no words to describe.

Eagles Vs Plaza

2007-05-20T00:33:00.000+05:30

I took a diversion from the already diverted route from Old Mahabalipuram Road to go to my home. While passing through the backyard of perungudi, the normally darkness covered government compound was buzzing with high voltage flood lights. More out of curiosity than interest, I went in. A cricket tournament in full flood lights was going on. It was a match between "Plaza" and the "Eagles" team. I got these names from a local commentator struggling to give a pure tamil commentary. Each team had their own t-shirts, one team in red and the other in blue.

Six separate teakwood flood light stands with about 15 flood light in each surrounded the ground. A stage, a stage audience (!!!) a generator to feed the lights, a commentator to feed the 99% youth audience with the details of the match. It was a tennis ball match. I was expecting to see more fireworks from the batsmen. But, apart from the fireworks from the commentator's mouth, the game was pretty decent. Batsmen were placing the ball better than some of our international stars. Local ballooning did happen from time to time with two of them ending up in fielders' hands. At the time of my leaving, the batting team had scored around 20 runs in 4 overs for the loss of 3 wickets.

The crowd mostly consisted of guys supporting their team. Some even had the team's shirt on. While crossing some of the guys, the smell of liquor flavoured the place. In all, the whole place was lit like one giant fair. I was able to see the lights in the sky from my home.

World cup winners or not, cricket fever hasn't yet slowed down in our country.

Has modernization spoilt Indian culture

2007-05-10T11:16:00.000+05:30

This was an article I wrote for an article competition in our office.

I once heard a definition of Change. It went thus: "A change is something which we hoped not to happen." And when it eventually happens, it can have one of the two effects. It can either be accepted by the majority and renamed as "Growth" or opposed by the majority and termed ... well, some people are good at feeding the hungry negatives like "social evil", "anti-human","anti-social", etc. English language dwells on such creativity.

Modernization is one such "change" happening right now in our country. Its not that "modernization" hasn't been happening, its just that its happening at a faster rate now. This "Change" has been termed as "growth" by some, "westernization" by some, "anti-Indian" by some, and what not. This "change" has impregnated our day to day life. But, how do we view it? How do we feel it? How do we accept it?

If modernization includes changes in the way the younger generation approaches the educational learning cycle, it is "Growth". We see kids nowadays with a higher IQ than the current generation of youth during their time. It is "Growth".

If modernization includes changes in the way people communicate, it is "Growth". Wherever your dad is in the world, he has become reachable right inside your mobile. The other end of the sword here is the loss of one's privacy. Mobiles and telephones are for the phone user's convenience, and not for the caller's convenience. But, this concept doesn't seem to have reached the Indian people. Whatever the situation you are, be it at the temple offering prayers or at office attending a meeting, when a phone rings, people go for it. The people who have graced the "modernized" mobile phones did not grace the concept of proper "phone sense". Is this OK?

If modernization includes changes in the way people see marriage, it is "anti-Indian". Indian style of life has seen marriage as the single binding force to close-knit families. With the "modernization" seeping in (rather pouring in), we see more divorces and more "live-in" relationships. Is this good? From the context of Indian culture - A big NO. Families have moved apart from each other. A feel of "togetherness" normally seen in our families is becoming more of a movie scene. But, this sword of "change" has its other end too. It has shown independence to people, the power of choosing the person to live and love. The power to "Choose". Is this good?

IF modernization includes the spread of the "web", it is "modernization" literally. Any information you need is in front of you within a few clicks. The spread of knowledge and information has reached speeds synonymous to the speed of sound. A gun shot in Iowa is heard by an Indian in Andaman in a matter of few minutes. Sports actions reach people in seconds. Businesses are being handled entirely through the "web". The world has shrunk into a 17 inch monitor. But, what does the "web"-coin's other face look like? Human interaction has come down. Students were so drugged with the web that the management of a particular institution had to restrict use of Internet inside their campus because of poor inter-personal communication. People have more friends "online" than in the real world. The world of "friendships" is seen more through e-cards and forwards than in face-to-face chats and sharing. Is this "acceptable"?

If modernization includes the financial state of people, it is "social change". More and more people are able to buy their own house, have their own cars, go more "site-seeing" trips, take the airlines more. With the growth in the power to spend, the variety in the ways to spend has also increased. People have more choices. The idlis and dosais are now competing with food ranges from the dish of the "Continental" to the "Kentucky friend specials", from "Szechwan" style to the "pasta" dishes. The once monopoly of "Maruti" has given way to the Fords, Hondas, Fiats and Opels. The other side of this sword is the increase in the amount of health issues. More and more people have diseases not known a few decades ago. Diseases occurring only to old age people have shifted ages to more younger age groups. Air pollution has increased to alarming proportions. With lackadaisical government policies in respect to the environment, this is already having its effect on the country and its people. How "good" is this?

I leave the decision to the reader.

Japanese kids dancing for Gilli Song

2007-04-12T14:59:00.001+05:30

Must say they did a very VERY good job in choreography. I have seen many live programs, but what puts this apart is the varitey and the originality in steps, and the liveliness given the dancers (espcially the main dancer). Kudos to all of them

FIR - Chennai 600 028 - Movie Songs

2007-03-09T00:55:00.000+05:30

I am a big fan of Yuvan Shanker Raja. Mainly because of his success although he is not as proficient in the techicalities of western music as his father or his brother. He has come to define the taste and the style of the current generation of youth and music.

A total youth force has come into the team of Chennai 600028. And Yuvan Shanker Raja has done it again here. He has lived upto his reputation of ringing in peppy numbers. With generously interspersed rap-style interludes, most of the song are bound to reach the Nxt-Gen.

Am taking the order of songs listed in the movie's website.

Ulle Vaa - A Hip-hop beat, a rap kick-off and yuvan's voice. Do you need anything more to give a dance song? Instead of musical interludes, a Yogi-B style tamil rap fills the song.

Un Parvaimele - Sung by Vijay Yesudas. Its a bit hard to term this song as a melody, what with the rhythm section making the otherwise melodious tune a funky one. Vijay Yesudas' voice loses its distinctiveness in this song, mainly because of the pitch of the song (pitch compared to vijay's default voice scale). Another good song.

Yaaro (love) - SPB , Chitra. The voice pair which once ruled the tamil industry with innumerable hits come together for this melody tune, again with a peppy beat, though not as peppy as the previous song.

Vazhkaiye yosingada - Ranjith, Tippu, Premji Amaran, Haricharan, Karthik. A fun song with again a peppy rhythm with the harmonium (or is it an accordion) piece the highlight. I guess this to be a song sung by friends.

Oh Oh Ennamo - Sung by anushka, the only song without peppy rhythm. This comes in the category of "vaseegara", "Onra Renda" type of songs. Anushka's voice kneads the lyrics nicely to give the desired "hot" effect. I dont know if this will reach the tamil mass as "vaseegara" or "onra renda" due to its westernized feel. Definitely NOT a "family" song ;-)

Natpukulle - YSR. A full blown YSR song. Lyrics, orchestration and sung by YSR. A typical music director song. A pure melody and like a jingle, the song closes before it ends.

Here, I have to tell; all the songs composed and sung by music directors are ALWAYS a super hit. And most of these songs almost always rely on guitars to enhance the beauty of the song. Here are some of the examples.
ARR - Mustafa in Kadhal Desam, Vellai Pookal in Kannathil Muthamittal, New York in Sillunu Oru Kadhal, etc etc
YSR - Oru Naalil in Pudhupettai, Yeno Kangal in Kalvanyn Kadhali, Kannai vittu in Pattiyal, Yen Kannodu in Arinthum Ariyamalum, etc, etc.
Jassie Gift - Lajjavathiye in 4 students
Baradwaj - Roja Kootam in Roja Kootam

Vazhkaiye yosingada (remix) - As of the original was a melody, this had to be done. Nowadays, remix songs are being done for the sake of remixing. With a heavier rhythm and more synth sound to fill the background, there is nothing more special to update on this song other than being a pub song.

Yaaro (friendship) - This version of the song fares far better than the SPB, chitra starrer, with a more pumpy rhythm and a good tune. Till I see the movie, am going to maintain that YSR just lost interest to compose a new tune for the movie and stuck to the other tune. Atleast he used his own compositions rather than using the xerox machine.

Saroja Saman Nikalo - THE audience song. Its "adra adra adra adra" right from the start. A nice mix of raw tamil rhythm and heavy rock instrumentation. I dont whats with the voice of Shanker Mahadevan, but it just blends into the song and adds to the tempo nicely.

In all, a definite success among youth anywhere. Hats off to YSR.

Joe

Laughing Baby

2007-02-26T00:25:00.000+05:30

Via: Video Blog

Sillunu Oru Movie

2007-02-13T22:23:00.000+05:30

I'd really love a home-theatre room full with a 20K Lumin projector and a 7.1 surround effect in my house. Given the rates at which these stuff come nowadays, and to avoid getting murdered by my wife (for just thinking of it), I am contented with a 1000 sq. ft entry in the CMDA to my credit. Now, comes the good part. Coupled with the 250 odd houses in our community is an open air theatre which saw the light of a film projector on 4th Feb, 2007.

The TVH Builders management decided to host an evening party along with screening of a tamil movie. They decided on "Sillunu Oru Kadhal" with Jyothika and Surya in their last movie as lovers in real life before they tied the knot in what was seen as a much awaited and talked about wedding attended by almost all cine personalities including the CM/ex-CM of tamil nadu.

Coming to the matter at hand, the screening was scheduled at 1800 hours. True to the "fresh" culture of TVH Park Villa, many of the residents started gathering at the open air theatre at around 1800 hours and kinda completed gathering by around 1830 hours. Now, it so happened that the audience was ready for the movie, but the projecter wasnt. It decided to be snobbish about running with 25 high pitched power packed kids around it.

After fixing the technical snob with the projector, the movie finally started by 1900 hours. Since, I had seen that movie enough number of times to actually recite the scenes and dialogues, I went in a bit late. The management had arranged for good speakers, and in spite of the open air system, the sound quality was better than the drive-in theatres around the city. I saw some "balcony" seat viewers from the neighboring houses. Lucky for them, they get to see free movies for which we need to pay.

The food arranged was a buffet system and had both vegetarian and non-vegetarian, although only 2 dishes were there to support the non-veg team. Arranged from good caterers, the quality of the food was decent and enjoyable. The whole community had a gala mood that evening. The movie ended at exactly 2200 hours. Most of the crowd had stayed on despite the cold climate to complete the reels before returning home. All in all, a good evening. I wish this community feeling goes longer than I hope it will.

Pay and buy mp3

2007-01-11T10:38:00.000+05:30

In another step to be a "honest" music lover, I decided to purchase songs online and use them, rather than scrapping around the net for hours (sometimes days) for a dismal 64kbps audio dump.

http://gomusic.ru is a russian site for pay and download english songs in mp3 format.

It works out something like this. You first deposit some money into your "account" in the website (using your credit card). Now, you have money in your "wallet". Most songs cost between $0.10 to $0.15. If purchased as a full album, then you get a 10% discount.

I was very skeptical about the usage of credit cards, as the internet-word was that most russian sites were fraudulant and misuse the credit card details submitted online. But, so far nothing untoward dip in balance has happened to the credit card. I initially deposited $20 to my wallet, in may last year (2006). So far, I am able to download all songs, the account is properly getting debited and my credit card is safe.

You get most songs in 192kbps bit rate and the download speed is pretty good (approx 70kbps). One thing though is that you cannot use any download accelerator with the site (with that speed, it shouldnt be much of an issue).

But, if you still feel that I can live with a ripped-off 64kbps stuff, check out this link for a step-by-step tutorial to becoming a unassuming heartless brain-challenged nitwit. (hehehehahaha...)

About their wives - as said by people

2006-12-02T13:36:00.001+05:30

I recently read that love is entirely a matter of chemistry.That must be why my wife treats me like toxic waste.
-David Bissonette

When a man steals your wife, there is no better revenge than to let him keep her.
-Sacha Guitry

After marriage, husband and wife become two sides of a coin; they just can't face each other, but still they stay together.
-Hemant Joshi

By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.
-Socrates

Woman inspires us to great things, and prevents us from achieving them.
-Dumas

The great question... which I have not been able to answer... is, "What does a woman want?
-Sigmund Freud

I had some words with my wife, and she had some paragraphs with me.
-Anonymous

"Some people ask the secret of our long marriage. We take time to go to a restaurant two times a week. A little candlelight, dinner, soft music and dancing. She goes Tuesdays, I go Fridays."
-Henny Youngman

"I don't worry about terrorism. I was married for two years."
-Sam Kinison

"There's a way of transferring funds that is even faster than electronic banking. It's called marriage."
-James Holt McGavran

"I've had bad luck with both my wives. The first one left me, and the second one didn't."
-Patrick Murray

Two secrets to keep your marriage brimming
1. Whenever you're wrong, admit it,
2. Whenever you're right, shut up.
-Nash

The most effective way to remember your wife's birthday is to forget it once...
-Anonymous

You know what I did before I married? Anything I wanted to.
-Henny Youngman

My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met.
-Rodney Dangerfield

A good wife always forgives her husband when she's wrong.
-Milton Berle

Contrary Proverbs

2006-12-02T13:31:00.000+05:30

All good things come to those who wait. BUT Time and tide wait for no man.

The pen is mightier than the sword. BUT Actions speak louder than words.

Wise men think alike. BUT Fools seldom differ. The best things in life are free . BUT There's no such thing as a free lunch .

Slow and steady wins the race . BUT Time waits for no man .

Look before you leap . BUT Strike while the iron is hot .

Do it well, or not at all. BUT Half a loaf is better than none.

Birds of a feather flock together. BUT Opposites attract.

Don't cross your bridges before you come to them. BUT Forewarned is forearmed.

Doubt is the beginning of wisdom. BUT Faith will move mountains.

Great starts make great finishes. BUT It ain't over 'till it's over.

Practice makes perfect. BUT All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Silence is golden. BUT The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

You're never too old to learn. BUT You can't teach an old dog new tricks.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander. BUT One man's meat is another man's poison.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. BUT Out of sight, out of mind.

Too many cooks spoil the broth. BUT Many hands make light work.

Hold fast to the words of your ancestors. BUT Wise men make proverbs and fools repeat them.

The land of Sand

2006-09-09T19:57:00.000+05:30

On sep 7, the land of sand was overcast by around 4 PM by ... what else.. sand. Heard from people here that this was a "softer" version, more like a breeze (if u want an anology, and am damn-good bad in that) See it for yourself.

Now, this is a view from the balcony of my house, on a normal day.

This was how it looked on the day of the sand-breeze.

Shift+Delete Software Engineer

2006-08-06T00:21:00.000+05:30

Its been quite sometime since I last blogged. It was a long transition period for me, with my brother's marraige and then the much awaited resignation drama from my last software company. In fact, when many of my friends were resigning and moving out of the company, I used to think how I have to go about this job. I have had long "teetee-hours" thinking of how to present my resignation to my project manager/HR without spoiling anything, if and when that time comes.

And the time did come. It was May 23, 2006. And with all the build-up, its natural to expect a gem of a presentation, so much so that my project manager would have personally taken care to see me off till the main gate. Nope. It was a major screw-up. Infact, you can use this as a good sample for "how NOT to give a resignation speech".

On the D-day, I come to office a little early (by around 9 itself). A swarm of butterflies were making a visit to my stomach. I still couldnt figure out why they came at that time. Poor guys, so many of them, so little space (hey, seriously, the crowd was big). In fact, they were not going to fire me, I am quitting. It really takes a skill to make a mountain of a mole and I was having a high percentage of success right at that time. I dont know if others go through a similar routine, but since this technically was my first proper resignation, it was kind of eerie to go through that process. (the other resignation needs another blog).

I didnt want to give it as the first news of the day to my project manager, and so, waited it out till 1030 AM. And did it seem like a long time. I've heard people say that, when waiting for your lover, every minute will seem like 1 hour. Now, in this case, I was waiting for 1030 to come. So...????????

At exactly O-1-3-0 hours, I took my notepad, my visa which had come (now, here I need to tell that some people before told that they were going to some other job when actually they entered some of the competitor companies. So, I took my visa as proof of my honesty and validity ). It went something like this;

Me : Dear San (named changed on purpose - ha.. how i wanted to use this phrase), I ... well... because of some personal reasons, and.. you know.. health reasons.. I .. I ... have decided to .. move out of SCM.

San : I expected this for quite sometime now. I could see this from your performance in the last few months. (to be honest, in my 4 years of work, to my personal observation, I was actually performing better in terms of delivery schedule only during the last few months. man, now I am getting the creeps on the definition of "On-time" delivery).

Me : I otherwise have no problem in the working environment or the company.

San : I cannot accept the "health reason" as a reason for you for quitting.

Me : I am not making things up here, and I have the visa to show that I am really going to the gulf.

San : You should have told about this earlier (like how, San, I may or may not go to the gulf in about a month or two or whatever time the visa comes, so, I may or may not resign from the company, so please plan accordingly. That would sound like the weather report, isnt it. I still am trying to understand what prompted him to ask THAT question to me. )

Me : Since the visa validity is only till end june, I need to go before that. Please relieve me by that time.

San : Let me see. Send a mail to me and HR.

Me : Thanks San.

Let me be honest here. I had to edit the above dialogue so much so that the whole conversation is twisted to the extent of the appearance of a better conversation. When I came out of the cubicle, I started breathing better. It was like thriller movie to me.

Then, things went from one to another and it was the last day of my life as a software engineer. So many tatas, so many "keep in touch" words, mails; although I was and am not that good/effective in keeping in touch with my collegues at SCM. It all was sentimental. I must say this company was more like my second home where I was so comfortable working, what with a whole cubicle to myself and 8 computers (including two Mac systems) to work with, you cudnt ask for a better work life. But, life had planned something else for me. I take this opportunity to thank all my friends and collegues for being there for me at all times. It was wonderful working with you people.

I am copy-pasting my byebye mail I sent to all my collegues.

I wanted to write a totally different "Bye bye" mail to you all, but the moment I started thinking (oops.. not thinking... its just... ..mmmm.. a.a.a...... ahem..). well anyway, when I started doing that, my eyes darkened, my heart pulse rate started increasing, the adrenalin started rushing, my brain started sending all the alarm signals.... and it ended just like what I am writing now.

I wanted to write about all the good times I had in SCM, about all the wonderful people I met and worked with here, about all those "thrilling" TTP sessions, those "heart rendering" driver releases and the immediate "congratulatory" bugs, which luckily ended up on the better side of me.. (or is it the only side SCM has??? mmm...), but didnt know how to put it down properly. Then there were the weekly meetings, the monthly salary deposit mails, those quarterly bonus payments, the yearly appraisals, those project reviews, the CFO/CEO/COO announcement sessions, the daily pantry sessions, the war against food poisoning (yup... its food court food alright ), those traffic diversions, the friends' meet.... etc...etc... so much to be happy about, not that much talent to put it in words.

So, then I decided to apologize for any or all of the actions that had hurt anyone during my life in SCM. But then, people in SCM are "choooo chuweeet" they would have forgiven me that very moment. I dint want to hurt anybody's feeling by sending an apology mail. So, I trashed that mail also.

OK,

What do I write now?

mmmm.......

Here's a try:

----------------------------
Dear All,

Today is my last day with SCM professionally. I am moving to the middle east to take up business with bin laden, dawood ibrahim, ... well u name it, i have it (he he cudnt resist the nag). On a funnier note, I am taking up business as my career. I want to thank you all for helping, guiding and supporting me to throughout my life in SCM. My apologies if I had hurt
anyone by my actions or words.

Thank you very much.

I shall be mailing you from ajosephantony at yahoo.co.in or gmail.com,

Now that needs your mail IDs... so, please do drop them in.

Thanks and Regards,
Joseph Antony, A
-----------------------------

How was it? Good? OK? However it was, thats me ;-)

To all my friends (aka collegues)

Thanks a lot for everything.

Wishing you the best in life.

Joseph Antony A.

Complications of English

2006-07-09T02:37:00.000+05:30

A nice forward. Cudnt get a better place to store it.. ;-)

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce.

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present .

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row .

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let's face it - English is a strange language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in

which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. - Why doesn't "Buick" rhyme with "quick"

You lovers of the English language might enjoy this .

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is "UP."

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we

awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?

We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened

UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. I f you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP .

When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.

When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so........... it is time to shut UP.....!

To Nerd or not to Nerd

2006-05-29T12:05:00.000+05:30

Am a Cool guy.... ;-)

Computer Geek? Am I? Naah...

A P J Abdul Kalam

2006-05-03T14:37:00.000+05:30

A simpleton's rise to the First Man of a country is no ordinary feat. It beckons hard work, sacrifice and the will power to move up the ladder.

A P J Abdul Kalam.

Posted in over a centurical sites, I want to post this as a self remainder and to all those who want to have a better India. I have interspersed my personal comments in white (those will be the BIG white empty space between paras. I did this just not to spoil the flow/feel of the original passage.

I have three visions for India.

1. In 3000 years of our history, people from all over the world have come and invaded us, captured our lands and conquered our minds. From Alexander onwards, the Greeks, the Turks, the Moguls, the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Dutch, all of them came and looted us, took over what was ours. Yet we have not done this to any other nation. We have not conquered anyone. We have not grabbed their land, their culture, their history and tried to enforce our way of life on them. Why? Because we always respect the freedom of others. Joe:[Joe]: I'd say we were busy fighting among ourselves to actually notice things getting looted out of our country. One ideology of our people is that if you are down, we will pull you up. But, when you go above me, i will do all means to pull you down.That is why my first vision is that of FREEDOM.

I believe that India got its first vision of this in 1857, when we started the war of independence. It is this freedom that we must protect and nurture and build on. If we are not free, no one will respect us.

2. My second vision for India is DEVELOPMENT. For fifty years we have been a developing nation. It is time we see ourselves as a developed nation. We are among top 5 nations of the world in terms of GDP. We have 10 percent growth rate in most areas. Joe:[Joe]: When petrol sells at Rs.17/L in pakistan and Rs15/L in malaysia, we are getting it at Rs.48/L. Man, are we growing...Our poverty levels are falling.Joe:[Joe]: Yup. People die faster to avoid the face of poverty. And at the quality at which census/surveys are taken, obviously we WILL find a decline Our achievements are being globally recognized today. Joe:[Joe]: You sure can say that again. Indians: known for cheap attitude, back-stabbing, foxy nature, known to pull down their own people Yet we lack the self-confidence to see ourselves as a developed nation, self-reliant and self-assured. Isn't this incorrect?

3. I have a THIRD vision.

India must stand up to the world. Because I believe that, unless India stands up to the world, no one will respect us. Only strength respects strength. We must be strong not only as a military power but also as an economic power. Both must go hand-in-hand. My good fortune was to have worked with three great minds. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai of the Dept. of Space, Professor Satish Dhawan, who succeeded him and Dr. Brahm Prakash, the father of nuclear material. I was lucky Joe:[Joe]: India is infact surprised (to the level of being shocked) to see such brilliant people come out and shine inspite of its "memory-ONLY-tuning" educational system architecture to have worked with all three of them closely and consider this the great opportunity of my life.

I see four milestones in my career: Twenty years I spent in ISRO. I was given the opportunity to be the Project Director for India's first satellite launch vehicle, SLV3. The one that has launched Rohini. These years played a very important role in my life of scientist.

After my ISRO years, I joined DRDO and got a chance to be the part of India's guided missile program. It was my second bliss when Agni met its mission requirements in 1994. The Dept. of Atomic Energy and DRDO had this tremendous partnership in the recent nuclear tests, on May 11 and 13. This was the third bliss. The joy of participating with my team in these nuclear tests and proving to the world that India can make it, that we are no longer a developing nation but one of them. It made me feel very proud as an Indian. The fact that we have now developed for Agni a re-entry structure, for which we have developed this new material. A Very light material called carbon-carbon.

One day an Orthopedic Surgeon from Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences visited my laboratory. He lifted the material and found it so light that he took me to his hospital and showed me his patients. There were these little girls and boys with heavy metallic calipers weighing over three Kg. each, dragging their feet round. He said to me: Please remove the pain of my patients.

In three weeks, we made these Floor reaction Orthosis (weighing 300-gram) calipers and took them to the Orthopedic center. The children didn't believe their eyes. From dragging around a three kg. Load on their legs, they could now move around!

Their parents had tears in their eyes. Joe: [Joe]: I Love this man. Buying Joy from others' happiness. That was my fourth bliss!

Why is the media here so negative? Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories, Joe:[Joe]: People here LOOVEEE blood, especially when its from someone else. They drink it with their eyes, sit back, complete a whole weekend discussing, "feeling" for the people affected, and DO NOTHING ELSE but we refuse to acknowledge them.

Why?

We are the first in milk production.Joe: We are also the nearing first place in population

We are number one in Remote sensing satellites.Joe:We are number one in AIDS disease

We are the second largest producer of wheat.Joe:We have a rating of 2.9 on corruption scale (0 being the most corrupt). Check here

We are the second largest producer of rice.

Look at Dr. Sudarshan; he has transformed the tribal village into a self-sustaining, self driving unit. There are millions of such achievements but our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters.

I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. It was the day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place. The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert land into an orchid and a granary. It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details of killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried among other news. In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime. Why are we so NEGATIVE?

Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things? We want foreign TVs, we want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology. Why this obsession with everything imported. Do we not realize that self-respect comes with self-reliance?

I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14 year old girl asked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is: She replied: I want to live in a developed India.

For her, you and I will have to build this developed India. You must proclaim. India is not an Underdeveloped Nation; it is a highly developed nation.

Do you have 10 minutes? Allow me to come back with a vengeance. Got 10 minutes for your country? If yes, then read; otherwise, choice is yours.

YOU say that our government is inefficient.

YOU say that our laws are too old.

YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage. YOU say that the phones don't work; the railways are a joke, The airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach their destination. YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits. YOU say, say and say.

What do YOU do about it? Take a person on his way to Singapore. Give him a name - YOURS. Give him a face - YOURS. YOU walk out of the airport and you are at your International best. In Singapore you don't throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the Stores. YOU are as proud of their Underground Links as they are. You pay $5 (approx. Rs.60) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Mahim Causeway or Pedder Road) between 5 PM and 8 PM. YOU comeback to the parking lot to punch your parking ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or a shopping mall irrespective of your status identity. In Singapore you don't say anything.

DO YOU? Similarly YOU wouldn't dare to eat in public during Ramadan, in Dubai.

YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddah.

YOU would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds (Rs. 650) a month to, "see to it that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else."

YOU would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88km/h) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop, "Jaanta hai sala main kaun hoon? (Do you know who I am?). I am so and so's son. Take your two bucks and get lost."

YOU wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand.

Why don't YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo? Why don't YOU use examination Jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston?

We are still talking of the same YOU. YOU, who can respect and conform to a foreign system, in other countries but cannot in your own, you who will throw papers and cigarettes on the road the moment you touch Indian ground.

If you can be an involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country, why cannot you be the same here in India?

Once in an interview, the famous ex-municipal commissioner of Bombay, Mr. Tinaikar, had a point to make. "Rich people's dogs are walked on the streets to leave their affluent droppings all over the place," he said. "And then the same people turn around to criticize and blame the authorities for inefficiency and dirty pavements. What do they expect the officers to do? Go down with a broom every time their dog feels the pressure in his bowels?

In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job. It is the same in Japan. Will the Indian citizen do that here?

He's right.

We go to the polls to choose a government and after that forfeit all responsibility. We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do everything for us whilst our contribution is totally negative. We expect the government to clean up but we are not going to stop chucking garbage all over the place nor are we going to stop to pick a up a stray piece of paper and throw it in the bin. We expect the railways to provide clean bathrooms but we are not going to learn the proper use of bathrooms.

We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the least opportunity. This applies even to the staff who are known not to pass on the service to the public. When it comes to burning social issues like those related to women, dowry, girl child and others, we make loud drawing room protestations and continue to do the reverse at home.

Our excuse? "It's the whole system which has to change, how will it matter if I alone forego my sons' rights to a dowry." So who's going to change the system?

What does a system consist of? Very conveniently for us it consists of our neighbors, other households, other cities, other communities and the government. But it is definitely not me and YOU. When it comes to us actually making a positive contribution to the system we lock ourselves along with our families into a safe cocoon and look into the distance at countries far away and wait for a Mr. Clean to come along & work Miracles for us with a majestic sweep of his hand or we leave the country and run away.

Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to America to bask in their glory and praise their system. When New York becomes insecure we run to England. When England experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home by the Indian government. Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country. Nobody thinks of ridding the system. Our conscience is mortgaged to money.

Dear Indians,

The article is highly thought inductive, calls for a great deal of introspection and pricks one's conscience too....

I am echoing J. F. Kennedy's words to his fellow Americans to relate to Indians.....

"ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR INDIA AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE TO MAKE INDIA WHAT AMERICA AND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE TODAY"

Lets do what India needs from us.

Thank you
Abdul Kalaam

The original link

Coffee Life

2006-04-25T15:49:00.000+05:30

This is a forwarded mail I got, which actually hit the nail right on the centre of its head.

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university lecturer. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the lecturer went to the kitchen and returned.With a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups: porcelain,plastic, Glass, some plain looking and some expensive and exquisite, telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the lecturer said:"If You noticed, all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken up,leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each other's cups."

"Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it."

So please, don't let the cups drive you. Enjoy the coffee instead.

A Chat

2006-04-20T14:09:00.000+05:30

This is the full transcript of a discussion between a friend of mine and me over ipmsg . "J" stands for my lines and "X" stands for my friend's lines.

J: -so, both have gone to shanghai? then, shud be possible to get some earphones.

X: both have gone to the same place ;-)

J: okie dokie

X:-so u can very well get good Chinese EarPhones :-)

J: noooooooooooooooooooooooooo.. not chinese...

X:-ahhh.. now u ve turned sensible

J: what.. so, u wont get any good quality earphones from there? i mean branded ones?

X -can get.. i never siad u wont get.
but its highly probable that u end up buying fakes ;-)

J: okok. better not even try then

X -"I can only show u the way.
-The choice is yours Mr Anderson"
;-)

J: U know what I will choose. Why ask me. The answer is there.

X: -Im lost..
in the MAtrix ;-)

J: ITs very easy to get lost. You need to choose between the past and the present. The future leads automatically.

X: -No.. I disagree..
-Past is Past..it leaves u not a chance for a choice..
-the choice is when u move from preset to future.

J: The past is what you were. Present is What you are, as a result of what you were.
The choice you made because of the past is what makes the present.
Based on the choice of the past or the present determines your future.
If the past choice and the present are the same, your future is already decided.

X: -No...No.. No..
- In the past u have done something , the result of whic is ur present.Agreed Fully..
-this is because u did stick on to a choice u made..
-this lead u to what ur today.
-Now life gives u new choices.. not entangled with the chices u made in the past..
-here is where u can change ur present..
-get out of the conventions.. clear your on paths..
-but let me tell u this path is not Rosy..
-traps are there all around that make u fell Booby...

J: Agreed.
-Now life gives u new choices.. not entangled with the choices u made in the past..
I have a disparity here. Life gives you new choices based on the choices you made in the past.
Its these choices which bring about new choices.
If you are going to choose the same old choices you made in the past, that is NOT going to lead you to newer avenues.

X: -What ur telling me is how it has happend to the majority on this present world..
-and its that majority's decison that ur trying to support.
-i think i need some time to put what i want to put down the way i want it to be put.
-.. " Ill be back" ;-)

J: Astala vista baby... ;-)

RSI

2006-04-19T18:01:00.000+05:30

Repetitive Stress Injury.

An Article

Yoga Excercises to release the stress.

Compliflying Life

2006-04-18T18:14:00.000+05:30

I recently read a blog from one of my friends on their experience with Air Deccan. It brought back those wonderful memories of the day I travelled in Air Deccan.

I (un)fortunately once had the honour of using Air Deccan from Bangalore to Chennai. The flight was scheduled to take off at 1815 hours from bangalore and reach chennai by 1920 hours. I had planned to go to a book shop that evening to get some books.

Time: 1715 hours IST
we (the passengers) were asked to check-in the baggages. I was happy at the thought of flying first time by a propeller plane. With no check-in baggage, we (my relative and me) directly went to the boarding counter and got our boarding cards. Then had our personal check-up, got my hand-carry stamped and went into the last lounge. Now, it so happened that there were about 4 more flights at that time to Chennai. 2 air sahara and 2 jet airways.

Time:1800 hours IST.
We got an announcement over the public speaker that our flight is delayed by one hour because of technical difficulties. Not a surprise. It was acceptable. After all, we are Indians and they are providing the cheapest service (nope.. this is just an after-effect acceptance of travelling in air deccan).

A little probing revealed that the flight was not in a situation to take-off and so, they had asked a flight from Goa to come to bangalore as an alternative. We went out as there was no point in sitting there.

Time: 1930 hours IST, aka 1800 Abu Dhabi
The goa flight had come. So, we rushed in to check-in (again) and do all the security checks (again). Then, we got the next dosage of air-deccan special. The goa flight has come and has started developing technical difficulties. So, the flight was delayed by another 2 hours. Now, at this juncture, one air sahara(or jet, i dont remember) had left for chennai.

Some shrewd people cancelled their air-deccan ticket and booked in either air sahara or jet due to take off at 2200 hours approx. But, I decided to stick with the "poor man's" Emirates. So, we came out again to wait for the actual(???) arrival of the flight.

Time:2030 hours IST, aka 1800 baghdad
Some gentleman started arguing with the staff there and ended up getting us all a buffet dinner at the airport itself, courtesy Hotel Asoka.

Time: 2200 hours IST, aka 1830 cairo
Some more people booked in the 2200 jet airways and air sahara flights and left.
We are waiting.

Time:2300 hours IST, aka 1830 GMT
We are waiting. A flight between hyderabad and bangalore had just come in. If God wills, this flight will/may not generate technical problem and allow us to reach madras within a day. So, for the third time we checked-in and passed security. By this time, the security personnel and us started developing a rapport and were discussing about life (wow.. isnt that something for someone who had been (pissed-off )squared ).

Time: 2330 hours IST, aka 1800 Mid-Atlantic (man, we are nowhere now)
All other flights to chennai for the day have left. We were contemplating a cab drive from Bangalore to chennai. It cost around the same amount as air-deccan.

Time 2345 hours IST, aka 1800 Still Mid-Atlantic (man, we are still nowhere now)
Suddenly we were asked to move to the flight. It came as a rude shock to us. But, still not believing, we moved to the flight. A Total strength of 10 took the flight. At approximately 2350 hours, the propeller pushed us into the air.

Time 0100 hours IST, aka 1800 Greenland
We landed in Chennai. We were happy that the flight actually flied without any problem. On reaching chennai, we came to know that there were people actually waiting to travel to bangalore by our actual 1815 hours return flight. We were not the worst affected, after all. Wishing them atleast a "journey" home, we reached home.

Motivate, Inspire

2006-04-07T12:30:00.000+05:30

Remember those times when you feel down and out. When that feeling of a heavy iron rod sitting in your heart tugging to break it apart. When you wish that it just breaks away. When hope goes jaywalking.

What pulls you up at that time?

What pours the fuel to light up the fire when calamity washes you up.

Sometimes, loneliness feeds the sadness; but its a trickle compared to the power sadness evokes.

Sometimes, a Soothing word is all we need.

A pleasing scenery always makes you forget the source of worry for atleast sometime.

Sometimes, a motivating speech powers up the inner soul like a rocket fuel that we are ready to take on the world that very instant.

The President's speech in the movie "Independence Day" is one such speech. I had goosebumps all over me when I was seeing the movie in theatre. If they had given a gun to kill anyone in sight at that time, my friends and myself would have gladly killed everyone else in that theatre.

Here is the transcript.

---------------------------

Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in this history of mankind.

Mankind -- words should have new meaning for all of us today.

We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore.

We will be united in our common interests.

Perhaps its fate that today is the 4th of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom, not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution -- but from annihilation.

We're fighting for our right to live, to exist.

And should we win the day, the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice:

"We will not go quietly into the night!

We will not vanish without a fight!

We're going to live on!

We're going to survive!"

Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!

MP3 Audio of the speech

My Life...

2006-04-05T11:33:00.000+05:30

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	6.4
Mind:	5.2
Body:	4.5
Spirit:	7.2
Friends/Family:	6.5
Love:	9.1
Finance:	7.8
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

Pet(rol)rifying...

2006-02-14T12:20:00.000+05:30

To err is human. But, to really screw up requires a sub-super-human being, alias an Indian. I dont know how, but, we Indians (yup, that includes me too) are so annoying skilled in assuming what others think.
- We assume that the other person will stop his vehicle if we push ours into the middle of the road.
- We assume that its OK to skip the red light when there is no traffic on the other side.
- We assume that it is OK to take the right side of the road if the road is free.
- We assume that things will work out fine when we make a blunder and NOT tell anyone else about it.
- We assume that people will forgive us for our mistakes and things will be smooth if we do not talk about it.
- We assume that things will be fine if we are able to pacify the person we hurt.

The problem is that everybody around us think the same. And we end up cursing the others and the system, thereby justifying that "red-light skipping" today, or the "had to rush-through in traffic" situation.

A beautiful example to this is the incident that happened on my wife's birthday. We were having our dinner at our house when my sister-in-law called us up and told that their one month old Toyota Innova had coughed up to a standstill. We were shocked. Its TOYOTA. It just cant stop. Something HAD to have happened. We rushed to the scene. Then, we knew. ASSUMPTION was the brain behind the situation.

Till that incident, I had no idea whatsoever that
a) In petrol bunks, the first row is for diesel vehicles. the second row is for petrol vehicles.
b) Diesel also has an UNLEADED counterpart to petrol.
c) All Diesel vehicles will be stuck with a "DIESEL" label on the fuel tank. If there is no sticker, then it is petrol.

These information were not known to my relative at that time of filling the vehicle for Rs.500/-

Now, this petrol station did not put any board specifying which row was for petrol and which one was for diesel. Hence, seeing the "UNLEADED" sign, my relative assumed it was petrol and got his vehicle to the first row.

There was no sticker on the fuel tank cover, to specify the fuel type. The Toyota people ASSUMED that everyone in India will know the "Knowledge Point 3". Now, the petrol bunk person assumed that since they have parked in the diesel slot, it must be diesel. So, he did not tell/ask anything to the type of fuel to fill in the tank.

Hence, diesel was filled instead of petrol. The moment, they started it, the engine became very upset with the "bad food" being fed to it and started choking. Fortunately, they identifed the problem as soon as they left the fuel station. So, they stopped the vehicle at the bunk itself and caught up with the guys there. First, In true Indian style, they said that "all Innova are diesel only sir". Like true chennaivacees, these people had to threaten them of taking them to consumer court to make them accept their mistakes.
Mistake 1: They should have put up a board specying whether the slot was for diesel or petrol
Mistake 2: They must ask the customer what fuel they need to fill (petrol/diesel and the type of petrol/diesel (ordinary, super efficient, super screw up, et al).

Why these are mistakes? Well, all other (atleast those which I have seen) fuel stations had a board and specified clearly the type of fuel being used, and all consumers were asked the type of fuel they need, and also the ZERO value is shown to the customer before fuel is pumped into the vehicle.

So, they ended up towing the vehicle to the Toyota service room and speny 3000/- on the whole. The good news for them though is that since it was a petrol vehicle and diesel filled, the engine would not get damaged as diesel is a little more viscous than petrol. If it had been the other way, they can well assume a better screw-up of the engine.

I was more surprised that a company like Toyota, who dedicate themselves to quality, had left these little details on assumptions. They however had not missed it wholly. They had put "petrol" on the inner black cover of the tank. Anybody without an xray vision will miss it easily. Hope things dont go the "assumption" way while desigining safety kits in cars.

Next time when you go to a fuel station, be sure of the fuel you are feeding your vehicle.

The world of "Free" Restrictions

2005-12-06T14:43:00.000+05:30

The following has been GPLed from a Linux seminar.

Patent
This is a Time Limited protection for your technology. Basically it goes something like this. You file a patent, meaning - you file the details to the Govt., the Govt protects your technology from anyone else using it for X number of years, unless with permission/license from you. After the patent time, the technology will be Open to all. A good example is the patent of drugs. An advantage in this is that it brings out competition and results in lower price and better output.

Trade secret
Its a bit straight forward. You basically give nothing to the Govt. Coca cola recipe is one such example.

Public Domain
This is a free for all. There is no need to credit anybody(they say its unethical). The example here is the B-Gate memory allocator (No. dont ask me. Google it. you will get better answers).

Trademark
This is the concept of "Exclusive rights to use a name". Examples include Kleenex. Coca Cola, et al.

Servicemark
A kind of trademark which is used to identify and give exclusive rights (distinctive value) to a service rather than a product rendered by a particular provider.

Copyright
The right of the author to control what he/she/they created. You need to get permission from the author to modify the contents. Examples include literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, etc.

Copyleft
The right opposite of copyright. My favorite. The idea is NOT to restrict the rights of anybody using it. The main restriction is a way to establish status, where whoever uses what you hvae done, gives the same freedom you gave to those who will be getting it from ur "client".

Got it???

Personality Test

2005-11-24T19:17:00.000+05:30

Another Corporate Personality Test

Here is what they think I am what I think of myself
--------snip-----------
Your score: 41

Others see you as fresh, lively, charming, amusing,practical, and always interesting; someone who's constantly in the center of attention, but sufficiently well-balanced not to let it go to their head. They also see you as kind, considerate, and understanding; someone who'll always cheer them up and help them out.
--------snip-----------
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha............
(thats choo chuweet of them. no, really. thx a ton ).

So, anyway, here is another one from BBC

Meeting

2005-08-19T15:28:00.000+05:30

Meetings - That point of time in life when all those lost sleep pop up at the same time.

Joe's theorm of Meetings
For any given software engineer, micro-organic level of involvement is the maximum requirement to take part in any ongoing discussion at any given point of time during the meeting.

Proof of Theorm
please note this conversation was observed from a software engineer point of vision/hearing
PM: so, blah blah blah.. therefore, blah blah blah.. when do you blah blah blah...
SE: Yes

PM: ok then, blah blah blah.. why, blah blah blah.. when blah blah blah...

SE: this week

PM: so then, blah blah blah.. less blah blah blah... time blah blah blah ...

SE: shall try

PM: so then, blah blah blah.. blah blah blah... blah blah blah...

Hence the theorm is proved.

If you are a junior, this value tends to zero (equal to zero in some cases). The lower the cadre, the more the fun. My favorite part during a meeting is when tea and biscuits are distributed. I normally dont know the status of projects after the meeting, but sure DO know the status of all the biscuits kept in my vicinity.

so with almost nill activity on your part, how are you to spend those hours of gruelling and horrendous techno garb. Here are some ways I found useful and interesting.

1. Practice blogging : Half of this blog is written during one such meet. It was a sad thing that the meeting closed earlier than usual, so my time estimate for completing this blog wasnt upto the mark. But, it sure does pay to increase your vocabulary and fluency in english

2. Caricature : Rather than spending thousands of rupees on courses for animation, you can utilise these times to develop those unused drawing talent. If possible, you can bring various coloured pens to bring out the richness in those art.

3. Puzzles : This will be a runaway success at meetings. Even the easiest of puzzles will become hard during these times, what with the drowsiness being inflicted on you by the ambience of meeting rooms.

4. SuDoKu : The now-becoming-famous puzzle game from HINDU can be a brain racker for those arithmomaniacs. For those GRE-ians, you can go for the regular HINDU crosswords.

5. Poems : Wordsworth, Shelley, and others. They are from the past. You can be the neo world's Wordsworth or a Shelley. You now have the perfect location and situation to write those endearing words of love and pathos waiting to stand the test of time.

6. Sleep : Creativity sure does play its part here. How you sleep, how long you sleep, can be rated to bring you to a pro in sleeping. Sleep baby, sleep.

Anything else to improve the rating of attending meetings are always appreciated.

Ok, gotta go and prepare for my meeting tomorrow. seeya.

Not another Sunday

2005-07-24T23:50:00.000+05:30

It was just another sunday waiting to get run over by the ever crushing monday morning blues. Just another "muhurtha" day for marriage hall owners to be happy with. With more cold than brain cells, my head was not so willing to move out of the "sleep-zone" the whole weekend. I was more than happy to comply with, though my family did'nt share the same level of enthusiasm, my wife leading the pack of anti-"sleep-zone" enthusiasts.

More than cursing them, I felt sorry for them for not having the ability to sleep at will any time of the day. I, like so many other "hard working" bachelors (ok ok... most other married guys also) had the uncanny knack to sleep at 1 PM on any given weekend after having completed a hibernation of about 12 hours to wake up at around noon for lunch. If only they can understand the turmoils going through my head to appease the hunger of sleep inside me....

Coming back to the dull evening of July 17, 2005, we went for a friend's reception at Hotel Savera, Radhakrishnan Salai. That being a muslim wedding, we guys were not allowed inside the main hall designated only for ladies. After completing the formalities in the wedding (yup, that sure did including the food), we were starting to leave the hotel when he came.

A man, who breathed a new and refreshing genre of comedy into tamil cinema, the modern "kalaivaanar", comedy king Vivek entered the hotel. The first thing I did was to run towards him. I somehow had to get an autograph. I had seen many cine artistes during my life in chennai, but this was the first time I wished and wanted to get an autograph from one.
I was happy I started on the best note i possibly cud wish for. I ran into the reception area. I had a paper ( my company visiting card atlast coming into some real sensible use), but no pen. My grey cells got activated, caught a receptionist with a ball-point pen. I rushed to her, almost literally plucked the pen from her hand, and ran to him. I felt goosebumps all over my body just to stand near a person whose name itself was more than enough for people to go watch movies. I was panting when I came near him. The conversation went something like this....

Me: "Hello Mr. Vivek. Nice to meet you."
Vivek: "Hello Mr. Joseph, Its great to meet you. Can I have your autograph please?"
Me: "Sure, for vivek, anything. Hows ur next movie coming up?"
Vivek: "Can you please act in my next comedy track in the saran movie please?"
Me: " Let me check out my call-sheet and call you up. Call me monday evening. Thank you."
Vivek: "Its an honour to meet you sir..."

Yeah, right. Atleast I am the king here and I can write my own story.. isnt it?? The real conversation though was,

Me: "Can I have your autograph please sir?"
Vivek: (smiling ) "You came running for this ?"
Me: (collecing the autograph), Thank you very much sir."

He had written "Viruppamudan Vivek" on the card.

Thats all. Period. No, I dint talk anything more. I dint know what to. It all happened too fast for me. But, that one incident made my day. In fact, it made up the rest of the week for me. I am now the proud owner of a talent bank's autograph.

One Step at a time

2005-06-18T01:22:00.000+05:30

All big strides in life start with a single step.

In compliance with this ISO-OP(Old Proverbs) standard, things started in a similar way at St.Michael's Academy, Adyar, Chennai. June 15, 2005. Sun having fun. People on the run. A small young high voltage speedster in the form of my niece was getting ready to take on the second phase of life. Till date, the best phase of life. At age 3, she was already a veteran at going to schools ( her previous school deceptively code-named Play Coup, a play school ).

Being a connoisseur, she was more than happy to go to school. A fully loaded box full of sweets and biscuits to protect her, she happily pushed us to walk faster to the classroom. I remember writing about Typhoons in "Dhakshin chitra". I saw the beginnings of all those typhoons here. Such noise levels. Screaming at the top of their lungs would be a mocking analogy to what I heard that day. Brought back memories of that "special" day where the only other equivalent noise level can be generated on a Heavy Me(n)tal Concert.

I was brought back from my nostalgia by a kidster whose primary aim in life seemed to be crying. His mother was trying her level best to cajole him with chocolates, but to no vail. Not that he wasnt eating chocolates. All edibles shown near his mouth's vicinity went straight in. No hazzles. Just darn straight down the mouth. I made a point to learn from him on how to cry and eat at the same time. You need to develop these kind of skillsets. Can be useful in your later phase of life like after-marriage for instance, where you need to protect your cry-skills to protect your physical being and eat at the same time to safe-guard your dietary being. This usually occurs after you have did something which shouldnt have occured. To me, it is becoming a normal way of life. So, this assumes all the more importance.

Being the kid I am, I tried remembering what I would have done. Then it dawned on me. Blogging was not available at time. Damn... If only, they had blogs during my school time...... But from the way I remember, my mother would have been more than happy to kick my butt in such a situation.

Our own little gangster-at-home was such a sweet darling at school. She just straight went in and sat in a place given to her. Most parents were either sitting with their kids inside the class room or doing PT by running in and around the school premesis with their wards in the lead.

An incident inside the class. Our little kid saw another kid crying its heart out. His mother seemed to have disappeared. Taking the responsiblity on herself, she started talking to kid and asked him not to cry. But he seemed to be more focused on
his work and reduced the treble only when his mother landed on the spot. Our kid later complained to us that he was making so much noise and not at all heeding to her advice. One thing was for sure. I was able to see a clear difference between home-grown kids and those who had attended play-schools.

In the play area outside the class, a photo-session was in progress.
Model - the kid.
Photographer - his mother.
Intended Audience - Exported Father.
The digital camera was ready to cry for help when the mother stopped. It was time to go home.

Being the first day of school, the kids were dispersed after just 15 minutes in class. Some of the parents were more than eager and shot off before the alloted time. My niece's mother started to mentally prepare herself to start her second
schooling.

Being a kindergarten student carries its own work hazards. With worries like "not to tee tee in your dress", "bringing home a similar coloured dress" from what you got in the morning, "not losing your tiffin box", life is sure to be full of fun and thrill. I returned home wishing my niece a successful student life.

mmmmMMMmmm......

To Critic or not to critic

2005-06-03T17:06:00.000+05:30

My ratings of some of the new movies I have seen. Please note, these rambling are entirely my personal opinion only.

CHANDRAMUKHI

every single person i have met is comparing this movie to the original "manichitrathaal". i beg to differ. manichitrathaal was a masterpiece in its own sense. it gave shobana a national award. but, its a malayalam movie. it was made in mallu style. it will NEVER have the characteristics of a tamil movie. the same applies to vice versa. (yes, i have seen the original also).

lets face it guys. you cannot run a movie (although with rare exceptions) without commericalism here. when u r putting a person who has considerable "magnetic" influence on the people watching his every move, u cant allow him to go down the drain for two consecutive movies. so, he has obviously taken to the safe route of a remaking a highly successful story.

i would say the movie's story line has been adapted from manichitrathaal. that wud make it a bit better, i suppose. Now, considering the movie for what its worth, it has been well done. or shall i say exceptionally done for a rajni movie. no punch dialogues. no flying cigarettes. no mother sentiments. no sister sentiments. the introductory fight was a bit too much. i cudnt understand how, after a person who gets kicked in the stomach can rotate on air at a single place and fall at the same place. the first half movies at the pace set by vadivelu and co. Rajni's repertoire for comedy is utilised well. The real movie starts (as in the original also), only near the interval.

After that, the movie gives chills when seen for the first time. The background has been so well done to enhance the effects. I trust the director has a proper reason for introducing the vestigeal SFX snake into the movie. Otherwise, jyothika has done a good job. Her climax scene portrayal received pretty good applauses. Her already round eyes being boosted with special focus lamps for the added effect. Music has been a high plus point for this movie. It sure has done its part to fill the producers' pockets

Even a low-rated storyline for rajni wud fetch him 50 days. I trust this may give better budgetry planning for him and the producers.

To end, Chandramukhi has powered its way to the people's pockets.

MUMBAI EXPRESS

A kidnapping plan gone haywire. - That is the crux of the movie.

The rest is the screenplay and kamal's dialogue. He has done a commendable job in trying to bring the crazy's feel to the movie, although not to the level of the master. The first half moves at a hectic pace generously splattered with comic relief. Pasupathy has done a wonderful job as a comedian-villain. Then, the movie starts slowing down a bit with sentiments.

The end happened so fast that it seemed the director somehow wanted to wrap things up and pack up urgently. Full marks to pasupathy, vayiapuri ramesh aravind. Kamal is his usual self, with lovely timings for comedy.

One thing I felt from the movie is that it did not stand in my mind the moment i left the theatre. there was nothing that made us talk about it. Maybe this has led to the not-so-successful run of the movie.

To conclude, mumbai express was a train with a one eyed driver and no guard.

SACHEIN

This has been my personal favorite. The movie had a "feel good" feeling about it. Vijay has done an excellent job here. Unlike Ajit in Ji, Vijay looks every bit like a college student. Portrayal of characters are a plus point here. The director has taken care that both the attitude of the hero and the heroine are not faltered anywhere throughout the movie. If you like vadivel's comedy, this movie will give a five-star rated treat. Genelia has done a good job of being a proud and egoist beautiful college girl. Devi Sriprasad's music as just put those remaining points for a well choreographed movie, though the last song was just a filler.

I heard Bipasha Basu was paid a 7 digit figure to act in this movie. I believe it was not worth that much money. The only low part of the movie are the so-called 'hot' scenes between vijay and bipasha basu. It all seems a bit toooo much when bb says that all that was to make a point to the heroine. One surprising thing in the movie is that the ooty "mist" seems to follow wherever vijay moves and the whole place always seems to be flooded with 'misty' effect.

I trust that this movie will be big let down to all those who expect "i will live ONLY for you" and "without you, i will die" kind of love power.

In all, sachien has played a good innings. whether this will help the "sachien" team win is upto the audiences.

ARINTHUM ARIYAMALUM

Another good story and a better screenplay. A Youthful movie, with the ever impressing prakash raj. He has done more than enough justice as an actor.

Yuvan Shankar Raja has made such an effect that on the day of the movie when I went, 95% of the people who had come were below 30. I was let down a bit when the video for the songs were not as enthralling as the audio. Maybe I set myself a pretty high expectation level for them.

A pretty fast paced and well choreographed screenplay and impressive performance from all artistesm, especially the son "kutty" of prakash raj is commendable.

The movie starts in a village and moves to the southern metropolitan when the young boy gets admission to a college in chennai. He encounters the "power" of prakash raj and his son "kutty". Fate brings a twist in that the young boy is a family member and then what happens is the rest of the story. You can see all that is not expected from such a storyline. A villain who can terrorise AND make the audience laugh, with a thoroughly enjoyable screenplay makes this a movie worth going to.

Again, a disclaimer. This movie will be a big letdown for those who expect a sentimental showdown to the movie. The director has taken a different view to express the separated father - son relationship.

Kudos to all the members. Arinthum Ariyamalum - An all round entertainer.

Now, where are those critics hiding... ??? where are ur comments?.....

Home Sweet Home - Part II

2005-04-22T00:06:00.000+05:30

My mom took a whole half a day to clean just the TV stand. She went to the extent of using the mud and dust collected as new mud for the potted plant. I jumped at the last minute to rescue the plant from an unintentional murder. Thats one of the biggest disadvantages of having your house near the city's main traffic road. By the time you finish cleaning your second room, the first room is already getting new visitors. The upside is that it keeps you busy and FIT :-)))

The advantage being
a) to get a 'balcony' view of all the accidents taking place in your area,
b) the metro-water carrying mobile murderer waking you up early in the morning and
c) all other licensed killers trying their best during the night.

If, on the other hand, your house is in a bit 'interior' in the area, then driving a car is seen as a scandulous act, given that the road size will be suitable to drive only a single auto. That this size is more than enough for two autos to drive side by side do speak volumes about the other biggest killer roaming free. This ones keeps you inside it and then transmogrifies itself into a 007's support vehicle.

Its a trade-off with regards to the location of the house. A flat system I saw recently is being built in the middle of a once(read recently)-flourishing lake. Hence, the path to the construction site is worse than a WRC course. Of course, the builder will be giving you access with tarred roads. But be sure, he isn't going to spend it from his pocket. Rest assured that the extra amenities in that house will be costing heavens.

Lands purchased near industrial areas do have their set of pros and cons. Pro being that the land value will be a bit cheaper when it comes to building a residential flat. The obvious con being the noise and the culture of the area. Industrial areas
do deliver their part in contaminating the ground water, though not to the extent the corporation does. After all, its their cup of tea (or s***). You cant beat them at their own game.

Houses near the beach in Chennai do cost more with the advantage of getting a good view of the sea and receiving the lion's share of the cool sea breeze. In hindsight, the salt acts as the cigarette of the house. It slowly and surely damages the strucutural strength of the house. Though you won't be short of ground water, you dont always get 'touchable' or edible' ground water there.

Contd . . .

Home Sweet Home - Part I

2005-04-06T01:12:00.000+05:30

A lot many people have asked me to write a blog (well, not actually write one.. but rather enquired about) relating to purchasing a house. Being the 'nice' guy I am, I decided to put down in ones and zeros the "training" I underwent in buying a house.

Two choices. Its either a flat or an individual home. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages. Buying an individual house in madras automatically shoots ur rating to the caliber of the president of a 'billion dollar asset' company. Apart from being the "King of your country" status,you can expect no more than a penny of help from our government regarding practically everything, starting from water to theft in your kingdom. But, its YOUR kingdom. You get to do what you want. You can have your bedroom "vasthoooed" and shift it two inches towards nearest man-hole in the road, because its the place to BE. ( Ask the vasthu consultant - he will clearly tell you that the man-hole was fully vaasthu-level 5 compliant ). In Chennai, a normal individual house (along with the cost of the land) comes to a nominal rate of 30-40 lakhs.

If you prefer the second option, but are a president of a 'billion dollar asset' company, then you have those builders who are always ready to provide you with the 'nominal' rate luxury apartments. An average 2 bedroom house from a decent builder costs anwhere between 10 lakhs to 18 lakhs, depending on the location, the builder, the facilities he builder gives and availability of "tidel park", mahindra city, school, bus stand, etc.. etc...

Some of the basic requirements I would cover when looking for a house are,
a) Who's the builder.
If you have a 2 ground land, you are a builder. Too many builders are mushrooming all over madras that the ant population is feeling the heat of this growth rate. One concerned ant leader expressed concern over his colony having had to move to many different places to "colonise" new areas in a very short time duration.

As a potential house owner, you deserve the right to see the original document of the purchase of the land where the flat is being built. Always make sure that the document does not contain any 'villangam', or the illegality state.

For the rookie, here goes; Any land coming under the corporation/municipality will be covered by a survery number. take the example below.

.

The concerned land where we are going to build our flat is 130. The first survey information will go somewhat like this... "the specified land with survey no. 130 is surrounded by 129 to the north, 128 to the north-east, 127 to the east... etc covering all other survey numbers which surround yours.

From the date of first survey of the land (which will sometimes date back to the early 1900s) to this date, the survey number will be the same. It may have changed hands umpteen number of times before it reached your builder. Make sure that nowhere in between the first and the last transaction, the land (survey number) has not been modified or cut into two and sold, and or no missing link of purchase is there. The current purchaser should have purchased the proper survey numbered land (the land which he would have showed you) without any hassles or 'villangam'. If there is even a small hitch to it, you can trust yourself to expect trouble.

to be contd...

Kathaiyalla Nijam

2005-03-10T00:01:00.000+05:30

The normal customer care centre in India gives its best service to the nearby tea stalls and mobile phones and if time permits between these, they attend to a few of the innocent victims who got stuck with their company's products and run for cover both from the product and the customer service. This being the case with private companies, its only understandable not to even think about customer care in government offices.

The fact that I didnt pay the money for the past 3 months was behind me and I was eagerly looking to the future when my mobile's screen-saver smiley smiled wickedly at me. Realisation set in. I have to pay the bill. I prepared for a half day leave from my office when I went to BSNL's customer care in Mandaveli to pay the phone bill for my disconnected mobile.

BSNL's Adyar exchange doesn't have the facility to accept cash as payment (the fact that it had an auto-cheque accepter was more than surprising). I was very understanding with them and so accepted to go to Mandaveli. New realisation seemed to have set in for the Corporation people and they started to build a flyover at the Prayer Tower Junction. They made everybody realise it by blocking most of the road with trenches and tunnels.

With the scorching sun to protect me, I reached the exchange. The cheque deposit counter was at the entrance itself. Though the automatic machine had a touch screen to guide people through, a person was permanently seated near the machine to do your work of depositing the cheque for you. Yes. Customer Service. The one thing to note here is that you need to write down all the details of the phone stuff behind the phone bill and only then will he proceed. So much for automation. I had come for cash payment. And I needed immediate activation. It was 12:45 PM. I had 15 minutes to complete my work. After 1300 hours, come what may, things go to a stand still here. I was racing against time.

I ran to first floor. There was a queue at the cash counter. Cursing my fate, I stood there. To add to my new found happiness, two "influential" persons came, ignored the queue and directly went to the counter and started talking to the cashier. One self-respecting person before me requested them to stand in the queue. They said they were not customers,blah blah blah and turned to talk to the cashier.

Now comes the Anti-climax. The cashier did'nt respond to them at all. He told the self-respecting person to keep calm and that he will take care. And he did take care. Cos, they both were waiting till the queue where I was standing got over. I was dumbfounded. This cannot happen. I must be dreaming. Still with the effect of that incident, I was redirected to the third floor where mobile activations take place.

5 more minutes. I ran to the third floor. The lady sitting there told me that they will activate it by today evening. Then the creativity in my mind sparked off and I told her that this mobile was used for business and I need an immediate activation (now hows that for a story?!!!). So, she showed me the direction to go to a senior officer for immediate activation. I looked in the direction she showed.

There was a door. I went there and started pushing and pulling at it. It did not even budge. I tried my strength for sometime before asking the lady why the door is not opening. She was shocked to see me doing that and asked me to go to another door nearby. Then, I realised why she was shocked. It is not a door. It WAS a door once. It had been locked from the other side and people were sitting nearby and working. My imagination took the better of me for sometime where i was opening that door, things breaking, people running....mmmm. Creativity.

I ran to the senior officer. He was busy talking with someone. That was normal. You are in a government office. You need to talk. If you only work, you will be alienated. You will be a reject. A snob. Then, he became free. I ran in. I told him my "business" urgency. He looked at me and the bill. What followed was totally mind blowing for me. He got my bill, went to a computer nearby and opened the "BSNL Customer Care" application. After clicking through a set of menus, he landed up enterning my mobile's account number. It opened up screen where my mobile number's properties were listed. The first two parameters were "Outgoing barred" and "Incoming barred". He right clicked on the two and deleted it. Then, did a save and a refresh. He then asked me to check if both the outgoing and incoming are working for the mobile phone. I dialled the mobile. It WORKED!!!! It took a total of 2 minutes to activate. I thanked him and came home in a trance.

Customer Service at its best.
Ithu Kathaiyalla, Nijam...

A Culture Visit

2005-02-19T23:31:00.000+05:30

I wanted to break away (atleast for a few hours) from the influences of our current "culture" of "hard working" (synonym of money-making) and then showing it off to others in the most worthless of ways, to a period where life was simple, yet happy. when man's requirements were a small but requirement-fulfilled house and happiness to go along. I went to witness life as a culture in south india at the Dhakshin Chitra for a few hours. Being only the end of february, the sun was a little less hot (about 33 C ;-) ). so, I took a 25 minute ride on my 'poor-man's harley davidson', a suzuki, from my house to the culture house, about 4Km from the toll-gate on the ECR. I cheated the toll-gate people by taking a two-wheeler (he he) and dint pay the toll to use the road and reached the culture house when the sun was busy making people run for coconuts and shades.

The entry fee was Rs.50/-. Rs.50/- to see my own culture; In the end, I felt it was worth more than that. The pamphlet was pretty much a miniature route map for the whole place and I must say, it was threateningly accurate in terms of the route.

Tamil Nadu was first. It opened with a Chettinad house of the 19th century. The inlaid description stone (I mean the framed printout-i dont remember the correct term now) told me that the house was literally shifted from its original place to here sans the ground. ( It must have been quite heavy to lift the ground also. Besides, we wont know how deep we need to dig to conclude its enough??? ;-) ). The age old inkpots, the flour-grinder, the wooden beds et al were pretty much the originals taken from the house owners.

The backyard of the house led to an alley of tamil nadu houses. There were two fortune tellers, one was skillfully utilising the repertoire of a parrot (???) to foretell ur fortunes and the other was using ur palm to foretell. My meal-fortune will wreck havoc if I spend money on this. With a heavy heart of not knowing my future from a parrot, I moved along.

The "conservation lab"(whatever that means) lay ahead near the alley. The inside presented the f-tv of our past. Dhotis, lungis, turbans, thundus, madras kerchiefs (what a history this one has. Check it out there directly). Another room inside dawned to a person creating real art. He was weaving a kancheepuram silk saree. It was the first time in my history I saw a silk saree being made (as if I wud have gone any other day). More than the whole saree being made, It was the forming of the border of the saree that amazed, or rather shocked me the most. I was watching him work like a sculptor bring his creation to life slowly, strand by strand. Soon, curiostiy overtook my shyness and I stopped him.

What followed was a National Geographic program on weaving. He took a paper full of light and dark dots, which viewed from a distance (or a blurred eye) will show a design. The design on the border of the saree. It took a total of 2 days for 5 people and 36 separate lines of gold strands in a complicated pattern to acutally set it in the right position. To move it properly as and when the saree was being woven was way beyond me. A single saree had more than 3 lakh strands of intricately woven silk strands and 2 weeks labour of a dedicated and skilled person.

An adivce to people who want to enjoy this trip. If you happen to see a group of school uniforms in the vicinity, never even try to go near. It will be one mayhem you will want to miss. I got two sets like that today. Obviously, they were schools with students of influential parents. Most of those yet-to-be-grown-ups were clicking away merrily at virtually anything they dint encounter in their lifetime. That included anything the guy near you clicks at. Fortunately, it was lunch time and they headed to a nearby gathering area where they showcased their voice prowess.

After the enlightment at the "lab", and escaping from the two typhoons, I then went on to the glass blowing section. There was a demo going on. I sneaked in to see the glass blower morph a normal glass rod into a peocock and a horse right in front of our eyes. He did that like he was gnawing carelessly at a unroasted set of peanuts. After the pretty transparent demo, he went to become a marketing person and was trying to woo some foreign visitors to buy his wares. Escaping, I moved on to "God's Own Country"'s mini mock-up area.

It started with a traditional wooden house of a Cyrian catholic family. The inlaid stone description here (remember the term;-) ), told that the house was wholly made of pineapple wood and was two floor high. The outside was pretty deceptive that way. It didnt seem to enclose two floors until you went to the first floor. In a small passage way, there was another wooden staircase. It opened up to an attic the size of the house itself. Compact and cosy - they knew how to live. The first floor even had ravi varma's beauties to adorn the wooden walls. Enjoying God's own country in my hometown, I moved along to another house nearby, pretty similar to the first,but bigger. Palm toys were being made on-location.

My eyes were starting to get a bit dark now. I looked at the sky. It was clear. Then, it dawned. I hadnt taken anything for the last 2 hours. Getting a small 'noisy' toy for my niece, I moved on to the Andhra and Karnataka section in a hurry. Fortunately for my hunger, they both were under construction. It was nearly 2.5 hours since I reached this place and hunger was doing a salsa inside me. Pleasing it with a tetrapack juice, I started my journey back, enlightened and Happy.

Is it a tragedy or . . .

2005-01-04T14:47:00.000+05:30

Is it a tragedy or another platform for political showcasing.?

On the day of the tragedy which shook the whole of Asia and World, a premier cable channel in tamil was showing people standing on the beach. the first thing that stuck my mind was "Why are they standing there?". Is it to see if the water level is raising ( talk about caution ) again. Were they planning to die? Or were they expecting to be a "part" of the tsunami if it occurs again so that they can reminisce (???) to the "best" weekly magazine and get a paragraph in that "heart rendering" cover story? I do really appreciate the way that channel was able to cover ONLY but all the areas where dead bodies were lying, be it in chennai, or nagai or cuddalore. You name it, they have the scene of the halls turned mortuaries with wailing to fill the remaining. Once or twice, it evokes sadness and pain in the heart, but a whole day of this causes more irritation than sympathy. This was their only major coverage for the first day and most of second day. Popular english news channels were trying to cover/telecast the cause of this disaster, the science behind it, the probability of recurrence and similar things. I came to know of the TN's CM visit to Nagapattinam only after i saw an article in rediff.com Whose Tragedy is it anyway?

Using the media for political benefit is understandable, but at a time of calamity , its only humane for different people and parties to shove off their differences to get together to bring the distressed back to normal life. Trying to use a calamity for political growth only shows the standard of the people who run the state/country. One another incident which is noteworthy is this. This media person was interviewing people affected by Tsunami . Now the fisherman selected by this channel aptly blames "Government has done nothing for us so far....." and ."Who wants food and water here. Give us boat and nets so that we can fish and survive" Somebody should have told the fisherman (or the press person??? ) that all Sea Food has been banned totally due to the poisining of the sea by bloated corpses all through the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean. Another news was that all used clothes are being rejected by the survived people because "CM has told that she will give us new dress. so dont give us used clothes. we want new clothes". I do not know the legitimacy of this (CM's statement). If the reason for the rejection of old clothes is this, this just mocks at all those forthcoming hearts which gave all those costly clothes. I helped in collecting clothes and segregating them in trichy and chennai. Of all the clothes which had come for the victims, only about 15% were not usable. Most others were in fully usable condition. I sincerely hope the media does a better job in bringing about proper news to the people and helping the victims in a proper way rather than trying to create a political advantage alone under such a circumstance.