~~New year Resolution~~

I was discussing few new year resolutions with my friends in my office ,almost everything got thumbs down either they believed I will break it within a week or its not in my calibre to take up such silly resolutions.

Then one of friend suggested I needn't trouble myself taking some silly resolution and try hard to keep it each and everyday. Then they advised me take up something challenging such as a goal which I want to achieve. Hmmm for me nothing is challenging to achieve,if at all something is challenging it wont be my goal.

Then finally after some thought ,I got an interesting resolution even my friends were much impressed! Here it is


Find my dream girl !!!

2010 here I come!!!

~~Blogging in 2009~~

Continuing my memories of 2009 this is the year I got fully involved blogging, from being a hobby it became a habit these days. Apart from my blogs there where many blogs I admired and adored some changing the way I think,will list them sometime some day.

When I look back at my blogs there are things which I would have easily forgotten down the time.

Such as
My haircut experience

other funny incidents like
taking mum out for shopping
or
losing my ATM card

Trip experiences to

Delhi,Bangalore and Tenkasi


There are lot more better or worse than above but these where the things which caught my eyes during the quick browse.

So no more looking back at 2009 ,looking forward to 2010 ,in the process of finalising the resolutions :)

~~Things happened in 2009~~

Just thought of going through the days of 2009,an year filled with activities,loads of fun,lots of travel and as usual its an year passing as swift as it came.

I thought I will list out few things I have done or liked this year.

Its was change of work place Cochin to Chennai, entirely changing my day to day schedule from a laid back life style to a busy one. Being a new team met lot of people made many new friends. Getting wonderful food to eat,been out of kitchen for almost an year(cant remember when I experienced it before)

Year filled with trips around India visiting Delhi,Agra,Cochin,Bangalore,Tenkasi and finally Mystique land.

Many first time experiences visiting Taj Mahal or feeling snow or getting smashed up(oil massage) at kutralam.

I think I have spent most of the time of the year in my company bus,found these journeys can be interesting if there is a proper company or good book to read. So most of the books I have read are during these bus journeys. Few books I liked are Two States,Paths of Glory and The Great Indian Novel.

This is the year I haven't gone to theatres to watch a movie except seeing 2nd half of slum dog millionaire since we don't know what to do in city center.But it didn't stop me from watching movies in DVD's.When it comes to Tamil movies I never had the patience to watch any full movie completely except for Unnai pol oruvan maybe it was short and crisp.

Coming to Indian perspective.There were few moments like Rahman getting Oscars or Sachin smashing 175 still lingers in my mind. It was also the year the India went for elections and got a proper mandate a stable government for the next five years.Year which had no major terror attacks.

Hope next year will be much better than this!


Now thinking of 2010 new year resolutions!

~~Trip Prelude:Getting Leather Jacket~~

When we planned for the trip to mystique land ,KG warned me about the freezing temperatures prevailing there and asked me to purchase warm clothes.

I asked KG where can I get good leather jacket (even through being Buffalo skinned the climatic conditions asked for yak skin) he suggested Indian Silk house,one of the traditional shops in mount road. We reached the place after an awesome ride in my bike in the Chennai traffic frightening KG by cutting in between cars and buses.

Once inside the shop ,the shop keeper recognised KG immediately and was so happy that he keeps on bringing VIP customers.KG was in form quickly , told shopkeeper that I m going immediately to USA and I m in desperate need winter clothing.

The shopkeeper was an old and wonderful fellow. He showed me black jacket and gave an explanation as follows 'This is called as jacket, this has two pockets if you feel cold you can put the hand inside the pockets, this is called as hood you can use this to cover your head and ears(maybe frighten Swathi). This is zip it can be used to close the jacket you have to pull it straight up.These are buttons you just have to press them'.If you walk on the road and snow falls on it just push it, see no snow goes inside the jacket.Wow he was telling this in a very serious tone and it was the first time I m hearing 'How to use manual in a cloth shop.

He didn't stop with jacket alone he started giving instructions for thermals, this the top you have to wear on bare body then wear your shirt, this is the bottom wear it after wearing you underwear(as if I m going to try the spider man style).Then he took a cap,'this is called as cap this is used to cover the head when you pull further down it becomes monkey cap'.

We got a piece of thermals each which we wore for most of the trip and a leather jacket which when worn showed no difference between me and the yak.But jokes apart these were the two stuffs which protected me from the freezing climate!

Click here for episode 1

Click here for prelude 2

~~ I am Back!!! ~~

Now in my Blog!!!

Starring KG and Sri

Seven Days

Six nights

Five places

(in)Four wheeler

(conquering)Three points

Two people

One Adventure

~~Experiences in Land of Mystique~~

Pictures for Preview

Watch out this space!!!

Click here for episode 1

Click here for prelude

PS: I m back after an adventurous trip ,be it experiencing snow or climbing great heights or interacting with wonderful people it was a trip worth every penny! Will pen down down the experiences and preludes then and there.

~~Going for vacation~~

Its time to end the year with a big note and cant find anything better,than to end it with an adventure trip.


Guess with whom I m going ?

yeah its KG and me(yea his surprise mate)!!!


Place where we are going???

borrowing words from KG's blog

trip within India and here “journey itself is the destination” – Mystique and Beautiful BUT the problem is freezing cold. And lots of preparation has to do and yes, even if you are citizen of India, you require permit to visit some of these places

Today myself and KG were discussing about the trip , final part of the conversation

KG: Take bath tomorrow we don't know when next

Me: hehe I have taken today itself ;)

KG:Take tomorrow too just in case

Me : ok will try :)

So week long break from my usual routine(includes blogging). Already have tons to blog once I return!

~~Dinner at Eden~~

Yesterday Ganesh called up and voluntarily agreed to give us treat.Opportunities like these are rare as most of the time treats which I get/give are given out of demand,compulsion or threat.

Hotel Eden was suggested and when Ganesh asked the route to reach it ,I sent it out using google maps,makes life very easy these days, no confusions of telling left and right or mentioning some landmarks which will hidden from the eyesight.




Since the hotel was on the way home from my office I jumped from the bus when the place crossed.Soon after I was joined by Diana, Ganesh ,then Shalu and family.Now we were all set for dinner.Since this was my first visit to that place I liked its ambiance.Menu card was looking little Greek and Latin and it Shalu our expert taster suggested the menu's for us.

Sweet corn was used to be my favourite dish, so Shalu suggested a toast for starter which I liked and for main course I choose corn something which turned out to be a bigger toast with greater quantity, thats what happens when we try out to order something new. I ended up eating bits and pieces from everybody Else's items.Finally we ended with good dessert with Ganesh eating something called as 'I can't see my waist down'.

Most of the food we ate would have got digested because of the fun and laughter we had during the dinner.Thanks Ganesh for your Magnanimous treat!!!

~~TED talk~~

I liked this talk by Alexis Ohanian co founder Reddit,a popular site where user can post their links they like and the popular ones get upvoted and in the end of day we can see the popular links for the day. The whole process is democratic, visiting Reddit has become one of my day to day activities.

Given below are few reddit links from last weeks I liked
Mum's picture
pray for troops
bros pic

~~Typical S/w engineer's conversation~~

This was the conversation I had with my colleague when she got struck up with an issue.

teammate: hi
me: hiii
teammate:have u ever faced error while loggin on to vista "User profile service failed logon"
me:hmmmm have got tat one
me: but once u give ok it gets logged in rite
.
.
(after sometime)
.
teammate: hey I resolved jus now
me:coooooool
me:what u did ?
teammate: first logged into administrator acct and opned registry editot
profile key had .bak appened
me: awesome
teammate: renamed it
me: gr8 Comp sc engineer nu prove pannuringa
teammate:ellam google than
me:tats our trademark
teammate: hehehe
me: google illai na namma velai ee panna mudiyadu
teammate: amam
teammate:what if google announces maintenance for a day
me: nammaku anniku holiday

hope we are not put into that situation :)

~~Cataract treatment~~

My grandpa is the database for all the restaurants in the city, if you tell the area he will say what are the good restaurants around it.Or if you tell the restaurant name he will say where and all its located in the city.

Monday morning I took him to eye clinic to remove the cataract formed in his eye.We had the appointment at 9am at Annanagar and he planned the day perfectly.When we were leaving the house around 8 30 grandma asked to have breakfast and leave but he said no to that since he cant afford missing the appointment.

On the way he said ,there is restaurant named Balaji Bhavan nearby and we can finish the breakfast there after the treatment.We reached the clinic being a Monday morning it was not much crowded and within 15 minutes we were called in.

Coming to treatment,it was a laser treatment,the doctor took time in positioning the eye and once he has done that it was hardly a minutes job and the whole thing was over within 5 minutes. I remember some 10 years ago my other grandma has a similar operation but she had to be in hospital for three days and take rest in the house for a month wearing a cooling glass looking like lady MGR. We have come far away from those days such that my grandpa could even plan where to have his breakfast after the treatment not even having the slightest worry about the whole thing.

Good to see technology has improved by leaps and bounds over the years making life easier and simpler.But at the same time the cost for treatment. I m not sure that all the people can afford the same.

~~Dinner at Senthur~~

With my Sunday evening free I was thinking of ways to spend it before my nephew called.He has just come down for semester holidays and invited me to his home. When I reached he asked for some valuable advise on how to kill time. I gave few suggestions like get my early morning early morning and to and fro in the footpath of marina beach or learn cooking. Both of which got him uninterested and to change the topic he said lets go for dinner (its his dream to eat different variety everyday,he thought I would suggest that). We decided to go to Senthur

Senthur is located in the lane opposite to Spencers or opposite to Taj mount road hotel.Advertised in front it serves fusion of Indian foods,the ambiance inside was pretty good and the menu had offered some varieties.Food was delicious and the good thing it offered few package deals for the kids.My young nephew grabbed one of those a combo consisting of chocolate dosai,fresh fry and a dry fruit cake along with a activity kit.Coming to our dishes Benares's paneer served was too good.

After finishing the dinner there was a weight machine in the corner and nephew took the right opportunity to check his weight.One done he asked me to do it ,I said no not to spoil my night's sleep.But he wouldnt listen ok then I stood expecting the unexpected ohhh man my weight goes up only in one direction.Ok ok time to impose some strict diet,maybe will for 2010 :)

~~Caught with Cold~~

Getting common cold is pretty nuisense which can spoil the whole day ,today was one such day the secret fountain inside my nose started functioning and before I realised my whole hanky got drenched.In order to avoid sprinkling water around I rushed to the rest room grabbed few tissue papers.But those stuffs didnt last for long and I made four or five trips to the rest room to collect the tissues.Thank God being a weekend there was enough stock of tissues.When I left for the day the dustbin under my desk was filled with tissue balls.

What may be the cause for the this cold 'An apple a day keeps a doctor away', my grandma usually gives me a box of apple everyday but today I didnt take that.Maybe that was the problem.

~~Cenotaph road flyover~~

Today while returning back in bus I was completely involved in reading another book which I got from flipkart.After 100 minutes of reading I looked through the window shocked to see bus was in saidapet, a route taken only by 23C. Then I remembered that the Cenotaph-turnbulls road flyover is getting opened for people to use.

I remember they have started building this flyover some 10 months ago ,it was supposed to be completed by November but given the rain and some legal issues it got delayed but not long enough ending our misery.Construction of this flyover caused an agonising delay adding salt to wounds of the tiresome trip we endure every day.It was a challenge for drivers to take us through the narrow residential area without hitting gates,walls and their flower pots.



Above is the map of the area, the red line is the route taken by vehicles beacuse of the construction of flyover and the width of the lanes would be no more than 30 feet.From tomorrow we can zoom past via the green line.Since this is a shortest route from IT highway to mount road, this area used to be the bottle neck of the traffic jam.Now with the flyover built we have to wait and see how good it is to easy the traffic flow.Hope it doesn't transfer the bottle neck to the next junction.

Book I read..

Getting books has become an easy affair with the help of flipkart. Last week when I was browsing through the best seller's list I came accross this book titled 'Missed IIT kissed Russia' by Neeraj Chhibba. Atttracted by the title and the deal it gave I ordered the book.Got it two days back and finished it today.





The book gives an overall perspective of the hard life students had to deal when are studying in Russia where language ,climate ,food ,culture etc are new to them and getting adapted to them is a real challenge.Novel has its bit of humor and romance.Since its written by the author has missed IIT(like me-okok cool down) one can feel the pain in not getting through inspite of the efforts put.

A Good time pass.

~~Mobile Problem~~

My mobile started to give problems again :( this time though phone functionality is working but it is not reading from the memory card. Making my life difficult since I use my mobile more to listen songs and take photos rather than to talk.

Given it for service and since the guarantee period is gone dont know how much its gonna cost me!

~~Acupressure seats~~

My bike seat cover got worn out and before it gets torn into pieces I decided to change it.So I went to the shop nearby and asked for seat covers. Since it was a weekday the shop was free and I had ample time to select the covers.And it came in different designs start stripes etc.The shopkeeper asked me to try the acupressure seat cover. Wow that was the only portion of my body I didnt give any proper exercise,so immediately I choose one from them.

When we were about the change the seat cover,we found out the entire foam underneath the cover had got damaged and it needed to be changed.So what started as visit to changing the cover ended up chaining everything.With the new seat which is pretty hard added to acupressure points in the cover its more like riding on a horse.(its worse than the horse ride I had in Marina :) )

~~Back to back visit to Marina~~

Marina beach got reinvented itself,with bright spot lights around,well maintained lawns friendly footpaths on two sides,ample parking space,added to that cleanliness had got its long deserved respect(at least by Chennai standards). When I saw KG's blog last month I never guessed it could be Marina but miracles do happen and this one of the kind.

I was planning to visit Marina,Sunday afternoon KG called and said lets goto beach, from office I directly drove to Triplicane.After having snacks @ his place KG,Suba,Thiyana ,Ganesh and myself left to Marina.We walked in the newly build footpath almost till the lighthouse then walked into the sand.We sat near a chilli bhajji shop and treated ourselves with hot bhajji's in the cool breeze.Since all the four belong to the lucky group who reads my blogs(ok KG's blog also) felt easy for me/them to link up funny conversations.

After coming back I realised that I havent gone inside the water at the beach, maybe the gang with which I went was too old for doing these kinds of experiment :)
.Going to beach not having a go at the waves was like going the hotel and coming back without eating anything or going to a Saloon and read the newspaper and come back.So my visit to Marina was incomplete.

Monday when I was bragging about the beauty of Marina beach my cousin said he needs to see the beach. So I took to beach ,made him walk till he could nt take more,took him to the water then,I was relishing the feel of gentle waves on the legs until my cousin interrupted saying he is hungry.Then went to the usual place this time I tried Bhel puri which they served with a ice cream spoon with great difficulty I tried to finish that.

While we eating those stuff one horse neighed while crossing us which was enough for my cousin to ask me for a horse ride.Fine when we went and enquired the ride was 50bucks for a round.And the horse keeper insisted that I should also take a round since there was another horse nearby.I looked around to check whether any PETA people
are waiting there to catch me when got on to the horse. Then I got few instructions on how to turn the horse, how to stop and start it.Off it went ,since the beach was littered with people here and there it was funny experience to maneuver the horse ,when I tried to turn it would stop ,when I tried to keep it walk again it went to make some circles(hey I m not paying for doing merry go round).Then the keeper pushed it to a straight.Once the round was about to get over they offer me a fast run on the horse for which I said next time.

All in all two days at Marina are still not enough ,there are lots more to experience there!!

~Building experiments~

Last weekend Keerthi called me

Keerthi: lets build a famous building model.
Me: Hey i m workin this weekend .Anyways what building is it?
Keerthi:Berkeley art museum.
Me:WHAT ? how come you choosed that .
Keerti: I first choose empire state building then sears towers all got rejected finally I ended up with this.(!!!)

Sunday night I went to her house ,I had the look at the picture of Berkeley art muesum in net and told her I am not an architect to build a model of it.And even said why cant she choose something simple like LIC building such that we can build it using a cardboard box. She said her building should be complex enough such that her workmanship should be noted by everybody(hey I havent done even a single assignment like that when I was in college).Then she was showing all other kind of building from net to choose from, all complex models were rejected by me and all simple models were rejected by her. No conclusion was reached and I slept.

Monday she asked her teacher for suggestion and came up with a more complex structure to develop.That evening over google chat we were exchanging links of few buildings and she suggested one which kind of workable.

Tuesday we decided to build the model, we got thermocols from the near shop one got broken into pieces while taking it back home.After taking few measurements we cut the thermocols into pieces and then struck them with fevicol. After 3 hours work we got the structure somewhat ready when an accidental swipe from my hand hit the structure... alas the whole structure collapsed in front of our eyes.Then only it struck our dead brains we need to have a foundation for any build to stand strong.
It took another 3 hours to complete the structure.Whew I cant remember any day I worked like this when I was in college.

~~About Friendship~~

Got this from my friend today....


Friendship is not about “I m sorry “ its about “Dei un thappu than ithu..“

Friendship is not about “I m there for u” or “I missed u “ it’s about “Enga poi tholanja “

Friendship is not about “I understand “ its about “Ellam unnala than“

Friendship is not about “I care for u “ its about “Pannada unnai vitutu enga poven naan “

Friendship is not about “I m happy for ur success “its about “Kelambu un treat “

Friendship is not about “I love that girl“ its about “Dei mariyadaiah paru athu un thangachi.. “

Friendship is not about “R u coming for outing tomorrow “ its about “ Dei naalaiku trip porom vera engayum poi tholaikatha “

Friendship is not about “Get well soon “ its about “ Ivlo kudicha ipaadi than agum“

Friendship is not about “All the best for ur career“its about “pannathu varaikum pothum, kelambu vera velaya paru“

~~Finishing King's Quest~~

King's Quest is one of the famous DOS game series which was popular during 90's when I was in school. It was a simple strategy game you have to find clues interact with the characters and proceed. It was great fun in those days and sometimes I would get struck days at one stage not knowing how to proceed further.

King's quest VI 'Heir today Gone tomorrow' is last but one part of the series,I remember playing it when I was in 9th standard but I couldn't complete it because I lost the track somewhere in the middle ,got struck ,got frustrated and vowed never to waste time on that.The inability to complete the game was like a big shame and was haunting me sometime.(Thanmana pirachanai)

Last week while I was doing some basic search about few tools in the net I came across DOS box (dont get hifi since it sounds similar to XBOX) which is used for playing DOS games in windows mode.Games like prince of persia were given as examples which can be played.I thought I could play King's quest.I searched for the King's quest and since that game has become too old or too ameatuerish for this generation gaming kids it was available for free download(which I think nobody would have downloaded).

Anyways to make the long story short I downloaded the game got struck in the same place but this time I had the help of google :) ,searched for hints here and there and completed the within the day. It was like finishing a long pending task and gave me lot of satisfaction.That night I slept peacefully!!!

~~When will I meet my future partner~~

I usually get some junk smses from Vodafone(my service provider) asking to listen to the song which I never listen or gossips about bollywood which i dont care or some new service which wont make my life any better. All these messages have value added service charge.Normally I never see those message and directly delete them.

Today when our gang was leaving for lunch I got a message like this " Your best friend is getting married, what about you? Want to know when you will meet your life partner" SMS yr DOB . at the bottom Rs 3/sms.
I laughed at it and showed the message to my colleague, after reading it she grabbed the mobile and responded to it giving my DOB.

Few minutes got the following response and my interpretation

If you are single then you may be 35 % close to marriage
( What this 35% closer or they are telling 65% far away from it)
You may get married in you early 25-30s.
(What point they are trying to make here )
You should really change your view on relationship
(Come on I m straight cant change it)
and it may be better for you if you do not change your girl friend too often.
(hello inga single girl friend ee vazhiya kaanum idula multiple verava)
There may be further delay
(ada paavi idu verava)
but marriage is not denied.
(thankgod)
Try to concentrate on your career
(Yoww I spent 3rs on when will I meet my partner not to worry about my career)
and give your best in everything you do.
(advise kudukka vandutanga appa)
To know more abt sms .....Rs3/msg
(aala vidu saami)

~~TED talks~~

I really enjoyed these two talks in TED 2009 conference held in India. One by Shashi Tharoor was really thought provoking and other by Hans was funny and informative.

~~Dinner at Cave's~~

The Caves is a recently opened theme restaurant in Teynampet ,no one can miss this one near Gemini flyover as a gorilla and two dinosaur greets at the entrance. I read the review ,it was suggested that the kids will like that place.So I was waiting for the right time to goto that place.

Great minds think alike ,when I met Kg last Saturday he suggested the same place.Since Swathi is a kid we thought this would be the apt place to take her and give her some taste of Chennai.We reached the place around 8 only to find the restaurant was full.Seems we need to book in advance to get a table.So we ended up waiting for more than 30mins right outside with gorilla ,dinos and two 10 feet men giving us company.

Once our names were called ,we went inside through a passage with few creatures on both side.Once seated I looked around the place,they have tried to bring a forest feel with weavers nest hanging around ,background sounds with elephant trumpeting,monkey chattering.A kind of place to frighten Swathi to look out for a snake under the table or a monkey behind the pillar.

Coming to food it was the same old fashioned menu with Indian,Chinese varieties. Since we were late to the table we skipped starters directly went to main course.
One side dish was oily and paratha was little bit like a rubber apart from that everything else was fine.Prices were pretty reasonable and we can go there once in a while.

PS : I was expecting a lion inside the caves but disappointed not to find one

~~Weekend at Office~~

 There is a little change to schedule by which I working on weekends and taking off on Monday and Tuesday ,this may continue for the rest of the month.

Coming to office on weekends has lot of advantages
--> peaceful atmosphere at workplace
-->Sense of relief that your PL is not around to boss you
-->Can play music while working,infact our company's intercomm play music on weekends
-->Seems my working is getting done quickly
-->Not that my weekend is spolied ,scehduled all the weekend appointments to late evenings

Only thing I miss out is blogging at night beacuse by the time I reach home it becomes to late to blog!

~~Uncle's Meet with doctor~~

Today evening when I was about to blog my uncle called and asked me to take him to hospital since he was sick.  It was viral fever and doctor recommended few medicines. This outing costed him 300 bucks . No wonder prevention is cheaper(in fact free) than cure!!

~~Pic for the day~~

  I was looking through the list of national geographic's international photography contest .

I usually like pictures with some human emotions with a scenic background ,like the below one

Not to mention rest of the pictures were also extraordinary. See this link.

~~Quote for the day~~

 Today morning I was having argument over a silly issue with my PL. It was more like fixing the issue reported by our client from front-end or backend.

After settling down at my seat I got this sms from my colleague

" Your problem is never your problem,
       your reaction to the problem is your problem"

~~Food Wastage in India~~

  I was doing some search in google about Indian agriculture ,harvests methods and cultivation. How much ever pains our farmers put in harvesting the crops we lose million tonnes of produce due to lack of proper storage.

Got this from a site

Grain Drain: Why India Is Still Hungry 
NATIONAL: In April-May this year, 2.2 lakh metric tonnes (mt) of wheat and rice lost in transit & storage, says govt. That’s enough to feed 12 lakh people for a year. Experts say loss could be higher
PUNJAB: 99.92 lakh mt of wheat out of 155 lakh mt stored in open
REASON Inadequate storage
RESULT: 5,300 mt wheat rots at Tarn Taran, more goes waste elsewhere in state 
BIHAR: In 08-09, govt failed to procure 2 lakh tonnes of rice from farmers
REASON No godowns RESULT: Farmers unable to recover investments 
ORISSA: Storage capacity is 7 lakh tonnes of rice and annual procurement target 55 lakh tonnes — a huge storage gap
RESULT: Distress sale by farmers 
WEST BENGAL: Most of 57,770 mt of procured wheat stored in open. Not enough warehouses for fresh stock
RESULT: Tonnes of wheat goes waste

Something needs to be done !

~~Online bookshop~~

  I never had a liking to buy books online for I believe books should be felt first then should be decided to  buy or not. Having said that I used to pick up books not even seeing the title but just looking at the author's name.

For the later kind of books why should I goto the shop to buy that rather buy it online.Last week my colleague introduced to me to this site flipkart an online book store.

It was more like amazon with  some added advantage
1)we can transact in Indian currency
2)For all books you purchase more than 100rs shipping charges are free.
3)Almost all book have some discount ranging from 5 to 30%
4)You can get imported books
5)Will get book from 3 to 7 working days.
6)You can add your favourite books to wishlist and purchase it later.

Got my first book using that site 'Outliers' by Malcolm Gladwell. Actual book price was 399rs I got it for 311rs. I  booked it on Thursday and got it by Saturday pretty fast by Indian standards!

~~Movie I saw~~

Once when our friends gang was discussing about movies One person started the topic have anybody seen 'Life is beatiful'.He never told further more but rather watch it. I knew this one was a Oscar winning movie but never had the time to watch it. Last week yet another friend recommended to watch the same.

Finally yesterday evening I watched this movie with my cousin.In the end I spent most of the time explaining events in history during world war 2.Like why the jews are chased out of Germany , What is a concentration camp etc. I asked him didnt he study those stuffs in school, for that he gave a cool reply those stuffs he left stuffs in choice.

Anyways coming back to the movie it really made an impact.Life may not be as you planned but happiness is definitely in your hands. Roberto Benigni and kid have really acted well.Its show how a good parenting makes a lot of difference to the child.Even a pity and miserable condition where you put up when dealt with a different perspective can make a child that he is living in heaven.

~~Black forest and coffee~~

 Today evening after having a cup of coffee ,I had a black forest cake being my friend's birthday. When I took the first bite I didnt like the taste and I thought the taste of black forest will be like this after having a cup of coffee.Since I didnt want to waste it I ate the whole piece.

 My another friend who also had a cup of coffee took a bite and said the cake is spoilt and gave me a look as if this person will eat the garbage also, when served. Maybe I thought over it for a long time I felt the blackforest doing some nasty things to my stomach. Dont know whether its just an illusion or really my stomach is in trouble.

Moral of the incident : When your taste buds sends a warning not to eat something then dont eat  ;)

~~Book I read~~

After a long time I m read a big novel it took more than two weeks to complete it,I would rather say I read it slowly relishing every bit of it. 'The great Indian novel' by Shashi Tharoor is one of its kind. The story set in late19th century takes us through the Indian  freedom struggle and some 30 years of post Independence.

Author's creativity is at its best when he maps the characters of Mahabharatha and to the then politicians.Novel is divided into 18 chapters similar to Mahabharatha and each one is a well written. Incidents like Dandhi march, partition of India ,Emergency are written in a new prespective which is funny as well as thought provoking.

Novel is written as if Ved Vyas is narrating the story to Ganapathi ,with a starting note India is not a underdeveloped country but highly developed one in an advanced state of decay and goes on describing the events which affects the lives of Indians.End with same note do you still think India is a under developed country.After reading this novel my respect towards Shashi Tharoor has increased 10 folds. As the title suggests its certainly 'The Great Indian Novel'

Memories:Letter to my friend

I was browsing through some of the old mails in my mailbox ,I came accross this mail I wrote to my friend during my final year of my college just after a week I got my job offer ,he invited me to come to his college for paper presentation. After reading my mail he never called me again!

(Dont mind the self trumpeting in the mail)

anbulla thozhanukku

naan ingu nalam ! nee angu ippadiyo?

seri seri matterku varen!

ennadhu paperu presentationa appadi na ennada!

paper manufacture panithu varanuma?

en kitta andha facility illam illaiye!

mudhunjha en pera solli neene idhavadhu panniko!!

apparam treasurer vera ayuthe(unna nambi ippadi da andha post ellam

kudhuthangha),nee than kasa saapidardulaiye kalli panninuveye.

unnga dept nenachathan paavama irruku,ippadi than symphosium conduct panna porangalo! yedho micham kasu irrudha inga kondu va ,namba nalla celebrate pannalam!

sponsors kitta irrundhum kasu collect pannithu vaa ok!

seri seri rombha bore adikirena?

ennaku college jollya povudu,place anadhulerudhu annanoda peru pogazhu jasthi aazhudhuchu. teachers ellam monthlyla tappana answerruku koda full mark kudhuthuthanga,ketta naan padikara payanam,placement irrundhadhu naala ennala concentrate panni padika mudiyalayam!(enga kondu poi vidhumo theriyala)

apparum prem kitta irrundhu mail vandhuchu! enna project panna poranu kethan!

naan vandhu project tiger panna porenu sonnen(b'use saving tigers of the country is

the need of the hour) ,neenum inna mari brillianta think panni edhavadu project pannu!

govtla awardlam koda kudhupangha!!!

ok then un collegela ella ponnugalayum kethadha sollu!

en sarbula avangaluku treat kodhuthudu naama apparum deal pannikalam

last but not the least

unnoda durai CAT exam kuda izhuda poran!

TATA (paaru place annadhula bye kuda vara mathenkudu only TATA)

Sriram

I wonder how patiently I have  trieda to put different emoticons in few lines which I think is impossible to replicate. 
Funny and nostalgic to read it again!

~~Indian public holidays- 2010 :(((~~

Time to change the country ;)

~~Guy's quote for the day~~

My friend sent accross this funny quote he found in a site .

I just had an argument with a girl I know. She was saying how it's unfair that if a guy has a different girl every week, he's a legend, but if a girl has just two boys in a year, she's a slut. So in response I told her that if a key opens lots of locks, then it's a master key. But if a lock is opened by lots of keys, then it's a shitty lock. That shut her up.

~~Sachin the Great~~

20 years in cricket and still going on... only Sachin can better all his records. From my childhood days I remember watching Indian cricket with Sachin Tendulkar in it I dont know about Indian cricket before he was playing nor willing to imagine how it will be without him in the future.



I read this column by Peter Roebuck with an apt title India's proudest possession.Hope he continues winning matches for the country and bettering his records!

~~Memories:Exclusive Kathakali Show~~

When I was Cochin people used ask me have I been to a Kathakali show ,I will give a prompt answer I havent gone to a Bharatanatyam show when I was in Tamilnadu. But in the back of the mind I was waiting for an opportunity to see it.

Many weekends in Cochin we have played host to friends,relatives, friend's relatives, parents, parent's friends and so on.Once we were even hosting one of our friend's sister who had come for her honeymoon(that's another story not here). Most of them would have come for a break from their hectic schedule and we had to plan an itinerary for them and act as their tour guide. For them Cochin would be a tourist spot, within minutes after reaching there they will be attracted to the place and start blabbering how lucky we are to be working there. Heyyyyyyy I m deviating from the topic.

OK one weekend my college mate Ravi and his friend came to Cochin. As usual we took them to our usual places like fort Cochin, Matancherry etc. When it was time for dinner we went a hotel Bharat tourist home.One poster outside caught our attention 'Kathakali show at 8' which was happening the next day.We enquired about about it and learnt that the entry ticket costs 200 rs which includes the dinner,fair enough.Since we never knew when we will get an opportunity like this we planned to come back to the same place same time the next day. We also learnt that some foreigners are visiting the next day and the show is planned for them.


Next day after having a wonderful time at Athirampalli falls we reached the hotel by 7 in evening.We planned to have dinner first and by the time we finished it will be right time for the show. Dinner was awesome worth the money and we were leisurely eating, taking our own time.Suddenly one of the waiters came near me and said 'Please eat soon sir, the artists are waiting for you'! When my gang heard this they started laughing and they were not ready to leave until they have their dessert.After little frisking I took them to the hall were the show was to happen.ALAS there was not a single person in that hall.We came to know that the group of foreigners who were supposed to come for the show did not turn up and we were the only audience there.I felt sorry for the artists and felt little guilty for making the artists wait for us.

We told the manager that we were an amateur lot of audience, he said not to worry as the show was planned for new audience we can understand easily. What a show it turned to be, they started with demo one person describing what is Kathakali about and another enacting it.They went on to describe/act few basic movements like rotation of eyes,movement of head etc. Then came show they enacted Shiva kalyanam which had three parts.The movements, expressions in their faces wonderful it was and we never knew how time flew away.Once the show was over we went to the stage to congratulate the artist.Since we were the only people there we asked many questions for which they patiently replied. Finally we asked for a picture and too each one of us taking an individual photograph with the artist.



This is one of the pictures which I will always cherish ,bringing back the good times I had in God's own country. That time ,I uploaded this as my orkut profile picture trumpeting to all my friends that I have attended a Kathakali show.

~~What a goal~~

I have seen this many times and got a chance to view it again in youtube,Roberto Carlos at his best!



KG hope you get to see some sort of action like this in the upcoming Britain Brazil match!

~~News in our group~~

Two of our friends fell in love with each other right behind our eyes. When news got broke today there was a flurry of mails within our group.This is the Cochin group of friends.

It all started with the following title from one of friend

Nov 13th Friday - great news in our group!
What a wonderful day to celebrate a most happy occassion!!
Its official (finally!) - HA is doomed for life!!

then there were lots of wishes pouring and basically asking the main why he made up this descision. And our hero didnt fail ,he spent quite some time writing this mail



My "L"ove Story!
I fall in love with this Faaantastic girl ......
Mamu ---> Not because you said "Number 1" when i ask you (others who dont know .... I ask mamu to pick a number by showing all my ten fingers so tat it helps me decide which GF to make my life partner :-P ) !
Jitu --> Not because i cannot find another Girl !
Raja --> Not because i am frustated !
Renjini --> Not because we can let you take care of us and our kids !
HP --> Not because i cannot tap feet better than you !
Kotha --> Not because she is a Right Handed Rowdy !
Sandy --> Not because she is a fitness freak or a freakin kung-fu fighter !
Sriram , Ramki ,Ashwin --> Not because my hindi is better than all urs !
Naveen --> Not because of the treasure in her backyard !
Pavi --> Not because she is a manly-kid !
Mitter --> Not because i let u screw my life again !
Jakkkassuuu ---> Not because she is my SETUP !
Chanduuuu --> Not because she lets me have my shots of 30ml everytime !
Shalini -> Not because none of us could trace you for years !!!!

Yes ..... its because ......
Everytime we meet .... I still misss her !!! even wen she is sitting right next to me ........
Everytime i laugh ... she laughs along with me .....
Everytime she smiles at me .... she means it every teeth she shows ....
Everytime she talks.....weelll .. eeerrrr .....I get good sleep :-D
Evertytime we fight ..... god !!! we fear no doomsday !!! We live it every moment ......

Kaisa hai mera Prem ki Chitti !?!?!? waaaaah..... waaaah ...... waahhhh ......

~~Cyclone in Mumbai~~

My dad is on an official trip to Baroda and he had to fly via Mumbai to reach there. When I read the news that India Australia match was getting delayed(finally called off)because of the rains due to cyclone it never occured to me that my dad's trip is also in trouble.

After today's work I gave a call to him,he started saying he spent almost 8 hours in Mumbai airport, one of the kingfisher flight skidded in the airport runway and jammed the runway for some houes.Only in India we can aeroplanes doing some stunts like this.
Finally after that plane was pulled off from the runaway and when rains reduced a little his flight took off. A person who reached mumbai around 2 o clock had to wait till 10 to take Baroda flight even if he had travelled by train he would have reached earlier.

~~Movie I saw~~

I have just completed seeing this movie Julie and Julia. It was really a good time pass and enjoyed the way it was taken. It was based on two true stories .



Julia Child is who is wife of US ambassador to France during last 1940's learns art of French cooking,once she masters it she decides to publish it,story goes on about the diffculties she faced in getting that book published.Finally she publishes the book Mastering the Art of French Cooking.Meryl Streep is starring as Julia Child and there is a little bit over acting.

Next one is about Julie Powell getting bored of the government job want to try out something new. She husband suggests to start a blog about cooking.So she sets a goal to complete the 524 recipes given in Julia Child's book in one year. Amy Adams is staring as Julie Powell and she has acted really well. The bloggers feel is well directed when she sees one comment for her blog later getting disappointed to know its from her mother,how happy she feels when she gets appriciated from people she doesnt know or met, the excitement she gets when her blog is about written in NewYorkTimes. Did some search in google and still herold blog is up and her new one.

~~Quote for the day~~

World’s most painful sentence
"I am with you, but..."

World’s most beautiful sentence
"but, I am with you"

Book I read..

When I saw this book in landmark a sense nostalgia struck me. Train journeys are always the one I look forward right from my childhood days. This is a book about life in the towns whose names we have heard only by the station names.



Author travels across few major junctions in the country and writes the experiences.Like he gets down at major junctions like Itarsi,Jhansi,Shoranur etc. Explores the town life there interacts with the people visits the place of importance around. Author's sense of humour was felt throughout the book. It was interesting to know how railways had a major role in integrating the nation,providing jobs to thousands indirectly and indirectly and becoming part and parcel of millions of people in the country who use its everyday.

~~Locked in home for weekend~~

After a long time I m spending a weekend in home,thanks to Chennai rain. Engaging myself with something to kill time should have been a difficult task hadn't it not for my laptop/net connection. When I come to think of it at the end of the day it had been my sole companion for the weekend.

Things I did(useless things also)
Reading news:
Started reading news from all the sites from bbc,ccn,smh,rediff etc until the sites couldn't catch their news updating speed with my news reading speed .

Playing farmville:
My game crazy friend Damu forced me to start playing farmville two months ago just because he need a neighbour to goto next level.Once I became his neighbour I never cared to look after my farm, which right now had become a like poramboku land.So this weekend I spent few hours to give life back to my farm.

Chating with friends:
Its been a long time I used ping people and disturb them, these two days who and all came online where caught by me. Since technology has improved a lot and most of people prefer to be in invisible mode, this mission ended in failure as I could only catch a handful of people.

Movies:
Again watching movie require patience or the movie should be interesting to capture my attention else...
Taking of Pehlam 1 2 3- Denzel Washington ,Nicholas cage action movie...didnt have patience to watch fully,fast forwarded the parts and finshed it in an hour.
Marie Antoinette- Story of the wife of Loius 16 infamous French emperor during the French revolution another boring one finished it in 30 minutes.
500 days of summer-A romantic film ,the difference here is a random day in between 500 is chosen and what happened that day is shown such that keeping viewers interested. Seems little different.

E books:
I have few E-books in laptop but never had the time to read this and I never thought I will have time to read in future.But this weekend I read a book about digital photography good thing about that e book- it was filled with lot of beautiful pictures of nature,wild life and obviously models.

Cricket match:
I thought let me take a break from my laptop and watch India Aus match this morning but after seeing our player playing like jokers and with the score reaching 27/5 in 8 overs there was no point to continue watching it.(added Sachin's video to previous post)

Updating my resume:
Hmmmm I just thought of updating it but why should I spoil the weekend ;) so its just at the thought level but hoping to finish it soon.

Even though rain locked me inside the house, internet gave me the passage to connect to the outside world!

~~Power of social network~~

Video added in youtube... seems so true !!



When I saw that video I began to think how powerful internet has become.Nowdays getting a new mobile or camera most of the people read reviews, user experiences from the internet before buying the product rather than grabbing the product after seeing the new ad launched by the company.

Apart from that because of net keeping in touch with friends and relatives has become so easy. Last week one of my college classmate sent a mail to entire class group addressing each and everyone of our classmates.Eventhough its been 4 years we have done with our college after reading that mail I felt I was never out of touch with my college mates.

Now what we are experiencing is Web2.0 the world of social networking,wikis,blogs etc and going forward in Web 3.0 internet is going to transformed into interactive net.Lets how is it going to impact our way of living.

~~Waterways in Chennai~~

When you are struck in traffic jam and when your bus is in middle of water along with other vechicles and you spend four hours travelling to and fro to office everyday , you never know how cranky you become. When this repeats for the third consecutive day I was afraid I might end up in the mental asylum near our place.

~~Only Indian cricket team can do it~~

I watched the final overs of 10 overs of India-Australia match. India did it again.No other team can lose a match from a winning position like India. They were too near yet too far.Losing by 4 runs in first match now by 3 runs hurts a little.But I never thought chasing 350 they would end up scroing 347.



It was a wonderful innings by Sachin, once again proving his class blasting all over the park bringing back the memories of the 98 Sharjah series.175 runs scoring more than half of the team's score is a treat to every body's eye.Even though his century was for a losing cause spectators had their money's worth.

~~Movie I saw~~

At last I saw tamil movie from beginning to end ,its none other than Kamal's Unnai pol Oruvan. Having seen 'A Wednesday' hindi version of it where I missed out on most of the dialogues I never felt 'I have seen this movie before' feel.

It was different feel altogether to see a tamil movie sans songs fight comedy and other masala items.Pace of the movie never allowed me to pause the movie or fast forward it at any point of time. When it comes to acting Kamal had underplayed his role and given importance to Mohan Lal. Dialogues are well written pretty sharp at times mocking the way in which the government and media runs in the country,special kudos the screen play writer.

All in all a good movie worth watching!

~~Trichy's market~~

A surprise was waiting for me when I took a local town bus to my home from Trichy's chatram bus. On reaching the market area the bus took a left turn into the arch and went inside the market. From the day I remember I have never witnessed such a scene, in that crowded street even taking a two wheeler would be difficult, buses never even came into our thoughts then.

There are few people who can make the impossible possible. A Trichy commissioner is one among them.He has removed all the encroachments which occupied the entire market road for more than 40 years. This he did inspite of getting threats and pressures from political parties.

Whenever we goto Trichy junction we used to take the by pass route but nowadays going via market is lot easier and simpler.

~~Quote for the day~~

This was my orkut's today's quote

The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think!

~~Shopping for my mum~~

Last week when my mum was here she complained that I haven't got anything for her from Chennai till this year.Before even I was about to give my justification she listed out things which I should for her when I go home.List was like she had some dupattas in few colors for all those she needed matching Chudidars. Hmmmmm...I going asking my mum to get a matching shirt for my hanky next time.She further added my dad has got her a Chudidar last week indirectly mentioning I had to get more than that to beat him on count.

When I was in Cochin weekend means going to some tourist place or going for shopping.And in a world where most of the items for meant for ladies I used to get some random stuffs.My failure to find a proper mallu kutti also added to mum's favour.She became sole user of whatever stuffs I used to get.Things changed when I came to Chennai. As the city is filled with friends and relatives weekends were spent visiting these people. So mum's dress flow dried up for the past one year.

Friday I read in news that a new mall 'Skywalk' has been opened near our locality.A place recently opened means it will have all new collections.New collections means I can get the right size which will fit for my mum. Getting stuffs for my mum was a cakewalk affair.I had to follow a simple elimination procedure, look for her size 90% of the dress collection can be rejected.Then in the remaining 10% look for the color she told other colors can be rejected.Only handful remained, put inky pinky ponky and choose three from it.When I was about to bill I remembered there is another poor fellow in my house and I got a T shirt for my dad.

I m going to Trichy tonight to give all those stuffs I have got for them :)

Pic for the day!!!

I got this from my friend titled "Rain fall in Bangalore from Nandi hills!"

~~Eating out with mum~~

Since mum was in the city I told her early in the evening we will eat outside.But with mum whatever plans I make when I come home the situation will make me wonder whether I have miscommunicated anything. So when I reached around 8 from office she was there lying in bed busy chating with my grandma. I remembered her around few times that it will be late for dinner ,I m hungry but it had little effect.Then used my final weapon please go and cook .Within 5 mintues she was ready.

Only we were out of home we decided to go to Bombay Halwa some 200 m from our place. But my mum insisted on catching an auto and the good reason she gave its not her but for grandma. Okay Madam your wish my command! took an auto to reach the place. Then dinner was routine affair. Came back home the same way we reached there.

Whose knows doing these kinds of services to mum will get me a place heaven!

~~What two hour rain can do in Chennai?~~

Today morning when I left home weather was pleasant and there were signs that it had rained previous night. Sure its relief from the prolonged summer! The rain continued for sometime in the morning and around an hour in evening.Cant say it poured but decent enough to call it a rain.

I used to wonder why rain God doesn't shower Her blessings in this city,I got the answer the very evening when I found all the roads in the city were flooded with rain water.In fact rain God is showing mercy by limiting Her blessing and not pouring it.

It took miserably long time to reach home, One should see the bus drivers who were driving the bus like they were driving hovercraft.Pity the people who come by two wheelers if they get drenched by rain on one hand ,they would get splashed around by the dirty when buses and cars zoom past them.

With enough of job opportunities in the industries,city has found solution to brain drain but rain drain is not happening still.We need to find ways to drain rain water not to the sea but back to the ground.

~~Book I read~~

It always fun to read Chetan Bhagat's books, his sense of humour could be felt throughout.And the plot he chooses for his books would simple,practical and we can compare it with our own lives.



In his latest book inspired from his own life, its a love story between a north Indian guy and a south Indian girl. The cultural differences between the two states which puts these people in awkward situations are fun to read.The motive behind these two people is to convince their parents to accept their marriage and the whole novel describes the sacrifices and compromises they have to make to achieve their final goal. All in all a wonderful read!!

~~Movie I saw~~

Last Saturday night I saw the movie 'Proposal' starring Sandra Bullock. It was a full length comedy movie with few sentimental scenes here and there.Story based upon an agressive boss played by Sandra Bullock inorder to save her being deported from USA forces his assistant to marry her. The events which unfolds forms the rest of the movie.




Since I had got bored off seeing many lengthy movies this one was quite a relief. Also it had all the elements needed for an Indian movie except for the fight and dance.It had a predictable story and we can watch for time pass.

~~busy day today~~

Today morning I got up from an SMS and it was from Keerthi,I wondered whether she got angry that I didnt wish her the night before, but the message went like this 'Anna,Need your help very badly come home Plssssssss' I know it was related to her studies, one of the rare kind who still believes person of my kind can assist her.

Then I talked to her and squeezed an appointment in my busy schedule???!!!

Its been quite a while I had a packed schedule for full day


7:00-to pick Raj from station(who came to attend his college get together)

7:45-came back home

9:00-went for get some gift wrappers for Keerthi's gift

11:00 left to spencers

12:00 purchased few stuffs @ pantaloons(Raj got me a t shirt)

1:00 dropped Raj at basera in ECR

2:30 went to Keerthi's house in kk nagar(good lunch)

4 to 8- busy helpin Keerthi with Architectural stuffs(hehehe)

8- Left Keerthi's place

8:30 went to egmore to pick up Raj

8:45 Left to landmark in nungambakkam to get a book for Raj

9:15 went to ESI to visit a friend's house

10:oo back home

10 :30 Left to station to drop Raj.

when I checked my speedometer I have clocked almost 100kms by just roaming inside the city!

btb I selected one card for Keerthi where the front side goes like this , you have grace,you have charm and elegance,you have wit ,you have sense,you have beauty and you have brains you have...........
.
.
then on the page inside
been reading someone else's card! Anyways happy birthday!

PS: never thought i will atleast scribble something useless like this after a tiresome day!

~~Shopping at Lankmark~~

Its been more than a month when I was free in a weekend, today had little bit of work to do in office. When I was done with work it was around 2 pm not a good time to go home and disturb the people who are having afternoon nap.I decided to go to Landmark.First I drove my bike to nearest ATM and withdrew cash.I have made a habit whenever I visit a bookshop I never pay by card but rather by cash so that I can keep by spending under control,get required number of books and also the final selection is best from my liking.

Its been quite sometime I visited the place and there were lots of new collections,apart from that sale was going on for old books.Since I had plenty of time to kill I patiently went through most of the collections.

Books I got today (high level detail)
1) Two States by Chetan Bhagat - Main reason I went to Landmark
2)Chai,Chai by Bishwanath ghosh- A book about Indian railway stations
3)The great Indian Novel by Shashi Tharoor- Mahabharata in 21st century

Apart from that tomorrow is Keerthi's birthday so thought of getting something useful. Went to Architecture section and got the book 'Adventures in Architecture' by Dan Cruickshank. A book describing all great monuments and buildings visited by Dan.

When I totaled these four books some 50 bucks were still remaining,so grabbed the copies of week and business today so that I am on par with my estimate.

~~Funny news I read today~~

Unable to attract even a single girl, frustrated man sues Axe

New Delhi. In what could prove to be a major marketing and legal embarrassment for Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), a 26-year-old man has filed a case against the FMCG company, which owns the Axe brand of men grooming products, for ‘cheating’ and causing him ‘mental suffering’. The plaintiff has cited his failure to attract any girl at all even though he’s been using Axe products for over seven years now. Axe advertisements suggest that the products help men in instantly attracting women.

Vaibhav Bedi, the petitioner, also surrendered all his used, unused and half-used deodorant sprays, perfume sticks and roll-ons, anti-perspirants, aftershaves, body washes, shampoos, and hair gels to the court, and demanded a laboratory test of the products and narcotics test of the brand managers of Axe. Vaibhav was pushed to take this step when his bai (maid) beat him with a broom when he tried to impress her by appearing naked in front of her after applying all the Axe products

Source:Indiainfo

~~Dinner at Thatu kadai~~

Yesterday night myself and Raj were doing some window shopping commercial street,since diwali has just been over I was nt interested in getting stuffs.Then when it was time for dinner Raj told he will take me to a place which he has discovered recently.

The place was smaller than a petty shop located in Veera pillai street in Bangalore.You can easily miss this shop but for the crowd outside.Menu is limited it serves only idly masala dosai and onion dosai.For it they give three varieties of chutnies.Four idlies cost you 10rs and a dosa the same amount. So whatever you order costs you 10 bucks max. Also the idlies were hot and delicious and great to eat in that cool climate. We finished our dinner within 40rs but our stomachs were pretty full.

Just thinking why cant these types of outlets cant be opened in our office premises.

~~Friend's marriage at Bangalore~~

Today morning around 4 30 I got a call from Raj asking where I m,since I was in a deep sleep it took sometime to realise I m in a train and I m on the way to Bangalore to for attend one of my friend's marriage. I got down and saw train has reached bangalore east,I had to get down at Bangalore cantonment the next stop.When i got down at the station weather was pretty cold.Raj was readily waiting there to pick me up,also he had got me a spare sweater knowing my dressing style.

Once reaching his house I crashed onto the bed and given the pleasant climate I never liked to wake up again. After 9 I got up leisurly and searched for the kalyana mandapam in google map. We devised some short cut way to reach the place.But whatever plan we make or strategy we devise,when we are on the road its only the auto drivers are capable are guiding us to the right place.Once we reached the place we had a good lunch and wished the couples.Vikaas the bridegroom was my colleague in Cochin and one of the few people who gave me good company during the final days there.

Then after marriage I came back to Raj's house and he left to office.The problem coming to Bangalore on a weekday is all the people you know will be busy with their work and there wont be any activity which can be planned.(thats why I blogged this in a boring afternoon).Raj gave me set of few DVD 's to kill the time.Hmmmm coming to bangalore and watching a movie is the last thing I wanted to do.

~~Movies I tried to see~~

For the past one month I m trying to watch one tamil movie fully but I end up turning off in the middle. If I fast forward the movie skipping songs,fights,sentiments scenes then there is nothing else to see in that movie.

First it started with Pokkisham I liked the concept which describes a love story of 70's where letter is the only mode of communication between the lovers. But I got sleepy in the middle and paused the movie and never had time to complete the movie again.

Then next movie of Ninaithale Innikum ,having seen the mallu version of the same I thought of giving it a try but 30 minutes into the movie when I was about to lose my patience my friend called.So started speaking with him and again never had time to see till the end.

Then I thought of seeing any one of the diwali releases this weekend but after reading the reviews and hearing the experiences from friends I have postponed the idea of seeing a tamil movie for sometime.

~~My verbal (dis)ability~~

Whenever I take any competative exams one section which I always mess up with is verbal ability.How much ever I tried improving ,it hasnt yielded fruitful results. This hardship with verbal stuff dates back to 2004 when I first appeared for cat, I dont remember exactly how much I scored during that time. But in 2006-07 when I scored a overall 98.5 percentile in CAT it was the individual verbal scores which pulled me down. In 2007-08 was worse than previous year with verbal scores touching negative marks,after which I made a desicion not to write CAT again.

After this my friends insisted on trying GMAT, by looking at the model of the examination which included 50% weightage devoted to verbal assessment I know that was not my cup of tea.Three months ago my paasakara(lovable) friend Raj told he had some dollars left in his AMEX card account and booked a GMAT exam slot for me. He thought that since he paid the money for the examination I would put some serious effort. But things didnt turn that way even if my dad would have put some money I would have opened the book but I never bothered to open the book just because its Raj's money. One thing I took was a mock exam which literally mocked my prepartion for the D day.

Finally when the D day came I went to the exam hall like going for a picnic wrote the exam with full enthusiasm.When the results came it was as expected with myself scoring high in quants and reaching all time low in verbal.There should be light at the end of tunnel but for my verbal skills it has entered a black hole :)

~~Got this from youtube~~

~~Diwali Day~~

One holiday in which we cant sleep till late morning in India is Diwali, from morning 4 o clock we can hear crackers bursting our ears. And even if we try hard to get some sleep we end up getting nightmares. Apart from this morning starting trouble I like everything else about this festival.

Today morning I woke up when my eardrums can take it no longer. Once I freshened up and went to kitchen to see my grandma, her pet street cat Chinni was sitting frighteningly quite besides her. Myself and Chinni have a hostile relationship and it always maintains a 10 feet distance from me or rather run out of sight after seeing me. Today it had look which conveyed the message 'Sriram ,please dont chase me out,I will never interfere in your life for the next one year'.

After that I went to my uncles house. His little kids were also terrified by the war like situation existing in the area,so we took some precautionary measure by taking turns to close their ears .But my cousins wanted to add their contribution to the sound pollution and we literally burnt money within 30 mins.Apart from that lots of sweets and snacks went inside my stomach which is now looking like garbage disposal plant.

It is good to be back in touch with lots of friends and relatives after a long time.
All in all a great day !

~~Shopping on diwali Eve~~

Today my grandpa gave me some money and asked me to dress for diwali . Since I didnt want to spoil the day by shopping I put the money in my wallet and totally forgot about it.

When was having dinner my cousin asked me we could for shopping ,grandpa had given money to him and he got excited and wanted to shop immediately. Since it was past 9 I thought let us give us a try. When we were about to leave my dad said he needs one tshrit and uncle also echoed the same.Hmmmm all people are good at outsouring their tasks

We walked all the from home to Pursavakam, even at 10 in the night all shops were pretty much crowded. But it was better than what I expected we went into one shop and since I never bother to waste time in choosing my attire I grab two things(one for me n other for my dad) and waited for my cousin to choose his.Then we grabed another quickly for my uncle. Felt proud that my diwali shopping didnt take more than 30 minutes.

When we were returning back there was a buzz around Abirami theatre lots drum beats and whistle people carrying cutouts.When we looked closer its for the movie getting released on Diwali,thats the tamil crowd on diwali's eve. Atleast producers have become intelligent these days not releasing all the movies on diwali.

~~Diwali Rush~~

One of my friend commented that the population of Chennai should be counted only on the diwali day when most of the floating population will be in their hometown.When one plans to celebrate diwali he has to plan parallely on how to goto hometown. Train tickets getting booked within minutes of opening and bus tickets priced two or three times the original price.Its frustrating experience which I never had when I was in Kerala.

Apart from this last two days journey back home was looking like almost endless ,all vechicles in the city where on the road looking for space to move forward which wasnt there.It took more than 2 1/2 hours to reach home. When a passenger like me gets annoyed by this traffic I was imagining the fate of the drivers.

Then there is shopping which can be horrifying experience where you have to beat the crowd to get the right choice. Even if we get the right fit billing and delivery will take hours and by the time you get the stuff you asked for you will be drained.


As far as I m concerned I
-->didnt book ticket to goto my home town ,but rather booked tickets for my parents to come here.
-->didn't go for shopping rather outsourced it my nears and dears


Having said that I tried booking tickets for pongal next year(which got opened today) within 10 minutes of opening I booked the ticket but ended up getting waiting list 76!

~~Afternoon Nap~~

One thing which I have mastered over the past four years working in IT industry is the art of sleeping in front of the workstation when people around sees, it will look as if I m thinking seriously to solve some major issue. Mostly its in afternoon after having a heavy lunch(grandma's of course) when my body would no longer take strain of staying awake I used doze off for 10 to 15 mins. Since nobody had noticed this it had become one of my usual routine.

Last week when I was in middle of this dozing ritual one of my colleague pinged me for some clarification. She got puzzled seeing me in front of the system and getting no response from my end. Then she came directly to me desk woke me up with a look how long this is going on. I bragged about how clever I m doing this routine exercise.

Today afternoon when I in my dreamland I was slapped on my back and woke up to see my entire team standing around me.They had the looks of seeing some unique creature in the zoo.Only thing I could muster to them was to don't waste time and go ahead and carry on their work.

Getting good sleep is God's gift ,don't know why some people are jealous when they see people around them sleeping :)

~~Pic for the day~~

This pic was taken last weekend at Kallanai ,this was the first time I m seeing all the 18 gates of the dam were opened at the same time.



Since the background image caught my attention more than Raj's ,I forgot to look at the improper lightening in his face

~~Marriage at Tenkasi~~

There were many things I should write about my trip to Tenkasi ,an important itinerary in the trip was to attend Banu's marriage.Since Banu is back from her honeymoon I don't want to delay this posting to such an extent that her kid reads it.

Since marriage was on a late Sunday morning we had plenty of time to get ourselves ready. As usual Raj was gearing up for the occasion he choose to wear a shining silver dress which can be noticed by a person a mile away.Another good thing about Banu was she had booked good rooms for us and also arranged cabs which will take us to the marriage hall which was located in a beautiful country side far away from the city.

Once we were in the marriage hall,we were searching for people we know.Apart from our gang, six of my former team mates planned to attend the marriage.Since we told them the route on how to reach the hall, their journey was delayed by half an hour. Once they were in, Karthick(my former onsite coordinator) asked what gift did you get. Gift???? We spontaneously replied that 'we thought you will get the gift'. We were ten of us and it will surely be embarrassing to go stage empty handed and wish the couple.And my team mates were on the verge of killing me.

To solve this sticky situation I started looking around for people I know , there was Ezhil, Banu's hostel mate and wow she had some three gifts in her hand.I went to her asked about the other gifts,she said it was given by few friends from Cochin who couldn't make it for the marriage.I said it will be difficult for her to carry all the three gift and offered my help to carry those ,which she gladly agreed.

And about the marriage,since Banu's dad was a school HM he had organised a series of lectures which I was trying to translate in a funny way to friend a who didn't know tamil,thank God no one kicked me out of the hall for that.Marriage was a simple affair which got over when the couples signed the register.Then we proudly carried not one but two gifts and presented it to the couple on stage. After that only we could eat our lunch which total satisfaction.

PS: Should ask Banu what was inside the gift which we gave.

~~China's growth in 60 years~~

Last week China celebrated its 60th anniversary, I came accross lots of articles about how the country has transformmed from poor 3rd world nation to a powerful one over the span of sixty years. One of the main factors contributing to its growth is the stable political administration.

I got this below statistics from a webpage


from literacy to healthcare ,cars to mobiles the country has shown tremendous growth.

Only future can say how China could sustain its growth.

~~Nobel peace prize to Obama~~

What would have been in the minds of Nobel committee for choosing peace prize. Instead of giving the prize to people who have made the world a better place they choose to give it to the person who has the power to do that in future.I think this is the first time this award is given to a person who visioned what to do rather than doing it upfront.

Can the same committee give the prize to a person who visions to discover medicine for AIDS or give it to a person who promises(like our Indian politician) to eradicate poverty. Maybe they would have got frustrated seeing that giving this prize to people who did things is meaningless so better encourage the future generation.

Preemptive strikes are only heard in wars but giving this award to Obama is similar to that.Hoping that he will think twice before taking a harsh decision which would make this Nobel peace prize meaningless.

~~Got this from my friend~~

Second Wish


A man walks into a restaurant with a full-grown ostrich behind him.

The waitress asks them for their orders.

The man says, "A hamburger, fries and a coke," and turns to
the ostrich, "What's yours?"

"I'll have the same," says the ostrich.

A short time later the waitress returns with the order "That will
be $9.40 please," and the man reaches into his pocket and
pulls out the exact change for payment.

The next day, the man and the ostrich come again and the man
says, "A hamburger, fries and a coke."

The ostrich says, "I'll have the same."

Again the man reaches into his pocket and pays with exact change.

This becomes routine until the two enter again. "The usual?"
asks the waitress.

"No, this is Friday night, so I will have a steak, baked potato and
a salad," says the man.

"Same," says the ostrich.

Shortly the waitress brings the order and says, "That will be $32.62."

Once again the man pulls the exact change out of his pocket and
places it on the table.

The waitress cannot hold back her curiosity any longer. "Excuse me,
sir. How do you manage to always come up with the exact change
in your pocket every time?"

"Well," says the man, "several years ago I was cleaning the attic and
found an old lamp. When I rubbed it, a Genie appeared and offered
me two wishes. My first wish was that if I ever had to pay for anything,
I would just put my hand in my pocket and the right amount of money
would always be there."

"That's brilliant!" says the waitress. "Most people would ask for a
million dollars or something, but you'll always be as rich as you want
for as long as you live!"

"That's right. Whether it's a gallon of milk or a Rolls Royce, the exact
money is always there," says the man.

The waitress asks, "What's with the ostrich?"

The man sighs, pauses and answers, "My second wish was for a tall chick with a big butt and long legs who agrees with everything I say."