Getting back a book after twenty years!!

My dad never compromises anything for books, to get a book from him is asking one to move a mountain.Over the past 40 years he has spent quite a fortune on books,now our house has become too small to hold all the books.After I moved out, my room has become like a store room for his ever increasing collection.

Even though he has this huge collection,he doesn't have the magnanimous mind to give his book to anyone.To get a book from our house,one should either steal the book or get it from me or my mum when my dad is not around. In both cases he will never find out the missing book.But if one does the impossible by convincing him to lend a book he never forgets it until the same is returned back.

My uncle long long ago somewhere during the mid eighties had convinced my dad and borrowed reader s digest collector's edition of 'Write better Speak better'.But somewhere down the line he forgot the whole incident.Not my dad I have seen him mentioning about this book whenever he sees a reader digest collection or whenever he remembers that uncle.Since I wasn't a witness when the book was borrowed I could not confirm that incident.

This weekend I went to KK Nagar(that uncle s parental home) with my grandma. I was browsing through their bookshelf ,there were few bounded volumes which hardly noticed.My grandfather removed one book from deep bottom and gave it me,mentioning it was my dad's, it was the same book and to prove it my dad he has scribbled his signature dated 26/07/1979. It was like getting back the lost treasure after a generation.I don't think I m interested in reading that book but next time when I go home I will get it back to my dad who will take it back as his lost child.

Experiences of getting my hair cut !

Hair cut is one of the things I take special precautions, not because I care how they cut my hair but I care for the person who cuts my hair. My hair is dense,thick and rough,say if I had my hair grown for a month one can easily hide his pen inside it.Even if I shake my head ferociously it wont fall down.

Given this scenario I go to a barber shop and that fellow sprays water on the head,he wont realise the water hasn't gone inside. After few sprays he will start using the scissors and find he could not cut ,he will try another scissor and do the same with much bigger force.Sometimes I used to think I have come for hair cut not hair pull.Getting a hair cut was always a horrible experience from my school days,1st my dad used to scold me I didn't have a proper cut and then in the school within two weeks of time I would be asked to cut the hair again.

Then in my high school days I found the right barber,a guy who likes challenges he used to say that cutting my hair gives him job satisfaction than anything else.Till my college got over things went well.

Then my job took me to Kerala then trouble started again I had to speak to barber in different language and get things done. The first time it was a horrible experience, the guy who couldn't cut my hair started saying that the hair goes inside the scissors but not getting cut.I said to put some water on my head and then cut it,he almost pour half glass of water on my head then started cutting.I was looking like a wet chicken after the hair cut. I made a resolution that day to pour water on my head myself and then go for cutting so that it makes their job easy.But people used to ask me did I have a bath or got wet in rain etc.
To makes things easier whenever I needed a haircut I planned to go home for that weekend and get the thing done by my good old barber.Most of trips to home though I miss to visit few of friends I never miss the visit to saloon.

But this month I couldn't find time to cut my hair when I was in home.Now I had the problem to face a new barber.Today morning I went to the nearby saloon,with proper precautions taken like I wet my hair. That guy asked me whether he can cut with a machine,I said fine.After sometime he could the machine couldn't b use the hair was wet.Then he tried scissors and he was struggling after few cuts here and there,I asked him to use machine again and somehow managed to finish it off.When it was over I could he his stress level has come down and had looks of a person who has achieved something great(maybe!).
PS:I m having my hair style similar to a military person!

A busy week...

Friday night again cant imagine how quickly this week passed and I never had time to open my laptop.Not that I was busy with work but there things apart from work which occupied my time.
Monday morning my nephew called with a great news that he has cracked IIT,knowing the preparation it takes,sacrifices to be made,amount of time need to put each day it needs persistence and strong determination to get through it. That evening I went to his house to congratulate his success and celebrate it with a good dinner.
Tuesday our team had planned for a outing,so we finished out work early and left for a resort nearby.There we had options to play cricket,shuttle etc. Since its been sometime I have had any outdoor activities, just after few minutes of playing shuttle I was gasping for breath.There were few team games we played in one I was made to act like Vadivelu. Then we had a wonderful dinner.We arranged for a cab for our return,Since I m the person staying at farthest, my place was the last destination,my cab went to all places like guindy,saidpet,porur,ashok nagar and anna nagar before reaching my home when it was almost midnight.
Wednesday tired after night s party was waiting for the day to end,night I left to Trichy to attend my friend marriage.
Thursday was in my home,it was as messy as it used to be I tried my hand by cleaning it but gave up soon after realising my efforts will be futile as it will be back to the same position very soon.I took my dad s car to thanjavur were my friend s marriage was taking place. When I took the car to Thajavur last time a tree fell on the car,so I was little careful keeping few meters away from the trees which were on the road side.Marriage was great,my friend/former team mate came from Cochin and we were talking Cochin stories.That night it rained in Trichy reminding good people bring rain to places where they go:). Left for Chennai that night.
Friday,a bad start to the day as I saw my company bus passing before me when I was going to the stop.Then I had to do a 100m sprint and catch the bus at the nearby signal.A great day at office with less work. Came home on time.
Now waiting for a good weekend!!!

IPL season 2 got over!

One more edition of IPL got over with a thrilling final. Since I could not afford to stay awake late night I never saw all the matches but used get updates from the net or from paper.
What I enjoyed most were the blogs written by person with the name fakeiplplayer giving information about events happening in dressing room.His way of writing was hilarious and entertaining. Even though I wont be missing IPL I will be missing the blogs written by fakeiplplayer!

Early morning at beach!!!

This weekend I went to my cousin s house in Triplicane, I never know when I will get used to the narrow lanes of Triplicane,every time I go there I get lost, call my cousin later to get the correct way. This time I was going there straight from my office ie from a different direction and it took sometime to get the route right.
My Athai is recovering from cataract operation ,there was a gang of relatives from my native to meet her. Since I didnt expect their presence and was caught unexpected,I was rallied with questions when I will marry,do I need their help,recommendations,suggestions etc. habba it took sometime, to escape from them diplomatically.
My cousin suggested me to go to Parthasarathy temple in the evening with my nephews. But after going there I was astonished to see huge crowd,there were big queues at all the sanathi's. Since I didnt have patience to wait,we quietly came back home after doing a round inside the temple.
My nephew's asked me stay that night,I said ok on one condition we are going to beach to see sun rise. Even thought its summer vacation for them and getting up early was not in their books they accepted my condition.We saw IPL that night and when we went to bed it was almost 12.Since getting up early up has become a habit for me(Thanks to my office location),I woke sharp at 5. I was surprised to see my nephews getting up with same enthusiasm. We walked from their house,found streets wet all the way,first I was convincing myself these are supposed to be dew drops but when I saw the beach sand wet it was proved that it rained that night. Since it was still dark we couldnt see the clouds clearly, my little nephew started pestering when will the sun come.Around 6 o clock we could see the sky was cloudy,it became clear there was no chance of seeing the sun, its past noon I m writing this blog still I have not seen the sun today. I was looking at sea suddenly a man nearby shouted look at that big fish,it was surprising to see two or three dolphins enjoying their morning swim near Marina,I have dolphins seen dolphins in Arabian sea ,this is the first time I m seeing in Bay of Bengal.
We were enjoying the morning breeze till 7 o clock and walked back home,my elder nephew who couldnt withstand this morning ordeal crashed right away in his bed.Morning breakfast,hot pongal with vadai was prepared by my cousin to feed our hungry stomach.Even though the sun dodged us today morning ,its always refreshing to start a day after going to beach.

What you have to face to be a developer!

This is a forward I got from my friend at a right time :)
Introduction:
Roshan D'Mello (QA Tester)
Developer (Mukesh Thakur)

Roshan D'Mello: Hey Mukesh, there is a bug in your code. Type a text in
username text box and press enter. Beep sound doesn't appear.

Mukesh Thakur: How can that be a bug? There is no requirement that beep
sound should come. Anyway, I will assign it to offshore and get it
fixed.
After 2 days,

Mukesh Thakur : Roshan, bug is fixed. Please verify.

After another 2 days,
Roshan D'Mello : I have re-opened the bug because sound is not coming in
some PCs. Sound is coming in my machine, but my colleague Rajat Choudhry
is not getting the sound.

After another 2 days,

Mukesh Thakur : Not a bug. I observed that your friend Rajat Choudhry has
Old IBM machine. Unlike your DELL machine, IBM machines do not have inbuilt
speakers. So, to hear the sound in Rajat Choudhry's machine, please use
head phones and then get the bug closed soon.

Another 2 days,

Roshan D'Mello : I have re-opened the bug because sound tone is
Different across different machines. Sound is coming as 'BEEP' in my machine, but
My colleague Rajat Choudhry who is having IBM machine is getting the sound
as 'TONG'.

Mukesh Thakur : Not a bug. Get lost man. What can we do for the bug? The
Two machines are built in such a way that they produce different sounds. Do
You expect the developers to rebuild the IBM processors to make them
uniform?
Please close it.

Another 2 days,

Roshan D'Mello : I have re-opened the bug because intensity of beep
Sound produced on 2 different DELL machines is different. My machine produces
Beep sound of intensity 10 decibels whereas my friend's machine produces
Sound worth 20 decibels. Fix your code to make the sound uniform across all
machines.

Another 2 days later,

Mukesh Thakur : Once again it is not a bug. I have noticed that the
Volume set is different on the two machines. Ensure that volume is same in both
The machines before I get mad and then close the bug.

Another 2 days,

Roshan D'Mello : I have re-opened the bug.

Mukesh Thakur : What ?? Why? What more stupid reasons can be there for
re-opening?

Roshan D'Mello: Sound intensity is different for machines placed at
different locations (different buildings). So, I have re-opened it.

After 2 days,

Mukesh Thakur : I have made some scientists do an acoustical analysis of
the
two buildings you used for testing. They have observed that the
acoustics in the two buildings varies to a large extent. That is why sound intensity
is different across the 2 buildings. So, I beg you to please close the
bugs.

After 1 year

Roshan D'Mello : I am re-opeing the bug. During the year, I requested
The clients to arrange architects to build two buildings with same
Acoustical features, so that I can test it again. Now, when I tested, I found that
intensity of sound still varying. So, I am re-opening the defect.

Mukesh Thakur : GROWLLLL.....I am really mad now. I am sure that the
Sound waves of the two buildings are getting distorted due to some background
noice or something. Now I need to waste time to prove that it is because
of background noice.

Roshan D'Mello : No need for that. We will put the machines and run
them in vacuum and see.

Mukesh Thakur: ??

Result-----------------------
He is now in mental asylum while Roshan D’Mello has become QA Manager.

Busy fixing bugs

Its hectic day I m still in office writing this blog,its day before project delivery and I m busy fixing bugs. Thinking about bugs no matter how good you do a project you end up getting a swarm of bugs.Some are funny,some are disguised,some are cruel,some doesnt even deserved to be called as one.However they are ,its pain in the neck for every programmer.
Its every developers dream to write bug free code but its only a dream rather it becomes nightmare when we finish the project. I remember a quote about programming ' for every action there is an equal and opposite malfunction'.So there is no escape from it.
When microsoft can release windows with lots bugs why cant we do the same even though we can reach their level. What better justification we could have to get bugs in the code.

Telecoms ads I like

Like the colas ad campaign which dominated in 90s ,what I enjoy these days are telecoms ads which compete to gain viewers attention. The prominent players are Bharathi s airtel and Vodofone(previously hutch). Last year airtel brought in whole crew of stars from Saif,Kareena,Rahman etc in its campaign.Hutch on the other hand compensated by making a pug running accross here and there making it a hit accross the country.
Now latest one when airtel released a new ad starring Madavan and Vidya Balan mentioning the value added features they offer ,Vodofone introduced funny characters called as zoo-zoos which conveys the same message.
Some ads becomes hit by the stars which are casted in that, some by the creativity put in to take the ad.
I have attached two ads

One year into blogging

Last year I started this blog on one fine evening when I had nothing else to do ,I restarted blogging. It was my 4th attempt to create a blog space and pour my thoughts(?) into that. What started as to kill my free time has gradually grown into a hobby.
Its unbelieveable to see almost hundred postings over the past one year from a lazy person like me. But when I look back and read those postings it brings back some sweet memories of the past.
Hope this continues!!!

My cousins email ID got hacked!

I was talking with my cousin today, she was saying her gmail ID was hacked the day before. Then few spam mails were sent from her ID and she came to know about this incident when few of her friends mentioned it to her.
Good thing she qucikly started working to get out this mess ,she first tried reseting the password but found her ID to be hacked again. Next thing she did was tracking the IP from which the account was accessed, in the footer of gmail there is info about last account activity which tells when email was accessed from which IP.She got the IP from there and found it somewhere from Delhi.
Finally she reported that IP to cyber crime.
I appriciate her for being cool and dealing the situation in right manner

Its good to have a big brother!

Today I was chating with my cousin brother. We were discussing about the gaming console from Nitentdo called Wii. He was mentioning that this console makes him workout in the sametime entertains him a lot. Its seems he is addicted to it by now.
I was really impressed by its features and was waiting for the following conversation to happen and it did.

Big Bro: do u want a wii
me: yea would like to have one
Big Bro: i saw some yday here
me: if deal is good get one
Big Bro: it was in demand... but with the economy the way it is, its available here
me: coool
Big Bro: ok.. i'll get one and try to send it thru somebody
me: wii, is not costly right ?
Big Bro: little bit., bit thats ok
ennoda anbu thambiku ithu kooda seiyalenna eppadi
me: manasa touch pannita

looking forward to have Wii in my hands!

Major victory for UPA!!!

With election results coming in ,its seems clearly UPA is back in power and we could hope to have a stable government for the next five years.One major factor for Congress's victory was they approached the elections in more confident manner. They didnt choose to ally with Laloo and Mulayam when they offered less number of seats in UP and Bihar but won considerable amount of seats contesting alone.Kerala and Westbengal they have shocked the left parties by sweeping most constituencies.AndhraPradesh too people have given the same verdict as in 2004. These are the key states which got the Congress back into power.

Coming to Tamilnadu DMK won all the major constituencies but Congress could not repeat the same performance as in 2004. VIP candidates like Mani Shankar Iyer ,EVKS Elangovan etc lost their their seats and some by a huge margin.It might the Srilankan issue which caused the downfall here.Since it turned down pleas from TamilNadu,its time people have responded back ,so the pro Eelam anger against the party was evident. Another notable thing PMK has lost all the seats which it has contested proving that changing parties every time wont help in the long run.

On personal front candidate I voted for lost the elections, better luck next time.Two blocks from my house,lives relatives of a candidate who was leading a major canbinet minister.There were lots a crackers blasted making the place noisy for more than half an hour,celebrations are continued till the results were announced where in which minister got back the lead and retained his seat.
All in all wonderful verdict given by people of India!!!

The book I read..

If you were given one more day with your dead parent, would you be brave enough to accept it.For one more day by Mitch Albom is about it. It mainly deals with human emotions,what one has done with is life making us think in a different way.I have read two other books by him ,Tuesday with Morrie and Five people you meet in heaven.

In this book Charlie is on the verge of commiting sucide. When he goes to his old home where he used to live in the childhood, he meets his mother who supposed to dead eight years ago. The story unfolds about how his mother influenced his life and how he could not live upto her expectations.If he had one chance to talk to his mother what would it be. It was a good read ,relationship between the son and mum is well expressed.Its not as heavy as his other two books but still touches your heart!

long day...

Some days would be pretty long ,today is one of them. I reached Chennai today morning, I woke around 4 30,reached station around 5. I like morning walks so walked all the way home from station. Started to office by 6 30,reached there around 8. Since yesterday was off had enough work to catch up with.There was a project delivery last week and I was fixing the issues. When I was done with work it was 8 pm. Reached home by 10. Its time to catch some sleep now :)

election quote

"Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote." ~ George Jean Nathan (1882-1958).

On the eve of election day

Tomorrow its election day here, its been long process to process this election for more than 600 million people ,one of the largest of kind in the world.I strongly beleive in this democratic process followed in our country ,though not the best candidates get choosed but the sitting candidate if he not performed upto the mark he is bound to lose.Whoever wins the election what I wish is a stable government for the next five years.
PS: I am going to my hometown to cast my vote!!!

Stop the war(genocide) in Srilanka

Its never too late than never to stop the war rather genocide in Srilanka. Its become more of a routine affair to hear daily deaths happening in the so called emerald island,only difference it makes is the number of people getting killed everyday.Yesterday was another black day with the death figures crossing more than 4 digit number. We are helpless and made as a mute spectator to watch those horrible events getting underaway there. It makes us wonder why we have international organisations which blow horns about brining peace and harmony in the world. What the countries accross the world do rather than encourage the Lankan government to orchestrate the human massacre.
I remember the time I was in Srilanka during 2005 when the ceasefire was on,I would like to remember the country as peaceful as it was then.Those were the days when i was amazed by its beatuiful green, calm environment ,all the natural beauty of world put in place in a single island.But now I could never imagine the how the people are still surviving there. It feels even more hurt when you actually know few people living(surviving) there, telling all the troubles and hardships they face.
GOD SAVE THEM !!!

Back to Swimming

Its been more than a year I stepped into a swimming pool.I remember my last time,when I was in Cochin my friend woke me one fine morning around 7 o clock to get his clothes as he forgot to take his swimming clothes to the pool.So when I went there I thought why not I take a dip,but I was not aware of the cold weather I was gasping for breath after a while,then I got a bad cold the same day.

I was in my cousin s house this weekend and they had a pool in their apartment.Since the weather was so hot I never had second thought getting into the swimming pool on Saturday evening .It took some splashing before I got my rhythm back. It was a good exercise for my body which wasn't been troubled for the last 6 months.Sunday when I woke up uncle asked me do want to swim again? Within 10 minutes we are back in the pool again.
It feels great to be in the swimming pool once again!

Sitcoms my another passtime!

After movies and book another passtime I have is watch sitcoms , I never had patience to wait for one episode everyweek but rather wait for the full season to get over and watch all the episodes at a stretch. Unlike movies or novels one could easily get attached to any of the character in it,can compare any of our friends with another and infer incidents which reminds you of something happened in your life sometime.
But the most important thing of all,there is plenty of laughter in it that you forget what ever stress you have undergone on that day and goto bed with a light heart.
PS: I m waiting for How I met your mother season four to get over and in the meantime I m watching two and half men.

Chanakya quotes

Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC)

"A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and honest
people are screwed first."

"Even if a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be venomous."

"The biggest guru-mantra is: Never share your secrets with anybody. It will
destroy you."

"There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no
friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth."

"Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions - Why am I
doing it, What the results might be and Will I be successful. Only when you
think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions, go ahead."

"As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it."

"The world's biggest power is the youth and beauty of a woman."

"Once you start a working on something, don't be afraid of failure and
don't abandon it. People who work sincerely are the happiest."

"The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind. But
the goodness of a person spreads in all direction."

"Whores don't live in company of poor men, citizens never support a weak
company and birds don't build nests on a tree that doesn't bear fruits."

"God is not present in idols. Your feelings are your god. The soul is your
temple."

"A man is great by deeds, not by birth."

"Never make friends with people who are above or below you in status. Such
friendships will never give you any happiness."

"Treat your kid like a darling for the first five years. For the next five
years, scold them. By the time they turn sixteen, treat them like a friend.
Your grown up children are your best friends."

"Books are as useful to a stupid person as a mirror is useful to a blind
person."

"Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected everywhere.
Education beats the beauty and the youth."

The new 10 Rupee coin

Last weekend I had the look at the new 10 rupee coin released by Reserve bank of India. First I found it awkward to be called as a coin when it was more looking like two pieces of metal joined together.Came to know its bimetalic type of coin ,maybe the 1st kind minted in India.



One good thing about coins is that they have lifetime more than notes but seeing this 10 rs coins makes me wonder whether the rupee value is going down further,when people will make 10rs the base for all transactions.Now all people will have money but they have to shell out a lot to get things for them. Our government should take care to prevent further fall of rupee and we should not come to situation where our govenment is going to mint 100rs and 1000rs coins.

Finding a girl for me!

We have a school group where we often keep in touch with our school mates. Today those people started dicussing about finding a apt girl for me. It so happened my friend jotted down few requirements (which I have never thought of before)and soon people started mailing!

> Sri's fiancee's requirements(As told by Prem):
> - she should not ask Sri to change his hairstyle and touch
> his 'hip'.
> - she must be highly educated, so that she can teach his
> children.. I cant imagine the poor kid being tutored by
> Sri!
> - she must have interests in fine arts and rural produce..
> Sri appreciates them more than anyone else.
> - lastly, she should not mind Sri's past shenanigans..
> college, work, etc.

(Gupta from Dubai)
Sri...inga mini keralave irruka machan..unaku ponnu pakatuma..chumma oru matrimonial site start paniduva...enga pathalum only ''Malayala pen kutti than'''

(this is from Dev from Canada,once I told his professor is looking good)
sri unnakkey overa ella...ennoda prof ketkutha...dei dei...antha amma 45 yrs old...too much of competition. ..maybe I will upload the pic once again...if u want rasitchufy.. .okkva... cos u already have soo many offers...may I come in for the selection... where shud i go n signup if I want one...

@Sri(by Rekha from Australia): OMG!! ivlo girls pathu kudutha nee adhula choose
> panuviya!! no no no... naanga permutation combination la oru
> ponna select pani thruvom.... u are left with the option of
> marrying only her.. what say ppl?

(Sujae being Practical)
Dubai la oru ponnu ,UK la oru ponnu ,Canada la Ponnu ,Australia la oru ponnu.....ne patuku oru liste podura...athuku antha ponnunga okay solanumla;)

Its always good to get mails from schoolmates but its great when they give these sort of funny advises :)

Movie I saw..

Today I saw Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid,a movie which was taken in late 60 s. It was about two robbers specialised in robbing trains. They plan to escape to Bolivia when government intensifies the search to find them.
This movie was suggested by my friend, last time when we saw it together I slept off in the middle. This time I just wanted to complete the whole movie since I dont like things unfinished. One thing I liked in the movie was the song in the middle of the movie which reminded me of Indian movies. I have attached the video version of the song which I got in you tube.

Long bike journey(long enough for me) !!!

Today had a long bike journey ,ride was not to a tourist spot or a pilgrimage but rather to my office. Since I had small work to do in office and wanted to return soon I thought I will take my bike there. After coming to Chennai this is the first time I m taking my bike to office. I thought my office is around 30kms,today I found it is exactly 36kms from my home. Its was pretty long drive but the roads are excellent which made the journey pleasent.
It took me an hour to reach office one way , which made me to think aboubt Cochin days where office is just 10 mins drive and I usually go there whatever time when I like to and come back whenever I want to. Good old days !!!