Book I read..

This was the book I read two month back but didn't get time to write about it. RIGGED by Ben Mezrich. I have read this author's previous book Bringing the house down. Seeing his name and the tag line I grabbed this book from the shelf.

Backdrop of this story is the Mercantile exchange of Newyork were commodities gets traded,one of the hot commodity which makes people rich or poor in an short span of time is Oil. Now the hero of this story wants break the monopoly enjoyed by some traders. He gets help from an unexpected counter part and they decide to build a sister exchange in Dubai, a conservative Muslim hub where trading is unlawful as per Islamic laws.

It was an interesting read , teaches us how wealth properly utilised can make a nation prosperous.

~~My absent mindedness~~

Yesterday was an eventful evening. My grandma lost her 'metti' and she needed a replacement,I had promised her to take her to Tana street to get a new one. I asked her to get ready by evening 5pm. When we were about to leave ,my cousin asked whether she could join us for shopping.Oh noo.. ! My original plan was to take my grandma in my bike ,go directly to Tana street get the metti and return home.If travel takes 15 mins getting metti some 30 mins at the max ,the job should be over by an hour. Now since she s joining us I was prepared to slog the entire evening.

We took an auto, in the short span of time she convinced my grandma to make the first stopping at Naidu Hall. Once inside I was feeling awkward since there was no section in which where I can go and kill my time.Finally I ended up near bangles and earrings section trying my best not to look like a Jackass.Grandma and grand daughter took their own time selecting their stuffs,finally while paying the bill she asked for some extra cash to make up the total purchase. I usually keep my a maximum of 200 bucks in my purse , if the amount is higher than that I usually pay by card.

After that my cousin entered a Rajasthani handloom exhibition, after 10 or 15 mins I realised that she is not going to buy anything here ,I said I will get some cash from ATM and come back .In the mean time I called my mum and checked whether she needs anything from Chennai since the next weekend I will be in Trichy,she asked to get her a big plate made of German Silver.Then I went ATM got the cash and returned back to handloom stall. She was still browsing through the stuffs, testing shopkeepers patience(mine too).After 30 mins my cousin got some enlightenment and said nothing is nice here lets leave ,grabbing that opportunity I hurried them out of the place.

Next we went to Ratna stores I went to the plates section ,looked for a big plate. Took 5 minutes to look at different models and choose one. I went ahead to bill it and then collect it in delivery section. Once I got the plates and was ready to leave ,only to see my cousin absconded. Thank God my grandma was there to inform she went cosmetics section to get some stuffs.I was standing like beggar with a big plate in my hands.After some 15 minutes she got some stuffs and we were ready to move again.

At last we took an auto Tana street a place I should have been there some 2 hours earlier. We reached the jewel shop. Once inside shop keeper showed us various designs ,my grandma insisted on a simple one with an apt size. We got a set of four which suited my grandma's size,I checked the same it was looking fine. When we were about to buy it my cousin took those and gave an observation one single ring is 0.002 mm bigger than the rest of the set.Shopkeeper gave an 'aaramuchutangaya ' look and digged inside his collection and took some other piece which made no difference to me but my cousin was satisfied with the new one.

The bill came around 400 bucks and I opened my wallet to take my card out. OH MY GOD.... WHERE IS MY CARD???????? I looked at left right inside outside and on all the opening of the wallet but I couldnt find it. It began to sink in ,after withdrawing the money from the ATM I never took my card back and by now the machine should have swallowed the card. Felt helpless to see grandma paying for her Metti. On the way back I stopped near the ATM and checked with the security who said I need to contact the branch office to get the card back.

My cousin suggested lets eat outside ,I said since I m penniless and cardless it should be her treat. But she was too intelligent to be bogged down and called her dad to join us for dinner and later made him pay the bill.

While we were eating the dinner my grandpa called and my cousin picked the call talked with him,conveyed to us grandpa had dinner. After we reached home grandpa asked me where is the parcel??? Dont know what those two talked , right away I took my bike to Saravana Bhavan and few stuffs for my grandpa. Then I told my him about how I lost my card , he immediately called my bank manager(whom he knows personally) and asked for the procedures to block the card. I called the customer care and blocked the card temporarily.

Withdrawing cash from ATM will be never same again for me!

~~My friend's Salsa experience~~

My old room mate Raj in cochin will always be keen on trying on new things . When we were in Cochin he with much enthusiasm tried to learn many things . Only problem is after a month or so he will lose interest and will be searching for other new things to try out.

Now he has relocated to Bangalore , this week begining he throwed a bomb mentioning he is going join Salsa class. When asked what the reason he mailed back

summa irrukkuradhu bore adikkudhu...Blore vandhu ennatha kizhicha nnu yaarum ketka kudadhu illa... adhaan atleast indha karumathayaavadhu kathukkaalamm nnu dhan..

One of my friends replied back

Hello Raj

Iyer guitar vaasika..neenga salsa aada..atha naanga ellarum anandhama paarthu rasikkanum..
Voice expert , Voice from bckground: endha rendula aethu nadanthalum oolagam azhinjudum..

after few more mocking mails from the group he replied

romba pesaadhinga...
dance is an art, i want to learn just the dance and practice it....no other intention....

then another friend replied

Dey.... dance oru art ...hmmmm.... epdi solli thaan da nee,

guitar class pona

driving class pona..

swimming class pona..

gym pona...

Makkale!!! ungalukku ellam theriyum avan evalavu naal olunga classku ponnannu.....

Then yesterday after his 1st class ,since we didnt get any mail from him I dropped a mail

Raj

neetu over scene ooda gujalsa class poniye , eppadi irrunduchunu badhil ee kaanum ????

enna as usual angayum bulb vangiyacha :)

next class pora maari idea irruka ???

His reply

Hello all..

naa vandhutaen...naa vandhutaen...

i never knew this dance so exciting ...may be its interesting because you dance with ur partner (obviously a girl;) ).....First the tutor is a lady, nice to see her dance and learn from her....she taught the initial steps, the basic ones and asked the guys to form a circle...

then she asked gals to choose their partners.. :) ...

I surprised to see my partner immediately choosing me as soon as she announced that...i know her pretty much and she is a PL for a team here and got married too..... i gave her a stare, she understood that meaning of my look, and said "Its better to dance with a person whom u know rite"....

i thought myself, "hmm....ungallukku ok, ennakku dhan , naa koduthu vachadhu avalavu dhann nnu nenachaen".....and i convinced by saying to myself that, "we have come just to learn n enjoy dance and nothing else "....innum oru vishayam...atleast evangalaavadhu nammala choose paanaanga nnu oru sandhosam vera....

After five minutes of dancing with the first partners, the tutor asked the gals to move to the next guy.....so got another gal for dancing....it continued on and finally ended up dancing with around 5-6 ppl........cool experience...

enna konja kaal dhan valikkudhu.....it ll be alright...

sari sari...yaarum stomach burning aagadhinga...

Our group is expecting the next mail from him mentioning he got bored of the class :)

~~Missing Onam~~

For the last three years I have been in Kerala and this time of the year ,the full state will be in festive mood. In our office we used to have celebrations for the whole week.Pookolam,Onam sadiya,tug of war,Mahabali visit and lot more. The whole week used to be filled with lots of activities.

This year I came to know its Onam time only from one of my mallu colleague. Attaching the pookolam our team put for the last year Onam in our office.

~~Taking a telephonic interview~~

Today after having lunch I was looking forward to a lazy afternoon but my PL sent across a mail asking me and my colleague to interview four candidates. I have taken face to face interviews before but never taken telephonic interviews. Since my colleague has taken those before I said I will just observe it pulling in when its needed.

The first call ,once the person took it what we could hear was lots of background noises he said he's travelling and not the right time to call. Wonderful start.

Second one we got through the call and my colleague started with few simple questions andwe noticed that the guy was slow in answering and my colleague decided that he might be up to something. There are many ways to forge a telephonic interview ,simple one is to search for answers in google then and there and reply the same.So we need to ask some real time scenarios for which searching in web doesn't help much. Then my colleague was asking him few random questions and scenarios .After 20 mins I lost my patience and said to end it soon. But my colleague insisted one interview should last atleast 30 mins. In the end the conversation lasted for 40 mins and finally he said that candidate is not suited. I was wondering why cant this could have been decided in 15 to 20 mins ,at least saving my time.

Since there were two more calls to go I was praying that this boring routine should end soon.

My prayers were answered .On the third call,a woman picked the call and said the guy was not well and the final call left unanswered. I dint know whether I will accept these kinds of tasks once again.

~~Ashes back to England~~

Its better late than never to blog about England regaining the Ashes ! I remember the year 2005 when I have just finished my college and had a 4 month break to join my job. One of the favourite pastimes at the time was seeing the ashes series and later discuss about the same with my gang.

In fact we were thrilled to see England regaining after a gap of 16 years.

Even though they were -thrashed badly for 5-0 defeat in Australia during 2006-07, it was great to see them coming back strongly this time. Thanks to CAS in Chennai I was not able to watch the series and Internet was my only source for any information regarding Ashes.

Got this link from you tube which shows the winning moments from the final test!

~~Weekday shopping~~

If you ask me when is the best time to go for shopping ,I would say its on any evening between Tuesday to Thursday. These are the days in which you can beat the crowd and select your things patiently.These are the days you can park you bike in a space where a bus can be parked. These are the days in which you will get royal treatment from the salesman, you need not wait for your turn for the trial room nor wait for crowd to move away from the place where you need to pick your stuffs. nor you need to stand in the queue to get you things billed.Last you will get a feeling that you really enjoyed your shopping .

Today I left office early to pick up my bike from the service center ,since I was home around six o clock I decided to go to Shopper s stop where a sale was going on . I was badly in need few T shirts. Since I went alone I took time to select them. After trying out more than 10 t shirts got two shirts for 600 bucks(after 50% discount).

~~My own poster~~

Its been quite sometime I have tried installing some freewares in my system .This weekend with my bike in the service center I had no other job to do but browse through net.

I came across a freeware called posterforge where it always us to choose the poster ,quote and background color. I tried creating one.

~~Vinayaka Chaturthi special~~

Its Vinayaka Chathurthi time once again ,this is one festival I look forward to, just for a simple fact Kozhukattai is one of my favourite dish. Kozhukattai according to me comes in one of the top inventions of mankind. I used to admire the art of making it making pooram separately and maavu separately then making cups out of maavu ,filling pooram inside it and closing it with a perfect style.If you have enough resources an assembly line can be formed making this preparation a lot easier.

I remember last year when my roomate and I tried to make kozhukattai which ended in a disaster . So this year I wanted to learn to make it properly.My cousins ,aunt and I were involved in the process and grandma was acting like a quality analyst checking everything had come in proper shapes and sizes.When you have team the making seems a lot easier and we finished the thing less than an hour. After offering prayers to Vinayaka, we relished kozhukattai s of different varieties sweet,hot,plain etc.

Happy Vinayaka Chaturthi !!!

~~My friend-gaming programmer~~

It was my first day in the college ,I entered the class and sat next to this calm guy. We got introduced after few formalities we started talking about our schooling interests etc .In the coming days found this guy had good programming skills in Fox pro C etc.In the lab sessions he would be creating magics in Fox pro, a language in which I was never comfortable. Our friendship continued for four years in college and then about 3 years in TCS .

One thing which I liked about him he never left his ambition to be a gaming programmer whither away,he was in Canada (at onsite ) when he got admit from Univ of Pennsylvania.He left the job and went on to take up that course. Last week he has completed his project ,good to see he is living his dream!

~~Eating at Bombay Halwa~~

Every Friday night if I m not travelling anywhere ,I make it a point to take my grandma out for dinner ,each time we experiment in a new restaurant in our locality. Soon after my cousins also joined this party.Every Friday I used to get a call from them, when I m in the bus, mentioning the place where they are having dinner .

One good place we found was Bombay Halwa a restaurant nearby,it is so good that we stopped trying out at different places and stick to this restaurant for quite some time. Items like Koki,Fulka,naan,parantha etc are excellent not to mention the side dish. Only thing which poses a problem to me was I end up paying the bill every time just because I came up with the idea.

Today I got a small victory that I made my cousin to pay the bill ,even though it was not the full amount.

~~Mentoring~~

Last week my PL asked me to mentor a new person in my project, to which I readily said yes. My principle is the more faster you transition the job to your junior the more you can concentrate on new stuffs in the workplace.

I remember the first guy whom I mentored - Krishna, within six months of my mentoring he left the team and soon after he left the company and never turned back to IT field again.

This time I m asked to mentor a girl ,who is new to IT field , dont know what karma s she has done in her previous life she has been asked to work under me.

~~Making a long journey longer~~

One should learn things from Chennai corporation on how to maintain the city ,first lay a good road then dig it up for laying water pipelines,then dig it for laying telephone lines , then dig it for laying electric cables and finally dig more to keep the employees occupied such that a proper canal is built. Once it starts raining these roads(canals) are the major source of water to river Koovam and Adayar.

After receiving heavy rain only for a single in the beginning of this week it takes more than 2 days to limp back to normal thanks to sunny weather due to which most of the water got evaporated. The reason I m saying this was my journey back home got increased by more than 2 hours. Today morning, seems corporation people got bored and started digging the main road where I board my company bus. I knew something worse on cards on return my driver said he s not going to take the risk of driving via that way and left me more than a km away from my home. Dont know for how many days I have to endure this long walk home.

~~Pic for the day~~

Translation for Jitu : Beware of Robbers

~~Bus Journey~~

The journey back to Chennai was an experience which I should forget soon,since I did not have advance reservation I got into a bus in which the person was shouting Chennai chennai. Got a window seat and seated comfortably,bus started moving just when I thought everything was fine it started raining heavily. Normally it shouldn't have bothered me but water started pouring from the top of the bus directly on my head, its was like getting a free shower and within few minutes I was like a wet chicken. So I started wondering what is worse than than sitting like this,better option is to start thinking about my life , future , ways to achieve my ambitions. Dont know when I slept and bus reached Chennai at 4 am (more faster than I expected). I reached came and crashed into bed directly.

I started to office a little late than usual ,caught my office bus around 8 45 , it was raining continuously that time . Because of the rain there was chaotic movement of vehicles and bus was moving inch by inch. Finally it reached office around 11 30. My energy to work got drained as soon as I reached my desk!

~~Water at Kaveri~~

Whenever I see Kaveri overflowing I feel happy , yesterday when my train was nearing Trichy I saw there was enough water in the river. So I decided I should make a trip to the river side during my brief stay . Today morning around 7 o clock I took dad's car to Kallanai ,choose early morning to avoid the crowd , as I guessed there was only few crows flying around. It was wonderful to see water rushing through the gates of kallanai dam. Attaching few pics . Its been quite long time I have seen Kaveri like this at this time of the year.




Hope this continues every year!

~~Independence day~~

Its been some time I thought about the country ,so this independence day gave an opportunity think to about it. India is not a poor country but a country of poor people. Even though its been 63 years since we got our independence ,people below poverty remains the same may be reduced by few percent.Development which is seen in our country is not making any change to more than 50% of the population. What we need is sustainable development which impacts every level of the people in our country . Only then we can celebrate this independence day with some meaning!

Going to Trichy for weekend...

Its really surprising to know that its more than three months I visited my hometown ,if I dont consider a day I went to cast my vote ,it should be four months in total. When I was in Cochin I used to go there more than once in a month but after coming to Chennai trips have reduced a lot. One of the main reasons is booking tickets,its such a pain that you never want to plan the journey. even today I have just got one way ticket and its my dad who has to struggle to get my return ticket. Last week begining when I found out I couldnt get any tickets I changed my mind to go to Bangalore. There should be some better alternatives which I should think about in future!

Book I read..

Last month I was recommended to read the book "I too had a love story" by one of my buddies.Last week when I was roaming around MG road I came across this book and grabbed a copy of it.

Though I thought of reading the book on the coming week I never expected to finish the book the same day. Thanks to Indian Railways who delayed the arrival of my train by more than two hours.The more I read the book more emotional it was .As the temperature kept on decreasing in the railway platform people who had seen me shivering would have thought I might be reading some horror novel. Coming back to the book its how two people meet via a matrimonial site and how close their relationship becomes. Its gets really touching towards the end, that I went to sleep with a heavy heart.

~~my quite blogging~~

Eventhough I have been blogging more than a year I have never told people around that I blog. Mainly because there is nothing useful reading my scribblings ,apart from that when people read the blog more care I should take I write properly(maybe not necessary :)).Once I told about my blog to my cousin ,she read the blog in which I have pulled her legs a lot and she immediately threatened to report the blog as abuse(which I didn't mind) .

Today in office my colleague asked me do I read blogs,spontaneously I blurted out I have one.

Then I gave her my blog link to her. After reading few of my blogs she replied saying you have good writing skills(God save English writers).This didn't stop here ,she read blog in which I have written about the discussion I had with her about how to track the spending in web. Then she told that she was feeling as happy as if her name came on the newspaper(This was toooo much :)) .

In the mean time another colleague passed by my system looked at the blog and asked why I m orkuting in office. I said my mistake and closed the window.

~~Flower show pics~~

Above are few pics taken at flower show at Lalbagh , wonderful workmanship !!!

~~Weekend at Bangalore~~

Friday night when I boarded the train I never expected Bangalore to be so cold at this point of the year, by morning I could feel freezing air blowing inside.But this blog is not about the weather but about the things which made the trip memorable.

A) Priceless book :
I can always count on Krishna , whenever you say to pickup from the station ,he will be waiting in front of taxi s to receive me.This time too he was on dot. From there we went to his room, talked about his new career in advertising ,I gave him the book I got last month regarding advertising industry. In return he gave me 'To cut a long story short' a book by Jeffery Archer. Since I never miss any of his books I said with a disappointed tone I have read this book. He gave a cunning look and opened the first page of the book, there I saw a signature. It took sometime to realise it was personally signed copy from Jerrery Archer!!!

B)Wonderful Evening :
I called all my close friends to meet up at MG road on Saturday evening.I reached the place a little early but weather didn't spare few others as it started pouring,pity to see few pals getting drenched completely.We went a Amoeba for bowling. When you meet your old friends you feel younger and if you start playing with them you become as crazy as you used to be. Once we were done with gaming we went to snack at MacDonald and sellted down near a coffee shop and started talking, It was almost 11 when we were done talking and returned back home.

C)Scenic Lunch:
Sunday started quite tense with newspaper warnings about possible bandh in the city,since Tiruvalluvar statue was getting opened on that day.When I came out much to my relief shop were opened and vehicles running usual except for few security personal at every corner of the road. I met my cousin near her place.Since it was quite a time we met, we had lot of catching up to do. Our first stop was at Lalbagh, there was a flower show in there. It was beautiful to elephants and teddy bears carved out of flowers. From there we went to have lunch at Ebony in MG road,the restaurant is located in 13th floor and the view of the city from there is excellent,our table was near a open window and there was this continuous gentle breeze throughout the time. Not for lunch but for the view one should visit this restaurant.

D)Meeting my former Project Manager:
When I was in Cochin I used to work with a PM who worked from Bangalore, we talk often but we have never met during the 18 months I worked in that project.Even though I didn't say about the trip Bangaloreto her,she got the news via my friend. So I squeezed an appointment with her on Sunday evening.My friend and I met her up in Forum and we were chating for sometime.Then we went to her home for a cup of coffee.I was thinking how well the technology has improved without meeting a person before how we could build good relationships.

Finally no trip end with some bitter memories Sunday night I was waiting with my friend for my train to come.Train should come around 11 and leave by 11 15 but there was no signs of it.Then we heard an announcement the train has been delayed by two hours.I asked my friend to leave and sat in the one of the cold benches and started reading a book. When I was done with the book the train came at 1:15 am.

~~Management quote~~

You can buy a person's time
you can buy their physical presence at a given place
you can even buy a measured number of their skilled muscular motions per hour.

But you can not buy enthusiasm...
you can not buy loyalty.
You can not buy the devotion of hearts, minds, or souls
You must earn these.

-Francis, Clarence

~~Going to Bangalore for weekend~~

Trip to Bangalore was pending for quite sometime. With many friends moving there sometimes I wonder how would my life would have changed if I had opted to stay back in bangalore two years back.

Reading in traffic was one thing I learned there and its my daily routine these days.
Wonderful weather, diversified people,beautiful parks are few things I like about the city.

Hope I bring back sweet memories this time also :)

Book I read..

Last week I read the latest novel by Jeffery Archer titled Paths of Glory ,novel is based upon a true story,a guy named George Mallory whose ambition is to climb mount Everest.He tries climbing the mountain twice and fails and third he reaches the peak but loses his life on the way down. Since his inclination to top cant be proved he is not considered as the first man to climb Mount Everest.



The novel deals about the hardships encountered during mountaineering and how people manage to overcome it.Need of oxygen cylinders at those great height.All in all a touching and informative novel.

~~Story of two seas~~

I read this in a book !


Two Seas of Palestine
There are two seas in the Palestine. One is fresh, and fish are in it. Splashes of green adorn its banks. Trees spread their branches over it and stretch out their thirsty roots to sip of it's healing waters. . . . The River Jordan makes this sea with sparkling water from the hills. So it laughs in the sunshine. And men build their houses near to it, birds build their nests; and every kind of life is happier because it is there.

The River Jordan flows on south into another sea. Here is no splash of fish, no fluttering leaf, no song of birds, no children's laughter. Travelers choose another route, unless on urgent business. The air hangs heavy above its water, and neither man nor beast nor fowl will drink.

What makes this mighty difference in these neighbour seas? Not the River Jordan. It empties the same good water into both. Not the soil in which they lie; not the country round about.

This is the difference. The Sea of Galilee receives but does not keep the Jordan. For every drop that flows into it another drop flows out. The giving and receiving go on in equal measure. The other sea is shrewder, hoarding its income jealously. It will not be tempted into any generous impulse. Every drop it gets, it keeps.

The Sea of Galilee gives and lives. This other sea gives nothing. It is named the Dead. There are two kinds of people in this world. There are two seas in Palestine.

Tracking down what I spend

When it comes to spending money I never keep track of whatever I spend, when I think of the days when I was in school or college I used to think twice before spending each and every penny.
Today I was discussing the same with one of my collegue who still keeps track of whatever she spends, she suggested me a website named buxfer where in which we can link our account statement and this will generate a proper report of how we spend each and every month.
I m still skeptical whether this will bring anychange in my spending pattern. Should revisit my spending pattern after a month.

Got this from my friend

U listen to all that I have to say,
U accept me as I am and do not demand me to change,
U love me even when I may not be worthy of ur love,
U never abandon me as other human beings do,
U never break my trust,
U never leave me alone when I need u the most,
In times of trials and despair u r the first and in fact the only one who is by my side,
U take my shouts with a gentle smile,
Sometimes I doubt u and get angry with u
That’s out of immaturity living in this physical plane but that does not mean I don’t love you
U forgive me endlessly,
Give me comfort and care,
U give me all that I need, yet my complaints and wants never end,
U are the one who gives me peace, rest and joy when am struggling to live amidst adversities,
U give me hope when the situation is hopeless,
U bless me with ur presence every moment of my life,
U are my Best friend O God and all that I seek in this life.

Along with all this u have given wonderful friends for me to love care and cherish,
I am not sure if I am doing all this or value add to them but ill try to radiate to them the love I receive from u.
Happy friendship day