~~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!