Simply ME

It tastes less sweet but sounds too familiar

2007-05-22T16:56:00.000+05:30

I saw the promos of the Amitabh-Tabu starrer film "Chinni Kum".The first thing that caught my attention was the title song. Its inspired, no sorry, directly lifted from Mani Rathnam directed Tamil movie Mouna Ragam that was made in 1986.The original song being "Mandram vandha thendraluku, manjam vara nenjam....". Listen it. I was quite angry and looked closely at the promos again, expecting Anu Malik to be the Music Director, but surprisingly found it to be Illayaraja, the maestro who also did the original score. May be the Rahman bug, of reusing his Tamil song tunes for Hindi films and vice versa, has bitten him too. Thank God!!, Software Engineers are not the only lot to be blamed for the "Ctrl C + Ctrl V" phenomenon.

Somehow the feel of the movie also looks very familiar to me. I don’t know why, but I feel the movie could be inspired by "Tortilla Soup". May be the fact that the protagonist is a chef who is in love with a younger girl is the reason. Waiting for the release of the movie.

Friend's enemy,My enemy!!!

2007-05-16T09:11:00.000+05:30

Just because day-by-day Yahoo and Microsoft are getting cozy together, all of a sudden, YahooMail Beta will not support Netscape Browser;-(

Unspoken Words ...

2007-05-14T17:44:00.000+05:30

This is the second time in as many weeks, I have been asked by a friend to accompany for the movie "Mozhi". I have already seen the film twice, so I had to decline both the offers. This is one movie, which every Tamil speaking person would like to watch. Its very rare that you get to see a neat, decent movie with an undercurrent message but at the same time, is non preachy. In short a complete entertainer.

There was only a fleeting moment in the almost flawless film, when I felt that "this could have been done without". It is a movie that sensitizes about the handicapped people and urging us to understand them and accept them as they are. It instills a sense of self-respect and dignity among the handicapped people. With such lofty ideals as its base, expectations from the film, at least in the handling of emotions of the handicapped people, are quite high.

Jo, who acts, as a deaf and dumb girl gets angry with Prithviraj because he imaginatively tries to give a voice to her .He wonders if Jo had a voice how would it sound and every time she communicates through sign language, he mentally gives it a voice. The very fact that she is not being accepted as she is angers her and severs her friendship with Prithviraj. Prithviraj tries hard to make Jo forgive him, but Jo is quite adamant. Jo finally breaks into a smile when Prithvi acts like a mentally challenged and makes all sort of funny face. According to Jo's characterization, I personally feel she should have got more angry but on the contrary it triggers her to laugh and forgive Prithviraj. Something I cannot accept.

Well, you can call me a cynic or incorrigible faultfinder but all I expect is a uniformly good, sensitive movie.

Starting Trouble !!!

2007-04-26T11:05:00.000+05:30

I have got loads of work to do,I also know sort of what to do, how to do….. I also know that I got to complete it by tomorrow. I came to office at 8 to start of as soon as I hit my desk. Its been 3 hours since my entry. But I haven’t still started designing. !!!
I thought may be walking a bit would help, nope I was wrong. May be coffee, wrong again. May be a one-to-one interaction with someone who is doing his work pretty seriously, didn’t help again. So I thought let me post something, let it be some arbit stuff.
Am I just being lazy or bored or just checking my limit??? That’s it. I am heading straight to work. Do you ever feel this way?????

Sharukh is crazy about ME!!

2007-04-21T02:04:00.000+05:30

Whenever Shahrukh raises his hand toward the sky and looks into the camera with his face tilted towards right (or maybe sometimes to left) complete with his trademark dimpled wry smile, many girls' heart skip a beat. But you know what, the Badshah himself is actually crazy about ME!!!!

It is said that if you like someone, you tend to take that person's name as often as possible even when it is not required and much to my embarrassment Shahrukh is doing exactly the same thing. Since in films he has to follow the instructions of the scriptwriter, he generally doesn’t speak his mind on the big screen but he takes full liberty on the small screen. All those people who have followed KBC, think again and you will relate to what I am talking. SRK takes the smallest possible opportunity to complete each sentence he utters with my name. Since the curtains have come down for this season of KBC, you cant watch SRK calling me in small screen, may be he will carry over his passion to silver screen too!!

SRK also has the tradition to call his leading ladies in his own unique style. Remember his ki..ki..ki..Kiran in Darr or Senorita of DDLJ, similarly he has given a personal touch to my name also.He calls me Uummmaaa. Does it sound a ring --- "Boys n Gals, Uummmaa" , "sleep well, Uummmaaa", "take care, Uummmaa", "this is SRK signing off, Uummmaaa" and you know what, everytime SRK calls me he raise his hand especially for ME !!!

Main Hoon Na

2007-03-20T18:07:00.000+05:30

I am sure all the Indian cricket lovers (i.e we) were disappointed with India's performance against Bangladesh (supposedly a minnow team) and the same "we" were ecstatic when India thrashed another minnow team Bermuda. The Indian blogdom is already heavily active with the scrutiny of India's performance, so I am not going to further ramble about the same. I am pretty much concerned about the emotional toll that "we" undergo during the 2 minute commercial slot in between the real sport.

You can very well imagine the plight of "we" when the Indian batting order is
tumbling down like a castle made from a pack of cards and you are forced to see an ad depicting the Indian players walking into the ground as they camouflage into growling tigers walking majestically!!! and at the same time urging us to chant "hu ha India"

Given this scenario the only scene that runs in your mind is :the wicket of the so called top-class Indian batsman falls and as he walks out to the dressing room with his sagging shoulder the camera angle then moves to the next promising batsman who enters the arena and he camouflages to a goat making a meek sound of "meaah ...meah dont worry Main hoon na. I will follow u soon to the dressing room" while "we" yell out "hai hai India".

The channels telecasting the game should be sensitive to the situation of the game and broadcast commercials accordingly. It’s good for the viewers, players, the product being endorsed and as well as for the longevity of the television set. Lets not debate whether it’s right for the cricketers to feature in commercials, but does it make sense for Dhoni to talk about reliability of a particular insurance 1 minute after he gets out on a duck??

So all the advertising firms should have two sets of commercials for the same product - one featuring the celebrity Indian cricketers, which can be telecasted when India plays against teams like Bermuda n etal, and another set of commercial with the usual models when the Indian players are on the receiving end. Atleast this way we can give some relief to the poor Indian cricket viewers.

Help Needed

2007-03-03T03:01:00.000+05:30

A victim goes to the police station to file a complaint but the police refuses to lodge a FIR. After persistent pressure, the police unwillingly succumbs but does not take any further actions. Meanwhile the victim and his family keeps on getting threats to their lives.--- now does this sound like a scene from a film. How does it feel when it happens to your life or to any of your friends. Just spare a moment. Doesn't it unnerve you?

Shantanu,one of my friend is in such "big trouble". Kindly help him out it in any possible way you can think of. You can:

1) Give him a lead to the prime News Channels, so that his voice can be heard out. He is trying on this regard but with not much success.

2) Let him know of any legal help.

3) Be his voice and spread the word to fellow bloggers and your friends.

Shantanu is in desperate need of our help. Please reach out.

Bulb!!

2007-02-21T16:59:00.000+05:30

Last week Tuesday morning I got up and as usual sleepily switched on the geyser. Then brushed through both my teeth and the newspaper. I then opened the tap expecting hot water but lo!! it was cold water and all my idea to kick my tiredness and jumpstart my day "pe pani ghir gaya aur woh bhi thanda pani":-(. I managed to have a cold bath and asked my Mom to ask the electrician to check the geyser.

After repeated reminders and numerous calls, the electrician finally arrived on Thursday and all he took to fix the troublesome geyser was 2 minutes of time and his thumb (yes, I m reminded of Dhoni/Surya, in some button start geared two wheeler ad, I guess TVS Star City). Obviously you would like to know what the problem was.

The culprit was a tripped power supply. Due to some irregularity in the power supply one of the fuse had gone to auto-cut off state and incidentally our geyser was the only appliance connected to this point. If only we had looked at the power supply board and raised the plug again, I could have avoided this big BULB!!

P.S: “bulb” is an oft-repeated phrase used in Tamil, whenever u make a cartoon of yourself.

How hospitable are you?

2007-01-21T21:50:00.000+05:30

Came across a wonderful initiative "Extra Bed" started by Kiruba. Check it out.

Whenever we go for a short trip, we generally prefer crashing into our frenz place, catch up with their lives, freshen up and just zip past with the agenda in our hand. But its not always necessary that you have frenz in each and every city so what do you do? Why not extend your circle of frenz to ur virtual acquaintances also? wouldn’t it be nice to get to know your blogger frenz? A very nice to make new frenz.So if you are ready to open up your houses do sign up.
So far so good, coming to the practical hurdles. Agreed Indians are by nature very warm hosts, after all we follow "Athithi devobhava".I am not sure how many female bloggers will be willing to sign up for it? As a matter of fact, I haven’t yet. Waiting to see the response for this venture in the coming weeks.

Its Official

2007-01-15T01:13:00.000+05:30

Its past midnight, I am watching the breaking news on CNN-IBN and I cant keep myself from posting on it.

Firstly the breaking news "Aishwarya Rai gets engaged to Abhishek Bachchan". Wasnt that a scoop, a real surprise, something that was truly unexpected, wasn’t it? Ok what did it break??? Probably many hearts ;-)

Details about how n where Abhishek proposed, the functions that followed it, well wishers list, their onscreen/offscreen history, their chemistry, physics , mathematics of their horoscopes. Demand any trivia n lo u get it, from ‘sabse tez’ to ‘sharp news ..’

Big B, is proud of his Baby B, who has got himself a beautiful BB(bibi),I wonder what Queen B(Jaya) has to say about it. Now onwards The B, Queen B, Abi B, soon to be Mrs.B are going to be working around like busy B(ees) answering to the reporters and in between planning their wedding.
And yes, my best wishes for the couples.

Here I go..

2007-01-15T01:05:00.000+05:30

Today is "Bhogi", the first day of the 5-day harvest festival "Pongal" celebrated in Tamilnadu. It is the day in which people throw away their old stuff, clean their house and prepare for the new harvest.

Since I am not waiting for any harvest, I take it as a day, on which I decide to make a new start, a new beginning.

My fren Nadir remarked that the front page of my blog that reads " Fresh...." has become stale. So here I go kicking the trash and taking a delayed New Year resolution to be more regular with my postings. I feel that I am going to keep this resolution, lets c...

Fresh but not a fresher..

2006-11-26T20:48:00.000+05:30

'Fresh' - Yet another biz venture has been launched by the Reliance group @ Hyderabad.Not that it’s a pioneering effort by the Indian entrepreneur giant. U already have ‘fruits n vegetables’ section in the numerous supermarket chains across the Metro, Tier 1 n tier –II cities. But I m not sure if there exists an exclusive green-grocery supermarket. So in a way the concept of “Fresh” is fresh.
This post was drafted long back but posted only…( blame it on my laziness), so the post is not fresh.;-)
This project triggered few thoughts in my mind like:

1) Assurance of good quality product n u can do away with following the do’s n don’ts while buying vegetables like
- Tomatoes shld neither be too hard nor too floppy and of appropriate red colour.
- the ladys finger shld be tender n check it by breaking the tip of each pod.
- Make sure that the green leafy vegetables is not watery, bcoz chances are pretty high that the vendor is selling old stock
- Xtreme care needs to be taken while buying cauliflower n brinjal, unless u like ur flora with a dash of fauna.
and the list goes on……

In short henceforth, the Shopping life cycle wld be

walk into shop – pick the items – swipe the amount – walk out.

Ya u r right u have the most essential process of bargaining removed from it.

2) It’s a known fact that India basically had n still to some extent has an agro-based economy but now the focus is shifting away from it. After the success of “Green Revolution”, we basked in the glory of record foodgrain production but we forgot abt the follow-up requirements.
Just as a Software project after delivery requires a strong maintenance support. Similarly in agriculture after harvest (let it be foodgrains or vegetables) we need to take care of proper storage n transport facilities.
It wld be v good if the venture does not restrict itself to retailing n also pays interest to back-end operation. If they have a tie-up with the farmers directly n train them on proper storage methods and also provide required logistics for the same, it would truly help in ensuring the correct returns to the farmers for their produce as well as a good profit to the venture.

3) Comfort comes @ a price but I am yet to shop in a “Fresh” outlet to c how far the costing is common man’s pocket friendly.

Well I m looking forward to Fresh in Chennai.

Whats in a NAME!!!!

2006-11-06T16:41:00.000+05:30

If u flip thru any of the "career guide journals", chances are pretty high that u wld come across articles highlighting the "high attrition rates prevalent in the IT industry"(but nowadays the trend has been accepted as a natural phenomenon.)

I m not gonna dwell into the reasons for the same but IMHO one of the motivating factors is indeed
"the persistent itch for a change among the so called genX"

Taking cue from this funda my company has come out with a wonderful strategy
to retain their employees by giving them a virtual sense of change.

2 odd years back, I joined my organization which was then known as HSS, within no time
we got rechristened as FSS ( blame it on the ongoing M&A spree) and now again
we decided to change our name to ACS( in short Aricent).

After all “We power communication”
we ought to have Fourier transform, Laplace transform
so why not NAME transform!!

The fundoo beta versions...

2006-10-27T23:27:00.000+05:30

Everytime i checked my official mail, i used to wonder why doesn’t our personal mail service providers i.e the likes of gmail, yahoo, rediff have a preview pane.
n lo!!! last week my wishes were finally fulfilled.

First it was Yahoo n it was closely followed by rediff who have come up with beta versions that have a functional n pleasant interface.I don’t know exactly when they launched this service to Indian users but I happened to check it out only on Saturday.

The +ve attributes:

1) The neat, arranged, cluster free look is a definite plus
2) The preview pane surely saves a lot of ur time.
3) All the shortcut keys are more or less same as that is already prevalent with gmail but its even more functional.

But in most areas Yahoo beats Rediff. They have very cleverly packaged all their services(calendar,news, ads, email alerts..) in a single window.

Reasons for my pick on yahoo over rediff are:

1) I can open my mails in tabbed panes just like i can in Lotus Notes!! wow !!This is the best feature u can ask for any day.
2) Keeping in mind the growing interest of receiving capsuled infos from diff sites, yahoo beta version have a tab for all the "RSS feeds".I haven’t made use of this feature yet (ok i havnt subscribed to ne RSS feed yet, so what, dont give me the surprised look), but i m sure its a good plus.
3) The bottom timeline strip to add/view a quick appointment in ur calendar.

My problem with Rediff:

1)If I move my mails from the "Inbox" to my "personal folders" i am not able to make use of the filter options of\nthe "View" tab. cmon i wld like to view only the unread mails of my personal folders also. is it a restriction of a feature or a bug???
2) I cant make out the practical implications of the "Show header" option for a normal user.

In both the beta versions I m looking fwd to:

1)Ability to have a thread of a mail neatly stacked one after the other.

hey ppl in Yahoo n Rediff, r u listening!!! I also wish Gmail also comes up with a fresh look n somethin new. i m waitinn!!

The Cash back offer

2006-10-17T16:18:00.000+05:30

This being a festival season, in short shopping season almost all consumer based enterprises
r upto making the most of it, why shld the base of this consumerism- "credit cards" be left behind.Almost all of them have come up with various unique cash back schemes.
From the ICICI bank stable, there is an interesting offer:

If u happen to make a pay transaction(ie shop, no other mode is eligible) for Rs 2000 or more thru ur ICICI credit card u b'come eligible for cash back offers and the summation of the Authorization Approval Code(AAC) that u get on ur transaction slip decide the percentage of ur profit.

Now this AAC is 6 digit no. and to get 100% money back the sum should be more than 51
The max possible value of the sum of AAC digits is 54(999999)
The max possible combinations are 28 so the probability is 0.0028%

Similarly for 75% cash back, the sum shld be 0-5
the max possible combinations are 161 n the probability is 0.0161%

for consolation u r assured of a 1% cash back everytime!!!

but the ad screams only "100% Cash back offer" in bold!!!

btw i m eyeing another interesting festive offer by Shoppers Stop, which states that

"Since I am a First Citizen Card Holder, if I or my frenz do a shopping for

Rs 30000!!!, i get a diamond pendant" (the offer is valid till Dec 31)
the catch : shopping done in facet shops n via gift coupons r not counted.

So if 15 of u out there do a shopping for atleast Rs.2000 @ Shoppers Stop using my card no
i can make use of the offer.
hey is there neone out there abt 2 shop in Shoppers Stop do get in touch with me n get my Card no. n help me win a best fren (of course diamonds!).

A prose on pros..

2006-10-05T23:45:00.000+05:30

“Be pro-active”- is the most pronounced proclamation by the proctors( in our case managers) of the professional world. This proverbial statement prods many probationers to be productive n proficient who otherwise have a proclivity to procrastination. This profile wld project u as a “prodigy” n prompt u to be the procreator of many programs/ processes and also propound many problems in meetings n in due course progressing to a quick promotion.

Wow , a perfect prologue to a promising, prolific career.Do also profusely proffer your profound prowess to ur progeny to provide ur proximate proxy to ur company.

Let this protocol not be provincial to your profession alone but propel to other aspects of life also to reap the profits of apt proportion of fun and work which is a propitious sign of proper life.

Enough of pros, now probably I will probe on the problems of cons. ;-)

P.S: While in a meeting I was wondering abt the lipogramatic book "Gadsby" that does not have a single letter "e", so how abt using the paradigms of a particular oft-used prefix like "pro" n try forming atleast a para , uff it was a tough job n not that good either.Check out the link n njoi the book.

Me tagged!!

2006-10-03T16:32:00.000+05:30

Got tagged by Nadir, so here I go.

What is your full name?
Umamaheswari Muthumalai

Are you American Or English?
Nope, neither

What are you listening to right now?
Clattering noise of keyboards in my bay

What are the last two digits of your phone number?
83

What was the last thing you ate?
lunch in the office

If you were a crayon, what colour would you be?
Black, bold n quite visible.

How is the weather right now?
wet...wet..wet

Last person you talked to on phone?
priya (my fren)

First thing you notice about the opposite sex?
Eyes are the first thing u notice no matter, if the person in q
is of same sex or of opposite

Do you like the person who sent this to you?
Yep, otherwise i wldnt be posting this.

How are you today?
bindaas

Favourite Drink?
depending on the mood and the time of the day- black coffee or pineapple juice

Favourite Alcoholic Drink?
havent tasted many to zero upon my fav.

Favourite Sport?
like to play badminton
like to watch tennis
but njoi swimming

Hair Colour?
Black

Eye Colour?
Black

Do you wear contacts?
Nope

Siblings?
Yes, 1 sis

Favourite food?
nothing specific, but the food shld be tasty n hygenic

Last movie you saw?
y'day nite "My Girl"

Favourite Day of the Year?
29 Sep (My b'day)

Are you too shy to ask someone out?
No

Summer or winter?
a warm wintry day( when i require neither my cardigan nor my sunglasses)

Hugs or Kisses?
I prefer a warm cosy hug

Chocolate or Vanilla?
a large scoop of vanilla with a generous topping of thick choc sauce n
additional garnishing of nuts plzzz.

Who is most likely to respond?
the person who tagged me

Who is least likely to respond?
all those who r unaware of my virtual existence

What books are you reading?
The Google Story

What’s on your mousepad?
a logo of "DELL"

Favourite board game?
Scrabble

Favourite Smell?
petrichor ( the fresh sweet smell after the first rain)
and freshly ground coffee powder smell.

Can you touch your nose with your tongue?
No

Favourite flower?
i love white coloured flowers, while lilies n a bunch of fresh white roses

What’s the first thing you think when you wake up?
whats the time??

What’s the time?
check this blog post time

Nickname?
i dont have ne right now. but while i was a kid
i was called "guddi" by my neighbors

Ever been so drunk you blacked?
No

Been in a car accident?
thankfully not.

Been hurt emotionally?
Yes

Kept a secret from anyone?
Yes

Wanted to hook up with a friend?
Nope

Cried during a movie?
No

Had a crush on a teacher?
No.

Ever thought an animated character was hot?
Wheeler ( one of the five Planeteers of "Captain planet) - who represented Fire. obviously i wonder how hot he wld be??? ;-)

Had New Kids on The Block Tape?
i don understand this q.

Been on stage?
Yes

Fav Movie?
its simply v diff to pinpoint one film
in ne lang - pesum padam( pushpak in Hindi ) - this movie doesnt require a lang

English - Roommates(a vivid potrayal of "All Worlds A Stage"), Matrix(a visual treat of technology), Flavors(true to a IT ppls life)

Hindi -Mr n Mrs Iyer(for its true complexity, as to how situational love can be.),Dil Chahta Hai ( for its freshness), munnabhai (a total entertainer)

Tamil - Anbe Sivam(the movei was a reflection of my belief or the way i wld like to believe n of course Kamal), Mudhal Maryiadai(diff dimension to relationship)
i can simply go on ..on..on...

Fav Subject?
In School - English and maths ( B'coz for both these subject even if i dont study i can manage to write the exams)
In College - Engineering Drawing (this was the first subject in my academic life that involved ur visualizatoin skills n i simply loved it)

Fav person you talk to online?
hav'nt tried talking(gtalk n etal) online, till date i only chat.

Do you have boyfriend/girlfriend?
I hav many frnz n all of them r either boyz or gals so...( i know bad PJ)

Like anyone?
Many

Who have you known the longest of your friends?
My mom (sounds cliche , but thats the fact yaar)

Who’s the shyest?
who is a set of what??? (frenz/stranger or generic) . all i can think of right now is
"Touch me not" plant

Who’s the weirdest?
again same , the q is not complete.

Who would you go for advice?
depends on whats the topic i want advice on.but generally when on doubt i knock the doors of "google" devata.

Who do you cry with?
i dont like to shed tears in front of others so its always me n myself

Worst feeling?
knowing that u have to do a work but feeling lazy to do it.

Favourite word?
"hello" ( it feels good to greet someone, it feels good when an old fren recognizes u in a busy crowd n says this,
it feels nice to hear this when u r feeling lonely, this word is instantly followed by a bright smile on the face of both the orator n the listener)

Tis my b'day....

2006-09-29T18:00:00.000+05:30

I intended to publish this post @ 12:45a.m in the morning ( n be true to the tagline of my blog, ie blow my own trumpet)but due to some technical glitches in blogger i cldnt.
i m quite happy that i cldn then.
as i write this i m looking @ the beautiful bouquet @ my workstation along with a cute card all the way from Gurgaon.Thanks a lot Pooja, Manjusha, Ritika, Pallavi, Ruchi and ....Balaji ( frm Chennai, to take all the effort to place the flowers b4 i reach office). It really made my day. I feel like a Princess.
How I wish I had a data cable right now so that I can transfer this beautiful pic as an adage to this post.

THE END- an ode to my period of bliss!!!

2006-09-22T00:41:00.000+05:30

My mom n sis r back, marking a fullstop to my brief period of bliss. As promised i m gonna rate how i fared in my litmus test.(c my prev posts)

First of all staying alone in Chennai is not really like staying alone in Gurgaon or in Vizag or in ne of the other places that i hav lived,simply bcoz my family(or a part of it) has been staying here for 10 years now. n almost everybody knows me.

My colony is like my extended family.wanna proof?????
these r the sample queries that I was bombarded with in the mornings, jus when i was literally counting every passing sec lest I did miss my 9:07 BEACH(FAST) EMU.

yenna aachu neth light romba nerama eranjuta irundatha? (wat happnd, the light was on for a long time?)
:when was it off?? ( i m of the habit of sleeping late in the night, or rather early in the morning, say 1 am n my sis likes getting up early (say 3-4), so practically the lights r always ON.

whom were u talking with y'day night in the balcony o’er the phone.
:hell man, most of my hours in the house r spent talking to my mom r o’er the phone, that is when i m not reading or watching TV (ok sorry!!! i realized i don talk that much)

what were u doing in the terrace y'day night?
: i njoi strolling in the terrace or swinging in my balcony n thats what i do even when my mom’s around.

why didnt u buy milk y'day? u r not taking care of ur health.
: cmon u expect me to finish 1litre of milk in a day, when i m there only @night.

wat happnd u r not eating well. When ur mom returns she will remark that “u hav lost ur wt;-(”
:acc to my mom, I m perennially losing weight

I noticed u were late/early from the office yday.
: kindly define whats early n whats late n what do u call correct time.

oh y'day u washed ur clothes…. u went for shopping ?? were u @ ur fren’s place??what did u have for b'fast?? …. N the list goes on.
To b v frank i didnt have to step into kitchen for more than 4-5 days. For all the other days my generous Aunties were there to take care of that dept.
I was so confused to c so many utensils in my house that one day i ventured to return all of it with my kai vannam, but unfortunately (fortunately) 2 of my fav aunties had gone out 4 the weekend. So they cldnt taste my dishes, but the rest did n I m not saying nethig further

Now I m forced to wonder was I really alone???? (but touch wood I m blessed to hv such a wonderful extended family).

Of treats and get-togethers

2006-09-11T00:28:00.000+05:30

Last week has been a v happening one. It all started off with a get together of my college-mates ( our second in as many weeks!! n we term it as “reunion”;-) ) on Saturday.
Location: Abirami Mall,(it was a welcome change from the usual beach) this place was v crowded n the hall was not v impressive.
Agenda: movie - “Vettaiyadu villayiadu” (hunt n play) followed by a late lunch.
It was the first tamil movie that I watched after returning to Chennai n it was worth the money. I watch movies n appreciate performances but I am not a fan of ne actor but “Kamal Hasan” is an exception (the reason being he is a gr8 performer netime n everytime ;-))
The movie was fast paced, slick n technically perfect although there were minor glitches here n there. It was the best in recent times. ( I will probably talk abt the movie in my next post)

There were 2 birthday treats in my office and a lunch party in the office sponsored by me n few other frenz ( reason: I got promoted as Senior Software Engg). Somethin abt the lunch
Location: “Dhabha Express” – I was expecting it to be a Punjabi affair. Although the ambience was made to appear so , but the strong presence of chinki(or were they bengali!!) stuck out as a sore thumb. The vegetarian dishes were so-so. In the NV side I was terribly upset by the fish items. The only consolation was the chicken made dishes. We also got to meet Prithviraj( Jaya TV “Sawal”). I was literally scared to see his coloured, straightened knots of hair.( it’s a true sawal to c him in person)

To end this gr8 week it was my close fren Sunitha’s bday. We had a gr8 time together.
Now I am looking fwd to the forthcoming treats : both my frenz Priya n Sunitha r heading to UK. Hey r u listening, no combined treats.

Home Alone

2006-09-04T23:45:00.000+05:30

My sis’s exams are over n her 2 months looooong vacations have begun. So she n my mom have decided to njoi her achievement of becoming 20% doctor by making a visit to my Dad in Delhi. Wow!!! I am alone @ home from today . The house looks so serene n calm.

I have been fortunate, to be blessed with such wonderful moments, throughout my life, every now n then. I love my family v much n njoi staying with them but I also love solitude. I know the first thought that wld cross everyone’s mind in such situation – “njoi ur freedom” . But my parents have already given me enough freedom. Then what’s so nice in staying alone. Now these are the things I love to do now n will do

1) When I am with my mom, most of my time @ home is spent talking with her, leaving v little time for me to be with myself. I njoi sitting in the jhulla in my balcony n keep swinging the whole night(or atleast half night, I seriously don’t want 2 scare away our apartment watchman).that’s what I am gonna do t’row night.
2) Our parents take care of us so v well, I always like testing , if I am able to take care of myself in the same way. This might sound quite ridiculous, but I am sure given a chance v wld usually get lazy n forgo all the small details that we were so particular when someone else was there to do for us. (eg: can u cook ur food exactly the same way in which u keep telling ur mom to cook, r u ready to iron ur dress that was neatly stacked in ur wardrobe just bcoz there is a small crease in the shoulder amidst ur morn rush, I guess u get what I am trying to say )
3) One thing that my mom doesn’t like is “ reading books well past midnight” n I am gonna do exactly the same, read “WE THE LIVING” tonight.(well its already midnight).
4) Most of all, live ur day to day life in such a way that no on knows that u r “HOME ALONE”. It might sound like point 2, but that was more abt “me” this is more abt “what others think of me”

Will let u know abt my xperience n also how I fared in my litmus test @ the end of this bliss.

A clear definition

2006-09-01T01:13:00.000+05:30

I live in an apartment n my flat is close to the play area (or rather plainly open area). As with many colonies, we have a sizable population of kids, but mind u, they r a bunch of the smartest in their age-group.
While they r there in the apartment, most of their waking hours r spent in this play area. They play, do their home-works, study, dance, sing, eat, fight, discuss(sometimes even politics) n god knows what not in this adda of theirs.

Now if I had to ask u to define algebra. What wld u say?

Chances r there u wld start with

well…..,/

it is nothing but….,/

hmmm.. ,/

its…..,/

or even simply “algebra is a branch of maths”

This is what a 7th std girl had to say without any hesitation to a 6th std boy who was inquiring abt Algebra ( I guess his next chapter in Maths happens to be algebra):

“ numbers la vidukathai sozhrathuthan algebra” (tamil) –translates to
“riddles in numbers is algebra”
how v true!!!

I was highly impressed by this plain, no- nonsense definition.

Who said Time n Tide waits for none

2006-08-31T00:38:00.000+05:30

Today in office we had a design issues discussion n few of my team members who r taking care of the SNTP (Simple Network Time Protocol) module had some query with regards to Daylight Saving Start Time parameters….. blah.. blah..Now I was curious what the hell this DST mean.
After a bit googling this is what I got to know :

Daylight Saving is a mechanism of adjusting your local time, prevalent in regions where there is a stark variation in daylight hours in different seasons( North America, Europe n Polar regions ). Usually for summer(at March end), the clock is set ahead by 10 mins to 1 hour n in winter(Oct end) u again sync ur timing with the set World Time. This ensures there is a better utilization of natural sunlight.
In short "make hay while the sun shines" .

There is a universally accepted date n time when the clocks of the particular region r set.
All the watches of the region & in the international community the time for that place is modified accordingly. Most operating system (inc WINDOWS) r DST enabled which automatically takes care of ur system time.

Now i m wondering of the options where we make the tide wait for us???

India Simplifly

2006-08-28T23:59:00.000+05:30

“Fly for Rs 3” – screamed an ad in last Tuesday paper marking the 3rd anniversary of the launch of Air Deccan. In the past , I have been fooled by many such ads by diff low cost airlines only to find myself doing an added 100-150 Rs service to Airtel and just hopping that “the customer service personnel will join me pretty shortly”.The cheapest fare that I have managed till date is Rs 1500 for a Chennai-Delhi GO-Air flight, which in itself is quite a good deal.

So I was quite skeptical about this offer. I was in a hurry on Tuesday morning, so I checked the site in office( feeling quite sure that the travel agents wld have made the most of the offer) ,n found the Rs 3 ticket avbl!! But unfortunately their server was down so I cldn book it online n I was not ready to call them, so I jus gave up.

While returning home in suburban train, I just dialed once n lo, I get connected n the customer service personnel is indeed speaking to me. It took me a while to recollect the date I intended to book for. When all the formalities got o’er, usually the chap at the other end asks for the return journey details also, but this time arnd he hung up.

So for the next 1 hour, I again ended up doing whatever possible service I cld do to the telecom service providers. Next day morning, “while I was sleeping” my mom called up n after a mere 10 minute ordeal she booked another Rs 3 return ticket.

So now my mom is a proud owner of two Rs. 3 ticket (plus Rs.875 tax for each ticket) for a journey to Delhi she is gonna make next year Jan!!!!

Jokes apart, “Thank U Air Deccan” for making air travel so v normal n affordable to the la R.K.Laxman’s “comman man”.

Just a sip...

2006-08-25T00:51:00.000+05:30

It has been now 2 months since I got transferred to Chennai. I was jus thinking abt the most significant change that my 2 year stint in Gurgaon has brought in my personal front
: COFFEE!

pre gurgaon:
"Coffee was never my cup of tea well neither was tea".I was a die-hard juiceholic ( n m still) .I belonged to the endangered species of Chennaites who don’t like or avoid drinking coffee. Although I simply adored the aroma of freshly roasted ground coffee powder.

post gurgaon:
my fav beverage: black coffee

well the reasons:
cld be attributed as an occupational hazard.

I am by default a v lazy sleeper( I sleep for v few hours) so I didn’t want to increase my waking hours by drinking coffee but once in office I had to…..( now do I need to xplain this)
Moreover I like spending time in coffee houses for which I had to drink coffee. (somehow I prefer coffee Day to Barista)

the genesis

I started of with Irish Coffee, a fren of mine persuaded me to have it. I liked it v much. It was v much of my kind. Slowly I got hooked to it n advanced to black coffee.

Well when we r into the topic , I must also say abt my off. pantry coffee ( Fresh n Honest). The coffee is made of real milk(u can skip this) n coffee beans (unlike the Ggn branch) n it tastes yumm. It literally charges u up ( a v good strategy by the mgrs to keep u working).

nebody up for coffee with me now !!!

2006-08-19T01:30:00.000+05:30

InQUIZitive????

August 15 is Independence day for India but for Chennai it also means the largest open quiz of the city "Landmark Quiz".I knew that if i am there in the city i had to be there come what may even if the venue is 1hr 20 mins travel from my place.Chennai is a land of Quiz loving ppl. If u need a proof u shld have witnessed the crowd at the huge hall that was enthralled by the volley of questions thrown by Derek O Brein.The chief guest of the evening was Vikram Chandra who was in town for the release of his book "Sacred Games"

My team partners were my office colleagues but not from he same project, Ankurnath( he is a keen quizzer n was also my partnerto the Tata Crucible Biz Quiz that was held 3 weeks b4) and Elavarsan ( i met him at the quiz venue).

The prelims had 40 questions. It being an open quiz , the questions catered to all age group and hand picked from varied fields of interest.

The plummest lot of all the q were

- one that dealt with cockroach( q: the animal that has retained its structure for 200 million years)

-one that required to identify the voice of Monty Panesar.

- the country that scored the highest no of goals in FIFA finals - Brazil

the toughest questions were

- one that had a list of non- comprehensible collection of alphabets to form 12 words which turned out to be 12 finches that were under Darwin ( now who is bothered abt these birds)

- connect : Leonardo da vinci, a dog in a basket, an indian lady with a beautiful long hair .

Try exercising ur grey cells for a while, i m not going to give out the ans for this

There were few that gave out surprising infos like

- Hitler was a landscape artist!!! b4 becoming what he is know famous for.

- Its Sears Tower n not Petronas tower that has the largest commercially occupied floors.

- the pic of Florence Nightingale in a totally different angle (w/o a lamp)

I liked this one q which was v well cracked by Ankur

- Which organization have members who work as boss, under-boss, soldier, under-soldier - MAFIA

n as usual there was a list of q that makes u scream "how did i miss this!!!"
- The book cover of "Indian Summers" with the pic of tha author,John Wright missing

- the most commonly used English noun acc to Oxford- time

- pink ribbon symbolizing - breast cancer (considering the fact that it was also the week of "Spreading Awareness abt Breastfeeding")

The cut off was 23.5 n 7 out of the 8 teams on the dias had this score.The IIT team "No questions asked" had a clear lead of 25 pts due to their prelims score but they cldnt capitalise on it n finished third at the end of the day.

The finals had many superb questions which were even more superbly cracked by the teams.I cant recollect many but few of my favorites were:

1) 1 square feet of this weighs exactly 205 gm - the cloth from which the Indian flag is made

2) Connect Architect Louis Blank, Anna in the book Anna Karenina, Arshad Warzi in Sehar - all of them died in railway station.

3) Whom did the English press dub as "Abnominal noman" - Charles deGaulle for preventing Britain from entering the European union.

well the list is endless... For further details join the Yahoo "Quizkreig" group n c my post.

The best moment of the evening was when a 60+ aged man from the audience came up to the stage to collect his gift for answering a question that was thrown to the audience n amidst a group of we so called future of India who r so cynical abt our future he proudly said that "the country has developed v well n in the right track". The best part was yet to come, when we got to know that his son, Swami was among those in the podium n eventually his team "QED" emerged the Winner for the 2006 edition.

To sum up it was a gr8 evening ( now this is an understatement).

P.S : the ans to the connect q is "parachute" now try connecting ;-)

2006-08-11T10:05:00.000+05:30

Fare Unfair

I was surprised to find that IIM-A has included a case study "Lalu Prasad and his Railway ministry".

reason: the turnaround of Indian Railways from a bankrupt organization to one having a surplus fund of 20,000 crore within a span of 3 years.

Now I am not going to do a propaganda for the railways n talk abt the steps that brought abt this transformation.just wanted to share couple of my observations.

During the first weekend of this month, I traveled to tuticorin to visit my sister.

The train: aptly named as " Pearl City express" (Tuticorin is known for its pearls).

It has been recently clubbed under the super-fast class of trains. This resulted in the fare of the train to be increased by10 Rs. But with no change in the train journey time!!!!

What was even more baffling was that,while I was booking for my return journey the ticket cost me further 10 Rs. more.

logic: From now onwards if u are to book a ticket for a journey from point A to point B, from anywhere other than point A the ticket is gonna cost u more.

Now kindly tell me what's the all hullah about "computerisation of train ticketing". May be networking by wires have no affect on networking by tracks.

2006-08-09T16:21:00.000+05:30

I Blog

This is my second effort in blogging and my first as myself(the previous one was under false identity), well that justifies the name of my blog.

I always wonder why do ppl blog (particularly the personal diary types).Its quite unusual for the author of this blog to ask such a q but still....

No one likes to discuss their life with perfectly strange ppl.
then why do ppl put their ideas in public domain?

the probable reasons that i can think of:

1)BULLETIN BOARD :Its a good way to broadcast the happenings of ur life to all ur frenz (if few starangers also get to know of it, no probs).
2)SUCTION PUMP: a blog can be a good ventilator to throw out all ur heated emotions .
3)CITIZEN OF THE WORLD: for few,more the frenz better the life, what better way than a blog to acheive this?
4)CHRONOMETER: u spend more time in net than @ home, then what better way to record ur events for future .
5)IN THE CROWD:All the other ppl are doing ,why be left behind, its the most in thing ( frankly speaking the first time arnd, this was the reason for me to blog).
6)PLAIN TIMEPASS: bored of being bored, so blog

do get back with ur reasons for blogging.