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2009-04-10T11:02:00.001+05:30

Olympics, Washington DC - Baltimore trip, Beverly Hills, Movies and more

2008-09-19T01:54:00.010+05:30

Time to say Hi! Those who are visiting this space, and still don't find anything new, Thanks, and do hop in at least once in a month. You might find something new in store! With that said, I am making a conscious effort to keep the blog space going, at least with these one or two posts a month.

Its been a totally totally amazing time and lots of events since my last post. True to its spirit, the 2008 Olympics in China kept the promise of being the greatest show in the planet and no doubt, astounding and outstanding with its scale of magnificence, glamor, participation, logistics. It kept me 'wowed' for a long time. There are two important people, Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt. Phelps, made records of all sorts by winning a cool 8 gold medals, the most by anyone in a single Olympics, and totalling his career gold medals to 14, the most by any participant so far. Bolt, landed up becoming the faster runner in the earth, by breaking the 100m, 200m and 4x100 m relay records. On an improvement note, India ended with 3 medals in the Olympics.Credits to Susheel and Vijendar after Abhinav's gold.

And my long weekend was really cool and went really long - began on Aug 28 and ended on Sept 2, took an extra 2 days off from work. I made my first trip to the east coast of the US. It took a 6 hour flight journey to get over there.I visited my sister's family Baltimore, and visited Washington DC and Virginia. Most important attractions I visited include:
Washington DC - Capitol Building, White House, Eternal flame of Kennedy in Arlington National Cementary, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Washington Memorial and its reflecting pool that is close by. Also various other buildings and Smithsonian museums, from the top of our hop on- hop off bus, if seeing them from outside, is counted in. Most importantly, the best part was the Spy Museum is Washington. Its one of its kind, with a really unique experience that a conventional museum wouldn't offer you. If you visit DC, I'd say, don' t miss it, and don't forget to thank me, once you did :-) Also we just took a drive in and around Baltimore and inner harbor area.

Following the long weekend, on the next Saturday, one of my friends had come down to LA from Orange county, a close by (=30 miles) area. We took a crazy drive all around and finally we decided to roam around Beverly Hills. It was a great place, with awesome houses and roads. We then came to Rodeo Drive, the shopping hub of Beverly Hills. This was a revelation to me, I never visited this area in the last 3 months and the designer shops, the crowd and the wow factor just captivated me. Porsche, Ferrari, Benteley, and whatever brands you name it, chances are that you find in and around the streets of Rodeo drive.

On the Movies front, I watched some really cool movies, My Cousin Winnie, being one of them. Its an early 90s comedy movie. If you haven't, I recommend you watch it. On a family/ drama genre, there's another movie August Rush, which you may not want to miss. It's a 2006 release, did fairly well at the Box Office, nevertheless, a movie that will put you in tears towards the end. Its about a 12 year old boy on his quest to find his parents through music - the story is fairy tale ish, but trust me, once you are into, it captivates you till the end.

Coming to Bollywood, I saw these: Singh is Kingg (My Rating: Okay), Rock on (My Rating:Good), A Wednesday (My Rating:Excellent), Aamir (My Rating:Very Good) and in Tamil, these: Jeyamkondan (My Rating:Very Good), Dhaam Dhoom (My Rating:Okay). Out of all these, I'd say don't miss watching "A Wednesday", its simply brilliant. Outstanding. One of the finest ones I've seen in recent days, with its screen pace, razor sharp play and the best of all - A Wednesday has two of the finest theatre actors in India, Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher, as its protagonists.

Where are our other Abhinavs?

2008-08-12T10:47:00.006+05:30

There is an interesting up, close and personal article about Abhinav Bindra in rediff; check that out! Okay, by now, you would have read the numerous articles about Abhinav, his parents, his accolades, his back problem and commando training, his commitment, 0.5 mm 10 m range rifle sport, rewards etc.

My mood turned to a real contemplative mode when I read in his blog a really mature and humble post, titled The day after!!!!!!!!!!! Boy, what a simplicity! His way of looking things at a broader perspective, at this euphoric moment when people stopped worrying about other sports and events in olympics,,Just am excerpt from that below:

I would like to reiterate that everyone who represents India at the Olympic
Games has put in years of toil and sweat. I ask the Indian people to support our
athletes more. It is fine to celebrate our achievements but it is just as
important to keep up the backing when we are not on top of our game.It is
important for India to do better at Olympic sport as these are the true measure
of a nation's sporting depth. I wish more private initiatives come up with
corporate support apart from the backing of the government. The joy that the
nation feels at my win is humbling. I just wish that this is repeated more and
more often.With our depth of talent and expanse of people I firmly believe India
can be a world-class sporting power. What we need are precise systems. I will
try to do my bit at grooming the next generation. I would like to appeal to each
Indian to also do their bit in prodding us out of sporting complacency.

On a separate note, read this. This is an old article by Rohit Brijnath, or rather I would say, an appeal for a coach, after assessing his potential to make big in his chosen field at a nascent stage. And in response, an article hosted by a Singapore Indian, to meet the hefty sum of coaching, and infrastructure. Just few months back, in this article

Still, till a couple of months back Bindra Sr would crib about the lukewarm
response from the government agencies for his son. The family organised on its
own the funds required for his training, in addition to support from the LN
Mittal Champion Trust.

And now, see what. . Scores of CMs have annouced rewards, summing to 17 million plus Indian rupees, BCCI rewarding 25 Lakhs, a lifetime free rail pass in AC First class by apna Lalu jee, life time free air travel by a domestic airliner in India - the doling out of huge incentives, all this at a time when he really, doesn't need them the most...This can be best said, in one single word in English language - irony - that precisely and aptly brings the essence of the moment...

But lo behold, its the time to publicity - individuals and corporates alike are 'capitalizing' the opportunity - sharing one is associated how, some with nostalgic accounts, in a bid to tantrum oneselves. Indian Inc., but you didn't have resources to spare a mere $500 for a coach for the same person few years back.

The team's Hungarian coach Laszlo Szucsak, it is said, has gone to coach Japan
because India couldn't afford to pay him US$500 or whatever more a month. But
they can spend Rs 50 crore on hospitality for foreign athletes at the Afro-Asian
Games!!!!

And also read this. Okay, Abhinav hails from an affluent family, and his family has invested in him and nurtured his never say die spirit. Thats good, not all rich families do that, in the sense, investing crores in an outcome that one never knows. Hadn't there been any support at all, many others would rather shattered their determined kids to bring them into their family businesses. .And think about those other Abhinavs who are just unnoticed and left as stones unturned...In Abhinav's own words, a billion people deserve not one but 40 gold medals. India Inc. , are you listening?

India's first ever Olympic Gold Medal by an individual

2008-08-11T12:58:00.009+05:30

Olympics has started!!! I missed watching the inaugural ceremony on August 8 as I went on a weekend outing to Orange County, and the weekend went awesome. More on that later to give priority to what you are going to read next.

The day this day - August 10, 2008, is a golden day, bringing a golden news for India - a Gold medal by Abhinav Bindra in the 10 m Air Rifle shooting.

This is a historic moment for us, Indians, for winning the first ever ever individual Gold medal in Olympics. (The last time India won a gold medal was at the Moscow Olympics in 1980 in men's field hockey) I am happy today, more happy than I would have been during India's victory of 1983 cricket World cup, a time when I wasn't born. For a country with the population of a billion, winning a first ever gold medal calls for a billion celebration. If you are kind who asks whats the big deal, see coutries like USA, Russia, and China; or isn't it embarrasing to call (y)our first ever gold medal, sorry I am in no position to agree or argue and reason out our factilities, infrastructure, coaching, how we should improve etc. I am in khushi mode now, so lets/ let me celebrate :-)

And don't forget to watch the video in youtube or in any one of the scores of news videos.

Aamir Khan's blog

2008-08-11T12:35:00.003+05:30

Celebrities' blogs are catching up in the blogosphere. And so are Indian celebrities too.
Certainly Aamir Khan raises your eyesbrows with his regular footprints in the blogosphere. He actually claims to write all the post himself, and yes, they do appear from his own. Also he reads his comments and replies them (some, of course!). Want to see his blog? His writing is nice, fresh and lively. You get to see other facets of Aamir. Do visit once, if you get a chance.
BTW I read most of his posts, and believe me, they kept giving me a Wah wah experience. He expresses his frank opinion in his writing, in posts like "Olympic Torch Relay" (dated 01-april-08), where he supports the spirit of sportsmanship that is beyond the realms of borders and conflicts. I truly appreciate his style of writing and the reasoning that showcases his innate streaks of intellectuality.
Way to go, Aamir. But do act in more and more movies. We want to see you more!
PS: BTW I watched Jaane Tu..Ya Jaane Na..; it was one helluva nice movie. I totally totally loved the lead characters - Imran Khan (Rats) and Genelia (Meow).. Both of them did a fantastic job!

Naga Naresh Karuturi

2008-08-06T22:40:00.001+05:30

Inspiring, I must say..Naga Naresh Karuturi is a star in my eyes - Hats off to you!
Want to know More? Read this and this.

In Los Angeles now!

2008-08-02T10:35:00.007+05:30

Yes, the blog is alive, or I hope so. Or take this as my feeble attempt to revive with this post. There are too too many things from the past 4 months to update on the blog:

Work wise, I am on a relocation spree. I am now here in Los Angeles in the US of A! Came here a month and a half back. My UK deputation is over - so no more it is London or Oxford. After a year long stay in London, I went to Oxford on work. My Oxford deputation was quick, for 2 months and after a very memorable stay, I returned to India during April looking work deliverables from my Chennai office. Offy gave me a comfy accomodation in one of their guest houses in the Besant Nagar area of Chennai; a furnished air conditoned room with Tata Sky TV, in the hot summer of Chennai - I couldn't have asked for more.! It was fun to meet friends after a long time and spent almost every other weekend hanging out with them. And then there was this Besant Nagar beach that used to be my regular night walk post the Kulfi sessions at a beachside shop near there. To add more spice, there was a project outing to Kodaikanal with 25 people! That was a real blast with some awesome pictures for a memorable album. After about a month's stay in Chennai I went to my hometown in Karaikudi for a quick 3 weeks vacation. And then after a client call and a quickie interview, I was chosen to be a Business Analyst with a media research client of TCS, based out of Hollywood. I had to pack my bags (& suitcases) - which have been my constant travel companions since my London days.. I started in the 3rd week of June to Los Angeles via Singapore and Tokyo. [Singapore's Changi airport is amazing, totally picturesque and really admirable.] Finally I arrived LAX (LA's international airport) after a long and tiresome journey.

Got into one of my colleagues house. Its an apartment in a nice housing community. Has got what all one [I] would need - 3 swimming pools, spa, sauna, gym, community room! Looks like outside the house, I am into a holiday resort (at least by desi standards).

On the leisure part during weekends, it's been really cool all these days. First weekend flied away with my jet lag blues and the following weekend (the Independence day long wknd), I went with my cousin, who is in LA, to a camping site near SFO. It was a 8 hour drive and in the camp, it was all fun with around 35 odd adults and kids (most of them my relatives) and with no electicity and amenities. The third weekend, I visited the Universal studios and Santa Monica beach. Universal city and the studios were a revealation - you must really visit it once to truly appreciate its one of its kind Unversal Tour in their signature tram. The weekend next went on a sight-seeing tour in and around LA - downtown, Hollywood, Sunset etc. Only the last weekend I was totally free - sitting in home and watching movies - absolute bliss!

Sujatha

2008-03-02T02:07:00.003+05:30

Sujatha (pen name of S. Rangarajan), one of the icons of contemporary Tamil Literature, has passed away. He was 72, and is survived by his wife and two sons. A Multifaceted personality, with engagements to name a few: Scientist, Engineer, Science Fiction Writer, Novelist, Columnist in weekly and daily publications and movie script writer, all in diverse fields. He is most popularly accredited as the man behind the Electronic Voting machines (EVMs) during his tenure with BEL (Bharat Electronics Ltd) when he headed the team that designed it. Sujatha is a rare gem from the science fraternity who is known for communicating complex and hard to understand science behind things through simple and lucid writing to the audience. Also he has penned about 100 novels and hundreds of short stories. Personally I liked his book, an Ananda Vikatan publication, 'yaen ? yedarkku? yeppidi?' (translates to what? why? how?). Interestingly, he is equally an authority in the kollywood (Tamil movie Industry) too with a number of projects. As far as I remember he wrote scripts from Indian (one of Kamalhassan's biggest hits) to Mudhalvan and Sivaji, to name the latest. His last creative venture was with Shankar's mega project, Robo. Sadly, he passed away before its completion.

Sujatha shall stay alive in the minds of readers with his writing and works. May his soul rest in peace.

Blah, blah and Blah.......

2008-02-24T09:00:00.003+05:30

So I've got to update this.. I've been on a long sojourn..and a lot laziness + boredom + lack of enthu didn't really kind make me open this. But anyways here are the updates: Workwise okay okay and I've moved to a new place - Oxford for my next assignment. After a week long [passive] house hunting, I just got one. So that calls for a celebration here and so this post :-)
More to follow at its own pace. So watch this space...!!!
p.s: A new mobile phone purchase is on the hold. Updates to follow

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2008-01-05T19:12:00.001+05:30

If you are reading this and if this still is the month of January (irrespective of the year!), accept my New Year/Pongal/ Sankranti/ whatever applicable wishes.

I've made a trip to Chennai after 11 long months - Chennai is very much the same, only that traffic (both human and automobile) has gone denser than ever. The first sight that pleasantly welcomed me outside Anna International Airport were Chennai's swarming queue of adorable Taxi drivers and Autokaarars. One look at the Ambassador cars - both White ones and Black-(top)yellow ones realised me how dearly I missed them in the UK. And also our affectionate and welcoming mosquitoes.

My vacation was originally for 2 weeks and now its been extended. I've planned to take some rest and am glad that I'd be here for some more time...So far my holidays went okay okay. Lots of interim alachal (for the Tamil challenged, this translates to 'wandering locally') and two trips to Chennai within 2 weeks. Did nothing productive though. Fell sick with cold and coughh in my native place and almost back to form now. Didn't check Internet for a long while (= 2 weeks) - hence the delay in blogging or orkutting and or facebooking.

There are lots to do - need to learn few chettinad and quickie dishes that might come handy, have to see Taare Zameen Par and I am Legend. Regd Tamil movies, I am upto date - Billa, Kalluri et al have been covered while in London itself. Billa is okay - stylish, chic and racy, but lacks in substance. Same story and not even a minor change in the plot. Billa - the earlier, was class and the new one falls down vis a vis the old Billa. However, Billa the new is trendsetter in kollywooed in terms of camera, action and stunts..

Running out of time in the browsing cafe. So........See you soon in my next post!

Facebook

2007-12-01T17:28:00.001+05:30

I've been in Facebook for quite sometime, but mostly as an inactive member. Just recently I started exploring and playing around and importantly building network...The motivation started with my some of my facebook colleagues prompting me to check this often..And that its cool! It looks quite different than orkut (where I am quite active).. but the only hands-down in facebook is adverts, little font and too many [default] feeds that are annoying.. I know one can change the preferences - but still I wonder if it is REALLY necessary to display a feed if someone has updated an alphabet somewhere in the profile!
Anyways, I've taken few cool quizzes there - one of them is a friends character quiz. You answer 10 odd questions and it maps you to a character or characters in the friends tv show. I got mapped to Joey! BTW did I tell you? I just bought the DVD for all the 24 episodes of friends season 1..I haven't seen the first season and it was good catching up the first series..

2nd Anniversary

2007-11-14T22:08:00.000+05:30

Hey..Hey..Hey!!!

Just realised that it's a significant milestone for my not-so-significant-blog - MY SCRIBBLING. The blog has stood the test of time with its passive author and it has [un] successfully completed 2 YEARS!!!

Anyways, yours truly has 3 movies to add for finished-watching-this-movie-list: they are Katradhu Tamil, Azhagiya Tamil Magan and Jab We met. Katradhu Tamil (கற்றது தமிழ்)is an off the beat movie and presents a very different story with actor Jeeva doling out a seasoned performance. No doubt, the role of Prabhakar will elevate him to new heights. Pats to him and the director. The only downside is Katradhu Tamil has gore, violence and a sad climax, that goes against conventional Tamil movie viewers. Nevertheless, as publicised it isn't a feel bad movie either. If you want to see something different from the masala and duet movies, I would say, go for it.

Next, Azhagiya Tamil Magan (அழகிய தமிழ் மகன்) is a regular masala movie, only that Vijay appears in double role is new! But otherwise, the movie is nothing great. If you just want a timepass without caring for logic, yes, you can tolerate ATM. Otherwise, I've had heard many folks with comments such as 'intolerable, 'முடியல' (I can't...), 'நான் அழுதுடுவேன்' (Do you want me to cry?), 'ஏன் இந்த விளையாட்டு' (Why do you want to game?) etc. I already forgot the £'s I used for multiplex ticket and return cab (it was a late show) - sunk cost!

Jab We Met (जब वी मेट ), is a feel-good movie with an amazing on screen chemistry between Shahid and Kareena. You may have the de' javu of Hinidi movies like Kitne Door Kitne Paas ; but overall the movie presents a whiff of freshness. Kareena is cute and with her chatterbox role has given one of her best performances till date. Shahid is good; I did feel for the first time he is good in dancing too. Go for it!

Schindler's List and Shawshank Rdemption

2007-10-31T20:19:00.001+05:30

Schindler's List

This is one touching movie which I saw on DVD yesterday. If you are the kind who likes emotion, suffering and pain in the backdrop of a war, you would like it. Schindler's List is a brilliant and heart touching narration of sufferings and execution of the Jews before World War II. There are many occasions in the movie that would break you down. You will witness the numerous sufferings bore by the jews, the helpless victims in the Nazi regime. Man, seeing the pain in the movie itself was terrible. But with all this, there is this one man, the hero Oskar Schindler who saves 1000 odd jews from the inescapable clutches of Nazi execution. It's a real story and towards the end of the movie it is shown there is a now sect called the Schindler Jews, who owe their lives to Oskar Schindler. I went by the reviews, which were laudatory and after watching all I say, true - it is.

Shawshank Redemption

This is another movie that I saw last week. I really regret watching it so late 'coz it belongs to the league of brilliant-ones-one-could-ever-see. The story is about a rich banker, who is mistakenly taken as his wife's murderer and given a life imprisonment by the court. Morgan Freeman is also a prisoner with life imprisonment and the movie leaps forward with his soft and witty narration. The plot revolves around the prisoners, the daily routine, the trauma one suffers inside a prison and few good things like bonding, humour, prison library et. al. But the climax is simply brilliant, true to the spirit of its tagline - "Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free." . I recommend strongly you watch it. Note that IMDB has given a rating 9.2 (updated)/10!

Google Transliterate

2007-10-29T16:08:00.000+05:30

Yet another innovative product from GoOgLe - Transliterate.
Type any Hindi/Malayalam/Tamil/regional language word in English (same way as we pronounce it) and hit SPACE... It gets translated to that regional language and boy, quite accurate! This works like a dictionary mode on your mobile phone and of course, boon for me folks like me !!!

My first attempt (pasted from the typepad in the link):

हेल्लो वर्ल्ड (Hindi)
ஹலோ வேர்ல்ட் (Tamil)
హలో వరల్డ్ (Telegu)
ಹಲೋ ವರ್ಲ್ಡ್ (Kannada)

And my name:
कासी
காசி
కసి
ಕಸಿ

The languages included for now are Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. More languages would be added in near future, me thinks. Please note that this Google Transliteration is a prototype and still is in the early stages of development. No doubt, the product when formally rolled out would be a huge hit!

The return of ME !!!

2007-10-18T20:30:00.000+05:30

It’s been a long while away from the blog. So this shall be a very blog-friendly post capturing most what I want to record and dabble here..

My mother came to London last month. So, kind of re-touring London every weekend covering places such as London Eye, Big Ben, Tower Bridge, Thames river, Hyde Park, central London et al. This way I got to see Buckingham Palace, which is open only for 2 months a year, from inside for the first time. It was a fabulous experience! Also visited places were one Murugan temple and another Sivan temple in Lewisham. My mother is pleasantly surprised to see this – I have been here for over 9 months and all I visited among temples is one Mahalakshmi temple and Swami Narayan temple - that too each only once. Anyway, she is not at least startled when I discovered recently that there are actually two Indian temples in Wembley, the place where I stay! Okay now pause this ;-)

The festival season has started! With Id and Navaratri on the same day, it was double celebration. Last Saturday evening (till Sunday early hours) yours truly was with Gujju friends Parth & Co. enjoying Garba and Dandiya at a Gujrati Hall nearby. It was damn crowded with over 1000 heads. Needless to say, all girls with their traditional wear were (or least seemed) beautiful!

Over the past two weeks, I watched loads of movies… Scream 1, Scream 2 and Scream 3 in dvd in one sitting whole night – started at 10 pm Saturday and ended at 5.30 am Sunday! And it was certainly worth the time and efforts ;-) Later bought few Tamil DVDs – Chennai 600026, Ammu Aagiya Naan, Arya, Pirappu, Pallikoodam and Sivi. Finshed watching all of them with ‘a- dvd-a-day’ schedule! Of all these I enjoyed watching Chennai 600026 a lot – it was total fun! Ammu Aagiya Naan, slightly off the beat, is also noteworthy with a bold story, and is impressive with its poignant narration and picturization – definitely worth a watch. Arya is a mere waste of time; remember to park your sense of logic outside when you decide to watch this. Pirappu is okay, nothing impressive. Pallikoodam getsyou the de’javu' of Cheran’s Autograph – yet this melodrama is worth watching once. Sivi, the horror flick, which is getting rave reviews is good, but ended abruptly with a climax. May be the team is planning for a sequel? Other than these recently saw The Last Samurai. It was awesome!!! If you haven't watched it, my advice/suggestion/request - go now and watch it. And saw a really old movie - Al Pacino's Scarface, though it is critically acclaimed I find it just palatable.

When I started looking into latest gossips today, one news item caught my attention immediately – Chiranjeevi’s daughter elopes and marries against dad's wishes. Srija Chiranjeevi, 19, second daughter of Chiranjeevi, a recent graduate married Sirish Bharadwaj, 22 an engineering graduate at Arya Samaj, in New Bowenpally Hyderabad yesterday. It was a wedding against both their parent’s wishes and looks like the couple is seeking support from media and police for alleged threat from Chiru’s family. Interested to read more and see pics? Simple. Google ‘Srija’ and amen, you get it.

Talking about blogs, Apna company’s CTO has started a blog linked to our inhouse employee’ web portal. It is a hit – the first entry posted about 4 days ago from our CTO has drawn almost 250+ comments so far. One of the contributors there, Kris Ashok has a sparkling blog. Go thru it – its funducative! Until then, this blog is adjourned till the next post. Adios!

Inspiring..

2007-09-14T04:13:00.000+05:30

Just read Apna Company's message board:

"Farzana Haque is the new Head for Retail Vertical. She joined TCS 8 years ago..." (stumped first time - just 8 years and a strategic line head!).... but was more was to follow...and has been featured in the CNBC Young Turks (stumped again).. "

Curiosity killed me and got this video..Check out..Really inspiring

If anything can go wrong, it will...

2007-09-08T06:15:00.000+05:30

If anything can go wrong, it will.

Don't want to comment on this. Right now Murphy's Laws are my solace...

Reading them to recover from a small debacle. Should be better soon :)

Mascarenhas and Orkut Beta

2007-08-25T03:17:00.000+05:30

Quickly came in to shout two things:

1. India vs England match ended just now.. During the match, it looked like India would make a comfortable win..But THE man - Dinitri Mascarenhas was obscenely throwing 6 sixes shattering the concrete hopes!!! And one four, all in the last few overs..Spicing it, partner batsman Stuart registered a couple of fours and a six. As expected India won, not with a great margin though, which should have been the case, but by 10 runs. Anyways I am happy for England's Mascarenhas; he made first half century in ODI, under tremendous pressure. He has shown to the world his ability. Pats!!!

2. Just now I opened orkut and within few minutes when I refreshed, the looks and some of its features changed. Then noticed the Orkut Beta Label in the top left... Again I refreshed..It went to the old style..Again refreshed..Beta version appeared.. Finally, its all Beta now.. Looks cool ;) Much like facebook... Catch more news here to know the new cool look!

Indian Idol 3

2007-08-18T01:08:00.000+05:30

I've been hooked to this popular TV show for quite sometime. I must admit it has become an integral part of my schedule, all my thursdays, fridays and saturdays dont go with out it. Me and my roomies religiously watch this program without missing even a micro second. Indian Idol 3 - We totally love it baby! Watching the contestants on this reality show gives us the inexplicable vicarious feelings of actually being there. And every week when one gets eliminated, we feel extremely bad for them.

Indian Idol is developed on the same lines of popular US TV show American Idol. For the select few who need gyan about this show, go thru this. Among the top 12 finalists now (this time 13 though, because of a carried over contestant), a series of 'Gala' rounds go where the contestants need to show their versatility, vocal skills and performance. Every week one contestant is voted out based on audience sms voting. There are judges - Anu Malik, Javed Akhtar, Alisha Chinai and Udit Narayanan, who give their comments, which tend influence the audience in sms'ing their votes; nevertheless, it is THE audience which decides the verdict. Again personally I feel the audience voting is certainly not a representative of the skill/talent of the contestant. There are groupisms, favoritism and 'fan' isms, which could be an altered indicative of the voting pattern.

So far, till the end of Gala 7, 6 contestants have managed to sail through - Amit, Ankita, Chang, Puja, Prashant and Emon. The results of gala 7 saw the exit of yet another potential Indian Idol - Deepali. Like many others, I too was totally disappointed to the core after Deepali got eliminated. In fact, we at first were determined like not to watch the show again! Despite her sterling performances (dhol bajne laga.., nimboda nimboda.., mera piya ghar aaya), she was voted out! My respect for her increased multifold, when she boldly accepted without breaking down.And now after Deepali and Charu's exit, the deserving girls are out!

I think Puja and Ankita both didnt do well during gala 7. Moreover Camera guys were wierdly showing Ankita smiling again and again during results round,may be to increase their TRP, which now could hurt her votes! Despite her occasional flat singing , Anky baby is a lively performer, the favorite of all and even Anu - sure a top 3 material!

Prashant: He is good but seldom comes in bottom 3. Favoritism? But one thing to admit, during gala 7, prashant was amazing with the sarfarosh song..Emon and Chang are good, no doubt. Emon has great voice like Sonu Nigam. Personally my choice for Indian Idol is Amit Paul. He is amazing with melliflous voice and versatility. May he deserve it :)

Sony W850i

2007-08-07T03:44:00.000+05:30

Athu appo, Idhu ippo (Translation: Thats then, this' now!)

Finally, after months of contemplation, I've migrated my phone connection from Prepay to a Pay monthly with O2 service provider. it was a necessary evil considering the reality that I lost hundreds of £ with Prepay credits so far :(

And now I got to choose a 'free' phone [1] with the new contract. I have taken a cool precious black color Sony W850i walkman series phone, presumably as it would entertain and keep me 'busy' in my commute to office and back home. And it has cool features as well :) Though Camera in W850i isn't that great.

I bought this phone on August 4 and my first attempt to make a call was to my lovely 3-year old niece, Tanya for a special reson. It was her birthday then and I wished her. And yeo, it was cho chweet hearing her voice. Operation Innaugration Call success!!!

Footnote:

[1] A 'free' phone, in real terms, is not a free one! Have you heard of 'Free lunch' in business?

All the costs are absorbed in the monthly bills ;)

I am Back!

2007-07-30T01:19:00.000+05:30

I know I haven't posted anything since long. Actually I've become a lot lazy than ever. Well, here are few things which I wanted to keep recorded:
1. I've got into a new project and a big role change, a giant leap from a developer to a Business Analyst! Finding work to be quite interesting. Lets see whats in store more.
2. For the past couple of months I am closely following Indian Idol 3 and haven't missed any episode since gala rounds started! As per the last episode, people who have managed to sail the boat (after elimination) are Ankita, Amit, Abhishek, Prashant, Puja, Chang, Deepali and Emon. My guess is Ankita, Amit and Emon will make it to the top 3. And my personal favorites are the 2 A's - Ankita (Mishra) and Amit (Paul). They have the charisma, the voice, the appeal and all that what it needs to be in an Ideal Idol. An interesting trivia is that both of them were eliminated and made their re-entry as wild card contestants. Hats off to the eminent judges who selected them in the wildcard round and made sure that their talents don't go waste..

SIVAJI - The Boss (Bachelor of Social Service)

2007-06-15T15:50:00.000+05:30

For the first time, I've seen a Rajini's movie the first day, in fact, a day before itis released in India! Thanks, to Karthik who booked the tickets well in advance at London- Ilford's Cineworld here that I could enjoy my yesterday evening. By now, there are already many reviews; but below is my humble attempt to write something out of it.

Sivaji(Rajini), a rich US NRI cum 'Software System Architect' returns to India after making a fortune. His parents are Manivannan and Vadivukkarasi and Vivek is his Uncle. Sivaji had all his education financed by scholarship and realised that India could only prosper if poor people have access to free education. And so, he starts his ambitious plan to establish a SIVAJI Varsity with courses ranging from LKG to Ph.D and even a Medical College cum hostpital. But his Nemesis, Adi Seshan (Suman), is already into the Donation Fee business from his educational institutions. He obviously doesn't want to ruin his 'established' business and makes all possible political impediments to Sivaji. In a turn of events, Sivaji lands up being a pauper and realises to adopt an aggressive way to realise his dreams. How Sivaji deftly takes revenge with the baddies and establishes his dreams forms the next half of the story.

At more than 3 hours, the move is tad lengthier. Rajini is at his best, thanks to the make-up and lightening, yew, he looks a lot younger! We were dumbstruck at the Oru Koodai sunlight song with his different 'international dude' get-ups! The music of Adiradi song and its prelude (bits from old songs) and the way they are picturized rock all the way! Sahana saaral, the sad version sung by Vijay Yesudas was missing though. Surely it's a much awaited treat for Rajini fans dying to see his style and mannerisms -- be it tossing a coin to neatly land in his pocket, chewing bubble gum, saying 'cool'. Mottai Rajini (but no, he isn't the Appa Rajini as rumoured!), comes as a scintillating package towards the climax, which impresses the most with his mottai tapping mannerism! The fight scene with the currency note shower, a la The Matrix, in a building terrace keeps you wowed. Punch dialogues are conspicuous by their absence; Rajini has resorted to using very few lines like Ithu Eppadi Irukku, Comedy Geemadi paanalya and few other Vadivelu's picks. The audience roared for these dialogues -- "Nee Shivaji thaane. [Rajini says] Illa Naa MGR. MG Ravichandran! ", "Chumma pera kettale athurudha le", " Panni thaan kootama varum; Ssingam da, single a dhaan varum! ". Thalaivar has also spiced some English phrases in between like 'It’s a mere coincidence, damn it' and 'Give me a Break'.

Sivaji's lady interest is Tamizhselvi (Shriya) who has acted gracefully and looks gorgeous in the songs with Manish Malhotra's costumes. 'Pattimandram' Raja and Uma Padmanabhan have acted as Shriya’s parents. Solomon Pappaya is their neighbour and the first half scenes in Shriya’s neighbourhood provide the necessary comedy galatta. Vivek has taken the punch line department and has provided neat humour. The first half goes in lighter moments and the next half is gripping. Suman has a meaty Villain role and no doubt, he would have many offers in his kitty now. Raghuvaran makes a brief impressive apperance as a Doctor.

On the flip side, the script isn't very strong like Gentleman or Indian or even Anniyan. Logic defies at some places like the explanation how Rajini became a Multimillionaire from his humble begining? How Suman was so gullible to lose his 200 crores at the behest of an anonymous call? How the Economic offence wing of the CID arrest Sivaji without unlocking the computer (which is locked by a voice recognition security system) that has the evidence? How Motta Boss flashes an all new USA passport and a Greencard with his photo identity in a jiffy? And then the train track scene with Rajini and Shriya. And, likewise a few other instances.

Overall, Sivaji lives up to the expectations it hyped. Not less, not more. It’s a Thailvar's padam, watch it with open mind and no questions. Assured a visual treat and a grandiose dinner for Rajini Fans!

PS:1. Amitabh Bachchan, Rani Mukherjee and Mohanlal aren't there in guest roles as rumoured.
2. The usual S U P E R S T A R tune before the start of any Rajini movie has been changed in Sivaji.

London Underground and my Analysis!

2007-06-01T23:54:00.000+05:30

London's underground is an amazing maze!
After fiddling with its various lines to reach my office in Liverpool Steet (Central London) from my place of stay at Wembley, I've finally figured the best solution from my observation (a timepass analysis) below:

1. Bus and Metropolitan Line Combo
Walk -- home to Bus stop: 3 mins
Bus -- Route No. 83, 297: To Wembley Park stop: 10-15 mins (Avg:12.5 mins)
Walk-- Till Southbound platform in the Wembley Park Tube station: 3 mins
Tube -- Metrolpolitan Line to Liverpool St. station: 35 - 40 mins (Avg: 37.5 mins)
Average Waiting Time (at Bus stop and at Tube station): Approx. 2 -10 mins (Avg: 6 mins)
Total Average Time: 62 mins

2. Bus and Central Line Combo:
Walk-- home to Bus stop: 3 mins
Bus -- Route No. 83: Home to Hanger Lane stop: 12-15 mins (Avg:13.5 mins)
Walk-- Till Eastbound platform in the Hanger Lane Tube station: 4 mins
Tube -- Metrolpolitan Line, to Liverpool St. station: 40 - 50 mins (Avg: 45 mins)
Average Waiting Time (Bus stop and Tube station): Approx. 0 -15 mins (Avg: 7.5 mins)
Total Average Time: 70 mins

3. BakerLoo line and Metropolitan/ Hammersmith and City/ Circle (M/H/C) lines Combo :
(This option doesn't involve any bus ride!)
Walk-- Home to Wembley Central Tube station (till Southbound platform): 5 min
Avg. waiting time for the tube (bakerloo has less frequency): 0 -10 min (Avg:5)
Tube -- BakerLoo Line, to Baker Street station: 25-30 mins (Avg: 27.5)
Walk in Bake St. tube station for line change over and waiting time: 4-6 mins (Avg: 5)
Tube -- M/H/C lines from Baker St. to Liverpool St.: 15-20 mins (Avg:17.5)
Total Average Time: 60 mins

4. Silverlink Express to Euston and M/H/C lines combo:
Walk-- Home to Wembley Central Tube station (till Southbound platform): 5 min
Avg. waiting time for SilverLink Express (Freq: every 20 mins): 0 -20 min (Avg:10)
National Railway (Silverlink Express) - Till Euston Juntion: 20 min
Walk: Euston junction to Eastbound platform at Euston Square Tube station: 5 min
Tube -- M/H/C lines from Euston Square. to Liverpool St.: 10-15 mins (Avg:12.5)
Total Average Time: 52.5 mins

After wastefully wasting(!) my time at options 1 and 2 before, I settled for 3 thinking it as the wisest choice.

But I was unaware of option 4 before..Of late, I realised it to be THE best option and now happy with it :-) Silverlink train's arrival time at Wembley Central are at 8.05 (,8.25..) and at every 20 mins before and thereafter. I now have started to synchronise my starting time from home to Wembley Central station that I am just in time or a minute or two reasonably before the Silverlink train's arrival. This reduces my average waiting downtime from 10 to almost 0 or 1 (b'cos most of the times I make it just in time!). That brings the figure 52.5 to 42.5 or 43.5, which is clearly the winner !!! I have a reason to smile at my underground discovery !

London, Life, Work and more...

2007-05-25T04:50:00.000+05:30

After my 3 months of UK stay at Ipswich, I've moved to London from May 1st for a new assignment with Apna Company. New place, new office, new people, new house (yes, on rent!). Aana Kalakalaye Kasi! Unlike Ipswich, London is on the expensive side and my purse is pinching me at lot these days!!! Also it was a sudden shift from my slow paced life/work style at Ipswich to London's fast track workstyle involving a 2 hr plus to and fro travel to central London from my house. During peak hours, the underground stations are crowded and very busy. Perhaps I should dedicate a new post to the London's underground maze and my experiments with tube-hopping-and-bus-travel- combo!

Thanks to my new work profile, excepting first weekend in May, I haven't spent any of the subsequent weekends eventfully as I did before (see below):

6, 7, 8 and 9th April: Scotland Trip

14th April: Nagarathar’s meet, Leicester
15th April: Kannan Annan’s place at Chesterfield, drive around Peak district and Chatsworth Palace

21st and 22nd April: One more London tour with the gang (Arpita, Nash, Sujata, Sachin, and Mithun)

28th April: Gosh, again to London! LSE Auditorium to attend TCS’ Reach Out session

30th April Evening: London again! Nah, this time it’s a relocation baby!!!

7 and 8th May: Trip to Birmingham, Blackpool and Lake District with the gang.
9th May (on holiday): Office. 13th May: Ipswich. Evening, accompanied Arpita to recieve her mom at Heathrow.
14th May: London, at AC's relatives place.

21st May(sat'day): After seeing the gala atmosphere and supporters crowd of Man-U vs. Chelsea FA cup finals atmosphere in Wembley Park stadium near my house in the morning, half heartedly had to go office.

Phew!! These were like my itinerary for the weekends from April.

In my new role, I am donning the role of a Developer, which is breaking almost my 2 year long vrat of hard core non-coding work. Initially I was bit reluctant, as I was pulled in when the project was undergoing critical phase with resource crunch and stringent delivery deadlines. It was tremendous learning for me, the work kept me on my toes as it heavily relied on detailed understanding of requirements (they kept on changing every now and then!) from the client folks. Thanks to some great people here, my work became 'approachable' from day 1 itself! I must admit that I tdid good amount of homework to catch up things fast and by learning new stuff. And then there were always friends of mine, who have worked on similar technology before to help me out when in need. Given these catalysts and favorable environment, yours truly now was able to deliver the second phase reports, ready for UAT (User Acceptance Testing) three days ahead of the estimated time schedule! It was challenging and now I am enjoying doing this and looking forward to implement the same in Business Objects.

Virginia Tech Shoot out

2007-04-19T02:30:00.000+05:30

Unfortunately, its sad that there are barbarians that co exist with humans in this world.
More news has come and there were reportedly 2 Indians among the victims.
Prof Loganathan, a 51 year old professor originally from Coimbatore and Minal Panchal, a student of architecture, hailing from Mumbai.

A tribute to the departed soul Minal Panchal, whose orkut scrap book is flooded with condolence messages every minute. Let's pray for the departed souls to rest in peace.

Update: Minal's orkut profile got deleted, perhaps by adminstrators probably due to the heavy traffic to her profile causing server slow down.

Scotland Memoirs

2007-04-17T01:28:00.000+05:30

Yours truly recently got a chance to visit Scotland. Here his Antaratma, the blessed soul, which got a chance to see the tour as a third person declares open the review:

Cast:
Avinash: the Driver aka Nash
Sachin: the Senior aka Maalik
Arpita: the tour organiser aka Nessie!
Mithun: the ‘concept’ fotugrapher
Kasi: the Junior aka Muneem jee aka Nessa
Suporting actors:-
Jayprakash aka Jai
Gautham aka Veeru

Location:
Scotland, Scotland, Scotland and most of the services and rest places on Ipswich – Scotland roadway!

Story:
Five people start to begin their ambitious trip to various places in Scotland with a detailed plan. They are new, they don’t know the route, they loose their places-to-visit details en-route and beyond these barriers how they finally manage to make most out of the trip. Did they goof up? Or did they finally made it to visit Isle of sky as planned? To know all these, read more below at your own risk to discover the lighter, confused and happier moments of their 4 days during the Easter holidays of 2007!

Genre:
Thriller/ Comedy/ Suspense

Disclaimer:
All the characters described below are real and resemblance to any characters alive or dead is purely coincidental and non intentional.

Read More….
Loaded with all the accessories (Cds, Crisps, chocolates, cakes, eat meats) and finally the 5 homo sapien creatures, the Vaahan, a Maroon Vauxhall Vectra, seemingly a plush 5 seated car started to transport these bhatke-se junta on time (note: half an hour late is considered to be on time as per Indian standards). The knight in the shining armour (okay..okay) the driver, Avinash was ready with Sachin, the navigator with his maps to go from Ipswich to Edinburgh. The second car with Jay and Gautham came behind (later followed by a series of ahead and behind!). Now the biggest challenge lay ahead. How to go out to the main highway from the starting point, Ipswich? After baffling with the route maps and by trial-and-error method into the Ipswich streets, somehow the main highway was reached. Still, doubtful. A stop over at the first Services point confirmed that the direction heading towards was hopefully right. Perfect. Hereafter, as a customary note, every stopping for any thing and everything, followed with marathon sessions of photo shoot. The self-confessed ‘concept’ photographer, Mithun was always ready with his new tricks and treats on his gadget, a sony digicam. There were other cameras, which too had to be kept busy. There were actually more number of stoppings on the outward and return journey than the total number of places visited in Scotland actually! Leaving trivial stopovers apart, the first significant place visited was a scenic beach just few miles from the Scotland entry check post. It was on the down hill and yo la, a truly memorable place where you forget the mundane things of life. The beach and the water re-brought the five grown ups into kids to all possible funny poses for photos (Highlight: The scarecrow pose by Kasi while trying to imitate dil chahta hai Saif-Sonali song!). An hour drive later, Edinburgh was reached by around 7 pm. A youth hostel was booked in a place called Cow gate. A host of confusions in the directions leading to that place accompanied with bend-the-traffic-rules-liberally at Princess Street in Edinburgh and troubling-whosoever-on-road-with where-is-Cowgate(?), led finally to the place in (just) about 2 hours! But, one must admit it, the whole gamut of these operations led to a panoramic view of the evening amidst the beautiful facades of Edinburgh city centre. The tired passengers needed some good food, which turned out to be a mini nightmare of a food at a Bangladesi restaurant. Phir kya, folks retired to bed; Kasi and Sachin were treated to a helluva awesome night at the RED disco-pub with bindaas music till the early hours of the morining. This relieved their day long pain of sitting in the car too! Meanwhile, the Jai-Veeru duo found their way to Backpackers hostel, the place of their stay. Jai-Veeru spent the rest of their days at Edinburgh. Kasi’s lappy went coolly with their car, which did remain in shaanti, away from serving its purpose (it had all the details of places to visit in Scotland and supposedly brought to upload the camera pics when they run out of memory).

Koi Dikkat Nahin. These are not the impediments of the determined folks. Journey started to Lochness again with the usual hiccups of getting out of Edinburgh. There were few stoppings at services and scenic spots en route. A deserted remains of a castle near Ben Nevis was the first visit-stopping. The small water body saw the ‘throw-stone and get as many as ripples you can’ challenge between Avinash and Mithun. Sachin and Kasi got busy in the photo shoots on the walls of the dirty castle. Later the junta had some enthusiastic on the spot jumping photo sessions. Arpita, the photographer now captured some of the best stills! She too was complemented with one of hers by our concept fotu-grapher. Tuning to the bends and curves on the roads, the obedient driver crossed the speed limits and took the passengers (Good heavens!) safely. Suddenly, it was realized Lochness Backpackers hostel had come. The rooms were heavenly compared to the previous night. After the usual chores of initial settling down, the junta took a mystique walk to the bay jungle near by, which still haunts the writer’s memory even now. It was a wild expedition into an unexplored valley, which was spread over a jungle with Spring-Bridge and a mini loch (lake). Then, a drive to an outside view of Ucquart castle was followed by a yummy heart filling dinner at an International (read: Indian) restaurant. The earlier drive to the castle didn’t fetch any results to get in as the visitor time was over. Now, it was around 11pm; the idea of trespassing was tempting, though the folks were all smart enough to let the other go and eventually it ended up nobody going in! But, nevertheless, the occasion was topped with a zabardaar dance by the fivesome with the car headlights on and with foot tapping music yelling out of the stereos’ out of it. Later this was christened as the famous Ghost dance of Ucquart Castle. The masti didn’t stop here, it followed up with a brave walk till the graveyard, which was on the way to the Bay. Catching up with each of one’s stories, the junta came back to rooms, giving way to a good night’s sleep.

Lochness has a scenic and pleasant view of its natural assets - a large monster lake (lochness) and high mountains. Legend has it that there used be a monster by the name Nessie (for yours truly, it looks more like a chota green coloured dinosaur!). A slew of events led to Arpita being named to Nessie and the poor boy, Kasi as Nessa (supposedly the male equivalent by desi naming conventions!) just for taking snaps with two cute little kids in the backpacker’s hostel. After the previous night’s discussion, the plan to visit Isle of Sky was dropped owing to the long hours of travel and tiredom it involved. This way, the morning was open to exploring the vicinity of the hostel, which was bestowed with nature’s beautiful valleys. A drive to Kyle of Lochalash followed with stops at various viewing points on its way and at 5 sisters of Kintail. Boy, they were all the not-to-miss-kind of scenic-cum-visual treats. Then the next significant stopover was at the beautiful Donan Castle, where this turning point happened. Sachin and Kasi were transported to their pichle janam, where Sachin was the Maalik and Kasi became a noble (ok ok.. Muneem jee) of the castle. They started remembering memories of their lavish life style inside the castle with royal bedrooms, dining rooms, kitchens and aristocratic pleasures. When they returned, the fun wasn’t over at the highlands. On public demand the driver, Avinash led to the periphery of Inverness city just only to see that the Tourist Info office was closed. Hmm.. it was getting late to go back to Edinburgh. Negotiating all bends and curves with few stops here and there, the folks reached Edingburgh at around 9 pm, only to land up again with an identification crisis to locate the Backpacker’s hostel. It took nearly an hour. No results yet. A god sent Messiah, in the avataar of a Scottish Cab driver, empathised the poor folk’s plight and offered a free drive with follow-me-I’ll-lead-you to the hostel. As a memento of gratitude, Kasi (and Arpita) did thank him on behalf of the whole junta by taking a photo with the Brave Heart : ). The Backpacker’s hostel was fabulous with all amenities and facilities for the horribly low price that it charges. Jai-Veeru combo met the group here and gave some gyan to visiting top priority places in Edinburgh. The night went eventful in the dorms; Avinash was in good form (read in good spirits) that he went to his flashback mode and held Mithun in rapt attention into listen-my-bakwaas-stories-else-I’ll-Kachcha-chaba-jaaonga.

Next day, after the customary photo shoots in the scenic lake outside the hostel, the junta packed bags and checked out to explore the Ferry service which is in between two mindblowing bridges (they look like big brothers of Rabidra Setu and Vidyasagar Setu bridges of Howrah-Kolkata). The announcements in the ferry later reiterated the fact that they were indeed master pieces of architecture and it was said that for one of them, a cantilever bridge, it nearly took around a decade, more than 5000 workers and 50 lives to build the 2 mile plus long bridge across the water. There were eye-soothing spots while looking out from the ferry and there were eels on land lock in the water. But the one, who is writing this, slept for most of the time in the ferry and hence sorry many details are missed thus, unintentionally. Poor writer, Kasi, his memory confines only to visiting an island; nothing more nothing less! Later he was shown with proof of pranks played on him while he was having a king’s sleep. Later, the folks planned to see Edinburgh castle. The Punar Janam Turk now wanted to explore Wonderland Toy shop and quenched his fantasies into buying a ‘25 miles/hr–500 m up-500 m forward motion-helicopter’ gadget (don’t call it toy, he’ll kill you!) along with a Thomas Train toy. (Update: The enhancements to the chopper, following its crash is well known now by his roommates.)

It was evening and damn hungry all they were; after unsuccessfully searching for an Indian restaurant, a Chinese restaurant by random selection was a welcome relief. The charming Chinese lady attendant and the chowmien served treated the hungry taste buds from starving. Time was less, Mithun had to go back to Machester before 9.30 pm and given the usual chores of getting out of city at disposal, the idea to see Edinburgh castle wasn’t encouraging. A relaxed stop over at a service realized the driver and his navigator chances of making to the train were very bleak. You should see Mithun’ s face now, bereft from all the enthu as he was destined to loose his scheduled train at Manchester. The song of the mood from Ek chaalis ki last local ‘Jeevan ki gaadi chooti……Kehte hein na..Jo hota hei achche ke liye hota he…Sahi kehtein hein’ was the consolation he was left with. Keeping all hopes alive, phew, the driver-Avinash drove and needless to say, it was late baby! Mithun bid adieu and left to his friend's place from where he’d be going to Cardiff the next day. This writer was in great slumber and didn’t remember much what happened later, but yeah another 6 hours later, the rest of the folks too found themselves at their places in Ipswich. So that was it, a long and eventful journey filled with moments to be cherished and to be treasured :)

Verdict: Bindaas!

PS: I had intentionally included the tag Suspense under genre. You see its a marketing strategy to induce the folks who were not willing to take the risk of reading the whole crap that I churned out! Intelligent me :-)

London Trip

2007-04-01T03:38:00.000+05:30

I have known modern cities of one category , that in the process of becoming 'modern' wash away the remains of their glorious past, fading away the beautiful past they have had, where tall structures replace the older ones. And I have known cities of the other category, which still preserve and renovate their old glorious structures (In India, to a large extent, Kolkata, would fit this bill but minus the renovation part though).

London, is more of the second category, whose magnificient buildings and architectural remnants, will transport you a century or two behind, whilst it still being the cultural melting pot of today with its diverse population and cosmopolitan outlook. London strikes a fine balance between modernity and past, an aura which very few other cities (like Paris, Rome) could offer. You have tall skyscrapers at Canary Wharf here and you have the heritage buildings and sites here. This distinctive blend of new and old is what impresses me the most, like many other visitors.

After my two weeks of arrival to UK, thanks to a senior of mine here, I visited London. It was a rainy day, so the visit was confined only to select few places.

The Tube: It all began with an open ticket which covers all the zones, in the Underground Tube (Metro train) from the Liver Pool Street statrion . London has one of the best public transportation in the world in the form of tubes which is one of the quickest and easiest way of getting around London. The whole of London is bifurcated into 6 zones, with central London being the first zone and the outer London as the 6th (last) zone. There are totally 12 lines (routes) like Jubilee line, Central line, Picadelly line etc. that operate in these zones, which cover almost the whole of London. (In Calcutta Metro, there is only a single line Tollygunge to Dum Dum, covering most of the city). All the Underground Tube stations have user friendly large display boards and the Map-pamphlet distribution box. By using the map it is just a child's play to know where and how you want to go the destination. You must see this official site of the London Underground.

East Ham: After meeting a friend in Barking, we headed to East Ham, which is known to be Tamil and Sri Lankan area in London. East Ham has many Indian stores, South Indian DVD shops and yes, a Murugan Kovil also. Along with many other South Indian hotels, there was our very own Saravan Bhavan, where we began our breakfast with Masala Dosai. I came to know there is another Mini Indian area called SouthHall in London, which is predominantly occupied by Punjabi and Gujju.

Westminster: From East Ham, Westminster was our next destination. There I had a few click-me-in-front-of-this photo sessions with Big Ben and London Eye. A long walk around the Thames river and the bridge gave a good view of most of the central London.

Trafalgar Square: Walking across the roads, we reached the Trafalgar Square and National Gallery. Wow, I was dumbounded by its magnificient sculptures of the large lions (they were 4 in number) surrounding a pillar, in the large arena outside the National gallery building. The fountains adjoining them were equally beautiful and soothing. It was a rainy day and given the short time, most other places couldn't be covered.

Baker Street: This place has the world renowned Madam Tussuad's Wax Musuem. But we had less time left, so left it for next time to see. The evening became rainy by that time and given that everyone was terribly hungry, we searched a Pizza Hut to treat our taste buds with some spicy hot pizzas. Later in the night, I left to Reading, 45 mins from London Paddington station, to one of my classmates house.

That was all, a chota sa London Trip, a trip which invites to come more and more!

UK musings!

2007-03-19T03:02:00.000+05:30

A month and a week back, I ve landed up in Ipswich, a place in the Suffolk county in the East Anglia region of the UK. Its indeed a beautiful town and most of the people in the UK know the place, I suppose, for its infamous entry in news during late 2006. Before coming my expectations were damn low.

But things aside, what I am surprised to see is a good amount of desi junta (every two in five in Ipswich looks to me as an Indian) are here - most of them from Tech Mahindra, Infy, TCS, Siemens etc. The town has a good number of Indian hotels and Bangladeshi Balti's. There are Indian stores like the Patel store, Kerela stores and Sri lankan stores where you get all the Indian eat-meat stuff and provisions... Other than this there is a Cine-World multiplex, where you get to see bollywood twice a week. There is a large Public Library that host good number of Indian (Indian writings/ Hindi) books. So naturally happy I am for the 'Indian connections' ..

But, larger than this is, there are branded shops (you name it and it is here!), big retail names like TESCO, Sainsbury, Woolworths, Argos, QD etc; quite a many number of pubs. There is a place called Nicholas Street which host some of the finest multi cuisine restaurents of Ipswich. We had a Team dinner at a Thai restaurent here last week. I am really surprised that how Apna chota sa Ipswich is connected to the world, wow!

Got a good place to stay in - a rented accomodation with three other friends. Right now, I spend more time in cooking than browsing in the house : (. But, every weekend invites us to home made chicken briyani or treat with apna favorite delicacies. Weekends are eventful with visits to town centre, shopping, washing clothes and a bit of movies. After coming here, I saw Traffic Signal, Nehle pe dehla and Pachai Kili Muthucharam in DVDs. And yeah yestersday's debacular India's cricket match with Bangladesh in the World cup. Right, now its sunday night 10pm and I dont realise how the weekend got ended up, all so soon!

And thanks to the Wi Fi, I get to be more here at online, than in India. Sadly, all these online sessions end up faster almost doing nothing productively. But in the whole process, I've catched up with few good online sites, which I wish to list it below, so that it becomes a bookmark for me.
Tamil movie downloads: www.tamiltorrents.com

Online movie site: www.videoduniya.com, www.isaitamil.net
Online music site: www.musicmazaa.com (Right now I am hearing Ninne Ninne song from Desamudrudu here). And till this evening, I was hearing Nelly Furtado's song from her official site www.nellyfurtado.com
Another site, that I would highly recommend to see readers is to check http://www.s-anand.net, where you get a search tool for tamil and hindi songs which saves you from the hassles of looking for the song you want in other online song sites. Plus, you have a page linked to download as well! Great work, Anand. I ve tagged this page in my blog's link list as well.

And yeah, I forgot, I did recently go on a small tour to London (its two hours from here) two weeks back. It was memorable, I shall try to upload the pics in my next post

Lots of changes!

2007-03-08T03:49:00.000+05:30

Again as usual, I am back from quite a big hibernation. To be precise about a month after I am back to blog. Many changes, work pressures and yeah a surprise relocation to the UK last month kept me away from the usual chores of posting all the non sense items I used to do. Even I wished to write the movie review for Veerasamy, which I watched Muru (and 20 others in the whole theatre!), but later changed my mind after a comprehensive review came here. Another good thing and of considerable importance that I did before leaving India is I filed a provisional patent for a little idea of mine! I know it is not going to fetch me anything, but still.... I guess I am gonna call this satisfaction :) Okay no more bore... Plan to write about the place where I am and about London and yeah Eklavya movie review in the posts to come :) Watch this space out!

FREAKONOMICS: Book Review

2007-02-08T15:47:00.001+05:30

Here goes my review of "Freakonomics - A Rogue Economist explores the hidden side of everything" by Steven D Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. Freaknomics, as the name suggests is about Economics taking a freak out journey. The exciting sojourn would take you in for surprise for it shows the reasons behind very not-so-thought-kind of questions. The content is like a consortium of various uncommonly thought common occurrences and things that we probably get to see around us.

One thing that I like about the book is it is not written in the conventional way by confining it to a particular topic. The Author has done an almost detective kind of job in unraveling the conundrums in questions ranging from Sumo Wrestlers to Ku Klux Klan. Essentially Levit's every chapter starts with a question that doesn’t make much sense like, What do Sumo Wrestlers and teachers have in common? Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? Is there anything called the art of good parenting? What does the crime reduction has to do with abolition? Connection between the Ku Klux Klan and Real Estate Agents. Drug peddlers living with their mothers etc. The book has some interesting statistics and fascinating numbers, which provide really intriguing answers to the questions.

The book enlightens on some of the soft realities of life. One goes like this. Whatever be the philosophy, be it, liberalism, socialism, capitalism or objectivism, people strongly react to incentives. There is a motive behind anything or everything, though not necessarily in monetary or materialistic or objective terms. This deep answer is a key driver to one of the questions presented in the book. Freakonomics could leave you with the reminiscences of a beautiful mind with unconventional and logical thinking to anything and everything that you see around. Observation would become more intriguing and rewarding now. Whoever said, its true that a person is known for the questions that he doesn’t have the answer for. People who have read A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, another genius, could identify in this book the similar simple and lucid writing style offered on complex issues.

The solutions to the questions have been treated with an innovative fashion. The matter has been presented in an interesting way. On the flip side, though there are chances that you might get bored at times, with some of its pedantic stuff; nevertheless, it isn’t tiring at any time. The research is mind-blowing and makes the reading an intellectual and fascinating experience. Go for it you want to do some quality reading ahead.

Note: This post has also been crossposted at http://www.bibliophilesattcs.blogspot.com/

The World is Flat: Book Review

2007-02-07T17:23:00.000+05:30

Thomas Friedman's The world is Flat is a compelling read and inarguably the best pick of the season. It is indeed a brief history of the 21st century with Information Technology (IT) in focus.

People in the IT have come across broadly two types of books - one with all technical information relating with a domain/ platform or the management books which least deals with techie stuff. Not many attempts have across the third segment striking a fine balance between these two. Friedman's work is more of the third category which essentially traces the evolution of IT. With the advent of modern communication (like Fiber Optics, Internet and associated technologies), the world has started becoming a Level Playing Field for all the countries that are in the IT race. And it is in this context, Friedman describes the World is Flat. In fact, the title is also inspired by the Infosys’ CEO Nandan Nilikeni, who makes the author understand that the world is indeed flat during his conversation with him.

Friedman takes you on an exciting journey covering the phases of Globalisation 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0. It has also links to historical references such as Collapse of Berlin Wall, Disintegration of Soviet Union, India's Abolition of License Raj etc. He poignantly describes the ten flattening forces which made a Flat World i.e. level playing field. The ten flatteners which he listed are: 1. Fall of Berlin Wall 8/9/95, 2. Netscape goes public, 3. Work Flow Software, 4. Uploading, 5. Outsourcing, 6. Offshoring, 7.Supply-Chaining, 8. Insourcing, 9. In-forming and 10. The Steroids: digital, mobile, personal, virtual. He writes in depth about the emergence and impact on these ten flatteners to the world and in lots of ways to our lives as well. The author delves into the emergence of India and China into the IT market and praises the indomitable spirit of Indians and Chinese' entrepreneurial spirit. Towards the end, he discusses in depth about the future of IT in America, the threatening forces and the sustainability issues.

The book is sure gonna make you more enlightened on your perspectives in IT and globalisation. The book is not for only those IT geeks, which you might mistake otherwise, but is addressed to a large and diverse audience. Rich with anecdotes, The World is Flat has an encyclopedic assortment of Who's who in the IT world and the companies. The language is vivid and more of a conversational type. The explanation is so clear and lucid that even a lay man could easily comprehend.

Finally, I would say, go and grab your copy if you haven’t read.

Note: This post has also been crossposted in www.bibliophilesattcs.blogspot.com

Orkut introduces Video feature

2007-02-02T17:54:00.000+05:30

Hey another goody from orkut is rolled out. Now along with your fotos, you can upload your videos as well!
I just happened to see it sometime back. I guess the new feature was on the board just then as it wasnt there when I refreshed orkut 10 min back. .

So now, if you have an account with YouTube or Googlevideo, you can start uploading your videos!
Stay connected.

Update [Feb 3, 8 pm IST]: Another find few mins back. Now you can get to see the exact time when a scrap was posted (ie with exact time (mins/date) before) in your scrapbook and in the community as well.. Really cool na

Coming Next: Review of World is Flat and Freakonomics for Abhay. So stay tuned.

Meanwhile I ve done some 'renovation' work to my blog.. I ve added few new links to the link list on the left side. Few good finds are Language Log and Damn Interesting and blogs of Jai Arjun singh and Chandrahaas.
(Courtesy: Vivek's post. )

Take some time to read them, surethey would be enlightening :)

EGO SURFING and NARCISSISM

2007-01-17T15:19:00.000+05:30

I am getting bored these days.. I am not getting something that would feed my thoughts. HOPE I ll get to do something soon. Meanwhile I ll tell you what I am doing these days:

1. Finished reading Friedman's The World is flat, it was simply awesome. It enlightened my perspective on globalisation with respect to IT, in particular. In fact, I intend to write more on it, perhaps my next post.
2. Opening gmail and seeing who is available on gtalk, so that I can start my mokkai with that poor soul who's gonna bear my torture for sometime.
3. Orkut - hmm... actually orkut usage (read exploration) is getting saturated these days. However, the window lies open in the task bar and it has become a habit to refresh the scrapbook once in half an hour to see if any new scrap has come. Irresistible!

4. Going through reviews of new movies and reading blogs. I must confess, when it comes to movies, it becomes my source of hedonism!
5. Ego surfing: Giving 'Kasi Alagappan' in google and searching for results. Plus, I am topping this with other keywords like PSG, Chennai, kolkata, Pongal, Party, Picnic, Satya, orkut etc. I guess am getting narcissistic, see how bad I ve become! Incidentally when I gave 'hope' with my name, i got this, the page having eccentric write up on HOPE; much needed for my present haalat!

True, An Idle Mind is a Devil's workshop!

PS: Presently, reading Freakonomics in a slow pace while at home.

GURU - A Villager, a Visonary and a Leader

2007-01-14T20:42:00.000+05:30

Saw GURU with Viju yesterday and now I have a topic to post in my blog, the review for Guru! The movie though wasn’t that great for all the expectations and hype it had created; nevertheless, it is worth giving a shot. While I write this, as I started to have enough time and energy, I decided to go for an enhanced review unlike my usual ones where I place a quick review a la the tea-time kind read. But beware; couple of things:

This shall be a spoiler exposing the story. So read at your own will if you haven’t seen the movie and you are most welcome if you are of the kind who reads spoilers and go to movies!
Statutory Warning: This is going to be a long affair, so go ahead if you have enough time and patience.

A sneak preview before that. Maniratnam, as always, brings the first of any kind credit to his movies, be it technical or trivial, and so this interesting piece of trivia for Movie Buff’s: Guru became the first Indian movie to have a World wide premier straight from Toronto, Canada. As it happens most of the times, Mani and controversies walk together hand by hand when it comes to the pre-course of his movie release, and GURU too is no exception. GURU, is largely inspired by the rags to riches story of the real life Business Tycoon Late Dhirubhai H. Ambani. Though the movie begins with a standard disclaimer of it being a work of fiction and that the characters bear no resemblance to anyone living or dead and if it does it is pure coincidence, it is blatant from the movie that it clearly internalizes the life and times of Ambani.

The story begins with an old Gurukant Desai (Abhishek Bachchan), neatly clad in a business suit, speaking to the audience from the podium of an empty stadium with a Namaste note, Sapne mat dekha karo. Sapne sach nahin hua karte. Mere Bapu kaha karte thhe. [pause] Magar maine sapne dekha aur sach banana ki himmat kiya”, which translates – “My dad used to say don’t dream as they never materialize. But, nevertheless, I dreamt and had the courage to make them real”. You may now wipe out from your memory the remains of this first scene as it is bound to repeat again after gaining the relevance, very typical of the likes of Alai Payuthey or Yuva, Mani’s previous films.So you know now what do you have in store for the next 2 hours and 50 minutes or so or more.

Next as the movie unfolds, the location changes to the surroundings of a school in a little village in Gujrat, in black and white shades where a young boy summons before his father, a school teacher after failing his school exam. He expresses his desire to leave studies for an offer he got in abroad. The father though doesn’t like the idea, he gives away the consent and the boy packs his bags and leaves to Istanbul, Turkey. He takes up a menial job selling old petrol cans there. The boy is inherently shrewd and once by his observation makes his friend win a small coup with a gambler. Few years down the line, he matures to become the protagonist Gurukant Desai (Abishek Bachchan). You next have a dance sequence by belly dancer (Mallika Sherawat) in a bar in Istanbul, where Guru and friends spend some quality time. Guru, by his astute skills, gets an offer to become Sales supervisor from a Gora Saab (white man) in his factory. Guru turns down the offer and returns to India instead to set up a business of his own.

Cut. Camera next swivels to a countryside location in India, where Sujatha (Aishwarya Rai) is introduced in Barse re Barse re song (like Madhubala in Chinna chinna aasai in Roja). She tries to elope with her boyfriend and in the railway station where they plan to meet, finds herself deserted by him. A train arrives to the platform and she quickly boards into it and stumbles upon Guru (whoelse!), who becomes aware of her situation. Sujatha then is accompanied back home by a relative of hers who came in search of her. Meanwhile Guru is given an aplomb welcome by his home members and Guru tells his proposal to start a business, to which his teacher-dad straightaway refuses as he had burnt his fingers once. Guru now needs capital and lures his childhood friend (Arya Babbar) into a deal where he would marry his elder sister and with the dowry money he would start a business offering him a handsome partnership. Incidentally, the girl happens to be none other than Sujatha and with the mutual consent of their parents he marries her.

Guru comes to the aspiring city of Bombay with his wife and brother-in-law, where he intends to do the cotton business. Guru seeks the approval for his application to become cotton yarn agent from the person in authority, one Mr. Contractor. Though the rich and influential Mr. Contractor is impressed by Guru’s wit, he does nothing to his application. The dejected and frustrated Guru then happens to meet Nanaji (Mithun Chakravarthy), a socialist-nationalist who vents his feeling towards the system through his daily Newspaper, The Independent after scrutinizing the facts. It becomes beneficial to Guru, who overcomes the initial hiccups and establishes himselves as a successful Cotton dealer. He befriends Nanaji who lives with his handicapped teenage grand daughter (who would later become Vidya Balan).

With his fine business acumen and knack of dealing with people and those in power, he wins the trust and hearts of his fellow men. But Guru isn’t satisfied; he is hungry to devour big challenges and his independent decision to advance further becomes a subject of disagreement with his brother-in-law and they part their ways off. Undeterred by risks and impediments, Guru raises capital through public shares and shapes his ambitious project in the form of a Polyester factory. After a couple of photo shoots with his staff in the fast forward mode, Guru becomes the ultimate rich Big Boss of Shakti Parivaar, his business conglomerate where he has major stake. You now have the large and bit older Gurukant Desai bespectacled with a thick golden frame and a neatly shaped out belly, mostly clad in a Blue Safari suit, who loves playing with the rules of the game in business. He becomes the darling of his stake holders, the hero of the middle class and favorite of media.

In a turn of events, Guru uses Nanaji’s Press machinery and media contacts to garner business mileage and image in public when Nanaji was away in an entourage. But, Nanaji is an idealist who lays extreme emphasis in values and principles and does not tolerate Guru’s designs in manipulative business. Because of their ideological differences, he launches a campaign to expose the real Guru through Shyam Saxena (Madhavan, in a cameo role), a daring reporter vows to weed out the wrong practices of Guru’s business. Guru still respects Nanaji as a fatherly figure; nevertheless, he develops a grudge against Shyam but has immense affection for VidyaBalan, who marries Shyam later. Guru is unfazed by the allegations leveled against him by the paper and by his share holders’ base of over 30 lakh people mantles challenges further.

At one point of time, he eventually is accused of manipulating the licenses and even of smuggling and an Inquiry Commission is set up by the judiciary. The commission finds him guilty and levels a score of charges against him which could lead to imprisonment. Gurukant gets paralyzed and his health fails but not in spirits; he raises up and gives voice to what he thinks is just. In the climax court room scene, the enquiry bench gives a kind hearing to Guru for 5 minutes. Guru saves all his energy for this moment and being aware that he is in front of media and people, he justifies his actions and wraps up within 4 and a half minutes circa, giving a 30 second profit to the bench! The commission shares considerate empathy in the largest interests of people. It ends up putting a fine amounting to the loss incurred by the state exchequer for the violation of procedures.

Gurukant Desai thus emerges out as a winner again and you may now go back to scene 1 of the movie. He now faces the full packed stadium with the share holders of his Shakti Parivaar and amidst loud applause, with his charisma and finesse tells them that the Parivaar would have no stopping and that he dreams to expand the buzinezz beyond the boundaries of the nation to make it the world’s numero uno!

Now coming to the other side, the criticisms, the movie goes at a horrifically slow pace. The only fast thing perhaps is the conceptualization of rags to riches transformation in a fast forward mode. You don’t have answers many of your questions. Like, what the role of Vidya Balan has to do with the plot? She came and died leaving no trace of relevance to the main track of the story. What happened to Guru’s brother-in-law, who supposedly was roped in to become Guru’s partner? Why Guru always says that he came to Bombay only with a pair of dresses (and nothing else) and built the business empire, when he actually brought the capital (Dowry money) as well. Watch the movie yourselves to get the same questions or more, sans the answers. After all it is Mani’s movie; the answers are not transparent and characteristic by their conspicuous absence. You have to imagine and substitute with the answers yourselves.

The other characteristics of Mani’s films such as, subtle emotions by the characters, soft-naughty-romance, witty dialogues, frequent use of dark background and foreground are noticeable in many occasions. I liked in particular, the dialogues – “Nazar. Theen glasses mein ek choti thhi” while winning the gambling coup, “Gurukant Desai thha Nahin, hae aur rahega”; “Mein to chalna nahin bhaagna chahta huun” when confronted whether he is careful in his steps; “Yeh to race hae aur jeetna ke liye to tej hi jaana hei” to reporters on his fast fortune; “Bus Ek Cheez. Namaste”, “Lo, maine aapko diya 30 seconds ka profit” to the enquiry commission. The characters have been portrayed well which bring life to the characters. Bachchan Junior has donned the role well and has done a commendable job with his mettle. Literally he has carried the movie on his shoulders. GURU, personally I feel leaves not a great impression, but nevertheless, it is worth giving a one time watch.

AMBIGRAM

2007-01-09T15:39:00.000+05:30

I got an ambigram in my name !!! I am excited. Thanks to my friend and fellow Karaikudi'ite Amar on his efforts in making this. You would have heard about it or seen it if you happened to read the book, Angels and Demons by Dan Brown.

Anyways, for the uninformed, here is the gyan on an ambigram for junta.
www.ambigram.com says - " Ambigram as a word or words that can be read in more than one way or from more than a single vantage point, such as both right side up and upside down".

Balaji, another consummate Ambigram Specilist says on his blog - " Ambigrams are words of Symmetry.They look the same when read upside down also.There are many types of ambigrams.I try to make ambigrams that look the same when rotated and ambigrams that read the same even on a mirror. "

Just uploading my Ambigram done by Amar. Comments are welcome !!!

Highly Recommended: Do visit

1. Amar's blog, he has a lot of Ambigrams in it. Good work by an amateur.

2. Balaji's blog for some mindblowing ambigrams. He has a multitude of creative ones.

3. Vasant's blog for more creative ambigrams. Has got variants in color and text.

Movie Buff or Maniac?

2006-12-27T14:52:00.001+05:30

Hmm..My last post on Kabul Express got a comment and as I became excited to see who it was, then I found to my surprise a comment from chakpak.com. I couldnt dismiss it as a spam comment as I have word verification and this line <"It looks like you are a movie buff, and frequently blog about movies"> made me understand that someone had actually gone through the post either fully or partially!

The title "Movie buff" certainly delighted me and took me into the sojourn of my all time favorite movies. I always wanted to have my favorite movies written and kept somewhere and thought why not I write them here and perhaps even update this often.

So here I am trying to make an inventory of my all time favourite movies and putting them under different genres. Of course, a movie in a particular genre may fit into other as well but in order to avoid redundancy I am trying to put them into the genre that I feel they suit the best. The idea is to pull out the maximum movies without duplication. Please do drop in your favorite ones as well to these categories and perhaps also those that I missed in the form of comments to this post.

1. War/ Bravery/ Courage/ Sacrifice: Brave Heart, Gladiator, Troy, Border, The Independence day, The patriot and though slightly deviated but still Kaaka Kaaka and Gilli (Courage) qualify

2. Classic: The GodFather, Mera Naam Joker, Sholay, Lagaan
3. Contemporary: Kabul Express, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, Hyderabad Blues,
4. Emotion & more: Children of the heaven, The terminal, Finding Nemo, Anbe Sivam, Dor, Roja, Vetham Puthuithu, 16 vayuthuniley, Pitamagan, Sethu, Veyil, Kadal

5. Soft Romance: Aradhna, Ye Tera Ghar Ye Mera Ghar, Mouna Ragam, Godavari, Anand, Alai Payuthey, HDDCS, HAHK,
6. Family subject: Parichay, Seetha Ramayya gaari Manamaraalu, Manmathudu, Nuvostanante Nenodantana, Santhosham, more....

7. New Age ones: Dil Chahta Hai, Kal Ho na Ho, Rang de Basanti, Salaam Namaste, Gangster,

8. Comedy: Liar Liar, Khel, Andaz Apna Apna, Thillu Mullu or Golmaal, No Entry, Hum Tum, Panchatantiram, Tenali, Michael Madana Kamaraj, Winner (for Vadivelu), Rajendra Prasad's old Telegu movies and the recent Pyar Ke Side Effects.
9. Suspense/ Mystery: Snegithiye, 100 Days, Yaar aval, thagadu thagadu (forgot name, but this is the movie's pick of the dialogue),

10. Sci Fi: The Matrix (1,2 and 3), The Paycheck, Hollowman, Mr. India, Aditya 369 (telegu)

PS:

1. My knowledge to English Classic movies and contemporary themes is limited and hence the shrinked list in #2. As and when I remember one or I ll see a new one, I shall try to update them.

2. I didnt include a genre called Masala because if I do, the list would become unending given that I certainly do have a self proclaimed enclopediac gyan in them - especially with Tamil, Telugu and Hindi.

3. As it is conspicious from the list, I havent included much of Rajini's movies as I brand them as a different genre altogether!

So folks, pls pls pls provide me more inputs from your comments. I need to update the above genre and the list of movies.

KABUL EXPRESS

2006-12-27T14:25:00.000+05:30

Last week I saw Kabul Express, man it was awesome. Hats off to Kabir Bedi, the director of the movie for taking such a contemporary theme and for bringing an international flavour to the Hindi cinema.The movie's tagline goes like this - the journey of 2 Indians, an American, an Afghan and a Taliban in a jeep in Afganisthan.

The movie has made a deep impact in me by its fine picturisation of Afganishan, the deserts, the lives lost because of the war, innocent children, the trauma caused by the war troops, sentiments, destruction et. al. The movie didnt deviate like any other bollywood movie into masala or item number. The subtle humour and Arshad Warsi's comic sense of dialogue delivery rocked all the way and kept the movie going on and on...

The movie gained momentum with the entry of the American lady journalist. John Abraham- Arshad Warsi duo gave some realistic and fabulous performances. Many scenes were surely touching, the one where John sees a handicapped child while doing his push-up's and the one where the Taliban militant meets his daughter in the later half showed the deep feelings inside...

There was no lack of humour and it went along with the movie without disturbing the flow of the screenplay. In fact, the movie intrigued me to come back, google and wiki about the Taliban and Afghanistan.

It sure was enlightening and seeing Kabul Express was an exhilarating experience here at the Six Degrees Movie hall in the Sathyam Cinemas.

My scribbling 1st Anniversary went unnoticed!

2006-11-30T18:55:00.000+05:30

Has been a long time since the blog got updated. In fact, the first Anniversary of My Scribbling went unnoticed by me. On November 12, last year after getting bored with the chores of bench, I took off by starting this blog with a travelogue of my trekking expedition in North Bengal. Now as I went through the article, my memories went down the old lane.. Wah, it was awesome and cant hold it.. the breathtaking beauty of the valleys, pahaads and the nature...

And I have few more reasons to smile: Thanks to Orkut, I got in touch with Abhaya didi , Manimala didi, Viji, Sathi Bhaiya and lots of other friends from Kirandul, where I did my class 1 and 2! They all look so different man! And know what Orkut has introduced some really cool features like showing mutual friends, viewing a max 30 scraps at a time in your scrap book and most importantly the integration of G-Talk with Orkut. Now I get to see all my friends Email ID's in my gmail account as well! Seamless Integration kya? :p

Home Affairs: Good Old Roomy Satya has moved to Vizag after he got a job there with HSBC. His system, which was our only daily source of entertainment (TV cum Music Player cum Internet Hub) has also left with him to Vizag. Meanwhile, my Laptop, the new arrival is getting installed with all the stuff to match the expectations!

Movies: Saw a couple of movies - Varalaru, Rendu and Veyyil. Varalaru was okay types and the highlight was Ajit, the Sr's role. Due to circumstances, saw Rendu (which means Two) two times. It wasnt a bad bet. Overall both of them were enjoyable.

But the third one Veyyil left a deep impact. The movie is surely gonna leave a lump on your throat as you leave the hall. Though it has blood and violence, the movie is a definite watch which beautifully portrayed a story that you might have never heard or seen before. Pasupathi steals the show and leaves you stunned with his brilliant expressions and acting. At times, you feel like crying for him. Bharat has justified his role and both the new heriones impress. The movie has an element of freshness, which you conspicously notice even in the jobs of the lead characters - Pasupathi (Theatre Operator who almost lives in the projector cabin), Bharat (Advertising Agency Entrepreneur who deals with small budget Ads), Bharat's herione (Voice recording Artiste). The encounters between Bharat and the herione right from the begining brings in an element of humour that reminds one of Sethu movie's Vikram and Abita.

Friends and Relocations

2006-11-07T08:20:00.000+05:30

After long days of fiddling with blogger , I ve decided to write breaking my vrat of idling. But There were few parting-off's which I want to remember and cherish them. First, Good old roomy Satya left to Bangalore yesterday for his new assignement into SAP. How Sad.. I fondly look into the sms again and again that Satya sent me from his train on the way to Bangalore - " Ye na sochna ki hum juda ho jayenge, har haal me dono dosti nibvhayenge...Dono milkar phir se ZANZEER banayenge. Tum AMITAABH ki tarah dost bane rahna hum PRAAN ki tarah dosti nibhayenge.. Dono milkar YAARI HAI IMAAN gana gayenge..Film hit ho jayegi to mauz manayenge Flop ho gayi to ek aur tareeka aajmayenge...Station ke bahaar CHAI KI DUKAAN lagayenge... Tum Chai banana hum Chai Chai chillayenge.. Par dosti har haal nibhayenge." Was hilari-touching indeed at that moment...

And 2 weeks back, a very good friend cum Bhaiya, Nilesh too left to Indore, his hometown. He got a job at Pune, where he ll be moving shortly. We both joined the Chennai office and our project on the same day.. He was a good friend, guide, philospher and Bhaiya. I went down the memory lane while yesterday I was wearing the Kurta he gave me ... Those sweets and savouries he gets whenever he comes back from home...Long bike drives... Along with Nilu Bhaiyya, I sure will be missing his Bike which I've used more than like my own bike. Made all kind of daredevilry in the Chennai roads with his FREEDOM bike!!! And me and Satya used to like his oft repaeted trademark phrase - "Koi dikkat Nahi"

Anyways relocating places are inevitable. Wish both of them best wishes in all their endeavours and career ahead.

And Coming to the movie segment -Saw Vallavan, DON, Pyar ke Side Effects last. Not going into their deep reviews...PKSE was in fact too good than what I expected; Malika for a change, did some real good acting. Saikat Chaudhari, the director delivered a wholesome entertainer with his innovative presentation and Rahul Bose, as always gave an awesome performance. And yeah, your whole notions about Coffee would change ;-) Watch it and you ll get to know what I mean.
Vallavan was Okay-Okay types. Read the review here.

DON, the new version is good but doesnt fit into the 'fantastic, fabulous, Awesome' label. The twists made in the new versions give refreshed look. Changes made were all hi-tech when compared the Amitabh's DON. This time you have swanky cars, hi-fi gadgets, a disk in place of diary, locales in Malaysia, the gorgeous Priyanka and Kareena and reloaded remix'ed MUSIC. As a whole, Don lives upto the expectations -- DON ko pakadna Mushkil nahi Naamumkin hei !

tAgGeD pOsT

2006-10-20T10:08:00.000+05:30

With due apologies to Anu and Satyam for me making a delay more than usual, I go here vroom...for the tagged post.

1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn on page 18 and find line 4.
Grabbed! I have the September 2006 issue of @TCS, a monthly magazine of TCS (TATA Consultancy services).
Page 18>Line 4 says>>: “..dedication to the company’s vision, we will achieve our aim of…” :-p
2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can.
Did as long as I could and my left arm is able to touch the enclosed soft wall of my cubicle. (I am in the workplace now!)
3. What is the last thing you watched on TV?
Announcement of Diwali Special Programmes in Sun TV at home. It was 2 hours back while I was getting ready to start to office .
4. Without looking, guess what time it is?
10.10 am
5. Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?
10.19 am, not bad enough!
6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
The sound of the door getting closed by the person who came inside the project quadrant.
7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
Before coming to work, went to Airport yesterday late night to receive Madan and Vishnu who came down for Diwali hols from Kolkata. My intention was to actually receive the Rosogulla Tins that they were getting for me. Havent opened them yet, waiting to go home and gobble them up!
8. Before you started this survey, what did you look at?
The Chettinad Empire Community in Orkut
9. What are you wearing?
My favy Blue Polo T-Shirt and a pair of grey trousers .
10. Did you dream last night?
Yes and I don’t remember..Some vague mental images haunted me.
11. When did you last laugh?
Just few minutes back!
12. What is on the walls of the room you are in?
The decorative twisted colour papers adoring the front side of my cubicle wall, a cute baloon on the ceiling wall and to my right side there is a Marker write up board where the extension numbers of Pragna and Karthik are written and a paper notice stuck to the left cubicle wall .
Phew! Made a geographical kinda description!
13. Seen anything weird lately?
Yes, just some time back in U-tube. It was real WEIRDO, Boy! The performances of Lilia Stepanova, a Contortionist in "America's got talent" TV Show.
Do check http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlaI4OxQqfo.
14. What do you think of this quiz?
Cool mamu. Would remind me this day vividly when I look back at this post some day later.
15. What is the last film you saw?
KD (Tamil Movie)
16. If you became a multimillionaire overnight, what would you buy?
A house in Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad perhaps next to Chiranjeevi or Chandra Babu Naidu’s! And then with the rest of money, would get set go for a World Tour.
17. Tell me something about you that I(Anu/Satyam) dunno.
@ Anu: I am Somu’s (who did his MS in Kansas State Univ) cousin’s brother-in-law(btw, bit long relation enough). And from his orkut page only, I got navigated to yours from where I came into Chennai Talkies. Found it to be really good from the perspective of a Tamil-Telegu-Hindi Movie Addict as your reviews gave a whiff of freshness far from the stereotypical reviews. In fact, your conversative tone in reviews is what I like the most!
@Satyam:
That I got a Rossogulla Tin yesterday and gonna eat it all alone! And gonna watch Vallavan or DON with friends here this weekend!!
18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
Take the world map, place Tamilnadu/A.P alaekka (read in Vadivelu’s style) near California/Maryland so that I would be close my Akka’s and relatives place and wouldn’t miss Tamilnadu/A.P either that way. And I am sure lot many ppl too that way get benefitted.
PS: Right thaane Anu?
19. Do you like to dance?
Yes. Dance by making my own random steps in house when I am in a Kushi mood. Would dance like no one is watching!
20. George Bush.
Where is Osamaaaa!!!!!
21. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
Would extensively search along with my would-be in Internet Names directory when the occasion comes. But I would address her by calling Chellam or Kannu or Chella Kutty or Kannu Kutty! Like my dad/mom call my sister!
22. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
Same as 21. May be Appu in home.
23. Would you ever consider living abroad?
Yeh! Not one country but many! Oh Almighty, Make me a world traveler before that.
24. What do you want GOD to say to you when you reach the pearly gates?
God to Kasi: Sorry, you came here by mistake. Demons are waiting for you in the other gate!
25. 5 people who must also do this in their blog.
Vishwanathan (my coll senior, an ex IIM-B ite)
Vivek (subject to his approval)
Chaitu (Let him take his own time, he is busy with IAS Mains Exams now)
Arutperungo, a fellow Prowizard.
And Osama Bin Laden, if he writes a blog, LOL !!!

News, Books, Trivia, Movies, Lessons learnt and More..

2006-10-07T17:09:00.000+05:30

Its been almost 2 weeks from my last post and Satyam has been pushing me to update this blog. I dont have any specific subject this time, so I am going make kinda mixture as the title of this post goes...

News
The hottest debate now: Should Afzal be hanged? Should he be pardoned from the death execution penalty and be given clemency? Check out more here, if you havent followed the news of late. BJP stauchly opposes seeking Presedential pardon for him.

Shashi Tharoor is out of the race for the coveted post of UN Secretary General after US said a NO. South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki Moon, is seen as the possible occupant and favorite among the Security Council Members' for the hot seat. Despite getting 10 votes (9 is the threshold in the straw poll) from the 15 members of Security council, Tharoor made the wise decision of quitting the fray, giving way to Mr. Moon. Still, pats to you Sir for making to almost the finals of the race. We are proud of you.

Something this kind was ever unheard before -- India and Pakistan have joined hands together to set up a Joint Anti Terrorism institutional Mechanism. Stockholm syndrome kya? More here.

Books
Talking about Pakistan, I just remember that Pervez Musharaf has come up with a memoir called In the Line of Fire. From what I read on its review and postmosterm of the book, it seems to be an amazing piece of FICTION spun with real life characters. Disclaimers may perhaps be like this: " Resemblance to any characters living or dead may be purely coincidental." Musharaff has been described as a chronic liar. Google and find more abt it.

Trivia
Akira Haraguchi makes a world record by reciting the value of pi's decimal value to 100000 places from memory. The news here.

Megalomania: Anousheh Ansari, goes on her expedition to Space, reportedly the world's most expensive affair in paid tourism! More on her in Wikipedia. Dont miss checking her space blog

Movies and Lessons learnt
Did see only a tamil movie which goes by the name KD. It was hopeless and so am not putting any space or point for its 5 point review. There is actually no point in watching it. Ranju and me had to suffer while coming back from the movie, we got drenched heavily in the rain. Still to recover from the trauma caused by the movie and the side effects. Learnt a lesson for the n+1th time that dont watch without any preview or opinion. It was a blind selection for which we had to pay and suffer. Didnt see BOSS as I got bad exit review from my roomies. Thank god, saved 100 bucks in that way. Btw, heard excellent reviews about Nagesh Kukunoor's DOR, which is next on my mission. Shall see it next weekend when I'd be back to good health and goodwill.

Stalin and Em Magan

2006-09-24T15:56:00.000+05:30

Adding two more reviews of the movies that I saw during this week...

Stalin [Telugu]
1) You probably would have heard of binary marketing or Referral marketing, (like Amway), where one sells products by referring 2 or more persons and they in turn do the same further to propagate the chain reaction; Stalin has a similar theme but on the social front based on the Hollywood flick Pay it Forward.
2) Stalin has all the elements of a Chiru fare – Action, Dance, Social message, Masala and loads of sentiments; and if you are keen on logic, then its not your game.
3) Plus: Main storyline, Chiru’s dance, Parare Parare song, Certain scenes that steal your heart (especially the running race scene of Physically challenged children, where a child gets tripped and falls to the ground seeing which the other children in the race come back, cooperate with him and they all together reach the winning post. Really touching..) and the climax.
4) Minus: Songs and their inappropriate timing of insertion, Brahmanandam (who was underutilized) and much violence.
5) Verdict: If you are a Chiru fan then, go ahead, it lives to the expectation offered by the MegaStar’s package.

Em Magan (Emttan Magan) [Tamil]

1) Metti Oli Thirumurugan’s maiden direction venture Em Magan is sprun across a village subject, where Bharat plays the subservient son to the loud and tyrant father (Nasser) and the plot ends with a smooth ending where Nasser realizes his folly and gets along well with everyone.
2) Em Magan has a whiff of freshness in its Senti cum Family fare that has all elements of a feel good movie and most importantly has the flavour and nativity of the rustic essence.
3) Plus: Clearly it is the omnipresent Vadivelu this time who has given a good comedy with his typical gramatthu dialect throughout the movie, the Gramaththu Saayal (its long time after Bharathiraja a nice village subject with picturisation has come), Bharat and Nasser’s diametrically opposite characters and Saranya who has a solid performance.
4) Minus: Nasser’s illogical histrionics at some of the scenes irritate you and the too dramatic consequential part after Bharat-Gopika affair when it gets noticed by the elder folks.
5) Verdict: I find it to be very good and give a full recommendation to watch it; also I find a personal attachment and belongingness as the movie is almost fully shot in Karaikudi, which is my hometown!

Friday Review

2006-09-15T23:22:00.000+05:30

15/11 (friday) 10 pm (IST)

Hey, hey, hey....It is friday evening. I am in a euphoric state. So I shall be looking into the left out movie reviews now ;-)

Sillunu Oru Kaadhal (Tamil)

1. Sillunu Oru Kadhal released just days before the wedding of the lead pair Surya-Jo has a surprisingly different package with a slight off-the-beat crux inside.
2. SOK doesnt disappoint as publicised which has a bold subject of a Wife(Jothika) going to the extent of making her hubby (Surya) to live at least one day with his former lady love (Bhumika) on knowing the same years later; and as expected Indian Sentiment triumphs! (Watch yourself to see how)
3. Plus: Music (New York Nagaram rocks all the way!), the child artiste (as Surya-Jo's daughter), -- she is choooo cute, Picturisation.
4. Minus: The drag in the second half, Vadivelu part -- Gosh, it was incongruent to the movie with crass humour, Conspiciously excessive Advertising of products (Maruti Swift, Pepsi, TVS Star, Boost, Aircel, Maggi, Head & Shoulders!! !)
5. Verdict: Personally I liked SOK, tho' few may not concur..In any case, it is definitely watchable despite the subtle flaws in the storyline.

PS - Trivia: I saw the movie shooting (and Surya as well) from very near while it was being shot in my college for few of the college locations in the movie..When the football ground (thats our hostel ground) sequence in Munbae Vaa..Anbe Vaa song, I was there seeing!

Lage Raho Munna Bhai (Hindi)
1. Mark my words, this movie absolutely rocks and promises to be on the line of its prequel MunnaBhai MBBS that does not miss the essence and mark of the Munnabhai brand's flavour.
2. Pats to the script writers who have contributed the fresh concept of Gandhigiri (with Satya and Ahimsa) possible to bring about peace in day to day problems involving people.
3. Plus: Gandhigiri, Novel approach in handling the story, the Munna-Circuit pair's Looti, the gorgeous and simple Vidya Balan and cast, which is almost same as that of version 1.0 (except for Vidya Balan)
4. Minus: At times, there are logical flaws (but very few). But overall, it doesnt matter though.
5. Verdict: Bindaas... Ekdum Solid Maamu

Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu (Tamil)
1. Another episode in a Police officer's life: Kamal, a Crime branch Cop is in the hunt of a Psychopath who is behind a series of brutal murders. The Modus Operandi of Kamal’s investigation, his past and present personal life and the new lady love (Jothika) forms the rest of the story.
2. Many movies have come with similar story line before, but VV is fresh with its presentation, screenplay and photography but dont tend to compare with Kaaka Kaaka.
3. Plus: Music (Songs are hit since long back), beautiful picturisation of New York Nagaram and the stunt sequences.
4. Minus: Logic part -- Hard to digest that all alone 2 men take the New York Cops and Tamilnadu Police (force) in for a ride with a comfortably large number of murders all the way they go! And likewise many others
5. Verdict: Go for it! Disclaimer: Opinions vary

Bommarillu (Telugu)
1. A feel good movie that primarily portrays the bonding between an excessively caring dad and a son who wants to be independent, their aspirations and thinking.
2. Bommarillu has all the elements of a class movie with decent portrayal of characters, beautiful songs (literally all!) and most importantly promises to deliver more than what you expect.
3. Plus: Though Silly, Genalia is cute with her ChatterBox role; Prakashraj- Sidharth as father-son duo who have done justice to their roles, Music and Comedy.
4. Minus: Err....I dint find any.
5. Verdict: I recommend to all those who havent seen. Definitely a must see, I should say!

FWD-O-MANIA

2006-09-13T02:23:00.000+05:30

It was Actor Surya-Jo's wedding yesterday and the affair ended well with the presence of all big-wigs of politics and Tamil cinema. And boy, the couple looked awesome in all the pics... At least a dozen of those forwards I recieved in my mail box today.

Good heavens, nothing this kind of crappy mail came for the past few days.. Gosh, I actually posted this comment on that blog (FYI given below) :

" I too am a victim of many such fwd mails — stuff like Ganesha Mantra, Microsoft and AOL pays u XX.xx $ for every x fwd, 5 yr old child being paid medical expenses for every nth fwd, lady seeking info on her hubby’s rare disease dated years long back, Promotional offer/ Ad campaign by giving free Nokia mobile, Laptops, IPods and whatnot for fwding their mails and the most irritating kind being ‘if u dont fwd within ___days/hrs; u will have bad luck for ___years (curse is at times elevated to even immediate death!) -- Kasi "

Fountain Head

2006-09-10T14:28:00.000+05:30

Its been movie reviews all this time in my blog.. Actually I still have left Bommarillu, Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu and Lage Raho Munnabhai to be added..And Munnabhai was AWESOME!

But I feel this is going more kinda Movie Tabloid..So for a change I am not posting the reviews immediately...

I ve come to home this weekend.. Things on my agenda are to attend a wedding and Kumbabhishegam of my oor temple.. And last month, I finished reading Fountain Head by Ayn Rand which I started somewhere back in my B.E 1st year. The first 200 or so pages didnt delight me then and it was long kept unread. Add to it generous circulations among my friends and later getting fabulous reviews on it, I took a sudden interest and finished it in installments over the last few months. I just loved every page of the book in the last few chapters, in particular, when more of objectivism is enlightened through Roark. Got to know and appreciate as well lots of things about Architecture throughout the book... And I should say, Roark's speech in the Courtland Trial is a masterpiece.
I shall add more about it when I get time..

Parijatham

2006-09-01T23:23:00.000+05:30

This weekend I had been to Madurai to attend one of my classmates brother's wedding.. It was all fun catching up class buddies after a pretty long gap...

Used the michhum chochham gap to come home and presented my mom a new DVD Player. It was an LG make with all the fundoo features. The player was inaugurated for its operations with the SPY KIDS DVD in the show room on demo[nstration] causa. May be the sales person forgot to remove it and the DVD came to our home along with the player!

Back at home, the first full length movie which we saw in it was Parijatham.. It was first time for me and I really wonder how come I missed watching it all these days... Boy, the movie was Enjoyable! And I declare open the review below!

1. Backiaraj's home Production Parijatham is a hit which also happens to be a launch pad for his daughter Saranya, who is cute with her pleasant demeanour.
2. The suave Hero Pruthviraj has done good job with his enjoyable Mallu'ed Tamil Accent and the Music is good, especially the numbers Unnai kandathum.., theme music et. al stay close to the heart (I ve made the next point lighter by putting this here!)
3. Plus: Backiaraj's subtle humour, etching and portrayal of characters and sensible dialogues topped with some good old sayings as a pleasant reminder to the situations in the movie; Pruthviraj's jovial protryal in the First half of the movie (for the fictitious Parijatham Novel penned by Saranya)
4. Minus: The hackneyed Niruthunga Intha Kalyanatha at the climax making a bakra and bakri out of might-be prospective bride/groom of the hero/heroine and Pruthviraj has nothing worthwhile to do in the second half, may be he could have been utilised better.
5. Verdict: I definitely would recommend watching this feel-good-and-leave-better fare, but dont get much deep into the logic part of the second half...

Marathon Movie Reviews

2006-08-14T03:44:00.000+05:30

Hold your breath.. I am gonna post my trademark 5 point movie reviews - this time it is much much longer than ever. It almost accounts for the new movies that I ve seen in the past 2 months. Well, I am going in the reverse chronological order I saw.

Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna [K.A.N.K] (Hindi)

1. Karan Johar's new venture disappoints with its weird storyline unlike his previous blockbusters KKHH, K3G and KHNH.
2. For a change, I guess SRK has taken Emraan Hashmi's job by fitting into his Infidelity bill!
3. Plus: Music - All songs rock especially Party song and Mitwa as well the Rock n Roll number, Comedy in the first half and cinematography
4. Minus: The story itself - fails to appeal and empathize the Indian Audience
5. Verdict: KANK may be a KALANK; but very much watchable once though .

Thimiru (Tamil)

1. Following successive hits - Chellamae and SandaKozhi, Hero Vishal comes all packed for yet another opening, which has all the ingredients of a racy masala cum action movie.
2. First half of the movie goes with ease when compared with second half, which drags with a unjustifyingly poor flashback with the acerbic Shriya Reddy (she does a very artificial and unconvincing Negative Role).
3. Plus: Stunts (Action), Vadivelu comedy, Vishals Background music and First half.
4. Minus: Songs (Except Manamadurey) and Second half.
5. Verdict: Can be watched once but dont expect it in the genre of Dil, Dhool or Gilli.

[Something..Something]Unakkum Enakkum (Tamil)

1. Yet another colour xerox copy from Remake Raja, this time from Prabhudeva's Telugu blockbuster Nuvostanante Nenodantana, which has a fine blend of DDLJ and Pyar Kiya to Darna Kya.
2. Has all the elements of a feel good movie, an impressive star cast and yup nice songs too!
3. Plus: Story, Music and Santhanam's comedy.
4. Minus: The drag in the climax and Jeyam Ravi's choice for the UK-returned-chilled-out character unlike Sidharth (with his long hairdo) in the original version which he did it with ease.
5. Verdict: Good. Watch it if you havent seen the Telugu version, else leave it as it is the same!

Omkaara (Hindi)

1. Vishal Bharadhwaj's Omkaara is an adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello confining to a UP village with power, politics and lust in the game.
2. The movie has an impressive star cast and there are no songs here.
3. Plus: Definitely Saif with his Langda character, Ajay Devgan and the typical deep rooted Hindi dialogues with the flavour of authentic-rustic-ambience of rural UP/ Bihar .
4. Minus: A conspicious drag through out the movie, love making scenes and incoherence at times in the movie.
5. Verdict: Not a family movie, watch it if you have inclination for such bold movies.

Amma Cheppindhi (Telugu)

1. A novel attempt in presentation, Amma Cheppindhi is an off the beat movie sans masala, the whole story which is spun around the colony and people of a fictious Nuclear Power Plant Nagar.
2. Central theme focusses on the sacrifice laid by a Not so intelligent, funny and adorable Hero Shravan.
3. Plus: Picturisation, Clean presentation, First half and Suhasini's character.
4. Minus: The not so convincing melodrama in the climax and drag in some of the scenes, esp. the senti ones.
5. Veridict: Amma Cheppindhi may be like Amma Champindhi, but it is definitely bearable on the whole.

Uyir (Tamil)

1. Hmmm.. Uyir is on the lines of 'Vaali' or the recent 'Kalabhak-Kadalan', only change this time is it is the female who has an incest love on her young brother-in-law.
2. Apparently, the movie has done good business without getting stuck into any kind of controversy and if I am not wrong it has got rare reviews too.
3. Plus: The electrifying Sangeetha's Arundhati Character (she shadows Srikanth in the movie!) and two of the songs that are quite melodious.
4. Minus: Samvridhi, the actual Heroine and some of the irritating kinda Sangeeta's expressions.
5. Watching Uyir is not suicidal ;-) though one gets to see too many suicides in the movie which noticably starts with a Non Suicidal note !

Imsai Arasan 23-aam Pulikesi

1. One of the best movies made in recent times, Imsai Arasan 23-aam Pulikesi with the ambience of an East Man colour movie has all the flavors of a quintessential Comedy hit.
2. Though I am not an ardent fan of Vadivelu, I find him good in this movie where he does both the roles with finesse and comic mettle (Vadivelu has double Action here).
3. Plus: Comedy,dialogues, the chaste Tamil used in the movie which one rarely gets to hear these days and yeah Vadivelu, of course.
4. Minus: The heroines who had nothing worthwhile to do and though I appreicate the language used, I personally found tad difficult to follow some of the dialogues.
5. Verdict: A roar out laughter riot, 23 aam.. definitely is the watch of the season.

Vikramaarkudu (Telugu)

1. Vikramaarkudu is again another Masala Mass movie from Ravi Teja which has all the proscribed dance, crass comedy, masala songs and yeah dialogues so much typical in any telugu mass movie.
2. Movie has no great plot, it simply is a fine mixture of previous movies, but yes, it has a refreshing element in it with Anna Ravi Teja is double action for the first time.
3. Plus: Ravi Teja as Rathore and his dialogues
4. Minus: Songs that doesnt match the pace of the movie, Crass comedy and Violence part.
5. Veridict: Hmm.. I wouldnt really advocate to watch it, but if you are simply left with nothing to do and laze away around 2 and a half hours, then go ahead!

Thiruttu Payalae (Tamil)

1. With a refreshingly new plot, the movie is certainly far away from the cliched approach when looked at any angle.
2. The way the characters are etched, especially Jeevan's is fabulous and things are presented nicely without much boisterous screenplay.
3. Plus: The gorgeous Sonia Agarwal, songs especially the opening number Thiruttu Payalae and Poi Solla poraen.. which pulsates me even now and the climax that goes totally unexpected.
4. Minus: Not much though and its quite long time since I had seen the movie that I am unable to ponder upon its minusses!
5. Verdict: Watchable once and even twice, pats to Susi Ganesan (director) for the good job that has a good message in the climax.

Godavari (Telugu)

1. This is one of the best movies that I must say I ve seen in the recent years; surely it is a landmark in the annals of Telugu Kollywood's 'Klass' movies.
2. Watching the movie is a treat to enjoy Godavari's splendid picturisation and the movie goes in a decent pace, doesnt make you bore throughout the fare.
3. Plus: The Godavari backdrop with beautiful lightening and cinematography, pleasant songs, the suave Kamlini Mukherjee, soft spoken but bhatka and confused sa Suman and also the doggy that speaks gr8 thought provoking dialogues!
4. Minus: Couldnt find any, the story was natural and it was a wholesome pleasure in watching it.
5. Verdict: Hats off to Shekhar Kammulla, the young director who has presented us such a wonderful movie that has a long lasting impression. Go and watch the movie, if you havent!

As I see, I dare !

2006-07-29T16:01:00.000+05:30

Place: Chennai
Date: 22-July-2006, exactly a week before
Time: 11.55 am (IST)
Situation: Me sleeping all the way to glory till this time . Perhaps, then realised that its the wake up call and grabbed The Hindu lying in a corner of the Hall. Now...

As usual, I flipped through its pages to the Business and Sports section, when this ad by the Nani A Palkhiwala Foundation somewhere in the middle suddenly grabbed my attention. The ad read:

"Talk on women Empowerment and....
Speaker: Smt. Kiran Bedi, Magsaysay Recipient
Venue: Rani Seethai Manram, Near Anna Flyover
Time: 11.30 am(and yeah)
All are invited"

Plus a request to occupy the seats atleast 15 minutes before the commencement.

Though I pay attention to details, what attracted me instantly was the speaker and then straight I looked for the time and venue only to find that time was already 12.20 in my watch! I felt very bad for waking up late and I told Satya, my roomie about this. He replied -- "These people seldom come late for occasions like this da unlike politicians where the actual speech begins comfortably hours later than the scheduled time". And he made some time calculations and advised me not to go as even if I start immediately I might be able to see only an empty hall. But I was already prepared to go even if it were to see an Empty hall. Within 2 minutes like the Maggi Instant Noodles, I was ready (of course, bathing is a luxury in this time and had to be avoided). Rushed from my apartment across the road to the Autokaaran I could see first and then started to the venue.

It took almost half an hour to reach there and the time was 1 pm. I sped across the stairs and asked the attendant whether its still on. Yeo, he said yes which sparkled my face and added "Ulla Ponga Saar. Mudiya poguthu..". As I went inside crowd was less than what I expected (I had expected to stand but fortunately there were enough seats left unfilled). As it happened, Kiran Bedi was answering the last audience question from the dias and I came to know that the programme started at sharp 11.30. Ms. Bedi clad on a baby-green Pathan style Patiala suit was radiant and effervescent amongst the galaxy of dignitaries present on the podium. Seated along with her on the dias was Apna company CFO too. After her answer to the last question, Vote of thanks was proposed by the Palkhiwala Foundation Secretary.

Then the folks off the stage were disbursing, but how could I? I had come all the way atleast to say a 'Hi' to her. She was flocked by the foundation members, some socialite women and few who wanted to see her from near. Oh la, she readily interacted with all the junta and her mere presence electrified everyone. I had this strong urge to get an autograph from her; and Kiran is a star in her own right. I made the first move to get her autograph and with me making the intiative, others too followed.. [Autograph from movie actors is not my cup of tea though I ve taken snaps with Vikram and Saami team when some of its sequences were shot at my uncle's place, Radhika and Annamalai (Sun TV sop) team during its shooting at Keelapoongudi, near my hometown].

I dared to go and conveyed what I really wanted to. I said yours truly is so and so and told that and this. She was happy when I said that. She immediately extended her hand which was spontaneous, congratulated as well as wished me good luck. Though I didnt take my camera, one kind soul was generous enough to shoot few of my snaps as well and sent them across to me. And yeah I am posting 2 of them here.

Also when I said where I am working, Apna Company CFO who was behind her looked at me giving a sense of belongingness. With his pleasant dispostion he asked about me and how I find the work. As obvious I was ready with the stereotypical answer -- "Fine.., Er..Its actually good." He smiled and decently made my way to hang around Kiran jee. This time, few more folks joined to get autograph from her and I watched from behind. Meanwhile, a cute looking Hindu Reporter joined in a for mini chat. She gave me tid bits of info and told me about the Palkhiwala foundation.

The apparent delay in posting this despite being a week since I met Kiran Bedi jee is because of my interest to research on her career, life and biography after friday when my work would get over and whereafter I could devote time for that. I read a mini biography of Ms. Bedi from this. Visited http://www.kiranbedi.com/ and explored that fully too.

Though that meeting-Kiran jee-moment didnt last for more than a minute, her instataneous gesture and what she talked is still vivid in me. I definitely am more proud to consider that moment as an honour!

PS: Trivia - The title of this post -- As I see, I dare has a relevance to her publications. I dare is Ms. Bedi's biography and As I see is a collection of her articles

Back from the usual hibernation !

2006-07-26T21:50:00.000+05:30

I am back from the mini hiberantion (as usual). Nope , neither my blogspot was blocked nor was it inaccessible as with the hue and cry of many bloggers across India. Bloggers all over India are back in business, definitely giving heaps of relief to the Indian blogging fraternity. Dept of IT and communications has communicated over this issue yesterday.

Procrastination and/or lethargy,which is inherently present in me loads and loads deterred me from posting anything, especially when I had lots of things to put down and share. Yep, lots of posts are still pending -- reviews on Godavari and Imsai Arasan 23rd Pulikesi (movies), Rendezvous with Madam Kiran Bedi( I have this strong urge to call her 'Madam' after meeting this iconic personality) last saturday, the happy ending to the struggle of a 6 year old boy Prince over 50 hours in a deep pit in Harayana (60 feet, My God! and more here...), me reading Tin Tin series these days (hmm.. I was a fan of Tin Tin during my school days) et. al.

Hope all these would materialise into the blog soon, but I shall post my meeting with Kiran Bedi first and the rest next (well this old rugged cliche '..first and rest next' still sounds good, isnt it?).

ZIZOU - what ya done??

2006-07-14T04:55:00.000+05:30

The World Cup is over and Italy went all the way to Glory. Hats off to them. On the hindsight, France had also a chance of making it. Though France lost, it was rather a disgraceful exit for Zizou at the end of his career. Zizou was shown the door out for his own hasty act in a moment of rage during the ET, the moment which required his much-needed-presence owing to the intensity and momentum of the finals. The moment which required his concentration and balance - mentally and physically. The moment which ought to have reminded the obvious consequences. And... all the French dream was shattered in a moment....

Zidane had rather an unpleasant day with his headbutt-into-Materazzi-episode-followed by-Red Card becoming a disappointment for his fans and supporters. It certainly doesnt behove a player of Mr. Zinedine Zinedane's stature to get a Red Card at the end of his career match. Poor Zizou, he couldnt make it to presentation ceremony either...I felt sorry for him losing his temper. But I certainly wouldnt approve what he did either, whatsoever the reason be, call it circumstances or anger or any xyz. In the true spirit of healthy sporting, physical abuse is an obvious blackmark. Sad that Zizou too fell a prey to it.

Football and etc.

2006-07-06T21:05:00.000+05:30

Oh how come I havent even let a single word about Football when the air is filled with the fumes of football fever. These FIFA days were of mixed bag of reactions and events -- disappointments, Sobs, Frenzied moments, Penalty 'tensions', Red Cards and most importantly the joy when the team one supported won. Brazil, which was the eye of many as well as Kolkata had a rather disappoiting exit. Spare Ronaldo, Ronaldinho didnt either show his overly projected mettle ! There were quite unpleasantries too especially when Argentina was shown the door out. They certainly would have deserved a place in the semi-finals had only the things would have gone fine. And in yesterday's match between Portugal and France, though France had won by 1-0, I really felt Portugal was more deserving. They certainly made many attempts on the goal, sadly they went futile. And I felt there were many instances, where France wasnt given 'foul'. I am not complaining that things went biased but all I feel is things could have been better.
Human mistakes cant be tagged especially when it comes to the match Referee. And looking on the other side, Zidane was too good, he made good use of the penalty kick that led them to the finals. It certainly made everyone realise he has lot of sports left in him and tagging him 'old' is just a cliche...

Worst Orkut Intro's !!!

2006-07-03T00:59:00.000+05:30

As promised in the previous, here I present u the Irritating/Funny/worst Orkut Intro's !!!

ENJOY !!!!!!!!!!

1. "You have such a nice voice. can i be frens with u?"!!
2."Can I do friendship with you?"
3. K@MR@@N: HI, H R U ?I AM KAMRAN,FROM PAKISTANSHOULD WE BE FRIEND ?I AM WAITING FOR UR REPLY TC AND BYE
4.hello ,I think u r also in CTS ! when did u got the job ! i got CTS in march previous year n hoping to join in august this year ! lets b friends . mail or scrap back soon !take care ! byeeeeee
5.Leonardo:Hi!I am of Brazil and I would very like to be its friend!If you to want adds to me there also, ok ?A great kiss...L?o
6. I've seen fire and I've seen rain. I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end. I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend, but I always thought that I'd see you again.
7. "hi !!!wats going on....??really u r loooking stunning in all the pix...wanna friendship...?"
8. Hii,I have seen you in the movie "Mujhe Kuch Kehna Hai". I know you are Kareena Kapoor, why has you changing name to Archana under Orkut? I like you verrii maachhh. You friending with me?
9. Heyy , you look very beautiful. You will be best fit for my mega serial character. Pls friends with me and I will give you mega role in my next soap "Marudhaaniyum Maattu Saaniyum".Pls pls pls yaa, add as friend yaaa .
10. hi.. we r looking for a partner for my bro who has completed his double m.s from boston, univ of massacheusetts and is employed at wall street now. we would like to know if u would b intrested in getting married
11. hi interested?
12. Looks like u r new to orkut...let me trap u b4 someone else..What say??

[Courtesy: From an Orkut dating Community]

Back with a Bang !

2006-07-03T00:37:00.000+05:30

Its been actually more than a month since I've updated this blog. Bit more workload and odd working hours kinda made me lazy to actually open blogger.com and post something spicy...

Though I was orkutting, my posts to blog kinda got postponed then n there...

Well, I am finding my assignment in the present project bit good, interesting and challenging. I am working on Oracle Applications (E - Business Suite) -- Projects. My previous exposure to HRMS is helping a whale and thanks to Smitha, my teamy who literally spoon fed me all these days on Projects and the functionality of my module.. Now, I am getting a bit to learn on Normalisation, Web Money and Oracle Time and Labor..Well, leave these at-work-chores..

Had been to home last week and this weekend to Kalpu' s place.. All previous weekends were dedicated to office ;-( Yesterday had a bit shopping in the hustle-bustle of Ranganathan St. with Nilesh and went to Marina beach.. Followed by my all time favorite - Capuchino at CCD...

And no movies all these days..Post my Chennai arrival, I had seen only one movie -- Pudupettai, which just kinda was shit of a storyline, apparenlty motivated at making something 'different' by Selvaraghavan. Didnt last to expectations, though I hear a certain section of junta liking it. Photography was good, but that doesnt make a movie full, right?

Well, will be back with anything interesting stuff if any ! Till then Enjoy the next post...

Singaara Chennai !!!

2006-05-26T19:48:00.000+05:30

And yeah, I relocated to Chennai on an another transfer !!! I am happy for I am close to home, friends and relatives. Chennai climate is changing from the day next of my arrival, giving me a sigh of relief from the notorious scorching heat of Chennai.

Chennai is fresh after the post election grounds. Mr. K.Karunanidhi, the DMK supremo is the new Chief-Minister of Tamilnadu.

Addendum to the 5 point Reviews

2006-05-26T19:21:00.000+05:30

Oops, I forgot including this movie

DARNA ZAROORI HAI

1. 'Company' product DZH starts with a lighter mode making a ride of its prequel Darna Mana Hai and finally fails to deliver with its multiple-horror-stories-packed-in-a-movie concept
2. Has a big go with multiple star cast and being the first Hindi film to be directed by six directors.
3. Only 2 or 3 stories appear to be fresh and creative; rest are kinda cliche
4. The first story with a film buff(Manoj Pahwa) is definitely the best part
5. Overall, the movie is watchable but dont expect kinda great horror that will chill your spines and nerves !

5 point Movie Reviews

2006-05-20T17:40:00.000+05:30

For the last two weeks, I've seen more than my regular quota of movies.. Thanks to Sampath's motivation, I'm here kinda posting 5 point reviews of movies that I've seen during the past few days:

GANGSTER

1. Excellent storyline, with good screenplay and direction.
2. Music is foot tapping. Especially the numbers -- Tu hi meri..., Bheegi Bheegi..(2 gud!) and Ya Ali...(my personal favorite) stay close to the heart.
3. Very good cinematography. Locations in Seoul and some of the exotic places shown are sure a treat to the eyes.
4. And yeah, the new find Shiney Ahuja has done a brilliant performance with his expressions, sans dialogue screen presence and looks. Mark me, he's gonna be the next new sensation.
5. Definitely worth watching !!!

PS: Saw this movie twice. Gonna see again !

36 CHINA TOWN

1. Same, Old wine in a new bottle kinda story -- Murder, Investigation, multiple suspects and an unexpected culprit.
2. The element of humour is good but there are sequences as well that may irritate you!
3. Shahid and Kareena's screen chemistry doesnt go well but Upen has done well as a debutant.
4. Plus: A Ah Ashiqui mein teri, ja ja jayega jaan meri.. is too good. The background of it is oft repaeated in the movie
5. Climax fails to impress though overall the movie is quite okay. I mean watchable once!

THATHAASTHU

1. Screenplay doesnt do justice to this high voltage emotional drama; apparently this's a shameful lift from a hollywood flick.
2. Plays with your patience a lot with its mockery of the so called hostage operation.
3. Sanjay and Amisha fail to impress the audience with their roles.
4. Only one song that too an uncessary element
5. A poor climax that doesnt gel with intensity of the situation. However, that probably was the only exit.

POKKIRI (Telugu)

1. Belongs to the genre of Masala movie and has all the elements needed for a typical Masala movie - Action, Sentiment, Comedy, Fast Beat Songs, Romance, Revenge, sharp dialogues et. al
2. Plus: The damn gorgeous Iliana, the female lead ( Me too added to her fan following ;-))
3. The fight sequences (Action) is good and quite a new attempts have been made in this segment.
4. Minus: The Brahmanandam and Ali - Beggars Comedy sequence are the irritating stuff, they sorta test ur patience.
5. Music has been scored well with 3 of them being the chartbusters.

BANGARAM (Telugu)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5. No point in watching this
PS: Unfortunately I happened to see this movie ;-( Pls Pls dont ever ever see this ;-( ;-(

Transitions

2006-05-17T19:33:00.000+05:30

Ah.. I am realising that its more than two weeks and I am with no new post...

And the news is that I ve relocated to Hyderabad from Kolkata on a work transfer..

Transitions - Change to new place (though old to me) and new work environs made the apparent delay in actually posting a new crap to this so called blog mine!

Parting roomies and friends was actually hard.. The send off by them and friends at howrah station went emotional.. Anyways, Changes are a part of life and I am accepting them whole heartedly!

Well, Also Leaving Kolkata was a bit expensive affair too at the cost of a heavy treat.. But ulitmately, joy is to be shared only na ;-)

Will be back more info in the next post !!!!

Plagiarism and Kaavya

2006-05-01T15:25:00.000+05:30

Addendum to my previous post

The much hyped teeenage Indian writer Kaavya Viswanthan has been charged with Plagirism by Harvard Crimson. Sources say that she has liberally used many of the ideas and phrases taken from McCafferty's Sloppy First.

See: The full text and the similarities by the Harvard Crimson.

Kaavya, meanwhile has apologised and accepted that unintentionally she had 'internalised' McCafferty's verses.

Birthday!

2006-04-28T20:46:00.000+05:30

Finally, the long awaited day for my roomies and junta here had come on April 26. Guess, since months together, they'd have been waiting to give those 'b'day bumps and bashes'. And they didnt disappoint me or themselves either.

25 April 2006, 11.45 pm.
Woke up suddenly from the disturbance with the not so-regular hulla in the house. More than a dozen had gathered and then started the party with the cake they had brought. Post the cake cut ceremony, left overs were smeared on my face followed by the b'day bumps. A card with an indigenious poem (courtesy:Saravanan) was duly presented along with the gift. Next phone calls from Thyagesh, J.P et. al made the eve more spicier!

26 April
Went to Phool Bagaan Mandir in the morning. Morning was vibrant with many phone wishes and had gone to office. Evening when I reached home, I was surprised to get a sweet box from Raunak, the 8 year old cutie lad who happens to be our house-owner's son. Attached above is the pic of the box .

How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life

2006-04-23T12:40:00.000+05:30

The second news article that me made me stunned is about our own desi girl - Kaavya Viswanathan. This 19 something Harvard lass made a fortune of about 2,80,000 pounds (about $5,00,000!) which was paid as an advance for her book "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life".

Opal Mehta, which has a first printing of 100,000 copies, has been optioned by the publisher DreamWorks.. And more info, Spielberg's is gonna make a movie on her story!

Here are the News articles 1 & 2

Excerpts from the Book (Holding to place my hands on the actual copy!)

Pramod Mahajan Episode

2006-04-23T12:22:00.000+05:30

Today morning began as usual like any sunday. Read the first of page of Times of India in half sleep in the bed and was shook by the headline that Pramod Mahajan, BJP leader was shot thrice by a .32 pistol by his own brother. I wasnt aware of the news which took place yesterday and went in for the details. Grabbed the remote and surfing across news channels gave a big picture, the regular media hype as it would always happen be to this National Top story. Newsmakers gave an ample news for the news channels to make and cook stories.

The Hindu news article on this

Wud be back-to-blog soon !

2006-04-12T21:59:00.000+05:30

If at all, any one who happens to read my blog, I am sorry I couldnt post anything for a big gap. Due to some personal commitments, I couldnt make it to active Blogging for quite some time. But, I'll be back soon...Very soon..
PS: Would be really happy or rather extremely flattered if anyone has had felt my absence to Blog!

A Day of Meetings !

2006-03-24T20:14:00.000+05:30

22 March 2006, Wednesday

Morning:
Woke up by around 9 am after a long chat with Bala previous night.
Bala's roomie Ranjit also got into the same project as Bala. He gave good company in sleeping and later we moved to their Vadapalani Office. Met Sri Ram, long time buddy after a long time and had a big chat over a couple of dosa's and tea in the canteen (huh, is that we call breakfast meeting!). This followed with another hour- long-gossip with Priya over a cup of coffee in the same canteen. In between, met and talked with lots of old and familiar faces.

Noon:
Next, I was off to TCS - Ambattur. There I met all the junta - Swami, Geetha, Vanadi, Radhika, Yamini et. al at one go, over lunch. Post lunch, we went for a long walk-the-talk in their walky area. Then, talked with Divya who was in the Velachery office.

Evening:
Back to Vadapalani. Met lakku and Sathish(Anna Univ guy), had coffee and chat. Unexpectedly met this guy Manjeshwara who came from Kolkata to Chennai on transfer. Then Bala and Ram came, and we hopped in to the Nair-kadai-chai! Next, Bala and me started to Udayam theatre to check any latest movie and unfortunately it didnt get materialised ;-( Then, we decided to go for shopping and went to a mall over there, where I got few clothes. As we were about to start to Koyambedu, we met long time PSG Telugu friends.

Night:
Straight, we headed towards their apartment. Met Satya, KP, Srikant, Ravi there. It was nice to get back with Satya - the most happening guy around. He was not ready to leave me out and KP started preparing dinner. Few minutes and wah, it was delicious mamu! Mukunth called in between and had a bada talk with him too. It was almost 10 when I left their place and prepared to start for Velachery to see my CTS classmates, who had called me their for dinner. Anyways, even at this time, I was determined and I left to Velachery. In another hour, I was there meeting Prasanna, D. Ma, R.Ma, Kums, Jaggu and Srikanth, all at one place! Mani fondly showed his i-pod and it was a great feel-good-feeling after seeing them all. Talked with Pallu over D.Ma's fone and had lots of fun. At 12, we called Sam to wish him for his b'day.

Really, it was a big day.. No..No.. I should say a LONG day !!!

SIMPLIFLY !

2006-03-24T20:01:00.000+05:30

New 180 seater Airbus
Plush Interiors
Leather Upholstery
More leg space (comparatively)
Charming cabin crew
Adhered to time schedule (thankfully, this time I hadnt had any bitter experiences as last time)
And more importantly, safe landing and take off with no jhan-jhats!

Well, I am not talking about any International Airline or so. Its Apna very own Air- Deccan, the no frills- low cost airline. Yesterday I came to Chennai from Kolkata by A.D's evening flight. Unlike my friends and my own past experience, this time there was no cancelaltion or delay in the flight. Also, I was lucky indeed to avail the above-said all 'configuration', which is very rare indeed! The carrier took take-off around 20 mins late as the run-way was being used by another aircraft at that time. Still we managed to reach Chennai just 10 mins after scheduled arrival time and this by any means is excusable.

Overall, it was an absolute No- compliant travel!

HOPE !!!

2006-03-18T17:15:00.000+05:30

HOPE -- The four letter word on which the world runs. Donno, how many agree to this ;-) HOPE is the ray of life and the sole phenomenon for anyone's survival. It is THE word which differentiates mere existing and living.

To put it in my own way, mathematically, HOPE is the probabilty of the outcome of any event. Subconsciously, hope does co-exist amongst all of us. Think of this situation, its 8 pm now and what will happen, if tomorrow, there is no morning. To put in another words, if there is no tomorrow. Weird, but now its clear that IT is the 'hope- factor' which makes us believe that there is a 'tomorrow'. Similarly, on any outcome anywhere, hope is subconsciously hidden or embedded inside!

Hey, come on and lemme come to the root of this post. Dont start imagining that I am going wayward philosophical or a bit eccentric kind. Since noon, I am waiting for a particular result which are to be out today and till now there are no signs of it. I've been opening that result-site window for the n+1 th time (n value not sure, should be more than 25 atleast) only hoping that this time it'd come... It'd come... Alas, it never came :) At last, I got the message that the results are delayed and they would come tomorrow. The whole sambhav intrigued me to write something on 'hope'. Ha ha, so goes my background..

One more incident happened yesterday. One of my friends lost her mobile phone during lunch somewhere in the office. Realising it after a couple of hours and after a few initial attempts at tracing, she lost the hope of getting it back. In her own words, she didnt even have 1% hope on getting it back! But it was found later (thanks to Apna company's security) . Hope, indeed retained its glory with a postive outcome ;-)

Hope - the strength as well as the excuse to live..True, Hope propels the world with its dear men and women!

Shanti Niketan Trip

2006-03-15T18:51:00.000+05:30

I intend to put in 2 parts, the 'first' abt the 'planning' part and the second about the 'executing' part -- trip actually ;D

Part I
The following is a copy of the letter that I circulated among our group before leaving to the Shanti Niketan visit. Ha ha, see how formal it looks ;-)

Friends:
The long awaited Shanti Niketan outing has finally materialised!
This is to inform you all the details, venue and plan of ShantiNiketan tour:

1. Information:
Shanti Niketan seems to be special during this time (holi) with its 'basant-utsav' and is a must-see place for us.
visit
http://www.theholidayspot.com/holi/vasanta_utsav.htm
http://www.indiatravelogue.com/dest/wben/wben1.html for the place details.

2. How to reach?
Shanti Niketan is around 3 hrs from here, reachable by road and bus. Direct train leaves from Howrah junction at specified timings. Alternativley, it can be reached through Burdwan, which has frequent electric train connectivity from Howrah junction. From Burdwan, there are lots of buses available to reach Bholpur, ~ 50 kms from Burdwan (fyi, Bholpur is the name of the station for Shanti Niketan). We'll go for the second option.

3. When and where to start from ?
Tomorrow (14 March) morning by around 6.30 am from Karunamoyee.
Meeting point : Place near the Shuttle stand

4. Cash required?
Around: Rs. 300 to 500 (plus extra whatever you want)

5. Things to be got:
(a) Have an extra pair of clothes as you may bound to get coloured duirng 'Holi' Celebrations. I'd suggest you to wear washable, non expensive wear.
(b) Towel
(c) Water bottles (with water, of course!)
(d) Snacks, if possible

Part II

Realising that, it'd be too late if we start by the said time, the eight- some gang of ours agreed to assemble at the starting point at 5 am in order to board the 6' o clock direct train at Sealdah Station. As it always happens, it was around 5.40 when we all gathered ;-) We were left with the only option to go to Howrah and get the Burdwan local. Next straight, we stuffed, squeezed and sandwiched ourselves fully int0 the taxi and went seedha to Howdah. Burdwan local was delayed and our journey started by 7 am. Guess, this is the first group outing at such an early hour! In a couple of hours, we were at Burdwan and from there we boarded another train to Bolpur (ShantiNiketan). By 12 noon we were there.

It was Holi...As soon as we came out of the station, people almost drenched with colours were chasing to colour us. With small sprinkle of those colour powders, we managed to escape.. Next, we headed to the university campus only to find that all the morning cultural programs were over. Anyways, our next mission was to fish out some place to have our lunch and thanks to the University canteen, we had a patefull aur platefull meals. As we came out, the air of holi and celebration was in the wind and then the actual holi - masti started in our gang. As we mved around the campus, students and junta in small groups were singing and dancing for the dhol-jatra (the bengali avataar of holi, I guess). We too joined and it was all rocking.

Unfortunately, yes the musuem was closed and we marched towards another place called 'Khwai' (still I doubt whether it is Hwai?). On the way, we were smeared with colours again and we gracefully 'accepted' it. By this time, we already were fully coloured and top of it, we took snaps with the junta! Khwai or Hwai, whatever be it, was a big open eucalyptus plantation with eroded valley. The topography here was just awesome. There was a handicrafts and petty goods shandy over there. Since we had to reach home in the night itself, we started early in the evening to the station missing the cultural events in the university.

The return train journey to Kolkata was fun with nonstop chat, gossip and of course, pulling each other's leg .

Magnum Opus: SA vs Aus ODI

2006-03-15T18:47:00.000+05:30

Undoubtedly, the best cricketing in the recent past was seen this sunday with SA chasing Aussie's ubiquitous 434. Kudos, they did it. With Gibbs on 175, SA did manage to score such a HUGE run with finesse. What more, winning with a thumping victory at their home pitch Johannesburg made the moment glorious !

A Magnum opus indeed !

PS: catch this news article, if u wanna go thru...

Alipur Zoo

2006-03-12T21:49:00.000+05:30

This weekend our junta planned to go for Digha beach. Though the proposed planned was to

start early in the morning on sunday, finally it took around 12 noon to materialise ! Add another hour, we reached the Esplanade Bus Station only to find that Digha would take around five hours to reach. Phir bhi, we didnt loose hope and the second thought of going to local place in Kolkata flashed. Immediatley, we agreed to make a darshan to the Alipur Zoo. from there, 2 taxis and 10 minutes led us to this revered place. The zoo did disappoint us, but we had fun all the way through. Uploading few pics taken in the zoo.

Post, we headed to the Birla Mandir. This was awesome with its striking construction, marble sculptures and embellishments.

N+1 th Miracle

2006-03-07T21:04:00.000+05:30

Date: 7 march 2006
Time: 3.30 am

Guess what..
For the first time I ve been in office for so long -- the golden period is today (actually majority yesterday)
Came to office on 6 march at around 6.30 am and am still here. Am not inside the cubicle altogether though, but have taken generous big big tea and lunch breaks in between!

Preparing a 'Migration template' from Oracle Apps screen. Not that there is work pressure, but work excitement!!! Actually, I am supposed to finish by tomorrow morning. But to be lazy today and tomorrow, I ve raced to finish it up!! Blv it or not, its fun workin' in the nights!!!

(KASI IS IN OFFICE FOR MORE THAN 21 HRS)

The Winner

2006-03-06T08:17:00.000+05:30

Finished reading Snapshots from Hell last week. A good book, especially for those on the MBA- fray. Personally, it didnt live upto my expectations, not the kind of racy a la Chetan Bhagat. Given the topic, it is but inevitable to compare with his books, which is more of fun and a total entertainer.

And this makes me think of Ram. Over to Ram: He has got thru IIFT (Indian Institute of Foreign Trade and not Fashion Technology!),boy ! It�fs great news to hear as he was desperately trying for an admission this year. I still remember his words on our class group email..

//If i were to write a bk on the subject, it culd prblybecome a best seller after the Chetan Bhagat's bks.Coz the love stry just seems to be mving n and on ..To make things worse, i've been making loud noise, yetthe questin "where are the results ? " wud always putme in a tight spot ..//

Finally, he has made it. Congrads and Best Wishes to him!!!

Whats up ???

2006-02-27T20:24:00.000+05:30

Seems lot much has happened over this week in the power corridors. Me feeling like summing up few.

1. Lalu has given the railway budget for the year 2006-07. More links are here
2.// Manu Sharma of Jessica Lal murder fame acquitted// Shameful, pathetic, miscarriage of enquiry and justice.Also, see Rediff article
3. Bush's gonna visit India on March 1.
4. Finance Budget gonna be presented by Chidambaram tomorrow. More info and expectations here...Me also getting eager to hear some tax-waiver-sorta announcements
5. Madras High Court quashes Tamil Nadu Government's new admission policy for professional courses
6. And the Best Bakery case with its new episode

JAMES CHAI

2006-02-16T21:27:00.000+05:30

James: I've always wanted to write about this man. Always smiling and oozing with enthusiasm, he is a star-hero of TCS Kolkata. Though not directly associated with Apna Company, James is the Tea Vendor who has his stall outside the company compound. Hey, James' charisma and business acumen has a big say here. People always flock his Tthela or the petty shop through out the day, no matter, even if its noon or 2pm. Fond among Apna junta, James is the adda, the hang out for all of us.

James tea-stall campus has a typical roadside stall set-up on the platform with table, eateries, fags, pass-pass, snacks, mints etc etc (apart from tea) and lots of open space in front of his dukaan for us to stand. The popularity of the place and his chai has nearly shunned many junta from taking vending machine tea/coffee inside the floors of the office. Even I discarded that LONG back, may be due to the fatigue and boredom factor of the vending machine chai.

The relief that u get from coming out of the air-conned office complemented by the aura of his James atmosphere is just awesome. Here, u get to meet lots of people, gossip and believe me the place really makes one addicted. With the typical scenario of a tea-kadai-bench, the gossip varies from projects, technology, internal gup-shups ,politics, and to what nots of the world !

Truly, a lot can happen over James cup of Chai.

And a trivia here: James has been featured in the last month issue of Kool-katha, the monthly magazine of Apna Company.

PS: Though, the idea was conceived on 16th, I am posting it only today (26 feb). I was kinda busy all this week and after this short break I am back-to-blog again!

Snapshots from Hell: (P)review

2006-02-15T17:31:00.000+05:30

The high acclaimed rating and astounding word-of-mouth review made me buy this �ecompelling�f book �gSnapshots from Hell: the making of an MBA�h by Peter Robinson. The book�fs blurb says -- �gA book for wannabe MBA�fs, anyone desirous of applying to a B-school or anyone in business�h. Though my dreams of apping for MBA is slowly fading away, I gave a rethought, a serious contemplation to read this, at least to make a judgment about how a B-School is really like. Change is inevitable and perhaps, who knows, I�fd be tempted or rather motivated to change my notions again. Accompanied by too much enthu, I finally bought this paperback yesterday.

The author Peter Robinson worked as a speech writer at the White House during Reagan�fs period and later looks like he took a choice to do MBA (for the obvious reasons -- earning fat pay!). The book is about the story of the author himself during his MBA days at Stanford during 1988- 1990. So far, I�fve come across ~ 80 pages and find that unlike Chetan Bhagat, Robinson has dwelled much on the plight of the students and the hectic schedule of the B-school. Chetan Bhagat�fs �e5 point someone�f had a blend of college masti, romance and very little of academics spiced with sentiments. Here, in �eSnapshots..�f, one gets to see in his pages more of lectures, case studies and class room problems. But thanks, the answers to the problem/discussion are given in very small font down the pages, so that if the reader needs he can go through them. On a lighter note, the author makes fun of the elite �epoet�f section of the class. �ePoets�f constituted the non-business/accounting background people who formed a sizeable chunk of the class.

Though not that gripping, I find the material pretty worth reading�cAnd yes, its hilarious with its fundo-joy-ride of the B-school. Chalo lets see how it moves further�c

I am one month old in ORKUT !

2006-02-13T19:38:00.000+05:30

//I always used to wonder whats there in Orkut and why there is a hype and hoopla over this//

To find this, I too joined and discovered that its The better way to kill your time on net. With its impending jaws and strangulated web, orkut is really infectitious driving one more and more into it. And well, now I too am now caught !!! (though passively with my deliberate 'avoiding' ) in its web.

Starting with making my presence to Orkut tad late, a month back, with 4 friends and connections to 12239687 people, I am now getting the status on my orkut profile that "You are connected to 13,203,471 people through 81 friends".

Well, the former part in both the statements implies that a total of 9,63,784 (13,203,471-12239687, gotcha!) have too made their entry during this span. This is a BIG number by any statistics. Okay, enough of these fundas and calculations. Will come back soon with the new nonsense post soon !!!

Cultural Night: Comedy of Errors

2006-02-13T18:45:00.000+05:30

After the Project Party, TCS Picnic, with ascending order of expectation, we hopped in to Rang de TCS ! the Annual Cultural night of Apna Company. We entered by 7.30 pm and found that the program started by ~ 6.30 pm, lagging behind by an hour and half with the actual schedule. Thaad, thaad, thaad straight, all the junta made their entry to the food court, which made all the serving counters crowded thereby making chaos everywhere. It was total 'confusia' there -- no queues, mismatch of boards and counters, and above all the space crunch causing mayhem among the flooded crowd.

On the other hand, at the podium, with very little audience a classical dance was going on. I was expecting my friend�fs drama at 8.30 pm, but there were no signs of it for a long time. After an hour or so, bowled over by the long wait, I checked in back stage to see kya chal raha udhar.
Poor heavens, the drama people didn�ft get any chance to show up to the stage. The slot and sequence were sort of monopolized by those few from the Ramp show. They came in many installments, dragging the show. What the heck, there at the back stage, I could see lots of verbal fights, ego clashes amongst those who were not given chances to present their event. Announcers seemed to be stuck in between the web of organizers and fighter- comrades. It was pathetic with pandemonium there too!

Finally when the drama was hosted it was already close to 11 pm and by that time most of the people had left following the announcement that company buses plying to regular routes would leave at 10.30 pm. Given this, with all spirits, these guys made a bold entry and they did a good presentation, boy! I still wonder, where elsewhere, do you give sort-of-last-slot to a drama? With very few people remaining (hardly less than 50) , still few sequences of dance and an orchestra-band were left. And that fianlly had to be cancelled.

Well, that�fs how Apna cultural night ended with misery; thanks to mismanagement and poor organizing skills...

Tryst with Maitree

2006-02-13T18:09:00.001+05:30

Being involved with the Adventure and Trekking club here made to meet people from Maitree, the community club of Apna Company. Corporate Maitree Junta from Mumbai came in to take testimonials from us and thus make a corporate video out of it.

Tuesday morning, with bit of whats-gonna- happen (?) of expectation, dropped in to the HR wing. Additionally, I was there to represent Bibliophiles, the Book Club too. First, the video of Book club as well as some members was taken. Huh, some people had to give serious poses of reading books stuff�c Even I was made to sit on a couch, placed with a Maitree Matters magazine on my hand giving a reading pose. A few girls, I and Suprio da then were discussing about the Book Fair and the recent additions to our repository. The camera guy found that natural and told he�fd be shooting this.

Phir kya, with his P.C. Shriram�fs view, focusing his camera ulta-pulta with different angles and frames, he made us rearrange here and there, moving things in and out of the room to capture our conversation. Later, we were told to express in a line about Maitree, I opted to say one word ? Energy. It sounds good, though totally fallible. I recently had a grudge against few HR folks, who made me �eunacceptable�f for a particular event. Well, that�fs a different episode although. And by this time, my entire rancor has subsided. Then next, for the Adventure Club session, along with the coordinators, I joined at the conference room. We played the video of our trek and few photos. Finally, here too I gave in my �eviews�f and briefed about our trek tour. Unhappily I had to part my CDs to the camera guy, loosing my invaluable treasure�c

Hamara Treat and AADI

2006-02-13T17:31:00.000+05:30

Well, this time I had no options left. The much awaited me-sponsored-treat (though partially) came to an end with all my roomies getting free from their vetti schedule. Last Sunday, I and Kalp joined to give a dinner to our roomies and Uma Achi to celebrate the occasion of new-arrivals in both of our sister�fs homes. Yeo, the venue was the same old Banana Leaf restaurant. Looks like, we�fve become habitual treat goers there!

After that, we went to the Tamil CD shop and bought the CD of the movie Aadi. Perhaps, we didn�ft know then that we are gonna repent soon. Heck, what a disgusting-nonsense-movie was that; I almost couldn�ft control myself laughing over the serious scenes.
Well, I really don�ft want pen down more on this issue; watching that (unfortunately twice!) owing to unavoidable circumstances had made me kinda sick.

PS: Still I wonder how this brilliant piece of bullshit is consistently being given No. 1 rank in Top ten Movies.

The Weekend and after...

2006-02-02T18:58:00.000+05:30

Mukunth's Treat:
Sunday, 29 Jan 2006
Mukunth had got a transfer. I could see that electric smile in his face as rushed out to tell his transfer to Chennai. All of us joined to give him grand kicks and bumps. Following the tradition, he gave us the treat at Banana Leaf Restaurant on Sunday. 10 of us went and had a gala get-to and a good meal �c Needless to say, it was a feast for me who had been deprived of Dosa for quite a long gap!!!

Kolkata Book Fair:
same day!
Then, we headed towards the Kolkata Annual Book Fair or the Boi-Mela.. Wow, it was amazing to explore those big arrays of bookstalls replete with resources. The more interesting part is the crowd. Such a BIG crowd to a Book Fair, I haven�ft seen before. Many stalls had queues formed by the junta themselves�c An enthusiastic-visitor-crowd is for sure, the success behind this annual event. Later, we gazed around the mela, had Cha-Pani etc. Sathish, Pankaj and me hopped into the British Council stall and registered membership to avail its library facility. Looks like this deal of intellectual investment is worth it (till Jan 2007, it would expire then!).

French classes:
Tuesday, 31 Jan 2006
Then w.e.f this date, I�fve joined French classes conducted by Learning & Development wing of Apna Company. Ms. Dolon, the French Ma�fm started with standard introduction phrases. Then we had all the alphabets (I am sure gonna mess up with English and French pronunciation as well as words at the end of the course! lets see...) Class was very much interactive and we had to play conversation in groups at the end. Was eduMy French gyan will be up in the next post !!!

Rang De Basanti

2006-01-27T17:12:00.000+05:30

LOOSE CONTROL !!!

Jan 25:
Kolkata
RANG DE BASANTI is out(though a week later than scheduled)... at last. Special premieres and shows were screened at INOX and fame multiplex here...

Jan 26:

The wait has come to an end. Had no control on my patience.. After making calls to organise 'movie-mates', rushed to apna own city-centre-ka-INOX. Thanks, to Saptha's Manhattan card, INOX gave 1 ticket free with every ticket purchased !

[Amar Rahe this scheme and Long live Manhattan card !!!]

As far as movie, it was SUPERB. Definitely, worth watching. Here goes one synopsis of the movie...

�eRang De Basanti�f deals with a topic that is very relevant to contemporary times. It talks of several youngsters with different aspirations from life. It brings parallels between present and our revolutuionary past with 'shaheed' freedom fighters. Its story is also partly inspired from the story of real life pilot, Flt.Lt.Abhijit Gadgil who was killed in a MIG crash two years back.

About the movie: All the roles were crafted well and I personally liked Atul Kulkarni's role (both as 'Lakshman' and as 'Ram Prasad Bismil'). Aamir as Daljit Singh aka DJ, is at his best. Madhavan, Sidharth, Sharmaan Joshi, Kunal Kapoor and not to forget the charming young ladies -- Soha Ali Khan and alice Patten have formed the rest of the lead. Cinematography and Music are the other highlights beyond the impressive starcast.

On the whole, Rang de Basanti is more 'Shaheedon ki Paathshaala' than 'Masti ki Paathshaala' ...

Watch it !!! You'll definitely feel and experience the pulse...

PS: Trivia - The above pic (with Aamir on the horse) contains that sequence which was removed from the movie bcos of request (!) from Animal Welfare Board

TRIVIA & ANAGRAMS

2006-01-25T17:03:00.000+05:30

I was just checking few trivia questions from a fwd mail and found this quite interesting:
1.
What is special about the following sentence:

"I do not know where family doctors acquired illegibly perplexing handwriting nevertheless, extraordinary pharmaceutical intellectuality counterbalancing indecipherability, transcendentalizes intercommunications' incomprehensibleness"?

A : This is the longest sentence in English language in which the Nth word contains N letters
[I guess, the shortest such sentence is "I am." or 'I do"!]

And this list of Anagrams is also cool :D))

1. DORMITORY:
When you rearrange the letters:
DIRTY ROOM
2. PRESBYTERIAN:
When you rearrange the letters:
BEST IN PRAYER
3. ASTRONOMER:
When you rearrange the letters:
MOON STARER
4. DESPERATION:
When you rearrange the letters:
A ROPE ENDS IT
5. THE EYES:
When you rearrange the letters:
THEY SEE
6. GEORGE BUSH:
When you rearrange the letters:
HE BUGS GORE
7. THE MORSE CODE:
When you rearrange the letters:
HERE COME DOTS
8. SLOT MACHINES:
When you rearrange the l etters:
CASH LOST IN ME
9. ANIMOSITY:
When you rearrange the letters:
IS NO AMITY
10. ELECTION RESULTS:
When you rearrange the letters:
LIES - LET'S RECOUNT
11. MOTHER-IN-LAW:
When you rearrange the letters:
WOMAN HITLER
12. SNOOZE ALARMS:
When you rearrange the letters:
ALAS! NO MORE Z 'S
13. A DECIMAL POINT:
When you rearrange the letters:
IM A DOT IN PLACE
14. THE EARTHQUAKES:
When you rearrange the letters:
THAT QUEER SHAKE
15. ELEVEN PLUS TWO:
When you rearrange the letters:
TWELVE PLUS ONE

The PICNIC

2006-01-23T10:41:00.000+05:30

Well, owing to (y)our valuable time, I am trying to make this one a la M-O-M (Minutes-of-Meeting).

The TCS-Kolkata Annual picnic was a blast (Note, I ve give the conclusion here itself!).

With 50 odd buses all over Kolkata, associates started from their homes in the morning and reached the �esite�f Lakeland Country Club (half an hour onward drive from Vidyasagar Setu*).

Around 1500+ ppl turned up. With multiple food serving counters and BIG queues, breakfast** started (and so ended late for many!). Next, people started spreading in clusters in the sprawling campus. Later, the circular atrium in the club was flooded with people to shake their legs to the pulsating DJ-music. Owing to the scorching sun, it had to be made short. Later, there were lots of events happening simultaneously.

1. Fun games like �eHit-the-stumps�f, �eTug-of-War�f and Dart
2. Spoon-race and memory games for kids
3. A sort of Cosmo-jump and play area, again for kids
4. Go-karting
5. Kabaddi, self initiated by a group of entho junta
6. And small small �esangams�f spread idhar-udhar by junta of identical frequency

By noon, there were again queues (for Lunch!). But now, all the lines moved fast and there were absolutely no hassles in getting things done fast. And boy, the Khana was sumptuous! ( I gobbled to my hearts content). Post lunch; with few camera sessions, gazing here and there, sab assembled for a Magic-show! That was fun and by 5 pm ended the eventful day with the buses receding the venue..

[ A memorable day Indeed! ]

PS:
*this is the New Howrah bridge, the cable supported bridge connecting Howrah with Kolkata,)
**with poori, sabji and jalebi, it was just palatable

An Eventful week (indeed)!

2006-01-23T09:54:00.000+05:30

Jan 18: Aravind was leaving tonight, was with him till noon.. Showed up for the Quiz-prelims at office in the evening. Had been to Howrah station to see-off Aravind at night
Jan 19: Arun and Sabari came from Guwahati. Went to Airport, picked them up and spent the rest of the day with them roaming and doing nothing
Jan 20: Was there at office but there wasn�ft much free time
Jan 21: 'PICNIC' and see off to Arun & Sabari
Jan 22: Went to Uma Achi�fs place with Sara and was there whole day; installed xp to their comp and saw much awaited 'mounam pesiyathe'

Well, through these things I really didn�ft intend to project how busy am I or venturing into a new one-liner-daily-event-diary.. These are actually the �elame�f excuses for me not posting a blog for such a �ebada�f gap especially when it was cho�c. Eventful ! I really wanted to make seperate posts for all these days, but thanks to time and memory (my own memory!) constraints, I am just making it one or two to sum up.

SETBACK DAY
It �ereally�f was a �esetback�f day, appearing for a quiz (this was a general-quiz organized by the Library, TCS-Kolkata) after so many months (I guess it�fs the first after college). Around 50+ heads turned up for the prelims. Me and Vishnu took the paper and were almost blank for half the questions of the total 25. The quiz master (Biswabijoy da) had made a good effort in churning up dry, visual and audio questions.
(I actually wanted to post some of the questions, but thanks, I am not doing so..!)
Managed to get 6.5 (which I thought was okay). But to my horror, I was shocked that the average score itself was ~ 10 and highest was 16.5. The last team to make it to the final four had got 14.
Arey Baba! I couldn�ft digest these numbers. Looks like my QQ (quiz quotient) has really really got down or rather has got stagnated�c. It certainly wassa big kick-back. As usual, in the cover of being �eoptimistic�f, took it in the real spirits.

(continued....)

PS: I am taking the liberty of using a separate post for the sequel

PONGALO PONGAL!

2006-01-17T20:38:00.000+05:30

We, the roomates of DL-42 (our house no. !), celebrated Pongal with the full enthusiasm and spirit, though away from all our homes..

I ve uploaded some of the snaps:

Courtesy:

1. Vishnu for that Kolam

2. Sara (and Kalp) for Sakkara Pongal

3. Kalp for the payasam and vadas made from instant vada powder

4. Dhana -- overall coordination

5. And finally Pankaj and Kasi (thats me) for eating all those (with them, of course!)

Project Party !!!

2006-01-16T20:14:00.000+05:30

I just remembered that I'd been to a party last friday (13 Jan). The occasion was to celebrate the success of 'go live' of the database instance at the client side that 'we' worked.. (no pun intended!)

The party was hosted at our Company's guest house and even the ex-project junta (which includes me!) were invited.. Da, it was a good time..

All the people, around 30 in number gathered and spread themselves across the rooms of the house. Promptly, our PM made us comfortable though we were spread here and there...We started with the juice and snacks. Rest of the course would be dedicated exclusively in the next para...With Indrani di making an iniative for some activity to be done, we agreed to go for dumb charade.. It was a gala time -- emoting movies, making signs, emoting, changing rules and yet competing (sorry, but no points..) and making fun of each-other.. Ya, I forgot.. Insert some camera sessions with Nishant's 'Analog' camera in between (I didnt take my cam that day..) I repent now ;-(

Then came the interesting part. The course followed with some paneer and chicken lollipops and eateries like what we call onion bonda and bajji
2. Next, we were given some appetisers like fryums and onion chips (sort of)
3. Dinner: Roti, Plain rice, Veg gravy (Paneer), Non veg gravy -- chicken and some other gravy ( I didnt taste that), Prawn , fish pieces, Aloo mixed sabji, Another Veg curry and pickle (yeo this pickle was sweet like marmalede)

Sadly, no mishti was there.. was terribly missing those mouth watering rossogulla's and bengali sweets. Phir bhi, had a lion's share indeed

New Year Bash @ the city of joy !!!

2006-01-15T13:13:00.000+05:30

The New year started with a 'vetti' visit to park street, doing nothing and it was fun to be with the massive crowd, cars and cops! Believe it or not, city of joy was in the fullest of spirits when it comes to celebrations...

A big group of our junta went on a outing on 31 dec night and returned home to put high volume music and chill al night round... It was all FUN, boy !

ACCELERATING START IN THE NEW YEAR

2006-01-13T16:16:00.000+05:30

I am back again to the Blog.. Certainly after a BIG gap!

First good news, in 2006, is with the arrival of a baby-boy at my sister's place in the U.S on January 2, 1 pm U.S time (11. 30 pm Indian time)...They've christened him TEJAS. Tejas Beta, I dont how long it would take me to see you in person (even I ve not seen Tejas's sister Tanya in person (1.5 years old now!)). Only I am hoping to see the kids on my sister's vacation to India..

I am in the ORACLE CoE now, certainly much better than the bench in the office.. Recently i ve put 'vazhuthu kaal' into the orkut. Right now I am connected to 12239687 people through 4 friends :D )))

Then, on January 4, I went to Uma Achi's place here for 'Pillaiyaar Nombu', a festive of Nagarathars (well, I too am a Nagarathar). Had a very good 'saapaadu' with around 2 dozen idli's, vadai, paniyaarams and three different chutnies too! The occasion gave a chance to socialise with three Nagarathar families here. As usual, the air was filled with the talks of oor, kovil, kalyanams, karaikudi et. al

Aaj ka Tid Bits:
Todays news has shocked everyone: 350+ haj pilgrims believed to be dead bcos of stampede.
Well, the much awaited Indo-Pak test series had a kick start today at Pak with Pak team opting to bat first.

cOmE 2006!

2005-12-31T18:47:00.000+05:30

Ba bye 2005...
this is my last post to this blog this year..

After a long stop-gap, I am (b)logging in and seeing my mail ids filled with 'New year' fwds!
The last weeks of this year have left us sort of in fear and traumatised soon after the terrorist attacks in Bengaluru and the Pratiba Devi-Call-Center episode. Rains continued to batter tamilnadu and Chennai. 42 died in a stampede during the distribution camp at Chennai. Dec 26 was the first year of the sad tsunami. Centre was shocked with the tainted MP's in the operation stung where few parliamentarians accepted bribes shamelesly. Big B was hospitalisedwith critical health issues

There were shades of white too.
Cricket:Dada Ganguly was brought back to Team-India again on Dec 25( I am though not a strong Dada supporter). India won the test match series against the Lankans. The Dhoni-mania has discovered and realized with his spel binding 183 off 146 balls.

Politics: With Nitish Kumar the assembly polls in Bihar, the end came to the impending Lalu-Rajya of 15 years. Bihar seems to be in safe clutches now and there are signs of rejoice to the people.

Bollywood: Bachchan has recovered and has sent a positive message of relief to all his fans worldwide.

I.T: TCS is reaping in more profits and revenues and has continued to maintain its numero uno among IT Consultants, India Corp. Gives sense of joy for being associated with TCS.

And personally, I had a blast of a time in this long week. Freaked out to City-centre and Park Street at Kolkata on Christmas with friends. Man, it was awesome! And yesterday, there was a horror night show, dance in the office premises.. was too superb, we danced till we drained.. had lots of masti..

And yeah, last week, one of roomies relatives came from Chennai, went for a local tour and shopping with their family.

And so I hope to continue the blog with same or rather more spirits and enthusiasm.. Chalo lets see how 2006 is ---

Six Thinking Hats

2005-12-21T20:10:00.000+05:30

Yesterday I grabbed the opportunity of attending a workshop on �eEdward de Bono�fs Six Thinking Hats�f organized by the Learning and Development dept of our company. It was very nice and gave me a dimension to think on �ethinking�f as a more scientific process. Though much is to be explored, I�fve gotta fair deal of understanding on the topic. The instructor was Mr. Ajay, a six thinking hats certified trainer.

Here, Hats determine the structure of the thinking process. In fact, the whole concept is all about structured and parallel thinking. It looks like it has been a proven tool to assist the decision making process during meetings and brainstorming sessions in many organizations.

I�fll stop this bhashan and going straight to the hats.
Essentially Edward De bono has devised this methodology for an organized thinking by putting thoughts under the categories of White, Red, Yellow, Black, Green and blue hats.

Lets assume a discussion of any topic among few members within a time limit. Normally, the discussion would go randomly without any sequence. But under this six thinking hats process, the points or thoughts would have to be structured under the hats. It goes like this...
The blue hat is the moderator and can put(say) any hat for a specified time to the discussion. Each hat has different purpose and these hats can come in any order.
Normally, it is the white hat that comes first in which any piece of information that comes to mind for the topic is told by the participants. Yellow hat prompts for the positive points or constructive thoughts and Black hat invites negative points, risks, cautions etc. Green hat looks for creative opinions and innovative approach to the topic. Red hat asks for intuitions, feelings, emotions for any opinion and the operation here is done deliberately faster than other hats. Blue hat can change any hat in the due course of the discussion.

Confused now, isn�ft it�c.?I�fll go on with an example to avoid all confusions and bring more clarity.

Lets assume the topic is James Bond. The process goes like this

White Hat (Information): basic info is put forth with not staining mind much
1. A spy
2. works for M
3. Pierce brosnan
4. Last movie: Die Another Day

Red Hat (Feelings/Emotions/Likes & dislikes):
opinion poll among the member(s) for liking/disliking James Bond is taken quickly.

Yellow (Positive points):
1. Uses modern gadgets
2. massive fanfare
3. technical brilliance, hi fi

Black (Negatives):
1. No coincidence with reality
2. One man army
3. Bad influence sometimes

Green (creativity):
Like Who could be the next james Bond (Imaginary)?
1. Nicholas cage
2. Abhishek Bachchan
3. Osama (?)
4. Laloo (!)

So, we see that the thinking process goes in a structured way.

Important points to note:
1. The Blue Hat determines the choice of the next hat to be used in the thinking process depending on the situation, time and the momentum of the topic
2. It is not necessary that all the hats are to be used
3. The hats can be used again or repeated or changed when and wherever required
4. The process can be applied to even individual thinking process and can be used effectively to communicate ideas and deliver points!

B2B (back to blog!)

2005-12-21T19:21:00.000+05:30

Yipee I am back to blog... My project was over by the last month and since then I am not allotted to any new project. Looks like it would take some time as there aren�ft any new projects as of now. The saddest part is I don�ft even have a system. Anyways , I am using some common machines (even they too r always occupied by ppl) to check mails and stuff 2-3 times in a week. The last three weeks have been really terrible with no system, no work, no source to see mails regularly. �eBench�f is really disgusting!

108

2005-11-30T11:57:00.000+05:30

I am excited today-- its my successful completion of 108 days at Kolkata. Everything had and has been absolutely fine - no hassles, no frills, no jhan-jhats! On the top of it, coincidentally I ve done with the project I've been alloted with! Means, w.e.f today i.e 30-Nov-2005, I am no more in this project. Anxiously awaiting for the 'What Next' signal from the HR.

Today morning an old friend of mine called from Hyderabad. He did with his training at Infosys, Hyderabad. Looks like he got his allocation to Chennai for maintanance. Though his home is at Chennai, he seems not to be interested at the offer as he preferred Implementation stream at Hyderbad. And he is desperate to 'swap' locations with someone who prefers Chennai.

Logging in after a Break!

2005-11-29T15:40:00.000+05:30

Lots of events have happened after my last post.

First, I ve developed a real penchant for cooking. Of late, I ve learnt to cook rice in a pressure cooker properly! I should now say that I ve become proficient in sabji cutting...Last week, Pankaj, my roomie taught me to prepare Vegetable Pulao. And at the end, it came out well !

On friday, I went to the Eden gardens here to have a glimpse of the India vs. SA One day-ODI atmosphere. Man, it was electrifying - Big crowd, Cars, Security, band-baaja.. Crowd were mostly of Ganguly's supporters. But, but... sadly, I didnt see the match actually.. Just had been there to accompany Satish and Saptha(till the Stadium entrance gate!), who had shelled out heavy bucks for the tickets. And I came back happy heartedly! Bad luck, India lost at the end.

Last weekend was really an eventful one indeed. Apne junta had brought Bat, ball, Stumps for playing a perfect cricket match . And yeo, we've started our first match last saturday in the ground few blocks away from our house. There was a good response from our circle of friends and had a good play indeed.

Same evening, had been to Belur Math and Dakshineshwar (this being the second time!) with friends. It was exciting with the exotic boat ride from belur to dakshineshwar at the early dusk...

I ve started reading the Book "The Monk who sold ferrari" by Robin Sharma and I find it quite good. It really has influenced me quite a lot and I made an introspection- soul searching of myselves. And I brought another book - " A night @ the Call Center" by Chetan bhagat. Just waiting my hands to keep on it and vrooom.. start reading. I personally liked Bhagat's previous work "Five Point Someone"- It was cool with the musings of three 5 pointers of IIT-Delhi.

Finally the D-day came yesterday with my PL telling me that I am released from the project w.e.f 30-11-2005 (btw, that is tomorrow). Is that all over? Have I finished my karma here? I am blank about what is gonna happen next. Just keeping my fingers crossed till I'd my next project allocation. New Project, I am excited! Lets see...

Latest News: Rains in tamilnadu have shattered the routine life. Places near my native place are flooded with water inundated everywhere. Coastal areas of tamilnadu were affected heavily.

The Martyr

2005-11-25T11:10:00.000+05:30

I was deeply disturbed over Manjunathan episode. It certainly had shocked everyone. Sadly, it is yet another Satyendranath Dubey chapter.

For those who are'nt yet informed, do go through these News Links:

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1051122/asp/frontpage/story_5507028.asp
http://gauravsabnis.blogspot.com/2005/11/bye-machan.html
http://masalaspice.com/index.php/2005/11/24/iim-graduate-killed-for-exposing-corruption

Friends of Manju 'Machan' have created a blog in his memory. I've left my condolence message to the bereaved family there.
http://manjunathshanmugam.blogspot.com/

Wanna do something. Just go to the link below and sign the petition-online to the PM of India
http://www.petitiononline.com/manju005/

I salute you Manju. You are the epitome of honesty, uprightness and courage.
May your soul rest in peace.

Lessons in Logic

2005-11-21T05:59:00.000+05:30

I happened to read this interesting lessons in Logic from a fwd mail. sharing them ;-))
Disclaimer: These are not my personal thoughts !

If your father is a poor man,
it is your fate but,
if your father-in-law is a poor man,
it's your stupidity.
..........................................................................
Practice makes perfect.....
But nobody's perfect......
so why practice?
..........................................................................

If it's true that we are here to help others,
then what exactly are the others here for?
..........................................................................

Since light travels faster than sound,
people appear bright until you hear them speak.
..........................................................................

How come "abbreviated" is such a long word?
..........................................................................

Money is not everything.
There's Mastercard & Visa.
..........................................................................

Behind every successful man, there is a woman
And behind every unsuccessful man, there are two.
..........................................................................
The wise never marry.
and when they marry they become otherwise.
..........................................................................

Success is a relative term.
It brings so many relatives.
..........................................................................

Never put off the work till tomorrow
what you can put off today.
..........................................................................

"Your future depends on your dreams"
So go to sleep
..........................................................................

There should be a better way to start a day
Than waking up every morning
..........................................................................

"Hard work never killed anybody"
But why take the risk
..........................................................................

"Work fascinates me"
I can look at it for hours
..........................................................................

God made relatives;
Thank God we can choose our friends.
..........................................................................

The more you learn, the more you know,
The more you know, the more you forget
The more you forget, the less you know
So.. why learn.

..........................................................................
A bus station is where a bus stops.
A train station is where a train stops.
On my desk, I have a work station....
what more can I say........

Courtesy: Nemai, who fwded this to me!

The New Arrival

2005-11-20T04:34:00.000+05:30

At last, I brought that. That was the only thing left uncompleted post my arrival at Kolkata. Perhaps that would bring back colour to the otherwise deliberate void made by me. Weighing just a mere few grams with the length of a 1 Re. Coin diameter, it certainly is the most sought after possession for junta relocating new places. It's really infectious and I was prepared for the consequences.

Necessity became the order and transitions motivated me to buy a SIM CARD! With it, came the end to the saga of my 3 month old penance. Yeah, I brought a naya Hutch prepaid sim card. Had my Nokia handset had mouth, it would have said unquestionably --"Enough is enough. Dont exploit me anymore". I had really bothered it using as a Phone-book prior to buying this sim card. Anyways, sooner or later I brought back cheers (as well as life) to my nokia-ji.

Inspired by one of my friends mail, I want to record all its firsts statistics.

First Incoming Message: Hutch Care
First Incoming Message(Non Hutch): Mukunth (my collegaue)
First Incoming Message (STD): J.P.Arun (classmate-friend from Mumbai)
First Incoming call (missed call) : Santosh (colleague)
First Local call (received) : Vishnu(roommate) from office
First STD call (received) : Sakthi Kumar (friend) from Chennai
First dialled no. (missed call) : (Err. dont remember)

Well, the counters are yet to begin for the first outgoing call and first message. Oh ya, made a call to the customer care, which happens to be the first outgoing call!

Hello-Salaam-Namaste-Vanakkam

2005-11-19T23:04:00.000+05:30

Lots of things have happened over the last few days since I've posted my first entry. Yippe, I am fully immersed in the blogging world.. More than posting, all these days, I am more into going through other's blogs!

Well, I should say I started rather uncoventionally with a travel write-up and lazed away without posting any new stuff. Chalo, I am posting this which actually should have been my first post. I know I may lack in some aspects -- be it content or language; but do pour in your thoughts and opinions as and when you go through (this crap!). After all, I am yet another imperfect-normal-homo-sapien.

Alright, I salute you with my personal offerings of Hello-Salaam-Namaste-Vanakkam-Vandanam-Welcome-Swagatam- to my blog. Read at your own risk!

The Trip

2005-11-12T21:24:00.000+05:30

23 members from the Adventure and Trekking Club went for a North Bengal tour on the 3 day holidays...

Just tried my hands on a travalogue of our recent trip from the Adventure & trekking Club...

What would you expect from a group of 23-some enthusiastic junta from their trekking expedition? Well lots, lots, lots of fun and 'real adventure', of course! Exactly, that's what we experienced in the Lava- Rishap- Kalimpong sojourn during 3/11 to 7/11 with around 86 hours of excitement and making friends all the way. And boy, it was awesome!

Going chronologically, the members started to Siliguri through the NBSTC Rocket Bus on 3/11/2005 (Thursday) at 8 p.m from the Esplanade Bus Station (Pls bear with my date and time details then and there, as I intended to capitulate these details too in this travelogue)

4/11/2005 (Friday)
We reached Siliguri at around 10 am amidst all the thuds along the bumpy road sessions of the rocket. After getting fresh and having brunch or lunch (as applicable to the individual), close to 1.30 pm, we started our scenic trip to Lava through a Swaraj Mazda van. Took a small stopping at the water falls after the Dantak Valley with some memorable snaps! The van reached Lava by 5 pm after heaps of hair pin bends and curves. The co ordinators Sujoyda and Dipakda benevolently took care of hotel and lodging arrangements as well as synchronized the team all the way through . After the garam samose and chai, in clusters, evening walk started among us. People did flock the STD booths and did simple shopping of hats, bags etc. Then we had congregated back at the Unique Inn Hotel for the adda and dinner.

5/11/2005 (Saturday)
After the super-chill-thick-blanket-covered sleep followed by morning walk, lots of us had a darshan of the monastry with its striking landscape at Lava. By 10.30 am, we assembled at the Lava Jeep stand and a guide (Prem) was arranged. Debi da, Anita di steered the group all the way and co ordinators profusely guided us through the 'Mission Rishap'. Accompanied with gossip, fun and photos, wading through the jungle, we reached the interim point Tiphandhara (donno if I've spelled right). From a podium over there, an astounding view of Kanchanjunga delighted us. From there, we moved down the hill to reach Rishap by ~ 4 pm. Rishap, being less inhabited, looked as though specially made for a group like us. No doubt, the serene and calm environs gave tranquility to the mind. In fact, the entrance to Rishap itself was beautiful with its flora. We then went to our Lodge Hotel Snow View on the face of a dazzling valley. Yeah, by this time all of us were pretty hungry. A walk around the valley bypassed the time and hunger when the lunch was being prepared by the Snow View people. On returning back, we certainly were delighted with food which was worth the wait. Later, the evening started with the eventful masti bhari Antakshari around the campfire. I guess it certainly is still afresh in all of us. Veterans of gaane - Subhashish, Debashish, Anita di et. al added more glitter the event. Debi da constantly extended the camp fire with his periodical wood block inputs into the flames. Finally, antakshari ended in a neutral verdict. Post dinner, everyone slept only to wake up soon to see the sun rise.

6/11/2005 (Sunday)
Time: 5.30 am. Most of the people flocked outside their rooms to see and capture the spectacular sun rise and sun rays through Kanchanjunga. As somebody rightly told, it certainly was 'a feast to the eyes'. Later by around 10 am, by means of 3 jeeps, we started to Lava through the narrow muddy hill roads (literally showered!) with stones and gravels. Yippee, these drivers were really talented! From there, we headed towards Kalimpong and reached there by around 12 noon. Armed with 3 vehicles, we went around the 7 minus 2 points sight seeing - Forest Musuem, Cantonment Golf Course (it remembers me how we took the snaps in a hurry burry there), View point (yeah that suicide point only!), Monastery and finally the Nursery. After lunch, by around 3.30 pm, we started to Siliguri in a Swaraj mazda van again. It felt as leaving something behind and going... Siliguri was reached within 2.5 hours. Had enough time to hop around the shops outside Siliguri Bus Station as the Kolkata Bus departure time was at 7.30 pm. Some of us had been to the famous Hong Kong Market there and lots many bought Chai Patthi. Later we boarded the Kolkata Rocket bus, which was more spacious and comfortable than the one with which we came. Nevertheless, the roads were the same to give us the same disco shake! Raghu da promptly provided all with gangajal mineral water packs. Tarun and co. entertained the people with their bhoot stories in the back of the bus!

7/11/2005 (Monday)
Dawn came. As Kolkata was nearing, every one started bidding adieu at their respective destination. Really it was touching to part with the sweet memories cherished...

Still the vivid memories of the bus ka discotheque, garam chai and momo, monastery,trek to Rishap, expedition to valleys, camp fire, Antakshari, Sun rise and rays thru kanchanjunga , jeep ride from rishap-lava-kalimpong, 5 points trip, 'Punjab restaurant experience (!)', and not to forget the Bhuter golpo...continues to hang around (in all of us).