Flaring horizon - witnessing today's dusk ceremony

It was 6.25pm, the sun was almost set. Today the sky was preparing its final ceremony with a hue of greenish yellow at the horizon. Relishing the ceremony, I felt for not having my camera with me. Suddenly remembered that my room mate also had the same model camera, I ran and grabbed it, pushed the batteries in and set the lens for the shot and at 6.28 this is what I could capture…

The trees which were a part of the pink explosion mentioned in my previous blog were bare and along with the dusk sky, it seemed like the horizon was flaring...with a passion that it would again host the dusk ceremony tomorrow.

Fell in love for bottle green color

This is in sequel to my previous blog-post on my favourite frames of ‘Vaaranam Aayiiram’

Those frames captured my senses to the extent of forcing me to take a screenshot of the same by doing a print screen while watching the song. 

Though exact frames could not be captured... yet sharing the joy of my minimal success below

My favourite frames in the movie 'Vaaranam Aayiram'

I saw the recent Tamil movie ‘Vaaranam Aayiram’ when I visited Trichy a fortnight ago. In fact I felt lucky relishing the camera / photography of the movie frames. I fell in love with this particular frame sequence in which the actress enters the frame from left; the back ground is brownish orange of an old monument. The actor then enters the frame from right dressed in a white coloured t-shirt and jacket. The actress’s bottle green saree contrasts her skin tone and the back ground. Writing this piece of text, I felt a sudden urge to search shots of those frame in the net but in vain. The search returned my next favourite shot in which the duo is in front of Taj Mahal with mist clad Yamuna River in front; she dressed in red and he in grey suits.

(Photo courtesy: Sify)

 Apart from photography and music, I did not find the movie satisfying enough…

Kudos to the cameraman Ratnavelu alias Randy, Music director Harris jeyaraj for the songs and lyricist Thaamarai for expressing the frames in Tamil...

A pink explosion!

This happened last weekend.
The Saturday was a dull day. The trees lining the streets were all experiencing autumn…Not much of interesting sights though. Sunday morning it was like magic! It was as if a pink explosion had occurred the previous night. Certain breed of trees was a part of this explosion and whole Bangalore was dotted with these pink flowers. Bees rejoiced this explosion by bubbling around these flower bunches as a welcome gesture. That sight out of my window made my day more enriching and enigmatic…

Isn't nature ever inspiring and ever understanding? But do we??

Speed breakers as Arrogance index!

Speed breakers are a common sight in the urban and semi-urban areas of India. The speed breakers are thought to be speed calming devices/constructs which are either planned by the traffic authorities or are a result of digging of roads for telephone, sewage, or optical backbone networks.
For the past two weeks we have been commuting to office by bike and what I feel is that the speed breakers are a measure of the arrogance of the local inhabitants. The number and height of the speed breakers in a locality can be thought of as arrogance index. More the people are arrogant, more number of speed breakers are planned!.

When we slow down our vehicle to tackle the speed breaker, another Indian brother might overtake us from the left peeking his way to the side of the road where the speed breaker tapers and wanes. With no concern for other commuters of the road, he would reenter the lane and proceed stopping our normal flow. So most of us do not give even a thought to these constructs on the road, with full speed we dash against it and fly in air for an instant causing trouble to everybody on the road.

Does these constructs really serve their purpose? To some extent yes, it serves the people in those places where majority of people have patience and do not display the Indian identity of arrogance. In most places, speed breakers are just another mound of tar and road metal and concrete. Any road when opened for public is like a sky way; six months down the line speed breakers crop up like mushrooms after a seasonal rain of arrogant traffic. But unlike mushrooms that die and reborn with season, speed breakers are permanent.

JOY!...

A good lab infrastructure, a small enthusiastic bonded team, newly designed electronic cards for testing...this is called JOY...
What do you say?

Me and the grasses, we witnessed the sunset!

I was at the edge of the peak at kodachadri to witness and capture the sunset better. My camera battery indicated low charge, but we were not! for the sky was too beautiful. I had to reserve my batteries for next day sunrise and resolved a strict 'NO' to more shots.

Returning back from the edge of the peak, I was forced to break my resolution and I captured this frame.Into my own world, lying in the ground focussing my lens, I felt immense emotions kindled by the sky flaunting deep shades of orange and bluish grey. I got up contended and saw three leeches on my left hand getting ready to attack. Just peeled them and threw aside...the intense joy and this frame is worth the leech attacks :)

Lived in sync with nature...

Lived in sync with nature for 2 days...and now back with lot of memories, photos and leech bites too.
We had a wonderful trek to kodachaadri and hidlumane falls this weekend. I fell in love with the sky that flaunted thousand expressions as the cloud embraced the sun rays...
They were my subjects for my camera lenses.
On the way up, shot some good macros too...

Money, ATM and rumors as well...ArE mAn MaDe

Y’day night 11.00pm

The ICICI bank ATM network was loaded by near infinite requests. Account holders of the bank were panic following a rumor that the bank was bust. All ICICI ATMs were almost dry by midnight. If the ATM had life, it would have cried and would have resolved not to be an ATM machine again! Some scolded the ATM as clumsily designed creature, some noted the bank’s poor policies, some cursed India for their own restlessness, some started by saying “In the US, it is …” and most of them were shouting either to their friends standing nearby or over the phone adding to more chaos.

I was one among the swarm of people carried away by the rumor. But seeing the chaos, I felt it was worth losing my money rather than serving me as a prey to the chaos and the cacophony of IT professionals mixing technical jargons to their blabber.

The ATMs woke up to a good day to find that many of their network brothers were dead for they were broke open by agitated crowds at various places. Does breaking open an ATM gave them their money? Certainly not, but the ATMs would have been more happy dead rather than hearing the cacophony of its illiterate brothers and sisters.

Birth Centenary of Arignar Anna

It is heartening to see that Tamil people world over instead of rejoicing the birth centenary of Arignar Annadurai, are complaining over the government order issuing a state holiday today. If the government had issued this order a month earlier, it would have been good for planning long vacations for them. To say the truth, we are selfish beings. Why not take this one day holiday, a chance to know about the great politician and literaturist of the modern Tamil.

I got a chance to relish one of his thoughts on ‘Rain’ where he speaks as rain and how people see him coming. Some welcome him; some consider him as a disturbance. Whatever be, he cannot stop and he has to reach the earth below. Reaching the land, he finds no easy route as most of the water bodies are ill maintained. So he wanders about reminiscing the songs sung in praise of him till he finds refuge in the vast ocean which is ever welcoming.

More info on his life and works can be got at
http://www.arignaranna.info/Home1.htm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C.N.Annadurai and www.tamilnation.org/hundredtamils/annadurai.htm

Is piracy no more surreptitious!..?

A small handout slipped out of today’s newspaper as I was flipping the pages. I was really amused by the handout as it was about availability of pirated CDs ranging from latest engineering tools to kid’s games. The handout also mentioned their web-site, e-mail id, address and contact numbers. Usually the pirated CD business is against law and surreptitious and this handout left me wondering about the boldness of the person behind this and the sad state of law and order in the state, Googling the issue, I landed on a relevant article published in ‘The Hindu’ newspaper (Click Here).
People are also encouraging piracy as they get the required software for peanuts. Now who is to be blamed…the people or the police or the clandestine business people?

Where is the money draining?

Amused to see two incongruous news on the same page of Economic Times today

One was the move towards increase in taxes, the others was that of Mumbai under the crunch of poor infrastructure...

The professional tax levied in India is likely to be tripled from Rs.2500 per year to Rs.7500 this year. The professional tax is the 3rd largest contributor to the state tax kitty following the sales tax & VAT and the stamp duty (1). Where is all this tax money going…?

Is it funding urban development?
I think no…
Indian infrastructure is bleeding; a rain can overthrow the entire city into chaos, be it metros like Mumbai or Chennai or Tier-1 cities like Bangalore or Hyderabad or any other tier-2 cities like Coimbatore or Mysore.
One may argue about posh airports, flyovers or malls, but we need to concentrate on basic infrastructure such as sewage disposal and its treatment. Any flyover on a busy road in Bangalore takes 2-4 years to complete.

It funds rural development during political elections. The results are no good either.

I am putting across road infrastructure for example. We are under funding our every other system such as education, transport, agriculture and the like. And we are overtaxing our bonafide tax payers

Where is our money draining?

It is time to hone our financial management policies rather than hiking the taxes

Thoughts based on the news(1) from Economic times ‘Professional Tax may Pinch you more’ published in India

More thoughts and comments are welcome

The wrestler...

I come across this sight at least once in a week and more than once during exam season. This is common among engineering students in Bangalore. Two college kids on a bike, one busy wrestling the traffic and the other wrestling with a set of equations and diagrams scribbled on a sheet of paper. Occasionally the guy at the handle meddles into the equations and then goes back to the road… Always the equation wrestler seems to run at full MIPS (As we indicate a micro-processor performance in Millions of Instructions Per Second), storing the unprocessed RAW data. In most cases the traffic wrestler is a boy and the equation wrestler is a girl. The current trend in India is that you need to and will get into IT industry irrespective of your engineering major. The real wrestling starts if they go in for a job breaking this trend and this is rare.

Debate...for what?

I got an opportunity to watch a debate program in a leading Tamil TV channel. The debate happens between two groups of people moderated by one person. I really got an opportunity to see how ignorant and arrogant the people are. A girl in her early teen was talking about the pitfalls of the Indian marriages and the marriage custom, I wondered how many marriages she had before to arrive at that viewpoint! I simply walked away from the TV room and switched off my brain to a good piece of music. You encounter such people in our day-to-day life and you can’t avoid them. You have got to isolate and have fun. And the program might be a commercial success but it is a flop when it comes to the intellectual or entertainment content.

Romance too deep for words, Passion too deep for tears!

I got a series of pod casts on the Irish and Celtic music last Thursday and now I am addicted to them. The pod cast is available along with the link to the band’s web page which posts info of their achievements and their life.
I am really moved by the quote that welcomes us to Jamie Laval’s web page

“When I play truly from the heart,
the music of countless past
generations become my own voice
It’s romance too deep for words,
Passion too deep for tears”

The last two lines express the simple truth…
Want to experience? type http://www.celticmusicpodcast.com/

Navigating through the pages, I got a music sheet written for fiddle and tried out in guitar. Also I tried playing a song featured in the pod cast and lol…I could make it. This has revived my love for playing the guitar.

Plastics...

11.58 p.m. 29th May 08

It is close to midnight. There is an eerie silence that has engulfed the city as there is a power cut. A shower of rain had thrown the Bangalore city out of gear few hours ago. The rain water did not find an easy path to drain off…they occupied the roads, flooded them: this is the state of engineering here: there are no channels to drain the water into sewer. The situation in the drain is no good. They have their own enemy… plastics; the drains are heavily clogged by plastic covers. This is the state of any city or town at present.
In the process of reviving ‘Noyyal River’ in Coimbatore, nature enthusiasts submitted a report to the city corporation and have got a rule in place which bans usage of plastic covers at all stages. The point here is, the rule exists day-in and day-out and not just on paper. Moving further, I see a great need in creating the basic awareness of waste disposal and I firmly believe that this can be achieved only if we start it from our own home and our surrounding. Few years ago, the then ruling party in Tamil Nadu state issued an order requesting every household to install rain water harvesting sites in their house. Every other household now has it at least on paper. Even then, after an year, the water table rose to a considerable amount…imagine if every other household did the exercise with whole of their heart…
A small tipping point can change the fate of the world…I think so, Do you?
As engineers, we need to design for future at the least and we get the prophecy only by sharing our thoughts and ideas… Are we?

Trouble with my demat account...

One of my worst experiences with Religare Securities...Recently I opened a de-mat account with the BTM layout branch of Religare. Without me booking any orders, the guy managing my account there has done intra-day trading for which I am receiving transaction slip in my inbox. Moreover, the guys in the office act too smart …I need to check with their boss and pull myself out of Religare. By the way, de-mat in any other firm has the same risks. Only way out is to check the account on a daily basis… J

Train 0627

I was returning back from my native town. My train bound for Bangalore was scheduled at 10.35 pm, Tiruchirapalli junction (Trichy for short). This was a seasonal special train. At my aunt’s place I got to know that the train was late by 40 minutes. I reached the station at around 10.15 and punched the train number 0627 in the help-kiosk. It gave me a shock: the timetable said 0627 was bound for Chennai! Later I confirmed at the help counter that this was a special train. Suddenly, the speaker announcement said the train is routed to platform-2. I proceeded toward platform-2... in the next round announcement he said platform-4. Another train bound for Rameshwaram was arriving in platform-4. This caused the confusion: the passengers were in full chaos. Later in his Hindi accented English, he informed it to be platform-3. From then on, he kept sticking to platform-3. Boarding the train, I felt the tension vanishing and a ray of silence. It will be good, if they pay equal attention to special seasonal train announcements as well.

Right ecosystem nurtures…

My mom gave a plant to me 18 months ago saying ‘Let this plant divert you from the ever bright computer screen and work pressure to the reality of life’. The plant came all the way from Coimbatore to Bangalore adorned with only five leaves. Now the plant has around two dozen leaves! One more lemon seed found its way from my grandma’s backyard three months ago… Just after a cuppa lemon tea, I put the seeds in the pot and it got buried under the thick layer of humus on the top layer. We were closed for the weekend following May-1 for a span of four days. I sprinkled some water and bid good bye to my plant family comprising this indoor plant and a money-plant plus a croton. Post long weekend, yesterday, I noticed a centimeter long shoot from the edge of the pot. The lemon seeds have germinated. I like the way they have grown; straight pointing to the sky…
My plant family has one more member to its group… :)

It takes a heart to conquer Cancer...

Awareness is the key to conquer cancer and spreading cancer awareness is the prime most vision of Vasantha Memorial Trust. At VMT, we have been striving to spread the message that ‘Cancer is curable if detected early’ among fellow beings from all walks of life. The trust functions with blessings from well-wishers and volunteers. 100+ awareness sessions every month, 300+ patients sponsored, Jumble sale for cancer aid and Music concerts in aid of Cancer every year and many more events / milestones buoys our spirit and our mission. On a broader perspective, it takes a heart to conquer Cancer. Drop a web-visit to www.vasantha.org or mail vasanthamemorial@gmail.com to get to know how you can also be a part of this awareness drive. You can ping me too…

Professional !?

Most guys in India have the professional degree / work-ex tag attached to them, not to fulfill their professional roles. One of my friend, who conducted an interview recently was bewildered and could not digest the situation. The candidate, a mechanical engineer has 2 years of experience in the Energy sector even does not know the basic principle of a boiler and its operation. On top of hat he was expecting the salary of a 2+ years experienced pay-scale!
The real 25-30% professionals who understand their roles are also misunderstood because of the remaining so called professionals...
Moreover professionalism has to do more with the attitude rather than the degree, Am I right in saying so?

Fire of Zeal!

just for you
Originally uploaded by javadoug

In this early morning hour, the red streaks of the flower has ignited a fire of zeal and enthusiasm in me. Is the red-yellow-green strokes near the sepal, the mother of all thoughts?

Intelligence - personified

Hurricane Katrina [Complete Beauty]
Originally uploaded by slight clutter

Intelligence flows through the eyes that are bright. I would say, this young girl is the personfication of intelligence

We flew @ the Z-point

The cab driver applied full force on the brake-pedal…a slow, sustained jerk sprung my dreams and I woke up. Out of the cozy blanket in the cab, I felt the ruthless chill wind bruising my cheeks. I, Nagaraj and Manjunath braved the winds and stood outside for a couple of minute. My cell-phone clock exclaimed 4.45 a.m. We woke up other team members and after much difficulty, we were ready to trek to the z-point @ Kemmangundi. Stark black of early morning, tall and slender trees in the forest wind agitated like a mad man, cloudless starry sky, the trek path through the wild…our adrenaline was already gushing into our bloods. Two of our team dropped few minutes after we had started. We ventured further. The trek was not so tedious, until we came across a stream of water falling from sideways. I always love kissing the water stream and drinking water from it. The water was pristine and sparkling. From this point, we could see nature preparing for Sun’s arrival…A streak of orange hue decorated the sky, the distant cacophony of the birds combined with its echo… Two more dropped at this point. The rest of us, five people went forward. The route became rugged and tedious.It resembles a 'Z' and hence this name 'z-point' Looking down from the trail, it was so thrilling. I could feel my adrenaline gush even when I write this. Finally we were at the peak. The wind was rustling through the patch of grass on the peak…and we were flying…

Engineering is about responsibility

A week back, I gave a go ahead for hardware feasibility for testing a software driver. Yesterday, the SW team came up with a additional requirement. Deeply going through again, I was shocked that I might be wrong in my claim!...I put in all my efforts, understood the entire flow and proposed a different solution. Later in the evening, I really felt that engineering is all about being responsible and accountable. And responsible engineers are becoming rare day by day...

Indian Marriages - Scenario 1

Most Indian guys get married just because they cannot cook / eat outside and most of the parents’ lookout for alliances keeping this in mind. I have seen this in umpteen families and really feel for the bride in such families. If the guy really wants home food, then why can’t he spend some money and employ a maid, or learn the art of cooking?

My new baby

I am in race for my new baby....I mean a new board that I have started designing. It is a real thrilling experience. It is a digital video board, lot of challenges :)
20 weeks from now she will be ready to be born...
After all Boards and babies are the same...you design them and you care for them.

Confused

Not in a mood to work...
I am in a confused state of mind and killing my time reading blogs and hearing to some music.
Need to mail for following up a work; I think a li'l bit of stretching and a coffee can bring me back to work :)
Anyways, four more hours and I am done for the day and happy weekends.

I Loved You...

I was just going through a blog where I fished this nice piece of poem...

I Loved You
By Alexander Pushkin

I loved you, even now I may confess
Some embers of my love their fire retain
But do not let it cause you more distress-
I do not want to sadden you again.

Hopeless and tongue-tied, yet, I loved you dearly
With pangs the jealous and the timid know
So tenderly I loved you, so sincerely,
I pray God grant another love you so.

Enchanting lilly

Enchanting lilly
Originally uploaded by CK-Selvam

Nature at its best... I loved the bright pink amidst the black background of water. Never knew that I can take pictures like this. Nature's palette can only be relished by enjoying it through our eyes, they cant be reproduced...

Aagaya Gangai

Tuned to scale-F in 1979, the song 'Aagaya Gangai' is still entertaining music lovers. For those who know Tamil, the songs instills a romantic sensation in them. Even after hearing the song more than 200 times, whenever I hear this song, I feel refreshed. I enjoy the violin-flute duo pieces in the song. Recently, I got to know that a similar song exists in Kannada too, with the lyrics emphasising on friendship. Need to hear the Kannada version of the song...Sad part is that, many good songs like this are not aired in the Indian based radio channels. Real tribute to these songs are given by the Tamil channels worldwide especially Singapore and Chinese short waves.

Junk...is good

This title sounds similar to the Surf-excel detergent ad 'Dhaag Achhe hain' meaning 'stains are good' right?? The odd creature grown in the wall out of junk conveyed that i am free of any challenging work and today that has helped me land in a new activity that will keep my neurons twitching for the next 4-6 months

Grown out of junk stationery

Too bored in the company…Suddenly an idea
Why shouldn't I clear all the crap in my draw? Nice thought.
Piles of papers, data sheets, magazines, application notes and white papers…Ooof… I am tired segregating them. Finally it is done and I ended up with paper clips.
I played with them and now they adore my cubicle walls
Looking at them, I feel them as odd creatures which have suddenly grown from junk.

Bangalore...BURN IT

This is a news clipping from a leading weekly in India...a real thought provoking article I have read in the recent past. Do click on the image above for a readable image :)

21Km...I did it!

I ran the Bangalore marathon last fortnight in the half-marathon category. This being my first stint in running such a long distance every kilometer for the first 10Km was a real thrill. Last 10Km was more pathetic with no water at any refreshing point. Till 17Km mark we were doing well, later we started feeling the stress. I finished in 3hours 1 minute (officially recorded as 2 hours 50 mins).When we finished, we felt as if we had achieved a feat which was just a dream till the previous night. Now I am still recuperating from all the physical stress incurred to my legs. I am able to walk: sometimes the legs start paining crazily for few minutes...enjoying the pain

Music has no language barriers...

I am hearing to a Kannada song 'yeko yeno...' released few months ago. With all the Kannada and Tamil I know, I could just gather bits and pieces of the meaning of the song but this does not stop me from hearing it. Its fast and sustained beat adds to its goodness. I should say that the singer is a real pied piper attracting even those who do not know the language...A romantic piece of song :)