Differential thoughts

Music troupe and wedding receptions -- Inevitably married by society

2012-01-30T15:40:00.000+05:30

You are in and around Chennai and a friend invites you for a wedding reception and you accept; entering the place, the first thing you will surely notice is a local music troupe singing hit tracks from kollywood. Whatever be the circumstances your friend is in…be it your friend is in financial crisis out of wedding arrangements or simply he hates spoiling the get-together mood brewing in the wedding reception, music troupe is a must.

Amidst the gossips and get-together hugs everything gets absorbed; even if the world falls apart or the bride and groom decide not to marry… everything… No one has an ear for this troupe except for kids who are generally ignored during such events, elderly people who are usually avoided and introverts who wish to avoid such events but are forced to attend. These are the only people for whom the troupe plays.

My friend’s parents were contemplating on whether to arrange for a music troupe for his wedding reception. His uncle was convincing enough for taking the music troupe off the task-list and helped the hour long discussion to end. Arrangements were on a full swing and invitations were ready in a fortnight. Upon seeing the invitation, many of the invitees called upon. Some of them expressed the need for a music troupe performance; many wanted to know if they had any financial crunch; only very few wished for the wedding and confirmed their presence. Now to keep rumors at bay, a troupe performance was finally arranged in a hurry.

Music performances were a part of the wedding in olden days when the celebration use to take place for more than a day and has no relevance in the present trends. The society we live in thrusts upon such obligations that may be contradictory to our thoughts and way of life yet we have to concede to the fact that we are a part of a larger society.

Wall posters and Chennai

2012-01-02T12:26:00.000+05:30

Posters for all seasons and reasons: You can spot them almost everywhere in Chennai. Posters for political events, general wishes for the local politicians, strike announcements, condemning the ruling political party, birthdays, celebrity functions, anniversaries, house vacancies, movie audio release, movie 10th day, movie 25th day, someone going abroad, obituaries, music concerts … the list is endless.

Thanks to the metro-rail construction that’s been happening in the city whose steel barricades are utilized for sticking these posters. Sad part is that the metro-rail contractors employ 2-3 men for removing these posters on a monthly basis. Sticking of posters start once the hustle-bustle of the city roads starts to diminish and goes on past midnight. I often see guys carrying the poster material and a bucketful of glue in a bicycle riding the entire stretch of metro-construction. Huge mammoth sized posters are printed in separates blocks and are stuck in a matrix fashion. I got to know that there is poster creation software used these days for the matrix type huge poster printing.

Wikipedia states that the wall posters have 200 years of history and the modern day posters emerged in 1870’s. Pure textual posters were present during the time of Shakespeare circa (1600). Posters then evolved into an art form as well before they were used for political or commercial propaganda.

Posters are a good medium of propaganda, but how much is the achieved penetration of information in this busy metro-life, with most of the people hooked to their own ear pods, succumbed to their thoughts and their way of thinking?? Is the amount of paper and money that’s being put is worth?

Fake: Notes and people ...

2011-11-27T09:06:00.001+05:30

Fake notes. We encounter them every day: be it with local grocer, tea shops, supermarkets, even bank tellers and ATM machines. Finance Intelligence Unit reports a 250% rise in the fake-currency circulation (click article-1) and the Excise department turns to public for support. This is a welcome move from the Indian government. The article quotes that private banks seizes the most fake notes. I presume the private banks are diligent in seizing fake notes compared to the PSU banks which either does not report its seize or does not seize at all. Practically fear grips us in reporting it to the nearest police station or bank.

We tend to check and recheck the higher denomination notes and leave the lower denomination notes unnoticed. Fakes of Rs 5, 10 and 50 and lots of punched metal are circulated engraved with one and two rupee coin designs. These lower denomination notes even fake the watermarks, the silver thread and many other safety aspects incorporated in the currency notes. Even ATM machines and experienced tellers dispense them everyday. Its no good complaining: Click article-2

I blame ourselves: our selfish society rather than the government or the officials, for the latter are we and we are the latter. Faking ourselves, faking notes!

Fraction of moment -- mighty sea

2011-11-03T00:50:00.000+05:30

The same beach, the same wavy waters that knocked me down two weeks earlier welcomed me with an unknown affection this time. An affection that rises out of familiarity, an affection that ebbs out of understanding. Waves lashing me knee depth, i stood gazing the eastern sky weeping hues of bluish-orange for the west setting sun.

My thoughts rolled back two weeks to when Bengal sea at Eliott's beach took me by surprise. Already the water had flooded till below my knee cap that a new wave formed right in front of me knocking me down. A fraction of second before I was standing firm on the sand enjoying the salty gale, a fraction later my fingers were grappling the sea sand to resist the receding wave. I stood up and found that Uma had also fell right next to me and that she had gobbled sea water out of exasperation.

I gathered my thoughts and rolled back into the present hearing to three school girls who were enjoying the caressing sea waves by laughing their guts out. After all nothing is permanent . . .

I am Ck...

2011-10-17T17:27:00.002+05:30

I am the steam, wafting from rice bowl
I am the cofee, brewing in the mug,
I am the salad, sauted in olive oil,

I am the feel, in food and in music,

_Ck.,

Unfriendly coins -- The Indian Rupee

2011-10-17T15:55:00.004+05:30

Hassle free money transaction in our daily life is possible by the fine imprints on coins and currencies. This fact has been agreed world-over and is in practice from time immemorial.

Recent series of coins issues by the Indian mint seems to be break this easiness of use. The Two rupee and five rupee coins with the new rupee symbol weigh almost the same and feels like erstwhile fifty paise. The impressions are very smooth and indistinguishable.I got furious when the crowded bus conductor handed over the change which I felt was of less value. The same coin caused confusion to a old woman selling newspaper.

Rising material cost, depreciation of the Indian rupee has rusted the sheen of the rupee coins albeit crowned with the new symbol.

The Chettinad of things

2011-08-15T12:47:00.004+05:30

Chettinad cuisine is known for its mix of spices and pulses. It all started with the cuisine and now it has affected anything that is food. Any restaurant in Tamil Nadu has to be christened with 'Chettinad' or it will not sell... this mindset has forced even buttermilk vendors to name their product as Chettinad buttermilk.

Any chicken is Chettinad chicken, even when its prepared in the Chinese way. Even sandwiches are named so ... did sandwiches originate from Chettinad? Companies marketing pulses and grains boast the name ... and so on

The sad part is when my friends order the 'Chettinad' christened dishes and my taste buds refuse to acknowledge that this is the extent of marketing that prevails.

Good songs that lacked the hype - 1

2011-08-11T23:11:00.017+05:30

All songs from the movie 'Raman Abdullah', the 1997 Tamil movie were short-time hits. I heard one of them while browsing for some other song in youtube ...

Chemparuthi pen oruthi ... is a songs that starts off with the drums and guitar getting into full rhythm.

Beautiful lyrics, well pronounced and sung by SPB and Chitra. Excellently scored by Illayaraja, the song has some unusual repetition of verses in different scales where the song slows down.

Amazing !!!

Pizza box for thirty people!

2011-06-21T19:45:00.001+05:30

You told you have designed a pizza-box-system and this looks a pretty big for a pizza-box! -- exclaimed the visitor from my company ...

Instantaneous response was "Well, this is a pizza box that can hold a family-pizza for a family of thirty"

Felt a streak of humor telling this and was laughing my guts out ... :)

Local bus fares and the three-word-services -- its time for a fare-hike

2011-06-15T19:42:00.001+05:30

Local bus fare in Tamil Nadu is kept unchanged for more than ten years in the past. Though government has ruled out the deregulation of diesel prices in the near future, the price has doubled in the last decade. TN government should seriously consider a fare hike in lines to the rising trend of diesel prices at least now and send out a clear message to people on city-travel optimization. Among all states in India, TN is the only state where the local bus fare is less. In fact the base fare in Karnataka or Andhra Pradesh is thrice that of in TN.

In major cities, the TN transport corporation plies various schemes of buses that charges a higher fare compared to the so called normal buses. There is an air-suspension deluxe service, limited stop service, many other three-worded service buses plying across the city. It actually confuses the traveller and grabs the high fare. Though this tactic of the government is laudable on account book terms, we worry ourselves remembering the junk three worded services and their fares, when we can utilize our potential for some productive causes.

Lip stick ? or lip gloss ?

2011-04-28T19:51:00.006+05:30

"Hey, you coming to Trichy this weekend?", asked my mom.
I thought a bit and said ok.

"Can you get me this shade of lipstick from Chambor? (some two shades: I forgot those numbers). Its for my friend whom I am gonna meet this weekend in Trichy."
Reluctantly, I said ok and comfortably forgot it. Five more days were there for my travel anyways.

Two days down the line, bored to the core by lack of work, I set out to Garuda mall. Entering shopper-stop store first, suddenly I felt a little bit odd for it was the first time in cosmetic section.

I spotted two sales girl idly chatting and walked towards them.
" Can you help me with Chambor brand products?"

" Its over there sir:
Hey customer for you",
she was not heard for the first sentence, I understood them. she was heard by every others sales girl for the latter sentence, and all gave a quick glance.

I crossed all the maze and reached the counter only for this answer
" Sorry sir, the shade is not in stock"

" Will any new stock come in the next two days"

" No sir, I think its old shades and got phased out"

I could not ask any more questions and was about to leave...
"Sir, would you like to buy some other shades? "

With a polite NO, I thanked her and left the store.

Ten minutes I wandered the mall before entering westside-shop. This time I was a bit confident and the same procedures ... finally standing there at the Chambor desk, I was asking those shades to a lady who seemed to be the boss of the cosmetic section.

" Are you looking for lip-stick or lip-gloss sir?"

what!!!!?, I gave her a blank look

"I dont know, look in both"

She got a bit surprised, but continued her search

" Hey, by the way what is the difference between both? ", I asked.

She gave that ONE puzzled and annoyed look. A look that gauged me.
Suddenly a sales girl interrupted and explained the difference. " The difference is with the moisture and alcohol content, and the retaining time on the lips"

I gave the satisfied look muttering "thank you".
Meanwhile the shade was fished out and immediately processed for billing.

"Sir, would you like to buy some compacts, .... ,...., ...." asked the lady who billed the purchase

"Errr, No" (Actually, I could not follow what she told after 'compacts')

Collecting the pack from them, I bid good bye. It was returned by a wide grinned smile by the four girls.

By the way, what they were wearing ??
lip-stick or lip-gloss?? :)

So big is the World !!!

2011-04-17T18:42:00.009+05:30

The day my sister left for Nurnberg, I checked for a road-route to Nurnberg from Bangalore. I know its crazy, yet wanted to check: and lol -- Google maps suggested me a route spanning ten thousand kilometers and via Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, followed by 4-5 European nations and then to Germany!

Why not get the requisite visa for all countries, hop in a car and drive !!
Anybody game?

Feelings for her :)

2011-03-23T19:36:00.003+05:30

Engulfed in your thoughts,
Mellowing in joy,
That office work seems the one to be procrastinated..

But work seems to be adamant,
As a attention seeking kid.

Tell me ________
Now whom should I tend
Your thoughts? or work?
for you swept me like the scented breeze
over the forest vale
for you made me mad like the bees
over springing blossom’s tale

Hoping you feel my sleepless nights,
I seek out solace seeing Tara’s statue face for now
For work beckons again

Joy of earning ... and the joy of spending

2011-03-14T14:14:00.001+05:30

The joy of earning money comes with the joy of spending… and I like this particular ATM outside Vijaya bank HQ office because it dispenses fresh notes from Reserve Bank of India, almost everytime

The crispiness and well marked engravings on the currency notes makes you feel the money’s worth, earning’s worth and more importantly the worth of your skills. In turn I enjoy the worth of my spending, be it a mug of coffee or an expensive wrist watch or a diamond jewel.

Recollection of three incidents... one triggering the next :)

2011-02-07T08:10:00.000+05:30

(1) - Better change to IT industry sir...

I had to rush to attend a talk. I crossed the road and wave at a couple of auto rickshaws before this auto driver stops. He seemed to know the particular auditorium and I hopped into it. The auto snaked it way through the Bangalore city traffic encountering traffic signals every now and then. In one such long red-signal, the driver started talking to me.

Are you basically from Karnataka sir?
- nopes, not really. I am from Tamil Nadu.
Oh, then you speak better kannada...good.
- actually I have lived here for close to five years.
hmmm, so what do you work on sir?
- well, I am an engineer, working on electronics.
oh, is it. My son also got into Bharat Electronics and will be into software. Why dont you also try to change into IT sir?
- why so?
If you are ten years experienced in SW, you can earn little less than a lakh rupees per month. You cannot be in any other industry
- hmmm yes, you are true, but I like it.
Its not what you like sir, its which work gets you the max money.
- ok sir, I will try.

I get down and pay the fare. Walking back from the auditorium after the talk, I was pondering on what the auto driver was telling couple of hours ago, that I remembered my communicator chat conversations with a freshman @ HCL and he was in fact asking me some difficult questions

(2) Pay, Onsite, Offers...

That I am into this electronics HW field now, what should I learn on?
- Its mostly applying what you have studied in college, you have to go understand the higher perspective on the go...
Oh, fine fine, can you suggest me any books?
- Read the 'High Speed - Black Magic' book. (In fact many of us have kept the book down after reading few pages).
Tell me which field in better - HW, Firmware or software applications?
- In terms of ?
In terms of pay, onsite and of course job opportunities.
- All are good.
You are in this field for six years, how much do you earn?
(I close the communicator chat - In fact my father asked me this only once in all this six years)

(3) Return paths can be anyway,

My hands feel the thick engravings of a fresh one-hundred rupee note. With a ruffling sound, I take the note from my wallet and paid my dinner bill. Smiling at Gandhi back, I was forced to recollect this young man with a smiling face whom I interviewed. It was my first experience of interviewing people for electronics HW job. The whole day, I was meeting people mostly from the power electronics background, a field that I had no hands-on experience. I was literally tired after 3-4 hours of this. Lastly came this resume came and came this guy. He was one year elder to me working in Bangalore for a French company. He was good in explaining the projects. Good.
Then came the time when I saw some specific eda tool in his resume which he claimed he knew. Probing a little in I figured out he has not worked in the tool at all...ok fine, he might have been good in analysing the results. So one final question on high-speed current return path and the reply left me completely aghast. I felt like kicking that guy. Politely I had to reject this candidate.

By first incident, I was surprised by the extent of brainwashing that IT has done to the society. By the second incident, I felt how much our system of education has trained people to focus on money alone. The third incident I felt how much our IT and education system combined has left people totally waste.

We all want to earn a better living and never yearn for one !!!

Litter - they are no good until you reduce their usage!

2011-02-07T08:07:00.001+05:30

Plastics... these interlinked molecules have explored places which even normal man would not. We can achieve that inch-by-inch coverage of land as plastics do, but require exhaustive patience. Travelling by rail in India will give you an insight on how plastics has influenced our daily lives. More than that it throws light on the amount of litter we generate due to sheer ignorance.

Intercity train from Bangalore starts early morning and does one round-trip to Coimbatore in a day. Approximately it travels 400 kms, carrying more than 1000 people. This generates say litter of 1000 paper plate equivalent in a day. In the same line we have some more than two dozen trips every day. 24*1000 ~ 25k paper plates. Considering 10cm radius plates, it will take the plates to cover the entire stretch of surface area in three years.

Though paper degrades compared to plastics, it takes years. Also the paper plates have typical coating which again makes it non-degradable. So much of litter, and so much ignorant we are that we might one day be consumed by floods. Poor water, if we do not leave it drain fast into the earth, where will that go?

Reuse, reduce and recycle (we must first discard properly, segregate and then recycle!!!)
This herculean task can be accomplished only by the power of our minds and not just by yet another govt. policy

En kanmani, un kadhali - song with a difference

2010-12-12T13:34:00.004+05:30

Songs are a good source of linguistic nuances as well as nuances in thoughts. To say the truth, I learn most of my Tamil from songs.I love this particular song 'En kanmani un kadhali' from Tamil movie of the 70s for its music and the way its sung and of course, the way its portrayed. Thanks to youtube for allowing me to watch and re-watch the song umpteen times that powered me to blog on it.

The song starts with the pair of lovers fixedly gazing each other while travelling in a local town bus. Suddenly an clone of each of them start with the verses (Read it as: two of them in their own world). The song explores on the way the two in their own world interacts with the real world including their own real self. The song is written, sung and directed in such a way that four of them sing the song at few places. I think the individual singer voices were not mixed ( two track: one for the real world, one for the clone)

Here is the link to the youtube video

A project well planned - 10 years ago

2010-12-07T07:25:00.004+05:30

I often recollect those days busy preparing for the 12th grade exam,

31Dec '2K, the JEE results, shattered dreams as I entered 2001... I opened the text books, the scent of fresh paper wafting through the air with the taste of tears spreading in my tongue.

One phone call to my aunt, and my aunt arrived at coimbatore...

No consolations were told, we all dropped in for a comedy movie.
Back home,she took 3 days to assess the syllabus and plan the course of study for tackling the public exams. She had infact prepared a 45 day plan for the project. The plan included activities not only for me, but for my mom, sis and papa as well.

My sis quicly learnt cooking, father did all the supervision of the house, so that mom could supervise my study plan.

This was indeed a project well planned, well supervised by my mom and well supported by my sis and papa.

...
...
...

This was ten years ago. I feel the the way time rolls on...inevitable passage of time :)

linked...yet lonely

2010-11-20T22:02:00.008+05:30

Endless list of friends, known, once known, just seen, unknown...the list is really endless and thats social networking all about. The sites offer a voyueristic pleasure of intruding into someone else's private life and this keeps them in business.

I think its like the narcotics...once addicted you crave for it, more and more. I met a college kid while travelling to Tiruchirappali. Six hour journey by bus, I killed time mostly by watching this kid's activity. He had a mobile application hooked on to the networking sites and he was into his own customised world. In the mobile-network fringe areas, when the data got disrupted, he got so frustrated and restless in his seat. He was into a virtual world where one need not yearn or earn for pleasure. Once he said he had lots of friends, three hours later he said he was all alone!

Now who is to blame? The social network sites? users? society?

Ten promises to my dog...

2010-09-10T03:21:00.009+05:30

Tamil and Japanese make me experience the role of languages in our daily lives. Language intertwines with day to day activities in your life, the way you think, act and respond to external events. In short, they give a new perceptions to life. And as always Japanese movies make my eyes glee with tears at some instant of time. One such was 'Inu to watashi no 10 no yakusoku', meaning the ten promises between me and doggy.

Released in 2008, 'Ten promises to my dog' expresses the bonding between the girl and the dog. The film starts with the Akari, a young woman narrating her childhood with her 'socks'. Her mother names the newly found dog 'socks' since her feet resembles socks. The ten promises are the ones her mother tells Akari. True to her name, Akari is like the unending light that the whole universe looks into. The movie also captures the feelings of the girl as she grows up.

As with most of Japanese movies, patience is the key to finish watching the movie. At one point in time, Akari reminded me of Ritu, my mentor/ex-colleague's daughter and her puppy Randy. Lots of thoughts and memories spooled from their rusted reels...

Promises are not only for dog and you, but for any new relation you might enter into!, what do you say?

Happiness stealer

2010-08-21T20:14:00.004+05:30

One forceful wish by an adamant guy...had he not done that, he would have been the wealthiest of all... (A real incident heard it in a different perspective!)

'Happiness stealer'; wishfully received out of God's creations...

**********************************
God said "NO, do not ask me to grant your wish!...enjoy your life..."

Our guy, a business magnet could entertain himself with anything he wished, but this wish of his could not be fulfilled by the vastness of his business empire.

After business hours, like a door-door salesman, he filled God's ears with his wish repeatedly.

God had only one answer "NO"

As with any business dealing, next he started threatening God.

God made him get more business so that this guy would not pester any further but in vain...

Business-man was adamant...and finally God fulfilled his wish...a girl child...

That was the day after when he lost all his happiness

As she grew, she stole happiness from people around her...all of them died grief stricken!

Now, even at the rim of life, she still loves stealing happiness from her spouse, son, and recently daughter-in-law, grandchild, huh...everyone.

She is sixty and still going on...

**********************************

ROADS....from sandy roads all the way again to sandy roads!!

2010-08-17T20:15:00.006+05:30

Man cleared the bushes and paved a path to walk along safely. He evolved and when he invented the wheel and wheel carts, he made the path a little wider; this was circa 4 century BC. Slowly over the course of 2200 years wheels evolved in various facets when it met the engine technology and automobiles were created. This journey still continues and we have got n-lane roads made out of asphalt, concrete and recently plastics!

A step ahead we will be having roads that have photovoltaic underneath them and produce energy out of the sun all the day along. This is still in very pre-mature stage and prototypes are being carried out (http://solarroadways.com/). These roads are expected to have displays that would send our emergency information to the road users. More information on their construction is shared in their web-site.

Imagine such roads with loads of silicon circuitry underneath them...all sending out signals with a programmed purpose.

A system churning out engineers (a.k.a cheap labour)

2010-07-17T22:22:00.005+05:30

Recently exposed bogus mark-sheet scandal in Tamil Nadu reinforces the point that our systems, processes and our mindset are not geared up to meet ethical standards, leave alone global competitive standards. This scandal has indeed exposed the greediness in us; the greediness for power that exists in all layers of a society.

Being an engineer thirty years ago was regarded something special and engineers were held in high respect then. But these days, an engineering degree is more common that every second person you meet from a middle-class and upward family is an engineer. Five years ago Tamil Nadu (TN) had 230 engineering colleges...almost half of what we have now. TN government abolishing the common entrance exam four years ago has forced students to vie even for 0.01 marks. For every decimated fraction of marks approaching the 100%, you have thousands of students competing. This is the case almost in any state though in varying proportions.

Though the rise of IT in India cannot be blamed fully for this situation, it has a equal role to play. As cheap goods from China are not the goods sought out for, engineers from India will soon become a chunk of cheap labour that the world will not seek out for...both of them will be used in day-to-day life and will be dumped in the back-yard...

Learn it in your native tongue... in your own way !!

2010-07-03T20:39:00.003+05:30

Four years from now we will see engineers with more concrete basics who had opted for studying in Tamil medium. Had there been no Tamil in the engineering entrance question paper side-by-side to English, I swear I would have score 2-3 marks less. Reading it in my native tongue increased my comprehending speed and avoided any ambiguous situation. I had then dreamed of studying engineering in Tamil, and now it is a reality. Yes, from this year onwards selected colleges will offer Civil and Mechanical streams in Tamil.

Some might argue that Tamil-engineers cannot cope up with the current industry which is services based. But at the end of the day what matters is how much of an engineer you are rather than how much of a communicator you express. It all depends on what people consider as success...Being an engineer or being a fluent English speaker. We can study the degree in Tamil and still learn to communicate in English, but not the other way round. When the whole world is embracing web2.0, Let's embrace this next step with pride.

A dangerous face lurking in the dark...

2010-06-12T14:01:00.008+05:30

These days almost every other person you meet has a mail-id. Some people muse that internet gave addresses to millions who do not have a proper snail-mail address. Most of the mail-id owners these days have a networking site profile that says something about themselves, their hobbies, their likes and many more. The idea behind these personalized profiles is to help like minded people network. These profiles also aid in knowing more about the individual/owner but behold: there is always a dangerous face (an ugly face perhaps) that lurks behind these profiles.

Sakshi was pursuing her masters in industrial relations when she got a marriage proposal from a well known family. The guy held a masters degree in engineering and was working for a small firmware company abroad. Sakshi had a fine liking to arts and was adept in painting and playing the keyboard. She saw the guy’s profile and gathered that he played the flute and many more. While meeting in person, he too accepted that he played flute occasionally. Few months after marriage what Sakshi experienced was hell; I mean she experienced the truth. The guy actually had an opportunity to attend flute classes for three weeks when he was ten years old! Sakshi also found that each line item in his profile was wrong. His real face was ugly than what his profile conveyed. His hobby included reading, but he had never read a whole novel in his life. The ugly face posed a more dangerous face, a threatening one perhaps when she had to politely apply for divorce and put an end to the relation. But will the Indian society accept?

The incident happened a few years ago and this intrigued me to probe into profiles of few people whom I have met in office or elsewhere and found that an alarming number of profiles contain information that do not match with the real face of them. The irony is that almost 95% percent of Indians do not have a hobby or a past-time activity and their ego forces them to fill one in the profile. The one filled is probably the activity that their parents thrust upon them in their childhood.

(Name are obviously changed, but the incident mentioned is real)

Not only on web-profiles, many fake their real identity as well...

Last Sunday I met Mr.Vel at a fair in Chennai. I had known this person earlier through a web group. Slowly the talk went into hobbies and he exclaimed that he was a great fan of Tamil language and his pastime was to update his blog. I commented back saying that his blog was last updated way back in 2008. He paused for a moment and weaved a story that all his writings were in paper and before I could ask further questions, he said he had lost all papers while shifting his house and left the place for a moment.

This reminded me of Sri, who joined with me in my previous company on the same day. He claimed that he was an expert in net technology, business, art, and many more. He also started bullying other guys in net-tech group and had a pleasure making him feel greater at the expense of others feelings.

(Name are obviously changed, but the incident mentioned is real)

A listening ear...

2010-05-31T10:35:00.004+05:30

While working in my previous company, I was posted in Chennai for three months. The office was located sixty kilometers south of Chennai city. I was staying in the company’s guest house nearby office forcing my schedule to guest house-office-guest house and nothing else. The day of diwali was approaching and I had got reservation only in a sitting coach in a train departing late afternoon, after all diwali is one such occasion when members of the family get-together.

My journey to the railway station would take little less than two hours and as planned, I left the office at 1pm. I had to postpone my lunch and board a bus to Tambaram. It was hot afternoon and I managed to get a seat in a few minutes next to a man in his late forties. He started talking…the way he grew-up in a family of sculptors, the reasons that forced him to come to Chennai, his two year life in Bangalore, the way he entered the welding practice, the way his college going son was sucking money to pay his mobile-phone expenses, the way everyone in their family rejoices during diwali, the importance of real work and so on. Slowly the conversation was heading towards rail-wagon and steel industry perspectives and opportunities/risks for the SMEs in this industry.

After fifteen-twenty minutes of this talk he became silent. He was looking into my eyes, smiling. A minute of pause and then he sadly expressed the way his pay-hike was hurt by crooked middle management politics and the way the word ‘recession’ has ate their bonus money paid before diwali. I smiled and I said him that this was the case everywhere, be it a big IT company or be it a small foundry and also said some few words that seemed to spread warmth inside his soul. Ten minutes later, his place came and before parting he thanked me for hearing to him and also a special thanks for my smile!

Meeting this man with no name and the conversation left me questioning myself. What people need from relations is a listening ear and a soul, and most of them think different. In the past paced lifestyle people have been drawn into a maze of unknown and fear that causes them to shrug off whatever is not them. Many hide their faces from their personal responsibilities as a friend or brother-sister or spouse or a parent as all these do not pay off in pecuniary terms or does not satisfy their dirty-ego. They consider this act of theirs as correct and thrust them unknowingly into their next generation as well.

Red vented bulbul - My first bird shoot

2010-05-04T12:23:00.009+05:30

This Sunday, I woke up to the 8'o'clock sun filling the room. I was at my aunt's place at Trichy. Coming out of the house in a sombre mood, I gazed at the hibiscus blooms in the corner of the garden. Chirp chirp ... and three or four red vented bulbuls perched on the tree opposite to their house. My aunt was swift in fetching my camera and we both started watching them . The drooping bunch of yellow flowers fluttered by the bulbuls hopping between the fragile branches.

Two of them flew and perched on the fence wall. Earlier when I spotted these birds few months ago at Auroville-Pondicherry, I loved their shiny eyes and their colour. Today I consider myself lucky shooting these birds on my new camera.

PS: I got my new dslr camera last week ...canon eos-550d

The lost 8th mile...

2010-04-13T13:59:00.006+05:30

A stretch covered by tamarind trees on both side of the road, a canal accompanies you for a couple of kilometers and banana plantations on the other side of the canal. Such a place is the 8th-mile canal bridge on the Trichy-Karur road. What I like so much about this place is the early morning mist during non-summer season. The mist engulfs the moving water and is motionless compared to the water flow. The water surface seems to be a slate of green glass before it plunges another foot deep after the bridge. The way the mist touches the flowing water is a good sight to see, slightly swirling at the edges

Usually this place, the 8th-mile canal bridge goes un-noticed when you are on the wheels and as the name goes, the inundation canal bridge is on the 8th mile towards Trichy from Kulithalai, a small town on the banks of river Kaveri. The canal swells with water during the monsoon / winter season and goes completely dry in summer.

Though the road in this section of the highway is bumpy, I eagerly look forward driving this section in the early morning hours for the sight of the 8th mile canal bridge. Ten days ago, while driving down, I thought, I missed this place, but later got to know that the whole section is now newly laid bypassing this place as a part of road-widening-project. I felt really sad missing this place this time. But I vow that the next time, I shall take the previous intersection in the highway, see this place before proceeding on. The 8th-mile might be out of the current highway, but not from my memories.

Some of my previous photo shoots @ this place are listed
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ck_selvam/2162304184/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ck_selvam/2783479438/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ck_selvam/2161486461/

Changes

2010-03-26T19:40:00.002+05:30

Changes
Originally uploaded by Ms Ladyred

I liked what was written below the photograph...

"If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies..."

It was soothing as I am experiencing my first dash of job-change...

'Kimi ni shika kikoenai' / 'Only you can hear me'...

2010-03-21T16:24:00.006+05:30

If you wish me to comment on the drama in one line, I would say that it is a love story woven through telepathy. Literally translating, the title means 'none other than you can hear me', the story is about a teenage girl who has problems talking with people and she is very lonely, lacking in confidence. The boy cannot talk or hear, but he communicates with this girl via telepathy. Finally when they plan to meet, the boy dies saving this girl from an accident, and after this she does not feel alone, for she has met her own self from the future via telepathy and she has more confidence of being alone. The drama ends with the sign language of him saying that you and I are not alone...

The drama is excellently enacted and portrays the psychology of people in such circumstances.The last portion was a little bit confusing. What I liked was the concept that was never heard of and the excellent background music and tracks. The drama is little more than hundred minutes long and the sub-titles are in sensible english...

Originally written as a short story by 'Otsu-ichi', it has been adapted into movie/drama, kids-series and as Manga-comics.

The drama can be viewed online at 'My-soju'

Prayer...

2010-03-20T23:55:00.002+05:30

Prayer...robs your ego and drives you into meditation, a conscious state of existence. Put in other words, when you are experiencing latter, you are in a silent prayer. In this conscious state, your performance is at its fullest potential and tiredness is at bay and it benefits your surroundings as well. For many cooking is a daily prayer. Be it performing arts, or designing, or nurturing your pastime hobby. Such prayers bring in clarity of thought in the long-run.

I was stupefied seeing a middle-aged woman at the temple today drawing a 5mx5m kolam (paintings on sand using rice powder widely performed in Tamil Nadu). The way she deftly drew the kolam left me dazzled: she finished the whole drawing in less than twenty minutes. She was in fact praying...a silent prayer coordinating the mind and hand movement with the maths involved. She spread the virus of joy through this silent prayer.

If this is the case, then why have separate religious houses to pray? What I feel is that any religious-house is a congregation of the masses: we are bought-up in such a way that we pray when we enter such places thereby attaining the benefits of prayer.

There need not be any particular rules to pray and no one has the right to force people to pray in a specific manner. We pray for our own selves and not because people are watching us.

...of tapes, reels and spools...and of zeroes and ones...

2010-03-05T01:08:00.003+05:30

Twenty years ago, having a tape-player / recorder at home was very rare. I still remember my early childhood days when we had a JVC player and a dozen cassettes. We still have 5-6 of those tapes (26th Grammy, 30th Grammy, two 90-min selectively recorded collection in Tamil and Hindi, Michael Jackson's thriller and one English rock) and hearing to them is a classical experience which any digital surround system cannot provide.

Anything materialistic in this world should wear off with time and so is our aging process and anything that is opposite to this rule is not relished to its core. Had we been youth all sixty-seventy years, life would be boring isn't it? Those that do not wear with time cannot have an emotional quotient attached to them: we all say 'sweet sixteen' as those days cannot be re-lived.

We are experience the digital-wave which empowers us to store huge chunks of data and provide easy and efficient access to them. In this era, we are surrounded by a wild stream of information that forces us to ignore and not to appreciate the real content. In fact, this wild data is hazardous. The computer monitor is ever bright, the FM stations are vibe with energy round the clock, the internet lines are buzzing with data streams but we should not forget that it is hazardous if we enslave ourselves to these.

Swelling in silence...

2010-03-05T00:48:00.004+05:30

Nicely composed and timed, this frame is the recent portrait that I relished on. Be it the costumes, backdrop, lighting or the mood imparted by the actors is dazzling. Light yellow, grey and caramel-white and red on a dark wood backdrop is simply amazing. Side lighting gives reality to the frame. In a moving film, we tend to miss the finer details like the white sweater or the simple satin necklace.

This frame is a still photo frozen in time, yet it speaks...it speaks what the director wanted to convey. Kudos to the camera-team and the actors. I am not sure if this frame found a place in the movie 'Vinnai thandi varuvaaya', yet this expresses that one can communicate a lot in still photography. In a different perspective, a lot can be privately communicated in silence. (The path to silence)

PS: The make-up team could have put little more attention. The girls nail-colors were little bit out of sync not only in this frame but in the entire movie. The guy's make-up was a little bit heavy and the girl's make-up was very light and soggy in certain places and it felt in close-up shots; the movie deals with a lot with close-up-shots.

There is a mouse on my desk!

2010-02-18T14:55:00.002+05:30

What is a mouse?…ask this question and I am sure that many will refer to the computer mouse. Today for a common man, whatever resembles a real mouse is a small rat and if it is a little bigger it is a rat The fact is that even taxonomists find it difficult to differentiate between the genus rattus and the genus mus just by its morphology; the reason being that both are from the same family of muroid / muridae which is very large and complex. (1)

The situation is worse if your workplace is inhabited by rats. A colleague of mine called upon the admin facility and told them that there is a mouse on her desk for which the janitor darted back saying that if there is an extra mouse, call the computer stores department. Disgusted by this response, she called upon the receptionist and told the situation; the receptionist added a bit of humor to the response claiming that there is a mouse in every other desk-space in the office. Hearing this, the real cause of confusion dawned and my colleague corrected the ‘mouse’ with a ‘rat’…

We have been using the word mouse over and over again in the computer’s context that the real ‘mouse’ has lost its real meaning. This is not only for ‘mouse’…we have been using certain phrases or doing certain actions so many times that the real part of the word/action has lost its purpose.

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat

A different experience @ Auroville marathon 2010

2010-02-17T18:21:00.004+05:30

It was a different experience running the Auroville marathon. Eerie silence of the forest trail made the falling dew drops to sound like falling stones. The marathon was more than a physical run…I ran through the forest , ran deep into my self and ran to the beat of my heart (the running bib mentioned this aptly as ‘run easy, run to the beat of your heart’!). As a bonus pack, my eyes spotted the red vented bulbul and a monitor lizard during the run. I felt refreshed completing the Auroville marathon.

I completed the half marathon in 3 hrs, 16 mins... eight minutes late than my previous timing. It is time to change my shoes and step up my practice as well :)

Gold on green...observations

2010-01-29T18:03:00.003+05:30

I am posting my observations from 'Gold on green'.

Correct me if I am wrong...

More exposure needs to be set for yellow lighting when compared to white-fluorescent lighting.
The gold gets more predominant in yellow lighting.
So, if we are taking portraits, it is better to maintain fluorescent lighting
And in case of jewelery advertisements, it is good to give a yellow lighting like in GRT's ad (Golden girl)

I kept the exposure at f/2.6, macro-mode throughout the exercise.

P.S. Thank you friends for pointing out that observations should also be shared...

Gold on green...an experiment with photography

2010-01-21T19:18:00.017+05:30

I shot few frames last week: the subjects were few bangles and a ring that my mom usually wears.

I considered two set of lighting for the shots.First, I considered white lighting and switched on all the fluorescent tune lights in the hall. For the yellow lighting, I switched on the lamps in the hall.

Few shots are listed below:
Exposure was set for 8 seconds for the first shot, 2.5 seconds for the next 2 shots and 5 seconds for the last 4 shots.

I hold the camera, I am wrapped by joy and a paradox...

2010-01-11T23:20:00.004+05:30

I have been playing and experimenting with my camera for quite sometime, more precisely a little over two years. Viewing the world through the lenses for the first time was a different experience, I started clicking on frames just because I was enthralled by the way nature has composed itself so mathematically organized. Nature's quality is innate, the only change is the way I am experiencing it. Some more experimentation drove me mad to shoot macros (close-up shots). Be it flowers, beetles, jewelery or be it whatever, I started seeing the miniature world in them.

The same camera lenses evoked the paradox in me when I shot a portrait of a girl whom I then knew for more than six months. With whatever lighting was at hand, I shot my first portrait and I learned that each and everyone of us express intricate gestures that go unnoticed amidst our other businesses. I also experienced that a concentrated eye behind those camera lenses will never miss those intricacies. I started exhibiting the prophecy of a stock broker as to what will be her gesture next and I fell in love for her expressions noticed behind the lenses. Did I love her? Certainly not...but I loved her expressions behind the lenses.

The way I entertain myself watching a cinema has also changed in the past two years. Sitting in the theater hall, I carefully observe the lighting, costumes, colors and the background music. I would say that camera taught me to adore nature. It also taught me the fact that people are so varied in themselves. Now whenever I hold the camera in my hand, I am wrapped with joy...so immense that can be only felt.

from Denmark Christmas seals TO color symbolism TO album cover designs TO philately...A letter

2009-12-30T12:49:00.005+05:30

From Denmark Christmas seals to color symbolism to album covers to philately...what was thought to be a mail sharing some good links ended up as a letter to my sis :)

http://grainedit.com/2009/12/22/denmark-christmas-seals-1962
I found the English terms for many skilled jobs :)

Milliner – maker of hats
Chandler – maker of candles / specific products
Glazier – fitter of glass panes
Cooper – repairer of wood barrel
Wainwright – maker of Wagons

http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2009/12/29/color-in-film-m-night-shyamalan/
This describes Color symbolism in films: Manoj.N.Shyamalan

http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/04/09/grammy-award-winning-album-colors-2007
I loved the third cover among the listed ones.

http://grainedit.com/2007/12/20/israel-electronic-computer-stamp-1964/
We have evolved in length and breadth since 1964. But taking the next foot forward, what have we left behind and what we are leaving behind us??

http://grainedit.com/2008/05/20/modern-design-and-the-stamp-iain-folletts-stamp-collection/
Stamps teach different things for different people...role of colors for the graphic designer, marks the events for the historian, evoke the relevant thoughts of those interested, value of relation for the heart writing the letter and much more...

God created our eyes to perceive, our soul to feel and the whole human to adapt and live the life to the fullest.
Let's live it to our creator's wish :)

With lots of colors still unexplored...in us!!!
...Ck

It rained...

2009-12-09T15:37:00.003+05:30

A sudden drop in the temperature this morning, I woke up at 4.00 am to a mild breathlessness in me. I thought of those two people whom I knew only by their names. My friend also woke up around that time hearing to my wheeze. He had the same thought running in his mind too. Surrounded by a pod of grave silence, our minds were wide awake with a cacophony of thoughts.

Suddenly the clouds rained with a roar, drenching the dew damp roads…no thunder, no lightning, it just rained its soul onto the earth. It rained its way into the gravity of the silence, roaring into our thoughts, shattering them and created a void within.

The rain not only penetrated the soil, it penetrated into me and restructured my priorities, my view of life and my love for it. Like a tap closing, the rains stopped in twenty minutes. An hour later the sun rays pierced and made itself felt through the fog. I know for sure that the Sun will shine…shine for me, my friend, and those two never met acquaintances.

Love...

2009-11-11T19:53:00.001+05:30

You do not love someone...you share the love of YOUR life with them...

(Felt and penned during my recent holiday vacation in Penang)

The dragon fruit venture @ Penang

2009-11-11T19:46:00.003+05:30

Never seen color and never seen shape, I and my mom were drawn by the colorful fruit at the entrance of Penang’s market complex. Curiously my mom turned to our friend’s daughter and asked how the fruit tasted… the answer was that she had never tasted one! We were surprised by her answer as she was born and brought up in Malaysia. Now I and my mom were determined in exploring the pinkish red fruit. Our friend’s daughter helped us as translator between Tamil and Malay language as Malay accented English was difficult to comprehend. It was priced 8RM per kilo and the fruit was weighing close to 650 gms…

Suddenly our friend called…and we set aside this venture and proceeded to the left side row of shops… Fishes with exotic colors, half alive squiggling in the plate were splashing the water in all directions. Next there were silent squids a dozen in a plate, moving in a very slight jerky fashion…next were 3-4 baskets of shellfish, prawns, crabs and some other creatures all snailing their way to the top of the basket. Leaving this there were the normal pomfrets and other sea fishes as well. Our friend ordered the fish and we were out. Next row of shops were all selling eggs…normal chicken eggs were brown in color! Till then I have seen only white eggs. There were smaller light blue colored eggs, even smaller dotted eggs…I gathered from the Chinese vendor that the eggs were of a bird called ‘kaadai’ in tamil, he tried explaining to us in English, later Chinese accented Tamil.

Way back, again the pink dragon tailed fruit caught our attention. This time we enquired the next shop where it was priced less by 2RM and immediately we paid and shoved the fruit into our bags. The shopkeeper lady action was very hasty in selling the fruit… maybe that was her usual way. Though our friend assured that the fruit tastes good we were a little bit cautious and bought only one fruit. The fruit was called as the dragon fruit.

Back home we relished on the tasteless? Less-sweet? fruit along with ice…even then, our friend’s daughter did not want to explore this fruit. The reddish pink flesh with embedded black seeds was so good to see that you would want to relish the entire fruit. It stained our tongue pink and the feeling was so divine and wholesome. I would recommend tasting this fruit given an opportunity.

Googling throws light on the innumerable benefits of this fruit (also called Pitaya) and I was surprised knowing that this fruit belongs to the same family as that of ‘Queen of the bight’ bloom. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitaya

The golden girl...

2009-10-22T11:09:00.004+05:30

Recently this ad caught my attention in one of the Tamil magazines. I liked this photo for its composition, lighting, mood and the dark colors. The deep crimson red amidst a yellow lighting, and the dark oily green blouse, all give emphasis to the subject. I liked the model's pose flaunting an immense joy in her smile.

The only better thing that could have been done is the position of the hand bangles...the current position makes her wrist look thinner.

Coffee cravings...

2009-10-14T10:45:00.004+05:30

A sudden craving for coffee erupted in me yesterday…the craving happened to be so deep that I could feel the black bitter taste of coffee decoction spreading down my throat. I barged into the office pantry and filled myself a cup of coffee. I felt like a kid satisfied holding a lolly pop. But that satisfaction turned into rage when the coffee tasted insipid: it was mere caffeine washed hot water. The anger turned into a sort of unfulfilled wish. The effect of bad coffee had actually created a void in me.

Post lunch and a project meeting, the craving digging deep inside urged me to walk out of the building. Engulfed in a blanket of moist and warm air post a lash of torrential drizzle, I strolled to the nearby food court. Sipping the coffee, I felt the sugary bitterness spreading down the throat, filling my senses. A gush of fullness shot from the stomach and I could feel goose flesh! Finishing the exciting cup of coffee, with the bitterness still clinging on to the palate, I stood up enthusiastically. Walking down to my office, I remembered my favorite verses from Pablo Neruda’s love sonnet XVII “I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul”

PS:

The moment I blurted out saying that I am not happy with the coffee, rudeness crept in the voices of the pantry manager as he was defending his premises: the ‘I am OK’ sort of behavior. I felt like laughing loud...and suddenly remembered a saying that you cannot wake someone who is pretending to be asleep!

Pomelo pomelo...

2009-09-03T20:46:00.004+05:30

Driving back from Lepakshi to Bangalore, fruit carts with huge canon sized lemon caught our attention at Devanahalli... We stopped...sorry the fruits stopped us :) and bought one for tasting it. The lady who was selling them named them as Chakota. We relished on one and bought two more of that fruit.

The fruit's rind was more than 1/2 inch thick and was spongy spongy pink. The fruit was similiar to orange but it was very dry... some exotic fruit we thought and continued our journey.

After lots of googling I found out the name of the fruit as Pomelo, and is called as Chakotra in Pakistan/Afghanistan. It was excellent one to read about the fruit as well. It has lots of nutritive and medicinal properties as well

A grand fruit in the citrus family with a divine taste perhaps...

With some more googling, my mom found out a recipe: She boiled and blanched the rind and made some sweet candy out of it... a bittery-citrus-sweet candy and that is the way real life is...isn't it?

Lepakshi Temple ...Life in stone

2009-09-01T21:34:00.010+05:30

We had been to Lepakshi temple a fortnight ago. Lepakshi temple is a typical 16th century Vijayanagar style architecture known for its stone carvings, statues and ceiling paintings. I witnessed one of the finest carvings on stone. For example, the elephant with a tree in its trunk or the coiled snakes or simple patterns like the ones below

Apart from these life forms, there were many designs carved on stone pillars which were really exhilarating .

The whole temple had much for the artistic eye. Just onto the right after the entrance, I spotted what seemed to be a row of horses pulling the temple as a cart...by the way it seems only two horses are remaining now!

In the periphery, a big statue of Linga and seven hooded snake catches your attention the body of the snake has the mesh like leathery texture carved out! A big in-complete stage floor / hall with pillars around really gives you a feel of a stage performer.

The front hall has some of the finest paintings in the ceiling; most of it is ruined, yet a few are in-tact.

A large Nandi or the 'Bull' stands outside the temple facing the God. This is the one which receives you when you drive into the village...

When we were there, a lot of renovation work was going on inside the temple. I wish this temple and its rich art is preserved for generations to come.

Driving to Lepakshi from Bangalore (120+ Kms)

Take NH7 from Bangalore: You cross Hebbal, Devanahalli (Bangalore Intl Airport) and reach Chikballapur. It is better to grab a cuppa coffee or munch something in Chikballapur. You also get a Bharat Petroleum with a restaurant for some yummy masala dosa. Leaving this ,it is just the barren landscape and4-6 lanes of asphalt that would fill your eyes in the next leg of journey. Crossing the state RTO check post on the state border, you get a place called Bagepally with some human activity. Ask for the route to Hindupur, and you would be directed to turn left into a single lane village road. Continue for 12-15 Kms to reach Lepakshi via a village called Chilamattur. You can also reach the place via Doddaballapur, but it happens to be a state highway. No idea of the road conditions

Slow and steady...is more dangerous in this case!!!

2009-08-29T01:38:00.006+05:30

I was a middle-school grader when I started hating medicine. My doctor had prescribed a yellow colored pill that use to take the life out of me every time I took it to my mouth: it smelled like hell. After that time, I never encountered that yellow-colored item in my life.Ten years had passed when I came out of house to start my career. From then on every time when I use to come to Bangalore from Coimbatore, I would exactly wake-up to an exact situation experienced decades ago.This was not in my dreams...

It is reality: I wake up when the bus crosses the Bio-con factory area on the outskirts of Bangalore. The whole atmosphere in the area is filled with pungent medicinal smell that poses a severe health hazard. This seems a very small issue when compared to the recent swine-flu epidemic, but this is slow and lethargic.

Swine flu is nature's adjusting technique, but the health hazard posed by irresponsible discharge of effluents from the pharma industry is whose adjusting technique?

The forest route via Masinagudi...Paradise now, In future??

2009-06-13T16:33:00.002+05:30

The route from Bandipur to Ooty via Masinagudi is a must visit for nature lovers...if possible on a less polluting bike or a personal car. You can spot wild elephants, different species of deers, wild buffalos, species of monkeys, peacocks and if you are lucky you can spot a leopard. For the binocular eyes, various bird species also call attention. The route via the forest has something for people who adore nature and this was the reason I stressed on a less polluting vehicle.

Till now, vehicle movement was restricted after six pm. Now with pressure from all traders, bus route and tourism operators, the forest ministry has lifted the ban effective this month. This is really a case of concern for environmetalists, wildlife enthusiasts and also local public as well.

The ban earlier was imposed by the Karnataka state government to protect wildlife and the natual reserves in general. The recent action by the central forest minister will cause ripple in those minds who are really concerned in conserving nature. How much money was presented to the ministry is a question for which answers are known only to ministry high officals and those vehicle operators involved.

Equation churning engine...

2009-06-08T22:50:00.007+05:30

My friend just now introduced me to a computational knowledge engine christened 'Wolfram Alpha' (www.wolframalpha.com). Computational... what!!!??? leave it...lets call it as maths engine for short. It can do any mathematical computation for you, be it simple differential/integral or be it complex equation solving or be it any engineering equations (Seeing Butterworth and Chebyshev filters in the help page took me to my college days though I do not remember even a bit of it!)

Based on 'Mathematica' as the back end, this tool is really powerful, though slow. The aesthetics of the web page gives a scientific feel. And by saying this I do not mean it is only for the scientific/engineering community. It can even display the nutrition information of food stuffs, give out medical information of drugs, do a host of financial functions and also provide nutshell information on sports, history and many more.

Now that we have got one more engine in this world that churns out solution for equations, its success lies in our success, our idea engine's success or our mind's success. It is diligent in its part and the ball is always in our court to smash...

69 minutes, 10Km, 26th year :)

2009-05-31T21:19:00.000+05:30

I completed the 10Km run in 69 minutes today... This run was a non stop one with a walk of 200 meters after the 6th kilometer. Felt happy by this achievement, that too on a day when I enter the 26th year of my existence in this world

World No Tobacco day and Sunfeast 10Km

2009-05-31T21:10:00.003+05:30

Today is ‘World no tobacco day’ and today Sunfeast conducted the 10Km run in Bangalore. Except for two small posters no others sponsors including Sunfeast / ITC had posters emphasizing the tobacco health warnings.

How would Sunfeast do that when its parent company ITC is a leading tobacco company in India? Did it forcefully prevent other sponsors from hoarding No-Tobacco displays?

Spotted the black rumpted flameback

2009-05-17T19:18:00.006+05:30

I spotted the black rumped flameback last week in our 'Global Village Tech Park' office campus. I thought it was a normal sparrow from far...but as I approached, I could see its red crest and golden back and black & white breasts.
I postponed my lunch and went in further to enjoy the woodpecker's colors amidst the coconut trees.
It was too awesome sight to express it in words...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-rumped_Flameback

Mella mella ennai thottu...

2009-05-17T18:46:00.005+05:30

yuvan shankar has done an excellent remix of his father Ilayaraja's musical piece in the movie 'Sarvam'. The hero of the movie hears this music piece whenever his lover is around.

Today I fished out this song from youtube; the original song starts as ' Mella mella ennai thothu....' where the woman wants her lover to caress her in a staccato...Ilayaraja's prelude is also a staccato of violin chords, joined by the guitar with the flute mellifluously filling in later.

I am always against remixing of old songs...but yuvan has done a great job by keeping the original pace and instruments and improvised the recording.

Golden vines...intertwined with her thoughts

2009-05-16T20:47:00.005+05:30

Golden vines intertwined with her thoughts...

I loved this still in the recent Tamil movie 'Sarvam'. I liked the lighting, background, her poise, costumes...amazing.
Kudos to the cameraman and costume designer.
Overall the background music score by Yuvanshankar was good.
Camera at most places was the bokeh type shots where the focus is on the subject with the background fading; this was a little annoying to me. And the next major was silhouette shots mostly with blue or red backgrounds. One shot was with the sun in the horizon...
The sets and lighting of the hospital shots in the first half were too exposed and swallowed the subjects unless the costumes were dark colored. In one shot, the same white color costume in the above picture amidst the hospital white background was too bland.

Rain rain come again

2009-05-08T21:55:00.003+05:30

Walking in the rain is one of the activities that bring out the child in you…and yesterday I felt like a six year old boy :)

Returning from office by the 8.15pm cab was really boring with people hooked on to their iPod or cell phone talk or on to their own dream world. Just 10 minutes before my stop, rain lashed with heavy winds and woke the guy who was sitting opposite to me. He woke up angrily and took out an umbrella with a heavy sigh and probably wished that the rain would stop.

The rain sprayed on my face with the wind and I wished that the rain would continue...My wish was fulfilled...

Walking some half a kilometer in rain, slow and steady…enjoying the water drops engulfing my thoughts; I remembered my childhood days in Assam. The monsoon sweeping the town, myself on the front lawn playing like mad in the rain, my mom tired of calling me inside and sitting on the portico with my younger sister, then a three years old baby. From 3.30pm till 5.00pm fully drenched in the rain, I went inside only when my papa came back from work…After having a glass of hot milk I was floating paper boats in the water puddles with my sister looking at them…

Really nostalgic thoughts…thoughts of my childhood suddenly flashing and flooding my thoughts after about twenty years…

Watching the weaver

2009-05-06T23:05:00.002+05:30

Weaver
Originally uploaded by Puneeth B C

I was delighted by the sight of a dozen weaver bird nests...They were deserted. Late after few minutes I planned to hide myself and hid nearby amidst tall grass bushes. This is the place where I watched their entire behavior pattern from close quarters...about 5 feet from their nests.
The weavers hopped from branch to branch, each time inching towards their nest and each time surveying their territory. Most of the time they were holding long stalk of grass in their tiny beaks. These yellow crested weavers land straight on top of their nest and with the help of their feet and pointed beaks weave the grass stalk into the existing structure. This was at the end of 15 minutes an now I wanted to call Puneeth so that they can be shot through our lenses.
I and Puneeth scrambled on our knees and positioned ourselves but the weavers sensed some risk...they came closer to their nest and again retreat back. Now we resolved to lying on our chest...he with his camera and I with my friend's binoculars. This time we ended up with some good shots. All the muted conversations and sign languages helped us. This was at the end of sixty minutes.

Watching the weaver, we lost our sense of time...We got to know how many minutes passed only when we were returning back from the small stream near which the weaver's colony were...

Spotting the Bee-Eater

2009-05-06T00:05:00.004+05:30

Bee-Eater
Originally uploaded by Puneeth B C

Puneeth called me last Thursday and asked if I can join them for the trip to sight the flock of bee eaters that had arrived somewhere on the outskirts of Mysore adjoining the Kaveri river banks. We started late evening and reached there around 10.30 pm...the whole village was asleep except for few who were returning from the city. Our enquiries about the directions to the river banks arouse suspicion of the villagers...we were noted and tracked... Finally we went to the shores and surveyed the site. The moon was shadowed by the clouds then. With the help of two local villagers we camped on the outskirts of the village. Seeing the starry sky and those flickering fireflies made me feel heaven.
Sighting the flocks of bee eaters perching everywhere...it was a sight that defies expression. The intricate colors on the bee eaters neck and the body was awesome through the binoculars. Along with the flock we spotted a pied kingfisher, brown hornbill, white throated kingfisher and a family of weaverbirds. The weaverbirds caught my attention and it calls for separate attention in my blog as well. See you soon with the post on weaver bird...

This photo was taken by Puneeth...

Who rules over our creativity...?

2009-04-28T23:25:00.004+05:30

Last week, a bus conductor handed over a old ten rupee note. I became a little bit confused as nowadays any rupee note comes with MK.Gandhi's smiling photo on it...

I always loved the older pre-Gandhi series of notes for its art work. The ten rupee note which I got has the Indian emblem 'Lion of Sarnath' on its obverse and a picture of two peacocks sitting on a tree, with deers and a horse on the reverse. The currency note actually resembles a piece of art. The greyish blue color of the peacock and the beautiful curved designs of the note left me dazzled until I shuffled it into my wallet where other notes were stuffed with same MK.Gandhi on it...

Michael Crichton...!!!???

2009-04-26T23:26:00.007+05:30

It is 5 months already and I am getting the news now!!!

A mail from a community within the company linked to a presentation on global warming by 'LATE' Michael Crichton...I was taken aback by this news. Is Michael Crichton dead? and now I googled it to confirm it. A smoker, he battled throat cancer and died at 66.
If the news is true, then why was I not aware of it? I may very well say that I was busy with my project work...and all other odd reasons for why I did not get the news. I do have a single reason why I should have known it... the author, whose 'Disclosure' made me lost into its storyline; the same author whose 'Airframe' was in line with my own interesting subject; the same author whose 'Prey' made me its prey for a week... Anyways I feel sad by the news of the demise, so late...almost five months and now I am thinking how linked I am with the world and its happenings.

'TRYING'

2009-04-04T01:59:00.004+05:30

Without trying out something you cannot conclude that you will fail

You tried crying seconds after you entered the world…and you cried for the first time
You tried spelling words…and you did talk

If you refuse to try... you would have never known your innate abilities…

And those which are earned without trying/sweating your blood are not relished…and the achievements fade with time.

And trying makes us younger and brighter…

So before you say you cannot do something…think if you have tried it.
And if someone says you cannot do it…refuse politely and say that ‘WE’ will try and conclude.

'I'

2009-03-24T00:44:00.005+05:30

It is the 'I' factor that creates uniqueness...that creates wonders...that ascends the quality of your life. It is the 'I' that helps us breathe...It is the 'I' that keeps us really moving.

'We' as a team works when everyone loves their 'I's...
'Sharing' and 'Caring' happens when everyone respect others 'I's
Success is relished when 'I's join

Where are you...my 'I(eye)'s'
'I' love you all...

The Path to silence

2009-03-21T01:47:00.004+05:30

The Path To Silence
Originally uploaded by siggito

The path to silence you are deep into a womb of thoughts.
Silence probes your thoughts...
Need for communicating arises then...

When wavelength's are aligned, communication between lives defies sound...then why did God create something called sound...

Feeling now, what I relished then...

2009-03-20T02:59:00.005+05:30

My footsteps felt heavy thumping on the tar road. I could feel my footsteps clearly in the silence prevailing around...I returned from office to my friend's house just few minutes ago.
I was amused by the thought of how the earth would be feeling, when millions of people walk and automobiles race over it.
The same a colony of ants would be thinking of us when we stamp on them...killing them. I read this piece of thought written by Aurobindo/Mother, post the tsunami shaking off the Indian coast...
Then I relished those words, today I felt it.

Now I think the same with sleep which is taking over me... :)

Verbal voyeurism...

2009-03-19T00:37:00.001+05:30

'Don't you watch MTV roadies?' questioned my friend as if I had committed a crime... Got to know from him that the TV series aired in MTV channel has to do something with adventure...Some colleagues of mine said they like the program because it has something to do with reality.

I forgot all of these conversations amidst my daily work…months passed by before I first witnessed this program.

Returning back from office early, I saw my roommate watching the program. It was a selection for the ‘Roadies’ as they call. It was something like ragging and ripping apart a person. That was ok…

Last week I saw the roadies in action and found the participants verbally assaulting each other. Found that it has nothing to do neither with adventure nor with reality and what people relish seeing is just a vulgar pleasure in hearing something that is voyeuristic.

I just got up, felt the air engulfing my thoughts and went out for dinner mulling over my thoughts on what people really want as enjoyment.

Midas touch

2009-03-14T11:47:00.004+05:30

Power to Dream l
Originally uploaded by tteerriitt

I always love what Sun does to the frigid deep blue sky in the mornings...the Midas touch.

Frigid blue sky melting to sun,
Melting into silence until evening
Getting ready for another sunrise
With the power to dream...

Thanks tteeritt for the photo...

We are ready with our next mission, Are you game?

2009-02-28T00:16:00.005+05:30

A fortnight ago, Friday evening I and my friend KK planned for a long trip to Goa, then shortened it to Mangalore, further shortened it to Nandi hills followed by Hosur... and shortened it further: we spent Saturday at the office... Saturday evening, suddenly an idea flashed while returning home and we got down much ahead of our place...
We dropped into our senior colleague Y's place without any notice. We rang the doorbell and hid ourselves near the stairs and just gave him a surprise when he opened the door. We felt some 10 years younger doing this act...
We still felt younger by forming a trio: I, KK and Y's daughter Ria opposing Y. Munching on the ready-cook popcorn prepared by Ria, the trio strengthened by the tea that Y had prepared.
We helped Ria to finish off some school maths and here began the real action...
We forced Y to join our trio for dinner, and to take his car out on a Saturday evening, made him to eat pizza which he hates to the core. It was all fun that evening...

We are ready for another storming action and creating a trinity with Ria...but when it will happen? Any suggestions Y?

Springing Bangalore...

2009-02-27T23:52:00.003+05:30

Fresh violet bud leaves sprung up on bare trees a week ago and now are slowly coloring up a realm that is somewhere above 3 meters from the road level... It is pre-spring season in India and the trees have started to turn green!
It is always a pleasant morning these days, waking up to cool morning wind and the lush green trees.I love those orange colored, brown dotted butterflies, yellow striped butterflies that wish me good morning...

Sandesh Kadur's quest for 'Pogeyan'...

2009-02-11T23:42:00.002+05:30

It was a sort of immersion into nature…I witnessed the short film by Sandesh Kadur on Western ghats. Thanks to my colleague Puneet with whom I went to watch the film at the British council in Bangalore. Sandesh has been photographing wildlife in Western ghats for close to a decade. His quest for ‘Pogeyan’ or the ‘Misty’ Indian cat is quite interesting; he spotted this member of the cat family few years back and now wants to spot it again as it is not classified / identified yet…He shared his adventure stories in his quest for ‘Pogeyan’. He said that living in the rainforests of the ghats is far safer than crossing the road in Bangalore…

If you really admire nature and an ardent lover of it, then Sandesh Kadur’s adventures are online for you at http://www.sandeshkadur.com/

It is good to forget, but not this soon!

2009-02-03T23:16:00.004+05:30

With all the josh of my new electronic cards arriving, I forgot to share my 185 minutes to finish the half marathon in Mumbai last week. This one was better than my last one in terms of my post recovery time. The crowd cheer throughout our 21 odd kilometers was a real boost, we never felt that we were alone or we were stressing our body to its extreme. My running pattern this time was 8km non-stop run, another 8-9 km staggered run and walk the last four kilometers…

Post marathon, we had been to the Elephanta cave islands, thanks to my friend Prakash: without him, I could not have managed to see the cave islands. I had in fact seen Mumbai when I was 10 years old, but nothing has changed since then…the same buzzing crowd, the same spirit of living perhaps, only I was 15 years older than I was then…

It was a festival indeed and whole Mumbai was a part of it...Thank you Mumbai, see you next year at the marathon...

My baby, in real copper and components...!

2009-01-27T23:14:00.004+05:30

Today morning, I felt extremely happy holding my new baby in real copper and components. Yes the boards I designed have arrived from the fab-assembly unit.

Before we woke her up to this real world and feed power, she was given a full check up… As any parent would propagate how bringing up children is a difficult yet enjoyable experience, my friends added similar such experiences of theirs to normal conversations.

She is just born; need to bring her up…miles of difficult path to go. But for now, she is the cutest baby I have ever seen because she is of my blood :)

Is India's future in rite / wright / right / write / ryte direction!!!?

2009-01-26T10:53:00.002+05:30

rite / wright / right / write / ryte... So much of similar rhyming words?

Yes, all these words were collated from responses to a questionnaire presented to women students of PSG College of Arts and Science in Coimbatore. The questionnaire was a part of the one-to-one initiative from Vasantha Memorial Trust for spreading the awareness on breast-self-examination among women. Around 900 girls were given the awareness talk.

My mother who was a part of the initiative was amused by the answer to a particular question (Answer: Right) Some of the answers were rite (the mobile SMS effect perhaps), wright(Where did wright brothers come into picture?), right, ryte(Again SMS effect), write(What to write?) and many more similar sounding compounds. Many did not choose to right the write answer...sorry, write the right answer!

This left me wondering whether we are marching into future in the right direction??

Saving Satyam...at whose cost?

2009-01-15T13:58:00.002+05:30

I was taken aback by the Indian government decision to flush in 2000 crore Indian Rupees to save Satyam IT limited. Government was in fact acting hurriedly in taking over the Satyam IT limited themselves. This highlights involvment of top government officials in the scam and now they are trying to hide themselves from the one of the Great Indian Shame of the century.

Our prime minister says that this will save us from the corporate shame in the eyes of other foreign countries, but at whose cost...Being the part of the scam the individual politicians, including state and central ministers along with auditors and directors of Satyam would have made a lot of money then (When the founder and CEO resigned the company following a confession of cooked up accounts, he held only 5% of stake in the company! ). Now politicians want to save the self destroyed corporate image usign the tax payers hard earned money.

Why should we, the tax payers of the country bear the burden for a bunch of selfish crooks affected by the virus of greed?

Real Work...

2009-01-09T00:12:00.003+05:30

'I swear by my life, and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine...' _Ayn Rand from her 'Atlas Shrugged'

Real team work and fulfilling work starts when we understand the above lines in its entirety...

What do you say?

I am 24.60232717 yrs old !!!

2009-01-06T12:41:00.001+05:30

Hey CK…this is not the right thing you have done…exclaimed my junior colleague during morning tea break. I was really amused by the tone he said those words. He was referring to my age I have put in the company networking portal.

Born in 1984-May, I am 24.60232717 years old as of today (This is what my computer calculated!). Now should I mention my age as 24yrs or 25yrs? Here started the debate…
Should I say my age is or 24.xxxxxx years then?

Whatever is, can’t we mention that I am always 16 + rest yrs as experience?

Smoking Ban, India and the World...

2009-01-04T23:04:00.005+05:30

Before typing in my thoughts to the word processor, I thought it would be wise to delve deeper into the banning of smoking in public places around the globe. And I was right in doing so, because till now I was under the impression that India is the only country to impose such a ban. In fact we are actually delayed in passing such a bill: more than 80 nations have such bans in place (Courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_smoking_bans). To my surprise, the earliest smoking ban dates back to as early as 1590 brought about by Pope Urban VII and the first modern age ban was imposed by Nazis in Germany and was in effect till their fall in 1945 (Courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking_ban).

Though governments round the world have banned smoking, how many nations are effectively implementing this rule is still an unanswered question. My feel is that, in India this ban as any other rule has transformed into an array of bribe collection mechanism. Curious about other nation’s success stories on such bans, I searched the web and found out one or two research paper exploring the barriers in implementing smoking bans. This clearly means that every other country is trying to achieve higher success rates in imposing smoking ban and are finding it tougher. Probably I will weave one of my next blog based on my reading of these researches.

Lenses...

2009-01-01T01:35:00.003+05:30

The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera." ~ Dorothea Lange (1895–1979)...
I saw this quote in one of my contacts in Flickr photo sharing site and felt how true these words are...

In fact, I welcome the new year 2009 by exploring an ocean of bits and pixels of frames shot by people world-over. A real satisfying experience that no words can express...

Wish you all a happy new year indeed.

Flaring horizon - witnessing today's dusk ceremony

2008-12-14T18:36:00.004+05:30

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

2008-12-14T15:49:00.007+05:30

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'

2008-12-14T01:57:00.006+05:30

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!

2008-11-22T15:22:00.003+05:30

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!

2008-11-16T23:40:00.004+05:30

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!...

2008-11-09T00:14:00.004+05:30

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!

2008-10-23T01:16:00.006+05:30

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...

2008-10-21T22:35:00.004+05:30

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

2008-09-30T23:11:00.004+05:30

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

2008-09-15T17:11:00.003+05:30

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!..?

2008-08-23T16:07:00.001+05:30

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?

Ossified Embassy, Ignorant Consulates...!

2008-08-11T14:03:00.004+05:30

Probably the German Consulate officials in Chennai, India do not understand what family is. Or for that matter, they do not know proper German or their diplomatic requirements. Or they are just arrogant and ignorant.
I conclude the above after hearing to my friend’s plight in getting a German spouse visa.

The officials are ignorant of what their counterpart in Germany requires. They either send ‘Verified’ or ‘Correct’ against the documents scrutinized here. Their German counterpart is like a ossified algorithm that would only take ‘Contents Verified’

The woman on the visa hot-line was just hot in replying.
“Diplomatic things take time”
If you cannot be hot in action, why just be hot in replying alone?
The consulate disguises its procrastinating tendency under the hoods of diplomacy!

May be I should apply ages in advance to do business in Germany!

Where is the money draining?

2008-07-29T12:46:00.004+05:30

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...

2008-07-22T12:27:00.002+05:30

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?

2008-07-21T16:59:00.002+05:30

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!

2008-06-19T11:02:00.002+05:30

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...

2008-05-30T11:41:00.001+05:30

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...

2008-05-22T14:16:00.000+05:30

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

2008-05-19T18:23:00.002+05:30

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…

2008-05-06T19:44:00.001+05:30

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...

2008-05-05T18:17:00.002+05:30

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 !?

2008-04-16T12:07:00.000+05:30

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!

2008-03-28T06:46:00.004+05:30

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

2008-03-15T15:04:00.003+05:30

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