Me Myself - Pavithra

Not so real.. Not so fake

2011-04-07T15:07:00.000+05:30

How much do we relate to TV and cinema, the major entertainer in our country? I have been observing some shows on TV for sometime and have come to the conclusion that most of the shows don’t represent the general public.

The so-called music channels which attract the teens have the most irrelevant shows.

Though I happen to see Splitvilla, dadagiri, Dare 2 Date and some similar show, I really feel as if I am watching people from different planet. I can’t imagine my cousins or friends, flirting or bath mouthing some “XYZ” person.

The major attraction to the general public is the tele-serials which is so obscure. Do we in really life see members of the family plotting against each other, worse hiring a killer? Most of the sitcoms boost a hero or a heroine who is the most stupid person overall.

But though these shows are irrelevant or impossible in real life, this is what attracts us. The best example is the cinema. Some of the blockbuster hit movies esp. bollywood movies really miss the most important thing “The story”.

This is what we want I guess, running away from reality. But sometimes not so real also doesn’t work. Sanjay Leela Bhansasli’s Sawariya is the best example. The movie was shot in fairy tale like nothing seemed real. So by theory, it must have been a super hit but turned out otherwise.

So I feel people don’t want to see the reality neither do they wanna run into fairy land. It’s the between place that attract. Roadies for the teens and KyunKi for the aged works perfectly well.

Step out

2011-03-29T12:03:00.000+05:30

For a past few days, I happen to wake up suddenly in the middle of the night. Once my sleep gets disturbed, then its an hour long struggle to sleep again. Yesterday night it was the same episode, I woke up suddenly to a bad dream and really tried very hard to sleep again. After trying hard for 10 mins, I started thinking about all sorts of things that will happen in the morning if i wouldn't sleep properly. Thoughts of headache, soar eyes, sleepiness and tiredness made me even more scared. At once, I tried the sleeping tactics. Started off with saying ABCD, said it for some 10-15 mins. No effects so I moved on to the sheep jumping the hurdle tactics. Still no effect. Finally, I gave up. I decided nothing is going to work and watched the fan and the moving shadows of the tree. Within sometime i feel asleep.

Sometimes it true, when trying really hard things seem not to be working. But staying calm and stepping out of the problem really helps. Even when I was hunting for a job, I had a similar experience. After attending interviews for 2 months, I gave up. I started preparing for MBA as a last resort, but then I got the offer.

I don't want to be philosophical, why not just give a try to step out of the problem, calm down and then do an attempt.

Meeting and Greeting People

2011-01-27T09:07:00.002+05:30

For the past few months, I have had a chance to interact with people from many countries as well as overhear conversations of many foreign tourist. Its been a great experience. Each one has the different perspective about India, Indians, politics etc. A guy we met on a small town in Laos said "Indian, Bollywood, you guys dance well". Another guy we met immediately asked if we were in software profession. There are also facts that surprised me, like Indian kings had ruled South-east Asia many centuries back.

Many people also shared their experience traveling India. They were excited about the colors, culture and diversity. One of my hubby's colleague from Vietnam was puzzled how we are able to arrange weddings. Apparently, in Vietnam, the guests who are invited will have to confirm their presence and accordingly the arrangements are done. She was amazed that we don't restrict the number of guests or don't ask for any confirmation. Diversity of India is another overwhelming topic. Foreigners are taken aback by the different languages, customs, food and culture. Even the foreign media when discussion Indian affairs mention our ability to co-exist in the multicultural and diverse environment.

Its not all praises, they are horrified by some social customs like the child marriage or caste system. Few also want to know about our views on India-Pakistan affair. Indian politics and economy is discussed heavily in foreign media. According to one foreigner, in India free food schema for school students is very encouraging, but in his country no such steps are taken to help people. But, while interacting with a person from a developed country, he mentioned how investing in India is difficult because of corruption. I have realized that among many countries I traveled this year, India is most economical.

What should I conclude from these interaction? Certainly, its mixed. But it has kindled in me a great patriotism toward my country. I want to travel to the corners of India and feel proud about the diversity we like in. I want to read Indian history which I hated in school. I just want to see India grow.

Proud to be an Indian!!!

First 2 weeks in Laos

2010-12-24T17:54:00.000+05:30

It’s been about 10 days in Vientiane, Laos and I need to share my experience. On the day of our arrival, we were very shocked to see the shops closed at 6. We were hoping the mall near our hotel will be open, but that was also closed. He somehow found a restaurant. The next few days, we understood, the city sleeps early. Lao people love spending time with their family. As we roamed around the city, we found people sitting in benches in front of the houses/shops playing checkers and enjoying food with the family. Like back home, every home/shop has a small mandir, to which offering are made.

In the end of the first week, we shifted to another hotel. It’s located in the tourist hang out area and we soon realized the city is not that early sleeping. In this area, though few shops are closed, most of them are open. It’s loaded with restaurants and tourists. Lao and Thai are obviously the most popular cuisine here. But the Indian restaurants are flooded with tourist. People are very friendly; they don’t stare or pass comment on tourists. “Sabaidee” meaning hello can be heard from everyone. English knowledge is quite OK.

There are many beautiful modern as well as vintage cars. But motor-bikes and cycles are more. Buses are used for commuting between villages/cities. Traffic is not heavy but at office hours there is a little traffic in the main roads Very few sky-scrappers, so it’s beautiful to stand outside the balcony and look at the city.

For a small city, the number of CD shops seems quiet high. Every other shop sells CD. There is a public gym, with some equipment which is free for all. Great idea, think it will be create if installed in India.

Overall, the two weeks in Laos had been great. Loving the gift of time and calmness. It’s a contrast to Bangalore and a very relaxed place.

TOIP - Traveling on Indian Passport

2010-12-14T16:01:00.000+05:30

Hi all,

Its been a long time I have posted, I was quiet busy with work and other things. I hope to blog quiet frequently now. I am into a new adventure so, watch out for some interesting posts.

As a follow-up to my previous blog, I have been wondering a lot about my travel passion and have finally decided to start a travel blog. Its called "TOIP - Traveling on Indian Passport". I am trying to post interesting articles related to travel. Hopefully, it entertains everyone. Please have a look at it and comment. If you have any similar idea or a need info on any place, I would love to investigate on it and post an article on the same.

Please check out: http://travellingonindianpassport.blogspot.com/

A passion to Travel

2010-06-11T14:35:00.000+05:30

I had been an admirer of different places and experience. But I never got a chance to visit many places. Two reasons, one: I am too timid to travel alone and secondly: I was not able to find a travel mate. Anyways, now I have a defaulter, my hubby. He has promised to take me to every corner of the earth. However, whenever the time and finance permits. Hmmm.. We are optimistic and hoping to travel to North pole to South Pole, 1 place at a time.

So, to remain passionate, I have been goggling around learning about different place. I should admit I have become a little travel guru, not an expert though. Researching about different places, when to visit, how to visit, what to see, what to buy, where to stay etc. have become my hobby now.

Anyway, first I thought, I would compile all the information and create a blog/website. But there are enough number of websites and travel guides and hence one can get the info in one/other site.

Courtesy: www.adventure-travel.org.uk

So, I am thinking of becoming a trip adviser (not a full-time though). There are many people who want to travel but don't know where/how/when etc. Best example is Honeymooners, they wanna travel somewhere romantic and different but not really knowing where. Here is my role. I will help them sort out their travel plan, personalize the trip planner according to their needs. Does it sound convincing?

Anyway, people who have queries about travel can post a coment them here. I will try my best to help you. You can also refer me to others ;).

Fingers crossed for the response. Do comment about my idea? Is it feasible ? Anything..

Small things for the Community

2010-06-09T10:51:00.000+05:30


Courtesy - www.icicp.blogspot.com

There are times, we feel guilty seeing people participate in social awareness activities, when we were not able to show our support. Though we understood our responsibility towards the community and wanted to join them, there was some important situation/reason that stopped us. These obstacles don't have to stop us. If we run into a dead end, we don't stop and give-up. We turn around to find a different route.

As Napoleon Hill ones quotes “If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.” To support a cause, we can do small things that can make a big difference. Actions speak louder than words. I have tried to mention some small things that we can practice to do our part to the community. Please comments about the small things you do, so that we can practice them too.

Go Green – Save Trees

We have already reduced the usage of paper and limited the printout we take. We can go a little further by not throwing the waste paper in thrash. When we throw the paper in thrash, it mixes with the other waste like cooking waste and hence it cannot be recycled

Action: We can separate any paper product like the ticket printouts, bills, newspaper etc., and give it for recycle. We can also get little bucks on them if we give it to the paper-walas.

Say No to Plastic

Action: While shopping we can carry fancy “Go Green” cloth bags and avoid getting the polythene bags given in the shops. We can become the trend setter by doing this. People following us may even do the same while they shop next time.

Keep the city clean

We throw garbage on the streets because we know no one is gonna ask us. What if we lived in Singapore were throwing thrash on the ground is prohibited?

Action: Lets imagine we are in Singapore and dispose waste in the nearby bin. Singapore is made beautiful by it people. Lets make our city beautiful

Don't Spit

Will we allow anyone to spit in our house? There are so many disease spreading because of that.

Action: Spit in the dust bin.

Don't buy Diamond

We are moving up in life, diamonds have become a way to showcase it. The diamonds are unearthed by African slaves. Do we really want to spend money on sometime which has a tag of sorrow and humiliation attached to it.

Action: Lets think twice before we buy diamonds. Watch "The Blood Diamond" movie.

No bulbs

The round bulbs we traditionally used emits a lot of CFL which intensifies the ozone hole and in turn affecting us with the “Climate change”

Action: Replace bulbs with power savers lights. We can also reduce the CFL emission by reducing the usage of A/C and fridge.

Don't Waste Food

We know how much we can eat. Then why take excess food and throw it in dust bin

Action: We can take sufficient/less food first, complete that and go for more if hungry. Food is god. Wasting food is more sinful than killing someone. What is the use of poja, fast and prayers when we knowingly waste food that someone else can live on.

Lets practice these whenever possible however possible. Hope this post was of some use

Off the rain, Under a roof

2010-06-04T13:53:00.000+05:30

Its raining in Bangalore everyday. The smell of the mud, the cold nights and greenery is back. The bad part though is that, it always rains in the evening, just when we leave office :(. Here is a fictional experience.

As the first drop of rain fell on my head, I geared up my bike, hoping to reach home before the rain starts pours. It was not just me, everyone on the road have accelerated and I knew it was an "On your mark, Get-Set-Go" moment. The drizzle slowly intensified while I waited for a long signal. The red light seemed permanent. Finally, when the green appeared, I was almost drenched.

The visibility was low and I felt driving further would be risky. Lucky, I was in the shopping district. So, I parked my vehicle and ran to the nearby shop. There was very little room for more people. I squeezed in and found a little spot. I removed my coat and helmet and breathed the mesmerizing smell of mud. I stood there watching people and the shops around me. I realized I have never seen many shop though I had traveled the same route for years.


courtesy: www.sfbappa.org

Soon I felt bored, so I decided to do what everyone else did under an unknown roof, calling those number, which we knowingly forgot. After about an hour, the rain had no signs of subsiding and I ran out of people I can talk to. Water in my clothes had dripped off and I was almost dry. So, I headed to the shop in which I had taken refuge, a branded show room. I didn't have any intension to shop yet I step in to checkout the casuals. The collections were good and tried half a dozen tees and tops. Finally picked 1 tee and went ahead to bill, expecting the rain must have stopped. Another half an hour had passed, the rain had not let up.

Mad with the rain, I headed to the cafe. Cafe was not crowded. I found a seat with the good view to watch TV and ordered a cappuccino and a smoked chicken sandwich. While I called home to inform that I was stuck, the order had came. Then, it was me, the cappuccino and the smoked chicken sandwich spiced up with a gossip show on TV.

Ideally, drinking a hot coffee with some deli in a nice couch on a rainy day would just be perfect. But doing it alone was annoying. After about 15 - 20 mins, I couldn't take any more. I decided to drive in any case. Fortunately, as i fled down, I noticed the rain had stopped. No time to spare, I wore my coat, pressed on the vehicle and was finally heading back home.

Stuck in the heavy jam after the rain, I prayed "Thank you God for the rain! I just wish it doesn't rain when I leave office."

Single Vs Married

2010-04-21T14:19:00.001+05:30

23 years Vs 9 months is indeed a biased comparison.

Tracing back, every chapter in life has a pleasant memory. Mimicking the "The pursuit of Happyness" style, the first chapter of my life should rather be called as "Cry baby". As my mom describes, tears would roll out of my eyes even before she canes me. Being an average student in a competitive society like Neyveli, is absolutely a setback. Though I was never able to boost up my confidence during the period, I had a great childhood. Dozens of kids next door and a huge play ground opposite to my home, awesome is the word.

Next part of my life should be called "Miracle". Many hidden talents was miraculous unleashed. A girl who nearly passed the exams, topped the board exams. How else can I describe this? This period also introduced me to some life time experience and great friends.

Then came the period that should be called "Friends". What else can college be called? Its everything to do with friends. Chatting, chatting and more chatting was the only thing we ever did.

Next came the most boring part of my life, should be called as "Reality". It was like a mirror to the reality. Realized living alone is not fun, college hostel food was awesome and software job is not glamorous as it seems.

Then happened the relationship status change. Its a "fairy tale time". I am in a relationship, people to care, a family, my own home and above all Satish. A new meaning and a purpose in life.

23 years - fun, experience and friends
9 months - love and life

An Experience in Chinnaswamy Stadium

2010-04-09T22:43:00.003+05:30

Around 6:45 we reached the Gate 10 of Chinnaswamy Stadium, to watch Royal Challengers Bangalore Versus The Deccan Charges, my first ever experience to watch a match in a stadium. Also for Teju and Sharat, we were super excited. First we bought some flags, whistles and Hair band with Horns, then followed the queue to the gates.

The streets near the stadium were flooded with crazy audience. Few had their face painted, many were already carrying the flag, friends were rejoining, it was instigating. We squeezed through the crowd and entered the stadium. Reaching the deck, we realized we were too late. All the best view seats near the stands had already been taken. Even the flags, the 4/6 posters and the balloons had been picked up. We somehow found few seats at the last.

From the seats we occupied we were not able to see the field clearly, so we went down to passage near the first row to have a closer view. The view was awesome, we decided to stay there and watch the match. As match started my illusion was cleared. I had been thinking that at the end of each over the batsmen switched places. But only in the second over of the match I realized that except the batsmen everyone else switched places. [Another Stupid thought -> It takes a wonderful brain and exquisite senses to produce a few stupid ideas]. also realized that the field is not very big as it appears in TV and the wicketkeeper do not stand just behind the stumps. He stands about the same distance as that of the batsmen.

Seriously speaking, we rarely saw the ball in the air. We saw the bowler blow the ball and batsmen hit it. Then we really didn't know were the ball went. Only when the fielders ran for the ball, we caught the sight of it. In the last 5 overs of the first innings, when RCB was hitting sixes and fours, we were on the toes, jumping and screaming. The crowd was going crazy. Flags were waved, Ouhs and Auhs throughout the gallery, screams and cheers from every seat, it was electrifying. The dance numbers and the drums were adding to the madness. Between the balls, people waved, held banners and danced to grab the camera attention, so they could be shown on the TV.

Finally, the crowd as disappointed that RCB lost but the fun was unlimited. We headed back home, exhausted.

Cheers to everyone in the stadium, everyone have been a part of my awesome first experience of the match in the stadium.

Day 8 - Mustafa Center, Sim Lim Square, Thaipusam at Singapore

2010-03-31T16:17:00.000+05:30

Finally day, we were tanned, exhausted and also felt sad that the vacation had come to an end. We decided to do some shopping so we visited the Mustafa center. We bought some souviniers. Then we had an authentic South Indian food in Anjapaar. We also visited the Sim Lim Square and bought some electronics.

Little India being inhabited by Indians and majority by Tamilians, was vibrant on the occasion of Thaipusam. There was a separate lane setup for the devotees to carry the Kavadi (Decorative piece of Wood) and pal kudam (Milk Pot). From kids to adults everyone were carrying kavadi. The streets were flooded with tourists and devotees. Free food and soft drinks were being distributed at different places. It was a unique experience to see the festival being celebrated so well in Singapore.

Finally we checked in at Changi Airport and did last minute duty free shopping.I cherished the 8 days of mixed adventure and amusement as we headed back home. It will linger in our heart for ever.

Day 7 - Jurong Bird park, Singapore Zoo, Night Safari, Singapore

2010-03-31T15:32:00.000+05:30

We were totally exhaust on Day 7. However, as planned we left to Jurong Bird Park. We first headed to the bird show where we saw flamingo dance, macaw fly between the rings, pelican march and also a macaw speak. After a very entertaining show, we toured the park with the help of the map. We spotted many different birds flamingo, pelicans, macaw, swam, Lori, Cranes, ostrich, Emo, eagles, penguins etc. Watching so many bird birds in different colors was magnificent. The bird park was quiet huge and by the time we ended the tour, it was late in the afternoon.

We had planned to visit The Singapore Zoo and night Safari following the Jurong bird park tour. But the Bird park tour, we had no strength left to walk neither we had the luxury to spend one more day. Anyway we headed to Singapore Zoo to just see whatever possible and proceed to Night Safari.

The Singapore zoo was awesome. We spotted Tigers, Kangaroos, Wallaby, many species of Monkey, Polar bear, elephant, zebra, giraffe, lions, panthers etc. The beauty of the Zoo was how they have created an environment similar to forest, free and open, yet guarded and fenced. The cages had plenty of space to move around and were kept very clean. Even with less time, we ran around and managed to spot most of the animals.

Next we headed to the night safari. First we visited the show, where hygienes, snakes were brought out. Then we took a little walk into the jungle. The whole park was maintained typically like a forest and the walk was quiet scary. We were lucky enough to spot a tiger just a few inches from the guarded glass viewer. Next we boarded the tram which guided us through the whole area were we spotted many animals in the dark.

After a memorable safari, we headed back home extremely exhausted.

Day 6 - Temples, Sentosa Island, China Town, Singapore

2010-03-31T14:34:00.000+05:30

Today our expedition started with visits to temples. First we visited Veeramakaliamman Temple, which was just across street. After a quick worship at this more than 125 years old Amman temple, we headed to China Town.

In the China Town, we visited Thian Hock Keng Temple, an oldest Hokkien Temple. The structure and the architecture of the temple was very beautiful. We were surprised by the similarity in sculptures and carvings of the Indian and Chinese Temple.

In Telok Ayer Green, we saw beautiful sculptures depicting the festival activity of Chinese immigrant and the arrival of Indians in Singapore. Then we proceeded to the Sentosa Island.

We reached Sentosa Island in a Monorail and first headed to Underwater World to once again enjoy the experience. As we entered the counter, we were informed that the Dolphin show has already started. So we rushed to the Dolphin lagoon. By the time we reached the dolphin show was half way through, we saw the fur seals performs. It was very cute to see the fur seals dance, run and act.

Next we headed back to the Underwater world. Again we touched the Star fish, baby sharks, feed the rai. Then we spotted crabs, fishes, turtles, jelly fishes, sea horse and many many species of aquatic life in different size, color and shape. Next we entered the Underwater tunnel, this underwater world had huge fishes. It was a feast to our eyes. We just loved it. I would not might visiting underwater world several times, its indeed an out of world experience.

Finally, we again headed to the Dolphin Lagoon to see the dolphins this time. The dolphins jumped, dived, clapped and danced. It was a great show. Spotting dolphins for the first time we were amused.

After resting for sometime in the Silosa beach, we headed to the spot the Southernmost point of Continental Asia. This is the southernmost point in Asia that can be reached on road.

Songs of the Sea was our next destination. It was a kind of a Laser show. The show was like a story. A group of kids were trying to find the princess with the help of an animated character Oscar. The 45 minutes show was mind-blowing. I have never experienced a show that was so amazing that I just couldn't leave the seat. After an marvelous experience, we headed back to China Town.

It was finally our time to shop. China Town is a wonderful place to shop and eat. The Chinese new year decorative materials were so beautiful that we got into a spending spree. With handful of bags we headed to the China Town Food Street, on the way we watched some typical Chinese selling acts. In the red lantern lite food street, we tasted some of the delicious Chinese food and headed back to the hotel.

Day 5 - Raffles Place, Boat Quay, Merilion Park, Esplanade Bay, Singapore Flyer, Singapore

2010-03-29T11:43:00.000+05:30

We woke up late as our flight to Singapore was only at 11AM. Without any hurry we packed, had breakfast and walked to the airport. Within an hour we were in Changi airport Singapore. After buying tourist pass and calling card, we headed to Little India. First we treated our longing taste buds with authentic South Indian delicacies in Komala Vilas and then checked-in to Hotel Santa Grand.

Our plan for the day was to walk from Raffles Place to Singapore flyer and explore the places inbetween. From Raffles MRT station, we walked to Boat Quay. We sat in the benches near the bank of Singapore river and strolled near the Quay and saw some beautiful statues. Next we proceeded to the Merilion Park.

The Merilion statue overlooking the Singapore sea instilled a unique emotion of Singapore. We observed the imaginary creature for sometime and continued on the Esplanade bridge. On the way, we saw the stunning Esplanade theater on the Marine bay.

Finally we reached the Singapore Flyer, as planned in the evening just before sunset, to catch the glimpse of the city in sunlight and twilight. Singapore flyer is the tallest Ferris wheel, with 28 AC capsules that can hold about 28 passengers and takes about 37 minutes for a complete rotation.

While we boarded the capsule, it was just before sunset and the city was already glowing. As the flyer started rotating slowly and the darkness crept in, the city lighten with different colors and looked absolutely gorgeous. The Sea, Singapore river, the Business district buildings, even the trees around the place was decorated and beautifully lite. We thoroughly enjoyed the 40 minutes ride in the capsule.

Finally we headed back to the hotel and rested to continue the exploration the following day.

Day4 – Island Hopping Tour, Eagle Feeding, Langkawi Cable Car, Langkawi Suspended Bridge, Langkawi

2010-03-28T08:15:00.000+05:30

Today, we set off on a tour to the Langkawi Islands. We were picked up from the hotel and transferred to a jetty point. It was a trip in speed boat. I have traveled in speed boats before, but nothing was like this. It was very fast and it jumped every time we hit a wave. During the ride, we also got to see many beautiful tiny rock islands as we wave surfed in the speed boat.

First the speed boat halted near the Pregnant Maiden, it is a mountain shaped like a pregnant women resting. After quick photo session, we were dropped off at Pulau Dayang Bunting Island. It is a small intriguing island with a freshwater lake. We did activities like Pedal boat ride and fish reflexology.

After about an hour, we went back and set off to see eagle feeding. As the boat slowed down and driver threw fishes into the water, there were eagles from every direction flying down to feed on the fishes. Within a couple of minutes, we saw hundreds of the legends of Langkawi (Eagles of Langkawi) glide down and pick up the fishes in their beak. It was a spectacular sight.

Next we cruised to Pulau Beras Basah, a paradise tropical beach with crystal clear water and white sand. We walked on the rocks to the tip of the island to spot the end of the land and the infinity sea. We didn’t want the tour to end, however we left the breathtaking uninhabited island and motored back to the jetty.

Add caption

After being exposed to the harsh sun for around 4 hours, we were totally dehydrated and starved. So we had a nice meal in an Indian Restaurant and headed to do some shopping.

Our exploration wasn’t over for the day; next we headed to the Oriented Village to enjoy a ride in the Langkawi cable Car. The cable car glided above rainforest to the base station which is located in the foothills of the Machincang mountain range. The ride in the cable car was incredible. After enjoying the view points we took another cable car which transported us the top station, the Peak of Machincang Mountain. Then we climbed a fleet of steps to the observatory decks to be mesmerized in the stunning views of the islands and the beaches. The 360 degree panoramic view of the archipelagos was magnificent.

After enjoying the view for a while, we moved on to the suspended bridge that linked the top station to the Machincang mountain range. Walking through the pedestrian bridge, we enjoyed more ravishing seascapes.

Then we returned back to the oriental village, did little more shopping, and relaxed for a while. Satish even dared to carry a python for snaps.

Finally we check-out of Langkawi, arrived at Kuala Lumpur and checked-in the airport hotel, The Tune. Then, it was a black-out before heading to Singapore the next day.

A Catastrophe

2010-03-23T13:16:00.005+05:30

Hi All,

I didn't want to interrupt my Singapore-Malaysia Vacation blog, but this post was important and should be shared. So, I forced myself to find a little time in my fully packed schedule [:(]. Here is the catastrophe.

It was around 10 AM Sunday morning. I was in the kitchen preparing breakfast. Suddenly I heard a loud blast outside. At once heard shriek cry of a women. I ran to the balcony to check-out what was going on. In the opposite street, four building to the left, I saw a lady sitting in the stair-case and crying. Then people from the floor below were running up to the 4Th floor of the building.

I thought it might be a cylinder blast. I didn't see any fire. But, saw people carrying buckets of water and hose pipe. Soon people from neighboring streets gathered. Many even went up to the 4Th floor to take the glimpse of the havoc. The atmosphere was tensed.

I went to my room, one floor above, to alarm my husband of the tragedy. He was already in the balcony and he informed that when he heard the blast, the electricity switched off and switched on after a while. He assumed it might be electric shock mishap. Soon, a car rushed to the building to take the casualty to the hospital.

First,one man walked down with the carpet covering him. It was little relief. Then we saw four people holding the corners of a carpet and carrying a person down. We didn't know whether the person was male or female, kid or adult. It was a disturbing sight. The car rushed them to the hospital.

After a while, my father in-law came up, he said they were electrocuted while setting up the DTH connection. We discussed for a while the possible reasons and then set off to do our daily work.

Later the day we heard many stories. We saw policemen and press investigating the event. Finally we heard from a neighbor, the true story:

The family had just moved in to the building two days back. Two men from the house were setting up the DTH connection. There is a High Density electrical line that passes very close to the building. During re-installation of the dish TV, they have tried to pass a cable between the HD lines. The cable had touched the HD line and hence electrocuted them. One person suffered 30% burns and other who was carried in the carpet suffered 60% burns. Both are hospitalized and under treatment.

Thank God, there was no death. But 60% burns isn't a good news either.

A gloomy day. But eye-opener for the hundreds who witness the catastrophe. I have tried to portray the events, believing it would bring alertness to more people. Please get an electrician while relocating. Is a few hundreds more precious than life?

Prayers for the injured and the family.

Day 3 - Pulua Mayar Marine Park, Langkawi, Malaysia

2010-03-19T23:15:00.007+05:30

Next morning early at 8:00, we had an awesome breakfast at Hotel Helang and started in the Coral Island Tour bus to the Jetty Point to board the Cruise to Puala Mayar Marine Park. First we headed to a hotel where we got our hands strapped with the Coral Island ribbon and then we were taken to the Jetty Point. It was my first time Cruising, I was so excited. In the cruise we took a nice seat near the glassed window. Within 10 mins, we set off on the sea. Instructions were given about the tour, but I didn’t pay much attention, because I was not able to take my eyes of the window. The sea was so beautiful, just a blue sea till my reach. There were also small and tiny islands looked like a floating rocks with plants on them.

After the cruise crossed the Langkawi sea limits, we were allowed to go to the upper open deck and enjoy the beauty of the sea. Air turbulence was pushing us in every direction. We stood there for sometime and went back to our seats. We reached Puala Payar Marine Park after 1 ½ hours of cruising. From the Cruise we took a speed boat to reach the shore. In the shore, the snorkeling equipments were distributed. Then we hit the beach.

The water was clean and cold. We were able to see some fishes with the bare eyes. Wearing the mask and snorkel, I dived into the water. Once the bubbles cleared, I was able to see the beautiful white sand and some pebbles, and I was about to stand up, I saw a group of fishes fishing under me. As a reflex, I tried to grab them but obviously it was not possible so swam with them for a while and stood up.

Initially, I was not using the snorkel correctly, so I was not able to dive for long time. Then, after I got it correct, I was not able to come out of the water. We snorkeled for a couple of hours. Swimming with fishes, seeing the beautiful corals and other aquatic life was an awesome experience. Next we fed the baby sharks. It was amazing to see the sharks rushing to fed at once the bread crumbs were thrown in the water. Around 3 PM, we started back from the Marine Park and reached the hotel. We had a quick shower and took a power nap.

Around 7 o’clock, we went to the Orkid Ria Restaurant. The food was awesome. I tasted the lobster first time there. Then after a good dinner, we went back to the hotel and rest for the day.

Day 2 - Batu Caves, Aquaria, KLCC Discovery Center, Malaysia - Langkawi

2010-03-03T13:08:00.004+05:30

We woke up early and after a good breakfast at Hotel Sentral, we headed to Batu Caves. Batu caves is a limestone hill with Lord Muruga's temple. It's the tallest Statue of Muruga in the world. We took a train to Terminal Putra and then a taxi to the caves.

It was a week before "Thaipusam", and the celebrations had already begun. The cave was flooded with devotees and tourists. After checking out people carry kavadi for a while, we climbed up to the base temple. The base temple was jam-packed with people, so we ruled out the option to visit the base temple and climbed further to the main temple. The locale of the main temple was beautiful, light from the cave holes falling on the temple roof and the limestone rocks with calcium dripping added to the beauty.

After darshan, we came down drained, thanks to the humidity and the temperature. After clicking few snaps in front of the Statue, we headed to the Suria, KLCC. Chinese New Year was a few weeks away so the Suria Complex was beautifully decorated with lanterns and lights, everything in red.

Aquaria was our next destination which was also in the Suria Complex. Aquaria was awesome. First we touched and held starfish, Ray and Baby Sharks. Next we explored the aquarium spotting different fishes, crabs, turtles etc. Finally we ended up at the underwater world tunnel. Its a huge aquarium of fishes with a tunnel passage to experience the underwater water. Seeing family of fishes swimming inches away, Ray and sharks above the head was quite an experience. I couldn't leave the underwater world even after two trips into the tunnel. However, we moved on and had a good Thai Lunch in the foot court in Surai.

We had planned to visit Bukit Bintang and do some shopping, but we were dead tired. So we headed to the Suria complex for window shopping. After roaming for a while, I and Satish headed to explore The Discovery Center leaving my in-laws in a coffee shop. Discovery center is a science exhibit and game type center, a good place for kids. Considering our exhaustion and the outstretched display, it was definitely not for us. Initially we examined some expo, tried some scientific games and latter we were just hunting for the exit.

Finally we returned to the hotel collected our baggage and traveled to the airport to fly to Langkawi, a small island in Malaysia. Landing in Langkawi, we checked-in to Hotel Helang which was 2 minutes walk from the airport and rested our tired bones.

Day 1: Malay- Singapore Trip

2010-02-28T20:36:00.004+05:30

It was a breezy cold night as we reached the BIAL (Bangalore International Airport) on Jan 22nd, for a week long vacation we had planned and anticipated for a couple of months. Our first destination was Kuala Lumpur and our flight was via Singapore. The Tiger Airways landed before time, and we had solid 2 hours for our next the flight to Kuala Lumpur. In spite of the sufficient time, we literally ran like the contestants of the “Amazing Race”, as the immigration process consumed hell lot of time. Bus from Budget Terminal to Terminal 2 and then a Sky train from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1, finally, we checked in the Air Asia flight just on time. Cheers.

Day 1: Kuala Lumpur
[Places Visited: Petalling Street, Menara Towers, Petronas Towers]

Landing in Kuala Lumpur, foxes were groveling in our stomach. So we hit the Old Town White Coffee Shop, in front of the Arrivals. Being super excited, I jumped on to experiment the foreign Cuisine. I ordered a “Nan Yang” Coffee. OMG! It was strong black coffee, which I was totally alien to. Trying hard I gulped half the cup, but couldn’t drink further. Then, we took a sky liner bus to the KL city. The landscape on the way was quite awesome to our Indian eyes, clean neat roads, houses similar to one another, like it had been copy-pasted.

We had booked the Hotel Sentral which was just opposite to the Bus Station. Little did we know that it was just a10 minutes walk, so we hired a taxi and spent a 10 RM. Hotel Sentral was quite a good place considering it’s proximity to the Bus, train and monorail stations. After a quick nap for 3 hours, we took the RapidKL train to Station near Jalan Petalling. Flooded with fake goods, handbags, dresses, food items, souvenirs, hawker stalls, it’s a paradise for the shopper’s and food lovers. After a quick walk, a little shopping and a delicious noodles feast, we headed to the KL towers, also known as Menara towers.

We reached the towers just before sunset, so as we planned we got the view of the city both with and without sunlight. View from the KL Tower Observatory desk is awesome, especially the sight of the Petronas Twin Tower, standing tall and majestic. After enjoying the zoomed view of the skyscrapers from the binocular, we watched the light show on the Tower.

As the lights kept changing colors, our necks were strained watching the tall tower, so we headed to the animal kingdom near the tower. It had few caged animals and hell lot of sleepy snakes. I just feel creepy seeing the snakes so I just ran around as the other enjoyed. Finally, I had the traditional vacation picture with a macaw on my shoulder.

Next we headed to the Petronas Towers to get the glimpse of the tower at night. I would recommend every tourist to visit the Petronas towers both in the day and night.

Finally headed to the hotel, and drifted into a deep sleep.

A spectator

2010-01-15T11:06:00.004+05:30

I impersonated as a silent observer of the people around me. I noticed and realized and these are my perspicacity:

People have abandoned their homes and are on the streets, shopping for Pongal/Sankaranti. Vehicles were moving inch by inch. [Great day for peddlers. They were doing a Chance pe dance]

Saw a couple of china-ware toys on cart [Who is gonna buy china-ware on a day before festival? Then thought I shouldn't be saying that. Once went for grocery shopping and bought dresses. Totally forgot about grocery]

Walking on the narrow pavement, happened to see a lady with handful of bags walking on the middle of the pavement, not allowing anyone to overtake here. A long queue tailgated her, none dared to make an appeal. Finally, the cross junction saved them all. [May be she thought she owned the road]

Reached home, discussed about Solar Eclipse. Some advises from kins: not to see the sun, not to eat, should take bath before eating. [Scientific or Superstitious confused. Will try not to eat, at least will shred some fat]

Attended a birthday celebration of the neighbors 1 year old kid, kid was more interested in catching the light from the candle than the colorful cake. [Smart kid, knew the cake will come his way however]

A small discussion about the sugarcane, a lady said she bought 2 sugarcane for Rs. 40. At once another lady who was busy taking pictures of the kid, jumped in and said she bought it for Rs. 30 in a sheer tone of triumph. [What an achievement Madamji, will suggest your name for the next XYZ awards]

Moved on to a small room to have snacks, there was 1 chair and a cot, we took the cozy cot. Two ladies came in. One among them requested the other to take the seat. She refused and asked the first lady to take it. The you take - you take went on for a while. Third lady one came in, then it became you take - you take – you take among the three. After a prolonged discussion, the seat was taken by the fourth person. [Thank God the fourth person didn't start the you take]

More discussion on the vegetable prices and festival shopping. Then snacks were served,once again you take started among the four. [Cmm.. Give me a break]

Conclusion: Every human is a unique species. Some do Chance pe dance, some prefer delegating. Each one has his own torments. One has a trouble with the eclipse whereas the other with the vegetable prices. Specific excitements, may it be a candle light or a buying sugarcane ten rupees less.

Human is indeed a unique Species

“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

Bhonda Memories

2010-01-13T10:41:00.003+05:30

Yesterday, when I was rushing back home, I bumped into a delicatessen, the oily Bhajji blended with the mint chutney, tantalized my olfactive senses. I had no time to spare so had to advance. But as I continued rushing, I pondered my mind to recollect when was the last time I had a Bhajji or my favorite Alu Bhonda. During my school days, my grandmom made alu bhonda for my birthday every year. In the name of assisting her, I used to gulp few alu balls. Though I was not able to recollect when I had those alu balls, the delicious tastes lingers in my mouth even now as I recall.

Looking back now, I miss those days. I didn't know what pizza or burger was, had near heard of appetizer or starter or desserts, never used the word “course”, it was just first round sambhar, second round rasam and third round curd rice. Not that I have stopped eating my authentic food. 80% of my meal is still authentic, but slowly the percentage is decreasing.

In this programmed world, I have adapted to the routine. But, When I smelt the Bhajji, I had a strange feeling. A feeling similar to the moments I recollect with friends in college/school. Though I am in contact with them, there is a something that I miss. May be my room, the hostel or the whole atmosphere. A shallow pain.

No more meetings Please – Part 2, Speaker's Portion

2010-01-12T14:52:00.002+05:30

Follow Up: No more meetings Please

Weird Behaviors of the people conducting meeting:

1.In an inaudible speech, tuning down the volume at the end of the sentence [I just end up seeing a puppet show]

2.Flaunting their past [I am not interested in the meeting or your past]

3.Presentations with Animations [Whats the need of animation when slide show is operated manually]

4.Attending Phone calls [Hello, there is a silent/vibrate mode, don't have to pick up every call and say I am in a meeting now, I will call you later]

What are the weird behaviors you have seen in a speaker, comment me?

I follow anyone of the below strategies to stay awake in boring meetings:

1.Ponder on something, may be some fresh ideas or making a to-do list.

2.Observing other people around you, counting heads who are sleeping, bald or white shirts etc. (Best option)

Please share your strategies. There are loads of meeting in the coming weeks and I have to stay awake.

The 3 idiots Hangover

2010-01-08T21:03:00.010+05:30

This blog is not a movie review of the 3 idiots or the controversies prevailing it. The recollection of my academic competitive life as a consequence of watching 3 idiots.

It's been a long journey as I look back now, started in a small town called Neyveli where Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) is situated, a government owned lignite mining company in the country. As you might have guessed, the place is loaded with engineers, township of engineers. Every other family we knew were engineers, even my class was loaded with engineer's kid. I knew most of them coz they were my dad's friend's children. Anything and everything that happened in school will roll into my parent's ears. I felt even if I sneezed there is someone informing that to my dad

Monu: Pa, today Pavi sneezed in class

Monu dad: Is it, let me talk to Guna?

Calling my dad [NLC has a intercom which is totally free]

Dad: Hello, How are you?

Monu Dad: I m fine. Is something wrong with Pavi. Monu said Pavi sneezed in class

Dad: Is it, let me talk to her?

Dad: Pavi, did you sneeze in class today?

Pavi[grinning]: Ya, there was so much dust from the duster. So I sneezed

Dad[In the Phone]: There was so much dust in the class so she sneezed

Monu Dad: Oh, is it? Ok then take care. We will talk about it in Office

Every parent had only one thing to discuss: his/her child's education. Thank God! There are serials now that take the focus off the kids. I was an average student and was not as good as others in the class. Everyday my mom would help me rehearse [not understanding] the question and answers with the aide of screaming, pinching and smacking, not her fault though. But, through out the primary school, I remained the same. As the years passed, we moved from place to place, and I learned to rehearse and also understood how to understand what I rehearsed and finally got enrolled in a college to become an engineer.

My initial few weeks in college was my worst nightmare. To start with, I felt I was in an alien planet esp. in the maths class. The admission was still in progress so the first couple of weeks, we were given random problems to solve. Even before I would write down the question to solve, there were people screaming out answers. Everything I could understand was some x,y and constants. Following was physics and chemistry, the class was ready with answer even before the professor framed a question. Next, as I head to hostel, there were geeks on one side who were planning to start their GRE, GMAT or CAT coaching and discussing placement results of the year, on the other there were girls convincing their parents that they can't stay anymore and they wanted to discontinue. Anyway, as weeks passed, class was divided, the concentration of geeks diluted, geeks became friends, the homesick girls gave a run for others and figured out everyone had the similar trauma during the first couple of weeks and finally adapted to the college life.

When I joined college, all I wanted was to understand and learn good programming, I was done rehearsing. As the exams started and grading came along, I understood, understanding the subject didn't matter at all. All they wanted was 9+ grad and 100% attendance. Even the companies which came for recruitment weighed the grade points. But there were few who really understood what they studied, hats off to them.

Anyway I cant change the past. But I wish the younger generation cherish engineering. But, my hopes are low as I watch the younger generation taking part in reality shows, abusing each other and losing the self esteem for recognition and money.

I can just keep my hands on my heart and say "aal izz well"

Envisage of the decade

2009-12-30T11:52:00.005+05:30

It was merely the end of the previous decade I was struggling hard to understand what was Y2K problem. Today I am at my cubicle, nonchalantly checking out google maps to find out a couple of good restaurants in the Cunningham street. This decade which molded me from school kid to a college brat, college brat to a devoted employee, minor to a major and nonetheless, major to a married, had been a whirlpool yet holding a special place in my heart in sorts of events, places and people. As I look around , I am overwhelmed by the evolution that has happened swiftly and silently.

Some of the remarkable evolutions and initiations of the decade:

I remember my uncle having a cell phone, which resembled a TV remote control with an antenna. I have bragged about it in school, as it was seldom seen that time. But now from youngster to oldster, from house wives to business men, from cobbler to president, everyone has a mobile. Numerous service providers, numerous handsets, CDMA, GSM, Blackberry, O2, Dual Sim, flip, slid, twist, GPRS, 3G and more.

The audio tapes have become an antique. First CD and DVD players took over, then came the iPod.

Workstations are replaced by laptops. These small notebooks is our world now. Its a style statement more than a necessity.

Anything and Everything is online now. I have to make a special mention of “google”,without which our life (esp. mine)would be like living in darkness. Zillion web sites orkut, facebook, gmail, ebay, bookmyshow, dictionary, blogger, wikipedia, matrimony, twitter etc etc.. leading to depletion of IPv4 address. Browsing, Checking mails, updates, tweets, scraps and chatting has become part of our routine.

Media Should I call it a Satan or an Angel? We are engulfed by the television. The number of TV Channels has increased 3 folds compared to the start of the decade. We devote higher priorities to the outrageous “Mega-Serials” than for our loved ones. We prefer to be a jackass in the reality shows than being a dignified human being. We have also identified the dancer, singer, entertainer, bride and even solved family problems on air.

Furthermore is the News Channels, one hand they marched for jessica lal on the other exaggerated a tweet by Shashi Taroor.

Shopping meant haggling with the shopkeeper for a mere 5 rupees in the past decade. Now its a walk in to the mall, choose a brand, customize the design, swipe the card and worry about the bill later.

100's of actors, 1000's of movies, Million's spent on it, and watch it in a clean, small, expensive Multiplex akka the “adda”.

I have never heard the word “Resort” before. It was either lodge or the hotel. Whether its honeymoon, party, wedding, or outing, we all end up in a resort.

All the Spa I knew as a kid was an oil bath. As I assume these spas are gimmicky of the age old oil bath.

Thanks to the Low cost flights which has helped me travel to and forth office and home and making me feel at home.

How can evil stay behind. Millions of bombs had been blasted. Immense wounded and dead. The ease of life has eased terrorism.

I am not sure how I should conclude. Just hoping that end of the next decade, I would write a blog about end of terrorism and end of social evils.

Wish You all a Happy New Year and a New decade.

Sunitha Krishnan's Ted Talk

2009-12-29T10:04:00.002+05:30

Look into the world we live:
Must Watch, Should Watch. Please Watch..

CaCoPhOnY at the break of dawn

2009-12-28T12:43:00.003+05:30

The bosky chilled morning breeze snuggles down and brushes my hair as the wind rustles through the leaves, waking up to the melody of the singing bird and enjoying a aromatic cup of tea as the sun leaps out of the hills, is the classic morning, I entice. I have encounter many such mornings, but never relished them. My heart now sinks as I wake up to the jangling clatters every morning.

As the dawn breaks, I burst out of my dreams to the rasping of the broom. Even before the clock ticks 6 and the darkness withdraws, in the dusk of dawn, my neighbor is eager to clean the porch. She starts with a dry run followed by wet one. As she scrapes the cemented floor with the whisk and splatters water, I just wanna open the drapes and ask her to “Give the porch a rest”. Thanks to the mason who had made the porch strong enough to sustain the violence.

Chasing this, the temple and churches start their hollers. Does anyone really listen to that screech of instruments/voices? Let me get it straight, are they hoping to attain god(s) with that or scare them away. Seriously, I don't understand the purpose. Not to mention, the outrageous howls during festivals and special events.

As my ear adapts to the shriek, the “War of Barks” starts. Its like a chat across the streets. As I picture, once a dog whistles a “Good Morning”, the combat takes off. The Good Mornings and gossips flags off from every dog in the audible range. This continues throughout the day and night and sometimes all night.

There was times, I pitied people who lived close to highway. Now “Wherever you go, the horn follows”. Then there is slamming of doors, obnoxious ring tones/ reverse horns, extremely loud alarm etc.. etc.. Still I manage to slumber to jazz up my day ahead, but its a slumber not a blackout.

Zone 1 – Spring Chicken

2009-12-24T15:11:00.009+05:30

My Own Philosophy:

Every employee has to face a chunk of torment for a few weeks in the new office,its called the Spring Chicken Zone. In the Zone, there are 4 stages or the 4C's (Confusion, Comparison, Complaint and Composure), that one would encounter. 4 C's is discussed below in the chronological order:

Stage 1: (Confusion)
How will my colleagues be? Old or young? Guys or Gals? Will they be interactive? Where will be my cubicle? Will it be secluded? How will be the people in my cubicle? With whom should I go out for lunch? What about tea/coffee? How will be the work? Will I get to learn something good? Will it add value to my profile? Will I use my skills? How about my manager? Will he/she be bossy? How will he handle leaves? Will he be inclined to certain people? Will he be co-operative? Do I have permission to access this site?

Stage 2:(Comparison)
There used to be biscuits in the coffee rooms, in my previous company. In my previous team, we used to conduct meeting very rarely. People in my previous team were fun. Here people come so early and they seem so sincere. In my earlier company, we used to go out for lunch a bit early. The process there was better. Navigation is kinda of difficult here.

Stage 3: (Complaint)
Come on, How do you expect me to know where the lab is? Where will I find the Employee self-service/server build, God everything is very difficult over here? I have to open the bank account, What is the HR team doing? Everyone around me are busy, how will I learn something? What the hell, I have never used selenium or ant or QTP, how do you assume I can run the script?

Stage 4: (Composure)
Chalo, I cannot do anything unless someone gives me a lead, Let me chillex till then. I have a dead line for the assignment, but I will say, its my first attempt and I will escape. Cannot read more docs, let me go home. Let me orkut for a while, if someone says its prohibited, I will manage saying I didnt know that. Oh, this is how it is done, first day when he showed a demo, everything looked like guns and bombs. Its so simple.

Once the Zone is mastered or the Spring Chicken is skinned out, the next Zone is the Dark Horse.

Please vote the Poll "Should I continue Zone 2 - Dark Horse"

(Will Be Continued)

Software Engineer's Bhayam

2009-12-21T12:46:00.006+05:30

Hi,

Since my project is yet to start I am having loads of time. I thought I would try out something different. I have adapted Famous Kamal's dialog in the Movie Thenali. Ya, the Bhayam one, for a software tester. I am very poor in spelling out tamil in English. So bear with my spelling mistake and also please comment me wherever i went wrong so that I can update them.

Hope you will enjoy it. Fingers Crossed.

Incase you want to view the video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjkNU6ncTTU

Ellam siva bhayam endru sollevirkal,
ennaku ellam bhayam mayam,
software testing bhayam,
Software Testing, the bugs stops here endru vaelai ellatha software engineer forums la sonnavar, bug raise panna bug invalida pooiyudumo endra bhayam ennaku,
setup bhayam ennaku,
installation bhayam ennaku,
quick installum bhayam,
complete installum bahyam ennaku,
mount bhayam, map bhayam,
log check pannavum bhayam,
test plan review endrallum bhayam,
test case creation'um bhayam ennaku,
test case execution pannavum bhayam,
test success aanaalum bhayam,
test fail aanaal therundhay solluvuvaen koola bhayam ennaku,
unix bhayam ennaku, windows bhayam ennaku, server bhayam ennaku, client bhayam ennaku,
cubicle endral bhayam ennaku, lab endrallum bhayam ennaku,
labku ullal errukira server machine kandalum bhayam ennaku,
testing la manual, automation,
automation panra selenium'um bhayam ennaku,
performance test panra QTP, QTP la use panra VB Script bhayam ennaku,
VB script syntax oruaanum tappa-ayidumo endra bhayam ennaku,
[Sit Down] Nandri,
team meeting bhayam ennaku,
project meeting bhayam ennaku,
mail bhyam ennaku, messenger bhayam ennaku,
endha team lead bhayam, project lead bahyam, manager bhayam, architect bahyam, developer bhayam, support bhayam,
customer bhayam, avar ellai endralum bhayam ennaku,
[Excuse mister], endha language'um bhayam ennaku,
shell scripting, perl scripting, vb scripting, java scripting, Apple scripting, Micro Scripting, Action Scripting, Unreal Scripting, post Scripting, Tran-scripting, endru pala scripting languages errukendrathu enna solluvinar,
yendha scriptingum unnaku theriyavillaiyada,
kadavul thaen unnai kaapattha vaenum endru solli HR ennai veetuku anupinavar,
anga ponnal, naurki bhagam, monster bhayam, timesjob bahyam, resume bahyam, cover letter bhayam, yendha job'kum apply panna bhayam,
apply pannathuku reply varavelli endrallum bhayam,
job interviewerai anuga bhayam,
anugheya job interviewla select aavamo enra bhayam,
reference katekayum bhayam,
directa apply pannavum bhayam,
techincal round bhayam,
hr round endrallum bhayam,
interviewerai parka yenno bhayam,
telephonic attend pannallum bhayam,
C bhayam, C++ bhayam, java bhayam, db bhayam, oops bhayam, networks endrallum bhayam, software testing concepts bhayam,
Software endralla bayam!!!!

Vegetarians among Non-Vegetarians

2009-12-17T15:30:00.004+05:30

We (a group of 8 people), had a small party at “Barbeque Nation” yesterday. Except Me and my husband, all the others were vegetarian, partially though. Added to the hitch, there was a sea food festival going on. Our barbeque course had many options fishes, prawns, crabs, squid, chicken and mutton while the vegetarians had few. As our course kept coming, others felt abandoned. Since, I was throwing the party, I felt downhearted. To my relief, they had good choice in the buffet. Ultimately, the party was good and we all had a good time.

While returning home, I was trying to comprehend the situation from both the perspective.

Non-Vegetarian Speaks:
“How is it possible to eat grilled pineapple, when there is a rooster chicken in front of you? Wow! I should appreciate their determination. But sad, they have very little choice and it looks so dull, look at my plate how colorful it is. However, we don't see how it is prepared. It's a throw of the dice, there is always a risk of tangle.”

Vegetarian Speaks:
“How can they eat something that smells so bad? I hope there is a separate kitchen and they don't mix up the vessels. I hope the waiter served only the vegetarian food. God, its so annoying to reconfirm every time a dish is served and to wait for someone to taste it first. Look at those plates, they are always full, while mine is always empty. :@”

Being a non-vegetarian, I really feel sorry for the vegetarians. Also feeling bad for not letting them have a peaceful dinner. So, I will go with the majority and try veg restaurants henceforth.

What passes your mind when you are among vegetarian/non-vegetarian?

No more meetings Please

2009-12-16T12:10:00.008+05:30

It's over a month I have joined my new company, but I have spent around 24 hours (3 work days) attending meetings/telecasts [just the official group ones]. I get at least a couple of meeting requests/delegations every day. I have a feeling that if someone sneezes, there will be a meeting where the speaker will say “It's important to understand our objectives for the year 2010 and align it with the process of sneezing”. I just wait when the speaker will complete so that I can get out of there. But I am not so lucky, once the speaker stops, he is flooded with the usual questions. These question never change or its mostly not relevant to the purpose of the meeting. The audience who ask these questions have a strange behavior, they ask question only when we have something urgent to do or when the speaker is about to wind-up like showing the chocolate put not giving it. It's over my threshold and hence thought I will blog regarding these frustrating meetings.

Facts:

Every Knowledge Sharing session is best accomplished when scoped to a small group say a strength of 20 – 30 people.
Human capacity for observation is 30 to 45 min.
When met in a large group, people pay more attention to other people around them than to what the speaker says.

These are the facts that everyone know. Now I have few questions,

WTH do we have meetings for all the employees, which means for a group of 400 – 500 people (in my case), clearly there is very less we understand from the knowledge shared.

Why are the meetings for few hours? I just cannot focus on whats going on for so long. I tend to sleep or start looking at people around me.

Why do they repeat the same stuff again and again and again? Every meeting says, Lets understand our objectives of year 2010. I am tired of hearing there words.

I believe there are many other questions popping in the heads of every frustrated meeting attendees. There is a need for a re-engineering in the method of conducting the meeting. Few changes I will expect are

Conduct all employee meetings only when they are highly important
The general updates can be shared as a mail or through the managers
Conducting meeting whenever people come from other offices should be optional. Reason: I rarely understand his accent and He is also going to repeat the same
Listening to Conference calls is very irritating, same reason I just cant understand what they say and many times there is lot of disturbance in the call
Repeating of the same information should be avoided, because once I knows its the repeated topic I just stop listening
When a meeting is conducted say 1 hour, it is not just 1 hour, 10 – 15 min it may get delayed, 10 -15 min for people to commute, 10 – 30 min a small discussion about the meeting or a break after meeting. There is an addendum of 45 min to 1 hr. So meeting spoils the nearly 2 hrs of the effective work time
Phones should be kept in silent mode and bring laptops to take down notes should be avoided. Sometimes I just hear the jamming of the keys in the laptop or bizarre ring-tones.

Final Word: I am a person who hates meeting. Many people love meetings. If you are one of those please pardon.

Please vote the poll "What is the most frustrating part in an Employee Meeting?"

Techie a school kid

2009-12-03T15:28:00.003+05:30

Techie is in fact a school kid. He wakes up remembering a meeting or training for which he will be late like the kid who forgot to complete his homework. He carries a bag with god knows what all but merely useless stuff and a laptop where his life starts and ends similar to notebooks of the kids. He reaches office and searches the crap he carried to find he has forgotten the access card. Now making the face of a kid who forgot to get the signature of the parent in the diary he goes to the security section for a temporary card. Security are the boss now, after the lots of gyan and procedures, he is given the temporary card. Then he hurries to the meeting which has started long back. Entering the meeting room, everyone in the room will give him a stare same as kids stare at the one who is late to the assembly.
The very authentic behavior can be seen when the performance discussions happen or the hike letter is distributed. Techie takes every efort to find out the hike of the other techies like how the kids wait to find the numbers of other kids in the exam

As a techie we should be proud we still retain the innocence of a school kid :p

Demon Named Terrorism

2009-11-27T16:42:00.004+05:30

We, the human have left behind the barbarism of our ancestors, which they adopted for survival, and advanced into a civilized citizen by personifying a humane character with the help of codes of religion. The violent strike inherited has not been rooted out, it has unconsciously breed into demon called terrorism. This concealed demon has began to liberate and take the road down to cannibalism in the name of religion. Extinguishing these aroused demon seems impossible. But, we can always terminate the demon budding within us. With the gospels of all the religion, i.e. brotherhood, lets kill the demon and unearth the violent force within us. Lets take the road towards humanitarian.

End of the Job Hunting Ordeal

2009-11-24T15:45:00.004+05:30

Finally on Nov 3rd 2009 my job hunting ordeal came to an end. I was confirmed an offer. I was jumping up and down, mainly because I was frustrated attending interviews and hearing rejections. I am no super human. Every rejection just weakened my self confidence and hope. I was even prepared to enroll for an MBA program as an alternative option.

Thank God!!! I got a job.. Its a great relief now. I am enjoying the office environment now. After sitting at my new desk, I realized how much I have missed this 1.5 feet space that I hypothetically own. Now I have a cubicle, a PC and loads of documents piled up on my desktop. My ordeal will consequently change its course.

But everything apart.. I have a Job.. hurray

Job Hunting Ordeal

2009-09-25T17:28:00.002+05:30

It’s been more than a month I have set off to hunt a job and the experience as a job hunter is rather bitter. When initially I created a profile in the job portals, I was in high spirits and hopes. I got a number of calls from various consultancies and companies. After a customary walk through my profile, the consultant/HR will assure me that my profile is perfect for the job opening. Then, there will be an optional phone interview where all my past experience and knowledge will be questioned. Next will be a face to face interview which will be 2 to 3 rounds of technical interview. After that, the HR will say the typical “We will call you soon and we will discuss the rest”. Following that will be a long silence and an expectation every time the phone rings. Finally the expectation turns to frustrations.

Few of my bad experience: In one company, they called me for a face to face interview and when I reached there, HR said all the interviewers have gone for a meeting and the interview cannot be conducted. I just had to travel 1 hour to hear that. In another, there were 3 rounds of interview where all the interviewers asked me the same question in the same order. Where they testing if I am consistent in my answers?? Huh...! @#%^&*().. In 2/3 companies, after all the rounds of interview I was informed they were looking for candidates with development experience. I have walked them through my profile for so many time and they could have rejected me earlier. Why make me go through all the procedure and then reject :’(???

Anyway, it’s all part of job hunting. Anyone who is hunting job will go through all these. I am not an exception. Just hoping for the phone to ring and enjoy the day at office.

Zio in Photographs

2009-09-22T16:11:00.006+05:30

I was cleaning my closet and caught hold of few old photographs. As always it was the end of cleaning cupboard. Mom walked in with a cup of tea. When raining like cats and dogs, a cup of tea and a bundle of old albums. Wow!!! Soon we got engrossed in the photographs. Every photo had a story, a sequence behind it. There was one picture in which I was sitting in a small tub full of bubbles – My own bubble bath. In another my brother and cousin were making faces and looked very angry. This was because they were angry as my aunt left them behind during my baby cousins’ photo session. Hamara Bajaj, Neyveli 21 block flat no. 7-B, old friends – Nithya, Vaigarai, Sudha, Ram, Jaishree, Diana, Sherlin, Kutti Saranya, picnics to Mysore, Viyzak, Bangalore, Kerala, the prizes won in school days. Wow remembering those days was awesome. My grandmom walked in a little while later, she had her own set of stories. She told about her days when photos were captured by a camera hidden in a blankets.

Soon there was a discussion about how new technologies have removed the soul in photographs. I wanted to verify so I booted my laptop and started the slideshow of my college pictures. As the slides moved, I felt I was walking through those hostel corridors, living in M-407, eating puffs in Aunty Shop. It’s really great. Photograph is truly a time machine. Whatever form it is in, any new technology, cannot remove the soul or the moment cherished in those click.

"Makros Zioros Photographs"

Austerity Drive Gimmickry

2009-09-17T08:13:00.005+05:30

Politicians have dumped their private chartered flights and helicopters and have taken the AC Chair Cars and the economic flights. Congress ministers and MPs are to cut back on official expenses, first-class travel needs special permission, and ministries have to reduce their expenditure. The campaign is being seen as the Congress' way of expressing its solidarity with a country hit by drought and price rise.

“Are you kidding me?” was the reaction to this austerity drive. It’s an obvious publicity stunt. How long? When media gets other hot news and are least bothered about who travelled how. The game is over; missions accomplished, and then take back the private planes. What an idea Sirji?

If they have to express their solidarity, why not reduce their overall expenditure, raise money out of it and give the farmers who are committing suicides just for a small amount of Rs. 10000. Save the farmer and their family. An article I recently read said that for every year India spend around 18,000 crores for the safety and luxury of the politicians. A mere 18 crore could have saved 1,80,000 farmers and their families.

To find YSR more than 5 crores was spent in few hours, actor and actress spent a few lacs to buy a pair of jeans, every movie, every award function just talks in crores. What do I say? Luxury and Extravaganza is more important than a life of a human.

Dont waste the food. Spend money for living not for gimmick.

Quickgun Murugan... HAHAHA

2009-08-31T17:01:00.007+05:30

Watching the first look of the movie "Quickgun Murugan - A misadventure of an Indian Cowboy", we added it to our weekend plan. It has everything that a masala movie has. Action, comedy, punch dialogues, flash back, romance, sentiment, villain's unusual plot, heroism etc etc..

The story line is simple: The villain Rice plate Reddy kills all vegetarian restaurant owner's to make them non veg restaurant. Murugan, the pure vegetarian Indian cowboy, who tames cow is irritated and start a tussle with the villain which leads to the death of murugan. After 25 years, he returns from heaven to take revenge on Rice plate reddy who is a big tycoon now and he is in the process of opening a new food chain McDosa.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eFX2cKpsxw

The best part in the movie:

1. The character names: Rice plate reddy, Gun Powder Mani, Rowdy MBA...

2. The movie is just 1 1/2 hours. Little more would make the movie boring.

3. Its not just mocking South Indian Movies. McDosa. Rowdy MBA who makes an analysis on Dosa. The New Channels.

4. The casting is perfect. I didn't expect to see Lola Kutty the V TV vj in the movie.

Its a 1 time watch entertainer meaningless comedy and stunts.

Give me a break!!!

2009-08-25T17:32:00.004+05:30

I remember watching music videos in MTV a few years ago. Now its just roadies, splitsvilla, teen diva, fast and gorgeous and what not. Its unlikely to watch a complete music video in MTV. I seriously dont understand where is music a part of these shows. Its not just MTV, every channel has atleast a couple of reality shows in the prime time. Its like the whole country is set to prove their talent in dancing, singing, crazy task etc etc.. and even to the extreme of finding their partners. The intolerable part is the drama, the tears, the love, the friendship, the abusive language.. OMG!!! where did they all learn to act so well.. In few years down the line i think reality shows will be added in resume and interviews: "Reality shows Participated".. Enough.. Give us a break from the reality show..

Racism needs an Attitude change

2009-06-12T11:33:00.002+05:30

We proudly say Unity in diversity. But are we really united. When terror attacks happen in big cities like Delhi, Mumbai etc. we raise our voice, when India wins a cricket match we are united. But do we really bother to read the news about Naxalite attaches in the North Eastern states, the problems faced in the Border States or the people in Andaman or Lakshadweep.
We still discriminate people in the name of caste. There is a quota system still on. I have heard from a friend that she was always ridiculed in college because she got into the college using the quota seats.
We scorn people from different State in media. Recently, the title track of movie “Ek” was censored because it called people from a particular state as murderers. Doesn't it hurt the people from that state? In one of the program in Zoom, an editor of a popular magazine was asked about a Heroine’s look, she plainly said “I think after doing few movies in South, she has become one of those. She has put on a lot of weight”. Wasn't this an abuse? How many of us ask the people from North-East, Are you from China or Nepal?
Being dark skinned is the worst luck. Best example is the Matrimonial Classified of the newspaper. Bride and groom always want a fair partner.
Racism within country though not in the form of attacks or assaults, it’s in our mind. Racism needs an attitude change. Making 100 laws or deploying thousands guards will not solve the problem. Let’s respect one another and try changing our attitude.

I won a Jackpot.. LOL

2009-03-17T14:42:00.004+05:30

It was Feb 18th; as usual I came to office logged into my machine and was checking mails. As I was scrolling down I saw one unusual mail, my eye balls literally popped out reading the snippet which said:
YAHOO/MSN LOTTERY INC (2 Inbox Dear Winner – Dear Winner This is to inform you that you have won a prize of seven hundred and fifty thousand …
I quickly opened the mail to read it. It held this:
Yahoo Msn Lottery Board to info
Dear Winner...
This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of seven hundred and fifty thousand Great Britain Pound Sterlings (£750,000.00) for the month of FEBRUARY 2009 Lottery promotion which is organized by YAHOO/MSN LOTTERY INC.
We congratulate you for being one of the five person selected. You are to contact the events manager for claims these are your identification numbers:
Batch number.....................(XYZ1234XY)
Reff number.......................( XYZ1234XY)
Winning number...................(XY12345)
However you will have to fill and submit the information’s below to the events
1. Full name..............
2. Contact Address........
3. Age....................
4. Telephone Number.......
5. Sex....................
6.Occupation...................
7..State:.................
8.Country................
9. Your Reference and Batch number at the top of this mail:
{CONTACT EVENTS MANAGER}
Name: Mr.David Mark
E-mail: XYZ.XYZ@COM

I knew it was a spam. But still the amount was very intimidating. At once I googled to find how much it is in INR. It was 5,48,51,456. (5.5 Crore) Wow!!! Naturally I started dreaming how nice it will be if I had 5.5 crore. Awesome!!! After a long list of plans and budgets with the imaginary money, I came out of the day dream and told myself “It’s never gonna happen”.
After few weeks, again I got the abridged version of the same mail. Though I was 99% sure the mail must be a spam, 1% I was suspicious. Cmmm.. The amount was tooooooo big to ignore in seconds. I did a recheck and googled to find what it was. I sometimes think what will happen if google was not found. Life without google seems impossible nowadays. Google crashed my million dollar dream. This mail has been received by at least half a million people. :(
The following week again I got a mail from UNITED NATION TRUST FUNDS saying I have won 650,500.000.00 GBP. This time I was irritated. I just deleted the mail.
Now I am receiving similar mails everyday. Sometimes it’s Million dollars or Rs 60,00,000 “only”. The good part about these mails is that I feel lucky when I open my mailbox and find I have won some xyz amount everyday ;). The bad part is I won’t realize even if I will really win something. LOL…

Poker Face

2009-03-10T09:50:00.009+05:30

I was surfing TV for something interesting, I came across a show hosted by Sharman Joshi, one of the guys from RDB. I like his comic roles so I started watching the channel. It was on the new channel “real”. He was hosting a game show called Poker face. Initially I presumed it must be some gambling related show. To my surprise it was talent game show.

“Kaun Banega Crorepati” is my favorite game shows ever. It was aired when I was in my 10th std. My brother, mom and I watched every episode. During exams, we planned our breaks according to the show timings. There had been my other game shows like “Deal Ya No deal”, “10 Ka Dum” and “Paanchvi Pass”. But nothing was comparable to “Crorepati”.

“Poker face” is really good. The concept is very simple. There are 6 contestants every episode. Sharman reads out multiple- choice questions. The contestant are supposed to answer the questions by pressing the appropriate choice button. Every question is for everyone and they earn whenever they answer the question correct. The answers are spelled out after every question is answered. The contestants know just their earnings and they don't have any idea how much the others have earned. Then they are given few minutes to make poker face i.e. show others that they are not the one who have got the least earnings. Then the contestants are called to a podium where there are buzzers in front of each of them and a countdown starts for 10 seconds. Any contestant who pressed the buzzer meanwhile, packs up from the show with his earnings so far in the game. If no one pressed the buzzer, the least earner leaves the game by losing everything he has earned so far. If more than 1 person pressed the buzzer, the earliest one leaves the show with the amount he has earned. This continues till 1 person is left with. The winner earns 10 lacs in every episode and on Sunday all the winners of the week contest for 1 crore.

Best part of the show is Sharman Joshi. He is good composed host. He doesn't speak nonsense, no stupid jokes or discouraging comments. He lets the contestant speak. Next, I liked the questions. It covers many fields, chemistry to math, mythology to cinema, geography to history. And the difficulty level also increases as the game moves on. Next, is the graphics/widgets in the show, the questions/answers are displayed very clearly. After ever question, a small box with a photo of the contestant pops out with a tick/cross symbol below their snap to show if they have addressed it correct/wrong respectively.

I remember the episode of the first Crorepati won by “Harshavardhan”. I was on the edge of my seat biting my nails as if I was seated before Amitabh and as if I was answering the question. The moment he won 1 crore was hilarious. But I doubt if that excitement would ever be brought back.

8 years back, 1 crore was a huge amount. Years have passed so fast that the value of 1 crore sounds cheap for a game shows. Whatsoever, for a common man 1 crore is always 1 crore.

Granny... a girl’s best friend!!!

2009-03-08T18:41:00.004+05:30

Today, I read an article in women’s day special edition of Time’s Life, “Granny... a girl’ best friend!” by actress Amrita Rao. It was her tribute to her granny. After I read the article, I thought I will write something about my grannies.

Still I remember those days when I visited my maternal grandma’s house during holidays. Every night I will lie next to her listening to mythological stories. Those where the time I knew who was Krishna, Rama, Hanuman or Vivekananda. Once we shifted to granny’s house, I used to massage her leg/head and tell her all the stupid stories of the day in school. Sometimes she laughed. Whenever it was necessary to warn me, she used to warn in the sweetest way. When I threw tantrums, she will mock calling me “Missy”. Whenever my favourite dish was cooked, she used to save it, so that I can have it after school. When my mom accused I am fat, she will stand by my side to say, every girl should look bubbly not skinny. Every time I felt home for college/work, she will bless me and kiss me on the forehand. Sometimes I wonder will I be able to manage things like her ever.

Talking about my other grandma, I have never been so close with her. Every time we visited her, she will try to make everything we liked. She will pamper us so much that she will even bring the food to bed. Every time we left or we called her, she will speak very little. But I can feel every word is filled with pure love and concern.

I have come across people who hate their grandparents. But its opposite with me, I just love them. May be that is why I always respect the people of old age. They have pure love and concern for us. They are the people who live hundreds and thousands of miles away still thinking and praying all the happiness for their every grandchild. They have made their children the best people on earth taught how we can live our best.

Love you granny always!!!

Episode to Jogger’s Park

2009-03-06T12:04:00.002+05:30

As with all, everyday is depressing and stressful. Everyone is in search of the wonderland, where life is just the way we dreamt and where we have the opportunity to live soulful. The search led me to the jogger’s park. My initial aim for this episode was to increase my stamina. We roommates have hit the jogger’s park successfully for the past 3 weeks early at dawn.

The biggest challenge was pulling my body off the bed. It’s like I am chained to the bed and I have to put every strength in my body and battle with every cell to push the blankets and sit up. As such I am an early raiser. A couple of years back, during my school and college, I have got up at 4 or 5 at ease. Once adapted to the most abused “IT Culture”, waking at 6 or 7 seems a nightmare.

But, all these trouble is worth it. The morning breeze rejuvenates and recharges every part of the body. The cold clean breeze has the power to evaporate stress. We now have the chance to listen to the chattering of the birds, not just the horns and machines. Sometime if we are lucky, we get to smell mud. It’s really the heavenly smell.

After all the trouble to wake up and the divine recharge, one hour in office, I am back machine-hood, same computer, same work and the same routine. At least, now I am recharged everyday to face the machine-hood with full tolerance.

Questions Poping out after the Sri Lankan Players were attacked

2009-03-05T10:14:00.007+05:30

It was an open firing again and this time Sri Lankan players were the victims. Whosoever the attackers were, their motto is done. They are in the lime light once again. The worst element is none of the attackers were caught. They have just run away.
Is Pakistan favored by the attack? Hmmm.. Pakistan now has a reason to wave off the investigation on Mumbai attacks and can calm down its International pressure.
Is Pakistan trying to clean off its hands on India’s stand on Mumbai attacks? By pointing out “There is a foreign hand”, where are they heading to?
The newspapers said there is an unofficial theory saying “involvement of Indian Intelligence”. So by saying “enemies of Pakistan-Sri Lankan friendship”, Are they indirectly referencing to India?

Looks like we can expect an interesting conspiracy theory behind the Sri Lankan Players attack in near future!!!

Kudos to AR

2009-02-23T11:18:00.004+05:30

I have refreshed ibnlive a hundred times eagerly awaiting the results of Oscar (81st Academy Award). Finally, When I saw the magical words "winner" next to Slumdog Millionaire- AR Rahman in Original Score category, I literally jumped out of my chair. Like in Airtel ads, a student after passing the exam wanted to share his delight or the girl who lost weight jumped out, I just wanted to call everyone in my contacts to share the golden moment and my excitement. It was really a movement of delight. If I was at home I would have did a little dance and screamed a lot like when India won 20-20. But the moment was awesome.

Jai ho according to many was not the very best of AR. There are many of his other compositions that topped the list. But I don't care. I am so glad that he has won the award. There are many sportsmen who have achieved their best on the practice session but not in the game. Still they win and we praise. That's the same with AR. He had 100's of better composition which deserved more, but Jai Ho was the lucky one. All well that ends well.

Hope AR gets more recognition internationally and keep making us proud. And AR please don't forget us!!! :D

Random thoughts on Feb 14th

2009-02-16T11:03:00.003+05:30

I remember last year when I stepped out on Feb 14th friends teased or greeted a “Happy Valentine’s day”. But this year was different; friends passed a word of caution before greeting/mocking. There were many scared faces on street than the happy ones I saw year ago. The streets seemed more vacant than the usual Saturday. When I returned home and switched on the news channels, I was horrified. A couple was forced to marriage, a bro-sis was mistaken to be a couple and beaten up and a guy was married to a donkey since he was out with his girl.
I am not a volunteer for Valentine’s Day. But I don't feel it's a crime if couples celebrate it. The incidents in the recent past like the girls beaten up in the pub, apposing beauty contest and now the Valentine’ s day havoc scares me if talibanism is creeping in India in the name of culture/tradition. Do we have any code book for culture? Culture/tradition is the values we have inherited from our ancestors for the betterment of our lives.
If we look back, our ancestors were once the barbarians/nomads who lived even without the basic cover ups. The event of suppressing women came in as she needed protection from the leaders/kings/foreign travelers. My grand mom once said that only during the system of rulers, women were not allowed to go on streets or participate in public activities. This was to save her from the king and king’s men. Visit any palace in country, the guide will surely show you an area where the “queens” lived or the anthapuram.
In our democratic country who are the activists to decide the code of culture. If they are the rule makers, which era do these activists consider for their code of culture? Is culture only of women?
I feel culture/tradition should help in the betterment of our livelihood not a hindrance. We are singing the song of culture and tradition for 21 centuries now. But, what have we gained from it. A little appreciation from the other countries is the best I could think of. I am not against customs/traditions, but I feel it’s high time now that we break our shield and look at the other countries and adapt a few qualities that can make our lives better.
I hope these new born talibanism doesn't hold us back from opening up to the millions of myth we have imagined about the rest of the world and help us move forward in our lives. Also hope that government/ we the people prevent these maverick activities.

Our Cubicle decoration

2009-01-02T11:19:00.027+05:30

On 24th of Dec 2008, I got a mail which said "cubicle decoration competition in our team". I have seen a lot of cubicle decoration pics from other companies, i was so very excited. The team was divided into four groups based on the four wings which we occupied. The wing members were asked to come up with something innovative and the dress code was ethnic. The competition was on 31st so we will have a whole week to plan and get the stuffs together.

After a little while, we initiated a conference chat room and started the discussion. Everyone seemed as excited as I was. Soon, we meet in the terrace near our cubicles [Our team is the only lucky ones to sit right next to the terrace]. I thought about a highway theme something like roads, trucks, and shops etc. but it didn't sound very catchy. Since there was an explicit note in the mail asking everyone to be ethnic wears, any freakish idea didn't suit the dress code. Meanwhile, the ethnic dress code rule was removed since people wanted to wear dresses emphasizing their themes. Then we came up with an idea of restaurant. I was totally for the theme. But many felt collecting stuffs for a resto will be difficult. Then there was an idea about festivals. But I somehow felt it was repetitive. Since the following day was Christmas holiday, we thought we will squeeze our brains then.

The day after Christmas, we planned to meet at 4. But I was not able to make it since I had an important call. So when I was back, Harsha explained me the theme. It was very good indeed, out of box as I wished. Following day also I missed the meeting. Then, again, Harsha told me my job. I was supposed to write a story to outline the theme and prepare few charts to highlight the theme. So after a few googling, editing, cutting and pasting, I came up with few funny pics.

Here goes our theme as on 31st Dec:

First lemme explain the location. My wing is just next to the coffee room. The pathway has grouping of four cubicles and 3 such groupings. At the other end or the exit is near the windows with a single cubicle on either side.

As you enter the cubicles from the entrance near the coffee room, first there is a message on the right saying “All this is for fun. Characters and Setup is purely hypothetical”. To the left, there is a write-up, the story. Since, its quite long everyone tried to snik in. Deepthi and I had to make sure everyone read the story before they enter. The story is:

Once upon a time there were two brilliant employees their names were Sanjay and Ghajini. Sanjay was graduated from IIT Madras and IIM Bangalore. He was working with Lehman Sisters for the past 4 years. Ghajini has done his MS from MIT and after switching a lot of jobs, he finally joined Copperman Sacs. They lived in a luxurious villa with extravagant bonus from their companies.
When they were touring around the world, a dragon called recession crawled in slowly. It whacked the mortgage companies with its tail and burnt the lenders and home builders. They didn't realize that they were holding on to a thin string. The dragon soon blew the fire burning their strings, leading to the fall of Lehman Sisters and Copperman Sacs.
The string wouldn’t resist and everyone lost the jobs. But Sanjay and Ghajini didn't lose hope. They fought hard to catch another string. But the dragon was very powerful; it hit the stock market leading to a global recession.
After a long struggle, poor Sanjay and Ghajini had to survive the recession. Finally, they made up their mind and took a new road to hold on in the recession.
In the pathway there was a sign:
There were also a lot of boards hanging down.

And the next cubicle was something like this:

First, was a tea stall named “Lehman Sisters Tea Stall”. Seema was dressed in an old saree with her hair pulled up in a knot very similar to the real tea stall lady. She tossed the dosa in the pan which was on an iron stool every time people came along. [FYI: the dosa was ready made.] Then, it was Venkat as Chootu, tea stall boy. He had his tracks rolled up to the kneel and a towel tied around his waist above the old t-shirt. Chootu asked everyone who came along for tea and served them. Harsha, the tea master, was in an old dhothi/lungi , a dirty t-shirt and a towel knotted on the head. Harsha told everyone that he has lost the job and passed on his resume as anyone came in. He also acted pouring tea from the tea pan to the tea glasses. [FYI: the tea was from the vending machine ;)]. There were a few newspapers and magazines hanging from the thread. The tea stall also had all its essentials like the movie posters, biscuit bottles (which is also robbed from the coffee room) etc…

Moving on was a Pan shop “Copperman Sacs Pan Mahal”. Sukhveer had tilted down a drawer to make him a comfortable seat. He sat on the seat with a handkerchief tied to his head. All brands of pan was hanging from the thread above: gutka, manikchand, masala pan and cigars. [FYI: we rented them from a real pan shop. So we had sure no one ate the pan. The cigar was just the empty packets.] There was also a thread for lighting the cigar. The pan shop had an offer “Shoot a ballon from any of our competitive cubicles and get a pan free!!!” We made every effort to spoil the other’s decoration ;). Then there was a PCO, STD, ISD Booth with a phone which we unplugged from Manjoy’s cubicle [He was on vacation].

Then comes our big stunt: A big board hanging above Amit and Nagaraj who where in CA T-shirt which said:

Meanwhile, Santhosh in a getup of mad with wrongly buttoned shirt and CD all over him, gave away his resumes asking people to refer him in CA.

OOPS!!! I forgot to mention Ranitha, the new girl to the team. She did a great work behind the screen.
The teams snap:

Three Cheers to all of US!!!

It takes a wonderful brain and exquisite senses to produce a few stupid ideas

2008-12-22T16:58:00.012+05:30

Yesterday, I was thinking back my days as kid. I remembered few of my interpretations and ideas.

1. When I watched TV I thought people became small, and got into the television box. Many times I wondered how they got in and left without being seen.

2. When I watched movies in theaters, I was fascinated by the way the actors changed the dresses frequently. Suddenly in pink, red, green etc... I was thinking they wore dresses one above the other and just pulled off one by one.

3. In my fourth/fifth class, when word problems were taught, I made an interpretation like this:
a. 1 cup of rice takes 20 mins to cook
b. So, 1 rice should take very very less time. But when is boiled 1 rice in my small petty vessels, it never cooked. :(

4. I forgot to add this so updating: In school, remember we used to have poems and there will be questions about author. So for a long time i had been thinking that "About the author" at the end of the poetry is written by the author itself. So in my diary I have written few about myself. ;)

These are few of them. But there were thousands of such interpretations and ideas. They are really stupid and ignorant but surely brought a smile when I think back now. The adage is indeed very true: “It takes a wonderful brain and exquisite senses to produce a few stupid ideas”.

Post few of your stupid interpretations and lets all smile :)

My Dasvidanya

2008-12-12T15:24:00.006+05:30

Yesterday night I got to watch "Dasvidanya" movie. After watching the movie I was framing my 10 "to do" list before I die. I couldnt restrict to only 10 "to do". My list was never ending as always. So I decided to prioritize the top 10 and that is:
1. A trip to New Zealand with my family
2. Play with my youngest cousin dakshin as much as possible
3. Stay for a week at my grandma's house in the country side. She had been calling me home for a long time and I never get enough leaves to stay.
4. A walk in my college and hostel with friends especially Sugi, Dhivya, TU, Saranya, Chittu, Vaish, Poorni. This is to cherish the beautiful days we spent.
5. A party in my school with all my school friends. Its very long i saw many of them.
6. Buy a expensive designer salwar
7. Help my mom setup her gym. This is also a long pending task
8. Learn car driving. There is a long straight road between Mettupalayam and Kotagiri just before climbing the mountain. I want to drive in that road (speed driving ;))
9. Collect all my photos from childhood. Frame it and hang them in my room. (Mom wouldnt let me do that so)
10. Will enjoy all my favorite food items ;).

Can we really be jobless??

2008-12-09T10:27:00.008+05:30

Everyday morning when we get up, especially after a weekend/holiday, the first thought that crosses our mind is "God! Why do I have to work/study? Why did you make a world where we working/studying is the prime concern? Why can't these holidays/weekends never end?". However, we image our manager's sarcastic question or our parent's in HOD office and pull our self out of the cosy bed and make our way to the hell (as we imagine).

As the day passes we get along with the work. Later, when work frustrates, we ping friends for coffee and find a table in the corner of the cafe and then starts the endless "ifs" and "buts". "If I don't have to work, I will be never out of my bed". "If there was a world without the need for money, it ll be heaven but the loans". Finally We all want to be jobless.

Is it really possible to be jobless??

Imagine we are in office without any task or in a free pool. For a while we will be on cloud nine. We enjoy checking the forwarded mails, chatting with friends, browsing /downloading songs etc.. Once we have checked all the mails, pinged all the friends and at a point we don't have a way to kill time, our frustration starts again. Why can't they give me some useful work? Why do I have to be in the free pool in spite of my good performance? This is how it is. Being jobless kills a person more than being loaded with work. The prime aim of the life "killing time" becomes literally impossible.

So wanting to be jobless is normal, put being jobless is impossible

Trauma - Mumbai 26/11

2008-11-29T17:14:00.006+05:30

After 60 hours of gun fighting peace had come in for Mumbai. Can we really call it “Peace”? I don’t think so. It’s just the END OF THE GAME of the few terrorists who have made millions of people glued to the television sets to witness their operation succeed. It’s indeed a victory for them. They have caught the attention of millions of people around the globe. As the media call it, it is India’s 9/11 indeed. But not the only 9/11, we have had such 9/11 a number of times already: Parliament was attached, blast in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Jaipur , Ahmadabad and many more to add to the list. Were we letting the terrorist practise terror? As one of the foreign news channel pointed out, India is an easy target. TAJ is a prestigious hotel and it accommodates many VIP’s from different places of world. An easy target plus thousands of VIPs is an icing on the cake for the terrorists. We are once again reminded that we are not in a safe place. We are in the edges of the terror and the new pattern of terror is horrifying.

It is time the politicians stop the blaming game/politics and start doing something to make India a little safer. Hyderabad is always been another target of terror. In the past 64 hours, when Mumbai is been terrorized, I have not noticed any security measure taken in Hyderabad which is pointed out as the next target by the arrested terrorist. It is time that the government and police realize that terrorist don’t give invitations or choose the same out dates to attack. Our government allocates heavy budgets for national security. Then why are we still not having advanced arms? Shouldn’t by now a task force setup to start the investigation of the escaped terrorists? When the terrorist who have plotted Parliament attack, a national shame, is given a second thought of whether to should be hanged/not, we cannot expect more. So everyone reading this get accustomed to the fact that we are not very far from terror and terror is now a part and parcel of our lives.

A moment of silence for the 2 commandos and 16 policemen killed fighting the terror. Salute to the marine force, commandos and the policemen who have fought the terror. Hats off for TAJ hotel staffs, you were the real angels. And every unsung hero who has been the part of fighting terror.

Let all the souls rest in peace!!!

And let’s wake up to the reality of terror!!!

Music, Band and Ooh lalala

2008-11-22T17:54:00.003+05:30

Music is essence of life. As in a comedy scene, Music is everywhere. It’s in the child’s cry and in the furious thunder. I am not a singer/instrumentalist. Frankly, I can say I am a bad bathroom singer. I don’t have the understanding of raagas/pitches. My singing is cacophonous, monotonous and literally like a speech. But I have always been a sincere and great audience. I have enjoyed music and lyrics at all times.

Recently I was having a discussion with my friend about the Airtel Super Singer show that was coming in Vijay TV (A Tamil Channel). He told me about his favourite music show Ooh Lalala that was broadcasted in SUN TV in 2007 July. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the opportunity to watch the program. So, he took the pain of googling and finding me the online episodes of the show.

I was dying to watch it coz it was judged by the legend AR Rehman himself. Once I watched the first episode, I was shocked, coz I never knew there were so many bands in TN and so many youngsters with such excellent talents. And also I was able to identify many faces. Some of them were people from college and few from various other musical shows. Few faces from my college:

In Episode 3/4 – Band “Oxygen’s” Lead singer Vijay Krishnan was in our college troop

In Episode 3/4 – Band “Innovacious’s” Lead singer Pavithra was also in our college troop

In Episode 5 – Band “Tech Music” It’s our college troop

Here is the links for the episodes: People who missed the show can enjoy.

http://www.tamilpeek.com/search.php?find=ooh+lalala&B1=Find

Ghajini -- Talk of the town!!!

2008-11-22T10:56:00.008+05:30

Its Ghajini fever everywhere!!! I have watched Ghajini atleast a hundred times in Tamil. Its my favourite movie. The romantic part of the movie is very cute and funny. Surya, my favourite star, acted too good with Asin stealing the lime light with her role and performance. Ghajini in Hindi is due for Dec. No doubt that Aamir must have done a brilliant performance. Looking at the promo's and expectations, movie could rock the box office. I am dying to watch the movie. There are fews reasons

1. AR Rehman and Aamir form a gr8 combo

2. Aamir's performance

3. Its after all the remake of my favourite hero's movie

Watch Ghajini Tamil Promo: http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=4Rfd1Hv-8i4

Watch Ghajini Hindi Promo : http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=95zcLzNEUy0

Unsatisfied software industry

2008-11-21T13:34:00.004+05:30

It was an occasion in which few friends part of software industry got together to celebrate their 1 year of service. Everyone was excited to catch up with each other the 1 year experience. Comfortably seated in restaurant, the discussion started. A very studious girl from a MNC company asked in a peculiar group discussion style, “how was the past 1 year experience as a techie?” The tall, handsome and witty guy from a bulk service based company teased her “Here we go??” After a little laughter and joking, suddenly one absolute nerd said “I am dying. It was the most boring year of my life. I expected I will be doing some good work. But it turned out that our projects in college are far better than the one I do”. Quickly agreeing to the point a QA engineer added, “I am just testing the same product day after day. There is no improvement in the product/work”. A geek girl next to him opposed saying “I like the job. I get to implement codes that I see people using just before my eyes.” Another guy working in the same company as her mocked “I know what you do!!! I test the code you implement. It’s completely filled with bugs “. Then they all fell into an argument on Developer/QA. The studious girl brought order to the situation and asked another perfect question, “How many of you are satisfied with the job you do??” There was absolute silence. The witty guy asked the geek girl, “You sounded like you are very satisfied.” She answered, “Yeah!!! I like my work. But the pay and the work environment are bad. It’s just work we do. Daily going to office writing code and coming back is boring. And in addition there is a lot of favorism” Then the discussion drifted towards the work environment, lack of interactions in the team and team outings. This time it was the nerd, “What about the transport, food and other facilities??” There were comments from all over the table. One said that the food in their cafeteria is very oily and spicy. Another said it was too much to eat. There were a long list of complains. So finally the deserts had arrived and they made the final conclusion “No one is happy with the work we do or the work environment”.
These are not just few friends from some software industry discussing their experience. This is a common discussion in every coffee room in a software company. Everyone is unsatisfied. Being unsatisfied in a software company is become a fashion/tagline. Why is it so?? Doing repetitive work is around everywhere for instance, a teacher, a clerk, a driver. Favorism, work environment, bad work, lack of facilities is not just with software industry. Then why are we so unsatisfied?? May be software induces a lot of EXPECTATIONS or I am not in any of the other profession to know its circumstances.

PS I Love You 1

2008-11-16T23:04:00.009+05:30

Hi All,

First, please lemme know the first thought that crossed our mind seeing such a title. I had 2 reasons for choosing this title. One, I was curious to know how many people will turn to read my blog if I have such cheesy titles. My blog hit count was 184 before I posted this one. Scroll to end of the page to check out how many hits I have now. Two, I wanted to increase the blog hit count [:D] .

Ok, coming to the purpose of this blog. This is about the book I read today P.S. I Love you By Cecelia Ahern. Lemme start with how this book fell into my hands. It was a Monday and it alos happened to be my friend’s wedding. I was returning from the marriage. I was not quite well that day and unfortunately I couldn’t get a seat in the bus while returning home and I stood 3 hours holding an enormous luggage which tumbled for every single brake. Finally, I made it to the airport looking like I was in a furnace. And not to be surprised, I noticed all the well dressed people around me giving awkward looks. So, I left my enormous luggage near a chair and stepped into the rest room. I returned leisurely since I was too early for the flight, I found few police men staring at the luggage I have deserted. So you can imagine what must have happened, shunting and advice from everyone around for being so irresponsible.

I was too tired and thought its better I start reading something to divert my attention from people who are still staring at me. So, I stepped into the book store to find some good fiction/thriller which will keep me busy. Browsing around, I caught the sight of a very handsome man on the cover of a book and the title said PS I Love You. I first thought it must be just another romantic/fairy tale type book with a very handsome guy with everything perfect and a beautiful girl who is never able to decide whether she is in love with him or not. When I read the snippet, I felt it’s not just another romantic novel. After a little battle to buy it or not, I decided I will give it a shot. When I was out of the shop it was time to head towards security check. I stood in the queue with the book in hand so that I can start reading once I am done with the security check. Suddenly a foreign lady behind me said something. Since I was lost in thoughts I didn’t hear her. She repeated understanding the confused look in my face. She said “it’s an excellent book. But very sad. I cried for every chapter.” I was speechless coz how often you find a foreign lady telling you she cried and also I am not a very comfortable person talking to strangers even in my mother tongue. I gave her a broad smile and replied “Thank you”. Later I thought why the hell I thanked her. Thankfully, she was kind enough not to burst out laughing. In the flight I took a comfortable seat near the window and started reading the booking. After a little while, an old man in late fifties took the aisle seat next to me. He gave a warm friendly smile and sat fastening his seat belt. His next glance fell on the front page of the book and he gave me a look like “What kind of books this young generation read”. I had enough humiliation for the day. So, I closed the book took the magazine in front of me. The whole week passed and I just read few pages now and then. Finally on Sunday, as usual I was totally jobless and started reading the book.

It’s not just another romantic novel. It’s a very emotional novel about a girl fighting to recover from the sorrow of her husband death with the help of her friends, family and an envelope from her husband. It’s a very touchy novel. I cried every now and then. There was one more reason why I cried when I read the novel. Because I have seen one of my friend struggling to recover after her father passed away. Though I understood how difficult it was for her. I have acted like a jerk many times. I just wanted to say sorry for that. I didn’t intend to act so. I wanted to help her. And I was too stupid not to understand that I must have hurt you. Sorry!

Hey people, I know it’s difficult to digest but one day or other we will all come across a situation when our near/dear might lose someone special in their life. We all understand how difficult it for them. And we will surely want to help them out. So, people like me who don’t know how to handle such situation read the book. It will help. You might think I am over reacting. But, realizing that you have acted like a jerk instead of helping them, make you more awful and guilty.

Ok, enough of emotions. Please post your comments on the first thought of the blog title. I am planning to have an iterative blog here .So PS I Love You 2 will be the compilation of those first thoughts. So help me keep blogging.

In case, you wanna read it. I have a pdf with me and this the esnip link http://www.esnips.com/doc/98cb2c7d-6478-486d-97bd-a5cfd32b3d67/Ahern,-Cecelia.-PS-I-Love-You

Varanam aayiram review

2008-11-14T16:17:00.004+05:30

If I am a critic I ll give the movie 3 ½ stars. Movie is worth watching. It has mirrored various stages of the life. Movie is not for mass. It is a story of a life time, beautiful like a melody. People expecting dance drama can stay away. Songs drag the movie a little and it has a lot of English dialogs. As one of my friend said it's a movie for Class A audience. Hats off to Surya for his brilliant performance and the difference he has shown in every getup. Surya has taken more Avathar than Dasavatharam. Die hard Surya fans will love it. Enjoy the movie and walk the journey.

Effect of MBA on me!!!

2008-11-13T22:14:00.004+05:30

My first introduction to MBA was at my 2^nd grade in school. My dad was pursuing his MBA by distance learning. I was too little to understand what MBA is really. But s

ince my dad had an MBA to his qualification, I wanted in mine too. During my under graduation, I had a management paper. The lecturer for the paper was a pro in it. When he lectured about various companies/CEO, I imagined myself as the CEO/Board of directors/the person in the case study. I made decisions, discussed the problem, brought new changes etc.. That is when I really understood what a MBA graduate do?

After few months in my first job, I understood it will take years to do any real managerial task and I didn’t find any little scope for my CEO dreams. So I decided to pursue an MBA, a short cut for my dream was the intention ;). I enrolled for the CAT coaching. First few days were just lecturers on Management schools, their exams and selection procedures. I was instructed to read newspaper daily, books from various genres, vocabulary building, etc... Newspaper was never been my game. I always preferred reading the news that appears in the scroll bar. Slowly, I forced myself to read newspaper. Within a few weeks, I was loving newspaper [Not the one with gossips and pictures ;)]. Reading what is happening around the world and analysing different issues was interesting. In school I read Nancy Drew, Famous five, etc...

And in college it had been always Sydney Sheldon and harry potter. Now, I experimented with many new genres like Philosophy, biography, comedy, adventure so on and so forth. I was able to notice that there is a lot of change in me. My reading habit has changed. I have started looking at things from a broader scope. I started listening to business news, hearing stock market updates, judge laws passed. I just loved it all.

As I was struggling to cope up my verbal, quantitative and other skills, personal issues popped and I had to quit from CAT preparation and pursue MBA. I am not worried that I couldn’t appear for CAT/become an MBA in the near future. I am happy the way MBA has transformed my life. It has exposed me to a bigger world and had given me a new approach to life. If not an business manager/event manager/ marketing manager, I can always be a home manager ;). Love u MBA and thank u MBA [:D].

Power Cuts!!! Hope its not too late...

2008-11-12T20:50:00.013+05:30

Recently when I was reading one of the local newspaper, I came across a news about Ashok Leyland cutting the number of working days. One of the reason was due to the power shortage in Tamil Nadu. And another news focused on the reduced production in Thirupur Textile mills due to power shortage. Surprisingly, I didn't see any good step been taken towards overcoming this shortage. Everyone are busy giving statements, getting arrested and released for the never ending War in Sri Lanka.
It is high time something is done about the power shortage. With the financial crisis and market tumbling ever now and then, power shortage must not add up for the layoffs and production cuts happening everywhere. Inflation has already raised the prices heavily. A pink slip at this stage is very dangerous for any person.
Hope actors/actress and others who are fighting for Tamils in Sri Lanka will look into Tamils in Tamil Nadu before its too late.

Overcoming my Cooking Nightmare

2008-11-11T16:14:00.006+05:30

Cooking has always scared me. When I was in my 8th class, my aunts and others used to give me lectures on "How cooking is important for a girl" and all. I hated cooking in every way. When I grew a little older in my college days, I used to boost saying the one food I can prepare is instant noodles/boil water. Even though i tried few special menus now and then, or helped my mom slate onions, I never observed whats in it. Advising me to cook was screaming in deaf ears.

Days Passed on. Due to various reasons, I had to move to a house with my friends. Initially we had no problem coz we had a girl who cooked. One fine day, I was alone at home and there was no breakfast. I was really hungry and there was no instant noodles. I had to cook something. I called my mom asked her menu to prepare "kichidi". With burns and cuts, I managed to cook something that looked very much like kichidi. First I tasted a little, hmmm the salt and spice was correct. But the kichidi was like a paste. With rats crawling in my stomach, I had not other go. So I swallowed the kichidi paste. That was my terrible first cooking experience.

Then gradually I started looking into what is being done, what I have done wrong. Cooking is not a nightmare anymore. Now I make fun saying "Cooking is all about slating onions ;)".

I have started adapting cooking as my relaxation mechanism. When I am irritated, I go into the kitchen and try out dish. It helps me unjam my mind. Cooking is just slating onions and a therapy to me :D.

Whats Cool in Google Chrome!!!

2008-09-04T11:53:00.005+05:30

The Google Chrome is out. You can download and install from http://www.google.com/chrome/index.html?hl=en&brand=CHMG&utm_source=en-hpp&utm_medium=hpp&utm_campaign=en
So whats cool about Google Chrome..
1. Its fast. Firefox takes about 10 -2 0 sec to open the browser. Chrome is there in 2 sec.
2. The Memory Usage is less compared to Firefox or IE. I opened 3 tabs in both Chrome and Firefox. Firefox was consuming around 45000K, Chrome did the same in 30000K. Cool..
3. Checkout the Task Manager once again. Firefox shows only a single process for all the tabs but chrome shows different processes. So when a tab hangs you don't have to kill all the other tabs.
4. Download is good. It pops up a small frame in the bottom of the page showing the download information. You can also check out all the download you have done. Click on " Customize and control Google Chrome icon" and then the Download, a separate tab opens showing the all the download.
5. The home page if not set to anything else is the page showing Most visited page. This is a very helpful feature.
6. Did you check out the "Find on the Page" Option? On click this. It pops out a small text box with up and down arrow in the top right corner. Looks great!!. Its adopted from firefox but the location of the textbox is convenient. As in firefox you dont have to come all the way down just to enter few text.
7. The feature excited me was "Create Application ShortCut". I opened wikipedia.org in a tab and Clicked on "Create Application ShortCut" and checked on the Desktop checkbox. Whooah.. I saw a shortcut with wiki logo. Cool isn't it!!!
8. The "New incognito window" feature is awesome for privacy. It doesnt store any cookie or history of the sites we open in the incognito window.

Google Chrome has got some cool features but still enhancement is required. It cannot open a pdf page. Sites like blogger.com itself is not working.
I will recommend Google Chrome for sites which has less scripts and flash. Best for frequently surfed sites.

Mission GM diet

2008-09-02T13:49:00.004+05:30

Hmmm.. I had gained a lot of pounds in the past few months and it was high time I reduce. Gym was my first thought but when I hit the gym I start eating more :( So I was looking for an alternative. That was when GM diet was in the air.

GM diet!!! Hmmm.. Diet plans generally have names like low-fat diet, fruit diet, protein diet etc… GM diet is quiet a strange name. GM diet is a diet plan framed for employees and dependents of General Motors, Inc. Checkout the webpage: http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/~jajoo/gmdiet.html. The eye-catcher was “10-17 lbs per week”. Khool!!! Also check out the research and test information. So we have US Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration with the program.

My diet started on 25th August. I checked my weight before I started. I extended my diet by a day (little experiment). And the result is “it worked”. I have reduced 4 Kg. I feel my lighter now. So I thought I will share with you few tips and practices that might help you.

Day 1: I ate whenever I felt like eating. I started with two apples and then melons for the rest of the day. Dinner was a whole papaya. There is no limit for the amount of fruits we eat. Eat as much as possible. You will have a lot of craving today which is naturally. My advice is not to eat melon for dinner. Melon digests very soon.

Day 2: As in the page above I started the day with potatoes. Rest of the day was raw carrots and beet roots. Frankly day 2 is killing at least for me, I prefer vegetables fried. For dinner I had a bowl of boiled bottle guard. You will feel stronger today.

Day 3: Start and end the day with vegetables. You won’t fell tired. Courage is more important today. Most of my friends quit the diet on the day 3.

Day 4: Start the day with a glass of milk and eat only 8 big bananas. You won’t have the craving today. Your body is now adjusted to the diet. Following days will be easier.

Day 5: Today and tomorrow you will burn a lot of fat. For people who don't eat beef and for vegetarians, beef is a Class 1 or Primary protein. So you can substitute Vegetarian Class 1 Protein for beef. When I googled, I found Soya beans, Egg white, Paneer/Tofu and Leafy vegetable are class 1 proteins. For non-vegetarians, tuna fish, chicken can be substituted. I started a day with Soya crunches cooked in tomatoes and salt, then three boiled eggs white, later tofu cooked in palak(leafy vegetable) and dinner a few more boiled egg white. Paneer/Tofu sounds high fat, but the fact is protein needs fat for digestion. Since we don't eat any fat today, protein takes the fat from the body for digestion. Hence your fat is burnt today. Don't worry about the 12 glasses of water. The proteins will keep you tasty all the day long.

Day 6: Follow the Class 1 protein as day 5 with vegetables. Eat as much as possible. Eating more protein will burn more fat. So you can are on feast. My advice is avoiding oil on day 5 and day 6.

Day 7: Eat brown rice, vegetables and fruit juices. You are preparing the system back to your normal diet.

Check your weight. You can jump now. :D

I came across few WebPages which has substituted roti and dal on 5th and 6th day of the diet. From the analysis I did, I think it's a wrong practice. Roti and dal has a lots of carobs and surely not a substitute for beef.

Try GM diet and feel lighter. All it needs is a little courage and patience.

Dementor's Kiss

2008-06-19T09:54:00.007+05:30

Any Harry potter fan will be familiar about Dementor's Kiss. For others:

The Dementors are soulless creatures considered to be among the foulest beasts on Earth. They are soul-sucking fiends who guard the wizard prison. Dementors can perform the Dementor's Kiss, where the Dementor latches its mouth onto a victim's and sucks out the person's soul. The victim is left as an empty shell, incapable of thought and with no possibility of recovery. It is believed that existing after a Dementor's Kiss is worse than death.

How do these authors create such characters?? Does it really exist??

I was able to correlate this Dementor’s Kiss as:

As one excellent quote says -

"Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning."

Dream is something like oxygen to the purpose of life.. Dreamers are the achievers.. Dream is a mirror to the subconscious mind. We imagine what we wanna do.. how it can be done.. How to fight it..

When we work towards the dream miles look like a few centimeters. Every battle we win looks so small. It keeps us moving. Makes life interesting and enjoyable..

Imagine suddenly the dream is taken away.. Oxygen out of life.. We have no purpose to live. We can feel the leap in the heart. A big gravitation hole is formed. Everything we see or do, mocks the lost dream.. The hole absorbs everything. Happiness, joy, the charm. We are left with nothing. Just Like the Dementor’s Kiss

MTV --> On the Job 2

2008-06-16T20:25:00.005+05:30

MTV's On the Job is one of the best reality show!!! Though MTV comes up with shows like Splitsvilla.. Roadies.. Youngistan.. etc.. etc.. which are intended to educate the youth.. But I wonder how??

On the Job is just outstanding. The show is very provocative. Its a gr8 opportunity for the participants. The prize i.e. the internship is better than cash prize. A very opt prize.

It influences the viewers too. When a challenge is given, we just dont sit and watch. We start framing and modeling our ideas. We observe the participants. We try to find the mistakes they do. We get inputs from the judges who are already an expertise in the field. It might not help us in the daily life. But it makes us think!!! Very few television programs does this.

So hands off to the person who came up with the idea..

What can be added?? A little information about how the participants got to the job. Where are the course available if any?? Wats the skill set required?? This will be gr8 for anyone who is interested in the field and lack information!!!

On the way to my village!!!

2008-06-15T20:40:00.011+05:30

Every summer vacation my family spent few days in my native place.. It is a small, beautiful village.. At the age of 8, I loved the place.. I and my bro waited for the exams to get over so that we can run in the fields.. Dive into the pool (the well).. Get the spl treatment "The KIDS from City".. It was 8 hours from my house.. Then there was no proper buses from the nearest town.. We planned accordingly. We started in odd times so that we reach the city on time to catch the earliest bus.. The ride in the bus was bumpy, more like a roller roaster, narrow roads, ups and downs.. Still we loved it all.. The bus stopped a mile away from my grandpa's house.. My dad's cousins brought cycles to take me and my brother.. During the rides on the cycle, we crossed farm lands.. The farm lands were mostly corn fields waiting to be cut down since the monsoon was a few weeks away.. The workers sang, enjoyed cutting down the corn, ploughed the fields.. It was a very beautiful sight to see..

We got up early in the morning, my grandma swept the floor, made rangoli, cooked breakfast.. Grandpa will listen to the news on radio [That was the time when there was no much TV.. Though we had TV with only doordarshan at home.. TV haven't reach the village then].. All the villagers got ready for work so early.. At 7 AM every pathway was filled with people going for work.. Some had their plough.. Some on cycles n carts carrying their products like pots, clothes to the nearby towns to sell.. Most teens transformed to shepherds before school.. It was amazing to see everyone so active early in the morning.. In the evening, we went to my great grandpa's farm.. There was a huge tank.. We bathed in the pumpsets.. My dad taught us swimming in the well.. There were no float tubes.. We tied a dried out vegetable [not sure which one] round us and my dad would throws us in the well.. Initially we were very scared.. but the naturally made floats helped us from drowning.. The summer festival in the local temple was another beautiful sight.. All the sons and daughters who lived outside the village came to attend the festival.. Though there was less crackers and shops compared to that of now.. It was awesome.. To conclude village then had good vegetation.. wells with water.. people busy with work.. festive and charming..

Years passed.. At the age of 12.. We didnt enjoy the village as we did at the age of 8.. We reached our village much earlier.. Now it took only 6 hours.. There were frequent buses.. The buses dropped us near grandpa's house.. The fields through which we rode in cycle had less farming.. Lands have become schools, shops etc.. The wells were we learn t to swim had only foot level of water.. The early morning was not the same sight.. People have become old and lazy.. Since farms had poor yield, many people were in debts. So, the charm and brightness had vanished.. Things had changed.. The place became boring for us too..

Though in the following years we had few short visits, we didnt notice the change in the village.. We were too busy to watch it.. Exams.. marks.. placements had captured our minds totally.. Finally I was recruited.. I was on the way to my village to inform my grandparents about the job and get their blessings.. We are able to afford a car now, our standard of living has improve. The ride is only half the time. The cool breeze from the corn fields is now the smokes from the industries. The corn fields are no more used for farming, they are factories, schools, shops, bus stand etc. now. Very few wells had water.. The farms that existed had no workers.. People have migrated to the nearby towns to find a decent job to clear their debts.. The village is left with very few people, broken houses. The mornings are gloomy with few people strolling on the roads. The festival had more shops than the number of people. But the sales had less profit.. Everything has reduced in number.. cattle.. sheep.. poultry.. shepherds too.. Village is become desert.. In the past few years things have changed a lot..

In the car back home, Mom was discussing with the driver about the reason for the dryness.. She felt It was because of the government.. Ya true indeed.. Her option was the government should have made rules that the children should follow family business.. hmmm... I didnt agree with her.. If so now my family might have been in some town paying the debts.. No cars.. no blogging.. I asked her what made her think so.. Her argument was the farms had no workers now.. everyone is moving out of village that’s the reason the farming cannot be done.. As a result the production has reduced.. Hmmm.. She is right!!! There are only handful of people who work in farms now.. But we cant blame the people who had moved out.. Everyman has the right to live the way he wants.. He has every right to be ambitious and desire for different profession. Then she said the industries should not be allowed to buy farming lands.. This was a very valid point.. The government should frame some special rule prohibiting the farming land from transforming to industries or residential area.. But What will happen to the poor farmer.. His only asset is his land.. When there is no farming but a good price for the land.. Anyone will sell it and move on.. So what should be done.. How can we stop industries in the farm lands? How can we encourage people to work in the fields? hmmm... I had no suggestion.. Just a small prayer..

I pray the future generation have some farms to see not just buildings and factories.. I wish they dont ask who is a shepherds??.. I wish I could feel the cold breeze once again.. I wish the farm doesn’t hit the economy.. I wish.. I wish.. I wish..

What makes a Winner!!!

2008-06-12T16:21:00.004+05:30

At last i got time to write my next blog...

After a long day in office.. I was sitting alone in the drop Cab.. I was feeling very empty.. The past few months looked like a fraction of seconds.. Thoughts.. Memories was flashing.. Suddenly I was investigating what i have done in the last 6 months??? What have i achieved?? What am i aiming for??? I was searching for an answer.. Yes.. I have done good work.. Learned Unix.. Perl.. But all these happened by itself.. Neither i set a goal or wanted to do these.. hmmm.. So i concluded I have not done anything.. I didn't aim for anything.. I didn't work for anything that i wanted to achieve... The past 6 months i had a weird feeling.. it was like something was eating me inside.. like my hand was cut off from my body.. I realized the reason.. The reason was "I didn't have a goal / I was just living"

Then My thoughts took a different course.. What have i achieved?? What makes me so ambitious?? There was moments of pride then.. It was like a travel in a time machine.. I was seeing my past goals.. My hard work.. My victory.. It was amazing.. The cab started moving by now.. The cool breeze with the air of victory made the moment distinguished.. Of course i have also faced many failures.. As the thoughts proceeded.. The days of struggle.. the hardships.. the days i dream t as a winner.. was more cheering than the moment of success..

All of the sudden everything fell in place.. I realized All these days i had been enjoying the struggle to achieve.. I was setting goals just for the sake of the hardship I wanted to put in.. I was lost totally now.. I was literally flying of my sudden realization.. To fight was all i wanted.. Winning was secondary.. I am a warrior.. [:D].. I have found the secret of my life.. I LOVED TO FIGHT..

The sound horn brought me back to my sheet.. It was time to walk home now.. People in the shops were staring at me.. They had all the right to do so.. coz it was smiles all over me.. I couldnt stop it.. [:(].. Thoughts again slided.. hmmm.. this is not only the secret of my life.. This is secret of all the achiever.. Any winner when interviewed cheers his struggling days.. Awards are just to recognize the hardship.. Any person when looks at his award remembers the days of struggle.. In College-day functions.. events.. Which is the part that is most liked by the organizers?? Not the awards.. The video playing "making of the event".. Even though he is seen just for a fraction of seconds.. the video makes him proud.. his hardship is shown.. its recognized.. This is the motivation for the next step.. The next goal.. A person feels meaningless when he has nothing to achieve.. coz he is not able to enjoy the days of struggle.. it is just a casual day..

The punchline of the blog..

Set a goal.. Not for winning it.. to fight for it..
A real award to a achiever is the appreciation of the Hardship..

"Pursuits of happiness"

Hyderabad - My experience

2008-01-15T13:55:00.004+05:30

I have visited Hyderabad twice before.. Ones with my parents, a family tour and then during my college , Industrial Visit.. Then, Hyderabad was very glamorous to me.. City with both historical places and modern malls.. Since I always lived in a conservative place, Hyderabad excited me.. I wanted to be a part of this culture.. be a free bird.. Live alone style.. I remember telling my friends after my college tour that i wanted to get placed in a company which is in Hyderabad..
And these golden words turned out true.. I got into CA.. landed in Hyderabad on June 10th 2007.. Now I stay here.. live here.. Since then life has changed a lot.. I came across my different experience..

I was a pampered kid.. I don't know cooking.. I am quite scared of everything.. I cant stay alone.. I want to talk to my mom at least twice a day.. I want everything to go my way.. And till i reached Hyderabad everything went the way i wanted.. No one confronted.. No one to frown..

But Hyderabad was not the place I dreamt of.. It has thought me a lot.. First I understood my strengths and my weaknesses.. I became self controlled person.. I learned to defend.. Demand my rights.. Put myself in place of others and think.. Get along with others way than pushing them to mine..

I like people treating me special.. I am quite egoistic.. I seek attention.. Hyderabad has changed me in this aspect.. I am not worried anymore about what people will think.. I understood its only me who has to fight for my dreams and all others are just a catalyst.. Though people are around me they are just there for them not for me.. Sometimes i feel I have become selfish.. But this is needed in this competitive surrounding.. Enjoy the company.. help when required.. when its up to you to show what you are become selfish.. I have identified my goal finally.. I am fighting for it now!!!

The last words of wisdom.. "Don't every sit behind at home thinking I will be going away from home.. When you go away from home.. You will learn to live.. At home you are just a handicap.. when you are away, you will become an athlete!!!"