from frahar...

Updates.......

2009-04-02T16:37:00.002-04:00

Again a break in posting..... I hate breaks but what to do... I am too lazy to do anything which requires constant attention and updating...When I say that I used to pay late fee for paying my room rent , I guess now you have the full picture...
So for quick updates for the YTD ( nerd speech for Year To Date ) :
1 - Got a roomie finally...Same project , Same lingo ...
2 - Broadband speed reduced due to increased usage .( Me and my roomie ) ... Just falling short of the current bandwidth cap of 250GB per month..( Comcast ... @#$% you.. )
3 - Since I am renting a Single Bath 2 room apartment Collision detection / Time sharing algorithms were brought in place....
4 - Added 2 more sticks and more 120mm fans to my system to max out at 8GB DDR2 .. Happily playing Crysis : Warhead and Call of Duty : World at War in Very High settings...
5 - Tried WindowStreams account for a month.. My first try on Online Malayalam channels... Quality was terrible on my 1680x1050 resolution..Cancelled subscription without much drama...After all I didn't find anything other than kanneer serials in my available tv watching time...
6 - Apartment got broken into on Valentines Day weekend... Laptop and Camera gone... Theives messed up the entire apartment and took 3 weekends to clean up the mess..
7 - Took one full month to recover from the financial loss and mental shock.. Cancelled NetFlix account ( Which I rarely use ) as a small step to recover from the loss.
8 - As the next step to recover from the loss bought a Unibody Macbook. ;)

Thats all for now.... See you later....

The One and Only One !!!!

2008-08-11T09:48:00.003-04:00

How do you feel when you are receiving a gold medal in a competition ? Great,delightful,vivacious,excited ?... What if it is for your own performance ? ( not some group item where you are counted as one in 15 or 16 ) and what if it is in the biggest competition in the known universe - Olympics .. ? Winning a gold medal for any competition is itself a great feeling ... I don't know what emotions a person go through while receiving that medal.. but after seeing all the reactions of other gold medalists i certainly know it should be something which words cannot describe...some of them cries,some shed tears ,some howls ,some kisses their medals .. but this guy was entirely different - he never did any of these... he was unbelievably calm,silent,just standing over there and smiling ?? maybe his mind has not yet adjusted to the fact that the Olympics gold medal for 10 m AIR RIFLE shooting is in his hands now.. and he is representing a nation with 1.2 billion people which had never won a gold medal in individual item since - Olympics has started ???. :D ... OMG !!! I would faint if I was in his position... Kudos to our one and only Abhinav Bindra for giving us a chance to hear our national anthem ... with proud...

I miss......(Chennai)

2008-07-15T11:59:00.004-04:00

I was wondered when blogger pointed out that I may be repeating the headline for my post.. It was not intentional though... That headline just came to my mind.. Might be because that reflects my feelings in a better suited way ? I don't know... All I know is that I am feeling homesick now.. Not from staying away from home, but staying way from a city which I never considered home.. And the city in picture is Chennai a.k.a Madras... I bet no one currently staying in Chennai will be having the same opinion as mine... But you never feel like that when you are there..For now it may be just another big city with all the extreme characteristics... Terrible climate, unclean,dirty,stinky, MTC buses and auto drivers... The entire city stinks... All these opinions will stay strong until you leave the city... but once you leave the picture changes.. You start realizing that something is missing.. You try to adjust your level best but still its not the same.. Because the city which you were before was different.. It was secure.. It was unique...

Chennai was the first city which I have been (exception being Akathethara Mega city and Railway Colony Megapolis )all my encounters were with towns... Nilambur, Manjeri, Calicut, Kannur, Kasargod, Kalpetta, Trichur, Palakkad being some of them(Basically all towns in Malabar).. Each of them were different,with different people,culture and nature...These small towns in Kerala ,and neighbouring towns - Mysore and Coiambatore were my exposure to the world..And when I came to Chennai, things were different. It was a new world to me... According to my standards it was a really big city.( Like the old trichur joke on biggest cities in India - Bombay,Delhi,Cherpu,Culcutta)
Like any other big city, Chennai is for everyone, it happily accommodates people from all classes.....Rich,middle,poor and the IT people - which can be considered a new wealth class by all means.If you want to live a kings life you can very well do that in Chennai.Or if you are on the other side you can still be comfortable here..And the third kind- IT people - This is the best place to save money or to spend it..Its your choice.. Chennai can handle everything..Even though its an old cultural/conservative city, it has night life.. And you can find more contradictions like this in here..Very good infrastructure for mass transportation AND private transportation.. Multiplex theaters AND theaters where carnatic musical concerts are held.(and people DO attend them..).Pubs,bars,Courtyard Marriott,Park,Le Meridiane AND Saravana Bhavans and 'Kaiyenthi bhavans'... Temples, mosques, churches.. All the latest and costliest brand showrooms,outlets AND also Ritchie street and Pudhupettai.. Globus,Spencers,ShoppersStop AND Koyambedu market...And I believe no other city maintains such a wide spectrum or ultra low contrast of features.. For all other cities, it just divides into two - separate areas for rich and poor - Like Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, Kolkota and Salt lake city, New Delhi and Delhi etc... And you can easily feel the gap . Might be thats what I liked about Chennai..The balance..

P.S : Koovam still stinks and climate is still SUM,SUMMER,SUMMEST ...

Macy's fireworks and Hancock.

2008-07-07T14:15:00.005-04:00

As per theory it was a long weekend..It was not that long..just 3 days..but 'greater than 2 days' is considered a long weekend... like 'greater than 1' is 'many'..this long weekend was the "4th of julaaaay" weekend....not 'independence day' its just '4th of julaaaay'... definitely patriotic... :D
Since this one was a long weekend I had to do something different - the usual chores of every weekend wont do...it should be different...
so I started searching for 'things to do in NYC'.. And Google cam up with this huge list of concerts,theatre dramas and film shows...all in Manhattan...boring..Why cant these people do something better..Only other option for me was the Macy's fireworks...not a bad option..and how can a thrissukaran miss a firework ? ;-)According to weather man there is chance of 'isolated PM thunderstorms' ... I tried imagining how good the fireworks will be in heavy rain.. Looks interesting... Since I didn't have absolutely nothing to do on that day I finally decided to go...
Fireworks..Since I had very great expectations it was pretty boring to me.. And I have already seen all the 'fire items'. (Thanks to Thiruvambadi and Parammekkavu devaswams)
And on top of it weather man was right ... it rained... and fireworks were creating more smoke in the sky..thick enough to block the view..Conclusion - 'Sample vedikkettu' is 100 times better than this...

Plan B - movie.. Hancock got released on July 2nd..
Destination - AMC multiplex @ Newport mall..this was my 2nd movie in NJ/NY..(first movie was a telugu one named 'paragu'... )Even though it was a multiplex, the theater was old and many seats didn't have the armrests... seats were duct taped and the Dolby DTS had a constant hissing sound ... ( I know these wont go well with the US of A image which many people have; well thats the truth.. )And the movie... movie was different though... an offtrack super hero movie... unlike the other super heroes, Hancock wears no superhero uniform, he is no role model, and everyone hates him...A super hero with a very bad attitude ...its like watching Daniel Craig as the latest James Bond.. he just dont fit in ... and I guess thats exactly what the director wanted while making Hancock... its a superhero flick; but definitely not in the league.. and in my opinion the movie is just above average...

So that was my weekend... and now its again Monday...and here I am at my desk trying to find the solution for a mathematical problem:
If Monday + x = Friday . How small can 'x' be ? ;-)

Don't open if u cant FWD... (IT'S REALLY EFFECTIVE) Kolhapur -Mahalaxmi

2008-07-01T16:27:00.004-04:00

Del. Del. Del. Del. Del....

This is best you can do if you are hit by such a chain mail...Or you can start praying to that same God or Goddess in the mail !!! According to all chain mails a wonder will happen in your life within 24-48 hours. And they are very much true ... Chain mails itself are one of the biggest wonders of cyberspace...With all respect to those Gods in the emails- I think even they are helpless against a fully grown chain mail...

I know it might seem a bit extreme but comparing chain mails and black holes definitely is a great idea...And I found many similarities as well...Both are extremely dangerous... Both do terrible damage to anyone who happens to be in their vicinity... A black hole’s gravitational pull increases as it gathers more matter... In the same way a chain mails size increases as it get forwarded again and again...Only difference I could possibly think of is that the area of damage is fixed for a chain mail...It attacks only a collective set of people - The most unlucky ones who are there in the 'To' list..

This is because people are often tempted to hit 'Reply to all' than 'Forward'.... But believe me there are some @$#holes who actually adds more mailing lists to the end of that never ending list... I have always wondered what exactly will be their mental state at the time of forwarding a chain mail... Sadistic ??

I have also been hit by chain mails couple of times...And the best one of them was not actually a chain mail but something very close to it... It was a help asking mail...And believe me at least for Mail-Admins both are same...This particular one was send by an employee of our company - Someone with some serious disease ...And usually the company HR team provides help to those people. Even after being helped by the HR team, he wanted more help form his colleagues... (Naturally...You don’t like the HR team... ;-))...And since the easiest way to ask for help is email he just decided to write a mail. And due to his bad luck (or was that our bad luck???) he never had a mailing list, so he just added the department group mail id to the 'To' list...Which easily runs to 1000s... (Luckily for us he didn’t know there was a group mail id for the entire company...) And then he hit ‘Send’...A small step for him, a DISASTROUS one for our department....Within no time all the extremely-helping-idiots of our department started hitting 'Reply to all’ and some super-idiots started giving out their advises to stop the chain mail , that too by doing a ‘Reply to all’.. And very soon the 2 sentence help email was in Megabytes. I am pretty sure that our Mail-Admin will never forget that day...And this phenomenon continued till the HR people finally did a 'Reply to all' saying; if you hit one more 'Reply to all' you are out of the company...In fact it was the only occasion when they did something impressive.. ;-)

Coming back to my topic - This Kolhapur Mahalaxmi is just another chain mail who has just started its journey in the cyberspace and I very much impressed with its potential to knock the mailbox limits...It has all the necessary ingredients - Pictures, prayers, warnings, examples and of course a huge and diverse 'To' list which spans across companies...And I bet it is doing its rounds in many companies by now... I already have 8 of them in my mailbox... :-) And I got really lucky with this one. It was the first chain mail to hit my Gmail account ... But Google was too smart for the chain mail ...At 6.8GB and still counting, it is little tough to break, even for the almighty chain mail... And I believe that is the reason why Google is still running the mailbox space counter...To accommodate chain mails!!!

Calling Home...

2008-06-25T14:40:00.004-04:00

"Strengthening bonds - We make it happen..." Indeed.... It is such a strong bond that u cant get out of it easily.... For all clueless readers I am referring to the new call home service by Airtel..
More details below...

6/2
Sometime during my internet evening walk (Browsing... ) saw an online adv from Airtel declaring their new home calling rate of 6cents per minute...Start>Run>Calc... Did some math over there... Okay...Seems profitable...Especially for small calls..Till that moment I haven't tried opting a calling service like Reliance,Airtel,Free call planet etc to call home... I was the 'Gimme 20 @$ calling cards' guy - stacking up calling cards..

6/7
Decided to give it a try... Signed up for 10...Well it came around 11 with tax..

6/15
Down to 2 successfully...:-) I speak a lot to my friends ....

6/16
You have new mail - There comes company email - regarding Airtel calling home service....Okay HR is blocking this one too... (They do that every now and then..What ever they feel like blocking they block...No questions asked...) But it was a promotional email from our valuable customer...(Happy to know that Airtel..)...Call home for just 5cents ....OMG...Why do they wait for me to sign up.They could have sent this one week back.. :-(

6/17
Brainstorming session over...Decided to give it a go...Since my cell number was already registered with my old account created a new one with my office number... Believing that I can switch between the accounts...

6/18
Finished up the last usable penny in my old account happily....Now time to switch..Run time error!!!! Switching doesnt work...It is not asking for any user id ..They wont ask for account number for registered numbers...So everytime I call from my cell the IVR lady says I have no sufficeint balance to make a call..That is bad... Thought over it for some time and tried adding my cell num as 2nd registered number in my new account... Oops... Add_Number_Page_Error_Popup_01!!! That number already exists with our system... Delighted to know that... Clicked on the help and FAQ section ...Did a detailed research on how to delete already registered numbers ...Logged to my old account and tried deleting my cell num....That option is greyed out...Okay now its getting interesting...
Called up the customer care...and to my surprise they gave the answer right way - You cannot change the primary registered number nor you can use it for any other account....
come on guys that is my cellphone number..Someone idiot who designed the system didn't like deleting stuff from the database... Might be a Google fan... On second thoughts my company did the design and development ...So no comments !!!

6/20
There should be some alternative for this crap... What about canceling the account... ??As per my theory they cant automatically login to an account if its canceled...
So its call center again... "Your request to cancel the account is submitted...and it will be processed with in 7 days." Very Nice...

So here I am...Bonded to the service...Hoping that this idea of canceling will work for me..
See you after 7 days...With prayers....

What kinda music do I like ?

2008-06-20T13:36:00.007-04:00

This is one of the toughest questions I have faced.. And every now and then it pops up... Orkut, message boards,face book etc... And every time I will be left clueless wondering what to write... Search-find template-copy also wont work since many people can actually classify their music taste as pop,rock,jazz,blues etc... I doesn't even know what they mean... :-) In fact I never listen to non-Indian music... Even Indian music has so many classifications so even if there is an option like 'Indian-music' it wont be appropriate for me... Narrowing down the classification I listen only to Hindi,Tamil and Malayalam songs... And again there are classifications like melody,classical,semi classical,fast etc... I am not confined to one of these sects either... I like music that I feel good. it can be classical,semi,melody,fast any type... My play list is always a mix of all these types... in all the three languages... And usually no two are alike.. My play list happily plays "Ilaya nila " , "Tanha dil" ,"Vaishagasandhye" and "Don theme music" without thinking much about the genres they fall in ..but one thing is sure - my play list does grow... Whenever a new album gets released I add the whole lot to my play list..and keeps deleting the ones which I don't like... so its a mix of old songs and new songs... I don't know whether it is a well balanced mix of songs..but one thing I am sure - They all sound good to me ..So maybe that's the kind of music that I like - Good music...

This is my current play list :
Ilaya Nila - SPB - Payanangal Mudivathillai
Ajab Si - KK - Om Shanti Om
Chillujalaka - Manjari - Classmates
Don Revisited - MIDIval Punditz - Don
Vaseegara - Bombay Jayashree - Minnale
Agar Tum Mil Jao - Shreya Ghoshal - Zeher
Kal Ho Na Ho - Sonu Nigam - Kal Ho Na Ho
Woh Lamhe Woh Baatein - Atif Aslam- Zeher
Vaishakhasandhye - KJ Yesudas - Nadodikkattu
Tanha Dil - Shaan - Tanha Dil
Un sirippinil - Sowmya Rao, Raphi - Pachaikili Muthucharam
Bhool Bhulaiyaa (Remix) - Neeraj Shridhar - Bhool Bhulaiyaa
Unnarikil Varukiren - Haricharan, Harini Sudhakar - Kalloori
Suttum Vizhi - Bombay Jayashree, Sriram Parthasarthy - Gajini
Jiya dhadak dhadak jaaye - Rahat Fateh Ali Khan
Otraikannalai - Haricharan & Suchitra - Vel
Thaen thaen thaen - Udit Narayanan, Shreya Ghoshal - Kuruvi
Ente Khalbile - Vineeth Sreenivasan - Classmates
Vizhiyil - Sonu Nigam, Swetha - Kireedam
Minnalgal - Karthik, Bombay Jayashree - Pollathavan
Muthal Muthal - Kay Kay,Karthik ,Harini - Unnale Unnale
Sangeetha Megham - SPB -Udhaya Geetham
Pacha panam thathe - KJ Yesudas - Nottam
Do Dil Mil Rahe - Kumar Sanu - Pardes
Dil Kya Kare - Shaan

Xperiment No 2 : Pennies......

2008-06-17T06:01:00.003-04:00

Camera model : Canon SX100
Flash : No
Focus : Manual
Focal length : 6mm
Shutter speed : 1/200
ISO : 200
White Balance : Manual
Metering : Pattern

Linux or Line-uks .....

2008-06-06T13:54:00.006-04:00

Linux is the name usually given to any Unix-like computer operating system that uses the Linux kernel.
In 1992, Torvalds explained how he pronounces the word Linux:

'li' is pronounced with a short [ee] sound: compare prInt, mInImal etc. 'nux' is also short, non-diphthong, like in pUt. It's partly due to minix: linux was just my working name for the thing, and as I wrote it to replace minix on my system, the result is what it is... linus' minix became linux. —Linus Torvalds, comp.os.linux newsgroup

Torvalds has made available an audio sample which indicates his own pronunciation, in English and Swedish.

[Source : Wikipedia ]

Then why ?? If the creator wanted it to be called Linux then WHY should people pronounce it in a different way ?? [line-uks] ???? That SUCKS !! It doesn't sound cool (At least to me..) And there is nothing else which is pronounced the same way - so there is no confusion....
Some idiot wanted to be different and pronounced it in a wrong way and majority followed ?
I am still trying to find the reason....

Firefox day!!!!!!!!!

2008-05-30T16:58:00.009-04:00

For all Firefox supporters...
Mozilla is planning to set a world record in number of downloads for their Firefox 3 official release. So go ahead and pledge.. No registration or form filling .. ;-)

NJ Transit 87 - Friday Morning....

2008-05-30T09:12:00.005-04:00

I love commute.....not because of my w810i...yeah it might be one reason ......Even without that daily commute can be fun... Especially if u have good eyes - to watch and observe people and places..Luckily I got such an eye..I never get bored traveling the same route for months or even years.. I always try to find something new and there is always something new for me everyday
So the new thing today for me was a living being - a human - male in the twenties - Indian origin... He looked just liked any other Indian working in the Manhattan area... Formals,sunglass ,bluetooth - almost like the Agents in the Matrix...He boarded the bus with a daily in his hand...Yes...You guessed it right - Wall Street Journal it is !!! So there he is - in NJ Transit bus 87 from Gates avenue to Hoboken ...with his sunglasses .. reading Wall Street Journal !!! You might be wondering what is so funny about this..I haven't seen anyone reading anything with sunglasses inside a closed bus !!!! He was looking so odd in that situation.. His facial expressions, serious look - everything was just adding up and I had a tough time restraining myself from laughing.. I should have taken a snap of it.. :D I've got just one word to describe this out of the world phenomenon, typical in all confused on-site guys - jaadathendi ;-)

More details on 'jaadathendi' : It is from a movie called Chathikkatha Chanthu - Its part of a dialogue by Salimkumar.. Even though the movie was terrible , all these special usages makes it watchable.. :-)

US,China,India and Oil...

2008-05-27T16:54:00.007-04:00

"Gas price is at $4 ??? Oh My God !!! Its because of the Indians and Chinese.. They are using up all the oil..." - I have been hearing this since the oil price touched $3 per gallon..People,Newspapers,TV everyone has the same opinion..
'India and China - they are using our(American) oil...'
So me, a normal Indian guy, already frustrated about a lot many things ,decided to some research on this.And this is what I found...

Oil Consumption by country :
US 20,730,000 billion barrels per day
Canada 2,294,000 billion barrels per day
china 6,534,000 billion barrels per day
India 2,450,000 billion barrels per day
Compare the Per capita usage and India uses almost 1/10 of oil US uses .. I don't find any problems here ...US is a highly developed industrial nation... So let them use.. Besides they produce oil also... So its - "We dig ....We use"

Next is oil exports and imports:
A quick look at the stats reveal that almost 50% of the oil produced is from Asia.And do Asians get it cheap ? Surprisingly the answer is NO ... Cost of oil is high in Asia compared to US..Why ? Because even though the Arabs dig it they don't decide the price..It is the US and Europe who decides and controls the oil price..And we(Asians) end up paying more per unit.. So rephrasing the above statement-"We dig ....We pay more"

So it is clear that US gets oil for cheap... And are they using it efficiently ? Absolutely not...

Take a look at the transportation of both countries.
Half of India’s population is under 25.Thats 500 million people who are highly active.And the transport sector is a mix of 30 percent automobiles and 70 percent two wheelers. And that 70% is 41.6 million two wheelers. Yeah we have the largest number of two wheelers in the world with 41.6 million vehicles. Now lets talk about fuel economy.. All SUVs (If you can count SUMO and Qualis as SUV) in India gets at least 10kmpl i.e 23mpg.... And normal cars get at least 15kmpl i.e. 35mpg ...Yes -I am talking about the "Honda" level fuel efficiency...And my car - Suzuki Alto - gets a normal 20-25kmpl in highway driving i.e. 56mpg !!!!!
Can you show me one single American car which gets that much ? Even hybrids cant beat that..
Speeds are low of course but no where in US you can go above 65mph i.e. 100kmph so it doesn't make a difference.And again all US cars are having auto transmission and Indian ones use manual..Why do you need two hands to steer your car ??
Even now the picture is not complete.. Normal middle class youth cannot even dream about buying a car.So it doesn't explain the mode of transport of all those 500 million youngsters..
Enter bike.. One and only one dream for typical Indian youth..(My Unicorn dream still remains a dream :-( )And fuel efficiency ??? I haven't seen anyone buying a bike with 50 km pl or less mileage for commuting to work/college... I know some Hoodibaba's getting 80kmpl.And all those CT100s and XCDs Bajaj claims that they will get 109kmpl(256mpg) and I bet they do ...So here we are - riding the 200mpg bikes or using public transport system like buses and trains...
Now for the US stats :
Public transport system in US- Its a big joke..
So we will go private - There are 243 million registered passenger vehicles in the US. Out of these roughly 243 million vehicles, 136 million (56%) were classified as cars, while 91 million (38%) were classified as "Other 2 axle, 4 tire vehicles," i.e. SUVs and pick-up trucks. And no SUVs manufacturer gives you the mpg details in US. Why ?? because it is too low to display... It averages around 15mpg.. And what is the use of SUVs in US ?? In snow - Yes ; In states like Texas,Arizona or Nevada - Yes.. What about driving an SUV in New York city ? Or riding an SUV to work ?? That doesn't make any sense... Riding SUVs through roads which are better than our National Highways and complain that Chinese and Indians are using up all the oil.... Does that make any sense to you ..??? For me it doesn't...

Some conversion ratios which I used :
1 kilometer = 0.621371192 miles
1 kilometer per litre = 2.35214583 miles per gallon

Shot details ..........

2008-05-27T11:30:00.003-04:00

Dhaa pidicho details :

Camera : Canon SX100
Flash : Off
Mode : Manual (M)
Focal length : 6mm Manual focusing (MF)
Aperture : f/4.5
ISO : 800 (High)
Exposure : 1/2 sec
Metering : Spot

Xperiment No 1 : My TV couch....

2008-05-22T12:04:00.006-04:00

Am Too lazy to write down the shot details... Please refer file properties.. :D
Save the image - Right click on the image - Properties > Summary tab > Advanced

Wishes Wishes Wishes

2008-05-21T13:01:00.002-04:00

My wish list :

1. Creative Zen 8GB
2. Shure SE530
3. Bose QC3
4. 9800 GTX in 3-Way SLI
5. Core2 QX9650 + nForce 790i
6. Samsung 245BW
7. Sony PS3 80GB
8. Canon EOS 450D a.k.a Kiss X2
9. 3 Series - 335xi ;-)
10. Onkyo SKS-HT240

I know 9th one is an overkill. But cant help. That IS in my wish list.Period.
Last week I bought one guy who was there in my list for a looong time - KOSS PortaPro.

Reasons for not picking up the most famous / costly ones :
iPod - White ??? Eeek.. And iTunes sucks..
iMac or Mac Pro - I wanna upgrade often....
9800 GX2 -Not interested in playing Crysis or S.T.A.L.K.E.R in full resolution..
Skulltrail and QX9775 - Full buffered DIMMs ?? No way......
iPhone - Apart from the interface I didn't like any part of it. Seriously....

Time Machine ..

2008-05-16T04:00:00.004-04:00

So finally it is here.... The ultimate machine... One machine which all of us were dreaming of since ..... Watching back to the future ??? ;-) May be before that... I don't know...
For the readers who were sleeping in the physics class :
Time was considered the one of the fundamental constants of the universe..a.k.a Newtonian time...For a long period of time.. Till Einstein declared it as something else..Another dimension... space-time...Through his theory of relativity.. Its getting too geeky and believe me I don't hold a degree in Physics ..... Or in better words I was also not listening to my physics class.. :-)

So coming back to the point... Google has the time machine ...And where is it... ?? Its inside the blogger.... Its the posting date feature or functionality or whatever you like to call it..... You can post anything in future, past or present.. which is effectively traveling in time... and it works perfectly fine...
So I just travelled one year back all the way to August 2007 and posted many trial posts in my blog... And all of them are still there... wow... Thats indeed some serious time travel... ;-)

And since time machine was already tested and working fine I went one more step and merged all my blogs together.. And I had a lot many of them..... ;-)
So now I got posts way back to June 2005 - when I actually started my first blog..
Happy traveling folks...

Link to the inspiration of this post : http://buzz.blogger.com/2008/05/blogger-now-schedules-future-dated.html

Thrissur Pooram - Festival of festivals...

2008-04-17T12:57:00.006-04:00

This is the only day in the year ,which I get emails,scraps,pings,sms' from all my friends - somehow everyone manages to remind me the importance of this day...It is not my birthday.. It is the Pooram day. And since its the first time I am missing Pooram its their duty to remind me that I am really missing something.. ;-)

For those who don't know what Pooram is - Follow this link...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrissur_Pooram
And for the lazy type (like me ;-) ) who doesn't like to read .. Here is the summary:

Technical Details :
Place : Thrissur - A small town in one of the southern most states in India.(Keralam)
Date : Pooram day in Medam month (April - May )
Frequency : Every year
Total Duration : 36 hrs
Host : Vadakkunnathan ( Lord Shiva)
Main Participants : Thiruvambadi (Lord Krishna) and Parammekkavu (Bhagavathi)
Other participants : Kanimangalam, Karamukku, Choorakkattukavu, Laloor, Ayyanthole, Neithalakkavu and Chembukkavu
Number of elephants : 30 (15x2)
Inventor : Raja Rama Varma a.k.a. Shakthan Thampuran - Greatest ruler of Cochin Dynasty
Reason : Some idiotic namboothiris of Aaarattupuzha Devasangamam/Pooram . When they denied the ticket for Gods from Thrissur ..(Some says that was because we were late for the Devasangamam...... ;-)

For your Eyes :
1.Parasol display (kudamattam) I got this word from Wiki . ;-) didn't like that word though ...Sounds like aerosol.....I hope somebody will come up with a better word.
2.Fireworks - Vedikkettu
3.Thiruvambadi ,Paramekkavu Shivasundar and numerous others... Wondering who they are ? They are the main elephants for each side..

For your Ears :
1.Ilanjithara melam
2.Madathil varavu - Panchavadhyam
3.Fireworks - Vedikkettu

Did I miss out anything ??? :D

Garden State.....

2008-01-22T11:57:00.004-05:00

Well.... ...Crossroads of the American revolution... the Garden state... Immigration capital of US.....Statue of Liberty....Think about New Jersey(NJ/NY Metropolitan Area)....or just Jersey...and is that all that comes to your mind ???
Okay.... Time to think again ...
A state full of factories and swamps... A state which never leaves the "Worst state in US " list...All those Guidos.....
Now that completes a typical Jersey frame.... When I came here it was hard for me to believe that I am still in the US of A ... And I bet no one here believes it anymore..All those immigrants (including myself) will make you believe that it is some foreign colony... Especially if you are in the Jersey City area.. I would better like to consider it as a district in Gujarat... With some taluks from Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.. When you hear more Hindi that english you ought to believe in such a way.. Also some other areas belong to china, and some to mexico or whoever speaks spanish.....Its like you never miss home in new jersey... Take a walk and its just like the streets in Bangalore or Delhi...or worse than that.... And apart from these immigrant areas there are other places in Jersey where you dare to walk... :D.. Those areas are exactly like the ones pictured in all the gangster movies... Everything looks brown,rugged and rusty... Huge factories,rusty iron bridges,rust colored buildings,non-american style of driving,unclean streets...oh.yes i missed the best one - honking the horn ... Its like Jersey never managed to get out of the classic 70s....Everything here is OLD.... And everyday you keeps reminding urself ...You are in the Unites States of A..... Jai NJ/NY .... Jai East coast ....

PS - One of my friends friend, posted about a few things that might catch his attention and left him shocked....Dear friend ...After visiting SFO if you were gonna come to Jersey - "shocked" will be too light to express that feeling.. The kind of things that you have mentioned in the blog happens only in West coast or in some part of Midwest.You keep one of your feet on the road and expect the Porsche 911 to stop for you ?? - Better prepared to travel as a designated person for the rest of your life with reserved seats and parking ... :D

The Rocking Rookies...

2007-12-08T11:56:00.002-05:00

American Rookie adventures -

1. Riding the taxi around Bangalore city , 2 in the morning , trying to find gate No.12 of a company which has 10-15 offices all over Bangalore city... ;-)
Outcome -Failure

2.Go on an Indian diet for 3 months flat .. - idli, dosa, upma, naan, chappathi and rice ....
Outcome - Failure

3.Attempting to eat real Indian food - From the restaurant on wheels which is usually stationed near gate 6..
Outcome - Lucky to escape without minor food poisoning...

4 . Giving tip to every other person in dollars..including taxi drivers,auto rickshaws ,laundry .. ;-)
Outcome - Monetary loss..

5. Bargaining with the auto rickshaw guy and bringing down the fare to 200 from 400...for a trip to Chandana from Gate 12 (which is just over 2kms)
Outcome - More monetary loss..

6. Visiting the gods own country with someone like me.. (my friends know how I travel ;-) )
Return journey in KSRTC super fast via the famous Thamarassery churam....
Outcome - No more sight seeing trips in India...

7. Getting DVDs (of u-know-what-type) from the local roadside vendor who speaks only kannada and you qualify to be called a big white typical American..
Outcome - Success - I wonder how..

Gods own country ..............

2007-11-11T11:55:00.003-05:00

Photos from kerala trip....

Where you going ?? To India.......

2007-10-17T12:53:00.003-04:00

To be in India with some Americans with strong 'I-hate-Indians' attitude is just mind blowing... and if you are an Indian ??? I don't have words to express that experience .. As a matter of fact I am going to be in that situation.... Of all the good places suited training , my company selected Electronic City , Bangalore.... They even planned to have the training in EC and was planning to arrange our stay in Sarjapur.. So that we can happily commute everyday through the infamous Hosur road every day.. And 'we' equates to myself and 6 Americans who are all thrilled about their first visit to India... Just perfect.... People who are from Bangalore can comment more on this wonderful idea.. Luckily some one from the planning team had been in Bangalore before. So last week they announced a change of plan. To put us inside the EC..Thank God ....Nevertheless I am eagerly waiting for that company paid 3 month vacation...It has been 5 months since I left India... :-)

Get lucky in Texas !!!!

2007-10-10T12:54:00.003-04:00

U apply for a job ...
U got a phone interview...
Next thing you hear is 'come flying for the interview..we'll send u the tickets ...'
And we have made arrangements for all transport..
The very first word that comes to your mind : SPAM......
But u r willing to take the chance.. u said yes..
U got the tickets as promised in email ...sounds good ...
U are in Forts Worth (DFW) on time...
U wonder where the #^$& is the transport arrangements ?
As suspected- or was that expected ?- No transport at all...
U r seen running to catch an airport cab...
U reached the hotel where the office is located at 9.10
Thanks to the wonderful Dallas traffic...You r 10 minutes late ..
U thought U R DONE ..
U knocked at the door... Surprise Surprise - As suspected/expected nothing has started ...Typical "NNNNNN' company...
U at the interview ... Completely hopeless...Because u r applying for a job which u just know the name of the technology used ...
Absolutely no technical advantage/disadvantage ..
At the end of a very successful interview - U r selected ... Wowwwwww...
U wonder that's the coolest interview U have ever attended in your life..

Now that's hitting some real Texas luck...

Yet another Birthday....

2007-09-15T12:51:00.003-04:00

What is special about celebrating your birthday in an economically advanced country ? Absolutely nothing...And what about celebrating your birthday away ( not just away... it significantly away..) from your family, now that, that is something... Which I can feel...right through me.... Especially after May 17th 2007....

Afterthoughts : why should we celebrate birthdays if we know for fact that time is not a universal constant anymore... Einsteins theory of relativity anyone.. ? :-)

The Ultimatum................

2007-08-18T01:05:00.002-04:00

Last Wednesday I went to see the much hyped movie - Bourne Ultimatum. Since it was the part of yet another movie Trilogy I was not expecting much..All the movies which went "trilogy-cal" were horrible for me.Lord of the Rings,Spider man,Terminator,Die Hard,Godfather etc..Only the ones which continued after trilogy like Star Wars or Harry Potter were enjoyable.But Bourne Ultimatum changed my whole concept about trilogies.It was damn good as the second part - Bourne Supremacy.I prefer to call it a real "action movie" since this movie just "moves".Full paced action with no lagging frames. Bike chasing,car chasing,running,jumping over the roof etc etc.It keeps on going..Especially the car chase scenes - They are just "Awesome".Even though the movie may appear completely to be a one man show by the great David Webb a.k.a Jason Charles Bourne, the scenes fit well into the story.Since the guy is a special special agent from CIA ,he can do almost anything.Like our Terminator or the Licensed to kill MI6 special agent.Bourne(Matt Damon) also belongs to this elite come-on-I'll-finish-you class, but in a unique way. Its not like the "10 feet machine gun in one hand and a missile launcher in other" style or the professional and stylish "Bond" style.Its crude action.The story of this movie is connecting the lost memories of Jason Bourne and more important finding an end to it.It's unbelievable, but also tremendously tense and exciting to watch.The screen play is streamlined, brisk and tight with absolutely no unnecessary frames.The jumpy camera work is well suited to the fast paced screen play.This movie is the "Ultimate" and.........No doubt I will watch it again.. ;-)

Smileys......... ;-)

2007-08-15T12:50:00.001-04:00

How often do we find ourselves double faced? Even though no one agrees that we are double faced, knowingly or unknowingly we are...Best example is while using smileys in IM or mail or SMS. Though smileys are intended to express our feelings more graphically, I find them rather an opaque screen to our feelings .. They dont express anything at all..I bet the words which we are typing can be more expressive than smileys...Quite often the person on the other end can understand the emotions through the words alone.But with the smileys its just a false feeling, leaving the person at the other end totally clueless.Its just like the false smile which we put up on our face, which dissappers within a few seconds..Where as the true smile stays for a long time....A really long time... :-)

मेरा भारत महान !!!! वंदे मातरम !!!!

2007-08-14T23:47:00.001-04:00

A Tornado watch....

2007-08-11T09:36:00.001-04:00

When do Americans use their basement to the full extent?? A Big party? Celebration? Nope..Answer is - When there is somekind of watch. I was not familiar with this term until recently. But present situation and environmental condition call for a clear understanding. A "Watch" alone is a harmless word. But when it is linked with some beautiful words like Tornado,Hurricane,Storm,Heat wave,Flood etc it is quite thrilling. Yesterday I got a chance to experience this great phenomenon - A Tornado watch. A tornado was expected. I know my fellow indians are on the verge of a laugh. We know how weather predications are. :-) But this was something which looked serious. Here is the message :
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CHICAGO HAS ISSUED A
* TORNADO WARNING FOR... NORTHWESTERN COOK COUNTY IN NORTHEAST ILLINOIS... NORTHEASTERN KANE COUNTY IN NORTHEAST ILLINOIS...
* UNTIL 330 PM CDT...
* AT 244 PM...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RADAR INDICATED STRONG ROTATION IN A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM NEAR GILBERTS...MOVING EAST AT 10 MPH.
* THE TORNADO WILL BE NEAR... SLEEPY HOLLOW...AND ELGIN BY 305 PM... WEST DUNDEE BY 310 PM... CARPENTERSVILLE BY 315 PM... EAST DUNDEE BY 320 PM... HOFFMAN ESTATES......BARRINGTON...INVERNESS...AND 6 MILES NORTH OF STREAMWOOD BY 330 PM...
A FUNNEL CLOUD WAS REPORTED NEAR MAPLE PARK,
TAKE COVER NOW! IF NO BASEMENT IS AVAILABLE...MOVE TO AN INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST FLOOR. MOBILE HOMES AND VEHICLES SHOULD BE ABANDONED FOR MORE SUBSTANTIAL SHELTER. AVOID WINDOWS!
That last part was too good. And at the exact predicted time sky was dark just like a hollywood horror movie. :-) Wind was high blowing hard and temperature was dropping. At this point since I was too brave and analytical I figured out that it would be better if I stay in the basement. ;-) After a few minutes everyhting was normal. I slowly opened the basement door. I was expecting something like a hollywood movie scene,but to my surprise the house was there. ;-) So better luck next time.

Friendship woes...[contd.]

2007-08-07T20:41:00.001-04:00

How can I get good friends ?? Simple answer is - be a good friend..But how ?? I have tried all possible ways of being a good friend, but still I am not considered as the best friend of any.I doubt if any one of my friends will point to me if they were asked - Who is your best friend? I am waiting for some one to point at me. I cant figure out if its my fault, most probably it should be.I am such a demanding and complaining friend that no one wants me to be as their best friend? One of my college mates just referred me as a "nuisance".I have tried my level best to be considered as the best friend.I mailed a birthday gift to my best friend hoping that my present will always be remembered.I wanted to show that I care so much for my friends.So I put that small gift in a box and mailed it via courier.And finally the courier charge was more than the total cost of my present.My parents were just smiling seeing my desperate measures of being a "best friend".:-) Another activity which I tried was more time consuming. It was because of an awful idea which struck to me some time back - If you spend more time with a person there is a good chance that you end up as the best friend.So easy isn't it?? And I decided to give it a try.And in a "Software Engineer's" life,time to be with friends are only the commuting time(morning/evening) and break time(lunch/tea).Since my mode of transport was train and my friend preferred company bus ,I selected the break time.I started going for lunch breaks and tea breaks with my friend. I made sure that whenever I am taking a break I am calling my friend too. But very soon I realised that I am not the only person in the list. When ever I calls for lunch my friend was waiting for some one else and that someone was waiting for someone else and so on.So gradually my lunch breaks became "lunch vacations"!!! When ever I am calling for lunch and they( the someones) were late it resulted in a never ending wait for me and when I was late it was just an SMS- "We are going..Come to Food court". I continued this "lunch saga" for two years.And the coffee/tea breaks ???They were already broken by that time. Even though I always invited my friend for a tea, I was missing the invitations. I was just being "missed". And this "missing" phenomena was just happening too frequently. So I decided to visit the food court for a cup of tea.Since the food court is in the next building I will at least get some fresh air !! ;-) . Apart from these adventures I tried the usual common methods too.Like IM,SMS,phone calls,emails,forwards,going over to the cubicle. None of these ever became a "conversation", it was just one way traffic. When ever I felt like I am ignored I complained.I was so desperate that I even asked "how do you describe your best friend".So that I can get a bigger picture of what I am trying to be.And the answer - "I don't have a definition". Ding!!!! My concept of friendship is better understanding of each other.Best friends should always be able to read each others mind.That's the level of friendship which I was looking for.Which I still look for.Hope never dies...

Friendship Day Quotes.....

2007-08-06T18:18:00.002-04:00

I present these quotes to all my special friends;Who can only think of "Orkut" and its blue color when they hear the word "friend".
"Fate chooses your relations, you choose your friends."- Jacques Delille (1738 - 1813) French poet.
"Friends have all things in common."- Plato
"Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow.Don't walk behind me, I may not lead.Walk beside me and be my friend."........ Albert Camus
"A Friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of Nature."- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882) US poet & essayist.
"A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud."- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant."- Socrates
"Friendship is love with wings." - Unknown
"What is a friend? A single soul in two bodies."- Aristotle
"The friendship that can cease has never been real."- Saint Jerome
"Friendship without self interest is one of the rare and beautiful things in life."- James Francis Byrnes
"Do not save your loving speeches for your friends till they are dead;Do not write them on their tombstones,Speak them rather now instead.- Anna Cummins
"A friend is, as it were, a second self.- Cicero
"Never shall I forget the days I spent with you. Continue to be my friend, as you will always find me yours."- Ludwig van Beethoven
"Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light."- Helen Keller
"A friend should be a master at guessing and keeping still."- Friedrich Nietzsche
"A friend to all is a friend to none."- Aristotle
"Friendship? Yes Please." -Charles Dickens
"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"A true friend is not some one how calls you every day, but think of you at every moment" - Sheikh Denny ;-)

Friendship Day!!!!

2007-08-04T18:05:00.001-04:00

She loves you ......
But she is not your lover.
She cares for you......
But she isnot from your family.
She is ready to share your pain......
But she is not in your blood relation.
It is me........

THE FRIEND !!!!!

True friend scolds like a DAD.... Cares like a MOM....
Teases like a SISTER... Irritates like a BROTHER...
And finally.........
Loves U more than a LOVER.

Happy Friendship Day !!!!!

P.S : Helloooo...Anyone out there ?????

Friendship woes....

2007-08-02T21:56:00.001-04:00

"Do I have any friends? Or am I any one's friend?" "Oh.. No..Are you starting it again???? Don't you have any other topic to think about..?" "But I cant help it..It keeps surfacing on top of all my thoughts.." "Why do you let it surface then.?You are having good friends..In fact you are lucky to have friends all around the world.." "They are all my friends..But do they consider me as their friend also..?" "Of course yes...you have a friend in Delhi,in Trivandrum,some old friends in Bangalore,one in Abhudhabi..You have quite a handful in UK..In Chennai..." "But I haven't heard anything from them for a long time..Its like they don't remember me at all.." "Its not like that..They still remember you..You are getting emails/scraps from any of them...They are still chatting with you...And one of them even called you..They are all caring for you..Its just that many of them are too busy to keep contacts.." "But they are still in touch with others.I feel like I am the only one who are left out.." "Don't feel like that..You have two of your friends in Chennai who comes online everyday morning to chat with you..They remember you..That is a great sign of friendship..You are too lucky to have friends like that.." "But I don't feel like I am a very special friend of them..And they are my juniors... What if they are just keeping that respect?." "Never..You are not the only senior in that college..And don't try ever to "MAKE" anyone your friend..You cannot make anyone your friend my forcing them.. Just hang around them..They are your good friends..Its not the senior-respect...In fact only one of them is your junior..Nobody takes the difficulty to log in, come online and chat with you at your convenience.. That's a lot of effort for a junior-senior respect.. And don't ever forget that you got an ISD call from one of your friends in UK." "Yeah..It was really great ..an assurance that somebody cares for you.." "Exactly...I know that you only valued such friends who were willing to spend some money on your friendship.." "I believe that true friendship is bi-directional...Helping each other..." "Yes..It is..But being bidirectional doesn't mean that you should spend money... Don't compel any of your friends to do anything..It wont last..You were always asking your friends to call you.. And they did that even though they didn't like it.. And none of them are calling you anymore right??" "Does that mean my friends don't remember me anymore..?" "Don't worry about your past....Look forward to your future..And hang on to your friends.. And just remember that they all are having their own friends.. Unless they feel like you are a special friend you wont be special at all.." "But all those whom I expected to be my friends were never mine... Only very few remains...." "Don't predict that any anyone would be your friend... Predictions wont work..."
You don't MAKE good friends, You FIND them...

Finally it is real - Laptop for Rs:6000

2007-07-26T12:43:00.001-04:00

Link : $ 150 Laptop Company Website

Finally the dream comes true..A Laptop priced less than Rs:10k.(US $250)Its not even 10k its just over Rs:6000 (US $150)!!!! Unbelievable isn't it?? Detailed specifications can be found at the company website(Link provided above).It seems alright for normal home usage - internet browsing,word processing and using spreadsheet. Anyway ordinary users are not going to play FarCry or F.E.A.R at 1600x1200 resolutions. They dont care really about encoding movies in DivX also. The main cost cutting element in this laptop is - Linux !!!! Entire system is based on Fedora Core.
Unlike the "Windows Vista ready" laptops , they save atleast $140 by removing the great buggy, resource hungry Vista... Open Source and Free Software followers - Rejoice !!!!!!! The time has come.....

Specifications are as follows :
Intel® Celeron 1.5 GHz CPU
14" Widescreen X-bright LCD (1280x768)
256 MB DDR memory
40 GB Hard Drive
VIA PN800 Onboard Graphics
AC'97 Onboard 5.1 sound
802.11g Wireless LAN
10/100BASE-TX Fast Ethernet
6-cell Smart Li-ion battery
Weighs 2.2Kg with battery

My Dream !!!!

2007-07-19T15:51:00.001-04:00

I am sure everyone has his/her own dreams.Since I belong to the X-gen,The pampered IT people a.k.a Software Engineers, my dream was - you guessed it right- a personal computer. And obviously an assembled one, with all the parts hand picked, going through the pain of selecting each component, weighing down pros and cons, researching through endless user reviews, picking the right spot between performance and price.. Thats something I love to do all the time - That was my dream.Since my dream was pretty much small ;-) compared to other dreams of my colleauges, after 2 years in IT, in the month of March it suddenly came true. I "built" my dream. But dream should be a dream right ??? It should serve the purpose. If it is fulfilled it is no more a dream. So my dream left me or was that I left my dream ???. Within 2 months I was seperated from my dream, seperated by 12 timezones. Today my dream is being taken apart and packed. My family has decided to take my dream home so that it can rest in peace there . And now "I have my dream at my home." or "I am seperated from my dream" or is that "I again have something to dream of??" or the most optimistic one "My dream came back ???". So today I am again dreaming - My home computer.. AMD X2 or Intel Core 2 Duo???

Harry Potter and One-big-blah-blah-blah...

2007-07-17T17:13:00.001-04:00

I admire one person in this world the most.It is J.K Rowling. She wrote a book with a teenage little-loose kid as the hero. I never found anything special about it.Just like the script of "Thalaivar's" movie - from start to end - It is UNBELIEVABLE.Rowling has got a very wild imagination though - she made up that whole world out of nothing.And of course she made money.Not just money but a whole lot of it.I read somewhere that she is more richer than British Queen !!!! But about the series I don't find anything special. It is just a well plotted story. First one is just an introduction to Magic school.Second,third and fourth can be named "The adventures of Harry Potter".Fifth one he is at an age when he thinks like a typical teenager - rules are to be broken, break free- So it is just going against the rules.Sixth and seventh are the final stories.It can be said as one combined final story.And villain gets killed and all goes well.But still there is no specific moral in this story setup.That was the major difference between the legendary "Star Wars" or "Lord of the Rings" and Harry Potter series.Star Wars and LOTR was also based on the the same old concept - fight between good and evil. But it had some great dialogues and a unique style of presentation. Who can forget the line - "Let the force be with you..". It was special in all aspect the plot and the characters.Yoda,Obi-Wan. Luke Skywalker, Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader),Emperor Palapatine, C-3PO, R2D2 (I believe that is the most famous robotic image in the whole world). Each of them carried a message for you.They all made you think. You remembered their dialogues even after the movie. Harry Potter books or the movies are no where in comparison to these. They just amuse you,they just leave you wonder struck in a magical world. You went "Wow" seeing those Harry Potter movies just like when you saw Jurassic Park or Titanic for the first time. But the Star Wars or Lord of the Rings makes you think,even after
the movie is over.I think that is the type of movies that can be called a "Legend".
P.S: All characters mentioned in this blog are fictional.Don't come after me..;-)

Best Friend - An essential skill ???

2007-07-15T22:04:00.001-04:00

As usual I was confused. For years I am trying to find the answer for this problem. Can I be a best friend to someone?. I know that I cant predict it now;it is too early. But every answer I am coming up with is negative. Till now I haven't. That might seem very arrogant but it is the truth. I had best friends throughout my life. But for no one I was considered the "Best Friend". During my early school days I had very good friends but now I hardly have any contact with them. They were my best friends but I was not the best friend of any. I think that might be the reason for I being "contact-less".There is a difference between having a friend and being it.I always had friends but the reverse- it never happened to me.A very simple example is while introducing your best friend to someone.
Option 1:"This is my friend ,he/she works/studies with me."
Option 2:"This is XYZ,he/she works/studies with me".I always wanted someone to introduce me like that but no one did.:-(
In my college days I had a lot of friends but even though I addressed them "friends" for them I was just a "acquaintance". (I learnt that word from orkut ;-) ). Even though time gap is just 2 years the number of people I still have contact is very little. Maybe 3 or 4. I find the same problem here. All of them had their own bunch of best friends and I was never in that elite list. I could just wonder what could be wrong with me. My concept of best friend might be wrong or I might be an over demanding friend. I don't have any clear cut definition my best friend but I have some vague ideas. A friend should be someone who can understand my feelings and someone whose feelings I can understand. In my concept best friends should be privileged; they should be treated specially - If not what is the difference between them and others? Best friends should be like a spokesman or an encyclopedia to each other - knowing every small and minute facts. I don't know whether these concepts are extreme but anyway the fact remains - I am not any ones best friend. I tried making friends at my work place too. I knew that it was too late because everyone will have at least one good friend by the time they reach this stage. So again I was more or less unsuccessful. It is hardly 2 months since i left the job and the reduction in my contacts was just exponential !!! That is it...Being a best friend is a skill; most important skill in life which I forgot to learn.. And it is too late now. Now I am waiting for an important result. This is the third day and still no mail or message from one of my best friends. I never expect to be contacted on the very first day you reach some place new. According to me it is a day reserved for family and very special people. Second day or the first working day is for best friends since you need access to Internet and email. Anything after that is like "will mail when I don't have anything else to do.." - an "acquaintance" as I said earlier.. So I am still in the process of waiting.. Not knowing whether someone will consider me as their best friend or not..Life is tough baby boy....

I miss Chennai....

2007-07-11T23:44:00.002-04:00

Chennai is my favorite city...I haven't seen much cities but this one is my favorite....It is 368 year old and it is having a strong history....Its an old city with lots of new elements..It is spread along 180 sq km.And the metropolitan area is somewhere around 1200 sq km.Chennai is actually a mix of everything...Its a city with a national park in it..I dont think any other city in India is having that special feautre.It is a city with extreme climate variations..From 5°C to 45°C .You can see all the traditional stuff and people here along with the modern shopping malls and multiplexes. The city has industrial area ,IT parks,temples,churches,forts,residential areas and everything.. Only problem I found was water and that the difference between rich and poor is really wide.But everything has its drawbacks..No doubt Chennai rockzzzz....

Picture taken from St.Thomas mount.

Life is still....

2007-07-08T00:13:00.001-04:00

I am in a daze...Because for me life was easy....Or I tried to view it as easy...Everything was going fine for me and everything was happening just right for me...I passed SSLC with good marks(Hey..548/600 is good..)..I got into a great college(St.Thomas college,Trichur)..Got admission for entrance exam tution(PC Thomas) even though there was a cut off of 550 marks..I was in the Super Batch there(B1A,B2A)... ;-)..I managed to pass Pre-Degree course without much difficulties or back papers...I still don't know how i cleared my Hindi exam...I was pretty sure that i will fail but.....I got 75 !!!! Praise the Lord !!! I got a good rank in Kerala entrance (1120)...I was sure that i will get a seat in my dream college(Govt Engineering College,Trichur)But I didn't...Last rank admitted was somewhere near 800...And I landed in NSS Engineering College,Palakkad...I did a good job there too..I cleared all my exams except one..Theory of Computation..That was a hard nut to crack...But I got through it in the second chance...And before completing my course I got placed in Infosys..That was my first job interview..No job hunting ,no solving puzzles, no mock GD, no mock interview...I just got it..Thats it..I had no hope at all that I didn't feel anything special when results was announced...Actually I wasn't able to believe it ...I joined the company..Only for that batch the usual training and exams (The famous Generic Compre and Stream Compre.)were not conducted..We were put into live projects right away...I completed 2 years there without much hiccups and problems...Left it came here and started job hunting...Attended 2 interviews and waiting for the results...And even now i am in that same old daze..I don't feel like I am involved in my life..I just feel like I am watching it...Like a movie...Like a play...I still cant figure out how all these things are happening all around me...Life is still....

Udupi palace menu...

2007-06-19T15:46:00.001-04:00

These menu cards are from Udupi Palace,Devon Avenue,Chicago...Anyway I have found the easiest way to make money in US...:-)

Lake shore drive......

2007-06-15T01:44:00.001-04:00

Lake shore drive,Chicago...

Where clouds meet...........

2007-06-08T22:35:00.001-04:00

The Millenuim bean....The Cloud Gate...Whatever you call it, it is simply the best photogenic thing I have seen till now..Take a picture from any angle, I bet it will be a spectacular photo....I love this thing...

My experiments with macro.....

2007-05-29T02:27:00.001-04:00

These are my experiments with macro mode in Sony Ericsson W810i...And my verdict ?? It is great....The best mobile phone I ever had...A perfect blend of cost-effectiveness, performance and style.

I am different...........

2007-05-24T15:25:00.001-04:00

From PAL to NTSC....

2007-05-19T22:18:00.001-04:00

Now i am in a different timezone..I shifted 12 time zones?? Around me its different culture,different people,a different view point of life...Unclear,the future is...Let the force be with me..

The Contrast....

2007-05-05T00:12:00.001-04:00

The crowd.......

2007-04-29T23:09:00.001-04:00

Pooram is all about crowd.."Oru poorathinulla aalundaayirunnu..." This is just a small part of it..The maximum which my camera could span...:-)

On the top of the world...

2007-04-29T07:05:00.001-04:00

A really smart guy who found a better place to enjoy pooram...A temporary lamp post.Unfortunately for him the kerala police was more smarter... ;-)

Ilanjithara melam

2007-04-29T01:52:00.001-04:00

Its one of the best forms of music i have ever heard..Whatever i write here it wont be enough to explain it.It features around 250 instumentalists lead by the great Peruvanam Kuttan Maraar..Unless you are in the middle of that crowd it is impossible to feel how it is..It is just incredible....I was only able to take pictures while i was outside the crowd..Its something to hear not to watch....:-)

Thrissur Pooram 2007

2007-04-28T05:01:00.001-04:00

Gajarajan.....King of Elephants....

2007-04-27T23:45:00.001-04:00

I always wondered how they feel when they stand in that hot sun..But this one who carries the "thidambu" will certainly feel really really great. That feeling cannot be just written as "feeling great" or "feeling proud" its more than that.Being selected as the best of all the elephants its just like getting an "A" in the yearly appraisal?? ;-)

Thrissur Pooram-The festival of festivals

2007-04-23T14:29:00.001-04:00

I am from thrissur so obviously i am a great fan of Thrissur Pooram. I am not going to write anything much here (as i told earlier i am very weak in writing skills ;-) ).So just watch...
Setting up the things.........The Making.....

My System !!!!

2007-04-10T04:15:00.001-04:00

For those who doesnt understand what a 'My system' is : its my computer.Since it is a collection of parts to me i.e computer system(like solar system ;-) ) i am used to call it a 'system'.

Now to the specs : AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 3800+ @ 2.0GHz on ASUS M2NPV-MX with 1GB DDR2 533 . Graphics is onboard nVIDIA GeForce 6150 with 128MB onboard VRAM.

Display on Samsung SyncMaster 740N.

Sunset...

2007-03-28T02:22:00.001-04:00

Deadlines.......

2007-03-20T02:33:00.001-04:00

The Radio street...

2007-03-10T10:03:00.001-05:00

My urge for a new system was so high today;that i went to Ritchie street to get a system.sounds silly? Sure it is..For months i was yearning for a system-in more simple words-a computer- sorry for the jargon used.cant get rid of techie habits.no;no;no;dont raise that brow...i am a TECHIE...even though many people (including me ;-) ) wont accept it.S o where was i???I was getting bored and bored and bored in my room and finally one fine day morning i decided- i wanna go system....because that was the only way to kill my boredom..infact i was not getting bored but still u know what.i love cricket and i can still see the Ranji trophy match or the one where India A and India B is playing;or still i can even see matches played between teams like "Chandigarh Tigerzzz" and "Chennai Shakerzz"...or i can view every possible form of sports in this world all the day; all the weekend. And always i can enjoy the FA cup or Italian serie A match let it be live or of some old season maybe 2000..;-)...So i decided ..A system...And since i am holding a bachelors degree in computer science i should assemble it on my own.Anything less than that is considered -Primitive?Or Pentium I???So i coined down my system config- the only job in this world i excel.It is an AMD X2 3800+ on ASUS M2NPV-MX with 1GB DDR2 and 160GB SATA.And the visual element was Samsung 740N.I started with a budget of 20K and it went all the way to 33K.And the place to shop????While you are in Chennai there is only one answer for that question-Ritchie Street.Like Lamington road in Mumbai;Nehru place in Delhi and so on..So on this fine Saturday morning i am here in front of the infamous Ritchie street.Its actually 3-4 streets collectively known as Ritchie street..Ritchie Street, Narasinghapuram Street, Meeran Shaib Street and Waller's Road.They are locally known as Radio street;maybe the only techie thing in late 70's was the transistor radio???The street is crowded ,with koolies,vendors,buyers like me etc...And one funny thing is that all the koolies are hi tech ones they are not carrying anything which can be dumped infront of a shop..they are carrying syncmasters,flatrons and monitors ranging from 17" to 22".LCDs CRTs they are everywhere...Its actually the best place for a techie to be..I reached this techie paradise by around 11am and even after 4 hours i was still searching..Atlast i found the best place (the best price quote...) and that shop was crowded like hell.But i managed to place my order and by 5 i was almost done..Now the next task i should take it outside of this place to Mount road.There was no other go ,i had to be a techie koolie.To complete the story i had to shell out 300 bucks more for just dialing 24732020..;-)...And at the end of the day i was a proud owner of a spankingly new X2...Yeeehhaaaaaaaaaaaaa....

One eyed Ganesha!!!!!!

2007-03-07T22:48:00.002-05:00

The "Keyboard"......... ;-)

2007-02-20T03:37:00.002-05:00

Last day I was trying out the macro feature of my camera phone. Image looks good, though it is not perfect. With only 2 mega pixels don't expect to take really magical pictures,the type of pictures that will create a WOW..(not Windows Vista WoW..;-)...oops... bad p.j..).The "subject" of this photo is my keyboard,A DELL branded one.This thing is not at all a silent component; of course it is a corporate keyboard, don't expect a feather touch,silent keyboard in a corporate environment.:-). But this keyboard can do real wonders with that clicking noise,that collective clicking noise which makes you remind that you have ended up in a Software company..And the only sound you are going to hear for atleast 20 years from now is this clicking sound??? Dreadful thoughts...God save IT people....(grin)

Blogging and Me....

2007-02-19T05:23:00.001-05:00

Maintaining a blog is very very difficult,unless you are gifted with writing skills.
In fact this is my 4th blog.All the other 3 are extinct now.First i started with a blog in opera.
At that time i was studying for my bachelors degree.Then i started one group blog for my class.
Bad idea though.It was my first blog in blogger.After some months of aggressive posting
i realized that the only one who is posting is me,so i stopped blogging.I haven't deleted it.:-)Then i decided that i will start one last blog.The final blog.I continued that blog until last year,somehow managing to write one or two posts in 5-6 months..I even changed it to Malayalam(my mother tongue)...And that blog also died....And now this blog...This is a photo blog..I found it easy to maintain a photo blog.You just need to put one image per day to make it active...;-).
I don't know whether this will be an everlasting blog..thats too much...at least 2years..one year...plzzzzzzzz

The Rays of Hope...............

2007-02-15T05:13:00.001-05:00

This picture was taken from my office,while i was climbing the stairs to second floor.(you got the reason...Dieting.. ;-) ..)

I ain't Alone!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-02-12T06:03:00.001-05:00

I ain't Alone!!!!!!!!!!!Life turns its course so fast...And this weekend was the turning point..Usually my weekends are just monotonous and boring..It used to be the same combination of Spencer's , Sathyam , Sangam and Thattukada or Kumarokom. But this weekend was just too good.. It just went like "CBZ-Xtreme".. ;-)..Today morning i was wondering what did i do on this weekend?..And the answer for it : I got a very rare chance to restart my life. I used to do the same in almost every game i play;but you wont get a chance to do that in real life.You can't restart your life once you have made a mistake right?.I did the same when i was in 10Th standard.Due to my carelessness i lost something precious.And all these years i was searching for it desperately..Atlast..Last Friday i got it back..Thanks to Orkut...And everything is changing now including my perspective of life.Now my life appears more brighter(not because Chennai is starting to show its true self.. ;-) ) and happier.No more gloomy days i guess..:-)
P.S: The shadow shown in the image is me.;-).Taken with my mobile(SE w810i).

Misty Kodai.....

2007-02-08T23:09:00.001-05:00

This is one of my best shots till date...Taken with my "Rebel XT" itself...I was trying to picture the oncoming fog,but the fog was too fast for the camera..This picture was taken during one of my trips to Kodaikanal. Exact location is called "Dolphins nose" i guess.We got down 2-3km before the spot and took a path through the forest.Was an absolutely blithesome experience to walk through the forest path ; atypical to the conventional Kodai trip which translates to Pillar rock and Suicide point..;-)

Millenium Bean......

2007-02-08T04:34:00.001-05:00

This photo was taken two years back when the bean was still being fine tuned..You can see the white unpolished joints on the bean.Now the bean is finely polished and looks just like a drop of mercury fallen from the sky.Actual name of this exquisite piece of art is Cloud Gate.Made by British artist Anish Kapoor.Just search for "cloud gate" in Flikr or any other photo uploading sites and you will get brilliant photos of the bean taken from different angles.Every photo taken on this bean is resplendent and every angle is just perfect for this beauty..

Stand Alone Tree......

2007-02-06T05:59:00.001-05:00

This picture was taken on my "Rebel XT". Location is Yercaud , a hill station near Salem. I don't know whether it is a very famous hill station like Ooty or Kodai;but it is a good place to visit once. There is a small lake atop and a garden nearby and the whole place is very quiet and calm.Some coffee plantations are present and the place is totally greenish.It is more refreshing if you keep on reminding yourself that this place is near Salem;which is a very very dry area.Slopes of the hill are thickly forested so it is very ideal for trekking.There are some rocky escarpments where you can get a good view of the plains below.Above photo is taken from one such places.I don't remember its name though ;-).Most attracting fact about Yercaud is that this place is damn cheap compared to other hill stations in Tamil Nadu.

Misty Morning....

2007-02-05T07:11:00.001-05:00

These pictures were taken near my office by someone.. Time is early morning 8am.
Forgot to tell the place ...Chennai !!!!!!!!! Only city in India where the seasons are called "Hot,Hotter and Hottest..."These two photos were quite amazing to me because i haven't seen Chennai like this..Fog and cold weather in Chennai ??? Global "Coldening"???I haven't heard that word before.But anyway some word should exist as an antonym for Global warming right?? ;-)

A picture is worth............???

2007-02-02T06:35:00.001-05:00

Question is about the value of one picture.I am not talking about famous paintings by Van Gogh or Leonardo da Vinci.I am referring to our good old picture which is present in the old proverb "A picture is worth a thousand words..".
I was also having the same opinion till yesterday.Then i searched in Google for this proverb(Keyword:proverb+picture+words),and i was confused.Results were amazing.Is the picture worth thousand words or ten thousand words?I even got a link to IMDb;to a movie with the same name!!!
One of the link even told about "1 picture=84.1 words" !!!
O my god!!How does that decimal came??? I am providing the link here.Anyone with a light mind and some free time will find this very very interesting .Asking me why?? Okay.Fine..Primarily it is hosted on a university site that means it was a research topic!! That also means that he got a PhD for proving that "1 picture=84.1 words" !!!And some company/individual funded that research!!!

Another page gave the full detailed history of the picture's worth.The above posted image is obtained from that page.It was hosted on some other university site(obviously some guy must have got a PhD on it.;-) )

The History of a picture's worth.

So the question still remains..What is the true value of a picture???1000,10000,84.1...
Or 1 day i can also take a PhD on a new topic "1 picture=97.3 words" !!!!

Filler 2

2007-01-22T12:36:00.003-05:00

Eeshwara enthokke kanaanam...

search result for one of my techie-friends resulted in this... I mispelled his last name and Oh My God - Google gives me the correct last name ??? kaalam poya oru pokke...

Filler 1

2006-12-10T11:46:00.001-05:00

I am still wondering what I did for the whole year of 2006... :-) So posts at all... In any of my blogs.. :-)

But always you can add fillers anywhere you need...
So here is the first filler..

A link to my first blog.. Started in Jan,2004... But like my all other great startups this one also - Died ...Yet another technological premature death in our class.... We had so many great startups in our batch..Courtesy the tech-savvy team...Sam,Soo,Sagar,Naveen,Laks and myself..We implemented everything which was hot and new... Yahoo groups,Google groups,blogs,messageboards - Sam even started a website with some security login stuff.. It didnt even launch .. :D

So here it is...My beloved creation...Lifespan : 6 months... Idle for the past 4 years ..Well since this is a retro-post its 2.5 years ;-) ...

http://supercs.blogspot.com/

Award Day!!!!!!!!!!

2006-11-29T11:44:00.002-05:00

today was the most awaited award day(awaited by the nominees bcoz they were sure that they will get it)....
starting from nominations and ending up in awards.... there is nothing that can be called as an accident....everything is predetermined...as always....
quarterly awards for the unit was announced today...lot many awards ....power programmer, most valuable player,most spirited team,best project team..etc...lots and lots of awards.....not much for the DarkSide...and the White side was just overjoyed due to the excessive awards...and the appreciation mails are still flowing....appreciations for the good work...keep it up...you rocks...and DarkSide as usual silent and calm...apart from the few laughs which happens in our center of attraction cubicle...
relationships....orkut...java games..nightouts...nominations...awards....good appraisals...onsite....CRR......
work....more work...night shuttle...nightouts....bad appraisals...-ve CRR...resignation letters...

why only 2 ways ????
Golden words - "_____ is like this...and we should be prepared to accept it....dont try to change the system...because you are just a part of the system...."
------There is nothing that can be called as an accident...

The Blue Screen Of Death

2006-03-28T11:32:00.002-05:00

Every one related to IT industry must have seen the BSOD-Blue screen of death,atleast must have heard of it.I have also seen it a lot in my home computer.But i bet that no one must have got a chance to see it in an ATM machine.Especially when your credit or debit card is inside it ;-).But i DID!!!!!
Yeah i got a chance to see the world famous BSOD on an ATM machine and that too with my debit card inside(with all my salry inside- you know).Actually i still dont know what happened.I inserted the card into the slot(It was a slot loading one not a swipe-and-take-out type machine-i will never use a slot loading one again).I entered the amount as 200(my account only had Rs.288 in it.It was in the second half of the month i mind you).I got my money and suddenly...WOW...screen went blank.I heard that familiar single beep(all success) from the system.And then it started to load windows...and Voila...There is it...The BSOD.Frantically i called the security guy and he restarted it.This time it worked fine.And the best thing is that it asked "Please insert a card to continue"..And my debit card with only Rs.88 as balance amount was inside it..Cool isn't it??And the after effect of this incident-I am currently waiting for my new debit card to arrive by courier(after so many talks with the call center people i finally placed a request for a new card).

Smile of Summer...

2006-03-25T11:30:00.001-05:00

Chennai is just starting to show its true essence.The Summer!!!!
even now i can feel it.its only march 26th but it is relly hot out here..you wont feel anything if you are inside an airconditioned room in your house or office,but once you come out of that cozy atmosphere..the heat will get you sure...only good thing about Chennai is that in the evening and during night it is much cooler.cooler than Palakkad.maybe because of the presence of Bay of Bengal..now the climate is just like the climate of Palakkad in the month of may or first week of june(before rains start).i really feel like being in Palakkad now- all those hot breeze ,dry climate etc..
and still there are the months April,may and june infront of me showing off that devilish smile-The smile of the Summer.............
Summer in Chennai...

Importance of Blogging frequently.....

2006-03-24T11:26:00.001-05:00

i was not aware of it..really..i swear...thats why still my blog has only less than 20 posts... ;-) and i started it long time back i guess..yeah to be precise : in june 2005...
from now on i will post more frequently...one each every day..i promise...
reason for this change ?? alright..alright...i will tell you...one of my friends has started to blog...started three days back and already has 3 posts..wow..
and what am i doing????so from today operation blog......
attackkkkkkkkkk.........

Holi hai Holi !!!

2006-03-16T11:29:00.001-05:00

its holi time in chennai....
we celebrated holi in our office..it was so fun out here..we painted ourselves in red(that was the only color available) and helped others also to be painted with red.
the celebrations went to such an extent that the security people came in and took the fotos of all the chairs and cubicle walls we decorated(spoiled in their language-so bad of them) ..
and we got a round of firing from the HR..all for the joy of HOLI......

Welcome 2006(oops i am late by just 28 days ;-))

2006-01-28T11:24:00.001-05:00

again inactive? i know it ...please ...i am sorry for this...and reasons..mmmm...(thinking)..i am into another project...actually it is my second project ....what i thought was that my first project was the most hectic one(it was a development one,i mind you).
and i got released in december...but i didnt even enjoyed for a day.before knowing that i am in bench ,i was inside this project..ant that too a testing one...for all those future software engineers a kind note - never join a testing project..you will be finished...
how beautiful was the dreams that i saw before joining it industry???
fulltime internet ,interesting job,good salary....i actually started this blog after i got the job.in the hope that i can update it everyday...(sshh one secret- this is my second blog..first one was soon found dead with 4-5 posts in it.now even i dont know its address ;-) .
anyway i have done well this time.atleast this blog is alive..(no active though)...
oops another job failed....lemme go...

Return from University..

2005-09-23T11:23:00.001-04:00

home sweet home.it is a long time i became online in yahoo messenger.the moment i logged in the offlines came like rainfall.we cant access yahoo messenger from our company network.i think i must inform all those offliner-s about this.today was a tiring day for me.went to the university for the provisional cert.since it was the election day transport was a problem.no of buses running were low and it was huge rush in all the buses.i was damn sure that i cant even get the prov.cert from the
university since staff may also be on leave today.thank god that i got the prov.cert and all jobs at college and university was done.even i couldnt believe myself when i got tc,conduct cert,marklist and prov.cert within 2 days.it was actuallly an impossible task.everyone from calicut university can understand why i am being so pessimistic in this case.usually it is a weeks job for others.and lucky me.
staying at home is cool.problem is when thre time comes for the return.the work seems to be more boring than usual.why should i talk abbout all those bad things now.there is 2 more days for me to enjoy here.njoy....

Onam....

2005-09-14T11:27:00.002-04:00

it is onam time here in mcity.and evereryone who enters our office in mcity will go wow seeing the "pookkalam"(flower carpet) we have made here.it is simply astonishing.the specifications:12ft in diameter,made with 29kilograms of flower,vibrant design,superb color combination,etc.this dream of making a pookkalam at mcity came true only because of the hardwork of we-the mallus of infy along with our cooperating project mates from other states.it was a big project for us.and alll of us were the project managers.and we are the client too.we had to satisfy ourselves.great isn't it?and here is a snap of our onapookkalam.enjoy..........

Happy birthday to me !!!

2005-09-13T11:22:00.001-04:00

it was my birthday today.it was like just an ordinary birthday.without cake or anything.how can i expect it when i am away from my home and my classmates.in the morning not even a single person knew that it was my bday.only reshmi wished me happy bday.and i have learnt from 4 years that never axpect anything from her.but i was wonderstruck when i saw a bday present on my table.in my 4year college life i hadnt recieved any presents for my birthday.i used to get cards but theat too very
little in number.but that is not a problem for me.i will continue to give bday cards to all others as i did in my college."do to others what u expect them to do to you"-that was my driving force for the past years.i used to take care of others whenever i see anyone alone without a company.i know what it feels like when u r alone and the whole world around u is in different teams or groups enjoying.and i also know how it feels when u "celebrate" ur bday without recieving any bday cards or gifts.but for years my policy was to wait .i was always positive in my mind even though i used to list out all the negative conditions.and i have tried my level best to get a friend for me either boy or girl.who will introduce me to others as "my friend" not as my class mate,"who works with me" or something else.and i know in a metro like chennai if u dont have a girlfriend to go out with on weekends,then u are considered dumb.i tried my level best but everything came negative for me.the ones on whom i have a little edge just want to sleep the whole day saturday through sunday.sometimes it may be an excuse to avoid this "nuisance"-i got this complement from one of my collegemates itself.great isnt it?i know if a put up a fake image then i could very easily gather lots of friends.but i am not like that and i just hate those people who do that.and because of that i am still independent now.and independent life is much better.really..hey who told u to think about the fox and the sour grapes.i didn't mention it here.hey you.....

Home.........

2005-08-11T11:21:00.001-04:00

Throughout this week my life was all on top gear.Just because the thought that i am going home this friday.And that too the first trip to home after getting this job.Wow i am a salaried employee now.But the bank balance is now negligibily small after all those shopping for my family.And one important thing-I changed my mobile.It is now a Samsung c210.A nice set with necessary features-gprs,65k color screen,2mb memory and 200sms memory-thats the most important feature,for all mobile providers giv u free sms here.It is only 2 more days but i expect all the clocks to be slow from now and they will makeup the time while i am at home ;-).

Waterpackets and My weekend

2005-08-03T11:20:00.001-04:00

An advice to the newbies in chennai who plan to spend their weekends-try to get into the city before sun is over your head.Else carry a load of waterpackets with u.I started my journey with 10 packets with me and i finished it before noon on this saturday!!!.Amazing isn't it ?But if you dont do it then u may sometimes get a sunstroke.So beware.Setting aside this problem my first weekend in Chennnai was fun.We went to the biggest shopping mall in chennai-the spencer's plaza and just wandered there for the whole day.It was fun.I like this life.5 days work,and then on weekends wander here and there till u are tired to the extent that u cant stand on ur legs and then just go to sleep.Thats all.And thats the corporate life.The life of a software engineer..Too cooool.......

A city of radius 40km!

2005-07-29T11:18:00.001-04:00

Cant believe?Yeah thats the truth this metro -Chennai(previously Madras) is really huge.really really huge.
And travelling 50 km a day is not a big deal for chennai-ites as they wont even reach from one end of chennai city to other end.But since this is a widespread metro it is not as beautiful as bangalore or delhi.
It is more like a group of towns merged together as a metro.This was the main problem which i found in this city.u must travel a hell lot a distance every day,let it be for work,to see a movie,or even just to freakout. as of now my only option is to take the city buses for my commute to office and back.thank god my company had provided the accomodation for a week.and that too walkable distance from the office.
only problem will be on weekends i guess,to go to the heart of city-the mount road.it should take atleast one hour to get there.i have just landed in here and luckily today is a friday and we have our salaries credited in our accounts.god knows whats in store for me here....

Changing lives Changing Places .

2005-07-23T11:19:00.001-04:00

Changing places is really fun for those who love to travel.I am also in that category.As life moves fast it is the same whether you are in India or USA .And all that matters is your access to Cyberspace.I had just changed to Mysore from Trichur and now it is time for another change.Now i am heading for the new destination-Chennai.And thank God that Fantastic Four have changed to Trivandrum. So Attention passengers !!Fasten your seat belts and putoff your cigars.It is Take-off time !!!!!

The Face(phase)Change !!!

2005-07-09T11:41:00.001-04:00

I heard that when we complete your graduation and get a new job we are starting a new phase in your life.Our entire style of life changes.Our manners ,lifestyle etc etc all get changed or We must change since we are not in the college anymore.If we dont change they(The company guys) will indeed change us.And if it is an IT or software company then it is the change is more drastic.
I am also at the verge of a drastic change in my life.and the change starts from july 10th(My joining date ;-) ).I dont know how i will manage this .And finding friends will be the most serious problem for me .There are chances that i will be left alone with santhosh(my dear project mate).

It's really a GAP

2005-07-08T11:39:00.001-04:00

Why should one start a blog when he has nothing to post for more than one month?Doubts arise always on this.But having ideas is not enough to post all over the month or perhaps almost all over the week.You must also consider the magical constraint to see your post becoming alive in the net .Hope you got thye point.Yeah the TIME.But as all wise people say there is no one who can find time,only we can spend it as we wish.Simply -We must find time.However i have found some time to scribble this and u have found time to read this.Thats great .Thank God.

Woof ! Its all over!!

2005-07-08T11:12:00.003-04:00

It is said:"Time is the best teacher in this world.Unfortunately it kills all its students."-Thank God i am alive.Today i completed my graduation exams.Whats so special in it?Well if your schedule is having exams till friday(with all the fear of delay in schedule due to strikes) and the joining date for new job is on monday,i am sure you will get ****** .Anyway my exams are over and now i have only to look forward for my posting in the company.Again the problems pops up.They require the marklists upto seventh semester to be submitted on joining.Thats natural for any company -else whats the proof that i am a last year student.But the universities change and you can never be sure for any results.And i am still without the seventh semester marklist.Fate is a indeed a good word to be thought upon.

The TimeCatcher!!

2005-06-28T11:11:00.001-04:00

Delaying of university exams is a common thing all over the world(atleast all over india).But scheduling an exam on june 3rd and then publishing a notice on june 1st that exams are changed to june 10th is okay.And again on june 9th saying that it is again postponed to june 14th can be taken with a little anger .Then on june14th there comes the notice that your exams are postponed to 16th .Wow thats really greatisn't it.But this is a common scenario in our university(Calicut University ,India).Here we all do not apply for revaluation of our exam papers we usually get them evaluated after atleast 2years!!!An there are exams conducted before 2004 Jan and the results are still "awaited".We can be optimistic to an extend but this is much above the expectations of being optimistic.But there is no choice.So Hooray to the examination board!!!!.And i am so lucky that my exams started on jun 16th and it is still going on without delays.

www.anniyan.com

2005-06-26T11:38:00.001-04:00

What will u call a movie from Oscar films directed by Shankar with a budget of 35 crore indian ruppees,having 155artists,and a shooting schedule of 365 days ?
Well the answer is : Anniyan-The foreigner.Film is doing very well as all the halls are running housefull.But the film is not a faultfree one .As the name suggests this film is really for a foreigner.One who hasn't seen thee films-"4 the people"(malayalam,"4students" in tamil),kamal starrer "Indian"(tamil,"Hindustani" in hindi),chilambarasan starrer "Manmathaun"(tamil),jayaram starrer "Vakkalath narayanankutty"(malayalam) and "Matrix"(Iand II). Vikram plays "rules ramanujan"-the hero,and sada his love "nandini",prakashraj as the villian,naasar as the psychatrist,and vivek as usual the side effect(supporting role) of vikram.Other familiar faces include nedumudi venu (as vikrams father),kalabhavan mani,cochin haneefa and lot many others.No one can spot any flaw in the acting of any of the 155 artists.
Our hero belongs to a musical family.He is a lawyer who files suit for almost all the crimes seen in this society(Please dont think of "vakkalath narrayanakutty" now.the similarity is just accidental.).Since our hero is just a "vegetable eating fellow" he is being beaten upon by the stronger evil society.Here comes the multiple personality ver 1 -"Anniyan" who has his own website where "vegetables" can post complaints(i know u thought of the film 4the people or 4students and manmathaun.Dont worry the similarity is just "accidental"!!).Multiple personality ver 2 -R.E.M.O remo enters when sada rejects his loveletter.Film is packed with action scenes and songs.Action scenes will drive you nuts due to the accidental or intensional similarity with Matrix and spiderman.Music is done by Harris jayaraj and is nowhere near his previous hits "Kaakha Kaakha" or "Minnale".Sabu Cyril is the one who designs the astounding sets for the film, V T Vijayan who edits the film, Sujatha who pens the dialogue, Raju Sundaram who choreographs the dances. Wielding the camera is V Manikandan.The "masalamix" storyline and the copied action scenes are the only flaws to be noted else it would have been a perfect one.
Conclusion:
plus: comedy from Vivek,superb direction,choreography,camera,classical acting- especially the scenes where vikrams multipersonality "develops a loosecontact", one in the hospital and other in the police station.
minus: horrible story and action scenes.

Flag Off !!!

2005-06-25T11:37:00.001-04:00

A website or a little space with my name as its address was a dream for me as any other computer enthusiast.Although there were so many free webspace providers who offered me to host my minds content in this vast always-expanding cyberspace,they weren't generous enough to let me go as a free bird to post anything and everything on my site(Indeed they are running it for business) .They used to tie me up with strings that come in the form of monthly bandwidth,storage space,slow and sluggy advertisements,banners that never load and pages that will load too fast that the visitors can have a cup of tea by that time .But now i have found my space.Although in the form of a blog i can customize it,code it and do whatever i want.And this indeed is a cool way of posting my expressions,views and anything i like on web.And that too with an address like this: harryfrancis.blogspot.com .What else do i need to flag off my webpresence.