Guns marriage..

Ganes.A , scored 452 out of 500 in SSLC.He stood school 3rd by missing first rank just by 6. Not just the HM, even most of the students from other class were not sure about this name. Who is this Ganesh? WHich class was he from. Back then there were A1 and A2 sections for English and then C to G sections for Tamil. First 5 ranks would usally be swept by students from A1 & A2. Is he a studious / from creamy layer. No !!. But Ganesh in 3rd rank noone would have guessed. It was like how Srilanka came to limelight from nowhere to world champions.

From there onwarsds the records and achievements reached by our Guns is just amazing.He just sweeped most of the first marks / ranks in +1. It was 1997, golden jubilee of our school (Bishop's Tirupur) and Guns stood 1st in +2 . He scored 1115 out of 1200, the highest total ever scored in the school's history back then. His name is written first in the record-holders name list engraved on the shool's stupi (which apparently started the same year and is still there).He is one of the rare student who finished +2 in the school from his LKG .14 year in same school and stood first in the end. Nobody else deserves this more than Mr. Ganes - this is how he wants his name to be spelled - a strong believer in numeroloy. I blv he still follows this. Scarry pace bowler..and a nice off spinner too..I remember now how he is specialist in picking couple of opposite team's top order.An excellent artist - infact I remember he is famous in class (during 8th I guess) for his arts - hopefully he draws nowadays.

Feb-18th, thursday is his marriage reception in Tirpur. I applied for twodays vacation and reached Tirpur.Its long time I met Ganesh and this will usaually be a very good get-togehere where you would meet most of your old time school friends - and if you are (un)lucky - your school time crushes too :). Well as expected it tunred out to be lucky a good number of old friends turned up. It was a good amount of crowd, afterall the bride and the groom are from the same place - plus - both are now working in USA. Yes Ganes had come from US for his marriage and so do Mrs.Ganesh. Both bride and groom from US !! Is this a love marriage ? Well atleast 10 people asked around. I said No - well atleast this is what I was told by Ganes :) !!

I have already been to the same Mandapam - for Ganes's Sister's marriage. All of his 3 sisters marriage happend here.

Myself and moulee were waiting in the queue to wish the couple. (ofcourse with empty hand. Unfortunately I haven't learnd the bad habit of buying a gift) thats when this gentlemen, just behind me asked "how r u doing"?I turned back, there were this three people and I couldn't recollect, meanwhile the he asked 'U couldn't recollect ??'. Oh my - I almost bite my foot - Its KV's Mum, Dad and his Sister. They were standing just behind me. How can we forget them. I really felt bad about my poor grasping power.I said I'm really sorry I couldn't see you ..how r u doing. And I was really suprised to see them too. .."It was surprise to see you and I didn't expect you here." While this discussions were going on we missed our 'order' in the queue but we didn't bother. KV's dad mentioned they came to Tirupur from Udumalai just now and were planning to go to Bangalore. Infact this is about one of the matching bride for KV.

"All these years he was saying no for marriage. Atleast now - after moving to UK it is changed to do-what-ever-you-want. So we dont want him to change his mind." We were all laughing..and he continued

"Just before he could take a 'U' with I-never-said-that. You never know what guys of these generation are thiking." We all blushed again.

He was mildly pulling our leg - our generation - but I liked the mild sarcasm in it. KV's dad, as I have seen, usually is not very out-spoken. But I think he changed a lot, even in my last visit to KV's house in chennai(2 yrs ago) , I was really surprise when he immediately recoganized me and called by my name.

"When are you ...you married?? " this is his Mum.

I said "no ma search is going in my house and still" After the recent happenings, may be I should be little more confident and do 'something' instead of just staring at things and expecting others to read me. Its just that am not ready to take any risk.Well in Abhishek comment - I should have more balls. If I don't do something, it will do me !!

"...same status as KV ma."

"Oh I thought may be Ganesh's is the last in the Queue", KV's dad.

"Haha...No, there are still some more !!"

"What happened to PV..Is he back?" PV is the, lets just say, 'interesting' character in our gang.

"No ma..he is still is US. He too in the same queue...". I wanted to add " but not sure if this over-american really wants to marry any girl. Not sure if he continued to be straight !! Who knows he might have changed his sexual orientation."

Me, "When are you visiting UK? KV was saying he is planning to take you."

"Yes he is saying that too. May be in march..we will plan some time." "Are your parents with you in Bangalore"

"No..They are here. they come once in 2 months for a week or so. Otherwis am alone."

"Oh Why dont you ask them to stay with you. Shouldn't they be with you now?. Why are they in Tirupur?", KV's dad really concerned

"Ya they shuold be. But my brother is here..so..and someone has to look after the house here. But yes am insiting them they should be with me now..."

I can't agree more.By now I should be their (my parents) only concern, if only 'things' at my family were simple. There are some simple & smallest things in life which you could only 'wish'. They may be so abundant in any common man you see. But its just not in you. Whilst things that you are not worth of - just comes on your way with no effort. Strange world huh !! Ahh so philisophical...whath happened to me.

Meanwhile the crowd sorrounding the bride & groom slowly moved away and we moved close to wish the couple. Gane is wearing a neat white blazer..iits not fully blazer. I couldn't descibe it fully. It has a very nice artwork in the place of shirt - which partly resembles a kurtha - a beautiful light blue in color. He is wearing a couple of rings and a bracelet. Not so much of makeup. Girl is in a red - kancheevaram - pattu saree, I suppose.

KV's family & us wished the couple - We with the barehands and KV's with a nice gift :) Me & Moulee stood shamelessely, looking at each other.

Ganes 'How are you doing ma. Did you find a matching girl for KV'

"Yes we are in serious search and infact we are going to blr today for this. He has changed his mind now. Atleast it appears so. We dont want to let this go. When you get a chance tell (convince) KV about this."

"Yes sure. Not just me ask Peri also to do so.." We all laughed.

After a nice photo shot we slowly moved to the dinner hall, which was packed.We were trying to find a place for all of us. It was very crowded and we could find limited seats. We convinced KV's to take this place, while we wait for other friends (Jayaram was on the way). I could see KV's felt upset since we couldn't have dinner together. We promised them to meet outsied and not to worry about this.

July 2001: Ganes & PV, KV, and me graduated from GCT, IRTT and CIT resply.Only point worth mentioning is PV was a gold medalist in his dept. We all got placed thru campus and then soon it became an old story because of the .com buble-burst !! None of us had either plans for higher studies or girl friends.(Well am sure about the first part, while second part am presuming ;) for others). Since all our joining dates were delayed KV, Ganes & me attend interview with TVS Lucas in Chennia - this came thru one of our college placement-room. We all were interviewed in the same time and were all offered a job in chennai a week latter. Ganesh took the offer and joined TVS - Hosur, while KV joined Chennai, TVS. PV meanwhile got in to a construction company and started his career in chennai.My campus offer finally got confirmed and I decided to take that and said No to TVS.I have already told about my stand-by-status of my old offer during my Lucas interview.Knowing TVS being very conservative and the interview was conducted specifically for we people, I liked the way Lucas HR acknowledged when I finally returned the offer letter saying am going to take accept my old offer.

Vendors meet...

This customer being a golden customer (i selectively avoided 'one of the' :-) here ), and biggest ever license deal for us, this meeting is really a big deal. Yes, the customer is conductin a metting in CTS office for all the (Indian) vendors .. (yes that what we are called as..I was fuminng for the first time in Singapore for DHL..but I got used to this). Being a big company and knowing the size of the implementaion, the project has been given to lot of Vendors. We were one among them. Other are CTS - doing the bigger pie (legacy systems integrations), HCL - handling the testing part of the implementation (well the final go-ahead has to come from them), Infy - handling the ESB integration (they were not present in the meeting for some reason) and then the Cap Gemini - implementing Siebel.

Since CTS is handling most of the IT part the meeting was completely hosted by CTS in their office - Manuyatha park. 30 Kms far from my office. Meeting was planned at 9:00 AM - a video con and hence I have to sacrifise my breakfast and morning aerobics (not necessarily in same order !!). It felt like a trip going to the other end of bangalore.. When we crossed the old madras road, technically, we are 'entering' the bangalore city again - atleast that is what sign boards smiling at as.

Well there were not many signing or checking process in CTS thank god and the tech park was quite good. Just that I was keeping an eye on the people's language, since I was expecting if people is speaking a different language as I have travelled so much.As instructed we are in formal attire. I was in a light blue striped shirt and a kaki pant, brown shoe and Ramkumar (my manager) was with a blazer (I didn't realise he was having this untill I get in to this room). The facility was classy look and as if it is used only for such high profile meeting (cheap thinking..!! can't help..). It was well planned to the extent that even the seating locations for induvidual were pre-allocated. I was seated next to the this chap - Anand a guy with a thick mush from CTS chennai - should be a Lead or a buddign manager (I like his answer that "Well my team members discuss with him regularly for mapping..I discusses about plans.." OK buddy, you are a manager - not developer, my mistake). My a/c manager Avijit too was there in a blazer..well all-most all of them were in a formal balzer. Am I the odd one without the blazer. I looked around..but no some one interesting is there for my company too. WIll come to her soon.I was just carrying my jacket which looked almost like a formal blazer (thanks western stores - commercial street !!) from distance. I could have used it.

Within 15 mts most of the seats were full and soon the meeting started. I like the intro part of the meeting. There first slide has the following questions..

• Your Name.
• Your company and the group of this project.
• Your home town.
• Where you studied your high school. (Not your graduation, your high school. Interesting)
• Your association withe them [customer].
• And one personnel note that you like to share..

The organizer also explained why this little unorthodox way of introduction....it small world and you can find some connections with some one in the room. And surprisingly yes, it was correct. [Actually a week latter there was a sweet 'small world' incidence happened again..]

There were 4 people in the room from coimbatore - city my town was part of and place where I did my college.Majority of them from chennai (considering CTS hosting this meeting). Surprisingly only a limited people are from nort india and all are from Hcl Noida - that explains. Majority of the people know and speak Tamil. Some people really did share their personal note..were interesting..some choosed not to..but nobody forced. Amit from Hcl sitting next to me has recently got promoted - to Dad position.There was this nice gentle man Mr.Srikumar, from Madurai and now settled in Chennai. He mentioned his hometown as "the city of temples" Madurai. I dont know how many people noted this but I liked !!

Aastha - the only oasis for me (since I blv all the others are 'Knot to be disturbed'.)- is from Delhi.She learns / practises dancing and feels that is one of her best stress-busters. I seriously repent about my discontinuing of free-style dancing 6 months ago (in my second class though !!) She is the only & nice looking girl in the room and she is giving company for my not-wearing-blazer-team.But her costume - a sleelve less black shirt - is not revealing but good looking. There was an other lady - Smitha - the Testing team's manger (Astha's manager too), but probably a second place only after Miss. Sleeveless - hopefully Ms

Most of the Names of the CTS folks are derived either from Haran or Hari..Harikumar,Anandha Krishnan (Hari again), Ramkumar (totally 3 in number), Rangarajan..and so on.My god the whole "belt gang" is sitting here. Some of the take aways of the meetings..

• As expected the meeting ran out of time - so all the (useless) brain stromming session were stopped abruplty ,but for a better reason - lunch.
• No solid plans were attained - which is good - else some one has to note it.
• Always have a jacket in meeting room - you never know the AC's condition.
• Never sit infront a Aastha. Well I mean any Ms.sleeveless. [But here, I didn't choose it]
• We (product company)are always ahead of the other players and Services company has no clue what is going to happen.
• Never take a seat - or sandwiched - between two bigs during lunch. You will be never be able to have nice food (Courtesy : My manager Ram. I never make this mistake :-) He mentioned 'he didn't even have proper lunch').
• Videocon sometime doesn't mean real video conferencing..Here we were not seeing the other party..only the US folks were seeing us.
• Wait for a while before asking for a project change, you may work with some Ms.Slvls..but its too late for me.

Naah...it just a suggestion..

I had a rare opportunity to talk to one of our customer's big head, the VP of outsourcing (why do I call this a rare opportunty is debatable but for the higher management of my employer , I was 'offered' this opportunity :-), well lets talk this someother time. )

Joe, he is a 55 year old, heavily built, bald, and a hard republican. While the meeting with him started very formally, but soon we realised Joe is a very casual and not so formal. In dinner he suggested to order varieties of dishes and share among them. But anyway it was a buffet dinner in "SSS" so..but very casusal experience.

Irony is he has been to India a dozen of times before and he actually has seen lot of places than any of us..kudoos..!! (Infact he had plans to visit Goa this weekend..My god, I have never been there yet..)He was telling during his first vist - it was 4 years ago when the blr was using the old-airport...It was around 4:30AM in the morningn and he just get in to the cab send to pick him from aiport, heading to Leela palace.It was somewhere after the shiva temple where the driver jumped the red signal..Joe was really panicked. For the moment he thought the driver is either drunk or sleepy. Incidentally driver is an english-speaking. Before he get out of this shock, there was an other incident. Driver just jumped an other red signal and was about to hit a Sumo ..and a narrow miss. Now Joe is really afraid. Within next 2 mts he jumped a 3rd red signal and take a U turn to reach to the hotel.

Relieved that the adventorous drive from the airport is just over, he asked the driver, "do you realised what you just did". Driver, "what do mean sir". You would have killed somebody, you have just jumped 3 signals in a row". Driver, with a careless smile, "ohh no no..they (signals) are just suggestions".

Avial reciepe

Suddenly I saw a lot of fighter jets moving zig-jag on the sky and taking sharp cuts. It was around evening time and the beach area had a very scenic look. I was with some of my friends & colegues. Just 50 feets from where I'm standing there was a open restaurant and a good amound of crowd, both indian and foreigners. From the right side of the restaurnat I could hear the lectures on chemistry, not sure why now and why mr.Nataraj is doing that. He was my school time chemistry teacher.Ok lets come to that chemistry latter, mean while things that scared me is its only me who was noticing the events.Now number of fighter jets in the sky has gone up. Yes now I could see jets in black from all the directions. I could see two varieties of flights, part of them in light blue (or white?) color and the rest in black. The population of the black is growing signifiganly. The black jets are trying sorround to the white and start firing. It is by the emission of sharp white light that convinced me that they were fighters. To some extent I could guess that the black ones seems to be indian and trying to pin-down the aliens - probably US / Pak. Still people around me didn't notice a thing.

It was yesterday when all the airports in India, well all south Asian, contries were put on red-alert, Based of some intelligence info that a major flight hijack has been planned. Should I connect that to what I see now??

But why people around me are adamantly not willing to see this?. A small gathering near to me were happyly enjoying their evening wine. I have too many things runnign in my brainat the same time. I never been in such mixed feelings before. I couldn't continue enjoying the evening sun-set and the nice beach around me. What should I do now ?? Tell..Yes tell this to some one, my mind is racing. Make people aware of what is happening. But nobody were in a mood to listen , yes I tried to point this to people around but strangley I fail. Nobody even bothering to listen to me.

Meanwhile intensity of the fight is growing. At one instant when a bunch of black fighters approached an other bunch of white ones - an amazing thing happened, within a fraction of seconds a majority of the whit-one clung together to form a bigger "thing" - similar to a fighter but bigger in size. It looked like a huge mechanical - bird in the sky - 50 time bigger than the other black ones in front. Its like watching the star-wars in real. I have to tell this to someone. Some of the flights are falling down - probably the damaged ones,in the sea. I could see a number of navy boats reachin the spot. Yes, Navy boats in the beach. Is the Navy always here, and just that I never noticed ? or., were they here for some 'special' occasion ??

With the air force the Navy and some fighters am almost convinced that some major thing is happening. I wanted to see what is happening on the boats that rushed, I slowly moved towards the the beach, where I could see some navy - officers. To my surprise, I noticed one of the officers in that was Mridul...Yes he was my ex-PM in my previous employer. I never knew he joined Navy. For some unknow reason, I remember Arvind, who has just gone in to the restroom where I was initially wathcing all these incidents. Yes, he is the person who I should tell, probably he will listen to my and could get his help. I rused towards the rest room. I noticed that the restroom, though kept at the posh-beach, it almost resemebled the one in my old house. The door, the steps, the knob and the opening at the top of the door..everything. Before I could knock the door, Arvind came out of the door. He was sick, he mentioned this sometime back. Some trouble in breeting.

I hurried in telling him what I'm seeing. Strangely I could see the things behind me even though am facing Arvind. Yes some more machine-birds are forming against the black fighters. It was Mr. Nataraj, my school time chemistry-teacher behind me, who made me stopp abruptly and turn back.He is asking " perinagam..(Yes that bugger never called my name right..Grrrr. Well this is not the time to dispute about this). Can you explain me the application of Markowinkoff rule in halagon compounds ". I was baffled, going mad.

What is happening.when there is a such a war goign on .. you guys cant see that..I felt like tearing my hair..and I was about to do so..oops a severe ache on my palm ..My God wat is this pain. what happened to my hand.. Oh yes this is the injury due to the minor accident two days ago on Taverikari road Bangalore. Now I could feel a thick bandage on my left palm and a bright saturday 10:30 morning sunlight on my face..and I was pressing on my wound in my palm..!!! I was in my bangalore house and on my cot with a severe pain on my palm.

Mind, it has made an amazing receipe for avial (avial is a tasty curry made out of all the vegetables and curd, usally made on some special occasions) from my previous (or should I say precious) thoughts and presented me on that morning.

Let me attempt to put pieces in place. Or let me recreate, consciously, what mind had done when I was in my sub-conscious sleep.

I was watching "the beach show" in traveling & living last night featuring Australia. Was talking to Aravind who was sick and having some breathing trouble - hence Aravind on this receipe.Remember the news that all airports are kept on red-alert - this explains why all flights.Dont know where my chemistry-teacher and old house came from.

May be I should validate with V.Ramachandran for the connections I made.

Away we go

I love to travel. I like being in the move most of the time. And to my luck, my job & recent projects are such that I was having a pretty good time in seeing places. Been to US, East, west, and south parts. Singapore & Malaysia and a short stint to Europe too. Recently am wondering of living in Europe, specifically London. Though interested in travelling, am little hesitant in settling in some place, say US, for a while..for various reasons. But when someone who I know settles abroad - well not settling, I should say a 'long-term' - part of me feels jealous (a common man huh!!). I want the obvious wow-factor of foreign - the money, the car, the infastructre, the weekends and life. But without too much of alienation. Yes, I know its, too much to ask!!

I think this kind of fight should be in for everyone, I suppose.

What is the best place to live and raise ur family !! THis is exactly the quesion and confusion of Brut & veronica too.They decided to shortlist their options and check one by one. Their cousins, friends and relatives places are some of them. Travelling to each such places, they realised that each one of them is having a peculiar problem or issue which makes our couple indecisive - to move-on for the next in the list. Guess what they finally liked !! Watch it, its a fun movie, with a simple touching climax and a message in it.

I realized "Sam Mendes" directed this movie. Talking about this guy, one should watch "Revolutionary Road" - A fantastically made Drama.

Piece of adivce, have a comedy movie along with this :) I dont want to be cursed of not getting sleep !!

what is 2 + 2

Thought started when I was reading an article by late Sujatha. He is one of the design member of the EVM(Electronic voting machine) and he was giving a 'fitting' reply for Jayalalitha's claim(after she lost in the recent elections) that these machines are flawned and always voted in favor of opposite party even the voter chose otherwise.

His arguments...

1. Same machines were used in the previous election, when the Jaya's party won - why was she silent then?

and a little more technical explanation is this...

2)Lets say you key in 2+2 = in a calculator. Can the result be vary in different places? i.e., 5 in chennai, 6 in bangalaore and 12 in Delhi ?? Jaya's claim is as good as saying "yes" to the above scenario

EVM is not a "programmable" device like a computer instead it is a pre-programmed device - like a calculator...

I was wondering what if we really make the calculators processing "subjective". Put various personalities 'inside' the calculator and ask the same question...!!! obvious reasons names are mnemonic 'ed


When asked what is 2+2 to our folks of course across heirarchy this is what the answer is.. (Yes this is fictional..actual would be more dangerous & creative !!!)

SP: 2 + 2. Check with Nn about this. We have to make sure we are meeting the customer deadlines. He had a similar requirement.(similar what !!!)
Thanks SP we will do that..

KM: Based on the last Q1 results and from irwin's (CEO) directions, our current target for this Quater is not focusing on such things. We may revisit this in latter Quater this year..(My god for 2+2, ok sir, we will come next quarter. At least don't give similar answer for the hike this year!!).

Besides during the slump of 2001 most of the employees asked the management to have them retained - even if it means a pay-cut. Situation in 2009 may become worse than this. However I have put my word to bb and top management, and made sure, jobs are secured first and ( then We may worry about 2+2 ?? ). As I always say project's interest comes above all personal interests.(Am still searching for the person who suggested KM for this question. Man am feeling like coming out of my appraisal Gyan.)

SH:As mentioned in section 2.3.4.5.3 in assumption section of the xyz DD (design doc) we have clearly documented this..
(Documented what ??)
That this functionality will not be changed in the current release.

If you expect anything else, then it has to be a CR. (CR - Change Request...will do !!!)

SV: I need to check this with the team, but is this a requirement to be handled post-golive?

I'll send you a rough (answer ?? )estimation for this by today.

CK: No no ..we have to do the impacting for this change request and as part of this we may have to institutionalize the process we are going to follow for check-in, followed by commit and roll-back steps.

But CK..this is about...

Hear me out completely...

(Completely...u have more...ayyoo..me abscond )

BH: mmm...I tend to support Tony's view on this, but still we expect a clear documentation about the process from the vendor(my company - if my niece, doing 4th class, hears this she would assume I'm a mango vendor.)

MH: Ok Peri, let me test this in test instance...

Me: I think we haven't changed this since last release. What is the problem faced now?

Product-Support: Can you send us the log files and which version of the product are you in?

Measurement of girl's..

"Sangam".. This is Ashu.

"A single word ?!?! Is that a restaurant? Indian Place? Any food stuff.." This is me and Mithun.
Ashu looked again the card in hand for a couple of more second and,
"We know this place." and we went there yesterday...
Meanwhile the chorus is screaming..."time-up"!!

Me, "Yesterday?...I didn't go out with you yesterday..."

Is it "Copper restaurant", Mithun.
"Yes but only the first part" , Ashu relieved.
Mithun, "Copper ?"
Ashu,"You got it man..it is Copper", Chorus faded away..and Ashu went for the next card !!
Mithun, "Yea, you mentioned this today morning about this place..That helped "

3 Points added to our score card.

Ok. This is what is happening there..We were all playing "Taboo" in Mithun's house, it was Thursday evening 8:30 PM and
it was a sort of send away dinner for Priyanka and then to me too !! Myself, Mithun & Ashu were guys and Pallavi - Mrs.Mithun, Eena - Ashu's Mrs and Priyanka were the other folks.
Team as you could have guesses Guys vs. Girls !! It was Mithun's idea to start some game before starting dinner..and we started reluctantly, to our surprise we all had a great time after a very long time !!

Game is simple, its similar to pictionary or dump-chaddars.Variation is you will be given a card which will have a word - personality, place, game, instrument, technical term, ,movie,book and what not but generally known words!!! Besides the words to be identified it also mentions 5 words which you should not use while giving clues.(In the last, Metal, gold were the key words that you should not use.) This makes it very interesting. you should use some other words and let your team identify the word. There will be a member from the opponent watching the card to make sure you are not using the key-words mentioned :) !! And you can finish as many cards you could in a given time, 55 seconds. After drawing a card you can choose to ignore (pass) and draw the next one...only 2 passes allowed .

Sangam is an Indian restaurant where we usually go and last night we went to a different place called Copper - little high-end. Hence the clue :)

Game gets more interesting when you are able to crack words in a different way..and sometimes very funny. !!

Now its Pallavi's turn and the word is "Mega Byte". Key words - "Computer, Memory, Harddisk,Storage,file.." Irony all of us are from IT background except Pallavi. Poor dentist she has very little choice of ideas to convey..
This is how it went...
"How do you Save things.."
Girls,"Save...where? what?"
Pallavi,"When you have important details how do you save..."
By now I started laughing ...
Girls are clueless.."Saving you mean in computer??"
Yes yes ...!!!
Ok..Hardisk...
Pallavi, "ahh...no..but close.."
Priyanka & Eena, "USB..DVD..CD...Hard disk ?"
No..not like that...its..Oh god What term you use :)...
By now all others realized it some technology crap and we are happy that it reached the correct hands :).
Floppy disk..
Blue Ray DVD..

No, no ...How do you store...actually..
Girls,"This is how we store .."
No, I mean,its no like DVD, USB and all...
She is trying to find the word, to convey...Size / capacity..but couldn't !!
Finally we make enough noise to make sure no better words strike her!

Its Mithun's turn now,

Mithun,"Its Action...stuff."
Me, "You mean is this a movie."
Mithun,Yes it is...Its an action Movie..
A huge scream from Pallavi, "No you can't use word movie"
Mithun "No, I didn't but they guessed it..after that I can..."
Ok, this time we won :)...in this fight..but still the word..
Me 'So its an english action movie..?'
Yes...
More clues?

What clues..Its a bus movie..!!!
Bus movie..what is he talking about...action...bus !! didn't strike us.
Its a famous bus movie man..what else can I tell you...
Hero..? any known persons.
No...I can't !!
okk..wait wait...bust movie is that "Speed"
Bingo !!!


We also had a lot of hilarious moments...
It was my turn..
It's a movie name.."You have got a mail" My heart pounded this is an easy Taboo..and my favorite too. You have to get his...
I started, "this is a movie..."
Before I could finish, Pallavi pulled the card from my hand and throw it down !!!
What, why ...then I realized "Movie" is one of the key word in the list...In the enthu of the movie name, I forgot to see the list of keywords. !!
Mithun and Ashu went mad on seeing me loosing such an easy choice.

Mithun's Best..
-------------------
The best one is...this
Mithun draw a card...
He stares at the card for a time more that his usal...
We shouted...thorow it away..go for the next !!!
But he didn't...
He started talking...
This is the girl's..
Girls !!! The crowd becomes very-curious and more than myself and Ashu were looking each other..
Girls what ??
After a pause for half a second,,Mithun continued...
It is the measurement...guys use..
We, Measurement !!!
Dude, you said Girl before. Is that still valid ?
Yes..and he continued..
Girls beauty is ...measured by....and he slowed down..
Me, "Are you saying girl's beauty is measured by this..."

Pallavi started laughing (she is overseeing the card) and started beating Mithun playfully. Others were really puzzled, including us, what the word is...
We were also wondering...what happened to this guy...talking non-sense. !!

Me, "Dude that's not a general scale machi....isn't that vary by place and person...Can that be universal ??" I didn't know any of that sort..Ashu You ???
Ashu, "No idea man..am zero in that...!!"

By now everybody started laughing and started pulling Mithun's leg.!!!

Mithun now realized what he meant and tried to correct but it added more spice to it Net result is same..
Still we didn't get any clue.(Want to know the word...hold on for a while !!)


YoKo ono..
-----------
It was my turn...and The word was "Rail" and I thought of passing it...and choose the next card.
It was "Loaf", It was not very difficult, easier than the previous, for me. So I thought of try the next card...Greedy what else.
Infact Pallavi whoz overseeing my card was surprise when I just ignored such 2 easy cards...!!
Third card..when I draw...before me..She started laughing...and on seeing my reaction the whole crowd went in to blast...

I have no clue how to convey this word..nor do I know what it means..I asked pallavi...do you know what this means...??
Pallavi...No, But all I know is, this is your last choice..and the crowd laughed again !!!
Me..My god this is unfair...how the hell am I going to do this...
Ashu and Mithun, Try something da...dont give up we have no choice and have some time too...do something..
I have no idea what this is...is this a name ? movie? place?
I thouht of desecting the word...but still how...where to start...
I said..guys..let me break the word...It sounds like some chinese word...This name is like Yahoo!! And then I have no clue to tell...
Pallvi..."Yahoo..where the hell yahoo is comming from..".

I finally gave up with 5 more seconds to spare...the word is "YOKO ONO". My team went mad when they knew I left Rail & Loaf only to find this YOKO ONO.
Mithun, 'Dude you need to be very carefull when you are chosing your bride .. '!! Yes good piece of advice !!

Other easy finds..
----------------------
I drew a card.. All the words you could think of to explain this was given in the key-word list, Easy word though.
Me, "What are the English months...start saying..Jan, Feb"
Ashu, "January, February, March.."

I interrupted and stopped Ashu, "that is the one.."

"March" ?

Now, this is a celestial object, in the sky, and it sounds like this month...
Ashu, "Mars?"
You got it. (Word is Mars, and the keywords are like 'planet','sun','earth','sky').

Other one..
Word is simple,Priyanka as verifying the card, was wondering how I would convey this..
I took a pause and said, "Start - opposite?"
Ashu "Stop" !!
That was really quick. (key words are like 'signal' and henceforth..)

We had a nice dinner that day. It was a vegetable pulav, white rice with egg-kurma (so much of egg and thick gravy) so tasty, Pallavi had really made a very nice dinner. How could I forget the starter,it was a very tasty Bhel poorri..I had two rounds of white rice and then Rasam. On seeing me tasting Rasam, they were wondering if I could have Sambar which was made the day before and refrigerated... I said...please,old Gravies are usally tastier..and yes it was really tasty. We finished dinner with a tasty dhal payasam (Paruppu payasam). So many tasty dishes in very short time, Lucky Mithun !!!

Well not so lucky that day..for the clue he has given a quite while. That clue became the talk of the day,infact for couple of days. The word for which he thought or clued as the measurement of girls beauty is butt. Even if I would agree with him in some cases, I won't generalize it and more importantly not in public :). Irony is the word in the card was indented to refer not the butt what we were talking, since it has 'cigarette' as one of the key word !! deceased minds all think alike ..God save Mithun !!!

It was a great fun and thanks for Mithun & Pallavi for inviting us !!

Invention of..

You getup in the morning and all-set to start your week, you go to office, when you hear you would probably be fired. And it’s just a matter of getting the official confirmation from upper-management - which may happen in a day or next. Painfull part is this news is known to everybody in the office - your peer, your secretary, admin and who not. To add a twist to this lets say you too were already fearing it may happen and was just wanting something miracle to happen that could stop this.

Sad news always happens in a bunch..

The last night you had a date with your potential-fiancée, who not only thinks you are un-attractive loser but also said that on your face. And while leaving she said this would be the last date with you and she would never - ever date with a person like you.This shame happened when you ask her number for 'future correspondence'

Back to the office - your secretary is saying you don’t have any messages today and she isn’t going to bother for any, since she, as everybody in the office knew that this would be your last day or the day before that.

You say, But 'am still not fired' so can you get message for which

she says "In any case you will not get message because people who would call you knew that you would be fired and hence cannot hear back from you and hence they wouldn't call you in the first place. so no worry of collecting messages for you" So logical isn't it.

Needless to tell how you feel. This is what happens if some genius in the world has not invented the thing called 'lying', yet!!. The whole world is blatantly truth full and honest.This is the plot of the movie 'The invention of Lying..'. I thorougly enjoyed the movie but with some slow and dull and some maturing moments. but overall it’s very good.

I hate watching movies alone. But given a choice of sitting idle on a weekend and starring at the window and refreshing the orkut page, its better to watch a movie alone even my friend is not so caring about a movie.I checked with ashu and is not so interested in movie..so I started alone.Its not so difficult to find theatres(Regal cinemas) considering my directional skills I would give a rating E(xceeded expectation) to myself!!...What you have read is the plot of the movie


My favorite part of the movie is when Ricky cryingly boosts the morale of her dying mother in the her death bed. The doctor had already made every attempt to fear her about the death by telling all and only the truth about her decease and its final stage. It’s just a simple lie he tells that when you die you go to the wonderful place. No pain,no frustration. After death you will be with the people who you like the most, you go to the place which you wanted to live for ever. and so froth type..you could draw some parallels towards Munnabhai's. Latter aspect of using the same concept to explain about 'the man in the sky' is slightly boring..

Overall a feel good movie and you can watch it for "Ricky Gervais". This is the first time am watching him. I saw "ghost town" briefly. This guy seems to be very good..need to watch a more of his..

kids-titbits..

Tidbits - kids.

It was Sunday and I was in the middle of my cooking & TV, it was a Tamil music channel where the anchor of the programme was asking simple questions to the caller - not like a GK or something but like asking opinions sort. A kid from Coimbatore called and she claimed doing 4th standard in a local school. And here is the question to the kid
in your class you do fight with your friends and classmates ... do you? Kid, 'yes, sometimes'. In such occasion after some time you will rejoin again - who will initiate this talking again or who will go talk first - will that be you or you will wait for your friends-turned-foe-for-the-time being ?? The kid without any thinking or hesitance said 'I' will go and talk first'. There was a big blush in the anchors face and said 'that was a real cuuuuuuuute answer ' and said 'All the best kid' !!

For a moment even I couldn’t control my surprise - Such a realistic and genuine reply !!! Hats off...When we are all kids we don’t have this ego, head-weight, rage and so on..!!! Don’t know when we start getting them ...!!


In Bruges...

I was watching a move - "In Burges"..There was a seen in the movie when a local robber who barges in to a church seeking for a confession to the father.
Father asks "what sin you committed my son", 'I murdered a person' is his reply.’ What for did you murder ?' There was a brief silence when the father repeated the question.
"For money father. I murdered for money". Father, 'who did you kill my son?' They guy 'You. I killed you'. "What, whom did you kill ??' The guy 'Are you fukin deaf I murder you..' saying so he shot the father with is gun. 4 rounds. One of the bullets passed ahead of the room . This guy now moves in to the room to see if there’s anybody ..There was a small kid with blood strain on his forehead and a small paper in his hands - kid is waiting for his turn of confession - The paper in his hand reads (1) For being moody (2) For being bad in maths (3) For being sad.


Crickematics..

Recently there was an event conducted in Bangalore by a publisher to unveil a mathematics book for kids. This book is little unorthodox - names crickematics. Theme of the book in simple - a school kid who is very fond of cricket but not interested in studies - So that author takes cricket as a medium and tries to educate that even for cricket mathematics is important...cute !!Something like - if you don’t know how to calculate average how will you know your score average - so it’s trying to teach maths with cricket’s influence. Rahul Dravid was the chief guest of this event and most of the audiences were kids from 8 - 12 years old.

After usual intros the event was open for Q & A for Dravid. Before any questions to Dravid, Organizes asked kids to limit questions only to general topics, schools, studies and mathematics. No questions on cricket to Dravid. Having said that the first question fired to Dravid was (I think some 10 yr old.).."Uncle how did you hit Six in cricket match" After a pause of 2 seconds the whole auditorium burst in to laugh...After saying no questions on cricket...will you classify this as a cricket question ? Or a maths question ?? Kids are genius !!!!

Two characters...

Two characters - far apart from their personalities, upbringing, ideologies, and perception on life & society and what not... when they meet and forced to travel together...

Character One : A typical US-return-type guy - who always carry a 'bisleri' bottle with him- who thinks Credit card is something universal and finds it hard to believe the fact that there are places in India which don't know credit card and for that matter not even ration card - who doesn't like queues, thinks here(India) even after spending extra money he is not getting ahead of the queue - who doesn't care about the people standing in the queue but just want to be ahead of all them because he can throw some money - a guy who thinks he is one that India is privileged to get because he is earning money in dollar-converted-rupee - who even changes his name to "Ars" - to make his US employer's life easier when called - where his actual name is Anbarasu a true Tamil name - A man who has never seen the reality part of 'the' common Indian - Having said that this guy is not all bad but just very selfish - but deep down the heart he is a humane - who will cry on seeing people suffering but just that never get a chance to see such things in life yet.


Character Two: This is the guy who our first character has never seen before and could not have dreamt about. A simple blue-collared employee - who strongly believes in communism and is part of a employee union - Fighting or rather protesting even to get a hike of Rs 200 weekly with the employer - Takes life as it comes - who usually travels in unreserved-class train - but always gets ticket - who is willing to stand in queue for a genuine reason and never want to jump ahead of the queue - who even carries a small meal covered in a news paper while traveling in a low-cost-flight - who has lots of friends across states and has good network still down to earth - who thinks life can be runned with any money in hand - who thinks its possible to even travel from Orison to Chennai with just Rs. 15 in hand. and more interestingly will find a mode of transport for that just Rs.15 - which usually baffles the other character - a guy who met and came alive from a drastic accident some years back and has his face damaged - damaged to the extent that it gives a real, scarry look - with multiple scar in his face - full of yellowish untamed-teeth - wearing a 2 inch-spectacle - and with one of his leg shorter than the other due to this accident and always lymph while walking - a regular blood donor - who always fight against employer-exploiting-employee - who carefully carries a piece of cucumber and salt-chilly mix along during a flight trip - simply put a Practical Guy in mid 30s - who can never impress anybody at first look instead make people think who the hell this cripple is and what damn thing this guy knew - people didn't even bother to stare or look at him - who believes god is not a 3rd person of some divine entity but the one who empathize on the sufferings of others (which happens to be the theme of this...) - who argues, rationally, for anything and has a reasoning for everything - who even gets angry in a very cool composed manner


Character - 1: Played by Madhavan. Typically playing against Kamalhasan is just impossible - Everyone had failed - be if Arjun, prabhudeva or whoever - you just cant match to this magical name - Kamal. But Madhavan is different - may be the gravity and casting of the character. This guy has really done a great job. At times he might have surprised Kamal too.

Character - 2: Kamalhaasan. The names says it.Should I specify anything - even after this!!! Such a heavy character Kamal just carries so simply and casually. Am satisfied to see Kamal back again in such a landmark type character. In my view this is "The character" of the decade. With the due-respect to other India actors (note: Not just kollywood) nobody can even dare to take this role and match Kamal. Once you have seen the promo of this movie - kamal with a scar face and thick glass - Its too hard for anybody to resist from watching this movie. One request .pls..pls..for heaven sake DONOT remake this move to other language and have some 'stars' playing this role which will only bring shame to that movie industry - a similar nonsense already happened in the name of "Dayavan" already. This is one movie where you can enjoy Kamal to the fullest and will have a complete satisfaction of watching a real-good movie. truly a real good movie

Fact is this movie was declared Flop because of poor reception in box-office...but I have seen this movie may be 10 times now and I own a DVD. The theme of the movie , only the theme is based on the English movie - Planes, trains and automobiles. However the rest is real genuine.

Moral of the story !!!

This is a funny incidence that happened in our project

Poet: The term usually we use for someone who talks..and only talks, without making any sense and having less understand of the project, technology, customer requirement and what ever you needed to know in a project - in other words a typical damager piece, I mean a manager piece.

MH: He is one of the very soft spoken members in the team, who will usually be taken a free-ride whenever people feel like. He never says No. Be it a tech-lead, manager, subordinate and even for people from other project. Very calm and always a soft target fro "career-climbers”!!!

Situation: MH is recently moved to this "support" group which is primarily doing production support - obviously he didn't like the but in the name of recession this happened.
Poet is the co-lead of this support team and also MH's X lead. May be MH always wanted to give-it-back to Poet. Now the

Story:

Poet: Hi MH. We have an issue reported by the customer on X (lets call the module as X). And we have to fix it.

MH: (Annoyed by this attitude). Ok 'll have a look. It will take 5 days to fix it.

Poet: 5 days !! That is too much. It shouldn’t take more that 2 day to solve this.

(This rubbed salt on his injury - since this poet has no clue what it takes to fix it.)
MH: Do you understand the issue customer report on "X" .

Poet: I went thru the issue but No I didn’t understand.

MH: Do you know how X is designed.

Port: mm...No not really.

MK: And about the customization part done on X.

Poet: No. But see this is important issue report and wee...

..Abruptly Cut by MH..with the raise in voice .

MK: Do you know how this is expected to work. And are the operations are using the same way it is expected to behave.

Poet: you can ask them!! (them being customer !!!)

MK: So you don’t know. Finally do you know what the problem user is facing while doing this?

Poet: (Silently Nodding the head...saying no) !!! But we committed the ETA as 2 days for this .

MK: (With a volume which nobody had seen MH using till day ) So. You don’t know the A, B, C of this, nor the issue what customer is reported. But you went ahead and committed 2 days without knowing anything.

Poet: (Caught red-handed and silent now.).

MH: Never come to me with an ETA. I'll give the ETA.

Poet: (Still silent. About to return to the desk, after getting butchered by MH so openly..)

MH. So what is the Moral of the Story ?!?!?!?

Poet: With a 'what do you mean' look on her face ..turned to MH again..

MH: This issue will take 9 days Now. So inform the customer.

Nice Business !!!

I hesitantly agreed to go for Kempfort with my mum. Going to this place was a good experience and you will have the sense of satisfaction and silence..But that was years ago. Now this place is made as market or a shopping maal..Of course there is a shipping maal besides..And I hope this shiva statue was build by the same guy.

Anyway the next question was the commute...last time I took my mum in my bike..But this time am not planning to, first of all the roads are not same .. Too many humps and bumps , plus she get tired soon and may feel body ache after sting in bike for so long. Mum insisted to go in bus, which I would prefer if I was alone or with somebody else...But it may neither be a good experience. It's Sunday and I don't know the route#. Still I thought it's good to know. Just in case. BMTC & Google combination comes handy..Wasting 20 mts in google, suggested me to take route 441-A and 441-D. "But 441-A thru K is knows for its delay and rare-occurrences.." one of the user's comments warned. Ok point taken.

"I'll get ready in 10 mts and we are taking an auto.." Mum said Koki....but.."Busses are not frequent .. May be we will see while coming back" I cut her next question. sensed my irritation on her bias to BMTC....she said ok..whatever u say. !! This is the sad part, I always wanted to give her a comfortable experience for the shor dration she would be in bangalore. But she think she would be a burden to myy weekends..though I was litreally have nothing todo on weekends !!! Its too diffucult to explain and I didn't try either..

10:45...we took an auto and moved from madiwala. It was Madiwala-st.john's signal and waiting..this..thing ..touched me . I turned and it is this uniche-begger demanding money. I always had a kinda creepy feeling on seeing them and this time she/he is standing next to me...first i said no and this again touched my knee..and this time my mum was about to shout and then I asked if she got some coins...Then send this back with 2 rs. Iam wondering what is wiht this people ? I heared these are more in bombay and seen them in trains and station. But nowadays we started seeing more of them in traffic-signals and distrubing others..can't someone control this..with due respect and compassionate of the problem for them....what they are doing irriatte others and would never make their life better. Atleast when people...say no..they can politely go the next one...but these beggers never leave you and make a seen out of this and humulite you by all possible means..one in train...(TODO:suges story.)


Finally reached kemp-fort and was entering the temple .. well you will not see any signs of temple..but only series of shops selling idols, phots, books music cds...and what not. Trule you will see only this at first..You will never get a feeling of entering a holy-shrine on temple.

We bought this archana-set which costed 25 Rs. I wasn't interested but..didn't say any. Then we were asked to but token for chappan 1 Re per set. hmm...it used to be free..ok. Then we are goign thru a series of queues & lanes which you have to take in any big temple. All this way they have kept a silver bowl which was having some coins..and this bowl bein tighthend by a bold which was projecting inside..and this is hurting everybody walking in the lane. Who the geniues deicded to have this..idiot you have to be carefull or you wwill bleed in you fore-arm. Then we are entering the queue which leads in to the passage where shiva-lingaams collected from different parts of Indai were kept..or atleast it claims.

First we were asked to but an archana ticket. "IS this fro everybody? I asked irritantly.." No sir but for doing this archana- you need buy this ticket. hmm..10 more rs "Swaga..". Then we handed this arhcana ticket and the set to the poojari (ticket counter) who is actaully doing this archana. Intresting point is he has kept a minature of shiva-linga and making offerings to it for the people who needs archana. As always mum started saying the name & star of the family members one by one (this is how archana's are done..if the arhcana is for god wouldn't GOD knew this ? or is this nam & start an indexed-field to makes god's query run faster and identify whom is requesting this archana ? - sometimes i do agree with people like E.V.R Periyar.). Back to the poojari, this guys was so arrogant, careless & negligent started saying the mantra even before my mum finsished tellig all the index-input-fields. these bare bodied ticket-collectors.. I mean poojaris are not even bothering what people are thinking and asking ..May be they are rated by their margins and turn-overs whihc depens on the number-of-archana-tickets sold per day.

Now am cursing openly and my mum feels uncomfortable and Idont want her to ..so kept my critics. Then the next Ticket 10 Rs per head to enter that small path where all the shiv-lingas are kept. This either was free and now it s charged..WIth the due respect the idols and things kept inside are like a kids play...I dont know why people are so mad about this and waste their 10 Rs.

s
Not sure if those IIM kids who deliberatly stay away from attending campus interviews (claiming they want to pursue their dreams) do have this idea in mind...I mean starting a temple !!! Why not After all this is THE business which has no recession..infact even if the global econmy sinks down...you can make one more archana for the global economy for the lord..lakshmi who is the god of money !! May be this is already there who knows.

1, 2 Left grape vine , 3 4 right V , 5 6 right Mamboo...

For those who wonder what the title is ..pls wait for a while..

Well Iam not a regular and serious blogger ..whatever I've written were to kill my time and loneliness in my last official visit to napa valley. After my return to Blr, Jun'07 its hard even to glance orkut. IT has deployed all sorts of new policies & technology to block any such social-networking sites...only for our fresher colleague to crack it with a new idea ...

One day I saw Suhas and Amit (colleagues of mine) happily browsing Orkut.Till then I could only see an email intimation about somebody scrapped me and I asking my some other online friends to read the scrap for me.. and at time they made a hell mockery of my Employer !!! and then comes these folks explained me the cache-refresh trick (we called it that way latter). Idea is simply search orkut in google (thats'nt blocked) and on the results click cached-pages ...and u r in...!!! Can you guys believe that...All you need is out of the box thinking

Then I was busy for almost 10 months ...not much of orkut..no blogging...not in touch with friends. But in the meanwhile I did something to keep myself away from boring..I started Aerobics...(Yes the same one you see in some TV channels in the early morning) It started as a joke and one Sunday myself and sugesh(my roomy) just went to "look-for" aerobics classes..we found one close by and we inquired in general about the classes.!!! Seeing at our "noviceness" the trainer (Archana !!) suggested us to take a training class for a week, 6:30 AM daily, and then decide.

Well all set and planned, Our aerobics-registration was the talk & joke of the day for our roomies..Reason being, my partner was very much known for his "commitment".
Well we guys managed to be thick skinned ... and sugesh keep assured me "Anna dont worry na..we will make it..World will make fun of us..but one day they will realise..". Well only then I realised about his being-commited !! Anyway I've no choice...Besides adding onemore go-live experience in my CV I've also added 5+ Kgs to myself Am in the verge of joining fulltime 38-incher club. (By then not all my pants were 38)!!


Rocky Balboa was jalking in Pennsylvania streets in the early morning for his second match with the whole crowd wishing and the kids following him with such a beautiful sound track by.....wait a minute...oops...it my alarm-tone and ..why the hell now..oops its

Monday 5:30 AM - First Alarm : No response.

5:39: AM -Second Alarm..and I snoozed...

5:48:AM - Next alarm...(Ctrl+Y!!)

5:55: Finally I managed to woke up and awake my friend too (latter that became tradition), and moved in to the bathroom. Digestion-clock not accustomed to this sudden time change...it will catch-up soon no issues :) Only thing I prayed was not to intervene in my class !!

6:20 Me.Finding my socks... Sugesh: still snoring in the bed..I shook him and reminded about the class (Thank god my other roomies were also in the same state..so no humiliation...)

6:23: I'm ready..and Suge getting in to bathroom..

6:30...Sugesh out with tooth brush in ...searching for a tracks.

6:35..Iam restless now..Sugesh managed to get his brothers track..but now hez hunting for shoes..

6:37: Found one...but hez little disappointed that its not matching his tracks.. :)

6:42 we both ready...and started moving out.

6:45 We saw a gang of mostly Maamis and couple of chicks in the dance floor...well delayed by 15 mts. The batch has already finished the usuall warm-up (10mts) and started the regular. Trainer welcomed us and suggested to follow the team. It was fun on the first day..to see ourself doing steps...I tried to avoid eye-contact with sugesh..else both of us would have burst into laugh.. (Though aerobics is new to my friend, thats not the case with me..I had been for 2 months just 3 yrs before and discontinued :)..Well I'll share that stoy in a different topic..)

7:35 AM..
At our level Aerobics is full of steps and sychnrono which will come only from practise. End of the class archana adviced not to be bothered about missing steps...also adviced not to stop in the middle.

In the josh of first class we didn't realise we climbed 3 floors up with 12+12 narrow steps to each floor...Man now I could see both of ankles & kness rushing down in the steps..with no contorl of brakes :(

7:58: We defended ourselves that we will be commited for this ...only to our friends mockery !!
Bu the irony is we did continue the class for 3 months and in fact we liked it. Roomys were waiting for day us bunking class but it never happened :)

To their further surprise,we inspired Pradeef, our friend, to join us. Though Sugesh was bunking class once in a while,I was almost regular for 3 months (excluding mondays on the weekend I travel to hometown) untill my travel to Singapore. I did see a weight loss of 4.5 kg and see my tummy melted a bit. More than that I felt a kind of freshness and confidence at work in office. I started buying couple of slim-fit shirts.

Types of illakannam...

It was a pin-drop silence, in the whole class, when Geetha entered with the exam papers...

Well, it is little exaggeration to say the whole class with the strength being 7. Yes 5 boys and 2 girls, in 4th standard A section (:-)) . This is the school where I did my primary.My Roll# is "1", yes iam the first student of the small-convent in my place.

Now Geetha (maam's name) is getting ready to distribute the papers. As expected, not much of surprises in the papers. Its always tamil which will be the deciding factor of topper. As Iam always good in spelling mistakes. I remember once I made a blunder for the question "what are the types of Tamil ilakkanam" (Ilakkanam in tamil means grammer...) which made me 'famous' across the staffs

My Progress-report consistentnly have comments "correct your spelling mistakes".It will cause malways loose 5 marks, in my overall score just for the spelling mistake.

This time my Mum broke my hand with enough dictation (from a month before this exam) in tamil to ensure no-spelling-mistake. And even I had spend around 10 mts of my exam time just to make sure spellings are intact.

"Babu .." Maam is calling me, Iam walking confidently, thinking, no minus-5-mark-this time. Maam was suprised,stared at the paper for a second, and handed over to me, with a meaningfull smile. I could understand her good-work-keep-it-up-smile at me.

After a pause she said, "This time your spelling mistae costed 10 marks ...".
Whaaat....10 marks..Noo.. cannot be possible, there must be something wrong ... I wanna to shout !!! By now Iam so tensed and was turning the pages, to check for the red-ink markings in the paper.

To my surpise I didn't find any.Then why 10 minus.."Is this my paper..??". I rushsed to the paper head , in the first page to check ..Yes Roll# is correct...name too..
But wait a minute..why red marking next to my name...oopss...


Half-Yearly-Exam

Roll No:1
Name: Babu.T
Subject: Tamilee (red maked...!!!)


There is a spelling mistake in the subject name - Tamil. I wrote it as Tamilee...(instead of la..I used lee..).

She addded "Nobody had ever made a spelling mistake in the subject name...".

Hmm..a perfect sample of "Operation success, but patient ??? "

Epilog :
1.Without any exaggeartion, this is one of The best school, now, in my place.

2.Correct answer for the question "types of ilakanam in Tamil"
eyar tamil, isai thamil, Nadagath Tamil & Pechuth tamil . I made a spelling-mistake in the last one...Yes you got it right..

Taking a Break !!!!!

A loud alarm sound hammered in the middle of my sleep. It was 3:30 AM in the mornning and I was supposed to catch a flight to SFO (Napa), early in the morning. Being not completely out of jet-lag, my eyes look blood in the showcase mirror.

Some how manged to get ready and pack things (good that I didn't unwind much of my packages from India). My cab arrived 5:15 , 15 mts before the scheduled time, and now Iam on my way to Logan Intl. Aiport. I hate a calm and silent environment when Iam moody. I wanted to talk any bloddy thing in that chill mornining. Luckily the driver is a talkative person (thank god) !!!

We were talking generally, about the weather, not-so-snowy-winter , global warming, various attraction in Napa, SFO..a lot.
Then our discussion slowly turned to business. I asked him (Mark is what his name is)...

Me : Wher do u live and how long are you with the CLI (chlemsfor limo service).
Mark : Iam in New Hampshire (a state close to Boston) and around an year with CLI.
Me: What do u do before this..
Mark: (After a pause.). I was a program manager with a telecom company for 8 years which latter acquired by Ciso.
Me : Excuse me....what did u say..
Mark: As a Program manager in a startup , (by now I am almost speechless )Then I stick with Cisco for 3 years, to get all the benifits.

Then mark continnued saying "We made telecom product for....^(^*%&^%()(Q&W%EWQ*_)WE (I couldn't any of the technical jargon or the business terms he used.)

I was totoally puzzled ..Why the hell a Program mnager would quit the job and become a cab-driver !!!I still couldn't digest what he said. !!! Finding it difficult to control my curiosity, I asked him the same question.

Me : But YYYYY !!!! You were a prog-manager, then for what under the sun, did you quit and join as a driver !!!
Mark: I wanted to take a break !!!! Well I have been manging clients, controlling projects,travelling for 20 years. I made enough money for me and my family is settled (His eldeest son in a s/w engg and his daughter is a student!!!).

I MAY go back to IT an year from now, if I got bored. Life as a cab-driver is cool. I just have to attend 3 or 4 clients a day, and that even if I wish !! I dont need to travel to any place , I can stay with my family all the time. I can play golf (!!!) with my son on weekends and can watch base-ball when ever I wanted.

I almost went UNCONSIOUS on hearing this !!!!

Mark also said that he is married for last 27 years and his wife is working in a retail company (donno the designation) He also said it is his wife's work-benifit which allow him to take a break for a while !!!

I usally tip the cab driver with 3 or 4 $ (though it is not needed since it part of the bill). I decided not for this time !!!

I have come across the term CONTENTED many times in books. But this is the first time I'm meeting such a person !!!

Best songs of 2006.

Its time to take stock on songs relesed this year. Lets go by the traditional count-down with 10 songs of 2006. This is based on my intrests and my opinion not biased on any movie/music director.

Off late iam not in touch with the latest releases,i catchin-up though, so movies released after Mid-Nov, I'm sorry.

Ok Start musik...


10. Kanavae kalaikirathe.. ...(ALAGAI IRUKIRAI BAYAMAI IRUKIRADHU - AIBU)



Yuvan shankar, he is one of the most succesfull Music.director now. If you see the number of albums this year by him its huge.But neither the quality nor the standard is compramised. Esply his BGM in Pudhupettai is excellent and well acclaimed.

Off late he has become a good singer too. Most of the songs in this movie are sung by him, and esply this song is too good. Simply superb lines from N.Muthukumar.

http://www.musicindiaonline.com/p/x/8V7gummCot.As1NMvHdW/

9. Paartha Mudhal Naalae ....(VETAYADU VILAYADU)



Harris Jeyaraj + Gautham, a succesfull combination again rocked with VV.
Nice song,I dont know the lyricist. A perfect melody from Bombay Jeyashree again. Cinemotagraphy was simple and good. Personally I dont like kamal running behind girls and romancing...ayoo...Kamal, hez not a artisit to make any such normal hero...which anybody can do,I dont want my-kamal to do these roles. Directors, pls think, are we not wasting Kamal, the same mistake we committed on the legend, Shivaji Ganesan ???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCYdSMxmZ4Q




8. Idam Porul Parthu .. (CHITTIRAM PESUTHADI)



This movie is a surprise gift for the tamil cinema.Though the "Vaala Meenu" song rocked all the nuke and corner of TN, this is a beautiful song, with a nice choreogrpahy. Iam not sure about other albums of this music director. His music is fresh, re-recording is ok. A good sign of fresh blood in music. Need to wait and watch his other albums.

http://www.musicindiaonline.com/p/x/Ar3g1Nepft.As1NMvHdW/

7. Kannai vittu kannimaikal, vidai kettal.. (PATTIAL)
6. Pooga pooga vanam therikirathe ... (PATTIAL)



This movie, though itis not a super-duber hit, it made a decent box-office. Songs & BGM from Yuvan is one of THE Factor. Well as I already mentioned about Yuvan, this song he personally voiced and , I become a fan of his voice !!! I guess yuvan controls the pulse & taste of tamil-songs-community !!

"Poga poga ..." song is a nice peppy number and the thme is just simple and good !!
"Namma kaatula.." from Raja's voice is a surprise gift in this movie. Overall its a good musical album !!

5. Newyork nagaram...(JILLENDRU ORU KADHAL)



There was a huge fight in an orkut community, that this is the best song of the year !! And the reason could be obviously ARR.
In my view, Yes this is a just a good song, as good as any other numbers , but not to the extent of saying it is the best.
But I like Singer-ARR, more than the Music-Director-ARR in this song. Had the same song been presented by any other music director, would that reached this level ?? I dont think so..it is just ARR factor which pullled this song.

Not because I'm not a great fan of ARR.If you really want to appraise ARR, then listen to RangDeBasanti !! You will realise who ARR really is, not in Jullendru oru kathal. He just rocked in BGM & Songs !!


4. Unparrvayil paithiam aanean...(SOMETHING SOMETHING)


Devisri prasad, though not a full time-tamil-music-director, hez my favourite. Be it a kuthu song (Sachien, Vadi Vadi..) be it a melody (Aaru, Sachien) and BGM too (all movies), Hez different and good. Though he hasn't noted well as compared to Yuvan & Harris , these time, iam always looking forward for his albums !!!

This song is a nice melody, I like the way the song starts and slowly the way it gains tempo in the middle !! Also the flute interlude inbetween, simply superb !!!!


3. Manjal veyil malayaile .. (VETAYADU VILAYADU)


Harris Jeyaraj at his best !!!
Vijay+Hari, romantic-lyrics,nice beats, beautiful choroegraphy !! No wonder why this song here.
Iam not sure about the lyricist (N.Muthukumar??). But he needs a special mention here, pure tamil words (tough these days !!!).

Esply Harris beats @ lines "vannangal vannangal attra valiyil valiyil sila ... nadukkiral-- nadukkiral "
is excellent !!!

2. Oodivaa kathalee, siru kaatrai thalai koothavaa..(AIBI)
This is not biased decission. You will understand if you listen to this song from N.MuthuKumar and vocal from Yuvan, along with the picturization - Excellent !! I donno y this song was not part of the main-stream, it will come as a bit-song, may not exactly bit, may be for 3.5 mts.

This is the reason y I like Yuvan + N.Muthukumar combination.

1. Sudum nilavu, sudatha suriyan...(THAMBI)



Viaramuthu + Vidyasagar + UnniKrishnan
Needless to mention about Vairamuthu, I donno how old he is now, but see the songs.
"Sudum nilavu, sudatha surian..." even a person who dont know about the cast, will tell, for sure, this Must be from Vairamuthu.

A trademark-vairamuthu lines !!

Unnikrishnan, Iam not sure, if hez singing songs these days, but this is to be show-cased !!
Best part of this song is, music, never tries to dominate the lyrics,a much-needed one for Vairamuthu's songs, always (which was alwayst he case of IR's and never happens in ARR's) !! After Chandramuki, Vidyasagar come back strongly with Thambi !!!

Casino Royale...To b a double 0, you have to kill atleast 2

First time when I saw bond movies, I was wondering, why can't bond be a "normal" human being ASWELL, besides his own style !!

Casino Royale is the answer...

Daniel Craig's rugged look, adds to it. Hez not so handsome as Borson or Roger Moore or Clive Owen (who turned down the offer of acting as bond) but defenitely, hez more MANlier than any of the previous Bonds. Any critic, about his fitness for the role, disappears in the first seen !!!

Actions - At its best. One of the best chasing sequence, I've seen in the recent times. When the vitim jumps and running acroos in to differnt floors, plan view of the camera was a brilliant work !!! Nerve biting stunts..!!! Two Thumbs-up for the stunt-director !!! Make sure you are not missing this chasing sequence...!!!

Bond, by design, is egoistic, arrogant and this is more revealing this movie,since this is based on the first bond novel. May be that is the reason he is not so womanizer in this movie..but not completely zero !!!

In an "intmate" seen (Ivana & Bond),Ivana asks..
Ivana: You always like married woman, don't you..
Bond: I dont want to get into any issues !!

In an other seen Bond to Green..
Bond: You are not my type...
Green : (because Iam) Smart..??
Bond: Single !!

If you are a bond-girl either you will be a bond girl again, or you will showup in Austin-power's.Naah, this is not the case for Eva Green, she is smart, little hot,makes bond chase her, makes him cry. Certainly Not-yet-an-other-bond-girl !!

Villan has deviced a new Way of toturing Bond in this movie, Nobody might ever have thought about this , EVER...When he take away succh a huge knotted, thing!!, you would have, no clue of wat hez going to do with that..But, Man when he does that...OMG - You feel like you are...oops you better watch it !!!

Bond starts the show saying "To be a 0 0 you have to kill atleast two", displaying his arrogance, cannot-control-me-attitue and egoistic character.

Brilliant action, rocking stuncts, great music, little emotions, more stylish, simple script, yet-classical,and PG-13 :-)

WHen the villan shouts, "whoz that",
Bond says with a stengun the most iconic line of the cinema Histroy "The Name is Bond, James Bond " and departs !!!

In my view Casino Royale tops any other bond-movie.

You are still a good kisser...

Everybody loves Raymond :

Time : Before marriage of Ray & Debra.

Ray works as service man for a sofa company. Debra (knows Ray some how) complains that he did tighten one of the sofa's leg properly and wants him to fix it soon.

Ray arrive Debra's house and she was in kitchen.

Ray: Hi, is it the left leg...
D: yeah, it is..
R:Ok, I will get it done....
(Ray tries to tighten it and finds that he can't tight it further)
R:This is not loose. (Looking at Debra) Are you sure this is loose ?
D: Yeah, Iam sure.
R: No it is not, I cant tighten it further.
D:Oh is it, I thought it was loose.
(After a pause..) I've cooked some food and seems it is more, you want to have some ??
R:(With his typical innocent look) Oh yeaH sure sure, (pause) wrap it up , I'll have it in my truck.
D: (disappointed by this, but tries to hide her disappointment)Well if you want to have it HERE, have it..
R: (again with a typical look)Oh ok..(After a pause) Did you cook this expecting some guests, and they didn't showup ??
D: (Smiles at him & in a low voice)No they are here..
R: (Puzzled by the response, and started eating ...)
R: wat is this ??
D: Oh this is lemon chicken.
R: Oh this is great...I can have this for my whole life...(pause) I have more...
D: Oh really, do u like this. Actually nobody likes my cooking (smiles at him, a little pause,). Ray your family seems to be nice ...
R: Yeah they SEEMS to be nice ...(after a pause) so sofa's left leg is not really loose isn't it !!This is all you made...
D: (Smiles at him )Do you want to drink something...
R: Yeah sure....wait I will get it (saying so he rushes to the fridge..and some comdey of err happens, debra fell down. Ray helps her in gettin up, when Debra pull him down and started kissing him hardly..).
D: Dont think Iam like this always..
R: No noo...naah...
D: You are a good kisser..
R: No no no, I think u r in shock
D: No NO, you are really a good kisser....

(Scene change...)

Time : The whole above conv. is in flash back. Ray and Deb, comes back to present (after flash back)
Ray: can I have more lemon chicken...
D: yeah your chicken ..(thorows carelessly chicken in to Ray's plate from distance, ..)Howz it ray ??
R: Yeah it is great..(a small pause) still great....
D: (Kises Ray and says )You are still a good Kisser...

Camera zooms out...in the next table 3 of their kids are having their dinner...
!!!

Carrer minded = back stabber !!!

private versus inheritance...

Bunch of computer science majors were listening to a lecture about java programming at a university. After the lecture a man leaned over his front to reach for a women's ....

Woman: "Hey! It's private OK!?"

The man hesitated for a second looking confused.

Man: "But I thought we were in the same class?

PS. OOPS, You must to know this to understand !!!!