Where do I end

Hi all,
I have been busy all days, something or the other keeps me occupied, mind you being busy doesn't mean that all things which I do is fruitful or productive, I do things which I like, and of course some things which I am forced to like :) and somethings of course which I hate but have to do no other go.

Making sense of India

Hi ,
There are many things which make a country unique, some for instance being the culture, climate, economic condition, language , religion , etc.. But as everybody has read in their Social Studies subject in their school days, India is known for 'Unity in Diversity', nobody knows what it is really, but everybody tells this, and they fight among each other for water, electricity , language, and of course minister berths :)

Mayakkam enna..Mayakiyathu

Hi all,
Once in a blue moon, some movies come and will have impact on you even after you come out of theater even for hours, and one such movie is this Mayakkam Enna..
I had seen the trailer sometime back, when it was released, but when I went in to the movie, I had nothing in my mind, I just wanted a good flick at the end of the day, but the movie served more than what I wanted..

On road to office

Hi all,
After a long time, i am coming up with somethin different..
I know its not funny, but this thought came up sometime in my mind, when I was stuck in Bangalore traffic, just then realized there is a lot similar to our work life and traffic ..


More true of the Indian road because of the delightful chaos which allow us complete expression of our creativity, manipulative-ness, aggression and so on.
I have seen people speaking in phone from the moment they get in, till they get out in buses, some even attend meetings in phone in bus, many read paper, hear music and the list goes on, its all different, and there are many things which we can correlate to this.


I have been meeting many fellow commuters in volvo , whom i have no contact with, but this post is dedicated to all of them, as this is just what I heard others say, and some of course I made it..

Here are some amazing parallels which I like the most -


1. At the red light, which must serve as the arbitrary starting point, it is often your positioning rather than the speed of your vehicle which determines whether you go ahead of others when signal changes to green. It doesn't matter whether you have the fastest car, or the biggest SUV or you're on a scooter. Seasoned commuters know that positioning yourself well is the real advantage and if that means that you sneak through the next signal just as it changes to red - your lead is insurmountable.


In our organisations too, once you get to a common starting point, the positioning is more important and will determine how far you will go or get ahead or will you be left honking the horn.


2. The average road speed is often determined by the slowest vehicle on the road. Especially, as it often is the case, when the road is narrow. Everybody - from the arrogant Merc to the humble Tvs- must drive behind the tractor/truck/bullock-cart as the case may be. You can attempt to bypass it, but at your own risk.


In our offices we know who the bottle-neck is and the trouble is that it is s/he who sets the pace. And it is often hazardous if you were to try and bypass this person. Best is to wait till a clear opportunity to overtake offers itself. And most likely its never easy to bypass that person,as the person who sets the pace will always be like Akthar, while we will be Munaf.

3. You must wait for the holy-cow to get out of the way or respectfully make your way around it. It won't do to honk your horn or otherwise threaten the animal. That's just waste of your time.


Each office has its own holy cow(s). They are there so they are there. Accept it and move on.


4. Often, because of the poor policing, rule breakers get the advantage. It is a fact. People who crowd the oncoming lane at the junction, or those who drive on the pavement or those who have no love lost for lane driving, often reach their destination faster. However, their risks of getting caught or being in an accident are also to that extent a bit higher. 


Break the rules to the extent you can get away with it and be prepared to pay the price (or bribe) when you get caught. Folks who play by the rules often come last but are sure to reach their destination. 


5. Traffic continues to move comfortably if a small vehicle has a break down or an accident. But if the mighty road transport corporation bus overturns, the traffic stops.


A little fellow falsifying his travel expense report wont have any effect, but  Rama Raju falsifying the company accounts has a lot of effect - no prizes for guessing which is more trouble some for Satyam.


6. In heavy traffic or when you can't make sense of the traffic - it is sensible to tag somebody else who does. S/he'll get you out of the jam. For example, an ambulance is always more likely to get you through. Even better - if you can tag a VIP motorcade for a smooth journey home. Or a bicycle can hook itself to the tail of the passing tempo. 


Catch hold of the star in your company. S/he'll see you through.


7. If you lose your way, swallow your pride and get someone to help you. Else you will get stuck sooner or later. It is always better to ask more than one person so that you can be absolutely sure of the road ahead.


Sometimes one can lose his way in organisations too. Don't assume that the traffic policeman (H R Manager) also knows the best route. S/he may be a lousy or a rookie driver herself. Best to ask someone who looks like a resident of the area or somebody with a shop/auto in the area.


8. Finally, if the road is crowded, makes sense to question yourself if you need to travel at this time and on this road. Save yourself the bother because end of the day, even if you do get ahead, you're still no better off then what you were at the beginning. Maybe worse off. 


9. Choose the road appropriate to your vehicle. If you're a IIM MBA or an geek from IIT, you will hate being in the government office.


10. Driving is best learnt by experience. Don't underestimate the expertise of someone who has driven down the road before. S/he will know pitfalls far better than your map can tell you.


And most important of all, in road you meet a lot of people, some you speak to, some you help, some help you, some wont even bother even if you are in a bad position, remember what you give is what you can expect from others, and thats the whole point !!.


And now its Green, so go and take the road ahead !!


Bye till next,

Year 1 Anniversary

Hi all,
There are somethings which everyone feels proud of. One such thing is getting a job, and this post is for such a reason.

Muran..A small peek into it

Hi all,
First of all , a happy pooja/dassera/navaratri to you all !!
I was just enjoying my 2 day off with the idiot box, and after a pretty busy week in office, 2 day off comes as a treat, it gives me more joy than the message ' Rs***** credited to your account ' from my bank. Continuing, in order to pass time, decided to switch from tv to movie, and hence decided to go for the movie Muran.
I had no expectations from the movie, I had not even seen the trailer completely before, just expected a decent time pass, and the movie served more than it.

Life's twists..Ena vazhka da ithu

Enna Vazhka da ithu ???!!
Its been more than a year since I started working, so earning.. Looking back , I find it full of twists, surprises, sad things, happy things, in short a eventful life..Of all things in life, we think once we start earning we will be free, we will enjoy, live our life the way we want, will be happier than before.. But unfortunately its not true.. Last weekend made me realize this..The events as follows...

Mangatha..Strictly NO rules

Hi all,
One of the rising directors in TamilNadu is VenkatPrabhu, who hasnt worked as any associate nor as an assistant . He has tried acting in side roles before, acted as a hero even, all went unnoticed, but it was his directorial talent which got him the recognition. He did Chennai-28 with a bunch of youngsters most of whom appearing on screen for the first time, based on gully cricket, which went on to become a blockbuster. Then came Saroja, with a subset of people in Chennai-28 and little fresh faces too, again a brilliant serious comedy movie, then came Goa, a nice breezy entertainer again with youngsters alone.. For the first time Venkat Prabhu has taken a movie with a big star, Ajith Kumar, fondly called as 'Thala', that too a landmark 50th movie.

Being an Indian

Hi all,
Its been a week full of happenings, what are they? Sample responses..We celebrated our Independence day,  We lost our numero rank one status in test cricket by a series, which is going to end mostly in a whitewash.

Is this the most important thing happened this week..
Huh ! Thats India, people worry about cricket, worry about rising gold prices, and not give a thought about the social concern. How many of us atleast read through the Lokpal, leave reading how many of us know whats it about ?

Test Cricket..

Hi all,

Test cricket as the name suggests, is the real test of the game. The longest but the enthralling form of the game will never lose its glory. The recent test match series between India and England is a testament to it.

Though, to our sadness we are just a loss away from, losing our number 1 status in test ranking, anyways stats are just numbers, which matters sometime a lot, and doesn matter other times.. But these stats are the ones which keep test cricket interesting, its the game that is. With the advent of T20 people thought test cricket which is the slowest of all the current formats will soon cease to exist, but the game has continued to prove our assumptions wrong, test cricket will never disappear, nothing has to be made in test cricket to make it interesting, its already interesting folks !

While in one day matches, we have variety of rules evolved over the period, to make it interesting, like having power play, free hit , field restrictions etc, test cricket has remained the way it was from before,and continues to excite the people. Its not just test matches of India , game lovers watch, test cricket will always be interesting whoever plays, as the game has too much of intricate things. 

While one day matches show the talent of a team , T20 shows the pressure of playing, test cricket gives u all. T20 gives pressure with too less time to react and think, test cricket gives u too much of time, and makes the game more interesting , and it gives pressure for more availability, and point of survival comes. 

One day game too is difficult, but its short , and its just shows the presence of mind, its just a matter of few good overs, the fortunes can fluctuate easily, in t20 chuck it, its always fluctuating, but on the test cricket, its not just a few good hits make the game swing, its the continuous perseverance and calmness that fluctuates the game. 

Not all would have forgotten the heroics of Sehwag in Chennai test, who would have imagined that India would chase 387, if that was a fast paced script of a victory, laxman pulled out a victory from jaws of defeat in Mohali last year, ishant sharma and a injured Laxman, made the whole world look at us and say, thats a class act of a class team, one day with less than 200 runs to chase, with 5 wickets remaining, considering Aussies bowling attack, that match went haywire, as India scripted a slow yet convicing one wicket victory.

That made the beginning of the India's reign in test cricket, and now most likely its gonna end this year in England, unless MS and Co pull out a miraculous victory and level the series, the chances of it are pretty low considering our team's strength, and their team and bench strength..

I was following this test match pretty intensely, particularly the second innings as, India looked very well posed for a defeat, and Sachin was leading a lonely battle in one end, and as per the wide perceived thought of Sachin's century and India loses, I thought atleas let him a get century in TrentBridge, while in lords the scorecard didn read hundred, but his thermometers did . But sadly it didn happen that way, and as the master said during Newzealand tour that the fiftieth one is may be against a better opponent, the hundredth will come in a better way in a much needed situation. I would like it to have it one of the 2 matches left in this series, which will make us win.. 

Test cricket, due to its immense pressure, has always been controversy-ridden. The recent test had over effect of it, Laxman- Vaughan's vaseline controversy, MS/Sachin/Laxman?Dravid - Ian Bell run out , and the last but not the least, commentators Ravi Shastri and Nasser Hussain. Who would have expected commentators to fight against each other, literally one abusing the other, and both claiming that they spoke their opinions , and not targetted at any one.And of all persons, Dada to come and pacify things, that made the icing on the cake.

I still remember the day Nasser Hussain , came to my office, for a leadership talk series, he was quoted, " Everyone in England ,no matter whether they follow cricket or not , they hate Sourav ", such was his statement, and the reason well known, of course Lord's Balcony. At their own backyard celebrating like that, was adding not just salt but liquor to fire. And of all things, Nasser and Dada went on to pacify things in the commentary box. 

But one thing I learnt from this series, is that not all teams can continue to dominate, the period of dominance is the difference among the teams, not everyone are conscious about their fitness, while most of the people opted out of the Carribean tour, none opted out of IPL. Its not just this ranking thats going to get affected due to highly cramped schedule, its the team as a whole. Following England series we have a tough one next in Australia, before that Champions League, huh, its time BCCI realizes money is not everything, to make gold, they need the goose,and it should be taken care of and not killed..

Test cricket, the real test, the next 2 matches, may be a sad end for MS and Co, but its a real test of character, its MS's probably first acid test as a captain as his form his in serious scrutiny, Sachin's pressure of hundredth hundred, and of course the rivalry in the commentary box, will continue, as the battle goes on and on..
At the end , its the spirit of the game, which has made it large , neither Bhajji's ad or Dhoni's !!
For all you people, who missed the commentary war , here is the link,
http://tricksplanet.com/ravi-shastri-nasser-hussain-in-an-on-air-spat-during-commentary-over-udrs/
http://www.criconline.tv/ravi-shastri-going-nuts-over-nassers-comment/

Bye till next,

Growing up with Potter !!

Hi all,
 There are certain good things which we like, we think it should remain forever, but all things have to come to an end.. So it did.. The last potter movie released yesterday, and to summarize it, it was just awesome.. I am a big fan of the Harry Potter series, and may be its the book which I started to read first I think.. My chilhood best pals will read novels stories, and I don know why I just couldn connect to it that time, and I wont read much also. The first thing while reading a book, which I used to see is the no of pages in it, the shorter the better is what I felt those days. If it was a big book, I wont touch it unless I have no other go, and during my school days, it was like my early stages of reading, ( even now I am not a avid reader, but when compared to now , that was very early, may be like Sachin's first ton while he his nearing his hundred'th now) so I wont understand that much, and the vocabulary will make me feel that this book is not meant for me. At that stage, I think almost all authors were like foreign authors, and very few may be Indian authors, and whose books never came into notice in all places. But somehow it was JKRowling who broke the jinx between me and foreign authors, and then I started noticing a few, even now I am a selective reader, but now due to abundance of Indian authors, I follow their blogs, books , newspaper columns regularly. It was JKR who made me to read, and it was Harry who cast me in his spell, which I never recovered from.

The series contains 7 books, as u all know, and when I started reading those I dont remember , but the series had definitely made an impact on me.The first book ' Harry Potter and Philosopher's stone' ,  was just fantastic and I started waiting for the next ones, though I never knew whether there was any sequel to it. It was my friend Nithin, who was my neighbor, gave me that book, and I started reading it whenever he was unavailable for playing.

I remember seeing the first movie, though that time I was not a big follower of English movies, the movie I felt it was good, as I knew the story before hand. Whenever you read a book, it should bring a picture to your brain, thats what the first movie did to me, and all the characters had a clear picture in my mind, though I had some after reading the first part. Then on, it was announced that second part of the movie will also come soon, so I decided to read the book before the movie releases, and I get the vcd of it.

Soon I started reading the second book,Chamber of Secrets again with the help of my friend Nithin who got that book from someone for me, and I was cast in its spell. The book was just awesome, and it was great, it started dealing with friendship, when in school , we were blossoming with friends..

It was that time, that I started following Cricket, and in the daily, 'The Hindu' column of Peter Roebuck was the one which I started following, though I wont understand it fully.The matches which I saw, those last over thriller matches which I enjoyed seeing, I wanted to read expert opinion on it,and the next day I will be waiting to get a grab on the last sheet of the paper, as the last sheet was the sports sheet in the paper. So I grew up along with it, slowly proceeded my reading from sports column to friday review, young world in saturday's.

So I  grew up with Harry , who made me read, who made me imagine, who made me understand. Then it was the third part, 'Prizoner of Azkaban' which again my friend gave me, made me crazy, that part had the best complications as far as i think, it had the concept of time turner, which made me read it again and again to understand it. So i started reading things repeatedly, and so harry had made me change the pages so fast, and had put me in a infinite loop to read from the first again and again, and the movie came, it was the best movie which I had seen during those days, as it had shown the concept of time turner very well, and it was the one which made me think, how a writing can make think of different possibilities, how it has the concept of OO programming, abstraction, telling only the essence, making the reader think how it was done, leading to different possibilities, and make the reader think than just understand it..


Then I got my hands on the fourth, 'Harry Potter and Goblet of Fire' , which was just awesome, and started getting darker, as the villain Dark Lord was rising in his power, and the war was on from the first chapter literally. So it was a brilliant book, probably the best book which I read that time, which had dark elements in it, and again it made me think a lot, imagine a lot. I was a bit mature that time, i still remember those days, where I used to think how she had written such a book, that too a sequel , having small small things which forms the plot, and has hints of it from the first book wherever possible.

Till this Fourth part, I was behind time, and it was from the fifth part that I was in synch with the release dates of the book, I was in my tenth grade during that time, and I had ordered the fifth book 'Harry Potter and Order of Phoenix'   in a shop in Chennai, the first book which I bought on the series, but due to some issues, it was delayed to get delivered. The book releases in July usually,my friend Nithin was in twelfth grade that time, and we both share birthday in the same July month. So his friend gave him fifth book, as a bday gift , and he gave me it for a week during my birthday week, and this was the first time I had a strict deadline to finish off, and the book was the biggest among the books till that date. And as expected, I completed reading that fifth book within a week, and the book was just awesome, and some of the crucial characters started to die, and it became dark darker darkest as it proceeded..
My first Harry Potter movie was the fifth one, in Coimbatore on my birthday, in Carnatic theater. It was just great, though the movie was okay, and the book was loads better than the movie.

Then again in 2005, july ,  "harry potter and Half blood prince' was scheduled to release, my dad didn agree to buy it, as I was in twelfth grade, so he though I wont get the book and read that instead of my academics, but the electronic age made me overrule my dad, I had got an ebook pdf of it, and dad went crazy at this thought, not just cos i will read that, but the whole thought of reading book in computers, made him go berserk. So to compromise my parents, I said just a day, i will read it, but that day I shouldn have any disturbance, and parents agreed probably thinking that I cant complete reading in a day, and I wont read in one day in system, but I proved them wrong, read the book in one day, and the book was just awesome, and I never felt like I will get a proper sleep without completing it. My parents went crazy, and this became one of  the reasons for my specs, my eye problem started in its severity, and as expected dad went crazy more. :P

During July 2007, when I was in my second year, the last book 'Deathly hallows' released, and again ebook was the one which I got, and now I had company in my college. So I got a couple of frens with me, and that time none of us had laptops, so me and my frens got the ebook by sat evening thru mail, and sunday morning we all were in queue in lab, before the lab assistant came, and she was surprised to the core to find people in lab on sunday morning ! And we completed the book on the same day, sitting there from morning to evening having a very strict deadline, as labs will close by 6pm.
And yesterday, it was the last movie, the first movie which I saw in 3d in Bangalore, it was just awesome, and the movie ,based on the 7th part, came in two halves, which I appreciate,considering the plot, though the previous ones too should have come like that, at least the best they had kept till the last, and the last part was just awesome..My bday celebration couldn have been much better in bangalore !!

Growing up with Potter, has been just great, and it was potter, who has made me read more, and imagine more and may be this blog too.. If at all u need a time pass, potter series will be a nice one to start with for beginners who like to read..

Bye till nex,

The unsolved riddle..Puriyatha Puthir

Hi all,
 Movies have become my favorite time pass in this city, not just the new ones, am seeing the old ones now. When I was going through a popular site which has almost all the tamil movies, I came across this movie. This movie, very few people know, and it was not a blockbuster as far as I know.
Most surprising thing about this movie is that it's the first movie of K.S.Ravikumar, who is one of the well established 'producer's director' as they call him. KSR who is known for his commercial flicks, has never been seen as a technical director nor a strong story oriented director. But this movie made me feel the opposite way.
The movie entirely is a thriller, came in the 90s, but even now it gives you the necessary thrill.
  The story is simple , it describes a murder, and the whole movie is about finding out who did that. It doesnt involve heroism dialogues, or superior logical thinking to solve it. The way the screenplay moves is how you and me will react under that situation, so not a masala movie, where hero always wins.


 The main cast for the story is Rahman, Raghuvaran, Rekha. Raghuvaran's role is just awesome, and nobody can enact his role the way he did that.

Rahman

 

Rahman, a prisoner being convicted for a murder case, escapes from jail and in the process of escaping, lands up in Rekha's house by accident, and asks her to protect her from police, as they both knew each other from their college days. And Rahman finds that Rekha has killed her husband Raghuvaran, just minutes before Rahman entered the house. They both decide to hide the murder, and proceed to do so. The movie unfolds with a series of events, which leads more to the story, which leads on to more information on murders happened in the story. Then finally the case unfolds like there are some murders which are linked but no clue to lead who commited all those.

Late. Raghuvaran

The story justifies the title 'puriyadha puthir' meaning a confusing riddle. The climax is apt for the story, and the screenplay is just awesome. The screenplay forms the main highlighting factor of the movie, without which it would have been a ordinary cop-thief story. While movies like Thalapathy, Ravanan took the negative character as the main lead of the story, and justified the story from their point of view, this movie has shown everything from a different view, to make you guess who is the murderer, it never shows who is the main lead of the movie, all characters having a beautiful part to play shows the movie from everybody's perspective, multiple perspectives in a movie is not a cake walk to handle, one scene more or less would spoil the party.
Till the last scene, where the mystery is solved, the movie has enough twists to keep you engaged, except for a song which kinda slowed down the movie, its a good flick.
Raghuvaran's role, fetched him a lot of accolades for his role, and its not just another role,which everybody gets a chance to play with, Raghuvaran has essayed his role with terrific ease.
The ' I Know' scene of the movie, is still widely known, the only scene which I remembered , before seeing the movie now. I forgot the plot, the climax, but this scene I remembered even after decades. That shows the impact of the scene, the way Raghuvaran did it.
Another important thing in the movie is that, usually crime stories doesnt have much comedy in it, but this has enough comedy too, sometimes you feel its unnecessary, but its good when compared to the movies which was releasing in the 90s.

The movie has technical aspects too, considering the time the movie released. The first scene where Rahman escapes from the jail shows KSR's thinking , the initial scenes will cover only the middle portion of the screen, and then when a door is opened or something like that happens, the full screen is used to show details. This is in 90s, while now in 2010, we have Mysskin showing only below the knee level in the full screen, this is nothing but a advance in thinking of what KSR did in 90s.
The movie is a must watch for all who love thrillers, and mystery.
For all you people having a good download internet connection, it can be downloaded in,
http://www.tamilflix.net/2011/06/01/puriyadha-puthir-tamil-movie-watch-online/
(You can use IDM to download the movie from this site,thats what I did :P )

(P.S : At last when i googled for information on this movie, wiki said this movie is a remake of some 1970 hindi movie, KSR !?!?! )

Bye til nex,

To be or not to be

Hi all,

   I watch a lot of movies, those who are with me know it better. But nowadays its most common among the youth of the nation, weekends are meant for movies, no matter whether the movie is good or bad, there are people who see them all. One thing I notice nowadays, there are some movies, which are good and realistic, but some look far over-fetched to an extent that they show normal heroes as super heroes. That’s altogether a different issue. Aye, speaking of heroes, portrayal of heroes has been one significant change when compared to old/mid films to the ones coming now.

 Movies which came in the early ages of cinema were mostly real life stories, so only good things appeared in the screen, though all movies had villains, the protagonist was always a good Samaritan, so no harm done so far. But, directors began to experiment with different generes of movies, and hence anti hero subjects began to come. Some anti hero movies are good I agree, but still the essence of the movie is good, but individually if we consider all scenes, are they good?? 

The traditional movies had the hero introduction scene as a goodwill act, while the villain’s intro will be a bad act as always, and either smoking or drinking, which is not necessary, but just to create a impact among the people that the character shown is bad one, they used those. Sadly, all this is archaic now.

Nowadays, hero’s introduction scenes have become the opposite, though the hero’s introduction remains to be a goodwill act or some gesture of a good personality, it shows the hero with either a cigar in his hand or a beer. If the movie’s protagonist is shown like smoking a cigarette or drinking beer, does it serve any good purpose? If the hero belongs to a slum or lower part of society, they are shown smoking a beedi, if middle class hero then cigarette, if college student or something like that beer bottle too finds it way in the screen. For fun part of the movie, it serves its purpose, but in the real world , there are many people who watch the movies repeatedly, and hence scenes and activities shown in the movies gets registered in their minds. As a result of which, people hardly realize the fact that smoking or drinking alcohol is harmful.

Am not making myself a follower of Ramadoss, who says heroes in movies should not smoke in screen, ( though he did that for a political motive, to target the superstar during release of his flick Baba ) , all I want to say is that, drinking and smoking are injurious. Nowadays people hardly realize that, just because hero in the movie are shown smoking, people follow it, and the irritating part in the whole episode is they make fun of the guys who don’t drink as unfit to be in this world.

 
Those who drink, say that they get to discover themselves more, as thoughts flow freely, and often they speak without controlling themselves. All they want is the inner peace , which those alcohol give them, for a short amount of time, but grow up , there are much better ways of attaining inner peace ( watching kung-fu panda2 for instance) than drinking or smoking. That too in IT field, weekend party means boozing away, for god sake, haven’t our parents or grandparents struggled , and yet managed to live in peace abstaining from these, and in fact those in business have to work all 7 days a week, and non-IT employees, have 6 working days a week, and we IT people work only 5 days a week, and still blame work pressure as the reason for these activities. Am not comparing the work loads, but still work is work , and we will get to kno the difficulties of them only if we do it, not just by seeing it.

The funnier thing on the whole part is hero’s shown with alcohol or smoking is never considered bad, this is what is called as paradigm shift.

Who is to blame for that, either the attitude of the people which changed allowing hero’s to drink and smoke or the directors who made it like that ??

Though the movies, show the statutory warning message before even the first scene of the movie is opened, people hardly notice that and its considered  just as one of the ads or the news reel which are put by theatre owners..

Though most of the popular heroes in tamil have made a decision that they wont smoke on screen, the trend is yet to pick up in bollywood, hopefully in the future, they pick up this also, along with the movies, which they pick up for remaking..

Celebrations or get-together need not have alcoholic beverages, it can just be with some nice chats than speaking in an unwanted manner, it will do with a calm dinner in a small hotel or even home than in a pub with smoke and drinks, but still there are educated people , who work in well known organizations get addicted to these bad things.. Well yea, to be or not to be is in ones own mind, and no one else can justify or change it..

 Bye til nex,

Hello World ! Mail for you

Hi all,
We live in digital era, and computers have become integral part of our life, more like a basic necessity for us. Of all things, Internet has become the most sought by people and really a very good invention by mankind. E-Mails have become the mode of communication, nobody bothers to send inland letters or post cards now, its all either email or a phone call. Internet can give you that too, mails voice calls, video calls etc. Even this blogging is a by-product of Internet, facebook, google all are big because they rule the internet. Gmail has become one of the most commonly used mail service throughout the world, and I still wonder why did they make the mail service free, when they began it. There are many service providers who give mail facility, but Gmail stands out. I am a fan of Google just like anyone else, and by the way to make things clear I love Microsoft too, not that I am biased, but Google looks much cooler in terms of their services in this mail scenario.
Gmail is not just another mail service, which provides mail facility, it has its own chat facility, through which we can send SMS’es, make voice calls, video calls even free of cost. This post is for some cool things I like about Gmail and may be one or two might be new to you even. I am not a good person in stats, so I have no idea about number of Gmail users, nor its history, this post is only about the features in Gmail.
Subject Line
The important thing in mails is the subject line which many of us miss while sending mails, Google pops up with a dialog box to tell you that you have the subject line empty, this may irritate you, but for people who use outlook for official purposes, know the importance of subject lines, and Outlook doesn’t pop you with that dialog box.

Attachments

The most common thing in mails is attachments, which everybody is aware of. But the interesting part is that Google offers us a better solution for it than just plain attachment service. Google not only checks on the subject line, but checks on the attachment part too, if we have text like ‘ find the attachment’ or ‘I have attached’ or some more similar text patterns it pops you up with a dialog box, if u had not attached anything in the mail. That’s really a cool thing to do, to serve its customer better. Also to be mentioned that not all patterns are matched but at least some are. ( Yahoo, another popular mail service doesn’t give you this.)

Most of us would click on the ‘Attach a file’ to attach files, but that’s not at all required, all we need is a drag and drop that will do it !! Probably, this came after Google wave came I suppose.




Recipients

Another important thing which I noticed recently is the auto suggest option coming up while composing mails, if we don’t use a distribution list or contact group, we add the recipient mail ID’s manually, and most of the times its sent to more than one, and we end up missing some or other. So now if you want to send mail to that set of people, whom you haven grouped in a list or group, if we just enter one mail id, automatically Google suggests you with other names, which you can just click to add. Cool isn’t it ? Google autosuggest is not just for searches, its used in Gmails even !!

Dots in mail id’s
Aye! This is the most common misconception, we think that having dots in our email IDs will help us to find a unused ID soon, and this is not true !! Even i thought the same, and I have a '.' in my mail id, send a mail to ur id without dot '.' in it, or even with any dots in ur id, for example mine is abc.def@gmail.com, u can send a mail to abcdef@gmail.com or a.b.c.def@gmail.com or any such pattern , it will always be delivered.. This feature is not in Yahoo.

Title bar change..

This is another interesting feature I came up on, most of the times we will have more tabs in our browser, and it has its width reduced to it. And standard Gmail inbox will have the title has Gmail - Priority Inbox (n)- abc@gmail.com or Gmail - Inbox (n) - abc@gmail.com ,the former being the case of Priority Inbox, the later the usual inbox. So if at all we get new mails , wont it be nice if we have it in the title bar itself, we need not go to the page to check whether mail has come. That feature is also there, display like Priority Inbox (n) -abc@gmail.com or Inbox(n) - abc@gmail.com , is possible through another labs feature in Gmail called, Title Tweaks.

Mouse Gestures

Most often we get mails which are more than one screen long, and most likely we have to scroll either up or down to find the next/previous button, in that case, wont it be good if we have an option in mouse to move back or front, Gmail gives us that. All we have to do is press the right button in the mouse, and move either left or right to move to the previous or next message. This feature is enabled through another labs setting, Mouse Gesture.

Undo a message sent

This is another important feature, which GMail has given us, if we didnt finish the mail properly, or forgot to put something, if we can decide that within seconds of pressing send , we can cancel it. Either we can stop sending, thats a standard feature, if the mail is being sent. If the mail is sent, and we want to revoke it, we can do it, now within 30 seconds, the reciever will never get the mail nor the notification that this mail has been revoked or something like that. But as of now the time frame is only 30 seconds. This feature can be invoked by a labs feature called Undo Send.

Google Map for address

Most of the times we have to send address to our friends to meet them, if we want to give them directions , we give them the directions through google maps link. But again the reciever has to open the link to check, and most of the cases in Google maps, we dont search with door numbers etc. But in mails, we send the address with door nos etc. So Gmail allows you to enable maps for the address you have mentioned in the mail, through another lab setting called Enabled Maps. As of now this feature is available only to address in US, and not in India.





SHVA

   Ever wondered what does SHVA mean ? Its not a typo of some other word (or my name:D). Have you ever noticed it while seeing your inbox ??? Hmmm, ok enough of making your grey cells thinking, it will be there in the address bar, as soon as we login , it will remain the same always, its definitely not the session parameter,which will change everytime we login. So wat does it mean ??? There is no official word on it, but as far i google'ed it means, Should Have Valid Authentication.

May be there are more features in Gmail, but these I felt are very nice and much cooler than the normal inbox. So if you want to understand what all Labs is about, Google Labs is the first place to be in.

Bye till nex,

P.S: This post is dedicated to all the people in Google, for their work to make this world cooler, and helping me to blog :)

Home ! Sweet home..

Hi all,

All we people are working now, and its always great to work, as we get paid for it, and we boast we deserve that. Due to advent of IT we all are in high tech cities now, some in Chennai, Coimbatore, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Gurgaon , and  of course abroad.. But still home is always home.

Home is where our heart is, though we are far away from home. I am happy for those people who are working in the same place as they grew. But most of the cases like mine are cases where people work in some other place, not in the place where they grew up.

Home is always home, we don’t mind whether there is a high speed broadband service, we don’t mind whether there is malls nearby to pass time, we don’t mind whether we have multiplexes to watch movies, we don’t care whether there are huge residential apartments, we don’t care for anything. My place doesn’t have any of the above, and most you people too will agree to it as ur place too doesn’t have those, but still home is always home.

Neyveli, the place where I grew up is the one I am going to speak about. For all you people unaware of this heaven on earth, it’s in Tamilnadu, near to Pondicherry. I grew up in the township in Neyveli, it’s a nice calm serene life style there, and I love it, and people who grew up there will always agree it. Neyveli doesn’t have multiplexes, township has total 2 theatres, and outside township which is also known as Neyveli has some theaters too, but no multiplexes, no Big Cinemas, no Adlabs, no PVR, no INOX, just a single theater Nidhiratna, which we all love. It’s a well planned township with lots of greenery, free space, inspired from Chandigarh actually.

Neyveli township was constructed by the Government of India for the employees of NLC , Neyveli Lignite Corporation to reside. NLC is one of the biggest power plant in India and it supplies to most of the parts in South India, not just TamilNadu. The main roads of Neyveli dividing each of the blocks are double-laned modern roads, constructed with rubberized top layer. The housing quarters are around 21,000 in number and vary between hostel-type buildings with 6 apartments to individual two-floor single cottage type quarters. Aye, speaking of roads, all my frens who have come to Neyveli , say roads are empty, there is no life, but I always ask them the same thing, if traffic is there we complain of traffic, ( Heck! Am in blore that says it all!! ) if there is no traffic, we say there is no life in it, this is ridiculous, we all live in digital era, and there is always a binary solution , either presence of traffic or no traffic, whichever you want you take it, as simple as that!!!

No other place can guarantee you to make your school friends to be in contact even after years, no other place can give you the feel that you will surely know one out of ten persons you go out of your home.

Neyveli has its own telecommunication wing, which provides intercom facilities to all houses inside township, and its free !! Neyveli can give you uninterrupted power supply, water supply too.

Of all things in earth , you may wonder why I am posting this, the reason is that my dad, got transferred to Tuticorin, which is in TamilNadu. Shifting from Neyveli to tuticorin is a mammoth task, Neyveli is near to Chennai and Pondicherry, while Tuticorin is near to Kanyakumari.

Though I was born in Tirunelveli, I will always tell my home as Neyveli, that’s how it was, and I guess its time to change that, hopefully only for a couple of years , hope my dad gets transferred back soon to Neyveli.

I never realized there are so many wonderful things in Neyveli, as people tell we usually wont realize the importance of something till we have it, I realize them all now. Anytime friends to drop you home from any corner in Neyveli, semester holiday cricket matches, day time carom, first day first show movies(any movie infact!! Not just big hero’s movies ) in Nidhirathna, late night bike rides in the deserted roads, cricket in our streets, breaking the glass windows of the houses, late night chats in Anjaneyar temple ground, and Archana hotel dinner, late night tea shop near central bus stand. There are some really funny things, we will walk 2 kms in night to go to a tea shop in bus stand, as it will be open in night time also, and return again, of all things just a 5rs tea( it was 3rs though when we started this ), was the one which we cherished for.  And the most important thing of all Pondicherry trips in bike and car. These all moments I will cherish forever, thanks to my friends who made those wonderful moments. I will never forget our first car trip to Pondicherry, while coming back l would have brutally killed all my friends by my driving, as I was driving for the first time in night, with specs, we managed to escape, and the walk in the bridge in Pondicherry, that’s not a easy cake walk, we had no support to walk, as we walked below the bridge and not over it, and that too for a guy  like me who don’t know swimming is like battle between life and death, when water below you is more than 20 feet deep.

The golden jubilee park, which is very near to my house, will always be remembered for our meetings, we all meet there to plan something important as we call it, and we will always be remembered as the persons who made the admin people to do a lot of changes, first week it was opened, I went with my neighbors, who are 3 to 4 yrs senior to me, and they played football and broke the light bulbs there, so in order to stop us from playin ther, they kept chairs inbetween and thereby reducing the free space, so that it will not give a big space to play..

The yearly book fair, the pani puri stall, the soup shop in main bazaar, pondicherry beach were our hang out places, which continued from our school time, and will continue to do so in future too. Though am moving out of Neyveli, I promise you my friends, whenever all you people assemble in Neyveli, I will surely come, cos there is always Abi, Gautham , Arun to pick me up :D

Bye til nex,

The man behind the scenes..

Hi all,
Its been quite a time since my last post, my college life will continue later, as I have more pressing matters in my  brain than my life..There are some persons, who make their life large, and this post is dedicated to one such person, whom I love and I love to see him scale heights.. We all are in glory of crowned being the world champions (nobody knows whether the crown given was a original one or a fake !! ) , but some people were never noticed that time. People including myself praised Sachin, Dhoni , Yuvi ,Zaheer everybody in team, coach staff, selectors etc.. But some big names was left in the list and most of us didn even bother about them.
It was a team effort which showed class, but success in not a destination but a journey full of ups and downs, only the fittest survive, Darwin's theory holds good everywhere. Dhoni, who lead to us to the crown, has proved his mettle, he might have lead us to the top , but it was Dada, one of the great cricketers the world cricket has seen, made the beginning. I dont want to undermine Dhoni's talents, but all I say is he builded on the platform which Dada left. Openers giving a terrific start say 125 plus in 10 overs and the middle order just building on , will be a good analogy, Dada played the role of opener, and Dhoni continued it, though both are equally important, a small percentage of ur senses might tell its the openers whose efforts are to be lauded more, and so do I praise Dada for the winning attitude he has given to the team.
It was under Dada, when our team started winning abroad, before that India was known as chokers outside India, and it was he who brought the winning attitude to the team, it was he who lead us to world cup final in 2003.
Speaking of Dada, nobody can forget Natwest Episode, where he led us to great historic win , and Lord's balcony will always be the place Ganguly fans will cherish, his celebration showed it all , what the youth of this country is capable of, though the media were growing rage against it, youth of the nation never felt anythin bad of it, people call it a infamous incident , but fans of the game, and fans of Dada like me,knew what it meant and it was the beginning of the uprisal of the Great Indian Cricket era, which is at its peak right now.

The shirt in the picture is the shirt which he removed after the win.
Many might have forgotten, Indian cricket though had the likes of Kumble, Tendulkar, once was strongly bitten by match fixing allegations, and people looked like they will never see Cricket again, but and our performance too went to a all time low, and it was under his captaincy that India began to rise, and it started getting the fans and started to enjoy the craze it had before.
That craze and the expectations and the attitude of youth lead to us Natwest, Mini World cup, world cup finals and then Dhoni's captaincy made history, of course formation of IPL , purely built on our craze for the game. Speaking of IPL, Dada was in Kolkatta , leading the team for SRK's Kolkatta Knights, and then had to face a dead end being dropped out in IPL-4 , and not being picked by anybody in the auction.

Ganguly made a fitting comeback in IPL-4 as a warrior in Pune Warriors, under Yuvi, who was picked and mentored by Dada himself, when he was the captain of Indian team. Sometimes fairytales come true. In the case of Sourav Ganguly, it almost always does.An unbeaten innings of 32 runs off 32 balls can be dismissed as anything but special, under the circumstances he played. May be run a ball in not a much significance in T20, but its not just that in case of Dada, its always a curious case.When PWI announced that they had signed Ganguly to play for the remainder of the IPL, even his most ardent fans had mixed feelings. They wanted him to succeed but they were not sure if he could.
After all, the 38-year-old cricketer had not picked up a bat in the past five months, as he himself revealed after the match.once again showed that it is possible to put mind over matter. You can, if you think you can.The crowd understood this frisson between the heart and the body that happened in Hyderabad as Ganguly guided his team to a victory, I came back from office soon to see Dada bat, and was sitting glued to the tv and I was very very anxious.No single has been more cheered and clapped in IPL history than the first run he scored. And he was not even the home boy, where he is more than just a cricketer. SRK would have learnt that the hard way, as hardly the stands were occupied as Dada was not, but though at later stages, when the team was performing well, stands began to fill up. SRK even tried "Win for Dada" campaign, which had no results among the people.
A sportsman can lead you to emotions, mainly either to despair or euphoria, but very few give more than that, and one among such is our Dada, he can make you feel the entire range of emotions on and off the field, sometimes he might make you angry,sometimes proud,sometimes positive,sometimes negative, and thats what Dadagiri is all about. Being a Ganguly fan means being part of an unpredictable emotional journey. You never know what will come your way on a particular day. Nobody else has the power to enthrall and exasperate like him.

"The best captains get it right seven times out of ten,” he said. “I think I get it right five times out of ten. But I know, even when I get it wrong, that my team believes I was wrong in trying to be right.” This was in 2004 when he was probably the best man to have lead India onto a cricket ground, certainly in the years since I started watching seriously. 
People who watch the game, will never forget the way he handles the spinners, his down the track six against any quality spinner shows his class, and he too I accept is not perfect, allergic to short balls, may be it would be apt to say Raina his successor. 
Of all the videos which I love about Dada, here are some , which will definitely be worth a watch.(Watch the above with  comentary !!)

Who knows   when the stock markets peak and when they hit a bottom, so too it is with people.Who knows what the future would be for Ganguly for his life has rarely been predictable. 


Bye till nex,

Looking back...Part 3..hostel unfolds..

Hi all ,
It was a happy 1 month for us,as we had got a seat in courses we wanted,and we continued to celebrate it wit regular movies ,we had seen all movies released till date,and whatever movie released it,we all will go together telling probably the last in Neyveli as a whole..So finally the day had come to pack off to college,and it was in July 17,2006 I think , it was the original announced date for induction,but they later postponed it to 19th  July.So we started per original plan, we went to college on 17th , and we signed all the declarations and stuffs, and opened a bank account in a bank called 'Dhanalakshmi bank' which even my parents had never heard of before. The scenic beauty of the place will convince anyone to like the college,full of green lawns,nice tree shade everywhere we walk around,and of course the Western Ghat , which looks so good in early morning, with nice cloud patterns near it,and the campus was very big and neat.

So we proceeded to our hostel, new hostel opened for our batch , and it was very neat,and I was happy with that ,as everyone in my place told me hostel will be very bad,especially gents hostel will be the worst of the whole lot.

Me and my parents, met our hostel warden, which I will never forget, for giving a single key and a small coffee cup,he had spoken with us for 45 mins,by the end of which I thought I should never see him again for anything serious , as he has spoken for 45 mins with no issue in hand,nor any particular topic..
I went to my alloted room B-13, and my frnd Giri got alloted as B-14. Since I had went 2 days early to college, hostel was almost deserted,except for other state students,who had no other go than to report,as they cant change plans all of a sudden like the people nearby. So there was B-14 nex to mine,where there was a hindi guy, who was reading some technical book when we met him, it was the first shock of my life. My first lesson learnt for the day , never imagine college to the college portrayed in movies. Nex to my room,B-12, two andhra guys were there,they had kept the room hyper-clean , and had all the idols of God in a table,dedicated to the idols alone. Me and my parents spoke with them, and it was a nice conversation, I stammered a lot to speak in English, as I hardly spoke English in my school. For the first time in my life, I felt I should hav followed what our principal had said,he had adviced everyone to speak in English in school,and even fined students speaking in regional language,but we never minded that. Then I saw the people in my room,in the name list stuck in hostel, First name was Krishna Kumar, i thought okay fine,atleast someone from the same state, then Surendar, i thought probably from south,but may be from North also, then it was Ranjith Thilakan, I thought he would definitely be a Tamilian. Then the day passed by, all my room-mates had turned up,and my next lesson was ready, Ranjith Thilakan was from Bombay,and I had learnt never assume anything.. My frnd Giri in B-14,Porupu Anand in B-15, and Aswin and Pampu Anand in B-16, Sandeep in the opposite corridor to ours, YK in B-19.

Krishna alias Kitty and Suru was school mates so they knew each other well before. I remember the first question which Kitty asked me after introducing ourselves, " Whats your total, whats ur cutoff ..Are u hard working..Why  u lost marks in board exam..."blah blah..I was happy to meet Netta, as I remembered him very well, wherever he moves,he ll alwas be a marked man, due to his height, he was room-mate of my frnd YK. Morning bathroom queue took me by surprise, it was 6 am in the morning, some prayer song was chanting in the speakers in my next room,as well as the corridor, and all the bathrooms had 2 buckets outside waiting in queue, while some guys got dressed up by 6 am itself.. I thought hostel is going to make me like a military man , with strict timings in everything..We all were searching bathrooms in all wings of the hostel,and was happy to see all my frens waiting,thats how our social networking began to increase,speaking wit others durin the waiting time.. If bathroom queue looked like queue for a new hero movie queue, mess queue looked like a Rajinikant movie First Day First show queue,all dressed up in neat formals(as the collg rules meant strict NO to jean ,and we wer freshers,had a lot of fear to break it the first day itself..), a queue which was like connecting 2 ends of the hostel..after waiting for a lot of time, the mess guy dropped in my plate 2 idli's which looked like it will make the eversilver plate bend..huh ! After all those, we had a session explaining Amrita's prayer song's meaning, which was the first session which all of us had after a long 3 month holiday,so everybody had a nice little nap,then a guy I don know whom introduced us to credits , which we didn understand anything at that point of time, I felt like I was in the wrong place,after hearing all those..Then they read the names and their corresponding batches, I heard my name being called in Cse-A batch, and once again after sometime I heard my name told in Cse-B batch also, so again confusion for me..I went to Cse-A and sat with my roommates Kitty and Suru, and as usual, we were introducing among ourselves, while I was in deep confusion about my class, finally I clarified it, they read the name Sivaraj wrongly as Sivaram, and Sivaraj was in Cse-A and Sivaram in Cse-B,so I bid farewell to cse-a and joined Cse-b and sat with Sandeep, he was busy chatting with all Keralites ( u can assume the gender, to whom he was chatting ),and I was stammering in my butler English to speak with them, so I decided to shift my location the next day, and sat in the end column of the class,far from girls,and in the extreme corner of the class,looked like the best place,as all fellow tamilians were sitting, and soon tamil seemed to be the best language in the world, as I could speak freely..
The whole day , we had just discussed the session on prayer, and the credit system, both of which nobody understood,everybody narrating their own versions of the stories.Then in the evening all parents left, and then began our hostel life, first time staying away from home, in a hostel,with a lot of guys around, is a nice feel , somefeel homesick and cry,some enjoy the feel from the moment one, some fear it,but I since , I had a lot of school friends with me, was just the normal, and all my school mates will come to CSE floor in hostel, as most of my school mates were in CSE,that too in adjacent rooms,so B-13 soon became the common room..So gradually our circle of friends grew up, Porupu Anand and myself will share desk , and next to us will be Deepak Narayan and Arun , and Harikrishna alias Hari who was sitting in first desk for the first week full,came and joined the club back benchers,the extreme end of the class. Arun and Hari will chat about all the cartoons in the world, from DragonballZ to Powerpuff girls,they liked all the dry cartoon shows,and soon started exchanging DVDs of cartoon network's episode,as Arun was a day scholar,and he would download them all in his PC in home,and circulate to hostel.
If Arun was a cartoon network maniac, deepak Narayan was a movie maniac, again a dayscholar,so will go to all language movies, though he knows only tamil and english.. Bhuvanesh , a EIE student , is my saviour in Engineering Drawing Lab,where leave drawing with Drafter, I don know even to attach it to the drawing board,and use it properly,used to complete his drawings quickly,and then exchange places and he will draw it for me too.
Rahul, Bala are 2 more people with whom I chat about tamil movies,as they too like me watch a lot of tamil movies, so thats how our friendship developed..
Days progressed, 6 am prayer songs was never heard by anybody, 8 am was the usual time for getting up,and  so we all will skip breakfast,and run to classroom as we have to be there by 830,and Abinash from A-33 shifted his room to B-13,with his bed even,only his empty dress rack was there, as his dresses notes everything was there in B-13 our new common room, and Gautham from A-31 has shifted too B-15 with Porupu and Pravin mapi.. It was first year,so regular checking in room was there,as according to the warden after 9pm , everybody should remain in their own rooms, and there will be an attender with a torch roaming around the hostel corridors to check for any noise inside rooms.. It will be a tough time to escape from his torch's gaze to sneak into other rooms, and just for the fun of risking it , people started to move around the rooms, and soon he had to face a tough time..And since B-13 was common room ,it was more like a dungeon,we hardly swept the floors,but never minded the dirty floors,will just put our beds down in the mat,and sleep,everyday Abi will sleep in our room, and he and Aplus were never considered to be from EEE,but alwas as CSE ..

                                         A typical use of id card by Amrita Engineer.

Most surprising character was Mr.DeenaDayalan, who was in B-12 with the Andhra guys, a sincere guy,who had a option of getting into PSG Tech , one of the top rated college in TamilNadu , had to join Amrita,as his father said , Amrita will make him a disciplined man than what PSG does. The decission whom everybody will laugh at, as comparing Amrita and PSG is like comparing Sachin and Piyush Chawla. Deena was immediately famous in CSE cos, he already had a girl friend , and used to chat wit her all night, and still had enough time to chat with all other people in class , as well as in hostel, and the most important, put scene as if he is the sincere'st person in the whole department , and it will look like he has a split personality disorder, having one personality inside class, and the other normal Deena outside class.

Our celebrations,exams,funny fights,chats,gossip awaits...

Related posts : Part 1 , School Part 2 , The beginning