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Since the twitter daily update isn’t happening, some random bursts of thoughts and activities over a last few days:

# Feedburner’s link splicer does not have support to Google reader shared items ??!! It has for bloglines, yahoo..but despite Feedburner is now Google’s, there is no support for Google ?! Wake up !!

# While at it, a daily twitter digest splicing would be great, and of course the option to use more than one splicing !

# While at it, ok, check out next post.

# We agree to disagree & We disagree to agree - both sentences mean same, no ?

# Me having pownce invites…anyone wants ?

# Number of chars supported by twitter should have been longer or customizable ..140 is too less for my random bursts of thoughts !

# For real-time random bursts of thoughts (and fortunately for you and unfortunately for me - restricted to 140 letters) follow me on twitter

# Paapa HR ->http://tinyurl.com/26n6bm

# Life is the continuous adjustment of internal relations to external relations. Herbert Spencer

# A wounded deer leaps the highest. Emily Dickinson

# Last weekend was super failure weekend - wanted to attend bloggers’ meet, lost the way, searched and went an hour or more late. Twas at Brewhaha, nice ambience. Wanted to watch a play, FPS, went few hours early and returned. Twas at Chowdiah Memorial Hall, first time there, the audi looks HUGE, should be great fun to watch a play.

# ”We hate some persons because we do not know them; and we will not know them because we hate them.” Charles Caleb Colton

# Suffered from terrible cold and bunked office 1 day - and I think this the first leave I have taken for being sick since I started working !

# It is not what we learn in conversation that enriches us. It is the elation that comes of swift contact with tingling currents of thought.

# Do not, on a rainy day, ask your child what he feels like doing, because I assure you that what he feels like doing, you won’t feel like watching - Fran Lebowitz.

# Could not fill IT returns online. ( Submitting the acknowledgement physically can not be considered as online filling). The digital signature was not accepted for being zombie (not finding parent authentication). Anyone filled successfully ?

# added odiogo plugin to blog - another listen to me button for posts ! has male voice and sounded better than talkr

# ”I tend to live in the past because most of my life is there.” Herb Caen

# Played 28 in office for many rounds !

# Ppl always use “busy” to mean they are doing something they didn’t wish to do.what is the word for the being busy with what one likes to do.

# In my todo list, the first and last items are : Read and Finish things in todo list.

# It goes without mentioning that I don’t even start with the to do list - first point itself is a huge put-off !

# Play: Work that you enjoy doing for nothing. Evan Esar // Work: Game you hate playing even if you are rewarded at the end - Rk

# Gossiping and lying go hand in hand. Proverb

# Like facebook. Though I had a login few eras ago, I had not bothered to check it out. With apps and all, it looks cool now. I will repeat again - I hate orkut.

# Seeing all these facebook apps, I think facebook is moving to become first adress and one stop for most normal chaps. Facebook = Internet!

# Office guys blocked the sites I use one by one - *.blogspot, wp.com are the latest entries. Thankfully Reader is not blocked so far.

# ”A person is always startled when he hears himself seriously called an old man for the first time.” Oliver Wendell Holmes

# A classic is a book that doesn’t have to be written again. Carl Van Doren

# RGV’s Sholay is renamed to RGV ki Aag after fight in high court..can’t use names of Basanti and Gabbar Singh ..Super . I know it does not make big difference with the last minute name change but then, a small relief!

# Pownce is blocked in office..it wasn’t blocked last week..now that I have an account it is blocked 09:56 AM July 16, 2007

# Yesterday saw Satyavan savitri..remake of maine pyar kyon kiya..review later 09:55 AM July 16, 2007

# GM:I don’t think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday. Abraham Lincoln

# Wrote few (2 in particular) private-post of event/get-together targeted towards the relevant group of friends, and not to mention - they were super hits. More importantly the writing flow was super smooth after a long time And I think my such write-ups - covering events - are way better than the other ones I do. 

# played badminton after a looooooong time .. 09:55 AM July 15, 2007

# Osome day : picnic to shivanasamudra and talakaadu 09:03 PM July 14, 2007

# Becoming a star may not be your destiny, but being the best that you can be is a goal that you can set for yourselves.Bryan Lindsey

# http://tinyurl.com/2co5fx 12:04 PM July 12, 2007

# Life is like a piano. What you get out of it depends on how you play it. Tom Lehrer 09:31 AM July 12, 2007

# To prev Gm quote, Skv replied “Life is like a trumpet. Why care what others think? Blow it to your heart’s content” My email signature changed.

# ”to kill a mocking bird” is not taking off…will try few more times, if it does not it will join the group of catch22 & pride&prejudice 07:59 PM July 11, 2007

# My feed subscribers’ count was 31 but it now looks like its only 14 (probably a correct figure as I had guessed earlier too). Now after this long a post, I think it will decrease even further !

# I love micro-blogging.

Ever since I went to Chennai, I constantly faced questions about my relocation - How is the place, how hot is the weather, how is the crowd, how am I able to manage the language problem, how are the people.

In the beginning, I was almost unable to give good answers. Then I made a habit of looking for these things so that I could answer better. So to some at least I could give interesting answers. But frankly, I wasn’t quite comfortable answering these questions. Because none of these bothered me in the first place.

Since I am also asked about my experiences in the city, let me club both in this post itself.

How is the place - I did not see anything that should have made me give a straight answer (talking of straight answers, I now realize this lack of ability to answer descriptively any question that does not have a straight answer, must have cost me marks in the exams. But it is surprising now that I can write a post on most silliest of events as if that event has been the best thing to have happened. May be I should have started blogging earlier - like in school days!).

However after making some specific observations, I noted these : Public transport buses were inexpensive but terribly crowded for short distances or during office hours. They were crowded in some cases even if they were frequent. The less said the better about the infamous auto-wallah’s pricing strategy or the bargaining power that is required to achieve a fair deal. The number of vehicles on road is not any less than expected for a metro, but thanks to the broad, well maintained roads, there is no great congestion at many places. However exceptions are there. Also, Chennai was blessed with some great forethought planning, otherwise how do I explain the construction of Grant Road which connects most of the city. Another notable example is that of the Gemini flyover which must have been constructed ages ago. Though the city is also connected with local trains, it is not that well connected and used as it is in Mumbai.(Or may be this is just my observation).

I noted that city has many restaurant chains - Saravana, Sangeetha, etc. The prices at middle-class (and above) were generally expensive. The service was below expectation/satisfaction at most of the places. Of these hotels Saravana was the most interesting. Its pricing strategy depends on its locations too. And the one near thousand lights will be dear to my memory as it had this extensive buffet for Rs120 - the very ideal one for treats. I with a visitor friend once spent close to 4 hours there just to use the A/c and to avoid the heat outside. Saravana Bhavan is present in international locations like Dubai, London etc. The number of outlets is equal to the number of years in service - 23. The price, though is higher than others, is not complained about because of the cleanliness and taste. I also noted that it is not present in Bangalore and how I wish I take up that franchise ;-). Among the other restaurants I ate at, Kumarkaum (again a chain) gave me some memorable moments. The food was tasty and got to eat in Kerala cuisine style. There were more options if I were non-veg. A passionate singer who sings melodious Malayalam-Hindi songs (over the karaoke music) adds to create an experience of an otherwise mundane eating event.

Among my other noted observations, people just throng the shopping outlets - mostly of dresses - in the weekends. During festival times sales, which is during most times, the shops in TNagar would be as crowded as a Mumbai suburban central railway compartment during peak hours. And even otherwise, it is only slightly better. The price and quality of cloth is marginally better than Bangalore (this is a very random personal observation/opinion made on a very small sample and also considering my vision for such issues). Rightly so, the advertisements during intervals in halls were mostly of only two things – one of sari, another r of jewelery – and both used the theme of marriages.
If the graph is drawn as to where my time was spent these would come in the order, roughly. Office, house, traveling (b/n SBC,MAS), hotels, movie halls.

So how can I not mention about my probably most missed thing about Chennai - Satyam theater. It was my favorite for many reasons. Firstly it was very close to my earlier location of the office and to my house. The tickets were not sold in black - so there was very good chance of getting one if planned properly. And since it was a multiplex, if preferred one was not available there was always possible to watch another good one. Then comes good sound effects, seating and snacks. And when it comes to innovation, Satyam are probably the front runners. They have a good website to book tickets online and initially (2 yrs ago itself) it just took a proof of credit card to get the tickets at the special counters meant for this. Seat selection (at a cost) was then introduced in the online ticket booking process followed by buying the snacks online too - snacks were served to our seats 10 min before the interval. Damn convenient. They also introduced their own rechargeable “fuel” card for those who do not have credit cards (Some concession for using these cards would have been a very good idea). On the lines of irctc, they then made it possible for the printing of tickets by overselves. Also was introduced a blind-date sort of show where audience will not know the movie before its start, screened on Thursday nights. (Of course, only good classics were screened but am not sure if it became a success or not).

One related experience that deserves a mention is that the city is quite safe I felt. I roamed around alone in the nights – 1am or 2am and not once did I fear getting robbed or anything like that.

Beach is a major attraction for me whenever I tour, but while I was in Chennai, I hardly visited. Only a couple of visits that too when I had visitors. Talking of visits, a visit to Parthasarathy temple stands out in the memory. Though it was very near I had reserved it for a special day and thus have made it memorable. The one reason I liked the place was because it was spacious.

About weather - the “hot” weather was not much of an issue to me at all. Because the day time in weekdays were spent in office and evenings were manageable with a fan. Summer weekends was only a bother and during that I was either in office or in Blore or at theaters. Also my house was not very hot.

Language. I was irritated many times when even the technical talk happened in the local language but I never had to face “problem” because of the language. I hardly went shopping, had my vehicle for commute, ordering in hotel was easy and thus I hardly interacted with local people - apart from those at office.

And people at office, apart from minor irritants, were very good. I had a cordial relationship with everyone because my professional interactions were only with US counterparts only, mostly.

One thing I regret very much was not having joined the Kannada Sangha which was quite near to my place. Joining would have given me more friends and some good activities for weekends.

Thanks to Kiruba, I attended a bloggers meet and a proto.in. I also saw few movies and Sudhish kamath in Chennai Film Fest.

That pretty much sums up my observation and about my experiences in the city. Some events like visiting a 24 hour coffee shop at midnight, several other night-out plans, weekend picnics to places like DakshinaChitra etc never worked out.

Overall, I liked my stay there and did not have any major complaints.

Managing the task between reading blogs and writing a post has become an impossible task for me. I tend to use up all the time reading one instead of writing anything. Is that laziness ?

Anyways, for not posting last few months, as if anyone is bothered to know, but anyways, is not because I did not have time. In fact I had loads of it. It was simply because I had an easy reason for myself - tension and indecision about work etc. Uff what and all has happened in last few weeks. Such surprises and shocks, the one moment it was gone and next moment something else came up and next minute that was gone too. I almost became as much convinced as Annu Kapoor was about the existence of Mr India, before Mr.India actually visits him that is¹ I stopped believing anything that was happening around me or to me. It seemed so meaningless even to plan for an hour ahead as only FSM knew what would happen next. The confusion, indecision, tension all became blurred and the emotions got converged to plain boredom. It almost looked like frustration to others but I knew I wasn’t frustrated but plain disappointed and bored. Plain bored, if you did not get it, you must experience it one day and I wish you should not.

And then the introspection, though unwarranted but was unavoidable, furthered a feeling which almost made me think of myself seriously. Any further I continue with the rant would leave a bad taste on this blog which is otherwise testimony to happy things.

Let me just say, it was a bad time. Last few months. Things continued to fail. My ego got hurt. (Actually its not ego, it was stupendous self-confidence, anyways since its hurt we can name it anything). My optimism got hit. I turned extreme skeptic, unsure of myself. You know something is wrong when you dislike your shadow (due to the past), worst is when it is compounded by failed belief system which will make you fear the future too. And somewhere I changed or my attitude has changed. (So much so that it was visible in few sentences in chat that few of my friends and family took note of. I am surprised that I was observed so easily!)

Anyways, don’t be surprised if such rants like the above become quite frequent here.

For the sake of update, I have quit Chennai and have found a job here in Bengalooru. So now back to home should enable me to spend more time on my blog.

1. and this strange habit of recalling and drawing an analogy to movies is a habit I want to develop and this has rubbed off on me from some blog [back]

Here is my list of favourite (love related¹ ) songs, the recent ones.

1. Javeda Zindagi (Tose Naina Lagey) - Anwar
2. Tu Jo Nahin - Woh Lamhe
3. Jiya Dhadak Dhadak Jaye - Kalyug
4. Rabba - Musafir
5. Tere Bin : Bas Ek Pal
6. Kitni Baatein - Lakshya
7. Ishq Hota Nahi Sabhi Ke Liye - Joggers Park
8. Chanda Re - Sapnay
9. O Saathi Re (Omkara)

Thats from the top-of-my-head list…There are surely many other songs which I like very much. But some of these songs have this knack of grabbing my attention towards them and making me listen to them actively. Some of these just make me close my eyes. I can listen to some of over and over again and thus are favorites but some of them I can not listen to more than once, I will be so moved to stop and thus are more favorite than others.

Which are your favorite ones ?

1. need not be romantic, right? [back]

I along with few mates attended proto.in held at IIT. The detailed reports can be found here, here , hereand here. Companies that presented are listed here.

I am testing this new, cool imbuddy called imified which is letting me access my blog from yahoo messenger ! From there site (imified.com), Imified is an instant messenger buddy that works across all major IM networks and offers access to a growing number of web applications, as well as productivity tools like notes, reminders, and todo’s. Imified helps you get things done faster.

Like last year, I will look back and ahead.
>>Read 10 (at least) novels/general books. And at least 4 technical books
Ha! I think I failed on the count of general books but almost made more than the target in technical books. To be frank, I did not read the complete books, but at least it was better than previous year. Watched lotsa movies.
>>Wake up before a fixed time in the morning – any day/any weather/any going-to-bed-time
Pretty much there….except on few days. And those few days is either because I sleep late or I am not at peace (the first one is not a valid reason as it had been covered in the goal but second one is a reasonable one)
>>Visit/ spend time with “relatives”
NA now….
>>To *reduce* money spent on movies. Instead watch “plays” and invest in “books”
Partly success…like last time, books are being bought.
>>Go on at least 4 tours
Failed, but went to 2
>>Take food at same time everyday.
Failure
>>Donate blood at least 3 times.
Passed

Flashback:
Toured Siddarabetta, Ranganatittu, Madikeri,Abhey falls, Kollur,Murudeshwar,Sringeri,,TTDC resort, Goa
Bought Bike
Got done lasik
Blog related : Moved to weblogs.us

Goal Settings:
>>Most importantly, try to achieve previously set goals.
And to keep this in mind.
>>Come out with a concrete plan and roadmap for what I want to achieve in long term in terms of career.

Well, its quite a long time since I actively posted anything. I love being busy. I love sleeping. Both of those do not mean the same Various reasons I can think of for not jotting down, but finally all explanations is saying one-n-only reason in different ways. That reason is something else took priority or interest over blogging.
But I did plenty of bloggable activities and have decided to dedicate few posts. So posts, some of them old, will appear here.
There are some changes in the site, notably for visitors is the inclusion of ads. It is right now very disorganised and looking not too clean, but hope to clean it up sometime. I am also aware that the ads this blog might attract might not earn me anything (because I write only about my life or about movies), yet I just wanted to experiment. So if you visit the site, click on these ads and help me in my experiment! For me the major change is the change of the host from negimaki to weblogs.us. As of now there are lot of uptime issues with weblogs.us, but hope it would get better soon. Negimaki is an excellent host but I wanted few more liberties than I could get over there. Among other changes on the site would be to experiment with whole lot of themes and plugins.

So what was I upto all these days (that could be blogged about) - I watched lotsa movies (as usual) - some of them as a part of Chennai Film Fest, read few books, went on a goa trip, read read and read on internet.
Looking ahead, I have some thoughts to make this space meaningful and pretty regular.

If sleep or something else does not take a higher priority, then. For now, posts are following.

Once I was walking with Sai and there was a 5 or 7 star hotel. The entrance itself looked majestic what with 2 security guards and all. I whispered “One day I shall enter and have a ball here”, to which Sai replied in lighter vein “Say one day you will own it”¹. “Yeah, I said, if I am dreaming why should I dream small. Dream big!” ² Suddenly I realized that I am not dreaming enough and in someways surrendering myself to the realities.

So I have decided to drop my dream of travelling abroad either from organisation (onsite) or on personal tour. There goes my long held dream out of the tiny window. I want to upgrade my dream.

I want to travel in space. Like Ansari.

Dreams are, after all, dreams.

PS:
Most people I talk to do not have any dreams. Not the possible ones. Not the impossible ones. I am not sure if the growing up, at one point, manages to curb that beauty of dreaming that we all have enjoyed during our childhood. I am sure all of us have dreamt on something or another. To fly a plane. By becoming invisible and punishing those who irritate us. To be all powerful with an all powerful gun and car. Such like.
Coming back to the point, the other day, when we were waiting for our big boss to come and address our gathering at a star hotel, I, in as usual blabbering mood, said “One day I shall come like this and address and there shall be people waiting for me”. To this Vishnu smiled and said, “Good..so you want to become an entrepreneur”. I smiled and asked what about him. What has he wanted to do or become. He said “I do not get any such ideas at all. All my ideas sorround my village and never leave my village. I want to have a large cattle farm.” I was all ears.
“You see people in our village pay Rs 12 per litre of milk. They need to get it from outside. I am sure if we self manage, it can be made available for just Rs 6. There are many such things I want to do that will help our village” I was very happy to listen to some dream. And it is very unlike of the gibberish I do - without a plan, without a direction. While I maintain this blog and spend time to talk all about my life, intentions with a self-focussed tagline “Life, thoughts and opinions of a Known Stranger”, he is striving to bring up a site for his village.³ More power to dreamers like this who might just realize the development of India by believing in Gandhiji’s belief that villages’ development is India’s development.

PPS: This is a light post. A serious one about why I feel giving up is not bad, will follow sometime.

1. I had had made such huge sentences earlier but then, I had lost it somewhere [back]
2. Our headmaster in my 10th had told a story where our aim should be for gold, then at the least we shall get silver or something on that lines. [back]
3. And I take small credit in suggesting him about websites and providing him links like this. [back]

These days I am playing the snake game on my mobile. I knew about it earlier but had never played. Mostly I play it during waiting - for order in hotel, for bus, for someone, whem I am lonely and during other freetime (guess when!). It is a simple game alright, but a small lapse of action(keypress) or concentration or foresight can end the game and thus the effort so far. Though it can be played passively, I play it actively, so that no other thought bothers me. With a timelimit, it could have been made even more difficult.

Well, the post is not to discuss as simple a game as that. Recently someone¹ observed that “Hey why are you playing that game always..isn’t that too simple..there are many other interesting games …”
To which I involuntarily replied “This game is present in my mobile and however it its, I believe in playing well the games I have instead of worrying myself about the games that are not in my mobile”. It tangentially was an answer to something else in a subtle way, which I am sure did not reach him.

Later when I recalled that impromptu statement, I feel that is very true with me², naturally.³ I have had undesirable times with my health, friends, relationships, career and every thing else and each time I just swallowed it. Initially I had to that with the help of thoughts and decision, now it comes naturally to me.

As long as I have this game I will try to play it in a best way possible and will enjoy it. It does not mean I will not buy a new mobile with more challenging and enriching games⁴.

1. a whiner, about whom a book can be written and who takes, these days, all the credit for the fun I have,in his absense [back]
2. reminds me of a quote from IISc Prof who taught us Transmission and Switching - damn I forgot his namethanks to anon in comment, his name is Prof Ashok Rao- he had said “These days every one says ‘I want to do good projects’ no body says ‘I want to do the project good [back]
3. There is a huge difference between ambition/need to complaints/cribbing. My ambition has sometimes been misunderstood as complaint by many [back]
4. While at it, I will make sure to have Chess on my mobile, Like snake it will be best companion during lonely times [back]

I can almost imagine Chaitra dancing and singing “I am a weirdo master*” to the tune and steps of “I am a disco dancer” while she did this. As if that was not enough, she decides for the first time to tag others. Honoured is yours truly.
And I did think I could not be weird and tried to find weird things about me. I, usually, keep thinking about myself for most part of the time, yet when confronted with the tag, found it difficult to list my weirdness. Strange, na ?
It may be because, I do not classify things about me under some heading. All I do should be right, no ? But after thinking and trying to understanding difference between weird and different, I actually had a long list. Without further delay, here I present, things that are weird about me:
1. During sleep: I used to walk. Also I talk. And honest and true to heart answers to the questions, at that. Thankfully, has not been used against me. And my dreamsare weird.
2. Till few years ago, I was very brave. But of late, I guess I have picked up few phobias. How I wish, I am aging in the reverse direction !!
3. My thoughts. My questions. (Like why are there only 2 genders ? Why could not there have been, say 4 and any pair could copulate and reproduce ?)
4. I have this constant fear that I might die anytime now. Or something wrong happening. In a curve on the road, I fear some vehicle running over me. Or the tyre going flat/tank getting empty when I am on the busy road and vehicles running over me. Or when I am in a theater, bomb explosion or fire tragedy to occur. While travelling, the bus/train jumping off the bridge. Which is why I am trying to settle accounts with people. And finally I have this weird wish of being around here after death, like a ghost, and be able to see the lives of other near and dear ones.
5. I switch off among the crowd - three is crowd, heck I switch off even in a pair - very easily. When drawn back, I am guilty and most often forget where was I lost.
6. I have a split personality. No, really. Probably because I can control my moods. I am a different person, in person. Different in writing (chat/e-mail/blog). And slightly (in)different on phone.

And now that all is disclosed, if you feel I need treatment for one or the other, do not worry. I pretty much conceal all weirdness inside me and the interfaces to the outside world are perfectly stable.(You dont think so ? ,then let me know)

I tag thee and Megha (if Her Highness does take it up, which I doubt, she might be undisputed weirdo queen, methinks).

So , where do I stand on a WQ level ?

*Is it only me or has anyone else noticed that TV channels have united to disuse the feminine gender words like actress/danseuse , instead it has become fancy to use “Actor - Female” (as in Best Actor - Female).

886
In the above photo you can notice the 4th hand of Shiva holding ಡಮರುಗ which was damaged by thunderstorm that hit it yesterday. Photo was taken during my tour about which I still have to write. Meanwhile you could see the selected photos here

Like last year, I do a flashback and goal setting. Oh yes, this year there will be a performance review of previous year too…
Review of Goal setting:
>>Read 10 (at least) novels/general books. And at least 4 technical books
I failed on technical book count. But will make more than that this time. Other books I did not keep a count but must have reached that.
>>Wake up before a fixed time in the morning – any day/any weather/any going-to-bed-time
Huh. Serious failure for 5 months after I came to Chennai. Have to restart now.
>>Visit/ spend time with “relatives”
Well….I had only 6 months time in Bangalore…..and failed in this one too.
>>To *reduce* money spent on movies. Instead watch “plays” and invest in “books”
Well, did go to plays. But relocating from Bangalore meant I could not watch as many plays as I would have wanted. Money spent on movies was increased, but only relief is equal or more amount of money is invested in books.

Flashback:

• Bought Camera, Music System
• Toured Wayanad, Hyderabad (1,2,3,4), visited Chennai. Hey..thats quite less and I was expecting more
• Changed job and relocated to Chennai
• Applied to Masters
• Blog related: Moved from Blogger to WP on negimaki, Changed to my own domain.
• I became Blogger 2 in Economic Times! because I wrote something about Bangalore name change in this post
• I suggested/urged/inspired (last one is important to boost my confidence..it suggests I am not such a loser after all) few of my buddies to start a blog. But many of their blogs remained just that - a start - with only a few starting posts and dead ever since then.

And finally goal settings:
In addition to default goals (The failures of previous goals):

1. Go on at least 4 tours
2. Take food at same time everyday.
3. Donate blood at least 3 times.

Owing to time crunch and fear of not making a record of it (purely for my own interests) , I will just bullet them now:

Last 4 days I saw 3 movies.

Last few months read these books:

Happy New Year 2006 !! May the new year bring you all happiness

These days you can catch me smiling, giggling almost anytime :D. Some small reasons or otherwise. I am generally happy (Except when I think I have not even started to study…back again to procastrinating of Engg days). I go near mirror, I will realise myself smiling. I look at monitor, I will be giggling looking at some or the other mail or if nothing remembering someone/something.

The hangover of family day celebrations is helping and adding to that is the festive season of December[vacation of colleagues]. Not to forget the visits to home is adding its own colour.

The peaceful days remind me of last year March when I led a dreamy life (you can also see that posts were considerably more then!) . Time flies…

Upon these, I am reading real good content from books or essays that have a very positive and optimistic influence on me and my energy glow must be visible I guess Reading brings its own pleasure!

Today I recieved the holiday list for next year of our organisation. 8 out of 10 holidays will give me extended weekends (holidays fall on Fridays and Mondays) And 2 can be converted to extra long weekends (Holidays on tuesday and thursday) !

And at the end, living the day if not to fullest but without regrets ! Life!

Ps: There are few complaints,requirements or rants but I do not want to pollute this post

This and this .
Times have changed since the days when we were being made fun of being spoon fed.

“Let’s say that passenger A’s usual fare would be $1, passenger B’s is $5 and passenger C’s is $9. If all three share a cab (and assuming A and B are allowed to hop out on the way to C’s destination, without incurring any special fees), the total bill would be $9 — rather than the $15 they’d have to pay, total, to ride alone. How should they divide up the cost of the shared $9 ride? Or, put another way, how do they share the $6 of total savings?”

I came across this question in Emergic. There are various answers in WSJ but as registration is required to see the site, I could not access it.

What are your answers (apart from those mentioned in Emergic) ?

In practical sense, it is music. But technically unwanted signal is noise. I am facing the same problem that the character in Hyderabad Blues faces…disturbing loud devotional music hampering the early morning sleep. Ok, if you thought it is doing the job of alarm clock, you are wrong. Did I say loud ?, it is earth shattering. Did I say disturbing, it is infuriating. In that noise, nothing can be done even after getting up apart from cursing those souls who are responsible for it.
Pray what makes them torture trouble fellow beings in return of pleasing the Lord. At least if it was melodious and good as Suprabhatam by MS !
Oh, did I mention it is from a temple ? They seem to perfectly believe in the adage “The nearer the Church, the further from God.”, what else can justify the loudness!

On Saturday in VGP resort, curtains were drawn to the week long festive mood and activities in the VISMERIZE event,a family outing of associates of our organization.
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Prior to the event, the preparation and celebration had been going on in the office for the past week. After having formed 4 groups of approx 50 each, each team selected a lead and named their teams. Soon after naming themselves majaa, diShoom diShoom, Remo and PODANGO, the teams started publicizing each of them by pasting posters all around. Then it was the turn of balloons, paper hangings, Christmas tree decoration, cloth banners, colorful emails, rangoli and other designs, Welcome doll, art gallery - the list of innovative decoration and publicity stunts could give professional event managers and publicity managers a complex. No stone was left unturned to make their groups famous and to have fun and to fight against other groups! Each day it was fun to notice the new surprise offerings from each group. The characteristic of all stunts were of the processions that team members made around in the office, in their team uniform, some distributing sweets and some dancing to loud music. The get up of the entire office was changed to that of a wedding hall and obviously it made call-taxi driver to exclaim - “Is this the office I am supposed to come?”. All the teams were allocated certain amount of money for the preparations and decorations. In between all this, the teams also practised with vigor and enthusiasm for the cultural activities. Not to forget that the team meetings, deliveries too continued as usual.
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So as a final day of the proceedings, VGP resort was chosen for one day hangout of associates along with their families. On arriving at resort, crowd finished breakfast and warmed up slowly playing & looting prizes at carnival game stores.

Though the dark clouds in the morning put fears about good proceedings of the events and the plan, there was pleasant dreamy weather for half the day thus allowing gathering to enjoy the time. During which the attendees were split into 4 teams Kadale kadale,Pal pal,Murukku & Inji morappa and numerous fun events were conducted. These events were designed mostly to involve family members of the associates. To say that kids and spouses got involved would be an understatement, they enjoyed thoroughly and they turned out to be fiercely competitive. Several rounds of games were entertaining as well as pure fun. The groups were just waiting for an oppurtunity to run near the stage, oppurtunity to break into dancing, oppurtunity for photo sessions!

The cricket match happened probably without many spectators as other activities and lunch happened in parallel to cricket. Sivakasi team won the match hands down after having set a target of 10 runs in as many overs by the opponents Ghazini team.

Shortly after the lunch, the awards recognizing contribution and long service were given away. The clouds which had so long observed the activities came down and caused hindrance to the further scheduled events which mainly consisted of cultural activities’ competition among the groups. After a delay though, with out withdrawing, the competition started and continued in the hall.

Group Song: majaa & diShoom diShoom were very close to each other & to the prize. While majaa got more applaud, it was presumably to splendid, unimaginable performance (dwarf dance ?- how else do I call it) that went on alongside the singing. So singing per se, diShoom diShoom might have been ahead, more so because they discarded the conventional background music and sung without it. This exposed their singing abilities - like co-ordination(sync), timing - and rightly took away the Oscar.

Dance:When the compere said PODANGO set high standards for the dance competition, I felt he was exaggerating. For me the race was already over & won by PODANGO. But great performances were given by both majaa and diShoom diShoom that it was extremely difficult to point to one team as winner. Majaa took home the Oscar.

Skit:We like and enjoy making fun of ourselves, don’t we ? This was clearly displayed in skit shows all of which referred to VSO or software industry. Each team received good cheers and laughters from audience but PODANGO & Remo were slightly ahead of others in the race to Oscar. PODANGO eventually won it.

Additional round of talent show was reduced to a no-show by the fantastic bridal round fashion show by Remo. Other teams did put up a good show - like mimicry & sounds by PODANGO, Dos and Don’ts (civic sense) silent acting by diShoom diShoom and fun show by majaa. 5 pairs of bride-bridegroom wore spectacular attire and attracted increasingly loud cheers from the crowd. Remo, swept everyone by surprise in this act which was rightly termed as stellar show by the compere, and laid their hands on oscar.

“Vismerize” the name of the event suggestion won majaa team an another Oscar.

Uniformity Oscar award was given to diShoom diShoom who not only received the attention for their dress code (military) but also stayed & moved in groups. PODANGO were in yellow shirt, sleeves folded, with lungi and looked very ethnic. majaa were with a Sherlock Homes hat and a matching black coat imprinted their names on the back and majaa icon on the front. Remo were with an unique dress printed Remo and rose, and marked lips continuing to flaunt lover boy image.They also wore a mask, put colour on hairs near forehead and tied colourful wrist straps.

“summa nachchanu irukku majaa” slogan coupled with their cheer leading won them the award for the same, though they faced stiff competition from diShoom diShoom, PODANGO and Remo.

Pre-event publicity Oscar went to diShoom diShoom.

Best team Oscar was shared by majaa and diShoom diShoom as both had won equal number of Oscars.

It was a jovial experience, with all people irrespective of their positions joining and sharing the fun. It was interesting to note Managers and Sr. Managers taking active part & even participating in the cultural activities (which meant they spent good amount of time in preparation too - given the high quality of shows). Oh! not to forget they suited the dress code perfectly & took part in the cheering process & publicizing process (procession around the office).

Footnote : 1)Some of the very few selected photos are here.
2)This is an impersonal account.
3)Click on the image for bigger versions.

I just now read the hilarious post on Indian Idol by Vinod G, though hilarious it addresses important issues - that of making viewers getting stuck to the show and making them idle and giving them an impression that with a mobile they are all powerful.
After glancing at one or two episodes I never ever watched a single episode…but always wondered when everyone spoke about it as if it is a BIG unheard event which would change the fortune of the country. I sighed when even prominent bloggers wrote page long description and analysis about the singers and the show. I felt many times that I might be missing making of a great star or unearthing of a genius and what ever be the case I felt inferior for not being able to strike a conversation about the next singing genius of India. Forget conversation I did not even know the names of the singers. And I never was able to understand the fascination and the ratings this show received.
I was a fan of Saregama during the times of Sonu Nigam and during initial times of Shaan. (After that I do not watch the show, so no comments). Saregama did unearth good talents but the show never became as famous as Indian Idol.
The power to vote out the participants is so dear to viewers ? Or is there something else ?

This is a game I never knew of before my PU. But in PU(SYJC) along with A,K,V,A we started playing this in the PG(patli galli) after college or when we bunked the college. I was clearly an underdog there in terms of the signs or the awareness of film names. As a sidenote I am average in any game I play in terms of talent, but I make it up in terms of intelligence and quick learning. For example, in case of this game, though the knowledge (awareness) of film names were not that much I made some intelligent guesses. We used to play the game so much that after a certain point of time we ran out of all names and we almost predicted the way the other person would enact given a particular name.

Then, during the North India tour and during other encounters which happened quite frequently over few years, I enjoyed (introducing and) playing this with my brother and cousins -A,M. During the above, it was mostly English and Hindi film names, but with my brother and cousins it was Kannada or Hindi names. By coincidence or otherwise(rigging), I and M turned out to be the partners everytime. We hit off to be a great pair in terms of understanding. Though we were strong we got stiff competation everytime and A and my brother managed some gem of unimaginable acting coupled with great humour to level the scores. I and M were sort of so unmistakably familiar with eath others actions that the fun part slowly faded out but their acting kept up the spirits and joy. The game used to go out of sync if anyone else joined us.

Despite this rich experiences, when I saw college level competations, I figured, in comparision, my game was gully cricket as compared to international one dayers. But I was good enough to pull out surprises in informal gatherings like college picnics and was completely noticed during Goa tour. But again, I could only rely on abilities of acting and imagination rather than the awareness of the names.

That fear always kept me away from competation (of any level), and thus I shied away from the office competation too.
On Diwali eve, this game was held and 10 groups participated. I just remained a spectator. 4 rounds (Film names, Books-Authors, Idioms/Phrases, A mixture of all) were conducted.

I should say I was familiar with 8 out of 10 names! When passed to audience I could grab two prizes for guessing these:

1) Child is the father of man.
I didn’t phrase this exactly but I was close to it.
2) The chain is as strong as its weakest link.
Well, the credit for this goes to KVN Sir who had mentioned this during analog communications class.

What helped me in knowing many answers are:
Of late I frequent to book shops (even though I do not read as much), I am aware of quite a few authors and books’ names. Secondly, the GM quotes have helped me much.

I felt very bad for myself that I did not participate in the competation, but was happy that remaining in the audience itself I had won 2 boxes of crackers/sparklers.

candidate is appearing in conversation these days..

hello
hello
how are you
fine thank you
.
.
heard that Fanoos is visiting there…how are the conditions?
I remain silent for few seconds
Oh! Cyclone ? Nothing much to worry..it seems it has taken a diversion.
Thats good.
Yeah..

It was the Legend of Zorro on saturday and hugely popular Gajini on sunday.

Zorro (though I have not seen the first part) looked neat. Impressive action, pinch of comedy, little but good action, performances that are not complainable, a background music I liked and a feasible plot. Catherine Zeta-Jones, Antonio Banderas and the kid (Adrian Alonso) were impressive. Particularly I liked the kid. Though the movie could have done with little more action and little more pace, it was ok as the very predictable plot too looked fresh.

Gajini was a long pending one after listening to its songs almost 10 times a day (no, not by choice..but the radio keeps playing it non-stop and at my workplace radio singing is a must). I had known that the character has temporary memory loss and expected some Anniyan style of film. Even though I do not follow every word of Tamil, it was ok as I feel there were no great dialogues. Initially I enjoyed the movie till little after interval. But later I felt, it became not only predictable but it looked very hurriedly done to finish it off. The built up was ok but it did not live up to it. How I wish the voilence was a separate film and that of quite-romance-quite-comedy was turned into another movie. I enjoyed Asin and Surya in that part. How I wish Kalpana did not die (at least not in that manner). How I wish the villains looked believable and they were punished enough (and not just in one shoot sequence). And why was an abrubt inclusion of the twin villian - just for those matrix-like fighting sequences ?

For some reasons I seem to be liking these fairy tales like Zorro. In comparision of 2 movies (ok, I can not compare because they are not similar, but then) too I would pick Zorro..may be because there is a happy ending! May be because the movies in bollywood have totally run out of ideas. Any bollywood movie (particularly of romantic genre) seem to be pissing me off , for I can see their inspirations in many previous movies. Otherwise, Hindi movies will create a hype to which they fail to live upto. Or they lie at extremes. In other cases, I am plainly just not impressed.

In one of the reviews I read that “Garam masala is bad but If shadi no 1 is the alternative for Garam Masala, I would go for the latter”. This shows the state of affairs right now in many circles. There is no choice to pick up a good one. But a pale comparision and remaining one after eliminating among the bad candidates result in the winner. Similar to the story in elections.

My Diwali offs were somewhat good. Absolutely did not have time to log the activities. However an album is better than nothing.
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Here is my racing video, and here is the album of selected pics: Deepavali/