Three Men in a Blog

TTGY 2

2005-07-29T11:37:00.000-07:00

Flirting is one important way to woo a gal.. And some times its the only way..

What a crowd!

2005-07-19T06:19:00.000-07:00

With due royalties to the original photographer. Hope he doesnt sue me.

TTGY-1

2005-07-19T00:10:00.000-07:00

Number of solo pics that a typical gal takes is 6.75 times that of what a typical guy takes..

Loser?

2005-07-15T08:39:00.000-07:00

Me: Today marks the successful completion of 3 years in IT industry, It goes for a toast..
Alter ego : Fuck you, Get drunk and crap on your bed, BTW what is succesful?
Me: I worked on 5 projects, I worked on security, messaging systems, databases, again back to messaging , and finally web apps. you see I learnt lots of stuff and you know I performed really well, even though I was thrown like a ball in multiple projects.
Alter ego: You fcking arse hole, You can crap on your prospective employer by writing all these shit in your resume, Not me you dumb loser.

Hmm This is *me*... After all Life *Sux* when you think abt career...

Awesome

2005-07-03T23:34:00.000-07:00

Awesome might be a very bigger undestatement when I want to describe the last two weekends. Its been pure fun. It started with pubbing on friday night and ended with a coffee day yesterday. Life is gooood, yeah really good :)..

BOF sessions

2005-06-21T21:58:00.000-07:00

We have huge BOF (Birds of a feather sessions) these days.. And every time we go to restaurants/hang out places we end up in a big big sessions that lasts for many hours. This weekend we were in chic kings for lunch, as usual we were talking about gals, love, care. This is the result of that session..

1. Gals would never love a guy because he is caring for her or he is loving her.
2. Love happens only through interests and impressions.
3. Guy would try to use care as the last mechanism to impress a gal and only if all others fail, And guys who use care as their first mechanism would fail miserably :)..

And all the above is true for a friendship too..

Gandhi - Who is that dude?

2005-06-14T11:13:00.000-07:00

I had huge fights with my frens on the topics related to Gandhi, his influence on Indian freedom, Non violence.
This is my take on Gandhi, He is a great leader to follow, He is a very true person, You can see it from his autobiography the way he has divulged lots of things about his life, Which he could have easily hidden it. He follows his principles which are rather very tough to follow than say.

At the same time I would say that he had very less influence on Indian freedom, Indian freedom would have come anyway even without Gandhi becuase of Second World War and I doubt we would have got freedom without that. And he made a terrible mistake of making Nehru as the prime minister of India when there are very able leaders who could have led India better. And other thing I would hate him for that he has imposed some of his convictions on ppl even though they are dumb.

Knock, knock. Who goes there? Book meme!

2005-06-10T09:21:00.000-07:00

The book meme knocked on noknok. Got bit by Kathak.

1. Volume of books/music owned?

I see a dozen in my shelf. But i remember exhausting a couple of lending libraries. Psst: try the top row last rack, they usually stack the Penthouses, Nancy Fridays and Debonairs there!

Does pirated mp3 count as owned? Then i have around 4GB of music in my comp, mostly tamil songs. If not, i have no music whatsoever! (Yes, yes, i also like that `Stop Piracy` ad on TV. Very good ad no?)

2. Last book/CD I bought?

I think i bought Catch-22 about 7-8 months ago for the second time. Yeah, thats right, i have seen five copies of Catch-22 through my hand over a period of 3 years but i have never finished it :( And if it is any consolation, i lost that copy also before i could finish it. Whats the catch, i wonder?

They sell music CDs in the shops? I thought `Download` link replaced CDs long time back!

3. Books/Songs that mean a lot to me.

Reader's Digest Book of facts: Yeah it is an encyclopedia, no..i did not win it, no..i did not get it from a burnt down neighbour's home, but through real hard work, i stole it from my school library! Kick started my love for science and engineering.
Tell me your dreams: The first novel i read.
Love Story: Sometimes, in the middle of the night, i wake up, drenched in sweat, in tears almost, and ask myself, "why should Jennifer die?".
Bourne Identity: I dont know why, but i like this novel very much. Maybe its just my childhood ambition of becoming an assasin :D
Atlas shrugged: The most confusing book i have ever read. Or its just that, the scope of the book is beyond my intellectual stretch. Nevertheless, it makes one question thyself!

You know the type, headphones on them all day, even while working, for whom walkmans are invented? Well, im that type. I need music 24/7. Every mp3 means something! Cant list any :(
Currently, listening to songs from Anniyan & Arinthum Ariyamalum.
what lyrics!! wow!!! "...tent கொட்டாய் interval முறுக்கே..."

Nominations
This is the toughest question... bcos Kathak already nominated the 3 bloggers i know:( wait a minute, i know....Niket, Parag, Ulu, Bala and Ramses. But i dont know when will they read this and pick the tag up?

Web Servers Survey!

2005-06-05T23:54:00.000-07:00

This is a pretty cool site, if you want to know numbers regarding the market share of various webservers..

Philosophical - Fuck Off!!

2005-05-29T21:09:00.000-07:00

Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrasment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life. But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose something else. And the reasons there are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin.

Trainspotting - One fucking good movie...

Of two headlights and one hand...

2005-05-20T12:53:00.000-07:00

The Gods have a weird way of answering one's prayers. I prayed for a vacation alright, but i didnt expect Him to send it in a truck. Yeah people, one dark road bend, a failed brake, a big bang, and quite a fall later i realised i met with an accident. Dont ask me more details of how it happened, because there is still a conspiracy surrounding the whole situation...kinda like the me-thought-it-was-two-2-wheelers-from-the-headlights-but-it-was-actually-a-truck thingy.

Im happily at home, Trichy now. For the next month and a half at least, you see, broken wrist takes time & food to regroup. Only downside is, it is darn difficult to do even the silliest of things with only one hand. Really, believe me, or try typing a keyboard with only your left hand when you feel like you have a million things to say.

Well, i do have plans of writing a couple of short stories. So have no fear, I WILL BE BACK...unless He decides to break my left arm as well to answer my prayers for a symmetrical figure.

52 hours in 3 days

2005-05-13T01:42:00.000-07:00

Yeah I am travelling.. I think it will be one hell of a sleep sucking, ass burning travel. I will be travelling for more than 2200 kms in 3 days and my travel is planned so nicely that I will be spending all the four nights in either a bus or a train.. Whoa, Forget sleep for another four days..

Am I wrong?

2005-05-12T00:38:00.000-07:00

I may be working with M$ and I may be even working with msn which directly competes with gmail, But I say every feature of gmail is an art. Developers felt it from their heart and wrote the code for it..

Its all testesterone dude..

2005-05-10T22:12:00.000-07:00

You like a gal, You start thinking that you can do anything for her and fall for her. You go behind her, Then you have a multi year project getting her accept your love. After the project gets suckered up. Then you see the world, World full of other beautiful gals but none catching your interest as that gal did and atlast you have to get going and accept some other creature, May be this is just one way of zillion other ways you deal with gals in this world ;)..

And I am not like the one above :).

Silence of the lambs.

2005-05-10T02:34:00.000-07:00

Ok, enough of the silence already. I can't stand it anymore.
Bala is so busy that he doesn't find time to charge his mobile. He wants an Ithaca like Ulysses and blinded by something like Homer!
Ulu still cant talk to his manager lady eye-to-eye. Poor creature. Which reminds me, the last post from Ulu was really receiving some nice comments before I decided to change the template and lose all the comments. Bloody bad timing i got.

And let me redirect you to some really good blogs i have chanced upon...

Ammani - Don't miss her `quick tales`

Sathyaraj - Tamil short stories

kAy - Wonderful pictures & thoughts and see the original also
a softer world

Go through these blogs by the time i'll come back with my own version of "a softer world" which i'll post on my creative-space,
aut me aut nihil

Somebody post something.

Its typical of me

2005-04-29T04:28:00.000-07:00

Can you see a gal eye to eye? No I can't do that unless she is very close to me. I am feeling really awkward when my manager talks to me eye to eye and I keep rotating my head all around the room, May be I have to more comfortable speaking to gals one on one..

Vizag weekend!!!

2005-04-28T06:59:00.000-07:00

Ended up in vizag last weekend amidst lots of drama with Anil (Anil is a gult friend of mine, I got to know him through gopi) .Vizag is really a beautiful city especially the area near the beach road is cool. Our hotel room had an amazing view of sea from the balcony. What makes vizag beach special is that beaches are sandwiched between the eastern ghats on oneside and ofcourse sea on the other. The beach road is also a ghat road, And added to that roads were amazingly good (thanks to Naidu). The ride along the beach road is breath takingly scenic and reminds you of goa some times. Just basked around the beach, got drunk and reached high for the first time and had a stroll along the beach road and spent time in the beach before reaching apartment back at 1:30 A.M. Spent sunday trying to book tickets and visiting some other places.

Forgive me for I have sinned...

2005-04-23T10:42:00.000-07:00

Some people have reMigrAted to India by the time I write THIs. Am I guilty of not even visting this blog...? Hmmm.....Nope :) .Guilt is smthing bad to carry. So, I'll continue writing as though nothing has happened in between like a video tape put on play from pause. so, no loss of continuity. This week has been a split personality week. Its been yugas since i watched a movie after comin bac home. So, in a path breaking act, I decide to watch this movie "Identity" starring John Cusack. It turns out to be all MPD. The movie was crap but felt good abt watching a movie after a long time. Friday, turns out to be the "Fight Club". Too Good. Again MPD but this time its good. Amazing thing, I have never watched this movie. I have read the script but never watched it. Its quite shocking even to me that I havent watched some of the really blockbuster ones. Jurassic Park, Mission Impossible,Saving Private Ryan(till yday) to name a few immediately. Again coming back, went to play cricket on friday. And me,moose n boopa decide that the best way to finish a cricket session was to watch a movie. So, we drive down straight to Chandramukhi. Voila..Rajni says..."ungee manaivikku vandhirkara vyadhikku per Multiple Parshanalty Disorder cholvanga". Hmm...do i see some signs. May be... I think thats where this 24 years of vaccum is gonna head.
Saw couple of more movies yday...
Schindler's List n Saving Private Ryan.

Hello CSERECT!!!

2005-04-22T01:44:00.000-07:00

Hello this is a dummy post for cserect from noknok..

Mathi dude.. You gotto give me a treat if this works :-p..

Its me me me me me me me!!!

2005-04-21T22:11:00.000-07:00

Wat the fuck, Life sucks.. This will be the theme based on which I am goin to write and some times may be I digress and write some random stuff ofcourse masala and some times movies reviews...

Ok you two

2005-04-12T13:12:00.000-07:00

Whats up with u two? I mean the The other two men in the blog?? I'm sick and tired of giving proxy for you guys and playing the psychopath and the tech-savvy role also, apart from the freak role i was originally assigned to play. Please, please don't leave me all alone here... you guys know that im afraid of the dark. Me alone in this black background with the white fonts just freaks me out. Come back please! (See how good i'm playing the freak role?)
Srinivasulu and Balasubramanian, you have been summoned. Dont give me that lame excuse again. Microsoft and DELL can run without you guys also. Even the Vatican ran without a head for few days, for cryin out loud. (btw - i have the shortest name among us three! yayyyy!!)

Ok, one more thing...
The post about the tamil song seems to be caused quite a stir. In blogging standards two or more comments for the same subject, means it is over 8 on the Richter scale. So the answer is, it is from the the movie: என் சுவாசக் காற்றே (En swaasa kaatre) music done by ARRahmann himself, Song: தீண்டாய் மெய் தீண்டாய்..(Theendai mei theendai). Download and listen to that song and tell me why the girl cries in the beginning of the song. No, i dont know the answer b'cos im not a girl.

10915, LeMont Rd

2005-03-23T14:59:00.000-08:00

Yes yes, this address is more important than 10, Downing street or 1600, Pennsylvania Avenue!! Can't guess who lives there? See for yourself...

Yeah we(me+kiten+vinayak+milan+some imaginary girlfriends) went to Chicago last weekend. On the way picked up Vinayak at Purdue. The temple is in the Greater Chicago area. Enjoyed every bit of the dharsan. Enjoyed the prasaatham even more. The meal was complete with long-dark-haired-typical-triplicane crowd, idli, vada, masala dosa, puli saadam and they even managed steel-chairs! For all i know i could have been in some wedding party in SriRangam, Trichy for those magical 30 minutes.

Went to Devon street aka MG road aka Jinnah road. Was never more happy to see litter on the pavement. Was happy to see all shops with the hoarding read "India-Pakistan items sold yada-yada". A third country does a lot of things to people.
Most shops were named after our Father of the nation. Gandhi Hardware, Gandhi Kitchen Utensils, Gandhi Cuisine.... was thankful that there wasn't any `Gandhi Wines`.

Ahh..the pleasure of watching indian girls! Sorry no pictures.../evil laughs
Haircut($6), Samoosa chaat($2.78), some regular chat, some drooling, 4 hours and a few MBBS(Married, But Beautiful Sight) later it was time to get back. Saw the city in lights, and this time i had a camera.

But sadly i do not have a tripod... please bear with the shaky me.

Law of Conservation of Mass

2005-03-06T13:42:00.000-08:00

Im sitting in my cubicle on a hot sunday afternoon looking at bugs to fix in my code, listening to tamil songs and trying to write something coherant so that i dont lose my precious readers! (now that many of my readers know my yahoo IM handle they leave me threatening offliners to that affect!) And all i can think of to write is `The Law of Conservation of Mass` ...err... anyways here goes the spool of thoughts...

I downloaded a lot yesterday. No, no, not porn.... songs! Yeah, music. I downloaded MBs and MBs of it, until coolgoose.com spit back at me "You have exceeded your limit of download for a day!". This would never happen in India since with the ISP's speed there one has to download for a week to exceed a day's limit. (not to mention the frequent disconnects and the frustrations :( it causes while trying to chat)

One song goes like this....
தலைவன்: பனிஓ, பனி-இன் துலிஓ, உன் இதல் மலெ என்ன?
தலைவி: பனிஓ, தேனோ .... நீ சுவைத்தால் என்ன!

(Tamil readers please bear the spelling mistakes.)
English readers, translation...

lover: is it dew? or dew drops? on ur lips?
girl: dew? or honey?...isn't it for you to taste!

so this is what flirting is!!!! It had been staring at me for this long and only now i realise the beauty of it!

Not unlike reading -and understanding!- The Law of Conservation of Mass after getting a degree in engineering.

There is a time for everything, i say.

Embossed

2005-02-18T16:05:00.000-08:00

Looks good.. don't u say?

North Vs South

2005-02-02T07:11:00.000-08:00

I got this forward from my friend today... i cant confirm/verify whether any of it is true, but it sure had me laughing. So go on... laugh it up!

********* U have to think twice b4 committing to a North IndianGirl**********

1. At the time of marriage, a north Indian girl has more boyfriends than her age.

2. Before marriage, she looks almost like a bollywood heroine and after marriage you have to go around her twice to completely hug her.

3. By the time she professes her undevoted love to you, you are bankrupt because of the number of times you had to take her out to movie theatres and restaurants. And you wait longingly for her dowry.

4. The only dishes she can think of to cook is paneer butter masala, aloo sabji, aloo gobi sabji, aloo matar, aloo paneer, that after eating all those paneer and aloos you are either in the bed with chronic cholestrol or chronic gas disorder.

5. The only growth that you see later in your career is the rise in your monthly phone bill.

6. You are blinded by her love that you think that she is a blonde. Only later do you come to know that it is because of the mehandhi that she applies to cover her gray hair.

7. When you come home from office she is very busy watching "Kyonki saas bi kabi bahu thi" that you either end up eating outside or cooking yourself.

8. You are a very "ESpecial" person to her.

9. She always thought that Madras is a state and covers the whole of south india until she met you.

10. When she says she is going to "work out" she means she is going to "walk out"

11. She has greater number of relatives than the number of people you have in your home town.

12. The only two sentences in English that she knows are "Thank you" and "How are you"

13. She thinks Govinda can dance better than Michael Jackson.

******WHAT IT MEANS TO HAVE A South indian GIRL-FRIEND***********

1. Her mother looks down at you because you didn't study in IIT or Madras /Anna University.

2. Her father starts or ends every conversation with " ... I say..."

3. She shudders if you use four letter words.

4. She has long hair, neatly oiled and braided (The Dubai based Oil Well Company will negotiate with her on a 25 year contract to extract coconutoil from her hair.)

5. She uses the word 'Super' as her only superlative.

6. Her name is another name for a Goddess or a flower.

7. Her first name is longer than your first name, middle name and surname combined (unless you are from Andhra)

8. When she mixes milk and rice you are never sure whether it is for the Dog or for herself.

9. For weddings, she sports a mini jasmine garden on her head and wears silk saris in the Madras heat without looking too uncomfortablewhile you are melting in your singlet.

10. She thinks Mohan Lal is the sexiest man alive.

11. Her favourite cricketer is Krishnamachari Srikkanth.

12. Her favourite food is dosa though she has tried North Indian snacks like Chats (pronounced like the slang for 'conversation')

13. She bursts into songs with her cousins in every movie.

14. She bores you by telling you which raaga each song you hear is based on.

15. You have to give her jewellery, though she has already got plenty of it ..

16. Her thali (Mangal Sutra) weighs more than the championship belts worn by WWF wrestlers.

17. She is more educated than you.

18. Her father thinks she is much smarter than you...

And I keep wondering how would a girl who is half southie and half northie would be like?

Damn !

2004-12-28T18:37:00.000-08:00

Junta,
I am back. With as much mirth and enthusiasm i could muster.

It is below 0 degree Celcius for almost two weeks now, lowest being -20! And there is snow everywhere. Tons and tons of them. Everywhere. I joined my colleagues and played hitting-each-other-with-snowballs. Later I had to the restroom and go into unspeakable places to get the snow out. Damn! Snow is everywhere alright.

We got just one day off for Christmas. But the best part is all of my leads are on vacation till next year! Even my onsite co-ordinator is going back to India. Wait a second.. now I would have to do some co-ordination work then. Damn! I didn't think that before.
I finally ordered a laptop. HP Pavilion dv1000 series. Customized to Centrino 1.6 GHz, 512 RAM, 60 GB, CD-RW DVD Combo. Should be on my hand by Jan 10th. And then K tells me, that the DVD reader could be Region-specific. Damn! Why didn't i think of that before? The damage was already done. A full $1100 of it.
And i was going to give it to my sweet lil sister as her b'day present. I never gave anything for her b'days, not even a card..not once. So i called my Mom and told her the news. She tells me that my sister's college doesn't allow student to have computer at their hostel. Damn! She would have to sneek it in somehow, wouldn't she?
After all the shopping i have done there is zilch in my account now. Which reminds me of my college days. Which reminds me of Home. Which reminds me of Pune. God, how i miss all those. Can't wait to come back. And then my PM drops the bomb and tells me, my stay here could be extended. Damn! I told him, "I'm *not* going to be here after February. Period."
After all that LateNight TV shows -my social life now involves only a bed, tv & the remote- i go to sleep very late. But that doesn't stop the Pune developers from waking me up at odd hours. That day at 1AM in the morning i got a call. I woke up knowing that some crazy developer who have run into some stupid problem is calling me. Sure enough, it was a colleague but that fellow started talking without saying who he was. So i yelled, "WHO IS THIS?". He said, "Its Srini". My Manager. Damn! Now whenever the phone rings i give it some respect.
My current room-mate & good friend, Murali is getting married this Feb. I'm just cursing myself that i won't be back to make the wedding. I'm more cross by the fact that im unable to warn the bride of the psycho she is going to marry...just kidding! Congratulations Murali on the engagement!

Joke Time:
Once upon a time, in a nice little forest, there lived an orphaned bunny and an orphaned snake. By a surprising coincidence, both were blind from birth. One day, the bunny was hopping through the forest, and the snake was slithering through the forest, when the bunny tripped over the snake and fell down. This, of course, knocked the snake about quite a bit.
"Oh, my," said the bunny, "I'm terribly sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. I've been blind since birth, so, I can't see where I'm going. In fact, since I'm also an orphan, I don't even know what I am."
"It's quite ok," replied the snake. "Actually, my story is as yours. I too have been blind since birth, and also never knew my mother. Tell you what, maybe I could slither all over you, and work out what you are so at least you'll have that going for you."
"Oh, that would be wonderful" replied the bunny. So the snake slithered all over the bunny, and said, "Well, you're covered with soft fur, you have really long ears, your nose twitches, and you have a soft cottony tail. I'd say that you must be a bunny rabbit."
Oh, thank you, thank you," cried the bunny, in obvious excitement. The bunny suggested to the snake, "Maybe I could feel you all over with my paw, and help you the same way that you've helped me."
So the bunny felt the snake all over, and remarked, "Well, you're smooth and slippery, and you have a forked tongue, no backbone and no balls. I'd say you must be a leader, a supervisor or possibly someone in senior management.

I came, I saw, I clicked

2004-12-06T18:28:00.000-08:00

Well, I did find time to click my new camera(on the way to the office). Have uploaded a couple of them in my own space...Aut Me aut nihil. (No, it is not an anagram)

If that doesn't interest you to click on the link, try this... it has my girlfriend's photo also!

2004-11-29T16:16:00.000-08:00

Finally my own DigiCam. It is not as bulky as it looks though!! Have to start reading the 100 page User manual before i touch it. So till i decide to go to work with my clicky-itchy-fingers....

Chokher Bali

2004-11-29T10:36:00.000-08:00

Saw Chokher Bali...good movie...read on!!!
http://smaraa.blogspot.com/2004/11/chokher-bali.html

Lord of the Calligraphists - Return of the Psycho

2004-11-08T09:27:00.000-08:00

Adios Amigos!!! Now guys let me have the pleasure of clicking the orange colored "Publish Post" button. I have explained to the best of my abilities. If u cant understand a thing, dont bother. So now, we actually got a two two-lane right hand drive roads. This happens on both sides. Most of the vehicles who are waiting to join this road by taking a right turn from one of those smaller roads inevitable start travelling on the opposite direction befor they cross the road. There are so many smaller roads joining in, that its full of vehicles waiting to turn this way n that way. Its condition at its best behaviour can be termed chaotic. The Fraser town road is one fine example. I just noticed the apparent ease with which we Indians make a two lane road into a four lane one. I wonder I may be the unofficial world record holder for not stopping in a signal on the way back home. Not even a single damn signal.Do you believe it??? And guess what... I came home that day without stopping at a single signal.Now, plaza is at MG Road separated from my home by 10 kms and 9 traffic signals.I saw "the Terminal " last month on a cold sunday evening at the plaza. :) . Probably they are missing their favorite wall. And the rest would follow in and say a long wow with envy. Another would poke in and say "Look at the babe there..she's gonna be my neighbour...". "Hey look at this guy. He put money in his pension plans and he's gonna die 2row". I wonder whether they used to sit on the wall in groups and tease us. Well, probably they aren' t. I never knew around the corner, amidst all the smoke of vehicles and the blare of horns of the standing vehicles, there are around 500 people sleeping peacefully. There's actually a cemetry inside. On the way from my office, the compound wall that used to border the old madras road has been removed. But now that I missed two months writing of what happened, I wonder whether I should not consider them as things happened in my life. Something to refer back. I wanted to write a daily account of my life in this blog. But then I wanted to make my return after the 2 month hiatus a bit dramatic.(Its ok guys..i'm allowed petty wishes). I wanted to title this post as "Small Wonders & Road Observations". See, I'm a psycho n nature says I should do something weird. It would make more sense that way. I guess you should start reading the blog in reverse.

Smitha - the beauty ;)

2004-11-04T22:52:00.000-08:00

Apache
Originally uploaded by _Smitha_.

Am I an Unix guy!!

2004-11-04T06:43:00.001-08:00

Hmm, this was the question I was confronted with in today's training when I screwed up because of using Unix paths in windows, I couldn't answer this question, Because I really donno whether I am an Unix guy, I have worked more on windoze and NetWare compared to Unix based oses.
In my first project I was maintaining the product in windoze and it was pure Windoze development, Next project was a GUI based utility that on windoze, while working in this project for 2 months I was also maintaining the Linux server for our team to use and The next project was again a porting project but this time platform is NetWare, But here the exposure for Linux is more since the complete build happens on Linux.
This was my work, so Am I an Unix guy???

After couple of minutes of silence when he again asked me the same question again, I smiled and replied "Yes"

Two more is just too more

2004-11-02T16:44:00.000-08:00

Junta, i name this year as the official Blogger year!! Add two more collegemate to the list...

ramble-mania.blogspot.com
ennizhal.blogspot.com

I just hope they dedicate one post in my name, for being their inspiration and all...now wait a minute, im beginning to think otherwise..... u guys didnt start a blog saying "if this stupid fellow can blog, then i can also blog", did u?! Just keep the posts coming.

Guys do u know what, Bala & me started a blog called CSERECT in the hope that all these people would start blogging. We invited everyone we knew(was even ready to give away free laptops!) but no one turned up. No one was willing to sniff the site even. And finally after what seemed like a year(but was only a month) and the site's hit-counter refusing to raise above 3 digits we blamed Vaasthu sashtra and decided to change the name & move here! Even today u can visit this site, but be careful, it is in terrible disrepair and i heard it is haunted by some ghost! It was Blogspot.com which offered us orphans a home and taught us all we know!! And one foremost thing it taught us was
Thou shalt not bullshit thy friends
...so i will stop here.
But the idea thrown is still open. Someone, pick up the gauntlet(one of the earliest phrases of english i learnt!).

US Trivia#2
Did u know that most of the hotels/motels in the USA has a Bible in their rooms? And do u know that u can take it with you (without any charge) when u checkout?

Joke time:
A Sardarji kidnapped a boy, wrote a message "Your son is with me, give me 100000 rupees as ransom tommorrow. Signed -Sardar", stuck it on the boy's school bag and sent him home.
The next day, our sardar finds the boy with the money he asked for ... and a note that read "How can u do it to a fellow sardar?"

The day that is

2004-10-29T15:47:00.000-07:00

Folks out there, great to see u again!
But whats with all the 3 men in a blog? What are the odds that all of us working in different companies/place/taste-in-woman/andaaz are busy at the same time? Maybe they are hibbernating this winter.

Guys this is what is happenning with me everyday here in the US of A... I wake up everyday around 7:30 because the Code-Of-Conduct says that i should be in office by 8:00. After my trip to the loo and bath i only have enough time to change to something decent and run to the office: without any breakfast. (The 12 eggs i brought for $6 in the hope that i might cook omletes might hatch anyday now!)
My mom always tells me not to work with an empty stomach, so i postpone work till tea-break time at 10. Till that time, i check my mails and all these blogs...

noknok.blogspot.com - the one u r reading now
sidin.blogspot.com - no introduction required here..heard of the `Travails of a south indian`?
kathak-thestoryteller.blogspot.com - friend from Pune (Psst.. she is hot!)
precious-pearl.blogspot.com - Kathak's little sister
diary-of-dan.blogspot.com - Kathak's collegemate
sudhakar81.blogspot.com - my collegemate
smaraa.blogspot.com - collegemate, one of the three
laadlabakdas.blogspot.com - tamil blog of smaraa
hsigo.blogspot.com - collegemate, one of the three
darereadit.blogspot.com - colleague
callipygians.blogspot.com - colleague
jananam.blogspot.com - collegemate
yenthinnai.blogspot.com - collegemate
othersideofmine.blogspot.com - collegemate
trivialmatters.blogspot.com - random guy!
monologist.blogspot.com - random girl!!

(not in that order) and comment on a few of them....
Most of them are my collegemates and first-time-bloggers who all one fine day, got up and decided to start blogging. I somehow know that i've inspired these ppl to start it ;)... only they wouldnt accept it if u ask them to their face.
Soon the time is 11:30 and its lunchtime. It seems to come and go. We go and eat at some place, it doesnt matter where, because all of them serve the same...JUNK! Whats with these american and cheese? Cheese on everything and anything. I eat until any-more-cheese-and-i-will-puke stage.
After lunch the real work starts... Kathak comes online! Now i understand why ppl were so addicted to internet chat room and paid a hefty bill during college. Jap, Deepu, hats-off to u guys... i can't pass a D-Tox for chat now!
4-5ish there is a very sudden hurry to finish the work assigned to you. With this adrenalin rush, i manage to complete some things and leave office by 7ish. (With this sort of working i got a 4.25/5 on my appraisal y'day.. i cant imagine what will happen if i start working full-time!)
Then its suppertime(more cheese, now i eat until any-more-cheese-and-indian-customs-will-catch-me-for-smuggling-cheese stage). And then its me and my TV in the hotel room. The Late Night Show & The Late Late Show are not to be missed, because only after that they show porn! Around 1:30 PM when porn gets boring i flick the alarm on and go to sleep. Thats basically it.
And my ego came back to its normal sea level or maybe bloated a bit from all the compliments from K & Dan. Thank you guys, i appreciate it.

Its weekend already and Im invited for dinner from four different family!! Bon appetite, i telling myself.

Agent Smith

My ego has found abyss

2004-10-15T18:56:00.000-07:00

I hate to push down the `B.R.Hills` post by ulu. The picture was so good & perfect that it gave the blog a complete new look. Like a opening into the minds of the bloggers. A window into our soul. But notheless, here i go....

I embarked on my 9000 miles(note: miles, not Km, here in USA there is no metric system, duh!) journey that would take me to the *land of oppurtunities* with much anticipation & excitement as a baby's reaction for candy. I read all the Penthouse series I to XI cover-to-cover, revised my `Friends` quiz skills and even learned all the conversion formulaes....u know Celcius to Farenheit, Kilometer to Miles vagara vagara... It wouldnt be a lie, if i say Im the most prepared guy to visit America in this millenium. (I forgot to pack my shaving kit though!)
Only a week past now, but i think i can write a epic comparable(only in size) to Mahabharata about USA. But time is not a luxury i have now. Next time i see a cow being milked for everything it is worth, i can really feel pity for it. Too tight and too many deadlines lined up at work. And i thought i'll forgo CAT for this! Wrong decision dude!! I cant live with that.

US Trivia#1
* Im 5'7" tall and i can be called a midget. Whats more disheartening is that if incase i bump into an average girl, my head will hit her in the bosoms. Some have so long legs that i can walk through it with apparent ease. My ego has found abyss...damnit!

More trivias as i find time.

Joke time:
Q: Why is 6 afraid of 7?
A: Because 7 8 9. (read as seven ate nine)

B.R Hills!!

2004-10-04T21:18:00.000-07:00

102_6414.med.JPG
Originally uploaded by ulu.

Went to BRHills this weekend, Very cool, serene, rustic place.. There were quite a few acitivities there it started with a 12 km trek, jungle safari, elephant ride, Ride to a nearby tribal(?) village (on request), Over all it was a cool experience, I was very surprised to hear that Jungle Lodges and Resorts is a government organization, Hospitality was neat, Food was cool, and the environment was Damn clean, Kudos to Jungle Lodges and Resorts, They rock!!!

More pics here.

The 3 day weekend

2004-09-28T22:09:00.000-07:00

I thought i would post something after the visa thing is cleared. But it seems so far away (Oct 4th).. and people have already started asking me, where/what is ur next post? So here i am. Complete/Creative/Crappy and all.
After `Good Friday` somewhere in April, y'day was the first holiday in this year to come on a weekday. Thank God, it was a Monday. A three day weekend is the exact thing i need, or so i thought! Things that can go wrong, went wrong. And things that cannot go wrong also went wrong.
e.g.,

My roommate's gf turned up at our home. Up there on my Most-disheartening-things-that-could-happen-to-you-on-a-weekend-leave-alone-a-three-day-weekend list. Not only because it was for three days but bcos it painfully reminds me of the fact that i dont have one, rather than being the most eligible bachelor cum the most good looking guy cum the enigmatic secret agent for <cant-tell-u-bcos-it-is-secret-......-okay-it-is-RAW>...etc..etc.. Had to do the disappearing act and go surfing at Sify iWay. duh?

Was living only on Nestle products the three days. U know, corn flakes/maggi noodles/chocolates/chips/etc... This variance in my diet must have affected my creativity and my sense of humour: for all my jokes were a bit stale and the timings were as bad as that attempted cover drive by that eleventh batsman of team USA against Bret Lee's raising length ball.

The cable-wala cut the subscription for `Star Movies`. Whenever i pressed channel#31 in my remote i was greeted by a black screen. Felt more disappointing than the thought of no girlfriends.

Could only watch all the pretty things near our home dance during the Ganesh festival thing.

Things that could have gone wrong, but almost went wrong.

Finally the weekend looked up. Got tickets for `The Terminal` at E-Square-Cinema-5. Two hours of fun, with Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta Jones(can't believe she is 40 and i can never believe her immensely beautiful lips).

Today. Was chatting and only chatting. Was reading Memento as well. Finally started working at 3PM and checked-in 10 files and closed 9 defects before 5PM(thats a feat by any standards)

My sweet lil sis called me. She wouldnt believe me when i told her i would be going to the US of A. In fact she went into a hysterical laughin thing that i thought she was crying. I told her that i would bring her a nice big gift when i returned for which she went like "U r serious? Ur company is stupid or what, to send u?".

My good friend, Praga returned from the USA.
#1 lesson learnt for today: There are things like chocolates filled with wine and rum and vodka in this planet.
Kiten is at home preparing for the trip ahead. I thought i'll also go home. But the 35 hours journey is keeping me in pune. I called my Mom and asked her to come and see me off. She replied she'll come when im goin to the moon.

The daily build failed bcos of some guy not following proper procedure and im stuck here till 10PM. But sanity of the code is restored now and the world is once again is saved, thanks to me.

ok guys, thats enough food for u to ponder over.
I gotto go.
(i)amshit - an other anagram of my name that reflects my mood now.

L1

2004-09-16T07:44:00.000-07:00

L1. Don't ask me who that is OR what that means. All i know is that it/he allows you stay in the US of A for an year.
Really sorry for not having anything up for so long. Was immersed in the visa filling thing. The kind of questions they put on the questionnaire. Wierder was the kind of documents i was asked to fetch. Seriously, who care about the Appointment letter. I searched for it in the entire house, even the bathrooms, but couldn't find them. Finally when i lost all hope, the cooking maid emptied the rice container and there it was!! The number of holes in the paper and the color of the papers would put a manuscript from the 2nd Century BC to shame. Bravo rice-bugs and moisture, Bravo!!
But the HR incharge of recuritment is a nice lady. I exchanged my manuscript-from-2nd-century to the original copy from the office files. I owe the lady a treat! And i promised myself that i wouldn't laugh at the HR jokes.... for a month.
As an onsite oppurtunity in my company is as rare as an Indian Olympic gold, i grabbed the chance with both hands. But the PM asked me not to say anything to anyone. I counted and by yesterday all my projectmates had wished me a happy journey. Since the whole world already knows, i thought i might as well tell the whole world.
Niket, my good friend and two others also go. We still havent cleared the Visa interview. And we'll be going to Indianapolis for at least a month or two, starting from the first/second week of next month.
And one more good news for all u folks out there, i wouldn't be giving CAT this november. So one seat more for the taking. If only i could come to India for that weekend and write the exam. oh... wait a minute, i forgot where i kept the exam hallticket. But i know where exactly to start searching for it. The kitchen, rice-bowl....

Bits

2004-09-16T06:04:00.001-07:00

For six whole days, nothing got posted on this blog. If there's something that I hate currently, it is to see "Autumn in NewYork" appear on top of the blog. I have become something like a drug addict needing to read some blog. And the day smitha said he dint have any work, I was sure that something would be posted. Dissappointment. Now I can't accuse him. If I did, he would ask me to read Am I? or The Balancing Act. Then I decided let me write some crap. Looks like I've got properly addicted.
***************************************
TO GO OR NOT TO GO
Thinking of making a trip to my alma mater. In short a visit to trichy. But at then its very debatable at this point.
FOR:
1. To see RECT, Malaikovil and most importantly Srirangam.
2. Lakshya.
3. I hope the dry climate would cure my sore throat and cold.
AGAINST:
1. Its Vinayaka Chathurthi. And my mom doesnt want me to go anywhere.
2. My project deadline. This point weakened as I slogged for past 2 days and finished most of my stuff and actually I'm ahead of schedule.
3. Lots of opium in hand. I've got Veronica Decides to Die(2nd time), The English Patient, Some finance books of my friend doing MBA and ofcourse the assortment of movie scripts. I almost feel like Dr.Lecter in front of my next meal.
4. Laziness. Strongest point of all.
5. No tickets. I can't believe I'm actually worried abt it. Two years back every friday, I would walk into the railway station just on time to get an unreserved ticket and travel all night.
***************************************

Last two weeks for every word I've spoken, I coughed twice. I've even resorted to using the messenger to chat with my teammates. I've been suffering cold for exactly two weeks. And I got a boil right inside my eyelid. Spent nearly 5 minutes trying to figure why my eyes pained. After I saw it, I wanted to keep seeing it. Like the way, I always used to keep pressing a swollen spot. And the reason for the boil was they said heat. Felt like a nation suffering from flood and drought.

Thats all I can write now. Somebody please post something intersting!!!

Autumn in New York.

2004-09-10T07:45:00.000-07:00

No this is not the one starring Gere and Ryder. But first apologies!!! I know its been a long time since I wrote anything here(not even comments). Doing the job of a faithful sleeping partner. After a gruelling bout of smiling depression and viral infection, i'm back to haunt this blog. Yesterday I was provided the oppurtunity of watching the quaterfinal match between Agassi and Federer. Not even the whole match. Just the last two sets. Federer was already leading 2 sets to 1. The match had been postponed to yesterday due to rains the day before. Wow.. what a game it turned out to be... Not that those two produced a great sensational match with Federer's fiery backhand passes. But the heavy wind blowing made it a match to remember. Its the kind of wind where if you had a newspaper in a park, you would have created a show trying to flip the pages or if you had an umbrella it would bend as though somebody put a mysterious charm on it. The whole match rode on a spate of unforced errors and double faults. The balls themselves found their way to the ball boys after the points. Federer twice did not serve because the ball who threw up for serving went somewhere else. And everytime he was in the direction of wind, Agassi's return would dip as it was against the wind. Sometimes it turned viciously. Every extravagant lobs found their way into the court and every perfect drop shots found the net. And making it more tougher was wind blowed in gusts. In the middle of the play it would suddenly start making it even more funnier. At one point it looked like the slow mo matrix stunt. Federer in particular appeared to be in sea with the havoc played by the wind. He tried to change his game by coming to the net at every point. But then Agassi doesn't get kinder to you at the net. So I guess, he switched back to baseline. And there were so many potholes in clouds(exactly like blore roads :) ) that the sunlight appeared as though there was a prison light thats searching for escaped prisoners. Anyway, laughed the whole way during those amazing 18 games. I guess the only folks who wouldn't think it was funny were probably playing for a place in the semifinal. I was sure that Agassi would wrap the match. Surely after winning the 4th set. And he was doing comfortably well in the final set. But then inexplicably he lost two points courtesy winds of New York. And that was good enough for the Wimbledon king to reign over Agassi. Now, you know the stuff champions are made of.

Shifts happen in twos

2004-09-06T01:39:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was an exhausting shift. Finally our search ended and we got a wonderful place to live in. Not only that, i got a seperate bedroom. Now i can bring some girls home and my loser roommates would even know about it. The sixth floor spacious flat has other advantages as well. It comes with bedroom balcony overlooking a lake, a swimming pool, a sports complex(gym + TT + volley ball), a small park and a temple. The hall is so big that we were seriously contemplating to get a scooter/skateboard to commute across it and between rooms. All this for a mere rent of Rs.6600. Isn't that the wonderful!! Hope i have made u fume with envy.
Some might think, why am i so excited about this. It is exciting to me because, I come from a remote region of the distant state called Tamilnadu. My native is so remote that the nearest ICICI ATM is 5km away. See.

One more shift happened this weekend. Our entire project was kicked out of the ground floor because our team size was growing like balloon-up-spelled-Aunt-Marge. They have put a notice board outside saying "Trespassers will be recruited". So we were moved to a bigger area in the second floor. First they told me my cubicle number would be 30. Then they told me that the number is 31, but the change is only the number but i will get the same cubicle. But the office boy already stuck some paper on the monitor saying "shift to 30" which i promptly changed to 31. But as soon as i got home i remembered that i forgot to change the number stuck on the CPU. And i was confident my keyboard and mouse will land up in Mars or some place. So today morning when we switched on our PC i was expecting some smoke.... and we could dance around the fire like the Apache Indians. And if we planned accordingly we can chat using smoke signals as well. But nothing happened, everything worked fine. Darn it.. with no excuse i was reduce to do the usual chores.

6404. That was my extension. Niket (a colleague) called me on that number today and was answered by a Mr.Gupta. He called again, and again but same results. Now that he was sure his fingers and mind were in perfect synch and he dialled the number he wanted to dial, he came to my place and informed me of the mistake. Apparently, Mr.Gupta's number was 6464. A very minor mistake. But the Elements were against me since with some luck Mr.Gupta would well have been the new girl who joined our team. We would have had a hearty laugh over the mistake and I even had thought of a perfect opening line....
"Would u like to check out my new home?"

Sridevi, Malathi, Hymavathi..

2004-09-02T06:38:00.000-07:00

Note : i know I am not a great writer, This is not my attempt to become a great writer or some thing like that. This is just my attempt to contribute some thing to this blog :)...

Yesterday I got a card from my sister as mentioned in the previous post. When I looked at the hand writing, It was cliche to me. I had seen it some where, Then I remembered its very similar to Sridevi's handwriting, one of my close fren till I was in 5th standard. Me, Sridevi, Malathi and Hymavathi were close frens that time, I used to play with them all sorts of games mostly feminine games ( I remember I am champion in Skipping) because the gang's majority of them are females (3/4), I never felt it was odd, Sridevi was more closer to me than Malathi and Hymavathi just because sridevi's house is very near to our house and Mom knows her very well.. After 5 th standard our friendship broke completely, As Sridevi's family also shifted their house. After couple of years I heard Sridevi met with accident and heard she had around 10 stiches in her face. I was shocked to hear that. After some time they shifted their house to my uncles house which I frequently used to visit when I saw her with stiches I was totally taken off. She used to be very good looking ( I am sorry I don't have a pic), I was very sad to see her face with stiches. I used to bump into her very frequently in my uncles house but As usual I never used to speak with her and leave just with a sm:)e.. And after few months We shifted our house to some far off place and It was very tough for me to visit uncles house regularly. Infact I never visited that house till now After I shifted to Royapettah. After few years when I was in 11 th standard, I heard that she got married, That was the last news I heard about her. I don't know where she is now?. What she is doing?. How many kids she has :)?..

P.S : I very rarely dwell in nostalgia of my past memories, Yesterday is one of those rarest days :)..

Mid-Day News: Patronus Charm.

2004-08-30T21:35:00.000-07:00

Good News. Finally, I have been able to get my patronus charm right. I have shaken off all the dementors who for the past week have been sucking my hapinesss and making things gloomy for me. Life is more bright, colorful and certainly beautiful for Harry Potter. Now, I have two acknowledgments to make. One, I have abused this blog as badly as possible. I have cribbed and cribbed very badly. Probably I shouldn't have done it. But then who cares until you are in a bad shape. I think I have to put the blame on Khushwant Singh. I was reading his interview that day, And he said if anybody wants to be a good writer, then he should be honest and he should slog. Hmm..Nice piece of advice from a 90 yr old man. The second acknowledgement is I dont have a galfriend.(so whats new abt it???) Last week, I did some real hard thinking into this. And I realised two things. I actually dont need one. They have just become status symbol for youngsters I guess. You know just like bikes, your sleeky home theatre system..something like that. Something your friends can have a look at and say "hey thats really cool!". The other thing is I don't even know what a galfriend's role is. I cant delineate her role just like father,mother,brother etc. What is she supposed to do? Is she just a friend? a potential life partner? somebody with whom you just roam around to movies, pubs making other people jealous? It's a shame that I am asking it so late. But better late than never. Worse, I could have had galfriends without me realising they actually were. I kept thinking abt this concept so much that I got confused. If somebody can, please enlighten me on this subject.

Power of Friday, Fear of first run, Voyeurism, Troubling conscience...

2004-08-28T03:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening my mood turned to be better after I wrote the post. I got involved in some manager bashing with one of my ex-teammates. We were animatedly discussing the various inanities (I personally feel that these should be documented in Ripleys believe it or not.) that sort of evoked reams of laughter from me..after a long time. I think all my college professors changed their images into managers and joined this company to haunt me. Probably, they are't really as bad as these people look. Its just that they are in such limelight of their subordinates that their mistakes get recorded like this. Anyway after that session, I returned to my seat. On the way, one of the stranger who was leaving home smiled at me. Probably that's what I think friday does to people. It feels happy to see people leave to home on fridays. Its almost like they are going to some carnival. One more thing that I liked about fridays is the thought of weekends. With the weekend you almost endup believing all the pending work can be done on those two days. When I used to go to school in Chennai, I always liked fridays cos I used to get the 'Siruvar Malar' with Thina Malar. (My mom used to buy Thina Malar only on fridays for me.) I would take a glance on whats in store before going to school. And when I used to come fling my bag, never even cared to change my uniform, hang on the sofa upside down(head on the floor and legs up on the sofa), read the entire magazine. That too upside down :). But, now I'm trying to run the program on which I've been working for the whole week. I've been modifying the program for the last 5 days but yet to give it a run. It was a working program and I really feel scared abt whether it's gonna run after the abundance of modifications. And worse the program compiled the first time. This makes me still scary. Somehow, I've been never able to shake off the fear of the first run. (I duuno the phobia word for this..probably firstrunnophobia).
So I've been pushing off running the program now and then and now I've run out of modifications and there is no option but to run it. Damn..I was getting so nervous that I decided to smthing else. I read an article in the Harvard business review book on how to identify profitable customers. But I felt scary. So I started reading blogs of a Rachel and Raven. Incase if you are wondering who they are. I'm following their life. Its almost indulging in voyuerism but then they let me in. One's a student in some university in US who cribs about the lack of boyfriends and the other is a guy who has doubts whether he'd be good in his new job where he helps people in a mentally challenged center. Incase, if you are wondering what is common between all of us. We all like Shawshank Redemption. I gotto see Smitha's last post The Company Bus. He(She) left it empty with the title. And I wrote a post of mine and published it. And I guess that republished the entire blog spitting out a bodyless post. And when Smitha managed to publish it, it went way down and I missed it. feels like sabotaging somebody's work. I've committed many a faults and that troubles my conscience. I pray that Smiths probability of 53 in a million chance of sitting next to her materialised yesterday. Right now, I've run the program and it errored. Feels better. Not scary any more. Children...Have a super sunday.

Introspection

2004-08-27T06:14:00.000-07:00

As much I'm cribbing, I'm doing a lot of introspection. While with personal life at a nadir, my introspection can't be any better. I suddenly had a strange thought. What if I was'nt somebody who thought I was. What if every smart comment that I thought I made was some crappy statement. I thought Bala was cool, a guy with an abundance of humor, an extrovert and a person who was fun to be with. And everybody thought Bala was a guy who overflowed with unwanted swagger, smbody pretending to be funny... in short a pest. I saw the bunch of friends who roamed with me as people who just loved every second with me. Now, I think probably they were resigned to fate. No escapes. Something worse than the cellular jail in Andaman. (It also goes to the inmates of this blog:) ) And then I think about all the statements that I've made in the last 7 years. why 7 years?? Because when I was(I think I was) an unassuming character who minded his own business. The feeling of making to rect and a s/w professional wasn't there yet. (These ones I thgt were acheivements smthing akin to landing up in moon). If whatever I said was written in a book, I'd have to cut down most of the stuff to make myself appear half intelligent. Just like my code. And if I was a software, the basic design had to be changed. When I'm trying to make a list of the foolish statements really very seriously(I started with the morning conference call cos the pre lunch and post lunch sessions were obsessed with hunger and drowsiness, I hardly said anything. Yeah.I understand but I can't include this blog cos I havent published it. And sorry I'm not going to include the reply to Ulu's comments.) , the other part of my brain is laughing cats and dogs that it embarrassed me. Man, this thing is getting worse than the estimates I gave yesterday(even in the humor aspect). Probably, I'll rectify it by going on a speech strike this weekend.

Confessions of a confused mind!!!

2004-08-26T09:16:00.000-07:00

I caution you guys...this writing is probably more like some digressive ramblings rather than confessions. Lately, my life has just reduced to a set of lamentations that gets added and gets triggered whenever it gets into contact with something. This post is probably one of the another trigger. But I'm helpless. What else can you expect from a guy who suffers from internal multiple personality disorder. Frustrating..thats how the past 2 montsh been. One fine day, I realize I dont want to work on this project. They give me an option to dump all the things I've learnt in these 2 years and work on something else. I spend a hellish week being hit back and forth between the different what-to-do options. It was worse spending time like that. So i decide on one of them. I decide to go on a vacation and start everything fresh. I even write a pathetic post before leaving.(My last post in this blog). But then the few days in kerala is a respite. But somehow when I come back I'm feeling worse than where I was. They tell me I have to work on a module before I move out. I start working on the project on which I decided working a day more was impossible. A week..thats all we want from you they say. Now thats gone to a month. Worse, I'm playing the roles of the lead, the program manager, the developer, tester and mentor to a guy, all rolled into one. All my delivery manager needs is to be updated about the progress and the program manager wants me to resend the estimate mail. He deleted all the mails as he was getting too many mails. Almost makes me think the faster one becomes a manager the better it is. Duh. Too much on a guy who is already suffering from a serious chronic illness of no-gal-in-life. It got worse when one of the juniors who has been one month on his job, whose face I dint even recogonise came upto me and introduced his galfriend. I think probably he wasnt even one of the juniors. Somebody set him up to get even with me. If thats too much, I have also to put up with one of my split version who thinks I'm destined to greatness. He suddenly remembers abt the plans of starting a company and tells me what a worthless crap I'm doing nothing in life. And here I'm subjected to face extremeties- between a guy who wants a galfriend and another one wants me to become probably a Steve Wozniak. And I have to deal with the external souls at the sametime pulling and pushing me all over. Even s/w tools are making of fun of me. I try to disconnect an Oracle Db but it doesnt happen. I see a post that says Company Bus published by Smitha. But there isnt any post when I see the blog. Shutting down the system...had too much for a day...

The company bus

2004-08-19T06:11:00.000-07:00

Prelude: Friends, Romans, countrymen...not my mistake. I was so taken into work, (body, soul and all) that all i got to write down was the title before my GL called me for a critical meeting. Still i didn't click on the [Publish] button. Blogger.com is playing a prank on me, publishing my draft. Since it got published and i can't stand the thought that i might lose my sincere readers, im now content to write some content.
My trepidation for precipitation obliged me to take the company bus. There is another reason as well. As my loyal fans would remember there is girl in our company, very beautiful, very delectable, very curvaceous, very likable and very married....upon whom i have an eye for. An eye would be an understatement of the century. I would merry give worlds for her. I just took the first step and joined the bus in the hope that someday the only seat empty on that bus would be the one next to her and i have to content myself sitting there. Me being an Engineer, I calcualted the probability of that event: taking into account the average number of people, the variance in the number, the humidity, the amount of oil in the bus and hazar technical details and it came up to be 0.00005383(pretty stiff, huh?). I glowed that it was a greater than zero and probably more than that of India winning an Olympic gold.

The name `Smitha` is working. The `Profile Views` has rocketed to 114, while my fellow bloggers are still clinging on to their dear 32 views. But im sure they must have immediately closed the window when they see male against Gender. Whoever have done this, i swear, will not die a peacful death.

Okie, i gotto go catch the 7:30 bus back home. Who knows, she might call me Smitha.

Am I?

2004-08-18T21:05:00.000-07:00

I am.
My GL went onsite and part of his responsibility dawned on me. "Yes, YOU!" said my GL. The question i've been asking myself these days is "Am I?". My fear is towards `responsibility`. Can i handle it? Remember the most responsibility i have handled is assemble my PC.

I remember, we always joke on the management guys. Like
"Do they know anything except Excel?"
"What do u think they really do? I mean really do."
"Do they have development environment on their PC?"
"Why? They always get the praises. They didnt write even a line of code."
"Q: Hey, in Excel how do we....?
A: Stop right there. No developers know Excel. Go to a GL or PM."
"We work our ass off, and this GLs and PMs can surf all the porn..."
And many other short stories on monkeys, assholes and hot air are written on the mystical profession that is the Project Management and they failed to put a smile on our face.
Although i havent opened Excel yet, i already feel like im in the middle of all those jokes. I dont think i can open Excel at all. It is going to be harder than quiting cigerette.

I was never a peoples person. Maybe that why i took to computers so well. They are easy to understand and a lot easier to control. People on the other hand are enigmatic and unpredictable. Agreed that sometimes computer do behave eratic, but at least they are consistent at it. While i can handle a mean Pentium IV, 3GHz with 1GB RAM and 17" flat screen, i go weak when im asked "When do u think the coding will be completed by ur group?".

P.S: Sorry readers, i really thought i'll forgo my complex and write something sensible and informative here. But i learned that im only good in self-humility. Guess it my style.

The balancing act

2004-08-12T04:15:00.000-07:00

Im not myself these day. I looked into the mirror today and a stranger stared back. Then i realised that the refelction was my roommate standing behind me, making funny faces.
But actually im still very disoriented by all the things i have to do, day in, day out. There are so many things that needs my attention that in the bafflement i find myself attending to none. With only work and home to take care (remember no social life, no girlfriend, no family) im not able to meet the expectations. I cant even begin to imagine what is goin to happen when i would be asked to take decisions at office and at home. My mom words always surfaces during these lean times: "You are the most irresponsible person i have ever known". Quite reassuring. It cant get worse than that. Can it?
So as i try to comprehend why SqlInt32 cannot be passed from a COM component to a web service, my roommate calls and reminds me that we are out of bottled-water and the maid is not washing our clothes properly. And i write my observation on SqlInt32 and send it to the client: "So it is by design that SqlInt32 cannot be serialized that makes them a bad candidate for web service input parameters. So the way out is to order a water-bubble every week and get a new maid."
That day my GL asked why did i change a link in the Design document to point to sidin.blogspot.com and why why in the world did i sign the mails Smitha. Boy, im loosing my grip or what? I had to convince my GL that some colleague is playing a practical joke. I took a lot of effort to sell him that.
My aptitude acumen is at its all time nadir. 8 X 3 = : im bowled. And im supposed to crack CAT this November. Yeah there will be a crack alright.. one through my head. Visiting time - 10 to 4: Gunaseelam Mental hospital.
All in all i think im doing a great job balancing the whole thing.

P.S: There is atleast one lie in each sentence above.

Mr. Nilekeni is a joker..

2004-08-10T04:13:00.000-07:00

The whole process where people get an idea and put together a team,
raise the capital, create a product and mainstream it -- that can only
be done in the US. It can't be done sitting in India. The Indian part of
the equation is to help these innovative US companies bring their
products to the market quicker, cheaper and better, which increases the
innovative cycle there. It is a complementarity we need to enhance.

- Nandan Nilekani, CEO, Infosys, quoted in The New York Times, March 7,
2004.

Is there any one still working for Infosys?? Urge them to switch the company, you will continue to remain slaves.

Is there any one who has Infosys shares? Sell them, don't invest on the
company which has leaders like these..

I had hopes with Infosys that one day they will lead India and Indian
youngsters by example.. But if this is the kind of example they want to
show. I would like that company to *die*..

How the hell this "bugger" can make the statements like this?

May be Nandan Nilekani or Narayana Murthy can be slave, Not all of the
Indians.

Article here

Innovation...

2004-08-08T21:02:00.000-07:00

Innovation by Indians. : condoms used for roads, roofs and sarees.

Very short story: Bala's Redemption

2004-08-06T02:51:00.000-07:00

Bala has long since planned to get his own DVD collection. He hears about this place where you get DVDs for 180 bucks. Thinks might be a good try to start there. Visits the place in the pretext of seeing off his friend. Goes to the shopkeeper and asks for a DVD list. It looks like he wants to buy everything out there. But his small pockets would allow only two. So, after a lot of self debating, he goes for Amelie and Shawshank Redemption. Now he comes back home and plays Amelie. So far so good. Plays Shawshank Redemption but the player says "No Disc". Bala is angry now. He goes to the shokeeper in a maddening traffic. Breaks his rear view mirror of teh bike in the process and asks the shopkeeper for exchange. The shopkeeper plays the DVD and it works. Bala can't believe his eyes. Comes back to his house and plays it. Surprise, it doesn't play. He becomes like a madman trying out the DVD in all the players. But no player would play it except the one kept in that small shop. Bala is reformed. He says
"Yes, sir. Absolutely. I've learned my lesson. I can honestly say I'm a changed man. I'm no longer a fool in the society. That's the God's honest truth. No doubt about it."

God's Own Country!!!

2004-08-06T02:33:00.000-07:00

Honestly guys..I'd like to post more articles because this is one blog that reveals my more humane side rather than the mask of famous writer that I have to wear. I can already see some disgusted faces. OK..now the fact is I have to write two more blogs that sorts of leaves a meagre amount for this one. I had thought of writing an article about Times of India on this blog but then decided to put it as a Tamil version. Because thats the blog thats yielding me a lot of readership cos thats listed on the tamil bloggers list as newcomers. Being listed in the newcomers is like joining as a fresher. Everywhere you go you are noticed. Everybody asks about you. You are the superstar before the axe falls shortly. So I thought if I post more I run the chance of more hits and regular readers. Well, things backfire. If I had kept silent, I think more peple would have revisited. But then fools cant keep silent. Now what am I writing?? I'm really sorry for the reader who has read till this word. I really apologise. I can't believe you are so idle. Yeah, now for the big news. I'm going on a vacation. where else but my dream destination and dreamland!!!! Kerala.... The Plan goes like this...Tirunelveli -> Kuttralam -> Trivandrum -> Alapuzha -> Ambalapuzha -> Cochin -> Guruvayoor -> Palaghat(Hopefully from here on..) -> Coimbatore -> Bangalore. So, I'm off for one week. Hopefully planning to meet you guys back with my views on Malayala Panorama. Meet you guys again should I survive the trip.

The return

2004-08-05T14:35:00.000-07:00

Im back! But a pact is in the agenda. U see, im preparing, in many's views, for one of the toughest exams in the world. MEOW(3). So expect a post per week, max.
Saw `Catwoman` promos. I love Halle Barrey. But I like Michelle Pfiffer better. For quite sometime i was not able to tell the difference between Gwyneth Paltrow & her. The same happened with Deepti Bhatnagar & Sonali Bendre(I think this is common atleast). But im wiser(definitely) and older(22 years and 11 months of it) now and capable of remembering faces like the back of my palm.
That reminds me, im still due one post. The return journey i did from Trichy to Pune on 18th last month. Well, as i already told u guys, the Gods have this thing against me. Now i try to remember what happened during the flight. I realized, I've a very bad memory. But then again, i can recognize all the five airhostess if i see them anytime, anywhere in my life. The other thing i remember was the take-off and landing. 3 to 5 Gs the plane reached during those times. About the plane itself, a Boeing 737, a congested KPN airbus with 3 seats on either side of the aisle is what it is. Nothing great. Greatness was the stewardess. There was a rookie in the lot and my fellow hot-blooded passenger tried to flirt with her. Boy what nerve this guys have...I just asked for more water...very politely.
And to top it all, Star Movies showed `View from the top` that evening.
All in all, it was one of those rare journeys i did without any embarrasing moments.

Of TMC and MegaWatt...

2004-08-03T15:00:00.000-07:00

(True incident that happened during the riots in b'lore over cavery water. I know i promised u guys a short story with characters and all... but forgive me i can only manage a monologue here.)

I passed out of college in May, 2002. I was offered a job in a good(`paying` is silent) company through the wonderful thing called `Campus selection`. But nobody told me that they could defer my joining by eight months. They did. Believe me when i say those were the longest eight months of my life. Star Movies ad HBO gave me company through those lean times at home, Trichy. After some time i had to get off that couch, since it was developing a huge dent because of all the lying around. I went to Bangalore where most of my friends(already joined their companies) and two of my cousins lived. I fell in love with the city the moment i disembarked(they have females for bus conductors!). And the daily walk through MG and Brigade road were the best i have done. We would give each girl a score in the Aish-scale (Aish being 100). It was like trying to sort an almost ascending array that is infinitely long. I even managed to get a full-time job in Mangalore for a meager pay. And i would visit my friends in b'lore every other weekend as they were the closest.

One weekend when i was over in b'lore...the still standing Cauvery water issue rose to its zenith in years. With farmers from both states commiting suicide, the tamil film industry getting involoved, buses burnt and all the political stunts it was indeed an acme. The problem is that Karnataka would send the alloted water across the border. TN retorted or rather the stunt parties suggested that Karnataka who are marginally dependant on the electric power from the dams of TN should be given the finger. Im sure it added fuel. There was a sort of mild-curfew in tamils predominant areas of b'lore. It was nothing like in the Mani Ratham movies, where a mob would walk around with assorted varieties of spears and spades. Since nobody was allowed to come outside and even if they did there should never be more than three persons standing together for more than a minute, it was quite calm, nevertheless tense. The situation was under control simply because it never went out of control. Although Mysore and the related areas still showed hostility towards their tamil neighbours b'lore was still unmenacing. My mom got panicky and called me to ask me to rush home immediately. I assured her that there is little trouble and im not coming home and i have to go to work on monday to M'lore.

The Majestic. Sunday night. Cool air. Shoulder bag and water bottle.
I cant read kannada, but i was never not able to find a Mangalore bus from Bangalore. I inquired the condutor standing infront of such a bus whose starting and destination point's words differed only by the first letter, "when does the bus depart to m'lore?". The conductor told me it would do so in fifteen minutes. He was a 45-years-uncle-next-door sort of guy complete with a beer belly, thick glasses and gutka. I gave him Rs.500 and asked for a ticket to m'lore. ...click... The entire area went black. Power-cut. The conductor was actually entertaining a small group and the power-cut made to change their point of discussion to the cauvery issue. The conductor seemed eager to join the conversation. As he gave me the ticket and the change and went back to it. As i was mildly interested in the topic i stood there and tried to decipher the kannada. Im was not good at that. But i know profanity when i hear one. The carefully thought out blasphemy were directed at the Tamils who by their view are directly responsible for this power-cut. The conductor was the most heated one. I had a feeling that he called out to the entire Kannada community to unite against the dark force that is Tamilnadu. He even used some tamil swear-words. Being an orthodox Tamil i couldnt take it anymore.

I walked away and saw the ticket read Seat#35("Penultimate row, God! My spine!"). I went into the bus and depositted my overnight bag in the luggage slot over the seats. I came outside again to light a cigerette. In the light i checked the change the conductor gave me. There was a Rs.500/- bill in the change. He must have thought it was a 100. It would be very simple to just ignore the mistake and walk away a few hundreds richer not to mention the free bus ride. But my upbringing would never allow that. I promptly went back to the conductor to inform him of the mistake. He was still engaged in the same conversation if not with more might. I interpretted him right in the middle of "..all tamils are arrogant bast.." and told him "U gave me a 500 instead of a 100." in Tamil.

Football and Rain

2004-07-30T08:20:00.000-07:00

The Euro '04 was the first soccer tournament i followed completely. And to the surprise of the world Greece became the champions. So i reflected that, if an underdog Greek could win a championship maybe it is time i give it a shot. Well, yesterday i played football again after two years. Before that i have played it thrice in my life.
There is this tiny ground in our campus we use for any prupose. Football is no exception. Four bricks (goal posts) and viola!
Three minutes into the game, the ball came to me twice. I tried my best to dribble and pass it to my teammates. I can now confirm that round things are tricky to control. The captain of my team came to me and said "follow me" and started walking. I followed. After sometime he stopped and said "dont follow me". We were in inside our D. A subtle way of saying "you are not good enough to play forward... please defend". I took the hint and never crossed the D after that.
Soccer is a very demanding game. Five minutes later, i was running out of air and my lungs became dry. I politely asked some players that if by any chance i would fall and die they should tell my parents that the Greeks were responsible.
After the game, the captain came to me and thanked me personally for the two assists which got converted. After that my team captain came to me and told me in the very subtle way of his "will u be coming tomorrow?" (The answer he honestly expected was NO. So i gave him the pleasure. He was very happy)
Read "The Inscrutable American" sometime back. There is this time Gopal comments about the way american named the game `Football` when it has nothing to do with foot and a ball whose shape is anything but a ball. How true! Americans!

Today morning i got up and felt immediately this is not my day. Reason being, my roomate was dressing and he was not expecting me to open my eyes. What a spectacle that early in the morning. The lengths(no double meaning intended) these roomates go to improve intimacy.
So got ready and kicked my bike alive for the 20 minutes drive to office. No sooner than i reached the main road the heavens opened. Rain. Did i mention, it is official now: my raincoat was stolen last week. Oh God! Why me?
Do u remember this. It was a day-time repeat of that. I reached office after 45 minutes. If Akshay Kumar had a competition in the song "Thippu thippu barsaa paani.." with Raveena, it was me. That wet. I was shivering the whole day like i was recovering from a nervous breakdown.

At 6:30, a colleague called out "Im going to play TT in the recreation room. Want to join?"
I humbly replied, "Its raining."
He gave me the sternest of looks and moved away.

Two Cops

2004-07-28T06:53:00.000-07:00

Two Cops(2 Flicks in French).This is one of the french movie that I saw yesterday.

Scene 1: Detective Jaures is working on a case of bank robbery. He is at his house talking in a telephone. Hears that robbers worked with commando like precision, threw a timed explosive to chalk out an escape. Strikes a bell. He moves stealthily, takes a file from his hideout. Takes out a few old newspaper clippings that talk about a similar operation conducted earlier.His face taut with emotion. His wife enters the room. Takes the file and tries to look into it. He snatches it saying its confidential. She replies "I dont believe you."

Scene 2: The younger cop Antoine arguing with Jaures. Antoine ends the conversation by replying " I know why you like me. Thomas would have been my age.". Again Jaures face is inundated with flood of emotions.

Scene 3: In the end, Jaures looks at the dying terrorist and says with controlled anger... "A promise is a promise".

Scene 4: Jaures looks at the same newspaper clippings and tears them one by one. The last paper's headline is "Young Cop Thomas dies in the blast".His wife comes takes out the paper from and tears it. Places it on her husband's shoulder and says "I'm sorry, Jaures. I doubted you."

I understood as to why Jaures still decides to be a detective eventhough he's a genuis and could have become the head. Fascinated me as to how much can be conveyed by saying so less. Sort of gave the perfect definition to the word "Subtlety".If it had been any Indian or hollywood movie, there would have been a barrage of tears and french kisses(how odd??). I've grown from an admirer of French movies to a chavunistic. They are indeed masters of aestheticness.

In pursuit to be a Colombus...

2004-07-27T07:30:00.000-07:00

First of all, sorry for not posting anything for a long time. You know, they cut off the access to blogger.com from my company(Thankfully its back). And then you know I had some relatives come over to my house. And then you know I had to organise an offsite for the team. And You know I was also going through some confusions that affected my already affected mental life. And then now you know although all these above said things are true, I'm good at giving excuses :). I've sort of now decided on the blog allocations. All my daily cribbings, cravings and other nonsenses would find its way into this blog. All the other occasional nonsensical stuff, that I also call creative writings and thoughts would go to my home blog. And the other tamil nonsensical thoughts would go to my tamil blog laadlabakdas. The last one actually,incidentally,accidentally got mentioned in valaipoo. By now, you guys also must've realised that I'm good at planning. Now coming to the actual topic...I managed to get myself lost in the potholed, bumpy and curving roads of Banglaore...not once but twice. That too on consecutive days. On sunday, I dropped Mukund at his home and he started giving me directions. I told him that I had been there previosuly and I knew the route. Well, that was God's honest truth. 100..200..300 metres...got confused. Tried to find my way out but then got confused again. It took me atleast an hour to reach a place that should take 15 mins. If it happened one night, it happened again yesterday. I guess my experimental blood is showing up too much eventhough I know nobody is gonna credit my discovery as "Bala's Route". Yesterday was much worse because I was trying to find a route that was not in my part of the city. The worst thing about getting lost is you cant throw up your hands in despair and say "I give up". And whenever a junction comes up, you really get confused whether to turn, where to turn and the only thing that'll helps you to decide is the breadth of the road. Cos you think the broader the road the more chances it'll lead you to a main road. But I'll tell you that algorithm doesnt actually work. So the pursuit to be another Colombus continues...

The trip that was long overdue

2004-07-26T07:34:00.000-07:00

Finally, i could squeeze some time to write something. Had to go off work early for home hunting. We need a rental 2BHK near Kothrud area in Pune (if u know any contact: mrmathi@gmail.com). And for the past week i the cynosure of a little passing game in our project. Both Version 2.0(maintainence) and version 3.0(new release) wanted me(u see, im famous here). Reminds me of the tamil phrase "Athula oru kaal, saethula oru kaal". Both the version's GL's were giving me work merrily until i complained to the more compassionate one of the two that im always hectically loaded. It was a hard decision from the v2 guys to let me go. They warned me about the dark side of v3...and u-know-who...but i said "dark side it is, Period."
Now im doing the same work under a different banner. I thought i would be free enough once i moved to v3, but nary i found time to write. So does my fellow bloggers, it seems. Whats with u guys down there? Bals, Ulu...anyone? No post for the longest time since June 16th. Im ravenous for some posts.
Last saturday, we (me+niket+parag+vinayak+some imaginary girl friends) went out on a trip to a place called Bajha caves near Lonawala, an hour drive from Pune. The caves are national monuments. Figures as it belonged to the buddhist monks from 2-3rd century. The caves were totally carved out of the mountain looking over a huge valley. They were carved somewhere in the middle of the mountain so that the access to it is harder from any direction. Without the concrete stairs, which makes it a lazy walk for five minutes, the caves would have been a real tough trek to access. There were some 18 caves in all, with the biggest caves: a sort of shrine in the middle. The other caves were apparently dwelling quarters because they had a cot of stone. All these digs were approximately 6.5 x 6.5 x 6.5 with atleast one cot. The engineering and geological knowldge of those monks were unbelievable. Some caves had sculptures as well which i think were not from the same era. Must have been an addition by the Hindu rulers after the caves have been deserted by the hermits.
Enough history lessons. Now to the exciting part. There are some 3-4 waterfalls in the vicinity of the caves. The number is less because it havent started to rain real hard this monsoon season. Once we saw the falls we went in for the kill. The water was cold and hard. The rocks were slippery and the thrill was great. We drenched and cleansed as if there was no project deadlines, no GLs behind ur ass. All this while a friend was clicking away the camera. (The pics have come out in real graphic details of naive males in their undies. So out of concern for the female crowd, who visits this site, the pics have not been included. The truth is i have to find a scanner.) Three hours later we had to return as there is a project deadline. Reality! It bites! From then on it was all downhill this weekend.

Disappointments of the weekend: Couldnt get tickets for `The Passion of the christ`. Although visited 3 rental homes we couldnt find any digs as yet. I blinked too long and missed Sunday go by. The MEOW class still dont have any good-looking girls.

Soon u might read in the papers, "Dejected software engineer from Pune took Bajha caves as his residence..."

Truth behind Indians.

2004-07-22T05:26:00.000-07:00

Indians have always been guilty of exhibiting a shockingly high divergence between private and social utility. Thus, they will bathe thrice a day but not pull the chain in a public toilet; they will keep their homes spick and span but throw the garbage over the fence on to the public road; they will not pay their taxes but demand all kinds of subsidies; they will bribe for everything but complain about corruption; and so on.

cut and paste from here

Test Email Blog...

2004-07-21T06:59:00.000-07:00

Just checking whether I can post blogs by mail!!!!!!

Travel Travails

2004-07-19T06:21:00.000-07:00

People, there are two things i consider that the Gods have always been inconsiderate towards me.
Women and Travel.
The first is easier to explain... plastic surgery is still out of reach for a software engineer in India. Second, lets just say that some of the worst memories of my troubled little life are from the ones that involves commuting. Yep, i have been involved in all kinds of travel-messups one can imagine. Marooned in the motel, monsoon stops train spoils diwali, sleep in the bus-cabin with seven other strangers, ticket torn/lost/wet, drunken cargo loading guy, luggage lost.... U name it, i got it. I can officially publish "Murphy's laws: The Travelers edition".
That said, I went home to Trichy from Pune last week after a really long gap. The only thing that serves as a motivation against that morbid fear of mine is the assurance that i'll meet friends and family. The journey, with me involved was bound to be an eventful one. My Volvo booking from pune to b'lore was cancelled. I came to know this four hours before my departure time and i had to settle for an ordinary Southern-travels-airbus which leaves two hours later (9PM) than the volvo. The promised fifteen hours travel was lenghtned by no less than six hours. I set foot in b'lore on saturday around 5PM minus my spinal cord. Meet friends. The purpose of the journey and the torture was rewarded when Moosa, Bals, Jap, Manix, PK, Ulti said things like "reduce ur tummy", "u look different", "U write lovely", "do MS in US only", "what happened to u?". Everybody had a different prespective. But everyone agreed that i needed a haircut. Saw Van Helsing(sorry, no more reviews... im taking Bal's advice). Much talking and some nostalgia later it was time to leave. Manix dropped me at Madivala amidst pouring rain(a Thanks cum congrats cum visa-treat is in order). I was as wet as Sridevi in Mr.India. Boarded the bus that would take me home, trichy. Slept like the drunkurd guy lying in the alley near `Gandhi wines`. Six and a half hour later i was in Trichy. I disembarked before anyone noticed that my seat was totally ruined because of all the rain water i carried from b'lore. When i reached home i was as loose as sand and gravel mix. I hit the bag and thought what i hated most the travel or the journey.
...to be continued (The return journey involves a flight from Madras to Pune)

Bombay !!!

2004-07-12T01:36:00.000-07:00

Tears flow in my eyes when I read this

BTW.. I managed to convert one of my collegue into swadeshi..

An old article but thought its good..

Splendid saturday in Belur and Haleebedu

2004-07-11T23:23:00.000-07:00

I urge everyone to see the greatness of Hoysala architecture.. Its just 220 kms from Bangalore, One day trip would suffice...

I just want you to know who I am...

2004-07-08T08:53:00.000-07:00

A few days back Mathi talked abt those gory days of falling for the delectable curves...Just started a small trigger...will be writing on it more...but here's a song that fits to everybody who have fell in love with a woman noticed daily standing in the busstand, the next door project girl who walks by your place, some gal whom you regularly see at the cafeteria at lunch times...for whom you are prepared to do anything (or atleast you think so..) but they dont even know you exist in the same goddamn world they are in..
I dunno how many of you have heard this song...this is by goo goo dolls..But this is one hellova song for one-sided love...Its the OST of City of Angels, starring Cage and Meg Ryan...here you go...

And I'd give up forever to touch you
'Cause I know that you feel me somehow
You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be
And I don't wanna go home right now

And all I could taste is this moment
And all I can breath is your life
And sooner or later it's over
I just don't wanna miss you tonight

And I don't want the world to see me
'Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

And you can't fight the tears that ain't comming
Or the moment of truth in your lies
When everything feels like the movies
Yeah, you bleed just to know you're alive

And I don't want the world to see me
'Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

And I don't want the world to see me
'Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

And I don't want the world to see me
'Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am

Ulu needs inspiration to kick ass!!!

2004-07-07T21:40:00.000-07:00

I have reason to get inspired and work for next two months supposed to be the most interesting period in my two years of professional career..

The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain: Not a review

2004-07-07T18:21:00.000-07:00

Be warned: Im not a natural reviewer/critic. Please excuse my un-professional naïve style below. It just some of my observation and not a review. If u havent seen the movie i wouldnt make much sense. Probably u would think im the official blurb writer for the movie. Dont stop there, watch the movie and come back here again.

`Amelie`. I had no idea about the movie except i knew it was nominated for Oscars in the best foreigh film category. As my previous experience with an oscar nominated foreign film, "No man's land": is still fresh and won my hearts many times over (btw it won the Oscars also. Our `Lagaan`, same year nomination, was a joke compared to it), i had high hopes for Amelie as well.

The first time i saw Amelie i missed more than an hour. Because of that i didnt understand most of the scenes. Amelie's father leaving for airport wasnt funny at all. The next door widow saying "...mountain climbers found proof that my husband loved me" didnt ring any bell. But the next time i saw it -from the start- for the same scenes and dialogues i went down on the grounds with laughter.

Combined with a stupendous performance from the lead actress and an orthodox cameraman the director has performed a miracle. I called the cameraman orthodox because the experience of him shows and it always follow the narration like in the old movies. Im not saying there wasnt variety, mind you, it had every shot from the book.
I have never seen so many close-ups in a single movie. Everytime a surprise is reveiled to the character or the viewer (which is a lot of time in Amelie) the camera does a close-up. The movement and the ken of the camera was a thing any cameraman would aspire for(cat disturbing the bead-blinds when Amelie is dreaming Neno coming into her house, Neno's hesitative motions: dipping his hand in the sugar.. at the cafe, Amelie melting after Neno leaves - the camera moved so well that i didnt even feel the movement). Not to mention the pan and the aperture - they were simply inspirng(Amelie throwing her pebbles collection into the pond in the evening time, the cafe scenes which are quite colorful). There are a few shots with strapped camera. And there were only two or three crane shots but still conventional(like Neno chasing someone and Amelie chasing Neno). All in all the cameraman get the oscar from me.

Coming to the story: the story is all screenplay. No shot is longer than 45 seconds. Almost 50% of the scenes has only Amelie in it. This tells a few things. That the editor had to do quite a job compiling. The dialogues had to be crisp and no monologue can be allowed. And as i said before a scene wouldnt make sense unless u get the connection from the previous scenes(the garden gnome's tour and Amelie's father leaving for the airport is wisely and sparingly kept in the screenplay). Almost all the characters (more than 20 people) in the film are devoted an almost equal time & attention in the screenplay.

The director `Jean-Pierre Jeunet` is a perfectionist. I am all praise for him. Every scene is very felt and then filmed. The artistry of him is overwhelming and it oozes in every shot. The visual representation is undenyable and has an upper hand and rather than the conversation between characters. You can understand whats happening even without the sub-titles since it is shown rather than told. The narrative way of telling a story is a risk since it needs a really resourceful script or a gripping story. Here it is the script itself that eliminted the risk totally. The narration had an extempore touch to it but it also provided mood. The entire movie reminds me of dominoes toppling show since the whole story is a huge collection of bits of trivial incidents (somehow attached to Amelie). It needs careful editing and scripting to make those bits interesting and engrossing. Full marks to the editor and the director for this.

If i had to list the top scenes i would have to write the entire screenplay, so i would refrain. But some aspects i liked, i can list..

1) Parfaite of emotions.
2) Cinemascope. Cinematography. (Every frame can pass for a greeting card)
3) Narrative style.
4) Camera tricks. (especially the black&white scenes, Amelie watching herself in the tv, the close-ups)
5) Leaves u with a sense of hope always. Never dismissive.
6) Joyfully sentimental.
7) Amelie's reactions.
8) Connectivity through scenes.
9) The album, especially the mystery man at the photo counters.

Score: 10/10

Orkut invites

2004-07-07T04:35:00.000-07:00

Any one interested in orkut and needs an invite let me know...

Vienna waits for you!!!

2004-07-07T02:30:00.000-07:00

Vienna waits for you
By Billy Joel..

Slow down you crazy child
You're so ambitious for a juvenile
But then if you're so smart tell me why
You are still so afraid?
Where's the fire, what's the hurry about?
You better cool it off before you burn it out
You got so much to do and only
So many hours in a day

But you know that when the truth is told
That you can get what you want
Or you can just get old
You're gonna kick off before you even get halfway through
When will you realize...Vienna waits for you

Slow down you're doing fine
You can't be everything you want to be
Before your time
Although it's so romantic on the borderline tonight
Too bad but it's the life you lead
You're so ahead of yourself
That you forgot what you need
Though you can see when you're wrong
You know you can't always see when you're right

You got your passion you got your pride
But don't you know only fools are satisfied?
Dream on but don't imagine they'll all come true
When will you realize
Vienna waits for you

Slow down you crazy child
Take the phone off the hook and disappear for a while
It's alright you can afford to lose a day or two
When will you realize...
Vienna waits for you.

But you know that when the truth is told
That you can get what you want
Or you can just get old
You're gonna kick off before you even get halfway through
Why don't you realize...Vienna waits for you
When will you realize...Vienna waits for you

Super Sunday and Smitha's Plagiarism!!!

2004-07-06T08:06:00.000-07:00

It was every sports afficianado's dream come true. And if you happen to fall in the category of movie buff, you would have been exhausted by the intake by the time you went to sleep this sunday. It all started with Singaravelan in Raj TV, ofcourse you have to multiplex that with the England - NewZealand cricket match. Simultaneously, after some time, you also have to include Harikrishanans from Asianet in the plan. Mohanlal and Mamooty were an ultimate combo wooing Juhi all the way down to the end of the movie. Watch out for the scene where Juhi spills the tea on Mamooty's lap. Followed by MohanLal's snicker to which Mamooty responds with an angry face. Juhi comes out and wipes out Mamooty's lap with her bare hands. Then you should watch that erotic expression(with the oohs and aahs) in Mamooty's face to piss off MohanLal. Humor can't get better than this. And when MohanLal takes the tea cup and spills it on his lap, it really does get better. Worse, the following scenes evoke more rip roaring laughter. If you dont understand Malayalam, probably this would be the scene that would stand out. But, it was a race of a different kind in Magney Cours. Alonso keeping Schumacher at bay for nearly 30 laps. Still more exciting was the tussle between the trio Button,Barichello and Trulli for the last podium position. It went all the way down the wire before Barichello pulled off a miracle on the second last turn before the finish line to leave Trulli despondent. While you would be multiplexing between these two, Federer and Roddick start to slam. Ofcourse, you cant be impartial, so you also include them in the plan. Roddick's start can't be better. Slams four aces to win the first game. Ofcourse, only after this would you get some breathers 'cause by the time Harikrishanans and the GP finishes. After seeing Federer lift the cup, you had to run all the way to channel # 44 to watch Amelie. You can watch the movie any number of times. A great proof of how artistic French can get. Watch out for the scene, where Amelie melts when Nino walks out of the cafe. Also, the dangling pointer in the brain which got initialised when Smitha wrote about me getting kidnapped and becoming a mujahideen would finally get the memory address. What a way to uncover Smitha's plagiarism!!!! By the time you watch Amelie and Nino ride in the moped, you'd have had to get mentally prepared for the last ride of the night. So, if you are an underdog supporter, you'd be thouroughly satisfied when you go to sleep, replaying Charisteas' header again and agin in you head. Ofcourse, the only thing that can spoil your sleep is the thought getting caught in the vicious circle of office and project releases and issues the next day. Otherwise, it was really a super sunday.

Troy:Greece:Euro

2004-07-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

Greece!! Greece!! went the world y'day. Yep, a golden page was added to the footballing gaint, Greece's history. Sorry, no more comments. Im suffering from severe digestion problem from y'day night... cant figure the reason out.
Say `TROY` last week. Had to go on a weekday to get the tickets: very crowded these Multiplex gets on weekends. By the skin of the teeth managed to get the tickets and in we(me+2friends) pushed to enjoy the movie. And enjoy we did.
It is a film that provides food for every type of person there is. That is to say it has all the ingredients to it. Action(a lot of it), romance(not as much as many would have expected), comedy(royal humor is always a way in historical movies), heroism(the entire movie is based on it), unexpected twists(u would expect Menelaus to hang around till the end of war...think again), director's touch(handled the protagonist Achilles's relationship with his cousin Patroclus as platonic as possible) and many other things..
The screenplay is not straight out of Illiad. The writers had a go at it. The eight years war was shrunk to a few days and justice was done i would say, sparing the viewer's a bloodbath.
Homer in Illiad would have had more to say about the love of Paris and Helen. But apprently the director's hurry shows when in both Paris and Helen's introduction scene there were caught deep in adultery. Add a bit of humor to the scene and the viewer is engrossed. And hints of humor is placed sparingly in the movie for sake of variety, but not amateurish as to reveal this to the viewer.
Achilles (Brad Pitt) carries a impressive person in every shot. Be it when he says "..it's immortality.. take it.. its yours" or when he is duelling with Hektor in a fight to death.

Hektor, sometimes i felt that Eric Bana should have been cast as Achilles. But at the end of the movie when all is done and said, i changed my opinion. The casting was perfect.
The heroism and protaganism of Achilles side-tracks the love story and other things. I havent read Illiad, but i feel if the movie could have been easily made into two parts.
1) Love: Paris and Helen
2) The war: Achilles and Hektor
But i have to agree that both of them would have failed miserably at the box-office. Thats what Wolfgang Peterson and David Benioff could do to a movie.
Score: 9/10
-Smitha

First post..

2004-06-28T20:23:00.000-07:00

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