Life - As i Know it

Finally

2010-03-28T07:51:00.000-07:00

For the nth time again , I am back... I know , this is sad.. Forget writing, I didn't visit my own blog all this while.. No wonder , Life is what happens when you are busy.

Random Rambles

2009-03-10T00:45:00.000-07:00

Itz been one helluva week really. Yeah, with no work and me lazing around at home (On Vacation:) ) , wondering whether the sky looked this blue on a Monday morning I transcended the normal human thinking and realized the true meaning of "InActive".

Talking of Action, Technocrati has now come up with the list of top sites that are getting Attention - Technocrati Attention Index . Youtube tops the list as usual but was quite surprised to know that Ny times comes second. Weird. But given the current scenario not very surprising either.

Believe it or Not

2009-03-10T00:43:00.000-07:00

Chennai is Cold.

Naan Kadavul - Mind blowing experience

2009-02-15T07:11:00.001-08:00

Bala does it again .. This time very well exceeds the Pithamagan's benchmark. Awesome movie.

Wats good abt it ??
Well, Lots actually. If you ignore few logical flaws and can withstand some real bitter truth, i guess the movie does exceedingly well in all quarters.
Arya has done an amazing job. To be honest, he doesn't need to do much in terms of acting other than just showcase his weirdo attire and few mannerisms, but he does justice though. You do get a feel of watching an Actual Aghori in action... He doesn't need to cry, no need to laugh, just keep mum and fight but the movie is scripted so well, that even this seems amazing.
Pooja too has done a splendid job.. In fact the acting part actually is done by pooja and she well exceeds her previous films.
But i guess the people who acted as beggars simply stole the show. They make you sit and laugh in an otherwise deadly dry movie. Some scenes are so funny, that you no longer think them as handicapped or people who actually are meant to be sympathized. You just laugh along. Hats off.
The villians , well all vilians in a bala movie somehow do their part well :). He has a knack for identifying characteres.
Music is good. Could have been better, but not bad either.
Last but not the least , the direction is simply superb. Looks like Bala is superstitious in having old film songs replayed in his movie. Following Pithamagan, this movie also has one. But other than that , I just loved the snide remarks, the sarcasm and euphemisms, and also the mind boggling hard truth about the begging Mafia. Slumdog is just a tip of the iceberg. Danny boyle should have seen this first. The sheer brillaince of the director can be seen throughout the movie, be it when you watch in awe the portrayal of an Aghori, or you sit back and enjoy the intelligent humour while the next instant sit up and watch open mouthed the begging mafia's tortures. The movie could have very well taken a spiritual tone throughout, but i guess thats the speciality of Bala. He mixes fiction too well into something thats really weird or incomprehensible, that you dont really care about the difference. For instant, the scene where Pooja wishes to die and Arya gives her the gift of death (well thats the climax for u :) ) is something new to Tamil cinema, heck, even Indian cinema. I guess this topic can be debated spiritually, medically, politically and wat not. In a way it kind of signifies euthanesia, but i guess the spiritual tone hides it. But this is not a new concept to Hinduism. The ultimate truth of hinduism is to attain "Moksha" which means not to take the next birth. The aghori is shown as some one who can grant this wish. All in All a fantastic watch and a well deserved movie. Tamil cinema is reaching new peaks with movies like Subramaniyapuram and Naan Kadavul.

Wats not good about it:
Not much. As told before, there were some logical flaws here and there. Bala's true portrayal of the Begging Business make you feel a little bit uncomfortable. Also, Bala's could have emphasised more on Arya's character.

So whats my rating :)
****

Legends :
* - Only to be seen in wall posters.
** - Try it out at ur own risk.
*** - Worth watching once.
**** - Good, really good.
***** - Amazing.

Oh btw ,

2009-02-14T07:47:00.000-08:00

Wishes on Valentines day and just miss for all those who were hoping mutalik to preside over the weddings.. Hang in there.. the country is not short of people (like him) ;)

Random Thoughts ...

2009-02-14T07:10:00.000-08:00

Aham Brahmasmi..Thats the latest tagline of Bala's flick "Naan Kadavul". Two words , that says it all. I am yet to see the movie so will blog it later but today doing a simple google search on this phrase yeilded some interesting results.

For instance, look at this quote by Einstein,
"The fact that man produces a concept "I" besides the totality of this mental and emotional experiences or perceptions does not prove that there must be any specific existence [reality] behind such a concept.”
“We are succumbing to illusions produced by our self -created language, without reaching a better understanding of anything. Most of so
-called philosophy is due to this kind of fallacy.

Read full text

It is actually more interesting to see someone like Einstein who was/is(?) one of the most brilliant scientists commenting about philosophy which is way out of his realms.

The words literally mean "I am God". Acording to me the most important word of these is "I". Simply because "am" is just there to fill the void and void is within God in a way. There has been millions of opinions, ideas and perceptions in this single letter/word. Ignoring the philosophical/spiritual aspect this letter, which between themselves have millions of meanings, from a day to day perspective also, every common man gets impacted by this word. "I" also signifies the power of self. But this is a very tricky concept as in for the self, I is superior but considering I to be superior by the self can also be viewed as "Ego". Again, there are debates in different forms as to whether Ego is a positive or negative trait. Being an ardent fan of Ayn Rand, I am biased , yet i still wanna conclude that everything depends on perceptions.

Ok, i do understand that the above post was pure ramblings .. but then i am yet to see the movie , I gave a good link in my blog and also i am back :)

Wish u all a Very Happy New Year

2009-01-01T04:16:00.000-08:00

It's been a long break, so long that it is a different year now. There are resolutions obviously, but then if all resolutions turn into actions then there is no point of having resolutions...

Let Life be simple in 2009 ( literally, figuratively etc etc ..)

Coming up - Welcome to SajjanPur

2008-09-29T09:25:00.000-07:00

Fantastic Movie.. will blog soon with my reviews. Just one comment though.. Watch it once.

Hari Puthar ... or Oh whatever

2008-09-29T09:15:00.000-07:00

I am seriously not sure why on earth did people have to file a case against this movie claiming the title closely resembles Harry Potter... Damn it, know what if the director had invited, JK rowling to the preview show of this movie, I am very sure that she wouldn't have even dared to file a case against this one..

It is bad, simply bad. I know that i am not a kid anymore and it just doesn't make sense to comment on a so called kid's movie. But come on, Home alone wasn't that bad inspite of being a Kids movie. Given that this movie is a Comedy of Terrors, I think my total attempt to smile lasted for only 5 mins. Please Note, My attempt only, i just couldn't laugh. Some kids in near by seats were looking at their parents so accusingly, that the parents compensated for the movie by buying them pop corns and ice creams twice during the movie, both before and after the interval.

The Only consolation were the kids themselves. Nothing more to add. Period.

Hari Puthar - Not sure what a kid will think .. But my review is

**

Legends :
* - Only to be seen in wall posters.
** - Try it out at ur own risk.
*** - Worth watching once.
**** - Good, really good.
***** - Amazing.

Long time No see...

2008-09-29T08:39:00.000-07:00

And i am back once more after a long long break. Itz just that there were too many things going on at my work and in the world in general that blogging never entered my mind. But still, like Sachin says, i dont have any plans of getting retired in the near future.

Come to think of it, the near future is getting gloomier. The US financial market crisis is getting from bad to worse day by day and being part of the firm that is in the epicenter of this tremor is always gonna be difficult. It is just like a movie, a child is born, a young boy plays, couple get married, and in the last 5 mins or so during climax, couple get old or couple die. Complete in 3 hours. The fate of lehman bros and Merryl lynch were pretty much the same. 158 years of legacy was just buried in a weekend. This is claimed to be the worst crisis after the 1920's economic depression in Wall Street.

Come to think of it, those were days when Wall Street meant "Walled Street" and Fed meant nothing. Honestly, be it dot com bubble or bust, it did not count. But the last few years have been so much enlightening in terms of the financial markets and how things work. Inspite of being a ardent fan of "some of "Ayn Rand's philosophies, only recently did i truly understand to appreciate it. But then, given that we are in India, it is a long shot.

Come to think of it, Indian markets dont seem to function independently as claimed by some wise investors. As i had posted in one of my earlier posts, India is not going to be shielded from this crisis. Being globalized means to share the fame and the pain equally. The extent of damage caused by financial markets might not be very high, but then there are lot other issues in India that makes up the cumulative damage sum high. The journey has just begun and it is a long road ahead.

Come to think of it, the grand prix in Singapore was just awesome and sheer grandeur not because of the race but because of the roads. As rediff rightly put, both Alonso and Singapore were winners in race against time.

Finally as our good old Indian cricket team, who always makes us expect the unexpected, the author will like to ensure that he is not part of this team and does not value this principle very highly.

Bottomline ... more posts coming along....

Dasavatharam - Impressions

2008-06-28T09:40:00.000-07:00

I managed to watch this movie finally. And when i came out i was left confused.
I am not even sure yet whether i like the movie or i hate it. This is one of the most difficult films to write review for. So, i am going to take a neutral stand here and review it. I have avoided spoilers as much as possible..

I, Me and Myself for you henceforth.

I: So we finally watched it, how was it ?

Me: Sucked, Big time, didn't expect this from Kamal. There was no plot at all to remember or follow upon. Basing the movie on chaos theory was a big mistake, the influence spread to everyone and it was nothing but chaos.

Myself: Dude, Hold on there. Can you show me one movie in Tamil cinema that you can compare to this one in terms of grandeur or concept. Come on, change is not easy to digest, but is good. We have to come out of the mindset of seeing a Tamil film where there is a Hero,heroine , Villain a plot involving the three and the movie ends with "All's well ends well" Note.

Me: So what, are you saying we should start seeing movies only for graphics and not story ?? Well, if so i would rather watch a proper animation film than one like this.

I: I think we are just "beating around the bush" here. Please be more specific.

Me: Ok, see, i just dont buy the fact that if Kamal is an Atheist he goes and makes a film that always projects his ideas and philosophies. There were tonnes of scenes that could have been avoided in this movie. Come on, why unnecessarily have dialogues that are against a particular sect or caste. At any case, making a movie based on Chaos theory is great. Agreed. But you should also know how to project it well. I mean, half the audience wouldn't even know what Chaos theory is even after the movie. Just by tying some unrelated strings together , you can make a small novel or may be give it a shot at TV serial, not a movie. There were just too many stories and characters running around...

I: Can you hold on for a sec, i understand you have lots of negative points, but lets give myself a chance.

Myself: Thanks, I dont want to make a pandora's box of crap just as my bro did now. Instead let me focus on point by point and will finish it all.

i) Attention to Detail: Simply Amazing. I always admired people like Kamal for this and he proved once more. Just take the scene where the vulture comes and sits on top of the pole when nambi is being tortured. That says how much work he shud have done to understand wats the significance of Vulture to Vishnu. Even now, people do believe that seeing a Vulture, the one with white neck, is equivalent to seeing God. The Tsunami scene, where the birds fly before the water comes in and no one but the Japanese guy saying the name Tsunami. Also, if you noticed closely, Vishnu was present throughout the movie either as a idol or as a picture. Even when Kamal and Asin go in the lorry the glass had a photo of Krishna in it.

ii) Timing Commedy: Balram Naidu was perfect here. Even Govind also at times. Agreed that this time it was not on par with Crazy Mohan's MMKR but it was not bad either.

iii) Concept: Great, Just Great. I think this is a milestone in Tamil cinema, Kamal is setting a new trend by making a Movie which is honestly out of everyone's comprehension and expectation. Matrix was one such film in hollywood. Not everyone understood at once, some even studied the stories in the www to understand the concept and then watched it. But the movie stands out even to this day. This is one such film. Butterfly effect and Chaos theory are concepts which we might have heard in Sujatha's novels but no one would have dreamt of giving them a shot at movies. Wikipedia hits are sure bound to increase. It is truly amazing how Kamal managed to put together a Plot that talks about everything, literally. The bottom line is Chaos theory and butterfly effect but he touches upon the religious beliefs and supersitions, politics, bio war, sand mafia and terrorism, atheism, Tsunami, u name it. For each plot and philisophy he "lives" as the character.

iv) Make up: This shud have been my first point. In any case, there is nothing more to say. He is truly a Ulaga Nayagan (Universal Hero). Although, in terms of makeup, i wud have to say, I go with the make up for George W Bush's character as the best. Simply because, it is the only character in the movie that has a frame of reference. Govind, Nambi, Povvarahan, Kalifulla, Avatar, Balram Naidu, Krishnaveni paatti, Fletcher, Japanese guy( god, i keep forgetting his name) have faces that are given by Kamal and that we never know of. So doing makeup for these characters, isn't a big deal. However everyone knows Bush. And i truly appreciate the team to having come up with such a makeup thts almost Bush like albeit not xactly.

v) First ten minutes. I dont think such scenes have ever been made and can ever be made again.

Last but not the least, don't watch movies like this only for entertainment. There is something more and we have to transcend the average thinking limits to see that.
Thats all i have to say.

I: Good one, Me wats ur thought ? Dumbfounded and dont' wanna talk ?

Me: Let me answer point by point to his point by point arguments.

1) Attention to Detail : I agree. But the question is, wats the point ? Itz like you doing ICE business in Antartica. First get the story right.

2) Commedy : Itz not some scenes that were laughable, the whole movie was.

3) Concept : As i said earlier, there is a difference between thinking big and making it big. You need to do both. "It is truly amazing how Kamal managed to put together a Plot that talks about everything, literally" :: Thats the whole problem. Why on earth does he have to take so many plots ? Characters, agreed, he needs to set a new record, but plots, come on there is a limit. Who asked him to talk about everything and convey nothing. No honestly, he started the movie by portraying 12th century Saivities-Vaishnavites tussle. And then he moves on to Bio war, blah blah and at the end he says that everything is interconnected based on chaos theory. Heck, is he kidding ? Even an amateur can then take ANY totally unrelated circumstances, think sometime to find a common platform and then take a movie basing it on Chaos theory.

4) Makeup: Yes, the fact that he has done a makeup can be seen very well.

5) This is one thing I agree. :) . Simply great,and it is because of this scene alone I still have some respect for Kamal.

Last but not the least: If you dont make a movie for entertainment then better make it a documentary. You can't HAVE THE CAKE AND EAT IT TOO. You can't make a totally commercial movie and then call it conceptual and philosophical.

I: Ok, Whew, that sure was long and interesting. Based on the comments, I have to agree that my confusion level has still gone up and i dont have an option but to give two ratings to pacify me and myself. The common theme i found though was, the story in this movie. Well, it was hard to find in the movie, but that saved my day. So here it goes,

For people who say Story is the centerpiece: **

For people who say Story is just another ingredient: ****

Legends :
* - Only to be seen in wall posters.
** - Try it out at ur own risk.
*** - Worth watching once.
**** - Good, really good.
***** - Amazing.

I am still there...

2008-06-26T10:41:00.000-07:00

I know... I am back to the old ways of taking an uneventful break from blogosphere. Yet, this time it is different. Going thru some real hectic schedules and deadlines at work. But will bounce bak.

Sooon....

Oh, in the meanwhile, happened to see Indiana jones. Don't even feel like blogging about it.

The movie started great, went on great, but the ending sucked.. big time, And that really spoils everything. Worth seeing once, but deftnly not in PVR on a weekend.

Rating : ***

Legends :
* - Only to be seen in wall posters.
** - Try it out at ur own risk.
*** - Worth watching once.
**** - Good, really good.
***** - Amazing.

The Iron Man (P) Review

2008-05-21T09:28:00.000-07:00

Name :
The Iron Man

Language :
English

Whats the story about :
Hero wants to do good. Villain doesn't want to. So they fight.

So whats new :
"IRON" man.

So whats old :
Everything else.

Whats good :
Special effects and the hero's acting

Whats bad :
Take the old superman movie. Cut the old villain out, Bring in Terrorism and a new villain. Cut the "Super" , blue attire out and bring in "IRON". Throw in a heroine for side dish. U get Iron man.

No Honestly, what do I think :
Well it is definitely a movie worth watching once. The acting is good and the concept albeit old, is really good. The special effects require special mention. The robots and the gizmoz are just amazing. The hero is an arms dealer.. well arms designer u can call. He gets kidnapped and is taken to Afgan. Here he sees that the very missile he had designed for the Army are being used by terrorists to kill. The terrorists give him one day to build a new missile. Instead he builds the IRON man. To be more specific, builds the components necessary to become the Iron man. He fights, kills, flies and escapes. Once he escapes and back home, he refines the Iron man structure and becomes super powerful. He destroys all his missiles in the terrorists camp by flying to their place and flying back home. However little does he know that his own partner is the one who smuggles the arms. His partner finally gets hold of the secret energy source with which the Hero built the Iron man. So there u go, u have another "I don't know what metal" Man. Then they clash, hero wins, villain dies and movie ends.

Rating : ***

Legends :
* - Only to be seen in wall posters.
** - Try it out at ur own risk.
*** - Worth watching once.
**** - Good, really good.
***** - Amazing.

Random Thoughts - freak '()' nomics - I

2008-05-01T09:59:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer : purely imaginary. No guarantee for accuracy of predictions.

Think is there any connection between the Software Boom in India and the Indian rail industry becoming one of the most profitable organizations ? There is. Example - goto IRCTC and try booking a chennai-mail ticket from Bangalore to Chennai one month ahead for a weekend. Consider urself lucky if you get a reserved berth. I can bet, most of this crowd is the young softies who hail from chennai and work at blr types. The more software industry grows, the more employed youth become, the more they travel outside their home place for jobs implies the more they Travel.

Conclusion - "Software boom directly proportional to Indian railways boom."

In any case, I am the sort of person who travels to/fro blr/chennai almost every week. Some people call it Nostalgic, i call it the smell of good food.
On the day of return I usually take the famous electric train to come to Central station from my home. Last week on a similar train journey, i got a chance to sit near the window and watch outside (It is very hard indeed to get a seat).

I was seeing the change. My association with the Train journey goes way long back to 1994. Starting from my school days to college and now work, the train journey has become a inseparable part of my life. I donno whether Nayanthara really enjoyed the rain when she looked out of the small car window (REF : Yaaradi nee mohini), but stand in the foot board of a running train on a windy(rainy) day, i can swear that it will be the most memorable journey ever. Ofcourse, you want the incident to be memorable and not to become a memory, so be cautious when you stand in the foot board.

On a crowded day, which btw is almost everyday, you will be able to see all the vagaries of life in a running train. Blind people selling lottery tickets, singing old songs, a family of 8 sitting in a berth for 4, students completing their homework, tution notes before school, middle aged people carrying lunch boxes and rushing to offices and many more. Nothing much had changed last week, only that most of the young people who usually stand outside the train, literally, are now standing inside listening to IPOD :). Here you go, my second correlation..

"With the IPOD boom, many young people have started buying IPOD and listening to songs, which means they no longer are interested in standing in the foot board and as a result of which the number of people who die because of foot board travel injuries have decreased".

Conclusion - IPOD boom is inversely proportional to No of Train journey deaths.

It is not only small children, but even adults, prefer to sit near the window. No one knows really why, but thats the way it is. Maybe calculate the relative velocity of the passing train or enjoy the fast moving view of buildings and the surroundings. One thing i really noticed was the number of open spaces. The number did not go down that much, but the open spaces were indeed OPEN, rather empty, which is very surprising. Those days, i never saw a ground that was empty. It was always occupied by boys playing cricket. A single ground was usually shared with atleast 3 teams. One team playing with a cricket ball, one team playing with a tennis ball and one team not really playing but practicing. Forget grounds, even the apartment car parking areas were usually mini cricket grounds. But now i was wondering whats stopping the young boys from occupying these grounds.. The person next to me was talking about the latest IPL matches and the genral player bashings. The thought suddenly stuck me, Kids who are usually passionate about playing cricket will never miss watching cricket. Those days the number of matches relayed were low, so lots of playing and some watching. But these days it is the reverse. As a result of which more kids are now glued to TV sets and computers instead of playing cricket which means the play grounds are now empty, which makes life easier for people who want to buy houses and have children as they no longer look for playgrounds,open spaces for their child and because of the demand the real estate prices go up.

Conclusion : IPL Matches are causing the rocketing real estate prices to shoot up even more

--to be continued....

Is there a Recession ??

2008-03-28T10:01:00.000-07:00

This is the question that every salaried person today asks, but doesn't wish to know th e answer.

With markets looking down big time, it is clear the bear mood has set in, unclear is it here to stay? I strongly believe that US is in recession. I also believe that the world economy (Including India) is tightly coupled with the US economy. This means the world is experiencing a slow down.

This is not rocket science and doesn't require prodigious financial skills to predict. I don't think there is anything physical as recession, meaning it can't be quantified. We can't say if X > Y then there is recession. It is pure sentiment. If people refrain from taking risks, their investment exposure decreases which means, people sell to take back their money, the more they sell, the price comes down and if it is a market leader brings the sector down.

Thats what recession is, some firms get affected big time because they would have risked so much, their loss is also huge, so huge that they have to sign off. People are not ready to take more risks, not ready to buy new firms, not ready to invest money. This means there aren't enough clients for Ibanks to do business with, which means they don't get the usual money inflow they need to.

I read a few days before that with 8pc GDP growth, India is totally shielded from the tumultous world markets. This seemed to be an absolute paradox. With the age of globalization setting in, we were talking about decoupling of world economies. The truth dawned last week, when the NSE/BSE followed the tracks of NYSE and suffered a blood bath. There is recession and India is not saved from it.

The question is how long ?

Sun steals the show.. and I am back

2008-03-28T09:38:00.000-07:00

It isn't a good sign to pop in once a while and check if my blog still exists or blogger.com has decommissioned it citing inactivity. So made up my mind today with some reminder from one of my friends to come and scribble.

Been doing good albeit hectic schedule. 2008 hasn't revolutionized my day to day life yet, so nothings much changed from where i was earlier :).

Came across the latest developer.com awards here :-
Dev.com

Seems Sun products have won in most of the category. Good to see that the Scripting feature for Java has won the best award. Hoping that next year, closures will be in the race as well for this.

Java has undergone a complete facial remake in terms of features and extensions. With Java 5, the emphasis was not only on just API extension but to include in a lot of language extension, developer friendly typing features as well. Generics is one good example. Though many argue that generics is not quite robust and has some fundamental flaws , from a developer perspective, i think it satisfies what it was meant to. Strict typing was a major difference that put Java in top of many dynamic pgmning languages and by making it compile time, genrics helps handle unneccesary surprises.

At any case, the point I was trying to say was Java SE 6 has also won in the developer.com category. And with Java 7 including some better functional programming practices within it, i will place my bet on it.

Gods must be crazy !!!!

2008-01-07T02:35:00.000-08:00

No one likes to lose, especially in a game where all the odds are stacked up against ,you put on a brave fightback, when there is a possibility of a tie up and you are so close that u actually think you wont lose. Yet India lost. Only this time as Anil kumble rightly said "It hurts to lose. But Only one team played in the spirit of the game".

It was a contest with 11 on one side and 13 at the other... The two extras cost us the game and the series.

Height of Social Networking - :)

2008-01-04T04:17:00.000-08:00

Given that i have the habit of taking long breaks after every blog, i decided to do something different in 2008 :- Publish a consolation post for no apparent reason with no specific content. Here it goes:

Evil twin of facebook - Enemybook

This quote is cool btw

Enemybook is an anti-social utility that disconnects you to the so-called friends around you

As if this is not enough, click the below link to read the article published recently

Social "Hate" Networking

Closures in Java - What lies beneath ??

2007-12-31T06:43:00.000-08:00

I was listening to the "Closures for Java" tech talk by Neil Gafter. The presentation was very impressive and the content was equally good. Yet,one basic question remains unanswered. Do we need closures in java at all ??

I have nothing against closures or it being added to Java. But i like to raise few debatable points:

1) Closures is not something new. According to Wiki:
The concept of closures was developed in the 60’s and was first fully implemented as a language feature in the programming language Scheme

It is an integral part of many functional programming languages. But the recent addition of closures to Java signals the functional + OOP convergence which i think is nice to have , but not necessary. Anything we can do by adding closures can be done without using closures. So there should be some really strong use cases to justify why a developer should choose closure over his routine coding pattern.

2) Java has Anonymous Inner Classes. But how many of the developers end up using this in their day to day job ? Closures, as i understand provides a lot of features which we can't do with the current day Anonymous classes. But the question is why can't we enhance the anonymous inner class itself to provide all the missing functionality ?Why go for a concept which requires its own grammar and semantics ?

3) Java is Turing complete language. I agree, this doesn't justify closures shouldn't be added, however, Java is complete in its own OOP way. Java was not built to be a functional programming language. If closures are required, why cant we just use a JVM compatible FP to provide that feature ?

These were some of the basic questions that came to my mind once i heard about closures. Will post the answers once i find :). In the meanwhile, if there are any closure enlightened souls, please enlighten me as well.

And by the way, Wishing others & myself a very happy new year - 2008 :).

The Problem of Plenty

2007-11-22T08:54:00.000-08:00

After a long time, bak to blogosphere. Not much of an update i have to share.
Anyways, decided to give a techie colour to my blog here upon simply coz i dont have anything else to write about.
Here is what i am trying to implement now..
XML we all know is The mode of data Transfer across different systems. But how much of an xml can you transfer. If u look at it, the size of a XML file is usually much higher than the text file that couuld be created with the contents removing the tags.
Hence is there a suitable algorithm to compress Xml. Google revealed that, the usual Huffman, LZW, work well with text files but not with xml.

Let me know if there is a better way of compressing XML.

Back to India - Japanese blues

2007-08-21T07:03:00.000-07:00

The trip is over and i am back at india now.. I was looking forward to coming back to india, but the last day was quite nostalgic. Not that, i would have loved to stay there, but given a chance again i would love to go back for a short term again (which can happen anytime ;))

The overall picture i got was - folks out there work hard, party hard. I was at tokyo and at one of the major tourists spots, so maybe the western influence would have added its share, yet defnt'ly better than what we do at india. "Partying" in india is a different issue altogether btw.

I managed to squeeze some time during the weekend to go around tokyo. It is, indeed, a city of sky scrappers. The building where my office is located has a total of 52 floors and yet it is the second tallest building in Tokyo. Hope you can imagine the picture. The city scales vertically - BIG TIME.U can see my album in orkut for the building. Also the traditional Vs modern blend was not that prominent here as it was in London. In london you could see glazed buildings on either ends and have a 1000 year old building in between them. There was this mystic effect when you see them, in tokyo however that is missing as there are lot more skyscrappers than the old temples/houses. Speaking of temples, i managed to see the Asakusa Kannon and the Shinto shrine temples. Former being a buddhist latter shinto based. They are the most prominent religions in japan. I will upload the pics in my album soon, but you can google the names and see a lot more actually.
Japanese take pride in being japanese and speaking japanese which becomes a little hard if you are a non japanese. Yes, i had a tuff time in doing some local shopping as everything was written in japanese, but then if you intend to stay at japan it is expected that you have to learn their ways. I could only think of so much now as i dont want to do a write up for NGC or Travel & living :), but will keep updating with any interesting stuffs that comes to my mind on this topic.

Speaking of trivia:
The difference between shintoism and buddhism is, the former doesn't believe in reincarnation while the latter does. Hope you all know what hinduism supports.

Gone with the Wind

2007-08-10T07:30:00.001-07:00

At Last Managed to watch this movie.. I have heard abt this first during a quiz in my school days and i used to confuse this with Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. But after the advent of IMDB (well, after i got the liberty to browse) , i had read about this movie many times, courtesty google/wikipedia. Some how i didn't get the push to get the CD and watch it in india and since then itz been a long pending wait.

Even out here, on a fine morning after buying a cofee from starbucks (hw is this ;) ) i was going around the showroom. It housed a hell lot of books, CD/DVD's .. i just picked one DVD as the cover resembled Clark Gable/Vivian leigh pair. Everything but the cover-picture was in japanese. I actually wanted to find out how much the movie DVD costs, but apparently yielded to the temptation when the person mistook me for asking to put the bill :)

The movie was just as i had expected it to be, gripping till the end. Felt good after watching one of the BEST movies of all times. The entire story/trivia is there in the wikipedia, yet still i will recommend to watch this. Vivian leigh(heroine) steals the show with some amazing acting. No doubt she got an Oscar for this.
But i just didn't understand how clark gable(so called male lead) is being remembered for this movie.. Anyways as long as the movie was good just as he says

"Frankly my dear, i dont give a damn"

PS: I think this line is in the top 5 spots for Time's best dialogues of all times.

Around Tokyo in 9 hours

2007-08-10T07:22:00.000-07:00

Yes,
Finally managed to book a tour which shows all the major highlight spots in japan. Quite exited about it this time as the last weekend i had spent the entire time inside my room reading HP and watchin japanese channels :(.

Itz hard to digest

2007-08-05T03:25:00.001-07:00

But harry potter is no more inspite of being alive :(. Will post some other day on the HP xperience.

The context of the Post below

2007-08-05T03:18:00.001-07:00

is this.. I am rite now at tokyo,on a official trip and hence got to see the below-stated incident. I wanted to blog about my xperiences in tokyo, but then there is nothing i am experiencing but for work ;), and my readers will not want to read yet-another-statistical-tale of how much i work. But will try to blog as much as possible. One thing is certain, u better learn japanese before coming here if you plan a long term trip. And if you are a veggie/non drinker, then think twice before stepping your feet in the soils of japan.

Caught Jakie chan live

2007-08-05T02:54:00.000-07:00

yes,

rite opposite to the place where i am staying, is TV asahi building.. supposed to be quite famous out here. Mr Chan was on a visit to promote his latest movie Rush Hour 3. I couldn't ustand a single bit of what was going, obviously bcoz everything was in japanese, but the bottomline was this .. I saw jakiechan live :). Man he looks just the same as he is in the movies if we leave out the few lines tht show up in this face inspite of the makeup to scream his age.

Shud keep in mind to watch Rush Hour 3 ;)

igoogle - Amazing initiative

2007-07-06T10:23:00.000-07:00

For all the tech and hardcore googlers this might be an old news. But just wanted to share the igoogle experience.

Igoogle is a dashboard provided by google. A one stop junction where you can "Add Stuff" . when u say stuff,t means literally anything. Yes, gmail previews, quote of the day, wall papers, games , hangman, jokes, cartoons, blogs, news.. anything that we spend our time searching for on the web. Drag,drop and arrange as u like in a single page.

U can see the depth of their thought in the wall papers they provide. For example, a wall paper where you have a sun,beach is just a static page. However the position of the sun is made dynamic. So basically if i open the page in the morning, the sun is at the east side of the picture, and is in the west side during evenings.

I think they also allow us to define components , which mean we can create our own stuff instead of adding an existing page.

It may not be a giant leap for the way we browse the net, but it deftnly can shorten the time we actually browse the net. Yet another innovation from google labs.

The Potter Count down - starts

2007-07-06T10:17:00.000-07:00

Itz been many months since i browsed thru the various harry potter forums. Not even the link i have in my own blog. But i guess, the potter craze is slowly picking up. With the film getting released this 11th and the final edition of potter book series this 21st, july 2007 completely belongs to potter fans. For my part, i have preordered the book :P.

Will post the spoilers for sure in my blog. So please get urself a copy and finish it.

Intha naal iniya naal :)

2007-06-29T11:26:00.000-07:00

Kanna, saagara naal therinchuduchunaa vaazara naal naragamaidum.

Sivaji -- rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrocks ???

2007-06-25T09:59:00.000-07:00

Not really,

No where compared to Baasha..thats my oneline review of the movie. But then, given tht i am an ardent rajini fan, i wouldn't mind watching this movie again :).

The movie is deftnly not bad. It is good and it has lots of stuff tht make it survive the hype. The music is very good, songs picturatisation - awesome, rajini -- Best etc etc. But it somehow lacks the rajini punch that is part of any rajini movie. No matter how many times i watched baasha, i still clap n whistle for some of the scenes. But when i came out after watching sivaji, i didn't have that I-Have-watched-a-rajini-movie feeling. Maybe i have grown up ;)

First half - hearts of the hearts i know it is bad, yet wud rate it Ok types
second half - good
Last half hour - Simply Superb.. No match for thalai.

We all know this is a shankar-directed-rajni-film. And yes, it lives upto that expectation.

Of Prophecies and Secrets

2007-06-05T10:28:00.000-07:00

For all of you wondering what the title means,just wanted to clarify it is not yet-another-attempt of sharing my spiritual gyan, but rather about the books i had read last week. Simoquin prophecies and Maticore'secret- by Samit Basu. Obviously fantasy, but by an indian author. This made things more interesting and provoked me to get both of these books.

Justifiably both of them turned out to be excellent reads. There isn't anything new here, the same withches, wizards from harry potter, dark lord from LOTR, trance duel from Matrix (movie yes)..yet somehow the theme was original. Samit had made full utilization of almost all the characters (fictious) we had encountered so far, and the best part is the snide remarks to some of them. The book is so hilarious and filled with so many references which at times make you forget what you have read 10 pages before. Atleast thats wat happened to me.. Strongly suggest people to read them.

I know that the above post is a useless junk, but didnot want to take yet-another-break just after saying Am back.. So plz bear with me :).

I'm Back

2007-05-31T10:13:00.000-07:00

Yep, after a really really long time, gt the incentive to log in and make a post.. So how have i been so far.. hmmmm.. nothing much has changed, except that i am getting close to completing a quarter century, for the time i have inhabited this planet, as well as 4 years in terms of withstanding IT.

Will try to blog about my experiences frequently hereupon..To start with, i noticed that i had last posted approximately a year back.. 1 YEAR people, 365 days has gone by and it still feels like yesterday.. this may be a usual dialogue, but it is true and i realize it. May be the earth started rotating fast.

True Lies !

2006-07-10T07:08:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer : This post will definetly not give you an answer as it claims. Yet the author can't write such blogs with the claim that he wont give any solutions ;)

This post has got to do with the latest controversy concerning the inviolable Sabarimala shrine. Firstly this article is definitly not based on religious or chauvinist thoughts, but just an ordinary analysis of what went wrong or is really something wrong (Hah ,i know what you are thinking, i swear i wont be judgemental ;))

And an important thing is,I am not going to ponder if actress jaimala really touched the god's feet ;) , which by the way the temple priests claim next to impossible.

For the Uninitiated

I will try to answer the next more pertinent question, Should women be allowed inside the sabarimala sanctum ? (Ofcourse am talking about women between 15-50 here )

The reason why they were not allowed is simple.

Sabarimala is the abode of Lord Ayyappa.Millions of men throng to this place every year for the darshan(view) of the almighty.As lord ayyapa himself was a celibate, it has been strcitly followed upto this day that only male devotees be allowed into the temple.

This premise though prone to criticism,rests upon the unassailable pillars of human faith. Hence to answer this question we may need to deviate a bit from the actual problem and dwelve into the theory of psychoanalysis. (The name sounds good ;), so thot will use it in my blog ),and i would try to have minimal freudian influence ( Paradoxial ;)). Anyways, firstly, i personally feel that, the entire concept of religion rests on a very subtle paradox, which everyone of us recongnises, but don't accept. Yes, we claim that God is there, where science ends, god is that,which science can't explain. Pretty good, sounds a good judgement which the scientists can't refute. Well, the question then arises is, how many god's are out there. Is it singular or plural. How come jesus be the supreme god, if there are shiva and krishna. If there are shiva and krishna then why did not prophet mohammed recognise them ? which leads to the inference that it is just a matter of choice. Either contemplate the harsh truth or accept the compromising alternate. Quite obvious, we all know what we chose.

The reason why i gave the above argument is this. Inspite of not knowing the complete truth people yet trust god. Of course there are some atheists as well, who question these beleifs, but hey, even they dont have an answer. Still, life goes on. Not all people have the same thoughts and practices, which indirectly reflects on their spiritual thinking as well. But the most positive attribute of this classification is, it keeps us bonded by making us trust in something which is superhuman,herculean, which the mediocre human can never mull upon. It is because of this character, there is some good left in this world. Looking at it from a practical point of view, fear of the lord sets us some boundaries,some limitations which we dont want to violate.

Coming to the actual problem at hand, just as i had summarised in the above argument, people wanted to set some stringent rules and regulations for themselves so that the belief during the ordeal undertaken to commune with the divine remains staunch. It still remains so. One of them being, women should not enter the sabarimala temple. I personally feel, though this constraint is flimsy, nevertheless it is a constraint which should be followed. For every person who is going to say that, no wrong would come if a woman enters the temple, two on the other end would contradict. There can never be a win-win situation in these kinds of controversies unless everyone thinks in the same lines and persumably this can't happen overnight. It might even take an entire genration to bring about a change in the outlook. But uptil that momment, there is nothing wrong in respecting the thoughts of those, who respect the supreme, based on these thoughts.

Also the paradox in claiming,a woman should enter the temple is quite palpable.
If you don't belive in God, there is no reason for you to question the belief.
If you believe in God, then you have to abide by the rules of the society regarding the worship in a public place.

I know the second argument i have stated is quite controversial, the question that promptly arises is "What if i trust god and would worship as my heart says ?? ".

Good, though i personally would appreciate and encourage it, the answer is No, still u can't. The simple reason being a Temple is a social entity not a personal one. So if we want to worship the god by going to the temple we have to follow the standards set by the people. One can contradict this again by asking "who gave the right to those 'people' to set those rules ?". A very pertinent question which can't be answered, as digging from this front would take us back to square one. For every person who refutes, there would another who believes. As long as this practice,though it may be supersitious doesn't affect anyone, we have to put it aside and move forward.

I sincerely feel there is no answer to this problem. Well, thats why i told in the begining itself the concept of religion is flimsy. Just as people accepted whats suitable to them, we have to respect certain unstated, unproved facts for the benefit of the society. Please note .. I never said ACCEPT , i told RESPECT. All we can do is hope and think of measures that one day, society would understand that worship is subjective and there can never be any rule which states how it should be done. From my part, i have written this blog, so that the readers can contemplate the problem and bring out a change in outlook instead of transgressing the beliefs which many people revere and hold sacrosanct.

ERAGON : The Next Harry Potter ??

2006-06-19T09:23:00.000-07:00

This review is strictly for fantasy book lovers :)

People might have known from my bloglinks that i am a hardcore fan of HarryPotter series :) .Yes, i keep a close watch on the happenings at the wizard world. At one point i even thought there is no novel in the fantasy space that could overtake HP. Be it a journey through the surreal world, where imagination defies reality,logic and reason goes for a toss, where the sixth sense becomes just another sense, where smart wizards and hot witches date in fairyland, fly in dragons, fight with daimons, HP (both movies and the books) provides you everything,in plentitude. So it should not be suprising when i say,i was shocked to death to read that "A 15 year old author had overtaken J.K Rowling". Yes Eragon by christopher paolini pushed harrypotter and the half blood prince to the second spot in terms of bestsellers. This piece of information was enough to prompt avid fantasy readers like me to go get the book, which i did.

The Plot:

Eragon is a trilogy series similar to LOTR. Eragon is the first book, followed by Eldest , the third one is yet to be named. Agency news says it can be Empire ;).

Eragon is the name of a boy who is the protagonist as well. One day, in the midst of Spine, a dark forest,he gets a blue stone. Little does he know that this stone is going to change his life forever.The stone actually turns out to be a dragon's egg,out of which comes the female dragon, Saphira. Soon eragon is entangled in the web of myths and mysteries concerned with the legendary Riders and the evil king Galabotrix. The Razacs (beasts in the form of human) come to his village hunting down for him and saphira. This makes Eragon flee along with the dragon. Also circumstances force him to confess the truth to Brom, a story teller. The razacs kill Eragon's father and destroy his house. Eragon, then decides to hunt these razacs and seek revenge. And so they (Eragon,saphira and Brom) begin their great journey. Paolini then brings in a lot of characters and twists which i can't be detailing here as he would put a copyright violation case on me ;).But the spoiler is this, Eragon becomes a rider, brom too was a rider who finally gets killed. Eragon joins forces with the Varden, elves and the dwarfs to fight Galabotrix's army.So end's eragon. I was so much engrossed with the plot, that i decided to get the next book Eldest as well :).

In Eldest, eragon becomes a full grown strong rider. Paolini makes us to smile with his intelligent humour via saphira's sarcasm and euphemisms. Also the romantic plot between Eragon and Arya - the elven princess, begins. Towards the end, eragon comes to know of his parentage as well. Eldest matches eragon in story and writing that it also keeps you engrossed till the end. The worst part is i came to know that Eragon was a trilogy only after completing Eldest :(. The plot was so captivating, that i was shell shocked to find that i have to wait another year for the next part.

Some Cons :

Firstly i am not a very good critic. Yes, as for as fantasy series are concerned i love them regardless of their drawbacks and hence my review would always be skewed. Yet some shortcommings were pretty apparent and palpable in Eragon which i have discussed below.

The character portrayal : This reminds a lot about LOTR. Yes, the elves, dwarfs, magic,there is already a best selling trilogy which i persume everyone would have read or heard. Yet the compromise here is the plot is different though the journey taken by Eragon reminds us of the journey by Freudo baggins. Also to add there is nothing much you can add to the world of magic :).

Second is the characterization of Eragon. One thing which made harry's character in HP popular is inspite of being a wizard, he was vulnerable. Yes, he was not a super strong boy doing wonders, though his acts can be classified as little more than ordinary. Paolini has adopted similar lines to develop the character of Eragon. Inspite of being a rider who have legendary powers, Eragon feels Human.This greatly aids in bonding the character with the reader.

Hmm.. apart from these i can't find anything. As i have said before, my criticism might be biased.

So thats Eragon for you people, Go get a copy today.

In addition i also happened to read Kavya visvanathan's How Opal got kissed got wild and got a life. But then, because of the plagiarism issue, i beleive everyone would have read the reviews or the book as such. I personally feel, the book is worth the hype.

Pudhupettai - Oru Kannottam !

2006-05-31T09:46:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer : I am going to discuss the movie here. So spoilers are present obviously.But then go ahead and read it, u wudn't miss anything great in the movie;)

Along the lines of GodFather, Satya and Company comes Pudhupettai (Haha .. Obviously exaggerating).

The story revolves around an already spoiled youth, getting more spoilt, most spoilt and finally spoiling the audience too.Not sure what does selvaraghavan have against movies that can be watched along with family.

The Movie begins with dhanush locked up in the cell,reminiscing, from a school boy how he turns into a Don. (Yes he is, believe me :) ). The events that flow thru are not hard to guess. Be it smuggling drugs, or tackling the opposite gangs men and killing them, the plot is the same every where.

"Ella criminallkum ore background thaan" -- Ajith has already told :) .
In this case dhanush's father kills his mother and throws her into the sea. Another movie which targets politics and politicians only this time it is vulgarity coupled with the usual violence.

But the differentiating factor is selvaraghavan's direction and dhanush's acting. Some of the scenes are simply spectacular. Dhanush, does the protagonist role with awe. Only thing is, itz difficult to imagine how is father-in-law would react ;). As for the heroines, sneha does her role admirably. It's odd to see her as a pros'te, yet her acting makes up for it. But i am very much concerned with sonia agarwal's character. I mean, even if you ignore her in the movie,it wouldn't make any difference. Just because you are the close to the director (PUN intended), you can't get to act for the heck of it and be called as "SELV"I. A not so necessary character.

There aren't much songs in the movie as most of them are themes. But watever, they are good. Yuvan shankar raja has once again proved his mettle. Especially the song sung by Kamal,is simply superb. Dhanush comes out of the screen and slaps you in the face for being a literate, such is the ramifications of "Padicha Naaye" song.

Overall,
+ve's :

1)Direction
2)Music
3)Acting

-Ve's :

1) Usual storyline.
2) Unnecessary sequences which at times make you frown.
3) Expectation and delivery gap for selvaraghavan movies:).

Dhanush is back with a bang,only this time the bang backfired. Yet worth watching once.

2006-05-23T09:34:00.000-07:00

Got this link from one of my friends blog..

find your element
at mutedfaith.com.

Zathura - Caution Advised

2006-05-13T07:08:00.000-07:00

I saw this movie last weekend. Got time to blog only now. No points for guessing why, I was busy. (Interrogations not encouraged :) )

For people who have seen the 1995 hitmovie "Jumanji"..., well.., there is nothin much for them to see in this one. Yes, zathura and jumaji have many strikingly similar and few subtle differences.

The movie starts of with two brothers playing the game of zathura .. A snake & ladder game in the sci fi world, so u have silthering automated rockets with animals for the coins and a casino style box with a push button for a die. A brother and sister replaced by two brothers. Also an under utilized ,rather unutilized hot girl. She was the only girl in the movie, hence the credit.

The brothers as usual start the game, and in the first go itself they land in a METEOR SHOWER. Yes,How cool is that :) . Their house gets transported to space and aliens start attacking them. Add to it a corrupted robot. The resulting ambush and the escapism cooked with some brother sentiment toppings is Zathura for you, served Cold. Every scene reminds you of jumanji.

The movie is meant for children, so i cant justify my claim that it was crap. Yet, when we still like Jumanji after this many years, i wasn't even able to watch zathura the first time fully. The children starring in the film, Danny and Walter (character names), themselves justify this insipidness with their acting. However all was not lost for me that weekend. I compenstated this by watching 3 other movies :). Crash was among them, will blog on it soon. Just one line tho, Crash is the kind of movie which you need sit alone in front of a PC with your headphones turned on, have a pack of fries in one hand with Coke can in the other and see. Albeit, i did not do that :(. A serious movie that demands your complete attention.

My First Reads

2006-05-02T10:34:00.000-07:00

It was in my fifth standard, if i remember correctly, that i started reading my first novel. Well, it was not a novel but a magazine called 'Gokulam'. It was a monthly magazine i think, with lots of short stories and cartoons. Stories like panchatantra ,akbar-birbal, Vikramaditya etc. Of course by no means i understood the moral of the story and stuffs like that, but it was a real good read then. I did not have any expectations and just got hooked onto the book to complete all the cartoons first and start off with stories next.

Next came Tinkle and Champak. Champak was along the lines of gokulam, while Tinkle was 100% cartooned.Tinkle was the brainchild of Anant Pai,also called Uncle Pai.Nothing short of unadulterated,unlimited fun.I still recall Suppandi, Adventures of pyare lal, Tantri the Mantri, Shikari Shambu and Kalia the Crow. Characters that are embedded forever..

After which when i was in my eighth or ninth i started reading Enid blyton's The Famous Five. I was so crazy about this book that i remember becoming a member of the lending library just for reading the whole series of it. Julian's character was simply superb.At the same time there was even a TV Show on it in DD2 (yeah there was a channel like this :) ).

Right from here, my scope extended to other novels as well. Tom Sawyer, HuckleBerry Finn, hardy boys, nancy drew, Sherlocak holmes, Perry Mason to name a few. I loved Jules verne's Journey to the centre of the earth,20000 leagues under the sea and Time Machine by H.G wells. I might have missed a lot of novels, but this effectively summarises the set that i read when i was a novice :).

My reading senses have changed now. I read about Jack welch's management, Asimov's science and Ayn rand's philosophy. But hearts of the hearts i still know what is my all time favourite and what i would love to read. Give me a copy of Tinkle and you would know too :).

Confusions personified

2006-04-20T07:44:00.000-07:00

Thats my state now .. Time to take some imp decissions' in life :( .. Would not be logging that frequently till then.

PS : After being inspired with the stories in some of my friends blog, am trying my hand at it as well. Will blog again with something ingenious :)

Captain forever

2006-04-11T23:45:00.000-07:00

Try this link out.. Old one but worth watching ;)
Njoy

Musical Musings

2006-04-09T04:39:00.000-07:00

After my last posts' debacle ( Yeah it was, lead to some strange suspicions among my friends' on my mental order :( ).
I have decided to blog this time on a more edible topic, Songs.
The spiritualism part-2 blog will be published soon nevertheless :).

To start with,the incentive to write this blog came when i heard the songs from the latest Tamil movie Vettaiyadu Vilayadu. Seriously, I got so much impressed in my first hearing itself that I gotto blogging on it. Of course the songs are available on music sites.. Do try it out.

Anyways, the songs were so good, that I can say for sure that the Movie would be a definite hit. To site an example, if you could harp back, there was this movie Kaadhalan. Now when the songs were released, it created so much hype that giant cut-outs were kept for both prabhu deva (i guess it ws his first film as Hero) and Vadivelu even before the film release. But when the movie was released, well we all know it was crap. Yet it was running houseful. The heroine Nagma was great and ... err lets' leave it at that. But frankly speaking, she was not worth looking at, for 50 bucks and 2 hrs of my time. Yet the songs and choreography were so good, the audience were asking replay for every song in the movie. Well, urs' truly was of course one among them.

But that was long back. Itz been years since i listened to any of Kadhalan songs. This holds true to many of the movies i have seen in the past. Will analyze on why this happened in a different blog, yet, even now there are a select few songs on my play list that i hear when i work, or when i am depressed or need some impetus. Some in loop as well. This list may vary for many of us, but i do hope many of you people would have loved these songs once. This is just an attempt to rekindle the wish to hear those songs once more. I can’t give the link to these songs in my blog, but heck we all can google and find it. So here it goes, songs i love to hear,anytime..

1) Ninaipathellam Nadanthuvittal from Nenjil Or Aalayam, PB Srinivas

2) MANITHANENBAVAN Theivamagalam from Sumaithaangi, PB Srinivas

3) PADATHA PATTELLAM from VEERA THIRUMAGAN PB Srinivas i think

4) VEGAM VEGAM from Anjali ( I just love this one)
- UshaUthup (typo plz ignore, not sure of the spelling :) )

5) AnubavamPudhumai from Kaadhalikaa Neramillai PBS again

6) Asai Nooruvagai - Adutha Varisu ..One of thalaivars best.

7) Ilaya Nila - Payanangal Mudivathilai . SPB simply rocks

8) Mandram Vantha - Mouna Ragam - SPB again

9) Oh Oh Megam - Mouna Ragam - Chitra i think, but i like Revathi in this song.

10) VEESUM KAATRUKKU - ULLAASAM - UnniKrishnan's best i would say.

Well of course i do hear and like lots of other songs (from english and Hindi as well), but i just picked the best 10 among them. These songs have done a lot of good to me, times when i am up or low, to keep me at optimum. Hope you all like these as well .. Will try compiling a hindi list some other time.

Spiritualism for the plebeians' - I

2006-03-28T06:36:00.000-08:00

I have often wondered, how come when there are so many books written on stress management, personality development etc.. people still do experience stress. Even i used to read a lot of such books, some willingly ,others' out of curiosity, but would at the end feel there is something lacking in it. Ofcourse am not taking stands here. Itz just that i hear frequently,spiritualism is the best medicine at times of stress. So decided to blog something on that.

Am not going to start by defining wats spiritualism.It is a personal feeling, unique to ones' self. Some may say it is the path to reach god,gain salvation or the means to lead a healthy life. Well at any case my observations are purely based on the Karma Yoga defined in Bhagavat Gita.

So how do we correlate Karma Yoga, Acts of Arjuna and our daily life. Firstly Karma Yoga mandates that
"Pay Heed to the means than to the fruit". Many rishis have forfeited their material pleasures and took salvage in the distant mountains far away from humanity. This they did because of the simple logic that admist humanity is close to materialism than to spiritualism. By sacrificing all their material needs they were able to focus on the supreme form of energy or God. Their mind, body,thoughts were cleansed and they transcended ordinary and entered the realms of extrordinary. They sacrificed everything and expected nothing. This is the method of reaching god,told in his own words.

Now saying this, not everyone of us can do such a sacrifice. We cannot do this, becasue we are not meant to do this. For understanding the principles of Karma Yoga, we have to believe and trust the tenet that there is a supreme power or energy that transends our system. Our life has already been preordained, yet in our system we are left with the concept of choice which deludes us into thinking that we are the decission makers of our own lives.

Ofcourse this is a very flimsy thought and can be negated with a number of examples. And yet, the conclusion would be, both are correct. If god doesn't decide our future then he is not all powerful. If he decides then choice is a delusion.

After contemplating a bit on this and discussing it with my friends, i concurred that
Humans have certain limitations. Whatever we can do, we have to do within this limits. Hence we cannot compare gods deeds with man, basically across systems. In our system we have a choice, outside the system it is just an illusion. So let me progress by discussing possibilities only within our system.

If everyone can do everything then there is nothing called as a choice. But that is not the case, we are constrained by the results of choice. This is where Karma Yoga fits in.

... To be continued..

Out of the Box - Hyderabad blues

2006-03-27T11:01:00.000-08:00

I had decided to restrict my blog only to movie and book reviews. But certain things in life do prompt to transgress the conventions.. This blog is abt my experiences at Hyd for the past 2.5 years.

Dec 2003 :

I joined my company at Hitech city. Stayed with my seniors at somajiguda. I Was the only one from my batch wen i joined. Life was boring.

Jan 2004 :

Still was alone . Life sucked royally. Even thought of quitting my job and going back to chennai. But smehow managed to persist. Found a good company in prasanna.

Feb 2004 :

Dinsu joined the org ,which obviously implied i had got a room-mate. Things started looking up.

March 2004 :

Nothing much happened, only that vetri also got thru. Had adopted myself to the team and work. Nostalgia was not an issue anymore.

April 2004 :

Moved to the new apartment at Madhapur. Work was really good and spent majority of the time at office.

May 2004 :

Vijay also got thru. So we were 4 classmates stayin together working for the same org..Should say by this time i had got well settled at my company as well as Hyd.

June 2004 :

Normalcy had returned. Mood was upbeat.

July 2004 :

Contacts at Hyd was increasing. Had quite a good number of friends in my team as well as in my company.

Aug 2004 ----- Dec 2004 :

Cudn't think of much during this period. Prasanna had left and monotony was setting in.

Jan 2005 :

Lots of rumors on org level changes. Nail biting periods if we would survive the waves of change.

Feb 2005 - May 2005

No major effect on Indian wings.Things were quite normal. Vijay left to US.

June 2005 - Dec 2005:

Was moved to a new team. Me, dinesh, arvind and yogesh. Spent some really good time with them. More than work, it was fun. Shivaram joined as our new roomie and Saimani joined my team. The most memorable period during my stay.

Jan 2006 :

Started thinking quite seriously abt wat to do next with my career.

Feb 2005:

Got an oppurtunity to apply to a decent firm and got the offer also.

March 2006:

Decide to leave Hyd and move to b'lore.

It was really hard to make such a decission but nevertheless had to make it.

March 25-26

Friends from chennai had come over. Roamed a lot. After 2+ years stay at Hyd, got a good chance to visit many places. Overall was an excellent trip.

March 27-28:

Composing this blog, trying to recollect but cudn't think much as i am feeling sleepy. I know i have missed quite a bit, but this is the crux of my "Stay At Hyd".

Some stray thoughts...

2006-03-22T06:03:00.000-08:00

After the US and Australia itz now bangladeshs' turn to shake hands with our dear PM

India helped england level the series by losing the match.A meagre 100 all out. Now should we laud or ditch..??
click to find out

With India losing, sachin and shewag passed the scanner screen test by scoring a royal 34 and 0. After all winning or losing there needs to be competition. Ganguly needs peers, chappel needs scapegoats and media needs NEWS.. hope these two would provide ample food for all of these.

I haven't read many humour based books, but of the few i have read, PGW is the best. Started with "Right Ho, Jeeves", i am now a sort of PGW addict.Would write more on this soon.

Haven't read much apart from a PGW as ther r lots to do before i leave HYD. Would be scribbling like this till then..

To end with here is another aphorism of ogden nash..

"Middle age is when you've met so many people that every new person you meet reminds you of someone else."

The Gods' debris - Some insights .

2006-03-16T04:55:00.000-08:00

I read this book y'day nite, written by scott adams . For the uninitiated, scott adams is the author of the popular Dilbert series.

Now for ppl who know abt dilbert, plz dont start thinking this is another comic series about an office worker's struggles in the corporate world.

This one is totally diametric. Yes, it deals with the most complicated literary genre - Philosophy.

Now thats surprising.. i can hear u ppl question, how come a person who writes comic strips with no imposing subject matter, all of a sudden write a book which is full of cognitive contents. Well, he has written and he has written it well.

The 144 page book is gripping. But still the concepts and facts described takes time to sink in. Some of them are debatable while some from my view are just absurd.The foreward in the book itself says as this book deals with contradictory subject, it would be great if ppl could form focus groups and start discussing.

The book starts with a courier person confronting the "Avatar" during one of his schedules and begin to start conversing. The former questions, the latter clarifies. They talk about Bing-bang theory, people, cult, culture, civilization,country, free will, statistics, probablity, science and what not. Quite enlightening. But then, tel u frankly i cudnt get most of the fundas in my first read. The book claims that humans are the Gods' debris. The big bang is when the god blew himself into pieces. These parts would integrate to form a whole God again...However inspite of blowing himself up, God is conscious of wats happening. In short our consciousness is Gods' consciousness.

In my defence i already used the phrase "The book claims" :) . So read the book and have more fun. I would love to quote all the exact sentences but my consciousness forbids, so here is one for the teeming literates..

"If God knows what the future holds,then all our choices are already made, aren’t they ? Free will must be an illusion.”

--Scott Adams , The Gods' debris.

"Yaar yaar sivam, Nee naan sivam"

Anbe Sivam makes perfect sense now ..

THE GOAL

2006-03-15T06:15:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer : Am not going to discuss the book indepth .. Still spoilers r present.

Some of my friends have been telling about this book for quite some time and i happened to read it y'day. Should say it is Damn good.

The first few pages were sluggish. But then, once i got settled with the course, it was a roller coaster ride. Ofcourse, the pre requisite would be to know some of the manufacturing terms which i happen to know coz of my work, else some strong fundas of Operational research which i hope many of us lack :) or we require some patience to read, well, not some maybe More.

The book revolves around the story of a plant manager Alex rogo and how he uses simple common sense to save his collapsing plant.

The message is pretty clear. Why does a manufacturing company or any company exist?
Put another way What is itz GOAL ?
Of course everyone of us working in corporate offices are asked such questions and we immediately come up with the answer "Customer is God. The Goal is to serve the customer with quality products on time". But this in turn encapsulates the primary objective. MONEY. Yes, no company would ever serve a customer free of cost. All the quality and other coverup stuffs are ways, leading to get more money. All of us know this, but donno why not many say it.

This is best explained in the book with some splendid examples and illustrations,

like how do we move towards the goal.. simple - instead of focussing on the means, focus on the goal. Include measures which would help increase the sales which, in turn money and exclude means which takes us away from it.

I would definetly recommend this for ppl who want a dose of adrenalin admist their monotonous chores.

Todays' Aphorism

2006-03-14T06:26:00.000-08:00

Reflection on Ingenuity

Here’s a good rule of thumb
Too clever is dumb

==Ogden Nash==

The Journey Begins here :

2006-03-11T03:43:00.000-08:00

To Pen down my thoughts .. Things i would like to say to myself.