Aalwar- Movie Review

Padam paarthatho Alwaaru
Antha padatthin herovo ultimate staaru..
Avaroda nadippa paarthu vandhadhu rattha kanneeru...
Paatta kettu aanathu kathu kolaaru..
Mothathulaa padam bekaaru(waste)
Beware of Alwaaru..
Review padichu sollatheenga chumma iru!

From an Engineer to Manager

Well this topic is running in mind for quite some time. Might be I was not matured enough to write in this little early or might be in a train of thoughts to make it a sensible post. Whatever might be the reason, I feel finally D day has come now to put down this in the form of blog to people to think over and bring up their perspectives.

GRE, CAT, GMAT starts like an infectious viral fever among the students in the colleges. In the initial few days, intensity of this will be less. As the time goes by and the students come to their third year, mercury soars in the thermometer. To add fuel to the fire, companies starts giving offers through Campus interviews. And hence most likely they get confused in selecting the right path to their career and it happens in some cases that they end up in no man's land. So is this blog all about directing your career in the right direction? Of course not. I am not a career consultant. Then why am I speaking about all these competitive exams.

B.E/GRE (M.S) to CAT/GMAT (M.B.A)

Well there are people who take up these competitive exams even after being into Corporate World. The admissions based on these exams as well become little easy provided you have work experience. Have you ever thought why do the people give importance to the work experience while giving admissions to these post graduation courses? As far as I can think of it’s for the people who have experience in work to share their experiences with the students. That’s how it can make people understand things better. But at the end of day, any way you are going to come back to square one (work) even after completing your post graduation courses. Might be you are placed at slightly higher end with a higher Salary

What makes a big deal in this? My personal opinion would be you get to learn a lot practically in your work rather than attending these courses. At the end of the day, practical exposure is what going to speak about you and not your degree or the subjects that were covered in your curriculum.

So I can sense the next question that comes to your mind. If that’s the case, then what is the need for a B.E/B.Sc/BBA? Though there is no necessity of these courses to be completed before taking up your job, but corporate world has made it a mandate for offering you a job. So got to live with it. So effectively what do they look for in the candidates being given offers? Is that the computer back ground? Is that the degree candidate possesses? No... At the end of the day, its analytical skills that scores the most. To be frank, in my three years of experience in IT industry, I should say I have used very few things from the curriculum covered in my under graduation syllabus and I have been gaining more out of my work experience.

Especially IT is the only field that gives people rapid growth in their career ladder. Within a short span of five years you can see people rise from engineer to Manager. How many managers currently in IT industry have Management background to their career? Of late after entering into this field I realized that very few people in the top management possess management degrees. Most of the organizations indeed give an option for the people to choose either management or the technical stream for their progress in career ladder. How does a person choose a specific stream? Is it with skills that he possesses?

By manager in below paragraphs I mean the module leads, project leads, group leads and project managers who are involved in the management activities in the project.

Sometimes it’s quite disappointing seeing the manager perform very badly. Seeing the performance of the managers, sometimes I feel they are not fit enough to be a manager. I know that we should give some time for them to mature as every new role has learning curve attached to it. But then even after a year when I don’t see a maturity in them this question comes to my mind “Is that because they were promoted to their managerial role from their engineering role without much exposure to Management side?” But they were given a choice to choose their stream. So who is to be blamed here? Is it the organization? Or is it the individual who took his decision to enter into managerial stream?

What makes a manager more effective? Is that the convincing skills? Is that the resource management skills? Is that the time management skills? I believe it’s a right mix of all these that makes a manager more effective. I was just thinking over “Was that the management degree that was lacking in them which made them more ineffective”? At last I realized management skills and not the management degree scores in par in the management stream as Analytical Skills in the Technical Stream.

So if that’s going to be the case, then why are people behind Management degrees and Post Graduation degrees when it’s the management skills and Analytical skills that matters the most?

Seriously I don’t understand. Or is it something like this, Management degree provides people awareness on these management skills?

How many years are we going to put blame on the education system? Are people not matured enough to understand skills required for the job and exhibit it? Recent survey in the IT industry indicated that the overall attrition rate has increased from 14% in the previous year to 15% in the current year. Apart from Salary, I feel Project Management also contributes to Attrition rate.

Let the industry bring in some good managers or at least some good programs to make them good managers and effectively try to bring down the attrition rate.

Lord Varuna Vs Lord Ganesha

Being a saturday, and office being a holiday, I never came out of my bedsheet till 10.00AM though sunlight was trying its level best to wake me up before.
I can understand your eagerness in asking me a question like this " Have you ever woke up early in the morning? " :)

Climate was hot. Temperature must have been almost near to 40 degress. I realised this when i had to take my mom out to bank and purchase items required for Ganesh Pooja.Mercury should have shoot up high when compared to the last few days in Chennai. I was not able to take up my vehicle..You could see only a very limited number of people in the roads. Are they taking up rest at their homes after seeing the climate prevailing out? I guess then its a wise decision.

Situtation was completely different when time was around 4.00 clock in the evening. You could see clouds in and around the skies. Dont ask me was it just 4.00 Clock when skies were covered with clouds? I am not sure as i was under my bed sheet again :) till 4.00 Clock.

As the level of mercury came down, we could see smiles in the faces of people at Nanganallur . They appeared busy with their preparations for Ganesh Chathurthi. Though this time, this event turned out on Sunday people never lost their interest in Celebrating this. As expected, the Tamil Satellite channels has come up with some special programs on the event of Ganesh Chathurthi.

People were busy with their preparations that made them unaware of One day International Cricket between Lord Varuna and Lord Ganesha.

To remind them of the match between Lord Varuna and Lord Ganeshs here is just an update to them

Lord Varuna Vs Lord Ganesha
Venue: Nanganallur,Chennai
Type of Match : Day Night Match

Umpire: Mahadevan Krishnan

Date: 26th August 2006

Lord Varuna has been putting up their best in the past few months. They appear to be in form. This has been evident from their recent Ranji Trophy Performances in Mumbai,Surat, Orissa,Andhra Pradesh and the most recent one at Rajasthan. They have been giving more than what is expected out of them. They have been in headlines of almost all the news channels for almost more than 2 to 3 months.News Channels have been involved in bringing out the achivements(Incessant Rainfall!) of Lord Varuna for this period.

Lord Ganesha is not in form for quite some time. It was way back in 1995 Lord Ganesha was last in form and created a history of Milk Miracle by indicating a sign that a great soul has descended. Almost a decade after, he came to lime light recently again back with the same controversy. But this time he was joined by Goddess Durga even:) I am not sure if it was just the media who created this hype.


So it appears as if match is going to be really a tough one atleast by seeing the reports by Media. Is that not? Who is going to win? Lord Varuna or Lord Ganesha!!!

Well toss was won by Lord Varuna and elected to bat and hence Lord Ganesha was put to field. Everything was ready and crowd were cheering up them(you can imagine of a day before Festival in the markets!!!). Every one was supporting Lord Ganesha as it was his day the next day.

Everyone was sitting to the edge of their seats. Time was around 5.00 PM in the evening. Lord Varuna started their innings with a boundary. First few overs were tight and varuna settled down for One's and Two's. It slowed down a little when it was around 15 overs. It appeared as if Lord Ganesha has taken over. Everyone was expecting Lord Ganesha to win. But then slowly when the overs reached around 40 Lord Varuna reached almost was in a comfortable position though they lost almost 7 wickets. It was the tail enders whose performance in the last ten overs made them set a target of 305(Very heavy Rainfall !) almost 6 runs per an over for Lord Ganesha.

It was time for break. Thought i would finish my dinner in the mean time. For a change, i thought of having it out at hotel. After having a heavy dinner consiting of my favourite Onion Rava Dosa and Masala Dosa i settled down for a seat at the stadium not able to take a step foward.
Well the next innings by Lord Ganesha was supposed to start around 9.30 PM. Everyone was ready to witenss how well Lord Ganesha makes a comeback after giving Lord Varuna almost 6 runs per over. Thats when the most unexpected thing happened.

There was no chance that match can continue seeing the prevailing conditions out there in the ground. Well after discussion, umpire Mahadevan Krishnan had to call off the match..Yes Match was abandoned due to poor lighting conditions.


Yes power went off in Nanganallur around 9.30PM and came back around 10.30PM:)

Rains almost played a spoilsport on the business of the people on the eve of Ganesh Chathurthi. People selling out flowers for more than 20 Rs came down to almost 5Rs after seeing the rains. They all reduced their prices on the assumption that people would not come out for purchase. In one way it was good so that these sellers dont exploit people to pay out more on the eve of Ganesh Chathurthi. But still it was not good on the part of Varuna to bring in rainfall today. But atleast these kind of rainfall should bring up the water table at Nanganallur so that people donot suffer from Water problem. Thanks to the rain water harvesting plan taken by Government !

You cannot locate a single vehicle in roads on my way back from Hotel and roads were getting filled with water from incessant rain for almost more than 2 hours. This reminded me of the afternoon where no one could be seen on the roads as it was hot. So it clearly indicates people can never tolerate both the extremes. They want a balanced life( As obvious they expect a mixture of Joy and Sorrow)

Will you be alive tomorrow?

Well Friends, when i was discussing with one of my friend that my next blog will be on "Will you be alive Tomorrow"? What do you think would have been the next question?It was quite surprising! Is that a movie? Well nowadays people have come into assumptions that most of the time i write, they think its a review on a movie. One of my close friend said "Etho periya Madan thaan Ninappu".

For all your information, enakku appadi ninappu onnum illa...Just keeping this as a habit whenever i get time...This is one way of just improving your english...Nowadays its difficult to see people giving opportunity for developing their english in IT Industry...People feel comfortable speaking in their regional Language.. What do you all say? Any different perspective from your end?

What made me choose this topic? Dont ask me clues. This is not "Kaasu Mela Program " of Jaya TV wherein you get the answer most of the times from the Anchor rather than a clue.

Well, this topic was in draft for more than a month almost..I didnt get time to complete this.
Recent blasts at Mumbai and Terror plots going on in and around the world made me write this topic.

Things going in and around the world doesnt show any positive sign of well being. Do you think any would have expected such a blast to take place all of a sudden? Well people travelling in trains would have had many plans , aims....You would have had dabba waalas carrying dinner, students going out for tuitions, people returning from office to take rest, children travelling to reach their friends house to play. and list is endless. Do you think they would have really thought that this is their final journey in their life .. Taking permanent rest from their regular routines.. I dont understand really What do these people gain out of killing these people?

Do they want to prove people of their insecureness in this country? A human killing another..
Is this all the life? We would have taken it light had it been a natural disaster like Earth quakes, Incessant Rain..etc though it would be difficult to digest..But now every one ought to be careful of man made disasters like Terror Attacks even. How long this is to continue? Do we see any ray of hope for this to cease?

There was a good peace making initiative at Srilanka being taken some two years back.. Well it doesnt even seem to work now..We see blasts almost daily at Srilanka..So does this indicate that nothing can stop all these unless a self initiative taken by Terrorists.

Well the trains at Mumbai termed as the lifeline of the people staying at Mumbai..But later that paved the way to death of so many innocent people.

I guess people travelling in other trains, other compartments of the same train where the blast took place would have got relieved that blast didnot take place in their trains/compartments.. I feel better they keep their fingers crossed..Who knows when will it strike the next... Life is insecure nowadays.

So do we have answer to my question "Will you be alive tomorrow? "

I guess no one has answer to it. If you have answers please post it in the comments section.:)

Back to Square

Hi all,

Its been a long time, almost more than two months since i contributed time towards blog..Does that mean no cinema, no reviews, no trips, nothing significant? No, ofcourse not..Throughout all these days i have been to more cinemas, went to Tanjore to attend to my friend's marriage,but i was not getting time to spend time to write reviews....Does that indicate i am busy these days? No not really!! Sarathy hope you will be happy hearing this. As you always expect me to say i dont have any work and being paid money for almost nothing...and i am working for a government Organisation.. and Gnana i hope you dont have to waste your efforts in informing Sarathy!!:)

I was silent member in blogger reading all other blogs, find out whats interesting going on...
What made me to come back from my normal routine to write blogs now all of a sudden? Is that a cinema or is that a review or is that regarding my trip to Tanjore? Any guesses!
No prizes Assured*.

*conditions apply

Am i going to advertise a product where these days we can see a very limited number of advertisement without "Conditions Apply"...

Indian Son/Daughter at the American Soil

With lot of IT and BPO work being outsourced to India from America, these days number of people going to America from variety of Services and Consulting Company from India is on the rise. But how long is always a question mark...

Right from the school and colleges people tend to develop in themselves an interest in going abroad..that makes them keeping this Onsite Chances a most important criteria while choosing their career option. Even i would say i was one among them, which made me choose TCS when i had offer from Infy. Is that right to have these Onsite Chances as a significant criteria?

Question here comes to my mind who cultivates this interest in the individuals? Do parents play any role in this? Or is this a self interest that comes up by seeing the seniors? I would say it is 50-50..There are people who are not interested in going abroad and consider the nature of work being carried out more important..There are people who are interested in going abroad, but the organisation in which he works has not provided him with such an opportunity...There are people who are at onsite and not really interested in continuing there...

Providing onsite opportunity-Does it have any impact on the attrition in Industry? Yes ofcourse it contributes to a larger extent next to the salary being offered. When i say you have variety of people as mentioned above, why not rotate people and maintain a good balance so that everybody gets a fair chance... thereby significantly bringing down the attrtition rate even..

People outside the IT industry do see nowadays onsite opportunity a way of measuring their performance in Industry. They always put up pressure on people asking them have they not been given onsite thereby creating pressure on Parents as well. These days you can find people like this

Person1: Hey my son is at US. He is being provided stay at a very big hotel and expenses are borne by the company. How about your son?

Person2: My son is at UK..He has been given a car along with very good accomodation. He has been rated high in performance..

(drew inspiration from a conversation at Beasant Nagar Beach)

While having such discussions, dont they ever think their son/daughter is away from them. Ofcourse they do. But then they donot show it in front of others.Slowly we will see a trend whrein almost every parent is left alone here in this country as their son/daughter are at abroad. Is this all for good?

Why do these people give a wrong projections when they have different opinion in their mind?
They all live with Webcams, Google Talks, Yahoo Messengers and phones from Sify iWay..After all that is the only way of communication with their children who are thousands of miles away. Atleast we should appreciate the growth of Internet which has atleast brought these distances smaller by bringing in Chat applictions, webcams....

But is this trend going to come down? I dont see a ray of hope atleast for next few years as IT is on boom and with the introduction of higher caps for H1B Visas, i expect this growth to move exponentially.

What do you all say?

"Chittiram Pesudadi" Speaks for itself

"Chittiram Pesudadi" Speaks for itself

Last week oops! it was quite hectic. Sarathy my friend used to tell me that i am working for Government Organisation where i don't work for more than 8 hours a day. It reminded me of him. But last week it was just 8 hours a week instead of 8 hours a day. I had been to Global Communication Skills Training Programme organised at GRT grand days last Monday and Tuesday. Well, thing that i liked about the program is good buffet food and good environment to rest myself..

Next day, it was the day of Holi, the festival of colours, i was given a holiday by the organisation that i am working in. So me and my friend Navin decided to go to a movie. But when we were just thinking over the list of movies that got released, we were compelled to take up this movie as none of the other movies were appealing.

As soon as we entered Devi Paradise theater for the evening show, it appeared as if the movie was not running successfully on seeing the crowd. It made us think twice to come to a conclusion on whether our decision was correct choosing this movie considering the reviews on tamil news channels and tamil magazines. We were accompanied by Navin's Colleague Vinodh. Having got the tickets very easily, after parking the vehicle we decided to go to Saravana Bhavan inside Shanthi Theater complex. We just decided to have some refreshments in the form of Bhajji and Coffee.

when we came back, it was around 6.45 pm. Curtains were already up. We were seated in our respective seats. Movie started and as the time progressed we felt nice for having made such a good decision.

The Way the story of "Chittiram Pesudadi" was characterised by the director Myskin was really good. I am not sure whether it was his debut movie. But it appeared to me as if he has understood the recent trends and has come up with a good picture.

Right from the actor, actresses and Music director were all making their debut in this movie. But they did not fail to hit a boundary. Even though the facial expressions was lacking in the Hero of the movie, but it suited well to the role that he had taken up in the movie. He can sustain in the cinema industry if he improves his facial expression.

Heroine Bhavana , a new comer has proved her caliber in this movie. Her character is to blame others always even though the mistake was on her side till climax. It was in climax she realises her mistakes and takes blame on her. She was portrayed as a woman who has interests in social activities.

How could i miss to tell there were two heroes in the movie? Any guesses by people who have seen this movie?. Its none other than Ghaana Loganathan. His song with malavika attracts the audience well and makes them ask for "Once More". Probably he could also survive in the industry for quite some time like "Paravai Muniamma" after her movie dhool.

Almost all the characters have lived up to their expectations. If you expect a separate comedy track as in Vadivel or Vivek's movies, then you will be disappointed. But i can assure you that the timing of dialogues deserves a special mention which brings in good sense of humour to this movie. Especially people who come as friends to Hero takes in responsiblity of keeping us laugh.

Myskin scores 100% by coming up with a unusual twist in the climax which clearly brings out the reason for which Heroine's father committed suicide. If such a twist wasn't there, his character's characterisation would have had a negative impact on the movie .Because he was shown as very affectionate father who can do anything for her daughter to keep her happy.

Well it was quite a usual ending as seen in most of the other tamil movies. Then how was myskin able to score much? It was his way of presentation, that made his movie different from others. Bringing a sweet end by bringing in Ghaana Loganathan into the last shot was different and no one would have expected that. Whistle sounds filled in the ears of almost every one in theater when Ghaana loganaathan appears in last shot.

It was 9.45 when we came out from theater. After having our night supper at Saravana Bhavan we started our drive towards home with sense of feeling that we didnt waste money on seeing such a movie. On thursday i had taken off to office as otherwise my leaves would get exhausted. So i wanted to pace my vaccation at regular intervals before i reach Januray 2007.It was just 8 hours a week of work for me during last week.

Well as the name of the movie suggests, the movie "Chittiram Pesudadi" speaks out. I was wondering for quite some time how was this movie running successfully without any star value addition. But after seeing it i am able to appreciate the people who are now able to assimilate good stories without much Star Value. Lets hope this taste of people continue so that lots of directors base their stories in such a line.

Rang De Basanti - A generation awakens

Rang De Basanti - A generation awakens

Has this movie made a difference in you? If not , Is it because of the fact that you have not seen this movie ? If so i would suggest you all to see this one. Its a good bet. Its specifically address our generation. Well why do i say this? Of course it is because i have seen this movie this Saturday with one of my friends at Six Degrees at Satyam Complex.

There were couple of controversies as the movie revolves around the Ministry of Defence and IAF. But at last producers were able to come out with the release of this movie on the scheduled date. I don't see a reason whenever a movies comes from Aamir khan, most of the time controversies start. Is it because of the reason that he takes up an issue in the society and sometimes patriotism as well?

Well if you go with your mind set according to the redefinition laid down by Dil Chahtha Hai for the youth, then will not be able to enjoy this movie. Then whats all Rang De Basanti about to? It has taken its level by one step ahead. This comes out with the message at the end unlike Dil Chahtha Hai.

A London based film maker having read the memoirs of her grand father who had served in the British Troops before Independance to India plans to take it up as a movie. Having inspired by the thoughts penned down by her grand father regarding those fierce freedom fighters, she starts collecting details regarding the same. When she comes to know of the fact that her film had been turned down as the result of budget cuts, she decides to make the movie out of her own efforts at India. Story starts moving around how she identifies the right actors for her movie.Movie starts becoming serious when they loose one of their friend at MIG Crash and that brings in the real crux of the movie.( I don't want to expose the story off here as this might bring down the interest while seeing this movie)

Director has proved himself by bringing in a clear analogy between the Indians ruled by the British and Indians ruled by corrupt politicians today though the plot adopted by director to kill the minister was really cinematic.

A.R.Rahman Scores well. Songs have come out well. All the actors in this movie have put in their efforts to make it 100%.. Its difficult to point out a single non performer.

I have seen two types of directors,

1) One who takes up concept of youth and makes money out of it
2) Other who makes it a masaala movie and make it a super duper hit

But this director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra is a third variety who takes both the youth and patriotism and brings out the message out of it.

Does this remind you of a dialogue that comes in the movie ? :)

Well done to the entire team of Rang De Basanti..

Beware: Quite a few Hindi rather Punjabi slangs have been used in the movie. Provided you can understand Hindi to a certain extent, you can make out.. But got to live with it. Otherwise it would have been difficult to bring out the character of Sikh Daljeet Singh from Punjab(Aamir Khan).

Kollywood Industry never comes with stories on great leaders from North. Mostly they stick to south and Bollywood stick to North. If this continues i don't understand how will the stories of all great leaders from entire India reach the new generation. I feel cinema is apt way of making things reach them very soon.Atleast people should start thinking of bringing out the stories of almost all the leaders by taking a approach similar to the director of this movie wherein he brings out the real message out of the story by striking the resemblance with the Freedom Struggle and mixing youth formula in it.

Well if every one start asking what am i going to get out of serving the Nation , probably we may land up in a situation where in we will have to defend ourselves from our enemies. Hats off to people serving at Border!!! We are into a deep sleep as a result of their sleepless nights which we should not forget. Well atleast let the people realise this and let them not involve themselves in buying cheap MIG's and their poor maintenance.