Shadowz

Aalwar- Movie Review

2007-01-14T09:52:00.000-08:00

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

2006-09-29T11:39:00.000-07:00

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

2006-08-26T12:31:00.000-07:00

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?

2006-08-19T11:45:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-17T22:49:00.000-07:00

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

2006-03-17T20:31:00.000-08:00

"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

2006-02-19T10:43:00.000-08:00

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.

Tirupathi Ezhumalai Venkatesha

2006-02-12T00:15:00.000-08:00

"Tirupathi Ezhumalai Venkatesha, enga aasaikellam pacha kodi kaattulesa..
Malai yeri vaarom ohohoho..."

February 1st 2006
It was first week of February. Most of the people in our project were busy with their works. This time we had an important process change to go as a part of requirement going into production for April Release. As it involved process change, some people were busy with their last minute impact analysis, some people were doing the unit testing for their code, some were fixing their code and some were busy with CM Synergy. For people who donot know what CM Synergy is, it is similar to CVS,PVCS,VSS, a version controlling software repository. I feel this is the most tiresome job that people hate to do in almost every organization. But people do understand that even though its tiresome to do, its worth doing it. I was checking in my fixes to CM Synergy when i got a call from my colleagues asking for if i am interested in a trip to Tirupathi the following week end. That sounded interesting to me and hence immediately agreed. I guess it was Wednesday. So almost 7 of my other colleagues agreed to it. So we decided to book a Toyota Qualis to Tirupathi. It was Ananth, who arranged for a Toyota qualis. Ananth and Vikram were instrumental in making this trip.

February 3rd 2006
Everything was set ready. We were informed by our friends that going on saturday and sunday is not advisable as its very difficult to get dharshan. But when we thought of booking tickets online or going to Tirumala Devasthanam at T.Nagar, it was very late. So we decided to take risk. It was communicated to every one who were part of this trip to come up with their baggages ready to office on Friday as we had asked driver to come to our office around 7.00 in the evening so that we can reach tirupathi around 11.30 provided we are not held up in the traffic. Except for the few, every one came up with their bags ready. As i was saying the work was slightly hectic that week, we could not make up to the time. But we started around 7.30 in the evening. Halted near guindy station to pick up few who agreed to take up the qualis there around 8.00. So when we were speaking to driver, we came to know that its difficult to get darshan. He said if we are ready to give extra amount towards the ticket, he would arrange for a darshan in the morning. We were not able to come up with any decision. We asked driver regarding the cottages at Tirumala. He informed us provided we reach the tirupathi before 12 in the night, only then cars will be permitted to go up. So we planned to take up a hotel at Tirupathi. We called up a hotel and enquired regarding rooms.

We were making fun out of others and we were constantly giving exercise to mouth(non stop talk) and it almost never stopped except for the last one hour of journey where people were almost dozing owing to the tiredness. We all had our dinner around 11.00 at Tiruttani on our way to tirupathi. It was 12.30 in the night when we reached tirupathi. We all bought Sudarshan Tickets by registering our finger prints at the counters which is the oldest of bimometrics techniques. Ticket was 3' 0 clock darshan in the evening. So we all headed towards hotel to take our night sleep there. It was around 1.30 in the night when every one went to their beds.

February 4th 2006
Everyone started getting up right from 7 in the morning and after every one having their morning showers checked out from the hotels and moved to a hotel to have our morning break fast. Every one had their break fast as per their choice. Poori, Masal Dosa, Curd Vada,Pongal Vada, Idli were worth mentioning. After having tea/coffee we started to move towards tirumala. Driver dropped us at the place from where people start walking...Wondering why did we got down there instead of going to Tirumala directly with cab? We decided to walk.. This was my debut. First when vikram initially told me that we are going to walk i turned out the offer, but later felt why not i make a try.So decided at last to walk.

So we all started to walk around 9.20 in the morning. First few kilometers, we could travel easily. Took some snaps on our way to Tirumala.

To see the snaps visit
http://krishmah.photosite.com

So slowly steps started becoming steep. I felt as if there was a daunting task ahead of me. Initially i felt i lack moral and physical strength to climb up the stairs to Tirumala. Here Vikram,Poomari and Mahesh deserves a special mention. They were the one to encourage me constantly and provide me confidence to climb up the stairs. It was their words that provided me Moral strength and Physical strength was given by the water,glucose and soda that i consumed. It was almost we covered 1250 steps, when i was informed that there are only 2050 steps. I was bit relaxed on hearing that. But only after reaching 2050 steps, i realized it was the first stage. Then we had to walk around 2-3 kms in road , then we joined back the steps again. The appearance of steps just brought down my moral confidence again back to zero and it took some time for Vikram and Poomari to bring back the Moral confidence to Normal Level. I kept on asking my colleagues , by chance is there any possibility to go back to road and take up a bus/cab to Tirumala. But still i cannot remember my eyes. I crossed 3600 Steps. It was 1.50 in the afternoon when we reached Tirumala. So it took around 4.30 hours to cover a journey of around 12 Kms. Had i not been there my colleagues would have completed that in 3 hours time.

It was almost time for darshan. It was decided to skip lunch even though one or two felt bad about it. People who were coming for the first time to Tirupathi were really surprised to see the queues. Almost around 4 in the evening we reached inside the vaikuntam complex. We had to wait for more than three hours inside the Vaikuntam complex. When we were inside the vaikuntam complex, we came to know that it was "Ratha Sapthami". So that was the reason for the delay.But that was not much paining as we had chairs to relax ourselves. It was finally 9.30 in the night when we came out of Garba Griha. Even though we get just less than 2 minutes to have a darshan of Lord Balaji, still its something special. So almost we waited for 7 1/2 hours to get a darshan of Balaji. We were lucky enough to see "Balaji" coming in Chariot.

When we came out, we collected the ladoos and every one was hungry and we all decided to eat our lunch cum dinner. Some were hesitating to have the dinner at Tirumala as we had to travel down by taking Hair pin bends. But later everyone was convinced to have food. We all had our full meals and then boarded the cab back. We could see the police at check post making his collections from the vehicles travelling through the check post.I guess his collection would come to more than 1000 in a day.When we were enquiring driver regarding this, we were being informed that this is quite usual at almost all the check post after 12 in the night.

February 5th 2006
I remember it was around 2.15 in the early morning when i was woken up by my colleague asking for the route to Nanganallur from Le Royal Meridien at Guindy. It was almost 2.30 when i reached home and bid adieu to my friends and went to bed by almost 3.00.I woke around 12 on sunday. Though i was completely tired after the trip to Tirupathi, it was a good experience.

Right throughout the trip, we all enjoyed. We had a good "Sight Seeing even" on our way to Tirumala.

Upcoming Trends in Society: A lucrative business without much Capital Investments

2006-01-31T18:47:00.000-08:00

Upcoming Trends in Society: A lucrative business without much Capital Investments

Well friends I am back after almost a month. Well I am happy that at least I am not Ganguly who was made to rest.

By looking at the topic, I guess probably you would have started thinking what happened to Mahadevan all of a sudden. Has he started a business? Has he started a magazine like “Nana yam Vikatan” where people shell out their rich experiences in their respective fields of operation? If all these are running in your minds, probably then you are wrong.

Ennada society business athu ithunu over talk podaraane nu paakkareengala? Perisa onnum sollida porathillai. (People who don’t understand please excuse me).

Arun and Santhosh are good Friends. They are having conversation which I happen to hear Rather overhear ……………..

Arun: Suttum Vizhi chudare suttum vizhi chudare... and then starts smiling...
Santhosh: Hey come on Arun what’s all this? So even you have fallen in love with someone?
Arun: Don’t be silly Santhosh. I am not Sanjay Ramasamy.
Santhosh: Then what’s special today? You seem happy today.

Arun: I am going to fly to US soon da.
Santhosh: That sounds interesting machaan. So at last your Project Manager came to a compromise of sending you to the onsite assignment.
Arun: Not yet da. I am yet to speak to him regarding my interests in Onsite assignments.
Santhosh: So you have plans of making a shift to a new Organization?
Arun: Santhosh would you stop it? Before you coming with all your speculations let me tell you what’s it all about?
Santhosh: That should be fine with me.

Arun: Recently my parents went to astrologer to show my horoscope and he has assured of an onsite assignment soon.
Santhosh: Good to hear that. Is he going to start a new organization at US? Is it Software
Consulting Company? Or a franchise for his business there?
Arun: Hey come on Santhosh. Don’t be that childish.

Santhosh: Then what do you want me to do? What do you mean by assurance?
Arun: As per the astrologers, planets are in my favor and they are moving in the right direction and pace.
Santhosh: So will they reach US on time? Will they take you there once they reach their destinations?
Arun: Stop speaking rubbish. Always there is a limit. So please be patient. Let me complete.
Santhosh: Sorry.

Arun: Never Mind. As per the predictions of my astrologer, positions of planets are good as per my horoscope. So he predicts there is bright chance for my abroad visit soon within 3 months.
Santhosh: It’s ridiculous. Who is he to decide on your chances of your movement or onsite assignments? Then where do the Project Managers of your Organization or US Consulate Visa Officer’s Stand? Is he running the organization? Don’t go stupid by hearing to all those absurd predictions. It’s all fate that determines your chances.

Arun: May be you don’t have belief on it. That’s the reason why you speak like this. May be you can stay from it.
Santhosh: By the way Arun, Astrology is a science of Prediction. It may happen or may not happen. But nowadays people have started making use of this as a business to make money without much capital investments. So better get away from that.

Arun: Santhosh! One more thing. How did I forget to tell you this? Guru Palan has come!
Santhosh: Who’s that man? Where from has he come? Is he your relative from India, US, UK or Singapore? In what way is he related to you?

Arun: You don’t have faith in astrology.
Santhosh: Of course not. Then he must be an astrologer.
Arun: Please for God sake don’t come up with your wild guesses.
Santhosh: What do you want me to do then?
Arun: Let me tell you what it is.
Santhosh: I appreciate. That would be fine with me.
Arun: Strong belief as per astrological science is that Marriages turns out positive only if a in boy/girl's horoscope Guru is in right Dasa i mean position
Santhosh: Hey its funny man. So you mean to say whoever is not married yet is waiting for guru palan...Feel sorry for people like you...That’s what I could do utmost.

Arun: Santhosh... You know one thing. Her name starts with K, L, M, N...
Santhosh: (Interrupting Arun in the middle) U mean the astrologer? 22 alphabets left more to go.
Arun: It’s my fiancée name...
Santhosh: Hey man kewl...You must be lucky enough to have four fiancées then!!
Arun: Stop the nonsense. My fiancée name will start with either K or L or M or N. And he told me one more thing that she will have brothers and not sisters.
Santhosh: Oh! What else? Didn't he tell her father's name or place where she belongs to? Is she the daughter of astrologer?

Arun: Let me stop here...I have wasted my time explaining you all these....

Hey Arun this is Mahadevan here. At least by having a conversation with Santhosh, you have clearly provided me chance to bring out the recent trends in the society. People go crazy with Josiyam (Astrology). I still agree there were people who were really good at these predictions based on the position of planets earlier in the society. But these days’ people have started exploiting people making this a business. As long as people like Arun are there in the society, we are definitely going to contribute to the growth of this trend in the society.

Got to live with it. Even though I speak this much, even my parents have belief in Astrology. I keep insisting them to come out by bringing in the points in favor of me. But still they don’t. I don’t force any body.

Based on the predictions given by the astrologers, Parents start looking for spouse working in US, UK, Singapore for their daughter/son. In fact probably if every one starts thinking like this, i will not get one!!!! But still I cannot blame parents. They want their daughter/son to be placed well in society after their marriage. But as long as they don’t go merely for the sake of predictions given by their astrologers it should be fine. As well provided they give more importance to “Mana Porutham” rather than “Jaathaga Porutham” its better for their boy/girl’s life. I don’t mean to say Love Marriage here. Hope you people understand what I am trying to say.

Arun and Santhosh are just some imaginary characters being used by me to bring out the points that I want to share with you all in this context.

Disclaimer

The content posted here is not to hurt any one. Excuse me if I am wrong in any of these aspects. These are purely my views.

But I would appreciate if you people come up with your suggestions/views if you have a different perspective that will help me understand the society well.

Dream Team AccOrd

2005-12-18T08:49:00.000-08:00

Dream Team AccOrd

Does it sound like Samsung Team India? Definitely not. It’s better than even Team India Its none other than my team in Verizon. AccOrd is the project in which I am currently working in Verizon. I guess project has been rightly named as AccOrd. AccOrd as per our Oxford English dictionary signifies Harmony and Agreement. This was proved well in our recent team build exercise at Sterling Resorts at Mahabalipuram almost 40 to 50 kms from Chennai. It was planned for a Team Build on 16th of December on a Friday from morning 9.00 AM to Evening 6.00 PM.

15th December

First it was decided that the transport facility as well break fast will be provided to all the team members at Sterling Towers, a place where my office is situated. But people were insisting on having pick ups even from Tiruvanmiyur Signal and Viceroy building situated near Raj Bhavan. At last when the training department coordinator was contacted, she agreed on having pick ups from Viceroy and Sterling Towers after getting in touch with the Caterers so that break fast could be arranged for all of us at both these centre’s cafeteria. This was communicated to the entire team and people who were interested in having pick up at Tiruvanmiyur readily agreed to move to viceroy. Every one started moving early back to their homes as they have to reach office by 7.30 to take up the bus so that they can reach resort in time.

16th December

Around 7.30 AM in the morning we came to know that our project manager is not coming for this exercise as she was not well in the morning. Around 15 to 20 were supposed to take up the bus and break fast in Sterling towers and rest at Viceroy building. We all coordinated well among ourselves and made sure that we have reached place in right time. Bus was supposed to start from Sterling towers around 8.00 AM in the morning. But it was behind schedule by 15 to 20 minutes as 1 or 2 were late. Bus reached around 8.45 to 9.15 to Viceroy. By then people were ready to get into the bus after taking idly, vada which was arranged for the breakfast. Bus started heading towards mahabalipuram by taking the East Coast Road via IT corridor road. As the bus was plying in the East Coast road people started enjoying making fun out of each other, listening to songs and some even singing. We could enjoy the waters at both sides of the road as a result of recent rains in Tamilnadu during the North East Monsoon. Buses at last entered into the sterling resorts. Every one was welcomed by a garland and every one was provided with a Fresh Juice as a Welcome drink. As we all got down from the bus we were instructed by a person to assemble at a convention center in another 10 minutes after having the welcome drink. Every one was asked to remove the shoes and chappals and enter the convention center. He introduced himself as Rahul Kapoor who is running Kapoor’s Workshop on Effective Communication since 1998 in Bangalore as we all entered into the convention center. The way he presented himself appeared to be the perfect man for the day. He intimated all of us that we are running behind the schedule by more than an hour and we are supposed to gear up to finish entire exercise around 4.30 to 5.00 PM. We are all were made to sit on Dhiwaan to differentiate this day from a regular one by not making us sit on chair.

Prayers and Ice Breakers

Day with Rahul started with Prayers and Ice Breakers. This prayer was quite an unusual one. We were all instructed to offer prayers to father and mother. We were taught with how to breathe. Every one was divided into a team of four under the name of Crow, Dog, Donkey and snakes by means of lot. Everyone was asked to gather into teams by screaming as a crow, dog, donkey or snakes. Rahul instructed us to introduce team members to others along with 5 characteristics that we have in common which aimed at bringing in the fact that we should look for common things among us and not for the differences. Some common aspects that I observed in common among all team members across the team were working late, getting paid highly, and watching cricket. I felt that reason behind naming the teams under Crow, dog and Snakes were the qualities of working in team, faithfulness and bold respectively. But still I cannot make out the reason for naming as Donkey. All this came to end within 10 minutes to start with next game that can fetch us 35000. Name of the game was “Win as much as you can”.

Win as much as you can

This game was not new to me. I have played this game in my earlier organization in team build exercises. We were not allowed to play if we had played this game already when I was in my earlier organization. So approached Rahul whether I can play this game here as I know this already. But he asked me to play.
People didn’t understand at the first sight that it was a game of Win-Win. Every team was asked to chose either X or Y. Based on the total no of X and Y winners and losers were decided and appropriate teams were given either positive or negative points. We even had double and triple money rounds that tempted the teams similar to popular TV Programmes like Family Fortunes, Jackpot. All the teams approached them with Win-Lose. But its general tendency when it comes to a game. But with this game Rahul brought in following lessons
1) Always aim at healthy competition(Win-Win)
2) Not to fall into temptations.

With this positive note we were taken to next exercise which was an exercise to our mouth and stomach. I mean we were provided with Tea and biscuits to refresh ourselves. After 15 minutes break we all assembled back in the convention center for the next exciting game of “Balloon Trouble”.

Balloon Trouble

This was an exciting game. Each and every team was provided with balloons to blow. We were given with the problem statements and we were asked to come up with strategies to come up with solution to the problem. Task was to stand in the line by holding the blown up balloons between us. We are supposed not to drop or burst the balloons when moving from your start to end line. Though task appeared simpler it was really difficult to achieve it. Every team decided that it should be the communication and patience is vital in winning this. So everybody started moving towards the end line with effective communication followed by leads. Everyone was important in this game. Even if one failed, it leads to failure of team. Lessons brought out from this game were
1) Good Coordination among the team members
2) Respect each and every team member as everyone is important
3) Effective communication.

Glass Balancing

Every team was provided with the silk hand kerchief along with glass and pebbles. Task was to hold the glass with pebbles in the hand kerchief. Lift it from down in the start line and carry it towards the end line and place it again in the ground without dropping the glasses. If it drops any where in the middle we are supposed to restart the game. This was quite interesting. To be frank lifting it and again placing it down was quite challenging. Lack of coordination will make us drop the glasses and drop there by restarting the game. Lessons learnt from this lesson were

1) Good Coordination
2) Should be able to balance the work accordingly

Time was almost 1.00 in the afternoon. We all decided to go to lunch by 1.30. So we decided to play “Game of Seven”. Most of you should have played this game. We are supposed to stand in a circular fashion and start counting numbers. Whenever a number is a multiple of seven or has seven in the number we are not supposed to say the number. Instead we need to bring our hands together and clap our hands. If you fail to do this you will be out of the game. Time was 1.25 when we finished off with this game and we all headed towards most important session that everyone was waiting for. It was none other than buffet lunch. Started off with Veg Clear soup and ended off with Sweet and Ice Cream. Everybody assembled outside the convention center around 2.15. Rahul had planned well to have the out door exercises after lunch so that you don’t get a chance for a nap.

Skeleton Beam

This game expects the team members to have trust in their team as well to motivate others in team. These were the lessons learnt from this game where we are supposed to walk on the rope which is tied to the trees at 3 to 4 feet high blind folded with the instructions, motivations and help rendered by the team members. I didn’t walk on the rope; otherwise it would have been difficult for others to walk without a rope. This game brings out the fact that nothing is impossible provided you have the courage to take up the first step. In the mean time when a team was walking on rope others teams were given a test of creativity by asking them to design a greeting card with natural items available in the 800 sq.ft area. People came out with wonderful greetings with leaves, flowers and fruit wastes.

Web

Last game of our team build exercise was Web. Probably if you have seen the movie “Whistle” you should be aware about this game. Web was put up in the outdoor. Task was that the entire team should move from one end to other without touching the web being laid out manually and one should not use the web being used by other team. It was quite challenging. You have to come up with really good strategy to win in this game as you have people of different sizes in team. So right from the selection of appropriate web for appropriate persons and the order in which people will move from one end to other plays a crucial role.
At the end of the game to bring in the lessons, Rahul gave analogies with Mahabharata how Krishna handled Arjuna, Bhima, Karna, Bhishma, Duryodana by adopting strategies that will suit them. Men and Women are all alike. It’s the team that matters the most was the most important lesson out of this. As well we learnt that we should deal with different people in different ways.

With this, game came to an end. It was time for bidding adieu to Rahul. We all shared among us what all we learnt throughout the day and extended our thanks to rahul for giving us such a wonderful experience. We all had high tea in the evening and we had one hour left in our schedule. So every one moved towards the beach view and spent some time there. All returned back to bus by 6.00 and bus started moving towards Chennai out of Mahabalipuram. Most of them were tired. But still people didn’t leave out. Except few like me every one engaged themselves with the game of Antakshari till they reached their destinations.

Photos taken at the resorts playing various games throughout the day should speak more than what I have spoken here. This is our second get together after the trip to Munnar during August.

It came out successful only because of the fact what we all put in our efforts to make it more interesting. So kudos to entire team and especially to Rahul to bring up the binding among the team members. There were few in our team who missed out this team build exercise due to unprecedental reasons. They all should definitely make up to the next team build exercise.

If you want to know about Rahul Kapoor Please visit www.kwec.net

He writes articles in Education Times in Times of India.You can find the articles written by him on his website even.

Cyclone Baaz(December 2nd 2005)

2005-12-11T18:39:00.000-08:00

Its Me back to square again... I am yet to watch movies that have come recently into theaters.I have not got aright partner to go for a movie after my friend Navin left to Delhi for his tranisition from Sapient Technologies.I heard couple of movies that have come recently are good.Kanda Naal muthal and Thavamai Thavamirundhu are doing good at Box office.But this time definitely i am not here for a movie review.This time with more interesting topic "Recent rains in Chennai"..Is that an interesting topic to speak on? No i dont think..Because it has made people suffer a lot..Last month it was the turn of North Chennai and now it is South Chennai's turn. Worst affected regions in a week before rain are kotturpuram,Velachery,Madipakkam,Adyar.
Still i remember it was friday night.All was set ready for the cyclone Baaz to hit Chennai. There were severe warnings from the Metrological department for the two days starting from Wednesday.Right from the afternoon of friday it started drizzling.I guess it was some where around evening when the intensity of the rainfall started increasing.Having been seated inside the Sterling Towers where my office is situated i could not realise how big it was.Around 8.00 in the night, i got a call from my father saying its already raining heavily.He asked me to move to any of my relatives place within city or asked me if its possible to stay back in office and thats how came to know of the intensity of the rainfall.So having come to know its raining heavily, i decided to take up a Cab from office to reach home.So i booked my cab and as cabs service will start only from 9.00 i had to stay back in office.
As there was a production release due on the following Saturday, sudenly some issues pertaining to requirements started coming in from Onsite and they asked to pull back some of the code.As i was the part of that requirement,i was asked to wait. So me and my project manager had call with US team and finally decided that onsite team will do the changes suggested by us on our behalf as there was a heavy cyclone prediction in Chennai.So i had to leave around 10.00 from office.By the time i reached all cabs were already left for their first trip.So i had to wait patiently for another 1 hour for the cabs to return back to my office after dropping the people at their respective destinations.As the city was affected very much it was difficult for the cabs driver to return back in time due to lower visiblity levels.
Every 15 to 20 minutes i kept on getting calls from my father asking me update on my status of reaching home. It was as if a team lead asking for the daily status of the work..But this was quite unusual which happened at every 20 minutes interval..But i should admit that they made calls out of their anxiety.I informed my father that under any circumstances, i will come back home as i need to have dinner and almost all the shops near by our office as well in the city were closed.
To people who dont know my recent food habits,i have started skipping my lunch nowadays.But i cannot say that to be in diet.Because,the following equation will prove that,Hey come on dont worry its not a mathematic or chemical equation...Just a normal logic..lunch = 0=>lunch=Dinner-Dinner=0=>Dinner=Dinner+lunch So for dinner i take food equivalent to Dinner and Lunch.
Now coming back to the topic, so atlast around 11.20 i was given a cab.I was accompanied by three people..But its usual in IT companies to arrange Chennai Darshan if they go by cabs from office.So i was taken to velachery,Pallikaranai enroute my home.Only when i reached velachery i started realising the words told by my father after seeing the flooded streets.My car was almost half filled with water.Had i opened the doors of the car, water would have entered into car.Luckily i was accompanied by one of my colleagues from my project.His name is Vikas.He requires a special mention here which you will come to know of in due course.We both were discussing better we could have stayed back in office.But it was too late for us to take such a decision because driver had almost crossed velachery.He denied taking back the car as the streets are worst affected.
Guy from velachery got down and car started heading towards pallikaranai.Pallikaranai was far better when compared to Velachery.Now it was my chance to get down at Nanganallur.Driver told me that its difficult to get into Nanganallur as already keezhkattalai and madippakam are floating with water.He promised to drop me at Keezhkattalai Bus stand if i am more keen on going to Nanganallur.Immediately i turned down his offer and decided to go along with Vikas to his home as he is at Tambaram...But we were not sure whether we will reach tambaram safely.When i called up home just to inform my father that i would not return back home night, i came to know that water has entered into my house for almsot 1 feet.Luckily we had retained both the first and ground floor.So we did not suffer much.
Entire city was out of power and started going out of control.Driver even though with poor visibility managed to go in Tambaram-Velachery Main road. There was no sign of rain stopping.It kept on aggravating. As this was an impromptu visit, we decided to take up our dinner somewhere out as we thought we should not disturb his mother at this point of time..Because clock has struck 12 long back.So we asked the driver to take the cab to some hotel nearby.But unfortunately we could not locate one.Vikas house was at Camp road in Tambaram.Before we could reach there, seeing the water logging at Tambaram Velachery road driver said its difficult for the vehicle to move further.Moreover his home was not nearer to go by walk.As well we thought we would not venture out as its already dark in the night without street lights.So vikas called back his home to inform them that we are not coming.Driver said we will stay in the vehicle the entire night.Suddenly to our suprise we saw a van coming towards us.They informed the driver that we can go ahead as the place is risk free..Driver started back his cab and dropped us in camp road.It was hardly 5 minutes walk from that place to his home.
I was welcomed by his mom,brother and sister cordially.I was given dresses to change and vikas ensured that i am comfortable.Unfortunately i was not in a postition to wear his trousers or shirts as he was lean.His mother went into kitchen and started preparing dinner for us by lighting the candle.It was a candlelight dinner.Really i enjoyed the dinner.It was a typical North Indian Roti with Sabji and salad. I think i am having north indian roti after a period of 7 months after i left mumabi.So enjoyed it a lot.I will not forget this dinner ever in my life. I was very much hungry as i didnt have anything in the afternoon.So i had around 6 rounds of Ghee roti..After troubling his mother by making her wake up around 2.00 to prepare food, it was time to have a nap. I thought rain would stop in the morning.As expected, it stopped.Vikas dropped me at Tambaram Station after having a cup of good tea.They compelled me to have break fast, but as it was saturday i dont have break fast, so refused and started heading towards home.
I reached home by taking auto from Station.As the auto travelled through the streets of Nanganallur i realised the damage caused by the low depression that resulted from Cyclone Baaz. My father,sister were already engaged in draining out the water manually. Washing machines and other house articles were comfortable as they were lying in the bed.I started helping out them with draining the water.It took almost three hours for us to drain the waters.As i had to stand in waters for more than three hours, i had to suffer from fever and cold from Monday for three days.But now i am ok.Thats the reason for updating you all with the latest rains in Chennai very lately.
Even we all expected a sharp showers this week end.But luckily it moved towards Vedaranyam and chennai was not affected much with this. Had chennai been affected with this definitely damage would have been more.But Chennai Corporation was ready to face it by making as many relief camps as possible. I remember writing in my earlier mails regarding predictions by Metrological department on "Metrology-Is it a science of Measurement or Just a Science of Prediction?".If you wanna have a look on that visit my previous blogs
I guess now even Indian Metrological department is doing a good job in this regard.
I guess this mail would clearly tell you how bad the recent rains have affected the city.

Metrology-Is it a science of Measurement or Just a Science of Predictions?

2005-11-21T09:03:00.000-08:00

Metrology-Is it a science of Measurement or Just a Science of Prediction?

When i got up in the morning it was as as if just 6 in the morning.Later i realised it was almost 8.00 in the morning.It was raining heavily and it was dark in the morning.As usual i felt subways would be floating with water..But suddenly around 8.30 am rain almost stopped completely.As it was rainy day, i took electric train to Nungambakkam.On my way to Loyola College bus stop where i used to take a share auto to my office i was completely drenched with non stop rain for around 30 minutes.So decided to take off to office.Just called my office to inform lead reagrding my leave and returned back in train back to square.One or two friends of mine were just asking me whether did i really reach till Nungambakkam to take decision to come back home? They felt as if i am just bunking office.I wasn't.Hence it was a long week end for me.

Still i am not satisified with the way the Metrological Department is functioning in India..But definitely i should admit that its far better when compared to what used to be earlier. But still i am astonished at the way US Metrological Department's functioning.They are more accurate at their predictions. As most of my friends are now at US i am just posting this question to you?Is my perspective right? Dont we have the forecasting equipments/instruments to predict accurately as they do it in US?Is that the reason behind it?Or just we have to blame at the Government for not taking much initiatives in this respect? In US if they say Hurricane will hit this part at this time at so many kms/hr, its just happening Whereas Mr Ramanan, from chennai Metrlogical department always play safe saying

"We MAY expect a heavy to very heavy rainfall in ALMOST all parts of Tamilnadu".

So whats all your opinion on this?Do you have something else to say on this?

I feel Metrology is science of prediction for India and a science of measurement for US...Do you all agree with this on me? To conclude on this please dont tell me that its science of measurement supported by predictions.

But i pray god that atleast for tomorrow Mr Ramanan's Predictions turn out to be false...Because we have a one day international at Chepauk Stadium between India and SouthAfrica..But some times i even feel atleast let rain come so that both the teams will atleast share their points instead of SouthAfrican team taking over the points.But i still dont understand why do they Cricket assocications and BCCI plan up for a match in a place where monsoon is much effective at this point of time.Cant they plan it somewhere else?Or is it just because of the pressure put in by local state cricket associations they plan for a match out here?

BPO marching towards an end?

2005-11-15T01:06:00.000-08:00

Business Process Outsourcing to India marching towards an end?This was going across in my mind for quite some time..But if you see the number of intakes into call centers and BPO's its tremendously increasing exponentially with time, you end up saying no atleast for 3-5 years, it has solid foundation laid.

I thought India will start losing the BPO segment due to the reason that recently in Delhi a BPO company gave out their client details for getting monetary benefits.Countries like US,UK insist much on confidentiality and integrity. I dont know how was the company able to tackle all these...I guess it was in news for a week when it came out...Now there is no trace of it if i am tracking it right...Again money has played a role here?

Just when i was reading this article from Economic times i got to know that BPO Companies at the initial few years of their operations get very little amount of money from their Client..The amount they receive increases gradually as the confidence level on the company raises...

Can this apply to Software Industry even?I dont think so..

Is that just because its outsourced to India? Will company operating in other countries accept such deals wherein they receive bulk payment after gaining confidence on their operations?I feel no ....Is that the reason other than Cheap workforce & Resource Availability they come to India?
I feel so..

Just have a look at the article from ET http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1290184,curpg-1.cms which throws some light on what are the various risks handled by both the client and BPO Organisation on executing a long term contract.

Come in with your views. Do any one of you have a third angle( I mean a different view) to this?

Ghajni a historical figure?

2005-11-14T10:16:00.000-08:00

Ghajni a historical figure? May be...But the Ghajni that I am going to speak about is definitely not Mohammed Ghajni... I am weak in history (: .I am going to speak of Sanjay Ramasamy, a character put in by A.R.Murugadoss in his latest film. After getting hit by Oru Kalloriyin Kathai i decided not to go to a movie until i get good opinion on a movie..

I learnt from my friends circle that this is running good for quite some time...So why not take a chance?But this time it turned out to be a good one.This time i didnt feel anything for having spent Rs75/ per ticket for this movie..But still i am not convinved with name of the movie..I dont see any correlation between the Sanjay Ramasamy and Ghajni..So i did not get the significance of it...Except for the fact that even when he missed once to kill the villain, he doesnt lose hope and keeps trying(This character is what appears to me in resemblance to historical Ghajni)...But Mohammed Ghajni tried it 17 times if i remember it right...Someone good at history please correct me if i am wrong in this..

Oops!You all know onething...Satyam has made the queue dead by introducing Online Booking of tickets.Do visit www.thecinema.in Me and my friend utilised this facility to book the tickets.But unfortunately when the movie started we were asked to vaccate as there was typical bug of giving same tickets to two different person in their online booking system....First we got tickets only in economy as the elite and premium were already booked...As a result of this problem which was their fault we were moved to Box(Elite)...It was good... and we were comfortable with it..even though we had to give out extras...I should say thanks to my friend who took me in car...

We decided to go to satyam even though it was running in some other theatres as i thought defintely movie should have a wider scope for BGM which i realised through Trailers.Defintely Haris Jayaraj has not disappointed me in this regard. But except for two songs, others are just mediocre...But "Suthum Vizhi Chudare" makes everyone hum this song..as well dance to the tunes of it.

Coming to the camera, its excellent....But i dont know how long are they going to repeat the similar pattern of giving effects to stunts. Except for that, it was good enough.. But the movie even demands an executive Sanjay Ramasamy to dance to the tunes and do stunts...I dont know how many executives of various companies really can do that...But no other go we had to live with that...If we start blaming like this then we will not be in a position to see a single movie coming nowadays. So no comments on that....

Surya has done a good job...Both as an executive as well as Short Term memory Loss patient..I was getting opinions from my friends that Murugadoss has shown Short Term Memory Loss Patient as Psycho...I would not agree with it after seeing this movie.His character is not a psycho...Rather he wants to take revenge on the people involved in killing his lover Kalpana.. But at the same time being hit in the head makes him suffer from Short Term Memory Loss.

So who is kalpana?..She is noble hearted woman as characterised by her character...Haseen has put in a good performance...Improved her performances from her previous movies.Particularly finding a character like kalpana in reality is quite difficult....But there are some in this world really interested in helping others...Good characterization...She is being attracted to a middle class man Manohar(the name by which Sanjay Ramasamy moves with her)...He stays as manohar till her death....

Applause to Murugadoss.

But Nayanthara who has been shown as "Adutha Veettu pen" so far in her earlier movies gives a shock...Probably she has to reduce her fat by being in diet like Ajith..(I should not say this because even i am fat...)Probably if she had been shown in Churidhars/Sarees definitely i would not have made such a comment.If she doesnt then she should avoid coming in glamorous roles...

I dont understand in the movie----Is everybody an athlete?Everyone keeps running....Be it Surya,Haseen,Nayanthara,Riaz khaan...

Villain's double act was unnecessary...It doesnt make any significant difference...Some fight sequences could have been avoided...Murder of haseen was a brutal one...Just being saved in train by military jawans is cinematic...Surya's costumes in the songs could have been better...He comes up with Red pants,Red shirts...Which is typically a telugu film heroes wear...

There is no separate track for comedy...I guess this is Murugadoss's regular pattern...This very well differentiates it from the rest... Editing was also good..So i guess Salem Chandrasekhar,producer of this movie should be happy as its doing good still in theaters

I hope i have not bored you all people much...Most of you would have seen this movie...But if you have not seen it you can afford to see this one...Its good.

Recollections of my trip to Munnar

2005-08-16T09:46:00.000-07:00

I believe it was somewhere in the last week of July, it struck our minds why not we make a trip during three days holidays during the independence day (a long week end) to make ourselves away from the regular routine work. Moreover it was a long treat pending from our project manager who recently was promoted to Group Project Manager. She readily agreed on this plan. Immediately people started coming up with different views on the place to chose as there were around 50 people in our project so we had around 10 to 15 different choices and then we finally decided it should be none other Munnar a place meant for Scenic beauty.

But we started hearing from different sources that there were frequent land slides due to the seasonal rainfall at Munnar and buses were finding it difficult to climb up the hills of Munnar.So we started revisiting our decision, but finally we all decided to take up the risk as this was the right season to visit. Unfortunately, we could not take up trains as the trains were already full as it was a long week end and our plans of going to Madurai and Alwaye totally came down. We started looking out for buses as totally 35 people agreed to come. Almost after two days we some how managed to get a bus to travel to Munnar.Everything was well planned and we booked 11 rooms in a resort at Munnar.All this were completed within first few days of August.

Everyone was eagerly waiting for the day. We planned to start by 12th August by 4'0 Clock. Everyone was asked to bring their bags ready to office by 12th Morning so that we can start from office directly. In the afternoon you could almost see 35 bags waiting near the security eagerly waiting for their turn to get into the buses.. But we could not start by 4'0 clock. It got delayed by more than a hour. We all got into buses by 5 with all our Luggages.Buses started moving and almost it took more than one hour to get out of the city as there was a heavy traffic as usual at Chennai.We carried food packets from Swami's cafe(A famous hotel near Arivalayam Signal) for our night dinner. It was a full of fun in bus...Making fun out of others, Anthakshari, DumbCharades and what not. It seemed as if it was a college final year tour...Luckily, I got the experience of a college tour right here as I missed out this during my college days and
really felt bad about missing such an experience in college.

Our Plan was to reach Munnar by 8'0 clock in the morning....Has always a college student planning to finish his preparations within study holidays and a software engineer planning to return home by 6'0 clock daily worked out? But if everything works out as per plan, then nothing can fail in this world. We reached theni around 5.30 in the morning. Bus drivers enquired about the road conditions of Munnar and decided to take up the route through Kumili(Border of Tamilnadu and Kerala) and thekkadi. Munnar was 106 km away from Kumili.But it took us more than 5 hours to cover this distance as the roads were very narrow that buses find it difficult to go. Resort had arranged breakfast for us which later was served as lunch for us as we reached the resort around 2'0 clock in the afternoon. Even though it took more than 6 hrs we could enjoy the scenic beauty...It was appearing as though we were traveling into the clouds.

The resort was actually located in the route of Cochin to Munnar.So we had to travel 20 Kms away from Munnar to reach the resort. As it was very difficult to take up the buses to visit the different places in Munnar, we decided to leave the bus at resort and engaged 4 Jeeps to take us to different places in Munnar.

Day1-13/8/2005
Rain started...Climate was really good. We could not find a single fan in resort as the climate used to be very cool always. We had our bath and got ready within an hour to go out. We had our brunch..(Lunch instead of Breakfast)...We were served with Chappathi's, Veg Kurma, Chicken 65, Egg, Rice, Appalam, Sambar. It was buffet lunch. We could not have anything in the morning as we were travelling around hills..So it appeared really delicious..To start with, we decided to go to falls.It was amazing...Density of water was high..As we moved from a place where we dont have water to the place having surplus water it appeared to be truly awesome...People advised us not to take bath there as the pressure was high..So we decided not to take bath there...Place was fully filled with flashes from the cameras carried by us.We spent some where around 40 mins there.Then we proceeded towards a place called "View Point" which is at a higher altitude...We all had a chance to taste the masala tea of Munnar...Hey i forgot to mention one thing...Munnar is also famous for spices and everywhere you can find tea estates mostly acquired by Tata Group. After covering these two places as well shopping, Jeeps started to march towards the Resort where we had planned for our dinner as well camp fire..After all these fun filled evening, most of them went to their beds as we had plans of starting early in the next morning.. and some were watching tv.

Day2-14/8/2005
Slowly people started getting up...It was heavily raining.After having their morning showers people started assembling in the dining hall for breakfast..In the next day we visited Dam,Rajamalai Falls and Echo point...Each and every place was no less to others...It will be evident from the photos that was taken at Munnar...Probably i will send out the photos taken at Munnar to you all within a weeks time..We returned back to resort around 2.30 in the afternoon.We had our lunch and bid adieu to resort and started our journey from Munnar back to Chennai around 5.30 in the evening.It was 11.30 when we got down from the hills...We had our dinner at Kumili..We had parotta,Omlette...It reminded me of my college days... Throughout the trip it was filled with songs,dance...It was very similar to college trip.. We reached Chennai on Independance day around 10.30 in the morning...

Thus an eventful journey comes to a pleasant end!!!

Priyasakhi-Is she my girl Friend?

2005-08-01T22:42:00.000-07:00

Priyasakhi-Is she my girl Friend? Definitely not...Yesterday i happen to see K.S.Athiyamaan's movie Priyasakhi along with one of my friend at Satyam Complex.First time i am going to Satyam Complex without a ticket and somehow managed to get a ticket even though it was housefull. We were desparately waiting for tickets and the show was about to begin in another 10 minutes.But as soon as we managed to get the tickets, be it either moving the vehicles out of temporary parking slot or reaching our seats in time ,all this happened in seconds.

The sentiments started...Oh sorry Movie started...The very first few scenes brings out the charater of Sakhi(Madhavan) and his better half in movie priya(Sadha)...Till interval it was a regular romance...Some songs where as usual Madhavan finds it diffcult to dance.. But later half is interesting where Adhiyaman brings out the real crux of the story filled with Sentiments...

"How would a upper class girl behave when she gets wedded to a Middle Class boy? Entire story rolls around Madhavan and Sadha herefater.I would say Director should be appreciated of his efforts of bringing out the characters well in the later half of movie. Madhavan has matured enough...His expressions should be given an applause...Sadha has also put in her best efforts being a Glamorous Upper class girl(Actress who claimed after her debut movie in Tamil that she would not prefer Glamorous roles) but doesnt stand well in front of Madhavan's acting..

But by bringing in atlast the mother child sentiment, Athiyamaan has proved he is very similar to other directors..But we should appreciate for the fact that there is no fight sequence in the film, which otherwise would have made it a regular block buster.Nowadays directors are coming up with some novel ideas...Kudos to them!!!Upper Class girls should see this movie definitely to find out the real difficulties that they will have in getting accustomed to middle class life...

I really admire the character of Madhavan...I felt i should be like Sakhi....But not the sakhi of first half of movie( you will understand if you see the movie)....But never i should get a girl like priya(sadha) of this film...I dont have patience like Madhavan to bear with...Always there is a limit....OK friends, i feel i would have bored all of you enough...If you happen to get a chance you can see this movie....provided you like sentiments as well...Otherwise dont blame me...

Meet you all sometime later with a review on a good movie