INJEY Today

What is cooking today?

2011-01-30T00:33:00.009-05:00

So I waited as the cooker was letting out steam slowly. Very slowly. It has just started cooking. Atleast I think it is cooking. I verified the stove and it was on. Five minutes and I am still waiting. I heard someone saying that it might take a while, so let me say whats cooking. With Chini away in India enjoying mom made breakfast, lunch and dinner and fresh juices in between, I decided to take the bold step to cook; something I rarely do from the time Big bang happened. You know when the everything came out of nothing! Nothing related though.

Anyway, after making few attempts like chutneys and Chicken curries (see in Facebook ;) ), I decided on the ultimate dish of Mushroom biryani. As always, I thought it is going to an easy day.

The morning had started long before I woke up and I met it only around 11 AM. Chini has already called twice and it was time to begin the weekend now. So without much ado, i started to make preparations for biryani. Chini dictated the recipe in exact metric units. Similar to Parthiban questioning Vadivelu the value of “a punch”, I am always ridiculed by the measurement terms like “a pinch” or “little”. How much really is a pinch? is it 2 grams or 5 grams? Or does it depend upon the density of what we are measuring? And there is always a difference in the value of pinch based on who is taking it right. And what is the size of little? There is ‘little’ Stuart in the size of a mouse and he says he eats large Gold fish biscuit which if you ask me is “little”. Chini already annoyed with my questioning decided to make it simple. All measurements will always be in cups or teaspoons. (she confirmed i need to measure to the top flat level)

After getting the recipe from Chini, it is time to get all ingredients. She already informed me that Biryani masala powder is there in home and i just need to get Onions, tomato and mushrooms. I could use Sona Masoori rice instead of Basmati. But suddenly my stomach started to say something. I am Hungry and it is 12 PM already. So I decided to have lunch outside and then get the ingredients on the way. After much searching for a quick bite, I found the only food I have appetite for is Biryani. But that is not going to be ready for another 2 hours (if I start in the next 5 minutes). So I went to Rice ‘n’ Roti and got non vegetarian meals with Chicken biryani and “Mushroom” curry. Filled with heavy lunch, I then decided to take a rest.

Relaxed on the couch after watching Jim playing pranks on Dwight, I finally decided to get back to “Mushroom” biryani at around 3 PM. Cooker on the stove and ghee hot in it. I chopped the onions and started frying in the cooker. As soon as it turned Golden brown, I added the half tomato mixing it continuously to avoid sticking to the bottom. That is when I realized I need to search for masala powder. Going through the kitchen shelf, refrigerator and the oven, I found that I cannot find the powder which means that it isn’t there in home. You know what that means? It means it is NOT going to be an easy day.

Now is a hard choice to make. I either run to the grocery store and get the masala before the onion burns or I could throw away the onions and buy mushroom biryani from the restaurant near by. I could not take the second choice as I do not like that restaurant much. So switching off the stove, I drove fast to the grocery store and found biryani masala for 2 dollars. The problem now is the Indian grocery stores do not accept credit card for below 5 dollars purchase and unfortunately I did not have any cash. So I hunted for 3 dollars worth food and I found only the raw materials for making food. Another trouble. After searching all the aisles, I found Parampara, something much closer to finished food. Returning back to home, I continued the operation. After adding 4 teaspoons of Biryani masala powder and constant stirring, it started smelling good. It really is going to be good. Next ingredient on the line was 3 cups of water. My fear that if you think everything is going good, it means there is something wrong altogether just got real. I had used the small cooker of 3 liter size which will become full if I add 3 cups of water. Now I have to transfer all the contents from the small cooker to the larger cooker. Tired of making stupid mistakes, I did what I had to do.

Everything transferred, I then started washing rice. And that is when I realized that I could have bought basmati rice when I went to the grocery store. Biryani would be very tasty with basmati rice. And that is also when I realized I could have bought basmati rice for 3 dollars instead of Parampara mix. Thinking all that I could have done, I washed the available Sona Masoori rice and just when I was about it mix it, I found mushroom lying on the side - uncut, unwashed, uncooked and obviously un-mixed. Damn. And so the large cooker was put on low heat, and I started frying the mushrooms in the small cooker. After 15 minutes and 1 hour since I started cooking, I realized I am finally closer to finishing it. After multiple checks on the recipe and thinking many times on what more mistakes could be made in making of mushroom biryani, i finally added the rest of the ingredients including washed rice, fried mushrooms and 1 teaspoon of salt for taste. Everything added, I closed the lid and put on the whistle and I waited.

PS: By the time I finished writing this, the cooker has already made 5 whistles asking me to take it off the hot stove. Mushroom biryani is finally ready and is waiting for any volunteers to taste it.

PPS: After much contemplation and some encouragement from Chini, I took the task myself and tasted it.

PPPS: I did it. Mushroom biryani smells, feels and tastes like Mushroom biryani. seriously guys, It is real good and I am going to keep it all for myself.

Action Army - An Action movie

2011-01-09T04:12:00.003-05:00

I have been thinking about this movie for the past 20 years. And that was when I started watching our Tamil heroes super action movies. It was when I was introduced to super power megablasting stars like Sathyaraj, Vijaykanth and many others. And it was not just the 80s that were awesome, Indian James Bond JaiSankar also made me rethink about the song and sentiments dominated tamil film industry. Finally this story is going to bring all these heroes together for us now.

The movie starts with our hero one and only Vijaykanth who is living in PattiveeranPatti talking on phone with Airtel customer care representative. He says “Hello”. The lightning strikes in the background. And we enter for the title song. Lot of girls are dancing with cellphone in their hand pointing it like a gun. The lyrics goes like “He is the new iPhone 4. Powered by open Android. He is a Robo. He says Hello” and our Hero keeps on saying hello with different phones while wearing bluetooth headset on the other ear.

The movie continues. “yema ponnu, ithu ennoda 400avathu call.” speaks Vijaykanth.
“No sir. Our records show this is only your 3rd call to us.”comes back the reply. The sweet voice belongs to the college going part time working school dress wearing Nayantara.

“Ennaku athu theriyatha. Naan sonnathu intha mobila naan pannikirukira motha calls. But unga billula 410 calls bill pannirukeenga. Yennu theringukalama?”

“Of course sir. But why are you worried about 10 calls and wasting 20 minutes of everyone’s time. For wasting all these time, you could have commented to 100 persons in Facebook. Oh sorry! I think you village man would not know what facebook is” Nayantara replies back bored to getting stuck with an old voice.

Vijaykanth simply smiles and starts talking.
“Facebook was invented by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004.
Now it has a total of 500 million active users.
In 20 minutes, following happens in Facebook.
Tagged photos: 1.3 million Event invites sent out: 1.5 million Wall Posts: 1.6 million Status updates: 1.8 million Friend requests accepted: 1.97 million Photos uploaded: 2.7 million Messages: 4.6 million  Comments: 10.2 million
Nayantara is now mesmerized and falls in love with Vijaykanth. But before she could speak anything the call disconnects. Our hero just sensed bad guys in his house. He goes to the kitchen and finds that all knifes and utensils are gone. He has nothing but a Coke bottle to fight with. He smiles and takes it out to the hall. Out of nowhere, 100 gangsters surround him with AK 47. Vijaykanth shakes the coke bottle vigorously. Everyone starts laughing. Then all of a sudden, he releases the cap and the compressed fizz comes out of the bottle and starts attacking everyone like a fire engine water hose. All villains are caught in surprise and they die to the powerful Coke. After the fizz gets over, the remaining guys start shooting. Vijayakanth deflects the bullets with the empty bottle and kills the final bad guy by throwing the bottle at his mouth.
Realizing that the Secret Indian Crime Kommittee wants him dead and must have been planning for a long time, he drives to Chennai to save Nayantara who he is in Love with. Why else would he wanted to call Airtel Customer care and talk about 10 calls for 20 minutes.
Nayantara is still in office trying to work, but starts dreaming. The first duet song starts. “Hello caller. I Love you Kalvar. Oh Dark knight. It is a dark night.” Vijaykanth is seen walking around Nayantara who keeps on changing dresses every second.” When she wakes up, her shift is over and she leaves the office. While walking back home through dark alley, 10 guys start chasing her and start shooting with AK47. It is the SICK guys alright. If you did not notice, SICK stands for Secret Indian Crime Kommittee. Nayantara runs off with high heels and short skirt and falls into the arms of one and only Vijaykanth. This time, with no coke around, he fights with Aquafina water bottle taken from Nayantara’s bag and kills all 10 of them with the final one choked by covering the water bottle over his head.
Vijaykanth tells that he was the person who called her in the morning. Surprisingly, she starts loving him more and more. They both then travel to see his senior secret CID agent JaiSankar. JaiSankar and Vijaykanth had worked together for SICK and are retired now. JaiSankar lives as a school teacher preaching Ahimsa for 2 second standard students. Seeing each other after long years, they talk about their past and tears drop from JaiSankar’s eyes. They soon realize the killings relate to a very old mission in SriLanka. Nayantara points out a newspaper that mentions that a female journalist was killed in an accident recently and another column about young man who was wearing a kurta and jeans pant was also shot dead. Vijaykanth and Nayantara goes to visit the female journalist’s parents. They know the young man was shot dead for his bad dress taste.

The mother of the journalist is Manoramo aachi and she speaks about her life and Amma and finally says that her daughter’s laptop, computer and iphone were taken away by AK47 yielding policemen the night her daughter was killed. Lucky for our hero, they left iPad because they couldn’t decide whether to classify it as a gigantic phone or laptop. While they were wondering where to find clues about the killings, Nayantara realizes that there is an App for that. So with few taps and swipes she retrieved a list of people’s names. Vijaykanth was impressed and he loves her more.
Unable to figure out what the list means, Vijaykanth decides he has to meet the action King. Once considering himself as the reincarnation of Bruce Lee, this action King became a discipline of Superhero Vijaykanth very soon and carried out several missions for the nation mostly by jumping and punching the villains for he is short. Action King Arjun also happens to be the most knowledgeable person of all SICK activities. Though old now, he believes himself to be still an young soldier and tries hard jumping higher and higher. Arjun figures out that the persons in the list belong to the team that carried out a secret mission in Srilanka 25 years ago.
In the mean time, CBI officer Jayam Ravi is given the order by his boss Nagma to kill Vijaykanth immediately. Jayam Ravi as a loyal officer agrees to shoot our hero and salutes her. He sets up a trap in a night club where Vijaykanth, Arjun and Nayantara are having dinner. Arjun always vigilant figures out the trap and dances on the stage to distract the CBI officers. Shreya who happens to be dancer for the hotel also dances with him with clothes as minimum as possible. Threatened by the screen time, Nayantara pulls Vijaykanth to the stage and all four dance to an item song. “I am hungry. I eat Jangery. Aadi pada vaa nee”. At the end of the song, Arjun cuts off the lights and Shreya helps them run through the dark while the officers search for the torch light. Remember Vijaykanth need not carry torch light. He has night vision eyes by birth. But when Jayam Ravi using iPhone app for torch light fires a bazooka at them, Vijaykanth gets in the middle and saves Nayantara even though he gets hurt on the arm while deflecting it.
Hurt and running from the CBI, army and SICK people, our heroes reach the Lady Superstar Vijayasanthi’s house who was a police officer once and had beaten up rowdies and corrupt politicians for long time. She treats Vijaykanth’s wounds which got transferred from right arm where he was hurt originally to left arm. Nayantara feeling sad about the wound cry holding his right arm while the wound is transferred again to left arm. They sing for the next song in Alaska. Nayantara shows she is a strong person by showing well in the snow. Vijaykanth just smiles and walks in Pink colored coat.
With JaiSankar returning to the group and the action team grown stronger to five including Vijaykanth, Nayantara, Arjun and Vijayashanthi, they decide that they have to go to CBI office to find more information. And the only person who knows how to get inside is the ex-ISI agent Mansor Ali Khan who was also lover of Vijayashanthi. But she had to shoot him to show her loyalty to Indian Police. Hurt both in body and heart Mansor has become bit mentally ill and is always seen with uncombed hair and speaking drunk. Also an enemy to Vijaykanth and Arjun and was hunted for many crimes including smuggling, terrorism and for being simply crazy, they knew it is a difficult but the only choice they have. Unwilling to help first, Mansor finally agrees so that he can see his lost love at last.
Together as a team, they infiltrate CBI building and gets the secret documents from Documents Keeper Charu Hassan who patiently tell them that he is counting on them for bringing out the truth to the world. After fierce fighting and blowing up the whole building, the action team leaves unharmed. Jayam Ravi was hurt in the battle but starts to think that Vijaykanth might be a good guy and questions Nagma. Nagma wearing high make up and low cut blouse warns him not to question her and just follow the orders. He dreams about his past with Nagma when they were lovers until she gets promoted and dumps him. He remembers the good old days dancing for a song in Africa.
With the new information, they find that only one person other than Vijaykanth is still alive. That is Sathyaraj now a Mayor and about to become the next chief minister. The secret mission in Srilanka was to extract Sathyaraj who was on peace mission was caught misbehaving with local people there and was eventually held as prisoner. Fearing that the news might affect his political future, he is killing all the persons involved. The team confront Sathyaraj in a forest bungalow in Ooty and ask him to surrender. But lying that he is innocent, he escapes from the heroes. Vijayashanthi and Nayantara who are watching from outside the bungalow realize it is a trap and they are surrounded by CBI officers. Jayam Ravi calls Vijaykanth and asks him to surrender so that nobody will be killed. “Surrender. That is the only word I never like in any language” replies back our hero and they start fighting. Hundreds of CBI and army men fight against our three heroes who fight with pistols, swords and throwing back the grenades. There are even replays for the best catches and throws by our heroes and the verdict is always OUT. After enraging gun battle, heroes finally escape only to leave JaiSankar shot dead in the end and Nayantara gets captured by Jayam Ravi.
Wounded and worried about the loss of their dear senior friend, Arjun and Vijaykanth sing a patriotic inspiring song along with Vijayashanthi and they decide that they will fight to death to bring out the truth. Nayantara in the mean time was tortured by Nagma. Nagma threatens to kill Vijaykanth if she does not tell her where Vijaykanth is. Nayantara gets confused whether she should consider Nagma as a real CBI officer or not. When Nagma was trying to torture her more, she gets a call from Vijaykanth. He challenges her that he is going to kidnap Sathyaraj in a ceremony that night.
The CBI protected ceremony opens with Anuska dance on the stage and Jayam Ravi keeps on talking on his walkie talkie asking everyone to be alert. Sathyaraj mesmerized by Anuska walks to the stage to congratulate her performance. With a surprising twist, Anuska removes her face mask revealing it was Vijaykanth dancing all along. The fight starts again and Vijaykanth escapes with Sathyaraj by breaking the wall with his fist and making his own way to the escape van driven by Arjun. Vijayashanthi gets hurt in the middle of the fight and when she is about to be killed by 3 CBI officers, Mansor AliKhan saves her and carries her away safe.
For the final showdown, Vijaykanth arranges an exchange of Sathyaraj for Nayantara in an abandoned warehouse. Jayam Ravi’s doubt that he might not be on the good side gets cleared when he reads the documents left by Vijaykanth for him. He switches side in the last minute and the fight reaches the climax with Arjun and Jayam Ravi fighting the bad guys; Nayantara fighting Nagma and Vijaykanth kicking Sathyaraj’s ass. Sathyaraj captures Nayantara and threatens Vijaykanth and says “Yenn Character-iye Purinjika Matengiriye”. Vijaykanth gets very angry and starts speaking for 15 minutes continuously. Sathyaraj becomes deaf and surrenders and Nagma turns good and falls on Jayam Ravi’s legs. The film ends with Vijaykanth & Nayantara, Vijayashanthi & Mansor, Jayam Ravi & Nagma walking away followed by Arjun and Shreya who just happens to be a dancer in a bar near by.

Postnotes:

This is not a original story. I would never think like this. It is just a remake of the english movie RED.
There was a tough competition on who to cast for Jayam Ravi’s character. But for remakes, who else will be suitable better.
I would have considered Rajnikanth and Kamal, but the movie is about retired people and we know they never retire.
RED was actually a good film to watch. While the director rightly termed it as Action comedy, our Kollywood would simply release it as action movie which would be comedy for the viewers.
If you have read the story and still reading, you are the biggest jobless person in the world. As for me, what to do? I am bored and alone as Chini is enjoying her vacation in India.

Resident Evil: Afterlife - Breathing in the third dimension

2010-11-21T20:32:00.003-05:00

Raise your right hand and repeat after me. "Resident Evil is a movie made from a game. I know this is not a movie like Matrix. I will expect neither story nor logic for the next 97 minutes. I will purely enjoy the action and special effects which ever is thrown at me. ALICE."

Good. Now you are all set to enjoy the fourth installment of Resident Evil film which is based on Resident Evil games series. As I have not played the game series, I will not comment on how much it lives up to the game fans. Instead, as a viewer of all the previous movies and a fan of Part 1, I can assure you that Afterlife is really awesome. If the second and third parts had lowered your interest in Resident Evil, think again. They have done it right this time. The main reason I can say that is because of the 3D. As published in the trailers, they have used James Cameron's Fusion Camera System which he used in Avatar and the results are awesome. Though you might feel that they have overdone it to show everything in 3D, I actually liked it. Especially the rain which is shown so many times in the movie.
Coming to the story, it keeps you guessing all the time. Don't take it as suspense. It is the director's indecision on how to take his characters ahead.
While the ending of the previous film (Extinction) promised a war with army of cloned ALICEs, you are given little treatment of it. Instead, few other characters emerge and few new monsters show up to bite you. And whatever characters included in the movie both recurring and new have nothing more to do than shoot, kill and die. Ali Carter as Claire is good to watch fighting the Executioner. But I knew I cannot expect more as ALICE as the protagonist have to face the camera and say "I am gonna kill you" every 5 minutes. Sometimes, it even reminded me of Viay.
After a series of gun fights and monster kills in "Left 4 Dead" style and even a dog crossed with Alien, you feel very much satisfied with this movie. Only regret is that they could have made more Executioners. Loved the gigantic axe yielding monster very much. May be we will find more in the sequel (of course, it is a never ending franchise) as Afterlife ends with Jill leading an assault fleet in control of the Evil Umbrella Corporation.

Overall, a movie other than Avatar to have lived up (sometimes better) to the 3D experience.

Lets put a smile on that face

2010-11-13T23:43:00.010-05:00

It surprises me to think that less than a millimeter thickness is all that is different between sharp and the blunt edge of a knife. In general, knife or a dagger is a beautiful invention of human kind. It acts as the creator as well as the destroyer depending upon who yields it. Even as a kid, I always like to play with knifes. A swift cut on the carrot slicing it neatly into two is a favorite pass time of mine. That is why I was a good kid always ready to help my mom in the kitchen with cutting and dicing the vegetables. And that is why my skills in cooking ends with cutting the vegetables. I am glad my mom restricted my chores to cutting only vegetables and fruits, for if I was given the honor to cutting the meat pieces as a kid, a slasher movie named “INJEY hostel” would be made will be a small exaggeration only.
A lover of Kill Bill, but calm at heart I channeled my cutting skills to aesthetic purposes like vegetable and fruit carving. I started creating wedged tomatoes and guavas, onion rings and served watermelon as balls instead of slices. The art of road side cucumber sellers in making flower style cuts on a single cucumber dividing them into two and each looking as if it is a whole cucumber astonished me greatly. Even if you call it as just cheating, I call it artfully cheating. And for the petty money they make, I do not complain them.
While my largest passion and career choice (computers) called for cut, copy and paste, I did not enjoy it as much as cutting vegetables (NOTE: I meant cut,copy and paste only). After landing in US, my eyes dropped on cutting only one object and every October I felt very close to reaching it. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm was not shared by others around me and I had to wait 3 years before getting the chance finally. And so this year, I finally bought my first pumpkin to carve. It was not without many hurdles and “NO” that I had to fight hard to get the small sized pumpkin. Chini’s argument was that it is a Christian festival. I went “huh?”. After heavy persuasive discussions and threatening that I will not eat pumpkin forever and finally after getting the support of Tommy boy’s girl (who was equally opposed by Tommy boy), I got the one that I was longing for a long time.
The day of carving did not come early though as the auspicious date and time to cut a pumpkin was not found in the calendar and we had to wait a week since getting the pumpkin. So it stood smiling for a week with sharp teeth and Rajini’s hair that I had drawn on it. And one good sunday, the time did come and with little help from youtube, we started to give new face for our orange friend. And it definitely was a wonderful experience right from cutting the scalp and scooping out of the juicy and sticky pulp inside. [Warning: Please do not imagine human head for a pumpkin. The things we are going to do will make you throw up.] When we could not clean the inside with the ice cream scoop which finally was broken by over-enthusiastic Tommy boy, we had to use the hands. This is where Chini did a wonderful job and cleaned all the long thin fibers sticking out of the inner wall. And Tom had cleaned it very much that it was as smooth as the inside of a skull.
With the pulp out, now it is time for serious carving. We did not have to sketch the eyes for our pumpkin as we had drawn it earlier. I pressed the knife edge over the left eye and pushed it slowly to keep the hole small. After three simple cuts, a triangular piece feel off from the face what was an eye before. More care was taken when removing the right eye as we did not want the pumpkin to end with squint eyes. This was more tough for tom, as they are carving the eyes for the first time. Coming down to the mouth which really is the toughest part of all as any mistake in that will make the pumpkin toothless. With multiple styles replaced we went for the regular 3 teeth on top and bottom and Chini took on the task as she considers teeth to be precious. Believe me when I say it for I try hard every day to find a way to escape from multi-time brushing of teeth daily. After long careful cuts and small adjustments on the left and right making the mouth wide more open than planned, the pumpkin was finally done.
We did wash it with water and polished its face with Crisco Vegetable oil. Imagining it now, it is like wiping the face with your own blood. I am feeling guilty for being so cruel. And finally to complete celebration, we lit up a candle inside and saw the bright light out of the open eyes and mouth and also the small nose we pierced in the end. And there it was. Our Pumpkin shining for the Halloween celebration boo-ing away the ghosts and burning more than we wanted as the candle fire ignited the oil lining on the inside of the pumpkin.

My mobile battery was down

2010-09-11T01:51:00.001-04:00

“My mobile battery was down”. Was that a lie? No. But was it the answer to the question? May be not. But everyone assumed it. I did not attend the call not because my mobile battery was down, which seems correct. But there is always a land line. The truth is, I did not remember about the call. Coming to think of it, I did not remember because my mobile did not remind me with the alarm. And the reason for that is "My mobile battery was down". Looks like I was not lying at all.
“Are you alright?”, a colleague asked me. I obviously was not listening in the meeting. “I am alright. Just that I did not sleep well yesterday night.” I lied. The meeting went on as usual with few talking and none listening. The meeting appears to be a time for everyone to meet without any agenda. So people even talked about what the agenda should be. I never listened and I am not listening now. My mind was everywhere except the meeting. As my ears picked few buzz words like “deadlines”, “deep dive”, “out of the box”, my fingers were swiping the polished table. It was drawing short horizontal lines removing the thin layer of dust that has settled in. After few swipes, the coarse dust has come off and it was all smooth. My finger tip liked it better now. I kept on rubbing it for a while applying pressure more and more. Slowly the smoothness was gone and the finger tip no longer was going straight. The friction increased and the table could not keep it quiet. It started screaming with screeching noise. The more and more I moved my finger against the table, the more the sound increased. It was as if the table was in pain. Ironic, for it was me who was in pain. Still it kept screaming and the pitch went on higher and higher. And then in a sudden moment, I stopped. The room was in silence. The table stopped screaming. I looked around where everyone was staring at me. Wide blank eyes all focussed at my face wondering what has happened. They would not understand. None of them would. I moved back my chair and ran out of the conference room. I was sweating all over my face. My fingers would not be still. Emptiness was sticking on my hand and I did not like it one bit.
Running fast to the men's room, I was glad that nobody was inside. The mirror showed a very tired face. Tired and longing hard for something to happen. Turning on the tap, I washed my face trying to find some strength. The warm water took away some of the drowsy look on the face. But the heart still felt the unrest in my mind. I looked at the mirror which could have showed a better face if not for the water vapors settling on it hiding away the reflection. I touched the glass wiping the water slowly to get back the view of my face. The more I try to clean the mirror, the more I felt the heart pounding faster. The face was turning pale again even though I couldn't stop swiping on the mirror which was already clean. I keep swiping faster and faster until I heard the sound of someone entering the room. Not willing to get caught, I rushed out of the men's room after successfully evading a crash with a stout gentleman. I walked in panic towards my cubicle holding on the walls once in a while and trying hard not to get others' attraction. Nevertheless there were few who would turn with a suspicious look. An awkward smile was all I could give them and with the dizziness increasing more, I leaned against the wall, dragging myself toward the cubicle. With just few feet to go, I could feel my air ducts close making me suffocate in a wide open air conditioned room. My fingers screeching against the wall only said that the wall is not smooth enough. With few seconds left to pass out, I entered my cubicle and tried to scream for help. But as fate would play, my voice was gone and my little puff searching for air could not alert the chair-glued nerds from the next terminals. With nobody to help, I took my phone of which mobile battery was down from my pocket. With only few ticks away from losing consciousness, I plugged the charger pin to the mobile trying to wake it up. Few seconds and even another passed and I know I do not have another second left. My repeated press on the buttons were not worthy, as I passed out on my desk.
Time either a minute or an year is always a blink of an eye for those who are just waking up from the dark void. It was the familiar chime that woke me up. I was not sure how long I had passed out. Oxygen was rushing to my lungs and my brain could get the energy first to hear followed by a blurred sight of the mobile screen lightened up. With the vibrations of the chime sending more oxygen to the lungs, my brain finally got the scent of my small cubicle feeling it home. The fourth sense was already up as I eagerly reached for the mobile with my hand. I touched the screen that caused a tingling sensation that spread through my body rejunivating the muscles that were almost dead for so long. I followed the instruction "Slide to answer". "Hello" I said. I could talk and my voice was back. "What took you so long to answer the phone?" asked my wife on the line. "I don't know.... my mobile battery was down". I said. It was true. I should have never let the battery of my iphone get drained.

Birthday wishes of the year 2010

2010-08-07T04:04:00.013-04:00

It has been a week since my birthday. And it was a good one too if we look forward for the years to come and not worry about the years gone by and apparently the number of candles I blew before cutting the cake. Chini had to keep them stand in a large bowl to avoid using fire extinguisher over the cake.
Anyway, the day went good. Few surprises, great food and treatment equal to a free man! Now I am waiting for another year even though I know I will have to blow off a bonfire next time. Coming to the point, the birthdays are always special and something you count on other than the presents are for everyone’s wishes.

Starting from your school days where you could wear casual dress while everyone comes in a uniform and walking to all class rooms and hear everyone sing “Happy Birthday” for you, birthdays are really special to celebrate. As you move up the years, you get more than wishes and include cake on your face and kick on your butt. I wonder why people do that. But everyone got it for their birthday and so you would want one too. Happy day of the year! Back to the birthday wishes now. How different we celebrate our birthday and wherever we are, there is always one thing that makes the day a real birthday. It is the simple two words “happy birthday”. With the world being so big and our dear ones spread apart so far, we are wished by so many means. Apart from the telephone that made them sound closer, e-cards and social networking sites made everyone just few clicks away. So my birthday this year too had lot of wishes sent through various forms.

With nothing better to do, I thought it would be fun (for me) to chart down the numbers and statistics.

There were a total of 70 wishes including all advance and belated wishes. And as if everyone is closer by technology than reality, most of the wishes are through internet with 26 from Facebook itself. This is really a surprise as until last year, Orkut was the most widely used networking site in India. I believe lots of us were bribed to move to Facebook by games like Farmville and Mafia wars. There were a total of 12 wishes through telephone and 8 by electronic email which includes a cute message from my one-year old niece. While these numbers are normal like every other year, the shocking numbers come from SMS messages – Just 2. The guy who was banned by Aircel for sending SMS messages over the limit during college days received just 2 messages for his birthday. Time truly changes as years pass by. This could also be because of being in US away from free messages in India. Other surprising counts are from instant messaging and e-cards with 3 and 1 respectively. There would not have been any e-card if not for my in-laws. Thanks to them. I did get 7 greeting cards made of wood pulp commonly known as paper though 6 of them came from my Chini and the other one surprisingly from the apartment office. Now to rank the various wishes, the first phone call was from my dad, sisters and mom; instant message from Tirupur; Facebook and Orkut from Chini’s friends Karthikeyan and Mathan respectively; email from Kumaran; SMS once again by dad and the person to wish directly and through greeting card and also the first one to wish on the birthday is none other than Chini. Thank you. And whats more! She is the only one who gave me gifts in this year. So you guys not to feel bad, I am still accepting presents. Gift cards and credit through online transfers accepted.

PS: I have to speak about those who forgot to wish me too. Hey loosu, where were you? You used to wish me every year. Perippa, you forgot it. I had to call you for the second year now. Balappa, you almost forgot and anyway you are the last one to wish me. I am glad for that. And for the rest, that is ok. There is always the next year.

iPhone and my wife

2010-07-22T01:49:00.002-04:00

There are two topics that have a lot to be talked and battled about, but I rarely discussed about them so far. They are nothing other than my iPhone and my wife mentioned in no specific order. Though the most precious of all, my wife and my iPhone (in the order written) have limited mentions in my blog. Well, there is a reason for that. iPhone as everyone knows is the single device that changed the entire face of the cell phone industry single handedly or rather with a single touch. Similarly, my wife as many might know already is the single person who changed my entire life without any need to touch. A single sight can do it all. The bed spread will be neat, shoes will slip into the rack and shirts will stay in the hanger. And all will happen with a single look. So you see, both of them have a lot in common. They changed my lives. Yet, I had little to say about them in my blog. How cruel am I? But as I mentioned before, I have my reasons. iPhone as the most popular device did not need my bragging and for my wife, let’s just say that I am handicapped in cooking and my food expense budget is very limited. If you are wondering how is it that I became bold enough to write about them now, I like to clarify that I still have not talked about them. At least not about the iPhone and also I proved that I can make onion chutney tonight.

திருமணநாள் பரிசு

2010-06-17T00:43:00.006-04:00

எத்தனை பொய்களடி ஆருயிரே!
எத்தனை பொய்களடி!
ஆசையை உரைத்தது மட்டும் உன் கணவன்.
அழகாய் தேர்ந்தெடுத்தது மாமி மற்றும் மாமன்.
வருவாய் என்று வரவேற்ற மாமியாரும் உடந்தை;
ஊட்டி வளர்த்த தாயாரும் அறிந்திருக்கலாம் ஒரு கை.
நட்சத்திரம் தூரம் இருந்த ஒன்றை
கண்விழி அருகில் கொண்டு வர உடன்பிறந்தவன்!
அண்ணன் ஒருவன் கொண்டு வந்தான்,
மற்றொருவன் கண்டு மகிழ்ந்தான்.
உறவினர்கள் கிழங்கை மறைத்தனர் என்றால்,
நண்பர்கள் பூசணியை மறைத்தார்கள் சோற்றில்.
ஒரு நாள் இரு நாள் இல்லையடி -
பல நாள் நடந்ததடி இந்த அரங்கேற்றம்.
பாதி ரகசியம் தெரிந்துவிட
மீதி மறைக்க மற்றொரு பொய்.
அது மட்டும் போதாது என்று
முற்றிலும் மறைக்க மேலும் ஒரு பொய்.
கதை, திரைக்கதை எழுதி இயக்கவும் செய்தால்,
உண்மை அறிந்தேன் உன்னைக் கண்டு!

இவ்வைரக்கல்லும் வெறும் கல்லாகிவிடும்
அதனை அணிந்தவுடன் வரும் உன் புன்னகையாலே!

தலைமுடிவேண்டுகோள்

2010-06-04T19:58:00.001-04:00

காக்கைக்கும் தன்குஞ்சு
பொன்குஞ்சு என்பதனாலோ
காடுமாதிரி திரிகிற என்முடியை
கட்பண்ண மனமில்லை என் கண்மணிக்கு

Saddle up your dragons

2010-03-29T01:11:00.006-04:00

One should know that when I say that I watched this movie very closely before writing this review, the words should be taken in the literal sense, as I was sitting in the 2nd row close to the IMAX screen of 70" long X 50" height. With no need to say, I had a truly 3D experience turning my head sideways to watch the dragon flying from left to right. Chini watching along with me for sometime, decided that it is better to get a higher and overall look at the movie and moved to the back seats. Probably a habit from her college days. Anyway, coming to the movie, it is a simple movie of telling everyone that dragons are friendly creatures good enough to be pets for your kids and can also be used to ride to for a quick snack from McDonalds drive-thru. Gosh! The dragons are extinct now. Or is it the dinosaurs that are truly extinct? Does that mean that the dragons are not extinct? I am talking dragonshit. Don’t I? What to do? I just came back from the movie that taught me how to train my dragon.
It is actually fun and great. The movie maintains a fast action style throughout the movie. And the 3D experience is better than all the 3D animated movies released so far. (Avatar is not included in this list). Watching the movie so close (literally), I felt I could walk among the Vikings and the dragons and it was realistic and exciting to watch the camera diving through the open landscape and mountains taking us on a thrilling spin. One difference we noticed in this movie is the blurring or Out-of-focus effect for the background when focusing on the characters in the front. Even though this is something that is seen only in the normal films and new to the animated movies, the effect doesn’t quite feel good as it takes away the field of depth in many scenes and raises the question of what is the blurring in a 3D movie. Nice idea but not preferred.
Here is the story in a fireball. Distinct from the rest, the hero has more brains than strength and is considered a failure by his own father who hunts dragons as both the occupation and life's only mission. Trying to prove his father wrong, Hero catches a dragon, but couldn’t kill it. Slowly understands that whatever they have known about dragons is wrong as they are mostly tamable. Finally he proves the true nature of dragons and changes the future of the people after killing the monster dragon (I did say "mostly" tamable. Didn't I?) by riding on his "Toothless" dragon along with his friends. Just to clarify a point, he names the dragon he caught as "Toothless" as it did not have any teeth at his first sight. The second sight did show teeth enough to rip off a human though.
The movie is interesting not only for its animation and dragons, but the dialogues are well.... blazingly funny. The protagonist dialogues remind me of Justin Long in "PC vs. Mac" ads. And you also have Gerald Butler to voice as the Viking leader and protagonist’s father. Imagine King Leonidas fighting the dragons! Good performance indeed. All in all, the movie has almost everything fitting in the right proportions. Only troubling part of the movie is that we have seen this story in all the animated movies like Antz, A Bugs Life, Bee movie, Chicken Little, Finding Nemo, Happy Feet and Ratatouille. Probably, the audience is still accepting for the same old formula of "The hero is distinct from others and will save the world". Whatever it is, this movie is going to be as successful as the previous movies with the same storyline. A definite must watch for everyone and includes even those who do not have dragon in their home.

Inglourious

2010-01-04T00:33:00.006-05:00

My blog though does not have a wide audience has audience from wide spread age groups. Therefore, I could provide only part of the movie name even though the second word was misspelled in the movie title intentionally.
Though this movie was not in my high list of expectations when it got released, it got my attention when I noticed that it was directed by Quentin Tarantino. It is the guy who brought us the samurai sword wielding bride slashing hundreds before killing Bill with the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique.
Finally getting a chance to see the movie on New year day, I should say that the year have started great in term of movies.
It is a great movie in Quentin's style. Long sequences, unexpected twists, sudden deaths, unique characters and a satisfying end. Even though Brad Pitt is credited as the hero, he has less role than the villain Christoph Waltz who captures the movie as the Jew Hunter with his amazing acting and his perfect dialogue deliveries. He surely deserves an Oscar and has already received many other awards for his role. Do not get me wrong. Brad Pitt too has done his job well. Actually very very entertaining with his accented speech demanding german scalps from his "<>". And all other characters like the German actress, the Nazi captain in the tavern or Wilhelm, a German Wehrmacht master sergeant celebrating the birth of his son have done a real good job throughout the movie. If these are not enough, the climax takes the glorious film "Inglourious" (Typo intentional).

Trivia:
#1 Isn't the Uitvich, the Ryan guy from "The Office". Good acting!
#2 Quentin makes minor appearances in the movie like he did in his previous movies. Actually twice. Probably KS Ravikumar of the Hollywood. No offense meant to Quentin.
#3 I recently learnt that the Season 5 finale "Grave Danger" of CSI is directed by Quentin. No wonder that I became a fan of CSI by watching that single episode. (And stopped after watching some other episodes)

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year 2010!

2010-01-01T12:54:00.002-05:00

New sun rays of light ahead,
the world is brighter than before.
A day to dream higher;
An year to make them come real.
Shedding away the sorrows of the past,
Bringing along the happiness alone
and the lessons learnt so long -
To make this year count
as you wished for, dreamt for, prayed for.
Everything sweet, everything you need,
More than what you deserve and
All that you desire in this world.
May your prayers come true.
And the world rejoice in harmony, peace and you.
Happy New Year!!!!

Countdown to a new start

2009-06-09T01:54:00.003-04:00

AND HERE WE GO!!!!

THE COUNTDOWN TO THE END OF MY BACHELOR LIFE
AS I GET READY TO GET MARRIED TO CHINI ON
11TH JUNE 2009 AT 10:30 AM

Another girl in my life

2009-05-01T14:46:00.006-04:00

105 days before, a girl named Chini entered my life. With my life already upgraded from Single to "Commited" status, another cute little girl has now entered my life.
Before you raise your eyebrows and your dirty mind cooks up something, listen to me.
On the 302nd anniversary of the unification of England and Scotland as the Kingdom of Great Britain; the same day in which the Order of the Illuminati was born 233 years ago; also 111 years after The American Asiatic Squadron under Commodore George Dewey defeated the Spanish Pacific Squadron under Admiral Patricio Montojo at the Battle of Manila Bay, the first engagement of the Spanish-American War and most importantly when the whole world is celebrating the International workers' day, my sister gave birth to a cute lovely baby girl with small beautiful black eyes. She is said to have thick hair and cries all the time seeking everyone's attention and getting it too. With my sister promoted to "Mother" status, I am naturally promoted to "Uncle". My sister and brother-in-law are proud and happy and excited for sleepless nights taking care of this adorable baby. All the best to both of them and welcoming my little niece into this wonderful world.

PS: Details of the above mentioned events that happened on May 1st are taken from Wikipedia except the last one which was told by my parents.

Nostalgia infront of the screen

2009-03-30T22:43:00.005-04:00

Even when you sip 100 bucks cappuccino from Coffee day, you would speak those nostalgic words on the 1 rupee coffee from the college canteen shared with your friends. This post is neither about friendship nor about coffee. It is about a similar nostalgic feeling of the computer games in my life. Please note, that by computer game, I meant not only the PC but all the video gaming devices that spawned from the electronic computing parts. Sometimes I wonder how someone came with the concept of gaming in computers. A machine which was entirely used for business and military purposes created an entirely new concept unknown to human kind and took the whole world by storm bringing a new race of people who would not mind leaving the real world as they get immersed into the unimaginable world of gaming and live out their life stuck in front of a screen. I wonder what made the programmer a geeky idiot like me bring in something different outside his purpose of life to introduce recreation inside a box full of zeroes and ones. And will you believe me that the very first computer game was Spacewar developed at MIT in the year 1961. This is true if you do not consider the radar simulation game on cathode ray tube developed in 1951. Anyway in Spacewar, two players control spaceships and have to shoot at each other. A simple but interesting game. So you know the mindset of killing each other in games was introduced with the very first game itself. So let us not complain about Quake and UT being violent. You would be voicing against the computer gaming kind.

Now back to my cup of coffee. Sorry. I meant my gaming memories. I was introduced into the computer gaming world with a cloned version of Sega-1000 at the age of 8. Video gaming has probably just been introduced in India and my uncle bought one for our home. I am not able to recall the feeling of my first touch of the joypad (controller) but I clearly understood that it is something amazing and I was sure that it is going to make a huge impact on the world and my life. The console had a maximum of 16 colors and the cartridge that came with the console had 8 games and there was not even a menu to select the games. You need to press the "SELECT" button on the console to switch games. And the game I remember the most and considered the most advanced game is "Police and thief" as we called it, was about a cop who jumps like a bunny trying to catch a fast running thief before the time runs out or the thief reaches the end of the top floor. It had elevators that you could use. But like every damn elevator in office, it would either close just before you reach it or you would forget getting down in the right floor and end up moving up and down while the thief escapes easily. If you do not want elevators, you can use the escalators available at each end of the floor. Trivial point is that the escalators only go up and there is none to take you down. Wonder how people would like in such buildings. But I don’t think any people would want to live in a building infested by honeycombs on the floor which we used to call as "Jail" for no reason and vans that will hit you taking away 15 seconds of your time not to forget a flying stick that you need to dodge by jumping and sometimes lowering your head. But if you are not scared of these and still keep on catching the cops, there will be helicopters inside the building taking your life away as they hit your police cap. And the bad part is that none of the obstacles would have any effect on the thief. Anyway, how much illogical the gameplay was, "Police n Thief" is the most enjoyed game I have played in that console and have went as much as 16 levels which had helicopters trying to hit my hat every second that I ended up sitting like a duck for the whole level.
As I can keep on talking about the golden days and I have blogged on this many times before, I would do a fast forward to the recent times. After many years of console gaming, and the sudden invasion of Mario and Duck hunt, my gaming interests increased tremendously and I started playing Pacman, Digger and then the legendary Prince of Persia in our PC-XT 386 and upgraded 486 personal computers in office. And here I am moving from Sega-1000, Nintendo entertainment system, Nintendo gameboy, PC-XT, PC-AT, modern games in the Intel Pentium computers and playing with new generation of gaming consoles like XBOX and Playstation 2 which I slowly planning to change to the next-gen PS3 console though which seems to be at far reach considering Chini's liking to see the consoles only at the stores. I need to do some hard work in convincing her that gaming consoles are basic necessities of a normal healthy happy married life. In that way, she can talk all she want and I will never say a word against her and the best way to get my attention is to let me play the games and block the screen for a second and rely what she wants me to do. Of course, please do not tell her that it will be done only after the game is over.
Why this nostalgia all of a sudden you might ask. I saw this post in Engadget about the 8-bit video game console with keyboard entering the US market for just $49.99 which every kid in India has played for years bought at Rs.500 or just $10. Who said electronics cost more in India? Is this some great business opportunity and I should buy 10 consoles in India for 250 each and sell at Rs.2000 or $40 in eBay and become a millionaire overnight? What would I do with that money? What else? Savings for the next PS4 or XBOX 720.

Where is the nonsense tonight?

2009-03-09T01:45:00.008-04:00

I never thought that I would be writing this post in my lifetime. And what I about to say might shock people around and even kill some. So please prepare yourself for the next statement.

I watched Simbu's Silambaatam last weekend and I boldly say here that I found it quite ok to watch. Sometimes it was even interesting. And I could actually appreciate Simbu's work in it though Satman's ears were piping with hot steam for most of the scenes. One thing was sure; Simbu is lot more bearable if he does not throw away his punch dialogues often knocking us out altogether.

Now one might wonder what the hell happened to me to make such statements that might scare away the few readers I have. After deep thought, I found out that the whole reason to find the movie "watchable" was that we had set the expectations much below the level of T.Rajendran's Veerachamy, that I actually enjoyed few scenes in the movie.

And if I may speak more of the "stick dance",

Cinematographer turned Director Saravanan has done a good job in bringing this glamour and sticky masala movie into a watchable one with the help of Cinematographer Mathi. Good job on the camera moves especially in the song and fight sequences. If you forget Simbu in the scene, it is much more pleasant to watch.
Satman was in all crazy with steam engine running between his ears when Simbu was teaching few students on how to make "Panchamirtham". I was doubtful if he liked the sweet so much that he couldn’t watch the movie more.
Please don’t blame me if you are laughing to death when I say that Simbu acts as a Hindu Priest. Did I forget to add "innocent Hindu priest".
"Sneha! Is that Sneha?" She looks leaner and.... she is more.... competing well with the heroines of the current time. ......"Is it really Sneha????"
Simbu attacks each and every other hero in Kollywood by mocking them all over the movie. There is Vijay in the flashback Simbu, Vikram behind the priest Simbu and even a very apparent Ajith in Billa Simbu. And what the hell. Wiki reports that Simbu invited Ajith and Vijay for premier shows and they said that the movie is great! Is that smart for Simbu or dumb for the rest?
The main scene that I had to close my ears hard to avoid bleeding was the Billa spoof where he speaks in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and "SIMBLISH".

"You are the one who is new.

People who don’t know me are very few.

Who the hell are you?"

"Just because you are white,

not everything you say is right."

"You want to brew bear?

For me, the land and people are very dear.

I will fight you out without any fear.

Am I clear?"

Oh my God!!!!!!!!!

A minimal decency could have been maintained for the mass "Where is the party" song to be watchable with friends and family.
Santhanam's comedy rarely had double meanings as most of them had only one meaning which meant the second one. Boo boo!
Except for the glamour and songs by Sana Khan and Sneha, as expected it is Simbu all over Silambaatam director by Saravanan. Did you notice the "S" in everything in the last sentence? Was it just a coincidence or something Simby?
May be Silambaatam was not that bad at all when compared to Vijay's Villu? Take note of SS in Simbu's Silambaatam and VV in Vijay's Villu here.

Which manager's line is it anyway

2009-02-25T00:22:00.003-05:00

Everyone would have or had interesting managers in the line of our work who might appear so different for pure engineers like us. Words from them motivates us to do the job sometimes and their talent of making you believe the way they want you to amazes everyone all the time. And what is more interesting are the phrases that the managers use that you would remotely use to explain in a normal casual conversation. So listening closely to the managers conversations, I picked up few lines that made me interested and I have listed down for you. May be... I mean may be... if you have more to add, please do so.

"There are many other constraints and pulls and pushes." on why we could not get the project.
"The pie has shrunk already" on the budget limitations of the client.
"I am trying to understand what I have and what is right for me" on why taking the project will be difficult.
"The black eye we had is vanishing" on client appreciation.
"We are on a bigger driving seat now" for we are working on more important projects.
"We should be aware of the environment" on knowing about your peers' opinions on the project.
"Not everything is Black & White" on you can not categorize things as just right and wrong.
"It is raining here" on the abundance of the issues seen in the project.
"Don't disturb the apple cart" on not changing the already tested code.

What kept me away

2009-02-24T00:23:00.004-05:00

I am sure many would have been wondering why I was not active with any new posts for the past 25 days. And few might have the right guesses which I would explain to others in this post anyway. But to say I was not active only for the past 25 days would be wrong as the post before that is a good 21 days behind. Altogether, this year has not been so good so far with respect to my blogging habits. But I guess I got lot new visitors because of the same reason why the blog was dormant for more than a month. Ok ok. I think I am beating around the blogs here. So let me get to the point.
After 17 months of eating burgers in US, I went to India to eat some bajji as well. But what happened was that I was served with Sojji along with Bajji which quickly followed by the story as posted in my previous post as I got engaged to a sweet innocent calm girl who I am going to call as Chini here. Now as there is no one here to believe that I did not expect this to happen during this trip, I am not going to say anything on how it happened. So I was there in India tied up with not just enjoying the changes that happened in India during my absence in the last 1.5 years but was also surprised by the change in my own life. The three weeks of the holidays went like a breeze with very less time to meet many friends and no time to meet other few. With all the buzz around, I was unable to put some time into this blog though there were lot to discuss and report on the trip that includes the outgrowing cell phone shops that are more in number than juice stalls in our locality and the differences in driving an automatic car in US and a TVS Scooty on the busy roads of T.Nagar. Polar opposites were the experience between the two that my safe driving even brought one Tata Indica to park in the gap between my bike and the bus that was standing in front of me. I was learning to get into the world of committed gentlemen and started making regular deposits to Airtel prepaid mobile service. And whats more! I even got the chance to revive my texting skills from the good old college days. And if it was not for the 60 rupees RT plan, I would have redirected my salary to Airtel's bank account.
With the holidays coming to an end and a hard good-bye to Chini at the airport, I was back in the city that is called as "Queen City" also known as Charlotte. One must understand the strong pressures faced by a software engineer in this tight recession time working for a demanding client trying to balance the time between offshore calls and calls to offshore. With Chini managing part of my life and my managers trying to take part of my life away at work, it is always tough to find the right time to put all the above pointless talks in my blog. And finally on this day, I happened to find some time and even Chini was kind enough to grant me permission to put something here which I am sure she would be reading it now. After all, I had nothing to say to her on the day we first met as she had read all the posts much before deciding to meet me. And I am so happy that my blog is useful for someone more than just to pass time.

By the way, I am active twittering all along as much as possible in the last 2 months. So you can tune to www.twitter.com/injey for short and chirpy updates very often.

நம் முதல் சந்திப்பு

2009-02-01T07:04:00.001-05:00

அய்யோ! தொலைந்தேனே.
என் வாழ்வைத் தேடுகையில் - உன்னிடம்
நிழலில் கண்ட உன்னை
நிஜத்தில் பார்க்க ஆசை.
விரைந்து வந்த என்னை
சிறு புன்னகையிலாலே கொன்றாய்.
நான்கு அடி நடந்திருப்போம்
முதல் கேள்வியில் தடுக்கிவிட்டாய்.
"சம்மதமா?" என்றாய்.
தேன் இனிக்குமா என்பதுபோல்.
இருவரும் ஆய்வதற்கு ஒரு மணி நேரம்,
முடிவெடுத்ததோ அதன்முதல் ஒரு நிமிடம்.
எதுவும் அறியாமல் நான் நிற்க,
முழுவதும் அறிந்திருந்தாய் என்னை பற்றி.
பெற்றோர்கள் அனைவரும் தவித்திருக்க
மறந்துவிட்டோம் அவர்களையும் காலத்தையும்.
தொலைபேசியும் அழுத்துப் போனது
நம்மை பல முறை அழைத்து.
மெல்லப்பேசி மெதுவாய் நடந்து
திரும்பிச்சென்றால் - பிடித்திருக்கிறதா என்றார்கள்.
புன்னகையுடன் நீ தலையசைக்க
சம்மதம் உரைத்தோம் புதுவாழ்வுணோக்கி.
ஆஹா! கண்டெடுத்தேன்.
என் தொலைந்த உயிரினை - உன்னிடம்!

From Charlotte to Vivekanandha nagar, Dindigul

2009-01-09T20:10:00.001-05:00

Visit my nest to read live tweets on my journey home.
http://www.twitter.com/injey

Gods play with your Samsonite number lock

2009-01-04T20:22:00.007-05:00

I have been a computer hacker breaking into the college intranet portal when I was denied access to C++ training material. With little digging in the internet, I got what I wanted. Actually I got bit more than what I wanted. And from then on, not that I considered myself a pro hacker but out spoke myself as the Neo. I guess that was geekier than being a hacker. Anyway, today I was more than a superficial Neo for the lock I hacked helped me in the real world. There I was trying to pack my luggage for the trip to India. And if you plan something, God would have planned something else to make your time... a little more interesting. And there He did by locking the number lock to my Samsonite hard case luggage for which I do not remember the combination. Now I have two choices. 1. Carry the 50 pound luggage to a locksmith to get it opened or 2. Try all 1000 possible combinations using the next 3 hours of this already shorter Sunday evening. I did spent 20 minutes of my time with the second option with no luck. So looking at Google chrome, reminded me of the other option. Why not ask our ever helping friend Google, a simple question "How to unlock Samsonite number lock?" And so I did to get the answer in simple steps. All you need is a torch light and a sharp eye.

PS: The below text is taken from http://www.fixya.com/support/t232042-unlock_samsonite_lock and the text is mentioned to be reply from the BagLord Samsonite Himself.

Dear Sir/Madam:
The following are the lock picking instructions you requested from Samsonite Consumer Relations.
1. Position the luggage so that the numbers on the wheel are right-side-up as they face you and set all three wheels to '0'.
2. Starting with the wheel on the left, to the right of the wheel, look into the narrow space between the right side of the wheel and the body of the lock. Look down into the shaft. (If you have a safety pin, straight pin, or thin nail file, place that in the narrow space.)
3. While looking down into the shaft, rotate the wheel slowly. You are looking for an indentation (a square notch). When you find the indentation, stop and write the number down. (If you are using a tool, the tool will fall into the indentation.)
4. Follow the process for the remaining two wheels.
5. Try to open the piece of luggage.
6. If the luggage still will not open, please try the following: a) If the number on the wheel is over 5, subtract 5 from the number showing. For example, if the number showing is 8 turn the wheel to 3 because 8-5=3.
b) If the number is under 5, add 5 to the number showing. For example if the number showing is 2 turn the wheel to 7 because 2+5=7. The numbers showing on the wheels will be your combination.
If you still have a problem with the combination lock, contact the nearest authorized repair center to your zip code for repair assistance. Our warranty and repair information can be viewed at http://www.samsonite.com under the heading "Customer Service Repair Centers" for your reference.
We appreciate your loyalty and will continue to design products that are reliable business or travel companions.

Thanks to you Samsonite for telling your little secret on breaking your own code. And I really mean it. Now if you are wondering what the combination to my luggage was, looks like I was blaming the wrong guy for messing up my mind.

On the First Cubicle day of 2009

2009-01-03T21:31:00.003-05:00

Did I say that the year appears to be a peaceful and relaxing one? But as people say, not everything happens the way you think. You may also mock "You thought so?!" for yesterday happened to be one of the busiest days in the last 2 years in US. Reaching the office on the first day of the year 2009 as early as 9:30 AM, I went straight to work on the interesting discussion with the DBAs I mentioned in the previous post and it was not before lunch time that we realized that it is going to be much more interesting than we thought. To say it in simple terms, you have entered attendance twice for the last 10 days and you were billed twice but got caught during the pay day and they decided not to pay you at all. The resolution: strike out all the wrong attendance entries and go to all departments to get the salary corrected. And it was not until 1 AM in the night that you cleared all the issues and you knew you will get your salary correctly the next day. The sad part is I even had to give up go-karting race with Sachin for work. But all is well that ends well. So after another 2 hours of work on the first weekend of the year, we pray that the salary will be deposited at least by tomorrow. You too pray for the year to be little easier in the coming days.

Its a Fresh start.... once again

2009-01-02T00:26:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year guys and girls!. A fresh year has started. Time to bring back the resolutions you lost in the previous year and new ones that you might want to add to the list that you would be lost before the next year. Am I starting my first post of the year in a sorrowful tone? Why so negative? Yeah! Why am I being so negative? Let’s start again. Time to fresh start your resolutions that you will try hard to maintain till the start of next year. That’s better I think. Good. I think this is the first New Year eve that went away without much excitement except few calls from friends and home. The year changed while I was in my home watching TV and talking to friends. No shouts or fireworks to welcome the year. But it was good. It was good to feel the New Year eve to be just another day and what’s better than starting the year with sitting on the couch and watching your favorite movie (The Dark Knight) on the TV. It is like blessing for a relaxed and peaceful year ahead. And So I slept very early in the night around 12:30 AM which is early even for any other day for me.
Believe me when I say I woke up early at 7:30 AM. And it was not to switch off the alarm and to get back to sleep. I really did wake up 7:30 AM and made few calls. But then, I went back to sleep. Another sign of a peaceful year ahead I think. So after relaxing and comfortable sleep, the New Year started truly at around 11 AM with more phone calls, Google chats and orkut scraps. Funny but common was wishing "Happy Birthday" instead of the Happy New Year". May be it should be considered as wishing the birth of the year 2009. So all went well including having work on a holiday and few interesting mails between the DBAs, developers and support that is always fun to watch. And if all these seem so normal for any other day, the blast was the Project party at Zuma Fun center in the evening. Visit the site and you will know what fun it promised.... for the kids. Now visit this photo album and you will know how great we were ... as kids. A perfect start for the New Year indeed.

Ghajini - The second invasion

2008-12-27T20:00:00.012-05:00

What will you do if given a second chance to start over your greatest success? You try to do it better. And that is what AR Murugadass has tried to do in Ghajini, a remake of his 2005 Tamil film which was based on the Great "Memento" Hollywood movie directed by "The Dark Knight" fame Christopher Nolan. As discussing about the Tamil version might cause sour discussions as I personally did not like the troubled revenge part of the movie, I will just compare the two attempts made with on the romance plus revenge flick.

Actor:
Tamil: Surya - Perfected himself for the role of a troubled person as well as the charming rich lover boy, Surya shined all over the movie and got positive feedback from everyone.
Hindi: Aamir Khan - The master of dedication has done it once again. He has matched the terrific performance done by Surya and was not surprising as it was very much expected from him. A trivial feature common between the two heroes is their height. Or should I say shortness in height? Ha ha. But while Surya was made to appear taller in the original, Aamir's height is so apparent when he fights the goons or sings along with Asin.

Actress:

Tamil & Hindi: Asin. Asin. There was no need to question considering her performance in the Original; she is apt and chosen rightly for the remake too. And she shines with her charm both in comedy and expressions in both the movies. Heartbreaking is the scene during her last moments before she gets killed. But somehow, I found her not great in the songs. Not sure if it is due to difference in the post production activities or something else.
Speaking of actresses, it is better to mention about the other female lead (should be read as drop). Nayantara in Tamil and Jiah Khan in Hindi. The pathetic feature of Nayantara was bettered by Jiah Khan though the role is still ugly and did not make any good impression.

Plot:
Tamil: The movie was a toned and mixed up masala version of Memento. The important word to be noted in the previous sentence is "Masala". So you should expect more heroic action sequences and mindless scenes made up just for the heroine and unwanted damsel in distress plots to add glamour and entrance sequences for the hero. Though the flashbacks were brilliant are keep you relaxed in your seat, the actual revenge plot suffers from unwanted ideas like twin villains, a police officer on the trail just to read the first half of the flashback and then he dies.
Hindi: It might not be God's intervention. But good to think it might be Aamir's intervention, that few plots were changed to keep the movie engaged. Starting from bringing sense to the movie title by keeping Ghajini as the name of the villain and the trick by the villain to overpower the hero using his drawback of short-term memory loss makes the Hindi one a better one in terms of plot.

Music:
Tamil: Harris Jayaraj brought life to the songs in the Tamil version. Almost all the songs are top of the charts and proved essential for the success of the much hyped movie.
Hindi: This could have been not only a challenge but a chance for Rehman to prove that he is still the best. And listening to the background score, he is definitely better than Harris. But did his "Guzarish" match Harris's "Suttum Vizhi" song is a question that needs time before it can be answered.

Action:
Tamil: Peter Hain did his usual of super powered hero who can smash the villains in a single blow. People loved it. Surya looked terrific in the action sequences.
Hindi: A bettered positioning of cameras made action sequences much more violent and hard and were more believable. But will such violent hand fights please the Bollywood crowd is a big question. Actions more suited for the Hindi audience could have been a welcome. But who knows this might create a strange liking too.

Overall:
The Remake is definitely better than the original in all the aspects but still remains a movie that could have been the best 2008 if the revenge plots were revisited and made much more sensible. Ghajini needs more chances to win the game. But he is back with great improvements and is worth watching more than once.

A child Prodigy

2008-12-24T02:42:00.003-05:00

A small wonder on the news again. This time it is 9 year old M. Lavinashree from Madurai who passed MCSE while still studying her 4th standard. Looks like the child prodigy have done wonders before including reciting all the 1300 kurals at the age of 3.

All my mind recalls is the first prize I got in Thirukural competition for writing 100 kurals during my 7th or 8th standard and 1 day preparation I took for writing the Teradata Basics certification exam last week. Truly an outstanding achievement. Isn't it? I meant the child Prodigy M. Lavinashree.

More about this news at http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/23/nine-year-old-girl-is-youngest-person-to-become-microsoft-certif/

Vaaranam Aayiram - Tusks broken

2008-12-21T14:13:00.012-05:00

The-songs-were-good. I-thought-that-the-movie-will-also-be-good. Lot-of-expectations. Lot-of-hype. Good-director. Good-actor. Stunning-actresses. It-should-be-a-good-movie. That-is-what-I-thought. Everyone-thought. Was-it-correct?-I-don't-know. It-was-good. Sometimes. It-was-bad. Many-times. Overall? I-don't-know. One-thing-for-sure. It-made-me-speak. It-made-me-speak-in-broken-sentences. No-emotion. No-modulation. Simply-reading-the-words. No-emotion. No-modulation. Just-talk-from-the-script. It-was-a-different-experience.

Kakabukka Karbur brshsbtrhs grerrerh brrrrrr

Phew! I am back talking normal. What a relief! The movie almost killed me with that monotonous dialogue all the time. Now let’s talk like normal people. The movie starts with a depressing state of showing older Surya vomiting blood and becoming grave ill. As I had to watch the scenes while having my lunch, I was unable to appreciate the Surya's acting. And I doubt if many others would have appreciated owing to most of the conversations that were in English. Goutham Menon wants to show how modern families have moved to conversing in English rather than their mother tongues. But he forgot that the majority of his audience does not fall under that category.

Then the movie moves to show the younger hero in a military helicopter receiving the news of his father's demise. It’s a sad moment.

But as I said before, no emotions were shown in the movie and Surya says ok like it was news about his broken iPod. And that is how the movie starts. The rest of the movie is shown in Flash backs narrated by the younger Surya and his younger life.

As it more of a biography, you get to see every part of a son's life under the care of his open minded and inspiring father. Surya as both father and son had done the best in acting minus the emotions in the dialogue. Many a times, I could not relate myself in the son's life, so I was unable to appreciate them. And few scenes in which you would get involved into the movie, the emotionless speech puts you out. It was like Night Shyamalan directing a love story.

Now the best parts of the 2hrs 40 mins biography:

1. Sameera Reddy - The sparkling part of the movie was the love story of Sameera Reddy and Surya. Right from the first meet in the train till the last scene in the car, you will love her. The scene in the train though might appear crazy, the craziness Surya depicts appears how mad he is about the girl. Love brings madness in you was proved (in a lighter way). But she is also the reason I hated watching the movie for they kill her in the middle of the movie.
2. Surya's search for new life - After the tragic turn, what "Autograph" conveys in a song was shown in 30 mins of Vaaranam Aayiram. And for Surya who lost all his hope in life, his trip towards Himalayas and the encounter with the kidnappers reminds you of Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins" and it was beautifully done. The renewed Surya comes back to put inside your mind, "Life must go on no matter what!"
3. Three love proposals - There are three love proposals in the movie, considering that there are three female leads, it sums up right. Surya proposes twice and Divya proposes once. All three are beautifully told. And Sameera's moment of accepting it is though not the biggest moment is pretty neat.
4. Adiyae Kolluthae - If there is one song that lives up to your expectation, it is "Adiyae Kolluthae". The visualization matches the Guitar strings, refreshing lyrics, city surroundings and a perfect matching pair.

So what made the movie less favorite?
1. You don’t start the movie with the death of the hero. It puts the audience off.
2. We know that English has become a normal medium in the daily talks of a modern educated family. But still it’s uncommon for the common audience. So most of the best scenes are lost in translation.
3. Krishnan's flashback - Simran says "unga appa evalavu azhaga irupaaru theriyuma!" (How beautiful your father used to be!). And then they show Surya in 70s with a big power glass. Even for the greatest fan of Surya, it would mean an insult. Not to forget how the best song of the movie, "Mundhinam Paarthenae" made me scream "Naan yen etha partheno" as it was killed by the retro look.
4. Even the father telling his son to go to US to find his love could be dismissed as a contrasting character incomparable to the typical father who wouldn’t agree spending money for was

ting bike fuel for your girl friend, the stringent VISA department wishing well to Surya for finding his love in US not only shocks you but makes you hit your head on the wall and makes you cry thinking back the rejections you saw during the US VISA interview.
5. Why do bad things always happen right after the happiest moments of the movie? How much needed it was for the story, I foresaw that Meghna is going to be killed when she admits her love

for Surya. So when Surya tells that he will meet her by travelling in the bus while she flies to Oklahoma, I screamed "No you won’t idiot. She is going to die."

Needless to say, I walked out for the next 15 minutes of the movie.

6. Songs visualization. If the lengthy movie was at least satisfying as a biography, you have to nod away your head with the not-even-close relation between the tune and the dance moves in the songs. Neither the retro look in the first song nor Surya's dance in painter’s costume for "Shanthi Shanthi" song is anyway sensible.
7. If all the above points doesn't affect you and your liking for Surya still makes you watch the movie, the monotonous delivery of the dialogues by the entire cast for the whole movie right from the start till the last scene would doze you off very much in the middle of this yet another could-have-been-made-better flick.

There is always a wrong time

2008-12-12T00:40:00.007-05:00

It is always on the wrong times you try to do the right things. And it is always the insignificant and the most immaterial tasks that get in your mind when the whole world is waiting for you to press the launch button. For example, consider this. I had been idle in the blogging world for about a month when so many things happened around me that deserve lot more reasons to speak out but I went on to be silent not even showing a sign of my presence. And here I am writing a post when I have nothing to say. Is this a defect inside my brain that always restricts me from being useful? Is it a special character of me that whenever I find something important and urgent to be taken care of, my mind becomes agitated and works hard to find something irrelevant and irresponsible that can wait forever but would flip the priority plugs in my brain to take up the unimportant one. Even when I want to change myself and do something useful, my thoughts points me to find reasons why I am not doing what I wanted to do in the first place and thereby makes me lose the precious time and I end up thinking of things I could have thought but not thought because of the thought I was thinking. I think I am still thinking of the same thought.
So to make anything fruitful to get out of this post, I will list down the thoughts that never got penned down or never got completed to enter my blog.

“I am a Mac and a PC” – True to Apple’s ads, the practical proof that installing windows in a Macbook is a cakewalk. Equipped with my roommate’s new Macbook, I installed Microsoft XP Professional as a secondary operating system in 2 hours. “Windows in Mac?” you might ask. And guess what? I even saw the blue installation screen of windows on the cute Macbook. It was an odd experience.
Mumbai under attack – The most terrifying event that shook the country for three days and left 180 dead and several injured. Not to forget the horrifying thought of 10 terrorists armed with automatic submachine guns and a huge backpack full of ammo and grenades could enter the country through the sea so easily and no intelligence agency had a clue of the terrorist strike. While saluting the bravery of the Indian Police and Army Commandoes who fought and many of those who gave their lives to save thousands in the fight, it was shameful and questionable on the preparedness of India against terror attacks which it has seen many times in the near past. 10 hours delay for the army to reach the spot leaving the Police with Lee Enfield rifles and pistols battle the terrorists firing with AK-47 and three days for the army commandos and ATS unit to end the battle angers and question the efficiency of the Indian civil and military protection forces.
Mission XOV – Ironic it might seem, it is hundred times difficult to install XP as a secondary operating system over VISTA than installing XP over Mac OS X. When I was able to achieve the latter in simple steps, the thought of installing XP in Vista-invaded Gateway Laptop sprang in my mind and the mission XP Over Vista(XOV) went over 4 days trying to find the XP drivers for all components to keep my laptop usable. Even with the help of similar minded people who had gone through the same exercise in the past, the mission ending successfully but the objective remained unclear as the laptop gets overheated fast and was hanging very often. You can learn more from my tweets are http://www.twitter.com/injey.
Rolling the cubicle dice – The last few months at work deserves a long post owing to the varied experiences on the new development project from handling the pesky offshore to the overriding manager who doesn’t understand the root cause of the problems but believes the wrong answer to be the right solution and talking with the political peer putting you in struggle for words and always demands carefully crafted sentences to avoid getting blames on things that are not really your fault. With all the tough tasks and adding my laziness and craziness there was no surprise but shock and despair that this year’s appraisal was a disaster.
Shopping on Thanksgiving – The festival of gratitude turned out to be a shopper’s arena as usual and for the first time, I became part of it. With the economy digging deep towards the earth’s core, the stores of the whole US Nation stood up and struggled to make money with the biggest sale event of the year. Still not effective due to the slump sales on the Thanksgiving Day, the single day sale got extended for a week with attractive prices in everything that you can imagine. Though I could not stand out with the crowd in the night, I was lucky enough to steal some deals online including $400 off of a Sony laptop, a hard disk and few more computer accessories and clothes that thinned my credit cards by at least $1500. There is still Christmas coming up and the retail stores are trying their best to make some sales. Never to be feared when I am here.

Lot more to come but I have to stop it here as it is starting to make sense and my mind doesn’t like it at all.

One more from iPhone apps

2008-11-10T08:05:00.002-05:00

The world is getting smaller and more activities are coming inside the grasp of my hands. The above statement is not a metaphor as more day to day activities are done inside my palm these days, thanks to the free apps for my iPhone. From browsing on the go, finding routes in the fly to the Internet banking and recent tweeting features have made the iPhone a true companion. And here it is, the blogging application "Blog Writer lite" to keep my fingers busy with more posts for the blog. Another excuse for not blogging regularly is gone! Hope this keeps me attached to blogs for long.

Trivia: Do you know what is the next applicaion I wish to see in iPhone? ALICE - Artificial Linguistic Intelligent Computer Entity. The AI companion or simply a robot who can chat with you any time you need. Any iPhone software developers hearing me??????

Sent through "Blog writer lite" from iPhone.

iPhone - Gloves insensitive phone

2008-11-08T12:29:00.003-05:00

If you are one of those trying to find a reason not to buy the iPhone and neither the 70USD minimum monthly charge by AT&T nor the buzz of Google's Android is helping you, hear this out. As stupid or as trivial this might sound, it is still an important factor when you want your mobile to be handy in all weather conditions especially in the coming cold winter months. Yes. The touch sensitive screen of iPhone is incompatible with your woolen or leather gloves. So if you are walking on the street in the cold weather and your girl friend calls you, chances are very high that you cannot slide the answer button in the screen without hurting your fingers exposing them to the subzero. Though the Apple crazy lovers believe it to be a security feature that blocks unauthorized use of the iPhone by requiring the fingerprints on the screen, not everyone is ready to buy that. So here you go. Now you can be a fox reasoning that you did not eat the grapes because they are sour. All the best iPhone-haters.

As for me, I will be smart enough to use the earphones to attend the call while on the road.

The Radiance of Love

2008-10-23T03:01:00.007-04:00

What is Love? Is it an emotion? Is it a feeling? Is it an expression to show your affection to someone? Or is it just the overflow of hormones in the body? Each person defines it in their own way they see it. It is universal and known to every life being on the earth or at least that is what we limit to believe. Who knows if love extends beyond this material earth? Quite possible too. But still we have not defined Love. There is no single answer. Even science, the religion of all questioning could not find answer. It could neither prove nor deny its existence. It appears that Love seems to be peculiar that it can be expressed in both scientifically and through faith and therefore could not be answered as one. That makes it dual in nature. There are one another that exist in this way, viz Light. Light exhibits a duality in nature that wonders everyone. It is proved both as a wave and particle. Depending on the circumstance, it exhibits either of the characteristics that are still not understood by the scientists. For a human mind, which knows "Right" and "Wrong" as two distinct opposites, it still tries to figure out the dual nature of light.
Similar to Light, Love as a wave is not substantiated by weight. It acts as an emotion or feeling making an inner presence that cannot be quantified. It is a disturbance in the mind that affects everything and everyone around it. It makes you feel its presence by sheer vibrations in the heart. The heart of each person vibrates in a particular frequency that when met by a similar wave exhibiting the same vibration causes resonation to occur. Like a coherent wave, it matches the other keeping the tune synchronous with each other and plays music to the inner soul that is only felt between the two. It is not known but only understood. It traverses through obstacles reflecting and refracting through the universe reaching its destination. It is an emotion that cannot be answered why. It is expressed to be everlasting in nature and cannot be destroyed.
On the other hand, a very arguable but apparent nature of Love is its existence as a particle. People who have accepted the wave theory as the truth find it hard to believe and deny this and few of those who have not realized the touch of Love on them doubt it. But against all disbeliefs and concerns, Love is also particle in nature. Though wave nature of Love could sustain its existence, the creation of Love and the continuity of it need a solid presence of showing itself to others. Sometimes, Love has to be quantified to prove its presence. When the waves could not create the bond between two beings at the first sight, it requires its particle nature to show the affection between them. And here, Love is not based on emotion but on an understanding. This does not make it any less than the former. It still has its radiance spreading in all directions but the source is a particle or a reason. In the motion picture, "Dan in Real Life", the author speaks of love as an "Ability". Love is an ability that you have to see if you can spread it to others. And it is not based on unexplainable feelings. It is the question of "Can you love someone?” To prove this statement, let us revisit the intrigued question of the whole world on the custom followed in India also known as "Arranged marriage". Though this is a debatable topic of its purposefulness or the closed culture or the human rights violation woos or the easy method to find a girl as argued by some others, the success of its practice and the happy families that are formed out of it raises our eyebrows that is it not the proof that Love is an ability and is based on our understanding and not on emotion? You decide upon your life based upon the decision already made before you have shared Love. If you could shower a person with care and true Love on facts and reasons, there exists the truth which beats the most widely considered belief of its wave nature. Though the wave nature may hold on to your long last first love keeping it felt forever, the particle nature teaches you that Love is an ability and it exists as long as you capable of showing it to others.
And again, similar to light, Love needs to exist as both wave and substantial quantum together all the time. It cannot sustain as one nature alone. The emotional love needs the particle nature to balance it from losing the logic of the worldly existence and the particle half must appreciate its wave half to keep it alive and truthful in the heart. Loss of one of its characteristic means loss of everything.

Without Light, life ceases to exist.

Without Love, there is no point for the life to exist.

Double the surprise on a birthday!

2008-10-17T21:56:00.007-04:00

There are lots of various surprises you can throw at a birthday party. You could invite someone that the b'day star does not expect; gift with something from their wish list; write a poem (only for your girl/boy friend); or even take them out to a place that they like the most. But these are to know how good you are. It is like writing a proof to say you are a 'nice' guy or 'lovely' girl. There is another category of bringing surprises which actually would shock the b’day star. And that could be "make them bath on rotten eggs and tomatoes; beat them to hell in the name of birthday bumps or make them sing in front of everyone knowing that a donkey can sing better. If I am given the power to throw one of these two extreme types of surprise, I would definitely want them to experience the second type. But yeah, my good heart mostly wins over the evil mind and would make me do something good which many of you might have experienced. I just want to let you know my intentions on your birthdays were spoiled by my good heart.
Now, coming to the event which is already overdue by 2 to 3 weeks in my blog, this is the birthday celebration of Satman. Getting to know about the birth date only a day before, I could not order a custom cake probably with my evil mind's work on it. But still, I wanted something to be different on the day. Being the main guys to trouble him in this town, it would be pretty obvious that there would be a birthday cake and all his friends would be invited. So after much thought, we finally decided upon the surprise to make sure that there will be no surprise and sent an IM message saying "If you don’t have any plans tonight, we will plan for your surprise party". And so on the night of October the 3rd, we consulted with him on whom to invite and what cake to order which turned out to be cheesecake. "Yuck!" said Vinayak and "I want chocolate cake" shouted back Srikanth. So when we went to our usual "Coldstone creamery" where people have started to identify us easily owing to the previous two birthday cakes we ordered in the past one month, we had tough time choosing the flavor. I sometimes wonder if Vinayak hates the word "cheese" more than the real cheese. And as everyone knows, Srikanth is a pretty tough guy (in a good way) once he decides on what he wants. With my good heart asking for Satman's favorite Cheesecake and Srikanth's thick stomach longing for the chocolate, we ended up doing what we have never done before. Also, we did the stupidest act in buying candles on the way back home. Before you can be all judgmental, please be assured that my good heart tried hard not to accept Srikanth's crazy ideas on both cake and the candles. My evil mind was all in glory and laughing happily when we reached home and prepared for the birthday party.
As if surprise never forgets to surprise, Satman was surprised with his two cakes on his 116th birthday which as per Srikanth should be read as twenty-six.

Click here to find the surprise

Apple and Orange - I am available for chat only

2008-10-16T00:11:00.011-04:00

This is what happens when Apple who has lot of work to do but do not have the mood do anything useful finds the poor Orange online who can be the perfect punch bag to pass time.

Orange comes online in Gtalk with the status message "I am available"
Apple: You liar! YOU ARE MARRIED!
Orange: what?
Apple: you are not available. Are you?
Orange: what????
Apple: I will have to tell your wife about this unacceptable behaviour
Orange: !! what are you talking about?
Apple: your gtalk status "I am available"
Orange: hmmmm
I am available for chat
Apple: but you didnt mention that clearly

Orange changes his status to "I am available for chat"

Orange: Happy now?
Apple: Still! you did not add "Only". Looks like you are available for more than chat.
Orange: that fine
Apple: that is not fine!
Apple: you must put "I am married and not available"
Orange: r u Apple?
Apple: yeah. I had tuna today.
Orange: then Apple

Orange changes the status to "I am available for chat only"

Orange: now fine??
Apple: thats better.
Apple: But if you are "online" then people know you are available for chat
Apple: why do you keep these stupid messages?

Orange removes the status message and returns back to the default "Available" status.

Orange: now fine???????????????
Apple: You are soooooo typical. Don't you have anything to say about yourself.
Orange: I AM FINE!

Apple gets relieved by passing the tensions to Orange and goes back to work happily.

Esnips music downloader

2008-10-07T21:12:00.005-04:00

If Esnips restriction on only streaming and not allowing to download MP3 songs from their website is bothering you in getting all your favorite songs off the site, you need not be worried anymore.

Follow the steps mentioned in Esnips link generator and you are ready to download all songs.

Reading through Zuhaib (The original author)'s post on how he actually did it, the trick can be reproduced very easily.

Take the link to your song in Esnips. It will be of the format,
http://www.esnips.com/doc/12345678-1234-1234-1234-1234567890ab/song name
Take only the long code present between "/doc/" and "/song name".
Put it instead of SONG_CODE in the below URL.
http://www.esnips.com/nsdoc/SONG_CODE/ts_id/1223429695223/ns_flash/file88.mp3
Paste this URL in the browser or download manager to download your songs.

As the below trick is not a legitimate one, I have to put a disclaimer which I am not sure no one is going to care about. But still here it goes.

DISCLAIMER

This can be used only to retrieve your own music creations which you uploaded to ensips in the past without "download" link. But now, your hard disk crashed and you lost all the songs leaving your ensips account the only source also for which you have forgotten the password before you could change the settings to get the download link. The author of this post does not encourage using the trick for any other purpose.

The Beginning of Death

2008-09-29T02:32:00.011-04:00

I waited for him in the hall. An uninvited guest, as I am all the time; disliked by everyone on the earth though it is very likely that they all will meet me at the end. Of course, I do not come in person for everyone. I have my minions at my disposal that would have their fun doing the work for me. And I make my presence only for those who are "worthy" enough to stay alive but still have to go. As "fate" calls it, it was God’s will. They get cheated by "fate" all the time. Yet they believe it. What an irony! Especially, this person here, Mark as he is rightly called is my Mark. I marked him. He is not like others. He is a special person and it is time for him to move on to his next destiny even though his destiny in this life will go unfulfilled. Destiny like time will not wait for anyone; though unlike time it can be chased on. But his chase is over now and he soon will lose. As I told before, his time is up and he have to go. Even Duke has to go. But not me.
I am getting tired of this. It has been an earthly hour and he is still away planning for something that is never going to happen. When they find out of him tomorrow morning, things will change. There will be war. And I will reap the harvest. No. Wait. I will send my minions instead. After another hour of restlessness, I sensed him walking towards his room unaware of who awaits his appearance. I walked to the door to greet him with my scythe. Raised above my head, I waited for him to come and face "Death". The knob turned with a click as he entered and I swung my Scythe.
And then it happened. Before, I could tear the soul out of his flesh, a sword clashed my blade producing a spark that lighted the whole place and pushed me back inside. I was moved few feet behind and I held guard for the first time waiting to see my challenger. Still shining in bright light, my rival stood there holding a long sword that I very well recognized as the Solarbringer forged in the molten iron river of the primitive earth. It is believed to be forged by the Gods and yielded by the Guardians of Existence during the Earliest of the wars to defeat the Undefeatable. And here it is in the hands of my adversary who is challenging he does not understand. I am impressed at myself. The work of God is needed to meet me face to face. Still sharp with his eyes, he jumped on me with the Sword raised above his head. The blades again met and a lightning crashed on the ground. I pushed him back and swung my scythe as he dodged with ease and dived back and took guard. I smirked and ran towards him revolving myself into a spin with the blade ready to cut anything that comes in contact. He dived again avoiding his end again. As I rested my spin, he yielded the Solarbringer and started bashing as much as he could while I deflected every attack while still happy about watching a worthy Guardian after a long time.
Every living creature has a bond between soul and the body that keeps them together against harm from casual dangers and deadly minions, that is me. Depends upon the will to sustain life and the Karma he have lived for, the bond generates energy that makes life stronger and difficult for me to finish my job. For most creatures, the bond generates passive shield that can withstand only weak forces of darkness and easily get succumbed soon. But for creatures with high Karma and grace, the bond produces an active spirit called "The Guardian". The Guardian is destined to protect the bond till it lasts. But as "fate" terms it, everything that has a beginning, has an end. So the Guardian protects the bond till it end comes and there by brings the end to the life it guards too. And it happens mostly in my generals’ hands or in special case like Mark, has to be mine.
The guardian raised the Solarbringer that looked majestic with its 40 inches blade and extra ordinary 10 inch hilt that forces one to hold the sword with two hands and yet confuse the opponent for a double edged sword that can strike even on the handle side. He swung the blade and it clashed again with mine. The blade remaining against each other, he pushed it hard trying to push it over me. "Do you know what you are fighting for, Guardian?" I laughed at him. "I am death! I cannot be defeated, you blind man" I growled and pushed his sword away. He remained silent and moved in circle waiting for his moment to watch me lost stance. I have seen these pathetic Guardians doing the same again and again as they are told. Their entire life has been written as a Haiku with only words meaning "Fight till Death conquers you". As I lowered my arms a bit, he moved in and struck with his sword towards my left. It met the Scythe and he backed again. I must admit that this is a worthy fight that I have been waiting for so long that I forgot how long it has been since I have to watch the rival’s eyes to determine when his next attack is going to be. The eyes speak before your own arms get the message for action. His eyes spoke swift and hard that it made an impact inside me with every action. Could he be the one to bring the change? Is it time for Duke to go? Is this the beginning of a new era?
The fight continued on as the clashes produced more destruction and thunder as it deafened everything around. With fight aggravating for heavenly hours with both of the players incapable of giving up, the clash moved across seas and oceans and on to the deep forests and finally to the Almighty’s feet at the edge of the river of Void. Fighting harder and harder I wished for the first time, that this should get over soon and found his eyes blinking for a second and before I could interpret its meaning, the sword came to my left and hit the handle taking it away from my grasp. The next bash almost sliced my arm as I dived away to leave the blade untouched. I grabbed the weapon from the ground and moved with a spin on him as he went on moving behind deflecting each attack with the Solarbringer. And with the final attack, I struck hard the blade over his head but he moved away in the final split second.
As the scythe hit the ground, he kicked it taking it away from my grasp once again. And this time, he was lucky enough to wound my arm with his blade and I fell on my back rolling away from the sharp edges reaching out to my weapon. Like a true soldier, he stood there waiting from me to gain ground. "You have no idea what you are doing?" I shouted at him. He really has no idea. "Why do you not understand that death can never be conquered?" There is no win in this fight. "You arrogant slayers never try to realize the simple truth" I was aloud trying to make him understand the inevitable. He never spoke. His eyes were blind yet fixed on me. "Fools!" I laughed. "Victory is not your destiny. You can never stop fighting. I am just trying to offer my help to end this torture." Like drumming on the deaf ears, he stood still with guard. "Okay! If you want it that way, so be it." I decided it is time for the ultimate test. It is time to leave the destiny in the hands of the "fate". I raised my weapon for one final clash. The storm rose high and the clouds gathered together breaking the silence with thunder. It started to rain. He held his hands tight on the sword and raised his arms ready for the strike. The final blow will tell us who would succeed. Whatever the end is, you will not survive. "The Gods play the dice. Let us play with Strength." I ran towards the Guardian with the scythe in front, he too followed unaware of what lay ahead. As the thunders roared as we came close to each other, we swung the blades finishing the fight as we crossed our path slowing down the run at the other end. He turned around still holding the Solarbringer firm in his hands but lowered towards the ground. He knew his opponent could not hold the weapon after the blade has sliced across the torso. I dropped the scythe. My hands would not obey my will. And my legs failed too. I let down myself on the ground. "Well done, Guardian. Well done. You have finally done what most of your kind is not even worth to think of". I let out a loud laugh. Like the only keeper of the secret, I laughed at his ignorance. "Your will to succeed have made you lose your destiny. " I looked at his proud yet confused eyes with full of questions. Of all the questions that haunted him, it is not ‘what next?’ that troubled him but the question why no one told the end of his destiny that frightened him. "You still do not understand. Do you?" I laughed for one last time under Duke’s skin. "It is time for Duke to go and you to embrace death".
And as the last word echoed, I revealed him the truth. "When you conquer death, you become ‘Death’. And I remain forever." As he moved behind realizing his stupidity, the Solarbringer disappeared and the scythe replaced its place in his hands. As the remains of Duke were blown by the winds, his face grew darker and the cloak covered the body that was once protected by Golden armor. The destiny rewritten, the Guardian of the light reincarnated as the Reaper of souls bidden to the commands of the Gods. And the Gods have spoken his first task in his new destiny. "The soul of Mark".

Soccer Weekend

2008-09-28T23:29:00.004-04:00

Thanks to Srikanth for the new HD projector and Satman's love for Soccer and my passion for video games, we were able to set up a big screen Soccer Arena this weekend. Though the last time I played real football was during my high school days, (I lost every game) and if you do not consider the tiny guys hitting the plastic ball in our office diner (Foosball), this is a huge advancement in my sports interest. And the game play of "Winning Eleven 9" also known as "Pro Evolution Soccer" is very exciting and way better than the weak and "more-for-looks" EA FIFA titles. Not only did I hit my first goal in my first game, I won 5 games so far even against Satman who have mastered the game for years. Now, will it make this any less if I say that I won all the games through penalty shootouts? Who cares? I won. Didn't I?
I have decided to put some effort on training lessons to improve my skills. Satman, be prepared to be challenged soon!

Best "buy" from Best Buy

2008-09-22T23:27:00.003-04:00

I know that I told a lot about being a desi. But before I begin, please be clear that I did not pull a "desi" though Satman and Srikanth can be categorized as one. This started a week back when Satman called one evening and asked for my home address and verified whether I have a cable connection at home. Though I had a doubt whether he is going to gift us a free cable connection even though my birthday is very far away, I put away that thought knowing that I might be forced to buy a new TV if we get a cable connection. When Me and Srikanth met him in Best Buy, one of America's largest electronics store chain who have absolutely no idea of what they are selling and might even say 250GB hard drive computer is faster than 160GB computer, he was acting secretive and behaved like a secret agent making unfocussed eye contacts and speaking in a low voice as if we are "watched". He was not ready to disclose his intentions even after asking him. His face appeared as if he have stolen a 55" HDTV and was wondering how to hide it in the pocket. Not able to understand what it was all about, we just waited for an hour and finally found that he pulled a "desi". The unintelligent BestBuy guys have priced a Gateway laptop at 520 which is actually sold at 800 bucks in their online store. Now getting the news from his friend, Satman had made a hush-hush purchase of the laptop and came out victorious. Now this is not the entire news. BestBuy also has an offer of $100 off on your laptop if you get a broadband connection from them. And this is where the "Desi" mind came to act. The 520 dollars laptop became just 420 when bought with an Internet connection. And guess what. You can terminate the Broadband connection as soon as billing completes. And that is what I call a "Desi buy".
Hearing the amazing deal, Srikanth too pulled a "Desi" and came out with a laptop for his own on the same day.
One must understand that no laws or rules were crossed in this deal. The wrong pricing was a mistake by the Best Buy store and they had no intention of correcting it even though the mistake was pointed directly on their website by some users. And even the broadband connection was terminated legally by the helpdesk.
So after watching this for a week and when the news reached that the price was corrected in the store but in the wrong direction from 520 to 440 dollars, I too had no hesitation in pulling off the deal. But as I mentioned in the start, I did not pull it in "Desi style" for my mind could not find any justifiable reason for taking the broadband connection and canceling it just to benefit from the offer. But still 480 (incl. taxes) for a laptop with configuration Intel Core 2 Duo 5750 2GHz processor, 4GB RAM and ATI HD2600 512MB graphics card is not a deal but a steal.

How to capture "Team Work"?

2008-09-18T00:46:00.005-04:00

Our department comes up with interesting idea once in a while. And now it has put up a Photography contest and the choice of topics are "Company Values" and "Team Work". Now the main rule is that I have to take photos especially for this contest and can not use the already taken ones. So I can not use our Treat photos to show our team work in finishing off the Birthday boy's wallet. My evil mind is having troubles in thinking of creative ways to show case "Team work" other than planning to trip down the project manager by a rope. So I request you all, my beloved readers who rarely (never) comment for my posts to break the silence and help me with good ideas for the contest. If commenting on the blog is not comfortable with you, please send me a mail or leave an offline message in the IM or send a SMS or call to my mobile if you know the phone number.

Prizes if won will obviously be shared with those who help me out. Of course, the percentage of your share will be decided later after I receive the prize.

UPDATE: The contest is extended till 26th September 2008. So keep pouring your ideas.

2.6 Million people named Desi

2008-09-15T21:50:00.003-04:00

The term Desi is a common way of referring to the emigrants from the Indian Sub continent living in US and UK either temporarily or permanently for many generations. Primarily not an offensive term and is more used by the Desis only, the word has starting representing a culture of its own. The culture that it has established represents many aspects of a daily desi life and the life styles followed by a typical Indian immigrant. The love of spicy food at any time of the day is a classic characteristic of a Desi. Been in UK for almost an year and being in US for the last 1.5 years, I have noticed many interesting characteristics that a Desi typically exhibit, some of which are to be proud of; also equal share of shames and few embarrassing or unethical behaviors too. Here I have tried to list few of them but mostly the adverse characters seen in a Traditional Desi. As most conventional characters are similar to an Indian resident, I have pointed out only the adverse ones. Please not that all the points are my own view and is not meant to hurt anyone.

As already said, Love of spicy food that is "Cooked". "Cooked" food generally means food that is either fried on a Tava or deep fried in oil. Steam boiled food is not considered to be cooked except for rice.
A perfect Desi considers any food that has bread including Subs, sandwiches and burgers as a snack. Only "Cooked" food is considered as meals.
"A penny saved is a penny earned" - Benjamin Franklin
"A penny saved is Rs.0.45 earned" - Desi
For a desi, everything needs to be converted to Rupees. A burger for 2.3 dollars is too costly compared to 10 rupees Pani Puri in India.
"Please" is reserved for important occasions only and are hard to be used on normal conversations.
As a general rule, never talk to others unless you are questioned.
American: "How are you today?"
Desi: Fine. (Do I know him? Why is he talking to me?)

Desi 1: "Hello" *smiles*
Desi 2: Returns a stare. (Now what does he/she want from me?)
If it does not affect you, it is never a problem.
Bashes Indian Police for not following rules. Swears at American Police for following strict rules.
Can take a right turn by standing in the front of the left most lanes.
Complains about the low quality of the pirated movies online and the high cost of Pirated DVDs.
Never heard about the concept of 'buying' MP3 songs.
Calculates the resale price of the car before owning it.
Rules are meant to be bent and Contracts are made to be broken. Whether it is the internet or the mobile phone, the service must last only till the offer exists.
Anything that is not bought in sale is considered as over-priced.
Feels happy about fall in India's economy which would mean increase in US Dollar value against Indian Rupee.
15-day return policy are created for renting high end gadgets for the weekend tours.
Girl friends are important for healthy social life. Night clubs and lap dances are modern culture. But the bride should be from a homely family brought up in a traditional society.

Tweet! Tweet!

2008-09-09T20:20:00.004-04:00

After years of speaking, shouting, growling, yawning, burping, hiccupping, laughing, whispering, humming, singing, screaming, crying, hissing, murmuring and even blogging, I thought I will sound myself in one another way. For I know twittering too. And you can hear me twitter at http://twitter.com/injey. Let me know if you tweet. We can listen to each other even if it might sound like a crow.

For those, who dont know what Twitter is:
(Ref: Wikipedia)
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.
Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. The sender can restrict delivery to those in his or her circle of friends (delivery to everyone being the default). Users can receive updates via the Twitter website, instant messaging, SMS, RSS, email or through an application such as Twitterrific or Facebook.

The best part is that I can tweet from my iPhone too through Twitterrific Application or from www.pockettweets.com on my iPhone Safari browser. Tweet! Tweet!

GM diet on the air - Emergency Curfew on food!

2008-09-06T15:18:00.005-04:00

I hereby declare a emergency curfew on all talks that involves the deliciousness of food especially cakes, ice creams and deep fried chicken for the next four days.
This is put in place to restrict the temptations of breaking my GM diet planned for this week. Not having any troubles following the diet plan in the second week of August, I decided to try it for a week this September too. But I must admit, it is getting difficult this time. Probably it was easier last time as one another person joined me in the diet and we had each other for support. But as I am trying it alone this time, any talk on creamy donuts or spicy masala curries is tempting me to write an exception to have limited quantity of junk food against the rule. But as Neo replies to Smith's question "Why not give up?", I say the same. "Because I chose to". So here I am fighting to up hold the law and control my mind. And I smell victory and not the cod fish at hand.

I actually wrote about the struggle and experiences from the first week, but somehow did not post it before. Boy! Am I proud to say that I reduced about 7 pounds in the first week!
>>Click here to read more

Not able to withstand the continuous criticism on my recent photographs and the fact that the weighing machine is spinning fast when I stand on it, I decided to take the sour pill of dieting. I have also tried few other ways of reducing my own personal punch bag through Gym and Apple Cider Vinegar but there are many obstacles in it. I am unable to go to gym regularly due to the legal necessity of a driving license to drive the car. And the intolerable Apple Cider Vinegar tastes more like Vinegar than Apple. Probably they added it in a proportion of 1:100000. It is the most awful syrup I have ever tasted. Even the tablet equivalent of the syrup did not make any difference. Fed up with these failed attempts, it was time to do the diet way. Contrary to many people's belief, dieting is not stopping to eat, but eating the right food. And searching for the best diet plan, I finally landed up on this GM diet.

GM diet was developed for employees and dependents of General Motors, Inc. I couldn't understand the connection between fitness and automobiles. But reading that the plan was designed in the year 1985 makes you amaze at the Employee relations program by GM.
Coming to the point, GM diet is a week program with food limited by type and not on quantity every day. For the details about the GM diet, please refer here.

Now let’s take a look at my day to day experience in GM diet.

Day 0: A diet plan for 7 days that has mostly vegetables and fruits kinda scares me out. It might be because I am used to having them between the actual meals. So taking them as the actual meal raised my eyebrows a lot. But with strong determination, I prepared myself for the diet. I enjoyed myself with delicious idlis, masala dosa, medhu vada and spicy noodles at Udipi for brunch and dose of Spinach sauce dipped tortillas, chicken wrap and grilled herb chicken at Applebee’s for dinner. One week of dieting was compensated the day before itself.
Physical state: Strong and burping after heavy dinner
Mental state: Thrilled to start the diet

Day 1: All fruits except bananas. Your first day will consist of all the fruits you want. It is strongly suggested that you consume lots of melons the first day. Especially watermelon and a loupe. If you limit your fruit consumption to melons, your chances of losing three lbs. on first day are very good.

Watermelon being a favorite to me, the day started happily with watermelon in a 1 liter container for breakfast and 2 liters for lunch. Towards the evening, the stomach started showing its anger of not getting bread and cheese for the day. But I somehow controlled it by drinking a lot of water whenever the hunger tried to start. Had another liter size of Watermelon and half-a-liter container of cantaloupe for dinner. The toughest part was ordering a pizza for my flat mates and unable to taste it.
Physical state: Still strong and healthy with very less fatigue but no change in weight. The scale stills spins to an alarming position.
Mental state: Facing the challenge of avoiding junk food. Not much trouble though.

Day 2: All vegetables. You are encouraged to eat until you are stuffed with all the raw or cooked vegetables of your choice. There is no limit on the amount or type. For your complex carbohydrate, you will start day two with a large baked potato for breakfast. You may top the potato with one pat of butter.

Potatoes for breakfast??? What kind of diet is this anyway? But followed it heartily. Got a baking potato and micro waved it as I had no patience and time for baking it in oven for an hour. I was able to eat one whole baked potato which tasted better after adding a pinch of salt in the second half. Took a packet of Baby carrots for lunch which is the strangest meal I ever had. Like Bugs Bunny I happened to talk to the colleagues munching my carrot all the way. I was getting a bit hungry towards the night but was saved by steamed mixed vegetables with seasoning.
Physical state: Still no sign of weight decrease.
Mental state: Interesting. Everyone is talking about the diet plan. That made me feels motivated.

Day 3: A mixture of fruits and vegetables of your choice. Any amount, any quantity. No bananas yet. No potatoes today.

Work was hectic and the day started with no breakfast. But no tiredness. Felt like my body was getting used to the diet. I had 1 liter container of Watermelon for lunch and a cucumber in the evening. Today brought the greatest test ever over my determination. We went to Cold stone creamery and got "Midnight delight", a three-layered chocolate ice-cream cake for my room mate's birthday and Srikanth who accompanied me bought a large scoop of ice-cream mixed with roasted almonds and was eating all the way back home. But the toughest challenge was to munch cucumbers while everyone were filling themselves with Ice-cream cake. But I survived the day and the Diet plan is still alive.
Physical state: Hurray! Scale shows a pound less. I know it is less for all the sacrifices. But it is a start.
Mental state: Waiting for the week to be over. Already plan set to visit Cold stone on Monday.

Day 4: Bananas and milk. Today you will eat as many as eight bananas and drink three glasses of milk. This will be combined with the special soup which may be eaten in limited quantities.

This day indeed went by easier than I thought. Consumed only 6 bananas and a glass of milk for the whole day in addition to the 10 glasses of water. Water was more for hunger than thirst quencher. Lived through the day even after discussing the possible options for Vinayak's birthday treat and best Indian restaurants close by.
Physical state: One more pound decreased! Little concerned about the slow decrease in weight.
Mental state: Appears like I can complete the diet plan successfully. Slight thoughts of repeating the plan again in the future.

Day 5: Beef and tomatoes. The beef is for iron and proteins, the tomatoes are for digestion and fiber. Lots and lots of water purify your system. You should notice colorless urine today. Your allowance calls for the equivalent of five "quarter ponders". Do not feel you have to eat all this beef. You must eat the six tomatoes.

This is the costliest diet I have ever tried. Trying to have a healthy diet, I bought organic tomatoes instead of the usual Roma tomatoes and had to pay 10 bucks for 8 tomatoes. It makes me feel worried to see the cost of naturally grown vegetables costlier than the fertilized ones. I had 2 tomatoes for breakfast followed by 2 more and a roast beef sandwich for lunch. Finished off the day with two tomatoes for dinner. Hunger had stopped completely. And even treat in an Indian restaurant did not tempt me one bit. Hoping the remaining two days will go in a breeze.
Physical state: 2 more pounds decreased. That is 4 pounds in 5 days. But I was promised at least 10 pounds in 7 days.
Mental state: Felt sleepy in the evening. No sign of hunger though the total intake was just 8 tomatoes and a sandwich.

Day 6: Beef and vegetables. Today you may eat an unlimited amount of beef and vegetables. Eat to your hearts content.

The craving for food was higher today as I was just sitting in home on the weekend. With the previous days gone while being busy with work in office, sitting without any work pressed the stomach to take spicy and nutty food. It was a very hard day. Though you can eat unlimited amount of beef (meat), the fact we should eat without cheese or oil reduced the options. I settled down to sandwiches bought in Wal-Mart and removed the thick layer of cheese before eating it. But still managed to survive and the Diet continued.
Physical state: Just 1 more pound decreased. Made me wonder if I am doing anything wrong,
Mental state: I wanted to be in office so that the time will pass faster. Newton's law of relativity was playing its role.

The Final day: Today your food intake will consist of brown rice, fruit juices and all the vegetables you care to consume.

Fruit juices at last. The day passed with lots of watermelon juice and apples and watching "Tropic Thunder" helped in passing the time. And even when Srikanth, Vinayak and Satish suggested having ice-cream from Cold Stone Creamery, I was strong enough to sit next and watch them while they were eating "I love it" size of Banana Split, Cheesecake and Chocolate fantasy ice creams. I cleared the final test of controlling the temptation with flying colors.

The Verdict: Like a school kid awaiting the exam results, I was waiting for the Monday morning but only to realize that Vinayak had tampered the zero reading of the weighing scale and it showed almost 15 pounds less than my weight at the start of the week which can not be the truth. So with final approximation of how much he changed the reading, the total count came to 6 to 8 pounds. This is a great achievement for a guy who tried to reduce weight for the last 5 months but only increased by more than 10 pounds. So the final verdict is "GM diet works!"

Speeding ticket

2008-09-05T12:57:00.003-04:00

Should I be thankful that it did not happen a week before when I was having only the Indian driving license and my US driving license was in expired state? Or should I be worried of being stopped by a cop in the highway? Or should I be cheered for joining the majority of the US drivers who atleast have got stopped by the cop once? Should I be excited for getting my first speeding ticket and that too 20 miles above the speed limit? Or should I just teach myself to be aware of the cops while speeding? Except the first two options, rest are either stupid or unethical. But as most other adrenaline pumped young (I AM YOUNG) drivers, though I am sorry for speeding, I am somehow less concerned. After all, I was not driving reckless. There is a huge difference between ove rspeeding and reckless driving. Over speeding is like using calculator in a Engineering Maths exam. You may not be allowed to use it, but it is not going to give any formula or direct answers. But reckless driving is copying answers from the next person. You not only skip the learning part but also put yourself in danger in case that the other person is wrong. I was using a calculator and unfortunately it was a scientific one(higher speeds).

Anyway, though I learnt my lesson at heart not to speed beyond the speed limit, whats so ironic was when I told about this speeding ticket to Satman, his comment was "You got caught speeding in a Chevy Uplander (7 seater mini van)? That is lame". Now the speeding is not making me feel worried, but his question "Just Chevy Uplander????" bothers me. Would it feel better if it had been a Pontiac G6 or a Mustang GT?

PS: I do not know the fine amount yet. I am asked to get that information by calling the department office in Georgia and they told that citation is not filed into the computer till now and I have to check with them next week.

Summer Blockbusters - June 2008

2008-08-27T08:57:00.009-04:00

June 2008 promised a variety of entertainment from animations, comedy, action, adventure and thrillers. And most of them were either from huge productions or had notable cast in it which added lot of expectations on them. So here they are - Summer blockbusters of June 2008.
Click here for Movies from the month of May 2008.

June 6th - Kungfu Panda
Now that is a good entertainer. An animated movie with the voices of All-Big stars including Jackie-Chan, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Lucy Liu and Jack Black as the Kung-fu Panda. Nothing great about the story, but it sure hell was fun from the start till the end. A definite family movie to enjoy with all the gags and cool animation put up together. The camera movements in the action sequences were so great that it makes one forget that it is an animated movie. Good watch for the summer season.

June 13th - The Happening and The Incredible Hulk
I do not remember what made me busy that I could not watch both of these movies. I did not care about the Hulk though. Even the first part was pathetic with cheap special effects. But "The happening" had a greater expectation for me. Strange that I watched only the first 15 minutes of the movie so far. And yes, I loved it. Though the movie did not go well with the Box office, I am sure it will be great to watch like "The Lady in the water".

June 20th - Get Smart
Another James Bond Parody is what I thought before going to the movie. After watching Steve Carell in "Dan in real life" and Anne Hathaway in "The Devil wears Prada", the movie appeared to be worth a try. But then I was in for a surprise. This film became the top film I laughed out loud and heartily throughout. Steve Carell and his silly jokes especially when he boasts about his hi-tech gadgets prove his natural trait in bringing out comedy so easily to all. Roc was nothing but a cherry at the top while Kali was a bonus. The million dollar question though is "Which kiss in the movie was the best?"
a. Anne Hathaway and Steve b. Anne Hathaway and Kali (or) c. Steve and Roc? Hell! Yeah baby! Do you like to guess the winner?

June 27th - Wall-E and Wanted
Though we can not call them as the two double-U (W) releasing the same week, both are great movies of their own. Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth class or simply Wall-E is an animated movie set in a reality-check in not-so-far future. I must admit that I did not hope much for the movie and feared that this would be disaster to Pixar. But against all my thoughts, this movie was sweet, cute, adorable and funny as hell with a strong message regarding the environment. The Love story between the two robots that can speak nothing much more than their names is so touching and lasts forever. I watched the whole movie with a kid sitting behind my seat who was questioning every scene of the movie while his dad was trying hard to enjoy the movie in-between giving answers to his son. The movie will be remembered for a long time.
"Wanted" on the other hand was based on a comic book which is becoming a trend these days. All film producers and digging out the old book shelves for thrown away comics and put big casts to make money out of it. Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman star as the Merchants of death working in the secret organization called "The Fraternity". The movie has its own share of twists and wicked humor that keeps everyone thrilled till the bullet comes out of Morgan's forehead in the end. It was a good weekend with the entertaining back-to-back features.

The Beginning of the End

2008-08-17T23:19:00.007-04:00

Tomorrow might be my last day in the current project. Though I have heard these words for the last 6 months, the end seems to be definite this time. The last 19 months of staring at the same status screen and recovering the same loads again and again have taught me a lot that includes both technical and managerial aspects of the project. I even learnt tips of tricks of handling the politics that run within the IT industry especially in the client space when you are not the most favorite to them and survival depends more on your smartness than hard work in creating the solution. Between the time of learning the code which God knows who developed and even He might not know who maintained, you will have to use your social skills in getting information from your co-workers who see you as a threat to their job. So it’s a tough task in getting the job done and also getting the credit for it. But there are also few good souls who would recognize your efforts in a while and you are motivated to work for those appreciation mails. This Project had not made me work longer weekends than my previous ones but this indeed made me face tougher challenges and sleepless nights as while you prepare yourself to play the blame game with other teams in the project, your offshore sometimes trip you like a lousy sidekick by pressing the wrong buttons out of sheer curiosity.
Though there are many incidents that I might be forced to create a new blog titled "My pain and the gain with the Cable Guy", I will put up a few events that are at the top of my memories.

The Beginning of the Never-ending story
Brought to onsite for created GPS reports (Please watch Wanted movie), before I could set my hands on them properly, my PM called me for a meeting. These are the exact words he said.
"Our project is in a very bad state. The client might throw us out if we do not do something about it. And it is all in your hands. I am putting you in charge of Production Support team and you must bring the team up and create a good name with the client. You can do it."
Everyone who would hear such inspiring words from your manager and assuring that the world rests on your hands; it probably would have created enlightenment in your mind and brought Goosebumps inside you. But for me, it tickled and I laughed out loud for I heard him saying the same dialogue to S to persuade him join another module. We all love our managers for their convincing words. Don’t we? But I hoped he could have changed the words at the least.

The night I almost screwed up
Not even a month of leading the Production support from onsite, I had a simple instruction to run specific jobs in the night. And that day happened to be a party night and everyone were at home and we were enjoying a good dinner. The clock struck 11 and I went on to my start the specified jobs only to find that a variation of that job is already active from 10. The schedule for the new jobs was at 10 and not at 11 which I completely forgot. Not willing to call the client to face embarrassment, I took the bold step of going through the entire code, understand it, find the pros and cons of running it after 11 and created the detailed steps to complete it successfully. The plan went on for the whole night and it took 20 hours to finish the whole load. But still I had to spend another sleepless night as I was not sure if I made any mistake that the client might notice the next day. But fortunately, everything went fine and nobody even suspected the manual overrides done on the weekend. It taught me a huge lesson. Always remember that you CAN do it, if you WISH for it and WORK HARD to make it happen. And also make sure you note down the time in your schedule correctly.

24 hours conference call and $25 movie tickets
Almost an year back during the labor day weekend, when everyone in the office were on their long planned vacations while I was just sitting in home with no plans, the server crashed and forced all of them to join the conference call. With everyone's vacation ruined and me with nothing to be ruined, we spent 24 hours in the call while engineers from various team tried hard in bringing back the crashed server to life. As the issue was not directly on my application, I had nothing to do in the whole time except keep the mobile charged and was left lying on the bed for the whole day. Though my brain tried to follow up the progress of the issue, my mind could not concentrate on the call owing to the sleepiness night. My only real work was running the test loads on the next day and declaring that all things are fine. And the reward: A signed appreciation letter (hard copy) from the client along with $25 worth movie tickets. Dedication pays off sometime with style.

The night I thought I screwed up
This happened few months back when we saw failure on a module which never had any problem before. With preliminary analysis done and the solution derived to solve the problem, we proceed with applying the fix. As the normal process, we are supposed to take backup of the data before doing any changes in the system. Even though I am always bit of extra precautious in handling the production systems and would rather be a road block than a open canal for care-free developers, on this particular day I was partially out of my mind and allowed the code execution on the production without any backups. As if it is a punishment for my carelessness, the tests failed and were showing weird output in the test environment. As I had proceeded with the production before verifying the results from the test environment, I knew I am in deep trouble. The whole weekend became a nightmare with all strange thoughts from being branded as the reckless guy in the project to getting fired by the client flashing in my dreams. Hard it was to understand that what was done is already done and there is nothing you can do to undo it. As we did not even take the backup, so recovery from an old backup is a costly option which was closer to impossible. With alarms running through my mind, it was Hemant's unimportant question whether I had run the tests on the Production environment itself. And that was when it struck me that we never ran complete tests in production and were presuming by looking at the similar test environment. A quick test finally revealed to my surprise that the production does not have any issues and the test environment was already corrupted before we had applied our fix. Breathing at last, I laughed at myself for making judgment calls without complete information. Another important lesson learnt from the day. Facts have better answers than your assumptions. It is never too late to recheck your results. Sometimes it is advisable to listen to your colleagues.

The Summer Blockbusters - May 2008

2008-08-17T22:55:00.004-04:00

Summer is almost over. But the summer blockbusters are over already. This summer happened to be a great year for movies with one greatly expected movie releasing every week. "A movie every weekend" was the plan but considering the other movies that released along with the big ones and the DVD mail in subscriptions, it happened to almost a movie a day. But let’s not worry about the other movies as they did not create any surprise much. Let’s talk and rate the blockbusters now one month at a time.

Movies of the summer 2008:
Ref: (Firstshowing.net)

May 2nd - Iron Man
I never thought this will be any good. Not a fan of Iron man, actually never read any comic about him, we watched the movie with very less anticipation. Even the trailer wasn’t so cool. But guess what? The movie was total fun. Robert Downey Jr did a good job as the Arms dealer turned Super-hero. And yes. The ending was in a word "Striking". Good start for the summer season.
Rating: 4/5

May 9th - Speed Racer
Opposed to Iron Man, Speed Racer was one movie that I awaited for more than a year. It is a Japanese anime turned to a flashy witty and same cartoonish thrilling roller coaster ride. The eastern bright color added a nice touch to the entire movie and even with all the fast action; it was cool to have the same cartoonish feeling all over the movie. If you haven't watched it yet, just go and enjoy the ride. The summer is getting better. Read more of my opinion here.
Rating: 4.5/5
>>More here

May 16th - The Chronicles of Narnia - Prince Caspian
The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe though was made a hit did not dazzle me as I had seen the cartoon adaptation of the C.S.Lewis' fantasy novel. Except few special effects the movie was nothing but a film that parents can take their kids too. Also we have seen these animated wars in many other better movies like Lord of the Rings itself, it left me remembering Vivek's dialogue in the movie "Run", "ithelaam naanga ratha kaneerleya paathutomla" (We have already seen these in the old "Blood tears" movie). So I could not find the urge to watch the second part of the Chronicles of Narnia. I guess it did not any difference from the first one.
Rating: n/a

May 22nd - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Before we go into bashing and dashing about this sequel, let’s get one thing straight. This movie was made just to relive the glory days of Original Indiana Jones adventures and made by the fans. Yeah! I am talking about Spielberg and Lucas here. And it had all the fun that the original movie had. Right from the shadow of Jones putting his hat, (If it was Kollywood, there would have whistles) to the scene La Beoulf taking the hat from the floor after the wedding, it is all about reliving the good old times. This movie had all the mix and match one would expect from Indiana Jones. It has a good start, charming villain, betraying friends, families to add sentiments, and the villains getting their end by the hands of the same treasure they seek. All in all, a good entertainer if you can leave your brains out.
Rating: 3/5

May 30th - Sex and the City
Sorry guys. I am not a fan of this TV series and definitely do not find Jessica Parker any attractive or whatsoever. So this movie went outside my hook and I think it did not do any good in the box office anyway.
Rating: n/a

Shooting the moon

2008-08-17T02:00:00.005-04:00

நித்தமும் சிந்தித்தேன்;
இருள்வரை யோசித்தேன்.
உன் புகழினை படிக்க;
கவிதை ஒன்றை இயற்ற.
தோன்றவில்லை மனதில்;
அவளைக்கண்ட மறுபொழுதில்.

[+/-]Click here for the English translation of the poem. (Not by words, but the inner meaning that the poem conveys).

Every second, I thought;
Till the night, I tried.
To express your glory
To recite a poem for you.
But no words came to my mind;
From the moment she was in my sight.

Winterbells from Ferry Hailm's Orisinal games

2008-08-08T01:18:00.006-04:00

It is indeed a big challenge to find a computer game that does not involve kills or deaths or destruction. Almost all the classic games involve either destroying enemies or escaping from being killed. Space invaders was all about destroying the aliens while defending your base; Pacman is about escaping from the ghosts and eating the ghosts at times; Mario smashes all the creatures to the ground and throws fireballs too. If we come to the recent days, 99.99% of the games involve weapons ranging from swords, guns or even bombs to draw blood all over the screen. With many social organizations accusing video games in playing major roles in violence in the real world, a search for games to disprove that there are games without blood or deaths leaves us with only puzzle and sports simulations. Even racing simulations give you points or provides an advantage if the road safety rules are not followed. Though it is highly debatable if video games provide nothing but harm to the society which I personally disagree, it is indeed hard to find a game that does not have violence in it.

Lucky I was to find this flash game, Winterbells that provided a very good example of a game for everyone. So cute is the bunny and so pleasing is the music score that you will never want to close the game. And every time, the bunny jumps on the bell breaking it into sparkles, it really lightens up your mind. Even, when you do not get to step on the bells, you fall all the way only to land safely on the ground ready for the next chance. If you ask me for a game with no violence, here it is.
It appears that the game is one of the 60 flash games under the name Orisinal by Ferry Halim from Fresno, California and has received lot of awards for its artistic and entertaining nature. Hats off to him for all the wonderful games. More of his games can be found at his site here.

After hours of play, I have reached the highest score of 65310. Play the game and let me know your high score soon.

The Uncertainty

2008-08-05T23:12:00.003-04:00

You can only hope;
Pray with closed eyes;
Dream of something big;
Be afraid to face;
Plan to conquer;
Await with raised brows;
Hesitate with doubts;
Guess like a dice;
Because whatever you do,
You can never know me.

- The Future

The Best gift of the year!

2008-08-05T10:25:00.007-04:00

Of all my birthday presents this year, the one that tops everything else is my sister's birthday mail. Nothing to be surprised of when you see what she gave me for the last year here.

So this year's wish was more than a painting. It was the visualization of a beautiful dream. I still feel flabbergasted reading it again and again being so proud of her. Thank you Chetai.

THERE IS A GARDEN ,
THE GROUND IS COVERED WITH SMALL GRASS,
THERE IS MANY FLOWERS ,
THERE IS A SMALL PARK IN THAT GARDEN ,THERE IS A BENCH IN THE PARK
YOU , ME , MOTHER ,FATHER ,PACKIA SISTER AND RAJADURAIMACHAN
NOT ONLY US ALL OF THEM PARIPA PERIMA ......
ARE SITTING IN THAT PARK AND ENJOYING

HOW DO YOU FEEL .....................

MANY MANY HAPPY RETURNS OF THE DAY
HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Surprise!!!!!! - Based on a true story

2008-07-31T21:49:00.008-04:00

My best efforts in trying not to notice the birthday party that my flat mates were planning for me, which was pretty hard to ignore considering that we stay together, must have somehow created a chemical disturbance in my brain that it developed a shield around my "common" sense and made me ignore all the obvious signs that X had left about the secret surprise for the evening. So when we completed the dinner at Cafe Nirvana and were about to leave, to my surprise (real one), a chocolate ice-cream cake was brought to the table with a single candle lit on the center. As it reached the table, I was left dumb stuck with all questions on how, when and where they planned the surprise. The funny part was that I was with X the whole evening when X had bought the cake without my knowledge and the worst to hear was that the cake was bought with my own credit card as X lost the wallet. I never suspected a cake all the time. It was a complete opposite situation of what I had been talking about the whole day on how "lame" friends try to surprise you on your birthday. There I was sitting flabbergasted watching X who has been the victim of all tease and pranks in the recent days defeating me out by complete surprise. With X and Dr.P along with Deepak from the restaurant singing the birthday song, I made my secret wish and blew the candle for the second time celebrating the silver jubilee of my existence. Even though this year's birthday started and ended in the middle of offshore calls, there is no doubt it beat the previous one hands down. Let’s pray and hope it will be as interesting and eventful as the previous year.

Thanks for the surprise X and Dr.P. You made the day much happier and a memorable one.

Signs I ignored leading me to the path of "Dumb" and "Surprise!"

I dropped X in the Wal-Mart to buy "2 apples" for dinner. I never suspected why apples were so important for the night when we were already on the way for a treat.
X and Dr.P were murmuring secretly as we got out of the car in front of the restaurant.
After being seated, X went back to the car to get the mobile and was reluctant when I offered my help in getting the mobile.
Dr.P was talking about the previous experiences of the failed attempts in organizing a surprise party. (You succeeded at last Dr.P. Thanks)
Never realized the reason why X took the highly -priced AE classic shirt which I like very much to recheck the rate with the assistant. It later came out to be my present.
X was holding a camera the whole evening, but did not take any photo even while presenting the shirt.

Surprise!!!!!! - Ready, Camera, Action!

2008-07-30T01:18:00.005-04:00

UPDATE: It turned out to be an Orange flavored cake with 12 birthday candles and a strange 'zero' shaped candle in the middle. Trust me. I tried to act surprised to my best. But most of the drama was avoided thanks to the long call we were having with offshore when Naren entered my room with a smile.
So after announcing a break from the call, I dried my throat completely trying to blow all the 12+1 candles in one go and the cake cutting ceremony went well with a butcher knife. The cake was good not only by taste but was also soft when applied on face and to my surprise (yes! It was a surprise), it was not sticky when Srikanth applied it over my head. With Vinayak's slow photography; Naren's diet cokes (that’s the booze); Anji's good heart with namesake birthday bumps and Srikanth's wicked mind to play football on my ....., the midnight surprise party was a successful one. Thanks guys for throwing a wonderful party that took me out by surprise! I never expected it from you! (Sarcasm intended)

Please find below few photos from the party!

Cutting the cake

The Surprise party gang (From left: Anji, me, Srikanth, Naren and Vinayak behind the camera)
Vinayak trying his best to make me fat

Birthday boy with cake on the face

Surprise!!!!!! - Take one!

2008-07-29T22:53:00.003-04:00

The most difficult part of a birthday eve is the act of throwing fake surprise to your friends' un-Surprise Birthday party. Though a birthday party can happen only on the birthday eve and there is no surprise about it, everyone around you would expect you to be surprised when they bring the cake at the stroke of midnight to your room as a surprise. You will have to say all words like "Wow!", "You need not have done that", or "I never imagined this" and even "How do you guys know it is my birthday?????" even though you would have washed your face and are on your neat clothes so that the photos would look perfect. Witnessing this trend for many years from college days, it is always a difficult task for me to act surprised when all your friends live in the same room or house as you and hang out with you all the time. However as a true friend, you will never want others to appear stupid after all the hard work they put on creating the surprise. So I always take the trouble of making sure that I don’t hear any of their plans how much lame they would be sometimes to hide the cake in the refrigerator or make secret calls to the rest of the group in other Indian languages that they believe that I wont understand. What they really don’t understand is that we all obviously expect them to throw a party on the birthday and in what ever language they talk, the words "cake" and "birthday" are always voiced in English. So it is hard not to hear the obvious plans. But we still manage not to surprise our friends by acting surprised on not knowing about the surprise party.

One should understand how hard I have been trying not to be there when Srikanth, Naren, Anji and Vinayak are busy discussing about the party tonight. Whether it was when Naren calling Vinayak to inquire about me or when Anji came home to tell Srikanth that he is going to Bi-lo to get the cake or when he called Srikanth after getting the cake, the best I could do was to act very busy exploring the features of my new iPhone. The only surprise that is not open yet is the flavor of the cake. I bet it is chocolate mousse.

Out of the darkness, comes the Knight

2008-07-22T23:40:00.003-04:00

If there is one movie I have seen the US crowd to wow aloud and even cheer and clap at the end, it was "The Dark Knight". And it is also the first movie for which the tickets were sold out at 10 PM show and we had to take tickets to 10:45 show and could not find any seats together when we entered the hall 10 minutes before the start. The movie was hyped high to such a level that everyone feared that the movie can never satisfy the much expecting audience. It was the most anticipated movie of the summer season or perhaps the most awaited one of the year. Right from the teaser trailer which had nothing more than the voices of Alfred, Batman and the Joker over the batman symbol getting blown up with the final piece showing a joker card, the movie created a sense of something big is on the sight. And after almost 6 months, there were the first pictures of the movie and especially the photo of Heath Ledger as "The Joker". Astonishing is the right word to describe it. The dark mood of the movie was clear to everyone. The Batman begins was sure to continue to extend the true Batman that every fan Gotham's dark knight longed to see in the big screen. And then there was the trailer. No wonder people went crazy. Summer was all that the Batman buffs dreamt for and here it is, finally on the silver screen. Not only did it smash the Box Office on the very first show at one minute past midnight, it lived to the likings and expectations of every Batman fan and all the movie buffs and even those who might even refer the dark knight as "Batsman" as in "Bat's man". And even after seeing the movie twice, I am eager to watch it again over the coming weekend. It is satisfying just to listen to the audience go "wow" when Joker makes the pencil disappear. If you have seen the movie, you would know what I mean.

What you need and what you deserve?

2008-07-19T01:53:00.005-04:00

I am back from "The Dark Knight".Hmmm....... What can I say?
There are so many things to talk about. Much more to explain and discuss. But let us hold on for sometime. There are important things that needs attention. So let me say this first. Forget all the "thought-provoking" or the nerve-breaking thrillers you have ever seen before. This movie will question everything that matters to you. And it questions more. Do you think you are good and are you really good? It questions who you really are? What is the breaking point of every hero? Are choices so simple to be made? Is it best for the fate to decide the choices? Is "control" more powerful than "money"? What drives you to do what you do? Were you really thinking you can do it?

As you could see, I have nothing to say about the movie.... at least not yet. Go to the theatres and experience yourself. You will know there is more for you to answer than comment on the 2.5 hours of astonishment sitting on the edge of the seat.

Before "I" can answer....... I am going to need some time to think. So please wait.

Why so serious?

2008-07-18T20:27:00.003-04:00

Enough is enough. The most anticipated movie of the year is just few hours away from my sight. My plan to watch the first show was spoiled by my manager's request to be in office by 9:30 the next morning. So difficult for a Friday. Now don’t ask me if it is ok on other days. Anyways, the problem was that the first show was screened at 12:01 AM today and I was thoughtful that I may not be able to wake up early after watching the show. I probably would have spent the night dreaming about the movie. So with many thoughts, I had to take the tough decision to watch the movie in the evening. Another fact that made me furious is that our client who is actually brother/sister of the Movie's Production company, (yeah! you guessed it right) arranged Premiere show only for its "EMPLOYEES" and not its "Contractors" on Thursday morning itself. You can imagine how mad I was when one of the clients cancelled the meeting with me on Thursday with the reason "I am going to the movie!” So there I was looking at the same excel sheet while he was enjoying the day with the Dark Knight, a day before the actual release. I wish I have the cold heart as the Joker. But fortunate for him that I didn't have. Public views that the "Contractors" get more money while the employees get only the "Benefits" can not hold true here for I am with an Indian IT services company and we all know how much we are paid compared to both the employees and the direct contractors. It is high time that they provide equality between "Employees" and "Contractors" at least on Movie tickets!
To add fuel to the fire, there are always my friends who said the movie as "The Black Knight" or "The Dark night".

But still unacceptable are the below words.
Me: I am much awaiting the release of "The Dark knight"
X: What is that????
Me: Grrrrrrrr!

Satman, your idea to watch the movie on Saturday still holds. I will watch it again with you. You do not have to doubt about that.

Pin the Donkey tail

2008-07-16T21:36:00.002-04:00

Those who do not know about the righteous explanation for the word "Assume", listen here.
Assume is actually ASS-U-ME which means you are making "Ass out of you and me". Take either the literal meaning or the common-lingo for the first part of the word, it holds right in every way. And this is important in particular to the software engineering world for the whole project will be in jeopardy when start assuming things. I first heard about this when I was in the final year and have been very vigilant in not falling to the pit and becoming one. And whenever someone starts with the phrase, "I assume that..." my mind would immediately imagine what he is changing me to and would be ready to stop him/her. A subtle phrase which means the same meaning and most people use is this. "What I think is....." All I could think is "Why should I care about what you think with your tinkling skull?" It always means that you do not know the subject and is just trying to contribute to the confusion. It is always better and time saving to clear it out with someone who says "I know that..."
Through some means, I was out of the "assume" and "think" world for sometime. But I was sucked back to the world of assumptions when we started our new project here. It is about constructing a hydro-electric power plant and replaces the thermal power plant to move towards eco-energy. The problem is that everyone in the team only knows that there should be dam before we can construct the power plant. Neither are we clear on whether there is any dam over that place nor the size of the plant if and all the dam exists. So we started making Donkeys on each other. (I prefer to use the literal meaning). One person said "I assume that the dam is already built and I think we only need to build the power plant." Another stated, "Probably the dam is smaller. We will make the dam larger for our large power plant." I too had a question. "How large should the power plant be?" Again the only answer we had is "I assume it should be for the village near the dam. So it should be smaller". With me being made a donkey, I did not want to leave things as it is and so I joined the group and started drawing donkeys. After all, we will have the meeting with the client only tomorrow to clear things out. Till that time, we can have some fun. "I think that the dam is present. But we might need another dam on which the plant will function." I added to the assumptions. Thus in few days, we created so many donkeys that we could make a sale either to the Indian kids who are scolded to herd donkeys by their parents or it will be easier to sell in America due to the upcoming elections. Again, I am not sure why they refer donkeys with the elections in US. But discussion on that topic will deviate from this post. So, with so many donkeys unleashed, we waited for the meeting which finally happened today. And guess what, we had drawn a huge donkey and even with blind-folds, we were able to stick its tail in the correct place so easily. We had made perfect donkey clones and the fact happened to be that the dam was built for a different purpose and they already have a small power plant for a different purpose. So we might have to build a new dam and a new power plant for which "how" is not yet answered. This again has invited more donkeys to be drawn and we will continue that in the coming days. It is always tough to avoid donkeys (assumptions) in the initial stages of the project. But we are trying our level best not to affect the ecological system (project deliverables).

PS: Please take the above post in a lighter note as I "know" we are bound to make donkeys in the early stage of the project and it is also important to brainstorm the possible options when the requirements are not aptly put on paper by the client.

A simple "hi"

2008-07-12T22:10:00.005-04:00

It was a normal Friday evening with me on the kart racing track as usual. Driving a not-so-good kart which was skidding much adding to my frustration, I stepped on the gas as soon as I got to the straight part of the track. And that is when I found the driver no #16. It was a young girl around 16 years who was obviously racing for the first time. I could tell that as she was driving in the middle of the track at a much safer speed of about 10mph. Please note that my average speed on the track is 30mph and the maximum speed of 35 mph in the straight lane. Being used to find beginners on the track all the time which included me just a month ago, I decided to overtake easily with a wide turn. As I went closer, I found her looking at the side where her parents were waving at her. I was on the right side of her little behind the rear wheels and while I was just about to cross her, she raised her right hand from the steering wheel and in a cute girlish way, waved with her fingers up and down signalling a silent "hi" towards her parents. I immediately slowed down my kart and went along with her slowly until she turned back to face the track.

It was a blissful moment taking my mind completely off the race.
Even when you are totally drained with heavy thoughts, there are surprising moments like these that happen out of the blue sometimes and makes your heart lighter than ever.

When two S'es' meet

2008-07-11T17:23:00.005-04:00

I am just back from one of the most entertaining and everlasting healthy discussion between the two S'es' (Plural of S) of our project. To help you identify them, let us just say one S "sucks" in foosball and the other left me "stuck" in this project for the past 6 months. It would always be interesting to watch the discussion between the two of them. We just hoped that we could get popcorn to munch while enjoying the showdown. Whether the discussion is on the design or the code or even the formatting of the excel sheets, the meeting that is supposed to be for 10 mins would extend to 100 minutes and will still go on with no sign of completion. If you are wondering what could possibly be pulling the meetings longer, give a hi-five. We are also wondering the same. But one point we could notice is that there will be long thought process put on the root cause of every problem they would talk from medieval history of the project to the modern hard-rock theme music of the client which is absolutely fine except that the problem will always have a tap root system (read Botany 6th standard book) which extends deep into the soil for which you would have to dig the dirt to the same or more depth than that of the actual issue to find the root cap (at least check wikipedia) or the root cause. And people like me who are just standing and watching the dig will be having our own fun watching it. You will not be surprised if you can find time even to read all of Viswa’s lengthy (but interesting) posts.

And on this eventful Friday (the servers crashed again), the fun was at high and loud as it took the whole weekly meeting duration leaving me with no time for my supposedly knowledge sharing session that I was not even aware of. What a perfect Friday!

In search of my Author - Preface

2008-07-09T22:47:00.004-04:00

"What did I do to deserve this?"

Standing amidst the debris
with a gun in his hand;
The hole ending on his head.
His mind with all doubt and disbelief,
He recalled his life so long yet brief.
He questioned the Supreme Power
To discover himself; to know his purpose.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
Into the unknown, he decided to go ahead.

This is the life of "Saathaaravan" born to an ordinary blockbuster hero and indifferent born-to-become mother heroine in a normal Government hospital in a remote village on a perfectly natural thunderstorm night. But what was abnormal was that he happened to be just a natural baby with no signs of turning out to be a great hero. At first, when his mother-to-be was admitted in the hospital, the delivery had to be postponed for weeks as either the lightning or the rain wouldn’t appear on the night and his father-to-be was adamant on getting the lightning as it would be the perfect start of the new hero, their son. And one final day, the lightning did come. But there was also one other pregnant heroine who did not have any child for many years got admitted in the same hospital. Happiness knew no bound inside the father-to-be that they hoped for their child to be switched by the careless nurse who wouldn’t tag the children yet keep them in the same cradle. This might prove to be important for their son's story to grow up in a different place and finally join with them after 25 years. And they need not even find a girl for their hero. He would probably find a girl in his college later most probably one who dresses suitably for the hot climate in India. With high hopes and dreams, they prayed to their author for blessing them so kindly with such a blockbuster son.
But as the director would intervene, the author had an entirely different script for their son. Actually, the author never had a script for their son. He wasted all the time in a hotel room drinking and you know what for all the money the producer gave him. So when the child was born, he was neither switched by the nurse nor did he have any disability that would make his dad neglect him for which he would worry all his life. Disappointed to find his son with everything normal, he even arranged for a kidnapper to steal his child and gave him an iPod with the family song that he sang with his wife when she was pregnant. But before the kidnapper could kidnap the child, he tried to hear the song and got his eardrums blown over. The father had sang too loud as they might be in a different country but still he wanted to be heard when he son plays after a long time. So finally, with no plans working out in favor of the child becoming a hero, the father named his son "Saathaaravan" which means "Ordinary guy" with much dislike. He hoped that his son's story will at least be named after his birth name. But we all know even that did not happen. And this is how the story began or that is what everyone thought so.

To be continued...

This makes my day!

2008-06-30T21:15:00.008-04:00

These are few that could make my day bright and overshadow the irksome and irritating chores that happen around me everyday. It is a response to the tag dropped by Ramesh in his blog which I can never spell correctly. Ramesh, good points on yours by the way. Though there might be more generic small events that can make my day, I couldn't include them because either I am refused of it or not in the vicinity in recent times.

Sleeping as long as I want and waking up naturally without the nuisance of beeping alarms, speaking roomies, ringing cellphones, buzzing instant messengers or the direct sunrays.
Mom made dosa with two chutneys for breakfast. (Something I couldn't get for a year now)
15 minutes hot shower with no thoughts of the busy and troublesome day in office ahead.
More than 5 persons online in the messenger for me to wish "Good morning" and get a reply back too.
Getting drenched in the rain.
"Someone said that my post on XXXXXXXX is good!!!!"
Finding out and laughing at the hours of pain, anger and confusion caused by a single quote or comma on my 300 lines code.
A game of Foosball and smashing the opponents with direct *zap* shots from the Goalkeeper.
The urge to cook that comes once in a blue moon and the output matching the recipe I tried and it IS yummy!
1-hr lunch break with discussion on time travel, butterfly effect, 10th dimensions and Satman's surrealistic theories with not even a single word in Hindi which would make me just "nod". [No hard feelings on my "Hindi-speaking" fellow colleagues. I know your day happens by the other way around]
Find an unsuspecting victim online and tease him/her till they start swearing me. *Narayana* *Narayana*
Come home and see dinner hot and ready to be served.
A kiss from a sweet innocent kid.
Help a stranger even with right directions and getting an honest appreciation with thanks.
Watch an episode of Friends with Joey's "How you doing?", Phoebe's "Smelly cat", Geeky Ross, Sarcastic Chandler or goofy Rachel or even the all-perfect Monica and laugh out loud or sometimes smile with tears ready to drench the eyes.
A phone call from my friends with no special news except "Was wondering what you are doing?"
Pizza night!!!!! (Limited these days)
Play deathmatch in Quake 3 Arena against human players in a LAN environment. Love to create havoc with Rocket Launcher and make headshots with the rail gun.
Sit alone on a scenic place and listen to the breeze moving against the leaves with closed eyes.
Someone says "You have reduced weight".

Few indicators I am turning Evil

2008-06-27T17:19:00.007-04:00

I am getting a feeling these days that I am turning more towards evil and sometimes I feel happy rather than worried about it. Here are few indicators I noticed on myself. Try to point it out if you know more. I promise that you will not be hurt by any cruel means.

I have developed a liking towards movies with serial killers or Psychotic villians. My favorite characters include the villains or anit-heros in the movies like "Phone Booth", "Seven", "Saw I", "Identity", "No country for Old men" and the recent Thumbprint killer "Mr.Brooks".
I also have a special liking to Gotham City's crazy villain "The Joker".
I also liked the movies even when the hero dies at the end. "The Departed", "Pattiyal"(Tamil), "The Matrix Revolutions", "I am Legend" etc . Though one movie I hated because of this same fact was "Scarface".
I enjoyed watching Mr.Ribbon getting tortured (verbally) by Mr.Biscuit. See post for details.
Long-tailed Vinay is no more. He could probably been the last of his/her/it's species. I killed it by smashing it hard with the spam newsletters we get everyday and also took a photo before the final swing.
My flatmates remarked whether I photograph my victims before killing them.
On reading one of my short stories "The Second Chance", a reader commented if I am a Psychotic in nature.
Important reason I like Quake 3 Arena better than Unreal tournament is the higher level of gore you can see when you kill the opponents in Q3A.
I am also a fan of violent-immoral-antisocial Grand Theft Auto game series even though I agree it should be rated as 15+)
I have little regret in writing this post about exposing my affection towards evil.

Long-tailed Vinay says Cheeze!

2008-06-25T22:41:00.008-04:00

Here for your eyes is "Long-tailed Vinay" who readily posed infront of my Nikon D40 camera while sitting (or standing) on the ceiling of our kitchen. When my 200mm lens could not get a close-up shot, he/she/it was kind enough to move under the kitchen shelf bringing him/her/it-self closer to my camera letting me shoot at various angles.

If you are wondering about the name, it was named after my flatmate Vinayak who first discovered the insect in our kitchen. Also, as the name explains itself, it had a very long tail atleast twice the side of its abdomen. (Please don't ask whether insects will have tail.)

Also, this is one of my worthy-to-mention snap that I am able to create after days of fruitless experiments on telephoto, potrait and finally macro photography. If you do not find this good enough, and think you can easily take a better photo, please keep it in your computer and dont you dare show it to me. Just kidding. Seriously, please do share your inputs and corrections on improving my skills.

Dasavatharam - Avatars unnecessary

2008-06-22T01:49:00.007-04:00

First things first. This is one of the best well thought stories in Tamil film industry. And it is comparable to the best movies of the Hollywood and better than many of them. Hats off to Kamal Hassan for that.

But why??? Why does he have to go to KS Ravi Kumar to direct that movie????? And why? I mean why he has to do the 10 roles in this otherwise turning point of the Tamil film industry. For one, a Hollywood action packed scientific movie is turned down to pointless hero-centric masala movie. And another, any character that wears a plastic mask sold in Mariamman kovil festivals can be identified as Kamal. I am sorry. There are three roles of Kamal in which he looks normal. And he does NOT put any makeup for those characters. Short and simple way of saying it is "It would have been a great movie if Kamal had went to Shankar or Maniratnam instead of KS Ravi Kumar and had done only 3 or 4 roles instead of the needless 10 roles.

Let’s talk about in detail. *Spoilers ahead*
The movie starts at 12th century with the first avatar of Kamal as a Lord Vishnu Devotee. But why? I mean why would they have Asin the girl who melted hearts with "Sutrum Vizhi Sudarae" as his wife crying in literature Tamil? All my friends would have definitely cried at that scene. After that, the movie takes us to Chennai, US and Japan and there is Kamal everywhere. Is he proving to be the "Universal" hero.

Coming back, the main story revolves around the cat and mouse chase for a biological weapon in a vial by Good Kamal who made it and Bad Kamal who wants it. Isn’t that the essence of every evil corporation sponsored project movie in English? That was the first step in taking the movie to the Hollywood level (Sarcasm intended). But did I say Good and Bad Kamal? Yes. How do we differentiate? Is it moustache? Is it beard? Is it shaven head? Or is it the dwarf trick? No. Bad Kamal is an ex-CIA officer and he is an American. And how does he get the face of a American? Simple. Take a packing brown tape and stick all over his face and don’t forget to pull holes for eyes and mouth. The same applies for almost all other avatars that include Singing Singh, Police Naidu, Funny Bush (The American President:D:D:D), tall Bhai and a special brown tape over the hair for his role as a 95 year old lady.

I am sure many people would agree with me here. If he had chosen few roles like Vishnu devotee, Scientist, ex-CIA officer and the Police leaving the rest of the characters to other actors, the movie would have not got deviated from the story. Instead, you are forced to see the imperfect makeup most of the time distracting from the fast paced action movie. Though it is very much appreciated of using Andy Dixon (Transporter 2) as the action choreographer, we cannot say that we liked Michael Westmore work as the Make-up artist. Some one might have told him that they liked his work on the movie Mask and he decided to do the same make-up on Kamal for none of the make-up appears natural. But as said before, the action sequences are worth watching and definitely speak well in front of the international crowd though it is not perfect due to the cheap graphics and special effects employed in the movie.

Verdict:
Story: 10/10
Actor: 7/10 (3 points for Govind, Balaram Naidu and Krishna characters; 4 points for efforts put on the rest)
Actress: 3/10 (1 point for each character again. 2 Asin(s) and 1 Mallika Sherawat). And I almost forgot. Mallika Sherawat does not make any impression in the movie.
Dialogue: 8/10. (The "literature" Tamil could have been toned down a bit for everyone to understand.)
Graphics: 3/10 (3 is for the Tsunami scene at the climax)
Direction: 1/10 (Is it too late to change the director for this movie?)

Overall: 5/10 (Good attempt spoiled)

யுகங்கள் காத்திருப்பேன்

2008-06-19T01:13:00.004-04:00

அஷ்த்தமித்த சூரியன் மீண்டும் உதிக்க
நேரம் காத்திரு என்றது - காத்திருந்தேன்.
பொறுமையுடன் கிழக்கு திசை நோக்கி.

தேய்ந்த வெண்ணிலா தெளிவுடன் தென்பட
நாட்கள் காத்திரு என்றது - காத்திருந்தேன்.
நட்சத்திரங்களுடன் கருகிய வானம் நோக்கி.

தழுவிச்சென்ற ஆடித் தென்றல் தொட
மாதங்கள் காத்திரு என்றது - காத்திருந்தேன்.
மெல்லிசை ஊதிய புல்வெளி நோக்கி.

நேரம், நாள், மாதம் காத்திருந்தநான்
வருடங்கள் காத்திருந்தேன். யுகங்கள் காத்திருப்பேன்.
உன் இமை என்மேல் விழுந்திட.

UPDATE: On request by Nimesh, I have tried to translate the above words to English. It might not be entirely correct, but should speak the essence of the poem.
[+/-]English Translation

Will wait for eons

For the sun to rise after sunset,
I was asked to wait for hours - I waited.
Patiently looked towards the east.

For the waning Moon to shine again,
I was asked to wait for days - I waited.
Looking towards the dark sky with the stars.

For the seasonal breeze to reach me,
I was asked to wait for months - I waited.
Looking towards the grasslands that sang melody.

I, who waited for hours, days and months,
Waited for years. Will wait for eons.
For your sight to fall on me.

Daffy Diner - GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-06-17T09:56:00.008-04:00

Daffy Diner Foosball Championship

Players:

Team 1: INJEY & Nimesh

Team 2: "Sucks" Srikanth & Vinayak the Rookie.

Commentators: Apple and Orange
Venue: Daffy Diner

Date: June 13th 2008, Friday

Time: 6:00 PM

Apple: Hello readers! Its a lovely day as I meet you once again on the daily match between the awesome Duo INJEY and Nimesh vs "Sucks" Srikanth & Vinayak the Rookie. This is your Apple on the air with Orange who has just stepped in.
Apple: Hello Orange. How do you feel today?
Orange: Thanks Apple. I am already feeling that its going to be a great match.
Apple: I too feel the same Orange. The excitement is in the air as every other day in the foosball tournament in this magnificentDaffy Diner room.
Orange: No doubt about that. The players are already holding the bar ready for the final game of the day.
Apple: Yeah! I can see that now. INJEY and the Rookie are in the defensive positions as usual with Nimesh and Srikanth taking the aggression.
Orange: But who knows where the aggression will start. You must be aware of INJEY's zap shots. The ball just passes from the goal keeper to the goal post on the other side at lightning speeds.
Apple: Hell yeah! Orange. Thanks for reminding me. God knows how he does that. But did you notice that we have Srikanth on the offensive side. And you can expect a tough competition here. And of course, those two would be playing in their own area leaving Nimesh and Vinayak with time to finish a beer.
Orange: Well said. Ok. I think the game is about to start. Please recall that it is 2-0 games in favor of INJEY & Nimesh now. Here we go and the ball is in.
Apple: Srikanth takes the first shot as usual.
Orange: And INJEY blocks it as usual. He returns it back to the center of the table.
Apple: Nicely picked by Nimesh. Did you notice, he has a knack of controlling the midfield.
Orange: It goes to Vinayak though. He does the cross shot and the ball passes untouched straight to INJEY.
Apple: Stopped again. Tries to hit straight but stopped by "Sucks" Srikanth.
Orange: Oh no! Here they go.
Apple: Srikanth strikes hard. But blocked. Pulls the ball and sends it cross to the side of the post. *Blocked* He waits while holding the ball.
Orange: This is going to be a tricky shot. And he does that. Right forward passes the ball to the middle man and off the shot goes back to the right end of the post.
Apple: Oh S#%t! INJEY stopped that. He returns it with a straight shot.
Orange: Zap! The first goal. What a shot! I bet the speed topped 30mph.
Apple: Here they compose for the game again and the ball is in.
Orange: Damn! Second goal. Direct shot by Nimesh from the 1st midfielder. No way for Vinayak to stop. 2-0 for Nimesh.
Apple: There was no time even to think. The ball is in again.
Apple: Srikanth zaps the ball to the post. But S#%t! INJEY is there already. He does the cross shot. Stopped by Srikanth. Blocked by INJEY. Held by Srikanth. Shot back to the post. What not. Blocked again.
Srikanth: Sucks!!!
Orange: Here he goes. Now you know why he is called "Sucks" Srikanth.
Apple: INJEY does the cross shot. It reaches the midfield now. Picked up by Srikanth. And he shows his Mid-field Cross court trick. The ball goes at 60 degrees from left to the right corner of the goal post.
Orange: Oh!!!!! That was close. It hit the post and gets to the safe legs of INJEY. Here he goes again with his zap shot.
Apple: That was lucky. Vinayak just happens to be in the right place in the right time for once.
Orange: And he sends it straight to INJEY.
Apple: Did you see that? The ball went very slow. But no one was able to touch that. I wonder how he does that?
Orange: Everyone here have tricks under their palms here.
Apple: The ball is on hold with INJEY. He plans hard and here it is. Hits the Attacker on the other end, gets deflected and jumps inside the post. GOAL!!!!!
Orange: Thats 3-0 to INJEY. It sure was a lucky goal. No doubt about that.
Apple: yeah! But in games like these, you are bound to get one now and then and you can't ignore it.
Orange: The ball is in again. Srikanth takes the shot and once AGAIN, INJEY blocks that.
Apple: A smile on Nimesh's face. INJEY sends it back. Nimesh picks it with his midfielders. The ball hits the corner of the table and back to Vinayak. He hits straight. Blocked by Nimesh. Vinayak holds it.
Orange: I think he is trying for the zap shot.
Apple: But its INJEY's own. Dont think he can..... GOAL!!!!!!! Nimesh does the counterattack to Vinayak's zap shot and now the score reads 4-0.
Orange: I think you should call it 4-L0ve.
Apple: *laughing* Sure Orange. 4-"L0ve forever" ha ha.
Orange: ha ha. Back to the game. INJEY is holding the ball. He hits it but is stopped by Srikanth. Srikanth does the Squeeze-through-the-sides trick.
Apple: Didnt work though. The ball is sent back to midfield by INJEY. Nimesh takes it and fires it out of the table.
Orange: What a shot! Bad it wasnt a goal. The game continues.
Apple: Nimesh blocks Srikanth's midfielder. Sends it to the attacker now. Vinayak gets ready now as the ball is still with Nimesh.
Orange: One mistake they have been doing is slowing down the game to plan. It elimiates the surprise on the opponent.
Apple: But you must understand the pressure inside the game. They have to breathe before they can think.
Orange: Nimesh still waiting with the ball. And flips it.... slow.
Apple: And its a goal! Vinayak moved early thinking its a fast ball.
Orange: And it cost them another point. 5-0.. sorry. 5-"L0ve".
Apple: Ball is in, Srikanth picks up but we know what happened then. INJEY sends it back.
Orange: Srikanth makes the mistake. He hit the ball back to his side instead.
Apple: And Vinayak sends it safe inside his own post. Its a self-goal!!!!!! 6-0.. "L0ve" again.
Orange: You can see Srikanth very furious now.
Srikanth: "Sucks!!!!"
Apple & Orange: AND WE KNOW WHY HE IS CALLED "SUCKS" SRIKANTH.
Apple: Oh my! I love this game. The ball is in "once again".
Orange: Srikanth hits. *Blocked* He sends it again. *Blocked* Tries the slow ball now. *Blocked again* Drags from the side and smashes. *BLOCKED*
Apple: No wonder he is furious. INJEY slips the ball with an angle shot.
Orange: INJEY is at his best today. 6 matches won at a straight already.
Apple: Lets see if he can continue that.
Orange: The ball is stopped by Vinayak. Tries for the straight shot. Blocked, held and returned back by Nimesh. Another score for Nimesh. 7-0.
Apple: Are you thinking what I am thinking?
Orange: Hell yeah! Could it happen? Lets wait and see.
Apple: The ball is in.
Apple: Another shot straight to INJEY. It is as if "He knows" where the ball goes.
Orange: Zap shot again!
Apple: But it misses the post and goes outside the table.
Orange: No one have ever done that remember. 7-0 is itself a record on its own.
Apple: There is always a first time for everything you know.
Orange: 3 more points to decide if today gets to be the first.
Apple: Zap!!!!!!!! This time by Nimesh. What a shot by the midfielder. 8-Love.
Orange: Srikanth is cursing the rookie now. ha ha.
Apple: Poor guy used to be a irritating sensation when INJEY takes the aggression bars. Now he is getting bashed up.
Orange: INJEY and Nimesh seems to be immersed inside the game.
Apple: Thats true. But all they have to do is to be patient and hold their breath.
Orange: .... and shoot a goal.... like this!!!!!! What a shot. Lucky one though.
Apple: The ball was deflected by almost every player on the table. Not sure which foosman should be awarded the goal.
Orange: No one is talking here. Everyone's heart beating in unison as we fight for the final point. 9-LOVE.
Apple: The ball is in. Srikanth takes the shot. Oh!!!!!!
Orange: So Close!!!! INJEY blocks... leaves it as the ball goes again towards the post. But then saved at the last fraction of the second.
Apple: He sends it back straight. Blocked by Vinayak. He returns back. It hits the corner on the other end straight to INJEY's men.
Apple: INJEY hits hard. Blocked by Srikanth and back to INJEY. He hits again and gets blocked again.
Orange: This time it is with Srikanth. He waits.
Apple: I cant believe what will happen if he makes it.
Orange: He goes for the Squeeze-through-the-sides trick!!!!!!
Apple: BLOCKED!
Orange: Phew! That was close. INJEY does the angle shot.
Apple: Blocked by Srikanth's midfielder. Does the Mid-field Cross court trick.
Orange: BLOCKED!
Apple: Returns it back with another angle shot.
Orange: Again held by Srikanth. But this time took over by Nimesh. He sends the ball to the corner.
Apple: Vinayak is there.
Orange: Geez! That was a perfect angle shot. The slow ball went untouched and almost makes to the goal post.
Apple: Sent back by INJEY. This play is extending longer than ever.
Orange: Another heartbeat skipped as the ball bounces back from Vinayak's goal post.
Apple: Lucky for him. Nice angle shot again but blocked by Nimesh's midfielders.
Orange: Yeah! Very lucky indeed. Nimesh shoots to the corner. Taken by Vinayak.
Apple: He tries for another angle shot but blocked by the attackers. He hits it again and this time it passes the attackers.
Orange: ..... and GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Apple: Unbelievable but true! Everyone is screaming now.
Orange: Can you believe the last shot?
Apple: Believe it or not! It happened today. What an end to the greatest game ever played as Nimesh tries Srikanth's own "Mid-field Cross court trick" and almost makes it.
Orange: But thanks to Vinayak's defenders, the ball was deflected to the goal post bringing the awesome game to an end of 10-"LOVE".
Apple: INJEY and Nimesh are giving high-five to each other while Srikanth and Vinayak get booed once again.
Orange: Does this mean that this is the end of Srikanth's trash talks?
Srikanth: Its all fluke man! total flukes!
Apple: Looks like the answer is "No". ha ha. What do you think INJEY and Nimesh would do about that?
Orange: Hmmm! If I know them right, they should let the losers talk. They did not win. Atleast let them do something that they are good at. "Talk".
Apple: Well said! Well said!
Orange: Ha ha. Thanks to everyone for joining us today. We hope to bring you more in the future. But don't hope for a comeback from Srikanth and Vinayak. They are off with just... "Talks". Good bye and have a nice day!

PS: I hope all the players take this post on the lighter side and continue 'talk'ing and try to play as every other day.

Vroooooooom on Friday the 13th

2008-06-16T14:50:00.006-04:00

This is the latest update on the Go-karting races, I talked about in my previous post. Lot of happenings on this eventful Friday the 13th.

The record was broken again as I vrooomed at a surprising 33.173 seconds beating my previous best of 33.548s.
And once again I maintained in the Top 10 of the day list (actually 10th).
Placed an average of 34.3s beating Sachin, the master of karts by more than a second.
Yet lost 10 bucks in bet against Sachin on finding who gets the faster time in each lap. Damn! I should have placed bet on average time.

Go! INJEY! Go!

2008-06-13T00:39:00.005-04:00

Okay, here we go.
Focus.
Speed. I am speed.
One winner.
Fourty-two losers.
I eat losers for breakfast.
No, no. Stay focused.
Speed.
I'm faster than fast,
Quicker than quick.
I am Lightning!
-- Lightning McQueen from the movie "Cars"

You think that I am flaunting about myself. Don’t you? But I don’t care. I won the race! Didn’t I?
It’s been just 2 months and I already won not just one race but two. What’s more? I beat my own personal best on the track and got into the Top 10 of that day. When I play Need for Speed, people always ask the same question, "What good do you get by racing in the computer?” And my answer would be "It lets me do what I could not do in the real world". But now, I got my chance in the form of Go-karting on the Victory Lane Indoor center just 10 miles from my home to put all the efforts and tricks into reality. Now don’t judge that this is some 5 mph kids track in theme parks like MGM and Kishkintha in India that even a child in his/her stroller can overtake. We are talking about professionally maintained track with fully geared 40 mph karts driven by experienced racers.

When Sachin (not the cricketer) introduced me to the world of karting, it was like entering a new world. But the only difference was that I sometimes get the feeling that I know the world very well. When I first started learning to drive the car, I understood one important lesson. You have to feel the car's movements within you. Your mind has to get together with the car's. Once that is done, you can control and drive the car in anyway you want. And this is what I did in the karting race as it is more important to know how to control the kart here. Too many sharp turns; you need to understand when to brake, slow down, overtake and zap. Believe me when I say, it is not easy as it seems while watching from the sides. With the small and flat body of the kart, you always tend to skid when you turn while speeding fast. And it is built as a safety measure inside the kart to slow down when you skid or turn rough. Add to this that picking up the speed again is not fast enough. So you have to very careful on what you do in turns. A lot of patience and experiments can tell you how to get around. Though few tips from the pros might help you, but it is always your experience that will count inside the track.

When I started my first race on 28th March 2008, I recorded my best time with 38.831 seconds which was 6.832 seconds behind the first place. I also realized that things so different when you compete with real people instead of AI in the computer game. 1. People don’t slow down for you to keep the race interesting. 2. They don’t try to hit you to get you off the track and so you can’t hit them too. 3. To make it worse, if you are shown a blue flag, you have to MOVE OVER for the guy who is coming faster behind you and that for a beginner like me is MOVING OVER for everyone else in the race. So I started counting on how many times I MOVED OVER instead of how many cars I over took and that had been the winning factor for most of the races. I always wanted to finish at least one lap with no one overtaking me. And I think I have achieved it once or twice in the 6 races in the last month. But June was different. I have started to count the number of times I overtake and it has reached 20 or more. And here I am winning my first race and entered the Daily hall of fame.

Does this mean there is something more ahead? It sure is. Watch over racers. A new rookie on the rise!

PS: I am compelled by the pure heart to mention that the races in June were mostly against new players that include Satman who appears to be a promising driver to challenge me soon, his roommate Seetharam, Vinayak who forgot that he is in a racing track and was searching for turn indicators in the kart, Nimesh who I crashed hard on the track for not MOVING OVER and his wife Bhakti who did not kill me for crashing her husband. More drivers welcome as long as they have zero experience in races (betting on horse races excluded). Go karting Go.

Reviews in a nutshell - First pack

2008-06-08T19:53:00.016-04:00

So where do I start? I watched hell lot of movies more than the number of times I had dropped my mobile. For people who don’t know me, I have butter fingers and drop my mobile at least once a day. And trust me, all these movies are watched either on the large silver screen or Original rental paid Blockbuster DVDs on my employer sponsored newly repaired DVD drive in my Toshiba laptop. I am thus holding on to my resolution as I mentioned here. And after every movie, I always wanted to write a review about it, but as it happens every other time, it slips my mind until now. It is Sunday and I thought I have wasted enough time for today. So here it goes. As the list is pretty huge, the reviews are shortened, but I will try to give everyone a generic idea about the flicks. And more will continue shortly.

[+/-]Speed Racer

I can bet on the Wachowski brothers any time and this is one movie that lived up to its huge hype in 2008. It’s got its own style like The Matrix. Flashy colors, awesome graphics, adrenaline packed races, still with a cartoon finish and of course the best fantasy sporty movie you can ever imagine. If you like to watch something different and unbelievable, you are in for a treat. Its Rajini's movie for the Hollywood.

Verdict: Please race to the theatres NOW!

[+/-]Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull

The Archeologist with a whip is back to explore tombs and supernatural powers in this new installment of Spielberg and Lucas's money making Franchise. Though it’s been 19 years since we seen him before, Indie hasn't changed much and so is the story. But hell with that. It’s still fun and crazy. Harrison Ford hasn’t lost his best and does some pretty action that will make you jump. LaBeouf is a nice touch to the movie. But bringing in the family again? We have seen Sean Connery to do the same stuff in the last movie isn’t it? There you go. You have it all. Lots of action, Evil Russians. Devil Queen, deadly traps, and an alien civilization that has magnetic skull with psychic powers.

Verdict: Forget the logic. Go and have fun.

[+/-]Charlie Wilson's War

I had bit of ear-to-ear knowledge on America's involvement in getting rid of Russians from Afghanistan in the eighties. And this movie is enlightenment or should I say blunder on America's greatest covert operations. The best part of the movie is its crackling dialogue and the way the actors present them. Even brutal talks like "Let’s kill some Russians" were said so casually that makes you rethink if you heard the words right. Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts and of course Philip Seymour Hoffman have done well in what they always do. A good entertainer with some insights for sure.

"These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world...
...and then we f****d up the end game." - Charlie Wilson
Verdict: Politics? America? Afghans? You got it!

[+/-]Following

Christopher Nolan's debut film for the big screen is no different from the rest of his films. Mystery, non-linear screenplay, spooky characters, multiple twists revealing itself towards the end and what not? a troubled hero as always. If you had watched Memento, you are going to love this movie too. Though the actual story is never understood till we go close to the movie, the hero character or should I say the victim's role is intriguing. It tickles the curious part of oneself and the character itself is an achievement of the writer/director who is promising on the dark knight in the next month.

Verdict: Good choice to rent on DVD.

[+/-]Shaun of the Dead

I was interested in this film mainly because of Simon Pegg from "Hot Fuzz". If you haven’t seen the film, I meant "Hot Fuzz", watch it without fail. It will bring your down with laughter all the way. I do not know how to categorize this comedy. But closest experience would be Vadivelu on a sci-fi thriller. It has a combination of good story, funny characters and witty dialogues with a mystery till the end.

As for "Shaun of the Dead", hmmmmm.... please avoid it if you can.
Verdict: Watch [+/-]"Hot Fuzz" not the dead one.

[+/-]Equilibrium

Two reasons I took this movie. One is Christian Bale and the other for its crazy story line. Christian Bale made it worth a mention. The second reason actually made it stupid. May be the actors were unable to make an unemotional performance. This was needed as the movie is about turning people into organisms without "feelings". A difficult task I would say. But wait. Something else came out of the movie. I found the source of inspiration for the emotional less face and black Tuxedo suits of the Matrix. And sometimes it makes me think... could Christian Bale have outperformed Keanu Reaves?

Verdict: One time. Just one time!

[+/-]Big Nothing

It is seriously "Big" but definitely not "nothing". David Schwimmer (Friends) and Simon Pegg ("Hot Fuzz" and not "Shaun of the Dead") bring a dark comedy that makes you laugh and smile with few nothing but accidental murders. The movie starts with the daily nothing big life in call centers and takes you to the something big of blackmailing and axe on a woman's head and finally ends up with smiling face on the dead Ross Geller. I liked it.

Verdict: Watch it for Ross. You will like him.

[+/-]Identity

This is the not the first movie I had seen on that topic. There was quite a few and each one equally good. One happens to be in my all-time favorites list and I added this into it.
So whats the story? Strangers stranded on a motel with no where to go and each one starts dying. Before you judge it as some Texas chainsaw movie, please watch it. You are in for a surprise. I bet you didn’t think it. At least not the second surprise.

Verdict: A must see. Identity is mandatory.

The black-out - Office or the mind?

2008-06-05T00:27:00.003-04:00

Thanks for your prayers. I am safe and back in home alive. I do not remember much of what happened in office. I think the Men in Black must have erased our memory with the Neuralizer. Probably they invented a memory manipulator now and my memory is transformed. Because all I can remember was having lunch in an Indian restaurant and playing Tennis against Ferraro and Dent in my Sony PSP. There is also a two hour black out inside my mind. But my memory was again manipulated to make me believe that I slept in the afternoon. So with no evidence of an alien invasion or break out of a scientific experiment on a four eyed and two headed monster, the world just goes on with not even an incident being reported by CNN. An impressive work by the secret agents, isn't it? I think so.
Anyway, though I am bit upset that no one tried to help us with lead coated refrigerators for saving us from Nuke detonations, it is forgiven for there doesn't seem to be any plan for that as we are all asked to report back at our cubicles tomorrow morning as usual. Damn it you lame aliens or monsters or whatever they were.

S.O.S - The Black out

2008-06-04T11:23:00.000-04:00

There may not be much time.

So let me say it before the laptop goes down too. There has been a black-out in our office block. All the computers are down and the elevators have stopped working. The only light that is lit in our floor is the bulb in the photocopy room. And I am not sure how long we can survive without the Air-conditioner in this hot temperature of 86F. It might be luck that it happened in the morning when the sun is still out. But clock is ticking and if the power doesn't come back, it might get darker inside. For what it's worth, I might get a chance to slap the ones I would like in the dark. There are already talks about possible Alien invasion or US military's secret project running beneath our office building. And who knows what hell could have been let loose. The last time I checked the head count; there were 10 in our team with the head still attached to their torso and life still flowing through them. We do not even have a shot gun or an axe to defeat the zombies. I even checked inside the long row of drawers that no one has ever opened in the past one year. There were only papers, rotten food and a dead rat though. But the good thing that came out of all these is that the never-ending project might get shutdown forever for the administrators never knew and will never know how to recover the backups. Time is running out and I think I cannot continue more. If you happened to read this, I want to let you know that I always tried my best to be good to "Everyone^*" all my life.
Also please ask the Fed-ex to send us some lead coated refrigerators immediately just in case that the US army decides to nuke our place. (Yeah yeah.. I saw the new Indie movie.)

*-"Everyone" may not include everyone and depends on your position to me.

It feels Good to be Evil

2008-06-03T15:52:00.005-04:00

Muhaahhahaahaaaa! It feels so good to be evil. I know it is wrong to laugh at others' suffering. But I could not resist smiling at Mr. Ribbon breathing hard and getting heated up during the discussion with Mr. Biscuit. As I explained already about Mr. Biscuit in my pervious post, he has been acting as the showstopper for everyone in the development team. This time, the victim happened to be Mr. Ribbon who was constructing the new Kennel for the client's pet. Something to say about Mr. Ribbon is that he had once tested my temper on a different situation when I was making the boat house. His suggestion to build the house in the shape of a boat tested my third eye but I rubbed it away saying "I know what I am doing". We finally settled down to keep the roof in the shape of an inverted boat. Coming back to the current situation, I happened to the spectator for the meeting between Mr. Biscuit and Mr. Ribbon and I enjoyed and cherish every moment of the meeting would be an understatement. Though my pure heart tried hard not to laugh at one's suffering, like a dark comedy movie, there I was devilishly snickering all the way. Questions on the capacity planning for the kennel and whether the kennel should have a ring bell were interesting as hell. But there were genuine and valid discussions like fixing a door and window and Mr. Ribbon was stepping into the world of hell slowly. If the meeting had lasted for another 10 mins, I am sure we would have seen a showdown between the two and could have been a perfect start of the day. But they decided to continue the fun on a different day and I went back to my desk starting to write this post, Mr. Ribbon probably to bang his head on the wall and Mr. Biscuit to wait for the next unprepared victim.

Finally it happened to me too

2008-06-01T00:20:00.009-04:00

I once read a forward. It was nice with the picture of a small kid praying with closed eyes.

God give me Courage.

God give me Health.

God give me Wealth.

But God, please

don’t give me Strength.

For I will break my manager's skull.

Funny it was and was not different from what most people in IT industry speak about. Surprising though, I have not felt that I had such nerve breaking managers yet. And there were not many difficulties with the client too to make me pray that hard. Of course, there were and are few, I would prefer be stuck inside a worm hole (Not the one in the space). But never had a chance that would push me to drop my pen to avoid it hurting the other person. And that was until last week for I had the opportunity to pray like that kid in the email forwards.

Well-known for creating issues out of no where and prone to claim superiority over others; Mr. Biscuit was one I always tried hard not to judge. Marked as shrewd, cunning and in general a huge show-off trying to get attention all the time, he was also a best person for everyone to mock for fun. Lucky enough to see things from far side all these time, but this month brought us closer for building a small tree house, he being the customer and myself the engineer designing the house. The early weeks went on as expected with him asking for 40" widescreen TV to a swimming pool inside it. I was as usual calm with myself and decided to keep a iPhone instead of TV and a mug of water for the pool. Requirements were finalized and the team worked on the tree house building on the impractical necessities. After weeks of hard work with little hocus pocus and a drop of Felix Felicis potion, we were ready for the review last week.

On first look, he was even pleased with the ladder we had put to climb the tree. But then he complained that the number of steps is even. We decided to break one spoke on the top. Slowly we climbed up. Once we reached the entrance, he was worried that the door is opening inside. It was hard to convince him that if he tries to pull it outside, he would fall from the tree house. As we went inside, more and more comments poured in ranging from need for fireplace, ping-pong table inside this small 50 sq feet cabin and concrete lining inside the house so that the construction will be strong. Though I was able to control my anger to all these comments or requirements on the "Day of sale", my anger temperature shot out of the thermometer when he suggested building the house on the ground instead of the tree. But sill he wanted it to be called a "tree house". I wished that I could really build a tree house; make him stay inside and finally lit up the tree. The hell broke loose after that as I gave him one among the five. Heated arguments and exchange of spells and curses went on and on before he walked off saying that the house looked smaller than the tree. I was just glad he got jinxed at last.

What was so significant on this was this was the very first time, I have lost control of myself in a meeting and I don’t regret anything in it. All that mattered was that being right in what I do, I deserve the right to say what I feel is right. Customer or your manager is just a person on the service you provide. You can do your best to listen and understand them. But never must you loose your self-esteem for any reason. I hope that I can maintain the same as I travel through my career and meet more challenging persons in the future.

Shortlived Liberation

2008-05-26T07:46:00.004-04:00

As the wind blew over her.
A lifetime chance to the hair.
Bringing them to her cheeks so near,
The destiny that only held by tears.
She brushed them behind the ears,
Back to the place where they were.
Everyone but one escaped -
Staying in its dream place.
But not for long it could,
For a hand reached and moved.
Sending it back to all the others;
Smashing away all its prowess.
He couldn't resist for a silly hair
to block the heavenly stare.

Attention please

2008-05-26T07:11:00.003-04:00

You did notice not
that hurt I was.
When will you realise?
It left me suffer
With a scar forever.

New roommate to the extreme!

2008-05-21T16:01:00.006-04:00

I agree, I have had worse shocking moments before and I have met people from the completely opposite side of my world. I have friends who vaguely remember Mario as a coin collecting game. And worse, Pac man is someone who packs the gifts for the post man. I used to grind my teeth hard and squeeze out the stress buster in those moments of pain and disbelief.
But come on. You can't ask me who Prince of Persia is. For a guy who carried a stick and jumped over the roof of closely built houses in our village just to imitate the great savior of the damsel in distress, asking such a question explodes the arteries pumping the blood fast out of my heart. Had I not been reading about the next installment of POP Saga: Heir Apparent from Game Informer magazine, I would have gone to the kitchen, heat the pan and keep my fingers over it to test if this is some nightmare? It makes me doubt if the dooms day have arrived when no good is known to humans. But I withheld the pain within myself and answered him explaining the legends of the great hero of the computer gaming industry very calmly.
And do you know why? After watching the movie "Forbidden Kingdom" last week, he asked me who "Jackie Lee" is. I could have beaten myself to death, but was saved as he corrected himself that he know "Jackie Chan" but not the other monkey hero( Jet Li).

I still need to understand that the world is so diverse and there exists people in such far extremes from us.

Tour de Atlanta on a Pontiac - The Perfect Start

2008-05-15T09:47:00.003-04:00

A perfectly planned tour is not possible for me to plan. Best example was our New Year Eve's plan to go to a beach and enjoy the night while they lower the huge silver ball into the sea. But we were planning for a long time that we ended up being kicked out of the dance floor from a local pub. From that day, I decided to let things happen on its own and enjoy whats in the store. And trust me, it is always fun. Now consider the last weekend trip to Atlanta. We talked about the tour on Wednesday; cancelled it on Thursday and again decided to go on Friday afternoon. And it happened to be one of the best tours in US.
On Wednesday, when I and S who had come to Charlotte recently were just talking, S suggested a trip to near by place. A call was made to R and was told that we will be in Atlanta for the weekend. Cancelling all his important assignments like "sleep for 16 hrs", "chat for 20 hrs" and "don’t see the sunlight for 2 days", he agreed. But on the next day, R was given a transfer out of Atlanta. And we believed it. We did not think that he was trying to avoid us. But the good soul in him woke up again on Friday and there I was renting a Pontiac G6 for our 250 mile drive to Atlanta. "This is going to be fun", I said.
It was a perfect start with a thrilling ride. We started late as usual around 8:30 PM instead of the planned 6:00PM. With S insisting that she will drive first, I took the maximum risk and seated tight in the passenger seat. And though it was night, the day already looked bright as lost the way. For people who don’t know me, getting lost on the way is de-facto for every trip. And that happens even when we have a GPS speaking out the directions in a female voice. Like every other man on the planet, I always find it very difficult to listen to women and I take the wrong turn at least once in every trip. It is funny that even a computer generated female voice proves to be female that it never finds the easiest path to get back on the track. May be women hate saying U-turns. It is always their turn for everything. That is why they ask you to drive a mile and go for a circle through deserted roads and woods before finally bringing back to the road at least 5 miles behind. But I did not realize that S would also do the same. Waiting for Exit 10B, we forgot to take Exit 10 and had to go through woods before we took a U-turn as we noticed huge trucks and scary drivers blocking the way. Luckily, we did not run over any stranger and no axe yielding hitchhiker crossed our path. It is heartening that we have not got any letter saying "I know what you did last weekend". At 8:30 PM we had our dinner in Burger King, thanks to S for insisting that she will pay for the dinner out of her violet colored wallet. With food done, we continued the travel again. But this time, it was a safe journey with me behind the wheels. So by 12:14 AM, 30 mins ahead of the schedule, GPS brought us the good news "We are at the destination". The only problem was that we were stuck at the back of red-brick walled building which did not appear to be R's home. And there we go again to denote that we are in the perfect trip getting lost again with the GPS.

Apple and Orange - Words do slip sometimes

2008-05-13T19:27:00.007-04:00

There are places where we say things without any thoughts. Deliberate or unintentional, Apple's words always ends in trouble with Orange.

Scene 1:
Apple just changed to the driver's seat which was occupied by Orange earlier and is adjusting the rear-view mirrors. Orange is sitting back in the rear seat of the car complaining about her back pain. Banana is seated in the passenger's seat in the front.
Orange: My back is paining a lot.
Banana: Were you carrying anything yesterday?
Apple finds that all the mirrors are in the wrong position.
Apple: (Completely unaware of the current conversation) MAN!!!
Orange: KABOOM! (hits Apple)
Apple: Adingada. Aana ethuku adikireenganu sollitu adeengada (Vadivelu style)

Scene 2:
Orange: Hey look! They are drawing Caricatures.
Apple: Forget it! How about taking a photo of you?
Orange: POW!

Scene 3:
Orange: (to a good looking stranger) If you dont mind, can you take a photo for me?
Stranger with a big smile takes the photo of Apple, Orange and Banana
Banana: In this huge crowd, how come girls always lend the camera only to "good-looking guys"
Orange: Why? If it were you, you would give it to some "cute-girl"
Apple: Why the hell would I do that? ( thinking "I would probably ask her to join me in the photo")
Orange: BANG! (thinking "I know what you are thinking")

Scene 4:
Apple: Did you notice that X is the only single girl in our group.
Orange: Hmmm.... (then thinks)..... you forgot about me.
Apple: *chuckles* yeah! I forgot you are a girl.
Orange: DOOM!

Apple and Orange - Being Happy or Enjoying Life

2008-05-06T09:25:00.001-04:00

This is what happens when Apple who have just come out of home to taste burgers in the free world talks with Orange who enjoys burgers more than bajji and been in Uncle Sam's land for a long time.

Apple: it was so nice at college..
it was so nice in india.
Orange: yeah
it will be so nice in US too
Apple: i want to go bak home
Orange: go home after the project
Apple: when do u have plans to return?
one of my other friend also is here..he si also not returning..
why do u wnat to miss everything and come here......dont u want to see ur family and friends?
Orange: we are visiting family and friends
the point is even in India, we dont happen to meet them much
so it doesnt make much difference
think how many times we have spoken when you were in chennai and me in bangalore
and family too somehow seems ok
Apple: i miss everyone a lot
Orange: who is in everyone?
Apple: family and friends at office...
that friendly work environment
its so lonely
Orange: may be because this is a new change, you are feeling like that
i am just wondering how different you felt after marriage
there would be some difference
might take time to understand and adjust
this is also similar
Apple: might be.....
Orange: it is
but you are right
you might not find same level of friends here
but life goes on
Apple: yesterday we went and put
clothes for laundry
Orange: oh
Apple: thats beside our apt..one guy approached us
and he was speaking for hours.
he is from hyd
Orange: oh
Apple: and did his masters here and workd here and he also tells that theres no one to speak to here
he is here for 4 years and still feels lonely
Orange: even i am lonely
Apple: but ur happy
Orange: i cant say i am happy
i can say i am enjoying here
true happiness is different
Apple: whats the diff
Orange: enjoying is momentory
happiness is everlasting memory
Apple: ofcourse...but can u enjoy when u r not happy?
Orange: do you get the difference now
why not
just for example
when unhappy
people drink
drinking doesnt bring happiness but it is an enjoyment to them
Apple: thats a diff story
Orange: something that makes things easier for them
enjoyment eases life
Apple: thats there,,
Orange: happiness is something rare these days
Apple: why
Orange: not sure
Apple: at chennai, i use to fight and quarrel with Pine-apple almost every day..but still i was happy
Orange: but its kinda difficult to be happy here
Apple: now i am peaceful..no problems..but no people around me..
Orange: you know what
Apple: wht
Orange: we dont feel happiness if we dont have people to share
Apple: exactly
Orange: i think thats the reason
Apple: very true......
Orange: even if we get everything, if it is known only to you, you never feel it
Apple: :)
Orange: so whats the point
whats the catch
Apple: donno.........
atleast i am speaking with you........
Apple: yeah..we speak to everyone and laugh...but thats all not true..some sort of disguise..
Orange: not disguise
but limited
Apple: yes.....
only school and college friends last.........
Orange: cant say
Apple: i got another friend at office..he was pretty close...and now everything has changed.
Orange: i dont have much touch with my school friends
very few
Orange: college too many things changed
office... i know few who i can trust more than college or school friends
Apple: atleast a few people like Banana....
Orange: so its different
yeah
people like Banana remain the same
Apple: everything is changing....except a very few..
and i am really praying that those few should not change
Orange: everything changes
you can just pray that change is minimal that you can handle

*The conversation is posted only after getting approval from both Apple and Orange.

Too Many To Remember

2008-05-01T23:35:00.000-04:00

How can so many important events happen on a single day in one's life? Yesterday was one such day. It started with me waking up as usual at 9:00 AM. But whats weird is that I thought it is a weekend and decided to sleep more. If it is not for my colleague who called with the morning alarm at 10AM, I would have never realized that I have to be in office today. With the weather and many other reasons overruling my decision to walk to office for the past few days, today happened to be bright and I started my commitment to walk to office everyday. And so I reached the office at 11 AM which was about the right time my manager came looking for me for a meeting. He is still not aware of my earliness to office. (Sarcasm intended). And so after the meeting went fine, to prove that is not so any other day, my manager wanted to talk in private with me and blew up the obvious but frightening news that he wants me to help in composing a song for the blind here whose belief is that if they cant see the instruments then no one is playing music. It was hard time convincing him that I have seen musical notes only in cartoons. But still he was not convinced and appreciated me that I can make my own tunes. With this episode hanging in the middle, it was surprising when we found that it was our client manager's birthday and I had to go to Costco to buy a cake. And there I was walking back to home and drove the car to Costco delaying my lunch by 2 hrs. But still, things were different today that the Veggie Sub in Quiznos actually tasted good for the first time. Afternoon was also not normal with one of my few long-time visitor of this blog and one who I thought knows me better commented that I am writing philosophical and romantic stuff these days which is so unusual of me. To my question whether I look like a nerd with long weird hair and bifocal lenses with no sense for sentiments, the answer came to be YES. I am having tough time on whether to take that as a compliment or not. Not to be forgotten for the day was the photo I took with the Vice President not of the United States but still of our client. The only problem was that I had to face the computer screen while she was standing behind me facing the camera. So good luck to everyone finding my back in this month's corporate magazine.

Soon bored by the photo shoots in office, I returned home for an early sleep but ended up watching a Telugu movie. Before you can question, I would like to say that I watched it from an Original DVD that was brought from India. I even had to advise my baggage-packing roommate on the size of his cabin baggage. And not finding a measuring tape to decide how much 61cms is, I found the box of the garbage bag and it measured up to 51cms there by proving his bag was definitely 70cms or more and is outside the Airlines restriction of the size of cabin baggage. Another distinguishing fact for the day was that I cut cabbage instead of the usual onions for dinner. But as usual, my roommate prepared the dinner while I just ate them. And if you think all these are so stupid and could happen on any other day, hear this. I cracked the mind of someone who believed can never be undisturbed by my mails daily for more than two weeks. The funny part was "that person" vent out the frustration at another person who just happened to be in a place closer than me. I am glad that things were not so sluggish and it was good to have something to blog about.

Let the guns talk - Last Man Falling

2008-04-27T20:24:00.000-04:00

.... continued from Let The Guns Talk

Oh God!
Grant me the power to finish what I started.
Grant me the will to hold my weapons till the end.
Grant me the strength to be the last to fall.

I watched those unprepared eyes not expecting whats going to happen. Talking the same as yesterday and the same as the day before. "Good luck" I said. They heard it. They turned around. Soon enough to know who said it. But not soon enough to know why I said it. I wished them luck to die without pain. Only luck, the unreliable that never comes when you wanted could save them from the painful death. I raised my guns. No particular target to talk, the bullets fired all around the room. They spoke swift and gentle taking the breathe away one by one. There was no place to hide in this room. Nor did they have the time. Even reaching for the gun was seconds away from what was available to them before my weapons tore their heart away. I laughed aloud as I gave way for my guns to do the talking. The sound of the laugh overwhelming the gun shots suppressing the cries of the dead-to-be. Merv fell down as the metal broke his skull and went deep inside his brain. He never stood up again. I gave one to his heart to make it stop. Waste of bullet. Because I know it has already stopped. His dead eyes stared with fear and will remain the same forever. Quick one to raise the gun was Sliz. The exception I forgot to include with the chit chat. My negligence met with a bullet on my arm. And one above the chest. My heart was still healthy. I returned fire aiming for hers. The time was on my side and the bullets reached her heart side. Ironic, I said it reached her heart as if she has one. She dropped the gun shuddering as the blood found a new way out. I stay corrected. It reached her heart as if she had one. Happy I was for a split second. But came rushing to my heart was the ammo from the hole of Vincento's gun. My guns returned the favor by reflex. He fell down still breathing. I clutched my chest trying to stop the blood. Come on! What is the need to rush? Hold on for some more time. It will all be over. It is almost over. I surveyed the room for life. Death surrounded life inside. Blood all over the place added confusion to my count. Only two souls left. One of them was mine. The other lay against the wall across the room waiting for the last moments.
I decided to kneel down. Time to take rest. I have to hold on for some more minutes. I dropped the guns that were hotter than hell. I know that is the place where everyone was sent. Oh God! They say we will relive our entire past life in the last few minutes of our life. I do not want them. Grant me few more seconds to live the current life instead. I prayed with my eyes closed.
And then the door opened. I knew it is the angel that has walked in. The angel that had once been mine. The one for which I owe everything. The one who changed paths and crossed to the unreachable side of the river. The one I could not watch leaving me alone. Its strange. Its strange that my dying heart hopes for something that it knows would not happen. It wanted her to hold me again. A tear from her eyes dropping over it healing the pain like the Phoenix. One last kiss before I let out my breathe for the last time. My heart is becoming weak losing the strength slowly and longing for love in this lost world. She went towards his side instead. She held him closer killing me more. The raging blood could no longer hold inside my body. I wished to die. But things are not yet done and I waited for those moments to come. But then he died. Happiness knew no bound in my dimming soul. His eyes closed before his lips could reach hers. The last kiss did not reach him alive. What is the point of taking pills after you are dead? The dead remains the dead. I laughed with what is left of me.
She dropped his body and walked back to me. She had a gun in her hand. I raised my head longing to see the face for one last time. The face was calm with no emotion in sight. The gun pointed to my head, she stared deep into my eyes. I returned it with smile. She readied the gun to finish off what I started. It is good to die in the hands of the one who longed to live for. But I had different plans for her. The clock ticked as it went down to zero. I decided not to leave her alone in this cruel world. The bomb around my waist would bring us together again. Her emotionless face showed anger. Seeing my smile, it raised a doubt inside her slowly turning to fear. As fear grew it caused panic and was all over her. "It is time", I said still smiling. "See you in hell".

Life in the Book shelf

2008-04-23T00:39:00.000-04:00

I am just a novel
Trying to become an epic
Dreaming to be a poem
But mostly end up ....

....as a comic strip

A new beginning

2008-04-21T02:43:00.000-04:00

I know you are sad
I see you are hurt
The pain in your eyes
while looking at the skies
Staring into the night
Hoping for the sight
The moon that amazed you
And the stars around too

They are gone for the day
What do you think I can say
Only memories you hold
lasting inside you untold
But dont you lose your heart
This is just a new start
Things have really changed
The golden rays rearranged

Shining the world so bright
Covered the grass with light
Now it is for you to choose
Not willing to lose
holding to the past
You know it cannot last
Or raise your head again
Something new begins to rain

Life goes on and on
End is nothing but begone
Death or fate it is
that brought you this
Sometimes we fight back
Sometimes we have to forget
Its better to move ahead
Listen to what I just said

Everything moves never still
how you live is your own will
Feel around you the breeze
Smell the scent in your breathe
Everything you are challenged
will one day be answered
Believe me. The world is yours!
Now rule it with your power.

Pirates of the WorldWideWeb

2008-04-17T20:51:00.000-04:00

With almost everything possible in the internet, and though everything is available through internet, not everything have made way to us legally. Now don’t imagine any weird stuff that does not fit to the conscience of my wide range of readers (I could count them from 1 to 10). I am talking about the copyright violations. Many might not even know that not every eBook is free on the internet and when you download something you might actually be stealing it without the Author or Publisher's notice. And it might be surprising for you to find that people actually SELL e-books for money on the net. If you are disappointed by this, don’t think it is a joke when I tell you that the MP3 songs collection of 5 GB that you downloaded from the net can also be illegal. This is another reason why many of your favorite music websites like Raaga and esnips allows you only to stream songs and not download them. There can be exceptions depending upon the copyright principles of the author. Now don’t ask me, if streaming is legal. I am yet to find it out. You might call me a liar when I say that my house owner in UK who did not know that you can download songs for free in the net. Thanks to music store like iTunes that brought the cost of songs to 99cents which is easily affordable to everyone, they did not have to go to the illegal sites at all.

So do I think starting an online music store for India can help in bringing down piracy? That is a tricky question to answer. Let’s say any song is available for download for 2 rupees. A movie on an average with 6 songs will cost 12 rupees compared to 35 or more for an Original audio CD. But do you think we will be happy paying 12 rupees when you can get it for free somewhere else? That’s a moral question everyone should think of. If you ask me, I would pay. But I have always been a weird thinker against the rest of the world and I cannot answer for the rest. (Read my opinion on Satman's What if theory) So there is need for different campaigns to make people go legal. One idea that I believe would work is by creating promotions like "Buy 1 Get 1 free" or "3 songs for 10 rupees". Portal owners can even use the "Aadi" and "Diwali" celebrations and give 10 to 50% discount for downloading songs. Or Shopkeepers selling garments can even give it for free with saris and dress materials. I would love to hear comments like "Get Surya songs free with Surya shirts or "Hear Shreya's songs while wearing our Shreya saris." May not be saris. Which heroine wears sari these days.

And not to forget the US and UK desi’s delight "Online Movies" portal are also against the law. What’s more, several copyright protection agencies are trying hard to close down these sites. But Internet being a free world, this is so far an impossible task to them. But we are seeing many websites like movieforumz being shutdown for the same reason. The tricky part is to bend the cyber rules. If the rule says that it is illegal to host or upload pirated movies in the net, there are some smart sites which just link themselves to the videos already hosted on the net. This is more like

"I did not break into the house.

I just misplaced the goods from the already broken house".

And there is another group of portals, who will host songs and movies with a disclaimer.

"All the media we host are for preview only.

Please buy the original DVD if you like them,

so that the original author is not affected"

And apart from movies, we see this disclaimer a lot on the warez sites which lets you download software’s. Aren't they providing a social service by advertising the author's work? May be they are over advertising by running the whole movie instead of the trailer.

Ok. Now you would be having the million dollar question in your mind. "What about you? Aren't you the one who actually told me about the fast metallic screen website (name obviously hidden) that links Hollywood, Bollywood, TV shows and even cartoons on the net?" I will just answer "No comments!" to you. But I do have Blockbuster account for watching English movies of my choice. I am trying hard to be pure as much as possible in this dark world. And I am vowed not to buy pirated movie DVDs as long as the original ones are available to my reach. But it is difficult to find original DVDS of Indian movies in US and that has been my excuse. So if I had to stop using my excuses and if we are to bring an end to the illegal activities, (Kindly not the IF) we must work together in changing ourselves for cleaning up the wild internet.

As a first step, I have decided not to watch any more English movies on the net illegally from my system. This is limited to viewing the movies through streaming and does not include the movies that can be downloaded completely before watching them. And please note this decision is no way related to the closure of all the movie hosting sites that I know or the poor speed of Veoh and Megavideo networks and is definitely not related to me unable to find any good movies in the internet.

The Second Chance

2008-04-14T07:33:00.000-04:00

Axel stared into the darkness of the park. There was no one to be seen. Things were getting bored today. By this time, yesterday, he had beaten up the guy who was wearing large spectacles and a white shirt. He hated white but the guy wouldn't take his shirt off when he asked him to. Axel had to tear it away with the knife while he was still wearing it. The shirt was completely red soaked in blood at the end. Billy got benefited 50 bucks from his wallet. But they left the watch as it was broken by the baseball bat that hit his wrist. Axel never did it for money. It was only Billy who is interested in money. And Cujo stood and barked most of the time. It occasionally gets the chance to bite when some one tries to run. But today things looked so different. Billy was getting tired playing fetch with Cujo. Even Cujo was tired fetching the stick. He stopping giving the stick back to Billy and instead lied down next to Axel who leaned over the tree waiting for someone that he would hate. It was always easy to find someone he would hate. He hated everyone. Billy sat next to him and started playing with his knife. The night was getting cold and they were getting restless. Axel looked far and saw the light from the Church clock. It struck once. It is one hour past midnight. And then, Cujo stood up and barked.
He sounded furious which meant only one thing. Axel is going to hate the one who ever it is coming on the way. They stood and walked towards the stranger. He appeared young and was coming straight towards them obviously not expecting their company. Watching them approach, he stopped his walk and looked at them. To Axel, everyone did the same thinking whether to run or not. And many make the wrong decision of running back. But today, the guy started to walk again, towards them. "This guy has some guts" said Billy laughing and walked fast eager to have fun. They reached close while he seemed not to notice them blocking the way. Billy pulled his collars back as he tried to get past their shoulders and pushed him to the ground. "What is a prick like you doing out here, huh?" Billy shouted while raising the baseball bat from his back. The stranger just stood up silently. He glanced towards Cujo who was barking and then to Billy and then looked towards Axel and spoke. "If you were given a second chance, what would you do?" Axel could see only his blue eyes in the dark. They stood distinct from the darkness and appeared staring straight into him. Billy raised the bat and yelled "You think you are a smart....", and hit the bat over his stomach making him fall down again in an instant. Axel took the metal rod from his jacket ready to have a nice time. The stranger raised slowly from the ground and stared back again at Axel. Then he took a step back slowly. Even though it was dark, Axel could see that the guy was not frightened. His blue eyes were blank and silent. As much as Axel moved towards him, he would move a step backward, but slowly increasing his pace and at one moment, he started to run. Axel unleashed Cujo from his grip and Cujo was glad to get some fun at last. It started to chase while Axel and Billy followed running behind. They ran long until they reached the gate at the north end of the park. The guy opened the gate and ran outside followed by Cujo leaving Billy and Axel far behind. Before they could reach the gate, they heard a whimpering sound of Cujo in pain. Feeling alarmed, Billy and Axel ran fast to the gate and found it to be locked. They could see Cujo sitting not far from the gate while he stood there just about 5 feet away. Cujo was looking up at him. "Cujo, get him boy!!!" shouted Billy. Cujo looked towards Billy and turned back again as he advanced. "Get him Cujo! Take the flesh out of him" Billy continued to shout. Cujo slowly tried to get up and limped back. His left hind legs moved as if it is not attached to the body. Axel saw blood on the ground next to Cujo. Then suddenly, there was a blow from the guy who was holding a wooden plank. Cujo wailed for a second twitching his legs back and forth before becoming still. Billy was furious seeing the sight and ran towards the other exit on the left.
Axel stood shocked on what just happened. He clutched the gate trying to open it. The stranger walked slowly towards the gate. The street lights were far and shadowed his face. He moved closer to Axel who stood on the other side of the gate. Axel could see that he was no more than 20 years old. But there was no innocent look on his face either. His face beamed bright now without any expression of anger or sorrow. Billy found the exit and holding his bat, he sneaked slowly behind him. Axel could see that Billy was no more than 10 feet from them. Then the stranger smiled. In a fraction of a second before Axel or Billy could realize, he threw the wood straight to Billy's knees. Billy caught unaware stumbled down to the ground. The boy turned back to Axel and smiled again who screamed in anger. Billy was slowly trying to get up and he raised himself to his hurt knees. The knees were sure broken as he cried in pain. The boy turned and faced Billy again who looked at him with fear. He walked towards Billy and took the baseball bat lying next to him. He positioned himself to his left and raised the bat as if ready for the swing in the game. Axel screamed rocking the gate trying to open it but of no use. The stranger looked back towards Axel and asked again. "If you were given a second chance, what would you do?" Then he swung the bat hard hitting straight over Billy's neck. The sound of a broken bone came out and Billy fell without any movement. Everything froze for a second for Axel.
The town clock struck once. It is one hour past midnight and Cujo started to bark making Axel come out of the slumber. There was someone coming towards them. Billy stood up while Axel started thinking of what would happen next. Cujo was barking louder. Billy looked at Axel in confusion. "Come on! Its our day". Then he saw the stranger and he could see the blue eyes staring into him. "Wait!" Axel said, "It is not our guy". Billy shook his head in disappointment and threw the stick for Cujo to fetch. The stranger turned towards Axel while he crossed their path and left silently.
"If you were given a second chance, what would you do?" Axel thought.
"I would take the pass"

In this Weird World - Happy Endings

2008-04-13T10:54:00.000-04:00

Happy endings in movies
coz Life is meant to be
Or People like to see

Reading myself

2008-04-06T14:37:00.000-04:00

I thought I can
read others' mind.
But then I met you.
I read mine.

The Song of my heart

2008-04-04T10:20:00.000-04:00

Once upon a time, there lived a honey bee in a healthy honey comb on top branches of an oak tree. All his friends called him as Nectar. Nectar is a happy loving bee and always sang and danced with everyone. Though he was young, he cared for others and helped his colony in all ways. As he is a worker bee, his work is to bring honey from the flowers in the nearby Garden. He is very active and would fly singing his favorite song and enjoyed his work. He was happy that he is helping in the growth of his family, because for a honey comb, work from each and every small bee is equally important and the little honey that each bee brings back will count when filled together.

One day, when Nectar flew to the garden, he saw a small caterpillar on a cabbage leaf. It was so small and was trying to climb high on the leaves. Trying to help, Nectar went down and talked with the caterpillar whose name was Rainbow. Soon, Rainbow and Nectar became very good friends and Nectar would fly down every day to talk with Rainbow. They would sing songs together all the time and would help Rainbow in finding the best leaves to eat. Nectar's friends did not like Rainbow as it was small and lazy eating the leaves all the time. Nectar liked Rainbow very much that he took Rainbow to the oak leaves and they can sang all the time. But the Oak leaves are hard and it was not tasteful for Rainbow. Days passed with Rainbow not eating properly and became sick. Nectar though loved Rainbow very much knew that caterpillars must feed on cabbage leaves and took Rainbow back to the cabbage leaves. When his colony moved to another oak tree far from the garden, he left hoping that Rainbow will learn to live better there.

Weeks passed and Nectar got busy working for his colony harder than ever and was again loved by everyone. He started singing his favorite songs every day. Though he always thought of Rainbow, he never went to the garden. He wanted Rainbow to live freely and did not want to disturb. But he always felt Rainbow would be sad without him and would not eat the leaves properly. So after many more weeks, he finally decided to go back to the Garden. He was eager to see his friend grown to a large caterpillar. He flew through rivers, hills and forest towards the Garden. After 5 days, he reached the place. The Garden looked very different and there were no cabbage leaves. Nectar got scared and kept circling the garden trying to find Rainbow. But he was not able to find Rainbow anywhere. He became sad but hoped that Rainbow would have moved on to a better place. On his way back, he saw a Garden full of colorful roses. The roses were so pretty. So he went to take some honey for the colony. When he was collecting honey, the breeze blew over the garden. It was then, he heard the voice of Rainbow singing a new song. Feeling happy, the roses also started to sing a song. Surprised, he asked the rose who taught them the song. The rose said it was Rainbow. Rose told Nectar that Rainbow can always be seen over the Red rose at the center of the garden.

Happy to hear about Rainbow, he flew across the rose garden trying to find the Red rose. He got hurt by the thorns on the way. But still he flew and found the red rose. He called loudly for Rainbow but there was no reply. Nectar got scared as the leaves of rose plant were sharp and hard like Oak leaves. He was afraid that Rainbow will not be able to eat these leaves. And then he saw Rainbow on the top of the rose. But it was not caterpillar anymore. He was surprised to find Rainbow has grown to a beautiful butterfly and was feeding on honey instead of leaves. Rainbow also had wings of 7 colors that shined in front of the bright sun. He flew high to the flower smiling and stood infront of Rainbow. But Rainbow could not recognize Nectar. Rainbow has changed and found a new way to live. Whatever Nectar imagined of Rainbow was not seen now. He started singing Rainbow's favorite song. But there was no reply. Rainbow had forgotten the old songs too. Not understanding what Nectar was singing about, Rainbow, the butterfly flew away leaving Nectar singing the song alone.

Holding the past,
Not knowing the weather changes,
Longing for the same breeze
You return to the Garden,
Only to find the wind blows
In a far away place
To sing some other song
For someone else.

Happy Birthday TP - Born to rule the world

2008-04-01T02:02:00.000-04:00

Born on the day of fools
Guided me in everything what I am
I regret we couldnt be together today
Unable to greet you directly
Praying things will go back to normal
Wishing you the best on
Everything you wish everyday
On your own special day!

Happy Birthday Brother!

Did I make you a fool?

2008-04-01T01:32:00.001-04:00

When the calendar reads April 1st,
On the day for making fools,
If I say I am in love with a girl
But all stories I had written
are never meant about her,
Did I make you a fool?