I didn't go home past weekend. Not a big deal, but few of my friends get surprised by that. The idea of spending the weekend sitting at home started disturbing me and thought about going somewhere. Checked with Arangs, Jeyahari and Nagarajan, and Mekedatu was decided. Though i had second thoughts, thanks to the enthusiasm of the others, finally the trip was on.
Everything in the trip was an experience. We went in Tata Nano. We were not sure how it would work, moreover being newbies self driving was a challenge, and there was a small ghat section before reaching Mekedatu and we tested Tata Nano for the first time in that, travelled 4KM sitting on top of the bus, took bath in river after a long time.
The route to Mekedatu from Bangalore is through Kanakapura. From Bangalore take the kanakapura road, after reaching Kanakapura there is a small left turn that takes you to Sangama. Get the help of locals to get the Sangama road. We had thoughts of filling petrol after Kanakapura, but later learnt that there are not Petrol bunks after kanakapura, so drove back to kanakapura filled the tank and progressed again.
The drive was pleasant, there was not much traffic in Kanakapura road and the Kanakapura-Sangama road is good after one or two KMS with very less traffic. Tata Nano got too many looks after reaching Kanakapura, i dont know what they meant though.
Reached Sangama around 12.30PM. Sangama is the place where river Akravathi joins Kaveri. We then crossed the river in coracle to take the bus to Mekedatu. That was a special bus, wait for the photos to see how special it is. They charge 40 for the bus and 40 for the coracle trip, and they gave a discount of around 80 Rupees, after some calculation/discounts it came to 240 for 4 people. The coracle drive was ok.
The most thrilling part was the bus journey. The bus top was reserved for guys like us and we seized the opportunity. The route was so bad, and the bus was worse enough for the route. So the journey was wonderful. From Sangama to Mekedatu it takes 15-20 minutes for 4KM through the rough roads. Reached Mekedatu, where river Kaveri flows through narrow gorge, show its wrath on the rocks there by making the rocks, smooth and slippery. You can sit and watch how Kaveri flows furiously through the gorge or the rocks, if you don't have your girlfriend near you. We sat and watched the rocks for a while.
Started back to Sangama and took bath in the river for one full hour. It was wonderful, there was current but holding to the rocks it becomes enjoyable. The next one hour, was spent in the river, enjoying the river and also the comedies of the drunkards around. Finally after a enjoyable bath in Kaveri, started the journey back to home. On the way back drove through Nice road, which was nice.
Mekedatu, is a good place to visit for a day during or after monsoon season. No scenic places except for the narrow gorge, but the drive to Mekedatu, bus ride sitting on the top, the bath in river made it interesting. Anyway, drunkards are leaving behind their broken kingfisher's and signatures and families are adding enough plastic plates, packets and litter to spoil the place.
Yet to get the photos, but you will find them in a day or two at http://picasaweb.google.com/sens2003.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
A Vacation Well Spent
It was a near shutdown, thanks to the diwali, rajyotsava day, company leave policy and the kind Manager. 9 days to be spent @ home town, diwali, sweets, sister's visit, it was exciting to even think about. It also gave an opportunity to visit College and upgrade the servers. More than that to meet my Senior and Junior friends.
Day 1 (rather Night 1): Reached home on Saturday, finished off few work (including eating fish curry) managed to reach College by around 4 PM. It was Thevar Jeyanthi that day and journey through Madurai roads was thrilling. The followers of the leader we indulging in all sort of activiites, exactly opposite to what the leader might have wanted them to do. Joe, Balamurugan, LGP, GRK, Varadharajan and Gautam were already working. Met all the staffs from Unix Lab. It took a little time to recollect what we had done during our college days and what has happened after we left. Started with upgrading the TCENet server. It soon extended into Night and after a long long time, it was going to be a night lab in College. Had dinner at Aarthi, and i could see Aarthi has put up a brave struggle against change, with the only change being the cost of items. Worked till 5.00 AM, went home and crashed into bed.
Day 2: Woke up late, had lunch and started to college in Car. First time tried driving alone in Madurai City, where the only traffic rule applicable is to forget all the traffic rules. And it rained heavily once i started, visibility was reduced to less than 10 metres. Still i progressed, tried hitting two gals in TVSScooty. Their good luck they escaped. Rain stopped and i reached college without any further adventures. Was a bit delayed due to issues with AC. Yep the server room still has few issues with AC and UPS :) Started working upgrading the server and trying to configure Samba. Dinner was parotta, kothu parotta and dosai from TPK. Had a chat with Gautam, an enthusiastict second year guy.In the middle of the night, Samba configuration got over but it was not working as expected :( :( Windows machine were not able to login. Problem persisted through out the Night.
Day 3: Could not go home, had a quick rest for a hour in guest house and started the day exploring Samba. First it seemed to suggest issues with versions. Tried changing the configuration, didn't work. BitBala, LGP tried from their end, issue was not resolved. It was sometime in the evening, still the issue persisted. Anyway whatever it is, we have the solution with us. Yes, at last Joe pitched in after completing his work. Few minutes issue was resolved. Problem was with NSCD. Stopped "NSCD" everything worked fine. Bala, LGP, Varatharajan had completed work from their end. So putting an end to all that, started the thrilling night ride to home along with the friends.
Day 3 being Monday, gave opportunity to meet other staffs. Met the staff who had handled System Software, Compiler design etc. Surprised that she still remembered me, my name and friends name too. Was eager to see the staff who handled C/S technologis and was extremely happy that i could meet her, though she could remember the face, she has forgotten the name. I was quite amazed that even after three years, how staffs remember us. Had a quick chat with OOAD Mam, and could only wish Softwre Engg Mam. Anyway the staff who had talked to me during FStival, as though he recognized me, failed to recognize this time after two weeks as expected :) I would consider this as the default behavior but the other staffs were amazing. Also, TCS had visited the campus that day, once again made me nostalgic and took me back by three years.
Anyway All ended well in college, reached home and crashed in bed for a looong sleep.
Rest of Vacation: Next two days were successfully destructed by "Diablo: Lord of Destruction". Then Sister arrived with her family. Diwali followed, and since my little neice was around, it was interesting. Decided to celebrate the Diwali without seeing Actor/Actress interviews and succeeded. Soon it was time to leave, and reached here traveling for the first time in car from Madurai to Bangalore, since i had joined my Brother who was coming car. And it was more thriling with people violating the rules in highway as they wish.
Nine days vacation vanished, and now i am back to my working place. I was happy with the way the vacation went, since i managed to few things apart from staying in front of the computer and TV.
Day 1 (rather Night 1): Reached home on Saturday, finished off few work (including eating fish curry) managed to reach College by around 4 PM. It was Thevar Jeyanthi that day and journey through Madurai roads was thrilling. The followers of the leader we indulging in all sort of activiites, exactly opposite to what the leader might have wanted them to do. Joe, Balamurugan, LGP, GRK, Varadharajan and Gautam were already working. Met all the staffs from Unix Lab. It took a little time to recollect what we had done during our college days and what has happened after we left. Started with upgrading the TCENet server. It soon extended into Night and after a long long time, it was going to be a night lab in College. Had dinner at Aarthi, and i could see Aarthi has put up a brave struggle against change, with the only change being the cost of items. Worked till 5.00 AM, went home and crashed into bed.
Day 2: Woke up late, had lunch and started to college in Car. First time tried driving alone in Madurai City, where the only traffic rule applicable is to forget all the traffic rules. And it rained heavily once i started, visibility was reduced to less than 10 metres. Still i progressed, tried hitting two gals in TVSScooty. Their good luck they escaped. Rain stopped and i reached college without any further adventures. Was a bit delayed due to issues with AC. Yep the server room still has few issues with AC and UPS :) Started working upgrading the server and trying to configure Samba. Dinner was parotta, kothu parotta and dosai from TPK. Had a chat with Gautam, an enthusiastict second year guy.In the middle of the night, Samba configuration got over but it was not working as expected :( :( Windows machine were not able to login. Problem persisted through out the Night.
Day 3: Could not go home, had a quick rest for a hour in guest house and started the day exploring Samba. First it seemed to suggest issues with versions. Tried changing the configuration, didn't work. BitBala, LGP tried from their end, issue was not resolved. It was sometime in the evening, still the issue persisted. Anyway whatever it is, we have the solution with us. Yes, at last Joe pitched in after completing his work. Few minutes issue was resolved. Problem was with NSCD. Stopped "NSCD" everything worked fine. Bala, LGP, Varatharajan had completed work from their end. So putting an end to all that, started the thrilling night ride to home along with the friends.
Day 3 being Monday, gave opportunity to meet other staffs. Met the staff who had handled System Software, Compiler design etc. Surprised that she still remembered me, my name and friends name too. Was eager to see the staff who handled C/S technologis and was extremely happy that i could meet her, though she could remember the face, she has forgotten the name. I was quite amazed that even after three years, how staffs remember us. Had a quick chat with OOAD Mam, and could only wish Softwre Engg Mam. Anyway the staff who had talked to me during FStival, as though he recognized me, failed to recognize this time after two weeks as expected :) I would consider this as the default behavior but the other staffs were amazing. Also, TCS had visited the campus that day, once again made me nostalgic and took me back by three years.
Anyway All ended well in college, reached home and crashed in bed for a looong sleep.
Rest of Vacation: Next two days were successfully destructed by "Diablo: Lord of Destruction". Then Sister arrived with her family. Diwali followed, and since my little neice was around, it was interesting. Decided to celebrate the Diwali without seeing Actor/Actress interviews and succeeded. Soon it was time to leave, and reached here traveling for the first time in car from Madurai to Bangalore, since i had joined my Brother who was coming car. And it was more thriling with people violating the rules in highway as they wish.
Nine days vacation vanished, and now i am back to my working place. I was happy with the way the vacation went, since i managed to few things apart from staying in front of the computer and TV.
Tuesday, November 09, 2010
What happened ????
Thats the question i had been asking myself nowadays. Nowadays, i am running out of time. I have not updated the blog for around a month. What am i doing ? I am not working 24x7. With the experience i gained in three years, i have mastered the art of sleeping over the problem. Managers seem to be satisfied, if i quote the problem to be with some variable in a unknown struct. I am not running behind any gal too. Stopped it even before starting since i know it will be an exhaustive run without a result. I have quit the habit of reading books sometime ago. I am not reading any English or Tamil books. Technical books are my sleeping dozes. If you are wondering, why the blog is not updated, believe even i don't know the reason. Could be bcoz of twitter, where i vent out my feelings now and then. Or could be because of facebook, where it shows a cute gal photo in News feed, which my friend of friend of friend of friend liked. Thanks to the "cute" gals who haven't set who are yet to discover the privacy settings of facebook. With a bit of satisfaction for finding few reasons for not updating my blog, let me quickly recap what i had been doing for the past one month.
* Attended PyCon 2010, met few of my Junior friends. Liked a few talks, slpet in a lot of talks. Most of the talks were not very interesting.
* Completed two exams in my MS course. Have two more exams to be completed to put an end to the theory papers.
* Attended my friend's Vanniaperumal marriage at Sattur. Drove from Madurai to Sattur and went beyond 100 KMPH and reached 120 for the first time. Enjoyed the marriage functions and met a few guys there.
* As usual watching a lot of movies, and for sure this year will be the year during which i have seen the maximum number of movies.
I could have summed it up as "Nothing significant" which would have obviated the need for this post :-) :-) :-)
* Attended PyCon 2010, met few of my Junior friends. Liked a few talks, slpet in a lot of talks. Most of the talks were not very interesting.
* Completed two exams in my MS course. Have two more exams to be completed to put an end to the theory papers.
* Attended my friend's Vanniaperumal marriage at Sattur. Drove from Madurai to Sattur and went beyond 100 KMPH and reached 120 for the first time. Enjoyed the marriage functions and met a few guys there.
* As usual watching a lot of movies, and for sure this year will be the year during which i have seen the maximum number of movies.
I could have summed it up as "Nothing significant" which would have obviated the need for this post :-) :-) :-)
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
FStival 2010
Note: This post contains reference to names and places, which might make sense only to TCE folks. It will be a bit long too. And at few places managed to mention about FStival, the main reason behind the visit :P
After two years break, i was back at FStival, the software freedom day celebration organised by GLUGOT and GLUG-Madurai. Accompanied by Junior Sai went to the function a little late as usual and stayed away from the chief guest address which seemed to be halfway through in K.S. Auditorium. The chief guest was none other than our senior, Mr. Amalan Joe Steeve. When the chief guest was addressing the crowd, myself and Sai, decided to roam around the college and check out the changes. And our junior Karthikeyan, who is presently doing 3rd year gave a good company for more than an hour. In two years, college has changed a lot, but there are still a lot of landmarks left to make you nostalgic.
The CSE classes are being held in the new building in front of IT department. The open air auditorium is functioning. There is a new building in the pump house. There is some new building coming up in front of the Maths Department. There is one more new building coming up near hostel. Very few monkeys in pump house and CSE Aalamaram. Z0 my final year class room has changed. The tables where 10 of us sit in a row has changed and it is now replaced with single chairs, and the room looks clean. I think the lab which was adjacent to Unix lab, previously called as Client/Server lab is now called as IBM lab !!!! Wondering how it got the name though and whether there is a plan to change the names of other labs to HP, M$, Oracle labs :P N/w lab is now called as Multicore lab or something. No changes to Apple and Web Design labs. The ditch in front of the library remains occupied with boys and as usual guys were having fun.
Met all the staffs in Unix lab except for Shalinie mam, since she had a meeting to attend after FStival and went straight there after the chief guess address. Met a staff who managed to talk as though he remembered me, while i doubt whether he did really. And then a mam who was travelling in auto showed signs of recognition. Whatever it is, it was great to be in College after two years and to get a feeling few staffs still can recognize you. This FStival also gave an opportunity to meet few of my juniors. It was fun as usual talking to them.
Coming to FStival, there were so many stalls this time. Congrats to them. Also there were around 300+ audience for FStival, including people from near by colleges and schools which was good. Roaming around the stalls was fun, we had stood behind and had explained the audience few years back :-) One major change was that students were using personal laptops in stalls. Looked like a corporate presentation with around 10 laptops in lab :P Finally left the college at around 5.00PM planning to visit later when i get time...
After two years break, i was back at FStival, the software freedom day celebration organised by GLUGOT and GLUG-Madurai. Accompanied by Junior Sai went to the function a little late as usual and stayed away from the chief guest address which seemed to be halfway through in K.S. Auditorium. The chief guest was none other than our senior, Mr. Amalan Joe Steeve. When the chief guest was addressing the crowd, myself and Sai, decided to roam around the college and check out the changes. And our junior Karthikeyan, who is presently doing 3rd year gave a good company for more than an hour. In two years, college has changed a lot, but there are still a lot of landmarks left to make you nostalgic.
The CSE classes are being held in the new building in front of IT department. The open air auditorium is functioning. There is a new building in the pump house. There is some new building coming up in front of the Maths Department. There is one more new building coming up near hostel. Very few monkeys in pump house and CSE Aalamaram. Z0 my final year class room has changed. The tables where 10 of us sit in a row has changed and it is now replaced with single chairs, and the room looks clean. I think the lab which was adjacent to Unix lab, previously called as Client/Server lab is now called as IBM lab !!!! Wondering how it got the name though and whether there is a plan to change the names of other labs to HP, M$, Oracle labs :P N/w lab is now called as Multicore lab or something. No changes to Apple and Web Design labs. The ditch in front of the library remains occupied with boys and as usual guys were having fun.
Met all the staffs in Unix lab except for Shalinie mam, since she had a meeting to attend after FStival and went straight there after the chief guess address. Met a staff who managed to talk as though he remembered me, while i doubt whether he did really. And then a mam who was travelling in auto showed signs of recognition. Whatever it is, it was great to be in College after two years and to get a feeling few staffs still can recognize you. This FStival also gave an opportunity to meet few of my juniors. It was fun as usual talking to them.
Coming to FStival, there were so many stalls this time. Congrats to them. Also there were around 300+ audience for FStival, including people from near by colleges and schools which was good. Roaming around the stalls was fun, we had stood behind and had explained the audience few years back :-) One major change was that students were using personal laptops in stalls. Looked like a corporate presentation with around 10 laptops in lab :P Finally left the college at around 5.00PM planning to visit later when i get time...
Bheemeswari River Rafting & Shivasamudra
After a few failed attempts at trips and treks, this trip to Bheemeswari became special just for the reason that we are going on a trip. Also probably the first trip with friends and families for the anna's who got married before sometime. As usual, the trip was planned all of a sudden, happened fast and ended well.
We started from Bangalore at around 6.30AM in the Innova which Pramod Anna managed to book. Loaded the car with so much of snacks and food that would suffice around 20 people, but taking into consideration that myself and Mani are going, we didn't take any chance. The plan was to go through Kanakpura and reach Bheemeswari. In few minutes, DP started the snacks grinding job and provoked others too and we all soon obliged. First stop was at some place after kanakapura, for breakfast. Hotel guys gave us the option of poori and spicy tomato rice, both of which were not good.
The journey was fun filled. We crossed a small hillock on the way and the scenery was good. We managed to reach the Kaveri fishing camp by around 10.30AM i guess. Quickly checked whether rafting was available and fortunately it was. The charge was 600 Rs per head. We soon paid the amount and geared up for the task wearing the life jackets and helmets. Soon our guide arrived gave the instructions and we started with our quest, 8KM ride from the camp to Muttati.
Rafting in kaveri is graded +2 rapids and is easy for beginers and non risky. The water was calm and there were few rapids here and there which gave a little ecstasy. Our guide Amit, manoeuvered the boat between the rocks with ease and explained about rafting in general, about the place, about rafting in North India. But all in Hindi :( :( Could make out the overall meaning of what he said, but we had a very patient translator Reena Anni who translated each and every word.
In the middle of the ride, we can get into the water and have a dip, and it was cool. Soon the ride came to an end and we came back to the fishing camp. And then started on the long ride to shivasamudra. I think this is the fourth time i am visiting the falls, so it was not that exciting. Visited Barachukki and gaganachukki and started on the long journey back to Bangalore, with a little sleep and as usual with non stop chatting.
We started from Bangalore at around 6.30AM in the Innova which Pramod Anna managed to book. Loaded the car with so much of snacks and food that would suffice around 20 people, but taking into consideration that myself and Mani are going, we didn't take any chance. The plan was to go through Kanakpura and reach Bheemeswari. In few minutes, DP started the snacks grinding job and provoked others too and we all soon obliged. First stop was at some place after kanakapura, for breakfast. Hotel guys gave us the option of poori and spicy tomato rice, both of which were not good.
The journey was fun filled. We crossed a small hillock on the way and the scenery was good. We managed to reach the Kaveri fishing camp by around 10.30AM i guess. Quickly checked whether rafting was available and fortunately it was. The charge was 600 Rs per head. We soon paid the amount and geared up for the task wearing the life jackets and helmets. Soon our guide arrived gave the instructions and we started with our quest, 8KM ride from the camp to Muttati.
Rafting in kaveri is graded +2 rapids and is easy for beginers and non risky. The water was calm and there were few rapids here and there which gave a little ecstasy. Our guide Amit, manoeuvered the boat between the rocks with ease and explained about rafting in general, about the place, about rafting in North India. But all in Hindi :( :( Could make out the overall meaning of what he said, but we had a very patient translator Reena Anni who translated each and every word.
In the middle of the ride, we can get into the water and have a dip, and it was cool. Soon the ride came to an end and we came back to the fishing camp. And then started on the long ride to shivasamudra. I think this is the fourth time i am visiting the falls, so it was not that exciting. Visited Barachukki and gaganachukki and started on the long journey back to Bangalore, with a little sleep and as usual with non stop chatting.
Thursday, September 02, 2010
Durai'sVirusProtection.vbe
I dont know whether it is a virus in first place, but it was irritating to me. A filenamed "Durai'sAutoProtection.vbe" gets copied to my pen drive everytime i inserted my pendrive into my windows box at office. My GNU/Linux laptop at home is my antivirus for pendrive. I kept removing the file from my pendrive and after a while got totally irritated and decided to fix it once for all.
First job is to track the location of the vbscript file. A bit of googling revealed that it is present in C:\Windows\system32 folder. To see the file, you will have to enable the following in folder options.
* Mark Show hidden files and folders
* Unmark Hide extensions of Known file types
* Unmark Hide protected Operating system files
Now i could see the file "Durai'sVirusProtection.vbe" in C:\WINDOWS\System32 directory. This is actually a VB script file, and i tried looking into the vb script code. Since i dont know even few words of vb script, could not guess much. But it claims to be removing a few viruses, and does few undesirable stuffs too.
1) Changes registry settings to change the Internet Explorer Title bar name to Durai.
2) Sets the default page of IE to some site.
3) Copies itself into pendrives inserted.
Though the file can be located, it is not possible to delete the file. Says the file is being used. The program using it is wscript.exe. Could not get much info about the same. Stop the process and then delete the file. Make sure the read only flag of the file is deselected before trying to delete.
Next to fix the registry settings,
Open regedit, and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\INTERNET EXPLORER\MAIN\ and then delete the Key value Window Title. Also change the starting address back to about:blank or whatever you want.
Also, inside HKEY_ LOCAL_ MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon the following key "Userinit" will be set to execute the vbscript file. Now since the file is removed, it will report an error everytime we logon. It will be set to some value like,
“C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe,C:\WINDOWS\system32\wscript.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\Durai'sVirusProtection.vbe”
Change this to just, “C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe"
With this the virus or unnecessary script will be removed from the machine. At times harmless stuffs like this are interesting to analyze and fix.
First job is to track the location of the vbscript file. A bit of googling revealed that it is present in C:\Windows\system32 folder. To see the file, you will have to enable the following in folder options.
* Mark Show hidden files and folders
* Unmark Hide extensions of Known file types
* Unmark Hide protected Operating system files
Now i could see the file "Durai'sVirusProtection.vbe" in C:\WINDOWS\System32 directory. This is actually a VB script file, and i tried looking into the vb script code. Since i dont know even few words of vb script, could not guess much. But it claims to be removing a few viruses, and does few undesirable stuffs too.
1) Changes registry settings to change the Internet Explorer Title bar name to Durai.
2) Sets the default page of IE to some site.
3) Copies itself into pendrives inserted.
Though the file can be located, it is not possible to delete the file. Says the file is being used. The program using it is wscript.exe. Could not get much info about the same. Stop the process and then delete the file. Make sure the read only flag of the file is deselected before trying to delete.
Next to fix the registry settings,
Open regedit, and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\INTERNET EXPLORER\MAIN\ and then delete the Key value Window Title. Also change the starting address back to about:blank or whatever you want.
Also, inside HKEY_ LOCAL_ MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon the following key "Userinit" will be set to execute the vbscript file. Now since the file is removed, it will report an error everytime we logon. It will be set to some value like,
“C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe,C:\WINDOWS\system32\wscript.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\Durai'sVirusProtection.vbe”
Change this to just, “C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe"
With this the virus or unnecessary script will be removed from the machine. At times harmless stuffs like this are interesting to analyze and fix.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Costly Affair
Was talking with my niece over the phone. Though she utters few words over the phone, this is the first time she was telling me some rhymes, that too completely, with a lot of enthusiasm. The reason behind the change is she has been going to school for few days, her first step towards interaction with a lot of kids around her. Since she had spent most part of her first two years inside the house, with minimal interaction with children, the idea of meeting a lot of children kept her excited i guess.
Good that they had the play school concept, which allows kids to get accustomed to the school environment, with interest. But the cost at which it comes, exceeds the cost that we might have spent during the entire engineering course. 45K for just two hours of class everyday. Looks like it is the same in Bangalore too, could be a little higher also. That is more than the total money i spent in a yyear doing my B.E. From what i heard from few of my seniors, they completed four years of Engineering in half the amount now collected in Play School.
Few Parents seemed a lot worried it seems, about the performance of the child. Worries about performance at two years is very early i guess. Education and Medicine are two things, where people wont take a chance. Which also gives the businessmen a chance to reap rich which they are doing without fail. Cant say whether the parent's views are wrong, but what is clearly wrong is the schools using the opportunity to smuggle in the name of education. The situation is not likely to change, i might end up doing the same mistake in future, but still could not stop thinking at present.
Good that they had the play school concept, which allows kids to get accustomed to the school environment, with interest. But the cost at which it comes, exceeds the cost that we might have spent during the entire engineering course. 45K for just two hours of class everyday. Looks like it is the same in Bangalore too, could be a little higher also. That is more than the total money i spent in a yyear doing my B.E. From what i heard from few of my seniors, they completed four years of Engineering in half the amount now collected in Play School.
Few Parents seemed a lot worried it seems, about the performance of the child. Worries about performance at two years is very early i guess. Education and Medicine are two things, where people wont take a chance. Which also gives the businessmen a chance to reap rich which they are doing without fail. Cant say whether the parent's views are wrong, but what is clearly wrong is the schools using the opportunity to smuggle in the name of education. The situation is not likely to change, i might end up doing the same mistake in future, but still could not stop thinking at present.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Chithira Pavai
After a long time, i completed reading a book. Thanks to the power cut at home which gave me no other option other than reading the book. I had the choice of reading a subject book and a story book and the obvious choice as usual was the story book. So completed the rest of Akilan's Chithira Pavai. Thanks to my seniors for suggesting the book and lending the book too.
Its a novel that has won Gnanapit Award, book was released before 35 years, hence wont talk much about the story line. What Akilan has told before 35 years in the book is still valid and will be applicable to the present middle class families. In the middle of the story, Akilan mentions about the desire that slowly arises in the middle class families, which slowly transform into greed, and causes havoc at the end. Can this be ignored now ? No way, i guess. Since this trend can still be seen in most of the middle class families. Is it true with respect to the budding software engineers ? I leave it for you to decide. Also depicted in the book is the struggled of an artist who finds it difficult to make a living, the life of a calm and good natured girl, a gal of exactly opposite character and a character who keeps running behind money.
The final few pages were really interesting and read it at a rapid pace. The end though can be predicted, sounds good. I had aversion towards the social novels like this, due to the misunderstanding that there is nothing new in the social novels. But "Chithira Pavai" proved to be an entertainer with a lot of anecdotes and advice, that can still be applied to the life, which we are leading right now.
Had read a lot of English novels and books and was under the impression that Tamil doesn't have much, but the view changed after i read Kalki books and it still continues as i continue to explore the rich treasures of Tamil literature.
Its a novel that has won Gnanapit Award, book was released before 35 years, hence wont talk much about the story line. What Akilan has told before 35 years in the book is still valid and will be applicable to the present middle class families. In the middle of the story, Akilan mentions about the desire that slowly arises in the middle class families, which slowly transform into greed, and causes havoc at the end. Can this be ignored now ? No way, i guess. Since this trend can still be seen in most of the middle class families. Is it true with respect to the budding software engineers ? I leave it for you to decide. Also depicted in the book is the struggled of an artist who finds it difficult to make a living, the life of a calm and good natured girl, a gal of exactly opposite character and a character who keeps running behind money.
The final few pages were really interesting and read it at a rapid pace. The end though can be predicted, sounds good. I had aversion towards the social novels like this, due to the misunderstanding that there is nothing new in the social novels. But "Chithira Pavai" proved to be an entertainer with a lot of anecdotes and advice, that can still be applied to the life, which we are leading right now.
Had read a lot of English novels and books and was under the impression that Tamil doesn't have much, but the view changed after i read Kalki books and it still continues as i continue to explore the rich treasures of Tamil literature.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Madrasapattinam
What had happened to me. Should remember 2009-2010 for the fact that it is during this time, i might have seen the maximum number of movies. Saw Madrasapattinam yesterday, a movie that i am seeing on the first day after a long time. Instigated by my friends at HP, decided to dump the CR that was creating a panic and reached the theatre 5 minutes before the movie at 6.10PM. For the third time in a row, watched the movie at Pushpanjali.
Owing to the fact that there was not much expectations for the movie, there was not much crowd in the theatre. Found the movie to be really good. Director Vijay has done a great job, supported by good acting by Arya. Highlight of the movie is the heroine, AmyJackson, who looked cute and adorable. No wonder she was awareded Miss Teen World beauty pageant. Her intro scene was applauded more than that of Arya's, surprisingly. Her screen presence was enough to mesmerize and crystal clear expressions did justice to the role. Lip synchronization was not all that great, but owing to the fact the even heroines born and brought up in TamilNadu do it worse, it can be neglected. Good selection of costume too for her.
Just to give a hint about the story without revealing much, the movie starts with Old English woman about to die, with the desire to visit India, in search of a guy whom she had met before 60 years in Madrasapattinam (Chennai). The story moves on interwined with her search at present and her memories explaining the reason behind the search.
Vijay should have worked hard, to bring Chennai as it was 60 years before in the screen. Though he might have tasted 100% success in this arduous task, it is a commendable effort. Arya as usual does his job easily. Climax is a bit sentimental and good. Overall a simple story well told.
Coming to -ves, GV Prakash as usual was a BIG disaapointment. BGM was good at few places, but it remebled a bit tweaked 7G's BGM and at few places it was irritating too. Few scenes resemble Titanic, which could have been avoided. First half was a lot interesting, second half fails to move at the same pace, but not a matter of concern actually. Scenes were a bit predictable. But all these can be ignored as the +ves overcome the -ves easily and at the it is a very good movie, worth watching.
After all this movie might break the myth that all the movies i see in the first day will become a flop :) :) Think it will do that with ease.
Owing to the fact that there was not much expectations for the movie, there was not much crowd in the theatre. Found the movie to be really good. Director Vijay has done a great job, supported by good acting by Arya. Highlight of the movie is the heroine, AmyJackson, who looked cute and adorable. No wonder she was awareded Miss Teen World beauty pageant. Her intro scene was applauded more than that of Arya's, surprisingly. Her screen presence was enough to mesmerize and crystal clear expressions did justice to the role. Lip synchronization was not all that great, but owing to the fact the even heroines born and brought up in TamilNadu do it worse, it can be neglected. Good selection of costume too for her.
Just to give a hint about the story without revealing much, the movie starts with Old English woman about to die, with the desire to visit India, in search of a guy whom she had met before 60 years in Madrasapattinam (Chennai). The story moves on interwined with her search at present and her memories explaining the reason behind the search.
Vijay should have worked hard, to bring Chennai as it was 60 years before in the screen. Though he might have tasted 100% success in this arduous task, it is a commendable effort. Arya as usual does his job easily. Climax is a bit sentimental and good. Overall a simple story well told.
Coming to -ves, GV Prakash as usual was a BIG disaapointment. BGM was good at few places, but it remebled a bit tweaked 7G's BGM and at few places it was irritating too. Few scenes resemble Titanic, which could have been avoided. First half was a lot interesting, second half fails to move at the same pace, but not a matter of concern actually. Scenes were a bit predictable. But all these can be ignored as the +ves overcome the -ves easily and at the it is a very good movie, worth watching.
After all this movie might break the myth that all the movies i see in the first day will become a flop :) :) Think it will do that with ease.
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Singam
Watched this mass masala movie from Hari, last weekend. Accompanied by Sai, Nari and Jeyahari, Singam was Sunday's assignment. First time, i went to the theatre near my home, Pushpanjali. Pushpanjali folks used the time, applied the strategy, closed the counters and sold the tickets at 40 Rs more than the original amount, at Rs. 100. Irritating strategy when you are at the receiving end.
Anyway the movie started, trying to show Prakash Raj as a ruthless villain. Followed by hero's introduction fight, punch dialogues, potrayal of his abilities, the love and respect village people have in him, heroine introduction love @ first sight, heroine's attempt to grab hero's attention, the usual masala that we have seen till the first half. Though we are tired of it, the screenplay was a bit ok, which made it interesting. In between, Villain meets hero, hero trying to stay truthful to his job, gets trouble. What follows interval is a fast paced action bound cat and mouse game between hero and villain. Vivek comes in between, as usual tries few double meaning dialogues and goes away neither making an impression nor creating irritation.
Anushka, gets a little more than what usually heroines get in tamil movies, in the sense, she does get some opportunity to speak, act, try some comedies apart from songs, where of course there is enough opportunity to be a glam doll. Songs were not upto the mark, as DSP has once again, has remixed parts of his own old songs, which gives a feeling that we have heard the song already. Should appreciate DSP's observation that tamil people don't pay attention to hindi songs, but trying to use infamous ARR's celebrated "Paathsalaa" music from "Rang de basanti" as BGM for a fight sequence is idiotic.
Though it is the same masala, same story, several lines of punch dialogues at several places and useless songs, the fast screenplay makes the movie worth watching once.
Anyway the movie started, trying to show Prakash Raj as a ruthless villain. Followed by hero's introduction fight, punch dialogues, potrayal of his abilities, the love and respect village people have in him, heroine introduction love @ first sight, heroine's attempt to grab hero's attention, the usual masala that we have seen till the first half. Though we are tired of it, the screenplay was a bit ok, which made it interesting. In between, Villain meets hero, hero trying to stay truthful to his job, gets trouble. What follows interval is a fast paced action bound cat and mouse game between hero and villain. Vivek comes in between, as usual tries few double meaning dialogues and goes away neither making an impression nor creating irritation.
Anushka, gets a little more than what usually heroines get in tamil movies, in the sense, she does get some opportunity to speak, act, try some comedies apart from songs, where of course there is enough opportunity to be a glam doll. Songs were not upto the mark, as DSP has once again, has remixed parts of his own old songs, which gives a feeling that we have heard the song already. Should appreciate DSP's observation that tamil people don't pay attention to hindi songs, but trying to use infamous ARR's celebrated "Paathsalaa" music from "Rang de basanti" as BGM for a fight sequence is idiotic.
Though it is the same masala, same story, several lines of punch dialogues at several places and useless songs, the fast screenplay makes the movie worth watching once.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Murphy's Law at work #2
There are a few things which you have planned not to do but end up doing the same, due to fate or false decisions. Something like that happened last week :(
Last week, we had planned to see Irumbu kotai murattu singam. Had planned for the morning show. My friend did confirm that there are three shows, morning, matinee and evening. Night show was a different movie, he claimed. So we went for the morning show. Woke up early on a sunday morning, took bath and with a moderate breakfast (which used to be heavy on sundays) we went for the morning show. Everything went fine till we reached there. There was very little activity in the theater. Not much crowd. Finally we learnt that morning show is a different movie :(
All the pain taken to see the movie went in vain, still we didn't want to give up. Unfortunately, Sura was running in the nearby theater. After series of discussions, ended up seeing Sura :'(
When Sura got released, i decided not to see the movie in theater or even by downloading from somewhere in the internet.But last week, ended up seeing the movie :'( Sura lived up to the expectations, it was totally bad.
Sura broke the lovely break i had given to Vijay and Ajith movies, which do not have anything other than useless herioc dialogues and sentiments and wrong masala at the wrong place.
Last week, we had planned to see Irumbu kotai murattu singam. Had planned for the morning show. My friend did confirm that there are three shows, morning, matinee and evening. Night show was a different movie, he claimed. So we went for the morning show. Woke up early on a sunday morning, took bath and with a moderate breakfast (which used to be heavy on sundays) we went for the morning show. Everything went fine till we reached there. There was very little activity in the theater. Not much crowd. Finally we learnt that morning show is a different movie :(
All the pain taken to see the movie went in vain, still we didn't want to give up. Unfortunately, Sura was running in the nearby theater. After series of discussions, ended up seeing Sura :'(
When Sura got released, i decided not to see the movie in theater or even by downloading from somewhere in the internet.But last week, ended up seeing the movie :'( Sura lived up to the expectations, it was totally bad.
Sura broke the lovely break i had given to Vijay and Ajith movies, which do not have anything other than useless herioc dialogues and sentiments and wrong masala at the wrong place.
Sunday, May 09, 2010
Murphy's Law at work
When things had to go wrong, they go wrong in all possible ways. It was a about a week back, when i was preparing as usual for the weekend trip home. Had tickets booked in Tatkal, and it was in WL 17. Packed everything and went to office as usual. The plan was if the ticket doesn't move, cancel the plan and get back home for a peaceful and lazy weekend.
When i reached office, got a call from a friend, checking whether i could get his return journey ticket booked by an agent and get that to native. Hoping that the tickets would move, i accepted. So that meant, whatever it is i will have to go home.
Was waiting for the tickets to move, checking the PNR status in web every now and then. Train was at 9.00PM, so expected the chart to be prepared by 5.00PM. Time tickled, 5.00, 5.30, 6.30, 7.00PM. Chart was not prepared. That was unusual, but it happened. Finally at 7.15PM, the chart was prepared, but my ticket status was at WL 12. Once again unusual, for a tatkal ticket to move just 5 seats :( So had to choose the last option, travel by BUS, go to hosur, salem and then to Madurai.
With that in mind, myself, Nirmal and his Brother started at around 7.45PM. It was fine when we started, but once we reached the bus stop to board the bus to bus stand, heavens opened up and to make matters worse we just had one umbrella. Before we got a bus, we were drenched. Finally we reached the bus stop to board bus to Hosur or Salem. And we met a huge crowd, who were waiting just like us. Rain had not stopped. There was enough crowd to fill three or four buses. We got one Hosur bus, and soon it became packed with space just to breath. The rain had reduced, and during the journey to Hosur, it had stopped. So felt relieved.
Reached Hosur around 10.30 i guess, and once again Rain was there to give us company and also the huge crowd, just like us waiting for Salem bus. The cool breeze made us shiver. No Salem bus was in sight and if there were it was fully crowded. When we were contemplating whether to return back to bangalore, we sighted a KSRTC bus to Kodaikanal. There were three sites available fortunately, but those were the seats behind the driver seat unfortunately. Still we boarded, and the ticket cost was 600, a bit more than 3 Tier AC ticket in train. And it goes only till Dindigul. Thanks to the superb road between Bangalore and Madurai, the journey was a little dreadful. Anyway all plans and positions to sleep ended in failure. At the end, reached Dindigul and boarded i reached home by morning 8.00 after 13 hours of arduous journey.
Though the journey was tiring and irritating, it felt fine to be at home. Wont be trying something like this again in the near future atleast i guess.
When i reached office, got a call from a friend, checking whether i could get his return journey ticket booked by an agent and get that to native. Hoping that the tickets would move, i accepted. So that meant, whatever it is i will have to go home.
Was waiting for the tickets to move, checking the PNR status in web every now and then. Train was at 9.00PM, so expected the chart to be prepared by 5.00PM. Time tickled, 5.00, 5.30, 6.30, 7.00PM. Chart was not prepared. That was unusual, but it happened. Finally at 7.15PM, the chart was prepared, but my ticket status was at WL 12. Once again unusual, for a tatkal ticket to move just 5 seats :( So had to choose the last option, travel by BUS, go to hosur, salem and then to Madurai.
With that in mind, myself, Nirmal and his Brother started at around 7.45PM. It was fine when we started, but once we reached the bus stop to board the bus to bus stand, heavens opened up and to make matters worse we just had one umbrella. Before we got a bus, we were drenched. Finally we reached the bus stop to board bus to Hosur or Salem. And we met a huge crowd, who were waiting just like us. Rain had not stopped. There was enough crowd to fill three or four buses. We got one Hosur bus, and soon it became packed with space just to breath. The rain had reduced, and during the journey to Hosur, it had stopped. So felt relieved.
Reached Hosur around 10.30 i guess, and once again Rain was there to give us company and also the huge crowd, just like us waiting for Salem bus. The cool breeze made us shiver. No Salem bus was in sight and if there were it was fully crowded. When we were contemplating whether to return back to bangalore, we sighted a KSRTC bus to Kodaikanal. There were three sites available fortunately, but those were the seats behind the driver seat unfortunately. Still we boarded, and the ticket cost was 600, a bit more than 3 Tier AC ticket in train. And it goes only till Dindigul. Thanks to the superb road between Bangalore and Madurai, the journey was a little dreadful. Anyway all plans and positions to sleep ended in failure. At the end, reached Dindigul and boarded i reached home by morning 8.00 after 13 hours of arduous journey.
Though the journey was tiring and irritating, it felt fine to be at home. Wont be trying something like this again in the near future atleast i guess.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
IPL III - CSK vs RCB
IPL III is beautifully poised, with five teams at 12 points after 12 matches. Lalit Modi should be a happy man, since his plan has worked out well. So it is going to be a tough fight from here. Leaving all those stuffs behind, IPL does provide some enjoyment. We had gone for the match here in Bangalore. As usual it was the CSK vs RCB match on March 23, and as usual, we were there as CSK supporters.
After a bit of delay, we got settled there. This time it was a lot different from IPL I. RCB was doing good and there were so many supporters for RCB. We were like an island surrounded by RCB supporters, tough task for us actually. And unfortunately, Dhoni was also missing in the match due to injury. Raina won the toss and called Bangalore to bat, the decision we were not happy with. We still follow the street cricket rules, the team winning the toss should bat first.
Anyway the match started with some CSK domination. CSK bowled well picked up quick wickets and match was in control til the 17th over. So till the 17th over, we got opportunity to shout and keep ourselves happy. After 17th over we were at the receiving end. RCB fans in the row behind us were shouting in our ears when Uthappa's shot cleared boundary line. But it was still interesting than sitting in home and watching the match alone.
We expected some fun in Chennai batting. Expectation that Hayden would fire, backfired as Hayden just kept switching between normal bat and mongoose bat. And Man of the match Bailey, showed his skill as very good test batsman. Thanks to Shyam, who came up with the idea of calling everything as "Idea batting", "Idea bowling", "Idea fielding" for all of CSK's mistakes. Back row, RCB fans, should have wondered what we are upto. We just wanted some entertainment :) Anyway after some time RRR was too high and wickets were falling. We knew, its time to leave and we left in the 15th over. Soon the celebration of the RCB fan, announced us the results. Thanks to whoever responsible for arranging all the BMTC buses, soon we caught a bus and went home, discussing whether IPL is fixed or not. And most important thing, White mischief, the cheer leaders of RCB were dancing a little away from us and it was good :P
This time the crowd included DP, Eric, Shyam, Musi and Myself. In IPL, we cant blame a team, because it is not in their hands. It doesn't matter how a team plays, when it is money that is actually playing. Lets see what Modi has in mind for CSK. My teammate's prediction was that CSK will reach semis, since both the semis are in Bangalore and CSK has some support here in Bangalore. Lets see how it gos.
After a bit of delay, we got settled there. This time it was a lot different from IPL I. RCB was doing good and there were so many supporters for RCB. We were like an island surrounded by RCB supporters, tough task for us actually. And unfortunately, Dhoni was also missing in the match due to injury. Raina won the toss and called Bangalore to bat, the decision we were not happy with. We still follow the street cricket rules, the team winning the toss should bat first.
Anyway the match started with some CSK domination. CSK bowled well picked up quick wickets and match was in control til the 17th over. So till the 17th over, we got opportunity to shout and keep ourselves happy. After 17th over we were at the receiving end. RCB fans in the row behind us were shouting in our ears when Uthappa's shot cleared boundary line. But it was still interesting than sitting in home and watching the match alone.
We expected some fun in Chennai batting. Expectation that Hayden would fire, backfired as Hayden just kept switching between normal bat and mongoose bat. And Man of the match Bailey, showed his skill as very good test batsman. Thanks to Shyam, who came up with the idea of calling everything as "Idea batting", "Idea bowling", "Idea fielding" for all of CSK's mistakes. Back row, RCB fans, should have wondered what we are upto. We just wanted some entertainment :) Anyway after some time RRR was too high and wickets were falling. We knew, its time to leave and we left in the 15th over. Soon the celebration of the RCB fan, announced us the results. Thanks to whoever responsible for arranging all the BMTC buses, soon we caught a bus and went home, discussing whether IPL is fixed or not. And most important thing, White mischief, the cheer leaders of RCB were dancing a little away from us and it was good :P
This time the crowd included DP, Eric, Shyam, Musi and Myself. In IPL, we cant blame a team, because it is not in their hands. It doesn't matter how a team plays, when it is money that is actually playing. Lets see what Modi has in mind for CSK. My teammate's prediction was that CSK will reach semis, since both the semis are in Bangalore and CSK has some support here in Bangalore. Lets see how it gos.
Monday, April 05, 2010
Yercaud Trek
Anyway we reached Salem at around 4.45 AM. Rengasamy, who travels to Salem every weekend. He quickly took us to a coffee shop where we had a good Tea. And then the otherAfter a long long time, once again we went on a trekking trip. The trip was to Yercaud near Salem in Tamilnadu. We started at around 00.00AM from Bangalore and the crowd from Bangalore included, Musi, Pramod, DP, Eric, Rengasamy and myself. What could have been a peaceful journey was disturbed by Illaiya thalapathi's movie, Sivakasi, where there were only punch dialogues and sentimental mokkais. Whenever i travel in TNSTC buses, i get to see only Sivakasi, Thirupaachi or Thamiraparani or some Ajith movie and not even one good movie. Probably a trick used by state govt to keep the drivers awake.
Whatever it is we reached Salem at around 4.45 AM. Rengasamy, who travels to Salem every weekend. He quickly took us to a coffee shop where we had a good Tea. And then the other people, Yousuf and Dhilip joined us in Salem. Boarded the bus that would take us to the "Adivaram" where the trekking is supposed to start. After 15 minutes of journey we started the trek.
The trek started exactly at 7.00AM. The weather was ok at that time, and think we had a lot of energy. So we climbed at a faster pace. First wicket to go down was Musi, who had lost all the energy after 30 minutes of walk. After some rest, the trek continued. Summer had just started and we could already feel the heat. With occassional rests the trip continued. We entered the estates around 9.30AM. The silver oak trees, and the coffee plants looked a little pleasant. We continued our trek through the estates and at around 10.00 AM the heat became unbearable. Musi developed a sprain in his legs, thankfully we had the pain killer. At around 12.00 we completed the trek at Ladies point, where we gulped some watermelon and pineapples. Funny part is we had eaten watermelon and pineapple for around 200 Rs.
Yousuf, had arranged for a car to travel to the resort, "Enchanting woods or E woods" where we stayed. He is actually the owner of the resort. The resort has the caption, "Just do Nothing". It was true, after reaching the resort, we did nothing :) The resort was wondeful, in particular the food was awesome. Yousuf who had designed the rooms has done it a lot carefully. When we reached the resort lunch was ready, with rice, sambhar, rasam, fish fry, omlette and papad. After a fantastic meal, all the tired souls rested in peace, with only Deivapalan's dinosaurus snores disturbing the silent atmosphere. By evening the sleep had given us a lot of energy and we decided to burn some calories playing cricket.
After cricket it was time for some barbeque. Yousuf had arranged for a barbecues and we feasted on Chicken barbecue and Musi the only veg guy munched on the veg barbecue made of cauliflower, potato and onion. After that we had dinner too !!! Parotta and Chappathi, with fish gravy was awesome. Yercaud which was annoyingly hot in the morning was pleasingly cool in the evening. Few brave guys like Pramod, Eric and Yousuf decided to sleep outside, willing to bare the cold. I stayed there for a while watching the stars and talking about some stuffs which i am not able to recollect now.
Next day once again we started with Cricket. Street cricket has weird rules, Pramod made it a lot weirder by introducing -ve runs whenever we lose our wicket. In between had breakfast of bread, panniyaram, omlette, mango jam. Yousuf also demonstrated how to prepare coffee from the coffee seeds. After that continued with game of cricket, took bath, had good lunch of chicken, jeera rice, egg etc. Wanted to catch the SETC UD bus from salem to Bangalore. Could catch that without issues. In Salem, got parotta parcelled for dinner from the infamous Selvi Mess and it proved to be a little too spicy requiring around 2 litres of water for 2 parottas.
Forgetting the hot weather at Yercaud, it is a memorable trip once again.
P.S. - Had presses Ctrl+x Ctrl + s few times in Emacs, which actually posted it in the blog. Sorry if your feed nad got messed up..
Whatever it is we reached Salem at around 4.45 AM. Rengasamy, who travels to Salem every weekend. He quickly took us to a coffee shop where we had a good Tea. And then the other people, Yousuf and Dhilip joined us in Salem. Boarded the bus that would take us to the "Adivaram" where the trekking is supposed to start. After 15 minutes of journey we started the trek.
The trek started exactly at 7.00AM. The weather was ok at that time, and think we had a lot of energy. So we climbed at a faster pace. First wicket to go down was Musi, who had lost all the energy after 30 minutes of walk. After some rest, the trek continued. Summer had just started and we could already feel the heat. With occassional rests the trip continued. We entered the estates around 9.30AM. The silver oak trees, and the coffee plants looked a little pleasant. We continued our trek through the estates and at around 10.00 AM the heat became unbearable. Musi developed a sprain in his legs, thankfully we had the pain killer. At around 12.00 we completed the trek at Ladies point, where we gulped some watermelon and pineapples. Funny part is we had eaten watermelon and pineapple for around 200 Rs.
Yousuf, had arranged for a car to travel to the resort, "Enchanting woods or E woods" where we stayed. He is actually the owner of the resort. The resort has the caption, "Just do Nothing". It was true, after reaching the resort, we did nothing :) The resort was wondeful, in particular the food was awesome. Yousuf who had designed the rooms has done it a lot carefully. When we reached the resort lunch was ready, with rice, sambhar, rasam, fish fry, omlette and papad. After a fantastic meal, all the tired souls rested in peace, with only Deivapalan's dinosaurus snores disturbing the silent atmosphere. By evening the sleep had given us a lot of energy and we decided to burn some calories playing cricket.
After cricket it was time for some barbeque. Yousuf had arranged for a barbecues and we feasted on Chicken barbecue and Musi the only veg guy munched on the veg barbecue made of cauliflower, potato and onion. After that we had dinner too !!! Parotta and Chappathi, with fish gravy was awesome. Yercaud which was annoyingly hot in the morning was pleasingly cool in the evening. Few brave guys like Pramod, Eric and Yousuf decided to sleep outside, willing to bare the cold. I stayed there for a while watching the stars and talking about some stuffs which i am not able to recollect now.
Next day once again we started with Cricket. Street cricket has weird rules, Pramod made it a lot weirder by introducing -ve runs whenever we lose our wicket. In between had breakfast of bread, panniyaram, omlette, mango jam. Yousuf also demonstrated how to prepare coffee from the coffee seeds. After that continued with game of cricket, took bath, had good lunch of chicken, jeera rice, egg etc. Wanted to catch the SETC UD bus from salem to Bangalore. Could catch that without issues. In Salem, got parotta parcelled for dinner from the infamous Selvi Mess and it proved to be a little too spicy requiring around 2 litres of water for 2 parottas.
Forgetting the hot weather at Yercaud, it is a memorable trip once again.
P.S. - Had presses Ctrl+x Ctrl + s few times in Emacs, which actually posted it in the blog. Sorry if your feed nad got messed up..
Friday, March 12, 2010
Miserable Plans
“He who fails to plan, plans to fail"
Believe me, i take those words pretty seriously at a situation like this. Atleast a plan has to be in place to save me. So what is that, which needs so much of planning. Its the usual stuff, exams are approaching fast. The problem with exams is that, you never realize that you have very little time till it is already very late to save yourself. Unfortunately, i have pushed myself into a situation like that now. Thanks to the optimistic decisions i made an year back :(
Anyway exams are approaching, and i had to atleast plan something, execution of which can be planned later. But it was important to have a plan. So i dusted off the brain which nowadays prefers to sleep, whenever i try to think, and started thinking at last. And soon a plan was in place.
The idea is to burn some midnight oil and study. But that would be difficult, since books are the best sleeping pills i have ever seen. So the idea was to do something interesting whenever i feel sleepy for a while and try to study once sleep goes away. Yep it worked, the first part worked, i could stay awake late in the night as long as i did something interesting. But thats the only part that worked. Looks like the second part needs to be replanned. The moment book is opened, eyes close automatically and slowly book falls from the hands and i fall into a peacefull sleep :(
Today's plans was to blog to keep me awake and then to study later but remote sight of the OS book is already putting me into sleep..
Yaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwnnnnnn....
Believe me, i take those words pretty seriously at a situation like this. Atleast a plan has to be in place to save me. So what is that, which needs so much of planning. Its the usual stuff, exams are approaching fast. The problem with exams is that, you never realize that you have very little time till it is already very late to save yourself. Unfortunately, i have pushed myself into a situation like that now. Thanks to the optimistic decisions i made an year back :(
Anyway exams are approaching, and i had to atleast plan something, execution of which can be planned later. But it was important to have a plan. So i dusted off the brain which nowadays prefers to sleep, whenever i try to think, and started thinking at last. And soon a plan was in place.
The idea is to burn some midnight oil and study. But that would be difficult, since books are the best sleeping pills i have ever seen. So the idea was to do something interesting whenever i feel sleepy for a while and try to study once sleep goes away. Yep it worked, the first part worked, i could stay awake late in the night as long as i did something interesting. But thats the only part that worked. Looks like the second part needs to be replanned. The moment book is opened, eyes close automatically and slowly book falls from the hands and i fall into a peacefull sleep :(
Today's plans was to blog to keep me awake and then to study later but remote sight of the OS book is already putting me into sleep..
Yaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwnnnnnn....
Sunday, February 28, 2010
VTV - Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa
VTV is the third Gautam movie which i had seen in the first week. This time i saw the movie in Madurai, the renovated Jazz. To be true the theater was pretty decent and they had really turned on the air conditioner unlike few theaters where it is just printed on the ticket.
Coming to the movie, it is pretty decent effort from Gautam's side and exactly has his touch of handling romantic scenes. As Gautam mentioned in his talks, it is the same old love story, told differently. It was a bit fresh and practical when compared to other love stories. The romantic dialogues were pretty impressive and as usual, it was more in English and Malayalam than in Tamil. Funny part, he does mention about it in the movie. So seems to be stricly for A centers. The location, the screenplay and the picturisation were great.
Simbhu should have struggled to act without punch dialogues, unnecessary fights and finger circus. So naturally it was a better performance and the role suited him too. Trisha as malayali girl was too beautiful and cute. Background voice of chinmayi too suited her nature as a calm and confused girl. Thanks to all those who had helped Trisha in looking beautiful :) Costume selection was also good. Also, for a change Trisha's face showed a lot of reactions, which was amazing. Rarely does the audience get to see Trisha acting and she has done a marvellous job in the movie.
Songs were already a hit, and i need not mention about ARR's BGM. It did rock. Songs were great to watch. Though it is the same old love story, which Tamil cinema had repeatedly tred along few decades, the way in which it is told makes it interesting.
So what is the story ? I am not telling you anything, better know it when you see in theater. Thats the best way to enjoy the movie. Only thing, watch out for some twist at the end.
Commendable work from Gautam, would recommend seeing it once.
Coming to the movie, it is pretty decent effort from Gautam's side and exactly has his touch of handling romantic scenes. As Gautam mentioned in his talks, it is the same old love story, told differently. It was a bit fresh and practical when compared to other love stories. The romantic dialogues were pretty impressive and as usual, it was more in English and Malayalam than in Tamil. Funny part, he does mention about it in the movie. So seems to be stricly for A centers. The location, the screenplay and the picturisation were great.
Simbhu should have struggled to act without punch dialogues, unnecessary fights and finger circus. So naturally it was a better performance and the role suited him too. Trisha as malayali girl was too beautiful and cute. Background voice of chinmayi too suited her nature as a calm and confused girl. Thanks to all those who had helped Trisha in looking beautiful :) Costume selection was also good. Also, for a change Trisha's face showed a lot of reactions, which was amazing. Rarely does the audience get to see Trisha acting and she has done a marvellous job in the movie.
Songs were already a hit, and i need not mention about ARR's BGM. It did rock. Songs were great to watch. Though it is the same old love story, which Tamil cinema had repeatedly tred along few decades, the way in which it is told makes it interesting.
So what is the story ? I am not telling you anything, better know it when you see in theater. Thats the best way to enjoy the movie. Only thing, watch out for some twist at the end.
Commendable work from Gautam, would recommend seeing it once.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Loquacious Companion
I am awake at 2.00AM in the morning, observing the peacefull city with very little clue about what to do and why i woke up. The city looks peaceful and with summer starting, nights are unusually hot.
Anyway thought of sharing few things that happened during a train journey that managed to catch my attention. Dont expect something spicy, in the train i travel things like that rarely happen.
Anyway that day i had to travel in a three tier AC coach. As per my experience my thought is that the chance for people to interact with people in AC coach is pretty less when compared to the sleeper coaches, since most of them have something to keep themselves occupied. I had my own plans of completing a novel, which i am trying to do for a long long time. But few things happened that managed to grab my attention.
As usual, the coupe i was in was testosterone rich and didn't have any trace of any girl. The same state prevailed in the near by coupes too. Is that my luck or is that the state of the train, i have no clue. In my coupe, there was a old gy, some one from northern part of india for sure, a middle aged man who never bothred us, another guy who seemed more like a fresher, and the character in focus, whom i will call American return, as i am not aware of his name.
It all started when, TTE started checking the tickets. Our guy had the ticket in iPhone, and zoomed the document and kept it ready, which the TTE as expected refused to see and he had to pay Rs. 50 as fine. Our guy tried arguing with the TTE who remained silent and continued to fill the receipt. The reason he quoted was he is trying to save paper by not printing the ticket. Though most of the other people didn't try listening to his grievences, except for the old guy.
So our american return started in full swing, he blamed the Indian government for not making it easy to use their services. His lavish comments had a strong american accent and looked more like it was intentional. He could speak normally too, which became evident, when he started talking later. Looks like he was not happy with how railways was functioning. Though it had made so much of profit, still there was no escalators in railway station as a result of which most of the old people struggle a lot. The old guy turned out to be a railway judge and he was able to give him some explanation. Few points he made,
* Though Indian railways makes a lot of profit, there are a lot of other basic amenities to be fulfilled other than escalator.
* Looks like the newly installed escalator in Chennai Egmore seems to be creating more problems, than helping people.
* Along with the escalator, a person was employed to maintain it and help people. Also, the guys employed to take care of it lack knowledge about it, and they do struggle.
* Though at times, if some accidents are caused because of the pure negligence of the people, Railways does pay them money just for the reason that they are illiterate.
The talk continued and American return, stuck to his point. Though it was just two people who talked for a long time, there were a lot of silent observers including me. One point that i will accept with that American return guy is that, we Indians lack don't push ourselves to perfection. This is very much true, we rarely take steps to make things perfect and this get reflected in all levels.
One quality that i did note in that american return guy is that, he started the conversation with an argument and finally ended it in a good note and went upto the level of exchanging contact details with the old guy. Also should thank him for making the train journey a bit interesting. This is just a gist of what happened, as usual described in a bit of crude way.
As for the novel, i still at the same page i started with during the start of my journey.
Anyway thought of sharing few things that happened during a train journey that managed to catch my attention. Dont expect something spicy, in the train i travel things like that rarely happen.
Anyway that day i had to travel in a three tier AC coach. As per my experience my thought is that the chance for people to interact with people in AC coach is pretty less when compared to the sleeper coaches, since most of them have something to keep themselves occupied. I had my own plans of completing a novel, which i am trying to do for a long long time. But few things happened that managed to grab my attention.
As usual, the coupe i was in was testosterone rich and didn't have any trace of any girl. The same state prevailed in the near by coupes too. Is that my luck or is that the state of the train, i have no clue. In my coupe, there was a old gy, some one from northern part of india for sure, a middle aged man who never bothred us, another guy who seemed more like a fresher, and the character in focus, whom i will call American return, as i am not aware of his name.
It all started when, TTE started checking the tickets. Our guy had the ticket in iPhone, and zoomed the document and kept it ready, which the TTE as expected refused to see and he had to pay Rs. 50 as fine. Our guy tried arguing with the TTE who remained silent and continued to fill the receipt. The reason he quoted was he is trying to save paper by not printing the ticket. Though most of the other people didn't try listening to his grievences, except for the old guy.
So our american return started in full swing, he blamed the Indian government for not making it easy to use their services. His lavish comments had a strong american accent and looked more like it was intentional. He could speak normally too, which became evident, when he started talking later. Looks like he was not happy with how railways was functioning. Though it had made so much of profit, still there was no escalators in railway station as a result of which most of the old people struggle a lot. The old guy turned out to be a railway judge and he was able to give him some explanation. Few points he made,
* Though Indian railways makes a lot of profit, there are a lot of other basic amenities to be fulfilled other than escalator.
* Looks like the newly installed escalator in Chennai Egmore seems to be creating more problems, than helping people.
* Along with the escalator, a person was employed to maintain it and help people. Also, the guys employed to take care of it lack knowledge about it, and they do struggle.
* Though at times, if some accidents are caused because of the pure negligence of the people, Railways does pay them money just for the reason that they are illiterate.
The talk continued and American return, stuck to his point. Though it was just two people who talked for a long time, there were a lot of silent observers including me. One point that i will accept with that American return guy is that, we Indians lack don't push ourselves to perfection. This is very much true, we rarely take steps to make things perfect and this get reflected in all levels.
One quality that i did note in that american return guy is that, he started the conversation with an argument and finally ended it in a good note and went upto the level of exchanging contact details with the old guy. Also should thank him for making the train journey a bit interesting. This is just a gist of what happened, as usual described in a bit of crude way.
As for the novel, i still at the same page i started with during the start of my journey.
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Trip to Varichiyur
To be exact it should be kunnathoor. Could call it as the only good thing that i did during this vacation, which was destroyed by Diablo, lord of destruction. Coming back to the trip, once again should thank Prabhu anna for interacting with history professor Dr.Venkataraman and inviting us for the trip. This time i thought i went prepared with a scribble pad and a pen which doesn not write!!! So it was once again had to rely on my memory, which i know is a bad option. Anyway will try to list whatever i remember.
Varichiyur is small village near Madurai, around 10-15KM from here. There were two rock cut temples built by Pandiyas around 790AD. Here are a few points gathered from Dr.V's talk.
* Udayagiri temple will be built always facing the east, usually built for the new king who comes to power.
* As usual, there is a lingam that is scooped out of a single rock.
* There are two dwarapalakas and they have two hands, which means they are a bit older. Later the dwarapalakas, were sculpted with four hands to show that they are not common men.
* Regarding Nandi, looks like the worship of Nandi or the bull started at around 1500BC.
* There is a statue of standing Vinayagar in the front of the temple. Looks like this is supposed to be rare. It is a customary to sculpt a Murugan statue opposite to it. This is missing here. So historians feel that the temple is incomplete.
* Dr.V also talked about the lingam. The lingam is built as a long shaft. I have no clue on how they arrived at the conclusion, but looks the lingam represented Brahma, lord of creation, Vishnu, who protects and Shiva.
* And regarding the dravidians and Aryans, initially people from Persia, came and settled in India and they are the dravidians. Later, people from Europe, drove the aryans to the south and settled in northern part of India, and they are Aryans.
* Later the different sects were formed, where Brahma was ignored and the feminine nature was given importance, forming the sakthi cult.
There is another temple in the west, called asthagiri. So the sun rises in the east, where we have the udayagiri. The whole hill is also considered as a huge lingam. So the sun moves from east to west, having a view of the lingam, and in the west, we have the asthagiri. Asthagiri is built for the old king and the difference is that, it has a arthamandapaa which is a empty space for the king to sit and pray. So a temple can have a Mahamandapaa where the people gather, arthamandapaa for the old king and the sanctum sanctorum or karbagrihaa where the god resides.
After that we visited another rockcut cave in the same hills. This was supposed to be a place where the buddists or jain monks resided. There is also a long cave inside that. One has to crawl if he wants to continue the journey into the cave. Looks like people ventured into the cave forty fifty years ago and from their words, it is believed that there is larger space inside the cave, where around 20 people can sit. He explained a bit about the inscriptions there, which he had also deciphered.
Everytime i hear his lecture about the idols, my belief that it was nature that was worshipped as god by men doubles and the athiestic feeling increases, and free time is wasted thinking about it.
Would suggest referring to Prabhu anna's blog entry for further details. He was the one who had written some points from what Dr.V said, so might have accurate and missed out details of this post.
Anyway altogether it was a good trip, informative and the only reason i woke up at 5.00 during two weeks of my vacation.
Varichiyur is small village near Madurai, around 10-15KM from here. There were two rock cut temples built by Pandiyas around 790AD. Here are a few points gathered from Dr.V's talk.
* Udayagiri temple will be built always facing the east, usually built for the new king who comes to power.
* As usual, there is a lingam that is scooped out of a single rock.
* There are two dwarapalakas and they have two hands, which means they are a bit older. Later the dwarapalakas, were sculpted with four hands to show that they are not common men.
* Regarding Nandi, looks like the worship of Nandi or the bull started at around 1500BC.
* There is a statue of standing Vinayagar in the front of the temple. Looks like this is supposed to be rare. It is a customary to sculpt a Murugan statue opposite to it. This is missing here. So historians feel that the temple is incomplete.
* Dr.V also talked about the lingam. The lingam is built as a long shaft. I have no clue on how they arrived at the conclusion, but looks the lingam represented Brahma, lord of creation, Vishnu, who protects and Shiva.
* And regarding the dravidians and Aryans, initially people from Persia, came and settled in India and they are the dravidians. Later, people from Europe, drove the aryans to the south and settled in northern part of India, and they are Aryans.
* Later the different sects were formed, where Brahma was ignored and the feminine nature was given importance, forming the sakthi cult.
There is another temple in the west, called asthagiri. So the sun rises in the east, where we have the udayagiri. The whole hill is also considered as a huge lingam. So the sun moves from east to west, having a view of the lingam, and in the west, we have the asthagiri. Asthagiri is built for the old king and the difference is that, it has a arthamandapaa which is a empty space for the king to sit and pray. So a temple can have a Mahamandapaa where the people gather, arthamandapaa for the old king and the sanctum sanctorum or karbagrihaa where the god resides.
After that we visited another rockcut cave in the same hills. This was supposed to be a place where the buddists or jain monks resided. There is also a long cave inside that. One has to crawl if he wants to continue the journey into the cave. Looks like people ventured into the cave forty fifty years ago and from their words, it is believed that there is larger space inside the cave, where around 20 people can sit. He explained a bit about the inscriptions there, which he had also deciphered.
Everytime i hear his lecture about the idols, my belief that it was nature that was worshipped as god by men doubles and the athiestic feeling increases, and free time is wasted thinking about it.
Would suggest referring to Prabhu anna's blog entry for further details. He was the one who had written some points from what Dr.V said, so might have accurate and missed out details of this post.
Anyway altogether it was a good trip, informative and the only reason i woke up at 5.00 during two weeks of my vacation.
Saturday, January 02, 2010
2009
Had been thinking for a while, should i do this ? I mean once again troubling you with this post of mine, stating what i did, what i didn't do blah blah blah.. It is this thought that has prevented me a lot many times from posting something, anyway here we go.
As the title suggests, it is about great things i did last year 2009. I had a good amount of time to waste, and the dance and song shows in TV was not impressive. So i tried hard, really hard to recollect what i did throught out the year. For a moment i blamed my memory power, as i could not recollect anything. Later i realized, how long i spend thinking about 2009, i wont get anything. Ha ha that was my 2009, in the sense quite ordinary without any trouble or surprises. Work was fine and other than work it was movies, trips and journey back home. 2009 will be remembered for a lot of significant events in the world but to me it was yet another normal year which went away happily.
Anyway, Happy new year to all.
Wait, hold your patience for some more time while i talk about new year resolution. I managed to think of a resolution for this new year and it is not to take further resolutions.
As the title suggests, it is about great things i did last year 2009. I had a good amount of time to waste, and the dance and song shows in TV was not impressive. So i tried hard, really hard to recollect what i did throught out the year. For a moment i blamed my memory power, as i could not recollect anything. Later i realized, how long i spend thinking about 2009, i wont get anything. Ha ha that was my 2009, in the sense quite ordinary without any trouble or surprises. Work was fine and other than work it was movies, trips and journey back home. 2009 will be remembered for a lot of significant events in the world but to me it was yet another normal year which went away happily.
Anyway, Happy new year to all.
Wait, hold your patience for some more time while i talk about new year resolution. I managed to think of a resolution for this new year and it is not to take further resolutions.
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