Alone or Unique?

The beauty of solitude is that it lets you focus all your energy inwards and not so surprisingly, you pay attention to things you never noticed, new ideas are born and you can reminisce about moments that matter, even if they are not so important, with a smile on your face or a drop of tear running down your cheeks. Of course, my solitude is often accompanied by work and that doesn't make it very interesting; but I was able to pay closer attention to a song, which I conveniently ignored in the past - Chitthirai Nila from the movie Kadal. 

What fascinates me about the song is the powerful concept expressed in very simple, rather colloquial lines. A child is born, his mother passes away and his father abandons him - the dictionary meaning of an orphan, a loner who has nowhere to go to. There are so many motivational songs that talk about being strong, comparing the person to heroes from the epics and all that; but this one is different. Here are the comparisons made by the lyricist:

Chitthirai Nila - The full moon, one of its kind that comes in a specific month of year

Sky - The vast evasive space

God - Accepted by most religions as a single limitless power

Now, this is not the first time someone brought moon, sky and God in a poem, not at all. In fact, if you analyze the lyrics of Tamizh songs or even Indian songs for that matter, apart from love, heart and probably rose, I think these will be the most frequently used words. What makes the comparison interesting in this specific song is that the lyricist calls these orphans too. They are all unique in their own ways, but you can call them loners, if you really want to. They are one of their kind and the only one of their kind. Would you call them unique and compliment them; or would you call them loners and pity them? It's really up to the perspective of the viewer, just like his outlook towards his own life and himself. I can't think of a better way to render such a powerful concept in lines simpler than these and kavippaerarasu proves yet again, why he gets so much respect and recognition.

Here's to uniqueness...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_B1eOGys_0

An interesting cycle...

Generally speaking, I hate being institutionalized (courtesy: The Shawshank Redemption :D). I mean, if I'm asked to do the same thing over and over again, in a fixed cycle; then it wouldn't be long before I get fed up with the system and give it up. I'm into once such cycle now but lo and behold! I find it interesting. :)

Let me try to describe the routine...

09:30 AM - Wakeup with (a complete sleepy head and) the faintest interest to do so; and get ready.

10:00 AM - Come over to office and allow the system to take a deep breath and show me the desktop in about 7 minutes and 23 seconds :D

10:07:xx AM through 11:45 AM (xx denotes variable seconds depending on my system's mood and state of mind on any given day) - Complete pending craps if any. Answer stupid questions that come up in office and once through with the whole process, sit down with gmail and orkut. Mostly, my best friends would be online and time flies away.

11:46 AM - 2:00 PM - Power lunch and if possible power nap. (Indha baadi evlo thaangum nu kanakku vacchukkura vaenaamaa naanu :p)

2:01 - 5:00 PM - Repeat the tasks listed under 10:07:xx AM through 11:45 AM. :)

5:01 PM - 6:00 PM - Short nap before the long workout.

6:01 PM - 7:00 PM - Chat with roomies, ensure schedule and get ready.

7:01 PM - 10:00 PM - Volley ball or tennis depending on whether there is a group or just a few.

10:01 PM - 10:30 PM - Get home, take a shower, complete my prayers and start cooking

10:31 PM - 11:15 PM - Cooking and setting up everything for dinner. Meanwhile, make sure a movie is buffered.

11:16 PM - 11:45 PM - Start watching the movie and eat.

11:46 PM - 12:45 AM - Continue watching the movie and have a discussion on the movie.

12:46 AM - xx:xx AM (again xx denotes variable time) - Wonder if I should sleep and stay awake until I get yes as an answer (from within :D)

Now, I know some of u might be fuming reading this schedule :D Don't worry, this won't be on for long and just like all good things come to an end, this will too and that day is not far off (a week away may be ;) :))

OMG! It's boring...

People who have been working for quite some time will know that being without much work to do for a prolonged period of time can be really boring; unless you have a host of personal activities to do (as in my case :D). Today, I got the opportunity to see my manager getting bored. No offense meant to managers, but though their job profile means much lesser job and much greater pay; today it was the peak of joblessness for my manager. Usually he has something or the other to bug me with and if he runs out of ideas, opens the stupid effing site and comes up with some brilliant 'proactive' thoughts like "Can we place this drop down on the left end because I often tend to miss this one..." and leaves me thinking "Vittaa oru kanna moodittu innoru pakka screen teriyala nu solluvaan pola irukku" (I wouldn't be surprised if he closes one of his eyes and says he is not able to see the other side of the screen). But now that the application has become decently stable, he is literally running out of tasks to give me and hence work!

Today, I could sense that obvious restlessness in him and we had about 5 or 6 meetings today, discussing nothing. He would first go into a meeting room, draw some crap on the board (some time can be spent there) and then he'd come back to us (me and the tester) and start the meeting. There will be virtually nothing to discuss but the tester and my manager would be so seriously discuss about it; while I'd be happily sight seeing through the broad window (how much I wish I had my cam and the 70-300mm VR lens with me :D). Inbetween meetings, he will come to my cubicle and ask me "what's up boss?" and though I'd be dying to say "Server is up, North is up, roof is up, your time is up; I'd control my instincts and the evil grin, and tell him something about what I'm doing with the complete assurance that he won't understand it.

The whole day went in repeated iterations of these activities with an hour and half long 'power-lunch' inbetween. Needless to say I'm enjoying work these days! :D :D

Kutthunga ejamaan kutthunga... :)

Haircutting in US has always been a hilarious experience (except that I end up getting my top damaged :D); and today I saw the heights of it. The principle behind a haircut has always been the same with me - spend minimal money, get maximum hair cut and look handsome (I know this is a fantasy; but that is what fantasies are about, isn't it :)). Unfortunately, it is always a choice between 1 and 2 (3 being an obvious impractical choice); and today was the best (or should I say the worst) of all my experiences.

Ok... let me narrate it. I went to a barber shop earlier today and it was moderately sized with three members working in it... I believe they all belong to a family. A couple of them were busy with other customers and there was this enormously fat lady who came to us (there was another guy waiting before me) and asked if she could help us. The other guy instantly declined and said that he is waiting for another barber to get done with his current customer. For the briefest of moments I thought "Aahaa... Thelivaa escape aayittaanae... Villangam edhaavadhu irukkumao? (Is this a trap)" and immediately dropped the pessimistic thought considering the fact that my haircut is pretty straightforward and anyone with the least bit of experience would consider it a cake walk. I settled down and told her 1 on the sides and the back; and 3 on the front (the heights of standardizing things... Out here the haricuts are numbered from 1 through 5; where 1 means a cut that reveals your scalp through the diffractions on the left over hair; and 5 means you pay the barber unnecessarily). In my place this style is quite common and people say "Munnaadi mattum vaarra alavukku mudi irukkattumne... Pinnadi side ellaam nallaa close a edutthu 'paa'naa adicchurunga" :D

Then the great show started. The trimming machine started to take weird turns on my scalp and at one point, she was rolling the chair and holding the machine just so it avoids the heavy, time consuming movement of her pillars err legs. I was reminded of the vadivelu comedy in thalainagaram where he says "Rolling a po..." :D Half way through the battle, ceasefire was announced through a phone call; and our cannon ball took 10 full minutes to just note down the name of the person who called... Come on... she has to move, attend the call, come back, pick the register and then note the name on it. The sight of my hair at that moment almost gave me a heart attack. The machine had played kabbadi on my scalp and like an uninhabited, unmaintained valley it was full of crests and troughs of hair. At that point, the damage was already done and there was no way I could ask her to get back the lost hair. So I thought what the heck, let's see what she is upto.

After the 10 minutes ceasefire, the battle resumed and this time scissors formed alliance with the machine and the battle became fierce. I was thinking "Adaengappaa... Anga enna irukku nu ekuipment ellaam maatthi try pannra (what is left over to show your versatility)". The whole thing was crowned by the finishing touch. Remember I said 3 on the front... So she left out a small strand of hair in the front (when I say front, I mean exactly the front - just the narrow streak that falls on your face when you pull down your hair on your face) and I was literally having a 'kudumi' in the front. :D The best part was, she asked me "Is everything fine?" and she honestly thought this is what I wanted. I was reminded of many comedy scenes, the top one being the Koundamani comedy from Gentleman where he says "Pottlam otta sonnaa okkaandhu otta paottu kondu vandhurukkaan paaru... Idhu rejetted" :)) Controlling my laughter and a bit of disappointment, I said "please make it even" and she gave the final touch of cutting down the last few long hairs left. In 20 minutes, I was transformed from first half Sethu to second half Sethu; and I paid 7$ for the quick service and 1$ tip for her attitude to work despite the extreme difficulty in moving her Yokozuna body.

The worst damage came from a couple of my colleagues. One asked me "Did you pay someone for this? Come on I would've given you my clippers" and another stared at me for about 3 minutes with complete shock on his face and then said "Worstu haircut". Before I could even respond, he left the place. :)) The first time I cut my hair in the US, I asked for 'army cut' and it was my fault to have uttered those two words. But today, I was cautious enough to give the instruction that gave me decent haircuts in the past... But as luck would have it, I ended up in a haircut worser than my first haircut and isn't it the right time to say "Kutthunga ejamaan kutthunga... Indha Amerikka kaaraingalae ippidi dhaan..." :))

Copy cat... :)

When it comes to Tamizh music directors, the title 'copy cat' was synonymous to Deva until a few years back. These days, though I hear occasional news about some track being copied, I was under the impression that at least a major portion of the songs were being composed originally. But I was disproved totally today! :) As usual I was spending time on Youtube and on this occasion I was listening to some very old classics like "Ennirandu padhinaaru vayadhu", "Ullatthil nalla ullam" etc; and ended up seeing a related video called 'Copy cat Harris Jeyaraj'. Harris Jeyaraj copying western songs isn't news; but the number of songs he's copied definitely is, at least to me. I mean, almost all his famous songs have been branded as plagiarized. This was disgusting to know and honestly if music composition is only about this, I could become a music director too. I wonder how the producers and directors encourage such things! Below are a few songs I found on Youtube and don't miss the last video that got me ROTFL :)
























The point to be noted is that this guy has not even been for a decade in the industry and the list given here would pretty much cover 10% of his songs! All I could say is EKSI!

It's been movies and work all the way!

For the past few days, work has been real tight and personally I have the habit of taking frequent surfing breaks and that way I didn't miss Orkut or Gmail that much. But blogging on the other hand demands some time and thoughts and I haven't been too successful in finding both along with the mood to write, over the past few days. So apart from work, the only thing I've been doing is watching some movies and fortunately, I got to see some great movies. Let me just summarize them...

Kanchivaram:

Amazing movie. A Prakashraj starrer directed by Priyadharshan. A classic example of beautiful art direction and camera. I initially thought it was a Brahmin bashing communist film from its name; but it actually turned out to be a completely different story. A simple story of how an inidividual weaver's life is affected by the exploitation of silk weavers in the last century; this movie is definitely a must watch for anyone who likes simple, well presented films.

The City of God:

More of a masala movie; but still it's definitely worth a watch especially for the stunning screenplay. Connecting n dimensions together to narrate a plot isn't easy and it has been handled very well in this movie. If you are a lover of gangster movies, this one is a must watch; and even otherwise you will enjoy the movie.

Oldboy:

This one is actually a Korean movie; but for the first time (or at least the first time I remember) I enjoyed a movie made in an unknown language to this extent. The theme is sick and many might shun away from the taboo concept; but the impact this movie creates is mindblowing. It really takes a completely different plane of thoughts to come up with such a story and narrate it in such a striking way.

The curious case of Benjamin Button:

Again a completely different concept; but IMHO not as good as the above three. It's good, pleasant and different. But nothing in it says it is a must watch. The novel plot and the makeup carries the movie apart from a few exceptional dialogs and scenes.

Squeezing in time for these four movies was an achievement. So pretty much that's how I spent the last week... :)

No idea...

A continuation of the F section memories I should say; and this one was one of the trademarks of the class! :)

Almost everyone who completed college would have an idea on how lecturers reprimand the students when they are not attentive in the class; and the most popular trick is to ask questions on the subject and when the student couldn't answer, they start giving advices that are no longer connected to the subject. Depending on the age of the lecturer, the tone would differ and let me try to give you a few examples...

A lecturer in late twenties through mid thrities - "Don't try to act smart. It'll take you nowhere. All this might sound funny. But you know for a fact that I control your internal marks... So better beware"

A lecturer in forties - "Kids these days hardly have any respect. When you face life, you would know how tough it is and not a day will go by without you repenting for these bad things and lack of attention in your college life"

An even older lecturer/professor - "When you look at life from your perspective it might sound too easy and careless. But when you cross ages and gain experiences you would know how tough it is to survive in the never ending competition. Professors are not your enemies. They are like the light that takes you to the............(continues until the bell rings)"

We had a physics lecturer who was (I believe) in the second category and we had nick-named her "Simran"! Somehow her way of teaching would remind me of my high school physics lessons and I hardly remember a word of what she taught us... Actually we had two physics lecturers and the other person was nick named "Nambiyar" since he always had that villain look on his face and his dialog delivery was typically like that; but he used to escape from our direct insults because he hardly cares about what students think or do during his sessions. Ocassionally he used to say "If you wand to talku, you can get outu"... That's all! So there was a gentleman (?!) agreement between us that neither of us would disturb each other...

Coming back to Miss. (Now Mrs?!) Simran, she was particular in making sure that everyone listened to what she taught and as a result, during the initial days she resorted to the text book approach of questioning the defaulters about some crappy formulae or integral equations. Just like anti-bodies that come up with some defense mechanism for every known attack, we formulated a way of tackling such things - the "No idea" scheme. The basic concept of being an anti-social element is simple. You always need to be united as a group... We all knew that the college wouldn't go too far to debar the whole class considering the scores we had (despite all our misbehaviors our average score was way higher than the averages of other sections) and that the management wasn't too stupid/sensitive to debar a class for these minor misbehaviors. If you are an individual, the situation drastically changes to adversity though! :)

The idea we formulated was simple. If someone is pointed out for mischief and asked to getup to answer a question, the person should say "No idea" even before the question was asked and even better, the next guy will voluntarily wakeup and say the same. This would continue till either the whole class is standing or the lecturer loses patience and either leaves our hall angrily or asks us all to GFO. The first day we implemented this idea, we were all ROTFL ing after the session and Ms. Simran was literally clueless about what was going on! Believe me... As arrogant as it sounds, it is one of the best memories we share and the contagious spirit with which we used to say "No idea" still lingers in my ears. Though we were rebels, the extent of unity we had was unbelievable and I could hardly imagine another class that could've possibly done the same thing. :)

'F' section...

Disclaimer: The 'F' in title is no way connected to the 'F' word... :)

Films and books tend to exaggerate college life way more than what it actually is, but sure enough it's one of the best phases of life. Unlike the kids in US or any other western countries, Indian kids enjoy the most comfortable phase of their life at college (though they never realize it when they were actually in that phase :)) because they are not bullied like the school days or forced to make money like the later stages of life. When I think about my college days looking at an email from a good old friend or holding a cup of coffee during a break, lost in thoughts; I often feel I could've lived it better... I haven't even talked with everyone (especially girls) in my class! :) I got some good friends, gained some exposure and had my share of fun during the later years but the best part of it was definitely the first semester... We were in the 'F' section when the college was adjusting to the expansion and we had weird timings (some days our classes started at 10:30 and went up to 6:30 while some other days, they begin at 8:00 and end at 3:00) that left the management with no choice to move people using the college transportation into one class. During this relocation stuff, it so happened that 'F' section was full of guys because all girls wanted to use the college transportation... It was like a demonstration of how bad a class can be to the lecturers and how good a class can be, for the guys. Among the whistles, claps, 'proxies', hilarious comments and spoofs, if I say, we enjoyed the semester, it would be an understatement...

I couldn't list out all the incidents at a stretch in a single post but let me tell you the most hilarious (most insulting from the lecturer's view point and I personally felt bad about it too) incident that happened towards the end of the semester... We had an English lecturer called Mr. Sadasivam who was a very soft person and his voice reflected it too. Imagine an English class where the lecturer delivers monotonous mumbles! Naturally, the guys enjoyed spoiling the sessions; and most of the guys wouldn't even turn up to the class. On that day, there were just 20 or 25 guys in the class whose full strength is about 70; and as usual our lecturer was mumbling something about English grammar. The guys started off their part - clapping hands for some statements made, laughing too long when the lecturer tried to be humorous, et al. Towards the end of the session, the lecturer made a note of the attendance and with the same person repeating 'Yes sir' and 'Present sir' over 5 or 6 times, the register showed just two absentees when there were about 50 persons absent... I mean, the whole class was blank and the register was brimming with attendance :D

So he said "You people are giving proxies" (clap... clap... clap) "I don't mind that at all." (Clap... clap... clap) "All I'm asking is don't stay in my class and disturb it. I'm not here to tame animals" (Clap... clap... clap). He took a long pause and said "I'm calling you animals indirectly and still you don't understand" and the guys started clapping once again! That's it... He was never seen in our class once again! We heard that he was supposed to handle the second semester English sessions for us; but he declined to teach us again... Though I feel he could've handled the sessions better, I think we overreacted, considering the type of person he is. But still, I couldn't control my laugh everytime I think about the incident.

Childhood memories...

Childhood memories are perhaps the best treasures a man carries across his life; and the moment we start thinking about the good old days, we start feeling young at heart and that feeling is just priceless... I believe this is true with anybody except if your childhood happened to be as horrible as Kaadhal kondaen Dhanush or something... :)

The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of my childhood is the 'without' travels. People from Tamilnadu should be understanding what 'without' means but if you are not aware of the term, it means traveling without a ticket in a bus or a train or anything that expects you to have one. :) I've done quite a lot of that during my school days especially the high school days. Ever since my VII or VIII stds, I've been traveling around in my bicycle and towards the end of my schooling till date, bike has been my companion; but even before the days of my bicycle, I used to travel a lot in the PRC buses (the TNSTC buses as they are called now). The tickets from my home to the school used to be One rupee and ten paise back then, and my pocket money was 2 rupees per day... :) The first day of the week my dad gave me 5 rupees and I was supposed to roll over the balances to maintain the 20 paise deficit per day and my favorite way of rolling up better sums was a 'without' travel. Frozen milk coloquially termed '1 roovaa pepsi' (Small traders give a damn about copyrights :D) was extremely popular those days and I used to spend one rupee per day (at least) to get my favorite chocolate flavored 'pepsi' and that means my one way trip is already destined to be a 'without' trip. :) Sometimes the pepsi count may become two which means the next morning's travel was also added to the list of classics...

There was a guy called Sundarrajan who used to stay near my place and we used to run a contest on who does the maximum 'without' travels in a month; and the pride of winning and the taste of 'pepsi' had me going for years in the trade... "I have a pass annaa", "I've already taken the ticket" and a lot of other ready made replies combined with an innocent look (seriously I was looking innocent back then) usually got me out of any troubles even if the conductor asks for a ticket.

This was going on for quite a few days (or should I say years :D) until the D-day came... It was another day in the contest between me and Sundarrajan and the day's credit were shared equally or almost equally until we got down... Just when we were about to get down, the conductor asked "Show me your tickets..." to both of us. As luck would have it, he was already two steps down the stairs and I was just about to get down the stairs... So the moment the conductor asked for the ticket, the guy jumped off and ran like crazy... Obviously I didn't have that luxury and I clearly knew that the conductor was not someone who is going to buy my 'pass' or 'already got the ticket' stuff. So I did the most foolish thing I could've done at the moment... I pulled out 1 rupee and 10 paise from my pocket and I said, "I forgot to buy the ticket. Could you please give me a ticket from SS colony to simmakkal" (there were like 12 stops inbetween... Moreover the bus was more or less empty and on top of it the bus was at the simmakkal stop :D)... The look on the conductor's face and the advice he gave for the next 15 mins can never be forgotten and it sure was an embarrassing moment back then. But whenever I think of the incident, I smile at my 'brilliant' idea and I couldn't resist smiling... :D

P.S: Even after that incident, I was travelling 'without' for a while (naangallaam...). As much as I smile at the 'without' travels, I wish I didn't do so. These days, even if I'm not even obligated to get a ticket, I walk up to the conductor and make sure I pay for it!

Opis komedies...

Title inspired from my friend Srini's series, this was a topic that I wanted to write for a quite long time especially after seeing the regular posts on these lines by Srini... But somehow, office never interested me and to think of office outside work sucked big time! And right now I'm in an office where I work 12 hrs a day and I'm expected to put in more horse power when the others in my team work not a minute more than 8 hrs. Indian, contractor and too many other qualifications got me into this note worthy post... :))

Anyways, this post was intended to be hilarious and so be it! :D To begin with, let me introduce you to the work 'atmosphere' that I have in my office... My project is a truly globalized project because within a small team of 4 members, there is a mix of culture from 4 countries... Yes... All of us are from different countries - India, Pakistan, China and (thankfully at least one from) US. The manager is Pakistani and he is middle aged while the Chinese lady and the American guy are pretty old. My team apart, for every US company listed in the stock market, there will be a Desi (Indian) vendor and there will be a bunch of Indians loitering around in their offices... My office is no exception too and interestingly in a group predominantly comprised of Manavaadus (telugu speaking folks) the guy who sites behind me is a Mallu... The best part is that this state has a lot of black population and I swear to God, "it ain't no simple to follow 'em man"! The guy who sites right across me crowns them all and he has an office that is so crowded with stuff that you wonder how on the world could a 5X5 cubicle be converted into such a deep mess.



Now that you have an idea of the 'atmosphere', I'll tell you some of the very funny thoughts that ran in my mind...

The guy across, eating chips with the pack fitted into his mouth, turning the packet upside down...
Mind voice: Why am I being reminded of an elephant here?

Mallu guy talking to some clients... "The cOmbleet desayn is kOnstrukkkkkktad Offshore andu vee veel be moovingg the fayals tumaarow..." (The complete design is constructed offshore and we will be moving the files tomorrow)
Mind voice: Setthaan edhiri... (Poor Americans!)

The old guy in our project explaining me the logic to copy and archive files...
It ain't gonna do good if the file don't be there. Somthin shoots up and we say no way we lost it all... Send 'em back. So we gonna tell the scheduler Backup... Don't do no delete... Put it up in a folder and gimme a copy. But he's gonna tell you..."
M.V: EKSI

I had a doubt about the way a certain module is built and I was too lazy to go through the code. Since the chinese lady in our project was the only one left, I had to ask her and I had no choice...
Me: Can you tell me if this is written in Java or through an Oracle job?
C.L: Laximan didndnt tall mee iz was phebruary code. Aye checked zhe log paails anzh I thot I didndnt gettu zhe idea... When I go too zhe logs, I see zhe files dare"
M.V: Idhukku code-ae paravaalla (Digging the code sounds much better...)

My manager and I were discussing a small piece of code... He doesn't have much of technical knowledge and Java somehow greatly surprises him...
Me: It's not a good practice to hit the database when the poller actually does nothing until the files arrive. So I've moved the database connectivity inside the if block. I've also eliminated the thread that is causing the memory leak in the scheduler and instead I'm bringing that functionality in here"
Manager nodding all the way...
M.V: Purinjaa maadhiriyae thalaya aattu... (As if you understand...)

:D :D

P.S: Basically all of them are good folks and it's just that at some situations, the mind voice of the Maduraikkaaran invariably crops up... :D

No time to write some blogs... :D

I remember reading a poem in my high school, called "Leisure". I believe it was written by William Henry Davies... The first couple of lines are still fresh as morning dew in my heart

"What is this life full of care... We have no time to stand and stare"

I feel the same thing... But in a modified way

"What is this life full of clogs... We have no time to write some blogs"

Work has been really tight over the past couple of weeks and I'm just managing a few 5 or 10 mins breaks in between, which are consumed by gmail, Orkut and occassionally a few (very) short stories. The rest of it is caught in debugging and fixing one of the worst codes I've ever seen... :) So not getting too much time to write about everything...

Wanted to write about Slum dog millionaire (an amazing, must-watch movie), Abhiyum naanum (good film but not good enough), some of my old school memories, my work and a flood of other things; but I hardly managed to squeak in some time. Today, I did but I felt that I should be writing on the technical error that drove me nuts, before I write about anything else. So pretty soon, I'll try to clear up the backlogs... :))

It's time for a renewal... :)

December 31... A day that has got the specialty that no other day (arguably) has - it is considered the moment we prepare ourselves for a renewal, a change, a new beginning... We make resolutions (that we most often break in the meantime ;)) and give serious thoughts about ourselves and what we expect out of the upcoming year. So this day definitely deserves a special note and when I just close my eyes and try to think what I expect from 2009, a few general and a lot of personal wishes haunted my mind and I'll try to summarize the wishes that I could share with everyone...

Peace:

Man has come far from this. But I at least wish the year has no terrorist attacks and that no human life is lost for the sake of establishing one's supremacy over the other.

A positive change in the Indian politics:

Elections are fast approaching... Let me hope that this year marks the beginning of the journey towards good; and let me pray and hope that the situation changes positively in my country.

Minimal hurt:

I wish I don't end up hurting anyone in anyway in 2009.

To be of help:

I hope I could be of help to as many as possible in any possible way - financial, emotional, personal and otherwise...

To focus more on my interests:

I hope I could spend some more time on my interests and shape up my skills for a better tomorrow.

To catch up with people:

I hope I can get back in touch with all the good souls I ever knew... Due to my inherent nature, I'm content with the feeling of someone being there for me; and at times, the other person might mistake this for indifference. Let me try to patch up these differences as much as I can.

To maintain a journal:

Writing a diary has always been my interest. But I never got into the habit... Perhaps I can do something about it this year...

Balance of work and personal life:

Of late, I'm improving on this one but let me hope I could bring in the clear demarcation this year...

Fitness and good health:

I'm no way close to a fitness freak and I still don't believe in looking at the calorie chart behind every food item. But in general, I feel I should bring my body to the right shape and I hope I could do something about it this year.

Enjoy my (possibly) last year of bachelorhood:

Even though there is absolutely nothing going on at this moment about my marriage, 2009 perhaps might be the last year of my life as a bachelor. 27 might be the magic number and if it is, then 2009 would be my last buddy! :D Whatever it is, why take chances? Let's enjoy 2009 and rock the place! :)

Wish you all a splendid New Year! :)

The lengthiest movie I ever watched

I started watching the movie "Aitraaz" (Hindi) sometime in the afternoon yesterday and as with the other movies I watched this week, the source was the DVD collection that I landed upon. But then, as with almost all the DVDs this one hung too; and I had no choice but to continue the movie online. Megavideo has a dvd print of this movie but it has also brought in a stupid rule that one can watch only 72 mins of video consecutively and after that you need to wait 1 full hour (!!!!) to continue watching the rest. So I thought I'd resort to a torrent, download the DVD and then continue... But after trying 7 pages of google results (trust me I tried almost every site) and spending like a few hours on this one, I was almost about to give up when one link said the movie is available online; and guess what? The links given were Youtube links!!!! The print too is pretty decent since the movie is not too new... So effectively, I watched the movie in so many installments over a period of about 12 hrs when I could've just streamed with Youtube. EKSI...

EKSI

People who are from Tamilnadu and chat/Orkut quite often would definitely know the expansion of EKSI - "Enna Koduma Saravanan Idhu?" ("What a cruelty this is" to translate literally :D :D), a dialogue that became so popular after the movie Chandramukhi and I'm sure even the director of the movie wouldn't have known that this dialogue would be such a massive hit when he actually directed the scene! The usage context of this phrase is well demonstrated by the video below :))



You know why I wanted to say EKSI? As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm working on finishing off all the hindi movies in the dvd collection that I discovered (?!) and in the past two days I've watched about 6 movies. But to my surprise, almost every DVD stuck in between or at the end and I had to go online to watch the remaining movie. Trust me even Pardes didn't run fully... Even if I watch the full movie online, I've always got crystal clear prints and uninterrupted streaming for free, especially if the movie is a bit old like the ones I saw yesterday and today. So technically, the guy who spent quite a lot of money in collecting these DVDs couldn't watch the movie one more time (assuming he watched them at least once in that DVD)! EKSI...

Subtitles...

I've been in the company guest house over a month now and only yesterday did I find that someone has left a collection of about 50 Hindi DVDs... Readily available DVDs mean lesser search time, need not worry about the quality of print online (I know Vinayak would be furious to hear this ;) :)), limited options to choose from and quick turn around times :D :D

Fortunately, I'm not a big Hindi movie freak and I'm one of those doubly-refined Madurai products, who never learned Hindi, never had too many Hindi speaking friends and who hardly sees any Hindi movies. These days, I've started watching Hindi movies in equal numbers; but my yet-to-be-seen list includes some of the most famous movies like Hum Aap Ki Hein Kaun; and as a result, out of the 50+ DVDs, there aren't too many previously watched movies. Actually, the week started with latest Hindi movies like Das Vidhaniya, Dostana and A Wednesday; and with this new DVD pack, I believe the 'Zee TV Vaaram' would continue for the next few weeks.

The best part about the whole thing are the subtitles. Given my ghindhi prowess, I always turn on subtitles just so I don't get lost when the characters start using uncommon words to make us believe that they are emotionally affected. Some of these subtitles really get me ROTFL. An example that hit my eyes from "Chori Chori Chupke Chupke" that I watched today...

(In the interest of people who know Hindi, I'll present the conversations in English :D)
Rani Muk: You can think of me as your sister. I'll tell my family about the whole thing and you can stay here.
Preethi: I'm happy to get a sister. But I don't want to share my sister's husband and make my sister feel bad. (Exact words used Behen and Soutan)

Subtitle: I don't want to be your co-wife :D :D

Appearances are deceptive!

Wednesday, Dec 3rd 2008 5:30 PM

I was in a milk white Pontiac V8 on the way to New Jersey, for an interview. The stallion was too good with a lot of 'oomph' in it; but I was in no mood to use it! After all, I didn't want to end up getting a ticket for 400$ at this pay-less (disambiguation: pay as in salary ;)) hour and consequentially increase my insurance premium. Like a hero in the mid 80s-90s movies, who lives a real slutty life in the first half, deciding to play the game right after the interval; I told myself "Had this been sometime last year, I would've reached NJ in 3 hrs". On top of it, I really forgot that the entire DC metro area buzzes with cars around this time and the drive to I95 was really testing my patience. On top of this, one of the toll plazas had no assistant in a full service lane and I was forced to violate toll because I had no nickels with me!! Not sure if I'd be fined for that... GOK! After spending over 5 hrs and 20$ for toll, I reached the hotel at NJ about 11:30 PM; and the only good thing about the whole trip was that I found a couple of good repeat rap tracks by T.I(Videos below)and these songs just rocked specially because of the Woofers in the car.


(Loved the lady voice in the song and the chorus)


(Liked the Samuel L Jackson part... I'd would've repeated the Wazzup MF portion of this at least 20 times :D)

If you are confused at this point about the title and its relevance to this post, you got it right... I'm not into the topic yet though I know that Srini could find out some relevance given the content so far! JFF ;) :)

Thursday, December 4 2008 12:10 PM

I was driving through the deserted area to find the place I was supposed to go to and finally ended up finding a real huge building hidden into the woods as depicted in some horror movies. I usually hate wearing typical formals like blue and blue or cream and brown; but since the instructions clearly said Business Formals and that I didn't want my dress to add to the resume misfit I had; I was in a light blue shirt and a dark blue pant, wondering why on earth would people want the candidates to be dressed in monotonous colors. But the moment I entered the lobby of the research lab, I saw about twenty people seated all across the visitors area; and I was the only one without a blazer and I would bet my fortune on my assumption that I was the youngest person there! Chinese and Indians dominated the place reminding me that I was in US and everyone had a huge executive bag with them from which they were picking up some papers every now and then, cross verifying it as if they were some SOP or recommendation letters! I had a bag with me too, but it had a couple of packs of cereal bars since the email said 'Feel free to bring your food and beverages'. "Perhaps there was some other point about certificates too" I thought to myself, realizing that it was too late to even worry about anything.

After 15-20 mins of wait, the test paper was given and we were supposed to complete the test by an hour and fifteen minutes. I wasn't prepared at all and it wasn't hard to find it out when attending the test. Java was the only comfort zone for me and the rest were like completely alien nations though I wouldn't call them the toughest of questions! In the end, we all were seated back in the visitor's area and I was almost sure that I'd be out! To my surprise, I was still in though more than 50% of the candidates were out after the test. There were quite a few chosen for the first round of interview and yet again, I was surrounded middle aged folks wearing shining blazers and brimming with confidence, thinning my hopes every time I saw them. After the first round of interview, almost all the 'probables' I had in my mind were out of the picture. "We aren't that bad" I thought to myself and I eventually ended up being one of the last 4. The results weren't clearly announced that day and right now it's a completely unclear picture; but at least I have hopes left on contrary to my first couple of hours at the interview venue. :)

Even the great commit mistakes...

A long time since I made consecutive posts in a day... And perhaps this is the first time I'm posting two consecutive posts on diametrically opposite topics.

I was seeing Mouna Ragam earlier today... It's one of my favorite scripts and I couldn't recollect the entire movie sequence. This is not the news! Hold on... I've seen the movie a lot of times before and I don't remember when was the last time I saw the movie in full. Today, I wanted to see how Manirathnam has done his work in a movie that was directed during the early stages of his career. To my surprise, there were quite a few flaws throughout the movie. There were a lot of minor ones like lighting difference in a sequence and costumes; but what caught my eyes were two major ones - some scenes were out of sequence in the Mandram vandha thendralukkuu song and Revathy/Mohan pair walks out in the streets of Delhi; and at a later stage Revathi says they've never been out together. The worst mistake of the lot is the climax scene... Revathi would sit in a compartment that is in the middle of the train and when they get down, they will be in the last but one compartment. When they get down, an engine will be behind the train in the same track. And worst of all when the train moves off, the frame is narrowed to avoid showing that it's a goods train. But a shutter on one of the compartments gives it off... :D

All in all, I learned one good lesson... Even the legends today did make mistakes in their first few steps; and when constant efforts are put forth, perfection can be achieved. That's quite encouraging to me! :))

My OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)

Another 'About Me' post! This time it's about my OCD. It's not bad enough for you to say "Hey! Dont orry ya why are you cryiing?" in Vadivelu style or to visualize Jack Nicholson in "As Good as it gets". Perhaps it might be an exaggeration to even call it OCD, but nevertheless, this quality of mine is defintely worth mentioning.





I should say I have this tendency to get 'institutionalized' quite easily. From my food orders in restaurants till the wash basin I choose to wash my face in a restroom, there is always some level of predictability and pattern. The best of the lot is my choice of songs... If I land up in a song that is personally special to me, I keep repeating it in an infinite loop until I feel sleepy or the system heats up drastically! :) The latest in the list is "Uravugal thodarkadhai" from the movie "Aval appaditthaan" and interestingly I was lured to this all time favorite when I saw Vaaranam Aayiram... The film opens with this song and ever since then it has been repeated in my playlist and I believe that the count should've easily crossed 100 now. Same holds good with my fav movies too. Mozhi or Troy are the classic examples and I could narrate almost all dialogs in both these movies by-heart! :D I don't even complain about taking the same food everyday as long as I personally like the dish... Curd rice and pickles could do just fine with me for infinite days in a row! :) The final part and the weirdest of the lot is that I can stay alone in a 10X10 room all by myself without any human company... :) Food on time, a window to speculate and get lost in thoughts, a computer to browse the net and basic necessities... That's it. I'm all set!



I leave it upto you guys to call it OCD or not... But it's quite weird of me, don't you agree? :)

Vaarnam aayiram review and Abhiyum Naanum expectations...

Before you say, "Oh No! Not a movie review again...", let me tell you this... I'm not going to write a detailed review on Vaaranam Aayiram. I just wanted to tell a few things I felt when I was watching the movie. This one is definitely different from GVM's other movies... This one is more his life than a cinema. Everyone who loves his/her dad as a role model would understand the extent of emotions that would've gone behind making the movie; but if you want me to be the usual stern critic, I should accept that the movie has quite a few unwanted scenes and even the title Vaaranam Aayiram is a reflection of Gautam's fantasy of his dad's heroism. All in all, it was an emotional experience than a movie and as usual GVM has shown his trademark in the narration of love. Whether it is the scene where Surya massages Simran's legs after a short dance or the scene where Surya proposes to Sameera ("Naan idhu varaikkum ippidi nadandhukittadhilla... Yenakku ivlo guts irukkunnae yenakku ippao dhaan teriyum") or the initial sarcastic turndowns by Sameera ("Paiyyan enna padicchurukkaan nu kaeppaaru... Enga vaela paakkuraan nu kaeppaaru"); GVM has proven that he is an excellent story teller when it comes to romance. In the same way, he's also succeeded in showing the bonding between a role model dad and his son... But perhaps he got too involved personally, there were a lot of scenes in the movie which could've been avoided... For instance the whole Armed Forces sequence reflects GVM's personal ambition but it need not have been portrayed on the screen so vividly. Most of the army and the rescue scenes were diverting people from the story. And cinematic exaggerations were also a bit too much in the movie... Dad apologizing for using son's room, Surya going to US when there family just recovered from its economic crisis... A bit too much to take... Logical flaws, quite unusual of GVM, were also spotted here and there in the movie. Surya's sister's classmate is 2 yrs younger than him (which essentially means his sister too is) but in the beginning it is shown that Surya was a 6-7 yr old boy when his sis was born. In the same way, someone who is addicted too much to narcotics and struggling to recover, runs, fights, kills and what not! But beyond all these drawbacks, I'd definitely say it's worth a watch, especially if your dad is so special to you. It's more or less like Autograph... Some people got so involved and were flooding the theater with their tears. Some people (like me) were making fun of those who got too involved; though we enjoyed the movie. This one's pretty much like that but it's definitely worth seeing atleast once.

Coming to the next movie, Abhiyum naanum; I was seriously disappointed when I heard the audio track. Not a single song was too appealing as opposed to Mozhi where the songs were not just lovely but also had a very strong orientation to the theme... "Sollai kadandha pennin mouna koottukkul pala kodi kodi porul kudi irukkum", "Iyarkaiyin mozhigal purindhu vidil manidharin mozhigal thaevaiyillai... idhayatthin mozhigal purindhu vidil manidharkku mozhiyae thaevaiyillai", "Mounam ondrum oonam alla alla... Vaarthayellaam muzhumai alla alla", "Paesaa madandhayae vizhi paesum chitthiramae...", "Kannaal paesum pennae"... Every song in the movie portrayed a physically handicapped girl so respectfully and beautifully; and the trailer, the advertisements, the banners, the captions... Everything was picture perfect and even before I went to the movie a strange sense of 'falling in love' occupied my heart. Needless to say the movie is one of my all time favorites. But with the music track disappointing so badly, I wasn't too sure if Abhiyum Naanum would have the 'Radha Mohan spell'. But looking at the trailer and the press meet where Prakash raj, Radha Mohan (my personal favorites) and specifically Thalaivasal Vijay spoke about the film, I believe the movie would definitely be a treat to watch. Giving a master piece is delighting when everyone talks great about it; but it's a pain when we come up with our next efforts. I'm sure Radha Mohan would've realized it; and I hope and pray that the movie turns out to be the sensation of 2008-2009.

Chaos theory

September 2008:

Me: I'm planning to quit the company

Manager: But you were onsite... Why don't you go back there and quit?

Me: I would've if my visa was not cancelled by the embassy.

Manager: What happened?

Me: Got my new Visa through another company and as per policy the embassy cancelled it.

Manager: Any way you can take back this resignation.

Me: Yes. If I can get 20K more per year but I'm sure that is not practically feasible.

Manager: Ok. I'll talk to the onsite team and get back to you.

September 2006:

Manager: Hey! We are getting a new account in New Jersey and I feel we should be having young and dynamic chaps like you in it.

Me: Is it a long term opening?

Manager: Initially you need to be there for a KT and once you are back, you need to setup the team and go back to NJ.

Me: I'm fine with it as long as it a long term opportunity.

July 2008:

Me: I'm f'ed up with this work. I mean I get nothing out of it!

Friend: You have to decide what is good and what is bad for you! If you think this is not for you, then you have to make a decision.

---

Me (In an email): Dear sir, I just wanted to know if I would be able to proceed with the offer that I got back in 2006. Thanks!

Reply: Yes, of course!

December 2006:

Me: You said I had a long term opening here. Now it has been announced that none of them would be released or sent onsite. Moreover the KT I got is incomplete and I'm left unsupported.

Manager: These are management decisions. I can't do much about it.

----

Friend: There is an ad in Hindu Opportunities today. Looks like there is a company that sponsors H1 visa for candidates selected in a tech interview.

Group: Wow! That's good news... Let's try our luck (everyone busy clicking)

May 2008:

Friend & Manager (1) : Hey! Heard you are getting released from your project. There is a wonderful opening for you in Virginia. You need to lead a team of 8 onsite. Will keep you posted!

Me: Thanks! Would be delighted to take it up.

----

Friend & Manager (2): Hey! Heard you are getting released from your project. There is a wonderful opening for you in Boston. It'll be hectic but very interesting. You would be working on RFPs and architectures. Will keep you posted!

Me: Thanks! Please let me know once things are finalized.

----

Friend & Manager (3): Hey! Heard you are getting released from your project. There is a long term onsite coordinator (prod support) opening in California. Would you be interested?

Me: Not really. I heard of better roles from others.

Friend & Manager (3): Is anything confiemd yet?

Me: No! But...

Friend & Manager (3): You just attend the client interview for this project and then you can choose between your options...

Me: Fine...

---

Friend & Manager (4): Hey! Heard you are getting released from your project. I've put you in a long term development assignment in Ohio!

Me: Thanks :)

----

Friend & Manager (3): Hey! You have been allocated into the California project.

Me: But I heard I was about to go to Ohio.

Friend & Manager (3): No. Your allocation has been finalized and I'll sort out the differences if any.

Me: (?!) Okay!

February 2007:

Interviewer: I'm thoroughly impressed. Please wait to collect your offer letter.

Me: Thank you very much.

October 2007:

Email: Congratulations. Your H1 petition has been approved. The petition number is xxxxxx.

Me: :)


April 2007:

Manager: What are you expecting to get your resignation back?

Me: Simple. A long term onsite opprtunity. That's all I'm asking.

Manager: Ok. You'll be travelling to Florida this month. Be ready to fly.

Me: I believe there is no confusion this time.

Manager: You got to trust somebody! :)

October 2008:

Me (In an email): Today is my last day at the company and I'd like to thank...

Me (To self): Should blog about this!