Jus like that

Driving இன் இந்தியா....

2009-03-10T02:51:00.000-07:00

This is certainly an interesting an debatable topic to blog...

Driving in India is certainly fun, tiring and challenging(esp if you are driving a car). There are two sides of this post. The Funnier side and the serious side..Lemme try to touch base on both the ends of the spectrum..

I've few funny experiences while driving...

on fine busy day(as ever) on road, I was following The tail lights of few other cars...I was travelling at about 45 kmph and there was a van behind me who kept honking..Initially I thought I could change lane(I know there is some oen asking me..is there something called lane in Chennai) and let him follow The cars that I was following...But I got frustrated when The honking persisted and decided not to pave him way. Now, when I stopped at a signal, The van came besides me. I was prepared to shout at him and lowered my window..The van driver shouted..caar பார்க் பண்ணிட்டு நடந்து போக வேண்டியது தானே... I din want to give a shoit back and said.... நீ எல்லா வண்டியும் தாண்டி பறந்து போக வேண்டியதுதானே !!! I generally resist talking like this on road..But still wondering what made me talk like this...
On the serious side..I wonder why people do the following
1. Honk even when the signal is red..I generally don't tend to give way...I at times wonder am i doing the right thing...
2. Change so called lanes hilariously
3. Go in One-way

I always find it difficult to digest such things...that has been my nature from the day I started driving two-wheelers.........

Still wondering as how thse people could be educated on road sense....

Drink & Drive

2008-10-21T02:34:00.001-07:00

Recently i have got a mail, which i am sure will disturb all ppl who drink and drive.

I went to a party Mom,
I remembered what you said.
You told me not to drink, Mom,
So I drank soda instead.

I really felt proud inside, Mom,
The way you said I would.
I didn't drink and drive, Mom,
Even though the others said I should.

I know I did the right thing, Mom,
I know you are always right.
Now the party is finally ending, Mom,
As everyone is driving out of sight.

As I got into my car, Mom,
I knew I'd get home in one piece.
Because of the way you raised me,
So responsible and sweet.

I started to drive away, Mom,
But as I pulled out into the road,
The other car didn't see me, Mom,
And hit me like a load.

As I lay there on the pavement, Mom,
I hear the policeman say,
"The other guy is drunk," Mom,
And now I'm the one who will pay.

I'm lying here dying, Mom....
I wish you'd get here soon.
How could this happen to me, Mom?
My life just burst like a balloon.

There is blood all around me, Mom,
And most of it is mine.
I hear the medic say, Mom,
I'll die in a short time.

I just wanted to tell you, Mom,
I swear I didn't drink.
It was the others, Mom.
The others didn't think.

He was probably at the same party as I.
The only difference is, he drank
And I will die.

Why do people drink, Mom?
It can ruin your whole life.
I'm feeling sharp pains now.
Pains just like a knife.

The guy who hit me is walking, Mom,
And I don't think it's fair.
I'm lying here dying
And all he can do is stare.

Tell my brother not to cry, Mom.
Tell Daddy to be brave.
And when I go to heaven, Mom,
Put "GOOD BOY " on my grave.

Someone should have told him, Mom,
Not to drink and drive.
If only they had told him, Mom,
I would still be alive.

My breath is getting shorter, Mom.
I'm becoming very scared.
Please don't cry for me, Mom.
When I needed you, you were always there.

I have one last question, Mom.
Before I say good bye.
I didn't drink and drive,
So why am I the one to die?

Bheema Music - Review

2007-09-24T18:35:00.000-07:00

Its been a long time since we had a Vikram movie on Screen....His long awaited sensation, "Bheema" is gonna be out of shelf very soon...
The music of the album is already out and is supposed to be rocking the city already...
Though the songs are good, we can easily smell the spice of Harris in it....Its high time Harris starts providing some variations in his compositions...

The pick of the album is

Ragasiya Kanavugal sung by Madhushree and Hariharan....The Music in the song is real soothing and its little different from what generally Harris offers....

Following it in the line is Enadhuyirae sung byChinmayee, Sadhana Sargam, Sowmya Raoh, Nikhil Mathew
Incidentally, Nikhil is the winner of Airtel super Singer in Vijay TV. He has got his oppurtunity to sing in Harris album as promised.

Other songs are pleasing to hear but not so adorable....Lets wait and see if the movie is a real cracker for Diwali...

Back from Hibernation...

2007-09-24T18:27:00.000-07:00

Three months since I wen on Hibernate...Everytime I wanna blog I've been real lazy to do so...
Incidentally, this is my first blog after I came here to SAT , TX....

There are quiet a few updates after I came here to SAT. I've my own lappie now....
Though there are many desis arnd here, this place is kind of dry....Not real happening place...

I happened to go to FL to meet Thennal and Senthil..Had real good time..Hoping to meet Visu and Swami soon in a grand get-together.....

Keep browsing at this space for more updates............

Thanks Orkut

2007-05-09T23:46:00.000-07:00

I've been using orkut for over an year now but never really found it a real useful tool. Most of my friends in orkut were well in reach to me; If I had to talk to some one I preferred a simple call or mail over the public scrap. But couple of days back amidst my boring works Schedule; I had a drive with in me to find my old friends in Coimbatore. Orkut helped me find a community called Kikani the school in which I studied from KG till 7th std. Through this I was able to get in touch with four people lamost after 13 years.

Aishwarya - My class mate from KG till 7th std. A very Good friend , enthusiastic and charming girl. My competitor for ranks in the class :)
Deepak Krishna - A bright chap, my class mate from 6th to 7th std.
Vinita - A cool and composed gal who measures her words before she speaks. A intelligent gal and competitor for ranks from 2nd std till 5th std ( hope I got the class right)
Nandha - My class mate in Kikani and also my neighbor in NTC Quarters. A very mischievous guy.

It really is a great feeling to get in touch with the old buddies again.
Hoping to find more people..Bala, Karthik, Varun, etc.

Thanks Orkut!! you have made me feel nostalgic for past couple of days.

Down the lane................

2007-05-09T01:48:00.000-07:00

9th May, 2003 - This was the day we had our last exam (believe it was Neural Networks) in the college. Every moment in the CSE IT block is still evergreen in my memory. The B'day celebration that we had for Visu, Sai and Amritha in the corridor was the highlight. Oops! I forgot, Happy Birthday Amritha and belated wishes to Sai and Visu. Those are the days once can never get back in life. Long Live Pectium and Long Live Pectians. I wish each and every pectian Good luck for all their future endeavors.

Lots have happened in these four years time – Onsite travels, Higher Studies, Marriage, Kid, etc.

Prashant and Pradeepa the only love birds from the class are getting married on 21st May. Good Luck. Incidentally, Prashant is the first among the guys to get married.

All the Best My dear Friends

Face Lift

2007-05-03T07:01:00.000-07:00

It has been just over two years since I started blogging. I started blogging on Wednesday, April 27, 2005.

Thirty three posts over a period of two years. I believe it is par below average at any terms. I'm trying to revive my blog by giving a face-lift.

Please give your comments on the new look & feel.

Solitude - a bliss??

2007-04-30T03:32:00.000-07:00

Is solitude bliss? Yes it is for some people but definitely not to me. But I have been forced to loneliness to some extent in the recent past. This has gone grown gradually right from the time I came back offshore.

It started with office, every one was a stranger for me and I felt I was isolated. Somehow, I could not easily mingle with new people easily. Don't really know what happened. It really took months to get a limited number of good friends at office.

Then i t was at home. I was with out any real work @ office and was coming back home early. After suresh and Senthil had left, most of the days I would end up at the home early and sit down with out really knowing what to do. Cell phone, SMS and TV were my companion. It really hurts, when mocked for being over phone when my friends come back home. I know it’s for fun but still I wan my dear ones to understand my position. But again they are not to be blamed. I always feel happy when people like Visu, thennal come down to my house and we have a chit-chat.

While I was in the verge of making some friends @ J-16 I've been transferred to Amb-4; a decision taken by me for my career prospects. Now back to square one; I've got used going alone to lunch breaks and tea breaks. Now, the real question....Does physical distance draw a big line emotionally as well? I really can't answer this question.......

Hot Hotter Hottest!!!

2007-03-28T02:39:00.000-07:00

Guys 'n' Gals no wild guesses, this post has nothing to do with SS Music.

Chennai is getting hot day by day. I have learnt in primary school that there are four different seasons viz. summer, autumn, winter and spring. But in southern part of India it is just three. Summer, summerer summerest (read hot, hotter, hottest). With peak summer knocking its door it’s becoming tough job to have a ride in the bike till office in the morning. I get drenched at least twice a day apart from me getting drenched while taking bath. I spend more time @ office just because it’s cool out there. S2 Mahalakshmi apartment is getting worse during peak summer. Finding it real tough to get peaceful sleep; it’s real hot.

Is AC the answer for this?

Recent Updates....

2006-09-26T04:03:00.000-07:00

Have I became lazy? No, it's an underrated statement; I've been lazy for almost 24 years now. There are so many things that I have been wanting to do both in personal and proffesional aspect in the near future. Few of them are:-

Disturb my roomies with my vocal chords; heard Swaralaya is a good bet
Become a SCWCD
Prepare for my PDGBA exams; jus 9 more papers to go
Organise my belongings in the room

The latest news is that we have augmented our Vasantha Maligai at VadaPalani with a LG Flatorn 21" TV set. Unfortunately, have to live with the tamil channels and the new channels for now; settop box is something in the future agenda.

I have been driving my Alto pretty well; looking for 4 people to experiment my drive over the hi way. Looking forward for a drive from a Pondy to Chennai in few month's time.

Expecting the arrival of 'Perusu' Sai from UK after his short trip of three weeks :P....

The song that has been looping in my system at office is "Newyork Nagaram urangum neram...."

USil irunthu Chennai Varai

2006-08-22T04:32:00.000-07:00

3rd August, 2006 my last day at Montvale, NJ, I was heading back to my home country after coming to the much sought United States of America almost an year back. I had a strange itenary from NJ to India Newark -> Chicago -> New Delhi -> Chennai. My US visa had expired. Hence, I had no other option than to take a direct flight.

My flight to Chicago was at 1600 EST at Newark Liberty International Airport. I reached the aiport at 1300 hrs, well ahead of the scheuled departure. I was really excited as I approached the check-in counter of the American Airlines. It was now my turn to check-in. The lady at the check-in counter was taking a long time to complete my check-in process. Though I had ample time left a sense of urgency and tension was mounting on me. After a while I heard the disappointing news from the lady in the counter, my flight to Chicago was delayed and hence I cannot make my connecting to New Delhi from Chicago. "I want to board my flight to New Delhi. Please do whatever you can"- This is what I could tell the customer representative of American Airlines. After a while, the customer representative presented me with a new intenary New York(JFK) -> London -> New Delhi. I wasn't sure if that was indeed a valid itenary as I didn't have a transit Visa. I raised my concern and they convinced me saying that it is an unvolunteered change and hence there was no need for a transit visa. I somehow wasn't convinced and I kept repeating the same question. I decided to take my chance. American Airlines provided me with a cab to New York JFK airport which was over 30 miles away from Newark Liberty International Airport.

I was in the cab to JFK and the I was having a last sight at the beautiful Hudson river and the Sky Scrapers of NY. My transit at London was over 2 hours and I decided to call Sai Kiran that I can meet him at the airport. I even thought it was a blessing in disguise for me to meet my beloved friend after an years time. While all these thoughts were wavering in my mind, I reached JFK airport.
I was waiting again in the counter for my turn to check-in. I didn't sense the disarray that was awaiting me until the Customer representative asked me for a London Visa. I was dismayed when I was asked to present a London Visa; it was a mistake by the customer representative at Newark. I cannot take a transit at London unless I have a transit visa or a valid US Visa. I had neither of them with me. American airlines apologized to me for the confusion that they caused. I tried to emphasize that I wanted to board a flight by all means on the same day. There was a flight to Chicago at 1600 hrs from JFK. American Airlines booked me as a Stand-By passenger on that flight. I went to the appropriate Gate and kept my fingers crossed if I would get an opportunity to board the flight. At the tick of 1555, I heard the announcement " Chicago flight is closed". With total disappointment and unaware as what was bound to happen next I walked back to the check-in counter. The first news that I got is that my baggage had gone in the Chicago flight and I will have to claim it in Chennai, Holy Crap!. I was desperate to board a flight to New Delhi on the same day but all the efforts to book me through Air India, Continental and other Airlines went in vain. All the direct flights to India were booked. Now with all the doors closed, I had no other option than to take the next day's flight. I wasn't sure if I could reschedule my domestic flight from New Delhi to Chennai. I was provided with accommodation for the night and food coupons for three sessions. With no access to Internet and a computer, I conveyed the news to my family and friends in India with great difficulty with the help of Prabhu.

4th august, 2006 I was at JFK to board my flight to Chicago. This time no difficulties, I managed to make it to New Delhi on time. I reached Indira Gandhi International Airport on 5th August at 2045 hrs. There was a notice at the Gate asking me to meet the customer service representatives. My baggage was held at New Delhi as they to clear customs. After all the formalities I headed towards Domestic terminal. I straight went to Jet airways counter and got my ticket rescheduled. After waiting for over eight hours at the airport Lounge, I boarded the flight to Chennai on 6th August, 2006 at 0645 hrs.

In over two hours time I was flying over Bay of Bengal. I could already feel being at home. I landed at about 0920 hrs. My parents were waiting for me at the arrival Gate and after a gap of over 12 months; I was back to "Singara Chennai"....

Sorgame Endraalum Athu namoora pola varumaa......

Nama Veedu

2006-05-09T08:42:00.000-07:00

Templeton, my apartment in saligramam, Chennai is really progressing well.
I n Visu will be proud owners of two houses in this appartment by somewhere in May '07.
I was happy to see the photos of work in progress...
Here are the photos
Home sweet Home

Holi

2006-03-16T04:32:00.000-08:00

Hi friends wishing you all a very Happy Holi....
All I could do is only think about the Holi celebrations that we used to have in the college and the cleaning that we had to do in the final year after messing up the classroom with Holi Powder.

Mood : Nostalgic

June?

2006-03-07T17:24:00.000-08:00

Why is it that june always come after May and not after march....???!!!!

A week at India

2006-02-14T15:18:00.001-08:00

I had the great opportunity to travel for a week to my motherland.
I had to lot of dialogue with my PM to get an approval for the weeks trip.
I wanted to take up the trip as I had no task in my project plan for a week.
It was really exciting to land at the Country almost after 6 months. The autos, MTC buses, two wheelers, road side T shops, I really missed them all in US.
The first day at India, I reported to my office at J16, Anna Nagar. All I did was go around the office, meet my colleagues and chit chat with them about my experiences in US and my lucky vacation for a week.
Then I spent the evening with my friends for a dinner. The next day I went to pondy to spend time with my parents. I went to PEC, the paradise where we enjoyed for almost four years. Incidentally I met my immediate juniors there; all working for HCL.They were so eagerly asking me about the Onsite opportunities at HCL. While I was answering them the unexpected happened.
I started hearing some beep sound.
It was from my cell phone...It was morning 0630 AM in Montvale NJ and my alarm was ringing...
All I could do was snooze it and go back to bed...

Happy Married Life

2006-02-14T15:18:00.000-08:00

One of my close friends Padma, got married to Senthil on 2nd Feb '06.
She is the first to get married among my close friends and I feel sad missing the great occasion. (Off course the first member of chauvinist gang to get married).
She has been a real good friend of mine for past 5 years. One of the persons who was admired by almost everyone in the class for her good nature.
She is going to travel to CA by the end of this month along with her hubby...

I wish her a very Happy Married life.

The Elixir

2006-01-31T13:19:00.000-08:00

Not many things better than driving a car in Hi Way with "Ennai Koncham Maatri" from "Kaakha Kaakha" in the background...............

Driving @ US

2006-01-26T07:35:00.000-08:00

After due consideration and lots of confusion, I decided to buy a car for myself.
The basic reason was that I had no other means to commute to my work place.

I bought my car on 7th Jan. I completed all the formalities like registration, insurance, etc on the same day. I was ready to hit the roads by almost noon. I had to right away drive on a hi way to get my car back home. Though nervous initially, started enjoying the drive with time. I just roamed around the local roads, to feel more comfortable.

Prabhu, me and prashant decided to go to karthik's house for the long weekend which fell on Jan 14. Karthik and I succeeded in brainstorming Swami also to come from the west coast in just a single phone call. We were all really excited to have the grand get-together. Prabhu, me and prashant decided to rent a car to go to Karthik's house which was just over 100 miles from my place. I was very eagerly waiting for that so that I can do a part of the drive. There came the twist. Prashant decided to back out of the get-together as he had some official work over the weekend. Within 24 hours of this shock there came another shock from Prabhu, he also backed out owing to a release that he had to do the following week. All we could do was, just discuss on how this profession kills us.

With Prashant and Prabhu backing out, the option of taking a rental car from NJ was completely ruled out as it turned out to be an expensive option. I had only two options; either take the train or drive my car. After a series of thoughts, I decided to drive all the way myself. The only concern for me was that I had no navigator and not even a CD player in the car. The day before I started, bought a FM transmitter so that I can enjoy some good music using my small mp3 player.

I started on Friday evening 0445hrs from my office at Montvale, NJ heading towards North Wales, PA. The drive was real good at Garden State Parkway and was then I entered I-78. It all took a fraction of second for me to miss the route. I was gazing at my route to see the exit number from I-78 and before even I could do something, I was on the wrong lane that merged to some other Hi Way. All that I could do was get into the next exit and then go to a gas station and get the route back to I-78. I almost wasted 20 minutes on this. Things were real smooth after that until it became dark. That is when I remembered the Weather forecast for the day. It was a real foggy day and I almost had zero visibility in US 202. I could not see the lanes or the sign boards clearly. For a few minutes I became real nervous. I put the car on the shoulders, had a gulp of water and then relaxed myself and started driving again. I kept following US 202 S as the map asked me to merge into US 202 S through various roads, All I kept looking was signs for US 202 S as I kept driving on 202. As time preceded US 202 almost became like a local road and the drive was even more terrible. I wasn't even sure if I missed the right turn into Summneytown Pike that I was supposed to take from 202. I could see a road named North Wales road and my instincts told me that I was somewhere around North Wales and didn't go too far. All I could do was again look for the gas station. Hurray! There I found the gas station. Unfortunately I came past the turn that I was supposed to take, fortunately it was just over a mile from the gas station. I reached Karthik's house by 0830. I was a real long drive for 110 miles. Had some food and after some chit chat, after which I went to hit my dreams.

We had to pick up swami from Phili airport at 1200hrs. I n Karthik went to the airport and picked him. We then had to go to Indian grocery stores, so that we can have some good Indian food for the next 2.5 days. We started cooking lunch at 0430pm and we ended up having it as a dinner, Swami didn't want to go out anywhere, so we decided to stay home see movies, cook, eat chit chat, and speak to friends in India thru conf call. We really had good fun doing all these. We had a wide variety of food like kara kozhambu, rasam, kovakkai poriyal, pongal, thakkali saatham, paneer butter masala, etc

All good times have an end. We three had to part on Monday AN. I dropped Karthik and Swami at the train station, so that they can go to airport. After filling my petrol tank, I started from North Wales at 0315 pm. The return journey was real smooth. I managed to reach back home by 0545 pm. I was back to my usual routine. After all, life is all about this.

license license license....Caru Caru Caru

2005-12-28T11:27:00.000-08:00

I got my NJ driving license on 14th Dec. The experience in getting the license was pretty good.
I took my written test on one of the Saturdays, I failed. Its not like an Indian written test. I had to get 40 questions correct out of 50...oops that is 80%..
I was asked to come and take the test the following week...This time I went in with more preparation and strategy...oops Murphy came in my way...The computer system was down in the DMV(RTO)....
I had to wait for more than an hour and the server was still lying down...guess it wanted to enjoy its Saturday...then we were asked to take a paper test...when I saw the question paper, there were only 30 questions and I knew answers for most of them..i almost completed the test...then came the person in the Spanish accent "We gave a wrong question paper.."..oops a test again!!!!
this time it was 50 questions…I somehow managed to pass the test this time..
Happy News : i will get my license without road test
Bad News : Computers are down, so we can't get you now...
I had to go to DMV again after three days…I went there..they made some entries in the comp, and i got a printed plastic card in jus 5 minutes time...these ppl really have a good process and system...

Now I have to get my hands on the car. Last time I drove was more than two years back in India, that too when i took my driving class.
I decided to take three hrs of class here so that I can feel comfortable...I would say I really drove well than I expected. I drove at great speeds when compared to India. Where in India can we drive @ 40 mph in a town. The prime reason here is that the traffic pattern here is homogenous with 99% of the vehicles being four wheelers.
Since most of the cars here are Auto, driving is also so simple.

Should I buy a car or not? A question that has been confusing me for a while..the budget, the insurance cost, my period of stay here...all these factors together have been confusing me a lot...but there is no 12B or 23 C here for commute to office...
Let me see what I'm going to do...

Winter - Update

2005-12-27T07:41:00.000-08:00

Its pretty long since I posted something, I atlast decided to come out of my hibernation.

Winter has started here, I already witnesses four snowfalls till day. The whole place looks beautiful with all the snow. Can't roam around much because of this killing weather.

For thanks giving holidays I had been to California to meet my cousin Raja and my friend Swami. Swami had plans to go to Seattle and Vancover. So he could accompony me only for a day. Went around with him and my cousin to San Fransisco. The most exiting thins was the food together with friends and family. Swami, me and Raja's family wen to Saravana Bhavan for a delicious dinner.

I could not get any great deals on the thanks giving day sale, five o' clock in the morning to the store was not good enough. People were waiting outside the stores from midnight.

The best part of the three and half days food was meeting more people. I had a great fun time with Shreya, my cousin's little daughter.It was really disheartening to come back to New Jersey, but I had no other alternative. I felt, should have taken one or two days leave so that I could have spent more time.

On the whole I liked the bay area more than the east coast.

Update from me is that, i got my license here and I did a little bit of driving also.
Hoping to do more.
Had nothing great to do in the christams week end. Looking forward to meet Prashant, Karthik and Prabhu for newyear.

The end of a legend

2005-11-11T18:59:00.000-08:00

Peter F Drucker, revered as the father of modern management for his numerous books and articles stressing innovation, entrepreneurship and strategies for dealing with a changing world, has died at the age of 95 in LA.

An article from a news site quotes the following words about him.

Drucker was considered a management visionary for his recognition that dedicated employees are key to the success of any corporation, and marketing and innovation should come before worries about finances.

I started appreciating his principles as I read them as part of my PGDBA course.
I always wanted to read more about his 'theory of Management', but I couldn't win over my laziness :)

He has left this world physically, but this world will never forget his concepts and thoughts.

Treat or Trick - The Halloweens day

2005-11-01T11:48:00.000-08:00

Halloweens day was celebrated here in US on Oct 31. I found it so interesting that I tried to dif in some of the history of it.

In early 1800, Halloween used to be more of a superstitious belief. It was observed the day before the "All souls day". People were under the belief that the souls and spirits would try to get over them, and to overcome this people used to dress up like spirits and roam. They believed that when they are dressed up like spirits, the real spirits would think that they are also spirits and would not harm them.

Now in this century, people are out of this superstitious belief. Halloweens day has become more of a fun stuff now. People now put on scarecrows which look more like spirits in front of their house. I could see that most of such decorations had a red light with them. To sight a few of them "A man was sitting in chair who is killed with knife", "Skeletons", etc where displayed in front of the houses. Also different art work on pumpkins are famous Halloween displays. On the eve of Halloween, people dress up in various different costumes, esp. like spirits and they have parade in the Village. Children also get dressed up and go door to door asking for candies. This is the reason why it is called "Treat or Trick".

I certainly missed up on taking the snaps of some of the good Halloween displays in front of some of the houses, I would get them if they are still available.

On the nowadays, Halloween is a day full of fun for the youth and Children in USA. (Its followed in European countries also).

More readings on Halloween

Wikipedia
History Channel

MANAGEMENT'S NEW PARADIGMS - Knowledge Worker

2005-10-07T07:18:00.000-07:00

I thought that, I would share with you an Article that I read on Management Paradigms.
Its from Peter F Drucker who is considered to be a Management Guru.
Its on the productivity on knowledge workers. Though simple, powerful thoughts.

The productivity of the knowledge worker is still abysmally low. It
has probably not improved in the past 100 or even 200 years - for the
simple reason that nobody has worked at improving the productivity.
All our work on productivity has been on the productivity of the manual worker.
This will require, above all, very much changed assumptions about
what constitutes management. One does not "manage" people, as
previously assumed. One leads them. The way one maximises their
performance is by capitalising on their strengths and their knowledge
rather than trying to force them into moulds. Knowledge workers cannot
be managed as subordinates; they are associates. This difference is more than cosmetic.
The very definition of a knowledge worker is one who knows more about
his or her job than anybody else in the organisation.
For example, the engineer servicing a customer does not know more
about the product than the engineering manager does. But she knows
more about the customer, and that may be more important than product
knowledge. The meteorologist on an air base is vastly inferior in rank
to the air base commander. But he is of no use unless he knows
infinitely more about weather forecasting than the air base commander
does. The mechanic servicing an airliner knows more about the
technical condition of the plane than the airport manager to whom he reports, and so on.

Two years @ Work

2005-10-05T12:26:00.000-07:00

It was exactly two years ago, I along with a bunch of people joined HCL Technologies Ltd., Chennai as a fresher with lots of dreams and aspirations. We had a good one month training filled with loads of fun. After that we had to join the work arena. As in every case, my dreams where shattered completely. I dreamt always to get into Systems programming, but eventually I was put into a team which was predominantly involved in Web Development. I made up my heart to move ahead. Initially started as a .NET programmer and shifted myself into J2EE in 4 months time. Now my views and conception on application development has changed completelly. There are lots of challenges in this part of the court also. A lot to learn, I would say. From being a normal programmer/engineer, I feel that I have gained good recognition in my team both as an individual and also as a team member. From here, I would love to augment my architectural and management skills more in years to come. I've already started learning these two skills. My current role as an onsite coordinator has laid the perfect platform for this.
I would like to take this opportunity to wish my friends Kala, Padma, Nilavan, Senthil, Visu, Joyas, JayaBarathi and all others who joined along with me for sucesful completion of two years. Good Luck! My dear friends.
And off course Good Luck to myself.

Katril Varum Geethame...

2005-10-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

In recent past the Tamil music industry has been really healthy and hot.
There has been a good healthy competition between Harris Jeyaraj, Yuvan Shankar Raja, Vidyasagar and Bharadwaj.
All these composers have been consistently giving good music to the tamil audience and they have almost created perfect market conditions.
A few years ago, it was almost like a monopoly. 80's and early 90's was predominantly ruled by Illayaraja and then it had been my Fav ARR.
But things now are no longer the same. These four music directors have been rocking the Tamil music.
ARR has started to concentrate more in international arena and Illayaraja has almost moved out of the industry.

Under these cicumstances, its really a score of Ilaayraja in a recent tamil Movie "Oru Naal Oru Kanavu" that has attracted me a lot.

Fazil teams with Illayaraja again for his latest movie "Oru Naal Oru Kanavu".
The combination of Fazil and Illayaraja has been always a big hit, right from Varusham Pathinaaru.
The songs in this movie are pretty good, though not Illayaraja’s best. It’s becoming apparent that Sonu Nigam is becoming Maestro's fav singer. All the songs are good though not exceptional.

But still, there is one exceptional master piece in this album also.
The song is "Katril Varum geethame ..."

The song is sung by Hariharan, Shreya Ghoshal, Bavatharani, Illayaraja and Sadhana Sargam.

I would rate this as the best song that I have heard in recent past.
It’s a melodious, soothing, divine and classic number. The moment I heard this song, I had a sense of peace in my heart. Bhavathirini, who has sung most part of the song, also has doen a great job. Another master piece from Illayaraja in the Lines of "Janani Janani ..." and "Amma endrazhaikuthu...".The lyrics for the song is also penned well.
Illayaraja again proves that he is the best in the industry with melodies.

Listen to it and let me know..........

You can listen ot it online at http://www.musicindiaonline.com/l/26/s/movie_name.7940/

Full Meal after two months

2005-09-26T06:44:00.000-07:00

This Saturday was the best day after I came to US.
Wondering, why?
It's a silly reason, but still a good one for me.
I had a full meal after 2 months in Saravana Bhavan in New York..
The menu included Rice, Sweet Pongal, Cabbaga poriyal, Pachadi, Sambar, Kaara Kozhambu,Rasam, Appalam, Pickle, Curd and Butter Milk. Expensive lunch, but still a heart filling one. I met Seetha lakshmi in NewYork. She worked in HCL with me and she is now put up in Ann Arbor, MI along with her husband after marriage.(Most of the people reading this blog knows her). A nice weekend though. Thanks Seetha, for the mouth watering puli kaichal and Rava Laddu.

In to Books

2005-09-22T08:58:00.000-07:00

Its 23 years since God presented me to this lovely world. All these years my favorite pass time had been music and sports. I spend lot of time listening to music. At some point I even wanted to learn classical vocal and its still in abeyance.
But after coming to the country of Liberty I somehow have not had much opportunities to listen to new music or see TV or other pass time.
So the one thing that I had to take up was read books. All these 23 years the books (novels and fictions) that I have read include "Harry Potter 1 & 2" and "Five Point Some One" though I have read most of the Dale Carnegie series. I again plunged into reading books here in USA. I started with Prey. I had heard a lot about this book. As a matter of fact, Swami wanted every one of us to read it. Now I have completed this book. I really feel bad that I haven't read this book all these time. It was really a wonderful book. It was indeed a good sketch with a nice composition of emotion and science. Having seen the authors other book "Jurassic Park" as a movie, I could see some common things in his narration. But still I would say hats off to Michael Crichton for a wonderful fiction.
Hope I will continue this good habit of reading. The books in queue are "Deception Point", "Digital Fortress" and "Da Vinci Code"....Hoping to have more fun reading...

Niagara...A dream come true!!!

2005-09-15T07:04:00.000-07:00

I wanted to post about the Niagara trip right after the day i returned...but i couldn't...
The reason is that I was heavily held up with the work here...hmmm...
But the fact put above is not true...naama thaan vadigatina somberi aache..athaan so long to post about the trip...(I’m a good lazy guy that’s the reason why it took so long)

Myself, Karthik (Thennal), Prabhu and Prashant planned to make a 3 day tour to Niagara & Boston on Sept 3, 4 & 5.
Unfortunately Swami could not join us because of his Visa Problems...

Myself, Karthik and Prabhu assembled at My Manager's house on 2nd sep night.we din have proper transportation from our places to new York city early in the morning so manager asked us to stay in her house. We are really thankful to her...it really made thins easy...
Karthik didn't turn up till 10.45 pm. He started from his place at 0330 and it takes at the most 5 hours to reach my Managers place....this guy didn’t even carry the route map from Railway Station to My Manager's house...enadaa nu ketaa... ketutu vanthudalaam nu nenachenu solraan..fortunately myself and prabhu went to the railway station and waited for him till from 10.00 PM to 10.45 PM...
Once we reached my manager's home we had dinner and we went to bed...offcourse after some chit chats on the bed...

3-Sep -05
I woke up at 0530 and thennal was the guy who was late...my manager said that we will have to leave home by 0645..but thennal made it late up 0700..when we came out and when have alreayd moved few meters in the car..thennal screamed.."Shit I left my Gold chain in the bathroom..."..Thennal is on track on globalizing the nadhus community...his untiring works to make the community's presence felt in the international arena has to be really appreciated...(probably some one else can come up with a special featured nadhus activities from thennal in US)....
The bus was supposed to start from the boarding point by 0800hrs...we reached the boarding point by 08010hrs..prashant was already there waiting for us and fortunately the bus hadn't still turned up...A Chinese lady who was our guide allotted us seat numbers...we named her "Ammini..." (Lady) and she was our villain number 2 in the trip....the bus came in at almost 0830..and as we moved a few miles the driver who was our first villain said that the bus has to undergo some service...they dropped us in a place in a small town...many questions rose in our mind...
"What if the driver f goes away..?"
"Is the travel agency like gaja thoni..?"

We had to wait for almost 2 hours...during which we kept talking about the all evergreen college stories...

Praise the lord..the bus has come...we again boarded the bus...as I said already there were many Indians in the bus...karthik eyed on one desi girl..whose name we found as Archana...he said he wanted to speak to her...oops sekar here is another competitor for you....lets see if he is a real competitor to sekar at the end of the third day...we named that girl "Puraa koodu " as her hair style was like a nest...we were so tired that most of us went to sleep in the bus...

There comes the good news from our ammini..as part of the compensation for the 2 hrs delay..the tour company has agreed to pay us the entry fee for "Conning Glass museum" (its 11$ per person).

At almost 1700 hrs we dropped into conning glass museum. The museum was good...lots of old glass products...we were really amazed by some of the glass exhibits. They were real old ones.
After that we had a show on how they produce glass products...we couldn’t see the end product ius bcos thennal started following the pura koodu once she started walking away from the show. We had no other option other than to follow him so that we don miss him...
Oops saapatuku on the way they were stopping at burger kings...and we knew that this was gng to be the food for three days...

Our ammini used to set a time for us to return back...in one of the stops for lunch the other set of guys from chennai TCS reported little late..the driver was compainign on them being late..then we learn that he only complains on the guys and not girls...thts how he became our villain no 1....he was so good at kadalai...he almost was putting kadalai continuously with ammini a he was driving...swami and PP your records ar eno way in front of him..every time he stops the bus he fries some kadalai with the girls getting down...

oops enuf of grudges over the driver..lemme come back to the tour....

We landed up at Niagra and we were set free to have a look at the night view of the Niagara with the lights on...it was really wonderful...I couldn’t really believe that im in Niagara as I never imagined..that too with my fellow class mates...the nite view was wonderful and beautiful. Unfortunately none of our camera could get a clear view of Niagara in the nite...we need to be richer to do that....
we as usual were little late to the bus and ammini and driver kept saying "Be on time..." ..our ears were configured to filter these ppls frequencies...

prashant went on to stay with his friend...myself prabhu and thennal stayed in the same hotel room..(There are reasons why prashant preferred not to stay with us esp. thennal...contact me for more details)

4- Sep -05

we had to wake up early by 0630..and get ready to go to bus by 0745..oops we were late by 5 mins...and we were the last to get into the bus this time...i guess others din have bath thts the reason they were all on time...we were taken to niagar falls again...we got a good view of Horshe shoe falls and US falls...ppl planning for Niagara better get a Canadian visa bcos you get the best view of teh falls from the Canadian side...we had couple of photos...there was so much of fight btw prashant and thennal for the fotos that they took for each other...thennal infact never got satisfied with any foto that prashant took for him...

Then we headed towards the "Maid of the Mist" ..this infact was the best part of the trip...i really have no words to express it...it was awesome...

Late in the afternoon we started towards Boston....after stops for lunch in the highways we reached boston at aroound 0900 pm....and here is the villathanam from our amini ...she stopped near "China Town" to have dinner; majority in the bus being Indians....
We along with other TCS group and an Indian family started hunting for some vegeterian restaurant...we atlast got one..we wen n and found that already some of the Indians who came in the bus were there taking their dinner... the menu had lots of item which read 'chicken','pork'..but the hotel board read "Hotel Buddha Vegetarian"...the waiter there in the hotel said that though they read as chicken ,etc none of them have meat in them...we still chose items which din have any traces of NV in their ingredients...while everyone opted for something in fried rice family..myself and prabhu opted for Noodles...yuck!!! we couldn't eat it..thats all I can say... it tasted horrible...we couldn’t finish it. we asked the waiter to parcel it for us...after coming out of the hotel myself n prabhu had no option other than putting it in garbage...

oops we are already late by 15 minutes..but we knew the other Indian grp which had girls had jus left so no probs...we 4 and other 3 Chennai TCS guys were walking together..wen we came close to the bus..one of the TCS guy and Thennal started running towards the bus..prashant said to other 2 tcs guys...neenga venaa paarunga karthik odi poi bus kita ninuduvaan....as prashant said ...karthik who was speeding with other guy made a sudden stop jus near the door of the bus..and we had no other option than to pity the other guy who ran along with him...

we were again dropped off at a hotel for the nite stay...they said we will start for local boston tour by 0815 AM..and if we are late the bus will leave us and we can take a bus back to new York by paying jus 15$....

As usual nice chit chatting at nite...

5-Sep-05

We all were ready and came out of the hotel..hahaha..our ammini could not find the driver....the driver was late by almost 15 mins..there were sarcastic remarks being passed if the driver was gng to take the 15$ bus back to NYC...

in Boston we wen arounf Harvard univ, MIT, a cruise....

After all these we had a good Indian lunch after three days...
we headed our journey back to NYC...by almost 0630 pm we reached NYC...
we had no other option other than to say bye to each other and head towards our home...

A Wonderful and evergreen three day trip indeed.....

And sekar here is the info for you..Karthik is indeed a great competitor to you..he din even speak a work with the puraakoodu until the end of the trip...

From USA......

2005-08-01T15:05:00.000-07:00

Its long time since I updated my blog. And this is my first post from USA.

It’s over a week and a half after I left my Motherland, India to USA. I've come here for my project assignment.

When I stepped into this new beautiful country lots of questions were running in my mind (my work, environment, food, challenges, etc.) It was not only excitement but also some kind of tension.

21-Jul-2005, 0430 pm I landed in Newark Airport from where I took a taxi to my house. Fortunately I had the route map from yahoo to aid me reach my (going to be) house easily. Sathya (my roomie) welcomed me when I got down. He works as a consultant in Medco Health care. Later in the day I also met Santhosh from HCL Gurgaon. It was through Santhosh who works with same client I got the accommodation. They were so friendly that I didn't feel I was in a diff country or with diff people.

22-Jul-2005 had to join office. Reached office early at 0830 with Santhosh. Sridhar, my lead introduced me to all the people at office. People around me were so friendly and this eased the tension from my mind.

New Jersey, the state where I live is called the Garden state and it’s really worth this name. I couldn’t see a bare piece of land with soil/sand anywhere. It’s all lawn and trees everywhere. A very peaceful and silent place to live; away from the city, pollution, crowd and all stuff. I really feel great to be in such a beautiful place.

Will keep you updated on the places that I visit and my experiences here.

Tidings

2005-06-21T05:53:00.000-07:00

Its quiet sometime since I updated the blog.
A few felicitous and happy news to share.

1.Padma started to Milpitas,CA for her onsite assignment on 17-Jun, Friday.
All the best, Padma.
Incidnetally she is the first to travel in the whole bunch of PECians(2003 Passed outs) in HCL. Hope that many would follow her way.

2. I got my Visa stamped last week to US. Keeping my fingers crossed for opportunities to come my way.

3. Kala and Nilavan also got their Visa to US stamped. Hope opportunities come your way very soon.

So signing off for now with these happy news.

Welcome Abode

2005-06-02T23:15:00.000-07:00

Suresh has bid bye to Bangalore and LnT and has joined HCL,Chennai yesterday(02-June). He will be also my roommate from now in Chennai.
Myself, Suresh n Sai always longed to stay together and have fun. That has come true now.
Hope the fun we used to have at Pondicherry, couple of years ago would continue here also.
I can say a lot about Suresh. He is an intelligent, creative and witty guy. Keeps people around him always happy. He also has the great ability to write simple and attractive mails.( The group mails would prove this).

Suresh, Welcome to Chennai. All the Best for your career in HCL. Sorry I can only wish for your career because you have joined HCL ;-)

After Thirteen Years

2005-05-24T07:53:00.000-07:00

It was a euphoric feeling for me on Saturday. I met one of my childhood friends (Balaji) after a span of thirteen years. He is elder to me by a year. I used to spend most of my childhood times in his house. The entire road side crickets, seven stones, pattam, etc with him and other friends are still evergreen.

I did my schooling in Coimbatore till my seventh standard. I along with my parents lived in a quarters (House no. B 11) in Coimbatore. Balaji with his elder brother Anand and his parents lived in the house opposite to that of mine till my second standard (B 12). Their family was very close to our family (including my uncles and aunts).Then later moved to B4 in same quarters. During my fifth standard Balaji's family moved out of Coimbatore to Trichy and during my eighth standard I moved to Pondicherry. After that, all along I never met him and hardly spoke to him. In between his parents had been to my house in Pondicherry twice. Last week, Balaji who now is a marketing executive in HLL had been to Pondicherry. He got my contact number through my parents and he called me last Wednesday. I was really surprised by the call. We decided we will meet during the weekend as he was also planning to visit his parents in Chennai during the weekend. I met him in Kodambakkam and then moved to his house in Tambaram. After reaching his house, I tasted his mother's recipe after a long time. His mother was mocking me with all the silly things that I used to do when I was a kid. I was surprised when she was able to ask me about each of my uncle and aunt and also about their children (I have about 20 uncles and aunts). We spoke about incidents that happened in the quarters and about the people who lived in the quarters. A different and lovely weekend on the whole.

Being Happy at work

2005-05-15T23:06:00.000-07:00

The key elements that keep you happy at work are the following.

1.Money
2.Opportunities
3.Power
4.Recognition
5.Job Satisfcation

Out of all these the first factor that makes us easily happy is money. In this fast growing and the demanding world, money is the key to everything. As correctly quoted in one of the tamil songs "kassu kaasu...chenna patinam elaam katanam"; anything and everything in this world is money.
So no employee can be happy if the monetary benefits given to him doesn't match to that of industrial standards or even his own expectations (But don't expect too high, you will never be happy).

Opportunity,as great people say is the key of success. Everyone will have potential, but its the right opportunity at the right time makes us successful, isn't it?Success is the key factor for self actuation. So everybody keeps looking for oppurtunities.In this competitive world we'll have to capitalize on any given opportunity. Should we wait for opportunities or should be go behind it? A common confusing question. I would say don't do both, rather try to create opportunities with whatever is available to you. No management will stop us from creating opportunities, so we will have to create them ourselves and work towards a preset goal. Its only when the policies don't help people even to create an opportunity themselves, they go unhappy.

Power, who in the world says no to power. Everybody likes delegation, supremacy , decision taking, etc. Its the power to things at our disposal makes people happy.

Recognition, what if you keep working and all the work that you do isn't recognized. The immediate consequence will be that the morale of the employee goes down; as a result of which productivity goes down. The recognition that we get might be in the form of pats, word or rewards. Whatever it is recognition plays an important role in keeping people happy at work.

Job Satisfaction, off course no one can be happy if the work that they do isn't interesting or if it monotonous. For some people only challenging job is a satisfactory one.

All the above 5 factors are equally important for anyone, but the importance and the perception of each factor varies from individual to individual.

At any given point of time, there should be atleast 3 of these factors for any person to be happy. Though not 100% atleast 80%. The other 2 factors should be available at atleast 50%. Again considering this factor 0f 80%, when it becomes 80% varies from individual to individual.

If we aren't happy at work, what we first need to do is analyse these factors and find which is the one that is missing. After that we will have to work towards making that factor better. Only if that is not possible we will have to think about relocating to a diff employer. Conversely, if we relocate ourselves to a different employee we will have to make sure that there is a considerable increase in all the above factors, only then it would be a win win situation.

All these above views are purely my own perception and are academic to some extent. Any comments or criticisms are welcome.

Bon Voyage

2005-05-09T03:07:00.000-07:00

Sai is traveling to London Tuesday morning 0030 hrs.
The assignment is for 6 weeks. I'm really jubilated over this.
Wat could be a more fitting gift than this for all the hardwork that he had done.
I wish he gets more n more opportunities of such kind.
Incidentally none out of the six of my roomies had traveled yet. We got a doubt if that was a problem with Vaasthu ;-).But now its proven wrong.
All the Best, sai.

Happy B'Day dear friend

2005-05-05T02:29:00.000-07:00

Yup! Its my dear friend sai's B'Day today. I can keep writing on him.
My friend for over 11 years.
Here is a small dedication for him.(Yes, these are not my own words but I mean them)

To you my Best Friend

This is for you, my best friend,
the one person i can tell my soul too
Who can relate to me like no other
Who I can laugh with to no extents,
Who I can cry too when times are tough,
Who can help me with the problems of my life.

Never have you turned your back on me
Or told me I wasnt good enough
Or let me down

I don't think you know what that means to me
You have went through so much pain and you still have time
For me.
And I love you for listening even when inside YOU are dying
And I look up too you because you are strong,
and caring
and beautiful.
Even though you don't think you are.

And I hope you know that I am always here
To listen to you laugh and cry and help
In all the ways that i can
And I will try to be at least half the friend you are
To me.

I hope you know I would not be the person I am today, with out you.
My best friend.

Friend Like you....

Everyone should have
a friend like you
You are so much fun to be with
And you are such a good person
You crack me up with laughter
And touch my heart with your kindness
You have a wonderful ability
To know when to offer advice
And when to sit in quiet support
Time after time
You've come to my rescue
And brightend so many
Of my routine days
And time after time
I've realized how fortunate
I am that my life includes you
I really do believe that
Everybody should have a friend like you
But so far it looks like
You are one of a kind!

Happy B'day Sai

What do we contribue???

2005-05-04T04:05:00.000-07:00

Arvind Thiagarajan, an Indian, who is not known to many till today, but who knows he will be known to millions atleast after few years.
Its an article in rediff.
Arvind Thiagarajan has come up with an algorithm to compress images. The compression ratio is almost 35 times and moreover it is lossless. He has worked on something called bit plane method. If this algorithm proves good we soon might have a new image compression format. He has also worked on many other innovations. More details click here

Now coming on to the other side aren't we really capable of such things. It is not that we aren't. Everybody gets spark on so many things. It is just a matter of realizing that the 'spark' can be used for igniting an innovative idea. Once we realize we will have to capitalize and build on it. Sounds very simple! right. But how many of us do that. Personally sometimes I get so many idea which didn't build on..and now I don't even remember them. Still wondering why most of us don't realize, capitalize and build on our own simple ideas.

Happy B'Day Visu

2005-05-04T03:50:00.000-07:00

Happy Bday Dear visu...

I know this guy from my 10th standard. I used to play cricket with him,but it so happened that I always was his opponent. Then same tution centre in 11th and 12th std. and then the 4 years of college life.
Ask any 2003 CSE guy in PEC, "To whose house have you been maximum no. of times?" The answer would be Visu. Most of the group studies and daily chats would be at his house veranda. Those days would are really memorable one for most of us.
He was also known as "Gokula Krishnan" by most of the guys. A very helpful and caring friend.
Happy Bday again

The Weekend

2005-05-01T21:58:00.000-07:00

On Friday, I decided…I got to leave office by 06.00 pm. But was late by over 45 minutes as I had my QPEDS review. Was happy with the feedback from my PM.
After a a real long time I'm going to pondy for two continuous weekends.
Last weekend I took my parents and brother to Chandramukhi and for dinner in Hotel Surguru. It was really a great feel to see them happy over this.
This weekend I didn't even step out of house. Spent most of the time eating n sleeping.
Also was working on editing n mixing the video that was shot in munnar n Thekkady.
This video is slated to release in 2 weeks time.
Also met koodai my co TnP rep as often we used to call ourselves after over a month's time.

Happy BDay Mangal. I know mangal for almost eight years now. A class mate of mine from 11th std. A very cool n composed guy. My self n Mangal have been together in a couple of projects n we never finished them in college. That's the main reason we didn't do the final yr proj together.

Very soon going to come up with audio review of Anniyan.

Thalaivaroda paatu..ketu paaruda

2005-04-28T05:45:00.000-07:00

.
I used to listen to a lot of songs.
Ram who knew this told me, Hey y don't you come up with audio reviews.
Thought that really was a great idea.
So I start the review with that of Rajinikanth's latest sensation Chandramukhi
The music for this movie is composed by Vidyasagar. He is well know for giving variety and being commercial also. He has proved it this time also.
The first time I heard this album I was impressed with 3 numbers.

1. Konja neram Konja neram - a nice melodious duet sung by Madhu Balakrishnan
and Asha Bhosle.Though not an extraordinary composition, nice and pleasing to hear.
2. Athinthom - Sung by SPB..kind of folk variety
3. RaRa sarasuku rara- Binikrishna kumar ,Tippu. But this song is a real sensation. A nicely composed classical number which fits in very well with the situation in the movie.

The other 3 songs are

1. Kokku para para - Simple composition but again fits well into the situation in the movie.
2. Devuda Devuda - Usual Rajini intro song.
3. Ananoda paatu - not much impressive

You can listen to all these online at Chandrmukhi songs

Atlast i'm in

2005-04-27T05:07:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking for quiet a while..should i be part of this blogger's world.
I always wanted a record of jus like that incidents, my thoughts and other things not to be lost.
I kept myself away for two reasons

1. can I present in an attractive way - id ecided y bother abt this..let me do it the way i wan
2. will i be regular??- yup ill have to really overcoem this

so let me see how I proceed...

so for now i say "hip hip hooray" to myself...

Today has been a very lighter day at the office.
VPN was down and so had nothing to other thain mailing, listening to songs and chatting with my collegues.