Birthday

Happy Birthday...

Now that you are as *old* as I am.

Change

I know life calls for change. Now I realise it. :-)

Its not that simple

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Saw this ad in my Inbox.

Comments moderation policy

Well, recently the comments inflow increased in this blog (may be a hype). But I don't have a blog maintainer to take care of it. Also this being a public blog, I felt that moderating comments was bit redundant. So I'm removing the comments moderation on this blog (until further notification :D)

Got some more,

- The blog disclaimer holds good for any of the comments I write.

- The authors of the comment are *only and wholly* responsible for the comment and the owner of this blog will not take any responsibility.

- Anything the author feels is inappropriate in the comments, I hold full permission to remove the comment. I may or may not intimate the reason to the comment author.

Thank you for understanding.

Unfair world

V Sehwag        R-146   B-102   4s-17   6s-6    SR-143.13
TM Dilshan      R-160   B-124   4s-20   6s-3    SR-129.03
KC Sangakkara   R-90    B-43    4s-10   6s-5    SR-209.3


Sehwag takes the "Man of the Match". I agree that it was an entertaining innings from Sehwag, but Sanga was also equally great. If "Man of the Match" has to be from the winning team, I would have given it to Bajji for 10 overs. 5.8 rpo and 2 wickets or shared it between Zaheer and Nehra for the last spell. Keep aside all, just horning Dilshan innings would have made it share with Sehwag. Unfair...

Shopping

Shopping! A lot of shopping.

Once I started preparing for the wedding, first in the itenary was shopping. I thought I will do it sometime in mid January since I was not sure what my hip size would be then. But due to other logistics we decided to do it early. So I landed in Chennai over a weekend for shopping with my parents.

Destination: RMKV Silks

Usually I have heard real life experience from men as to how it would be to shop with women. So I was extra prepared, since I was with my mom, mom-in-law and The bride. We entered RMKV around Saturday afternoon. But she was smart* she had already selected the wedding saree. So we need not wait until we select one. [To brief: RMKV has a good bridal7 collection saree, that is one of the 'n' number of collection they have for the brides, Ideally including the designer silk and stuff. The shop has two floors packed with sarees] Everyone liked the saree that was selected. Now-a-days one has an option to keep the saree on them (the girl) and see in those big mirrors of how one looks when they wear it. We got the selected saree. So one saree down, and one more to go.

We decided to see the collections in both silk and designer silk. [Designer silk sarees are silk sarees that come with lot of work in it including glass, stones and chumki] We went to designer silk section and started to pull out one saree at a time and looked at it. The border design first, then the central pattern finally the color and lower border. Everything should match to their taste so that they would pick it. We started piling it on the table, suddenly we realized that the sales guy would not be visible on the other side if we continue. We were already two tea breaks down. :-) So we paused. End of day one.

Day two, we again went to the silk saree section and looked at more sarees. [Pack your bag with few cans of Red Bull] My job was simple, I have to say how the sareee looks. Frankly I loved all the sarees since it was so colorful. [No wonder the 24 bit true color RGB palette will not be sufficient] They got sarees in all the colors I have ever seen or can think of. So finally after looking at close to 90 odd sarees we narrowed down to 2 sarees. Since the shop had yellow lighting inside, we decided to get select the saree after looking it in day light. :-) They got an option to take it outside and see it. Selected the second one. (*claps*) Yay! We are done.

There is a row of chairs placed in the centre of that hall with its back facing each other. It was an interesting sight. Its for the men to rest and think about killing time. I saw faces that read "nothing". One guy was solving a whole book of Suduko, another baby sitting, another was looking at the roof and counting the bulbs.

Its Sunday afternoon by now. They also decided to get pattu vestti sattai (silk dhoti and shirt). Whoo! Finally I get my turn *grin*.

Me: Pattu vesti kaamiga!

(Show me silk dhoti, show me all designs you got!!!! I should at least look at half of what the bride looked)

Sales Guy: What color sir, White or Sandal?

Me: Sandal would be good.

Soon he picked one from the right hand corner and one from the rack below. Placed it in the table. I was still looking at the racks for more. He then made me look down at the two dhoti's shown. 

8

Me: Both looks good, are there more designs?

Sales Guy: Thats all. Only two designs. One with diamond border and another with wave border.

(Thunder on the groom's head)

Me: you're sure, its only two!

Sales Guy: yes

I choose one. Then I was told to get a silk towel with it. Then I turned to that guy and asked, "show me designs in silk towel". He replied, "no designs and all sir. There is only one, and it will fit with all."

(Bride from behind, "It seems like the choices are less". Groom wonders, "choices..") :)

Then we needed to get a silk shirt. Soon we were in the 3rd floor for the same. I did not have any hope in the shirts section, after the trauma in the dhoti's section. As expected, only two shirts were close to the dhothi's color. Rest were all like the ones I see in Ramarajan film including golden yellow, dark green etc. I choose one. End of shopping for the groom, and we clocked 15 minutes 20 seconds. :)

We were finally done with shopping in RMKV.

P.S. Men, everything within square brackets is FYA.

Happy Birthday Sister-in-cork

We met once in a coffee shop with our common friends (we ended up sitting there for thirty minutes and didn't order any). Then we planned to meet for a night trek, but our common friends had different plans of kidnapping her and ended up in the Airport. Then may be a puli kolambu lunch at my home, but the host betrayed. So her curse still holds good! :-( we bonded more in our blogs and are good friends now. She is also one of my favorite bloggers. 

Many more Happy returns of the day Revs! Wishing that many more wishes of yours come true.

One more wish, Happy Birthday Rajini. God bless you with more success and give us few more hits like Thillu Mullu, Thalaphathi and Baasha. :-)

:-)

It's been a while since I wanted to post this. Here is a personal update.

By 2007, I met this smart, energetic and lovely person and got introduced to her as a junior in office (I was dressed up in formals and stood in her cubicle for the transition). Like in all regular love stories, we soon became good friends. We had a lot in common and we started spending more time together (That and the fact that she was my unfortunate neighbour for almost two years).

After a lot of coffee conversations (we are confirmed caffeine addicts) and long walks to book shops (a conspiracy that was aimed at reducing my tummy, I think), I asked her one day (making sure I was insured and that I knew a few self defense karate gimmicks), "Will you marry me?". She replied, "hmm..." (I expected tridents!) and after taking her own sweet time (which included some more kadalai and many more walks to book shops) she said, "yes!" After all the waiting-for-green-signal-from-parents routines, Abirami and I will be getting married on Feb 4th, 2010. (Fixed!)

Abirami is also from PSG (No, I have not met her in PSG and yes, I know you won't believe it) and a celebrity blogger. I'm a big fan of her poems and blog. And yeah, before she puts this this piece of information (that has been chanted by her a few thousand times) in her blog I'll confess, "She was the one who helped me to make my first code check-in in my career".

We'll send you the invite shortly and we hope to meet you at the wedding/reception!

Post updated.

Hangover

A weekend I spent for myself in Bangalore after a long time. Yeah I had been travelling all the last four weekends attending weddings and getting personal work done (later about this :-P). You could have seen it from the previous photo posts.

The head count has also increased in our home to 8 after few old timers coming back. So it was time for fun and the Hangover. They stay proportional. The recent addiction was a card game called "Literature". Some guys does not like them to be challenged intellectually, so does all of them here in our home (Sigh!!). So this game was fun. Thinking hard, observation, recursing, remembering and reasoning are the keys of the game. So we almost came close to sunrise Friday night. So guess the hangover!

I should also confess all my debating talent rooted to my college free hours and this bachelor life here. We debate for all things that one can come across. After the last test match win against Srilanka, Sewagh has come into the firing line. Is his firing innings so necessary for Indian opening? Is 30/1 in 4 overs makes sense or 70/0 in 15 overs makes sense? Can a wicket be thrown away every time one tries to give his team a flying start. You want to voice out, write to us or comment on the post. We will include it. Another topic on Kamalhasan acting (duly censored for the benefit of blogs wellness) :)

Lastly I have been test driving the Canon EOS 500D with 18-55 lens. Thanks to Srihari. Its fun and I'm loving it.

Emergency

It was an Emergency!

Those wheels moved with red horns, that tried telling or may be crying. But no one to listen since it was close to midnight. He should have been a scientist to exit that gate. Illuminated in white light, it was transparent inside. They were fixed looking down. They tried reaching some phone numbers, someone has to be woken up soon. He was at the far end and she was close to the door. We approached from behind. She tried reading who was behind with a numb face, but she could react a little. Her eyes were telling million things about him. He could have been her hero or may be more. She wanted silence as blanket to travel this mid-night spur. I know I'm nobody, but I wanted to tell, "He will be fine. Wish him the best."

Happy married life (02mw)

Happy married life (02mw21)

openSUSE 11.2 launch party :)

openSUSE 11.2 is released. Its one of the coolest Linux distros thats available. Loads of new features. Install and have fun.

Meanwhile, few geeks and nerds out here decided to celebrate the release. Cake (yummy fruit cake, with geeko printed on an edible thing), burgers, chips, fries and pepsi was there in the party. Srinidhi gave a sweating talk on the new features in 11.2 (Wow the list was really impressive, esp the numbers). It was a fun launch party overall.

more photos...

Ah! We missed a group photo. :-)

[Post disclaimed, please read the blog policy]

Siddhara Betta Trek

Many a time less planned things work well. This is one of them. A small one day trek to Siddhara Betta.

History

Siddhara Betta, as the name suggests, it was a place for the Siddha's. They came to the hill to meditate as well as for the rich herbs and shrubs found in this place. To testify that there are many small temples and Mandapam's at various parts of the hill. Also at the top are huge rocks touching that make it a cave like environment for the Siddha's to come. 

Team

A group of 8 nerds (me, Rohit, Puthali, Aditya, Jinu, Ravi, Arpan and Sanjeev) decided to trek on Siddhara Betta. After a short meeting a plan was sketched. We decided to meet at NGV and started at 9:30 AM in Tata Safari. Yup its one of the best SUV's for a trek. Just that the last two seats were a bit cramping. Ravi was our navigator and Rohit/Jinu took care of the steering. 

Destination

Reaching Siddhara Betta was an easy thing. Where ever you are in Bangalore, try to get to the road that goes to Tumkur. Post the tollgate keep going straight up to Doobspet. This is a good place to re-fuel, get some snacks and refreshments. Going further 2-3 kms you would find a fuel station with Kamat restaurant and Coffee Day (CCD) on either side. We parked the vehicle in CCD. This was a neat and closest place to park the car. 

[P.S. Yet to verify the correctness from the navigator]

100 mts from CCD is a small tunnel below the railway track. The trek starts from there. The whole route seems me an easy trek. Keep following the trail, after some initial rocky terrain one would find steps for climbing to the top. (Many blogs said there are alternate route to the top. But try it only if you have an local guy to navigate) Approx one can reach the top with 90-120 minutes of climb. 

The low depression in the coastal regions of Tamilnadu made the trek interesting with occasional drizzles. We had to take strategic breaks under the tree and beneath huge rocks. Slippery rocks were something one has to watch during a rain. At the top there was a temple, an there were 2 intermediate madap's. The local guy there said, people used to come in masses during Sunday to the temple. Also he told about few caves behind the temple, but it was impossible for us to explore due to the heavy rain once we reached the top. 

Once we climbed down, reached a dabba on the way back and had yummy late lunch before reaching back Koramangala again. 

Highlights

• Perfect one day trek route this would be.
• Carry own water and food. Not needed much, unless its a sunny day.
• Easy trek, anyone could try it. We found a family, including old people descending from the hill. 
• Easy to reach by road. Own vehicle more easy, local transport also available in plenty.
• One of nice place for night camp, esp on a clear full moon day. The view of the NH would be nice.

Lowlights

• Polluted. Lots of plastic waste. 
• In the name of God, a chicken feast has happened recently. We found lots of feathers at the top of the hill.

Thanks to the Team for make sure, we did not drop any plastic or paper waste through out the trek. They were disposed safely. 

Start, crossing the railway track

We took a detour to do some rock climbing, Courtesy Ravi

Gecko. Thats how this rock looked to me!

Puthali, trying a rock slide 

It was very refreshing to take a break from the Cubicles

Risky, So take care

Didn't I say it was slippery. Jinu getting some balance.

A ruined madap. Some locations for night camp.

It was raining and we had some friends

CCD

Note: Next on the cards would be KP for December.

An old photo

An old photo, that was not framed, that was not even printed. But like a million line memory its telling stroies. Stories of life from past. A memory that was powerful enough to remember every emotion of it. A light heart and a slight grin. Its a rollercoster that you travel standing still.

Happy Birthday Kannan

Who said Birthday's are to be celebrated at 00:00 hrs of The day. So differently we decided to celebrate it at 23:59 hrs. Thats the easiest excuse we can take of the laziness. But its fun to wake the half asleep guy and stuff some cream on his face. }:-) Sigh! What is life if you cant eat an German Chocolate cake! :-( I officially hate GM diet.

Happy Birthday Dams. We wish you many more growths in your life ;) and success be with you. Share the cake with Vijay too. :)

Also one more new arrival to the our home (dhanda selavu). The Raja of our home got a new Guitar and a posh bag for it. Dams duly said, "Hey the bag is big enough that you can stuff extra cloths when you are going home." Perspective varies you see! :)

Well the highlight of the day was this Happy Birthday song The Raja of our home played in his new Guitar. Listen and Enjoy!

happy birthday.wma - Santy

P.S: The audio is very low. We will try getting a louder and good version soon.

Personal

Post Diwali, I had been pre-occupied with so much of thought and work. Yeah had lot of mails to send, many reminders and TODO slips hanging out. Somehow managed to progress a little. Still a long way to go. Also an unplanned flu disturbs a lot. Apart from being sick, two sad part of the flu was that I was not able to donate blood since I had antibiotics within one week of the donation. Also had to miss a travel too since my host said, "I'm not supposed to travel when I'm not fully recovered."

I had so many things to write here, but I did not have time when I wanted to write and I don remember what I wanted to write now. Apart from twitter, facebook, Google reader and blog updates I had not been doing anything for myself. Apart from the movie I did watch last Sunday! So planning to take some time off and spend them for me and see what I can do to keep me interested. So that means I would spam less on all the social networking update boards.

November seems to be a month of Wedding. I got 4 weddings to attend and that simply means 4 weeks of continious travel. So a break seems mandatory!

Some reason Youtube recommended this video and I loved watching it again & again. :)

Niece

Oats Love (Part 1)

Yeah, its coming in a series.

I wanted to write about this. But Arun has already done the documentation. So could not stop myself from cross posting. Do try this out and you will enjoy it.

Recipe: Oats Kichadi

Nephew

இனிய தீபாவளி

Lately Diwali means good food and photography for me. Once a year I gain lot of weight and workout the rest of the year to reduce it. A colleague of mine wishing everyone, comes to my cube and says, "This Diwali also photos and no crackers is it?". Thats true! More than burning those crackers I'm fond of taking pictures and calculating the amount of money totally spent in buying them. 

This Diwali was no different. After my mom repeatedly reminding me to get a dress, I decided to shop. Rule#1: No black dress, already I have enough that I'm banned for lifetime. Rule#2: Need to shop in 30mins. I will lose interest from 31st minute. Rule#3: No jean and t-shirts. Amen! Whats else is there in those to shop then? I romed around for 120 minutes and took a shirt. Trail piece fits well and finally ended up not having my size in the lot. End of Diwali shopping. But made my mom happy, by the patent shirt I got from office. :)

I spent the Diwali night at the rooftop with my camera. It was a spectacle to watch those fireworks reach skies. Had a chance to click some of them and miss many of them. Also its fun to anticipate from where the next big one will come in the sky. Also meet some friends and few more to go. Food food and lots of food.

I'm so patient with this 5 mins timeout internet at home. :) BSNL sucks at this part of the city.

Have fun. More photos in my flickr.

Human bite

Me: How does it feel to get Human bite? Does it pain? Is it poisonous? Should one get a TT for it?

Him: Admitted in apollo..doc says this is a peculiar case.. needs immediate intervention to prevent brain damage.. subject which bit is to be quarantined, so that it is not a threat to homo sapiens.. US marshals are on their way!

Me: Sitting fingers crossed. :-)

DOCOMO moment

Today Oct The 14th, my good friend is writing his GRE. We are all excited at home already. He will be our Muhmud of Koramangala and still with high spirits. After all the long hours he spent, I should be giving him many "Burnt the Midnight oil" cards. After those, "Sir, as I'm suffering from fever, I would request you to kindly give me one day leave!". Its show time today.

Inspired from Tata DOCOMO's, "Life can change in a second". We identified DOCOMO moment for him. After the online test, there will be an option to view the marks. Clicking that and knowing his marks would be the DOCOMO moment for him. It will decide if its gonna be a hazy evening. ;-)

All the very best, to him....

With Regards,

Kannan, Sri, Me, Gethu, Nair et al.

Update:
எது நடந்ததோ அது நன்றாகவே நடந்தது,
எது நடக்கின்றதோ அது நன்றாக நடக்கின்றது,
எது நடக்குமோ அதுவும் நன்றாகவே நடக்கும்.

Why?

Why men seems to be hard nature mostly and
why women seems to have soft nature?
Why did history evolve like this?

Cricket: Overdose

Airtel's Champions League Cricket tournament was kicked off in Bangalore today. What does this mean, another round of T-20 cricket with some known and unknown teams playing for a prize money of 2.5 M. That is half the prize money of Cricket World cup. Immediately after the Ashes series, it was India vs Srilanka then it was Champions Trophy and now its Champions league cricket. Too much cricket, I would say. Look at the next 12 months fixtures, it looks packed.

Don't think this tournament was Lalit Modi's brain child, it was a cheap copy from club football. But seriously its very boring and does not stand near the 90 mins of a football games action and drama. These tournaments started more of a way to promote the game, its now becoming a Modern Poker (already in the first match, players are putting down lolipop catches and run outs). That is sad. So at least I'm pulling out of the viewers list of this Trophy! (I can do better things than watching this...:-P)

But, all said and done. Its good for the small business that runs around the game. We will be getting back the profit that we lost by moving the last IPL to South Africa. Still one set of people who strictly ban the whole thing would be your mom and wife who wants to see the Kolangal mega series. So guys get a tatasky and record the matches and watch the replay or get your salvation from cricinfo.com

Tagged: cricket

Wow, you must have a really good camera!

Anyone who has ever taken a sharp, properly exposed,
and well-composed photo has heard these words,
"Wow, you must have a really good camera!"

Then anyone who can code or write well, should
have a "really good keyboard and computer!" :-)

Took the excerpt from this article by Vic Berardi.

Health care takes lower priority

I live in Bangalore. A city known for its slow moving traffic and rash driving. Today I was watching this spectacle happen in Sony World Junction.

Somewhere 200 metre's from the signal an Ambulance got queued up along with queue of cars, bikes and auto's that were waiting in the signal. The siren was reaching the sky and red emergency light was in so contract that was making the whole area look in emergency! It was around 30 seconds and still none of the vehicles in front of the ambulance moved. Hence the driver in the ambulance increased the siren louder and longer. Another 15 seconds passed and still no signs of traffic moving. I got curious and looked at the junction and find vehicles from other lane still moving. The so called public servants are busy scratching some parts and not clearing this lane with ambulance. WTF! Finally the ambulance got it chance to move only when there was green to the lane. It was a sad sight to watch.

Think the case of a politician. He/She gets a free ride from airport to his home without his driver keeping his foot on the brakes. I was made to wait many times in IRR for the public servants to go in a free lane and I would find the whole of Bangalore police lined up, busy working for their appraisals.

Why is health care taken with lower priority? Right from public servants to public take it for granted when an ambulance comes, like the ambulance crosses this place 5 times a day! I guess the rules are also not strict enough for people to take it seriously. In US health care is given first priority when it comes to roads and any vehicle that does not give way could be given a ticket up to $155. Be it the hand or the lotus, it will take time to change. I think the change should happen in small scale, like the pune govt has imposed a rule to fine people who are spitting in public.

Please, drive safely and wisely.

I'm spamming

I take feedback seriously.

Today I was talking to one of my friend from Ireland and my blog reader, raising concerns over comments not getting replied properly from me. Taken!

Hence I quickly went to all my post (the recent 50 entries) and replied were ever appropriate. So if you were subscribed to my comment's feed (I know that sounds insane) or comments reply. You would have got multiple e-mails.

My apologies for spamming!

How else can I plan?

3:15AM	I got a new BMW after taking down G - Mac and his gang. Still no signs of getting tired or plans to sleep after driving for many hours. I look at wonder why my nails have started to grow in different directions. Also did a quality check on my wrist and keyboard to see if everything was intact.
3:20AM	Even in that darkness, a 200 watt bulb suddenly glows up my head. OMG, I got to book thatkal ticket that Morning at 8 AM. Literally 5 more hours. Since its a long weekend, it would be a huge task to get one thatkal ticket.
	[It will be an impossible task to sleep now and get up with all sense up and running at 8 AM. (S/w Engg slang)]
3:33AM	Text message to Friend 1 and Friend 2. Please please wake me up by 7:45, if you see this msg before that. I got to book tickets.
	[Main plan: Alarm at 7:45 AM]
	[Backup plan 1: Reminder at 7:50 AM, since alarm will snooze again at 7:55]
	[Backup plan 2: Reminder at 7:59 AM, with note "Idiot get up at least now!!"
7:51AM	My mobile blares and I feel like yelling #WTH. I attend and find Friend 2 on the line, waking me up. Thanks a ton, Friend 2.
	[PS, I was thinking I should file a complain to Nokia, that the alarms and reminders are not ringing. My roomie later confirmed that it was I was sleeping like corpse not noticing it. :) I spare Nokia]
7:55AM	IE, FF and Chrome is open and irctc.com is loaded. Even filled the quick book form with name, age, sex etc etc and even took care of timing flaw.
7:59:45	Finally even counted seconds for the irctc server to tick 0800.
8:00:12	Refresh the page to submit my booking.
	[The site is unavailable]
8:00:40	Frantically check the other browsers and to see if any one of them to connect to server. But all reply the same.
	[Suddenly I feel there is an unusual silence around me. Almost ignored in the panic of retrying.]
	[Noticed that it was the power cut (sharp like a samurai sword) at 8:00. Ah! Even BESCOM is synced with railway timings. :-(. The modem / router is switched off. Sigh]

How else can I plan?

Typical

I cannot agree this any better. The peaks are so well placed. The trying to complete mode before a vacation and the panic mode on seeing 350 new mails are so well placed. "Phew" is ultimate after checking all the mails. :)

A debate

We are a good bunch of *bachelor* nerds at out home in Bangalore. We spend time at home, reading, laptop, movies, cooking and chatting. Some days we get to a big debates on certain topics, just because of the topic or for the sake of argument. But its fun always. Yesterday we even recollected the big debates we had during the last 5-6 years. Some interesting topics include:

Love marriage ↔ arranged marriage.

Usability of Windows ↔ Flexibility of Linux

Rajini ↔ Kamal

Sensible age for the girl/guy to get married

Illayaraja ↔ AR Rehman

Illayathalapthi Vijay a mass hero or a massive zero

I really cannot trace how it started, But two groups got divided based on the discussion on, "Spending huge on wedding saree a must or its material wastage".

One group claimed that its a traditional thing that many families wanted to follow. It becomes a pride & prestige factor when it comes to a wedding gathering when your relatives and friends have gathered. Wedding is an one time occasion for many Indian families and whats the problem in not making that grand. Many people have the money to spend on it, hence they do it.

The other group seems very calculative, whats the amount spent on that saree? How many occasions does the girl wear the saree again? If its just the grandness that its expected out of the saree it could have been got from a nominal cost saree. Is there a resale of that saree? Including the maintenance cost of the saree in a longer run, its not worth the money spent. Instead of spending in materials like this it could be spent on Gold which appreciates in value. Its like procuring an elephant for one ride.

....

Worth fighting for?

MARCUS: Maximus, let us whisper now. Together, you and I.

You have a son? Tell me about your home.

MAXIMUS: My house is in the hills above Trujillo. A very

simple place ... pink stones that warm in the sun ... kitchen

garden that smells of herbs in the day ... jasmine in the

evening. Through the gate is a giant poplar. [His voice

accelerates with the joy of the memory.] Figs, apples, pears.

The soil, Marcus, black ... black like my wife's hair. Grapes on

the south slopes, olives on the north. Wild ponies play near my

house, they tease my son. He wants to be one of them.

MARCUS: [Smiling at Maximus as he listens to him describe

his home.] Maximus, when was the last time you were home?

MAXIMUS: 2 years, 264 days and this morning.

MARCUS: I envy you, Maximus.

...

Reassuring

I keep running all day and night for my survival like others. I turn around to see the backgrounds changed and things are not really the same. All along I got lot of hurdles to jump and choices to make of which path I will keep running. I only had Boolean choices in a perfectly designed digital circuit were the choices once made cannot be redone (God's genius). I made those choices assuring it would be the best I would have made.

Now, I stop for some breather and think of the choices I made. If I had to pick once choice I would want to think over again? I think. Wait, or do I already know it? What ever it is, I have one. Instead of sitting ducks, I'm reassuring that things are fine.

Do you have a choice that you want to make again? Think again!

:-)

Find a fast solution

I came across this problem recently and found it interesting.

Say you got an input array and output array of equal length. The input array has random integers and you need to populate the output array by following this criteria.

The element at index i of the output array will the product of all the elements in the input array, excluding the element at position i.

ie output[k] = Product of i's { i=0..n-1, where i≠k }

Write a code/algo that will work the FASTEST.

cross posted at basicsuncovered.

Divinity: Ganesh & Kumeresh Violin

333

If I was David Shepherd, I would have done the hop, skip and jump for this post. Yeah as the title says its 333'rd post here or at least close to it including the hidden drafts. :)

Sometimes its good to avoid writing when its not so pleasant. After The hyper active brain that disobeys to rest during sleep. When characters around your life starts to overlap and cross boundaries. One would feel almost drained when the alarm blares early morning. Some day,

Nallaval/Vallaval Friend: hey

me: yea

Nallaval/Vallaval Friend: do u know any counsellor/psychologist?

me: no, I will be searching for one soon..

why?

Nallaval/Vallaval Friend: lol

Today I did a reality check by playing football (that too in rain). Approximately after 3 years and literally my tongue was hanging outside at half time. Right calf muscles had cramped already! Its fun you know, I keep telling all that I played football today like I'm doing here. My roomie said, "Dei you have already told it twice to me! Let me see if you play it continuously for a week."

Been to Login 2009 (my department's annual technical symposium) last weekend and it was interesting to meet many faculties. Thanks to Arumuganathan Sir for his good feedback on my blog. It motivates!! Dinner stand up meeting with HOD and many other faculty. Not much change, except for the college buildings that have occupied every square meter of the campus.

I recently discovered a phobia of missed calls. Searched the phobia's official and seems like its not named yet. May be not many cases were reported. May be I will suggest a name like miscalphobia.

Had been learning cooking from my cook for my survival skills. :-) Will share them soon.

ScribblinG turns 4 today

Time runs fast and here this very own blog of mine turns 4 years today. Happy Birthday ScribblinG! Yeah it seems sane to me to wish this page Happy Birthday year after year. It was so much part of me all the way.

I always wanted to have a page of mine out there on the web. Even with limited and high cost in affordability of Internet, I did have a page in geocities (but geocities is already history and I'm not able to trace my page back). Thanks to Google and Blogger, things got simpler and I created this blog during my internship in Intel. Started writing many rants and became a serious hobby. In fact it was a space for me.

Those rants, travelogue, sports, photography, poems, videos, minima template and lot more have always given me so much fun. I gained many friends and critiques through this very own page. Personally I improved on my writing.

Posts: 332

Once again where ever you are Thanks for being a Reader!

A walk with a mahout

Punnathur Kotta Elephant Sanctuary is 2kms ride from the Thrissur temple town. Around 66 elephants are care taken in this sanctuary. Starting from the security gate to the far corners inside the sanctuary there are elephants tied to tree trunks and big cement blocks. We decided to take a walk through the elephant sanctuary guided by a one of the mahout's there.

This is a typical sight one can find, elephants tied to the trunk of the tree. Some take the shade and some do the sun bath. They do "yo yo" moves for some jazz music to keep them warm as well away from the small bugs. Interesting to see innovative moves done by the elephants. Also some use a branch of a coconut tree to scratch their body, other throw sand on their body to keep the bugs away!

Its easy to differentiate a male tusker from a female. The male elephants have long tusks, Ah some tusks are really long as you see in the above pic (6 vidyasangal sollungal paarpom). Trust me its a really tough skin and rock solid tusk. I almost fled the spot when the elephant made a sudden movement. (@revs & @tom your requests fulfilled)

The female does have tusks, but they are very small. Like the one you see above. They are also slightly short in height than a well grown male. There are some male elephants that has a female face, ie with a shorter tusk these are the ones that will be used the circus, said the mahout.

Elephants will undergo a period (around 3 months) known as musth. During this period the testosterone levels increase in the elephants and they become very aggressive. Its identified by a thick oil like substance that's secreted on the temporal glands on the side of the elephants head. So even an experienced mahout dares to go near the elephant. Once elephant is identified for this, all four legs are tied in huge chains, food & water is supplied from distance using a hose pipe.
This is a sad part of the elephant care taking. A stick is kept behind its ear. The elephant has to stay (stand) without the stick falling down. This is said to teach discipline to them. If it fails to hold the stick, it is given some lashes with it, says one of the mahouts. Some times the elephant takes the stick thats dropped and pleads for guilty by holding it on the trunk.

Also this sanctuary has some of the elephants that were donated by film stars and politicians like J.Jayalalithaa.

Transitive

Teacher tells a student
a=b, b=c implies a=c.
Tell me an example.
Student: I love you,
you love your daughter,
so I love your daughter.

All right

So, if I asked you about art, you'd probably give
me the skinny on every art book ever written.
Michelangelo. You know a lot about him. Life's work,
political aspirations, him and the pope, sexual
orientation, the whole works, right? But I bet you
can't tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel.
You've never actually stood there and looked up at that
beautiful ceiling. Seen that....If I ask you about
women, you'd probably give me a syllabus of your
personal favorites. You may have even been laid a few
times. But you can't tell me what it feels like to wake
up next to a woman and feel truly happy. You're a
tough kid. I ask you about war, you'd probably
uh...throw Shakespeare at me, right? "Once more into
the breach, dear friends." But you've never been near
one. You've never held your best friend's head in your
lap, and watched him gasp his last breath looking to
you for help. I ask you about love, y'probably quote
me a sonnet. But you've never looked at a woman and
been totally vulnerable...known someone that could
level you with her eyes. Feeling like God put an angel
on Earth just for you..who could rescue you from the
depths of Hell. And you wouldn't know what it's like
to be her angel, n to have that love for her be there
forever. Through anything. Through cancer. And you
wouldn't know about sleepin' sittin' up in a hospital
room for two months, holding her hand because the
doctors could see in your eyes that the terms visiting
hours don't apply to you. You don't know about real
loss, because that only occurs when you love
something more than you love yourself. I doubt you've
ever dared to love anybody that much. I look at you: I
don't see an intelligent, confident man. I see a cocky,
scared shitless kid. But you're a genius, Will. No one
denies that. no one could possibly understand the
depths of you. But you presume to know everything
about me because you saw a painting of mine and
ripped my fuckin' life apart. You're an orphan, right?
Do you think I'd know the first thing about how hard
your life has been, how you feel, who you are because
I read Oliver Twist? Does that encapsulate you?
Personally, I don't give a shit about that, because you
know what? I can't learn anything from you I can't
read in some fuckin' book. Unless you wanna talk
about you, who you are. And I'm fascinated. I'm in.
But you don't wanna do that, do you, sport? You're
terrified of what you might say. Your move,
chief.

Source & more

Happy married life 02mw(01-09)

There are days

When I said (f#$k off) a polite Thank You and left the room.

A simple wedding

Yesterday I traveled to Guruvayur temple, Kerala for one of my friend's wedding. My mom reminded me that, I'm going to the temple exactly after 24 years. So ideally I would take this my first visit I can remember. :) It was a Malayali wedding that I attended and I really loved the way the whole ceremony went.

Step 0: Get the bride and groom dressed up for the occasion.
Step 1: Wait in the temple's wedding queue. Yes, there are multiple podiums outside the temple where lot of weddings happen on a given day.
Step 2: Get on the podium, the chief priest will do a small ceremony and the groom ties the mangalyam (sacred rope) to the bride and pray to lord Guruvayurappan for their well being. That's it, click few snaps and you are done. Approx time 5-8 minutes for each couple.
Step 3: Walk to the nearest wedding reception hall that's already booked.
Step 4: Exchange rings, Flowers and round the sacred grains and lamps that were kept on the stage. Finally sign the registration papers. :) Its done again. Approx time 30-60 minutes.

Then its left of the members of the family and friends to give fruit and milk to the couple. Finally each of them coming to the podium for a photo session. The whole thing called wedding is done. How simple, neat and crisp.

Instead of complex long chanting mantras, burning fire, smoke, asking the bride to change the Saree every one hour, occupying a huge wedding hall for two days, the grooms horse ride the previous day and the numerous other small ceremonies that happen, its sometimes good to keep things simple. Spending so much on the materials for the wedding. Literally the bride and groom become so tired by the end of the day. Its agreed that these are traditions in many families and they did not want this to fade out and every parent will wish their children to get married auspiciously.

Still this is something many families can think about following, except the loads of gold that the bride wears. ;)

Love marriage, Arranged marriage

Last Sunday I watched the "Neeya Naana" episode in Vijay TV. Topic was "Acceptance of arranged marriage and acceptance of love marriage". This always seems to be a sensitive/hot topic for people to debate about. So I'm not going to do it here.

In the current generation, the probability of people who are against love marriages is more. They might include mostly people who are more than 30+ years old. They are people who are from the previous generation living in this generation. In fact the various reason's they quote for not accepting love marriages are,

• Caste the guy or girl belongs
• Religion
• Language they speak
• Pride they might lose of accepting the love marriage
• I don trust love marriage

Its their personal preferences and we don have a say in it.

But, how will the next generation be? Will there be a change? Will there be freedom for men and women to choose the people whom you want to live with? I remember a couple telling, We will be more than happy if their kid finds someone from its opposite gender. That should be all. Some say I'm even OK with them being gay, provided they are happy. But will this all eventually happen! We got to wait a few more decades for an update. :)

But definitely the chance to choose the life partner will increase in the coming generation. People will make their own choices and will be independent. But still there will be people who will sail along to the next generation with the same ideology for love marriage.

Whats your view?

Test Cricket Ret'urn's

It was a splendid summer for England winning The Ashes test series 2-1. But really it was cricket that won at the end. Australia faces reality by sliding down as 4th team in test cricket standings. Time has gone were many questioned, if there can be team who can perform better then mighty Aussies. Many teams have already re-written the history books. New performers like Stuart Broad and Ben Hilfenhaus come into the centre stage and what a perfect moment for Fredy to step down. I'm loving this form of cricket.

Test cricket once was a pride for nations to play and win. The long five day format of the game were each team plays two innings. Then came the shorter form of the game, One day internationals. Yeah It was one day. The game became faster and obviously more interesting for the spectators. Time rolled they introduced a much more shorter version. 20-20 Ah, Its sudden death. I still feel Test cricket has its own charm for the game. After witnessing The Ashes it convinces that a test cricket match can always end with a result.

Thanks to Australia for playing such a competitive cricket. Without them the thrill of who will win the match is not there. Since they have players who can turn the game and win series. Thanks to the never dying spirits of the English men. Using the home advantage and holding their nerve till the end was creditable. Incredible captaincy and they won as a team. Cheers to the Barmy Army, guys you made all the noise to send the message loud and clear, "Its Barmy Army...."

If I had to watch cricket it would be of this order

1. The Ashes test series
2. Border Gavaskar series
3. ICC Champions Trophy
4. IPL in India
5. ICC World Cup

Two incidents one outcome

I was reading my early posts and suddenly noted this interesting similarity.

Recently in Sankar's blog

Very early in my blog. (Paragraph starting "Then 9th")

This reminds me how long it had been since playing Cricket. Apart from limited bowling run up and arm action I do when I walk in office corridor. Its a very good way to stretch myself. Yes, I'm lazy. I should confess that first for not playing in the play ground, since nothing stopped me really. :) Let me see if I can play a few games in near future.

Anonymous

I wish I had been an Anonymous writer....

Photography: Avoiding camera shakes

Did you goof up the last night's birthday celebration photos or messed up one of your favourite portraits due to camera shake? The image became blurred, never mind. I really cannot guarantee you for a sharp click next time, but it can be largely avoided. I will try in my own K.I.S.S way! Thanks to Dwarak to start a cubicle side conversation on this.

Why does camera shake occur?

• Primary reason is one shakes the camera when clicking the shutter button!
• Low light could be another reason for the shake to occur. (Though this does not come under camera shake, its a reason for blurred images)
• You should have kept the shutter speed less.

How to avoid camera shakes?

• Practice and get used to your camera shutter button. Try to hold the camera in various ways and try clicking the shutter button. Since there might be a need to lie on the floor, in this case how will you hold the camera and click. At first someone looking at you practice might think something is wrong. :)
• If you are clicking with your right hand, you can use the left hand as a base to place the camera. This will avoid camera shake in lot of way. Samples here.
• Shakes can be very much reduced when you can keep the elbow in a stationary object. A table or a small projection should be good enough to keep your elbow.
• Try to stick the view finder to the bone near your eyebrow. Keep it gentle, else it my hurt a bit.
  
• If you have got a tummy, use it to your advantage by tucking in your elbow in it.
• I practice holding my breathe for a few seconds when I click the shutter, It works for me for concentration as well avoid shakes.
• Nothing work, invest on a tripod. :-)
  

Delicacy

A Chinese restaurant thats almost good to be recommended. After some little hesitation we decided to visit this restaurant over this weekend (yeah, my cook was on PL).

Name: Delicacy
Location: Use this map or take the road opposite to Maharaja hotel in Koramangala and the first left before smart. The entrance will look like this.
Food: Chinese
Capacity: Max 10 people can dine at one shot. Yeah only 10.

That last point was the only drawback I can think of. Food was tasting good and the price was very moderate when compared to its other cousins like China Perl, Yo China, Chung Wa. So worth the money you spend. Most importantly good service in the small place. Tried all veggies this time and they were good. But Non-Veg and sea food options were also available for most of the dishes.

So give it a try!

Cool headed

News is I'm back from Tirupathi and had a good Darshan. Thanks to the volunteers - who man handled people in the queue to take a break when we were there. Also tonsured my head during the holy visit. Hence here is the aftermath of being without something after many years!

- After taking bath, I tried adjusting my hair and ended up scratching my scalp.

- Esp when few girls got down from the adjacent bus, the hand auto magically goes to adjust the hair. :-) Chinna viyasu palakam.

- Some of my testimonials said, I was a cool head. Now I know.

- One of my roomie has more hair than me as on date.

- Its a bit awkward to see my own shadow, the curves look sexy on the head.

- Never knew a potential of a "Tamil film villain" within me. What to do, once in a while movies like Shivaji also get screened.

- Even committed the sin of touching the comb.

Airtel reads your private data - How sick!

Here is the series of events that happened...

1. My friend (say Santosh) used to stay in Hyd previously! I used to make calls to santosh often when he was there.
2. Three months back, santosh moved to Bangalore. Hence he got his Airtel mobile transferred to an Airtel Bangalore connection. So this migration was done at the cost of a change in number.
   
3. The Airtel Hyd ppl had some queries to santosh regarding his connection and they tried calling his Hyd no (which was eventually not present).
4. So now Airtel sweetly browses his Hyd connection call history and gets to find my number in the list and gives me a ring asking me to remind santosh to get back to them.
5. I initially thought Santosh should have given my number as an alternate contact number or something and informed the Airtel guy that he moved to Chennai. Also said will remind, once I see him.
6. I also asked Airtel, Don they have his transferred Bangalore number? He replied "no"!
7. Now is the ugly act two: The Airtel guy now calls Santosh directly and talks. Wait a sec. Did they look through my call logs on the server and guessed Santosh number?

I called up the person in Airtel (he was a Relationship Manager there) and asked "how did you get my number?" He said we went through the call log and got this number! I was shocked! Do you read call details like that? It should always happen with the concern of the client! Or at the worst case an FIR should be there to look into a clients private data! Asked him, if there is a disclaimer written for looking at such data? He said "no" again. After me asking many questions to him that he did not have an answer he said he will call me back! He did not get back to me, and if I ring back again he colleague picks the call and says he is not around!

So do they read just the call log or even evesdrop in the call when they are bored or browse some random sms and emails that flow across?

Is there something I can do about this breach?

Can I file a complaint some where?

P.S: The place and character name are fictional. But events along with Airtel are real!!

ROFL: SBI Card

via

And

This was the photo I submitted and this was the hand made photo frame goodie I won @ office as a part of Green Week celebration.

BlogPost (test post)

BlogPost is one of the project as part of HackWeek. I was simply interested in it from the beginning, for the reason its related to Blogging. :) So yeah, here is my test post using BlogPost. You can read more about the BlogPost in Suresh's blog. Suresh is a Kernel hacker whom I can find in my floor!

Distractions

Thank God! I have them. After an incrediable day, here are some experiements from my studio! Let me not forget, the first two is a crop from Arun's pics and model is Kishore! Good night.

That's my city

This is what my HOD Dr R. Nadarajan had to say about my college,

"As far as PSG College of Technology is concerned, there is no gap between theory & practice. But in addition to what is thought in curriculum we provide some extra training, which are actually very much required by the industry. In that way our students are salable in the market."

Source Moneycontrol.com