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Thursday, March 31, 2005 Gandhi maramRecently bumped upon the web site of my alma mater, National College - Trichy. The site has been developed by one of the current students. As you could see, it hasn't been very professionally designed but then, it is a good start. I was wondering why I didn't take the effort in the first place to develop a website for my college. During our days at college, we had so many complaints about the college management about lot of things, but I have always been proud to be associated with the college for various reasons. I have sent a mail to the webmaster appreciating the start and offering my hand in redesigning the site hoping that he wouldn't mind about my unsolicited feedback. Ours is a decent Arts & Science college (only for men.. shucks!) standing for about 85 years and its alumni include former President R. Venkataraman, former RBI Governor C. Rangarajan etc. Though the college is not in par with St. Joseph's & Bishop Heber in terms of infrastructre & ambience, it did have its share of glory not long ago. The college was started during the days when the freedom movement was at its peak and my dad, who too is an alumni of that college has said that there used to be a sense of nationalistic spirit even in late 1960s, perhaps due to the presence of some of the professors who had taken active part in the freedom struggle. Thinking about our college reminds me of a huge tree known as 'Gandhi maram' (Gandhi Tree). It was under that tree Mahatma Gandhi addressed the people when he visited Trichy. 'Gandhi Maram' is a small part of great history and I used to look upon it as a source of inspiration. During my recent trip to India, I went past our college but Gandhi Maram couldn't be seen from the road. A new building has come up in the ground where the tree used to be. For a moment, I thought of dropping in to find out whether the tree is behind the building or not. Then I backed out in the hope that it would be there as I didn't have the heart to know that yet another piece of history has been ruthlessly destroyed by my very own alma mater. Posted at 3/31/2005 10:24:00 AM Link Wednesday, March 30, 2005 Hats off Kiruba!I think Kiruba's decision to shut down his blog would be one of the talked about topics in the Indian blogosphere today. It is not an exaggeration to say that over a period of time, Kribs grew larger than the very concept of blogging and people started identifying Kiruba for anything associated with blogs in India. As some one said, he was a window to Chennai for those living outside, reporting on the nitty-gritties that you would only find when you live in that place. Kiruba did his best and when he says that he doesn't find this motivating anymore, we have to respect his decision. Only a couple of days back I was thinking that about the quality blogs that existed before and were closed down due to lack of motivation to continue. But Kiruba showed no such signs of slowing down. Unusually, he didn't blog for 5 days and came out later saying that he is shutting shop. This lack-of-motivation funda happens in many things we do - like all of a sudden we stop reading books, stop playing/watching matches etc. It is all about priorities. When we have got better things to do, others get pushed back and blogging is no exception. Perhaps, if this weren’t such a publicly expressed forum & a more addictive habit, we would hardly give a damn. Watching Kiruba from sidelines for about two years now, I am sure that whatever he gets into next would be as great & as successful as blogging. Hats off to him for inspiring so many people to express themselves out in the open. Posted at 3/30/2005 01:44:00 PM Link Tuesday, March 29, 2005 F for ...I just saved myself from a huge embarrassment. Searching for a person's name in a MS Outlook e-mail, I pressed Ctrl + F and started typing the name. While Ctrl + F in all other (no.. most other) applications would launch that little 'Find' dialog box, in case of Outlook, it is a shortcut for forwarding the mail as it launches the 'Forward' window and waits for us to fill the address field. As the search phrase was the person's name itself, in effect I was about to forward a confidential mail to the person about whom the mail was about. I would have made a big a*s of myself, had I pressed the return key. Thank God! Posted at 3/29/2005 10:29:00 AM Link Monday, March 28, 2005 Tennis ThirunavukkarasuWell.. life moves on and in tougher times like this, few kind words from friends does lifts up the spirits. Thanks guys for being around. Some of the mails that I read today helped me lighten the mood. Though I hate posting forwards in these pages, I couldn't resist this one. Did you hear about Captain Vijayakanth's latest movie "Tennis Thirunavukkarasu"? Click here to read the screenplay of the movie. btw, is it okay to leave this in my domain? Could anyone foresee any problems or should I safely move it to a free host? Posted at 3/28/2005 07:10:00 PM Link Sunday, March 27, 2005 PaatiI have always had only one granny - maternal. With my paternal grand mother passing way during my father's childhood, there was only one person that I could call paati. Like many women of her age, Janaki paati was traditional, systematic and orthodox so much so that when her only son - my uncle got transferred to Bombay in early 80s, she refused to go out of Tamilnadu. I have so many fond memories of paati as she was the one who reared me almost full time for about four years when my mother was busy with my younger siblings. A great cook that she was, whenever she prepared 'saatrumadhu' (rasam) in the kari-aduppu (charcoal stove), the aroma could be felt in the next street. I have heard numerous stories from her children - four of them, about how strict she used to be with them in their childhood. A strict disciplinarian that she was, paati had never let any stray behaviour go unpunished, though for us, she often proved that grand children & grand parents were natural allies, despite the fact that she had trouble keeping up with the pace of the later generation. Behaviour of her grand children did amuse her, like for example she could hardly digest grown-up boys wearing shorts, let alone go out in the same attire. Neither was she able to understand why the morons go crazy whenever a cricket match was telecast in the telly. In due course, either she understood or chose to ignore those shenanigans. Thanks to my behaviour at home, I always managed to be in her good books much to the chagrin of my cousins that I used to be teased as 'paati-oda chella peran' (grandma's favourite grand son). I was stunned to see paati weep in the road when I told her that I would be leaving the shores for greener pastures soon. She told that she might never get to see me again. Thank goodness - she was wrong. Though most of her grand children are settled with jobs & family of their own, all she expected from them was a pen - yes, a fountain pen to write tens of hundreds of 'Sri Ramajayam's every day, with each letter smaller than the size of an ant. Ever since she had had her heart attack about twenty five years ago, she religiously followed doctor's instructions, was careful in her food habits and never once missed taking her medicines. Paati was getting more impatient, grew restless and nervous in the last few years. Given her age, it was understood. Even at her ripe old age, she always had her things in order, in place, always stuck to the routine and was never late for anything, though her only outer world pursuit was visiting Parthasarathy Perumal Kovil twice a day. Three months ago, when I visited paati with a saree, she was like "enakku edhukku da idhellam vaangindu vare? enna oru 3-4 maasam irupaeno ennavo" (why do you get all this for me, perhaps I would be alive for at most 3-4 months). I chided her for talking that way and moved along. Alas, this time she was right. Janaki paati breathed her last today wearing the same saree that I presented when I saw her for the last time. Posted at 3/27/2005 11:33:00 AM Link Thursday, March 24, 2005 Good Friday & Easter HolidaysGood Friday & Easter holidays - for me this four-day weekend mark yet another year lived in UK. Easter in the year 2000 fell in the third week of April and that was when I flew in to this country for the first time. Now that I have lived here for 5 years, I am eligible to become an UK citizen. However, the possibility of me becoming a British citizen is very low, as I couldn't get over the feeling that it is something like ditching my dear country that brought me up all along. Well, there is this concept of dual citizenship & all that, but in this case, my heart dictates louder than my mind. When I came in here, I had set 2005 as the target year by which, I would be back home in India. I still ponder whether my objectives have changed, whether my old targets - if any, have been met. But I know that somewhere, sometime in the past - perhaps subconsciously I had set a different target year. As I muddle through the future, I am just praying to God to give me a balanced head over my shoulders to take a right decision at the right time. Around the same time last year, I put up a post telling the world about the fourth anniversary of my UK arrival. Seems that I had more clarity that time. :-) Posted at 3/24/2005 10:17:00 AM Link Wednesday, March 23, 2005 Modi MasthanHave a look at the personal website of Narendra Modi - the infamous Gujju of the recent times. Many of the opinions expressed in the site are really funny. To quote an example, "I hope some day Modi runs for top leadership of BJP, and run the country right way". Decently designed site, though. Thanks for the link, Jammy. Posted at 3/23/2005 02:27:00 PM Link Tuesday, March 22, 2005 Every penny countsA friend of mine who shares his room with another guy noticed his roomie's alarm clock had stopped working. Having remembered that it worked earlier that morning, he had mentioned to his roommate that the battery needs to be changed. His roomie had replied, "No. The battery is fine. I just took it off the clock. We are using that clock only for alarm purposes. Why waste the battery unnecessarily in the day time". I just can't wait to meet that soul. Want to know whether he has got more such ideas. Posted at 3/22/2005 10:34:00 AM Link Monday, March 21, 2005 StrangeCould anyone tell me the language of the (non-English) characters that appear in this page? I think it is Japanese. Well.. my interest in finding out the language is not out of any literary pursuits. If you scroll down a bit, you could see that they have listed my blog in there and I have had quite a few visits from that link. I hope that it is not a notorious site. Posted at 3/21/2005 09:53:00 AM Link Friday, March 18, 2005 Rituals well explainedFollowing Saranyan's post on wedding rituals & Ranga - The Last Blogger's post on his wedding invite, I thought it appropriate to put this up. When I got married about two years ago, I wanted to do something 'different' in the invite that would explain more about the traditional South Indian wedding, as I was to invite many of my colleagues, most of whom were English. Moreover, lot many Indians (including yours truly) do not fully understand the reason behind many of the rituals at the wedding. As my knowledge in the rituals were very limited, I was looking for an off-the-shelf template and ended up with the below card, designed by Artist Maya of Vikatan fame. Thought that the link to their site would be useful for many who are getting ready to pick up the gauntlet. Ranga’s invite with more caricatures detailing the events is more impressive though.
The quality of the scanned images are very poor. But you got the picture, right? (pun unintended!) Posted at 3/18/2005 10:11:00 AM Link Thursday, March 17, 2005 Good luck mailsHave you ever got a mail with some picture saying that this is a Good luck message or similar crap? Normally, those mails would have a picture of a god. Few years back in India, it started with the picture of Lord Balaji claiming that it was one of the rare pictures to have been clicked at the sanctum sanctorum at Tirupathi temple. It didn't stop at that. The sender warned me that the message should leave my Inbox within 6 minutes, lest I would be having some unpleasant surprise. Over a period of time, Tirupathi Lord gave way to Sai Baba, Lucky Buddha, some funny trident like image supposed to be 2500 years old etc. But whatever be the picture, the message would be the same. However god-fearing I am, I give a damn to these junk and I delete these mails within 6 seconds of receiving it. The most annoying thing about this is, you would get these mails from those you know but whom you can't ask them to shut up. Today morning, I got the same mail from a good friend of mine. Seems that Lord Siddhi Vinayaka is the current flavour of these morons now. My friend himself had sent it to about 200 people and on scrolling down the mail, I could see that it has travelled across the length & breadth of India's famous IT corporates and even if 10% of the recipients are like my friend, Lord Siddhi Vinayak would have reached the Inbox of all those who have one. Since my friend is not the kind of person to do such silly stuff, I mailed him my piece of mind for which he replied: "Lot of good things & functions are coming up at my home. What if something happens if I don't oblige this mail? To avoid the risk, I forwarded it to all". hmmm... sentiments! With a little prayer for good things for my friend and everyone else, I clicked the 'delete' button. For the fortunate few who haven't seen such mails so far, find the text portion of that mail. Do not keep this message. The picture of Shree Siddhi Vinayak must leave your hands in 6 MINUTES. Otherwise you will get a very unpleasant surprise. It might even be as bad as death. This is true, even if you are not superstitious, agnostic, or other wise faith impaired. Send this to at least 5 people and distribute some sweets as prasad of Shree Siddhi Vinayak, your life will improve. 1-4 people: Your life will improve slightly. 5-9 people: Your life will improve to your liking. 9-14 people: You will have at least 5 surprises in the next 3 weeks 15 and above: Your life will improve drastically and everything you ever dreamed of will begin to take shape. Have fun folks! Good luck to you!! :) Posted at 3/17/2005 10:53:00 AM Link Wednesday, March 16, 2005 Million Book ProjectHave you heard about Million-Book Project or the Digital Library of India - one of the dream projects of A.P.J. Abdul Kalam? I have heard about it few years back, but only now bumped into their website. The idea is to collect all the significant literary works of mankind, scan it digitally and make it available for free for future generations. To check the feasibility of this, they are scanning about 1 million books, which is less than 1% of total books published in the world. This is more complex than one could imagine, as the project on completion would make available about 250 million pages of information requiring a storage capacity of 50 petabytes (which is 1024 terabytes). Hundreds of scanners are working hard for this project at many locations. I think it is something to feel proud that a project of this nature is happening in India. But this needs lot of publicity. How many of us know about such a project before? Another interesting site that I came across: 10x10 - a site that scans the RSS feeds of several news sources and presents it in the form of grid of pictures. Thanks to 'Namma Nanganallur' Vasanth for the link. Posted at 3/16/2005 11:06:00 AM Link Tuesday, March 15, 2005 Suggestions InvitedI badly need to recharge myself and have decided to treat myself with some "dhamil" movies, esp our Captain's. First among my list is Gajendra. Any other suggestions? I am all excited about Captain's announcement of floating a new political party by September. Perhaps, it would be a good idea for me to aspire for "Bournemouth Maavatta Seyalaalar" (Bournemouth District Secy.) post. I am sure that there would be heavy competition for similar roles in US. Posted at 3/15/2005 10:49:00 AM Link Blogger profiles Blogger never seem to update the stats in the user profile. For the last 4 months or so, the stats remain the same in my case. Should we need to do anything to update that? Posted at 3/15/2005 10:16:00 AM Link Monday, March 14, 2005 Filter KaapiIf there is one habit that I considered taboo initially and only to practice it later on, it is the sipping of a cup of coffee or cappuccino (the later is my fav.) after a meal. Though I hail from one of the numerous Tamil households, that place a reasonable amount of importance on the strength & flavour of the filter kaapi that is served in davara-tumbler, I have never considered sipping that beverage after a heavy meal. A kaapi after the tiffin is okay, but it is not even considered after a meal, especially after dinner. Dunno when & what triggered the change, these days I make sure that the vending machine in our office is fine before opening my lunch. Nothing to beat the filter kaapi & the road-side naayar tea, but then one should be realistic. Off the topic, am happy to introduce Bhooma - my cousin, one of the latest entrants to the blog world. Trust me, she writes really well. So, its obvious that am not her inspiration. I only hope that she doesn't remain a one-post wonder like many other good writers. Posted at 3/14/2005 11:02:00 AM Link Friday, March 11, 2005 I certainly believe I canMen often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn't have it in the beginning. - Mahatma Gandhi. Posted at 3/11/2005 11:26:00 AM Link Thursday, March 10, 2005 BernieBernie Mitchell - thats the name of my barber here in Bournemouth. Bernie is around 80 - full of snow-white hair, wearing a thick glass (what we call 'soda butti' in Thamizh) and the proud owner of Bernie's Barber Shop. When I moved to Bournmeouth about three years ago, his was the shop that I spotted first when I needed a haircut. He charges £4.50 for a cut and you'll get a nice pen free. Apart from the cost - which is quite low, what I liked about Bernie is that he used to cut the hair in a simple way - using a pair of scissors & a normal comb. Normally, barbers here in UK don't cut the hair in the way their Indian counterparts do. Here they use mechanised tools for their trade and you need to tell the right size of the attachment comb to be used over your head. To know the size that suits you, it might take anywhere between a couple of cuts to a lifetime. During the first two years of my stay in UK when I lived at Hounslow - a suburb in London, I used to make a 25-minute journey to Southall, where there would be an Asian barber, who would cut the hair in the traditional Indian way – with simple scissors and a normal comb that I didn’t have to undergo the learning experience of finding the right comb size. So, when I found Bernie practice the same way, I became his regular customer. Bernie always used to play some old music in his shop, move around very slowly and he would talk a lot. During the past 3 years, I have heard about his exploits as RAF fighter pilot during WW II, his stints at Ceylon, his passion for cars, why he came to Bournemouth, how he lost most of his money on horses etc. I used to have lot of questions, but Bernie never liked being interrupted. Over a period of time, I got used to being a patient listener. Whatever be the topic of his monologue that day, Bernie would never get distracted from his work. Slowly but steadily, he would always do an excellent job - best one could do over my head. Last weekend, I visited Bernie's shop for the routine ritual. To my surprise, the music was blaring from the player as opposed to the soft numbers that Bernie used to play. When I took the seat, he threw me a googly asking for the size of the attached comb. I blinked as I used to blink on seeing the Biology question paper in Class XII. I told him to do the usual way he used to do - but he appeared to be suffering from amnesia and was adamant about the size. Once again I tried to remind him the way he used to do with a normal comb and he gave up. i.e., he gave up asking me. He decided on the size and told that he is using "number 2" - the words that I would remember for the rest of my life. Bernie was not in his usual self that day. I thought he is trying to catch up with times after all these years. A lil bit impatient, loud music; no stories to tell and I guessed that he must be in some stress. Seconds after he started working on my hair, I noticed that he is quite fast at work. I also noticed something else. I was hardly able to recognise myself. Looking at the mirror, I realised that the situation was far from being salvaged. So, I let Bernie quietly complete his masterpiece. When I paid him and took the free pen, I asked, "Are you alright, Bernie?" He smiled. A voice that I could recognise very well came from behind, "I am fine youngman, thank you. But I am here. You are talking to my brother Benjy". PS: If you don't understand the darned attachment comb thingy I am talking about, click here to see what it is and how it is used. PPS: I have already recorded my experiences about another great hair cut I had at Chennai about six years ago. Click here to read that. Posted at 3/10/2005 12:19:00 PM Link Wednesday, March 09, 2005 Gentlemen's gameCouple of months ago, my four year old nephew wanted to have a game with me and was explaining the rules. Pointing at an object, he said "Chitappa, adhai yaaru first edukkaraanu paapomaa" (lets see who picks that up first). After a minute of strategic thinking, he announced a small change in the rule "...aana, nee edukka koodadhu!" (but you shouldn't pick it up). Howz this? No prizes for guessing who won the game. Who said life is always fair? Posted at 3/9/2005 10:01:00 AM Link Tuesday, March 08, 2005 ChandramukhiThe first thing I did yesterday morning was to download the songs of 'Chandramukhi'. I set the volume high and was eagerly waiting for the first sound byte of the 'thalaivar padam'. What I heard was a chaotic chorus of about 50 odd people trying to shout one another albeit in sweet tones with various kind of music in the background. I thought Vidyasagar had tried something new and waited to hear the lyrics. I could hardly bear it when the torture continued for more than a minute and that was when I noticed that Winamp was running 6 different instances and all the songs were playing simultaneously. In the excitement to hear the songs, I had selected them all and pressed the return key, rather than my usual way of launching Winamp and selecting the folder/songs. Hearing properly afterwards, the songs were okay - not great though. Has Vidyasagar let go of the opportunity? It would always suit well if Rajnikanth movies has a good, fast number (dappankuthu) like 'Autokaaran..', 'Vandhendaa paalkaaran..' or 'En peru padayappa..' etc preferably sung by SPB. None of the songs in Chandramukhi comes close to these, including 'Devuda Devuda'. But at the end of the day, what matters to the movie is Rajini's presence in every frame. His fans don't give a damn for anything else. UPDATE: After listening to the songs for several times in the last 24 hours, I think I have started liking them. :-) Posted at 3/8/2005 11:03:00 AM Link Monday, March 07, 2005 Exclusive PicsJust can't wait for the movie to be released! 39 days more to go for April 14. Click here for the exclusive pictures. Due to space constraints, I could only post this much. If you want more, drop your email id in the comments box and it'll be on your way! Posted at 3/7/2005 09:54:00 AM Link Friday, March 04, 2005 EntrepreneurAbout three years back, I met a guy about 40-years old, who was cleaning the tables in our office. I had a chat with him that day and he told that he was working for a local company until recently and the company downed its shutters all of a sudden throwing him in the streets. So, he had taken up the cleaning work though it is just for an hour each evening and the earnings doesn't even cover his family's weekly food expenses. I felt sorry for him, but as I couldn't do much to alleviate his pain, I asked him not to lose hope, wished him luck and moved away. Years rolled by and I almost forgot about him. One day last week, as I stayed very late I saw him come to the office with his wife, who was sharing his work. I asked the customary "howz the going mate?", recollecting the day when he told me his story. After the pleasantaries & the talk about the weather, he stunned me saying that the job loss about 3 years back was the best thing to have happened to him. Immediately after he was made redundant, he took the job as a cleaner without any choice. But he soon chose to see the positive side of it and did the same job with the other offices in the area. Thanks to his good work and promptness, work easily came to him. But still, he was was doing that only in the evenings. He then, approached the same companies & shops in the area offering them to clean the windows in the mornings. Now, he proudly says, he has started a company specialising in cleaning services and has got close to 100 customers and he is employing 4 people part-time apart from taking help from his wife. He earns much more than what he was earning in his previous job and is now a very happy man. I listened to him in awe and we moved out of the office together. As he saw me walk towards home, he offered me a lift in his gleaming car. Its not the education, its not the kind of work you do that brings you up in life. Its the attitude that counts. I salute his spirits. Posted at 3/4/2005 01:32:00 PM Link Thursday, March 03, 2005 RacismFew weeks back, I was travelling in the Tube in London where 2 guys got into the train in an inebriated state with a bottle of Smirnoff in one's hand. Their dresses & hairstyle were so very funny that I felt like banging my head somewhere. There was an Indian guy sitting at the other end of the train, whose very look suggested that he is new to the country. He was probably staring at them, amused by those guys' appearance. This irked them a lot and all of a sudden one of them started hurling abuses at this Indian guy drawing everyone's attention. Initially, the abuses were mild, but it went on like 'immigrant b****rd', 'gandhi sh*t' (dunno how a guy in that state could relate to Gandhi) et al. By this time, our guy got scared and started sweating & shivering, but was still looking at them. Emboldened by this, one of the guys came charging towards the Indian with the bottle and at that point I took out my mobile and started dialling the emergency number (999). Before the guy could do anything ugly, one of the passengers stopped him and got few four-lettered abuses in return. The train stopped at a station and both the guys got down. They were punching the glass windows of the train after getting down even as the train pulled out from the station. Since the troublemakers got down, I didn't bother to pursue the call. I have heard about racist violence at some pockets in UK, before coming to this country. Thankfully, I haven't had any first hand experience like the above. Had I been in the other guys' shoes, I would have avoided the stare & looked away, but would that have saved the situation? What would be the right thing to do at that stage? Recently, there was a discussion in UK about the law change allowing people to use force for self-defence. But that was in the context of burglary. It is better to know what the law says for other situations, like the above. Posted at 3/3/2005 12:16:00 PM Link Wednesday, March 02, 2005 84 for 20Until November last year, I was a customer of T-Mobile. Seems that they had erred in billing while I was their customer, they discovered in February this year that I owe them 20 pence (yes, twenty pence!). Since I had already cancelled the Direct Debit instructions, they sent a letter in the first class mail (carrying a postage of 28 pence), explaining the above and requesting my authorisation to debit 20 pence from my bank account. I had to send the signed authorisation letter in the attached pre-paid envelope, which carried postage of the same value. Today, I have got a letter from the company informing me that the money has been deducted. In effect, the company has spent about 84 pence (it might be slightly less, as Royal Mail charges a slightly lesser rate for bulk mails) for recovering 20p. Not a big deal if it is an exceptional case. With T-Mobile having more than 10 million subscribers, if a similar thing happens to a small percentage of them, the monetary loss could be telling. Had this passed through a human eye, in all probability this might not have happened. Perhaps, the people who were involved in the design of their system didn't foresee this situation to build enough intelligence in them. There is a lesson or two to learn from other's mistakes. Posted at 3/2/2005 10:12:00 AM Link | ||
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