lecteurs bonjour

Adieu!!

2009-07-15T02:08:00.000-07:00

Hey Guyz

I have finally decided to migrate to wordpress from blogger. Been with blogger since 2005 but I figured out that the UI is better for wordpress. I am going to give it a shot and see how it goes. Well if it aint working, I will come back to the tried and tested Blogger. The fact that it aint linked with my google id is what I am going to miss the most.

You can visit my new blog at http://gauky.wordpress.com or here. It is going to be bigger and better.

Please make sure you guys RSS the above link.

Cheers
Gaurav

The great Tambram Wedding!!

2009-07-08T11:01:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I blogged and the only reason for this is poor time management. Anyway I am ready to roll again. Over the last month or so there has been a lot of action personally as well as professionally. My next few posts will have updates and incidents that took place over the last month or so. Let me start off with something which I wanted to share with my loyal readers.

After a brief hiatus, I got to attend a few traditional TAMBRAM weddings of people close to me. Not only are these weddings 2 day affairs but also they are extremely heavy on the pocket. The weddings are very biased towards the girls family and the guys have very little say. Starting from the Hall to the Rangoli, every minuscule detail is taken care and has a commercial motive to it. The outsourced party does an exceptional job of it but it definitely comes for a price. The price is very huge and is definitely not worth it. I am starting to think if there is any alternative way of conducting a wedding. Any creative/bright ideas could do a world of good for people like me. Keep me posted on some whacky ideas.

I really don’t know the history behind Tamil Weddings but I would love to know whether there are any books to understand the history behind the various ceremonies. From my experience, I can draw an analogy of a typical Tamil Wedding to that of a Cricket Pavilion. The home team has a separate place for them to play their cards while the touring team face a lot of trouble and are under the mercy of the Home team. Similarly in an Iyer Wedding, The guy’s side takes over the role of the away team. They have absolutely no say and are under the mercy of the girl’s family. The boy and girl hardly have time to talk or discuss the wedding. The girl throws in a guest appearance just for the sake of photos. Who makes these rules? Why should the girl’s family run the show? Why are girls given preferential treatment? These are questions that have remained unanswered for a long time now.
Let me substantiate with an example. I had attended a wedding a couple of weeks ago and it was dinner time. I was served some great food and when I was halfway through my meal, I was asked to get up since there were some extra people from the girls side who had come. They were worried about lack of food and asked us to get up. I was startled. That was ridiculous. That was total misuse of power. This incident got me thinking and I was wondering how the whole concept could be changed to make it short and simple.

There are umpteen numbers of items that go waste. I am estimating that the cost of the wedding can easily come down by around 50% if optimized well. I would love to compare the costs of a typical wedding across all religions and figure out how well the money is being spent. This would help in analyzing whether the time and money spent in such an extravagant affair is beneficial to the investor. In Business terms, there is no guarantee or warranty that the girls’ family is going to break even or get substantial ROI. The marriage could break in matter of days that could result in great losses. This convinces how flawed the system is. But the typical Tamil Wedding follows the suite of “High Risk High Reward” and hence they go ahead. This is just one of many cases where women have an advantage over the men and

I wonder how

I wonder why “Should girls have all the Fun”

Will share more interesting incidents about women and their exploits with government personnel in the coming few days.

This is just a start for many more to come.

FAKE IPL POST!!!

2009-05-25T08:54:00.000-07:00

Phew!!!! It is finally over. Life returns to normalcy. Suddenly I find myself having plenty of time and nothing to do. They say “Cricket can be a cruel game for players” but it could be cruel to the viewers as well. The last 37 days has been extremely demanding for passionate cricket fans like me. Just thought I would share with you a few things that kept me occupied. Here it goes..

Creating my Fantasy Cricket Team, Deciding on the TRUMP PLAYER (TP), Reading about the intimate relationship between BHOOKA NAAN and DILDO, Getting home in time to watch the game, Getting through the rant’s of Arun LAL, Figuring out the reasons behind Mandira Bedi’s clothes, watching the exploits of Danny Morrison, Trying to find out the number of times RAMIZ RAJA and Ravi SHASTRI do an EPIC FAIL, Hearing the commentators chant “ It’s a DLFER” ,”That’s a Citi Moment of Success”, Watching a gamut of ZOOZOO’s, Trying to figure out which cheerleader was the sister of Jacque Kallis, Praying that my TP gets MOM, Sending a hundred messages across fantasy league members, Digesting the fact that Rohit Sharma got an hat trick, Crib about the fact that Rohit Sharma got an hat trick, Hope that one day Dhoni realizes that ORAM is full of shit, Wait till the Post Match Presentation, Sometimes wait till fantasy scores get updated were a few things that kept me busy.

To do all this in 3-4 hrs is extremely stressful for the body and the fact that the same routine has to be repeated for 37 days on the trot is not good for my body. Finally it is over and there is a sense of normalcy that has returned to my life. Feels like a fresh start and a new beginning. I suddenly have a lot of time to kill. The day seems longer than ever before.

IPL has definitely changed the lives of every cricket fan in India and it is just a matter of time before it can be compared to the EPL or the NBA. City based loyalty and the media hype has fully been justified and this is just a beginning of something special. At times I did feel money playing an important role in deciding the outcome of the match but to be honest I was proved wrong on most occasions. Summers will never be the same again and I can’t wait to see what surprises the next year holds for us.

With the World T20 and the Champions league T20 coming up, I wonder what precedence the ASHES will take. I still prefer to watch a team defend 210 on the last day of a test match than to watch Rohit Sharma hit 26 of the final over to win a T20 game. Let’s wait and see how things shape up.

My blogs are invariably on cricket and I hope to not cover cricket for a few months. I am looking to diversify my thoughts and capture them nonchalantly and express them seamlessly. My apologies for the previous sentence. That’s how stressed I am. Going to refresh myself by hearing this and watching this.

JOB-LESS!!

2009-04-21T10:29:00.000-07:00

This was a mail sent to my friend from a leading firm in India. The mail was sent after my friend applied for a particular position via a job portal site.

It just shows the efficiency of the job site/ company. Who do you think will attend the interview after reading such a mail? Recession is hitting recruiters as well.

From:YYYYY - Sorry I am not sure if I can mention the name of the firm after this.
Date: Sun, Apr 12, 2009 at 1:17 PM
Subject: for your final selection
To: XXXX@gmail.com

hello XXX

Thanks for submitted your resume in job portel site. We have received your resume and we will be glad to it. looking forward to a short job oppotunities for you by X.

please contact to us for more details.

Thanking you

Z
Company Name
New Delhi

Who do you think will join? Absolutely nobody!!!

I have received more funny emails like this. I sincerely feel that job portal sites are losing their ground and in times of recession one would expect these sites to witness maximum traffic. Job Portal sites have never been really useful in finding the perfect job and it misguides the users. Just thought I would let you know guys that I believe that one should not waste too much time on these sites since the chances of you getting a call via the job portal site is as bleak as the possibility of having a hot day currently in South Africa.

The Week that Wasn't!!!!

2009-04-12T10:44:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since I have blogged and one of the main reasons for that has been the lack of inspirational topics. My creativity has been hit due to the recession and I am looking for a potential buyer now who could help me rejuvenate. I am currently reading this and it is extremely fascinating. This book helps me relate to the various incidents I have faced in my life over the last few years. I am sure all of you will. BTW the sad part is I am stuck at Chapter 10 for the last 2 weeks. I am struggling to reach Chapter 11 :). It could be a blessing in disguise but the fact that the credit crunch is ubiquitous , continues to torment me. I badly want an LMN to unwind. A light post during these trying times..enjoy...

Some interesting snippets from the news of last week.

1) Did you guys know that Rakhi Sawant has requested NDTV Imagine to conduct a reality show to find her husband? Surprisingly, within hours of that announcement, MTV bagged the rights for the Rakhi Sawant Reality Divorce show titled Vodafone SPLITS- WILLYOU. At the end of the day VIJAY TV launched a reality marriage prime time show called Airtel Super Husband. The judges for this event is expected to be Salman Rushdie, Pramod Muthalik and Varun Gandhi. Apparently they are planning a Wild Card round where in real husbands can take part. The show is expected to go on for 1 year till Rakhi finds her match.

2) Anurag Kashyap launched his sequel to DEV-D last week. The movie is called BHAB-E. The movie is supposedly inspired by this. Kashyap's hoping for the altercation between producers and multiplex owners to end so that he could release it there. Abhay Deol is most likely going to be the protagonist in this movie although rumors are spreading that the controversial Jagadish TITler may have a cameo performance.

3) The potential buyer of Satyam will be out by the time you read this. It looks like IBM is desperately trying to buy some company. They showed interest in SUN last week but latest twitter updates from IBM employees indicates that they are looking to BAIL-OUT Ramalinga Raju. Mr President Obama luckily had allocated some amount of money in the stimulus bill to bailout Raju.

4)Did you guys know that the grand daughter of Chidambaram is named Vaishnavi... And no brownie points for guessing what he calls her. It is obviosuly VAI-SHOE!!!.

That I guess completes the top stories last week. With IPL v2.0 coming up, I hope my blog beats the recession.

The "IPL" FARCE!!!

2009-03-25T10:35:00.000-07:00

I was looking forward to the games in Chennai since the conclusion of IPL 2008. My friends decided to sponsor tickets for a couple of games for me as well. The entire hype surrounding city based fans and a bigger IPL Season 2 has turned to a dream. I doubt if the IPL will ever be the same again. Being one of the craziest cricket fans in the country, it is not an easy pill to digest. It is very disappointing that of all the things that they could have done with the prevailing situation, they chose to shift it out of India. The Indian politics scene is so bad that the election spread over a month is just an eye wash. We all know that at the end of the day the rich get richer while the poor get poorer.With a nation of over 1 billion people, I don't think it is hard to manage an election.

Our elections have very little impact on the people if not any. It's a matter of great national shame that the IPL is not held in our country. Any time someone or some media outlet props India's name up as a rising power or the 'world's largest democracy', this example should be brought up. As a friend of mine says , "India is a shamocratic nation and not a democratic one". Nandan Nilekani was a guest at " The Daily show by Jon Stewart" a couple of days back and he had said that the elections are one of the biggest events in the country and it spans over 1 month and is held " Peacefully". I really doubt if it could be held peacefully without any unprecedented incident. As my brother told me the other day " Hope the next Indian guest would mention that we can't hold a sporting event fearing nationwide riots and attacks and hence will move an event named after our country and with teams named after 8 of our cities to a different country where we will be watched by 5 old men and a dog". It boggles me that the BCCI could not have made it a 25 day event with money spent on some private security force.It is just inhuman to do this to fans. Being a cricket fan, I just cant accept the fact that due to a stupidity of a few shenanigans we are losing the IPL. Big busy cities will always have security issues.The fact that the government is refusing support because of petty politics and the BCCI monopoly is not placing the interest of the fans' and players' above their ego is mind boggling.

Can't wait for Chennai vs Delhi in Durban...wee-hoo!!!

Brains or Bullets!!

2009-03-12T09:30:00.000-07:00

Bizarre is an understatement to describe this. Can you believe that the Afghanistan cricket team is practicing in Peshawar for the World cup Cricket 2011 qualifiers. Leave alone that. Can you even comprehend the fact that there is Cricket Team from Afghanistan? I was shocked to see a listing in Wikipedia for the Afghanistan Cricket Team. It is right here. They are actually potential contenders to qualify for the 2011 World cup to be held in India. If they qualify, they would most likely stay at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai. Interesting Set up. Let me leave it at that..

The current cricketing situation is already in turmoil and with teams like Afghanistan entering the fray, I wonder how cricket will be ten years from now. Lets all sincerely hope that they play pathetic cricket and not qualify for the World Cup. I do not foresee an Australian or English team touring Afghanistan in the next 50 years. The Sri Lankans may tour if they are promised sufficient security. The only difference is that this time rather than terrorists, the Afghan players themselves might target the opposition.

The team is actually practicing in Peshawar which is likely to come under the Control of Taliban. After SWAT, the Taliban junta are looking to take control of Peshawar. This could happen any time soon and it does not really matter if they are given security cover or not. Imagine bowling in the Nets when you know that the LeT is Practicing in the adjacent ground. Scary thought!!

The only team which is likely to tour Pakistan at this juncture must be Afghanistan. There are no surprises in that since they are likely to be part of the Taliban themselves and not victims. I just hope that ten years from now, I don't see a Headline which reads" Taliban Tigers win IPL 2020". That will be the worst thing that could happen to Cricket. Let us just wait for a month and watch the Afghan cricket team in action in South Africa. Be sure to expect one of these.... Brains or Bullets!!!

A Musical Genius!!!

2009-02-24T08:07:00.000-08:00

My blog wont be complete if I did not write about ARR. He is a living legend and he has proved it yet again. I have been hearing his music ever since ROJA and every tune of his is different and takes a lot of time to grow into you. I am sure most of you will agree with the fact that his songs don't sound great when you hear it for the first time. But after hearing it a few times you will never feel like letting it go.

From Puthiya Mugam to Rangeela to Warriors of Heaven and Earth , ARR has showcased his diversity and creativity. His diverse style has made the world stand on their feet and applaud the man whom the world calls " The Mozart of Madras". What else would you call a person whose music brought an entire nation to a standstill. The impeccable record of ARR has made every Indian respect his work and hum his tunes in times of joy and disbelief.

I am sure no one will ever forget what he said in his acceptance speech. "Ella pugazhum iraivanuke" (All glory and fame is to god). These 3 words sums up his life. He has shown to the world that Spirituality is his formula for success and this has been instrumental over the last 17 years.

India will definitely not have another ARR and it is going to take a herculean effort if some one can match him. Just like ADI has written , India can be proud for honing geniuses like Sachin Tendulkar and ARR. The latter had only the Oscars to clinch and has managed it while the former is 2 years away from completing a full circle. Please do not be surprised if Sachin lifts the World CUP in 2011 at Mumbai. That's the only event which could match ARR's achievement in terms of grandeur and quality. I am glad that I have had the privilege of being in the same country as these two greats.

I am sure I wont be writing another tribute about ARR's great music but I am hoping that one day (hopefully in 2011) I will have the courage to write an entire piece on the man they refer to in India as " GOD" .

Let me complete this post with one of my favourite lines from one of ARR's greatest work...

kaise tujhko dikhaun yahaan hai kya
Maine jharne se paani maa tod ke piya hai
Guchcha guchcha kai khwabon ka uchal ke chuwa hai
Chaaya liya bhali dhoop yahaan hai
Naya naya sa hai roop yahan
Yahaan sab kuch hai maa phir bhi
lage bin tere mujhko akela


BLISSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Facebook's 25 things about me!!

2009-02-15T08:31:00.000-08:00

This is the Facebook random things about 25 ppl thingy.. This is for non-facebook users.

1) I convinced myself that I wont be doing this 25 things thingy but I succumbed...

2) I am extremely ( that's an understatement) scared of dogs and I will be the first person to run away at the sight of it..

3) I am possibly the biggest fan of the Australian Cricket Team and I make sure that everything else is secondary.

4) I love socializing and I happen to have a huge set of friends. I am extremely selective when it comes to choosing who I want to socialize with.

5) I love THAIR SADHAM (Curd Rice) unlike few of my counterparts and I have to finish my meal with curd rice. Prefer it with Vetha Kozhambu.

6) When i was in UKG, my report card had the comments " Should Improve his Handwriting" and till date every report card has that comment.

7) I love going to the temple and I had been going every single day to the temple during the period 2002-2008.

8) I feel I have a great sense of humor although majority of my friends feel otherwise.

9) I love to ask questions and I feel thats the best way to get to know a person.

10) I won a Man of the Match award in the first ever cricket match I played in class 6. Sadanand Vishwanath was the coach and he gave me 100 rs for my match winning performance. I hit 48 of 46 balls under PRESSURE:).

11) I love writing and I feel I am getting better at it daily. My blog is http://gauky.blogspot.com.

12) I am fascinated by THIN Women and my friends know that. I hit it off instantly with them.

13) I love quizzing and I think one day I will be extremely good at it.

14) I love slow melodious tracks and my favorite track is Bol Sajni from Doli Sajake Rakhna.

15) MY Gmail ID was hacked moments after I visited Googleplex in Mountain View. The chances of that happening to someone else is extremely remote.

16) I have fallen in love a few times and I think i do fall in love easily.

17) I love eating out and I know exactly what is good where...

18) I love loud Music and I dance alone in my room for long hours when no one is at home.

19) I have migrated from Orkut to Facebook and I dont regret it.

20) I want to sleep with Deepika Padukone and I just cant get my mind of her.

21) I badly want to become an entrepreneur and I am sure one day I will become one.

22) I hate people who are not PUNCTUAL. My Girlfriend is definitely not one of them:)..

23) I love my friends and I am what I am because of them . I respect everybody and I have very little EGO when it comes to FRIENDS.

24) I hate women who are artificial. Again my girlfriend is not one of them:)..

25) I cant say "R". It sounds like " L" to others. Gaurav becomes Gaulav. I hope i can rectify that some day.I love being called GAU, Gauky or Gaurav. I hate being called anything else.

The "X" factor!!!

2009-02-03T09:30:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday at 6.30 PM I had two contrasting feelings. I am a hardcore sports fan and I was keenly following a couple of interesting games that night. Nadal and Federer were battling their heart out at the Rod Laver arena while the Australians were trying everything to get me smiling again. My heart was beating real fast with a sense of anticipation on what the next hour has in store for me.I wanted Nadal to win and greedily an Australian Victory as well. I ended up getting only one of those. I was relieved but not happy.

Sports makes you feel greedy. My mind does not wander and I concentrate real hard watching the idiot box in front of me. Being a true sports fan can teach you what your parents or your teachers could not teach. Concentration, Ability to recover from failures, Forecasting and above all retention of
unwanted statistics are some traits which sports lovers naturally have an affinity for. You don't need to learn these characteristics since these are imbibed within sports aficionados like me. An Australian loss can shatter my day, my week or sometimes even my months. A failure in an exam would never do that. Me getting the Pink slip would not affect me as much as an Australian Loss. Over the years I have followed every sport with maximum interest and the feeling I get if the team I vouch for wins is bliss. Contrastingly when the team I support loses I end up having a rough day.More often than not I I have seen my mood swings have a set pattern. I don't pick calls If my team loses. I try to avoid people If my team loses. I drive rashly if my team loses. Is it psychological or not ?? I am not sure about it but it throws open a good debate. I wonder how many of you agree with me?

To quote a few examples from my life.

It was March 14th 2001 when Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman played out the entire day setting up India's most famous Test Win against Australia. March 15th 2001 was my Hindi Board Exam. I ended up with the worst performance which hampered my chances. Similarly March 2003 saw Ponting and his men steamroll everyone in the 2003 World cup. I was giving my 12th then and resulted in some stellar performances by me. There have been a lot more cases such as these in my life but these two were the one's at the top of my head.

My examples may sound silly to the reader but after witnessing the great Australian slump and reading the Outliers, this does not sound silly to me. At various instances in my life sporting results have tended to dictate my day or life. It may be with respect to sports for me but it may be with respect to something else for you guys. It took me a long time to identify this " X " factor which dictates certain actions in my life. If you are passionate about something/someone, more often than not it is it/they who dictate your life. I am sure most of you will agree with me in this regard. This is from my experience and Sunday night was another example.

Over the years I have been pretty lucky in getting the results that I want. With the exception of the Australian Cricket Team I have never been a great fan of teams/individual players dominating a particular sport. For example I have always been Anti- Schumi, Anti Man-U, Anti-Lakers, Anti-Sachin and Anti-Federer. I prefer the Liverpool's, the Cavaliers, the Hamilton's and the Nadal's. It is always a roller coaster supporting men and teams like these since you never know what you are going to get. The tension builds up and until its over your heart is in your mouth. Tension mounts and I have never felt that much adrenaline in any other action of mine.

Being a hardcore sports fan is an amazing feeling albeit I sometimes envy those who have absolutely no idea whats going on. There is no sense of expectation and things remain so calm in their minds. Wonder what dictates their actions??

Delhi 6 Audio Review and TVS Scooty!!

2009-01-26T07:57:00.000-08:00

I have been hooked on to a couple of things over the long weekend. One is about the smash hit Delhi 6. If Slumdog won the Golden globe I think the jury must hear Delhi 6. I really don't know what award Delhi 6 will win. The music just confirms ARR's sublime talent yet again. I wonder when we will see the Slump of ARR just like we are witnessing the Australian's crash slowly and steadily. ARR has been a consistent performer composing new tunes every single time. Masakali is an amazing track. Wonder what it means? My friend told me that it is the name of the Dove that comes in the movie. Let me wait and check that. Another peppy track is the title track called Delhi 6 which is a typical fast number. The 2 slow tracks Rehna Thu and Dil Tera showcases the great voice of ARR along with some exemplary music. The last 2-3 years have seen ARR compose some mind blowing tracks. Hope he continues the same way after he wins the Oscars. Looking forward to a couple of releases later this year.

Thanks to Bhavya, I had the chance to go back in time and ride the best vehicle there ever was. The 250cc's are too fast for city roads, the 180's are great but tough to manoeuvre, the 150's are decent although not that safe. We are left with the 70cc TVS Scooty. I have been riding the Scooty ever since class 10. I drove it for 5 years till I got my pulsar. I have had some of my best and worst experiences during a Scooty ride. The best cannot be mentioned in public domain while the worst has been mentioned here. This weekend when I got to ride it again, I felt so good and happy. I was enjoying riding so much that I would have dropped any one who wanted a lift. Trust me, even today I prefer the Scooty on Chennai roads than any other vehicle ever present in the city. Scooty is ain't Machoish but it is amazingly robust and secure. The Pick up of this super vehicle can match the fastest bike on its day. Felt really nostalgic riding it over the weekend. That is why I wrote this post. Back to work from tom. Hopefully the Scooty will cheer me up to work hard.

Randomness personified!!

2009-01-16T09:16:00.000-08:00

Off late I have been doing a lot of things which are not usually associated with me. Reading for hours together without moving an inch, Watching English movies all through the night and finally not feeling too bad for an Australian Loss( happening too often).

So how did all this begin. I finished reading this and I was super impressed. One of the most informative books I have ever read. Edward takes us through the various fallacies of India and provides his account on the various encounters with politicians and businessmen. The contrasting approaches of the Congress and BJP shows us why India still remains a developing nation. The highlight of the book is the way Tamil Nadu has been portrayed. This is the second instance where I am reading that TN is one of the best states in the Country. In any discipline we seem to be the best and Edward's praise of Tamil Nadu is a feel good factor. Anyone interested in the history of Indian Politics should grab a copy of this.

After finishing this book, I took my landmark voucher and got 4 more books to keep me occupied for the rest of the month. Currently I am reading this and at this juncture the book is exhilarating and I can relate it to my day to day life. I have this and this in the pipeline. I cant wait to finish all these and go back to landmark to get the next set. It is hard to imagine that I am becoming a bookaholic.. Hopefully it is not a temporary thing..

Watched In Bruges, Pineapple Express, Slumdog, Wall-e, Johnny Gaddar, Abhiyum Nannum and Yes man in the last 1 week. All movies were good and I have no regrets.

Hooked up to Delhi 6's Masabkali now... ARR is rocking in 2009. Great start to the year..Guyz please hear it..

2008- The year that was!!!

2009-01-08T08:10:00.000-08:00

My Internet at home has been causing a lot of problems and hence I have had a small break form blogging. I never had a year end post surprisingly and I guess it is a bit too late to write one. Just thought I will quickly summarize the year. Overall 2008 was a tension free year. Every year there is bound to be some pressure on me either personally or professionally. 2008 gave me the freedom to do what I want without the intervention from anyone.

Q1-2008

Establishing myself in my organization was the highlight of this quarter. Monotonous days, enjoyable bike rides, The BNB sessions with my good friend from work, developing models for my team, getting used to hearing the word PPT 1634 times a day and finally late night calls with clients kept me going the first three months. My vacation to witness the scenic beauty of Ashtamudi in Kerala was fantabulous. It was in this quarter that I joined Facebook. That got me definitely motivated. Not joining Facebook felt like not riding a tiger when I had the opportunity to.

Q2-2008

The IPL dominated Q2. I literally had no time to do the above mentioned tasks. My BNB company moved ahead in life to become a great laker. While I was stuck at work , I hardly had any time to make client calls since Superkings were on a roll against most of the opponents. The IPL was revolutionary and it just proved how fast time can fly. This quarter was a NO GAINER personally and professionally albeit I managed to go on one of my best vacations with friends. Overall I really felt like I was riding the tiger and knew just exactly when to get off.

Q3-2008

This quarter was plateaued with a lot of up's and down's. I had to indulge in a large amount of counselling to different people of both sexes which took away most of my time. I have constantly tried to make an effort to think about my career and in turn missed a lot of my usual Sunday morning Meetings. Mock exams took care of the weekends and weekdays were usually sober than high. Social networking was the need of the hour in this quarter and my attempt to change Status Messages changed from once a fortnight to once every day. Couple of new women in my life kept me going:)..
To sum it up it was more like me helping other people how to ride the Tiger.

Q4-2008

The party quarter. I have had a brilliant end to the year. I have no complaints regarding the end of 2008. The last 3 months saw a huge increase in my face value. The global economic slow down didn't take its toll on me as I continued to empty my pockets at will. With very little pressure on the work front I managed to stamp my authority on all but one major club in the city. My dancing skills have improved leaps and bounds. The days were very long and the nights were short. I was constantly chanting " Where is the party tonight " . Another very close friend of mine joined my organization to keep the party going. This quarter also witnessed the entry of what could be a potentially life changing person in my life. Fingers crossed Q4-2008 will be remembered for a long time to come. Meanwhile rate of change in status messages changed to once every hour when compared to Q3-2008. There has to be a bad side to anything and this quarter saw the decline of Australia after a long time. Seeing them lose was one of the hardest things I had to face and It was a tough period confronting my peers.

I also have to convey that whatever I have written above is true to my heart and I have not let my readers down. I have not over expressed any of my emotions and I sincerely feel like I am riding a tiger with my hands stretched out and Yelling on top my Voice " I am the King of the World " .

Hope all of you have a Great 2009.

P.S [ Just for information.. I have had a terrible reversal of fortunes over the last 8 days and Q1-2009 has started terribly. It could be the beginning of my recession. Personally and Professionally things have dipped. Hoping for the best. ]

Movies I have seen in the Theatre over the last five years...

2008-12-29T08:57:00.000-08:00

I was extremely bored after taking the day off and I was thinking of what to blog. My friend and me decided to list all the movies we had seen in the theater over the last 5 years. I think after a long time I managed to come out with a decent list. I have seen around 93 movies since 2004. That comes to an average of 18 movies a year which is around 1.5 movies a month. This proves that I have burnt around 10k from my dad over the last 5 years. This blog will list down the movies I have seen and If any of you remember some other movie which they saw with me or if I have left out an obvious one please let me know. Here you go..Sorry for this boring Post.. It is more of a repository for me...Will start the New year with a bang for sure...

Tamil:

Ah Aah
Anbe Sivam
Anniyan
Anjathey
Arindhum Ariyamalum
Attagasam
Autograph
Ayitha Ezhuthu
Azhagiya Tamizh Magan
Azhagay Irrukiya Bhayama Irrikiyay
Billa
Boys
Chennai 28
Dasavatharam
Ghajini
Gilli
Jillunu oru Kadhal
Kaakha Kaakha
Kandha Naal Mudhal
Kuselan
Majaa
M Kumaran Son of mahalakshmi
Mozhi
Mumbai Express
New
Pachaikili Muthucharam
Pattiyal
Perazhagan
Pitamagan
Raam
Subramanypuram
Saroja
Shivaji
Sivakasi
Something Something
Vaaranam Aayiram
Vallavan
Vettaiyadu Vilayadu
Veyil
Yaaradi Nee Mohini

Hindi:

Black
Bride And Prejudice
Dhoom 2
Don
Dostana
Guru
Heyy Babyy
Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na
Kaal
Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna
Kal Ho Na Ho
Lakshya
Main Hoon Na
Om Shanti Om
Rang De Basanti
Salaam Namaste
Bhooth
Lucky
Lage Raho Munnabhai
Kismet connection
Rock on
Race
Aaja Nachle
Kya Mujhe Pyar Hai
Taare Zameen Par
Fashion
Swadesh
Bunty aur Babli
D
Kabul eXpress
Khakhee
Sarkar 2
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

English:

Babel
Body of Lies
Chicken Little
Gothika
Incredibles
Ice Age 2
Matrix Revolutions
Mr & Mrs Smith
Oceans 12
Oceans 13
Quantum of Solace
Righteous Kill
Shrek 2
Spiderman 2
Spiderman 3
Terminal
The Dark Knight
The Last Samurai
The Ring
Anita
Bruce Almighty

The Great Indian Chase!!

2008-12-17T08:58:00.000-08:00

It has been a very tiring week and I have had hardly any time to translate thoughts into words. Witnessed one of the greatest Test Matches ever a couple of days back. It might not have been a very close game but the game was not short of entertainment. My dad kept asking me every single day about why am I wasting my time going for the lifeless Test Match. I kept ignoring him since I guestimated something special. I was right and he ended up coming for the last day. After a hell lot of rain and the terror attacks which prevented Chennai from hosting their first ever finals, Chennai deserved the best and we got it. I have been to many cricket games over the last 12 years but this one was special. I am not a great fan of Sachin Tendulkar nor am I that of the Indian team. After this test match I found new respect for this Indian team and the great cricketer in Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. I have been a very harsh critic when it comes to Tendulkar and this might be because of the expectations I have being a true Australian Cricket Fan.

India entered the last day needing 256 runs to win after Sehwag had given the batsman the opportunity to go for the target. Sehwag's blitzkrieg was a treat to watch. I don't think anyone in the stadium gave the Indian's a chance to win the test match. I also did not expect Sachin to hit a century and India to win by 6 wickets. It was a clinical performance by the home side and this team under the leadership of Midas Dhoni can do no wrong. It is matter of time before they become the best in the business. People who have spent enough time with me would know how much I criticize the " Little Master ". I can be very harsh and My friend Arun summed it perfectly after the game in his SMS which read

I am a big critic myself but it has taken you 19 years, 12,000 runs and 41 centuries and a Indian Record for you to get convinced that Sachin is the greatest Indian batsman.

It just shows to what extent people expect in our country.

I chuckled and said to myself " He still has not won a World Cup for his country . He cant be the greatest". Thats how harsh I can get.

The match was worth it and I am a proud Chennaite to be part of the " Great Indian Chase".

Rain Rain Go Away!!!

2008-11-27T20:55:00.000-08:00

This is the situation currently at my house.. For all those who wanna know why I am at home and not at work.. This is it...Check this out...Taken on 28/11/2008...

Movie Varram!!!

2008-11-24T06:49:00.000-08:00

So now that a few competitive exams are done I am left with a lot of time. It has been ages since I saw good movies. So here I am reviewing a couple of contrasting movies which I saw last week.

1) Dostana

Ever since I saw the promos, I have been wanting to watch this movie. The only expectation I had in this movie was that I would be able to see a scorching sexy Priyanka Chopra. The money was totally worth it. Dostana’ does not let you down since it has some really funny scenes but it may turn you off when the plot loses its substance and becomes an emotionless tale of friendship and love.

You have to like the " Mokkai" genre of humor to like a film like Dostana. The movie definitely does not start the way you would like it too with John almost Naked. But within fifteen min Priyanka overshadows every single soul in the movie. The movie revolves around the gay gags and their relationship with the hottie. By the interval the guys get to see Shilpa Shetty in a bikini and Priyanka Chopra in a Golden Beachwear while the women get to see John Abraham in a boxer. The story was never boring except for a few scenes where Bobby Deol makes an appearance. The movie’s production values and the styling of the characters are top notch. The music is pretty good which blends well with the movie. Dostana’ could have been better if the story had more humor in the second half. So even though the film entertains you, it doesn’t make much of an impact. A good time pass. A must watch for those who appreciate hot women.

2) Vaaranam Ayiram

Vaaranam Ayiram was intended to be a movie straight from the heart of the director. The movie could have been completed in a much crisper way rather than dragging it for a long time. The story has plenty of I-love-you daddy scenes which gets very monotonous and boring.

This movie is Surya's Magnum Opus and nothing more. The first half of the movie has most of the songs and not much of a story. Both the Surya's fall in love and we get a sneak peek into the American Consulate. I am obsessed with this scene though.

Vaaranam Aayiram is an out and out Surya show. When the man disrobes his tee to flaunt his rippling muscles acquired after hard slog, the ladies scream their lungs out. His subtle expressions after losing out his dad to cancer score as good as his screams and emotional turbulence after losing his girl. Surya Senior’s makeup screams for attention, though. Simran looks very ordinary showing that she is getting old gracefully. Sameera is outstanding. After seeing her in Musafir, Gautham has portrayed her really well and this "GOOD GIRL " image suits her to perfection. Overall the movie will be loved by those who do not like the run of the mill movies. Those who enjoy the slow pace sentimental movies will enjoy this while the Pshycho fans will prefer to skip this one. Harris’ music complements Thamarai’s lyrics with almost all songs with Nenjikul definitely standing out.

I also managed to see Definitely Maybe which was suggested by him and it rocked. I suggest all the guys out there to watch this movie. I am sure you guys would have experienced something similar to that in life. If not, you will soon:).. If you are looking to ROTFLMAO you must watch Tropic thunder. That rocked as well. Funny right from the beginning to the end. Wish more movies such as this released here.

Well done India!!!

2008-11-10T08:10:00.000-08:00

Hey Ricky!!

What on earth were you thinking on day 4 during the Post Tea Session. You had the game wrapped up and you had me all jumping. Now look what you have done to me. I am writing a post titled well done India. Whats wrong with you?? You have PUNTED the hopes of the Australian supporters. My only message to you guyz is " Yes We Can".

Cheers
Your Biggest Fan!!

Not everyday will I get a chance to write a post such as the one I am writing now. Such events happen once in 7 years or so. The last time this happened I did not know what a blog was. I hate to admit it but thats reality. Australia have been outplayed by the Indians and I have to accept it. Ever since Dhoni won the toss at Mohali, Australia were behind the eight ball. With the Australian bowlers constantly getting mauled by everyone except Rahul Dravid, they had no one to throw the ball to. Their bowling was below par and that was the difference between the 2 sides. India rightly deserved to win the Border Gavaskar Trophy. Dhoni definitely has the Midas touch and he deserved the man of the series according to me. A famous Tamil quote can be attributed to Dhoni's personality which goes like this: "Indha Poonai um Pal Kudikuma" .

This series was a rare blemish for the World Champions. It would be very very wrong to say that they have lost their No 1 Status since they have proved to be consistent over a period of time. I am sure my team will bounce back pretty soon and give it back to the Indians. Most Indians would have missed out on the action since the games were on working days, but I have been fortunate to watch most part of the series over here thanks to them. Definite loss in productivity but who cares. Cricket always takes precedence. Hopefully things get better in the future for the Australians.

I have been the centre of attraction over the last few weeks with my colleagues and friends making use of every possible opportunity to piss me off. But such occurences happens only once in 7 -10 years. So I need to put up with them:).

November Rain..

2008-10-31T10:45:00.000-07:00

The penultimate month of the year promises to be exciting and challenging. I really can't comprehend the reason behind my interest towards the US Presidential election but ever since June 2007 I have been following it with keen interest. I am awed by their system and I wonder if there will be a day when India follows the American Style. Imagine a debate between Prathiba Patil and APJ Abdul Kalam. It will make a great Venkat Prabhu Story. The voters are involved along with their leaders and know exactly whom they want their next President to be. The interaction and the planning is phenomenal when compared to any other democracy in the world. I loved the process and their deadlines. If India employs the formulations and policies of the Americans in conducting an election, It would do our democracy a whole lot of good. Only time will tell.

The coming tuesday would reveal who is going to follow George Bush in occupying the White House. Will Barack Obama, The First- African American take centre stage or the Rough and Tough John McCain create a surprise. The initial polls looks in favour of the Obama clan but miracles do happen. I personally want Obama to come out victorious since he looks like he will create a change. McCain seems very sterotypical and would most likely follow Bush. The Long tenure of George Bush is coming to an end which started of with the WTC attacks and is ending with the Great depression 2. That sums up his time at the White House. Anyway within a week the world would witness another change and this time it looks like it will be BIG one. Go Obama...

Soon after the Hype of the US election subsides, my focus would need to shift to the Answer paper from the News paper. It is that time of the year where budding B School aspirants head out to bell the Cat. Another year, Another Format, Another centre . Hopefully the result is a bit different.

Australia could lose a series after 3 years this November. Thats going to be a HUGE achievment for India. I will write more about this when this eventually happens.

Chandrayaan must have touched base by the end of this month and I find it hard to believe how it works. I have tried reading and understanding how the orbits are raised etc but it is hard to imagine. If someone could let me know how Chandrayaan works, I will treat them for a couple of glasses of Chilled Fosters at Armstrong Palace on the moon.

BTW the trend looks pretty clear in India. We can definitely expect another couple of blasts in the next month. I think the company is targetting a revenue of around 200 people a month. Crazy Country.

Lots to look forward to...

Sound of Music!!!

2008-10-22T10:58:00.000-07:00

Long time since I wrote a review.Been hearing a lot of songs lately at work and I am impressed with the quality of songs that our budding music directors are giving us. Long gone are the Himeshe's, Nadeem Shravan's and the Gangai Amaran's. We are now entering a fresh era of music where the young and hopeful entertain us with some innovative and attractive music. One thing I have noticed over the years is that Kollywood albums are way ahead of their counterparts. For every 1 Hindi hit there are 10 Tamil Hits. A Decade ago it used to be the opposite. With ARR leading the pack, young Guns like James Vasantham, Vijay Antony, Harris Jeyaraj and Yuvan have continued the tradition of good music. Bollywood's quality is deteriorating over the course of time and the future seems bleak. Apart from the occasional hits from ARR, Shankar-Ehsan-Loy and Vishal Shekar we have hardly seen any chartbusters. Preetham has been the epitome of plagiarism and does not come under the scanner. Over the last couple of months I have been fortunate to make use of the free broadband / Unlimited Download package provided at my work palce to download some of the latest tracks.

A couple of really good albums to mention are FASHION and DOSTANA. While the former has some real slow numbers the latter compensates with peppy stuff. Kuch Khas hai and Mar- Jawaan from Fashion stand out. They take you to a level higher than other tracks and are ideally suited when your deadline's nearing. Meanwhile Vishal-Shekhar's Dostana makes us feel all happy and cheerful and Fridays will be a good time to hear them. ARR has come out with his next Hindi Album Yuvvraj. As ARR's music takes slightly more time to settle in compared to his peers it is a bit early to judge. The initial vibe sounds good with a superb blend of Western and Indian classical along with some peppy tracks. These 3 albums should set the tone for the rest of the year.

Kollywood has not been far behind with HJ's Varanam Ayiram stealing the show. It is a fantastic album which showcases the talent of HJ. Although most of his tracks sound similar I feel that Varanam Ayiram is definitely one of his very best. All the songs sound real good with Nenjukul being my favourite. The music has definitely provided the much deserved hype for the movie which was originaly slated for a Diwali release but is now postponed to avoid competition with Thalai's Aegan. Now that I have written about Aegan I have to mention that the music for the movie is Pathetic. It has been ages since we had a Ajith Movie with good music.

Last but not the least the year's biggest hit Nakku Mukku has been composed by Vijay Anthony. Blending Ethnic with Western classical the song opens with Beethoven's 6th Symphony. Resembling the tune composed by Yanni a few years ago Nakku Mukku shocases what chords can do. Mozart would be proud of this creation by Antony. The song concludes with a 2 minute chorus which has attracted a lot of broadways in the US. Nakku Mukku is the just the start of many more songs in this genre. The Next generation of Music Directors are a promising lot. Only Time will tell.

Recommended Albums

1) Fashion
2) Dostana
3) Superstar
4) Varanam Ayiram
5) Kadhalil Vizhunthen
6) Golmaal Returns
7) Yuvvraj

Yet Another Time!!!

2008-10-08T22:00:00.000-07:00

The time has come again when the two most entertaining nations clash for what could be a turning point in contemporary Test Match Cricket. The much-anticipated Test series between India and Australia gets underway in Bangalore on Thursday. A number of players on the Indian side are heading towards retirement and this is a brilliant opportunity for these cricketers to bow out on a high. Beating Australia in a test series irrespective of the location is something not many cricketers have experienced. For India this is the last series where the fab four will be playing together and it will be interesting to see if they can come good and guide India to a comprehensive test series victory. It has been over 10 years since a country has beaten Australia comprehensively in Test Cricket.

For a change, after a decade India has been tipped to be the favourites for the test series. With the Australians relatively inexperienced to the sub-continent conditions it throws open a big opportunity for India to repeat the performance of 2001. 6 players who took part in that great series are still present whereas there are only 2 from the Australian side.

India’s Chances

Despite the old age, the batting strength and the experience is with India. Gambhir and Sehwag have been in good form recently. Although there is some pressure on Rahul Dravid; he is due some runs and there is no better time to get them. Sachin Tendulkar is 77 runs behind Lara’s world record of scoring the maximum number of Runs in Test Cricket. Sachin will have a special place for himself in Test Cricket and the whole country is waiting to witness this moment. Very Very Special Laxman who has been the main nemesis for Australia over the years will try to continue to haunt his favourite opponents. He has always been behind the shadows of the Sachin and Dravid but would like to his list of marquee performances against the Australians.The Batting is completed by Saurav Ganguly who would like to finish on a high and only time will answer this. As usual India’s arsenal is strengthened by the presence of the two spinning stalwarts who are yet again India’s main hope in a home series. Dhoni, Zaheer and Ishant complete the line up and all are potential threats to the Aussies. Overall a great squad and should do exceedingly well if they play to their potential.

Australia’s Chances

Australia is definitely the weaker of the two teams and this is a true test of Australia’s reserve pool of players. The scene is perfect for the young cricketers to prove themselves. They have been in the country for over 2 weeks and they will look to up the tempo. Bangalore has never been favourable to India and this could is probably the best venue where the visitors could have started. The batting has plenty of class with the likes of Hayden, Ponting, Clarke and Hussey. They are the batting mainstay and it is very vital that two of these four players click every game if they want to compete. With only 4 players ever playing a test in India the team needs collective performances if they are to pull off a series winSimon Katich has been in great nick and the team management will be looking to him to give the team good starts. Watson and White are multi-faceted players who can change the course of the match. None of the bowlers have ever played a Test in India and it is going to be a tough challenge for them to bowl under these conditions. Lee leads the pace attack and will be raring to get some wickets in the bag. The Australians are in transition mode and are looking to fill the gaps left by Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and Adam Gilchrist. The following four tests will show the resilience of this great cricketing nation.

Predictions:

I am guessing it will be a closely fought series which should end in a deadlock with the series score reading 1-1. My mind says India could clinch the series 2-1 but being a huge Aussie Fan my heart says that the Australians will probably nick it 2-1

As published in Sportsnob

Que Sarah Sarah!!!!

2008-09-26T10:09:00.000-07:00

Dear All

Who is Sarah Palin?? Why is she making Waves around the world??

Now did i hear it right... This is the conversation between Palin and Zardari..

Sarah Palin:

When I was just a little girl
I asked Zardari, what will I be
Will I be the Vice President, will I be rich
Here's what he said to me.

Zardari

Kyon Sarah Sarah!!!
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
But you will be gorgeously pretty!!

Sarah Palin::

When I was young, I fell in love
I asked Zardari what lies ahead
Will we have the N-Deal or Will we get married?
Here's what my sweetheart said.

Zardari

Kyon Sarah Sarah!!!
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
But you will be gorgeously pretty!!

Sarah:

Now I have children of my own
They ask their mother, what will I be
Will I be Miss Alaska, will I be rich
I tell them tenderly.

Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
Please ask zardari!!!
If he thinks you are gorgeously pretty!!

So thats how it all ended... The prime minister of Pakistan loves Palin and I guess thats why he visited the US.

What about our dear PM Mr Manmohan Singh..Why did he not comment about Sarah Palin... Is he not attracted by her? Are we different form Pakistan in this regard also? I am confused.. Is Sarah Palin the key to Mcain's ascendency? Who is obama going to appoint? Who is left?? So many questions unanswered? The arrival of women makes the whole election so much more exciting...Obama may look to rope in Paris hilton or may be Megan Fox...Cant wait for the elections to begin...

Anyway Sarah palin has a lot of followers and apparently she has impressed one and all with her speeches. TOI has reported that she has been roped in by the channel COLORS to take part in the all new reality show KAUN SARAH PALIN BANNA CHAHTHA HOON!! There are rumors that the first episode is going to be held in Havana in Raintree on a wednesday so that TOI can take free pictures for their supplement Chennai Times. Meanwhile AAVIN has decided to sponsor the show since they feel her name is synonymous with their product and that could boost up their Q3 profits.

Addressing the media today, Sarah revealed her schedule for her sub-continent trip. She intends on arriving in Islamabad and she plans to stay at the Marriot Hotel. Soon after spending the night with Zardari, she will appear as a special guest in Pakistan's version of GET GORGEOUS!!. Then she is taking the flight out to Delhi to meet Mr Manmohan Singh to discuss the N-deal. Apparently after the meeting she plays the lead for Aamir Khan's next venture titled SARAH Zameen Par..After the shooting she is flying to Singur to check out the new TATA NONO factory. Some sources claim that Sarah also has a highly confidential meeting with Lalit Modi to find out if her team Sarah Dark Knights can take part in next year's IPL.

So guyz its going to be sarah all the way for the next two months. Be prepared for whats in store. So much is possible. Enjoy the pics of the worlds most powerful Vice President.

Post Get - Gorgeous!!!

Pre-Get-Gorgeous!!

Do not READIFF!!!

2008-09-14T10:34:00.000-07:00

It is that time of the year where I review Rediff and their lovely exploits. I did it last year and trust me in one year nothing has changed.

Another Indian Business firm forgetting what their value proposition is and what their core competencies are. Most of the companies in the entertainment industry today are not remotely similar to what they did when they started off.

Headlines Today: Started as a NEWS channel and is now predominantly a PG ( Parental Guidance) Channel. Even when the blasts are taking place they have a breaking news about how Tanushree Dutta slapped Nana Patekar. Give me a break...Now it is the turn of Rediff.

Rediff had started as a NEWS site and now it is India's most visited NSFW ( Not safe for Work) website.

Rediff over the last year has transformed from a bad site to a horrible one but somehow still people ( Including me) manage to visit the site on a daily basis.

As fool's garden rightly said

I wonder how and I wonder why..

I have taken a couple of examples to show what rediff offers and you can decide whether It is worth being the most read website in India.

Last week one of rediff's most interesting Poll went underway.

http://www.rediff.com/getahead/2008/sep/10slide1.htm - Interesting piece of information on the home page. I wonder what their target

Audience is. Come on what on earth are they going to do with the winner of this contest. As usual one avid rediff reader has expressed his feelings to the public in a subtle manner.

Quoted "what is wrong with rediff? why dont they just call this best bo0.b poll.....also start a best p u 5sy poll....rediff has become just too cheap ....giving cheap polls such "sooth"ing names wont change that rediff is oogling at womens br..easts and then conducting cheap perverted polls....is rediff heading towards becoming a p0.rn site?...please dont publish such stupid matter here else become an x rated site and go ahead with whatever polls rediff likes".

Well said young man!! The moderator did not even remove this comment. May be they want to improve their service. Whatever said and one rediff has to improve their offerings if they want to compete in this domain.

Another example

Some Cat expert had been invited to give expert advice to the public and check out a part of the interview. Freaking I cant believe they organize all this and people still turn up. I am sure Rediff asks their employees to sign in with different names and provide comments.

Check this out:

manoj asked, hi manoj here sir. wats my chances in cat

R Shiva Kumar answers, I wish I were a psychic! :) Pls. provide more data like your mock performance!

GAURAV: Which moron who is writing cat will ask someone this question?? Manoj are you seriously trying to write CAT? If so I think ur chances are ZERO!!!!

vivek4u_swamy asked, hi i am S/W engineer i would like to do MBA from the Top University is ISB an gud college

R Shiva Kumar answers, Yes

Gaurav: Dude, vivek4u_swamy... Are you sure you wanna do ur MBA from a TOP University...Try TEST OF PATIENCE University( Maybe you may get an Admit there)

raju asked, hi shiva i got 88% in my quant(mock cat) and poor %tiles in Verbal & DI i need ur suggestions on how to improve these sections .Any books u suggest. Thanks

R Shiva Kumar answers, Read a lot, solve a lot of DI questions

Gaurav: @Shiva Kumar: I cant believe your answer..Shit I don't think anyone could have given an answer like what you did..thats a blinder..your defintiely an expert..Keep it up..Can you be my career Counsellor...

@Raju: I am sure you followed shiv's advice. Read lots okie...

ish asked, sir,i am B.Tech in Ece from GNDU,Amritsar.i gave cat in May 2007 anad got 93 percentille.how much u think i could get in CAT?

R Shiva Kumar answers, shud get 80+

@ish: you gave cat in May 2007... Very nice.. you got 93% in that...That's awesome... Now can you tell me who conducted it??

@shiv/Expert-- Awesome job man..How did you guess that he will get 80+? I need tuitions master!!!

jim asked, plzz answer this.I have 73% in ssc , 69% in hsc and 59.57 in graduation. I have two years full time work exp in IT. What are my chances for Getting into IIMs if i score CAT well? Plz answer

R Shiva Kumar answers, Very good!

Gaurav @ Shiv: LOL, LOL, LOL..Finally you learnt the tricks of the trade...Thats a nice Answer..

Dear Jim:

Plzz answer this.. What are your chances that you will write CAT if your DEAD MEAT..plzz answer this..plzz

@Rediff.. Its getting real bad. Get some experts and revamp the site. Make it refreshing else your soon going to throw in the towel.

GOOOOGLED!!!!

2008-09-09T20:41:00.000-07:00

Yet another innovation added to the arsenal of the best company in the world. Google have come out with another outstanding service for all of us. You can check it out here. I am simply amazed by the tenacity of Google who knows exactly how to revolutionize services. I don't know if it was by instinct or anything else but the first thing i searched for was " Gandhiji's Assasination" and this is what google returned. I was amazed. The amount of information we are going to get now is going to rise exponentially. Considering Google's history I am very confident that any of their products and services will have a slight edge over its competitors. Now we get to read all the stuff that came on paper 50 years back. I just cant wait for what is going to come next from google.

GO GOOGLE!!!!

Previews and Reviews

2008-09-04T08:13:00.000-07:00

Another arbit post to express my opinions on certain developments which took place over the last week.

1) ROCK ON : Movie Review

I was looking forward to this movie for a long time and it did live up to my expectations. A nice feel good movie and Farhan was fantastic. His role was the best among the 4 guys albeit Purab's subtle comedy. Ever since Jhalak Dhik La Ja (Dance Show) I have become a huge fan of Prachi. She may not be on the same lines as Deepika or Bipasha but she is annoyingly cute with her evident dimple. Anyways another sad role for Arjun rampal who off late seems to be getting these uncanny loser boy roles. The music complements the movie and the songs are placed exactly at the right moments. Surprising not a single love or a dream song which makes it unique. The story may be a bit slow in the middle but picks up pace every time you begin to feel drowsy. Ever since DCH expectations have constantly been increasing and Farhan has done a nice job in making a movie on a different scale proving everyone that he is multifarious and junta can expect good quality movies from this young man. A Must Watch!!!

2) Launch of Google Chrome!!- Browser Review

The Advent of Google chrome has excited a lot of people. Why is there so much hype about CHROME?? The only reason I can think of is that its a Google product. Any Google product is worth the hype. The Beta version of Google chrome is out and as any other Google fan I downloaded it both at home and at my workplace. I was never picky about my browsers until my friend introduced me to a gamut of features in FireFox. The extensions and Plugins of FireFox still stand out and we need to see how Chrome can match these value added services. Definitely its a notch above IE and a shade below FireFox. I am sure Google will know how to increase their presence in this space. The incognito window would prove to be a great benefit for Naughty users of the Internet who try hard to make sure that the Temporary Internet files are deleted:). I like the fact that there is more screen space than other browsers which gives a nice browser experience. Overall a good start but a lot more is expected out of Google. Time will Tell!!!

3) Line and Strength- Book Preview

I am obsessed with Cricket Autobiographies and If it is from an Australian then I become paranoid.I am desperately waiting to get my hands on this book. I don't think it is out in India yet. If anyone could be kind enough to lend it or gift it to me I would be extremely grateful to them and I promise them an exclusive copy of SAM ANDERSON's Autobiography Titled DANCE LIKE ME. So please do the needful...

4) NAME CHANGE!!!

Finally After close to 2 years I am looking to change the Title of MY BLOG. I sincerely request my readers to please suggest few Titles. Please pour in your comments and I will chose the best. The Person whose title I chose will get to meet SAM ANDERSON Live when he comes out on a rare Public appearance. Guys Please come out with innovative names.

Definitely Not Incredible India!!!

2008-08-25T23:50:00.000-07:00

2 contrasting pieces of Information from different sources of media inspired me to write this post.

1) This is the first one.

This is stretching it a bit too much. I freaking cant believe what I read. You burn effigies for motivating a lone warrior. What kind of a nation is this. The activists wait for an opportunity to start a controversy. It is a shame. One of the protesters actually said that Bipasha is spoiling the mind of Vijender kumar by inviting him for a date. Is Vijender 10 years old or something? This is the heights. What kind of a jobless moron will make an effigy of bipasha and then burn it down. What a waste of time and money. What amazes me is after all this Bipasha would come out in the open to apologize publicly to save her skin. India as a nation is unpredictable. On one hand we hear that a lot of states are slowly trying to adopt a western culture while on the other hand we see burning effigies. If some one feels Bips is wrong please let me know. I would really like to know more about your personality. Where is India Heading? Do those activists of Nari Sangharsh Samiti not watch movies? Won't they go on a date with Bipasha? Or does date transalate into sex in their language? Your guess is as good as mine.

2) This is the second one.

A pretty old video but the music is mind blowing. All six songs in the album rock and this Project is going places. It is to prove that Tsunami Affected junta have a life and are making best use of their talent. Covering all six nations in Asia which were struck by the Tsunami this project captures the post Tsunami scene and how the countries are coping up through some superb creativity. The music will definitely have an impact on each individual. The Laya concert is going to take place pretty soon in Chennai and I am looking forward to that.

Some people trying to make a difference to our culture and society while the others are trying to counter them by their unwarranted remarks. Pretty sad to see India like this. Hoping for better news in the future unlike the one I read this morning.

Festival with a difference!!!

2008-08-17T04:42:00.000-07:00

I am a TAMBRAM and I am proud of that. Before you start thinking whether this post has got to do with some caste etc your totally mistaken. Its totally off track.

I have been introduced to a gamut of festivals ever since I was born. Every month my family and I would sit in front of the Pooja Room reciting Slokas and offering our prayers to the deity which celebrated his/her bday. When we know a festival day is approaching its never a great feeling. I don't know if it is a co-incidence or not but most of the days when there is a function we are bound to get up before sunrise. It is kind of hard on the individual and very taxing for people in my generation. I guess only Krishna Jayanthi is celebrated in the evening but I am not involved in that at all. Then I start to think!!

Hmmmm...

Which Festival am I even remotely involved in?

I am never part of any of the action. I definitely don't regret that but I begin to ponder. Why be part of the countless festivals when all we do is eat sumptuously and fall at the deity's feet?

Now let me start my post...The main reason I am writing this today is that I just completed my favourite festival. The double header: Avani Avattam + Gayathri Jabam. These 2 days are kick ass days. I get to control the entire festival, do it my own pace at my own sweet time. I just wanted to highlight on the differnt ways by which I have seen people do this sexy function. Its a total OB function where there are no ladies involved and the guyz get to control the situation. The first day we get to change the holy white thread but the second day is where the fun begin.

Day 2: Gayathri Jabam

Aim: To recite a particular sloka 1008 times.

Apparatus Required: Plates,tumbler, Hooked Spoon

Variation 1: My father is a firm beliver of this. Check this out...

Reciting the Sloka 108 times slowly at the pace of Gulzar or Pankajudas is = reciting it fast 1008 times... Beat that...

Variation 2: Recite it 1008 times at the pace of shane bond's delivery or may be Srikanth's dialogue delivery.

Time taken to complete it: An olympic record of 23 min and 44 sec... thats like 50 per min...if i am wrong please do the math...

Varation 3: Recite it only when some one comes to check on you...Else sit with a mobile or dream on and sit through the billable hours for your task. 2 hrs is believable.. ( experience)

Variation 4: Recite it in batches. First batch : morning session.. Second : Post Lunch: Third: Post Tea.

Tadaa..your done.. Only thing it will take close to a day to complete and there is no accuracy.

Variation 5: Finally the right one done my most people. Do it slowly and clearly. Loudly if one may wish. Finish it in 2 hours and you feel real good and fresh.

I have been performing this for over 8 years now and I have experienced all these at different times. If any of you have something new to share please let me know. We could come out with a name for the theories.

Basically its a fun filled flexible festival unlike other boring monotonous one's.

DARK KNIGHT!!!

2008-07-25T08:49:00.000-07:00

Yet Another review of what could be 2008's biggest blockbuster. A whole bunch of people I know have reviewed this awesome movie and I was forced to do it. Although I am not a great fan of super heroes and action thrillers I was some how allured to this movie thanks to the pre-release hype. I was so used to watching this , I went into the theater with a notion that The Dark Knight will be of the same genre. I have not seen any of Batman's previous movies and somehow I have never been a huge fan. Expecting the POW'S, BASH and the OOOOH's I agreed to join my friends in watching the movie.

The movie did not disappoint. It ended up being the Joker show all the way. It is really unfortunate that Heath Ledger died earlier this year. This guy was brilliant from the beginning and in most cases he over shadowed Batman. With a Perfect Blend of action and comedy Dark knight is a must watch. I dont think its advisable to reveal any part of the story as it must be enjoyed to the fullest. Dark Knight has come in handy to repair the not so great year for Hollywood.

It should do well at multiplexes...Screw it...It will do well anywhere it runs.

Phone blues!!!

2008-07-15T09:51:00.000-07:00

My cell phone just clocked 1000 hrs in the received call category. This is over the last year. Meanwhile the dialed numbers is well placed at 214hrs. What does this imply?

1) Close to 41 days I have been on the phone. I have no idea if this is very high or if it is the average in this current day and age. Either way the phone has taken one hell of a beating. I have definitely been Connecting to People. Go Nokia!!!

2) I am really stingy and I hardly make calls. But thats not true. I do give a lot of missed calls:)..

Anyway this post was to just find out if 41 days in a year is good or bad. I have no idea but I guess it should come down once the loan officers, insurance agents and Airtel mama's stop calling me.

Anyways in BIG B's style.. I am sleepy and gonna hit the sack... rathri, shabakair...

:)

2008-07-07T03:55:00.000-07:00

Guyz you must check out this awesome site which has some really innovative and funny Pics and videos. I had to share this one with everyone. One of the best.. Just after Ana Ivanovic won the french open.

Quizzing- LONG POST..Beware!!

2008-07-04T08:18:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since I wrote anything about quizzing.So a random long one on quizzing. Ever since my brother started winning quizzes at the school level I have been influenced by his actions. Although I started pretty late in my life my interest toward quizzing has always been pretty evident.I would be the first person to take part in any genre of quizzes. Although my USP lies in sports and current affairs I like taking a shot at arbitrary topics. Let me take you guys through the various stages in my quizzing life and my " so called " achievements.

My First ever quiz was in 5th standard where the top 2 in each class get selected for an intra school quiz contest in National Public School, Bangalore. One guy who was brilliant stood first with a score of 7 while 3 of us were tied with a score of 5 on 10. So we were given a question to break the tie breaker question and I lost out on that thereby not able to qualify. Just to note, the 2 guys I lost out to where Rahul and Pranay who are doing their PG in IIM-B right now. I don't really regret losing to these brilliant boys. I failed to qualify the next year as well and hence my interest deteriorated. That end's my Bangalore Quizzing journey. Meanwhile during my struggle to do well my bro used to win everything which comes his way. So motivation was in full flow.

Vanakkam Chennai

Chennai is the Quzzing Capital of India and there is no doubt that Chennai has given rise to some of the best quizzers India has ever produced. At the school level I really didnt have the exposure nor the company to take part in all the quiz competitions and hence missed out on a lot during class 7- to - class 10. Class 11 was when I again took back to quizzing after I heard some amazing quizzing stories from my brother and cousin. My first ever quiz was a Sports quiz in Bala Vidya Mandir where we were up against some formidable teams. A great quiz which we won on a tie break and I was happy with my return. Nothing significant happened after that since I had to Focus on my board exams.

I joined SVCE which has some proven examples of some amazing quizzers. The college has a great reputation for winning big quizzes. I made a big mistake in not showing much interest in the first 2 years of my college life which I deeply regret. Chennai has a gamut of opportunities for quizzers and I didn't make use of the opportunity. Finally taking the advice of my brother I joined QFI to gain some Gyan and follow my passion. This definitely improved my thought process significantly. Finally in my final year Quizzing became a serious obsession for me. After some serious struggle I got the best quizzer ( Ram Kumar/ Kabala ) in college to take part in a quiz with me. Amidst a power cut and some cool team play I won my first quiz in college. There was no stopping me after that as I won a string of quizzes thanks to Ram. He used to lead by example with me giving him the little extra support he requires. Finally I ended my college life on a great high which gave me the motivation to continue quizzing and this blog post as well. I obviously need to thank Ram, Badri , J and a few others who used to accompany me to quizzes. Quizzing is a great hobby to possess and I would love it if more people could pursue this.

Landmark Exploits

I came to Chennai in 1997 and I heard about the biggest Open Quiz in India. I was in standard 8 and the guys whom I was sitting in class were 2 guys named Badri ( MS in UTD) and Arun Balakrishnan (IIM-A) . I found out that these 2 boys were pretty enthusiastic about attending quizzes and naturally they became my partners. Come August 15th and we would be the first to enter music academy and get ready to compete with the biggies. That was the only quiz we used to attend and we had tried hard with the same combination for 6 years till class 12. Every year we used to have a personal target and we used to fall short of it by 1 or 2 questions. Landmark quiz was never a serious event for me at the school level. It was more of a fun filled evening for the three of us.

Since Arun had to leave myself, Badri and a enthusiastic girl (Rajitha- IIFT ) from my college became partners in crime. The only change was that I got a bit serious into quizzing and the urge to qualify became more. As usual we used to fell short of our targets but we used to have a ball. Finally after 10 years of waiting Landmark -07 got me on stage for the first time. But the sad part was that it was a tribute to my creativity and not my Knowledge. I got the Best Team Name award and later on I figured out I had got better prizes than what one of the finalist had got:).

I need to quote a particular incident here before I end the Post.

It was year 1999 and at that point of time she was a famous actress in Chennai and a great quizzer. One of the very few woman quizzers , she was a celebrity in Chennai. She had made the finals of Landmark that year. Badri, Arun and myself with a notion of embarrassing her were yelling her name and pretending to be an ardent fan of this actress. We were kids and all we knew was to yell. We were almost thrown out of the Auditorium since we yelled out her name so loudly and this could have resulted in the tantalizing loss for the lady.

Anyway the amazing co-incidence happened 8 years later. I had parted ways with my partners as they had other commitments to look forward to. I was left with no one to partner with and I shot a mail to the groups looking for one. Guess what!! I had actually turned up at Landmark-07 with the actress whom I had made a mockery off 8 years back. It was a wierd feeling to actually take part in that event. Anyway this time I was with her as we came tantalizingly close to qualify for the finals. We again missed out by a couple of questions.

Does butterfly effect/ chaos theory have anything to do with these links!! Your guess is as good as mine!!!

My judgment about me is very simple. I am not a great quizzer but a great team player. I work well with a team in working out the answers with some initial clues. I have a long way to go if my dream of winning landmark needs to become a reality.

Musical Moods!!!

2008-06-30T09:23:00.000-07:00

Guys..too lazy to to work out at the gym.. some motivation for u...

Stressed out after a long day....This will help you out of it...

Do you like your friends girlfriend.. This is the way to woo her....

Misc

Fought with mom...Watch This

My favourite song at this point of time...any freaking mood this rocks...Enjoy THIS

3 Mistakes of my life!!

2008-06-06T02:07:00.000-07:00

Finally i completed Chetan Bhagat's " 3 Mistakes of my Life ". Writing this book was definitely not one of his mistakes but it is definitely not alter lives in any way. Just as his previous 2 books Chetan continues writing in his stereotypical style which deals with the passion, ambition and the thought process going through the common man. The characters in his books reflects India's next generation and shows most of the problems faced by the young generation today. Chetans writing is no different from how you or me write and therefore makes a great read.

The book is based on real life events. Its a story about 3 boys Govind , Ishan and Omi. The entire book is narrated with Govind being the first person and the book is loosely based on the three mistakes Govind made in his life.Chetan in this book blends cricket, romance and business. Govind aspires to be a businessman and he tries to open a sports shop along with his friends. Govind is the cheerful math tuition teacher who teaches Ishan’s sister Vidya. Being the only girl in the story the readers would pretty much guess that she brings the aspect of romance in this book. Govind is allured by Vidya and they fall in love. In any religion it is not advisable to fall in love with your best friends sister and this adds complication to the friendship between Ishan and Govind. On the cricket front Ishan identifies unusual talent in the form of Ali who aspires to play for India. His journey to play for his country is well explained.

The climax is another cliched one just like his other books. A bollywood action flick would definitely end in a similar way. The ending could have been written in a better way but i guess he feels that this
masala is an ideal ingredient in his books. Looking forward for better books from Chetan in the future.

Just like his previous books The 3 mistakes of my life” should be read at one go. Overall a good read but definitely not the best.

Now it would be interesting to see what are the 3 mistakes of my life.

1) On a Business Front : I think I have the ambitions of starting something huge. So the chance of making a mistake till date is pretty minuscule.

2) On the Cricket Front: After becoming the Man of the match in my debut cricket match in standard 6 I moved from Bangalore to Chennai in 1997 which halted my progress. If i had continued with my coaching in Bangalore then you never know.. May be I would have been picked by the super kings or the Royals!! Stop Dreaming Gau!!!

3) On the Romance Front: I am very happy today being myself and I am glad if I had made any mistake...

This opens up an opportunity to Tag!! SO guys tell me what are the 3 mistakes of your lives!!

Tagging Adi, Kavya, , Mermaid, Jan

Book Tag!!

2008-06-05T03:50:00.000-07:00

The rules:

Pick up the nearest book.
Open to page 123.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the next three sentences.
Tag five people, and acknowledge the person who tagged you

Was tagged by Adi and unfortunately he has tagged the wrong person. Don't you know that I read books authored only by an elite group (comprises of Uncle Pai , Chetan Bhagat and Sidarth basu). Anyway I have tweaked the rules slightly.

This is from page 7 of the latest issue of the sportstar ( the nearest book at the time of writing).

Yusuf Pathan recalls an inspirational moment during the Indian Premier League campaign. The legend, Shane Warne, took the all-rounder to a corner during a practice session and then told him: “You are the main man for us. You will do the job for us.”

Damn he Indeed did the job.. Thats a different issue anyway.

Argh!! I need to tag now. So here goes. The lucky one's to be tagged are Pinky , Haresh , J , and Archana Ramesh.

French Bonanza!!!

2008-05-27T11:59:00.000-07:00

Over the course of the next couple of weeks the world could witness one of the greatest battles tennis has ever faced. Speculated to be the one of the hardest fought battles there ever was Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will go head to head at Roland Garos and it is highly probable that we could see the two of them battle it out at the final for the third consecutive year. The only trophy which has eluded Federer is going to make him go the extra yard to achieve the impossible.

Federer's slump

This year has not been great for Roger who has had a string of losses and is fighting to regain his lost form. A loss in the Australian open semifinal to Djokovich followed by a string of 7 losses has not been an ideal start to the year for the Swiss. The recent Hamburg loss against Nadal has shown Nadal's tenacity in clay and he is becoming better every year. Federer needs to rework on his strategy to counter the agility of Nadal if he wants to create history. This year’s French open will show the world if FED is the gladiator of Tennis or whether he features in the “So Near yet so Far" category.

Nadal's Hunting Ground!!!

The feature of Nadal's clay court game has been his agility and reflexes. As a Spaniard one would expect him to
excel in clay but to consistently maintain the position at the top is not by any means easy. His incredible record of winning 101 of his last 105 games in clay speaks for itself. Nadal has been unbeaten in Roland Garos ever since his debut and its going to take a monster effort for FED to overcome him.

In a fortnight we will know whether we have a Gladiator in the Tennis field or a hard fought wounded soldier.

Advertising at its very best!!

2008-05-24T11:26:00.000-07:00

There are very few advertisements which you feel like watching umpteen number of times and there are some which you wish you never saw. Here is one AD which has a very simple concept but an amazing background score. Not many Hindi background tracks I have cherished but this one will surely stay. If anyone can get me the MP3 of this song and other details like the music director etc please let me know. Most Importantly if some one could tell me who the beautiful girl in "black" inside the train at the end of the video is I promise to reward them:).

One year from now!!!

2008-05-15T04:21:00.000-07:00

Its 4.47 Pm and in the last one hour I have managed to prevent myself from dozing around 30 times. Thats when the idea of blogging struck my mind. It has been one year since I graduated and the only thing I have realized is that Time Flies. I have not managed to do anything substantial over the last year or so. I had planned a hell lot of things to do and i am falling short significantly.

Last year around this time I wanted to do the following.

Timeline: 1 year ago

Past: One year from now I hope to get a B-School and make a Euro trip just before joining it.

Present: I managed an all expenses paid trip to the States and I am a galaxy away from getting into a B-School. Although my closest friend has managed to get into a B school but missed the Euro Trip:)...

Past: One year from now I wish to have a website of my own and start making money out of it.

Present: I am too addicted to Google that I do not find the need to have a separate website of my own. (horrible Excuse)

Past: One year from now I wished that I break the 65-70 KG barrier.

Present: I have been trying hard to cross the barrier but I am stuck at the 58kg barrier. I wonder when and I wonder how...

Past: One Year from now I hoped that I have the IMDB top 250 movies and i watch them and give competition to my peers.

Present: I have managed to write around 80 movies but managed to see only 3 of them.

Past: I promised my friend that I would inculcate the reading habit over the course of the year and make sure I read books which are more than 300 pages long and are not Chetan Bhagat novels.

Present: I never read any book which was more than 100 pages but I am on the verge of reading Chetan's Latest book. Whats with him and me... NO idea man...Again I am not anywhere near achieving what I wanted to.

Past:One year from now I hoped to be responsible in life and not mess around with women.

Present: I have managed to be responsible but the only twist to the tale is that women are messing around with me:)...

A couple of things which I have managed to achieve

Past: One year from now I definitely didn't want to be a software programmer.

Present: I am extremely happy with my current position which is that of a consultant.

Past: One year from now I wanted my blog to exist and me posting continuously.

Present: I am very much doing this and you guys are reading it.

And the clock ticks 5.15 and I need to head back for another long evening.

Until next year...

7 ways by which IPL has changed my lifestyle!!!

2008-05-02T23:12:00.000-07:00

The Indian Premiere League has revolutionized the way cricket is being played. People are flocking into the grounds to watch the shortened version of the game known as 20-20. This version combined with all the razzmatazz and glitz has seduced a lot of woman to the stadiums.Never seen so many girls at a cricket stadium. With constant Thapan Guthu ( Tamil equivalent of Peppy numbers) and cheer leaders keeping the crowd entertained IPL has liven up to its hype and expectations. It has definitely been a grand success and with the Home Team doing exceptionally well (Chennai Super Kings) I have enjoyed it very much personally. So what has changed over the course of the last fortnight? What are the things IPL has stopped me from doing?

Listed down are 7 things by which IPL has changed my daily routine....

1) I have started going to the GYM in the mornings which means my day starts at 6.30 which is really early.

2) I am unable to keep up with the amount of news which comes in the 3 newspapers which i subscribe too.

3) IPL has prevented me from going on my daily walk to the nearby temple at 8PM.

4) IPL is making me take permission from work more often that I am supposed to. ( Hope my manager does not read this:)

5) It has prevented me from coming out with my usual 2 blog posts per week. Its been 2 weeks since I have written one.

6) I have no clue what weekends are like. The last two weekends have been at home watching the game. Wonder what dinner would be like outside during the weekend.

7) I have just explained how my evenings have changed. The worst part is the day leading up to the match is not any better. My entire day vanishes in a jiffy pondering over a strategy to beat my counterparts in Cricinfo IPL Fantasy Cricket. It is a addictive game and I hope to get my PSP. At the the time of writing I am placed last in my league and getting a PSP seems far fetched.

And one thing IPL has me do which I thought I will never do is wear a BAGGYGREEN Jersey to the game to support the Chennai SuperKings....I can never do that if India is playing at home....:)

Hopefully the addiction abates over the course of time. BTW i am tagging my readers on how IPL has changed their daily lifestyle.

NEWS: Never Ending war for Stuff!!

2008-04-13T22:58:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of hype and hoolah about Times of India coming to Singara Chennai. Will it work for the reserved Chennai junta or will it succumb to the dedicated devotees of " THE HINDU "?

This question should be answered in a few days from now but after reading the first issue this morning I am pretty sure of what we can expect. After careful analysis I am listing down a few reasons why I feel TOI will lose out compared to the Hindu but will be better than Deccan Chronicle.

Nothing can replace " The Hindu" if you are looking for NEWS and the pleasure of reading the newspaper in the toilet with your morning coffee. The Hindu with 24 pages is very light and it gives us the perfect balance and a perfect posture to read it. Meanwhile TOI has a lot more pages which makes it a lot heavier and the font is slightly weird making it abstruse. DC just cant be read in the TOILET for reasons which I cant mention in a Family Blog like mine. ( Hint: Google finds it hard to locate any relevant news articles in DC but when you search " Bikini + India " you are bound to hit Deccan's home page).

If one has to understand the difference in the nature of articles you can find on the 3 papers then you can expect 3 different headlines for the same story. This would help you guys decide which is the most Sane.

For example If one spots DEEPIKA and RANBIR in Satyam Theater this is what you could expect:

THE HINDU: First of all this wont come in the paper at all but just in case it does enter this would be the Headline:

Bollywood Couple spotted in Chennai Multiplex!! ( Fair enough... A short paragraph on why and who all were there)

TOI: The news piece will definitely come in TOI and I can expect it on the second or third page in the regional section.

Deepika and Ranbir found kissing in " A " Row of Serene. ( slightly exaggerated with a small picture of both of them kissing from a movie)

Deccan Chronicle: We can expect this news to be on the first page below some news about how a Chennai girl was found partying in Havana's Deccan Chronicle Night at around 11 Pm with 4 guys..

Deepika Pregnant with Ranbir... They did it in Satyam Theater in the wee hours of Sunday!! ( Picture of Deepika with the owner of Satyam)

This is likely to be DC's headline and I doubt things will change.. The only time I have ever read DC is when I appeared on it:)....

Newspapers will come and go but I doubt anything can replace the HINDU..at least for Chennai Makkal.

Good luck TOI!! Good initiative but its just a matter of time!!!

Who the F*** is MOHINI!!!

2008-04-09T09:56:00.000-07:00

It was Wednesday 2nd April and my friend calls me up when I was working and this is how the conversation goes:

X: Dai, Apparently Yarru Di Nee Mohini is releasing this friday...Tickets are getting over in Satyam..Please book fast...

ME: Oh really..Who is acting..Is it a good Movie...Why don't we wait for a week till the reviews come out?

X: Illa da.Apparently its amazing it seems..Super trailer...Trust me...( Very assuring)

Me: Okie find out how many people are coming and I will do the needful!!

X: Yeah book 5 tickets any show during the weekend..What ever is available..Real fast man..We may not get it... ( FAST FAST FAST!!!)

Me: Sure...(We Hang up)

I strictly adhered to what my erudite friend had to say. I completed the formalities of booking the only available show and I confirmed 5 tickets for the night show on Sunday as that was the only one viable.

There was a lot of excitement among my friends for a couple of reasons. Firstly, This was the first movie we went in a real long time and Secondly we heard that Nayantara is acting in the movie. The movie started off in a very cliched manner with the actor Dhanush portraying yet another role of the poorest guy in the world. This time he is going against his fathers wishes until he meets his love Nayantara.

Nayantara is a Project Leader( IT Jargon) in a very famous IT company which surprisingly does not have an office in OMR. Our Hero gets a crack at the interview and does exceedingly well to get the job as he knew that JAVA was an Object Oriented Language. Desperately trying to capture the attention of Nayantara , Dhanush finds himself in an unfamiliar situation of getting a project immediately after he is posted. It was too surprising to see that Dhanush was neither in BENCH nor in SUPPORT. He actually got a development project. Can u believe where the knowledge of JAVA being an OOPS concept can take you. Anyway Dhanush's hard work in figuring out the number of keys in a keyboard and his ability to TEST and DEBUG allows him to get an ON-SITE opportunity in Australia to meet his Client. Just like any IT professional Dhanush steals the thunder in Australia by engaging in some raunchy scenes with women in skimpy clothes. Meanwhile Nayantara does not show any skin and she is grumpy and irritating. Guess what happens next?.. Its the interval. Relieved after a good 20 min sleep I get up to grab some pop corn and Coke to keep myself awake to see if DHANUSH actually develops his own algorithm or not.

The second half has another vital character in Karthick Kumar entering the scene. He plays the role of nayantara's lover. This guy plays the only role he knows brilliantly which is being belittled by the HERO. Dhanush comes to the village to attend the marriage of Nayantara and Karthick and finds himself through a very horny girl, some tricky villagers and naked kids. He woos the oldest member in the village and the youngest mature girl in the village. Both of them want to spend their life with him and Karthick Kumar continues to play the role of a puppet brilliantly with a lot of ease. Finally after a few pathetic songs and some irritating scenes we all wait with anxiety hoping from some kind of twist in the end to make the movie worth its money and time. And our HERO does it again.He steals the show by sacrificing his life to stay with the oldest woman in the village. The twist we expected was that no one gets anybody and the movie comes to an abrupt end.

After 3 freaking hours we don't have an end and I don't get any value for money. All of us had to work the next day and it was a bad way to the end a good weekend. Definitely a movie not worth watching. I am going to rate it as low as possible and my title confirms my rating.

DREAM ON!!!!

2008-04-01T10:25:00.000-07:00

Slightly a late post but still had to write about it. To a certain degree my passion for cricket was influenced by my brother and the comprehensive knowledge he posessed just rubbed on to me as well. His favourite cricketer is Rahul Dravid and he has been supporting him ever since his inception into the game. Naturally that carried over to me as well and I became one of rahul's biggest fan. It has always been a dream for my bro to meet Rahul or atleast watch him score a sublime century. His dream was not fulfilled although his little brother ( which is me) managed to witness both those feats.

I was privileged to witness a Dravid century live at Chepauk the other day and during the course of that innings he completed 10000 runs in test cricket. Not many people would get their dreams fulfilled in their own backyard. I missed my brother's presence there as he would have wanted to be there more than me. A great shot to bring up his century and I was right there in front of Rahul cheering and watching him acknowledge the crowd. One of the great and rare sights and I really doubt it will happen again. This post is dedicated to my brother who is stuck in some god foresaken place trying to test cricuits while I am enjoying all the fun.

The picture below is taken after Dravid's century.

COPY CAT!!!

2008-03-22T09:15:00.000-07:00

I heard this awesome song called pehli nazar mein from the movie RACE. I generally love melodious numbers and this track caught my eye. The lyrics kicks ass:)... I settled down on my comp to download this song and instead I landed up at the first video. This song from RACE is a direct rip off from a Korean Song. I cant believe Indian music directors lack originality. Guys I have the links of both the songs. You can see it for yourself. Sad to see such stuff from our own music directors. Wonder how many more songs are directly lifted from Tibetian or Chinese tracks?

Original

Copied...

BLISS!!!!

2008-03-13T01:52:00.000-07:00

Been a little busy over the last couple of weeks due to a lot of travelling in and around the city. My brother has come down from the states and was awed by the developments in namma singara chennai. Chennai has gone leaps and bounds ever since i was born and for the last ten years i have been lucky to be a part of this transition. Anyway I have written a lot of posts about Chennai and this time i am planning to write about " Gods own COuntry".

Along with my family we set out on a holiday to an island 88km from Trivandrum called ASHTAMUDI. Keralites would have definitely heard of this place while some of us may not have a clue about this place. This place is the epitome of scenic beauty and this backwater retreat makes you feel like heaven. A great island set away from the hustle and bustle of the city provides a whole new outlook to relaxation.

Apart from street side vendors and a lake Ashtamudi does not have many scenic spots to see. We were staying in a resort of Club Mahindra and they have made amazing use of the limited space provided to them. The resort is located just along the bank of the river and one can see the great view of the early morning sunrise and the evening sunset. Both are unbelievable sights which shoud not be missed. I made sure I captured some useful shots during the 3 day trip.The resort is tailor made for honeymoon couples and we felt a bit out of place although we had a lot of fun bird watching and going on the house boat.

One must Wiki Chinese fishing nets and read how these devices are used to catch the fish.There are plenty of these in Ashtamudi and its a treat to watch the fisherman at work.The Mahindra resort is well equipped with a lot of facilities such as swimming pools, massage centers and indoor games. If you are a mahindra member accomodation will be taken care of else you need to revert to google for help. Guyz whenever you wanna de-stress ashtamudi is the right place to go. I am sure the next time i go there it will be with the right companion to make effective use of this brilliant gift from " God's Own Country".

Billion Dollar Baby!!!

2008-02-20T21:12:00.000-08:00

After all the hype over the Indian Premier league the numbers were out yesterday. It is astonishing to see the amount of money spent in this league. Two years back India were the only country to veto the T20 World Cup. Here they are 2 years later spending close to 160 Cr on a revolutionary league. How do the Franchisees gain from spending out so much money? What happens to the most understood format? Will players take up early retirement to make big bucks? Only time can answer these questions.

It is very nice to see India being a super power in at least one sport. India as a brand is gaining a lot of attention and this is great for the country. The concept of having city teams will be a great boost to seduce the audience. Chennai Super kings, Delhi Daredevils and Bangalore Royal challengers will soon become household names. There will be a great following for this game due to the timing and nature of the event. 3 hr Day and Night Games during the vacation season is ideal for the spectators and is the best time to play cricket and I am sure I will end up watching all the games.

Lets see how the event unfolds and I am sure the 45 day event will be riveting and absorbing. It is not often you get to see all the stars in one common stage and the whole idea is delicious. Lets see if the super kings can match the Super Stars. Being a madrasi i am going to back the kings to deliver.

Catch 22

2008-02-12T08:59:00.000-08:00

I completed 22 years of my life on the 6th of February and it was another special birthday. My first birthday as a professional (Not a student ) and it was a different experience. Thanks to orkut I was wished by a lot of people whom I have hardly kept in touch. Technology is definitely playing a role every birthday. Thought I will write about how birthdays have changed over the years.

School- I am sure all of us would have had similar birthday's in school. Wearing a brand new color dress and distributing chocolates was of primary importance. Small parties followed by innovative cakes was part of the agenda. School birthdays was exciting where most of the action used to place during the day at school.

College- This was the time when midnight surprises and treats were a must. With the advent of mobile phones, speaking all through the night followed by a lot of wishes at college was the need of the hour. Gifts and spending the day with boyfriend/girlfriend was mostly followed. This is how birthdays have been in my life. I would rate college birthdays as the best.

At work- Looks like I am getting old. Birthdays are slowly becoming just another day when we sit at at our desk trying to meet deadlines and making our bosses happy. I have experienced only one so far but that was far from boring. It was super exciting thanks to some wonderful friends I have. Moving forward I expect birthdays to lose its charm. Lets wait and watch.

Sorry about this boring post but I really felt like comparing such days.

P.S- The title has absolutely nothing to do with the book as it is tribute to the 22 years I have spent in my life so far.

Song -Review

2008-01-29T08:39:00.000-08:00

I rarely review anything apart from movies but this time i am forced to review a song. I have fallen in love recently with a song from ARR's latest flick called Jodha Akbar. It is a song called Jashn-e- bahara. Another masterpiece from the gawdddd. A slow melodious number gets me into a completely different mind frame. Guys you must listen to this track..It is an ideal track to listen after lunch or for that matter after dinner... This post is going nowhere...Anyway download and listen to it asap.

Mixed Bag!!!

2008-01-21T08:49:00.000-08:00

It has been a long time since I have posted anything. So this is a post to make sure that there is no gap in the middle. No movies or book to review. There was nothing spectacular happening in my life and I am just out of a short weekend which saw 2 contrasting days

Saturday saw the end of a great run by the Aussies. A 16 match streak was finally broken in their own den by a Few Good Men. The Indians played with a lot of passion and the rookies came to the fore. Being a passionate Australian supporter it was too hard to see them lose but it had to happen someday and Perth was unfortunate to witness the drama unfold. Indians manage to beat the kangaroos with some exceptional swing bowling and some astute batting. After all the drama at Sydney the series now moves to its final phase to the city of Churches. I had a rough day handling a lot of die hard Indian Supporters but as the saying goes " Every dog has its day" and India had its day at Perth.Anyway Saturday came to an end brooding over India's win. I know I am such a sadist but all i can say is " Life ho tho Aisi"

Sunday was a total contrast. After a tiring nets session I had met up with a couple of friends for coffee at Barista. Everything was going smoothly before I was dragged by a few friends into a unfamiliar territory which I would call as "Dancing". Some people are great dancers when they are in a state of Trance while some are naturally gifted. I don't fall under either of these categories as I dance when i feel like and It generally turns out to be pretty cool. Dancing is one art I am finding hard to master. Anyway it was my friends place where we decided to unleash and each one of us danced to the maximum extent possible. Some guys had no clue what was happening but the dance never stopped. After 2 hrs of continuous dancing it all came to a sudden halt when one of my friends had a few problems with his lose shoulder. The weekend ended on a high note and I was slowly learning to master the art of dancing. Until Next time!!!!!!!!!!!!

Weekend to Cherish!!!!

2008-01-06T04:05:00.000-08:00

2008 could not have started better.The first weekend of this year turned out to be a spectacle of the highest order for chennai junta. I was one of the lucky ones to gain entry (thanks to my colleague who had arranged tickets) into the SDAT Tennis stadium in nungambakam for the Chennai Open . It was the semifinal match between Nadal and local favourite Carlos Moya. It was a gripping match from the outset with both players playing top quality tennis. Moya's forehand was superior than Nadal's and Nadal was always trying to catch up from the beginning.

The match lasted for 3hrs 54 min which is the second longest three setter ever played. The game had a lot of tense moments which left us chewing our nails and I was stuck to the edge of my chair. Nadal saved 8 match points at various junctures of the game to emerge victorious. Nadal's athletism and his temper helped him to overcome the Moya challenge which was supplemented by the support he got from the Chennai crowd. I am a Nadal fan and thankfully he came out as the winner. The match ended at 11.15 localtime with the stadium filled with buoyant tennis fans. It was a great way to spend a Saturday night.

After all the shouting and close moments the previous night I was hardly left with any energy. But the drama was not over for the weekend. As usual my Sunday began as early as 4.30 to watch the final day of the Second Test match between India and Australia at Sydney. All 4 results were possible at that time and the game till lunch was pretty boring. Going into the second session India required 330 runs with 9 wickets in hand. The game was moving slowly until Laxman and Sachin got out to some good bowling by Clark. The Wall and Dada were taking control of the game when Mr Bucknor decided to change the course of the game. He gave a shocker of a decision to Rahul while Sourav was done by some poor communication between the Umpires. Yuvaraj who was definitely out of sorts may have been distracted by his SO CALLED FRIEND Deepika Padukone present at the ground. Anyway he was dismissed for a duck and it was up to Dhoni and Kumble to take India to a safe zone and they did a phenomenal job.

The two gritty players battled for about 100 mins and dhoni was dismissed with 10 overs to go. Symo was bowling a dream spell but he just could not find the breakthrough. 2 overs were remaining in the day and Ponting threw the ball to Michael Clarke who is known for taking wickets against India. The match was surely heading for a draw and all the Indian Batsman had to do was survive 12 balls. But the Indian tailenders were decieved by the bounce got by Clarke which induced Bhaji and RP Singh into false shots which caused them their wicket. Suddenly India found themselves in a position where they had to save the match and they had only one wicket in hand. Tension prevailed and it was more than what i had undergone a day ago at the Nadal-Moya match. Ishant Sharma who faced his first big pressure situation succumbed to the pressure and Australia actually pulled off a spectacular win which was totally not expected from the situation they were in. With this win they managed to equal the winning streak of Steve Waughs Team and I have never been so elated for an Australian Victory.

If you guyz are wondering how on earth is the above paragraph a moment to cherish my only answer to you guyz will be that, I am the biggest Aussie Fan and victories like this will be definiely cherished by me for a long long time to come...Go Aussies GO!!!!!!!!

One weekend is enough to stir you up for the hectic week ahead of you. A great start to the year and hope I face more and more weekends like this in this Year.

Awards-2007

2008-01-03T08:54:00.000-08:00

Every year I come out with awards for the previous year and similarly I continue to do so this year also. Below is the list of awards with their category and reason for winning. These awards are strictly for achievements for the Year 2007.

Best Holiday spot - Nandigram ( Having an ambient atmosphere)

Best Actor-Pervez Musharaff ( for claiming that he did not kill Benazir)

Best Actress- Rakhi Sawant for her show in Nach baliye

Businessman of the year- Ram gopal varma for his stupendous remakes.

Sportsman of the year- Tied between John Abraham and Munaf patel For athelitism and skill.

Dancer of the year- Sreesanth

Addiction of the year- Deepika Padukone

Writer of the year- Dilip Vengsarkar

Strongest Man of the year-- Rajinikanth for defeating a million people in one fight

Most efficient organization of the year- Supreme court for their verdict on Sanjay Dutt for the
1992 Bombay blasts

Comeback/Goback of the year- Benazir Bhutto

Inspiration for young college students- Vishal and Rakesh- (boys involved in the shootout at the
Delhi school)

Anchor of the year- Mandira Bedi for Extraa Innings

Bollywood-2007

2007-12-31T09:40:00.000-08:00

Hopefully I am just in time before the clock strikes twelve. This will most likely be the last post for the year 2007 which has been a great year for the movie industry.As I promised I am going to review Bollywood for the year 2007. On a whole it was a decent year with a lot of movies doing very well and making a big impact among the audiences. Usually over the years Hindi movies are marred by a lot of glamor and big names. But this time it was a bit different with only one movie making the cut due to its banner. Anyway Let me get straight into the top 5
movies of the year 2007.

This was pretty easy considering the fact that the really good ones were a cut above the rest.

5) GURU

Manirathnam's Guru takes 5th position due its different storyline and superior acting by Abhishek and Mithun. The story of Dhirubhai portrayed in a unique method was well accepted by the audience.I loved the songs of the movie and the duration of the movie was not too long. Ash and Abhishek rightly hit it off during the shooting of this movie. Overall a great start to the year with the hyped up GURU meetings its expectations.

4) CHEENI KUM

This was one movie which definitely took me by surprise. I expected another of those Choti Si Love stories type but I got something totally different which was really cool. Comedy and Romance blended amazingly well which kept me entertained throughout the length of the movie. The small girl played a very different role which was unique by the industry standard. I enjoyed the slap stick comedy more than anything else. Cheeni Kum was refreshing.

3) OM SHANTI OM

This movie is third only because of the masala and Deepika. Story is not so impressive but the way it has been shown on screen really caught my eye. As usual me being Deepika's biggest fan I am a bit biased with respect to this but with some amount of comedy and glamor this movie is definitely worth watching once. Om Shanti Om was a very good diwali release which kept up its hype with the huge star cast.

2) Chak De India-It was a very very tough call to make which movie I liked the best in 2007 but i had to choose between the 2 biggest hits according to the masses. They are Taare Zameen Par and Chak De India. Both these movies came out with inspiring messages and they had an amazing script. While SRK did the trick for Chak De Aamir scored with Taare Zameen Par. Chak De was another motivational movie for sports buff's which sent the people a strong message that there is Life apart from cricket. SRK dawned his new role with ease and the girls also acted brilliantly. Chak de India was a short and sweet movie and when I came out of the theater it definitely felt good and I still regret that I am not a sportsman. Another great script complemented with superb acting.

1)TZP is a super movie shot really well. The kid has done a tremendous job. It was so hard to believe that kids have so much talent in them. TZP cleary sent out a message to other film makers to come out with different stories in order to reach the viewers. I loved TZP and it is definitely a movie which you ought to watch with a full packet of paper napkins.TZP came in late 2007 but it has definitely made a huge impact and is sure shot hit at the box office.

Overall both these movies have made a huge impact and I hope 2008 will continue to live up to the expectations of the people.

The movies which failed to make the cut were Bhool Bhulaya, Hey baby and Partner, Life in a Metro. I would also like to make a special mention to Akshay Kumar for his stellar performances in all his movies. He is a highly Under rated actor and I am sure he is due a big one sooner rather than later.

Top 5 Flops

5)Aaja Nachle
4)Aap ki Suroor
3)Khoya Khoya Chand
2)Jhoom Barabar Jhoom
1)Saawariya

Top 5 Songs

5) Bol na Halke-Jhoom Barabar Jhoom
4) Saajan ji-Honeymoon Travels
3) Chak De-Chak de- Sulaiman
2) Ajab Si-OSO-Vishal Shekar
1) Tere Bina-Guru-A R Rehman

Happy New Year too all my readers...Keep Reading...

Kollywood in 2007- A review

2007-12-26T10:06:00.000-08:00

So another year has gone by and I thought I will go through the movies which i feel has made a mark and those which failed to make the cut. This year there were a lot of off beat movies both in Tamil and Hindi. Those were the movie which actually stood apart. This post will deal with Kollywood while my next post will focus on Bollywood. I am sorry to disappoint the Hollywood fans. I would not be reviewing them since I do not have enough expertise to evaluate this years performance.

This year saw 5 movies taking Kollywood by storm with its sheer uniquenes. Each movie was special and it had a strong message for the people. So these are my top 5 Movies in Tamil for the Year 2007. This list includes only the movies which I have seen.

5. Pachaikili Muthucharam

I had not seen the English version"Derailed" before . So i actually enjoyed the plot which was complemented with some fantastic background score and incredible music. Goutham Menon was pretty good and did a decent job having new actors in the fray. The story line was strong and it could have been taken slightly better. Overall i enjoyed the movie and it would take 5th spot.

4. Unnale Unnale

Another typical love story and a very buoyant movie.Its a feel good movie with some great music. Sada was a huge turn off while the rest of the cast did a decent job. Another time pass movie which did decently well at the box office. The reason this is there in my list is because i have not seen the number of movies which i must have seen this year.

3. Mozhi

A feel good movie which had a superb blend of comedy and romance. The Dialogue delivery was fantastic and the fast paced nature of this movie never got me bored. With practicaly no exposure of skin the director has managed to provide an out and out family entertainer. Mozhi
was definitely a movie which deserves ample recognition.

2. Shivaji

The superstar was back and this time it was with a deadly combination which involved ARR,Shankar and Rajini himself. 3hrs was enough to showcase Rajini in various attires, Vivek's comedy, and Shreya's graceful dancing. Shreya was at her very best showing the right amount of skin at the right times. The story as predictable considering shankars previous movies but the manner in which it was conveyed to the fans was outstanding and it left the fans glued to their seats.Shivaji was definitely a blockbuster and the amount of hard work and time spent into this venture definitely has enabled them to reap fitting rewards. The best part was that I managed to see shivaji on the very first day thanks the wonderful people of California who managed to screen the movie over there.

1. Chennai 600028

This was my best movie of the year 2007. Non stop laughter and a movie which i could totally relate to my life for many reasons. One was that I live in Chennai 600028 while the other was obviously cricket. It was a unique movie with a very different story line. The young director has done a great job and the fact that it was released as soon as the world cup was even more stress relieving. Smallest aspects of day to day lives were taken care off by the director who has done a stupendous job with the minimum budget he had to his credit. Local Tamil slang and youthful exuberence was portrayed very well. Chennai 600028 was a great movie which I saw twice and enjoyed every single moment of it. It is definitely my movie of the YEAR 2007.

Paruthiveeran, Kaloori,and Pokkiri should have made this list but i never saw those movies and hence they dont qualify for this blog post.

My Top 5 flops of 2007

The following movies were pathetic and just not upto expectations. It is sad that such amount of money is wasted in such meaningless movies which fail to make any kind of impact among the masses. These are my takes for the biggest losers for the year 2007

5) Aalwar
4) Malaikottai
3) Machakarran
2) Mayakannadi
1) Azhagiya Tamil Magan

My Top 5 Songs

Music as usual continued to do an outstanding job this year. Since it is incredibily hard to single out 5 songs I am gonna give one song from each music director which I loved this year.

ARR- Athiradee From Shivaji and Maduraiku from ATM
HJ- Undoubtedly my favourite song of 2007- Kadhal Konjam from Pachaikili Muthucharan and June Pona From unnale Unnale
Yuvan- Yarro from Chennai 600028
GV Prakash- Minnalai Koothandam from Pollathavan- Very melodious number
Mani Sharma- For all the lovely remixes in the movie Pokkiri.

Overall an average year in kollywood and it is time that the directors come out with new ventures which are unique and close to the heart.

Religious Trek!!!!

2007-12-08T23:41:00.000-08:00

After a lot of contemplation I actually decided to go to the Iyappa Temple at Sabarimala. It was a unique experience which I thought I would blog about. I didn't really follow the so called 45 days fast etc since I decided to go on a much earlier date. So i chose the concise package which is about 15 days before the date of journey. This meant going to the temple topless and a Dhoti. I managed to pull that out and having a beard was no big deal. This was the first time I was going and I was accompanied by my dad and a couple of his friends who were pretty experienced. I expected the entire trip to be pretty easy since there were a lot of old people climbing their way through those tough conditions.

We set out on a Friday night and we were fully equipped. Reached Eranakulam on Saturday morning and started driving towards the foothills of Sabarimalai. It was known as Pamba. Apparently we had to have a dip there before beginning our trek. The river hosts close to about one lakh pilgrims daily. Imagine we had to have a dip on that river. It must be easily the most polluted river ever. I hesitated so much while i saw people swimming there considering the fact that it was Holy. Pilgrims were trying all possible strokes on that river which would have even
made Ian Thorpe very proud. After all the formalities were complete I set out on the trek. It was Apx a 7Km climb. I expected roads to be present since everyone knows we should not wear any kind of footwear.

Initially for about 1 km there were concrete pathways which made it slightly simple to climb. Then started the tough part. All that I was stamping on was Gravel. It was Stones all the way till the top for the next 5 Km. I managed to climb it even though i found it extremely hard. Then came my next surprise which was the city. As soon as i reached the city i saw more than 2 lakh people lined up to witness the deity. It was shocking that so many people actually show enthu to come this far just to witness the deity for 5 seconds. Obviously there was no way we were going to get through the long queue of 2 lakh people.

So we chose the shortcut which is paying the concerned personnel his share of money so that he could take us through a path pretty unknown to the outside world. And we found our self finally in front of the deity and we got about 15 -20 secs to gape. It was way too crowded and the whole point of going through all these tough conditions for just 25 secs seems totally meaningless to me. I was gasping for breath and trying to identify some kind of space to relax. It was impossible to find anything. It was utter chaos. I finally gave up and we got out of the temple. I realized that the entire city has no roads and it full of stone with people lying down on the pathway. It was an ideal place for writing good poetry.

On our way back down the mountain it was worse. The slope was pushing us down and we had to control our pace which meant more effort on the legs. For a debutant like me it was definitely hard to counter the tough conditions. I sound so much like a cricketer. Anyway with all the difficulty I managed to come down just to find midway that a one kilometre stretch was filled with Urine. Trust me people don't have any brains as they drain their waste right in the middle of everything. It was a sad picture and a sad story which I hope is rectified sooner rather than later. Walking barefoot on urine is not an ideal way to see a deity. Anyway overcoming such precarious situations, I managed to come down. My legs were definitely in for some trouble bit it is part and parcel of the whole package.

With so much money flowing in the temple I am surprised that they have not spent it in on providing better facilities for devotees. They are hoping to stick to the traditional method which is fair enough but it would be better if they pay some attention to hygiene. Anyway managed a decent trip and it was a pretty good experience. For people who have gone there often I guess it is not that hard.

Oh you beauty:)

2007-11-26T06:47:00.000-08:00

I was browsing through last week’s India Today and this issue was a tribute to INDIA- " The entire country" . Basically they reviewed the top 50 spots or annual events which one should not miss when on a trip to the country. Topping the charts was tribals dancing in the night at a desert in jaisalmer. Now hats off to jaisalmer but what i would like to actually convey was something else. I kept turning one page after another hoping to find chennai somewhere. I found delhi, calcutta, patna, kerala but chennai was no where to be seen. Chennai is supposed to be the land of temples, the origin of bharatanatyam, origin of dosa's and the land of the Superstar Rajinikanth and a whole range of cultural events. Surprisingly nothing actually caught anyone's eye.

So i thought i will come out with five specialities of chennai which tourists can look forward to when they come here. If you guyz feel i have missed something feel free to comment.

1. Ghee Roast!!!!!

This is the ultimate speciality of chennai. Anywhere , Anytime this will be available. Its a chennai special..

2. Besant nagar beach

Evenings at this place can never be bad. Unbelievably pleasant and an ideal loaction to destress

3. The December Music Festival

Come December 1st people line up either at the cafeterias or at the concerts for a month long celebration of carnatic music. Various artists perform at odd times and such an ambience is never got anywhere else except in chennai.

4. Ranganathan street

Be it Times square or Central london it cant get special than this.Even though i have never managed to get inside this precious road i have witnessed the chaos from outside. Tourists must try entering this road and check out what they go through:).

5) First day First show of a rajini movie

There is nothing like attending a first day first show of the superstars movie. Its chaotic, boisterous and an experience by itself. No bollywood movie will ever get such a response like a rajini movie gets. Thats Chennai's biggest event...

Finally how can i forget this..The wild card entry...

Vanga mama and mami:)

What 60% of chennai is comprised of...Mamas and Mami's....

These are definitely chennai's USP...Hopefully you guys agree with me...

UNREALISTIC BUT GLAMOROUS

2007-11-10T01:40:00.000-08:00

After all the hype finally a whole bunch of movies released during diwali.I had my eye on only one of them while I let the others pass. I chose OM SHANTI OM for 2 major reasons. Firstly Deepika Padukone plays the lead in this and secondly I love the music of the movie. I managed to get a ticket for a show on the first day and went inside with a lot of expectations. The movie started off very well with an intro song for SRK and followed by some subtle comedy. The theme was that of 70's and it did go well with the audience. I am a huge fan of Deepika and I was totally awed by her screen presence. Her entry left me gaping and staring just as SRK did throughout the movie. She looks glamorous and in brief she is a bombshell.

The first half is a tribute to the movies taken around 30 years ago. It had decent comedy with SRK spoofing the south Indian actors one by one. He has done it very well which aids in keeping us awake.Shreyas Talpade has made a good use of his opportunity and has done a good job. To be honest I was too involved in deepika that I really could not notice any flaws in her acting. She was sizzling from the first reel. Anyway somehow we get through to the interval without any glitches and the second half begins with SRK flaunting his six pack.

Slowly the movie loses its path and becomes highly illogical. Farah Khan uses her influence to have 31 stars coming together in one song and attracting the audience. She manages to keep everyone glued to the screen in spite of deepikas absence. Hot is a understatement to describe the actresses who make their appearance one by one romancing SRK. F&*$ they were hot. Shilpa shetty,Diya Mirza, Amisha patel,malaika arora,priyanka chopra,karishma kappor,vidya balan to name a few captured everyone's heart. Just as we begin to follow the movie again Farah disappoints with some terrible screenplay and some illogical scenes. Again Deepika's new avatar keeps us going in bits and pieces. When the so called suspense is revealed it will be hard to believe how one got through the entire movie without any problems.

On the whole OM SHANTI OM is a huge disappointment. If not for Deepika and SRK this movie won’t run for more than a week.SRK's acting is top notch and I feel Deepika could have got a better launch story wise. Anyway it’s a great start for her and hopes she uses her assets to perfection in the future. My advice is that this movie is watchable once and then to be forgotten. Analysing the movie could get you into a lot of trouble.

This review could be a bit biased in favour of deepika but I am sure once you see the movie all of you will agree with me. I really don’t have much of a choice. She is too hot:).

THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION!!

2007-10-27T10:21:00.000-07:00

The advent of social networking sites has created a new revolution over the last one year. The 2 sites to stand out has been Orkut and Facebook. I am sure these sites have definitely eaten up an hour or two of everybodys routine.We have basically about 22 hrs a day now to catch up on our usual work. From a B School topper to an average student in sikkim everyone has an orkut profile. I am sure once everyone finishes checking their mails the next site they browse is either Orkut or facebook. So i thought i would just blog about these 2 sites which is causing so much havoc among Indians.

Google has control over orkut and Microsoft have had the last laugh with respect to Facebook. Finally some respite for Microsoft since they have always been a distant second behind google.Google is rocking and are rapidly moving forwards with new innovations every single day.The rivalry between these companies have created two new timelines for the society.There is not a day when i dont hear the word orkutting or facebooking:) and i am sure most of you will agree with me.

This is the new ORKUT AGE where most conversations among youths have some relevance to orkut. Everyone knows whats happening to others and what each person is upto.Its a great thing to get back in touch with some old friends but your privacy is screwed here. Orkut has a majority of Indians and Brazillians.Indians thrive for gossip and orkut is the perfect solution. Trust me i have learnt so many things form orkut over the 2 years i have been.At times last year there was such a craze that people used to fight for the number of fans they had.A couple of my friends went to such an extent where they create multiple Id's and become fans of themselves to overtake the others.Orkut has had a huge impact among Indians and no one really complains.Will you please accept my friendship is very common from the rural areas of kumbakonam to the bustling streets of Mumbai.

Profile pics changing,Testimonials are being written,everyone is aware of who is dating whom and what not.No need of having a face to face meeting at all.Orkut takes care of everything.Any one who claims that orkut is a waste of time is definitely faking it.They are not real and all the desperate men who seek friendship are just continuing to prove they they are Indians and obviously they are desperate.I know friends who have created a profile for their new born babies also.Thats the kind of reach orkut has.I guess the privacy part can be sacrificed since it is a social networking site and thats what it is meant to be..Socialize.

Obviously to counter orkut we have facebook.Facebook takes care of the privacy part which orkut lacked.Facebook adds a lot of knowledge along with hazar applications.Applications could be a bit annoying at times when a million invites keep coming up.Facebook adds value with its interface and it brings friends more closer than orkut does.You wont find anything funny on facebook like mujhe friendship banaye or something like kutti variya??? Facebook has attracted the americans which is pretty rare.To top it up facebook has an Orkut application were you can check your scraps on facebook...wierd right...Facebook is also catching up on the youth and people are clever enough to divide their time among both these sites.The FACEBOOK Age is giving a strong competition to orkut but i am sure both will do exceptionally well as each have their own USP.

This battle of social networking sites is aiding the current generation and it is definitely a boon and a great way to destress.There is not a day when i dont hear the word orkutting or facebooking:) and i am sure most of you will agree with me.

Overall my opinion is that its a great thing to happen to us and we must make the best use of it..

One joke to end with:

Shivaji's catch line was inspired due to orkut and facebook only..Do you know how?

Vaanga pazhagalam in tamil translates to Come lets SOCIALIZE:)

HONEST INTERVIEW :)

2007-10-23T03:53:00.000-07:00

I am sorry about my articles being a bit redundant and focussed a lot on cricket but certain articles are so inviting to write about that it is hard to keep away.I hate Ajith Agarkar to the core and the interview he gave Rediff was too tempting to not comment about. I am going to give my views on his answers.so feel free to give yours too...I have placed my answers if i were Agarkar and provided the link for the actual interview. I suggest you read the actual interview first so that you can relate to this..

http://www.rediff.com/cricket/2007/oct/23agarkar.htm

Ajit Bhalchandra Agarkar is as much a household name in this cricket-crazy country as his illustrious Mumbai and India colleague Sachin Tendulkar. The only difference is that despite being very talented with bat and ball, and in spite of getting enough opportunities to prove his worth, he hasn't performed as consistently as a player of his ability and stature is expected to.

The above statements were written by Rediff and hence it makes so much sense..

In an exclusive interview Agarkar talks at length about his international career and admits he hasn't lived up to his great potential.

A:Talks at length huh...Its hardly a one page interview...

You were a key member of the Indian team that won the innugural Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa, but there is no place for you even in India's one-day squad now. How do you feel about it?

Oh god..Key member huh..I did not even play the last few games... I was the main member of the bus journey when we came back home...I asked my fans to come and see..but no one came actually...I am not in the team because of my talent...only because of politics...

You are in international cricket for 10 years now. How do you assess your career, your achievements?

I survived because of politics and most of the higher authorities are attracted towards me..lol I have no achievements and hence i dont wish to talk about them...

What are those certain things you would like to do a bit better?

I think i should have attended coaching when i was young..I came directly to play...i am very sad that after ten years i still dont know how to bowl...I have taken only 58 wickets out of which 47 are tail enders. Sometimes I tell the captain i dont want bowling..i regret it now...

Why is it that the real Ajit Agarkar has hardly been seen in Test cricket barring on a few occasions?

I have taken a lot of wickets in Australia because i am motivated by the girls in the stands sitting in bikini..as i mentioned most of those wickets were tail enders and i will try improving next time to take more wickets on my own accord.

Are you sure of your role in the Indian team? Sometimes you are called an all-rounder and sometimes merely a bowler...

Oh really huh...AM i called an all rounder..I cant believe it..I am a No rounder..i cant do anything...

Do you think your captains have employed and handled you properly?

Yeah all i could do was give boundaries in the end and at the beginning sometimes..So the captains job was very easy...

You have had different bowling partners as well?

Yeah i learnt from venkey how to bowl the slower ball..but i forgot to learn how to bowl it accurately..thats were i went wrong..I learnt from srinath how to give runs in the last few overs and i think i have been pretty successful.

Why is it that the contest against Australia often brings the best out of you?

I have answered this question previously...but i would like to add in 1999 i got out for 6 consecutive ducks because i was immature and did not know how to react when i saw girls expose..

Talking about Australia, the tour Down Under in 2003-04 must have been a very special one for you. How was it like winning a Test against Australia in Australia?

I think the credit must go to only Dravid and Laxman.

How was it like scoring a Test hundred at Lord's in 2002?

It was a mega fluke and all my edges went to the boundary. The fielders did not catch the ball and i was very lucky..I usually remember team wins because i enver contribute to them..so its easy to remember...

You began your international career in a blaze of glory, taking a record 50 wickets in only a few ODIs. Your amazing success triggered off high expectations. And people began to expect great things from you always. How was, or is, the pressure playing under the weight of such expectations?

Who asked everyone to expect...It is their fault and not mine..First few wickets were all mistakes by batsmen...

Considering your talents, don't you think you have missed out on at least 26 Tests in your career so far?

Not at all..i am happy to have got the amount of chances i have got so far..

Could you name some batsmen who may have truly tested you as a bowler and given you a torrid time?

Ha ha ha ...what a funny question..every batsman from openers to tail enders have given me a torrid time...How can i name one? Everyone whom i have played with has troubled me..

Are you happy with the fast bowling scenario in the country today?

I am very happy with the current scenario.Now days the bowlers can actually bowl unlike me..Very very happy..hope they dont get spoilt like me..

Has Mahendra Singh Dhoni the makings of a Test captain, too?

Hmmmm anyone apart from me is a better captain....

READ IFF !!!!

2007-10-12T22:00:00.000-07:00

I have wanted to write about this for like a long time now and i thought this would be an appropriate time.Guyz rediff has like the most hilarious comments you will ever see.Any news which comes up next time please scroll down and have a look at the discussion.It beats stand up comedy hollow.Its a treat to read those.It can cheer you up when your low,You can let go off your stress and all the depression you ever had.I will try pasting a few of them but make sure all of you check them out when your bored..Its a lot of fun.Rediff being such a huge site should not spoil their name by these comments.They must have some kind of a filtering system or so.Its ridiculous to see those comments.Anyway as long as we are entertained it is fine with me

enjoy!!

for this article
http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/oct/12nobel2.htm

good morning pachuri..
by Final Moderator on Oct 13, 2007 09:32 AM | Hide replies

has it sunk it yet - ?
YOU HAVE NOT WON IT, please dont feel humbled. PLEASE DO NOT TAKE CREDIT. please do not make fool of yourself - al gore can congratulate the leader of IPCC, but you did not call him up , even though he won it as an individual.

for this one..

http://www.rediff.com/cricket/2007/oct/12shane.htm

Rediff you do not have any rights to write on Shane Warne and his personal affairs.
Shane Warne must be not even aware of the rediff.com.
Rediff instead should have covered RSA/PAK Test match and Inzy farewell.

another idiot said this
sometime back he completed sex with 1000 woman may be this is 1001

p.s[Its a very short post since its my first post from WORK:) ]

NO ENTRY!!!

2007-10-09T10:32:00.000-07:00

I was shocked to see that Ekalavya has been nominated as India's entry for the oscar this year.The importance of the oscars and the legacy behind it is definitely not taken into account by the concerned people who chose this movie to be an entrant.I think the authorities feel that to be nominated for a oscar the movie should not have many songs and must consist of a fight sequence.If this was the criteria Ekalavya is an amazing choice and i think it has a great chance to win.Trust me it is highly ridiculous that Ekalavya has been chosen.The story lacks substance and it was a very dull affair.I am not too sure how the entire process works and it would be nice if anyone can explain how it works.There has to be a reason justifying the entry of ekalavya.To be honest none of our movies deserve an entry to the oscars.

The standard of movies which get nominated from other countries are top notch.India being the movie crazy country lacks in providing the essential requirements needed for a great moive and more often than not the blame is put on the lack of funds to deliver a high quality movie.There is no dearth of talent in our country but there is definitely a lack in IQ of the individuals involved.Countries like botswana and bosnia come out with amazing movies which capture the audience.

Its high time that the oscars are respected and showed the respect it deserves.We need to come out with good movies and have a standardized system by which we can also contribute in choosing the suitable movie to enter the Oscars.India's brand which is making an impact globally in all domains should not provide any loopholes for critics to pounce on.Someone from the movie fraternity needs to address this issue on the importance of making quality movies and thus making a global impact.

One small mokkai(PJ) to end with...

Who do u think is the right person to head the Movie federation with respect to this regard?

"OSCAR ravichandran"

Disappointing Launch!!!

2007-09-30T02:43:00.000-07:00

I was flipping through the channels when i happen to watch the recently launched Kalignar TV.After all the hype i am totally disappointed with the outcome of this channel.They started off by playing a lot of good movies but if you take a closer look at their weekly schedule its a out and out copy of all the programs of Sun,Vijay and Jaya.I was so surprised that there is not one concept which is original and the fact that money plays such a vital role now days has been proved yet again.All the major hosts in various channels have been allured in the name of money.The fact that Our chief minister has a lot of money does not mean he copies all the programs directly.Its a shame for such a big man to come out with a shady concept like this.A lot of investment has definitely gone into bringing the big players onto his network.I was shocked when i saw Pepsi UMA join Kalignar.She has been working for over 15 years with Sun and the only reason she has changed is because of the large sum of money she gets.All the reality shows have been directly lifted and shown in a more glamorous manner.The worst part is the timings of these copied programs are aired during the same times as their counterparts.A total breach of loyalty because of the amount of cash flow in this business.The concept of prime time is losing its identity since all the programs in every channel is similar to one another. I hope I stick to a few channels and stop watching the new ones which are being launched every fortnight.Its time television viewing becomes more pleasurable and not frustrating.My television viewing on non cricketing days is hardly half hour and the credit goes to the internet.

Obsession personified!!!

2007-09-23T02:30:00.000-07:00

Obsession:::The domination of one's thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, image, desire, etc.

This is what the dictionary had to throw up for the definition of obsession.

How do you determine what your obsessed about?Obsessions rarely change in time and thats one criteria to answer my question.Anyway i was fortunate to find the answer to that question yesterday.My long term obsession has never fallen into any of the above categories.Its a bit wierd when you hear about what my obsession is but i am afraid it is the Australian cricket team.

Everytime they step onto the field i forget all my worries and have very little idea about whats happening around me.Since 1992 i have been following their progress and its staggering to see how they have developed as a team.The standards they set and the manner in which they go about their routine is of the highest quality.It motivates me to try and achive such standards.Australia are cricket's answer to six sigma.Their agression blended with elegance and class has made them the super power they are right now .I have been supporting them for over 15 years now and i cant remember a day when i have gone against them.Be it India or pakistan its always been the MEN in Yellow for me .I may sound very unpatriotic but some how i guess its the obsession and passion for this great team which has kept me backing this side.

Everytime they lose i get nightmares of the game the following night and my focus on things reduces significantly.Over the last 8 years i have been lucky since they win quite often which means i am all smiles but there are days when i have gone into a shell and its taken me a lot of time to recover.I have never felt so disappointed on any other occasion.An australian defeat is painful and very bitter.The fact that people around me are so Anti-Australia , everytime they lose its almost becoming a tradition that they celebrate it in the presence of me.Its a horrible feeling i must say. I guess now i have understood what obsession is.The only reason i wrote this article is because everything i have written above is what i experienced yesterday after Australia's loss to India.Its one off those days when things go against you.I wonder how many more nightmarish days the future holds for me.Its my dream to be associated with this team somehow or the other.

I think a few people will know what the australian cricket team can do to me and i sincerly apologise to all those who have been a victim of my obsession and all those questions posed to me on why i support this team has been answered i guess.GO AUSSIE GO:)

who DAR's wins!!!

2007-09-08T10:57:00.000-07:00

Watching India beat England at the oval and squaring the series got all of us interested in the final game at lords.But another great game was marred by incidents and the essence of the game was lost.This time it was the turn of the umpire to spoil the party.Both dravid and sachin were given out in unfortunate circumstances that too in quick succession by aleem dar which crashed a million hopes.Anyway this has led to a serious introspection over the use of technology in handling decisions.Here is my take on the whole issue...

My ideal solution will be to give the batting team 2 appeals or so per innings where they get to use the technology.So its an equivalent of the Challenge in tennis.This way the game will never be decided by the umpire.I feel thats very fair for both the teams and the umpires.Great knocks/Great games can be spoilt by the umpires.We all know they make mistakes but when there is a solution to avoid those mistakes why not incorporate them?I dont know how to get the people involved read my blog but someday it is done..It is an irony that india had to lose the series because of a pakistani..Hopefully in the future there is some kind of a solution to this whole problem..

HOT AND COLD!!!

2007-08-31T08:25:00.000-07:00

Its been a long time since i wrote something about movies.So movies being so bad off late in india the only thing i could think is criticize but before that i thought i would pamper you guyz by introducing you to the best thing thats going to happen to bollywood which is the launch of this hot bombshell from bangalore.Her name is Deepika padukone (daughter of Prakash Padukone).She is the lead actress in Farah Khan's next Om Shanti Om.Introducing such versatile girls is the right way to move ahead and get global rather than making some dame called nisha kothari show off her blah blah blah.Anyway take a sneek peak at this Future goddess.She is definitely going to enter with a bang.Now comes the real stuff..

Bollywood which is supposed to be recognized all over the globe is disappointing us daily.Bollywood should be called BALywood.Every movie we watch we feel like tearing up our hair.Its been sad that we get 2 to 3 hits a year compare to tamil or telugu where we get an average of 10 hits a year which is a good number.In my opinion the biggest cause for all this are people like RGV and david dhawan and directors of those genre.I was reading the reviews of his latest flick RGV KI AAG.Not one website has praised it.Its a total waste of time and i am happy it was not a scene by scene remake of sholay.A total insult to sholay.RGV comes up with a lot of new movies and he introduces many new themes but not even one actually goes all the way.With due respect to RGV he needs to keep the people in mind before taking up a movie since they are the one's who are his best critic.His last 8 movies have run for maximum 2 weeks which is affecting indian cinema.Films like chak de india,cheeni kum and Life in a metro were all hits since they exposed problems faced in the society and our country.Rgv movies generally expose a lot of skin and other vital parts.

Kollywood/Tollywood come up with quality movies where we always get our moneys worth which is a great sign.Sad that they dont get the recognition they deserve becasue of the smaller audience.Hopefully this is taken into account and the number of bollywood movies are reduced every year.It is important that they give good movies on a consistent basis.Directors need to think and invest more logically rather than making such meaningless movies.

MADRAS MUSINGS!!!

2007-08-20T11:38:00.000-07:00

Aug 19th to Aug 26th is celebrated as madras week and this is because it was on aug 22nd that madras was founded.Due to this i thought i will pay a quick tribute to this wonderful city.I was born here but then i moved to bangalore soon after due to which i cannot judge how madras was in the early 90's.Since 1997 i have been here and chennai has just baffled me with its growth.People claim this to be the land of thair sadhams(CURD RICE) and hot weather which is a huge mis-conception.Chennai has been growing continuosly over the last 5 years or so and apart from a few areas we have developed greatly.in 1997 theatres were bad,there were no fly overs,no mrts and no onlyx.Now with the advent of these chennai is on par with the other 3 metros.Madras knows for its temples and culture still maintains top notch quality with respect to this and the entire place entices tourists to come throughout the year.I guess the only thing which has not changed over the years has been the high rates demanded by auto drivers and the quality of buses which are prevailing here..A lot of high society areas are coming up and a lot of gated communities are waiting in the wings.A large number of malls have also been planned and hopefully when these are complete our sky line will look even prettier.Chennai is definitely moving in the right direction and it is giving hydrebad and bangalore a run for their money.Even though the culture,the ambience and the cost of living is more in these places, chennai still tries to emulate these cities with its limited resources.Hopefully people continue to respect this amazing city and make this a even better place to stay.Kollywood,cricket,dosa and coffee are the 4 major things which have kept this wondeful city going.Hopefully by 2020 chennai will become leaders in all fields.

Let me put put my favourites in chennai in various categories.
BEST AREA-BESANT NAGAR

BEST MALL-SPENCERS FOLLOWED BY CITY CENTRE

BEST ROAD-ECR,BOAT CLUBBEST THEATRE-SATYAM OBVI..TOO GOOD...

BEST RESTAURANT-EDEN,EATALICA,CASCADE

WORST AREA-MOGGAPAIR

WORST ROAD-NANGANALLUR

WORST THEATRE-DEVI

WORST RESTAURANT-NOT SO MANY ACTUALLY BUT THE ONE THAT COMES TO MY MIND RIGHT NOW IS MATHURA.

If we can just reduce bribery and be more clean i guess we will reach heights.Thats possible only with the co-operation of everyone.Anyway i guess have campaigned enough fro chennai...kudos to chennai...long live chennai...

For all the tourists chennai no longer is hot and is by no means a thair sadham(curd rice) place.

Chak de INDIA!!

2007-08-14T01:04:00.000-07:00

It was ajith wadekar in 1971,kapil dev in 1986 and now after 21 years its rahul dravid.After the world cup debacle and an ordinary tour of bangladesh india have yet again proved that they are not bad visitors.This time they have stamped their authority by winning the series.So only south africa,new-zealand and the aussies are left to conquer for the men in blue.They have showed a lot skill and determination this entire series and apart from rahul everyone has done their part.Rahul must be a bit disappointed with his batting effort but definitely pleased with his captaincy.For the youngsters like sri,singh and karthick it has been a great series as they are getting victories away in their first series.It goes to show what a collective effort can do for a team.A mixture of youth and experience has showed a different team from the team which played in the carribean.India now have to take the positives and move forward.They must be as determined and formidable if they want to win down under later this year.Hopefully they can repeat this performance.As of now its time to celebrate and enjoy the moment..Kudos to Rahul and his team...

BLAST FROM THE PAST-ITS A CENTURY!!!

2007-08-09T22:12:00.000-07:00

Its been 2 years since i have started blogging and here i am writing my 100th post...If i am good in math i have written on an average about 4 posts a month which is fairly decent..So to celebrate my century i thought i would just pick the best among them...Few snippets,comments and articles which i liked etc..Hopefully i can convert my century to a double hundred over the years...

Comments-These are always what bloggers look forward to once an article is finished..These are some of the best comments i have recieved over the years...

@THE ROAD TO SRIPERUMBDUR-PART 2

Archana Ramesh said... index finger? i'd say middle finger's more likely! interesting post, esp the way you weave a story about an SVCE bus ride..and turn word verification on so you can prevent posts like the prev ones...

@archana-bus rides were not so bad that you compare them with your middle finger:)

aRa said...
hmm...oh...really...
p.s. That is a example of gau's blogs. NO full stops. Apadiye think pani think pani he's writing it seems.

@ara-tried changing..have improved...will work on it...

@ http://gauky.blogspot.com/2005/12/g-at-his-vettiest.html

Rampee said...

"P at his vettiest..
"oh king gau
tat was gud work now
great for a start
whoever stole ur heart
duno how u get such gals
teach me too im beggin u pal!

@ram-great poetry dude...

http://gauky.blogspot.com/2005/12/crocodillo.html

adi said... well i share ur thoughts dude....it really is amazing...next time u go..try naomi campbell(guess u wud have tried).....

@adi-try naomi campbell or Do naomi campbell..will definitely try to DO da...:)

some other good one's

Belgian Waffles and Strawberry Ice-cream said... why are all your blog posts in bold?? its extremely painful for the eyes :-P

@arch-bold is beautiful!!!

santy said... fuk face... u cud hv said somethign better abt me!!! other thn ur male fan!! duh!!!

Haresh said... i missed this post... kd payele at 9 th standerd u called gals who were frnds now what do u do da ;) ??

@haresh-i do the same thing:)

Some real intense comments from my readers..

http://gauky.blogspot.com/2007/08/jail-raho-munnabhai.html

VID said... Hey Gaurav,Tat was a gud one..Evn i was thinkin to post somethin on this issue..I was really curious abt this particular case cos i was sure the success of huge blockbusters Lage Raho n Munnabhai M.B.B.S wud definitely affect this particular case of Sanjay Dutt directly or indirectly in the form of strikes etc..N i was right!! so many ppl backin him up..But Y??Jus becos he acted in Lage Raho as a Gandhian, introducin this concept of Gandhigiri doesn mean he is the one..It was the directors imagination,his script n story..Sanju truely desrves the jail sentecnce fr wateva he had done.Being a star does not earn u all rights to do all nonsense to the society.I am glad tht the Govt cud think beyond bollywood, fan followings etc and tuk a rational decision..Keep writing

@vid--tankoo...will continue to keep u involved..

http://gauky.blogspot.com/2005/09/friends.html

adi said... Gaurav/gauky/gau..not slim as his profile says...ultra thin fellow matter of factly..wisecrack...most of the time far from being wise...a ladies man out and out, as he himself quotes in one of his posts..cant say the phonetics of R/r..therefore cant pronounce his own name properly..

@adi-I am working out buddy...while the others seem to be pretty much the same:)

This one beats it...total outrage...

http://gauky.blogspot.com/2005/10/memyself-and-more-me.html

Chandler said... selfish abt gals would be an understatement da.. u haven't introduced me to one of ur school friends properly...hard to believe u were double this size..and may i know wat personal reasons r keeping u out of table tennis and basket ball...how does ur fav colour matter... matters because one of ur babes likes the same colour?please do reply to all those

@ohhhh i am very sorry man...i dont think u will need my help anymore:)

Feelingsu!!!

http://gauky.blogspot.com/2005/12/year-that-was-part-2.html

Mermaid said... i think thas one helluva post gaurav sunderaman.. But i dont agree on the fact that one last day does'nt count....every minute does!!!

@mermaid-its not sunder it sundar:)

My best month in terms of blogging...

http://gauky.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_archive.html

loads of stuff to write than month...

Most hardest article...

http://gauky.blogspot.com/2005/09/we-all-miss-u-lot.html

Best title:)

http://gauky.blogspot.com/2006/07/my-first-job.html

Some things never change!!!!!!

http://gauky.blogspot.com/2005/09/road-ahead.html
http://gauky.blogspot.com/2005/10/great-wall-of-india.html

hmmm so please keep ur comments and any suggestions coming.please spread this link to all your friends so that i can double my readers hopefully when i complete my double century...

JAIL RAHO MUNNABHAI!!!

2007-08-06T10:31:00.000-07:00

Its been 14 long years and finally the verdict was out earlier this week.Sanjay dutt has been the unlucky one to go behind bars.Its not often that a person of such high regard gets into prison.But off late it is becoming pretty common.Paris hilton finished her stint not so long ago and she was accused of being pampered all the way.She was put in a separate cell while people could visit her anytime etc...Why is a celebrity given so much preference over the normal criminals?

Sanjay dutt is a tough guy.He has come back from the brink to give us smashing blockbusters over the last 5 years.Both lage raho munnabhai as well as munna bhai m.b.b.s have reached the masses and it has been acclaimed as a great movie.The only reason being ,it spread the people a valuable message.But apart from those 2 hits it has not done Dutt any favours.Dutt being the person he is escaped from a more brutal punishment to something very light.6 years is far more better than life or 25 years imprisonment.But again as soon as the verdict was given there has been a lot of strikes and a lot of opposement from the bollywood society.Why is there such a out cry for a criminal?He may not be a murderer or a serial killer but it has been proved that dutt has been a pivot in the mumbai blasts.

Although many claim he was not involved it is not fair on the part of the film fraternity to make this such a big issue.According to me the verdict has to be taken in good spirts.Why didn't any of these big stars come to the rescue of the many injured during the blast.Nobody protested also.Our country is very biased with respect to this aspect.

I think the verdict has done a great service to the country to warn the rich and the famous to not mess with the law and if anyone does cross the line they are not going to be spared.My private message to sanjay is this:Gandhigiri is not going to work in reality my friend...Its a distant dream:)

Friendship Day!!!

2007-08-04T11:17:00.000-07:00

International Friendship Day is celebrated annually, on the first Sunday of August, in several countries. It was initially declared a holiday in honor of friends in the United States by the U.S. Congress in 1935.But i came to know about its existence when i was in class 9.There was this huge hype over friendship day that year and people started taking it very seriously by organising various events etc.Initially it seemed very exciting but later on it just became a great day for the shopkeepers/restaurants..It was just another day for the people to hang out with their friends.Every day is friendship day according to me as we end up meeting most of them daily.There is no history behind this concept and if anyone does know please feel free to let me know.

Friendship day SMS's have become even more common and i have started getting them well before hand..I aint sure how much value this so called first sunday of august holds but it seems pretty high.As we embark upon this day tommorow i am pretty helpless and i am forced to wish my friends a great "Friendship" day but i am pretty sure thts what i feel every single day of my life.Life without friends is like shivaji without rajini...Oh what am i crapping...good lord...!!!

Happy friendship day to all my readers!!!

The wait is over!!!

2007-07-23T21:07:00.000-07:00

After all the hype i guess the whole harry potter issue is now settled and ended in a very happy note..Its been a monumental hype over the last few months only comparable with Shivaji(as a tamilian).As always the question may arise regarding whether the hype is worth it or not?I have never been a fan of harry potter nor have i read any of the books but the hype entices me to follow the proceedings.I did the same this time too and i am happy its all over.I was fortunate enough to see the long queues outside the american book stores and it reminded me of the long queues outside any cricket stadium in india.People were in various costumes and it was a great atmosphere.All this for just under 800 pages of magic.It baffles me time and again whether the book really reaches so many people but i am proved wrong.I have come to terms with all the hype and certainly from small kids to adults harry potter has weaved its magic.I guess its a big spell cast on all the readers.

However the ending has not really satisfied every one and there has been a lot of speculation about the climax.This info was got from the various reviews i have read.Anyways after 7 books and a lot of characters finally its all over.

The moment has just come and gone..J.K Rowling is definitely one of the best authour's in the world right now just for the fact that she has been able to reach a large audience within a small period of time..kudos to j.k... The above pics are taken at midnight outside a book store in san francisco..

Stumped!!!!!!!!!!

2007-07-18T13:56:00.000-07:00

Today morn as soon as i got up i was asked to check my mail.It was supposed to be my first offer/call letter.It should be a special moment to most people but for me it was a shocker.We were the first one's to get the job and we seem to be the last one's to be called.The letter states that i join my company on october 22nd.I have another 3 freaking months.Its annoying to have my longest vacation since my birth at such a stage..I dont get the point in having it so late.They are not adding much value to their company too.I am sure most of my friends are stumped by what they are seeing and its given me a lot to think about.

Matter or co-incidence or what!!

2007-07-16T14:39:00.000-07:00

Here i am just giving u a link of my previous post which i wrote on november 2005.I had just predicted a few things relating to wc 2007.As you read that you will relate pretty well with the current events.

Enjoi!!!!!!!

http://gauky.blogspot.com/2005/11/2007a-curtain-riser.html

So far So good!!

2007-07-16T13:59:00.000-07:00

Wanted to write a lot about my trip here but due to some technical difficulties i was unable to do it.So here i am giving you readers a brief description of about how i have been killing time.

I have been lucky to see 3 of the 5 biggest places in the states.New york was the best followed by los angeles and then comes san francisco.All these 3 places are very different from each other although they end up looking pretty similar..Same set of restaurants,large number of pubs and a hell lot of traffic.Some how new york stood out because of the fact that the entire city keeps up to the name.Its definitely the city that never sleeps.Walking down times square at about 2 am reminds of ranganthan street at noon.The only difference being here the women are barely dressed while in chennai they are fully covered.Apart from that definitely the place itself adds a lot of color and a bouyant ambience.Great stuff..

The choices we have in NYC is not comparable with the indian choices.We get stuff varying from saravana bhavan to ethiopian cuisine.I loved ethiopian.It was the best.L.a and sfo are pretty similar with just about a few places to see and a lot of traffic.Didnt spend as much time as i did in nyc but still the difference can easily be noted.L.A stands out as the most expensive state in the states which obviously made my stay there a little more cautious.Hollywood was mind blowing and movie freaks would practically live there.These guyz have a lot of money to kill which makes them the super power thay are.

Finally finished my tour with vegas and it was not as great as i thought it will be..not worth the hype.The casinos were great and i did end up losing a lot of money but apart from the casinos there isn't nothing much to see.Vegas stands out if you wanna get drunk and get married or you wanna spend a lot of money.

Overall its been a great trip so far and a superb exposure to the other side of the world.Hopefully this is just a beginning of lot more trips to come..

I AM BACK!!!!!!!!

2007-07-13T14:12:00.000-07:00

Hmmmm relieved is the only word i can think of to describe the last month.Google has definitely taken me for a long ride and i have had a very lucky Friday the 13th..It has been one month since i last logged into my blog.This was because of google not allowing me access into my account.I was sure it had been hacked because my security question had changed and so was my password.The irony was that at the time of this happening i was like a few miles away from the google headquarters at MOUNTAINVIEW.Felt like directly going and getting it sorted.It aint that easy though..So here i was trying to contact a million people to find out what had happened since this was the last thing i expected from google.

Google really googled me over the last month.The worst part its just one account which gives access to orkut,blog and other stuff.I gave up towards the end of last month and created my new id and started slowly importing my contacts and so.It was a long drawn process and i completed everything last week.Yesterday i was just adding one of my old friends in orkut and she asked me why this new profile.I explained the entire story and she gave the solution the next second as this problem had occured to many people at her workplace.I followed the instructions and it worked.Surprised to see it was not hacked or anything but just a google database problem.

I just hope this does not happen to anyone or me for that matter again.My advice to everyone is to backup all the mails just to be safe.Now that i have 2 ids and 2 profiles feel free to mail or scrap in any of those..Gonna check both...hmmm will keep this updated frequently as long as i do not get another googly...

Power Sleep!!

2007-06-12T14:10:00.000-07:00

Generally i am not the guy who sleeps a lot but from the day i landed here i have been having a lot of trouble keeping myself awake.This place just induces so much sleep into me.I sleep for a min of 13 hrs and max of about 17 which gives me hardly anytime to do other stuff.In chennai i used to sleep for just about 7 hrs max.Wonder how the americans are so succesful.We are supposed to be the lazy one's but it definitely does not seem to be like that.I hate to sleep but when ever i try to do anything i fall asleep.Wonder what the problem is?If any experiences let me know about it.

I guess i will crash now!!

Photos and Videos

2007-06-10T21:28:00.000-07:00

You can check out the photos in my photos link on this page...also if you are jobless and wanna see me playing tennis you can watch it here..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqKPEIdBLXE..(try it tommorow..i uploaded it just now..)

thanks for your vetti time...

nothing much has been happening over the weekend..pretty dull one where i spent a lot of time indoors planning other trips in and out of california...

Big!!!!

2007-06-08T03:48:00.000-07:00

Hmmm its been 4 days since i am here and still no sign of proper sleeep...Its like 4 am here and i am wide awake..just saw a movie...In the eve had time to check out the gym.Its gigantic with no comparison to our desi gym but i realize that from now onwards i am not gonna compare at all because its worthless..Everything from tissue paper to ice creams are bigger here....We get a lot of indian food here which makes me feel at home.Had some chappathi which is again much bigger in size..Lot of cats here too and again they are bigger here than in chennai..Its all very big here..sounding like a kid..i better crash!!!

Long day!!!

2007-06-06T22:24:00.000-07:00

Another long day came to a close.I mean long day literally since i am so used to seeing darkness by half past 6 while here its dark by around 9.15.Still not overcome the jet lag which means i am wide awake right now.Slept through the day.Just managed to go to a baseball field and a small park.There are about 4 fields in the same place which makes me so envious as in chennai we have one ground to play cricket and we also need that to be free.Lot of stuff to envy about.Drove bro's car for a small drive and its very simple here without breaks at all.After driving there its just a breeze here.I have not seen a pedestrian nor anyone honking.Life's a lot more peaceful here.Ended the evening by having a burrito in a mex place which is like 5 times the size we get there.Took me just 45 min to finish it.Btw the channels here also seem to amaze me a lot.There is a separate channel dedicated to gymming.Its called flex where the entire day people work out.Similarly for any activity we have a channel and i found around ten HBO channels here.Movie buffs could just settle here..Guess i will be awake through the night due to the Jet lag.Hopefully it ends soon...

American Beauty!!!

2007-06-05T22:48:00.000-07:00

The flight from chennai to singapore was not great,though we got awesome seats.Just lost the concept of sleep totally.Anyways then we had to hault in singapore airport for a while and the airport was fantastic.Chennai seems like a village or something..Its so big there..Really cool with ore the sky trains and travellator..awesome..Soon after the hault we went to taipei.This flight was sexy.It had personal interactive screens and all..saw zodiac and a few sitcoms.It was a four hr flight.Lot of fun it was.Taipei airport was filled with chinese and thai people.The average age of the girls travelling in my flight was 55 odd..Great internet connectivity .Then came the long bad boring flight from taipei to sfo.It was a 11 hr flight with some few movies being played.It was coming in thai due to some prob.So i was sleeping all the way with time playing games with me.I had breakfast at midnight and lunch in the morn at 6.Some stupid timing followed.Finally after the long wait sfo came.It did not sink into me soon but once i saw it was amazing.The roads,the greenery,the car,the pollution and buildings...Awesome ..Seen them only in movies but to see them right in front of me was a lot of fun...The drive to Sacramento which was my final destination from SFo was even more better..Conutryside and the kinds of bikes here.It was rocking..Ducatty's,harleys and honda bikes each about 3500 cc apparently.Very nice to see..Helmets compulsory here too:).Bro drove very well and we landed at his apt at 7 and trust me it was so bright.Here it becomes dark only by 9.That was very new to me.Long days were actually really good.Bro's house is located at a very nice location having a view of the pool right outside his door.Small and sleek rooms with a lot of posters made it a very sporty room.Liked that aspect of it...Just went to buy some sugar and the grocery store is like 35 times a nilgiris or something..saw like .5% of it...Thats it guyz...ore the jetty lag now...Will keep updating it soon..

Bye!!

2007-06-04T07:34:00.000-07:00

Hey people...i am off to the states today..will be back in a couple of months..will keep u updated from there...keep reading...

cheers
gau

Great Escape!!!

2007-06-02T09:55:00.000-07:00

This is a blog inspired by a conversation i had with soup this evening.She had reminded me of an incident which took place during my school days.It was standard 9 and i had just got introduced to a few girls that time.It was like the first time i started talking to girls and i was a bit nervous to bring that topic at home.So i used to do the usual thingy of my folks not knowing stuff i do.This is what happened once..

My granddad used to stay at my place and my parents had gone to work while my bro had gone to college.My grand dad was sleeping and i took this as an opportunity to invite a couple of my friends home.They came when he was sleeping and it was pretty easy smuggling them inside.After an hour or so i decided it was getting late and they had to leave.To my horror i saw my grand dad lying down in the hall reading the newspaper.The girls had to pass the hall to reach the door..I was really in a fix.I had no clue what to do..I tried hard to divert my grandpa to another room or so but it was in vain.I took a huge gamble and asked the girls to just go past him quickly and i thought i would just confess to him the whole episode if he asked.On the count of three they were past him.It all happened in a jiffy.He was so focussed in reading the newspaper he didnt notice the girls go past him.Trust me it was a close shave and this has been the closest i have come to getting caught..It was all due to god's grace and i was saved from embarrasment.

Now days its a complete different picture where things are much more transparent at home:)

Poor VJ's!!!!

2007-05-29T23:49:00.001-07:00

I was watching SS music yesterday and the program was called reach out..It was hosted by VJ craig and i was shocked after watching that show..The quality of the callers was pathetic and wonder where india lies.Even a kadhal kadhal show hosted by sun music is better than that of SS music which is supposed to be the channel for youth..There was nothing wrong with the vj but they must restrict the callers or something..This was the conversation between VJ craig and the caller...check this out...

Craig-Hey man..who is this?

X-Hi i am so and so from chennai..

X-I am your great fan craig...I think you smile well...(it was a guy btw)

Craig-Oh thanks machan...What song do i play for u?

X-Your favourite song...

Craig-cool..whom do you wanna dedicate it too..

its all fine upto this point and now the shock...

X-I want to dedicate it to ALL my parents and my friend...

Craig-All your parents(with a wierd look)

X-Ya machan...all my parents...

Craig-all 200 of them

X-yeah yeah!!!(ore enthu)

Craig-whatever...

X hangs up...He has no idea what he is speaking..Wierd convo..

Reach out is telecasted between 4.30 and 6...You can draw a comparison between the call- in shows and compare..lets do soemthing to make it more viewable...

p.s-[wondering why i was watching it?Was working out in the gym and it was shown there...:)]

The memory Remains-part 4

2007-05-25T21:49:00.000-07:00

4th year-2006-2007

It was my last year in college and we were the dada's in college.This semester was supposed to be a chilled out one with a lot of easy subjects and free hours for the taking.Hmmm just before the semester started the campus interviews were scheduled.The hype had started early july and TCS was the first company to recruit which was followed by cts and then infy.I decided to start of with the first company itself and wrote the online exam which they conducted.i had not prepared much for this but since i was attending cat classes i found the paper pretty simple and most of us cleared the exam.The interviews were scheduled for the next day and there was definitely a few nerves around the campus.It was the first big interview all of us were involved in and most of us wanted the job straight away.Most of my friends went past stage one and the next day was a pretty important one.Santy was called first and he said he had done a great job.Then my chance came and i was asked a few questions on micro processors and a few on A.i.I managed to answer them and then i was selected for the H.R interview which was supposed to take place an hour later.Meanwhile my friends thendral,prit,cha,santy and j all crossed the first hurdle with ease while on the other hand nara and niru has a few tricks up their sleeves.Their usual ego motivated them to argue with the panel and alas they lost out.They were sent back after round one and the whole idea of making sure the entire gang to be togerther did not work.Just around lunch time i was called for my H.R interview and a few questions regarding travel,hobbies etc were asked.I sounded confident which made me believe that i was almost there.It was a very long day and finally at around 10 pm the results were decalared.Me,santy,cha,j,thendral,haresh,prit and a few others got the job and we celebrated all through the night.It was a special moment for all of us as it was our first job:)..For more on the job front refer my previous post.

As soon as TCS concluded, Cts took over which was followed by infy.At this time only Nara had not been placed in our gang and we had just given the right motivation required on his 21st bday for him to press forward to get a job.His efforts did not go in vain as he got placed in infy and my entire gang was placed by the time seventh semester started.But the semester started of with a lot of cold wars.Our gang was no more together and it was just hi-bye types.It was at this time when we had 2 major additions to our new found gang.One guy and one girl.The guy was in a different world for three years and made a strong entry into our group with his unbelievable LOGIC.It was haresh and his artistic tamil.The unlucky girl or may be lucky one was arthi and she had just begun to laugh to some mokkai's of mine.She is definitely my biggest fan and time spent wit her would never be noticed.The semester began and it was very wierd at the beginning with a lot of HUSH-Hush among everyone and my relationship with thenmozhi was pretty bad.Thendral was my bolster at that time and each day used to fly.Treats used to be very dull with very few people and things were never the same.So i decided this was not the way the last year in college must be and operation REVAMPING began.Slowly small conversations began and all of us started to speak again.This semester was very chilled out and we had a lot of free hours .So going to college was indeed fun.It was also the first time i won my first quiz thanks to soem co-operation by Ram.It was under total darkness but it was good team work and i was excited by my first quiz win while for ram it was another stroll in the park.By the way this was the time when many of them were writing their GRE's etc and like everyone else i had booked my date for Aug 10th.

During the entire mess among my friends i was able to study for the exam.Till about july 30th i was studying with some energy and it was one fateful sunday eve.By this time the mock cats had started i was out every sunday morn to give that exam.So on aug 1st i wrote my mock,had my lunch and thought i will take a nap.I slept pretty well upto about 4 when i got continous calls in my mobile.I woke up and thendral wanted a lift upto some nearby place and asked me to come asap.I got up and left my house having no clue what lay ahead.Barely i had travelled 50 m when 2 people in a RX 100 deicided that i was their target today and crashed into me at a speed of about 90 km/hr.In the impact i travelled around 20 m and thankfully i had not injured my head where as i had injured every other part.Abrasions all over the body and i was taken to the hospital where i was treated and adviced 15 days bed rest.You can check out the photos in my older posts.I needed to decide quickly whether i was in a position to take up gre and my parents adviced me not to take it.I agreed with them and cancelled my GRE.It was pretty disappointing as i was looking forward to getting done with it.That week was a boring week in bed and it took me almost a month to get back to normalcy.

It was time now to have a lot of fun.Haresh has this awesome place at royapettah which was converted into a party mansion this semester.Weekends were never the same.Friday nights used to be spent there and it started of with the guyz and then extended with girls joining in for the party.Booze,dance and music just made things perfect.Enter september and it was Kobe's(Name changed By request) time to give me a shock.One guy who would always stand by me seemed to be going in a different direction.Good or bad i dnt know but now looking back at it seems like the best thing to have ever happened to him.Honestly no one expected it from him and kobe was always our gang's scape goat and entertainer.People hardly got close to him because of his temper but now everyone were seeing his other side.Things got a bit rough between kobe and me which was the last thing I ever thought will happen.I seemed to be losing my friends and me being the ever so sensitive,emotional person could not take a few things.I had to go back to thendral cha and santy for support and they were there waiting as always for me.2 people whom I am sure I can lean on anytime,anywhere.Thx guyz..It took some time for me to get back on track with kobe and apart from some occasional probs I think I am fine now.The biggest prob I had was that I value my friends a lot and i find it difficult to leave them.September ended and october was time for more fun with practically no classes taking place.It was one of the best lab's I have ever had.Me,kobe and haresh hardly typed a word in this sem's lab when everything was done by my friends.It was sexy where lab turned into browsing and chatting time and ragging haresh who claims that he actually coded in the exam:)..Seventh semester was coming to a close and it was important we cleared this semester.Joint studies with santy and clearing doubts for kobe was perfectly occupying me and the exams went on smoothly.The guyz wanted to go on a trip and this time it was Destination GOA.

Goa trip was planned and executed by the one and only Santy who made all the arrangments perfectly while it was my turn to get it wrong this time.ESPN STAR were conducting a world cup quiz to promote the world cup.I was excited and wanted to badly attend it.It was in bangalore and it was clashing with the trip.I had to make a quick decision regarding whether i had to travel to goa or bang.After a lot of consultation i decided to f*** the trip and though going to bang was a better choice.The problem i faced was i didnt have a great partner.Actually he is a good quizzer but cricket was his weakness.After a hour long drama we missed by one point and it was a so near yet so far story.I obviously felt the regret of not going to goa but it was all part of the gamble.The goa guyz did have a hell lot of fun.I defi missed it and its my biggest regret in college.

Eight semester started and this sem had only 2 subjects.We also had a project to do.Me,kobe and cha decided to do it together and as budding engineers we decided to think big.Bangalore was our destination to do the project and we were supposed to develop a weather forecasting device.It was a fun trip and we entered bengaluru with a lot of high hope,but on reaching there we figured out the stuff they do was way out of scope.We got hold of some vital data and came back to chennai.Since we had only a couple of days of college i had a lot of time to kill.Meanwhile cat results were out and unfortunately not a soul from our college got into any kind of b-school which was very different from the previous years.Time was there in plenty and so i decided to conc in quizzing and i made sure i took part in all the big quizzes lined up.I had a liking towards business and started my preparation on brands etc.Quizzes was my biggest highlight this semester where i won almost everything which i went for.Its an obvious thanks to ram who was responsible for most of my victories and the 10000 rupees i won.Great stuff it was.The entire semester was just time to enjoy and projects were just a formality as most of our stuff was outsourced and taken care off.This semester was time to rag arch who was our official scape goat for this year.She used to take up all the bantering and never used to retaliate:).Her dressing sense and orangish,pinkish appearance made coming to college very exciting.Will miss this a lot.

My last birthday in SVCE was another one to remember as my friends fulfilled one of my top prioroty wishes.It was a bean bag.Loved it very much.Got loads of gifts and my friends made my day very special.I think at this point of time my life was at its very best with a lot of friends and very very little regrets.During this jolly period thendral had become my confidant and our long phone conversations never got boring.We had a lot of time to kill and it was time to go to haresh.He was ever ready to party and organised a couple of parties at his place.The girls joined us and it was a lot of fun.Late night drives and early morn breakfast became a bit common.Btw i never mentioned much about santy and he was my guy fan.Wierd guy who is a great friend but pretty bad at making people like him.Takes time to know him but his enthu is what keeps him going.It was march and me,cha and kobe use to meet once a week and just to have some good food and pull each others leg rather then doing project work.Cricket used to be our priority and weather being pretty good in chennai around that time our mornings were completely engaged.College cat's were so much fun this year and combining all three cats i would have spent an hr in the class room.March also passed and slowly we realized that time was running out and we would be together for maximum about 15 days.

During this time since the world cup was going on our nights used to be long one's which actually made us sleep through the day.I will definitely miss all the verbal battles wiht AVI,Cha,kobe and ara.Cricket used to be one of the main topics to debate.Come april and slowly the last few days in college were approaching.Our project was done and this time our batch decided to come with dhothi for the last day.It was a lot of fun and you can check out the snaps in my photo section.Lot of senti talks and photos were taken and the fact that all of us would never sit in the same room again was pretty hard to deal with.Our project got over with smoothly and the theory exams were due to start on may 11th.I just bought my books that time and with the help of PRIT and thenmozhi i hoped to clear my exams.I did pretty well considering the fact i did not study much.But its left to Anna univ and what kind of profit they are making at this point of time. Our farewell was organised on a roof top in city centre and it was not what i really expected.It was a pretty dull affair and our dept is known for groups within groups and it continued during the last day also.I guess it will take time for it to sink.Only when the guyz go to different work places will they realize that they are facing new faces everyday and the professional approach is going to really make everyone miss college.To celebrate college life we went for our final trip to kodai and thanks to adi for his awesome house we made this trip as eventful as any other trip.

What made me write this post?Basically these 4 years have had a lot of moments to cherish and the best way to express this was by words.Somethings are better when written than told.College is definitely a place to learn.But by learn i hardly learned anything academically but i definitely learned a lot about people.I made some amazing friends and they are the only reason which made me enjoy college as much as i have done.Kudos to all of u...

Chandler,SAnty,Haresh and J-Good luck in TCS and hopefully we keep rocking the same way there too..

ARa-Good luck in CTS and i am sure u will crack IIM da..Jolly ah padi...lets play cricket in the weekends:)

Kobe...Apart from those last few months i think we rocked together..Good luck in infy da...I am sure we will be in touch.Call me if u have doubts da...

Adi and avi...Good luck in MS da @adi-better get some good roomie there:)

Achu-Dai atleast some day hope to be in the same class as you da...Been 6 years now..Rock in CTS da...

All the other guyz--good luck in everything you people do....

Arch and Dur-All the best at infy.. arch..dont try too many things..Just have one goal and u will obviously be on top. ..dur-Happymarried life:)

Arthi-Keep laughing in cts and keep in touch.

JAN-Continue to be as enthu as u were here in Upenn..definitely gonna miss innova and the Jave green dates...Surely you will rock..if you are free marry me:).

Raji-The Earliest to finish MBA and i am sure you will be the best at what ever you do.Keep quizzing there too and enjoy life..Dont waste these days...

Prit-Thanks for all the help..study well..good luck

Thendral and Thenmozhi-If not for both of you this post would have never happened....Call me:)

The Memory remains-III

2007-05-22T11:50:00.000-07:00

3rd year-2005-2006

This was always going to be one of the most important year for a lot of reasons.Firstly it was an year in which i had to decide my career path on whether i am going to go abroad or whether i am going to do an M.B.A.Secondly this year it was important i had no arrear as i would not be able to sit for placements.Thirdly life was getting very exciting in my personal life as i was never so happy before.All this were the ingredients for a incident filled third year.The subjects for this semester were supposed to be pretty easy and the staff we got were all awesome.It was also a very long semester and it was the year where we had to organize our symposium.It was a pretty big affair where the whole department came together to come up with some thing unique and different year after year.We did the exact same thing and it was at this time i got to know THENDRAL (name changed by request) very well.Thendral and me bonded very well and i felt very lucky and good.It was tough times for thenmozhi this semester and i felt i had to get her out of the mess she was in.Meanwhile i was incharge of the quiz for interrupt 2k5 and since my passion was quizzing that was pretty simple.Btw guess what it was results time and i was preparing myself for a bashing from daddy.This was one day when i worshipped Anna university.I actually passed PQT.They gave me the magical figure of 36 but to my horror they gave me only 13 in OOPs..It was a huge joke and i have never lauged so much for an arrear.I was pretty confident of clearing it in re-val.It was quite a relief to overcome that hurdle.Interrupt went smoothly and life in svce was becoming more fun day by day.During this time thenmozhi and me were stepping up the pace,atleast from my side thats what i felt while on the other side thendral and me were slowly gaining some pace.

It was the year of rain in chennai and this played a lot of havoc that year.It was at this time correctly my folks had gone to the states to meet my bro and obviously this meant it was happy hours for my friends and me.This was the time i got high for the first time and one of the hardest weekends we guyz have faced.We had a cricket match the next day and most of us were high.I managed to scare the hell out of my friends by not getting up in the morn which made my friends worry a bit.I finally did manage to get up in time for the match and it ended as dramatically as the previous story.We did lose by one run and in spite of me being high,our team was definitely a bit low.i owed to not get high again and believe me it has never happened.

The semester academically was great fun as the subjects were not too hard and the guyz were having a lot of fun.We never felt any strain at all travelling for so much time this time.The reason may be due to the fact that being in 3rd year we had a lot of people to interact and with the advent of i-pods life in an SVCE bus was never the same.Now the semester was coming to an end,atleast thats what we thought but we were totally wrong.It was rain which played spoil sport and due to the heavy floods all our exams were postponed and we had a very long study hols.Now this didnt mean much to many people but for me it was just more fun with thendral and thenmozhi.I was definitely at my peak during this time and honestly a very very tough decison beckoned me.Me and the guyz got hold of a lot of movies this time and this long gap led to one more memorable time in my college life.It was due to the game of carrom.Dad had got a carrom board and 4 of us (me,nara,arun and ara) started playing just as a hobby but it became a more seriosu affair.We played for hours together and at one point of time it was 5 hours at a stretch.Carrom became so addictive that the guyz chose this over a drink or too.You can read more of the carrom exploits in my previous posts.

Finally the exams got underway and it was pretty smooth.All the exams ended just in time for new year and i was more than happy with the scenario.Another vacation of about a fortnight and this period just got me more and more close to thenmozhi and thendral.I have gone through various nights thinking about my future and this was a very tough period for me.The problem with me was i keep my problems to myself which makes it hard for people to really know whats happening.I am a very secretive person and that has been my problem till date.

Next stop was sixth semester and this was pretty intense from the start.The subjects were again a bit simple and preparation for campus,CAT and other major exams had begun in full swing.I followed the gang and joined TIME for cat and was hoping to get placed pretty soon.Barrons and other books started to overtake i-pods and kadala in the bus.People were beginning to get a bit serious in life and that was not what anyone wanted.i turned 21 that day and wow what a day it was.One of the best bdays ever and little did i know that it will lead to such a big mess in the future.Wondering why it was a great bday?Yes it was the day when thendral did something(too personal..sorry janta) to me for which i still hail her.She rocked that day and life was never the same with her after that.On the personal front thenmozhi on one side and thendral on the other side really made things hard for me.I never ever imagined i would be in such a situation ever.Now i was mentioning about the fact that the semester was getting a bit boring and we definitely needed to make something happen.Thanks to a few hard working and awesome guyz in my class they made what we thought will never happen again possible.It was our second IV and we had to make amends for an awful first trip.So this time we made sure we took some cool teachers and planned less travelling.We also ensured we chose companies which would not spend a lot of time with us and above all the guyz put in a lot of effort planning this.It turned out to be the BEST trip ever which was filled with so much energy and fun.

We headed off to kerala this time and the entire gang was pretty close throughout the trip...We got to make all the changes we wanted and we learnt a lot from our previous trip.So this time things were in our control and our teachers supported us in every aspect.This helped us make the trip a memorable one.Our visit to the company lasted a massive 15 min.Bus journeys were so exciting and each day of the trip we unleased.But during this time i had my share of depression.On day 1 of this trip all the booze was ready and so was the music.Everything was set for a night bash when the clock struck 12 and i got a call from chennai informing me that i had got an arrear in ADDc.This was a subject which i had done very well..As i had mentioned before an arrear in this year would hamper proceedings.My night plan was crashed and the fact that my friends cleared made me feel a bit aloof.The guyz partied all night long as i took over Djing that day.Next day i got up around 5 and i starteed thinking about my future and stuff like that.I felt i was over doing it and i was confident that i would clear in re-val.So i decided to make up for the fun i lost.I woke my friends up with a melodious number from RDB and it was party time from that very moment.We moved to cochin the next day by bus itself.Now it was at this time when i felt thenmozhi was the "ONE" for sure and i had to make a move soon.Just when i felt that, Thendral sprung another surprise for me.You wont believe the mess i got into mentally.I dont think anyone really knows these things but since its all over now i guess its better everyone knows.

As we reached cochin it was booze night and this included the girls too..Oh god they were first timers and typical girls they were.Had most of the stuff in one shot and immediate effect was havoc.Apparently a few girls had crossed their limit which caused a few other Pazham(fruit) girls to leave the room in the middle of the night.What can girls do without guyz and in the middle of our party we got frequent calls from the girls asking us to help them etc.It was 2pm when things settled and all of us went to sleep pretty nervously hoping none of us would get into trouble.As the sun rose i was called on by my sweet little friend thenmozhi for some counselling.I did what i could and got me a bit confused again.We headed off to a theme park that day and it was another awesome day out.Full of josh we split ourselves into a couple of gangs and i stuck with thenmozhi.Another day passed by and it was time we were returning back.The guyz had loads of fun and we didnt waste a moment and made up for all the trouble we had in the last IV.I decided to think a bit seriously about my future during our way back and as i was getting convinced about certain things it was time thendral came into the picture.She came up with some of the most unbelievable things ,trust me no exageration...Not a soul would expect such things* and getting them just made me jump to cloud number 9.Back to square one again and we returned to chennai.It was march 6th and we had a good month left in the semester.For more on the Iv read my previous post dash-06...It was a crucial period for me as i had to make a real quick decision on a lot of issues and trust me no guy would want to be in my shoes.I decided upon thenmozhi and i had no idea how to proceed further.I thought i would wait for a while and i kept postponing the job.Thendral was still this amazing thing to me, always being there for me types.Highly supportive and she was my left hand.Days passed and academically, apart from Compiler lab which was a total terror ,things were relatively simple.

We were entering the end of this semester and it was mid april when things totally got out of control.I can still remember every single moment of that day and i wish i can forget that soon.Never been so low ever in my life and a day when i have regretted the most.Dramatic/cinematic it may sound but thats the truth.A lot of confessions have been made and its just pure instinct..The people concerned would know what i am talking about and i have no one else to blame apart from me.It was my late realization and the inability to take a focussed decision led to my fall.I have been very honest in my blog so far and i feel thats just my nature.Open and straight forward.Basically Thenmozhi was gone.Down and dusted.It was too late.Due to that i acted a bit immature taking some rash decisions for which i regretted later.While all this was happening thendral was still there for me smiling and keeping me in good spirits.Seriously that was the only thing which has kept me going this far.Our gang had split up into small bunches and things were never the same.The only good thing to happen at this time was that i had cleared my arrear in re-val.It was another close reprive and prayed this shit does not happen another time.The exams went off smoothly and i was slowly trying to get over everything.Being the Sensitive person i am it was definitely going to be a long drawn process.As usual in times of distress we had to do what we do best,which was organize a trip.This time it was bangalore with more friends.More about that trip in my previous posts.Thendral btw moved from being my left hand to being my right hand during this period..:).

It was during the exams when my association with my bus buddies janani and raji increased.The long innova journeys to college during the exams gave us a lot of time together and they were awesome to be with.I seriously have to thank her for the rides she has given which has definitely played a part in me clearing my papers.Innova rocks baby...semester ended and it was time to look forward to the final year where the focus had to be shifted to career,jobs,cat and enjoying the final year of college life.I decided to put an end to all my personal probs and start thinking of the above.I planned to do that but i was in for a lot more surprises which just proved the proverb "Man proposes,God Disposes"..Another happening incident filled final year coming soon...

*things-refers to personal stuff which cant be mentioned outside

P.s-1.Pretty long post..sorry...ore the fellingsu...

2.Please feel free to comment but avoid asking any questions.

The Memory remains-II

2007-05-20T02:39:00.000-07:00

2nd year-2004-2005

We got our first big vacation before the start of this semester which was really refreshing.Soon the third sem started and we were getting into hard-core comp sci subjects.The entire class got introduced to one of the most respected prof called Mr Shankar karthick.He was definitely a great teacher but his attitude was really bad.This caused a lot of problems and spoilt the relationship between him and the class.Anyway it was time for the much awaited IV(industrial visit).My bro had told stories of his Iv and how it was so much fun.The students took a lot of pain in organising an event like this and mostly every student did come.The so called IV turned out to be the most disasterous Iv and a huge flop.I will attribute the horrible Iv to one and only Mr Shankar karthick.He was very strict and audacious.He went out of the way to check on students and loved to separate the boys from the girls.Everyone hated every single moment of the trip as it was more like a trip to a church or a museum where silence is a must.Amidst all the chaos Me,arun,ara and haresh managed a small trip to NASA just to check out what a Pub was like.It was all over very soon and we practically had nothing to take away from the IV.The only thing which i gained in the trip was to find out the hidden talents of girls.I managed to do that pretty easily and i had set my eyes on a few people.

Back we came and i had an arrear which made me concentrate a little more this sem as dad was putting undue pressure on me.We had a mixture of easy and tough subjects.New couples were formed in my class which was again something new from school.A lot of Kuchi kooing and mushy mushy images became part of the class.Our gang was becoming a much closer unit now.Treats became pretty common and the guyz definitely started their hunt for a suitable partner.Few guyz from my gang were pretty lucky as people did come in search of them while the others enjoyed what they had.Meanwhile myself,Adi and Sm had arranged classes for ED to make sure we dont suffer any hiccups again.3rd sem was a pretty drabby affair as the teachers did take firm control of the students.While all this was happening i made a few friends who were my seniors and it was a lot of fun knowing them.Arch became my bus buddy and was always bugging me for my I-POD.Had some great moments with her.Then came the semester exams which were pretty simple and i had worked real hard to clear all my papers.I ended up doing it with ease and i was back on track.

Now we had a very short holiday of about 10 days and we started of with the next sem.This was easily the toughest semester academically with some real hard subjects.It was one of the most taxing semesters as it hardly lasted for about 3 months and days were flying.I had my favourite as well as worst subject in this sem.Favourite was A.I(artificial intelligence) while the worst was PQT(probability and queuing theory).Maths has never been my cup of tea while PQT was like hard core application.With my state board background i never had the flair for this subject and i was down from day 1.The teacher never did any good for us as she was a few levels above us.Contrastingly A.I rocked and i loved the subject from day 1.It was interesting and even though the teacher sucked i managed to understand.I had decided that if at all i take up higher studies it would be this subject.The reason why i found this sem as a huge challenge was because it was at this time i lost 2 very special people.My only crush and my granddad..He was the one who bolsterd me all along.He passed away in a freaky accident which really de-motivated me form doing anything.I was pretty dull for over a month and exams were to start pretty soon.I slogged my A$$ off for this semester.I have never put so much effort for anything.Studied all through the night pretty often and the D-day arrived on MAY 7th..It was the day of my PQT exam and i was pretty confident but as soon as i saw the question paper everything went blank.I came out of the exam hall virtually shattered as it has easily been my worst performance till date.I came home and found out that i had attempted the paper for 26 marks.I had no idea how to face my dad who was very keen i dont keep an arrear.Days went by and exams came to a close.I was very disappointed with my show and badly wanted to unleash my self.Hence it lead to our first college trip.5 of us decided to go to bengaluru and have some fun of our own.

I have written about that trip in one of my earlier posts which you can read.I got introduced to some new term called BOOZING(still not sure what it means:).Bengaluru was a lot of fun and i came back to make another trip with parents to mumbai and lonavala.That was also a good time pass.Meanwhile This vacation started of some of mybest moments or take aways from college life.This was the time i got associated with a very special person named Thenmozhi(name changed by request).Thenmozhi was bubbly and a very different girl.We hit off very well from day 1 and things changed drastically.I had gotten over my ex crush and i really thought and felt like i had found the "ONE".But it was just the beginning.The entire year which was very hard and challenging is defintely one of the most taxing years both physically and emotionally.All this was a prefect script written for what was going to be easily the best year of my college life.WAIT AND SEE.

The Memory Remains-Part 1

2007-05-18T11:52:00.000-07:00

All characters are non-fictional and the following posts are true to my knowledge.Any resemblance is strictly a co-incidence and no action must be taken.

I had promised a blog regarding my college life and here it is.As I entered college it offered a lot of promise and i had expected a lot.Over the last 4 years i have learnt very little but gained a lot of things.When i finished my twelfth i thought college was going to be a breeze but i totally misread the situation.I realized that at each stage the going gets tough.So i had to follow the famous saying "When the Going gets tough , the tough get going".Here i am going to take you guyz on a very honest and a fun filled trip of my experience over the last 4 years.Will split it as a 4 part series covering the 4 years extensively.Here i go.....(pretty long post...could be a bit cinematic...get a cup of coffee and enjoi!!:)

Ist YEAR-2003-2004

It was aug 4th when college started and it was after a long hiatus of about 4 months.SVCE was a huge brand among people in chennai,so i was a bit happy to be part of this insti just to realizehow wrong i was.Before the first day started i had actually got a lot of news from my seniors (which includes my BRO and my cousin) who enlightened me by telling me that college was a lot of fun with lot of free periods and how classes can be bunked.Believing every word i was as excited as any 17 year old boy.I still remember walking all by myself to the bus stop just to be amazed to see the number of parents at the stop to send off their children.I think it was the first and last day i have ever seen any one accompanying their child.Anyways there were lot of rumours spreading about the fact that in svce we had zilch ragging.I entered the first year bus and the journey was pretty smooth.We reached college and the sections were put up on the notice board.As usual like any body else i wanted to be with a couple of my old friends who were my school mates.In the end i found out i had absolutely no recognisable face in my class except one bloke whom i had met a day ago in a movie.Little did i know that this guy would make a huge difference in my life.hmmmm this was my first conversation in college.

Me:Dai nara(Narayan),Enna da yarume illa en class la...u atleast have Sm(SRIRAM)

Nara:Even i dont have anyone da

Me:Shit sucks da..can we go ask for a change..

Nara:Wait i think arun(the movie guy) is in ur class...go with him..

Me:Who is he...Nara:The guy whom u met at the theatre

Arun:serri nee va(with a very irritated look on the face)

Me:ya coming..

This is how it all started and the clock struck 9.15 and i was late for my first class.There was exactly only one bench in the last row empty.So me and arun went and took our seats.As i settled there to take a look at my class i was shocked to see the professor scream at the top of his voice asking the students to stop talking.I was shocked with the start because this was the last thing i had expected in college.It was our physics proffessor Mr SAMPATH KRISHNAN who was our HOD and apparently we were supposed to be a bit scared of him but then in the end it turned out to be that he had a squint eye and all we did was laughed our ass off.Oh god he was a good teacher but poor thing was that he had no idea how to express himself.He used to crap so much in his so called Thanglish, which was definitely not the ideal start to a new chapter.The first day went on as usual and none of you would believe it but by the end of day 1 of B.E i had actually finished an observation and a record and had got it verified.This had never happened in the history of my scholing.Soon after that i boarded the bus and i was sitting next to a 4th year guy called VIJAY.For a college which was supposed to have no ragging this was what i encountered.

Vijay:Which school are u from?

Me:Vana vani

Vijay:oh okie..anyway so yarru andha figure front la sitting

Me:enooda school friend(it happened to be a girl who was from my school)

Vijay:Avvo perru enna

Me:Harshatha

Vijay:Oh okay...Serri avvo kitta poi avoloda phoen number kellu

Me:Ennaku therium..will give it now..

Vijay:illa u go there and find out..

Me:Hmmmm now?

Vijay:Listen i am not ragging u..dnt be scared..dnt go complain and all..i am not ragging at all..Just trying to know the juniors well...

Me:okay.. (after the previous dialogue i figured out what ragging exactly was and soon after that i have never really be afraid of ragging)

Days passed pretty soon and we came across our first mid term exam and it was called CAT(continuous assessement test) in my college.I also got introduced to the concept of using calculators in the exam.Made a few friends on the way and life was getting a bit hectic because of the dread ful bus journeys.In my bus i have got ragged surely more than any one else.Doubt why i was a target but well thats how it was.It just helped me figure out all the names of the hotties of my college.

My class was a bit sobre with just about 3 cute looking girls and the rest were geeks.Since these classes were common it didn't really bother me much as it was just for about 6 months.The concept of going around was also introduced to me in college and i could see people trying hard.Here i need to write about one incident which has been haunting me till date.There were a few guys in my class who just hated me or just my looks(lol).They were desperate to damage me and i had no idea about that.I was in batch H and there was this girl called Kannimozhi(name changed by request) whose hair was a bit attractive.All i did was mention it to a few guyz.The immature guyz went around spreading rumours and finally i found out what had reached the girl.She had been told that i reffered to her as a complete package which was total crap.Soon after hearing that she comes upto me and tells me that she is committed and i must back off.I was bamboozled and stunned as i had absolutely nothing for her and i was just praising her hair.The bizzare incident was that during her birthday she had offered the entire class chocolates except me and unfortunately since arun was sitting next to me he also missed out on a bite.Lol it makes me laugh till today how some one could blindly believe a group of idiotic guyz.I think that was the first and last time i ever spoke to kanni again.Wish her luck in life.

The days passed by and all i was good at doing was trying to find out the number of hot looking girls in college.That was the only thing which kept me going.From the academic point of view the only subject i found real hard was that of E-MECh.It was sheer torture and i struggled from day 1 just to pass the so called cat.It was pretty night marish.Otherwise the subjects were pretty simple and life in college had really begun.No more bells,no more assembly,no more uniforms,no more cycling,no more text books.College life was slowly beginning to sink in.We had our exams in december and that was the first time we were gonna write a university exam which was a parallel torture.My first sem exams got over very well as i had slogged for E mech like i had done for my board exams.First sem got over and it was time i got a cell phone as it was at this time that the cell was becoming a necessity more than a luxury.

Enter second semester and it was a brand new class where we begin to be with out department students.This is where i came across most of the important people who matter to me right now.My school friends aravind and narayan were with me and so was arun.Hence it was really not a tough problem to make a conversation.I also figured out that CSE was filled with a lot of really cute girls and i was beginning to find college exciting.As i had told earlier the parallel torture this time was ENGINEERING DRAWING.It was a practical subject and my proffesor was one MR Muthukrishnan who was the number one A$$.He treated the students like dirt and was never a favourite among students.Ac labs and great facilities made me get into the groove.We had formed a small gang for ourselves which consisted of 9 people with 4 girls.Girls were more open in college than school which was a big change.second semester began slowly but picked up pace towards the end with a lot of small get togethers and a good amount of bunking.

Meanwhile in this sem i became famous among the cute girls in my bus.Both raji and jk were examples of exuberence and cheerfullness.We kept each other company during the long bus journeys which relieved a lot of stress.

Second sem was a pretty short sem which lasted only 2.5 months.There was not much time to really unleash.Exams began during the last week of april and i felt tat this time i had not performed as well as the previous sem.To my horror about 25 of the 60 people in my class had got an arrear in ED and i was a victim.It was just an act of frustration by the prof which cost me dearly.My confidence came down as i had lot of pressure from my parents to clear that soon.The fact that it was a lab prevented me from applying for Re-VAL.So i had to repeat that paper in the next sem which was not a good sign.We had a very good gang formed by that time and we hit off with our first movie which was ayitha ezuthu.My first year in college ended with very less whacky stuff and i had just laid the foundation for a lot more things to come.i did breathe a huge sigh of relief as i was preparing my self for torture of a different kind in the next 3 years.

Almost there!!!

2007-05-07T10:29:00.000-07:00

24 hrs to go before the last 2 exams of what has been a really long and tough journey.Only 2 subjects in the final semester has made us feel its going to be a breeze but as the day comes closer i am just getting a few stiff nerves.After doing most of the hard work the last hurdle should not be messed up.I think a total quality management is required for the subject ATM so that i can clear it with ease.Just tried something lame.Sorry for this horrible post.I didnt feel like studying ,so just came up with crap.Anyways i am gonna hit the sack now.

atb to all..

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!

2007-04-29T09:28:00.000-07:00

Finally after all the drama and hype the ICC cricket world cup 2007 comes to a very disappointing end.Australia finished a deserving first while the tigers fought hard just to lose out in the race.The only positive aspect about this world cup has been that the 2 best teams played in the final.I have always been a supporter of the aussies and it was awesome to see them steam roll the opponents.It was a fitting finale to one of the finest cricketers to play the game."PIGEON" has never let his team down and he really did deserve to leave the game on a high.His immaculate line and length has sent many batsman packing.Glen has been a great ambassador of this game and he the stage was perfectly scripted with him claiming the Man of the tournament.

Overall the world cup would definitely be remembered for all the bad reasons rather than the good one's.Bob woolmer's death followed by the exit of india and pakistan has left a huge scar in this year's edition,while the strict ground rules have just added fuel to fire.Malinga's 4 in 4 ,Herschelle's 6 in 6 and gili's unforgettable final blitzkrieg were some of the finer moments in this years edition.In my view this would be one of the world cup's which one would like to forget but i am taking nothing away from one of the greatest sides to have ever play this version of the game.Kudos to the champion aussie team...

Final four!!!

2007-04-23T22:48:00.000-07:00

After reading all the articles in cricinfo i could not resist not writing about the semi finals of the world cup.45 games have been completed and we are left with the 4 best teams.The semi-final line up is slightly different than the expected one.New zealand take on Sri today at kingston and the biggie tom where the aussies take on SAF.Both games are evenly matched and we are defiinitely in a for a treat.I just hope the kiwis pull it for flemings sake.He has been there for a long time and deserves a place in the finals of the world cup.Sri lanka have a very balanced attack and will bank on murali's exploits and malinga's unorthodoxy.Lets see if new zealand can use the bounce in kingston and bond uses his licence to kill.

Their opponents are going to be either australia or the south africans.Surely this is going to be the match of the world cup.The last time these 2 teams played, haydo scored the fastest century in a w.c match while kallis squandered a great start.With the ghost of 99 haunting the south africans they will defintely want to take revenge for that fateful evening at birmingham.Smith's rival ponting will look to go all out in getting a hat-trick of titles and come out as the most succesfull world cup record maintaining a clean sheet.I am sure this match will live upto its expectations and hype and lets hope the best team wins.

VISA POWER..GO GET IT!!!

2007-04-20T23:24:00.000-07:00

After a lot of speculation and a few hurdles to overcome finally on 19th of april i set out on a journey which i thought will be a TOUGH one but ended up being a breeze.It was a journey to obtain a tourist(B1/B2) visa to meet my bro for about a month before i turn into a professional.My dad had got all the documents ready and it was a very tedious process.My dads a very organised person which went in my favour as all the docs were spot on.

My interview was scheduled at 2.15 and like a typical indian i set out well in advance. I was made to stand in the scorching heat for about an hour beside the road.After an hours wait i set out inside and to my shock the interview going on was a 12 15 interview.Not many of us will expect the U.S consolate to delay the interviews.Everything was late by an hour and i am not sure if people were aware of that.I had to pass through a couple of more tough security personnel and in the end got to go with only my passport and without any file..i wanted my interview to be done by a lady.The allocated counter given to me was that of a guy and i silently moved away to my right where i saw a young lady conducting the interviews.I felt that a lady would be more polite than a guy.As i stood in the queue the lady rejected visas at will to the people in front of me.Got a bit nervous but when my turn came i gave a quick smile and placed my passport in the required stand.She asked me the reason for going to the states.I replied "To meet my bro". She was like whats ur percentage and i was baffled.It was a totally irrelevant question.I answered 77.8% and she smiled at me and told me that my visa has been approved.i heaved a huge sigh of relief as the whole wait was a very tense and nervous moment.In the end it turned out to be very simple.So guys planning on doing Ms, get ready with all your answers and its the charm which counts and not the accent or university your going to.

SAD SPECTACLE!!!

2007-04-17T09:39:00.000-07:00

As the world cup draws to a close the most disappointing aspect to me has been the crowds. The West Indies used to be known for its festive crowds and carnival-like atmosphere at all grounds. But this year when all the cricketing nations have come together to celebrate this huge occasion the Carribean islands have faltered. Most of the grounds are only half-full and with the organisers not allowing the usual music from in-stadium bands , it has been pretty frustrating.The fact that it is the world cup , the fourth biggest sporting event in the world (behind the soccer world cup , summer and winter olympics) has not really been felt. The hosts doing badly did not help either. As we move closer to the end i hope to see some packed stadiums and a spark that the cup badly needs.

Usually any island in the West indies entices a large amount of people. This time , the costs and the security seem to be a factor according to a few experts but i generally feel the lack of real quality pitches and the fall of India have been major drawbacks. A direct contrast between the Indian and the West indian grounds reveals huge differences. The passion we possess will draw a full house stadium even during a game involving the minnows (though that definition is getting looser by the day) of the game while only the home games get decent sized crowds there. We tend to not have a dj or a swimming pool in a stadium. The amount of mess that this could create is not something I even want to visualize. But they are very common in the West Indies but don't seem to be a as big a draw as I'd think they should be. Basically big tournaments need to be kept in the sub-continent to earn the required profit according to me. No other place loves the game as much.

Hopefully by the 2011 world cup in India , things are settled and we draw the deserved number of people and most importantly india do make it past the first stage:).

TO B.E OR NOT TO B.E!!!

2007-04-05T21:36:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not i am approaching the D day of completing what i thought will never ever happen.The so precious B.E degree.In another month hopefully i can call myself an engineer.Going back in time,when i was given the choice of doing engineering or arts i chose engineering blindly.I always thought being an engineer would make me feel very proud about myself but i was proved wrong after an eventful 4 years.The amount of knowledge gained was zilch and the amount of friends made were tending towards infinity.It has been a great journey and the fact that its almost over is hard to digest.

May be in a month or so i will write about my entire experiences in college but now i am just trying to digest the fact that its all over.From next month i will become a professional and have to report to people.Last four years its been vice versa.I will not be able to bunk college again.Oh no!! i just realised no more O D's.They will be replaced by C L's and P L's.I need to start saving and invest in shares and bonds etc.All these days i have just shared and bonded well.Things are gonna change drastically and i need to keep up to the pace.It is a brand new challenge and i am definitely looking forward to it.

Anyways the last working day of college was a curtain riser for things to come.We had organised our own farewell and had our own dress code.Guys were dressed in veshti and kurta while the chicks were dressed in saree.It was supposed to be for the class group photo but in ended pretty chaotically.People were taking photos at will and everybody was breaking rules.In the end we got tired of taking photos of each other and giving our last minute speeches.People were filling up the so called slam books and showering praises at each other.Pretty emotional but its just another phase in life.

"etu etu a manashan vazhkai ah pirichuko" this is a line from rajini's movie BASHA.It transalates to "DIVIDE YOUR LIFE INTO 8 PARTS " with respect to age.I am almost done with 3 parts and i am looking forward to the remaining 5.Lets see how it goes.Above are a few snapshots from our last day in college.The detailed pictures can be seen at photos.yahoo.com/gauky_chennai.

CASTE AWAY!!!

2007-04-01T09:57:00.000-07:00

We all must have read about the quota system which is rocking the nation.27% of the seats need to be reserved for OBC.I don’t know how many of you are for it or against it but i am definitely against it. Anyway seeing all this commotion i wanted to emphasize on another issue with respect to the quota system. We all have heard about FC, OBC, BC etc but there is another new quota called the CBC. This is very predominant here among Indians. Pretty sure none of you can guess what CBC is. It is the acronym for CANT BOWL CASTE. They have like 100% reservation and recruited for the Indian cricket team. A classic example for this is Ajith Agarkar.I have been so frustrated over the years about him that i finally had to shed out the anger within me.

This guy has been in the team for like ten years and apart from his first year in the office his last nine years has been horrible. He might have a good strike rate according to many people but his economy rate nullifies everything. Agarkarhas absolutely no line and length and his only weapon is his ability to complete his overs quickly(due to his short run up). The worst thing that can happen to Indian cricket is to compare him with Kapil Dev. He is not even close to being called an all rounder.

He is also referred to as Bombay duck due to his continuous scores of ducks against Australia. He has absolutely no variety and great players can pick him up with ease. He has been surviving on some weird quota system by the plain support of Mumbai board as well as CBC presidents. I have been very frustrated to see him bowl in some crucial situations for India and obviously just gift the match to the opponents. On more than one occasion he has screwed up the last over for India. In short the future of Indian cricket would prosper only if he is dropped and never again picked for any team at any level. Hope the selectors are reading this. I suggest the supreme court put a stay on the CBC quota rather than OBC quota . Players should not be picked just based on a single performance. Agarkar has been easily India's worst bowler and the best example for the above statement.I am sure there are loads of other contenders for this prestigious position. Hopefully they introspect into this issue and give only the deserving bowlers a fair chance.My heart feels far better than what it was a few minutes ago.

Walloping world cup!!!!

2007-03-29T11:07:00.000-07:00

After a long hiatus i am back again.Been busy with my new routine of staying up in the night watching one game after the other and then sleeping all through the day.No time to write anything.I will be a loser if i do not give my views about the world cup so far.Basically after all the hype given before the start of this prestigious event it finally began on the 13th of march in grand style.Little did anyone know this world cup is going to turn into the most controversial world cup ever nor did any of us predict that 2 little nations just learning to play the game will shatter a billion hopes.That is why cricket is as exciting as any other game.This world cup has also witnessed a very tragic incident which was the death of one of the greatest coaches of the modern era.The laptop man died mysteriously in his room when some arsehole murdered him.The world cup has indeed been marred with such incidents but it has taken nothing away from the game.Every game after that has been played with so much vigour and passion.The tagline for this world cup has been "The game of LOVE AND UNITY" but from what we have seen so far it has been nothing like that.There has been cut throat competition so far.At this juncture as i write Australia seem to be favourites followed by S.a and srilanka.But as we all know this game is known best for its uncertainities and every will be fighting to live another day.My semifinalists are australia,south africa,new zealand and sri lanka although i expect west indies to not be too far behind.Besides all this the worst thing that can happen to this years world cup has been the loss of bob woolmer and the exit of the giants from the sub-continent.

India's exit has broken a billion hearts.I am generally not a great fan of india but i tipped them to get a semi-final spot with the balanced team that they had.It was very sad to see the way they played in all their 3 games.According to me there were 5 major reasons why india faltered.

->They definitely lacked the killer instinct.
->The batting order was not well managed
->Too many extras and lack of diving
->Not able to cope up to the pressure
->Over confidence

If 3 of the above factors were curbed we would have stayed back in the carribean.Their return to india is going to spark a lot of criticism and this would surely result in whole some changes.I guess the coach and captain will be replaced although i feel both of them should stay.Another chance must be given to them since it is not their fault if the players fail.Lets wait and see till april sixth how things shape up.

Pakistan too have had their share of bad luck but the toss did prove very imp in their crucial game against ireland which went against them.This resulted in a shocking defeat to the irish but it has been over shadowed by the death of bob woolmer.May his soul rest in peace.

Cream Centre!!!

2007-03-03T01:30:00.000-08:00

Its been a while since my birthday was over and so automatically i was due for a treat.After a lot of speculation i decided to try out the new place which has been given some hype now called cream centre. I called up a couple of hours before lunch time to reserve a table for 15 but i was let down by them as they dont take reservations and i was told it was on FCFS.So i decided to go half an hour before scheduled start and it was pretty empty.Soon after that my wonderful guests started coming one by one and as predicted it took an hour for everyone to arrive.

I had heard that this place Serves the World's Best Nachos and we made sure we tried them and it was really good.Other than the starters were not so impressive.The menu was mainly dominated by italian,mexican and lebanese dishes.So most of us stuck the traditional sizzler and it was definitely living up to its hype.The penne and the macaroni was fantastic while the sizzlers were sizzling hot as it took a while to even get a bite.A few of them tried out channa bhatura which was also vey good.

Then came the deserts and as expected the sizzling brownie was over in a jiffy while the beverages were consumed with ease.A pretty expensive place but i guess its worth the money as the quantity was proportional to the price.Finally the treat was over and i had a great time.

Everyone must try this place..

Cream centre is located on r.a Puram Second main road.

World cup preview!!

2007-02-21T21:28:00.000-08:00

We have 16 teams participating this world cup and over the next 16 days i am planning to review each team's chances in this mega event.I will be doing this in the order of least favourites to favourites.This Can be seen in my Sports blog title http://sportonomix.blogspot.com.

Interesting World cup Ahead!!

2007-02-21T20:21:00.000-08:00

Its been a pretty dull few days for me. As an ardent aussie fan i never anticipated such a change would happen.Its an example of total reversal of roles.Now pegged back to the corner the aussies will have to come back with a lot of grit and confidence.A 3-0 whitewash and a loss in 5 games continuously,this is definitely not what the doctor ordered.Its going to be hard to digest this and just as michael hussey said " It will take him a few days to get over the 3 losses" its going to be hard for me too.Despite having massive scores at their disposal they found it hard to defend it.Very rarely do teams lose 2 games on the trot after scoring above 300.I doubt it has ever happened before.So now the bench strength of australia is pretty clear and its time they start grooming their youngsters as in another years time we are bound to see a lot of new faces.Both new zealand and england have gained from the fall of the oz's.Both these teams have played soem amazing cricket over the last fortnight and they can enter the world cup with a lot of confidence.I guess both these teams will be a great force to reckon with. Australia will have to first get rid of their injuries and get their players fit.Once that is taken car of i am sure they will come back strongly.We have a very interesting world cup ahead of us.I have decided to cover the world cup extensively with team's chances,match predictions,trivia and reviews in my sports blog title http://sportonomix.blogspot.com Please feel free to comment and share your opinions during the course of the month.

THE "V" FACTOR!!!

2007-02-15T09:25:00.000-08:00

DID YOU KNOW:Saint Valentine's Day or Valentine's Day is on February 14 It is the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other; sending Valentine's cards or candy. It is very common to present flowers on Valentine's Day. The holiday is named after two men, both Christian martyrs named Valentine. The day became associated with romantic love in the High Middle Ages when the tradition of courtly love flourished.

Hmmm nowdays i guess the day has been associated with romantic love in the High Middle school rather than ages...I am extermely surprised by the fact that there is so much hype about this day...Was browsing the papers and switching channels and all i see is hearts,kisses and presents...It was definitely not celebrated so lavishly say a decade ago...In a few years it could just be the day to beat the national holidays...anyway is the hype really required...People give me theories of the fact that we can celebrate Valentines day with our loved one's which include our parents,friends etc....Thats total crap though....Being the orthodox country we are i dont think It is really popular.....There was this interview in St josephs college bangalore where they showed the class deserted yesterday...This signifies what the youth is all about..The other day i Actually found out that barista had come out with a separate menu for"V" day and prices had been increased...ridiculous it was.......When i was studying it used be just another day....life has gone a long way....Wonder how the next gen are gonna take up Valentines day....Its been a long while since i have done anything on this day but still the hype given on this day and not on any of the other national festivals or holidays really flumux me...Its mind boggling..The "V" day definitely is moving up the ladder....May the best couple win!!!:)

FINALLY THE WAIT IS OVER!!!

2007-02-07T02:12:00.000-08:00

After a very long time one item is off my wishlist.As i turned 21 yesterday my wonderful friends gave me the Ultimate pill to put me to sleep.Call it LAZY BOY or BEAN BAG....Whatever it is reffered by it is easily the most relaxing and comforting object on god's earth...oh GOD!!! i have been in love with this for over a year now but been pretty unsuccesfull in getting hold of it...Hinted to my buddies i would love this for my birthday..Here i am sitting on it typing this blog...Its definitely going to be the place where i am going to drown my sorrows as well as enjoy my cozee moments:).The concept of placing beans inside some cloth like material is amazing...The best part about is that it has various positions for differents tasks....i heard a few like television,reading and sleeping etc...guess we guyz know how to make best use of it:)....Anyway This article is dedicated to all my friends who made this possible...THANKS GUYZ...U PEOPLE ROCK...SO DOES THE BEAN BAG...LONG LIVE BEAN BAG....

LIFESTYLE MANIA!!!

2007-02-04T07:24:00.000-08:00

Its been a superb week for me and the unique acheivement which stands out for me is my new love for the lifestyle store.I guess in a few days they will dedicate a particular section for me.why is that..Pretty simple..It started of basically on tuesday when i went there to buy a gift for my friends sister.Entering lifestyle i found out that the annual lifestyle sale was going on and the sale was pretty good.They were giving us a deal of about 50 % off on certain brands.Very impressed with the offer i began searching.The variety is so vast that there was absolutely no chance of me choosing the right clothes..i had given up...Asked my friend to do the needful..She was pretty quick in doing it and i felt i had to return again for a more relaxed attempt at finding the right clothes.I did just that..Dragged my friends along the very next day for another round of shopping.I usually spend a maximum of about 5 to 6 min trying to figure out what i want to buy..But this time around i was giving competition to all the girls of chennai.unfortunately the girls section is on the first floor..So if u have thought otherwise for me spending more time down then your wrong.Again i went back empty handed but convinced my friend to pick up a few shirts.Came home and narrated the story to my folks..This time around they dragged me to help them out in shopping.It was good fun going with them since this time i could have picked what i required but i had other problems..It was very crowded and no room to move.i gave up..Finally the same evening i set of on my 4th and last attempt to get hold of something catchy..Finally at half past nine last night i managed to pick up something good which had a lot of value for money.That ended my tiring weekend which definitely had a big impact on my LIFESTYLE:)

Movie in review-BABEL

2007-01-31T12:02:00.000-08:00

I happen to see babel a few hours ago....I aint a movie freak..decided to go about it in the last moment just for the fact that it wont the golden globe this year...its been nominated for quiet a number of oscars also...was pretty curious to check out how it was....overall a pretty different movie though the end was not great..it revolved around 3 different characters from morocco,mexico and china....all the 3 stories were losely connected and pretty well shot...very impressive storyline and camera work...but i doubt it deserves and oscar..the director has kept up his reputation which is very nice to see...the theater was hardly full..BABEL was definitely not boring but guess does not deserve the credit and accolades its been
getting.
RATING:6/10

WALLOPING WEEKEND!!!

2007-01-31T11:58:00.000-08:00

well well well the title says it all...its indeed been a tiresome and a great week....making use of my final year in college to the maximum extent i can...yeah i am beginning to realize that i am peaking a bit late...i should have started having fun say from first year....but anyways atleast enjoying the moment...so let me get into action straight away....week started of
on a pretty boring note with review around the corner....there was so much confusion and tension depending on what project to do and how to go about it...in the end the review was slated for wednesday and it ended in a jiffy....it was just like a stroll in the park....lots of debates but in the end i am pretty sure neither the prof's or us had any idea what was going on.

So then i realized it was the third week of jan....SAARANG 2k7 the annual cult festival of IIT Madras was around the corner...the ooooh's and the aaaah's regarding the pro show's and the list of events had started...basically once the
official list and ticket information was out it was not as attractive as last year but the stakes were definitely more...so i decided not to waste my last year of college and was very enthu about stamping my authority in iit....the chicks are hard to take away from here..so why not try our luck in events...that was my motto.....the first of those shows was during the innaugural day when a music band named global rythms performed...never heard about it..all i knew was that they have been working with arr...i dragged my friends along hoping that the show will be good....in the end it was just above average..there were 2 reasons for this...one is i guess it was not the kind of music where we could shake a few
legs..secondly it was too short..hardly an hour and a half.....the next day was the day of quizzes...as usual i took part in each and every quiz coming my way and it was just another meager affair....managed to do decently in SPENT and screwed up the other quizzes....after 5 years chennai finally got their first o.d.i...the first thing i did as soon i got up was check out the weather..it was bright and sunny and it was indeed an excellent day...made sure got early to the ground and had super fun...the game had a little bit of everything except maybe an indian victory....but basically the atmosphere was electrifying...i was very tired at the end of it all...the final sunday of saarang did not spare me one bit..there were laods of quizzes and i took part in scrabble...did a bit of bird watching and came back home...thought i would rest for a while but
damn i had to attend the light music pro show...It started off in a pretty dull and drabby note but ended of with so much energy..naresh iyer was at his very best singing and we were dancing to his tunes...it was worth the wait.....by the time he finished it was mid night...guess what the night had just began...it was the lone wolf finals in IIT...this was conducted to find the ultimate quizzing champion in india....lone wolf quizzes are the most famous quizzes as it tests an individial of his skill to answer and use his brains to work out the answers....we watched till about 6 in the morn...it was a super experience..guess it was the first time i sat through the night..still not recovered from that hangover....basically to think of going to college in the morn was such a turn offf....Anyways had to follow the rules...a walloping weekend came to an end...