2008 - Self appraisal

Yesterday, in cafeteria I asked my colleague whats his plan for the new year... he joked another 12 months of his life is wasted, so no plans... I know he didn't mean it. His joke triggered me to look back and see what I did in the last 12 months.

I have a habit of giving "treat" to my friends at the start of the year, (sometime in jan/feb). The reason is simple; I know lot of good things will happen in that year, and its the treat in advance. Yes, swalpa optimistic. Now lets see what has happened so far..

I think I've watched highest number of movies this year than any other year in my life! I have started watching hindi movies again ("patta kaalile padum"nu summava sonnanga, progress is not made when mistakes made are repeated, lol). The first hindi movie I watched this year is sholay, reminded me of MGR + nambiyar old movies. Taare zameen par is the best hindi movie, I became amir khan's fan again (the previous time was after hearing "paapa kehathae hein badam karega" in chitrahaar, lol). All other hindi movies were "yet another" hindi movie. Bommerillu, happy days, saroja, beta house, the incredibles; I could say they topped my list. Genelia & katrina retaining their position in the top of my list ;-).

Now something serious; athampa office front; A hectic year in office (as always ;-) ), I did the work what I was longing to do for the past years; shipped a product with a significant contribution from my side. Good job kuttuva, self-pat ;-).. I know I am on track to become Chief technology opeecer ;-).

Photography is something which I tried different this year (or atleast in a different way than I did before ;-) ). Bought Canon SX 100 IS, which I felt much better than nikon coolpix series I tried before. Friends & nature were always my focus, got decent appreciation from both of them ;-). Few a times, I clicked inside temples, and I have started admiring the architectural supremacy of our ancient times. Brahadeeswara temple is the best I have seen so far, and the more I read about it & raja raja cholan, the more admire.

Market & me: have incurred some losses, just got misled by suggestions, expert views, etc. hope I will recover it in long term, arasiyalle ithellam sagajamappa :-). Globalization is the main reason why I got something to work on, and also the reason for losses ;-). kootti kalichu paartha kanakku sariyaa thaan varuthu :-p.

Books; I didn't get much time to read books this year, since I think I have spent most of my free time watching movies. Tao of physics is one of the best picks of all the books I have read. The explanation of eastern philosophies & the latest happenings in theoretical physics was neat & simple, but the correlation/gluing of both was not convincing. Still, the book is good one to read. I usually don't read biographies, (the last one that I had read was Mein kemph, four years back). I hesitantly picked "The man who knew infinity", (Ramanujan). Later felt, it is a good one; almost all the details, his works were covered in this book; to be noted, with unbiased views. (Of course, I skipped the mathematical works which was hard to understand).

Madurai: I contributed something to the money flow in madurai, by building a house (in fact, my parents contributed the most, in terms of effort & also money). Guess where it is? In the narrow kansa mettu street, where I was brought up, most of my childhood memories revolve around it. I dont remember precisely any of those, so I havent written any related post.

Most of my travelling was to madurai for the first half of the year, to check the progress made by our engineer. The second half, I got some breathing time. In september we (with my other friends) went to chikmagalur, one of the best trips, I rate it in the scale of the coorg trip which I went with my schoolies. Then in october it was the trip to tanjore region, to celebrate my parents shashtiabthapoorthy, the best time with parents. Many of us dont know why we celebrate milestones like 60, 80, but why not something like 50, 75 etc. The reason is simple, by 60, person would have seen 750 full moons, and by 80 he/she would have seen 1000 full moons. (which adds sense to the figures 60 & 80). BTW, the trip was a very good one, I felt very happy for my parents. And Tanjore looked more beautiful/green than the madurai regions.

Bride hunting: Peer pressure is high, many of my friends have become parents, but not much progress in this regard. It will happen when it will (this is the most repeated phrase from the senior people of my society), and also if something can go wrong, it will :-p. So I am keeping my fingers crossed ;-)...

What's a year without a mathematical touch? I got a forward mail on why the ambulance number is chosen as 108, I didn't understand the rationale, but I liked the mathematical logic behind it. Add the last two digits of your year of birth to your age; it will be always 108. (and if it doesn't hold good for you, then read it on jan 1st 2009, it will). Next year, after your DOB, it will be 109. The proof is simple, I leave it to you.

Wish you all the very best year ahead, keep rocking!