Vijay awards 2015 - Highlights

August 17, 2015.

I got a chance to watch the Vijay Awards 2015 Live, and thought of sharing the highlights with my readers. As always it was a tremendous events with all the celebrities walking on red carpet. Needless to say, this is the show that has occured only 8 times before in the history of mankind. (Now you should have guessed the intend of this blog). Somehow they came to know that I had come from US for watching, and they made me also to walk in the red carpet. I was elated to attend such a grand show!

Now the high lights:

The show was hosted by D.D & MaaKaaPaa (yes its his name). D.D was asusual energetic, the only thing I did not get was why she was given a mike. Gopinath did not host it this time, as he realized he has got better things to do in life. But D.D doesn't feel so, she was so energetic that she could host this kind, for another 10 yrs!. No comments about MaaKaaPaa, he is an emerging star.

As usual, SRK came for the event, I did not take a chance to see him. Still he has not learnt tamil (as we still don't/won't learn Hindi).

Favorite Hero: It was given to Soorya, for the movie Anjaan. (Remeber the same award given to Vijay in 2014 for the movie Thalaivaa).
Favorite Director: Kamal again, for the movie Viswaroopam 2.
Favorite Heroine: Lakshmi Menon
Favorite Film: Kaththi.
Favorite Actor of the year: Vijay (deal for this year)

(Note all the favorites are selected by Tamilnadu Makkal. But the bus carrying their votes met with a fire accident near vilupuram, couple of days before the event!).

As expected ,Velai Illa pattathari grabbed most number of awards, followed by Kaththi & Anjaan, and then Jigarthanda. Unanimously, Anirudh was given the best music director of the year.

I was waiting for the Chevalier Shivaji Award to be announced. I could sense that there was another Bollywood hero waiting in the line. Then MaaKaaPaa announced the favorite hero of India, the one and only Salman Khan. He gave two reasons why this award is given to him. First is, his significant contribution to the Tamil cinema, by totally staying away from it. The second is, after Gandhiji, he is the one who has appeared most number of times without shirts, in public. (thereby becoming a national inspiration!). And he deserves it, like SRK.

But I was disappointed with the Chevalier Shivaji Award, this year too. Mamooty (3 times national award), Mohanlal (2 times national award), Nagarjuna (wondering why no telugu actor was given a national award yet) were not given this, and quite a bunch of others.

But I was happy that, this time they introduced few more awards, like every year.

"Long time no see" award: This was given to Koundamani. To keep its name, he had not come to receive it.
"I am waiting" award: This was given to Arun Vijay. (He got it man!)
"More likes" award: Given to Anushka.
"More shares" award: Given for the movie Kaththi (only FB users know why they shared it)
"More comments" award: Given to Lakshmi Menon (And FB users play games with the comments section)
"Most retweeted" award: Given to movie "Maan Karate"
"Vada pochchey" award: Given to Prabhudeva.
"Athu pona maasam" award: Given to Nayanthara.
"Aaniye pudunga venam" award: Given to actor Vimal.
"Valikkuthu, naan aluthiduven" award: Given to the TN Makkal.

Disclaimer: Its a silver screen fiction, not to be disputed.

Velaiyilla pattathari

Velaiyilla Pattathari (The jobless graduate) is a recent block buster Tamil movie. Its about a engineering graduate who did not get job for 4 years after graduation, and what he faces. No, I am not going to write a review about it. Everyone will pass this stage in life, and this blog is about my experience.

The first time I came to know about Anna university was during my 11th standard (so was my ignorance). This is the top most engineering school in tamil nadu, and I started aiming for it. After 1 year of hard work I managed to squeeze into the School of Computer Science and Engineering department of Anna university. Then, what I was all said was my life is settled, and I do not have to worry about anything in life!!!! Like, any engineering graduate thinks.

Three years passed, with an average academic score, the placement began in 2001. That was after the doomsday (9/11). And everything was melting. Particularly, it severed the IT bubble and job market was very bad. So it reflected very well in the campus recruitment too. The bad thing about my college is, who ever a company picks, the company could make a safe bet on that guy/girl to perform well for 2 years. (I do not think any Indian IT company foresees more than 2 years). Such was the competitive environment, and such was the desperate situation. Here is the list of companies I attended and my EXPERIENCE with it (the freshers will understand the highlighted EXPERIENCE word).

TCS: This company would always fill the first slot in whichever colleges it want to go. And it recruits in hundreds. But it gave a big blow to all, since they recruited only 7 or 8 members and most of them were the toppers. But I seriously doubt the selection procedure of TCS as most of the questions are leaked well before the interview day. I too attended, but with luck. I said bad luck TCS, and moved on.

Infosys: Unforunately, it came on the same day as my GRE exam, and I did not attend.  I did not know the Infosys dream will end here.

CTS, Texas Instruments: It picked handful of toppers.

HCL: The pre-placement talk was very good. I did written test well, shortlisted. In the interview, I did pretty well. Except for a doubly linked list program where I wrote left for right, and right for left. On a second thought, anyone will say there is nothing wrong in it. But the interviewer did not get impressed.

DeShaw: I remember I did not clear the written test.

i-Nautix: By the time I attended this, I was pretty comfortable with written tests. Hey, there are 10 different patterns of C questions, some difficult OS questions (even the topper of your class does not know the answer, so no worries), easy analytical questions (like A has a brother B, then how many children does A's dad have :-p ). But..... I got stuck at Group Discussion. I did pretty well, I spoke well, I gave some valid points which would have changed the fate of India. But the arbitrator did not like those. The interviewers gave offers to others, and to one guy who did not even utter a word for the whole Group Discussion!

Iflex: Every one of my seniors told the written test is going to be the toughest of all. Its not going to  have any computer science related questions, but only analytical and mathematically. I took this as a real challenge, and prepared well for the written test. The whole of the college (~600) attended this. And only 9 got selected for the interview. I was one among them, then there was a girl (crush, crush!), and 7 more guys. Later, I came to know the 7 guys also had prepared well for the written test, but in a different manner. They had splitted the questions among themselves and shared the answers. The Five point some ones, yuck!. I did not clear the interview, since she got the offer, she had better academic score (obviously) than me. But only that girl got the offer. When I was going to bed that night, I was thinking about these things that are happening, embarrassing to the core! I burst into tears; first time in my life!(atleast, I know off).

Dell: It was a good interview. But I had a tough competition from my best friend, who was out of the box, and he grabbed it.

Emmeskay, Sonata Software etc. These are the companies, where you have some consoling results (like your best friends with lower GPA gets it!).

Trilogy: The only thing I remembered about this interview was, they gave good snacks, and their offer was 10 Lakhs per annum offer (the best for a fresher, till now!). The questions in written tests were so tough to be remembered ;-) ( I have to give credits to who cleared them, you see!)

I got a interim offer for 2K in SCSE, research Lab for a month or so. But I did not stop hunting, seeking...

HCL Again: It was June 2002. By now, I was graduated; no offers from campus (almost one year of no job), a poor GRE score, not-so-good GATE score (not enough to get into IISC, but IITs), a good score from ISI. (hey Indian Statistical Institute dude). I was working in learning lab of SCSE (for the only reason I know Sanskrit) for a month. And one of my co-workers told me about the fresher openings in HCL and I applied for it. I got short listed for interview, and I started to Nelson Manicam Road from kottur puram. I started with 20 Rs in my hand. I did pretty well in the first half and had a luxurious lunch (of those days) for 10 Rs, and was left with just 5 Rs for the return bus. I impressed a guy in the second half too. I did not know he was going to be my future manager. Then, the HR round. I cleared it too. But, everyone asked, why I did not get selected so far. (Again, an embarrassing question). I managed to answer them, somehow, and I got the offer. Atlast. I did not have even had money to inform my parents, so I took the bus to kottur, with 0 money in my wallet. I stayed in HCL for 2 1/2 years, in the mid of rejecting the I.S.I calls.

Overall, its definitely not a good experience to be jobless. Too much of pressure from society, parents etc. Though it was just 2 months for me, I could easily empathize and correlate the state of the job seekers. (the freshers, I mean).

THE END.

Wait, wait... I do not want to end the blog here, since its not the real end. The following has happened to me so far, which is what I can convey in this blog!

1. the HCL guy who rejected me first, was the one who worked with me in the same floor as I did. And I bet, I will be doing as good as him now. In terms of, quality of work, and money, of course.

2. In HCL, I realized the m.tech guy is earning just 500 Rs more than me!!!!!! So,  do not worry about the other opportunities (like P.G., school) you missed, it does not make major difference, atlast.

3. After I quit HCL, I got 100% raise in salary. I am not bragging here, but to say things will always get better. It will be better.

4. Work hard and try to excel in whatever you do. This has helped me.

The job hunt is a painful process in life, so is any phase in life! Try with sincerity, and continuing effort. It helps

Nalanum Nandiniyum

I personally took time in watching this movie, as it was from my friend's team. I am highlighting my opinions about the movie.

Lead actress: Nandhitha has done a good job, becoming a fan of her. She reminds me of Anjali's early days.

Lead actor: The lead actor has done a good job overall, but could have been more expressive at many places. (particularly in the second half)

Jayaprakash: The important character in the movie, I would say, since he drives it at many places. He has his screen presence, and proves again that he handles his characters in a matured way. The only thing, I did not find it appropriate was his appearance. (Or atleast the brothers should have been made looking/dressed like him).

Renuka ma'm: Good acting, wondering why she is doing only few movies. Definitely, a good potential candidate for amma/akka characters.

Story & Screenplay: I felt the first half is better than the second. I was not that happy with the story of the second half, where the hero becomes successful (as a director) with his movie debut. I am not saying its impractical, but the plot looked like a cliche.

Music: Very good music, both the BGM & songs. Advantageous for the movie to get all the leading good singers!

Aravindh: (Given the fact that he is my friend) he has done very good at the screen. And his intro scene was good! Was just wondering how he got that executive look ;-)

Overall, its a good movie to be watched. Leaves a good feeling after the watch.

2013 and The American accent

When I look back at 2013, I question myself what I had changed or learnt in 2013. This blog is about it.

The major change i have always seen in an US return is his/her fake american accent. I have teased my friends for accenting so, reminding them about the past. And after living here for more than 18 months I realize the change in accent does not occur by choice but by the system.

I still remember the first day in US when I called up for getting a new connection. I had to spell my full name over phone, and spelled it one letter after other. The guy at the other end got surprised at my name once he finished and he told me that he has never heard my name or of that sort. First I took it as complement, but in a few seconds it stroke me. I asked him to repeat my name. He told he has "arihnha rkm kudube jayarkm". Wow, what a name!!!! then I had to tell in "A for apple, B for boy..." style. And by the time I got my phone connection, internet connection, tv connection, mobile connection, electricity connection, car, loans .... I refreshed all of my kinder garden knowledge and was very happy for it. But it did not stop here; now it's an automatic answering machine on the other side of the phone, I have to tell yes, no, correct, right .. before the call goes to the representative. Most of the time the machine itself try to service our requests and it's pain. Once I had to call up a social security site for which i had to feed my whole name for a lookup. and I gave up after 10 tries... but the machine did not, it kept telling me "I do not understand what you say".

With so much of such occurrences, atlast I have got to a stage now where my accent has changed to ease the listener, for machines too. Aawesome right?

And of course there are other changes too that has happened in 2013. I am used to searching google and do enough analysis even for buying gundu oosi (ball pin). I think a lot before spending every dollar( many a times I had converted to indian rupee and found how cheap it is). started complaining about the peak 80 farenheit weather, which is the winter weather in Madurai. (my place).

And the good things now. I have started following traffic rules. Much better and efficient at work place. Plenty of time at home(when compared to India; but end up doing house keeping works). Lots of places to explore; exciting to see the growing son. Admire the way the natural reserves are preserved here. I have been to 4 national parks and have covered four states. and many.

Welcome 2014!

Ilayaraja - My favorites

My childhood days went without listening any good music, or I was not matured enough to appreciate any oliyum oliyum songs. But not during the college days; Particularly after getting my first computer, which has 256 MB hard disk, full of songs. The first thing anyone would do after buying computer is dump bunch of movies and songs. Me too. End up having full of Ilayaraja songs. The more I listened the more I became his fan. I am sharing few of the songs here; all these refreshes me, whenever I listen.

                                     
and it goes on...

Next blog: I have always felt proud and happy for being born and brought up in Tamilnadu (though my roots point somewhere to the western India)......

Expectations

I am cleaning up my e-garage, and found these funny matrimonial expectations which I had stored in my mail box! (inline comments are mine)

expectations from girls:

He should be working in IT industry(BE/MSC(Comp.Sci)/MCA).

>>>>> ada paavigala, IT industry iruntha thaan kalyanam nadakkum polae..

Working in a MNC Company with hand some salary, smart, good understanding and adjustable type with clean habits. 

>>>> sorry no chance!

 

he is a good character and he do the good job. he look personality. he was studied degree.

 

>>>> then he is your husband!

My Sister doesnt have more expectations. As far her the mate should be good one matching her in all ways.

>>>> a lovely brother posted for her sister. but has higher expectations than the sister :-p

B.E,should be working in a good software company with salary Rs/-35,000 and above per month.he should be fair and good looking,should be working in Chennai or Bangalore.his age should lie between 24 and 28.

>>>> what you mean by good software company? and how much tax paid per month? :-p

expectations: M.E,B.E,MCA,MBA,MS,M.SC,B.TECH

Name  Will be told over phone

>>>> ithukku, evalo build upaa?

Iwant one degeree and good adjustable type to my family,,

>>>> you need go to collee for one degree (Maths joke: acute angleaa? romba konala irukkummaa)

expectations from guyz:

 

I am looking for a life partner with a positive attitude towards life apart from being the usual fair, slim, beautiful, caring, loving, kind, etc. etc. person :). Well, she too can expect all these things from me in return...! Should be a native of MADURAI

 

>>>> kadavul paathi, mirugaam paathi thaan unakku kedaikkum, kavalye padathae..

SRK's over (re)action?

SRK in news, for a humiliating reason (probably for the first time). He has been interrogated by the Immigration officers in US. For two hours.

Many of us who go to US face similar kind of security checks, sometime because of wearing turban, somtime because of wearing dhotis, sometime because of carryingpickles along with us! Last when I travelled abroad, I got stopped in one of the transit airports because I carried a nail cutter, now a days they stop for any liquid food also. It has always made me sense for these checks, after all, these checks make sure we are in a safe zone (country).

Now given these facts, any US entrant will go through these checks, and it doesn't matter to them whether he/she is "larger than life" icon of his/her country. So I feel SRK has over reacted to what had happened to him, which happens/happened for many of us. He has to understand the following:

- US in the past has done similar things to famous icons. Even Narendra modi faced visa issues (though he doesnt belong to "M" community, but because of the communal violence in gujarat).

- US is a country which cannot afford frequent terrorist attacks, unlike India. The security check
he has undergone is after all for the millions of NRIs living in US.

- Celebrities get indulged in crimes, and terrorist activities. (There are couple of examples to quote, but I don't want to do it now).

- VIPs in india can literally by pass anything and everything. How come he can expect the same in US?

- Moreover in US, film stars are not seen as idols. They are just like other celebrities. So as a general advice, we should remove our "social mask" of the current country while moving to the ther country, and be co operative to the immigration officers!

- "We will give the same treatment to Angelina jolie", can be a good dialogue for his next movie, "Phir bhi dil hai hindustani US jaane aane kae baath" (or you can it like as PBDHHUJAKB ;-) ).

- Even many other film stars faced similar problem while traveling abroad. Once Kamal hasan faced inquiries in the cannadian immigration when he told he came there for "shooting" (actually he meant film shooting). But I dont think Kamal made much noise that time.

Oops, now I feel I am over reacting, sorry guys.

Figuring out the figures

It was a fine day in my college, except for the boring lecture I was attending. I was least bothered about the lecturer's' preaching. I was scribbling some random numbers on my notebook and I observed a peculiar property of divisibility of numbers. It is, if the last n-digits of a number is divisible by 2 power n, then the number will also. I was fascinated by this, and I told this to my friend after the lecture. He told me that he already knew this, he said he read it in his text books during school days, but it was totally new to me. Not disappointed; to me, the real fun is not in finding something new for the world, but in something new to the self! Here are some of my other observations.

* A palindrome integer of even length will always be a multiple of 11.

* if (k, m) are co-primes then, k power n, & m are also co primes

* the difference between a number and its reverse will always be 0 or multiple of 9. This can be generalized to, the difference between a number in base N system and its reverse will be 0 or multiple of N - 1.

* log 1 to base 1 is indeterminate.

All these can be proven by mathematical induction, except for the last (which is intuitive)......

Are women from venus?

I found lot of interesting things from the last two books that I read, related to the universe & its origin. There are various compartments to be understood to get a picture of the universe, ranging from astronomy to astrology. Some of them are brilliant and many of them are to be disproved in future.

If we look back at the history, we have got misled by the events in the sky, many a times. Many of them had turned into false beliefs, over a period of time. I found these false beliefs more interesting than the actual truth our astrophysicists have found ;-). One good example is in believing the menstrual cycle of women related to moon's cycle; the former with a periodicity of 28 earth days, and the later being roughly the same. No wonder the word, menstruation is etymologically derived from the word moon. And of course it is just a coincidence.

The role of cosmic objects in mythology, has also interested me much. (I bet, its a great source of bed time stories). Each and every naked-eye visible object in the sky has played role in the myths. One interesting myth(or a belief) is that men lived in mars, women in Venus, long long ago. Venus (Aphrodite) is the goddess of love & beauty, 'manmathi' of the Greek mythology. But the actual facts found about the venus is disappointing, not matching much with the characteristics of women.

* Venus is the hottest planet in the system

* It rotates itself in a direction opposite to that of Earth, and of course opposite to that of Mars too :-p.. (FYI, Uranus is the only other planet to do so)

* Its atmosphere is full of droplets of sulphuric acid, and thickest atmosphere. Women & Venus are always toughest to deal with :-).

* And it has the slowest rotation rate, takes 243 earth days to make a rotation of itself, while it takes only 225 earth days to make a revolution around sun.

* It is one of the five planets that are visible to naked eye. The other four are mercury, mars, jupiter and saturn. These five visible planets played vital roles in ancient astrology. Sun & moon have also contributed their part. Later, the shaky astrologers included new planets, at their convenience. To me, astrology is nothing more than pseudo science.

Do you find them interesting?

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!

How to talk to girls

First read the following tips:

- Girls don't like desperate boys,
- Show off your skill, which you are good at.
- Life is hard, keep moving on, even when a girl ditches you!

Guess, who would have given these tips. Nope definitely not me. Its by a nine year old kid, who has written a book of ~40 pages on pleasing the ladies.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/12022008/news/nationalnews/i_wrote_the_book_of_love_141817.htm

a true "pinjulae pazhutha" payan.

Absense of mind - Release 2

This is my second post on absence of mind. If interested you can read the first one here.

Yesterday I returned home late after visiting my friend's place. I searched my bag to find the gate key. I was surprised to see it was missing. I hardly remembered taking it out from the bag, either at office or at my friends place. Later found that I had left the gate key along with lock, hanging in the gate itself. Now I got shocked, how the key is still in the gate. Looks like I had forgot to lock the gate back while going to office. (then I hardly remembered putting the key in ;-) )... Hope it wont happen again.

Couple of weeks back while leaving office, I was searching my ID card (with a tag), which I usually keep in my desk. I searched all over the desk, but didn't find. Went to couple of my colleagues desk whom I was talking to sometime back.. but didn't find out. I didn't find out till my neighbor pointed out that it is hanging in my neck.

And the list is long....

Terrorism - When it will be just history?

Terrorism is shaking the entire world, when it will be just history?, period.

Few snaps from TOI and I found it good.

The future students will be memorizing the terrorist attacked dates. Slightly different from our days, we memorized when Babar invaded india or Raja raja cholan invaded sumatra.


Courtesy: TOI

MJ - The king of pop

While I was driving back to office in the morning, I was thinking of writing some article about Michael Jackson sometime, my favorite during my college days. The first time I heard about Michael was during my school days, when paandiarajan claims "michale jackson yen machan, yen aatathe paarthu kapsa adichaan".(what it means is, MJ plagiarized from a kollywood actor). Then, the first time I watched/heared his song is in my first year of college, after that I became a great fan of Michael. I watched almost all of his works and realized how much of his steps, choreography, style are copied in indian movies. (and ppl like paandiarajan took the credit of his works :-p ). The stage performances from him are the best of his; good choreography, good team work.


He became the king of pop, I have seen many videos in which fans were dying for him. He rocked the world. But, somewhere something went wrong. He became a publicity freak, did anything for it, accused of child molestation cases and he became infamous.

And why this blog? The first news I read today in office is about him, he converted to a different religion. And got one more reason to write a blog.

http://www.rediff.com/movies/2008/nov/21mj-turns-to-islam.htm
ci

Catchy warnings

There are lot of things to notice on road while driving: shops, new vehicles, number plates,... (my favorite time pass while driving is to look into the number plates and find any 'magic'ness in the numbers).. One more thing that I have started noticing, the warning messages; that are pasted, mostly at the signals. Many of them are creative, and catchy. Here are quite some which I found good.

Speed is a five letter word, so is death;
Slow is a four letter word, so is life.

Helmet or hell met?

Speed thrills, but kills.

But none of these matches "vootle solltu vantiya?" from auto drivers ;-).

Classical languages

Today I read some news on classical languages, and got some interest over how it is classified. There are four match criterias for classifying a language as classical:

00) High antiquity of its early texts/recorded history over a period of 1500-2000 years.
01) A body of ancient literature/texts, which is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers.
10) The literary tradition be original and not borrowed from another speech community.
11) The classical language and literature being distinct from modern, there may also be a discontinuity between the classical language and its later forms or its offshoots.

And the languages that are matching these criteria are: Kannada, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu. I have intentionally listed these lexicographic, not chronological, for obvious reasons :-P). In some places its mentioned that pali & prakrit are also classical, but I am not sure how true it is, and I doubt anyone will make it an issue, since its hardly spoken these days.

I am glad that I have got a chance to learn tamil & sanskrit, anyways, I don't remember any of its literature stuffs. Definitely both these classical languages have played an important role in my life, particularly in academics. And also now I see a reason why should I learn kannada & watch telugu movies ;-)..

I am going crazy now by imagining few robots arguing/fighting for classical status for C, C++ etc in 5000 CE, period.

Thamizhan endru sollada?

Issue: Mistreat/Genocide of tamizhians in Lanka, the island country, demanding ceasefire.

October 17: Members of Parliament belonging to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam tendered their resignations to party president and Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on Friday.

Nowadays, the ulterior motives behind political parties are not so ulterior, it's obvious, 100% for political gains. Mamta bannerjhi - Singur 'movement', Raj thackeray attacking northies, are quite a good examples.

When malaysian tamizhians were ill-treated, the TN govt condemned it and urged the central to take some steps to stop it. It made a lot of sense to me, since many of our relatives, living/settled in malaysia. Lots of family here depend on them, both morally & financially. What not making sense to me is, TN govt supporting the tamizh speaking group from lanka, where hardly Tamilnadu lineage tamizhians can be found. Lankan army doesn't even let tamizh fisherman from TN to reach their boundaries in the ocean, so tamizhians from TN settled in lanka in recent times would be very very less. Tamizhians in Lanka could have settled pandya/cholas time when we frequently invaded sri lanka (Raja raja cholan invaded Lanka during 1000 AD is one such instance), which is long back.

TN govt expressing grief for their situation is different, which could make sense, but going to the extend of resigning the ministership does not. Moreover the govt is interfering with the internal issues of a different country, when we have enough internal issues to be solved. The govt/ruling party could very spend this energy in resolving the dispute with the neighboring states. We are not friendly to our neighboring states, though we are part of the same country, but friendly to neighboring countries for no good cause, which is absolutely ridiculous. Grow up kicha, the motive is simple: Racism/Groupism, for political gains.

P.S. The above passages does not mean I am not a fan of tamizh/tamizhian, in fact, most of my favorites are from TN, I love tamizh more than C/C++.

Disclaimer: We/Govt/Ruling party is used interchangeably, rephrasing is required wherever applicable.

North East West South

I have always had a good habit of NOT reading news papers, right from my child hood. :-). But now a days I am forced to do read them, to kill my time. Today I was skimming through Times Of India (TOI) found couple of interesting news .My paper-wala rated TOI as number one news paper in India (and I subscribed to it because it's always filled with masala news and nice pics). 

enna kodumai sir ithu... a testimony for the speed of our system, court, lawers etc... now that guy will be really feeling ashamed in front of his great-grand children,  (getting caught for just 45 bucks, cost of a capaccino in CCD, hehe)

Inflation is very smoker's friendly :-). On the serious side, thanks to those hundreds of thousands of children who have kept the production cost of match box very low, since the inception of independent india.

ma people

People tracking my blog may know that I hail from Indian philadelphia, the real city of brother-hood. I always wanted to do something which will be immediately recognized by ma people. But I have never succeeded. I am writing quite a few of my failures.

I joined guindy engineering college, supposed to be number one in my state; most of ma people mistook it for annamalai university, few thought I didn't study well, didn't get a seat in local college, few thought my father paid huge donation for studying in metro.

I joined HCL technologies, those were the days I really felt proud of being in software company. most of ma people didn't recognize that it is a software company, some thought I work in a calculator company; some thought I work in some mechanical company.

It didn't stop.

I joined riverstone networks, it was a startup company with a strength of 40 employees in india office. So you would have guessed what I had faced.

Then it became Alcatel. Now I was able to convince few of ma people, not all, that it is a big company with a strength 50K+ all over the world. Still many are thinking that I can't make it to Infy, TCS, Wipro, which are the only companies famous among ma people.

mudiyalai.. :-(

Integer 7

I saw some interesting information about "7" in a musical website, and copy pasted the excerpts from it. I found these interesting because number 7 or it's multiple has appeared more frequently in my day to day life. I don't want to list those (and get critical comments which I already got for "3 and me" http://kansa.blogspot.com/2006/06/3-and-me.html")

The integer seven is an interesting one. There is something special about this number 7. There are seven continental and seven seas in this world. The number se7en is famous within Indian Cultures and subcultures. This number 7 is life, Universe, and everything for them. Indians strongly believe that there are seven re-births after death. They believe there are other seven worlds in Heaven. Lotus is emblem of Hindu Goddess. It has seven petals in its last bottom corral arrangement.

There are seven wonders in this world. The number of stellar objects in the solar system visible to our naked eye is seven viz., the Sun, the Moon and the five classical naked eye planets: Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. The number of colors in a rainbow is seven.

Bond.. My name is James Bond 007. You might have feed up of hearing the same old dialogue in his every movie, codename for James Bond, a movie fictional secret spy agent.

We can add and pile up this list more…

And finally coming to subject matter, there are seven musical notes starting with first seven alphabet C-D-E-F-G-A-B ...

IT GOES ON.