SSK Chronicles

job search during the economy crunch

2008-10-18T08:48:00.000-07:00

There are 2 ways of looking at this current scenario:
There is going to be no hiring at all
or
There will be new jobs created but at lower compensation to replace the more expensive employees laid off.

& the weird thing is this is the right time to get into a 2 year MBA or some other graduate program so that one can update his/her skills and hopefully when they graduate the economy would have stabilized.

I am stuck right in the middle of all this... there are firms that have frozen their hiring and there are some who have reduced their intake. This year is bad one for job hunting, BUT i see lot of my american friends getting multiple interviews. So that gives me hope even though those firms are not taking international students atleast there are still job positions to apply for.

the competition for those jobs will obviously be very high and I am preparing myself for that.

there is so much to balance now.. personal life, school work, job search. I will be taking some long breaks between bloggin til I get a job..

wish me luck ;)

2nd year in MBA

2008-09-28T11:39:00.000-07:00

my god ever since school started ... my life has been going on a fast lane...

Financially i am tightly strapped.. so I am doing as much part time work as possible to continue to have some fun atleast while in school.

Couple of things happened that proved to be unnecessary expenses :

My good old Dell Inspiron died ..so I had to buy a new laptop. I chose Lenovo's IdeaPad for $615 ...and THENNNN when I received the new laptop ..guess what it was dead on arrival i.e. the laptop wouldnt even power up so I had to return it and wait for 3 more days to get the current laptop.

Meanwhile the gods up there weren't satisfied: My car was towed away while I was at my friends place for dinner.. I came out and my car was gone.. at first i thought it was stolen but then we called up the towing firm and they said they had it. I had to shell out $175 for getting my car back :(

& then 2 days later I also got a parking ticket for $20. (which seems small compared to the previous 2..but hey I am a student and 20 bucks matters)

The last straw was me getting a flat tire 2 days ago... that cost me $45 to change the tire and I still dont know how much i have to pay to get the flat tire fixed.

Someone is testing me..but I think I am handling it well thanks to friends.... in fact i was lucky that I was at my friends place and not in some highway when I noticed the flat tire.

Anywayz 2nd year classes are at full swing and we are supposed to focus on our job search as well. I am also having a great time with someone at school which helps me to get through these days much more happily..

and thats all folks... c ya next time.

busy busy busy ;)...

P.S. anyone with excess dollars... please do lend me some ..since the conversion rate for the dollar has jumped to 46 :( .. my indian loan is kinda not so useful right now....

Looking back

2008-08-25T17:54:00.000-07:00

Yep this blog is about to complete 4 years. It started here in September 2004.
A part of my first blog post:
"Hmm for starters, here i am workin at infy having finished college just a year back.
what wud be really kool is , if i got to travel around.

okei i should continue later......... "

Ha ha wow I did sound a little naive back then huh :) I did satisfy my wish to travel around. I went to so many places here in the USA, then there was Paris and then of course Beijing and Shanghai.

Of course there are many many more places to see and I hope to be fortunate to see them too.

For some who have read my blog.. they will have seen posts on so many various subjects but I guess most of them are my reflections on certain things happening in my life. I would have complained bout love since I still dont understand how it works and also recently about marriages in general.

I have one more year of B school to go and I have been lucky to have my friends stick with me for this ride. The blog posting rate will decrease as school work increases.

Its interesting to see the various locations that people have accessed my blog.. people from India and Usa have been the most common.. recently I am seeing an interested reader from Taiwan.. thank you all for dropping in. I know I am not so entertaining .. all you get to read is a slice of my life ;) dont form an opinion about me just based on my blog .. I might be a far better human being on sight :p

Well I look forward to an eventful year...wish me luck.

things i might do if i stay single all my life

2008-08-19T13:25:00.001-07:00

Some things that I might do if I stay single all my life.... of course this would disappoint a lot of people.

I am just letting my imagination run wild here.. i do hope I can do a few of these even if I am married.

Explore Australia, Africa and Latin America

Go to Hawaii and live like a beach bum for a month, just hopping across the islands and doing work that would pay just for that day.

Learn Sky diving & Surfing

Climb Mt.Everest

This is a working list and I shall update it when I think if anything else.. ;-)

its never easy saying goodbye

2008-08-05T18:48:00.001-07:00

Last weekend was the Summer Commencement and a few of my dear one year MBA friends graduated. It is hard to realize that I wont be seeing their faces in Rawls hall anymore :(
I am so used to talking with a few of them and joking with them ..but now they have all gone to different parts of the USA and some will eventually return to their country too. I wish them all a great life and hope their dreams do come true.

I am already afraid of the end of my 2 year program because I am really not prepared to say goodbye to a special girl. But I know she is more comfortable returning home to Taiwan than staying alone in the USA, since she loves her family and misses them a lot. I want whats best for her..

Unfortunately the people that I have grown most comfortable with, are some of my friends from Taiwan. Thanks to them I have been able to appreciate chinese culture and of course authentic chinese food. I never knew that in chinese restaurants there is a seperate menu for the people who speak chinese and they have authentic chinese dishes in it....NOT the silly american chinese food like Kung Pao chicken etc ;) One of them even talks to me in chinese without even realizing that I dont understand a single word ...ha ha ha fun times that I should try and remember forever.

Any future chinese restaurant visit WILL NEVER be the same...I will certainly miss them. But I suppose I can say I have a home in Taiwan to go to ;)

Over the years we meet many people and make many friends. A few make an impact on you and a few just drift away as time and distance erodes the relationship.

I have a good group of friends from under grad..maybe one from high school ...& I am uncertain how many will remain from grad school after a few years go by .....

This is to all my friends out there ...THANK YOU. you have all been an essential part of my life even though I may not have been in touch with you I do remember you... when I look back at old photos your memories overpower my senses with all the experiences we have had together.

guilty

2008-07-21T19:48:00.000-07:00

I am realizing that I am making my friends do things the way I like things to be done by making soft suggestions... sometimes I seem to be the puppet master. I am apparently trying to push/prod them in the direction where I want them to go.

I don't want to be like this. I stand guilty since I am a strong proponent of each person being his own master, he/she should be completely responsible for his actions but I see myself doing something that I would despise if I was at the receiving end :(

I shall try my best not to force my friends to do things that they wont like. As lavanya says "So Help me GOD"!!!

a little bit of courtesy please

2008-07-16T19:23:00.000-07:00

Come on guys.. if you are dropping in on my blog..would it hurt you to leave a small comment.
Atleast I will know that someone read it and understood it ...it kinda reassures me that I am not spewing BS all over the web ;-)

well school starts in less than a month.. my goals :
Find a job
Find an assistantship
Help some of my friends find a job and
SPEND as much time as I can with my friends in school. I don't want to miss this last opportunity of being together with such a diverse set of people.

ciao.

queries to ponder on

2008-07-10T19:38:00.000-07:00

Ever since my childhood I had been prodded into thinking bout the next step i.e. moving onto the next stage so that my life would be better.
-Like when in middle school people started asking me what I would do in high school and made me feel that if I did well in high school my life would be better.

- Then in high school the push was about under grad ..i.e. if I complete a good undergrad degree my life is supposed to be better

- In undergrad I am supposed to decide between higher studies or a job either of which would make improve my life

- Even at work the society was such that we had to think of doing another grad degree or settle down with a family.

- After the grad degree there is nudge towards getting married

- & then after marriage the next logical step according to Indian society is to have children (I do love children but dont u think the desire to start a family should not be due to societal pressure)

I dunno what is the next step after becoming a parent.. but if u still dont get my drift; here is the short version : people around us make us think that moving to the next stage is the best thing for us and somehow we follow this pre determined path and end up god knows where.

All these thoughts started after I went on a family picnic on the July 4th weekend. We were a bunch of south Indians going out and when we stopped at a rest area to start on a picnic lunch with solid south Indian food a thought suddenly struck me: Is this what I will end up doing too .. i.e. marry a wonderful Indian girl (thru the arranged marriage system), bring her to the USA and make friends with local Indian families and end up having Indian potlucks with the Indian community !!!

so the question is : IS THIS WHAT I WANT IN LIFE?

I guess u will notice that I complain about and question the whole arranged marriage system, this is because a lot of my peers have been getting married and I am feeling the pressure to move into the next stage in life. I am just plain scared of getting married thru an arranged marriage thats all ;-) I guess the girl wud also have similar thoughts ...& still arranged marriages work in India !! Isn't that amazing!!

What would happen if I fall in love with a foreign girl? How will my family react.. how will I take care of my parents if I had to settle down permanently in a foreign country? Will my parents be happy to live with me ? ...dangit I hate to think of such things...

job fairs & international students

2008-07-01T15:12:00.000-07:00

The Business school does give us an opportunity to attend several job fairs and I guess out of all the ones I had attended for my internship, I got back 2 interview calls. This is probably 2 out of say 50 employers that I talked to in total (yes this may actually sound less).

But the biggest thing is u have to go and talk to each company rep with the same intensity and eagerness that it really drains me after talking to 4 firms.

In this one year I have been lucky to get a lot of good friends who are from Taiwan. I tried pushing them to attend the job fairs for the summer internships but most of them were not ready to face the pressure of talking with the company reps. It is sad that they are unable to overcome this mental block because they are each very unique individuals and I am certain they can survive in any job.

This next year there will be some major job fairs for full time offers and I will be attending them.. of course it is not guaranteed that I will get a job... but hell I am still trying. I am going to try again to push my Taiwanese friends to go to these job fairs but they must learn to be confident to converse easily with the reps.

I have noticed in school that the different groups kind of settle down into a comfort spot by hanging out with people from their own country.. I really question this kind of an approach.. because my reason to be studying in the US is to get an international exposure ..if I had wanted to stick to my Indian group I might as well have joined IIM Kozhikode (unfortunatey I cudnt get into the big 3). But u see these little groups spring up soon after school starts.. infact here they refer to these groups as mafias.. so there is a Korean mafia, an indian mafia and a chinese mafia.

AllI can say is if u reallllly want to work in the USA you will have to be comfortable talking to the american people ..talk bout sports talk bout the weather hell talk bout any damn thing ..just as long as u r able to strike a rapport with the guy who might be ur future interviewer ;)

Land of the Dragon

2008-06-25T19:01:00.000-07:00

If there is one thing I don't mind spending money on that would be traveling!! I spent a whopping $3500 on my trip to China, this certainly made a dent on my financial statements..but hey u only live once right.

The photos from my Beijing trip are available here.

Ni Hao (means hello -- Nee How)

I spent 2 weeks in Beijing on the study abroad program at Tsinghua University and 4 days in Shanghai. I felt Beijing was a better place to visit than Shanghai. The first thing that surprised me was the amazing investment in infrastructure that the government has made. Due to the Olympics there was construction happening all over Beijing, they were building some fantastic sky-scrapers. I could see construction cranes all over the city.

The food is definitely a culinary delight.. if you know what you are ordering :) we had one mandarin speaking girl in our group of 50 and whenever she was with me I had the chance to try some great food. As long as you are open to eating anything (like me) you will have a great adventure with food.
Some of my friends had wild experiences in restaurants..they were actually making animal sounds to order chicken and beef ...ha ha ha even now I cant stop laughing when I think bout it. Some places I went I pointed at the pictures and I didnt have any problems with my food. I cant forget the cold chicken dish I had in one place..it had some spicy sauce on it which made my lips tingle whenever I blew over it... it felt quite good.

Well in terms of the places we saw..i guess we covered all the famous sites. Some of the must sees are obviously the Tianenmen square, Forbidden Kingdom, Beihai Park, the Great Wall (duhhhh), the Summer Palace, hutong area, San Li Tun area, wangfujing (the food street), the Silk Market & some of the buddhist temples.

The metro system was very well planned and the taxis were super affordable. We were out in the city till 2-3AM on some days and it was perfectly safe to take a taxi back to the hotel.

Since I was walking around with a few tall white Americans we were stopped by girls who wanted to take pictures with us... I am quite certain it was bcos of the American guys and not me ;) A lot of Chinese (i am guessing from out of town) took pictures of my group when we were walking around. It felt kinda weird !!! BUT this would happen only if we are in a group consisting of white people.

We had classes on 8 days till 4PM and then we hit the road to discover
as much of Beijing we possibly could. It was a special moment for me to see the Pandas in the Beijing Zoo. I had wanted to see a Panda at his own country.

& of course we were in Beijing when the earthquake hit the sichuan area, we didnt know that it had caused more than 80,000 deaths. May their souls rest in peace and I hope the remaining affected people are given a chance to restart their lives.

Next post bout my Shanghai trip.

c'est la vie - This is Life

2008-06-19T20:07:00.000-07:00

I have posted a few of the pics from my trip here.

Paris is definitely one of the most romantic cities ;) It is a place for a guy to walk around aimlessly with a girl in hand. sighhhhh I wouldn't mind being lost in this city.

Well I got the opportunity to stay in Paris for one week for a one credit study abroad program, we had the International Marketing course at ESCP-EAP in the mornings and had one free day as well. The classes got over around 3PM and we would go all over the city on the very well maintained Metro. I went to almost all the major attractions just by the metro, I didn't take the taxi even once.

I had a desire ever since I was in high school to visit the Eiffel tower and I finally satisfied that wish. I dont know what made me feel so attracted to it ;-)

The other place that made me feel very peaceful was Sacre Coeur unfortunately they didnt allow photos to be taken inside the cathedral. When I went in I heard sisters singing songs in french in such a slow and mellifluous tone that I got immersed in that haunting melody. The interior roof painting was amazing. This is a must see for any visitor but please be careful of the big guys who wait at the bottom of the hill trying to sell wristbands for like 10 to 20 euros. Another surprising thing here was that a lot of the gift shops were owned to tamil speaking people, I bought stuff from a Chennai guys shop and I ate at a small shop owned by a sri lankan tamil lady.. I had forgotten how beautiful Sri Lankan tamil sounded.

Of course I did go to the Louvre.. I never imagined that it would be SO HUGE.. it was a 3 storey building on 3 sides of a long rectangle with the glass pyramids in the middle. For an art enthusiast this could be heaven..or one could die from an overdose of culture ;)

Notre Dame had these really great statues on its rooftops.. i think they call it gargoyles..they are ugly demon like things ;)

Some other places I saw was the Arc de Triomphe, La Defense (The military building) , Moulin Rouge, l'Orangerie (a Monet display) and a couple of gardens.
I kept myself busy enjoying the french life.. I only wish I had practised my french before going there..I could read the menus but I couldnt speak as fluently :(.

Hey I almost forgot.. the fresh croissants are to die for..even the fruit juices tasted much better than in the USA. Apparently they dont add preservatives in fruit juices and most importantly; WINE. Everywhere we went we were offered wine.. in fact wine was cheaper than water :) the food in the restaurants were exquisite ..though the cost was quite high. So it wud hurt a students meager savings.

The boulangeries (bakeries) are certainly very inviting.. they have beautiful and tasty cakes and pastries. I spent quite a lot of money on them due to my sweet tooth.

The one interesting food I had was frogs legs .. well it tasted just like chicken wingettes. Of course I wud probably never have it again because I felt quite guilty because it seems like such a travesty to kill a whole frog just for its legs!!

Anyway I will be going back there some day !!! Of course probably when I have more money ..sigh isnt it sad that when u start making money u just cant find the time to travel like this. Thats why I am trying to make the most of my time as a student to travel as much as possible.

Next post will be about my Beijing & Shanghai trip in May 2008.

au revoir mes amis.

net analysis of internship?

2008-06-19T19:30:00.000-07:00

I have been wondering about the overall returns from my internship . In terms of short term financial gains.. this 10 week work will end up costing me more than I earn because I had to buy a car(just when gas hits $4) and am paying rent in 2 places (though it is quite less thanks to the kind couple I am stayin with as a Paying Guest).

Also in terms of emotional gains.. it does give me immense satisfaction to finally get an internship but I am in a small town (there is no McD or starbucks ;) with no one I know nearby & I am missing the opportunity of a lifetime to spend time with a great girl as well...so again this does seem like a net loss.

But when I look at it over a longer term period the overall NPV would certainly be positive (I had no idea what the hell NPV was b4 BSchool :) NPV is Net Present Value which can be sorta explained by saying: the NPV of $10 after 2 years will be $8 due to various reasons like inflation, currency rates etc.

Anyway I digress.. So this 10 week internship will give me some good operations related experience and I hope to combine it with my IT involvement in financial services to get a full time job in financial services (hopefully). Although I realize that this is probably the only opportunity to really get to know this girl, I guess sometimes I am just unlucky.

So 2 weeks have gone by in southern indiana..I have started on a 5 mile jog in the evenings along the wheat farms.. & I also managed to get a first hand experience of wheat harvesting in the USA thanks to my house owner.

I rode along with him in this machine called the Combine which makes wheat harvesting seem so easy. It does everything : cuts the wheat stalks somehow filters all the chaff out and stores the grain alone on top.

I did travel to Lafayette on the weekends but that will stop after this weekend cos there is not much point going there once summer school is done and "everyone" leaves town.

In July I will be exploring Southern Indiana and the nearby state of Kentucky.

well here is to a good summer ..cheers!!!

update on the internship front

2008-06-15T20:34:00.000-07:00

I had mentioned bout my endless internship hunting earlier.

Some good things did happen later.. which made me appreciate the power of networking. This kind lady from my department forwarded my resume to a Krannert alumnus and voila I had an interview. Then at the same time I had asked a friend, who had started interning recently in a local firm, for a reference and soon I had one more interview.

& Both the interviews ended up on the same day :) I got the offer from the Krannert alumni in 2 days and I decided to accept it since it would give me the opportunity to enhance my skills in the logistics arena.

This certainly gave me a much needed boost in confidence ;-)

Thanks to all my friends that supported me with their kind words.

the jump into oblivion

2008-06-15T20:04:00.000-07:00

I just dont understand how relationships work. Seriously is there a thin line between friendship and relationship?? and if so how do we know that we have crossed over.

Long ago I attempted to crossover this damn line but I ended up losing a dear friend and thus in limbo. With just a few words I had managed to lose her trust in me and ever since then we have never been able to be comfortable talking to each other. Now we are not even in touch...
It is like the very foundation of our friendship had been vaporized.

Ever since then I have been very careful with who I begin to have a deeper friendship.

Now my question is where does a relationship begin?? do people who fall in love start of from being friends. Is there a certain point in the friendship that they both understand that they should move into a stronger relationship??

I do have to ponder about this because in the next 2 years I will not be able to prevent my dear parents from pushing me into an arranged marriage: not that I am against an arranged marriage but it would be great to marry a girl I already love than marry a girl and THEN love her.

I have always pushed off the thoughts about relationships by thinking that I have other things, like job search, MBA studies and then again full time job search etc, which take higher precedence over the quest for love. But eventually I will have to fess up to this.... I lost one friend and am not ready to lose anymore.

I know it sounds silly but I felt going thru life without a dear friend is really disturbing for a single child like me. That one experience was enough to scare me.

Am I walking on a lonely Road ?

2008-05-25T09:29:00.000-07:00

Well since I am currently jobless and feeling a little creative I will attempt another song translation like the earlier Bryan Adam's song : Have you ever really loved a woman?

This song has been running in my mind for sometime now, I somehow seem to relate to it a lot.

"Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" - Green Day

I walk a lonely road (a lonely road that would describe our journey through life)
The only one that I have ever known (obviously it is the ONLY life we have)
Don't know where it goes (& yes do we ever really know where we will be in our life)
But it's home to me and I walk alone (but it is my life and I am the one responsible for it)

I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Yes we have several dreams and goals that get discarded in our life's journey)
Where the city sleeps
and I'm the only one and I walk alone (have u ever had the feeling when you are walking in a crowd you still think you are all alone in the road)

I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk a...

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me (yes my shadow is my only real company on the road : this could be our conscience always reminding us that we have responsibilities)
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating (isn't our heart fickle, don't we have very unnecessary desires .. like say owning a BMW or something when there are people starving to death in other parts of the world)
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone (isn't it easy when someone else helps you through your life..I have always been unashamedly hoping for a girl to find me rather than me do all the work ;-) maybe it is time to settle down with a family huh. But until then I will still walk alone)

Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Aaah-ah,
Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah

I'm walking down the line
That divides me somewhere in my mind (how many times have we been undecided in life, how many times have we lost friends due to our indecisiveness)
On the border line
Of the edge and where I walk alone (yes I would still have to try to make those decisions alone)

Read between the lines
What's fucked up and everything's alright (even though we feel that we have screwed up maybe it was for the better in the long run)
Check my vital signs
To know I'm still alive and I walk alone (sometimes we appear so dead to the world that someone has to really dig deep to figure us out)

I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk a...

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone (Yes I would really like it if someone out there will find me, but knowing me I would still not listen to that person)

Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Aaah-ah
Ah-ah, Ah-ah

I walk alone
I walk a...

I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams (my dreams lie scattered in my past and there will be several more that will be lost as time goes by)
Where the city sleeps
And I'm the only one and I walk a...

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone...

Oh well i know this song may sound more depressing than it actually is and I would like to assure you that I am not depressed.

Its just that I sometimes relate to this song because I do feel that I am the only person walking on a lonely road even though I have so many great friends and dear family nearby.

internship hunting frustration

2008-04-11T19:44:00.000-07:00

While I am waiting for my last interview results, I just learnt that my backup internship (which I thought was a sure thing) was not offered due to apparent non availability of funds. Though I dont understand what a billion dollar financial services firm would save by not paying me $4000 for 3 months :(

I started my MBA because I felt I had reached a point in my career beyond which I couldn't grow both emotionally and functionally. I thought my 4 years of experience including my 1.5 years at the previously mentioned firm as a Business Analyst would make me an ideal candidate for an internship for the US firms.

Looks like I was wrong. I had only 4 interviews over 4 months so it works out to an average of one interview per month. Some found better applicants while some had only 2 positions available for the summer itself but where interviewing students from 10 universities.

One of my friends in school mentioned that I always appeared happy, well I work hard to put up that face. I dont want to be bogged down by this job search , I came here to get a good education and an even better experience with international students. My friend wouldnt understand how much of pent up emotions are within me.... they have ranged from absolute dejection..to a feeling of unworthiness.
I have rallied myself (I think) and am looking forward to the future.

Hey maybe I will get into this last firm after all ;-) but whatever be the outcome I will take it stoically. Maybe it is not good to suppress the bad emotions, but I certainly share my good feelings with my friends.

Oh well I have rambled enough....I shud be doin something like a job search now ;-)

senseless cricket fever

2008-03-07T07:23:00.000-08:00

Believe me I am happy that India won the CB series against Australia. It was a good series. The team won the cup and the prize money.
Why is the BCCI giving each player a cheque for 58 Lakh Indian rupees

I understand the BCCI wants to encourage the players but in a market economy if the players win they will get massive Ad revenues so they are encouraged by the market to perform well.

Whats BCCI doing giving them so much money when most of the great Indian team's fans are earning MUCH MUCH lesser than that. This money could have been put to use for homeless people, AIDS afflicted people or even building hospitals in the villages.

What a waste of money :(
Anywayz I am just rambling.. the cricket players are certainly being mollycoddled.

whats the deal with hunting seasons

2007-12-15T14:38:00.000-08:00

Apparently November was deer hunting season, and I saw some guy with a dead buck (a male deer) on the back of his Ford truck. And even recently there was a CNN news video about some 5 year old kid shooting down a grown black bear. This link may expire soon: (http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/
2007/12/11/katv.5yearold.kills.bear.katv?iref=videosearch)
I know in India also there is hunting and people have their own reasons, I am guessing the majority of them are killing animals for food and for selling them.

But here in the USA its called game hunting and people shoot down these poor LIVING creatures for no reason. I can understand that in the really old days when man was hunting with sticks and stones the thrill of a kill would have been extremely satisfying, but in the recent times they hunt with high caliber rifles, sitting hidden on some tree with all sorts of hi-tech gear.

What chance does the poor animal have, it doesn't pose any threat to them nor can it even evade them. Shooting down an animal when it didn't even harm you makes no sense to me :-((.

Isn't it cowardly to shoot something without even giving it a fair chance to survive or fight back. If they really want to hunt animals why cant they shoot them with tranquilizers ?? Man has certainly gone crazy with power.

And the parents and grand parents of that 5 year old are actually proud of what the kid did ??? Whats wrong with these people, I mean here they are encouraging a 5 year old kid to use a rifle and then they all act surprised when these kids shoot down their school friends just to make a point. ( I am sorry if I hurt the sentiments of the affected but there really is something wrong with a system that allows youngsters to use a firearm.).

I have heard a few friends at school talking about the exciting duck and geese hunting season in (i think) alabama. Once again I am struck by how excited they are to shoot down a defenseless bird with their rifles... how can they enjoy this.

How would they feel if they were hunted down with long range rifles and sniffer dogs drag their still living but fatally wounded carcasses.

The world will soon miss a large number of its species and the primary reason is the homosapien - the most destructive species to inhabit planet earth :( it sucks to realize the truth.

Grades Vs Funding

2007-10-25T17:36:00.000-07:00

In India we are so closely monitoring our grades and get very concerned when we dont get the 100 on 100 score, atleast I used to be like that.

Now here I am back in school with a nice grade after my first quarter and am happy about it, no doubt. But reality slaps me on my face because I am still paying $16000 per semester and have not put in any effort to get any kind of funding. And I am supposed to hunt for an internship for Summer.

I envy the people who have some form of assistantship because they were able to put in that effort and succeeded in it. Why am I unable to start ?

I am so concerned about all my assignments that I stay up till 2 - 3AM on most days to complete them, and I stay up late to catch up on coursework. Now all this affects my grades.

How do I strike the balance between internship hunting , assistantship/funding hunting and scoring a high grade ?

Am I trying to be an over achiever ?

It's just that I have been brainwashed by the Indian education system into believing that grades are the most important thing in life.
Even though I have seen other top scorers from my school and undergrad end up in the suckiest of jobs, I am not learning that lesson. Grades dont make me , I make me ;-) (how is that for being philosophical)

B school made me forget the 3rd anniversary :(

2007-10-06T22:30:00.000-07:00

I started my MBA at Krannert (Purdue) on Aug 1st.
It has been quite interesting ;-)

Accounting opened my eyes to a whole NEW world :P

The multi cultural experience is definitely the big PLUS for the US universities compared to our great IIM's.

My first quarter exams start on tuesday ...it has been hectic and even made me miss the 3rd year anniversary of my blog.

Well a big hurrah for me and my blog ...yayyyyy.

My Utah Trip Pics

2007-08-15T20:10:00.001-07:00

I have posted a few pics from my Utah trip.

This trip was very interesting.

It started with river rafting on the Colorado river near the Arches NP and then a visit to the Arches NP to see the Delicate Arch.

2nd day was a trek to Angels landing in Zion NP and the next morning just cycling around the park.

The 3rd evening was spent in Bryce canyon. I personally would urge anyone passing thru Nevada or Utah to drop in at Bryce to be taken aback by the sheer magic of nature.

You can find the photos HERE in my photo blog.

Dr.Shilpa Shetty .. OMG

2007-07-19T10:05:00.000-07:00

whats happened to the world .. Now Shilpa Shetty has been conferred an "Honorary" doctorate degree from a UK Univ.
I mean yea she does charity et al but apart from shaking her booty on both indian TV and UK TV (the famous Big brother fiasco) please tell me how she has managed to do a lot of good to CULTURAL differences.

I just feeling like shouting out loud ...AAAARRRRGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Soon after the Big brother episode Ms.Shilpa turned from a bimbo / page 3 character to an educated high faloootin Front Page Headlines character. She is coming on all kinds of shows and suddenly is gettin another round of movies (and it is rumored she doubled her asking price for movies).

Please Please tell me they wont be conferring doctorates on all our Heroines!!
How about one for the great Mallika Sherawat since she has done so "much" (running around naked on the screen with Jackie Chan) for bringing the Chinese and Indian cultures together in the great movie "The Myth".

God save the Queen and God save us mere mortals.

the lull before the storm ;-)

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

I have been sitting at home in chennai and eating and sleeping and trying to do nothing.

Since i have got my F-1 now, I will have to start packing for my flight to Chicago.

I will be starting my full time MBA at Purdue this Fall ..so wish me luck.

Hopefully I will be able to go to the Formula One races next year.

Time to bid adieu to the city of Angels

2007-06-20T22:22:00.000-07:00

wow what a great 16 months it has been.

The time has come for me to leave LA and return home. I will be in India on July 1.

This past year has been a roller coaster for me & I have enjoyed every single moment of it. I met many new people who became friends and guides to me. I shall miss every one of them and will forever be missing the fun I had with them.

I guess I almost turned my blog into a photo blog.. i will try to limit that and will just post links to the pics on a diff blog.

Now is my chance to flaunt about all the places I visited in the period of Feb 2006 - Jun 2007. ;)

Universal Studios - LA - Mar 2006
Minneapolis/St.Cloud/Waite Park - Mar - Jun 2006
Chicago - Apr 2006
Niagara Falls/Canada-Toronto/New York - May 2006
San Francisco & PCH - July 2006
Disney Land - July 2006
Boston - Aug 2006
Chicago - Nov 2006
San Francisco - Nov 2006
Dallas - Dec 2006
Las Vegas & Grand Canyon South Rim - Dec 2006
Grand Canyon South Rim - Feb 2006
Hawaii (Oahu & Big Island) - Feb 2006
Palm Springs & Indian Canyons - Mar 2007
San Diego & Solvang - Mar 2007
Las Vegas & Grand Canyon West Rim - May 2007
Lake Tahoe - May 2007
Six Flags Magic Mountain - May 2007
Utah - Arches , Zion & Bryce Canyon - May 2007
Hollywood Sign - June 2007
San Diego - June 2007

Well I still have a lot more to see ;-)

Am I Who I am

2007-06-02T22:42:00.000-07:00

When I had applied to Univ of Texas - Austin for my MBA last year I saw in my blog tracker that someone from univ of Texas Austin had gone through my entire blog.

Are the netizens aware that the more they interact on the web the more easier it is for them to be tracked.

Your future employer, the college you would like to join and any one else can search for your name on any number of sites : some that I can say are Blogs, orkut, MySpace , facebook etc.

Of course the probability of them tracking an individual is not 100% but it is not impossible.

Now if the whole world was aware of this .. whats to stop an individual from creating a near perfect online image of himself and thus branding himself as the perfect candidate for whatever he is trying to get into ??

So if someone is reading this blog for the purpose of evaluating me ...what do u you think of me ???

whats been going on

2007-04-24T22:28:00.000-07:00

My blog is almost becoming a photo blog ;-)

While I am still waiting (since Feb 20) for my friend/fiend to mail the DVD with the pics from the 3rd day in Hawaii I have been on a couple more trips.

I went to Palm Springs and played in snow for the first time in my life.. quite a thing to do for a guy from Chennai.
Of course I did not make the snowman .. I just took a pic with it :)

Since I was in LA and since my office is near the airport I was able to see the A380 (currently the biggest passenger aircraft) land in LAX (Los Angeles Airport). It turned out to be a decent tourist attraction at the airport ;-)

Then me and a few friends from office went on a trip to San diego and then to a nice little Danish-like town called Solvang.

This was along the scenic drive in San diego :

& These are from the day in solvang.

& Finally I got to see an NBA game :-) I got free tickets (thanks to my friend from office) to an NBA game between LA Clippers and New orleans Hornets.. I know it is not the best of teams but heyyy I cant complain ;-)

They were having a Fan appreciation day and BoYYYYYYYY was I appreciated :P The cheerleaders were posing for pics with the fans :-)))))))

Oh by the way I did see the game and the Clippers lost. ;-)

Aloha & Mahalo : my Hawaii trip Day 2

2007-02-28T18:18:00.000-08:00

Day 2 started quite early since we had to catch a flight to the Big Island home to one of the few living volcanoes of the world.
& guess what : we went to the airport in a white STRETCH LIMO :-) man we were living it.. it looks like these limos are common taxis in Hawaii.
Anyways we landed at Hilo airport in the Big island took 2 rental cars (I was driving one... this was certainly the best place I have driven in..it was so green every where & very very scenic)

We went to the Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park where I saw volcanic craters, Lava tubes and solidified lava for the first time in my life.

The first one was in front of an old crater.

The second one is the lava tube; a lava tube is a tunnel carved out by flowing lava. So i walked through a tunnel in which hot lava had flown through ;-)

The third is on a road surrounded on either side by solidified lava..it was all black around us. The road stretched around the whole volcano. & it also lead us to a dead end from where we have to trek about 2.5 miles to see the hot lava flowing into the sea, but we did a short .8 mile trek and just saw the steam coming out from the place the lava hits the water.

On the way there were several places that just stunned us, one such was this place.

It was amazing how the volcanic island and the sea have been fighting each other. You can see the jagged walls formed by erosion and the lava just keeps adding layers to the island. The water had carved out several small tunnels within the rock.

After the volcano park we went to a black sand beach, the beach sand was actually eroded lava..so the beach was all black. It was very different to hold the black beach sand in my hand..the texture was so different. They even had a Warning board which said we are not allowed to take the sand with us as souvenirs ;-).

Then we went to 2 falls Akaka Falls and Rainbow falls. The Akaka falls was a grand one of course not like Niagara but still it was a really tall one. & Rainbow falls was a smaller one. We trekked to the top of the Rainbow falls and while trekking back it started raining so you can imagine us slipping and falling over huge boulders.

Thats me on the top edge of the rainbow falls. man the trek was tiring since we had to jump from boulder to boulder and finally reached the peak ;-)

Finally on our way back to the airport we stopped by a park and took some snaps with the King who had unified Hawaii namma (our) Kamehameha (said like kamayhamayha) he is a cool guy ;-)

Long live King Kamehameha ... ;-)

end of day2 folks ..we returned to Honolulu and had dinner at Green Papaya a place which served Shabu shabu cuisine and then hit the sack awaiting another exciting day in Hawaii.

Aloha & Mahalo : 2 of the most often heard words in my Hawaii trip - Day 1

2007-02-22T20:16:00.000-08:00

Ohhhhhhh boy I am still on a high from my 3 day trip to Hawaii (I know I should have spent more days but due to certain reasons I couldn't).

The climate was a lot like the hill stations in India , the sun was out and the wind had just the right amount of chill in it.

I landed at Honolulu on the OAHU island on Friday night and had a pleasant walk in Waikiki beach. The next day was a busy one.

We first went to the place which provoked America to get into the WW II.

It is a beautiful place & of course it is also quite controversial. They show a video of how Japan had attacked the Harbor and the Air Strips and had mercilessly killed the soldiers and civilians.

But they have quietly failed to mention their Nuclear bomb attacks on Japan's highly populated civilian cities which caused a whole lot more civilians to die and their future generations to suffer from radiation sickness.

Well they have certainly made it look very beautiful and there were actual survivors from that time who were volunteers in the USS Alabama memorial.

I also got to see 3 rainbows on my first day, here is the first one over Pearl Harbor:

Then we went to DOLE plantation, it has the worlds largest maze made of hedges, we are supposed to collect 6 different patterns and return to the starting point. Me, Bajji and Nithya finished it in 12 mins ;-) (but the record was 6 mins).

The plantations had acres and acres of Pineapples and Sugarcanes and several other fruits. You can see me eating fresh pineapple with pineapple ice cream at Dole ;-).

I got to see 2 more rainbows over the plantation.

After this we went to the North Shore ... this is the place where all surfers in the world love to surf. Apparently 2 days before there were 30 foot waves at Waimea beach at North shore.

I was lucky to catch the sunset at this beach, we could see 6 - 8 feet waves here.

A cheeky shot first :
Me wearing hawaii slippers in Hawaii :-)

Then some shots of the waves and the sunset over Waimea beach. It was breathtaking... you gotta see it to feel it.

To end the day we returned to Waikiki and had dinner in an Indian restaurant in Hawaii called Bombay.
This was the only thing I did not like because I like to try the local dishes..but my friends were the exact opposite. They want to try Indian food where ever they go :((((.

Well that covers day one folks ;-) ..
Day 2 & 3 to follow and believe me each day was better than the previous one :-)

all time fav movies : Babys Day Out

2007-01-20T17:33:00.000-08:00

Come on people honestly tell me if you havent laughed your belly off while watching babys day out.

The baby Bink twins will be nearly 14 years old now .. the movie was released in 1994 and I remember I had seen it in one of the movie theatres in Chennai..i must have been 15 years old when I saw it.

The movie was downright goofy with unbelievable scenes..but man it had the magic .. a reallllly cute baby and 3 silly guys to provide all the comic relief I wud ever need ;-)

I love the lighting the match under the goon's balls scene and of course the gorilla scene.. ROTFL :))))))

I dunno if the current gen kids will ever see such a funny movie..they are too much into the XBox PS3 Wii mania. sad but true.

alright boo boo signing off ;-)

all the hoopla bout marriage

2007-01-16T21:53:00.001-08:00

Alright I am 25 years old and working for one of the "top" companies in India :p so does that make me a prime property in the marriage market ???

Boy the extended network of the great Indian family certainly has its advantages.

But I don't like being treated like I am some thing to be marketed ..and boy I must say that the girls will be having a much more harder time warding off the proposals. I am getting feelers sent by the extended network(EN) thru my parents and I am like what the helll ..in fact some of them even skipped my parents and asked me straight.

I guess I am glad I am not in Chennai..because I am sure I would have been a marked man..marked for marriage :(

As of now I am dodging by saying I will wait till I am 28 ;-) lets see if I can reach 28 being single.
I know a girl my age would certainly be a whole lot more mature than me :-( (I learnt this the hard way when my friend from school who is happily married chided me for being childish).

How does this arranged marriage work ?? Is there a FDLC (Family development Life Cycle) for this ;-)

lemme try an FDLC :

1) Ur dad/mom's uncle will have a distant cousin who will have a girl of the right age for marriage (please dont ask me what is a girl's right age for marriage)
2) IFFFFFF you are ready to start a family .. horoscopes and photos will be exchanged
3) At both sides of the family an initial appraisal is done i.e if the girl or boy looks good in the photo (of course the poor boy will never know what the girl really looks like since she will be wearing layers of makeup in the photo :p)
4) So if things go well goto step 5 else restart at step 1 with a distant uncle ;-)
5) The girls family will meet the boys family (meanwhile a series of background checks through various nefarious :p methods will be done)
6) Then the Boy along with his parents will go and see the girl (point 5 & 6 can be interchanged i dont know the exact process)
7) Boy and girl have to confirm if they like each other
8) Then in the following days the boy and girl chat for hours on the phone , go out together, read each others blogs, check out each other orkut profiles blah blah blah and try their best to understand each other.
9) Then the nitchayathartham (engagement) happens and the day of the marriage will b fixed
10) More of point 8 :p
11) The Wedding reception will be held before the day of the marriage ( An amazing concept in Indian marriages wherein the boy and girl participate (i.e stand like 2 idiots smiling at and shaking everybodys hands for about 3 hours) in their wedding reception even before they are officially married)
12) FINALLY the boy and girl get married and then
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all hell breaks loose

P.S In case after 3 years my future wife reads this remember I am only 25 while writing this and I am childish right now.

so true :(

2007-01-10T09:15:00.000-08:00

Man is the religious animal. He is the only religious animal that has the
true religion -- several of them. He is the only animal that loves his
neighbor as himself and cuts his throat if his theology isn't straight.
-Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910)

25 and running wild with delusions of grandeur

2006-12-26T21:43:00.000-08:00

2 days before christmas a great soul was born but Jesus Christ stole the limelight :((

yep on Dec 23rd I spent my first birthday in USA :-)

I had a great day I had gone to Las Vegas and Grand Canyon for the long weekend and I was on top of the Grand Canyon on my birthday.

The first sight of it took my breath away ...it was HUuuuugggggeeeee. Only nature could have created such a spectacular vista. I hope it remains untouched by man and will remain for our future generations.

Then the next day I was on the Stratosphere which had an amazing view of the mountains around Las vegas.

& Of course I did go around the Strip and played a few slot machines which netted me a profit of 200% ...( in reality i played 2 dollars and got back 4 dollars yaayyyyy).

As Robert frost had said (and repeated by every Tom Dick & Harry including Nehru):
"I have miles to go before I sleep"

Three Candidates for "Husband of the Year" award

2006-12-21T21:54:00.000-08:00

This is going to be an extremely tough competition ;-)

Contender Number 1

contender Number 2

Contender Number 3

Who will be the winner ;-)

college story concluded

2006-12-19T21:52:00.000-08:00

Hmm I am gettin a little bit of heat from X and he has asked me not to write bout his story. I had to remove Part 1 ..cos X seems to be peeved about it.

I wanted to write about all the teasing that we had done in college linking X & Y ..but I am forced to conclude the story in this post.

I am sorry I have hurt X's sentiments. SORRY dude.

Back to the college story:

1)The boys and girls of my batch started interacting better only after the 3rd years college tour . At the end of the tour 4 guys and 4 girls sorta became good friends.

2)I had to force (practically drag) X and another guy to the first meeting with Y and the other 3 girls in cafe coffee day in Nungambakkam.

3) later we guys had a lot of fun teasing X about Y ..boy we gave him soooo many names :)))) (this does bring back many many memories)

4)The 4 guys and 4 girls went out together quite frequently and this continued till the end of college.

Now the guys are not in much touch with the girls except OF COURSE X & Y.

Here is a BIG HEARTY Congratulations to X & Y.

I do feel bad to end this blog so abruptly :( :( sorry to the few anonymous readers who might have liked to read the rest of the college story and would have been reminded of their own college days.

go Daddy Go

2006-11-18T14:48:00.000-08:00

Oh my god I got a little choked up and even had a slight hint of tears when i watched this video of a dad giving his best and more to his disadvantaged son.

There is more details about this in the site below
http://cjcphoto.com/can/

This Dad has been running marathons with his paraplegic child for the simple reason being the child liked it.

THIS is Humanity THIS is LOVE & THIS my friends is parenthood.

Bond .. James Bond....

2006-11-17T23:16:00.000-08:00

I just came back from Casino Royale ..the latest Bond offering.

I was blown away ..i liked it and believe me I didnt notice that it was 2.5 hrs long.

But I was disappointed that they have done way with the renowned starting tune ..that famous and catchy tune.

They have tried to rework James Bond completely giving him a makeover.

The movie has got a few of the regular Bond attractions .. great cars, a few good gadgets & of course beautiful ladies.

I am not giving a review or a gist of the story ..if ur a real Bond fan GO see the movie ;-) ..Daniel Craig had a big task and he has passed it with flying colors.

There are several good jokes if you listen to the dialogues and no bullshit Hi funda stuff like the recent Bond movies...this had a very real and present day problem and certainly a whole lot more believable.

Of course there willbe a few who dont like it since it is SO different from the Bond franchisee that we have been used to.
I am a long time fan of Bond movies having watched all the different actors who played Bond .. Daniel Craig is worthy of the job.

Hats off to him !!!

thamizh rap ????

2006-10-27T23:25:00.000-07:00

Well I have heard thamizh albums before but I guess this is a first for me.. an old melodious song converted into tha,izh rap.

It is nice to see & hear once ..but i dunno if i ike it.

Anyway it seems like a nice thing to share ..so listen and i leave it to you to cry or smile.

simply chocalicious

2006-10-15T17:10:00.000-07:00

My pal Naresh (a PURDUE MBA student) suggested chocolate milk with cereal as breakfast and so I tried it.
And it is sinfully delicious slurrrpppppp ..yummmmyyyyyy.

But i feel so guilty having chocolate milk for cereal that I am changing back to the normal good old 2% reduced fat milk :-)

Dont ask why ..cos it just doesnt feel right ..chocolate milk is not made for breakfast it is just sumthing you have in a cup by itself not mix with cereal.

.. hmm boy what a pointless post huh.

Oct 20th is the deadline for Kellogg & 25th is the deadline for UCLA.
& Nov 6th for UC Berkeley ..these deadlines are hanging over my head and I shall blame them for my dearth of posts...

After Nov 6th I will be back in normal form ;-)

ciao & wish me luck.

More on the American effect

2006-09-19T20:02:00.000-07:00

1) have you noticed how orkutting and bloggin (unfortunately not in my case) seems to increase when people come to the USA ??
romba vetti time irukku ninaikaren (too much of free time) ..

2) My roomie was making dosa this morning ( i didnt want any since i have been having dosa for the last 24 yrs so i can do without it for a year) .. anyway my pal took the dosa maav and poured in ARROWHEAD NATURAL SPRING/MINERAL WATER .. i was stunned for a couple of seconds .. (dei unga oorula irukkum pothu nee mineral waterla samayal panniya ?? ) when i asked him why he was using this water he said that if he uses the tap water the dosa will not come correctly :O :O

ithellam konchum overra illaya .. itha kekarathuku yaarumey illaya ... & I have a gut feeling couple of other guys also do this !!!

vitta mineral waterla thaan kulipaanunga :(

Have I Ever Really Loved A Woman

2006-09-13T21:05:00.000-07:00

Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?
Written by:
B. Adams, M. Kamen, R.J. Lange

I have been listening to this song for a long time and every single time I hear it I am awestruck by the words in it.
Especially the way Bryan Adams describes a woman's feelings ...wooww.

To really love a woman
To understand her - you gotta know her deep inside (sigh it is certainly not easy right, if a guy can really know a girl so well then he is indeed fortunate.)
Hear every thought - see every dream
N' give her wings when she wants to fly (good point never try to confine or restrict your girl )
Then when you find yourself lyin' helpless in her arms (woow wouldn't that be a beautiful feeling :) )
Ya know ya really love a woman

When you love a woman you tell her that she's really wanted
When you love a woman you tell her that she's the one
Cuz she needs somebody to tell her that it's gonna last forever (A girl is like a flower if she is given the due care and attention she will always be in full bloom..but if you ignore her or take her for granted then it is your biggest mistake)
So tell me have you ever really - really really ever loved a woman?
NO I have never really loved a woman :-(

To really love a woman
Let her hold you - til ya know how she needs to be touched (wait for her to know you too .. spend time getting to know each other ..be one with her)
You've gotta breathe her - really taste her ( obviously do NOT sniff or lick her :p ..wine connoisseurs breathe the wine and taste the wine in very small sips to appreciate the full flavor of the wine. Take things slow ..feel her in you. When you hug her breathe her : breathe her emotions..breathe her feelings.. breathe her love & when you kiss her taste her: .. taste her passion..taste her wishes ..taste her love )
Til you can feel her in your blood (2 human beings become one due to the wonderful feeling of love) N' when you can see your unborn children in her eyes ( you should see a future with her ..a long and loving future together)
Ya know ya really love a woman

Chorus

You got to give her some faith - hold her tight
A little tenderness - gotta treat her right ( treat her with respect)
She will be there for you, takin' good care of you
Ya really gotta love your woman...

It is true isnt it ..when ur in love with a woman .. everything seems different.

P.S I have not met any girl nor have i fallen in love with any girl..so no snide remarks please.

disinformation or information

2006-08-24T21:03:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer : I am sure a lot of other people may have got the same ideas that I will be writing about below. & I have nothing against anyone or any country.

The world is now called a global village .. news gets around faster than light (hyperbole).

what is information : Information according to my good old 8th standard/grade textbook is Data which is meaningful.

thanks to all the technology we have now .. anything that happens in one corner of the world is known to the rest of the world in a matter of minutes.

So think how easy it will be to spread a rumor ??? If you have some website which has a lot of viewers and you manage to post some false but shocking news on it .. a lot of people will believe that news and help spread it around too.

nowadays a lot of news reports needs to be taken with a lot of salt .. sensationalism is here to stay :( even a small mishap is blown up to an enormous accident.

what proof does the viewer have that the event ever occurred...

So a state of fear can be easily created by creating such news ... 'V' for Vendetta had a country whose top authorities had a channel which would spread disinformation to the citizens.. and this must be happening in real life in a lot of countries ruled by dictators.

I have a lot more opinions on this but nowadays a blog is considered to be enough proof to indicate that you are acting against someone ;-) ... so no more comments.

blog block

2006-08-14T22:36:00.000-07:00

have u heard of the writers block .. i seem to have one now.

I met a great & positivie looking lady and it is great to talk to her ;-)

I will blog about my new friendhip soon but sorry for the very few updates in my blog.

I willl start in a few days.

Thanks for dropping in guys !!

DisneyLand

2006-08-02T21:26:00.000-07:00

The happiest place in the world - this is how DisneyLand is called ;-)
And it is true as it brings laughter to all the children irrespective of any class difference.

Ever since my childhood I have wanted to visit Disneyland and see the carnival. Primary reason was : My dad showed me pics of his trip to Japan's DisneyLand. & after more than 20 years my wish has come true.

I saw the Disney carnival and am still awed by the gaiety of it. In fact I bought an annual ticket so that I can enjoy it several more times.

Of course some people might say DL is for kids ...but i think this a place where people of all ages can enjoy :-) ...the parade was certainly the best part.. all the little children were smiling and that itself was beautiful

i saw a little girl dressed a Tinkerbell ...she looked sooooo sweeeeeeeetttt.

basically I am indian

2006-07-21T21:33:00.000-07:00

I guess I would also be caught starting a lot of sentences with 'Basically' .. i just dont realize it when I say it .. but when I hear other indians here in the USA use it frequently , i cant help but smile inwardly.

You ask a question and they would start Basically I wanted to do this but did that blah blah blah & so basically this is the result.

Of course there is another catch phrase : "You know" ...yes man I know athukku ippo enangara (so what to do about it) ???
Of course I also use this.

Basically I dont know how these phrases get ingrained in our brains you know ;-)

Licensed to Drive

2006-07-20T23:00:00.000-07:00

Phew I managed to get my driving license in California in my second attempt.

My buddy Naresh called me up just before I got into the car fot the test .. so Naresh almost proved to be a lucky charm .. I shall test if he truly is a lucky charm by making him call me before some of the interviews I might face ;-)

anywayz now atleast I can rent cars and drive around freely .. only thing is I shud pay extra as I am only 24 :( grrrrrr

give back something

2006-07-09T23:07:00.000-07:00

I watched this video about Banyan a charity organization for women started by 2 ladies.

This reminded me of an image that had been haunting me a looong time.

Once during my 9th/10th/11th standard(not sure when) I was returning from school on my bicycle when I saw a bedraggled woman in her late 30's walking along the road as if she was drunk.
Then I realized she was mentally ill and she was wearing only a saree (i.e there was no blouse) and suddenly her saree just fell down, thus exposing her whole upper body.
& I just turned away and went home.
I did "NOTHING" ... I dont know if someone helped that lady or if she just wandered around like that forever.

But I have been haunted by that day and I still dont know if I could have done anything at that time.

Ever since that time I did resolve that I would help the differently abled people and support worthy causes.

I was fortunate to have been one of the students who were chosen to help blind students while in college. Blind Students doing their masters in arts from a nearby college would come to my college (Madras inst. of Technology) and we used to take them to our classes and read out their text books or record the passages on audio tapes. I still remember reading about Shakespeare and also history of Rome and Greece to some of them.

I gave away my entire first months salary from Infosys to different charitable organizations and since then I set aside a month's salary every year for such causes.

I have promised myself that after I retire I would either work for such charities or volunteer in several of them..

I would like to lead by example and I know there are several people who are already doing great things for the under priviledged.

I will give back something to the society that taught me to survive in this world.

motherhood

2006-07-08T19:33:00.000-07:00

Lots of times I think that i shud blog about an incident but then I just forget to actually write it here.

One such thiings was about the absolute fight for survival of mother and child.
I overheard a conversation while I was on a bus in minnesota.

A young mother of a 3 year old child was saying that her age was 20 ( it doesn't take a genius to figure out that she attained motherhood when she was only 17). She was telling her colleague how she was doing 2 jobs and was looking for a third one.

I admire her for having the courage for taking care of her baby and putting in all the effort to raise her.
In USA if someone is unable to take care of a cihld they are legally allowed to give away their children to (i think) children homes where the children will be placed with some other parents.
This young girl could have done that but instead she is working 3 jobs.

I wish her the very best and I hope her daughter will look after her after she grows old.

long live motherhood.

my time capsule

2006-06-16T21:35:00.000-07:00

I am in a very reflective mood now...

In my life there have been several times when I have said I will not do it but in the future I end up doing it.
For instance when one of my neighbors daughter got into Madras Inst. of Technology..i had thought what kind of a stooopid college it was.&And surprise surprise I ended up studying in Madras inst of Tech and made great friends and in retrospect had a gr8 time there. It was in fact one of the best college as it was Anna University.

So now i want to record some of the things that I currently feel that I wont do in the future.

1) if I get a chance to work here in the US then I will stay max until i have a child because I don't want him/her to grow up here . India and Chennai should be in my child's blood. When I see small Indian children speaking in American accents I feel very sad :(

2) I will never smoke

3) I will try my best to never forget my friends from college and school.

things i did

2006-06-02T18:26:00.000-07:00

hmm its been nearly 3 months in the USA...

I have successfully visited Chicago, Niagara Falls, Camped in Tobermory (Canada) ,saw CN tower in Toronto and finished a rapid tour of NY (this was really quick as I was there for only 8 hours).

& this weekend I am returning to El segundo...

phewww too much of travelling.

memories

2006-05-23T20:15:00.000-07:00

I still hang onto to my school college memories..and I have blogged about a few already.

Today thanks to orkut i met a girl from school and this rekindled my nostalgia.

I joined st.michaels for my 9th standard and the school proved to be a revelation. The teachers were real friendly and always encouraged us in sports & culturals. Before Michaels I was a nobody but after studying there I learnt a lot about myself.

There were so many funny incidents that happened there...

for instance .. the class girls were teasing me bout something so counter attack them I said something bout trial and error... he he he the subject was about girl friends.. so i told them well u are all m friends too and that I was trying out the trial and error method with them... from then on i used to call them trials ( if a stranger reads this they might get a wrong idea.. so just to clear the air the entire thing was meant to be fun..i am no adonis..i am just an ordinary guy...)..

& guess what it was one of these friends who I called as trials contacted me via orkut .. & she is happily married :)...

ahh school life was indeed beautiful..

Once during english class when my sir had not come , me and another girl started fighting i.e arguing..suddenly he came in and blurted out "do all this in your house" & both of us started laughing...

All this talk about girls also reminded me of my college buddy Tom.

I offered a ride on my bike to him and on the way he saw some guy taking a beautiful girl for a ride...then he commented to me " Dude you shud also take such a girl on your bike".. & I screamed at him .. dei unnaku lift kuduthen paaru enna seruppala adikanum ;-)

things that caught my attention

2006-05-05T21:15:00.000-07:00

In the course of my stay in the USA i am sure i will come across many more surprises.
I am just listing a few now:

1) I saw a catchy ad in the newspaper saying in big letters "90 Dollars only" & below it "Divorce", the ad was for a divorce lawyer. I hope such ads will not be appearing in India.

2) During a meeting , I was just chatting with my clients when the talk turned towards the use of meth ( crystal meth : a drug) by college kids..a 29 year old guy told us that he advised his kid sister who was going to college that she could try Sex, booze and even cocaine BUT definitely not Meth as Meth wud ruin the person.
Good advice !!!
Initially i was struck by this elder brother's advice ..i mean come on how many times have you heard someone advice his/her sister that she can have sex but not drugs :-)

3) Here the consumers are truly the king..for instance in Wells Fargo Bank the lady at the counter advised me to take the money order from the post office as it would be only 50 ccents while it wud cost 5 dollars at the bank.
This would not have happened in India :-(

Working in the USA will certainly benefit me in a lot of ways.. I am experiencing and learning a lot of things.

ignorant slob

2006-04-22T21:59:00.000-07:00

This is a rant about a guy I saw in Chicago. I had gone to the Aurora Hindu temple when I went to Chicago. After the darshan was over , me and my aunt went down to the room where they sold prasadham.

So after buying some prasadham we sat at a table. Now this temple is very famous amongst the south indians living in Chicago, and I had gone to this temple on April 14 (Tamil new Year Day).. so there was quite a large number of namma oor makkal ;).

A disclaimer here : I have nothing against georgetown university & I mean no disrespect to it's students.

Well anyway while we were sitting at the table another family with a guy who was about 18-22 yrs old and who was wearing a t-shirt with "GEORGETOWN" emblazoned on it, sat next to us to eat the snacks. The parents looked like typical south indians and spoke in normal Indian accent.. but our hero was speaking in a wild american accent ( I mean even americans dont speak like that). It was real weird hearing him.

I was thinking deiii adangudaa thambi. Then i thought mebbe he was born and brought up in usa and thats why he was speaking in such an accent i.e american born confused desi :-)

So our Indian (quasi-American) teen gets up and goes towards the drinking water fountain (like the ones found in a lot of public places in USA) where there is a neat & very legible display that said "Please do not wash your hands here". And in fact the restrooms were right next to that sign. Our damn stylish stupid D#$%head goes straight towards that water dispenser and washed his hands right there.

moral of the story .. However much ur educated if you dont even have the basic common sense, then you are an imbecile thats it.

Veni Vedi Vici

2006-04-14T22:57:00.000-07:00

I think the post title means I came , I saw & I conquered.

Well you all know how my interview for IIm Kozhikode went like .. I was myself and now I realize that you just have to be honest and answer the questions to the best of you knowledge.

I mean I was asked questions on artistic films, social workers in india and the textile industry in south india.
I just answered what I knew.

And now I am really really happy to know that I have been offered an admission in IIM K. I know my parents will be proud but I hope they will support my final decision on the offer.

Well I will discuss bout the final decision later in another post.

This does give me the confidence to face the world.

Thanks to my parents, friends and God who all supported me in this 3 year long hunt.

fiddling in waite park

2006-03-30T17:16:00.000-08:00

oh boy its been a tiring couple of weeks. I have to work in minnesota for my client for 2 months and then back to california. All this is moving and settling is getting on my nerves.
I tried to setup a wireless net at home but it only seemed to slow things down and my roomie who had got this cable connection was bitching me to revert to wired :( so we have to use the net on a time share basis now.

kadavullllleee enna kodumai ithu .....

Well it is nice to see a new place but it is in this place that i realize it is not easy in the USA without a car :( this place does not have buses on Sundays :(

On the bright side i have a couple of friends from chennai in Minneapolis which is nearby.
Well workwise this is the business side so I am learning a little on how the clients business functions.
Me and my roomie from delhi are new to cooking so we are experimenting on the food. But on most days infact for the last 2 weeks we have been having only rice, yoghurt and a mixture of north indian dal and south indian sambhar.

Atleast while I am here i may learn to cook some stuff.

a week of new experiences

2006-03-11T14:11:00.000-08:00

This has been an amazing week. I am writing this blog while experiencing my first hailstorm in Los Angeles. I went outside and felt the small ice particles hit me : it was a great feeling.

Apart from that on Tuesday I had gone to an Indian restaurant, on Wednesday I went to a Japanese restaurant ( I tried some sushi rolls & Teriyaki & some miso soup) , On thursday i went for a potluck lunch (apparently potluck means different people bring differentfood stuffs and we all share it, i took some ice cream as i didn't know to cook, but the food was excellent) and finally on Friday I went out to an Italian restaurant and had Lasagna ( i have always wanted to have it after seeing Joey eat it in Friends)..

& so i thought i had an eventful week but hey Mother nature surprises me by showing me a hailstorm in LA. In fact my neighbour commented that we are now in New York :).

& to top it all of I finally got my laptop :) :) :) it is the usual dell inspiron 6000.

Senthil can cook

2006-03-05T16:25:00.000-08:00

Well i remembered that there was a show in American tv called Yan can cook, that is why i have named my blog as such.
I actually cooked "SAMBHAR" for the first time in my life. I followed my mom's recipe and it actually turned out good enough to eat. I did not use any sambhar powder or any ready made stuff. how is that for a cook huh.

A number of firsts happened this week, I also went to Walmart and that mall was HUGE. I went to Sears, Robinson Mays & other small shops apart from Walmart & all was just in one huge mall.

& what's up with this Ralphs stores i mean on the route from el segundo to LA i saw 4 ralphs stores & they are all huge. My god imagine the money the owners will be having.

So i am getting absorbed into the life of S/w techies in USA, lets see when i break out of it.

sayanora.

finally here

2006-02-28T20:02:00.000-08:00

Heyyyy I am now residing in a studio with 2 other guys. Mann the rent is high here we pay 1100 dollars per month for this place :O :O

I am finding it difficult to blog as I don't have a laptop yet, I am using my roomies now.

In fact I actually managed to make contact with Madame Kalai but I had promised to call her up the next day and I didn't keep that promise. Damn me.

It is not easy moving to a new country and staying with 2 guys whom I have never seen before.
There is another downside neither of them can speak tamil ( :( :( :( ( waaahhhhhhhhh). One is from Orissa & the other from andhra.

Anyway the orissa guy is the master chef and if it is not for him we would be eating out only. I have started to make rice using the rice cooker ( while some of u think that it is not a big deal), it is an amazing thing for me.

& after a long time ( nearly 4-5 years) I am cooking scrambled eggs he he he he , the last time i did was when I had gone to kodai with my college buddies.

Anyway I think it will take a few more days to get used to this place and travel around.

wish me luck ;)

transit in Changi

2006-02-24T16:45:00.000-08:00

I have been busy with a lot of packing for my trip to El Segundo ( LA) in California.
I change flights in S'pore andd I have spent 3 hours in this place.
I am stunned by the size of the sirport. & now I am in the lounge waiting to board a huge plane, it is the first double decker plane I am seeing (Boeing 747-400) I hope to fly in an A380 soon.

Ok I will reply to all your wishes soon.

Next blog will be from LA .
ciao.

chasing dreams

2006-02-20T08:03:00.000-08:00

When I joined my company in 2003, I had a dream/wish that I would get to travel to different places on work assignments. In about 5 months i realized that since the work is divided based on clients I would only be able to work in USA ( well that was great too).
So I was building a nice little imaginary castle wrt my trip to the USA, but then my H1B visa application itself was initiated after a year and I got my visa only inNov 2004.

Even then I hadn't given up hope, i was still thinking i would travel soon. As i waited several of my dear friends left to the US for work. I kept thinking my turn would come and i had spent 2 years in my company. I was getting a little disillusioned (that maybe an under statement) because by this time my close friends working in other companies had jumped to Oracle and were getting real fat packages nearly double of what I was getting. I really felt bad and I felt that mebbe it was "ME" and that I was not good enough.

Well I did some thinking and that took me into June 2005 and I decided it was not "ME", it was my current position which had stagnated and the management didn't want to release me. I started my campaign for a release and it proved successfully after 6 more months ....

& then I was moved to another vertical and was requested to assist another Informatica project. Even at that time I was about to be pulled into a .NET project for offshore work but I managed to talk myself out of it :).

After about 3 months in that temporary project I am now scheduled to depart to LA ,California for a 6 month assignment.

I am the last of the gang of friends from my batch to travel to the USA, but hey i am finally going right ;). There were moments of extreme stress during this long wait but somehow I managed to overcome them all.

In a way I realized that a lot of young developers stay in such IT companies only for that eventual onsite work. I used to think that I wasn't one among them and that I would be doing my MBA in one of the IIM's by then, but time has proved me wrong.

well life sure has it's twists & turns huh. Let's see what happens next.

where are we going???

2006-02-14T07:36:00.000-08:00

well today is Feb 14th ... a day which is known by most people as Valentine's day. A day which has been marketed so effectively that even people who can' t read or write , can actually say that today is Kadhalar dhinam.

In one way I feel sick of the way Valentine's day is promoted. The reason follows:

Jan 26th is India's Republic Day. I was listening to Radio mirchi that morning(Jan 26) and the Rj's were asking the people who had called " what was Republic Day & why we celebrate it".. I listened to it for about an hour and trust me NOT ONE person gave the reason, some people said because we got freedom .... ( ask the same set of people what was Valentine's day and they wud give an answer).
Even a few so called educated School children were asked the question on Jan 26th and they blabbered something. I mean why coudn't they say that Republic day was celebrated because we framed our constitution which gave us the bloody rights to speak & write freely ( for instance bloggin itself).
But they wud certainly know what valentines day is.

Another reason ( infact some guy made a similar statement on TV), if you are truly in love with someone then everyday is a celebration of love and togetherness. I agree with that guy ,Why shud we have one particular day to show our love ???

There are times when I think what will happen to the future generations in India. My history teacher from school was complaining to us recently that the current kids are smoking , driving cars, using mobiles 24 x 7 and just don't listen to the teachers.

When I go to malls and cinemas I see young kids paired up and having a more than "good" time. Several times I have had the thought of what will my future children be like ???.

Some people say that only a few are like that ...but we have been saying the same reason for a long time but the so called few are rising in large numbers.

Where is the great Indian cultural heritage , i feel we lost it in the 90's itself !!!

I am not against freedom but then again I don't like what I am seeing around me either :(

thats why I ask myself Where are we going ???
Are we going towards a better future or a sorry future ???

Bang bang bangalore trip

2006-02-11T05:58:00.000-08:00

I think lady luck was sitting right beside me during this entire trip. Well the objective of this trip was to "attend" the IIM K interview in IIM B and later attend an international MBA fair in Taj Residency.
Some of the favorable things that happened to me :

1) While going to bang, I was in a brand new AC coach and that too in a window seat, so I got to do my most favorite thing while going in a train i.e. look at the world go by from the window. ( the reason why I say this was fortunate is because in the old AC coaches the windows will be so opaque that I wouldn't be able to see anything clearly)

2) I was only 3rd in the queue for the prepaid auto queue at the Bang city station ,which is generally very crowded.

3) I did something real stooopid , I was supposed to paste my recent photo in the Interview data form but I had completely forgotten it and I noticed this on Feb 7th 11 PM and the interview was at 9:15AM the next day. I tried my luck by going to the interview without my photo, there were a couple of assistants who collect the forms and they immediately said that they were sorry but I won't be allowed to attend the interview. I pleaded with them to ask a professor and boy oh boy a prof came out and checked my admit card etc and said I could attend the interview but I should return after the interview with a photo. ( So I managed to complete the GD and interview , then went to an instant photo shop and finally gave the photo to the assistants). phewwwwwwwwwwwww Well to make the situation lighter I thought to myself that I had given my most recent photo and no one else could have given a more recent photo, the form had said "please paste your recent photograph".... & man did I give a recent photo he he he he

4) The next day 9th feb I decided to visit my sister who lives in another end of the city, and I was real lucky during this trip too. I wen to the sivaji nagar bus stand at 9AM and asked for the bus, and they said it would come in 5 mins, and by the time they finished the sentence the bus was there :-) & while returning at around 9PM I came to the bus stop and the first bus that came was a bus to shivaji nagar :-) wooowww generally it is not easy to get buses in bangalore.
& the best part is coming up next : from shivaji nagar I had to go to Majestic to get to the station , so after I reached the shivaji nagar bus stand , i just walked past a few buses wondering which will go to Majestic ( you see in Bangalore all the bus name boards were only in Kannada & obviously i don't know kannada). I remember I passed atleast 5 buses and then stopped at one to ask the driver which bus would go to Majestic and Lo and Behold the guy said his bus was going and I got into it :-)

Apart from all this a number of other small things seemed to make my life easy, like the abundance of beautiful girls even on weekdays like Tuesday & Wednesday at Jayanagar and Forum mall respectively :-) :-)

coming back to reality... I think luck is just a way of looking at your life thats all. You can take the things happening to you in a positive way and go ahead in life. I mean me forgetting the photo was actually real bad luck but I still went ahead and had a decent interview (not that I expect a call).
So I say we make our own luck ..

a whirlpool in my cup

2006-01-26T22:46:00.000-08:00

Arghhhh I am making a statement now : I don't know what to do about my MBA.

I am done with my applications and as I had mentioned in my earlier post : "My cup almost brimmeth over", I have got admits from a couple of universities.

Now the problem is I don't know on what factors I shud decide on the final university. Personally I don't like to take loans, it's is not something I am very comfortable with. But sometimes i feel that the entire USA runs on debts only.

I had asked a few doubts about these universities to an uncle in the USA who is in a very good position and his wife was asking why I didn't apply to the top 10 universities ???
I know that the job situation for international students is not easy, but i think I can manage with that.

I also have to decide whether i shud attend the IIM-K interview on Feb8th, but it is unlikely that I will get in as I read in ET that K has sent nearly 1500 calls which makes the probability of getting an admit a 1:6 ratio after the interview.

Even between the US universities I shud decide whether I shud go for the one that offers the greatest aid or the one which is better known. Since I didn't apply to the ivy league there will be no on campus recruitment on any of the univs I had applied to.

Also I am not sure when I shud start preparing my financial proof statements and setting up the visa date et al.

Thank god atleast in the work front , i am only unofficially working for a project now, as I am officially on bench now; so this means a lot less tension & a bit more free time :).

Alrighht i have ranted enough, i think things will clear up soon.

A twist in destiny

2006-01-24T07:24:00.000-08:00

The twist in destiny is unfortunately not my experience. It is my friend from NIIT days : Ram Mahesh's.
I attended a 2 year course in NIIT ( wherein I was supposed to learn a few of the software languages), anyway I met a guy called Ram Mahesh who lived very near to my house and we became really good friends.
He did his Mechanical engineering in SRM and then got a job in Cognizant technologies like several other engineers who passed out in 2003. Of course yours truly had gotten into Infosys at that time.
Though we were not in constant touch i did meet him sometime in 2004 and we stood and discussed Harry Potter for nearly 1-2 hours at the end of my street :-). At that time he was in CTS only and he said that he was not going to try for an MBA ( i knew that he tried CAT in 2003 but didn't get in). So at that point of time I assumed that he would be like me and would continue in the IT field.
One fine day in 2006 I met him in my street having really long hair and almost having a hippie kinda look, and when I asked what he was up to ; he said he was one of the SPORTS Journalists for SPORTSTAR and also the Cricket writer for THE HINDU. Oh my GODDDDDD I was stunned because The HINDU is the most famous newspaper in the south of India and SPORTSTAR is a very famous sports magazine from the HINDU's stable.

I got to know that our protagonist had quit CTS in 2004 and joined a journalism school ( Asian school of Journalism i think) and managed to top his class too. During my infrequent interactions with him earlier I knew that he was a real sports enthusiast and would remember a lot of sports statistics.
Anyway since he topped his class and since one of his profs was in The Hindu he got a chance to prove his skills, and man has he been doing good. He has been to Zimbabwe and SriLanka to cover the cricket matches, he has even interviewed our Ganguly after Gangs was dropped from the team and I am sure he will be doing a lot more stuff.

To think that he started as a mechanical engineer went on to be a software engineer but ended up a sports journalist. I think he is the most happiest in this but then again I shouldn't be speaking for him.

I wish him all the best in his life.

What I wonder is how many people dare to think different and take a different path ???

My cup almost brimmeth over

2006-01-17T09:25:00.000-08:00

It is Jan17 2006 ... I have completed admissions interviews to TAMU, NUS & Univ of Wash and have got admits to all of them :)

I got 99.00% in CAT 2005 and a call from IIM- Kozhikode.

Just one more thing is pending: an onsite opportunity on which the client is still dragging his feet on. If the client signs off on the agreement then I may have to go to the USA to work for sometime.

hmmm my cup is full ..but i am waiting for any calls from the other univs too ;). let's see what happens....

One down 3 more to go

2006-01-14T01:34:00.000-08:00

Well I had mentioned earlier that while I was in college I was in a gang of 4 guys and 4 girls. After college the contact with those girls diminished but the 4 guys still were in touch.

3 years down the lane one is in IIM Bangalore, One is in Oracle Hyderabad and there were 2 of us in Chennai (Me & RJ). I had assumed that RJ wud be travelling to the USA soon but his opportunity was constantly getting delayed , but finally the dude has struck gold.

I think he will enjoy working in the USA and he told me that this was a long term assignment that means definitely more than a year. I think he will come back to India for his marriage :-).

So from the gang of 4 he is the first one to travel outside India , I am happy for him and I hope I will be able to meet him soon in the USA.
I know he reads my blog, so all the best RJ ..go have a blast man.

We will miss you and your bargaining skills.

The global trade

2006-01-13T01:05:00.000-08:00

There is an ad for DHL which shows how different materials required to make a blouse are acquired from different countries and how the final finished product is bought by a girl called Annie in USA.

I had a similar experience recently. My cousin brother came to India from Boston, USA. He gave me a Reebok cap which had some NFL (I guess) team called Vikings' logo on it.

Inside the cap I found a tag which said that the cap was made in BANGLADESH.

Bangladesh is right next to India, I also learnt that India exports a lot of stuff to Bangladesh which includes clothes material.
So the cap made in Bangladesh could have some base material from India itself. The Cap would have been made by some poor tailor in some little hell hole in Bangladesh and it would have been sent to USA and finally billed for 22 Dollars. And this great product was bought in America by my cousin and then gifted to me.

When 22$ is converted to Indian rupees, it comes to around 970Rs. I can approximate it to 1000Rs.

In reality the product will hardly be 50 - 100 Rs worth, as the mass production of it will obviously bring down the price.
But what kind of salary would that tailor have got for this 1000Rs worth product, not even 10Rs.

You must probably think what is my point now ??? Well my point is the global trade agreements have created a very large difference between the under developed countries and the developed countries.

The developed countries are making huge profits, of course there have been some good things because of such free trade but I still feel the benefits are not evenly spread.

Anyway the Cap is really nice and I do like it, but I just am amazed that it was made in my neighboring country but bought in the USA.

The deadly pause

2006-01-08T06:01:00.000-08:00

I am trying to find a solution to the silence that occurs during a conversation between people. Generally when close friends talk , there is no obvious pause but let's say you are talking to one of your extended relations in some function or even when they suddenly drop in to ur home... Eventually there is an obvious pause in the conversation neither of us knows how to continue the talking ????

Is this kind of situation common in India ?? It is so discomforting when such a silence occurs .. I mean the other person doesn't know if it's the end of the conversation and neither do we. And each one doesn't want to offend the other by stopping the talking.
It's a vicious cycle wherein I would think that it's over and wait for him/her to say his goodbye .. But suddenly after bout a minute he/she will try to talk about some subject. I experience this when I talk to distant relationships or when I talk to new people whom I wud probably never meet again.

But this is were the "Kadalai" ( one of the most stupidest terms I learnt in college which means a guy & girl talking bout all & sundry ... I mean what's wrong in trying to prolong a conversation with a girl huh ... Einstein himself has said that when u talk for an hour with a beautiful girl it wud seem like just 5 mins) experience pays off. Anyway during such conversations the guy & girl will think of a whole range of topics & the goodbye itself wud last 15 minutes ;-)...But it is definitely not the same with a conversation with a new person right !!...

Anyway I am just rambling.. I definitely don't have the answer on how to avoid that gap in a conversation. Anybody out there has an answer ???????

The Cat shall rest in Peace

2006-01-02T07:24:00.000-08:00

Woooooooooo Hooooooooooooo

Well I am glad to tell u all that I got a call fom IIM-Kozhikode :-) :-)

I honestly don't know if I will be able to make it to the Feb 8th interview, if I am in India I will attend it.
But realistically speaking the competition will be in a completely different level.. I mean there are people that pay money and learn to tackle GD & PI, while people like me rely more on our own experiences.

This was my last attempt for CAT and I am glad i am signing off in style with atleast ONE call. I was actually pretty stunned by the result , I never even calculated my score this time. I know i attempted 40 q's ( 7 Q, 10 A & 23 V) but I have no idea if i got all of them correct.

I am completely satisfied with my efforts , this was the result of 3 years of hard nut-crunching effort ( of course i am being melodramatic) , for CAT 2005 I just perused thru the Basics on Nov 19th and wrote the exam very coolly. The result did not matter to me, I just wanted to take the exam and wait for the score. As Morpheus wud say "I freed MY MIND !!!!"

I do feel a little sad for all the guys that paid good money to the coaching classes but did not make it... thank god I didn't waste my hard earned money on those leeches. I don't understand how these so called classes can help someone, as on the D-Day it is the person's self-control and confidence that can do the trick

I am not saying I am a CAT specialist just because of a call, but i have always considered myself a realist. Anyway the CAT is Dead Long live the CAT. ( this is based on the saying the King is dead Long live the King).

sayanora ...

Circle of Life

2005-12-30T08:56:00.000-08:00

From the time I scanned all my photos (about 3 years back) I wanted to make a photo in which I shape my pics (from different stages of life )in a circle and end with one last image as a Question mark. It would finally look like a big circle containing images in-between.

But now I don't have the patience to sit and design something like that. More over I don't want to install some heavy duty photo maker like photoshop or something. So here is my first feeble attempt to chronicle my photo history :

When I was around 1 the age of innocence.... I am the King of the world. Check out the stare !!

I am flyingggg on a jet plane ;-)

Oh well looks like I had to settle for a bicycle :(

Atleast I got a motorbike now ;-)

Now that's cool right... me and my dad's Indica :-) Pretty suave huh !!

So what will be next ????????????????

Everyone of us have had an amazing journey in life and I hope we all do something worthwhile in that journey.
Sometimes we don't know when we have enough and keep craving for more in terms of monetary gains or even love.

Is it that a human being can never be sated with what he/she already has...should one attain salvation ???

a bout of sickness

2005-12-26T07:34:00.000-08:00

It's been quite some time since i was ill, but on saturday what started as minor shivers ended up as a high fever. I was shivering in the afternoon around 3:00 PM !!!
My throat became dry and my body temperature was high. I took a couple of Crocins and laid down. I had a tough night's sleep, i was feeling terrible and my body felt so weak.
It just takes a small virus to shut down a human being.. and unlike a PC there is no Ctrl-Alt-Del for us humans. To think that a lot of us think we are superior beings but I think nature has it's own way of maintaining a balance.
I am always reminded of a Matrix dialogue wherein when Agent smith is interrogating Morpheus he would say :
" I'd like to share a revelation during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we are the cure."

In fact I think that a virus is far more dangerous than a human being.
Anyway the fever subsided on sunday evening.. but I had to sleep for a long time to recover. I am still having trouble with a throat soreness so am having trouble enjoying my food :( :( ....

it's my birthday

2005-12-23T07:55:00.000-08:00

This is my 3rd Birthday since I joined Infy and the first one in which I was at home at 00:00AM (23-Dec).
My first 2 birthdays I was at Infy working on Open enrollment stuff.
This was also my first Birthday wherein none of my old gang of friends were in Chennai. I think this will be a continuos affair as we are all going to diversify in someway or the other.
I got some other good news too, about which I shall blog a little later. It was a pleasant surprise too.
I am now 24 years old, i certainly don't know if i have achieved anything but I hope to do something good before i have to start a family.
As the years roll by I know that things may be a little bit more difficult but i hope to persevere.

I slept at around 11:30PM last night and while I was trying to sleep I certainly did not feel very special about my birthday , i thought it was gonna be just another boring day like every other day in my life.
& Even when i woke up I wasn't feeling too great.. It just felt as though I had wasted a whole year of my life. But then something really wonderful happened, my family and friends began to call me up and wish me "Happy Birthday". Obviously my Mom and dad were the first to wish me.
Around 7:20AM I got an SMS from Jim , he is a guy in my project who has the exact same birthdate as mine (23-dec-1981). Then my cousin Naveen wished me and then his sister Pavithra called up. Then my grandmom, my uncle, Naresh ( the first of my gang to call) , Arun (patti) and Rajesh (Mallu my training batch friend).
When I reached office around 10AM first my new PM Mr. Crossley wished me, then my project mate Balasambavi and IHLD (my PU)'s HR Sunitha and my cubicle mate Santhanam.
I got emails from several people I didn't even know. I got so many more wishes that I can't give the entire list.
My previous project in which I was working for 2 years organized a birthday party for Jim and myself. the guys gave me birthday bums ( wherein they lift me and kick my ass) and finally plastered my whole face with the cake.

Man I really enjoyed the day in the end. Even though my conscience says dude what have you done to deserve such a special day, my entire body and mind was screaming forget it it's MY Day and I shall definitely enjoy it.
Well my mood was certainly buoyant in the end of the day quite an anti climax from the way I felt the previous night :-) It certainly proves the fact that society affects you in several ways.

A trip to Kodai (2002)

2005-12-18T09:17:00.000-08:00

During my 7th sem hols, in November 2002, I planned a small trip to Kodaikanal with my friends. This is the time for a brief description of my gang of friends : we were 4 , R.J.Karthik (RJ), V.Naresh (V2), S.S.Subramanian (subbu) & of course yours truly ME. We were the laziest bunch of people ever, we would make big plans to go somewhere and one of us wud have some stooopid reason to not make it and the whole plan wud fail. Anyway this time I was not gonna let them escape and I successfully planned the trip and managed to convince all of them.
In fact V2 suddenly invited the hermit of our class, vengadesh ( some of my class girls used to call him a samiyar (hermit) because he avoids going out with other people) and boy o boy we were surprised when he agreed to come with us.
(From L to R - Subbu,Venga,RJ,V2 and lying in the middle MOI)

So the 5 of us were ready to go on our first out-station trip without adult supervision :-).
We stayed in Sterling resorts (Lake View), it was a nice place it was facing the Kodai Lake.
I have to blog about some of the really nice things that we did then :
1)We wanted to go to the town so we rented some bicycles and went around the lake. We thought that we would make breakfast the next morning and so we bought some eggs and bread. This was winter season so around 5PM the entire place became very dark and so we started to make our way back. But we decided to cycle around the lake (man that was a mistake) .. the entire road around the lake was pitch dark .. there was no light and not a soul on the road.
Subbu had to carry the eggs inside his jacket and we were all expecting his jacket to be soaked with egg yolk. Imagine 5 guys who can barely see a few inches before them cycling & carrying eggs ... we were totally lost in the middle and we just went ahead on the road and finally came to a small shop, got the right directions and finally made it to our rooms.My god that was a thrilling experience and kudos to subbu to manage the trip without breaking even a single egg. all along the way we were teasing subbu that he was gonna break the eggs but he proved us wrong.
2)Of course while we were there we heard from another friend that our scores for 7th sem had been announced and I was really happy to have crossed the 9 GPA for the first time in my college life :-)

3)On the last evening we were watching TV and we saw a video of 5 Star and subbu was commenting that the heroine was kinda cute ..but i was a little apprehensive as she reminded me of another average looking girl from my college,& when I mentioned this everyone were like oh mannnn their image of the cute girl romancing the screen was now totally blurred out. Subbu ,v2 ,rj & Venga agreed that I was right and they certainly stopped thinking of the 5 star heroine.

I can't think of anyother interesting things that happened , but we all thouroughly enjoyed the time we shared together and i hope none of us will ever forget it.

-- To my friends : Guys do add in the comments if you remember anything else O.K ;-)

Moi - an entrepreneur

2005-12-11T01:14:00.000-08:00

I recently remembered something which I had done with a bunch of friends from my neighborhood. We were 4 : Shyam, Karthik, Jainik and myself, i am not sure if karthik was involved in this event which i shall tell now.

( the photo does not have karthik - but the brats on it are ( from L to R) Shyam,Me,Jainik & rahul)

Somehow one of us got an idea to have a sort of carnival in our street and we managed to secure jainik's first floor for conducting the games. You should have seen us then .. all pip squeaks without an iota of business knowledge.
So we went about deciding what games we would have, i remember some of them being : brainvita ( the marble game) and some other small board games.. i really can't remember the details. The prizes were school items like Pencils , sharpeners etc.
And the marketing method we used then was door to door invites.. we divided the whole street equally and went to all houses which had kids. I still remember one episode when we were thinking of all the kid's names , Shyam wrote down a guy called Kanagavel as Thengavel ( which translates to Coconut-vel) we were all rolling on the floor with laughter.
It was real fun working together and organizing that small carnival.
So anyway we went to the houses and said that we were having a carnival and the entry was (i think) 10Rs per child and they could play any number of games they wanted...
I think this was in the early 1990's I don't remember exactly.

The carnival day came and kids did turn up and we were making a little money but we were just about breaking even , then suddenly Jainik's cousins about4-7 of them turned up and took part and thanks to them we made a tidy profit. The fun lasted around 2-4 hours.
The carnival was just OK ..come on what can a gang of 4 whose average age was 10 achieve huh.

we used up the entire first floor of J's house and finally in the evening we divided the profits
equally and had a little money remaining which we gave to J's mother. Now when i think about it, she really helped us a lot and encouraged us and certainly deserved more than what we gave her :-).

Now when I think about it I have lost a lot of the qualities which I had then .. I am still wondering how I had the guts to knock at several people's doors and invite them to a fair. I dunno who got the idea and I don't even know how I could have been so enterprising ..

I wish I still have those qualities hidden within me. I was looking like a bloody Martian then.
I am really glad that I remembered that incident as i am slowly forgetting a lot of my childhood.

A letter to Tatooines

2005-12-08T07:38:00.000-08:00

I generally don't like to give unsolicited advice but i did it today. I am slightly ashamed of it , but if it was of use to the recipient then I am glad.
Anway this was the letter I had sent to Kalai after I found that she had deleted her entire blog.

" I am Senthil (SSK) one of your very recent admirers. It's hardly been a month since I started reading your blogs and now this !!!!!

Apart from your blog itself I really enjoyed reading the comments and your witty replies.
In fact i came to ur site yesterday to read the numerous comments ... but i was getting an error 404 blah blah..

I thought okay i must have somehow screwed up the link from my blog, so i went in search for the link of your profile thru Jagan and IBH blogs where i was certain that you had commented .. but even your profile was inaccessible.

In fact I used to maintain a very private blog but after reading your blog and seeing the comments and replies I thought i shud be a better blogger. Believe me u were an inspiration.

okay i have always thought that one of the things that can be given freely is advice and the other as far as i know is love.well as far as Advice is concerned the recipient can listen to it or just trash it , while as far as love is concerned the recipient has to build on it or demolish it.

But anyway my 2 cents of advice :-)
Just because someone else thinks of you in a particular way does not mean that you have to defend your self. You are you that's it. I mean though we live in a society there comes a time when we start living only for the society and not for ourselves. Somehow we want to satisfy others around us and not ourselves. And you certainly did not seem to be catering to the masses .. tatooines was your baby and people like me liked what they saw in ur blog.

I don't know why one of the causes for u to stop bloggin was because of comments from bloggers who u will probably never ever meet !!!
I hope atleast ur tatooines are kept alive in your own laptop..
& hey if it's possible please do mail ur new tatooines toons.

I shall eagerly await the Princess of Tatooine's adventures :-).
I have no right to say ur decision was right or wrong .. but if one fine day u start bloging again please do give me the link.
ennama nee chennai ponna irunthuta vetti pasanga commenta paathu ippadi feel pannitiye :(
Athuvum anna univ .. anga illatha vetti commentsaaa ..
Naanum AU thaan .. naan MIT campus ...

Seri romba overa type panniyachu .. must get back to work.
All the best in all ur endeavours.
Yethu nadanthaalum athu nallathukke nadakkum..."

chumma konchum updates - updated on Dec 8

2005-12-04T08:04:00.000-08:00

hmmm well it's been a good week as far MBA apping is concerned.
I managed to post the docs for 3 univs : Purdue, Wash & TAMU. There is this irony when it comes to choosing my recommenders.
I asked a 3rd guy to fill the reco and suddenly that guy was sent onsite ... so I had to find another guy.
And my 2nd recommender was suddenly asked to go to Florida for some new project .. ithellam nyayame illapa ... Andava yen ithhanai sothanaigal ????
So now I have to find another person to fill the recos .. i guess i'm paying for my own procrastination .

Some good news tatooines ilavarasi "kalaai" has linked my blog from hers ... ada ada ada it's like getting Knighted by the Queen of England :)

In the work front .. i'm almost in bench time I have to report to a new PM on Monday to see what's next.

Blogging and reading the numerous interesting blogs is certainly a big anti-depressant.
Thanks BLOGGER u are the best .... And All hail GOOGLE the king of the net. ( oh well i'm getting all senti bout bloggin ;) )

anewayz gotta start writing the essay for Iowa now.

P.S Kanda naal mudhal songs are ammmazing ( a late discovery i guess)

P.P.S I had mailed She-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named about a week back and I still haven't gotten a reply from her. Looks like she is either ignoring me or she is not able to access her mail. Also another friend of hers says she is always online in YM but how is it that I never catch her online ... could it be that she has used the option to become invisible for my id alone... again i really don't know the truth .

P.P.P.S Hey stars appear brighter and the whole world looks more beautiful now :-) just kidding. But She-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named replied to my mail and i read it this morning, it seems she really couldn't access her mailbox. & for those who care I really am not hung up on her anymore , but i certainly value her friendship and cherish the time we spent together as friends.

Kanda Naal Muthal ... a simple yet good movie

2005-12-01T03:44:00.000-08:00

Well if I had to be a harsh critic then I would say this movie was a mix of several films like Kushi and other Shah Rukh khan movies.
But to a person like me who just needs to be entertained for the duration of the movie .. well this is a great movie , You can spend your hard earned money to see it in the theatres near you.

The movie is about the chemistry between 2 human beings , how time has put them in the same cauldron where a new life awaits them. ( wooow big words from me).
anyway the hero & heroine are not the best of friends but the story beautifully develops and finally they get together.
The acting by Prasanna , Laila and Karthikkumar are laudable.. I somehow liked karthik's performance... It was very subtle.
The rest of the cast like revathy & Lakshmi all provided great support in the movie.
Hat's off to Prakashraj for producing such a nice and clean movie. Though prasanna seemed to emote exactly like Prakashraj in the fag end of the movie.

Well the movie did not have any fights, no tappankuthu songs ( In fact all songs except for 1 rap song were good melodies & the rap song was also very very well picturised) and no specific comedian was required but still the guy from Vijay TV's Kadavul Paathi Mirugam Paathi plays a nice role initially as the hero (Prasanna's ) friend. All in all this was damn decent movie ... but i guess the movie can be watched with one's girlfriend as it is a romantic movie.

The caped crusader syndrome ... tadadadat tadaaaaannnn

2005-11-24T22:43:00.000-08:00

Hmm there were many a time that I wanted to be a saviour of my friends. I dunno why i get that feeling. I imagine that some terrible tragedy is about to happen and I'm the hero who saves all the people.
Is this a manifestation of an inner soul that is crying out for attention .. i dunno .

Do other people also think of such things .. i mean it does seem really pathetic to imagine being some kinda saviour right ..

Think bout what I would do if I'm walking on a dark night with a girl and suddenly some guy shows a knife and asks for our money .
Hmm in all probability i wud just handover the money and scram outta there with my friend.But if the guy had tried to molest her wud i have the courage to give up my life for that ???
It certainly seems the most noble thing to do : dying while tryin to protect a friend !!
I somehow think a burst of adrenalin wud shock me into action and probably i wud get myself killed as i certainly am not a strong guy .. but hopefully by that time my friend shud run the hell outta there and even more hopefully she shud be sensible enuff to call for help ... as i might still have a chance of survival ;)
I certainly think there is a hero amongst all of us and something will awaken it ...
be it a fight to save our environment or a fight to save our own sorry asses ..

Deja vu

2005-11-20T01:15:00.000-08:00

hmm from the little French i know deja vu means already seen, this term became well known in India after Neo says it in Matrix.
Anyways when I went to Loyola college to write my CAT i had this feeling of deja vu. This is my 3rd and last attempt at CAT. The one thought that struck me when i saw the crowd was "Like moths attracted to a light" . Every year the CAT aspirants increase exponentially.

God knows where so many managers are going to find work.

Harry potter 4 the movie

2005-11-18T10:05:00.000-08:00

Well for a Potter fan ( not a potter fanatic) this movie was good.
But the series has certainly become darker.
The actors certainly look old... Now who wud believe that the gorilla acting as Ron is only 14 ????

But at the same time we the viewers have become very comfortable with these actors so i really hope the producers make the remaining 2 films ASAP like LOTR was made, otherwise they may have to change the actors and we would not like the change.

But anyway as the whole series will become more and more serious the movies may not be advisable to the children. I certainly would see all the movies of course.

I don't remember too much but wasn't the principal of beauxbottoms or whatever: a fat giant, but the movie has a thin tall woman as her.

HP4 the movie was no way as descriptive as the book, and to think that HP4 is much smaller than HP5, So the movie HP5 is gonna be an abridged version. This movie itself moved very fast ... the dragon fights were short , the Mad Moody sub plot was also very short and the explanation for the ministers death was also not given ... hmm i dunno how it would be for a HP fanatic to see this movie :)
Anyway the dark lord has returned and there shall be no peace amongst the HP fans until we see the rest of series on video too ;-)
Avada Kedavra ~~~~~>

procrastinator

2005-11-11T09:54:00.000-08:00

It's one of those periods again...
I have made myself believe that i shud spend every bit of my time writing my essays for the B schools, but till now i have been procrastinating big time.
That's why i had stop the very rare blogin too.
i dunno what i will be doin ... i have finally been released from my project in which i have been for over 2 years. It's almost like my second family i made so many friends , so many interesting people.
I have observed so many of them and each one of them is truly an amazing character ...

Now i have been put into a new project in Informatica ..i dunno what i shud look forward to.

I'm still not make any great advances in deciding my future ...

more on all this will follow when i begin feelin as pathetic as i feel now .

Just another IQ test

2005-08-06T01:54:00.000-07:00

Your IQ Is 130

Your Logical Intelligence is Exceptional
Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius
Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius
Your General Knowledge is Exceptional

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

Well I was bored ;-) That's why i took this mini test

A test of friendship - Harry Potter 6

2005-08-06T01:41:00.000-07:00

Finally i finished Harry Potter - The Half Blood Prince.
The ending itself made me feel sad. There was a very heavy emotional undertone in this book. But i guess in all of JKRowling's book , Harry Potter would always be strengthened by his friends.
In this book too his friends have vowed to help him. Their friendship suffered in the middle because of petty reasons but isn't it the same in the real world too .

Spoiler Alert :

I think that Dumbledore has served his purpose, he has pointed out to Harry the difference between forcing to fight and bravely jumping into the fight.
& he has also told Harry how to kill Voldemort. As his job is done , I think that's why Rowling has killed him off as, if not for his death Harry would have always felt protected. He may not get that extra push to kill voldemort.
Now Harry has another reason to finish off Voldemort.
Just who is this R.A.B ???? Is this goin to be one of the focus areas in Book 7 or will it be solved simply ???
I'm sure the whole world awaits the 7th book and am also sure that Rowling shud not extend the series though it has been an amazing money spinner.
It would be too much of a good thing & people maybe put off if she keeps continuing the series.

well hope all is well and it ends well too ....

Am I incomplete

2005-07-23T09:38:00.000-07:00

July 23rd is a Saturday, It was a beautiful day and late in the evening there was heavy rain.
Well I was looking at the mirror and suddenly a strange feeling came over me. I felt that I was incomplete. There was this feeling of utter uselessness.
I felt as if i was doing nuthin of use. Why do i feel as if a part of me has gone missing ???? Life has changed a lot from my schooling days.
I hate my job as a software engineer ( it's more of a software coolie ), I hate my current state of living. I dunno what i'm missing, if only I realized it , my life wud be better. Is it my friends that i'm missing or is it my close cousins i'm missing or am I missing someone like She-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named ????
She-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named used to be my Agony Aunt , while in college i used to talk to her every day and after talking to her I felt a whole lot better. She used to alleviate my problems, in fact sometimes she would share her problems with me and i too felt that i was being of some use.I thought we were in a perfect symbiotic realtionship.
Well 2 years have passed since we all passed out of college and now She-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named is in the USA working on some project for infosys whike I'm still stuck in chennai. It's easily been more than a year since I talked freely with anybody, I guess now I'm keeping all my frustration and anger within myself. I just hope i can find a way to release this anger within me.
In a way I think if i can find another She-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named it would help a lot.

Anniyan - a review

2005-06-18T11:44:00.000-07:00

"ANNIYAN" - One of the most eagerly awaited movies in Kollywood.

Just returned from the movie and in a very few words i would say : AMMazingggg

The below blog will definitely contain some spoilers , so if you wanna watch the movie soon, don't read the rest of this , just go ASAP and see the movie.

Anewayz here is my 2 cents about the movie.

The movie has got some concepts of 4the People ( a malayalam movie) and also manichithrathazh/Chandramukhi.

And most important it's actually got properly made matrix effects. & i mean it was real.
If anyone scoffs at this attempt then i would say you are biased, as you wud have appreciated it in the english movie but if someone from India actually attempts it and if it comes good , then please do appreciate it.

There are some 3 fight scenes and they all have some really great effects.

The movie starts of with our hero Vikram (Ambi) and his friend Vivek (Chari) ( both are Brahmins in the movie) walking down a street singing bhajans. And the same scene also introduces the heroine Sadha (Nandini) ( she looks damn cute ). Well the first half an hour depicts the hero as a staunch brahmin following all the rules of the law, he is a lawyer. He is very mild mannered and he fights for justice in the Consumer court ( a la Thamizhan style the vijay movie )but all his cases are closed either for lack of evidence or because of money.

Then suddenly he discovers a web site in which people can submit their complaints and the accused will be killed by someone called Anniyan following the rules of Lord Yama. So our hero submits a few of his complaints, soon the accused turn up dead is some really weird ways , one guy is sucked to death by leeches, while one is boiled in oil etc). They show the undertaker like Vikram as Anniyan who kills these people.

In the middle of all this the mild hero Ambi proposes to Nandini, but she rejects him saying he is too righteous and that he should learn to live with the problems.
Soon another Vikram called Remo woos Nandini and she falls in love with Remo.

The Cop who is after Anniyan is Prakashraj and Chari is his assistant. there are a lot of good jokes from Chari, vivek has done a good job.

The matrix like stunts in one fight has been made beautifully. Infact if you remember Matrix 2 where Neo fights 100's of Agent Smith's, well you if u haven't seen it don't worry You can see a very similar fight in this movie.

Major Spoiler coming up .......
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Well after some really well choreographed fights and some of the most beautifully made songs, Nandini comes to know that Ambi , Anniyan and Remo are the same. But Ambi doesn't realize he is turning into 2 other people depending on his moods. He is suffering from Multiple Personality Syndrome ( a la manichithrathzh / chandramukhi )

Finally prakashraj catches Ambi and beats him up badly. This is the Best part of the movie. Vikram's acting in this part is beyond words. There is a sequence where he will change into anniyan and back to Ambi continuously. And whenever he is Anniyan he will beat Prakashraj and when he is Ambi he will plead for mercy.
This is the highlight of the movie ( for me).

Well the movie ends with ambi being cured of Remo but not of Anniyan though everyone else believes he is only Ambi now.

The best things in the movie :
Vikram's Acting
Sada's beauty
Vivek's Comedy routine
The Picturisation of the songs
The ending part where Vikram changes continously , you gotto watch it to believe it !!

The story was kinda normal weakling fightin for justice, but the way it was made it was too good. Some people may not like the movie, while some like me will Love it.

Lightning Strikes Everyday-Bharath

2005-06-17T23:49:00.000-07:00

Lightning Strikes Everyday

shame on me for not bloggin

2005-06-16T01:47:00.000-07:00

it's been 2 long months since I blogged.
Well i'm writing my GMAT this month end. Hopefully the score should be in the 700's.
My plan was that if i screwed it this month then i would retake the exam in July.
I heard that a lot of time has to be spent on the essays to be sent for the grad schools. well i hope i can do it.

Apart from these futile attempts to get into an MBA degree, my work has been a drag as usual. I had my Mid- year Appraisal and just before this appraisal i find that a guy who joined my project a year after me is earning 3000 bucks more than me on confirmation.
A nice thing to have in my mind before the appraisal right ;-)..

Since I had already asked for a release from my project and also for an onsite opportunity i wasn't too keen on fighting it out this appraisal.
The mid-year appraisal will be closed tomorrow ( Jun 17th) and the next week i thought of starting my fight.

In the back of my mind, i realize that it's futile but i just can't give up.

"the Big treat " a memory of the past

2005-04-19T07:37:00.000-07:00

Damnnn i seem to be doing a monthly post only.. i shud try to post more .

Well there are some memories which i would like to kinda not forget forever, so i thought i could put them into my blog, hopefully this will remain for quite sometime.
One of those cherished memories is the treat given by Subbu ( Subramanian of MIT -Elex).

We were 4 ( Naresh, RJ, Subbu & myself). Rj had started this weird 500 Bucks only for a party trend and we even started calling it as C= 500 ( kinda like x + y + z + .. = 'C' ).

We were all forcing subbu to give his Birthday Treat, finally the stingy bum relented. We were deciding on the restaurant and naresh suggested "Bayleaf", according to him they served some realllly tasty food.

So the 4 of us went to this hotel in naresh's Car [a poor Santro dreading about Superman 3 ... (more about this later)], and saw the menu card. The first problem was they wouldn't accept Subbu's debit Card , so initially we were kinda reluctant. then me being the generous dude I am told the gang that we could use mine & subbu cud gimme the amount later.

So we sat down saw the menu Card & then were stunned a little as the prices were definitely NOT what we had expected. As we were following the C=500 rule we could order only 2 sidedishes for the Naans & rotis we had ordered.
Man did we go on a rampage when the waiter served our order.
The moment the side dishes were kept on the table, we stuck our spoons into it and took large helpings on to our plate.
In the end naresh was practically washing the few traces of the side dish curry left in the dish. & when the waiter came to clear our table i'm sure he wud have been stunned to find the dishes Cleeeannnn thanx to mr.Naresh.
All this was because of the C = 500. But we did have a good time at dinner ;-).
Finally the bill came to about 580 Bucks and i paid up.

Then we wanted to have some dessert so we managed to hoodwinkle mr. RJ for a treat as he had bought a new bike called " Bajaj WIND".
He was very very reluctant ( stingy fellow no. 2 ) , but finally we went to "Kulfi Korner" had some ice creams , and called it a day.

But one thing was Subbu paid up only 500 & he said that it was my mistake to have offered to pay for him.
To think that this guy is gonna be a future Manager , hope he doesn't cheat his business partners in the future .... ;-)

Moral of the story : the 4 of us knew we never wanted to go back to that hotel, but the memory of that day will always bring a smile on our faces.

Super mechanic

2005-03-04T09:32:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday March 1st, I heard this reallly bugging loud whirring noise from my PC.
After a li'il explorin i found that the noise was due to my SMPS.

So i decided that my SMPS was definitely in trouble & i switched off my PC. I was thinkin of calling up my PC service engineer on Saturdday as i wud be free only on that day.
But on friday sumthin in me wanted to dig deeper. So i left at 7 fom office & then finished off my dinner. Next I took out my screwdriver set & removed my SMPS.
I opened up my SMPS & cleaned all the dust that had settled, then i found that my SMPS fan was working fine , but it was a li'il loose along it's axis.
Also when it was testedt outside my PC there wasn't too much of a noise.
That's when I got this brilliant idea :-)... I cut off a small bit of soft cloth & kept it at the base of the SMPS & fixed it in my PC. Andddd voilaaaa the noise was gone...

So the irritant had been because of the Fan vibrations being transmitted to the Towers metal shelf... & this was stppped by a small piece of cloth.

yipppeeee it's been quite some time since i found a simple solution for my problems ;-)

MBA 2005 gone down the drain

2005-02-07T21:40:00.000-08:00

well i seem to have screwed up XAt as well...98.63% didn't get me anywhere.

So my next target is MBA 2006. This software job is really sucking the life out of me. I used to be very talkative & outgoing but somehow after nearly 2yrs as a software coolie.. i feel drained. I just don't feel like goin out in the weekends..i just wanna stay home & sleep.

what is this life ??
i really can't imagine how couples work in software companies.... it must be a straining relationship.
i know one thing : I will not marry a girl who is a software engineer. !!!!

NO work today

2005-01-05T19:33:00.000-08:00

wow it's been quite someimte since I was so free at work.. yippeeee..

I still have to stay in office for 2 hours, but i hope that no work will come my way.
The next Bschool exam is on this Sunday. XAT an exam for getting into XLRI.

I have already screwed up the other exams so i hope i can get in. I'm procrastinating too much nowadays.
Well the day started of as usual with a cup of milk & the newspaper. Then i started studying (tried hard) some basic maths fundas but it went nowhere.
I saw Inu Yasha on Animax the only free cartoon channel available in Chennai :-( I hate CAS.
Then i had a nice lunch and finally i started for work at 1:30PM. My shift is from 2:00 to 11:00 PM, this shift will end this week.

After XAT i have one more exam FMS, i have no idea what will happen in that.

well the next update would be after the XAT.

CAT marks are out

2004-12-21T05:23:00.000-08:00

Though CAT marks are out I wasn't able to see it today as the site was closed down. Quite unfortunate.
Anewayz the last few weeks have been tight.
Also my home PC has broken down arghhhhhhh .
It really is boring if my home PC is not working.
Mebbe this is God's intervention askin me to start studyin for the other B school exams.

a real dud in the end #&%$^

2004-11-21T22:36:00.000-08:00

My god !!!
I had spent nearly 3 months sitting and preparing for the CAt and finally i have nothin to say about it.
It was a total surprise package. As usual i screwed the quants section, i dunno where i will end up with such pathetic quantitative ability.

The only thing i felt like doing after completing the test, was to just go to the beach and look at the waves rolling in & out. But to make matters worse i got a call from my ofiice asking me to come for some work.
I HAD TO WORK ON A SUNDAY ...arghhhhhhhhhhhhh

This day is definitely goin to be one of my most pathetic days. I just hope i can do well in the remaining exams & get into a good B School.

updates for 3 weeks

2004-10-26T19:40:00.000-07:00

wow it's nearly been 3 weeks since i wrote.
i guess work has been tough.
One of my friends has gone to Germany for work, i guess he is lucky . He can take a nice tour of Europe.
I don't know when i will get a chance to go see the other countries.
I think i will go and tour singapore next year, hopefully i should be able to do it.

The last 3 weeks have been hectic. I have been applying for diff B Schools in India and also i was on Late shift at work.
I do kinda feel lonely at times. I guess i miss female companionship a lot.
The one friend i had earlier no longer talks to me, she is busy with her life.

Sad turn of events. Infact we used to be a gang of 4 guys & 4 girls... & nowww the group has gone with the wind. Only one guy & one girl are still in touch , & i'm not that guy ;-).
The rest of the gang keeps in touch with one another but never as a whole group.

i think i will try to arrange a get2gether in the place where it all started for us : Cafe coffe day at Nungambakkam.

work loads

2004-10-08T21:45:00.000-07:00

work has been very tight lately.
of course some people say that everybody has it like that.
Unfortunately after work i'm trying to work out a few sums & try to improve my quantitative & analytical abilities to attempt my CAT.
This Nov 21st onwards i will be writing a series of entrance tests which may very well decide my future.

I plan to quit Infy & pursue my higher studies in MBA after 2 yrs. I feel that this is the right thing to do.
MBA IT IS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

iraq vs afghanistan

2004-10-03T19:36:00.000-07:00

i got to see the first debate between bush & kerry.
It seemed to me that neither of them were very sure of what to do in iraq or afghanistan.
I don't get it, the US of A supplied arms to afghanistan to fight against Russia, similarly they supplied arms to Iraq to fight against Iran. But now they are creating war in iraq & afghan to establish peace. What's up with them ????
Now kerry is accusing bush that he Should protect his country & not go to war against other countries, & bush is saying he is wiping out terrorism.
Unfortunately Bush is only fuelling terrorism & eventually the attack on Iraq is goin to be worse than vietnam Bush has set the ball rolling & i don't think the new prez (whoever it may be) can stop the blitzkrieg that may follow.
I just pray that some sense may prevail & a solution can be obtained.
Both afghan & iraq had it's share of violence. but thank god there was no holocaust like in WWII.
There seems to be more & more kidnappings in iraq, but what do the terrorists achieve by beheading innocents. mebbe they shud try & catch the big bosses who are sitting pretty at a safe haven & ordering their minions to fight.

what's this world coming to....
was the arms race promoted by industrialists who wanted to make money.
Was the iraq war for OIL ????
who knows the answers ...............

the recent death of a woman

2004-09-23T18:16:00.000-07:00

Recently a girl returning home from a disco got killed by 4 inebriated guys who were also present in that disc. The sad part is that amongst the 4 were 1 School kid & 2 college kids.
What made these 4 guys chase after this girl & then crash their car into her 2 wheeler ????
I guess no body can give a definite answer. I'm sure psychologists will have a convoluted answer which is just a lot of bull.

The best part is, the local news Channel (SUN TV) is having a field day by repeating this news. These bastards have shown the same footage repeatedly, the half naked dead body of the girl & the 4 guys coming out of the police station.

A suggestion wud be thatall the discs with attached bars must prohibit teenagers from having alcohol. but then this is not a lasting solution.
Hopefully such mistakes shud never happen again !!! But then this wud only be in utopia.

the vagaries of age

2004-09-21T16:00:00.000-07:00

oh man oh man oh man... i'm already afraid of growing old.

I'm only 22 yrs old & i feel that i havent reaaly done anything useful, nor have i done anything extravagant.
I guess in south india i will be one among many many guys who ache for a girlfriend but can never have one. i gues the fair skinned guys have a natural advantage ;-). well too bad for that.

but then apart from girls, what else can i think.
i guess the foremost things on my mind wud be sleep,girls & food in that order only . & i am sure this order will change as i grow older.

When i was a kid at school, i thought that when i 'm in college i will be a super kool dude, but in reality i was one among the many nerds in college. & while i was in college i thought if i start working i will have all the money i want & i can do all kinds of thing with the money.

Well the irony is that, i have started working & i do have the money , but unfortunately i'm not doing anything special with the money. Infact i just wanna be a li'il kid again w/o any responsibilities.
The cycle of life is indeed very harsh.

the seed

2004-09-11T23:04:00.000-07:00

well after a loooooong time,i have started bloggin again.
The older one was in rediff, but i guess i got bored with it.

Hmm for starters, here i am workin at infy having finished college just a year back.
what wud be really kool is , if i got to travel around.

okei i should continue later.........