Year 2008.......

written below are few of my personal opinions on certain events that happened in 2008. comments on other events that you remember and want to write about are welcome.wish everyone a wonderful new year ahead.

Tragedy of the year --- 26/11, innocent lives were taken by armed terrorist who went on a killing spree, officers and hotel staff's were killed on duty .People who survived still go through post traumatic disorders and entire nation of billions went into a shock for several days.

Lightning of the year --- this was certainly usain bolt, never before in a olympics 100m final have seen a contestant celebrating and macking gestures even before touching the finish line.in the process he even broke all world record in that run.

Throw of the year --- if you had imagined this happened in bejing Olympics 2008 then you are wrong. this happened in a press conference in iraq when a iraqi journalist throwed a shoe at US president Bush. Overnight the journo became a hero and household name in all arab countries. last read in news that the shoe brand and maker is also making huge profit.

Costliest slap of the year --- Harbahajan to Sreesanth. the slap cost him 3 crores as he was suspended for the entire IPL season.

Costliest Fishing of the year --- Andrew Symonds fishing in darwin,Roy skipped a team meeting in the middle of a series with minnows bangladesh. this Fishing trip made CA drop him for the India series, and his comeback after that is not a great success till date.

Child of the year --- Moshe, 2 year old baby saved by an indian nanny, saw both of his parents being killed and bled to death. a large community of israel was in tears when the final rites were performed after a week in israel. An isareli rabbi has this to say to moshe ""moshe ...you might not have a mother who will
hug you, but you are the child of entire israel""...for many the symbol of 26/11 attack was this baby crying outside the building in the arms of an indian nanny.

Shooter of the year --- no it is not Abhinav Bindra, it was actually a railway police in CST terminus mumbai, who dared to come before a terrorist with a normal .303 m rifle, take aim and shoot at him. Unlike bindra his shot might not have hit the target or did not win him a gold medal, but everybody who has knowledge of arms and weapon would know that it is a suicide to go and confront a guy with AK47. video of this incident was another defining images of 26/11.

Politician of the year --- Rahul Gandhi, has this to say to Rajnath singh when he was considered a bacha(kid) by opposition. ""I am still a bachcha""....“However, fortunately or unfortunately for him (Rajnath Singh), 70 percent people of India who are powering the country are also bachchas,”

Gymnastic of the year --- rajnikant for his somersault, after sensing that his film is not going to be screened in karanatka, apologised for his statement earlier on hoganekkal issue, this came as a shocker to many tamilians and was one of the several factors that made his movie a huge flop of the year.

Moshe...

well this post is going to be pretty confusing as to what i intend to say, feel free to comment or condemn this post.

what is our tolerance towards terrorism.15 years after 93 mumbai serial blasts, when we seem to get pictures of dawood in wedding celebration..intelligence agency is not able to spot him...few years back it was reported that intelligence agents did managed to spot him in karachi, no operation was done as he was gaurded by armed motorcade for a length of an entire street.
there is still a national and political debate on the death sentence of the terrorist involved in parliament attack.
just hours before being killed in the attack, hemant karkare the ATS chief was seen explaining his investigation in malegon blasts, the accused his team found apparently was sent out in bail, and he was criticized for his investigation by a major political party.

Today we see rallies being held everywhere, debate and a national consensus and hatred against politicians and government, how did the public respond after Gujarat riot, did'nt we elect modi again. today everybody speaks about the sacrifice made by NSG comandos and mumbai police in the attack, how would the public or media respond if there was a hijack situation and a ransom for release of captured terrorist is made, would we remember these commandos then, remember how JeM chief was released after the IC-814 hijack in kandahar, if i remember correctly there were heavy demonstration by public and opposition parties for release of terrorist. I think in situations like this it is very difficult to debate on what is right and what is wrong and whom to blame.

terrorism is a global threat, so called super power countries are still fighting it. for US it was '9/11', for russia it was 'beslan tragedy', for UK it was july 7 london attack, for India it is Mumbai 26/11....US managed to make a war against the attack, other countries had counter terrorism operations, few succeeded. I guess this attack surely would have some counter operations by India and will succeed against terrorism, till then my daily prayers would have few extended lines for me and fellow countrymen.

in the line of fire....

Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan (NSG commando)















Hemant Karkare (Anti Terrorism Squad Chief)













Vijay Salaskar ( Sr. Inspector)












Ashok Kamte. (Additional Commissioner of Police)















"..for what you do in life echoes in eternity...""

நண்பர் கேள்வி .....

..கொஞ்ச நாட்களாவே தினசரி படித்தால் global slowdown, recession, lay off இந்த மாதிரி செய்திகள் மிகவும் பரிச்சியம். மேலைநாட்டில் சில பிரபலமான கம்பனிகள் இழுத்து மூடப்பட்டன, பல மக்கள் தங்கள் சேமிப்பை எங்கு வைப்பது என்று இப்போ ஒரு பெரிய குழப்பம் ..எனக்கு தெரிஞ்சு கொஞ்ச நாட்கள் தங்கள் தலையணி அடியில் வைப்பது தான் சிறந்தது..இது பத்தாது என்று சொல்லி வைத்தார் போல் எல்லா கம்பனிகளும் தங்கள் வேலை ஆட்கள் குறைப்பை ஆரம்பித்து இருக்கிறார்கள்.

இந்த மாதிரி ஒரு சுழலில் என் நன்பர் ஒருத்தரை சந்தித்தேன். நண்பர் பெயர் சுப்பிரமணி , அவர் கேட்ட ஒரு கேள்வி என்னை ரொம்பவே சிந்திக்க வைத்தது.ரொம்ப ஒன்னும் சீரியஸ் மொக்கை இல்லைங்க தொடர்ந்து படித்து பாருங்கள் ....

என்னடா, உனக்கு நீ பார்க்கிற வேலை இல்லை என்றால் வேற என்ன வேலை பார்க்க தெரியும் என்று ஒரு simple கேள்வி ...இவர் என்ன நம்மள கேள்வி கேட்கறது என்று அதை பத்தி ஒன்னும் யோசிக்க வில்லை..ஒரு ரெண்டு நாட்கள் கழித்து அதை பத்தி யோசிச்சு பார்த்தேன். அப்போது தாங்க எனக்கு நான் பண்ண சில வேலைகள் நியாபகம் வந்தது ...

ஒரு ஆறு வருடம் முன்னாடி ...நான் தின கூலி வேலை பார்த்து இருக்கேன் ..என் சொந்தகாரர் மற்றும் நண்பர் ஒருவர், அவரிடம் வேலை பார்க்கும் ஆட்கள் வரவில்லை அன்று ..நமக்கும் கொஞ்சம் ஆர்வம் , அவரிடம் வீட்டில் சொல்லாதீர்கள் நான் இந்த வேலை பண்றேன் ..கூலி மட்டும் சரியா கூடுத்திடனும் என்று ஒரு condition..ஒரு மூன்று நாட்கள் drill work பண்ணேங்க (எவ்லவொ பண்ணிடோம் இதை பண்ண மாட்டோமா.. சார் ! ...) அதற்க்கு மேல் முடியலை ..விட்டா போதும் சாமி என்று ஒடி வந்து விட்டேங்க, கொஞ்ச நாளைக்கு தூங்கும் போது கூட drill sound கேட்கும்ங்க ....

நம்ம superstar மட்டும் தான் கண்டக்டர் வேலை பார்பாரா....நான் கூட கண்டக்டர் வேலை பார்த்து இருக்கேன் ..சேலம் - கரூர் ரூட் தாங்க நம்ம ரூட்...ஒரே ஒரு நாள் தான் வேலை, நண்பர்கள் கூட போன ஒரு டூர் மத்தியில் நான் கொஞ்சம் பார்ட் டைம் வேலை பார்த்தேன் ...ஒன்னும் இல்லை...கரூர் ...கரூர்...கரூர்...என்று bus முன்னாடி நின்னு தொன்ட கிழிய கத்தனும் ...அதுவும் ஒரு நல்ல அனுபவம் தான்..என் கூட வந்த ஒரு கரூர் பையனுக்கு ரொம்ப சங்கடமா போய் விட்டது என்னமோ உண்மை தான், இந்த வேலைக்கு காசு ஒன்னும் வாங்கவில்லை ...


இதற்கு மேல எழுதினால் படிக்கிற கொஞ்ச பேரும் படிப்பதை நிறுத்தி விடுவீர்கள் .நன்றி.

India vs Zimbabwe series....error... vs Australia

just cant resist putting the above title for this post, In almost all the matches there were heavy scores by the indian batsmen, scoring freely and mounting huge first innings total's in the range of 450-600+ runs, and in one particular match there were 2 indian batsmen crossing 200's....zimbabwe and bangladesh fans can compare their teams with Aussies now, there team wouldnt have conceded 2 double hundreds in a single innings against India. marigin of defeat in terms of run difference were huge 350+ and 150+ and Indian's kept declaring...declaring..getting tired of seeing the australian bowlers, fielders, captain and more importantly the cricket ball running all over the ground(they were supposed to run through the batting lineup).In one match they declared in both the innings, last test match in nagpur was the only time australia took 20 wickets...and guess what there was this krazy person with a krazy debut.. jason kreza, took 12 wickets out of that 20, what shane warne dreamed of doing agaisnt the fab four throughout his career in india, this guy managed to do in his debut, with a high price though.

.. i did watched the final rites being performed on the last day of the series live . When Hayden and company were raring to have a go at the indian bowlers from the start of play, Dhoni and Co were constantly having chats, discussions, forming strategies (..they might have also discussed politics and movie releases i think..)...slowing up the over rate of the innings. most funny part was harbhajan visibly annoyed everyone by having some stretching excerices on his own lying on the ground before starting his runup..this guy knows well how to irritate the Aussies on and off the field.

Ian chappel was screaming on the lunch break about dhoni's tactics of slowing down the over rate. similar screams were voiced for the 8-1 field employed by Dhoni on the third day they say it is a civilised version of bodyline. anybody who knows bodyline, please comment if that was a valid comparison.

Upcoming series would be more interesting i guess, andrew flintoff has got special training from grant flower for playing indian spinners. a part of this english team had defeated Aussies when they were in thier prime form and when they had prime players... a little over 3 years back.....

Read On.....

...this post is going to be blah-blah about my reading novels, books and authors. please decide yourself on reading further.

reading habit has been well nurtured by my mom, it all started with reading comic books at quarterly, half yearly holidays in school probably 2nd std i assume, after that my mom having spotted the interest me and my brother had started purchasing many books. so it was always books like tinkle, gokulam, and several others which i don't remember, but tinkle has always been our favorite.

as days passed tinkle started became boring and books like TINTIN, ASTERIX and OBELIX became our favourite, though this collection of books comes with a high price tag, we managed to study all the TINTIN series and most of the Asterix collection. surprisingly a government library near our house in Chennai had most of the collection and there are always your uncle's and aunty's house to borrow.

by the ninth year in my school i had started reading english novels, we managed to take a membership in a very small library owned by a anglo-indian. it was always 'chase' novels initially (JAMES HADLEY CHASE) and ALISTAIR MCLEAN books. during this period i remember enjoying reading AUGATHA CHRISTEY novel very much, it is a detective story, which brings in many suspect characters for a murder, and suspense is absolutely awesome.

after this just for showing myself at my home and to others, i started taking huge books from the library. initially it was like skip pages in novel in places where the author starts giving pictorial explanation about a place, explanation about characters and scenes. the author who didn't bore in his explanation and description of characters and places was ARTHUR HAILEY, anybody who has interest in reading books should read his novels.'hotel','airport' are the two collections i remember of Hailey. even today when i search for novels in stores i always search for his novels first.the last time i read his books are in 10th std.after that never got a chance to get his books.

SIDNEY SHELDON started becoming my all time favourite, apart from that the other authors whom i like are JOHN GRISHAM books, for now i can only remember TESTAMENT...another recommendation from for readers to try this book, JEFREEY ARCHER american author i think, never liked his stories very much. DAN BROWN novels were good, but i never tried reading anything after reading his ANGELS AND DAEMONS because the subject of his book always had something against Christianity. Though i consider myself a voracious reader of novel, i have never tried or intend to read any of JK ROWLING books.

be it movie or novel intelligence operation stories have interested me very much. there is a old novel which i don't remember the name anymore, about a Israeli intelligence agent capturing a ship carrying armaments, was another of my memorable reading.

All this years of reading novels and stories, if somebody asked about my best reading. i would say PONNIYIN SELVAN...it was the first and the last tamil novel i read. though the volume of books were lying in my house for years, i never cared to read the book, until recently last year when one of my friend told about the story. it was a volume of 6-7 books, which i read every night before going to sleep for 2 month. the characters and descriptions in the books were so awesome that, i started getting dreams of finding myself in forests. another recommendation for readers to try this one. author of that book is KALKI.

many thanks for being patient and reading till this point, suggestions are welcome about books and authors.

பயோ - டேடா

பெயர் - சாமுவேல் இக்னேஸியஸ்

வீட்டில் - சாம்.... சாமு

பள்ளியில் - 'சாமு-வேலு' என்பதை திருப்பி 'வேலு-சாமி' என்று கூப்பிடார்கள்

கல்லூரியில்- சாமிஎள்

வேளையில் - சாம்மி , மேடீ

தொழில் - சாப்ட்வேர்.

உப தொழில் - சாப்பிட்டு.. தூங்குவது

பிடித்தது - கூகிள்.காம் .

பிடிக்காதது - கிரெடிட் கார்டு பிள் .

பொழுதுபோக்கு - கிரிக்கெட் .

சமீபத்ய சாதனை - கம்பெனி மாறாதது.

நீண்ட கால சாதனை - காதலில் விழாதது

நண்பர்கள் - டேடாபேஸ் சர்வர்

எதிரிகள் - எர்ரற் மெசேஜ்

மறக்க நினைப்பது - மார்க்கெட் கிராஷ்.

மறக்க முடியாதது - டேடாபேஸ் கிராஷ் .

மறந்து போன நியாபகங்கள்....

ஆமாங்க எனக்கு ஒரு வியாதி இருக்கு (நம்ம கஜினி படம் கதாநாயகன் மாதிரி வச்சுகோங்க ...அவருக்கு நிமிஷம்.. எனக்கு வருஷம் ) யாராவது கூட பழகியவர்களை ஒரு ரெண்டு இல்லை மூன்று வருடங்கள் கழித்து பார்த்தால் அவுங்க பேரு மட்டும் நியாபகம் வந்தே தொலைக்காது, இன்னும் ஒரு ஐந்து இல்லை ஆறு வருடங்கள் சென்றால் ஆலே மறந்து விடுகிறது. இப்போது இதை ஏன் சொல்றேன் என்று நீங்கள் நினைக்கலாம், அப்படி நினைத்தால் தொடர்ந்து படிக்கவும்...நினைக்கவில்லை என்றாலும் படிக்கலாம்.


நான் ரொம்ப நாட்களாக வருத்தப்படற ஒரு விஷயம்ங்க இது. மறந்து போன கல்லூரி நண்பர்கள் மற்றும் கல்லூரி நாட்கள். முதல் ஆண்டு முலு கல்லூரியே நமக்கு ஒரு பெரிய நண்பர் கூட்டம் மாதிரி இருந்தது, நான்காவது ஆண்டு படித்து முடிக்கும் போது நண்பர் கூட்டம் ஒரு அளவு சிறிய வட்டம். அந்த நான்கு ஆண்டுகளையும் எங்கவாது ஒரு டையரி மாதிரி எழுதி வைத்திருந்தால் இப்போது படித்து பார்க்க எவ்வளவு நன்றாக இருந்திருக்கும். அதுவும் முக்யமாக என்னை போல மறதி உள்ளவர்களுக்கு.


கல்லூரி முடிந்து சில நாட்கள் நண்பர்கள் சந்திப்பு மற்றும் ஊர் சுற்றல் தொடர்ந்தது, கொஞ்ச நாட்கலில் இதுவே தொலைபேசி அழைப்பாக மாறி , பிறகு சம்ஸ் (அதாங்க மொபைல் போன்ல மெசேஜ் அனுப்ரது). கால போட்கில் எல்லா தொடர்பும் துண்டிக்க பட்டு , இப்போது வெறும் கல்யாண கட்சிகளில் மட்டும் சந்திக்க நேருகிறது, அதுவும் நான்கு வருடம் சுக துக்கங்களை பகிர்ந்து கிட்டவனிடம் இப்போது வெறும் நான்கு இல்லை ஐந்து நிமிடம் மட்டுமே ..மச்சான் ஆபீஸ்ல ஒரு மீட்டிங் போகணும் ..என்று சொல்லி வைத்தாற்போல் எல்லாரும் சொல்லிவிட்டு பறக்கிறார்கள். கூட படித்த அம்மணிகள் சொல்லவே வேண்டாம் படிக்கும் போதே நம்மவர்களை கண்டு கொள்ளாதவர்கள் இப்போது எந்த பூலோகத்தில் இருக்காங்கனு கூட தெரியவில்லை...எங்கிருந்தாலும் வாழ்க.


ஆனால் பசங்க பாசகார பயலுங்க எந்த கண்டம் விட்டு கண்டம் தாண்டி போனாலும் மெயில் மற்றும் போட்டோ அனுப்பரான் , இதில் சில பேர் அவுங்க தேனிலவு போட்டோ கூட அனுப்சாங்க, தாங்ஸ்டா மச்சான்.....ஆனால் மேலே சொன்ன மாதிரி சில பெயர்களை பார்த்தால், இவன் எப்படி இருந்தான் இவன் கூட நம்ம பண்ண லூட்டிகள் எல்லாம் சட்டுன்னு நியாபகம் வர மாட்டிகிறது..இதில் இன்னும் கொடுமை பள்ளிகூடம் நண்பர்களை பார்த்தால் ஆள் நியாபகம் வரவில்லை... இதற்கு என்ன காரணங்கள் ? ..

மறப்போம் மன்னிப்போம் ! என்று எல்லாரும் சொல்லறாங்க ...ஆனால் நான் இப்போ மறந்ததற்காக மன்னிப்பு கேட்டு கொல்றேன் (நல்ல வேலை விஜயகாந்த் சார் இதை படிக்க வில்லை ) ......

a deal......

...do you know as of this writing India can have civil nuclear trade with countries such as france and russia. last week Nuclear Supplier Group, comprising 45 nations agreed on writing to this effect. barring opposition and LEFT, scientist and senior statesmen hailed this decision as this will take the energy starved country forward in the coming decades.

Also in the process India discovered a new enemy, so China officially became the second enemy after pakistan. Obviously our good neighbor who considers itslef as the super power in this asian region, is not overly happy with the progress that India might have becasue of this deal. So amongst the countries that was not in favour of India, china stood top and this stunned several diplomats.

there are 2 aspects to the entire nuclear deal,
1. getting waiver from NSG, this enables India to have nuclear trade with member countries in NSG.this has been obtained after several diplomatic efforts with countries such as Austria,Switzerlans, NZ.So what next. India would try to genrate energy from their nuclear reactors with plutonium purchased from either of these countries.it is estimated the nuclear reactors might become functional to their full cpacity by 2020.


2. Indo-US nuclear agreement, this now stands in the US congress for the resolution to be adopted for or against the deal. As far as India's perspective even if the US congress votes against the deal. Nothing stops India from acquiring technology and resources from other countries such as france,russia,canada, etc..

Well if there is one country that becomes profitable immensely of this deal is US, they become a major supplier of muclear technology and resources, and it is estimated this will result directly and indirectly in creating more than 50,000 job opportunites in US. Not to mention the huge revenue and control over another developing Nation with respect to energy.


ok coming to the political scenarios behind the deal. LEFT had stood firm on their stand from time immemorial that they are against the deal. great, win or lose election, stand for your ideologies. Now coming to the other opposition, BJP. there are still few people who contribute this deal success to Vajpayee, who initiated the entire process. After the Pohkran test conducted by vajpayee government in 1998, In Order to convince the UN general assembly the then Indian governmnet went so far close to sign CTBT, comprehensive test ban treaty. So why oppose the deal now ?..taking side with LEFT. was it to bring the government down.. ?..I am sure if they were in power they would have gone all out for the deal themselves.

The present govermnet however had made the deal without any restrictions on Nuclear testing. though there was a leaked letter to US congress which indicate that, US would call off the pact if they conduct nuclear test. this has become the open secret for the country now, if they do a nuclear test, relations and pacts made are cut off...

Nuclear warhead for defence...or Nuclear energy for power genration and development... which side are you in ?..

what does the country need most now ..energy or warheads..?.. would this deal solve the energy crisis for the next genration ?...would India be able to challenge China and become superpower in Asia...?

தமிழ் பற்று ..

..அடிப்படையாக நான் ஒரு மதுரை காரன் ங்க , அதனால தமிழ் மேல எனக்கு ஒரு தனி பற்று என்னிக்கும் உண்டு. அதான் இந்த ஒரு முயற்சி , தமிழ் போஸ்ட் ...


நான் அபபோது எட்டாவது வகுப்பு படுச்சிட்டு இருந்தேன் அப்பா வுக்கு சென்னை நகராட்சிக்கு வேலை மாற்றுதல் வந்தது, நல்ல பள்ளிக்கூடம் ஒன்றை பார்த்து சேர்த்து விட்டாங்க என்னை, நம்ம சென்னை பசங்க சொல்ல வேண்டும்மா என்ன, ஊர்ல இருந்து ஒரு மாக்கான் வந்துட்டான்னு பார்க்கும் போது எல்லாம் நம்ம ஊரு காரங்க மாதிரி பேசி வெறுப்பு எத்துவாய்ங்க , அதாங்க 'வாய்ங்க' 'போயிங்க' 'அங்கிட்டு ' 'இங்கிட்டு ' நு பேசி பேசி , பசங்க தான் இப்படி என்றால் நம்ம ஸ்கூல் டீச்சர் உம் கொறைச்சல் இல்லை, மதுரை ல இருந்து வந்து என்ன இவ்லோ சேட்டை பண்ற என்று சொல்லி நம்மக்கு எப்போதும் ஒரு எக்ஸ்ட்ரா அடீ விலும் அப்போது தான் தெரிஞ்சது சென்னை வாசிகலுக்கு நம்ம ஊரூ காரைங்க மேல எவ்வளவு பாசம்...


ஸ்கூல் சேர்ந்து கொஞ்ச நாளைக்கு என் சின்ன வயஸூ தமிழ் மாஸ்டர் மேல எனக்கு ரொம்ப கோபம் ங்க , என்னடா நம்மக்கு நிறைய தமிழ் வார்த்தை சொல்லி தரலன்னுதான் வேற என்ன ங்க பண்றது...


இப்படி தாங்க.... ஒரு நாள் கிரிக்கெட் விளையாட போனேன் ஒன்னும் புரியலை , ஒரு ரன் எடுத்தா எல்லாம் கத்துறான் 'போங்கு' 'போங்கு' நு ...அப்போரம் கொஞ்ச நேரம் கழிச்சு இன்னொரு ரன் எடுத்தா எல்லாம் 'காஜூ' 'காஜூ' நு கத்துறான் ....

ஒன்னும் புரியாத நம்ம ஊரு காரன்குளுக்காக, நான் கொஞ்சம் தெளிவா சொல்லி ஆகணும்...

போங்கு - ஏமாத்துறது (நான் ரன் சரியா ஓடலை போல இருக்கு)...
காஜூ - அதாங்க ஒரு ஓவர் ல லாஸ்ட் பால் ரன் எடுத்தா ..காஜூ ...

ஓகே ..ங்க ...கொஞ்சம் கஷ்டமா இருக்கு ..தமிழ் ல ப்லோக் எழுதுறது ....

Land dispute.......

..Jammu and kashmir row, almost for a month now this news has made headlines in India, first and foremost this is not just like any other political unrest in the valley. After more than a month since the row started I am starting to hope now that this is not going to turn into a embarrassement for India in international community, already there was news yesterday that pakistan has setup a panel to monior the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, definelty not a good news.

How it all started...the jammu and kashmir goverment trasfers 99 acres of land to a pilgrimage trust, Amarnath shrine board. Apparently this was done to enable the trust to construct temporary huts and toilets for the pilgrims who visit the mountain, it is estimatd approximately close to 4-5 lakh pilgrims visit their pilgirmage in the himalayan mountain.

Now certain section which also forms majority in the state, protest against this fearing that this would affect the demographic balance in the kashmir. ok now the government obviously fearing for the majoirty section in the state, rolls back the land trasfer. this Rollback by the goverment made the other section to protest, gues how did they protest, they made a blockade, they blocked the highway linking srinagar with jammu and rest of the country, this they call it economic blockade, the blockade apart from making a shortage of essential items like food and medicine in the kashmir valley also prevented fruits and other grown items in kashmir from transporting out of the valley into other states for business. This made the farmers to march towards the lOC apparently trying to sell their products in PoK.

I dont think any pilgrims are involved in the protest, instead you got to see various outfits, political activists, communal acitivist who are trying to show their strength, and the outcome schools, colleges, business and not to mention the poor farmers and local people are the most affected. Also this is just not a fight for 99 acres land, not definetly, for several years the two communities had lived in peace, though there has always been a war waiting to happen, and this issue has tirggered it.

There have been talks going on and on, but still i have not heard or read a possible solution for the row yet. Meanwhile our very own seasoned politician and tamilnadu CM MK has given some suggestion to solve the issue to centre, except that he did not make it public, very good political move taking into account the vote bank he has with the minority community...

"Sound of Music"

..growing up as a kid i have overheard lot of conversation about this movie by my parents, and decided recently to check what the movie is all about. when people who are least interested in movies and also consider viewing movie as a sin speak good about a movie, you need to check about it, wouldn't you.

Well it is a typical movie that can be watched in a boring saturday afternoon, slow movie, an musical treat to any music lovers. This movie got released in 1965, and the story opens in the backdrop of world war 2 when nazi's are about to capture Austria, and movie revolves around a nun maria,a widower captain, and his seven childrens.

More than the story line or script of the movie, the movie i think got famous only for the songs. there are 2 songs which made me sit up and notice and am sure will impress any person, whether he is interested in music or not."My Favorite Things", "Do-Re-Mi".

My favourite things...maria sings this song when the little children gets afraid or rather terrified with the thunderstorm.the lyrics reminds me of one of a post made by my friend...about what she does when she gets bored.the lyrics of the song goes something like this.

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things
.
.
.
When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad
...

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=j9KwlIHcmq4&feature=related

Do-re-mi.....in this song maria teaches the children on how to sing a song with proper notes.

Let's start at the very beginning
A very good place to start
When you read you begin with A-B-C
When you sing you begin with do-re-mi

Do-re-mi, do-re-mi
The first three notes just happen to be
Do-re-mi, do-re-mi
.
.
.
.
Doe, a deer, a female deer
Ray, a drop of golden sun
Me, a name I call myself
Far, a long, long way to run
Sew, a needle pulling thread
La, a note to follow Sew
Tea, a drink with jam and bread
That will bring us back to Do (oh-oh-oh)

Now to bejing Olympics. A day after making a billion dream come true, Abhinav has this to write, rather than going all gha gha over his achievement, he called for support to all the athletes specially when they are not on top of the game...read more on this below.

http://abhinavbindra.blogspot.com/2008/08/day-after.html

home ..sweet home

..since joining my new company last winter a fair period of time has been spent away from home. Assignments were always 3-4 weeks, so I was lucky enough to keep coming back to my home, before getting on a next assignment. after my first trip outside the country i reported directly to my office in Banglore and was still feeling the pressure to complete the project in schedule and the first weekend in bangalore went off breaking my dull head to solve an important issue.

It was just like any other friday afternoon when bangalorean's were getting ready for a weekend. What started as just a news when the first 2 bomb blast went off, later turned to panic and fear amongst the residents when there were more blasts around the city, but within few hours city was back to normal, and i was happily travelling on a night train to chennai to finish some work at my flat, just as i was boarding the train i got call from my friends to be ready for a short trip next morning. so immediately after reaching my home, i was picked up by my old colleagues and friends and off we went to a falls.

Still tired from my journey i was simply dozing off in the vehicle when everybody around me was partying hard, dancing, beating drums and doings things like that. before getting into water there were this usual sessions in which everybody participated with exception of few. my beloved junior shomik, i had groomed him from a fresher to a very successful DBA and have supported him very much in our profession, he was very particular in returning the favour that day by deciding to teach me swimming, well i tried my best and finally left it for another day to learn.

On our return back to chennai, we decided to visit one of our colleagues house, stanley. within a very short notice, stanley's mom was able to cook dinner for alomst 15-16 guys(some hugely built). and we all took pictures in his house, i was not able to use my camera though, earlier in the day i had got into the river with my camera in shorts pocket. it was raining very heavily in chennai by the time we were reahcing the city and guys decided to stay in my flat for the night. Sunday night i travelled back to bangalore.

i am writing this post sitting in a guest house in bangalore, my short project has come to a logical conclusion and from next week i would be reporting to my office in chennai....home....sweet home.

No Confidence..and Singh is King

Today amidst all the deadlines i was having in my project i left office by 6 sharp, just to watch the no confidence vote the government was facing in the floor of the parliament. First video picture that i saw was few opposition MP's waving stacks of currencies, probably running into crores making allegation against the ruling party. Though i didnt follow politics closely, parliament sessions have always interested me, particularly when some serious decisions were being made, its time's like these when lot of drama happens.

ok so it is about nulear deal with united states, the LEFT after several warnings finally left the ruling party opposing the deal, and opposition NDA who were supporting the deal earlier, got a chance to pull the goverment down. Meanwhile there was this usual THIRD front who started dreaming about ruling the country for a short time.

there were few people who impressed me in the short time i saw the session, Omar abdullah the young politician from kashmir, made a strong speech about the deal and why he is supporting it.he went on to say that he is a member of the parliament for 10 years, both on the ruling and opposition side and never once had disrupted the proceedings or stopped anybody from speaking. thats an example isnt't it, how to conduct yourself in the parliament.
Honurable PM and honourable Speaker of the house. of the house. PM finally shed the image of the weekest PM by pulling thorugh the no confidence motion, and in the process also got a chance to take a dig at opposition leader and left.

Next few days in politics will be very interesting, one party which is most affected by this outcome in the next election will be left. for now i am happy that the government did not fall during a difficult time in economy.

Athena...

..again i was made to travel for an assignment, this time the assignment is for a European bank, in Athens. what is special that strikes you in Greece. well as like any other European country, the country still holds its tradition, culture. not overly perturbed by any modernisation that are happening in the western world. there aren't many people who speak English in Greece. i roamed around the city in the only weekend i got, acropolis, whoever visits Athens should never miss this place.. and i pass by Olympic park daily for office. apart from these two places, i didn't get much opportunity to look around. Somehow Athens attracts lots of tourist from around the world and I also learnt that tourism and shipping are the 2 major industries in Athens. and

from what i have seen India is much more progressive country than this European nation.

so what do you do when you go to a new place or new country ?, enjoy the country culture, learn their language, taste their food. greeks use olive oil in their food preparation and there is a dish called peta(that's how we understood the pronunciation), so throughout the week i had chicken peta,beef peta...and as i said before "while in rome be a roman" in line with the above phrase started taking pork peta too..

climate, certainly it is that bad time of the year to travel to greece i think, the place is really hot.

ok wish i get some sleep...didnt sleep well for the past weeks...and regarding greek language i heard people tellng something like "'paragallo"..when they are trying to wish someone. did a google to understand, and couldn't manage to..so my idea of learning few greek words was not a success. any intelligent reader can help me understand the exact meaning of this word..

nothing to write......

there isn't anything interesting for me to write now, still i would like to keep my blog updated..last 2 weeks i slept late, courtesy euro cup 2008, somehow this tournament has interested me a lot more than IPL or any cricket tournament for that matter, main reason being there were many close finishes...unusual for a soccer game.

turkey vs croatia......both are little known countries in soccer, i remember croatia has made to last four in a world cup, 1996 i guess not sure, so by past records that i have known i thought croatia would make it to the semifinals, it turned out to be a very thriling contest..
the match went into extra time after there were no goals in the 90 minutes. closing stages of extra time niether team has scored and was heading for a penalty shoot out..and the twist came, the little country of the two striked..i can imagine how croatians must have felt then...it is a magic isn't it striking in the dying moments of the game (29th minute) and taking your team to semifinal..

on the other side, turkish players for them they thought it was all over, there was just a minute left for the close, and already few turkish players were lying in the ground, as usual 2 minutes (injury time)were added to the extra time, then the unexpected happened when a turksh striker scored a equaliser in the dying seconds..unbelievable....eventually turkey went on to win in the penalty shoot out.

the other quarterfinal match between two heavyweights in football, italy vs spain was a complete disappointment, neither team looked threatening. i am a great fan of italy from the days of roberto baggio, the world champion played a negative game trying to stretch the game to penalty shootout and deservedly lost the match in the penalty.

As it is known i am hanging out with my friends in hexaware on weekends, and we all went to a movie called dasavatharam, this movie came with lots of expectation, first time in cine history an actor (kamal) is donning 10 different roles, and already was booked for a week in most of the cinema halls, still i managed to get tickets for a night show on the second day. well it was a complete disappointment for me and i almost slept in the hall, but the good news for kamal fan's is into 2nd week the movie is still running in packed shows.

there were few support calls from old office as well and on a saturday night out of sheer boredom in my house and being called by my old colleagues as well, i went to look after one issue in streaming server, irony is everybody was thinking i am an expert advicer in streaming technology though i am a novice, i ended up solving other 2 issues and made them happy....well as far as streaming issue i made few recommendations and it was open.

Good, i made up a post, when i started i did'nt know what to write and gave a title "nothing to write"........

...India Gate

..well lets see what updates i have to write now from my last post....to summarise there were few business trips across the country and one pleasure trip ..again to god's own country..pleasure trip was not as memorable as our earlier trips..again it was with my friends in hexaware...not going into greater details, i wish to do a small write up...things that i remember now... after 2 months of the trip...

well as usual the trip involved my great mokkai during the journey...me and subbu shared all our experiences in project.....and an advice to Balan, our tour co-ordinator about train travel...

our trip to vayanadu...break down of our vehicle and our exciting journey in a jeep..Senthil had heart in his mouth and really struggled hanging out from the footboard of the jeep.....

falls..of all the waterfalls i had visited in recent years..this one was located in a very difficult terrain....alarm bells went on..as one of our senior and beloved collegaue slipped and hit the rock...for an moment his memory went blank...

there were antakshri..dance....and all the fun an normal touring group will have...few of the guys managed to play ..drums, trumpets, flute...without any instruments...

our tour co-ordinator, balan had his first taste of an hard drink....toddy.....good start isnt't it...

we played cards...hanged out in a resort and later in a beach.....

return trip on train was memorable particularly when we discovered that there was an pretty girl travelling along with us....well everybody tried there best to impress her..and all night we played cards ...dumb sherak...

back to work..i was sent on a business trip to banglore and later on a day visit to national caital....sure i want to write about my trip to Delhi....after finishing off my work ..i was left with 6-8 hours in the day to roam around the capital...well first thing i did was took a travel guide from my hotel and called my mom.....why would I call my mother....any guess..

yes...our family lived in delhi for 2 years...i was around 3-4 years old then....absolutely no memories of anything whatsoever.......

given the short time i had, symbol of love, Tajmahal was out of my plan....though i managed to visit most of the monuments...that symbolise the capital....

India Gate...extract from wiki, goes like this..

The India Gate is a war memorial in New Delhi commemorating the Indian dead of the First World War. The India Gate today also houses the Indian Army's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Amar Jawan Jyoti. Inscribed on top of India Gate in capital letters is the line...
""To the dead of the Indian armies who fell honoured in France and Flanders Mesopotamia and Persia East Africa Gallipoli and elsewhere in the near and the far-east and in sacred memory also of those whose names are recorded and who fell in India or the north-west frontier and during the Third Afghan War. ""

Then went on to visit our symbol of democracy....Indian parliament ..and known by recent generation ..or atleast by me ..as a place where the ruling and opposition and elected representatives fight....wasting lakhs of rupees just discussing on policies that take years to get implement.....
then went on to visit..our official residence of the president of india.....Rastrapti Bhavan..went on to visit redfort.....not sure about the importance of this place.....except that it is built of a red stone by Shahjahan....

ok i managed a long post...after a long time....now getting ready for chennai Superkings vs Rajasthan Royal...IPL final....

For strict compliance...

Give GOd the First part of everyday

Give GOd the First day of every week

Give GOd the First portion of your income

Give GOd the First consideration in every decision

Give GOd the First place in your life

Cellarstone

...flashback again 2-3 years back

It was a recreation club for most of us, i got my first shock on the second day of my joining, i was called to a conference room, an entire team was trying to get a conference call to US without success, and they asked me to fix the device....at this point only i realised that my work is not a system administration support and it is rather a infrastructure support.....what followed later were calls for all the hardware, OS, network, application, servers, desktops, laptops, printers...... and strangely after sometime i realised i was supporting electrical system as well in the company, managing 3-4 high capacity UPS devices and the most funniest thing was when one of our client from US who was visiting our office came to my desk and told that his AC is not working, that was not my domain for sure. I was happily getting involved in all the other activites though.

Apart from all the roles i was into, most people in our office felt that i was the person who is enjoying the most in the company, reason was mainly i had to report to a manager in US..and i never reported to him...and i had one senior in my office who never reported too..we had our own territory..there was never a instance i can remember that my boss had complained about us...

back to our main entertainment ..after the hype in table tennis game got down after tournaments, we played more of carrom and chess, mainly to encourage and give opportunity to others for playing TT and another reason was for giving company to few talented guys in that sport..

Anand, this guy joined as a testing engineer, he had a high rapport with all the co-staff, he proclaimed himself as a carrom champion..but seriously i felt kamal,me and enos were one level more than him in carrom, still we encouraged him a lot.There would be huge crowd when we four of us played ..as each one of us would try to better the other ....kamal was consistent, me -close to consistent and alawys looked for difficult cut shots, with enos -it was always blind shots, he himself wouldnt know which coin he was trying but he will win..and Anand - crowd liked this guy very much, and few times he did managed to beat us..

Chess...played rarely, never attracted crowd as much. i had kamal beaten in an improtant round but eventually fell to a lesser known guy, i think even kamal would remember that game. second year tournament was an great disaapointment, i fell in the semifinal rounds in all the games...TT, carrom...and in Chess i gave a walkover to Anand...who eventually won the championship. But i made sure that anand never won a game against me..he played 4-5 games with me after the championships..but the champion never was able to beat me...we both played equal style of game.

trips on the company, there would always be year end party on a resort or a theme park, which i always skipped due to my year end church service, we once went to pondicherry, when most people were visiting ashram, and museums.....me ,vijay and jenser found pub everywhere and enjoyed all combinations of drink that was possible...there was once a long trip to hogaanekkal...me and Anand got knocked over by drinks..still i remember both of us had more
than 4 beers and we were so knocked out that both of us carried a lemon in our hands in bus all the way from hoganekkal to chennai..lemon it is beleived neutralises the effects of a drink... and it did that day..

..ok back to work i got a change of job profile in the company after few negotiations with the management, now started looking into DBA activities as well after some training on that line. what followed later was bad days for that company..they lost an important client, business went down...slowly people started moving out of the club..sorry company..

NSA ....and friends...

...all this happened 2-3 years back during the period of 2004-2005. i decided to write about my friends and associations i had during this period after seeing a post from one of my friend, http://www.scribd.com/doc/122368/CellarStone-buddies this link realy moved my genrally cold heart to write about my memories..and relationships we had...

initally when i joined this company i started hanging out with few cool guys in the company....vijay, raghav, jenser...so we were the happiest person's on that company, most of the co-staff usually found us in the mornings with hangovers...since we were performing well nobody had any complaints though....

later moved to a mansion near my office, as my senior was going on a long leave and i was in infra support. so this place was called NSA mansion....later this became the hub of master brains in that company...few of the master brains

Kamal- he was an aspiring and budding e-marketing professional, who later learned the tricks of the trade fast....and had high influence in marketing the product the developers made. smart guy and very popular amongst girl....great player of all games he was right there in top and this guy is very compassionate towards needy people....he tried his best to teach me e-marketing...but i never learned

Karthik- fresh out of college and new to chennai as well, he learned a lot from us..bike,drinks, smoking..and he listened to all our great blunt stories eagerly without getting bored...he had come from one fo the top colleges in TN and nobody can question his talent and passion for work..one good thing he learned from me was reading books and novels...i was involved in a bike accident with him...no injuries to anybody thank god...

Maneesh -he is most senior person in our group but again a close friend...he is from varanasi and the difference in culture and language made us more closer...for 2 years every evening he had given us papayaa....this guy is fond of fruits, specialy papayyaa..again a smart and clever person..he is fond of movies...and most of the movie shows we went were for him.....

Enos- the abdul kalam of our company, our company CEO realy liked tis guy very much for his work, he developed a product out of nowhere and became famous....he is known for working only on nights....coming to office on casuals.... and for fighting with program managers...he is again close to me...we went to church together...along with 2 more guys me and enos recieved value award in our first year in company..

events that i remeber now...

As it is known kamal is famous amongst girls, one fine day one girls car broke down and she called kamal to help...but since we were close friends and wherever we went we went in groups..and whatever we had we shared...we all went to drop her safely at her house....

our trip to hogganekal....everybody had a nice bath on the falls, except for me and karthik all other guys were topless..to the discomfort of these guys our managing director forwarded all the pictures to the entire office in india and us...there were secret comments from girls....

weekends were usually shopping and eating out....what followed was usualy fights for sharing the budget..even if it fell 1-2 rs short there would be hours of fights to settle it...

the way a senior PM reacted after he lost to me in tabletennis semifinal before an assembled office...he just throwed the bat angrily at the table and went off....no handshakes...nobody were able to react at that moment...nobody even clapped for my win...

we slept on conference rooms, due to a bit of workload and mostly due to hot summer...office was like home....enos and karthik even had thier pilows and bedspread in office...
we drank once in office terrace..had few rounds and again worked...
we had regular session in our rooms, most of our discussion were like board of directors discussion, and few gossip sessions as well...

those days will never come again......evrybody's paths changed drastically in these 3 years...there is one secret wish i have now..would we ever be able to work together again in a same office....even if we did, we would never be able to spend time like we did before....miss you guys....

..games

..another weekend, another Saturday and well i seem to spend most of time time alone at my place these days...no more Friday night parties, no more Saturday morning hangovers, and no more pirated DVD movies to watch... on the other end work at office just seem to move along fine, no pressure, no late night work, no weekend scheduled works..but one thing that is interesting in office is i am completely into an technical environment that is very much demanding and new to me.

i have started playing table tennis in office, there are 2 games which have fascinated me a lot football and table tennis....i had played football in my school days, coming from a school that encouraged sports, we played the game with lot of pride and of course many injuries in leg and once in head ...well one thing i can still remember is once me and my friends had a game with the seniors, we were studying std 7...those guys were actually professionally trained by the sports trainer. we did lost the game that day but most people who saw the game and even the seniors saw that we were pretty good and attacking in the game. after that when i moved to a new school in chennai there was literally not much games i played and once i remember we played and it was one sided in which i scored close to 4 goals....

i was performing very poorly in other sports though...cricket..can remember just swinging the bat wildly and managing single digit scores...missing easy high catches...volleyball very famous in my school in chennai...not upto the level again..just managing to serve into the court..that was the big achievement.

it was in one of my earlier companies that people taught me tabletennis..and within a short period i caught up the game fast and i was right there in top4 by the end of the year..we played a lot of indoor games during this period carrom, chess and tabletennis ...sports festival happened every year and i managed to beat few big guys in TT..even the guys who taught me and finally lost in the final..after this i became popular guys tried their best to beat me....they liked my serve and everybody was imitating my serve. so what is that special in my game i defeated so many experienced guys...i was very strong in forehand cross court..bit weak in backhand..and i moved so fast and was hitting most of the shots across the table with high speed...i guess its the speed....Guys here in my new company seem to play lot of spin and these guys are too good in backhand also...have marked few guys to knock them........sport it is...

Saturday...afternoon 3 pm, boring and watching a movie....possibly next week i might go on a tour to god's own country..

....lent

.....had an important assignment and i was travelling on the evening of new year, i was happy that i was not made to travel out of station on the month of december, so we were a litlle happy family and celebrated christmas and new year together after a very long time..

the assignment went well, as usual there was pressure from my manager and my client. 3-4 more days left to finish my task. So it was one day like this that i was stuck in one issue to solve and working late night...around 10.45 got a call from my brother...well the tone said it all, it was not a good news. my dad was hospitalised for fracturing a bone near his hip. being a physio himself my brother did analysed the situation very well and made arrangements in a hospital that he had worked 2 years back..this is the second time that my dad was involved in a serious situation, the first one was even worse, and in both the occasions, both me and my brother were not around..

..next day i realised that i was not able to concentrate on my work anymore..well my manager and client were sympathetic enough to release me and major part of my work in this assignment was also over..well 3-4 days from then i was travelling on air,road and rail.....once standing 6 hours in a train all the way from chennai to trichy, i was travelling from one city to other and arranging logistic support for my dad treatment and getting few formalities done in my dad office...meanwhile my brother flew back to his place..and my dad was recovering fast..

now lent days have started....days starting from ash wednesday till easter are called lent days..there would be forty days during this period when most christians go on fasting and prayer...and i would as always would not take any non-vegetarian food during this period....most churches preach these principles during this period

prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial...