2007 - Year of selfishness

In 2007, i want to be very selfish.

I will thrash down anyone who comes in my way.

Btw, this will be only for year 2007.

So if you want to take advantage of me, or use me for ur purpose, come back after a year.

BeST and WorST of 2006

I was thinking of the BeST and WorST of 2006.

May be moving out of NeST was the significant decision. BeST and WorST followed. Cant differentiate between those.

Getting interest back to Internet, was another one... I was so fond of my simple homepage in late ninetees.

Moved out of comfort zone of home and office and landed into difficulties and realities..

Started childhood interests again along with lachu --- school, rhymes, story books, toy cars....

Blogs and Orkuts helped my old school friends to track me down. it was nice...

Healthwise, it was a bad year for all the people around me !

I dont like 2006 generally......!

My year will be 2008 ( i am skipping 2007 because its too near, and i dont want to take the challenge now itself)

8 is my favourite of all numbers. ( 2+0+0+6 was 8, but i will take the last two digits 06 for my calculation )

Time's Man of the Year

Since 1927, TIME Magazine has chosen a man, woman, or idea that "for better or worse, has most influenced events in the preceding year."

This year, in 2006 its YOU and ME.

It represents the people advancing the information age by using Internet ( blogs, YouTube, MySpace)..

Context of Life

One of my friend said my blog is for 60-plus. Nothing for people in 20s and 30s.

The blog is basically for me only.., but people who know me can occasionally peep through the blogs and see the MQ ( Mental Quotient) I am in right now. They can detect emergencies and can help me.

Here another 60-plus thought:

During predegree days.., I was a fan of (Lord?) Krishna and his Maya concept. The theory I derived from that was: Only I exists, all the idiots around me are made for me - whether its relatives, teachers, friends, shops, hotels, oceans etc etc. Usually only the things we come to see, hear, know, feel affect us. If a plane crashes on middle east, and if i dont read the newspaper on that day, i dont have any sorrow. But i know that somehow.., i would think it should not have happened. If a friend or relative dies in that accident the sorrow is more.

Thats why i arrived on this theory.. I am the HERO, All others are made for me. Script is written for me. What all happening is Maya.

I liked "Trueman show" film very much... because in the past i have thought, i am like Trueman ...

But the thought has changed slightly now... The world , whether GOD exists or not... has atleast a millions of years of life time... My life-span is truly insignifant....

So i have to work hard... The script is not written just for me..

Casino Royale

Fundrablastic movie..

I was a james bond fan from my school days and used to go for every james ond movie in theatre from primary days despite the smooching scenes..

The new bond is wonderful.. He is ruthless, cruel but is also romantic.

This film shows how Bond develops his character. This is his first assignment, so it should be considered as a prequel to all his previous ones, although set in a new timeline.

The story of the movie is here.

I got my money's worth by half time. So bought Coke and pop-corn to celebrate the second half.

The only thing I was missing was the bond theme music and the famous dialog "The name's Bond, James Bond." But that came in the end in a grand style after Bond shoots the main villain. The dialog comes and music plays. Bond is Reborn as Daniel Craig or viceversa whichever is logically correct!

Bhagam Bhag

Saw this movie:

Its just a copy and collection of scenes from Mannar Mathayi Speaking (Malayalam), Nadodi Kattu (Malayalam), Snegithiye ( tamil) and Dhim Tharikida Thom ( Malayalam).

Today i slept till 12 am as a hangover.

But some audiences were laughing like anything in the theatre, so perhaps you can see the movie if you have not seen the malayalam movies mentioned.

I liked Akhsa kumar in the movie, he seems to be a very good actor now.

Categorised

Feeling bored being in alone at office and home.. So thought of categorising all posts..

The categories put does not make much sense

frustrated - "i am always unsatisfied"
self-improvement - "i always want to be a staisfied person"
Thoughts - "Thoughts, Thoughts and Thoughts"
diary - "i brushed my teeth, i went to office etc etc"
memoirs - "old ones"
Reviews - "reviews - books, movies"
and there are some other trivia tags!

Job Security

What will happen if i lose my job today ?

I may have just enough financial reserve to restart my life.. But still the thought of losing job is itself very scary..

Was going through the book "First things first".., and it had one nice example. A boss asked all his colleagues to go through the job columns and select the better ones than the current. Then he asked them to go and look whether they will get the job. They tried, but failed in interview. The jobs required new knowledge, new skills, new informations they did not have.

The moral of the story is: Put our job security based on the capacity to do the job, rather than the job itelf.

This will make us fearless!

7 habits for highly (in)effective people

7 Habits
Habit 1: Be Proactive®
Take responsibility for your life.

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind®
Define your mission and goals in life.

Habit 3: Put First Things First®
Prioritize and do the most important things first.

Habit 4: Think Win-Win®
Have an "everyone-can-win" attitude.

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood®
Listen to people sincerely.

Habit 6: Synergize®
Work together to achieve more.

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw®
Renew yourself regularly.

These are the famous 7 habits prescribed by Stephen Covey in his best selling book "The 7 habits of highly effective people".

After reading that i was thinking it was too much idealistic. What a shit.

But my doubt was cleared when i read the FAQ section. In that he clearly says: The book he has written is about 7 habits of highly effective people and not ineffective people.

Now i have started reading it again with an open mind..

Also this happens to be my 100th post in Poonaji Speaking.

Your Brain is 67% Female, 33% Male

Your brain leans female You think with your heart, not your head Sweet and considerate, you are a giver But you're tough enough not to let anyone take advantage of you!

What Gender Is Your Brain?

lachu and brushing..

Lachu was not brushing her teeths despite me getting her Japanese toothpastes..!

I complained to her teachers at Abhyaas playschool..

And in the evening she said teachers asked her to brush her teeth everyday... And she allowed me to place brush in her mouth the following day ( but no brushing!!)..

Yesterday, teachers inspected her mouth it seems.. She told me so.. Now she allows one or two sweeps through her already broken teeths..

And everyday now teachers ask me if she brushes her teeth properly.., and I am lying for her :)

Last year, This time

What was i doing.., last year this time....

2005
--------
Dec 16: Attended telephonic interview
Dec 22: Got Offer letter
Dec 26: Gave resignation to my old company after 9 years of association
Dec 26: father in law fell into a man hole and injured his legs

2006
-----
Jan 5: operation for father-in -law
Jan 9: last day at my old company
Jan 17: New company!

How was 2006 like ? Mixed feelings!

P and PC

Sometimes I am too much immersed in improving my and our team's production capability that i forgot to produce...!

And then i come back producing.., without using the capabilities that i built..

bad Anoop! very bad.

Mullaperiyar ---

A Tamil leader - Kurinji Kapilan yesterday said - " If Kerala does not give TN water, then they will acquire Tamil majority areas like Peerumedu and Devikulam".

Anyway I dont mind that. Perhaps they can also acquire Trivandrum - Tamil population is big there also..

A referendum can be conducted..

If we have so much "regional chauvinism" why dont we allow states like kashmir to become free.. Anyway myself will never visit there, or have any feelings for my northern brothers..

Federal system is a waste.. Vijayakanth has a solution for "Mullaperiyar". he says TN should ask for the post of "Minister of water Resources" - that would solve the issue. Hire the Umpire, and win the game.

Relationship

we put into any relationship is not what we say or what we do, but what we are. – Stephen R. Covey

gas and mobile

People always complain my mobile is useless.. Nobody can get me on my mobile.. Most of the time battery charge will not be there. And when i charge which happens once in a week or so, "charge" for mobile connection might have expired. And in other times i keep my mobile at my home, or switches it off, or keeps in silent mode and keeps it off. It saves me from the "calls" that i dont want to recieve.

But last day, my cooking gas expired, and i have to give back the empty cylinder to my owner and take a filled one from his home. I called him, but he is now at cochin with his family. he scolded me, as he had called me several times last day to say he is going to hometown and want me to take the gas from his home. so no gas, no milk for lachu, and no tea for me.

As my house owner had suggested, I went for collecting gas directly from Indane agency. But did not get due to gas shortage.. will take another 10 days.. But me managed to get one "gas kutti" from a private agency - although it costs twice of Indane...

So i have charged the mobile battery now t avoid any further mishaps.. but seems "outgoing" not going. Time to recharge..!

It seems I have to grow up along with lachu.. and learn things and do basics..

more hot debates

:)

We had a Hindu-Muslim debate yesterday..!

We, Hindus said: "Shhe.., We are suffering because of what Prithvi Raj Chauhan did.. If he had killed Ghauri, when he was defeated, then there would not have been any Ghauri missiles in pakistan"

Muslims, responsed: "Actually, you should be grateful to us. We were ruling India for a long time (..Mughal rule).. Only since we treated you well, you are surviving here making Prithvi missiles.."

Since we had 1 for 1, we stopped discussion, and blamed everything on the British and Christians..!

More discussions to follow:

Mullaperiyar talks

Good that talks happened between TN and Kerala. The talks have paved way for more bilateral talks. This is the basic principle of all talks. continue talking - when elections come do some strikes and get attention - then again continue talking.

Kerala now says a new DAM has to be constructed keeping in mind of Kerala people's security and Tamil nadu people's water scarcity.

TN still believes the dam is strong enough, and even if it breaks Idukki dam can hold the water ( perhaps i should read a TN newspaper to get more Tamil views!)

"Whatever may be said, whosoever may say it - to determine the truth of it, is wisdom" - Thirukoral

Mullaperiyar Pep talk

Today we had one or two Mullaperiyar discussions..

One was with a friend whose father is a very big politician in TN.. After some friendly discussions he said: "There are plans for TN, to make small small DAMS where river is originating from TN and flowing to kerala. Already there are some moves.,". He added.. "already there are hot disputes with other states like karnataka". I dont like scenes. So i diverted the discussion by saying ",.. it will never happen with kerala.. because it will not trigger a public movement in kerala".. malayalee friends agreed and we changed to some other subject.

Later one malayalee friend who was not in the discussion came to us and said ."we may have to pack things up.., if mullaperiyar gets out of hand". I repeated the same i said to my tamil friend to him.. Anything happens, chances are less that people will take into streets..

Later on second thought i added.. "one or two KL registration cars may burn, that can be mine or urs.." So chances are that my confusion on whether to go for a new car will end soon..

Mullaperiyar resolution..

Today morning i woke up.., took my paper and directly went to page 1. "Mullaperiyar issue" has taken the full page - news about DMK blocking all the borders to Kerala, Karunanidhi's statement, Achuthananthan's response etc etc...

How to deal with this ?

I thought even though situation is not that much bad.. Centre should send regiments of "Assam Rifles" and "Sikh Regiment" to our southern states and issue a curfew.. We can have rationing of water. Individuals should go and collect water with ration card.

Perhaps the regiments and rifles can give us a taste of what we do to states like "Assam" and "Punjab"..

part 3

Its becoming eventful.. Petrol was less, so i wanted to fill it, before going to office. Since my purse was almost empty, i wanted to take cash from the ATM. I took a sharp left to park the car near the ATM, and committed an "Unforced Error". My old Matiz scratched with a relatively new, good looking Santro. The Santro had some scratches. I looked outside waiting for "Santro" owner for sometime. Could not find him, so escaped.

Its bad that my "instincts" are getting older. It seems I have to become "young at heart".. i would like to reverse my age 32 to 23. I love being in 20s. 30s are boring stuff..

"young at heart" also means getting heart attacks at young age.

motivations -- part 2

Till 2003, i was not much fascinated by motivational or self improvement books.. but after that i have tried many..

1. First break all the rules
2. Now discover your strengths
3. Seven habits of highly effective people
4. First things first
5. Straight from the Gut

and some books which really inspire being effective like "The Goal", "The Critical chain" etc..

Even tried "Rich dad, poor dad" thinking that money is what i want..

But the Coveys and co are not doing the trick.. But I have got lot of info by this time, so that i can be a really good "policy server".. anybody need my help ?

anyway i have brought a small vivekanda message to be put on my table "'Stand up, Be Bold, Be Strong. Take the whole responsibility on your own shoulders, and know that you are the creator of your own destiny'."

Troubles --- part 2

My car was not getting started on tuesday. I tried for some time.. Then took and auto and went to office.. But this time "common sense" came to me. I had not filled the petrol for some time, and I thought perhaps it might be the reason. Luckily I had bought some petrol for cleaning "Lachu's" two year old very dear doll, and the remaining was still in the apartment ( thanks to my laziness i did not put the remaining to my car ). When i filled in the car started with a roar and i could get enough mileage to reach the gas station to fill. Thanks to LORD, that the car chose my apartment parking area for the final stop.

Its not the first time, that i am facing this problem.. Earlier I was going for a party two months back through the busy Mount Road, and I felt that the petrol was coming to an end. I suddenly took the left, and just before reaching the end it stopped. We ( me and shameer )managed to push the car to the left. Shameer went for buying petrol. The policemen came and enquired to me.., i said the car broke down and the person to fix will come soon. Since it was close to "traffic signals".., they were not willing to waiit. They offered a "free-trip" for my vehicle to work shop. I had to be "honest", and told petrol is empty and my friend is getting that from the nearby station. Police told me in the tamil equivalent of "enthuvadeyyy". I felt ashamed and i vowed at that time never to make that mistake again.. but sorry, i could not fulfill..

Important things

I am blogging less now...

Thought of increasing productivity... In the process started planning using stephen covey's four quadrants again ( Important and Urgent, Important and not Urgent, Urgent and not important, not urgent and not important ).

But the only "Important and Not Urgent" thing I am doing is looking after lachu.. All the other things I am lagging... I am afraid to take on them..

I reduced blogging to get me more time.. But i am using that time for commenting other blogs.. Now the worst happened, started a class blog also.. But the response is not that good!

How to deal with the important things in life ? I should ask Covey again..

In the middle between Milestones

chatroom
Originally uploaded by poonaji.

Nov 1st marks 10 years completion in career, Nov 3rd 5 years in marriage.

Both were tough, and have mixed feelings :)

Perhaps on career i should write a public blog, and on marriage a private blog!

No time today.

On The Tree

OnTheTree
Originally uploaded by poonaji.

I like to freak out for a change.. we had a group outing this month beginning to mahabalipuram..

it was fun.....
> singing "OO Satheere" in bus in high pitch
> dancing on the sand floors
> playing kho kho with girls..! ( i could not touch anyone as they ran faster)
> playing games
> dancing and bathing down and under the beaches ( last time was in DDG gettogether in 2000 when i lost my dearest T18 mobile)

it was nice to see the youthfulness in me.

Troubles........

After a month of visit in chennai, our servant returned last week back. It was like a onsite visit for her. she is enrolled in the BSNL sweeper position, took two months leave and planned to take a two months onsite vacation at our house.. but due to the extreme hot conditions in chennai she cut short her vacation to chennai. so i am in hunt for another malayalam knowing servant to look after lachu..

last week was tough.. it really showed my lack of common sense and how i respond to situations.. i dropped our ex-servant to Chennai Central Railway station.. and i was dreaming ( means planning) on how to live life without servant.. my speed went down below 35km/hr and still i was in 5th gear with full A/C.. I heard jerking. I lowered the gears, switched off the A/C. The jerking continued. I stopped the vehicle. I wanted to go oustide and check what is happening ? why is my vehicle jerking ? I was worried.. Matiz these many years have not produced much problems for me.. and now.. which new vehicle shuld i buy ? has the engine troubles started ? what will happen if this was happening when i was moving with my family.. shek.. i continued driving slowly for another 1 km slowly hoping to reach home.. The jerking sound increased.. i was fed up.. I got aggressive.. i thought the whole world was against me, and i was fighting it lonely. That made my adrenaline rise. I started driving in 60km/hr with all the jerking.. i may have drived more than a km or two. Then i had to stop at a signal where an auto driver shouted at me. He said in tamil, which i understood perfectly. He asked me why i am driving with punctured tyres. Bless me. Stupid me. I was driving with punctured tyre, not realising, and i was speeding up. How could i ?

Tamura san used to say "Better late, than never".. My new tyre and tube is almost finished as i drove all the way with punctured tyre.. but better late than never.. only my tube and tyre is gone.. i did not even look at the tyre and tube. what is lost is lost. i shuld build upon what i have .. i looked at the steel rim - seems it is still intact. i looked for steppini and jacky.. fortunately they were there. I never fill air in steppini, but still it is not empty. I looked at my mobile, as usual battery charge is at peak low. I thought for a while how to remove the tyres - whether its clockwise or anticlockwise. after rewinding the numerous times i have changed tyres in matiz, i finally got the direction - its anticlockwise. But i could not unbolt as it was super-tight. i was feeling tired. i called shameer and requested him to come. Then i saw a police man coming to me - i realized i have not put on the park lights. i did that immedaitely and walked to him. he said, he came to ask me to put on the lights, he was very friendly. We chatted there. Meanwhile i was calling shameer every 5 minutes asking their status.. luckily my mobile charge survived.. Finally shameer and binoj arrived and we changed tyres. but i was really ashamed of myself..

The next day... lachu was eager to go out. i asked her to wear her shoes.. but i could get only a pair of chappals which could not be tied properly.. sreedevi asked me to tigh i properly.. i ignored.. then she went down the stairs.. i was looking for my woodlands chappel so that i can follow her.. but in the meantime we heard a sound and her cry.. she fell down from the stairs.. perhaps she may have fallen from the height of three or four steps.. anyway that helped me to leave the tyre issue and focus on more important issue..

and next day in office.. i had a very important assignment.. i had to load a new image and test and give results back within hours.. customer has put a zip file and tgz file ( same contents).. i decided to take the tgz fle.. instead of "get"ting.., i did a "put" to the ftp server and rewrote the file.. so i got a file with zero bytes.. then i took the zip file, but unfortunately poor me - the zip was corrupted, i am not able to unzip it. beng honest helps me. i said what i did to my customer. Poor customer- he said he will upload it again. he just added - "it will take another 11 hours for uploading". The worst part is - next day i realized , the zip was not corrupt.. i need more space in my disk for unzipping a 1GB file. my machine had 4GB which enough for holding the zip and the extracted contents.. but not enough for holding the swapping contents also.. perhaps wnzip should start giving more "respondible error messages"..

Somebody has told me - "all is well, that ends well".. i just need to know when is the end ?

NB: My troubles with passport continues. That in another post.. how can i cry all the things in one post ?

Things people search for

When i did my last post - i was feeling the need for a counter in my blog. When i saw this post
"things poeple search for and "seach ends here and why in my most favourite blogs, i was damn sure i should put the web-monitoring mechanisms in my blog ASAP.

i created an account in statcounter.com and have put in my blogs. Its nice to see how many hits you get, how much time others spend in your blog, from which sites they come etc etc. The most interesting ofcourse is to figure out whether you receive any hits from the keywork searches.. i was damn sure, i will not get any. But just after putting the statcounter - i also received a hit due to a keyword search. The keyword was-"priyamanvale part1". . I felt honoured!

Its a nice feeling. so it has given me a purpose to continue blogging.

I will add more masala and film keywords to my blog!!!

label: statcounter

Blogging

Saw this tag in many of the blogs that i read,, so thought of trying it..

1. Are you happy/satisfied with your blog, with its content and look? Does your family know about your blog?
When i started blogging.., words were flowing freely and i was very happy with whatever i wrote. But nowadays my blog is not interesting even to me. [ My brother and some of my friends know about my blog]

2. Do you feel embarrassed to let your friends know about your blog or you just consider it as a private thing?
i dont care..

3. Did blogs cause positive changes in your thoughts?
7. Admit. Do you think there is a real benefit for blogging?
Blogging takes much of your time away! ( thats not a benefit). I was away from my family when i started blogging... The new hobby helped me to spend some time without thinking too much...Sometimes it helps to release your negative energy also.. if you have anger, depression and want to shout.. do it in blog!

4. Do you only open the blogs of those who comment on your blog or you love to go and discover more by yourself?
I love to roam around... and discover more

5.What does visitors counter mean to you? Do you care about putting it in your blog?
I have never thought of it.. perhaps i should have a counter

6. Did you try to imagine your fellow bloggers and give them real pictures?
Ofcourse.. you sometimes feel u know them well after reading the blogs.

8. Do you think that bloggers society is isolated from real world or interacts with events?
blogging is a powerful concept..! it reflects real world only.

9. Does criticism annoy you or do you feel it's a normal thing?
I like comments on my blog posts - whether it is criticism or not.

10. Do you fear some political blogs and avoid them?
From internet, i fear only Viruses.

11. Did you get shocked by the arrest of some bloggers?
hope they will give 2 or 3 warnings before arresting me.

12. Did you think about what will happen to your blog after you die?
My pictures will die when yahoo dies.., and my posts will die when google dies

13. What do you like to hear? What's the song you might like to put a link to in your blog?
endrendrum punnagai
mudivillaa punnagai
indru naan meeNdum meeNdum
piRandhaen oru thuLi paarvaiyilae
oah ennuyirae... oah ennuyirae....

DA VINCI CODE

Saw daVinciCode with friends in DVD ( camera print, with russian subtitles in screen - so we know from where the good camera print DVDs come ).

Jojan had read the Novel. So we paused at each scene, and he explained the "story"...

I liked the movie... perhaps need to read the Novel also...

Its not a relegious film.. Its just a thriller...

But the "Last Supper" picture analysis still puzzles me.. who is the person right to Jesus ? was it Mary Magdeline ? Is the V shape formed with their bodies represent the "holy grail" ?

Anyway the movie has renewed interests in "relegious sites" for me,, just like i got interested in "Gandhigiri" after seeing Munnabhai!

Once again - Apartment keys

I have made it a habit on messing with Apartment Keys..

Last day.., me , lachu and her appooppan went for shopping. Sreedevi came down to flag-off us. Our new servant came out for hanging washed clothes, she thought of closing the door gently - ( she was given many classes beforehand that if you close the door without keys then no way to enter) . Even the gentle close made the door closed.

She panicked and called Sreedevi. She with all her intelligence, managed to open the window and took the phone from inside, and called me. I am usually happy to hear these type of news - as it will give me a subject to blog on.

But this time no crisis situation came... KKG ( my father) on his two week's stay at chennai, duplicated the house key. He know my never-do/never-die attittude well and did that for me. Once i have a thing in place, i do the rest. I had the duplicate key in my car, and my car-key with me.

So no hardships this time.....!

lage raho munna bhai

FUNDRABLASTIC..... AWESOME

LAGE RAHO MUNNABHAI IS IN MY ALLTIME FAVOURITE LIST!

It is a very nice movie. When the movie starts Munnabhai's "kidnapping" and "real estate business" is still flourishing, but he is in love with "Vidya balan" who does radio programme "Good morning Mumbai"..

Like the same way he passes MBBS entrance in the 1st part.., Munnabhai manages to come first in a quiz on Bappu ( ofcourse Mahatma ), and meets Vidya in studio. Munna advertises himself as a professor and his relationships with Vidya develops.

There is also a historic character in the film - Bappu.. After reading a lot of books on mahatma.., Munna feels that bappu is with him always. Soon his "dadagiri" ideologies get replaced with "Bappugiri"..

The film is full of fun - nonstop comedy..

It makes you think also.. I was not a big fan of mahatma.. but suddenly some of his principles have now influenced me.."When i walk, when i drive, when i talk, when i fights - now i think of "bappugiri".. How should i respond.. How can i bring honesty, integrity and commitment in what i do -- ?"

films can change people.. Its a great film! Kudos!

vettayadu villayadu

vettayadu villayadu, originally uploaded by poonaji.

Its a very long time since I went to theatre for a Tamil movie. I believe the last ones were AllaiPayuthe (twice), Priyamanavale, Citizen etc etc.

Used to see a lot in the past in bachelor company.

This one, was horrifying. VIOLENCE, VIOLENCE and VIOLENCE. More than 45 minutes I was sitting with my eyes closed. Lot of cruelty. This type of movie is not suited for a weak hearted person like me

But I liked a lot of things in the movie ---
1. Kamal is superb. ( I was the only one in the theatre cheering and clapping for him and jyothika aunty)
2. Songs are good
3. It gives you a hollywood movie feeling - a super cop type movie
4. First few scenes are superb ( which gives you lot of expectation) - expecially where he hunts and finds the place where the first victim is buried.

I dont regret seeing the movie.

bhargavan

bhargavan, originally uploaded by poonaji.

Saw "BhargavaCharitham-Moonam Kandam" last week. Despite reading bad reviews and being a mohanlal fan, i liked the movie.

The story is - a mafia don bhargavan( mamootty) seeks help of famous phsycatrist (sreenivasan). bhargavan is currently not able to DO the things he was very good in doing. In surviving his sort of business he had to that, very well. No shooting means, no survival...

I could relate myself to bhargavan.. i am also in a similar position :)))

finally sreeni recognised bhargavan's problems,,, he is not enjoying the things... he want to move out,,, and be a good man,,, and finally when bhargavan decides that he gets his confidence back!

So perhaps after a decade of software.., i want to move out.., and do good things !!!! still in search for my sreeni !

Argument with Wife

It is not easy to win an argument with your wife.

1. Creation: A main said to his wife one day, "I dont know how you can be so stupid and so beautiful all at the same time." The wife responded,"Allow me to explain. God made me beautiful so you would be attracted to me; God made me stupid so i would be attracted to you!"

2. The Silent Treatment: A Man and his wife were having some problems at home and were giving each other the silent treatment. Suddenly, the man realized that the next day, he would need his wife to wake him at 5am for an early morning business flight.
Not wanting to be the first to breat the silence (and lose), he wrote on a piece of paper, "Please wake me at 5am." He left it where he knew she would find it. The next morning, the man woke up, only to discover it was 9am and he ad missed his flight. Furious, he was about to go and see why his wife hadn't wakened him,when he noticed a piece of paper by the bed. The paper said,"It is 5am.Wake Up."

Strengths Finder..

Out of curiosity I bought the book "Now discover your strengths" last year. The book I have not read till now.. But it permits you to participate in a GALLUP poll to discover your natural talents - the way u think, feel!

I got these as my strengths:

Learner
People strong in the Learner theme have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. In particular, the process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites them.

Maximizer
People strong in the Maximizer theme focus on strengths as a way to stimulate personal and group excellence. They seek to transform something strong into something superb.

Arranger
People strong in the Arranger theme can organize, but they also have a flexibility that complements this ability. They like to figure out how all of the pieces and resources can be arranged for maximum productivity.

Adaptability
People strong in the Adaptability theme prefer to "go with the flow." They tend to be "now" people who take things as they come and discover the future one day at a time.

Relator
People who are strong in the Relator theme enjoy close relationships with others. They find deep satisfaction in working hard with friends to achieve a goal.

I always like Learning, and i have always focussed on my strengths. But "Arranger" ? - it is very difficult for me to get even a gas connection.. But if it denotes a coordinator role, perhaps i have done that in many ways.. "Adaptability" -i have always lived "with the flow", but honestly i am now feeling that was not the right way. And regarding "Relator".., my playschool progress card says "Anoop is friendly, but likes to play with special friends"

Puttu Podi

In a malayalam film - "Mellaparambil Aanveedu" - there is a scene - Sobhana ( a tamil native) takes Puttu Podi and using that paints "Kolam" in front of the house..

Today what happened in Chennai is the reverse - We bought something for "puttu podi" and made Puttu out of it.. But it seems its purpose was for drawing "Kolam" only.. It tasted so..!

blogging - cons and pros

A good wellwisher friend of mine told me " Anoop .., its very evident that your mood is visible on your blogs. If your Manager or anybody sees it they will know"

Also he added - "I recently read an article which says - nowadays people search in blogs to get details about the individuals applying for a job. This is because in blogs people are open"

I said - "I will take care. I will make some good blogs which will advertice my behaviourial skills well so that current and potential employers can feel proud of me"

Anyway its funny because I do google all the names that come across - I search with their different combination of names, nick names, different mail ids, look in news groups, technical forums etc etc.. Recently also when I re-initiated many contacts with my BTech friends, old Company friends I googled them and found how they are seen in Web..

But still i am not bothered about my image in Web. Actually I should not be - What i present here is only my 1% of truth..! Whatever I say is truth, I never say my whole truth :)

As Binoj's blog Title says I am what I am. Presenting you silly things in public - open for all public, gives you a rebellistic satisfaction :) Its nice...

Anyway I should start Image building exerices.. to avoid risk. I should start some other blogs in my virtual managers names and say something good about me.. ( actually i have lot to say).. In my own blog I cannot advertise mysself.. Anyway I already have some good references to start with...

Space Domain and Time Domain

Based on discussions with Dr.Jojan

When we are in Bus, we can see Trees outside moving backwards. When we stand out of the bus, we can see bus moving forwards and trees standing still.

Now we are in Space, and Time is moving backwards. Can we get out of this and stand in Time. Then perhaps we can see Space moving forwards.. ?

What will happen if we take a photo in the latter scenario.. Perhaps we will see all the things that existed in that space throughout the time.. Perhaps we need a very large film..

Dr.J says we cant even visualize this. That is why relegious texts say in "simple terms"

Anyway he has confused me..!

Anyway believe in God or Science, what we need to do does not change..! So it does not matter..

hiererchial and flat

Based on my experience - there are two forms of teams - hiererchial and flat

hiererchial - there is a leader who leads the team. Responsibilities are divided and Module leads may be assigned.

flat - leader will be there. all are equal and no responsibilities. everybody will obey only leader's leader (- thereby making it one layer flat).

i think i like - hiererchial structure !

Two shades

AnoopG on saturday



AnoopG on sunday

Advertisement - Need a maid servant to look after lachu

I dont believe many read my blog:

Still I want to share my present crisis: I need a good and caring maid servant to look after lachu when her father and mother goes to office..

-----

Today lachu made friends with Malu ( Jojan's daughter) and also Mallavika ( jayalekshmi's daughter)..

Also she got a lot of toys from Spencer Plaza. But her father took the car, and golf kit from her and it is in his possession. Bus and Drums are with her.

Still her favourite is the "Babloo" doll which she got from her US Chittappan. More needed!

Theory of evolution - hen and egg

So finally started blogging in US time.. i have a broadband connection at home... as usual the connection would force me to buy a computer or laptop... It does not work for me the other way around... anyway today got an office laptop...

We had a hot discussion today in DDGians list about Evolution.. In one side people supporting eolution theory and on the other side we had believers who supported "intelligent design" ( read it Adam and Eve)...Believers, also supported partial evolution...

On tea time, me jojan, and the rest continued the discussion.. then one of us said - in future human race also may split into different races.., and in future even intercourse betweeb the different races may become impossible.. Mr. B was afraid hearing this.. He asked.. "Will hen lay egg if a male duck comes after her and do what the "male hen" does ?

We laughed and continued the discussion. Jojan said, let us stop and clear the doubt of Mr.B. He was asked whether he know that hen can lay egg without the help from male counterpart (cock) ? He was not believing...

Then we had to explain the biology behind the "egg production" in females and the need for males in "fertilisation" and the analogy in human's case..

We did a quiz with the rest of the people all 27 plus.. The answers were:
Mr.S: Then why "Poovan" is needed ? ( if female can do all the things herself)
Mr.Su: I am not sure
Mr.Sa: Ayyo... ( he had lot of doubts.. we had to explain why male hen is needed)
Mr.D: How can she ?

and Mr.Sa was concerned whether we can make omelettes if male hen was not in picture ?

Generation gap

in one recent newspaper article.. in a malayalam daily.. the author questioned the IT people living in bangalore, etc etc... if they want to shift an apartment or look for a new house,, their parents have to come to their place and do things for him..

i got felt, as i see myself among those poor IT guys..

I dont have good impression about the previous generation either..!

Atleast our "grand father" generation wasted their life - for struggling for independence and nurturing the nation and all..

The generation which came after.. ruined the nation.. they were selfish.. looking after their own family.. taking bribes.. being lazy..not working... moved this nation backwards..

atleast we are earning hard.. earning foreign exchange.. bring technology etc etc

dont blame me and my generation.. i will dance on ur head!

pedigree

when i was in high school, i had witnessed this scene in a relative's house..

one man came for collecting old paper, bottles etc.. he resells them for a living. he looked really helpless.. but something which he did, irritated the owner in the house and he shouted at the person, and asked him to get out.. and the owner went inside..There was another person working nearby.., pouring minerals to the coconut trees etc.. I overheard the paper-man saying to him, "we are being treated as dogs"..

it was a incident which hurted me very much... we should treat all human beings with dignity, whether he has money or status..

i am not a vivekananda nor i do know whether vivekananda was decent.. i have my own short comings.. but i do respect people..

Disclaimer: may be i dont respect much the people who are very near to me..!

i am just blogging whatver comes to my mind..

later i will put myself.. to my judgement day.. "will ask u have written all these junks.. but u behave totally worthless.." then i will take a stand..

feminism

The title is slightly inappropriate... Many of my friends are waiting for "delivery" date..! so i thought of touching this subject..

What should be the ideal maternity leave...???

in japan - they can get almost a year..

in US - i dont know extacly - but they usually work till the last moment - and return back to work as early as possible - atleast in the case of hollywood film stars which i know well...

This will be an area of contention for feminists - whether to ask for more maternity leave or not..?

If ask for more - that makes women a less preferred employee.. !

girls may ask why i am discussing these - "let women magazines discuss this" - but you dont have to be a woman to be a feminist !!

Tinkle

Tinkle
Originally uploaded by poonaji.

kkg used to buy us - balarama, poombatta, balamangalam, muttashi.., amar chithra katha, ambili ammavan etc etc child magazines.. and occasionally tinkle and chambak..

i always liked Tinkle very much.. it was very much different....

now in the name of lachu .. i have started buying Tinkle.. but she is not that much patient to hear stories,,, and i dont have that patience to tell her also..!

but i love reading Tinkle.. loved to be back with Chamataka.. why Doob-Doob is always creating trouble for his friend Chamataka, i am not able to understand.. so back to my favourite passion - reading child comics..!

we had a huge collection of binded - balarama, poombatta , amar chithra katha etc etc -- but some 6 or 7 years ago while cleaning up the house - everything was dispersed by my parents - if i had known i would not have allowed - its a huge loss --

perhaps i should start collecting fresh.. for lachu's child !!!! ( may be having vision like this is stress free !!! )

studying networking...

In the process of improving network knowledge..!

added a networking blog also..

all information in that blog is taken from public domain and posted back to public domain..

its for learning purpose..

A confused mind

Why we need "Nair Service Society" for Nairs, SNDP for "Ezhavas", "RSS" for Hindus, "NDP" for muslims etc etc..!

Are these needed ?

Usually find I am in a group..., which has differences of opinion with my other friends - may be we differ in the case of "reservation".. and we argue the other side is wrong.. I may be acting as a nair in that case

Then when a different issue comes... say "Mullaperiyar" water sharing issue between tamil nadu and kerala.. my blood burns for kerala.. but now in tamil nadu.. i feel more water should be given to tamil nadu.. anyway why keralites need water ? here people are hard working..

I have quarelled in many fights on both sides.. sometimes i act as NRI (long time back) and sometimes as non-NRI... sometimes as Mohan Lal fan.. sometimes defending Mamootty.. sometimes for indian culture.., sometimes questioning indian culture.. sometimes for hinduism.., and against sometimes..

also my friends and foes changes everytime and they interchange also..

why human nature is like this ?? or my nature is like this ?

also why we need saviours for our communities, groups, relegion, country... ( i am talking about the people who defend our similar thought and faith.. by attacking others .. and defending us.. without looking what is right and wrong )..

i am confused..

But may be they are needed... as all groups will have these lobbies.. so if mine does not have a lobby i will suffer.. so let there be..

Those who are following the "sabarimala" case - both thantri and devaprsahnam.. will defintely know biased the lobbies are.. they defend what they want to protect.. dont want to analyse what is right..

Now my question where do i stand.. should i be with people who protect my interests ? Should i always analyse and decide where should i stand on the issue ? Or should i keep quiet and enjoy what i have ?

Harmony at work

IMG_0001
Originally uploaded by poonaji.

i was in my previous company for 9 years.. before i decided to leave..

and only now they have discovered "harmony at work"

see the picture of my ex-company's sponsered programme at technopark..

really i do miss..

Efficiency Vs Effectiveness

By increasing efficiency of individuals can you produce effectiveness ?

Nope..!

Its only team work that matters..!

Team have to work effectively to achieve goals...!

We have to strive for effectiveness..

But it seems I am moving towards being efficient and less effective...!

First day at Abhyaas

Lachu was energetic in the morning... showing impatience in everything .. she wanted to go to schoolfrom early morning itself..

she did not eat, and did not allow me also to eat..

finally at 9:20 we entered the play school.. i sneaked in with lachu.. ( abhyaas does not let others in other than children..).. i showed her the toys and was feeling comfortable.. she started looking at the toys and started playing.. I slowly went outside.. she did not notice..

At that time my good old school girl friend Jayalekshmi ( my definition of girl friend is the few girls i have talked in my school life !) came with her daughter.. seeing her i unconsciouly jumbed in front of lachu..! and lachu wanted me also in..

again i sneaked in.. the teachers closed the door.. they started prayers. with children singing with them.. the prayer was something like this.. " ALLAH here, ALLAH there, ALLAH everywhere.. JESUS here, JESUS there, JESUS everyhwhere.. RAM here , RAM there, RAM everywhere..".. teaching secularism at this young age... and confusing infants..!

Then some english songs.. Then principal came, took money from me, and shown me the doors.. Lachu started crying.. it continued for 45 minutes.. and then they allowed us to take lachu back to home..

First day not bad..!

lachu asked me in the afternoon.. " Achayey school-il cherkummo?" ( will they admit father also in school ?)

I wish .. I could also.. software is boring.. playing is fun..

Abhyaas

Lachu joining Abhyaas on Monday... ! She will be having classes from (9:30 to 12:00)!She liked Abhyaas on her short visit today..!

Have to sit with her and talk on sunday ! Hope she is not like her father who cried from the age of 2 to 5 years, when he was send to nursery..

Her father ran away from his playschool at the age of 3 when he saw the gates were open in the afternoon when everybody else were sleeping. Luckily (?) a collegue of lalithaji saw him, and took him to the telephone exchange. KKG was informed, and he went to the nursery for picking Anoop. Then everybody realized Anoop was not there, and there were some hot scenes..!

Lachu is a sweet girl.. she does not do naughtly things..

Seminar

My seminar is over today -- thanks for forcing me. It was scheduled to happen on July 07, and it happened today. I usually ask for two weeks.. But i always get affected by "students syndrome". Only in the last moment i start preparation, and then feel incompleteness and ask for another week. And if nobody asks, i keep quiet! But finally it happened, although my seminar was not very good, it was full of discussions!!!

Performance Metrics

If you tell me in advance how you will measure me, I will behave accordingly..!

Amen.

Networking between husband and wife

Sreedevi joined our group today..

So my mail communications to her paid off !! I tried freshening her network knowledge through my mails..!

Hope my managers and sreedevi dont see this blog:

-----Original Message-----
From: Anoop G []
Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2006 3:18 PM
To: 'Anoop G'; 'Sreedevi V'
Subject: RE: OSI layers - addressing

IP address can be used to identify the Network and Host. Port will be used for identifying the receiving process.

http://172.16.100.20:80

172.16.100.20 is the IP address
80 is the port for WebServer residing in 172.16.100.20


-----Original Message-----
From: Anoop G []
Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2006 3:11 PM
To: 'Anoop G'; 'Sreedevi V'
Subject: RE: OSI layers - socket

A process sends messages into, and receives messages from, the network through its socket. A process is analogous to a house and its socket is analogous to the door.

Socket is the interface between the application layer and the transport layer within a host.

-----Original Message-----
From: Anoop G []
Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2006 2:59 PM
To: 'Anoop G'; 'Sreedevi V'
Subject: RE: OSI layers - client/server

In the context of communication session between a pair of processes, the process that initiates the communication ( that is, initially contacts the other process at the beginning of the session) is labeled as a client. The process that waits to be contacted to begin the session is the Server.

-----Original Message-----
From: Anoop G []
Sent: Friday, June 16, 2006 12:18 PM
To: 'Anoop G'; 'Sreedevi V'
Subject: RE: OSI layers - Higher layers

Example of session layer may be FTP session… for FTP we have to enter username/password and it gets authenticated to the server and a session is formed.

Example of presentation layer is HTML. HTML defines how to present Web pages

Example of application layer protocols are FTP, HTTP etc.. examples of applications browser, FTP client

-----Original Message-----
From: Anoop G []
Sent: Friday, June 16, 2006 12:16 PM
To: 'Anoop G'; 'Sreedevi V'
Subject: RE: OSI layers - TCP/UDP

UDP is User datagram protocol. UDP uses Ports to communicate from application to application. UDP provides no reliability.

TCP – Transmission Control Protocol is a more reliable protocol. TCP needs connection establishment before starting to send packets.

TCP uses a three way handshake for connection establishment
1. application sends a SYN message to the server
2. in response, server replies with a SYN-ACK
3. Finally the client sends an ACK to the Server

After this data can be send. For each TCP data packet, and acknowledgement is given back. If acknowledgement is not received back, it indicates error and re-transmission will occur.

Examples where UDP protocol can be used – hearing music over network…
Examples where TCP protocol can be used – transferring files across network

-----Original Message-----
From: Anoop G []
Sent: Friday, June 16, 2006 12:10 PM
To: 'Anoop G'; 'Sreedevi V'
Subject: RE: OSI layers - How to identify application?

We discussed about IP address, MAC address…

But how to identify an application… ?

For that Port is used. It is just a number..

For standard applications it is defined… say for Telnet 23, HTTP – 80 etc


-----Original Message-----
From: Anoop G []
Sent: Friday, June 16, 2006 12:06 PM
To: 'Anoop G'; 'Sreedevi V'
Subject: RE: OSI layers - Hub/Bridge

So Router is a network layer device .. !

What is Hub and Bridge ?

Hub is just a repeater, in the sense that it just amplifies signals … it can be used to extend physical layer. So it is a physical layer device.

Bridge is a more sophiscated device than Hub


a---------b--------c--------------d
|
B
|
e-------f-----------g---------------h

see eight computers connected… 4 ( a,b,c,d) to one side of bridge, and the rest to other side of bridge.

Bridge brings some sort of segmentation……… While a talks with d, e can talk with g. It separates the collision domain.

But still all these will be in the same network.. If a broadcast is send , it will reach all the computers from a-h

Router is more sophiscated.. It separates network.. Broadcasts will not pass to the other side of the router.

-----Original Message-----
From: Anoop G []
Sent: Friday, June 16, 2006 11:35 AM
To: 'Anoop G'; 'Sreedevi V'
Subject: RE: OSI layers - Router

What happens if B is in separate network………..

Say A’s IP address is 172.16.100.20/255.255.0.0

And B’s IP address is 10.1.30.25/255.255.0.0.

So these are in different networks.. and there may be atleat one Router in between these two networks…..

Router is a device for connecting different networks…………

--------- So now coming to the point ----------------------------

A needs to send a packet to B

A sees address of B, and it understands that it is in different network… Now what to do ?

A can only send the packet to the gateway ( which will be the router’s IP address )

And Router will route the packet to the 10.1.x.x network where B resides.

A(172.16.100.20) ----------------------------( say 172.16.1.1)Router (say 10.1.1.1) --------------------------B ( 10.1.30.25)



-----Original Message-----
From: Anoop G []
Sent: Friday, June 16, 2006 11:26 AM
To: 'Anoop G'; 'Sreedevi V'
Subject: RE: OSI layers - ARP

Suppose there are two machines A and B

IP address of A is 172.16.100.20/255.255.0.0, and MAC address is A
IP address of B is 172.16.100.21/255.255.0.0, and MAC address is B

A want to communicate to B>

Seeing the IP address A will find that B is in the same network.

But A does not know the MAC address of B.

So A will send an ARP ( Address Resolution Protocol )

That is very simple --- A will ask – “Anybody has 172.16.100.21 IP address – it will broadcast that “

B knows B has – 172.16.100.21 – So B will send reply

Now A knows B’s MAC address…

A will send packet to B/

-----Original Message-----
From: Anoop G []
Sent: Friday, June 16, 2006 11:15 AM
To: 'Anoop G'; 'Sreedevi V'
Subject: RE: OSI layers

Data link uses MAC address – 48 bit long – say 00:00:00:45:56:65

The data link layer technologies can be different – say Token ring, Ethernet etc etc..

How to handle these ?

Network layer abstracts the data link layer technologies… Network layer uses different address – IP address

IP address has two parts – Network address and host address

If my IP address is 172.16.100.20, and my subnet address is 255.255.0.0. That means 172.16.x.x is the network address 172.16.100.20 is specific address of my machine.

-----Original Message-----
From: Anoop G []
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2006 1:38 PM
To: 'Sreedevi V'
Subject: OSI layers

What are the different OSI layers ?

Application layer
Presentation layer
Session layer
Transport layer
Network layer
Data link layer
Physical layer

What is physical layer ?

Physical layer defines the medium of communication – say cables, connectors etc

What is data link layer ?

Data link layer defines communication between two nodes.

Let us take example of Ethernet which is the most common. ( Ethernet defines datalink layer and physical layer). Ethernet uses MAC address for addressing. Each node or netword card has a MAC address which is 48 bit long.

When node A sends data to Node B, MAC address of Node A will be the source address in the packet and MAC address of Node B will be the destination address in the packet.

Ethernet is a shared medium. Anybody can talk at the same time. If multiple persons talk at the same time, what happens ? collisions might occur and the packets will be lost. So there has to be some protocol for avoiding collisions. Ethernet uses CSMA/CD – carrier sense multiple access/collision avoidance

lachu does not like flat culture!

lachu does not seem to like flat culture..!

when she came to the apartment she was very happy.. she was happy with her first encounter in flight and was happy to see her father..!

but in apartment she is feeling like in a jail.. she want to move out.. she thinks all the neighbouring apartments are her own rooms like in her house.. she wants to go upstairs and listen to music as she usually does...!

went with her to thiruvanmiyoor beach in the morning.. for a walk.. she does not like walking in the beach.. but liked the two cows and lot of crows who also came in the morning to the beach..!

lachu in chennai

lachu has landed in chennai... !!!

Critical Chain - Part2

Estimations are usually fun. We tend to put a lot of buffers for individual tasks.

Should we do that ?

Buffers are not needed for individual tasks. Buffers are needed only for the whole project.

People should be motivated well enough to target the individual tasks well in time.

The book "Critical Chain" addresses these issues.

Back in our DDG group, we had tried to address this problem while estimating. While estimating individual tasks, it will be reviewed aggressively and buffers were added to the end only.

Critical chain - part 1

Started reading Critical Chain book again --- it deals with the interesting subject of "throughput" - "identifying the critical chain of the project" etc etc - More on the book on later blogs..

I always had troubles in laying out the schedule of the project in GANTT charts. First of all estimation will be bull shit.. and secondly we dont open that estimation document again in the life time..

While scheduling the project.. we have some counts - like 7 days design, 8 days coding, xx module testing etc etc... we always put some number, some buffers in between and do some scheduling.. finally some how we will complete at some time..

My knowlege on this has not increased much despite 9.5 years in service...

In one of our projects -X( 5ys ago) , we had three modules running parallely.. depending on the code size I put Mod1 implementation - 15 days , Mod2 - 7 days, Mod3 - 13ays. Shameer(sr) was working on Mod 1, Shans on Mod 2 and me on Mod 3. It was in parallel path. Our Manager Riyaz asked me to postpone Mod 2 for 5 days as it does not affect the critical path.. That was the time when i first heard ( may be noticed) the critical path concept.. I was angry, but he wanted to use Shans for another important and urgent task.. he was looking at the "global optimisation" of the group.. But i was less concerned.. i am bothered about only my project.. why should i risk ? i was against the late start of the task, which may put me into trouble later on..! i disagreed. But being a theoretical person, he also disagreed. Finally we reached a consensus in the weekly meeting.. I admitted, we may find problems in the module, and based on his advice put 5 more days in that path for module testing.. so he agreed to retain shans.. although that added more cost to my project in terms of planned man-days..

Finally it came like this - Mod2 was delayed further because of the problems found in design review and that caused slight delay in the project also.. anyway that point i dont want to stress..

This incident came to my mind when i started reading "Critical Chain"..

Another practice which i always liked is - of Gopan. He used to do the full schedule in MSProject for scheduling and always review the estimation with schedule in proposal stage itself.
The reviews will be in different views -
=>Will see if the planned deployment matches estimation,
=>Wll see if the estimated days of each task are planned in schedule etc

These things and thoughts are simple, but we dont practice, do we ?

chicken threat continues...

jojan is down with chicken pox..., krishna just came back after chicken gunia..

i dont like chicken gunia. in tamil nadu.., more than 42000 are already affected.. more in karnataka and andhra.. these days i am not getting much news from kerala..

no medicines are there for gunia.. only paracetamol and HELP LINE. u can call at the help line number and doctors are there for answering you..

i dont know.. usually i dont get these type of diseases ( TOUCHWOOD.. i dont want now also.. please ). my 365 days sneezing is possibly protecting me.. all the germs, viruses and bacterias in my body does not like these measles, chicken gunia viruses and does not allow them to enter.. they belong to my body more than my red corpuscles.. they rule my body..

Disclaimer: Propogating false info... is a crime and punishable.. i dont know whether 42000 are ill in tamil nadu or not.. i heard something like that in radio mirchi FM 98.3.. with my tamil knowledge i understood like that..

Donkey story

A story i heard some years back...

a husband and wife was driving in their car.. two donkeys came on the way.. husband wanted to tease wife.

he said: see, ur relatives r coming
wife replied: yes, they r my in-laws

they lived happily there after

CONFIDENCE | TRUST | HOPE

I liked this forwarded mail..

CONFIDENCE:
Ones all village people decided to pray for rain.
On the day of prayer all people gathered and only one boy came with an
umbrella. that's confidence...........

TRUST:
Trust should be like the feeling of a one year old baby
when you throw him in the air , he laughs......
because he knows you will catch him........

HOPE:
A human being can live for
40 days without water
8 minutes without air
but not even 1 second without hope....

SO ALWAYS HAVE CONFIDENCE, TRUST OTHERS AND NEVER LOOSE HOPE

Besant Nagar beach and Murugan's Idly Shop..

We have become a fan of Besant Nagar beach and Murugan's Idly shop..

Besant Nagar beach has the ambience to attract you.. Sundays are crowded, so we have started visiting her on weekdays also. You will get delicious "Mullagu Bajji"'s there.

Another point of interest is --- Murugan's idly shop.. You will get Idly and five types of Chammanti and hot sambar.. It is worth spending 5 Rs for that idly...

So mornings at Tiruvanmiyoor beach and evenings at Besant Nagar beach..

I have started becoming darker !

Manasarovar and DA VINCI CODE

Did not understand anything after seeing the movie for half an hour. Did not have my DVD remote with me, so could not get the english sub titles..

Perhaps will try DA VINCI code later after getting the remote from home.

Before that we met santhosh's father who just came after a visit to Manasarovar.. He gave a full description of his travel to Manasarovar.. the people he met, the places he went through, the climates he had to face , the feelings he had.. the objectives he had and the determination he had for this travel etc. It was nice talk. It was nice to hear that he had a one year yoga and breathing training, so that he could cope with the difficulties in the travel.. i hope he will soon blog his travel.

One off topic also came during the discussion - he never asks name or details about the unknown persons he meets in train or hospital ( he is a doctor ).. he does not like to get prejudiced by the caste or religion or profession of the person sitting in front of him.. only once the relationship is established, he asks for even the name.. because he says.. prejudice is always in our inner layer of mind.. when our outer layer gets a bond with the person.. the prejudice inside the inner layer does not come out.. ! ( once we have a drink or two the outer layer gets broken and the inner layer will get exposed !!)

Atleast doctors, teachers and policemen should never get prejudiced ! may be good tip for them !

Question of the day : How to clean up the inner mind ?

Krrish, Chess and Vaidhehi Kathirunthal....

Saw three films during the week..

First it was Krrish.. It was all in one - Superman, Spiderman, Batman, Matrix etc.. 80Rs was the ticket fee, our final calculation showed it was worth 65Rs.. we did not like the film, but it is taken in a wonderful manner.. it will give a break for hrithik in hollywood.. he is a super hero..

Next was Malayalam film Chess... Dileep acting as "super hero".. i liked the plot of the movie.. revenge being taken against powerful enemies.. but the implementation in this case was poor.. i like dileep in chanthupottu, meesa madhavan, eee puzhayum kadannu, punjabi house... but dont like a super hero dileep.. we paid 60Rs for the tiicket.. the total worth we calculated was 13Rs ( it had raised to ..28Rs.. but at the end dropped to 13Rs because of many negative points )

Yesterday also we had intention in seeing "davinci code".. but cannot do that.. as everybody was feeling tired.. went home.. switched on T/V and it was "Rassathi Unne Kannathe Nenju Kattadi pollakiruthu..".. its one of my all time favourite romantic songs.. it is one of the first scenes of movie - Vaidhehi Kathirunthal.. I decided to see the movie ( i had seen that movie sometime in my school days).. Revathi and Vijayakanth are superb in the movie.. nice storyline.. nice songs.. it was worth 100Rs..

Now Davinci Code ?

information over web...?

what all information can be in web....? we had a dicussion in past..

indian governments are always sceptical in providing informations to outside... i believe many of the strategic sites in india are not be in the maps of india... But from whom we are hiding info.. the people of interest say terrorist or other countries will have definitely info.. they dont need to look into indian maps

or easily they can get it from google tools... !

another discussion point was - what about using a foreign tool like google for searching information... google keeps cached information of all websites and all when we google.. even after we delete sites.. it will be in cached info of google... also we are using mail tools like gmail, yahoo etc.. i think even government institutions in india use that for official purposes.. and american companies like google, msn, yahoo etc are supposed to give info to US goverrnment if some need based on national security demands... so are we at risk?

somebody suggested we should use indian based tools instead of google.. but then it would be easy for hackers against india.. everything will lie in one place to hack...!

so what all should we keep in web and what all we should not ..? what all should we permit and what all we should not.. where should be the line drawn.. based on what all parameters -- privacy.., national interest.. etc etc

One possitive thing is that -- soon we will be able to even see people wandering in beaches using google map..! ( now also it should be possible, for paid users ?)

blogging can be dangerous

i never thought blogging can be dangerous..

companies has started firing people for blogging... ( go to the link in title)

governments have started arresting people for blogging.. they think it will help terrorism..

so i am in a dangerous hobby..

better stop it !

Not able to view blogs

Not able to view any blogs these days..

Perhaps my company has firewall settings..

Or if what i am hearing is true.., UPA government is banning blogs..,

Then its time to change company and/or country

present happenings

Today my fatherin-law landed in chennai to inspect the flat and surroundings and arrange things so that his daughter and grand daughter will have no problems when they are here ( i know this means, my credentials are in question.. but never mind, let others take responsibilities.. )

Me and shameer went to pick him up at the railway station... we arrived early, and had breakfast from station... by the time we finished eating train arrived and we went and picked him up... he wanted to have breakfast.. so we dropped him at veg refreshment store.. and waited outside.. sometime later, when we did not see him.., i went to check for him..

when i returned shameer asked me for my apartment keys.. it was missing.. i dropped it in the floor while going.. and the cleaner lady in station was brooming it away ( sorry my english) when shameer saw it.... he could detect my keys from a distance because of the beautiful leather cover.. he went and took it.. so i am again lucky with the apartment keys..

what else... tsunami striking in indonesia hurted me very much... may be because i am living very near to the shores of chennai where tsunami striked in decembet 2004.. also may be because i joked too much about tsunami these days.. i thought tsunami's occur once in a life time.. ! i went to beach several times today... but beach and people looked normal today..

today spend only very little time at office... went to shopping at T-nagar in the evening and purchased many house hold items.. utensils etc etc... as usual i was directionless.. i dont know when i will learn to remember directions, understand maps.. etc... usually people say girls dont understand maps, but boys do.. but i cant.. i am directionless.. i will get still confused,, when going to places in changanacherry or trivandrum... or when i am asked to switch on tubes or fan in my house.. i still search for these... , and will make it correct in the last possible combination..

There are people like vinod, jojan also.. who are just opposite to me in this... i remember the 1996 december days when vinod used to go in riyaz's scooter for shopping... vinod will tell riyaz (who is driving..)" turn to north, turn to east" etc etc without specifying left or right.. he is like a compass!!!

my blog "diary" writing may stop.. once my family arrives next week.. its easy to write about jojan, shameer, riyaz... writing about family will be too personal .........! i will start personal blogs for myself !!!

these days i cannot visit any xxx.blogspot.com.. These idiots in my office seems to have blocked the sites, but i can access blogger.com and post my blogs , but cannot see it.. so there will be more grammatical and spelling mistakes than before..! forgive me ! amen.

double cot in my house

My apartment and my neighbour's apartment belong to the same owner.. Mine is furnished and the other is not furnished.. But my double cot was in other apartment ( because the previous tenant who was staying in my apartment did not want cot ). Only a lady is staying in the other apartment..

when i took the apartment.. biju said -"dont move the cot.. let the lady use it.. anyway u are also staying here as bachelor".. i dont know whether he had any double meaning when he said that.. but being a simple guy who always thinks straight, i agreed.. let her use it... i am not selfish

but since my family is going to come here now.. now preferred to take the cot back from the lady's apartment... my apartment owner's son sent a few guys.. they came.. and repaired the faulty fan, tube, took away the old A/C and brought the cot to my apartment..

NB- i am trying to be more decent and responsible these days.. i have to change my image in tiruvanmiyoor and elnet area.. ! not decided about tidel park.. there i can still roam around. its still a safe area/

lachu coming to chennai

lachu
Originally uploaded by poonaji.

Lachu is coming to chennai this month end.. i have given her a new bag.. so that she will be happy to go to playschool when she comes here..

Chicken Pox, Chicken and Coffee

Last weekend when i was at home, i got a call from jojan, saying Malu has been affected with chicken pox. I thought I should not have come home. I may also have got infected. In Sreedevi's office also she said, there had been few chicken pox cases last week.

I thought not to take risk in case of lachu.. We took her to hospital and took chicken pox vaccine. it costs around 1300Rs.. Sreedevi asked me also to take vaccine.. but my purse had no extra money ! So i thought i will take homeo vaccine, which was supplied free from sreedevi's office..

Taking homeo vaccine is easy.. but no coffee, no tea.., no fish.., no chicken.. The last time i had this restriction was in "art of living" days in early 2000. AnoopG without tea is like Matiz without petrol.. also after coming to chennai i have become an addict of chennai filter coffee.. one week without these, is really difficult.

Anyway i could not stop that frequent visits to canteen though.. instead of tea, coffee started drinking horlicks, boost, bournvita, viva etc.. felt more energy..! so perhaps the forced change was good..

But yesterday but i broke the code.. I forgot to take medicine.. so in canteen i had an extra option.. no homeo medicine taken, then why spend 7Rs for horlicks.. I asked for tea.. and in evening went to Minar Biriyani and had thandoori chicken..! so all the code broken..

Chicken looks nice in the plate.. but when i start eating i usually loose interest in it. This time also it was no different.. I ate only half of the things ordered.. somebody had commented in the past that i eat like capacitor charging.. ( i dont know the electronics behind that).. everytime when i waste chicken,, i remember the "thatukada" in kazhakoottam junction.. In 1998, me and Vinod were having food from a thatukada like shop next to Revathi hotel. Me as usual ordered chicken,, but i did not like the geography of the chicken and was eating chicken without harming it much :) Vinod was sitting by side of me and was enjoying his chicken.. One person in his mid thirties was sitting in front of me and he signalled me using his eyes to give away my chicken.. My reflex is always quick.. I did give away my chicken..! The waiter in the shop was angry and he began to proceed to the man.. i stopped him in the middle by signalling with hand.. atleast the life mission of the chicken is accompolished.. it is not getting wasted.. When i remembered this story, i was sorry for wasting this chicken now.. luckily binoj and deepesh came in.. and i saw that man in them.. i gave away my chicken remainings to them.. let the new chicken also rest in peace.. no more chickens for me..

Today i woke up... and went to binoj/deepesh... they were about to leave to office.. i said we can have breakfast.. and we had dosas, vada and tea from a nearby shop.. very good feeling to have tea back in my life.. i changed their plans to go to office.. we returned back to my apartment.. they saw vertical limit and ET in my DVD, while i was busy searching for the warranty card for the stabilizer.. i could not find it.. but in the process i cleaned up the house.. and threw away many papers and most probably some of them are warranty cards for my other devices.. anyway i dont need them now..

After that we had lunch at bharani.. i preferred curd rice today.. but after curd rice.. i could not resist a strong filter coffee.. does curd and coffee match ? anyway no problem for me.. i like that !

Recent encounters

old A/C
Originally uploaded by poonaji.

06/07: Replacing the A/C

Took my A/C from kingini apartment [look at my old blog]and decided to replace the old A/C here in my Shreyas apartment.. Things went on fine.. A/C was installed. The room is better now.

07/07: Key-less again

Friday - Have to go home today. So decided not to take my car. When we were just out of the apartment... jojan shouted that he forgot the keys inside.. Again... It was frustrating.. why again ?.. We did not know what to do. Anyway decided to go to office. Called house owner -- he said the extra keys are with father, and he is currently in US. So he can call father in evening and ask... But we decided better not wait till evening and get a negative answer.

We investigated all around the apartment -- We were able to slide the glass windows and see the key inside the apartment at the top of T/V. With the help of watchman, we made a long rod and tried pulling the keys from there.. but the rode was short slightly..

the next plan was remove the grills in the window. it is a bolted one ( may be to make it wasy for people like us ).. we took one spanner from the car,, we needed one more. called shameer/binoj and asked them to bring the other spanner..

when we were taking rest and waiting for the other spanner to come - jojan had an idea - he shortened the rod - and through the window he tried pushing the door lock with the rod - and he asked me to push the door from oustide - within 5 minutes we were able to break into the house - ( so professional thieves can make it faster !)

finally it was a happy ending. i decided not to duplicate my keys when we can open within less than 5 minutes -- why we need backup plans ?

Disclaimer: dont try to break into my house. It contains some old clothes and some nice books only

Today's news: My A/C stabilizer got damaged.. so my woes with A/C continue.. now i have to search for the V-Guard warranty card and service center

Feedback to my blog

Feedback from a friend:

AnoopG
Today I feel tooo sleepy.. I don’t know what to do….no frwd mails to read (I already read all the frwds)…..no mails frm anybody…
Suddenly I think about ur blog..
Grt…”Ente urakkam poyikitti”…. “Ente kannu thurannu” (vyangayrdathilum vachyardathilum)
Vishaya daridryam nannayi athil kanunnundu…
“chuma varan kathirikkunna kudumpam” ennoru parasya vachakam kettitille..
Athupole “subject/vishayam” kitten kathirikkunna anoopG..

Practices

Today we were eating at "Taravadu".., a kerala restaurant. One of us ( Mr.Y) should not eat meat for some days as one of his close relative has died. But we accidentally put the spoon of egg masala to green peas masala. He was then confused whether to eat further, as the spoon has become spoiled. Since he is a non-vegetarian usually, we said him no problem continue..

But that triggered a range of discussions.... One of my friend ( Mr.X) who is a muslim, if accidentally finds pork in his food ( it happens in japan, even if u tell them before, usually waiters dont know), removes the pork or gives the pork to us, and eats the rest.. I am more comfortable with that nature..

In our hindu system,,, practices we follow, reminds me of "untouchability" whether its against food or ..... we dont know what we are doing, or why we are doing..

i dont know.. how to convey what is going on in my mind...

i dont like conventions or traditional practices if they are not adding any value or not making any logic...

A range of discussions happended:
1. whether women can enter sabarimala ?
2. why women have to wear "thali", while men does not have any marriage symbol ( ring comes from western culture )

i dont know.. i dont find any problem with the above issues...

if "Ayyapan" does not like, then why should women enter ? or if "thali" can be a symbol of "i am not available" then why issues ?

but i dont like people thinking, whether someting will happen, if i eat with the same spoon that accidentally fell into "egg masala".. ofcourse we can respect pure vegetarians..

During some early times... i was rebel against the caste symbols that make visible the caste... i thought of buying "poonool" ( threads that brhamins wear) from east fort for 4Rs and wear, if that make me a brahmin...

Or what should i do to make myself a brahmin.. ? ( why i need to become brahmin: in our view points brahmin is the supreme caste )..

if community wise practices exits,,, then i should have all the privileges... i should be in the top most league. i should not miss any advantages... i should get what i want.. if so every practice can exists..

If brahmins can only do pujas,, then i am a brahmin
if socially unprivilged can only get reservations, then i am a socially unprivileged..

i dont know where i stand.. but i dislike divisions in society..

i wish some new Prophet or disciples of Prophet come and make everything correct and good..!

Dont read this,, I may change my stand tomorrow..., This is what i write on 05 July 2006

I will not say I am consistent.. i am trying to write my thinkings and expose myself for my review.

driving ahead

driving ahead
Originally uploaded by poonaji.

weekend was nice. most of the time was in office, as our sweden office is being closed, and we have to do all the release and QA activities from here now on... the sessions with rajesh ( lead@customer) went well.

sunday evening went to spencer plaza.. chennai feels like bangalore when we are in spencer plaza..!! reminds of brigade road sceneries..

weekend movie was always on card.. we had a debate in front of Sathyam movie complex on which movie to be seen.. smijith does not like english movies, and sudarshan hates tamil movies.. finally we had to eliminate one of them .., and this time we eliminated smijith and chose to see "MI-3".. I liked it.

The day ended with Shameer's joke:
Shameer: Tomorrow Rajesh will not be present in office
Anoop: No he will go back only on monday evening, he will be present in office
Shameer: he he .., now its 12:30., today is monday

Binoj says we can expect a joke from Shameer based on this theme, once the clock passes 12.. Sometimes it will be "i have to have breakfast today" or "i have to go office today itself" etc etc... we can expect more from him..

Matiz has brought more choices for me on the weekends.. Reached home only at late 1am..... Did not feel to sleep and saw TV for another two hous...

Now sitting in office dreaming... feeling sleepy.

blogging.....

I dont know why i started blogging....

-> May be became nostalgic after resigning from NeST after 9 long years.......
-> May be becoming a bachelor (!) again after so many years....
-> May be because of missing lachu..........

Now thinking of blogging some serious subjects. But I dont have a clear stand on many of the social and political issues that happen around me... when the people around me comment on that issue with examples... i get influenced by that... also the more i criticize, i get addicted to the subject, and there is a high chance that i may change side..

so i dont know how to bring consistency and comment on the issues.. or may be can we ignore consistency and just open the mind.... ?

What are the possible topics:
1. Reservation
2. Pedigree
3. Heaven
4. Terrorism

Morning walk...

Tsunami --- contigency plans
Originally uploaded by poonaji.

See my matiz car on the right end side of the photo.. i have parked just outside my apartment,, as jojan has occupied my (no-so-good) parking space inside...

There is a Abhyas playschool inside the apartment complex if lachu likes to go .....

See my beach nearby..... Its very near to the shores in which Tsunami striked in 2004... today i woke up.., when Mary came for house cleaning and washing.. all these days jojan and co, would have taken care of Mary and i could have slept till 7:30 ( Malu also wakes up only by that time).. but now they have gone home.. i took the responsibility of opening the door...

after went to beach for a long walk... i prefer to walk thru the waves ( what u call thiramala..),, instead of the beach road...where everybody walks.......

feeling better.. should be

Remaining pages

Just wanted to note down the remaining travels ----

Japan ( 15 Oct 2001)
India ( 20 Oct 2001)

>> My marrriage was about to happen on 3 Nov ( i hope i got this date correctly, although i boasts i am good in remembering dates)... i had to go for a customer visit just before that.. i was very happy... went to Hitachi and had discussions... my main purpose was a visit to Kobayashi... to see our dear Mina san, Misa san and Family.. and invite them to marriage... i slept that night at Baba san's house.. it was nice being part of a japanese family... Baba san gave me rice balls for eating as breakfast in train... It was nice to be back there...

japan ( 2 Oct 2002)
india ( 27 Dec 2002)

>> After doing projects for Yamaha, Toshiba and Hitachi... it was nice to be part of Sony... back with Kamiya san, our old yamaha manager.., and Riyaz was the business development manager at japan office... it was a nice trip... but officially, i dont know! ( there are scope for more blogs!)

US ( 26 Jan 2003)
india ( 23 Feb 2003)

>> My detroit visit... i enjoyed this US trip very much... I was send because our hardware expert Prakash could not get Visa... so it was a very light trip for me ( as i am big zero in that, but unfortunately had US Visa)... i by-hearted all the commands/messages and when the Yazaki hardware guy will say "switch on parklights".. i will send the command 00 80 xxxxx....... he was very impressed with my "memory skills"... later Prakash also joined us.. but i was still looking into my core competency area... ! all electronics of car being tested in a bench was a treat for my eyes!

After this all "blank years" --------- was busy with family life --------- now a first cycle of family life is over --- perhaps ready for trips ----- any offers from santaclara?? else Japan ?

pages from travel diary

travel pages
Originally uploaded by poonaji.

travels make and breaks life ......... i was fortunate to have lot of travel in my career...

some years back i had noted down all my travel days in my diary.. ( image attached..)

last day Biju was searching for all his travel dates to US, and he was struggling to find some of the entry/exit days.. he needs that for applying H1B Visa..

Although i dont need any H1B or any other thing -- i though of my old diary pages.. brought it back this time...

i am very much fond of dates.. ( not dating ) .. when i saw dil chahta hai.. i saw similarity in the joker lover who loves saif's girl ( whats her name ?) and me... both of us are fond of dates...

no idea for a blog.. so thought of publishing the dates... from the time i first landed in japan on Feb 11 1997 ....... the last visit to Detroit sometime in 2002, and the two week visit to japan just before marriage in 2001 is not recorded.. so i have to search in my passport for that later...

Travel ........ days
------------------------------------
Japan (11 Feb 1997) --- First visit to Japan
India ( 26 April 1997) --- Back to India
Japan ( 14 May 1997) --- Back to Yamaha
India ( 3rd July 1997) --- For taking US Visa
US ( 10 july 1997) --- First time landing at Seatlle, dinner with gates
India ( Aug 15 1997) - Me and Vinod had a scare at the air, as our flight had to fly back, as control systems in failed... consolation was - no checkings at Indian airport as it was independence day
japan ( 24 Aug 1997) - Back to Yamaha
US ( 20 Nov 1997) - Back to US
India ( 21 Dec 1997) - To see loved ones
japan ( 10 Feb 1998) - Fourth visit to japan within a span of 1 year
US ( 3rd Mar 1998) - 3rd Visit to US
India ( 30 April 1998) - Back to India
Japan ( 10 may 1998) - 5th visit to japan
US ( 13 may 1998) - Again to US, sanjose
japan (30 June 1998) - Back to Japan
India ( 6 Aug 1998 ) - To India
US (13 Aug 1998) - 5th visit to US
Japan ( 17 Nov 1998) - back to Japan
India ( 18 Dec 1998)
japan ( 5 jan 1999)
US (10 Mar 1999 ) -
Japan ( 7 may 1999) - last days at yamaha, packing up things, emotional farewell
India ( 12 May 1999) -
US ( 5 June 1999) - last days at Seattle
India ( 2 Aug 1999) - Back to India
US (14 Sep 1999) - Visit to Neomagic in Yamaha's invitation!! i was very sad to leave yamaha and i cursed all my managers. But a successful visit , and Riyaz was also present
India ( 27 Sep 1999) - back to India
US ( 26 Oct 1999) - As Neomagic onsite co-ordinator... Very good days at Grove apartments with lot of friends...
India ( 25 Dec 1999) ------- back to india
US ( 27 May 2000 ) - Back to Neomagic and Castlewood as onsite co-ordinator
India (24 July 2000) - back To India

In my jathakam it says I had "rajayogam" till 25 years... i have not checked after that what happens.. anyway it does not seem to be as mobile as earlier.. there have been only three more visits after that

will check the "jathakam again!