This time last year and last-last year

Dec 31 2006 - Optimistic Anoop in Office

Dec 31 2007 - On the way to Trivandrum in Train

And this time alone in Bengaluru.... Hope some surprises come!!!!

Year End Resolutions.......

This time for a change instead of 2009 newyear resolutions.. I have taken 2008 year end resolutions with a deadline.. 31st Dec 2008!!!

And I have progressed. What the resolutions are is a secret! But time is running out, and I plan to extend the deadline till 5th Jan 2009.

"Every day is a new one.. "

My looks!

Last-to-Last week there was a discount sale of shirts/pants in our campus. As usual I went there to purchase one or two.

A fat lady came for purchasing pants for her partner probably. She asked me "Where do i find pants of 38 size ?" I nodded her with my head that I am NOT the one she is looking for. And the sales guy came to my rescue and pointed her to the 38 size pants...

I felt bad, for having a look of sales guy. I am an R&D Software Analyst working for a leading firm and a leading product. How can i have ordinary looks ?

To add to my grief, she came back again, and asked me whether we accept cards ? This time i felt slightly better, she may be thinking i am the Master of the stall.

Anyway i dont hav a IT bengalurian look it seems. How can i make it ? Will "facial" help ?

My vocabulary

Its bad that we used "malayalam" as the official language in my earlier companies :( My english is the worst!

And now in bengaluru i am forced to speak "saippu's language. And my mallu accent brings laughter to many of friends here. They force me to tell - "coke" and "cock"; "pink" and "ping"; and "lorry" and "uncle" and all.... But still i have not improved.

But still i could go on talking on technical subjects with my mallu accent without any difficulty. So i was able to handle the official discussions properly. Till last-last week I didnt realize that my vocabulary is too bad...

Going to BTM layout from my office, my car was stuck in silk board junction for more than 45 minutes... And my collegues/friends who were in the car were frustrated that my car doesnt hav good audio system also. Finally they forced me to say the story of "maharathi" film which i recently saw.

I found out why "story telling" is the way english is taught in good kinder garden schools.. It is the way you learn the language. And for me - the only words i know are: "for", "while" , "is", "and", "or" etc etc... I was suffocating telling the story. No right words were coming to mind.

I dont want to attempt to tell the story here again. But finally when i was about to tell the climax my friends asked me - "Where are those kidnappers? ; What happened to Nasarudheen shah ? " Those who saw "maharathi" film will understand how well i told the story.

And now this has become a long post. So i bet, you have not understood anything from it.

God save my vocabulary!!!!

Vacation!

First time in my 12 year career I have been totally out of office work for 9 days.......

Earlier also I had taken leave for other reasons..

But its nice to be @ home doing nothing but playing with lachu, and not worrying about other things!

Like Tamura san says "Its better late, than never"

Andhra Police Rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Andhra acid attack case: Row over 'encounter' of accused

Andhra Police Rocks! Let human rights activists who condemn police action also be shot down. We dont want these activists. We want justice. We dont want inefficiencies.

Police Rocks!

Maharathi.... movie

Nice movie. Nice to see Ompuri, Bomman Irani, Nasirudheen shah and Paresh rawal in one movie.

The twists in the movie are predictable. But for the first time i screamed on one scene where Paresh tries to take the dead body out of the freezer and bomman irani comes suddenly behind him.. Man, I am telling the climax scenes..... Dont read this!

No slowdowns visible....

In bangalore no signs of slowdown visible.....

Malls are full in saturday morning. Difficult to get a seat in food courts. And impossible to get a movie ticket for weekends.

But could get tickets for "Maharathi" on sunday morning show :)

Back in office now for the pending works i always left to do :(

US Policy on Terror

Act against Terror when it strikes against US!!!!!

Sadly it will need anoth 9/11 for US to take tough actions against rogue terror nations.. And without Uncle Sam's support nothing can be done in this world!

Were Next ?

Changanacherry ---> Kollam ---> Trivandrum ---> Chennai ----> Bangalore ----> ?????

Where next ?

20-twenty

20-twenty Rocks! Its nice to see all the Malayalam Biggies coming together for this venture.

When the film started, it was dragging and boring and I really wanted to get out of the theatre. But once the three Mega-starts - Mammooty, Suresh Gopi and Mohan lal comes its a super-duper entertainer. The clashes btw these titans have been filmed very well. Its nice to see your favourite starts fight each other.

Mohan lal and Suresh Gopi gets all the Clap-padi scenes. Mohan lal is at his best in the movie.

I dont want to see the movie again if its free. But its a must to see it in theatres atleast one time if you love these stars!!!

Investments.........

Believing in India's economy I am continuing my investments in MFs. My huge profits have turned to huge losses.... But never mind, I am investing long term for my grand children. I will not get disturbed by economic slowdowns or even economic depressions!!!!!!!!!

What should we do ?

Bring TADA or POTA back and bring all types of terror down. How can we make sure Politicians and Police does not misuse those special rules and torture innocent people.

How can we strengthen our nation's security and people's life ? How can we make our Intelligence Wing and Police strong enough to thwart these terrorist attacks or minimize damage to people ?

People from all country should unite against all acts of Terror.......

Peace for All!!!

Worst that can happen.......

1. Lose my job
2. banks collide and i lose my FDs
3. Fund houses bankrupt and i lose my equity investments

But still life will go on........... !!!!!!

Mallu behaviour - Volvo

Always in train or bus - I dream for a beautiful unknown girl to sit besides me. It never happened before. But four weeks back - while i was returning from trivandrum to bangalore finally a girl came to sit with me in kpn travels.

She was quick to get help from me, in pushing her seats backside so that she can sleep. And i helped her, and she started sleeping without even saying a thanks.

I sat awake till midnight because of the late night coffees I had. But finally I slept.

Around 3am in the morning I woke up... and saw a hand coming from behind. Waking up from sound sleep I could not immediately react. After a 1 or 2 seconds delay, I immediately looked behind. The mallu moron behind,was lying with his head rested on the front seat, and attempting to grab the girl from behind. When i looked behind, he realized and went back to his normal sitting position pretending sleeping..

I could not make a scene. If the guy's attempt had succeeded the girl would wake up, and i would have got beatings ( may be even from that mallu moron guy ). Luckily it did not happen. But i felt bad because i could not catch him.

The guy - seems to be a software engineer - bulky fellow - and got down at electronic city stop. I will remember his face.

Anyway I dont need any more "jab we met" experiences in future.. This is enough!!!

Reading a lot......

Atleast i coule read Chethan bhagath's masala novels....... Read all the three in a two week's time. "Five point some one" his first one is really interesting.

And also read "Games Indians Play - Why we are the way we are"...

While searching "Modern Library" got into one book - "History of God". Remember that book with my friend say 11 years before. So got curious and bought it. Its a bulky one. So dont know whether I will complete reading that.

Operation BAD.....

Even terrorists have named the operation - "BAD".. Then why dont they just STOP.. ?

In the latest blasts a 9 year old kid has lost its life. Nobody gains from acts of terror....

A briefer history of time....

Recent experiments done by CERN on simulating BIG BANG has generated interest in me back to science and physics... Started reading "a briefer history of time" by stephen hawkins.

Now I have a feeling that science and humanity are much better than reading subjects like GOD/relegion.....

More later......

bomb blasts.., communal voilences.., never ending!

Innocent people are dying.. whether its communal violence or terrorists attacks..

And its happening so frequently, that it has become no news at all.

What can we do not to spread hatred.. ? and stop these killings ?

Get up, Stand up, Dont give up the fight! ( lyrics: Bob Marley)

Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!

Preacherman, don't tell me,
Heaven is under the earth.
I know you don't know
What life is really worth.
It's not all that glitters is gold;
'Alf the story has never been told:
So now you see the light, eh!
Stand up for your rights. Come on!

Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!

Most people think,
Great God will come from the skies,
Take away everything
And make everybody feel high.
But if you know what life is worth,
You will look for yours on earth:
And now you see the light,
You stand up for your rights. Jah!

Get up, stand up! (Jah, Jah!)
Stand up for your rights! (Oh-hoo!)
Get up, stand up! (Get up, stand up!)
Don't give up the fight! (Life is your right!)
Get up, stand up! (So we can't give up the fight!)
Stand up for your rights! (Lord, Lord!)
Get up, stand up! (Keep on struggling on!)
Don't give up the fight! (Yeah!)

We sick an' tired of-a your ism-skism game -
Dyin' 'n' goin' to heaven in-a Jesus' name, Lord.
We know when we understand:
Almighty God is a living man.
You can fool some people sometimes,
But you can't fool all the people all the time.
So now we see the light (What you gonna do?),
We gonna stand up for our rights! (Yeah, yeah, yeah!)

So you better:
Get up, stand up! (In the morning! Git it up!)
Stand up for your rights! (Stand up for our rights!)
Get up, stand up!
Don't give up the fight! (Don't give it up, don't give it up!)
Get up, stand up! (Get up, stand up!)
Stand up for your rights! (Get up, stand up!)
Get up, stand up! ( ... )
Don't give up the fight! (Get up, stand up!)
Get up, stand up! ( ... )
Stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up!
Don't give up the fight!

Last week at chennai!!!!

July 1st week was my last week in chennai.....

It was eventful. Shootings were going in beach 50metres away from apartment - "Sarvam". Was very happy to see Trisha very close by.

Lorry strike and Diesel shortage delayed the movement of goods from chennai to Tvm. So got held up in chennai for more than a week.

Coming back to Bangalore was on Matiz. My seven and a half year old car was smooth through out 350kms... It was a very good ride. Gave lift to a police woman to krishnagiri. She was called for duty as PMK leader Kaduvetti Guru was arrested. So i got a company.

Only bad thing was lorry strike was called off previous night - so from Hosur to bangalore it was full of lorries and that dampened the speed a little!!!

Dasavatharam - final comments!!!

Finally I decided to see dasavatharam again to give a good review... Very rarely me and my wife go for films together... ( i always see films alone!). We decided to see dasavatharam on July 1st week and booked the tickets online in chennai.

but fate struck... because of lorry strike... petrol pumps had huge queue and i could not fill petrol on time, i called my friend and asked him to go and see the film. so a second try on dasavatharam did not work out!

but now - thinking again - i seem to like the film. Most importantly I have started liking the songs!

Dasavatharam - Part 2 - Others

Female characters in this movie - Asin ( double role - one in 12th century and other in 21st century) and Mallika ( as a Spy agent) are superb.

Music sucks! Himmesh Reshmaiiyya ( whatever) sucks ! Luckily he did not get enough time to do the background score and that saved the movie... Background score is good!!!

Except for Kamal Hassan nobody is in the movie - Hero, Villain, Legend, RAW agent, Social Reformer, Old woman, Afghan Muslim, Japanese Martial arts guru all roles are done by kamal hassan...

And he has done all the roles very well. Comedy and Actions are good!

But have to say it again... Make up sucks !!!!

Dasavatharam - part 1

Just before going to the movie - My mentor here in my new company gave me a task - see the moview and explain to him how kamalhassan's dasavatharam is related to mahavishnu's dasavatharam.

For him the answer is - No Relation. Sivaji Ganesan had acted in nine roles, so kamal hassan wanted 10 roles and make history.

This is not a moview review, but a movie going experience review. All my friends declined to come with me for seeing Dasavatharam at PVR, Forum mall as it costs 250Rs/-. But i wanted to see it before any of my friends see it. Otherwise they will spoil my mood by telling all the suspense and twists and all.

When I reached PVR theatres I realized my purse has only around 50-60Rs. Ticket i already had. So had to spend 3 hours in theatre without having pepsi and popcorn.

I didn't know any story line and was eager to see it... The first scene showing Nehru stadium and Tsunami after-effects itself dejected me. Could see lot of animated faces ( ofcourse other kamal hassan's ).. Makeup is poor, and looks very funny. It looks like mask pasted for many "avatharams"....

Then it goes back to 12th century... And shows the fight between vaishnavite and shaivite... and how kamal hassan's first avathar fights and dies for the vaishnavite cause. Vishnu statue and kamal hassan's first avathar are immersed to the sea. From this point onwards I was seeing the movie to see a relation btw the 12th scentury story and 21st century... but could not find any .. apart from that when Tsunami happens the statue gets visible again...

But later when i was discussing with my friends - they were talking about "butterfly effect". Small events in past can make significant impact in future... Say a slight variation in position of ball at the top of a hill can impact which valley the ball falls in....

Anyway on a philosophical / spiritical line what the moview tried to convey i did not get.

But the "butterfly effect" theory is true.. small events in past impact your life in a big way.

To be Continued...

lachu .... in garden !

lachu .... in angry moodu

Tata indicom - 2nd part

I got connection. In second part i am satisfied with Tata-Indicom.

But still the damage is done.

"Tata-Indicom" - WORST CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES IN TRIVANDRUM - 1st part

My wife's had a tata-indicom connection in Trivandrum, it got expired recently because the computer there went faulty and nobody was using the connection.

I had to work from home this week. I reached trivandrum tuesday afternoon and my father-in-law called tata-indicom. We thought since we had connection in the past wiring and related stuff would be easy and could esaily renew the connection.

After several calls, executive came on wednesday night. ( it was my need, i should have gone to their office directly ). Executive said, he would be able to provide connection by Thursday evening. I requested him to do it by Thursday morning. He said he will try his level best. Everybody was happy, but it was just a "mannar mathai" promise.

Whenever we call Tata-Indicom's executive he will say - " people have just started, they will reach your house anytime". It seems Tata's marketing and sales executives live in someother decade.

Started callig every 3-4 hours, you always get the same answer - "they have just started or going to start etc etc etc"

And on friday afternoon, my father-in-law went to their office and demanded the cheque back. And finally they said people will come by 3pm and do the work.

And by 3:30pm i got a call that a VSNL guy is waiting outside. The gate was wide-open and he was talking in his mobile sitting in his scooter. I waited there for 5 mins, but he was no taking not of my presence. Finally i went back and stood in the car shed. After his talking, he took the scooter straight to the car-shed. He climbed down, first refused to acknowledge my presence, and then asked me "veetil arum ille" ? Hmm... may be i have less glamour. I said i am in charge :) he does not seem to believe. Curse my servant look :)

And then he asked me - "cables not there?" and he started looking for the cables. Tata-Indicom had removed the cables from road to house when the connection expired earlier. I lost hope...! So this guy is not going to do anything. I got a feeling.

And he started asking for the "routers", "cables", "adapters" of previous connection. I dont have any issues re-using those. But when a new connection is taken, with all the new setup and installation charges, we expect new equipments. The older ones should be recovered when the connection is terminated. And he had a story - "TATA INDICOMM has ROUTER shortages. He came , just because the connection is URGENT. If i dont need older routers, he will go back"... Ok, so i agreed. TATA- Indicomm is into this business and is facing severe modem/router/cables/adapter SHORTAGES. Poor guys.

He took all the old equipments and powered it all, connected the cables. and asked for my laptop to connect it... BUT NOBODY HAS COME YET TO EXTEND THE WIRES FROM ROAD TO THE HOUSE. The Tata-Indicom service just want to demonstrate how to connect the network cable to my laptop......

He also had a reason - "Minimum 7 days connection time is taken usually. Executives simply promise what they cannot deliver". Perhaps TRUE. But they should solve this themselves. And correct this if they want good business. I DONT CARE. I DONT HAVE TO CARE.

FOR ME I KNOW ONLY ONE THING - TATA INDICOMM IN TRIVANDRUM SUCKS!

Now the guy after connecting the MODEMS have gone out. I am waiting for him and for the cable guys to come atleast today evening.

I dont know whether I will be able to post this using a Tata indicomm connection. If not i will post this after reaching back bangalore.....

scientific temper ?

After reading lots of books to improve my "emotional temper", i am done with that. NO MORE that sort of books..!

I better improve my "scientific temper". Borrowed a book "The pleasure of finding things out" by Robert Feynman from my friend Srini and started reading..

Lets see how far i will progress in this "temper".

Rich dad, poor dad

After buying three years ago.., I finally read the book "Rich dad, Poor dad". It is a very easy read. Read during my autorickshaw time between BTM and EGL campus(domlur) during last week...

It gives us two important thoughts:
Assets: "One which creates money for you"
Liabilities: "On which you have to spend money"

Real Estates, Mutual Funds, Bonds, FDs all may come in my assets columns....

House maintenances, Car EMIs all may come in my liabilities column...

He advices us not to spend our income fully.. But to invest... And to spend the money generated from the investments...

These are the few things I learnt from that book.....

One of my colleague commented when we discussed about these concepts. According to him:
" Assets are one which buys you happiness, and liabilities sorrow". We all agreed with his new definitions. A better one indeed.....

Now restarted reading - "The Goal" ( I am now reading that book for the third time).. May be I have started feeling myself like Alex Rugo - the hero in the book... Let me see if i can bring victory like him in the end !!!!! :)

Artist - Anoop

Artist - Anoop's wonderful creations for lachu :)

Time to move on....

All weekends I travel to and from chennai in Shatabdi express. But last week for first time, it was turn of two very beautiful north indian girls (settled in blr) to sit with me...

I was very happy. One was around 22-23 and the other was 17-18 yr old. kismat turned bad when i realised their younger sister was sitting alone in another area. I knew I have to get out for her. Hmm, after all its for a good deed. I prepared myself for doing it...

And the request came from the eldest one to change my seats. And I was happy to do that for a beautful girl. When I took my laptop bag, and started walking... the eldest one thanked me - "Thank you very much UNCLE"....... and the middle one also told "Thankyou UNCLE"...

The words struck me HARD. It was a moment of realization of hard realities of my AGE.

I sliently went to the back seat and slept........

Earth Day

Let all be happy and free

Asato Maa Sad Gamaya
Tamaso Ma Jyotir Gamaya
Mrityor Ma Amritm Gamaya
Aum Shanti Shanti Shanti

Oh Lord lead us from the Unreal to the Real
Lead us from Untruth to Truth
Lead us from Darkness to Light
Lead us from Death to Immortality
Oh Lord, let there be Peace, Peace, Peace.

Loka Samasta Sukhino Bhavantu
Loka Samasta Sukhino Bhavantu
Loka Samasta Sukhino Bhavantu
Aum Shanti Shanti Shanti

May the Lord bless the whole world with eternal peace and goodwill.
May the Lord bless the whole world with eternal peace and goodwill.
May the Lord bless the whole world with eternal peace and goodwill.
Peace peace peace

Jab we Met - 2008

2008 is special. No "new" New year resolutions......

Celebrated new year in train. Was on the way to trivandrum. Got tickets only in 2-tier A/C. Was expecting a nice beautiful girl to come and join me. Was under the effects of "Jab we mee" film. But finally a retired lady doctor joined me. She was going to Thrichur.

So without giving her much company slept early. And while i was in sound sleep somebody woke me up. It was the lady. She told me - "Happy New Year". I was surprised, I nodded my head. She asked me, where will the platform come in Thrichur - on left or right side. I didn't know the answer. She went. But soon came back and called me and requested for my help. So i climbed down from my berth, and found that only "ottapallam " has reached. I decided to give her company till Thrissur... and helped her in boarding down the train in thrishur.

So new year started well..........

Kadha parayumbol......

Saw film "kadha prayumbol" also... nice simple film.