CneRocks

Its Dangerous for Indians to get back to India after living in western countries...(as if its not dangerous enough for indians as it is!!)

2009-09-23T21:45:00.001+05:30

I was just wondering about the differences that have grown in my behavior out of living in Barcelona for the past some months. I am sure this is the same things that anybody living in western countries would have noticed many years before, but then its new to me!! I remember that when I was working for Infy in Bangalore, me being a biking (motorcycle – not just cycle) enthusiast I decided to bike to Chennai from Bangalore for Diwali. This was a dangerous thing to do – Indian roads are dangerous for bikes as it is and this would involve me biking a distance of around 400 km through highways. But then, there are good tings to be said for being young and foolish…so I went ahead with the plan. I posted an ad in the Bulletin Board of Infy asking if anybody was interested in joining me in this wild trip. I got one interested response. This guy was a Manager whose wife had just delivered a baby in Chennai and he wanted to go to Chennai to see her. Remember, being a manager, he was able to afford to fly to Chennai – leave alone go by train, and he wanted to come by bike with me!! I asked him this, and he said he already had 2 confirmed train tickets to Chennai – but wanted to experience the biking trip and it seems his wife also suggested that he do it (I remember telling him I would want to get a wife like her when I got married!!). I’ve always had this ability to attract crazy people to me. hahaha!!!.

Anyway, we did make that trip together….he came with me on one leg and I made the return leg alone – and I made out alive! But during that trip, I remember that he requested me to let him drive – and I let him. He frightened my ass off. We were driving at an average speed of 80-100 kmph on basic 2 lane highways and we would encounter small villages on the road. There would be dogs and sometimes people sitting on the road. Instead of honking to chase them away, he would just brake. And braking on bikes at high speed is not an experience to recommend. He just wouldn’t touch the freaking horn at all. After 30 mins of this, I gently requested him to give me back the bike. I was thinking. What’s this guy? Mad or something?

Because in India, the norm is that we honk generously – sometimes to scare away people or dogs, to prod slow drivers or sometimes just show off our nice new expensive horns.
We hate queues and gather like bees whenever more than 3 people are supposed to share a single thing – like at a bus stop / railway station / at a crowded shop.
We talk loudly and if someone complains about our ruckus, we call that person rude!!
We expect the employees at a supermarket or a mall to cater to our every whim and stay late after closing hours if we are still in a mind to shop!!
We cross the street whenever we want – where ever we want to…..and we expect the vehicles on the road to stop for us -where we cross.
When we drive, we expect the unexpected pedestrians on the road, the dogs, cows and sometimes elephants to share the valuable road real estate with us. We don’t mind.
Who ever has power, rules!! And this applies to everything. Life is interesting…..and unpredictable.
We’re Indians!!
And we love India – warts and all!!

India requires people (and animals) staying within her to be aggressive if they want anything. Everything in the world is laid bare for the taking – but u will have to take the effort to grab it.
U have to compete for everything. Being nice is not usually an option – as there are nice people in India – only winners and losers. If ur nice, that doesn’t make u a winner!!
Ur mind has to be sharp enough to adapt to varying external circumstances…..and should never take ‘anything’ for granted.
Daily life is Exciting!!

My stay in Europe has blunted my edge.
I have started waiting in lines wherever there is a bunch of people – virtually everywhere!!
I am very nice to people and give way whenever possible – with a smile!
Cross roads only at zebra crossings and even then, wait for the signal to cross. Duh!!
Cross a one way street on foot – without looking both sides for oncoming traffic (This one is enough to get me killed within a week in India)
I try to talk softly and not make noise – act subdued most of the time.
Smile at unknown people I meet on the road or in the lift. If they also smile, say hi (Hola!) and when getting out of the lift, say Goodbye (Adios).
Be nice to everybody – including janitors, receptionists (I was already nice to pretty girls anyway), cleaners, drivers, etc…etc…in fact in here, u do not judge people by their job. U respect everybody!
Don’t litter / spit / piss anywhere u like……

In effect, be a nice person…..with everybody.

This is bad news…..if I am here for too long, then I would pretty soon become unsuitable to living in India.
How will I survive when I get back?
I’m terrified….I have to do something to protect my edge from the corrosive effects of this culture!!
Anybody have any bright ideas??

Life in Pune

2007-05-30T19:28:00.000+05:30

Well....well....well....for sometime, I had stopped blogging because *.blogspot.com was blocked in my old company....but then, most of the websites were blocked in there. In my new company, very few sites are blocked....orkut being one of them. The onus is now on us to not abuse this liberty and cause ourselves to get the footprint of the company's HR on our asses!! I guess this is much better than a company imposed curfew.

Pune is an OK place...not as fast/pretty as the 'Great Bang' , but not as slow as Chennai also. This being a university town, lots and lots of students. Slowly, the sofwtare industry is building up here.

But as usual in any city, the companies are situated outside the city and so, we employees get to see the city ONLY on weekends, and even then, ONLY if we don't have any work!! Howzzat??

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Chennai's Kewl !!

2006-09-22T15:58:00.000+05:30

This's my first post from Chennai.

Many people've asked me about the difference between Bangalore & Chennai.....and why anyone in his right mind would shift from bangalore to Chennai - that too when that guy's parents/girlfriends r not in chennai. I've tried to analyze in what ways Chennai is different from bangalore. (apart from the chicks perspective , that is default!! )

* Chennai has awesome FM radio channels - Mirchi,Suriyan,Radio City and Rainbow. I'm tuned in to radio almost all of the time - my fone's earfones are in my ears all the time.

I've even formed a 'FM Radio Law' which states that

" Whenever there're more than 3 Radio Stations in any City, its very probable that at any point of time between 7:00 AM and 10:00 PM atleast one of the stations is playing a song that u like ".

So, u only need the Radio to be happy. Suriyan FM's bland Radio Jockeying is made up by its nice songs while sometimes, its a relief from the 24/7 hyper nature of Radio Mirchi's jockeys. The radio jockeying of the new kid on the block - radio City (105.8 FM) is unbearably tacky - especially when all jockeys start all their sentences with 'friend' or 'nanba'....ugh!! And the jockeys also have such wierd names - Chooo chweet sharmili,smiley sulabha etc...oow!!

Maybe they're trying to catch listeners using the concept that once enough people start talking about how aweful radiocity is, more people will tune in to see why exactly its aweful!! But i've gotta say - their station song is cool!! Its only thing worth listening to on that channel!!

And wonder of wonders, Rainbow FM plays some great english music in the afternoon and in the evenings....something that i've not noticed any radio station do in bangalore.

FM maybe cool, but that doesn't make up for the very serious lack of pubs in chennai. While I was in college, drinking was considered cool in tamil Nadu. There were flambuoyant bars,with bright lights and innovative marketing techniques...(Kushboo wines in madurai offered a half-boil free with every quarter). And then,I read somewhere that Amma got worried about the fact that APPA and his men owned most of the wineshops and bars in tamil Nadu and so, she decided to nationalise(stateise would be more accurate i guess) the liquour Industry in TN.

And she started TASMAC. And this has continued even after APPA came to power, 'coz the TASMAC revenues are going to the state govt anyway....so, why disturb a well runnning process oriented looting?

Now, drinking has become somewhat of a dirty thing in TN. The TASMAC shops are situated in seedy corners of the city and are strictly maintained in a very dirty state all the time. Any sober man would think twice/thrice before entering a TASMAC joint.

I agree that drinking is an evil - but it mostly affects the poor people where, the husband gets drunk and beats his wife and kids. This is not so much prevalent among educated (not just literate) people. So, drinking is more of a problem for the BPL (Below Poverty Line) people who waste all their money on liquour than for the educated middle class people who just want a chilled beer to wind down after a stressful day.

The sad fact is that nationalising the wine shops hasn't changed the situation in anyway - the BPL people don't mind dirty environs and non-existant service, and the educated middle class people have shifted to bars in the city's hotels. So, basically, what it has done is to make the people spend more for the same.

Bangalore has such awesome pubs....each one with an ambience and genre of music of its own!! I used to visit STYX on MG road atleast once a month (any more, and it would be injurious to my purse). It played ROCK - and HARD METAL at that. Myself and my friends who like Metal - Rajesh,Vinod,Arun barathi etc used to visit it religiously!! I still believe that any visit to Bangalore is incomplete without a visit to STYX.

I visited Chennai's ONLY hard rock pub - STAR ROCK in hotel Arunachala......they played nice hard metal - but they had a limited repetoire of songs.....once they've played all the famous songs of Metallica on one saturday night, what will they play the next weekend?

Its OK...but Chennai needs more!! If anyone of u who reads this blog is a guy with loads of money and thinking of where to invest it, please do consider this business opportunity.

OK...this post is long enough...... I'll continue with my next one!!

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Bangalore to Chennai Mail !!

2006-07-02T13:48:00.000+05:30

After a long and nice innings in Infy Bangalore, I'm shifting to another company in Chennai. So, its bye bye to jackets,nice parks,chock-a-block traffic,hosur road,cute chicks (wearing cuter dresses) in Forum & brigade road and Hi...Hi to sweltering heat,sweating,besant nagar and aunty figures in looooong & baggy salwars in T.Nagar.
There's always been one important part of my life that i've really missed in Bangalore - those roadside tea kadai's where u get super fresh hot-hot tea and 50 paise vadais....due to some reason, there are very few tea kadai's in Bangalore and even those don't stay open after 10 pm at night - the only tea available at any bakery is from flasks - yaarukku theriyum ennikku pottaangannu!!
There's nothing like a fresh and hot cup of tea on the way back home from a night show. I really miss those Pandian Tea kadai in 2nd stop Thiru Nagar - madurai.
As a part of this shifting, I've decided to sell my beloved CneMobile.I posted an ad in our Bullettin Board and this started off a discussion with soo many people mailing me not to sell her. The ad and the related mails I've attached below. And of course, read from Bottom.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Srinivasan Venkatachalam
Posted At: Thursday, June 22, 2006 5:03 PM
Posted To: KEC Real Estate, Buy & Sell
Conversation: My First Love [Bajaj Pulsar] for Sale!!Subject: My First Love [Bajaj Pulsar] for Sale!!
Oops......soo many digs at my beloved!! See, even though I maybe leaving her for another, I still have strong feelings for her!

Well Yeah, Pulsar is defenitely MALE, but I had him modified into a she - 'Coz I feel females are much more fun to be with for guyz - I do feel some pity for those macho guys who riding Definitely MALE bikes!!

And based on popular opinion, I guess I may have to take her along with me to Chennai - and keep her, as I already have a bike with TN registration!!

OOH!! Life's sooo Complex!!

From: Ashfaq Khan
Posted At: Thursday, June 22, 2006 4:03 PM
Posted To: bazaar
Conversation: My First Love [Bajaj Pulsar] for Sale!!Subject: RE: My First Love [Bajaj Pulsar] for Sale!!
Pulsar is definately a male & we understand ur feelings with ur darling...........................

Cheers
Ashfaq Khan

From: Abhishek Kumar, Progeon
Posted At: Thu 6/22/2006 3:24 PM
Posted To: KEC Real Estate, Buy & Sell
Conversation: My First Love [Bajaj Pulsar] for Sale!!Subject: RE: My First Love [Bajaj Pulsar] for Sale!!
hey buddy i think you should not sell your beloved...you can easily drive it to chennai and it will take only 6 hrs to reach.......i dont think now you can not share 6 hrs with your first love...

Cheers
Abhishek
From: Ritesh Suresh Bindal
Posted At: Thu 6/22/2006 3:01 PM
Posted To: KEC Real Estate, Buy & Sell
Conversation: My First Love [Bajaj Pulsar] for Sale!!Subject: My First Love [Bajaj Pulsar] for Sale!!
I thought love cannot be bought or sold

With Regards, Ritesh Bindal HTDM Extn-50964 ,Mobile : 9886660121Bldg 17, 1st Floor, Infosys Technologies, Electronic City, Bangalore When the going gets tough , the tough gets going................
From: Sudhir T
Posted At: Thursday, June 22, 2006 2:34 PM
Posted To: KEC Real Estate, Buy & Sell
Conversation: My First Love [Bajaj Pulsar] for Sale!!Subject: My First Love [Bajaj Pulsar] for Sale!!
I think Pulsar carried the tag line ‘Definitely male’

From: Rajan Kumar Jha
Posted At: Thursday, June 22, 2006 2:31 PM
Posted To: KEC Real Estate, Buy & Sell
Conversation: My First Love [Bajaj Pulsar] for Sale!!Subject: My First Love [Bajaj Pulsar] for Sale!!
Srinivasan –

I really appreciate the way you have described your beloved one. By reading through all over the content, I strongly feel that you should not break this great relationship and carry your beloved one with you to Chennai.

From: Srinivasan Venkatachalam
Posted At: Thursday, June 22, 2006 2:20 PM
Posted To: KEC Real Estate, Buy & Sell
Conversation: My First Love [Bajaj Pulsar] for Sale!!Subject: My First Love [Bajaj Pulsar] for Sale!!
Hi,
I'm shifting to Chennai and so, am having to sell my beloved Black Mobile.

Her Vital Statistics are as below:

Family Background : Bajaj Pulsar - 150 CC DTSi - First hand - Married her in Jun 2004.
Color : Shiny Black
Education : Karnataka Registration,All papers in order,All taxes paid.
Plus Points : Button Start,Double Helmet Lock,saree guard and loud horn.
Antecedents : No Accidents Till Date.

More importantly, I've spent a lot of love and money on her.The modifications that I've made to her are:

TVS JUMBO 120/18 Tyres [Eliminator size] for better traction.
The Silencer has been modified to fit an Expansion Chamber to increase the BHP. The silencer is still the stock company silencer, but the innards have changed.
She looks like any normal Pulsar when sleeping. Its only when u start up and give some throttle that the Beast wiothin awakes with a deep throated growl.
I did a speed test today and she gave me these stats.

0 - 40 kmph - 2.5 seconds
0 - 60 kmph - 4 seconds
0 - 80 kmph - 8 seconds.

My darling can beat the pants off any sub-180 CC bike on Bangalore roads.
But at the same time, she gives me a mileage of around 50 kmpl. I have got arnd 60 kmpl when I rode her at an average speed of 60 kmph.

She's a biking lover's bike......and I'ld hand her over to another biking lover.
U can view her outside the Gate 6.

If ur interested, Mail me.

Thanks,
Srinivasan.

Back 2 Blogging - With a vengeance!!

2006-07-02T12:30:00.000+05:30

I'm back into blogging after a long sojourn into Orkutting. Its due to the phenomenon called populism....we usually tend to do whats the most popular at that time.....and since I was introduced (though initially a little reluctantly) into Orkut by my friend 'Jo',I got hooked on to it and have been an avid Orkutter for the last coupla months......in fact, this phenomenon had spread so widely that in my company [the great I-to-the-N-to-the-F-to-the-Y], almost most of the people were on orkut most of the time - to the extent that the management took it as a threat to efficient working and banned it. But to maintain the image of a employee friendly company, they couldn't just say 'people are orkutting and logging it as project effort' and so,they have banned Orkut.com saying its virus infested!
Well, who am I to question managament's decisions....
Long live Employee Satisfaction!!

A Nice Poem!!

2006-03-21T20:13:00.000+05:30

I was suddenly reminded of a poem by William Wordsworth that I had read in my 10th/12th and had impressed me a lot by its simplicity and beauty!!

I never thought that so much emotion could be expressed in so few words!!

This poem maybe a forgotten gem just like the girl he has written about!!

The poem is:

"She Dwelt Among Untrodden Ways"

She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,
Maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love:

A violet by a mosy tone
Half hidden from the eye!
---Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky.

She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and, oh,
The difference to me!

-William Wordsworth

7Cne -The Coolest Dude8

Mail Forwards : Isn't this wrong?

2006-03-16T16:26:00.000+05:30

This post is about the indiscriminate forwarding that we software engineers do.Its an accepted fact that on any normal day, more than 30% of mail traffic among the corporate mail ids are forwards....But there's nothing wrong about Mail Forwards as such!!

I am a sucker for forwards-I read ALL the forwards that i receive and selectively forward the best ones to my friends in my forwarding list.And many of the forwards are pretty informative and are of some value.

But, there's one type of forwards that i absolutely HATE and am constantly urging all my friends to abstain from.That is - forwarding of images of other non-celebrity people.Forwarding pictures of Aishwarya rai is fine-in fact she would be happy to hear abt it.The forwards i'm talking abt are those which have pictures taken of normal people having fun/in embarassing situations.They are people like u or me.....who have been caught on camera without their knowledge.U can say , these types of photographs are a little voyeuristic.

The people having corporate mail accounts can remember that there was a document recently making rounds in the mail Fowards circuit which had pictures of girls who were having fun in Saraang (IIT chennai sultural fest). Those people didn't seem to have been aware of the fact that their pictures would become a forward. Just think of how embarassing this would be for them.

In fact, this is illegal!!

Today, I got a picture of a completely drenched girl playing holi - as a forward.

I don't know this gal...but I'm sure she wouldn't appreciate the fact that thousands of guys are drooling over her ahem.....well......ample voluptuous assets.

With her picture come as a forward, pretty soon, it'll be circulating all over the globe......and will be seen by thousands and thousands of people.

Did the person who took the photograph take her permission before he took this foto?

Did he/she inform her that he'ld be posting her picture on the net/forwarding it to everybody ?

IF not, What are the chances that the gal would get a chance to ask these questions to this guy?

What wrong did she do to deserve this?

What will her parents undergo when they hear of / see this?

OK...she was having some fun!! But is that a crime? Isn't she entitled to some privacy?

We cannot stop perverted guys from doing this...but can't we atleast stop forwarding it to our friends whenever such a forward comes into our mailbox?

We can just delete it!! Atleast we'll be doing our bit to stop the chain.

I strongly URGE u to act in a responsible and matured way.This 'mail forwards' is a powerful weapon which can either make or break a person. The onus is on us to use it carefully and in a positive manner!!

These are my thoughts......maybe I'm misguided and in need of a different view of the situation....but do post ur thoughts on the subject as comments!!

-Cne

7Cne -The Coolest Dude8

Blogging after a looong time.

2006-03-12T19:43:00.000+05:30

There's this wierd thing about creative, perfectionist and lazy people........and since I'm all the above, in my case, this is manifested in myraid forms.A lot of creative thoughts come to my mind, and prompt me to take action on them - like some idea that would make a nice blog.And they all come during convenient situations like when I'm in the loo or riding my bike - when its almost impossible to immediately pen them down.

But, since I am LAZY, I use my creativity to think of all sorts of plausible sounding excuses to put off the actual writing - after all thinking is effortless, and so i am willing to do quite a lot of that.

Once the creative juices start flowing, its not hard to manufacture a rock-solid excuse. My longest serving one being that I imagine myself as a great perfectionist and so, i will either do something perfectly, or not do it at all!!

This argument sounds pompous enough and has enough quirky logic in it for me to be able to convince my conscience that I'll do it later when I have enough time to do it perfectly.......which in a perfect world would have meant as soon as i got out of the loo, but in the real world, more often than not means 'NEVER'.

This phenomenon is not a new one and i have its manifestations in many mutant forms......the front end may be different, but the basic logic in the backend almost always remains the same.

I have a very close friend of mine who revels in dreaming BIG - and he doesn't consider day dreams as being counted. The ideas in his dreams are as BIG as the quantity of time he dreams. And since the only way to dream is by sleeping, he unfortunately has to do a LOT of this important ativity. In fact soo much that he's 'earned' the epithet of 'dead body' among our class junta.

Those of u who had the mis-fortune to 'study'....sorry, come to 'college with me' in my class would have recognised the guy I'm talking about.

And in order to reduce my liability for libel action against me, I'll refrain from using his real name.

Alas, I'm digressing.Coming to the point, this guy would register for and write all sorts of competitive exams.The number of exams that he writes would be almost 70-80 % of the ones he registers for. And most importantly, he would follow the following interesting logic.

1. He would assiduously and compulsorily refrain from studying on the exam subject till the night before it.Then, he would spend spend like 3-4 hours dreaming about why he had wasted all the time before.By this time, it would be 10 PM and since its nearing his dreaming time, would promptly eat his mandatory 2 idlys and go to sleep. hen, he would get up at 5 in the morning and spend another 2-3 hours trying to find out which questions would come in the exam.

2. But since he is such an innate genius, he would get good enough marks.

3. When he gets these marks, he would immediately work out that IF he's got this much marks by not studying, how many marks would he have got IF he had really studied.

4. This will really motivate him.

5. But when the next exam nears, he will start from step 1, instead of from step 3 and so, keep on doing the same thing again and again......with the same results.

But i don't feel sad about the wasted talent , as getting marks in college exams requires more of skill in creative writing than in actual knowledge - a point which i sadly realised only in my 5th semester.Thats why my 6th,7th and 8th sem marks show a quantum leap compared to my earlier marks. (Even though u could argue that it maybe be due to the theory of relativity).

Its a paradigm shift I hope every college student makes as soon as he/she reads this post!!

May GOD save India from its budding Engineers!!

-Cne

7Cne -The Coolest Dude8

Live ur life NOW,there will be plenty of time to sleep later, when you're dead.

Giving up?? HUH!!

2006-03-12T19:32:00.000+05:30

Some Anonymous guy asked me in his comment...

"I'm sure you rock, Cne, but why no more posts? Gave up? "

Give up? ha......to paraphrase 'Puratchi Kalaignar' and the only Tamil Mega Star who acts in serious Comedies Mr. Vijaya Kanth,

'English dictionary in myself don't like one word,give up!!"

-Cne

7Cne -The Coolest Dude8

Cne's Musings....

2006-01-27T01:40:00.000+05:30

I've always thought of this anology of Fishes very apt to describe people. We are all fishes in this river called Life (or u can even think of it as time) flowing towards the sea called death.Irrespective of all happenings, the river keeps on moving inexorably towards the sea. We fishes have only the time till we reach the sea. We are usually born in a small pond. We are sheltered from the river by our parents,relatives & friends.Life's mostly predictable and nothing much of earth shattering consequence happens to us.The pond gives us the time and space to grow strong enough to face the river some time in the future. There's competition, but its not life threatening. Then, when once we finish college, we are let out into the fast flowing river called life. The first few days /months of freedom are exhilerating. We are free to roam around and explore.We meet more and more fishes - each one different. We make new friends, new enemies.

But, sometime or the other we suddenly realise the true nature of the RIVER.There are predator fishes which eat the smaller fishes.There's cut-throat competition to just survive.There are fishermen who catch and eat u.Some of the food that we eat turn out to be poisonous.There's a brutal current which is taking us all towards the sea. Thats when we realise that the time we have is LIMITED,very limited.

We have two choices, We can either flow downstream along WITH the current or swim upstream AGAINST it. The default is WITH the current.So, some fishes live their entire without making a choice just because they didn't even know that they had a CHOICE.In the end, they realise that they've lived a life of little consequence.

Some fishes realise this fact. Out of these many don't choose to excercise their power to decide and end up in almost the same position as the former.

A few fishes make the choice and take ACTION. These fishes swim upstream AGAINST the current and discover that there's a whole new world out there. And logically thinking, these fishes end up in the sea much later than the others and consequently, live longer. Their's is a life really LIVED. They are the ones who build for the future. They are the ones who are of some use to others. These are the fishes which live a life of CONSEQUENCE.

For all fishes, there comes a time when they have to peel off from their peer group, from their friends group, come out of their comfort zone, and make this decision.Because, this is a decision no one else can make for u. U cannot copy others - That wouldn't be deciding. U have to make ur own decision.And since all of us are different, each of us makes a decision unique to him/her self.

Thats when we realise that GOD created all of us diferently, because all of us were created in this world to a specific purpose - each of us has a unique job that ONLY we can do. But GOD didn't pre-program us with our purpose. Thats what we'll have to discover for ourself.Thats a puzzle that we'll have to solve before we die.Thats our DESTINY.

I guess that the best way to go about solving this puzzle is to ponder upon what is it in our life that we LOVE to DO the most.There in lies the path to the fulfilment of our destiny.Its hard to let go of the shackles of habit and mediocre thinking that we've grown up with.Its hard to take a risk. But ONLY when u take the risk do u know what lies beyond.

So, its all a matter of choice.If U don't choose, then LIFE chooses for u.Either way a choice is MADE!!

Wouldn't it be better if the person who makes the CHOICE is U?

7Cne -The Coolest Dude8

The Accidental Trip :: Bangalore-Chennai [13-16 Aug 2005]

2006-01-26T20:51:00.000+05:30

I had decided to go to chennai during the Independence day long weekend on my bike.....I definitely wanted to do something interesting-something adventurous.But, my bad back was deterrent enough and spoiled the fun for me. But, I was determined to go as Aug 13 was my mother's birthday.But, as
I was planning to go by bike, I hadn't bothered to buy tickets to chennai.I tried for tickets on friday(12th) but as expected, I couldn't get any.I was wondering what to do when i saw this post in my Company's Bullettin Board. A guy was goin to chennai by car for the long weekend......and was looking for companions.We complemented each other other perfectly - He had a car but didn't know the route.I knew the route, but didn't have a car. So, i mailed him and we decided to start saturday (13th) morning at 5:30.As usual in any trip, someone was late and we ended up starting only at 7:00 AM.The car was a black Maruti Wagon R.Very very new.....just 1.5 months old - so was the guy's driving experience which i found out later -to my horror. We decided to take the scenic route to chennai Bangalore -> Kolar -> Chittoor -> Ranipet -> Chennai. The road meanders through lush forests with lots of nice curves - in fact perfect biking road.But not the best road for a car drive as i learnt.We bikers like to ride at a nice and easy 80-100 with the wind on our face and nice green scenery all around us.The road should be having lots of nice curves.....banked ones if possible.Taking the curves at a constant 90 KMPH gives u a kick like none other.U gotta bend along with the bike with only ur momentum holding u on the seat.Its a rush that i can't fully explain...but what other kindred spirits will surely
recognize.Thats why bikers just love mountain roads.If the road has traffic, then nothing better...traffic is the tangy avakkai oorga (pickle) with food....we can manage without it - but the food is much more tastier with it. We tend to go to sleep when faced with a long plain road which is arrow straight and with no traffic.Its as boring as doing documentation for a program someone else has written. But as i evidently saw, car drivers don't conform to this idea.They
need a straight road.....with as less number of sharp curves as possible and with no traffic.They just want to go fast...and i do mean FAST!! Imagine this small car with a measly 64 BHP (or should i say PS) engine and a tall body prone to turning turtle if not driven properly hurtling over the highway at 140 KMPH.Thats exactly what we did.We didn't just touch 140 KMPH.We actually cruised at 120-140 KMPH - with the A/C on the whole time.And ended up reaching chennai from bangalore in 5 hours with a 40 minute breakfast break.Thats a trip of 360 KM in 4.2 hours......which is really really damn fast.I was happy.

At chennai, I wished my mom happy birthday and took my family to Delhi Dhaba on Cenotaph road for a treat and overall, we had a nice time in chennai.Except for the heat which as a bangalorean still find irritating. Then, on monday (15th August) our esteemed country's independence day, i contacted this guy and we started back to bangalore arnd 3 PM.It was the same high speed this time too.....but with an element of passion added.

We were racing with another Wagon R of Karnataka regn, that guy was goin really fast - with his wife & children inside. This was maddening to us. We were 4 kewl youngsters racing our car and there's this middle aged 'OLD' man coolly overtaking us.So, we put up a stiff fight. And then,it started raining too.....all in all, this scene had all the elements of a Mani Ratnam Film.

We were two cars goin at 120 kmph + on the road from Chennai to Bangalore. It was a nailbiting race.That guy would be in front of us, then we'ld suddenly overtake him by catching a small gap he left - either to the left or to teh right , didn't matter. I remember that we once simultaneously overtook an amblying amby (Ambassador) which was goin at a 'slow' 100 kmph - he overtook from the right, and we from the left. It was nice fun. And sometimes, we'ld be in front and sometimes he'ld be.....he never let go of the race.He would always be lurking behind us waiting for a small chance to overtake us.

In the stream of events, we overtook him at 100 kmph and just as we finished the manouver, we saw a petrol bunk on the left side of the road.Seeing it, the dude who was driving our car decided that he wanted to fuel up only at that bunk. The bunk was arnd 100 mts from the highway with a pebble stewn area between. Our driver made a sudden turn into the way leading to the bunk.All this travelling at 80 kmph.

Our car skidded on the pebbles and lost control.Neither the brakes nor the steering worked. We were travelling uncontrollably at a scary 60 kmph towards the bunk which was just 50 metres away. Thank GOD, there were some trucks parked in front of the bunk and we slammed into the front of a truck -just 5 metres from the bunk. If that truck hadn't been parked there, we'ld have hit the bunk directly and exploded in a spectacular fireball - and I wouldn't be here writing this !!

Coming back o the accident scene.I saw that we were goin to hit the truck and as there wasn't anything that i could do, snuggled more into the seat belt that i was wearing.We hit the truck and the front half of the car totally went under the truck. The bumper of the truck ended up just 3-4 inches in front of the driver's face. JUST because the driver was wearing a seatbelt, his face didn't hit that and so, he escaped with his life.

Amazingly, none of us were hurt seriously.The driver just had some cuts due to the shattered windscreen. The front part of the car was destroyed beyond recognition.

Then, with the climax being over,we did the cleanup.We stayed there for a day negotiating with the truck driver for the damages to his truck. From his initial estimate of 15K, we negotiated it down to 2K that we paid happily and took the car to the nearest Maruti dealership. The engine was fine, so the next day, we removed the windscreen and all of us bought a pair of cheap goggles each and drove to bangalore with the car like that. It was really nice. We were again travelling at 100 kmph and as there was no windscreen , wind filled the car along with all sorts of debris flying in the wind.

All in all , it was a nice 'near - to -death ' experience that I had.But it had a happy ending.As the car was new, the guy ended up paying just 20-30 K of the total 1.8 lakhs spent on repairing the car.And we were all ALIVE.

The only take-away message that I have for u is : NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE IMPORTANCE OF A SEATBELT. ALWAYS WEAR THE SEATBELT WHILE TRAVELLING ON HIGHWAYS.

-Cne

7Cne -The Coolest Dude8

My Sabarimalai Pilgrimage :: The Vratham Period.

2005-12-30T21:03:00.000+05:30

Hi folks,
One fine November morning,I sudenly got a mail from my friends Suku/Athi regarding a trip to Sabarimalai this year.I had gone to Malai in my final year of college with the same college group. It was an awesomely spiritual experience ...but thats a different story and I wouldn't talk abt that now.Still, when I got this mail, it occurred to me IF I hadn't slipped quite far from God (as we conventionally call the Unknown Higher Power) - except for the times when I was in trouble and prayed .Its been a loooong time since I've been to any temple for that matter.So, I decided it was high time I did something spiritual to recharge my soul.
So, I put on my maalai on 4th November 2005.I was joined in this endeavour by my college friends Sujin in bangalore and Suku,Athi,Mummy,Half & Senthil (Suku's friend) from Chennai.

For people who aren't aware about the intricacies of SabariMaalai and the general details of the pilgrimage to Sabarimalai - Please visit this website. The vrath that I had undertaken was a very uphill task....especially to a guy like me who's become accustomed to a decadent and excessive lifestyle.
But I decided to make the effort.One of the main driving forces for taking this decision was that the last time I had been to Sabarimalai, I had been plagued with very heavy wheezing due to the dust and the cold.So, I had to climb the Sabarimalai with wheezing.I would climb 5 steps and stop to get back my breath, and I still dont actually remember how or even believe that I actually managed to climb the whole mountain.I climbed the 18 steps (ponu pathinettam padi), and as soon as I had the darishanam of Aiyyappan, I passed out.The next thing I remember is that I was lying in the hospital in Sabarimalai with my blood being tainted with Asthalin spiked glucose.The other fact that i remember was that every now and then, a new doctor would come and stick in the needle in another vein on my hands -only he knew why.But I was proud that I had atleast steeled my body till I had the darishanam.
This had been a pretty bad experience for me and so, I also wanted to prove to myself that I could do it properly.

So, coming back to the present, having donned the Maalai(put on my neck by a Guruswamy at the local Aiyyappan temple), I set out to be the ultimate pilgrim.
I got up early in the morning around 5:30 - 6:00 AM , took bath in cold water (which in Bangalore is not usually wise) . donned the kaavi (sandalwood color) dhothi , went to the templ, prayed to God , came back and got doned my formal dress for the company - sans shoes , went to company, as soon as i got to my desk, i would take the print out which had the 108 Saranams and chant them, In the evening, when I got home, I'ld sleep on a mat instead of a mattress. I bought some MP3 CDs of Aiyyappan songs and listened to them all the time on my MP3 player.I stopped listening to ROCK or any other music for that matter.This was one of the bigger sacrifices to a rock fanatic like me.I didn't shave/ cut my hair and tried to be as inconspicuous as possible.But I wasn't able to totally curb my active tongue.But I was good enough.

The reasons for all these chittai's (rules) as I understand them are very practical.
* U have to take bath in cold water in the morning 'coz during the pilgrimage, the only baths that u will be able to take will be in rivers and no one has till now devised a way to heat up rivers.So, ur body should be hardened to the water.
* U have to walk on bare feet as the path to Sabarimalai through 5 hills will be done on bare feet and the 50 days of walking like this before that will harden ur feet for the ordeal ahead.
* The non usage of luxuries is for the same reason - Ur going for a pilgrimage not for a 5 star trek.

I don't claim that I followed ALL these rules ALL the time, But I tried my utmost to keep my body and most importantly my mind clean all the time.Which is pretty tough especially considering how the gals in my company dress up (or is it dress down??) on fridays.I am proud to say that there were very few instances when I let down my guard and was for the most part a pretty good (if not perfect) Saamy.

This is the way I looked during those days.....

So enough about my Preparations about my trip...I'll shift to the Trip log now.
-Cne

Half of Infy Bangalore is trying to solve an awesome puzzle created by guyz in IIM Indore.

2005-12-10T22:51:00.000+05:30

I got this link to an amazing puzzle from my friend in TCS - GK Vidya....She's my old partner for all cultural competitions while in college.Myself,GK and another wierd jandhu called Winsley used to go for all competitons as a team and we have had our share of successes....
Well, thats besides the point.The link is : http://www.iimi-iris.com/iris/irising/klueLESS
Ths puzzle is really good and will tax ur knowledge , wit and even ur software knowledge to the edges of genius.
I posted this link on our Bullettin Board in my company.And got soo many replies and requests for hints that I couldn't do any sort of work that day.The same was happening on the BB.But then this guy posted all the answers for the puzzles on the BB......I saw this and mailed that guy -
This is the sequence......For Best effect : Read from the bottom!!

Hi Vinod,

Let me summarise what u just said!! If getting the answer to a puzzle is the only reason someone spends great time and effort on solving the puzzle, then its similar to saying the only reason to live is to die(since thats the last thing u get-its the answer!!).......and spend all ur time and effort trying ur best to DIE!!

No Sir, people work on puzzles to sharpen their thinking skills.....sharpen their logic and increasing their knowledge and last if not the least, the thrill and self satisfaction u get when u solve a puzzle by urself.

So, when I look at it from this perspective, I dont think sitting in office till 12 at night trying to move to the next levels (which i did) is not wrong!! - It was NOT wasted!!

If u dont agree with me on this....its ok!! But i request you not to spoil the fun for others by posting the answers on the BB.

And I would also request you to remove the answers from ur blog.

[If i may be forgiven for giving an anology here........Posting the answers on the BB because u think solving puzzles is a waste of time....is like someone pissing in a pool just because he/she thinks swimming is a waste of time].

Disclaimer : This mail is not meant to hurt ur feelings.....its just to help u understand that other's feelings need not be the same as urs!!

Regards,

Srini

Hi Srinivasan,

Frankly speaking I dont have time to look and solve into these kinds of puzzles. Just for curiosity I happenned to see the link in the BB with so many people wasting their time and mind to solve this puzzle. I just got the answers in the same website which had the puzzle. I posted the answers also on BB but got many mails to remove it........hence today morning I put those answers in my blog. How much time you wasted to reach level 20 (May be 7 hrs till now !!) ? Dont you think you could have utilsed this time to learn any thing new/useful regarding your project ?

I just wasted 5 min to find the answers !!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Third Foto

2005-12-05T15:14:00.000+05:30

The Third Photo is the lowest altitude photo without compromising on clarity and shows my house clearly - its a room in the terrace of a house.The size of the house is ridiculously small considering the rent i pay for it- but I'm not complaining.I have a nice playground right in front of my house and trees all around.Most importantly, I have a wide terrace which is 2.5 times the size of my house.I'm happy!!

U wana see my house in Bangalore?

2005-12-05T10:16:00.000+05:30

U may remember the issue which was HOT around a month back.It was even the first page news in Times Of India in Bangalore which in itself is not too much of a compliment.But anyway, it was about how terrorists and other sane people with normally ulterior motives can use Google Earth to see the happenings inside the the biggest and most secretive establishments in India...like the BARC in Mumbai,the mumbai shipyard and the Kalpakkam Nuclear Power Station.
Whether the grainy pictures that are many many months old will help any terrorist is a moot point.Hey, the only way he/she can use these pictures is to land/crash a plane on the building.Well, most of the planes in India seem to have enough trouble getting off the ground - on time or otherwise and so, to hijack one and crash it in any of these premier installations is in itself a stupendous task.But even if someone does indeed do it......what difference is it goanna make to our country's mothballed bureaucracy? They'll just get a new excuse not to work.

Well, I've gone a lot offtrack.The main point i was attempting to make is that we normal people canmake good use of the Google Earth (which is conveniently free) to show routes inside the city.
I've made use of it to show the way to my house in the fashionable suburb of Koramangala in Bangalore.The roads may look cool from space...but do not be deceived by the looks, they are treacherously bad!
The first photo is a very high altitude picture which can set the context for the route.I've taken the Hosur Road and FORUM as the main landmarks to my house.

The Second Photo is a lower altitude one which will show the important landmarks in the immediate vicinity of my house.

-Cne -The Coolest Dude

A PitStop post on my Hairy Story....

2005-11-26T19:05:00.000+05:30

This is a continuation of my Hairy Story....if u can't understand what I'm talking about, then please scroll down and read my 'One Long Hairy Story' then come back up.

This is a Pit Stop post...meaning, this is the first pit stop on my way to having really Looooong hair!!

THEN :
When i was having short hair, she was low on maintaintenance (i never even had to comb her!!), never caused too many worries,and looked ok as long as i didn't disturb her too much. I could get up in the morning and look at her ONLY when I wanted to(whjich was not too often).And she was always a topic of conversation with friends - who leered at her!!
Life was soo much simpler!!
In fact she was much like a girlfriend!!

NOW:
Now, that I've grown my hair, she's started demanding a lot of time and effort on it.When I get up in the morning, she'll be all over my face.I have to comb her first.Then, while taking bath, I have to decide whether i have time to bath her also.If I bath her also, I'll have to go out and stand for arnd 15 minutes under the sun while she takes her own sweet time to dry herself.I can dress up only after she has been dressed up.I'm having to spend on cosmetics for her.I've also bought something which has been an alien object to me for the most of my life.....a COMB!! and I've bought two of them...one for home and one for the office.She's changed me a lot.Now, I have become more responsible....I think twice before dancing in the rain! I think twice before I go out on my bike without a helmet. I have started looking in my face in the miror more often.In fact, she has become a factor when i make many of my decisions.And she won't let me remain sane until I have acceded to her wishes!!

In fact, She's become more like a wife...and behaves like one too.....

Well, just as u cannot make omlets without breaking eggs OR u cannot code a program without putting comments OR u cannot drink more than a half without throwing up .......just like that I'll have to adjust to her vagaries and variations....
I guess she's goanna be a lot of fun after some more time.....
I'll keep u guys posted!!
Luv,
Cne.
7Cne -The Coolest Dude8

Too Much work!!

2005-11-23T13:38:00.000+05:30

I've too much work today.....I'm in the middle of a small post on something i had the pleasure of viewing last sunday......I hope to finish that and post it by EOD today!!
And thanks for the flurry of comments for my last few posts....I love u all.....
-Cne

I'll Fight to the Bitter End.

2005-11-19T20:21:00.000+05:30

I know if u've blogged something negative about the company u work in, there's a chance u'll be kicked outta the company.But I've not said one negative thing about my company....hey for hat matter I've not even said what my company's name is.I've only used the name of my company once in my whole blog, and that was after it had blocked my blog.This is soo sad.But i really believe that this is a case of misplaced notions...and I also believe in the high ethics and sense of righteousness of my company and I believe that my company always plays fair - with everybody.

I'm not saying this just for kicks.......but I really believe in what I'm saying.I've always had a very good experience with the beurocracy in my company...they've always responded with sincerity and responsibility to all my queries.So, I'm sure that if i follow this query to the end, I may get an answer.....even if its 'Sorry,This is according to company policy'.

And by the way, thanks to Ravi (The Italian student), I'm no olonger Blind-Blogging....I'm able to access my blog through some convoluted channels.....and if u think I'm goanna spill the beans on how I'm doing that, then u better put on ur shorts and go back to UKG.

So, this post is dedicated to my college friend Ravi.....Just like Anniyan, He has an alter ego -an erudite philosopher hiding inside him who comes out under 'certain external liquid stimuli'.We've discussed a lot of philosophy back in college when we both were activated by the similar 'liquid stimuli'.Not that he always talked sense, or that I always understood what he was saying but I've always found that he had (and still has) the ability and (more importantly) the desire to think beyond the horizons of the thinking necessary for normal living.That will take u to BIG places.....Keep doing it!!

Hey Ravi, my friend and Philosopher, If ur reading this from Italy, accept my thanks....and hope ur torturing those roommates of urs there like u did to us in college!!

7Cne -The Coolest Dude8

What did i do??

2005-11-18T17:46:00.000+05:30

I'm now Blind Blogging right now...I know that what I'm blogging will be posted on my blog, but I'm not able to see it on the net from office.I had said earlier that my company (X to the X to the X to the X) has blocked all blogspots...but alas!! I was sadly mistaken!! The afore mentioned company has only blocked MY blogspot.Why? I dont know...... Who? I'm trying to find out!!

But that hasn't broken my spirit.....in fact that has just incited me to blog more.....Nothing can keep us down!!What say, bloggers?

Even though i say all this with bravado, I am a little responsible about the fact that I shouldn't say anything negative about my company.......and I haven't.Then, I dont understand why they've done such a thing!!

Sooooo mean!! I raised a request to know why they've done this and got a response saying 'We don't give information about blocking on site by site basis'.

I'm goanna raise this issue....and raise hell if necessary to get to the bottom of this matter.I will keep u guys posted!!

7Cne -The Coolest Dude8

Infy's Bocked Blogspots....

2005-11-09T14:19:00.000+05:30

From last week, Infy has blocked acess to blogspots....so, I can post but can't see what i've posted.

Though this adds a little overhead, its ok.I get a mail whenever anyone posts a comment and so, can post a reply as soon as i get that mail.

So, please do keep visiting and keep commenting.......Bouquets and Brickbats will be enjoyed!!

I pledge to post atleast once a day!! Something atleast!!

This is a Promise!!

7Cne -The Coolest Dude8

The Hairy Story Continues.....

2005-11-07T11:48:00.000+05:30

Today's a landmark day in my young life of exactly 23 years and 10 Months.For the first time in my life,I'm FREE to choose my hairstyle.As I've mentioned in an earlier article, I've till now been on the losing side in my fight with my hair to make her stay in some position. But now, I've grown my hair long enough to be able to dictate to her what style i want her to be in, and make her stay that way!!

I've parted my hair in the center now.And wonder of wonders, she's staying that way!! Before, she would stay the way in which i had shaped her till the next time i moved my head and then, all of her would come crashing down onto my face.

As i gain more confidence in my hair, I'm goanna try out more and more hair styles-The more outlandish the better.

I'm finally free......Hurray!!

7Cne -The Coolest Dude8

Whats with this daily rain in Bangalore?

2005-10-19T18:00:00.000+05:30

It rains daily in bangalore.DAILY!! I'm sure people in chennai won't believe this.....provided they remember what rain means.

'Rain' - means that water(which u usually only see in thanni lorries) actually falls from the skies in drops.- For the benefit of Chennaiites only!!

Well, everyday when I get up, its bright and sunny.Makes me feel glad to be alive.I brush, take bath and bike my way to the office without my jacket - afterall its soo sunny!! I start working...atleast pretending to work.When i go out for lunch, its sunny again and I even sweat a little walking back to office from the 'aunty mess' which is opposite gate 4 of my company.I again work and in the evening, as soon as i decide to leave for home, suddenly, the skies darken,lightning flashes,thunder rumbles and it starts pouring.It pour,pours and then, pours a little more.I decide that its not in my best interests to venture out into such weather on my bike and I settle back onto my chair and start working - for want of a better thing to do.I go on working and pretty soon, the rain stops-at 8 O'clock.I start from office after that and reach home with enough time for dinner and around 30 mins to watch TV before i fall asleep.

The companies cannot actually ask u to stay back in office after working hours.So, they try other devious ways.

This ultra rainy weather is the handiwork of the cunning HR people of the Software companies in Bangalore I say!!

They saw that Bangalore city is full of nice parks,pubs,shpping streets and nice chicks which can lure the employees away from their desks pretty early.So, the companies decide to build their campuses in far off places with swanky names (eg:Electronics City - As soon as people hear the name Electronics city, they think of wide avenues with well planned residential layouts and Mega Malls for the software engineers who dont know what to do with their money to splurge in.But in reality, its just a slummy village with rats running around on one side of the road and gleaming buildings with designer lawns on the other side.Its a nice study on the contrast in living conditions in India).

Now, ur working in a place arnd 15-20 KMs from the city which can be accessed through only one road - The notorious Hosur Road.Actually calling it a road is not exactly correct.During the timings (8:00AM - 10:00AM & 5:30 PM- 9:30 PM) it somewhat resembles a Huge looong parking lot.So, driving any place inside the city after ur already tired from ur office work will make u shudder to even think of it.(Driving on Hosur Road is a diferent topic in itself and I'll write on it later).

So, u stay in office. and work.

So, I believe that when the HR people of the software companies saw that even after making going to the city so unattractive, some people were still escaping from office after working hours.So, they made a deal with God to make it rain in Bangalore on all working days and I guess for every 5 days of rainy weather , God granted them 2 days free.Thats the whole week accounted for.

God,Its soo unfair!!

If u people also feel the same, Please post ur comment and I'll collate all these comments and mail to God as a protest campaign!!

-Cne

7Cne -The Coolest Dude8

Its one long Hairy Story.

2005-10-16T03:03:00.000+05:30

I've been blessed from birth with a wierd crown of hair on my head!! Its actually an extension of my charactor, wild,crazy and fiercely independant!! But even though I may extoll its virtuous properties, I have to admit that its a bitch to make it look nice.The main characteristic of the hair is that it stands straight up-whatever be its length or position on my scalp.The hair in front falls down straight onto my face and the hair in the center insists on standing straight up.It maybe because I have two hair circles(The concept is similar to crop circles-with hair in swirls instead of plants) on my head.
Having said this much about my hair, I guess u must now have got an idea of how my hair is.
Right from my school days, its been the center of attention in any gathering and all my nicknames have been based on it.Right from 'Mulli' during my school days to 'Mottai' during my college days.
In my school days, I've tried all sorts of remedies-right from the most mundane to the most outlandish!I have paid 250/- bucks for a haircut (this was back in the early 1990's....when 250 represented a hell of a lot of spinning tops and sticky notebook labels).I've also cut my hair for Rs:5/- at the local saloon in my grandparents village.Al the barbers always complained but couldn't offer any gyan on how my hair could be set right!I read somewhere that if u apply grease on ur hair, it will soften and wouldn't stand straight up due to the weight.And believe it or not.I did it! I bought a packet of industrial grease and applied it on my hair for some days.But absence of any permanent results along with the panic stricken requests of my mom made me stop that treatment.
Then, in my 12th standard i had my revelation, I went to a saloon for hair cutting.The barber complained that he couldn't cut my hair because the cut hair kept entering his eyes all the time.So, I loaned him my cooling glasses and he cut my hair with them on.It was then that i decided enough was enough.I wasn't going to bear anymore of this.I asked the barber to 'machine' my head!! He plowed the hair cutting machine over my head like a lawnmower and pretty soon, i looked like a guy who's had his head shaven just a week back.I sorta liked the look and the freedom that came along with it.
Freedom from thinking a lot before washing my hair.Freedom from towelling my hair.Freedom from worrying about my hairstyle all the time.Freedom from combs....also freedom from comments about my hair.Now, I was completely free.
Thats when when i decided to keep that look.And I did that-for the next 5 years.All through my college, I'ld 'machine' my head every 2-3 months or so, which resulted in my nickname of 'Mottai' which means shaven head in Tamil.This has been the history of my hair till arnd 4 months back.
Around 4 months back, i became tired of the same old short haired look and decided to grow my hair long.Really long.My room mate Naseem Bhai was also a big inspiration.He has his hair very very long.It looks soo cool.
Of course, there were a lot of hair growing pangs.When the hair was short, it wouldn't seem weird even if it stood straight up.But once it started growing, it became very hard to manage it.Imagine hair 2-3 inches long standing straight up on the center of ur head! It sorta looked like palm trees near an oasis in a black desert of coarse hair.I managed that by the simplest way possible.I bought a nice round cap and started wearing it ALL the time, I'ld put it on as soon as i took my bath and it would be on my head all the time, while working,while walking, even while eating.I'ld take it off only at night.
Pretty soon, my consistent efforts bore fruit and my hair raising days were over.The hair was long enough to be unable to stand up straight up and fell down to my scalp in dejected defeat!!
I thought I had won.But how mistaken i was.I had won the battle, but the war was just beginning.
It just gets tougher when ur hair is long.
Now, I have to think twice before i take a bath.(which in itself is a rare phenomenon-so, this is not too much of an irritation).
I now have to brush/comb my hair daily.My hair tends to fall down the front of my face and cover my eyes.Though this is nice during the headbanging sessions, it gets a little irritating and i have to keep on tossing my mane of hair out of my eyes.
I'ld like to narrate a nice incident whioch happened a coupla days back.I was playing pool and everytime, i bent down to make a shot, my hair would fall over my eyes ,blocking my vision and I would have to flick it off with my hand.I saw a guy watching this and smiling at me.I at first didn't understand why he was smiling at me as I didn't know him.Then, i saw that he also had very long hair.Then, i understood the meaning behind that smile.
'I can also understand ur pain' it said.
Nice, huh??
I plan to grow my hair long enough to put it in a ponytail.
Lets see where his leads to.I'll keep u dudes posted.
Bye,
-Cne

Saturday Blast!!

2005-10-09T00:30:00.000+05:30

Hi,
Todays saturday, but I'm in office......Thats 'coz I've been put into a new project and have to learn a lot of stuff.....Its been just 1 week since I've joined this project and my PM's asked me to start being productive from the coming Monday itself.
The past week's been just a whirlwind of trainings and sessions......and I couldn't even go to sleep....'coz there were just 5 of us for the sessions.....personalised attention can be such a pain in the neck u know.
Now, my PM's saying he's goanna keep a test for us on what we're suposed to have learnt during the past week.This is the limit.But anyway, tests are good for u.......as they're some sort of feedback.
Alls well thats works well!!

My close friend SuKu has come from chennai......and so, tonight we're goanna have a blast at Styx or some other nice pub in Bangalore....Will keep y'all updated on the happenings.
I kinda like Styx as its the only pub in bangalore which plays nice Metal.The other pubs compromise on the music.And u can enjoy the music for 2-3 hours for just 200 bucks.....thats cheap man! I remember once we went to a pub in Chennai.....and no ordinary pub mind u.The 'Bikes & Barrels' in the Residency Hotel on Pondy Bazaar road.The hotel looked posh (3 Star I guess).But the pub pissed me off from the time i entered.Its seems there are 2 floors for the pub and the stags were herded upstairs while the guys who came with gals tagging along with them were directed to the ground floor.....what the heck is this? So, the whole scene ended up looking like the whole level 0 was a stage with actors on them while the audience in Level 1 ogled at the gals below.....It was sooo demeaning.And they started playing bhangra stuff.......at one point I was almiost afraid they'ld play 'appadi podu...podu....' or 'manmatha rasa'.
I know I may sound like a snob for saying this, but my experience with the pubs in bangalore sorta raised the standards.
In bangalore u can be urself and headbang urself to nirvana.All in all an enjoyable experience as ur neck starts to hurt only the next day.
I'll update u tomorrow on how it went tonight.
Till then......Keep reading my blog.
I luv u all....

PS: This is for the guy who keeps commenting on my blogs.I have enabled word-verification.Hope this satisfies u.And keep commenting.....its people like u who make my days sunnier!!

-Cne

Life's Great!!

2005-10-06T02:30:00.000+05:30

Hi,
I'm back into Blogging after a loong hiatus.I'm working in a new project now....onn a machine with English OS - which has made life a lot easier.
Now, its possible for me to atleast try to decipher the error messages Windows pings me with.And I dont have to click on 'OK' or 'CANCEL' just by fuzzy logic.When I was working on the Japanese OS, any dialog box which opened would be totally in Japanese and so, we had to navigate by trial and error method.
Now, I can navigate happily...I remember the days when if i needed to change soem windows settings, I used to call up any of my friends who was working on the English version and ask him to read me the settings line by line......
In my present project , I'm learning lots of new technologies......its interesting.But my whole day is spent in one session after another.I'm unable to stay at my comp for any appreciable amount of time.
So,though I have a lot of articles written up in my mind......I am not getting the time to transfer them to the system.......would have been nice if there were some tool to directly download ur thoughts from ur mind to the system......hehe!!
Now, I'll post some of the articles I've writen.....enjoy maadi!!
-Cne

My Tuppence on Cell Fones...

2005-10-05T13:43:00.000+05:30

Cell Phone Comparison

I've owned and used the following brands of cell phones
NOKIA(3210,3310,8210,8310,1100),Sony Ericsson(T100,T105,K500i), Samsung(R220,C100), Mitsubishi Trium, Motorola(Walkabout), LG (5130) and Panasonic(GD 90).

Based on my user experiences, I give my ideas on the comparison between these brands based on different parameters.
This is a completely subjective and approximate comparison. The absolute stats may vary based on the model u buy and the price range ur interested in.

Technology :
Sony Ericsson seems to be the winner in this area. All its models in all price ranges offer some technological edge over other brands in the same price range. Motorola comes a close second, with Panasonic and Samsung tied for the third. Nokia comes last in offering technological innovations. It is usually the last to offer innovations. LG is still learning the ropes.
The technological edge I mean can be
- Quality of voice
- Quality of the pictures taken with the camera in the phone
- New features like 64K color screen, Flash for camera, MP3 player etc.

The features offered by SE maybe offered by NOKIA in a higher model.
But speaking on the lines of 'More bang for the buck', SE phones are lot better. Motorola phones have good features, but only at a higher range. (>20K)

But in terms of Battery Standby and Talk times, NOKIA beats them all hands down!!

User Friendliness & Stability:
Predictably NOKIA comes trumps in this arena. All its phones are designed to be 'FOOL-PROOF’. They’re the easiest to use and incredibly stable. I’ve dropped my NOKIA phones (3210, 3310, 8210, 8310) too many times to count but they've always been fine. The maximum physical damage u can do to ur NOKIA phone by dropping it is to break its Panel and keypad-which are damn cheap to replace.

Panasonic comes second in user friendliness. Samsung and Sony Ericsson come third. The main differentiator is those small small improvements in the user interface, in the options menu. Those insignificant additions to the menu options go a long way to decrease user fatigue. LG is OK, but has to add the many small options (like being able to edit the number u just called) which we've come to accept as default.

One more thing I've seen is that Sony Ericsson phone soft wares seem to be designed on the same lines as Windows 98.All the fones I've used (T100, T105, K500i) will hang on the drop of a hat. U press 2 buttons at once, it hangs. U start a game, it hangs. Change the ring tone, it hangs. And sometimes it hangs without any reason at all. But once u re start it, it starts working fine- till the next hanging. Just like Windows.

And the behemoth Motorola comes last. The low end Motorola phones are designed for geeks i guess. In the higher end Clamshell PDA phones, Motorola is the leader, but it fails miserably in the lower end of the spectrum. The phones are a pain to use. And they have an attitude problem. The buttons for accepting and rejecting calls and the menu buttons are arranged in the opposite order to all other models. So, if u're accustomed to using other phones, u try to use a Motorola phone, u'll go mad.

All Said and Done,

I've chosen the categorized the users and the Brands suitable for each.

Yuppies (age 21-24) –
These are people who want the most features in the optimum price. But at the same time have a fascination for gadgets and smart phones. And they’r eready to pay extra if the phone catches their fascination.
The utilities these people need the most in their phones are-
- Nice easy key pad for fast & frequent SMSing
- Nice features like Real tones(MP3 set as ring tones), >1 Mega Pixel (still & video) Camera, Large onboard memory,MP3 player, VIDEO player,3D Arcade games, Bluetooth, if possible-Symbian OS, Net Browsing capability etc.

Brand: Sony Ericsson (K500i, K700i etc) or Motorola (E398) or even NOKIA (6600, 3230) etc...... They come for arnd 15 K now. But worth the money for the oomph quotient!!
(Yours truly falls in this category)

Business Users -(25+) –
These are the people who are PM & above who have to travel frequently. They use their phones as an extension of their office.
What this category needs in their phones:
- PDA capabilities. I can go on and on abt the features, but this tag line explains it all. They don’t need phones. The y need mini PDAs. Of course Sony Erickson P910i and NOKIA 9300 are pretty popular among them.

If they're already using Palm Pilots / Handspring / Oxygen PDA phones, and also need a simple phone for talking purposes only, I’ve noticed that they go for basic models of NOKIA (Eg:3310,3100,2100 etc) which fulfill their need for a low maintenance, simple to use phone with good battery life.

Older people (55+) –
They are mostly our parents whom we gift cell phones so that we can keep in touch with them all the time and also for medical emergencies. They also need low maintenance, simple to use phones with good battery life. Basic models of NOKIA or SAMSUNG will fulfill their needs. (In my case, my dad uses a 1100.But my mom refused to be happy with such phones and snatched my cute little NOKIA 8310 away from me.)

Women –
I know I may draw flak for categorizing them as a separate category. But from ‘my experience’, most of the girls I’ve seen have been always attracted to small, cute, clamshell models with colorful screens to which they attach frilly lacy straps and carry around in their hands – flaunting their feminism. That’s the reason Samsung R220 in spite of being a crappy phone was blessed with a faithful female following. The main reason being that while all other brands at that point of time had utilitarian yellow or white display light colors, R220 had a ‘bright’ blue display. The girls fell for it every time.

Now that all the models have color screens as default, I guess they’ll now be going for the clamshell models from Samsung or NOKIA (2650, 6170, 6260 etc). But there are a lot of women who fall in other categories as well.

Rest of the people –
These are the people who (rightly??) use and consider a cell phone as just that – a phone. They just want a simple to use phone with ok features and ok battery life. They form the segment to which most of the Mobile Phones advertising aim at. They are the people who are easily influenced by the catch words and the promised lifestyle the ads promise. And as they don’t care what they buy as long as it fulfils their needs, they go for a phone without researching the market and the features of the phone that they’re goanna buy.

This results in the fact that many end up buying phones because they wanted some feature which was described in the ads as being awesome and something they cant live without, but finally end up not using the feature at all. But I’m not saying they’re all unhappy with their choice. Just that their decision may not have been the most efficient and optimal.
These people form the bulk of the population.

So, finally after all these ideas and opinions, what am I trying to convey??

When ever u decide to buy a phone, please try to do the following:

Ø First decide on ur price range and identify the phones in that range from all brands.
Ø Take some time to reflect on what ur goanna use it for. If u’ll be using it mostly for SMSing and calling, NOKIA and Samsung phones will be the best as they have nice handy Keypads which are very good for SMSing.
Ø Think if u will be needing the extra features like radio, speaker phone, GPRS etc. The salesman may say that the phone has GPRS and u can browse the net using GPRS. But believe me, it’s no fun browsing sites with a screen the size of 3 postage stamps. GPRS is usually useful only when u have PDA phones or have camera phones.
Ø If ur going for camera phones, see what photo resolution the phones offers. If its anything less than 640 x 480, its not worth it. And most importantly, ask how much memory it has and also what facilities it has to send the photos u take to ur system. For eg : NOKIA 6220 was a nice phone with still and video camera.(One of the first from NOKIA I guess) .But it had a measly 4MB memory. So, even if u took photos or videos there wouldn’t be enough space store them. Ditto with Sony Erickson K500i. It had just 12 MB memory which had to be divided among photos, videos, MP3 songs, Games, Applications, and Themes etc. Memory management becomes a big head ache.
In these cases go for phones with expandable memory (accept MMC cards) and which have Bluetooth. Infrared is of not much use.
Ø Try not to buy the first version of any phone. U may get lucky or be unlucky? (Like the buyers of NOKIA 3530 – the first color mobile from Nokia.)
Ø But at the same time, don’t be afraid to experiment. With the mobile market in India growing at an amazing pace, more and more BIG players are entering the market. For eg, u’ld may not have heard of SAGEM or BIRD, but they are very big players in the European market. U may get great value deals.

In the case of Cell Phone Networks, I’ve used AIRTEL, HUTCH, IDEA, BSNL, AIRCEL , BPL and RELIANCE.

In Bangalore, AIRTEL had the best network, but I heard form a honcho at Hutch that they’re pumping in loads of money to better their coverage in India. And in CDMA phones, I heard reliance is good. But all these depend upon who has a tower near ur house/office. So, don’t believe what I say. Talk to people around u what connection they’re using and decide for urself.

Regarding Post Paid or Pre Paid. I would suggest those who wanna restrict their Phone bills and make very few outgoing calls to stick with Prepaid. U may think that u pay 300 per month as rent (Assuming u charge ur cell with 2 Rs: 315 cards a month) and if u come to post paid, u’ll have to pay only arnd 200 rs as rent. But unfortunately, life doesn’t follow this logic. Once u don’t have that little message telling u ur balance after every call, u don’t think of restricting ur calls and end up spending a lot on bills.

Always remember, the Mobile Services companies use the Prepaid to lure users to postpaid. So, prepaid users have more features, more freebies and more hype but generate very less income for the company. The postpaid users are the cash cows who have to pay for the deficit of the prepaid business of the network provider.

So, switch over to Postpaid only if u make a lot of Outgoing calls.
And finally, do remember that the Indian Market is one of the fastest growing in the world and has the cheapest call rates in the world too. This won’t be like this for too long. Make the best use of this as possible. Try to make the most optimal choices and extract the most benefits out of ur network provider.

Happy Calling…..

Regards,
-Cne
Standard Disclaimer:
I accept that all these above words and the ideas described in them are mine. U didn’t pay me for these words, so I assume no responsibility for any actions u take based on the above ideas and comments. But I’ll be happy if u have gained something from reading this.

Bouquets and brickbats please direct as comments.

Bangalore is cool

2005-07-09T20:38:00.000+05:30

Funny Start
Here I am sitting in a I way paying money and creating my blog.......Sound funny when u know that i have high speed net connexion at office and i can do it in a more relaxed manner,and can write more without worring abt the time.
But what to do?? Since i'm working in a project for a japanese client, my system is loaded with Windows XP - Japanese version and these Google guys have coded their blogger page in such a way that it automatically detects my language settings and i get all of my google pages in nice graphic japanese....and i can make nothing out of it.
I've gotten accustomed to this being the case with my working environs......didn't think this could intrude on my fun life too....Anyway, i hope that once i've created and configured the bog, posting wouldn't be that tough!!

Lets see.......

-Cne