Answer to the beginning of the civilization

Found something interesting over the net.A brewing specialist and prefessor has spoken about possible beginning of civilization. Crux is that, people started building houses, villages and towns and civilation when they were waiting for beer to brew.

More here

Software power Vs Electrical power

I got a chance to fiddle with windows Vista's graphical prowess. When I just enabled keeping a movie as dynamic desktop b/g I found that CPU utilization stood at 80% to 90% constantly. Which means lesser chances to enter CPU idle states and peak power consumption. If we speak in raw terms it is like always pushing the accelarator at the max. It is going to suck lot of power, and today's laptops will certainly find it hard breath and loose their life pretty soon.
So surely, Intel or AMD has a long way to go in power savings. Time for power optimized compilers?
Meanwhile I also heard a rumour that apple's iphone is stuck into same kind of issue, that it is not withstanding the battery of the phone and loosing life pretty soon. It will be really interesting to see, how apple manages power Vs performance.

Count down for iPhone is coming close..

Low voltage internet

There is a dial up connection, DSL, cable modem but there is something different available at Bangalore today. It is low voltage internet. Voltage at home has dropped so much that flourouscent lamps are not glowing, fans are runing at 25% of speed. No risk of switching on TVs. But internet is just as fast as ever. There is a water scarcity in the city, there is power shortage now, but Internet just works. True silicon (only) valley! excitiiiiiiiiing!

The drive to Chickpete

I was trying to buy all the electrical items for the new house. We had received a quote from a shop near by our apartment. But the geyser price he quoted was 300Rs higher than what I had purchased in Thippasandra. So I decided to check few other places. Looking at the yellow pages, I realized that there are lots and lots of shops in BVK Iyengar road in chickpet. One of my friend incidentally visited chickpet on the same day for something else. He also suggested to me give a visit there.

BVK Iyengar road is 30mins from drive from Indiranagar and 20 mins from MG Road. It is before KG bus stand on the KG road and nobody can miss it. I imaginged that this will be more like the TNagar of Bangalore and was sure that my M800 can beat the crowd.
There is a sign board at the junction of KG Road and BVK iyengar road without any cine actor or local politican's face. So that made my life easier. The moment I entered BVK Iyengar road I realised what kind of test my driving skills are going to face that day. I decided to move back to KG Road but any effort of trying to take a U turn will end up in blocking the whole road, so I decided to continue on the road in my car.
once in 50m I could spot a no parking board and one way board for the side roads(?). Only bikes can enter the side ways and ofcourse our Batsha's ratham. My heart started to beat at higher rates when the travel on the road continued with me unable to find a place to stop the vehicle. When I crossed a small crossing, all of a sudden I heard the famous sound on the Bangalore roads "Oyeeeeeeeee" and there the man on the white uniform arrived like the spiderman. He stopped the whole traffic on the road and scolded me nicely and then let me go since there is no other options possible for him there.
I reached the end of the road and found a right turn beneath a over bridge. I took a U turn and decided to come back home. When I took the turn, I was shocked to see two bullock carts coming opposite to me in the wrong lane. I have faced bicycles, bikes, autorickshaws, car, trucks and buses coming the wrong lanes in Bangalore. But never a bullock cart. Oh God, thank you!
When I took the U turn, I found some parking signs. Unfortunately many people have parked their vehicle permanently. Looks like someone has gone for short term trip abroad and parked his or her car there. Some cars should have been left there atleast for months. There was some emptry space infront of a transformer to park 2 to 3 cars. being a responsible citizen I left some space between the transformer and my car for people to do their duties(hehe) and parked.
Checked the price of fans and lights in the shops around there and came back to the car to see a shocker. My car was surrounded by 4 auto rickshaws, one load vehicle and a car. Mine was nicely standing in the middle and there is not space around it in any angle. One pedestrian helped me to push an auto aside and helped me to take a car out.
Ok all the drive experiences apart, there are some best things there in Chickpet.
1)All the household goods such as all type of fans, geyzers, lights, light fittings are really cheaper there compared to what you get in other parts of the city.
2)Price differs depending on the item. Racold geyzer we were looking for costed 6900 in the place closer to my apartment but it was 6450 in chickpet. Fans are cheaper by 20 to 30%.
3)Variety is also too good.
4)Light fittings are can be bought at bargain price.
5)All the brands are available in one area.

How to reach there?

Take a bus. Surely you can find a volvo going there. If you do not want to wait for the bus, take an autorickshaw. Auto is the best. No auto driver will say no to go to Chickpet. Never try to go by car or even motorbike is not advisable.

What to buy there?

Except TVs, Cell phones, music systems, or gadgets. All the other household items. Fans, lights, grinder, mixers, light fittings, geyzers.

Cloths?
Yes, esp Sarees are lot cheaper and collections are huge.

What to speak?
It is a market by local people. So do not expect people to speak fluent English. Hindhi also can be managed. If you know kannada , then that is the best.

What day to go?
Generally shops are MOn to Saturday. On Sunday most of them work half day. SO Sunday morning is better if you know exactly what to buy.

Happy Shopping!

Mourning - BOB WOOLMER

BOB WOOLMER a great figure in the international cricket and one among the men who were passionate about cricket. He was murdered in WI for unknown reasons. Personally I had a great regard for him. I am shocked that he is no more. There certainly was some stress in his cricket life in Pakistan. But nobody imagined that it will take his life in the end. he will certainly be missed by the cricket world.

BOB

@}--

Mozhi

Monday was a Holiday in Karnataka for Ugadi, which is a lunar new year for local calendar. The day started at 9.00am with me getting a call to let me know that, sleeping until 9.00 was better on that day because of a solar eclipse :D First time somebody appreciated such a thing!

Ok it was later in the day that we booked for a show in PVR for this movie. I have been reading and hearing about this movie for quite sometime. I just could not wait watching this movie.

The movie starts with a sequence of usual Tamil cinema where a girl comes out a temple and falling in love with a poor guy. This is a scene which Prithvi and Prakash Raj make the BG music (musicians). The director is telling us that, this is the usual tamil movie and now look at mine.

Prithvi and Prakash are friends who play KBD and other instruments for Vidhyasagar(in the movie) and they move to a new apartment. Prithvi falls in love with Jo who happens to live in the same apartment. Prithvi finds out that Jo is deafmute, and falls in love more deeply. Prithvi and prakashraj take the help of Swarnamalya who is Jo's friend in the school. Jo is reluctant to commit to a wedding due to what happened to her own mom and the proceedings are the movie.

It is a very simple story, but it has been given an extradinory treatment.

Performances -
Prithvi is so sincere, Jo is perfect except a few scenes where he portrays anger, Swarnmalya is natural and Prakashraj is the best, I somehow suspect that, the character he plays is the true of his self.
Supportive characters have got a role to play and they just do it 100%. While the new comer from Andhra (Brahmanandam) makes us laugh to the core, our own MS Bhaskar makes us cry and laugh.
Other characters such as the paati, chips payyan, secretary's wife, including the karappaan poochi which scares Brahmanandham fit the script and play their role perfectly.

Music&Lyrics -
Usually in all Vidhyasagar's movies, there is great deal of importance and freedom given for lyrics and this time it is Vairamuthu who has perfectly seized the oppurtunity. Vidhyasagar has taken the BG music to some different which we have never heard. With leading roles playing as musicians, he has tried a lot of western instrumental for many kind of situations. The BG song for the scene where secretary happens to "see" Prakashraj is just an example. Whole BG score is just pure pleasure!

Dialogues -
Dialogues are done by Viji and they need a special mention here. It is just not just the dialogues, but also the perfect delivery which just makes many of them unforgettable.

One example is "Prakashrah to Swarnamalya - Naanga CBI, Swarna - Naanga epdi namburathu?" Prakashraj - Naan ippo nadanthu poren neenga CBInu koopidunga naan thirumbipaapen". It sounds very ordinary on the text, but you should watch it visually being delivered in the whole sequence. After a long long time all of the theatre was laughing from the beginning to the end of the movie.
Dialogues are crisp with comedy embedded in them through out. Maniratnam uses this technique on some of his scenes, but it is maximized to the best and through out the movie.

Editing & Screenplay -
It is tailored very well for the elegant story and direction.

Direction -
Radhamohan is the director. I have seen his Azhagiya theeye, even though it was a good movie it sounded like simple stage drama and some times artificial. But the success of his direction lies in the natureness he has induced in the character, script and comedy. Some of the comic sequences make us laugh and cry at the same time. That is something new for the first time I felt watching a Tamil movie. There are minor illogical things happening like the Parents of Prithvi and Prakashraj never showing up even for Prakash Raj's wedding. But +ves of the film makes us not to question about them.
One gem of a scene I liked is the experiment done by Prithvi to emulate his lover. It is a great imagination.

Verdict-
This kind of movies can only be made by some one who loves the quality cinema to the great extent than their own interests including money and their image.
I even doubt that Kamal Hasan with his present Ego can make such a wonderful movie, given the time, the artists, the director, the same story and more money than he actually needs.

In the end I want to thank Prakashraj, for something he has produced and acted. This movie might not get awards, but this is going to be a classic. I reserve a DVD now itself.

For the first time ever, I want to watch the movie second time.