New Indian team

As I am writing this India is thrashing SL for their 4th consecutive victory and 9th in a row. Somehow this new India which arose from worst worldcup defeat seems very confident, ruthless and fighting. Something good to watch during the depressed times. Mahendra Singh Dhoni who was considered as a hardhitter when he first participated in the pakistan tour is playing totally different role as captain with his focus more on rotating the strikes and keeping the innings alive. Either of openers are playing pretty good and there is always some one supporting the previous efforts. No bowler is world number one, but they all bowl for the ultimate goal. Looks like a strong bonded team. Something similar to my work place. Everyone is thirsty of success, each one helps in others success.
Couple of weeks back I saw an interview of TamilNadu cricketers on Coffee with Anu in Star Vijay. What I saw was a different picture there. Even though the pool consisted of speciality batsmen, speciality bowlers and all rounders none of Jelled together. For a given question, no body seemed to be approving or even listening to other's answers, shocking. For whatever sake, guys next when you come on a 30 minutes enjoy the moment and serve the purpose the interview rather than trying to win the show. if you server the purpose you will win it as what those folks in the ultimate place do. Look at Sachin, i have never seen him smile and be so jovial like this..

Nokia 5800 Xpress music - my impressions

Since my ROKR E6 is getting old and had slipped at average rate of once a day for the past one week I was tempted to look at future alternatives. Sicne I was used to touch interface on my ROKR E6 and ipod touch at home, I am almost decided that my next phone should have a touch interface.
Obviously my budget does not allow me to choose an iPhone which is being sold unlocked in India or other winmo devices such as omnia and HTC. Nokia has been doing lots of campaign on their new touch interface and I know that the device is priced below 20k. I was googling around for reviews when the device was launched outside of India. But method of "valuation" for a mobile is different between India and other places. So I wanted to check out this with any owners. Fortunately I had a chance to enter a cave called CMH road this Sunday I decided to stop by the Nokia store to checkout the highly hyped 5800 Xpress music phone.
The shop was less crowded and I asked for demo of 5800 Xpress music. The person in the store pulled a completely loaded version(with SIM, lots of songs, movies etc) of 5800 and handed it to me to do my own hands ON. I kind of did not expect this as usually stores will display only a toy model of the phone a word demo itself is only a distant dream in Bangalore. But anyway the guy at the store was kind and he did give me a working model for me to play with. I did use it for 10 minutes. Ironically I did everything except making a call to checkout a cellphone. My impressions are

1)First things which struck me was build of the phone. For a phone which cocsts Rs19900, I did not expect a build which always felt like they missed to tighten a screw.
2)Screen was simple and was not crowded with multiple icons but the touch response is slow (not too slow) and the latency of response was getting worse with apps started running.
3)I streamed videos from net using Wifi and I was impressed. Audio quality is also good for music
4)Browser experience still has to catch upto an year old Ipod touch/iphone. There are may be adition S/W support compared to Apple segment, but this one is slower from an experience perspective.
5) There was maps and it showed the location of mine exactly. It comes with maps loaded for 8 cities which is a good thing.
5)it comes with 8GB add on card and can be expanded to 16GB.

If I purchase 5800 improvements that I will enjoy is a Wifi browsing (same browsing interface experience as my E6 though), maps(definitely great) and large screen(not a must have for a cell phone where the Wifi is not so common).

5800 Express music was hyped as iPhone killer, but it is not even closer to be called iPhone killer. Nokia is just trying to say that music, wifi and large screens does not cost much, but with lessened experience.

I decided not to spend 20k to get the maps and I would rather keep my current E6 for somemore time.

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.

MS word bug - Time has arrived for our BPOs to serve the customer in Space

I read an article that ground staff are banned from sending MS word attachments to the space shuttle mission becoz of possible anti-virus issues. It looks some bangalorean call centre will soon get a call from space to fix their PC issues. I do not know what is the make of PC used by space mission :)
More here

Online Map services linked to CNET editor's death

Here is an arcticle which says that a wrong route suggested by online map service could have made this Man one wrong turn which ended his life. We had a similar experience when we took the route to MtRainier from yahoo maps in 2003. We met a dead end junk yard and a board saying "we will not call 911 and tresspassers will be met with a gun" kind of boards.
With the kind of blood flowing in our veins, we still called those guys behind the warning boards and asked them the route to Rainier ;)
Online maps are great inside the city, but I believe that the road signs are the best when traveling around the places like US.

iPhone is a reality???

All the people who made fun of me when I got my new Nano, get ready to get it back. If this is true then Sony will learn a lesson about why they should not mix up camera into a cell phone.

Nokia??? Nokia has to learn a lot and more importantly People who buy N series will know how they are being robbed by Nokia.

Motorola - let us whether iPhone can beat the looks of Razr. There is nothing else in the Razr.

Good one about Gujju's - Thanks Sabari for sending this one

An Arab was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital, Bombay for an open heart Surgery. Prior to the surgery the doctors needed to store his blood in case the need arrived. As the Arab had a rare type of blood group, which couldn't be found locally, a call went out nationwide.

Finally a Gujarati gentleman was located who had a similar type of blood group. The Gujarati willingly donated his blood for the Arab. After the surgery, the Arab sent the Gujarati, as appreciation for donating his blood - a new Toyota Prado, diamonds and US one million.

A few years on, the Arab had to undergo corrective surgery. His doctor telephoned the Gujju who was more than happy to donate his blood again.After the second surgery, the Arab sent the Gujarati a thank you card and a jar of almond halwa sweets.

The Gujarati was shocked to see that the Arab this time did not reciprocate the kind gesture as he had anticipated. He asked the Arab why had he only given a card and a jar of Almond sweets.

To this the Arab replied, "Bapu... now I have Gujju blood in my veins!"

Wal*Mart enters India

After started to bet on stocks, I spend sometime watching the business healdine in the nights. The latest buzz is that Bharti and WalMart are having a JV to start retail business in India.
And as usual the comrades have started raising their flags against it. This specific case is very good I believe, It will be really interesting to see how Bharti will solve the complex logistical problems existing in India.
Similar to US are we going to see a bigger Bharti - Walmart store in Bangalore-Hosur, Bangalore-Hyderabad and Bangalore - Bombay highways soon?
I hate big bazaars because of the crowds they generate. The amount of commercial and parking space they have and the amount of crowd they generate are unproportional and sure someone who has been owning pantaloon retail stocks should have got the rewards for this. If Bharti is going to do the same thing then I would rather go to a food world or fab mall closer to my house than driving in the crazy Bangalore traffic to save 50rs and spend 100Rs on petrol.
Anyway All the best to Mittal!

US visa

Recently went to attend the US visa interview in Chennai consulate. Horrible experience this time..
1)Do not go to Consulate 15 minutes before the interview time. It really does not matter where you are standing in the queue, 15 minutes before the interview you will be called to come closer to the security check.
2)Only case when there is no people waiting they may allow you to go inside embassy in advance. But that is like lesser crowd in Tirupathi temple.
3)Elders do no take a noon interview. You just need to enjoy the Chennai climate standing in the mount road if you reach in advance.
It was interesting to know chennai embassy processes largest number of Visas. It is not going to reduce anytime soon. My approximate estimation of the number attendees =
(2*30% of people who went to US on a job) + (1*80% of guys who got married ~a year ago at the same time and working in US) + 10% of the experienced guys who joined in a new s/w company without a visa + 50% of freshers who joined s/w company
That is the minimum, there is hell lot of other industries who also work with Americans. So it is never going to come down.
One more interesting piece I found after my weekend outing with my collegue who is from IIT delhi is there apprx 5 times more people from IIT chennai go to US than IIT delhi. Somebody is listening?

Chennai trip 10/11 - 12/11

First time flew to Chennai for personal trip. Went to visit Sivan's wedding. Sometimes it feels good to do some thing like this for friends.
Rest two days were usual. Went to Residencey towers this towers and they refused to let me inside the Bikes' pub. I did not wear shoes damn it! I did not even wear shoes for my last interview. We went to the restarant (central street?) over there and buffet was really good.
Somebody looking for a good dinner place can go here. Costs 400Rs per person.

Then watched Lago Raho Munnbhai. Movie was good. Still I believe that Gandhi is captured completely in that movie. Gandhi is non violent, but he is stronger than a terrorist in his mind. He is truley extremist towards peace, non violence, freedom of speech. But people make fun of hi just because he will not hit back. I believe that he deserves a lot more. Will want to write a bit more about this a detailed blog.
THis I took a ride on OMR (new name for old mahabalipuram road). OMR has got a new name but it is pathetic. They should ahve named it differently like some suggestions
Lake view road - More water in the road than any other lakes
PTH - Path to hell
My sympathies to the people who travel on the road to reach their office!

Moview review - Vallavan

We saw this movie over the weekend. When I booked the tickets, my collegue advised me to avoid this as he has suffered headache after watching this movie. Since we did not watch a Tamil movie for a long time, we decided to go ahead with the plan.
Movie starts with Simbhu's name coming up similar to Rajini's super star title and has a dialogue for his intro like "pattaya kelappitu irukaaru."
He continues like SJ suryah, tries to be a Kamal and ends like Raghuvaran. It is all just trying out, but he has passed only in the role of SJ Suryah. In the meanwhile there is a mix of padayappa neelambari and dhool sornaa akka in reema sen who is shown as school girl(devudaa). That is the real killer for the audience and it makes you feel like simbhu's role is ok.
Simbhu should realize that, nobody will become a suprt star just because they call themself a super star. Otherwise we can spot him in kilpauk hospital within 10 years.

Hello Bengalooru

Recently Bangalore has been renamed to Bengalooru. Some say it as Bangalooru, Bendakolooru.. what ever it is, it is more local than "Bangalore" Some people worry about brand name. Bangalore is a name of a place rather than a brand.

Brands are always built, so let us not crib about loosing Bangalore. It is better to keep local names for a country like India which thrives on local identities. Previously the names of the Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai have been changed and no brands or no business have been lost. Just call it with whatever local people like and continue to make the place better than making big fuzz about it. More about the name change here

Colours are way of showing up the emotions, people use black to protest, white for peace, red to signal a danger, blue for infinity.. and whether we like it or not we go have to see all of them in our life. I want to paint this blog with the colours of my life. Thanks for coming over here.