Personal Weblog of Deepak Vasudevan

Heat waves lash Chennai The summer normally spans the period of March to June/July in Chennai and South India. With the incessant rains that Tamil Nadu recieved during November to January, there were unconfirmed predictions that summer is going to be too hot. There were'nt any quantification of the term 'too hot', which the nature itself is trying to quantify now. With the summer having begun on March 1st for this year and yesterday was the highest heat record in Chennai. It was close to the heels of 42 degree C (about 105 degree F). It is said that this incident is recurring after a period of 10 years since it was observed on May 23, 1980 as 43 deg C [Nungambakkam Met Office] and May 21, 1910, it was recorded as 45 deg C [Meenambakkam Met Office] The afternoons, everyone is trying to get locked up within the houses and workplaces under the comforts of either full-speed electric fans and/or air conditioners/air-coolers. Inspite of that, thanks to Tamil Nadu Electricity Boar...

Shame on the mimicing modernity It is a shame at least in the city of Chennai what gets practiced in the so-called big restaurants, office canteens. Some scrappy idiots always have the habit of blaming the food that is being served over there. If you would do some ground investigation on thier backgrounds, it would be more hilarious comedy and there might be cases where they might be chain-smokers, incessant drinkers and eve-teasers. I have been nurturing a silent brew of this feeling for sometime, as I witness such antipathy towards food by people in such places and sharing it out here. The other hilarious comedy is to take as much food as possible, do a showoff to the accomplices and then throw it off. I would like to fondly recall some of the positive aspects of life, which would be benefitted, if reader cascades this thought. In Hindu mythology, food is treated on par as Annapurani . The way the food is being threwn apart, it means an insult to the Goddess and accumulated bad debt...

Terrorist Jokers It is a real pity that so many governments of many nations are not able to capture the elusive Osama Bin Laden. After all, he is an accused. With the more sophisticated and state-of-the-art technology and innovation in our hands, I don't think this is a big herculean effort to capture him dead or alive. If you could really observe the patterns in which these folks attack the people, we don't have any other diplomatic word other than to brand them as Jokers . They just know to attack people from a hidden place rather than to confront them face-to-face. If we would flip through the pages of the History of India, there would be achievements of Lord William Cavendish Bentink in abolishment of Sati (burning of widows along with thier husbands pyre) and eradication of Thugs (local robbers but with strong support from isolated groups of people). Check out this URL for more details: http://www.bartleby.com/65/th/Thugs.html Even in the current age, we, in Tamil Nadu, h...

My Philips Tape Recorder -- Routine Health Checkup and a Humourous Melodrama with Canara Bank T Nagar My Philips Two-in-One was experiencing some health downtime for the past some days. There were some hiccups, coughing, bad throat (or soar throat). I was trying to find out the nearest authorised clinic (service center) for Philips and homed in on to the regular one at T. Nagar. After two days of in-patient treatment, now he is jumping back to normalcy. Today while negotiating with the T. Nagar service center, there were some interesting melodrama too. Instead of wasting time as this guy does the checkups, I thought, I would do some little banking with the Canara Bank . Albeit the fact my account was at Adyar branch, the account operations were now possible anywhere as long as the guest branch I am transaction has been brought under CBS (Core Banking Services). My branch (host branch) is already under CBS. Here goes an interesting conversation me and Canara Bank. Me > I need to make...

Wireless Network Downtime in Tambaram There seemed to be an unprecedented wireless network downtime for Airtel GSM customers in Tambaram circles yesterday afternoon through night. I noticed my mobile not even able to detect the GSM signals of Airtel (INA-Airtel) sometime around 4 PM. My friends too confirmed the same and the areas spanning from Medawalkam through Vandaloor on the stretch of Velacherry Tambaram road experienced the downtime. The network customer care confirmed that there were some base station upgradations and hence the services are being brought down in the area for a while. The services resumed through by 7 PM.

Uncontrolled Anger -- Salient Example in Mumbai   The shooting of Pramod Mahajan by his youngest brother Praveen Mahajan seems to a succinct evidence of an incident that stands testimony of uncontrolled and outburst of anger.   The reasons of the shooting are rather trivia. Neither was the any property dispute. Nor was any power or prowess problem since everyone in his family has been more stable and kind of well settled.   It was a sheer discomfort that Praveen had been nurturing that Pramod was tendering a step-motherly treatment to him, in that no proper personal care, avoidance of family functions. Perhaps this was because Praveen has been sans parents since the tender age and hence it might have been developed as a mental block for him.   It is a shame on part of Pramod's lawyer to unduly interfere and comment on Praveen that the latter was suffering from psycho disorders and hence his mental condition was not stable. I don't think Pramod himself would support ...

Mobile Telephone Directory White Pages or the normal telephone (lookup) directory is a very familiar service in landline telephones throughout the world. These days, mobile phones be it GSM or CDMA are mushrooming throughout the universe. Be it a college grad or a CEO of a MNC, a cellular phone is no more a fancy device but an inevitable piece of communication window to the external world whereever you are. This does not come for free. This window also opens up to a plethora of perils too. One is the nuisance calls, which are colloqially called as blank calls (or missed calls in technical parlance). The other one is more dangerous and takes the out-of-the-law illegal route. This takes the form of making eve-teasing calls, vulgar text messages, threats and more. The only solution would be to make a transparent lookup of all telephone numbers be it fixed landline or wireless mobile. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India too, has brought in a research paper to look into the feasibi...

Cast your Vote The Assembly elections are fast approaching in Tamil Nadu (May 8) and elections have also started in many of the states of India. It is the prime responsibility of every citizen in India to exercise his right of franchise and cast your vote. With the most advanced Electronic Voting Machine in place, you do not need to waste more time in the queues and exercise lot of hand pressure to affix your stamp in the ballot. Just a click of a button against the candidate's icon would register your choice. In case you do not have any trust on the candidates that are contesting in your constituency, Election Commission has also brought in a new button called ' No Vote '. You can use this to record your opinion. Chief Electoral Officer Naresh Gupta said on Monday that some non-governmental organisations desired having an option of "negative voting" by providing an extra button in the electronic voting machines that says "none of the above" clause. Tho...

The Rajkumar Impact It was quite fitting to the time that NDTV conducted a show where people from different walks of life and working in different cadres met together to discuss on the way the people behaved unruly after the death of Kannada matinee idol, Dr. Rajkumar. The fact that Rajkumar has never acted in any film that has depicted violence and his last journey had to witness this widespread sabotage across the garden city, succinctly specifies the message that television screens and cine creations are conveying to the people. In the talkshow, there has also been a producer, who commented that since people liked to see the violence film interspersed with diluted pornography, they are preparing that, to which a guy sharply retaliated that they should prepare to stop creating such films and try to bring a good message to society, for which the cine representative did not any answer. The problem is actually that people unduly promote these actors to the state of demigods and thatz w...

Akshaya Tritiya -- Seed of Prosperity Every year, as you flip channels through any newspapers during March to May, you can find any jewellery shop placing mostly largely sized ads that invite people to buy jewellery and with promising options like 'No Service Charges, No Wastages' and promising 'exchange old good for new one' etc. So whatz all these hype about Akshaya Tritiya ? When Akshaya Tritiya is observed on the third day after the Amavasya (New Moon Day) during the Shukla Paksha period. Normally it falls anytime between April 14 to November 14. This year (2006), Akshaya Tritiya is observed on 30th April 2006 (Sunday). Significance A good deed on this day would earn a lot of credit (punyam) for ages for the doer. People are very eager to make investments, start new business ventures on this day. Some scholars also debate that the day is so good that even weddings can be conducted on the day without much and deep consultatations of the almanacs. Background There are...

Recalling School Days ... As I have described in my travel log, about my Saturday Trip to two schools near Thiruthani , thanks to Asha Chennai chapter, it has been a great start of a humble educational service, that this weblog and my website has been emphazing for some time. For you to recall about our previous discussions on our educational ventures, check out the previous posts here: Necessity of Basic Education Initiative of a School Network Webpage Noble Educational Service The school functions really make us very peaceful and rejuvenate our mind with more energy to think positively and with more amount of creativity. As the function started, there was the recitation of Tamil Thay Vazhthu , which is a widely followed custom in Tamil Nadu and slowly, I jumped back to my class tenth Tamil class, the start of which is punctuated by the rhythmic chanting of 'Neerarum Kadalutha' by Kavimani Desiga Vinayagam Pillai. I could'nt see myself in Tiruthani function and I was virt...

Eradicating Acute Flaccid Paralysis ("Polio" aka POLIOMYELITIS) One of the most devastating and crippling disease that target young and tender kids is Polio . Polio is described medically as Acute Flaccid Paralysis . Thanks to the untiring efforts of Government of Tamil Nadu, TN has been remaining polio free for the past few years.  Today is actually the second round of Pulse Polio Drops day. If you know a kid that is in  your vicinity, ensure that you reminds its parents to take it to the nearest Public Health Center or a hospital to administer Pulse Polio Drops for free. Let us join hands with the Government of Tamil Nadu in its noble venture of making Tamil Nadu as Polio-free. Check out more details on the same at Polio-free Tamil Nadu page. Central and State Governments of other states too have initiated similar healthcare missions. Following are a few URLs for readers' quick and easy reference: Polio Eradication Strategy by Government of Delhi.  India G...

Musical Film of Feast -- Thoughtful Entertainment Thanks to Raj TV that they telecasted the film called Sindhu Bhairavi, which was directed by Kavithalaya under the prime leadership of K. Balachander. While flipping the TV Channels on Monday, I chanced to observe the advertisement of the film being screened on Wednesday 9 PM. My Todolist and Hotmail calendars automatically blocked these hours for Sindu Bhairavi . I had some schedules though and could start by 7.30 PM but interestingly the most heavy traffic Velacherry Checkpost, Madippakkam stretch gave way and the little fast bus B51 just zipped its way to get the TV channel at the right time. There are a lot of things that could be discussed as a plus for Sindhu Bhairavi . I don't think no one can discuss all the features in one shot though some bullet points would be ok. A pure musical film and a story of a singer [JKB -- Starring Sivakumar] who is so attached to music but his wife [Bhairavi -- Starring Sulakshana] not so much. ...

Luxury Parties Or Compassionate Citizenship Or Pious Devotion A trend that is being setup particularly in Chennai which I would like to discuss. Be it a group of college members or a team too, it does not matter. Even if a guy gets a small compliment (like a marketing stunt from Citibank) like a Citibank India Lifetime free Card, immediately the group would start the harassment of the victim for party party . The party symbolises pompous shows at an exhorbitantly priced extravagantly expensive luxury restaurant adding to the thousands to the innocent victims' credit card bill. In most of the cases, the party accompanies liquor too, adding to much disgusting obscenity, vulgarism and more ... And more too... I am not trying to offend any particular nor anybody's thought. This is purely my personal observation. From my personal perspective, I dislike spending from my wallet for pleasures on any account rather I would be glad if that is useful for some mankind in need.  Th...

State Elections in India (May 2006) A significant number of states are preparing to conduct elections for thier assemblies and legislative bodies in India. They are Assam, Kerala, Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Of these, as you might know that Assam has already seen the first phase of the elections last week. From the perspective of Tamil Nadu (since I am from TN), I just thought of writing so that the reader could all information regarding the election and the election commission, which is a very significant responsibility on the citizen of the nation. It is a prime responsibility of every citizen to exercise his right of franchise and vote to select representatives in the legislative body as even our President Dr. A. P.J. Abdul Kalam describes in his speeches. Check out one of his Republic day speeches here . Note: I am not politically attached to any of these parties. This post is purely for information for voters, mainly TamilNadu. From the perspective of TamilNadu, t...