Personal Weblog of Deepak Vasudevan

Novel Travel from Camp Road to Ekkaduthangal Today Today as I started to commute to my workplace and the moment I reached the bus stand, I saw B51 coming. Sometime back, you remember we were discussing about B51 too over here . Recently B51 route has changed. No longer the bus takes Madipakkam and Velacherry. It reaches upto Adambakkam junction and then takes a detour through Nanganallur Thillai Ganga Nagar to reach Kathipara via Cement Road. I would say that B51 is always like a voyager bus. The route it takes is always unique. Even in its previous avatar, while its counterparts had the usual boring route of Velacherry Pallikaranai Medawalkam, this guy had the privilege of taking Medawalkam Koot Road, Kovilambakkam, Madippakkam and Velacherry Bypass. Now even the sick slow and slushy Madippakkam and Velacherry are no more for this fellow. He takes the royal religious and robust route through Nanganallur. There were big hallabaloos cum hues and cries in 'The Hindu' regarding...

The Beacon Light A ship that is undertaking a voyage on the deep seas need a beacon light to ascertain its shores and to an extent, I think this helps the ship to gauge the depth too. Similarly, I would like to thank the following two for showing me a very nice encouraging website called ' Community-Credit '. This keeps encouraging your community contributions throughout every day and every moment. This keeps you alive in the sense that you are not idle even one second. You learn tips and tricks of trade in anything and everything -- in every single mouseclick and/or a keypress. My sincere thanks and appreciation to Vadivel and Hima Bindu for comprehensively discussing about Community-Credit in their weblogs and Vadivel to even personally recommend in one of the emails. With such beacon lights, there are more miles to conquer and laurels to win. Stay Tuned!!!

Veeramani Raju Bhajan on December 1 I guess you would have noticed that hidden in the flow of the post on ' Sabarimala Trip by Sri Ranga Travels ', I have mentioned about Veeramani Raju's Bhajan presentation in Congress Grounds, Teynampet, Chennai. During my trip to Tiruvallikeni last saturday, I saw the hoarding in front of Congress Grounds. Address: Kamaraj Memorial Hall, Congress Grounds, Teynampet, Chennai -- 600 018. Tamil Nadu. INDIA. Landmark(s): Before Anna (Gemini) Flyover from Tambaram to Parrys direction. Opposite 'Sterling Towers' building. 2 minutes walkable distance from United States Consultate Office, Chennai and 5 minutes walkable from Landmark, Gemini. MTC Bus Stop: DMS I think the timings should be like last year towards 1700 hours in the evening.

.NET Runtime Exception at Guindy Kathipara Following my post on ' An Interesting Encounter in 51L ', when the bus was near Velacherry Checkpost, the conductor was asking the crowd waiting there that people should board with required change and not to show one hundred rupee note for a two rupee ticket. This was because he was running short of change. He was saying that without change, he would be giving ticket to Kathipara only and not to Guindy. This is because it is a 'rounded' amount to Kathipara. He was indicating Kathipara as a 'RoundTana' stop. All of a sudden, I could'nt control my laughter since the roundtana is no more there in Kathipara for the Golden Quadrilateral project that is being constructed. In .NET Runtime parlance, it is almost like ' System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object '.

An Interesting 'Encounter' in 51L From Camp Road to CMBT, there is one short route bus for me. Of course, the frequency of the bus is very limited. It is route number 51L and is operated by Kalignar (Karunanidhi) Nagar bus terminus. Interestingly in the morning, the service comes at 0730 Indian Time and reaches Kathipara by 0815 since the very famous traffic bottlenecks at Velacherry Checkpost, Halda and Kathipara report to thier  traffic bottleneck duty only from 0900 to 2200 hours Indian Time. Since the bus was relatively  empty, the conductor was asking one guy, who seemed to be a HIET (Hindustan Institute of Engineering and Technology) student to come inside the bus and refrain from footboarding. Heaven knows why people like footboarding so very particular. From Velacherry, this guy was playing hide and seek with the conductor. No longer than the bus crossed Sagar Hotel bus stop in Guindy, the conductor got wild and started shouting at him; rather incessantly barking...

Branches of Dentistry Sometime back I was narrating my experience on a visit to a dentist for Root Canal Treatment. He was actually an endodontist. And the next week while I was travelling in the Gopalapuram road, I saw a number of dentist nameboards with different types of specializations like Orthodontists, Prosthodontics etc. I was surprised on the number of specialisations and just thought I would consult a dentistry website or a dentist to know more about the same. A search in the Internet among the various hospital and dentistry websites I could compile the following list of specializations in dentistry, the research information of which I would like to share with other readers. Gone are the days in which a dentist were visualized as demons carrying sharp and cruel forceps with which they break your tooth and extract it. The modern dentristy emphasizes more 'Save Your Tooth' since extraction of a tooth means making the body more weak. Dentures have sharp relationship w...

Chottanikkara Temple On The Web For devotees travelling to Sabarimala , the very famous temples en route are Bhannari, Kodangallur, Vaikom, Chottanikkara. While casually browsing Orkut site, I came across a community of Chottanikara Bhagavathy temple and a community dedicated to the temple. The website also offers a webcast like feature (yet to check it out myself) of Deeparadhana at 1830 hours everyday. Website URL: http://www.chottanikkarabhagavathy.org/ Deeparadhana URL: http://www.chottanikkarabhagavathy.org/home.html Orkut Community: http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=16138566 Other websites and Orkut Communities of Bhagavathy Temples: Attukkal Website: http://www.attukal.org/ Orkut Community: http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=22882786 Vaikom Mahadevar Kshetram: http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=15125526

Sharana Gosham on AsiaNet Channels AsiaNet, the premiere Malayalam satellite channel joins the bandwagon of millions of staunch Ayyappa devotees in singing the glory of the Lord and the incessant chanting of His divine Sharana Gosham ' Swamiye Saranam Ayyappa '. The following are the programmes that are currently telecast in AsiaNet. "Swami Ayyappan" serial telecast every weekday from Monday-Friday in AsiaNet at 2130 hours Indian Time. Source: Orkut Lord Ayyappa Community . While I could just get the information recently, today AsiaNet had telecast this at about 1130 in the morning. Of course, as they say in the community discussions, it was just three stanzas of Harivarasanam but it is really an excellent serial. A search in the leading Thiruvanthapuram Daily Papers' online editions revealed the following programmes too. Source Courtesy: "The Hindu", Thiruvanathapuram . "Sabari Theertham" at 0715 -- News Bulletin for 10 minutes to provide th...

Sabarimala Trip by Shri Ranga Travels and Tours India It was about in 2005 December 1, when attending the Ayyappa Bhajan by Veeramani Raju at Congress Grounds, Teynampet, I came to know about the travel and tour services by Shri Ranga Travels and Tours India Limited. My previous year Sabarimala trip was actually organized by them. This year, I got the pamplet from them regarding the various tour programmes that they are planning for Sabarimala (Mandala Pooja and Makara Jyothi) and have compiled them below. I would like the readers to share this information with other Ayyappa devotees and friends so that they can also benefit from these programmes. And by the way, I would also like to share the information that just yesterday I saw the big hoarding in front of Congress Grounds, Teynampet (Kamaraj Memorial Hall) that Veeramani Raju's Ayyappa Bhajans is scheduled on December 1, 2006. Swamiye Saranam Ayyappa Sabarimala Yatra by Shri Ranga Travels and Tours India Tour 1: Sabarim...

     Slow but SureThis month the payment of my utility bills went delayed to the 'Payment Due Date' and just whisked off just before the 'Payment Due Date'. The bills did reach me in time and since I was subscribed to both the hardcopy and soft copies. It was due to a bit of scheduling issues. A few of the MSN Hotmail tasks were showing 'Overdue' too and as of blogging this, all tasks are clear. The backlogs have been cleared off in toto. Whether it was the climatic transitioning that was causing a bit of lethargy or inertia? I never know but just another bite of fun and a novel experience to share with my readers too.<!-- bd_ad_type = 'inline'; bd_ad_id = '60009'; //-->           Posted at 03:20 pm by Deepak Kumar Vasudevan           Original BlogDrive Post on Friday, November 24, 2006

Offerings to Thirupathi Hundi from right near your neighborhood It has been an age-old practice among many of the HIndu families that any holy event should be marked with a visit to Tirumala Tirupathi and an offering in the Hundi made. Now this process has become still more simpler. You can ensure that your offering reaches the Lord right from your neighborhood. Syndicate Bank , one of India's premiere nationalized bank has tied up with Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanams to accept offerings to Sri Vari Hundi from people at no charge and then transfer to Tirumala Tirupathi Hundi account the same day. Check out Syndicate Bank webpage here for more details or reach thier Toll Free Voice Mail 1-800-425-65-55

A Visit to the Dentist I had been planning a while to visit my dentist since I had some pain in a premolar teeth. Sometime on November 1 (Wednesday), I made a visit. This was about the adjacent tooth that was serving as the epicenter, whose neighbor was treated about two years back . This time, I had initiated a visit myself quite early because of the following reasons: An earlier experience of acute dental pains My work nature prevented me from delaying too much and getting back to full swing at the earliest. It has been treated off now and perhaps more interesting experiences in the clinic same as in the linked previous experience. The treatment, this time on a multiple sitting basis was spanning from November 1 till about November 9, my Birthday eve . For those interested in knowing the details of Root Canal Treatment, here is the link from Animated Teeth website .

Free Entrance Examination Engineering Examinations be it Anna University or IIT in Chennai has always been a cherished goal of any Tamil Nadu Higher Secondary Student. The examinations have also been remaining nightmare throughout for both the students in terms of acute stress and preparation as also for the parents for the severe pinch in the pockets and bank accounts. For the financially challenged, associations like Parent Teacher Association (PTA), operating from Directorate of Public Instruction, College Road, Chennai -- 600 006 organizes free monthlong training classes in April. From the examinations point of view, MNM Jain Engineering College (Misrimal Navajee Munoth Engineering College) is planning to organize free model entrance examinations for engineering aspirants who are currently in their twelfth standards. The examinations would be conducted on December 3 between 10 AM and 1 PM in various schools. Interested heads of institutions should contact Dr. K.S. Meenakshi Sundar...

Distance Learning on Mahatma Gandhi's Life Gandhi Study Center, which functions from 58, Venkat Narayana Road, T. Nagar, Chennai -- 600 017, is known for conducting various examinations to school students on the lifestory of Mahatma Gandhi , who is respected as Father of Indian Nation . The latest innovative educational service from them is a correspondence course on the lifestory of Mahatma Gandhi targetted at housewives, businessmen, politicians and people who love their country. The core syllabi of the curriculum would be: LifeStory of Gandhi Philosophical Thoughts. The fees for the course has been fixed at INR 150/- The course would be modelled as a distance education programme where the course materials would be sent by post to the students. Students can also write the examinations at home and send the answersheets back to the center by post. The date of the examination is scheduled on January 30, when Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated. The day has been declared to be obse...

Thanks for the birthday wishes This day of 10th November, 2006 dawned out for me with phenomenal number of vibrant fun-filled birthday greetings brimming with love from diversified quarters. The spurt of greetings seeded right at 00:00 hours by Redhy Issac . Though there were a few network hiccups, Airtel was gracious enough to alert me regarding all such missed and unreachable call attempts . A spurt of text messages and incoming calls was flowing into my mobile to greet me with 'Happy Birthday' wishes. Also, my sincere thanks, wishes and greetings to my beloved VzOne ( Ashutosh Inamdar , Harikaran Sivakumar , Prathiba Venkatesan (aka) Kitten , Seshadri Ramasubramanian , Srinivas Wudali, Srinivasan Rajagopalan ), team [in alphabetical order] for their thoughtful, loved birthday greetings. There are'nt much words to express my thanks to the choicest love being shown. Just in brief --> My heart is with you. Interestingly, in our community, we seldom attribute importance ...

Lunch at Hotel Saravana Bhavan, KK Nagar Today I had some work and hence came to office. Since I was feeling hungry I just thought either I would give a call to Dial-O-Dine but then thought I would go down the lane to Hotel Saravana Bhavan , which is next stop, next to Kasi Theater. As against the Met Department warnings of the showers, it was scorching Sun all along. The food was really good today and there were some more special sweets and curd offered. It was sumptous to cover the real deep hungry and propitated the intestinal hydrochloric acid not to keep leeching but to go and take rest. Though a bit costly, I think Saravana Bhavan is worth its quality, unlike its next competitor like Murugan Idli shop .

Birthday Month of November (2006) This birthday celebrations list has expanded now. There are a lot of birthdays that to celebrate over this month. Let us join hands in wishing these birthday babies 'Very Many Happy Returns of the Day'. Wish you many many happy returns of the day. Srinivas Wudali (November 5) Sathyanarayanan Srinivasan (November 7) Umesh Deena (November 8) Aravinthan Narayanan (November 9) Vasudevan Deepak Kumar (This Blogger) (November 10) Sairam (November 12) Arulvendan Srinivasan (November 26) Sumitha Satheesh Balakrishna Nair (November 29) Besides this, 14th November earns the pride of celebrity birthday of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, which is celebrated worldwide as Children's Day . Jawaharlal Nehru loved children and he was known as 'chacha' Nehru amongst the children and hence his birthday is revered as Children's Day. Turn on your speakers to listen to nice birthday song/melody. You may need to have a Fast DSL to listen to this MP3 St...

Calm and Cool Restaurant in Anna Salai Very often while I travel through Tiruvallikeni, I had to alight at Santhi theater bus stop and take the next bus. And most of the time, I land up there and feel very tired. Myself and my friend found a very nice restaurant there called 'Hotel Prahlad'. It is not that big restaurant like Saravana Bhavan or Vasantha Bhavan chain of restaurants. But they do maintain good food quality. The pricing is also moderate and does not pinch the wallet very much. The cuisines serverd are high quality and pure vegetarian. They do a lot of outdoor catering also and I have requested for the number from the card and would like to share with the readers, who would like to go and order some catering stuff from 'Hotel Prahlad'. I like the suggestion that they have put in over the exit way. 'If you are happy with our services, tell your friends. If you are unhappy in some aspects, tell us and we would be glad to rectify thier services'. The wa...

Showers of Blessings The monsoons have finally arrived in Chennai . But is the city really prepared to greet the monsoons? I think we are encountered with a big No for this question. The other day while commuting from Tambaram to Chennai, I had to literally open up the umbrella right inside the bus. I was actually serving as a lead and a quite few of the passengers emulated the same behavior. The problem was the conditions of the bus was very rickety and it was leaking in almost every corner. You ought to live with this situation in Chennai, since rainy season brings in a more painful price rise pinch with respect to autos who charge not less than 50 Rupees for any kilometer. They show different facial expressions and abhinayams to convince the customer on various grounds 'So long distance', 'One way', 'Help the laborer', 'Rain'. You can hear more than a couple of dozens of such rhymes from auto fellows. Anyway, rains in Chennai is currently greeted by o...

Sri Vallabha Maha Ganapathy Kumbabishekam While travelling back from Tiruvallikeni to Guindy today, I got the information near West Mambalam regarding the Kumbabhishekam of Vallabha Ganapathi this week. The celebrations are starting off with musical concerts starting off right today evening. The temple is located near Sri Ram Samaj Ayodhya Mandapam in West Mambalam which is a very prominent landmark. The bus stop that you need to alight for the Sri Vallabha Maha Ganapathy temple is 'Indian Bank Bus Stop, West Mambalam'. Vakratunda Mahakaaya Suryakoti Samaprabha Nirvighnam Kuru Mey Deva Sarva Kaaryeshu Sarvada

Speech Therapy Camp in Chennai A free consultation camp for patients ailing from stammering, stuttering and related speech disorders is being organized by Sri Ramachandra Medical Center.  Let us spread this message to people and help them to recover from thier ailment. The following are the details: Sri Ramachandra Medical Center, 22, Bawa Road, Alwarpet, Chennai. Date and Time: November 4 and 5, 2006 between 9 AM and 5 PM Indian Time. To register, please contact +914424662777 or +919382849613

Birthday for KanniyaKumari Today when I turned on to Sun News Channel ,  I heard one more news too. Besides November 1 being celebrated in the state of Karnataka (erstwhile the princely state of Mysore), even Kanniyakumari (the southern tip of India and in the state of Tamil Nadu) is also observing its birthday of getting itself cut from Kerala and joining the state of Tamil Nadu. The state bifurcations were being done sometime around 1970s for linguistic and administrative reasons. With the two places celebrating thier birthdays, Bangalore has one more occasion to rejoice. Its name is being changed to reflect the pre-colonial name of 'Bengaluru'. We have been discussing this over an earlier post .

This Day That Age (October - November 2004) It is a fond recall that in 2004 about the same date I had been staying around in Bangalore for a while for personal reasons .  November 1 is Kannada Rajyotsava festival and it is a local holiday there.  We had a little bit of shopping, a quick journey to Chennai since I the then proximity October 30 was the extended date for submission of IT Returns at Nungambakkam Office. Special thanks to Sumitha Sathish Balakrishna Nair of C S Software Solutions for staying late till I went very late in the evening to get my Form 16 for the year 2004 and then dart across to Nungambakkam to file my IT returns. I had to get special permission from one of the officers there since my address reflected Tambaram and I had to somehow push the Form there. The next day morning, we flew back to Bangalore, though it was a state holiday in Karnataka for 'Kannada Rajyotsava'.