Thursday, May 31, 2007

Thunderous Name to attract customers

Thunderous Name to attract customers

Today I travelling to workplace in V51, I caught a glimpse of a nice Tea-Stall which had a very interesting name. It had a name 'TSunami Snacks'. TSunami is actually the powerful tidal waves which struck terrors in Chennai sea coasts about two years back. Being new to this region, the effects of TSunami still strike terrors in the minds of people. We are still in the process of TSunami rehabilitation in many of the small fishermen villages.

With this current situation, I would really like to appreciate the Tea Stall owner for making the effective use of the name to give to his shop as 'TSunami Snacks'. We use words like 'It Rocks', 'Awesome' etc. In a way, we get used to these repeated words. Thanks to Redhy Issac, for introducing a novelty in the word to convey awesome 'Deverastic'. However, this tea stall owner still impresses me for his thunderous name to enthrall, entice and enchant the customers to his shop, just by a cute and innovative name.  For those curious Chennai-ites, who want to visit this shop, you need to drive from Velacherry, take the first right into Madipakkam at Kaiveli junction, drive for a few miles till Sadasivam nagar. You can find this shop before Sadashivam Nagar (and Ram Nagar junction bus stop).

Pain becomes pleasure with B51 and V51

Pain becomes pleasure with B51 and V51

We have long time back discussed about the route re-calibrations in Metropolitan Transport Corporation for route numbers B51 and V51 plying between T. Nagar and Tambaram. After a while, just got an opportunity today to travel the V51 route. I personally feel (again reemphasizing our previous discussion) that the new route makes the travel more pleasurable. I would like to outline this in the following reasons:

  1. The route that V51 takes currently is Tambaram - Kovilambakkam - Madipakkam - Velacherry - T. Nagar. Since this route is a bit long route and the bus has comfortable legspace, faster engines, comfortable deluxe seats and clear view windows, it makes and gives the passengers a comfortable travel luxury as if travelling in the luxury bus. The charges are still less compared to taking a private share auto service, where you are squeezed like one in a big tomato bag.
  2. The re-calibration of route also greatly helps the commuters in Adambakkam who are now connected with GST Road, Nanganallur and Madipakkam.
We hence, I think should, should appreciate the MTC for the good new routes being introduced and support them by using these buses more which would be a great encouragement for them.

Inter-month Busy schedules

Inter-month Busy schedules

A while back we were discussing about Monday Blues and Thursday Teals. Just I was curious and thinking if the calendar and time-organizing applications that we normally use can help us in some way to make up and streamline our time-management practices. Alongside, I have also observed that with month-wise credit submissions in websites like Community-Credit, where you can observe typical peak loads for even the moderator of the website.

The peak loads cross insurmountable limits during month ends and month starts during the periods of March and April, where we also have Tax planning practices, summer vacation plans and child education plans for the next academic year.

I think this is one such option that calendar utilities can consider as a good feature request that should be incorporated into. What do you think?
One-click Webmail Access - Easily monitor & access your email accounts!
Visit http://www.inbox.com/notifier and check it out!

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Early Start and Late Returns in Chennai Summer

Early Start and Late Returns in Chennai Summer

The daylight savings was actually introduced in the various states of United States and elsewhere so that the longest day time that is available can be made a productive use for the various activities besides conserving a lot of artificial electricity and energy. I feel that knowingly or unknowingly, we are also following this custom in Chennai to an extent, at least within the hot peak summer (Kathiri).

To elaborate on the topic, to avoid travelling in hot sun, we try to start early to work and while returning to avoid the crowd and the hot sun, we start back home late. Also, our other policy of 'Stay Safe ... Indoors...' that we have outlined over here, seems to be very much valid too. What do you think about this? Share your views...

Finally summer starts to recede...

Finally summer starts to recede...

The acute peak summer that has started to heat and fry Chennai from May 4 this year is finally giving way to normal hot temperature from today. No more Kathiri from May 29 till next year. But there would not be an immediate cooling effect on the earth like flashing a magic wand but you can for sure be free of the acute heat waves frying you up live.

And more good news is that today morning Sun News they were announcing the onset of South West monsoon to Kerala coast. This means more cooling up of the land from the reels of hot summer.

Monday, May 28, 2007

A Sunday Evening at Bikes and Barrels

A Sunday Evening at Bikes and Barrels

As part of Chennai MVP meet yesterday, myself and Naresh were discussing with our Community Manager in Chennai. Sunday seemed to have dictated not much people to venture out besides I guess the gruesome summer too. After starting from Taj Connemara at about half past five, we had some quick bowling game at Egmore. We then headed straight to Bikes and Barrels located at Residency Towers, T. Nagar, Chennai.

We had a brief session of soft drinks and some quick bite dinner. We then started back to Taj Connemera and then disperse off to respective homes and on the way had some quick touring around the city-centre chat shop at Ispahani center too.

The Bikes and Barrels was really a very interesting thing. With a good ambience it was a good calm atmosphere. Interestingly Bikes and Barrels restricts you severely in the way you come to the pub. Women are expected to come in good decently covered dress and men are expected to come in full sleeves, fully closed shoes.  In a way, I feel these restrictions are good to ensure that the entertainment does not go astray.

After the session, I started off to Tambaram to reach there around 00:00 hours to catch a quick auto to reach home.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Shirdi Sai Baba Darshan

Shirdi Sai Baba Darshan

During my routine temple trip yesterday, I got a pamplet that was being distributed in the temple. It was highlighting about tours to important pilgrimage destionations like Shirdi, Pandaripur, Mantralayam etc. I called the number and they gave me more info too. They were glad when I told them if I could share across to other readers as well. Here are the details of the tour.

Disclaimer: The details are being published as a humble service to interested pilgrims and devotees. I do not vouch for any claims. I am also not associated with the advertiser. You are advised to cross-check with the advertiser regarding the details yourself.


Tour: Shirdi Sai Baba Darshan
Organized and Managed By: Indian Railways Bharat Darshan Tourist Train (Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corpn.)

The tour tries to address a direct tourist train from Chennai Egmore to Shirdi, Kopergaon. Alongside, they have also planned to cover Mantralayam and Pandaripur.

Tour duration: 6 days
Departure: 20 June, 2007
Tour Tariff: INR 3145 (The pamplet says this includes train fare, food, accomodation and local sight-seeing).
Tour Highlights:

  1. The travel organizers seems to have booked the entire train for only this tour.
  2. The train comprises of seven coaches with pantry car.
  3. Tourist buses and coaches have been arranged for in sight-seeing spots.
  4. Night stay accomodation means Dormitory accomodation.
  5. Each coach has been fixed with audio systems for religious discourses during travel/transits.

Contact Details:

Travel Times (India) Pvt Ltd,
11, Club House Road,
(Opposite Spencer Plaza),
Anna Salai,
Chennai -- 600 002.

Telephone: 914428461131, 914428461113

Website: http://www.railtourism.com/


Tour Details

20 June 2007
Departure from Egmore, Chennai at 0700 hours (Train Journey)

21 June 2007

  1. Arrival at Kopergaon and Proceed to Shirdi. (1700 hours)
  2. Shirdi Baba Darshan.
  3. Night Stay: Chavadi

22 June 2007

  1. Attend Kakad Arthi
  2. Visit Holy Neem Tree
  3. Dwarakamayee
  4. Baba Darshan
  5. Departure from Kopergaon at 2300 hours (Train Journey)

23 June 2007

  1. Arrival at Sholapur (0800 hours)
  2. Visit Pandaripuram [Pandaripuram bus fare has been stipulated at INR 300 extra]
  3. Pandurangan Darshan
  4. Departure from Sholapur at 2145 hours

24 June 2007

  1. Arrival at Mantralayam (1000 hours)
  2. Raghavendra Darshan
  3. Departure from Mantralayam at 2200 hours (Train Journey)

25 June 2007
Arrival in Chennai at 1000 hours.


I hope the above information would be useful for interested pilgrims and devotees.

"Ithu Oru Ponmalai Pozhudu"

"Ithu Oru Ponmalai Pozhudu"

Yesterday I was describing you on the effect on Sun as a diluted sun stroke effect over here. Well. I started to the routine Triplicane temple only in the good pleasant late evening at about 1700 hours. I know what you are thinking now. The weather effect is offset by city crowd. But actually, now Metropolitan Transport Corporation has been meticulously planning and arranging a good amount of high capacity deluxe, trailer, vestibule and a spectrum of buses that are even envy to neighboring states. The MTC buses are striving hard to become neighbor's envy and owner's pride. :) I think the cool evening like this only has made Illayaraja to compose the 'Ithu Oru Ponmalai Pozhudu' in his Nizhalgal film song. Of course, the actual song describes parks but here it is concrete greenery. You can listen to this song from YouTube wherein the song is managed by Rekha Bharat.

Well! The evening after the scorching baking frying hot sun seemed to be really cool and pleasant. Since it was really late at 5.30, the sea breeze has also set in making things more cooler.  I boarded the bus at Saidapet to take the Anna Salai Santhi route. Skipping a couple of buses did helped to get a bus with availability of seats. This bus again inherited the new innovation breed -- Automatic Door bus. Automatic door buses are great boon to Chennai to 'contain' the footboard menace. Remember the humourous narration of Footboard Travel in 21L. This bus summarily discourages and avoids footboard travels since the automatic doors close off when the bus starts. Bangalore follows this for a long time since and good that Chennai has emulated this good bus model.

After reaching Santhi (LIC) at about 1930 (thanks to the pathetic traffic management on the acutely heavy traffic along the arterial roads), I was bit feeling hungry. Our usual restaurant was there -- Hotel Prahlad. I had some quick bites before travelling to temple. The usual saturday crowd at Temple again took a while before I started back to home through Velacherry route. Again the traffic conditions in the Mirsahib market and Royapettah was really making things strenous and stretching the journey like anything. After I reached Velacherry, I got the usual link bus to Camp Road. And a very interesting thing. No sooner did I board the bus, I took a good deep sleep in the bus. While my bus stop was one mile before Camp Road, I got up only at Camp Road bus stop to catch another return bus back from Camp Road at 2245 hours.

Album Setup and Migration Process

Album Setup and Migration Process

I have been trying and migrating the 'Evergreen Memories (Album Collection)' posts with the photos and videos to be served from Sony Imagestation. I have been using Imagestation long time back and it is a nice website. Currently I have been uploading the snaps to Yahoo Photos for a while since but I am migrating to Sony for the simple reasons as below:

  1. More customizations/themes for the album available.
  2. Easy and flexible upload options.
  3. Unlimited Photos. Now they have extended support to Audio too.
  4. Each album has its own Guestbook where your viewers/guest can leave some comments or thoughts for you. A sort of mini blog.
  5. Live chat Agent help in case you are encountering issues with your account.
  6. Yahoo Photos is shutting down in favor of Web 2.0 Photo Sharing website (Flickr). See the news from Yahoo here.
  7. Directory Listing of your albums.
  8. Number of Albums are unlimited.

With all plus, Sony Imagestation has little drawbacks like below. However, the advantages are really significant that they shadow the disadvantages.

  1. The video time is restricted to 15 minutes.
  2. The photos are resized a bit and hence it is advised to keep a copy of your original photos before uploading them.

You would be finding that 'Evergreen Memories (Album Collection)' post being changed in your readers. The change would mostly be a shift of URLs.

Evergreen Memories (Album Collection) :: Awards and Felicitations

Evergreen Memories (Album Collection) :: Awards and Felicitations

It is my new concept to share across the moments of pride in getting all the moments of celebration across. Currently my photos are scattered across. Rather than keeping the thought hidden in the minds and my calendar, I am just rolling it into action and instituting an album right away.

You can check out this album here. Feel free to share your views either as comments in this post or in the album itself.

Grihapravesam Offer

Grihapravesam Offer

The other day while I was travelling through Udayam Theater road (Ashok Pillar traffic lights), I saw a hoarding that was really interesting. 'Grihapravesam offer'.[Give your homekeys and we would arrange for the Griha Pravesham].

I observe that the package offering has become a very promising business opportunity taking into advantage of the fast-moving lifestyle and busy schedules of the people. The other common bundle offer normally you on weekend newspapers is "Personal Computer (PC) sales". You get all accessories related to PC and some multimedia gadgets in one single rate. The only thing you must be careful in such things is that you have to have a good drafted Excel sheet, work out by putting in black-and-white the various components' prices in individual and in bundle offer. Only if you feel that there is significant saving, you should try considering it.

And there was one very promising bundle offer and an innovative of kind which Ahobilam.com, matrimony website provides. They offer a package offer like 'Lakshathil oru kalyanam' (Marriage within One Lakh) scheme. They have a full organizational range to control the entire stretch of all activities that are involved in the marriage. We have touched base on this topic sometime back while discussing about Satari Bhavanam.

The Sun Drove Me to AC Shelter

The Sun Drove Me to AC Shelter

It is a regular Saturday. What? Still not recalling? If it is Friday, you should be sure of not missing the interesting classic 'Friday' post in CodeProject Lounge. And Saturdays, it normally makes our routine temple visit. Today, I had a long list of tasks in my calendar. So I have been addressing it step-by-step and cleared all the backlogs.

I started at about half past two in the afternoon from home to Triplicane temple. I was afraid that I had to wait for a while in the hot bus stand besides needed to squeeze myself into a crowded bus. The buses on Velachery - Tambaram freeware are almost crowded throughout the days since it has become like a very important arterial segment connecting Tambaram (developing suburb) to Chennai metro. Both of my apprehensions turned false bringing great smiles. No sooner did I reach Kamarajapuram bus stand, than a 5A (Tambaram - TNagar) flew near me and stopped. And as a pleasant double (or quadrupled :) ) surprise, it was empty and I had seats to take too.

But when I came near Velacherry, I started developing a sense of uneasiness and giddiness, thanks to the Hot Sun in Chennai. Hence I chose to alight at Velacherry and drop in at Shriram Pharmacy and got a small glucose packet to keep sipping for a while. I thought I would drop in at my work for a while and go to temple only after 1730 hours. After 1700 hours normally, sea breeze sets in and it cools down. Interestingly yesterday night while I was travelling late home, I could see bright lightning and a couple of drizzles too. But there weren't any rains. Last week, it did rain a bit albeit in isolated fashion throughout the city. KKNagar, Anna Nagar were some of the city pockets that were benefeciaries.

Coming to the blog post caption, I fondly recalled Lakshman telling to Meghnath (Indrajit) "Indru poy naalai vaa" ("Go home and come tomorrow") in the Ramayana warfield. Did the sun try telling me "Ippo poy Apparama vaa?" ("Run to cool shelters and come out later?")

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Save Shri Ram Sethu Bridge

Save Shri Ram Sethu Bridge

Shachi Rairikar
(shachi_rairikar@hotmail.com) has done a good commendable job for having pioneered the effort in bringing up an online petition in support of saving the Sethu bridge. The problem has cropped up because out of political and ulterior motives the ruling government in Tamil Nadu is firm is getting a canal deepened between India and Sri Lanka, which has been identified by NASA pictures of holding a man-made bridge dating back to millions of years old. This coincides with the Sethu bridge that was constructed by Vanara Senas during The Ramayana. Let us join together and make as little effort of at least signing the petition and supporting to save the cause of Sethu bridge.

Check out the petition online here.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Shri Shirdi Sai Baba Online Darshan

Shri Shirdi Sai Baba Online Darshan

Thanks to Sreedhar Katikireddy, who was my colleague in my previous organization, I came to know of Shri Shirdi Sansthan Trust website which provides online darshan (Live Webcast) from Shirdi. You need to have Windows Media Player 9 or higher installed in the system to view the Live Webcast.

Check out this link to have the online darshan of Shri Shirdi Sai Baba.

Related Posts:

  1. Friday Lunch turns pilgrimage discovery
  2. Adhi Rudra Maha Yagnam in Thiruvanmiyur

Cold Water after Hot Sun

Cold Water after Hot Sun

Chennai is reeling under extremely hot weather as we discussed over the other post. The day before yesterday, I needed to visit Adyar State Bank of India, which is just about 10 minutes drive from my workplace. But even that made things feel hotter. In a sense of exasperation and extreme dehydration, I gulped about half a gallon of ice cold water.

Wow! I guess that is enough for triggering enough of common cold and nasal congestion symptoms. Yesterday I had to call my physician, who is just next door to me in my same area (Dr. Leena Ranjit). A few quick and powerful drugs were administered to bring it under control. I guess, there is one more hidden lurking danger from weather in Chennai. Parts of Chennai are witnessing strong gusts of winds and light hailstorms. With these in place, it would for sure, trigger a lot of summer diseases. The simplest mantra for Kathiri summer of Chennai is Stay Safe... Indoors.

By the way, when I said HailStorm, I would also fondly recall about my experience in a Hailstorm while I was in Dallas.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Wishing TN HSC Students and Professional Course Aspirants

Wishing TN HSC Students and Professional Course Aspirants

The Tamil Nadu Higher Secondary examinations are over and the results are declared here. These examinations are deemed to be turning points for students as they decide thier career into respective specializations and streams -- be it arts, science, professional engineering or medicine. At the juncture of results announcement, let us join together to congrats the students who have put thier heart and soul to cross this hurdle in flying colors and wish them all success in every sphere of thier life.

This year, Anna University does not seem to be conducting the Common Entrance Examination test and hence the cutoff marks are purely calculated only on the basis of marks earned in the Tamil Nadu Higher Secondary Examinations. We wish all professional, medicine and other college aspirants good success for thier bright career.

Related Posts:

  1. Free Entrance Examinations
  2. TN HSC Examination Dates Announced

Hearing Tamil @Frankfurt

Hearing Tamil @Frankfurt
 
Following the three-month long stay at Dallas (US), with little hearing to Tamil television channels, in one way it would be a like an alien experience. During my return flight to Chennai (India), there was a couple of hours halt. While I was waiting, I was in a company of a good Indian Tamil family who was travelling along and just the next back couple of rows in the Frankfurt - Chennai flight. It is always a safer company to travel with a good native family when you are travelling alone, since you feel secure. Also, after three months of less-Tamil exposure, it was some sweet Tamil flowing. As the famous poet, Sri Subramania Bharathi also celebrates " Senthamizh nadennum podhinile, Inbath Then Vandhu Payudhu Kadhinilae".
 
Again, there was an interesting incident before I started from Dallas. Just two days before we were starting, there were new television channels that were being introduced in the hotel offering. Till then it was only local channels there. In the new offering set, Zee USA also featured. But for me, even otherwise, I had a passion to hear to the Desi FM Channel (Radio Salam Namaste) instead of just watching unnecessary and junk channel programs.  Interestingly, Radio Salam Namaste also now supports web-hearing for audience who are away from Dallas, US. So when you are away from home, you are always near at home through Radio Salam Namaste. When you are away from Dallas, you are at always at Dallas, through Radio Salam Namaste.

Those who envy show themselves with a negative face

Those who envy show themselves with a negative face

This post had been written after due compilation of information from various eminent scholars and experts. Besides theoretical facts, mythological comparisons, we have given due realtime examples too. To protect the privacy of people concerned, as far as possible, we have restricted the identities to generic representations.

We also have made and taken greatest attention cum yeoman efforts and due care to the minutest fact that it does hurt any body's emotions or ego in whatever form be it. I agree the information presented is a bit sensitive and even derives-cum-attributes its sensitivity to various adhyayams in Srimad Bhagavad Gita. While we can not give the entire saransh of Bhagavad Gita as cross-references, at least, we humbly hope that this mental though process would serve as a key-start information, a candle light to eradicate the darkness in the room (, the mind).

Should you find through a post is offending anything, please accept our apologies in advance for the said inadvertant entries and let us know at deepak.vasudevan (at) inbox.com. We would take every single effort, leaving no stones unturned to address the malady.

Now let us put aside the meta discussions, disclaimers and the other yada yada apart and delve back into the main topic of discussions.



Envy (aka jeolousy) comes up to people due to many reasons.

  1. Lack of Proactive delivery capabilities in driving themselves towards the goal.
  2. Their lack of self confidence
  3. Substained perseverance and Focussed attention to the goal hand without getting disturbed on any front.
  4. Inherent impotency (aka) incapability in achieving things
  5. Incessant, Unagreeable, Intolerable, Avaricious Greed on another's possession. Another's possession might be a tangible or intangible entity.
    1. The tangible entity in most of the cases would be money or a derivative of it light movable or immovable assets. You can find scores of incidents/headlines in the day-to-day dailies involving monetary greed even leading to gruesome murders or heinous assaults on each other.
    2. The next one is intangible greed which epicenters around name and fame. This basically tries to look at other's hard-earned name and fame and looking at the same to tarnish or sabotage it or taking advantage of it for one's own malicious or monetary advantage purposes.
    3. The more disgusting thing which is developing nowdays is lust, which derails us from the common customs and cultures. Starting from the days of Ramayana, the greatest Shiva Bhaktha and Sangeetha Vidwan (Lankeshwara alias Ravana) got derailed and succumbed to his lust.

When a person envies you you can easily spot this attitude. The language of Tamil has such an excellent deep-rooted rich literature that a simple four-letter proverb conveys it all. Rather it just conveys the essence of the caption of this post in just four words:

அகத்தின் அழகு à®®ுகத்தில் தெà®°ியுà®®்

We all encounter envies and encounters a lot of times even in a single day both personally and professionally. The best simplest solution to dealing with and coping up with such problem is:

  1. Ignore them. You can not keep arguing and/or advising to a wall. Having nurtured a great mental block for themselves, the person breeding the envy should have a self-initiated good intent to shed it for his own good and self-upliftment. When you keep advising him, you would be doing it with a real good heart. But behind the scenes you would be actually fuelling or catalysing it more further.
  2. Deducing from the modus operandi of ignoring them, you should ensure that you keep yourself and the envy-breed at bay. You might not know when and how the envy would manifest and in what format. To keep things cleaner and safer, keep them off at a remote distance. You keep off vectors carrying malaria, filaria and AIDS right. Now add this also to the list. Again lending a Tamil proverb to richly describe this, here is the same: துà®·்டனை கண்டால் தூà®° விலகு.
  3. Should you encounter such pranksters keep haunting you frequently, it also helps for a while if you could change your location away from them. The "Visual Proximity Test" helps in most cases. This typically applies in the case of woman who are victims of envy and sexual assaultment at the hands of potential and powerful supervisory cadres.

How do you identify such creatures playing pranks with you?

There is no hard-and-fast rule. You just need to apply your mind and heart in understanding people. Remember you are dealing with relationships. There is a proverb in Tamil which explains like 'Saving a saree which has fallen over thorny fence'. We have to exercise sufficiently extra caution in ensuring that the saree does not get torn right? (Quoting the original proverb: à®®ுள்ளின் à®®ேல் விà®´ுந்த சேலை போல)

I wouldn't mind giving some realtime examples too but re-read the Privacy implications for even the victims and the accused that we are bothering about. You need to appreciate me for showing a good amount of generosity, magnanimity and kindness. Am I too much praising myself? Just kidding. :) So, I am just substantiating with only through my own close circles.

Santosh and myself have been going through encountering many such evil pranksters. His resignation from our previous organization was exactly five months before my resignation from the same. He had to face different hostile attitude being showered there from diversified quarters besides threats. In my perspective, I would say such persons also qualify as 'Trojans'. And we needed to apply some strategies to get off the tricks and slippery dragnets that were opened up for him in order to pave a way for his more potential career through Gavs India and further road ahead. Savitha Ramesh Rao, was greatly helpful in tiding over the hurdles at that time. Our sincere thanks to her.

The then module lead (Mailachalam Shanmugam) from the organization, used to give us valuable advises on personal and professional fronts in many instances. Being really like aged beyond 50 with good plenty experience, it was really a great learning for everyone from him. He is a very admirable person for everyone. He used to tell that 'Do not care about the persons who keep intimidating you and bothering you always. That means the person feels hapless about your growth. If you closely observe him, whenever they do that, their face would sweat like a swine and they would really look like persons who are servicing corpse in cremation ghats'. In Tamil, we call it as Savakkalai (சவக்களை).

I feel that Myls observation is two hundred per cent true. The evil prankster who plays against you would only do in the background. If you closely observe him, he would show a 'sweating face and a palpitating breath as if he is suffering from sort of nervous disorder'. He would also be not able to see you 'face-to-face'. The only thing you need to take care are the bullet points that we discussed above.

With Myls being the source of inspiration for the blog caption, the blog post was inspired by another guinea pig for us in our learning labs. You can check out the lab experiment over here. You could simply witness a real standing testimony for how extensively a person's jeolousy and envy could span across.

The bottomline of the post is simple. Do not get intimidated by a person who keeps showering envy and other evil showers. When a person gazes at for a while without any inner meaning, it is a moment of pride and rejoice that you are being revered as an idol/celebrity. Good work! That means you are on the progressive path. Unless there are such speed breakers, you would not know that you are actually on the right path. Let us treat such encounters as learning labs and the envy breed as guinea pigs on which we test our experiments with.

Nature is a big book. We are still readers of its first page. I guess, I haven't bored you guys with a really long philosophical thought. What do you feel about it? Share your views.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

The Golden Jubilee of Kalaignar Karunanidhi's Political Career

The Golden Jubilee of Kalaignar Karunanidhi's Political Career
 
This month seems to witness a great welcome celebration for Kalaignar Karunanidhi and his party (DMK). For optimistic and celebration purposes, let us shadow the black dark negative incidents from within the context of this discussion. The national leaders and worldwide political celebrities appreciated his 50th year in as a political legislator in the state of Tamil Nadu's legislative assembly. Let us take this opportunity to wish him all success and particularly towards the contributions to the rich and great Tamil Language.
 
A few bullet points regarding the Golden Jubilee are:
 
  1. Fifty years as a Legislator in Tamil Nadu Assembly.
  2. He has chaired the position as the Chief Minister of the state at least five times.
  3. Strong voracious supporter of Thanthai Periyar's concepts, principles and policies.
  4. He pioneers and strives to give a strong voice to the oppressed community and OBCs in particular.
  5. Champions the cause and contributions to Tamil literature and leads the race by having authored more than one hundred books besides countless commentaries on classical Tamil Texts.
  6. Good strong deep knowledge in Politics.

வாà®´்க தமிà®´்!

வளர்க தமிà®´்!!
 
எங்கள் வாà®´்வுà®®் எங்கள் வளமுà®®் மங்காத தமிà®´ென்à®±ு சங்கே à®®ுà®´à®™்கு! (-- பாவேந்தர் பாரதிதாசன்)

Dekhona -- Indian Video Website

Dekhona -- Indian Video Website
 
Following up from a newsletter from Mouthshut, I visited Dekhona, which introduces itself as a new, novel, young, cool, temperamental video website from India. The logon screen, video display screens all seems to be following the style of YouTube. Currently they seem to be having some contest where you upload your video and you can stand to win a lot of iPODs too.
 
But my actual concern was how much Dekhona is going to enforce of copyright concerns. I like YouTube way of taking greatest amount of care on Intellectual property. I searched Dekhona up and down, making use of Google Toolbar Site search but I could not find convincing information how it is enforcing copyright restrictions, responding to copyright infringment calls. YouTube has a dedicated DMCA Cell and an email address copyright (at) youtube.com where you can take help from regarding copyright.
 
For those video publishers from India, you can try Dekhona and try publishing your videos and win iPods but take care of your intellectual property, since we have outlined some missing information in the previous paragraph.

TV on Mobile

TV on Mobile

The little handset mobile that we carry seems to be getting smarter and smarter each day. The latest innovation comes from Reliance. While travelling to Thiruvallikeni today, I saw a few hoardings and advertisements of Reliance mobiles now having the ability to even show Sun TV programmes.

I did some background research on newspaper archives and here is the report from 'The Hindu Business'. Already with high power mobiles like Blackberry supported worldwide, communication is getting simpler. Now entertainment seems to be more charming too. Reliance seems to be bringing excellent innovation in telecom. While I was in US till last week, I was actually using Reliance India Call calling card service. It has really excellent call quality besides being economical and also with lot of seasonal offers bieng published. Should you have a debated issue, the customercare responds with the grievances and addresses them quickly too both on email and on the Toll Free number.

After Thattukkada, now it is AappakKadai

After Thattukkada, now it is AappakKadai

Traditional cuisine restaurants are getting famous now in Chennai. An year back, the city saw launch of Idli shops like Murugan Idli Shop near T. Nagar, Madurai Idli Shop near Koyambedu.  Redhy was telling me that he is crazy of the various Thattukkadai in Velacherry for cheap and hygienic food cuisines. Perhaps for those interested, we have discussed about a few thattukkadai in Triplicane too over here. While travelling to Thiruvallikeni today, I saw a new shop that has come in the same building as Vasantha Bhavan in Velacherry. It has a board called 'Nala Aappakkadai'. But it is a pure Chettinadu non-vegeterian restaurant.

Now I think Velacherry has good diversity of restaurants of all kinds ranging from Triplicane Ratna Cafe too. It has almost become like a Mini T. Nagar.

Humourous Comparison of 45A and 21L

Humourous Comparison of 45A and 21L

When I started to Thiruvallikeni temple today morning and reached Velacherry, there were two buses waiting there (45A and 21L). Both would go to Triplicane. The former would get you near the temple and the latter would drop you at the Beach and you have to walk for five minutes. I got this very interesting comparison on the buses. There is nothing very deep thought embedded. It is just intended as a humouros comparison.

  1. 45A by virtue of being routed through all important arterial places in the city like Alwarpet, Royappettah etc with more traffic lights and intersections would take more time. Also it is a common bus (indicated by White Board) which means it would stop in all bus stops. Hence as the name implies, it would take 45 minutes to reach Triplicane.

    21L by virtue of taking the route through Chennai Beach road (Adyar, Santhome) takes lesser time. So 21L takes less time like 21 minutes. :)
Anyway, guess which bus I should have chosen? I took only 45A. You know why? Read this post. There is one more interesting post with respect to 21L Bus here.

Velacherry - Tambaram Freeway getting busier and safer

Velacherry - Tambaram Freeway getting busier and safer

People used to advise that venturing past the freeway to Tambaram after Velacherry-Vijayanagar junction late nights is not safe since the road looks very lonely and deserted. If you could access any newspaper archives, you can see a good number of waylay robberies along this stretch. I think those things are slowly getting things of past. At least, I saw three important entities that are extending the busy stretch from Vijayanagar junction till Pallavaram - Thorapakkam radial road junction till Jerusalem Engineering College.

The good busy entities that I could see along the stretch are:

  1. Dr. Kamakshi Memorial Hospital, Pallikaranai
  2. Cognizant Technology Solutions New Building just opposite the Dr. Kamakshi Memorial Hospital
  3. Jasmine Infotech software facility
I guess all the above entities which normally work 24x7 would keep the area bright lit. Also, since there would be good security deployed by them, we can hope for more secure commuting in the stretch henceforth.

Chennai wins over the Sun City in the Hot Weather

Chennai wins over the Sun City in the Hot Weather

Every year, it used to be Vellore which used to log record-high temperatures. This year for a change it was Chennai which seems to be witnessing peculiarly high temperatures even to the tune of 110 degree Fahrenheit besides scores of persons succumbing to sun strokes across the city. Sometime back last year, we discussed about ' Heat waves lashing Chennai City'. This year, the condition seems to be still worser and hotter.  And typically for me, the entire week had been a bit herculean effort to bear up and getting used to Chennai Hot weather returning back from Texas, which has a good amicable weather. It used to be hot there but immediately you also get showers and winds.

The Sun God seems to be very merciful in bountiful fire showers through out the city. Even the drizzles and summer showers that used to punctuate the hot month of May in Chennai seems to be mysteriously missing this year. The red hot Kathiri of Chennai really makes everyone and every thing in Chennai as kathirikai (brinjal/eggplant) frying them in the open microwave oven.

I guess, this is the startup effect of Acute Deforestation that is being resorted to in various parts of the state. At least now, we should be caring for Mother Nature in making the earth look more greener planting more trees.

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Thiruvallikeni Garuda Seva (from Irving, Texas)

Thiruvallikeni Garuda Seva (from Irving, Texas)

I have been regularly visiting Thiruvallikeni since 1999. Currently, as I am in Irving, Texas since Feb 14, 2007 on Saturdays, I try to at least meditate for a while; at least for an hour and listen to some divine songs. If possible, I try visiting the Dallas Fort Worth Temple.

Amidst this interesting turning points, Thiruvallikeni Brahmatsovams are underway. Thanks to Tamil Murasu that I could get the snap of Garuda Seva in Thiruvallikeni. Here is the snap for the benefit of other pilgrims as well.


Also, affectionately, I could recall when there were friendly reminders on Feb 10, 2007 (Saturday) that I might not be able to visit Thiruvallikeni for the next few months; I was kind of not disturbed but only left it to the Lord and asked Him to accompany me. I could fondly recall one of the poems (as a friendly order to Yatotkari Sonna Vannam Seitha Perumal):
KanikaNNan Poginraan Kaamaru poong Kachi
ManivaNNaa! Nee Kidakka Vendaa
Sennaap Pulavanum Poginren Neeyum
Unran Pai Naagappaayai Suruttik KoLL
And interestingly the previous Thursday I went to Dallas Fort Worth Temple, there were some Bhajans and also I got Prasadams too. I fondly and sincerely affirmatively trust now that Lord has accepted my request too. And interestingly, I seldom logon to Tamil Murasu ePapers but I logged on the other day to it in the evening itself and found this snap.
Again there is an interesting prelude in our divine history which the Lord graces with the same time and again. There was one great Saint in the Sholinghur Divyadesam called doddAchArya. When he could not travel to a particular year Kanchipuram Brahmotsavam Garudaseva, due to his old age, he literally broke down to tears at the banks of 'Thakkankulam'. Lord Varadaraja, instantly appeared before him in His Garuda Vahana. Even now, during the annual Garuda Seva at Kanchipuram, the Lord is covered by two umbrellas for a minute while He crosses the first and prime Gopura Vasal, to stand testimony of the fact that the Lord has travelled to Sholinghur to give His Garuda Vahana darshan to His devotee. Related to this, I would also invite the reader to visit the 'Gajendra Moksham' post.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Coolest Week with High Speed Winds

Coolest Week with High Speed Winds

A climate as unique to itself in Irving where a sudden change in climate is quite not uncommon. It was hot till forenoon and in the afternoon, sky was getting fast overcast like anything. Towards evening, when I started out from office, the sky witnessed high speed winds and incessant downpours.

It was raining about till 8 PM and weather forecasts predict more rains and thunders for the next two days. If we could fondly recalled, we had been discussing about Hail Storms sometime back over here.

Blogrolling Webservice Outage

Blogrolling Webservice Outage

I recieved quite a few emails stating that whilst loading these pages, a suspicious looking Script Debugger was getting launched with the error message 'Object Expected'. I was trying to debug the issue and found that the issue was caused by Blogrolling Webservice encountering technical issues. You can find the details over here. The backup handler has been activated with all the current (old) links that I was having.

But once the webservice resumes normal in a day or two (or in a couple of hours, depending upon the speed of blogrolling.com resolution), the normal Active Blogrolling window would get resumed automatically.

The issue was reported only in Internet Explorer 5.5 and above. FireFox Browser was not affected.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

One Day Blog Silence

One Day Blog Silence

The blogosphere observed a day's silence on April 30 to pay tributes to the unfortunate departed souls at Virginia Tech Massacre. Furthermore, let us take a minute to pray to the Lord Almighty to give mental solace and strength to the kith and kin of the departed and to pray Him to ensure peace in the world. The silence mission is supported by OneDayBlogSilence.com

Time and again it had been emphasizes that cruelty and violence never meets and gains anything. But there seemed to some people who never understand and now they have done it at a very holy place -- an educational institution.

As we observe the silence, this page would chant the Shanthi Mantra praying and pleading the Almighty for peace in the world. Thanks to a friend in YahooGroups who shared me the link from AstroJyothi.