Ooty Trip

Recently I had been Ooty during my trip to India. I was visiting Ooty after 6 years. The last time I had visited Ooty was after my board exams , actually just before my XII board results were about to come. I recollect being quite anxious and me and my parents were constantly checking the news, newspapers etc. for any updates on when the XII CBSE results were coming. But anyhow it was a really memorable trip due to two main reasons. The first one being: I got to see the India vs. Sri Lanka one day match there, where India made a whopping 376 and Ganguly made 176 (I think his career highest in ODIs) .The other was that we watched this awesome Super Duper Rajnikanth starrer movie "Padayappa" and it was total entertainment.

The recent trip to Ooty too was great as we went as a full family escaping the scorching Chennai heat. It is really nice to go back to places you have been before as it really brings back nice memories!!

Great Songs

Just listening to the song "Thai Sollum Uravai vaithe Ulagam Sondham" - an awesome song from the movie Kana Kanden. Really touching. Vidyasagar's music has been really top class in the past few years. Another song from the same movie "Moolai Thirugum (Kaalai Arumbi)" too is great.

The following songs have been my personal favorites in this year:

1. Mora Saiyaan (Fuzon) from the Hyderabad Blues II movie
2. Tere Bina Hyderabad Blues II
3. Kalayil Dinamum Kan Vizhithen from the movie NEW
4. En Aasai Mythiliye - Manmathan

and lately
Kana Kanden Songs.

It is great there is so much good music to fill up the void in my life!!

LAST DAY IN LAB!!

This is probably my last day (night infact) in the lab and I will be formally kicked out of here from tommorow. It has been an awesome and memorable stay in this less than 20 square feet of space and I am sure to miss the fun and freedom I got here.

Bye Bye Lab :(
Bye Bye SMA :(
But I have to move on!! :)

A Year in Singapore!!

One the June 24th I exactly completed a year of stay in Singapore. I arrived by the Indian Airlines flight on the same day last year, unsure of my future and what I wanted to do. This one year has been an awesome experience in terms of learning, international exposure and most important of all managing independently in any situation. On a divergent note, I am closer to home than I actually was before you know!! During college it used to take almost 2 days to reach home. When in Bangalore it used to take 5 hours. I am thankful that it just takes under 4 hours to reach Chennai from here. All my journeys back home have been eventful till now. The first time I went home they screened an awesome Trisha-Vijay Starrer Gilli Tamil movie on an International flight and to give company to this was "Avial- Vengaya(Onion) Sambar and Papad". The second time I travelled I got upgraded to Business class. It is another six months before I can think of going home again. Anyways the bottom line is though it has been a hectic stay here in Singapore and I kinda miss home, I have enjoyed and benefitted from the experience and stay here in Singapore and I am quite thankful for it!!

SATHI

Read a nice article from The Acorn blog. Nice name SATHI (Situationl awareness and Tactical Handheld information) for the Simputer that is planned for use by the Indian Army. The Simputer is a handheld device indigenously developed at the IISc (Indian Institute of Science Bangalore) and is quite cheap and affordable (~9000 Rs). It is great to hear that they are putting this to good use. I sincerely hope that the Simputer becomes a great success both in the national and international markets. Currently hell a lot of application development is happening for handhelds and mobile devices and I think that application development for Simputer too should be promoted for it to be a great success. Check out the product at http://www.simputer.org/simputer/. Look at the Aishwarya Rai background on the screen. Wow man nowadays she is on every damn product.

An Evening by the Beach

Every Chennai'ite (Madrasi) loves a visit to the beach. Exactly around six months back the deadly Tsunami struck and everyone dreaded a visit to the beach. Now when I visited the Marina beach though I could see minor marks of the devastation, things are pretty much back to normal. I have tried to capture the awesome scene that the beach offers in this post.

Bay of Bengal



Alaipayuthe!



Dont Remind the T****mi word!



Writings on the Sand



Shore Machaye Shor



The Foamy Sea



The Heavenly Sky


The Sand Beneath the Feet



Mollagai Bajji (Mirchi Pakora) - The Very Purpose of a Beach Visit

Mera Ghar - En Veedu - Mein Haus - My House

Whenever you buy any new gadget or an appliance there is something called a honey moon period associated with it. During this time you are in constant love with your gadget and keep trying out things with it. Recently I bought a new digi cam and have been clicking hell a lot of photos since then. In this photo blog I include some of the snaps I took of my house. The good news is that we are still getting Mangoes (recognizable in the photo) inspite of the poor care and water scarcity.

My Home

The Entrance

Abetting Crime

Today was my first direct experience of abetting crime. I was over enthusiastic of going to a movie today and went out in the scorching hot Chennai sun to watch”Bunty Aur Babli”. To my greatest disappointment the theatre was house full and we dint get any tickets. So we went to another theatre to watch a Tam movie called “Arinthum Ariyamalum”. There too there were no tickets available for any of the shows. All of us were quite sick of the Sunday crowd and the sweltering heat. Then in one corner of the road I noticed a boy throwing furtive glances and showing gestures at the crowd. I went near him and he told me “irubadu ambadu” (bees ka pachas or 20 at 50). Then I realized that he was selling black tickets for the same movie show that we wanted to go. In my sub-conscious I felt a bit guilty to buy the tickets and be a part of the black ticket crime racket. But on the other hand I was already tired and desperate to watch the movie. Finally the desire to watch the movie dominated over my pang of guilt and we ended up watching the movie. The movie was awesome. Songs were great, Prakash Raj’s and the other 2 guys’ acting was great. The heroine dint act so well, though she looked cute (a cross between Meera Jasmine and Sonali Bendre).