Cicinho Joins Real Madrid

Cicinho the young talented Brazillian(right Back !!!!) joins Real Madrid.Though theorotically his move was confirmed during the summer, the difficulty in his contract with his former club Sao Paolo made his transfer possible only now. With him the number of Brazillian in the squad is now 5. Ronald'o', Robert'o' Carlos, Juli'o' Baptista, Robinh'o' and Cicinh'o'. (Perula ellorum 'o' podaranunga..goal poda thaan thuppu illa.)

Real Madrid form really worries me.Doesn't know what would motivate them to win a trophy. But what is positive with this signing is that Real now has a few youngsters like Carlos Diogo,Sergio Remos,Robinho, Baptista and Cicinho. Hopefully they prove their worth with their game.

Cicinho cannot hope for a place in starting eleven, since he would not be preferred for the much experienced Michel Salgado. But he might not have to worry too much, it is very likely Salgado with his tackling skills is bound to get atleast one yellow card per match.:-)

As a Real Madrid fan I'm waiting for them to come back strongly in the second half of the season, atleast for a decent game of football and a win/draw at Nou Camp.

Nadu Naatu Thirupathigal

Bala,Subbu and I went on a temple trip last weekend.Please check Bala's blog for the detailed travelogue.I have added a couple of pics of the temples below.

1. ThiruKovilur(Near Vizhupuram - Ulagalandha Perumal - a Divya desam)


2. Poovarasan Kuppam(Near Vizhupuram - Lakshmi Narasimha Perumal)
On our way to cuddalore we stopped at this Narasimha perumal temple.Supposed to be one of those eight famous Narasimha Perumal temple.



Yellai Kaaval deivam.



3.Thiruvahindrapuram (Near Cuddalore - Thevanathaswamy - Divya Desam)
A pictursque temple. Unfortunately I was not able to cover the gopuram in this picture.

Headphones

What do you think are the benefits of Headphones?.

I would spontaneously say it definitely reduces your mental agony.

There is a lady sitting a couple of places away from my desk, who keeps playing this song 'Nyabagam Varudhe' from Autograph - IN A LOOP - WITH HIGH VOLUME. For some reason I dont like this song and couldn't tolerate it after some time.I thought of going to her desk and telling her to reduce the volume with my perception that she should be a trainee.(An experienced professional is not going to do this - I think). But after going to her desk I couldn't ascertain if she is a trainee.

So I came back to my desk plugged my headphones and started listening to songs that I like and hence my answer to that question.

some other benefits I feel - when I want to listen to songs(huh..brilliant srivat),When I do not want to sleep in office after lunch,When I dont have any work other than solving some puzzles,when I do not want to listen to what the girl/boy next to me is talking to his boy/girl friend in phone(eppadium avunga pesarathu puriyathu..irunthalum paechukku naduvula siripanga...athu kathula vizhum..ethuku sirikaranganu thevai illama yosichu..irukkura konjam mudiyum kottidum..athaan).

But this is the first time I'm using my Headphones to avoid listening to songs played by others.May be she was in some pheelings but still she could have used her headphones.

PS 1: Second consecutive post grumbling about girls.Why??.Dunno(may be my stars are resting).

PS 2: There is more to this post..In a normal circumstance I would not have posted this.I came across a few blogs yesterday and found out lots of wierd and substanceless posts like the one above(I do not mean anything about posts on Headphones or autograph or anyother stuff- But posts complaining about some silly things, more worse they wouldn't reveal whats that silly thing..but still would say they hate doing that). More surprisingly there are some 50-60 people who visit their blog on daily basis and comment on it just for the sake of commenting(like just a 'good one',LOL, smiley etc.,) expecting a comment for his/her blog too.Thought what would it be like if I try to post something like that today and this is the result.Never in my life will I post something like this, for a simple reason - I dont feel like reading it again.

'Miss'in a train

A couple of days back after starting from Tambaram, the train moved a couple of yards and then halted.Since I was in the first compartment(no...not the driver's cabin,I meant the one next to it.) I got down to see whats the problem.Everything looked perfect the track was clear, the signal was green and there was nobody crossing the tracks.Just then I noticed a girl getting down the stairs walking towards the train.She turned back and signalled two of her friends to the train.Only then I realised that the driver had stopped the train so that these girls can get into the train.Not sure if they signalled him to stop.I was surprised to see that the girls did not show any hurry in getting into the train.Infact even if they wanted to run they couldn't because of the design and length of the heel in their footwear.The driver waited till they got into the ladies compartment and then started the train again.

The thing that surprised me here is the attitude of these girls.

• They are supposedly smart people working for a software firm, but that does not mean they have to cat walk in the platform as if it is some fashion stage or the train is some call taxi they had hired.There are lots of manufacturing and services company workers travelling in the same train for whom punctuality is a must and if they dont go to office by time they will lose half the day's wage.The other day one such worker told me that there is a chance that the gate near another station might not be closed if the train doesn't start at the right time and he might be late to work.I'm not going to comment on the footwear of these girls.I'm not sure when are these people going to learn that the dress they wear should also be comfortable for them keeping in mind their commuting options.(I haven't tried climbing stairs with any of the ladies high heels footwear, but during my school days I found it difficult to cllimb the stairs with sports spikes).

• Even though the general compartment is the nearest one these girls boarded only in the ladies compartment.The next station is just 2 mins away and they can very well get down there and go to the ladies compartment leisurely.I wondered why are these people hesistant to board a half filled general compartment, that too with 70% of guys working for a software firm who in more probability are cultured enough.But alarmingly the same evening I saw them boarding the general compartment(which was more crowded than the morning), but the difference now is that they boarded with their boy friends.

One thing that is clear to me is the driver is not going to stop the train next time and even if he stops I would not get down again to see what is the problem.

PS : By the way I have written about 3 girls complaining on their attitudes and not describing any cheerful facts about them.Looks strange to me though.Is there something wrong with me or may be with them :-).

PJ tames King Kong

After casting the magic in the Box office for three years with the rings trilogy, Peter Jackson returns with a bang, truly a very big bang with King Kong.Before he announced his passion to make a movie about this beast I was hoping that PJ is on his way to direct Hobbits of J.R.R Tolkien.This is purely because of the fact that I did not like his horror movies like Brain dead and Frighteners and I did not want him to go back to his old skills in directing horror movies.



But I was proved wrong.He looks to me like a new director after making Lord of the Rings.KingKong by PJ is going to be a much talked about movie for years to come.Infact I realised this even before the beast shows himself up in the movie.The very scene where the crew meets the tribe of Skull Island was indicative of the spectacle to unfold.There is nothing new for me to put in here about the movie because too many websites and blogs have already analysed this movie,comparing it with the old classics with most of them appreciating it.

I thoroughly enjoyed the movie.For me people who stand out in the movie are the director,the visual effects team(WETA again!!!),music director,the beautiful Naomi Watts and ofcourse the King Kong.There was a big cry from the Lord of the rings fanatics when Andy Serkis the man behind Gollum(Smeagol) was not recognised properly for his efforts in LOTR.Wondering if it is going to be the same for this talented actor this year also.It is the expressions and motions of this actor which was captured and then transfered on to Kong.I sincerely hope he gets his fullest reward for his work.

At times the director reduces the tempo of the movie giving too much details before the ship gets on to the Island.Thats when I had some time to contemplate about the relationship between the beautiful girl in my front seat and the guy sitting next to her.I could not come to a conclusion if he was her brother or boy friend because there wasn't enough time for me as the movie picks up pace.I dont mean to say that these scenes lack quality, but they were not so impressive to me.There are a couple of places in the movie where the quality of CG was really not upto the standard. The first one is when the people were running between the legs of the dinosaurs and the other one is when KingKong chases the hero in the streets of NewYork.On the whole it definitely has a high probability of winning Oscar for Visual effects.

After reading all these reviews it is easy for anyone to come to a conclusion that this is another movie which relies totally on those animations,beautiful visuals, stunts and actions.I would not say so.PJ has tried to prove a point - the beauty subduing the beast - rightly reflected in this dialogue by Carl Denham "The beast looked upon the face of beauty. Beauty stayed his hand, and from that moment he was as one dead".
A must watch movie in theatres (and a must posses DVD also).

Fifa World Cup 2006

The draw for the FIFA World cup 2006 has been made and this is how the group stage fixtures look.


As such it looks to be an exciting month of Football from June 2006 to July 2006.I beleive ESS has already secured the telecast rights in India.Hope to catch atleast some of the matches live.(Midnight IST).
Additionaly these are my favourite teams in each group(Bold faced ones) that I would want to progress and obviously I would like Brazil to lift the cup as my favourite team.For that matter any team that plays good football is my favourite team.





I'm pretty much excited now itself and not sure how will I feel when the tournament starts.Hope the super stars of the team doesn't get injured in their local club games and wish to see them showcase their talents in this great tournament.

Aaru

I watched the trailer of the movie 'Aaru' last week in a theatre.Before the trailer ended I had decided to watch it at all costs, probably on first day.Surya looked great in the role and its a local dada subject and an action flick by a director who is good at making movies of this genre.Thats enough for me to watch the movie.

Today I'm back after watching the movie ready to write a review of the movie.Here are my views.

Surya - Someone told me today that Surya already tried his hands as a rowdy in 'Shree' and was not that great.He definitely has proved them all wrong.He has done a fantastic job, doing justice to his character.He beautifully fits into the 'Aaru'(a.k.a Arumugam) character.Be it his mannerisms,costumes,expressions and makeup everything bonded well with the rowdy character.Of all dialogue delivery is the part that I enjoyed the most. There were places where he talks so fast that I had to concentrate hard to understand it.I'm not complaining here because the scene demanded it that way.He has definitely proved that he is a versatile actor who can do a romantic Sanjay Ramasamy and rowdy Aaru.For surya fans its a must watch movie and for others they might have to watch it to assess him again.

Trisha - Looks like the director was impressed with the actress's peformance in Tata Indicom cell phone ads, that he has provided her a similar role here too.She looks attractive in some places, horrible in one of the songs.Well I'm not sure when will she start acting/dancing in movies.She saves you from watching Nayan thara running and thereby avoiding any seismic disorder.

Aashish Vidhyarthi - Obviously the bad guy.There is also a telegu actor who is another bad guy.Both these baddies act as rowdies in the movie.Not much to say about these guys, fittingly plays the clever villain's role.(naturally not cleverer than the hero).

Vadivelu - He has set a very high standard to himself, people expect more from him.As a vadivelu fan I was not happy with his comedy track.But some of them were quite laughable.

Music - The songs were not that great and the background music was ordinary and the bit of music for those freeze frames of the hero in the action scenes weren't quite good.In Pheelings scene 'Nenjam enum' bit song is played in background and in action/chase scenes 'Dhrogam' music is played.

Director Hari - Credit goes to this guy for making it a movie a racing one.It slumbers at places(Read romance scenes,songs) sparing you time to taste your sprite and kara kadalai.I always like fast paced movies where at times you have to forgive the slips in the logic.In other words the director doesn't explain each and every scene in detail and leaves a few of them for your imagination.Something that not everyone would like.But it is the price paid to increase the tempo and I'm happy with it.Also some of the subplots against the heroistic image(unlike 'Hero solratha than seivaru') were quite good. I think he has learnt from his mistakes of Arul and hope this turns out to be hit for him.

Additionaly there were other characters in the movie like aiswarya,Kalabhavan mani,Malavika(Tv artist) and Delhi Ganesh who had a role to play.Kalabhavan mani has not overacted in the movie and so is watchable.But aiswarya is not.At times scared me and I had to turn my eyes away from the screen.

There were a couple of times I was frustrated when,
1. On her way to Srilanka Trisha very stupidly calls Surya and says that she wants to meet him when he is in a fix.Huh..Ithellam konjam overa theriyala.He says that he will definitely meet her.
2. The last scene 'Happily everafter'. I dont know what would have made me happier at the end,but definitely not the way it ended and also surya's make up.
3. The theatre guys started the movie some 10 minutes earlier and I was waiting with the tickets outside for Bala. We missed the intro scene of Surya and the song 'Soda bottle'.Anyways I dont mind watching it once again.

All in all I liked the movie very much.On the whole if you do not like/understand a movie of some three people(two guys and a girl) trying to talk to each other about their pheelings,if you havent recovered fully from the aftermath of watching 'otto-crap' and not interested in its new version TT(not Two Towers , Thavamai Thavamirunthui - 3.15 hrs of pheelings), If you expect a rowdy-hero to open his mouth during dialogue and not want him to imitate thalaivar in any of the scene then you will definitely like this movie.

Did I miss anything..er..well..Story?? - Nothing new..the same old stuff of any Don/dada movie(reminds mostly of Thotti Jaya) -But its just the racing script,high tempo scenes,good stunts and SURYA who make it look great.

Change - Inevitable?

'Change is inevitable' - I strongly believe this.Be it the records by greatest sportsmen on earth Sachin, Pele, Schumacher (the 'God' in their own field),the music by Ilaiyaraja/Rahman,the roads in chennai and recently the rains in Chennai.I could put in so many things here to illustrate this.But in this post I have a few things that I dont see changing sometime in future.These are not those pressing issues from the national front and may appear silly to you.But these are some things that really frustrated me recently.

1. First and Foremost that comes to my mind VVS Laxman.The indian journals screamed when he was dropped from the team saying that he is a quality player.In a test match that is heading to a draw Laxman gets himself run out. I agree that he is a quality batsman, but when is he going to learn judging the singles/twos without getting out.

2. Next is his runner on the other end today, Ganguly.Same thing applies to him too, when is Ganguly going to learn judging singles.He has some 10,000 runs in ODIs, but still is having problems playing a short pitched ball on the leg stump and getting those quick singles.I would blame his poor running to his heavy armour,inspite of which he gets injured when akthar bowls at him.His loyal non-sportive supporters boo their own country at their venue for not selecting him in the team.

A suggestion to both the above players - Watch the Brazillian left/right wingers(defensive) players - Roberto Carlos,Kafu and this youngster Cicinho playing football.The kind of runs they do from one end to the other end in the ground, make people feel that its a cricket pitch.If ganguly still argues that he is having a heavy armour then he should watch these All Blacks Rugby players.They are definitely heavier than ganguly and his armour and also faster than Ganguly.Though its the fitness level thats the problem, I think its the attitude that needs some tuning.After all is it not easy to learn running than learn batting.

3. Now to football.Two things One is Rash Tackling and the other its opposite Diving.There are players like Boa Morte,Diouf, Robbie Savage who often gets sent off due to heavy tackles - Direct Red Card.One can understand that it is a badly timed tackle if it happens once in a while,but not pretty often as it is the case here.I'm not aware of any rule to penalise these players if they get some say 25 to 30 direct red cards in their life.The problem here is the person at the recieving end of the tackle.At worse it could sometimes be the end of his football career.Totally Brutal.

Then comes diving inside the penalty area.Without even the slightest contact the player goes down inside the area. The referee whilstles for the penalty which is scored and then the replays suggest that it was a wrong decision.Definitely not a fair way to score goals.The person to be blamed is the diver(read Robert Pires).It spoils the entire competitive nature of the sport and according to me dirtiest goal ever scored.

4. If I remember correctly,some 20 years back I used to listen to weather forecast telecasted by the Chennai Vanoli nilayam.It used to be much of a predictive or indicative one, like 'Lesanathu muthal Ididyudan koodiya mazhai peyya vaipullathu'. Grand pas in your house would have been more accurate by just looking at the sky,the direction of wind and the direction of the cloud.At present I get to watch these forecasts in television (Improvemnent in technology) , with some person from Met department showing some satelite pictures.But the problem is its the same warning message predictive/Indicative but not accurate.I think the satelite technology is well equipped but then where is the problem.Intrepreting those?.Is it that difficult to interpret these pictures by these experts.Incase if none of them in Met dept are capable, then as always some 'aanastraj' can be called for help.

5. Media/Journals are social elements in the society that should comparitively be more service minded than money minded - Be it newspapers or TV Channels.I understand that the recent rains in chennai damaged the city.But these channels projected it as if Chennai detached itself from the Tamilnadu and sailed into the ocean.The news panicked those relatives/friends living outside chennai which resulted in frantic phone calls inquiring our safety.Also is this the time to criticise the government/to appreciate the government.Can a law be passed to make sure that politically biased news channels get banned.Appadi paaka pona oru news channel kooda irukkathunnu nenaikiren.

6. Coming to passing bills in the parliament.I just wonder when was the last time some effective discussion happened in Lok sabha or Rajya sabha about the pressing issues.I'm bored - Of listening to the commencement of the summer/Winter session of these houses,adjournment of the house due to the opposition party demanding resignation of some minister.Were they voted to fight only against these tainted ministers.

There are also few things on my personal front that I would like to change, but do not know when.Most of these personal things haven't changed for quite sometime now.Not sure when will it.Might need a separate post to list them all.

P.S: The countdown begins - 5 more days to go.I'm waiting for this sunday when the whole of my place will wake up listening to his songs. Thanks to Thalaivar's rasigar mandram near my place.

Luxembur'go'

And it finally happened.Real Madrid have sacked their Brazillian coach Luxemburgo.The official news here. This was very much on the cards the day Real lost against Barca(0-3).Though Luxemburgo cannot be blamed fully for the bad performance of the team, I think he has been provided with lots of oppurtunities to prove himself.He will have his own theory, say injury to players and international commitments.But at the end of the day what does really matter is the victory and three points or at the least a good football game. In the last game against Getafe Real Madrid won 1-0.Since Beckham was red carded the coach had to play all his 10 men defensively. It was total scrappy. Not the usual real madrid game we see. The coach just wanted a victory and I think was hoping that he would not be sacked if he won this match.
But he should know that a couple of years back the then coach Vincente Del bosque was sacked even though he managed to win the la liga that season.It was still claimed that he did not win the Champions league.For any normal person its a way too much of an ask.But not for Real madrid or its supporters.

I was hoping that either Souness or O'Leary would be gone this weekend.But it was Luxemburgo who got his marching orders.There were moments of brilliance in his coaching stint at Madrid.Especially the replayed match(for 7 mins)last year against Real sociedad when Ronaldo sprinted into the opponents defence and winning a penalty.There could be arguements if it was dirty tactics, but at the end of the day they got three points.So there were at times I enjoyed his strategies and substitutions.But nothing off late.

As such there are lots of rumours now about new coach. The list has all the VIPS Fabio Capella,Arsene Wenger,Jose Mourniho and infact Sven Goran Erickson.(and there is another German coach and my question does Sir Fergi knows spanish).Its a very much coveted job - Coaching Real Madrid - the galacticos.But the difficulty is all these galacticos are not played to their best or their convenient positions.Usually some adjustments are to be made to include all the galacticos in the team, thereby the players lose commitment and also sometimes they are not capable of performing to their fullest extent.Though most of them are multi talented there is a bit of difference if they are not playing their natural game.Eventually the coach is blamed.I liked the Vincente del Bosque's team.Especially Makelele is terribly missed now.Pablo Garcia is a good find and it took two years for Real Madrid to find him and then some more time for the coach to use him in correct position.

In the coming weeks I would be pondering upon all the gossips colums of spanish and english websites.(come on..I'm a Real Madrid supporter:-)).So once again a very rich and coveted job is at stake.Any one would want to take it- a popular club,rich club and talented players.But the expectations are also so high for the same reasons.Hence its not an easy job.After all not all clubs sack theer coach after winning a match/ trophy, but it happens in Real Madrid.By the way will someone get a rich and coveted job easily.

PS: The day I changed my Blog background,Real Madrid also have realised its time for a change.Ithu timing..But hope its not all blues for them as my blog's background.Let them be their own Whites.

Soccer and Software

I love football and I work for an IT company.At times I try to relate some of the terms used in either of these two fields and here are a few of them.Those of you who are not aware of these football terms can get to
know it(Hearty welcome to the world of football) and those of you who have not yet witnessed these scenarios in IT industry, dont worry you will get to it shortly.

1. Cup Tied:

Football: One who played a champions league match before transfering to a new club.He is not entitled to represent his new club in champions league.

S/w Company: One whos visa(usually L1) to US is under process.He cannot transfer or switch over to another company unless he pays a heavy penalty to his existing company as Visa processing fee.

2. Transfer Window:

Football: Usually the time of season during which the clubs can transfer players between them, happens twice a year(winter Transfer and summer transfer).

S/W Company: It denotes the time during which employees change to other companies. Usually during the period of time after which Bonus/hike is announced or Credited every year.

3. Sack Race:

Football: A competition involving the managers belonging to badly performing clubs to determine who will be fired first.

S/W Company: A competition involving the managers who did not get promoted in the current cycle and to determine who will resign their jobs first.

4. Contract extension talks:

Football: The discussion between a Player and his Manager to see what could be done to extend his stay.If both the party comes to an understanding they stand by it.

S/W company: The discussion between a programmer and his Manager to see what kind of Monetary (compensation,onsite) and non monetary (oppurtunities in other projects) that could promised to the programmer, but not necessarily implemented.Usually happens during the performance review time.

5. Unbeaten Run:
FootBall: It indicates the number of matches that a team remains unbeaten.The team might draw with a 0-0 or play boring stuff but it doesn't matter, they take pride in being Unbeaten.(as South Africa did it in Cricket
ODI before losing to India)

S/W company: It can denote that the Project has been released and there wasn't any defect till date, only catch here is that it might not have even started running, but simply moved.

6. Substitutes:

FootBall: Denotes those players who plays for other players in case of injury or strategy or performance during a game and expected to play as good as the main player.Only three allowed in a match.

S/W company: Denotes those programmers/buffers(a.k.a Trainees or Freshers) who replace others due to resgination or outsourcing or performance during a project and expected to match their senior's performance.Usually a percentage of total number of resources (usually 10%) is allocated to a project.

7. Bench : Pretty obvious in both cases - Non-playing / Non-billing.

The next few days in all the club championships one can hear these words being repeated by the commentators with a few adverbs and adjectives in between to frame the sentences.The reason is these championships are almost reaching the half way stage where most of the teams look up at their performance and try to correct their mistakes.This holds true again for some software companies which have their financial year marked as Jan-dec.