The REAL Magic

sudatha surIyan

2008-03-26T20:56:00.000-07:00

Can someone tell her -

sudum nilavu sudatha suriyan

Odum nimisham uraiyum varusham

ellam ellam ellam vendumaa

This makes one realise that there are pretty things in this world that could make Bellagio fountain show take the back seat(or in the background).

Ronaldo

2008-02-15T16:14:00.000-08:00

It happened just 3 minutes(or more probably) after he came into the field. There was a delicate backflick, trying to find Inzaghi and in a few seconds after that he goes down in Livorno's penalty box, clutching his left knee and screaming in pain, reminding me of the scenes of his knee injury in 1999. The difference this time, it is the tendon in his left knee. I had to stop watching the match after that scene.It was a terrible sight.

Will he play again?.I wish he does.

Real leaps infront of sevilla

2007-05-07T10:03:00.000-07:00

What a match that was. WOW.
A clash between the second and third placed team in la liga, at the end of which the teams swapped their spots in the table. Yes,Real Madrid beat sevilla 3-2 and are now two points behind Barca

It was a wonderful sight to see the Madrid players giving everything to pick up three points from the game.Both the teams played a waiting game in the first half, careful not to concede. But Sevilla eventually scored a deserved goal from a wonderful strike.Capello then changed his tactics a little bit(or should I say totally) making substitutions to enable some attacking football to be played by madrid. Guti came in, sent in a couple of wonderful defence splitting passes, at the end of which Ruud and Robinho scored a couple of important goals.It was really one of the best matches I have seen this season in la liga.

Check out the highlights here.Amazing vision from Guti for the 1st and 2nd goals.

There was more drama, Robinho got sent off for a second yellow that was shown for his wild(!!!) celebrations. Becks got booked and would have to sit out the match against Espanyol.Also Luis Fabiano who was warming up in the sidelines got sent off before even getting on to the pitch, for abusing the linesman.Poor chap.

Sevilla looked really tired in the last quarter of the game and couldn't capitalise much.But they got a very important second goal.In all, Madrid with their excellent performance has given themselves a chance to take the title fight till the end.

Why

2007-04-03T23:14:00.000-07:00

1. Why do some people have their photograph taken everyday in the morning, in their office cubicle.
2. Why do they choose to set that picture taken as their desktop background.
3. Why do they always pose either like talking in a phone or leaning on to their monitor.
4. Why do they use flash in a brightly lit office and end up looking much brighter than the 'Mohana' of 'thillanamoganambaal' fame, in their photo.

Are they suffering from some variation of Amnesia or are they related to 'Rasukutti'.

Cat Penance

2007-03-25T09:53:00.000-07:00

"ஒரு பெரிய யானைக்குப் பக்கத்தில் ஒரு பூனை தவம் செய்கிறது.அதன் அருகில் எலிகள் விளையாடுவதைப் பார்க்கலாம். இந்த சிற்ப அற்புதத்தை நிர்மாணித்த விசுவகர்மாக்கள் சிற்பக் கலையின் உயிர் நிலையைக் கண்டவர்களாயிருந்ததுடன், நகைச்சுவை உடையவர்களாயும் இருந்திருக்க வேண்டும். கங்கா நதி தீரத்தில் தவம் செய்யும் மகான்களுக்கும் மத்தியில் ருத்ராட்சப் பூனைகளும் உண்டென்பதை அவர்கள் சித்தரித்து காட்டி இருக்கிறார்கள்."

Kalki's take on this beautiful piece of sculpture at Arjuna's penance(or probably Bhagirathan's penance) at Mahabalipuram. From his book 'kal sonna kathaigaL'.

Bala has uploaded a few of the pics taken during our trip here.

Helmet

2007-03-08T21:17:00.000-08:00

He was a regular at the Gym. He was proud of his body and used to work out regularly, sculpting each and every part of his body, muscle and even veins.

But little did he realise that his head is not strong enough to bear a collision at a high speed. Rather had he covered his head with a helmet, I would have seen him again at the gym in a few days time.

The thrill in driving bike at high speeds, skidding past the traffic, reaching the helm of the crowd and accelerating away from them is an exhilarating and victorious feeling that only a few other activities can match. Some times minor or major accidents occur to themselves or to their friends from which lessons will be learnt. These lessons will become part of one's driving instincts and the same mistake would not be committed again.These are the lucky lot with a strong life line.

In his case, I was hoping that he would realise the limits of his driving skills and capabilities of his own bike. I was sure that when he walks out of the ICU, he would have learnt his lesson - 'Usiru' is much more valuable than 'Masiru'.

But today, he cannot walk out of the room only his lifeless body would be moved out.

RIP Jagan.

Is he back?

2006-12-05T23:34:00.000-08:00

Only capello can answer.
Meanwhie, I had to put this up, though its a little late.
Ronaldo's first goal in la liga for Real this season.
Of course soccermania has a neat writeup on one of my long time favourite striker.

Hope capello provides him more minutes on pitch and i'm sure he would cast his magic as he did last week. Even if he is 70% fit as he was while playing for Barca, that will be enough for Real to land a trophy this season. And good to see Bernabeu crowd applaud him.

What a goal

2006-11-26T22:51:00.000-08:00

Ronaldinho's goal against villareal..easily the best of the season so far.
WOW..An amazing goal.

RIP Puskas

2006-11-17T21:10:00.000-08:00

Ferenc Puskas - the best player of Hungary( the Hungary team of his time claimed by many as the best team ever).
He played alongside the great Alfredo di Stefano for Real Madrid, during which they won 3 European titles.

A beautiful skill and goal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCaEDoB2oxc

Hungary 7 - 1 England :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1sa5LIt7NM

Real Madrid(Not good Video quality ):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoBvh4ENmic

Famous victory over Frankfurt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc-gvYQ_ams

HDR

2006-11-06T08:24:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I posted something here.
There isn't anything specific that stopped me, but on the whole didn't feel like posting.

Or probably there isn't 'Real magic' these days(more Fabio capello-like these days). But yesterday's was a different game altogether.Real played decent attacking football against Celta Vigo and I thoroughly enjoyed watching it inspite of Real Madrid losing 3 points at Bernabeu.Capello has promised to show case more of the exciting-much hyped Rudd-Ronaldo upfront. Hope they can bring back the 'Real Magic'.

Meanwhile, doing justice to the title of the post.Here is one of the pictures taken during the recent trips to Madurai - Meenakshi Amman Temple gopuram.I wasn't a great admirer of the various post processing photo tools available in the market. Only a few days back realised that Post processing tools can be handy at times(most of the times), when the camera you have cannot show what you see(Honestly, its the inability of the user here to use the camera to capture what is seen). This pic is a HDR version of the original. Proved to be a nice and a pretty useful technique though and more importantly something closer to what I 'saw'(atleast in the smaller version). The ISO wasn't that high but still a bigger version has some disturbance.(One obvious reason is the lack of a Tripod..this was taken pretty late in the evening)

Retained the lights in the bottom of the pic,otherwise the pic looks too bland. Is the watermark too disturbing. Anyways the trial version of that tool helped me generate this HDR pic.Maybe a Cloning tool or some key search could remove it :-).

More Flickr HDRs. (Some of them are pretty good applications of HDR and some are too good applications to be called a photo or pic).

POC - Dead man's Chest

2006-07-31T07:36:00.000-07:00

"Curiosity. You long for freedom. You long to do what you want to do because you want it. To act on selfish impulse. You want to see what it's like. One day you wont be able to resist."

Courtesy : Jack Sparrow *oops* Capt.Jack Sparrow in POC- Dead man's chest.

A story about a heart inside a chest.
Yeah..as simple as that.And with the previews and reviews not so impressive I was not looking forward to it.But then the mere presence of Depp and the genre of the movie (and also not having the responsibility of booking the tickets) were the prime reasons that dragged me to the theatre.

In the end, it turned out to be the movie that I totally enjoyed recently (he..he..ofcourse there is pulikesi at the top).Right from the eccentric Johnny depp, the beautiful keira knightley, the neat BGM, the wierd faces that the CG had put up, the exotic locales and a cool climax that makes you long for the next sequel, everything gels together pretty neatly.I'm planning to watch it once again,for I haven't grabbed all those silly antics of Sparrow fully yet.And I dont have any intentions of spoiling the Curiosity by putting some of those here.So get a ticket and watch it.You wouldn't regret.Maybe watch the part 1 too, you would be able to appreciate some more gestures in the movie.

One request - Mr.Producers of the movie - wherever you go, be it to the ends of earth or to the ends of galaxy, 'bring him back' - pretty soon.Also show him to India the same day he is shown elsewhere. Because its 'Curiosity' and 'One day I wont be able to resist it'. And eventually I would end up watching a Pirated pirate 3 in a small screen at home.

PS:And about the negatives, the movie is a bit dragging in the first half.Be informed that there are some bizarre creatures in the movie. Anyways if you enjoyed watching the urukhai's then no worries.

2006-07-09T18:08:00.000-07:00

And that wasn't what I expected and definitely not what I wanted to see.
Its really strange, the one coolest man to score from the penalty spot in the World cup final match, with a blissful chip over the best keeper in the world.And sometime later he gets sent off for the most outrageous act in football.I haven't seen something like that before and would not see that clip again.Its a pity to see the most talismanic midfielder in the world end his carreer like that,losing his cool for a few seconds. For once,only once and just for a few seconds I was made to beleive he is only a good player and not a great player.

I would definitely remember for Zizou not for this act,but for those many moments of magic in the field that are really worth remembering.
Goodbye Zizou.(I take that back if you realise that you deserve a more graceful exit from football and revert you decision to retire.)

ka ka ka po

2006-07-05T09:19:00.000-07:00

So the buzz is that 23am pulikesi will be out this saturday.

The real life Pulikesi,while trying to expand his territory down south,lost to the mighty pallavas.This pulikesi now has to fight against the fictional English and Hindi superheroes to make his mark at the Box office.
I hope he wins this time.

Ithellam Nyayama

2006-06-27T00:20:00.000-07:00

Ungalukellam manasatchiyey illaya..Naadu thaangathuda saami.

Courtesy: Sify

More Mammotty in jersey pics here

The Football chat

2006-06-22T05:46:00.000-07:00

Overheard this conversation at my office lobby.
Lady1 : You saw that guy he was sporting a good hair style.Did you notice that he also had a hair band the same colour as his hair.
Lady2 : Oh..in yesterday's match.
Lady1 : yes.He was wearing a red colour jersey.
Lady2 : oh..ok.Also did you notice that these Africans have the most disgusting hair style.
Lady1 : Uvack.I dont watch if they play.
Lady2 : And they call it their style.
Lady1 : The same applies with the fans too.Some of them have weird hair-dos.
Lady2 : Yeah. With all the paintings and hair-dos they scare me.
Lady1 : And whats with these female fans. They should do something to ensure a dress code. They come in mini-mini skirts and X(looks like her husband) is drooling at them non-stop.
Lady2 : Same here. Infact Y(her husband,maybe) forwarded a few pics of these fans to me.Crazy ppl.
Lady1 : I donno whats in this game that people watch. I mean, people lunge into others,dash on to others with sweat all over their body.They pull their shirts and shorts.Pathetic to see these people groaning with pain in the ground when hurt.
Lady2 : that said, I did see some people spitting in the ground.Thats the most disgusting act of all.And these cameramen capture that exactly when i'm having my dinner.Insane act.These players should be banned.
Lady1 : Dont talk about it.I haven't seen it in anyother sport like cricket or tennis.There too people run.I had already decided not to walk into any of the football ground hereafter.

Not for once did they talk anything about the game itself or about the goals scored.phunny people.

Crouch Theorem

2006-06-15T22:04:00.000-07:00

Statement:
"When your striker(more specifically 1.98m tall)is not hitting your crosses into the goal,make sure your cross hits your striker and gets into the goal."

Assumptions:
The winger is a decent enough crosser to hit the target striker directly.

Proof:
(From yesterday's Eng vs Tri Match)
Becks & co tried putting in a few delicious crosses/passes to the Peter Robot all through the game for 80 mintues in their game against Trinidad and Tobago.But robot made all funny gestures with the ball at his mercy,instead of scoring the goal.He ran,slid,jumped,volleyed,fouled and did every goddamn thing he could do.FIFA reports that almost two dozens of football were lost in crowd yesterday, thanks to Robot's shots off target.The most funniest of all his acts was the bicycle kick he tried.I later came know that he attempted a shot like that because a cameraman on the sides promosied him a 'dancing-Robot',if he posed like that for him. It was at the 82nd minute, Becks realised the theorem he taught his son the previous day.Also he saw Aaron jumping up in the air and getting hit by the ball that fell to him. At that instant Robot was jumping in the centre with the Tri's defender to see who is the tallest of the two.When Robot was doing his next jump,Becks hit the cross directly at Robot's head, bang on target and it sailed into the net,eluding the outstreched hands of the goalie.

Hence proved.

Kaka makes the difference

2006-06-13T22:35:00.000-07:00

And so the world champions start off the tournament with a win , though many complain that they didn't pull their victory off in style. Personally I was quite happy with their style of play, cool and calm passing and gradually building the attack up. More importantly playing as a team.Its good to see that these guys still play the South American style of football even though almost all of them play for big European clubs.What a goal that was, came from the left foot of Kaka, that was a sweetly struck shot teasing the goalie.This looks more likely to be the world cup of Kaka.

I was happy with everything except for Ronaldo's form. He has been my favourite player(Striker) for almost 8-9 years now right from his season with Barca. I have been following him play his club football pretty close and from what I saw yesterday he is definitely not a 100% match fit Ronaldo. Though he is not a player who runs at defences, I couldn't see him make his disguised trademark bursts,except for a couple which his team mates didn't honour. His first touch was also pretty poor. I know a lots of critics have come down strongly on the Ronaldo and wanted him to be dropped for Robinho.IMO the coach might not do it.After all Ronaldo has not been playing the primera liga matches for quite sometime due to injury and he might need time to be match-fit. The only way to get there is play as many matches as he can. Its a gamble, which the coach can attempt to try for the next two matches as the opponents are not as strong as Croatians.

If he gets back his form then I would definitely vouch for Brazil's 'Hexa'(bcos I never expected Lucio to be such a good defensive player..the defense yesterday was awesome) and if not they can always go on with lightning Robinho.

The 1998 champions looked pale too,but I think they might reach the knock-out stages if they pushed themselves a bit hard.So Les Blues pick yourselves up, not for your nation,not for your fans, not for the cup - but for the talismanic Zidane. He deserves a better farewell from football not a first round exit from World cup.

PS: I hate to listen to the Pro-European commentary from ESPN. How good it would be if these channels offered the spectators screaming and shouting slogans in one audio channel and the commentary in another audio channel.I could easily neglect the commentary.Oh..no Steve Slater not you,I'm not calling you a Pro-european. You not in the league yet.There is a better name for you - Anti-Ferrari.

The Cup of Life

2006-06-09T02:10:00.000-07:00

Do you really want it?

Go, go, go, ale ale ale
Go, go, go, here we go, yeah
The cup of life, this is the one.
Now is the time, don't ever stop
Push it along, gotta be strong.
Push it along, right to the top

வேணாம்...சொல்லிட்டேன்

2006-06-08T06:19:00.000-07:00

டேய் கட்டதொர
- இந்த SCV செட் டாப் பாக்ஸ்ல படம் வராத மாதிரி செய்யறது
- SCV வயர் கனெக்க்ஷன ஜங்ஷன்ல பிடுங்கி விட்றது
- எங்க தெரு முனைல இருக்குற கேபிள் டிவி ஆபிஸ்ல கரென்ட கட் செய்யறது
- காட்டுதனமா 12 மணி நேரத்துக்கு மூச்சு தெணற தெணற எனக்கு ஆபிஸ்ல வேலை வர செய்யறது
- சாயந்தர டைம்ல மேடவாக்கம் சோழிங்க நல்லுர் ரோட்ல ட்ராப்பிக் ஜாம் செய்யறது
- செல் போன்ல அலாரம் அடிக்குறதுக்கு முன்னாடி என் செல் போன் ஆப் ஆகுறது
- அங்கிட்டு இங்கிட்டு பேசி உன் ஆளுகள விட்டு ஜெர்மனில கலவரம் உண்டு பண்றது

இந்த மாதிரி சின்னபுள்ளதனமா எந்த வேலையும் அடுத்த ஒரு மாசத்துக்கு செய்யாம இருந்தினா உனக்கு ஜெர்மனில - பெர்லின் கிரவுண்டுக்கு நடுவுல ஒரு சிலை வைக்க எற்பாடு செய்வேன். அப்படி இல்லாம.. கப்பி தனமா ஏதாவது செஞ்சு புட்பால் மாட்ச் பாக்க முடியாம போச்சு..எனக்கு சாதாரணமா கோவம் வராது..சொல்லிட்டேன்.

The Kickoff

2006-06-05T03:48:00.000-07:00

So just four more days for the mega event to kick off.I'm all excited about a month of great football action.Rightly so my eyes are already glued on to the television.Almost all the channels are telecasting some shows about football, be it VH1 or NGC.But ESS is still showing some cricket match..that too Test Cricket match - with a Gemany world cup 2006 logo on the screen..duh.

Came across this site worldcupblog.org. It doesn't offer any expert opinion on the games played/reviews and at times also manages to give some trivial facts about the games.Also it has the individual countries pages.(Click on the maps on the top of the page to access the same). Ofcourse the reports about the games in these pages are going to be biased and so it could be more fun. If you have the habit of browsing through the sports pages of BBC then you would understand what I mean by 'fun' here.Apart from the fun part you might get some information about links with streaming live video of the games played.They managed it for the friendlies and so I hope there should be more for the world cup matches.

I do hear from some guys at my workplace that the cablewallahs have assured them about the possibility of watching some matches without the set-top-box with just a meagre extra money than the usual.And they are all excited about it.I'm not sure if there is even 1% truth in it.But I really do hope its true.

Do not blame goalie's

2006-05-29T00:19:00.000-07:00

Looks like one cannot blame the goal keepers it they do not stop the spinning and swirling free kicks of Beckham, Carlos etc.,This is what a team of researchers had to say about it,

The projected trajectory of a ball following a curved flight path is more difficult to judge because our visual system is not sensitive enough to gauge a change of direction at speed, mid-flight.

More details here.
As per this article, Cathy Graig the researcher decided to research on the curving free kicks after watching the spectacular curving goal by Roberto carlos. Incase if you haven't see that goal..watch this you-tube-video.

2006-05-23T20:55:00.000-07:00

Prabhakar has a neat travelogue on our trek Check it out here.

Update: Finally managed to upload some pics from Karthick here.

Himachal ki kali

2006-05-19T07:30:00.000-07:00

It was a pleasant and warm afternoon at a height of around 6500 ft at Himachalpradesh.A group of 50 people were waiting outside a shop cum house - their lunch point after their morning trek.If you though they were tired and sleeping, no you are wrong. Almost everybody in the group were busy - either looking at the first girl in the ground floor of the shop or the second girl standing on the stairs of the house.

The first girl looked to be a perfect beauty.They searched for words to appreciate her beauty, standing in front of them.But words failed to come out. Someone tried in their mother tongues English, Hindi, marathi, gujarathi, Tulu, Tamil etc., but wasn't successful.The group tried hard for just one word, but nothing perfectly could describe what they were looking at.Only big sighs came out instead of words. Next thing, they ran out with their cameras, their digitals,analogs, SLRs and clicked pictures. The guys who reviewed the picture taken nodded their heads in dissatisfaction.The cameras couldn't capture the beauty their eyes could capture. They failed miserably. There were surprised, for they have flaterred the girls in their metros with there verses,whereas nothing came out of their mouth here.

They never realised that she is an unadulterated beauty - epitome of a beautiful mind not contaminated by artificial pigments/paints.

The second girl at the stairs looked pretty timid and diffident. She was hesitant to walk down the stairs and face the crowd of men and boys standing below. She slowly walked down and talked to the only girl in the group of trekkers. By then part of the guys from the group were already drooling at her. Something irked her, she felt troubled, just looked around and found that everybody has been looking at her.Suddenly her face turned red.The guys looking at her were surprised,but they still kept gazing at her.Every other moment something irked her and she turned around to find out that she is being ogled at.Once again her face turned red,more red now. Nobody staring at her knew what was happening and why was it happening. Is she blushing - If so why - out of modesty,joy,embarassment. They do not know, but continued gazing. Meanwhile something kept irking her and she turned back every now and then and she was turning more and more red.The next time the group saw her, her eyes were full of water, which is ready to overflow and roll down as tears.She was too timid to even use her hand to control or wipe the stagnant water off her eyes.The group was still wondering - is it tears of joy,grief or embarassment. They dont know. They haven't even seen a single girl in their metro, blushing just because some guy is looking at her.

They never realised that she is an unadulterated beauty - epitome of innocent beauty not contaminated by the wits and tricks of the society.

With all these questions the group looked at the beautiful himalayan ranges in front of them.They wondered why the architect worked so hard to erect these mighty himalayas, clothed their peaks with white snow, planted some thick and tall green pines and melted the glaciers to form the streams. They were curious why should he create such a beautiful place synonymous to heaven.

Was he jealous of the beauties residing there that he made their habitat as beautiful as he can.

Unadulterated they stand now, both the habitat and its dwellers, which makes the onlookers ecstatic.Hopefully they be like that for years or centuries to come.

Yeh chand sa roshan chehara, zulfon ka rang sunahara
Yeh zeel se neele aankhen, koi raaz hain in mein gahara
Taareef karu kya us ki, jis ne tumhe banayaa.

Ronaldinho - Netru,Indru and Naalai

2006-05-18T02:32:00.000-07:00

Couple of weeks back : La liga Champion

Yesterday : Winner of Champions league trophy.

Future , a month later : More likely will history repeat?.

Pics Courtesy : FIFA World Cup
And i'm not sure what is to be infered from this article - I agree Arsenal played well,Henry at his usual best.But did the author forget the fact the Henry was the captain of the side and whatever he did yesterday cajoling,calming down etc., is what a captain should be doing.Whatever said rumours suggest that Henry has played his last match for Arsenal and against Barcelona :-).

All said yesterday's match was a perfect prelude to the 2006 FIFA World cup which begins next month and Chennai is again deprived of watching a spectacular football show :-(. BTW, will efforts be taken to show atleast a few matches say from quarter finals in DD.

Amidst the Beauties

2006-05-15T21:22:00.000-07:00

I'm back after an excellent trek to Saurkundi Pass - a programme part of National Himalayan Trekking conducted by YHAI . It was my first trek at Himalayas and now I hope to do it atleast once in a year.Never in my life had I been to such beautiful spots.

Whenever I looked up, I saw the beautiful blue sky.
Whenever I looked down, I saw the beautiful Green Valley.
Whenever I looked straight ahead, I saw the beautiful snow clad peaks.
Whenever I looked sideways, I saw the beautiful streams and waterfalls.
At times I closed my eyes, not able to stand these beauties and immediately I was charmed by the cool winds along with the chirps and squeaks of the birds from the trees.

As Bonjovi says,

It's my life
it's now or never, I ain't gonna live forever
I just wanna live while I'm alive

I will update this space with more pics and details pretty soon.

The Game - 1

2006-04-25T04:26:00.000-07:00

Time of the day : 10.00 P.M.

Boss: Hey Fresher!! Whats up.
Fresher: Hi Boss.Things are good.
Boss: So you all set to watch the football match tonight.I saw you were pretty much excited about it in the evening.
Fresher: Yes Boss.Cant wait to watch.
Boss: Cool. Whom do you think will win today.
Fresher: I think Brazil has every chance, if Ronaldinho is at his full fitness.Also Rooney looks in terrific form.But I think a midfield with Kaka,Robinho and strikers Ronaldo and adriano and Dida in goal it should be a cake walk.
Boss:oh..You know a lots about the game.So there is still chance for Rooney to help portugal to victory tonight.
Fresher:Boss, Rooney doesn't play for Portugal.He plays for England, The match is between Brazil and England .
Boss: Oh..Ok.I thought he was playing for portugal and there is a lot of talk against this youngster.Whats his name.
Fresher: Think you are talking about c.ronaldo.
Boss: Oh..yeah.Its great that you have some passions like this man.It will always help you improve the quality of work you do.And to be honest its not easy to find people like you with varied interests.Keep it going.
Fresher: Sure Boss.
Boss: One more thing, I almost forgot.You remember this status sheet, that we created today about the status of the product.
Fresher: Yes Boss.The one about the XYZ product to be released next month.
Boss: yeah..exactly.can you do me a favour, could you please send it to XYZ.They wanted by EOD and I forgot to send it.
Fresher: Not a problem boss.Will do it in next 15 mins.
Boss: Oh..cool.BTW dont ride your bike fast to reach office in 15 minutes.Be careful while riding, particularly the IT highway is not too safe.
Fresher:Boss I dont have to ride my bike for I'm still at office.
Boss: Really..I dint know that.Ok..After sending the email go home and enjoy the match.

The fresher fails to understand what the last sentence meant, spends 10 more minutes reading the build up for that night's match within which he gets a reply from XYZ with lots of questions about status and Fresher ends up replying those questions by calling his boss. It further triggers lots of mails back and forth which delays him.No wonder by the time he went home Brazil had already won the match.

A couple more games to follow...

Schumi wins

2006-04-23T08:38:00.000-07:00

Not very often a Formula 1 race is so interesting when the track doesn't offer too many overtaking oppurtunities.But I would still call the concluded 2006 San Marino grand prix an exciting one, just because Schumi won it.How long have I waited to see this moment - Schumi with his trademark leap at the podium - absolutely fantastic.

Pics courtesy:bbc.co.uk
Though Alonso was pretty good and had a better car with him, he wasn't able to overtake Schumi who was at his defensive best(holding off Alonso right after the first pit stop).And this is what Schumi had to say about the track "We have learnt from the past that overtaking is nearly impossible in this circuit unless someone makes a mistake." Obviously he was refering to the 2005 grand prix where Alonso held Schumi to win the race and this time it was the other way round.

So Renault's be aware, after all its not going to be that easy this year to sing Queen's 'We are the champions'.While i'm hooked on to DJ visage, make sure that you are not made to scream Linkin park's
I tried so hard
And got so far
But in the end
It doesn't even matter
I had to fall(or hit a Chicane :-) )
to lose it all

at the end of the season.Thats supposed to be a WRC track.:-D

PS: Thanks to some network problem with aircel in my area, the sms I sent was not delivered in time and I had to stay indoors with no other option than to watch the grand prix.Finally it was really worth it.

Tirupathi

2006-04-18T01:22:00.000-07:00

Two things that comes to mind instantly, when you think about 'Tirupathi'

Govindaa..Govindaa
Thalai - mottai

Disclaimer: The intention of the post is to describe a couple of traits about the temple 'Tirupathi' and any resemblances to a new movie released or comments about it is purely coincidental.

Uthiramerur

2006-04-10T22:40:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Bala,Prabhakar,Srini and I had been to the temples in and around Uthiramerur.

At first we went to Thirumalai Vayaivur temple, near vedanthangal. It is a pretty old temple and is located on a hillock. You get to see a pretty nice view of the villages and fields around. It is being renovated and well maintained. We were surprised to see a group of kids visiting the temple from the nearby Govt High school.Looks like a weekend outing for them. A very nice gesture to be appreciated. Additionaly had there been a history teacher along with them who could explain something about the temple it would have been great. May be its asking too much.

Then we visited the temples at uthiramerur(Refer Ferrari's blog for the details). There is a very small vaikuntha perumal temple(pretty close to the market) whose sannidhi appears to be closed, but is still worth a visit.Simply because the inscriptions on the walls of the temple details the ancient 'Kudavolai' method of electing the chief of the area(area known as 'kudumbi' in tamil). The imperial cholas were famous not only for their valour,their support for art and architecture, devotion towards god etc., but for their admistrative skills. 'Kudavolai' method stands as a fine example. Its a very simple technique, but the rules and regulations were explained perfectly to the point and I'm sure there is no room for any ambiguity like what exactly does 'an office of profit' mean. For the first time I was surprised to find out that ASI doesn't allow people to photograph the inscriptions on the wall.I'm not sure if it is ASI's rule or the caretaker's. Since ASI is one organisation we respect we did obey it. Things like 'kudavolai' technique really make us feel proud about our own history.

Buried in our thoughts about the glorious past we went to Thirupulivanam,only to find the great history of Cholas in shambles.Shambles wouldn't have worried me too much,but its the sh*t that blew us off.yeah..I mean it. The mandapam outside the temple is being used by locals as a 'ilavasa kazhipidam'(Free toilet). Infact thats no ordinary mandapam, it has been designed to look like a Chariot with beautifully decorated wheels on the sides.And if you enter the mandapam deep in thoughts about the great kings then you will definitely step on shit.Still no worries, why do you think there is a pond outside the temple,next to the mandapam. Of course it looks dirty, but good enough to clean the dirt from your feet. I do sometimes feel that some of the God fearing superstitious beleifs must be supported, because only fear against evil/God can stop these people from doing such things. Had there been a Hanuman/Narasimhar sculpture identified in the mandapam, things would have been different.

Lalu's Train ?

2006-04-05T23:42:00.000-07:00

TTR : Can you show me your Ticket please?
A group of Biharis : Ticket..what is that?
TTR : Dint you buy one for travelling from you place to here.
Some one from the group: No.Why should we.After all we are travelling by our Lalu's train.

If you thought this was a joke aimed at people from Bihar, then you are wrong.
Looks like a group of 500 Biharis travelled by train from Bihar to Chennai and then to Rameshwaram.But not even one soul bothered to purchase a ticket.Yeah..they have travelled all the way ticketless.The reply from a woman when questioned by the authorities here "How could you ask us for tickets when we have travelled in our own Lalu’s train?". :-)
Also they have paid a penalty of a meagre 4000 rupees and the loss is estimated to be around 1.5 lacs.

Read the whole news here (requires registration).

I have heard a lots of news about ticketless travel within Bihar, but nothing like this till now.
"aaahhaahhh..oru kroupa thaanya alayaraanga"

PS: I feel sorry for the Railway authorities who questioned these people.

el clasico

2006-03-30T22:03:00.000-08:00

The Real Madrid - Barcelona derby is rightly refered as 'el clasico'. Its just more than a football match, clash of two different cultures.

Real madrid lost 0-3 to Barca at Bernabeu,with Ronaldinho mesmerising the crowds with his skills. Barca player being appreciated by the Real Madrid crowd explained it all. The return leg is scheduled tomorrow. Barcelona hosts Real Madrid at Camp Nou.

Barca are in splendind form as against a lacklustre Real Madrid.So going by that it is pretty easy to predict a Barca spectacle.Still as a Madrid supporter I would want Madrid to put up a fight to atleast manage a draw against them.I strongly beleive that the team is not short of quality but just motivation.

When it comes to motivation I'm reminded of the 2005 season's Madrid thumping 4-2 victory.I still get goose bumps when I see these videos.I was lucky to watch the match live last year.Even today the first goal of the match by zidane lifts my spirits up.Unusually for once Ronaldo turns to be a provider and crosses it to Zidane on the far post who heads it into the goal.What is so inspiring here is the way Zidane flys in to meet the ball, makes a great contact with the ball directing it to the goal, and in the momentum his head goes on to hit the goal post. Luckily it was not a big injury and escapes with a small cut and blood pouring out of it. Now, Zidane is a superstar footballer, has won almost every accolade in the game scoring more spectacular goals than this and nobody would have questioned him or his abilites had he not scored this one at an age of 32.Such is his passion to the game which makes him a great player and such is the intensity of this clash to be refered as 'el clasico'.

Get Inspired Galacticos.Come back with your heads held high. As Aragorn says 'Ride out and meet them.'

Check out the flying goal by Zidane.(A big thanks to whoever uploaded it).

PS: I'm sad ESS shows almost all the unwanted cricket matches played across the world live,Golf matches live,some boring 0-0 clashes of other English league matches live, but deprives me from watching this match live with a delayed telecast on Sunday night 9.00.:-(

vetti pEchchu

2006-03-29T22:24:00.000-08:00

Two guys who are members of VVS( Varuthapadatha valibha sangam - watch 'winner' to know more about the group's attitude)

Guy1 : Machi.Did you see that girl.
GUy2 : Oh..Blue? Whats with her?. Looks like I'm seeing her for the first time here.Looks good and charming.
Guy1 : Yes Machi. Looks great today.But dont you remember seeing her before.
Guy2 : nope.
GUY1 : Remember what happened last week Thursday evening.

Guy2 recollects the incident. It was a pleasant evening and both these guys were walking to the cab which drops them to the station. As usual they were immersed in their own thoughts poker-faced.A girl approached them,

Girl : Does this cab go to the station.

It was a question thrown out in common and typical of these guys none of them bothered to answer it, presuming that the other one will answer or some one else near them would answer.But apart from these two guys and the girl there were no one around, not even the cab driver.The girl once again looks at Guy2 and puts the question again a bit louder thinking that ther have not heard it before,

Girl : Does this cab go to the railway station.

Guy2 slowly turned at her with 'rashness' in his eyes (the 'rashness' here a typical characteristic of VVS members,just to indicate,that the girl has disturbed the guy from his thoughts.But in reality these thoughts are not even worth a penny.) and answered in a grumpy voice,

Guy2 :hmmm..I think so.

Thats it.After answering Guy2 continued staring at the horizon, again expressionless.

Guy2 thinks about this incident and now understands that it was the same girl whom they met last week and they are now drooling at the same girl.

Guy2 : Yeah..I remember now.
Guy1 : adede..maybe you could have been a bit more soft last week.
Guy2 : Hmmm..may be.
Guy1 : Its ok..Freeya vidu, pheel pannatha.
They were sitting quiet for some more time and then this girl crosses through their line of sight again.
Guy2 : Do you think she's really looking good.(in a doubtful tone)
Guy1 : Hmm..On second thoughts I too doubt it.
Guy2 : I think she has painted(makeup) herself a little bit too much.Thats how it appears to me. Guy1 : I too was thinking about the same thing machi.
Guy2 : These artificial things make these girls really look like some filmstars..huh
Guy1 : Agreed.Correct.that concludes She is 'No..Not enaaugh'.Machi after all you haven't lost anything due to your 'rashness' last week.
Guy2 : Nangellam...yaaru.

An observer:Intha mathiri pesi pesiye thaanada ivalavau naala veena poneenga.
Enakku therinju ippadiyey iruntheengana kadasi varaikum ippadiyey irukka vendiyathu thaan urupadrathuku vaippey illai .:-P

Rahman 'Rings' on Stage

2006-03-22T20:37:00.000-08:00

The stage version of Lord of the Rings opens today at Toronto. Lord of the Rings had always been my favourite book in English and the same holds true with the movies. Couple of years back I used to check out the fansite more than a dozen times a day so that I dont miss even the smallest of news about the movie.In fact I even joined a BNU online LOTR class to know more about the story and the characters.:-)

There are some portions of the book that I would have loved to see in the movie, but then I can't complain, the extended edition DVDs did justice.Looks like the on stage show of LOTR runs for 3.5 hrs with two intermissions.Once again I think it is going to be hard to satisfy the diehard lovers of book.But people who were lucky enough to watch the preview show had appreciated the whole effort.

More importantly , the music composer is our very own A.R.Rahman along with a finnish Folk group Vartinna.So thats more than one reason I would love to watch the show.And Of course you cannot expect any 'Chaiyya..Chaiyya' or even 'Bombay dreams' for that matter.I wish he gets to make many such enjoyable and memorable compositions.

Anyways waiting to hear my fav lines 'The road goes ever on and on'.

PS:I do find some of the sites mentioning Rahman as 'Bollywood Composer'?? - Really!!!.Thats news to me.

PPPPost

2006-03-20T22:27:00.000-08:00

Pulicat Lake

'ஒரு அலையாய் வந்து என்னை அடித்தாய்
கடலாய் மாறி பின் என்னை இழுத்தாய்'
('oru alaiyaay vanthu ennai adiththaay
kadalaay maaRi pin ennai izuththaay')
Can't find better words to describe the beauty of an Estuary :-).

More pics here.

Pooja(in Pattiyal)

Courtesy: Indiaglitz

Pretty good movie.I liked it.
Lesson learnt : Pesamalay kadalai
Even if you are deaf and dumb, you can put kadalai.Not with just-another-girl, but a girl as beautiful as pooja.

Premier League(and Primera Liga too)

With just 10 matches to go, the relegation battle and the fight for Champions/UEFA makes it more interesting to watch the matches.Enjoyed the Fulham victory over Chelsea and Arsenal appears to look like the in form team. Wondering how would Henry fancy playing in a champions league fixture against Barca - the club he is likely to move next season.

Petronas Grand Prix

Though Schumi/Ferrari didn't win,it was a good race.Enjoyed watching it.

That describes my Peaceful weekend.
Please...No 'P'eace priz(c)e nominations for the above list.:-)

Why me? - 2

2006-03-19T20:55:00.000-08:00

I was busy with my work and didn't notice this guy entering my cubicle.

Guy : Hi
Me : Hi.(I dont remember seeing him before).
Guy : Are you new to this place??
(I wasn't able to make up the intention behind his question from his expression)
Me : Excuse me!!!
Guy : I mean, I haven't seen you in this cubicle before.
Me : Oh Really!!I have been sitting here right from the day this building was inagurated 3 months back.
(The guy now realises that it was a stupid question and I was still not sure what is in his mind untill this girl walked past through my cubicle.Suddenly the guy standing next to me with a big smile shouted,)
Guy : Hi X.
Girl : Hi Y.
Guy : So you are in this building then.(I was wondering if there could be a dumber question in this world.But it still worked)
Girl : I'm in this building now for this project.How abt you?.Haven't seen you before here!!
Guy : I work from the other building.I just came here to see my friend.
(pointing me ,winks at me Frienda..naana..adapavi..Ippo thanada onna naan first time paakuren and continues..) BTW are you going to Food court.
Girl : Yes.
Guy : hmmm..I'm also feeling hungry.ok..then will join you.My buddies are in some training.Lets go.
Thats it..Off he goes with the girl.So simple..huh.

I was overawed by the shrewdness of the guy, who walks almost 300mts and then climbs the stairs to reach the first floor, behaves like an idiot to another guy - for what. To meet this girl and now he has to walk back the same distance(of course not alone this time :-)), for the Food court is next to his building.(I was not sure if they had lunch together.)

Enna paathathunala ippadi ethavathu seiyanumnu thonutha,illa intha mathiri ethavathu seiyanumna enna paaka varuvangala?.ippadiyum oruthan kevalapattu pogalamna,athu enna thavira vera yaara irukka mudiyum.

Malaysian Grand Prix

2006-03-17T00:46:00.000-08:00

18-Mar-2001

That was a stunning race right from the start.Schumi gets to drive a spare car and spins it due to the excessive oil in the track. In a while it starts raining heavily and both Schumi and Rubens go into the pits at the same time to change to wet tyres and comes out of pit garage to join in 10th and 11th position. After which there was no stopping them.In 5-6 laps schumi leads the race.

Both the Ferrari cars were easily quicker than the rest of the lot with Schumi winning the race and Rubens finishing second and Ferrari Celebrate.

19-Mar-2006
Second race of season 2006 - ESPN/STAR - 11.30 AM (IST).

Hopefully it rains this time too.:-)

Pics Courtesy:http://fedef1.com/f1.html

Anaikolra

2006-03-15T21:00:00.000-08:00

'Anaikolra' is a tamil word which means 'Elephant killer' - 'Anai kolra'. The word denotes something which is capable of killing an elephant. Changing the letter 'l' to 'n' - 'anai konda'. Yeah..one of the possible origins of the word Anaconda.

I always beleived that some of the words in English could have been derived from Tamil and recently came across this site, which lists a few of those.An interesting read.

Courtesy: ponniyinselvan@yahoogroups.com

'Australian bowler'a appadina

2006-03-13T08:54:00.000-08:00

After England were dismissed for a meagre score on the fifth day of the test match,

Guy1 : looks like an easy target buddy.I'm confident India could easily win
Guy2 : hmm..hope so...But did you see this guy Munaf patel reverse swinging the ball and mind that we are not facing Australian bowling to be so complacent, it is England.They have bowlers who can bowl a bit.

Overheard this and couldn't stop laughing. Though Australians batted well to post 434 runs, this match will be remembered not for that but for their awful bowling attack and of course South African's batting.

Sunset

2006-03-08T02:26:00.000-08:00

Idhu Oru Pon Malai Pozhuthu
Vana magal, Nanugiral
Veru Udai Poonugiral

Clicked it near Cuddalore Old town Beach.

Peanut

2006-03-01T22:26:00.000-08:00

The literal translation of the topic into tamil is 'kadalai'.Many of us use this word to describe the act of boy(s) and girl(s) talking to each other. Off late I have started observing that not all these acts can be claimed into simple peanut putting,as there are certain subtle differences.These are just based on my observations on seeing people in the restaurant and a train.Unmaikku purambagavum irukalam.

Degree IV - Group peanut

This is the intial stage after the boys meets the girls. Be it in college or at workplace they stick around as a group(normally four - two guys and two girls).
In a restaurant four seater table, one can find two girls sitting on one side of the table and the two guys on the other side of the table. It will be good to watch when these guys try to talk the girls in with topics ranging from their funny neighbours to the big fight they had with the other set of guys the other day.
In a train one can see a group of people boarding the general compartment and the same sort of jokes continue here too. If the girls dont stay in the same area, its jackpot for the guys. Even if the guy stays in tambaram he would accompany the girl till kodambakkam, buying a concession student train pass using some 'vivekandar theru,thupai' address in kodambakkam.

Degree III - Individual Kadalai

In this stage the girl and guy are not in the group or rather they have started isolating themselves from the group.
In a restaurant they usually sit in front of each other.They usually talk louder and discuss items that really matter like - 'Which side dish you like for Idly?.I like sambhar very much'.Answer 'Really..thats great.you know what..I too like sambhar very much.But chutney also is a good combination.' I beleive after having watched so many tamil movies one would now have trouble identifying who would ask such important questions.
In a train the girl usually sits in the ladies compartment and the guy talks with her until the train starts and once it starts he boards the next compartment. Every 10 secs a message is received in his cell phone which is opened with all due respect and a smile across his face and promptly replied in the next 3 seconds.

Degree II - Lip-reading kadalai

After some days of Individual kadalai, the two now are into the next stage.
In a restaurant one can see that these two sit next to each other in a four seater table.When you watch them one might be surprised to see them munching the Ice cream so violently.A couple of seconds later the giggle sound you hear would then clarify things. They have been actually talking to each other in such a low voice, which they decode only by lip-reading techinque and not by actually listening.Heard that there are special classes conducted to get people trained with such lip-reading skills(strictly proclaimed to be teaching only lip-reading).
Even expert eavesdroppers have failed miserably in trying to listen to these peanuts, by sitting just behind the couple in the train.It has been widely concluded that even the Weasley twins extendable ears from Harry potter would not be able to overhear them.The only clue that suggests that they are in the train is the giggles that you hear every 3 minutes.

Degree I - Mind-reading Kadalai

What next after Lip-reading?.(No..not that).Its Mind-reading.In this stage they dont have to see each other or talk to each other.They have a feeling that the other person is always next to them.
In a train one can see these two standing and then looking at each other without talking a word to each other , which at times will make you wonder if they are under a spell.Intial reports suggests that by looking at each other some wave signals are generated that are used for kadalai.But it is also beleived that these signals have frequencies matching that of radio michi and so just by looking into each other they can listen to the songs telecast by mirchi.How coooool!!!!! and during the commercials their kadalai would continue.

A typical kadalai of this degree I saw a couple of days back.There was this guy sitting in the office cab,reserving a seat for his girl to come and join him.Suddenly he remembered something and furiously he dialled her number.But then the next moment(after hearing her) his voice softened 'Hey,where are you'.His expressions suggested that he is fuming, but his voice didn't.That however is not our point of interest.But how come he suddenly remembered that she is not with him. On further analysis I found out that the cab driver has tuned into mirchi and so our hero was listening to a romantic song that he usually hears when she is near him thru the mind-reading mechanism.But when radio mirchi telecasted the commercials he realised that he is hearing it through the radio and not through mind-reading.So one can safely conclude that the mirchi songs heard in the case of degree I kadalai is devoid of commercials.

There is another degree of kadalai putting, surprisingly these guys put kadalai alone, yeah without the other gender present.One can find them standing near the door in the train.BTW if you are still confused on how they put kadalai alone, its very simple.When you travel by train next time, buy peanut for 1 rupee from the kadalai payyan.Take a peanut in your hand and put it in your mouth.Continue this till you exhaust the 1 rupee worth kadalais. Apparently this peanut putting cannot be classified into any of the categories above, but these peanut putters are the ones who dont fail to observe the above trivial things.

Kya yeh football hai??

2006-02-27T01:36:00.000-08:00

Hi ESPNStar Sports India,
I'm an ardent football follower living in Chennai.The only reason I bought a set top box amidst all the discouraging verdicts about it, is to watch the weekend Premier league matches.I understand that from past week you have decided to try out parallel Hindi commentary for these Premier league matches. I'm not particularly against this idea of yours to increase your viewership among those Hindi speaking group and I do not have any grudge against these commentators or their pronunciation of footballing terms.I will be able to put up with these mistakes(for I do not understand them). But these commentaries are a total misfit to these games as these commentators are not aware of the tradition in which these league games are played. They might update their knowledge about those derby matches between liverpool vs Everton by reading about it somewhere which is no where near to the first hand experiences these English commentators have lived through during their times as a player.Most of the English commentators are ex-players and they know the tradition and spirit involved in these games which is very essential for commenting on these games.

Only after listening to the Hindi commentary I realised that the match is made more intersting by the English commentators.IMO these guys live football,eat football and breathe football so we tend to get first hand information about the game,team and player.Thanks to you that it was parallel commentary and so I had an option to change audio channel to English the moment I started hearing Hindi commentary.

I feared the worst and did search to find out that you might probably adapt the same system of parallel Hindi commentary for the world cup 2006.This is a mega event that happens only once in four years. So please spare us from these commentaries from here on and do not even think about implementing the same for World cup. Moreover the onus of Hindi commentary belongs to the national broadcaster (who will borrow the feed from you somehow before world cup) and you as a sports channel do not try to compete with their viewership with such terrible techniques.

PS: I do not understand Hindi.My knowledge of Hindi is limited to 'Ek gaon mein'. courtesy: Bhagyaraj which is very simple.So the complex literary terms used by these commentators are completely out of my lexicon.

With all hopes
Srivat.

'Real'ity

2006-02-23T23:49:00.000-08:00

It was the Champion's league match between Real Madrid and Arsenal. Just after 10 minutes the most criticised and my favourite striker Ronaldo gets a beautiful through ball from Zizou with which he rounds of Jens Lehmann easily and hits the first goal of the match. I really wanted to express my joy by hailing Real Madrid at the top of my voice. But then it is almost midnight and supressed the thought not wanting to disturb others.With every minute and with every other attempt made by Galacticos Lehmann produces some wonderful saves.By Half time the whites have had atleast 15 shots on target. The second half begins and within just two seconds Cicinho cuts in from right to find Zizou who hits a wonderful volley for which Lehmann this time has no answers. Out of ecstacy I shout but still strangely silently without any oise.My joy knew no bounds,I expected Madrid to win by 3-0 to make it comfortable for them. With every other pass and shot I see myself nearing my television.And finally Robinho with a wonderful play puts his shot into the net.But before I could make sure that its a goal the TV goes blank.Huh..To hell with these cable operators and set top boxes.By then I could hear some weird polyphonic tone. Slowly but steadily the volume increases. It kind of appears to be a familiar sound to me. Damn..its my alarm in Cell phone.

With all difficulty I open my eyes to see that the time is 11.55 P.M.In just 5 mins the match between Real and Arsenal will kick off.I switch on the TV and wait for the match to start remembering the Real Madrid dream I had a few moments ago. Arsenal play this match at Real Madrid stadium Bernabeu where no other English team has managed to win. It is 12.15 already
and the sports channels still telecast some 'Team India Glorious'.Let me switch to sun music. Thats murali with mic.scary enough in the middle of night. Did i miss the match timings then. What does ESPNSTAR.COM say. The match is supposed to start only at 01.00 A.M. still 45 minutes more.

The same alarm sound once again.Now in reality, the match is about to begin. How energetic the madrid fans are in the stadium.There comes the galacticos. Ronaldo hugs Henry saying something to him with a big smile.'Kick them out,you Ronnie' I murmured within myself.The match starts.

Excellent Cassilas..great save..your are my favourite..Very good Gravesen..oh..now what..woodgate injured..nope..puhleesee..Meija substitutes him..ok..he is quite a good lad..hey you ramos..cmon man do something..you are the central defence..got to get the ball from Henry..no Guti..not him..he is fabregas..pass it to zizou..he is in white shirt..huh..Ronaldo..cmon man at this level you got to control those first pass...Beckham..damn it..lob the ball above the goal keeper..instead of hitting it with all the force..who the hell told you get in front..go do the job which you do better..cross them in David..Thank god..Arsenal didn't get a goal in the first half.

Let me drink some water.Its really wierd to see the guys playin it like this.Probably Lopez carol might bring Raul for Ronaldo, that would pull the spirits up of the players.Oh..second half about to start.

Ronaldo..you again..giving it away to Henry..go run with him and stop him..you fatso..Guti lunge..Stop him..Ramos Bring him DOWN atleast..Casillas stop it..oh..no.Sh*t.thats a goal..you fools..dont you know if there is someone capable of scoring its him..but that was a beauty of a goal ain't..hmm..let him come to Barca next year..that will be a match..Cmon Madrid..still there is time..and there comes Raul the prolific champions league scorer for madrid..Listen to the ovation from crowd..who is going..thats Robinho..thats alright kid..well played..oh..you reyes..we all know how good an actor you are..get up and play..madrid dont stop play that guy is faking..who is that..hahahaha..meija is trying to roll reyes outside the play area..great dude..dont give meija a card for that ref..you dumbo..give it to reyes..wenger sensed it..brings another oscar nominee Pires for reyes..oh..raul that header should have gone in..Carlos hit it buddy..Lehmann leave it..good shot and well stopped..Ramos..that was unlucky..that too should have gone in..guys keep an eye on Henry..stil 10 minutes more..you can pull it..Cicinhooo..huh..thats ok..four minutes injury time..can pull at least one guys..oh..no Henry..dont do that..not to corner flag..time wasting..but can't be blamed..huh..thats it..Ref blew it.awful it was to wake up for this sort of game.Anyways if these guys can pull themselves up then they can probably win in highburry in the return leg and then can go through.It is difficult but possible.

I shouldn't watch the reviews and read websites for a day or two.It will be too embarassing to know all this.All these English guys will have an opinion on it.How about the dream I had sometime back.Wonderful piece of football that was by Madrid.Wait a minute..which was that.Think hard you idiot..think hard.It definitely doesn't look like Bernabeu.oh.Is it highburry then. Really..yeah..looks like that in all probability.So the dream I saw was the return leg match and even if Real wins by a 1-2 they go through by away goal advantage.How good that feels!!! Come on Real Madrid..you guys can pull it back.There and back again at highburry in a couple of weeks.

Hope my dream becomes true.

Good Conductor

2006-02-21T00:13:00.000-08:00

I was waiting at the vadapalani signal to board a Metropolitan transport corporation bus to my place.For those of you who think why would someone wait near a signal instead of a bus stop, welcome to Chennai.There is a small reason behind it.Apart from the chores of driving the bus in the chennai traffic, the drivers of these bus also have another social responsibility - to improve the stamina of the bus travellers.That is one reason why they usually stop the bus either 100mts away from the bus stop either before or after, so that these people waiting to board can run towards the bus and then board it.At times the brake system in the buses might be a little late to respond, so when the driver applies it at vadapalani it might stop only at Udhayam theatre. People who do not know this usually run behind the bus until they are exhausted and then give up,others knowing this will directly go and wait at the udhayam theatre bus stop. Since I was aware of these techniques I thought that the probability of boarding a bus near a signal is more than that of boarding it in a bus stop.

Oops..that was off topic. Coming back to my post.After a couple of minutes I was lucky to board an express bus whose driver didn't bother stopping it at signal but slowly kept it moving.As usual I chose to stand on the footsteps near the conductor for the obvious reasons(part of which is explained in my choosing a seat post,the other part will have to be a separate post totally irrelevant here.)At first he looked to me like a calm and experienced conductor.I gave him a 10 rupee currency and asked for a ticket to my place. He said it costs six rupees and asked for a 1 rupee coin from me.

Now I had to dig into my wallet.I had never felt comfortable taking my wallet out while travelling in foot steps. First the swaying bus will make you lose your balance,second the pessimistic capriconic thoughts in me make me feel that the wallet is accidentally going to fall out of the bus or I might slip trying to hold on to my wallet.After negotiating all these thoughts I got hold of a one rupee coin and handed it to him.The conductor looked at me and then said 'sir give me that five rupee coin'.

Only then I realised that he has been looking into my wallet till this time.I was totally annoyed by his act.I dont have anything in my wallet that could embarass me.But for me it was a very indecent act, peeking into my wallet without my consent. He could have directly asked me for a five ruppee coin the moment I gave him the currency. I couldn't justify his act of peeking into other's wallet whatsoever.An act of misconduct from a conductor I thought.

At the next stop this guy boarded the bus. He was wearing a lungi,pulling up the bottom of it and tying it to his waist,exposing his supposedly Bermuda shorts(lungiya madichu katti iruntharu pattapati trouserukku mela..as vadivelu dons in 'orange trouser' scene). He pulled out a 100 ruppee bunch from his shorts pocket and gave one to the conductor. I saw the expression changing in conductor's face. The conductor was furious now which I thought was because of the 100 rupee given for a six rupee ticket.But to my surprise ,he called the guy near him and told him that carrying money like this inside his shorts pocket is not safe.Even if he had to he advised him not to expose it in the bus and taking a single currency out and keeping it in his shirt pocket before boarding is a much safer thing.He also told him to move to one corner of the bus and lean on to one of the seats so that he can feel the money inside his pocket.

He then started telling me that pickpocket's nowadays are very skilled.Looks like in the past week he witnessed a similar guy having money in his shorts under his lungi lose some 15000 ruppees.The theif had just cut the part of the shorts pocket with the money using a scissor/small knife without making contact with any other body part(thankfully..definitely the
pickpocket deservevs credit for his/her skill). He further added that most of the losers are not chennai guys and usually from villages.Even though vadivelu and vivek had campaigned enough in their movies about the risks involved in carrying money in crowded places like bus, these people still are attached to the same techniques they adopt in their village.The conductor also told me that he could easily identify the pickpockets from their looks,the position and posture they stand,their clothes,money handling methods and even with the currencies they give him etc.,

I'm not sure if the villager realised his mistake.But words of advise and sincerity in his job did overshadow his misconduct. When I thought about it after sometime I realised that there could be numerous justifiable reasons behind his act of peeking into my wallet and felt happy that I didn't pick up an argument with him.

chinna chiRu kiLiyE

2006-02-16T22:13:00.000-08:00

Morning news in Real Madrid TV announcing Real Madrid victory

An article on Sachin proving his critics wrong in the news paper

Roobaroo in a music channel

Early morning breeze on my way to office

Deciphering an inscription

Sight of a beautiful sunset

These are a few things that bring an instant smile on my face everyday. But none of these can match the sight of this cute little girl going to school.It will cheer up even the gloomiest person in the world.

Everyday I or rather we(Prabhakar,Suresh and I) happen to see her at a railway station. She is some 2 feet tall, wearing a light blue pinafore on a white shirt,with hair dressed neatly into two plaits.She carries her own school bag(good school..bag looks weightless to me). She walks on the road talking,jumping and singing something to herself and laughing frequently.

She is not bothered by anything around her.She is in her own world and doesn't worry about the delayed train,exams etc., signs of which one can see in the faces of her father and elder sister(most probably) following her.An exhibit of unadulterated happiness that is too good to be compared to the list at the start of this post. It reminds me instantly of Mahakavi Bharathi's verses.

'ஓடி வருகையிலே கண்ணம்மா, உள்ளம் குளிருதடி'

How true.Nothing better can come close to this description and of the whole song.

We eagerly look forward to see her everyday in the morning.We peep out of the train door with a frantic search all through the station and then a bright smile lits up our face once we see her. Watching something like this early in the morning before going to office pumps up the energy levels and for sure motivates people like us.

But what is so special to mention it today. My friend Suresh(can call him a philosopher for his 'peN' philosophy and my coach too for volleyball) who has been witnessing this sight daily on his way to office ,has been blessed to witness such a beautiful and similar sight everyday right in his house at any time.Only difference here is he has been blessed with a 'He'.Congrats Suresh and I'm sure Junior suresh will fill your family's hearts with joy and happiness.

You too,BBC Sport

2006-02-14T20:22:00.000-08:00

BBC Sports and Fun page has its own/fans version on what famous sporting(hmm..ok..Cricket and Football only) personalities would be saying to their loved ones relating it to the recent happenings.Quite funny.

Read it here.

Visit to Pulipakkam

2006-02-13T20:25:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we(Bala,Prabhakar and I) had been to vyagyapureesvarar temple at Pulipakkam. Eversince I joined my new company I wanted to climb one of those hills on the other side of the scenic Paranur station.On inquiring about the possibilities of climbing it, the locals told us that there is also an old siva temple there.And that was enough information for three of us to explore and enjoy.

We got down at paranur station and then started walking for about one km before we saw some signs of a temple on top of the hill.We were not sure if this was the one the villagers told us.But then started climbing up the rugged ascending path. The temple as such looks very small without any praharams. But then the stones and pillars that were scattered around gave us a feeling that it should have been quite a big temple when it was built. The dozens of siva lingams also gave us a feeling that there should have been more sannidhi's in the temple showcasing these lingams.The walking path around the temple also appears to be newly laid.So we cannot conclude exactly on what was the outer praharam like or the boundary of the whole temple.A whole view of the temple and the chengalpet lake(I think that is the lake in the background) was beautiful.

The architecture and design of the pillars resembled the ones in Airavateesvarar temple.With our limited knowledge we can only conclude that the temple was built after Raja Raja chozhan's period.(Experts could easily provide the exact era when the temple was built simply by looking at the design and architecture of the temple.) The gopuram was a newly constructed one and so was not of much help in predicting the time during which the temple was built.There were also many inscriptions on the walls of the temple. We tried our hands at decoding it for an hour or so and were successful in deciphering a few of those inscriptions but then not the exact era and the king who built it.

After staying for around an hour We decided to walk to another vishnu temple in an adjacent hill. But only after reaching there found out that it is being renovated. Instead of trekking back the same route we climbed up, we decided to be adventurous and started to walk around the hill hoping to get down by the far end thereby reaching the station.

We were happy to see walking trails till we reached the top of the mountain.After which the trails disappeared and we had to venture our own way out.The path descending down the hill was totally filled with thorny bushes and some trees full of spikes.We tried our best to climb down through this difficult path with a hope that it was the last bush in the path.At one particular instant there was no way out and then we happened to meet a villager who told us that it is not possible to get down by the route we are trying to.He further said that going back the route we climbed up is the better option and any other route is much harder and time consuming.With no other option we retreated back with excellent memories of the temple and bruises/cuts caused by the spikes.

'peN' philosophy

2006-02-08T21:50:00.000-08:00

I had this niggling question in my mind for the past two days.Its about one of my colleagues who recently got married(some 20 days back).An year back, they met each other during their training days and had fallen in love. Before marriage this guy always used to be with her during lunch and other tea breaks. Always followed her to the the lobby,cafeteria etc.,A couple of days back he pinged me and told me to call him before I go for my tea-break.At first I thought this was just one-off day just to catch up with me.But I was puzzled when it happened for the next two days.

1. Has he lost interest so quickly.Appadi paatha kooda 'aasai aruvathu naal mogam muppathu naal'nu solli irukaangale.Its just 20 days after his marriage.The math logic didn't work out.

2. Is it because he doesn't want him to be projected as a married guy, by sticking around with bachelor guys indulging in trivial chats.This too didn't sound convincing because it would have been an obvious choice to go around with married men to understand the intircacies of married life(well..err..I meant money management,time management,relationship management etc.,)

Since the answers I thought and ones from other like-minded friend did not appeal to me, I put this question to a friend of mine who is married (and I assume that term by itself means 'tolerant' too) and doesn't mind answering silly questions asked by morons like me. He looked at me for a second and then took my pen out from my shirt pocket and started saying

'Very simple. When this pen is kept out on a desk it becomes a common property,may be you are the current possessor,but anyone can claim it and own it.So you always have a watchful eye on it not wanting it to be claimed by anyone else. The moment you seize it and put it in your pocket it becomes your own pen and you assume yourself to be the owner of the pen.From then on you are not as watchful as you were before.'

And that does explains everything.

cha..ivalvau thaana..ippadi than etha pathi yosikanumo atha pathi yosikama entha entha vizhiyatha pathi overa yosika koodatho athai yellam thevai illama yosichu kevala pattu porathu.

Why Me..

2006-02-06T01:20:00.000-08:00

After reading the reviews for Rang De Basanti we decided to watch it someway or the other this weekend. I'm always apprehensive about booking tickets in the counter for a very silly reason. Everytime I had booked the ticket(2 nos) ,usually the guy in the counter gives me tickets for two corner seats in the theatre, though there are other seats available. Apparently he doesn't know who I will be watching it with. But somehow thinks that the other person is a girl.

The trouble in sitting in a corner seat and watching a good movie is the obvious disturbance by the other corner seaters in front of you.Whatever be the movie these people have their own stories,romances and duets.So it is pretty difficult to watch the movie on the screen.:-)And thats why I usually dont take the responsibility of booking tickets.But this time it was thrust on me and I was told to get it delivered to my friend's house. So I thought of trying my luck in phone now.But I never knew there are things that can irritate me more than sitting in a corner seat and watching the movie.This is what happened.

I found out one of the theatres showing RDB and called them.But to my dismay two guys from the theatre had picked up the call at the same time.
Me : Hello
Guy1: Hello
Guy2: Hello
Guy1: Adede..Sir Neenga vera eduthiteengala..Seri Naan Vechudiren
Guy2: Seri pa..Saying this Guy2 also disconnected the line.I was trying to interfere between their talk to show my presence..But it dint help.Luckily next time I tried there was only one guy and I inquired about the availability of tickets.

I was in a way surprised to find that the tickets were available for Saturday night show and immediately dialled the Home delivery number. I was annoyed when the automated voice I heard said that the cell phone has been switched off. I couldn't beleive this. We were badly in need of tickets and this guy has switched off his cell phone. I decided to call theatre up again and tell them about this.More irritating was the guy's answer when I asked him why is the cell phone switched off,'Athuku naan enna sir panna mudiyum. Saturday night show ticket irukku..Advance booking counterum galiyathan irukku.Neenga nerlaye vanthu ticket vangi konga.Atha vitutu home delivery number switch off panni irukangannu solreengale'.On hearing the first line of his answer I didn't want to talk to him and when I heard him telling me to come and book it directly I was totally provoked.But didn't want to pick an argument with him as I was in my office.Honestly I was expecting some kind of an answer advising me on some timings for calling the home delivery number.So this was totally unexpected.Is it very difficult to understand why would someone want to check if the home delivery option is available or not.If at all I can come to the theatre to book tickets why would I bother to talk to him about a cell phone that is switched off. My awful luck with reserving tickets to cinema still continues :-(.

Weekend Trip - Pics

2006-01-31T20:29:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the photos from our weekend trip to Tanjore. Credits to Prabhakar for clicking these. Click on the pic to enlarge them.

1.Thanjavur Brahadiswarar temple

The pic below deserves a tamil description 'பொன்னொளியில் மின்னும் பொன்னியின் செல்வன் கட்டிய இராஜராஜீசுவரம்'

Southern Side of the temple- By Photostitching the individual pics. I'm currently trying to stitch the photos of other temples also. Will update them once completed.

Front View

2.Tharasuram Airavateesvarar Temple

Southern Side of the temple

The entrance to the garbhagraham is beautifully sculpted to resemble a Chariot.

Thanks to ASI - A Before ASI and After ASI picture - from the art gallery inside the temple.

3.Gangai Konda Cholapuram
Front View

Southern Side of the temple as seen from the Inner Praharam

Southern Side of the temple as seen from the outer Praharam

Found Him!!!

2006-01-29T10:46:00.000-08:00

A couple of days back we(Bala,Prabhakar and I) were at Tanjore Brahadiswarar temple, scanning the inscriptions on the southern wall of the temple to locate a couple of words - Vallavarayan Vanthiyathevan.After enjoying the sculptures and trying to decode the stories behind those sculptures we set out to search the name of one of the heroes of 'Ponniyin Selvan'. Intially we started searching together, for it was very difficult to map those fonts to our current fonts. Then we split and scanned each section separately but were unable to locate it and finally gave up. But I managed to click the inscriptions on the entire south wall of the temple ,hoping to search it slowly.And now I have finally found him!!!.

Here I present you - the name of my Hero - Vallavarayar Vanthiyathevar-inscribed as in Tanjore temple . Click on the pic to enlarge it(marked with yellow rectangle- The second half of the name is not clear though) I'm really happy to have located his name in the inscription.It was one of the reasons we set out to Tanjore.The effort of painstakingly looking at my monitor and zooming in and out the pics for two hours was not futile in the end.

On the whole it was an excellent weekend.Check Bala's blog for a detailed travelogue.I will soon try to update the other pics as well.

A very big Thanks to varalaaru (a special thanks to Gokul Seshadri) for providing us with all the knowledge about art,architecture,culture,inscriptions etc., that made the trip more exciting. In case you are interested in knowing the history of Tamil kings,temples,Inscriptions etc.,do check out the articles in their portal.

Quotes of the week

2006-01-24T01:02:00.000-08:00

Some of the comments,quotes,dialogues that I heard this week and last week.

Opinion of experts in Indo-Pak match

"We were the worst fielding side of all the teams when we won the world cup in 1992. The current pakistan team is also like that'.Mr.Rameez Raja's comments when Sanjay manjrekar asked why is Pakistan's fielding not upto the standard. I donot understand if Rameez agrees that they are not good in fielding or is he trying to say that Pakistan will win worldcup this time.

Mr.Sanjay Manjrekar commenting on Sidhu's exaggeration of Sachins Injury in a Indo-Pak match.'Neither of this like Blood on his shirts,Sachin falling down in the pitch actually happened'.Sanjay we have also heard your comments when Sachin was batting and even a defensive stroke was sometimes overstated by you as an excellent shot before realising that the ball did not go beyond the bowler.

From the Austrailian Open..

Andy Murray after his defeat 'If you people expect me to play well each and every match that I play then its not going to happen'. Andy..Thanks for the clarification. We indeed want you to win atleast one match that you play.Only then we will get to see news columns like 'The no.1 Brit Andy Murray prepares himself for winning Wimbledon' in British media.

Maria Sharapova 'This is one of the hottest days in my Life.Wondering how do you people sit there watching the matches all day long'. hehehe..ecjactly..Totally agree..I myself can feel the heat sitting inside my house and watching you play.Is there any chance of Maria and Hingis playing a match. :-;

Simbu on Madan's Thiraiparvai..

Madan : Simbu, What do you feel about the lengthy dialogues in the movie Saravana. Particularly in one scene you were really good.
Simbu : That was something that is an inherent quality.From the days I started acting in my father's movies I practised this skill. Now I feel comfortable with these lengthy dialogues and even K.S Ravikumar appreciated my efforts.Everybody who saw the film appreciated this.

Oh..ho.Simbu you got them all wrong.Didn't you listen to the first half of the question.Did you see Madan's toon.It was similar to saying that the film would have been a hit if it didn't have those lengthy dialogues.

Best quote of the week:

I didn't get a chance to see captain's movie this weekend, which would have easily been the quote of any day/any week.So it was a tough one..But I feel the dialogue by Shalini's mother in the climax of the movie Kaadhalukku mariyadhai was the best quote of the week.

'Kuttitu pongalen.Yaar venamnu sonnathu'.

Appo ivalavu nerama yaarum yethuvum sollave illaiya.Nalla velai.Naan fulla padam paakala. Illana sema kadupayiruppen.Intha dialogue kekaruthukuthan thevai illama 150 minutes ellorum padam pathirupangalo.

What is that?

2006-01-22T23:42:00.000-08:00

Djibril Cisse, footballer playing for France and Liverpool FC. He played yesterday's match against Manu with a similar hair style except for the white bleach.Couldn't get a picture from yesterday's match. The above is the closest to his new - supposedly a hairstyle...yuck..

Keepy Up

2006-01-18T22:56:00.000-08:00

Gearing up for FIFA World Cup 2006!!!!!!

Indian express(Chennai edition) reports :Seven-month-old Chellammal the only elephant calf at the Vandalur zoo showcases its skill with a football by balancing it gingerly between its trunk and fore-legs. She arrived at the zoo four months ago and has been training with her favourite toy' the ball ever since.

Even Elephant plays football these days in chennai...wondering why humans dont?? :-)

Sitting in a bus

2006-01-17T01:49:00.000-08:00

This post is totally from a guy's perspective. I drafted this post sometime back but then didn't get a chance to publish it.

I travelled to office by company bus for about a week.For me one of the difficult decisions to make is choosing the seat, either the window or the aisle one.It requires lot of analysis before deciding which is a better one considering lots of other related aspects.For those of you who think it is an easy choice read below.

For those Window seat lovers,

In a company bus there is every chance that the people sitting next to you,adjacent to your seat,infront of you, behind you,diagonally opposite to you might all end up to be young ladies(a.k.a aunties).Their topic of discussion is most probably going to be about the best diaper available in the market.Imagine people all around you talking about the advantages and disadvantages of the various brands available in the world explaining every small details. Only thing you can do is to pray that the person sitting next to you do not have any doubts and try to act as if you are sleeping.If it happens in the morning you will have to skip your breakfast and lunch and if it happens in the evening you will have to skip the dinner and next days breakfast.Words from experienced folks suggest that the vomitting sensation will be there for atleast a couple of days.

In case if it rains, water will definitely seep out of the window next to you(at times only next to your window) and as a professional there is nothing you could do when the person next to you is in deep sleep unprofessionally. The summer is more worse.You will be suffocated to death because the person next to you might not allow you to open the window.Simply because the air is so polluted outside which is not good for health, for they have been living all these years in an unpolluted Amazon forest.

Now for those sportsmen who prefer sitting in the aisle seat, probably because of a ligament tear in knee,

There could be a girl standing next to your aisle seat whose looks might suggest you that she is tired and is standing with great diffculty.Trying to be humane you might try to offer them your seat for which the answer you will receive is a strong 'ITS OK' and one of those suspicious look at you, meaning that 'I can stand and what bothers you. Vandhuveengaley jollu vida'.If you have a bit of self-esteem then from the next day you will definitely not come by bus.

What if you had a bit of a fight with the driver about his rash driving.The driver will wait for his chance, the day a girl standing next to your seat without any support.(without holding anything). At that fine moment he will apply the high technology disc brakes in the bus and then bang....the girl next moment will be on you.The damage in this case to the already weak knee ligament is directly proportional to the number of unlimited meals the girl eats during lunch.There is more to it.In case if the anti women harrassment team in your office had already been monitoring your activities then action will be taken against you, once the girl complaints(which again depends on the amount of hair in your head). On the other hand if you are not bald and is capable of sporting Anniyan hair style then there is every chance that you might have to bid adieu to your bachelor life.(pinna..annalum noki..avalum nokinaal..nam thana..nam thana..nam thana in background).

So IMHO the best place to sit in a company bus is either on the footsteps or inside the driver's cabin or on the rooftop.

Hat-trick Heroes

2006-01-16T01:31:00.000-08:00

Wow..I was awestruck by the performance of Arsenal over the weekend.Was this the same team that was struggling a week back.It was a beautiful game of football which Arsenal is very well capable of playing it every weekend.But due to some major Injury problems and attitude of certain players they were not upto the mark with their performance.But they came out strongly this weekend and thrashed the depleted Middlesborough with the score reading 7-0.Theirry Henry is the hero for Arsenal scoring a Hat-trick.He is a kind of player who is very good with his dead ball kicks also.He is capable of scoring goals from outside the penalty box, with a clever swirl to the ball.But for me, some of the specatacular goals he scored are the ones that he hits low from the edge of box.A couple of them he scored in this match belongs to that category.As a player(striker) or a viewer the sight of ball rolling on the grass eluding the outstreched hands of a keeper and hitting the net at the back is a wonderful sight to watch.For that matter I like the way (Brazillian)Ronaldo scores these kind of low-shots with ease. He is capable of changing the direction of his shooting foot at the last moment, thereby deceiving the keeper. Most of the times the goal-keeper would just be seeing the ball eluding him under his outstreched hands or legs.Such is the composure of this guy inside the penalty box.
Now to the other great French footballer - Zidane.Thanks to his hat-trick against Sevilla over the weekend that Real Madrid are now in the fourth place in the league standings.Real madrid won the match 4-2.The match review and stats show that Real played very well and the Bernabeu crowd who were whistling them till now, appreciated their performance.(Retelecast tonight at 12.00 in ESS).
Looks to be a good start at home, for both Arsenal and Real who will face each other in a Champions league knock out match in a month's time. I couldn't wait for it.Add to that Barca vs Chelsea.Really mouth watering games at hand if these teams continue to exhibit this kind of form.

Shytype

2006-01-11T08:19:00.000-08:00

I met a Shytype today.

For those of you who do not know a shytype - Shytype is a person who can be classfied as a male with all his physical attributes without a doubt(yeah..I mean it..definitely male by appearance),but still has some exceptional qualities that creates the uncertainity in one's mind to really call him a male.So what is this exceptional quality. In very simple terms, these people are totally apprehensive in talking to a guy, but still love talking to the opposite sex - girls, incredibly well, whatever be the situation. We were able to identify lots of people with these qualities during our college days, thats when we came out with this term to name this breed.

It is not that difficult to identify this breed - shytype.Some techniques that we used in our college to identify people belonging to this elite group.

If you can talk to one shytype for five minutes then you can find out that he usually uses a suffix 'pa' after completing every word in the sentence coupling it with a tune. If you ask a shytype why is he late.His answer will will be 'illa paaa..athu vanthu paaa..naan trainla varumbothu illa paaa...stationla illa paa..oru ponnu illa paa..books ellam keezha pottuduchu paa..athanala paa..naan erangi poi paa..antha books ellam eduthu koduthutu paa..adutha trainla varen paa'.The reason is pretty simple, he might have been used to this kind of talking to all the girls he meet and continues to do the same when a guy talks to him. If you are a guy the hard task here is to make him talk to you atleast for a minute. You might have to talk him in by saying things like that you overheard a girl talking something about him.That might work sometimes.

If you are able to hack a girl's email id/ password, to whom a shytype is usually talking(I dont want to call that flirting.its too big a word for these people.) you can easily find her inbox flooded with a lots of email from shy type. The content is usually going to be something stupid like 'Hey pa..why didn't you say bye before leaving home pa. I was watching you from the crowded third compartment sitting inside the train..but you never looked at me after getting down the train?'. Now what will be interesting is if the girl doesn't respond to this, the shytype will eventually keep sending her an email every 15 minutes with some more stupid stuffs like 'en melai kovama pa','I'm sorry pa', 'please pa..reply pannu pa'. He will be online the whole night waiting for her reply.Beleive me.This is true and has happened during those dial-up internet connection days.He is such a dullard that he wouldn't realise that he has asked a very dumb question.Even at times if the question is valid he wouldn't realise that she is not interested in him or she is sleeping or she hasn't checked his email.

If the shytype travels by train then he will definitely stand outside the ladies compartment talking to his girl until the train starts.He will then run to general compartment and try to board the train while it is moving without understanding the basic laws of physics or inertia and usually hurts himself before getting in.

If you are not capable of identifying a shy type using the above methods then you can try this.This should be pretty easy. During a lunch session you can find this bloke sitting near a girl(Usually the girl will be sitting in the chair and this fellow will be sitting on dining table) and talking to her, while she is trying to eat her lunch.You can try slogans like 'Do not do these things here, Go to a park or a Beach(Ithellam poi beachlayo parklayo vechukoda)', he will not be bothered.He will still talk without heeding to you.Even doing things like hitting a stone on him or banging the table wont help.In case if the girl is not interested you feel sorry for her fate, but if the girl is interested then you will pity their parents and the junior shytype to be born.

So these are the exceptional qualities - though he might look physically alright but still he will definitely lack the pride,dignity and self esteem that a guy usually commands.If you are a guy you can have a hearty laugh, if you are successful in making a shytype talk to you.If you are a girl then beware of these blokes.In my opinion it could be more of a trouble.

Now to the shytype I met today , he looks to be a college student, talking to some girl on his cell phone and I could clearly hear 'hey hey please paa..phona cut pannatha paa..Nee cut panninalum naan marupadiyum marupadiyum phone pannuveney..'.aiyoo.aiyoo... Ivangellam eppo thaan thirunthuvangalo.Until then if you get a chance to meet one, you are guaranteed a hearty laugh.

Real and ManU suffer goalless draw

2006-01-09T00:47:00.000-08:00

Real Madrid were held to a 0-0 draw at Villareal in their first primera liga match of 2006.Beckham and Garcia were suspended and had to sit out while the rest of the team was available for selection. I didn't get a chance to see the match yet, infact a repeat is scheduled tonight at 12,as per ESPNSTAR Tv times. Hopefully i'll be able to watch it. Getting up in the middle of night with the help of an alarm to find the match not being shown will give one the sickest ever feeling.The sad part of the match is Ronaldo getting injured in the half hour mark.He is pretty much now essential for Real Madrid to bounce back in to the league.
I was watching the second half of the FA CUP third round match between Burton Albion and Manchester United. The commentator was saying Burton is almost 100 ranks lower than ManU, obviously teams belonging to different league.Its something like Australian cricket team playing against some Dubai Cricket team.It was one of those matches in which one of the teams would have been very happy even if they lose by a three goal margin. Imagine what would happen if such a team holds on to draw the match.Such was the celebration when Burton drew against ManU.
Burton went on full defense in the second half, at one point I saw Rooney alone surrounded by four-five defenders in the six yard box when he had the ball.(But this guy still kept the ball and tried to lob it over).The penalty box was always pretty much crowded.Be it they defended or attacked,credit has to be given to the Albion team for sticking on to their game plan and sweating it out. The pitch on the whole was very hard like those one gets to see in First class Indian football and the ManU players found it hard to adapt to the bounce and roll of the ball.And Mr.Silverstre why in the world are you trying too much of aerial passes(long passes) when you know that Ruud is not playing. Whenever Mr.Richardson got a ball he almost ran on to the defenders of Albion. Not sure what is the hurry. I'm not a great fan of ManU, and so wasn't upset, though I enjoyed the match pretty much after the introduction of Rooney. Had United reduced the tempo of the game and controlled the ball possession, they would have won it.Now Burton face ManU at Old Trafford in two weeks time, eventually ManU will win there. But for now its celebration time at Burton Albion.

The SMS about SMS

2006-01-05T06:40:00.000-08:00

'Hi. Effective 3rd Jan 2005, you can enjoy 100 SMS free per day. Additional SMS beyond 100 per day will be charged @ 20P'.
I got this message from hutch.

First of all i'm not an avid cell phone user.The only reason I bought it was to give my mobile number to the job consultants when I was planning to quit my job.I was not so mean to use my office telephone for attending phone interviews.But nowadays it substitutes my watch be it for checking time or setting alarms and occasionaly I do use it for messaging/talking.

So for me 100 SMS free per day looks to be like too much of an offer.Infact i'm not sure what is my current plan and how much is charged for an SMS.Thanks to the dictionary feature in the cell phone otherwise I would have gone crazy typing messages in it.Obviously I was surprised, will someone be able to send close to 100 messages per day.

But as I was speculating, I was reminded of this college goer whom I saw in the station(I mean Railway station) sometime back. She was messaging someone, typing using both her hands on a cell phone key pad, at a speed which will be easily 100 times faster than whatever I can type at my fullest concentration. It was amazing.(I'm unbiased,this is a compliment for her skill).The immediate question that came to me, do they have any special training institutes to help people learn to type in a cell phone like typewriting institutes.I guess these skills come by practice.And no wonder then, Hutch might even go on to make lots of profit.

Bison

2006-01-02T07:16:00.000-08:00

This post is not related to the ad that we used to hear in All India Radio few years back.But about this news I saw in Indian Express(chennai edition) about a Bison giving birth to a calf in Vandalur Zoo.

Some three years back when I went to Vandalur Zoological park,I got the oppurtunity to see an Indian Bison at close proximity. I was struck by the enormity of the beast at my first sight. Infact all three of my friends were gaping at the beast discussing about the size of its leg and head, while the Bison was majestically standing near a tree. The guards who supply food to the animals there told us that there are also a couple more bisons in the zoo.I never beleived it and assumed that its just another statement to attract more visitors.But now the above news confirms whatever that guy said :-).

Two years back when I was away to Coonoor, I got another oppurtunity to see the beast , this time on a village road.The whole village has gathered on one side of the road with the Bison parading on the other side of the road without giving a damn to the whistles and shouts of the on lookers.In fact one of my friends with a camera in his hand ran for almost 100-150 meters to get a snap of it.Such was the pace of the animal.

The third time I saw the Bison was somewhere in the Kodai to Munnar Trek trail. He was peacefully grazing when we hid ourselves behind some thick trees. Suddenly the Bison realised that he is being watched, then exactly turned towards us, looked at us and then started running. The last act surprised me.I didn't expect an animal of such a tremendous size to sprint away from some 5 guys whose collective weight will not be more than the weight of one of its leg.If you are lucky enough you can sight one or two in Kodai and they will neither run away nor attack you(under normal circumstances).

The guide who accompanied us then clarified that Bisons are being hunted in those areas.I was told that poachers used to come in Jeep and hunt these animals, obviously for their skin,meat and horns.Every now and then when we were walking we could hear some trees being rattled, deafening footsteps near us all because that Big beast was scared of us and is running for its life. It scared the hell out of us ..what if it misjudged the sound and came running towards us.Fortunately nothing like that happened and infact we didn't see any other animal throughout the next day.

Coming back to the article, I was indeed very happy to see this news,(infact the paper had a picture of the calf, but I dont see it in the website). This might appear silly to some of you, but had you been in the middle of the forest and seen this huge Bison running for its life in its own habitat then you might as well appreciate this news.

'Give it to me'

2006-01-01T00:11:00.000-08:00

I would have been more happy had the kid on the road playing cricket stopped with the above words.

It was a beautiful saturday evening perfect for a game of football. I was waiting outside my friend's house to pick him up.There were a few kids playing cricket on the road. It so happened that the batting kid hit the ball towards me and I caught it. The kid at the bowling end then shouted 'Give it to meeee - Uncle'. huh..'Unclea naana..adede pheel panna vachitaney pa..velayada porappave ippadi solraney'.

This is not the first time somebody called me uncle.But for sure the first time when I was wearing my football outfit with shorts,jersey and shoes.That was the piece that surprised me.I looked at myself and wondered why.

Just then my friend came out of the house chuckling 'Freeya vidu..appave sonnen vazhukai theriyara mathiri hair cut pannathadannu. Kaetiya..Yetho DCH,1/2 inch cut, mudi kottudhu appadinnu solra..Paaru antha kutti payan kadasiyile unna 'mama' va aakitaan...Nee enna than football velyadinalum..ithayellam maraika mudiyathu..avan enna paathu solrathuku munnadi vaa kelambalam'. I cannot argue with him as whatever he said was 100% true.

So another year passes by and I'm still as young as I was at the beginning of 2005 mentally, but may be not physically.

Wish you all a very Happy,fun filled and fabulous 2006.

Cicinho Joins Real Madrid

2005-12-29T01:01:00.000-08:00

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

2005-12-26T09:21:00.000-08:00

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

2005-12-22T21:52:00.000-08:00

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

2005-12-20T05:55:00.000-08:00

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

2005-12-18T05:55:00.000-08:00

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

2005-12-13T08:28:00.000-08:00

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

2005-12-09T09:16:00.000-08:00

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?

2005-12-06T08:05:00.000-08:00

'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'

2005-12-04T22:29:00.000-08:00

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

2005-12-02T09:15:00.000-08:00

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.

Chikku bukku chikku bukku rayilay

2005-11-30T05:39:00.000-08:00

7.10 A.M:

I was parking my bike in the two wheeler stand next to the railway station. And off goes the train's hooter at the station and I see the train entering the station.I start my sprint, climb three steps at a time, racing all the way to reach the platform untill I see the train still standing at the station.The frantic run I made came to an abrupt end and I see this middle aged man,(walking casually next to me to get into the train, looks like a regular traveller for the past 10-15 years), looking at me as if asking
'Aiyoo..Aiyoo!!Inga paruda,Athan Train nikuthula,appuram yaen thevai illama thala therikka odi vantha'.
I got his point. I waited outside the train,boarded it after it started moving and looked at him as if saying
'Engalukku theriyatha..Naangellaaaam vanthapurama than inge Trainey edupanga.Train oadumpothu naanga athukulla nippom,illa train nikkum pothu naanga ippadi than oaduvom.Ithellam kandukidaprathu.ithu valibha vayasu(??vadiveluvey solraruppa..naan sollakoodatha)!!!'

7.30 A.M:

I was all fresh in the morning , standing as usual near the door of my train. With the gush of air on my face,eagerly looking at the train on the opposite track. Somebody's cell phone rings 'Pachhai nirame, Pacchai nirame' from Alaipayuthe.The build up looks apt..But the train in the opposite track was empty(looks like heading to shed). Me still confident,hums 'sakiyeh',aligns myself to the open door of the train in the opposite track to see through into the next train in the other platforms.What a surprise.I was able to see the Tambaram railway station ticket counter building but nothing else all through my line of sight.(From Platform 8).Incredible. What else can I do other than appreciate the talents of the drivers, for aligning the trains so perfectly, so that I can look at how beautifully the tambaram railway counter building is painted.(Grrrrrr) somebody's cell phone inside the train rings 'Ennoda Rasi nalla rasi'.(as in the movie mazhai).

7.50 A.M:

The train reaches S.R.M.E.C,the college I graduated from.Annoyingly very few students got down of the train.Looks like there is still the rule to wear ID card pattai's with 'SRM' on it.I remember that it all started from our batch.The H.O.D at that time sent a couple of guys from our batch to visit TIDEL park to find out the details of these pattai's and CSE were made to wear it.Later all the disciplines were told to do the same.I never understood the concept behind it.Does wearing an ID with pattai make one professional?.I dont think so.But what I know is if one doesn't wear it he is sure to lose all his money paying penalty to the college.I hated this pattai,and had never worn it from my house.Will sport it only after I enter the campus.I saw some of these guys in the train wearing it from their house.huh..Chinnapulla thanamalla irukkku!!!

S.R.M. college leavu pola irukku..

Unga yarukavathu eppo thorapangannu theriyuma..trainla kootamey illa.Eppo open panrangannu therinjha first class pass vangalamanu yosikaren.Vera onnum illa.

8.10 A.M:

The train arrives at the beautiful Paranur station.I jump outside the train from the wrong side(the one without platform), land on the stones and walk towards the waiting cabs.Few of the others also do the same.The guy from next compartment also tries it, slips and lands on those stones in the track.Someone comes rushing to help him.He signals to them not to come and says he is ok,looks around and walks up..Kezhai vizhundhalum pinnadi kaalu koothalaiyamam. Wanted to ask him
'elai..karuppu pantu..are you from south tamilnadu..vaigai belt'.

Wondering what is he going to tell when someone asks him what happened.

3rd person : ennapa pinnadi pantu kezhingirukku.
Vaigai belt : Oh.Appadiya..Train varumpothu oruthan footboardla yera ponanpa.silippagi sakarathula matikka irunthavana..kaapatharappa kezhigirukum.
3rd person : Ada illapa..etho kallu kuthi kizhinja mathirilla irukku.
Vaigai belt : oru usira kappatharappo ithellam kandukedaprathu.avan avan adikira mazhaila, irukka veddu illama irukanam..ithula en pant kezhinjatha pathi nalla kekurangaya deataillu.

Two things that I wanted to convey through this post.

I'm loving my travel to office by train via the same route that I relished during my college days.I hope it stays that way (atleast for a few months).

This guy vadivelu has impressed me too much that I try to avoid his language and style that pops up during normal conversation.I hope he keeps up his good work.

Congrats Ronaldinho "Gaucho"

2005-11-29T07:36:00.000-08:00

Ronaldinho Gaucho the Brazillian soccer superstar has won the Eurpean footballer of the year 2005 award. The Brazillian was one of the main players who helped Barcelona win la liga last season.It is more likely to be the same this year also.For a football fan like me it is a real treat to watch this playmaker control the ball,dazzling into the defence of the opposition. A feeling that is truly uncomparable.England's Midfielder Lampard came second with Gerrard coming third and French playmaker Henry in fourth position. Andrei Shevchenko, last year's winner is in fifth place.With three titles already in his bag this year, I beleive Ronaldinho will also claim the FIFA player of the year 2005 award next month.He is quoted saying these words after winning the award.
"I have the chance to do for a living what I like the most in life, and that's playing football. I can make people happy and enjoy myself at the same time."

How true.I wonder the moment the kids are born in Brazil, will they be sent for football coaching. Even Real madrid fans had given a standing ovation to this player when he danced across the Real madrid defence scoring two goals.A Real credit to this player, considering the rivalry that exists between these two clubs.I read somewhere that the only other Barca player
to have received such an applause is Maradona.

Wonder what will happen if he continues his same form into the World cup.Any team in the world will not be happy to face the star studded Brazillian team with Dida (goal keeper), Roque junior,Luzio,Roberto Carlos,Cafu, Emerson(the only player who defends well in Brazil, as far as I know), Kaka, Ronaldinho,Ze Roberto, Adriano,Ronaldo and Robinho.Now each attacking player in this team is a real superstar.Since football can be played with only 11 players on the pitch, the difficulty for the coach is to drop any one of his super star's from the team.

I was actuallyfascinated by the Nikefootball.com ad shown in Tv channels these days. Out of curiosity I checked their websites Latin American page and I was in for a surprise. There is this video of Ronaldinho exhibiting some skills with Nike shoes. It starts off with Ronaldinho wearing some new shoe and starts with some Keepy-ups.I loved the way he gets the football off the ground.Nice trick. With some keepy-ups he reaches the end of penalty box facing the goal and kicks the ball at the goal, which bounces back to him off the post. Ronaldinho controls the ball with his chest and then repeats the same a couple of times.It was really wonderful. I read in some forum that this is some fake video.I really dont care and do not want to dig deep to find it out.But the reason I loved this video is that I know this man is capable of doing it, even if he hasn't done it.For those of you interested in the video click Ronaldinho Video. It did take a bit of time before loading.

Congratulations to one of the best talented and committed football player in the world for winning the European player of the year award and hopefully soon to be the FIFA player of the Year 2005.

Rainbow

2005-11-26T03:11:00.000-08:00

It doesn't often rain in chennai(am I allowed to still say this) and obviously the chance of sunlight refracted by rain is also pretty rare.But at times we get lucky to sight a rainbow and capture it in a camera.Something that I saw today morning.

This is a part of the arc with the natural lighting.

I tried my best to stitch the individual pics to get the full arc.But could only succeed to this extent.

Singing in the Rain

2005-11-22T19:44:00.000-08:00

Irava Pagala Koolira Veyila
Ennai Ondrum Seiyadhadi
Kadala Puyala Idiya Mazhaiya
Ennai Ondrum Seiyadhadi

Heard some football fanatic was sighted singing these lines at the Chepauk stadium yesterday.

League roundup

2005-11-20T00:12:00.000-08:00

Real lost to Barca at Bernabeu with the scoreline reading 0-3.This was fairly expected but as a Real madrid fan I did not want this to happen.I haven't seen the match yet but looks like the bunch of galacticos returning after injury and international duty were outclassed by the visitors.I feared that messi could make a mess, but it was Ronaldinho who has shown four Brazillian teammates in Real on his scoring abilities.Losing to Barca at home is something very hard to agree however good Barca played.But these head to head encounters shows the calibre of the teams and the current form.Though I can go on and say that many Real madrid players were injured and did not get a chance to train together for this match, at the end of the day three points were lost at home.Adding to the worries it was lost against Barca.I'm planning to watch the retelecast of the match tonight.I would have been more happy had Real netted atleast a single goal. Anyways as all the Real madrid players said Barca has played better football and deservedly won the match.But galacticos how about a show at Nou camp starting with a comeback against Lyon on wednesday.

Meanwhile at the premier league Chelsea,Manu,Arsenal and Liverpool won their matches. The Wigan athletic vs Arsenal match was pretty entertaining and free flowing with more goals scored(2-3).Wigan is a team in high spirits and is budding with lot of comfidence.They showed tremendous energy and Roberts was able to beat Campbell almost all the times.Arsenal defence once again looked vulnerable but their quick one touch passes is something that I would love to watch anyday.

Chelsea was looking out of sorts in the first half similar to the Newcastle central defenders.A mistake by one of them gifting the ball to Chelsea ended up in Chelsea's first goal and they never looked back(3-0). Infact 13 players played for chelsea which includes the two defenders of Newcastle.

Manchester United got a fantastic victory at Charlton(1-3) and they had a point to prove after Roy Keane announced that he is quitting.More fittingly his replacement, striker turned defensive midfielder Alan smith showed his striker's reflexes in getting the first goal.Wayne Rooney also had a wonderful game with his flicks and touches and splendid runs.Though I didn't watch the Liverpool match against portsmouth which they won 3-0, I saw Peter crouch missing a penalty, rebound of which Zenden scored.I'm wondering if Crouch has lost his striker's instincts, can he be put in some other position.How about making him a defender because he is very good in winning headers and since he cannot score goals he is not going to score any self goals as a defender. Another option for Graeme is to follow the path of Sir Fergie and make rouch a defensive midfielder till he regains his goal scoring abilities.:-)

Harry Potter - Goblet of Fire

2005-11-18T10:03:00.000-08:00

This is my favorite book of the Harry Potter series and I wanted to watch the movie on the first day.I sneaked out of office during lunch to 'Mayajaal' and then got the tickets for the evening show.

In short I would say really worth watching it. There is no point in discussing the story here because almost all of us already know it. The Director has given a movie which an Ordinary Harry Potter fan like me would have loved to watch.There were no too much of emotional scenes,fights with friends and no Quidditch World cup(that was sad). Instead what we have is a movie involving Harry's heroism and Magic and thats what I like the most. The Triwizard Tournament is the main theme of the story and it has been brought very well on screen.As with any book people are going to try comparing it with book page by page and find fault with the movie saying that it did not meet their expectations.I was rather impressed with the movie.It is pretty dark and not so kiddish which i enjoyed.All the characters are the same except the Mad-eye moody who was the new DA teacher.He has done a pretty good job.

Harry does a King Khan Lux ad in the movie and Ron does a 'Sing in the Rain' when De-la-cour kisses him.Coming to Miss Hermione Ganger - She fits into the Intelligent girl character so well and is budding into a Beautiful actress..Huh..At times She Strangely reminds me of..well..er.. should I say Kate Winslet walking down the steps in Titanic.

Anyways if you are a movie goer and an ordinary fan of Harry potter..Go watch it and you will enjoy it.

Though Dumbledore's dialogue to Harry in the last scene is something like
'Dark and dangerous times are set to return.We will have to choose between Which is Right or Which is Easy' is great but is not as fantastic as Samwise Gamgee telling Frodo in LOTR-TTT
'In all the tales there is a chance for the Hero to turn back at some point.But
choosing that option is not what makes him a hero.There is still some good left in the world which is worth fighting for'.

By the way while coming out of the theatre, saw a married couple eating their packaged food from house at Mayajaal,in moon light amidst a cool sea breeze.Their way of enjoying life.Avarukku pal irukku avaru pakoda sapudararu.hmmmmmmmh..

Super Sunday

2005-11-15T08:52:00.000-08:00

Last sunday turned out to be a Super sunday for me.It all began at 1.30 P.M in the afternoon when these 'super' things began to happen.

1. Firstly , as always me and (of course) Bala went to the movie 'Charlie and the Chocolate factory'. I was not sure of what to expect from the movie.But it turned out to be a pretty good one that I enjoyed.The movie had so much chocolate in it that it made me feel hungry.The animations were very pleasant to the eyes and once again Johny Depp stars in another eccentric role.I beleive its a kind of movie every kid will enjoy and I'm not sure if this has been dubbed in tamil.

2. On our way back home we sighted a two seater car with open top in front of us at a fair distance.At first sight I thought it was a toyota sera but then I saw the trademark Prancing horse.Wow..I couldn't beleive my eyes..a Ferrari in Mount road with a father and his kid.We went as close as we can and then heaved a sigh after looking at it from all angles.So what would the class mates of this kid think of him - 'Born with a Scarlet spoon'.

3. I reached home sometime around 4.30 P.M and then went to play my usual sunday soccer.I could very well see the rain water hasn't drained and couple of friends were hesitant on playing in the muddy ground. But then as we started tapping the ball around we decided to play. I always enjoy playing in these muddy and slippery conditions (till I dont get injured).Its always fun.It was a pretty good game and we had to stop it on account of bad light.

4. After a tiring game its Captain Narasimha in action at 8.00 P.M.What more could one ask for. Be it the "Lets start the missan', his skills with computer to trace the morphed background of the terrorist,his briiliant idea to act as a dead corpse in Jeep or his narration of Indhiya nattu patru to terrorists,one can thoroughly enjoy it.

It doesn't often happen and even if it happens these kind of things do not happen together on the same day.Thats why I call it a super sunday for me.

Though i enjoyed all these things I missed the super sunday(name of the soccer program in espn/star) soccer matches.But I'm holding my breath for next week's soccer action.The biggest clubs of spain face each other, my most favourite match Real Madrid vs Barcelona. I know Barca is in peak form and real might lose it.But one is certain of the quality of football played.I'm sure it will be exciting an all out attack on goals.I'm sure if this youngster Messi doesn't mess up things Real might sneak a point.I hope for the best - Ronaldo might play too.ESPN/Star has a same day delayed telecast of the match at midnight on 20-Nov-2005.

Irksome Vacation

2005-11-10T09:37:00.000-08:00

Some of those things that surprised(For Right/Wrong reasons) me over the last week.

1. First and formeost, how come Chinna kuyil Chitra is able to sing those really High Pitch notes(songs as well) by just lowering her eye-brows and a rhythmic tap of her left hand.I observed this when I saw her in Ilaiyaraja's Netru Indru and Naalai telecast.She is such a gifted and talented singer.

2. I dont understand why people from Perungudi/Velachery complain saying that the rain water entered their houses and is stagnating around the houses and streets.You get to watch this once in every half an hour in the news channels.Simply put,the houses that they are living in were once lakes/ponds, So if it rains their houses will be inundated. Applying 'Unnal mudiyum thambi' Janagraj's logic - Yaeriya suthi Kayiru Katta mudiyuma,"Kayira enga kattuva", Athanala Veetta sutthi Kayiru Katti Veeta konjam Medana edama paathu ezhuthunnu pona ellam seriyayidum.(Udane Veedu iruntha edam Galiyayudumenellam logicala yosikakoodathu).

3. Is Sachin Tendulkar past his prime.Lots of people ask this question to Geoff Boycott if Sachin doesn't live up to their expectations in a match. (some show in Start sports).I'm surprised because the questions are framed in such a way that they want a positive response for their question.Some one says he gets out to slower deliveries more easily,another one says he gets out too easily on big occasions and another one goes on to say the opposition has found out a defect in his armour. Phunny people.Ivangalukellam Cricketna ennanu theriyuma, Slowernna ennanu theriyuma,Big occasion coupled with pressurena ennanu theriyuma.

4. How often do you expect to see snow piled up in a ground outside the playing area and people play football in that pitch.Once in a while in Europe,but how often in Russia, I think almost always.There is this Russian sports channel and every time I tune into this I get to witness sports played on snow(Includes Football also).Thats the reason why clubs are happy for a draw with any Russian club at Russia in champions league.Intha Kulurle Veetu vasalla oru easy Chair pottu unkanthu sooda oru Teayum Baggiyum sapita evalavu sogama irukku.Aiyoo..Aiyoo.

5. During the India-Srilanka match telecast in DD sports the traditional circle animation that used to appear at the end of each over in Doordarshan is not appearing nowadays.Instead the Indian and Srilankan flag is displayed.So everyone gets to watch all six balls of a over now.

6. Lastly, I'm in Chennai but it still rains.Nallavanga Irunthadhan Mazhai peyyumnu sonnanga!!!

For the past six days I was at home mostly staying indoors and the result is the above listed trivial observations(Antha cinema dialoguessum athe TV'le paathathuthan).I wonder when was the last time I was home this long without any intention.Three and half years back, after my final year B.E exams.

Raja Raja Chozhan

2005-11-09T05:09:00.000-08:00

ராஜ ராஜ சோழன்

இந்திய வரலாற்றில் என்னை மிகவும் கவர்ந்த மன்னர்களில் ஒருவர் ராஜ ராஜ சோழன்.வருடந்தொறும் இவருடைய பிறந்த தினம் தஞ்சையில் உள்ள பெரிய கோவிலில் கொண்டாடபடுகிறது.அவ்வாறே இந்த வருடம் அவருடைய பிறந்த தினம் நவம்பர் 10 2005, அன்று சிறப்பாக கொண்டாடபடவுள்ளது. இவரை பற்றிய சில குறிப்புகளை கொண்டுள்ள வலைதளம்

அந்த மாமன்னரின் மீது எனக்கு மரியாதை ஏற்பட முக்கிய காரணம், கல்கி அவரகளின் 'பொன்னியின் செல்வன்'தான்.அதை படித்த பிறகுதான் சோழர்கள் பற்றி அறிந்து கொள்ளும் ஆர்வமும் ஏற்பட்டது. ஏன் இந்திய வரலாற்றை பற்றி அறிந்து கொள்ளும் ஆர்வமும் அதனால் தான் உண்டானது என்று சொன்னல் மிகையாகாது.

அத்தகைய பெருமை வாய்ந்த கல்கியின் எழுத்தாற்றலையும்,'பொன்னியின் செல்வனை'யும் பற்றிய குறிப்பும் எனது வலைபதிவிலும் இடம்பெற வேண்டும் என்ற எண்ணத்தில் தான் தமிழிலேயே எழுதியுள்ளேன்.

Head vs Heart

2005-11-08T01:06:00.000-08:00

Very often I'm tangled with this question.Given a situation or a problem how should one act upon.Should one listen to his head or his heart. I had almost always listened to what my head says rather than what my heart says.The reason is pretty simple. I have been brought up like that. People around me always told me that whenever there is a problem, analyse it,think about it logically or laterally, come out with possible solutions and choose the best one with minimal risk or loss in it.Be it in my house or school or college or my friends I was taught this way and nobody said that there is anything wrong with it.Also I do not think I haven't lost anything in life till this point.

But I think back and see what would have happened had I listened to my heart instead of my head during my counselling after 12th standard.I might have not chosen a computer science group in my college. I always wanted to graduate from Anna University/REC Trichy/PSG whatever the discipline be. When I went for my counselling I decided to go for S.R.M as my head suggessted. I'm wondering if I would have faired this well had I taken any other decision.

And recently I decided to quit my job after thinking hard. My heart would always have preferred to stay with my former employer. The project I got allocated was a pretty good one,I had very good friends, I had decent monetary benefits and my manager had faith in me. So I could not have asked for more.But my head always kept on suggesting that there is something missing in here that could appraise me in my life.And listening to it I had quit, once again hoping that I would be right.

I remember a conversation that I had with one of my managers who is an American.He told me that given a situation he is not going to think too much.He always has the point of enjoying his life at any given time.Hence any decision that is going to hinder him his happiness, be it making him the next CEO he is not going to care.And he is happy with his life and self satisfied listening to his heart.

May be I have missed some things that would have provided more joy to me in life and I realise thats the price I need to pay for listening to my head.But as always looking at the problem 'Head - Heart', my head once again wins it.I still decide to listen to whatever it says.I would definitely want to change and start listening to my heart sometime in future, not because my head line is not good in my right palm but it means that at that point I'm self satisfied with whatever I have in my life.I hope that day is not too far.

HP - Half-Blood Prince

2005-11-04T23:26:00.000-08:00

At last I completed reading the latest in Harry Potter series - Half blood Prince.Even though I bought it sometime back I was not fascinated by it after reading first two chapters. Since it was raining yesterday I was forced to stay indoors and I got a chance to read it.I would still claim that Goblet of fire is the best in the series and HBP is not too gripping when compared to it. But it reveals the past of the main villain of the story.

As I liked Harry's interaction with Sirius in the previous books, I was wondering what could be the replacement for those puzzle cracking interacions.The substitute here for Sirius is Dumbledore himself. I should say Rowling has quite beautifully brought out the interactions between the Headmaster and Harry.It was quite enjoyable.

The last chapters were very gripping and I found myself rooted to it, though I guessed mid way through the book who would be dead by the end.It was not that difficult.The Half Blood Prince's identity was a surprise package.But it still gives me a feeling that the Prince is still not that bad.I still stand for Dumbledore's faith in him.

My favourite characters of the book Fred and George did not have much role in here.But I'm satisfied with whatever has been mentioned about them.They are smelling sucess in their joke shop.

I liked Ginny's character at the end of book when she is not in all tears for Harry wanting to go on his own without her.For some reason I'm reminded of Zorro's wife in Legend of Zorro who is pretty much against Zorro's mission at the beginning.Could be because Ginny is character created by a willfully strong female author.

There is something that I missed in this book even though I had read about them in each of the previous books.I always had a feeling Rowling would have been a very good sport commentator or a sport columnist. I liked the way the Quidditch matches are described in each of them.Though there were a couple of games in the book but none of them were explained.

I do understand this. Harry and his friends are growing year after year and their hormones as well are secreted more.But it doesn't mean that the author has to dedicate most of the chapters analysing what is one thinking of other be it a girl or boy. More annoyingly, the author detailing on how one smirks or signs when the name of the person they like is spoken about and how the third person notices it and comes to a conclusion.Come off it..I buy Harry Potter and read it for the sake of the heroism exhibited by the kid, the magic and adventure. If I had to read
about what will girls think about boys and vice versa I would not have bought this book.I do not mind these ocuppying either one or two chapters but not a whole lot of the content in every other chapter.

Splitting a soul into many pieces is not new to me(as well as for all those Ambulimama and Balamithra readers).I was rather surprised at this plot but not impressed.The moment I read it I'm reminded of those birds that were usually the "horcruxes" in the tamil stories I read.

Lastly, as I read into the book I found out the original name of the bad guy is Tom Marvolo Riddle. Did Rowling try an anagram out of it with three letters from each name(tomvolder -> Voldemort) to give him his new name. But what is not known to me is even though he-who-must-not-be-named didn't like him to be called as tom (as he hated his father) his name is an anagram with those letters.By the way was there any reference in the previous books why was he named Voldemort.I do not remember it.

As always I'm waiting for the next one in the series.Rowling is too good always in the final chapters that keeps you longing for the next one.Additionaly I'm impressed with the trailer of the next movie GOF in HP series and waiting to watch it.

Champions League Match day 4 Results

2005-11-02T03:24:00.000-08:00

Olympiacos 1-4 Lyon
Rosenborg 0-2 Real Madrid

Real Madrid and Lyon have qualified for the next Knockout stage of Champions league with a win in their matches yesterday.Lyon looks pretty strong with the top slot in Champions league as well as in the French league.Madrid have their own injury worries haunting them in the la liga competitions, though they managed a win last week at Real Betis. Ronaldo is expected to play in the Derby clash against Barcelona next week. What a huge match that is going to be.I always love it, one of the Best derby's in the world with both side exhibiting attacking game plan and the players give out their best as if it is a world cup final.Remember last derby when Madrid won at Bernabeu with Zidane crashing against the goal post scoring a goal from a header.

PSV 1-0 Milan
Betis 1-0 Chelsea
Liverpool 3-0 Anderlecht

Surprising results from yesterday's matches were Chelsea's and A.C Milan's defeat.Chelsea were beaten by Betis who are having a poor domestic season and before this win they consecutively lost their last four matches. Milan did win against Juve in their doemstic campaign but lost to PSV at home.What is surprising is that the two big teams failed to score.Could be because of under estimating their rivals.They should also be happy that they conceded only one away goal.The group containing Liverpool,Chelsea and Betis is still wide open, though I see that the chances for the English teams to qualify are really high.Liverpool has to play chelsea at Stamford Bridge and they face Betis at anfield.

Other results from yesterday's matches.
Schalke 2-0 Fenerbahçe
Artmedia 2-2 Rangers
Internazionale 2-1 Porto

Coming back to Real Madrid since the other two teams in the group were totally out of form the passage into last 16 has been easy.But hopefully Luxemburgo will have a full team to pick up from when the matches in the knock out stages start.

Chennaiyil oru Mazhai Naal

2005-10-28T09:52:00.000-07:00

Everything is Normal today in Chennai, as if nothing happened yesterday.I was one of those few chennaites who went to work yesterday watching the rains lashing the city. It all started when the electric supply to our house was cut down yesterday morning. Till then I was not interested in starting to the office. I then called up a colleague to find out if he is coming in and then decided to go to office.

Since my parents were not allowing me to drive my two-wheeler,I decided to go by auto. I stepped out of my house and waited for an auto in my street for almost 15 minutes.I did then realise that all the vehicles that went past me have been routed back because one of the trees on the street has uprooted.I then walked over the fallen tree to the other side of the road to the auto stand.

I couldn't bargain with the auto driver as he clearly understood that I'll agree for whatever rate he demands. Huh...It really needs lots of skills to bargain with these drivers.I know i'm not good at it, so I didn't try too much of it.

As usual the road between Pammal and Pallavaram is totally flooded and my auto driver with all his skills maneuvered the vehicle out of the floods and we reached the GST road. To my surprise I found that the GST roads too are flooded with water. At some places the authorites had to break the median on the road inorder to allow the water that has filled one side of the road to flow to the other lanes also.

I was surprised to see the Tidel Park entrance flooded.This was totally unexpected.What was more surprising is that I saw some 10-15 of the so called Software professionals waiting outside the entrance.I initially thought that these guys were waiting for some transportation to home. I removed my socks and then rolled my pants up and started walking through the water. Just then I realised that those people waiting were looking at me like an alien.They were also waiting there to enter TIDEL and were not planning to go home.Come on people...dont you know how to walk through water or do you expect the water to be drained amidst those heavy rains or were you expecting TIDEL authorities to arrange a shuttle service to take you from entrance till your office.They were behaving as if they are on a sea shore. Every time a four wheeler passes through water, these onlookers would go back or sideways to avoid the gushing water. I just wanted to tell them that its not a beach.The security officer at the gate was trying to convince them to walk through the water.Funny people!!!

How many times have you watched winds hitting hard, from10th floor of your office and how often have you tried to open a window in 10th floor amidst these heavy winds.I did it yesterday and its not that easy.There is chance that you will fly out of the window every other time you do it.The hot coffee that we drunk after our lunch with cold winds striking our face is the elixir of life.What we missed is a hot Bhajji.

The way back home was also quite adventurous and this time again the auto driver won the verbal duel and I paid whatever he asked. We again had to swim through Guindy and Pallavaram to reach my house. Relatives who are not living in chennai were worried and were continuously inquiring to know if water has entered the house.

After so much happening yesterday it would be very hard for a person to say the first lines of my blog. But that is what almost all of us(not sure about North Chennai) would be saying now.Both the artificial and natural drainage systems have worked perfectly and effectively in a city which does not receive rainfall frequently. And beleive it or not Chennai receives rainfall hardly for a single month in a year.

Kudos to all those people who were responsible for helping chennai return to its normal life within a day.

Top teams falter

2005-10-24T09:24:00.000-07:00

Valencia win at Bernabeu

Valencia won their match against Real Madrid at Santiago Bernabeu with the scoreline of 1-2. Looks like Valencia scored from a freekick and a Penalty. Real Madrid were able to get a goal back with the Raul and Roberto carlos combination from a free throw.As usual the penalty granted to valencia created a controversy with the real faithful's claiming that the ball did hit Ramos only at his elbows and that too it was not a purposeful one. I didn't get a chance to look at it and so I dont want to comment on it. But what is disheartening is two of the Real Madrid players Gravesen and Beckham were sent off. Beckham who is the proud captain of England team with loads of experience was given a second yellow card for sarcastically applauding the referee's decision. Its identical to the way in which Rooney got his sent off during an International match and at that time Beckham said that Rooney should try to keep his cool and control his temper. I think the same applies to Becks also.I know its not that easy to control ones temper when he is frustrated and especially the team is trailing by a goal.Its during these times that one should keep his cool and use his talents for raising the spirit of the team and that is the difference I beleive between a good and a great player.As of now Real currently are without Ronaldo, Baptista, Salgado, Becks and Gravesen for the next away match at Deportiva la coruna.

Everton 1 - 1 Chelsea

Chelsea's impressive nine game winning streak was halted by everton when the David Moyes's team held on to their defenses not letting the champion team get a goal.As always there were complaints from both the coaches about the referees. Jose Mourinho complained that the Drogba goal wasn't offside whereas Moyes said that the Hand ball appeal against Terry should have been given.One cannot conclude that Chelsea might be depressed with the loss with such a wonderful team and a determined coach in Mourinho, but could this be considered Everton's come back, atleast I hope so.

It was a weekend where Real Madrid lost a match and even chelsea couldn't salvage a draw. Losing so many of the players I dont expect Real to win against Deportiva , But I would like to see them bounce back and provide some exciting soccer action. As for chelsea it is just one off match and Mourinho would have set his sights for a thunderous victory in next match.

Ten more days to Go...

2005-10-19T10:15:00.000-07:00

This is not a countdown for some soccer match.This is to inform that my association with my company is coming to an end in 10 days.I had been working with my current company for the past three and half years, and had decided that its time for a change. As everyone says it was not an easy decision.Huh..these days it is not very easy to get another job fitting your needs and I mean it in Software Industry in India.But I do not have anything against my current firm, Its just that they were not able to satisfy my unfair needs.So no complaints.
But I just thought I would take time off and think about those people who made my stay happy for the past three and half years.

Quantitatively the Income tax I paid last last year was the highest in the past three years.I would be surprised but happy if i pay the same amount of tax this year also. The only attibute responsible for my additional contribution to Golden Quadrillateral or Kathipara flyover( I hope my tax money is used) was my brief but pleasing onsite trip.The credit definitely goes to my managers and I'm thankful to them for helping me view New York city from Empire state building.
Additionaly I always feel that the Infrastrucure facilities in my current firm was excellent. One of the reasons I dont get Backpains or eye problems is purely due to the infrastrucure facilities.I dont sit at my desk continuosly for more than 30 mins and in those 30 mins I might not stare only at my monitor. That explains the other reasons for me not getting either back pains or eye problems.

Qualitatively if I think back to see what did I gain in the past three years apart from the technical knowledge, I would blindly say friends.This is my shortest stint with any institution (school -12 yrs and college 4 yrs) and the kind of friends I have gained here are in par with those I have gained during those longer durations.I'm not refering to those professional colleagues here.Let me try to be specific.Those people with whom I stick around during tea breaks, lunch breaks, batch mates,people who were and are my neighbours, fellow trekkers and travellers. Life has been beautiful with these people all along inspite of a lot of stress at work. Whats important with these friends of mine is that apart from happiness I had gained a bit of knowledge from each and everyone of them.To name a few skills, I learned about management principles and tactics, art of thinking laterally or literally, change the way I look at girls(No..Not that I meant my attitude towards girls) and the energy one gains mentally after some trips and travels.I'm not sure If I contributed to others knowledge or happiness.But one thing I realised is that I would be missing all the above people once I move to my new firm. I would like to apologise had I hurt their feelings by any sarcastic remarks.Those remarks were not truly from the bottom of my heart and is not an intended one, should have been just for fun.I wish you all a very Happy and Prosperous life with all the things that you hope to get.

Summarising it I would like to thank all those be it my managers, project leads, friends,trainees and active passers by through my desk(a glimse of whom will make one euphoric and energetic) for making my stay happy and pleasant.

PS: I really did want to make this a last day at company blog. These champions league fixtures start only at midnight(IST).Not sure how to stay awake. So decided to advance my last day blog by 10 days.

'We are the Champions'

2005-10-16T07:23:00.000-07:00

If you think that I'm going to write the lyrics to the famous song by Queen then you are wrong.In fact it was sung by someone from the Renault team after the team claimed the constructors title for the year 2005. Thanks to the new system to overhear the team Radio communication.Congratulations to the whole team for their dedication throughout the season. They will be also remembered as a team that dethroned Ferrari as Champions.I was not able to catch the action live because I was glued to Sun Tv watching thalaivar's Chandramukhi 200th day celebrations.But from what I saw during the commercial intervals, there were a couple of incidents that brought the safety car out.At one instance I saw our very own Narain crashing his car, but fortunately came unhurt.Could this be the end of an Indian's reign in Formula1.As it has happened throughout the season Montoya did not finish and Raikonen was chasing Alonso and the fastest lap of the race was the last lap by Kimi.

Chelsea 5 - 1 Bolton

Its not going to be too late before Chelsea can sing this song. One would not have predicted this scoreline after chelsea were one goal down during half time.Magician Mourinho sacrificed Del Horno and brought on Eidur Gudjohnsen with an all out attack strategy.The next 20 minutes chelsea scored 5 goals and played the kind of football which everyone would have liked to witness. But had Bolton got one more goal, I think it would have been different. Even though it was the usual defensive chelsea in first half, they played like true champions to secure an overwhelming victory.

Atletico Madrid 0 - 3 Real Madrid

Real Madrid won the derby with Ronaldo scoring two goals against the 10 men Atletico. But unfortunately Ronaldo got injured and his participation on Wednesday's CL match against Rosenborg looks doubtful.
I would definitely like to sing this song at the end of the season for Real Madrid.Come on Galacticos,its been a long time we have had an oppurtunity to sing it.

Riding a Thunderbird

2005-10-15T10:28:00.000-07:00

I had another oppurtunity to ride a Thunderbird today. If it was to Tada falls last time, this time it was to the Enfield Factory at Thiruvotriyur.Since I had been visiting temples more often these days, I wanted to take a break and so decided to go to this factory visit.Even though I'm a Computer science graduate,I'm always fascinated by these Motorbikes.I was under an impression that these macho looking bikes might not suit me(to be more appropriate I might not fit them) before my ride to Tada falls. To tell you what it was not that bad.I atleast think so. Hence I was more than happy to visit the factory.

We(Me,Bala and Prabhakar joined by Sriram and Srikanth) started from Adyar in 3 Thunderbirds.The ride was totally different this time.It was on a highway last time, but this time it was through those narrow and dirty North madras roads.So we could not really touch those top speeds(110Km/hr) that these bikes are capable of.

Though this is not my first visit to a manufacturing unit, this is the first time I'm visiting a automobile factory unit.Rajesh from Royal Enfield took us to the Engine assembling unit , testing unit and various other assembling units.The whole setup has a slow moving belt around it, on which the part assembled is placed.Each employee has to finish his job before the part moves to the next person. So it is not possible for a tea break or other interruptions during work hours.

One thing that surprised me is the painting on the Petrol tank.I was under the impression that the design(ellipse) on the tank was a sticker, until I saw this guy in the painting section drawing them.Yes thats correct. He is doing a free hand drawing.Practice makes one perfect. After this we came back to Adyar showroom and I was as usual elated after riding on a thunderbird.

Here comes the twist in the tale.

Prabhakar already wanted to check out how the Electra 5s feels.After reaching the showroom, he rode on an Electra 5s for some 5 minutes. He never spoke a word about how it felt , gave the key to me and told me to try it out.Electra is not a stylish bike with a Normal looking Handle Bar, but almost the same configuration as Thunderbird.The moment I started it I could feel that I'm on top of the world. Its is a 350cc bike that weighs 165Kgs, but was such a wonderful delight driving it.I speeded up and as the slogan says 'Everybody made(makes) way for the bullet'.The manoeuvering was too good that I did a U turn, which I would not have been so comfortable with in my 110 cc bike.It just took me a 5 minutes ride on this bike to fall for it and made me think that it is better than my long time admired Thunderbird.After all of us tried our hands on it, we were awestruck by it.Here is a picture of this Beauty of a Bullet(From Royalenfield.com).

A special thanks to Sriram and Royal Enfield for giving us this wonderful oppurtunity to visit their factory.It was quite a very interesting visit for me. To get a closer look at something that you admire, always makes you happy be it a beautiful girl or a beautiful Bullet for that matter.

Weekend Pilgrimage

2005-10-10T02:51:00.000-07:00

It was Sholingar last week and Kancheepuram this week. We(myself, Bala and Prabhakar) decided to visit the temples in Kancheepuram.Since the proportion of temples in the city is very high we decided to limit our visits to the divya desams around the city and the famous Kailasanathar temple.

We started on our bikes on Friday night and reached Kancheepuram sometime around 10.00 P.M.On saturday morning at 7.00 a.m after a refreshing tea at Saravana Bhavan we started our trip.
Ulagalandha Perumal Temple
The following divya desams are found inside this temple as separate sannidhis.

Thiru Ooragam (Ooragathaan)
Thiru Neeragam (Neeragathaan)
Thiru Kaaragam
Thirukkaar Vaanam

One would not realise what is he/she going to witness before entering the temple.The moolavar in this temple is stunningly big and beautiful.He seems to be growing in ones vision and thats what is the story behind this temple. It depicts the Vamana Avatharam, with the King Mahabali at Lord's feet.The credit goes to the sculptors for wonderfully carving the Lord's face.I was also fascinated by the details present in the dress.

Sri Kamakshi Amman Temple

The temple is a very popular one and hence more crowded.There is a divya desam inside this temple (ThirukKalvanoor),in fact inside the Garbha Graham. But we were not fortunate enough to go inside the sannidhi. In other words we were not aware on what conditions one will be allowed inside.

Sri Ekambareswar Temple
This is one of the temples that impressed me due to its size.Some painting and repair works are in progress.There is a divya desam inside the temple(Thiru Nilathingal Thundam). The pillars inside the temple has some carvings that are really impressive. The pillars and the mandabam are by themselves far more impressive.The temple is also famous for a Mango tree that is supposed to be 3500 years old.
The beautiful Mandapam inside the temple.
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The reflection of the temple gopuram.

Thiru Varadaraja Perumal temple
This again is a really huge temple.As it was a puratassi Saturday there were bunches of people in every sannidhi. We waited patiently for the darshan of Lord Varadharaja which almost took 30 minutes in queue.This a divya desam by itself which is famous for the Atthi Varathar Utsavam and Garuda Sevai. Since we were frustrated by too much of people and hot sun we didn't get a chance to enjoy the beauty of the sculptures in the temple.

The following Divya Desams are present near this temple.

Thiruvekka - Sri Yathothakaari TempleWe had to come to this temple three times to darshan the lord.The Utsavar was decorated beautifully(think on account of Navarathri!!!). The Moolavar was aranganathan and was majestic in his pose.

Ashtabuyagaram (Ashtabujam)
The moolavar in this temple has eight hands and contains a weapon in each of his hands.

Thiru Velukkai
It is easy to locate the temple if the name Yoga Narasimhar is used. Quite an impressive one too.

ThiruthankaSimilarly using the name Deepaprakasar one could locate this temple. SOme renovations are in progress, so we ditn get a chance to have a darshan of the lord.

ThiruputkuzhiThis temple is some 7 kilometers from Kanchipuram and is located near the Bangalore Highway.The lord in this temple is called Vijaya ragava perumal.

Thiru Paadagam (Pandava Thoodhar)
I was very much impressed by the sheer size of the moolavar in this temple. If the lord was standing in Ulagalandha Perumal temple, he is sitting here as Lord Krishna.(Pandava Thoothar). The designs on the Lord's garments are fantastic.

Thiru Pavala Vannan and Pachai Vanna perumal
These are two separate temples situated in opposite directions in the same street.It is said that if one visits one temple, visiting the other temple is also mandatory.Another uniqueness is that these two temples collectively form a single Divya Desam.
The temples below are the ones that impressed me too much.They also gave me a terrible feeling that in the past twenty five years of my life,this is the first time that i'm coming to such a wonderful place, an abode of art and architecture.Do not miss them when you get a chance to go to Kanchipuram next time.

Kailasanathar Temple and Vaikunda Perumal Temple

As the name suggests the major difference between these two temples,one is Saivite and the other is a Vaishanvite.Is there any other difference on the basis of architecture.Hardly any.Both the temples are made up of sand stones sculptures.The carvings made on these sand stones are breathtaking.I can even spend a day in each of the temples and try to figure out what are the stories that are being told in the sculptures in and around the temple.Every other time we see a sculpture we identify a new part and try to fit a story to that part. We were infact trying to decode the story written(yes I can call it written or Inscribed, but without even a bit of space between two sculptures).We were quite impressed with the sculptures namely those that depicts the king's court,people dancers,Visitors, army men etc.,

The sunset as seen from Kailasanathar temple.

The array of Sculptures inside the Kailasanathar temple.

Both these places should be visited by each and every one of us,may be not spiritually but as one who appreciates the art.It would ceratinly make one proud of the rich tradition that south India possesed.There are places in world where people protect monuments that are not more than 100 years old. But these two temples if Im not wrong are some 1000 years old.Thanks to ASI for taking care of these temples and maintaining them.I still could not get the sight of the Lions(or Yazhis in tamil) inscribed on the pillars out of my eye. Last but not least Thanks to Prabhakar for all his creative photographs.

Smart Soccer Balls

2005-10-04T10:37:00.000-07:00

The experimental process of using the Soccer balls with a micro chip inside them in the Under 17 World cup has received very good responses according to Sepp Blatter of FIFA.
One of the major objectives of introducing this technology into the game of soccer is to decide on those ambiguous decisions on whether the ball has crossed the goal line or not.Looks like when the ball crosses the line the referee and his subordinates will be notified of it.But any decisions on handling the ball during this process is still made by the referee.

In the current system of play a goal is granted when the ball crosses the goal line( that lies between the two goal posts).The decision that the ball has crossed the line is now with the main referee and his subordinate, the linesman.There has been many controversial circumstances where the decisions given by the referees have been proved wrong after watching the replays. A couple of recent incidents that come to my mind

1. In last year's Chamipons league match between Liverpool and Chelsea, Luis Garcia of Liverpool shot the ball towards the goal and if i remember correctly William gallas defended the ball.The referee decided that it was a goal, but it was not a clear case.Some Chelsea supporters still dont agree that to be a goal.
2. The other incident was in the Real Madrid - Celta Vigo match in La liga this season. The third goal from celta vigo hit the top of the goal post and then the ball dropped down. Though the TV replays showed that the ball did not cross the line while hitting the ground, the referee decided it as a goal during the match.Real Madrid lost the game by 2-3.

But I think what is going to decide the success of this new ball is the response time,the time taken to communicate the status of a shot on goal to the referee. Since soccer is played for 90 minutes and not for a whole day, taking breaks during the game to decide on aspects like this is not feasible. The response has to be quick enough so that the referee can allow the play to continue, say if the defensive team can produce a quick counter attack.There are teams which are built on counter attacks, especially during a corner where the central defenders (or sometimes the Goal Keeper himself) go to the opponents box to try to score a goal. In such a situation if the ball lands up to a player on the defensive side then a quick attack could be launched by him.Introducing the new system should not affect these game plans.

As with any technology being introduced in any sport, there could be those traditional soccer fans who might oppose this. But may be if it helped their favourite Club or national team a win, they might appreciate it.This process is going to be tested again when Liverpool travel to Japan, I believe sometime end of this year.If all the testing is successful, I think these Intelligent soccer balls could then introduced during next world cup in Germany.

Premier League and La Liga Results

2005-10-03T02:03:00.000-07:00

Liverpool 1 - 4 Chelsea
I was expecting that the two Premier league teams might play defensively again as they did in their champions league match. But to my surprise both the teams went into the game with an attacking frame of mind. Especially the reds, were attacking right from the moment the referee blew the whistle. But in the end the superior team won the match. Unlike as what the scoreline depicts it is not an one sided affair. I beleive one of the reasons chelsea were able to score the third and fourth were because of Reds Manager's strategy to send more attaking players on to the pitch.This meant the quality on the defence was poor and chelsea counter attacked in which they are pretty good with players like Robben and Drogba.

Barcelona 2 - 2 Real Zaragoza

I was able to catch the action today morning in a Repeat telecast. The scoreline at the end of first half was 0-0. So it was an uneventful first half. The Real Zaragoza team was defending very well and deep, whereas Barcelona were happy holding the ball and trying hard for a goal.And suddenly in the second half after some good play by Savio they were leading the catalans by 0-2.The Barcelona coach realised that he needed some inspiration in the midfield and then introduced Marc van Bommel. Bommel just did what he was supposed to do when he was fouled by Toledo.He went down into the penalty area and did put up a show after being fouled by the defender Toledo. I beleive that a penalty could have been awarded against the defender for impeding, but he didnt deserve an yellow card.The Brazillian Ronaldinho stepped up to take the shot and got the first goal back.After this it was an all out attack from Barca to get another goal and salvage some points out of this game. It had to happen and as it usually happens Eto was there this time to tweak the ball into the goal after some misunderstanding between the zaragoza keeper and defender.Though both the teams pressed hard for the final goal it was not the case.The score stayed 2-2.

Real Madrid 4 - 0 Real Mallorca

I havent watched this match yet but read the reports from some website.Ronaldo has scored one goal and Roberto Carlos scored twice and Baptista gets one. David Beckham has provided two assists for two of the goals. From what I read it looks like Carlos scored one of those fantastic Volley goals from the edge of Penalty area, with a Corner from Beckham.One of Carlos's other goals was a free kick, could have been a thunderbolt.Must check what was the speed of the shot.In all checked the timings on ESPN/STAR and found that there is a repeat tommorow at 5.30 P.M. Atleast the goals, I should be able to watch in Real Madrid TV news.

Read that Sven Goran Erickson is planning to give Crouch a chance in the world cup qualifiers. With Beckham in such a good form, the coach should think about some players who are good in air.Peter Crouch is one such player, the other striker who comes to my mind is Emile Heskey. And For the corner shots, Terry,Rio or Sol Campbell might come forward and all three are good in air and can get a goal if the delivery from Beckham is decent.

Trip to Sholingar

2005-10-02T11:44:00.000-07:00

Me and Bala decided to go to Sholingar on sunday.I realised that I would miss the most important sunday morning sleep due to this trip,so went to bed early on saturday.But I would rather say I didnt miss much of the sleep. In fact the moment I boarded the bus to Thiruthani from Chennai, I went to sleep.After having a quick and not so good breakfast at thiruthani we boarded the bus to Sholingar.

Sholingar temple is one among the 108 divya desams and is famous for the Yoga Narasimha Perumal, the 1330 steps in the stairs and the monkeys that dwell in those hills. It was almost 10 a.m when we reached there.I was pretty confident that at this age there shouldnt be real trouble against climbing the stairs for both of us. Also since we had all the food items in a concealed bag, we hoped that there wont be much of disturbance from monkeys.Though we were not climbing the stairs at a very quick pace, we were making a good and steady progress. After some 500 steps I felt my muscles in my legs were a bit stiff. But then we went on and successfuly had the darshan of Yoga Narasimha Perumal.It took about 45 minutes to totally climb up and down the hill.It was quite an unforgetful experience for me. But a couple of disheartening scenes that I would like to forget also happened there.

1. The shops there sell some sticks (or rent, I dont know because we didnt get one) which the people use to shoo the monkeys away from them. Rather than using the sticks against the monkeys that attack them, people were using it in various ways to create panic among the silent group of monkeys,thereby causing disturbance to some of the other true devotees.Additionaly one should realise that the hill is the habitat of these monkeys and not a place for these men, who try to become heroes infront of the other girls, by scaring the monkeys away using these sticks.
2. After having put up quite a bit of effort for the darshan I found the Poojari's (Gurukkal's) inside the sannidhi not dedicated in their work. The moment someone puts a 5 rupee or 10 rupee on the Theebarathanai plate, they are arguing between themselves about who should grab that one.I can understand that it might not be possible for them to have a comfortable living with the salary they get.So im not against these people taking the money, but cant they wait for sometime say till lunch time and then split their collections.

After that we were told that we should also witness the other Yoga Anjaneyar temple on another hill. It was half a kilometre away from the foot of the Narasimha Perumal hill.One of the notable difference between the two temples is that the stairs to the Narasimha Perumal temple had a terrace with Asbestos sheets covering right from the foot of the hill till the top.But it was not to be the case with the Anjaneyar temple stairs. There was only a natural terrace with the trees providing some shade.Additionaly the sun was not quite hot today.So at 11.30 a.m in the morning we were able to climb up some 500 stairs quite comfortably. It took about 15 mins to climb up and down this second hill.Having had a good darshan both of us were physically tired and could not control our sleep during our return journey.

One kind of those darshans of lord after the completion of which you feel physically exhausted but mentally and spiritually refreshed.

An ordinary Gajini and an unconquerable Gauloisean rider

2005-10-02T10:47:00.000-07:00

I went to watch the movie Gajini on saturday. Once again I was very much impressed with the trailer and was hoping that my judgement of the movie based on the trailer might not fail again.(Totti Jaya was the previous one whose trailer impressed me but not the movie). Even the guy who gives the receipt to my bike parking in the theatre was upbeat about the movie and was making me more excited.

First on the postives in the movie.

The story was a new one to Tamil cinema industry. Again Surya was stunning in his role. When I think back he was one of those guys whom I thought wouldn't make it big in the movies some 5 years back, when he was acting second fiddle to Vijay.It is a challenging role for him and he has come out good in it.Asin was looking good and she too has blended well in her role.I already liked a couple of songs in the movie and to me the picturisation of the songs seemed ok if not great.

Now on the negatives.

One is Harris jayaraj, he has let down again in the BGM. This is the second movie after anniyan where I was dissapointed with his work. There were at times in the movie where the BGM was really disturbing me.Except on one or two occasions in the movie the BGM was a total let down.Wonder what would happen to someone who watches it in a theatre complex like Mayajaal.(Chinni Theateru Bettha Soundu)
The second one is the director.Since I was impressed with the story line and the trailer, I was expecting more details on how a person with short term memory loss could survive. I would have been happier if more importance had been given to surya's living style rather than chemistry between Asin and Surya.And what would I expect in a movie like this, a great climax scene or a strategically well planned climax.Then again it was not so.I think the director was hoping that only by mixing the commercial aspects( misfitting songs, Nayan Tara and an unnecessary villain role) the movie could be a hit.Was he the one who beleived that he could give a hit with CAPTAIN not fighting against a Pakistani Theeviravathi!!!

Though I would say that the movie didnt meet my expectations, I dont mind watching it once.(say on a non DTS or non dolby 5.1 surround technology preferably).Mohammad Ghazni may not have been successful at his attempts in conquering most of the territories he invaded but he was able to return home from the war with a vast wealth.I feel Ghajini may be not be techincally a hit among all the audiences, but it could still be a good grosser at the box office.

Now moving on to the second item in the title of the blog. My spirits were already down since Gajini didn't conquer me and due to couple of other news that I received from my colleague.I came home after the movie and decided to check out ESPN/STAR and there was the Gauloisean Rider in his Yamaha 500cc bike around the Qatar Circuit.I did mean the current world champion Valentino Rossi. Rossi once again won the race.He was in the third position 4 laps to the end when Gibernau ran wide out of the track and before the last two laps Rossi came in front of Marco Melandri to take the top podium finish.It was a wonderful race on a good ciruit. There was this long straight in which the bikes reached almost 310 Km/Ph and then there was this three consecutive right handed turns that made the race more exciting.On the whole it was an exciting race and thankfully a consolation to my otherwise down spirit.

Real Victorious

2005-09-29T01:56:00.000-07:00

Real Madrid 2-1 Olympiakos

Looking at the scoreline, it makes one believe that Real scrambles to get the victory.But there is another staistic that explains the way the game was played.The shots on and off target by Real Madrid was 26 out of which 10 was on target as against olympiakos with a total of 9 and 4 on target.The number of Corner kicks were 16 for Real Madrid and 5 for Olympiakos.

It was an all out attacking line-up by Luxembourgo. Robinho, Raul took their position as strikers and Bapstista a little behind them. David Beckham and Guti on the Right and Left wing respectively. Pablo Garcia as a holding midfielder who had one of the tough jobs of marking Rivaldo. The defence had R.Carlos, Sergio Ramos, Helguera and Salgado in that order from Left to Right.As always there was Iker at the goal.The attitude from Real was very clear.It was positive and attack oriented, partly due to the pressure to win the match and their regained confidence after two victories in La Liga.

It just took 9 minutes for Raul to get his 50th Champions league goal. He met a beautiful Juicy cross from Beckham at the near post, a pretty easy one to convert for a player of his calibre.It is a fantastic moment for Raul, reaching the milestone as the top scorer in european club championship in his favourite home ground and in front of his supporters.The crowd went mad after this.ATt 2.30 a.m. in the morning I was feeling more fresher than ever watching the flowing football played by Madrid.I especially liked Robinho's ball control and the way he pulled the ball to centre for Baptista, Carlos and Raul to take a shot.Credit should also be given to olympiakos Goal keeper. He stood between Real Madrid and the goals.

Coming to Beckham,I'm not a great Fan of his ball control and ball holding techniques. But he is one of the Best crosser in the world. Yesterday he was in excellent form.He just did sent lots of balls on to the centre and the beauty was they were accurate and eluded the defence while dipping down. Sensational stuff from him.With Quality player like Robinho to control the ball these moves seemed pretty easy. I was expecting to see Madrid score a lot of goals.But then it was not so. Olympiakos pulled one back after starting the second half. Madrid was trying again with Beckham crossing the ball and Robinho and Baptista missing some good chances. Casillas was troubled by some shots by Rivaldo.After 85 minutes when I was holding my breath for a win for Madrid, it happened. Saldado from Reserve team headed a Beckham cross, a thing of beauty swirling in from Right hand corner,directly to the Goal keeper hands. The olympiakos goalkeeper tried to push it out,but unfortunately it again met the head of soldado and went in.

So Madrid were again in front and there was an act of stupidity at the injury time. Sergio Ramos was red carded, which I think the referee believed to be an outburst. But certainly not according to the replays. But finally Madrid won the match 2-1 and gained the three points which is very vital.

I then went to sleep,should say happily for having watched the kind of football I always liked to, in other words watching Real Madrid play wonderful soccer.

Match Day 2 Champions League 2005

2005-09-28T04:52:00.000-07:00

Results from matches played yesterday

Bayern 1-0 Club Brugge

Juventus 3-0 Rapid

Ajax 1-2 Arsenal

Thun 1-0 Sparta

Panathinaikos 2-1 Bremen

Barcelona 4-1 Udinese (Ronaldinho scores a Hat-Trick)

Man. United 2-1 Benfica

Lille 0-0 Villarreal

I was pretty tired yesterday and so slept before 11.30.I couldn't catch any of the action above live. Hoping to watch the replays today.Looks like Ronaldinho has sizzled the udinese defence.

Today's fixtures

Real Madrid Vs Olympiacos (29th september 2.30 a.m IST Same day delay in ESPN)
(or May be in Real Madrid TV live)

Liverpool Vs Chelsea (29th september 00:00 IST Live in ESPN)

Iam waiting to catch the first victory of Real Madrid in Champions league 2005.Though Zidane has started training not sure if Luxembourgo would pick him up fearing more damage ahead of la liga games.But Ronaldo and Robinho are in good form and should be a goal feast.Woodgate might get a nod to be in the eleven.

The other big match is against the European Champions and Premier league champions.For some reason big matches by English teams against chelsea have not impressed me. But this is purely in a Premier league match , not in European championships.

Weekend Happenings

2005-09-26T10:07:00.000-07:00

GiriValam
On Friday I was off to Thiruvannamalai with 4 other friends of mine for girivalam.We started our girivalam at 5.00 A.M on saturday morning. It was really fantastic to walk around the mountain. A couple of days back it had rained and there was still moisture in the atmosphere. We enjoyed the beautiful sun rise in the mountain backdrop. After the walk we spend almost more than an hour in the temple talking about the skills of the sculptors present in those times. I bet the beauty of the garbha graham, prakaram encircling it and the sculptures in the wall are a real feast to one's eyes. It was some time around noon we came back to our hotel rooms. As I was leaving the place I promised to myself that I should be visting this place atleast once in 6 months .There is something mysterious in these mountains that gives me peace of mind.

Thanks to Prabhakar for the Photos.

Rossi and Alonso are Champions

Rossi once again won the Moto Gp championship on Sunday, the seventh title in his racing carrier.He won it as 125cc driver in 1997, 250cc driver in 1999 and then in the years 2001,2002,2003,2004 and in 2005 as a 500c driver. I think he would have fancied a top podium finish on his Championship winning race. But he could manage only a second spot. His superiority in this category is such that he grabbed the championship with still five races to spare. One should understand that his Yamaha is not the best vehicle on the circuit, with which he had won the championship twice.

Fernando Alonso become the youngest Formula 1 Champion on sunday.Though I'm not a fan of Alonso, I would say he is a driver who drives within the limits of the vehicle and most importantly doesn't commit too many mistakes. He has been dubbed as in par with Schumi, Senna etc.,which I personally dont agree to.He has to prove a lot to reach those heights ans he still has lot more years ahead of him to attain it. Once again Kimi lost his hold on the championship.Will he be able to grab it next year.May be if Schumi and Ferrari haven't fixed their problems with Bridge stone.

Alaves 0 - 3 Real Madrid
Real won their away match against Alaves in the La Liga campaign on sunday. Ronaldo scored twice and thereby reached the mile stone of 100 goals in a White Jersey.
Two wins in the same week in two la liga campaigns should boost the spirit of the team. Real are to face Olympiakos at home on Wednesday night in a Champions league encounter.Hope they continue their good run in the midweek encounter also.

Saturday EPL results

2005-09-24T20:45:00.000-07:00

Some of the results from Yesterday's English Premier League matches,

Birmingham City Vs Liverpool (2-2)
It was a boring match in the first hour, till Garcia was introduced into action.The last 20 minutes was absolutely fantastic with the teams attacking end to end.Benitez might not be a happy man, but should be satisfied with the one point scored away from home.

Chelsea Vs Aston Villa(2-1)
As usual Chelsea won the match.But what is unusual this time, Aston Villa was able to breach the Chelsea defence for the first time this season.

Manchester United Vs Blackburn Rovers (1-2)
Machester United were beaten by Blackburn at Old Trafford. Though ManU were able to create a lot of chances they were not able to convert them. I think that they miss Roy Keane at the centre.

West Ham - Arsenal(0-0)
Arsenal could not get a goal against West Ham and it clearly showed the absence of Pires and Henry. The bunch of Arsenal youngsters were able to get the ball till the opposition's Six yard box, but could not finish it off. West Ham should be given the credit for defending well. More worries for Arsene Wenfer as Gilberto silva limped off with a Knee.

Other Results.

Bolton 1-0 Portsmouth

Newcastle 1-0 Man City (Owen Scored for Newcastle)

West Brom 1-2 Charlton

Everton 0-1 Wigan (Pity on Everton)

Real Madrid TV

2005-09-24T20:38:00.000-07:00

I expressed my regrets about not being able to watch Real Madrid matches live living in India. After watching a couple of EPL matches yesterday, I was just fiddling with the SCV Set Top box remote.And to my surprise I landed up on a channel showing the goals scored by Real madrid against Atletic.The moment I saw the Real Madrid logo on the Right hand side Top corner, I could not believe my eyes.The information card appears with the classification that it is FTA channel.But I guess it could be tuned only with Set Top Box.

For the first time in the past one year, I was totally happy to have got the Set Top Box.Hope the matches are shown live on Real Madrid TV. Even otherwise I certainly think there would be retelecast of matches again and again.For a soccer fan and that too a Real Madrid fan I could not have asked for more.And a list of soccer matches that a Set top box(SCV) owner can get now

1. ESPN/STAR - English Premier League ,Champions League and Asian world Cup Qualifies

2. Ten Sports - Bundes Liga,Portugese Liga,Uefa Cup and South American World Cup qualifiers.

3. Zee Sports - Bundes Liga, Italian Serie A and European World Cup Qualifiers.

4. Dubai Sports -Some Middle East league(guess it is Iran), Bundes Liga, UEFA Cup and South American Qualifiers.

5. Real Madrid TV - Guess all matches played by Real Madrid, but not sure though.

Real Madrid win at home

2005-09-22T21:59:00.000-07:00

I was not fortunate enough to catch the first win of Real Madrid against Athletic Bilbao live but hope to catch the action in a replay at 5.00 P.M tommorow in ESPN.I'll update the blog with the details of the match after that.

But it looks like the England defender woodgate had a worst debut for Real Madrid.Though I dont want to conclude without seeing the match, the odds are against him.He could not have hoped for a goal in his debut, but certainly would not have wanted an own goal. But then it had happened. Not only because the team is already under criticism from media,it is difficult for any team under these circumstances to get back from behind. I can understand that the fans at Bernabeu would have gone crazy and it is not easy for any defender to keep his cool in his debut against booing from his fans at home. Timing on a tackle for a defender is very important and with an own goal and boos from the crowd, Woodgate could have lost his temper resulting in some bad tackles and a caouple of yellow cards.The official commentary from realmadrid.com has described his debut as a good one, which i think is trying to be too optimistic.

Coming to the goals Robinho had got one, heading a ball from Beckham and then Raul got two goals. It would have been a real feast to watch Ronaldo,Raul and Robinho with their skills and flicks.

Should I say I'm relieved.Yes.Is it because that Real had a convincing win. Not really. I had a feeling that the Real squad is in good balance in the last 2 years and bouncing back is not an issue for a team with such a class.But I'm relieved because this win will put all the criticisms of the coach's management, formation etc., and gossips about his sacking on hold.

I know Woddy has got lots of experience to get back from his dismal show.Waiting for tomorrow to catch the replay of the match.

An Accident

2005-09-21T21:24:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about writing a blog about my bike ride starting from my house till my workplace at Tidel. I had set my stopwatch to note the timings of my ride.Things were fine till I came across an accident at the Tarmani road.

After waiting for the signal at the Taramani Junction near S.R.P tools, I was slowly cruising my bike in the traffic. This is the road which the government is planning to convert as a six lane road.So on the left side of the road there are huge steel boards(separators) to isolate the area of road laying operation and the route for traffic. As I was cruising slowly near the boards on to my left , I heard a sudden thud of sound.The first impression that came across is that the somebody has crashed their vehicle on to the board.But when I turned back I saw an old man, on his cycle had dashed with the board with his cheek and an almost bald head making contact with the steel boards. A couple of passengers from an auto came down and were trying to lift this person up.He was not moving and im was not sure of his state. Is his alive and unconscious or is he dead.I couldn't find this out because of the honks produced by the vehicles standing behind me and I had to move.

I could guess that the auto driver trying to squeeze past vehicles in his right hasn't noticed the old man to his left. Therefore he had pushed the cyclist further on to his left which resulted in his crash.

What did strike me hard was the expression on the face of the cyclist. He had seen the danger coming before hitting the boards and his face has frozen with that fear of impact. I couldn't explain this in words.But it really scared the hell out of me.I had come across a few accidents in my life but never had witnessed the shock in the face of the victim before.

If we start blaming somebody for this accident,then starting from the auto driver,car on to the right of auto, the traffic constable and the government can be blamed.(as Ambi's father argues in the movie Anniyan for his daughter)But what if the person had died, which I hope is not so,the loss suffered by his family could be irrecoverable.

But I feel that what caused the accident - is the people’s attitude of racing against the time to reach their workplace. I work for a software company with flexible timings. So I’m not sure if it is really not possible to calculate the time it would take (considering the peak hour traffic) to travel from home to workplace.But I think that it is not that difficult compared to causing an irrecoverable loss to somebody.

The Race, The Rider and The Promoter

2005-09-19T04:37:00.001-07:00

Valentino Rossi who was expected to clinch the World Championsip in MOTO GP(500 CC), this week crashed out of the race at Japan due to a collision with Marco Melandri.I was happy to see Rossi escape the crash without any injuries.

Rossi started the race in 11th position and then moved to fourth place by fourth lap. I always like watching these high speed bikes running close to each other and then overtaking each other mutually in a chicane. The synchronous inclination they do to adjust the equillibrium position in the corners and then getting back to the normal position is always a beautiful sight to watch.It also has a risk factor in it when the bikes collide with each other at such speeds.There was a straight sector in the circuit yesterday in which the bikes were reaching almost 290 Km/hr.The speed has to be reduced at the end of the straight say to 90Km/hr to take a corner and these bikes are capable of reaching this speed in third gear.So what is required is a great braking system,good typres and of course uninteruupted concentration from the riders.

Coming back to the race capirossi won it eventually with Max Biaggi finishing second. As per the standings in the race Rossi leads it with around 110 points ahead of Biaggi. I hope rossi lifts the chamipoship in the next race at Malaysia and to acheive this feat what is required from rossi is only a top four finish.

Off the track now,

I was watching this in ESPN/STAR sports and in the race build up our very own JOhn Abraham met with Rossi.Rossi was signing some autograph book or something.

John : Hi Rossi.Im John Abraham an actor from India who is being watched by 1 billion people(come on..enough of your tale..get on with the question). People in India follow Formula1 and then they follow Moto GP too.One person whom they know in Moto GP is Rossi.When are you planning to come to India.
Rossi: Hi,I havent been to India yet and I dont think I will be coming there to India in near future.Hope I will be there for a race.

I dont have complaints with this question except that John's boasting self Intro was at the height of stupidity.Doesn't he know that Rossi is an International star with six championships under his belt.

His second question though i dont remember exactly had something to do with rossi's feeling towards driving the rest of the races this year. Rossi answered it saying that he looks forward to racing in the forth coming tracks. A question like this to a rider who is working towards sealing his 2005 championship is absurd. I didn't have the patience to catch up rest of the interview and changed the channel.

Ps: One of the reasons John was on the circuit and into Yamaha Garage interacting with Rossi is because John is the Promoter of Yamaha Bikes(Not racing bikes of course) in India.One reason I'm jealous of him.