November 30, 2004

While sitting at your desk, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles.Now, while doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction and there's nothing you can do about it.
(via MohanaKrishnan)

0 Comments     #



November 29, 2004

The Survivor :
This tree on the road to Besant Nagar stands almost at the middle of the left lane. Some may call it danger, but I call it as one of the city's rare symbol of respect for greenery. True, there's been a few accidents but the people were either too drunk or careless. There's enough illuminated warning around the tree to warn a speeding fighter jet. I spent the early part of my childhood around this part and I remember always liking this tree a lot.

0 Comments     #



November 28, 2004

ROFTWL !! :))




Via Suraj

0 Comments     #



View from the train : I took a quick trip to Hyderabad and here are a few snapshots.


It's a surreal feeling when a train stops atop a bridge. You stand at the doorway and you are staring at a 50 foot drop. Old bridges always fascinate me.


I sneaked behind this guy and took the snap. Found the perfect situation to try out the show shutter speed option.


A scarecrow bike.


I was fascinated with this ice-fella. He scraped ice off a ice-block, fisted it into a ball, dipped into a blood-red syrup and handed it over. And it costed just one rupee. I waited till he turned around before I dumped it. Didn't want to hurt his feeling.

0 Comments     #



November 25, 2004

Images from around my office This morning I came in early and caught these pics. Move your mouse over the pics for my comments.


Lifestyle superstore has changed its logo and branding today. I felt their old one was much better.


Huge quantities of thulasi was being packed.The sun lit green and my shadow made for interesting combination.


This guy outside the Anjeneyar temple, effuses pleasantness. He sells only religious books out of a tricycle.


Just as colourful as the garlands are the ladies who own the shops. They come dressed in yellow sarees with lot of turmeric on their face.

0 Comments     #



Now, that's very encouraging , Hmmfff ! >:(


As seen on my friend's tshirt who joins us for the early morning training.

0 Comments     #



November 24, 2004

Acquired a MP3 Flash player : Neat buy.

Three features I had been dying to have and when all those come bundled in one neat device, I can't ask for more. Bought a Transcent JetFlash MP3 player. Here are the features and why I love to have them.

Thumb Drive : I needed a portable storage device to transer files and this fits in perfectly. With USB 2.0 complaince, it's true plug and play.

Voice Recorder: Comes in very handy for recording meetings, a feature I need it for my job. With 18 hours of voice recording, that's an overkill. Records voice directly in MP3 format and with relatively low file size. Should come in handy for the occasional voice blog posts.

MP3 Player: I specifically needed this during my long marathon practices. It's simply brilliant listening to some great music on a cold morning run. It wipes out the drudgery out of practice. The music clarity rivals iPod. I totally love the iPod but didn't want to take a bulky piece for my practice runs. With a size that of a cigarette lighter, it weighs lighter than 100 gms....you hardly feel you are carrying it. And at just one fifth the cost of an iPod, it makes great sense.


0 Comments     #



November 23, 2004

Currently Reading : Marathoning for Mortals

Ever since I've started my practice, I've been gorging on articles and tips on marathon running. Offlate, I've been digging deep into this book I bought a few months ago in anticipation of my preparation. This book assumes you to be in bad shape, injury-prone, just beginning out and then takes you from there....almost from ground level up. You feel reassured just reading it. I'd recommend this book for anyone who has never run a marathon before but wants to give it a shot.



0 Comments     #



Calling Linux people : Rajesh Jain, the super successful tech entrepreneur (the guy who hit the headlines selling his portals for Rs.500 crores) is starting a new start-up called Novatium Solutions, in conjunction with IIT-Madras, for designing and manufacturing of thin clients. He is looking for people having experience in Embedded Linux Programming. CVs can be sent to veer@blogstreet.com. Please do spread the word around.

0 Comments     #



November 22, 2004

My Marathon Practice has gotten off to an enthusiastic start. The ease with which I ran surprised me. I expected to be highly rusty as I'm running after a long break but its been pretty smooth. I can feel that passion spurt up and that's a great feeling to have. I've started off with 5 km runs and am very careful not to over exert. Last year, I was plagued with knee pain which would surface up evertime I cross the 15 km mark. So this year, the real challenge is being injury-free.

After a week of self-training, I will be joining the elite Madras Runners Club... The big boys club for whom a 30 km run on a Sunday morning is like a walk in the park. That's when the real rigorous practice would begin.

My goal is finishing the half-marathon ( 21 km) at the Chennai Marathon scheduled on February 20th, 2005. That's 90 days to D-day. This is my third consecutive marathon that I'm taking part in. You can find my jotting on the running experiences at my Marathon Blog.

0 Comments     #



Brilliant!


via Puneet

0 Comments     #



Wedding snaps of Rajinikanth's daughter

I find Rajini's second daughter, Soundarya, (in black saree) ravishing. More marriage pics here. BTW, for movie buffs, www.behindwoods.com will be one good site for you to keep an eye on.





0 Comments     #



The Helmet Honesty

The kind of honesty when it comes to helmets on bikes really amuses me. An acquaintance once told me that he has the habit of leaving his helmet on his bike unlocked and it has been safe always. And he told me that in all of 10 years he has not had his helmet stolen even once. That piqued my interest and I decided to try it out myself. No matter where I park my bike, movie theatres, office, temples, shops... I conciously make it a point to place it on the bike's handle-bar. Mind you, my helmet is relatively new. I've been doing this for over a month now and should agree with my friend. It's been totally safe. Now, touchwood.

0 Comments     #



November 21, 2004

Photos from the Chennai Bloggers Meet : We met near Schmidt Memorial on Elliots Beach. The first photo summed things up..."The Bloggers are Back !!" :)


More photos from Nirenjan's digicam.

0 Comments     #



The peacocks that grace our apartment.





0 Comments     #



Today is my Parents' 35th Wedding Anniversary. 35 years?! Wow! Pretty inspiring.

0 Comments     #



November 19, 2004

Retro-interview : While googling for some information, I chanced upon this interview of mine at the Indian Institute of Journalism's online mag that I did a couple of years ago. It's fascinating to look back and read through what one had been thinking back then. Warning: Some links in the article no longer work.

0 Comments     #



A man felt my balls today and it felt very awkward. I had gone for a full medical check-up today and that's when this incident happened. The doctor asked me to strip fully and asked me to lie down on the bed. He then squeezed my left testicles lightly and asked me to cough. He did the same thing with the right one. Sure, he is a professional and is just doing his job. Nevertheless, it felt odd to have a man touch the private parts. I wanted to ask him 'what's with the ball squeezing' but somehow starting the conversation with the doc wasn't on top of my list.

0 Comments     #



November 18, 2004

Dyed Jasmines? Yup. No Kidding. The flower seller had different varieties of jasmine on sale and one of them was "saayam malli" or dyed jasmines - Jasmines that had been soaked in 'blue' (same as in 'Ujala' blue), the ones that the dhobies add to water to make white shirts look whiter. I was quite amazed.

0 Comments     #



November 15, 2004

Unlimited Broadband Internet at home: Finally, it happened. It's now Browse-all-you-want at a standard fixed price. No more charges by how many MBs I have downloaded or how many hours I have browsed. This means, I can get connected to the Internet and simply forget about disconnecting it again. It reminds me of that famous Hero Honda Ad... Fill it, Shut it, Forget it !! Now, if only I can get my comp cured of this nagging virus problems..!

0 Comments     #



November 13, 2004

Movie Recommendations : The DVD rental shop that I'm subscribed to has a phone-in, door-delivery scheme...sort of like the pizza delivery. But, I'm stuck at picking up a good movie to ask. I pick up the phone and then go Umm...errr...hmm. Here's my request. Could you help by recommending good english movies to watch? Can you let me know your Top 3 favorite movie picks. Thanks in advance.

0 Comments     #



Today at 4:30 p.m is the Chennai Bloggers Meet.
Venue : Memorial Arch at the Elliots Beach, Besant Nagar.
Catch you guys there. Looking forward to it.

0 Comments     #



November 12, 2004

Peacocks in our apartment: I was very surprised to find two peococks in our apartment since yesterday. Heck, I would've been surprised to find two peococks freely roaming anywhere in the city!. It's rumored that the two peococks belong to the Murugan temple nearby. The people in our apartment are being generous in offering food and I guess that's incentive enough for them to hang around our apartment more.

0 Comments     #



November 09, 2004

Chennai Bloggers Meet is happening this coming Sunday, November 14th, at Besant Nagar's Elliot Beach. The rendezvous is the Memorial Arch. Will confirm the time soon. Should be around 4:30 p.m. Something tells me that there will be a big turnout. Make sure to get along your digicams and camera phones!

0 Comments     #



Check out Page# 142 in the latest issue of Digit Magazine. You'll find my mugshot along with my 2 cents worth on professional blogging. I'm impressed with Garfield D'Souza, the associate editor, who not only took a lot of effort to do a good interview, but also sent me a personal thankyou note along with the copy of the magazine. Neat. I only wish he had got my name right and published the url of the blog. It feels odd that an article on blogging did not mention the URLs of the blogs covered.


0 Comments     #



Interested in acting in an english feature film? Here's your chance. Poorman productions is getting the floor ready to shoot I just don't get it, an independent film. They are looking for actors and crew members who would be enthu enough to chip in for free. (Hey, why do you think they are called Poorman productons?! ;) Pradeep, is the guy you need to get in touch with. He is optimistic about the film shown in international film festivals. So if you are interested in greasing up, call Pradeep at 98840 82166 or mail him at pradeep@poormanproductino.com

0 Comments     #



November 07, 2004

My friend called me to inform that his sister died. It came as a shock. She was a very pretty girl, in her early twenties, way too young to die. Life seemed very unfair. I went over to my friend's house. He needed the consolation and moral support. I could relate with him. But I dreaded meeting his parents. When I looked at their eyes, I knew no amount of words would alleviate the pain. What do you say to them.... that you are sad?.... that you are shocked?....anything that I thought just didn't seem appropriate then. I didn't want to offer lip service. So i just stood there without saying a word. Not because I didn't want to speak....but because I didn't know what to say. After a few minutes, I stepped out of the room...with a heavy feeling in the heart. That's when I realised that even though we didn't say a word to each other, we communicated. Silence actually spoke.

0 Comments     #



November 05, 2004

I love that Indian ingenuity


(via Ravi)

0 Comments     #



Ever seen a full test match finish in two days?! Just two days!!. I won't count the 11 overs bowled on the rain hit first day. 38 wickets in two days. Whoa! Never seen a test match like this in my whole friggin' life. Reminded me so much of the 2001 Calcutta win. VVS Lakshman scored the highest in both these tests. So what if he flops in most of the tests. Frankly, I thought India is going to get mothered. Great to see it scrape through. Watching the final overs felt like watching a one day match. Nothing like a win to pep up the mood.

0 Comments     #



November 04, 2004

GMail problems: For some unfathomable reason, I can't access GMail at my home computer any more. It was working alright a couple of weeks ago but suddenly it stopped dead. I've tried downloading service packs, Firefox, Netscape 7....yet no luck. Beats me. Any idea how we can work around this problem?

To make matters worse, none of the Internet centres have the latest browsers. I can't understand why they can't download the latest ones...I mean, what have they gotto lose. Yesterday, I spent two hours downloading IE6 only to find GMail not working there too. Grrr..

0 Comments     #



November 03, 2004

Aww Shucks. Disheartening US election results. One doesn't have to wait for 11 days to know who wins Ohio. It's near impossible for Kerry to win 1.4 lakh votes out of 1.75 lakh votes. So, its gonna be bye bye Kerry. Too bad.

0 Comments     #



Syndicate this site