Ubiquitense

Heavy metals – Ancient Tamil metallurgy

Ubiquit — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:37:26 +0000

Not very often do we come across our glorious past. When the majority of Europe was in dark ages, people eating people, Tamizh kings were promoting arts and technology through a rich cultural spectrum. The picture above is just an example of what our ancients were capable of – when they didn’t have pesudo-tamizhs and [...]

Philips – Nonsense and Complexity

Ubiquit — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 05:58:47 +0000

Do you think Philips’ tag line ‘Sense and Simplicity’ stands true in India? Well, NO! Philips’ product strategy in India: Bring a bull-crap product made in China Brand it with Philips Sell in India, and Leave all the spare parts far, far away! Far, far away! How far? As far as Pune! Every time my TV goes kaput, I register a [...]

Handmade lamp shades – Dakshina Chitra (Part II)

Ubiquit — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 07:35:45 +0000

There’s a price for everything. These lampshades are hand crafted, and quite pricey! Well, it’s understandable. These people target their products for Westerners who have money, not the locals. Photo © Ubiquitense

Three, absolutely free, sexy WordPress themes

Ubiquit — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 06:59:22 +0000

There are zillions of free, premium and freemium WordPress themes out there. Some bloggers pick some good looking theme, and install them, whereas some look at the functional aspects of the themes before installing them. Following are three exclusive themes that I stumbled upon – packing a fair mix of good design and functionality, yet keeping [...]

Tamizh house – Dakshina Chitra (Part I)

Ubiquit — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 06:06:10 +0000

Place: Dakshina Chitra, Muttukadu, ECR, Chennai Inside one of the many old, architecturally intriguing Tamizh houses @ Dakshina Chitra. I guess this is the Naidu’s house. However, the innovative double burner technology, pictured below, is not limited to this kinda’ house. Photo © Ubiquitense

Gooseberry pictures – @ home

Ubiquit — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 05:52:32 +0000

Come December, kids and grown up locals jump the walls of our little house just to gather some gooseberries (nellikai or amla or Phyllanthus emblica), without permission (ain’t there a single word starting with ‘S’?), from the garden. Yes, India is very much a democratic country, and these locals have every right to cut trees [...]

Google Mail’s new status update feature!?

Ubiquit — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 09:36:10 +0000

I just came across this news about Google’s upcoming addendum on Gmail.. Now, what’s on my mind? Here’s what Google might come up with if they are planning to compete with Twitter and Facebook status update features.. It’s just my imagination running wild. You got any ideas how this might look like when implemented?

Inclusion…Ideal, Oh But We are Exclusive!

Shalini Puthiyedam — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:56:44 +0000

I had finished my day at the office and ”Bonjour (Hello) India”, the Festival of France in India was happening at Pondicherry. I had time on my hand and the event lined up as part of the festivities that evening sounded interesting. There was going to be a debate of ideas ”Globalisation and cultural diversity”. [...]

Unknown flowers – Time pass..

Ubiquit — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:17:54 +0000

I’m not a flower-lover. But what the heck, these creations do make some people happy, don’t they? Photo © Ubiquitense

Rosy thorns..

Ubiquit — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 06:28:28 +0000

What’s the name of this flower? It might be a weed too, not sure though. Along the trekking path towards Soochipara falls, this combination of reddish pink, and lush green invites shutter bugs!

Aayirathil Oruvan – Insulting our past glory

Ubiquit — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 06:21:39 +0000

After all the blah on blogs, news portals and news papers, I watched Aayirathil Oruvan (AO). I wish I were a director in the Tamizh movie industry. Why? Well, it’s so easy to spin a story out of 10 other Hollywood movies and present it in a third-rate platter, for an equally third-rate audience that [...]

Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya – Music review

Ubiquit — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 06:10:18 +0000

Undoubtedly, Rahman is a phenomenon! This statement pretty much gives you an idea of what rating this album, Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya, is gonna get from me and from all other Rahman fans. Unlike Dilli 6, this album doesn’t pack any new music genres, but who cares…the music is way too beautiful and repeatable for a hero like Silambarasan [...]

The best pic ever from my Canon S5IS..

Ubiquit — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 11:46:05 +0000

This picture is an example of how framing plays an important role in photography. This wasn’t taken by a professional photographer, but by someone whose creativity was at an all time high when she handled my bulky, button-crazy camera. And…that someone is none but my WIFE!!! Photo © Ubiquitense

All in a day’s work

Shalini Puthiyedam — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 01:30:32 +0000

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 5; the fifth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton. This entry is by Shalini Puthiyedam, one of the contributors on www.ubiquitense.com 1945 was the year [...]

Virtually virtual

Shalini Puthiyedam — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:36:43 +0000

Well…the buzzword these days is social networking. If you are not on Facebook or Twitter you are really not in with the times. What however is interesting to me is the way such activities are redefining relationships and friendships. In earlier times, you met a person, you talked, you met again, you talked and then slowly [...]

Picturesque Azhiyar – Pollachi, Coimbatore

Ubiquit — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:43:32 +0000

Azhiyar (or Aliyar) – a destination I never came across until my maiden visit in 2007. Not sure if many people in Tamil Nadu are aware of this beautiful place, near Coimbatore, surrounded by green-carpet hills caressing the clouds. A few pics from this heaven.. A good place to be in, if you wanna [...]

Beauty and the beast – Neuschwanstein

Ubiquit — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:37:19 +0000

If nature is sinfully beautiful, you’re in Bavaria. Neuschwanstein is known for this, and for the fairytale-ish castle built by King Ludwig II. As usual, I found this pic when I was digging through my collection of photographs taken with my old Canon A520 digicam. Photo © Ubiquitense

Thanjavur – Brihadeeswara temple architecture

Ubiquit — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 05:22:32 +0000

I once visited my friend’s house – an apartment built by one of the most famous builders in South India. It was 7 years old then, and I could see a lot of cracks running along the walls, the bathroom ceiling marked with seepage water-marks, not-so-good wall plastering, and..phew…a lot of other woes. Well, this [...]

Fort Collins to Horsetooth Reservoir – Colorado

Ubiquit — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:37:29 +0000

I was cleaning up the pictures folder when I stumbled upon these photos. Hmm, it’s been two full years since I clicked these pics on the way to the Horsetooth Reservoir from Fort Collins, Colorado. After crawling through the unruly maze in T.Nagar, there’s hardly anyone wouldn’t wish for a calm, neat road, winding up [...]

Retweet enabled on my Twitter account

Ubiquit — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:47:31 +0000

Just a couple of weeks ago I wrote about the upcoming retweet feature on Twitter. Today, when I signed on to Twitter, I got an info message that ‘m a part of the retweet beta group, and that the feature has been enabled. Finally, no more copy-paste and adding @tweeter at the beginning or the end. [...]

Rain clouds, and damned humans

Ubiquit — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:58:56 +0000

How many times have you come across people complaining that it’s raining outside, and their plans are all spoiled, or it’s disgusting to get wet, or how dull & gloomy it’s outside? It’s quite sad that I’ve been hearing such comments since it started raining over here. I agree that the roads are a mess [...]

Umbrella beads..

Ubiquit — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:07:48 +0000

It’s been raining, raining, raining…since yesterday morning. Looks like the rains will have non-stop fun in Chennai for another 12 hours. But, heck, I’m getting bored sitting at home, staring outside the window… So, I decided to colorize the otherwise grayish view outside the window.. (click the pics below to get a bigger view) [...]

Retweet on Twitter – Coming soon..

Ubiquit — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:50:04 +0000

Well, it’s quite a process to RT (retweet) someone or someone’s tweet as it involves copying & pasting the message and adding the tweeter’s id at the beginning or end of it – all within the 140 character limit! Phew!! Now, the folks @Twitter have taken this into account, and have enabled (or integrated?) this RT [...]

Equal opportunity follower..

Ubiquit — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:47:21 +0000

If you follow someone on Twitter, there’s no guarantee that he/she will follow you back. So, some tweeple (Twitter people) think that having more followers than following is a show of strength/popularity..or, whatever. Crap! Well, today I discovered that I’m an equal-opportunity follower. LOL! Nevertheless, I do religiously perform a ‘twitter-weed’ every other Sunday. Twitter-lists is just [...]

In the wrong place at the wrong time

Shalini Puthiyedam — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:20:11 +0000

“Am I to be blamed for the recession?” This must be the question raging in the minds of many unemployed educated youth here in India. This is the situation in the employment market. There are no jobs to be had and if there are, they come with a heavy price to pay for accepting them. [...]