Vivek's

Bengaluru's traffic problem & half a dozen ideas

2016-08-07T03:37:00.001-07:00

Hello good people,

Drafted this one 2 months back, just managing to publish it. Why the delay ? - Stuck in traffic LOL! This seems to be the template reason for almost any event, especially in Bengaluru.

I'm one among those who believe that the Bengaluru traffic is not just due to the vehicle density but includes other few parameters. Like after being stuck in a t-jam for 30 mins, we see that it is due to one SUV or Sedan taking an ambitious U turn, blocking both the roads, and the road thereafter is almost empty.

Or a mini van waiting for a right turn, while a BMTC has 20% of it's body behind the mini van and is unable to move forward and blocking others behind it.

The idea of this blog, as visible in the title is not to sulk about the traffic or to make fun of it. So let's see what can be improved - precisely, to look at some ideas which can be implemented with no or least investment.

1. Bus stop where the bus stop :

Read it however you want, Forget that official bus stop, that's for the auto guys and corporate cab pick up points. So where does the BMTC bus stops?

at the start and end of a flyover
immediately after a turning,
immediately after a signal

making things worse for the vehicles behind.

And one unique technology followed by bmtc is - when one bus is already in the bus stop, the next one stands parallel to the first one instead of standing behind. What an idea!!

This is for sure the easiest of things to change first up - remove all other boarding/drop points other than designated bus stops.

2. Shortcut to success :

No need to asphalt the shortcut or gully routes, at least they can be leveled. At least the two wheelers can use those roads leaving the main roads for bigger vehicles.

Recently Accenture Whitefield campus opened a 'back gate' that leads to cosmos mall, saving 4-5 km and avoiding rush at graffite India Junction. More such routes could be opened through out Bengaluru.

3. Continuous signals :

Where we have continuous signals in a same road, it can be planned to sync the signals such that the vehicles that get the green can pass all signals at one stretch. Saves time, energy, fuel, avoids pollution and lot of chaos.
Example - the 3 or 4 signals in Richmond road.

I hear that this was tested for certain roads successfully and will soon be in action., super.

4. Let the waste wait:

As far as I've noticed, the BBMP corporation vehicle cleans up the piled garbage, promptly between 8am to 10am , which as you see, is the peak hours for office and school goers.
By scheduling this at 2 to 4pm, garbage is not going to complain.

5. 1-way:

Narrow roads prone to huge vehicle volume could be made one-way. People should start accepting a mindset that travelling 500m more to save 15 mins time is a better idea.

Example - The triangle between Gopalan grand mall, big bazaar and DRDO bus stop can be made a one way to avoid unnecessary t-jams.

6. Restructuring U-turns.

Needless to explain, this is one other spot where traffic is held up. Avoiding or changing U-turns from crowded spots, like opposite to Malls, Metro, petrol bunks, schools, corporate campus etc., can help in a lot of ways.

Recently, a U-turn near Marathahalli was changed to a spot where the road is much wider, and this showed good difference.

And there are more ideas like rain water harvesting near under-pass, which recently created a mess in outer ring roads.

As you see, these do not need heavy investment of funds, but just the time and 'will' to do things.

As usual, if you know of some simple ideas, please add it in the comments.

See you later,

Ta ta

@ Special thanks to Chetan for well depicting the situations.

Beat the heat

2016-04-24T07:53:00.002-07:00

Hello Good people,

While Bengaluru is trying to understand the meaning of terms like ‘summer vacation”, “air-cooler” etc., I just thought of publishing one more blog, understandably coming after a few light-years.

I started writing this blog last year April, and whenever I began editing or proof-reading, it started raining and went on for few months, making the content irrelevant. This time though, the intent is clear. J

Idea is definitely neither to share same age-old suggestions like - eat cucumber and water melon, drink water etc., nor to sulk like oldies saying “this year, it’s worst-summer-than-ever”. Thought of sharing some different ideas to manage the summer.

1) Get the monkey off the back:

This is mainly for the office goers who use two-wheeler. Carrying a laptop bag on shoulder while riding is always a nuisance. thollaya thol’la maatikitu porome, che.

And in summer, your formal shirt becomes a ‘sweat-shirt’ and sitting with it in A/C only makes things worse. So, do consider fitting a side box in your bike, in which you can comfortably put your laptop and accessories. You can consider stitching a small cloth bag which makes it easy to carry. You get one from Aerostar brand from most accessory shops around JC road that fits a 14 inch laptop.

This will not be an obstacle to the pillion, in fact, it helps because the pillion’s thigh just lands on the box comfortably!

I did this in my Avy and using it for more than a year now. I can easily feel the difference – feels like God !

2) Get the power:

If you check the Indian dictionary for summer – one of the synonyms will be “power cut”. No need to explain this more. So, I would suggest to get an UPS / Inverter installed. For a minimum of 2-3 fans and 1 light, you won’t require a heavy inverter. I guess a 600 VA would do.

There are varieties of inverters and batteries in the market, and it involves a bit of Physics to understand what capacity you require.

To keep it simple – ask yourself two questions – what all appliances you want to run during power cut (like 2 Fans, 2 light, one Mixer etc.,), how long you want those appliances to run (depends on average duration of power cut in your area).

3) Baby’s day out:

It’s an unfortunate pain that we always have a “summer” vacation for the kids. Problem is simple – Kids want to be outdoor, but outdoor has free offers such as dehydration, sunburn etc., No kid is in a drinking or eating mood. And if they are indoor, grazing them is a headache.

We can have some physical yet indoor games such as a basketball game, Dart, table tennis etc., except for TT, others don’t always need a partner but just a supervision.

4) Put it blindly:

And yes, the blinds. One-time set-up. Very effective for the balconies. Just scroll down in the morning, and up by dusk. Blinds are available in various materials, models like for monsoon, sun rays etc.,

Other alternative is to have an old cloth like old bed sheet, wet it, and hang it in the balcony of windows to block heat waves.

5) Wat ? er ..

This hyperlinks to my earlier blog on harvesting of water-filter outlet water. Summer also naturally means water problem in most cities. So, this water can atleast be used for plants, cleaning the floor, flush etc.,

http://kevivnajar.blogspot.in/2015/01/wat-er.html

I hope atleast one of these ideas help you. If you have more ideas, please feel free to add it in the comment section, or send a short note to me, I’ll link it here for the benefit of others.

2015-09-21T23:12:00.000-07:00

It is that time of the year again.. when we get very agitated, Blood pressure goes up, crowd everywhere.. people shout in the middle of the night.

No, I’m not talking about IPL.

Dandanakka nakka nakka dandanakka – got a clue ?

No, it is not about any new kuthu song..It is not even about any dead body dance..

It is our “Ganesha happy birthday” – Ganesh Chathurthi.. aka Vinayaka Chathurthi.

(blog purely based on Bengaluru experience)

If you google Ganesha – you will get more than 1 million answer on the origin of Ganesha and how he got elephant head.

The number of answers you get is more than the hits you will get for current world’s biggest question – “why kattappa killed bahubali?”

That is simply because, after Dosa and SAP, Ganesha is the most customized object in the Milky-way galaxy.

32 officially, how many in real world ? – Ganesha himself might not know..

That doesn’t justify you can do a dabba’kuthu song in the middle of the night, disturbing kids and oldies.

During Diwali, there is a rule for not bursting ‘sound’ crackers after 9 pm or before 5 am etc., but this one doesn’t seem to have any restriction. Even if so, there is not even an announcement in atleast FM channels about it..

The whole concept of dancing and singing seems to be inspired by the north Indian way of celebration, but totally overdone - needlessly needled. Over there, it is a part of life style, the entire community joins in it and has fun. That doesn't mean it can be forced on other states - come on, it's not Hindi language LOL.! So, if someone likes the Tomatina festival, then what ? the entire KR market turns into Bunol ?

At least in Bangalore, I don’t see even 1% of sincere religious belief in celebrating Ganesha Chaturthi. – This is just a tool to collect money, buy imported liquor, have fun.

It’s quite appalling to see the youth of today drink and dance in the road, under police protection, for what appears to be a wastage of resources (time, energy and money).

So, unfortunately ,

Where there is god – There is also nuisance.

Latest model : Bahubali Ganesha

And then, the next side effect - 'click & drag' Ganesha all over the street. This again is based on ancient concept of gods taken in Chariot on auspicious occasions and devotees seek blessing on its way. But in Bangalore, there are atleast 10,000 such chariots that are dragged in busy roads, in peak hours.

Every small temple that was built by a wine shop owner 2 days back, want to have a big Ganesha and do Pooja in public in middle of road under police protection.

If there is a cricket match happening in Chinnaswamy stadium, there are maps and special one-ways published in newspapers. Why cant similar planning be done , atleast on known-busy roads ?

And one cant even take a short cut through gully roads. Because 5 out of 10 gully roads are blocked because that “street association” has a Ganesha installed in the middle of the road.

I quite like the idea of a street association that reports to an area association, but sadly it is used only in activities that block the street – Not even a fire engine can go through.

So,

Where there is god – there is traffic.

And last part – the climax of Ganesha (festival) : This actually seems like anti-climax.

During Dussera, a giant effigy of Ravana is made, and in the end, it is shot and burnt.

During Ganesha Chaturthi, a giant idol of Ganesha is made, and in the end, it is dissolved/immersed in water.

One is killed by fire and the other by water ??

This year – BBMP has setup 136 mobile water tanks to immerse idols (spending lakhs of rupees) – but these were not advertised widely – even to the extent of covering Gokul Macheri topic or Indirani Mukherjee case.

Even though Government has insisted on SEZ Ganesha (some social eco-friendly ZZZZ) still all kind of cheap Ganesha’s are made every year. And still they are being dissolved in the beautiful lakes in Bangalore.

Such a pity that half of the lakes were lost to apartment construction, and now the rest for such funny reasons.

Where there is god – there is also pollution.

If you are a religious person and you are scolding me while you were reading the above – fine, but ask yourself against these above three topics – do you really want a Ganesha Chathurthi ( or any similar festival) which results in such chaos, disturbing the senior citizen & children, wasting money, time and energy ?

My view is not to ban the festival as such, but to abolish all the drama surrounded by it to have a peaceful life.

Disclaimer: As I said earlier, this blog applies for Bangalore city where I’m seeing these myself during last 3-4 days and in the previous years as well. Though I lived in Chennai earlier, I haven’t seen such outrageous things , may be because we were staying in the outskirts of the city, thankfully!

Manoranjan's maro charithra

2015-05-13T23:26:00.001-07:00

So, you know I’m going to write about Uthama Villan. But before that, I want to touch up on a movie review in general.

In my opinion, movies are not to be reviewed or analysed or explained. It is all about spot entertainment. (And entertainment is not only about laughing and dancing). If you didn’t get entertained, then it is simply not your mug of beer. Movie is an experience to be shared.

Movies are of different kinds – Some make you think, some make you laugh so much that you forget why you are laughing. Movies like Inception gives you homework too.

Movie goers are like Zoo visitors. Most people go to Zoo only to see Lion and tiger – and don’t bother about the hundreds of colorful and interesting birds and smaller animals.

That is the case with Uthama villan.

When there is no dialogue or song, and there is silence, people get bored and crazy.

So, what are these nuances of a Kamal Movie ? Or, what am I blabbering here..

This blog has to be elaborate in order to share atleast 5 % of what I enjoyed in the movie, so if you are not interested, you are welcome to close the browser and check IPL score.

To start with a small example – In movie Padayappa, in a scene, Ramya Krishnan removes her sunglasses and at same time Rajni wears his sunglasses – Crowd roars. Because thalaivar wears a sunglass. Few people would have understood that it symbolically tells that character weightage has shifted from villain to hero. This is just 0.001% of what we see in a Kamal movie.

And to start with an easy example from UV, In a scene, Kamal stares at a fish that is just caught and put in a basket,. The Fish jumps and struggles – symbolising that Kamal is nearing his death and is struggling in life.- again, no dialogues at all!

Clear? Now, lets go into interesting ones:

My favorite one:

Scene: Kamal writes a letter to his girlfriend, and she also writes to Kamal (not a reply). Both letters are hidden by his PA. After 25 years, Kamal comes to know of this. He asks his PA to read out the second letter.

Location – a mini theatre where movie previews happen. The word Uthama villan is written in Tamil fonts, with the dot over the last alphabet “in”(ன் ) in red color.

As Kamal comes closer to the screen, his shadow falls on the word villan (also interpreted as villain) – meaning, as the letter was not read in time, Kamal became a villain by circumstances.

Next, as Kamal takes his position to listen to the letter, the red dot over the alphabet “ன் ” falls on his nose – indirectly showing his anger on the PA for having hidden that letter.

Once the letter is fully read, Kamal comes closer to his PA and now, the red dot is on his forehead, indicating that he has come over the incident and is now acting with wisdom.

What an intelligently written and enacted scene !? they’ve simply captured the emotions and explanations which would otherwise take thousands of words and few flashback scenes.

Next scene – where Kamal asks his daughter (separated from him) to read out the first letter.

Location – Shooting spot – Kamal has just come out of a shoot, with a Theeyam make up.

As she reads the letter, he is removing his make-up. Once the letter is fully read, his original face is back. In her mind, She had a negative image about Kamal, and as she is understanding the truth through the letter, her impression on Kamal changed which was shown through his make-up removal on screen.

This scene has a lot more interesting points like the background image outside the door, but I’m not going to write about all of those.

And then there are performances, humorous dialogues, meaningful songs etc., which lifts the movie. The song in the historical portions are important, as they reveal the most important thing which is again revealed only in the climax in one line. No, i won't disclose it.

The opening song is a nice spoof of present day’s commercial movies.

Kamal's movie, this one in particular needs mind, brain and patience to sit back and enjoy it. This movie will not appeal to all categories of Audience, and if you are one of them, its not entirely your fault. As I said, this is just not your mug of beer.

There are many more hidden messages in each scene, each frame which I haven’t written above. One of the smartest thing is the title - it is actually villan - Villu means Bow, and who is master in that is villan, this was smartly used in English as villain to play with circumstances.

To me, this is one of the most intelligently written and enacted movie I’ve ever watched.

This movie should be appreciated and celebrated. But knowing our Indian movie bluffs, they will term this as a torturous disaster, and after 10-15 years, come back and term this as a cult classic legendary movie. Shame!

Note: The below banner on "Beat the heat" is still valid. But everytime i draft something, it starts raining making the subject irrelevant. So, just waiting for the Bangalore climate to decide by itself whether it is summer or monsoon..!!

Beat the heat

2015-03-27T21:07:00.000-07:00

coming soon...

RIP Ramesh bhai

2015-02-22T06:59:00.000-08:00

This is the first ever time i'm writing a kind of Obituary diary post. (Glad i didn't have to write one in the past) So i dont know how it is ought to be.

Today morning (22nd Feb), I got a very shocking news that my ex-colleague, good friend, and my SAP mentor , Ramesh KV passed away yesterday (21st Feb 2015) by a massive stroke. He should be in his mid 30's and has left behind his wife and two kids , the younger one hardly 6-7 weeks old.

I was speechless in the morning and did not know how to react. It's been 8 hours and i'm slowly coming to terms with what has happened. so just wanted to write whatever i felt.

2005 December, HP bay

I had invited my sub at office to watch Ind Vs SA cricket today as he doesnt have TV in his room, Even though India were winning, making it an otherwise 'perfect Sunday' for a cricket watcher, I remained silent for hours together. Couldn't deviate myself, couldn't celebrate.

I worked with Ramesh for around 3 years - 2002 - 2006, and been in good touch ever since. He was my senior at HP, and when i became the business process analyst for EMEA and APAC, he was already one and moved over to US region, after giving KT to me for above areas. He taught me several interesting things in SAP which aroused interest in me and inspired my decision to go after consulting role / jump to IT industry.

Even after handover, when he was part of US team working in night shift, he still politely made it to office at 7 am whenever i called him for some APAC issues without any sulking.

After few years, when i had quit HP, and then attended an interview to rejoin HP after couple of years, he still showed the same affection and gave some guidance for my career i was trying to shape.

He has given me various important advices , even if not intentionally as a gyan, which is helping me till date. The last we met was during an alumni meet in Nov 2014 where i learnt that he was doing a free-lance consulting.

As many of you know, I'm not a fan of idol worships. But if there is a person in-charge of maintaining the balance on earth, then he/she must be given lowest rating and sacked with immediate effect. This is not how you balance things. there are people who are on deathbed, neither dying nor surviving, causing financial and mental stress to family members. and then there are rapists, thiefs, terrorists and all sort of cheats. Of all, taking away this young soul CANNOT be justified.

I saw my grandparents's feeling - when they hear almost frequently that their batch-mates / relatives in their level are passing away one by one. Being in similar age group, what kind of feeling they have while hearing such news - i can imagine.

Time seems to have changed now.

A healthy friend in mid 30's is gone, leaving behind wife + 2 kids. No disease, no accident. And we, a group of 10-15 of us, in the same bucket, are speechless. Life is unpredictable. Hell yes.

I still hope someone calls me to inform that this was a sick joke, or a wrong person tagged in facebook.

I wish his family is able to extract all possible strength to overcome this situation. I hope he was adequately insured.

If this news is true, Rest in peace, Ramesh. We all love you and we miss you near and dear.

If not , well then. In our next alumni meet, there will be a chair for you. I'll see you there.

I'm not going to do a spell check or do my usual reviews and checks, as i clearly dont have the guts to go through this again. There could be spelling and grammatical errors - E & OE.

Neither am i going to send a mail that blog has been updated.

I seriously hope Ramesh finds this blog and updates a comment saying - what nonsense have you written, i'm very much here"..

about to click on publish - just double checking whatsapp to confirm if this really happened or is it some bad dream. unfortunately...........

5 points that could win Team-India the 2015 cricket world cup!

2015-02-06T09:40:00.001-08:00

Hi there,

With ICC cricket world cup 2015 around the corner, just thought of writing some pieces that formed in my mind.

I’m sure I’m not the only Indian who laughed at the Team-India promo for world cup with caption “won’t give it back”. – Polite answer – as if someone is going to ask you to give the cup back. We ourselves are going to keep it there and come back without turning back. Yes, Very optimistic.

So, as most of us saw the recent ODI’s that India played in Australia , it is evident that they are not quite in the boom-boom form which will guarantee them a place in the world cup quarter-finals. I thought they can work on a few areas which will help them, atleast outside the game.

1. Men with beards:

It is very evident from history that men with long beards have all been very popular and wonderful at their work. Be it poet Vaali or fictional character Santa Claus, ~~or Ex-prime minister Mr. Manmohan Singh~~. Cricket is not different these days. We have Hashim Amla in South Africa, Moeen Ali in England etc., So, we need to be having a similar guy in the Indian team – preferably an opener.

So, can some please tell Mr.Shikhar Dhawan to stop growing mustache, and start growing Beards ? It can probably help his footwork, if not technically, atleast tactically! - dhaadi vecha dhawan, ada!

2. Tattoo:

Well, Team India seem to have adopted this point, but only in the batting department (V.Kohli, M.Vijay etc.,). So, now when we see a Brendon McCullum, Kevin Peterson, we can be satisfied that we have a few in the team to match with. (But don’t ask me why Murali vijay – with a tattoo – in form of his life – is not in WC squad. Hell, I don’t know).

However, it is the bowling department that needs this. Look at Dale Steyn, Mitchell Johnson …forget about their bowling, they just look terror. And look at our bowlers – Mr. B.Kumar – looks like he didn’t eat food for 3 weeks. (paeru vecheengle, Soru vecheengala’da ?) and Mr. Ishant sharma – when he runs up to bowl – it looks like if someone turns on a portable fan, he will fly back to India. They need to get some tattoo work done, (and probably Vadivelu style muscle like in movie Kadhalan ;-))
- this might work - If not technically, atleast Tattoo'ically!

3. Spiked hair style:

Recently watched one bingo mad angle advertisement, where the guy puts some grains on his head and when the birds eat them, automatically a spike hair style is formed.

Reason I’m saying this – Most of the spiked hair style cricketers– like Steve Smith, Joe root are excellent fielders. We only have, again Mr. Virat Kohli, sometimes Mr. Raina.. not enough - order one lorry of hair gels , we need 10 good fielders. Give the first one to Mr. Ashwin (if he plays) for slip fielding.

People like Stuart Broad, Sunil Narine also sport spike-hairs and are great bowlers. So, maybe, Mr. Umesh Yadav & spring-hairstyled Mr. Jadeja can apply some of those gels too. They might get good swing or spin. Again - if not technically, atleast spike-hairly!

4. Dancers:

Look at the west Indies team – whenever a wicket falls, or a six is hit, they all dance happily with simple good moves. While their only problem is with their board and payment etc., - the players are highly talented. Like – Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo (who even danced in a Tamil movie), Pollard etc.,

The last dancer in our team was Mr. Shreesanth who , by-the-way, is still not 100% accused in spot –fixing. He will be raring to drop the towel and make dance moves on cricket pitches. Mr. Murali Vijay did some Caribbean style cameo dance appearances during some CSK matches, but then don’t again ask me why he is not in the squad – I don’t know yaaaa….

5. Dhoni's signature-club-soda-master-mind-lucky-charm:

Like this Vaastu, Fengshui, Dhoni has his own brand – “lucky charm”

To be successful, you have to be different –That’s the excuse we have for bowling Mr.Joginder Sharma during that T20 finals last over. Whatever.

Sreeshanth – another lucky charm – was in the squad for 2011 WC, played first and last match , bowled 13 overs, gave 130 odd runs, no wickets. India won the cup!

But in this squad, I don’t see any one like that –may be is it Binny ? Or Ashwin ? well ,lets see.

I'm not a cricketer - so I cannot pin-point too much technical changes for the players, I can only write the above as a laymen cricket fan. But, in all, going by the above, its not going to cost a lot to get some aspects in our favor.

Going by the current form of Team India, I honestly don’t expect them to win more than 2 matches in the tournament.

The below cartoon sums up the AS-IS status of 'wont give it back'.

Recently Misbah-ul-Haq was quoted saying – this time Pakistan will surely beat India.

A fan’s reply was – This is the weakest, out-of-form, out-of-sorts Indian team, in uncomfortable conditions that you will ever get to face. If you can’t beat India this time also, then you are really a horrible & waste team. - Pressure is off.

Fine then, lets see what this world cup has got to offer.

I will be cheering for South Africa – very good team, talented , well settled team, but very very unlucky….. so far.!

See you later,

bye for now.

update on 28th March

Well, the world-cup 2015 is not over yet. But as India is not in it anymore, just thought of updating this blog. I must say that my anti-Jinx almost worked out !! Just that i should have extended it to Kohli also.

The only problem was one Mr. Jadeja, who allegedly followed my blog and changed his hairstyle for the semi-finals and India lost. :-(

If someone had told in the beginning of the tournament that India would finish 3rd (SA lost to India, so being semifinalist, we will be No.3), any of us would have taken it blindly.

I don't think any Indian fan will complain of this performance, having won 7 games continuously, taking 70 wickets, setting a new benchmark. And those 70 wickets include 20 of Pakistan and South Africa - Wow!

As most of friends said,
If they win, we are happy that India Won.
If they lose, we don't care, as they are just a BCCI team and not even our national team!

Wat ? er !

2015-01-08T22:23:00.003-08:00

Hello there,

Wish you all a happy new year 2015! Hope you have started the new year on a healthy note.

So, that blog which I mentioned earlier, is finally here. Potti vandirichi, Potti vandirichi.. :-)

As the name suggests, this is about water. But this is not to give gyan about how not to waste water, but rather to share about one technique which I implemented.

Because,

How not to waste water – is more of behavioral approach. Like for example – not to leave the tap open while brushing teeth, not to leave the shower on while not standing there etc. These are known to all, and no matter how many ever blog is written, unless the attitude is right, this cannot be achieved.

But the one I’m sharing here – is a one-time setup.

The idea is to save the outlet water from the water-purifiers that usually goes into the kitchen sink.

Water purifier industry in India is growing day-by-day. People feeling the importance of hygienic water, consequences of water-borne diseases, low prices of purifiers – have all influenced it.

Around 35,000 water purifiers are sold ONLY in Bangalore, each year. The overall volume in India is expected to be 1.5 Crore units by end of 2015. (Currently 78 lakhs).

The CAGR (Compound Annual growth rate) for water purifier is expected to be 25% (currently at 22%).

Okay, here is how it looks:

Usually, one tube goes into the water purifier for input, whereas one come out to dispose the waste water.

All we need to do is to get extension tubes and divert the outlet to a different destination where that water can be used. Now, this waste water is obviously not fit for drinking, but can surely be used for utility purpose, like washing vessels, watering the plants etc.,

The extension tubes are available with the water-purifier servicing fellow for an average price of Rs.100 per 2 meter tube.

In my case, the bedroom balcony where I have a small garden, is just 3 meter from the kitchen window (structure-wise), and I just needed a 4 meter cable to connect both. Now, the outlet water reaches balcony through the kitchen window (from outside the building) which is very convenient to water the plants.

And as the original water is from bore-well (with a mix of ‘so-called’ cauvery water), the water purifier just takes the drinkable part of it, and leaves the remaining which is nothing but mud and other common elements obtained from the ground. So this is just good for the plants.

Roughly, in Bangalore, the water purifiers, at an average, throw 1 litre of water for every 1 litre that is filtered in. So, if you consume 8 litre of filtered water in a day, then 8 litre of water goes out through the outlet tube as well. This is a huge quantity and can be used extensively.

If you live in an independent house, this also saves your personal electricity expenses where the water that is pumped up to the overhead tank is used for household purpose. This activity will no longer be required if you use the outlet water smartly.

I implemented this 6 months back and it has saved a lot of water for us. The maid uses this to wash the floor, to clean the bathrooms, we water the plants with this – every day.

India has 17% of world’s population, but only 4% of its water.

And out of that 4%, only 5 % is given for municipality purpose (88% goes for irrigation).

Just thought of sharing this. I would be more than happy if atleast 10 people adapt this, thereby saving around 80 litre of water every day.

The above is just one idea, I’m sure there are many (lik Rain water harvesting). If you know other simple-to-implement ideas, please put in a comment for the benefit of others (or email me).

ta ta bye bye for now..

Linga Movie Review

2014-12-14T08:38:00.001-08:00

Hello,

Don’t be surprised if you did not get an email from me that I have updated my blog with Linga movie review. This review must not come as a news or shock to most of you – whether you’ve seen the movie or not. But I still wanted to register my view of the movie as a normal movie watcher.

Straight to the matter:

I feel that the flashback portions are the actual movie. As there is absolutely nothing before or after it. Within 20 minutes into the movie, the flashback starts. The interval arrives at a crucial portion in the flashback. 2^nd half begins with flashback continuation. Once flashback is over, within 15 minutes, movie is over.

Any commercial mass masala movie is good only when there is a cat & mouse game between Hero and Villain. Here, there are 2 such scope – Old Rajni Vs Britishers, New Rajni Vs Politician. The second one lasts for hardly 10 mins. Better, they could have released this as a period film instead. Successful dam opening should have been the climax.

Songs By A.R Rehman are simply pathetic. Despite playing 1000 times a minute through TV trailers, one can’t remember even a line from the lyrics or music. Have you heard the original Spanish Gasolina song ?

Santhanam and Karunakaran are relief to some stupid things in the movie. Sonakshi Sinha & Anushka Shetty just behave like commercial movie heroines. The latter has some role to play, but the former was not at all required actually. Cinematography is too good. This compensated the lag in editing.

Despite all these depressing factors, Rajni looks stunning throughout the movie – infact, out of his last 10 movies, this is the best he has looked. But all that is wasted by everything surrounding it. If it was for some other hero, this would have become like a Perarasu movie. But they will for sure do the collections, using the Rajni mania as a trump card.

(The best punch dialogue in the movie was the one from Britisher to Rajni" Unna paatha Dam katra maari therla, andha ponna katra maarithan iruku") :-)

Linga is purely for “hard core ISI AGMARK BIS 916 Hallmark ISO 9000” Rajni Fans.

Note: That blog i promised in end of Kathi review, is still on its way.. Potti varala, Potti varala, Potti varala...

Kathi - Very sharp !

2014-10-26T16:24:00.003-07:00

Hello Good people..

Nice to meet you after a good gap.. (well, actually its bad gap, coz its long ;-) )..

Its been months that i wrote a blog, its been an year that i wrote a movie blog.. I watched more than 15 movies in various languages in the last 2-3 months.. ( you must be wondering what kind of life i'm in - for watching 15 movies .... well..stuck in a winter cum rainy weekend in Germany, with free unlimited internet access, what else can a guy do - apart from drinking Bavarian Beer that is.. lol)

Ok, straight to the matter - i saw one movie today in theater, making it the 16th movie, but this movie made me stretch my Sunday night to sit and write a short blog on it..

The movie is Kathi (Tamil movie), meaning Knife.

Director - A.R. Murugadoss; Lead Actor : Vijay (in dual role).

A Movie with a good social message.

Over the last few months, I've become a fan of RJ Balaji.. so i will phase this in his style..by splitting my feedback into 1) Ada..! ( WOW moments) & 2) Che (Shit! - not the literal one)

The 'Ada' moments:

1) Vijay: I've never been a Vijay fan at any given point in my life (dont ask me if i'm an Ajith fan for that matter.. nope.. i'm just a fan of Quality movies and not any particular actor, which indirectly makes me a Kamal Hassan/Aamir Khan fan most of the time , hmm tk tk pk pk ).

But, I can say that I've never seen Vijay act and emote like this in any of his previous movies..great performance from an experienced artist, that his fans and public were waiting for.. The first time he did a dual role was a pathetic failure. but this time though its double treat. He is the highlight of the movie - though script is good, you need the right person to take it to the public.

2) A.R. Murugadoss

Through the Hindi version of Gajini, people all over India know Murugadoss and his style of film making. This time, he has included a good social message on how MNC's occupy agricultural lands and destroy natural resources like water and spoil the livelihood of farmers.

The detailing that he shown in each subject or event in the movie is too good..

And this guy has made Neil Nitin Mukesh 'act'!! what more..

3) Dialogues & detailing:

To say about this - in a scene in the movie, a village girl asks the hero - what is communism, help me understand in one line, in simple language. The answer is : assume you are eating idli's. Once your hunger is satisfied, the next idli you have, belongs to another person. - wow! Crisp!

There is a scene where he tells about a Beer manufacturer (whom we all know) and compares his loan/bankruptcy to the loan the farmer borrows. Excellent scene.

Lines such as "the farmer's agricultural product reaches the city people's plates, but their problem dont reach " and the list goes on..

In the second half, lot of statistical details on number of lakes, rivers, ponds, agricultural lands lost to MNC's , indirectly poking a few cool drink giants is simply superb.

now, "Che" moments:

1) Samantha -

She doesn't really have any role to play in this movie.. You must be asking me - in which commercial movie does heroine have a role to play? .. yes, i agree.. but atleast the heroine's existence brings out some reactions - like the villain kidnapping her to get to the hero..or trying to misbehave with her.. or following her to know hero's plans etc.,../ nothing of that sort happens here.. she is there, and she is just there..

What this has done to the movie : 3 songs were added just because there is a heroine. Some useless flirt scenes and horrible dialogues and so-called comedies were inserted..making this movie stretch upto 3 hours.. which otherwise would have been a crispy 02:20 movie..

2) Music - mainly songs -

Anirudh - the Kolaveri guy.. has composed several mind blowing albums in the last 6-8 months for many movies most of which were pretty average ones.. and for a good movie like this, sadly the songs are not good enough.. if you remember any one song, one line, after the movie, you should be having exceptional memory power..!

(Double Dhamaka - I happen to watch this movie at Comet Cine center (Mönchengladbach), along with my Srilankan Tamil friends.. happen to interact a lot with them and know more - and realise how big a fanbase Vijay has in Srilanka, and that they do Milk Abhisekham on his cutouts there!. )

Overall:

A.R.M continues his trend of making quality movies, but sadly he also continues inserting commercial elements, which i'm not too happy about.. IMO, directors should grow-up and avoid unwanted characters and situations from the movie..

But, i'm happy that - an actor, who has concentrated mainly on mindless masala movies over the last decade, is finally back to "acting".

Do watch this movie , for Vijay, for ARM, and mainly for the social message it carries.

And don't just stop with that - please try your best to save water at the maximum possible way at your level.. !

a hint - my next blog is going to be based on that message.. coming soon..!

Dankie,
;-)

Come online :-)

2014-04-18T12:02:00.000-07:00

Hello there,

I believe this is the longest gap I've ever had in-between two blogs of mine. Needless to say – I’m no more in South Africa, but back to India! I had to wait for some good topic to write something, and I believe I've got the content – the order of the day – Online shopping.

To start, what are the Benefits?

The primary objective of buying things online, for me, is the time & energy that is saved.

Assume you need to buy a water purifer – you visit shops like Pai, VGP, Vivek’s, Girias, E-zone etc., to understand different models, offers, price difference etc., This consumes around 3 hours easily, and includes the commute, roaming around, finding a parking (if in Car, on weekend) etc., If you stay farther, 25 % of your weekend is gone!

In online, It's just the matter of entering the preferred model name or item name in Google and you get the list of models, offers, cash back offers, etc., For high value items, most shippers offer transit insurance as well.

Next, convenience

In the same case of buying a water purifier, in online, you can buy it during any time of the day – even at midnight or even from remote location. This helps those who are in night shift or arrive home late.

Things that you miss?

By buying a stuff like water purifier through online, you miss the demonstrations they do in stores. You cannot see in person how big or small the item looks.

- So, what we can do is – to visit one shop, get the demo, note the model number and look for it online. Even if you are not getting the same price online, you can always go back to the same shop.

Some blame that this online thing makes people lazy. The point is, if you need to do shopping over the weekend, you have a schedule – to get ready in the morning, to plan the day with items to shop, shops to visit etc.,

- But then, If we manage to get that done within an hour, under the fan, and use the rest of time well – like to play with kids or go for a walk or to a movie, what’s wrong ?

I wouldn't list cheating as a dis-advantage in online shopping, because it is mostly due to the carelessness of the buyer than the bad intention of the seller.

Now then, shopping effectively - ?? Well, below are some points that I've noted -

What to buy?

First, in my view, you need to draw a line on the items that you can buy online. You just cannot click on every item you see in the site. For ex: I’m don’t like to buy clothes or shoes online, because the touch and feel of the material, the size (each brand has different sizes for same person) etc., are missing online.

In case of groceries, like Dal or rice or other Flours, you cannot see the quality of the items.

And also fragile items like glass, lampshades can get damaged no matter how good they are packed. It’s just unwanted time & energy wasted in dealing with customer service, ordering refund or replacement etc.,

Deal or No deal ?

Secondly, i.e., once you have decided what to buy , the question is the price. Major cheating happens at this point. You MUST know what the M.R.P of the item is in the market. If not, then do not take a chance. A website posts Rs. 999, then slashes it and says Rs.499, offering 50% discount, whereas the actual MRP of the item will be Rs.399. You would feel you could have bought it in a local fancy store.

A major contribution to this is the brand name. For ex: if you are buying a lunchbox, famous names are Tupperware, Cello, Milton etc., and have prices in the range of Rs.700 – Rs.1000. Now, you see a brand called “John utensils, since 1895” offered at Rs. 400, without discounts. As the difference is upto 60%, it makes you think that , perhaps you need not spend a lot for these items, and go for it. But it might end-up to be a local product, made in some corner of the city with poor plastic and sold in K.R market for Rs.250.

Good seller?

For online shopping, there are two types of websites. One where the website sells the items, ex - Firstcry, Babyoye and the other where various sellers list their items on a website, ex - Snapdeal, Flipkart.

The difference is that – in case of former, there is one uniform set of rules for the website company, but for latter, rules like replacement, refund, insurance all depends on the seller of that item.

In this case, most websites have a customer feedback like points or % of satisfaction tagged to the seller. So, when you note the seller, a figure in the brackets is displayed, like 87%, meaning 87% of the customers who have purchased from them have expressed satisfaction.

Don’t go by the photo:

Marketing of the product is at its peak when it comes to online shopping. The picture of the item will be very colorful, big and tempting. But make sure to read the features and specifications.

For ex – Kitchen storage boxes. In the picture, it looks very big and great. But it might just be having 1 Ltr capacity & made of some thin plastic (which can be found under features tab).

Where does this all end-up?

A common question. I've heard a lot of them complain that this online shopping has become a habit or even more an addiction. There are people who've spent a lot of money online for unnecessary & unwanted things. What about that ?

Well – This one’s easier answered than done.

The mantra is – Don’t look for discounts, then items and shop. But Look for item, then discount.

People tend to get carried away seeing 80% discount, and end-up buying an item totally use-less for them.

Also, try to identify the items that you might require in a short term, and to start searching for deals say 2 months in advance. For ex: A gift for kid’s birthday, a water heater for winters etc.,

Regular customer? Known shop keeper?

This is one valid point. But it all depends upon how well, and for how long you know the shop-keeper. That defines the percentage of margin that he is ready to fore-go or compromise for you. You must take this into consideration as well, when evaluating the online deal. If you've established a good relation with a shopkeeper (most women have one with a nearby stainless steel shop), then you must utilize that to get good offer. Some websites also do issue loyalty points every time you shop with them..

Now, when our very own government has started implementing online-based activities like R.T.O, PF etc., why don't we try this world ? Come Online :-)

But end of day, there is one MAJOR & IMPORTANT benefit that most of my friends would agree with me:

This online shopping option is sure to ease the life of several husbands who spend time waiting outside the shops, mostly with the kid in hand, while the lady browses through the variety inside, patiently!

Hope this helped you in some way..!

Shubh Shopping !! ;-)

24 years of living on 22 yards!

2013-11-17T10:07:00.001-08:00

Sachin Tendulkar retired from test cricket recently, ending his 24 year cricketing career. Just thought of writing what I feel about him& all other things around him. Again, MY OPINION.

His advantage as I see:

He made his debut at a very young age of 16 when most of us carried our 11^th standard books to school in a cycle. So, the selection committee had long time to invest in him considering that if he clicks then we will have a solid player for at least 20 years..!

Also, he got a chance to play bowlers like Walsh, Ambrose, W. Akram, W. Younis, Glen Mcgrath etc., in the initial years of his career which made him more stronger. When these legends retired and new players came in, he was already a senior player & was very comfortable to handle them.

My favourite Sachin moments:

There are 34000 odd runs that he scored but there are sure to be some favourite moments for all of us. For me, his back-to-back centuries in Sharjah against Australia – one to make India qualify for finals & other to win the final was awesome – Master class & ability to dominate any bowling attack.

I’m not quite a fan of heavy runs scored in the flat Indian pitches. But this one was special – the mighty 103* against England on day 5, successfully chasing 487 in the Chennai test in 2008 – talk about composure.

Batting with a sore back during the Chennai test Vs Pakistan scoring 136 (where India folded after his dismissal and lost the match) and his emotional century against Kenya in 1999 World cup – a day after his father’s death – these show his level of concentration & focus on the game.

Now, what I think was missing-

As much as I’ve seen, I hardly saw Sachin farming the strike with tail-enders and extending the total or Lead. Recently, Rohit sharma batted with No.11 (Shami Ahmed) and made a partnership of 80 runs - that is what I mean!

With 154 ODI wickets & 47 test wickets, Sachin was a potential all-rounder who could send down some variety of spin. But he bowled only in less than 50% of his total matches. Whether he himself opted out – or did the captain not use him properly – or was there fitness concern – is still a question! (Wait for an auto-biography ;-)

When did it all go wrong?

This again is a simple logic explained in “3 idiots” movie – don’t run behind success, thrive for excellence & success will follow you by itself”. In the earlier part of his career, Sachin didn’t care about anything and he batted fluently. Runs were coming easily for him and records were broken. But when public & media started calculating his statistics like 50^th 100, 100^th 100, 100 in all countries, 100s each year, etc etc., pressure was inevitable. When he entered the 90’s, he started becoming nervous.

Even in his last match, as Sachin was entering the ground to bat for one last time, people started to tweet that he should score 153 runs so that he can end with 16000 test runs etc.,

A highly-optimistic fan even tweeted that Sachin should open the bowling as he is 3 away from 50 test wickets..!!

This shows how obsessed people are with numbers. – The same disease that grows from schooldays where a report card is more valued than the conceptual knowledge of a student.

As the funny old saying goes ‘Statistics are like bikini’s; they hide the important thing”. The pitch & conditions in which runs are scored, , the toughness of the bowling attack are all not explained in the statistics. Sometimes a 35 not out is better than a century. But these mad fans don’t just understand that and end up pressurising the player.

His enemies-

I won’t name Australia or England or Pakistan – because they only made him work harder & improved him. His real enemies were a select group of Indian public & the media who pressurised him unnecessarily. They failed to understand that he was a Human and not a machine.

And his injuries – needless to say – they break your momentum and tie you down. To recover & regain form quickly is stunning display of talent & commitment.

The build-ups –

Need to mention here - I’m an Anti – “Sachin fan”. (Not an “Anti–Sachin” fan; there is a large difference). I like Sachin but hate those hard-core fans who portray him as a larger-than-life character by switching off TV once he gets out etc.,. The logic is simple

“No individual is greater than the game. The game created the players and whatever performance the player does is a service to the game & their nation”.

In the recently concluded WI series, where Kolkata & Mumbai crowd cheered & celebrated the fall of 2^nd Indian wicket (as Sachin would come to bat) was too much.

It’s actually funny to notice that Media & larger public were behind his blood for the last 2-3 years indirectly forcing his retirement because of non-performance in critical tours. And when finally he announced retirement, there is a huge build-up to it – asking India to sacrifice innings victory & make him bat for second time!! Come-on guys..!

In my opinion - he should have retired after the 2011 WC win, when India was also No.1 in test rankings. This is already 2.5 yrs late, but nevertheless, an excellent career.

To play for 24 years is not a big thing - but to do so while scoring at an average of 45 & 53 in ODI's & Tests, amidst all these media hypes, pressures, Public demands & expectations, whole-lot of injuries - is simply CLASS.

As Farhan Akthar tweeted – Don’t think it is unfortunate to see Sachin retire; but think we are fortunate to have seen him play all these years.

I only hope that Sachin uses his remaining years in life to serve the game & nation in some way or other rather than picking up some non-productive things like commentating, article writing etc.,

Thank you Sachin,

Saar Telegram.!

2013-06-25T14:44:00.000-07:00

Few weeks back, I came across a flashing news on a television channel which said that the Telegram services are going to end in July 2013 and that the last telegram would be sent in India on July 14^th.

Just dug up some history on this:

The first ever telegram in the world was sent by Mr. Samuel Morse in Washington in 1837.

British Doctor William O’Shaughnessy was the one who introduced it in India, in 1850, using a different code.

Telegraph services peaked in India in 1980’s where 50-60 million telegrams were sent and received each year.

The advancement of computers & technologies such as Short Messaging Services (SMS), Smartphones, Tablets, various Android APPs, and India’s own innovative communication methodology – “Missed calls” (LOL!) spoiled the dream run of Telegrams.

Mr. Samuel Morse

The world’s last telegram that is set to be sent on 14^th July 2013 will mark the 176^th anniversary of the service.

Interestingly though the western union telegraphic services shut down their US operations almost a decade back, whereas we are just announcing it. That just shows our transition time to migrate to a new era..!!

For me, there’s that one & only telegram that I ever got in my life – one that changed my life, if I can say so. Just wanted to share some thing on that too..

Back in 2002, after completing my Bachelor’s degree, I entered into that rather frenetic phase of doing a job-hunt. Growing up in the sub-urbs, I wasn’t well versed with computers then, neither had access to internet– and didn’t even have an e-mail address of my own - yeah, you’ve got to believe that..!!

The computer science periods in school was mainly theory and we hardly got a chance to touch the keyboards as they were keen on saving electricity bills by switching off Air conditions in the computer room.

So, the only regular source of looking out for jobs was through the “opportunities page” in Wednesday’s Hindu newspaper.

One of those jobs that I applied was for Hewlett Packard, based in Bangalore. After my father insisted a lot to just try it out, I read their advertisement. It asked for the candidates to e-mail their resume to some HR person quoting the job reference number..

You must be questioning me how these all are related to Telegrams… there is a link.. Please read on.. Won’t be long...

I went to the largest internet café at Ambattur, Chennai that had 3 computers, and told the guy “I want to send an e-mail”.

He said “go to cubicle 3”. And I said "but i don’t have an email ID”.

He replied “ok then, create one for yourself”.

Funnily I asked back – “how much do you charge to create one e-mail id”.

He laughed and said that it was based on hours and not numbers.

[Note - Now I manage 4 e-mail ID's every day.. :-) !!!]

I then quickly created my own e-mail id from rediff.com, copied my resume from my floppy disk!!! (Hadn’t seen a pen drive then) and e-mailed it to the HR person.

After that I totally forgot that I had created an e-mail, and that I’m supposed to check it regularly for reply.

Days passed by and suddenly one day, I got a TELEGRAMMMMM…

When the postman called up “Saar, thandhi…” (Meaning: Sir, telegram), Heart was in mouth for most of my family members.

Because, those days , a telegram was widely known to bring bad news – may be some death or some shocking incidents. So, people start chanting devotional slogans while one of them opens and reads the content in slow motion.

That is because most people have the habit of only sharing sorrows. They din’t want to spend money to convey that they cleared an exam or got a job or got a baby etc., .. How sick..!

This time, though, there was no bad news. My father collected the telegram which was addressed to me” R. Vivek” and he was shocked at the first instance on who was sending me telegrams…

Then when he opened, below was what he found inside:

“PLEASE CHECK MAIL AND CONFIRM – PADMA”.

While everyone were debating what was that about, I was quietly questioning myself – who is this Padma? and what she wants me to confirm ?

Then my brother reminded me that I created an e-mail id once upon a time, and that I was supposed to check that – may be something has been sent to my email id.

I quickly rushed with my brother to check e-mail.. I initially thought that the reply would have come to the same internet café from where I sent my resume…ufff can’t believe I was that bad...! After struggles of remembering the email id and then the password, finally I logged in to find that my resume was shortlisted and that I was being called for an interview at Mount Road within 2 days.

Then I went on to clear that interview, joined Hewlett Packard, which then helped to shape up my career to where I’m today (note – I’m not saying that I’ve become some VP or CEO or big shot.. but whatever I’m..)…

That’s the one and only telegram I’ve had in my life..and a massive one in terms of outcome..

If they had taken it for granted and not sent me that telegram to check e-mail……I just can’t imagine what would have happened..

So, who said telegram only brings bad news???

It was a great medium of communication in the past with accurate & precise messages being sent – It was good that the cost was high, else people would be writing in stories there as well..!!

The current day “e-mail” seems to be born out of it, and the early e-mail users knew the art of sending a compact mail with straight points as they had experience with telegram.

It’s a pity to see it getting scrapped, but then we need move on..

It would be great if one of those messaging APPs in our tablets / smart phones could be renamed as “Telegram” so that it stays with us even in the future and reminds us of the gone-by days.

And to end in a telegraphic style,

THANK YOU STOP

The smoke that thunders..!

2013-05-13T15:15:00.000-07:00

Africa is a continent with plenty of natural wonders and each of those wonders are so well distributed throughout the continent which makes it interesting to travel around. One of those is the majestic “Victoria Falls” that lies on the border of Zambia & Zimbabwe. I got a chance to visit this gorgeous falls last week and thought of sharing it in this blog.

A view of the Victoria falls from the rain forest

The falls is 1.7 km wide & 108 metres tall which makes it the world’s largest water falls. The source of this falls is the mighty Zambezi River which is around 2500 km long, originating in Zambia and flowing through Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and finally Mozambique where it joins the Indian Ocean.

It was in 1855, when Mr. David Livingstone, an European missionary first visited the falls and named it in honour of Queen Victoria. The place from where he first spotted the falls is now known as the “Livingstone Island” and the city is known as "Livingstone".

The falls is also known as “Mosi-ua-tunya” meaning “the smoke which thunders”. It is called so because the water from the falls bounces back to a greater height forming a huge mist that looks like a smoke.

The above picture was taken from the Mosi-ua-tunya main road that leads to the falls..the white stuff seen is the smoke from the falls

We stayed in the Zambian side of the falls @ Zambezi Sun who had their own (unlimited) entrance to the falls as they are within the falls premises (Victoria Falls national park). An entrance otherwise would cost around $25 per person.

During peak season i.e., April-May, the smoke from the waterfalls is visible from almost 40 km. There is also continuous rain in front of the waterfalls – the rain that is created from the water that bounces from the falls. The result is the rainforest that lies just on the border within Zambia. During off-peak season, like October, one can view 80% of both countries’ view of falls from the rain forest.

The left side of the picture shows the falls from Zimbabwean side..

The pedestrian link between Zambian side and the rain forest is through a bridge called the “knife-edge” bridge. During our trip, as it was peak flow, it was impossible to cross this bridge without getting wet even after using a raincoat & an umbrella.

A closer look at the Knife-edge bridge that takes us to the rain forest.

Towards the right is the Victoria falls.

Zambia actually is quite a dry country. Even though it is winter season during May, the climate is quite hot & humid. For the areas surrounding the falls, nights are cooler. So, throughout the day, there is that rain in-and-around the falls while it is indeed hot – which results in a consistent rainbow the whole day.

The left side of the bridge is Zambia & right side is Zimbabwe. The centre of bridge is the spot for Bunge jumping.

This picture was taken from the Knife-edge bridge, with the falls behind me, and rain all over me..!!

From a tourism point of view, there is nothing much to list down, other than the Victoria Falls. But the wide range of activities at the venue attracts all kind of tourists. Ex: Jet boat ride, Bunge jumping, river rafting etc.,

One of those activities which we cherished a lot was the helicopter ride.

Out of the 1.7 km width, 1 km is in the Zimbabwean side & 0.7 is in the Zambian side and hence both countries have their own view of the waterfalls. However the only view from where one can see the entire 1.7 km is from the helicopter like this:

The complete view of Victoria falls.. The green round shaped area in front of the falls is the rain forest. The knife edge bridge is covered with smoke.

The extreme left portion of the falls (Zimbabwe) is called the Devil's cataract & the extreme right portion is called the Eastern cataract. There are several names for the sections in-between.

The 30 minute helicopter ride covers a short drive through the Batoka gorge (formed with the water from Victoria Falls) at a height of 55 feet, a drive over the Victoria falls national park (where we can spot Hippo’s, elephants etc., from air), 6-7 rounds on top of the Victoria falls and a short ride over the Zambezi river.

The Batoka gorge, where river rafting takes place..

It was my first experience on a helicopter with some butterflies in the stomach during take-off but settled down very soon after seeing the stunning view from 150 metres above ground level. I was sitting in the front and it was a lady pilot as well :-)

The next activity was something that always existed in our plans & schedules, but always gets skipped for various reasons – SPA.

What makes the SPA treatment special here is that the SPA tent’s are on the banks of the Zambezi River and as you get massaged, you lie down and enjoy the view of the amazing falls in a very peaceful quiet ambiance.

The SPA @ Royal Livingstone facing the Zambezi river

No trip in Africa is complete without game (wild life) viewing and I strongly agree to it. The result was a river safari on the Zambezi river. With thick & indigenous forests all over (without fencings), there is greater possibility of seeing hippo’s, elephants, crocodiles etc., We chose the evening river safari which also makes it a sunset trip whereby most animals come out to the banks of the river.

A typical African sunset

Called the "Long Island" The river safari was a trip around this island which is home to plenty of Hippo's & Elephants.

There is also the famous Chobe National park in Botswana which is close to 70 km from Victoria Falls. Full/Half day tours are available too but we require prior visa’s (for Indian passports).

It all depends on one’s interest & Wallet in choosing the activities as they all come with a fat invoice. For ex: we skipped the Zimbabwe & Botswana visits & chose the helicopter rides.

The currency used in Zambia is Kwacha. Until 6 months back, the equation was 1 INR = 94 Kwacha. But after the rebase of their currency, the equation is now 1 KR = 10 INR. It means that an item that costed 50,000 Kwacha earlier will now cost 50 Kwacha’s. That’s the effect of their rebasing.

Country wise, Zambia is still among those struggling African poor countries but their advantage is this nature’s gift which is almost feeding the entire country (after the British people scratched their copper ores earlier). A new airport is still under construction @ Livingstone. This is how the current one looks:

The centre statue is that of David Livingstone, the other two were his assistants during his trip. And ya, this is the entrance of Livingstone International Airport..!

The only thing I regret to have missed is the lunar rainbow or Moonbow that is visible during full-moon days. I only came to know about these a day before the travel and Victoria Falls is one of the very few places in the world where Moonbows appear.

And yes, there were more spectacular sights / moments during the trip that I'm unable to share with you, as unfortunately I had to be defensive & protect my camera (literally by tying it in a plastic cover) during rains & mists. I'll load all the 300 + pics onto my picasa album and share the link here soon..

Overall, we had a wonderful time out there and I’m glad that I’m ending (almost confirmed) my African stay on a high!

I hope you do get a chance to visit this mind-blowing natural wonder.

Well-read or Well-educated ?

2013-04-21T05:32:00.001-07:00

Education : the process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.
- Definition

But as most of us have seen it as a tool to get the marks required to get a job.!

Hardly anyone bothers to teach or learn in a way in which the concept is understood. While the teachers train the students on how to answer the 5 mark questions, the students often concentrate in referring previous years question papers.

The objective is one: Get as much marks as you can!

The problem doesn’t lie just in the style of teaching, but also in the content & relevancy. Let me recollect the “Subjects” that I had at school and how they helped me in my life:

Mathematics: This is a very broad subject. Though we do additions & multiplications almost every day, these are something we learnt in primary school. And in High school?

Trigonometry: Sin Θ, Cos Θ, Tan Θ - Never seen these after selling those books for second hand. Even my science group friends hardly use them in their careers.

Geometry: There was always a big fight to buy new geometry box every year. But I mainly used those compass & dividers to drill a hole in the belt, clean up some dirt stuck in the keyholes, to remove candle wax etc., And we used those protractors to draw biology diagrams.!! However, I do use the scale these days, only to tear some paper.

Algebra: I hated this subject while at school and my teacher helped me by requesting me to leave this question in choice, after I got an answer that “Father’s age is 30 and son’s age is 45”!!.

And not to forget - those A²+ B²+ 2AB formulas. If you know someone who uses these formulas in life, please tell me. !@#%^*()

Actually, I learnt mathematics better by calculating the Run rate, Required run rate, Strike rate etc., in Cricket, and that really sharpened my calculating skills. Now I can calculate several things like scrap percentages, discounts etc., quickly, without using a calculator. Something to think about??

Alright, now science:

Physics: The newton’s law, 4 stroke engine mechanism, Distance, time & speed, etc., were all interesting. The problem was that these are not being taught practically enough to be understood. The only physics involved in my life now, is when I use my DSLR camera - Focal length, aperture, Lenses etc.,

Chemistry: The magnetic behaviours, different metals & their features were all interesting. But again, content was the problem. For ex: In 9^th / 10^th standard, there was a question in the exams – "Describe the formula used to make soap"

And again those CO2, NACL, H2SO4 etc., Oh no.. I don’t understand.. who told that it would help all of us in the future?

Irony is that the word “chemistry” is nowadays used more in dance reality shows, and other than that, I never heard it anywhere after school.

Biology: Thankfully, I didn’t go till the stage of splitting it into Botany & zoology. The body parts, bones, muscles related topics were little interesting.

But if you ask a layman on what is biology, the answer will be “cutting a frog in a lab”.. This is just a reflection of the unorganized & meaningless syllabus. We all use biology in day-to-day life, but the topics from that biology book in School? Absolutely nothing!

Coming to social studies / social science:

Civics / Economics: A chapter that all students must learn. It is about the constitution of India, the measurement of a country’s growth, key topics like inflation etc. Unless these classes are interactive, the students will only be snoring.

Geography: I remember that we were asked to bring plain world maps and mark the places that the teacher tells. Last year when I searched the ‘cape of good hope’ in my GPS and reached the place, I was so glad that I achieved something, as I often marked that place incorrectly.

I’m sure there are many more people who use Google maps now to search countries / cities (only when they need to travel there!!) That only means that the teaching was ineffective.

History: This is a very miss-used subject. I agree that one should definitely know about their history and origin, but there is no need to elaborate on any kings in particular. Most students find only Akbar & Asoka in their books which they simply mugg-up to get marks.

History subject is nothing but story-telling, and it is boring without any visual help. I myself learnt more about Akbar only after watching “Jodha Akbar’. Good period movies help in better history understanding.

The above are only based on my experience and it can differ from person to person. I’m now working as a management accounting consultant in ERP so it is very obvious that science wouldn’t have helped me at all. But some of the topics don't help even the science students!!

While here, I would like to touch up on one more issue:

Even now, it is widely regarded that only those students who scored less marks in 10^th standard will go into Accounts group / Art’s group. The only exceptions are those students who have a chartered accountant in their family or whose parents run a business.

This view should change, and I feel that the basics of Accounts and commerce should be introduced much earlier. Mainly in India, 10^th Standard is considered to be a decision point where a student decides on what he/she is going to do in their entire life. So, it is necessary to highlight that there is another world that they can consider exploring – A world without weird formulas...LOL..!

Well, it is an ART indeed..!

But that doesn’t stop there. I have 5-6 years of time to revise all these subjects I listed above, as I will have to teach my daughter then. Poor thing..!

Well, let’s at least understand that the importance of these topics lie only in "mark-scoring"and give the kids a “Pressure-free” schooling, and hope that they "learn" what they are interested in & enjoy as they learn.

I prefer to end with some famous one-liners…

I was born intelligent, but education ruined me..!!

- Anonymous

The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.!

- Albert Einstein

Ek gaon mein ek kissan raghu thatha

2013-01-26T14:05:00.001-08:00

The above sentence or rather dialogue is from a 1981 Tamil movie “Indru poi Naalai Va”(Go today, Come tomorrow), directed by K. Bhagyaraj. For those who have heard this dialogue earlier, they can directly relate it to “Tamilians” and “Hindi”.

Along with it, there is also a common complaint or rather assumption that “Tamilians” in particular are reluctant towards Hindi and sometimes even hate the language. As I’ve spent majority of my days in “Tamil Nadu” (as of now J ), I feel that I can try and comment on this.

Ok, I’m not going to argue the same old facts that Sanskrit & Hindi came from Persia & Arabic and Tamil is the oldest Dravidian language etc., This is a different script and screenplay.

To put forward my points clearly, let me start with history..

The only state or province in India from ancient times, that was not ruled or not much impacted by Mughals, Nizam, Mauryans or simply “any kind of Hindi" speaking empires – is the modern day Tamil Nadu, then called “Thamizhagam”.

The Chera’s, Chozha’s & Pandiya’s ruled most of this area & for long. The Vijayanagara empire’s rule for 2 centuries (1370 to 1565) and the Nizam of Hyderabad & Nawab of Carnatic’s rule during 18^th century (supported by French & English) did not impact at all, as there were continuous rebels and oppositions from within the province. Other south states like Kerala, Karnataka & Andhra Pradesh had impacts from Middle-east trades, Mauryan empires & Nizams respectively.

The point made here is that no form of Hindi ever dominated or even entered Tamil Nadu. It was always seen as a foreign language.

During independence, it was calculated that 41% of India spoke or used some kind of Hindi, and in a hurry to have one national language, an order was passed that Hindi (in Devanagiri script) should be mandatory in all states and become the official language within 15 years of independence. English was allowed as an official language in the interim until 1965.

This led to a major protest from those areas where people have never pronounced a single Hindi word. And South Indian scripts are totally different to the Devanagiri script. You too will agree that nobody will like a foreign language to be made official in their state.

I’m not supporting this protest from the angle of blocking Hindi, but totally disagree with the 15 years’ time frame for an entire state to adopt a foreign language as official language and be proficient in it (And that too – to replace a local language which is arguably older & rightful than Sanskrit..!!) and also with the way it was handled.

This protest was led by Mr Annadurai (former CM of Tamil Nadu) supported by other South Indian states & even few supporters from West Bengal – requesting continuance of English as second official language. Major achievements of this protest were 1) continuance of English as the second official language and 2) conducting public services exam in all regional languages.

This also meant that Hindi could not be declared as the national language of India. So what if India doesn’t have a national language? Even the United States of America doesn’t have one..!

Actually, If not for Mr Anna and team, we wouldn’t have been able to market ourselves well enough to grab the I.T advantage ahead of China & other such countries. (I mean – we would have spoken English anyways, but not as good as today when it is an official language).

The political parties in TN who came to rule later, used this protest as a weapon to gather quick votes, and simply aggravated the emotions of innocent people by provoking them against the language.

Even now, one must accept that the impacts of those protests do exist. With India being largely & falsely represented by Bollywood & Cricket alone, the bias continues in the minds of many.

And to include, those reality shows on TV which are focussed on Hindi & Bollywood, but use the term "India", like India's best singer, India's best dancer etc., These only add up the irritation. (Tamil & Malayalam channels also have reality shows and they use terms such as "Tamil Nadu's voice hunt", "Kerala's super singer" etc.,).

Also, In January 2010, Gujarat High court (bench headed by Chief Justice S J Mukhopadhya) gave decision against 'issuing directions that packaged commodities must contain details about goods in Hindi'.

So, no Indian citizen is under a compulsion to know or learn Hindi as such. It purely depends on the person, his/her mother tongue and his/her interest.

I’m not quoting the above as a justification or excuse for a Tamilian to not know Hindi – but just to help some people understand what it means on a bigger picture. If you come across an Indian who cannot understand Hindi, he/she cannot be blamed. On the other hand, if that person struggles in a place without knowing Hindi – it is their own fault, to not to have shown interest in learning it. The same applies for other languages also.

And whether you learn or not, every language has it's history & culture and must be respected.

Going forward, these kinds of arguments and issues will only divide India (further!). Being a secular country, just like how we don’t force any religion on others, language should also not be forced.

As we are hyper active in the global job & trade market, it is better to adopt English as a common language (where we are able to market our products & services efficiently), while we use our respective regional languages in our day-to-day life. Try to practice this and the south-north differences will vanish by itself.

I know that this blog is already late by 10-15 years, but hopeful that it is never late enough to change the perception of few people.

Till then, long live raghu thatha..!

And yes -my usual routine of explanation of Tamil words used in the blog:

The title dialogue is from a scene in a Tamil movie, where a guy visits the girl's house to learn Hindi from her brother in an attempt to woo her, but fails to pronounce it properly...! Rehtha tha becomes Raghu thatha, where, Thatha in Tamil means Grandfather..!

How to photograph the moon with DSLR

2012-11-24T02:03:00.000-08:00

Hello Good people,

One of the things I always admire since my childhood is that white little coin that appears in the sky at night, which becomes smaller and smaller and suddenly disappears. Back then, I always thought it would be very easy to take a photo of the moon. Although I never tried even once then.

Now that I got myself a DSLR camera, and a decent enough zoom to support it, I was more than interested in clicking a few pictures of the moon. Only then I found out that it is not as simple as it looks like.

To begin with, this is how a moon appears in your dslr camera when you click it in the normal way. This could be due to several reasons.

Right, so what are the setting required to be made ? Let's look at some basic questions that would come out, first.

Firstly, I see a bigger moon in the sky, but when I take a picture, I see a smaller image. Why ? You would have been using a wide angle lens that covers plenty of space on screen where the moon is made to look smaller. Try to use zooming lens like a 300mm or 400mm, and you would definitely see a larger image.

In the above picture, you just see a white circle , but in reality the moon looks a lot different. How come ?

That is because the moon was over exposed, and it is very common during the night. We can cover it up using the setting discussed below.

Ok, so what are the settings required ?

Firstly, put the camera into "Manual" mode.. this is the tougher option in the camera, but you can play around with it very well.

Then increase the ISO to 200 or 400 depending on the light availability. More dark it is more you will want to increase the ISO.

Set the aperture level to f/11. Smaller aperture levels will soften the image and larger aperture levels will reduce the shutter speed. Shutter speed is very important, because the moon keeps moving at a good speed and higher shutter speed helps in capturing more sharper images. I would suggest to stay above 1/125.

These are the main settings that are required and one can play around with the numbers to get a suitable combination. So, after applying these settings, below is how the moon looked.. (the above moon, on the same day, after a few hours)

And here is another, taken 19 days later..

Just to let you know, these are all raw pictures. I haven't yet tried using adobe photoshop elements.

And the below one again is a sepia kind of an image with extra lighting..

So, you can see, you can indeed click a variety of shots of the moon once you understand the technicalities behind it. A little bit of physics involved.. but this is much better than the physics that we all had at school.

Below is a picture that I tried during the day time, that is, before sunset. This is a bit easier as there is adequate lighting.

I must admit I did do lot of researches in google, reading photography related blogs and articles. this happened between the first and second photo on this blog, and you already see a good enough difference.

One of the blogs that helped me a lot and gave a lot of information about moon photograph was from Mr. Nasim Mansurov. Here is the link to his blog : http://photographylife.com/how-to-photograph-moon

I haven't however, yet, tried to take photo of the moon with foreground objects like a landscape or buildings etc., I'm yet to find a good enough location for that.

Nonetheless, It's always a good feeling to see the moon, and even more, to take photo of the moon.

Now then, imagine about keeping a foot on the moon.. And this is what Mr. Neil Armstrong had to say after landing on the moon

"That's one small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind"

Rightly so..!

It's been 3 months that Mr. Neil Armstrong passed way.. and I would like to dedicate this blog to him.. RIP.

Go Kruger.. Go Wild..!!

2012-10-27T17:30:00.003-07:00

Hey Good people..

This time, I would like to share my wild life experience with you. We had been to Kruger National Park during the last weekend, for a period of 3N 4D. It was a wild 4 days..! In a way, this is a sequel to my earlier blog on KNP. In case you have not read it, you can click here. And to know more about Kruger, pls. click here.

My fellow South African team mates always use to tell me that the best time to visit Kruger is September / October, when spring arrives. So, I started planning the trip in July. After much research work on the places to stay, dates to visit, weather forecast and availability of accommodation, we narrowed down on 3 places – Pretoriouskop, Satara and Crocodile Bridge. The plan was to stay one night at each of these camps and travel around them during the day, such that the entire south part of Kruger is covered.

We left at around 7 am on a Saturday and reached Kruger (Malelane gate) by 12 pm, after a smooth road experience, only to listen to shocking news from the gate keeper - It had rained in Kruger throughout last night, and so all the gravel roads were closed for public that day. That was disappointing, because, there are more chances of spotting wild life when driving on gravel roads as these roads cut into the forest and animals are not scared to walk across the roads.

But, as I started driving inside, within 2 minutes, two huge Black Rhino’s were standing by the road side.. yes.. alongside the Tar road. That was a good enough motivation and what followed was 4 extra-ordinary days of wild life adventure. Here are some pictures..

The climate was very dull and cloudy all day, and drizzling most of the times. Hence photography was challenge , with the lack of sunlight.

First of all, the famous African BIG 5. The first question asked by anyone is.. “you went to Kruger ? Did you see BIG 5 ? The answer is “ YES”.

Below are the famous BIG 5 of Africa… (Elephant, Leopard, Lion, Wild Buffalo & Rhino)

This time, we spotted the Big 5 quite easily. On Monday, when I was driving from Satara to Crocodile camp, we saw more than 50 different elephants on the way in small and big herds.

Lion – We spotted a lion / Lioness , each day of our stay. Totally 6 times, one of them being a remarkably scary experience. On Sunday evening, as we were reaching our camp, we noticed that we had 1 hour time before the camp gates close. So, we decided to take an infamous gravel road (Gravel roads were open on Sunday) that takes us directly to the camp. After 20 minutes of boring driving seeing Deers and Giraffe’s, I decided to speed up and reach home faster. In one of the turning (remember, this is inside the forest – so you won’t have visibility of other side while turning), as I turned into the next road at 40 km/hr, there was a lioness on the road, walking towards us. I hit a sudden break, without even minding our sleeping daughter in the backseat, and immediately raised the window glass. The Lioness stopped in front of our car, starred at us , and slowly walked past our car into the thick forest. That starring must have meant “I’m not interested in fighting with you people, my shift time is over, I’m going home.. get lost, chi po..!!”

This was that one..!!

And next, all I knew , before visiting South Africa, was that, there is one animal called “Deer / Antelope”, as most of us have read in Ramayanam. But, here, there are atleast 9 different variety of Deers. We were able to spot 8 of them and pictured 7 of them.

This one is a "Bushbuck" (female) - can be recognised by the white spots on their flanks.

Below is a "Waterbuck" (male) - Lyre shaped, forward-pointing horns, and a white ring around the rump.

This one is called a "Kudu" (male). They are easily identified by their unique horns and white lines.

This one is called "Duiker" (male), and again, their horns , short and straight, help in their identity.

The below is a "Steenbok" (female). Have a look at their ears..!

This one is an "Impala" (male)

And lastly, this one is a Nyala (female)

As said earlier, Sep / Oct is the best time to be in Kruger. Mainly because, the climate is pleasant, and with spring season, there is lot of grass throughout the forest, where the herbivorous animals like Zebra, Wildebeest (Neelgai), Giraffe, Deers are all seen in plenty. So, obviously the predators will also be following them and can be spotted easily.

Here are some of the animals that were frequently seen:

The above one is Wildebeest , what we call in India as Neelgai.

For those who did not know, the above one is not a wild boar.. it is "Warthog". that is - wild pig.

And now, here are some of the rarely seen creatures:

The first one on the list is the Albino Impala. This one is a very very rare one to spot. For those who are not aware : Albino means the whiter version. It can be a Lion, Allegator, Antelope etc.,

In the below picture, you can see a white deer. , rather - Albino Impala..

And this one was standing on the road..

This one is called a "Flap necked Chameleon". Not rare as such. But to spot it in a forest is quite a thing.

Below one is called a "Leopard Tortoise".

Unable to believe ? Ok, look at this picture of a normal tortoise.:

Now, you would have understood better.

Lastly, here is a "Water Monitor". This comes from the dragon family..! that is, the lizzard family.

It's a well-known fact that Kruger is known for it’s wilderness. Here are some pictures to show you why :

It seems, somebody had a "Wild-Buffalo" biriyani..!!

And here is a brutally butchered "Imapala"

When I spotted it, there were a bunch of bees and ants on it, and the blood was also quite raw, which could mean that the impala was killed in less than 1 hour ago..!! Oops.. I got goosebumps when I thought about it, at that time..!

Actually, Kruger is not only known for the big animals. There are lot other small animals which are equally cute and interesting to observer. But the pity is that most people drive in to the forest mainly to see Lion and Leopard. That was irritating, same like how people see cricket matches only for Sachin, and then turn off the TV once he gets out. Ok ok … no offense.. But I strictly believe that no individual is bigger than the game.

Here are some smaller animals that attracted us:

This one is called "Spotted Genet" - obviously, from the cat family.. It was spotted during our night safari.

You said it right.. A crocodile in action..

A Chachma Baboon with its baby.

And this one is the funny "vervet monkey" ..!

And lastly, there are not only land-attractions in Kruger. You also need to keep an eye on the trees to spot some nice birds. Here are some of the birds that we spotted:

The below bird is called "Bateleur".

This one is an "African Fish Eagle"

This one is a "Lappet faced Vulture"

And this one is a "Giant Kingfisher".

A "white crane", in take-off and landing modes, respectively.

We spotted a lot of other birds too, such as the Grey Lourie, Wahlberg's Eagle, White backed Vulture, Hornbill, Hamerkop, Goliath Heron etc., etc., But It's hard to put all the pictures in the blog. Please visit my Picasa web album to see all the pictures.

And for the animals that we spotted, but couldn't take pictures - here are few:

1) Jackal : We spotted it on the road while taking a turn. And because of the vehicle sound, it ran inside a thick bush, and was hiding.
2) Cerval & Hares: We spotted it during our night safari, but couldn't capture them in the dark.
3) Mongoose : Spotted it at the end of the day when the camera battery was empty.
4) Wild Dog / Hyaena : We saw it in our rear mirror as it crossed the road after we moved. And there was no use in turning back.

Here are some key highlights of the trip:

The “WOW” moment: When the Lioness walked in front of our car, unexpectedly.

The heart-stopping moment: When the driver of the night-safari open-jeep, turned the Jeep from the gravel road into the tar road, the jeep suddenly stopped with a jerk. This was at around 10 PM, and there was sudden darkness everywhere, and remember - it's a forest. The driver quietly said “Sorry guys, the diesel got over”!!

The “OH-NO” moment: This was when we missed a Cheetah by 5 minutes. While I was driving in one of the gravel roads, the guy in the car coming from opposite direction, was kind enough to ask me to stop, and informed that there is a Cheetah lying by the same road, within 3-4 kilo meters. I immediately thanked him, and rushed to the spot. I din’t even mind to break the speed limit and drove at 70km/hr and reached the spot in less than 2 minutes. But by then the Cheetah had already crossed the road, and disappeared into the bush. If we had been there 10 minutes back….

But , overall, I’m really happy that our planning and scheduling turned out successful. And I hope you also enjoyed reading our experience.

To sum up, as Vadivelu says in Pokkiri movie,

"எதையுமே பிளான் பண்ணி பண்ணனும். !!"

Barfi - A wasted script

2012-10-18T13:27:00.000-07:00

Helo there,

Now that I have started writing movie reviews, I might as well continue writing short reviews then and there. For now, I'm picking up "Barfi".

I was one of those movie fans / critics who felt happy to see a "different" and "innovative" movie in Bollywood. Some say that a few scenes of Barfi were inspired from "Notebook" etc., But I hadn't watched any of those.

The script of the movie is wonderful, well backed by it's lead actors. I really liked the way the entire story was narrated as a flashback, and that a key part of the movie was held as suspense throughout the second half. And the chaplin'esque style for the lead actor also filled in the humor bucket.

But the problem with the movie was it's screenplay and background music. As you know, it's a story of a "deaf & dum" guy, who is also the lead actor in the movie. So, the entire story revolves around him, and he is present in most of the scenes. That means, in most of the scenes, there is no dialogue - just face expressions.

Without dialogues, any movie would look slow and dull. Barfi was no different. The movie actually has a very good pace, but the background music was not good enough to highlight it. The BGM is more like the "salt" that we use while cooking. It's very interesting to note how the salt that we add in the end in the curries, brings out the different flavours and spices that we use.

Because of this one defect, the movie was termed as "slow-paced", "dull", "boring-at-times" etc.,

But nonetheless, this is a very good movie, and this should motivate more and more producers to invest on movies with such varied storyline.

Zindagi Na Milegi Dubara - Story ? concept ?

2012-10-18T12:27:00.001-07:00

Hi,

I had decided a few months back that I'm going to stop writing movie reviews, as I somehow started feeling that it's an unproductive time, even for a fun time blog.

But, recently, I was watching a "one-of-many" "stupid" bollywood awards ceremony, in which, most of the awards, were, arguably, given to the right people who din't deserve it..!! neither were they given for the deserving reason. Hence, I complelled myself to write down my feedback about it.

One of those many movies, in the award ceremony, was "Zindagi Na Milegi Dubara". This movie was awared for "best story" at a couple of awards ceremonies.

'Three friends go on a holiday, mainly to take a break from their hectic schedule, but end up re-discovering themselves, and overcome their respective fears in life"

I don't have anything against this movie or it's artists. Infact, in my opinion, it was a decent movie, mainly inspired by the reason that it neither had a "Khan" nor a "Kapoor".. LOL.!

But I'm stuggling to understand where the story is. For me, the above is the concept and also a message that you succeed in life when you overcome your fears.

To say in one line in Hindi : "Dar ke aage Jeeth hai".

Which I would say, is, "Mountain Dew".

I would probably vote this under a "movie with a good message" division..

Airshow @ South Africa

2012-09-23T07:44:00.002-07:00

Hi All,

We had been to an Airshow yesterday at Waterkloof Airforce base in South Africa. The event was conducted by AAD (Africa Aerospace & Defence). This was the first ever time that I ever went to an Airshow.

All that I have seen before this, is the 5 second video clipping that our Indian news channels show on Independance day and Republic day.

A huge thanks to the weather, to allow the event to happen. Until 9 AM on the day of the event, there was rain at the venue, and there was a forecast for thunderstorms with rain for the remainder of the day. But as we left from our home in Johannesburg at around 10am , the clouds started clearing out. By the time we reached the venue, there was already a 100 people long queue for entrance and a whopping 3000+ were already inside.

I would like to share some pictures from the event..

The event began with some ground shows..

This tanker.. i have seen it in Arjun movies and Vijayakanth movies (tamil super heroes..) (Hindi audience - please relate to Sunny Deol movies).. The tanker completed 3-4 rounds so that all the audiences do get a good look at the deadly war weapon..

This typical figher jet - I remember seeing it in Avatar, and a hell lot of other "Alien" english movies.. Everything was good except it's noise.. almost equals the sound of 100 thunders.. Just couldn't imagine how it would have been during the wars. Forget the people who die at war.. imagine the people who would be listening to this deadly noise - day in, day out..!! Please , no war... save our eardrums.. :-)

What followed was a display of the domestic and international airlines operated in South Africa. While the flights took off and completed normal runs around the arena, the officials were announcing its technical details like capacity, speed, etc.,

The above one, as you can see, is a flight from the 1time airlines, which is one of the low-cost airlines operated in South Africa.

And below is the prime airlines of South Africa - SAA.

But the real beauty of the day was from the choppers, who entertained with their various stunts and styles.

And one more...

They were flying here and there.. and before you spot them, they are gone.. They entered the sky in a group of 5, then split themselves up, went to a corner each,.. performed some stunts like toppling etc., and came back to the alignments.

There were also some private charters and helicopters on display & sale.

The helicopters also did entertain us with some serious action..

And here's another one.. all I know is that these two look different..

And here's one that lifted a tanker..

And then there was a mock war-scenario too. A few explosions took place, and it was demonstrated how the tankers will be used during wars , and how the rescue operations take place.

Thick smoke from an explosion as part of the mock-war..

A military tanker in action....

And then an Helicopter rescue operation..

And a final rescue to take back the remaining soldiers after the 'war'..

We were not there the whole day, hence I'm unaware of the events that happened later on. But it was quite a tiring day considering that we had to stand throughout the event to get a good view of the exhibitions. For more information about the event , you can visit http://www.aadexpo.co.za/

I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

If you would like to see more pictures, you can check the below link to my Picassa album.

Airshow, Waterkloof Airbase, South Africa

Anti-climax to my earlier blog..

2012-09-21T06:23:00.001-07:00

Hi ,

I really din't want to write this one, and spoil the mood for a few of you..

But I couldn't stop from showcasing the cruel mentality of a few human beings..

Well, this is actually an anti-climax of my earlier blog about spring where I shared some pictures of nests from my garden.

I just discovered this yesterday evening, when I returned from office and went to the patio where I usually keep my shoes.. The tree in which the nests were woven, were cut down..!!

Firstly, that tree was not standing in my garden.. it originated from my neighhour's house, but majority of the branches were hanging in my garden, giving it a wonderful look.

There was unusual sun light in the garden, now that the tree is not there.. I din't want this kind of a sunlight to enter the garden.. no.. not at the expense of nature., not with the sin of destroying the nests..

While I was standing there, in complete disbelief of what has happened, all that I could hear was the crying sound of the birds , who have just lost their homes, that they had woven so beautifully, with all hard work, gathering grass by grass, leaf by leaf..

These were all that remained, out of the beautiful nests that were on the tree a week back.. If you din't see them earlier, please scroll down to see how beautiful the nests were..

I saw a few birds sitting on the compound wall, and crying over the lost houses, and shifted my camera towards them and positioned the zoom.

But for a split second, I thought about our human life.. if some one had just then lost their home, would we simply be clicking their crying photos ? I mean, if we were non-media .. Definitely not..!

We have all heard about people losing their homes due to Tsunami, Earthquakes etc.,

But they are natural calamitites.. and not artificial events..

What harm did these birds cause to my neighbour ?

What harm did that tree cause to them ?

Why on earth did they have to cut that tree so mercilessly ?

Well, honestly, I do not find a satisfying answer.

I was totally disappointed by what was done during the day.. 5 beautiful nests were destroyed. 5 homes were demolished.

But the good news is that - there were no eggs in any of those nests.

Perhaps, the birds knew that they should not trust these human beings..and this could have been their vacation habitat or so..

And while the tree is no longer there for me to admire in the mornings, I also noted through the new gap that there were a few more nests woven on a tree that was standing two houses away..

I only hope that - that house owner / tenant is not as "stone-hearted" as my neighbour is.. and that he would allow the birds to stay there till they wish..!!

Sorry if I spoiled your mood with these sad pictures.. but then, I wanted this to be on my blog. So that, any one who sees both the pcitures (the above ones and the pictures from my earlier blog), will think twice before cutting down a tree..!!

Welcome Ms. Spring

2012-09-10T10:53:00.003-07:00

Hello Everyone,

After 4 months of not-so-bad winter, the sun has finally started to come out nice and bright.

The room heaters are crying that they also need some rest.

We are being reminded that there is a "A/C" button in the car.. The full sleeve shirts are telling me to fold them.. The deodrants are jumping out of the cupboards..

That parachute coconut oil which remained frozen for 3 months, is back to the liquid state..!

The juice bottles in the shops are yelling "buy me now"..!

Yes. The winter is finally done (touch wood.. pls. don't prove me wrong..!).

There was a day of snow.. then a day of hailstorms with "golf-ball" sized ice stones falling ..

Then a couple of days of rain.. with decent lightening and thunder..

And after much contemplation, confusion, arguments, and debates, Ms. Spring has managed to find herself a way to sneak out in the middle..!

Below are some pictures I could take, around our house, in Sandton.

Hope you will enjoy them.

This was how most of the plants looked during winter.

Seeing these thorns, I remembered the lines "முள்ளோடு தான் முத்தங்களோ, சொல் ..... சொல்" from the movie "Roja" ..!

The birds were also tired of the winter.. They wanted to enjoy sitting and moving around the lush green branches as they like to do..!

And here comes Ms. Spring ..

I like love this combination of Green and blue.. Unbeatable "natural" combination..!!

And guess what ? the birds are back..to their favorite green habitat..

Let's look at some of those little flowers that have come up now..

And now, let's get back to the birds..

Oh..they are busy weaving a cute little house for them...!!

Still busy constructing.. ??? Okie.. carry on..

Ah.. now I see.. you've brought some more materials to thicken the walls..!!

Hmm.. busy with interiors and final supervisions ??

Oh.. I missed to notice that you have already constructed 4 houses.. so soon..

unbelievable..!! you guys should be in BDA or BBMP or metro works..!!

Can we have a quiet look at your constructions, please...

Wow.. That looks very 'welcoming'..

May I come inside, please ?

Oh.. you are still busy with the final touches..

Alright, carry on.. And make sure you do a quality control check in the end..

If any eggs drop out, they are sure to become spicy omlettes..!! hmm.. well then...

Ok guys.. that's all I wanted to share..hope you enjoyed the pictures..!!

Biascope

2012-07-13T12:11:00.001-07:00

Vanakkam reader.. As usual, for people who cannot read Tamil, i've tried to translate in English within brackets.. carry on..

Recently one head movie released… அதாங்க, நம்ம "தல" படம்.. [ Ajith has a nick name "Thala" , literally meaning "head"]. While I was walking aside Rakki cinemas , Ambattur, on a Wednesday evening, I was observing the cut-outs and banners that were placed in and around the theatre. An energetic fan even told me that there would be பாலாபிஷேகம் (milk-bath-ceremony) on Friday morning. I duly enquired if any new temple was going to be opened, or if it is the routine “Friday-amman temple-yellow saree” customs. But he quickly denied that and saw me like an Alien and said “தல படம் release'ங்க.. பொங்கலுக்கு அவங்க (விஜய் ரசிகர்கள் : நண்பன் ) என்ன ஆட்டம் போட்டாங்க.. இப்போ நம்ம பண்ரோங்க அட்டகாசம் .. " [ Meaning: Vijay fans celebrated too much during Nanban movie release and that Ajith fans were going to celebrate more than that by doing milk-bath-ceremony"… நா அப்பிடியே ஷாக் ஆய்டேன்.. I wanted to ask “ you mean Aavin paal.. ? “.. Why.. .. நா என்ன “Thirunelveli Vivek”’ஆ ? message சொல்லி புரியவெக்க ?

For those of you who don’t know what a paalabhishekam (Milk-bath-ceremony) is, read further down and you will know in the end..

But, seeing a few of those cut outs, I could not stop laughing. Let me share a few of those with you..

Firstly, see below example of a movie cut out:

தில்லா வராண்டா பில்லா .. Poster Bill'அ கெட்டறது எவண்டா ?

இந்த போஸ்டர் அடிச்ச காசு இருந்த ஒரு சைக்கிள் வாங்கி அத இந்த Parking Area'லையே விடலாமே !!

Ok ok .. Sorry “thala thalabathy” Fans. அட, கோச்சிகாதீங்க பாஸ்...

This is not to hit out at any particular actor. Right from Superstar (Rajni), till young star (Simbu), every one is having a fan club and there is a usual customary cut-out at theatres during their movie release.

The matter is that : look at the photo of the fans in these posters – sometimes it will even be larger than the actor’s photo itself.

And sometimes, the banner is prepared jointly by a team, either an Auto sangam or Bike mechanics association etc.,, and all their “heads” find their way into the banner.. like what we have above.

What is this kolaveri for ? “Publicity” / “Visibility”

I don’t know about you.. but for me, it resembled a different thing.. Look down:

This is a common banner we see in the month of June / July when the exam results are out. A few schools, mostly newly established school, put out banners in front of their gate showcasing their “100% passout” to attract new students ( can also say customers). But thank goodness, they don’t atleast do Paalabhishekams..

And this kolaveri is also for the same “Publicity / Visibility”

But, the faces inside these cut outs have done enough hard work, and they deserve to be in the cut-outs as school toppers or state toppers. And these kids are not putting up these banners at their own cost!

“மாபெரும் சபை தனில் நீ நடந்தால் உனக்கு மாலைகள் விழ வேண்டும்” - a line from a Kannadasan song.

[ Meaning: you must get good names such that when you walk on a bigger stage, people will garland you ]

So, the people in case 1 above have just found an easier way to place their faces on public display.

Now, Let’s do a small calculation: சில புள்ளி விவரங்கள் ..

From an online forum, I learnt that the total number of theatres in Tamil nadu is about 2160.

With an average of 4 shows per theatre – we have 8640 shows per day (minimum).

With an average of 200 people per show (sometimes could be 1, sometimes 500 – just for a calculation) – we have 8640*200 = 17,28,000 people watching movies every day.

How many hours does that mean ? 17,28,000 * 3 hours = 51,84,000 hours per day.

If you convert these hours into mandays, we are looking at 6.5 Lakhs Man days… This is one day of cinema’s out put.

The above is only a rough calculation, and this excludes the multiplex theatres that run 10 shows per day, Online movie watchings, Internet downloaded movies, and TVCD’s (அதாங்க, திருட்டு VCD's)

And this is only an example I’m giving with Tamilnadu. The same story applies to other states like Andhra pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka etc.,

Ambattur Industrial estate, once famous for the line-up of manufacturing industries, and now famous for IT companies, have seen lot of small-scale factories closing down because of lack of man hours. For that matter, take any industrial estate throughout India..

I remember reading an article way back in 2000 where a small factory got a life-saving deal of 9000 man hours, whereas the company was able to supply only 6900 odd man hours and the owners decided to lock out the factory.

Cinema is for entertainment, and I’m not saying that one must not watch cinema.. There are crazy fans who watch movies first day, first show. And there are die-hard fans, who watch the same movie 10 to 15 times. When the movie “Shivaji – the boss” released, I remember my “PG mate” who drove all the way from Bangalore to Hosur to watch the movie as he could not get first day tickets in Bangalore theatres.

I can’t quite digest the fact of watching a movie more than once.. I just watch the thrilling / famous scenes of a movie and the comedy clippings, that too as part of some comedy programs... not the whole movie as such.

The complaint is however on the pre-movie and the post-movie build-ups. In my opinion, it is totally an unproductive time, which they could have used for their own family (if no family – atleast to try and create one..!)

oh.. and yes.. i promised you to tell you what a Paalabhishekam means... look down:

Milk Bath Ceremony

Yes. It is the same "Nandini milk - blue cover" and i think the second guy is using "Thirumala milk / curd"..

During Enthiran movie release, i think, half a litre of milk costed around 10-12 rupees.

I'm not going to touch up on the poverty.. people starving for a drop of milk when it is wasted like this bla bla bla.. Any human being will know that..

If the youths of today are keeping themselves occupied with such things, the youths of tomorrow can’t get any better. Maybe, they will digitalise these things.

If things like these are continuing, India will not be a “Vallarasu”.. it will only be “Dull'arasu”.. (Thanks to Mr. Santhanam for this nice punch)

[Vallarasu means Super power country'; Dull'arasu means Dull country ]

என்னிக்கு இந்த போஸ்டர்கள் கட்-அவுட்'கள் ஒழியுதோ அப்ப தான் நாடு கொஞ்சமாவது உருப்படும் ..

ஏன்ன சார், அழறீங்க .. Beer கசக்குதா?

Ooh.. ரொம்ப Serious'ஆ எழுதிட்டோமோ?

Its’ OK.. for a change.. அட சில்லற இல்லைங்க. "மாற்றம்".. A Very important one for the society..!!

[ The last lines just say that we must get rid of these posters and banners.. and that this change is very essential for the society.. Boss, please learn to read Tamil.. atleast to read my blog.. it is a torture to write the samething in English and Tamil.. i feel like Major Sundar rajan or that Vijay TV fellow who speaks the same thing in English and Tamil..]

A unique travel experience

2012-06-04T08:41:00.002-07:00

Traveling by Bike, Car, train, Bus, Flight is something that most of us do very often. But Ambulance ??

என்னடா, போயும் போயும் Ambulance'அ பத்தி எழுதறானேன்னு உங்க mind voice கேட்டுது. ( direct translation: what ya, going going, he is writing about Ambulance - your mind voice I heard).. but for me, it was a unique experience.

This is not our Ambulance; but just that nowadays people are not reading blog if there is no picture in it. :-)

Recently, my father was hospitalised at Vee Care Hospital, Koyambedu, Chennai. He was diagnosed with Sepsis and was in quite a critical stage. I’m very glad that he won the battle against the deadly disease and came back home. Thanks to the doctors who treated him at the ICU for a week and gave him a second life after all the early tension.

As he had close to 10 rods from his thigh to calf, the only way he could be taken home, was through an Ambulance. Several times in the past, my dad was taken in the ambulance to the clinics for dressing the wounds, but I wasn’t there with him, making this my first such experience.

My memories of first seeing an Ambulance dates back to the late 1980’s when I did not even know which vehicle it was, and why it had to make such a huge noise. After knowing about its purpose, I use to tell my dad that the hospital people didn’t even know how to paste the sticker, as the word “ambulance” appeared in a reversed way. ..!

I never had the opportunity to read “ambulance” on my “bicycle” rear mirror, as I hardly used main roads those days. Even while driving a “two-wheeler”, I did not get the opportunity, as by the time I hear that sound, I only look for a way to get to either side of the road. I also observed that some of my fellow bikers adopted a trick where they pretend like giving way to the Ambulance and nicely jump the signal following the ambulance. Street Smart..!! (but they fail to understand one thing – behind every bush / tree on Bangalore roads, there is a traffic cop hiding to catch you - fact, fact, fact, fact).

For the first time, early this year, I read the word on my rear mirror while driving a car in South Africa and felt relieved that something I learnt in childhood came to use.!!

There was yet another occasion where I would have boarded an Ambulance, for my wife, when she had some complications during her pregnancy. The Ambulance service guy politely told me that it will take a minimum of 1 ½ hours to get one for us. You can relate this to the comedy from the movie “3 idiots / Nanban” where they say that Pizza comes in 30 minutes but not ambulance”.!

But this time when I saw the Ambulance in Vee Care hospital, the first thing that came to my mind was the famous dialogue by comedy actor Vivek in the movie “Shivaji: The boss”, where Shriya Saran serves red chillies to Rajnikanth, and Vivek says “aaha, this is kumbibaagam.. shivaji, please call an ambulance now only.. oh my god, our people will not give way to ambulance in this traffic…”.

I really wondered how this driver is going to drive that vehicle. We chose to leave the hospital by around 3 pm so that we don’t mess up the traffic a lot.

Koyambedu – Ambattur was some distance, that takes one hour for a bus journey and easily 30 minutes and above for a biker. This guy reached our home in about 20 minutes, which I thought was a great drive, as he had to slow down at several places due to poor roads.

It was important that I maintained a serious face expression, as all the by-passers in the road were trying to peak into the ambulance to see what was happening inside. My father was on a stretcher locked on the floor of the ambulance & wasn’t visible to most people. If they had seen me with a smiling face browsing my iphone, we wouldn’t have got the co-operation that we managed to get. !

It is also an interesting thing to observe the people on the road, and see how they behave when they know that an Ambulance is behind them.

There were still some lazy cartoon characters on the road, who do racing along with the Ambulance. And some people are busy overtaking other vehicles when an Ambulance is behind them. The task of overtaking heavy vehicles was cut out because of the metro work going on in Chennai. With 60% of the roads consumed for metro work, only 30% was available after discounting the street vendors.

While going back to the hospital after a couple of days, for dressing the wounds, the driver took the one-way road (near Anna Nagar – Thirumangalam junction) which saved us a good 20 minutes.

It was a bigger version of the ambulance (not the Maruti Omni converted Ambulance), so there was space for 3 people to be seated inside, along with seatbelts. Air condition, first aid boxes, a wash basin, an IV stand, and several other compartments with some medical names labelled - செத்தாலும் புரியாது (direct translation - dead also no understand.!).

Overall, it was different kind of experience, where we are seated inside a vehicle, and the entire city move to either sides of the road and give us way to proceed. (I felt tempted to ask the driver to come on a sunday to vist T.Nagar Rangathan street. !! நோட் பண்ணாதே , நோட் பண்ணாதே ) The only other similar situation will be when you are some minister or police commissioner. But in most of the former cases, people will not be in a relaxed state to observe all those moments.

I really hope that neither you nor your loved ones will get a need to travel in an Ambulance. But if you get a chance to assist or accompany someone (hopefully not critical) in an ambulance, then do help them and experience it. (சாரி பாஸ், இத வேற எப்பிடி எழுதறதுன்னு தெர்ல)

“கருத்து கந்தசாமி” Corner also called as “Message corner”:

Our house in Vivekananda Nagar , Ambattur was big enough, but the roads weren’t. Most of the houses on the way did not have parking space, which meant that plenty of cars and bikes had to be parked on the roadside, making it tough for the Ambulance to reach our home. We had to honk for the public to come out and remove their vehicles and give way. What if those houses were locked ?

You might be living in a 60*50 Villa, but you cannot expect the Ambulance to pick up the patient from the bus stop. Whether you are in a rented house or own house, make sure you have at least one good wide road from your door to the nearby main road, such that an Ambulance or a Fire brigade can reach you on time.