July 2010
2 posts
3 tags
Madrasapattinam - Quick Review
Just finished watching Madrasapattinam - a love story set in British times. The movie is about a British lady who loves a “Madrasi” - a native. She is forced to leave him and go back to London due to opposition from her family and India getting independence at the same time - which forms a nicely interwoven backdrop. The lady then returns after 60 years to search for the native...
3 tags
Ampa Skywalk Mall - First Visit
I visited the Ampa Skywalk mall this evening with family and heeding warnings of the poor parking facilities by Sushil and my father, I decided to take an Auto Rickshaw to reach the place.
The mall’s interiors are on par with most major malls in the country. It is spacious and the shops seem well spaced. The escalators are functional but I did not find any elevators. I found the food...
June 2010
1 post
2 tags
Fear of Failure - Norman Vincent Peale Rescues Me...
I have recently taken a new role at work and have been worrying about not doing well on the job. In the past too, I have had different kinds of worrying and negative thoughts about various things. At that time, my father had given me Norman Vincent Peale’s book “The Power of Positive Thinking” to read. This book helped me a lot. So, this time too, in true Norman Vincent Peale...
May 2010
1 post
3 tags
Graph of Life
The graph above shows how I live my life and compares it with how others do. Clicking on the image will take you to the Flickr page for a larger version of the image. Ionz will build this graph based on your answers to their 9 questions. Around 45,000 people seem to have used this.
April 2010
1 post
5 tags
Book Review: 2 States - The Story of My Marriage
2 States: The Story of My Marriage by Chetan Bhagat is a love story inspired by his own. I had read Chetan Bhagat’s Three Mistakes of my Life and found it engrossing. Cricket and politics along with a bit of romance had me interested in the first book I read of Chetan Bhagat. After this book, I decided to read 2 States: The Story of My Marriage as it was generating a bit of a hype in the...
February 2010
1 post
3 tags
A Quick Introduction to Indian TV Serials
I watch TV when there is Cricket on it or while having my dinner. During dinner, if folks at home watch any serial or program, I refrain from changing the channel. As a result, I get an opportunity to watch serials in bits and pieces. And I have been able to understand the story even if I’ve watched the serial for only a few minutes after missing several episodes, such is the story....
January 2010
2 posts
2 tags
Missed Call - Invented in India?
Missed Call to the uninitiated is a concept where a caller calls the receiver on his mobile phone but disconnects the call before the receiver answers it, resulting in a “Missed Call”. The details of the caller are displayed on the receiver’s phone. Why would one do that? There are several reasons. Though the primary reason for the missed call is to save on calling costs, there...
2 tags
WatchFreezelight Magic Forest - Amazing Lighting (via @karthiksetty - karthiksetty.com/tumble)
December 2009
1 post
6 tags
A Walk in Downtown SFO
I was in Brisbane, a suburb of SFO last month and took a walk on Powell Street on one of the weekends.
The green tram below reminded me of Kolkata’s trams because it is utilitarian - actually being used by people to move around. The yellow and red ones below seem to be only a tourist attraction, they don’t seem to be used for actual commuting.
Interesting structure of the...
September 2009
4 posts
4 tags
Munnar!
I visited Munnar, a beautiful hill resort in Kerala, India with family this week. I try to relive the trip in this post.
We started from Chennai by the Alappuzha express around 9 PM and reached Erankulam Junction at 10 AM. The train was an hour late but the pleasant weather and the scenery on the way made sure that we were not too bothered by the delay.
A view from the train
Another view...
5 tags
Eid Mubarak!
After 30 days of abstaining from food and carnal desires, it is the hope and prayer of every fasting person that their souls have been cleansed to a certain extent. Eid Ul-Fitr is an occassion that is “earned” by self-conditioning unlike other occassions such as weddings and public holidays that come to happen regardless. For this reason, it gives the Muslims a sense of great...
August 2009
4 posts
3 tags
Tweet Relevancy: The Next Killer Feature For...
As the number of followers increase, so does the volume of tweets that one sees on his/her Twitter stream. Do all of the tweets matter? How do we know which are the ones that interest us without sifting through the deluge of tweets? I have tried to put together a set of criteria based on which tweets could be presented to the user. The tweets following this criteria may not necessarily be ordered...
Watch
July 2009
5 posts
2 tags
3 tags
2 tags
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“I divide my officers into four classes; the clever, the lazy, the industrious,...”
– German General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord in Truppenführung, 1933
3 tags
The Swine Flu Scare
I always look forward to my journey back home as it usually brings me thoughts about good food, relaxed life and of course family! This time however, I started from Vernon Hills less enthusiastically, with a fear of Swine flu - the disease with symptoms as common as the common flu yet deadly enough to cause death (or so the media would have us believe). I tried buying a mask to wear on my journey...
June 2009
4 posts
5 tags
5 tags
Toyota Qualis by DC Chabria
Never thought that a Toyota Qualis could look this good. DC Chabria does wonders.
2 tags
May 2009
9 posts
2 tags
Limo in Vernon Hills
I haven’t seen a limousine from this close. This one was parked just outside the hotel where I was staying. It is a Lincoln.
In Vernon Hills near Chicago
Reached Vernon Hills, a suburb about 34 miles away from Chicago, yesterday. The weather is pleasant here as summer has seemingly started. The taxi driver who drove me to the hotel from the Chicago O’ Hare airport was an Indian who had studied for his masters degree here. His job contract with AT&T was terminated early this year and he had to start driving taxis to make ends meet. I had...
3 tags
RAM on USB
I was trying to install a software on my ageing laptop and had issues due to lack of disk space. Ruthlessly, I cleaned my hard disk - deleting some files and moving many to a portable hard disk. This made things good enough to install the software.
When trying to run the software, I had a problem as it needed 2-4 GB RAM while I had only 1 GB. Increasing virtual memory, swap size etc did...
3 tags
Chennai Rail Accident
Having been a commuter on the suburban trains myself, I was greatly saddened to know about the rail accident that happened yesterday at Vyasarpadi Jiva. These trains are known to be safe with accidents being caused only due to people crossing the tracks inadvertently or due to passengers hanging outside the coaches and getting hit by external objects. But I do not recall any accident involving...
April 2009
9 posts
7 tags
Taxi Ride Across Saudi Arabia
After performing the Umrah, a friend and I started around 9 PM from Makkah to Jeddah.We had planned to start at 8.30 PM but things got delayed. The flight was at 10.30 PM and we thought that it would be tight but we would make it around 10 PM. Also, since we had boarding passes issued from our onward journey itself, we thought that we could go straight to the gate. The heavy traffic meant that we...
2 tags
Umrah
I performed Umrah the minor pilgrimage (Haj being the major one) to Makkah last month. Unlike Haj, Umrah can be performed at any time of the year. I wore Ihram, the attire for the pilgrimage and started from Dammam (the city with an airport closest to Jubail). To reach Makkah, one has to fly in to Jeddah and take a taxi.
On arrival at Makkah and reaching the Kaaba - the black cube-like...
2 tags
Site Theme Updated
After months of deliberation, I decided it was time to update the site’s theme. I picked this theme as it looks neat and clean. It also seems popular on the tumblr theme garden. Credit goes to Prashanth Kamalakanthan, for designing a professional looking theme.
An issue that I faced during the theme update was that the Disqus comments system did not inherit the theme elements correctly. It...
2 tags
Gulf Air's Deceits
I had traveled to Dammam, Saudi Arabia enroute to Jubail, a couple of months back on Gulf Air. My flight was booked from Chennai to Dammam via Bahrain; what followed was a harrowing experience. Boarding Pass but no Flight I was booked a ticket in Gulf Air flight GF 69 from Chennai to Bahrain and on flight GF 101 from Bahrain to Dammam. But on arrival in Bahrain, I was put on a bus to Dammam...
1 tag
Site in Internet Explorer
Update
I have updated the theme of this site and moved the icons in the sidebar to the bottom of the page.
—
I just realized that in some versions of Internet Explorer, the images in the sidebar of this site show with a light blue background. Seemingly, it is a CSS PNG issue with versions of IE older than 8. IE8 displays the sidebar correctly as do Firefox and Opera. So, if you are...
4 tags
March 2009
3 posts
Performed Umrah - minor pilgrimage to Mecca last week. Great feelings on visiting the place, so much that I missed the return flight back!
Bowled over by the Nokia E71 as I saw one in person only yesterday. Looks small & neat unlike in photos. For now, this will be my next phone
Had Camel meat Biryani for lunch today; didn’t like the meat: was too hard to chew
February 2009
12 posts
Its all work and no play here, making things really dull. Have not been able to tell a weekend from a weekday…
Connecting via dial-up after ages… no broadband in this hotel! Sounds really backward but there is fast and expensive wireless 3.5G.
4 tags
Thanks T9 Nav!
T9 Nav beta testers received a fully functional copy of the wonderful software for their efforts. I was involved in the beta testing and had provided regular feedback on the app. The main suggestions I had given were:
To make the app faster
To provide an option to choose the content to be indexed/searched
And I am happy to see that both of them have been incorporated. Not only is the app...
Weird feeling: waking up on Saturday and Sunday at 6 AM and going to work. Saturday is the new Monday for me now
Experiencing a sandstorm for the first time; the client handed us a mask and a pair of goggles to wear before exiting the office building
In Jubail, Saudi Arabia
Reached Dammam, Saudi yesterday. Had a horrible time getting in from Bahrain - Gulf Air sucks big time: will do a post on the whole experience shortly.
With tight timelines at work and no real Internet access at the hotel; will be offline most of the time
Indian Muslim Clerics: the other side http://tinyurl.com/an7vja
1 tag
Myths and Truths About Vegetarianism
http://www.westonaprice.org/mythstruths/mtvegetarianism.html
Courtesy: Ahmed Hussain
Finished watching Slumdog; the first half serves as a bitter reminder of slum-life and makes me feel thankful for the life that I’ve got
Frustrating exp at Reliance super market; few items were not on shelves but in Cust. Service section, then a guy took ages to bill 2 items
Just saw Federer lose another long fought battle to Nadal. His serve seemed to come apart in the end
Aussies lose at home again: the Kiwis win a last ball thriller! http://tinyurl.com/d2k98g
January 2009
41 posts
Only the English could have Invented this Language
Reblogged from pratyush and jessemontevirgen
We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes, But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes. One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese, Yet the plural of moose should never be meese. You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice, Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice. If the plural of man is always called men, Then shouldn’t the...
Beating the Aussies in their home in both tests and one-days is a mega achievement. Congrats to South Africa for the win and becoming #1.