Whats up Folks?

Hi Folks,
Long time no see. Believe me, Work has been keeping me busy quite lately, somehow I have managed to say a "Hi". Ahh, there is not much of new updates that I feel like sharing. I did notice that there have been lot happening in India and around the world. Global recession, IPL2, now WC- T20 & Elections. Speaking of elections- finally, the great indian elections 2009 has come to an end and congress government has been voted back to power. This elections has been quite different from previous elections. Reason- Never have I seen so much stress on people to exercise their vote. The media played a responsible and key role in creating awareness to vote.I don't remember missing any elections after I turned 18, think I've voted in every one of them.I was no way going to miss it this time, so when the clock stuck 7 AM on the election day, i was getting ready to move to the voting booth. I had company from my Mom and Dad. So, finally all of us did cast our valuable votes. My mom got to vote after some initial hassles which was cleared once my Dad jumped on to the scene. I was stumped by the results though, I thought it would be clean swipe by Opposition in the state(TN) while that was not the case. I also expected hung parliament and close fight between UPA and NDA. Well, it didn't happen either. It was nice in a way, that people had voted for a government in center which had a PM who has a good finance background and more importantly "clean" background. Looking at the IPL season 2, it has been really amazing. Perfect blend of "Sports+ Entertainment", Its really amazing to see how BCCI is milking out so much of bucks through IPL. Modi has to be applauded for this, coz this man has a serious business sense. I was a little disappointed that Chennai super Kings didn't make it through to the IPL finals. But, overall I was satisfied with the entertainment quotient IPL had to offer though. It has been a regular 8pm-11pm feature on my schedule which I would be missing. As I am typing this, we are in the first week of ICC worldcup Twenty20 and we already have 2 upset wins, first netherland wins over England in a humdinger and secondly, Gayle's WI thrash Australia. If you were thinking ICC WC T20 is going to replace IPL, you guessed it wrong. This is an ICC event which is happening in London. Ofcourse, it has all ingredients of T20 cricket sans Entertainment quotient. The commentary team itself is more subdued and not so loud mouthed as they were in IPL. But still, cricket in England is special, its the englishmen who invented the game ppl. As expected, I would be rooting for India to pick up the 2nd ICC worldcup t20 cup as well and would prefer seeing a India- SA final. These two are the best teams in the tourney as of now. Global recession is something I am trying to come to terms with, how exactly is this impacting IT guys? The way I see it, JOB SECURITY is quite a concern now and you could hear whispers of companies being sold/bought and also BIG companies filing for bankruptcy. The term "HIRING" has been replaced with "FIRING". The companies tend to call it normal as part of its statergy to eliminate non-performing resources. The ulterior motive is quite different. Well, myself like any other IT guy is hoping all this changes for good. Gone are the days where you could expect perks/incentives, you could only hope your current renumeration is not reduced further. A lot of what will happen in the coming months depends on how Obama administration takes this up with his counterparts globally? Future looks good if the promise of "CHANGE" is fulfilled. OK ppl, Bye for now.. Catch ya later....

Attached along, Snap with my Office colleagues- Me in middle, Ayyal with Grey Tshirt to my right and Bharti with Blue Tshirt on my left.

My 'SPICY' Jet eXperience...

It was Christmas season '08, time to keep up the promise I had made to my sister a month ago. I had to make a tuff decision to allocate time for travel as I was 'On-call duty' until 28th December.That's when I was supposed to handover "duty" to my US counterpart. Just as luck would have it, I was bombarded with work for the past few days pre-christmas making my life even more difficult. Also, I had booked my one way train ticket on 30th night from Coimbatore to Chennai. This was done in advance to ensure that I have a blast of a new year eve celebrations with my buddies in Chennai with all the planning & coordination handled by Pradeep and NS.

Due to lack of time and non-availability of a "On-CALL DUTY" backup under current scenario, I decided to take the quickest route to Coimbatore which was by air. Phew, It was my first experience flying and I wanted to make sure it was a well executed plan. I had the option of selecting one of the "Low fare carriers". After much thought, I decided to go for Spice Jet which was by far the cheapest and best option available to me. I had my tickets booked online and got a confirmation which I had to show at the airport. I called up pradeep and asked him abt flight procedures and check in time sortta stuff. Pradeep as the bad boy he is was feeding me with wrong ideas about what people do on planes. Well, I made up my mind to take only the positives of what he said and on 27th evening 4.45 pm I was supposed to rocket through from Chennai airport and land @ coimbatore airport in an hour.

I had my Dad book a call taxi as I wanted to make my first air trip memorable and was ready to shell out a few extra hundred bucks. I reached the airport much before time and went to the counter to get my ticket. The security got a nice look @ my ID card before letting me in which has become a standard security procedure as per my co-passenger. Inside the airport, I was content with some nice sight seeing. I had two good looking gals who came and sat next to me while one of them opened her laptop to show off. The other one was a friend/cousin of some air hostess I guess as she made a call and had a air hostess coming to pick something from her. Well, well well, I have been to spencer, sathyam, citicenter and so many other places but let me tell you guys "Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder", the crowds at airport is something unbelievable, truly international specimens. You oughtta see it to believe it.
It was high time that I had my hand baggage checked and screened through a scanning machine. I could see a lot of security personnel at place in the airport may be to ward off any terrorist strikes. I finally boarded the bus which dropped me near the air plane. I got onto a corner window seat which gave me a good view(of both inside & outside) and followed the instructions given by air hostess to tie my seat belt. I made a quick call to pradeep to keep him posted abt the flight developments. There were a total of 3 air hostesses out of which 2 were good looking and they were trying to be really helpful. I took a few snaps of the plane from inside before switching off my phone. The pilot was doing his flight updates on air traffic and air hostess was educating passengers abt oxygen masks usage in case of emergency and finally we took off.

Guys, the best part of flying is the takeoff, it was a superb experience and I could see the whole world shrinking in front of my eyes. Then, we had snacks coming out and that's when I decided to pick one of the air hostesses and ask her for a special favor. No dirty thoughts guys, I called one of them and said I needed a favor, I could see her face turning pink. I was wondering what was running though her mind and before she misunderstood, I tried to clear the air. Since, this was my first plane experience my favor was to have a peep in the cockpit. When she heard out the favor, I could see her relaxing and she responded "sure, may be after we touch down though". It was only a 35 minute flight and I should admit the coimbatore landscape was much green and good looking than Chennai. The Spice jet airbus SG287 finally touched down and I was one of the final few left, so I went to remind the air hostess about the favor she had promised. She was prompt and took me aside to the cockpit and had me introduced to the pilot and co. I asked them if it was OK to take a snap and they were friendly enough and allowed me to take a snap of the cockpit but not themselves as per their policies. Being the gentleman I was, I didn't want to force things my way and took a snap of the cockpit and appreciated the pilot and air hostesses for making my first flight special.
When I got down in CBE airport, I made it a point to get a snap of the "First Plane" that I flew in. All in all, my first flight was an OUT-OF-WORLD rejuvenating experience which I would cherish for quite sometime at least until I fly again. After my sight seeing session @ airport, I have decided that I would try Kingfisher Airlines next time.

Thank God Its Saturday...

The Robinson Crusoe Experience!

For a change, this weekend was planned quite in advance by buddy Sam. We had Paulie coming down from kangaroo land(Australia) for christmas vacation. It was decided to meet up for a "Robinson Cru-soe" english play. Well guys, when sam had asked me while booking tickets,I had no idea what this show was about. Still, I half-heartedly agreed as my priority was on meeting up with Paulie after a long time.
The show was supposed to start @ 3 pm while I landed up at egmore museum auditorium by 3.10 pm. Sam rushed me in as Jaya had made sure we got the best seats in the house. While entering I saw few of the posters of the show and had the perception that it was a kid's event. I didn't want to play spoilsport and entered the hall with least expectations. There was a grand entrance with a pale looking guy entering from the crowd with a comical makeup loosely dressed up introducing himself as "mama". Well, I was cursing under my breath 'not another "mimickry" performance, show me some creativity ppl'. Two minutes later, I was muttering 'hmm,not bad'. This mama narrator had a nice looking maamy for company. Mama and maamy introduced most of the characters of the play like friday, sunday, holiday ;)
It was a theatrical journey involving the audience to a large extent with peppy music which was quite a good experience. There was this friday character(a guy dressed as a voluptous gal showing off its assests) looking out for a guy to mate. Lets call this he/she whatever as Friday to avoid the gender confusion. 'Friday' was hunting for a person to mate not just on stage but off stage as well which meant Friday was searching for a bakra amongst the crowd as well.
Guys a prelude here- Sam and Jaya had been watching this show for almost 4 years now if I am right. I was 'allocated' the corner seat which meant I was the nearest one amongst us in the 'bakra' zone. Initially, when I sat down I thought I had the best view and was thankful to sam but after seeing 'friday' walking on the narrow path zone gave me the chills. When I turned to my friends, I could see a sarcastic smile on all 3 faces(Paulie, Sam & J) as if they were waiting for 'friday' to pounce on me. I could sense their wicked plan now. I had to turn away and avoid focus when 'friday' was doing her 'ramp' walk on the narrow zone near me. This 'friday' did almost 3 -4 ramp walks and everytime it came near me my heart stopped beating virtually. Guys, It was cruel, poor me.. But on the other hand, there were quite a few 'beautiful' characters on screen. The one who impressed me with her skills was a villianious secretary to the 'king of the land'. This hot siren really impressed me and painted the auditorium RED. Quite a impressive performance. I could understand why 'mama' was eyeing for her. Maamy (mama's foil) need not to be left behind, she was quite good too in terms of looks and acting.
The music was in synch with the choreography and was a huge plus. It was supposed to be a kid's play and it had a lots of cute kiddies dancing for the jingles. I really had to appreciate the perfect timing and synch of all characters in the play. It had minimal flaws and was almost perfectly executed. I understood it should have taken a lot of a hard work & painstaking effort to get them there, mainly the kids.They were entertaining with nice cha-cha and gr8 ga-ga.I guess, it really payed off well, Hats off!
There were 2 faces in the play One of which reminded a guy in my college(Denver) and other of an ex-colleague.We (myself and Sam) made it a point to personally meet 'mama' and appreciate him but that fella seemed to be more keen on concentrating to the gal standing next to us. Hmmm, a true male species ;)
The best part of the play was towards the end with a superb social message driven across after a "lived-happily-ever-after" climax and it took a few minutes for the oldies in the audience to get the real message which was being screwed into their heads "Whatever you drive, wear safety" .
All of us were laughing our heads off throughout the play and Sam deserves a special mention here, not just for planning this but also for the exclusive snaps clicked.. Thats it Folks ;)

Coming up next is my Chepauk Cricket experience which is put on hold as I need to upload a few videos that I shot..

Sunday Special- Dostana

Well, its been a busy couple of days with rains flooding chennai and mumbai under siege by terrorists. About mumbai fiasco, only F's and B's come to my mind when I think abt India's politicians- quite expectantly. I was glued to my TV set watching news for the couple of days & chennai was submerged due to heavy rains. It was high time I stepped outdoors, thats when my buddy Sam called up with the Dostana movie plan(30th Nov). I badly wanted to watch this movie for one PRIMARY reason.. It turned my Friend into a Gay...

There is one of my friends, lets not bring his name in to the picture..
I had a recent chat with him on Gtalk, thats when he told me that he had become GAY after watching the movie. Also, he tried to make some illicit advances on chat. Thankfully since he was in bangalore & I was in chennai, I was saved. Later he confessed that his roomie was using his lappy who was the culprit and not him. I still am clueless really and dunno what to make out of it.
This incident made me curious and inquisitive abt Dostana and the promos with priyanka looking really chic were pretty motivating as well.

Ok, now back to the movie..
Its become a syndrome where I seem to miss out on first 5-10 mins of almost all movies that I have recently watched.This one was no exception. Dostana is an out and out fun and frolic movie with Abishek and John Abraham as the lead Gays, oops Guys ;) Priyanka plays the female lead and Bobby Deol is the surprise package. Priyanka doesn't fail to disappoint with her performance and not to mention her skin show. John has come a long way since his JISM days and has really worked on his act in dostana. Abishek and John make a good pair.Abishek has performed superbly and even made me think he was a real gay. I couldn't believe this guy was faking. Well again, I really have to appreciate Junior B and I for one believe this is one of his best comic performances so far. Superb comic timing! There again was this romantic scene that he shared with priyanka in a exhibition which showed his "true" colors- affinity for a GAL.I had a awesome time after watching this make-no-sense movie. Dostana for me, was a hilarious and outrageous comic caper!

Watch out for a faked dumb lippy kiss between John & Abishek Bachan.. he he ;)

My Chennai "Auto" experience

This is not my first gr8 experience with autos in chennai (*SARCASTIC PUN*). Guys, I was working in Bangalore till sometime back and am back to my roots (Chennai) now. I use Bike as my primary mode of commuting in chennai, I am quite OK with city buses as secondary option.
There was this one instance where I had given my bike at Khivraj(a reputed Bajaj showroom) for servicing. I had to take my bike back from servicing and had to rush to Khivraj(service centre) before closing time. The situation demanded a auto, so I started hunting for an auto. I stay @ triplicane and its almost 1.5 kms from my place to church park school (nearest landmark to khivraj).

Its been sometime since I had travelled in Autos in chennai, I was previously in Bangalore where auto fellas used to use something known as "METERS" in autos and if it is later than 10 pm it would be 1.5 Meter fare until 6am in the morning.
I was in for a rude shock when I started to search for an auto in Triplicane, chennai, believe me ppl: the auto fella asked me for 60 bucks for approx 1.5km. I asked him abt the so called METER which was sitting idle for which he replied "it doesn't work sir". I politely refused him and was hunting for another auto, this guy was much better and asked me 50 bucks. I was like "Gimme one valid reason why I should give 50 bucks for covering under 1.5 kms?" for which he replied "Petrol rate has increased". What am I supposed to do for it was the question running on my mind. Even before I could ask it, he shooted "You are working in IT company na, can't you pay 50 bucks?" I sarcastically told him, my company doesn't refund auto fares and asked him abt the showcase(auto meter) which was sitting idle. He got quite bugged up and left. I had to try the same with couple of other autos with no luck, one interesting observation was that if auto fellas are not interesting in going to a area they won't say 'NO' rather they ask for "ransom" fare (*HUMOUR PUN*) which is their sweet own way of saying 'NO". Since, it was quite urgent, I couldn't keep on hunting for auto-rick forever and as luck would have it,finally I did get a auto which passed my way and had to settle with a rickfella for 30 bucks which was nominal when compared with 50-60 odd bucks. When I got into that auto, I started poking at the auto fella as to why auto drivers were demanding such an "exoberant" fare and he started narrating his problems like "petrol" problem, mama issues and low meter fare per km. It was my turn to give a piece of my mind, I told him how my non chennai friends feel about Chennai auto drivers and poke fun at them? Also, I gave him a comparison of Bangalore ricks and Chennai ricks- and the perception it has on outsiders. he became silent. I took his silence in a positive way and finally got down from auto with a sense of relief. When will chennai get its Obama who could bring about the "CHANGE"?
1. Why DON'T 'namma chennai' auto fellas use METERS?
2. Are they not aware of basic manners when handling customers? I am not expecting the auto guys to speak in accented english. But atleast, if a elderly thaatha/paaty needs a auto, he could reply appropriately.
3. Can't they have their License displayed on back of their seats for passenger notice like it happens in Bangalore?
4. When is LPG going to be made mandatory in chennai autos?

"Atithi Devo Bhava" which means treat your guest like God. This is one of the biggest day crimes happening daily going un-noticed.
Well, I was wondering when our auto fellas would have a change of heart? Is someone listening or is it falling on deaf ears? When will our administration wake up and take notice of this?

Varanam Aayiram.....

Varanam Aayiram

Am just back home from 'Shanti' theater watching Varanam Aayiram. I logged onto my thinkpad to "vomit" my 2 hr 55 min experience with all you guyz. Its a movie which I loved in patches and wouldn't mind watching again as well. Gautam Vasudev Menon is a courageous director who dares with this kinda venture, quite offbeat I would say..

Well, I really dunno how the movie starts as I missed the first 10 mins of the movie thanks to my pal NS who made a late appearance with another fella. When I was finally glued onto my seat, I saw Surya in a smartly clad army uniform and narrating his flashback on a helicopter.

I really felt disconnected with Father surya and Simran's romance. Believe me, I had listened to the songs more than 1000 times had a little too much of expectations which the movie failed to fulfill. Harris Jeyaraj is amazing in his composition and has tried different synchs(like anjalaey song) and back ground score is out of this world. Music and picturusation works wonders for this movie and is a huge plus.Surya's six pack is absolutely awesome and inspiring. I really don't want to get too deep into the story as it would spoil your expectations. Varanam Aayiram is a about a guy who rediscovers life because of his parents after his love evades him. The presentation is different and you could see Gautam's touch/class in a lot of scenes.

It does tell us that life is like a circle, what goes around comes around. Of course, for people who prefer watching movies with a message, this movie does have a message "Smoking/Drugs are Injurious to health"

All in all, it is a movie which brought out the sentimental side of me and is meant for "niche audience" viewership only. When I came out of theater I saw a lot of disappointed fans who were expecting surya to do a khakka khakka sort of macho. Gautam could have had atleast 10 minutes clipped though. little lengthy i thought. But like I said, this movie is 90% class , 10 % mass and you would be disappointed if you enter with expectation other way around.

Kudos for the entire cast to dare into "Maximum Class, Minimum mass" kinda movie...

PS: Let me watch it another time to give my rating.

The "kathipara flyover" experience.....

The "kathipara flyover" experience.....

Guess One thing which is quite striking between Bombay, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai. Guess??
Not lifestyle, DEFINITELY not gals and not their IT culture either.. its Traffic jams ;)


Well, I would definitely regard Chennai as the best out of the four places with regards to traffic. Forgive me for saying this without visiting Bombay, but i was not able to make a quick trip there as my visa was held up by Sarkar Raaj ;)
Gone are the days where you could 'aaram se' lie on the beach and watch the sea or take your gal to Mayajaal and drop her before 8 pm. Well, the "Traffic snarls" has become a part of our lives that we are getting used to. For me to go to my office in ramapuram which is around 21 kms from my place. It takes a solid hour on weekdays and in peak hours, it may take upto 90 minutes. And man, if it rains- I dunno how many hours it may take. The Kathipara tread near Le Meridien in Guindy is one of the busiest roads as it is a connecting corridor to the city and entry point for most of the buses and lorries coming in and going out. Its quite a ugly scene when you come in during peak hours as there are 2 main hurdles (signals) to cross. Its been many years now that the "Flyover project" is being constructed. The Flyover project has actually compounded the traffic problem as it was using lot of space and also polluting the vicinity. Add to this fact, It was running way beyond schedule and was supposed to be completed more than a year ago. The Flyover was testing my patience for sometime now.

All this changed, when I came back to office after Diwali vacation and was in for a pleasant surprise. Thats true, on 28th october when I was on my way to office I was in for this sweet surprise and had this opportunity of using the new flyover. I had thought someone had accidentally opened the gates kept to close the flyover as it was not painted completely and looked half done and only later got to know that it was given a temporary makeover so that our CM could inaugrate it. I only hope that the work which is half done completed and doesn't stay as a political gimmick for th ecoming elections.

As per my friend Wiki, The Flyover has been completed and was inaugurated by the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Dr. M. Karunanidhi on 26th October, 2008 at 21:00 hrs IST. It was then open to the public. The Kathipara Grade Separator is now a signal free interchange that links IRR, Mount road, GST Road and Mount-Poonamallee Road and is expected to solve the problem of traffic snarls that is a common sight at this junction.... Yippeee !!

Let me tell you that this 6-lane 1.41km flyover has saved atleast ten minutes of my travel time and does not have any signals. Isn't that cool? This has definitely made a impact on Chennai traffic in Guindy area and would reduce the number of accidents that normally happens on this road. This has been "perfect Diwali" gift for all the people who regularly use this road including me. The flyover is quite similiar to the"Domlur flyover' in Bangalore except the difference being its length of the stretch. I also got to know that there is a park with fountain that is going to be constructed around it to give a "picturisque" outlook. Hmmm, looks like a nice thought but the problem with our politicians is all of them have nice thoughts but only few of them implement or convert those thoughts into action.

Being an optimist, I hope to see good things to follow... Jai Hind!