ooops suroor

‘How many of you like Himesh?’ Asked my cubicle mate. I voluntarily turned myself away from my system to get into a subject which was going on my mind till recently.
‘Why’asked preth.
Atr is still at me and expecting an answer from me. I gave a smile and told her ‘I liked him till recently’.
‘Why not now ??’
‘It’s a bit too much now-a-days. Its more of forcing to hear his music.’
‘Ya thats the point. I started hearing his voice even my hubby sings.’

‘Don’t crap ! prashu has got a better voice!’ Poked preth.
Atr gave a stern look and turned to wards her monitor.
I wanted the conversation goin.
‘Ya. U r correct. Did u noticethis. For the last three months the morning slot of Mtv has only his songs.Either his album or movie songs and he is every where’
'Ya. Also that irritating fanna fanna song.Infact they alternate' added preth.
‘Correct !. Thats the irritating part.’ Atr back into conversation.
‘Its not just in Mtv , even in V and any damn music channel.And its kinda too much now-a-days. I want to do some thing’exploded Atr and is looking at us for our reaction.

Me and preth spoke in one voice.'Ask prashu to start singing’ and turned towards our system.
Later in the day I got this picture as forward and forwarded to both of them.

knock knock...

His diary read 'I think I lost my mind. I think I stopped thinking.'
And he really meant it. He works for a big MNC. Joined just 6 months back. His company is THE market leader in its space. Has a cool n creative job, tools development on a web application server. New development projects and still not into maintainance. Nice job,Nice sal and happy environment !!!.

Then the problem started. The problem was there was no REAL problem.Not so understanding manager is every one's problem. Yet started getting frustated for every small thing. When his frustration was at its peak, one of his friend called him to have a casual chat.They chatted about everything and one such was life at the friends office.He was mentioning abt the party coming up and all the fun they are having. TO keep the conversation going he asked his friend to forward his resume to his group. After an yes, the conversation turned to another subject. He too lost himself in his world.

In three days he got an interview call.Without thinking about the repurcussions , he attended the interview and got an offer. Though the offer is not great and the work is going to be in maintainance for time being, he was happy that we will be under a more understanding manager.

Now the real problem starts.
His heart asks him to quit and join the new company. His mind advices to adjust and stay,for things will be better here in future. Being a south indian, he too believes that every one has problems and problems are the stepping stone for success. He is one guy who read a lot of self help books. He is one guy who know howw to motivate hinself when things are not in his favour. He is one guy who got things only because of hard work.He thought that he knew when to think from heart and when from mind. So the soln looked simple for him.

Yet he told his boss that he quits.Though he is not convinced of the reason. The Manager is not convinced. Its more than a week they are talking and still no conclusion. He is not telling any strong reason why he is quitting(wonder he has) and the manager is not ready to leave a employee whose productivity in last 6 months is more than most of the senior members of the team. Today the manager escaleted the issue to the director.

Tomorrow he is meeting his director for the first time.

saka@Wonder-la

With the launch of P9, the group became more cohesive and more active. Lot of mails on democracy, expressive signs, gyans, statistics and the creativity n ability to deliver sarcastic replies have increased multifold in most of us. But all the activity stops there. Never the mail chain regarding weekend meet or abt a weekend trip received more than 7 replies of which 3 will be decline mails. But somehow when the idea of wonder-la was revived again, most of us were ready to go for it with few tentative ppl who ultimately turned up. Thus some of the p9 members (totally 9 of us) roared towards wonder-la on our bikes on saturday morning.
The platins (chax terminology) were
me and bhasa -on my bike
rp and sriram - on rp's bike
subbi and kallu - on subbi's bike
jaya - jaya's bike
manoj - manoj's bike
MC - MC's bike


It was really a wonderful trip. We started off with dashing car, where I was the target since I ditched them and went for the previous round with some other people. Then the drop zone which really excited us .So we went twice in that. Then straight to Y Scream - the ultimate one.



Oops at one point of time me and manju (2 will sit together) were hanging upside down and waving at jaya and subbi . It was great . Kallu dropped out of this . Then the next one was maverick. This one was specialized in churning the stomach. We pulled in MC who along with kallu tried to skip this one. It was really a churner and luckily rp was the only victim.

Then we moved on to water rides after our lunch. The water riders were too good and enjoyed a lot. Late in the night at 7.30 we went to the gaint wheel which is on the 13th floor, followed by the musical fountain and laser show...

Over all an enjoyable one. But what I really liked was the spirit of manju , and sriram. Manju because he came in spite of his leg sprain just to make sure that this trip is also not cancelled and sriram who joined us at the expense of something which is more close to him.

Read to live,not live to Read (cont .. )

Keeping up the promise I made in read to live,not live to read post, i am updating with the books i read recently, along with my thoughts on them. Recently finished two of them. One is a novel by Ken Follet, named Whiteout. A decent one from Follet thought not one of his best. This time he ventured into drugs and bio-hazardous chemicals.(In Last twin he tried his hands on DNA replication). A Scottish company does research on/for/using deadly viruses and our heroine (ex-cop) is the chief security officer. The plot is quite steady and quite gripping till the end, though there are no unexpected twists n turns. Of course I am not expecting some deadly ones of Frederick Forsyth, but not having even a mediocre one makes it evident. But as with any Follet’s, there is some masala, this time between two teenaged step-cousins. Over all a decent read.
The Other one is a real beautiful book. Its a non-fiction by Mitch Albom, named Tuesdays with Morrie. Its really a simple, good and a must read book. The book is just all about the conversations between Mitch and his mentor Morrie which takes place during the last few days of bed-ridden Morrie. This one definitely raises the reader’s spirit and gives a new view of the life,one which not many 'worldly aspiring buddies ' will agree. A good read.
Ok, here is the updated list...
So my new list says
Michael Crichton

1. Jurassic Park
2. The Lost World
3. Congo
4. TimeLine
5. Airframe
6. The Andromeda strain
7. Disclosure
8. Sphere
9. The Terminal man
10.The Great Train robbery
11.State of Fear
-----------
John Grisham

1. A Time to Kill
2. The Firm
3. The pelican Brief
4. The Client
5. The Partner
6. The Testament
7. The Brethren
8. The Summons
9. The Last Juror
10.The Broker
11.
-------------

Jeffrey Archer

1. Not a penny more Not a penny less
2. Kane and Abel
3. The prodigal Daughter
4. Shall we tell the President
5. First Among Equals
6. A matter of Honour
7. Honour among Thieves
8. The Eleventh Commandement
9. Sons of fortune
10.

----------
Eric Segal
1. The class
2. Love Story
3. Oliver's Story
4. Doctors
5. Acts of Faith
6.


-----------------

Sidney Shelton
1. If tomorrow Comes
2. Memories of midnight
3. The Other side of the midnight
4. Tell me your Dreams
5. Master of the Game
6. Nothing Lasts for ever
7. Rage of Angels
8. Morning noon and night
9. Dooms day conspiracy
10.

--------------
Ken Follet
1. Jackdaws
2. The Eye of the Needle
3. The Third Twin
4. Codeto Zero
5. Hornet Flight
6. Whiteout
----------------
Dan Brown
The Da Vinci Code
Angels and Demons
Digital Fortress

----------------
Frederick Forsyth

1. The Day of The Jackel
2. The Devils Alternative

-------------------
Robert Ludlum

1. The Bourne Identity
2. The Sigma Protocol

------------------
James Patterson

1. Along came a spider
2.
------------------------

Others:
1. The Rule of Four : Ian Cladwell and Dustin Thomason
2. The touch of a Stranger :
3. Tuesdays with Morrie : mitch Albom

to be continued ..

So what am i currently up to? I am reading a tamil classic called Ponniyen Selvan by Kalki. Currently i am living in Chola Dynasty!!!!

A Spiritual Beginning

I wanted this Newyear Eve to be special.This  gonna be an important year for most of us. So I decided to begin with the LOU (Lord of the Universe.) Had a good, non tiring, pleasent trip to and from parthi.Had  good Darshan, both Morning and Evening. Over all , it was a pleasent experience.  O Lord, Please forgive us all and let us be in sync with you, for ever.

bye-bye 2005

Yet another year passed. 2005 gonna be an imp year in my life. Lot of events, lot of surprises, lot of lessons. Lots of ups and lots of downs. I surprised myself, reorganized myself(one of them is a major one)a lot of times, for betterment of myself and for the people around me.
For two reasons ,i will remember 2005 for ever. One is KV's marriage, the first marriage in our batch, that too after all the things he has under gone. Really an event in all our lives to whom he matters. Still remember the smile on his face immediately he tied the knot :-). It was a great trip to kothegudem, fun and educative. Educative???. ya, The mafia game, thax to jaya, is really an eye-opener for me. It just teaches you how to survive in this world by making dynamic friends and enemies. But the powerful lesson i learnt in that game is the need and the art of expressing. One needs to express himself cleverly n clearly to survive in this corporate world. 'vai ualla pillai pillaikum' is the tamil saying which reaffirms my learning. Though i am very poor in that, luckily i have big n great friends around me who are very professional in that area. They are professionals in making sarcastic, authoritative voices without hurting most of the people, so that their job is done. I am yet to imbibe those skills, hopeful of doing this by the end of 2006.:-)
The other reason is my job change. oops. what i had undergone. what are the tradeoffs, mind states, &&^^%^*(&. The Ultimate lessons at the end of entire exercise are 1. Happiness is the state of mind
2. There is nothing like great work for more that 75% of software enginners. :-)

If i ask myself how much i grew physically and mentally in this year, the answer will be a lot. Physically grew a bit wider :-) , lost some hair :-(. But mentally ? lemme see. what was i at the starting of 205 and at the end of 2005?.
1.2005 start: Always Nice to every one and help everyone. Never hurt a friend. 2005 end: IF anyone hurts you, don't hesitate to give back immediately or later. Be happy with yourself. Don't trouble yourself too much for the sake of others who don't value your actions or sacrifice. But be fair in ur dealings.

Another change is wrt my reading habit.
I always thought English novels are great. i was amazed by the works of Archer, Grisham and Crichton. When i read TimeLine i felt i was transported to 13th century, to their castles... I always wondered why no such things in Tamil. But my mom gave me a perfect answer. Then I Started reading Tamil novels. Currently i am
reading Ponniyen Selvan and i am literally living in chola dynasty. Kalki is great.

Freaky saka to moderate saka:
Earlier part of 2005 is the time i would have roamed the most till now. I didn't have a bike, yet every week end i will be in forum or MG road, thanx to jaya. Now, i have a bike, lot of friends in Bangalore , still no enthu to roam. Feeling old ?? may be!!!

Better organized:
I never knew how much i spent, how much i owe and how much i need to get back from whom. Never consistently went for jogging. But now i am much better. thax to robert and his activity management classes, i am better organized financially and in other aspects also.

What else in 2005:
Lingu's Marriage, subbu's Marriage, jaya's engagement, one of my teeth got removed :-( which made me miss the yerkadu trip, realized that i need to take care of parents and so i bought a couple of things to parents, started dealing with shares, Manoj’s arrival to Bangalore and my house shift, Bhasha’s move to my house, the rise of blog mania among my friends, Formal groupism of PV’s SPAM under platform9, visit to fashion shows and some good places, failing to get a personal loan for my friends sake, Managed to get a vehicle loan for my bike, shifted to windows from linux, Mothers health, chain mails mania , etc etc.. Ofcourse the Greatest thing for which the world will remember 2005 is the 80th birthday celebrations of SAI.

so how 2006 is going to be? Hopefully better. With all the bomb threats going around, i better insure myself :-) . 2006 will host the marriage of jaya n deepa, the must watch-out couple in Bangalore :-) . December 2006 will host the marriage of another great personality, Mr chak wedding Ms.???. And ofcourse those people
who are expected to marry in 2005 itself will get married in earlier 2006. So 2006 is gonna be YEAR OF MARRIAGES for my friends circle

bye-bye 2005 and Hi 2006. U better be nice to me ...

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
- Lord Tennyson

Be yourself

Be strong enough to face the world each day.
Be weak enough to know you cannot do everything.



Be generous to those who need your help.
Be frugal with what you need yourself.



Be wise enough to know that you do not know everything.
Be foolish enough to believe in miracles.



Be willing to share your joys.
Be willing to share the sorrows of others.



Be a leader when you see a path others have missed.
Be a follower when you are shrouded in the midst of uncertainty.



Be the first to congratulate an opponent who succeeds.
Be the last to criticize a colleague who fails.



Be sure where your next step will fall, so that you will not stumble.
Be sure of your final destination, in case you are going the wrong way.



Be loving to those who love you.
Be loving to those who do not love you, and they may change.

Above all, be yourself!

--Forward Kipling.

Apaharan kidnaps you

Hold on ... this is not a review :-)
Apaharan: A good movie with solid acting after a long time. That too two of my top favorites are in. Nana and Ajay are kidnapping you with their acting. Brilliant performances. For more info :http://www.apaharan.com
I went for this movie yesterday with jaya ,kallu,manju,bhasa,deepika,thathu,and jagan. movie is good. Worth watching.

Yesterday my friend RP, wrote a post on Mothers. A post has a touchy jpg with emotional words to which he added his own sentiments. It was really a good post which trobled me for two hours . Sitting in front of my dumb system. i started thinking of how much i miss my home. I stayed in home only till 12th. After that 7 years in hostel. Immediately after that i joined the s/w janatha of bangalore.
Now i miss my mom. Especially now , as she is not doing that well on her health.
O my God. Please, please,please..........

Never take someone for granted
Hold every person close to your heart
because you might wake up one day
and realize that you've lost a diamond
while you were bust collecting stones.

ICICI Direct

I am getting pained by ICICI direct. GOD knows whose problem is this. Because my currenty financial situation is bad :-( ,I decided to sell my shares , my only investments till now. Till now I was totally cut of from market due to some crapy training. Now, sitting on my seat, as i loggin eagerly into ICIC direct, it fails miserably. The problem is very unique. As soon as i login, the initial page containing my last login info gets displayed for a brief time after which it comes to main login page asking me to login again. ^&*)(%^$ . what thehell. Sometimes it get logged in and i can see my portfolio. But when i try to sell them it gets loged out immediately ???. Best of all, after getting logged out automatically, by clicking back button on my browser , i can go back to my previous page which dispalys my portfolio and continue accessing from there. What the hell the secure connection is doin ??? I mailed the icici authorities.. Hope things will improve soon .....

Thoughts ...

Some times,.. some random incidents, however small it may be, induces a rigorous though process in you. Atleast in me and you will believe that i "over" thing about small things, once u look at me :-) . Ok the point is i decided to put the thoughts, the final, distilled ones, on my blog, without telling what is the root cause and what is the rationalee behind the final conclusion. That will do since in majority of the situations, the final thought to convince me/console me or 'whatever' me will be a well known idom or a phrase.
Ok stopping it here and tell you the 'final line' on my mind when I got up in train in chennai on saturday morning, after brooding previous night over somethings ....

no matter how good a friend someone is, they're going to hurt you every once in a while and you must forgive them for that.

Believe

I believe the sun should never set upon an argument
I believe we place our happiness in other people's hands
I believe that junk food tastes so good because it's bad for you
I believe your parents did the best job they knew how to do
I believe that beauty magazines promote low self esteem
I believe I'm loved when I'm completely by myself alone

I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
I believe you can't appreciate real love until you've been burned
I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side
I believe you don't know what you've got until you say goodbye

I believe you can't control or choose your sexuality
I believe that trust is more important than monogamy
I believe your most attractive features are your heart and soul
I believe that family is worth more than money or gold

I believe the struggle for financial freedom is unfair
I believe the only ones who disagree are millionaires


I believe forgiveness is the key to your unhappiness
I believe that wedded bliss negates the need to be undressed
I believe that God does not endorse TV evangelists
I believe in love surviving death into eternity

These are not exactly what i believe. ;-)
These are lyrics of 'Affirmation' from Savage Garden.
Felt good after hearing them. so i posted it.
BTB, I too belive in most of them :-)

Change

The only thing that never changes is CHANGE itself.

That was the punch line of one of the university dramas during my post graduation.
That night i really thought about the changes that can come in my life.
I couldn't see much except for obvious ones like career and minor change in style of living.
But if really look back, i was really wrong. Hardly the time wheel has rotated,
yet a ocean of change in me. There are many parts in the life's sphere.
Some are work(not career), social, spiritual,health,personal discipline,feelings for others,
aspirations,food, balah,blah,blah. ALL HAVE CHANGED.

Am i feeling happy for the current changes in me?
..

I am back, again

Yep, I am back.
wanna scream like the backstreet guys "U can run u can hide, but u can't escape my ...." but i am controlling myself ...
Yes i am back , i am back to normal life. An ordinary software engineers life.
After a tiring training in which i ain't learn anything, after a lot of mixed happenings in my life, i am back to pour out my feelings and thoughts.
Yes, to pour out the feelings from my heart and thoughts from my mind ,
ironically which hardly match each other now a days..

ok .. what was happening all these days in my life ??

1. I finished my training in my new company and joined my team.
Not a great beginning, for i was not at best in the first few days in the company. Forget the best, i was not even normal on the first day. Total contrast compared to my previous company .Anyhow things are working out fine now ...


2. My friend's Engagement in kerala. Had a nice trip to Gods own land. Can't tell more on this ... I may out up a seperate post on this, later.


3. Bought my BIKE, atlast. Its a unicorn. My roomie and me have similar bike, similar color, similar helmet.Hope our taste similarity ends here ....
Also I learn't a valuable lesson in the whole bike buying exercise.

4. Started becoming more organised, thanks to robert and outlook. Started planning a bit. Also on the financial inflows and outflows. If not in 10s, but atlease in 100s, i can figure out where i spent !!.

5. Yesterday my friend was proudly telling me that by december 5th, he will have two lakhs in his account.Felt happy the way all our lives are taking. Just a year back, when we both shared the room, we used to plan how to economize our office travels. Also he will be travelling to US in april.

6. planning to take a insurance policy which won't take much premium , but gives good returns :-)


Thats all for now.
Definitely more to come ..

A 20$ Bill

A well known speaker started off a seminar by holding up a $20.00 bill.
In the room of 200, he asked, who would like this $20 bill?

Hands started going up.

He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do
this." He proceeded to crumple the dollar bill up. He then asked, "who
still wants it! ?"

Still the hands were up in the air.

"Well," he replied, "what if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground
and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up,
now crumpled and dirty. "Now who still wants it?"

Still the hands went into the air.

"My friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what
I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in
value. It was still worth $20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped,
crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the
circumstances that come our way.

Sometimes we might feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what
has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value: dirty
or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to those
who love you.

The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who we know, but by
WHO WE ARE. You are special - Don't EVER forget it."

Remember that amateurs built the ark.
Professionals built the Titanic .

The Thin Line

This post is inspired by a statement from a movie.

Lemme get directly to what i intend to put.

There is a very thin line of diffenerence between Confidence and Arrogance.

A person who is confident will say "I Can Do it" while an arrogant one will say "ONLY I CAN DO IT" .

We need to be very carefull in not crossing this line ... unless one really wants to.

 

Diwali and four days

In a way, this diwali is a unique in a for me.i learnt a lot during this period(No i am not listing them here).

Firstly, this is the second diwali after getting a job. But this is the first time i had a awareness that i should give something to my parents for diwali.

So I started to plan !! wellin advance :-). I started thinking about the things i need to buy. Aroud this time i was under going a activity management workshop

in which the trainer was emphasizing on planning. Consequent of that is my use of outlook tasks...

 

I decided to buy a gluco meter for my father. Many reasons and incidents influenced me to take that decision.

I told my friends regarding this and suprisingly none said its a bad idea. Even my sil suggested that.

I started to look out for brands and the best available brand in my range was accu check.

It costs 2400. Comes with 10 strips and 10 needles. Needless to say that the strips and needles are for single use.

The usage is simple. But i would have liked it if the blood removal process is also automated. Any case it was a needy buy and i did it.

Then i bought lot of dvds , both spiritual and movies.

 

The onward journey was a pain. The morons in ksrtc filled the special buses first before booking the normal ones. I paid some 120 extra for a normal bus.

Over that the buses were not allocated. The times scheduled in tickets were like 22.45, 22.52,23.10 , 23.15 ,  23.18 , 22.22 .  but ony buses for22.45 and 23.15 were there. others were missing till 11.00 in the night ! i don't know what they did.

 

Return was fine. Got a side lower so i didn't sleep.

 

FAMILY : Diwali Gyan

A nice story ...

I ran into a stranger as he passed by, "Oh excuse me please" was my reply.

He said, "Please excuse me too; I wasn't watching for you."

We were very polite, this stranger and I. We went on our way and we said goodbye.

But at home it is a different story how we treat our loved ones,young and old. Later that day, cooking the evening meal, my son stood beside me very still.

When I turned, I nearly knocked him down. "Move out of the way," I said with a frown. He walked away, his little heart broken. I didn't realize how harshly I'd spoken. While I lay awake in bed, God's still small voice came to me and said,

"While dealing with a stranger, common courtesy you use, but the family you love, you seem to abuse. Go and look on the kitchen floor, You'll find some flowers there by the door.

Those are the flowers ur son brought for you. He picked them himself: pink, yellow and blue. He stood very quietly not to spoil the surprise, you never saw the tears
that filled his little eyes."
By this time, I felt very small, and now my tears began to fall.

I quietly went and knelt by his bed; "Wake up, little one, wake up," I said.

"Are these the flowers you picked for me?"
He smiled acknoledgingly , "I found 'em, out by the tree.I picked 'em because they're pretty like you. I knew you'd like 'em,especially the blue."

I said, "Son, I'm very sorry for the way I acted today; I shouldn't have yelled at you that way." He said, "Oh, Mom,that's okay. I love you anyway."

I said, "Son, I love you too, and I do like the flowers, especially the
blue."

-----

Are we are aware that if anything happens to us tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of days, but the family we leave
behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives. And come to think of it, we pour ourselves more into work than into our own family, an unwise investment indeed, Don't you think?



So what is behind the story? what u thing i want to tell by this story ? As i said, when we all go home for diwali, lets us keep these in mind and make our parents happy.

Do you know what the word FAMILY means?

FAMILY = (F) ATHER (A) ND (M) OTHER (I) (L) OVE (Y) OU

on leave

Oops .. I am really Busy with my training(started mid-aug). I really started hating it but i have no option. So no blogging till 20th nov :-(

Impossible isoften untried