Crossword @ T Nagar

Two new book shops have come up in chennai in last month. Oxford @ Haddows road and Crossword @ Panagal park. Had been wanting to check them out ever since they opened. Chanced upon an ad for Crossword today in Hindu announcing RKN's MyDays book reading event. That gave a perfect excuse to visit Crossword first.

Like they have advertised, there were lots of cozy chairs where one can leisurely sit and browse through books. Also, there is a full blown cafe named Brio. Wow !! Books and Coffee...such a heady combo! Reminded me of Border's bookstore chain in California with its Seattle cafe inside. Didn't think such a shop would open so soon in Chennai.

Though this seems to be a nice place to spend time alone or with company , the collection of books is very meager when compared to the likes of Landmark and Higginbothams. Another quaint thing about this Shop is that they let you return the books you had purchased within 15 days. I wonder how they do that!!

PS: The Hindu has covered the book reading event here. Hmm..they missed out the free cappuccino distributed. Such a nice gesture from Crossword.

Slide

Slide lets you create some stunning effects with ur photos. Some eye candy to keep ur visitors interested.

a quick sample with my photos in flickr..........

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

Rashōmon

It must have been in the reviews of kamal hassan's "virumandi" that i first stumbled upon this movie name. Eversince i have been wondering how an obsure , old japanese movie can kindle so much interest worldwide. Naturally i wanted to watch it for a long time now. I could lay my hands on the DVD only y'day. Since then i have watched it twice in the span of 8 hours.

The plot is similar to a typical whodunit mystery movie but the treatment is what makes it so different. A samurai escorts his beautiful wife through a jungle. A bandit enamored by her beauty rapes her. Later a woodcutter finds the dead body of the samurai. The woodcutter , a priest , the bandit , the beautiful wife , the dead samurai recount the events in their perspective. All their views are in contradiction with each other leaving the audience to find their own explanation for the murder.

The movie so much reminded me of Agatha christie's "Murder of Roger Ackroyd" novel. But unlike the author of that novel who stresses on logical congruity of the plot , here the director wants us to appreciate the emotional aspects of the plot. The director also intentionally hides some of the vital clues which would pin point the murderer. Only the mystery of the missing dagger is explained by the shocked reaction of the woodcutter when the spirit of the dead samurai recounts its story in front of the magistrate. Apart from that , the movie mainly focuses on the ambivalence of a situation and relative nature of reality as seen as different persons.

The movie also displays excellent cinematography for its age and some amazing cross cuts. It is said that the film employs a great deal of symbolism for expressing itself . Rain symbolizing the murky nature of ways of humans is a good example. Seems that Kurosawa tinted the rain by pouring black ink into the tank of the rain machine to get the desired effect with his cameras. Many such interesting trivias about the movie are listed here .

The film is based on two short stories by Akutagawa Ryunosuke. The translation for those stories can be found here. Have earmarked it for leisure reading. Suddenly i want to see more Rashomon effect movies like Antha naal , Basic etc.

CEO blogs

Stumbled upon yet another CEO blog today . These days i read quite a bit about CEOs and their workstyles and how they manage themselves and their pack . But more often than not CEO blogs are too heavy a material for me to digest. Until i read this one....i thought i was reading a blog of a person like Steve. But no the blog was one that of a CEO of SYNNEX Canada which sell about a Billion $ in computer products in Canada.

It has a heady dose of self development articles and peppered with lot of good quotes. Coming from a successful CEO makes it all the more meaningful. I'm gonna loiter around here more often.

Taiwan diary

Tired from an uncomfortable 10 hr transit in Kulalampur and a 2 hour drive from Taipei to taichung , i was totally exhausted . I checked into Splendor hotel around midnight and one look at the king size bed , i immediately fell asleep.


Everything looked good after a good night's sleep. To say that my room reeks with opulence would be an understatement. To top it , it has got a lovely view . Lazily lying on the couch , sipping hot coffe taking in the nightscape of taiwan skyline is a gr8 way to end a hard day at the office. The complimentary buffet breakfast is very good . It has a fair share of veggie dishes along with oriental delicacies.

Solitude and loneliness are separated by a very fine thin line. Time drew out like a blade this weekend. Decided to take a stroll in the streets nearby and also check out the Sogo departmental stores. The streets reminded me so much of korea . Garish signboards screaming for attention , quaint little eateries , 7-11's at every other corner and so many tea shops . Tried a tea nicknamed Pearl harbor. Itz a milk tea served chilled with lot of black pearl like objects at the bottom. Surprised to find three indian food joints around my hotel.Traffic rules are not so strict here and ppl park their vehicles wherever they feel like. Jay walking is also much common. And there are so many motorcycles almost equalling the number of cars.

Currently hunting for a package tour which would take me to the must see places around here. Till then , this is the only view of taichung i get to see.

from a transit lounge....

I am travelling to taipei , Taiwan for a 3 week trip. The transit at Kulalampur is 10 hrs. So decided to check out what an airport lounge has got to offer me. Paid 24 USD for a 5 hr stay here. Already made the mistake of not asking whether they provide a cot to sleep in. There is none. This seems to be a "sitting lounge". More to my dismay i dont find any lockers to secure my cabin baggage. Got to lug it even to the rest rooms. Restrooms are also not good either . Itz wet and dingy.

But the buffet seems to be gud and i am helping myself to it. The ambience is warm and quiet with the specatular view of the runway. Cappucino was gr8 and it is still lingering in my mouth as i write these words.

Dont ask me y i am writing such crap ..... itz so boring here.

Takeaways from TechEd

Just returned from TechEd 2006. It not only served a refreshing break from the mundane work but also gave a good insight into the latest offerings of MS.


Some takeaways.....

>> WinFX is renamed as .NET 3.0 . So no more confusion as to MS promoting yet another framework.

>> Windows Vista will have .net 3.0 pre installed. No more hassles with packaging runtime dlls.

>> Buzzwords glossary:
Avalon -> Windows Presentation foundation (WPF)
Indigo -> Windows Commn Framework (WCF)
LINQ -> C# 3.0

>> WPF makes UI programming a mockery of sorts. If it is gonna be as easy as it sounds , companies can hire school students for UI work.

>> WCF strongly discourages using .net remoting framework as it would lead to rework of code while migrating to Indigo.

>> CLR 2.0 can be hosted in a customized way in a Win32 process using COM. We can programmatically control the way CLR allocates memory , does GC , executes managed code etc.

>> WinFS is not a new file system like NTFS or FAT . Itz just a layer over NTFS and SQL. SQL ships with WinFS and it stores the metadata of files put into WinFS folder , making it searchable in umpteen ways.

So much is happening with MS and i am reminding myself to read more on these as i sign off.

books to be read....

Books accumulated in my " to be read " list in the last one month...currently reading RK Narayanan's.

Sensex and FIIs

Accustomed to seeing a soaring sensex , watching it bleed these days is causing anxious moments for all investors. This mail fwd made so much sense inspite of its irony.

"This is what is happening in Indian Stock market. Once upon a time in a village a man appeared who announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for Rs. 10. The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys went out in the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands at 10 and as supply started to diminish and villagers started to stop their effort he announced that now he would buy at 20 rupees. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching moneys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer rate increased to 25 and the supply of monkeys became so that it was an effort to even see a monkey let alone catch it. The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at 50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business his assistant would now buy on behalf of the man. In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at 35 and when the man comes back you can sell it to him for 50. The villagers queued up with all their saving to buy the monkeys. Then they never saw the man nor his assistant, only monkeys everywhere!"

Asking the right questions

Personal development articles or books can be such a big waste of time. After finishing some of the books in that genre , i have wondered how those books sell . But i have taken a huge liking to Steve's blog and following it for quite sometime now.

Here is one of the articles based on the idea of Tony Robbins , another author i love to read.

"Strong questions are empowering. They keep you focused on solutions, on what you can control. When you focus on what you can do, you avoid falling into analysis paralysis. Ultimately the way out of any negative situation is right thinking. Wrong thinking leads you in circles. Right thinking leads to action."

More here

Cool Add-ons for Firefox

Check out this link for some cool , snappy add-ons for Firefox.

Golden gate

Few sights can be so picturesque like watching San Fransico downtown lights with Golden gate in the foreground.



An artistic engineering feat san pareil !

Grand Canyon

No matter how much you have read about or how many pictures you have seen , nothing can quite prepare you for the first sight of Grand Canyon . It just humbles you with its grandeur. The IMAX film on Grand Canyon shows a Spaniard dropping his sword and praying to God when he discovered them first during one of his expeditions. Such is the telling effect of its sight.

Though quite inanimate during the day time , Canyons come alive with vibrant colors during Sunset and Sunrise. The serenity which engulfs you when sun mellows into the horizon and the joy of watching first angelic rays of the golden sun illuminating the Canyon summits are easily some of the best experiences of your life !

Though these pictures don't do justice to the actual experience , it atleast helps me to relive those magical moments.

Pink shades....



twilight colors....



first rays of the sun.....



day break....



They say Canyon experience is much better when you trek down to the Colorado river. We had a taste of that when we started down on the Hermit's rest trail. Lack of time curtailed our trek . Am really looking forward to do that sometime in future .

this and that .....

Oh....i didnt mean to stay away for so long . Itz not that i have lost interest in keeping this journal but just that i'm too lazy to make this a habit !

I travelled to California , 2 days before diwali , missing all the celebrations at home for the third straight time . Anyways , i managed to escape the torrential Chennai rains. Thatz the bright side of it.

Haven't seen such vibrant fall colors in bay area before .... shot this at a winery in Napa.


Itz wintery now .... no more leaves on trees ! Sun disappears too quickly into the horizon. Wish it snowed here ... to enjoy that heavenly feeling of looking upto the sky , watching a thousand white flowers blossom out of thin air !

Quotes

Accidentally stumbled across my diary which I had been using as a scratch pad during my school days…..found these quotes I had collected then….

Don’t confuse mere inconveniences with real problems

I endeavor to be wise , when I can’t be merry
Easy when I can’t be glad
Content with what can’t be mended
Patient when there be no redress.

Most of the unhappiness is due to the fact that we overestimate the happiness of others

What can’t be cured ; must be endured

Things that hurt , instruct.

For all your days prepare
And meet them ever alike
When you are the anvil, bear
When you are the hammer, strike

Don’t worry over what other people are thinking about you …’coz they are busy worrying over what you are thinking about them.

Chop your own wood…it‘ll warm you twice.

Think big thoughts…but relish small pleasures.

Second thoughts are ever wiser.

Unsung song...

I first met this guy on my first day to work . We were campus recruits from reputed colleges about to work for a reputed IT firm in Chennai. He was amiable and we immediately felt at ease with each other’s company. Both of us were trying to find an accommodation in Chennai at that time. And we ended up as roomies in an apartment. Initial days were hectic with work and evenings were spent buying odds and ends for our appt. Nothing was amiss about this guy until the time we got the telephone connection to our apartment.

The telephone started ringing at unearthly hours and what I hear next would be the hushed voice of my roomie , giggles ( well guys do giggle sometimes ! ). It has to be a gal , his special one maybe I thought . It didn’t take long to get the picture…..in every conversation with him, some info trickled about the gal. She was his classmate in College….(oh..thats where it started ). From a orthodox tambram family (which explains him not taking NV….her likes over his maybe)……now in US for MS (hmmm....the late night telephone calls ).

This continued for a while. I didn’t poke my nose too much into his personal matters but nevertheless listened to him talk about her, trying to comprehend why silly things that happen between them makes him so happy or so sad. Times spent laughing with him, kidding him and consoling him made our friendship grow stronger, fonder.

Time flew….more phone calls….more rants ! It was time for her to visit her family in Chennai and as expected my roomie was very happy at that. They met up, talked a lot over coffee and mobile , roamed a bit . My friend’s cheeks would crimson with blushing, when asked about his sudden disappearances from the appt and office. I’m not a guy who jumps to conclusions …. But then the signs were clearly painting a rosy luv affair in full bloom.

Time flew faster. Our lives found its steady state in monotony. Miasma of the monochrome software profession engulfed us completely. He made occasional references about the gal , about her life in US , about her internship, about other trivialities. He would sit late nights in office to finish her assignments. She would ‘courier’ presents through her friends traveling back and he would reciprocate with Music CDs and books .All is well with them I had thought .

One fine day, he told me that she is getting married. I was shocked with the usage of ‘she’ in the sentence. The nonchalance with which he told the news was all the more shocking. He continued that it was a luv marriage and the groom, her MS classmate. The things had changed too fast for me to comprehend. Maybe I had completely misread the bonding between the two. Instinctively my mind began to pick incidents , which made me to jump to that conclusion. All that can’t be false. Or can they ?!?! The confusion lasted for a couple of days and died a natural death.

Two years have passed since then. Thoughts and talks about his so-called-affair had faded into oblivion. We were on our way to Bangalore to spend that weekend. Opposite to our seats , sat a beautiful pair , with love shining in their eyes , sharing a dream between them , talking a wordless language. I heard my friend sigh,"Wish I had been bolder and proposed her!"

started Jogging in the mornings

After some futile attempts to get early morning time slot in the Tennis club , i discontinued it and took to Jogging @ Loyola campus instead. Never expected that i would enjoy this activity so much. The serenity of early morning , chirping of birds , rustling of dry leaves under ur feet as u trot along, slight chill in the wind hitting sweat streaked face makes me feel excited about the whole exercise.


by Anthony Dunn

Morning weather is holding good in Chennai for the past 2 months. And the path is flanked with trees. So the activity is not energy sapping. After having tested my endurance level to the hilt and hit one of the park benches , the sense of numbness which descends on body and soul is deeply satisfying ! Like many things i do these days , i jog alone. Unlike many such things , i enjoy this a lot !!

Having thoughts alone for company......

Taken in twilight at Montrey Bay,California.

Duno whether itz just my state of mind ...but suddenly this pic appeals to me much more than it used to ..........

Book Tagging !

For Carnivas , who made me do this :

Total Number of Books I Own : Hmm...must be around 100 i guess. This includes all the techie books which helps me to run the rat race conducted by Microsoft , some impulsive buys which i never got a chance to read and some gud ones which i bought after i had already read them elsewhere.

Last book i bought : 51 Stock Trading Tips. Bought when i had been to Landmark @ Forum.

Last book i read : R K Narayan's 'Bachelor of Arts' . Wow ...such a good read. Elegant story telling . Was pleasantly surprised when the book echoed some of my beliefs on Friendship and Love.

Five Books that mean a lot to me :

Who moved my Cheese - Spencer Johnson: I think i must have read this book atleast 10 times now. But the Value Add never diminshes. A must have in any book shelf.

Rich Dad,Poor Dad - Robert Kiyolashki: I felt a lot wiser about Money after reading this book. Presents some radically new thoughts on Money making.

Man's search for Meaning - Viktor Frankyl : Psychiatric literature is not my cup of tea , but went head and bought this book and never once regretted my decision. The book presents such an Inspiring story of Viktor's experiences in Concentration camp . His observations give a good insight into Human thought processes.

FountainHead - Ayn rand : One of the most influential works of Literature. No fictitious character has ever haunted me like Howard Roark . Got carried away by the Story when i read it for the first time , so planning to re-read it for the philosophical angle.

I 'm right, U r wrong - Bono : Human Thinking process explained in Black n White. Bono covers entire gamut of his research on Lateral Thinking in one book .

Now lemme pass the meme to Uday ..... i 'm thinking hard to find if i have any other blogging friends........

Iruvar - Andrum , Indrum

1997 :

Was studying 12th standard then. Our gang had the habit of going to a movie on the last day of every exam. That day we had finished our Third Revision exams. The moment we came out of the exam hall , we started making plans for the movie. As all us were die-hard fans of Manirathnam and ARR , the choice was natural....Iruvar. To our utter disappointment , we found the movie to be dull ,dreary and boring ! When Aish died for the second time in the movie , all of us impulsively walked out of the theatre hall.

2005:

On a languid saturday morning , when sun was breathing down fire on the hapless Chennai residents, i chanced upon the Iruvar DVD. Thought i will watch it with no expectations whatsoever. It turned out to be such a beautiful experience. The movie was simply awesome. Excellent Screenplay , Superb Dialogues ( surprised that those were penned by Suhashini ) peppered abundantly with Vairamuthu's kavithaigal , mind boggling cinematography ( Aayirathil nan oruvan and Vennila vennila songs - a must repeatu ) , ARR's wonderful backgnd score ( ever heard that titillating kutty song when Mohanlal falls for Aish II ( JJ) after she jumps from the Jeep ??!! ) and Manirathnam's authoritarian direction.....all make this film a delightful classic.

Perhaps the best scene of the movie is when PrakashRaj shows the crowd gathered around his house to catch a glimpse of Mohanlal. PR slowly grabs the hand of the hesitant ML , prods him to wave to the crowd. ML finishes the scene with a flourish , by waving both his hands and throwing his neck towel to the crowd. Wow !! it left me totally mesmerised. Slowly but steadily , subtly but surely , the way Aish II seduces Mohanlal was another memorable sequence.

Revisiting certain things in Life after a brief span of time , will tell you how you have grown in the interim period. This film certainly told me how blind i was to the art of film making in my school days.