Disclaimer: I don’t believe that Jan Lokpal is the end of corruption. But I believe in Anti-corruption movement.

Image courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nandan_Nilekani

This blog post’s idea started from reading Mr.Nanadan Nilekani’s (NN) interview with FirstPost Political. I agree with most of NN’s points including what he said about “10 or 15 needy things”. Still I have to express my view on the anti-corruption movement and disagree with him. (Yes I know he is not Anti-Anti-Corruption.)

My opinion is, who says there is nothing good happening in India. There are a lot. But the bad things here are over-seeding good things. Now NN is dissenting with Anna. Same way Anna and other civilians have their right to dissent with the Government version.

A practical way of explanation is, If you put Sandalwood and Garlic together in a box, in due course of time, Sandal wood will start smelling like garlic. What Anna and other civilians are asking is to keep the garlic apart!

May be all politicians are not corrupted. But there is a saying in malayalam which says- “An innocent man will do the same effect of a villain!” (sorry for that poor translation. in malayalam we say ‘shudhan dushtante phalam cheyyum”). If there are so many good politicians there, why dont they urge to implement some strong anti-corruption laws? Civilians are taking over Parliament when Parliament becomes just a spectator of all the anarchies going on in the country.

And no way one can justify what ever the UPA government have done to a 74 year old Ex-Army man who played a vital role in building up a self reliant, an “All Inclusive” village from thin air. A person who played vital role in making one of the strongest existing law- Right to Information. This UPA government became the joker of the millennium by giving a warrant based on CRPCs and making a precautionary detention on a civilian leader (note- not political). There is no movement in Indian history where a fight has gone for more than two days without mass violence. For the first time, Anna’s movement set an example by conducting a protest without breaking a single public property (neither private). [But personally I feel people will become impatient and do something wrong. And the government is waiting for that. So that they can say the protest is violent and so ban this movement.]

Image courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ramesh_lalwani/5597837277/

As Arun Jaitley rightly said, government/Prime minister has to develop a will power to do something to those who send all the parliamentarians on duty – The people (you can read “The donkeys” instead. I wont misunderstand you).

I don’t know if it is only in India, when ever a law is passed in the houses, there will be more ways to escape than to be caught for wrong doings! I hope at least the so called “Jan Lokpal” will have lesser holes or smaller holes!

(PS: Nandan Sir, If I apply for a job in your office, please don’t discard my application for this comment!!)

Reference: http://www.firstpost.com/politics/nilekani-slams-team-annas-campaign-as-naive-simplistic-64103.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

I hereby drop my series on “SriLankan trip”. Reason for this decision is the below video. I am not justifying the Tamil Tigers… But…

I and Tang decided to take a walk through the Kandy town. I kept my passport in my pant pocket and came out of the hotel. Tang was already waiting at the entrance of the hotel. We walked through the gallies of Kandy in search of some souvenirs and break fast! We walked for 20 mins and reached the main road (A1). We found a nice restaurant named “Devons”. String hopes is the main break fast dish there. Many combo offers are there to opt from. I chose String hopes with vegetable curry with lot of coconut in it. Tang chose String hopes with some kind of fish curry. Everything costed us around LKR 250.

All of the sudden, we decided to go to Dambulla and later decide whether to stay there or not. We walked back to Olde Empire Hotel. On the way back, we did shop some travelling essentials. We found a department store named- Cargills’. It’s graphics and look was very similar to our FoodWorld (in India). We bought some biscuits and soft drinks for the travel to Dambulla. We rushed to the hotel, packed up our bags and walked back to the Bus station.

Reaching at the bus station, we found that Kandy Railway station is just opposite to it. Out of curiosity, I went into the Railway station and enquired about the availability of train to Dambulla. Answer was negative. There is no train service to Dambulla. So, without much confusion, we crossed the road and started searching for a bus to Dambulla. There were a lot of airconditioned mini buses which served to Anuradhapura. Those buses go through Dambulla. Hence we got in to the one which start next. We got much comfortable seats as well. Dambulla should be in the map of every traveller to Sri Lanka. Reasons are many.

The city of Dambulla is situated in the Matale District in the Central Province of Sri Lanka, situated 148 km north-east of Colombo and 72 km north of Kandy. Major attractions of the city include the largest and best preserved cave temple complex of Sri Lanka, and for Cricket lovers, the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium, famous for being built in just 167 days.

Though it is only 72 kms, it took more than 3 hours to reach Dambulla from Kandy. Main reason for the slowness is the curvy turvy ghat roads all the way down from the hill top. We started our journey at around 11am. It was damn hot outside despite being at the top of a hill station! As usual I was sleeping for most of the time. In between when I opened my eyes, I could see Tang was also sleeping. Even the driver was yawning! By 2:15pm, we started seeing boards named with Dambulla. We saw a huge Buddha statue on the left side. When asked to the conductor, he told that stop is just a few meters ahead. And that bugger drove for another 5 kms. Somehow, we got down at some bigger junction. We two walked back from that junction to the place where we saw the Buddha statue. Both of us were tired with hunger. We found a small restaurant and had food. I had the same string hopes again- successfully. Tang was lucky enough to get something better- Chicken Fried rice!

We located a small home stay named Hailey’s in Lonely planet. We asked some local people about the home stay and found where it is. It was almost near the place where we saw the Buddha statue. We could find out one room there. It costed LKR 1600. The house keeper was a lady. She told that the temple is just in a walkable distance. We took some rest for a while. By 3:30, we had a cup of black coffee and started for Dambulla Cave temple.

Dambulla is thought to be inhabited from as early as the 7th to 3rd century BC. Statues and paintings in these caves date back to the 1st century BC. But the paintings and statues were repaired and repainted in 11th, 12th, and 18th century AD. The caves in the city provided refuge to King Valagamba (also called Vattagamini Abhaya) in his 14 year long exile from the Anuradapura kingdom. Buddhist monks meditating in the caves of Dambulla at that time provided the exiled king protection from his enemies. When King Valagamba returned to the throne at Anuradapura kingdom in the 1st century BC, he had a magnificent rock temple built at Dambulla as a gratitude to the monks in Dambulla.

Ibbankatuwa Prehistoric burial site near Dhambulla, where prehistoric (2700 years old) human skeletons were found according to scientific analysis gives evidence on civilisations in this area long before arrival of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Evidence of ancient people living on agriculture have been detected in this area for over 2700 years according to archaeological findings. (750 BC)

It was earlier known as Dhamballai. This was ruled by Kings like Raja Raja Chola, Rajendra Chola, etc. during their tenure in the late 10th century and early 11th century.

Dambulla cave temple is on top of a local hill in the plains of the town. It has an elevation of 160+ meters. It has a Buddhist monastery as well as many shrines in it. There are more than 80 documented caves in the surrounding area. There are total of 153 Buddha statues, 3 statues of Sri Lankan kings and 4 statues of gods and goddesses. The latter include two statues of Hindu gods, the god Vishnu and the god Ganesh. The murals cover an area of 2,100 square meters. Depictions on the walls of the caves include the temptation by the demon Mara, and Buddha’s first sermon.

Still it is said that, Prehistoric Sri Lankans would have lived in these cave complexes before the arrival of Buddhism in Sri Lanka as there are burial sites with human skeletons about 2700 years old in this area, at Ibbankatuwa near the Dambulla cave complexes.

More details from wiki

As I had already told the bus conductor to tell me when I reach near the Dalada Maligawa, he promptly informed me about the same and I got down from the bus. I asked many people about a rest house called “Burmese Rest”. To my shock, no one knew the place. In a hope that some cops could help me, I walked towards the tooth temple. Per a police man, Burmese Rest might be near Trinity College. Burmese Rest is the cheapest place to stay in Kandy and of course in the whole island. This is because, it is only LKR 300 = INR 120 only… good huh! This is because, Burmese Rest is originally a rest house for the Buddhist Monks. There are no attached bathrooms or running showers. Still it is good if you are fine with that.

I was not able to get an accommodation there. There was another English lady – Lora who was also in search of a room. We just waited there sharing our plans. By this time another guy came in, incidentally he became my first mate for the rest of my trip. He is a Chinese national, named Ching Mung Tang. I helped Lora to contact a hotel- Olde Empire which was my next destination. Myself and Tang came to an agreement to share the room and rent. It was a fare deal as both of us wanted to save some money.

We headed to Olde Empire, located at the exit of Tooth Temple. We took a bus from Trinity College to Pansara Mawatha which means Temple Street. We were able to find the cheapest room for LKR 740. We decided to stay there for the night. After taking a shower, we both headed out for dinner. We found a small Indian named restaurant- Soumya Hotel. We had string hopes (Idiyappam) with Vegetable curry.

And we called it a day. Slept well like it is the last night of the world.

Facts: Nuwara Eliya literally means, city of lights. This city was found by Sir Samuel Baker, a british man. This is located in the central highlands of SriLanka creating scenic views all around it. Situated 1000+ meters above sea level, has world class tea plantations. Tamil people were brought here to work in the tea estates before independence. Notable point is, Tamils in the plantation area never took part in the liberation struggle. Hence, they are generally called as “Plantation Tamils”. Nuwara Eliya is called Little England due to its climate, cleanliness and courtesy.

The road to Nuwara Eliya was too good that it was like a satin spread! Rarely in some places, the road was narrow, otherwise it was better in any metric compared to Indian hill roads. We would have drove around 10-12Kms. We saw a shopping mall on the left of the road, before reaching a place called Peradaniya. We could see the board from long distance- “Royal Mall”. All of us were expecting a nice break fast. It was sad to learn that the restaurant there will start only by lunch time. We searched around and found a bakery store. Instead of Idly, Dosa, Idiyappam… we had to satisfy with Bread, Rolls, Buns etc. I had a couple of Chinese Veg. Rolls and a pinapple juice. The Pinapple was tasting like Oranges. I thought that, may be, Lankan pineapples will be tasting like Oranges. We paid the bill and continued our travel. We discussed about what we ate there. Another guy told, he also found a different taste for the juice he ordered. He told, he tasted Orange juice like Pineapple! OK. Now I understand why SriLankan Pineapple was tasting like Oranges!!

I don’t have anything to tell about the travel to Nuwara Eliya, just because, I did not see anything. I was sleeping all the time. Guys woke me up when we reached Mackwoods Tea Center at Labookelle.

On the southern side of the compound, there was a wooden planked platform. We all walked towards that place. There was a group of school students already coming out back from there. Guys were speaking sinhala as well as lankan tamil. I told myself, Lanka is the only place you can listen to good tamil.

As we approached the platform, a gorge unvieled before us. There is a deep trough between the place we stood and the opposite hill. All around us, there was green color- Tea plantations. The factory where we were was call Mackwood’s Tea Center. This was started by a Scottish navigator- William Mackwood.

One fine young lady came to us and introduced herself as a staff of Mackwoods. She was our guide there. More than 1200 hectares of land is managed by Mackwoods. Each of the tea plant has an average life span of 50 to 60 years. These plants are regularly cut into shape. For making tea, only the tender leaves are taken. She explained us about various types of teas they prepare. In that Silver leaf tea costs LKR 14000 for 50gms. They showed us how the leaves are de-moisturized, grinded into powder, further grading system. All these took almost 30mins. Then we all were invited for a cup of tea. We were given with a big pot full of tea and a mug full of milk. We mixed it ourselves and had it. I was good. We had an option to buy tea powder from there. Some of us bought kilograms of tea. I bought only 200gms because, I did not wanted to carry more weight every where I go. I bought Finning tea which was very strong, cost LKR 260. They had many flavored tea powder – Cranberry, chocolate, Elaichi etc… But they are good only for black tea. Later we came to know that, the tea that we drank there was free! Two cents less!

It was time to drive back and it was lunch time. It looked like stomach is functioning very effectively when in a foreign country. I was feeling very hungry. In a short distance of 5kms, we reached a place called “Ramboda Falls” we could see a beautiful water fall far away from the place where we were standing. Kapu told us to follow him to a hotel. We walked behind him. We had to trek down to reach the hotel! Though the hotel was in middle of the forest, prices were not like that. One vegetable fried rice costs LKR 600 + Taxes! But after having that rice, we just roamed around and found out that there was another waterfall just beside us. We have seen such waterfalls in Windows Wall papers or Mani Ratnam movies. It was so scenic that we all were clicking it from all around it! We started climbing up to our car. I learned a theory of life there. “You can walk down a hill when you are hungry. But you cannot climb up when your belly is full”.

Kapu continued his duty, to drive back. I told my friends that I will get down at Kandy or a nearby place and they can proceed to Negombo. They had a beach resort booked there. The last thing I can remember was, we passed through a rock drilled tunnel. I fell asleep. And the saddest thing happened. My friends forgot that I need to get down. Kapu went much ahead of Kandy. When I asked them how much more distance to Kandy, Kapu told, we are 30Kms after Kandy!!

I needed to reach back at Kandy, find a room to stay. And time was already 5pm.

Drive from Negombo to Kandy is around two and a half hours. The road was too much of twists and turns from the start itself. Even in that early hours, we saw that there were heavily armed military officers patrolling in motor cycles. Also, they stopped another van which was going in front of us. Kapu told that, nothing to be scared of and it was a usual procedure there. The road around the airport has been declared as High Security Area, and no vehicle should stop in that area. Else, you can expect army or police coming to you! We Indians have a thought that Sri Lanka (SL) is a war struck country and it is much backward than India. “Misconception”. SL has better infrastructure, at least with their excellent roads and wonderful communication networks. As far as I traveled through SL, all the road, there was not even a small stretch of road which was out of condition and where ever you go, you will be in a 3.5G network.

We were driving on A1 highway which was from Negombo to Kandy. After a place called Kegalle, it will start steep climbs to the hill country. A good thing is, this climb is not as tiresome as our ooty or kodaikanal climbs. The places looked very similar to interior Kerala, like Thodupuzha, Kumali and all! Houses are also in similar style only. Even in away, it felt home!! As time passed, I fell asleep in the van.

When I woke up, we were almost near Kandy. Time was around 5.30am. I saw many hoardings of Lankan Cricket players through out the roads. No wonder most of them were of Muralitharan. He hails from Kandy. We drove past the Kandy Botanical Garden. I did not feel like I am in a hill station for the simple reason, I have seen such good roads only in metro cities in India. And none of Indian metros are on hills. Cleanliness is a big big plus for Kandy. Nearly no air pollution.

Kapu told, he will take us to a place where we can have a bird’s eye view of the town. We started climbing another hill and reached a place call “Arthur’s seat”. From there, we had a nice view of the Tooth Relic Temple and the Kandy Royal Palace as a back drop for the vast lake in front of us. We all got bites from shutter bug and started clicking here and there. We started noticing an interesting thing that, SL had more verities of cars. Especially from that of Toyota and Nissan. We saw a similar car like Nissan Micra in SL and its name there was Nissan March.

Towards east, we could see a huge statue of Lord Buddha, on top of another hill. I have seen that place in “Sancharam” TV show. On the western side, we could see an old building complex which we identified as the tooth relic temple. After spending around 30 minutes there, we went down to the temple. Tooth temple has a two level security checkup. One at the entrance of the compound and next one, just before entering the temple.

A great Kandyan King named Wimaladharmaraja Sooriya I was the one who constructed this temple. Many kings after him, until the last king of Kandy- Wickramaraja Singhe has made more and more beautifications to this temple. This temple an invaluable heritage asset for SriLankan population. And for Kandy, this is part of their life. It is said that, one tooth of Lord Buddha is kept here. This sacred tooth is exhibited once in five years or when the nation is facing big troubles. Every year, in July-August season, there will be an annual festival conducted where the replica of the container of tooth is taken for procession. That is said to be the beauty of Kandy. They exhibit their rich-unbeatable culture. You can see many photos and videos in network regarding this. The festival’s name is “Esala Perahera”.

Entry to this temple for Lankan natives are LKR 10 only. For foreigners, it is LKR 1000. Still there is a discount for those who come from SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation), 50%. So, for those who come from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan can get an entry ticket for LKR 500. Condition is, you have to prove your nationality by showing your passport.

We walked to the temple. First step of the temple is a semi-circular, white colored stone with flower design on it. This is called – The Moon Stone. I stepped in to the temple to see that my friends have already arranged for a guide to explain the history and what is what in the temple. A fairly old man who has pretty good command in English explained that, the temple’s real namd is Dalada Maligawa. He started with a short history about the kings of Kandy as well as the bomb blast in 1998 by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE- A Srilankan extremist group which claims for a separate country out of the island, for Tamils. Please refer to wikipedia or other news sites for more details).

First he took us to the main shrine in the center courtyard which was painted in very strong red shades, many murals and patterns. It reminded my the murals of Sri.Padmanabha swamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram. This shrine has a ‘Dagoba’ which is the replica of the real relic Dagoba. Replica is exhibited every day thrice. Timings are 5:30am-7:30am, 9:30am-11:30am and 5:30pm-7:30pm. Main doors of the shrine were very similar to the one we see in shivite hindu temples. On the top, there will be a dragon face, and flower garland flowing out of its mouth to both sides. We saw a bowl full of water on the left side of the shrine. Chief priest who is staying in the same building will wash his body with this water before entering into the sanctum.

Just opposite to the shrine, there was a little higher platform. Once you climb on it, you can see a ‘chariot seat’ which will be tied to the back of an elephant. This one is used during the annual “Esala Perahera” festival. This chariot seat is made of silver. On the left side, there was another big Dagoba (Stupa) where people were offering flowers and poojas. We walked past to the first floor. Steps were made of wood.

Once we reached the first floor, on the right side we could see many people sitting there and praying. Armed security people were on guards. Should be something special. Guide explained. This is the main shrine which houses “The tooth”. The shrine was completely covered with gold. I also prayed for some selfish concerns and moved forward!

Turned right and could see a curtained shrine. This will be opened only thrice a day, same time as I told earlier. Also there will be the traditional Kandyan drums performance during that time. We climbed down the stairs to reach another side of the temple. We just walked across and again reached the first shrine. ‘Thissa’, our guide took us to the back of the shrine. There was a well lit hall where many people were sitting in meditation. There were a lot of Buddha statues in that hall. Out of those, a few on the dais were quite interesting. A big Buddha statue covered with pure gold, one 3-D Buddha which had some special kind of lighting. Where ver you stand, Buddha’s face will turn to you! Then a marble one, crystal…etc. One rule in this hall is not to show your back to the statues. This rule is mainly because many tourists post for photos along with Buddha as if both were school time friends! You can very well take photos of Buddha there!

We walked out of the temple to reach a small park. This park has a small, roofed platform which housed a big bell (like what KamalHasan will be ringing in Virumandi song) with a long log which is used as the hammer for the bell. This bell will be rung during the time of Esala Perahera. Dalada Maligawa is surrounded by Moats which were more than 10 meters deep, had deadly crocodiles in them. But now, only moat and water is there. No more crocodiles. All these were for the security of the tooth. We paid off the guide LKR 300 and started to the Dalada Maligawa Museum which is located behind the temple, above the meditation hall. Ticket cost LKR 10, and worth was even lesser! Museum had many detailed photographs of the 1998 bomb blast. It also housed some old ornaments, and war implements. Nothing great about it.

We exited to another museum called Royal Palace Museum. Seeing that museum, I was thinking if the kings in Kandy were so poor. It was just like my house in Trivandrum! It was too disappointing to see such a museum. They had a very old building almost 400 years old and a few artifacts, most of them were old build parts. With in 10 mins, we got out of the place.

From there, we went to the hindu temple complex, situated close to the tooth temple. There was a big stupa near the entrance. There were shrines of Hanuman, Katarakama (Subramanian – Kathirkaaman), Devi temples. After all there was an Afro-Lankan tusker. For taking a photo of that elephant, the “Elephant Driver” was asking LKR 100. We just used the Indian brain. We walked away and took a nice photograph with our powerful 12x Optical Zoom of the camera We called up our driver who parked his vehicle somewhere away. We started planning the next item in the agenda.

Guess what!

Actual plan for Day1- Find the first bus to Colombo or Kandy and visit the Tooth Relic Temple.

What happened there – To surprise me, one of my friend was also in the same plane in which I came. We met each other as we were walking to the Immigration counter in the airport. As we refreshed our friendship, I learned that Shrinidhi Hande (http://enidhi.net) was with his friends in Sri Lanka for a weekend bash. They were also going to Kandy. Seemed like they had a more clear idea on what to do in next 48 hours. Shrinidhi invited me to his group if I wish. They had already booked a 9 seater traveler there. I was fine with that deal. And decided to join with them till first day afternoon.

A few facts about Negombo where I was at that moment. Negombo (Neer-kozhumbu in Tamil) is a beach side city located about 40 Kms north of the commercial capital – Colombo (Kozhumbu in Tamil). Negombo has a considerable amount of Tamil population and is one of the most busiest place due to it’s scenic beach resorts. Adding to it, Negombo houses the one and only international airport in the island- Bandaranaike International Airport, located in a place called Katunayake. Economy of this city is from the tourism and fisheries.

There were no much hazels in getting the visa stamped on an Indian Passport, only if you are not Thiru. Thol Thirumavalavan (a self appointed political hero who supports and delivers speech on LTTE). Only thing the visa giving officer asked me was, where will I stay during my 1 week tour in Sri Lanka? I said the fact that, I have not arranged anything before coming here, but I have enough money to survive here and find out a good place to stay. Response was- “Welcome to Lanka, have a nice stay”. Gidik Gidik…Stamped!

We walked out to the airport’s exit gate. On the way, we could see these duty free shops all over the first floor. They had almost everything LCD TVs, Laptops, Media players, Cameras, Cigars, Liquor, etc. We were in search of a place where we can have a face wash and get fresh. So, we went near the Customs clearance area and passed through the green channel as none of us had any check-in baggage. We found the wash room in the aisle of green channel. One by one we got in and got refreshed. We noticed that there were many officers who were looking at us for quite a while. As we didn’t wanted any untoward incident, we cleared off the spot very soon.

On the other side of the door, there was a very large lobby with two sections. First section had SriLanka Tourism Promotion Board’s counter, many money changers and an ATM Machine. Second section had all the travel companies and mobile service providers stalls. First I went to Thomas Cook (Forex) to change my Indian Rupees to Lankan Rupees. “WE DO NOT DEAL INDIAN MONEY” was the answer from each guy. Enough of a shock. Because, I did not had much money in my bank account as well, because it was 26^th of the month! I searched out the ATM and drew a number -3000. I was not sure whether it is going to give me equivalent of INR 3000 or just LKR 3000. Later I checked and confirmed, account was deducted with equivalent of only LKR 3000. I walked to the tourism board counter and asked for giving me some idea about the places which I had in mind. He explained a few things and gave me a bunch of maps and brochures. These things became very useful for me later in my travel.

Shrinidhi called up the cab driver and spotted him. We walked to him and he escorted us to get out of the Airport. It was a Toyota 9 seater vehicle, which was arranged. The driver’s name was very complex one for even an Indian tongue. But we could only understand the first part- “Kapu” (No, it was not Kapugedara). There after we called him Kapu. Kapu ‘the sarathy’ started the journey to the hill country – “Kandy”.

An idea of what Kandy is… Kandy is the last capital of the ancient kingdom of SriLanka. It is a very well planned hill station. This town houses the Tooth Relic Temple which is dedicated to Sri Buddha. It’s Sinhalese name is Maha Nuwara. Town still holds many of the colonial buildings intact. For this, UNESCO has declared the city along with almost all buildings in the city as “World Heritage City” in year 1988. Kandy’s people are having their own cultural identity, the way they carry themselves and how they are shown to others. All together a great place.

At airport, it was an all new process for me as I have never traveled abroad before. I had already collected some information from my friend Sankar on what are the procedures there. I tried my level best, not to show that I don’t know something (as always). There was a long queue for those refugees going back to Lanka. So, we non-refugees were moved to an all new boarding counter. This helped to finish the boarding pass thing quickly. Filled up the embarkation slip and moved to emigration counter. There was quite a long queue because of the next few departing flights to Bangkok, Malaysia and Middle east. My flight was scheduled to depart at 12:30. I was in no hurry as it was only 10pm. Got the first seal on my passport there. At security check they did not allow me to take a bottle of water. The lady at the security post removed the bottle’s lid and asked me, to drink water now and dispose the bottle there itself, as they will not allow to take water inside. I was surprised to hear that. What is there in a bottle of drinking water!

Another officer asked me to open the bag. I kept my passport on a table and showed the content of my bag. There was a Tamil family coming behind me who were caught for taking some illegal medicines. They were took to some other room for further checking… oilah! I had seen this kind of scenes only in movies. I became more vigilant on my bag. I quickly packed it up and cleared the spot. Only after going a little far, I realized, my passport and boarding pass were missing. I ran back like a mad man in that lobby and I saw it on the table. I slowed down. Nicely picked it up and went back. An old man sitting near that table smiled at me! Oops! My first trip would have become my last trip as well!

An announcement came- SpiceJet to Colombo is delayed by 30 minutes… santhosham. I was thinking about that just a few moments ago and it happened. I took that time to recharge my mobile phone. At around 12:45am, we got the announcement to board the aircraft. As in a wedding feast, everyone were running towards the boarding gate. I too waked towards the gate. I expected a queue there, but could see a group of people raising their tickets and passport to the ground staffs as if they are in some fish market! Dear Indians… Please. There were a lot of foreigners there. I was thinking about what they will think about other Indians. When I looked in to the crowd, to my shock there were many foreigners in that crowd. Theory here is – Survival of the fittest. Guy at the front was shouting – “Thalli nillungappa… ellaarukkum seat undu”. How sweet na?! Ghrr!

Waited at the rear end of the crowd to get this mess over. Another old man was also standing near me. The same guy who was smiling at me in the passport event! He advised me to be careful with the passport. He suggested to put it in some plastic cover and carry it in my pant pocket. It looked a good idea. I followed him there itself. After all the mess, I walked into the aircraft through an aerobridge. Another first time experience.

This was the first time I was traveling in a Boeing (737) aircraft. All my previous travels were either in Airbus A320 or in ATR72-500. But the fact was I was not able to differentiate an Airbus and a Boeing. I found it only when I was looking through the safety manual. I just relaxed and was thinking about my plan in next two hours. My plan was to travel from Negombo (where the airport is) to Colombo in the first available bus and catch the next train from Colombo to Kandy. As an alternate plan, I thought I will see the possibility of a direct bus to Kandy rather than adding a 40KMs going to Colombo. Hoping everything to be fine. I waited for the flight to take off. In next few minutes a few guys came in and started heated arguments with the Crew members for their seat numbers. These trio are said to be booked ticket together, to sit together. And one of the seat number has got duplicated with another passenger. That passenger is not willing to change his seat and these trio were not ready to part apart. Arguments heated up and ground staff came in. They simply told that, if you want, sit in the seat we are allotting for you. Or else, get out of the plane. I think, with this, they were satisfied and sat down calmly! At last, SpiceJet SG001 Boeing 737 Jet aeroplane to Negombo (Katunayake) Bandaranaike International Airport from Chennai Anna International terminal took off from the ground.

[Start Music]

In exactly 1hr 5mins, we landed in Negombo International Airport.

Surprises waiting for me at Negombo! What is that?

[Image courtesy: http://www.allamericanpatriots.com/files/images/jet-takeoff.jpg]

Thanks to Mr.Santhosh George Kulangara for his episode on Kandy Tooth Relic Temple, in SriLanka. I believe it was more than 8 years ago, I saw that episode and which haunted me too long to visit SriLanka. Since last 4 years, I has been trying and tired but the trip was not materialized. This time, it was better planning. The mantra was- “Do not plan”.

Starting of 2011, I wanted to take a break from my office works and go unplugged. Everything in my office was going much fine this time. I had no idea of what-how-when-how much-where etc. of this trip. As a first step, I sought permissions from home department (Mother and Wife). I know my Father will not oppose my idea of touring, he always encourages these things . Got a green signal from the home department also!! Thanks Amma and Latha for that!! Next big thing was setting a vacation period without affecting my work- That too went well. Now skies are below my foot.

Started searching for a good ticket deal. All my searches ended up with our own Karuna family’s – Sun Network’s -”SpiceJet”. Ticket prices varied from 4000 INR to 5000 INR. By the time I booked my ticket, it was around 4800 INR. “No looking back”… I booked my round trip tickets for Chennai to Colombo on 26-Feb-2011 and back on 5-Mar-2011. Getting a clean sweep of one whole week.

I had certain defined intentions in this trip. They were:
1. Experience a travel, alone in an alien land, where nobody knows you-you know nobody.
2. Experience a new culture, new kind of people, new kind of food.
3. Visit those places where there is some new kind of history, which I have not seen yet.
4. And Buddhism was a good reason.
5. Get some Visa stamped on my passport. No matter if it is SriLanka or Nepal! Some Visa.
6. An international vacation without much damage to your bank account.
7. To say- “Hey, I also went on a vacation to a foreign country”.
8. To find some good place where I can take my better half to. (Ding!)

Till the date I was about to depart, no one in my office was aware of where I am going and what I am going to do. Most of them asked me to bring banana chips when I return. On the last day, I revealed to some of my friends, that I am going not to Trivandrum but to SriLanka.

The time between my ticket booking and journey, I utilized some time to get a good idea on where to go and what to see. But mostly, I didn’t find out where to stay and left it open for the journey’s fun. My itinerary was as follows:

Negombo → Kandy → Nuwara Eliya → Kandy → Dambulla → Sigiriya → Polonnaruwa → Anuradhapura → Colombo → Galle → Negombo

Too much..huh! But this was my initial itinerary.

As usual, I tried to get out of my office a little ahead of time. As usual, I was not able to do so. As usual, I was rushing to reach home and start to Airport. One good thing was, my brother was at home. Later knew that, he came early to see me off to SriLanka. Sweet bro.. na? We went to the Meenam restaurant opposite to the Officers’ Training Academy and left to Airport. I just made sure I have nothing but my Passport and Ticket. All were good. In a few minutes, my long time dream is coming true. Good reason for an excitement.

…

Courtesy: http://www.noktahhitam.com/how-to-install-garmin-xt-on-nokia-5800-symbian-s60-v3.html

I recently bought a Nokia 5800 and asked if the shop keeper could install Garmin XT for me. Guess what? He wants to charge RM 80 (USD 20) for that!

It turns out, it is pretty tough considering my lack of expertise when it comes to Symbian OS phones. I spent 3 days experimenting all possibilities to make it work on my phone. Since it took a lot of my time, I’m going to save yours by teaching you.

Before you do anything, Download the file (80 mb ++) and read all the instructions before hand. It’ll help you to visualize the process.

Download file contains

* GarminMobileXTforSymbianS603rdEdition_50040.exe
* GarminMobileXTFreeBasemap_4xxxx.exe
* GarminMobileXTSupportFiles_4xxxx.exe
* gmapsupp.img (Malaysian Map, with DUKE highway)
* garmin_kgen.exe
* 5800_manual.pdf
* GarminMobile20_GarminMobileXTOwnersManual.pdf

Note: You can skip part 1.

1. Setting up Apparatus, The Nokia 5800

1. Back up all data using PC Suite (go to Nokia website).
2. Soft reset by pressing *#7370#. Should take about 2-3 mins and you lose all your data (except on memory card). But don’t worry, you have back up remember?
3. On your Nokia 5800, go to Application > Location > Positioning > Positioning Methods. Enable “Assisted GPS” and “Integrated GPS” ONLY. This will ensure you don’t get charge using WAP or 3G network for Internet.
4. Go to Application > Location > GPS Data > Position > Options > Satellite status. This will show the satellite signals you’re receiving. Be sure you are outdoor in an open area. Balcony doesn’t work well, believe me I’ve tried. Once you’ve got AT LEAST 4 satellite signal, go back indoor, you don’t want people to think you’re crazy, waving your phone around.
5. Now you’re ready for GarminXT.

2. Installing GarminXT on Nokia 5800.

1. Once you’ve downloaded, unzip the files to someplace accessible preferably on your desktop. If you haven’t, please download it.
2. Connect your phone via USB and select ‘Mass storage mode’.
3. From you PC, double click “GarminMobileXTforSymbianS603rdEdition_50040.exe” to install and wait.
4. Double click “GarminMobileXTFreeBasemap_4xxxx.exe” to install. Wait..
5. Double click “GarminMobileXTSupportFiles_4xxxx.exe” to install.
6. Remove USB connection between PC and phone. When prompted ‘Launch GarminXT’ do not click Yes, just Cancel.
7. From your phone, go to Menu > Settings > Application Manager > Installation files. There should be GarminXT.sis file. Install it.

3. Cracking GarminXT on Nokia 5800.

1. Tell yourself and say “Yes, I’m a cheapskate”.
2. Run GarminXT from your phone at Menu > Application > Garmin. It will prompt you with some settings. Choose your preferable.
3. Select “Use other device” when it prompts you to buy or trial. You will get a screen, “Where To?” and “View map”
4. In GarminXT, go to Tools > Settings > About. Jot down “Card ID”, you will need it. Exit GarminXT
5. On your PC, run “garmin_kgen.exe” and enter the “Card ID” from previous steps.
6. Generate it and you will get a string of codes. Copy the codes to Notepad and save it as “sw.unl”. *Be sure you don’t save it as sw.unl.txt”*
7. Connect your phone to PC and select “Mass storage mode”.
8. Copy “sw.unl” to Garmin folder. Usually located at E:/Garmin.
9. Copy “gmapsupp.img” from downloaded file to Garmin folder. “gmapsupp.img” is the Malaysian map.
10. Disconnect your phone from PC.

4. Restore your Nokia 5800

1. Reconnect your phone via PC Suite.
2. Restore your settings through back up.

5. Setting up GarminXT on Nokia 5800

1. You don’t need your PC anymore. Shut down and conserve energy.
2. Run GarminXT on your phone.
3. Go to Tools > Settings > System > Remote GPS. Change to “Use Attached GPS” by disabling the “Bluetooth GPS”.
4. Go to Tools > Manage My Data > Map Sets > MapSource. Make sure all maps are enabled.

6. Toying GarminXT on Nokia 5800.

1. Switch off your fans and lights. Go out.
2. Run GarminXT, (duh!).
3. Select “View Map” and wait for a while. The satellite will find you. It took me 5 mins or so. Just have patience and faith.
4. Now you’ll see where you are.
5. Go back and select “Where To?”. If you’re at home and wants GarminXT to store you current location as home, then select “Home”
6. “Where To?” is rather confusing. I usually use “Where To?” > Point of interest. There’s lots of shopping malls, hospitals, banks, ATM machines etc. from there, you’d know where to go.
7. Pat yourself and say “Well done”. The rest is up to you.

Note: I will NOT be providing support. If it doesn’t work for you, you can leave a comment and hope someone will rescue you. Google it!

~part – 2~

Here is something that I found myself googling and experiments…

How to install Indian map in Garmin Mobile XT

You can download the Indian Map from this torrent: http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5272640/Garmin_MapSource_City_Navigator_India_2009.30_img_version

Steps to follow (This is what I did!):

1. Connect mobile to PC in Mass Storage mode. Go to: Computer\Nokia 5800 XpressMusic\Memory card\Garmin
2. There will be two .img files GMAPBMAP.IMG-Base map and GMAPSUPP.IMG-Malaysian map (which comes with the installation)
3. Download the indian map image from the torrent.
4. Rename it to: GMAPSUP2.IMG
5. Copy to Computer\Nokia 5800 XpressMusic\Memory card\Garmin
6. Safely disconnect mobile from PC.
7. Run the Garmin KeyGen.exe in PC. Type your UnitID (already know where is this. See the first post)
8. First, click generate for software unlock code.
9. Select map product as custom mapset.
10. It will show a dialog box. Type the FID as 281
11. Generate map unlock code.
12. Copy the newly generated code and save it in GMAPSUP2.unl
13. Copy to Computer\Nokia 5800 XpressMusic\Memory card\Garmin
14. Enter the two codes in Garmin XT when asked (better save these in a text file.)
15. Good to go. You are done!!

Image courtesy: http://gpszone.ro/infusions/pro_download_panel/images/55.jpg

I am following the theory- “One picture can talk thousand words”.

Total of 46 participants.

This is how people were able to distinguish between vilakku and jyothi.

Those who think they understand vilakku and jyothi tell this...

These many people realize that they are being cheated.

Cause of the mishap

Straight question- Is it man made? Here, you need to see that "No" and "I don't know" should be considered collectively as "No". People are ignorant!

There is no corrective action. Only preventive action is possible... That is to educate people more about the facts of these rituals. Only TDB and Govt. can do that.

This is how the 46 people think about the moral right of atheist thoughts in this matter. In straight words, majority thinks that Atheist groups have nothing to do with Sabarimala issues.

What more?!

Survey is closed

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• To understand the distribution of people who drive vehicles in India
• To suggest readers on best practices
• To bring to notice that what dangerous practices we have and to realize it
• Future: To use this statistics along with suggestions for corrective actions that can be taken

Specimen

• 63 persons who have a valid Indian Driving License
• Most of the specimen were from South India

Outputs

• 35% of people consider themselves as good drivers; Whereas 8% believe they are the best and 5% not good drivers.
  
• A very good practice- Using helmet/seat belt while driving is followed by 59%, always. 27% use it most of the times.
  
• 48% agree that they do rash driving, at least only in emergencies. And a funny finding- 29% of people do rash drive sometimes, without any specific reason.
  

  No, I don’t rash drive	17	27%
  I penetrate through narrow gaps between other vehicles	22	35%
  I neglect pedestrians	2	3%
  I jump signals	2	3%
  I go through “No Entry”s	2	3%
  Over speeding	28	44%
  Other	5	8%

• More than half of people do not use mobile phones while driving.
  
• More than 50% of people met with accidents, in which 30% of people claim that the mistake was on the other person. I believe there were people who hit on cattle and claim it was the cattle’s mistake. It is up to those who participated in the survey to make a discretion.
  
• There are two kind of people who can be considered as dangerous drivers- those who drive zig zag and squeezing between other vehicles. Here is the statistics
  




• Out of 59% of people who were caught by cops 38% were never changed with any penalties. Others are charged on various reasons
  
• 38% percent of cases, cops accept bribes whereas rest were truthful!
  

Many of the participants believe that a centralized-integrated penal system should be in place.

—000—000—

SURVEY IS CLOSED

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Show for the day one is over. A grand money drain festival that liquidized $6,85,50,000. Don’t think this is a small amount of money. When converted to Indian Rupee, it is Rs. 3,108,057,010.46 (Three Hundred and Ten Crore Eighty Lakhs Fifty Seven Thousand and Ten Rupees, Forty Six Paise Only!!)

Big surprise was given to the cricket fans, when beloved ‘Dada’ became the ‘Sorrow of Bengal’ who got no takers this time. Many expected this would happen to the great wall as well. But he got a berth in Rajasthan Royals. Further, Chris Gayle was also orphaned… I wonder.

Big shots this time are not creating any wonder as they are expected to do so! ‘Chhottu’ of India, Gautam Gambhir topped the price tags with Rs.10,88,16,000 (Near eleven crores). The young brigade followed suit the price tag hikes – Robin Uthappa, Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma, Irfan Pathan. All near ten crores! Cool packages… huh (sigh).

All did well except a couple of enigma shots from Kochi team. They bought VVS Laxman and Ramesh Pawar. VVS Laxman is still a nice pick. But why Pawar, he has no good record. Somehow.. I am not a penny on this. So, it is ok for me!

Out of hundred players auctioned on the first day, 84 were picked up by some one and 16 were disappointed.

List of people who were discarded in IPL Auction 2011:

I was free today… If I am free tomorrow also, I will record it here!!

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1. Rajinikanth killed the Dead Sea.
2. When Rajinikanth does push-ups, he isn’t lifting himself up. …He is pushing the earth down.
3. There is no such thing as evolution, it’s just a list of creatures that Rajinikanth allowed to live.
4. Rajinikanth gave Mona Lisa that smile.
5. Rajnikanth can divide by zero.
6. Rajinikanth can judge a book by it’s cover.
7. Rajinikanth can drown a fish.
8. Rajinikanth can delete the Recycle Bin.
9. Rajinikanth once got into a fight with a VCR player. Now it plays DVDs.
10. Rajinikanth can slam a revolving door.
11. Rajinikanth once kicked a horse in the chin. Its descendants are today called giraffes.
12. Rajinikanth once ordered a plate of idli in McDonald’s, and got it.
13. Rajinikanth can win at Solitaire with only 18 cards.
14. The Bermuda Triangle used to be the Bermuda Square, until Rajinikanth kicked one of the corners off.
15. Rajinikanth can build a snowman out of rain.
16. Rajinikanth can strangle you with a cordless phone.
17. Rajinikanth can make onions cry.
18. Rajinikanth destroyed the periodic table, because he only recognizes the element of surprise.
19. Rajinikanth can watch the show 60 minutes in 20 minutes.
20. Rajinikanth has counted to infinity, twice.
21. Rajinikanth will attain separate statehood in 2013.
22. Rajinikanth did in fact, build Rome in a day.
23. Rajinikanth once got into a knife-fight. The knife lost.
24. Rajinikanth can play the violin with a piano.
25. Rajinikanth never wet his bed as a child. The bed wet itself in fear.
26. The only man who ever outsmarted Rajinikanth was Stephen Hawking, and he got what he deserved.
27. Rajanikanth can do a wheelie on a unicycle.
28. Rajinikanth doesn’t breathe. Air hides in his lungs for protection.
29. There are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Rajinikanth lives in Chennai.
30. Rajinikanth kills Harry Potter in the eighth book.
31. If you spell Rajanikanth wrong on Google it doesn’t say, “Did you mean Rajanikanth?” It simply replies, “Run while you still have the chance.”
32. Rajinikanth has already been to Mars, that’s why there are no signs of life there.
33. Rajinikanth doesn’t move at the speed of light. Light moves at the speed of Rajinikanth.
34. Rajinikanth knows Victoria’s secret.
35. Water boils faster when Rajinikanth stares at it.
36. Rajanikanth was once on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune and was the first to spin. The next 29 minutes of the show consisted of everyone standing around awkwardly, waiting for the wheel to stop.
37. Rajinikanth kills two stones with one bird.
38. Google won’t find Rajinikanth because you don’t find Rajinikanth; Rajinikanth finds you.
39. Rajinikanth gave the Joker those scars.
40. Rajinikanth leaves messages before the beep.
41. Rajinikanth once warned a young girl to be good “or else”. The result? Mother Teresa.
42. Rajinikant electrocuted Iron Man.
43. Rajinikanth killed Spiderman using Baygon Anti Bug Spray.
44. Rajinikanth can make PCs better than the Mac.
45. Rajinikanth puts the ‘laughter’ in manslaughter.
46. Rajinikanth goes to court and sentences the judge.
47. Rajinikanth can handle the truth.
48. Rajinikanth can speak Braille.
49. Bullets dodge Rajanikanth.
50. Rajinikanth can teach an old dog new tricks.
51. Rajinikanth calls Voldemort by his name.
52. The last digit of pi is Rajanikanth. He is the end of all things.
53. When Rajanikanth enters a room, he doesn’t turn the lights on,……… …. he turns the dark off.
54. Ghosts are actually caused by Rajanikanth killing people faster than Death can process them.
55. Rajinikanth’s calendar goes straight from March 31st to April 2nd, no one fools Rajanikanth.
56. Rajinikanth grinds his coffee with his teeth and boils the water with his own rage.
57. The last time Rajinikanth killed someone, he slapped himself to do it. The other guy just disintegrated. Resonance.
58. Rajinikanth once had a heart attack. His heart lost.
59. Rajinikant is so fast, he can run around the world and punch himself in the back of the head.
60. Rajinikanth can run at speed of light around a tree and screw himself.
61. Rajinikant can lick his elbows.
62. Rajinikant once ate an entire bottle of sleeping pills. They made him blink.
63. Rajinikant does not get frostbite. Rajnikant bites frost.
64. Rajinikant doesn’t wear a watch. He decides what time it is.
65. Rajinikant got his drivers license at the age of 16 seconds.
66. When you say “no one is perfect”, Rajinikant takes this as a personal insult.
67. In an average living room there are 1,242 objects Rajinikanth could use to kill you, including the room itself.
68. Words like awesomeness, brilliance, legendary etc. were added to the dictionary in the year 1949. That was the year Rajinikanth was born.
69. The statement “nobody can cheat death”, is a personal insult to Rajnikanth. Rajni cheats and fools death everyday.
70. When Rajnikanth is asked to kill some one he doesn’t know, he shoots the bullet and directs it the day he finds out.
71. Rajinikant can give pain to Painkillers and headache to Anacin.
72. Rajinikanth knows what women really want.
73. Time and tide wait for Rajinikanth.
74. Rajinikanth sneezed only once in his entire life, that’s when the tsunami occurred in the Indian ocean.
75. Rajnikanth taught Voldemort Parseltongue.
76. Rajinikanth collects Honey from his private Moon – HoneyMoon.
77. Rajinikanth can answer a missed call.
78. Rajinikanth doesn’t need a visa to travel abroad, he just jumps from the tallest building in Chennai and holds himself in the air while the earth rotates.
79. Rajinikanth’s brain works faster than Chacha Chaudhury’s.
80. Rajinikanth doesn’t shower. He only takes blood baths.
81. To be or not to be? That is the question. The answer? Rajinikanth.
82. The quickest way to a man’s heart is with Rajinikanth’s fist.
83. Where there is a will, there is a way. Where there is Rajinikanth, there is no other way.
84. Behind every successful man, there is a woman. Behind every dead man, there is Rajanikanth.
85. Rajinikant doesn’t bowl strikes, he just knocks down one pin and the other nine faint out of fear.
86. Archaeologists unearthed an old English dictionary dating back to the year 1236. It defined “victim” as “one who has encountered Rajinikant”.
87. There is no such thing as global warming. Rajinikanth was feeling cold, so brought the sun closer to heat the earth up.
88. Once a cobra bit Rajinikanth’ leg. After five days of excruciating pain, the cobra died.
89. Rajinikanth is a champion in the game “Hide n’ seek”, as no one can hide from Rajinikanth.
90. Rajinikant proves Newton wrong all the time. Every time he performs an action, he simply eliminates anything and everything that can provide the reaction.
91. Rajinikant is a weapon created by God to use on doomsday to end the world.
92. Aliens do indeed exist. They just know better than to visit a planet that Rajinikanth is on.
93. We live in an expanding universe. All of it is trying to get away from Rajinikanth.
94. If at first you don’t succeed, you’re not Rajinikanth.
95. Rajinikanth’s first job was as a bus conductor. There were no survivors.
96. Rajinikanth does not style his hair. It lays perfectly in place out of sheer terror.
97. When Rajinikanth plays Monopoly, it affects the actual world economy.
98. It takes Rajanikanth 20 minutes to watch 60 Minutes.
99. Rajinikanth’s house has no doors, only walls that he walks through.
100. Rajnikanth doesn’t answer nature’s call nature answers Rajnikanth’s call!!
101. Rajanikanth does not know where you live, but he knows where you will die.

Courtesy: E-Mail forward from my friend Haresh Subramanian.

Company description:

CSS Corp is a global information and communications technology company with an impeccable record for designing, developing, deploying and managing end-to-end IT and network services. From application development, testing and optimization through to enterprise-level cloud enablement and round the clock technical support services, CSS Corp provides a truly impressive range of quality services that focus on delivering strategic value and operational efficiency for its customers.

You can send me your resume to santhoshj@gmail.com. Please put correct mail subjects (see respective job descriptions)

1. Java / J2EE requirements

DU : PSO
Experience : 3 – 8 Years
Qualification : Any graduate
Location : Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Required Skills:
Should be strong in Core Java, JSP, Servlets
Should have good experience in Hibernate / Spring / Struts
Should have experience in Web services and Junit
Should have good communication skills

Mail subject: CSSCORP-HPR-J2EE-KL

2. Software Application Testers

DU : PSO
Experience : 3 – 7 Years
Qualification : Any graduate
Location : Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Required Skills:
Software testing experience in Credit Cards / Loans / Mortgages / CRM and Wealth product application is a MUST
Should have experience in Unix & SQL skill sets
Should have good communication skills

Mail subject: CSSCORP-NN-APPTEST-KL

3. Designation : Technical Architect
RRF : 4049
DU : Development & Testing
Experience : 8 – 14 years
Location : Chennai

Required Skills:
Minimum of 8 years of experience in software development, Java and system integration
Full life-cycle implementation experience (requirements, design, implementation, integration, testing)
Must be well versed in Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and J2EE Architecture
Should have experience on the .net framework- Microsoft technologies
Should have at least 3 years experience as team lead or project lead
Experience in Junit / JMOC test driven development
Experience in agile methodology
Should have experience working with JAVA spring framework

Subject line: Java – Technical Architect – KVV

4. Designation : Assistant Systems Analyst / Systems Analyst
DU : Dev & Testing
Experience : 6 months to 5 years
Qualification : Any graduate
Location : Chennai

Required Skills:
Should have minimum 6 months development experience in Sfdc/force.com/Salesforce
Should have good experience in OOPs Concepts
Should have knowledge in cloud computing
Should have good communication skills

Subject Line : SalesForce Professionals-TA

5. Designation : Assistant Systems Analyst / Systems Analyst
DU : Dev & Testing
Experience : 2-4 years
Qualification : Any graduate
Location : Coimbatore

Job Description:
Good experience in C# / Java
Good Knowledge in MS Sql server
Strong Web development skills including CSS, JavaScript, DHTML, HTML, and XML
Good knowledge in object oriented programming
Basic ideas in cloud computing and SaaS
Knowledge about CRM on-demand
Fundamental understanding of Web Services is preferred
Excellent verbal and written communication skills

Subject Line : Force.com Developers-SSM

6. Designation : Systems Engineer
RRF : 4551 ,4671
DU : Manage Infra
Experience : 3-6 years
Location : Chennai

Required Skills:
Good knowledge of Remote Monitoring / Administering Linux Servers
Hands-on in Linux Servers (Redhat )and good knowledge in DNS, Apache, Sendmail, NFS and DHCP Services
Good knowledge in scripting, networking and understanding of data center architecture
Working knowledge in Oracle and Windows servers
Good communication skills

Subject Line : Linux Administrator – SE/SSE -KS

7. Designation : Network Engineer / Senior Network Engineer
RRF : 4704
DU : ETAS
Experience : Minimum 3 years of experience
Location : Chennai
Time Zone : Need to work in 24/7 environment

Primary Skill:
Good understanding of OSI Model, TCP/IP protocol suite (IP, ARP, ICMP, TCP, UDP, SNMP, FTP, TFTP).
Bridging and switching concepts, LAN technologies such as Ethernet – CSMA/CD.
STP – IEEE 802.1d/ IEEE 802.1w, IEEE 802.1s
VLANS, Tagging – IEEE 802.1q, 802.3ad
IP addressing and sub netting, Routing concepts, VLSM/CIDR.
Working knowledge with routing protocols – RIP V1/V2, OSPF
BGP v4, IS-IS, VRRP, MPLS, RSVP, LDP, HSRP AND VRRP
Excellent Communication Skills
Secondary Skill:
Should have experience in configuration and troubleshooting high-end networks
The ideal candidate will be an Engineer, who is a self-starter, with excellent interpersonal, communication, documentation, problem solving and troubleshooting skills
Quality focus, result & goal orientation in a group situation and commitment to customer delight are a must
Sound fundamentals and in-depth knowledge of Networking Concepts
Certification such as CCNA, CCNP, CCIE will be an added value

Subject Line: Network Engineer – RRF# 4704-RCJ

8. Designation : Application Specialist – Premier Support (BMC Software)
DU : ETAS
RRF No : 4330
Location : Chennai
Time Zone : Need to work in US, UK time zones (24/7 environment including night shifts)

Required Skills:
IBM WebSphere & UNIX (HP-UX, AIX, Solaris, Linux) & Database

Role:
To provide support to enterprise users. To interact with them and resolve the issues (Voice, e-mail & chat)

Primary Skill
BS degree in CS / EE or equivalent experience
Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Strong debugging / troubleshooting skills
Minimum of 1-2 years of Customer Support Experience
Experience with administration of Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP and UNIX (HP-UX, AIX, Solaris, Linux)
Proficiency in Java, C / C++
Database experience, specifically Oracle and MSSQL
Directory Service / LDAP, specifically Active Directory, Netscape / SunONE
Networking Experience: working knowledge of TCP/IP, Load Balancer, Multiple Domain environments, firewall, proxy, etc.

Job Description:
Interact directly with the customers to resolve technical issues via phone and e-mail in a timely manner
Acquiring and maintaining current knowledge of relevant product offerings and support policies in order to provide technically accurate solutions to customers and record these resolutions for general use.
Perform minimal Java programming and java debugging to find root cause analysis
Work with QA / Development to resolve problems that are related to the code, or the logic behind the code.
Work with QA and beta test new releases of the products.
Test and reproduce defects before escalating to Development.
Test and provide workarounds for customer issues and notify customer care management team of any potential escalation issues.
Designate which defects/problems are the most important to be fixed and document related information in the Defect Tracking and Customer Support CRM.
Provide Product Management team with a customer perspective in driving the roadmap for the future direction in the development of the product.
Maintain interaction with Sales force and Professional Services to insure customer needs are met and growth opportunities are maximized.
Contribute to the Knowledgeable, FAQ and Tech-Alerts to customers.
Works effectively in teams with customers, engineering, system integrators, and enterprise account managers, product management, documentation, training and QA.

Subject Line: Application Specialist – RRF# 4330-ISS

[Experience from one of my previous company]

I am trying to explain my experiences with arranging team outings. My experiences are so bitter that I had decided that I’ll never again take the responsibility of managing another team outing. The simplest reason behind that was, “I am a poor people manager!” I can deal with anything other than people. I get out of control when I see indifferent attitude of people.

This image is intentionally put here to mislead fake readers!! You will not understand... but it has some reasons

I categorize people into Five types-

1. Those who are complaint boxes – sees only faults and flaws in everything and anything: Cribbers

2. Those who were active before their marriage, and now they are afraid of their wives: Gynophobics

3. Those people who really has some limitations: Genuine reasons

4. Those who are willing to contribute to a common cause: Contributors

5. ?

Category One: Cribbers

Symptoms:

• According the beliefs of this kind of people, they are always correct and all others are dumb asses!
• Cribbers always do counter arguments for whatever options you give to facilitate them.
• They believe that, in a company sponsored trip, Company will take care of all expenses these gentlemen are going to make!
• They act like they don’t know the fact that company will be allocating a budget for each head. (normally that amount will be sufficient for a one day outing in and around the city, and nothing more than that)
• They will never pitch in the extra expenses that are incurred for “their” travel. (Even a mere Rs.100/-. When you ask them to pitch in an extra Rs.100, the reaction will be a big “OOOH” with their jaws falling down and “nooru roobaaya?” as if they were asked to put their whole CTC!)
• At the end of each conversation, they will ask- “What are we going to do their?”
• For each destination option given, there will be at least one reason on which they decide not to come.
• They will always have a sarcastic smile which means; anyway this trip is not going to happen.
• They will ask more questions than those who really are going to tour.

How to handle these people

• Leave them. They will not listen to anybody.
• They just want to show that, they are brilliant, superb and machos! Reality, they are losing their own dignity.

Conversations:

Organizing team: How about going for a one day trip to ECR?

Cribbers: Oh gosh! ECR again? How many times will you take us to those &*$^@#$%! resorts in ECR?

After much home works and researches

OT: How about trip to Kodai or Ooty?

C: Those are too far. Why can’t we go to Moonnar?

(WTH?! Moonnar is even farther than Kodai/Ooty)

OT: Let us see the possibilities.

(OT researches again)

OT: We will not be able to accommodate so much of distance with in a weekend.

C: Oh! You are talking about a trip in a weekend?! I thought we are going on a working day!!

(OT-Mind voice: Bloody #$@#%@$%, Don’t you have a thing called brain or what? When did you go on an office team outing on a weekday?)

OT: Sorry, for going out on a weekday, we need permission from our Management as well as client. Else, we will have bad hit on billing.

C: Ok. So, please go ahead and get permissions

(OT-Mind voice: To hell with. Who are you to tell me to get the permissions? I asked you whether you are coming or not!! Answer to the point)

OT: Sure buddy. Will come back soon.

(OT speaks with managers, clients. Output: No. We cannot leave office on a weekday. Team outing only on weekends)

(OT works on weekends calling many resorts. Browsing all the day, to find out a good place to visit with the team. At last finds a place-Wayanad. But it needs atleast 3 days for the whole trip. OT talks with Managers and gets permission for one day Comp. Off. The trip will be arranged on a Sat-Sun-Mon. For the Monday’s efforts, people should work on another weekend. But this needs client’s approval.)

[Will continue…]

Category Two: Gynophobics

Symptoms:

According the beliefs of this kind of people,

• They are very much concerned about their wives.
• They tell,
  • “She will not be feeling comfortable if I am not here”
    • OT-Mind voice: Be with her and scratch her back occasionally
• “I have some work on that day”
  • OT-Mind voice: We know you will have some work. At least do some work on “that day”
• “Due to family reasons… blah blah blah”
  • OT-Mind voice: We are born to the streets. Only you have a family.
• “My father-in-law is coming home…”
  • OT-Mind voice: Good. Plead to get some more money from him.
• “My wife will be ill…”
  • OT-Mind voice: Fine. If she is not ill, please make her at least ‘pregnant’
  • Ø You can see a fear in their eyes when they talk to you. This is because; they actually want to come to the trip. But if OT succeeds in convincing them, they will get nice blow from their wives! (Blow with “chappathi kattai”…)

How to handle these people

• Leave them. They will listen only to their wives. (They are actually poor invertebrate creatures)

Conversation continues:

OT: Guys, we have spoken to our client and we have got approval for one day’s comp. off.

Gynophobics: So, when are we going?

OT: We will be going on a Thursday evening and back on a Monday morning.

G: Oh! Three days?

(OT Mind voice: Don’t you know counting?)

OT: Yes boss. We will need that because we have to travel more than 500KMs.

G: I think, I can confirm you by day after tomorrow morning.

(OT Mind voice: For confirming what? You are not coming?)

OT: Will you be able to tell that before End Of Today?

G: That is tough. Still I will try.

(After 5 minutes)

G: Sorry, I have a problem in my family on that day. So, I cannot come.

(OT Mind voice:  What a nice family? You people are planning and conducting ‘problems’ in family? Nice man… Fuck off)

OT: Oh! Is it? Fine. Please carry on.

G (another one): Sorry man, my child has exams on next month. So, I will be sitting with him.
(Reality, if he didn’t teach his child, his wife will teach him a lesson)

G (another one): I have a family function fixed on that day. It just got fixed now.

(OT Mind voice: Good that you fixed it on the same day. I don’t want you to be in the trip)

OT: Good. Carry on.

Category Three: Genuine Reasons

Symptoms:

• They share their problem.
• Talk facts

How to handle these people

• If those are real problem which you can find some solution for, they will fix it and join the outing. So, try talking to them.

[Conversation continues…]

GR: This is my problem.

OT: This is the solution for this.

GR: Great. It is fixed. I will join you people.

OT: Welcome aboard!

Category Four: Contributors

Symptoms:

• They will look like they are nuts
• They talk on phone a lot
• They talk with HR Department
• They talk with Managers
• They break their head on Finance and Mathematics

How to handle these people

• Nothing to do… They will join themselves.

[Conversation continues]

[Conversation ends]

(Really, they don’t talk about coming to the trip)

Category Five: Unknown

My brain is not matured enough to understand them.

Symptoms:

• Unknown

How to handle these people

• Unknown

[shubham]

Peter wrote:

Date: 27-Sep-2008, Saturday

As promised, Nagala/4 would be an interesting one, better then all previous
Nagala’s put together.

32 CTC trekkers started off along the main stream, crystal clear water generously flowing in which we swam and from which drunk. The water was amazingly fresh and cool, a natural rejuvenating spa for the body and mind. The taste was enchanting. The stream was sprinkled with small and big boulders, bounded on both side with lush greenery and cut deep into the surrounding hills over thousands of years not seen yet by humankind before. Words can’t explain the experience of walking through this peaceful and serene terrain… (Simply can’t understand why most people spend their weekends in the concrete Chennai city jungle… you guys are missing out on life…) We met 3 major obstacles along the river – deep water pools surrounding by steep vertical rocks – the first and third we conquered by
swimming through with the help of a long rope. The second one we circumvented by climbing over it. We took a dip in several smaller pools along the trail.

Towards the late afternoon we reached a split (named Nagala/6 and Nagala/7 respectively… in the stream – at both sides the water was falling down higher up past we could not immediately proceed. With another 1-2 hours before dark we decided to climb steep uphill on a surrounding mountain to set up our camp for the night. The climb was very steep and tricky, rocks falling down, people holding on to tree branches trying hard not to slip. We reached a fairly flap grassland sprinkled with small rocks where we put up the camp. After some theplas and cup noodles everyone fell deep asleep. An
exhaustive 12 hour trek from 7am till 7pm.

In the morning we climb further uphill and spotted the original Nagala/1
target – a 800+ meter high peak in the center of the Nagala mountain range
somewhat 3km away from our camp. Although water resources were limited and
several valleys separated us from the peak we decided to give it a shot. 16
brave members took off while the others took rest near the camp. The sun was
beating down hard on us, water was running low, the terrain of long grass
and rocks along the non-existing trail was though. We started around 7am and
followed several adjacent green slopes until we reached the base on the
target peak. From there we had a really though climb with no water left and
burning sun on top of us. Sweat was dripping, the legs were trembling,
throats were dry as sandpaper, spirits were low, people close to dehydration
and mental/physical exhaustion, we pushed on and finally reached the 820m
peak around 11am. The mind blowing views, the cool mountain breeze, the
feeling of accomplishment, the spirit of team work immediately made us
forget all the pain, sweat and thirst. The feeling was indescribable -
seeing the entire Nagala mountain range at our feet. We went through hell to
reach heaven. We discovered several new streams, a second entry point in the
Nagala range and a mysterious small hut in the middle of nowhere. We will
soon be back exploring new trails again…

Then came the descend, a steep, long trek back to the night camp, throats getting dryer and dryer, some people were close to passing out, sun relentlessly beating down on us, close to desperation, little shade along the path. We finally reached back to camp exhausted around 2pm and hope was low to exit the hills the same day. Meanwhile two brave souls had climbed down to the river and returned with several bottles of water (still not enough for so many thirsty people). Water never tasted this good! There was no way we would be able to make it back before midnight along the onward
trail – too many obstacles along the river. So we decided to take a new, unknown return trail straight over the hills, crossing several valleys in between. It was navigation using intuition, sense of direction and knowledge
of the terrain (after three earlier Nagala-s and studying Google topomaps) more than using the modern technology GPS. We started climbing down and up across several grassy/rocky slopes Southeast. We finally reached an upper
(dry) stream, found an entry point through dense bushes surrounding the stream and climbed along the stream  sprinkled with big boulders downstream.

Everyone was extremely thirsty, visions blurring the mind, knees trembling under the weight of our backpacks, stomachs empty, body near exhaustion. When will we find water, will we get out before darkness, will we get lost in the jungle? We proceeded further downstream until we finally came across some stagnant, slightly dirty pools, some members unable to resist the thirst and drinking from the same. A little further we reached another dead-end (4th one this trek) – a steep 10 meter drop in the dry stream, impossible to scale. So we climbed up along the steep rocks bordering the stream and created a trail to circumvent the dead-end ending up at the
bottom of the steep drop. From there again we proceeded along the narrow stream, cut deeply inside the surround mountains, crossing several smaller pools until we finally met running, clear water allowing us to drench our relentless thirst. God heavenly! Water never tasted this good! Amazing feeling! At the same spot we hit another steep 15 meter fall in the river bed which prevented further progress.

Kannan/myself (ahead of the rest to find a trail home) climbed up along the
steep left side of the stream along a 85 degree vertical rock until we met
the grassy foothills of the surrounding mountains. Climbing back to the
stream seemed impossible as it was too deep cut inside the hills with
vertical walls on both sides and probably more steep drops along the stream
would prevent further progress. It was 5pm… the sun setting behind the
mountains already… Another 200m climb brought us at the top of a local
peak from which I could see that we were getting closer to the main stream
from which we started the previous day. I went ahead and climbed down on the
other side of the hill trying to find an access point to the main stream
avoiding patches of dense thorns and steep rocks which were impossible to
proceed over, the climb down was extremely steep. I finally reached the main
stream around 6pm, tracing the trail with the GPS so we could find it back
during darkness when the group would be ready for the descent.

After enjoying another 2l of cool Nagala mineral water and dumping my
backpack, I climbed up again along the steep slope I rejoined Kannan and the
rest of the group helping out those in the back. Everyone was happy to hear
that we would make it back home the same day instead of spending another
night trapped in the jungle. We regrouped at the top of the peak when the
night was falling and prepared for a slow, steep descend in the dark guided
by the GPS. Rocks were falling, feet were slipping, people were falling,
some were sliding down on their bumps, we finally made it down around 8pm.
Everyone enjoyed the cool, refreshing water after a 2 day ultimate
experience which stretched both body and mind beyond what most think was
possible. As usual we saw CTC team-work at its best, previous unknown
individuals helping each other overcome some of the toughest physical
obstacles they had ever faced in their lives, creating new life-long
friendships and memories. Thanks to all the great guys and gals with
amazing, selfless spirit who helped those in need, stretched out the helping
hand, shared that last drop of water and made this trek another successful
mission. I believe this is the essence of CTC. It took us another 2 hours to
reach back to the cars, dipping inside a big, cool pool along the way to
clear all the sweat of the past 2 days. Finally, I reached home at 5am this
morning after one of the best and toughest CTC treks so far. Never felt so
good and alive!

We will soon be visiting this trekkers paradise again. Stay tuned!

Just for this one trek, Peter, I will never forget you… You took care of us like a father does his children. Thank you Peter.

I haven’t seen any other music director create musical passages with so much importance given to help the singer get to his starting note.  He is also probably the first music director to re-use the same tune for different emotions/scenes showing happiness or sadness, it is here IRs vast knowledge on notes/what note combinations can produce what feeling, and in what octave to play to get a required feel, helps. For example, a major chord signifies boldness, smartness etc ( play any major scale like C/F/G) and immediately if you play the minor variation of the same, you’ll get a different feel…there are so many such helper chords available like added 9th,5th,sus4,maj7 min7,augmented etc, when used in a proper sequence you can create so much of musical emotion just by playing these chords alone ( you don’t even have to change the base scale), couple such sequences to a beautiful video track and you get an amazing sequence.

He also makes sure that the emotions/feel the director wants to convey in a frame is heard through his music, a simple example is evident in the song “Katta Vaandi” from the movie – ” Sagalla Kalla Vallavan” , where Kamal makes fun of Amibka as her car stalled and that she had no other way to reach home untill Kamal comes in his old fashioned bullock cart, so keeping this situation in mind, the instrument IR uses for the Ist BGM of the song pefectly fits the shot/it’s required feel. Another blazing example is in the song ” Poovae
Sempoovae” from the move “Solla Thudikuthu Mannasu”  where the director wanted to show the rising tension/disbelief in Kartick’s face as he sees Licy on stage, to this effect IR uses a fast paced bass track, a fast drum track and skillfully placed strings/veena. He also ensures that every part/instrument has it’s own place, it;’s own specialty moments and signature.

Another notable aspect to his orchestration is the inter-mingling of notes with which he creates unbelieveable harmony – a striking example is the song “Kanmani Annbooda” from the movie “Guna”, just notice how the bass lines play along with the melody. His background score is even more amazing, one striking example – the background score of Anjali is heart rending, so is Hey RAM and Mouna Ragam.

More to follow…

I have a lots to say about IR. I think it was some 15 years ago that I first had heard a song that he made. This was the time when VCRs were around, so one of my dad’s friends had given us a video tape that had the song “Nilavaee Vaa”  from the movie Mouna Ragam. I was barely in my teens then, didn’t know tamil, but as i heard this song, my mind was captured to the intricate style in which he orchestrated the song. The sequence, parts layout, harmonization,chord usage – everything was superb ( something  tha I”ve never heard before at all. I immediately wanted to get more and more songs from the same composer, but since my tamil knowledge was limited, and most of the students and friends I knew never had an interest for his music(they themselves were probably in the same boat as I was). Days and years passed by, still I didn’t have much on IR, but I used to hear songs from him frequently – not knowing  that those songs were again his compositions. My next reaction to getting his songs came from “Oliyum Oliyum”,  I had quite a hard time ‘judging;’ his music because my benchmark was a song like Nilaavae Vaa only. I was spellbound to later realise that he has surpassed so many laurels and composed for so many films.

There’s one particular incident that took me 6 yrs to get that song. This song was featured many times in Oliyum Oliyum, but since I didn’t know to read tamil, i couldn’t get the song. I used to faithfully check every broadcast of the programe. The strings arrangement on this was fantastic. IR’s knowledge and his dexterity to use strings (and wind percussion) remains unbeaten. I went to Malaysia as a part of my work and there found the name of the movie that the song was in and finally got the song. It is called “santhosham endra santhosham” sung by S.Janaki for the movie ” Manithanin Marrupakkam” . By this time i began to understand what to look for or to expect from an IR number, and i was getting used to his style of arranging/scoring. It really helped me because i was a great listener, and a growing musician. It’s  a different thing when you know  to sing a song and a totally different thing when you know to play that same song. It’s as if you are going through the same emotions and feelings that the composer had when he was creating that song. from then on, I slowly started to take interest in all his compositions. I even went to purchase VCDs of movies where his songs were hits, just with these songs the movies that had them were hits too. His improvisation knows no bounds..for example take the BGM of Mouna Ragam, this (in popular circles) is loosely connected to the soundtrack of the hit English movie – Flashdance. Giorigo Moroder did the original soundtrack for the movie. If you listen to the soundtrack of Flashdance and then listen to the BGM of Mouna Ragam, you can notice a common thread, but that’s all that you’ll notice. The common thread being the feel and the tempo of the music there.  IR composed something to that effect but a totally different chord progression and feel to it.

I am an 80s freak, I love both Tamil music and English music of the 80s. As my knowledge slowly started to increase about IR, i started a journey to collect his masterpieces (it’s still an ongoing process) and I discover that each of his songs have a story to tell, be it the simple – Kanae Kalaimaanae or the gusty Illamai Idho Idho…the way he composes, the way he arranges, the way he chooses what instrument for what part, the octave it should be played, the positioning of the same in the stereo field (instrument panning), how effects can be applied, and how much of it’s application help a song, what all instruments need effects and what effects to use (based on the feel of the song), to give a striking example, take the song “Panni vium malar vanam’ from the movie “Nineivellam Nithya”. This song has a fast feel to it and just after the introduction has been played and as the song starts off, there’s an electric guitar being played (strummed) that catches your ear. This guitar has a unit attached to it, this unit is called a Phaser and it modulates the clean electric guitar tone to make it sound as if it’s coming out of a rotating tube, more like how you see waves on a sea shore, couple that Phasesr to a compressor and a chorus, you get beautiful tone.  This effect was necessary to give that song a raunchy feel, if you play the song without that effect, there’s something missing – and the clever part here is that the frequency of these waves is matched to the tempo of the song. His knowledge on harmony is remains unbeaten, his 500th film Anjali is a treat for every musician. The intricate arrangements in  the title track Anajali is such a delight, he makes it look as if all the instruments ‘talk’ with each other as in , these instruments are correctly panned left/right and have different parts to play, so as one part is over, the next part starts up from the right and then left, sometimes together. (as heard in the II BGM of Anjai and II BGM of the song “Singalathu Chinna Kuyilae”  from Punnagai Mannan)

The way he arranges strings/violins makes you happy or sad, as in the songs – Sandhosham endra Sanshosham from the movie Manithanin marrupakkam, or Idhayamae (title track), the other point to be stressed is that wind percussion is probably one of the difficult parts to play as it’s played by humans. Unless you have proper breath control, proper wind pressure, you cannot play percussion, especially when it comes to fast notes at fast tempos also slow (long notes) where you have to hold. It’s also tough to get wind percussion play at any octave as these instruments depend on wind pressure to sound, so if there’s no adequate pressure from the player, trumpet hits wont have a punch. For every wind instrument, there are a variety of options that come along,..for ex: in trumpets you have bright trumpet/solo trumpet/jazz trumpet etc…each of these leave a particular signature on the song.  Another reason why most people get instantly latched on to songs that are made by him ( or by composers of his time) is the authenticity and naturality of the instruments used, to be more specific, the tones used. Before the advent of modern digital recording,everything was analog, which means for a recording you’d have 2 tabala players, some more percussion players veena’s, violins,guitars etc etc, when these instruments get recorded, the sound that the instruments produce, the dynamics introduced into the environment, the recording ambience, the natural warmth of the instrument are all captured by the microphones and these are recorded as analog signals ( basically a change in voltage). Now with digital technology, (though its very very beneficial), the actual process of the whole chain of recording revolves around bits/ 0s and 1s. Though clarity and depth of each instrument tone has been reproduced accurately, the sharp shrillness of the new age instruments/samples/rack boxes seem to take a toll on our ears. You can hardly listen to a song more than 5 times with today’s music, whereas if you put a song like Sangeetha Megam or Paatu Thalaivan or Nee Oru Kadhal Sangeetham – you can play it for a long time, as the sounds there don’t irritate you or hurt your ears at all.

He’s probably the only music director to use everything that was available to him, even guitar effect units were not spared. His level of understanding harmony and  the knack of mixing the correct notes to give 2/3/4 part harmony is outstanding – a perfect example – rajja raajathi rajan – from Agni Nakshathiram. He brought in the bass guitar, an instrument that was only used in Western music into tamil films. Song that feature a lot of bass guitars – Devanin Kovil – from the movie Aruvadai Naal, ( the bass guitar plays notes that’s related to the melody in the background), there are different styles of playing for a bass guitar,  you have fretless bass, slap bass,picked bass,acoustic bass and many more, IR has used all of them, particularly in songs like Raja Raja Cholan from the movie Rettai Vaal Kuruvi (Slap Bass), Pattu Ingae – from the movie Annanagar Muthal Thiruvu, Thumbee Vaa from the Malayalam Movie Olangal. All these effects/ style of playings/differences in arranging /chord inversions/rhythm changes were all just getting developed and were never heard in Indian music till IR came along. Today we have everything available to us, music production is more like making fried rice where you just throw in all the components necessary to make a sequence, add some effects and then vocals, polish the vocals with a touch of compression/eq and your song is ready. It has become so affordable that anyone who has a net connection and a decent fast computer can make music in seconds. If IR could do all this and much much more, (when nothing of this even existed as theories) then he is the king of music.  His music gives life to every frame of a movie, and as much as he makes music, he also does know the power of silence too. Apart from his music, lyrics also played an important part in shaping a movie, you don’t get lyrics that make you think these days, it’s just pure commercial logic that exists today. Take for example Poonkodi than – the song from the movie idhayam, analyze the stanzas, or any good song, can you ever imagine to get lyrics like that today ? or take Sangeetha Megam  from the movie Uthaya Geetham.

It’s true that you can’t contain someone like IR in lines like these or by blogs/websites etc, his music is the universe in which all of us live. He has done so much and achieved so much in music, that today most of us take certain things in music for granted. He is instrumental in creating fades ( where the volume of the track reduces over time) stuff like fade in , fade out and cross fades, he is also instrumental in creating stuff like intro sequences for a hero, musically creating empathy,pathos, etc. His arrangements are all tight, with different variations to a common rhythm pattern. The differences in rhythm create different arrangement opportunities for a song, the result of which you see in film where a song is sung in a a happy mood and the same song is sung as a sad slow song. His chord progressions are fantastic, the use of diminisheds,major 7ths,minor 7ths, added 9th/5ths/ etc and when coupled with root inversions (for bass), creates /lifts the song, a simple example – the introduction for Vaa Vaa Paakam Vaa – from the movie Thanga Magan, his use of the human voice as an instrument is also a new thing – the shining example being Raja Raajathi rajan – from Agni Nakshathiram and also the starting part for the song Devanin Koyil.

More to follow…

[image courtesy:http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_lsxB2f-l77c/SIl7OFIXpaI/AAAAAAAACuM/ci9aeszEZT4/s320/ilayaraja2.JPG]

I was in Trichy for last two days for wedding of my colleagues. During the stay there, I got a chance to visit the Rock Fort.

The rock fort is the main icon of the city of Thiruchirappally, better known as Trichy. The above image is the bell room of the temple. Primarily this was a temple which abodes shrines of Lord Ganesha, known as “Uchippillaiyar koil”, Lord Shiva, known as “Thayumana swamy”, Amman and Lakshmi Devi atop the rock. It provides a wonderful view of the whole city. Night lights here is very beautiful!

Though it was a temple from the age of Pallavas, it was subsequently handled by Vijayanagara samrajya, Nayaks of Madurai and British. During Vijayanagara period this rock was fortified and used as a watch tower and garrison. Hence a Bell room there.

Geologically 83 meters high rock is one of the oldest in the world, dating back to 3 billion years. Shape of the rock itself is very interesting, which looks different in each angle. A banner seen there…

Interesting!

More photos here: Picasa web

Dear readers, I am joining nammude boolokam website in the e-campaign led by them for saving Mullapperiyar dam. I hope all like-minded people will join us. Pictures used in this post are taken by Mr. Faizal Muhammed who is a photo journalist for a leading print media in Kerala. Faizal published all the mullapperiyar related photos in his blog two years before. One can see the pathetic condition of the dam in the photos below. The funniest thing is, almost all media have the same kind of photos and visuals. But no one is publishing it in their media. Just because of vested interests and their not-so-serious mentality towards a catastrophic disaster which will occur in Kerala in near future. Let us do something, at least the smallest thing that we can do in regard of Mullapperiyar.

I, along with Nammude boolokam request readers to spread the word across; if possible, translate this article to Tamil or a better English article. So that an awareness is created.

Many people still believe that the so called dangerous situation in Mullapperiyar dam is just a hype created by Kerala government and Keralites. I hope this article will atleast show some shocking scenes from the ground zero. Mullaperiyar dam is one of the oldest of its kind in South India. It was built before 110 years using some jurassic technologies, which the builder himself tells the ‘estimated’ life of dam is 50 years. The dam breach is 60 years over due now!

This dam has a height of 54 meters (177 feet) and a basement of 44.2 meters (145 feet). It is built with a mixture of Lime stone and mortar. When it was built, there was no reinforced concrete or similar techniques. The engineer who built this dam calculated that this dam will stand for 50 years. After building the dam there was an agreement between princely state of Travancore and then Madras presidency. It was purely an unfair dealing. The agreement says of leasing out the land area of reservoir for 999 years.

Kerala was giving water to Tamilnadu. It is, and it will. No problem. Problem comes in the other way. The dam is not safe to carry water more than 136 feet of water. Tamilnadu wants it to be raised to 142 feet. Whereas in late 1970s itself central water committee suggested not to raise water level beyond 136 feet as the dam is not in fit condition. Fact is that even in 136 feet water level, Tamilnadu will be able to get water. Another interesting fact is that Tamilnadu pays Andhrapradesh Rs. 3 crores per TMC of water, and Rs. 40,000 for 70 TMC of water! Shall we call it incompetency for Government of Kerala? We should!

See the image below where you can see the week wall of the dam. You should see the cross section of the dam in the image above also to understand the impact of a breach!

Mullaperiyar Dam as it is seen with water level at 115 feet.

Image below,you can see the cracks very clearly. Generally the security system there will not allow anyone to photograph this. Once, Indian navy was called for to photograph the cracks in the dam. But after boarding the boat, Navy got a call from ‘Higher’ authorities to come back! Understand, this “STRONG” wall is protecting the lives of 35 lakhs+ people who live downstream and 5 districts which are in the vicinity of this dam.

Cracks to take lives

Water seeping into the wall through the cracks

Plaster on the wall of the dam eroded due to constant contact of water.

See the reservoir of Mullaperiyar! Good. Right? What Tamilnadu say is even if the Mullaperiyar dam is breached, Idukki dam will be able to stop water at it. Hey TN, what are your trying to say? Just forget about the thousands of people who are living between Mullaperiyar and Idukki dams? (Then, why can’t we forget people in Tamilnadu?!)

This is the gate of the “Srikovil”! Key is with Tamilnadu. What a pity. Our neighbor has the key to our home! And for sure, it will not be opened to a Keralite.

Here comes the super scenes. The below is inside the tunnel. Reservoir is on the right wall of this tunnel. You can see water oozing from the wall. Mind it. It is not any intended hole or crack. But it is one which developed in time course.

Breach of this dam will be so disastrous that, the high court building in Eranakulam will be under water! So, think.

Dear Tamilnadu, Please don’t try to say that all these photos are taken inside my home!

I wish I get more details and photographs in this regard. Please pass the word…

Save Mullaperiyar Dam, Save Kerala

Credits for the pictures goes to Mr. Faisal Muhammed. Thank you Faisal. You did a wonderful work.

Anything which is going out of control will revert back one day. I believe, media in india is nearing its death. Or atleast the bad time for them will start soon.

I’m writing this post with two incidents in mind. 1- media frenzy created by telecasting live shows of cheap politicians who are challenging each others for a bunch of goondas- mr.pinangrayi vijayan and k.sudhamakaran. They behave like local rowdies calling the other one for a fight. As the case is being investigated by police, politicians need not interfere it. And media need not pay attention to those a** h***s who are making unwanted noise. For atleast one week, people in kerala were getting no news other than goonda mafias, pinangarayi, sudhamakaran and paul muthoot. Did nothing else happened parallel in kerala? I wonder. Media had only few words to say in a jumbled manner; repeatedly…police, goonda, mafia, pinangrayi, sudhamakaran, paul, muthoot, s knife, black smith…WTF!!
2-The poor crorepati Mr.Shashi Taroor. All because of a good habit…tweeting. What ever he told is correct. Atleast the contreversial tweet… The holy ‘mother’ cow and holy ‘son’ cow are the biggest cheaters. Mr. Taroor started travelling in economy class much before the austeres. Proofs are floating over the net. And the holy cows were doing dramas! Travelling in second class train for a while… And the holy son spent more than a crore to roam around in tamilnadu, not for the country, just for his f***ing party… Holy cows are always holy… And they holy s**t.

I just wanted to vent out my anger towards the media…

Yes man… Indian media sucks…screw it!

Sankara says:

"naaristhana bhara naabhee desam
drushtwa maaga mohaavesham
edan maamsavasaadi vikaaram
manasi vichinthaya vaaram vaaram"

Yes it means what you are thinking of! Being emotional on thinking of a sexy butly’s body is just a lust. It is all flesh and bone…the same things that you have in you. Remember this again and again.

Some times your work environment will seem to be a heaven. You will see all good things in it. May you praise it! May be you become poetic on it. Looking very closer to each detail of a thing. Project or work is just an example. Let it be some other useless thing. Still the whole world is running with ego, greed and diseases. Life is always tough man…! Believe it. It is never a cake walk. Elaborating this, Sankara says:

"nalini dalagatha jalam athi tharalam
thath thwath jeevitham athisaya chapalam
viddhi vyaadhyabhimaana grastham
lokam soka hatham cha samastham"

A drop of water on a lotus petal will be very beautiful to see. It is poetic and romantic. But it is very uncertain too. It’s life will end when the sun starts staring on earth. The same applies to human life also. Here, instead of sun, our own greed works out to make ourselves uncertain.

Along the long history of human race, there had been many teachers, spiritual leaders, “Gurus”. Some of them went from detachment to salvation. Some went from Sex to spirituality, Dwaitha to Adwaitha, Humanity to Spirituality… enough! I am here a guru- of self. I go from Information technology to Spirituality. I walk in the shoe of Sri Adi Sankara. I use his shoes only! Path is my own.

***** End of blabber *****

I woke up from my bed. In the background, sweet voice of my favorite singer- MS Subbulakshmi was singing the usual song- “Bhaja Govindam”. It is a song which can relate to human life at any point of time; which can be related to a man who is in any stream of life. “Brush your teeth”, there came an order from my father! “OK Appa”, Said I and in a half thought, I walked to the wash basin. Still my mind was roaming around the words-

“bhaja govindam, bhaja govindam
govindam bhaja moodha mathe.
samprapthe sannihithe kale
nahi nahi rakshathi dukrinjkarane.”

Thought, thought and thought… I was going mad… What is happening to me? Am I becoming Swami Santhoshaanandaji?! Nuts! With my limited knowledge in Sanskrit, I learnt that Sri Sankara is trying to say- “Worship govinda, Oh fool! Rules of grammar will not save you from your end of life”.

Say, in a life of a software engineer. Lot worry about the work the whole day. At the end of the day, we are all disappointed with the fruitlessness of our work and life. You may say, you are very much satisfied. But the satisfaction that you are feeling now is just a false feeling. You try to believe that you are satisfied.

Daily we see people who always complain about their job. They are paid very less. “Macha, my friend is in XYZ company da he is getting x lacs salary da….” and so on. My question is “Why didn’t you get job in XYZ company?”. You didn’t study well. You didn’t perform in the interview. Your attitude was not right. And now, you are in a company which pays you according to your performance, caliber and all other blah blah! Just for the sake of getting more money you look out for another job! What a fool you are… Sankara says:

“moodha jahihi dhanagama thrishna
kuru sadbudhim manasi vithrishnaam
yellabhase nija karmopaaktham
viththam tena vinodaya chiththam“

Means- “Hey fool, just stop running behind money. Understand and devote to the reality (Your aggregates are low!). Be ready to face any reactions for the actions you have already done in the past”.

You didn’t study well. So, you are paid low. Now, you need to build a good career. Be stable in a company for some time. Yield goodwill. Be ethic. And then search for another job. Rather than just switching the job every year!

How great Sri Sankara is… He might have foresee the recession periods and IT booms in his age itself?!

Yaar… I am going mad… Please forgive me if I continue this article!

Rock on, is surely a different kind of entertainer. The greatest thing I liked in the movie was the story was successful in keeping suspense for a long time, for showing the reason of the breakup of the band. The threads between the present and past were blend perfectly. The ins and outs of the flash back were simply great! Farhan Akhtar, Oh man… he is superb. He is such a multifaceted personality! Still it is hard to believe that he sung those beautiful songs himself!! The opening song- ‘socha hei kya’ makes any kind of audience to stick to the seats. Starting with that and until ‘Sindbad the sailor’ it was superb. Not only Farhan, Arjun Rampal, Purab and Luke played their roles very well. It seems Arjun Rampal learnt playing guitar for this movie. Because when the music is played, his fingers on the guitar tabs seemed very realistic. Also the ladies team- Prachi, Shahana and Koel done a great job. Though in a small role, Nicollete bird too did well.

One thing… The movie being a music based one, the song music was not that much extra ordinary. It was just like other bollywood movies… nothing special in it. Especially when it comes to percussion instruments, the songs were just above average. Those guitar leads were marvelous. It seems to be loosely based on Tom hanks’ directorial movie- That thing you do. Director groomed Rock on really Rocking!

And Saroja… saamaan nikal diya.

Tamil film industry’s real strength is the wide pool of talent who can tell usual stories in an unusual manner. Saroja has a story which simply resembles a Scooby doo or Richie rich cartoon! I heard somewhere, this movie is an inspiration from another English movie- Judgement Night. It starts something like the Eurotrip movie, four friends going out to another city and facing hell lot of problems and how they escape from all those problems comprises the story. One does not need to compromise anything for this movie. All commercial components were well mixed in this family entertainer. Not like other contemporary movies, vulgarity is nominal in this movie.
Shiva’s TV serials, the golti brothers and the washbasin mouthed Premgi really rocked it out. Venkat Prabhu excels in treating the situations in different angles. The frames of the chase were wonderfully captured. The factory, I think it is the old Binny Mills, plays a great role in creating a horror effect in the spectator’s mind. I could see people sitting at the edge of the seats during the chase sequences.

Songs department handled by Yuvan, kept its loyalty. ‘Dost bada dost’ and the engagement songs are really good. The picturisation of the song ‘Kodaana kodi’ looked like a mock to ‘Kathaazha kannaale’ of Anjathe, except the sexy hip shakes of Nikita Tukral. She was awesome!

Something that really entertained was the moment when Premgi ask Charan- “Yaaru sir antha figure?”! And the spoil sport was the trap preparation sequence. Although it does not spoil the whole movie’s spirit, director could have thought a little bit practical solution. I don’t know what I mean though!

What to say… guys, see these movies in cinemas only… DVD, especially pirated will spoil the mood of these movies.

Enjoy… Rock on Chennai!

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Note: I dont receive any kind of incentives/discounts/commission for putting this write up here!!