Prize Catch!

I've been wanting to post this for a long time, infact more than a month now.

After very little preparation (maybe a month or so) and lot of inspiration from my wife and a good friend / colleague, I ran the Singapore Marathon 2007, 10 KM run for men and completed it in about 82 minutes. While its definitely not something to boast of in terms on the time taken and the top guy finishing it in 35 minutes, I am still (one month now) excited about the finish for the reason that I won the finishers medal and this happens to be my first medal win in my lifetime. Whoa!

Since the marathon, Its been a different story. I am jogging regularly these days and planning to run this year's 10 KM marathon, and target to finish it in 45-50 minutes! Wish me good luck :)

Happy New Year!

Who said "Silence is Golden"?

Mine definitely isn't, its just that I am being tossed around at work, well, a lot so! Hang on...things should be okay in sometime and I should start blogging soon. There I go...

என்ன கொடுமை சரவனன் இது?

iPhone

I just happened to check out my colleague's iPhone today, yet to be officially launched here in Singapore, but this one was all the way from the United States needing a little tweaking using one of the thousands of software available in the internet to unlock it, and voila!

First impression, an iPod that can be used to talk! With stunning navigation, design, style, display and features, the iPhone is set to rock! Built in applications include Google Maps, the new Safari Browser, gMail like text message display, the list goes on... the gadget is extremely user friendly, thanks to the easy touch screen user interface, a typical from Apple. With no stylus, and fatty fingers, I did not have much trouble in using the keypad while making a call or typing in a message. I was taken aback especially when my friend demonstrated on using the fingers to actually zoom out and zoom into images. It is hard to believe how such things have been conceptualized on the first place and then transformed into reality.

Cons: At 135 grams, the iPhone is indeed heavy and as big as the new iPod and the integral 8 GB memory is injustice for a gadget that can contain Songs, Videos, Photos and host of other software. The gadget, surprisingly, has only a 2.0 MP camera when we are finding mobile phones with 3.2 and even 5.0 MP cameras in common. No 3G! Yes, you read it right no 3G which causes a back to Stone Age feeling.

At S$600, the iPhone is indeed a steal. True that it may not have met everyone's expectation, including mine on a couple, alas, its just a phone, not a rocket to fly to the moon. I'm sure it will be a while before such hyped gadgets hit the market again so go grab it!

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just wramning up myslef for antoehr post...its been a wihle since i put 1 here...so stay a1ive!

Chak De India!!!

It's been just a few days since my last post, critical on the T20 format of the gentleman's game and today, India has won the inaugural T20 world cup beating Pakistan at the Wanderers in a thrilling encounter. While it is indeed true that I still have my dislikes for the concept of the game, the spirit of India beating Pakistan to win a World Cup is something fantastic and is here to stay!

Chak De India!

T20

I have never liked the concept of Twenty20 Cricket, not because I have never watched one but because it definitely takes the essence out of the game and degrades the quality of the classic One Dayer's. The zipped version of the game cannot be compared to the classic shorter version of the game. It lacks quality, common sense and what not?

I accidentally happened to bump into Sanjay Jha's blog on CricketNext and would wholly agree with him that ICC's bizarre ideas are sending the gentleman's game to the backseat. Cricket seems more like the American games, Baseball and Ice Hokey. *SIGH*

Grandeur of Chettinad Wedding

Hailing from the same community, I am quite excited to read an article in the Friday Review (The Hindu) about a "Pirivom Sandhipom", a movie currently in production that surrounds and showcases the Chettinad Heritage and customs. The highlight of the movie is expected to be a song that showcases an extravagent chettinad wedding. While extravagent weddings in this community are common, it would be staggering to watch on big screen and importantly reach out the masses.

Directed by Karu Palaniappan, also a Chettiar, the movie casts Actor, Director and Producer Cheran with Sneha in the lead with a band of other reputed stars. Important to note would be that the movie would not have any dream songs, fights, stunts or women in revealing costumes, Whoa! It would be very interesting to see how the movie would fare at the box office. Given that his first directorial venture, " Parthiban Kanavu" venture was a runaway hit, I am keen to look forward for this one.

Check out the entire article here

Sivaji - A Review

At a whopping 100 crore rupees budget, produced by AVM Productions, one of the leading production houses in India, directed by the most high profile director, Shankar, AR Rahman composing the tunes and studded by the super star Rajinikanth himself, a movie cannot get bigger. Undoubtedly, Sivaji is and probably will be the biggest tamil film to hit the kollywood screens.

I was very excited to watch the file after almost 2 months of its release while I was back in Chennai for a brief period. Having booked the tickets at Satyam, the best place to watch a movie in the city, I had been to the movie with my mum and dad, again something 've done long long before. With kid and wife away to her home town, it was ready set game for 'no thangamani enjoy!'

Storyline: Our hero, a US return wanting to spend all his earnings for a noble cause in setting up educational institutions for the poor and needy bumps into a political kingpin, having educational institutions raking up tens of millions from all sects of the public as capitation, etc loses all his wealth and makes a comeback in overcoming not only the kingpin, Suman but many other industrialists and high profile individuals who had evaded taxes thereby creating black money.

If I were to sum up the entire review in one line, The movie was a big let down. The fight scenes were clearly the biggest let down with each of the for about 8-10 minutes, the matrix styled action did not really gel-well with the typical kollywood one's. The movie itself ran for more than 3 hours. Rajini and Suman filled the screns right from the start till the end. Shreya does a neat role with opportunity for acting besides the revealing in the songs. The 2nd half dragged quite a bit with unbelievable ways in which our super star uncovers the black money from others.

Vivek was good in the first half while seasoned stars like Raghuvaran, Livingston and VMC Haniffa not being utilized to their best. Vadivukkarasi, Manivannan and Nayantara are also in the cast.

The picturization of the songs, as always, was exceptional. Another typical from Shankar. A special mention for the cinematography where KV Anand scores a perfect 10.

Coming out of the movie, I am unable to conclude if Sivaji is a Rajini movie or a Shankar movie 'coz it lacked a decent storyline, punch dialogues, mannerism, creativity. Probably the face saving factor was Rajini's Style which was all over the movie.

Driving through chennai traffic

It's been just a couple of days since 've returned from Chennai and I have still not recovered from the chaotic traffic scene. While it's been close to a year since 've been in Singapore, I would say that the traffic in Chennai must have doubled during this time, given that there are so many completed and upcoming projects, especially IT companies that house tens of thousands of people all over the country and some even from abroad.

Best examples would be GN Chetty Road, Venkat Narayana Road both in T.Nagar, having 6-7 new buildings that have come up in less than 2 years and probably holding up ten to fifteen thousand employees. This apart from the floating crowd around T.Nagar who are busy shopping in Pothy's, Chennai Silks, RMKV, Saravana Stores, Nalli, Kumaran and Sri Krishna Collections.

The 100 feet road on Ekkaduthangal which was once not so popular with old and sick industries, now boasts buildings with more than one lakh square feet. While Olympia Tech Park and Virtusa are completed and occupied, the other two projects are close to the heels of completion which would only add to the chaos. No special mention for Adyar and Thiruvanmiyur which are neighbours to the OMR.

Adding to the already chatotic traffic is the coming up of 5-6 flyovers across critical junctions in chennai. Koyambedu, T.Nagar, Kodambakkam and Kathipara Junction to name a few.

However, mature areas like Nungambakkam and most importantly Mount Road, once considered to be the life lines of Chennai city were scantily crowded. These were clear indications in the shift or transformation of the profession to Information Technology and IT Enabled Sector for the new breed.

While setting the traffic scene right in Chennai looks next to impossible, it is important that law and order is at its best. Something that I doubt would happen in Chennai in the next 200 years ;-) The above collage, which I managed to grab from flickr and google are clear indicators of what I mean. While it is true that the traffic scene in Chennai cannot be set right overnight, there are'nt any indications that it would be any better in a decade or two. The only way I guess is to stiffen up the law and order scene by imposing heavy fines of say 1000 or even 5000 buck for traffic violation which probably would frighten the crazy Chennai motorists, especially the auto and two wheelers, not to forget the buses and heavy vehicles and the cars...and everyone infact!

Wait, I have another idea to set the traffioc scene right in chennai. It would be to have all the political flags and sirens removed from the politicians vehicles and let then drive through the above areas with no escorts in the front or rear of their vehicles, what say???

The best get's better

Cho Ramaswamy, a vetran actor, playwright, columnist, editor and above all a political commentator in Tamil Nadu, known for his satirical dig's at Indian and Tamilnadu politics just (ok, a couple of weeks ago!) got better!

In a meeting organized by the Indian Liberal Group, Chennai on 13th July, Arun Shourie (BJP) and Cho Ramaswamy participated and talked about the Congress Presidential Nominee (now President!) Mrs. Pratibha Patil, bluntly opposing her candidature for the top job. One of the best ever from Cho!

Indian politics has had tainted Ward members, Councillors, MLA's, Ministers, MP's and Chief Ministers, but Congress & Left have just gone beyond it to find a tainted President for India. Looks like they are making up for all their blunder in having picked Hamid Ansari for the Vice President's post, but God save India!

Alas, how can one forget Cho's famous dig at the Left "If the Left has a future, India will have no future left."

Cho Ramaswamy (20.55 min, English and Tamil)


Arun Shourie (English, 32.16 min)

If you can't say it, just SMS

Check out the video, one of my most favorites. The creative guys in Optimus indeed deserve a pat :-)

Moving on...sigh

While some might read the title with a big relief, I would like to clarify that I am not going to stop blogging. Read on...

Just 10 months have passed by, since 've migrated from 'filter coffee' chennai to 'fine' singapore to join one of the top private bank's in the world but I 'am already changing jobs! The move is definitely a blend of excitement and disappointment. While the excitement awaits me in the form of what I had always enjoyed doing at where I probably belong to, disappointment in terms of my inability to adapt to a new workplace, new team especially a new domain might probably haunt me for sometime now. I guess I need to do a lot of homework if I were to continue to be what I am in the years to come...Anyways, wish me good luck with my new assignment!

English Grammar

So near, yet so far

I just got through my Basic Theory Test to obtain a driving license in Singapore. Phew, I am indeed relieved now!

I had enrolled for the test in April and managed to get the earliest test date for private candidates only for July 2nd. The preparations for the test did not happen till last week of June until I heard the passing score was 45 on 50 and a few I know flunked the test on their first (some even second) attempts. I had no choice but o carry the BTT booklet on the MRT like many others and read through it during my travel to office and back home. I could do that only for 2 days 'coz they weren't rocket science!

Come July 2nd, I did everything wrong, right from taking the wrong bus, missing the shuttle, struggling to find a cab, finally sitting in the wrong room until the instructor directed me to the right one. For the test at 9:15 AM, I took incharge around 9:20 AM and was out in 10-12 minutes passing my test. The questions, like I've been telling my friends were so dumb and its quite funny when you have get through 50 such one's to clear the test.

While I had a sense of accomplishment (despite the dumb questions), the major blow came in when I realised that despite having a foreign license and having cleared my BTT, I was required to have the International Driving Permit (IDP), usually issued by the domicile country of the candidate. Yikes!!! All my excitement crash landed like the Colombia Space Shuttle. Given that there aren't any easy options available to get through, I have decided to wait for a couple of months after which I would go to my hometown for my vacation and have this thing done as the first activity :-(

Bless me!

Smile, for a day...wish it is forever ;-)

The autorickshaw's in Chennai had been demanding for a revision (okay, an increase!) in the fare and after months and years of deliberation the fares were increased in January, early this year and the auto drivers were not too disappointed though they had some concerns. However, it is no secret or surprise that the auto drivers now use the revised fares to demand more and continue with their contract rates. Given that the demand for revision of minimum fare had been settled with the GoTN, the Tamil Nadu Auto Driver's Association has now called for a state wide strike on the 8th August citing various reasons as below;

a. Discontinue the act of cancelling the driving license of auto drivers causing road accidents

b. Provide allowance of Rs.5000 for auto's running on LPG

c. Implement ESI scheme for auto drivers

d. Increase the pension from Rs.400 to Rs.1000

e. Prevent ill treatment of auto drivers by the policemen

f. Curb the brokers domination in RTO's during the processing of FC's, Registration, etc

I've never liked the attitude of auto drivers in chennai city, for that matter in the whole of Tamil Nadu. Lessons from our neighbour, Karnataka, must be learnt in this aspect, who have every reason to boast of their reliable autorickshaw drivers.

The auto driver's and their "association", predominantly controlled by the politicians & policemen in Tamil Nadu is one bunch of unsettled, ever dissatisfied crowd and their knack to pick causes for going off the road and creating the stir should be observed.

I wish they go on strike starting 8th August till their demands are met 'coz I feel the state will be a lot cleaner and nicer, especially the traffic scene, with the auto's off the road, forever!

PS: Too bad I would not be in town to enjoy my drive through the chennai roads without the auto's...sigh...sob!

Virtual Barber Shop - Scintillating

More than ten days since I posted something to my blog and I think this is the right one to go in.

Tried to get this plugged into my blog the whole of last noon as soon as I listened to this from one of a forward. Close your eyes and put on your headphone in full volume, sheer brilliance!

Unnalae Unnalae

I happened to pick up the CD of this Tamil movie after a few unsuccessful attempts in a video rental shop nearby my house. I should say it really wasn't worth the attempts I had made earlier to watch this.

The movie starts off with Sada as Jhansi and new face, model turned actor, Vinay as Karthik ending their love affair due to Vinay's fun loving, playful and flirtatious character. Vinay is deputed by his construction company to Melbourne (Oz) and bumps into another model turned actor Deepika as Tanisha in the plane. Surprise awaits Vinay when he sees Sada escorting Tanisha away from the airport. Sada happens to be working in the company that had contracted Tanisha for an assignment.

The movie then runs into flashback with a few songs in it and ends with the split that happened to be first scene of the movie. Jeeva seems to be adopting his "12B" style of movie making and I should say has fumbled in this one as well.

The rest of the movie surrounds Vinay trying to patch up with Sada with Tanisha and Srinath helping them despite Tanisha having a soft corner for Vinay. Eventually, the movie ends with Sada leaving scene, setting up for Vinay and Tanisha's union.

The music by Harris Jayaraj was the biggest plus and the movie towards the climax was pretty okay. Otherwise, the movie was a very big let down, especially with Sada's role, more or less similar to her previous one in Priyasaki with Madhavan. Model turned actor's Vinay and Tanisha did justice in their debut. Vinay's dancing skills deserve a special mention as much as Jeeva's skills with the camera. He is awsome with the camera more than his direction skills. Choreography, handled by Raju Sundaram who also happens to play a role in the movie as Vinay's friend is neat!

PS: I am just waiting to get hold of my wife's cousin who said the movie is awesome and much better than Mozhi. He better stay away till I compose myself $&^$&#*%&*%*

கதையல்ல, நிஜம்!

- நன்றி இட்லிவடை / தினமணி