Randy Pausch

I got to learn about Randy Pausch from Ram. His famous "last lecture" was inspirational and interesting as well. Here are few videos i have stored that Randy gave. Spend sometime and go thro them. They are good.

The first one is "Last Lecture" @ Carnegie Mellon and the next one is on Time management @ Virginia

KJY Caught LIVE

KJY was bit listless to start of with but caught on as he progressed. Listen to the above, i guess it is Semanbriya Madyamam. Paka vadayam Tiruvarur Bhaktavatsala was simply fantastic

Gujarat Modified

It's a resounding and stunning victory for the brand Modi. Against all odds that includes oppositions, internal dissidence and importantly the English media especially CNN-IBN, The Hindu together could not change result at the end of high voltage elections ever observed in India.

Modi resounding win definitely calls for relooking in to what is called secular and communal really mean. It is could also be quite interesting to compare Modi with other leaders like MGR, Jyothi Basu who have never lost an election. Statements like "Maugth ka saudagaar" probably helped Modi. Finally this election has definitely put Gavaskar-Border series at back-burner. The jpg below was from "Indian-Express"

Live: Sanjay Special

Marathon and CEO connection.

Do marathon runners are best suited for CEO job ?. That is what a paper by KVSS Narayana Rao of ICFAI business school presented on Global CEO meet has to say. I am unable to up-load this pdf here. If you require a copy, Pls email me at bharbhi@gmail.com. Here is gist though

"Running a business is like running a marathon. Some of the skills essential for business success can be learnt, honed and demonstrated by training for and running marathons. Hence, some marathon runners among the eligible senior executives are being recruited as CEOs and some CEOs are taking up marathon running. Executives involved in marathon running comment that marathon running helps them to hone their managerial and business skills, improve their fitness level to manage their companies and help them manage their stress."

So, don't be surprised if i become CEO in couple of years rather think of investing in my firm from now on :-)

Cisco's IOS Opened up

Cisco is moving from hardware to software, this is big leap for this Networking gaint. One of step towards this movement is openinig up IOS to third parties and it's customers. This means that one can buy Cisco's software and customize for their own purpose. For people who have worked in IOS may have a bigger market value. Here is the complete article

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/121207-cisco-ios.html?page=1

Ultimate Frisbee Finals pictures

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21949978@N03/sets/72157603487702612/

Just Fantastic

Legends coming to-gether

Lead India

Nice add

Ajith's Billa: All glitz but no blitz

Anything associated with Rajini makes news so to Ajith's billa. The story is complete remake of Rajini's billa, including few dialogues. The story line in original billa was weak too, who cares Rajini's style and dialogue delivery made people to sit down and watch the movie. Newer version is completely missing this. Ajith is no match for Rajini's style and delivery of punch dialogues. Probably Rajini or Vikram could have acted in place of Ajith. Newer version is bit disappointing. 2-1/2 hrs was like watching Raymond advert, Ray-Ban advert and BMW advert in parts. No doubt Malaysia, Nayanthara and Namitha are interesting part of film.

Do you know ?

Came across this famous googly of Donald Rumsfeld to media

"There are known knowns. There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say there are things that we now know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know. So when we do the best we can and we pull all this information together, and we then say well that's basically what we see as the situation, that is really only the known knowns and the known unknowns. And each year, we discover a few more of those unknown unknowns.”

Sounds like he has attended Dayanand Sarasawathi's lectures

War of Words - Part 1: Operation Tendulkar

Australians are inimitable when in comes to "mind games". Ganguly was good at giving Aussies one or two spoons of their own recipes but will Kumble crumble ?

Here are few starters for India before tour Down Under-2007

1) This is what former coach John Buchanan had to say about Tendulkar

What I've been seeing for a while is that his feet don't move early in his innings and he is not very fluid early on. That makes the good-pace short ball a great weapon. It's something that Australia should be very conscious of this summer. The short ball should be followed by a full one for a favorable result, It doesn't necessarily mean you will get Sachin out with the shorter ball. But you can push him back on his crease and then look for a full ball, which he can tend to squirt to the slips early in his innings when he doesn't have great control

2) Ian Chappell backing Viru adding pressure to selection committee

India has made its first big mistake and the team hasn’t even been selected, let alone set foot on Australian soil. Now was not the right time to give up on Virender Sehwag. Forget about whose nose might have been put out of joint, the Australians still fear Sehwag from the last tour. It’s rare that you have a chance to put one over on the Baggy Green caps, so when the opportunity arises, you grab it with both hands.

3) Border on slow pitches for first two test down under

What we need is to prepare wickets that suit our cricket rather than the Indians. If it is slow and low the Indians really come into the contest. They like that sort of surface. That is the worrying thing for me. You should try and get a bit more bounce, it doesn't have to be sideways movement, then it will suit our cricket.

4) Waugh adding pressure on Indians

They have got a pretty good draw really. I think there is some hope (of an Indian victory) because they are playing at two spinner-friendly venues, Adelaide and Sydney. They will have three good spinners in their squad and that will give them the chance to take 20 wickets. It seems in the past decade in Australia they haven't been able to take 20 wickets. It doesn't matter how many good batters they have got, they can't win a Test unless they can take 20 wickets they have to pick a team capable of taking 20 wickets otherwise they'll get thrashed.

The consoling factor is that OZ media is planning for warm welcome to Tendulkar on probably his last tour to Australia

Another Genius at work.

Again with 3 notes. Thanks to Gani

Being Ganguly

A man most Indians would love to hate in Indian Cricket before recent Indo-Pak series, He is none other than Sourav Ganguly. Though I am big critic of Dada (and still), of-late started to admire this comeback man for roaring from ditches to his carrier best form in recent series.

Sourav plays with lot of passion and shows his aggressions on the field, probably one of the reasons most of us hate him but this "Prince of Kolkata" has made incredible comebacks. First is when he was dropped from Indian team after 1992 world cup and made a comeback in 1996-97 for English tour by scoring back to back centuries. I believe the second one is mother of all comebacks, when Indian batsmen were reeling for form in South Africa tour in 2006, this man made a comeback by bailing out India in couple of occasions.

Being hard core critique of Ganguly, would still like to see how Ganguly plays in coming Aus tour. When India toured Aus last time, Ganguly then captain setup Indian batting for whole series by scoring 144 in the first test. This is another incredible performance as Indians are known to play poorly in First test in away conditions.

Picture below is from recent Indo-Pak series. Courtesy "The Hindu". Look at Dravid :-)

Eari Katha Ramar

Located at Madhuranthakam about 70 Kms from Chennai, Driving down to Eari Katha Ramar temple along with my cousin Surekha and her family was an enchanting experience. This temple has story about miracle performed by Sri Ram during British rule. There supposed to exist a big tank that was damaged by incessant rain and repaires were to be attended immediately. Given the urgency, Then British officer wanted to use readily available materials (like bricks etc) orginally intended for building Shri Ram temple. But localites were against this idea, This made British officer to make of people for their blind belief over Ram. I believe Lord Ram and Lakshman appeared and saved the tank from overflowing by building a barrier using arrows. Apparently, this was visible only to the British officer and none around.

Route to Madhranthakam is fantastic. There is no good hotels around, You would be disappointed if you searching for raod side "Idli Kadai"

For snaps:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21709456@N06/sets/72157603420798343/show/

Maestro at his best.

Look at this composition with 3 notes Sa, Re and Ga.

Illayaraja at his Best.

I am back

It's almost a month and half i blogged last. Was busy with work and other things. Now that i am relatively free and lots of stuffs buzzing around Chennai like katcheri session, Mylapore festival, Release of Billa etc. Hope to catch few actions of these

Power Hungry Gowdas

What a shame, An Ex-Prime minister stooping down to such low level to ditch his alliance partner BJP. This father-son duo have created situation to their advantage, not long ago this son toppled the then govt. by withdrawing support in the (supposed to be) absence of the father, the old rag put up a drama saying then that he was against his son's actions and acting as if he was about to
cut-off all relationships with his son. As some one said "Deva Gowda is not humble farmer but a fumble harmer".

Dirudrashtrays are always part of Indian politics

Nehru-Indra-Rajiv-Rahul
Deva Gowda-Kumaraswammy
Karuninidhi-Stalin
Ramdoss-Anbuman
iBal Thackeray-Udhava Thackeray

When will this family politics end in India?

Chennai Runners run through "India Today"

This time Chennai Runners (CR's) ran through the pages of India Today rather than running on the roads. This was easier and much more benefiting. After "The Hindu" covered CR's couple of months back, India Today covered on September 17th 2007 edition. This is a big leap for this amazing group. On the different note, Rupert from University of Edinburg (Switzerland) joined us for the run, he was quite bemused that these stuffs get published on to National daily/Magazines. According to Rupert, these are considered to be College news else where.

Here is scanned format of the article

SNEHA Run to commemorate WORLD SUICIDE PREVENTION DAY

What is Sneha?
*SNEHA* is a suicide prevention organization started in 1986 and offers emotional support for the depressed, desperate and the suicidal.

Some facts about Suicide in India?
- Every five minutes, someone somewhere in India attempts suicide
- Suicide is Third major cause of death in India. (This is stunning)
- Annually around 10Lakh people commit suicide in India- Suicide is most common among youngsters.

How can running help?
Apart from good fitness levels, Long distance running is about endurance, patience and constant improvement. During runs there is a definite thought to give it up but then one has to keep egging oneself to stay as long as possible. At these period one would normally look for inspiration from fellow runs, great sportspersons etc. All these definitely has good psychological effects.

Some facts about running
- Nelson Mandela used to run long distance when he was in prison. According to Mandela, running helped him to cover lot of negatives he had carried for long time.
- Andrew Agassi ranking slipped close to 200 at one point of time. At that point, he used to run 10 Miles in the morning as well as in the evening. He believes long distance running was one of the many factors for him getting back top 5 in rankings and kept him playing for longer time.
- Dirubhai Ambani used to run 10 Kms almost daily until age of 60.
- Makhaya Nitini runs 20 Kms daily to stay himself fit.
Organizing a mini-marathon is a fitting way to celebrate Suicide prevention day.

More about Sneha: http://www.snehaindia.org/index.php

Religion without GOD.

Does it make any sense if there were a Religion without god? . I am talking about a religion called Cricket and GOD is everyone’s guess, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.

It was a shake along the spine when the fabricated news broke out probably by cricinfo about Sachins retirement. Then believing the news was true, was feeling resigned and also dumbfounded, why Sachin announced his retirement given the fact that he is playing out of his skin in England after long long time.

Right from the time we all started to follow Cricket seriously, Sachin was always the talk of Indian Cricket for all right and wrong reasons. Though lot of talented cricketers like Jadeja, Sehwag, Kambli, Praveen Amre, Kaif to name a few have waxed and waned apart from few like Dravid, Ganguly, Tendulkar played at the top most of the time. Breaking to international scene at tender age during India-Pakistan in Pakistan, He has carried his bat for about 2 decades now, starting from a generation where Cricket was played like an art to a generation where Cricket is more of a power game. Certainly, shouldering the burden of Indian Cricket sometimes single handedly.

Few refreshing knocks from his repertoire are 143 against Australia in Saharja, 98 against Pakistan in WC 2003, 81 against New Zealand in New Zealand where he first chose to open in One day internationals for the first time, 136 against Pakistan in Chennai, His first century in Test against England, Little cameo of Abdul Kadir, 44 against West Indies in Barbados (Batting on a crumbling pitch), oh the list is endless from a glittering carrier.

Sachin has become a strong part of Indian cricket rather international cricket, largely considered as GOD of cricket. It is quite unimaginable to think about cricket without Sachin. Can GOD retire?

Ten reasons why a startup fails.

Met up with young entrepreneurs (few going to be) at Chennai Open Coffee Club. It was nice to see young guys have started their own firm. I also observed an increasing and interesting trend where few starters have dropped out of college to start their own firm. Though most of their focus business was more like Google (online marketing/advertising), a hard technical based startup was obviously missing. The discussion started with ice-breaking session disintegrating in to smaller group discussing their ideals etc. With in hours of this meeting, Siddhi posted this on to Ning forum on reasons why a startup fails. Here are those 10 reasons

1) Poor Execution
2) No Viable Market
3) Too Much Leverage
4) Undercapitalizing the business
5) Lack of competitive advantage
6) Competing head-to-head with industry leaders
7) Picking a niche that is too small
8) Breakup of the founding team
9) Poor pricing strategy
10) Growing too fast

Here is the original article.

http://www.squidoo.com/starup_failures/

Interesting read though!!

Flipper side of great Indian growth

It may be tempting for junta living outside India for about a decade now to seriously think of returning given the buzz around India like "Reverse brain drain", "High salary levels", "Happening place", "Hot job market" etc. Though the living conditions have improved a lot but living as such has become lot tougher and challenging. The list below is little stuff you may have to encounter almost daily.

1) Traffic Jams.
2) Raising cost (house rents, expensive hotels etc)
3) Long travels from home to office
4) Haggling with Auto drivers
5) Long queues at any form of hang outs like theatres, pubs, beaches etc
6) Always overflowing Food malls and shopping complexs
7) Pollution levels

Though few in the list may appear trivial but definitely one would not want to experience them on a day to day basis. The big losers are retired old people!!

ICL vs BCCI

These days the talk around Indian cricket is not about the matches played on the cricket field or about the current players rather matches played inside the four walls and about old players: It is ICL vs BCCI trickling down to Kapil vs Sunny. Hope this does not get down to Maharashtra vs Bengal.

Though, i am not in any position to comment if Zee were right coming up with ICL but definitely this move has divided cricket in India, to some extent in others countries like Pakistan, New Zealand, suspect would Bangladesh would soon fall inline. It is easy to guess that BCCI is squarely to blame for this fiasco, An organization completely in doldrums does not believe in dynamic administration faced a rude shock when ICL got in poaching business sooner than expected. The exodus of state players from Hyderabad and Bengal has hit BCCI hard that it immediately hiked pay-scale for Ranji Players.

What was BCCI doing all these years? Why there is sudden interest to hike pay and to start a Professional cricket league (PCL) in parallel to ICL?

Finally, Sunny who i think is running BCCI from behind is a man who always plays safe like his batting style. AFAIK, he has always avoided responsibility/position that is always tough and controversial like Indian coach job, selector job en all. Now, making him the head of PCL is clear showdown between Sunny vs Kapil.

Ultimate Frisbee in ET.

Cisco's Telepresence

Cisco TelePresence is an innovative, new technology that creates unique, in-person experiences between people, places, and events —over the network. I tried them recently, was an amazing experience though.

One day @ Cisco

The Wait is over.

Finally, I managed to watch Sivaji at Satyam Theatres after a long wait. Like usual Rajini movie's, Sivaji is a total time pass with weak story line but unlike others movies, Rajini is made to display his acting skills, though in parts.

First half was supposed to be a comedy with Vivek calling the shots more than Rajini but felt it was quite dragging and Vivek does not seem to have trick rolled over his sleeves. Second half is a refresher and made completely for Rajini fans. It was on the shades of Badsha (famous Rajini movie in early 1990's). Few frames that i feel notable about the movie

1) Introduction of Rajini. He looks really young though appears jaded for rest of the movie

2) Rajini's looks as an European in style song. Definitely interesting

3) Rajini imitation of Sivaji, MGR and Kamalhassan.

4) Style song in second half.

5) Rajini as "Mottai Boss" for last few mins. Rajini rocks here. Fantastic look. Reminiscence of Alex Pandian role from one of his old movies

Definitely worth watching another time.

Blame the job market.

I happen to meet an young college guy during one of the runs. Was trying to break ice and getting to know more about him. He introduced himself, graduating from a decent college in Chennai, Bacheloring in Electrical and Electronics. Got myself introduced, He knowing me working in software for about 7 yrs now, immediately asked "Every one these days work in software, What is this software all about ?". I was awestruck by his question as +2 students these days have fair idea about software. Anyway, was trying to explain though not convincing. He immediately announced " got an offer from TCS with 3.2 lakhs per annum". I was dumbstruck.

Whom to blame ?. The org that offered him or this employee guy. No but the job market in India

Incredible Catch

Light moments

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

More than 1 mouse is mice
More than 1 spouse is spice

Network Worms Idea Registered on to U.S Patent Office

One of our ideas (Myself and Balaji Venkat) on "Identification of Networks Worms" has been registered on to U.S Patent office. This idea was conceived some time late 2004 and finally filed in to US patent office only couple of weeks back. Checkout this URL

http://www.freshpatents.com/Mechanism-to-correlate-the-presence-of-worms-in-a-network-dt20070426ptan20070094730.php

We still have couple more to be registered either at US patent office or India patent office. Need to wait and watch as the recent patent laws are not clear yet.

Off late have been unlucky in patent front. Lot of ideas which we feel is novel, has strong business value and well researched solution are getting dis-approved. Need to break this jinx sooner.

100+

This is neither about 100+ energy drink nor about Tendulkar scoring century against South Africa in the recent one day series but about 100+ hits on my blog barely 20 days after i started blogging. Feels nice to score a century at least here. Must admit, I would have been one of the larger contributors to these 100 hits. I believe, it's typical of any blogger, as one often checks for correction, improvements and importantly comments.

Though the idea of blogging has been lingering for sometime, it kicked off only after fellow runner’s blogging consistently. It definitely has lot of advantages. Junta get to know what i do or think these days though only few leave a comment. I have observed that friends far away from India, who chat or talk once in a fortnight/monthly now have better topics to discuss than usual monotonous stuffs like "how are you ", "what did you do " blah blah. Definitely i would encourage you to blog, if you already don't blog.

At least visit my blog often say 4-5 times a day even if you don't read them. This would increase hit count on my blog. Here is the deal, would do the same for your blog :-)

Singapore Marathon: A definite NO this year

Running a marathon away from India feels great when flight rates are cheaper, the scenic beauty during the run and the aura built around the marathon itself (like Boston or New York marathon). This is what Singapore Marathon is all about, probably the best in this sub-continent. For Chennai runners, there is an added package. Most bachelors are planning to do a Thailand. Given all these particularly Thailand and recent high after 30 * 30 ECR run, Yes it is tempting to do a Singapore Marathon.

This is scheduled on December 2nd and the registration is already open. Early registration works out cheaper and few of fellow runners have already registered. Chennai Runners targets to field atleast 10 for the run. Though would be great to participate, i am not prepared yet to party at 42.9 KMs. Possibly need to do couple of half before a full. Running a full is all about endurance, stamina, hard-work, planning and mental toughness. It requires good amount of preparation, looks like a far away dream at this point. Would possibly think about it next year (2007) but a definite NO this year. All is not lost, Bangalore is scheduled sometime in October and Chennai in December. Planning to do an half in these events.

30 * 30: ECR Run

Though, lot have been shared and written about the 30 * 30 ECR run, these snaps are flicked from Rams and KKs blog for my archive.

I swear, i am running and NOT posing for a snap

Team listening to instructions from Ram before the run

Photo time before the run

Big thanks to Satish, Abhinav and Satish for their help.

Fabulous team that completed

Chennai and Rain.

Can you believe, I am talking about rains in Chennai during Dr. Karunanidhi's regime? Yes, Chennai has been receiving consistent showers for sometime now. These rains would have definitely made Jayalalitha to loose sleep over. The normal feeling "It does not rain in Karunanidhi's regime" is no more a favourable factor for Jayalalitha anymore.

Chennai and Rains are no longer exclusive as it sounds to be, infact they go hand in hand like Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh. The day usually starts with sun beating down heavily quite early in the morning and reaching its peak in the afternoon but the scenario is completely different in the evening and night. It rains like cats and dogs leaving the roads inundated with water. The traffic is almost standstill and looks like the junta is not to prepared to these rains. Should we get prepared for such rains year on year?

Normally, Chennai gets its share from low pressure built across Bay of Bengal belt. These recent ones are more of a monsoon rains. This unusual change is something for meteorological department to answer. I have been observing these changes in weather conditions for past few years especially after Tsunami that hit Indian sub continent in December 2004. Things are different after Tsunami. There is no consistent trend but Chennai gets its share of required rain for its ever growing population somehow. It's become normal to attribute every change to "Global Warming", Can this change attributed to "Global Warming" as well?

If you start getting up early than usual time from tomorrow, would be attributed to "Global Warming" but not your effort!!

Nice add for promotion of Eye donation

Jokes

Long run wrapped with long chat with Dr. Kannan Pugazhendi

It was good statisfying run this Sunday, covered 17Kms in 2hrs and 30 mins. I did not plan anything in advance as planning never works in my case, wanted to work it out at every instant on the run. Made sure to keep applying myself on the tough stretchs like one starting from IIT to Adyar gate, another from lattic bridge to Velankanni chruch and concentrate hard on last few KMs.

Got up at 4:15 A.M. drank half cup coffee, immediately off to YMCA to join the group. My mom got up along with me for this half cup coffee. Normally, I don't allow her to wakeup at such crazy timings but did not stop her from doing this time. Half cup coffee refreshed me much quicker than expected.

We started this run around 5:10 AM starting from YMCA along Chamiers road, Greenways road, Lattic bridge, Besant Avenue, Besant nagar beach, Velannkani Church, Straight to Tidal park road, Madhyakailash, IIT, Annauniversity, Coturpurram and back to YMCA. In all it is bit more than 17KMs. After the run we had long chat with Dr.Kannan Pugazhendi. He was the Indian team physio & sports medicine doctor during tour of West Indies in 1976 and the Indian Hockey team to Atlanta, he gave insight on Preparation for a marathon, while running and recovery. He stressed on nitty-gritty details that we generally miss could make a difference to long distance running. Dr. Kannan is planning to write forth-nightly articles on general fitness and long distance running on "The Hindu" starting next month. The whole stuff got over at 10 AM.

The best part was reserved after i came back home. My breakfast was ready. Ate Sambar Rice, Rasam Rice and Curd Rice. Ending up with an ice-cream. Hit the bed around 12:00 and got up around 4:00 PM. Fantastic day indeed!!

Keshav's Corner

Courtesy "The Hindu": Dated 9th July 2007

Is Keshav next R.K. Laxman ?.

Curtain coming down for Airtel Super Singer Junior.

All good things should come down to an end. So too Airtel Super Singer Junior, one of the best concept visualized by Vijay TV. The super singer is a contest for young singers possibly from the age of 8 to 15. This contest started abt 6 months back, the organizers made sure to reach most of the young singers from all over Tamil Nadu and attempt to select the best singer.

I am dumbstruck by the pool of young talents available, who sing songs effortlessly from the era of our great grand fathers. Specially, I enjoyed the gamut of songs sung like Classical, Semi-Classical, Fast beat, Western, Melody, Village tunes etc. I was overjoyed when one of the contestants sung "Oru naal poduma..." originally sung by Bala Murali Krishna from film Navarathri starring "Sivaji Ganesan" with panache.

In the process, Final four were selected. Saicharan, Krishnamurthy, Aparna and Vignesh. Each one has unique strength. Krishnamurthy's strength is his rendition of words and concentration, Vignesh has strong carnatic background, Saicharan and Aparna have great voices to back them. These kids, I believe should have learnt abt 100 songs in 6 months from past era apart from Illayraja and A.R. Rahman times, a monumental effort indeed!!. If they concentrate and work hard, i am sure these kids have great future and go places.

I did not like the media attention and hype these kids got, Probably they are too young to handle this attention and adulation. It also creates un-necessary pressure on other participants and kids. It is just another competition, The parents need to understand this.

Paintings of young artist

These are few paintings of my friend's wife. I believe, it takes as long as 20 days get one painting ready. Though, the market prices for these are around Rs 1500 to Rs 2000. Unlike other professions, It takes long time for these budding artists to make a mark and earn a decent living.

Sivaji: THE BOSS of Indian Movies

Sivaji is rocking. It has opened in 650 theatres across India and doing well in North India as well. The collection are

India - Rs: 95 crores
Malaysia - Rs: 7.8 crores
US - Rs: 4.5 crores
UK - Rs: 2.78 crores

These figures are just after 3 weeks of it's opening and does not include collections from Australia, Singapore, Srilanka, Japan etc.

"Peraa sunna chumma atheruthu illa"

I feel sorry for those who did not like Sivaji, they have not developed a taste to watch Rajinikanth's movie. Most of his movies are purely magic and NO logic.!!

The sad part is, i am yet to watch this movie :-(

Source: http://www.apunkachoice.com/scoop/downsouth/tamil/20070704-0.html

Keshav's Cartoon on "The Hindu"

Keshav's cartoon on "The Hindu" dated July 5th 2007.

Run on the cards.

It's a busy fortnight for Chennai Runners. Couple of BIG runs are lined-up starting Tuesday July 3rd.

July 03 (Tuesday): 5KMs interval run
July 04 (Wednesday): 5KMs easy run
July 05 (Thursday): 11KMs run
July 06 (Friday): Possibly a 5KMs run easy run
July 07 (Saturday): Off
July 08 (Sunday): 25KMs

Aha, if someone does all the runs, would have covered 51KMs. A cracker of an experience. Would be happy if i can cover 35KMs.

A repeat of same scheduled is followed next week, finally wrapped with 30KMs run on ECR July 15th (Sunday). I am looking for this ECR run. Junta has already tried it. The route is from Toll booth to Mahabs making it around 30KMs. It's scenic route with beach on long side, trees around, less traffic. The plan is to start the run at 4:30 AM, a good opportunity for runners like me to stretch beyond the limits, say to 15-20KMs. Finally take a bus/auto to Mahabs.

MOMs Soup: It's different

I plan to write about small eat-outs in Chennai that i think is good, tasty and worth trying. For people who know me well, yes these eat-outs are inexpensive. First in the list is MOMs Soup.

MOMs Soup is a little soup shop in West Mambalam on the side lines of Station Road. The road that leads to Railway Station "Mambalam". Soups served here is hot, tasty, healthy and different to all soup one would have tasted. There is a bit of variety here. On all days, this soup would serve Tomato, Vegetable, American Corn and one of
"Manathakali"/"Kivanalli"/"Thuthuvalli" etc. The cost varies from Rs 5 to Rs 7 with a splash of corn. Imagine having a serving when it rains in Chennai. Believe me it rains often these days.

If you are around Ayodhaya mandapam ask for station road. Would find this shop opposite to Arun Ice-creams. There is couple of soups shop. One is MOMs and other is Mummys. The latter I believe is bad.

Jokes

Though these jokes are on Sardars, no offence on particular community is intended. Jokes are Jokes.

1 - Interviewer: what is your birth date?
Sardar: 13th October
Which year?
Sardar : Oye ullu ke pathe _ _ _ EVERY YEAR

2 - Teacher to Sardar: Write your best friend's name in English.
Sardar wrote: ' Beautiful Red Underwear'
Teacher: What?
Sardar: His name is Sundar Lal Sheddy

3 - Manager asked to sardar at an interview
Can you spell a word that has more than 100 letters in it?
Sardar replyed: -P-O-S-T-B-O-X.

4 - After returning back from a foreign trip, sardar asked his wife,
Do I look like a foreigner?
Wife: No! Why?
Sardar: In London a lady asked me Are you a foreigner?

5 - One tourist from U.S.A . asked to Sardar: Any great man born in this village???
Sardar: no sir, only small Babies!!!

6 - Lecturer: write a note on Gandhi Jayanthi
So Sardar writes, "Gandi was a great man, but I don't know who is jayanthi.

7 - Sardar was doing experiment with cockroach, first he cut it's one leg and told
WALK. WALK. Cockroach walked. Then he cut it's second leg and told the same. Cockroach walked. Then cut the third leg and did the same. At last he cut it's fourth leg and ordered it walk! But cockroach didn't walked. Suddenly sardar said loudly, " I found it. If we cut cockroach's four legs, it becomes deaf.

8 - When sardar was traveling with his wife in an auto, the driver adjusted mirror. Sardar shouted, " You are trying to see my wife? Sit back. I will drive.

Parthasarathy Temple's Chariot

I was travelling thro' Triplicane towards Ratna Cafe. Enroute, observed Parthasarathy Temple's chariot decorated for Bramha Maha Utsav. The giant chariot looked quite attractive. Here are few pictures

TCS on hiring spree

In a recently concluded campus interview in Chennai, TCS offered placements to 1000 engineers in a day. This is a mammoth recruitment, possibly a world record too!!. I believe the current strength of TCS is 90K and they are likely to touch 100K in few months from now at this rate.

What makes TCS to go on a hiring spree especially fresher’s. There are combination of reasons to this, they are

1) There is an ever growing market for Software as such. Still there is huge number of things to be automated. S/W needs to breakthrough sectors where there is dependence on manual labor yet, making a great demand for s/w professionals. Simple equation, demand is kind of exponentially higher than supply.

2) Of course the outsourcing story which we all know adds more workforces to Asian based S/W enterprises

3) This factor is bit tricky. The Indian based MNC's are seriously in to cost cuttings after the recent downfall in dollar rate against the rupee. The thinking is that replacing an experienced engineer with a fresher this was echoed by CFO of TCS in one of his interview with a popular news channel. This is quite terrorizing, people like me with 7 yrs exp need to be watchful and careful, better to go on their own :-)

All these days and still there is a good demand for junta with 1 to 3 yrs experience but i believe this demand would subside as the cost of hiring a fresher and training him/her for 3-6 months is much cheaper than a paying a experience candidate with 1 to 3 yrs as the output from both of them would is same

If TCS hires 1000 in a day, imagine how much Infosys, Wipro, Satyam, CTS and HCL would hire ?

Toss up between Chennai and Singapore Marathon

This year both Chennai and Singapore Marathon are scheduled in December. Singapore marathon is scheduled on 2nd December but dates are not yet available for Chennai marathon.

I believe it’s quite unlikely for both to occur on same day. If so there is a problem of choice for studs of Chennai Runners. Ram, Hari, Shumit, Shahid, KK, Vidyut have already decided to skip Chennai Marathon for Singapore Marathon. What I hear is that Singapore Marathon is organized lot better than Chennai Marathon.

For junta like me the choice is simple, easy and obvious.

Ultimate Frisbee: Ultimate Fun

A game one would fall in love instantly. A fairly simple game without much complications. It is exciting, fascinating and yet demanding. It's played more like an American football but completely a non-contact game. The picture summarizes what we often do during the game.

We play every Saturday at Besant Nagar beach starting at 5:20 AM. The game stretches for abt an hour and quarter mins with couple of 5 mins breaks. At the end, every one runs out of steam. If you are keen to play, subscribe to this group http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/chennai_ultimate_frisbee/

The highlight of Ultimate Frisbee group in Chennai is "Murugan Idli Kadai". Junta after sweating out for more than an hour end up for breakfast at Murugan Idli kadai for tasty Sambar Vadais, Idlies, Masala Dosas, Pongals etc. We have special invitees who directly make it to Murguan... from bed :-)

Piyush Chawla: Lets Wait and Watch

I watched Piyush Chawla bowling against South Africa in one of the recent one-day match in Ireland. I was impressed, thought was a good find. Unlike Anil, Piyush bowls geniune leg spin. In an era of Warnes, Kumbles, It is difficult for any new leg-spinner without being compared with these greats.

In more than a century of Cricket, World has produced great leg spinners like Richie Benaud, Subash Gupte, Vinod Mankad, Chandrasekar, Ramdin from past era. In early eights there was a paucity of leg-spinner until Sivaramakrishan burst in to scene with his beautiful googlies, flippers and dipping deliveries but soon went in to oblivion. Hirwani too started with a bang by picking 16 wickets against West Indies in Chennai but never was a bowler who was looking to pick wickets. Pakistan produced Abdul Kadir, Mustaq Ahmed who made decent name for themselves.

The art of leg spin was slowly fading until this man called Shane Warne made debut against India in early nineties. He bambozzled the world especially The South Africans(notabally Darren Cullian), The New Zealanders, The Britishers, The West Indians and Pakistanis. He had a fair bit of success against Srilankans but not against Indians. Who can forget the onslaught by Sidhu and Tendulkar against Warne. Shanes contemporary was Anil Kumble. Anil is completely different bowler than Shane. Unlike Shane who had loads of talent, Anil banked on persistance, commitment and hardwork. Anil was more like Chandra and Shane was a geniune leg spinner like Vinod Mankad and Richie Benraud

The other leg spinners who either are in circuit or requires a special mention are Dinesh Kaneria, Shahid Afridi and Staurt Macgill. Macgill is unlucky to be in same era as Warne. Another man who could challenge Warne on googlies and fillipers on his day is "Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar"

Where would Piyush fit in ?. Lets wait and watch.

Best Run

Covered 11kms in span of 1hr and 20 mins non-stop today. This is my personal best along with Chennai Runners tough i was the last one to finish. Anyways, "How a race run is more important than winning" :-).

The last time i ran more than 10Kms was way back in my school days, possibly 1-1/2 decades ago. It looks like a century now. Yeah this happened in 20th Century!!

Red-Cherry

Awesome picture of Redcherry. I remember a comment from Wasim Akram not in exact words though

"A red-cherry is like a beautiful women. It needs to be treated gently."

Why blog ?

Most bloggers starts of with this question, Why blog ?. I too jumped on this bandwagon by asking the same question. I tried very hard, searched every bit to find out an answer but nothing really came out.

Why blog ?: To log. As simple as that!

Possibly you could find stuffs about my daily runs with Chennai runners, Abt Ultimate Frisbee, Something on Flute etc.

Definitely nothing official!!