Monday, the 10th of May, 2010

I've been neck deep into specs the whole day and I reserved this post for the end of the day, so that I have some incentive to finish my work :) It's been a crazy Monday as usual, but special though- the day when I joined the company I work for, six years ago. Ever since, lot of things have changed - the team, the work, the people I work with and even the country- the only constant being the company.
Lot of things to reminisce about - night outs in the office, home drop anytime in the night, a bad dinner at Windows of the World(yes...what name for a restaurant!) with the rotten coconut chutney, movies in the conference rooms, dance practise for the annual party, the late night customer web chats with less participation but good food from Olive Garden, the unforgettable chai time gossip with the girls gang(god knows how many people were victimized!), the sense of accomplishment on getting your tool working after spending the whole night on it, thank you mails from customers who say their job has been saved, difficult times when you figure in the post mortem when things take a bad turn, the adrenaline rush when you break the build when you really shouldn't have, the innumerable team lunches, coffee treats at Barista, the heated discussions around design and bug decisions etc. etc. (I cant think of more right now!)
Hoping that the years to come are as interesting and eventful as the past ones have been.

Happy birthday Appa!

It's my dad's 60th birthday...yes....time flies so fast! I still remember my 'Daddy strongest' running behind me to ensure I don't crash into the bush, as I wheeled away in my new BSA champ bicycle. It still seems like yesterday when my dad dropped me at the bus stop and when I realised that the bus had just left that I coaxed him to overtake the bus and drop me at the next stop (which obviously he couldn't as my dad never drove faster than 30 kmph :))
I am not near him this year for his birthday, and so I let me thoughts flow along about the wonderful dad he has been. Though I feel this all the time, there are very few times when I would have expressed this to him. So here it goes - this post is dedicated to the only man I trust completely - my dad!
My dad has been with me all throughout - whether it was the speech competition at school, or the state board examination or the extremely stressing campus interviews at college and even during times when I had to make important personal decisions - by my side, helping me understand that life did not end with these situations and there was a lot more in store for me to face, and above all giving me the reassurance that he and my mom will be with me throughout, supporting every decision of mine. When in college, I was tired after campus interviews with 6-7 companies and was almost losing hope, when my dad told me "You should never get dishearteaned. These are all mere companies, real life is different from these. The best is always reserved for the future. When you are successful after 10 years and think back, this moment will sound funny to you, funny in the sense that you attributed so much importance to it."
My dad did everything possible to ensure that I and my brother had a happy childhood. Of course, we didn't realise this then, but do realise now the umpteen sacrifices that he and my mom made to keep us happy, the numerous lucrative jobs offers that he turned off with the worry that it might displace us, the frugal-simple lifestyle that they lived to ensure that we could have the best education and life. Every good habit that I and my brother have cultivated was instilled in us by example.
So coming back to the topic. Appa - Wishing you many many more happy returns of this day! And hoping to be by your side for your coming birthdays. I really miss you a lot, Appa!
You are the best and I love you a lot!

Will there be peace?

I really am in a state of shock now. I called my mom for the routine evening talk and she told me that they were caught in the Shimoga riots yesterday while coming back from Manipal. They had to stay inside for 6 hours and then return to Bhadravati at 10 PM, to avoid the mobs.
Being thousands of miles away, I was shaken hearing this. Its true that it hits you hard when you experience it and when the people you dearly love are part of it!
Will there ever be peace?

Can music and perfume really bring memories?

I've always wondered about this and experienced it quite a few times. Have you? Some songs and scents bring back specific memories very strongly, you will remember them wherever you are. I feel the recollection of events so strong that it either makes me ecstatic or extremely depressed. In fact, I stopped using a particular perfume, after I realised that it reminds me of a phase of life that I want to forget about. It would be such a natural process of the memories floating in , deja vus happening, that it seems so normal. I guess I should ask Alex about it the next time I talk to him to see if there is any research going on around this :) probably it makes a good thesis topic for him!

Friday was one such day. I was in my office cabin and it was late in the evening on Friday. The office was relatively empty and I decided to listen to some songs on Raaga. Its been a long time since I listened to good songs. However, I've realised that my playlist doesnt change much. I cannot move beyond a particular period and that is the period of my college days and a little after that. So there it was, one my all time favourites - Dum Dum Dum. As I was listening to 'Ragasiyamai' I felt myself smiling at what I was reminded of. One of my very close friends in college really hates the song. And she used to find this song that I liked, "wicked" - of all things :D Coming to think of it, I think my choice was unique :) Not many people liked that song.
I was grinning listening to the song, thinking about my friend and her desperation when this song would run in a loop, as a sole song in the playlist. Almost naturally, my thought flowed to the fun we had in class around deciding the songs based on the mood of the class. I'm literally laughing to myself thinking of the Maths class in our first semester where the 'strict' mam was teaching about the 'cot' function and the 'tan' function. And she squealed in laughter at the song that I suggested for the class. Hmm...I better not write more as some things are better kept a secret. If X is reading this, I'm pretty sure she'll remember the song and even more sure that she would be laughing to herself. :) :)

BTW, my co-ordinates have changed from 17 deg N and 78 deg E to 47 deg N and 122 deg W :D

Happy new year 2010!

Wishing all of you a happy new year! May this year bring with it lot of joy, happiness, prosperity and peace above all...
It has been an eventful year that went by as quickly as ever. Lot of ups and downs, joys and sorrows have made this another interesting year for all of us. The new year brings with it a lot of hope, expectation and happiness. May this stay on throughout the year. Happy new year once again!

Lazy musings...

I need to do this. And now. Yeah, that's my inner thing talking to the lazy self in me...I've been thinking for ages now about starting to write more posts. Anyway I'm happy that the good in me could convince the bad in me :) So here goes, yet another series of musings of the wandering mind...
I watched this movie called 'Kanjivaram' a couple of days back on Vijay. Amazing movie! I've been a great fan of Prakash Raj for quite sometime (more after I watched Abiyum Naanum), probably one of the very few who still make sensible movies. It picturises the life of a poor silk weaver from Kanchipuram, back in the 1940s. Some of the scenes had a striking impact. The scene where he feeds his crippled daughter rat poison is extremely moving. More so, the climax where he covers the body of his dead daughter with the incomplete silk saree that he has been weaving for the past 22 years and his agony when the saree which was being woven for 22 years still doesn't cover his daughter from head to toe is really touching. Kudos to Prakash Raj!
It was the weekend again and that time of the week to do some grocery shopping. I took out the car as it was late and switched on the FM and there it was ...Radio city...91.1 FM...my companion during most of my drives. But it just amazes me that inspite of there being so many Telugu songs, I get to hear the same ones again and again. Its either 'Ninenna nenu chustonsi ninenna...." or "tututu tututu tututu ...hasini hasini..." or the very interesting "Excuse me Mr Mallanna...". I never thought I could learn a Telugu song completely just by listening to it a hundred times. . Do any of you feel the same about the Radio City song listings?

Mixed feelings I have now...I turned 26 a quarter hour back, done with a quarter century of life - thats the good feeling....am getting older and need to get more matured - thats the not so good feeling...anyway...Good night!

Its time for pongal again!!

Wishing you all a happy pongal/sankranthi. This was the first time I was celebrating Pongal all by myself. As always, the net came to my rescue for the recipes. And they did come out pretty well.

The alarm went off at 7 AM. I kept snoozing it and finally got up with a start at about 8.15. I rushed to have a quick bath. I had to make the pongal before 9 and I'm pretty slow, so it would was going to be a mad run! I decorated the cooker (its actually supposed to be a "pongal paanai" but i dont have any ;)) with the coconut, turmeric pieces, banana and sugarcane. The milk started boiling. Meanwhile I couldn't wait. So I thought "Why not do a kolam on this auspicious occasion". So I went armed with the rice powder. And this was the net effect of the exercise!!

By this time the milk had boiled, I put the rice-dhal mixture that I had washed and kept aside in the milk. After this would boil well, I would add jaggery and spices and "Sakkarai Pongal" would be ready.

While the sweet pongal was getting ready, I started the preparation for the "Venn Pongal", coconut chutney and sambar. I selected the best looking recipe among all the ones from internet and went ahead with the preparation. It took about an hour and a half to get done with everything. However, finally the dish looked awesome and so tempting!! Want to have a look? Here it goes!!

Happy with my creations, I went on to have a happy breakfast. By this time, Mukund joined me from his deep slumber. I was cent percent sure that my pongal was really good, as Mukund (who usually hates the sight of rice!) took two-three servings of the pongal :D

See you all then. Time for me to go for my dinner!

Anything but a software engineer!!

The blog title should explain it all. Today is one of those days when I think why did I become a software engineer. (I should admit that there are days when I think 'Thank God, I'm a software engineer').
It's a nice relaxing Saturday and here I am working on my office stuff, the muted TV in front of me. The code is one of those frustrating, seemingly easy, taking the life out of you with the problems it reveals, where none of your 100 solutions work!!

So I thought, I'll take my eyes off the taunting code editor for sometime and blog something. (Of course, there is a parallel thought process at the back of mind thinking about a 101th solution to the problem)
For this post, I thought I will blog all those so-called "ambitions" that I had when I was a kid!! Hmm...so let me start thinking.

1) A singer - There have been many times when a rolled up magazine wouldbecome my mic and I would sing away to glory. Not only that, I would serve as the host too who would introduce "The singer Janani". All until my mom would shout at me to shut up and study!

2) Social worker - There have been innumerable occasions when a group of young children on the streets of the town where I grew, Salem, would bring this thought into me -"When I grow up I would run an organisation to provide these children food,education and health. And I would come again here and take them with me to that place".

3) An engineer - No...not a software engineer! I would see the bright yellow helmet that my dad used to wear during his shopfloor supervisions and would think - "Wow! that looks cool. I should become like him when I grow up!"

4) Doctor - Don't ask me why I wanted to become one! I wouldn't have even managed to cross past half of it with my patience levels!! I used to be fascinated by the stethoscope.

5) Cook - This was purely triggered by the recipes that I used to read in the children's magazine "Gokulam". It used to be the same recipes again and again - Crumbled biscuit pudding (I still remember my brother spitting out the pudding I made!!), Bread balls and so one.

6) Hair stylist/Beautician - This was one of those wishes that lasted for a very long time! I used to style my mom's hair during her afternoon naps. My brother too became the victim of my skill once. I promised him a step cut and at the end his hair was shaved out in patches. He was shocked and cried out loud. But you know what he was blamed for having shown his head to me.

Thats pretty much the list. Can't think of anything more. Time to sign off. My code is beckoning to me and I am going to move to it reluctantly, thinking why I couldn't have become one of the above!!

Visa God features in Wall Street Journal

Back to work after a long weekend!
I got this mail from a colleague about the Chilkur temple getting a mention in the Wall Street Journal. The link is here for you to read and enjoy too.

http://www.garamchai.com/HyderabadVisaGod.htm

I heard about the Chilkur temple three years ago when I moved to Hyderabad. There were talks about the temple helping you to get through your visa interviews smoothly.

My first visit to the temple was on Durga puja day with my friends. Of course, after that I've been visiting it for 4-5 times now, mostly accompanying people who visit me to the temple.

On my first visit to the temple, I was really dumbstruck by the huge wave of people trying to make their way around the temple with a small piece of paper and a pen in hand. It was a totally different sight from what you get to see in other south indian temples. Curious to know what was in the paper, I peeped and got a glance of one of them. Any guesses? It was a piece of paper with numbers 1 to 108 printed on it in a grid. People were striking off the numbers one by one as and when they finish one round around the temple or a parikrama as they call it. It was an easier way to keep count of the 108 parikramas that they had to do. As much as it was amusing, I was impressed by the simple solution that the temple priests had provided for a problem much more simpler.
Another thing which I feel is good about this temple is that they do not accept any money as offerings. However, if you want to contribute in some way, you are welcome to offer your services at the temple for the short time you are there - like distributing flowers to the devotees, selling the books at the counter etc. If you want to contribute money, then you can buy the books that the temple trust publishes. They are published in English/Telugu and cost Rs.5 each. The temple encourages you to buy them and distribute it to spread the fame of the temple.
Some kind of temple reforms!!

Happy new year!

Its been a long long time...Its sad to think I couldn't take out time to blog of late. Anyways, let's see if I can atleast do it this year! Let me not make it a new year resolution because they are made to be broken.

Let me take this post as an opportunity to wish all of you a very happy and prosperous new year. Let the new year bring with lots of joy and happiness.

Hmm...and its time for a new, more matured look for my blog :)

Orkut fortune...

I've been following the orkut fortune quite closely for sometime and surprisingly I find it right a lot of times!! (though it is even fundamentally wrong many times)

Today's fortune says:

Your winsome smile will be your sure protection

Though it sounds good, I'm now wondering how a smile can protect you...Hmm...

Again after a long break...

...How much ever I try, I just cannot put my thinking to action when I want to pen down some thoughts in my blog. Maybe its the tight schedule that I have or maybe its the inherent laziness in me. Whatever, I finally vowed to myself that I would post atleast one post every week from now on. I hope I'll keep up my promise to myself!
Yesterday, we had the 'Spice nite' at the Indian School of Business.[That's where my husband's studying now). It was organised by the "Student's Family Association", mainly the spouses. It is the husbands who are studying management, however the spouses just rocked in the way they organized the function.
I performed a bharatnatyam piece to the song "Thaaye Yashoda" in Thodi raga. Wonderful song it was in Sudha Raghunathan's beautiful voice! My legs ached terribly during the practise sessions, but it was the song that kept me going. I simply loved the song as it gave me ample room for expressions and "bhavas". However, I realised that I needed regular practise...maybe it will help me shed those extra kilos too :) Should definitely think about it!!
And today we had the foreign language classes starting here. After my brief stint with Japanese, I tried to experiment on something with an easy script. And I chose Spanish among them. I enjoyed the first class, learnt a few words too... However, grammatically nothing seems to be as easy as Japanese - no plural, no gender, no future tense!! Though it makes up for the complexity in its script.
So thats it for this week. Hope to post something during the week if I get some time out of my work!!
Hasta pronto.....
[I learnt this today!!! 'See you soon' in Spanish]

Salaam Karne Ki Aarzoo

An audio post. I did notice I had to improve in a lot of places - with respect to my lyrics as well as singing.

Movie: Umrao Jaan
Song: Salaam Karne Ki Aarzoo

Listen to the song here

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As usual your valuable comments solicited.

Back after a long hiatus...

Great to be back to the wonderful world of blogging. Hope not to take such long vacations in the future.
Lets see...Anyway, the last few months have been life-changing for me. Well...I entered into matrimony and saw two cities in three months. And finally am back to Hyderabad.

These two months in Bangalore were really good and so different from what I have lived till now. Waking up at 7 (which is really early for my standards),travelling for about an hour to office, that too amidst thiccck traffic and last but not the least , the pleasant-dull-cool (whatever you may call it) weather. It used to be impossible to make up my mind to get out of the cosy quilt, and if I succeeded then it would be another ordeal to bring myself to push off to work.

Apart from these, there were innumerable things that I enjoyed in Bangalore - the 'pani puri' from the boy on the roadside in Jayanagar, Lassi from Cool joint, window shopping at the forum, actual shopping in the small fancy stores, tamil movies in PVR, italian food at fiorano and the most important of all - spending time with my new found best pal for life ;)

After two long months, when I came to Hyderabad, I was kind of worried how its going to be. But the amazing team I have in office here just made sure I didnt feel as if I've been away for two months. So settling back to work in Hyd...and ya do expect some more posts coming...and if time permits some audio posts too :)

Microsoft Photo story

I came across this tool which is a free download from Microsoft - PhotoStory
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx

Its a wonderful tool and very easy to use. You supply a list of pictures and this generates a video aka 'photo story' out of it. You can customize it with your narration or a background music.

Here is one such video generated from the pictures taken during a trip to the Nagarjuna Sagar dam in Hyderabad.


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Here is another number from the movie 'Dum'.

Song: Saanakya Saanakya
Movie : Dum



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The mood was set with the recording of the first song. :D
So I experimented with a few more songs this weekend. Here is one of them.

Song : Chinna Chinna Vanna Kuyil
Movie : Mouna Ragam
Music by : Illayaraja

Feedback solicited as usual :)

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Kanda Naal Mudhal - My "mudhal" song :)

A dream of long time has come true today.... :D
I finally got the resolve to record my first song - Kanda Naal Mudhal from the movie Kanda Naal Mudhal...a very melodious and close-to-carnatic-music song.

Thanks a lot to Anand for helping me with the mixing and for making this lazy girl do this :D

Do drop in your valuable comments...:)



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Wallpaper philosophies

Came across some "philosophical" wallpapers from coolbuddy.com. Some of them here...

If you are a vegetarian just to be nice to animals, why are you eating their food?

Good things may come to those who wait, but all the really excellent stuff will be gone by then

Don't be irreplaceable, if you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted

If you think your boss is stupid, remember you wouldn't have a job if he was any smarter

The sooner you fall behind the more time you will have to catch up

And, my favourite :-)

When women go wrong, men go right after them

Partha Mudhal.....

Had a hectic day at office and just thought of listening to some music. "Vettaiyaadu vilayaadu" caught my eyes on Raaga's front page. Though I had heard from some of my friends about the songs that was the first time I was seeing the songs on Raaga. I just ran through the singers and Bombay Jayashree's song got my full attention. Expectations raised especially because it was a Harris Jayaraj - Bombay Jayashree venture. I enjoyed the song very much. Jayashree's husky voice is just awesome! Couldn't stop from repeating it over and over again. However this song seems slightly different from her previous hits - Vaseegara and Ondra Renda. It has a comparitively faster beat and not as romantic as them :-) Also it seemed a little bit like a rhyme.
Vaseegara is the still the "most romantic" song I've ever heard.

PS: These are just my opinions on the song. I know that my taste is almost 360 degrees different from many :-D