December movies !!

Just back from Devi theatre, watched the movie “Oram Po” with Vimal & Sudarshan. The movie is total time pass. The first half was really too humourous. The second half also was decent. Arya has done well. On the negative side the film had too many blunt & indecent swear language. They could have cut down that. But overall a decent time pass.

Last Saturday I had watched “Kallori” at Devi with Hari. Kallori was a really good film. Very thoughtfully made & couple of songs are good. The film has a shock ending. The director has skillfully delivered a social message in a love cum college setting. This is a must watch movie.


In English , I saw Forrest Gump last week. Cool movie. Tom Hanks’ acting is too good. He proves that he is class actor. It is a simple tale, rivettingly told. This is must watch movie.

Catch you all later !!

August Update !

August was an eventful month. The following things are worth mentioning

My 28th birthday celebrations at Besant nagar with Cognizant colleagues was a memorable event. Some hotel called Clay. I don’t remember the exact name. Food was really good & we found it economical. It came around to Rs 170 per head for seven of us.



Other activity I was busy in August was with flat searching. I have visited around 10 sites till date & interacted with close to 30 builders. I also saw a couple of second hand flats too. But still undecided where to buy. Hope in the coming months things will be clear.

We had a meet the uncle session for Alumni in Chennai. We had really good turnout for the event. Another event in August we Shankar's marriage. It was a old cinema theatre converted into a marriage hall. It was a great function.

Krishna is driving his Pulsar to Madurai.Hope he will have great tales to tell when he comes back.

C U All !!

July Update !

I have watched Sivaji twice. First time with college mates in Sathyam & second time with brothers Aravindh & Yogan in Santham. This perhaps is the first movie I am watching twice in a movie hall. Sivaji is a feel good film. Anybody who just wants to chill out should definitely watch it. Rajni Kanth has done his role perfectly. Shriya has been very cleverly used by Shankar in the film. Vivek stands out with his one liners.The songs have been shot really well. It is not a kind of movie where you sit and analyse the movie. If you did you won’t find any logic. But Rajni’s movies are just felt & not analysed. Sivaji is a perfect movie for the average Rajni fan.



The IT industry is facing tough times these days. Looks like the honeymoon period is over & conditions are toughening. I am referring to the appreciating value of Rs, which is brining down the “cost arbitrage” advantage for Indian IT firms. This has been proved by the fall in growth of profits in the first quarter of FY 07 08. To overcome this Indian IT companies should come out with innovative solutions, which are tough to be copied by others. Such solutions only will give these companies a temporary competitive advantage over cos in low cost nations. As an immediate action cos are taking about improving utilization & hedging. Only time will tell how the industry comes out of the problem.



Developmental issues in Chennai need a special mention. IT industry has spurred unbelievable growth in the last 5 years in Chennai. Moring from 07:30 till 10:30 roads are choked with the various IT company buses. Especially in OMR the condition is very bad. This is because of the road repairing work that is going on. Hopefully with 2008 we would have congestion free OMR !

Vaastu !!

Hi All

Vaastu looks complicated to strangers & I thought I could demystify it. Hence this post on the science of Vaastu Sastra !! Here it is goes !!

5 Commandments of Vaastu :

1. The house plot needs to be a square / rectangle. In case of rectangle the length should not be more than twice the breath. The plot needs to have a compund wall on all four sides.

2. While constructing the plot, ensure that is more freespace is left on east than west. Similarly ensure more space is left free on North than South.

3.The building should be a square or rectangle.

4. NE corner needs to be 90 deg or less ; SE corner can be 90 or more than 90; SW corner has to be exactly 90 deg; NW corner can be 90 deg or more. Four corners stand for four Gods - NE - Esaniyam ; SE - Agni ; SW - Kanni or Nairuthi ; NW - Vayu



5. The master bed room of the home shoul be at the Kanni (SW) corner of the building.

I will post the other commandments in the subsequent posts !!

Cheers !!

Refer : http://www.shrifreedom.com/vastu_vastupurusha.shtml
www.punditravi.com/vastu_shastra.htm

Interesting site !!

http://www.google.com/trends

The analysis provided makes it really interesting. Hope they come out with regional versions soon !

Cheers
Prasadh

Last presentation @ Great Lakes

07 April 07

Today we had an early morning class. 8:00 – Prof. V K Murti & Subject : Small Business Marketing. Arun,Ashok, Rajesh & Myself were part of the group. Our topic was “Mercedes”. We made a good presentation.

Evening Kamal & myself watched “American History X”. I liked the movie very much. “Life is too short to be pissed off with everything” is the punch dialogue said by Edward Norton’s brother in the movie. Really gripping movie. Liked it !!



21st April 2007

Memorable day in my life !! This day was my last day at Great Lakes. We had a day long workshop on Market Research & Integrated Marketing Communications. Faculty was Mr. Aditya Kaushik . He is IIT Madras & IIMC guy. Ex P&G. Lives in Toronto & runs a BPO called Red Tree. Red Tree is into Analytical Marketing Research.

The first session of the workshop was on focus groups. The next session was on Information Pump. IP is a variant of a focus group which in quality discussions carry incentives. After that he gave us a case on “Nintendo’s Game Boy Color Launch” at 11:30 & asked us to present the solutions by 13:15 hrs. The case was a tough read. Also as we were not familiar with the gaming industry in USA, it took us some time to understand the context.



Arun & myself presented the case. The prof appreciated the clarity of the presentation. We had recommended that Nintendo must target only kids, should not decrease the price & remove the old B&W game boy. Most of our predictions were true & we were happy to close the life at Great Lakes on a personal high.

22nd April 07

Sriram Iyer of Pioneer batch & myself were in the airport waiting for Uncle Bala. Today happens to be our convocation & that is the reason why uncle is in town. Also with us were Praveen, Keshav of JP, Sahoo of JC, Jagan, Vikranth & Bala Pradeep of our batch.

We saw Kalanidhi & Dayanidhi Maran at the airport. Uncle was full of energy & told about how he happened to interact with TN Governor Dr. Surjit Singh Barnala, who is the chief guest at our convocation.

Expect interesting posts after convocation !!

Learnings from my travelling experiences !!

Dear All

My experience in Bombay local trains has been a great learning.

I will tell you some stats about the trains in Mumbai. every train is designed to carry 1000 passengers. But in reality each train carries around 5000 passengers. Frequency is 3 minutes.

First thing that I have gained from travelling in electric trains is punctuality. If you are late by a minute you will miss your train. I used to take the 7:20 local from vashi to VT. This train starts from Vashi, so I will get a place to sit. If I am late & miss the 7:20 local, then I need to take the next train at 7:30. In this train I won't get a place to sit, because it starts from Panvel. It comes jampacked. Suppose you miss the 7:20 train, then you are in for hardships the whole journey. You will be made to bend in all possible degrees.You will get free massages in all parts of your body. people will walk on your shoes as though that is their birthright. Most difficult part is you need to protect your mobile phone & purse from pick pocketers. One my friends has lost his mobile phone in a train.In crowded staions like Kurla & Dadar, if you by chance get into the way of the crowd that is getting down , they will ensure that you also get down at Dadar along with them. Young slum children throw stones at trains. So if you stand on the entrances then you might get hurt by the stones. The whole compartment will be smelling like rot because there is no air circulation , as people get only one feet across one feet to stand.

After such a wonderful journey you will finally get down at VT. For a moment you will not recognise yourself!! Your shoe would have changed its colour. You actually should be happy if you were wearing the shoe in the firstplace. Your trousers & shirts will all be totally crippled. To add to that you will be profusely sweating & your shirt will be totally sticky.

While walking into office, your receptionist will give you a laughing look & will ask why you had missed the regular train.Then you will think all this because of you not being punctual.

Bombay locals make you disciplined !!

My other travelling experience...

Nagarajan & myself were travelling in Dadar Chennai after we finished our training. My friend had come earlier to the station. He had come around 6:00 PM for the 9:00 PM train. He was sitting alone & at that time a stranger had started talking to him. The stranger introduced himself as Sundar, a Film Director & son of famous film director S P Muthuraman. Moreover he said that he had come to Mumbai to book Ayesha Takia as the heroine for his forthcoming film. He told that he lost his money (Rs 25 lacs) , laoptop & mobile phone & train ticket in the taxi. So he did not have any money to board the train. He told that however he had booked the ticket in III AC. He asked for Rs 2000 from my friend. He told this amount will help him to pay the fine the TT will levy for ticketless travel. The guy was speaking to my firend for around two hours regarding various cine actors & actresses. My friend completely believed that he indeed was son of SP Muthuraman & handed over Rs 2000.00 to him. The train started. I told my friend you should not have paid the amount. He told me that this guy was genuine & will give back his money the moment train reaches Chennai. My friend went to the III AC compartment , to chat with him. He returned back taking all bad words against him. I could understand what had went wrong. The guy was missing. There was some other SUndar in that berth. He had escaped with 2000. Hehad planned the whole operation very meticulously to an extent that he had first found the name of a passenger travellin in III AC & then used that as his name & cheated my friend.


To sum it up....

The two main points I wish to state is that one needs to be punctual when commuting in Mumbai & when travelling to a new city it is better not to trust strangers.

C U all !!


LIFELESS TALK

LIFELESS TALK

LIFELESS TALK

Movies & Movies

Hi Folks,

Got to see lot of movies in the last two weeks. I am giving my ratings for each one of them.

On 19th Feb I went to Patchai Kili Muthu Charam a movie by Goutham Menon. It was the Sathyam complex. I liked the film very much because of the amazing screenplay & good acting by Sarath, Andrea & Jyothika. Music is very good too. Worth a watch !

We went to Sathyam complex again. Movie was Mozhi. It had really good songs & the theme was different & worth watching once.

I saw a lot of films on my lappie. Shawshank Redemption , The Departed, American Pie V, Scent of Woman & Derailed. Outstanding movies were Shawshank Redemption , The Departed & SoW in that order. Pls do not miss them.

Went with Vimal to Six Degrees for watching “The pursuit for happiness”. Amazing movie & Will Smith has proved that he is a class actor.


C u in the next post!

AGLOCO

Dear Friends,

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AGLOCO is building a new form of online community that they call an Economic Network. They are not only paying Members their fair share, but they’re building a community that will generate the kind of fortune that YouTube made. But instead of that wealth making only a few people rich, the entire community will get its share.

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Thanks

My blog is one year old !!

Celebration time !! My blog is one year old !! I think it is quite an achievement of sorts. I had planned at the beginning of the year that I would not a miss a month while blogging & at the end of the year I look back & see that I have blogged on all the months that too with an average of two posts per month.



The weakest of all weak things is a virtue that has not been tested in the fire - Mark Twain. Yup, this was my Toast Masters table topics session. It was a good experience.

My friend from MIT days, Senthil is currently in Berlin, Germany. Senthil in fact was my roommate in MIT. He is doing his Doctoral Programme there. I am linking his blog here. His first post is very impressive. He writes about his experiences in Germany. Do not miss it !!

Bye for now !!

Movies !!

Feb 4th was a very memorable day at Great Lakes. The day of campus placements & I got through in a good company. Details in later posts……..

I have identified four areas around which I am going to write in future. Movies, Music, Books & Great Lakes. Expect tagged posts.

Movies

I saw two Hindi movies & a Tamil movie yesterday. Guru, Dhoom 2 & JOK.

Guru

Abhishek Bachhan stands out as a great actor. I never thought he could act this way. The way he was portrayed in the screen was very natural. I am saying this because in Dhoom 2, I didn’t find him attractive / handsome. In that way Mani Ratnam is doubtless a perfect caster & knows how to get the best out of his cast. The songs were good & cinematography was very good too.

On the negative side I felt the movie itself did not have a captivating charm. The story was more or less known & hence there was no interest that was built from frame to frame. Also Ash’s initial scenes gave a feel of Madhubala of Roja. Overall I would rate it as OK types.

Dhoom 2

Next, got to see 3/4th of Dhoom 2. 3/4th , because my friend did not give me the final part of the film. The producer & director have slogged to make a Hollywood action film out of Bollywood. I must comment that they have succeeded to a large extent. The Namibia train sequence or the AB, Uday Chopra fight in the water shed have been shot spectacularly. Ash looks stunning in her costumes. AB unfortunately is not cast well & doesn’t look smart. Overall the movie is OK types.

JOK

Third movie was “Jillendru Oru Kadal” . The songs stand out. Bhoomika & Jyothika both look really beautiful. Surya does his part of acting. The reason why it did not click is the fact that Tamil audience are conservative & the fact that the heroine “donates” her husband to his ex-girlfriend for a day is bit of far stretch. It is kind of a radical thought. Overall I would rate the movie worth watching once.

Bye for now.

My new year resolutions ...............

Straight to the point, I wanted to make my New Year Resolutions. I have been thinking about this the whole day & here they go………..

1. Read 24 good books in 2007
2. Learn a new language
3. Make four speeches at Toast Masters
4. Exercise half an hour everyday
5. Weigh around 75 - 80 kgs at the end of the year
6. Read news papers everyday
7. Make 100 new friends
8. Blog every week
9. Keep talking to relatives

I am sure I will live up to the resolutions. We will however revisit at the end of the year to find out the effectiveness of the resolutions.