The World in a Nutshell

Elcano - 3rd Tallest Ship in Pensacola

2009-06-06T18:08:00.000-07:00

Picture taken when the Spanish Naval Training ship, Elcano arrived in pensacola bay. Heavy sun couldn't even stop folks from being out for waiting in queue to get into the the ship. People say they are watching a piece of history unfold.

Couch for sale

2008-10-28T16:32:00.000-07:00

Couch for sale. In good condition. guaranteed without(*-1) claw marks....

ps: 11 Cats in ad may or may not be delivered with couch depending upon availability.

Best Break Dancer of the time!

2008-01-20T10:56:00.000-08:00

Just have a look into this amazing break dance.

Last day my friend showed me this unique talented guy in youtube. He is Philip Chbeeb, an 18 year old guy from Houston, US. I never seen such amazing steps in anyone even from actors or masters. I searched for similar ones after viewing this, but couldn't find any better. Just look into the video how good he performs even with this chubby figure.

Hen with an Attitude

2008-01-08T13:22:00.000-08:00

Our hen, laying eggs in the egg basket itself. We don't know how she found this place. Let me guess; during usual afternoon rounds she found eggs in the basket which is originally kept there for cooking and started putting more in that place!!

Can't you let me to have some peace at least this time!!

Vazhakula (Bunch of Bananas)

2008-01-08T13:17:00.000-08:00

One interesting snap from Agriculture Fest 2008, conducted in my native. Did you noticed anything unusual!!!! No...look once more...

Petrol Pump

2007-11-25T11:14:00.000-08:00

OK. For non-Mallus the board reads "Fill Diesel from this pump".

I couldn't find any good reason why such a sign board is there!! Especially when, it is inside a KSRTC Bus Stand which means it can be used only for KSRTC Buses and will be used by authorised KSRTC personals.

Whatever, It looks interesting!!.

KSRTC - A way to make profit.

2007-11-25T11:07:00.000-08:00

Got this picture of the Checker from a KSRTC bus on the way to home.

A policy KSRTC is following to make profit out of capturing people who travels without taking tickets. I appreciate the policy, as long as they want to give employment for some people. I am not here to insult the feelings of those who does this work, but wondering are they able to return at least up to the limit they are paid with? We see that in private sectors such a system is not popular. Also they do think it is not required at all. Why Can't KSRTC stop this post slowly and use them in better areas in the system itself?

Forum in Deepavali Mood…

2007-11-01T10:43:00.000-07:00

After a long interval, today I visited the Forum, my favorite place in Bangalore. Forum is one of the best Shopping Mall in the city, though costly. The best place for those who are not ready for compromise on product quality. I was a frequent visitor to this place some time before. However, these days I am becoming a stranger here. The time I used to spend in Forum is stolen by travels to the new office. On the other hand, am I getting bored with this place?

The AUDI Car is gone! This is the first thing I noticed entering the Mall. The mall is fully decorated with illumination and lamps for deepavali festival. Now the exit has made strictly through the side openings in two sides. Security is more tight now. More Security inspection doors are installed. Guards are checking the bags of almost all visitors. Some of the shops are missing and few new shops came in. Some new spaces has been allocated for shops which was left unused earlier. I paused for some seconds in front of the 3D glass Cube printers. Its an amazing technology. I can't even imagine how to create the picture inside the cube. Looking into the machine it looks like they are using laser beams to burn specific positions inside a plane glass cube. But how? I can say only one word, "Its complicated!!"

I went upside to see the decorations and took some snaps. The decoration under the middle dome is amazing. I took snaps of this illumination from each floor. But the best was from the topmost floor, which covered the complete lighting. Wished I had my S5 IS Camera with me that time. Even in 2 MPX, picture noise is too heavy in Mobile Cameras.

Rush is more as it is a holiday…I hate Forum when rush is there and so avoids coming here on weekends except with friends. I came to Forum because it is a shortcut for me to get into the other side of the road. Oh Jezzez, the main task is still left. I don't have much time to spent. I walked past the flowing crowd and continued to the other side of the mall and dissolved into the wandering mass in the main road.

Bye bye Balaji Mansion.

2007-09-07T12:56:00.000-07:00

Today Friday, 07- September -2007, after a lot of confusions and waiting, things are now in a solid position. Finally we are moving to our new office.

When getting the final picture of the movement I could see different expressions from the faces of different team members. Some with a sun in their face, like they got a $100 million lottery .... They belong to the lucky group in our team who where traveling a lot all these months and now going to enjoy freedom from Bangalore traffic. A second group with gloomy face thinking about alternatives still (but in their inner sense they know there is no escape from this!!!) and some lucky among them who can still survive by shifting to a nearer place…and this is where I falls in.. :-). A few among them who seems like all these changes are not all going to affect them…..(God only knows that!! lol)…

Finally things started into action. The official confirmation for movement came from our STS Admin. Standing in our cubicles talking with colleagues. Office boys are bringing in Packages for CPUs and monitors. Is that just a feeling? Something. Is it right? Glimpses of some funeral party flashing in my memories? Something started pulling my mind. Is that some nostalgic feelings started beating my heart? Still thinking back I don’t know what was that. Was that realization of the inevitable fact that I am gonna miss something I really liked? All those mid-day walks through the park after lunch, those days which I enjoyed walking from office to room, some favorites which I may not see any more….our “Anthavum Kuthavum” hehe... it seems I am going jungles…

By 4 PM all the systems were shutdown and we tagged each system with the names and destination numbers so that packers can place it properly in destination cubicles. As the local admin for the team I took the responsibility of managing the shutting down and packaging of servers also. Everything went fine and our PM selected three of us from the team to volunteer for setting up the systems at destination. We need to go to new office tomorrow for finalizing things so that work won’t be interrupted on Monday. So…..Next day to the new office…..Bye-bye dear!!!! Let us fly off from our nest.

Free Hugs Campaign - Sometimes, a hug is all what we need.

2007-08-16T12:56:00.000-07:00

One of my good old friend used to have the habit of adding videos into her orkut profile. It has been long time I accessed her profile and last week while passing through her profile, I found lot of new videos added into her collection. While going through them(she will kill me if she sees this hehe. We had one quarrel upon this subject only), I found one pretty interesting short-movie. The idea which is expressed in the movie is too simple but brilliant. It is not the movie which caught my interest but it's wonderful idea and its far reaching effects.

Being impressed by the idea I checked in the web for more details and got bundles and bundles of information. It looks like the campaign just gained tremendous popularity in an amazing way.

Free Hugs - The magic to brighten up lives:

Sometimes, a hug is all what we need. Free hugs is a real life controversial story of Juan Mann, A man whose sole mission was to reach out and hug a stranger to brighten up their lives.

In this age of social disconnectivity and lack of human contact, the effects of the Free Hugs campaign became phenomenal.

As this symbol of human hope spread across the city, police and officials ordered the Free Hugs campaign BANNED. What then witnessed is the true spirit of humanity come together in what can only be described as awe inspiring.

Although the Free Hugs campaign started years ago, it has recently received a huge boost with the publishing of the video.

Juan Mann of the "Free Hugs Campaign" at Pitt Street Mall, Sydney, Australia, October 2, 2006. Photo by Miles Li.

"Free Hugs" in the CBD of Sydney, Australia. This picture was taken in August 2004, supposedly at the very beginning of the "Free Hugs" phenomenon.

We're all just people made out of the same old dirt, and God didn't make any junk.

A picture I took on June 24, 2007, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, of a woman holding up a sign reading "ABRAZOS GRATIS" (Spanish for "free hugs").

You can visit Juan Mann's blog space for updates on the campaign:

http://www.myspace.com/freehugscampaign

You can also watch a video interview with Juan Mann on the SMH website.

http://media.fairfax.com.au/?rid=22279

And, here is a collection of more videos inspired by the Free Hug Campaign (and there are plenty more being added every day!):

Free Hugs in South Korea
Free Hugs in "Insadong of Korea"
Free Hugs in Poland 2006
Free Hugs Campaign in Tel Aviv
more Free Hugs in Tel Aviv
Free Hugs in Krakow
Free Hugs in Newfoundland
Free Hugs posted before Juan Mann's campaign
Free Hugs group march

Related Websites:
http://www.freehugscampaign.org/
http://www.freehugscampaign.com/

Wikipedia Link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Hugs_Campaign

Around the Country - Our nation's journey through 60 years.

2007-08-15T21:49:00.000-07:00

Today, going through the 60th year of our country's independence, I thought about to have something related to our country in last few years.

I didn't get much time to work upon this topic and the main source for these
information are the mails I got these days and some research in Google. Summing up all these information I think it would be a good collection to buildup one blog.

This is one of the independence day wishes I got from my friend. Let this be the starter to you.

Nehru and Gandhi at AICC meeting, July 1946:

Mountbatten arrives at Delhi airport; received by Nehru and Liaquat Ali. March 25, 1947:

Golden Seconds: Aug. 15, 1947: Mountbatten swears Nehru in as Prime Minister of India:

Gandhiji Addressing people:

TRAIN TO PAKISTAN: India 1947. Trains packed with refugees - Hindus and Sikhs headed for India, and Muslims headed for Pakistan - were convenient targets for gangs of killers on both sides of the border. Inadequately protected 'Refugee Specials' were typically stopped, and the occupants butchered, several times in the course of the journey.

Riots - Punjab, 1947:

Partition to this extend. For what? - A Library being divided at the time of partition. Heart trembles to see this sight and it is tough to imagine the state of the nation at the moment when people needed to hold hands:

1948: The news of Gandhi's assassination hits the streets. A stunned crowd gathers in Calcutta.

1948: Crowds in New Delhi wait for a glimpse of Gandhi's funeral procession.

1971: Indira Gandhi reviews the troops, in the context of military and diplomatic preparations for the Bangladesh War.

India Present an overview - some information I found which we can be proud about.

00 year old ancient civilization
§ 325 languages spoken – 1,652 dialects
§ 18 official languages
§ 29 states, 5 union territories
§ 3.28 million sq. kilometers - Area
§ 7,516 kilometers - Coastline
§ 1.3 Billion population.
§
§ 5600 dailies, 15000 weeklies and 20000 periodicals in 21 languages with a combined circulation of 142 million.
§
§ GDP $576 Billion. (GDP rate 8%)
§
§ Parliamentary form of Government
§ Worlds largest democracy.
§ Worlds 4th largest economy.
§ World-class recognition in IT, bio-technology and space.
§ Largest English speaking nation in the world.
§ 3rd largest standing army force, over 1.5Million strong.
§ 2nd largest pool of scientists and engineers in the World.

Indians in the USA

38% of doctors in the USA, 12% of scientists in the USA, 36% of NASA scientists, 34% of Microsoft employees, 28% of IBM employees, 17% of INTEL scientists, 13% of XEROX employees, ........list goes on....

Of the 1.5M Indians living in the USA, 1/5th of them live in the Silicon Valley.
35% of Silicon Valley start-ups are by Indians.
Indian students are the largest in number among foreign students in USA.

IIT = Harvard + MIT + Princeton:

CBS' highly-regarded ‘60 Minutes’, the most widely watched news programme in the US, told its audience of more than 10 Million viewers that “IIT may be the most important university you've never heard of."

"The United States imports oil from Saudi Arabia, cars from Japan, TVs from Korea and Whiskey from Scotland. So what do we import from India? We import people, really smart people," co-host Leslie Stahl began while introducing the segment on IIT.

“…the smartest, the most successful, most influential Indians who've migrated to the US seem to share a common credential: They are graduates of the IIT.”

“…in science and technology, IIT undergraduates leave their American counterparts in the dust.”

“Think about that for a minute: A kid from India using an Ivy League university as a safety school. That's how smart these guys are.”

There are “cases where students who couldn't get into computer science at IIT, they have gotten scholarships at MIT, at Princeton, at Caltech.”

Progress during the last 20 years

Poverty (incidence) :
1980s=44%
1990s=36%
2000=26%

Education (literacy rate)

1980s=44%
1990s=52%
2000=65%

Health (life expectancy)
1980s =56
1990s =60
2000 =69

India - A Brief History of Time

Vedic Civilization
Indus & Saraswati Civilizations
Rise of Jainism and Buddhism
Mauryan Period Golden
Age of Indian Arts & Sciences
Muslim Invasions
The Mughal Empire
Portuguese Invasion
The British East-India Company
The British Empire
India's Freedom Struggle Independence
Modern India 2020 Vision

Some Great Peoples:

Gandhi was once asked what he thought about Western Civilization. His response was:

"I think it would be a good idea. The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty. The only devils in this world are those running around inside our own hearts, and that is where all our battles should be fought.”

“If all Christians acted like Christ, the whole world would be Christian.”
“Woman, I hold, is the personification of self-sacrifice, but unfortunately today she does not realize what tremendous advantage she has over man.”

“Indians, will stagger humanity without shedding a drop of blood.”
“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”

I personally think now we should understand the real meaning of these words.

Subhas Chandra Bose(January 23, 1897 – presumably August 18, 1945):
Bose was elected president of the Indian National Congress for two consecutive terms. However, he had to resign from the post in the face of a motion of no-confidence, stemming from ideological conflicts with Mahatma Gandhi. Bose felt that Mahatma Gandhi's tactics of non-violence would never be sufficient to secure India's independence, and advocated violent resistance. He established a separate political party, the All India Forward Bloc and continued to call for the full and immediate independence of India from British rule. His stance did not change with the outbreak of War, which he saw as an opportunity to take advantage of British weakness.

Srinivasa Ramanujam,(1887 – 1920):
Great Indian Mathematician, whose interest from academics at Trinity, College, Cambridge, led him to collaborate there and postulate and prove well over 3,542 theorems.

Amartya Sen, (b-1933):
1998 - The Nobel Prize for Economics for his redefining work on ethical welfare economics. Currently residing as Lamont University Professor Emeritus at Harvard, after stepping down from the prestigious post of Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.

Sir C.V. Raman, (1888 – 1970)
1930 - Nobel Laureate in Physics for work on scattering of light and Raman effect.

Satyendranath Bose, (1894-1974)

Indian Physicist, who solved one of the mysteries of quantum mechanics, showing that in the quantum world some particles are indistinguishable. His collaborations with Albert Einstein led to a new branch on statistical mechanics know commonly known as the “Einstein-Bose” statistics.

Sir Jagdish Chandra Bose, (1858 – 1937)
USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century old suspicion amongst academics that the pioneer of wireless-radio communication was Professor Jagdish Chandra Bose and not Guglielmo Marconi.

Some of rare collections, announcing the glory of our country.

That's all Folks.......Let me stop here...I know it is nothing but at least I should do this as a proud citizen of the nation. isn't?

First Shot From my New Digital Camera....

2007-07-28T11:52:00.001-07:00

Proudly presenting the first good shot that I got from my new digital camera, Canon S5 IS... :)

See how innocent he is sitting hehe :)...

One of the stray dogs I found in Lalbag Botanical Garden. He was busy with enjoying one bread piece which I think, he got from some tourists while taking this photo.

This is my first full throttle Zoom shot. You won't believe, I found the bird through Camera Zoom preview only. It was so far that it is not easy to find the bird by naked eye. Thanks to 12X optical zoom and Image Stabiliser Integrated into Camera.

A Mandir inside Lalbag Botanical Garden.

A Snake I found inside a pond. Hmm looking at some squirrel out there!!!!

Glass Palace - One of the attraction in Lalbag.

Really I don't know who's statue is this. I need some one's help upon this... :(

The new Attraction in Lalbag....Eco-friendly mini Electric Buses and Cycles for tourists in Garden....

Ah, It looks like I need to create a separate account for the photography blogs section. These pictures are eating up hell lot of space from my limited 1 GB total blog space. Expect a new section for this....

A Closer Look At The iPhone

2007-07-18T22:29:00.000-07:00

Apple's Latest offering iphone, A Closer Look...

my comment, seeems great...but what about the pockets!!!

Gone Nutty

2007-07-06T01:35:00.000-07:00

A recent stuff I dropped into from MSN videos. Thinking u will like it.

Video: Ice Age Extra

Athirapalli - Nature's Crater

2007-07-03T10:46:00.000-07:00

With the travel to native for the marriage of one of my best friend, I got a chance to visit one of the popular tourist place, Athirapalli. Putting some of the snaps I got from there...

diminutive yet awesome!!!

Sorry! No Human Effects Added....

not that much cruel type.....why should I enter into nature's privacy?

Edited exclusively by nature. Simple exposure effects upon sunlight......!!

Look that mist which is coming out from the falls!!!...

It took too much risky walk for me. throttling through the slippery rocks in the middle of river and balancing at one point avoiding maximum exposure of the camera to mist coming from the fall which may damage my camera. Auh! a really dangerous operation....

But now I feel it was too much worthy....I have it's value and you can see it here now!

Just another beautiful view.... moved in some more...oops not mee....only zoom... this one is taken from a farther location than the above one but with a zoom. but I am thinkn its good...

On the way back from the waterfall, I gifted with the snap of these monkeys freely taking care of each other......

Not finished....Wanna a live demo????? click here

So what to say ......Welcome to God's Own Country...... :-)

Battle at Kruger - Power Of Numbers

2007-07-02T12:16:00.000-07:00

Ah! even thought about such an idea until this sec... But for this, I felt it is quite different and thought of pushing it into the blog. Its quite amazing to see the power of group gaining over the few. This is absolutely why I think youtube is arguably the greatest invention of the decade!

lol..from where did all those buffaloes come from and that crocodile was so freaking random ..he just came out of no where. I really love this video.

Melvin's House blessing - The party in the way it should be.....

2007-06-05T11:55:00.000-07:00

In contrast to many other Software companies in Bangalore, I think MphasiS is very poor in accommodating we 'Mallus'. To my experience in most teams the count is limited between 10% to 15% or maximum upto 25% if some miracle happens. During joining I was the only Mallu member in my team. I was much perturbed about this lonelyness, but soon to my luck (or bad?) the things started to move. One by one new team members started docking in and it increased from one to two with the arrival of my best friend Jijo, then to three…again to four (enough…enough …I thought, but of what use?) … five and so on. It reached to whooping count of 6 within 4 months, where the percentage of Mallus in the team reached almost 40%. Oh God! I asked only for one but it looks like you want to teach me a lesson!! I am not getting why he is always like that, first make me suffer then flood me with more than I asked. I think its better not to ask him anything in some cases :-).

Now many of the team members are busy in settling down [ah! you don't have to heat up your brain. Why should I be an exception? ;-)]. Those who already achieved the first step are in the way to have a good base. As the part everyone is searching for an apartment with in Bangalore city limits. Our meetings are usually filled with subjects like, the possibilities of different apartments, benefits in taxes exemptions, re-sale values, amounts of 1bds…2bs...3bs…and so on.. Even though not settled down yet, I used to discuss some different ideas which, may be far better than investing in flats in Bangalore. This is because of the things like, my family experience upon businesses and lands outside Kerala, understanding that the hike of Flat prices in Bangalore are purely based on IT, after effects of another IT drop down on flat and land, generic ambiguity about the place of stay as we IT professionals have a general tendency to jump Companies or even Countries :-) , the difference in income from investing 80K on a home just to avoid Tax compared to investing the same upon some other industry or land and so on.

As the things going in this way suddenly one day, of my collogue Melvin done an interesting thing. During those days we used to say that transaction was illegal as he moved into a new apartment without any authorized notification. It was a purely unofficial movement and we were always insisting him to make it legal, means we want to have a house blessing party. I remember one day I threatened Melvin’s wife Jincy …”If you are not planning to call us home we will break into the house without permission. So what is your decision?” (Jincy if you are reading this, don’t take it serious. I am not just joking and if you are not sure you can try threatening me back….hehe). At last one day that magnificent thing happened. Melvin announced his party to all and he started arranging things for all our team.

It was on one Saturday and as per the decision I and my friend Jijo were in charge of purchasing one gift for Melvin and Family. We collected a fixed amount from all the team members to sum up an amount for purchasing a presentation for the party in the name of our Team. After purchasing the gift from Shoppers Stop near to our office and started to Melvin’s home. In between I forgot to tell one thing. With the invitation mail melvin attached a good routemap and landmark of his apartment so that everyone could reach there with out any confusion.

But he forgot to specify a minimum condition “PEOPLE SHOULD READ AND UNDERSTAND THE MAP AT LEAST”. So what, many missed their ways and I think we Jijo and me were among the worst affected. After staring from Shoppers stop we informed team members about the purchase and we are moving to location. I thought Jijo had a complete understanding of the Map and Jijo thought the same with me. But I even didn’t open the map and so not at all having any idea about the location. Jijo had gone through the map but he forgot the exact points and missed the first landmark itself. Because we couldn't find any ATMs even after travelling a lot, we called Vijay (he started only after we started, but already reached the location) and he gave the phone to Nelson another collogue.

One by one I started telling the places I noticed. Accenture….we just passed ..he says no man not that way….

HSBC BANK office…..where there is no such office on the way…where you are going……ooops! HSBC Office I saw was around 2Kms back…..

Have you seen IIM…hay man it is at the starting of IIM and Honeywell……OMG…? (Now the picture is complete. We had gone past the point around 3-4 Kms).

After comingback all the way to IIM we started searching for an ATM and we found one just after IIM and took a right turn. But after that also we started getting confused. Nothing is there as what he is telling. We rambled with our vehicle to and fro for around three times in all sides. Alas! at last we got it, the turn we took from main road is not the one. There is another ATM in front of that. The one we saw was a Branch while he told is only an ATM. So we again went back to main road and at last this time got the right way and reached the place. All the rest of our team members were waiting for us down there.

While entering in to Melvin’s flat’s floor first thing everyone noted is the abundance of common space available in front. It was so large that he arranged the space for party there itself outside the flat. I think this much space we can never see in any of the flats and it will be useful for many activities and a good place for children to play around. The flat is well ventilated and enough sunlight is there inside all the rooms.

As soon as we entered the flat everyone fell in to sofa in the visiting room as like we are the testers for Melvin’s furniture. This time I took one snap which I think one of the best among the whole.

A View of Kitchen

Some of the team members who seemed to be much tired suddenly got energetic. I don’t know the exact reason but I know that some of Jincy‘s collogues was there at that time. By this time everyone’s stomach started crying as it was almost 2PM and Melvin asked team to move for lunch. But we were in a plan to wait for our ex-collogue Sajith. But after some minutes irresistible smell of delicious lunch and call from stomach took us to the hall. We started our fight and by this time Sajith with his family appeared in front of the flat. After some time our PM Pravin also arrived and after finishing the food we planned to start back.

Yet now we didn't have gift handed over to Melvin. This responsibility we obviously put into the heads of our PM himself. After giving the giftpack, around 3PM one by one we started back to our places considering the cloudy sky and chances of rain.

Home, My Sweet Home

2007-05-08T12:00:00.000-07:00

Last week when I was at my home in Kerala, I got a chance to bump into a funny topic. It's about my home, yea as the title exemplifies, it's all about my home.

Early Morning…Oops to me early morning means at least 9.AM, I was in my kitchen searching through the wall-rows and fridge, for anything special. At this time, I became aware of some “Meeeewwwhhhhh” and growling sounds from outside. Upon hearing these sounds, I got what is going on outside. Immediately, I rushed to get my camera. It was very interesting to see two natural enemies entertaining together just like brothers. I managed to take some shots before they got dismayed by our maid 'Pattumma' who doesn’t like dogs.

Hey, where are you going….. don’t go now…If you stay I will give you a big piece of chicken. I just saw madam is preparing it at Kitchen!

Grrrrr…It's only a Fish, not chicken. Trying to make me fool? Don’t come near anymore! I will make you understand how puppies treat cats.

Oh…So you are telling that. Then I will show you how cats deal with puppies. Grrrrr!.....Mewwwwwwh……Grr
…….Byeei……biiii……Meheeeheuewwww….(now you got what happened, ha ha!!)

Hmm…you are not gonna win anymore....oh!! Let's see who is going to win.

Meww....we can come into a compromise….Buff..I think we need to talk…..

And at this time to my bad luck, she came by that way looking for something and seeing her both flew away with their life. By this time, I caught up with an idea of writing a blog not only with the game by our pets but also with some coverage of our house. I am always graceful about our garden which is designed exclusively by me and the credit of keeping it such fresh goes to my Sweet Mama. I went to garden to take some good snaps.

A View of my Patio - Not that much bad Eh?

Zoomed out – Same view but from some bit back and the view angle moved around 45 Degree.

Resort View - A view towards the Front Gate. Notice the mountains and fog far away.

At this time, I got another brilliant idea. Why shouldn’t I include my favorite pet in these photographs? I used to call her “Rocket”. I think that’s the name perfectly matches with her habit. If released out of cage, she will run like anything so that even for me it is some bit difficult to catch her back. I released her out of her crate expecting that I could take some snaps at least after one or two hours.

My favorite “Rocket”. Usually we never release her out of cage. If such an “Accident” happens especially when my Father or any of the servents are not nearby, we says Jilli won a Lottery. Within half an hour, she will put our home upward down.

Running for a Snap - Look how much she made me run. A snap taken from around 200 mtrs from home.

No Effects Added – Everything else is shaken except her.

Dare you take my snap! - Now you got exactly why I am calling her “ROCKET”

Hide and Seek - Trying to hide from me. She thinks I am not seeing Her. he he!

My sister used to call her “Nuoonju”. I think this is an official name given by her to all the Cats in our home. But only one mouser at a time. It will be transferred to another mouser only after it’s death or after it’s missing due to some unknown reasons. Reports from trustworthy sources tell that our neighbor dogs are responsible for these vicious acts.

Leela Palace - A small collection.

2007-05-07T10:39:00.000-07:00

Last week we got a chance to visit Leela Palace. At the time we took some snaps

from various places. Sharing some of them.

Reception - A view of front entrance.

Do you think it is the Reception. Oops..notice the tracks. Its the view from the back entrance!.

The Bookstall. Fundamentally I am not a book worm but, despite the steep pricing it seems like the collection is one of the best as it is expected to be, in such a hotel. Usually they won't allow photography inside shops. Its restricted in corridors and shopping complex area. But as a special consideration we were allowed to to take some snaps.

Nature - Feels like Mother Nature came in. Its an exclusive man-made masterpiece. It is so realistic that we feel the hotel is built around this natural beauty. To make the waterfall run, a pump is laboured behind the rocks on a 24/7 basis.

Another typical scene.

Prepare for Glory! - 300 - A Spot Review

2007-04-19T13:37:00.000-07:00

I watched the movie "300" two weeks before not as a historian or a Frank Miller fan. At first I was skeptical; I never expected it would be worthy for the time spent, as I was busy with a lot of other things, but now I think I have been mistaken. The Movie is taken from FRANK MILLERS COMIC which is based around the event itself. It is a romanticized take on history; therefore, like everyone, I also expected to see Xerxes depicted as an evil tyrant and king Leonidas portrayed as some sort of superhero. In my view, it is a movie of amazing cinematography and unmatched action sequences. It combines the newest aspects of technology with old school warfare and it works. Like I said before, I watched this movie not as a historian or a comic book fan; I never have such a cross of ideals worked so well, putting prejudice aside and try to appreciate what; it as a very good movie. From the way I see it, the film set out primarily to entertain, and in that it succeeded with me. I liked the use of the grotesque monsters and such, just because those characters made the film fun.

The summary of plot is like this.

During the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC, an alliance of Greek City States fought the invading Persian Army in the mountain pass of Thermopylae. The Greeks held back the then Persian Army which was vastly outnumbered in one of the most famous last stands of history. Persian King Xerxes led an Army of well over 100,000 (Persian king Xerxes before war had about 170,000 army). Men to Greece was confronted by 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians, and other Slave soldiers. The battle lasted for about 3 days, and after which all 300 Spartans were killed. The Spartan defeat was not the one expected as a local shepherd named Ephialtes, defected to the Persians and informed Xerxes of a separate path through Thermopylae, which the Persians could use to outflank the Greeks.

Since I watched the movie at home and my neighbor was preparing for exams, I couldn't enjoy the acoustic effects of the DVD to its full extent, and I couldn't anywhere compare it with the theater. Because of the excellent soundstripe editing, the mixing as well as considering the DVD print, I got the real experience of a #1 movie. I could experiece its sound mixing perfection from the very beginning.

The movie begins with the birth of the Spartan King Leonidas, his childhood, and combat training. Furthermore, I can say countless events up to the last moment of the movie; like the growling of the wolf, the first shot of Persian messenger’s arrival and the impressive scene of Persian messenger with conquered King Heads, King Leonidas's reaction towards the messenger, etc. Therefore, I think it's one of the best movies I have seen in the recent times. Below listed are the names of some of the actors and their names in the movie.

Gerard Butler - King Leonidas
Lena Headey - Queen Gorgo
Dominic West - Theron
David Wenham - Dilios
Vincent Regan - Captain
Michael Fassbender - Stelios
Tom Wisdom - Astinos
Andrew Pleavin - Daxos
Andrew Tiernan - Ephialtes

Rodrigo Santoro - Xerxes
Giovani Cimmino - Pleistarchos
Stephen McHattie - Loyalist
Kelly Craig - Oracle Girl

Some scenes from the Movie:

Proving to be a Sparton.

Persian Army a small portion

The Queen

Revenge of the King

Rain of Arrows

Courtesy – imdb.com

My customized Table

2007-04-02T12:19:00.000-07:00

Part 1: The Investigation

When I came to Bangalore looking for a new job I also took my Computer with me. The reason is simple. I cannot live without my computer even for one day. It will be so much boring, so that I fear even to think about such a situation. So that’s the case. In the first rented house that we got, we kept my Computer in Floor as we thought it may be okay. But because of my habit of using computer for long times, it become very difficult to sit in floor for extended times. So after about two-three weeks I decided to purchase one Computer Table.

I enquired for a table which is reasonable of cost and provides enough features. I went to KR Market near SP Road one day. This place is very well known for availability of these types of shops. I looked almost all the shops but was unable to find a model which is satisfactory to my need within my price range. Only few models I found have had a draw with lock, leg space and can be detached. But all of them where much highly priced than what I expected. So that day I went home without fixing anything.

Part 2: New Plan and rollback.

Next day I went to my Cousin George’s home. There I saw a computer table which is very simple in construction but contains almost all the basic features I wanted. I started thinking of building one like that. So the next day I went to one shop which does woodcraft works. I gave the plan and wire frame of the table to him and asked for the cost of building one like that. But that was the worst thing. It came to almost double the rate of the best table I saw in the market. So what you can assume, that plan also went to a big flop!

Part 3: Transactions

After two or three days I came to a final decision….anyway I need one table so go and purchase one table that I can get under my current budget. Don’t look into additional features of table like detachability and leg space. Later I can throw it out and take a good one when I get one good job. In that decision again I went to market next day with my friend. We started looking for Computer Tables in shops from one side of market. After one round of wandering for about 2 hours we met one old shopper with whom we bargained and fixed up a table with fairly good price.

Part 4: Transportation Problems

My friend went to get one Transporter Auto for taking the table to our room. He came back and asked me to come with him as he was not able to get any Auto’s with a decent fair every one is asking almost double or triple of normal charges. At this time itself my friend invented a new thing (to me the worst invention at that time). He told this could be a problem if we are shifting the house in near future because of its bulky size. Even if I manage to take the table home now later we could face problem if it cannot be disassembled. And this finding became the turning point of the story. After I started looking at the structure and quality of tables I found that it is not suitable for disassembling by default but if I replace all the screws of the table with nuts, bolts and washers then the table can be made completely detachable. After ensuring the overall quality of the table plates and wooden parts I selected one from a set of similar tables.

And here is another joke that happened. After giving the amount to shopkeeper I told my friend I was planning to disassemble the complete table and replace all screws with nuts and bolts. Then he came up a new brilliant suggestion that we can take the complete Table just by hand in Bus and save the transportation charge if we can disassemble the table there itself. So we asked shop keeper for one screw driver and spanner set. When they asked I told them our plans. Hearing this they got shocked and called me crazy as they were 100% sure that if the table is detached it cannot be reassembled any more. I think the shop owner actually become so much worried and that is why he called his son to make me understand the problem. But I was not ready to call for an auto as I thought it is not worthy at all. So at last owner’s son called a head loader and asked him to carry the table to bus stand nearby. We started walking towards to bus stand with the head loader and upon reaching Bus Stand he placed the table inside a bus that is going to Ramamoorthy Nagar. On the way to Ramamoorthy Nagar we called our other two friends to carry the table to home. When the bus reached our stop they got into the bus and helped us to get the table out of the bus. We carried the table to our home as it was only around 50 meters from main road.

Part 5: Plans Postponed

I was planning to do the conversion of table that week itself but later I postponed the disassembling plans of table for some time because of the problems with job search. So it went on and on so that I used the table as such until, we stayed in that house. One of our roommates got Job at native and we three started planning to shift to other friends. At this point my cousin George asked me to come to his house and actually this turned out to be a turning point in my carrier life. Because of space problems I was not able to move all my materials to his house. So I decided to take what ever essential to his home and split the rest into two and keep it with my other two cousin’s homes. For this purpose I disassembled my table for the first time after purchase. Along with other materials I kept the table pieces at Robin’s home and kitchen items at Cijo’s home. All these items where in these houses only, until I got my job and later on moving to my current room where I am writing this Blog.

Part 6: The Conversion Phase - Planning

After moving to our new room, I decided to take the table as I didn’t had a place to keep my PC. After getting all the pieces of table in the room when I started reassembling I found, that will be the right time to customize my table. First I thought only about the replacement of screws with nuts and bolts for making table fully detachable. But while taking the estimate for that, I found that if some of the pieces are removed I could makeup the leg space for a better sitting comfort. So I started thinking about new design that I could make use of all the available pieces. It took around one week for me to create a new good design for the table. I calculated the materials that will be required additionally and cost for that. The additional items required where nuts and blots of different lengths and sizes, 4 roller wheels, and some block joints and a Haxo Blade and holder as don’t have any cutting tool with me, other than essential tools like player, spanner set, screw drivers etc which I already had at that time.

Part 7: The Conversion Phase – Design and purchase

By next week purchased almost all the items for the table. After getting all the required components one Sunday after coming back from mass I started the work. The overall idea of the work was to cut the lower section of table into two pieces (Section 4*) and detach the left holder area (Section 1*, 2*) and place it in the right side of the table. Screw-in the removed block (Section 3*) to the back side between the left panel and second left panel of the proposed leg space area so that the table support can be increased. Then find the screws which should be unscrewed for detaching the table and replace them with nuts and bolts. So this design can make the table completely detachable and I can get enough leg space and also get an additional space for keeping my PC Cabinet.

Part 8: Conversion Climax – The Construction

So on next Sunday after coming back from Mass I started my work. First thing I did was enlarging the screw holes into full sized holes which I could use it for nuts and bolts to screw it from two sides.

After this I started with my next phase of customization i.e. cutting the bottom main panel. After that I thought about fitting the roller for middle section (4*) and for the Cabinet section (2*). Alas!! At this time only found a critical bug in my design. During the design time actually I missed out a difference in height between left and right sides of the leg space area. Because of this difference the right leg space roller wheel will not touch floor if I fit it as per my current plan.

It actually requires an additional piece for fixing this problem. So I stopped my construction and I revisited my design. I have to purchase an additional piece, but getting an additional piece that looks like my current table panels could be a problem. I looked in the table pieces which I can take one piece out. Is the finding of bug was earlier I don’t know because it didn’t caused any problem to me, even the conversion was about 80% of its way. I found if I could reduce the height of the Cabinet holder I can get a piece from its lower area which could be sufficient for solving this problem. I just told it was earlier because if I had first fitted this panel I could have already created screw holes in the right side of the table. So as per my changed plan I sawed the piece into two and attached one piece into right leg space section (4*). Then I went on with fitting the support board

After completing the Support Board I screwed in the right side Cabinet Holder Panel.

The overall construction took around three days. I wonder how I got such a beautiful design which utilized almost all the available good pieces and without any additional one. Actually this one is one of the best I have made until today. I don’t know will I get a chance to have a creation better than this!

(A Complete View of My Table with its functional Units)

And now it remains in my room as one of my precious works.

Rednex Open Stage Show Program

2007-03-26T23:10:00.000-07:00

Once more I got a chance to go for an open stage rock program on last Saturday. My cousin got a ticket from Forum and he was looking for someone to share that….So what…. I gladly accepted his offer. The program was conducted by Rednex, a Swedish band (www.rednex.ca) which had an instant dance-floor novelty hit with the opening track of their debut album(Rednex - Sex & Violins).

(A snap from the program. Because of low light and it is taken using a mobile obviously we cannot expect a better quality than this)

We started from home around 7 PM with three other friends. Because of Road blocks it took around one hour to reach there. Usually Saturday evening will be time which we can find top traffic blocks in the city. So I think we reached much fast compared to rush in roads at that time. When we reached there the program had started with some DJ presentations. The Speaker System installed there was not that much bad and we could feel its 30000 RMS speakers pulling in our chests. Not bad at all. Around 9 o’clock the Rednex Band started their program. Their play style was like a square-dance music with a techno beat, and I like their dressing style; a cowboy type looks and dressings, may be a native Swedish dressing and the beat which reminds me the background music of the English Film Brave Heart. The program was much better and I think it was worthy for the time spent. This is the third time I am in palace grounds for such a program and this one I think the best among them. We started back around 10 after the program and, we reached home around 11.30 after an enjoyable Kerala style supper.

One bad Day......

2007-02-19T10:21:00.000-08:00

Coming Soon..........

Back to Work....

2007-02-13T09:57:00.000-08:00

Because of Bandth here in Bangalore I went to my native place for last three days. Coming back first thing
I noticed was the completeness of bandth this time. Almost everyone stayed in homes
and all roads where clear. I heard friends telling about children playing cricket in main roads, which will be always full of traffic all the day.

I would like to appreciate this kind of bandth which is fully supported
by all classes of people and the fact that here bandth or harthal will not
occur unless strong reason is there for it.

But still I cannot forget the fact that it is not bringing any attention
of authorities or any action is taken upon the case...which in effect the
loss is only to the general public.

SPF - A Trip to Nandhi Hills....

2007-02-12T10:22:00.000-08:00

I am an active member of Professional Forum in the church which I usually go for the mass. It consists mostly of working professionals. Every month we used to fix some activity for that month which most cases will be, some social activity to find and help persons or communities who is in need for help. This month we decided to be different and, we finalized to go for an outing to some location near Bangalore which we must be able to go and comeback in one day.

        Two weeks before we finalized the location of our trip as Nandhi Hills. Geetha booked a 30 seat Swaraj Mazda for 21st January 2007. Because our usual quorum in our meets are less than 10-14 and regular members where only around 10, I never expected a good participation from members. So when I heard one week before that 30 seated Mini Bus was booked, I was thinking it may be an additional burden for our team as many of seats could be free. But the most amazing thing happened during last week. So many people came to join to trip and all the seats were full. At the time of journey only one seat was left free.

        On Sunday 21st January 2007 morning around by 8 am all the members of the Santhome Professional Forum gathered at the Dharmaram Chapel and attended the holy mass. After the mass a small gang went for purchasing essential stationary. The main Items purchased were things like water can & disposable plates. By the time food required for the trip arranged by Brother James Tharakan was ready. Our dearest president Melvin & Jincy had come to shower their blessings on our journey. Melvin is my team mate in company and one of my best friends in Bangalore. He only introduced me to the Forum which now I love to participate very much. By 9am the booked Swaraj Mazda came to the DVK premises. Soon the members loaded the vehicle with food, water & other commodities.

        By 9.30 am the wheels of Swaraj Mazda started rolling. As soon as the vehicle entered the main road the driver was asked to switch off the tape, which has been playing. Brother started singing a Marian devotional song. The members also started singing with him. Soon after the devotional song is finished, for some seconds silence spread around allover the Van. Everyone where in a starting trouble where to start how to start. Our great leader Genson ignited the fire to the group by singing the song “enthe khalbile”. I recollect what he said later about his song. ”Since my singing was of high standards the members couldn’t hang on to it & I was blocked in the middle.”. Actually I think it was not that much bad… No sooner the vehicle was set on fire by the performances of the members.

        The entire cab was divided into 2 & songs started flowing (in Malayalam what u call as “anargalam nirgalikuvan thudangi”). Everybody was really exited so that all the songs were sung at a peak voice . It was with great pleasure & energy that the members enjoyed singing.

        By 10 the members started crying for food. Somebody was telling “Fire in Cab”, ”look is that fire that is coming from his stomach???”. They were on the verge of even beating the coordinator (“vishannu kannnu kanaathaayi ennu paranjal mathiyallo”). By 10.30 the vehicle was parked on the road side & kappa & Meat were served to everyone. Look down the enjoyment of team members….Actualy it was like we have been starving without food for 10 days….(enthoru akrandamayirunnu).

        We stayed there for about 15 minutes and when everyone’s stomachs was full we resumed our journey. But by the time everyone was silent. There is not surprise in that condition as I remember how much tasty was that Kappa and Meat curry. No songs; no violence; no noise at all.

        During this gap Brother shot his goal. He declared that he is going to conduct a beauty contest in which each member will have to present their bio-data, which will be followed by 3 questions from Brother. Among all, the best three will be selected for the final round and will be questioned by members with a minimum of 10 questions. The next 90 minutes it was the contest with interesting questions & answers. It was full of fun & even some serious ones. I was out in the first round itself despite of my best tries. By 12 we reached Nandhi hills & by the time the first round was also over. We took ticket for the vehicle & landed in the cradle of nature by 12.10. Cool, away from the city rush, with beautiful view of Bangalore city from the top of hill. We all rushed into a tea shop & had a tea each. It was there only then we SPF members discovered that creatures like Minu & Soumya will drink neither tea nor coffee. What else they were screaming for ice creams. Poor creatures, nobody got them one. The tea recharged everyone up. Then we all started walking towards the view. On the way we got a rotating bow for children. At this instance we have another invention. We found that we have more than one child with us. So many of the members like Mathews, Vipin (2), Benoy, Bipin, Jejy, Rojee tried it & its rotation kicked everyone. It was nice to see most of their faces after the rotation. After everyone’s showoff we sat in a circle .It was then the games committee came into action.

        The committee consisted of Geetha chechy & Raji well supported by Brother & Beena. First Raji distributed & divided the entire group into 4 teams named Cherry, Mangoe, Apple & Orange. Everyone was asked to pin the cards on their dresses. Then the games started. The first item was blowing & bursting of balloons. You can see some of the snaps of this game down here.

        In this game Vipin of Cherry team had won. Now you just stop reading think what would be the next immediate thing to happen????? Any assumptions from experience of our Elections and school games? Deepu of Orange who came 2nd started accusing Vipin of cheating since he had taken a handful of balloons at one shot which lead to the scarcity of balloons for him.

        The next item was passing a ring among 4 members of the same team using a straw in the mouth. A snap which I was also included is shown here.

        In this games team orange had won by the timely action of Renju. Actually here also hot arguments regarding who won the game took place as Renju had his team members straws cut by half before game started which reduced the passing time to a great extend. But they escaped saying that no such condition was specified in the rules which prevents such an action…..

        The next item was a bit mathematical one in which each member of each team was assigned a number & the members had to form the numbers in the reading order upon the command of the judges. The team which will take the least time will win. Apple team scored a fantastic victory in this game. Genson told he has got news from reliable sources telling that still arguments are going on in Mango team of what is the answer when 60 is divided by 5. (You can assume now which was my team Ha Ha…..But you have to accept that…that’s the reality……Actually what happened was we calculated 60/5 as 15 instead of 12…..which was one of the hit jokes in the tour program….Still I am not getting how we got that number…)

        It was in this venue our greatest coordinator Mathews himself accepted the name ‘Apple Mathai’ which some of the members translated as ‘Dindi Mathai’. Apple Mathai fought hard for his team & in spite of the setbacks his team suffered in the balloon blowing & ring exchange games his team won in the number game.

        By the time it was 2.30 & members were hungry again. When we reached the vehicle some of our native tourists have already finished some part of the food. You can imagine that heart breaking seen of about 6 monkeys sharing our Chicken kebab. We had fried rise, Chicken, Salad & pickle for our lunch. After the lunch Vipin distributed watermelon for everyone.

        Then came the photo session. Every member participated in it. After that we had the ball passing game in which I was the first one to be out.

        Gesnon was the first person to be out and so he started telling that best brains will exit first…. It was an enjoying one and Minu emerged the winner & was crowned as the “Thirumandy”(Dummenst Fellow) of SPF. I hardly escaped from the crown. I was the second last to out. Then we all walked down for some site seeing & again had along photo session. A news is heard that some of the people was running for photos sessions for taking single photos for posting in various matrimonial sites.

        By 4.30 we started back our journey. We started the finals of our beauty contest. Georgekutty, Minu & Prem were the finalists. All the 3 were showered with questions & all performed really well. Now it was voting time to select the beauty. In the campaign Minu was reported offering money to the voters, but when the results came she got only 3 votes to 10 of Prem & 11 of Georgekutty who emerged as the winner. Soon he was crowned as Mr SPF.

Our Mr SPF!!!!

        Then soon we had one more tea on the way, we played a game of housey in which Vipin, Sojan & Rojee emerged the winners. Later to break the tie in the team events between Apple & Orange there was a short quiz in which Orange won by 20 points to Apples 10. Both the teams were rewarded. Then again the cab was divided into 2 & we had a hot game of “Anthakshari”. By the time we reached Bangalore. Brother gave a vote of thanks to everybody 4 their participation & making the trip a grant success. In his short message he asked the members to keep the days spirit 4 ever in the future activities of the Forum. We the members decided to have a meeting next Sunday after 9 O’clock mass & the main meeting in the first Sunday of Feb. By 6.30 we reached Bangalore & all the members left home with the sweet memories of the trip.

        And as the finishing point I would like to thank Mr. Gentson for getting me many of the critical part of this travelogue script which otherwise I will not be able to remember.

How beautiful can it be the fusing out of a bulb

2007-02-06T09:51:00.000-08:00

One topic which I got my attention today.

The point of thought came into my mind is this. Most of us will become
upset when suddenly a bulb goes out. We never thought that a burning out
of a bulb can be that much beautiful. Isn't it?

This beauty has been hidden from us because of our inability of our eyes
and brain to respond to such a fast movements. But now the technology is
helping us to see such amazing things.

You yourself can check it out.

http://www.leggnet.com/2007/02/spontaneous-combustion.html

Staying Late nights.....

2007-02-06T09:50:00.000-08:00

I am restarting my new blog session....after a long interval....about 4 yrs. Even I forget the password of my old blogging site. So what..I have to start it all again from scratch.....But one thing is
not changed. Staying late nights.

I know that's a bad habit. But I cannot help it....No way.....