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

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

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.

     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

    

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

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

    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......

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