Temple trip

Hi,

Had gone to a short trip for some temples (hmm... must be about 6) in and around Kumbakonam.

Started from Chennai on Friday morning in Qualis... Had a nice journey. The road was decent, except for some small stretches. So much greenery... :)

We stayed in Uppili Appan Koil. The place is so nice. It s so refreshing to see such places. Felt like staying there for some more days... but had to get back soon. So, started our way back on Saturday morning, went to another temple on the way and reached home by evening...

I feel good after such break from routine. But for such trips, life is so predictable. Monday to Friday, same schedule. Weekends, get up late, have lunch and go out in the evening.

That's all... Things like this are such a great change.

Waiting for another trip next month. Destination not finalised yet. lets see...

Bye for now.

BILLA 2007

It all started with the movie DON (Amitabh)... Then BILLA (Rajni) happened.

Then, one fine day, we had DON (SRK) and here comes BILLA(Ajith).

Whew! What a small world! Are people short of stories????

Anyways, my husband is a die hard "thala" fan. So, when we heard about Billa s remake, we bought a DVD of the old Billa. The old movie was good... with lots of twists in the story. But it was spoilt by overacting of some characters... I didnt enjoy the role done by Major Sundar Rajan and Thengai Srinivasan... Their over acting was just too much.

But overall, we enjoyed the movie. (cos we had the control to forward the songs - except title song and also the loooooooong fight scene).

We went for Billa 2007 day before yesterday night.

Very stylish one from VishnuVardhan. The costumes, the lights, the cars, the location... everything is good.

The movie is crisper than the old one as they ve cut Thengai Srinivasan s character. Unbelievably true... this character extended the story by about half an hour! Good decision on that. This one got over in abt 2 hours and 10 mts... unusual for a Tamil movie... :)

The director's wife (Anu vardhan) has done the costumes. Good job.

A very good entertainer. Go for this one yaar!

Vel

Went for "VEL" yesterday night!

Was surprised yaar. The movie was actually good. After reading the reviews, I thought the movie is going to be a biiiiig bore, but then wanted to go for a movie very badly!! so, we had to go...

The story is fast moving and the screenplay is good. Just very nice.

Hmmm... songs r very usual, nothing impressive, but managable!

Nice time pass ... masala movie with lot of twist and turns.

Go and see it if u have time! Worth giving a try...

Dell Computer

Hi,

We decided to upgrade the computer... and the discussion finally ended up in buying a new one.
We r looking to buy a Dell computer (mostly a laptop).
So, let s see how things work out!
Keeping fingers crossed!

Bye for now

My Culinary Skills!

So, here I start blogging about how I learnt cooking and some simple dishes.
I will give a basic / beginners method.

I start with my fav. Veg Pulao.

This is a good one for lunch as the cooking is not very complex.
I generally don't like lot of masala in this.
People who like lot of vegetables, people who r health conscious will like this recipe.
Also, keep the oil, ghee level to minimum possible.

Requirements: (for 2 people)

1) A cup of rice (basmati is very good, but not compulsory)
2) Lots of vegetables (Onions, Potatoes, carrot, beans, peas, cauliflower. Some people also like to add panneer and capsicum) cut into same medium size. You decide the quantity.(I prefer about 2 cups of veggies)
3) 2 Green Chillies
4) Ghee / Oil
5) One Spoon Jeera
6) Spices as per your taste (I prefer adding some cloves for flavor)
7)Salt as per taste (hmmm generally, one t.spoon should do)

Process
1.Heat half a spoon of ghee and half a spoon of oil together (If you don't mind the fat, add only ghee, gives nice smell)
2.Add Jeera, cloves, Green Chillies.
3.Wait for a minute and then add onions.
4.Once the onions are transparent, add the other vegetables and mix for sometime. Add salt as per taste.
5.Then add rice to it and one and a half cups of hot water (depending on the rice)
6.Keep in the microwave for twenty minutes (open it after ten minutes and mix the rice)
Or use a normal cooker for 1 whistle and some settling time.
You can also mix everything in the pan and then put in the rice cooker.

7.You can add fried bread crumbs (as in soup) or soya chunks...

Onion Raitha goes well with this.

So, experiment with this and enjoyyyyyyyy.

Humble thoughts

Hi,

Life seems to be busy these days. Had to go for a cousin's wedding and then came Diwali. So, didnt update my blog.

I have gone into philosophical mood these days.

Generally, I am a person who finds comedy in almost every thing (Ask my friends! there are numerous instances when almost nothing happened and I used to go on laughing for sometime!)

These days, I ve been thinking about lot of 'why' s.

Things are so strange.

I met my school mate the other day after years. And I got lost into my thoughts about my school.

I had a nice time in my school , though it was supposed to be a very very strict one. I enjoyed singing with my friends (in the school choir). The annual days, the sports days, days when I conducted the prayer, days when we rehearsed, days we had music classes, days I attended the leaders meeting... Now, I cherish all that. But when it all happened, it just seemed to be a routine. I was just waiting to come out of it and go to college.

Same thing happened in college. I remember chatting with my friends about how boring and "usual" life had become. But now, when I hear my college name, I feel sad that all the moments have just passed away.

But again, I think I should be happy that I have so many sweet memories that I will always cherish.

Chalo, enuff of philosophy now.
Will continue later...

Happy Diwali!

Diwali and Shopping

Yes! It s festive time !!!

You can always find that out from the "festive" face of T Nagar.
With lot of traffic diversions, lots of policemen and hundreds and hundreds of people around you, you will get the festive mood!

It s great fun to shop in T Nagar.
I know, it s tough to shop with a huuuuuuge crowd around, but this has it s own fun!
You get great variety at a very decent price. Ya, you don't get great customer service, but who s bothered? We always have shops which pamper us and charge us 3 or 4 times more. So, it s a different way of enjoying shopping!

And for those who are not fond of shopping in T Nagar, you are missing out some fun!

And for everyone... Happy Diwali Shopping!

My new job

I recently joined my dad's office.
(He s into marketting business and needed some assistant.)
I was not happy with my IT job.
So, I quit my company last month and joined this new job.

Till now, it s been very interesting as I am learning lot of new things.
I do miss some things and I am very happy about some other things.
But overall, it seems to be on the positive side.

What I miss is not the job, but the company that I had. Friendly, nice people around me... My tea gang...

I am so happy after taking this decision.

My mind is so much free.
I have time to do some work which I have been yearning to do all these days.

For example, cleaning the house, making lunch for my hubby, getting involved more in the household activities....

All these things have always been in my mind. But it s only now that I am able to spend time on these.

Life is so much different right now, from what it was couple of months back.

But as they say, "Change is the only permanent thing in life!"
:)

Keep smiling!!

Traffic Diversion in T Nagar

Lot of roads have been made "one way" in T Nagar.

The best part of it is a hoarding in T Nagar which is kept in the Vani Mahal junction.

Translated in English for people who ve not caught a glimpse of it.
"Vehicles heading for Panagal park from GN Chetty Road to go to Thirumalai Road take a left and go to Bazulla Road and take a left and go to North Usman road and take a left and reach Panagal Park"
There was a photo of this hoarding in a tamil newspaper with the following text (again - translated!)
"Shown above is a hoarding in T Nagar. Motorists can hardly understand what the message is and are getting confused after reading it. "

They could have put a map in that place with arrows to explain things. (or atleast they could have spilt the paragraph into two-three lines and tried to punctuate)
Lot of people who come to T Nagar may not (necessarily) know Thirumalai Road and Bazulla Road.

Thankfully, lot of policemen are standing to avoid any confusion.

Let us wait till these new flyovers are constructed and see if that solves the traffic congestion in T Nagar.

My Department, My friends and Me!

So, I was having a nice time with my group when we were asked to start working.
I was fortunate to get a department with lot of good people around me.
I ve made so many friends here. And each friendship has a story behind it.

Sam, Ramesh, Subbu, Jegu, Muthu (Pls note the order doesn't have any significance!) were all "surprise" friends... I didnt ever think I ll be a good friend to these people! But before I left ISG, i had loads of memories about all these people. I think, I am very lucky to have met them.

Then, there are people of my batch, with different date of joining.
Ronee, Deepa, Divya... I enjoyed their company. We used to crack stupid jokes most of the time!

And some seniors... Keerthi , Akila, Mohan, Abishek, Thangaraj, Ganesh... They ve helped me a lot technically.They ve not only been with me all through the tough times I had in ISG, but have also been with me for many light moments!

In the batch which joined after us, I became very close to some of them...

Swathi and Senthil- My cubicle mates who ve had a tough time in listening to my mokkais.
The common thing about both of them look like they r very silent. But once they start talking, there s no stopping!
Jokes apart, I got very attached to these two! Am missing them a lot!

Then, Sinthu and Lavanya - Very good singers. I used to irritate Sinthu a lot by teasing her, by imitating here. The best thing about her is that she ll never take anything to heart. She will always keep smiling. and Lavanya is a very calm and composed person. She s fun loving and a very very humorous person.

Nithya - She s a very innocent and sweet girl. She s very very sincere and serious person!
Always, I ve seen lot of people crowding at her place. (for technical as well s non-technical discussions)

Me and my friends...Part 3

Mr. S AKA reaperus maximus
He s a very very hard working and technical guy.
Even his jokes / mokkai s are logical or technical!!
He loves to put in his best in everything he does... even if it is just teasing people (the target is mostly H or A)
He has helped many people in our office to solve their technical problems!

Ms. S AKA "Loose Control"
She likes dancing and she is very friendly.
She likes to dress up... with some make up ( not like A).
But be careful before u say anything bad about her... If you do so, she will loose control! :)
(S, that was a joke.... pls believe me!)

Mr. V AKA. Palli(Lizard) / Bijli
He s very jovial and also, very sensitive.
He is called bijli because of his fav song, "Babuji zara dheere chalo".
The song is his favourite because he danced for this song, and he was the "Bijli" in the song!
He is called Lizard because he resembles one. (Sorry V, I had to tell this! kindly excuse...)

Sometimes I feel this gang resembles a zoo/animal planet... with elephants(that's me!), dino s, lizards, porcupines around!!!

And FYI, I am called Chinna aanai (small elephant). So, that is some consolation right?

Ok, that' s all from my side as of now.

See ya!

Me and my friends...Part 2

Ya, So I continue about my gang.

As I ve already told (enough) about H, let me continue about my other friends.

Going alphabetically,

Ms.A... Nick name Sweetu.
She s very famous for her "matching matching" accessories. (Please note that the list of accessories may include not just bangles and bindis... it also extends to the limit of slippers, hair pins and wrist watch). She s the major customer for most of the shops in Pondy Bazaar. I heard that a guy named the shop on her after she spent her whole salary in the shop!!

Mr. C. AKA Monster. He has three hobbies... eating, eating and eating. And do add a bit of reading books, watching movies, falling sick(!!!) every now and then.
He s a very funny person ( or so does he think...). We share a common habit - of laughing at our own jokes.

Mr. D. AKA cockroach. He s the person who always gets the beating (from yours truly!) irrespective of the culprit. He s brilliant in coding. He likes driving his bike. (one spl thing abt his bike is, when u press the front brake, the bike will move front.) Though he appears to be very jovial, he is a very sentimental person. Also, he is a very good listener. (There have been many times when he had to bear with me... be it just a joke / mokkai / even something serious!!). He loves listening to "rock" songs... which go bang bang bang with lyrics we(or shud i say "I") cant understand.

Ms. D. AKA Dino. She loves aaloo... and she s a very sincere person. She loves to accompany A for Shopping.
And her fav color is blue and She is a very popular person and is also called Popu.
I have worked for about 80% of my projects with her and have found her to be very dedicated, sincere and hard working.
But y is she called Dino? No idea! It just happens that she is called Dino. Period.

Ms N. AKA Porcupine. She s a very homely and the calmest person in the group. She has a very sweet voice and has the ability to combine two actions together. Speaking and singing ;). She loves GOLD....ya, no jokes about this one. She makes good payasam. I love the way she talks... full of expression... very similar to bharatnattiyam.

So, I will continue about Mr.S,Ms. S,Mr.V and some more inputs abt me, in my next blog ( as this is just getting tooo long)

See ya!!

Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus

I am not a habitual book reader, but I got a copy of this book couple of years back, as my wedding gift.
I happened to start reading it sometime back....
I just love the was John Gray has written this book.
It s a must read for people in love.

Lots of things in the book made me think, "Oh! Its not the problem with my husband, all men are like this!" and I felt bad for the innumerable times we've fought just because of these small differences.

For example. the author says "To offer a man unsolicited advice is to presume that he doesn't know what to do or that he can't do it on his own."

This reminded me of a situation which we faced many times in this two years.
While going to a new place, sometimes, we don't get to the destination quickly.
This is how the conversation used to go
I: "Why don't u just stop the car and ask someone?"
He:(gets irritated) " I can find it on my own"
I:(get irritated) "I don't understand why u have so much of ego for such a small thing. Why do u think that u will lose your prestige by asking the way?"
and at the end, both of us will be bugged up and frustrated.

Now, when he doesn't know the way, I think, I should not ask him to ask the route to someone and instead suggest / support him saying "It' s OK. Maybe we should try going that way... what do u say?" or " That's fine, we will find the place soon."

Let me try this next time and see how it works.
And meanwhile, I will post more quotes from this book with my practical experience as well.

Me and my friends...Part 1

One thing I will never forget about ISG is the list of friends I got here.
We formed a gang of about 10 people.
We went together of tea everyday and got used to each other s company.
After some days, it was difficult to go for tea even if one of us were not there.

We enjoyed our first year(it was more like college days!) and on the completion of the first year, we went for a full day trip to Mahabalipuram.
It was a very memorable trip... we went for boating, crocodile park, tigers cave and dhaba.
We had lot of fun pulling each other s legs!

We have a person called H in our gang.
I have to give full credit to her for all her goof ups, which were a major part of our discussions.
And I as always, was / am / will be full of mokkais and I have a habit of laughing at my own jokes (I was forced into this habit, as my friends refused to laugh at my jokes).

Some words which remind me of H are

Kaaka biriyani
Noooooo di
Matrimonial
Crash
Truncate
Delete

The explanation for all the above will be given in my forth coming posts about my friends as they need a lot of explanation!

My First Day at Work

Hello!

Before telling about my first day, it would be good if i tell about my campus interview.

It was in the seventh semester of my happy college days. It was the third campus interview that i was attending. (I was never a great student in college... so didnt expect to get a job through campus interview!) I was vexed after not even getting through the first round (aptitude) in the two companies. I was so dejected that I didnt study for the aptitude. It was once of my friends (KR) who gave me a list of old Hexaware question papers.I managed to go through them...
And we reached the place (in vandalur).

The college (called Cresent) was a huge one. I was (as usual) cracking stupid jokes and jumping around.

We were called for the first round... Aptitude and guess wat, almost 80% questions were from the old question papers...:). So, successfully got through this round.

Second round. GD. Ten people were called and given some topic to fight( i mean talk) about. I was surprised to find people with books/articles with titles like "How to talk in GD" ... "How to win in GD" in their hand and mugging the steps to a successful GD!!
We got the topic "Is it necessary to have any minimum qualification as a requirement for getting a job in IT company?". My point was "NO." With so much of training, people should never have problem. i mean, even a 12th std person can do this job, of course, after training. And guess what, i was the only person selected from my group!

And now the final hurdle... INTERVIEW. I had come dressed shabbily as going to an interview was the last thing that i expected to happen! But anyways, it was scheduled at 7.30. Me, being an ECE student, tried to understand as many concepts in computer networking into my head as possible... Finally, was called for the interview at around 10PM. was starving. I managed to answer some basic questions ( I admitted that i dont know much about computers!) and surprise.... i got through...

And now, coming to the topic, my first day in office. 16th Sep 2005.
We were around 13 people . Sitting in a small conference room. waiting for 3 more to join us. they came a bit late (cud not help it as they were new to the city). As usual, i was the only person chatting and giggling... we were taken around the office and were finally taken to the training room.

Got into .NET training for about 6 weeks. The training was boring. but i made nice friends there (Meera and Deepu). Unfortunately, my friends were sent to different department and I was assigned to internal department called ISG.Ok. will continue about my work in ISG in the next post.

Bye for now...