The Boss!!!

Huge budget, Musics, Picturization of Songs & Fights, Use of Latest Technology etc are the trademark of Shankar's direction. Along with all these, he and his crew used to have control over all the milestones like audio & video releases.

All these were true until 'Sivaji'. Unfortunately, the Internet holds the key this time. They were forced to release the audio earlier than expected as few of the songs were already doing a round on net. Same is the case with the movie trailers. Hopefully, he will release the movie first. :) May be all these were because of combination of Rajini - Shankar - A. R. Rehman.

The trailer was as impressive as its expected. It didn't gave any glue on the storyline and kept the audience guessing.

My Favourite pick from it...

1) "Yen amma yenna karuppa peththa?"

"Vellaya iruntha alukku aaedumnu than..."

Basic Work Ethics

Couple of days ago, one of my team member brought a complaint to me. The complain was she can't sit in her current WKS as the male colleague siting next to her used to smoke a lot and the odour was irritating her. I asked her to present a mouth refresher. Obvious, this will embarrass anybody but have no choice.

As a grown-up adult and a responsible corporate citizen, one should possess at least the basic work ethics. Thinks like bad breath, ugly outfit, irresponsible languages & behaviours should be avoided in work places. No one will teach these. Also, not learning these is not good for them also people around them.

Why do one want to embarrass themselves by doing these silly things?

Brain Teaser - 2

1) It is lighter than a feather.
2) Even the strongest man in this world can't hold it for more than 2 minutes.

What is this?


Answer : His Breath.

A demise in the family.

Hema's grandpa who was suffering from throat cancer breath his last yesterday. My deepest condolence to his family.

During our marriage, I was surprised to see an extremely active old man roaming around even at the age of late 70s. I saw great energy in his walk. I heard from Hema that he used to catch a running bus even at that age.

He maintained his energy even after being affected by cancer. He lost his physical strength due to lack of solid food and the influence of medicines. Eventually, he died on Tuesday.

Let me pray for his soul to rest in peace.

Saving Private Ryan

I have got a chance to watch the movie 'Saving Private Ryan' couple of years back. My desire towards owning the DVD version of the movie find its end last week.

Out of many war movies I saw, this one impressed me as a whole. Starting with the picturization of the Omaha Beach Scenes, the narrations of the story, the message each character carries were impressive. Seeing this movie nearly 10 years after its release doesn't reduce the excitement of watching.

1) John Miller : Commit to your objective, no matter how silly the objective is. Don't give up until your objectives are met.

2) James Ryan : Don't deviate from your objective for personal reasons. Accepting unfair favor will not make you good human.

3) James Ryan : Respect others sacrifice. Otherwise, the sacrifice made will become meaningless.

4) Irwin Wade : If the situation depends you to take a sword, you have to.

5) Adrian Caparzo : You may have to pay a heavy price for not obeying your orders.

Wrong? or Right?

When I was at Avanashi during my vacation, I have got a chance to read an interesting tamil article written by 'Sathguru. Vasudev'. An extract from that...

What is Wrong? -> Any activity that is against the law is considered to be Wrong.

An activity that is wrong to one might be right to another. For ex. before independence, the freedom fight was right to the public and wrong to then ruling British government.

If the law is the scale to decide on right/wrong, the law itself is framed by an individual or a group of such individuals. The law is framed on the basis of things that they thing that are right.

If someone felt that what he did is correct, no one (even the punishment imposed by law) can force him to change in mind. The punishments should be towards making him realize that he has made a mistake and definitely not to make him struggle.

The First in many !!!

I'm back to blogging after a week long vacation. We travelled back home after about five months. More than me, Hema was more excited as she has planned to stay there for a month.

With lot of things happening everyday on my small world, I have like to recollected as much as I could.

First Bite : It was me who got the privilege of feeling the pain of Kirthik's first bite with his newly grown teeth.

First Travel : For the first time, Kirthik is in somebody's custody and we were travelling for a whole day. He felt uncomfortable for couple of hours but then back to normal.

First Visit : Hema visited our under house at Avanashi for the first time. Kirthik was just born when we book that house. So, didn't visit the place at that time.

First Sleep : We were able to manage to make him forget his 'Thottle Thukkam'.

First 'Mottai' : It was not just for Kirthik, even to me it was the first 'Mottai' that I could remember. Rest were out of my memory.

As Hema stayed back at home and I'm back to lonely days. Will be missing them for all the fun and joy in life.

Move Along

Hema & Kirthik came back to Chennai when he was just 4 months old. Since then we were staying alone here. We didn't expect any of our parents to help us in growing him up as we understood their stand and commitments.

We are visiting our hometown after 5 months. He was grown up seeing only our faces. When he was exposed to new people when my relatives and friends visited our home in Chennai, he moved along with them with no difficulty. He still feels comfortable with strange faces around.

Kirthik is still not tested with new locations. We have a fear on how well he can adjust to a new surrondings. We are going to expose him to entire different environment that noisy and crowded, breezy and hot. We wanted him to win this challenge with ease.

'Desi'-kan's problem

Two Senator, the law makers in US, have raised concerns over the misuse of H1B visas by Indian IT giants. Many here believes that these are all 'political stunts' made by US representatives when their presidential election is round the corner. May be true. But before pointing fingers, lets try to find out what went wrong from our side.

1: For the available 65000 Visa for the year, approximately 150,000 petitions were received in just two days.

2: In 2006, 66.5% of H-1B Visas were granted to citizens of India. The trend is always on the raising.

3: Additional 20000 visas, reserved for students with advanced degree, were also closed and students who are finishing their study this year have to wait until 01 April 2008.

Many companies here use visas as a motivating tonic to show their employees. May be because of the limits on the # of visas, they are trying to grab the opportunity. Not to blame any side, the industry or the government.

When CEOs of Industries front-runners like Bill Gates and Larry Ellison appears before US Congress for a raise in the numbers, we should make sure that we are not misusing it.

Watz up, dude?

Being good at Writing and Speaking doesn't make you a good communicator. You have to be equally good at Listening. Information is an intangible substance that must be sent by the speaker and received by an active listener.

Listening is an active process with three basic steps. Hear, Understand and Analyze.

The workforce is going global and with colleagues from different culture, it is important to understand what they speak, their accent. Since physical presence is not required to be part of a conversation, you have to listen well to be active. Obviously, you don't want to embarrass yourself in middle of a conversation.

The first skill that you might need to practice is to act like a good listener. Then use other bodily receptors like eye contact with the speaker. This might help you to catch the non-verbal signals that he/she might sent out. Then you should start reacting to the speaker like by showing emotions on face.

Your body position defines whether you are a good listener or a deflector. Lead with your face. If you feel you are drifting away, try changing your body posture.

Right choice?

Most of the News Papers and Channels covered the story of "Mr. A. Raja appointed as IT and Communication Minister."

Before this, he was responsible for Forest and Environmental Ministry. It was during his tenure, the entire tiger population in 'Sariska' was wiped out and the Gir lions suffered depletion. Also, most of the key position in the ministry are still vacant. It was disappointing 3 years in office for Raja as he couldn't or didn't do anything.

Compared to Forest, IT is one of the most happening Ministry. It is the Ministry that earns lot of foreign investments, encourage industrial growth, invite more employment for graduates, etc.

Many might not even bothered to see what is happening in the Forest, but he can't stay relaxed now. For rest of 2 years, he owns his share of developing the country's image in the global market. Can he do it? Is he making the right choice for the post?

Anyways, All the best, Mr. Raja.

@ Largest Green Building

I have been working at Olympia Tech Park for more than a year now, but truly unaware of the fact that it has been identified as the world's largest green building.

Though I'm glad, I don't see any difference from other IT Parks that I visited. So, what is it different here? The recognition is on the performance in five significant aspects of human and environmental health :

1) Sustainable site development
2) Energy efficiency
3) Water conservation
4) Selection of materials
5) Indoor environmental quality

The quality of implementation of these aspects will not be visibly available to all. So, no surprise that I was unaware of this great milestone. The good thing to be noted here is that the promoters/constructors are not just eyeing money, also care for environment.

Dirty Politics

I was indeed resisting myself from writing a blog on this when it actually began, now it has developed into a national problem. So, can't resist anymore.

What should have been a family fight, has developed into a party issue and looks to be a national problem.

Family Fight
The fight between Maran's and M. K's began when Maran run 'Dinakaran' published the polling results projecting M. K. Stalin as a hire to M. Karunanidhi against his elder son M. K. Alaghiri.

Party Issue
Politically infamous cabinet minister Mr. Maran was targeted. The party is planning to expel him from ministry.

National Problem
If the party goes to a level of sacking Maran from the MP post, a re-election has to be conducted on his constituency. Conducting election would be an extra financial overhead for the central government.

When the party is celebrating their leader's 50 years in legislation, the leader should have handled the scenario much better than this.

Largest Democracy.

Being an Indian, the question "Which is the largest democracy in the world?" will look silly.

Democracy means 'rule by the people'. When the people are not powered to choose their Chief Minister, Prime Minister and/or President directly, do we have a right political system to justify this claim?.

It is not too long to forget the wonders done by T. N. Seshan as Chief Election Commissioner. Electoral reforms and voter's ID are the brain children of Mr. Seshan. When he showed interested to become the President of India, the public representatives denied him.

Dr. Abdul Kalam was the master mind behind India's missile and nuclear weapons programs. He has a dream of making India a super power. He is considered to be a great human with great vision. The political parties are hesitating to re-nominate him for the post of president.

I believe both of them are the people's choice for that post, but denied by their own representatives.

The fight against 'Kathiri'

The Kathiri is already set for this year and the mercury is raising high and has crossed 42 degree Celsius.

Kirthik is now fighting hard to beat the heat of his first ever summer. Without even knowing that he is in middle of a big fight, he still enjoys his babyhood. Hema didn't wait for the Pediatrician's advice to feed him with cooling catalysts.

I'll be feeling relaxed when he leaves to Avinashi/Gopi when the kathiri shows its vigorous face. We expect the climate there to be relative good.

The First Step

We are part of a yearlong celebration to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the First War of Indian Independence, the 1857 uprising.

For those, who don't know the history behind this, I would like to share the result of my search.

The British introduced new rifle cartridges rumored to be greased with oil made from the fat of animals. The Hindus considered Cows as holy animal and Muslim feel the same for Pigs.

The violence started on May 10, 1857 in Meerut, when Mangal Pandey, a soldier in the Army shot his commander for forcing the Indian troops to use the controversial rifles. Indians constituted 96% of the 300,000 British Army and the violence against British quickly spread. Not just this religious belief, but also the agony of Indian's against the British rule due to 'Torture Commission', 'Mahalwari system of taxation' and many forced them to respond violently. The Sepoy's were guided by the aging Bahadur Shah.

The arrival of more British reinforcements finally led to the defeat of the repels. The repels were forced to surrender due to lack of good leaders.

Though it might have been a failed attempt but definitely encouraged the freedom movement.

Unexpected!!!

Did you ever dreamed about watching a live international cricket match on a Tamil channel with Tamil commentary?

I didn't. But, Raj TV surprised all today but telecasting the first ODI between India and Bangladesh play at Mirpur.

It was a risk taken by the channel, as the audience are comfortable with English commentaries and the reduced viewer circle because of regional flavour. The commentators tried their level best to use equivalent Tamil words instead of familiar English words. Though, they have failed at few occasions, it was a noted effort.

A long way to go but definitely a good step forward.

Child Psychology - as I understand

It is good to be possessive sometimes, but many times it is a problem creator. Not just me, many would have been victim of possessiveness at least once in their life.

I love when Hema is possessive about me. It shows her love on me. The problems that it might create are always solvable. In fact, we enjoy solving those problems.

Kughan, my nephew, is now 5 yrs old and very possessive on my dad, mom and me. Whenever we play with Kirthik or Kathir, my 2nd nephew, he always try to distract us and becomes sad/angry when we ignore him. This will also lead him to develop 'enemity' about his brothers. He is also too young to understand our advise. Even myself and raghu had the same problem during our childhood. Thing got settled when we grew-up.

You can't avoid these problems, when you love your kids. You have to handle this wisely without breaking the hearts. Advise the kids and make them understand the meaning of life. It might take a longer time, but definitely an effective solution. Becoming angry will never make a better solution.

eMail ethics.

On the books that I read on email ethics, I found only very abstract level of recommendations on how to address email ethics and suggest some rules which might encourage a socially responsible e-mail culture. Few recommendations will be like

1. Remember the Human
2. Respect other people's time and bandwidth
3. Know where you are in cyberspace
4. ...

I have started using emails without knowing what is ethical, but never got into any trouble. The corporate world taught me few lessons that text books forgot.

1. Know your People - Be aware of whom the email should be addressed. (ie To & CC).

2. Know your Language - The Subject & Body of the email should be brief, clear and more importantly, convey the same message.

3. Know your Action - Should I 'Reply' or 'Reply to All'?

4. Know your Priority - Should never raise a false alarm.

5. Know your Grammar - I think I don't need to explain.

6. Know your Limits - Learn when to respond and understand the hierarchy of escalation.

Email ethics with the above points will make one a more effectively communicator.

Family Shopping

Come weekend, come shopping!!!

On Sunday, I went to 'Reliance Fresh' for buying some groceries and vegetables. I was surprised to saw the crowd there. Not just restaurants, shopping malls will be crowded on weekend, but also markets, provisioning stores (thatz how I see Reliance Fresh)!!!

We expect a relatively more crowd on weekends, but didn't expect that difference. I felt tough to move around. It took few mins of struggle to understand the reason for the huge turnaround. Few of them were doing "Family Shopping".

It is good to go out with family on a weekend. That gives you a mental relief and keeps the family together. Is place like 'Reliance Fresh' makes a right choice?

I prefer place like beaches, amusement parks and restaurants for a family outing, where you tend to spend more time talking to your family members. Even theatres are not in my list as you send most of the time watching movies.

How can I react?

If you find nothing wrong in my question in the heading, you might need to have a re look.

The definition of 'React' is basically an action or an outburst either emotional or physical response to a given situation. 'Respond' is an action taken after analysis the situation. So, one can't plan/prepare to 'React'.

Instead of solving the problem, 'reacting' would intensify the problem density. Not just in professional life but also in personal life, one should know how to respond to crisis.

It is a fight between your mind and head. Your head has to win to 'Respond'. In reality, mind wins most of the time. It is easy to say, but hard to practice.

Whatever be the scenario, when an auto-driver drives in your way suddenly; when your project managers gives hard time to you; your team member not working on your assignments; when your wife reacting a way you are uncomfortable with...., you should master the art of responding.

Brain Teaser - 1

I read this interesting brain teaser in yesterday's new paper.

1) It is a 5 letter English word.
2) Sounds the same after removing the first and last letter.
3) Sounds the same after removing the 3rd letter.

What is that word?

Ans : Empty

A chase against god

Today, all the chennaites would be feeling relaxed. The heat and humidity was soaring us for more than a month now. We were fighting to keep our body cool using different techniques.

A much deserved break from all these struggles, as there was a light shower and the climate is more cloudy today.

When I was driving to office, the air was getting cooler and more humid. I felt the sweat 'Manvasanai' (the smell of the sand that signals the rain). I felt that it is going to start raining in another 10 mins. Once I saw the cloud moving towards me, I started driving fast, as fast as 70 km/hour on the mount road (i knew you wont believe this!!) to reach the office before the rain drenches me.

It was a race between the rain god and me. Eventually I won.